Phew. Finaly I managed to upload something! Oh dear. I'm sorry it took so long. But… Ideas don't pop out on trees. And then there's the labyrinthine obstacle filled road called life which one can get easily lost in.
Moving on…
I just realized one thing. The Valvrave symbol in the anime was depicted as a Yatagarasu is also a nod to it being an anti vampire weapon. See, in the Japanese folklore, Yatagarasu is a servant of Amaterasu, who is the Japanese Goddess of the Sun. And we all know what the Vampires are weak against. So, Pino is essentially the embodiment of Amaterasu, and Haruto is… well…
In the anime, there's only one real Rave Engine, with the others are powered by what is called Mirror Rave Engine, which drew power from the real Engine. This was yet another allusion to the legend of Amaterasu, where the Goddess hid herself in a cave (Valvrave's chest cavity) from the wrath of Susanoo, plunging the world into darkness. She was then tricked out of hiding when it was proclaimed that there's a new goddess of the Sun, shining just outside the cave. When she came out, she was welcomed by a Goddess… which is actually her reflection in a mirror. She ended up blessing said mirror, making it one of three imperial Regalia of Japan, the Yata no Kagami (Eight Span Mirror) which she then bequeathed to her son, Jingu, the First Emperor of Japan… along with other regalias, the Kusanagi no Tsurugi and the Yasakani Magatama.
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Around 15 minutes before Ground Zero…
The defending militia on the beach of module 217 had dug in a network of trenches. It broke the hearts of those who had called this module home to despoil the beauty of their once pristine beach, but now's hardly the time to worry over such things. The militia had been holed up in that spot for weeks. They eat in the trenches, they sleep in the trenches, they even take a dump there. The area from the beach all the way to the edge of the ocean was a no man's land hell, where every square inch of that land is under the crosshairs of at least a dozen automated sentry with machine guns ready to snipe them down.
The first time they came, funnily enough, or perhaps understandably enough, they didn't drop the usual wipe out all forms of organic life on the surface treatment. Probably it had something to do with the fact this place is a water processing plant… one of the few things humans needed to live in this cold and dark outer space. Fortunately, this module was one of the last few module to be attacked, which means by the time Arus droid forces are gunning for this place manually, they found a region where every resident man and woman strong enough to do so are carrying rail guns and ready to fight the invaders to the death.
With the water and ample supplies, the module was once the center of resistance forces in the region. The influx of refugees provided a supply of manpower which in turn, allows the module to remain at peak operational status, providing the much needed supply of water and other necessities to support a particularly heavy resistance from no less than 7 adjacent modules – and they even began to entertain the thought of retaking lost modules with this foothold. But as the weeks grinds on and on, the casualties mount, they start to pull back. One module after another must be given up, and finally, they're reduced to defend practically only half of their own module. And with supplies thinning and munitions running dry, the enemy massing an entire fleet from the horizon… defeat was all but inevitable.
That all changed about 35 minutes ago when this noise start erupting from their underground HQ. Reports are a bit sketchy, but from what little they can make out, they surmised some kind of a giant droid deathmatch erupting right in their backyard. They know what it means: they've seen the impossibly large laser in the sky, they've seen Arus fleet running scared from the space they no longer control.
New Jior Super Soldiers and their Super robots have come. And… as luck would have it, one of them is right here, in their backyard… fighting against god knows what.
Many commanding officers are split over which direction to take. Many voices to retreat, go back to the base to defend, to fight this thing off, others opted to stay here and wait.
Helena Ironside, a former Jior Drill Instructor is one of few who opted to: "We can't just sit here and wait! Come on!"
Jior Army retired Devon Ironside, Helena's father, is one of those who opted to: "Wait! Wait! We can't just go there! If there's a pair of giant bots slugging it out down there, flesh and blood human wouldn't stand a chance."
The father daughter argument however, was cut short when their radio chattered with new orders and an update on the situation.
"Attention all forces! I'm sounding an all out retreat! The Valvrave and the Enemy has been moved to a different battlefield, they're now fighting at the bottom of the ocean! Right in front of you, on the no man's land!" The authoritative female voice roared. "I have a reasonable intel… that we may be looking at an extinction level event! This is not something you can avoid by ducking down the trenches. I'm sounding a general retreat! All of you, get back in here!"
That order was easier said than done. While a majority of their forces had been recalled back underground, there's still close to 700 soldiers scattered across the surface. To leave to the bunkers, they have to leave the trenches. And then there's the fact that the robot army has been programmed to shoot anything that so much as to pop out a finger. To move 700 soldiers under that condition would be suicide, especially when those 700 include the injured too crippled to move.
But the ocean itself also grew incredibly turbulent as pillars of water erupted on the surface, courtesy of the underwater battle clearly raging underneath. The Arus carriers were rocked and trashed allover the place by the force of the now stormy ocean, at times they even collide with one another or smashed to smithereens against the rocks. At one point, streams of red lasers burst out, dancing around haphazardly, slicing half a dozen ships in half.
This gave the beleaguered militia the chance to actually move out of cover with the risk of being shot had been significantly reduced. Ironside the Sr. immediately sound the order. "Alright! Now's our chance! Grab the wounded and go! Go! GO!" Militias ran out of trenches carrying stretches filled with the wounded whilst the enemy fleet was in complete disarray.
But the enemy is not the kind that would be bothered by this sort of handicap. They're machines. All they have to do was to factor in the sudden turbulence when calculating their targeting vector.
It's a process that should take no less than a couple of seconds.
The blockading droid army began to open fire as soon as they detected the enemy escapees. The Aelves start showering the beach with bullets. It was somewhat accurate in comparison to the previous deadly accurate, which, to be fair, still made leaving the relative safety of the trenches a terrible idea.
That is, until a hatch opened on the sand and another Valvrave sprang out, carrying what appears to be a giant Gatling gun salvaged from a Dorssian Waffe and Dvergr cobbled up together in a hurry. The Valvrave yanked some of the loose wirings, and somehow, it managed to instruct the cannibalized ramshackle weapon to start open fire at the droid, providing the militia with the much needed covering fire.
"GO!" The white and crimson giant roared in a distinctly feminine voice. "Get out of here! GO!"
The grateful militia didn't have the chance to say their thanks, they proceed with the evacuation whilst the red giant loom overhead. Helena was carrying another one of the wounded when a hatch opened and Spike welcomed her as he totted a shotgun whilst screaming: "OVER HERE! HURRY!" Helena and her crew facilitate the evacuation of the injured first. But here's the complication: the elevator is small. At the most, they can only bring down 40 people at a time. And time is not on their side. If the increasing level of turbulence of the ocean was any indication, it's like the battle is getting worse and worse for anyone human.
The militia prioritizes the gravely wounded and the virtually healthy ones firsts. The former because they clearly need an immediate medical attention, the latter because this war will need every able body they have. This, in Ironside the Sr.'s opinion, would include his daughter. "Helena! You get in there!"
"Father? NO! My men are still-! And you're-!"
"They'll be on the next batch! As will I! NOW GO!" He shoved Helena to Spike and gave him a go ahead with a nod. Spike grasped Helena and yanked her back into the elevator already stuffed to the brim. Unfortunately, just as the elevator door was about to close, it happened.
First, a gigantic mushroom cloud explosion of steam erupted from the ocean… then the ocean parted as a sun literally rose from its depth. All activity momentarily stopped as everyone looked and beheld the brilliance of a Sun's radiance…
Those who are too captivated by its beauty did not understand the danger it entails.
The Ironside Father Daughter knew well enough what it meant.
Helena immediately screeched: "DA~AAD!" Spike instinctively grabbed the hysterical woman before she can jump out of the elevator. Fortunately, the elevator door also closed in, just in time for its occupants to see a glimpse of the miniature sun's prominence consuming everything in a firestorm, including Ironside Sr.'s last smile to his daughter.
There were roughly 300 militias still left on the beach when the Valvrave triggered its Prominence.
15 minutes after the Prominence event…
The elevator door opened again, its occupants, wearing protective gear on the level of space suits, winced as they were welcomed by a massive wave of scorched air. Even through the masker, the stench of burnt corpse stabbed their nose nonetheless. Their once beautiful white beach is now a world of grey ashes and glassed sands. Palm trees scorched to stumps, buildings burnt to cinders floating about the air, and charred patches marks the place where people once stood before they were vaporized outright by the heat. The lucky ones, particularly those who were still inside the trenches, were 'only' roasted alive and they still maintain their human shape, but the ash composed bodies crumbled as soon as anyone looked upon them. The final state of their bodily stances indicated they didn't even see the flame coming.
And then, the Militia sensed movement, all eyes turned to see the white and red giant looked at them with its neon green visored eyes. The ramshackle equipment she once bear had melted away, her bodies are charred black by the flame, but it somehow managed to remained largely intact. Behind her are a series of human statues made of ash. She had stood her ground, trying, and failing, to shield as many as she could from the fire with her body. It didn't say anything, but it merely stood sentinel over this field of tragedy.
And then, amidst this fog of ash, smoke and steam, they all saw another giant. It was almost identical to the first one with the exception it was clearly larger, stronger, with black and red coloration and two vast wings protruding from its back. It currently knelt on the beach of ashes. Its neon green crown did not lit up, a sign its pilot was not on board.
Spike fearlessly rushed towards the kneeling giant while most decided to give it a wide berth. As he approached, he found the Valvrave vacant cockpit hatch was opened up. Now he looked around the nearby smoking vicinity, and sure enough he saw a red armored figure in the midst of ashen field.
The red figure is plowing through the ash, as if desperately searching for something. When Spike get to him, he winced. The air temperature here is currently scorching hot. Hot enough to scorch an unprotected human alive.
Apart from his scalding hot armor, Haruto lost his helmet during the battle, so his face was completely exposed to the harmful elements of the atmosphere. Spike can see his facial skin scorched and cracked with brimming fire searing from within. His burnt crisp skin flaked away piece by piece… and yet at the same time, the burnt skin is also rebuilding itself as fast as it is burned away. It is more surreal than impressive, yet the owner of said face didn't seem to care. He just continued to dig and dig into the ashen field.
The boy's expression was flat and emotionless, but his eyes were empty like a man possessed. He kept digging the field of ashes with his bare hands until even his pilot suit began to flake away. But he just completely ignored everything. Including the fact his well meaning intention is ultimately futile. Forget the nauseating sight of constant regeneration and destruction for the moment, for Spike this is just too painful to watch.
Spike grabbed Haruto's shoulder. "…Haruto…"
And he finally stopped. And he just lay there on his knees, stupefied and melancholic. Spike approached him and knelt down to look at him the eye. That was when Spike finally noticed the more drastic changes. Haruto's right eye had turned permanent red, standing out in contrast with his left blue eye, his original eye color.
"…are you alright?"
"…" Haruto merely nodded.
"Come on. There's nothing more you can do." He finally helped the boy up.
Haruto stood up and saw a group of militia in space suits, and the overlooking Kagerou waits in the distance.
Chapter 17
War on All Fronts
In the middle of nowhere…
Two perfectly identical beings are staring at each other, face to face.
"Regnant International… now that's a name I never thought I'd hear again."
"You still feel raw about it, after all these years. You may not look like it Cain, but you really know how to hold a grudge."
No. Not perfectly identical… on one side, the man had one of his eyes missing, on the other, the scar was inexistent. Otherwise, the two was a mirror image of each other.
"If you're angry about that eye, I told you I can just heal it in a blink of an eye-"
"It's not about the eye." Cain grunted. "He can take both of my eyes and I couldn't care less."
"…Arizona wasn't your fault." Attlach scoffed.
"Which part? The part where I let my feud with him consumed me that his girls can decimate my forces, or the part where all the sacrifice came to naught in the end because he still sent us running anyway?"
"And don't forget the part he actually mortally wound you by putting a bullet in that eye. Another inch and he would've ripped your precious brain apart and instead of a perfect host, I thought I'll be getting a zombie – so I'm pretty pissed too. We've known each other for years, Cain, I never take you as an individual who would whine over the past."
"…" Cain sighed. "It's not about my pride. Hang my pride. It's what primarily caused that defeat."
"Remember what you said to me the day we first merged, 10 years ago?"
"Like it was yesterday."
"I offered to not only save your life, but also immortality and strength beyond mortal ken… you accepted all that… with the exception of this eye." Attlach pointed at Cain's eyepatch. "Remember our conversation? I shut down all the pain receptor in your body except that eye as per your request. When I asked don't you feel pain, you said-"
"It's very painful. Then you asked why would I want to keep feeling the pain and I answered-"
"Because I learn through pain. It lets me know that there's still so much I need to know." Attlach nodded. "Now. Have you learned?"
"Right now …I would say enough, you would say not quite. But in truth, we will never be ready."
Attlach sighed as he shook his head. So he still won't let that go.
"You know… I always wondered. Why did you let me exist this long? I'm the 0.2 percent remainder from you to gain complete control. Why?"
"…do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone of your caliber to have an intelligent conversation with in this primitive ball of dirt? Do try not to screw up this time."
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"Regnant International. Established a few short years before the Arizona Disaster. At that time, it was… a pretty young mercenary company." Cain began his debriefing in the earnest. "After Arizona it quickly rose up into one of the most prominent PMCs in the market. They have become the bygone word for Anti Dorssia specialist. Their services are sought out by any country that can afford their ever increasing prices. Throughout various contracts they've accomplished, they've established various ties and connections with multiple international mega corporations, amassing enough asset, both financial and military, to rival any third world country military strength level by numbers alone. But that was quantitatively speaking. Qualitatively, while they are essentially numerically inferior to any Super Power nation like Dorssia and Arus, their army are so well equipped and trained it made their combat potential strong enough to give even the aforementioned Super Power nations second thoughts, discounting the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, their entire personnel is composed entirely of women… with the exception of their founder."
"Why woman?" Raizo raised a hand. "Is he trying to make up for something?"
"Women had been scientifically proven to be somewhat more superior than men in quite a few ways. They're better at multitasking, they work well under pressure, and… well… apart from their lack of physical strength and masculine savagery, both of which are a must to work in the military business. But as we all know that weakness is not insurmountable. Then again maybe it was his personal taste. It's irrelevant."
All male in the room was suppressed by this sense of inferiority.
Ignoring it, Cain continued. "Dorssia never once hired their services, but we do recognize the threat they pose to our military, and so we kept a close watch over their most prominent members and chief lieutenants."
Cain turned on the slideshow, revealing the profiles of each member of the Regnant Internationals that bears watching. That Dorssia knew off. Reading their profiles, everyone was immediately chilled to the bone. Just by reading at their IQs alone was enough to give them pause: not one of them had IQ lower than 180 (AN: as an illustration, Einstein was 'only' 160). They all spoke 8 languages, multiple black belts in multiple martial arts, some were former military with the highest kill count in modern military history, others are just civilians with unique skills beyond normal human norm. A-Drei and X-Eins nodded in recognition on some of the officers of the PMC, having had the opportunity of encountering some of them in battle. Raizo didn't recognize any of these faces, but he immediately focused on the only male in the group. "This is the leader? He doesn't look any older than Haruto-aniki!" The face in question was indeed that of a blue eyed teenager with somewhat messy hair that had been shoddily dyed red, what's with patches of his blond hair still sprouting out here and there.
"To note, that picture is over 10 years old." Cain explained. "And yes, he was only around 16 when we first managed to capture that picture. So I imagine a lot of things would've changed by now."
But the issue is not in the character's age. It's in its lack of data: All they have is a face and known aliases: Mr. Red, Mr. Crimson, Sir Vermillion, Captain Scarlet, Mr. Cardinal, all the colors associated with red. And that's it. No known exact age, no finger print, not even dental profile. A true enigma in every sense of the word. The only thing that can be considered as fact, was the number of operations he had allegedly took part in.
"How come we know so little about him?"
"Because after Arizona there was no real contact." Cain shrugged. "The man had constructed to himself a network of proxies and double agents. Many of which didn't even know that they were receiving orders from him. That is not to say he never get his hands dirty. There were clues and signs that denote he may have actually directly participated in some of his operations, apparently by going about one of his many aliases, posing as a normal mercenary. People only knew that it was him at the end of the operation, after he disappeared, he always left behind his signature." Cain flipped a picture: a small red rose. "Scarlet Carson. Nowadays it's an incredibly rare rose flower. Following this trail, there has been reported of his involvement in various warzone from Earth to Dyson Spheres across the Sol system. But as I mentioned before… very rarely did we get a direct contact. For me… this has been a cat and mouse game that has been going on for 10 years. Until now."
The Dorssian agents, especially X-Eins frowned in unease. So… this confrontation was something their mentor wanted badly for years. For a moment, they realized this is no longer Attlach speaking… this is Cain Dressel. Their long lost teacher had returned at last.
Yusuke snapped to attention on one of the Regnant's Chief agents: "Wait… this girl! I know her don't I?"
Cain immediately snapped to Yusuke. He immediately enlarged the girl's picture for a clearer view. The name written was her alias: Ms. Blue. Mrs. Azure. Lady Cyan. Etc… the woman was of Asian descent. Clearly Japanese. "She's one of the newest member of the team recruited very recently… You know her?"
"It's a bit difficult because she was wearing that military suit… but yeah. I know her." Yusuke start fiddling with his smartphone. "We know her as Aoi Yoshihito! Lead Singer of the rock girl band Blue Ring. She came right after Saki-chan retired!" Yusuke showcased the music video of Mrs. Blue singing with her band. A-Drei, X-Eins and Cain bent their heads down so that they can get a clearer look. And that's her. "Uwah… Saki-chan is amazing but Aoi-chan is just as cute…" Yusuke dreamily enjoyed her song.
Cain was hardly impressed by that though. "Well, right now, she's among one of the top ten most wanted war criminals in Dorssia."
"…seriously?" Yusuke's fanboy look flat out disappeared.
"I don't care much about her idol work… but our boys in the trenches call her miss Thraxx, Dirty Mary, Toxirella, or lady Boom. Chemical warfare, explosives, dirty bombs, gas attacks… these are her specialties. Her telltale signatures lie in the fact that all her chemical bombs are homemade, using over the counter substances, which means it could be bought by anyone, making it VERY hard to trace. What makes her even more horrifying, is that her chemical concoction often times also take into account of our countermeasures. For example, when we tried to counter her toxin using our own home brewed antidote, and a few days later, she comes up with a new and improved version of the recipe, one that took into account of our countermeasures by making her own chemical even deadlier through artistically calculated chemical reaction with OUR OWN antidote."
"There was a time we even thought to capture her alive." X-eins sorrowfully noted. "…but at some point her danger easily outweighs her worth. So we declared shoot on sight."
"How is it a chemical prodigy can become a pop idol at the same time?" Yusuke failed to see the connection, as do most people.
"You tell me sir. As an avid fan of her I was hoping you would know more, Yusuke Otamaya." Cain also felt remiss. Dorssian Intel division combed Heaven and Earth to look for the identity of this girl, they never once looked at the social media of the fanboy base.
"Don't look at me. I'm more of the nerd rather than the fanboy type. Not a very avid one either… but I did hear something about this incident about her… that thing about running afoul with an octopus?"
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As Red watched the pile of flesh that was all that remained of Mrs. Blue is being dragged on a gurney to the intensive care, he knew well enough that no amount of intensive plastic surgery, no matter how advanced, can fix this kind of mess. Fourth degree burns on over 40% of her body, third on the rest. The cybernetic implants in her body are the only reason she's still alive and even that was just barely. This is on the level far beyond that mass amount of Blue Ring Octopus poison on her bloodstream.
"Red…"
"Our strategy must change." Red immediately spoke up, cutting the first speaker mid sentence. "We can no longer afford to tackle the Valvrave one on one. Recall ALL Relay Queens back."
"If we do that, our armies-"
"Our concern right now-" Red's voice trembled with barely controlled fury. "-is no longer about total control of this Sphere, but to hold our position!" Red looked furiously at the speaker, his employer: "They came here. Straight here. They didn't even worry about their base in Luna, they came to this distant Dyson Sphere, completely ignoring Earth that is right in their backyard. You wanted to take total control of the entire Dyson Sphere and then used all of its resources to maximize your defense, but you miscalculated. Not only they wiped out our space fleet wholesale in a matter of hours, your ploy in inciting those riots failed to cripple their military infrastructure in the long run, you've also made them so angry, they came here far sooner than you had predicted and caught us completely off guard with our pants down!"
"…"
"Here's what's going to happen if we continue like this: gaining momentum, the New Jior superbots will go on a hunt. They'll join forces with the resistance, and then they will track and destroy our Relay Queens one by one, maybe even ganging up on us one at a time and once that was over with, they'll go straight to the Server Queens. They've already destroyed one anyway, and if they're smart, they'll start noticing the system in which you control your robo army. Sure, we'll put up a fight, maybe putting a dent or two along the way. But then, even if we can overwhelm them with sheer military skills and number, the Hybrids will then pull off some… super magical powers from Bram Stoker or P.H. Lovecraft to completely turn the tide and quite possibly wipe us out." Red looked angrily at his client. "What I saw down there… is an enemy that is already beyond logic. That's an army of literal gods in the flesh. Rampaging in our backyard! Rampaging. The word that is associated with rage. They're angry. I saw the training, the power, the ferocity… but most of all, I saw the motivation. The determination. They have a cause. A reason. A strong belief that what they're doing is right. We call it casus belli. And it's more than just a grudge."
Red finally slammed his hand at the employer's throat. "One of my girls nearly died for me to understand that fact. So you better start telling me the truth. What the fuck did you do to them!? What the HELL DID YOU TAKE!?"
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All was quiet when Spike brought Haruto and his Valvrave down the elevator. When he came down from his mech, everyone was quiet. Thankfully, by that point, all of Haruto's burnt scars had healed. But the changes in his eye, further driving one fact into the minds of the onlooking masses: This guy… is not human.
