Chapter 8
SHADOWED
Kylia walked, escourted, into the CSA headquarter's lobby area. Silver, no... the walls were made of some kind of pearl substance, with European-style pillars lining the flanks. The hallway had an archway ceiling with skylights, sun streaks shimmering down onto the blue marble floor. At the center was an angelic fountain.
No, not really angelic. A statue of numerous mythical creatures. Pegasus, Leviathan, Hydra... and to her surprise, at the top lay her own Loch Ness monster. Boy, she thought to herself, did that bring back memories.
The escort guards retreated into the shadows behind the pillars as she stood near the fountain, drenched, creating a slippery puddle on the glossy floor. After a minute or so, she started to walk around the fountain.
Memories of better times, ones she almost forgot, seemed to spring up from her for no apparent reason. Memories of her life as a raven partner... memories of Raven...
As soon as she reached the other side of the fountain, past the cool mist of the flowing water, she thought that she was still entrenched in memories and allowed them to seep into real-time. Ha! She thought she saw Raven, sitting there in front of her with his arms crossed in a white suit. What a ridiculous notion.
Then she saw motion coming from behind the pillar immediately across from her. It was a familiar face... six months ago? Then it hit her, it was the calm, professional face of Roger Smith.
Roger started walking towards her slowly, with a briefcase in hand.
"Is this her?" he asked. To whom, she was still contemplating. Her eyes immediately darted back to, what she thought was, the illusion of Raven. It didn't disappear. Instead, his head turned ever so slightly so his eyes met hers.
Emotions... Emotions of hidden grief, mixed with anxiety, hope and joy. Her eyes watered. What was something that was lost so long ago... well, six months appeared to be a long time, anyway, "...Raven...? Is that you?!" She still couldn't believe her eyes. Was it an illusion? Was she finally losing it?
Raven stood up, and for Kylia's sake, gave a slight smile. "Kylia, I also am at a loss of words."
"Raven!" she shouted as she fell over into Raven's arms. She never felt so happy to see him... nor so embarrassed. Kylia stood back, and took a good swipe at Raven's face with her right palm. "How dare you! How dare you keep me grieving over six months! I thought you died! I got married, for the sake of Pete!"
She glared over to Roger, a lump formed in his throat. "And YOU!!! Damn YOU for letting the information I gave you slip away! I warned you..."
Raven was recuperating from the slap, a single sweat drop formed on Roger's face. "Well... It wasn't my fault. Where I come from, things aren't as secure-"
"And you think you can use THAT excuse! AARGH!!"
Raven lowered his hand, and raised it to Kylia's shoulder. "It's okay. I hired Mr. Smith for a special reason..."
***
Raven explained the whole situation to Kylia; over what happened six months ago until just now. It was almost too much for Kylia to bear. She was sitting at the fountain, hands on her knees, her knuckles white; a testament to current fears.
"So..." she started. "Let me get this straight... You now know where the Dalriadan is. Some guy called Gustave Macross has monopolized ninety percent of the Eurasian continent. The remaining LCs have hired a great deal of ravens, including you, to assassinate him. Mirage is almost obliterated, Crest was overthrown by Layered citizens, and the world government is in turmoil. And Roger... he'll be part of a secondary unit that you set up that will rendezvous at LC 163?"
Roger leaned up against the far wall, "That's right. I'm not exactly a hired assassin OR a raven, but Gustave threatens my own 'Layered' called Paradigm city. I can't allow foreigners to do as they please as the rest of the world tries to live in peace."
Raven sat down next to Kylia, "And it is our duty."
"Our duty?" questioned Kylia.
"Yes. Remember our mom, Sera Cross. She toiled long and hard on Artificial Intelligence in the AIO as cancer tore away her vitality. We were kept in the corporate daycare at the time. You may not remember, but one day she broke etiquette and visited us one day. I remember vividly what she told us... 'You are my children; you are different than the rest. You were meant for greatness...'" Raven lowered his head, "'Never allow power to subside in one place. If power is held in one hand only, some is bound to fall into oblivion, and the sad history of the human race is bound to repeat. If power remains scattered, the Great Destruction will remain incomplete.' I remember it all to well. It is sad that what was left of her was destroyed when a LC 386 raven was forced to reintegrate our Layered with theirs.
