Well, this took longer than expected, but in exchange this chapter is about as long as Initiation. It's the end of the day and it still feels very long for old Ciapahas Cain. I put it all together once again because I felt it better to show just how much he and the girls went through and changed tonight. Hopefully, you find the endeavor worth it.
Enjoy!
*Chapter 10: No Longer Alone*
She was going to relish completing this job.
For the past few weeks they'd done nothing but attack the dying Abydos Academy. They were fended off because the five remaining students were stubborn freaks, but they were going to run out of ammo and supplies eventually.
That all changed with the new big guy on the block, the rumored "Sensei" that supposedly saved the city. The gangers out here in the sticks didn't buy it even a little. Then he rode in, rallied those girls and managed to kick literally every Helmet Ganger in their turf out of the district. They were less doubtful of that little tale after that.
Their backer was apparently pretty mad that this was the biggest fail they had so far, but he was giving them one last chance. A Type 41 Flak Gun and several illegally modified Crusaders, plus every Helmet Ganger they had left. That was going to be enough to finish them.
They already got one of them after she left her job she took online. It was then she had the brilliant idea of using the girl's phone to try and lure and then take out the new legend on the block and become criminal legends themselves.
The girl was already down, and they sent her off to the hideout already. Those bleeding hearts wouldn't leave any of their own behind, and without their new secret weapon they'd probably surrender before the sun came up.
Excitement and anticipation eventually turned to boredom. Ten minutes had passed already. Where was this guy?
'Hold on, I'm coming from the school. I'll be there soon.'
She grinned and told the rest of the gals, nine with her at her position plus the five at the 41, where to point their guns. Her own "provided" rifle was on her shoulder while she had the catgirl's specially customized one in her hands. She'd never seen a Beretta look this good, with a special paint job that looked pretty sleek by her own measure, and it even had its own custom rifle scope. She had to admit, the girl knew how to soup up a gun, and it was so well-maintained she couldn't even see dust and sand on it. You wouldn't think it was from a girl that held off a siege from the Helmet Gang, so she had to give her kudos for her maintenance on the shiny new firearm. She was very excited to see how good it was in a firefight. "We're finally gonna be done with this, we'll get our pay from the boss and we'll be famous!" she repeated with glee, and the rest of the girls cheered with her. With that artillery piece pointed here, there was no way that guy could fight them. When he came in, they'd call for the strike and he'd be done, simple and easy.
Seconds later, she suddenly heard something clattering on the ground. She raised a curious eyebrow behind her helmet when she looked down to where it stopped.
She didn't have time to raise the other one before it exploded. And then the other one did. And another one.
"Where the hell did those come from?!" She screamed as she stood up. There were only five of them left barely standing, groggy and reaching for their guns as flames and smoke blinded their sight.
They all froze as the sound of a howling engine and whirling teeth ripped through the night air like a banshee wailing for their souls. It came from the exact opposite direction they were told to face. Aka, right behind them.
They were crying soon after as they were cut down one by one, smashed and scythed through by the terrifying weapon until she was the only one left.
A shadow came over her, and it took all she had not to squeal. A lone figure, his greatcoat as black as the night around him save for the golden adornments, his gloves a bloody red crimson, and his face shaded by his peaked cap, towered over her. All she could see of him was his very displeased frown.
"Consider this a lesson from a Sensei: If you're going to spring an ambush, you better hope you get your information right."
With the other girl's gun thrown from her hands, she had to use her own. She tried to raise her weapon at him only to have it contemptuously bisected as though it wasn't there, with half of it falling to the ground. In desperation she went for her phone and rang for her friends. "Fire on me right now! Just do it!"
She braced for the inevitable impact. She might get taken down but at least he would be too, and her friends could deal with him after. When nothing happened for several seconds, she realized something was very, very wrong.
"Oh, that Flak 41?" he said casually. "Was much easier to deal with than the last tank I cut through."
Her hands went limp, her phone dropping to the ground as she realized she was screwed. Before she could even think of running he had her in an iron grip by her collar.
"You tell me where they're holding her. I'm not going to ask again."
"N-no way," she whimpered. "They're not going to let me back in if I tell on them…"
Suddenly the sword rumbled again by his side, and she noted with rising terror that it was way, WAY louder up close.
"Again. I am not asking."
"OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY BY ABOUT 20 KILOMETERS STRAIGHT FROM HERE! WE'VE GOT MODDED CRUSADERS THERE AND WE'RE NOT PLANNING TO KILL HER!" she babbled desperately, not wanting anything to do with anywhere this insane teacher existed anymore.
"Illegally modified… How?"
"I DON'T KNOW, THEY ONLY TOLD THE DRIVERS! DON'T KILL ME PLEASE!"
He then smiled at her. It was not a pleasant smile.
"Was never planning to. A little punishment isn't off the table though."
He then threw her up and swung his chainsaw at her like a bat. It dug into her until she crashed, cracking the wall behind her. She then smacked into the ground, and she was gone.
—
Well, that was unpleasant business, but none of these idiots were dead, which is more than I can say for most foolish gangers that crossed me back in the Imperium and now I had what little information I wanted.
Of course I didn't buy that our kidnapped catgirl sent me that message for help. She never called me a Sensei the entire day. Why would she start now? So instead of heading for the store, I went for the cannon instead. With my experience in artillery regiments, I was able to determine the general direction of the shell being fired, and headed there to scout it out.
As it turned out, there were only five gangers protecting their battery so I swiftly dealt with them and gave the last one remaining an impromptu interrogation. Their gun was a Flak 41 88 millimeter gun, an artillery piece that could be fielded as an anti-air or anti-tank unit, towed by a separate artillery tractor. Against all common sense, they didn't even intend to kill Serika and they simply intended to hold her hostage, sending a separate vehicle to take her away. It confirmed my ludicrous theory that these girls literally brought a tankbuster just to deal with one haloed catgirl. The idea that this was a viable nonlethal measure showed just how monstrously durable they were. My forced informant didn't tell me where they took Serika, so I knocked her out and moved on to the larger ambush squad, apparently a kilometer or so away from the convenience store.
I passed by the store first. Alarmed as the proprietors were at the sudden shelling, I asked why Serika wasn't here and as it turned out she was let go an hour early for her bad performance. I wasn't expecting that but I didn't judge them for it, and assured them as such. I told them of the situation, and after finding out who I was they quickly provided their assistance.
I asked for a bandolier of five frag grenades and some rope, and they gave it to me for free without any prodding. I had no time to insist on refusing payment as I usually did for my heroic image, though I did give them my thanks and bid them to lock the place down as I moved out, reminding myself to reimburse them at the earliest convenience.
Which brings me to my current situation. After a little cunning redirection and application of explosives for my ambush, I got the information I needed. I shook my head as I strapped Serika's Sincerity rifle onto my shoulder and checked her phone to see if anything had been tampered with. Apparently, the gangers decided to focus on the ambush and didn't bother to do anything with the smartphone before I arrived. I rolled my eyes when I saw my own contact among the recent messages. "That new guy?" An unflattering way to be referred to, but accurate if nothing else. I got the contact number for the Master before pocketing the phone.
I then secured everyone there with the rope, recovered all of the armaments and stashed them in the van. Afterwards, I made my way back to the Flak 41, securing the still knocked out gangers like I did with the rest. Frankly, I knew it wouldn't hold them for the night, but it would be enough to keep them held until we didn't need to bother with them anymore. I then called the rest of the FTF to update them on the situation.
"They have armored vehicles now?!" Ayane said with worry. "This is worse than I thought…"
"No point in complaining. It doesn't matter what they have. They have Serika, so we have to get her back."
Shiroko's words, declared as they were with finality, bolstered the rest of the Task Force and urged them onward. I inwardly approved of her directness doing part of my job for me, then realized that things might not be as bad as they seem.
"You're right about that, but we may have less to complain about than we thought." Despite the situation, I couldn't help the cold grin forming on my face.
What they have does matter, especially if we can take it for ourselves.
—-
The desert night was cold, but as someone who persevered with iceborn Valhallan regiments, it was not so unpleasant to me as we drove through the sands to find the new Helmet Ganger base.
