Two terranean mobile weapons JS-06, designation ‘Voras’. How will you proceed, Kingfisher?
Before Zelen could answer, Spindrift’s unflappable voice came back on the radio, “How do you feel about taking on one Voras unit on your own?”
Zelen needed but a millisecond’s delay before all but snarling his answer, “I’d love nothing more!”
“Acknowledged. Follow close on my six. Watch for my diversionary manoeuvre, then move in on the Voras that splits off to the right.”
Spindrift thrust forward at maximum velocity, and Zelen hastened to follow. And already, the Reiters were confronted by an enemy that had evolved since their last encounter.
Even before the leading Reiter came within range of their jumping attacks, the Voras units began firing at him from multiple guns mounted on the back of their central chassis. This was a new addition to their morphology, hitherto unobserved in battle or scouting missions.
Spindrift never slowed nor deviated from his trajectory, opting instead to defend himself with a charge of LS [AEGIS]. A sphere of pale blue energy sprung up all around the Eidolon, which would mitigate incoming damage for the next three seconds (though at the cost of a long cooldown).
Akropolis’s killingest Reiter didn’t need three seconds, however. Spindrift erased the distance on his enemies in the blink of an eye, and as the craggy rocks rushed to meet him, he simultaneously deployed RA [MJOLNIR].
With another burst of blue energy, the crimson Eidolon’s right arm transformed into a giant hammer. This Spindrift brought down with thunderous force, causing the Vorases to abandon their ranged attacks and scurry out of the way.
The hammer landed upon the rocks, and immediately set off a secondary shockwave. Both Vorases were caught within the blast radius, and just as Spindrift had predicted, flew off in two opposite directions.
Zelen weaved through the flying debris to track the Voras to his right side. As he did, he engaged his own armaments, starting with double [GATLINGS].
What he told Spindrift hadn’t been a lie. For three months now, he’d waited for this moment—the moment to prove to himself that he was no longer the same greenhorn that had failed miserably on his first encounter with a Voras.
He’d since spent countless hours visualizing this very fight in his head. He would’ve spent countless more practicing the fight too, if it weren’t for the long lag between the identification of a new enemy unit and their being replicated within the simulation system.
Regardless, Zelen’s all but pathological obsession with the Voras had crystallized into this moment of serenity. It wasn’t characterized by courage nor even an absence of fear. Rather, it was defined by a singular focus that overwrote every extraneous impulse that didn’t drive him toward the destruction of his enemy.
He kept up a steady barrage with [GATLINGS], taking care to stagger the load between both arms so that at least one was always active. But these [GATLINGS] weren’t intended for the kill move. The Voras was much too fast for them. Even now, it scurried and jerked out of the way of the bullets with agile precision.
Indeed, if Zelen had known for sure he’d be fighting a Voras on this mission, he would’ve sortied with a much different (and more specialized) loadout. Yet on all of his most recent missions, perhaps against his better judgment, he came equipped with one armament he’d deemed to be his best tool for finishing off a Voras—the ace up his sleeve. So, it was just a matter of setting up the enemy for a sequence he’d visualized countless times in his head.
At first, the Voras stayed at range, continuing to dodge [GATLINGS] while answering with its own salvo from back-mounted guns. Zelen didn’t care much about the Voras’s ranged attacks. They were far less damaging than the main threat—the Voras’s blades—and easy enough to dodge or block with LS [SCUTUM].
He’d even shut his mind off to the frequent messages that streamed in from Silon, no doubt updating him on his AU and ER reserves, as well as what was happening with the other battle. For at least these brief minutes, his entire world had condensed into the space between the frame of his Eidolon and the pointy ends of the Voras’s frontmost limbs.
This space too eventually shrank, as it had to. The Syntropy were as capable as humans of learning over the course of battle, and this Voras was no exception. Sensing that its only chance at a breakthrough was to set up its own kill move, it began to inch toward melee range, drawing closer and closer to its opponent with every jerking movement.
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Zelen was well aware that the Voras’s ‘melee’ range was different to his. He’d studied and visualized the range of a Voras’s jumping attack with painstaking precision, and as the space between them approached this magic number, he put out a sustained burst from both [GATLINGS], aiming behind the Voras in order to herd it toward himself. Then the two [GATLINGS], hitherto so carefully managed, both went into cooldown at the same time.
Having taken its cue, the Voras then transitioned into its kill move. Little did it know that its opponent had been the one to set it up.
For its opponent had fired off RS [HARPOON] at the exact moment all eight of the Voras’s limbs left the ground—the moment when it would have no way to course-correct. Zelen’s own ‘ranged’ melee attack burst forth in the form of a spiralling blue spear, which then buried itself in the Syntropy’s central chassis, before pinning it against the earth it’d just leapt from.
