Omega [REDUX]

Chapter 30

"…ow what do we do?"

"HQ wants her alive."

"She looks quite dead to me."

"Yeah, my main scanner is broken so I can't verify that. But according to my heat sensors, her body is ice cold."

Blots of greyish, orange light filtered through her eyes as she struggled to regain consciousness. Auditory information filtered through her brain, patches of conversation here and there. Something had happened. Something bad. Something that had made her very, very angry.

"Elaine should have just taken her with the other red haired one."

Anna.

Her eyes flew open, vision flaring blue as she levitated forcefully off the ground, arms outstretched, the gurgling screams of the two soldiers next to her reaching her ears as icy, bloody spikes spouted from their bodies. With a snarl she let the ice within the soldiers expand, shredding them into strips of wet, raw flesh and bloodied metal that cascaded down around her, staining her white suit with patches of red.

The adrenaline that coursed through her veins subsided, but not her anger. She felt no pity or remorse, even as she stood amidst the remains of two soldiers she had just brutally murdered. I will hunt down every single one of you, if it gets Anna back—

A flash of memory cut through her head, and she flinched. She remembered Elaine standing over her as they abducted Anna, how Ursula had exploded in a flash, and how the academy was now under assault.

Oh no. No no no no no—

She almost panicked. Almost broke down and cried. All that she had gained: a new life, a place she considered home, Anna, was about to be destroyed. She was powerless; her past was inescapable, and she had dragged down everyone with her to an end she had seen coming a long time ago. It wasn't fair to them.

Then her fear turned to anger. No. This is my past, not theirs. They don't deserve this. I have to make things right.

I have to save them, or whoever is left to be saved.

She scanned her surroundings. The hall was empty, furniture and rubble strewn amongst the place, fires burning gently as rain began to pour outside. Through the hole in the wall she sighted a streak of lightning lash out across the plains. She shuddered, kneeling down amidst the remains of the soldiers to pick up one of the helmets. Still clean.

Elsa initialized the startup protocols and began scanning through for radio channels, all while keeping a close eye on her surroundings. She had no intel on what had happened, how long she had been out for, and where the other students were. She tapped into local channels and sifted through the garble and codewords in an attempt to decipher her current situation. She needed to know enemy movements, enemy plans, and most importantly, she would need a way out.

"This is Valhalla Actual. Give me a sitrep."

Elsa listened in silence. "This is Valhalla Blue," the recipient replied. "We're halted outside the main hangar. Can't push any further."

"Why?"

"They've set up a defence pinning us down every time we try to push. We've tried sending our own aircraft, but they've shut the blast doors."

"Can we try drilling in?"

"The hangar is plated with multiple layers of titanium-alloy, so no."

"How much firepower do we have?"

"Not enough to break through."

"Can they escape?"

"No sir. We've taken control of the academy's anti-air defences. Any dropships or shuttles they attempt to fly out or call in will be shot down immediately. Any ideas sir?"

"Hold position, Valhalla Blue. We can have a Whiplash Torpedo barrage launched within the hour. Will radio in for you to extract."

"Roger that, sir."

Elsa slammed her fist upon the wall next to her. She had one hour to get everybody out. No pressure. If there was any chance of success she was going to need a lot of help. The only person that she knew could help might not even trust her to begin with.

But she had no choice. Lives would be lost if she didn't try. She had to.

Elsa cut the helmet off from the rest of the Empyrean network, encrypted her own signal, and tapped into UIF military contacts, scanning through the database for the name she sought after. Somewhere in the back of her head, she knew that her time was running out.

The night had turned stormy. Rain cascaded down onto the airfield outside the bunker in great torrents, almost muffling the sound of thunder that rolled their way. The only other sound was the constant, monotonous humming of the ventilation unit. The air was cold and wet.

Not what Kristoff would necessarily call miserable, but it wasn't very conducive for his sleep. Then again, he couldn't remember a day where he had slept well, not since after he'd sent two of his squadmates off to die.

But at least he'd found some closure. His eyes rested upon the rifle at his side, the one he'd brought along on that fateful day, the same one he'd used when he met the young woman again. To some extent, his heart found comfort in the fact that she wasn't in control of her actions, and that she was sorry regardless. Maybe somewhere in that maelstrom of emotions he would find pity for her.

Kristoff would later realise a lot of things could have happened that night. He could have received a drill run order, sent directly from high command. He could have received divine enlightenment that might have solved his inner crisis with his emotions a lot more quickly. Heck, he could have even received a surprise snack from the kitchens, if they were feeling in the mood. The last thing he expected to receive that night had been a call.

