Gear Breaker: Chapter Two
Rhiem was silent. The humvee hit a bump, and he had to steady the unknown girl again, who was lying in the back, resting her head. The Teacher spoke up first.
"You're going to tell me what THAT is doing here." It wasn't a question. Teacher took a quick glance in the rear view mirror, observing the Girl for an instant before snapping back to the road. Rhiem stared straight ahead at the dusty trail, hardly glancing at his Savior. It was bad enough that he should be saved by the Teacher, but having to explain to out this girl…
"I just found her lying in a ditch, I don't know where she came from."
"…What kind of bullshit are you pulling? We are the only settlement in miles. Any human you would have found out there came from here."
"Shu- I don't know. I just found her."
"…"
"If you're lying--"
"I'm not lying!"
"…." The Teacher looked furious. He pushed up his glasses, and drove the rest of the way back to the Rubine Firebase in silence.
Medical Bay
The medics didn't ask any questions, but the leader quickly took the girl's blood pressure and laid her on a bed. The Medical Bay was empty today, with all patients in triage on the frontlines. The Medics, with business to attend to, left the bay quickly. Rhiem almost got up to follow them, but looked back at the girl, sleeping alone in the Bay.
Well….He could wait. It wouldn't feel right to have a girl just wake up, alone, in an unfamiliar place.
He slumped onto the chair, set his headphones on, and waited. The sun was shining in the window, and shone off the dust, making a beam of light that bisected the entire bay. Rhiem needed only to stare at it for a second before falling asleep.
"Whuh?" A breath of cold wind pinched his face. He sat up, and saw that the sun was quickly receding back into the horizon. It was almost nighttime. He shivered, even with his jacket, and pulled the folds in tighter.
His eyes traveled to the girl. She had no blankets, nothing except the plain white Shirt-dress Rhiem found her in. Underneath…Rhiem quickly pushed out the temptations he had to find out. She must be extremely cold. He took off his combat jacket, and covered the torso of the girl. Her silver hair shone against the black of his jacket.
There was a supply depot about a mile from here, with all accessories including blankets. He would go to get one.
When Rhiem had got to the depot, he realized that his iPod was gone. Shit. It must have been in his jacket.
He grabbed the warmest blanket he could find, and hurried back to the Medical Bay. The dead, dried ground felt brittle under his boots. About halfway there, he could hear…singing? Rhiem stopped. If he was right…
That was Tiana??
Tiana was a Rubine-born, Pop-idol that personally Rhiem despised, but had gotten one of her songs on a whim. Yes…it was Tiana! He recognized the lyrics. But this was different. Her singing…had gotten better. And the music was coming from the Medical Bay.
Rhiem was confused.
He got to the door of the Bay, Tiana's song was coming to an end. Rhiem pushed through the door carefully, getting ever-more curious as to why Ana would be in there. She was supposed to be in the Capitol!
Rhiem took a glance into the wards.
In the fading sunset, the girl's hair shone an incandescent orange. Her torso was propped against the back of the bed, and her lithe hands held Rhiem's iPod. The Headphones clamped around her head, and she sung to the tune of "Love is for Fools"
The last of the song ended, and her singing stopped. It was nothing like Rhiem had ever heard. She was better than Tiana, by far. While Tiana sang like a bird that was tied to a stove and force-inhaled helium, this girl sung like she was an angel.
The girl glanced to her side, and noticed Rhiem. She took off the headphones, and smiled softly.
"Hello. Is this yours?" She held up the iPod. Rhiem was struck dumb.
"Oh, that's right. I don't know your name." Rhiem's words managed to tumble out.
"What-- I'm-- That my question! After that, what were you doing way in the middle of Autsutchz? That town's abandoned! What's your settlement number? How can you sing like that?"
"Hm? You ask a lot of questions"
"Don't…don't you remember anything?"
"I didn't come from anywhere."
"What? You LOST your memories?"
"No. I never lost anything. I far as I'm concerned, I was born today."
"Ah, this pamphlet is yours too." The girl pulled out a piece of paper from the jacket pocket. "I thought it might be private, so I didn't look at it." The pamphlet was a slip concerning this week's alert monster, the Wrath LOS.
"Hm?" The girl took a look at the diagram of the Wrath LOS on the front. "It has a Rioreusu on the front?"
"A what?"
"Hm…People like naming themselves after animals, right? I think I'll be called Rioreusu."
"Er…that's, that's a bit too long for me to remember. How about Riu?"
"Riu…I like it."
"I'm called Rhiem. How can you sing like that? That was amazing! You could be professional!"
"I don't know...it just seems natural."
…Rhiem had nothing else to say.
Riu smiled. She spoke softly, delicately. "So I don't know you very well. Why don't you start with how we met?"
Rhiem sighed, and started with how he was first put on the patrol. Riu's face was very responsive to the events as Rhiem told her. Her eyes widened and her face grew concerned each time Rhiem spoke of an explosion that nearly killed them both, or how he had to look into the eyes of the Wrath LOS, ready for it to kill the two of them.
Rhiem thought he saw a small smile when he said he went to go get a blanket for her. Now that he could see her clearly, he thought her to be slightly younger than him.
"So you saved me, right?"
"Well, I wouldn't say saved--"
"You did. Thank you."
"Uh…alright."
Every day after that, Rhiem visited Riu in the Medical Bay. She didn't have a lot of company, as the medics kept as impersonal as possible. The Medics were trained not to get too attached to patients, as they could die the next day. Such was the life in the Military.
