Heartstrings
Vincent Unleashed
by TacomaSquall
Part Twenty - Horsemen:
Lord Chaos felt the
portal to Nessos open. He could sense
that the portal was being kept open, rather than closing after depositing
Tenebrius near Nibel Mountain. Perplexed, he furrowed his brow in thought, and then shrugged. It was a good thing he had his ace in the
hole.
Holding the
constructed summoning spell in his mind, he activated the Vanish enchantment he
had placed upon the Chaos Saber after bedding Dr. De Vries. As he winked from view, he started outside
the Research Center.
It was time for a
touch of Chaos…
* * * * * *
Brett Jetzer climbed
into the cockpit of the Whisk. A
prototype wanzer (taken from the Wutaian word for walking war machine), the
machine's blue steel finish shone from the hours of off-time he spent maintaining
it. This was his baby.
Taking the wanzer
with him after the attack on Junon by the Sapphire Weapon, Brett had followed
Heidegger's orders seriously about keeping the wanzer safe. When it was proved that Heidegger was
himself insane (the failure of the Proud Clod showed that), Brett modified his
original order somewhat. He was not
going to let the wanzer fall into anyone's hands who was going to misuse the
vehicle. This meant that it would be
impossible for the career soldier to ever return to the military that had been
his home for the last twenty years.
Brett had hopped a
ride on a freighter making the trip from Junon to Costa del Sol after the
destruction of Meteor. He made a living
for himself by using the wanzer to assist in the rebuilding of communities that
had suffered during the events that led up to the destruction of Meteor.
Finally, he was
approached by Vincent Valentine to head up security at the Research
Center. Awed by Valentine's status as
one of the heroes who helped save the Planet, Brett accepted.
The job had been
easy, up to this point. As a realist,
Brett knew that sooner or later, someone would make a play for the greatest
storehouse of scientific research in the entire world. Brett's job, to this point, had been making
sure that the Research Center would be prepared to deal with such an attempt.
Now, it was time for
Brett to see how well he had done his job. As he climbed into the Whisk, he reminded himself that Jenova was not an
enemy he wanted to face in one-on-one combat. It would be far better to fight the alien monster from a distance, where
he could use all of his ranged weaponry.
He flicked on a
series of buttons as he settled into the pilot chair. The interior lighting turned on, and his heads-up display activated. Quickly, he raced down the list of
pre-maneuvers checks. Wrist actuators, legs, hips, all green. Arm traverse is perfect. Missile reload mechanism is fine. Jump jets clear and fuel status is 100%. Weapons are all charged and ready. Fire mode selection is operational. Let's rock.
The Whisk began
thundering forward, weighing more than 30 times the weight of its pilot. Each step caused a small impact tremor that
unnerved the Research Center staff, as they grabbed machine pistols to help in
the defense.
Doctor De Vries
picked out five of the largest members of the Center's staff, along with five
who were known for their excellent manual dexterity and eyes. Four of the steadiest, she sent to be the
gunners of the machine guns, teamed with four of the strong-men to be loaders
and the men who would carry the heavy weapons into combat. The last two were paired with the fusion
gun, and Doctor De Vries attached herself to their team as additional help.
Brett's voice,
amplified by the speakers of the wanzer, barked out, "Divide into four
teams. One team goes with each machine
gun, and has two radios. Doctor De
Vries, please get a radio and dial it in on frequency 12. That will be my comm channel. Use frequency 13 for inter-unit
communications. Buell, you're in charge
of the first team."
A slender security
man nodded. "Gotcha, Brett."
Brett looked at the
other three units. "Evan, you're in
charge of Unit 2. I know you don't have
any military experience, but you have a cool head, and people will listen to
you." The tall man in question looked
surprised, but signaled his acquiescence. "Third Unit, you are under Doctor Cornell's orders. She won't throw your lives away, and your
job is to make sure that nobody compromises the facility."
Devin Cornell looked
at the man, half her age, inside the wanzer, and said, "They'll have to kill
this old bird before they can get into our databanks!" Her unit gave an impromptu cheer at her
comment. She looked back at them and
smiled.
