Φ
Chapter 3 – Non-Grata 1
2013
...
Wendy
"Ye alright?"
Wendy jolted out of her reverie, blinking. She looked up to see the ginger-haired Valkyrie Claire staring at her with eyes that spoke of worry. The girl smiled reassuringly at the older woman and nodded.
"I'm alright," Wendy said, then paused. "Just thinking about something."
Claire scoffed. "Ye and everyone else. Guess we're more like lassies than we thought to be thinkin aboot boys."
This time it was Wendy's turn to laugh as the woman compared what looked like the prototype team for an elite unit was compared to a group of ordinary schoolgirls, though that same thought also sobered her quickly. She sighed then looked around the room.
Today, the squad was in the Simulation Labs, preparing for their first real training session, a pleasant change compared to the continuous physical training sessions they had the day before. Their squad leader had admitted that the first session should have taken place that day, but due to some circumstances, they could not do so. Wendy was sure just as she had no doubts that the rest of their group was sure that the decision was from the punishment the young Captain had doled out to the only male Valkyrie currently in headquarters.
After that morning, few in the group had gotten to learning about each other. Wendy herself was someone who liked to make friends wherever she went, but even she refrained from really speaking to anyone from the unit—all except for Claire. Supposedly, the woman was the one who was supposed to guide Noah to navigate and familiarize himself to the base before Wendy had volunteered to do it the day he arrived. It was for that reason did Wendy approach the woman only to discover that Claire did not know much more about Noah than Wendy did.
Still, it was a meeting and Wendy made a new friend. The girl had found that Scottish English was nice to hear even if it wasn't always understandable.
Wendy's eyes caught the form of their Squad Captain. Bianka Ataegina paced around the room, one hand in her pocket, the other clutching her chin with her head bowed in thought. If Wendy could hazard a guess on what the other girl thought, she would pick Noah's appearance at the morning run.
The boy had walked in pale and with a flimsiness to his steps that hadn't been there the day before. It was enough to have made Wendy go to him and ask if there was something wrong, but the glare that the boy had shot towards her upon coming two paces away from him stopped her cold. Her concern only grew as they proceeded to the actual run as his steps progressively became more and more unsteady and his breathing more and more ragged—more ragged than Claire's who was the only B-rank in the group and by far had the worst constitution among them. It felt like a miracle to Wendy when the breakfast break began—a miracle that lasted until she saw Noah only picking up a single pre-made sandwich from the cafeteria before marching back to his room at a brisk and uneven pace.
He should stay in bed, Wendy had thought then. Valkyrie or not, staying out in the sun for that long would give anyone a heatstroke!
Reality often went against people's wishes.
"Now would you look at that?" Claire said, pointing. Wendy looked over to see that the boy in question was indeed walking into the room. Unlike in the morning where he was dressed in a plain tracksuit—a new attire from the one he wore in the first morning to be sure—this time he wore the standard Schicksal military uniform: white blazer and pants with black accents and a pair of shin-height dark boots. The sight of it was nostalgic to Wendy, but she brushed aside such feelings as she rose from her seat.
"Time to go," she told Claire.
The Scottish woman only sighed as she stood after the girl. Noah was the last one after all.
Wendy started towards Noah. She saw the boy glance at her, no doubt noticing her movement, but saw no further attempt at him acknowledging her doing so as he only hastened his pace towards the side of the room where the rest of the women congregated. It pained Wendy to see Noah avoid her like that, but she didn't push the issue. The squad soon fell in assembly before their adolescent leader.
"Alright," Bianka began. "As most of you were thinking, we're gonna be doing some combat assessments today with the simulation. This isn't about actually proving your worth in the squad." Bianka looked—if Wendy had to guess—towards Noah. "It's about letting your teammates know about how you fight so that everyone can mesh well together. You don't want anyone to die because you didn't know that your teammate can help."
The girl raised her hand, bringing out two fingers.
