Chapter 43: Remains
Ange had to admit, a blind jump probably wasn't the best way to willingly make use of Villkiss's ability to teleport for the first time. She did have an idea of where she wanted to end up, but she wasn't even sure if it would work. Still, in their moment of desperation, Ange had pulled the group out of the fire, and they suddenly went careening through a void of stars, only to be briefly blinded as the world returned to normal.
And what should they see first but the ground as it rushed up to catch them. With surprised shouts and quick pulls on their controls, the four machines came in for quite the rough landing. Wherever it was they had ended up at.
"Next time…" Alain groaned, his neck already going sore from the whiplash. "Don't have Villkiss pop us out this close to the ground."
"Oh shut up!" Ange snapped. "I saved us, didn't I!?"
"Where did we even end up anyway?" Naomi groaned. They looked around and were greeted by the sight of a plateau strewn with the remains of a recent battle. All around them, wrecks of drones and Para-mail littered the impact craters dotting the surface of the mesa.
"It's Arzenal!" Ange gasped as she climbed out of Villkiss. "Well… that's good. I was hoping we'd end up here or close by."
"Yeah, but it doesn't seem like anyone is here," Naomi noted as she dropped from the Halberd with her assault rifle in hand. Alain followed suit as he exited Wyvern. "What do you think, Alain?"
"Well, Jill did send out orders to head to a rendezvous point during the fighting. If I had to guess, she launched the Aurora and had the surviving pilots meet up somewhere away from Arzenal."
"What's Aurora?" Vivian asked as she hopped over to Alain.
"It's a vessel from the first Libertus operation," Tusk stated. "It was used by the Ancient Humans who allied with Arzenal back then. Did Jill really still have it around? I thought it was scuttled during the attack on Farbanti."
"Let's just say some recovery work was done. It was being kept down in a secret bay built when the Ancient Humans first brought it to Arzenal. Deep down under the tide line where not even the inspectors would think to look. You wouldn't believe the trouble Jasmine had to go through to sneak in the parts to fix it over the past ten years."
"So… we have no idea where anyone else could be," Naomi sighed. "And Salia and the others are still out there gunning for us. All in all we could be doing better."
"If we gotta look anyway, we might as well take what we can from here, right?" Ange suggested. "It won't do us any good to go searching for everyone without proper supplies. Though fuel for me and Naomi might be a problem. We've got no idea how far to even go."
"I think you mean just me," Naomi chuckled. "Pretty sure at this point Villkiss doesn't need to worry about refueling, considering it fixed its own arm like magic."
"Fair point," Ange relented. "Alain, what about those CROSS buddies of yours? Could they help us?"
"Well… if that radio I have is still in my room, provided it didn't get wrecked during the fight," Alain supposed. "Naomi and I will start looking for anything to help out."
"Then I'll run checks on what we've got," Tusk affirmed. "Ange, Vivian, would you help me with that? We should be able to catch some fish down at the beach so we can have something to eat. Plus, we might want to stow our machines there so anything flying overhead doesn't notice them."
"Sounds like a plan," Ange agreed as she dropped back into Villkiss.
"Vivian, could you move Halberd to the beach while Alain and I look for that radio?" Naomi asked, Vivian's eyes lighting up in excitement.
"You got it! And don't worry, I'll make sure there isn't even a scratch when I land it!"
"Well, I mean there's already plenty from that fight."
"Be careful," Tusk warned. "For all we know the humans could have left spy cams in case anyone came back."
Alain nodded to Tusk as the Air Runner started up again while he and Naomi made their way inside. Luckily for them, the main passage from topside was still intact.
It had to be said, that while Arzenal was certainly left a mess, Alain and Naomi couldn't shake the thought it could also have been much, much worse than what they were seeing. Some walls along the edge of the base were blown out and the air inside was still painfully thick with the stagnant smell of corpses and smoke.
Even more disconcerting was the quiet.
While Arzenal was never full of excitement, it was at least active. So, seeing the location as dead as the bodies scattered throughout the halls didn't quite sit well. Gone were the sounds of Para-mail being launched and returning, no crackling of the speakers for announcements, or even just the normal chatter of other Norma passing by in the halls. It was nothing but dead silence and the sounds of their footsteps on the cold, hard stone.
"I wonder if this is what Arzenal was supposed to feel like for us?" Naomi murmured, a grimace forming on her face as they passed by yet another set of bodies, so thoroughly burnt she couldn't even make out who they could've been. "Or am I just thinking this because the DRAGON world was so different?"
"I'm definitely feeling the same thing," Alain agreed. "It's like walking through a tomb. I'm not even sure I want to come back here anymore."
"I don't blame you,"
Finally, they reached the dorm block, which thankfully seemed mostly intact. And the lack of bodies in that section helped ease some of the tension. At least, it confirmed that most of the residents had evacuated before anything happened.
"So… how many do you think got away?" Naomi wondered as they finally reached his room.
"Hopefully enough. Now… let's hope the room didn't get shelled out," Alain slowly pushed the door open, and both let out relieved sighs when they saw that, aside from a sizable hole in the wall near the barred window, the room was relatively intact. Stepping over to his bed, Alain reached under his mattress and began fumbling about for the radio.
