Disclaimer: See previous chapters
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Chap. 36
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Ellie looked on as the heat inducer missiles swooped in at her from Black Widow, spreading out everywhere like a net. Or a web... In any case, Phantom flew away, with the missiles in hot pursuit. As she made her getaway, a red light lit up on the side.
Beep, beep…
'His signal…Time to do it.' Reaching for the lower controls, Ellie activated her stealth extension, causing her machine to shimmer electronically and fade out of view. The missiles lost their target and fell away, with Black Widow not outraged that her attack had failed. The Raven within looked around the area. With the stealth up, she would have to use her own vision to fight her opponent. Just one thing.
Phantom was no longer interested in her…
The invisible AC soared around the field, managing to see all the other battles her comrades were locked in. But her concern was her target. And her target came up instantly on the screen, just where he was supposed to be.
Genocide…
The unknown targeted AC was currently targeting a damaged Cloak who began to move away. Genocide locked on, wanting to end her existence in flames. His grenade launcher was set to fire when suddenly he received the lock on warning. He looked back at his retreating opponent. 'How can she lock on? None of her weapons has that kind of range.' The realization soon hit him, as did a swarm of warhead missiles that slammed onto the side. Setting his cannon back, he turned, checking the radar for the new attacker. But no one was showing up. His core was soon pelted with a combination of energy blasts and howitzer shells. But there was nobody… Suddenly, his screen lit up, revealing his attacker.
'How did she get that close?'Cloak's stealth had cut off, revealing her presence. Not that it mattered at this point. Her attack had caught her target completely off guard, damaging his core and the left missile arm and destroying his grenade launcher.
-"You sneaky b…!"-
His remark was cut off by another howitzer shell as Phantom dissected the once destructive Death Dealer
During this time, Black Widow soared in, searching for her stealthy opponent, only to find her attacking Genocide, hitting his left side. She was still in stealth, so Genocide would have trouble finding her and that would cost him. This left the Raven in Black Widow in wonder. Why did she disengage from me just to…?
BLAM! BLAM!
She had failed to notice that she was locked on and soon virtual meteor slammed into her left side, knocking the machine to the side. And before it could recover, a second blast impacted her right after, hurling Black Widow to the ground. Black Widow revives and the Raven is surprised to see that it was Professional that was attacking her. His dual grenade launchers were smoking from firing and they were still set to unleash their fury. Black Widow rose up, but it was slow and the damage had been done. Her missile launcher was gone and the armor was on critical.
'How? How could this have happened?'BLAM! BLAM!
This had been the plan of the Nightwatch clan all along. In order to ensure that they would all be able to enter Silent Line, Charles devised a plan for each Raven. They were to focus on their opponents for a time until they were strategically placed on the field. When the time came, they would instantly disengage from their opponents and bring down their new targets by surprise. Since they were in heated battle, the Death Dealers would be hard pressed, making such an assault a swift victory since most Ravens never disengage during a battle and the Death Dealers were notorious in that fact. It would require a team effort and accurate timing.
Something Nightwatch had trained for since the beginning…
Baron moaned lowly as his signal light came up. The clash of energy beam had shocked him badly and he felt a little shaken by the force. But the alarm was all that had his focus now. Still in cannon pose, he began to turn, not bothering to look at the condition of his opponent, Skull as he sought his new target, which was flying after Professional.
Anubis…
Cannon charging, Baron worked hard to lock on. But the shock was still in his system and he was having difficulty locking on. 'Come on. If I can pilot this thing drunk, then I can do it like this!' He finally straightened the lock and pulled the trigger.
BOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!
The beam on intense energy soared straight and true at its target. Anubis, warned by the lock on, activated his stealth extension, only to find it inoperable. 'What? His shot…He damaged my extension…for this!' Unable to disappear, he was soon smashed to the ground by the linear cannon beam.
"Busted!"
Baron locked on once again as the now-damaged AC sought to rise. Luckily for the Raven, the damage was superficial, although there was a big scorching mark on it. Anubis began to turn and focus his attention on the Raven that had fired on him when another wave soared at him. In panic, Anubis took to the sky, but it was somewhat late and the beam wound up hitting the leg, blowing it clean off. Again, Anubis went down and again, it rose up. Its boosters flared on as the Death Dealer sought escape. But White Wolf would have none of it and began to lock on again.
And that's when his alarm signal lit up…
Beep, beep…
Koemai was clutching his wound when he received the signal. Growling, he looked over at his opponent, who was currently working to recover from the earlier grenade blast. 'Hehe…Uhhh…' Releasing his side, he grasped the controls and went backward, seeking his new target who was the Death Dealer, Skull. He wasn't hard to find. He was still in one spot, cannon posed and locked.