"Our path is set..." he continued, "We have no choice, Kylia. If this mission does not succeed... we have no future."
***
Raven and Kylia took to the skies right after. Their path allowed them to fly over a dense forest area near the Neo-German area. The black forest, as it was once called. There was a Layered city to the left of them... allied, they hoped.
Raven was piloting an old model AC, code named Tallgeese II. A 800 round machine gun, the HALBERD saber, and a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher. Modeled after a famous AC during the war that caused the Great Destruction. Kylia, not as well defended, was piloting a flight-model MT.
Then suddenly there was a burst of orange light coming from the LC. Activity buzzed all over the place like a bee hive.
Raven and Kylia arrived when this happened, and guessed they were about to become the bees first victim.
Raven radioed in as a friendly. There was no reply.
"Raven...?" Kylia questioned with heavy anxiety.
A group of five armored flight MTs came right after Raven. He shot down two with his grenade launcher before the rest flew past him.
Oh, great! A MT was trailing Kylia. She was good at trying to outmaneuver it, but to no avail. The MT hit Kylia's left engine, causing her to wobble a bit, then spin randomly.
It looked like she just gained back control when she disappeared under the tree line. Something tore through Raven's gut like ice when he saw Kylia being shot down, and Raven followed.
The reinforcements retreated, but the three MTs kept trying to kill him. The beat up Tallgeese proved to be his savior; it was still maneuverable enough to pass by the many trees in his way.
A few seconds in the chase, two MTs already hit trees. One still followed.
An energy blast shattered a tree right in front of Raven as they were about to come to a clearing. A few seconds later they passed over a large lake, and moments later we entered back into a thicker forest.
The forest was becoming denser. Harder to veer back and forth to find the gaps that would accommodate Raven's AC. These were really big trees. His pursuer hadn't been able to fire on him in several seconds. That was good, but sooner or later the increasingly difficult terrain would stop protecting him, and would kill him.
Unless... he remembered a tactic I used in a simulator run flying through a city. When he found a safe gap, it was so narrow that his stomach tightened up. It was too narrow, too narrow...but he rolled up to his side and shot through with a quick overboost, the slightly thinner profile of the Tallgeese making the maneuver possible. Raven heard his AC's chest and back gun shred through leaves and branches.
His pursuer tried to stay on his tail, then realized too late that such a tactic was fatal. Raven heard the explosion a mere second after he cleared the gap.
Raven slowly came around. Off in the distance to his right, a section of forest was burning, ignited by his pursuer's detonation.
All right. Sensors showed that the LC forces were west-bound, while a few other MTs to the east broke up in search for Raven.
The encounter was a success, he had a window to break for safety.
No, he couldn't. Not with Kylia still out there. She might not be dead. There had been no explosion when her MT fell into the forest.
By memory, by luck, Raven found the small lake and dropped as swiftly as he dared into the water near shore. Before most of the AC was submerged, my decent was arrested by the lakes muddy floor.
He goosed the boosters, driving him forward, and the water rose. He continued, shoving his AC forward, until everything was submerged, besides the head.
Raven powered down, then manually cranked his access hatch open and clambered out as the cockpit flooded.
He retrieved a very large leaf hanging off the shore, and covered the very top of the muddy AC head with it.
There was a lot of splashing going around in the lake, and he saw a few reptilian being enter the water. Not his problem now.
Then there was nothing but the sound of wildlife, musical tweets he ascribed to some sort of birdlike creatures, coughing grunts he couldn't associate with any animal he knew, splashes that seemed consistent with the Human-sized reptilians he'd seen earlier.
Pistol in hand, he headed for shore.
Raven marked the sensor location of Kylia's crash and compared it with his own landing position. He was certain he could find Kylia's MT. He was certain that he would cut down anything that tried to keep him from reaching Kylia.
Time passed, Kylia's MT had apparently hit the ground in a soft glade, bounced like a rock skipping across the surface of a pond, and crashed into a line of trees. Now it rested, it's port wing crumpled, it's cockpit canted forward, so it's canopy was half-buried in the dirt, against a trio of trees bent almost to the ground, their roots half up in the air. It's engines were now crusted with a foamy substance, probably a fire-extinguishing foam sprayed on by those who had come later.
Now a Kisaragi soldier stood guard on the damaged vehicle, and was engrossed in a conversation with two other soldiers. Two hoverbikes stood beside the fighters intact wing. Hoverbikes... Mishima technology. Made for multiple terrain searches and reconnaissance.
