Be aware that this chapter backtracks a little bit, to the extent where it starts before the last one ended.
Outside of the Academy tower were many benches, which often served as places of respite for students who wanted to eat outside during a lunch break. Having acquired easy meals of choice from the cafeteria, this was where Laura and Rin sat while waiting for their third member that had been invited to join. Surprisingly, the wait at the cafeteria hadn't really been that long, so they had been able to get their food and get out here more quickly than intended.
But even though Rin had specified half an hour for Church to meet them here and it had only been fifteen minutes since that text, she was still complaining about it.
"Geez, what's keeping him?"
Being more of a practical sort, Laura pointed out why it was silly to be annoyed. "You said half an hour. It has only been half of that time. Why would he be here already?"
Rin didn't seem to think this was logical. "Uh, maybe because he's been invited to lunch with cute girls? He should be falling over himself to get here! Of course he should be early!"
Laura scoffed. "I think you might be expecting the total opposite of Ichika in this man. It's a little unreasonable."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"I'm just saying, we should be content that he's so available to us in the first place. Is that not more than enough considering what we are used to?"
The brunette sitting beside Laura donned a confused but contemplative expression, perhaps thinking about how she wanted to answer that or how she felt about it in the first place, but she didn't get to speak anyway. While she was busy thinking about it, Laura was looking out to the sky, thinking about her own words. That was why she saw a strange, small speck seemingly drawing closer to the Academy. For some reason, she got a really bad feeling about it.
In fact, as the speck rapidly grew in size, Laura realized that it was approaching at very high speed, which likely wasn't a good sign. She just barely had time to lift her eye-patch to use the Valkyrie Trace system and its enhanced abilities before the object went over her head and just barely missed the Academy tower, emitting a metallic screech as it scraped the structure. The unexpected noise caused Rin to recoil, but Laura ignored it in favor of magnifying the vision in her cybernetic eye to identify the mysterious object. Rin asked the perfect question just in time.
"What the hell was that?!"
Initially, Laura didn't quite believe what she was seeing, but she knew she wasn't hallucinating. "It was Church-"
"What?"
"Holding onto some sort of missile."
"What?!"
Rin's exclamation was very fitting, as well as a question that Laura herself needed answered, but there was little time to speculate. Before either of them could, a wailing siren broke the silence of the Academy grounds, followed by Chifuyu's voice coming from the intercom system arrayed throughout the area.
"Attention all students, evacuate to the subterranean shelter immediately! Follow faculty instructions to the letter! This is not a drill, do not prioritize anything over reaching the safety of the shelter. Faculty who are members of the quick reaction team, make preparations for takeoff immediately!"
After the announcement, the alarm system continued to blare, with intermittent automated instructions for the student body to evacuate to the large subterranean shelter the Academy had beneath its grounds for emergencies that threatened the student body. Thankfully, the fact that is was lunch break for the majority of the student body meant it was relatively easy for everyone to get where they needed to be.
Naturally, Laura would be expected to move to the shelter as well, but instead she began to manifest Schwarzer Regen. Rin was quick to follow suit with her own I.S.
"Glad we're on the same page!"
Though she doubted it would bear any fruit, Laura still raised a certain point. "Rin, you aren't cleared for I.S. operation-"
Naturally, Rin cut her off vehemently. "Like I give a damn! I don't know what the hell is going on, but Church obviously needs our help! Come on!"
The brunette had nothing more to say on the matter, so she rocketed up into the sky without delay. Laura didn't blame her for being so gung-ho about it: after all, someone who had just recently become their friend was in mortal danger, and it was possible that they were the only ones who even knew he needed help. Consequences be damned, they had to rush to his aid. With that in mind, the German took off after her Chinese compatriot, certain that they would get reprimanded for this, but not caring in the slightest.
At the rate things were going, Chifuyu wasn't sure whether or not she should be angry with Church. Standing in her office, she had just gotten off a secure channel with the young man, who was now physically moving some sort of explosive away from populated areas, about a minute ago. Not only had he not provided her with much info about what was going on, but she had even been told that he had blown another hole in a wall. More than being angry though, she was worried.
