The long hours of constant strain had finally taken their toll, my body was starting to fail at the worst possible time.
The world felt like spinning just when the rebel army was about to launch their most critical all-out assault, I gritted my teeth as new waves of dizziness assaulted my senses. Overwhelmed, I almost collapsed to the ground but found myself being held up by Veritta. It was great to have a medical professional nearby.
‘Lady Syrine, you seem unwell, please take a rest.’ Veritta advised while helping me to stand.
‘No, Veritta. Not now, not when so many lives are on the line and the chance to end this is finally here.’ I replied with some difficulty, ‘I need to see this part through.’
‘Veritta, release me. After this, I will take a rest.’ I ordered and the sister reluctantly complied.
After steadying myself I dove back into the god’s point of view again and saw the full offensive coming, an impressive amount of vehicles and troops were moving towards our line. Further out, a huge bulk of our forces that were deployed further away earlier were now following Kryptorer’s directive and started coming around to encircle the whole rebel army.
This was the final phase of our grand trap. Now we just needed to kidnap their leaders and box them in. I watched intently as all three battle groups of the rebel army started moving forward, each battle group led by a Baneblade flanked by many battle tanks.
They had learned their lesson, this time their formation had teams of mixed infantry squads and fighting vehicles acting as forward elements while the tank cruised at combat speed right behind them. I even saw an Ogryn leading one of the infantry formations.
There was no avoiding mass casualties if we directly clashed with such solid formations. Meanwhile, smoke screen shells and tricks were running low on our side so it was time for my final light show and Operation Kidnapping.
The basic idea was simple enough: I would try to use my abilities to stun the whole rebel army by totally overwhelming their communication network plus distracting them with my halo light show. While that was being done, we would try to kidnap the Baneblades and cover our act with the last supplies of our smoke screens.
I had always got a soft spot for giant tanks and Kryptorer had a deep respect for venerable war machines. So it was a no-brainer for us to cook up an elaborate plot during last night’s lengthy discussions to try getting the Baneblades over intact. As a bonus, it also had the potential to sever the rebels’ leadership since all their battle group leaders were using Baneblades as mobile command centres. Due to the ritual, this part had instead become the do or die crucial point of the entire battle.
We had the planning done in detail, however what we did not anticipate was the condition I was in when the crucial moment approached. My body was still shivering when Kryptorer dropped his update again.
…
Tottering between staying awake and fainting, I was conserving my strength while waiting. After an indeterminable amount of time had passed Kryptorer finally dropped the greenlight.
Time to go, I solidified my focus and activated thought acceleration as a massive amount of command pulse burst off from me into the battlefield.
I took over all the vox networks.
Next, I got ready for the final light show. Turning selfie mode on the skull probe, I relayed my visual and audio to all Nuntius Hailer and Imagifier flyers. Eww, this never failed to cringe me up but it was necessary.
Finally, I sent directives to the machine spirits of all three Baneblades, overriding their operators, and ordered the super-heavy tanks to immediately go to their designated spots on the battlefield at maximum speed while shutting down their targeting support systems.
By then, I felt so weak and had nothing prepared to say for this final act. In the back of my mind, I was thinking maybe just go in, spam my halo while scolding the rebels a bit. As I was lost in thoughts the data load reached me and it was so straining my vision became blurred, I realised this might actually be too much for me and panicked.
Oh… this is bad, I felt like slowly being crushed by the very air around me as the data streams started to look so distant away, nothing but thunderous thuds of heartbeats in my ears. Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump…
Too fast, how was it that my heartbeat sounded so incredibly fast? Oh right... I have two hearts. Throne, I need five more minutes.
My mind was collapsing, I felt myself clutching at straws to maintain my synapses. But we are so close. Another wave of nausea hit me like a truck, sending me dangerously close to fainting. In desperation I bit down on my lower lip, using the sensation to fortify what was left of my concentration.
Veritta was shouting something nearby but no meaning came through. My perception of time had become haywire as thought acceleration became unstable and reality started slipping away from me.
Five minutes!
I need to just stay awake for five more minutes. What else is five minutes long? A walk? Wait, I can't leave the podium. A song? Where can I… hold on, there is one here in my pendant and its playtime is exactly five minutes.
Working with the last ounce of strength in my coherent mind, I managed to squeeze out a command pulse.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
……
…
A familiar melody started playing in my head, slowly and softly at first but before I knew it, the song got louder and louder until it resonated throughout my warped sensory perception.
~ It’s only love ~
~ It’s only love ~
My last bit of consciousness was clinging to the rhythm of the song like a desperate drowning sailor holding onto a piece of floating wood in a raging ocean.
Lend me your strength, Sensei Utada. That was my last thought before my consciousness finally shattered and my very existence became the song itself.
* * *
‘Lady Syrine! Lady Syrine!’ Veritta and Welminah were trying their best but received no response, Syrine’s eyes remained shut and she stood as still as a statue on the gigantic podium.
‘This… this is not good! Is it even medically possible for her to remain standing while fainted?’ Welminah asked her companion frantically but Veritta was way ahead, voxing to the support team nearby to prepare for a medical emergency and Kira had headed out to guide the support team over.
Veritta had just requested further assistance on asking for a levitating stretcher when suddenly a golden halo much larger and brighter than the one they had witnessed manifested on Syrine.
As the podium became covered in holy radiance, both sisters found themselves kneeling down reflexively and they watched in awe as the feeling of power emanating from their Holy Daughter continued to climb. While Syrine had remained motionless, her halo steadily became brighter and brighter until it felt like a miniature sun.