Less pleasant to me were the buried remains of structures and buildings scattered across the desert, a testament to how disastrous the great sandstorm was a decade ago. The roofs of small houses poked through the ground while the tops of large buildings were monuments to the severity of the catastrophe, affecting everyone from the poorest wastrel to the richest administrators. It wasn't just buildings either: cars, road barriers, barrels, stop signs… Various objects provided grim reminders that there was a civilization here, people who lost their lives and so much more to the disaster. In any other time, I would have ruminated over them, but for good or ill, other priorities distracted me from the horrors of that catastrophe.
While Shiroko, Ayane and Nonomi were completely focused on retrieving their friend, the light in Hoshino's eyes dimmed ever so slightly every time they landed on me before she went back to her usual serious frown.
I didn't blame her. Whatever happened between us, Serika was taken while she was my responsibility. But any dressing down could wait for later once we had Serika back.
Eventually, we got within visual range of the base and I parked the van behind another fallen building, going outside for some fresh air. "Can you find them?" I asked Ayane over comms.
"I'll try Sensei," Our operator replied sternly. One of her drones scouted ahead, floating high above enemy territory. "Casting the drone camera view to your screens now."
From the camera, we had a rough bird's eye view of the enemy's location, what appeared to be the remnants of a town, and the resistance we faced: Fifty helmetheads milled about their makeshift garrison, taking shelter in the remains of the buildings or moving about the scant remnants of concrete roads. Five Crusaders, modified in some way I hoped I wouldn't find out, were also stationed on the far side opposite the entrance for service and maintenance.
I again had to marvel at the fact that military-grade tech was basically a dime a dozen around here. Drone reconnaissance made available to an entire squad using commercially available devices? A lot of guardsmen would be far more assured by their superiors if they could see what scouts and the top brass could see anytime they wanted on the field.
"No dice Sensei," Ayane said glumly. "They hid her inside the building already."
"Do you have any other options?" I didn't want to go around the base hunting for our last member when they could just trot her out as a hostage.
"... It's a gamble," Ayane answered me after a moment's consideration. "If she still has our earbuds then I could ping them from her phone by saying they're lost. However, anyone else who has them…"
"Will be alerted as well." Commercially available active augur scans for such simple conveniences as finding your lost belongings. How grand. As to the downside, we will have to make do. We will assume the worst in this case and expect to be found out, because I guarantee these gangers would have lost their belongings somewhere in this Emperor-forsaken desert.
"That will be enough. Let's set up."
Back in the car, Hoshino was seated in the passenger seat and Nonomi was in the back. A few moments later Shiroko opened the car door and joined her fellow sophomore, having been a passenger in the other vehicle we brought on the way here.
We didn't have Serika with us on the squad, but we did have someone else joining her to make up for it.
"Will this be sufficient, Ayane?"
A light yet determined voice spoke up from beside me, a few calculations on her tablet determining the answer. "Yes Sensei, we're within range of armor penetration. I can set it up here."
Ayane was at my side, small as she always was, yet looking no less brave for being all the way out here. To be fair, her image was aided by the drones floating around her by her command and the anti-tank gun behind her.
Our operator now had fire support to add to her roles, and to my surprise she confidently said she could man the gun with the help of her drones. Apparently, tactical manuals for its operation were posted online, and she speed read it on the way to the main district and on the ride here, which was why we decided to bunker down here, within the maximum effective range for the 41's anti-armor piercing capabilities. She seemed to have an affinity for both hardware and software that would make any tech-priest proud, though the lack of any machinery on and in her made her far easier on the eyes than the average cogboy, a strange thing to say about an abhuman.
She was like good Felicia Tayber in that regard, though Ayane was much more reasonable. Hopefully, she didn't unnecessarily augment her body with cybernetics, if such things did exist in Kivotos.
"We have to hurry before they realize that the rest of their squad isn't here yet, so we'll head out now. When we reach the base, alert us to her location and start shelling." Hopefully, we get Serika back before we really start raising merry hell.
"Target priority?"
"Take out the nearest Crusader, preferably a manned one. Afterwards, I will make the call." The artillery tractor only had four of the Flak 41's rounds left in the trunk, so we had to make every shot count. Anything that could bust a tank could at least scatter some bunched up infantry, but ideally we could handle those on our own. At best we take out every tank save one, and anything more than that will be a problem. Fortunately, she had eyes in the air and on the ground, and could still provide medical support in a pinch.
"Got it, Sensei." With that, she began to prepare the Flak 41 for firing, detaching the gun from the artillery tractor and deploying it in its mobile anti-tank mode. She would be a one-man battery team with her drones accompanying her. I nodded in satisfaction at her work. By the time we reach the base, she would be ready to fire.
"Please be fine Serika," Nonomi prayed from behind me.
"They won't hurt her," I assured her, trying to believe in the information fed to me by a desperate ganger fearing for her life. "After taking a shot like that, they probably won't take any chances for a hostage." And if they did, there were going to be consequences.
"Don't worry Nonomi, we'll get her back no matter what," Shiroko assured us as she pulled her White Scar 465 from her back.
"And we're giving them a spanking they won't forget." Hoshino had her shotgun in her hands from the moment we met up again, and she looked just about ready to go on the warpath. The girls at my side weren't just determined, they were mad, and who was I to stop their enthusiasm?
Rescue was our first priority. But if we can help it, our breakout will include breaking everything in that damn base. We didn't need to give them time to consolidate their forces and mount an attack on the academy when we already had the element of surprise and a weapon to destroy their strongest assets in our hands.
I threw on my greatcoat and went back inside, turning on the engines and making them rumble to life. "Then it's time to move out."
I released the handbrake and accelerated towards the base. Time for a little debt collection of our own.
They took one of ours? Well, then we were taking her back, with interest.
—-
"Ughhh… What hit me…?"
She shook her head to try and dampen the massive headache she had. She tried to cradle her head as well only to find that she was constricted with steel chains all over. As her vision cleared, she looked around to find herself locked behind a cage, completely trapped inside a house shack barely fit for living in.
"What happened? How did I…?"
The memories came flooding back to her, hitting her as hard as the artillery shell that nailed her and left her flat on the ground.
"Was that a Flak 41? How'd they get something like that?" Things were getting worse. Looks like he was right. There was no way those idiot Helmet Gangers could get their hands on an artillery piece like that on their own. They were on somebody's payroll after all.
Problems for later. She just got kidnapped by the Helmet Gang. And then they had her cellphone, so now they could do the same to him and everyone else. Or maybe they would use her as a hostage so that they would give up the school for her.
"No way… I can't let that happen!"
She struggled as hard as she could, shaking every way and trying to stretch her arms and legs, but try as she might, she couldn't break free. She threw her body against the cage, but the only thing that happened was making it hurt even more. Her panic slowly gave way to despair.
"I can't… I just can't…"
She sank to the floor, her ears drooped in shame, and she could feel her eyes getting wet.
"Maybe they should just leave me here."
She messed things up so badly. She didn't want to admit it, but things were getting far better when he came in. But then she acted so ungrateful to him and he probably didn't want anything to do with her. Maybe he didn't want anything to do with any of them.
It would be for the best. Abandoning her here for possibly ruining a chance to make things even a little better for their academy and everyone there. He'd be way more helpful than her anyway.
But that would just be giving up wouldn't it? Giving up on Abydos and everyone there, just like everyone else in this entire city.
"I can't do that…"
But she didn't know what to do. She collapsed to the ground, and couldn't feel like moving anymore.
It was just a moment. Just one moment when she just laid there, tears falling from her eyes, feeling absolutely lost and so close to giving up.
And then she could feel vibrating in her ears, the wireless earbuds they all got for communications. This was followed up seconds later by an oddly familiar explosion blasting outside her cell making her eyes and ears shoot up in surprise. She looked over shoulder, wondering why she could hear scant cries and screams from the outside.
Suddenly, the unmistakable revving of a chainsaw grinding through the locked doors caught her ear, and it never sounded so amazing. She barely had a second to comprehend it before the door was kicked wide open.