He had called her by first name in that transmission just now. He hadn't done that at any point prior to this moment, and the sudden shift in behavior was a little worrying. On top of that, despite a brave effort, she had been able to discern the trace amounts of fear in his voice. He was scared. That was not a good sign. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do about it with the information she had on hand. This situation had come out of nowhere, without any warning: the students, Representative Candidates included, needed to evacuate to the shelter lest the worst come to pass. Chifuyu herself didn't have an I.S. to use.
Her only tool was the faculty members designated as quick reaction units for emergencies, but even they didn't get to carry around I.S. on their person at all times. They had to go to a hangar and equip themselves with I.S. before they could deploy, and even if they could do it quickly, those few minutes could make all the difference in what happened today. The notion that someone could die on her watch, particularly someone she was fond of, bothered her greatly. But since there was nothing she could to about it directly, Chifuyu tried to distract herself from that reality by contemplating this entire situation.
The fact that an enemy aircraft had gotten close enough to the Academy to launch a missile, and the fact that the missile itself had been completely undetected, was immensely worrisome. Ordinarily, the Academy's various sensors and early warning devices would have picked all of this up long before it had become a threat. Why had they failed to do so? And if their own sensors had either been spoofed or outright failed, how had Church not only been aware of the threat, but been able to intercept it before anyone realized what was happening?
The most logical conclusion was that he was somehow involved in the incident from the start. But the thought was extremely uncomfortable. He had just saved countless lives from an unforeseen death, including her own and that of her brother. No matter how he was involved in this, Church at least deserved the benefit of the doubt for that alone, didn't he?
A repetitive beeping from the intercom on Chifuyu's desk caught her attention: considering the hectic situation, she had no way of knowing what was about to be reported to her. Even so, she wasted no time in thumbing the sole button on the machine.
"Yes?"
Yamada's voice came from over the intercom, quite a bit more frantic than usual. "O-Orimura-Sensei, we have a huge problem! Huang and Bodewig activated their I.S. and are pursuing the missile! They won't respond to communications requests!"
"Are you chasing after them?"
"We intend to, but the quick reaction team has only just mobilized their I.S.! They've got a head-start on us, there's no way we'll catch up to them!"
Odd as it was to say, Chifuyu was not entirely unhappy to hear this news. She should have been, because her students were putting themselves in harm's way, but since they had acted on this faster than anyone else, it was possible that the two girls would actually be able to help Church with his predicament.
Still, she had to make sure those two knew what they were getting into. That was why she spoke aloud, speaking to the 'dumb' Academy administrative AI, Kotetsu. It was not present in every part of the Academy, but it could be addressed in many areas of import for basic tasks.
"Kotetsu, can you get me a secure channel to those two idiots?"
The lifeless response was quick, emanating from the intercom system just as Yamada's voice had. "Affirmative, administrator."
The relatively easy task took Kotetsu a matter of seconds. A forced connection from a high priority communication authority was not something the Representative Candidates could just reject. As soon as she knew she had a connection, Chifuyu decided to accost her old pupil first.
"Laura, are you quite aware that you're openly defying school protocol and by extension, me?"
While she had expected to elicit some sense of guilt from the girl, the voice that answered held little to no remorse. "I'm quite aware of that, Instructor."
"…are you sure you can handle whatever it is you're planning to do out there?"
Though she hated to admit it, Chifuyu was glad to hear the lack of hesitation in Laura's voice. "Of course."
Loosing a resigned sigh, Chifuyu only made one comment before switching frequencies to address Rin. "Just don't get ahead of yourself…"
Kotetsu connected to Shen Long's comm frequency within a moment or two, and Chifuyu could hear heavy breathing that was a bit too strained to be normal.
"Huang, Laura going is one thing, but your situation is another matter entirely. Your arm may not be broken any longer, but you are still undergoing recovery. It's dangerous to be operating an I.S. in your state."
Rin's aggressive demeanor showed even through her fatigue. "Yeah, I know! But there's no way I'm gonna sit back and let Schnitzel here take all the glory!"
Chifuyu knew that Rin's actions had far less to do with glory and far more to do with saving one person in particular, but she decided to let the statement stand.
"Whatever you're trying to do, you're hurting yourself in the meantime. Operation of an I.S. requires peak physical status, and you're only amplifying your ailments by operating Shen Long right now. You could fracture your recently healed bones again, or amplify the severity of your still present injuries."