"We'll be going in pairs into the standard A-rank subjugation training. Some of you might not be familiar with the equipment yet as only A-ranks at the base have been allowed free use of the labs outside of leader requests from B-rank groups, but don't worry, what you're supposed to do is pretty intuitive."
Bianka then nodded at Rita, who approached a console near the opposite wall from the door and began configuring with its interface. Within a minute, mechanical whirring started echoing throughout the room. Chunks of the wall folded into the room, revealing six patient tables connected with what looked like smaller MRI scanners. The technology was meant to send conscious thought into a reconstructed avatar of the person's body in Imaginary Space, where the landscape could be changed within the scope of a program. Having used them before, Wendy knew that one can also be sent directly into Imaginary Space, but people preferred not to use that method as it usually left physical injuries.
That and technology derived from the Second Herrscher were generally disliked.
"We'll first be using pairs that we decided yesterday." Bianka looked at Noah. "Valkyrie Abrams will be paired with Valkyrie Anemone. Be sure to thank Wendy for volunteering."
The boy's eyes turned towards Wendy, but only for a moment.
"Everyone except Rita, go pick a station and make yourselves comfortable."
With that, the squad dispersed. Wendy waved a quick farewell to Claire as the redhead moved towards the opposite side, having partnered with another young woman that Wendy knew as Alvitr. She quickly sought out Noah and found him by the Sim Dive station farthest to the left, staring at the machine with an impassive expression. Thankfully, he was less pale than how he was in the morning.
When the boy hadn't started getting on the Dive station for a solid minute, it occurred to Wendy then that he had come from a Siberian frontier town. Technology on this level there likely would have been scarce.
"Do you need any help?" the girl asked.
Wendy saw a hint of a scowl touch Noah's face, but it was gone in a blink. He took a breath.
"Yes."
Wendy giggled. "All you have to do is get on the table and relax and remember to keep your limbs in. Like this."
Wendy demonstrated by simply hopping onto the cushions and laid herself flat against the patient table.
"Rita will be the one to send us both into and out of Imaginary Space, but there'll be an option in your AR to eject yourself in case of an emergency."
Noah frowned. "AR?"
"Ah." Wendy smiled sheepishly as she turned to him. "Augmented Reality. Um, stuff like minimaps and ammo count in video games."
The look on his face told her that he'd never played a video game in his life. Wendy mentally noted it down to get him to play at some point.
As instructed, Noah laid himself down on the machine, letting Wendy release a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. In her opinion, the boy had been holding out surprisingly well given what had happened the day before. Soon enough, the two heard Rita speak from where she stood at the console:
"Is everyone in position?"
She received three pairs of voiced affirmations.
"Then I will begin the simulation in three…two...one."
The world erupted into tiles of Imaginary Light.
...
Θ
...
Noah
Noah felt an inordinate amount of nostalgia as he felt his mind sublimate into Imaginary Space.
Indeed, somehow the feeling of the body being squeezed then contracted through a cold and narrow passageway before losing all senses felt indescribably familiar to him. He even knew the next steps: the mind will begin to feel hot and heavy, then the senses will return with a raw, soul-shattering clarity that one simply had to wait out to adjust. The last step wasn't so much actually part of the process as it was simply standard threat assessment—just looking around and observing the surroundings.
He frowned. Somehow, he'd come to expect to find a giant tree made of light subconsciously and was filled with disappointment when he did not find it no matter where he turned. He took a deep whiff of Imaginary Space air and settled himself back to the reality that he was in a combat simulation.
Beside him, a figure came to being from motes of light. Valkyrie Anemone. She was dressed in the same manner she had been before they entered; a large dark jacket accented in green worn loosely—a little too loosely in Noah's opinion—over a white shirt, with legs covered in equally dark leggings and combat boots. He'd noticed that such a similar fashion trend appeared on many Valkyries that walked around the base. It made them quite easy to distinguish from the ordinary soldiers.
He reminded himself, not for the first time, that he was part of that elite group now.
