Chapter Four
As he always did, Jaime was walking over to Coop's house. It was where he, Coop, and Kiva usually stayed and hung out when they weren't on some epic quest spanning the galaxy. A little more than a week passed since they destroyed the Glorft as Kiva put it, that didn't stop her from making repairs or those modifications to Megas.
"Yo, Jaime! Guess what?" Coop called out to him from his garage.
"What?" Jaime asked as soon as he got near.
"Kiva wants to give it a go with Megas. I figured it should be ok since it was her robot at first. And it'll be a good precaution if you guys need Megas when something happens to me."
Kiva then walked over to them and said hi to Jaime.
"Well alright, Coop. I'm ready to begin my lessons."
For training, they felt it was best to do it at the junky, funky junkyard owned by their friend Goat. It had plenty of open space and objects to use practice for shooting or as dummy bags. And because Kiva would have to learn to pilot Megas, she'd have to sit on the front seat while Coop sat in the back and Jaime, as usual sat on the front on the right.
"Hey Kiva, nice to have you here at the front for a change" Jaime said welcoming her as she took her place beside him.
"Thanks. I hope I can do it."
'C'mon Kiva, I know you'll be just fine… I bet you were an ace pilot in your time.'
Kiva told them back in her time, she was a skilled mech pilot. But Jaime wondered how she'd fare in comparison to Coop.
"Alright, to go walk, just pick up the controller and move the analog stick in the way you want" Coop said.
Kiva did that.
"If you want to use the jet booster, press on the brakes."
Piece of cake for her.
"Next, to punch or kick, press circle or triangle respectively.
Megas then did a few, simple punches and kicks in the air.
"Now for the best part. Yet. Try running. Simply move the analog stick all the way."
She did just that. Megas was almost running like Kiva did the other day in the park.
So gracefully.
Then while running, Megas suddenly tripped on an old, damaged truck. It caused it to slip over and fall down. It was all so fast and the three passengers felt it as fell down at such spend from facing up and then down. Their hearts raced.
Everything faded black.
Jaime woke up to a blurry vision that soon cleared because he was anxious to check on his two friends. He tried to get up and move and saw the driver's seat next to him was unoccupied. His consciousness still fuzzy, he turned to look at the back seat and saw Coop was unconscious, being held by the seatbelt.
"Coop! Can you hear me?! Are you alright?!" he snapped to attention, shaking his friend widly. To his relief, Coop regained consciousness.
"Wha…what happ-" Coop started to mumble, half awake and dizzy, but Jaime didn't wait for him to finish.
"Where's Kiva?!"
Now very much at attention and alert, Jaime saw the windshield was badly cracked open as if something hit it strong enough and broke through.
The two buddies' eyes looked in horror to see what was before them and their jaws dropped.
"Kiva!!!" Jaime cried out.
She was lying on a heap of junk unconsciously on her stomach.
As extremely soon as possible, Coop and Jaime, along with help from Goat who drove them to the hospital, Kiva was put in the emergency room. Coop, who had fortunately less severe injuries was also taken in for treatment. Jaime and Goat waited in the lobby until the doctor could update them with news.
They waited at least one and a half hours before a doctor walked up to them.
"Doc, please tell me the worst first. Will my friends be alright?" Jaime said after walking up quickly to him grabbing him by the shoulders.
The man removed his hands off him before answering him calmly.
"Now the least you can do is relax first, young man. Your friend Mr. Cooplowski is going to be just fine. With a few weeks of rest, there'll be nothing wrong."
"And Kiva, what about her?"
"You know, I'd like to ask a few things about her myself. You listed her name as Kiva Andrews, but there doesn't seem to be any known records of her. No social security, birth certificate, driver's license. Not even a visa or residency-"
"Doc, please… just… how is she doing?…"
The doctor looked at him straight in the eye.
"Your friend Ms. Andrews…" he began.
Jaime looked through the glass window of the room where Kiva was staying.
He never saw her beat up like this and hoped she would perfectly heal back to normal as good as new. The doctor told him that Kiva was surprisingly strong and that her vital signs were over the top. Well, for a very injured person having neared death, anyways. Jaime wondered if it was because she was determined to live by that 'fight and live another day' ideal. According to the doctor, she would be fine also, though it probably might take longer than Coop would need to get better.
After watching her lie there in the white bed, he decided it would be best for Kiva if he simply left her be so she could recover in peace.
'Don't be getting so attached.'
She was in bed.
Though she was unawake, she felt… a surprising lot around here. It was what you had to be able to do as soldier. Use as many senses as possible whenever possible. She could see from very slightly blinking her eyes the room was white. She could hear the faint, pulsing sounds of life-saving machines nearby. But she couldn't get up. Her body hurt and right now, she was just accepting she was in relative comfort and that she'd just have to sleep, rest. Forget about everything.
Mostly.
Again, the memories from her past replayed in her head like a dream, but as though it was programmed by a computer.
Memories...
The evening was cool and crisp. It might've been a good time for couples to go out on dates here at the park if the city was spared from Glorft attack.
Kiva sat down hiding behind a tree still standing. She gripped her pistol close to her held up. She was doing her best to stay calm as the Glorft soldiers looked everywhere they could trying to find that last soldier remaining. The battle was a complete waste. That bastard Waters' plan had utterly failed. The aliens came in full strength at the reinforcing squad and surviving platoon members at their position and as far as she knew, they were all KIA. Ripped and torn apart by plasma, their bodies adding to the park's landscape. Now her only hope was to flee alive, but she couldn't call in a dropship for escape. They'd never be willing to sacrifice one just to retrieve a single, replaceable soldier. Besides, the radioman got blown to pieces along with his equipment.
Glancing behind her, she saw the Glorft were looking for her. There were at least a dozen of them in this particular spot and she didn't doubt there were many more out there. Deciding to take a chance, she quietly sprinted up to the large bushes. Staying in them wouldn't be very comfortable, but it was the least she could do before making her next move. She was kneeling down behind the bush until she heard the cocking of a gun behind her head.
"Freeze human or you will die" said the gruff, growling voice of the Glorft soldier.
No doubt that was a lie. Throughout the years, there were endless publicized stories in the news about troops surrendering to the enemy. And so far, the Glorft were not known to take prisoners. Knowing better than to panic or at least show it, Kiva remained still in her position for a number of seconds before she instantly rose up and then turned to kick away the Glorft's gun. Without hesitation, she fired her pistol at him.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Two bullets to his chest and another to the forehead.
Kiva wished she had a silencer to go along with the pistol earlier. She never liked being the center of attention.
Instantly on the run, she headed in a random direction. Her heart pulsating and bursts of adrenaline rushing through her. But then she saw she was now in open field, now an easy target. Even worse, there was even a Glorftmech in front of her.
She couldn't help but stare in awe of the alien purple and green armor, even if it was for a split second.
She saw there was a mini-missile launcher next to a fallen soldier which she grabbed. The best place to hit it was the chest, the cockpit. And it all happened in seconds.
The explosion didn't do much, since the chest part was often blessed with extra armor to protect the pilot, but at least it held off the mech for a short while. She started running again, taking a few shots at her pursuers.
Until the reinforcements she never expected came.
Two Coalition mechs appeared and landed on the ground. Using their blaster rifles, they shot at the damaged mech and destroyed it. They then used their built-in, shoulder-mounted machine guns to spray at the now fleeing Glorft troops.
"Is there anyone from Terminus Squad or Aqua Platoon still here?" said a voice through a loudspeaker.
"I repeat, are there any survivors, over."
(To be continued…)
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