She couldn't help the utter shock that came when he came in, chainsaw and gun in his hands And when his eyes landed on her, a strange mix of surprise and relief seemed to light up his eyes as his weapon died down.
"It's good that you're alright, Serika."
"Y-you… Why are you here?" She couldn't help but ask, the impact of an anti-tank shell simply not enough to explain the dizziness she felt at seeing him here.
"Because we were all worried for you, of course. We'd never leave one of our own behind."
He said it as if it was the most natural, obvious thing in the world, and she couldn't stop her heart from aching at doubting him. That feeling only got worse when one by one her friends entered after him and she could hear a familiar operator's voice through her buds.
"Confirmed visual on Serika. She's trapped but safe."
"Hehe, looks like we got our damsel in distress. Did you miss us?"
"Yay! We're all back together now!"
"You're fine Serika… Thank goodness…"
They all came. They really didn't leave her behind, and he really led all of them here to rescue her. Shame, relief and warmth mixed in her heart.
His chainsaw whirled again as it ripped open her cage as though it wasn't there. He went inside and helped her to her feet before he thumbed a switch on his chainsaw, and she noted that the growling of its motor and the whining of its teeth both slowed.
"I'm going to have to ask you to trust me, Serika."
It was a simple thing for a teacher to ask a student, but for the past two days she couldn't do even that despite how much he helped her and her friends. Now, she had to act like a proper student should. "Yes, Cain Sensei."
Sensei's eyes raised at her acknowledgement, before he nodded at her. "Turn around and straighten yourself." She did as he asked, closed her eyes and grit her teeth, preparing herself to feel a cut that never came. She didn't even realize she was already free until Hoshino whistled.
"Wow, sliced through those things like paper and not even a wrinkle on her uniform. You're pretty good with that thing Sensei."
"I make do."
Her eyes shot open. That didn't even take a second. She looked at her hands, unable to believe how easy her liberation was. As she looked back at her friends the first thing she saw was Cain Sensei with her beloved rifle in his grasp.
"Would you like some payback?"
Despite how tired and hurt she was, she couldn't stop her lips from curling up into a vindictive smirk as he handed it to her, alongside some magazines and her phone. With practiced ease she smacked in a fresh magazine to load up her gun and held it at ready. "With pleasure."
Cain Sensei then held his hand up to his ear. "Ayane, two payloads please, one to help and one to hurt."
"Acknowledged Sensei. I'll be dropping it outside."
As they walked out of her shanty cell, Ayane did as she promised and dropped a med pack for her, energizing her for the fight ahead. At the same time, another powerful shot exploded past them and Serika followed its trail to see a Crusader being turned to burning scrap.
"Funny enough, that's the gun that knocked you out in the first place. I hope you don't mind?"
The smirk never left her face. "Pretty cathartic, all things considered."
"Well and good." He thumbed up his chainsaw and it was at its full power once more. "Let's keep that going, shall we?"
Just as the gun that knocked her out and brought her here, it fired the starting shot to a whole load of payback.
—-
Nonlethal reasons or not, heavy ordnance didn't come with a stun setting. If it hit, it hit. So when we finally rescued Serika, I had to remind myself that she was hit by an anti-armor round, because it definitely didn't seem like it. A few scratches, marks and dust from being dragged around, but that was all she had, and most of it was gone after Ayane's medical drop, (which i deigned to avoid, because I didn't want to know what effects THAT would have on my person unless I absolutely had to). I reiterate, the shell could blow up tanks. The Flak 41 shelled with half the caliber of an Earthshaker, didn't match up to a Bombast Field Gun, and it definitely wasn't a Heavy Lascannon, but that was still enough to turn guardsmen to mulch even through flak armor and possibly even my own carapace armor, a hypothesis I was obviously hesitant to test.
I could speculate on the mysteries of ridiculous durability later. For now, we had to push our luck, and what luck it was. Possibly out of spite, these absolute amateurs kept Serika in a broken down shanty right beside the entrance, so we were able to retrieve her basically as soon as we arrived. The enemy was still in disarray from our initial assault, with Ayane's bombardment allowing us to blitz the five gangers at the entrance and outside Serika's confinement. Meanwhile, with Serika's rescue, we now had a full-strength squad backed, however temporarily, by an anti-armor battery.
The moment was ours. It was time to seize it.
"Fan out and take cover! Nonomi, move up and suppress them! We will follow!"
"Gotcha, Sensei." "Understood, Sensei." "Got it, Sensei!" "Alright, Sensei!"
The girls followed my directions to the letter, with Nonomi moving up ahead of us to fire up a storm. She took out five gangers in the initial assault while many were still running around wondering what the frak was happening.
Now they knew, but it didn't help for many of them. While Nonomi ducked behind a car to take cover once again, we moved up to take her place. I ducked behind a pile of tires, while the rest went for road barriers and partially buried cars in the middle of the field. Shiroko and Serika used their own autoguns to replace the barrage from Nonomi's rotor cannon once they found their place, taking out three more goons that popped up their heads in an attempt to counter while the rest went for cover. Exactly what we wanted.
"Covering fire, Serika!"
"You got it, Sensei!" As she stayed above cover, sending bullets in the general direction in front of her to help pin down the enemy, I took out one of my frag grenades and looked to her fellow autogunner.
"Shiroko. On three."
"Yes, Sensei." She ducked behind cover just as I did and copied my action. We took out the pins at the same time and threw them ahead to the enemies' position. Two satisfying explosions later, four more joined their comrades on the ground.
"Time to move up." Hoshino used the opening made by our explosion to dash in and unleash point-blank blasts from her shotgun, and between her experience and their surprise, they were no match for her, and two more were downed.
"Hoshino, take cover!" Ayane's warning was punctuated by another round blasting into another modded Crusader. It wasn't anywhere near Hoshino's position, but the vibrations from the explosion threw off the sniper's aim as the bullet sailed by her and made a harmless dent on the sand.
"Whew, close one, thanks Ayane!" She followed Ayane's advice and ran behind another collapsed house.
With Ayane's warning, I looked to higher elevations to determine how many snipers there were and where they could shoot from. Fortunately, the idiots were all dressed as red as a Khornate heretic, painfully visible in the dead of the night. Their guns had scopes too, the light of the moon and stars reflecting off the glass. Thus, I could see five snipers positioned at different roofs and elevated areas around the base.
Our team's main weakness was that we had no precision long-range options. Serika and Shiroko's autoguns were the closest we had, but they were no match in range to dedicated snipers, so we had to close the gap.
"Hoshino, ahead with me. Shiroko, drone strike on the left. Serika, go high on the right. We'll distract the rest." Speed and strategy will have to be our calling where range and numbers are not.
Shiroko hunkered down and ruffled through her bag, Hoshino refilled her shotgun, and Serika loaded up a fresh magazine while I primed my last grenade. We were ready.
"Nonomi! Suppress the snipers for Serika!" I barked out my order as I lobbed my frag from behind my tire cover, making the group coming for us take shelter once again.
"You got it, Sensei! Firing now!" Nonomi moved out into the open and unleashed another storm of bullets from her rotor cannon, none of which hit anything. It did however have the effect of forcing the snipers on the eastern flank to keep their heads down, allowing Hoshino, Serika and I to advance. Hoshino ran through the center of the field while I followed behind her. Our shotgunner slid into another barrier, pushing her gun out into the open to blindfire in a haphazard attempt to suppress the enemy. I, on the other hand, sent las bolts towards the sharpshooters on the left flank as I took much more reliable shelter behind a house. Not the most ideal roles for either of us, but it kept their heads down instead of letting them shoot, which was all I needed them to do.
"Initiating aerial attack." Shiroko's drone unfolded and flared to life, propelling itself above our firefight and the snipers' higher positions on the left. It sailed towards them and let out a salvo of micromissile fire, and now they were down two. Its owner slammed in a new mag for her gun as it returned to her side, and once it arrived she kept it inside her bag.
Meanwhile, on the right flank, Serika took a far more direct approach: She ran inside the nearest house and up the stairs, turning their advantage on its head. They had the range game, but up close they were at the mercy of whoever found them, and in this case the poor red helmetheads were unpleasantly surprised by an angry catgirl hungrily seeking retribution.
