Location: Terra Colony Andromeda
North Sector - Training Field Septa
Frontline Position
Time: 1105
January 31, 2050
[Is everyone in position?] Chisuke adjusted his earpiece while calling over the comm as silent as he could.
A series of green flashes in his HUD told him what he needed to know, Gen, Osamu, and the trainees were in position. Only he could see the quick flashes of light since the communications earpiece attached seamlessly to his skin, displaying a screenless HUD that wirelessly transmitted the incoming audible and visible data to his brain’s temporal lobe. It was a wonderful and miraculous piece of technology. He had heard that before the Starfall war, tactical HUDs weren’t a thing and had only recently become prevalent.
[Alright.] He said, relaxing the tension in his legs. He had been squatting in the shadow of a ridge, waiting for the moment to strike. He kept himself low and hidden, speaking his next words with care. [Final check commencing S1, I have eyes on targets. This is forward battlegroup Blade 1, reporting in.]
[Confirmed. Plan B is go.] S1 said. [Sound off everyone.]
[This is Battlegroup Spear 1, in position.]
[Spear 3 is ready.]
[Knife 2, set.]
[Sword 3, ready to roll.]
As Chisuke listened to the replies and affirmations, he double checked the condition of his own group. Positioned a few hundred meters away at his 3 o'clock, Gen and Osamu were prone in a dense thicket of foliage that had survived the latest artillery barrages. Next were the trainees, but before he glanced their way he looked over his shoulder. A small amount of rustling caught him off guard, he kept his hands ready. Possible contacts came to mind, a puppet construct, not stealthy but he had to make sure. Using HUD, he found it was only Mana fidgeting with her hands in the dark.
“You good?” He asked, holding in his annoyance at the false alarm.
Mana took a second, then nodded. “Yeah, just worried.. Think we can do this?”
“I don’t know.” Chisuke shrugged, letting his earlier heightened tensions die out. “But we won’t know until we try.” He paused and noted the hint of worry clouding Mana’s eyes. He turned his attention forward, then asked nonchalantly. “It’s Dahlia isn’t it? You’re worried about her again, like always.”
“Gee, how could you guess.” Mana’s sarcasm was biting, though it helped to cut the tension. Chisuke rubbed his shoulder, feeling the aches of his injuries run down him like a river.
“You should’ve let Dahlia heal you.” Mana said, obviously noticing his condition. “She could’ve gotten you in fighting form.”
The last of Chisuke’s pained grunts passed, growing softer as he exhaled. “Hmm.. We didn’t have the time.”
“We could’ve waited?” Mana suggested, “Dahlia might be slow with her healing, but she’s thorough. Why didn’t you let her?”
“Because the new orders came in quick.. And.” Chisuke looked as if he were reminiscing about the past. He began to mutter. “She’s still scarred.”
“She’s what?” Mana hadn’t heard. “Speak up.”
“It’s nothing.” Chisuke said curtly. “Anyway, I’m not blind, Dahlia isn’t comfortable with people, and it’s plain for me to see if you’re so worried about her. You two are close, overly so.”
Mana sighed. “Yeah, you have a point.” Her tone became a low derisive hiss. “I left her with everyone else, and I’m worried how they’ll treat her.”
“The guys in our group aren’t like that.” Chisuke said, trying to sound reassuring. “You don’t have to worry about a thing. She’ll be among good company.”
“I guess, but Dahlia might freak out.” Mana said, “She’s not used to people yet.”
“What are you? Her mom?” Chisuke smirked. “Because you sure act like a mother bird. You fit the bill, you got those wings on your back. Plus, I can see you helping to feed Dahlia if you grew a beak.” He got a punch in the shoulder for that. Mana would’ve probably sent him flying if she wasn’t taking this situation seriously.
“Man, you really are terrible.” Mana cracked a new smile, her furry ears flicking as if she were amused with herself. “It’s no wonder you haven’t gotten yourself a girl yet.”
“Don’t you start.” Chisuke huffed sharply as he edged forward, emerging little by little from the shadow of the ridge. “I get enough teasing from the two idiots. I can do with less of that for my mental health.”
“Fair point.” Mana agreed. “You don’t have that many brain cells as it is.”