No one dared to stand in his way as Haruto thoughtlessly made his way forward with Spike following closely behind him.
"PAPA!" The eerie silence was broken only when the innocent and rightfully oblivious Alice ran and hugged her father's slumping figure. "Papa! Papa! Did you beat the bid bad mermaid?"
Haruto winced. Had this happened on a more cheerful situation, he might actually smile sincerely. Logic dictates of course that Alice was practically innocent. She didn't understand that the current situation is neither the right time nor the place to speak such thing. But he had to at least respond her innocent kindness properly. So he forced himself a smile. "Yes, Alice. Papa won." He patted her hair, and Alice chuckled happily, enjoying her father's gift.
"Papa! Alice stayed by aunt Marie's side the whole time! Just like you said! Is Alice a good girl?"
Haruto's smile was quite forced this time. "Yes, Alice. You've been a good girl."
"Papa, your face looks funny." Even Alice noticed it.
Haruto sighed. Just so it happens, Haruto noticed a few grim faced militias are glaring at him meaningfully. "Alice… why don't you go back to Aunt Marie's for a bit? Papa has some things to attend to. I'll come and pick you up later, ok?"
"Okay." Alice obediently nodded and went to Marie.
"…" Haruto looked on to the grim faced Helena Ironside. She looked like she was one breath away from shooting him in the face, and Haruto couldn't care less even if she did.
"My superior demands-" She swallowed a gulp for a bit before she rephrased it: "-request an audience with you, Mr. Tokishima."
Haruto merely nodded.
She didn't say another word, but she step aside and make way for Haruto towards the stairs. Haruto walked past her, and Spike immediately followed and specifically placed himself between Haruto's back… and this entourage of very tense militia following them both closely from behind. Spike seemed concerned that some of the Militia might be trying to stab Haruto in the back or something.
Fortunately, they were too afraid to even say, much less do, anything apart from quaking in their boots. As they walked, Haruto took the opportunity to whisper a few things on Spike's ears, he didn't say anything, but he gave Haruto a knowing wink, something that didn't escape Helena's notice.
After a climb through the spiraling stairs, they reached a single solitary door guarded by some militia sitting on the ground, weapons in hand. That was when, for some inexplicable reason, Spike suddenly lost his nerve.
He stopped while everyone wishes to progress. Haruto looked back questioningly: "…Spike? Something wrong?"
"Um… Umm… eh… I just realized I-" Before he can find his excuse though, the door suddenly sprang open and a woman walked out with a very stern glare plastered on her face. She's a woman in her early thirties, with her rich blonde hair cut short to just neck length, her glasses further emphasizing her professional look, and she's wearing a modified Arus military green suit. "Spike Springfield, you get your ass in here as well, right this instant!" She snapped. Haruto immediately recognized that voice as the lady behind the speaker. Haruto also noticed how Spike was clearly scared shitless of her. For some reason.
She turned to Haruto, and her fierce gaze mellowed somewhat to a more benign but unflinchingly firm look. "…Tokishima Haruto… the first of the New JIOR Super Soldier."
"…and you are?"
"Miranda… Miranda Kelley." She politely offered a handshake. "…former secretary of the Finance Minister… now… I'm just the interim commander of this joint."
"…may I call you Kelley-san?" Haruto politely accept the offer.
Miranda merely nodded. "Come."
Haruto had expected he'll arrive on an icy reception of the militia's commanding officers. Haruto endured the same thing when his friends first found out what he had become.
So… it is quite natural that he would be shocked speechless when this welcomes him.
A dinner table all set and ready for a candle light dinner, complete with all the high class dining utensils and awaiting butlers all around, ready to serve the meal in silver plates.
This is something he would love to take Saki to.
Just not on this occasion, and certainly not in this circumstances.
Still… he immediately felt the steely glare of a late aged but stern man sitting at the head of the dining table, with another couple sitting on one side. There were many other guests encircling the chilly dining table, but the old man and the couple stand out for being the only ones on the group that are smartly dressed. The rest were shodily dressed with salvaged officer uniform or the closest thing they can manage to resemble one. The atmosphere surrounding them is as chilly as can be expected. Enough to shake off Haruto's shock over the out of place furniture. Still, the old man stood out among his peers for other reasons beyond his attire. It was this strength and charisma emanating from his glare. His white hair denote his age, but done nothing to diminish his stature The same can be said, albeit to a lesser degree, to the couple accompanying this man. But… the male had a familiar red hair he inherited from his patriarch, and the female had a familiar blond hair.
Then again, Haruto already knew who they were. He just didn't expect to see them here.
"Thank you for joining us in such a short notice, Tokishima Haruto." The elderly man started without wasting a breath. "I'm Renbokuji Kitami. A member of Jior's Diet."
That's right. Renbokuji Kitami. Shashinami Ryuuji's deputy prime minister. And… in case the clues given by the couple seated next to him haven't given it away, he is the grandfather of the Renbokuji siblings.
Haruto has always been, and still is, Shoko's childhood friend. When you have the daughter of the Prime Minister as your best friend, it is only natural that you would inadvertently encounter some member of the Prime Minister's cabinet. And while Haruto was never one to much care about politics, his frequency of encounter with a fraction of Shashinami Family's work would mean he had to pick up a thing or two. Haruto had encountered Mr. Renbokuji the senior many times in the past. Not enough for them to be best friends… but enough to know the icy relationship the man had with Shoko's father and his family.
There was a time when Haruto believed he'll never be in talking terms with the elder Renbokuji, but now… When this whole human experimentation ordeal going on, the first thing they uncovered was the head of the web of conspiracy that had jumpstarted this event. And when that head happens to be the head of nations, you can bet your ass a lot of top brass will be involved in it as well.
And he's in deep.
'…this is going to end badly.' Haruto had that one thought crossing his mind as he took his prepared seat on the opposite side of the table. The waiters immediately placed the food and drinks on the table. And Haruto easily noticed how the plates clattered as they placed them before him with trembling hands. They were almost too happy to immediately get away from the Valvrave pilot. Pity those assigned to tend to him. However, neither side even so much as to take a whiff of the excellent dishes prepared before them.
"I suppose for the moment, a thank you for your help is in order." Kitami started.
"You're gonna say 'thank you'!? After what he did!?" Mr. Renbokuji growled.
"What else should I say?" Renbokuji the Senior retorted. "Consider the alternative. A moment ago, we were on the verge of being slaughtered to the last man, and now, thanks to him, we're still alive to talk about it and we still have a chance to turn this around."
The grumbling couple was silenced.
Haruto noted how Renbokuji the Sr. is clearly trying to avoid mentioning about their losses. Very wise. "The situation is nevertheless remained quite bleak. So, I won't beat around the bush and get straight to the point." He looked straight at Haruto: "What are you going to do from here on out?"
Haruto shrugged, and momentarily glanced at Spike and nodded. "I made a… deal… with Spike. I promised I'll help him take back the Module, and in return…" Haruto took a deep breath. "…he'll provide me with sustenance until that mission is complete."
"…? Sustenance?"
"In case you haven't noticed, he's a vampire." Spike pointed at Haruto's fangs, and then jerked his thumb to himself. "And I'm his official blood bag." And he grinned wide all the while.
Miranda's complexion paled at that petty explanation. "H… How much do you… need… Exactly?"
"That's relative." Haruto shrugged. "Back then in Lunabase, for one Magius feeding on one or two was more than enough to keep us going for a month. There was that one time I binge eat when I butchered an entire ship, and I can go on for months without an episode… but… when I go to battle… when we fight… the amount we spent increase drastically." Haruto frowned. "In our base, we also have… some… artificial derivative that we've used to stave off our hunger for quite a while. Before I came here, I stockpiled. I must've drunk enough to… supposedly, let me last a full year without feeding anyone… but… the intensity of the battles I've encountered here is… far worse than I had predicted. I'm using up months worth of rune supplies in a matter of hours."
"…lock him up."
One of the officers suddenly spoke up. His expression was that of utter dread and horror that had consumed even his rational logic. He was not alone in his terror, everyone on the table was also came to the realization that they have invited what is essentially a monster in human form right in their midst. "I want him locked up! Him and his companions!"
"You have any vacant triple maximum level security prison lying around?" Haruto asked, and the table turned speechless. "I know EXACTLY how you feel. Point in fact, I was planning to put myself in a prison… but… then I realized… unless you have a confinement that can at least match that sort of standards, even throwing away the key is useless. Any prison made by men can barely hold me back…" Haruto further added: "…And to note: back then, I was nowhere near as powerful as I am today."
Everyone was speechless. "So… what are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I'm here to help. But I'm going to do so on my terms. Whether you guys like it or not… is not my concern."
Spike winced while the board of officers was fuming. Everyone except the steadily cool headed Miranda and Renbokuji Kitami.
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Meanwhile…
"Say what now?" Alia gawked.
"Exactly as I said. I think it's imperative that we split up." Cain explained. "A Valvrave is best operated as a separate tactical unit, an autonomous task force split away from the larger military body. A war machine powered by Runes is not exactly very environmental friendly, as you yourself can attest. I think it is in everyone's best interest that the Valvrave units, specifically the original units, should operate away from flesh and blood soldiers. As in… conventional armies such as your… resistance forces."
"I don't think my superiors gonna like this…"
"Young lady, if I may, allow me to run you through the proceedings as I think they will unfold if we took the long way around to report to them first. They'll start with trying to place themselves in a position of strength. Maybe bragging on and on about how long they've defended what little they have left… even though defeat is the only thing they have to show for it."
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"If you wish to win this war, there has to be a realistic strategy. Strategy means leadership and command. The Resistance may look like a rag tag band of mischief to you, but I have you know, we were one of the strongest cells of resistance in this sector, commanding war on 6 Modules!"
"Now you're reduced to defending less than one. You guys must be really good at your job." Haruto shut the first detractor with that.
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"Next, they'll continue by pointing out their own qualifications… which mostly likely include whatever military ranks they once hold on what is essentially a defunct army."
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"Show some respect boy. I was once a captain of Jior Homeland security!" Another detractor raised his voice.
"Uh-huh? Well, if you haven't suck on your job so bad, Dorssian infiltrators would never get into our module in the first place and New Jior… I… we… the Novus Magius would've never been born. So, thanksies?"
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"Now this is where it gets a little bit slippery. They'll next point out about how under-qualified we are. They'll even have a better example by citing the massive collateral damage we've inflicted on their home. Probably ignoring the fact the enemy would've done far worse if they had their way. This can either be true or false, depending on the situation. But two things will either happen here: some of the more hot tempered among you will had enough and invite them to a punch out…" Raizo winced. "…or, the more timid of you will immediately cave in to their demands out of guilt." Yusuke winced. "Either way will not end well for everyone involved."
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"You talk all well and good boy, but your actions itself are far from laudable!" Finally, one of the couple starts talking. The red haired man stood up to make his point: "Your callous brawl had caused massive destruction and intolerable death toll! You're out of control, sir. Do you deny this?"
"Have you ever been to a war, sir? In a firefight? Do you ever feel an overabundance of control?"
"Ask that question to over 300 poor souls you burned to death in that beach."
"What would you prefer sir? Me trying to help the best I can… or should I just stand aside and let those machines tore you apart limb by limb because, if you're asking for the latter, I'd be more than happy to oblige."
"…excuse me?" It took a while for everyone in the council to realize what was wrong with that statement.
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"…what should we do then?"
"…third option: ignore it all. Very politely and very gently tell them to fuck off." Alia choked. "We're here for our own reasons. Tell them we don't have time for their political bullshit. Tell them, they can either accept our help and coordinate with us and we MAY be victorious… or get in our way and we'll wipe you out along with them."
Alia paled upon hearing Cain's ice cold offer. "You can't do that!"
"I'm afraid we can. And we are well within our rights to do so. We're not here for you, my dear. We have our own agendas and… well… it's not to help you. You did not ask for our help, and we didn't even know you're here."
"We're citizens of Jior. We're your own people!" Alia turned to Yusuke and Raizo, hoping for support. Her blood runs cold when she noticed their now grim visage. "…aren't we?"
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"Before we came here… when we're still living in our module 77, where we found out about all manner of shit that was experimented on us, we… did a little data digging. Among the many files we unburied, one really struck us hard. A soft copy of letters of consent. That's the paper that had condemned every single student of the Sakimori High to the inhuman experiments that turned us into this. Word per word in those forms stipulated that we volunteered with sound mind and body, fully agreeing to commit to the process. Except that… we didn't see any of our signatures on those blasted agreement paper. Care to guess whose signatures we found?"
The couple suddenly paled, and the man sat back on his chair.
Haruto grunted: "The worst part about what has been done to us is not the fact we're not human anymore, No… the problem is the fact that… our parents consent to it. They signed the agreement, FULLY aware what they'll turn us into and what they'll use us for. The agreement clearly stated we might die or worse in the process but they either didn't read it right or didn't care."
"What's your point, Mr. Tokishima?"
"We're the outcasts. You people cast us out. You deemed us expendable so you just toss us away. JIOR. Arus. Dorssia. Magius. From our perspective you're all one and the same. Stuck up jerks sitting on your high horse with silver spoon up your ass and turn plebs like us into cannon fodder. None of you see us as humans, just weapons. And now you need our help… what makes you think you had the right to demand anything of us? We couldn't care less if we kill a thousand of you if it accomplish our mission. So can you all please just stop getting in our way, or better yet just drop dead already?"
The whole room froze speechless in terror.
But then, Haruto snorted and chuckled. "I'm sorry. That was very callous. Too callous. That wasn't me, by the way." Considering how angry his tone gets earlier, few believed it. Haruto raised his hands. "That was me, speaking on behalf of… well… the mindset of MOST of the students of the Sakimori High - which composed the MAJORITY of the army we sent here."
For obvious reasons, that didn't improve the situation by even a bit.
"Note: we really don't want to see this sphere destroyed. But please do understand that sentiment is certainly not because we really care about what will happen to the rest of you. I agree to work with you out of my good will with Spike. But New JIOR will NEVER work FOR any of you. Do take note of the difference."
Haruto stopped there before the speechless council. He made his point VERY clear.
The enemy of my enemy is not my friend.
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"We've given you our word. We will help you. We'll strategically cooperate with you and beat back Arus together, we'll help you retake the Sphere. But our primary mission comes first. And after that… we'll leave. Whatever becomes of the future of this country in the aftermath… is not our concern."
"…b… but…"
"Alia, Colonel Cain's right." Eliza suddenly chose that time to join in. "From jurisdictional stand point, we never did formally asked the New Jior to help us. That they came here and suddenly became embroiled in our struggle was pure coincidence. Nothing more. As such, politically speaking, we have absolutely no rights to demand their cooperation." Eliza quickly added: "And yet, the reverse is also true. By rights, you guys are no more different than Arus or Dorssia that came before. You're all foreign invaders. We are well within our rights to deny you assistance and even sent you away." Eliza growled. But in response, Cain smiled mischievously, and the political savvy Eliza knew perfectly well why. "…but… that's not going to work either, will it?"
"When Dorssia tore Jior's government apart, we were… very thorough." Cain smirked. "Once we have Prime Minister Shashinami Ryuuji in custody, we announced to the international community that the country of Jior no longer existed."
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"Of course, after that, we managed to rescue him, and he had made several public appearances as Shouko's vice prime minister… point in fact, he's up there right now." Haruto pointed his finger to the sky. He can already see Kitami's eyebrows rose. "He's with the fleet. And if my communications are working, I'll even let you lot talk to him. And he'll tell you… that while he's still alive and kicking, he never once released any public statement that refute Dorssia's claim of Jior's dissolution. So point in fact, this whole planetoid is not even Jior anymore. It's just a gigantic planet sized no man's land under Arus occupation. Which also means, you guys had no right whatsoever to deny us entry or even send us away." Haruto then added.
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"A lot of political parties survived Arus attack. When this war is over there will be a great vacuum of power which many of those thoughtless politicians will try to fill. They'll unite now, in the face of the common enemy. But nearing the end… those pompous douchebags will try to use you for their own benefit and then bite you kids in the back faster than you can say 'asshole'."
"We're here for one very simple reason." Yusuke followed. "We're here to help Haruto's cause. So please leave politics out of this. We're military personnel, not a god damn propaganda machine. Let's keep it that way, okay?"
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"Are you quite finished yet?" Finally, Renbokuji Kitami spoke up for the first time throughout the debate. The table was immediately silenced. "…I'm talking to you all. Are you idiots are quite finished measuring dicks?"
And everyone soon realized the old man was not reprimanding Haruto, he was reprimanding everyone else. But when this man start talking, everyone had no choice but to hold their tongue.
Kitami glared them all into silence. And then he looked at Haruto, his mind filled with calculations and trains of thoughts. Once he completed his mind storming, he immediately started with: "I was the one who issued those letters. I was the one who tasked the agents who picked up the children that will be transformed into… you. That includes all your friends, your wife included. Do you expect an apology note or will you, for ease's sake, just swing it?" He just went and offered up his neck outright to the executioner.
Haruto sighed. What good will that do him? Besides, if he wants punishment, he had something crueler in mind. "…there's no… subtle way to put this. So I'll be blunt: Your grandson… Satomi… is dead."
"Ohh!" There's a loud crashing when Mrs. Renbokuji collapsed off her chair, shocked into unconsciousness by the news of her son's death.
"…I see." There's barely a twitch in the old man's fierce gaze, but he sighed nonetheless. And then his firm glare returned in full force. "If you all are quite done and realize just how impotent your frenzy fueled rage is, do kindly leave us both alone. I'm about to talk about the fate of the world with this young man in private. Yes, you too, son."
In less than a minute, all chairs bar the remaining two were emptied. The last to leave were the Renbokuji couple, the husband had to carry his sobbing wife while glaring at Haruto all the while, hatred evident.
"…to be fair… it was I who convinced them to volunteer Satomi and Akira into the program." Kitami started as soon as his son's back disappeared through the door.
"Was it worth it?" Haruto asked. "Was it worth risking your grandchildren's life?"
"I'm old. This wrinkled body of mine will soon desist. You no longer had to worry about that sort of thing now, do you?" Kitami shrugged. "Now, don't get me wrong. I don't envy you, nor do I desire it. But… humanity had finally reached… another milestone. From cavemen who does everything by hand, the first milestone was when we invented tools to help us. When we became sick the next milestone was when we learned how to cook and how to create medicine. We learned how to build, how to socialize and organize… each of this milestone leapfrog humanity's progress. Then we entered the great space age, where we learn how to built manmade planets… we leapfrog yet again… and now… there's you."
"…"
"When I saw this project for the first time, I thought this is a milestone in which humanity finally learned how to defeat the greatest of their enemies, death. As did everyone, at that time." Kitami then pressed a button and revealed the recordings of the Valvrave going nuclear… and then its devastating aftermath. "…but then… my gut instinct always believed it to be something… more. And apparently… I was right. We didn't just learn how to create immortals, we just learned how to create Gods."
"And you want a piece. You stake a claim by putting your grandchildren into the program."
"Damn right I did." Kitami's rebuke was as blatant as it is grave. "When the Nazis butchered millions of Jews and waged their insane war to every country in the world, their justification was the belief that the Jews are the lesser race… and they are the supreme Arya with all their… 'perfection'. But what about now? When people see this… who can refute the fact that Novus Magius Sapien is the new master race?"
Haruto didn't say anything, but his mind was filled thoughts.
"You do not deny it. That means you've realized the possibility was always there. You saw that list, didn't you?"
"It was you who authored it? You really think I'll become a new Hitler? You put me at the top of that list."
"I put you at the top of that list because your father murdered his own son and brought him back a monster." Kitami growled. "How can I trust a man like that? How can I trust anything born by his hand?"
"You can't." Haruto answered short without so much as a pause. Kitami raised an eyebrow yet again when he saw how readily Haruto said these words about his father without so much as a flinch.
And he understood. "So. That's what this is all about? Revenge? On your creator for the monster you've become?"
"I don't give a damn about what becomes of me or him." Haruto's glowered, his one red eye seems to blaze along with his anger. "Just know that when I said I will destroy anyone who gets in my way… I meant that."
"Oh now I see. I see you. You live as long as I have you began to learn to see through people through their eyes. You speak with anger… but there's no hatred in your eyes. There's only love… And I was wondering where's your wife… but you brought her 'child'… now I see. Change has come." Throughout his time in the Sphere, Haruto had very carefully made no mention of his unborn son, fearing what would transpire if people found out. But… Kitami, already a veteran in life, immediately recognize these symptoms. "The milestone has been overcome then. A new race has arrived. Humanity will soon be supplanted. I'm old. I have no intention to live any longer than I already have… but when end comes, the last thing we want is that end to come from an immortal almighty Hitler. And I want my flesh and blood to at least survive its regime."
"It's funny to hear you of all people speaking about your flesh and blood when you treated your own like that."
"Who do you think ensured my granddaughter did not face charges for what she had done? Do you think that idiot son of mine would ever considered her for the VVV program if I did not convince him otherwise? How do you think a 9 year old hacker shut in can introduce the WIRED, the OS that would become such an integral part of our society with nothing but a major cyber crime incident in her own juvenile record? Who do you think commissioned a Valvrave so finetuned to a specific role that only she can operate it?"
That answered a lot of question except the most important issues. Haruto sighed. "You gave her things. That's all you did. Gave her the best money can buy and you think that's enough. You did everything except being her family."
"I don't think she knows I exist. I don't think she cares either even if she did." Kitami snorted. "…and neither should she. I know I don't. Not anymore at least. She may not be as strong as I often think, but I know for a fact she was not so weak either. She's like me. She's a survivor. Now, she had more freedom, and power, in that box of hers then she would ever have in the Renbokuji dynasty."
And for a moment, just one brief moment, Haruto saw the old man's expression relaxed. Like someone who had just been released from a great burden. "And Satomi? What about him?"