"Now I can fight back, you idiots!" She erupted into azure flames the moment she arrived, and taken completely by surprise, the sniper in front of her was turned into a short-range lead receptacle.
Two snipers were left. The one on the roof beside her tried to fire back, but with her enhanced reflexes Serika was quicker on the draw. With the height advantage taken away, they were now in a mid-range encounter where the autogun thrived, and she easily took down the sniper on the roof adjacent to hers. The last sniper now had enough time to bring her weapon up to Serika, but with all of the enemies occupied, the suppression game changed. I was now supporting Hoshino in holding down the center, while Shiroko was free to move up and replace Nonomi in pinning down the last sniper, her semi-automatic rifle bursts managing to find their mark. After taking a few stray shots, the sniper quickly ducked down, allowing Serika to leap across the roof and give the last sniper the same treatment she did to the other one.
"My turn to be unfair!" In a tactical move I wholeheartedly approved of, instead of going back down to our level, Serika took the place of the red Helmet Ganger there and started taking the role of our ad-hoc sniper. She wasn't trained with the precision weapon that lay unused at her feet, but an autogun thumbed down to semi-automatic, at high elevation in a knife fight like this was a fine replacement in my books.
As an aside, she deigned to kick the unconscious previous occupant of her space off the roof, a move I would consider a callous but brutal necessity of combat in other situations, but didn't do so now. These girls regularly survived barrages that would open up a fountain of bloody orifices on a guardsman, and Serika literally just woke up from eating an anti-tank round. It was petty, but it was practical, allowing her to indulge in a minor bit of vengeance while also ensuring she wouldn't be taken by a surprise attack from her position. Who was I to judge such efficient multitasking?
With elevated fire on one side and our rotor cannoneer reloaded and ready to go, Serika, Nonomi and Shiroko concentrated on sending all their fire towards the middle. Serika and Shiroko's precision shots contrasted well with Nonomi's hailstorm of bullets. They were trapped. Staying in place meant turning into easy pickings for the cat on the roof. Attempting to run back meant facing a barrage from all sides that took out five of them. The only way to get out of the situation was to pray that you could clip Serika from cover, and none of the gangers were good enough for that. The other option, of course, was to wait for them to reload.
This was not a good idea when Hoshino and I were still in play. With all of them pinned down, it was simplicity itself to walk up and engage in close combat. When the bullets stopped flying above them, they thought they could poke their heads out and fire back, but we were already at their sides, which they were quite alerted to when my chainsword roared to life and Hoshino's shotgun was placed into one of their faces.
"Hiiiiii."
With that dreary greeting finished, Hoshino gave the helmethead a point-blank helping of shotgun slugs while I sliced another one into submission. Three more stood up to try to counter, but another shotgun blast and four quick lasbolts were enough to knock them out before they could execute.
Our last anti-tank round rocketed through the air, slamming into another Crusader and making it erupt into flames. "I waited for them to board it before I finished. Five more contacts down, but the last tank is now warming up, Sensei."
That she even considered such a move without my input meant she went above and beyond, and made the best of what we had, and I could ask no more of her as I moved behind another house. "Very well. We will have to make do. Pack up and focus on medical support, Ayane."
"Yes, Sensei."
I looked at the final Crusader and tried to determine what modifications I could from sight. If it was using special internal modifications that heightened its specs and increased its performance, I wouldn't be able to see those.
How naive I was. My eyes widened when I noticed that the barrel looked rather long and quite familiar. Indeed, it seemed strikingly similar to the very artillery piece we were using behind us…
"Ayane, retreat now, anti-armor has you in their sights!" I screamed into the comms. They modified cruiser tanks to try and turn them into versatile artillery pieces, likely using that final Flak 41 for spare parts? A fair move, but not one I wanted played against us!
I grit my teeth. An anti-tank round wasn't enough to significantly hurt Serika, but Ayane was an operator, and with the budding idea I had in my head, I didn't want to risk anything. I didn't even know if they were aiming for her or the Flak 41, but it didn't matter.
"We have to stop the attack!" So I said, but I knew it would be futile, no matter how fast we ran. It was hampered even more as the 12 other members of the gang left, the remaining five being the crew of the Crusader, fired and forced us to take cover.
"Dammit, isn't there anything we can do to stop them?!" Serika desperately jumped down once she ran out of high ground, but had to take cover behind a house again at the storm of bullets coming her way.
"Too much fire, can't make my way there." Shiroko said with gritted teeth, having taken a few shots already. Nonomi was worse off with her far heavier weapon and took a veritable storm before she was forced to go beside Shiroko.
"What can we do?! There's just too much!"
"I'm not letting them hurt her."
Hoshino spoke beside me in a dark voice I never would have expected from her, and when I glanced at my side I noted that the light seemed to fade from her eyes. No flames like Serika's came forth. Instead, it felt like ice.
It wasn't any power or warp sorcery I'd seen in both my long life and my short time here. But in my eyes, it was far scarier just seeing someone usually so lethargic become consumed by righteous anger.
She transformed her briefcase and ran far faster than I could have ever expected her to with her shield and shotgun in hand, faster than any of us even. She seemingly ignored every bullet that hit her, stubbornly bullying her way through like she was clad in power armor rather than a braced uniform. Once she closed in, the cannon was aimed at Ayane's position and primed to fire before Hoshino could do anything about it. Or so I thought.
Her solution was to merely jump up and put her shield in front of her, right in the path of the main gun.
Hoshino took the anti-tank round dead on, the shell exploding into a cloud of smoke and flame in front of her as she rocketed back towards us, rolling on the sand. The entire base seemed to go quiet at the unbelievability of what just happened.
"Hoshino-senpai?" Shiroko said quietly from behind me.
And then the president sat up like nothing had happened at all, her eyes drooping once again as she scratched her head. "Hehe, did I do it?"
I had no possible idea how I was supposed to react in such a situation. The sheer defiance of logic practically entranced my mind to look ahead instead, powering up chainsword and thrusting it forward once again.
"WE HAVE BROKEN THEIR ASSAULT! CHARGE!"
My shout was like a spell of its own on the battlefield, moving the girls behind me forward while those ahead of us were paralyzed. Between their incredulity at seeing how ineffective a damn tankbuster round was and the fear of the coming onslaught, they were far too delayed in raising their weapons to put up a resistance. The tank seemed to be unmoving as well, the crew likely just as petrified as the rest of their comrades. Well and good.
"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!"
Serika screamed as she and the FTF still standing opened fire on the completely demoralized Helmet Gangers and finished them off, leaving me to mount a Crusader once more and plunge my chainsword into it, ripping it apart and rendering it useless just like the last time I did it.
As it turns out, I needn't have bothered. This was a horribly constructed tank. There was barely any space inside for the gunners and drivers, and I'm damn sure the act of firing the gun forced the shell to eject in your face. Which was OK if you had the resilience of a power armored ork, but would doubtless be a hindrance to continued operation. Who made these?! You didn't have to be a Magos to weep at this slapdash monstrosity.
"Hehe, looks like we're all done here." I looked behind me to see that Hoshino had caught up to us, seemingly ignorant to the fact that she had stopped an anti-armor shell with nothing but a bulletproof shield. I narrowed my eyes at the fact that said shield also didn't have a single hole in it, the only proof it received such a battering at all being the ash on its plating, still unable to conceal the troubling name it held under a multilayered triangular symbol.
The Iron Horus: A bulletproof shield made to pair with the shotgun, the Eye of Horus.
I knew that there was something peculiar about Hoshino the moment I looked over her profile, but her weapons' names threw up more red flags than an army of World Eaters. I was swept up with addressing other problems, but I should double-check on this very unpleasant coincidence, and Emperor willing, it really is just that.
"You idiot, you can't just say we're done here! What the heck was that?!" Serika yelled in her vice-president's face.
"I heard a shot go off but nothing came this way! What happened?!" Ayane called out from our comms, confused and begging to get answers.