That remark stung, but was true. Chisuke was a meathead, he fought better with his fists than with a pen or the might of his brain. He enjoyed the rush of combat, and to his luck, orders had come down from S1, an apparent Plan B was in effect, a very daring Plan B.
He had guessed that Plan A was the earlier artillery barrage on the enemy explorers. To know that it hadn’t worked, even after his group had fought tooth and nail to hold position and keep an enemy explorer in check, was disheartening. If not for how simple minded he was, he would’ve probably complained to S1. Except whining wasn’t something he’d do, or would ever want to do. It’d show weakness.
Mana tapped him on the shoulder. “So how’s the decoy doing? Not dead is he?”
“No, not dead yet. He’s lost an arm, but he might burn out if we don’t hurry up.”
Far off, they heard the sound of a booming howl run through the air, then saw the brilliance of a torrential fire redirected into the sky. Chisuke spied the beast human who had done it, wondering if their decoy could last any longer.
“You sound like you’re worried for him.” Mana said dryly. “Thought you’d enjoy seeing him get the pulp beaten out of him.”
Chisuke kept silent for a moment as he spied one of the three enemy explorers their decoy was fighting. It was a curvy woman, and the tips of her blonde hair shimmered in a rainbow of colors as she flung flying and homing bolts of energy. He tensed his jaw in anticipation, watching closely as their decoy weaved around each bolt, flipping or even tossing a rock to knock the blonde’s projectiles out of the air. 5 long seconds of booming combat passed and the decoy was surprisingly alive and kicking.
Chisuke untensed and said, “I did.. In the past.. But I grew out of it.”
Mana rolled her eyes. “Very mature of you.” She said, “Guess meatheads can grow too.”
“Okay, that’s enough.” Chisuke signaled her to keep quiet, this wasn’t the time for anymore banter, he could feel the imminent danger loon ahead. “Focus on reducing your core energy signature. I can still feel it. If we mess up, I’m blaming you.”
Mana gave a tired, “Roger that”, and closed her eyes. Chisuke noticed her presence meld with the air. If she wasn’t next to him then he would’ve thought she was a part of the shadows casted by the ridge. Doing the same himself, Chisuke kept his core energy presence in check and doubled down on his own focus.
Currently, everyone taking part in S1’s Plan B was masking the core energies they emitted. It was a good thing only upperclassmen were taking part, very few of the first years could maintain the calm and needed patience to mask their energies. Chisuke’s attention turned to the voices in his ear, there was S1, talking to someone as other voices reported in, person after person.
[Group Arrow 3, ready to strike.]
[Mortar 2 in position.]
[Mortar 4, Same here as well. Prepping air burst rounds. Ready to fire.]
This.. is taking forever.
Chisuke wanted to jump in and strike. He looked again at the ongoing battle only half a kilometer out. The landscape ahead had been cratered, either from all the fighting from the enemy explorers or the fallout of the earlier artillery barrage, that he and his group had barely gotten out by the skin of their teeth. Engaging his HUD and uplinking with the current battle data shared amongst the consort battlegroups of Division 8, 3 enemy tags pinged in his HUD and his system again identified them as enemy explorers. There was also one friendly marker, it was their decoy, Itsuki.
Focusing his vision like he was zooming in a camera, Chisuke’s eyesight sharpened as he honed it with his core energy, making it flow towards the back of his pupils. They dilated as a red tint spilled from the edges of his eyes like trailing eyelashes. The battle was becoming less one sided for the three enemy explorers, and he couldn’t blame them for not having the upper hand off the bat. They were handling a nightmare of an opponent, and outnumbering Itsuki wasn’t giving them the advantage they had likely initially thought going in.
It was shocking to witness a 3 on 1 in the favor of the 1. Itsuki was brutal, even more so than Chisuke himself. Yes, Chisuke knew he had the face of a killer and the demeanor of a berserker. But comparing the level of violence Chisuke could inflict, and his total combat experience, to what Itsuki had and could do was like comparing a puppy to an attack dog.
Even as Itsuki was on the ropes, he gave one hell of a fight with only one arm and all the bleeding cuts across his body. Chisuke wasn’t sure if he could keep standing after taking all that bleeding and dismembering. He watched on, awe inspired in a sick and bloody kind of way, as Itsuki threw himself undauntingly through hails of attacks, the countered, dogged, and then repeated.
