Chapter 24

Delta had reversed the polarity of the Gravitron Reactor for the second time, finally releasing a hive of debris onto the ground. The town square below piled up with the now pulverized remains of the stage that had once stood in its place. By the time the battle had started to finally wind down, the entire north face of the town was leveled. The last of the gunships had since been taken out of the game, leaving only a handful of ground troops pinned on the outskirts.

“Delta, set reactor to neutral state so the ground troops can advance,” Yulia ordered swiftly. “Patch me into the Litvyak.”

“Affirmative.” Delta’s low-pitched digitized voice replied.

The gravity beneath Delta had finally returned to normal, clearing the way for reinforcements. By this point, the numbers had dropped to only a handful on offense. However, Liberation continued to push back, and their effort had been gravely underestimated. Yulia had calculated that victory was still obtainable, despite the odds being overwhelming.

“Why haven’t we been patched in?” she asked, still waiting for the signal to reach the Litvyak.

Several yards away from Delta, Rei had started to focus channeling the Deep. Her only orders were to keep them busy. This mission was simple enough, but her stamina was rapidly starting to deplete. She leapt upwards into the air, feeling her body rip free from the Earth’s gravity. After landing cleanly on top of Delta’s body, she began to follow up with as many strikes from her sword as possible.

Her blade had maintained its edge through the constant attacks, slowly managing to tear into the hull of the machine. The damage was too little to make any meaningful impact now—she would need several minutes to possibly break through. Yulia stared up to see the lone warrior continuing to tear away at the hull.

“Re-engage Gravitron and push her off.” Yulia said while watching Rei continue to swipe away on the display.

“Unable to engage, infantry is present.” Delta replied.

“Roll, do something!”

Rei could feel the metal body beneath her start to jerk. Desperate to keep on board, she lunged forward and tried to bring the blade down to stab through. The first strike had sparked against Delta’s hull, barely leaving a scratch.

There’s no more time. Rei tried to reel back for one last strike just as Delta started to spin once more. The surface beneath her swung out, causing her to immediately lose her balance. She tumbled backward and off the edge of the machine towards the ground. Find your center.

She started to clear her mind during the fall. As her thoughts cleared, the power of the Deep flowed through her. The wind tearing against her body began to finally calm as her body started to gently float down to the ground. By the time she was nearing the ground, the bullets started to cease. Moments later, she found herself face to face with a handful of the G.E.I. troops on the ground.

When finally looking at them, she had realized the troops in their equipment with the rifles did not look much different from her. The anger and bloodlust that started to consume her began to subside for a moment. Each of these troops were likely her age, from another part of the world and forced into the battle. While they were hesitant to raise their weapons and engage, Delta started to hover over them.

“Override successful, reengaging.” Delta’s voice blared out.

The reactor inside continued its same tune and began to crank up the gravitational press beneath them. Rei snapped back, feeling the wind pushing against her as she leapt away from the attack. The troops beneath Delta had exploded into a fury of screams once the weight around them increased. Within seconds, the entire squad had been crushed by the attack, leaving Rei to stare on in horror at the massacre.

“How do I stop this?” Rei whispered to herself, feeling defeated seeing the machine already starting its destruction.

She stood tall with her sword still in her grip waiting for a sign or a command from her robe. The Gravitron Reactor started to cease, leaving a massive print in the Earth beneath it. Once that moment had finally passed, Rei took another chance. She rushed forward, tapping into the Deep once more to try and reach Delta. Her body ripped from the ground, sailing up towards the mechanical beast with the sword in front of her.

Delta and Yulia both took notice of their attacker. The Reactor came back to life, targeting her before she could finally strike. Her body had lost control. Every joint began to ignite before the weight of her body started to increase. Delta’s attack had thrown her to the ground, locking her in its grip. Pressure continued to mount. Rei could feel the urge to scream, but the attack only caused her to be pinned to the dirt.

“Squish her, full volume.” Yulia ordered before being cut off by a bright red light from inside.

The alarm inside of Delta’s cockpit had been triggered, causing her head to tilt. Following that, multiple images of the Mobile Carrier from behind the trees began to stream across the interior display.