"…my only concern for him has always been the fact he was too much like his father… a bumbling fool, a coward and a weakling." Kitami raised an eye to Haruto. "How did he die?"
"All I can say is that at the end, he was none of those things."
"Then perhaps I too had misjudged him." Kitami sighed one last time before he reverted back to his usual stern glare. "…that stupid son of mine will no doubt try to get his hands on your Valvraves."
"Kagerou is a mass produced model. It can't change Sapien into Magius, and it can only be used by a Novus. And Valvrave will only answer to me. And me alone. It will literally kill anyone who tried to use it. The point is it'll do you guys no good. You can't change into us without being subjected to the process from a young age. You of all people should know."
"When you're desperate, young man, you'll be surprised on how low people will stoop to. As I've said, change has come… and us old dogs will not survive it. But there will be some of us… who will try." As he said this, Kitami pressed a buzzer. "Miranda, bring everyone in."
For a brief moment, Haruto thought if he had walked into a trap, and then Miranda came with every officer of the militia, and so did Spike. The old Minister rose to his feet and Haruto maintained his vigilance, awaiting what comes next.
"…Commander Tokishima Haruto of the New Jior Defense force, I hereby pledge all our resources at your disposal." The old man bent his head down to the shock, and horror, of all officers present. And then, one by one, everyone did the same, with Kitami's son being the most reluctant, and the last one to do the same.
"…survivor… huh." Haruto blinked upon hearing his title being called in the same breath as his name. Indeed, to the public, they've already announced to the whole world at large that Haruto is the commander in chief of the New Jior's armed forces, second in authority only to Shoko. Considering his appearance and the circumstances… there aren't many who think much of the appointment. Most still consider it as nothing more than a joke. Point in fact, Haruto was pretty sure, that before the battle for the Moon, no one has ever taken the country New Jior as an actual country. But when they've seen what they are all capable off, its overwhelming military strength that treat super power nation like a joke, that sentiment had long since faded. So now that even Kitami addressed him as such means he professionally acknowledged Haruto, and by extension, the nation that is New Jior, as a genuine military official belonging to a sovereign state. "Very well. Me first. What is the status of your army? And I'm not just talking about the one in this module, but the whole sphere."
Kitami gestured at Miranda, and the bespectacled woman calmly responded. "From what I can gather, there are other resistance forces all across the sphere." Miranda clicked open a holographic imagery of the Dyson Sphere. "However, even when we had 7 modules under our belt, we barely had any contact with them."
"I see. So the issue is communication." Haruto nodded. "What are the chances of any human survivors in droid occupied territory?"
"Well… if we're talking numbers, there are many who managed to survive first bombardment by going underground, much like we did. Even if the surface is fully controlled by the droids, assuming they remained unprovoked, the droids won't usually go down to the mechanical line unless they're being told to. And as numerous their numbers may be, even they can't patrol every inch of the tunnel. So humans can survive down there… for a time at least."
Haruto nodded. "Then, I think, our first priority is to reestablish communication with other Resistance Forces in other modules and consolidate your forces. My suggestion is… assemble a special task force whose strategies and tactics will be centered on me and my Valvraves, separate from the larger chain of command and under my direct supervision. It doesn't have to be a large unit because I'll need them to be mobile, stealthy, and tactical. A small squad (7-12 people) would do. I'll… give you the specifics over the skill set that I need of this team later, but the compulsory necessity would be at least one communication officer and one specialist in technical engineering… oh… and a hacker."
"Why does it have to be separate?" Mr. Renbokuji, Jr, raised his hand to ask. "Is it not better that we consolidate all military asset in one place?"
"The Valvrave is not a Dreadnought, not even a fighter." Haruto answered short. "It's a tactical missile. With a nuclear payload to boot. I think you've all seen it, the destruction caused by a Valvrave is not the sort you can get away with by hiding under a bunker or something."
Helena's brows immediately knotted in suppressed rage. Haruto pretended he didn't see it and move on.
"Let's consider the theater first. The enemy has taken over most of the territories in this sphere. Given time, they would've taken a complete control of all your territories. But… something unexpected happened before they can take the last step. We arrived. And now, we've made contact, with you, the resistance. Suddenly, you guys had access to a huge enough firepower to be a threat. I think, at this point, they've already realized by now that Valvraves had infiltrated the sphere. At least two original units."
"Two!?" Miranda blinked. "…and at least!?"
"A couple of friends of mine pilot another Original Unit, the Behemoth. They were the vanguard, and the first to enter the sphere. We sneaked them in during the Space battle." Haruto frowned. "…I think… Yeah… I think a little while back, they underwent the same thing I did: they awoke to the unbrindled Magius power they possess. It's an event that is far from subtle, the enemy should've noticed it by now."
Everyone immediately paled. One Haruto underwent a meltdown had already very nearly nuke an entire module off the surface, and now he's saying there are more like him out there. The only one who seemingly managed to keep their composure was the seemingly ignorant Kitami Renbokuji, sipping his tea calmly in the background, seemingly content to let his colleagues to run the show.
"Is there no way you can… contact them?" Miranda asked.
"…that's the problem. We got separated pretty far away, and as you mentioned, there was the issue with the communication." Haruto frowned. "But… at the moment… your concern for them is at minimal. Traveling down with them are senior members of the Magius species. Adult and ancient Magius with ample amount of experience and strength, enough I hope, to make sure such meltdown will not happen again in the near future."
So what's he's saying is that out there, there are sensible adults preventing the drunk five year old children from pressing the big red button to the nuclear holocaust. That does alleviate their concern significantly. Oh joy.
"Which brings us to you." Miranda asked. "What can we do to stop you from going nuclear?"
"Not a damn thing, I'm afraid." Haruto frowned, and everyone paled yet again. "Unfortunately for you guys… My Valvrave… and me… are some of the more destructive sort of Valvrave. The kind that was designed for a very offensive tactics. If only there were other Valvrave arrived, the options wouldn't be so… limited." If only it was the Malefic or if they had brought Amon Ra... "But… there's no use crying for something that isn't here. I'm the only card you've been dealt with, so you'll just have to wing it."
"And how would you uh… wing it?"
"First of… you guys can't go head to head with the droid army, not yet. That much is obvious. The enemy has numerical advantage, more guns, more numbers, more resources. So, we can begin by slowly crippling down their abilities to sustain their army. Robot factory. Ammo depot. Refueling and repair facility. Spare parts. Supply lines. Transportation hub. All of these are targets of opportunity that needs to be struck down to wear them out. We can, in fact, wear them out. Why? Because my third point is that at the present, my fleet is up there, blockading the airspace around this module. We've taken control of the sky." Haruto point his finger up. "Nothing goes in, and nothing goes out. That is to say, the enemy must now use whatever else they have planetside. They can no longer call in reinforcement from outside. And they can't escape. The fourth point, is the Valvrave's capability itself. If I learn anything is that the Valvrave are not designed for a siege or a battle of attrition. They are incredibly mobile weapons platform, capable of extreme amount of firepower to be delivered in a very short time. We can be employed for quick strike assaults, a measure of battlefield interdictions, we have aerial superiority. Which brings me to my fifth and most important point… the enemy is also using Valvraves."
As if their faces can't get any paler…
"Stolen tech, very poorly understood, inferior end result… but a very potent war machine nonetheless. As I understand it, the enemy is using the Faux Valvrave as some kind of a Queen of a Hive. The Queen controls this army, providing the human element and the tactical edge needed in their military. I don't need to remind you… that they're dangerous. They're VERY, VERY dangerous. But unfortunately, they're also our primary target. If we want to win this war… hunting, and destroying these faux units must be a priority."
"Human soldiers won't stand a chance against those things!"
"I agree. Which is why, again, I cannot stress you enough how important it is that we have to recover our communication network. You need to brief your men. As soon as they spot any one of those things, they have to immediately abort whatever mission they're doing and go full retreat immediately." Haruto sighed. "That includes if you guys encounter an original unit as well. Stay far away." Haruto began counting with his fingers: –first finger- "To put this in perspective: your first priority here is to minimize your losses – this is paramount and has to take precedence over everything else. –second finger- After that, whenever possible, maximize your defenses. Re-establish infrastructure, gather your supplies, communicate with your other allies and consolidate your military assets. –third finger- And then, and only then, can you began concentrating on bleeding them slowly in a war of attrition. Let them wear themselves down on your defenses. And finally, - Last finger – we'll take em out piece meal. Destroy their infrastructure, and then stab them in the heart – one vein, at a time."
At this juncture, half the officers on the board were quite shocked they've almost forgotten to be angry altogether. Haruto's suggestion may sound simple, but the military minds immediately acknowledged that it was indeed a brilliant and well thought out course of action, completely devoid of infantility and inexperience they expected from a 16 year old kid, super soldier or not. How could they have known that being a Magius, Haruto had drawn his knowledge from a great number of military oriented minds – amalgamated together in one vessel which Haruto had completely made his own, resulting in the boy possessing military experience that, compounded together, span decades beyond his perceived age. The other half of the board was still skeptical, but even they cannot find the words to refute the Commander's sound suggestion.
"How long can we fight like that?" A commander asked.
Miranda did a mental math. "Given the extent of our resources… 3 years."
"3 months." Haruto rebuked.
"What?"
"We're gonna end this war in 3 months."
Everyone blinked in disbelief. "…I thought you said this was a war of attrition?"
"Not just for us. It is for them." Haruto crossed his arms. "You guys gather the needed resources, we… I… will focus on bleeding them out. Massively. Those theories I mentioned about war of attrition? There's no guarantee that's not what the enemy will try. If that happens… You're fucked."
"Don't you mean… we're fucked?" A commander blurted out… before he remembered the New Jior's political stance about this Dyson Sphere. "…never mind."
Haruto conclude his point: "Right now, you guys had one advantage. You had a super weapon which you can point. Me. A firepower that no amount of defense can stop. A firepower that can bleed them of their massive but not infinite resources at an exponential scale. And that's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to tear them a new one to stop them from getting too comfortable with this place while you guys reinforce your position."
Sensing the silence that follows as a form of unilateral agreement, Miranda took the initiative. "Very well." Miranda nodded. "But we will need to first tally our forces. How soon can you give me the details for your task force, Commander Tokishima?"
"ASAP." Haruto stood up. "I need to perform some maintenance on my Valvrave and the Kagerou anyway. Let's meet again once that was done, yes?"
"Understood. I'll notify the armory to give you full access, commander."
"Much appreciated." Haruto politely nodded and immediately took his leave, with Spike scurrying behind him, almost too eager to leave the tense room, under the bewildered look of the board, a 180 change of how they had initially welcomed him.
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Spike had a hard time following Haruto, who seem to be even more eager to leave that room than he. Spike's mind was still trying to digest Haruto's horrifying statement when, after one last turn, and they arrived at a corner with no one around. Haruto stopped, turned around, clasped his hand together over his head and bowed down as deeply as he could. "…sorry."
"…excuse me?"
"So sorry. I was really scared halfway to death myself. I really thought I was going to crack… but it looks like I managed till the very end."
That's when Spike noticed Haruto's shaking knee and sweat covered neck. He was… incredibly nervous. And he finally put to two to two together when Haruto raised his face to show the expression of a guilt ridden and frightened boy that he is. "Well… you already gave me a warning that whatever you'll be blabbering about at this point will be horse shit but… damn… the whole 'I don't give a damn if you all die and shit…' still scare the begeesus out of me!"
"Sssh! Not so loud!" Haruto frettingly raised his hands in genuine anxiety. "I should've rehearsed this with you, but everything was so sudden and all…!"
Spike immediately sighed in relief. "Heavens man… I really thought for a second that-"
"I'm not lying about everything though." Haruto bit his lips. "That part about most of my classmates are pissed to high heavens… unfortunately that one was not a joke."
"If my parents did that to me, I'll be surprised if I'm not pissed. But why'd you do it men? Why'd do you have to play the high horse douchebag?"
"If I haven't done that, we'll be wasting a lot of time arguing over their personal agendas. That's not what I'm here for. I'm on a clock, and there was no easy way to win this war." As said before, one doesn't become the childhood friend of a prime minister's daughter without picking up a thing or two. "Plus, I think it's best if you people don't get too comfortable around me. Remember the time when I went crazy? Nasty."
"That's what you and that old man was talking about? Politics?"
"No. The old man was different. He's the only one who can see the bigger picture, he's just afraid I'll turn into a Hitler."
At this, Spike closed his face to just below Haruto's nose, eying it very carefully.
"…what?"
"Just looking for stubles, signs for a future toothbrush mustache… and I gotta wonder… if you're Hitler, what does that make me? Mussolini?"
"Not you too!"
"Now, see, this is why I just got no stomach for this kind of thing." Satisfied, Spike backed away as he growled exasperatedly, but in understanding. "Politics. Bureaucracy. Governors. Senators. Congressman. Ministers and sinister. Nothing ever gets done. Nothing is so simple. Why can't people just take the motherfuckin' rock to the motherfuckin' hoop in a motherfuckin' straight line and score for cryin' out loud. Oh well… best get my game face on, seeing we're in a hurry."
Haruto blinked. "Huh?" Why would a pro footballer care about politics?
"Don't you 'huh' me after that stunt! I'm your bloodbag, and I'm coming with you. If nothing else, to keep you straight! If you so much as to grew a megalomaniacal toothbrush mustache, I'll shave you bald and knock you out, super soldier or not! Now stop whining and let's get to work!"
There's not an ounce of fear in Spike's glare. Only faith and warmth unyielding.
0000000000000
When Haruto left, Mr. Renbokuji spoke out. "We can't let him do as he pleases like that."
"Mr. Renbokuji, we've talked about this." Miranda glared at the blond haired man. "He made his position very clear: he will not fall in. Not to Arus, not to Dorssia, and most certainly not to Jior. He's a high ranking military officer of a military body of a separate state that is completely outside the jurisdiction of any country but his own. We're not dealing with children playing house. We're dealing with a sovereign nation who… clearly… had his own agenda by throwing in this much military forces into our borders."
Indeed, this was a bit of complication they didn't expect to happen. Let's be fair, ever since the whole Valvrave and Magius thing was revealed, the politican across every world power had seen it: the old World Order has been torn down. Now, they are in the interim period: the chaotic times of war and turbulence that precede the stabilization that is the new World Order. And though Prime Minister Shouko and her cabinet, which include the aforementioned Super Soldier Commander, couldn't care less about such a thing, the fact is many believed that New JIOR stood at the center of that storm and is well on the way to emerge as a new super power when the dust settles. Many opportunistic political parties, the Renbouji dynasty among them, wanted a place at the table, and they thought this was the chance to get it. The Renbokuji was at the forefront of this, partly because of Kitami's closeness to the old regime, and that they've made everyone in the political elite aware that they've already had a slice of the pie with their son being one of the candidates which they had groomed all his life to be the elite in the new world order. Heedless of the fact how much it burdened their son.
But then… they didn't expect Tokishima Haruto to shoot it all down so brutally, and then the news about their son's death is essentially, to the Renbokuji couple, the final nail in the coffin lid which was slammed to their faces.
Kitami can already see their disappointment in their faces. That stupid son of his was never good at the poker game of politics. What's worse, it probably never crossed his mind that his daughter is also a good prospect for the future… if not more so. It's just after that whole hacking incident, Renbokuji junior only see her daughter as a political liability then an asset. The whole fact that she was a once in a century cybernetic genius only worth next to nothing if it risks his political ascension to the seat of power. 'Pathetic…'
"Father… you two were in there for an awfully long while, what did he tell you?"
Kitami merely looked at his son with a stern gaze. He sighed. "Only that what he's doing right now is not charity." Haruto of old might have done that, but this Haruto had changed. Drastically so. "He has other reasons. And that kid is smart enough not to confide with me."
The audience wrinkled. Kitami Renbokuji didn't seem to share their concern over the seriousness of the situation.
"A word to the wise though: thread carefully. It's not the machine that has the power to destroy this whole planetoid if he so chooses."
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"Alright." Alia finally gave in after seeing even her own sister think it was a bad idea. "Alright. So… what are you going to do?"
Cain start depicting his train of thought by drawing a chart denoting the way he intends to split the units:
Then first team will be composed of A-Drei, Raizo, and Yusuke as the main tip of the spear of the offensive force, with two Kagerous as support and back up.
Cain will form his own team with two Kagerous as support and backup (assuming he needs them).
Ashra, Alia, and the remainder of the 7 Kagerou units and their ground team, which includes X-Eins and Akari, will commandeer this Grav Train as a veritable mobile HQ. To go where they are needed as dictated by the needs of the battle. They will also be their liaison to meet up with the Resistance HQ.
Alia see what he's doing. He split up the power so that no one side can hoard the awesome power of this super weapon for themselves. Not that she doesn't agree with this way of thinking but… "I don't think my superiors would like such a rogue element at this stage of the battle."
"My dear, I'm afraid we have no intention to give them choice on this matter." Cain glared down. "Besides, I don't think your superiors had any inkling on how to utilize the firepower that are the Valvraves. We're not suited for protracted siege warfare. We're not a hammer, we're a scalpel that needs to be wielded with precision, we go in, take out the objective, then we go out, and that's it. We're pretty good at taking over strategic targets but as far as mop ups and holding it… well… I was hoping your resistance forces can redress that balance. So you see, either we all work together, or the droids will wipe us out."
For a moment, Alia really do think it's a good idea. And Cain's arrangement also ensured that when everything is said and done, the Dyson Sphere remain in firm control of its people instead of other outside forces. Alia nodded. "Alright. Alright. Fine. Let's do it your way."
0000000000000
The Valvrave stood partially naked right in the middle of the dirty hangar. Around a quarter part of his outer armor was stripped clean of almost its entire thankfully cosmetic human element, the fact it was not made by human hands now stood clear for all to see. It looks… skeletal and downright creepy. In fact… is that a row of clenched teeth he saw on its face!? And then there's that jittering mechanical eyeball that was looking allover the place until the pilot arrived and its eyes are locked on to him ever since. Sinews made of crimson Sense nerve imitated the shape of torn muscles barely connected the almost skeletal Valvrave. It looked like the face of an angry skinned demon. Haruto can see the scant resemblance with the equally inhuman Dainslev, but arguably, his Valvrave is easily had a bulkier but still lean built. How does it look like before Pino re-customized it for him, only heavens know.
"So…" Marie started. "…I take it things are going well."
"If by going well you mean that we're not arrested yet… then yes." Haruto sighed. "For now… we're all… 'happily' working together in a jolly cooperation."
"Haaa…" Marie sighed as she gently combed Alice's hair. The girl has taken the liberty of sleeping on her lap.
"Ummm… excuse me?" Haruto turned and saw a team of engineers standing timidly. "Minister Renbokuji told us to help… you… performing maintenance and stuff."
l
"…maintenance you say…" Haruto looked at the engineer's eyes. Some are firm and sharp with duty, others gleam with excitement. "You guys can start by working on that one."
By that one, Haruto was jerking his thumb on the Kagerou on the side. Just with that, and Haruto immediately noticed the excited gleam dimmed somewhat, whilst the firm ones were taken aback. "Eh? What about yours? That one looks more banged up than the other." Everybody already knows which one is the imitation and which one is the real deal.
"Hito has a… a fully automated and very advanced self repair system which unfortunately… is also beyond human understanding."
"What do you mean… beyond human understanding?"
Pino did told him the reason why Hito had a mouth. Haruto decided he'd rather show than tell. The Novus Magius jumped 22 meters up until he landed right on top of the Valvrave's head. And then he bared out his fangs, bite his wrist and let the blood flow out. The blood trickled from the slit vein and stream across the contours of the Valvrave's machinery before it landed gracefully on the slits of the Valvrave's mouth. As soon as that happened, the Valvrave's sense nerve lit red and the process began. Green runes began to erupt from the streams of blood coming from Haruto and were absorbed greedily by the Valvrave's rave engine from its mouth.
And then, before the engineer's gawking eyes, the Valvrave began to regenerate. First, an outline made of hard light appeared and then the Deadheat metal began to branch out from the Valvrave endoskeleton, tracing the hardlight silhouette and grow layer by layer, like a mechanical analog of human tissue being formed from inside out. Slowly, and surely, the Valvrave began to retake its original form before the Ariels skinned him off.
"Valvrave Hito is only 20% human tech… So… every now and then, he'll need to replace those parts. Right now, none of them need replacement thankfully. But just in case, Delphi will give you a list of those parts in the event when they get damaged."
"Haaa…"
"For the moment though, I'd appreciate it enormously if you would just concentrate your efforts on the Kagerou."
And they do so with a rather grumpy expression on their faces. Haruto can easily guess why. This pack of engineers is most likely had been sent here by the Renbokuji for the primary purpose of trying to steal the Valvrave' technology directly from the most powerful one. The one with the excited gleam was probably the same type as Yusuke: pure technophiles entranced with the endless wealth of knowledge one can glean from an alien machine. The grim ones though. They're doing this probably out of duty or some form of big reward. Reward that are lessened by the fact they weren't even allowed near the genuine alien device and had to settle with the inferior imitation. But they relent.
The Engineers start dismantling the armor plating of the Kagerou, and then they started with the face plate. They removed it, expecting a deformed clenched teeth… to find none. Just normal machinery. The Engineers looked back and forth between the Valvrave and the Kagerou. Outwardly they were almost identical… but like this, which is alien, which is human, it was all too clear. If technology had a sense of aesthetics, then the Alien's taste is just… creepy.
"Don't tell me you're gonna keep doing this every time the Valvrave get banged up." Spike grunted nervously seeing just how much energy/blood/rune Haruto is pouring.