The man, no, the beast didn’t stop. No matter how many projectiles came at him, he dodged in smooth movements as if he had practiced it over and over, or had already known the attack was coming. His own attacks came without mercy. A kick Itsuki threw out spun one of his three opponents around. She was dazed, and Chisuke recognized her.
It was Haruka, the explorer his group had fought and hadn’t even landed a clear hit on, not even with his entire group of 20. Now she was getting beaten when she outnumbered her opponent.
Chisuke’s thoughts drew the others, wondering if Amanda was okay. That girl seemed to rally the other first years, but she wasn’t there and he hoped the 7 trainees he had left them were babysitting them all well. Taking a peek at his 12 o’clock, he spotted the last 3 of the 10 trainees who were originally in his battlegroup. Positioned in a flanking and sniping position on one of the ridges that surrounded the ongoing fight, he now wondered if he should’ve left them with the first years as well. He hadn’t brought everyone since the first years looked too out of their element, and he was second guessing himself. The first years might have needed the extra trainees in a pinch.
He then believed he could’ve brought along Shisuki, Ikki, and Stella since they had potential, but he couldn’t take all the talent with him, he needed a few to stay behind and keep the other less adapting first years company.
This line of thought of his was a rare compassionate choice of action for him. Except, he didn’t think he deserved praise because, well.. They’d just get in the way. He thought, and recalled how not any of them could handle Haruka, not even Stella, who was statistically the strongest, being ranked A in her initial evaluations. He was sure of this because if he couldn’t land a hit, then she couldn’t, and he wasn’t going to bring a greenhorn, especially a prideful one like her.
Questioning if he himself, or Stella, was strong enough wasn’t the issue. The issue was that they didn’t have it. The stuff, the resolve, the grit, the fortitude, or whatever they were missing to make them full explorers. It was why he was still here in the academy, repeating a year for the second time. He hadn’t found it yet, and that was why he stayed, why any of the upperclassmen were still here. He was getting close though, and was farther along than anyone else. Chisuke didn’t know if Stella thought the same, but she’d get to it eventually, if not, she wasn’t up to par.
Because that was why we’re here, to find it, to be an explorer.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
[ATTENTION!] S1’s familiar voice boomed over the comms, he was serious, it was go time. [All Battlegroups have reported in. You’re all clear to begin Plan B. Divisions 1 through 7 will hold the flanks as long as they can as you move in. I’ll be monitoring your situation and supplying reactionary orders, I wish you luck out there. Over and out.]
Yeah.. Luck. Chisuke narrowed his eyes as a countdown began in the top corner of his HUD. He tightened his grip on his sheathed nodachi slung at his side. Luck was definitely going to play a part in these next few minutes. He knew it and he hoped Gen had a prediction for them.
It better be a good one. We could really use it, especially with all the shit we’ve been through today.
A sudden new ping rang in his ear. For a moment, Chisuke believed it was the go signal. To his disappointment it wasn’t, instead it was a read on a few approaching friendlies who were evidently not in the chain of command. He pulled up their status tags and frowned. Turning to Mana he signaled her with a hand, pointing and flicking his fingers towards their new arrivals.
“Looks like your baby bird has flown the coop.” He shook his head. “And so have a few of my own.”
Mana visibly tensed, the feathers of her wings bristling, she really cared for that girl. “Then what do we do?” She hissed, quietly angry. “I knew we should’ve brought them along.”
Chisuke reluctantly nodded. For a bunch of first years, they definitely had the spirit to be an explorer, no fear, and the resolve to move towards danger. He just hoped they didn’t get in the way, though the thought that he held some responsibility for this outcome weighed on him. He hadn’t taken the time to tell everyone what S1’s Plan B was, he just wanted to get to the fight.
Changing gears he pulled Gen and Osamu into their group comms line. This long distance connection risked being discovered, he guessed it’d be worth it, going with his gut rather than proper procedure.
[Slight change of plans, people.] He said, [Need to make a few tweaks before we go in.]
[What? Now?] Osamu asked incredulously. [We’re seconds away, and you wanna change the plan now? Are you insane?]
[Yeah, now shut it, Osamu.] Chisuke waved Mana over and said, [I’ll be taking point alone on this run. Mana’s going to provide support for our new guests and move them to safety. Gen, what’s you tell on the situation ahead?]