On White Wolf…
As Bloodhand began to race over to his target, he checked up White Wolf's status and found that thing weren't too good. His armor points were 1004, close to critical. And Skull was aiming with a energy cannon that could reduce that in one, maybe two shots. In a rush, Koemai opened fire on the heavy AC, sending machine gun fire down upon him. But he was still a good distance away, and Koemai was having trouble focusing because of the blood loss. And Skull seemed to be ignoring him altogether. All this spelled one thing.
Disaster…
With another moan, Koemai opened his comlink with White Wolf. Initially, they weren't supposed to make verbal contact with each other, in order so that the Death Dealers would not know what they were planning. But the time for that was past, and a friend's life was in danger.
"White Wolf. This is Bloodhand. You're locked on. You have to get out…"
Too late. Skull fired a laser blast that soared across the terrain and hit White Wolf square-on. The AC was now on critical, having on 0502 armor points left. Koemai fell faster, shooting still at Skull, who was still ignoring him and taking the shots. He had to get in close and deal with him. But Skull was already setting up the next shot and White Wolf was still focusing on the distant Anubis.
"Baron! GET YOUR A$$ OUT OF THE WAY NOW!"
The reply he received came back garbled. -"Too late…Gonna….this guy…me…straight to hell!"-
"NO!"
Bloodhand rushes in with insane speed, pressing his own body to the limit and hurting himself in the process. But he had to hurry. He had to reach Skull before…
PHOOOOOOOOSSSHHHHH!
The shots were fired simultaneously. White Wolf fired a stream of energy at Anubis, who had just lifted himself from the floor, as Skull fired his own energy blast. White Wolf's blast hit its target dead on, sending the Anubis to the ground hard and causing its destruction. But Skull's attack hit as well, blasting White Wolf and causing the core to explode from within.
"NOOOOOOOO!"
Bloodhand finally reaches Skull and Koemai didn't stop as he smashed right into the heavyweight. Skull begins to furl his laser cannon, but Bloodhand is already on him. Blade ignited, Koemai hacks right across the machine, creating a massive gash in it and cutting off the cannon. Skull stumbles back, showing that it was more damaged that before, but that didn't stop Bloodhand from coming in again. Skull's energy shield was raised, but Koemai didn't care as he slashed away. The shield deflected the attack, but then Bloodhand brought the blade arm back and opening the hand, he smashed it right into Skull's head, crushing it. The machine fell down from the force, with sparks flying and struggling with a missing head.
Which was not enough for the hand of Vengeance…
Bloodhand moved over the fallen, aimed his machine gun down and fired at point-blank range. The armor was totally useless at this range and the bullets tore through. Koemai screamed aloud as he continued to let loose, even after the machine exploded and the Raven inside most likely dead. It wasn't until his ammo was completely depleted where he stopped, standing over the utterly destroyed Death Dealer.
Then the pain hit and he almost passed out…
BOOOOSSSSHHHHHH!
Beep, beep…
In the mind of Elijah, the two sounds came as one, telling him exactly what to do. Jerking the controls, his machine skipped aside and strafed, following the aftermath of the energy of the cannon in order to move away faster. He had a new target to seek now.
Shoel…
Unfortunately, the battle with Hades had taken its toll on the young Raven's AC. Gone were the machine gun and his EO and his armor had taken quite a beating. But his objective was clear and he set about in doing it. Scanning the area, he soon found his prey whose armor was scorched by Bloodhand's grenade blast. 'He must be hurting real bad if he was fighting Koemai' Elijah thought as Havoc swooped in after him. Switch to missiles, Havoc released a swarm of them upon his new opponent. The missile came in, but at the last moment, Shoel flew back, dodging them outright. Turning to the charging Raven, Shoel fired his rifle, forcing Hovoc to strafe in order to dodge them. This wasn't according to plan, but it was noted that it may happen, that not all of the Death Dealers would be taken by surprise completely. It looks like Elijah would be the unlucky one here.
-"White Wolf. This is Bloodhand. You're locked on. You have to get out…"-
Koemai on transmission? He remembered that they were instructed not to communicate during the battle, so something must be wrong. But the advance of Shoel brought mind back to the current fight as the black AC came in with his laser blade. Havoc backed away as the blade missed and slashed out with his own. With the long reach, his blade should have made contact. However, Shoel used his reverse booster extensions to back out of the blade's range. Now open, Sheol came in with a second slashing attack. But in a surprise maneuver, Elijah brought the blade arm back, catching Shoel's before it made contact and locking on.
