- 16 hours after Coral City –
"You are bloody crazy, Dear Customer!"
"Resignation is an option."
The next set of expletives were lost in the roaring wind. The pair stood atop the stealthed VTOL aircraft, Mei gripping the hull electromagnetically and holding Amarant in one arm by sheer strength. The clouds rushed beneath, the aircraft moving at incredible speed. They had a window of mere hours to complete their objective. Mei used an EM field to bend the electromagnetic, thermal and Honkai energy spectrum around their presence. For all intents and purposes the pair were invisible to anything short of gravitational detection on an impossible fine-tuned scale.
Flying beneath was an transport destined for Schicksal HQ. Mei eyed the aircraft cautiously.
'The last thing I want to do is accidentally announce our little addition. If memory serves these transports even have tactile sensors.'
A single leap took the pair into the air. Mei adjusted the shape of the EM field to carry the pair downward to their destination. Multiple electromagnetic cables lashed out and caught on the hull of the transport aircraft. Fortunately, the craft was an anti-gravity type, so exhaust fumes and kinetic particulate matter were not an issue. Gripping the hull via her electromagnetic cables, Mei reeled the pair in behind the wake of the craft and hovered close without touching the hull.
"What now?" Amarant shouted.
"We wait."
The electromagnetic cables were fixed ethereal projections and nigh impossible to detect short of direct interference. Radio or other forms of indiscriminate EM transmission would be detected by the transport's passive defences. Hoarse voices were the extent of their communication for the time being.
"Our breach location will be the Air Terminal," Mei shouted. "Where does your contact say our destination is berthed?"
"Helheim has it… had it under tight guard outside their laboratory. But with the current upheaval everything is in disarray. Damage to multiple critical infrastructure areas. Whoever is attacking, they've avoided almost all human targets. Curiously they've obliterated every mech they came across. Same with their detours. Human eyes can't pick them up. But the brief flickers of electronic footage show a woman with white hair. She moves too fast for the cameras to get a fixed clear image."
"That explains why they sabotaged the power systems on their way through. If only machinery can detect them then disable the machinery."
Mei flashed a wicked smile.
"World Serpent and Schicksal are still spooning. So that rules them out. This isn't AE's style. No ineffective flailing about. Which means we have another piece on the board. Maybe we could work with them if they were interested. I like their style."
"Save your budding romance for another time, dear Customer."
"Jealous, Amarant?"
"We're several kilometres high in the air. Right now, I love you to literal death. Once we're on solid ground that opinion may change."
Mei chuckled and pulled Amarant into a tighter embrace.
"I promise I'll be gentle."
"Dear [Honkai God], save me from MOTH's and thirsty Herrscher."
[Transport X-Cradle-002 please continue to move in a holding pattern. Schicksal Air Terminal is currently under lockdown]
[Understood Air Terminal Tower]
The text scrolled across Mei's AR vision. Amarant had most encryption frequencies for Schicksal stored in her phone ready for easy decryption. Whoever her contact was, they were someone incredibly highly placed. One of the few questions Mei wasn't going to ask. If someone within Schicksal was willing to risk so much, then she wasn't going to give any pressure.
The descent would take some finesse. As the aircraft circled in a low holding pattern Mei spotted a shadowed alley space between storage warehouses and let her electromagnetic grip disappear. She hadn't warned Amarant so the woman let out a sudden scream before clamping a hand over her mouth. The glare she fixed on Mei would have heat-stripped paint from a wall. Close to the ground Mei projected a downward EM pulse and slowed their descent. With practiced grace the Herrscher guided the two into the alley and planted them on the ground as softly as a parent might set down their toddler. Once on solid ground Amarant dropped to her knees and pressed gloved hands against the surface.
"I. Do. Not. Like. Flying."
"You can remain here in the bosom of Schicksal after we've finished our little mission."
"I guess I need to book a flight on United Herrscher of Thunder Airlines, don't I?"
"No doubt you could sneak about one of the aircraft. It might just take you a week or two."
