Chapter 11: Ghost of Harvamal
-Planet Ouroboros-
The base is burning. The assault by the SMS group and their allies had laid waste to the Harvamal base in the desert. Brera Sterne and Guld Bowman had betrayed them. But they wouldn't have been able to break into the facility so easily and took Ranka Lee in the span of just a few minutes.
In the midst of all those, a young woman is running through the base right to where her VF is. She has to hurry or else she won't be able to escape the base. But she can't run yet, not without her squadmates. She quickly sprint to their squadron's hangar, hoping that everyone is there and waiting. The woman is filled with a sense of relief when she saw that the battle had not reached her squadron's hangar yet.
But that relief soon turns into dread when she heard the sound of gunshots coming from the hangar. As she approached the exit, she saw a body lying just by the door wearing the black pilot suit of the Harvamal unit and her squadron's emblem. She wanted to scream. It's one of her squadmate that she had come to know since she graduated from the academy. She wanted to scream but her training force her to ignore the body of her dead friend and focus on the objective at hand, identify the killer and avenge her friend.
She took out her gun and carefully walk out from the door. She hid behind a VF-25A belonging to her squadmate and look for signs of where their enemy is. She heard footsteps from behind the captain's VF -25S. She immediately rush to where the footsteps are but she's too late. She saw another one of her squadmate fell to the ground after several gunshots echoing throughout the hangar.
She screams and ran straight to where the killer is and point her gun towards her enemy… only to be surprised when who she saw is her squad leader holding a gun and pointing it towards her.
"Captain?"
The black haired squad leader looked at her sadly but with gun still trained on her head. She cannot believe it, no, she refuse to believe it! She has to be hallucinating. Yes, it's the stress! It must be because of the stress she's been experiencing since the SMS got in their way.
She walk slowly towards her captain, lowering her gun. That was a mistake. Without warning, the captain shot her gun from her hand and she's frozen in her track, barely even moving a single step forward.
"Captain Shinomiya, what are you doing?!"
She can't believe it. Her squad leader, Captain Shinomiya Kazumi, had just fired at her. The captain she had admired and look up to due to his skill and leadership had just fired at her.
"I'm sorry Wynn but it has to be this way. I can no longer turn a blind eye to what Harvamal is doing."
Kazumi said.
"What? Captain, what are you talking about?!"
Wynn took another step forward. But she stopped as Kazumi fired another shot, this time it is dangerously close to her face that it grazed her left cheek. Wynn was stunned into silence. Her captain had almost killed her with that shot. That's the only warning she will get. The next shot will be straight at her head.
"No… Captain, are you…betraying us?"
Finally realization dawned on her, the realization that her captain, Shinomiya Kazumi, had just betrayed Harvamal and was the one who killed her friends, his own subordinates. The realization burnt her more than the fire that is consuming the base as she stare into the eyes of the ace pilot.
-Ragna, present day-
Wynn D Fanchon, also known as Reiter, open her eyes after a short nap. It's almost dark and she can't wait to finally meet him face-to-face once again, the man who had betrayed her trust. It's fitting for her to dream of that moment just as she's about to confront him once again.
She touched the scar running across her face. She didn't remove it. She refused to remove it. The scar is a reminder of that day, of the day her world was turned upside down, where everything became much more complicated. Then again, the world had always been complicated. She was just too naïve and innocent to see it back then.
She can clearly remember how she got her scar and was forced to use implants. It was on that day, the day Kazumi betrayed them. She managed to run and get to her VF. He also got into his VF and the two of them fought as they escape the base. And then just as they had escaped, Kazumi shot her down. Her scar is the result of her defeat.
She had despaired. She thought she would die that day. But she's saved and she was put back together into what is now known as Reiter, the one who bears the callsign Thanatos 3. She had waited years to finally face him once again but it appears that Kazumi is much more skilled than she thought. But outside of a VF, will that hold true somehow?
Reiter doesn't care much about Mikumo Guynemer. She will do her job and kidnap her but nothing personal. What she wants though, is to kill Shinomiya Kazumi. She knew her former captain. Despite his laid back attitude, he does his job properly and he's very good at it. She made a huge mistake for letting her emotion control her, especially against him. This time she won't make any mistake.
As much as she wants his blood for what he did to her, she need to be patient and face him at her absolute best. She's been given another chance by commander Mary and even if the commander didn't say it, this is her last chance to act by herself to take out Kazumi. The commander is already very gracious to give her this chance. She won't let it go to waste.
She checked her equipments; two knives and two pistols with silencer and ten spare magazines. That should suffice. With her training and cybernetic implant, she should be able to take him out and kidnap Mikumo. She look up to the sky dyed orange as the sun sets. It's almost time for her to move.
Kazumi and Mikumo are walking back to their house just as the sun sets. Mikumo is feeling rather miffed at Kazumi for his comment about her hair looking like a jellyfish. She's not genuinely mad at him but she does think that Kazumi was being rude. Kazumi spent ten minutes after making that comment apologizing to Mikumo. Hayate and Reina of course took picture of that scene for blackmail material.
Just like usual, if they're not chatting or teasing each other, Mikumo would hum as she walks while Kazumi kept watch over her. It's surprising how quick they have adapted to each other's presence and even settle into a routine. Now they are acting as if they have known each other for years instead of barely a few weeks.