-"Baron! GET YOUR A$$ OUT OF THE WAY NOW!"-
-"Too late…Gonna….this guy…me…straight to hell!"-
'What the hell…?' Elijah began to wonder franticly, but it was soon clear in his mind. The lock on alarm went up, showing Elijah that someone was aiming at him. Quickly checking the radar, he saw that it was his previous opponent, Hades, who was locking on to him with his cannon once again.
-"NO!"-
PHOOOOOOOOSSSHHHHH!
The transmission and the cannon fire all became jumbled in Elijah's head, but his instincts where more than ready to take over as Elijah broke the lock just as Hades fired. The laser blast swooped across the field and hit Shoel instead, blasting the core and sending it down in flames. Elijah used this time to check upon the situation, only to find grave news.
White Wolf had just been destroyed…
'Baron…No…!' Unseen to him, Hades had locked on to him once more, flying toward the AC from the side, firing his left-arm missiles. Again, the youth's instinct kicked in as Havoc pulled away from them, dodging all but one, which did some damage to Havoc and caused the machine to pause. Hades soon stopped and began to settle down. But just then, Havoc went off, soaring right at the kneeling machine. The Raven of Hades panicked, accidentally letting out an energy blast that flew harmlessly into the air. The lengthy blade of Havoc flared to life and cut right into the Death Dealer. The blade may have been weaker than most, but it was strong enough to slash off the right arm and tearing right into the head, taking it off as well. The carved AC exploded in flames and fell to the ground, with the rival AC standing over it.
"…Justice…is served…"
Not too far away from him, Cloak ceased in her pre-emptive strike. She was designated to go after Hades, but upon seeing him destroyed as well as Sheol, she ceased in her attack. She was actually quite impressed that Elijah could manage to best two Death Dealers on his own and survive to tell about it.
Not all of them were so lucky…
Speaking of which, Cloak was currently moving over to Bloodhand, who was still and standing over the burned wreckage of White Wolf. Remarkably, the machine itself was still in tact, aside from the debris scattered all over the place. But the core itself was burned, almost beyond recognition, with half the body exposed in the opening of the core.
"Koemai? Are you…?"
"…I'm fine." came a weakened reply. "Just…"
Within, Diana nodded as she looked back at White Wolf. "Are you sure he's…?"
"I checked. It's…" Koemai paused and simply repeated. "I checked…"
Just then, Havoc also made his way over, with Professional and Phantom coming up from behind. Elijah too looked at the burned AC, which contained the corpse of his friend.
"I guess…we won't be able to…share a drink in Silent Line."
Moving closer, Havoc knelt down and Elijah used its finger to dig up a bit of the dirt ground from right underneath White Wolf. Then he lifted the same hand and tore into the core and slowly scooped out Baron's corpse, placing it in the other hand. Then with the hands cupped, he lower back down to the hole he had made, placed the corpse within it, and covered it up with the same dirt that he pushed away. A makeshift grave with his AC acting as its tombstone. Havoc lifted itself back up and saw that the others were all surrounding White Wolf with him.
A union of comrades…and friends….
"Don't worry. I'll make sure to drink up for you."
But then sounds of a distant battle caught his attention and he looked over to see the only battle that was still going on. Glaive and Reaper were fighting each other some distance away. 'Cain.' Elijah took hold of his controls and was about to move when…
"No."
Koemai. Elijah looked over at him and half glared. "Why not? We can't…"
"We can. And we will." This came from Charles and now Elijah began to become incensed.
"Are you serious?" the youth raged. "I'm not going to stand around and lose another friend!"
"This is not your choice." Koemai replied calmly. "That is not your fight. It's his."
Charles then added. "And it is also what he wanted. He would fight Reaper and draw him away from the others so that we can do our job."
Elijah shook with uncertainty. Baron was gone, and from the looks of Glaive, Cain might be next. But the others were right too. They had their mission to complete. And Cain would want to battle with Reaper alone. It is his way. Still…
"You're not planning on coming with us, are you?""There's nothing else to do, but go forward." Koemai continued. When he got no response, he smiled. "Don't worry. I'm sure he'll catch up. He has a way of doing that sometimes."
Elijah simply stared at the distant battle, knowing that he has to do what he has to do. And Cain would do no less. If anything, he had taught him that as such. And Koemai was right too. Cain had a way of surprising them in times of need.
"If we meet up again, I will take up the name of Salvation. See you in Silent Line."
"Okay."
With that, the group of remaining AC marched away, leaving their comrade to whatever fate demanded. Elijah took one last look back and whispered.
"You had better be there."