Rin took a long time to breathe before answering. Her still recovering body must've been hurting from all of the pressure exertion. Even with the medical technologies of the Academy, it had only been a short while since she had been grievously injured. There was no doubt that her body was still weak this early after all of that. Even so, that didn't change her response.
"Alright, I get it… I'll sleep for a month when I'm done here!"
The transmission was cut from Rin's end, though only because Chifuyu allowed it since she had communications authority in this instance. She simply figured there was nothing else to say. It was obvious that they wouldn't be dissuaded from their course at this point. Besides, even though it made her a bad teacher, Chifuyu didn't really want them to come back. Rather, she was praying for their success with all her might. Relatively new and common their relationship may have been, but she had no desire to see Church killed for her sake.
By now, Rin and Laura had made it quite some distance out into the Pacific, chasing the trajectory of Church and the missile he was guiding for some reason. Fortunately, they were moving a bit faster than he was, and therefore managing to close the distance, albeit gradually. Still, with time likely being of the essence and having no clue what was going on, it struck both girls as a good idea to open a line of communication with Church and get some answers. They would have done it earlier, if only they hadn't been in communication with Chifuyu.
Rin was about two seconds away from making a communication attempt when her field of vision was utterly consumed by blinding light. Swiftly following this was a thundering roar that seemed to split the air itself. Only a few miles away from the source, it was only thanks to the advanced protective technology of their I.S. that the two girls weren't both blinded and deafened. This fact allowed them to see the explosion itself, a massive inferno that was fanning out spherically, starting several hundred feet above the ocean's surface and spreading out in all directions. When the ball of fire and destruction impacted the water below it, the boundless blue of the ocean virtually evaporated without so much as a speck of resistance.
The explosion traveled outward at astounding speed, and it would have engulfed both of the girls near it within seconds if they hadn't instinctively retreated from the approaching danger. Even so, the speed of their I.S. was easily outmatched. They only made it half a mile further away before the ball of flame was at their heels, and some sort of evasion or defense would be absolutely necessary.
Fully aware of Rin's less than peak physical condition, Laura had it in mind to be extra vigilant in shielding her more than Shen Long could by itself. Knowing that they wouldn't be able to escape the explosion before it engulfed them, Laura dashed to Rin's side and wrapped her I.S.'s thick metal arms around the girl's somewhat smaller unit. Schwarzer Regen had a higher shield output and armor rating, so it only made sense that its chances of surviving were higher than the more lightly armored and agile Shen Long.
As the fiery blast wrapped itself around the two I.S., Laura spared a panicked thought for Church's fate, but she didn't have much time to dwell on it, as her I.S.'s shields flared bright orange as she watched the meter in her HUD drop dangerously. She could have considered using her Active Inertial Canceller, but with the damage coming from all sides, it wouldn't have been very effective anyway.
Out of all of the Representatives' personal I.S,, Schwarzer Regen was the toughest, in terms of high shielding and armor plating. But even so, Laura's shields dropped by sixty-two percent in seconds, and each moment within the blast steadily lowered it further.
The two girls were engulfed within the consuming inferno for what felt like eternity. The only thing that signaled the movement of time at all was the continuous blare of warning signals from their I.S. as their shields dropped ever lower with each passing moment. Laura wondered what would happen if the fire lasted much longer: in the few seconds she had been within it, her shields had dropped to twenty-nine percent, and she didn't think the armor plating would do much to protect the pilot within. And if her shields were that low, how was Rin faring in Shen Long, which possessed considerably less in terms of defense? If this continued...
Despite Laura's worries, a few more seconds was all that remained before the blast finally subsided. The light from the explosion slowly faded, and the tiny wisps of flame left over from the spectacle dissipated as well, leaving two charred but very much still airborne girls in its aftermath, which included vapor rising from the ocean that was so thick it was practically fog.
Laura released Rin from her machine's grasp, and watched her shields recharge much more slowly than usual. It was well known to her that heat-based damage could affect inner components, and it was possible that some vital parts within Schwarzer Regen had been damaged to some extent.
Still, Laura was more or less unharmed, although she felt somewhat crisped. It was far more likely that Rin had been seriously injured, especially considering that she was already hurting in the first place.
"Rin? What's your status?"