Anemone finished materializing and blinked. She then noticed Noah and smiled at him. Noah knew that it was meant to cheer him up, but the goodwill only gave him more weight to carry in his chest.
It was enough to make him glad when a blue rectangle suddenly appeared in the center of his vision and took his attention.
2:00 until initialization. Choose your equipment.
1:99 until initialization. Choose your equipment.
Noah quickly looked around and found a weapons rack floating in midair not too far from where both he and Anemone materialized and gaped. The sheer variety of arms that were put in display for the both of them to see more than eclipsed the meager selection that he'd seen back in Winter Gale, from knives to scythes and pistols to railguns.
"Um."
Noah turned to Anemone, who stood around the middle segment of the virtual armory, a hand gesturing at the weapons displayed.
"Valkyrie arms are usually picked from here. Anything in this section can be issued for yourself back in reality, like mine."
The girl picked up a scythe that was taller than herself. It was a weapon that was perfect for culling the mobs of corpses reanimated by Honkai corruption as they, apart from the Evolved, behaved with simplistic and unintelligent aggression. Its design, Noah heard, was also partly inspired by a War Pick, which historically was used to counter armor, which the Honkai had plenty of. It also seemed to come with an activatable plasma edge, which made it far more useful against the tough hides of the creatures from beyond than most mundane lead.
He gave Anemone a nod and went to find what he usually used.
Winter Gale had a limited selection of special Valkyrie weapons that the soldiers there could arm themselves with, a constraint that Noah had to work under even after he awakened a Stigma due to unexpected delays in frontier logistics. He had come to know the several mundane rifles, handguns, and melee weapons; a knowledge that had buried itself so deeply into his body that learning how to handle the unique selection that the Valkyries that had been stationed at the FOB was a waste of time when Honkai intruded into what little civilization was there nearly every day.
Plasma-edged or rocket-powered medieval weaponry, even ones made of Soulium, were just not for him as primary. His domain was simply heavy lead and explosives.
His hands found purchase on a 20mm built with a barrel that recoils with every shot; it reduced the spine-breaking recoil to a mere push and allowed for unmounted firing. It had the drawback of a lower fire rate than its bulkier semi-auto cousins but its sheer weapon mobility as an anti-tank rifle trumped every drawback he could think of. His own issue sat in his room, a well-maintained prize that had cost him nearly three months' worth of his pay when he became an A-rank Lieutenant of his own small Valkyrie team.
His second weapon of choice was a grenade launcher with armor-piercing rounds. The firearm was much smaller than his primary choice but explosives were never anything Noah would say no to when it came to tearing apart large monsters or crowds of reanimated corrupted.
And lastly…Noah picked up a Desert Eagle and a plasma-edged machete. It always paid to be prepared for when his main weapons ran out of ammo.
He looked up to find the girl giving him an odd look. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it. A few seconds later, she picked out a large pistol with a Honkai shard occupying where its hammer should be and placed it on a holster.
The boy found himself smiling, and scowled.
0:53 until Initialization. Choose your equipment.
Less than one minute left. Noah finished stocking ammunition and grenades and equipping the necessities like a tactical headset before he finally stepped away from the virtual armor and looked up. The girl took a few halting steps towards him, brandishing her scythe absently.
"So," she began, "You wanna take point?"
Noah raised a brow and gestured at his AT rifle.
"Guess not then."
The conversation ended there, and they spent the last twenty seconds in awkward silence. Finally, the timer hit 0:00.
Initiating simulation…
The world assembled around them in tiles of fractal Imaginary light, creating a landscape of cold shrublands and rural houses. The sun's light was a pale filtered thing spread almost evenly across the thin blanket of clouds. The wind lacked any sound of fauna that might have suggested that the area had been reclaimed by nature yet. Experience taught Noah that this sort of area had been abandoned, not destroyed. There was too little activity, too many closed doors, and too few vehicles around. The people who had lived there likely took all that they could, locked their homes, and left their homes in a grand Exodus that had been organized admirably well. It was the contrast to the even colder wastes that he knew where everything was left where they would have been used as if the people who were once there disappeared in the middle of their work.