Raven didn't know why, but he could hear what they were saying...
The soldier who was standing guard was the easiest to make out. "See here. Spots of blood. He was crawling here, but we didn't get any units here before now. The MT was grounded at this sight for half an hour, so he or she wasn't crawling for stealth; they were hurt. We have men on hoverbikes now. They say the trail goes a little less than a kilometer and just disappears on stony ground where things get hilly."
The other two troops looked at one another. The first, the taller than the two, said, "Is there any sign of hovercraft dust-up along the trail?"
"Ehh, no. They would have mentioned it. They're assuming he's out there hiding in the hills."
"I don't think so. They would have found more blood. Even if he or she bandaged themselves, they'd be cutting their flesh to pieces on that hard ground...unless they stopped crawling and started walking, which isn't likely. Scanning isn't doing any good?"
"There are a lot of animals in the region, and they're playing havoc with our scanners."
The Kisaragi soldier sighed, testimony to the guards' incompetence, and turned back toward the hoverbikes.
The other one, a female, said, "We'll find him. Then we'll tell your people how it was done." She followed his partner.
The two soldiers mounted their bikes, and shot off while chuckling to themselves.
Raven stood up from behind a bush in their path. His first shot took the right-hand soldier in the chest, sending him tumbling from the back of his vehicle. He traversed left and fired just as the second soldier came abreast of him. Raven's shot took the man in the side of the head and the dead or injured man passed so close to him that he could feel the wash from his AGD (Anti-Gravity Drive) and smell the char from his helmet.
Ahead, the last soldier was raising his rifle's stock to his shoulder. Raven threw himself to the ground, once again partially concealed by the brush, and squeezed off three shots. The first two went wide, with the soldier's return shot charring soil less than a meter from Raven's face, but the third shot took his target in the gut. The soldier let out a moan and fell forward.
There was an explosion from behind Raven. He rolled over and brought his pistol up, but there were no enemies to confront; the second bike had slammed into a tree.
No time to worry about that. Raven hurried to Kylia's MT, clambered up the broken wing, and peered into the cockpit. No sign of Kylia, as the conversation he overheard had suggested, but it would be good to deny the Kisaragi forces any information they might glean from analysis of the MT. Raven fired several shots into the cockpit, and when the control board was fully ablaze, he dropped back to the ground.
Raven went to find the first bike, and he did. Shame was that the main engine was damaged. Shit, he can't repair it with the tools in hand. Oh, well, he mounted the coughing vehicle and set it into motion along the still-distinct trail Kylia left behind.
Distantly, he could hear other hoverbikes, and flipped the bike's comm.: "Trail of blood stops at the hills." "Bravo Dee Seven Four Two, have Kiosei report back." "Grid Two-Four secure. No large life-forms here except us." "Too bad we can't scan for intelligent life-forms, Deis, that would place you out right away." "No personal remarks, Private."
Raven drove the hoverbike through the forest about a kilometer before coming to a shallow river that must have been the one mentioned by the Kisaragi soldier.
Raven saw the trail that headed for the rocky hills, where the forest thinned. It doesn't make sense for Kylia to head for such terrain, where it would be far easier to spot her from above. An aerial MT swooped by, flying slowly enough it had to be on reconnaissance duty. Still, Kylia's trail emerged on the other side of the bank, heading for the hills.
Raven paused, sensing some of Kylia's innate perversity at work. The Kisaragi will have no luck finding an injured pilot who was limited to crawling.
Kylia knew as well as Raven did that a downed pilot who found a river would, under most circumstances, be much better off following it downriver. Settlements tended to be built along rivers.
What if More obvious than ever. What if Kylia had crawled as far as the first batch of terrain that would no longer carry sign of her passage, then had crawled back to the river? It was a sensible strategy. It might throw off her pursuers. It had thrown off her pursuers.
***
A kilometer downriver, Raven felt a blinding flash of pain to the side of his head. He almost fell off the bike. Raven took out his pistol and pointed it at a hand, one pale hand sticking out beyond some grasses, waving.
It was Kylia, sweating, paler than usual, leaning against the bank, her flight suit torn to cool down.
"I'm glad to see you," Kylia said. Her voice was weak, very hoarse.