"Hoshino stopped the anti-tank shot by jumping in front of it with her shield," Shiroko enlightened our operator matter-of-factually, as though it was something that just happened every day.
"WHAT?!" A reasonable way to react, but I feel that as someone who's been here for a week, I had better cause to act that way. The utter desensitization I felt from all the insanity of the past few days took hold of me though allowed me to just take it in a stride.
"Nah, no need to worry about ol' Uncle Hoshino here," the person in question deflected as she reverted back to her usual guise of soporific mildness. "I don't need you crying for me, Serika. You've done enough crying for the night."
Serika's concern was wiped away in the face of Hoshino's very frank opinion, replaced with defensive outrage. "Wh-what are you talking about?! I wasn't crying at all!"
"False!" Shiroko immediately rebuked her. "I confirm that there were tears in your eyes when we first rescued you!"
"There's no need to cry anymore, Serika!" Nonomi joined in with an assurance that, from where I was looking, definitely was not assuring to Serika in the least. "All the bad guys are gone and we'll be home safe soon."
"Damn it, could you be any more grating?! I said I wasn't crying so shut up already!" By my measure, crying out that you weren't crying wasn't very effective. A sigh came from over the comms, as relieved as it was amused.
"Looks like everything's back to normal again," Ayane said, tired but fulfilled. "I'll finish preparations for moving, Sensei."
"Come over here ASAP. We have some looting to do." Because a school in debt needed all the supplies we could get, doubly so when said supplies could lead to finding out who was sending gangers after them.
I jumped down from the Crusader and made my way to the girls mobbing their rescuee, my presence breaking up their little roast session.
"You'd be more convincing if you didn't react so much, Serika," I advised her with an amused grin, and when she turned to me to find me only slightly more sympathetic than the rest, she sighed in defeat.
"You're probably right," she sighed in resignation, and I noted somewhat positively that she responded without a hint of sarcasm and irony in her tone. "How did you figure out I was kidnapped anyway?"
"Because they used your cellphone to send me a message begging for my help," I answered easily. "I decided to take out the ordnance before checking up on you, and they told me everything I needed to know."
Serika's eyes widened in understanding as she checked her phone. As she laid eyes upon the most recent message her face fell in shame. She looked up at me in hesitation and took a deep breath, "Sensei, I-
Any further conversation was interrupted when Ayane came riding in on the artillery tractor with the Flak 41 in tow. "Congratulations, everyone. Another job well done."
"We couldn't have done it without your help, Ayane. Fine ordnance delivery work." 100% accuracy on her first time with heavy ordnance? A performance worthy of a commendation, and if we can scrounge up enough shells for it, I'd stick her in the back and have her unleash a steel rain of artillery fire on whatever would come for us. That thing could chew through infantry like a Hydra at a maximum range of 14 kloms, and with her drones she could be her own scouting team as well. I'd be an idiot not to make use of that.
"Thank you, Sensei." She beamed with pride. "So, shall we get to salvaging?"
"Yes. Nonomi, Hoshino, scrounge for shells and large caliber rounds. Shiroko, Ayane, secure small arms and ammunition. Salvage anything you can get off those tanks and find a lead on those modifications." Something like this would definitely leave a bigger fingerprint than run-of-the-mill guns provided to some gangers. Hopefully, combined with our previous "requisitions", we'll divine a clearer trail leading to our culprit.
"Sensei, what about me?"
I looked down at Serika and shook my head at her insistence on working even now. Admirable, but there comes a point when you need to stop. "You are going to the car and getting some rest."
Against my expectations, she seemed genuinely afraid when I answered. "But I can still help," She insisted, balling up her fists as if to emphasize that she could. Her slowly fading voice gave plenty of evidence to the contrary. The adrenaline that let her power through our table turning assault was leaving her, the energy visibly leaving her body by the way it loosened and slouched over against her wishes. "I can…"
I interrupted her with a firm but assuring hand on her shoulder, silencing her completely.
"You did well, Serika. You've done enough."
And I meant it. She may have been an annoyance to me all day, but she was a hard worker through all of it, having toiled through the morning and into the night, and if not for my intervention, she would have done so without eating at all. She may have told me off, but the self-reflection (and the ramen, and the beer, and the water) did me well. She ate an anti-armor round and forced us all to rescue her in the middle of a cold desert night, but the sum total of it all was that we successfully raided another Helmet Gang base and even obtained a powerful new addition to our arsenal in the form of a multipurpose anti-air, anti-armor artillery gun.
I suppose mouthing off to a commissar might still have gotten her a bolt to the head if she was a regular guardsman, but any of my colleagues who would have punished her in such a way deserved the "firing accident" that would come upon them next. Besides, I was no commissar, and she was no guardsman. I was a Sensei and she was my student, and her deeds afforded her the recognition she was due.
At my simple declaration, her hands went limp and her eyes became moist with tears almost shed. With no reason to force herself anymore, she shut down. I quickly dropped to one knee and let her fall on me, her head resting on my shoulder, then I hoisted her up. Hardly the heaviest thing I carried, especially with the furniture and other deliveries we made today. Even after a very long day, she was light in my arms as a girl her age was wont to be.
"Thanks for helping us get her back, Sensei," Nonomi said sincerely, a motherly smile on her face. "There are so few of us here, if any of us were lost…"
"There won't be," I assured them. "Not under my watch." That seemed like the heroic thing to say, and the setup was right there, so why shouldn't I go for low-hanging fruit like that?
"You'd go after us and get us back no matter what, huh?" Hoshino mused out loud, and once again, the feeling of being judged by her, with either of us unsure of what to think of each other, came to mind. "Lucky us."
Perhaps noticing that the atmosphere was getting heavy, she then looked at Shiroko with a terrible grin. "But not for you clearly. Don't you wish that he held you like that?"
"What?" Shiroko's gaze snapped from me to Hoshino, then back to me. After a moment of hesitation which seemed excruciatingly long despite it taking less than a second, she immediately whipped her head towards her senior with a glare. "Absolutely not. There's no need to think of things like that. We have work to do."
"Man, you don't have to sound too much like Serika, Shiroko… Ah, it's so good to hear you growing up…"
I immediately left the peanut gallery to their own devices as I carried Serika back to our van, taking great care not to wake her up. I parked the car right outside the base in case we needed to make a quick getaway, using the shock of artillery fire to give us an opening to break in. Now, instead of escaping, I strapped her into the passenger seat and drove it inside to help streamline our salvaging process.
It was menial work, but we kept at it and amassed a satisfactory haul in the end. More ammunition, weapons for spare parts, shells for our brand new artillery piece and all could be used in service of our own. It would be some time before we could make use of these, but once Ayane scanned them we could use them for our own endeavors.
"All loaded up and ready to go," Ayane declared, as tired as she was fulfilled, and ready to go back to the academy. "You ready, Sensei?"
"In a bit." I held my phone up in a landscape view of the carnage we wrought. "Just need to let people know I'm doing my job."
By this point, the Helmet Gangers' mysterious backer spent several weeks and who knows how much in money and materiel trying to finish off this academy. They'll probably cut off the Helmet Gang , but if they were willing to go this far, I have no doubt they had better fighters for their proxy war on their payroll already.
So we might as well make a show of force. Perhaps we won't dissuade the big guns, but the small fry can be cowed. Let any two-bit ganger who wanted in on this gig know exactly what they were up against, and think better of trying.
I made two more posts to the official account that night. The first summarized the situation and why I was here.
"The once great Abydos Academy has been reduced to only 5 students. For weeks they have been gallantly defending their home against the Helmet Gang until lack of supplies pushed them to ask for my help."
Following this was a grand picture of our destructive victory, with unconscious helmeted bodies and the burning remains of scrapped tanks visible for all, captioned with a single warning below.
"After two days of fighting together, this is the result. Anyone else who wants to try, remember those who failed before you."
—-
All told, our trip through the desert, our assault and the slower ride back took about 4 hours, and it was already 2 in the morning by the time we came back. We took Serika over to the infirmary and deposited her on the bed. Doctors were sadly nowhere to be found in the part of Abydos where we were, so Ayane would have to do. She wasn't their medicae just because she knew how to drop a med-bomb, she actually knew a bit about first aid. Between logistics, medical experience, reconnaissance, data analysis, her new hat of artillery operation and most of all, a sane and rational mind, there was little doubt that the school would have fallen long ago without her. Imperial recruiters would be fighting each other over talent like that.