Last but not least, the atmosphere around them felt heavy and smelled slightly of ozone, a sign of ambient Honkai energy permeating in dense quantities.
His headset buzzed, signaling contact.
"Valkyrie Abrams, Valkyrie Anemone." It was their squad leader. "Both of you have to take out the Emperor-class that had taken refuge in the area. Time limit is two hours."
Their superior said nothing after that. Noah found himself grimacing.
"Hey Noah," Valkyrie Anemone said, "Did you, by any chance, bring a Honkai detector?"
She was playing with her fingers as she asked, speaking volumes of her own preparedness.
"No."
The girl deflated. "Right."
Noah sighed and shook his head. "I do not have a detector, but we may not need it. Emperors are easy to find when there is nothing else in the vicinity."
She nodded slowly. She doesn't know how to find Honkai without detectors, Noah guessed.
He wasn't surprised. He knew from the Valkyries that arrived at Winter Gale that it wasn't common knowledge that their sensitivity to Honkai can be used for more than just cycling the energy through their bodies or to their weapons. In the frontier, Honkai detectors were few and far between, distributed usually among the technicians and scouts. A number of them usually died and their equipment was lost in the snow. Noah had experienced that more than a few times and had to learn how to find enemies without special equipment, a necessity which led him to develop his sensitivity to Honkai as one couldn't always rely on tracks when some enemies could fly indefinitely.
"Just follow...and keep watch on the sky," Noah said, then led the way.
The area—a town, he decided—was quite easy to navigate since it was small, but it was strange; there was nothing remotely recognizable in the area that would indicate where they were. Street signs did not have names, instead, they simply had strings of numbers, a registry system of sorts, which, as far as Noah knew, wasn't an address system that real people used. If he had to guess, the vagueness of their simulation site was intentional, a test of wits. He had heard that many A-ranks were good in combat and civilian escort or evacuation but lacking in other soft skills like tracking, leadership, or improvisation. Taking a look at the girl only served to reinforce that thought. Noah would rather ask a Valkyrie's military rank than their Valkyrja rank—at least that way it was a pecking order that was based on merit.
Though that was a tall task, considering they had asked him to put away his silver bar and officer uniform. Likely, the rest of the squad had to set aside their previous ranks as well.
He could see, though, how the exercise could have forced Valkyries to learn how to track. There were many houses that had been broken in or destroyed by something large or something that wielded fire. There were a few places where the wreckage was recent, still spilling water from a few places or the embers of whatever had burned through the buildings were still glowing. The latter was why Noah kept both of them away from the open streets and told his partner to watch for things above—the Emperor-class could send and manipulate drone-like pieces of itself and fire beams of plasma from them albeit in limited ranges. The near-independent mobility of these drones, however, quickly negated that weakness.
The Emperor-class's massive Honkai presence led him like a beacon. All Noah had to do was to head in the direction where the feeling increased, and triangulate. It occurred to him that it was strange that the oppressive feeling of Honkai radiation could be felt within the simulation. Was that actual Honkai Energy he was feeling or just an illusion? If so, could users of Imaginary Space acquire the corruption from the simulation?
Noah decided he didn't want to know the answer.
Soon, they came upon a church. Its roof had caved in, leaving a large, gaping hole. Its walls were charred and appeared oddly stained, likely because of the rain. In contrast, the ground around it was green and not burned like the building itself. If Noah hadn't felt the oppressive feeling coming from right there, he would have assumed that whatever had caused the destruction had been long gone.
He glanced at the other Valkyrie. The girl's face had paled and her hands were clutching her weapon tightly enough that her knuckles turned white. She must feel it too, Noah thought.
It was a start.
He stopped them there. Noah just stood there for a few seconds, an idea forming in his head, then he faced the girl.
"Climb to the top of the church and wait for signal," he said in a quiet voice. "Climb quietly."
She frowned. "And you?"
"Bait."