"Think we should look for anything else to take?" Naomi asked, casting her gaze around the ever-familiar room with a sad look. Chills from the silence aside, just leaving Arzenal behind again didn't quite sit right with her.
"We'll head to the mall next and grab some duffel bags. Depending on how long we need to look, best to have supplies to last us… got it!" Alain withdrew his arm and held up the radio, smirking as he found it still in workable condition. "Perfect. We should be able to contact the Kestrel with this after we get things together."
"Is that a ship belonging to those CROSS guys?" Naomi asked, Alain nodding as he pocketed the radio.
"The flagship of their entire fleet in fact. It was built by the Solus Kingdom before the Libertus disaster. About as big as the Aurora, but even more armed. Let's just hope I can still get into their comm channels with this thing."
"And hopefully from there we can find out what happened to everyone else."
"Provided Jill kept her stubbornness in check and reached out to them. Now…let's hit the mall and see what we can salvage."
Naomi and Alain arrived at the inlet around the time the sun was starting to go down along with several duffel bags full of supplies salvaged from the mall. While they were busy inside, the others had arranged their machines in such a way as to make a small wall for shelter while leaving a good view outward to keep watch. Tusk was stoking a fire while Ange and Vivian were digging into some fish he caught.
"Hey you're back!" Vivian cheered as she leapt to her feet. "Hey! What did you two find huh?"
"Let's just say Jasmine's going to put us in debt for the rest of our lives," Naomi joked as Alain set the cart inside the entrance. "Some ammo, clothing, toolkits, first aid, and as many field rations as we could carry."
"How did the mall even look?" Ange asked, tossing the bones of her meal into the fire.
"Pretty much how you could expect after a few rounds of shelling," Naomi replied, taking a seat by the fire. "Though… Alain and I did notice something. Things had… well, been shifted around. And not because of shockwaves. It's like people had been here before us. We weren't the first to go sifting through what was left."
"Maybe some of the others have been sneaking back here," Tusk noted, "Arzenal has a lot of useful stuff in it. If they did survive, I'm sure CROSS would do what they could to salvage anything useful. Though… wouldn't they have picked the place clean then?"
"We pulled a good chunk of our finds out of storage," Alain noted, stepping over to the fire with his radio in hand. "Plus, with Salia and other others piloting the Ragna-mail, they probably can't stick around long enough to pick the place clean. Not to mention the Siegfried and those new Mana-controlled Para-mails."
"The attack on Arzenal must have been the field test for those things," Tusk murmured.
"Oh, great. So, they up and made the Norma obsolete?" Ange bit with a sharp scoff. "Why do you think they're even in those things? Why would they decide to fight for Embryo? From what little contact I had with him, the guy seems like a total creep."
"That's the tricky thing about Embryo," Tusk grumbled. "He's… an enigma to most of us. What we do know is that he's the guy pulling the strings of this world. The leaders of every major nation answer to him. Removing Arzenal must have been part of some plan of his."
"Maybe but…" Ange's brow creased in thought as she stared into the fire. "During the battle, he said that the massacre wasn't his plan. That it was my brother taking things too far."
"If I had to guess…" Alain spoke up. "Embryo wanted to go through the Norma and pick out pilots for the other Ragna-mail. Which explains why those drones were capturing pilots. And now we know he's got his Riders."
"Then what about you and me?" Ange argued. "I'm riding Villkiss, and we know he's the guy who basically made Wyvern's particle drives. I guess since I can use Villkiss's powers he'd probably be interested in that."
"Obviously he wants Wyvern so he can have access to ND Drives again," Alain concluded. "Plus, as its pilot, and having unlocked its black box systems, he's probably already figured out I've become one of those 'Newtypes'. So now we both have massive targets on our backs."
"Especially since Embryo definitely knows we're back," Ange sighed. "So anyway, that radio still work? If you guys are right about your CROSS pals picking through here, they're our best shot at finding the others."
"For once luck was on our side," Alain said as he brandished the device in front of them. He pressed the switch on the side and a small grin of satisfaction spread across his face when the speaker crackled on. "Good… I'll try to reach them in morning. We should take some time to rest up. Naomi and I picked out some tents to use too. Jasmine was sure something like this had a chance of happening, so plenty of survival kits were stashed in storage."
"Well, that's good," Ange hummed.
"We should also alternate keeping watch," Tusk suggested. "We don't know who or what could show up. Best to be careful."
"Good idea," Naomi nodded, stretching her arms. "After that, I'm beat. Could go for some sleep."
"I second that!" Despite her agreement, Vivian didn't seem at all tired as she trotted over to the cart of supplies and started looking for one of the tents.
"I'll take the first watch," Alain stated, already clambering onto Wyvern's frame. "Tusk, you wanna go next?"
"Sure. Tomorrow is definitely gonna be… well, let's just wait and see, right?"
