Chapter 20
Throwing the gauntlet
Ariela stood at the entrance of the transport as she drew near her destination.
"You seem pretty confident about going to this exchange by yourself ma'am" asked the pilot.
"Heh, it's not confidence," said Ariela.
"Well… Whatever it is that drove you to want to go in alone… You've got my utmost respect ma'am," said the pilot, "…we're here, where do you want-"
But the pilot immediately fell silent when he saw Ariela pull up her hood and jump down to the ground below with an audible boom. She rose to her feet and turned to see Persephone standing by a SplinterCell transport. She didn't see any commandos, rangers, or lancers… Or the Andromedon. Ariela and Persephone started walking over to each other until they met in the middle.
Ariela pulled off her hood and removed her helmet. Persephone did the same.
"…It's good to see you again," said Persephone.
"That sounds like a punch in the fucking face, considering that you sent your forces to hunt me down," Ariela said firmly.
"I prefer the term… Return home," said Persephone.
"You can call it whatever the fuck you want, but the point is you sacrificed a lot of lives just to revive this damned program of yours," said Ariela, "now… How about we get this over with, hmm?"
Persephone took a deep breath and exhaled.
"…Ariela… I want you to come home," said Persephone.
"Home? Home? Are you fucking serious? What you want me to come back to that prison? So you can strap me down and drain the very blood from my veins? Use it on more children to rebuild your army of child soldiers?" asked Ariela.
"They were not child soldiers, I pulled those children off the streets and gave them a chance at reclaiming what they had lost during the After War," said Persephone.
Persephone started pacing back and forth.
"Gah, I expected defiance but this…" she muttered.
Persephone stopped.
"I am not a child murderer, those children who died… They knew the risks, they chose to run, and they paid the price. Those who stayed… Their bodies couldn't bond with the serum… And they died before we could begin the tests," said Persephone.
"But," said Ariela.
"Hmm? But what?" asked Persephone.
"Vulcan, Larionovna, Maximovna, Feekor, Allen, Burchfield, Martin, Valdez, Randolph,Truman," said Ariela, "they experimented on the children, you sent them to hunt down any who escaped, you turned them into living weapons!"
Persephone groaned.
"Vulcan and Valdez had the serum administered to the children before it was reworked, so we could find out which ones were able to bond with it on a cellular level," said Persephone, "Larionovna and Maximovna were assigned to readjust the serum's compounds after we took blood samples from the children who survived and bonded with it and used the new serum on some of my top rangers in order to begin creating the second generation of Technomancers! Feekor was in charge of creating the power armor for the Technomancers, using the same design created by your own father!"
Ariela frowned.
"And the captains and commanders… I didn't want to kill the children Ariela, believe me from the bottom of my heart when I say that I didn't want to bring it to that point, but if one of those children even blabbed to one person, Hydra would use it as a lightning rod to destroy us," said Persephone.
"No, you were afraid it would destroy your reputation," Ariela said as she pointed a finger at Persephone, "and Hydra would've shamed you on such a monumental scale, you wouldn't be able to show your face in public."
Persephone growled.
"…I don't have to explain myself to you, I called you here, so we can make an exchange and that's it," she huffed.
Ariela sighed and put a hand on her hip.
"Fine… What?" she asked.
"Ariela… You and I were like sisters once… But here we are fighting one another, bringing other people into our conflict… And for what?" asked Persephone, "I think you and I can both agree that neither one of us wants for this bloodshed to continue… For more SplinterCell soldiers to continue being littered on the battlefield."
"Where are you going with this?" asked Ariela.
"All I ask is something plain and simple," said Persephone, "…if you fulfill my demands… I'll call my forces back… And this… fight will go no further."
Ariela crossed her arms.
"Go on," she said.
"First… You must break off your allegiance with Reverb and come home… Second, I want you to bring me Demon Shepard's daughter," said Persephone, "I want her to be used as an asset to revive the program."
Ariela gave Persephone a look.
SMACK!
Persephone had a look of shock on her face as she had her hand on her right cheek.