After giving her a once over, Ayane gave a relieved and tired smile and nodded towards me. "She'll be fine. She should be back to mint condition after a night's rest." I once again marveled at these girls' durability. Recovering from an artillery shell overnight was something I'd expect from a power-armored Space Marine, not an unarmored schoolgirl with cat ears on her head.
"Hoshino's fine too. Nothing to report on her at all." And lest we forget the one who took a tank round head on with a bulletproof shield and seemed more inconvenienced by the sand she rolled in when she landed. I'm not sure even the Astartes would be so unaffected by that if all they had was a shield made to block stubs. More theories continued to swirl in my head about what all this meant for the girls in question.
"Uhee, that's great…" Hoshino let out a genuine yawn and stretched to release the tension. "I'd say a win like that is good enough for us to sleep in late, right Sensei?"
I nodded. "Call time for tomorrow will be at 10:30 at the latest. We may have scored a great victory tonight, but I doubt it's over yet. We'll discuss our future endeavors then break for brunch."
"I still feel like taking a bath," Nonomi said with a groan. "How about any of you?"
"Nn. I will too." I somehow wasn't surprised Shiroko would. She was strangely insecure about her own cleanliness for someone of her proclivities. Between the fights and the looting, tonight was more like a holiday for her than anything else, and she was practically preening all the way here. And then suddenly she was back to being a normal girl again once this came up. Again, she was so odd.
"You go first," Ayane assured her friends. "I'll organize what we can and deposit them somewhere here."
"I'll help you out. You can go ahead Nonomi."
Both of her friends replied with gratitude, and the three of them left Hoshino and I with Serika in the infirmary. "Eh, I guess I could go help out instead of going to sleep. Probably better to wash the sand out of my hair." She made for the door with her hands held lazily behind her head, but she stopped right as she reached the exit.
"How did Serika get kidnapped on your watch, Sensei?"
She didn't bother to turn around, but her voice was more than enough to convey exactly how displeased she was. This was a girl willing to jump in front of a tank for her friends, and I had little doubt that even if she didn't have that halo she'd do the same, uncaring of whether she lived or not. That I, a teacher, was apparently unable to protect one of those precious to her was enough for her to question me, and rightfully so.
"It was a personal failing of mine," I admitted to her with a forlorn voice. "We separated due to a disagreement, meaning that I wasn't there when she got shelled and abducted."
"A disagreement huh? So you weren't there for her because of that?" Her hands balled into shaking fists, and I could only imagine the glare on her face. She still had her shotgun in her hands, and she would have no problem turning it on me if she wasn't satisfied with my reply. "What was it even about?"
"Our disagreement was between the two of us. Whether you learn about it will be up to her."
My insistence on confidentiality gave her pause, her hands still closed but no longer shaking. "Rest assured, she doesn't deserve any punishment. This will not happen again." Or so I hoped. We can't afford any more disagreements like this if we want to stand against whatever was after the school.
Silence passed between us. Hoshino didn't move at my words, until her hands slowly opened and she turned around with her usual lazy smile once more. "Well, if that's how things are, it's not up to little ol' me to interfere! I'll leave you to it then."
I stared at her as she moseyed off into the rest of the academy to do whatever it is she planned. Out of the entire task force, it was clear that she was more affected than anyone by what happened to Abydos and those around her, and that meant my association with the GSC and the rest of Kivotos, however tenuous, strained anything between us. She had it out for me more than Serika did. She just hid it better for the sake of our mission.
She was better at hiding a lot of things, really. Sleeping was one of them, and the halo above Serika's head, not nearly as transparent as Hoshino's when she slept ever so lightly, only proved that.
I shook my head and took a seat on the infirmary chair that Ayane used to examine Serika. It was my turn to have a look at this cat. "I know you're awake, Serika."
Realizing the jig was up, the girl opened her eyes and let her halo fully form itself. "Why didn't you tell her? It was my fault everything happened."
So she had gone from suspecting everything of me to blaming herself. Admirable, but unneeded. "I'd split the difference and say it was mutual. And you heard me, that disagreement was between the both of us. No one else needs to be involved unless you want them to."
"... Alright." Relieved and ashamed at my promise, she still gave me her gratitude. "Thanks Sensei."
"If anything, I should be thanking you."
"What?" At my utterly backwards statement, she tilted her head and looked at me in complete befuddlement. "Why?"
"If you hadn't told me off, I'd probably be dead. They would have shelled me instead of you, and that would be that."
"Dead?!" Her eyes went wide at my horrifying statement. "How?! I got a direct hit and I was fine! Why wouldn't… You…"
She was struck silent at the realization that suddenly came to her. Slowly, with an open mouth, her eyes trailed upward to find the distinct lack of a halo just like hers.
"Yes, I don't have the… Robustness… You students have," I admitted plainly.
"So all this time… Leading us during our fights yesterday and today… You could've just died? Just like that?" The words came out slowly and the idea of someone allied with her being killed must have seemed alien enough to affect her. I couldn't blame her. Death was a reality in the Imperium, looming over its citizens' heads even when they weren't in the frontlines of the Imperial Guard. The bodies we left back in the Helmet Gang's base would be dead and cold by now back in the Imperium, not warm and ready to be up after a few hours. The difference must have rocked her world as the distinct lack of death here rocked mine.
"A single stray bullet, a lucky shot, and I'd be gone," I told her bluntly. "I certainly wouldn't be in one piece from a shot like the one you took."
"And you still fight together with us…" She suddenly couldn't bear to look at me, her hands clenching her blanket as she looked down at it.
Her feeling guilty and downcast is exactly what I don't want to happen. Time to head this off at the pass. "As I said Serika, there's no need for apologies between us. You DID save me by telling me off." I then put up an amused smile. "It also justified your suggestion yesterday morning, didn't it?"
"My… What?" The confusion at my words distracted her from her self-chastisement to look at me once more. "What are you talking about?"
"Those Geranium bracelets were as lucky as advertised," I pointed out gleefully, and her eyes crinkled for a moment before they shot wide open in utter embarrassment.
"Wh-what the hell are you talking about?! I don't want to hear about being scammed!"
"But were you?" I said rhetorically, cupping my chin as though I was philosophizing about a hidden truth of the universe. "Sure, getting a face full of Flak 41 isn't exactly a sign of good luck, but you led us directly to their base and helped us haul in a motherlode tonight! I'd say that counts doesn't it?" As someone whose heroic legend started by being "fortunate enough" to run away into a horde of tyranids and have enough time to scream like a baby for an artillery barrage, I'd like to think I was fair for asking her to suck it up and deal with her "luck". "Who knows? I might not have noticed Ayane's letter and come all the way here if your "good vibes" hadn't affected me enough to convince me to come here." I then nodded with a grin that practically asked to be wiped off with the liberal application of fisticuffs. "Two bracelets, two lucky breaks! Perhaps you weren't scammed out of your hard-earned cash after all."
"Shut up! I don't need to hear any of that right now! You can go get blown up next time for all I care!" Her face was a reddening volcano and the eruption came in her voice, and I couldn't help but smile as she panted at the frak I was cooking up. Eventually, she realized what I was doing and smiled. "You know, if you want to thank me, you're not doing a good job at all!"
"So long as you don't fall for another scam, I'll be satisfied," I assured her, and she had to laugh.
"You are such an ass," she said with a grin before shaking her head. "Really Sensei. Thank you for rescuing me."
"As far as I'm concerned, we're even," I told her. "But if you really don't think so, I just want to know one thing."
The laughs were over now. Now for the more important matters.
"What did I do wrong, Serika? What made you so distrustful of me? Was I not doing a good job?"
I wasn't mad. I was simply confused. I made sure my voice let her know that without me saying it, but her own shame still made her unable to look me in the eyes.