And then his datapad began to ring.

He arched an eyebrow as he glanced at the notification. It was an unidentified caller, with no indication whether it was a civilian or military line. He first presumed it to be a bug, but after the datapad kept ringing continuously, he realized that the line must have been encrypted. The thought compelled him to answer the call.

"Hello?"

There was a crackle of static on the other side. "I need your help."

"Who is this?" Kristoff narrowed his eyes. "How did you get this line?"

"It's Elsa." His heart felt a stab of emotions. "I read up your files after I was properly rehabilitated at the academy and could function properly. I was given access to files I probably should not have access to, hence my ability to contact you."

What the fuck? "What do you want?"

A pause on the other end. "The academy is under attack."

Kristoff sat up ramrod straight. He swallowed. "What's exactly going on?"

"Empyrean have seized this entire facility. I don't know how many are there, but they came in force. They have control of most systems, including anti-air, and trapped the remaining students and staff in the main hangar." He heard the sound of a sob being stifled, and then, "They've also taken my friend. Abducted her."

"How-? We didn't even receive an alert. In fact, I have a million security reasons not to trust you right now." Kristoff realized she could be being held at gunpoint and being forced to call him, or even worse, a double agent for Empyrean itself. "Why should I take action?"

"I know you think this could be a trap, and I certainly don't expect you to trust me, not after what I've done. But there's a Whiplash Torpedo barrage coming for this place within an hour, and lives are at stake here. Our military's best recruits are at stake here."

"Why me, then? Why not any other unit out there?"

"Your unit can mobilise and deploy within fifteen minutes, and another ten to reach the academy from—"

"Even if I did agree to help, I'd have to pass this through the chain of command. That would take even longer to deploy. I might not even make it in time.

"I know, and that's why I'm asking you to deploy first, without their knowledge."

He felt his jaw tighten. "I could get court martialed for that."

"I know."

"Then?"

"Please, Kristoff." She was desperate now. "I can't save them alone. I need your help, fast. Every second we waste could mean the difference between saving and condemning them."

Almost everything inside him screamed at him to shut her out, to refuse to listen, to kill the call and return to his routine. It would be the safest route, sparing him the danger of combat and the danger of bureaucratic prosecution.

But try as he might he couldn't find it in him to do that. He'd sent off two of his teammates to die already. He couldn't condemn innocent civilians to that fate as well. He couldn't risk it. As much as he knew he could be walking into a trap, that Elsa couldn't be trusted.

I'm going to regret this.

"Hold position. We'll deploy in the main square and work our way to you."

He heard a sigh of relief on the other side. "Thank you. I'm going to see if I can help the defenders in the hangar."

"You'll get yourself killed if you do that," Kristoff said as he moved to retrieve his rifle, pulling open his closet to reveal his combat armor suit. "Wait for us to deploy, then we'll figure out a plan of action."

"You underestimate me," came the reply. "I can take care of myself, but I need to make sure the students and staff can. Just be here fast."

The line cut off.

Kristoff sighed, his fingers tightening around the rifle in his hands. Then he reached for his datapad again, this time to alert his team.

Elsa decided that the situation would only escalate if the soldiers found out she was still alive. While it could potentially distract them, they'd actually be able to use the trapped students and staff as hostages. Things would go downhill from there. She needed to remain undetected for as long as possible.

She froze the first soldier she saw, or rather, she froze her blood entirely. As the corpse collapsed to the ground she hastily dragged it into a darkened corner and stripped the body down, donning the suit of armor she recovered. It fit decently. She retrieved the rifle, thankful that her mobility wasn't going to be hampered in any way. Her eyes flickered blue behind her visor.

Elsa brought up the real-time tracking interface and scanned for Empyrean soldiers. A large number of them were, as expected, crowding near the entrance of the main hangar, interestingly refusing to approach it directly. Whatever defence that the remaining staff and students were putting up must have been effective.

The remainder of the forces were scattered in ongoing, singular patrols around the campus. Elsa wasn't going to have to worry about half of those given the sheer size of the campus, but the patrols significantly increased in size and frequency closer to the facility mainframe room. For all she knew, if the security lockdown protocols had failed, Empyrean had complete control of the campus, including sound systems, camera systems, and anything else that could hinder her.

Keeping an eye on the tracker she walked as naturally as she could towards the mainframe room. She knew her movements were also being tracked; she needed to appear as ordinary and natural as possible to avoid attracting attention. Her fingers tightened around the rifle. As slowly as she wanted to move she also needed to move as quickly as she could; if she couldn't take care of things before Kristoff arrived they were going to be in trouble.