"Czy zwariowałeś? Chcesz, żebym porwał Nar Ra, pieprzonego Sheparda? Córka admirała Demona (Are you fucking crazy? You want me to kidnap Nar Ra fucking Shepard? Admiral Demon's daughter)!?" screamed Ariela, "jeśli myślisz, że Hydra pokonała nas w ciągu jednego cala naszego życia, pomyśl o rodzajach szkód, które człowiek mógłby nam zrobić (if you think Hydra beat us within an inch of our lives, think of the kind of damage that man could do to us)!"
Persephone gritted her teeth.
"Możesz wziąć swoje żądania i wkurzyć je w dupę, ty sukinsynu, nie porywam gówna (You can take your demands and cram them up your ass, you son of a bitch, I'm not kidnapping shit)!" roared Ariela.
Persephone made a fist.
"... Więc wybierasz rzucić wyzwanie (...So you're choosing to throw the gauntlet)…" she said firmly.
Persephone turned and started marching towards her transport.
"Chris… The exchange is a bust," she said on her radio, "kill them all; and send the Andromedon."
"Yes ma'am," he said on the other end.
As Ariela saw Persephone board the transport, she looked up in horror as she picked up the sound of gunfire… And screaming.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she cried out.
"There blood is on your hands, Ariela! This is your fault!" Persephone snapped as the transport started to take to the air, "this fight's over! Now… It. Is. WAR."
Ariela put her helmet on and pulled up her hood.
"Persephone!" she roared as she powered up.
Ariela began to charge up an energy blast when, she felt something was off, and she jumped out of the way of a large chunk from the facility itself. Ariela gasped, the Adromedon was back.
"I'm ready for you now, big boy, let's go!" she beckoned.
The Andromedon started to move in on Ariela when, something jumped out of nowhere and kicked the Andromedon in the side of the head, causing it to stumble and try to get its bearings. Ariela gasped when she saw the person who delivered the stunning blow as they rolled across the ground and came to a stop.
"Yulaura?" she asked, "what are you doing here?"
"Came back to the compound to bring you some news about what I learned on my mission; then I came to find out that you went somewhere to some exchange with your old boss. And now here you are, about to go toe-to-toe with some big, bad experimental automaton," she said as she rose to her feet, "what sorry kind of Kiivadorian would I be if I stayed back?"
Ariela smiled and hi-fived her friend.
"Glad to have you here," she said, "this son of a bitch nearly killed me the last time I fought it."
Yulaura drew her ion pistols as she heard the Andromedon let out a metallic roar.
"What's the game plan?" she asked.
"This thing has tough armor and hits hard," said Ariela, "if we're going to take it down, we're going to have to rely on our speed. Look for any possible openings, weak points, anything. This bastard's not going to get the satisfaction of bringing me at death's door twice."
The Andromedon formed its hands into fists and threw its arms out to his sides, ejecting a pair of vicious arm blades.
"…Or… He could whip out something new and make this ten times harder," said Ariela.
"…Ghooooooost," he said.
Ariela drew her sword.
"…We'll have to move in sync, if we can move in sync he won't be able to overpower either of us, and if he can't overpower us, we can be able to topple him," said Ariela.
"Well then… Let's go!" barked Yulaura.
The girls charged, with Ariela moving in first and meeting the Andromedon head on, their blades slamming into each other.
Round 2 had started.
"…Ghoooooooooost," he said as he locked blades.
Ariela gritted her teeth and broke the lock before lashing out with a series of powerful swings, exchanging repeated blows with the Andromedon.
"Buckle down and tank up, weather the storm, weather the storm," she thought as she slashed and parried repeatedly.
When Ariela parried the Andromedon's last strike, the heavy armored monster threw its arms out to the sides and swung them both at the same time.
"DAMN!" she thought as she evaded with a backflip.
Yulaura rolled forward and opened fire, squeezing off a barrage of ion bolts at the Andromedon and forcing him to cover his face again. Ariela charged and launched herself at her opponent, delivering a powerful kick. The Andromedon grabbed her leg and started to laugh before raising her over its head and bringing her down to the ground.
"Oh-no, you don't!" she thought.
Ariela powered up again, raising her shield's strength as she threw her arms in front of herself and 'caught' herself before making full contact with the ground. The Andromedon let out a confused groan.
"Not this time," Ariela said with a smirk, "Yulaura now!"