“The Mobile Carrier’s Rail-Gun system has just been pointed at our position,” Delta calmly spoke, “unable to evade.”

“Tell them to correct their aim,” Yulia commanded, unfazed by the warning. The alarm continued to blare before the comms onboard had let out a large hiss. After the radio had connected to the Mobile Carrier, she ordered, “Mobile Carrier, correct your aim!”

There was a quick buzz followed by a Paxton’s heavy accent, softly saying, “You forgot to say please.”

A loud high-pitched screech followed the reply as the outside of Delta’s hull had been struck. A high velocity round from the Mobile Carrier had punched straight through his body, ignoring the intense forces being generated by the Gravitron Reactor. Below the ship, Rei could feel the gravity around her return to normal—her vision started to become clear. She leapt to her feet and looked back up towards the machine above her. A collection of noises from inside Delta’s body started to ring through the air as the Gravitron Reactor started to malfunction. Yulia felt her body jerk in the air only to be followed by intense pressure.

“Shut it off!” Yulia screamed as the forces started to push back in on her.

The inside of the reactor had been disrupted and in return amplified the gravity inside of the cockpit. She could feel her exoskeleton starting to cave in. Delta had already lost control and begun to force himself further up into the air. With the controls inside unresponsive and the pressure climbing, Yulia’s body had started to emanate a familiar red glow. The sudden burst from the power up may have been too much to handle, but she knew that the Gravitron Reactor would eventually crush her.

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Her right eye had shattered under the heavy gravity while her limbs started to compress. In the last second, she managed to gain enough control to deliver a forward thrust with her right arm. It had torn into the interior of the reactor below, completely causing all the power inside of Delta to shut off. She had finally been released from the pressure, giving her the ability to move again.

Just as fast as she could strike, she started to climb back towards the hatch that had since been released. It had started to become even more difficult to try and move with the amount of damage sustained. As Yulia climbed out, Delta continued spinning erratically and into the view of Judai’s rocket launcher. He had steadily tracked the monstrosity on the way up with Kismet and Rowan offering the needed assistance. The targeting system flashed green, establishing a clear lock on Delta’s hull, and firing one final shot up into the air.

The roar from the weapon caused Yulia to become alarmed. She snapped in the direction of the rocket as it started to trail towards her. Deflecting it would have been impossible, so she leapt forwards and away from the projectile, sailing in the open towards the village. Just after getting out of the way, the rocket struck Delta and caused the machine to become engulfed in the fire that followed. The force finally managed to bring the machine’s climbing to an end, causing it to slowly fall to the Earth below. As the blast cleared, Yulia had started her freefall. Below and in the arc of her descent, Rei had been preparing to deliver one final attack.

Finally, she had tapped into the Deep for all the strength she would need to finish the battle. With Yulia in her sights, Rei had jumped towards her. Her body continued to spin, constantly building momentum as she travelled up. The wind started to pull Yulia in, leaving her exposed to the follow-up attack. She was fully aware that she had made an error. All she could do now was brace herself as the spiral of black screamed towards her. Rei locked in with her sword and used every ounce of her strength to deliver the final slash.

Her body had spun so quickly that even Yulia was unable to process the final blow. The blade had very easily slashed through Yulia’s already battered exoskeleton, exposing her insides to the world. Her body had been completely split in two horizontally, causing yellow streaks of lightning to stream between the remains.

Rei continued off towards the ground, landing gracefully while the two machines above her erupted into a ball of fire. The blast struck the surrounding area, obliterating Delta and Yulia. Rei had lay out in the open, staring up at the flames as they started to scatter debris across the town. As she started to breathe easy, the sounds of war finally ceased.

She lifted her hand to her battle robe and gave it a nudge before softly muttering, “Thanks, papa.”

The ground all around had been peppered with lose piece of scraps, wood, and other assortments of the building that once stood. After the destruction came to a halt, she found herself alone again. It had started to remind her of the night her village was destroyed. That feeling of waking up alone to pure destruction was something that would haunt her—she did not want to live it again. She called out for somebody while moving through the wreckage and away from Delta’s body.