Even then, Zelen refused to leave anything up to chance. He rushed forward, thrusting at max power. Standing over the Voras’s limp body, he pointed both [GATLINGS] into its core, but the bullets didn’t materialize. All of his weapons were still on cooldown.
Then and only then did Silon’s voice trickle through the red mist that had pervaded Zelen’s consciousness.
—unit eliminated. AU at 65%, ER at 40.
The [GATLINGS] fired then, causing the Voras’s carcass to bounce and flop. Zelen forced—with great difficulty—his grips on the triggers to relax.
ER at 35% now, Kingfisher. I’m required to point out that was needless expenditure of resources.
Zelen didn’t respond. Wasn’t ready to respond. Gradually, his world expanded again, and he saw more than the Syntropy that lay dead at his feet.
He noticed—and was alarmed by—the elevated rate and volume of his respiration. His muscles ached from strains and impacts he’d been numb to in the heat of battle. And his mind—his mind was a frayed mess of anger, exultation, and suppressed fear.
ER still decreasing at a steady rate. 32% now. Kingfisher, you must stabilize your Psyche, or you risk shutdown before our next resupply.
His Spiegel’s words only worsened his panic. His breathing quickened some more, and his heart thumped so hard against its mortal cage that chest pain joined his list of physical ailments. Something in the unseen depth of his mind flailed and clawed for the relaxation exercises he’d been taught in proto-Reiter school, but this was only met by an oppressive blankness.
28%. 26. Still falling. Kingfisher, you must get a hold of yourself!
That was when a firm yet oddly gentle force spun the whole Eidolon around.
Zelen’s vision shifted from that of the dead Voras and onto the SPU of a second Eidolon. Spindrift’s optic modules glistened from within his crimson frame. These ‘eyes’ appeared to stare into Zelen as an even-keeled voice broke through the radio.
“Repeat after me. The Meridians are the branches upon which Life blooms.”
“Wh—what?”
“That’s an order, Lieutenant. I say again. The Meridians are the branches upon which Life blooms.”
“The Meri—the Meridians are the branches… upon which Life blooms.”
The pain in his chest subsided, or hadn’t been bad enough to begin with. It certainly wasn’t bad enough to be worth his notice, not when he had Spindrift’s direct orders to comply with.
“The Lungs are the windows through which Spirit soars.”
“The Lungs… are the windows through which Spirit soars.”
He had to get these words out, and that meant he had to slow his breathing. It was only natural.
“From rivers of Blood flow the Body’s nourishment.”
“From rivers of Blood flow the Body’s nourishment.”
The aches were still there, but they were no longer accompanied by fresh injections of fear. The aches will always be there, but they were the marks of a proud survivor.
“Within vaults of Bone rest the Mind’s secrets.”
“Within vaults of Bone rest the Mind’s secrets.”
What did he have to worry about? What did he have to fear? The fight was over. The fight was won. And that meant—
“And thus, the Warrior stands tall where his Enemies lie.”
“And thus, the Warrior stands tall… where his Enemies lie.”
Zelen looked back at Spindrift through the vision shown him by his own Eidolon’s SPU. Here, encased within metallic giants, the two men were equally tall—and equally victorious.
ER has stabilized at 25%. Well done, Kingfisher. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
A part of him wanted to answer his Spiegel. To tell her that it wasn’t her fault. But the far larger impulse was to stay present. To avail himself to the superior officer, the leader, the fellow warrior that had pulled him away from the brink of Psychic collapse.
“Thank you, sir,” he spoke into the radio in a voice that still trembled slightly. “I… don’t know what came over me.”
“I do,” Spindrift said, as calm as Zelen was shaken. “You saw victory as an end rather than a means. You gave yourself to the fight rather than the war. It’s a lesson all young Reiters have to learn at some point. Be sure you never forget it.”
With that, Spindrift spun and walked in the direction of the white dot on the radar. The next time his voice came back on the waves, he’d once again taken on the snappy cadence of a team leader.
“This is Spindrift, retrieving Objective Bravo now. Kingfisher, you’re back on Objective Alpha. Once both pods are secure, we’ll return to base for a resupply.”
“Acknowledged.”
As Zelen went to work, however, his vision fell upon a second Syntropic carcass in the distance—the one his team leader had fought. And he realized there was something he needed to know, something he hadn’t—couldn’t have—attuned to in the throes of his erstwhile bloodlust.
“Silon? Did you manage to note how long it took Spindrift to kill the Voras?”
Yes, Kingfisher. About 40 seconds by my count.
“What about my kill?”
2 minutes and 35 seconds, Kingfisher.
“And… for those extra two minutes, Spindrift just… watched me fight?”
Yes, Kingfisher.
Zelen nodded, oddly satisfied with the answer. And for the first time, he thought he’d begun to understand the man that was Makiri Shiranui.