Yulaura fired, forcing the Andromedon to let go of Ariela and protect itself again. Ariela, not wanting to lose this chance, charged up her sword and charged, she stopped at the Andromedon's legs and started slashing at them both, striking them equally seven times before rolling right between them as the Andromedon tried to grab her.
"Yulaura!" she called out.
The Kiivadorian fired, the Andromedon roared and got ready to charge. Ariela jumped to her feet and got ready to attack when she put a hand to her head and let out a pained groan.
"Fuck! Not now!" she snapped.
She didn't just have one flash back, but two. One that showed her using that kinetic blast on the Tundran soldier and another flash back that showed her using it on a Brute Chieftain. The flash back ended when the blast appeared to 'pierce' through the chieftain's armor and kill him.
"…This isn't just a kinetic blast… It's got the same properties of an AP projectile," she thought, "meant to ignore armor."
She looked at free hand.
"If that's the case…" she thought.
"Hey Ariela!" Yulaura called out.
Ariela snapped back to reality and gasped, seeing her friend getting her defenses battered at by the Andromedon.
"Am I interrupting!?" Yulaura called out.
Ariela made a fist and fired the kinetic blast at the Andromedon's back. Sure enough, the focused blast of energy went right through the Andromedon's armor. The behemoth roared and stumbled a bit before falling to one knee. Ariela looked at her hand and smiled.
"…Cool," she said.
The Andromedon rose and turned towards Ariela before charging and swinging at her.
"Shit," she said.
Ariela buckled down and tanked up, blocking strike after strike, until the Andromedon slammed his right blade down and swung his left blade upward, breaking Ariela's guard. The Andromedon retracted his right blade and threw a punch. Ariela gasped and strengthened her shield, before crossing her arms in front of her face, tanking the powerful strike and sliding back a few feet.
"Fuck… He really hits hard," she thought.
The Andromedon charged but stumbled and dropped to one knee when he felt an explosive belt him in the back. The Andromedon slowly turned and was met with Yulaura's blade staff through his right shoulder. Ariela gasped.
"Chew on this," she said.
Yulaura drew one of her pistols and opened fire, squeezing off a barrage of rounds right in the Andromedon's face, then she pulled out her blade staff and launched herself off the metal monster, via backflip; then she went for a sweeping slash right across his face before finally sticking the landing. Ariela saw sparks, then the Andromedon's helmet blew up.
"Hey! I could've done that," she thought with a huff.
The Andromedon stumbled and covered his face, groaning in pain before lowering his hand and revealing his face. Ariela jumped back when the Andromedon turned around and looked at her. It was a human… Somewhat, his skin was chalky white, his hair was also absent, and had a few metal plates grafted to his skull, his lips appeared to have been surgically removed as well… Leaving his teeth bare.
"My god, this guy makes Krogan's look kissable," said Ariela.
The Andromedon threw back his head and let out a ground rumbling roar, causing the girls to cover their ears.
"I think he's pissed!" screamed Yulaura.
"What!?" exclaimed Ariela.
The Andromedon whirled around and glared at the Kiivadorian before ejecting its right arm blade again. Ariela gasped.
"Shit, he's gone berserk," she said fearfully, "Yulaura, run!"
The Andromedon charged. Ariela charged, jumped and punched him right in the back, firing the kinetic blast and causing him to stumble again and roar in pain. Without warning, Ariela was swat and sent flying through the facility.
"…Okay, he's pissed," she groaned as she tried to get up.
"GHOOOOOOOOST!" he roared.
Ariela turned pale.
"Oh fuck," the Andromedon charged into the facility and came running at Ariela, forcing her to jump to her feet and jump over her opponent. Ariela stuck the landing and unleashed her sonic scream, but it only seemed to enrage the Andromedon and provoke him into charging at her again, swinging both of his arm blades at her. Ariela gasped and started ducking and evading the strikes with relative ease, until she jumped away from the next swing and unleashed a powerful kinetic wave, sending the Andromedon flying back.
"At least in this state he can't plant himself into the ground so that he won't go flying from those kind of attacks," said Ariela.
The Andromedon quickly got to his feet and roared again before he came charging at her again.
"Ariela duck!" barked Yulaura.