"It's called 'Emergency Repair Protocol' not 'Regular Repair Protocol'. It's not meant to be used every single time." After a moment that seems like forever, the rune flow finally slowed. This was also shown with how the mecha finally regenerated its mouthguard, sealing its clenched fangs behind the familiar Valvrave faceplate. Like this, the Valvrave is now almost identical to his human counterpart. But now everyone had bore witness what a certain Yusuke Otamaya had also witnessed: the bloodthirsty unworldly hyper technological creature made by inhuman hands behind the human made façade.
"But… will you be alright? Even if those pipsqueak tincans can barely scratch you, fighting still takes up fuel, right?"
"That's MY line." Haruto took a glare at Spike. "It's not just MY rune I've been using, it's yours too! You should be panicking!"
"Speaking of panicking…" Spike's expression suddenly shifted to that of a frightened child, and he went and jumped behind the crevices of the Valvrave hiding his big frame beneath it. "I hope this guy (the Valvrave) don't mind!"
"Huh?" Haruto blinked seeing the giant of a man curled up like a cowering kid. He's frightened… childishly so… then he looked down and saw what scared him so badly.
Miranda had just walked in, and if looks can kill, everyone caught sight of her would die standing. Kinda makes Haruto understand why Spike behaves this way.
…if your ex-wife came at you with eyes so furious they could bore through your very soul, wouldn't you cower under cover? If Saki came at him like that, he know he will.
"Kelley-san." Haruto nodded.
"…" Miranda Kelley opened and closed her lips… and then she sighed. Haruto suspect she was about to ask about a certain someone. But then she changed her mind because the situation is not conducive for such a thing. "We're still gathering some men, but… there's a developing situation."
"Let's hear it?"
Miranda showed the display of the module. It showed dots start pouring in from the several entrances of the module. "…Droids? How many?"
"Several tens of thousands at least. Quite possibly the reserves from that army you wiped out."
"How's your defenses?"
"You kidding me?" That was Helena. "We haven't even had time to recover from our losses or seal the breach you caused!"
Haruto didn't reply beyond a simple nod. "…alright… let's do it like this then… Concentrate all your available resources and defenses on the entrance of the mechanical line. They tried to come in from there once… no reason they won't try again."
"And you?"
Haruto merely shrugged. "…Marie! How's the repair of the Kagerou going?"
"It's almost complete!"
"…suit up. We're moving out in 5 minutes."
00000000000000
Not a moment later, two turbo lifts elevated two 22 meter giants to the still ash covered beach. As soon as their sense nerve crown went online, they can already see the familiar ARUS carriers approaching the beach.
"Zzztt… Testing… testing… Commander Tokishima, can you hear me?"
"I can hear you, Kelley-san." Haruto replied back to the shortwave radio.
"This old school shortwave radio had limited range, but it should works."
"Please keep me updated on the situation. And… the Mechanical Line… how was it?"
"Well, the giant mermaid smashed through the gates, so we still haven't be able to close the pretty huge hole, but we're barricading the entrance with whatever we have. But… h… Hey! What are you doing!?"
"Honey, don't you have a bigger gun down here?"
That's Spike. "Spike? What are you doing?"
"I was trying to pilot that thing with walls for wings. It's the thing with the biggest boomsticks in the neighborhood but… haven't figured out a way to make it fly yet."
Walls for wings… wait, he's talking about the Waffe!? "Oh no, no, no, Spike, stop. Listen to your Ex-Wife, that thing is dangerous! One of those things tore me to bits!"
"We're not even married yet! Oh. Sorry. Slip of a tongue. Anyway, pointtakengottagoByeeeeee!"
Spike's voice trailed to a whimper followed by the angry howl of Miranda. "SPIKE GET YOUR ASS BACK IN HERE!... Sigh… We're using the Waffes as makeshift walls." The woman sound very tired for a moment… "Not one of us know how to pilot one, and we're too afraid to try on the account of the amount of weapon it got, so scores of those things just lie uselessly in the warehouse after we confiscated them from the Dorssians."
"I see." Haruto nodded. "…Kelley-san, if you like, I can teach your men how to use them properly. In New JIOR, Valvrave Pilots used Waffe simulators to train. We even piloted them." Just one of those things they do when they became desperate on nailing L-Elf with his godlike handling of those flying walls. And they've become quite good at it.
"I see… Yes… I would appreciate that, if we survive this day."
"I promise you, you will. If the droids do come, try to funnel them into a narrow corridor, that usually helps. Gonna break off now, I just gained visual contact of the enemy on this side. Inform us of any development."
"Understood Commander."
Haruto sighed, then he felt a tug down below. His daughter looking at him with innocent puppy dog eyes. "Papa… is everything okay?"
Haruto smiled and pat Alice's head. "Everything's fine, Alice. Now… as we promised… you have to behave, okay?" Just before they departed on this mission, Haruto had thought of what to do with Alice. He thought of entrusting her to Spike, but after what happened last time, and what's with the environment far from friendly, he couldn't take that chance. Plus, when he tried to leave her with Marie, she just about had it and threw a tantrum.
"I want to be with Papa this time!" She said with a glare verging on crying.
Doesn't help with the fact that at that point, everybody glared at him, even Marie. "You're her dad, for cryin out loud. Take responsibility will you!?" Everyone was screaming that with their glare. Thus beaten, Haruto let Alice in the cockpit with him. Now that he think about it… perhaps this is just well. "Alice, things might get a little too hot for a while, so bear with Papa okay?"
"Okay, Papa!" Alice chortled happily. She gets to spend some time with her Papa for once in forever now. She's about happy to do anything as long as this to be the case.
"So… mind if I ask, Haruto? Why do you bring me here aside from you obviously needing some help?" Marie asked from the Kagerou.
"To be fair… I'm not a fan of this learning on the job…"
"Wait… what is this about learning on the job!?"
"…it's exactly what it is. I'm going to teach you the finer techniques of Rune usage, right in the middle of the firefight." Haruto sighed. Just another reason why he decided it's best that Alice go with him. If she stays with Marie, she might disturb her. "…from what I've seen so far, you're not 'awakened', yet. The virus accelerated our growth, and I don't think you're infected yet. However… you never know. The problem is… an awakening seems to be always accompanied with a meltdown, which is always hazardous to the surrounding environment."
"I see… so… I'm going to fight them and you're going to… oversee me, evaluate me?"
"Let's just say right now I'm quite confident I can keep one eye on the enemy and an eye on you… Any sign you're going into a meltdown in the most inopportune of locations…"
"You'll sent a flying kick to my head?"
"Something like that."
"Countin' on you senpai!" the Kagerou activated her armament. For this occasion, Haruto had thought it would be wise that Marie was to be armed with the Yashagarasu equipment so that Marie can benefit from Delphi's insight. And she also carries a giant hand held gatling gun with the ammo pack on her Kagerou's back.
"Senpai, huh? Delphi, please watch over her for me."
"If I have to."
Haruto wasn't sure what to think of that moniker… The power claws on his wings also charged up as red particles of energy flowed in between its fingers. Technically speaking, the Valvrave didn't carry any extra weapon beyond what it was built with. Though he still carry a Mirage Channel familiar. "Alright… let's begin. Marie, Advanced Rune Manipulation 101. First, you have to learn how to bring out your runes. And… and you already know about that yes?"
"Yeah. Though seriously, I still had no idea how I know how to do it." It's… it's difficult to describe even by the user. Rune is energy. It is information. It is biology. It is the very foundation of every molecular structure of biological or mechanical substances. It's an abstract form of matter without any coherent base form, and only Magius can make it tangible for use. And there were so many of its uses. The Valvarve used it as battery, but Pino would tell stories of how they could even sew it into their clothes and armor to create tough composite materials (which is where they get the nigh indestructible Clear Fossil material) or molecularly bond it to alter the genetics of living creature (one of the few things that make up a Novus Magius).
Marie had learned from Haruto on how to bring the energy about, channel it through her cells, strengthening her muscles and reflexes. "What you have to understand – no, believed to be true, is that Rune existed within everyone. Not just Magius, but all living things." He said. "We've been living with it for as long as we had existed. Now we just need to be aware of it, know its existence, and then bring it to the surface." After everything that has happened up to that point, it'll be difficult not to be a believer.
"The next step of controlling Rune-" Haruto started as the ships are getting closer and closer. "Is that you need to think of it as an extension of yourself. It's a limb. Ashra told me that the first way to get a feel of manipulating runes… is to imagine like you have an extra pair of arms on your back. Picture it moving independently of your actual arm. For example… imagine… well, imagine like our current arms are holding a controller while our other arms are… stealing someone's lingerie or something."
Marie was concentrating but that comment threw her off guard as the image of a four armed Haruto piloting while two hands while making and doing you know what with the other pair. "…Did Raizo came up with that?"
"No comment. A-Anyway, according to Ashra, the feeling is similar to that of phantom limb sensation on amputees… minus the amputation. Quite the opposite, in fact." Marie understood it, somewhat. Suddenly, the aesthetic sense of why the Valvrave was modified to sport an extra arm on his back and arms, with an oversized claw on the other makes sense. "Okay… I think I can try to get the gist of it…"
"Okay. Now… let me show you." And Haruto made an immediate demonstration of the concept. The two subarm bearing the claws on his wings move up and immediately charged a mass of energy on their palm. A moment later, two streams of red energy burst through at least two ships each. A few sparks later, and the heavily damaged carriers exploded. The other ships reacted like poked hornet's nests. They immediately unleashed their cargo: thousands upon thousands of Drone piloted Arus Splicers and they also brought Dvergrs rolling out of their hulls across the ocean and then the beaches, accompanied by boatloads of Aelves.
"Uuhh… Haruto? Is this your idea of learning on the job?"
"Just believe that I'm not as sadistic as Ashra."
"I do believe you. But…"
"Don't worry. I will protect you. At least until you get it. Now… let's move on." Haruto gripped his controller. "Once you've start getting used to imagining of having extra limbs, the next step is to not think them as limbs at all. Runes are the most versatile substance in the universe. Technically speaking, whatever form it take, whatever state of substance it assume… the only limit is your imagination."
As Haruto explained this, the army of droids are closing and assembled, rows after rows of aircraft flying together in a series of immaculate arrowhead formations. Likewise, the Dvergrs who had landed on the beaches assemble themselves in a Testudo formation, like ancient roman legionnaire marching steadily forward.
And the two conspicuously silent primate engine just stood there like sentinel statues.
Marie looked at all this overwhelming number and felt strange that she didn't feel the least bit terrified at the prospect.
Haruto also felt weird. Weird as in, forget strange, he barely feel anything. His mind simply fly back to the day he first used the Valvrave. He remembered when all he can do was releasing masses of red light which quickly hardened into a chaotic mass of hard light substance. It was strong enough to blast a Waffe to oblivion. Now…
He calmly gathered enough mass of runes to the Valvrave's hand. Red and black energy particles gathered on said hand until the hand glowed red.
Around that time, the army of droids finally locked on to their targets, and within moments, they start opening fire. Thousands and thousands of missiles, bullets, cannon shells, and laser blasts rain down upon the two mechs.
In response, the Valvrave merely raised his fully charged and glowing red hand. Just as the onslaught of projectiles was one breath away from reaching them, the Valvrave batted his open palm forward.
In a blink, a mass of red light erupted and immediately hardened into a very solid, very large mass of crimson hardlight wall taller than even the conjurer.
The incoming projectiles collided with the wall and were stopped short. Exploding and ricocheting uselessly against the crimson near transparent wall of super solid hardlight. If one were to look at the hard light wall from the side, one would notice it was paper thin and not even a single projectile managed to get through. The barrier expanded and stretched out, enlarging and encircling the two Primate Engines. When it was done, the Valvrave and the Kagerou was encased inside a spherical near transparent red barrier. The carnage and destruction wreaked by the incoming projectile engulf everything on the other side of the barrier, while on this side… nothing happen… yet.
"Don't all Valvrave had built in energy barriers?" Marie checked said feature in her Kagerou, just in case.
"Yeah… but they were never that strong to begin with. One thing I realized is that they were only effective when dealing against beam weaponry. They can block anything but a straight shot." Such design was on purpose. From what they've learned from studying Magius arsenal, the Magius primary weaponry was almost entirely composed of optical beam weaponry. The concept of firearms: 'physical projectile propelled with explosive'; is something utterly incomprehensible to the Magius who never had physical form to begin with. Then again, on the human side, even with Space Mining, with natural resource shortage an ever present issue, the trend of beam weapon prevalence is also steadily taking shape. But in the end, ARUS decided to take a step back to the old school ways… and it works. "We were designed to fight Magius… but we're not fighting Magius right now, we're fighting ARUS. And they know exactly what we were made off. What we're vulnerable of. So they came at us with solid weaponry. And don't get me started on when they went for melee, they can easily plow straight through that barrier like it didn't even exist. We need something stronger… and this… this is already a far cry different than that haphazard mass of light I used to spew out."
"Definitely. You're gonna teach me to do this?"
"For now, yes. I went about it the wrong way when I asked Ashra-san to teach me on how to shoot lasers. But… thankfully, she didn't do things by the halfsies. So I had plenty of basics to go around inventing all sorts of new techniques. But we'll focus on defensive techniques."
"But not many of them are polished yet. In fact, some actually, literally, blew up in his face." Delphi chimed in.
"Well, I'm certainly glad this one didn't."
First Technique: Sphere Rune Barrier
Suddenly, a Bremen landed and opened fire. The Rail Gun bullet punched through the shield, grazing the Valvrave's shoulder. "…oh…" Plus, the enemy starts circling around them. More Bremen opened fire, tearing new holes even as Haruto fix the breaches. Now the Valvrave had to stretch out both hands. "Maybe this sphere barrier still has room for improvements…"
STATUS: WORK IN PROGRESS
"Whoaaa…" Marie looked nervously as the Spherical Barrier is starting to resemble Swiss cheese. "… Errh… Should I start opening fire?"
"Not what I had in mind… but we're prioritizing the safety of the refugees, so please do. I'm gonna prepare something as well. Alice, hold on to something!"
"Yaaay!"
"Delphi, let's do this." Kagerou buckled her power claw, reading its twin Volc Arms in one hand, and a giant belt fed Gatling Gun on the other. The Kagerou start open fire while under the protection of Valvrave's barrier. The Droids are torn apart left and right. Delphi's guidance made the Kagerou unusually accurate and fast, ripping a surprising tally of destruction. Of course, it was not enough. The smaller ones like the Dvergr and Aelves were no match, but the hunters, and the Bremen is still a serious threat. The shield won't hold long at this rate. So Haruto did the only thing he could:
He sit down, and think.
The Bremen fired again and again, two to three holes opened up on his barrier. He can still cover it.
Think on what he had learned.
More Bremen landed, more shots fired, the barrier could barely keep up.
Think on everything he had tried up to this point.
The barrier is one shot away from collapse…
The Valvrave's two power claws were instantly charged with a large mass of concentrated energy. Haruto is now using that energy to test another new application of the Rune technique he had thought up.
The Valvrave briefly charged the energy before it fired.
But unlike before, instead of a laser stream, it fired instead a single shot of a small but dense mass of energy from the point of its finger. The energy shot zoomed to quite a distance towards the swarm of enemies. Upon impact on a single target, the dense projectile violently exploded in a sizable thermal explosion equivalent to a kiloton explosion. If the usual laser is a constant stream of energy, this attack is only a single short burst. Haruto also used the concept from the rune bomb he made earlier to compress the energy even further, creating a super dense projectile akin to a fiery cannon shell. It sacrificed range, penetrating power, and speed, but makes up for it in explosive power, crowd control, and increased flexibility.
Second Technique: Explosive Rune Bullet
Because the enemy was so clustered up, the explosion instantly took out at least half a dozen fighters. And then, as one finger took the time to charge up, the other finger opened fire, and then another… and another… and another. Yes, with ten fingers firing at a rotation, the rate of fire is also magnitudes higher than the laser variant. So, before long, the Valvrave are firing off a massive barrage of the high explosive projectiles that rain down the swarm of droids, filling the sky with explosions. The energy projectiles also rain down upon the ground forces, wiping out large numbers of the ground forces in the process. The barrage was intense enough to penetrate the dense enemy concentration and start raining down upon the artillery and then the carrier fleet at the rear. Enough of projectiles make it through to cause significant damage. More than half of the artillery was destroyed by the first salvo, the Fleet quickly followed by the subsequent barrage.
Soon, it didn't even take too long for the losses was such that the barrage on the Valvrave's barrier lessened to a fraction of its original intensity and the Valvrave barrier can now keep up. Point in fact, in less than 5 minutes, the number of drone army had been reduced to literally just an infinitesimal number from before and now there was no point to put up a barrier as there are barely any attack coming.
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"A… wha… what is this…!?" Miranda stared at the monitor in disbelief.
Helena's eyes were similarly narrowed in horror. And so is everyone who had never seen just how unbelievably powerful a Valvrave can be.
Well, it is a super robot born from alien technology… they know it's a walking nuclear meltdown… but… this? This overwhelming power that blow away all sense of rationality and any thoughts of common sense… When the Valvrave first went nuclear, they thought they were dealing with an uncontrollable and mindless bomb. But what they witnessed here is completely different. This is not an unthinking weapon. There's an intelligent and calculating mind in full control of its destructive power – and that scares everyone even more. They were being attacked by an army of droids larger than the number they were attacked with up until that point, and the Valvrave wiped them all out so easily like they were little more than ants. And he only put in no more than half a mind to the task. Maybe even less.
"…this is insane."
"What?"
"This… is… this is too much… if we so much as to think of turning against him, he'll wipe us out in a heartbeat!"
"Be quiet!" Helena barked.
But the officer merely voiced what everyone had thought in their minds. These things… are just beyond the thought of resisting.
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"…okay… I think that's about right."
"Huh?"
The Valvrave abruptly powers down. The barrier vanished and the two power claws stopped firing. "Marie, I've thinned the herd. I'll leave the mop up to you. Try to practice what I've taught you along the way." When the Valvrave finally stopped his barrage, there were only small patches of droids still standing and there are no carriers' left.
"Ah… Ahahahaha… so… I see…" So, this is Haruto's brand of learning on the job. Like a parent that had prepared a prey for his young to devour: wounded enough to not pose a threat, but alive enough so that the cub can taste its first kill with mitigated risk. Marie made a mental note that she really need to get used to this absurdity.
And so, as the greater Valvrave watched from behind, the lesser Kagerou finally ran forward and hurled herself towards the first targets within reach, the last few intact Dvergr from an army of hundreds already vaporized. She swing the Blackrose and easily bisected the first two, and then destroyed another one with the twin Volc arms on the power claw before finishing off the last one but pulverizing it with a punch, just to get a feel of the Kagerou with her new equipment. It fits her well, surprisingly.
"Okay… now let's begin… First… imagine that you have extra arms on your back." Obviously, she won't be trying to do what Haruto did at that scale. So she imagined it smaller… maybe start with an arm rather than two. Imagine it moving independently of her current ones. Visualize said arm as solid as she could. 'Next, visualize bringing the rune to reality…'
For good measure, Marie closed her eyes and then she felt something flow… starting from her heart, then to her head, and then following her mind as it moved to her back… and then it erupts out. Marie dared herself to open her eyes and she saw… "o… Oh…"
"What?" Haruto asked.
"I think I kinda got it… just… just… not got it."
"What do you mean?" Haruto raised an eyebrow. Marie finally opened the video com and showed it to Haruto.
"…oh." Haruto snorted. "I see."
Imagine another set of arms on your back, Haruto said. Marie simply took it a bit too literally as a barely coherent but misshapen arm made of pure green Rune energy sprouted out of Marie's back flailing about almost uselessly – and its missing a few fingers. For obvious reasons, it looked hilarious. "Well, at least I can use this for a cup holder or cloth hanger or something."
"Ahahaha… yeah… but it's good. For your first time, that's quite something. Now, the next step is to imagine that arm is not an arm at all. Try not to be confined to human form, and shape the substance into whatever suits your needs."
"I'm not sure I follow. So, I'm supposed to imagine an arm but I'm not supposed to imagine an arm?"
"You're supposed to imagine moving the energy like it's an arm, but its shape doesn't have to be an arm. For example… when I fired my lasers, I imagine the rune as a river. A free flowing river, which I then directed and condensed into a narrow pipe and squeezed out. When I create that wall and the projectiles, I imagined the same thing, but then I had the river sandwiched flat by two plates of glass or jampacked tight into the size of a marble."
"You know what? I'm gonna record this for later." For ease's sake, she activated the voice to text translator. She can tidy it up later… when they're not being fired upon.
"One last thing… You already learn how to bring out the energy out of your own body, but you missed a step. You also need to imagine channeling that energy through the Kagerou. Imagine pushing the energy to your controllers instead of your back and then into the Kagerou and then finally out of its back. Valvrave and Kagerous are essentially Amplifiers. Imagine you play a guitar and then use the amplifier to make the sound louder."
Marie closed her eyes and concentrated again. As before, the energy came out from her chest, then into her head… but now, she ordered it to move through her hands… '…imagine… rune… as a flowing… river…' Just when she was about to get it…
BANG!
"What the…!" The Kagerou rocked violently. A missile just landed on her head. No damage aside the cosmetics, but boy, was she pissed.
"You're under attack, Marie!"
"YOU THINK!?" Marie roared. She almost screamed: why didn't you cover me. But then she stopped as she also realized the answer: it won't be much of a lesson if Haruto interfered.
And she almost got it too, DAMN IT! The attack came from the Splicers in the sky. Marie starts firing to the sky with the Volc Arms. At that time, her thoughts are focused on the giant power claw on her left arm, on the twin beam rifles firing a barrage of bullets. And just like that, the energy flowed there. The gun flashes from the twin rifles turned darker neon green, and the hard light bullets became fierier, adding to their bulk. The bullet punctured the Splicers, tearing vicious gouges far bigger than the usual bullets. "Huh… okay… Let's try this again."