Brett smiled as
well. That is one tough old lady. If
anyone can keep this place secure while I am out there, it'll be her. "Springer, you have the fourth unit. You guys are going to be my screening
force. Your job will be to try and make
sure that Jenova can't get to me. I want
each of you to take the blue magazines we have in the back of the armory. In those magazines are contained the latest
armor-piercing ammunition, created by ShinRa's scientists to punch through the
thick hide of Mako-twisted monsters. If
we get into a fight with Jenova, I want you to be using those instead of one of
the standard magazines of ammunition. Her hide is too tough for standard bullets to easily penetrate."
Brett fixed Doctor De
Vries with a hard look. "Get to the
roof. You are our command and artillery
post. That fusion gun is the most
powerful weapon we have, excluding this wanzer. Provide fire support where I direct, and relay my orders to the
Units. If, for some reason, I go off
the air, you are in command."
The men and women
arrayed themselves for battle, following the orders of the Chief of
Security. When they were ready, they
deployed, coming to a dead stop at the sight of a rift in space just outside
the entrance to the Center. Standing
there, awaiting them, were Tenarrus and his four Horsemen.
The dying began.
* * * * * *
Cloud focused all of
his will upon the glowing red Materia on his Mystile. With its signature fireball explosion, Phoenix appeared. "We have teammates unconscious and dead."
Phoenix sighed. "Your wounded I can help. I cannot help the dead without breaking the
Law of Death, brother."
"Then how were you
able to bring the four of us back in Kalm?" Cloud shouted his question in grief and rage. "Cid deserves to live as much as I do. So does the Frogman."
"I am sorry. I cannot, for breaking the Law of Death
would undo all that you have already done, Strife. Break that law and the victory your friends died to help secure
will be as nothing. The sacrifices of
both living and dead will be as naught before such an ill choice."
"Damn you." Cloud turned away from the great
Mako-twisted avatar of rebirth. "Give
us what help you can, then."
The Phoenix screamed
his cry. In mid screech, the firebird
froze. It seemed to collapse inwards,
as a spell tore at its very essence. "I
beseech you! Do not do this!" Phoenix's plea was frantic as it
imploded. "Lord Chaos, I beg you…"
All that remained of
the mighty Phoenix was a single red-orange pinion.
Grennek softly said,
"The Apocalypse is upon us. Chaos is in
our midst."
Grimly, Cloud gave a
Phoenix Down to Hieros, Nanaki, and Barret. As soon as he had finished restoring them to consciousness, he looked at
Tifa. "Honey, break open that last Megalixir. We need it now."
* * * * * *
Lord Chaos felt the summoning
energies of the Materia that called Phoenix into the world and he
grimaced. Those fools think they can use my brethren against me? He finished the spell that would summon
Vincent to the rooftop of the Center. He grinned, as he set a delay in the summoning, estimating it would take
some time to maneuver into place.
His spell-casting
complete, Chaos turned his attention to the battle below. The forces of the Center were fighting
desperately against the Horsemen, while Tenarrus scanned the battlefield for
any sign of the members of AVALANCHE. Uragi had charged headlong into the fray, and was carving a swath of
destruction through the unfortunate defenders of the Center. Inanna had found herself a small house to
shelter in, just within the town limits, and was casting her spells at targets
of opportunity. Tenebrius was
methodically taking on a single opponent at a time, killing them before moving
on to the next victim, while Coyote attacked members of the Center staff as one
of their own.
He sighed. It was time for AVALANCHE to be lured to
where he could use them to weaken Tenarrus. It was too much to hope that they would be able to defeat the
power-hungry conqueror, but they should at least buy him time for Vincent to
arrive and end Tenarrus' dreams of conquest. After all, the Planet was rightfully his.
Chaos reactivated his
Vanish enchantment, and spread his wings to float down behind the Center, where
AVALANCHE awaited him.
* * * * * *
Dr. De Vries was
horrified. The sight of the carnage
below was absolutely sickening. The
knowledge that she had sent these people to their deaths wasn't ameliorated one
bit by the knowledge that it was necessary to protect the Center. She watched as friends and colleagues were
cut down by the fury of Jenova and her allies.
One of Jenova's
allies, a sorceress, had taken shelter in a small house at the edge of town. From the security of this location, she was
throwing Death and Ultima spells, along with other magics that were unknown to
the scientist. Janet grimly
smiled. The sorceress was sheltered
from normal weapons. I wonder how well
that building would withstand a blast from a fusion gun? She ordered her gun crew to fire.