"No Sensei. You were doing great. And that was the problem." Well, that was about as clear as a snowstorm in Valhalla. I raised a questioning eye and silently urged her to continue. "Remember when you said that you'd leave us when things are better?" It was a rhetorical question. You'd have to be a particularly dishonest politician (ah, but I repeat myself) to be unable to recall a promise you made less than a day ago, and I wasn't THAT dishonest. I liked to remember my promises so I knew what I could keep without annoyance and what I could break without consequence.
Rhetorical as it was, I let her finish on her own without interruption as she finally turned to look at me. "I don't think we can handle that."
That did it. My mouth went dry as she started pouring out everything. "You don't know how bad things were before you came here. We weren't even affected by all the riots that took place in the rest of Kivotos because nobody cared about going all the way here just to loot the place. The Helmet Gang was already attacking us before that. When they said you saved the city, it certainly didn't feel like you saved us because we were STILL under attack." The bitter memories of those times forced her to bite back tears. "We didn't want to say it, but we were basically counting the days until we finally had to give up our school. We didn't even think we'd survive until next week, but we let Ayane send that letter anyway. Not like it would make a difference if you didn't come."
"We thought we were seeing things when you actually came in. We thought we were dreaming when you actually helped us and it actually worked. We had a chance to go beyond another week, we have an actual goal instead of just us fighting off the next big problem that comes…"
Her lips curled up. "Ayane was so happy when you came, you know? Her gamble actually paid off and she has someone else who can think like her. I dunno about any crush she has, but Shiroko's really hit it off with you. And I'm sure Nonomi and Hoshino-senpai like that you're here to help too."
And then she gave off a miserable sigh. "You've changed so much just by being here for two days that I don't think we can go back to how we were before. I guess I was just being childish in trying to pretend I was strong enough on my own. But I really wasn't. You helped me make so much more money while I wasted it and messed things up, and maybe you can think of another idea on your own if you had the time."
"I don't know if we can go back to being without you."
Serika's words hit me like I was the one bombarded in her place. The same revelation I had yesterday pounded into me, made even starker for the contrast I could see.
This was a girl who spent an entire day working part-time jobs to save her school before eating a tankbusting round and getting abducted to a desert. She woke up from an artillery shell that could chew through tanks and proceeded to help us plow through a ganger base with a performance a Cadian Kasrkin could be proud of. When she fell unconscious and woke up once more, here she was begging for me to stay because she wasn't sure if she could do it all again without me.
They were children. Children abandoned by this city, fighting for a dying district because nobody else could, because if they didn't it would be lost to their debtors, the desert or whatever malicious power was willing to throw armies of gangers just to take it over. Powerful children, to have fought and won as much as they have. Resilient, enduring children for having come this far despite being alone. But children, in the end. Children who needed help.
They'd been asking that for years and the only one who answered was me, a fraud who stumbled through his first day here and somehow gave the impression that I would be willing to help.
But the very idea that there was even one more person out there willing to help them did more for them than I could ever comprehend.
Telling all of this to me was emotionally draining enough for Serika that her halo finally started flickering as her eyes turned heavy once more. "S-Sensei, I know that it's selfish… But can you promise that you won't leave us?"
Fool that I was, against every pragmatic thought that urged me towards a realistic and discouraging reply, something inside me refused to even think of disappointing the girl. "I won't. I promise."
The innocent smile that appeared on Serika's face at my answer told me that I was right. Her halo shrunk and disappeared in earnest, and she finally closed her eyes.
I spent quite a while staring at the peacefully sleeping form of the girl laying in front of me before I could bring myself to stand up and leave her.
Standing outside were the rest of the Foreclosure Task Force, staring wordlessly at me, unable to think of what to say.
I favored them with a single look before I departed for my room once again. I had much to think about.
—-
Back in my classroom once again, alone with my thoughts. Well, mostly alone. As always, there was one more presence taking up space in my mind.
"You did a good job today, Sensei."
"They did a good job. I just helped." Despite my usual unease at her words, I actually welcomed Arona's mental conversation now, needing to give voice to the realizations that came upon me, the ones she tried to make clear to me before. I shook my head and rested it on a hand on my table. "You were right Arona. I didn't realize how much being here meant to them."
Despite my own failings, the answer that followed was flush with pride. "Maybe you didn't, but you gave them every reason to feel that way. And now that you know, you can do better."
"I suppose I can." The idea of me being this ever-reliable adult seemed to have been planted in their heads, and like my past heroic reputation, I'd have to work to keep their faith in me up if I wanted to keep them effective and me alive in this ridiculous desert war I'd ended up in.
"So how are you going to keep your promise to them?" she asked with curious excitement, the very idea of me failing to do so seemingly an impossibility in her eyes. I don't know where such faith came from, but on this occasion at least, I had an idea.
"With some help." I mentally replied as I reached for my phone and began dialing a number I didn't expect to use so early.
After all, there were other people who had an obligation to help these girls. They were just remiss in performing that duty and that was going to end right the frak now.
I did tell that pilot that I would be having words with her superiors, didn't I?
It only took a single ring to get an answer, which I could say I didn't expect. The voice on the other end, surprised and resigned to a night of hard work, explained it all.
"Cain Sensei? What is it? Why did you call?"
Rin was dreading my reply, I'm sure. It made sense. If your extrajudicial agent was calling in the dead of night, it never promised an easy time.
Well and good. It was far too late for anything to be easy.
—-
"Uheee… So sleepy…"
She wandered through the empty academy, her footsteps alternating between echoing through the halls and being muted by piles of sand. It was a familiar sensation, being alone here.
Familiar, but she could never get used to it. Never pleasant, no matter what, but it happened more often as more people left.
Especially when they took her away.
She was the last of the club to shower, so she had to be the one to tell the new guy it was his turn, just like last time. A pretty good excuse to have one last look at him before turning in.
After all, you never knew what people could get up to behind closed doors. Especially adults. And this was one very shady adult.
There were way too many questions around him. Oh, she totally bought him being some hotshot military commander, the fact that he was willing to fight with them on the front lines and do a good job of it said that, but not wanting to say where he was from, how he got here and unwilling to literally show his hand when they were eating?
How was she supposed to buy those corny lines he fed to Serika? He was sharp enough to notice things in the middle of a fight and out of it, he probably realized they were there and made a show of it just to keep them in line.
But it worked. It worked because whatever he did, he did it well. Serika, bless her innocent soul, absolutely sucked at lying and she was absolutely telling the truth when she said that they were at the end of their rope before he came, and he single-handedly stopped them from going all the way. Now, he was kicking out their enemies, earning them more money, strengthening their position and giving all of them the illusion that maybe, just maybe, there was a light at the end of their sandy, debt-filled tunnel.
Now, the others genuinely believed that he had their backs come hell or high water. Shiroko was close to him for reasons only she knew, Ayane was vindicated by the fact that he bothered to come and help at all and was probably glad somebody else could think rationally for once, and Nonomi was just happy for anyone to help. And now Serika was on his side.
She painfully, desperately wanted to believe him too. After basically being thrown to the wind and left to rot for so long, the idea that somebody like him would be with them for the long run was fantastic. But he couldn't and wouldn't. He had to run off and deal with the rest of this crazy city and whatever the damn General Student Council dumped on him, and then it'd be back to square one for Abydos once again.
She was trying so hard not to hold that against him. After years of fighting without help, she had to tell herself over and over that he had nothing to do with anything that happened to her school, unlike the people he worked for. Not that that made trusting him too much easier. Now she just had to wonder what else he had under his sleeve.
She was about to knock on his door when she heard voices coming from the other side.
"I came to talk about my job, Rin."
Rin… Rin Nanagami probably. The former Vice President and now Acting President of the General Student Council. What exactly did he have to say to her?
"On the contrary, I am not doing well. I only have five students and I have to deal with hordes of delinquents, a monstrous debt, and a desert threatening to swallow the place whole. As things are now, fixing this place is impossible."
Her shotgun was already in her hands, her eyes as blank and cold as they were years ago, cold rage taking over her. Wow, she was proven right already? How grand. Less than an hour after making a promise to all of them like that and he was ready to throw them out like yesterday's trash. You almost had to commend somebody for being such an utterly garbage human being to fool and disappoint all of them like that.