Riu brightened every time she saw Rhiem, and gradually grew better and less pale. She felt well enough to sing in the next week.
"Hey Rhiem, what's this about you getting a Girlfriend?" Loki came over, patting Rhiem on the back. Loki had a rat's tail that traveled down to his chest. He constantly played with it.
"Y'Know, the one they say's better than Tiana."
"Tiana is shit. You know that."
"Fell for a girl with a golden voice, huh?"
"I found her in a ditch."
"Wonder if she has golden looks too. If you're not going to have a bite, why don't you introduce her to me, huh?"
"Shut up"
"Shit. Well, you can't stop me from visiting her. She's everyone's guest here." And Loki was right. Gradually, more and more enlisted came to see the mysterious young girl. Soon, Riu was a small celebrity in the Rubine Firebase.
She'll soon get a fan base to rival Tiana's, Rhiem thought.
He was walking down the path to the Medical Bay again, when he heard the siren. First warning. Everyone to battle stations.
The Klaxon rang across the firebase, and the Command Center's Central Cannon, the Quad C, rose from the depths of it's dome-like structure.
An attack.
Riu.
Rhiem grabbed the Assault Rifle from his shoulder, and sprinted to the Medical Bay. A shadow passed over him as he ran. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he scanned the skies.
A dust explosion shot out to his left. An Avianous, full and big, started it's warning growls. The huge beak, sharpened to an edge, clacked hungrily; metal against metal. Rhiem could see the pistons and the powerful metallic muscles that ran the length of the Bird-like Wyviod, covered by a large and thick carapace.
Between the Medical Bay and Rhiem was the damn beast. He could see the building, only a quarter of a mile away. Rhiem readied his gun. Yelling, he charged at the beast, pumping slug after slug into the Avianous. It flew up, far into the skies, and disappeared for a second. Rhiem fired blindly into the air, hoping to hit it. A dozen squawks answered his gunshots.
Five? No, ten of them? A huge group of Avianous swooped down on Rhiem. He rolled out of the way, letting the troupe of beasts overshoot, and scatter again into the sky. He saw out of the corner of his eye, teams of Avianous were attacking similarly. The Quad C thundered; a huge explosion of a muzzle flash erupted from the gaping barrel, and he saw five or six Avianous drop out of the sky a mile away like a load of bricks. Rhiem flattened against a nearby building as the Avianous regrouped to the skies. One stayed behind. It searched the rows of buildings, looking for something.
It locked onto Rhiem.
"Shit"
It shot out a napalm pellet, splattering the wall above Rhiem's head. The deadly gel burned through the concrete like a knife through hot butter.
"Ahhh!" The heated air scalded Rhiem's flesh. He aimed for the vulnerable head, and unloaded into the Avianous. Bullets ricocheted off the beak, and left solid dents in the face. It barely missed Rhiem's arm with another napalm pellet, the gob of gel burning through a patch of dirt off the side. Rhiem drew his machete, and slashed the leg as hard as he could. To his surprise, the leg gave more than he thought it would, and it tripped the Avianous. The robot hit the ground hard, attempting to find balance with only one limb.
Rhiem tossed the pin off a grenade, and shoved it into the Wyviod's mouth. He dashed off to the medical bay, as the grenade blew the head off the beast. A single, smoking, burned out gear hit the concrete. It lay there for a second, before shattering to pieces.
Rhiem burst into the Medical Bay. Riu was sitting at her bed, looking scared.
"Rhiem? What's going on?" Rhiem ran over to Riu's bed, and lifted her up.
"No time, we have to go NOW!" Rhiem punched through the door, letting the sunlight hit his eyes. He charged forwards blindly, looking for the main force.
A familiar, terrible roar shook his mind.
The Wrath LOS was perched right on the Medical Bay. It's claws were stained with blood, and the broken pieces from the RPG that hit it's face was apparent on it, like a scar. Machinery could be heard as it readied itself for a fiery blast. Rhiem started running as fast as he could.
A cloud of napalm burst forth from the Wrath LOS's mouth, covering everything below it. Rhiem just barely managed to make it through without suffering terrible burns.
The Wrath LOS roared, and swooped down to end the lives of the two humans.
The Quad C burst forth one last blast.
A shotgun-type crag struck the Wrath LOS everywhere. Tiny pellets stuck itself into the Composite armor of the Wrath and flared, leaving it's mark. The Wrath, critically injured, left, in humiliation.
Rhiem, exhausted, dragged Riu over to the main force. Medics were setting up a triage, and as soon as one of the nurses saw the two, she immediately sat Rhiem down, applying salve to his burns. The nurse tried to lift Rhiem's arms off of Riu. She grew testy when Rhiem unconsciously resisted.
"I can't help you if you won't let go of that young lady," The nurse pouted. "You're hurting her!"
Rhiem then just noticed that he had a death grip on Riu.
Riu slowly lifted Rhiem's arms off.
"This is the second time you've saved me, and you keep on getting hurt because of it…I'm so sorry"
"Don't do that…blaming yourself. I'll protect anyone close to me."
"So, she's close to you, Private Rhiem?" Rhiem started, and then looked up. The Captain, in full uniform, and covered in dirt and grime. "I need to talk to you. About this girl, Riu."
"She…She doesn't remember anything."
"That's fine. You come with me. Nurse Taya, please attend to Riu here." The Captain took on a softer look. "Nothing will happen to her. Don't worry."
"…alright"