The small house,
formerly the residence of Cloud Strife before his departure to become a
SOLDIER, offered little resistance to the fusion gun's beam of superheated
plasma. Neither did the hapless
Horseman within.
Janet saw one of
Jenova's allies look upwards. He
pointed with a single leather-clad arm, as light glinted off of the demonic
being's crown. The demon followed his
gesture with a few short gestures. Janet dove back from the crest of the roof, just before a tongue of
darkness snaked out from the demon's outstretched hand and licked the roof
where she and the gun crew stood.
Janet looked
around. The gun crew was gone, erased
from existence as if they had never been. Nothing remained of even the heavy assault weapon they had manhandled to
the roof. Tears running down her face,
she clicked on her radio to frequency 12. "This is the command post. We
have been hit. I am the only survivor. I am falling back to operations."
* * * * * *
Brett watched in
horror as the bloodthirsty Darklord Uragi hewed his way through one of the
units. He turned towards the lithe
figure, and emptied both machineguns at the Horseman as it advanced. The Darklord laughed and danced out of the
way of the stream of bullets.
The Darklord advanced
slowly, a gleam of pleasure in his eye as he contemplated the battle ahead of
him. Never had he taken on such an
armored opponent. Defeating him would
indeed be glorious. He noted that the
armored giant had human footsoldiers guarding him. Faugh! Humans are such
cowards, but it will avail him naught. Methodically,
the Darklord continued forward, slashing lethally at any combatants who got in
his way.
At one hundred feet
away, Brett switched a toggle inside the wanzer. The Whisk hummed, and a red button on the right handle for the
pilot's yoke started flashing. The head's-up
display indicated Salvo mode was enabled. Brett made his point of aim ten feet in front of the advancing Horseman,
and pressed the button. Within 5
seconds, the twenty missiles blasted from their pods on the wanzer's
shoulder. They surged forwards into the
earth, turning the ground the Horseman was advancing through into a curtain of
explosions.
Battered, the
Horseman charged forward. Moving as
quickly as a dervish of doom and destruction, he sliced through Brett's screen. In a matter of moments, he was upon the
security chief, leaving dead and dying bodies behind him. With a crack, the Darklord slashed Hell's
Stiletto against the wanzer's right knee. The blade slashed through the alloy of the powered suit of armor,
cutting the hydraulics that assisted the operation of the right leg. Fluid gushed forth.
Uragi smiled. "First blood is mine, warrior. Soon, last blood shall also be mine."
Brett gritted his
teeth. "Not if I have anything to say
about it!" He released the machine gun
in the wanzer left hand, and slapped at the Darklord. Nimbly, the Draklord sidestepped. While Jetzer was getting back into position for another blow,
Uragi slashed the back of the wanzer's left knee. More hydraulic fluid poured forth.
Brett tried to step
towards the Darklord, but the legs, operating at minimal efficiency due to loss
of hydraulic pressure, folded. The
Whisk overbalanced and fell to the ground, face-first.
Brett listened to the
sound of Hell's Stiletto carving through the wanzer's armor. Sooner or later, he's going to penetrate
the cockpit, and kill me. If I'm going
down, I'm going to take him with me. He activated the wanzer's self-destruct mechanism, and tried to push the
wanzer upwards, back to its feet.
Brett almost
succeeded, before Uragi cut the right arm out from under the wanzer in a single
mighty slash. The wanzer rolled as it
fell, coming to rest on its back. Uragi
raced up to the wanzer, and stood on its chest.
Spitting blood from a
cracked lip, Brett watched the Darklord raise Hell's Stiletto to stab it
through the canopy of the cockpit. Three.
The blade descended
downwards, shattering the canopy's armored glass. Two.
The blade continued,
piercing Jetzer's neck through the windpipe. Uragi knelt on the wanzer's chest. One.
Uragi twisted Hell's
Stiletto in Brett's neck, severing the carotid artery. As Brett felt his life's blood begin to
fountain into the wanzer's cockpit, Uragi smiled. Zero.
The Darklord's smile
was blotted out as the wanzer's engine exploded.
End of Part Twenty