Chapter 10; Blue Angel
After Houki had taken some time to collect herself, they grouped up to hear what Laura had learned from her unit. "My comrades in the Schwarzer Hase were able to borrow some satellite time and learn that the Silver Gospel has retreated to this island." She said, summoning the right arm of her IS and displaying a map over it. "Since then, it has not moved." "Is it damaged?" Rin asked. Simon just shook his head, saying, "I doubt it. Neither Ichika nor Houki could land a solid blow. Which begs the question; why is it staying put?" They didn't have an answer for that, though they tried to think of one. Finally, Houki spoke up, saying, "Does it really matter? We know where it is, and we can definitely beat it now." They just looked at her and nodded. The reason didn't matter; they were going to take this thing down for their friend.
Summoning their IS, they took off and headed towards the island. Chifuyu, who had been watching them from a distance, took a moment to wish those stupid kids luck before turning to Tabane, who was standing next to her. "Were you able to find anything else out about that IS?" "Sorry, Chi-chan, but whoever set this in motion covered their tracks well." she answered, looking depressed that someone had been able to out-smart her on something. Chifuyu shuddered at the thought of what they could be dealing with, and briefly considered calling them back, only to realize they would just ignore her if she tried.
As they closed in on the island, Simon opened a com link with the girls. "Alright, Cecilia and Laura, stay back and give us cover." "What?!" Cecilia practically yelled, causing everyone to wince, "Why would I stay in the back? You think that I will allow you to fight that thing without me?" Sighing, Simon explained, "You two have the only long-range weapons. You'll be more useful at range. We'll try and set-up shots for you, okay?" Cecilia just sighed in frustration, but broke off to stay with Laura as they went for more height. Simon and the others spread out and continued on their way, quickly coming into view of the Gospel. While everyone else was eager to finally engage it, Simon was slightly nervous about it.
He was sure that this IS had nothing to do with his sister, but there were things he saw that just did not sit well with him. For starters, when Houki and Ichika first attacked it, its movements weren't just that of a machine. A combat program is usually more reactive than proactive when it comes to the kind of combat they do with IS. The situation is too fluid for pre-programmed battle plans to be of much use, so the program has to analyze and react to the situation. Instead, the Gospel had gone on the offensive, never giving the two pilots a chance to get close and use their swords. He could explain that away as clever programming, that whatever controlled this IS was aware of its weakness at close-range and was responding to that with overwhelming fire. But, that explanation just didn't sit well with him.
Shaking his head to clear it, he focused on the matter at hand as they closed on the Gospel. Rather than waiting to see how it would respond, Simon unfolded his wings and launched all of his fang bits, opting for finishing it quickly. In response, the Gospel released a wave of its energy bombs at them, forcing him to call them back or risk their destruction, and then shot straight up while charging a beam in its hand. Before it could fire, Houki and Charlotte were on it, Houki closing to slash it into pieces and Charlotte opening fire with her two SMGs, peppering it with bullets and chipping away at the shields. As Houki got closer, the Gospel brought its left arm up and blocked her first swing, grabbing the blade and stunning the samurai. Before she could respond, it fired into her stomach and sent her hurtling away. Charlotte took the moment to open fire again, but was forced back by another wave of bombs.
By this point, Rin and Simon had made their way behind it and launched their own attack. With Rin pinning it down with her Shock cannons, Simon closed and brought his sword down, attempting to sever its arm. The Gospel dodged at the last second, just a simple drift to the side, before it brought its right fist into his stomach and knocked the wind out of him. Backing off a bit, he brought his shield up right as Cecilia and Laura opened fire. While a few stray rounds came close to him, most of them hit the Gospel and it was quickly consumed in a cloud of smoke. When the Gospel emerged from the smoke, it had changed drastically. The wings were now made of pure energy, and its body was much sleeker in design. It underwent its second shift now? Simon thought as the new Gospel charged a pair of particle beams. Before they could even prepare for the attack, it launched them at Simon and Charlotte, draining their shields by a fair amount and forcing them back.
