Interdimensional RED-Coded Contract
Nation in Chaos
On one side was an army of robots.
On the other side… was also an army of robots.
Their options were few, and the risk of death was high, but with civilians cowering in fear behind them they couldn't afford to die. The line must be held at all cost.
The mercenaries split up to cover the entrances, already shooting down the first attackers. Their wreckages would then be stepped over by their friends as all the machines convened on their position, smelling blood in the water like sharks.
It was only appropriate to make them pay for every step they took.
But while the invaders were limitless, their supplies were not. They had to get away as quickly as possible, but there was nowhere to run. Both exits were swarming with machines, and pushing one side would leave them vulnerable on the other.
"Teleporter comin' up!"
If there was no exit then the mercenaries would create their own. Like music to everyone's ears Engineer placed down a teleporter in the middle of the room, and instead of needing to wait for it to assemble, Engineer used his Canteen to immediately build and upgrade it to Level 3. Just like that it was ready to use.
The civilians were confused but IF grabbed the nearest person and hauled him onto the teleporter. An instant later he was gone, safe and sound inside their hotel. "Okay, form up! Single line! This will lead you to safety."
By the time she finished speaking the teleporter was again ready to use, and another person already went through.
Evacuate whoever they could, even one life saved was good.
The chaos of warfare, screams of pain or deafening gunshots didn't matter to IF. She tried her best to keep people calm and not panicking.
Among the chaos of battle, one sound cut through everything. Loud, constant and unmistakable. A spin-up of a minigun. And it wasn't just one minigun, but many. A group of Robo-Heavies was flooring the staircase with lead, shredding everything and everyone who failed to hide. The machines in front of the Heavies were destroyed by the friendly fire but it was a small price. If it meant at least scratching their enemy, every casualty was worth it.
The mercenaries hid behind the walls and waited, able to only stare at the sheer firepower coming from the staircase. With his eyes wide open Demoman reloaded his Stickybomb Launcher.
"Hit it, doc!"
They couldn't afford to let the machines pass through, but going in was a suicide. The only way out was either the Shield, or Übercharge.
Compa aimed the Medi-Gun at the merc and flicked the switch, granting her partner the power of invincibility. Not only that but she used her Canteen and gave Demoman the terror of critical hits. Invincible and empowered, the mercenary pushed against the horde. For at least 8 seconds one side would be completely safe. His teammates pushed with him, picking off any robot that wasn't immediately destroyed.
Beep boop Beep boop Beep boop
On the other entrance was a literal wall of fire, slowly advancing towards the mercenaries. Robo-Pyros were charging, with seemingly infinite amounts of fuel. The mercenaries returned fire as normal, downing the Pyros.
But when a dozen or so grenades suddenly flew at them, they were forced to hide.
Flames weren't the threat, they were but a smokescreen for the real threat. Giant Demomen with grenade launchers that fired in bursts.
The massive behemoths rained explosives upon the group, while their smaller friends kept them safe. The first volley surprised them, Pyro was ready for the second one. When the Giant Demomen sent another volley of grenades, Pyro sent them back.
Only for the Robo-Pyros to do the same.
Not expecting a game of tennis, the grenades hit and obliterated the mercenary. The explosives reduced Pyro to mere chunks of flesh, bone and blood. More than one civilian screamed in terror as they witnessed it.
The mercenaries did what they could, destroying a few machines from around the corner. But with Demoman and Compa protecting the other side, and without Pyro to send them back, the giant Demomen eventually breached the room.
Towering above everyone else, the giant machines locked their weapons at the most immediate threat. The mercenaries. One press of a trigger and it would be all over, the mercenaries would die and everyone else would be ripe for slaughter.
The time fell to a standstill.
IF almost choked herself by how fast she was drinking the Bonk! can, grimacing at the sickly sweet taste it had. Her body begged her to stop taking the disgusting liquid, but she couldn't afford to. It was now, or become a corpse along with everyone else.
She took a second to observe the scenery in front of her. Grenades frozen mid-air, about to blow up the mercenaries. The RED Team, even when about to die, kept firing at the giant robots. If they were to die, they would at least take these robots with them.
But IF wouldn't allow them to die.
