Armored core: Overboost Destiny
-Chapter 7- Zearm December
The Einherjar stepped toward the ruins, watching the white Emeraude model broken down before it. Van looked about the Einherjar cockpit's instruments, checking for vital signs, energy gauges and danger zones. Leaning toward a small screen that popped up before his eyes, Van studies the forms and colors on it.
"Two Armored Cores…one human…and several areas of this structure are contaminated by energy radiation. It looks like the generator to whatever this ruin used to be had some sort of leakage. Most of the areas infected are right around the generator." Van said, studying the wire-frame map of the area around him on his screen. "These rooms seem to have cracks or holes in their walls that connect them to the generator room too. I'm amazed whoever this is could still be alive."
Valkyrie sighed softly. "If there are two armored cores and one person, where is the other person?"
Van narrowed his eyes. "One of the cores belongs to an old colleague named Phoenix…but that person isn't Phoenix, it looks like a woman. I'll run a scan on the other AC." He said, flipping a few switches and inputting commands into a soft paneled keyboard before him. Van, waiting for the data to stream into Einherjar's computer, taps his finger on the side of the keyboard. With a sigh, he runs his other hand forward through his hair. A small chirping signal grabs Van's attention toward the screen, where a new window popped up, displaying schematics and information on the AC and pilot. "The pilot, and that girl in there, is Maria Gavitross. Her AC is 'Heaven's Blaze'. I've seen her somewhere before."
"If she's sickened and your friend Phoenix is nowhere to be found, you better hurry up and check it out." Valkyrie explained.
"Cluse could be anywhere around here though…" Van noted to himself, carefully moving the Einherjar towards the ruins.
Van leapt into the ruins from the open cockpit of the Einherjar. He wore a second layer of white clothing that covered his entire body. His eyes were visible through orange goggles. The suit he had on was thermal gear, necessary for rough weather conditions like these. Van moved further into the shattered ruins of the old structure, trying to listen for any sounds of movement aside from the roar of the wind and snow hitting the other side of the walls. Not too far in, Van heard a faint shout. He turned around, only to witness Maria holding a gun toward him a few steps away.
"Don't move! Who the hell are you!" She yelled over the sound of the weather.
Van looked at her calmly. He pulled the suit's clothing away from his face, pulling his goggles away from his eyes and hanging them around his neck. "Where's Phoenix?"
Her hands shook. Van looked at them and quickly noticed their almost decayed look. Either they were frost bitten, or this is what the radiation causes. The rest of her body besides her face was covered in brown clothing that was ripped in some places, exposing her tight body suit beneath. "You don't give a damn where the hell he is, you just want to kill me and my baby!"
Shocked, Van noticed her stomach was round and protruding. He looked into her face. "Phoenix was my friend, and I have no intention of killing you, or your child miss. Just put the gun down, I'm here to help."
"You liar!" She yelled. "They hired you didn't they, they hired you to finish the job! Well you go to hell!" She yelled, pulling the trigger of the gun. Van shook for a second before he realized all the gun did was click. It was empty.
"Listen miss, where is Phoenix so I can take both of you to the nearest health center. Do you realize the amount of danger you're in here?" Van asked.
She shook her head, falling to her knees and dropping her gun. "Phoenix got too sick…he couldn't make it any longer. I told him he didn't have to save more food for me. I knew someone was coming soon." Maria said, sobbing into her scabby, decaying hands. "That was a month ago…"
"What all happened? Show me where you put his body…" Van said, helping her stand. They started to walk through small corridors as she led him to the resting-place of his old friend.
Phoenix was given a mission to eliminate a hostile Raven destroying Emeraude forces in Zearm Desert. The raven was Maria. With no luck whatsoever, they fought in a harsh snowstorm that overwhelmed the desert. Supposedly the snowfall covering the desert sand was some experiment on weather control. Both of their armored core's broke down, and they were stranded in these ruins. They found food, and have survived on it for a year. After coming to grips with their need to survive, they fell in love. This led to Maria getting pregnant of course. As the food ran out, Phoenix tried his best to keep Maria alive by cutting down his food intake to almost nothing at all. With the sickness, his body deteriorated slowly. His body devoured itself, and Maria watched it every step of the way. The limbs went first, she explained. Then his chest cavity started to fall into itself and divide. During this, his rib cage popped open like a broken bears trap and pulled apart all of his organs that were fusing to bone. Van almost grew sick, she was being so descriptive.