Marie concentrated again. She messed up twice and now third time's the charm, it was surprisingly easier and easier the more she do it. Now she had the freedom to imagine what she wanted the shape to be… and after getting hit by a rocket in the head, she thought something to prevent that. She thought of Haruto's defensive wall, and how to shrink it… and then she remembered her enlarged left arm… and then the most natural form just came into her mind.
Rune energy massed on said left arm, and immediately took shape… into a shield. The shield's shape resembles one of the wedges that form up the Novus Magius symbol that appeared whenever they jacked a person. And not too soon. A Bremen just came to view and fired a shot at the Kagerou. The shield blocked and deflected the shell away, though it also tore a small piece of the shield. Marie immediately fixed it, even had a good mind to add several layers of barrier to the shield, strengthening it further. The next shot still rattled her, but the shield holds.
Haruto nodded. The shield is far smaller than his barrier but also thicker and sturdier. It's a more efficient use of rune as well. "Yes. Yes, that's good Marie. Keep it up!"
First Technique, Subtype one: Active Shield
"Ano… Haruto my man?"
"Spike? What is it?"
"Our sensor just picked up another army coming our way. As you said, they're heading towards us through the mechanical line. Except that they're not coming to us on foot… They're on board a Mag Train. A big one. I think they're gonna ram us and, well… I think we could use the help."
"How long until-"
"ETA 10 minutes." Miranda followed.
"Hmm… Can you give me a blueprint of this module?"
"Uploading to you now." The voice of some officer sounded.
The blueprint was uploaded to the monitor. And true enough… there's a way in.
"Marie, you hold the line here, and report to me if anything happens."
"Roger that."
"Alright, Alice, we're going to sea so hang tight!"
"Seaa! Yaaay!" Alice cheered.
The Valvrave took flight and, completely ignoring what's left of the first invasion, immediately took a dive straight into the ocean. He went all the way to the bottom where there's a sizable hatch that would take him straight into the mechanic line right where he need to be. There's just one problem.
"…are those… fishies?" Alice chimed.
…well… they look like fishes… but they also look like heavily modified Hunters. The original Hunter had red armor and is a humanoid mech transformable into a jetfighter. This one seem to have been heavily modified with some parts from the Ariel to specialized it for underwater combat. Its back mounted booster jet wings had been replaced with massive razor sharp fins with propellers at its base. An additional massive appendage that looked like a large fish tail was also attached on its back, with a tailfin with turbines attached at its end. Unlike the standard Hunter, this one has no arms to speak of, as the drones that were supposed to fill those limbs had been replaced by a different detached accompaniment. The new drones can't seem to attach itself unto the nautical Hunter, but they looked like a pair of mechanical jelly fishes, with barbed tentacles. The legs had also been modified into large fins, with razor sharp blade attached unto them. Couple this with all the additional sleek armor on various parts, streamlining the mech closer to a fishlike physique, transforming it into a formidable naval specialized mech.
Haruto frowned. "Okay…" The Vavrave began charging the Power claws for a laser barrage. But no sooner than the claws had just came to view to open fire, the jellyfish drones shot out in a blur and before he knew it, they already entangled themselves unto his claws, the slinking tentacles are jamming the appendage. And to make matters worse, the Jellyfish suddenly glowed and the next instant, a massive electrical shock coursed through the Valvrave, electrocuting even the pilots. "YEEOOOOCH!" "KYAAAAAA!" Haruto and Alice howled in shock.
Before either can even recover from this, the Fisherman Hunter charged the Valvrave at full speed, launching a couple of torpedoes along the way. The Valvrave managed to survive the explosions, but then the Fisherman Hunter is already right in front of his face, its underside fin is slicing towards him. Haruto managed to resist the electric shock just enough to move the controller. The power claw moved the jellyfish down, straight into the incoming blade fin. The fin easily sliced the jellyfish in half… and claiming a finger off said power claw.
"…is that Clear Fossil blade!?" Growling, the Valvrave used the pilot's anger to resist the residual electric shock and used his free hands to yank the other jellyfish off his power claw and then pull it to opposite sides until it was ripped in half. Then he noticed two things: first, the Fisherman Hunter is circling back for another ramming attack, and second, the severed finger of his power claw is still floating nearby.
And just like that, a flash of inspiration struck again. He grabbed said finger – big enough to fit nicely in his normal hand – and then he concentrated a controlled amount of runes into it. The severed finger emitted a laser beam, but then, it stopped at a distance and stayed there. A beam blade.
To be fair, the concept already existed in the V-Swordkill, and he already done this before… but… if he think about it now, the beam blade is just a blade made of hard light that relies on the heat of Runes to cut – no – melt through armor. So… is there a way he can improve on that?
Well first off, it's a blade… with runes that has been formed to the rigidity and durability of reinforced steel. But Runes aren't steel. It's the most flexible substance in the world, it can be anything. It can be as hard as steel but it doesn't have to have the same rigid structure as steel… a moving steel… a flowing… steel…? Somehow, he was reminded of Carmilla spindle knuckle, spinning and spinning…
Haruto concentrated further… and the red hard light blade changed shape. Seconds away before the Fisherman Hunter was about to ram him with its side fin, the new blade is ready. Haruto swung the blade at the last second. The CF physical blade met with the new beam blade in a clash… that lasted only half a second. The Hunter passed through the Valvrave for a bit… before the damage became clear. The CF blade fin was cut off and the fish droid was sliced in half.
The new blade is now more focused, more solid – like it was physical equipment. Outwardly, it looked like a normal single edged blade, a katana made of pure red energy. But the blade's edge is actually a revolving monomolecular blade, cycling at incredible number of rotation per second (like… a couple thousand cycle per second). Basically, a chainsaw sword. One edged blade, yeah… but many times more powerful than the 'conventional' one.
Fourth Technique: Rune Blade
"Okay… things are… looking… up…?" Haruto look around and blinked. The Valvrave is now surrounded by at least half a dozen Fisherman Hunter with their jellyfish entourage in tow. And they start moving around the Valvrave at blurring speed. So much so that even Haruto had a hard time following them. "Whoaaa…. So many bad fishies!" Alice warily looked at all these fishes. "Spinning, spinning…" Pretty soon she was pretty dizzy.
"…maybe water is just not a good match for me?" Suddenly, the Jellyfishes came hurtling in. The Valvrave sliced several but the rest managed to latch themselves unto the Valvrave, rendering him completely immobile, not to mention the subsequent electricity. This time Haruto was more prepared, but the electric surge is magnified tenfold.
Haruto gritted his teeth, withstanding the crippling electrocution. "…seal… insulation…" And he remembered Ironskin. The technique Jeay taught him. "GrrrAAAAHH!" The Valvrave briefly glowed red as hexagonal energy plates swiftly coated the Valvrave before disappearing just as quickly, a sign its Ironskin activates. The electricity coruscated against the skin tight protective shell. And more importantly, the tentacles that touch the Valvrave's Ironskin are burning up. Like they came into contact with the surface of a lava and thus they quickly redden, smolder, the electricity quickly cuts off as the tentacles finally melt down into smoldering sludges.
At which point, the Fishermans also began to open fire, raining down torpedoes at the Valvrave. Haruto groaned and pulled back his sword to strengthen his defense. The Ironskin holds, for now. Haruto thought of returning fire, but… they were moving incredibly fast, he didn't have the chance to aim. The Ariels was fast, but she was huge, so following her is quite easy. But these guys are a lot smaller and easily more maneuverable. Then there's the Valvrave newly discovered weakness in water. What's the point of defending if he can't hit back? No. He said to himself. On second thought, there's no point in hitting back if it hits nothing. He needs to be accurate… He needs to see them. He needs to locate them first!
Haruto sharpened his senses. Enhancing it in conjunction with the Valvrave's. He imagined himself having more than one eyes and ears. Rasa had taught him how to enhance his nerves with runes… Now, he needs to do it even more, he imagines his eyes are bigger and stronger than the ones he already have. He imagines his skin is even more sensitive. Imagine his ears to catch the sound of even the smallest noise in vicinity, even the thud of dust particles colliding. This is the next level then just imagining extra limbs. This is about thinking and altering existing limbs to be something better than before – and then amplify it with the Valvrave.
And then… as before… everything starts to slow down. He can see them. Moving slowly… but that was all in his mind. He can see them, he can follow them… but physically he's not fast enough to catch them. It was all he can do to just to keep track of them using Rasa's sensory enhancement. Reeling under the pressure, frustration began to build. The Ironskin is holding… his Sensory Enhancement pushed to the limits… but… he can't fight back! The burden of holding this sense is taxing his brain until blood start dripping from his nose… There's too much to do… it's like asking him to look left and right at the same…
…wait.
The act of locating… and attacking… does that necessarily needs to be two separate activity?
He already imagined laser blast as river streams directed over a pipeway. Then he altered them compressed in marbles… …and he already imagine having more than one eyes and ears… now let's try imagine a marble… with eyeball.
The Ironskin from the Valvrave began to glow and pulsate across the Valvrave. Haruto barely had any mind and energy left to spare to maintain his defensive posture. He had to redirect the energy from Ironskin… which means if this experiment fails, he'll be defenseless.
So… six targets… six eyeballs… six projectiles… "Here goes nothing!"
The Ironskin vanished, forming into six medium sized rune bullets, and after one last pulse of thought from Haruto, the explosive projectiles moved with a will of its own, curving and slithering straight towards the speeding Fishermans. Three Fishermans were shot straight down the waist and was destroyed instantly, one lost a limb but knocked off balance, the last two was grazed, but they stopped moving.
'…it works but there's room for improvements.'
Fifth Technique: Homing Enhancement (Status: Work in Progress)
That was Haruto's last thought before the Valvrave roared into action and brought out his new blade again he jerked… and the blade extended. The blade separated into segments, connected by veins of energy. Its structure became fluid and flexible… like a whip. A razor sharp whip. This extended the blade's range to more than three times its original length, covering all droids in his range. And with that, the Valvrave swing said weapon in a wide roundhouse arc.
Fourth Technique; Subtype One: Chain Whip mode
The last three now bisected mecha fishes and what's left of their shredded jellyfish accompaniments floated around him harmlessly when the chain blade merges back into a single blade.
Now, back to that doorway…
"Kelley-san? Do you read? I'm in front of the hatch at the bottom of the ocean… the hatch number is B-23. Can you open it up?"
"Ahh. I think the hatch malfunctioned! It's not responding!"
Haruto look again at the said hatch and finally noticed it was welded shut. Probably by his supernova. "Okay. I'll have to cut it down then." The Valvrave easily sliced through the door to shreds. As soon as the opening was made, the water began to churn and flow into the opening.
And Haruto didn't waste time and fly straight into the opened hatch. Thankfully, between his still radar like sense and the blueprint, it didn't take long for him to find his way through. And just in time. The train was about to reach its destination, with only 30 seconds to spare. Fortunately, now he knows how to stop it.
The routine is simple. Overrun the train… and then stand in its way.
At least this time, he won't have to worry about keeping the content of the train safe. Just the opposite actually. He pulled out his new Rune Blade, and then held it with his two hands so that he can pour more energy into it… and the blade immediately enlarged… not just extended in length, but also massively increase in size and width. "Here we go!" "WHEEEEEE!" The Valvrave leapt to meet the charging train and he swung his oversized chain blade towards it.
The blade went through the charging train and cut it right down the middle. The Valvrave kept flying forward and the train kept moving on the opposite direction, with a giant, 70 meter tall monomolecular beam blade extending down from the flying Valvrave standing down the middle.
Fourth Technique; Subtype Two: Mega Blade
It went as well as he can hope… the train was nicely bisected and the Mega Blade also chainsaw its way through the droids inside until the superheated blade sliced through the train's power core down the middle.
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The defending resistance fighters felt the ground shakes and the sound of the explosion from the distance. They saw a light at the other end of the tunnel… bright light and some surging heat that grew closer and closer. Many thought of the worst… they thought the explosion is surging towards them… but instead…
What approached them was a bisected half molten slag of steel grinding to a halt, barely making it to its destination.
…specifically, half of them made it anyway.
"Spike? I think I've stopped the train. Did it stop?" Haruto's coarse voice spoke up from the radio.
Spike looked at this molten mess and scratched his head… "Yeah… it… definitely stopped."
"I took out most of the cars… and I think I blew it up halfway through. Half the train is still here and I think the other half still going so I was kinda worried. Those half a train still contain boatloads of droids. Please be careful with the mop ups! If you need help, don't hesitate to ask."
Spike chortled and shook his head. He wiped out an invasion, teaching his junior, then he bisected a train in half and he still wants to help? Wow. That's the new definition of niceness right there. "Hey, hey, don't hog all the glory now! You just concentrate on your junior right there. We'll take care of things here."
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"Alright. Stay safe and Godspeed." On his end, the Valvrave walked out of the explosion with a few parts of its body smoking and singed. Nothing he can't fix with a little spit and polish… safe for the severed power claw finger he's still holding in his hand… and the fact the pilot's head is dangling uselessly after the force of the explosion throw him all around and snapped his neck in ways a neck shouldn't snap. "…I just realized… this thing's airbags are useless… huh?" With a swish, the neck cracked back to its original position before rapidly healed. Just one more into the pile of safety violations a Valvrave had. Once his eyes also stop spinning, he looked around for Alice. "Alice? Alice, where are you?"
Then he finally found her legs spouted out of the corner. "Alice?"
"Wahahahaha! That was amazing!" She cheerfully jumped out from her upside down position and hopped in excitement. "Can we do it again?"
"Oh, dear me…" That puppy dog eyes. And the infantile face of his wife. That would be the death of him.
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Spike brandished a minigun as his fellow teammates also gearing up to tackle the now evened up playing field. True enough, some of the Drones survived the explosion and the grand bisection and they start spilling from the split half a train. But… at least the odds aren't as hopeless as before. And at the very least, most, if not all of the bigger drones like Hunters, Dvergs, and Bremens had definitely been destroyed.
"You actually trust him?"
"Excuse me?" Spike turned his eye to Helena, who was readying her Assault rifle.
"Back at the meeting, he just blatantly said in front of everyone he doesn't care about human lives."
"Little one, I think he just single handedly wiped out an invasion that was trying to end these human lives."
"Useful human lives. He needs us. What happened when he no longer needs us? What happened when there's more of him around?"
"Well, I guess we'll just have to burn that bridge when it comes." Spike can see his answer perplexed the younger girl. "Look, regardless of what had happened, what matters at the present, is that we'll do better working with each other than against each other. You're the military lady, you do realize you can't win this without his help. Am I wrong?"
Helena grumpily had to agree with Spike at that point.
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As the beam blade died down a while ago, it left particle residues of Haruto's red and black rune. "…Delphi? How's the situation up there?"
Delphi's answer was blunt. He gave Haruto the direct feed of Marie's Kagerou camera optics. He's seeing what her Kagerou is seeing. Marie went Spartan style with holding her kite shield at the front as she fires, and then let any enemy that came close to break themselves against the shield before she chop them with her sword. She also managed; rather crudely, to coat her sword and bullets with Runes, increasing their destructive capability. She's still got ways to go before she can create actual objects made of pure runes on the same level as Haruto… but give her time…
"At this rate, I project the mop up will be completed within the next 3 minutes." Delphi reiterated.
Through it all, there's one thing Haruto noticed: how his and Marie's runes differ. In its base raw form, her Rune… all Runes are green colored and… and now that he thinks about it, Marie's rune didn't burn her as it did him and the witless drones who touch him. So… Rune changes color when they gained their secondary nature when the Magius awakened. That's a good thing to know. That means Marie really haven't awakened yet, and if eventually she does, the symptoms are easily recognizable.
And so the learning on the job continues. Neither Haruto nor Marie realized this, but they were currently forming the basic templates of what would shape up to be the standard training curriculum for Rune Control training used by every future generation of Novus Magius men, woman, and children far, far into the future.
But for now… he had a war to win.
The Valvrave walked out of the blazing ruins of the Mag Train and looked on to the other side of the tunnel. "…Kelley-san? Where does this tunnel lead?"
"I… I'm not quite sure. The Mechanical line can connect to anywhere…"
"Can you give me a map?"
"Uploading the full map to you now."
And Haruto poured over the map.
Dyson Sphere construction was built and works inside out, following a very discernable pattern. The Mechanical Line which serves as the Foundation was always the first to be built in the innermost part of the Sphere. Once the foundation is built, layers after layers of platform was built atop it, and then the modules followed. Now, the first modules to be built are always the most critical ones; the ones absolutely necessary to support human life in space: Water, Oxygen, and Power Modules. After which, other supporting modules were build around these Primary Modules at the center of rings after rings of Secondary modules and then Tertiary Modules build adjacent to each other. The modules constructed are also affected by the Primary Modules which became the core. For example, the Power Module which responsible for the management of energy would usually had modules related to Industry and Manufacture. Examples of the Secondary modules of this sort are like the space mining stations, followed by the Modules containing facilities to process raw material unto usable components, which is then fed unto Tertiary Modules containing the factories and plants that manufacture finished goods. Oxygen modules are usually attached to Settlements and Population centers: Schools, apartments, housing complexes, Office Buildings and sometimes Recreational Centers.
And then there's Water. Arguably, the most important of them all. Attached to it are also some of the most important modules needed for life in space. Water treatment plant to produce drinkable usable water. Vast Hydrophonic Farms and barns to produce food needed to feed a planet. And… And…
"…food." Haruto's military powered mind immediately raced ahead of his civilian doubts. "I'm going."
He said this to no one in particular because at that time, everyone was too busy with their affairs, namely fending off an army of killer droids.
Which means no one… absolutely no one… will see what's coming.
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And as this happens… on the other side of the Dyson Sphere…
Module 397
It is one of the first modules to fall during ARUS initial attack. It is an Industrial Sector of the Dyson Sphere, sporting Automated Factory producing large number automobiles and factory machines. ARUS immediately took over the Module and repurposed its massive foundry to begin constructing their Mechanized Army. After which, they quickly fortify the location, establishing a heavily defended base. Layers of layers of automated sentries, coastal guns on every rampart, and orbital cannons had been constructed surrounding the central buildings, encircled by multitudes of meters thick wall of reinforced concrete, with a network of land mines dotting the surrounding perimeter. The sky is dotted with Aerial mines, surveillance drones and perimeter sensor. Not to mention the multitudes of droids placed as its standing defensive forces. And finally, to top it all off was this piece of stolen tech they acquired from the New Jior, a reverse engineered Amon Ra's Particle Barrier which have been upscaled to cover an entire base complex.
There's just one problem: The power drain is murder. Just another example of ARUS imperfect understanding of Valvrave Tech. To activate the barrier will require the factory to stop all of its production line. If necessary, the energy can be diverted from power plants from neighboring modules as well. The original plan was to take their time and build a dedicated power plant to power the barrier… but… the New Jior army arrived way ahead of schedule, throwing the whole timetable in disarray. So they're forced to make do.
They've placed Rune Sensors on multiple locations. The moment the sensor is tripped, the Particle Barrier on three separate but critical bases in the Module will immediately activate. See, they've all seen the sheer destructive power of the Valvrave. The top officers of the ARUS came to the conclusion that to try to overcome that firepower with numerical superiority is folly.
The Commander of the Base watched unblinking of the distributed video of first on the Behemoth's 'Self Destruct' sequence, and then the video of the Valvrave going Supernova.
Yes. While most of the boots on the ground of the Arus army are mechanized droids, there are, quite in fact, a sizable number of living human personnel. It just didn't become obvious at first because they only came in right after the droid army clean everything up. But as effective droids can be, it is still needed some human element to lead.
And the Commander, like many of his subordinates, was initially jaw-hung in horror when they watched the video the first time… But while his underlings balked and howled at the impossibility, the more senior officer calmed down and is now rewatching the scene, studying it, analyzing it. Not for the sheer morbidity, but to understand it. And it pays.
"From what I can tell here… the yellow one's 'Jibaku' capability had a very wide area of effect. Its actual destructive blast travel far but… that was it. As far as its explosive power goes… it's not exactly damaging per se."
"That thing just scorched over ¾ of the Module's surface! Leveled buildings and all!"
"Aye. It did. But… that's just it. See here? The Goldilocks survived the blast relatively intact – irreparably damaged, yes, fried to a crisp, yes. But I think that's just it. The most damage was caused more by the ignition of all the ammunition inside the Goldilocks… shortcircuited and overloaded involuntarily… causing it to misfire en masse… inside the bot – which led to it going nuclear. Obviously, you don't want something like that explode in our backyard."
"(gulp)"
"Save that 'gulp' for this guy." The commander now displayed the image of the Valvrave's 'Harakiri' meltdown. "This guy… is Hiroshima on steroids, lots of them, to make it worse. Range wise he fell short of the yellow guy, but if we're counting sheer destructive power… And to make things worse… unlike the yellow one, the red one seems to have relatively greater control over it. Which means he can focus and concentrate all that energy. Nothing. Nothing we have… or ever or will have, can survive that."
"S… So… So… how are we going to fight him?"
"…take one for the team."
"What?"
The commander arrived to the same conclusion as most. They understand (accurately so) that a Valvrave's 'meltdown' is like a passing plague: they flared up brightly once, and then they just die out with a hiss. So, they switched tactics. They would rather wait them out. Let the natural disaster passed and then come out to finish the job. Overheating remains a Valvrave's greatest weakness. That was the idea of this new defensive centric setting. This particular base had even prepared a proper counter strategy. If any one of the bases had its barrier breached – something they believe only a Valvrave Meltdown can do – the power will immediately divert to the other base, strengthening their defenses, who will then automatically sent all their reserves, and more reserves from other neighboring modules if needs be, to overwhelm the now weakened Valvrave.
Behemoth's Jibaku can cover large area, but its actual destructive power comes from its ability to overload energy, causing catastrophic malfunction on whichever object overpowered by said energy. The actual damage was caused as the direct consequence of said malfunction. The Valvrave was the real trouble, with its ability to generate and utilize the force of supernova into indefensible destruction… but from the current data they have, the most these Valvraves can destroy is one base each, at a time. After which, either Primate Engines will be rendered weak and vulnerable for a counter attack.