She grabbed the grenades and threw them into the tunnel. The explosive flew for a moment after leaving her hand, before it froze mid-air. Was the momentum carried over or canceled? IF didn't know. Did she create a new movement vector? She didn't care. She just needed to get these explosives away from the mercenaries.
She spent more precious seconds rearranging the field as quickly as her body allowed. Moving explosives away from her friends, throwing some stray bullets at the machines, and she even undid one of their screws!
Or rather… she almost undid a screw. Time unfroze before she was done.
And… there was less chaos than IF expected. Once she realized the time was returning to normal she jumped at the ground and covered her head. She could hear the grenades go off in a distance, with no screams of pain following them. The mercenaries' war cries were loud and undisturbed as they packed more lead into the giant mechs, putting them down before they reloaded the next shot.
They didn't say anything about the basically miraculous save IF pulled, once the giant machines were destroyed the mercenaries returned to protect the tunnel's entrance. Meanwhile IF...
IF felt sick and certainly not well.
Scout's favorite drink was not only radioactive but it contained an untasteful amount of sugar. Enough sugar to make an unaccustomed person vomit after downing the whole can as fast as she did. The only reason why her breakfast didn't escape yet was because IF held it down with sheer willpower.
Beep boop beep boop beep boop
She forced herself to get up, it wouldn't do well for her to keep lying on the ground like that. She waved at the civilians to keep going into the teleporter. The faster they got out the faster all of them could evacuate, and the longer they were here the less of a chance they had to survive. The Übercharge was already over and the machines were starting to push back.
"Get over here and help me defend, ya idiots!" Demoman bellowed, causing a few of his teammates to return to his side and help. Just the help of two more mercenaries was enough to stop the machines from advancing. There were so many robots scattered on the stairs it was amazing they could still advance.
IF wondered if they could use those bodies to make some sort of barricade, or use them as cover or a shield. They were made out of metal so they could probably stop a bullet or two. At least the undamaged bits could.
Beep boop beep boop beep boop
"Sentry buster!"
A scream, an alert of danger. IF didn't know what a Sentry Buster was, but the other mercenaries did.
However IF didn't need to wonder what a Sentry Buster was for long. The answer was inside the tunnel, and it was just ridiculous.
The Sentry Buster was a giant bomb.
On legs.
Smaller than the other giant robots but still much bigger than a man, it resembled a naval mine on legs that trampled over anything that stood in its path as it charged forward. The mechanical beep boop sound played with every step, as if saying their time was running short.
Beep boop beep boop beep boop
Engineer was the first to speak. "The hell?! I don't even have a Sentry placed here!"
That thing had no right to be here. It was supposed to act as its name implied, a special unit deployed to target sentries, yet Engineer hadn't placed any due to lack of time, resources and not wanting to risk shooting the civilians they were protecting. So if there is no sentry, what is it targeting?
Nothing good.
"SHOOT IT!"
At Soldier's command all of the mercs at the tunnel has focused their attention solely on the Sentry Buster… to little avail. With no upgrades their firepower wouldn't allow them to destroy the Sentry Buster before it reached them.
Beepboopbeepboopbeepboop
When the Sentry Buster reached the end of the tunnel other mercs kept shooting it. Then to their horror the walking bomb started to crouch, and the bomb on top of it started to spin. It was all over. They were done here.
BEEPBOOPBEEPBOOPBEEP-
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
Neptune's breath grew heavy. She swung her sword and cut down another robot. Its friends rushed in to punish her for it, but Neptune's immortality was working overtime. They couldn't stop her, even if she was but lone spot of purple among gray, blue and crimson red blood.
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
How was she conscious, when her HDD stopped working? She didn't know. Perhaps it was the belief of her people that their CPU will save them. Perhaps it was because her people saw her heading head first into danger. The knowledge that their protector was actually doing their job kept her fighting.
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
Yes, Neptune did work... when the time called for it. When danger reared its ugly head and threatened her citizens, she was always one of the first to respond and mobilize. This happened during the ASIC's uprising, and the same was happening now.
Neptune did work… when it was necessary.
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
Or perhaps Neptune could still fight because she was the protagonist... even if this story basically pushed her into a supportive role. Blanc has more screen time than her, and she didn't even have a Nep in her own name.