Rin and Houki tried closing on the IS, only to have it launch a much larger and more powerful version of its bomb wave at them. Houki was able to dodge most of the blasts, but Rin wasn't so lucky and had her shields drop to 20%. "Rin, fall back!" Simon said as he fired his smoke missiles at the Gospel, trying to buy time as he accelerated towards it. However, as he got to within two feet of it, he saw a flash and barely brought his shield up in time to block the beam aimed at his head. Thrown off-balance, he wasn't prepared when the Gospel suddenly was right in front of him, its hand in his face with another beam charged. He tensed, ready for the pain to come, but it never did. The Gospel instead absorbed the charge and lowered its hand. On an open com link, they heard, "Not bad, but you can do much better than that, Simon."
The voice was strange, and he knew it wasn't one of the girls. Rather than taking the chance at a dialogue, he fell back as Charlotte, Laura and Cecilia started opening fire again. Turning, he saw that Houki was with Rin, and that they were both glowing. "The heck is she doing to you, Rin?" he asked as he readied his fangs for another attempt. "I'm recharging her shield energy." Houki answered as she broke away, the glow fading. "You can do that?" "Yeah, seems my sister thought of everything." Turning back to the battle, he noticed that the Gospel was only dodging the attacks; it wasn't launching any of its own. Strange, it wasn't against countering earlier he thought as he launched his fangs again. Turning towards him, the Gospel launched another wave of bombs, this time taking three fangs out before Simon could pull them back.
"Nice try, Simon, but you need to do much better than that." He heard again. "Okay, I'm not crazy, right? Everyone else can hear that?" he asked, hoping it was just an overactive imagination. "No, I heard it as well." Laura said as she launched another shot at the Gospel, only to have the little pest dodge it with ease. She was convinced that the damned thing was toying with them; it wasn't even fighting back now. Deciding to take a leap of faith, Simon opened a link on that channel and said simply, "IS, stand down now." "Or else what?" it asked back, tilting its head to the side. "We scrap you." He said, bringing his sword back up. The others had moved to surround it in a rough sphere, hoping to catch it in a crossfire should it refuse.
However, they were all taken by surprise when they heard laughter. The Gospel tiled its head back. "You, scrap me? Hahahaha! You clearly don't understand who you're fighting." It said, looking straight at Simon. "You lost this battle the moment it started." "And how do you figure that?" Simon shot back, trying to project confidence. However, he was starting to feel a pit forming in his stomach. "Because," it began, raising a hand, "You assumed I was alone."
As if on que, several things shot out of the water from beneath the Gospel and spread out to engage the pilots. Before they could react to that, two massive particle beams shot from the water, hitting Laura and Houki dead-on. The reinforcements engaged them right after the hits, forcing the pilots to break-up and fight separately. The new units, whatever they were, looked like Harpies and were carrying a variety of weapons. Some had rifles, others had swords, and one had what looked like a bazooka, which it was aiming at Cecilia as she tried to fight off one of the other Harpies. Without even thinking, Simon triggered an Ignition Burst and intercepted the rocket as it sailed towards her, noting how his shields took a 5% hit from that blast alone. Can't take many of those he thought as he blocked a slash from another Harpy.
The only saving grace they had was that from the design of these new enemies, it was clear there was no-one inside them; their limbs and chest were too thin. Fighting off the one clinging to his shield, Simon brought his sword down and severed its right arm. After losing its rifle, the Harpy immediately sprouted a wrist-mounted energy blade which it lashed out with next. Turning the attempted slash aside, he turned his block into an attack as he cut it in two at the waist. Just as its corpse was falling away from him, the beams from the water fired again. Simon got a brief glimpse of a ship below the waves before one of the blasts hit him full in the chest, dropping his shields to critical. Before he could worry about being taken down, Cecilia's laser bits were around him, firing at anything approaching him. Houki was next to him in the next moment, recharging his IS.