…but… as a certain one eyed Dorssian Commander had said: even if the enemy understands much about the Valvrave's technology… they unfortunately paid too little attention to the biology.
A Bremen just came floating towards the repair bay. It went through all checkpoints and nothing was out of ordinary.
…except that the spotters noticed that the Bremen was recorded as having been destroyed several days ago by the Behemoth's Jibaku.
Unfortunately, they realized this too late. By the time the Rune sensors get a read of a spiking rune energy, the Bremen had landed and had been lowered down the repair bay, where the mimicry thus revealed.
The Bremen's image made from shaped Solid Afterglow of the Mirage Channel literally crumbled down… revealing the Behemoth, who had shut down his rune reactor to get past the scanners, rose up from the remnants as its reactor hums back on. And it wasted no time with its introductory EMP shockwave and start opening fire with the zeal of a psycho on a trigger.
"Commander!" The panicked officer revealed the picture of the four armed Primate Engine unleashing a literal thunderstorm in their backyard. The last shot of the camera showed the Behemoth aiming his plasma caster at them. At the same time, from the overlooking window, he saw a part of his base exploded in a thunderous roar. Specifically, one of the Main Defensive turrets that lined up their outermost wall exploded inside out.
And then the chain of devastation quickly continued. The commander can immediately see the path the Behemoth took just by following the destruction it left in its wake. At first, it looked as if the path was chaotic and completely random, like the Behemoth only aim is to cause as much damage as possible and hope he get a lucky shot or something. However, in a short time had passed since his rampage, the resulting damage to the base was no laughing matter. 5 warehouses and several turrets had been demolished. The Commander scoffed. "Send in that new droid and push him out! Ready the barrier!"
Meanwhile, down below, the Behemoth is taking its time with its fully repaired equipment. Salvo after salvo of lightning gun fried entire armies of Aelves. When a Dvergr came rolling in, they just step, pulverize, and/or vaporize them outright with a single Plasma Caster blast. Then the Hunters came and they simply made the skies a very unsafe place to be for planes with a barrage of lightning, immobilize them, shoot them down or sometimes yank them out of the sky with their dispatched Forge-Fingers followed by an up close and personal stamp of approved pulverization. When the enemy did return fire, they might just as well shoot thin air, seeing the Behemoth calmly disassemble pieces of himself and let the shots went through him, no harm done… except to any other unfortunate friendly droid who happen to be caught in the crossfire. In such a target rich environment, the Behemoth who excels in saturation attacks can just fire blind and they still get a score.
"Oi, Otamaya… I've been thinking…" Raizo stomp a Dvergr with a half bored expression on his face.
"Hm, hm?" Yusuke responded to let his partner know he was listening even as he avoided another laser blast to their thigh.
"I think it's high time we decided a proper name for our Valvrave." He caught a Hunter and then slams it to a pack of Aelves, judo style, and then used it to practice his baseball swing again and again until the Hunter lost its shape and he ran out of Dvergr to strike.
"This again?" Yusuke detected a missile, popped off the head, let the missile pass and watch it hit an unsuspecting Hunter, which unfortunately fell unto their hands.
"No, no, hear me out. I'm serious. Remember when Pino said how these super robots were a tribute to her fallen comrades, yeah? I'm just saying… calling it just Behemoth seems kinda disrespectful, ya dig?" Raizo throw said Hunter to a Bremen who was about to open fire. The jet landed right inside the barrel, jamming it, and then everything, including a nearby battalion of Aelves, blew up.
Yusuke was about to say 'she doesn't seem to mind'… but then he remembered that after that impromptu naming, Module 77 suffered several flux of power outage on account of… inexplicable cosmic anomaly from an unknown source. "Well… in our defense, A-Drei picked it because we never agreed on any names… Are you sure this is a good time to decide on this?" Yusuke just bisected their waist to dodge a rail gun shell from a Bremen. The shell skewered at least 3 Hunters behind them.
"I think this is the best time." Raizo retaliate by firing a barrage of Plasma caster at said Bremen. The Jack and the Feline was destroyed, but the Rooster and the Gunhound detached from the Bremen in time. However the lightning salvo finished them off before they can open fire. "People say her comrades were said to be the Gods of their time. Hey, she even called ours… what was it? Hecawhatchacallit thingy…"
"Hecatoncheires. The hundred armed, fifty headed giant of the Titanomachy mythology – the Titan War. There were only three of them: Briareos, Cottus, and Gyges." Yusuke raised an eyebrow. "Come to think of it, it kinda fits. If you count carefully this guy really GOT 50 heads and a hundred arms."
"Do those guys hurl lightning?" Raizo asked he fired a full barrage of lightning guns and plasma caster that vaporized large sections of a warehouse filled with scores upon scores of droids on standby. They've already rampaged halfway across the base, wreaking untold damage on it. They're getting closer and closer to the center of the base.
"Actually… no… they hurl mountains. They were associated with earthquakes and tidal waves." Somewhere along the line, Yusuke is also starting to get in the chatting mood on this particular topic, even as he popped their heads off their neck and let a charging Dvergr through, straight into a welcoming hand of a Forgefist which promptly electrocute it with a point blank Lightning shot.
"…That's interesting… Where does lightning come in the titano-something-something?" In the mean time, Raizo clapped the frontal half of a charging Hunter flat.
"Hmmm… as far as lightning concerned in Titanomachy, the best reference is with Zeus the God of Thunder… and the Cyclops."
"The Hellsing guy also said something about that. What does he mean by the Cyclops? They were one eyed dudes right?" The Behemoth caught a rushing Dvergr in his hand before he easily squeezed it to pieces. "Not sure how that fits us, we all have two eyes."
"Well in the myth, Zeus helped freeing the first three primordial Cyclops: Brontes (Thunder – the sound), Steropes (Lightning – the bolt), and Arges (Brightness – the light), to fight the titans, and in return, they gave him his famous Lightning Bolt."
"Wait… Wa-wa-wait… so this Zeus dude isn't exactly the God of Thunder!? Shouldn't the Cyclops be called the Gods of Thunder? But people call this 'Zeus' dude the God of Thunder!?"
"He's the king of all gods, he can be whatever God he wanted, but he's well known for his thunderbolt."
"Which. He. Gets. From the Cyclops! They're the real Gods of Thunder!"
"I… don't know. Cyclops are giants, not Olympian Gods…" Yusuke rolled his eyes. Not sure how to argue with that to change the way Raizo see things. This is Raizo, after all.
"…not sure I like this Zeus-dude…" Mentally Raizo scratched the name Zeus off the list of new names for Behemoth just as the Primate Engine in discussion punched a Bremen's head off, stuff it inside its own cannon barrel, which he yanked and then used to skewer all four of its separate components into one, and then he lift the whole thing over his head and hurl it over to a pack of Dvergrs and Aelves, flattening them outright.
The fact the two pilots actually had the luxury of engaging in such an idle chat just prove the ease in which they proceed through the base. But then…
Yusuke throw away all thoughts about naming and myths when his radar detected something coming their way. Heat signature doesn't match anything they've faced before. Energy reading significantly higher… and most importantly, it doesn't match anything from the archive of Grim Drone blueprints they have. "Wait… Raizo… hold everything. What is this?"
"Huh?" Raizo also turn his thoughts to the radar. "This is…?"
"A new unit, I think."
"…another one of those Queen Unit?"
"Nah… the energy readings are way too low, but not that low. If nothing else, it's powered by runes. Something's different. Get ready."
And for the first time, the Four Armed Valvrave stopped its rampage. And then, a large shutter door on a wall above them opened up, coming out of it was the new enemy, shooting through the sky on a pair of fiery trail spitting out of its rear boosters.
"…is that a… bear?"
"What, again!?"
"No, wait… look!"
It's huge. Let's get that straight out of the way. Big enough to slightly beat the Behemoth as far as size goes. Its upper half has a very bulky build, with an oversized arm almost as tall as the unit itself. Its upper body was now encapsulated in so many slabs of armor so thick; it significantly increased the height and width of its upper body. Its neck disappeared under its bulky chest armor, and what little can be seen of the Hunter's original head was fused solid with this massive chest armor. Said armor also sport several boosters on its back, the same boosters also sported by its bulky shoulder armor, which was slightly bigger than its chest. Such was the weight of these armors that the Bearskin Hunter was rendered slightly hunched down. Its legs are encased in giant leg armor sporting tank threads for feet. More menacingly, are these gigantic oversized heavy gauntlets sporting claws made of Clear Fossil. It was so big that it enlarged its massive arms until it was almost as tall as the main body.
"Well… ARUS had a tendency to keep cost to the minimum… they would rather modify existing model rather than build new ones. And… well…"
"Yusuke, less talk. We're destroying that thing. Then you can study it. Let's go?"
"Let's."
The Behemoth charged but then the Bearskin Hunter beat them to it. As soon as the boosters on its back lit up, the massive unit hurled its whole mass unto the Behemoth at an unexpected speed for something its size. The two pilots get banged against their seat by the impact of an object with massive tonnage travelling at reckless, almost suicidal speed. They barely recover from the ordeal when the Bearskin Hunter began attacking them with animalistic savagery befits its namesake with its claws. Small thrusters popped out on the surface of the droid's power claw and propelled said arm into a flurry of frenzied assaults. The Behemoth tried to block the rocket propelled slash, but the CF claw tore through the Forgefist, tearing a nasty gash on the surface while the other claw managed get past their block and left a scratch on their face. A big scratch. "HEY, I JUST FIXED THAT!" Yusuke roared.
"FIREE!" Raizo quickly retaliate. The Behemoth opened fire with his lightning guns point blank whilst sending several punches. The Bearskin was electrocuted but it didn't stop its rampage. Its armor took a punch that could've pulverized a tank, but only had a dent to show for it, showing just how tough its armor is. In fact, it soon became clear to the Behemoth that the Bearskin's ludicrously tough armor is its weapon. The main booster on the Bearskin's back lit up again, propelling its main body's torso into a powerful bodysmash that struck the Behemoth by the chest, sending a shock all the way to its core, momentarily throwing the yellow Valvrave off balance. And then the Bearskin lit up all its boosters again and closed the distance, not giving the Valvrave a chance to recover. The second charge managed to force the Valvrave to the wall, but it also allowed the Behemoth two arms to catch it by the shoulder while its remaining two arms fired plasma caster point blank. It tore several cauterized holes on the armor, even shooting off one of its arms, it didn't care. It just keep maiming, clawing, flailing its massive claws ferociously and slamming its sturdy body against the Behemoth in berserker frenzy – not caring on the attacks coming its way – only the ones it inflicted upon the target. Now it even uses the tank tracks on his feet to sent kicks and stomps that grind at the Behemoth midsection. But that was its big mistake. The Behemoth seized said leg, and ignoring the grinding tracks crunching his arm, he punched the joint with one arm, ripping it off the Hunter's knees. Using the massive dismembered leg as a bludgeon, the Behemoth bashed the Bearskin Hunter several times until its thick armor began to flake off. One last bash and the torso armor was snapped open, revealing the standard Hunter beneath the armor. The Behemoth quickly capitalizes that by sending a rocket propelled piston punch straight into the exposed abdomen. The punch went out of the other side of the Hunter's back with its pulverized Hunter's head in the Behemoth's grip.
The Bearskin Hunter crumbles down into a wreck as soon as the Behemoth yanked his fist out of the loser's chest cavity. But boy… for a droid fight, it really did a number on them with vicious gouges and slashes now marring the initially untouched Primate Engine. Even the pilots are now breaking sweat. But they won.
Yusuke grumpily observed the damage on their Valvrave. "I thought you're using the iron skin? Those CF claws really did a number on us!"
"How am I supposed to use it when you got us dismembered every second!?"
"…good point." Jeay's experience also told him this to be the weakness of the Iron skin technique. To effectively use the Ironskin, the Behemoth must remain whole at all times. It upped their defensive capability but it also denied them the Behemoth's signature evasion mechanic.
"Well… at least we won… IS THAT THE BEST YOU GOT!?" Raizo roared in triumph.
Seeing the damage inflicted on the Behemoth though, the commander replied with a smirk: "Send in the rest."
And Yusuke's radar detected more incoming.
And then another arrived… and another… and another… suddenly they're surrounded by at least half a dozen Bearskin Hunters.
"…you had to ask." Yusuke sighed.
"Ironskin! Ironskin!" The Behemoth briefly shimmered with a near transparent darkish orange filament which quickly receded. The ironskin is active. And just in time.
Three Bearskin Hunters bullrushed them and pushed the Behemoth to the ground. Clawing and bashing ferociously at the downed prey, the ironskin proved its effectiveness, as this time the claws can't penetrate. But inside the cockpit, the two pilots noticed their heat gauge is rising with each blocked attack. They tried to raise their hand to block but… were their controller always this sluggish!? It's like their whole mech is being dipped in liquid concrete! "Screw you!" Raizo finally decided to not bother blocking and pushed the pedal, and the Behemoth kicked the first Bearskin back. His two arms stretched out amidst the torrent of slashes and stomps, and it managed to catch the heads of the two Bearskin Hunters. The fingers flexed in and sank into the faces of the Hunters. The Behemoth rose up to his feet and lifted the two still squirming Hunters in his first pair of hands until their flailing legs left the ground. His other pair of arms was charging the plasma caster to shoot the two droids right in the face, point blank.
But before they can fire, the remaining four Bearskin Hunters suddenly joined shoulder to shoulder and went full body charge at the Behemoth. The quadruple bulrush smashed the Behemoth off his feet around the same time the fully charged plasma caster fired. The yellow Valvrave was sent flying high into the air in an uncontrollable spiral and the plasma blast veered way off the mark in haphazard trajectory. The two giant stray shots flew across the base: one vaporized another base turret, the other missed the Command Center by the inches, the grazing electricity shattered the windows and electrocuted several officers to a crisp right in their seats. That was the sign for the commander that this battle is becoming dangerously out of control. "Send instructions to those droids; tell them to push that monster out of the perimeter of the barrier!" Then he turned to another officer: "You, tell me the barrier is ready!"
"The reactor is charged! It'll be ready at the word!"
The Behemoth crash landed violently atop a base complex, but he managed to stick it on his two feet. "Starting to think we had rotten luck with bears." Yusuke typed furiously and check the monitor to assess the damage. It looks okay so far, but it's getting bad. With Ironskin in full force, their defense is as solid as a diamond, but their heat gauge are increasing at worrisome pace, and not to mention it also made the Behemoth's movement more sluggish. On the bright side, it dialed their already dialed to eleven brute strength up to eleven hundred.
"Incoming!" The Behemoth just raised its head and saw one of the Bearskin are plunging towards them in a kamikaze ramming attack. "I had enough of that thing!" The Behemoth deftly sidestepped, allowing the charging droid to pass him beneath his armpit. After which, he immediately closed the gap and strangle the Bearskin with his one hand. Whilst the Bearskin is still squirming, the Behemoth's two other arms grab the flailing claws and hold them still while its last remaining arm start firing the plasma caster at its joints, shooting the limbs off. First left arm, then the right arm. When he saw more Bearskin is approaching from the air, the Behemoth growled and grabbed the limbless bearskin by the leg and yank. HARD.
The Bearskin struggled briefly as its metal waist strained to hold out the pull… but eventually, the Behemoth managed to tore said waist and yanked the entire lower half off the upper one, leaving only the Bearskin torso with its spinal cord dangling out. The behemoth grasped said spinal cord and then swing the mutilated Mech like a flail. The first incoming Bearskin was bashed to the side when the weaponized carcass struck him full by the ribs and accidentally entangled the two units together. When the next Bearskin arrived, the Behemoth welcomed it by swinging the now more than double in size flail down in a vertical chop and hammered it to the ground. Three Bearskins are now crunched together in a single mass, still online, judging by all the squirming.
The last three Bearskins immediately merged together shoulder to shoulder in a combined ramming attack. The Behemoth responded by grabbing the meshed together Bearskin and lifted a mass three times his own size over its head and waited. When the Triple Ramming attack came, the Behemoth welcomed it by slamming the conjoined mass right in their faces… literally. Needless to say it was a complete wreck. As tough the Bearskin Hunters are, their energy reactors can only endure so much abuse before it went nuclear. The explosion engulfed everything in sight. And for the second time that day, the Behemoth was thrown up high to the air.
Before the two pilots can recover, another, newly arrived Bearskin Hunter came charging in and rammed them midair. Completely caught off guard, the Behemoth was pushed far, far off to the edge of the base faster than the two pilots can recover. Before they knew it, the Bearskin Hunter had already pinned him right on the peripheral edges of the Base.
"NOW!" The commander shouted.
In less than a minute, the ravaged base was suddenly enclosed by a massive dome of gold as hexagon after hexagon of CF particle shaped the defensive matrix of the Particle Barrier. By the time the Behemoth finally managed to tore the lone Bearskin Hunter apart, the base had completed its defense. The Behemoth charged towards the barrier and fired at it. It was no good. He tried to bash at it several times, and still the barrier remained inviolate.
"This… looks like Amon Ra's barrier."
"Sumbitches really stole our tech and make some creative use for it, yeah?"
"Hrmph." Yusuke was decidedly unimpressed. "I imagine the power drain must be murder…"
The Commander looked on as the Behemoth stood menacingly at the very edges of the barrier, touching the barrier with its palm.
Now this is where the Commander's lack of understanding of Magius biology betrayed the first flaw. The misunderstanding of a Magius and human learning curve.
It's not that the commander was underestimating the opposition. He knows he's facing children, but he also know they are in command of the most powerful weapon on earth in which they now have had plenty of experience in operating. He had studied their history: of battles they've fought and had at least some grasp of the level of their skill, so to speak. The Commander was a veteran soldier who understands that direct experience in real warzone yields more value than years of study in classrooms. So he understands these kids are able veteran soldiers. He even knows that Yusuke Otamaya had absorbed the power from an Elder Magius. So as he understands it, one of the super soldiers just got a big boost of intelligence and power. But he imagined the poor boy would need some time to adjust himself to all that power. To learn the rope of mastering it. A process that will take time and training.
Unfortunately, his perception of their learning curve still follows the perspective of humans. Now, imagine the standard graphic of a human learning curve: in the initial period of learning, when a person encounters new knowledge for the first time, their learning curve was steep. They absorbed a large number of knowledge in a short span of time. As much information a human can acquire in the learning process, it still take some time to fully absorb it all – if they can absorb it all. For ease's sake, let's use RPG as an illustration. A rookie first timer cannot jump from Lv. 1 to lv. 100 in one breath, even if he was being tutored by someone at level 100. What's more, as a person's mastery grew, the amount time needed to learn increase, conversely, the amount of knowledge gained decreases. Every rookie is a New Game experience and there's no guarantee the second playthrough can reach the exact same lv 100 as the tutor. Which is why a human learning curve is always depicted as a diagonal curve that was at a steep angle in the beginning but grew increasingly shallow as time went on.
But the Magius learning curve is different. At least, in the case of Yusuke Otamaya, it is different. When Yusuke absorbed Jeay's rune, he didn't just absorbed his power, he also absorbed his whole knowledge AND experience, everything he had ever learned, his memories, his entire lifetime of experiencing trial and error. All of them were made part of Yusuke's base of knowledge in a cramming session that last over a span of a single bite to the neck. There's no chance of error or misunderstanding in this case because Jeay simply dumped his entire accumulated EXP down into Yusuke's pool – in a literal sense. In a Magius RPG, Lv 1 can become Lv 100 in, quite literally, no time at all. It's not a New Game. It's a new Game+, with the rookie inherited the predecessor's inventory and Exps, even skills and spells. Magius learning curve is also steep… but it's not climbing at an angle.
It's an upright shot straight to the top.
Yusuke drew on Jeay's experience and assumed his awakened state. The Behemoth's right palm jerked as black and yellow energy coursed through said palm… and then, he simply touched the particle barrier with it, and kept his palm there.
The particle barrier pulsed only once, and the next instant, every power plant in the Base reported an overload. Light bulbs and lamps across the whole base, even the lightings in that very command center flickered brighter and brighter the longer the Behemoth maintain his contact with the barrier. Similarly, the computers went static and became increasingly buggy with each passing moment until electricity began to jump across the surface. Before the commander can even comprehend what happened, the critical threshold was passed and the power plants exploded, wirings burnt, even the backup generator that immediately try to kick in was snuffed out. Every lamp in the entire base, every computer, every monitor, every electronic equipment hooked to a power source overload themselves in a critical short-circuit and exploded violently. The Barrier began to shatter; starting from where the Behemoth had ever so gently touched it before rippling away into a complete collapse.
And the worst part for the Commander: the Valvrave is CLEARLY have yet to run out of steam. That was easily surmised as he, and the rest of his terrified subordinates, watched as the Behemoth start walking towards them, fresh energy coursing through its limbs. "Let's hail them now." Yusuke grunted back to his normal self.
"Right on." Raizo coolly turn on the speakers on open channel.
"Attention Arus Commander. This is Yusuke Otamaya and Raizo Yamada of the New Jior Space Defense Force. As you can see, your resistance is futile. We've destroyed all your weapons, and your last defense has been undone. If you have more you can throw at us, do it now. But I assure you, they will not be enough. Surrender now, or we will continue, all the way to your eventual obliteration. Surrender and live… or test us… and fail all the same."
The lower rank and file looked at the commander. All their eyes, scared out of their wits, begged the commander to accept. But their commander is made of sterner stuff: "That's a lot of words for the simple offer of surrender or die, kiddo."
"Jeay-san was man of eloquence, believe it or not." Yusuke tilted his head, with the usual casual slightly nervous tone returning. "Surrender. Please. We're getting tired of offering the enemy that chance, then get it rejected out of pride, then we have to massacre. Seriously. In times like that we often wonder: where did common sense go?"