Even those guys in red had way more screen time than her, and they weren't even from this universe! So what if this is a crossover, it was still Hyperdimension Neptunia. Neptune was and still is in the title.
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
Neptune was stuck in a loop with no way out. Surrounded on all sides the CPU could only fight and protect herself from the swarm, then grit her teeth as everything in existence has decided to gang up on her. Her plan was to be a distraction and fight her way to the coast, and then fight a boss and stop the invasion. But she was getting drowned in the mobs.
They were everywhere, and she meant that literally! Everywhere she looked there was a machine rushing at her, only to be cut down by her blade. Then its friends will attack when her attention was somewhere else.
She was being punched, stabbed, shot, blown up or lit on fire. Stuck inside a constant loop of tiring battles and pain. She could only keep a tight grip on her sword and roll with punches, hoping that these machines will never figure out how to actually grab a person.
Her own strength and speed, combined with whatever momentum she got from the recent injury, meant her sword was striking hard and fast. For every time she got hit, a robot was cut in half.
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
It was a war of attrition. An endless army against an immortal and invincible entity. To an outsider it may seem like Neptune was losing badly, but in reality this battle was even. And there was no end in sight, both to the numbers of machines wanting to battle, nor to Neptune's stubbornness.
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
A rocket hit Neptune in the shoulder. The CPU planted her heel on the ground and spun from the momentum, cutting through two necks. Then a different robot punched her right into the chest. Neptune staggered back, turned around and cut through another robot. Every punch sent more pain, every blow hurt, but Neptune was more focused on keeping her grip and striking. She has been through worse, she was the CPU and a JRPG character!
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
Then she spotted something, an opportunity to break this stalemate and finally make some progress. She spotted a railing and water in the distance. A river cutting through the nation, and Planeptune only had one, going all the way to the ocean.
If she were to push herself over the railing, she would not only escape the mob but also be able to simply swim her way towards the epicenter of invasion. The port was a bottleneck for a reason, so that in case of trouble Neptune could plant herself inside the only way into the city and completely cut off the port from the rest of the nation.
Swish, stab, pain, ignore.
Neptune waited until she was pushed towards her goal, then she launched herself at the first enemy in her way. She hit it and used it as a stepping stone to get higher, jumping off him and seeing a sea of machines all waiting to fight her. But behind that swarm was her freedom, a large drop leading to a wide floor of water. Over a hundred meter drop.
Her feet landed on the head of a robot, and kicked off it. She wasn't walking on the ground anymore, but on a swarm of enemies all thirsting for her blood. This removed one advantage she had over the machines - the bottleneck. Only a small amount of machines could actually fight her. Those with guns couldn't fire at her because their friends kept blocking their vision. But now that she was elevated? She was a free pick for everyone who has a gun.
Her vision was filled with rockets and grenades flying towards her. Her limbs were assaulted with flames and struck with bullets. Her leg slipped and she fell… underneath her was a Robo-Heavy, who had its minigun already spun up.
"Uh oh."
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT-
Her clothes were shredded by the gunfire, unable to withstand the full power of a minigun point-blank. Every bullet had no right to miss her and they collectively started to elevate her upwards.
It hurt a lot but Neptune still kept her grip on her sword.
Other Heavies joined its friends, alongside other machines with guns. The combined firepower shot at her proved itself a good substitute for HDD's flight capabilities. Neptune was now good twenty meters mid-air and going higher, at the cost of feeling every projectile strike her body and not being able to control where she was going.
Looking down there were a lot of robots staring up at her, waiting for her to fall.
Though there was a building closeby. If she could grab the windowsill then she could climb through the window and escape. A good plan aided by the fact these robots were actually pushing her towards it.
The gravity finally fought against the iron curtain and Neptune started descending. Now she only needed to grab the ledge.
The girl reached out, and to her dread, saw that the ledge would be beyond her reach by but a few centimeters. So close, and yet so far. Still she stretched her arm out, straining as she fell, as if a miracle would happen if she just tried hard enough. To her surprise, just as she fell past with her efforts in vain, a hand broke through the window and grabbed her outstretched hand in the nick of time, uncaring of the broken glass.