Ariela, whirled around and ducked as Yulaura hurled three grenades at the Andromedon, nailing him right in the face and causing him to stop dead in his tracks. Ariela charged and swung her sword, the Andromedon blocked her attack, along with her second, third, and fourth attack, before grabbing her sword arm, picking her up and slamming her into the floor.
"Ariela!" screamed Yulaura.
The Kiivadorian charged, jumped, spun and swung her blade staff, slicing the Andromedon's face and causing him to release Ariela. Yulaura stuck the landing and drew her pistol, whirling around and squeezing out a few bolts. The Andromedon roared and swung on Yulaura, forcing her to duck; in a flash, the Andromedon threw his left leg forward, kicking her in the stomach and sending her flying.
"Yulaura!" she screamed.
The Kiivadorian went flying and hit the floor hard and coughed up a bit of blood.
"F-F-Fuck," she groaned.
The Andromedon charged on the Kiivadorian warrior and prepared to impale her when… The sound of gunfire coming from outside made him stop and turn to see what the commotion was.
"What now?" muttered Yulaura.
"Right on time," Ariela said with a grin.
Outside of the facility, several Reverb gunships had flown into the area and had already begun landing and deploying squad after squad of commandos. Among the squads, Ariela was able to pick out her teammates as well.
"Terrell, Ryan, Corrie!" she called out.
Inside the facility, the SplinterCell forces started to scramble outside, a good portion of them went out through the back entrance of the facility, while some ran right past the trio who were fighting in the main area.
"Weapons free! Weapons free!" barked Chris.
"Kill them! Kill them all!" someone barked.
Ariela smiled. Barton was here. The Andromedon roared and charged out towards Reverb's forces. Ariela gritted her teeth and gripped her blade with two hands. Ariela concentrated and sent a surge of deadly energy into her blade.
"Hey! Asshole!" she snapped.
The Andromedon stopped and turned his head back to her.
"I'm the one you're after," she said, "come and get me."
The Andromedon charged, Ariela quickly sheathed her sword and got in a ready stance.
"Ari!? What are you doing!?" demanded Yulaura.
Ariela said nothing.
"Ariela, defend yourself! He's coming!" screamed Yulaura.
Ariela held her ground. The Andromedon pulled his right arm blade back and swung on her. Ariela grinned.
"Gotcha," she thought.
In a flash, Ariela grabbed her sword and drew it with blinding speed… Cutting the Andromedon's arm off. Yulaura's jaw dropped. The Andromedon roared and started stumbling back. Ariela sheathed her sword and charging, quickly unsheathing her blade again and lashing out at her opponent.
"This is for putting me in the fucking med wing!" she thought.
With one quick slash, Ariela cut off the Andromedon's right leg, then she stabbed his left leg and jumped back as it fell to his knee. Ariela charged up her blade with a powerful surge of energy and glided towards the crippled monster. The Andromedon tried to hold himself up with its bleeding stump and swung on Ariela.
"Got you!" she snapped.
Ariela deflected the strike and stabbed the Andromedon in the chest.
"Play time's over," she said.
Ariela pulled out her sword and jumped up. She took her sword in her hand and lashed out with a storm of sword slashes, cutting the Andromedon's head into little chunks. Then something incredible happened: Ariela charged up, not a kinetic burst, but a powerful energy ball and fired it in a powerful blast, destroying the Andromedon in a cataclysmic explosion. Ariela stuck the landing and cleaned her sword.
"Spoczywaj w pokoju ... Drań (Rest in peace... Bastard)," she said as she sheathed her weapon.
Yulaura got up and walked over to Ariela.
"…How did you do that?" she asked.
"Do what?" asked Ariela.
"That energy blast you fired… I didn't think you could pull off something like that," she said.
Ariela looked at her hand.
"…I didn't either," she said, "to be honest…I mainly did it out of pure instinct."
Ariela looked up from her hand and looked over her shoulder, seeing a full squad of commandos start to surround the two girls. Ariela drew her sword again. Yulaura readied her blade staff.
"You're surrounded traitor! Now lay down your arms, and your execution will be swift," hissed the squad leader.
"Execution? What happened to coaxing me into surrendering?" asked Ariela.