Elsa isolated her comms from Empyrean networks and contacted Kristoff again. "What's your ETA?"

"We just took off."

10 minutes left. "What's the height that you're deploying from?"

"Burning in at 40,000 feet. We're climbing towards that altitude as we speak, though if you need us to deploy now we still can."

Elsa ran the numbers through her head; she'd have a total of approximately 12 minutes to disable the AA guns before Kristoff's team came into effective firing range, and were blown to smithereens. Not exactly conducive for a rescue effort. "How many soldiers did you bring?" she asked, continuing towards her destination. "I'm using an Empyrean suit for recon, and it looks like their force is bigger than we anticipated. Roughly a hundred soldiers. And they still have air support, force number unknown."

"Damn. My team only has eight people. We have one anti-air launcher but that's all we got."

"Then we may have a minor problem." Elsa let the rifle hang by her hands as she walked past the main square, in tandem with the other soldiers patrolling the area. "I've got at least 10 soldiers at your deployment zone."

"Think you can— shit."

"What is it?" She quickened her pace.

"Standby, just need to verify something." That didn't sound good. Elsa forced herself to speed up, brushing hastily past a patrol who luckily didn't say anything other than an annoyed grunt. "Fuck. Elsa I'm bailing."

"What?"

"Hostile fighter is locked onto our deployment drone. They've spotted us, and we've got no defenses. Bailing now."

"Wait—"

"We're at 30,000 feet—" The radio cut off.

"Kristoff? Kristoff, do you read? Kristoff!"

"Hey!" another soldier across the hallway yelled at her. "Report in, soldier!"

Her mind raced; she didn't have time to maintain secrecy anymore. Instead she pulled the rifle off her shoulder, and before the soldier realized what she was doing she took aim pulled the trigger. The gunshot resounded through the academy as his corpse crumpled to the floor, a black gaping hole in his visor.

"What the hell was that?"

"She just shot him!"

"What?"

Scrambled, panicked chatter came through her comm unit as she broke into a run, her senses on full alert, the sound of every footstep in her vicinity reaching her hypersensitive ear buds.

"She's right there!" Elsa heard someone yell. "Take her down!"

Elsa turned her corner, already aware of the presence of three soldiers, and brought her rifle up to bear in the same movement. She squeezed off the three headshots she needed even before they could take aim, and ran on by, feeling stray rounds from her pursuers ricochet rather painfully off her armor.

"She's headed for the control center," someone yelled through the comm channel. "Stop her!"

"She can hear us on this channel, dammit!" another voice cut in. The comm quickly shut off.

Elsa rerouted her comm unit's processes and tapped back in with ease. She pulled up the real time tracker and superimposed the information onto a map of the campus, then ducked behind a wall as rounds came flying towards her, rerouting through the academy's many hallways.

"Don't let her get away!"

Quick feet carried her down the hallway, then to another hallway down the left, and another down the right. Elsa pulled a grenade from the suit and tossed it down a hallway that she ran past. Bouts of gunfire were followed by an explosion, which promptly ceased. Her eyes darted to her minimap as she drew her sidearm to run faster; she was close to the mainframe, but 4 minutes had already passed. She only had 5 minutes left.

"Hold position here!" The channel comms came to life again. "We'll cut her down with the LMGs."

Elsa aimed the gun down the hallway as she ran; she'd have to turn left to reach the mainframe, in full view of the LMGs. With her pursuers hot on her heels she had no choice. Her left hand outstretched, ice gathering in her palm before morphing into a blue, frosty shield. She dropped the pistol, planted her other hand on the underside of the shield, and brought it over her as she turned the corner.

Two LMGs, their operators prone on the ground, and three other soldiers opened fire on her.

"What the hell—?"

Elsa silenced the soldier with an icy blast, firing straight through her shield, even as bullets clattered harmlessly off the icy surface. She increased her pace, ignoring the pounding her hands were taking, blasting frost bolts at the enemy soldiers, taking note of their screams with grim satisfaction. Simultaneously she knocked the LMGs out of their operators' hands, letting fly a swath of icicles with a swoop of both of her hands, which slammed straight through their armor.

The blue glow of the mainframes surrounded her as she plowed through additional soldiers that stood in her way, their rifles clattering to the floor. Elsa wove between the walkways, gunning for the control panel at the center of the circular room. Her time was quickly running out.