For a second, Neptune's heart filled with hope. The sun was above them, with a shadow covering her mysterious savior's face…
Then she recognized those green eyes, and she wished she'd fallen back into the horde instead. Short blue hair framed her shaded complexion, and while one hand held the CPU in a vice-like grip, the other was holding the Gehaburn, as if she wanted Neptune to see it and realize how screwed she was.
Hilda Gehaburn caught her, and she was lifting Neptune up and into the building.
What they saw was terrifying.
"...Oh dear goodness."
The entrance to the shelter was forced open, blasted away with some kind of explosive. This gave CFW Brave, MAGES. and the other survivors a clear picture of what was happening inside. A few of them wished it didn't.
Blood, death and destruction was all they found inside. Three things that had become all too common everywhere else. There was no survivor in sight, no soul yearning for survival, only corpses decorated this area.
The Bastion of Planeptune has fallen, there was no salvation to be found here. Only death and despair.
Then, as if sensing fresh blood in the waters, the machines inside turned their attention towards them. CFW Brave stepped in front of the group, covering them with his body, and assessed the situation.
The small fry couldn't do anything to him, even if they tried to use flamethrowers or explosives. But they were many, and they could injure or kill the civilians behind him. CFW Brave wouldn't be able to move from his spot unless he wanted to put others at risk.
If it was just the small fry, that wouldn't be a problem. He would gladly lie down if it meant protecting others.
But there were giant robots inside as well, and their firepower was enough to hurt the ex-felon.
"Let's leave."
There was no point fighting this battle. The gates were breached and the place overrun. There was no saving this location, nor was there anyone here to save.
So the CFW fired a rocket at his own feet, engulfing their surroundings with a thick smoke. The smokescreen blinded the machines and covered their escape. The survivors tightly clutched to his back, stress and panic about to break their minds.
He would not allow it. He was there, and that alone meant they were safe.
The machines within the corridor were still there, and this time they had their attention on the brightly colored behemoth. CFW Brave opened slots within his armor.
Their feeble weapons weren't a threat to him, but he still released his missiles. Not just one or two, but his entire arsenal. All of it because of a mere chance that a stray bullet might hit one of the people on his back. He did everything he could to deny these machines that opportunity.
He would make sure these people and their families can keep smiling. Even if he had to remove every hostile machine by himself.
Explosions and gunfire assaulted their ears, the scenery behind them terrified their minds, the fear of death made them sweat. Their grip was slippery, even the normally cool and fearless Mad Magician was sweating. Surrounded by enemies, no safe zone to go, and their only way to live was to tightly hold onto another machine, a CFW in fact, and hope they get out of it alive.
A hail of bullets reached him. The projectiles weren't only inaccurate but also ineffective, bouncing off Brave's armor like they were nothing. Sparks appeared with each collision, taking off but small chunks of paint.
"Where do we go now?" Someone on his back shouted, followed by a yelp as one bullet got too close.
Rockets joined the bullets. CFW Brave unsheathed the Freezing Yasha and used it like a shield, blocking and swatting the missiles out of the sky. "Over the wall, where it's safe."
If they got into one shelter, others would fall as well. That meant the area outside the lockdown was their only way of safety.
MAGES. however raised a valid concern. "Wouldn't they fire upon you? You're a robot during a robot invasion."
As they spoke, Planeptune was mobilizing its adventurers and Guild members just outside the area of lockdown. Once they were ready this massive army would drive back the invaders. They were also there to enforce a lockdown, making sure that no machine entered deeper into the nation.
Would they take CFW Brave for one of the invaders? The possibility was there.
Another option would be to fly very high and leave Planeptune altogether, ensuring safety of those already with him. But doing so would abandon everyone else trapped in here.
He saw the CPU flying towards the coast, surely Histoire's mercenaries were also fighting the invaders.
"...Onto the roof then."
A roof of a tall building would be out of view of the ground-bound invaders, but rescuers using airships could easily find them. Not only that but the roof usually had one, easily barricadable entrance. A great hiding place from a horde.
Smoke started thinning out. They reached a part that was once outside of Brave's range. He fired more smokescreens to cover their escape.
And immediately found himself staring at a wall of fire.
A column of flame thrower-wielding robots marched towards him, aided by their giant counterpart. Bullets were susceptible to recoil and hard to aim, rockets were predictable and slow, flames?