"Commander Rush has finally taken our words of concern into consideration and cut us a deal: Should you deny her offer in the exchange, not only were we ordered to kill everyone in the facility, but we were also ordered to kill you on sight," said a commando.
Yulaura scoffed in amusement.
"It seems this crusade has turned into a full-scale civil war," she said.
"Tell me something I don't know," said Ariela.
Ariela got in her ready stance.
"Ready?" she asked.
Yulaura giggled.
"Let's dance," she said.
"Open fire!" barked the squad leader.
Ariela jumped first, stabbing the closest commando in the chest, she looked over at the guy next to him and prepared to pull out her sword when she remembered something…
"My short sword," she thought.
The commando got ready to fire when Ariela whipped out the short sword and jumped at the man, delivering three quick stabs and kicking him to the ground. Ariela raced back over and drew her sword again before jumping at another pair of commandos, who started firing on her.
Meanwhile, Yulaura was having the time of her life, her blade staff twirled and slashed through on commando after another as she went on a vicious kill streak, the floor ran red and the entrails of her victims littered the floor.
"You're hardly making this a challenge boys," she teased as she skewered another commando.
"You crazy bitch!" a commando snapped as he fired on her.
Ariela, whom struck down two commandos with lightning fast strikes and deadly precision, saw Yulaura was using a corpse as a shield to weather the storm of bullets. She extended a hand and ripped the rifle out of the shooter's hand, before hurling it at a lancer, who was sneaking up on Yulaura. The lancer let out a yelp as the rifle went upside his head. Yulaura turned and drew her main hand pistol, before firing five shots into him and putting him down. Ariela charged at the commando she disarmed and swung at his neck, taking his head off and ending him.
"See that?" asked Ariela.
"Yeah, that's nice," Yulaura said with a smile.
Ariela turned her head and saw a full squad of lancers coming for her and Yulaura.
"Looks like since they're not pulling punches anymore, they're sending the whole occupation force," she thought.
Ariela deflected a small volley of bullets from the squad leader, before whipping out her Colt and firing several shots and putting him down. Ariela looked back at the lancer and then she looked back around at the remaining commandos.
"…Yulaura! Cover your ears!" she exclaimed.
The huntress got finished skewering a commando and proceeded to cover her ears. Ariela took a deep breath and unleashed her sonic all around the entire main area, causing everyone to go flying and hit the floor, going unconscious upon impact. Yulaura took her hands off her ears and looked around at the fallen soldiers.
"Mm… I think you should lead with that next time," she said.
Ariela took a deep breath and exhaled.
"Heh, sorry I can only use it during dire situations," she said, "…takes a lot out of me."
Ariela turned towards the battlefield.
"Now… I have a sniveling snake… That needs to be removed from this Earth," she hissed, "CHRIS TRUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
The SplinterCell commander froze and dropped his M4, he slowly turned and looked at Ariela.
"…You're overdue for an execution," she said firmly.
Without wasting another second… Chris ran for it.
"…Zawsze biegają (They always run)," she murmured.
Ariela tapped into her Spark and took off after the man, chasing him into the trees.
"This is Commander Truman! I need a chopper on the double!" he screamed into his radio.
"Chopper is refueling. Will be ready in ten minutes," someone said on the other end.
"I don't have ten minutes!" he snapped.
Ariela flew into the air and fired an energy blast, throwing Chris off his feet and causing him to hit the ground. Ariela landed and shot a menacingly glare at him.
"I agree," she hissed.
Chris quickly jumped to his feet and drew his combat knife.
"Your fucking Andromedon put me in the medical wing… I'm going to put you in the morgue!" screamed Ariela.
The two charged at each other head on. Ariela saw Chris start to take a step to her right and swing his knife at her stomach, but she slid right under the blade and threw her sword, disarming him. Chris let out a yelp and growled at her.
"You son of a!" he snapped.
Chris charged and threw a punch at Ariela, striking her in the face. Ariela growled and pounced, tackling Chris and pushing him into a nearby tree, where she proceeded to punch him in the face three times before she took a knee to the stomach and a right cross to her jaw, knocking her back.
"I'm not going down… Now without a fight!" he roared.
"That makes two of us," Ariela hissed.