"So glad you decided to brain me with a rock."
"I can't shout."
"Are you hurt?"
Kylia nodded.
"Badly?"
Another nod. "I'm pretty sure I'm bleeding internally. I don't think I'm going to get much farther."
"You're going to get to the rendezvous"
"What rendezvous?"
"Very funny. Can you ride on the back of the bike?"
Kylia was long in answering, "I think so."
It wasn't easy getting her up; halfway, Kylia let out a bark of pain and curled up into a knot and stayed that way, shuddering, several long moments while Raven held her up. Then, finally, Kylia could uncurl enough to take a normal rider's position. Raven noticed that Kylia begun sweating heavily as soon as she left the cooling water of the river, and it did not stop.
As soon as Raven fired up the engine, it let out a more vigorous cough than ever, shuddered once, then died.
"I take it you bought this used," Kylia said.
***
As Kylia laid down on the bike, Raven was a couple meters ahead dragging the bike by rope.
"This is pretty sweet," Kylia said. "Why don't you peel me some fruit while you're at it?" There was still a rasp of pain in his voice.
"Sure. You kill it, I'll peel it."
"...Raven?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks for coming back for me."
"If you got captured, I'd have to fill out forms."
"Reasonable. By the way, do you have a plan, or is walking in the river pretty much the extent of it?"
"That's the plan. As soon as we reach a settlement, I'll kidnap you a doctor. A nice handsome one."
"Right," Kylia said. Her eyes were now closed. "I'm amazed you could form a plan, let alone find your own backside without help from a spotter satellite. Raven, if I die-"
"You're not going to die."
"Shut up and listen. If I die, you can't let them find me. They'll exploit my death to their benefit."
"You're not going to die."
"Promise me you'll dispose of me!"
Raven shuddered. "I promise. But you're not going to die."
"Of course, how can I die if I'm going to go for a second marriage. Heh... Well, I'll try to hold you to that promise. There's no traffic, yet we're stopped. Why is that?"
"Your fault for hiring an incompetent driver."
"Oh... what's that?" Kylia asked.
I looked back to see where Kylia was staring, then looked strait up.
Above us was a brightly illuminated satellite. "That would be the device that is causing most of the dilemma."
"Ah, nice to have been able to see her before she was all blown up."
Kylia started to pant, and cough, and then stop.
"Are you okay?" Raven asked.
"I was just imagining what a sad world this would be without my superior intellect and general state of wonderfulness."
"That's not something you have to worry about."
"Oh, yes it is!"
"Now you're raving."
"Ah, that's good to know. Hey, we're stopped again..."
A bit later, Kylia said, "There it is again."
The satellite was distant. It drifted by, not caring about the lives and deaths and victories and tragedies of any human. Such a thing had no right to exist. If it took Raven forever, he would see it destroyed along with the rest of it's ancient family.
"Not too intimidating from this far away, is it?" Raven asked.
Kylia did not answer.
"I said, not too intimidating from here, is it?"
Kylia still did not respond.
Raven stood where he was, unwilling to turn and look, to walk back on his cold-numbed legs to confirm what he feared.
But the hoverbike slowly drifted forward until it was beside him.
Kylia's chest did not rise or fall. But her eyes were still open, directed upward, and her expression for once lacking pain, lacking the shields of sarcasm or manufactured self-appreciation was that of a child wondering at the glittering beauty of the stars.
Raven's vision blurred as his own eyes filled with the first tears he'd shed since he was a boy.
***
At dawn, Raven rose from his makeshift camp. He took one last look at the bundle he was leaving behind... ruined bike, and a ruined pilot all beneath the thin thermal blanket he'd retrieved from the bike's cargo... and then headed back to his AC.
Raven had to go fast, but he took a long and lonely time going through the routine power-up checklist. As soon as he left, he turned around and headed for the camp.
Raven couldn't... he just couldn't go through with it. Raven jumped out back for Kylia. He took her, placed her with care in the cockpit. As soon as both of them were secure, he shot off to rendezvous with Roger.
He's a foreigner... Raven had no clue if this would work, but he had to do something!!! Roger MUST know what to do. Raven knew very well that you can't bring a corpse back to life, but... Maybe, maybe she's not completely dead... only mostly dead. Raven knew from experience that there's a big difference between dead-dead, and MOSTLY dead...