Supplice hung in the air for a split second. A moment later, it dropped like a stone, plunging through the clouds, disappearing.
He didn't want to believe it. It had all seemed unreal. Berlioz was gone. Only moments ago he was there on the deck fighting, now he was dead. The one person Elijah had just, assumed would survive any and all conflict had been killed in a minutes long duel.
It hadn't even been that much of a fight, even from the transporter he could see the state of Supplice from where they were. Not to mention the condition Berlioz had been in just the day before. It hadn't even been twenty four hours. There was no way they had been on equal footing, not that it mattered now.
Elijah had to wonder, what had been going through his head. What compelled him to fight to that bitter end on the deck of the Ark? To stand against the enemy he clearly had no chance of beating.
An enemy to, at the very least, Elijah's surprise, was in possession of a Primal Armour system just like Supplice's. Although he didn't know exactly how they stacked up against each other due to the damage that Supplice had sustained.
Why was he even trying to think like this? How could he compartmentalize this into something to be analyzed and broken down into something so simple?
Berlioz was dead. Their best chance at winning the war was gone and their home was burning in the dying light of day.
Just staring down onto the black unknown AC, now standing alone at the edge of the Ark was enough to chill him. He felt sick, his knees were weak. Monsters like this Maximilian did exist, they were very real. Not only were they real, they were horrifyingly powerful. This man, terrified him.
Sajjan wore the same stunned expression on his face, unable to comprehend what they had both just witnessed.
All of the GA fighters that had been orbiting the Ark renewed their attack, diving in and swarming like vultures over a carcass. Maximilian turned away from the deck's edge, walking to recover the strange rifle he had dropped during the fight.
This time, the attack jets weren't haphazardly firing onto the Ark, they were specifically hitting the underside. Missile impacts and streaks of gunfire flickered in the dying light as they couldn't directly see what was happening from their position.
Panic was starting to set in. Waves of it rushing over him like iced water. He knew exactly why they were attacking the underside of the Ark. The vulnerable engines that held their home in the sky were protected as well as they could, but that wouldn't stop a well-placed missile disabling it.
But wait, we still… The bottom of his stomach fell out. They still hadn't heard back from Tom, he could still be on the Ark.
He nearly fumbled the phone in his hands as he pressed the call button, Tom's number still input from earlier. Holding it up to his ear, he silently prayed for an answer.
"Elijah!? Holy shit where are you guys?!"
There was some hope to hold on to. Elijah grabbed Sajjan, dragging him in close while switching the phone to speaker.
"Tom! We're orbiting the Ark at a safe distance, where the fuck are you?! Are you on a transporter!?"
"I'm on the last one! We're sitting by the hangar doors to the runway but the pilot can't leave because of the GA fighters! Berlioz is taking his sweet time clearing us a path out of here!"
Of course, Tom didn't know what had happened. If the transporter's internal speakers weren't active when Maximilian gave his speech, they wouldn't be able to hear it.
Sajjan spoke before Elijah could, "Tom, Berlioz is dead, he's gone, there is no more cover! Y-"
He heard the rumble over the phone before it passed through the transporter a moment later. Both Sajjan and Elijah ran to the window to confirm it. From one side of the Ark, a torrent of thick black smoke pouring out from under the Ark.
You could see it even from the transporter, the entire structure of the Ark slowly beginning to list to one side.
Maximilian had picked the rifle back up from the floor. If Tom didn't get out of there now, that AC could kill him and everyone else on the transporter.
Elijah was shouting now, unable to hide the fear in his voice, "Tom you need to get the fuck off the Ark right now! They're taking out the Ark's engines and the guy that killed Berlioz is still out there!"
"Wait what?!" Tom's incredulous reply wasn't what Elijah was expecting considering his situation, "One guy killed Berlioz!? Who is he? Some kind of fucking super soldier?"
"Not fucking important right now! Do you have a line to the pilot? Get him to take off right now!"
Sajjan shook his shoulder slightly, "Elijah…" But he shook it off, he didn't have time, he needed Tom to get out of there, why couldn't Sajjan understand that?
He heard muffled yelling over the line. It wasn't long before Tom came back, "Alright we're getting ready to roll off! Remind me to kick the pilot for being a jackass though!"
Did Tom not get what was going on? Was he really so cavalier that he could be cracking jokes now? But at the end of the day, he'd always been like that. Maybe it wasn't that he didn't understand, instead he chose to keep calm and try to keep everyone else's spirit up at the same time.
It was entirely likely that the people on that transporter could use someone like Tom. Someone to try and keep their minds off what was happening.
"Fine just… Just stay on the line, don't hang up until you're safe alright!?" It was more of a comfort thing for him and Sajjan but there was no way he could admit it.
"I ain't going nowhere don't worry, you should be able to- Ow stop shoving! To see us on the runway now!"