"Don't get me wrong kid, I know when I'm beaten. You beat this base, if I had a white flag I'll swing it full force. But… you haven't won the war yet. There are two more bases like this in this module and I've made sure they are alerted to your presence. Sure, you've easily overwhelmed us with ease… but how hot is your Valvrave now? You got enough to take them all out?"
Yusuke and Raizo raised their eyebrows. Their heat gauge denotes 65. The captain clearly showed intimate understanding of their Valvrave's weakness and strength. Now, see, this is the difference in fighting a robot and a human. Humans learn and innovate. As funny as it sounds, the kids kinda miss this kind of intelligent warfare. "Yes well, about that."
"?"
"When will they be coming?"
"What will be coming?"
"The reserve army of drones from the other bases, when will they arrive here?"
The commander smug look vaporized in an instant.
"You did set them up like that, yes? Once the other bases had detected the particle barrier fails on any one base, they would send in reserves to crush us. So… where are they?"
The Commander's gaze darkened. "Wish granted kiddo. They're coming in right about now."
Lightning crackled on the Behemoth's fingers as he looked to the horizon: true enough, thousands if not hundreds of thousands of droids came swarming towards them. "Please consider your terms of surrender as we finish them off."
The Behemoth nonchalantly floated up and without a backward glance charged towards the largest cluster of drones. Not a moment later, a thunderstorm erupted, followed by a series of explosions that filled the sky.
As the survivor of the attack looked on, they turn to their commander. That grizzled wizened face wrinkled in deep thought. "Commander… how did they know? About the trap?"
"Doesn't matter." The Commander fell to his seat in deep thought. "The better question is… if they know this was a trap… why did they come here anyway?"
The other junior office blinked at the senior, finally catching up to his thought process.
The seasoned commander looked at the state of his base: power plant busted. Multitudes of systems and factory production capability disabled. Warehouses destroyed. And then there's hundreds and thousands of… The commander finally snapped in epiphany. "…we weren't the target."
"What?"
"We were never the target. The Yellow One… an Original Unit… that thing… is just the god damn DECOY."
"…Decoy?"
And it was in that moment the Commander also realized the second flaw of his understanding of the enemy.
…they're not just attacking without tactical coordination. They're being lead. Their target… was not simply destroying the enemy outright. This is a war of attrition. Exactly the kind of war Valvraves are supposedly BAD at. But… that was not the point here. They're very good at dealing astronomical amount of damage and they used that to bleed the opposition, not by targeting the installation or the position… they're targeting the army. Not the base; not the command structure… the army. But this was a distraction. The Behemoth is attacking directly at the factory producing the droids, but there's more than one way to stop production.
"The supply lines… their primary target is attacking our supply lines!"
As mentioned before, the Modules constructed on the Sphere always follow an inside out pattern, starting from the Primary Module at the core, then the Secondary Module on the inner ring, and finally the Tertiary Module on the outskirts. Industrial modules such as this one are Tertiary Modules. And then foundries and refineries responsible for producing the raw material needed for the factories to maintain production is the secondary Modules, located in the inner ring. Naturally, ARUS place some standing forces to guard these critical facilities with heavier security with ample reserves… They set it up so that these reserves can easily reinforce the Tertiary Modules while still had enough to guard themselves. Bu~ut thanks to the Behemoth all out assault, those reserves are being pulled away… at an irregular rate. Over two thirds of the reserves in this region are expended now… all of them fed to the Behemoth's electric blender.
…effectively leaving the other modules vulnerable to assault.
Secondary Module 287
Mining Station…
The Base guarding this station had heard another base was under attack by an original unit. Capturing this original unit is a priority (their client promise a big bonus for its capture) so they unreservedly sent in almost 2/3rd of their Droid reserves.
5 minutes after the army departed, three Kagerous fully armed to the teeth erupted from the inside of the base and now they're in the process of tearing it apart.
One Kagerou with Hikaminari gear smashed down a Bremen before he opened fire at a turret, ripping it apart.
Another Kagerou with Hiuchiba Gear opened fire at a foundry, rupturing it and sent down a flood of molten metal unto a charging wave of Dvergrs.
Leading the two Kagerous is a Pink Kakaiju, custom made for Ashra. She's carrying a simple Sword in one hand and a rifle on the other. The rifle launched a volley of beam bullets whilst charging Runes into the Sword. Once its fully charged, she opened fire from the tip of said sword, launching a stream of laser that melt through several blocks of buildings. Maintaining the beam, she swept them to the side, slicing off several more block and wiping out some more on the side.
Once that was done, the base was well on its way to ruin.
"Strike Teams, this is Strike Command Beta. Report."
"This is Strike Team 1, we're almost done here." Ashra reported back.
Secondary Module 286
Oil Refinery…
"This is Strike Team 2." Another team of three Kagerou stood over a sea of fire that was the enemy base. The giants were overseeing lines of soldiers surrendering to a significantly smaller group of militia. "We've taken out the refinery. Damage to the infrastructure is minimal."
Secondary Module 279
Uranium Silo…
"This is Strike Team 3." Three Kagerou, one with Hito, one with Hinowa, and one with Hiuchiba is tackling down a Carrier sending swarms of Splicers. "Encountering heavy resistance, they have a Capital Class Ship; we're still working on it!"
"Roger that, Strike Team 3, sending in Backup."
Cain stood attentively in the throne of his Dainslev overseeing the battle on four fronts by watching it all through the optics of 10 Primate Engines. And indeed, Strike Team 3 was ill equipped to tackle a Carrier.
"They need firepower. Sending in the L-Oben unit."
Outside, the Dainslev floated calmly as its left arm detached itself from his shoulder before it flew away at such speed, it almost like it vanished to thin air. A new limb erupted from the stump, made of pure green hard light to replace said missing limb. And it was not the only limb missing.
Point in fact… the Dainslev is bereft… all four of her limbs right now. Approximating the absentee limbs, are these replacements made of Solid Afterglow hardlight of green and gold. The real limbs are missing… because they're all on missions of their own.
Apart from the first four, Cain was also overseeing an assault on three other separate operations in three separate locations, committed by his absentee three limbs.
L-Oben, the left arm, generates a massive hardlight projection of itself, 20 times its own size, and then lay a siege on a base on module 281, a module geared towards production of prefabricated housings. It did so by ripping and then hurling entire building blocks unto the base until they surrender;
L-Unten, the left leg, had infiltrated a base in Module 276, the Data and Surveillance Center; right after it had terrorized its entire human occupants in a one drone psychological war and then hacked into its servers to steal terabytes of research data and critical intels;
R-Unten, the right leg, is sabotaging the distribution system of supplies and ammunition in Module 263, Transport and Logistics center, by planting bombs on the bridges, seeding all roads with mines, and last but not least: X-Eins' personal favorite, turning fuel stations into impromptu Fireworks show;
And apart from the aforementioned R-Oben, the main body is also standing nicely in Module 254… as three carriers are bombarding his position for the last 30 minutes, expending billions worth of ammunition uselessly against his impenetrable Rune Barrier (Naturally far more advanced than the human version currently in development).
As all this happened right outside his blessed cockpit, he muted the noise, helped himself to a canned Kidney Pie he had baked in the built in Microwave in his cockpit, sip his tea… and took the time to actually read a book (War and Peace) to help him think.
As it so happens, Cain also shared Haruto's idea of bleeding the enemy dry. Though he imagined he would have easier time putting this idea into practice with his vastly wider options of more powerful arsenal under his command compared to the wayward young Magius. In any rate…
Cain moved one screen away from the multitudes of others and then enlarged it so that he can have a better look. Specifically, the scene in which the Behemoth is rampaging, destroying scores and scores of ARUS droid fleet ever so easily. He shook his head in disapproval. "…not good enough… this is not good enough. This is hardly a challenge…" Cain rested his temple on his knuckles in deep thought. 'Or perhaps that was not the case? The age accelerant speed up the maturity rate of their Magius genes… but to trigger an awakening requires more than just aging… in humans it requires… some kind of an emotional outburst. Awakening into an Elder is one thing… but… then what of the next step…? What's needed here? I'm missing something…'
To his annoyance, his train of thought was disturbed by an alarm blaring. "Hm, what now?" He noticed the Splicer and the carrier flew away. Putting up a distance. "Hmmm… Ahh… I see. The Nuclear Option. Normally I wouldn't care less… but…"
He could just let these idiots drop whatever device of massive destruction the humans can come up with. And perhaps make them drop a couple more just to really rub it in… bu~ut… he was reminded of this new allies he had to work with. Preserving the sanctity of the module and minimizing the damage to the environment takes priority here… so…
As expected, 3 bombers are flying in with ominous object strapped to their underbelly. Cain sighed and shook his head. Muttering something about primitive toys and uncivilized brutes in his alien language, the one eyed Magius merely pressed a button and sent a surge.
Three energy projectiles parted from the Dainslev energy body, and then it launched themselves unto the incoming bomber Splicers, homing at them so fast, they didn't even had the time to register what happened. It struck them full, and enclosed all three ships in individual spherical energy barriers with barely enough space to house a single ship. One jolt, and the megaton payload detonated harmlessly inside the enclosed space. Its only casualties are the three hapless Splicers enclosed within said barrier. There were almost nothing left of them when the cage vanished and the smoke of the explosion poured out, the burnt pieces came falling down as little more than dust.
The captains of the Carrier blinked several times watching their strongest payload failed so pathetically. "…umm… uhh… what do we have that's bigger than the N4?"
The sweating gunnery chief merely shook his head. "…none."
Cain finished off his pie and start cleaning up. "Maltne. Cut them down please."
The Dainslev's backpack detached momentarily, the oversized Glaive: the Maltne Seltsam took some moment to gather rune unto itself… and the semi sentient glaive disappeared into a blur of neon green.
In half a second, a neon green blur left a trail of green light, drawing a circle that struck all three carriers.
And then the Glaive reappeared at Dainslev' back and silently reattached.
And then a report came.
"This is Strike Team 3. Mission accomplished."
"Very good." Cain took a moment of pause and briefly waited as the three carriers, cleaved cleanly in half, crashed on the ground. Around that time, his drones returned, and the Dainslev reclaimed his limbs. The Dainslev turned around, and he made a grand bowing gesture in front of a seemingly unseen audience; but there is, in fact, an audience.
Said audience is a small camera, placed right in the opposite side of the bowing Dainslev with the explosion of the carrier's damaged reactor serving as the background.
A camera that is live broadcasting everything that has happened, fed directly into the monitor brought by a gulping Alia, currently shown to her commanding officer. Everyone in the briefing room who watched the live feed was rendered completely speechless.
The whole 'film' lasted only less than an hour.
But in that one hour, they just watched how the numerically inferior Valvrave just launched 8 separate operations, 8 overwhelmingly successful missions that all but overwhelmed all obstacles and conquered territories so heavily defended that, even if the Resistance had a fully equipped army, would still take years of grinding war. The Commanders of the Resistance get the message loud and clear: their helpers are powerful enough to wipe out any army set against them.
Any army.
So if they even think about betraying the New Jior and their mighty robots…
Any cunning enough Resistance officers in that room who harbored such thoughts no longer had the balls to even consider it.
But, alas for them, Cain wasn't finished yet.
"All Strike Teams, this is Strike Command Beta." Cain frowned as he analyzed the data he gathered from the L-Unten. "I'm aware this is a bit sudden, but we have a developing situation here and a slight change of plan. We are not rendezvousing to point Alpha. Delivering new coordinates now."
"Receiving." Ashra looked at the coordinates and frowned.
"Confirmed." The other teams also looked indifferently at the coordinates and shrug it off before they depart.
In the case of the Behemoth, the coordinates came with some additional extra video… which caused the two pilots to immediately bolted off with all due haste.
The coordinates in question just so happens to be a module adjacent to theirs anyway.
00000000000000
The base crew of Module 395 had already received the news of the Behemoth's rampage in the other base. For the record, that base was easily thrice their size, and they don't have any fancy stolen Valvrave tech or sorts… why… they haven't even finished building their base yet!
So understandably, when they detected a familiar energy signature in the vicinity, they freak out.
"I'm not paid enough for this shit!" "We're doomed!" "Oh, fuck, oh fuck!" Statements of similar sorts were flying about when the radar officer noticed something even worse:
Entire cohort of Kagerous from every other location is converging on their module.
The screams of terror were silenced. But not because they've overcome the fear, but because they had been terrorized beyond the point of despair or caring at this point.
So it was with absolute bewilderment when the radar officer stated: "…they're… not heading this way."
"What?"
"They're not heading this way!" The radar officer almost jumped up from his seat when he reported this practically miraculous event.
True enough, the Behemoth completely ignored the half built base. Instead, it plunged straight into the ground, towards a cargo mechanical hatch big enough to let something of its size through. It didn't bother asking permission, but he did knock the door… with a dead vertical nosedive and a quadruple rocket piston punch. Blasting through several layers of armor and plating, the Behemoth punched his way through before it finally landed on the Mechanical Line.
"Where is it? Where is it?"
"Strike Command Beta, this is Strike Team Alpha, requesting confirmation. Are you sure this is the right location?"
Before any reply came, Raizo saw the light at the end of the tunnel from his side. "HEAD'S UP!"
BANG!
The speeding Mag Train smashed the Behemoth until it sank on the nose of the front car and its head collided against its front windows. The train Conductor stood horrified as the face of an angry robot from the future is plastered allover his screen.
Collision aside, the hunter had found its prey. "Contact established – ouch…" Yusuke reported while rubbing his bruised head. "Proceeding with… (grunt)… the mission." The Behemoth brought out the Mirage Channel and pull out the Mice head component. The Mice turned into a giant needle like object, and the Behemoth stab it into the Driver's seat. The conductor had time enough to run before a giant needle pierced through the roof and straight into the control panel. The Needle glowed, and neon green circuitry suddenly began to permeate, spreading everywhere through the Mag Train's hardware and software. "Assuming control…" The train's system was soon slaved unto the Behemoth's and he simply ordered it to slow down and stop immediately. They don't want to risk damaging the train for fear of the cargo's safety.
Within minutes, the other Kagerous had also arrived, and by that time, the train had fully stopped. The Behemoth was on sentry duty while one of its pilot, Yusuke, is trying to open the cargo hold. "It shouldn't take a minute… there!" The cargo door was opened, and lo and behold, the cargo. Safe. Sound. Unharmed.
Civilians. Hundreds upon hundreds of wide eyed, terrified and tired civilians, jampacked together with barely any personal space inside even in that humongous car.
"W… Who are you?" One of them asked
"We're the New Jior Space Defense Force." Yusuke grinned. "NJSDF, for short."
Cain was the very last to arrive at the scene. Point in fact, by the time he get there, the NJSDF had taken over the half built base, which is apparently the station from which the train had left. It was meant to be a supply depot, but they never finished building the base, so it was still skeletally crewed, and had almost little to no defense. So they never bothered to put up a fight when 10 giant super robots came descending upon them, demanding food, water, and some medicine for the rescued civilians. They had no choice but to comply without a fuss.
"I see you've finished it splendidly." Cain smiled as he approached Yusuke and Raizo, the latter is helping himself to a sandwich.
"You took your time." Yusuke warily asked.
"Well, because I can afford to. I knew very well that the two of you are most definitely equal to the task at hand." Cain replied coolly as he glanced at the grateful civilians receiving food from the surrendering mercenaries under the strict supervision of the New Jior soldiers… and the big gun of a looming Kagerou.
Cain purposefully ran late because he knew he would steal the spotlight if he had arrived first. He already broadcasted their overwhelmingly powerful military capabilities to the stubborn officers of the Resistance to soften their belly. That's the 'pull'. Now, he'll offer a 'push'. The push being, he made the New Jior to put on a display of rescuing the civilians and even provide humanitarian aid. Now they'll be seen as heroes instead of hostile invaders. This will give them moral high ground, and securing support from the common people.
"From now on, I think we'll be engaging with more operations of this sort in the future." Cain stated. "I think you kids with your moral fiber would find this most agreeable, no?"
"?" Yusuke frowned. "What is this? Suddenly you're a humanitarian?"
"Oh? Why can't I be?"
"I know your history, Commander Cain. And you're L-Elf's teacher! There's no give and take with you. You'll never do something without gains for yourself."
"Aah… yes. But… unlike my poor student, I know when to adapt to the situation at hand. Arguably, there is indeed something of militaristic nature to gain from this. Tell me… why do you think they brought all these civilians away? And where do you think they're taking them, hmm?"
Yusuke and Raizo looked at each other, silently brainstorming… and then, Yusuke came up with the answer first. "…guinea pigs."
"Guinea what now!?" Raizo blurted.
"…if they're trying to repeat the experimentation on creating Magius… they're going to need test subjects…"
Even Raizo gets it immediately. "Those sons of bitches…!"
Cain nodded. "Well… that is indeed the worst possible fate imaginable. But I imagine there is more than that. Forced Labor, perhaps. Human shield. Keeping up appearances in PR? And etc, etc. Either way, I think it would be in our best interest to continue this rescue op whenever possible. Assuming they are indeed being transported to face such a fate… preventing the delivery would be most detrimental to our enemies' goals. This too, is still part of our goal in bleeding the enemy out."
Raizo nodded, and Yusuke also eventually approved, although he still had his scruples. He wisely kept it to himself. Like, for example… they still haven't been able to find a way to contact their other forces up in space… and not to mention they haven't had a solid clue on Haruto's location and status. And yet Cain seem taking all this way too calmly.
00000000000000
Meanwhile, as things progressed elsewhere, Marie had become truly adept in bending and molding Runes to her will. Halfway through the fight, she began to get a hang of firing Rune Energy projectiles directly from her mechanical hand. She even deftly switched between the energy bullets and shield mode midfight, complementing it with occasional conventional weapons from the Kagerou. Eventually, as she put one last shot on the last Hunter standing, she stopped to observe her work. "I'd say that's about done…"
"Krrzzzt… zzzttt… hello? Anybody up there!?" Through the noise of all the statics was Spike's unmistakable gung ho tone.
"Spike? Spike! This is Marie! What happened?"
"Lassie? How you doin' up there? Where's Haruto?"
"Haruto… I don't know where he went, but I just finished up here. How's it going down there?"
"Well… it's a bit embarrassing but we're down to just one last car. Specifically, one last bot. And this is a big one! They brought a pretty big unit, it looks like a… bear? Chainsaw Claws and all. Luckily it's trapped under the rubble and missing an arm I think, but it's still a murderbot way too big for us to chew! Could use the help?"
"On my way. Delphi, chart a course."
"Course charted." Faster than a Google GPS map on steroids, the L-Elf based AI had already charted a trip that should take only less than 1.5 minutes.
Though during that 1.5 minutes, the tired and terrified Resistance militia had to watch in horror as the Bearskin Hunter is struggling and clawing viciously at this several tons of deadweight pinning it to the ground. Its chainsaw talon is flailing wildly at them, not even caring the fact his armor was half melted, courtesy of a giant superheated mega Rune blade that had nearly chopped it in half. The Hunter's head sprouting out of the gaping crevice had one third of its head melted off, the components inside are smoldering.
And it is breaking free.
Everyone gave the raging machine a wide berth, whilst Spike and Helena watched the beastly drone from a distance where they can see it more clearly. The last time the Bearskin stretched out its hand, its claw grazed the floor just inches from where the former Pro Football player was standing. Spike is still holding his gatling gun. "…if I still had the full pack… I might be able to turn that head into a beehive…" His gatling gun had reaped a nice tally today, though now he only had less than a quarter ammunitions left. "What say you, lass?"
"That was our last ammo pack for that Gatling Gun." Helena sighed. "…and this is my last grenade." And before them, the Bearskin Hunter had shrugged off the last rubble that bar its way. It was on the verge of breaking completely free, and she entertained of taking the low possibility of lobbing the explosive down the opening from this distance… But if she miss, then it's a waste of her last and not so easily replenished explosive.
"…let's just save it for later." Spike sighed in relief.
…and the two pronged Blackrose erupted and punctured the Hunter's head off its shoulder from behind. The Bearskin Hunter is still squirming for a while, but then the Blackrose was yanked out violently by the newly arrived Kagerou right out of its spinal cord. Marie unloaded half a dozen shots into the exposed machinery and put it out of their misery. "…and that's a wrap." Marie chirped from the speaker. "Is everybody okay?"
"Couple of bruises and some singed hair. Nothing a spit can't handle. Where's the big man, lassie?"
"I… I thought he was with you… Delphi said Haruto went down here first and did this?" Marie gestured at the half melted carcass of a half a train bisected down the middle. Clearly Haruto's handiwork. Then again, there's no Valvrave here, so clearly Haruto didn't go this way. But Marie also frowned seeing that there are so few of the Militia in this tunnel. "…was the situation really that bad? I count only like… 6 people left…?"
Spike laughed whilst Helena groaned. "Whaaat! No need to worry lassie! We're having a blast and no one was hurt."
"Having a blast my ass…" Helena growled. "The other idiots are way back there, on salvage op. They hadn't had good loot in months." The former Instructor jerked her thumb to other end of the tunnel where their base lay. It was something she observed a little earlier. The Valvrave bisected the train, destroying most of the most dangerous content of the train, leaving the small fries, easy enough for the even the underpowered Militia to deal with. They mop up the remainder of the droids one car at a time… but even when they barely finished the first car, already she saw many of the militia break ranks and ignore military discipline as they start pillaging the supplies left behind in the car, disregarding the fact that there are still more droids crawling out of the wreckage and the operation was far from over. She can just about imagine those idiot militias recklessly plunging themselves into the ruins, gathering as much loot as they can from the carcass ignoring every safety protocol in the book.
This would never happened if some of his more trustworthy subordinates are around to maintain order… but thanks to that supernova shenanigans… these 4 with her now are the only ones left with some idea about military discipline.