[No good.] Gen seemed to audibly groan. [There’s this weird itch on my back. Don’t know if it means anything, but it tells me things won’t go as we want it to.]
[Then we make it happen.] Chisuke signaled Mana to go, and she did, slinking off carefully as to not reveal their position.
Chisuke eyed the countdown when the timer had only 5 seconds left. Getting into a ready position, he was going to sprint this. When 2 seconds remained he let his core energy pour through him like an injection of nitrous fuel. A glow of red branching veins pulsed up and across his face.
When the timer hit zero, impact occurred. With the boom of mortar strikes as his starting signal, Chisuke dashed out from the shadow of the ridge and crossed 500 meters of obstacle riddled landscape to jump into the fight. Getting a leg up off a pile of golem remains, he drew his nodachi and channeled core energy into its blade just as the dust settled around his three targets. The mortar strikes had been dead on and were effective in staggering the three female enemy explorers.
“BLOOD SLICER!”
Cried out like a mad man, Chisuke swung his nodachi down, producing arching slashes of bloodily tinted attacks that whistled the air. They came down on the targets who were woefully taken by surprise. Sinder, Arielle, and Haruka were all still waving off the aftermath of the kicked up dust from their eyes and ringing in their ears.
Itsuki, having been signaled of the incoming mortar attack, had jumped back in time. With the area clear of friendlies, Chisuke’s blood slicer tore a swath across the already battered battlefield. The first scarlet slash drove into Sinder’s crossed armguard. She was forced to take a knee. Arielle and Haruka were able to deflect the bloody red slashes with barriers.
Haruka whipped her staff around and started to conjure a counterattack. Her attempts fell short as her attention needed to be drawn to Osamu, who had closed the distance in a purple flash that left her staggering as a trio of glinting kunai darted for her. Arielle put up a barrier around them in time. She fired back a ball of plasmic fire that cooked the ground in an iridescent flame of shimmering blue.
Osamu managed to evade with only a few burns as he banked around Arielle in a low sprint, giving her a wide berth. This gave Gen the distraction he needed to channel an attack of his own. Stepping from behind a line of rubble Arielle had unluckily not noticed, Gen drew his katana in his signature quick draw stance. For a moment, Haruka thought she heard the sounds of dice rolling as her large furry green ears perked up.
She had no time to ponder as her instincts alarmed her to the incoming, yet invisible danger. She hurriedly slammed the ground with her staff. Instantaneously, a craggy, thick, loose wall of dirt rose around her and Arielle. 12 booms rapidly echoed the air and the wall of dirt crumbled on the 10th ear shaking and sharp pounding echoes. The last two sent Haruka and Arielle flying, as if hit by some unknown force.
[Get Clear!] Itsuki shouted at the top of his lungs and everyone snapped to.
Chisuke jumped away, grabbing Itsuki by the waist on the way out. Osamu did the same with Gen, disappearing in a flash of lightning purple as a quick getaway.
“Damnit!” Sinder, recovering first, cursed and ran forward to give chase. “Let’s go, we can’t just let them..”
“Wait!” Arielle called out as quickly as she could, “I’m getting something on radar, multiple core energy signatures closing on our position.” She paled, realizing what was coming. “Oh no, barriers! Quick!”
In a frantic frenzy, Haruka grabbed Sinder and huddled with Arielle as they focused on mounting a hasty defense. As if recent history was repeating itself, a barrage from the heavens fell like the hammer of god.
S1’s Plan B, a contingent to Itsuki’s Plan A, had involved utilizing the remnants of Division 8’s upperclassmen. Nestled in spots a distance out from the epicenter of Itsuki’s engagement with the three remaining enemy explorers, battlegroups and trainee groups took position to lay down a surprise attack. It was a slap shot last ditch effort to pool whatever little firepower they had left. Students began to take to the front, confronting the trio of enemy explorers.
Arielle looked up in time to see S1’s plan come together. One by one, student IDs emerged on radar. By the count in her HUD, there were a hundred of them, and that wasn’t even counting the other few hundred who were probably taking the students rear guard. She guessed those were some CDU or CAU trainees. A burst of lights came in quick form the students, they were streams of energy bolts in a mix of colors as numerous as the highlights in her hair. They rained like hail and thunderously popped the air.