"We can't keep this up." She said as she looked at the others. Cecilia was managing to stay away from the fighting, but the others were fighting with at least two Harpies each. For some reason, the Gospel was staying out of the fight and just watching them. Suddenly, he saw the bazooka-wielding Harpy behind Cecilia, and he felt the bottom of his stomach drop away. "Cecilia, behind you!" he yelled, breaking away from Houki and racing for her. She was just beginning to turn when the Harpy put the barrel in her face and prepared to pull the trigger. Suddenly, an energy blade pierced its chest, causing its aim to shift and the missile to miss. Turning the stab into a slash, Ichika threw the now defeated enemy aside and looked at Cecilia, asking, "Are you okay?" She just nodded as another beam nearly missed her.
"It's nice to see you up and moving, Ichika, but we're kind of in the middle of something." Simon said, cutting off any premature celebration at the return of their friend. Privately, he was relieved that he was okay, and noted how his IS had undergone its second shift. The armored sections had become more elaborate, and his left hand now had a claw, and what looked like a gun barrel. This guess was proved right when Ichika began firing his own shots, even though they were poorly aimed. Alright, we're at full strength, we can do this Simon thought as he cleaved another Harpy in two. Then the Gospel was behind him, saying, "I think it's time we talked, privately."
Swinging around, he tried to bury his sword in its side, only to have it grab his wrist before accelerating towards the island below, dragging him along with it. "Simon!" Cecilia yelled, trying to catch up to them. In response, the Gospel launched a wave of bombs behind it, forcing her back. Not long after that, another pair of beams lanced out of the water, targeting her and Ichika. Any other view of the battle was lost to him as he was dragged down to the island.
When they arrived, he was unceremoniously thrown to the ground ahead of the Gospel. Quickly getting back to his feet, Simon prepared for another attack. Instead, the Gospel stood there, staring at him. "It has been quite a while, Simon." it said, walking towards him. "How do you know me?" he demanded, bringing his sword up to try and stop it. However, it just kept walking until his sword was touching its chest. "Have you truly forgotten me?" it asked. While he could have imagined it, Simon thought he heard pain in its voice. Looking closer, he saw two faint blue lights that could very well have been eyes. "I've never worked with A.I. before." He said, bringing the sword up towards its neck. "Is that what you think I am?" it asked, stepping closer, "Is that who you think I am?" Snorting, he responded, "What else could you be?"
Letting its head drop slightly, he heard it sigh before saying, "Ci vediamo dall'altra parte, fratello." Simon froze at that, recognizing the phrase. However, he couldn't bring himself to believe it, it had been used by that Ogre to stun him before, after all. "H-how do you know that?" he asked, feeling his hand starting to shake. Stepping closer to him, the Gospel brushed his sword aside, which he didn't even try and stop. There was something about its actions that tugged at the edges of his memory; they way it walked, the way it talked, the way it fights. As if seeing the look in his eyes, it said, "It has been a long time, brother," before stepping forward and hugging him.
His world stopped right then and there. The IS that was supposed to be his enemy, that had hurt one of his friends, was being piloted by his sister. No, that's not right he thought, bringing his hands up and pushing it away. "You're not Sarah." He said, looking it in the eye, "I watched her die. I saw her body." Even though it didn't have a mouth, he could picture it smiling at him. "I promise, I'll explain. Come with me and I'll tell you everything." Before it could try and hug him again, or he could even consider its offer, a particle beam hit the sand between them. Simon lept back out of reflex and looked up to see who had shot at them.
The IS wasn't one he recognized; it was also fully armored with solid wings in the design of angel wings, its hands were replaced with what looked like double-barrel rifles, and its thigh armor had large plates hanging from them that looked like a series of diamond plates fitted together. Without speaking, it brought its rifles up and opened fire on the Gospel, the barrels on each hand alternating to keep up a continuous stream of fire. The Gospel, took flight at this and launched its own return fire. Acting on instinct, Simon moved to protect the Gospel. Enemy or not, he was going to get some answers from it, damnit. The new IS just dodged around him and continued firing at the Gospel, forcing it back.