Van patted down the last pile of snow with the shovel Phoenix had made out of a stick and a sheet of debris that broke off of Phoenix's core 'Emma'. Phoenix's grave was a nook halfway exposed to the outside weather that calmed down to a silent breeze and a haze of flurries. Van used another sheet of debris and a rifle to make a cross. As Van finished, he stood at the foot of his friend's grave, sliding a patch displaying Phoenix's emblem of a firebird under the snow.
"If only this Phoenix could rise from his ashes too…" Van uttered. "I'll make sure Maria and your child make it…I promise you they will."
The sound of boosters igniting echoed from the distance. Just then, the Earth rumbled and shook. Ravens, Van thought. Van rushed into the ruins toward the upper level. After leaping up the staircase, he looked out a nearby window to see Maria's Ac boosting towards another. "That must be Cluse…damn, Maria!" Van yelled, running off in the direction of Einherjar's cockpit.
Maria, struggling to hold on to her controls, dives toward the AC. Then, Cluse's voice came over her screen. It was still hoarse and painful as before, like his body was torn apart. "Who do you think you are! How dare you face me you pathetic excuse for a raven!"
Maria screamed. "You're the one that left me here to die! You're the one that allowed Phoenix to die!"
Cluse laughed. "Phoenix? Don't tell me you fell for one of the enemy…" Cluse listened, hearing sobbing on the other line of the communication. "You did didn't you? I would have slaughtered that piece of shit either way baby. You would've done the same."
"Shut up!" Maria screamed, released the blade of her Ac and slashing it toward Cluse's.
Cluse laughed again. "My Zearus core is too quick for that!" He proclaimed, boosting Zearus backwards. Releasing two similar blades from each hand of his AC, Cluse boosted forward again when Heaven's Blaze's blade was lowered. He drove the blades into the shoulders of Maria's core, pushing its reverse jointed legs down under the weight of them, making them bend. Cluse then boosted forward, dragging Heaven's Blaze along the ground. Quickly, the legs of Maria's core snapped off and her core slide from Zearus's blades, falling helplessly to the ground. Zearus hovered over Maria's core, beginning to drop its blades down onto her core. The Einherjar stepped over Heaven's Blaze, drawing its blade upward to meet Zearus's. The blades met, creating a bright flash and shimmers of electricity in the air. The Einherjar lifted its rifle up, pressing its barrel into Zearus's core, firing round after round.
The rifle fire pushed Zearus away, forcing it to land away from Maria and Van's position. Einherjar stepped out from over Heaven's Blaze. "Maria," Van said. "Boost your way as far into the ruins as possible. Hide yourself, you just risked two lives! I don't want to see the unthinkable happen, now get out of here!" Van commanded. He raised his rifle again, firing again and again at Zearus, who strafed away to dodge each one. Van drew his blade again and turn boosted in full circle as Zearus came into short range with him. Lifting Einherjar's energy blade out, Van made his Ac perform a slashing hurricane technique. His blade gave Zearus a thick gash across its arm, making it barely operable.
Zearus and the Einherjar boosted away from each other. Cluse smashed his hand against his cockpit controls. "Damn! This pathetic insect still has the nerve to face me! Me!" He yelled.
Van, grinding his teeth, examined all of his screen's components. He wiggled his fingers around and took a deep breath, watching as a radio transmission appeared on his screen. "Van! I'm on my way! Just hold out until I get there and we can both take him on!"
Cluse laughed. "I don't think so lady, your boy is going to be dead by then!" Cluse said. He yelled, drawing out his mecha's two laser blades from its hands. Zearus then boosted forward and slashed both of them at the Einherjar at once. The Einherjar parried one of the blades, watching the other arm of Zearus being pulled forward. The blade, malfunctioning from the hurricane attack before, dissipates just as it's hand hits Einherjar's armor. The hand, suddenly glowing with a bright blue energy, releases a giant burst of electricity from it. The burst throws the Einherjar off balance and through the air toward the ruins.
Van shouts, trying to get the Einherjar to respond. "Oh no," He uttered, watching as his screens went black. "That shorted my systems out…"
Then, in a bright flash of energy lit up the screen of Van's cockpit. Zearus had released a giant blast of energy towards the Einherjar, which was thrown into the ruins. The energy blast ripped half of the ruins apart, leaving the end where Phoenix's grave was completely intact. Cluse watched and waited for the smoke and debris to subside.
"Van!" Valkyrie roared, landing her white lightweight core nearby. She examined the area, noticing there was only one thing operative in the area beside herself. Zearus…