True to his words, from the window Elijah could see the transporter slowly taxing onto the runway, its wings folding out.
The runway itself was a mess, covered with craters from missile impacts, debris from the Ark and crashed fighters strewn across it. Had it been any ordinary day, they would have shut the runway down and worked on it night and day to get it back up to the high standard needed.
However from his position, at the same time as seeing the transporter, he noticed that Maximillian's AC was slowly making its way towards the upper deck, its boosters carrying it slowly up through the air before gently alighting.
Wait, he's… His blood turned cold. "Oh fuck…" He didn't even mean to mutter it aloud but he couldn't help it, he was already half way to Havok's gantry by the time he realized what he was doing.
He shouted out to the pilots, "Pilot! Open the rear hatch! Right fucking now! I'm heading out there!"
The reply was instant and not exactly unjustified, "What the fuck are you talking about? There's no way you'd make it to the Ark from here!"
"Then take us in closer! Just do it!" He couldn't think about the logistics, he just needed to stop Maximilian. He needed do something, anything.
"Like fuck I am! You're in the wrong damn gantry anyway, you can't get past White Glint!"
"Sajjan will move jus-"
"Raven! I am not, opening the fucking hatch!"
"I will bring this transporter down in a heartbeat if you don't open that fucking hatch!" Elijah was screaming now, no regard to his raw throat.
A dull yelling from his phone snapped him out of it, "Elijah! What the fuck are you screaming about?!"
Why was he screaming? He looked back through the closest window.
"Take off now! Take off now, get in the fucking air!"
Sajjan shook him, "Elijah, stop…"
"Holy fucking shit Elijah we're just going now! It's fine! Everything is fine!"
Just as he heard Tom speak, the head of Maximilian's AC snapped to the transporter slowly accelerating down the runway, bouncing along as it rolled over the craters and rubble.
As the transporter picked up speed, almost at the take-off speed, the black AC leapt from the opposite side upper deck of the Ark, boosters burning bright to land next to the runway in only seconds.
No. Please. Don't.
He could see it happening, it was like everything was underwater, moving in slow motion. Couldn't he do something? Anything? He didn't want to watch. He didn't want to see this.
But he couldn't tear his eyes away, the phone still pressed against his head.
"T-tom… Tom…"
The transporter lifted away, but the black AC had already made its move.
"Dude, don't worry, everything is gonna be fine."
"Tom, I-I'm so s-sorry" He was crying now, he wanted to be sick. He couldn't stop looking.
"Everything is fine, right guys? It's fine no-"
Maximilian's AC jumped into the air, a smooth controlled motion, sailing forwards on its boosters.
It dropped straight down onto the transporter, even from where they were, he could see the metal buckling under the weight. The balance of the transporter thrown off by the sudden increase in mass, rocking from side to side.
"Jesus fuck what the hell was that!? Did something crash into us!? Elijah! Can you see us?"
He couldn't move. He couldn't say anything. Only able to choke out a gurgle, his throat seized up. That black AC aimed its gunblade straight down, unflinching.
I'm so sorry, Tom.
"Elijah! Are you still there? Hey, don't panic guys, it's nothing, a friend of mine is looking out for us! We're o-"
The line went dead. Maximilian firing again and again and again. Every round punching clean through the transporters hold. He kicked away, throwing the plane off course, still firing down.
One wing broke away, scattering into flaming wreckage as the engine came apart spraying burning fuel across the sky.
The rest of the transporter followed a moment later, disintegrating into a ball of fire and debris. Some of it wasn't metal or glass, bodies, or at least parts of them were scattered in the blast. Streams of smoke trailing behind the still burning pieces.
It was over in seconds, the small cloud drifting apart in moments. There was nothing left, no evidence.
Elijah's though process was stuck, constantly looping over the last minute, those few, last words. Running through the back of his head.
Everything is fine.
An optimist to the end.
This man, no, this monster, Maximilian Thermidor, Elijah had only known him for not even twenty minutes. In that time span he had killed the man that he'd looked up to for so long, the man he'd wished he could have helped. He killed a dear friend of theirs in cold blood, not to mention everyone else on the transport with Tom.
There was no place on Earth for a thing like him.
The strange noise to his right distracted him, he turned to look at Sajjan.
He'd tried so hard to hold it together. In the face of your home burning, you could only keep it in so long. There was only so much pain even a man like Sajjan could take before breaking under the pressure.
Elijah watched as the walls Sajjan held strong for so long came tumbling down. The tears rolling down his face, and a howl of agony he could never match. A gut wrenching cry of pain that was burned into his memory.
He pounded his fist against the window, then the side of the hold in a vain effort to do something, anything as he sunk down to his knees.
Sajjan's shoulders heaved as he sobbed, his entire body literally shaking with absolute despair. He couldn't contain it, the grief and the sadness was just too much.