Mystics. Arielle thought, grimacing at the sheer enormity of the surprise attack. She felt like she had yet again fallen into one of Itsuki’s plans all along, it had his signature tell of overkill all over it. Horrified as she was, the glistening bolts of energy were dazzling and Arielle would’ve enjoyed watching them fire off if they hadn’t been aimed at her.
A sudden bout of mental stress pulled at them all. Haruka’s and Arielle’s barriers held, but the onset of severe fatigue hit them the hardest in the next passing minute. Sinder, not one to stay idle, and the most spunky of the three, stepped away as the barriers came down. As she was about to give chase, she was caught off guard as Itsuki barreled right at her. He flew through the air as if he had been flung by someone. Coming in hot, he closed lined her with his one good arm as he flew past.
Not one to take a hit lying on her back, Sinder rolled onto her stomach, got into a forward crouch, then jumped at Itsuki. The two of them traded blows. Itsuki came in with quick jabs, while Sinder made long and wide swipes at the air. Itsuki felt the heated woosh of her claws pass by his cheek within a hair’s breadth, off balanced he pulled up one leg and kicked out, landing a one then two and then a spinning third kick.
Sinder was pushed back, each kick landing where it knocked the most wind out of her, except without doing any real damage. Her aura was keeping Itsuki’s physical attacks from penetrating, she still had the upper hand.. For now.
Chisuke followed up and took to her flank, winding up a wide slash to her side.
Sinder howled a quickly formed ball of flame that caught Chisuke mid swing. He had to redirect himself. Making it in time, he dashed Sinder’s flame away with a swipe of his sword, but by then he had missed his chance.
Sinder had already moved out a range and focused her attention on Itsuki, driving him off with a howling flame for his trouble. She then blurred in Chisuke’s eyes, and the next thing he knew she was only a meter in front of him, lunging and reaching for his neck. Sinder held tight, and she flung him across the ground, skidding him like a rock on a pond’s surface.
As Sinder worked at them, Arielle and Haruka turned their attention to the approaching students. By how they carried close quarter weapons, they were core binders. Arielle clasped her hands and formed a spherical ball of sparking electricity. She tossed it directly up to the sky, and it bursted into blooming trails of spreading static bolts. They rained down into the students, bringing them staggering to their knees in uncontrolled convulsive shocks which knocked them out.
Haruka waved her staff, twirling it. The earth under the students moved in concert. The shifting took many of them off guard and they fell on one another, then were launched as the ground at their feet jutted up, flinging them as if they were light as paper.
Arielle threw Haruka a signal towards the horizon, noting their 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions. Using what she had observed from the student’s previous surprise attack, Arielle had located her new opponent’s key positions in her HUD. Rubbing her hands together, she clasped them flat and brought them to her lips. With a tender blow, she sent forth a flock of bird-shaped constructs that took to the sky like bright azure phoenixes.
Haruka, following her lead, re-ordered and reassigned her golem constructs in distant battlefields to sweep the area around them, then she took a rear position behind Arielle, getting work in creating more golems.
Itsuki grimaced. This wasn’t going well and the surprise attack hadn’t worked. Chisuke held Sinder’s attention as he caught a quick lay of the situation. Already, new golems were taking to the fray at Haruka’s command, and more were coming. He needed to stop her from reinforcing their numbers, more construct to deal with would spell a rout for the ever diminishing number of allies on his side. Pulling the silver pistol on his belt, he set his sights on Haruka, placing her head dead between his iron sights.
“Don’t even try it!” Arielle shouted, closing in and reaching out a static flickering palm.Too close for comfort, Itsuki clicked his tongue and flipped back, bringing up a counter kick to drive Arielle away. She sidestepped and went with her forward momentum to stay on him. Noticing his sluggish pace, she found an opening and a pause as Itsuki landed from his evasive maneuver.
Arielle launched a punch, aimed right at his temple. It connected with a zapping thump that blew Itsuki back, rolling him violently across on the ground. His head cracked and broke a jutting of rock, his vision began to blur. Through his failing consciousness he stayed as awake as he could, except his willpower was no longer enough. A heavy haze began to slow him as his body strengthening imbuements deactivated.