"There she is!" someone yelled from her left. She'd been caught off guard; rounds slammed into her armor before she could get a shield up, instead choosing to duck into cover. She felt pain blossom across her shoulder. At least four bullets had hit her, penetrating her muscle. Agony sliced through her nerves as she twitched a little, and she resisted the urge to cry out.

"Come out, Elsa," the soldier said, but Elsa could still hear the other four around him moving slowly towards her. She was outnumbered and hurt. "You have no way out. Surrender peacefully."

Elsa sucked in a breath, hands clenched around her wound. Her head bumped against the mainframe she leaned upon as she grit her teeth, trying to numb the pain, but it wasn't about to go away anytime soon. Her mind raced, trying desperately to look for a way out, but there was none, nothing that came to her mind immediately. She was pinned down, and if reinforcements came now she would be gunned down. She was running out of time. Kristoff was running out of time. Anna was running out of time.

Elsa shut her eyes and let the stimuli flow through her: the pain, the sound of footsteps and breathing, the heat of the mainframes, waiting for an opening, an opportunity, a miracle. She glanced at the timer in her HUD tick down with every passing moment, and felt her heart fill with dread.

"I love you too, Elsa."

Anna? She almost looked around in shock. She swore she heard that voice. The flashback had been so… real. Probably the only real thing she had.

And it would be lost from her if she didn't act fast.

"Step out with your hands in the air," she heard the voice repeat. "There is no way to run."

I'm coming for you Anna, she thought. Don't give up yet. Hold on. For me.

She could not afford to hold back now. Not while Kristoff and his team were plummeting to certain death. Not while Anna's life was in jeopardy. The gloves had to come off.

Her eyes opened. Her irises flared blue.

Elsa let her physical form disintegrate; her body fragmented into tiny ice crystals that poured out from every crevice in her armor, and her mind turned into a frenzy. Her suit crumpled to the floor, helmet clattering to the floor, her fluid form gushing into a singular wave that lashed out across the room toward the soldiers.

Panicked, her adversaries fired lead rounds harmlessly through the blue cloud, only for her to reform at point blank range. Elsa slammed her fist into the first soldier, with lethal force, the helmet cracking beneath her knuckles even as she dissolved again, flowing with her momentum to reform, execute, and dissolve, a deadly pattern that the group of soldiers fell prey to.

YOU CANNOT STOP ME.

The icy cloud of herself flowed around another enemy soldier, who flailed violently in panic. She reformed, positioning herself where his guard was down, her hand morphing into an icy blade with she promptly slammed into his torso. Another soldier swung his rifle at her head, but she dissolved, her particles swirling around the rifle and reforming, allowing her to pierce his armor with her blade too.

YOU WILL NEVER STOP ME.

More rounds came flying her way; Elsa let the rounds pass through her, icy trails in their wake as she turned to face the threat, swinging her arms to let fly blasts of ice at the soldiers. Both collapsed in a heap, helmets pierced. With a snarl she whipped around again, firing off more ice blasts at her adversaries, and slashing at anyone that got too close.

I WILL NEVER YIELD.

The screams stopped abruptly. She looked around. She'd killed everyone; no one else was standng.

Now she stood alone in a floor littered with corpses.

She glanced down at herself, a little shocked at what hand just happened, and what she had just experienced. Her entire bodice was icy blue, translucent, but did not hamper her figure in anyway. She felt a thought run through her head; her skin reverted to normal, but she did not appear naked as she expected. A blue dress now adorned her body, the same blue dress that Hans had passed to her. It made no sense, but she was in far too much in a hurry to care. The threat around her was neutralized, but she had no time to waste.

Elsa hurried over to the main panel and brought up the diagnostics and processes. Her helmet was back on the floor; she didn't know how much time she had left. Frantically she accessed the lockdown protocols and overrode them; with the threat level neutered, she reprogrammed the anti-air defenses and set them back to normal.

She resisted the urge to collapse. She wasn't done just yet.

But she didn't quite know if she'd saved Kristoff. And his squad. Elsa glanced at the helmet on the floor, fearful of what it might show her.

A crackle. "…Elsa? Come in?"

She lunged forward, scrambling to put it on. "Hello?"

"It's Kristoff. We're almost there. Groundside in sixty seconds."

Elsa let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Hold position at the courtyard. I'll rendezvous with you there."

"Roger that."

Icy magic swirling in her hand once more, Elsa removed the helmet, dropped it on the floor, and crushed it under her heel.

Suboptimal chapter, rusty writing, and I has exam coming soon :( Will try to up my writing game soon :P