Flames could cover the entire hallway, leaving no room to avoid them. If he ran straight at them the survivors on his back would be incinerated.
"Goodness, you're tiresome."
MAGES. climbed onto Brave's shoulder, shooting magical projectiles at the approaching firewall. MAGES.'s attack exploded and scattered the troops, CFW Brave charged past them.
"Good job." He praised her.
She chuckled at his approval. "Mwhehehe… you would make a fine apprentice."
...Apprentice? But wasn't CFW Brave doing the heavy lifting here?
They saw light in front of them, like an end of the tunnel. They left the entrance to the shelter and CFW Brave immediately took off, shielding his passageners from harm. Their sweaty hands clung hard, trying to not fall off as they ascended to the heavens.
The air got thinner and colder, the clouds grew closer, the ground became smaller. They were now above Planeptune… where it was safe.
After this, finding a good roof was an easy task. CFW Brave dropped them on top of a skyscraper, destroyed every entrance to prevent robots from reaching them, and left them alone.
After all, he had more lives to save, and a CPU to assist.
"How does it feel?"
A bit painful actually, Neptune wanted to say, but all she managed was a pained groan. From the floor she was lying on, the CPU looked up at her "savior". Hilda was looking down on her with her sword embedded in front of her, both of her hands resting on the pommel.
While she hasn't killed her yet, Neptune knew she would try eventually.
Hearing the CPU in pain drew a smile from the blue-haired woman. "How does it feel knowing your nation is falling, and you're about to lose your life?"
"Uhh…" Neptune didn't really feel anything but pain at that point. Getting ragdolled all over the map hurt even with her immortality. "What?"
"Planeptune is invaded again and your people are dying in the thousands, did you know all of this once happened before? The person responsible for this has perished. She used her own power to remove herself, and everything she has done, from this world's history."
Neptune spaced out as Hilda started to monologue, just like she has done every time Histoire started one of her lectures. And Hilda, just like Histoire, was not happy about it. "You're not listening." The blue haired woman said.
Neptune blinked and snapped as Hilda apparently was done speaking. "S-Sorry, were you saying something?"
The Gehaburn left the floor, raised by its owner. "You're weak." Neptune stared at the purple sword, reaching for her own blade. "You're pathetic." Hilda's foot crashed hard on top of Neptune's wrist, pinning it in place. "Your sister would've been a better ruler than you. Though of course, neither of you deserve to rule at all." Neptune had her eyes pointed not at the sword, but at the window behind Hilda. There was a figure quickly approaching them, some sort of machine.
Neptune's shaky finger pointed at the window, while the figure fired a missile right at them. "Uhhh… you might want to check behind-"
The missile got closer and Neptune closed her eyes. She heard an explosion and for a brief moment she felt herself being pressed against the floor. It didn't feel like a rocket from one of those Robo-Soldiers, this one hurt way less and didn't have any annoying shrapnel.
"-you." Neptune opened her eyes and saw that Hilda was gone, instead a giant colorful robot was in her place. He looked… a bit beaten. Nothing like anything she fought so far and its gaze wasn't on her, it was on Hilda who was standing a few meters away from her.
"CFW Brave." Hilda growled.
"Falcom." The robot spoke with a male voice. "So that's where you are. Samantha has ordered me to kill you on sight."
"Oh?" The blue-haired woman scoffed. "A kill-on-sight order? What a nice way to treat your friend."
"Get out of the friend, then." CFW Brave responded.
While they had their pre-battle dialogue going on, Neptune pumped her fist. "Still got it." Her plot armor was still kicking! Deus Ex Machina sent a badass robot to save her life.
Suck on that, author~!
"I'm not going to." Hilda said. "We've gotten quite close, me and her. It would be a shame to burn that bridge."
Hearing that she won't get out was all CFW Brave needed. If Hilda didn't want to leave then the only option was to take them both down, just like Samantha ordered them to. There was one small problem though, the lilac-haired CPU next to him who was trying to stand up.
Not straying his eyes from Hilda, he helped her up and gave her a small push. "Go. I'll take care of her."
Hilda's face darkened. Her grip on the sword intensified and she took a deep breath. She wasn't about to just let Neptune go, not after having her escape her grasp once.
