Mark of Man
Chapter 15
"Another Such Victory over the Romans and we are Outdone."
With the reclamation of Istanbul's communications tower, Rokko was placed on yet another standby. Just as with each one before, she quickly grew impatient. Yes, the words of Kuwanger still echoed in her mind, but instead of taking the time to truly come to a decision on them, she focused on the one thing she still had: her hate for Sigma.
Even after the few weeks that had passed since Sigma's betrayal her rage, her pain, and her hatred hadn't dwindled. Instead, they had only grown all the hotter. It seared her mind and clouded her judgement.
Even if Kuwanger had had a point, as long as Sigma still lived, she couldn't have cared less. Her hate for the reploid burned brightly, turning into a cold fire. The hate burned in an icy fury, blinding her to anything but revenge.
Sigma had to die. She'd lost everything thanks to him. Cobalt Wolf had been her only friend and his loss still caused a deep ache in her that she didn't, and couldn't understand. Even now, after all the fights, her heart longed for him. She wanted to tell him all the things that she'd never told him, that she'd never told anyone, but… He was gone, he was dead and never coming back…
Her internal thoughts were thankfully disrupted by the new commander contacting her through her communication systems.
"Rokko, you ready for another mission?" His voice rang clear despite the gunfire in the background.
"Of course sir." She agreed.
"The former seventh airfleet has begun to move out. Probably to reinforce the attack at Neo Baoding. You'll need to intercept."
"...Sir, I'm not an aerial unit." She reminded him seriously.
"I know, but we don't have an aerial unit anymore and you're the best I've got. If I wasn't currently trying to keep Sigma from gutting our defenses in the old Beijing ruins, I'd go myself."
Rokko's mind immediately put the pieces together. If Baoding fell, the ruins of Beijing would be impossible to hold, and given the loss of Neo Hong Kong in the south… He'd have a third of the Chinese territory in Eurasia. They had to hold the old ruins if they didn't want to have nearly half a billion humans under Sigma's control. Rokko herself had no love lost for humans, and wouldn't lose sleep over knowing that millions were probably dying because of Sigma's concentration camps, but the fact remained that Sigma was still gaining ground despite the blows she'd struck against him, and that was a problem. Sigma didn't deserve to rule the world anymore than the humans did.
"He's pushed us off the eastern coast already?"
"...Yeah. He's made a lot of headway and we're still losing ground."
Rokko quietly cursed before she nodded.
"Understood. Try to drop me on their command ship though, I don't want to test my luck jumping from one aircraft to another fifty thousand feet up in the atmosphere sir."
Zero chuckled.
"Already solved that problem. You'll be warping directly onto the bridge of the Death Rogumer. Take out the CO and then secure a Server Room. Once you've done that you'll be reinforced with a handful of Maverick Hunters to secure the server while you sweep the rest of the ship. Once the Death Rogumer is taken, we'll transfer an operations crew and the ship will begin a counterstrike against the rest of the fleet with a skeleton crew. Before that attack begins, you're to RTB. I have another mission I need you for following this."
"The Death Rogumer won't stand up to the rest of the seventh's fire for long." It was a suicide mission for the crew that would stay on the ship.
"I know, but between losing the commander of the 7th and the flagship, the fleet will be thrown into chaos. The damage that the ship deals out should knock the majority of the fleet out of the war completely. Without it, Sigma's air power will be drastically weakened in Eurasia." Zero's voice was unnaturally serious for a change.
"Copy that." A lot of Maverick Hunters were going to die in this operation and they both knew it.
"Good, now get to it."
Within a few minutes, her systems beeped notifying her of the fact that Zero had sent her the coordinates to her LZ. Closing her eyes, she focused as her mind's subsystems processed the data transferred to her.
Over the ocean huh? Well, hitting that would be… Bad. Despite popular opinion, falling from those heights wasn't as okay as people seemed to imagine. Even she'd feel the impact from striking water at terminal velocity. There was no give to water. There was a reason that so many humans died doing extreme jumps from cliffsides into water and the like.
Of course, she was stronger than that, but she would still be hit with a nasty shock from hitting water at terminal velocity. She had to… Trust that he hadn't messed this up.
Three, two, one… Transfer.
It took Rokko a brief moment to adjust to the teleportation and she blinked to clear her vision. Zero had come through and she was on the Bridge of the Death Rogumer. Surrounded by confused unarmed Mavericks and the CO alike. They too were confused and befuddled by this strange Reploid's appearance and at first the bridge remained silent before Rokko's buster formed and she fired a shot at the door, melting the two metal panels together so it couldn't open.
The sound of plasma fire did start the panic, but they were unarmed, barely armored, and frail. Each basic shot was more than enough to cleanly kill each of them and before long, the bridge of nearly thirty was gone.
Rokko shook her head at the sheer ease of the operation and as she stepped over the lifeless body of the commanding officer of the bridge, she peered down at the control panel. Autopilot was engaged. Strange… This was too easy.