Calling back the three remaining Harpies, the Gospel moved to where the beams had been coming out of the water, saying, "I guess we'll have to catch-up another time, Simon," before diving beneath the waves. Turning to the new IS, he saw it begin to engage the Harpies. Before anyone could move to support it, they saw its armor change; the wings expanded on solid bands of light, as did the armor on its thighs ad shoulders. When one of the harpies closed in on it with a sword, the rifle on its right arm folded down and out before sprouting an energy blade that it used to cut through the sword before removing the Harpy's head. Dodging to the left, it quickly brought the second into its sights and put a beam clean through its chest. The last Harpy attempted to bring its energy dagger into the IS' back, only to have the blade blocked and a rifle barrel shoved into its face.
Before anyone could stop it, the IS blew the Harpy's head off and let the now dead body fall away. It then just collapsed it's weapons into armor slabs on its wrists, relieving that it did in fact have hands. Turning to them, it opened a link and said simply, "I think we are done here." Rin was the first to speak up. "Who the heck are you, lady?" she asked, deciding to throw courtesy to the wind. "I will explain, but not here. Shall we return to your headquarters?" Simon detected just a bit of an accent, but let it go. Ms. Orimura is going to love this one he thought.
As they approached the beach, Chifuyu, Maya and Tabane met them when they landed. After destructing their IS, and allowing Tabane a moment to hug Ichika and Houki and gush about how glad she was they were safe, they turned to the new IS, which had still not destructed. "So, who exactly are you, and who are you with?" Chifuyu asked, turning her attention fully to this new IS. Tabane, meanwhile, was scrutinizing the suit, clearly trying to work out what it was. "I am sorry, ma'am, but I cannot answer that question." It replied. "How about explaining why you have fold-out armor?" Simon asked, causing Tabane to practically launch herself at the suit. "What?! How can you have that system? I only made it for Ho-chan!" As she started to try and climb over the suit, she received a brief shock to throw her clear of it. "I apologize, but I cannot allow you to do that, teacher." That last part stopped everyone short for a moment before they all looked at Tabane for an explanation. "I never had a student." She said as she stood back up.
The IS suddenly had its helmet open up, although it would be more appropriate to say it collapsed down into the collar. The pilot was a girl, not much older than the other pilots, with deep blue eyes and dark blonde hair held in a bun. "No, you would not remember me," she said, her accent distinctly British, "But then again, we have not met yet. You look much prettier without the scar, by the way." This is what it must feel like to be Ichika Simon thought as he struggled to keep up with the conversation. "So you know Tabane?" Chifuyu asked, managing to keep some measure of calm. "Well, yes, and no." The mystery girl answered, but she refused to say more. Sensing the growing tension, Maya stepped forward and asked, "What can you tell us, then?" "That depends on how bad the situation is here." She responded, turning to the other pilots, "Is this the first time this has happened?"
Noticing that no-one else was able, or willing, to answer her, Simon spoke up. "Well, no. There was an IS that looked like an Ogre, and then a spider that tried to capture me." "I see, so they have already begun." The new girl said cryptically. Shifting her attention to a screen that only she could see, it seemed that she was reading something. Cecilia took this moment to step forward. "Um, I don't know who you are, but thank you for your help." She said. The new girl seemed a little stunned at this, but she composed herself quickly and answered, "You are welcome." She finally destructed her IS, dropping to the ground and giving them a good look at her. Simon and Ichika immediately blushed since she was, in a word; breathtaking. She also had a scar that ran along the upper part of her left arm, starting from the elbow and going up to her shoulder before disappearing beneath her pilot's suit.
"It seems that the situation has progressed to the point where direct cooperation is necessary." She said, addressing Chifuyu, "As such, I am permitted to reveal certain information to you." "Then tell us who you are, and what you know about the Silver Gospel." She responded, crossing her arms in her don't-screw-with-me pose. "The IS you saw is the result of a phenomenon that occurred 16 years ago, although I suppose for you it would be two years ago now." She explained, "My teacher is still unsure of how it happened, or how this being is able to repeat the event to make more of itself. What we are sure of is that its intent is nothing short of total domination." "Domination of what?" Ichika asked, although a few of them already felt they knew where this was going.