"Hmm…"
Fortunately for her, Neptune was hesitating. She had a choice to make: Either help her cavalry for helping her, or leave them and head for the coast. It didn't feel good to abandon her friends but she also needed to stop this invasion.
CFW Brave drew his Freezing Yasha and the Burning Agony. The blade of fire covered the machine with a warm orange light, the blade of ice gleamed beautifully in the light. "I'll be fine." He said to Neptune. "Go and stop this invasion, save your nation. You can leave this one to me."
Neptune wasn't convinced. She wanted to stay here and help him but he was right, her own people needed her. "...If you say so. Good luck!"
She turned around and ran as her pained body would allow. Hilda charged SP into her sword in an attempt to stop her. CFW Brave stopped her with another rocket.
"Your fight is with me. Monster."
Hilda reappeared behind CFW Brave. Instead of attacking him she chased after Neptune. The ex-felon turned on his afterburners and flicked the Freezing Yasha. The icy edge sliced off Hilda's head like butter.
Hilda's body dissipated. She could only watch as Neptune turned around the corner and disappeared, her footsteps growing fainter with each step. Neptune has eluded her wrath once more, first because of the sudden, mysterious pain. And now because of this.
She was livid.
"You allowed her to get away."
Every time she acted, someone was there to resist her, to try to stop her. Each of her moves was met with hostility and an unnecessary battle. At first Hilda didn't think much of it, as she was fighting close friends of the Devils.
But now it was like the very world was on their side, bending itself backwards to protect them. There was always a trap, a knife in the back or some other bullshit just appearing immediately the moment she appeared. Now a Felon who was supposed to be the mortal enemy of the CPUs was defending them from her righteous judgement.
How is this possible? Why is everyone on the Devils' side? The CFWs of all people should be on her side at least! Why does fate itself conspire against her noble mission?! It makes no sense!
...No. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that the world is too foolish to understand the necessity of her quest. It doesn't matter who stands in her way. No matter how much the world tries to stop her, she will break the cycle for the world's own good.
So she appeared in front of the machine that stopped her, nothing more than another trial on the path of her crusade. Without hesitation he swung his weapon at her, and Hilda responded in kind.
She will save this world from itself.
Even if it didn't want her to.
The Sentry Buster collapsed.
It did not explode. It just collapsed on the ground, falling on top of the giant machines. Somehow, the detonation failed and the machine, now shut down as its programming dictated, was now nothing but a useless hunk of metal.
The very fact they were alive took the mercenaries a moment to settle.
Scout was the first one to speak. "J-Jesus that was close."
They were less than a second away from death and failure. When it seemed like they would fall here and return to their own base in pieces, the Sentry Buster simply fell instead. If that wasn't a miracle then nothing else was.
A relieved sigh took their attention, and it was then that a few of the brighter mercenaries figured out it wasn't some act of divine intervention. IF, bearing red clothing and blonde hair, the tell-tale signs of her Flame Awakening, wiped off some sweat from her forehead. "Man, I really, really love this ability." She said, having extinguished the walking bomb's primer in the nick of time. Turns out, having complete control over the element of fire and heat was a very versatile ability. "Y'know, that would've been a lot less close of a call if you guys warned me about walking bombs."
A two-legged bomb, a rather comical design if it wasn't about to self-destruct with all of them around. Her training was paying off though, the Sentry Buster was now disabled and they were still alive.
Then a bullet hit Sniper in the stomach, prompting a grunt of pain from the mercenary and a counter-attack from his teammates. They were still surrounded by enemies after all, and they weren't about to patiently wait for them to finish talking.
"C'mon guys just hold on a little more!"
Just a few more civilians left to evacuate before they could just say screw it and either fight to the death or leave too. And it looked like everyone was also waiting for their turn and trying their best to keep themselves together.
While the shelter may have fallen, the mandatory courses of what to do in case of a monster attack were paying off in spades. Follow your guardian's orders and don't panic, two key things that will keep you alive. Good thing that Histoire always gave education a really big budget to work with.
While fearful and about to panic at first, the mercenaries' competent defense and an exit has worked well enough to calm them down. IF's presence also helped.