With night falling and the sky turning to a far more familiar starlit sky, Alain had to admit that things felt strange. Staring up at that sky again felt so familiar, the way he always knew it. And yet now it felt entirely different. If only because of how painfully aware he was of the changed situation around him.
Before, he'd been able to look at that sky and dream. Of a life away from Arzenal. Away from all the fighting. The one bit of freedom away from that all too restrictive piece of ground he was kept to. But now, the sky was just a reminder of what he was really fighting. And that given the chance, there was a world far better than this one he could be in otherwise.
"But…" he thought aloud as he adjusted the rifle in his hands. "… there's too much to do here right now. Too many people to find and help. I can focus on that kind of thing later."
"Maintaining your focus at a time such as this is essential," said Wyvern. "I hope our encounter with the Ragna-mails has not shaken you."
"Given me a shitload of questions, I'll say that much. If anything, it's why I wanna find the others even more. If anyone can tell us what the hell happened, it's Jill or Jasmine."
"Their conduct is certainly peculiar. I feel they would not have joined Embryo's side without some form of coercion. Given their attachments to you, it is the only logical explanation."
"Starting to actually get an idea of how we humans work huh?" Before the conversation could continue, however, Alain caught a small glint out in the darkness of the ocean. That glint quickly grew and took the form of a small ball of light just above the water. Not taking his chances, Alain ducked behind Wyvern and dropped to the ground, quietly moving over to the still opened tents where he reached in to wake Tusk with a light shake.
"Hm… Alain?" Tusk murmured, shaking the leftover bits of sleep loose. "Time to switch watch?"
"Sh!" Alain hissed. "I saw a light out on the water. Get the others up. I'll take point and see if it's hostile."
"On it." Tusk answered as he hurriedly kicked off his sleeping bag. As Tusk moved around to the other tents to wake the girls, Alain took cover behind Wyvern as he shouldered the rifle in his hands. From the shadows on the other side, Alain was able to see the light move closer and closer until the sound of splashing water signaled someone coming ashore. Alain chambered a round and readied to fire when one of them spoke.
"Wait… are these…?" asked a female voice. An awfully familiar one as well.
"No way!" A second also familiar voice cried out. "it is them! But then… the hell are they doing here?"
"It has to be her! It has to be!" Said a third.
"No way…" Alain muttered. "Hilda? Rosalie? Momoka? Is that you?!"
"Huh… Alain?!" Quickly climbing up on top of Wyvern, Alain felt his mood soar at the sight of Hilda, Rosalie, and Momoka; all three dressed in diving suits still dripping with seawater.
"Sir Alain!" Momoka gasped Alain dropped to the ground, and not a second later, the others came running out from behind the Para-mails. "Lady Angelise!"
"Momoka!" Ange cried out as her maid almost bowled her over in a hug.
"What the heck are you three—" Alain just saw the fist coming for his face before he felt a crunch right onto his nose. "GUAGH!"
"That was for making all of us worry, you asshole!" Hilda stood over Alain as he hit the ground, a hand over his throbbing nose as she glared down at him.
"Okay I probably deserved that," Alain admitted. "Happy to see you too, Hilda."
"Well at least I know it's you," Hilda held out a hand to help Alain up, then turned her attention to Naomi and Vivian. "You've all got a lot of explaining to do. You know that right?"
"Believe me, we have a lot to tell," Naomi said, stepping over and pulling Hilda into a hug. "Its good to know you all made it out of there."
"Yeah yeah, we're glad to see you're all in one piece," Hilda sighed as she returned the hug. "Right, Rosa-"
"Do you know how worried sick I was?!" Seemingly finally having processed everything, Rosalie lunged at Alain and grabbed onto him, outright sobbing as she squeezed him. "Everything since that battle was hell! Worrying about all of you just made it worse!"
"I know, I know." Alain said, putting his arms around her to calm her down. "I swear I'll explain everything later. But first, how did you all-MMMGHHH!" Again, Alain was cut off, this time when Rosalie shot up and kissed him, knocking them both to the ground, Alain's arms flailing in surprise as it looked like Rosalie was jamming her tongue all the way down his throat.
"Ohhh!" Vivian put a hand to her mouth at the sight.
"From getting decked to getting snogged…" Ange sighed. "Sounds about right for him."
When Rosalie finally pried herself off of Alain, leaving him more than a little dazed, she roughly grabbed his chin as she straddled him.
"You're not allowed to vanish on us like that again. Got it!?"
"Okay I promise," Alain gasped as he sat up. A quick glance over at Hilda, and Alain could have sworn he saw a look of jealousy along with a light flush on her face. "So," he continued as Rosalie got off so he could stand back up. "I'm guessing you all got out on the Aurora?"
"Yeah," Hilda nodded. "Believe me when I say a lot of us were surprised to find out we had a whole submarine carrier stowed underneath Arzenal. We'll tell you the whole story after we get back to the others. We've got a lot to talk about."
"Yeah, no kidding," Alain nodded. The way he said it, Hilda could tell he had already found out about Salia and the others. It was going to be quite a conversion when they got back to the ship. But for now, they could at least be thankful that their missing comrades had at last been found.