“Gotcha now!” Sinder shouted and kicked Chisuke away. She came blazing at Itsuki as he wobbled up on unsteady legs. With her claws at the ready and with an oddly cute smile to her lips, Sinder was going for the finisher. Itsuki pulled his arm up, and collected what core energy and focus he could spare for an emergency defensive aura.
Sinder’s claws thrusted through the air, she was going to impale him, then suddenly Chisuke dashed in between them. Taking Sinder’s claw to the gut, a shearing pain shot through Chisuke and so did a rich surge of new power. His eyes blazed a bloody bloodshot red as his Blood Fury was activated. With veins all over his right arm pulsating eerily, his free right hand’s fingers balled into a fist and slammed Sinder.
The shockwave produced was deafening, yet as powerful as Chisuke was, Sinder blocked it with her other free hand as if it were nothing. Sinder was faster and she obviously knew how to brawl better than him.
But Chisuke’s attempt wasn’t in vain, the blowback he created propelled him away and drew Sinder’s claws out of his gut. Flying into Itsuki, they crashed through debris and got some distance, though at the cost of barreling through hundreds of meters of distance into several mounds of rubble.
Sinder gave chase after realizing she had been duped. She was forced to stop in her tracks as squads of students emerged and barred her path, surrounding her on the left and right. She smirked and rolled her neck around, feeling the satisfying and relief fulfilling pops of her neck. Flames flickered in her palms and the ground began to roil red as beastly visages arose from ponds of lava, baring fangs full of molten spite.
They growled.
“H-hellhounds.” Said one of the students, his fear evident yet with a small blush on his cheeks as he couldn’t look away from Sinder’s sensual gaze.
[Sinder's Hellhounds]image [https://i.postimg.cc/Kvy9C9dD/3gx6m717.png]
“Alright..” Sinder sighed, “It’s time I let my pups have some fun.. And since you’ve all taken the time to entertain me, I’d be happy to entertain you.” She shot a wolfishly seductive smile, lips pursing up with a small lean in her ample and curvy posture. “Now? Which one of you can last the longest?”
They all gulped, both from a mix of fear of getting the shit kicked out of them, and awestruck by the tantalizing view of Sinder’s massive assets that compounded with her inviting words. Some of them were young adults who had the tact to keep their boyish emotions in check, while others were unchained youths who had a hard time not staring.
But in all, they all had a common thought. They swore they had never seen a pair of breasts that big before, and they all found that thought being the last thing they could consciously remember as a sudden heat swallowed them and then everything went black.
Chisuke coughed a mouthful of blood as he felt his back slam into the side of what he could tell was a jeep, the trade off for his stunt to get away was less than even. Putting a hand over his bleeding gut wound, he looked over to find Itsuki’s blood smeared and cut up visage. The guy was pulling himself up with the adjacent side of the wrecked jeep, obviously he was having a hard time standing.
“You good?” Chisuke asked through his blood-caked throat. “Because.. You look like shit.” Even while bleeding, people could have a sense of humor.
Itsuki grunted, though Chisuke doubted it was from pain, more like irritation. “I can say the same about you, Chisuke.”
“Says the guy with one arm.” Chisuke retorted with a rasped chuckle before his brain lapsed into a half conscious state. It was like the lights were dimming.
Itsuki gave a rare smirk, finding Chisuke funny but not laughing since he didn’t want to remind himself of the cracked ribs he had. He ambled toward Chisuke on shaking legs and pulled him up to his feet. Seeing as how they could be bantering with injuries like theirs, spoke volumes about their level of toughness and about the small amount of unlikely camaraderie they shared.
They watched as another barrage of energy bolts streamed down in the distance, on whom Itsuki assumed were Arielle, Sinder, and Haruka. He could tell from this far away that the density of attacks were less than before by counting the number of streaming lines and energy readings from his HUD. It was highly likely that the other nearby battlegroups were under threat from constructs. One by one, on his HUD’s map, the icons of battlegroup after battlegroup were going dark, confirming his suspicions. He hoped this barrage would be enough before their numbers were drained.
As the bombardment went on, Itsuki took note of someone’s approach. He looked over and found Mana. He thought he heard her gasp, anyone would at the state he and Chisuke were in, but it wasn’t Mana. It was the person behind her.