Chapter 4- The Sacrifice
I sat straight up in my bed at the sound of the air raid siren. It went off any time a Neuroi was within attacking range of the base, no matter what time of day or night. The fact that it was going off right now simply meant Sanya encountered something while out on her night patrol.
I wasn't letting myself get lazy now just because I was able to live in a base instead of on the run like before. I ran daily wake up drills if I had some free time and just wanted to be alone, so I can practice getting up and getting ready for action. You never know when an attack may happen, this moment a prime example, and I don't want to get caught with my pants down. Within thirty seconds of waking up I was fully dressed and already sprinting down the hall towards the hangar, rifle slung over my shoulder.
Only two people beat me there. Sakamoto was one, as she was using a large shed right next to the hangar as her quarters so she could train all day and night without disturbing anybody. And Eila, who tends to stay in the hangar late into the night as backup in case Sanya encounters trouble. I'm assuming Mina was the one who triggered the alarm as she keeps her quarters up near the command center, with a radio near her bed. If Sanya calls in for any reason, you can bet Mina will hear about it. Except, of course, for when she's using her powers to hide her transmissions.
"Samantha! Good, you're here!" Sakamoto said as I ran through the door. "I was about to send Eila up, but now that you're here we can have two witches go. Eila, you get Sanya. Samantha, you cover them. I'll bring up everybody else for reinforcements when they get here."
"Ma'am," I confirmed as I just continued to run to the armory, never slowing down as I listened to her orders. Once I had my ammo belts and sniper, I ran to my striker and jumped in to take off after Eila who had just left.
It didn't take too long to catch up to her and then it was actually pretty quick to get to Sanya. Her green antenna bars were framing her head and she was facing North. I looked that way and put on my goggles, setting for night vision. I picked up movement and saw the Neuroi moving in and out of the clouds like a shark in water.
Then I saw the shape of the Neuroi and any tension that may have been forming dissolved completely. It wasn't a particularly threatening type of Neuroi, with very easily defensible lasers and average speed. It was the type of Neuroi we always trained against when I was still in the Marines. I almost felt disappointed for having to wake up for something like this.
But then, none of the Neuroi we ever fought against in training were actually Neuroi. They were remote controlled, mass produced drones meant to replicate movements and tactics the Neuroi exhibited in battle. But based on the videos we had watched of actual battles, you could see that the training drones were nowhere near as quality as the actual thing. The flying just never actually looked natural.
Much like the flying I had watched out in the distance just now.
I looked over to Sanya. "What kind of signals are you picking up from that thing?" I asked.
Eila looked at me incredulously. "Thing?! That 'thing' is called a Neuroi and they have killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed just as many homes!" She practically yelled at me, tears forming in her eyes.
I wanted to respond but Sanya spoke up first. "No, Eila, it's not."
"What? What are you talking about? It's obviously a Neuroi," She yelled again, but it was clear her argument was dying now that Sanya had spoken opposite of what she believed.
"No, it's not. All Neuroi have a similar type of transmission that's alien to humans. This transmission is man-made. And it's very similar to the one I picked up last night."
They were busy facing each other as they argued so I slipped away in the darkness of the night sky and all my stealth gear, training and magic.
I flew North at breakneck speed and circled the Neuroi long before it knew I was there, then flew up behind it and grabbed onto a dorsal fin like protrusion on the back so I didn't have to use any unnecessary energy to fly. I had slung my rifle over my shoulder to fly faster and instead of drawing it back out, I instead opted to pull my knife out.
As I ran my hands over the smooth steel surface of the Neuroi, I heard Eila yelling into my ear through the earpiece, followed by a three round rifle burst blast past the fin I was holding onto. "Samantha! Where'd you go? We're engaging and bringing this sucker down!"
"Cease fire!" I yelled back, still angry I nearly got shot, tucked as far back behind the fin to avoid being hit.
"What?! Why?!" She yelled back. She also hadn't stopped firing and had hit its body twice, the fin once, just inches above where my hand was holding. I'd be really pissed if Sanya pulls out her rocket launcher.
"I hitched a ride, dammit! I'm on the Neuroi right now!" I groaned. The firing stopped immediately, much to my pleasure.
"Why the hell are you on the Neuroi?!" Now with annoyance mixed with concern.
"I'm taking it down. There's no magic dynamo like with the Neuroi, so it won't die like a Neuroi. I'm going to crash it down in the sea, so nobody gets hit by shrapnel," I explained as I finally located the panel I was looking for, all the way in the back. I started to remove the screws with my knife.
"Why bother? We can just have Sanya blow it sky high," She offered.
"Because this isn't a Neuroi acting as a Neuroi. Somebody sent this here specifically to attack and hurt us," I said through gritted teeth.
I paused to let that sink in, but I also used the pause to focus and rip the panel off the Neuroi and reveal the inside. Which didn't make things better.
There was a countdown clock that looked more like it was counting down distance than time, with a second set of numbers below it that the first set were getting closer and closer to. I followed the wires and reached through a dark gap and felt some plastic, clay like substance with a metal pin stuck in it. Bastards were sending this thing filled with plastic explosives to blow up at the base.
I sighed and said, "If we shoot it down, they'll just send more and more until they complete their mission, whatever that is. But if I do this right, then maybe I can buy us some time to do some digging."
"How are you going to do that?" I was surprised to hear Sanya's voice instead of Eila's.
'With a lot of luck,' I thought to myself. Out loud, I said, "Like this," I located the GPS chip and stabbed it with my knife and immediately felt the flight path get corrupted, flying the complete wrong way. But the coordinates continued to move closer and closer together. Perfect.
I forced the flight plain to go a decreasing angle towards the sea below and started to dig around some more. "Time to see where this baby's coming from," I said to myself.
"You two, get clear for now," I ordered.
Eila was about to respond but Sanya cut her off. "Okay. Be careful."
"Wha- Hey! Sanya!" Eila said. I looked up to see that they were retreating back towards the base.
'Good. Go to safety. I'll be fine on my own,' I thought to myself. Time was running out. I figure I only had a couple of minutes until this thing blew, maybe less since the GPS was corrupted.
I kept forcing its flight path straight down to the sea. I had to manually pilot to keep it on a path that would allow it to blow where I wanted it to. Otherwise it may take off again and fly straight into the unsuspecting group of reinforcements coming in late.
The timer was now one degree and seventeen seconds away from matching up, so I started to level off the flight plan. When I got to the last few seconds, I would push it straight down and use the force to fly straight up and away from the blast.
I kept watching, waiting. Fifteen. Fourteen. Thirteen.
Twelve.
Eleven.
"Now!" I screamed aloud and pushed straight down and pulled my head and shoulders straight up, forcing my engines to start immediately.
I heard contact with water and looked down quickly to make sure it sunk. My eyes widened immediately. It didn't dive like I thought it would, its buoyancy wouldn't allow it to. Instead it skipped and started flying upwards again, not allowing me to escape its blast radius.
"SHI-" I started to yell but the explosion cut me off. I pulled my arms up to cover my face and activated my shield instinctively, but it may have been for nothing. I felt an impact in my right thigh and another in my left shoulder. I spun left with the impacts and the sudden loss of use of my right striker and started to spin violently through the air. My vision started to go black and the last thing I saw was the waves reaching up to grab me.
"SAMMI!"
"SAMANTHA!" I heard the voices in my ear, but they were slipping away. The cold numbness was already taking over, dragging me down into the depths of unconsciousness.