Rin rotated Shen Long to face Laura, and it was obvious that she had indeed taken a bit more of a beating. Whereas Laura had merely felt charred, Rin was actually burned. The intense heat had bled through her shields with enough potency to have the same effect as sunburn. Whatever part of Rin's body that had been exposed was tinged a crimson red, and it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain, although it did nothing to lessen her attitude.
"Geez, what's with the word status? How hard is it to say, 'are you alright?'"
Laura frowned in dismay as she witnessed Rin's condition. She was hoping that she had managed to protect her more than she had. "What level are your shields at?"
"Eh… three percent. Give or take a decimal."
Laura was actually shocked that Rin had come that close to being killed just moments ago. Once again, she thanked the ones that had made her I.S. armament and its substantial defenses, as they had no doubt absorbed a lot of the damage that would gave affected Shen Long.
"How do you feel? Can you still run a physical scan?"
Nodding slowly, likely due to the pain she was in, Rin ran a quick physical diagnostic with Shen Long, whose frame was slightly melted in the extremities. Even her Dragon Cannons were half slag, and there was no doubt that a lot of the internal components had been fried as well. The right arm of her I.S. had lost nearly an entire layer of its outer armor.
"Well nothing's broken that wasn't before. The only difference now is my blistered and raw skin, which is just stellar. Shen Long is pretty damaged, but still operable for now. Seriously though, what the hell was that thing?"
Laura looked back in the direction of the original detonation. Water had already settled back over the location the explosion had disturbed, and if it weren't for residual brightness and a few wayward tangents of chemical fire, the area would have looked normal.
"I don't know. It wasn't any type of missile I recognize, but it was obviously meant for the Academy. If Church hadn't-"
Laura failed to finish her statement as the name of their savior left her lips. Just who had they been out here to rescue anyway?
Rin understood this as well, and blasted past Laura with only a terrified exclamation. "Oh shit! Shit!"
Laura began to follow the Chinese girl, but she spotted the oncoming instructors from the school first. They were still about a few miles off, and no doubt livid that she and Rin had defied their comms requests and flown headfirst into danger. Regardless of the consequences for disobeying them even further, Laura ignored their approach, and headed towards the spot in which both the mysterious missile and Church had disappeared in a wave of infernal fire.
For anyone who has ever had Shingles, burning was not really an unfamiliar sensation. The affliction caused intense fiery pain, and it was probably the epitome of unpleasant.
Church almost wished he had contracted something of the sort in the past, just so he would have something to compare his current condition to. But of course, he was a bit too young for something like that, so the pilot couldn't really compare his feelings right now to anything. All he knew was that his body burned. Every single inch of his flesh felt like it was charred. His world was still dark, but he could feel the pain screaming throughout his nerves.
Writhing with his eyes screwed shut, Church tried to think through his suffering. Where was he? He knew he had last been conscious while sinking deeper into the briny depths of the ocean. Had he merely regained consciousness for a brief moment? Just some phenomenally cruel moment of wakefulness so that he could feel himself burning and sinking? The thought of being awake as he sank to his demise terrified him.
In desperation, Church cried out into the darkness, hoping to get some answer from his AI. He needed to speak to something to calm his nerves, even if it was just a machine.
"Cerberus! Are you there!? Cerberus!?"
For once, Church felt despair at hearing no response from the artificial intelligence. Without it, he was completely, utterly alone. Alone as he sank deeper and deeper into utter darkness.
The freezing cold waters must have helped alleviate some of Church's pain, as the burning sensation throughout his body subsided somewhat after some time floating. However, he could still feel considerable pain on his back. He figured that it must have been because his back had been facing Crucible when it exploded.
With the pain being lessened somewhat, Church managed to open his eyes, but he was still met with nothing but darkness.
For there to be no sunlight at this point... how far have I sunk? Beyond human capacity, surely...
Church would've checked his HUD had it been active, but it was not. Honestly, he was just glad that his suit had not experienced any hull breaches. There was no way he would have survived this deep in the ocean without protection. Unfortunately, all of his systems except for emergency backups were inoperable at the moment. Church had no idea what condition his suit was in.
How much air did he have left? Was the automatic distress signal functional? Would anyone be able to locate him at this depth even if it was? As Church thought most pessimistically about the answers to these questions, a thick blanket of resignation draped over him. He was going to die here. No one was going to help him. Or even if anyone was going to try, the chances of them finding him were so slim that they weren't even worth considering.