"Pass. Besides, I'd have to scavenge for food and Schicksal's cooks are awful enough to repel a Honkai Eruption."
Mei smirked. The two bled off their tension. Composed faces replaced the irreverent mirth. Amarant uploaded a 3D map of the Air Terminal and attached Helheim Labs into their AR interface. Various arrows showed possible infiltration vectors. Plans hastily composed by the pair in the little time they had in the air before infiltrating what was possibly the most secure location on the planet. The World Serpent Cairo headquarters was harder to find. Not as hard to break into.
A certain troublemaker that had just left Schicksal was about to find that out.
"Do we stick to our optimum route, Raiden?"
"For now. The very last thing we need is for the Overseer to know we were skulking about his home. It would tip him off that somebody has been leaking secrets. He would also investigate why we were here and that is something I cannot afford. Our long-term plans hinge on this."
"Understood."
The arrows on the map twisted and warped. Some routes disappeared and others shifted their ingress and egress points. Amarant made to stand. Paused halfway up and threw a stop-motion toward Mei. Both crouched back down. The furrow in Amarant's brow deepened. Finally, she tsked and pressed a hand against her earpiece.
"Change of plans, dear Customer."
"What now?"
Mei's earpiece burbled for a second. A connect request appeared in a corner of her AR. She gave approval and listened in.
[Beta Gold 2 to Command. Alpha Gold 1 has been located]
[Status?]
[Alpha Gold 1 critically injured. Prepare medical suite for immediate treatment.]
[Preparation underway]
[Beta Gold 1 this is Alpha Gold 2. Location?]
[Main hub of Air Terminal, 800 metres north of Flight Control Tower. I have pinged you exact location]
[Hold position. My squad will come to reinforce and escort Captain Durandal]
[Understood, Captain Rita]
[Alpha Gold 2 this is Command. Why are you not at Niflhiem escorting the Overseer?]
[Command, have a medical team sent to Niflheim to secure a body]
[Please repeat, Alpha Gold 2]
Static interrupted the transmission. Whatever was being said, the encryption has just been turned beyond what the Information Broker had access to. Mei and Amarant exchanged suspicious looks. Amarant spoke first.
"Surely when Rita said body they didn't mean…"
To anybody that loathed the Overseer, and Mei was right up the list, possibly at the top if not just behind 423 and Fredericka Tesla, this was incredibly bad news. Because anybody up the top of the list knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Overseer would never die so easily. He had no doubt faked his death. Records from Raiden Ryoma showed that the Overseer had multiple bodies he could shift his consciousness between. Otto had left a corpse for Schicksal to mourn over. Meanwhile he was elsewhere, beyond the notice of anybody and working towards his own inscrutable endgame. Beyond the attention of the Schicksal informant.
'This doesn't change our current goals. We make for Helheim, infiltrate the Selene and ready another piece on the board.'
"Any actual good news?"
"Durandal did run into the enemy. They were prepping an ICU ward."
The wicked smile from earlier returned.
"I will buy this person a Christmas hamper."
Amarant tapped a few things into her haptic interface.
"It seems that they have left the island. Clean-up will take at least forty-eight hours. Power systems are projected to be active in 6 hours maximum. We don't have much time."
"Then let us get moving."
It was a novel application of the bunshin spectres along with the Shadow Dash battlesuit metamaterial camouflage. Mei weaved two humanoid fields over herself and Amarant. The pair then moved carefully out of cover. It took an immense amount of concentration and application of Honkai energy. Not only to dynamically adjusted the field so as to bend any passive visual projection but to mask the Honkai energy that emanated from utilising such a technique. What couldn't be masked was sound or pressure. Taking this into account, the duo was not as foolish as to loiter and walk casually about. Instead they still moved as though they might be detected either with by human or mechanical means.