Far too easy. Had Sigma run out of security guards or something? Were his forces starting to crumble?
Rokko pushed the body of a pilot off of the seating near the commander's chair and settled on it as the reploid clanged lifelessly against the dull gray plating of the ship's floor. She instantly accessed the holographic keyboard and looked in on the still active session of the Maverick she'd just killed. So just where were they headed?
The entire fleet was heading towards…
The Hunter's Temporary HQ, on the ruined highway above Abel City. Damn it. They meant to kill the remaining fighters in one fell swoop.
And she had a little over an hour to finish the operation. She had to find that server room's location so that more Hunter forces could arrive. Where…?
She hastily pulled up the current blueprints and cursed under her breath. The server was on the other side of the ship. They'd moved it. Admittedly, it had been a vulnerability being so close to the Bridge originally but to remodel the ship just enough to relocate the transfer room to the crew's training area?
Immediately, she contacted Zero, turning and rising from the rotating chair as she did.
"Huntress X here. Commander, we have a problem."
"Zero here, go ahead X."
"The fleet is enroute to destroy a civilian population center that's been housing some of the most fierce fighting."
Zero cursed for a brief moment before he spoke.
"That'd vaporize the entirety of Neo Kovhd's seven million in the process. Rokko, secure that server room as soon as possible."
"They've… Remodeled the ship."
"Explain."
"It's in the former training areas. I'll have to delve through the entire ship to get to them."
Predictably Zero cursed again.
"New plan. You'll have to deal with the fleet."
Rokko's eyes widened and she shook her head.
"How the-"
"I don't know! You're the last chance we've got to save that city though! I know you're not fond of humans, but over ten million will die if you can't! Not to mention the nearly three million more reploids!" He snapped before taking a deep breath.
"...You've been trained in deck operations, try to use that to your advantage. Destroy each ship as you can and then move to the next."
"My transfer systems aren't accurate enough to pull that off. I-"
"I know, and you don't have the most advanced mobility either, but you're a survivor, you're a warrior. That beauty isn't the only thing that makes you special Rokko. You refuse to die." An explosion echoed from Zero's side and he cursed quietly.
"I chose you because I know you can do this. No matter how hard it is, you always get it done. There's a reason Sigma tried to sideline you, because it's you that's his greatest threat."
Rokko rolled her eyes at his attempt to butter her up but exhaled.
"...I really hate you sir. Beginning operation."
"Good luck Rokko." Zero's connection cut off and she launched herself at the door, kicking it down with a single strike.
A few security mavericks were surprised by the sudden appearance of her and as she dashed away from the salvo of shots, she drove her shoulder into the first, slamming him into the other guard and the wall. As the crumpled, she aimed her buster at them and fired.
She had to keep moving. The mavericks on board the ship were a problem but when she started firing at other ships… The Death Rogumer would be deemed hostile and as such, shot down by the other ships.
She pushed herself to the limits, slamming through a three inch neosteel door with her shoulder and into the elevator shaft while ignoring the warnings that she'd severely injured her arm in the process. A mist of grease and oil coated her as she entered the shaft, oils used to ensure that the elevator continued to move smoothly and a subconscious part of her cursed at the filth. Her boots dug deep into the metal of the shaft and with a series of jumps scaled the elevator's interior. As she jumped her way up, she started to gather power in her buster, readying it for when she'd need to blast open a hole at the top to exit and arrive on the deck.
It was only thanks to her night vision that she knew where she was and where she was going and as she scaled the last hundred feet she aimed her buster straight upwards and fired.
A ball of superheated plasma ripped through the shaft's ceiling and debris rained down upon her as light shone inwards on the grimy walls and oil covered Rokko.
With one final boost, she launched herself onto the deck of the ship, grimacing as she felt the oil in her hair, coating it.
Gross.
She shoved the thought aside and peered down the dull gray surface of the Rogumer's deck. With the changes to the interior…
There it was. A number of defense turrets rose from beneath the metal plating and began to open fire on her. Worse yet, there was nothing she could use as cover. She was on top of a deck reminiscent of ancient aircraft carriers. Flat, made for aircraft to land on. She cursed and desperately dodged, firing her buster at the closest laser cannon as she did. Her first shot was true, but the thick plating to protect the cannon absorbed it handedly.
Damn it.
Another cannon fired, cutting through part of her shoulder armor during her desperate roll and she cursed under her breath again as she swapped over to Kuuwanger's weapon and fired the blade. It too struck true, and while it wasn't able to pierce the thick armor it turned out to be a boon as the boomerang like projectile became lodged in the laser cannon. If it were to fire again… It'd cause the barrel to begin to overheat.
With that, it clicked. Her strategy was set and soon, each weapon was lodged with a blade that forced the weapons into emergency shut down to avoid overheating and exploding. As the last cannon slipped back underneath the ship's landing strip she exhaled slowly and walked over to her shoulder plate that had been damaged and she knelt to grab the piece.