His massive body, even in pieces, had caused a small tremor to greet the area. Rei stumbled forward and peeked over her shoulder to see the wreckage. She turned away and immediately felt another explosion—Delta had gone up in another blaze. The final pieces of metal scattered across the ground, causing a trail of smoke to pillow up towards the sky. Its shockwave had knocked Rei back into the ground, covering her face with dirt. A few of the grains had gotten into her mouth, causing it to water up. She spit the muck back over onto the grass before taking a seat against a house nearby.

The small building had been battered from the explosion, but still barely managed to stand. Much of Nojiri had thankfully survived the battle along with most of the people who fled once the first shots were fired. Rei let her eyes rest after leaning back against the house. Her body had been pushed to the breaking point. While she started to try and catch her breath, the sound of footsteps started to approach her.

“Rei, you ok?” Tetsu called out to her.

He had appeared from behind a nearby pile of rubble with his arm around Rowan. The pair’s clothing had been in tatters, their bodies covered in grime and scratches from the fighting. Seeing the two put her mind at ease, only causing her to close her eyes and let out a long-winded sigh.

“You have no idea how glad I am to see you.” Rei replied with a soft crack in her voice.

“Oh really,” Rowan quickly jumped in. She smiled back at her before guiding Tetsu over to her. “I hope I’m not interrupting a teary reunion.”

Rei smiled and finally felt happy enough to laugh, but not witty enough for a joke of her own. The three finally gathered, sitting to watch the fire from Delta’s body continue to burn through the day. Tetsu lightly pressed his head against the wall behind him and tried to breathe easy as he observed the destruction.

“Sorry I couldn’t save the town.” Rowan said to him before reaching over to place her hand over his. The warmth made Tetsu’s heart jump, causing him to jerk his hand away from her.

“We saved it,” Tetsu said back, stuttering as his wounded shoulder started to light up once more. Not wanting to fight with the pain, he set his hand back on top of Rowan’s, lightly grasping it and continuing, “We saved most of it at least.”

With the fighting at an end, the forces of Liberation had been able to start to move back into the town with the other citizens. It was not sure how long it would be until the forces of the Global Eurasian Initiative were able to retaliate. Rei knew she had to keep training for that moment. Somewhere out there, Vic was still lying-in wait. Still eager to get back into the fight, she stood up and faced Tetsu.

“Are you ready to strike back?” Rei asked him.

Tetsu looked back up and lifted his hand to her, giving a quick nod. Rei grabbed hold before pulling him back up to his feet.

“I’m gonna have to do something about this.” Tetsu said after looking over the wound on his shoulder. It had been opened again during the fighting, causing some blood to trail down his arm.

“We can have Control fix that,” Rowan said once she finally stood to face them. She instinctively brushed the dirt from her jeans, causing a small bit to scatter on Tetsu and Rei. The two started to back away, causing Rowan to mutter, “sorry.”

There was a click from a rifle over Rei’s shoulder. Alarmed, she turned back to see a few of the Liberation troops sighted in on her with their weapons. She kept calm as more rifles had started to emerge around them. Within moments, they had been surrounded by the remaining forces. Rowan stepped ahead of the two and extended her arms out, covering them.

“No need for that,” Paxton shouted out from behind the troops. All at once, the men had started to turn their weapons to the ground. Paxton emerged from the ranks, still covered with dirt from the battle. He brought his hands together, causing a series of pops as he cracked his knuckles. “We got some figurin’ to do.”

Rei lifted her hand and placed it onto Rowan’s shoulder, slowly guiding her aside as she stepped forward to confront him. In her left hand, she held her weapon tight.

“My father said I needed to show this to you,” Rei said to him. She gave the weapon a quick flick with her wrist and spun it through the air. After safely catching it, she presented the handle to Paxton. “His name was Hideo-Jin-Ni, he was a member of Liberation.”

The revelation had only caused the men behind Paxton to light up with small talk. Paxton then reached out and retrieved the sword from her. His filled with intrigue after inspecting the etchings on the handle.

“This is something,” Paxton said before looking back to Rei. “Does the name Mizumi mean anything to you?”

“She was my mother, she passed away.” Rei said softly.

Her response brought a smile to Paxton’s face, prompting him to lift the handle back towards her.

“Do you know that your mother is still alive?”