Elijah would have joined him if he hadn't felt the transporter shake just like before when he'd be speaking to Thomas while he was still in the Ark.
Looking away from Sajjan, he could see it, that thick black smoke pouring out from another side of the Ark.
Another engine had failed.
The Ark's list became even more pronounced, tilting to one side as the other engines could no longer support the great weight.
A scattering of turrets were still firing, a hopeless effort in the face of everything. There was no point, it was the last, desperate swipes of a dying animal, knowing its end was so close.
He hoped those who had stayed behind, believed they were making a difference, that their actions meant something. Dying, knowing that they were achieving nothing, would be nothing short of tragic.
But he knew that. He knew that they were throwing their lives away, a final act of defiance in an already lost battle. They could never win, not now, not ever. The moment GA's assault against the Ark was set into motion they had lost.
Perhaps if they'd had adequate warning, time to prepare themselves for the onslaught, maybe then they could have pushed through, but with the introduction of Maximilian Thermidor to this conflict, could even the combined might of all the Ravens be enough to bring him down?
From the Ark came a great and terrible groan, that of metal beginning to tear apart, the glass windows that hadn't already been broken, shattered outwards from some unseen force.
Now tipping at an extremely dramatic angle, the outer layers of the Ark began to split open, great fissures in the surface rippling along from one side to the other.
It wasn't perfectly down the middle, off to one side slightly, likely weakened by repeated missile impacts on the deeper layers after the outer ones had been blown away.
In only seconds, the internal structure of the Ark gave way as well, breaking like someone was ripping it apart. The central column that held the Administration departments, the Command Centre and the Governor's Office up crumbled as its supporting structure fell apart, the entire thing coming down on itself.
The guns went silent.
The Ark split in two, with the smaller half falling away, carving a great wound in the clouds below it as it punched through. The other half held a moment longer, engines failing to compensate for the massively unbalanced weight they now had to manage.
Eventually it rolled over, dropping after the other half.
The explosion from the Ark crashing down to Earth was large enough that it boiled away the clouds above it as the fireball flared upwards. Black smoke replaced it, a towering column of darkness that blotted out the little light the Sun still gave out.
The inferno raging at the crash site gave the bottom a deep crimson and burnt orange glow, like the smoke was pouring out of Hell itself. Why even make it an indirect comparison? It was Hell. Nothing could have survived. His home had been reduced to wreckage and fire. The one he had spent so long looking up to and aspiring to be had been mocked, beaten and broken before being killed.
A friend was murdered, he watched and listened as his life ended. This wasn't real was it? This is some nightmare, right?
Elijah looked back to Sajjan, now silently shaking, on his hands and knees with his head hanging low.
"S-sajjan?" He reached out, trying to offer some comfort, or to be comforted. Sajjan turned his head ever so slightly, you nearly couldn't see his eyes through the swelling.
He mumbled something almost inaudible, Elijah crouched down to try and hear him better, "What? I-I didn't catch that."
Sajjan spoke very deliberately, with no waiver in his voice.
"Get away from me."
Elijah froze, before very slowly backing away. That bile in his throat was burning, he wanted to wake up. This couldn't be happening.
Putting his back to the hold wall, he slumped down, clutching his knees to his chest. Breaths coming in shaky between the choked sobs.
The pilot's voice came over the hold speakers, "U-um, I'm getting a message from what appears to be the Leonemeccanica Headquarters? I'm… I'm gonna patch it through."
Elijah didn't move, he didn't reply. He just listened.
The speakers crackled slightly as the new signal came through, "-ain, this is the Leonemeccanica HQ Venture, calling on all frequencies to the survivors of the Raven's Ark, is there anyone there? Anyone please, this is the Leonemeccanica Headquarters calling any survivors of the Raven's Ark."
The pilot answered, beginning to explain the situation to the person on the other end of the channel. Elijah stopped listening at this point. He didn't need to hear it again.
It was only minutes ago, how could you forget? He just wished he could do something, talk to anyone. How could anyone other than those here relate to such a loss? People could look sad, nod their heads and say, 'I can only imagine'. But that's the truth of it, isn't it?
You can only imagine.
They'll likely go through their lives, losing loved ones to time, but nothing else. The natural order of things going as it should. Was what he had before a natural order? Was that just the way things went for him?
That was all gone now. Burned to ash. Tom's last words still ringing loud, in the back of his head.
Everything is ok.
The transporter began to bank a hard left, Elijah now listening again to the pilot, "Alright, we're forming up with the remaining transporters, everyone is heading to the Venture so it won't be long before we touch down."
Again, no reply. Elijah's face was pressed into his knees, trying to hold himself together. If he didn't, he'd fall apart.
Everything is ok.
Everything is ok.
Nothing is ok. It will never be ok.