"Aaahh… you guys are having a hard time too, huh…" Marie can somehow sympathize. "But… if Haruto didn't come this way… where could he be?" Their short range radio didn't work, so at the very least, Haruto had gone quite further than any adjacent module.
While Spike and the others are still pondering the possibilities, Miranda's voice start chirping from the radio.
"Guys! Guys! Head's up! We detected another train coming!"
"Another one!?"
"It's slower than before… but… it's coming. We… erh… what… wait… what?"
"Huh?"
"Uhhh… we… had an incoming transmission."
"WHAT?" Helena rolled her eyes. Ever since they were pushed all the way here, they were completely isolated. They had no way of contacting anyone thanks to all the jamming. And now… this? "Are you sure it's not a trap?"
"That's what I thought but… the com's officer said it's using an old Jior encryption… and it's coming from the emergency Government channel usable only by the Prime Minister. Mr. Renbokuji… the Senior, is also here… and he's confirming it right now."
Kitami Renbokuji… well… he was the ex-vice prime minister. So he would know stuff like this. Helena frowned. But that doesn't close the possibility of a trap.
"Opening channel…"
"zzz…zzzz…c…zzzz…h…zzzzz…e? zzz…"
There's still a lot of static. The Communication officer struggled to clean it up…
"C…zzz… you hear me? If you can hear me please respond!"
Everyone's eyes widened. That's definitely Haruto's voice.
"Haruto! My man!" Spike was the only one who cheered. "Haruto! Haruto we can hear you! Honey, can he hear me!?"
"Hold on… hold on…" Miranda grumbled in the background. "Clean up the connection! There…!"
The static noise finally died down. "Can anybody hear me!?" Haruto's yell finally came in loud and clear.
"Commander Tokishima, we can hear you."Miranda finally managed to open the communication.
"I see. Alright… I'll make this quick! If you got any big guns, DON'T SHOOT this train. I'm on it!"
"Commander Tokishima how did you get the communication working!?"
"No time to explain! Tell Spike and the rest to clear up the runway! We're coming in a little fast and the damn brake is broken! Again!"
"We?" Miranda blinked. "Who's we?"
"CLEAR UP THE DAMN RUNWAY!"Haruto's roaring now.
"Miranda-kun." Kitami firmly stated. He gave her a look, and she understood there's no time to ask questions when the other side is screaming like that. She quickly ran to the radio and speaker. "ALL PERSONNEL IN THE MECHNICAL LINE, CLEAR OUT THE RUNWAY! WE HAD INCOMING!"
"!?" "WHAT!?" "AGAIN!?" "BUT I HAVEN'T GATHERED EVERYTHING!" The militia who was still salvaging the ruins of the first train jumped in horror and quickly make themselves scarce, loot be damned.
In fact, down in the tunnel, Marie looked to the dark end and confirmed the situation: another bloody Mag Train is coming their way at disturbing speed, and lo and behold, the Vavrave is perched right atop the nose of said train. He looked like he was struggling to sit firmly on a slippery surface with much care given to not damage the train. Point in fact, the other militia can already see the headlight from the incoming train.
"…now what?" Spike looked at the other militia. They were on mop up operation so deep into the tunnel, even if they rush it, they might not make it back in time.
"Marie! Get everyone in the cockpit!" Haruto's voice came from everyone's short wave radio, showing he was already that close.
Kagerou landed and opened up the hatch and dropped the ladder. "Like he said. HURRY UP!"
They rush it as quickly as they could, the light from the end of the tunnel is getting closer and closer. When Spike, the last to climb in, dared himself one last peek, the train is already right in front of his nose. Inside the cockpit, now completely over capacity, everyone tried to be comfortable… to little success. "Hey, whose hands are touching my chest!?" "Get your foot off my nose!" "Stop smothering your butt on my ear!"
"EVERYBODY SHUT UUUPPP!" Marie snapped for once. Everyone stopped squirming.
"MARIE! COME HERE!" Haruto's voice roared from the com. The Valvrave beckoned the Kagerou to get closer to the incoming train.
The Kagerou simply floated up and move to the same direction as the incoming train, adjusting her speed so as to allow the train to gently catch up to her instead of getting run down. Success, the Kagerou landed steadily next to her big brother. "Where have you been, Haruto? And what's with this train?"
"We need to stop it… but we have to do it gently, for god's sake." Haruto groaned. "The brake's busted when we tried to slow down… we have no choice but to do this the hard way…! But… this time there will be the two of us."
"Haruto?"
"You've learned how to use the Iron Skin. You've learned the basic tenets of controlling this power. You can do this. Concentrate all Iron Skin unto your legs! The joints! The soles! The feet! Every bit of it!"
"I… I don't… I don't know…"
"You can do it."
"!"
"You can do this. You've been doing it just fine so far!"
Marie's nervous expression vanished. Now she look determined. "Okay." She closed her eyes, steadied her breathing, once again imagining the flow of runes from her body, into the Kagerou's heart, and into her mechanical legs. The Kagerou's two legs began to glow brightly green as all runes are concentrated on it.
Haruto nodded. Likewise, the Valvrave did the same to his own legs. They also glowed brightly, albeit in black and red color. And then the two Primate Engine start pushing the train down until their legs were about to touch the floor. "Alright. Everyone in the car, hold on to something! This is gonna get rough!"
"Everyone in the car?" Helena and Spike simultaneous question was answered by a chorus of panicked screams of "You got it little man!", "Roger", "Yes", "Ok" from the radio. Voices they barely recognize. They didn't have the time to process it further.
The legs of the two Primate Engine finally touched down. Just like how the Valvrave first arrived there by stopping a runaway train, once again, another train is about to arrive there in the exact same way.
Perhaps… not exactly the same. The train wasn't moving as fast as before, and now there are two Primate Engines to stop it. Still, their legs still scrape the floor, leaving a long trail of burning spark whilst also plowing through whatever's rubble that get in the way. The speeding train slowed down considerably, and unlike the first time, the forced deceleration was in a much more controlled fashion.
Thusly, when the train finally stopped, it stopped neatly on exactly where it needs to be and the train was relatively intact… save for several dents resembling Valvraves' butts on the front plating.
And this time the Valvrave no longer collapse, but walked away safely from the intact train. The Kagerou also step aside before allowing its occupants out of its cockpit.
"We got a ton of question for you, commander." Helena groaned as soon as she landed out of the cockpit. "But let's just start with where the hell did you go?"
"Picking up a few things you guys might need… and some new friends."
"Huh?"
The Valvrave demonstrate the answer directly by giving the train a few knocks. "Guys. We're here!"
The car doors opened up. Everyone's eyes widened in disbelief.
People. More, and more people. But… these were no ordinary group of people. Many of them are armed.
"Heya guys!" One pretty scarred and dark skinned militia stood out amongst the group with his large built, dreadlock hair, and very prevalent African dialect. He smiled and gave a militaristic salute. A former soldier. Though he doesn't speak like one. "Hahahaha! Sorry about the rough landing boys! These things are pretty old and its brakes broke down so easily!"
Helena blinked in disbelief. "W… What?"
"What, you forgot about us? We were also part of the resistance remember! Just like you! We've been isolated in our module until this guy showed up." The militia leader jerked his thumb at the Valvrave. "Name's Malcolm Jatange by the way, we're from Module 556."
"Module 556…" Miranda gawked. "That's a module quite a distance away from here! What… what are you doing so far away, commander?"
"Securing resources." Haruto answered calmly.
"Huh?"
"Come on guys! We brought some early Christmas present!" Malcolm moved to the other car and pressed a button. The car opened up, and inside are rows after rows of containers. When the container was opened, the militia rummaged it for a moment… and then he threw it to the still puzzled Helena.
What landed in her confused hand was…
"…B… Bread…!?"
"And we got some canned meat, some fruits and some veggies on the other cars. I mean, we are a farming and food factory module to begin with!"
Silence.
Eerie, total, silence.
Even Malcolm became somewhat unnerved.
3 seconds. It took that long for the very concept of the word 'food' entered the minds of… the half crazed, starved to death militia… and then it was processed. With a single screeching cry, they immediately rushed towards the food train like half mad animals. Even Malcolm and his crew became somewhat unnerved. The tidal wave of starving humans slammed against the train and its storage was quickly dismantled.
There were so many people flocking the ground that Haruto, Alice, and Marie as well as her passengers, already popped out of their cockpits, hold back on jumping down because there was just no space to land so they stayed up atop their mechs.
However, the militia came towards the train in such zeal and numbers, they began pushing and crushing one another. Lord almighty, they must be starving. This is an accident in the making. Haruto even start seeing people began fighting one another over a string of sausage. Helena growled in displeasure and began shouting. "CALM DOWN! FORM A LINE! FORM A LINE!" But her shouts were unheard amidst all this noise.
Seeing this, Haruto frowned and raised his finger.
A stream of laser suddenly cut a swath in front of the charging swarm of starving militia. The red hot trail stopped the swarm right on the tracks, and they all looked up and saw Haruto glaring down on them. One of his forefingers smoking hot.
"You will get in line in an orderly and calm fashion. There is more than enough food in that train for everyone." Haruto's luminescent red eye shined menacingly as a shadow fell over his face. He didn't scream, but in the eerie silence, everyone can hear his hiss.
Seeing that single glowing red eye glowering from above, everyone was once again given a new understanding of the word: fear of God. That's enough fear to snap them out of the frenzy and so they stop.
"…that's better." Haruto turned to the other militia commander. "Malcolm-san. I'll entrust you with distributing the food."
Malcolm smiled and saluted. "Leave it to me, Commander."
In less than a few minutes, the swarm of disorderly band straighten themselves out and formed a queue. Malcolm, the newly arrived militia also brought his men with him and they organized an orderly distribution of food. He was generous with his portions, so no one complained. They brought more than enough food after all. "FOOOOD! SOME DECENT FOOD AT LAST!" "EGG! Sob… when was the last time I see something so beautiful!?" "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!? IS THIS… IS THIS A PROPER CANNED MEAT I SEE BEFORE ME!?" "Oh God… oh my god… oh my sweet god in heaven… cabbage…! FRESH FUCKING CABBAGE! I never thought I'd see the day… sob… I miss this stink!" Cries of that sort still echoed across the line, but at the very least, they do so in an orderly manner and no one thought of pushing the line under Haruto's watch.
Once order is restored, Haruto, with Alice in his arms, can finally jump down. In her case, Marie first lowered her 6 passengers. Two of those passengers, namely Spike and Helena wasted no time and approached Haruto, both had completely opposite intentions in mind.
In case of Spike, he immediately took Haruto's head and put it in a friendly headlock as he ruffled his messy hair. "Well done lad! Well done!"
But in case of Helena, she made her displeasure known with her continuous glare. "…" Something Haruto noticed. He sighed as he break out of the headlock. He had put this off for as long as he could. He got a long road ahead of him, and he will not stomach hidden agendas. "…Marie, look after Alice."
Marie nodded and walked to Alice's side as Haruto immediately made his way to Helena, like a man on a mission.
Normally, anyone would be scared shitless when someone as powerful as Haruto came at them like that… but Helena didn't budge. She was too angry after all. They stared eye to eye… like a contest of will.
But Helena was the first to say it. "…this is most unwise, commander."
"…don't you need this food? Way I see it you guys are lacking in all sorts of necessities."
"That we are. And I'm… thankful, that you bring this to us in our hour of need… but not like this." Helena frowned. "We can't have you moving on your own accord without consulting us first."
"I know." Haruto sighed. "…but… I implore you to let this one insubordination of mine to pass. You need to train these men into able soldiers, and empty stomach gets in the way, yes?"
"That's not the everloving p-"
"If you think this is me being a humanitarian, think again." Haruto cuts in. "I'm not going back on my word. I still don't care whether you guys live or die."
"Eh…!" And Helena did go through the trouble to NOT say that particular statement in public…
Now everyone became unnerved and looked at Haruto with renewed sense of horror.
"You know, when I finally came into contact with you guys, Delphi uploaded a bunch of interesting things. Namely, the progression of the battle occurring on this side… and what you idiots were doing in the middle of all that." Haruto sent an uncharacteristically fierce gaze on the ragged band of militia. "I'll say this just once. If you guys get in my range of fire because of your greed, I will not hesitate to obliterate you all along with the enemy!"
Helena immediately understood what Haruto meant. She did complain earlier that the militias were more focused on looting when they should be mopping out enemy presence first. And this incident where the Valvrave came crashing down once again stopping a train could have a far worse aftermath, what's with all the looting happening along the track, ignoring her orders to not do so before the battle was over. It was downright miracle no one was killed. Haruto was trying to say if that was indeed the case, don't expect an apology.
"E… Easy for you to say!" One of the militia dared himself to speak up. "We hadn't had anything to eat for weeks! Do you even know what we-"
"That's what I meant when I said I don't give a damn whether you live or die." Haruto repeated, and this time his word carry more impact as some understanding dawned on them. Haruto took a moment to give one furious glance at the direction of the officers of the militia… who somehow still managed to get some decent meal while their men starved like this… before he returned said glare back at the unnerved militia. "If you want to act like a pack of rabid dogs, go and die like one out there in the gutter. But if you're human… act like one." The shamed Militia can only tuck their head down in silence. Then Haruto looked at Helena for a moment… and then…
"…I'm sorry about your father." And he bent his head down as low as he could.
"Eh… Huh!?"
"…I'm pretty sure the word 'I'm sorry' ain't just gonna cut it… but to be honest I don't know what words I should use to apologize. And I don't have any excuse, the situation as such, I was out of control. So… I'm sorry."
"Don't give me that crap."
Haruto dared himself to peek. Helena was glaring at her, skin flushed red and her eyes were on the verge of breaking. She was one breath away from exploding. Actually… she is.
"I'm sorry!? I'M SORRY!? AFTER ALL THAT!?" She just blew up. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU… MY FATHER… ALL MY MEN WHO HAD STUCK WITH ME THIS FAR…!" She burst into tears and looked like she was about to go on screaming… but then, she stopped and took a deep breath. For a moment, she regained her composure as a military officer and asked: "…what are you after… commander?"
Haruto sighed. "…what happened to your father… to everyone on that beach… is tragic. However, way I see it, you have two ways to deal with it. Either you continue and wallow what you've lost… or, honor their memory and make sure something like that will never happen again." And Haruto pointed at the militia.
It took every bit of self restraint Helena had to not slack her jaw open as epiphany dawned. It was for her. What Haruto did, raiding a food factory and bringing the food back… The teenage commander realized he may have accidentally killed quite a number of able field officers in the resistance army, damaging the chain of command severely, resulting in an unruly army bereft of guidance, as the near fatal incident today had shown. But that's just one part of the greater problem. From the onset, a militia is a disorderly band, and the major breakdown of discipline can be easily blamed on the desperation of the situation. They're running out of food, weapons, and hope. Forging discipline was already hard enough when these three components are plentiful, try doing that when they're virtually inexistent. She can argue this would not happen if she still had her colleagues, but it's not like Haruto can bring them back from cinders. So what he can do now, is bringing back new raw material from which she can reforge new ones. This is his apology.
Helena, for a bit, was at loss for words. To go so far as to single handedly attacked an entire base for an apology. But finally, she simply pulled out a very tired, very sorrowful: "…it's not that simple." Such was the word she chose… but now… there's some hope in there.
"But it's a start." Haruto sighed. "And I'll be bringing more. Weapons. Medical supplies. Manpower. I've learned how much the module can take and how much I can dish out. But whether or whether not what had happened will happen again… I'm afraid it's all up to you."
Helena grunted. "This doesn't change anything, commander. You killed my father and my friends, I won't let this go."
"I don't expect you would." Haruto sighed and turn around and walk away as an end to this discussion. "I had the blood of too many fathers, sons, and daughters in my hand already. What hardship is a few hundred more into the pile?"
As Haruto walked away, Alice chose that time to come rushing in with Marie and joined hands with her father. Haruto smiled wryly and took her petite hand and they walked away hand in hand, like a normal father daughter duo.
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Once they were out of sight, Haruto momentarily slink away into a corner, dragging Alice and Marie with him.
He took a moment to look around, making sure there are no one else but them three. Then he start working on his built in computer on his arm.
"Haruto?"
"Shush. Marie… I need you to keep this a secret."
"What secret?"
"This." Haruto pressed a button and… just like that, the holographic image of Akira appeared on the screen.
"Haruto." She replied. Not in her voice… but she uploaded chat messages in a pop out window. "You. Okay?"
"I'm fine. Can you connect me to the Valravn?"
"Gimme a sec." Akira's image vanished and the "Please Wait" screen pop out.
Marie blinked several times as she digest what she just saw. "Hold… the phone. Haruto… I thought our communication is down? I thought we can't communicate with our Starship!?"
"We couldn't before. But then I found a way. I didn't single handedly attacked an entire module just to get some food and survivors!"
"Wha…?"
Water and food. Two of the most critical necessity for any human. It goes doubly so when they are living in outer space where neither are readily available. For that reason, critical Modules like Water and farmlands also came with something no other type of module can access: an exclusive emergency Military grade communication line which possess a signaling unit powerful enough to send signals off planet. Unlike most communication line, this channel is not connected to any civilian network, like the WIRED. In fact, there is a federal law that prohibits this line to be used by anyone but that module itself. The idea is that in the event of emergency, when these critical Modules suffer a major catastrophic malfunction, this exclusive communication channel can be used to contact anyone in the whole Sphere, or, in the worst case scenario, even somebody off planet, to inform them of the trouble and request aid. Such was how important Food and water is to the people of a Dyson Sphere.
As can be expected, such a powerful tool can be misused if not carefully managed. Which is why, when WIRED became incredibly popular, the system was made in a separate isolated network, sealed off by multitudes of firewalls, but its first and finest line of defense is its anonymity. The government classified the existence of this network above top secret. Only the prime minister and several members of the cabinet are aware of it.
And as mentioned before, Haruto had the ex prime minister of Jior at his back, revealing the state secrets. And… simply informed a certain Hacker of its existence, and the rest is history.
"What are you doing?" Marie asked.
"What?"
"What's with the hush-hush? Why didn't you tell them about this?"
"I did tell them didn't I? And I do plan to tell them about how to access this communication line. I just didn't tell them that we also had Akira hack into the communication line so that she can monitor everything they said on this line." Haruto looked at Marie's questioning stare. "…I don't trust them."
"What?"
"The lower echelon, I can deal with. But the higher ups. You can't trust them." After meeting the Renbokujis and saw the way those officers behave, of course he had trust issues. "…I need a hidden trump card kept close to my chest."
"But… but why?"
"I want to end this as fast as I can, and I don't want to deal with those kind of things. Considering the situation… we have really little time."
"Little time?"
"…by my count… Saki's already… four months pregnant?"
Marie's eyes widened. Oh that's right. How could she totally forgot about THAT? Of course Haruto would want to finish this quickly.
"…I can't afford any trouble in short or long run. So this is me hedging my bet. I… God forbid, if the situation got worse… I might… I don't know… just grab my dad and abandon everything."
"Oh hell no, Haruto. You can do that, of course. But that ain't you. You can run home now, drop everything, but if I knew her, Saki will immediately kick your ass back to the front when she finds out you did it for her."
Haruto chuckled. "Yeah… She definitely will. Now that I think about it, I'm ashamed to even think of the idea. But… I don't care. I don't care. This is my son, my family. I'd burn the entire planet if that's what it takes to protect them."
Marie looked at Haruto with great disapproval. She ruminates on what she can say but then, the screen buzzed and now Pino was on the screen.
"You want to talk to her, talk." Haruto showed the screen to Marie.
Marie twitched, and Pino also frowned. The two was locked in silence, neither side seem to know what they want to say… but from the way they gaze, it's like there's a mountain of things they want to say… they just don't know where to begin.
Finally, Marie swallowed a gulp… and started. "I'm… I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have taken the jump, but I want to help my friend as best as I can. So… so I took the leap… aaaand, Alice accidentally get wrangled up in it… that was my mishap. Sorry."
The only thing that was honest in that statement was that bit about Alice. Anyway, it was so flat, even Pino and Haruto winced. "Marie… I…"
"It was a fortunate coincidence that I am a Magius, and I had never wasted any energy on fighting. Maybe I've been piggy banking this energy reserves just for this occasion and I kinda forget. In any rate, we are in need of good trustworthy Novus Magius pilot and apparently I'm just the woman for the job. So here I am."
…seriously. Even zombies can lie better.
But… both Pino, and especially Haruto, understand all too well why Marie chose to lie. It almost makes Haruto feel bad that Marie suppresses her own needs for his sake. Pino understand this too. "…come back alive." She said. "Come back alive, and I promise you I will tell you everything you want to know. Who you are, and what you are. I promise."
There's something in the way Pino said the word that just soothes Marie. Her stern face just broke naturally into a smile. "I… I promise."
"Haruto…" Pino looked at Haruto, but she need not say anything else.
"I understand. I'll look after her. I promise."
Pino sent one last grateful smile and the screen went out. Haruto turn to Marie. Before she seems unsure and confused, now she looked determined. "Are you sure about this?" Haruto asked.
"…I had enough clues to construct a theory about what I am. Until Pino confirm otherwise, this theory should be enough answer for me… at least for now."
It's not like Haruto didn't have his own theories, but he suspected, based on what he sees so far, it won't be that different.
"Let's finish this, Haruto." Marie said firmly. "Let's finish this mission right and go home proud."
Haruto smiled. With friends like these, the whole world can be his enemy for all he cares. "Yeah. Yeah. Let's do that."
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HOOOLY shit. Finally. After a long period… spent in comatose between life and death of a writer's block hell… I HAVE RETURNED! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Si~iigh…
I don't know how many people are still interested in reading this after my absence… but consider this an early Christmas present. Merry Christmas everyone.