And furthermore, who would be willing to search for him so extensively that they would reach this depth? If they didn't find him somewhere near the surface, they would most likely give up. He was a foreigner who died on his own watch, and of the people who actually knew him around here, he was a brand new friend to a few and a mere acquaintance to the rest. Not that they wouldn't care at all about his death, but he doubted there would be an untold degree of sorrow for his passing.
What was he even dying for? Mostly people he didn't know all that well. Was it even really worth it?
Maybe it was.
Maybe the reason he really hadn't put much thought into the mission was because he had been sidetracked by a girl who had somehow managed to fall out of a window dozens of stories up. Maybe it was because the position of authority around here, Chifuyu, had seen fit to treat him with respect, maybe even as an equal. It was because he had liked the cheerful, outgoing personality of the girl he had saved. It was because had quarreled and bonded with other people. It was because one of those girls had invited him to dinner, and because the other had seen fit to talk about her problems with him.
All in all, it was because Church liked being normal. Being a teenage boy with girls on his mind instead of having to worry about making ends meet before his time. He had friends in Bethesda, sure. But they were really just people he hung out with whenever he could find free time away from working himself to death to pay for medical expenses. At most, he had played a card game with Ulrich every once in awhile. It was still a far cry from any semblance of normal interaction with people on a daily basis. That was what he liked so much about being here, even though it hadn't been that long: an illusion of normalcy, even if an illusion was all it was.
Maybe that was why he was willing to sacrifice to protect that illusion. Even though it seemed silly. Besides, if this really had all been ordained...
Church was pretty positive that none of this had occurred by chance, and he certainly didn't think Umbra Stratum had no hand in it at all. Way too many things had lined up today to be a coincidence. Maybe it wasn't the entire organization, but the odds of there being a traitor of some sort was pretty high. Then again, Church couldn't even say with certainty that this wasn't a move made by the organization officially. Truth be told, he didn't trust them that much. He had been covertly inducted into their ranks, paid under the table to secure his loyalty. And now, he was off conducting highly questionable espionage for that very organization. He had never really known their true motivations or the meaning behind any of their objectives.
It made him think about whether or not any of this was actually worth it. Umbra Stratum provided him with great benefits; they offered him money he needed for what mattered most to him. But if this and things like it were what it cost in return, was it even worth it? Would she even want to be saved if this was what it costed to provide her salvation?
Probably not. She hadn't raised him that way, after all. If, by some miraculous chance, Church survived this ordeal, he swore to uphold those lessons ahead of everything else. He'd get the data Umbra Stratum wanted, but until he could prove whether they were truly for or against his country, but he wouldn't let their orders take precedence over all else. After all, he had their suit, and he was halfway across the world. He had more power than they knew.
Of course, this was all theoretical to him. Church was pretty sure he was going to die. He'd eventually sink so far that even Exeter could handle the pressure, or failing that, he'd run out of oxygen. He was blind, immobile, short on time, and worst of all, awake for what would most definitely be his demise.
"What do you mean, it missed?"
A scathing feminine voice asked this question of the man that had just entered her personal quarters in a particular Umbra Stratum desert base. He wore the gear of an Umbra Stratum soldier, but he was secretly an operative for her machinations: a puppet's puppet, ironically.
"The report is vague, ma'am. The SU-60 retreated after determining that the mission would be completed and that the risk of being captured or analyzed wasn't worth it. We don't really have any information on what happened after that, but satellite imagery shows the Academy is still standing, and the explosion occurred several miles out to sea..."
"Who cares about the Academy? Is the X Platform still operational?"
"Unknown, ma'am. There's been no report from Operator A2 since the explosion. But there's no evidence that the X Platform was destroyed either..."
Folding her arms, the redheaded woman glanced out of the window, overlooking endless waves of Nevada dust. "I want a report as soon as we know what happened to the X Platform. It's unfortunate that A2 has to die, but this is the only way to stop Aggregate Paragon, according to that insane woman... return to your post and get me that info."
With a nod, the masked soldier turned and exited the room, leaving Strelka by her lonesome. Clearly, her drone program still needed a little touching up, judging by its most recent performance.
This chapter is pretty short compared to the usual, but there's just nowhere else for it to really be. Don't worry, this is an outlier compared to the rest of the story. Chapters tend to be twice as long or even more throughout most of the story.