Schicksal HQ was comprised of several island kept aloft by advanced anti-gravity technology. Most islands were covered by a cubic zirconia dome to protect against the high winds and inclement weather. Within the domes were all manner of structure. Operational facilities for the vast apparatus of personal that ran the worldwide organisation that was Schicksal. Warehouses for storage of weapons, supplies, vehicles and more. Housing, recreational, cafeterias, medical and other necessities for staff. Training facilities for Valkyrja. And laboratories. An incredible number of research laboratories for conducting all manner of experiment. Maybe 10% of this research was known to the general populace of Schicksal.
The rest. The rest are on matters and involve subjects that would leave anybody nauseous or questioning whether the Honkai is right to scour humanity from the planet.
The Air Terminal was one of the outer islands. Fortunately, it had multiple connections to the inner islands. And securely moored on one of the inner islands, the research area known as Helheim Labs, was the battlecruiser Selene. Between Mei, Amarant and the battlecruiser was the burning wreckage of multiple buildings, facilities and angry swarms of Valkyrja. The Honkai Eruption had been a carefully planed and orchestrated event several months back. People had been in the right places to ensure that the loss of Schicksal staff was kept to a minimum. This was not so clean an affair. People had died. Many. Even the most powerful amongst Schicksal had been unceremoniously humbled.
The smell of burning metal, fire and electrical ozone filled the air. This was a visual phenomenon that Mei again would have great difficulty navigating. The pair skirted around the burning warehouses and active fire crews. They kept off active causeways and primary arterial routes. Skulking in the dimming afternoon sun, the pair preferred to keep to the shadows and access ways more often used by maintenance staff and cleaners.
The sound of heavy footfalls froze the pair. They were in a narrow gap between large plasma steel storage containers where they pressed up against a warehouse. Amarant was quick, running her phone over a security panel and unlocking the door. The pair rushed inside and locked the door behind. Not willing to gamble on just one layer of safety, Mei led the two through the shadows. Large steel crates held munitions and weaponry for Valkyrja to use in open battlefield warfare.
"Pity they hadn't used any of this during the Eruption," Mei muttered.
"A calculated risk," was Amarant's soft reply. "Let AE waste as many resources as possible. Just as the 2nd Honkai Eruption. If things didn't go according to plan then Otto or Durandal would step in."
"My own critical injury, Himeko's hospitalisation and Theresa's death was acceptable to Schicksal. Along with the death of countless people aboard the Hyperion when it sustained fire from both Benares and the Herrscher of the Void."
Mei sniffed.
"If Otto has faked his death, then he has likely already left. Durandal is out of action. I could sink all of Schicksal HQ in an hour. Make that two hours. Best be thorough."
"These people are, for the majority, innocent."
"So were the people on the Hyperion. The world would be a better place without Schicksal. At the very least I could destroy all those abominable experiments. That would be three islands to sink. And the personnel within are not saints. Cleanse the gene-pool."
"You're in a particularly bloodthirsty mood, Mei."
"I've gone from summer to bitter winter to bloodshed in the same day. Fighting World Serpent, Schicksal Valkyrja and Herrscher. And then the near murder of Hanakawa by a Schicksal kill-squad. Now I'm busy slinking around the golden hornet's nest. I haven't had any sleep and I'm in desperate need of some affection from a certain idiot I decided to betray in my desire to save the species. Perhaps give me a little latitude to vent my justified frustrations before I embrace my more professional aspects and cleanly execute my plan."
Amarant's smile was warm. Almost motherly.
"I was beginning to worry that Raiden Mei had been entirely subsumed by this efficient and ruthless woman."
"Pardon?"
"You're grizzling like a teenager."
Mei's mouth slowly fell open. Then she snickered.
"I guess I am."
The familiar Raiden breathing exercise followed, centring herself and focussing on the task at hand.
"Security is in disarray. We move carefully toward Helheim Laboratories and our critical goal."
The two moved through the darkness toward the exit at the opposite end of the warehouse. In the shadows Amarant pressed a hand against her chest and coughed. Cleared her throat. Mei glanced over her shoulder.
"Apologies. Heartburn."
Mei rolled her eyes and continued forward. Amarant swallowed the bile and something much more unpleasant.