Just another stupid adult. What did she expect?
"What I want is very simple. What I want is a monthly supply shipment to be delivered, and I want the first one before twelve noon today."
Her entire body went still, her grip on Horus slackening ever so slightly.
"Too soon? What do you mean too soon? You are years too late to be complaining about that when this entire district has given up on even the idea, the POSSIBILITY of anyone coming to help them. And you're telling me you can't even spare half a day to help it when only FIVE FRAKKING STUDENTS are all that's left fighting for this place?"
"I've done more for this damn academy in two days than any of you have in years. Fix that."
Soon, Horus slowly fell to the side, any idea of retribution gone from her mind. She stood there, listening to him actually argue on their behalf, go far beyond what she expected anyone to do for any of them. And she could hear, even feel, the outrage in his voice for their sake.
He was giving his all to fight for them where it mattered.
Eventually, after he finished his call, he seemingly collapsed on his chair, letting out an explosive sigh. "Frakking administrators… always tempted to go for a bottle whenever I have to talk to them."
She could feel the smile spread across her face at how tired he sounded, the light returning to her eyes. He sounded less like a war hero, and more like any of them after a hard day.
Maybe, just maybe, she could think of him as one of them now.
She stayed outside for two minutes longer before she knocked on the door. "Yo, Sensei, little ol' uncle Hoshino here!"
Despite how late it was and how tired he sounded before, Cain Sensei quickly opened it up, all evidence of the argument he had gone. "Please don't call yourself that, Why, what would that mean for my age?"
"Now, now, no need to worry about that!" She said cheerily. "What's important is that us girls are done freshening up and it's your turn now!"
He then gave her a smile. "Thank you for the notice Hoshino. I'll be off then."
Right before he went back inside to get his stuff, she stopped him. "Hey, Cain Sensei?"
He looked back at her, bemusement turning to curiosity when he saw how soft her face looked as she held out her hand. "I'll be relying on you."
He looked at her, then her outstretched hand, before he shook his head and smiled. "I'll be relying on you as well, Hoshino."
He held her hand with his still gloved right, the one he said was injured. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but he still gave it to her all the same, and that was enough. She grabbed onto his first, firm, yet without any indication of trying to crush it or test him, showing how much she trusted him. He responded in kind, holding his own, yet never trying to lord himself over her. To him, they were equals, and that was the best she could ask for.
As he closed the door and she made her way back to her room, she thought she could sleep a little better that night.
After all, they were no longer alone.
*Chapter 10: No Longer Alone, END*
A big thank you to beta reader for Doc43Souls! He also designed the fantastic cover that now graces this story! A round of applause for him!
What a whopper this one turned out to be, eh? Before the girls got a car, now they have an artillery gun. Escalation, yeah? I'm no gun or machine expert, so hopefully the tech people on the internet won't crucify me for what I did wrong here. As for the tank, in canon the first sign of the gang making headway in their investigation was "illegal modifications" to a tank. Gameplay wise it's just a vanilla Crusader, but here, I decided to duct tape a flak 41 to a Crusader. Putting a gun like that on a light tank is… not ideal, which is what I wanted to emphasize.
And yes, these girls are that stupidly, absurdly durable. As for Hoshino blocking a round with her shield, canonically another girl was able to stop a truck with one! Her presence is a spoiler, but Iron Horus' increased durability will be part of some new rules for this story which Cain will think about and experience (for good and ill, hahaha) later.
This chapter more than the others shows the biggest contrast with Cain and OG Sensei. To compare the first impressions everyone had:
OG Sensei immediately got Abydos' request for help, but spent days lost in Abydos walking around. He had to be carried to Abydos by Shiroko and he kind of creeped her out by saying she smelled good. Yeah, he brought the supplies, but everyone's first impression of him was that Shiroko looted a dead body (I'm serious, Serika literally offered to get the shovel to bury the guy). All in all, he didn't seem too reliable even after fending off the Helmet Gang, but he immediately declared that he'd be with the FTF to the very end. Though Serika doesn't buy it and thinks he's a perverted stalker.
Compare Cain. He brings in the supplies, has the perfect image of a hero fighting at their side… But he says that he's going to leave eventually.
The reason behind Serika's distrust of Cain is not waiting for the other shoe to drop. Cain has basically declared "Oh, the shoe will drop at some point!" and she's bracing herself for that to happen by pretending that they can do things without him. She sort of can, but the FTF won't be able to save Abydos on their own, and she realizes that now. She was being childish in acting out, but that's the entire point. They're kids and Cain is an adult!
Sort of. But we'll get into that later.
While SCHALE's mission began all the way back in chapter 5, this chapter is the true beginning of Cain transitioning into becoming a proper Sensei, when he properly takes the oath to not abandon them. He may not be able to save Abydos on his own, but he never saved anything on his own anyway. He knows that very well and can do the very important job of bringing help. He's just the first, important step in bringing them in.
And Hoshino. Yes, out of the entire FTF Hoshino distrust adults more than anyone, even in canon. She was hurt a lot in the past, and she wants to ensure nobody around her was hurt like she was ever again. But she's softening up to our dear former commissar now, which can only be good.
I do hope you enjoyed the ride!
… Hmm. Am I forgetting anything?
Oh yes…
—-
This was a load of bullcrap!
It was one thing to get your sorry asses kicked by a single guy with a goddamn chainsaw, but when you wake up, you're all tied up. After WAY too long of trying to break free, trying to meet up with the rest of the team leads to finding out that the guy stole the big gun!
"We gotta warn the others!" she cries out. "Contact the rest of the girls!"
One of the grunts tries to comply, then freezes after a few taps on her phone. "What?! What is it?!" she demands, anger mixing with panic.
"I don't think it's worth contacting them boss…"
With trembling hands, the grunt shows what freaked her out, and seconds later the entire team is shaking in their boots with her.
The Sensei posted on Momotalk again. The first was just some crap about what he was doing here in Abydos at all, nothing new. The second though?
The base was gone. The Sensei and the Abydos girls went on another raid. They used the Flak 41 to deal with the tanks, while blasting everyone else into the sand. The Helmet Gang in Abydos was basically done for.
"To hell with this job," she cries out with a terrified voice. "These guys are freaks on their own, but with that Sensei they're absolute monsters! I say we dip and find somewhere else!"
Join up with another gang, find another part of Kivotos to do some jobs in, anything and anywhere but staying here and fighting those guys!
"I'm afraid that option is off the table."
She's not sure where that voice comes from, but it was punctuated with a small puff on the ground below her. With a sense of terrified deja vu, you look down to find an indiscriminate black bag.
The blast that follows sends everyone flying. She doesn't hit the wall and somehow manages to stay up, but the shell shock of it all was still deafening. She looks up and sees a shotgun sending cones of 12 guage buckshot towards the team. Her head swimming, she blacks out and sees a storm of machine gun fire sweep through the rest of the girls. Another blink, and the ones who remain are cleaned up by precise shots from a pistol.
"All done here!" Her hearing comes back, and just her luck that the first thing she hears is a teasing lilt bragging that everything was over.
"All clear over here too, Boss," came a more professional voice right after, only hammering it all in.
It was over.
She tries to reach for her gun, only to have it stepped on by the sole of an elegant high heel.
"Wh-who are you?" she said, barely able to comprehend what was going on.
"We're here to clean up your mess," came the graceful reply. "You've cost our employer far too much money, and we can't just let you run away and leave, can we?"
She looked up, and her hazy vision cleared up to show she was staring right into the ornate, golden barrel of a sniper rifle.
"But as a show of respect for our mutual employer, we'll tell you who we are." The gun was in the white-gloved hands of a girl with pink hair, shoulders framed by a large coat, scaring her even more than ever before. "We're the number one fixers in Kivotos. We'll do the crime if you've got the dime."
God, please, she didn't need to go through this again!
"We are Problem Solver 68. And we're taking your job."
The sniper rifle echoed through the empty streets, and she thought no more.
Side note, this girl is traumatized by greatcoats now. Pray for her.