Somehow they just clicked. Mikumo does wonder if this is how Freyja used to feel around Hayate back when they just met. Freyja quickly grew fond of Hayate right after they just met. It's quite similar although she and Kazumi got to know each other through different circumstances. Just like Freyja and Hayate who quickly become best friends, she and Kazumi are that close too… well maybe not so much. Mikumo has lots of secrets and she knew that Kazumi also has his secrets that she doesn't know.
All things said, Mikumo and Kazumi have more than just good working relation, they are nowhere near Arad and Kaname or Hayate and Freyja. Unlike those four, their relation is not so personal. They are friends and coworker, nothing more, and its best kept that way. The two of them knew better than to make their relationship anything other than professional.
"Kazumi, I'm still a little angry about your jellyfish comment."
Mikumo started while pouting. The ace pilot look at her, surprised.
"Ohh come one, just lay it off. It's not like I mean any harm with that!"
Kazumi whined. He knew he should've shut up. Mikumo and Sheryl is similar enough that he should've expected her to take pride in her beauty, especially her unusually long and styled hair. Though in his opinion it is ridiculously long for a diva who ran around on a battlefield.
"Ohh but I took pride in my hair and I have cared for it so I'm not happy with you offending my hair."
"I think you would've looked fine with shorter hair."
Kazumi muttered that last part while imagining how Mikumo would look with shorter hair. Unbeknownst to him, Mikumo heard what he said and imagine how it would look like if she has short hair. Not that she will cut it anytime soon but maybe…
'Maybe he likes girls with short hair?'
Mikumo wondered but immediately brushed it off. She's not going to cut her hair for any reason. Suddenly Mikumo ran into Kazumi's back. The ace had suddenly stopped walking.
"Kazumi, why are you…"
Mikumo doesn't need to finish her sentence when she saw that someone is blocking their path. It is obviously not an ordinary pedestrian, especially since it's already quite late. It is a woman wearing a black pilot suit and helmet. Kazumi narrowed his eyes as he recognized the pilot suit being worn by the woman. It is one he also wore several years ago and hoped to never see again, especially in a situation where the opposite side is pointing a gun at them.
"That pilot suit… you, who are you?"
Kazumi asked. The mysterious woman did not answer but instead pull the trigger of her gun. With trained reflex, Kazumi grab Mikumo and dove to a cover, or would since a cover doesn't exist in the middle of an open road. They dodged the bullet and Kazumi quickly pull out his own gun and return fire.
"Mikumo, run!"
Kazumi ordered. He shoot back at the assailant who evaded the bullets like she could she them. Kazumi shoot three more times and all of them are evaded while the woman fired back at them quite accurately. Fortunately, not only Kazumi but Mikumo is also very good at dodging bullets thanks to Walkure's intense training. They both ran back to town located in the opposite direction.
"I think I see what happened yesterday. The attack was just a distraction while the enemy landed some of their agents to infiltrate Ragna. Damn, I should've been sober back then!"
"Would being sober even help?"
"Well it's better than being drunk and unable to figure out what the hell is what!"
The two of them went into town and headed straight for Macross Elysion. Kazumi did not hear any footsteps pursuing them though but he knew from the skill the woman showed that it won't be that easy so he kept his guard up.
"Did we lose her?"
As if answering Mikumo's question, the woman in black appear from the roof of a house and open fire at them with her silenced gun. The two of them went for cover, Mikumo behind a house and Kazumi behind a stack of barrels. The shots follow Kazumi's movement and made several holes on the barrels he hid behind which leaks water.
"That's your answer."
Kazumi told Mikumo as he got out from his cover and fire several shots at the woman. The woman got out of the way with unbelievable reflex and jump down from the roof while shooting at Kazumi who also evades. Kazumi ran straight at where the woman would land, emptying his handgun's magazine. He managed to shoot the woman's helmet the moment she landed and also one on the shoulder and one on the side.
That did not stop the woman though. She didn't even flinch as she raise her gun and shoot at Kazumi. But before she could pull the trigger, a gunshot rang out. The gun was shot out from the woman's hand by Mikumo who is aiming a gun at her, the same gun she pointed at Kazumi when he first came to her house. Kazumi can't help but respect her accuracy and how calm she looks as she aimed her gun steadily like a trained soldier.
Kazumi took this chance to reload and aim at the woman. But their assailant did not wait for him to shoot at her again and decided to get in close. She jumped and kicked the gun from Kazumi's hand before following up with another kick aimed at Kazumi's face. The ace pilot block with his hand thanks to his quick reflex. The kick was hard and strong but Kazumi did not flinch. He repaid the attack in kind by punching the woman in the stomach and then kicking her away.
Kazumi pick up his gun and Mikumo join him.
"That strength and agility, you're cybernetically enhanced, aren't you? Implants huh, that explains everything."
Kazumi said. It's not very surpsing. If the pilot suit does indicate the woman's affiliation, or previous affiliation, then her being cybernetically enhanced is not really surprising. Furthermore, black ops operative tend to get some cybernetic implants to help on their job.
"Who are you? Are you a remnant of Harvamal or are you working with someone else? Either way, you won't get away from here in one piece."
The woman chuckled. She reached up to her helmet and took it off, letting her long curly brown hair fall down to her back. The scar running down her face felt as if it burns as she look straight at the eyes of her hated enemy. Kazumi's eyes widened and his whole body shook as he recognized the face of the woman who had assaulted them.
"Must you ask about my identity when you already knew it?"
"Wynn…"
"Hello again, captain."