The girl's face scrunched up in worry, which annoyed Noah more than anything else. "You sure?" she asked.
"Yes."
The girl hesitated, then her eyes opened wide as if she finally understood the plan and sighed. "Fine," she said, then began creeping towards the building. Only when she was finally on the roof, looking down from the crenellations did Noah himself move forward.
He strolled into the front door, which had been left open. Old bloodstains that were already partially eroded cast drifting strokes on the stone floor of the entryway. Once Noah was inside, finding their target was easy enough. He aimed with his grenade launcher up at the large crown-shaped silhouette blocking the light from the stained glass and pulled the trigger.
Bang.
The church interior erupted into a conflagration that shattered all windows and pushed hot air into Noah's face. Within the flames, an otherworldly buzzing blared, almost like a scream. Noah quickly about-faced and bolted out of the building, already hearing the drones soar through the air and fire up their superheated beams. Once out the door, he dived to the side, just in time to dodge six rays that reduced the church doorstep into cinders.
There was the odd buzzing again, the Emperor-class's scream of indignation.
"Now!" Noah barked.
No sooner did he say that was the facade of the church smashed open by the hulking pale figure of the Emperor-class, fire still clinging to its form. Its body turned towards Noah as soon as it was out of the smoke, and Noah could swear that the thing was scowling at him even if it didn't have a distinguishable face. Drones broke through the crumbling church facade and soon surrounded him.
Then the Emperor-class suddenly faltered as his partner bore down on it like a Reaper from above, cutting a deep gash through the back of the creature before dashing away. The drones around Noah suddenly dropped, the enemy no longer able to maintain its control. Near independent, Noah thought, though still requires command. He swapped to the 20mm rifle and aimed at the alien creature's flat head, right at the tiny gap in its armor-like carapace, and fired.
It dropped to the ground, its core replaced by a gaping hole, and began fading away along with its drones as if the world itself was rejecting its presence. Ordinarily, the demise of an Emperor-class would have left at least a radioactive Honkai Core that any Valkyrie could use to get a prize—something that the two did not need as it would fade away along with the rest of the simulation.
A window appeared before Noah's eyes.
Mission Accomplished
As soon as he saw that, the world, along with himself, began dissolving back into native Imaginary Space.
...
Θ
...
Before Noah knew it, he was back on the table, machine whirring toning down to a low buzz. He opened his eyes and quickly regretted it. It was too bright and he spent a minute squinting and wiping away tears until his eyes finally adjusted to real light. He sat up and looked around, finding Wendy in the same Dive station that he remembered. He released a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He must have subconsciously thought that they had really been sent into another space with no way to return.
"Well done you two."
Valkyrie Ataegina and her adjutant had come to check on them with a smile on her face. Noah felt his relief drain and be replaced with a frigid knot in his stomach.
He took care not to show it in his expression.
Their squad leader continued. "Of everyone here, the two of you were able to finish the simulation the fastest. You, Noah, performed exceptionally well. Have you fought an Emperor-class before?"
You should know that from reading my file, he thought. Noah nodded anyway.
"Guess that explains it." Ataegina turned to Wen—Valkyrie Anemone. "And you, despite not being fully equipped for a subjugation, did well to cooperate with your teammate when Noah clearly seemed to know what he was doing."
The girl in question appeared flattered.
"Well, both of you have earned a short break. Sit tight and wait for the rest to finish," she gestured to the center of the room where—Noah had to kick himself for not noticing—a large projection of the various ongoing exercises were displayed.
Her next words then filled Noah with dread.
"Then we'll be having team exercises."
...
Ω
CHAPTER 3 END
...
Author's Note
Man did this chapter took forever. I have no idea how many times I've already rewritten this thing.
Writing Re: Hilichurl as a change of pace allowed me to find out that you can actually use ellipses as a divider in fanfiction, but you have to make sure that the document reads it as three periods instead of an actual ellipsis in the formatting. Now I can finally make line breaks!
In any case, I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
Note: changed formatting