Another person went through the teleporter, more robots poured in, the mercenaries bought another few seconds for the civilians to escape. It was at that moment…
...the ground started to shake.
Stomp
They heard loud steps in the distance, followed by pebbles on the ground jumping up and down. Not only that but the machines started to walk backwards. The mercenaries by the tunnel were confused as they kept firing, but the machines weren't advancing anymore. They were retreating. No more suicidal attacks and trying to overwhelm their defenses, instead the robots were walking away, until all they saw were distant blue dots far away in the distance.
And then even those have disappeared.
Stomp
But the shaking only got stronger, and the steps louder.
Scout's eyes scanned the staircase. Wrecks and broken parts of machines littered the stairs and floor, but nothing was moving. Nothing was advancing. It got unusually calm all of a sudden. "Uh guys? What's going on?"
"I… don't know." Spy responded, frowning. "Stay here, I'll go check."
The merc turned invisible before someone could stop him. IF meanwhile figured it was the perfect opportunity to evacuate the rest of the civilians. Engineer meanwhile used this moment to set up a dispenser for the rest of the team.
Stomp
"Something's coming lads." Demoman said. The rest of the mercenaries nodded in acknowledgement. Yes, that thing was definitely coming towards them. They could only resupply, reset their defenses, and prepare for the battle.
Stomp
"It's big, and it's close." Sniper whispered. "Over there." He pointed at the staircase.
Everyone gathered at the staircase. They prepared to put lead into whatever dared to show its head to them. They waited to see what made the Gray Mann's army actually retreat - something they have never done.
The last civilian has escaped, they have won. They can now die in peace. But they will not die without a fight.
"You boys have been making an awful big ruckus in my territory. I don' take too kindly to that."
Something up above the staircase started to speak to them. Its voice didn't belong to any person. It sounded way too robotic for a human. Another machine, then? But this one wasn't mindlessly charging at them, instead it was communicating with them while staying hidden.
Then, like lightning striking the earth, a bullet struck the wall. The mercenaries and IF recoiled at the deafening gunshot, but nothing else happened. A moment of waiting, another moment. Nothing appeared, nothing attacked. What was the deal?
"Justice can see you everywhere, partner."
Soldier felt the healing beam leave him and he glanced back to check on her. What he found was their nurse lying on the ground, with her head blown open. It was an instant kill. "Medic down!" The mercenary announced.
IF's head snapped to her friend, and she gasped when all she found was her dead body. This moment of surprise and vulnerability was what their enemy wanted.
Another shot, another person fell. The bullets hit the wall and then richotected right towards their target, killing them immediately. It all happened quickly, without a warning, without a chance to react.
Everyone died.
Their bodies lay scattered on the ground, dead and missing limbs.
Everyone but IF.
The bullet that was meant for her hit her in the stomach, blowing up a wide hole into her belly. While the mercenaries were laying dead and Re;Spawning, she was unfortunately still alive. She could not move her legs, as the projectile severed her spinal cord. The Guild agent could only thrash on the ground with her arms, while their mysterious enemy finally descended the stairs.
It was a Giant Robo-Engineer, bearing a cowboy hat and wielding a revolver. Its gun was glowing blue, signifying that it fired Critically-boosted bullets. On its chest was a License to Maim badge.
It saw IF still alive, and without hesitation pulled the trigger.
IF stopped struggling and rejoined the others.
"That's what my daddy taught me to do to backstabbers!"
Interdimensional RED-Coded Contract
Nation in Chaos
Hell-o there, my readers. We're getting ever so closer to the ending of this story.
And let me tell you, I'm getting worried.
You see, in my mind I had this great idea of what this invasion would look like. Then I actually do the damn thing and I was so disappointed I had to get my editor's opinion about it.
This chapter… was SO hard to write. Not because of IRL problems but because of the chapter itself. IF's parts especially. I had to rewrite them THREE TIMES just to actually make some progress.
We're also moving onto a third chapter of the invasion, which I initially planned to be the last but now it appears it will go on for a longer time.
The next chapter is shaping up to be quite spicy, I'm hyped to write it.
And after the invasion… well, I can start building up the final battle.
Responses:
This is where I would respond to reviews from the last chapter.
If there were any. Nobody reviewed the previous chapter :c