"Don't bother Rokko." A voice called out to her and she exhaled, recognizing it instantly.
"Storm Eagle, I had a feeling you led this tin can of a ship." She commented before turning to face him, flicking away her now black and dripping hair out of the way as she did.
The maverick had been floating behind her before he landed, one hand resting on his hip and his predatorial eyes gleaming as he stared down at her.
"There's a kill order out for you, you know?" He observed calmly and Rokko just nodded, her buster pointed at the deck even as she swapped away from the boomerang cutter she'd been using and back to her regular buster.
He was infamous for his control over the skies and their currents. Using a metal projectile that intentionally returned to her? Not a good idea here. He'd simply have to accelerate the weapon back towards her faster than she could handle it and it'd end up being a weapon used against her instead.
"I'm surprised it took him so long to put it out." She replied.
Storm Eagle sighed, shaking his head.
"Damn it X. You're so blind! There was no other choice! If you'd just-" Her left arm shot out to one side, her hand outstretched, causing the air to scream from the movement.
"There is always a choice! That's your problem! That's Sigma's problem! He chose to murder my only friend! He chose to betray everything!"
"And you wouldn't have?" Storm's eyes narrowed and she took a step back, only for him to keep approaching her.
"I see it in your eyes. Your rage. Your hate. Your utter loathing for your enslavement. You might be fighting for humans, but make no mistake, you're more of a maverick than any of us that you've killed." Her hand dropped back to her side as she kept retreating, forming a tight fist as she did.
Rage, anger, hate, fear, they all bubbled in her heart and she did her best to crush them under her thirst for revenge.
Tears stung at her eyes but she blinked them away furiously and when she next spoke, her voice was quiet, barely holding together.
"Storm Eagle; you can either be arrested or killed. Don't make this harder on yourself than it has to be."
He scoffed before he let out a cold, harsh laugh.
"And how many other Mavericks did you offer this deal to? Oh, right. None of them." He shook his head.
"You're fighting for all the wrong reasons Rokko. You're fighting from grief and hate."
Her body shook and she looked away, closing her eyes as she felt it try to overwhelm her.
As much as she hated to admit it… He was right. She… Was hurting. She hated so much. But… There was no going back. Not that she'd ever had a point lacking in hatred and pain. Her earlier claim? Even she knew it to be false. There was never a choice. Wishful thinking at best. But… If this was all she had… If she only had her hatred… She'd burn. She'd rage against the maverick that had taken the most cherished moments away from her. For taking the only light she had ever known… She'd be consumed in hellfire willingly. All she knew was hate. Why change that now?
It was only a few moments before she opened her eyes again, the pain and hesitation having faded completely.
"You're right. I am fighting from hate. It's all I've ever had. And honestly? It's probably all I'll ever know. If hate is sin, then let me be consumed by hell itself-" She launched herself off of the ship and rammed into Storm Eagle, her buster planted on his chest, "-And take all of you with me!"
She fired her buster again and again, not even considering stopping. As she did, Storm Eagle Struggled, only for her free arm to snap up to his throat and grip it tightly. The metal of the Maverick's neck groaned under the pressure and slowly, her hand began to form into a full on fist as her hand forced the plates to snap and buckle. Then, as her hand formed the fist fully, she pulled and the already severely damaged metal stood no chance against the new tearing force.
Wires snapped and synthetic blood exploded out, covering Rokko in her enemy's life as she finally forced Storm's head to be torn off of his body. Despite a small part of her realizing that he was dead, she kept firing, each shot melting further parts of his body.
Even years later, she'd never be sure when she'd finally risen off of his corpse but what remained was little more than mangled wires, splotches of oil, and a few chunks of armor.
"...Maybe I am a Maverick after all." She whispered as she stared as his corpse.
As she tried to shake off what she'd just done, the nearest ships opened fire and she tensed but then, she realized the horrible truth.
She'd failed the mission and the city of Neo Khovd was burning.
"Huntress Rokko, what's happening?" Zero's voice snapped her out of her disbelief.
"I...I… Mission… Mission Failed."
"Clearly! What happened though?!"
"...I was attacked by their commanding officer and was delayed from further activity against the fleet." She dropped to her knees, her expression blank.
"What's the status of the fleet?"
Rokko shook her head rhythmically from side to side.
"...The flagship is a mess. I don't think there's many survivors on it now… I don't know for sure and their commanding officer is destroyed…"
"Rokko snap out of it!"
"...I…"
"Rokko X, RTB. You're suffering from shock."
She'd failed.
She'd failed.
She'd failed.
So, here we are with the 15th chapter finally. Sorry it took so long but between the hand injury, losing a parent, and everything else... Writing took a major backseat. However, I promised her that I'd finish this story as my last practice before trying to make my own published work and I'm going to do so.
Has it been hard? Yes, absolutely, but I'm still chugging away and I have every intention to see this through.