Turning to him, she answered simply, "Domination of us. Humanity." They took a moment to let that sink in, then Chifuyu gestured for her to continue. "I have been sent here, before the point of no return, in order to make sure that the outcome is different this time." "'This time?'" Chifuyu asked, raising an eyebrow. Nodding, she continued, "My teacher, the Tabane that I know, was able to devise a method for one-way time travel. I have been sent to ensure that what that machine is planning will not happen." While Tabane and Chifuyu seemed to take that particular little bomb without batting an eye, everyone else needed a moment to fully come to terms with that one. "You're from the future?" Simon asked, trying not to sound skeptical. When she nodded, he asked, "How far?"
At this, the girl turned to Cecilia and looked her up and down before asking, "How old are you now?" Cecilia, for some reason, tried to cover herself up as if the girl was doing something obscene. "Wh-why does it matter how old I am?" she asked, blushing slightly. When the other girl just stood there without answering, she answered, "18." She stood there a moment, staring off into the distance before she turned back to Simon and said, "I am from 23 years in the future." "And why did you need miss Alcott's age to figure that out?" Chifuyu asked, clearly as skeptical about this as Simon was. Without turning a hair, she responded, "Perhaps I should introduce myself properly. I am Maylin Alcott, and she is my mother." Yeah, this is going to go over real well Simon thought before Rin turned to him. "Wow, Simon, you sure work fast." She said, causing the others to blush rather badly, and Cecilia and Simon to try and kill the Chinese girl.
After they had been hauled off Rin, Chifuyu and Tabane took Maylin for a private meeting, while Maya lead the others of them back to the hotel to rest. After Rin's little 'comment,' Cecilia was refusing to look Simon in the eye, and she seemed to have a permanent blush. So, she's already drawing conclusions when we don't even know the whole story he thought, although it was admittedly hard not to under the circumstances. Rather than sit there and listen to his friends constantly teasing him about what this could possibly mean, he went for a walk in the Japanese garden outside.
Choosing one of the larger rocks, he sat down to try and organize his thoughts. Too much had happened to him too damned fast. First, he had gone to the next step with Cecilia, which he was both nervous as hell about, and excited over. He had nearly lost a friend, two actually, considering Houki was about to quit over something she couldn't have controlled. He learned that the Gospel was being piloted by his sister, although what Maylin had said about it hinted at something else. And then there was Maylin Alcott, a headache in her own right. "Damnit, I never wanted this!" he shouted, feeling the frustration building up. "I don't think any of us did, Simon." Laura said, startling the blonde. He turned to see her standing behind him, looking impassive.
"Did you need something?" he asked, in no mood for jokes. "I just wanted to know what your opinion is over our new guest." She said, walking over to stand next to him and looking at one of the trees. Turning to follow her gaze, he thought a moment before saying, "I'm not sure I believe her story about being from the future. It just sounds a little too far-fetched." Laura just nodded, pleased to know that at least one of her friends shared her concerns. "It also seems a little suspicious that she would appear right when we fought the Gospel." She said, "The timing seems too perfect to me." Deciding Laura was one of the better people to share this with, Simon said, "About the Gospel. It claimed to be my sister."
Laura didn't say anything for a moment, mulling that over. She had heard about what happened to his sister from the others, and while she couldn't personally relate to what he felt over it, she knew it was not a topic he opened up about ofter. "Do you believe it?" she asked, trying her best to remain neutral. Looking down at his hands, he responded, "I don't know. The way it spoke to me, the way it walked, even the way it fights all remind me of Sarah. But..." "but?" she asked. Sighing, he struggled on, knowing he had to say this out loud to cement it in his mind. "But that could just be the result of clever programing. Someone that spent enough time observing her to record her speech, fighting style, and mannerisms. I just don't know." "Simon, can I give you some advice, as a soldier?" Laura asked, turning to him, "Unless that thing gives you definitive proof, treat it as an enemy's mind game." Simon just nodded, but he still felt far from certain. He knew that the Gospel, that Sarah, was telling the truth back there. But, there was also lies hidden in there somewhere. He just couldn't figure out which was which.
Well, this one came a little early, so think of it as another apology for being gone for so long. Hope you enjoyed the several bomb shells I just dropped on you there. The battles are just going to get more intense from here, sense this is the part where the shit starts its intercept course for the fan. Hope you brought good umbrellas.