‘My Lady…?’ Welminah asked but still received no response. Just as the sisters thought the events unfolding before them were unusual enough, to their utter bewilderment every device with a speaker within their vicinity suddenly came alive playing a strange instrumental music and Syrine started singing in her trance-like state.
On the battlefield just moments earlier, the final assault of the rebels forces came face to face with an eerie sight. Their enemies were where they should be in the distance, but on top of the defensive line were squadrons of hovering Nuntius Imagifier flyers with huge holograms underneath them displaying the portrait of a regal lady with her eyes closed.
Undeterred by the odd formation awaiting them, the rebel army pressed forward, determined to finally have an honest fight with their enemy and were eager to redeem themselves for all their failings today.
Then the strange sight got stranger still as a blinding halo with a peculiar quality manifested on the huge holograms of the lady, with that an overwhelming presence was felt across the battlefield and an unspoken message delivered: Stand down, your sovereign is here.
The strange sight was extremely intimidating to the lesser willed individuals while compelling subservience to those people with a stronger sense of faith. While their mileage may vary, the result was ultimately the same, most rebel troopers stopped marching forwards and many even knelt down. Even seasoned tank commanders were unconsciously putting their war machines to a halt at the sight of it.
Then the armies watched in disbelief as the lady in the giant hologram started to sing. A strange but pleasant melody started to play across the battlefield. It dominated all the channels on the long-range vox, it took over the short-range vox, it blared in the confines of combat vehicles and it resonated in the sky with all the Nuntius Hailers broadcasting the song from high up.
~ It's only love ~
~ It's only love ~
~ Moshimo negai hitotsu dake, kanau nara ~ the song went on and on, singing in a language no one understood but sounded strangely nostalgic.
Close to a million souls watched and listened in stunned silence as what could only be described as the largest open-air solo performance ever happened right before them during a war.
~ Beautiful world, beautiful boy ~
Meanwhile, back at the podium of wires, Veritta and Welminah were freaking out as Syrine continued to sing her otherworldly song.
‘What is going on? Why is she singing and what language is that?!’ It was Veritta’s turn to ask questions as she pestered the scholar about the unfathomable sight before them.
‘This sounds like… ancient Terran? But it seemed mixed, I… I don’t really know!’ Welminah was totally flustered and could not make any sense of what was going on, little did she know at that exact moment the same song was permeating on the whole battlefield.
Back on the battlefield, The lady in the holograms continued to sing with her eyes closed. She was gently swaying to the rhythm of her song, her voice soothing and the sight of her radiant halo had a pacifying effect, making people instinctively lower their weapons.
People on both sides of the battlefield had their eyes glued to the unusual event while those further away from the spectacular sight were mesmerised by the unusual song echoing everywhere. Soon, no one was fighting but the battle formations had already been locked in motion so the encirclement of the rebel army continued.
During the brief surreal period when the song lasted, only a small portion of the rebel forces were aware that their Baneblades had suddenly broken ranks from their respective battle groups. They watched in awe as the super-heavy tanks charged at full cruising speed straight into the enemy lines under the cover of suspiciously well-timed smoke screens, leaving their confused comrades behind with little way to notify the rest of the army on what was going on.
Meanwhile, inside the Indomitable Fury, Lord General Luthor was experiencing a world of trouble. Moments ago, his Baneblade was suddenly moving on its own accord and had been pushing forward with maximum speed towards the enemy while his contact with the outside world was totally cut off as the strange song had taken over all the vox network.
‘Unable to contact anyone! It is… all the same song on all the channels!’ The communication officer lamented. ‘I have no control!’ The driver could be heard yelling as the Indomitable Fury continued moving forward.
‘My Lord, the main turret is turning one-eighty by itself! At this rate, we won’t even have the main gun to protect ourselves!’ Another crew member yelled.
After watching the ridiculous events unfolding for a while, Luthor snapped back to his senses and quickly went to the engine room himself. The lord general was looking for the Mechanicus enginseer who was dedicated to the service of Indomitable Fury, if there was anyone who could bring back the control of his tank, it would be one of the cogs.
‘Zelton!’ Luthor bellowed. Receiving no response, he went into the depths of the engine room. ‘Enginseer Zelton! Where are you?’ Down in the engine room, it was cramped, dark and noisy as hell. The lord general himself seldom ventured down here and most crew members were only too happy to leave it as the enginseer’s sole domain.
It took a while for Luthor’s eyes to adjust for the dimly lit space. For a moment the lord general was convinced his enginseer had somehow disappeared until he saw a robbed figure hunched at the very corner of the engine room, the tech adept seemed transfixed on something in front of him.
‘Zelton! Throne damn it, why won’t you respond?!’ Luthor crouched over and grabbed the enginseer by his shoulder, it was only then the enginseer seemed to realise he was not alone.
‘My… my lord.’ Zelton stammered.
‘My crew has lost control of the Indomitable Fury! What is going on with my tank?! Are we being hijacked?’ Luthor demanded.
‘Hijack?’ The enginseer answered dreamily until a hint of realisation appeared on the still human-looking part of his face and he quickly refuted the lord general.
‘No, my lord, nothing like that.’ Zelton replied confidently, his voice was so calm in this apparent crisis it was surprising even to the lord general and he demanded, ‘what do you mean? The tank is heading towards the enemy line without control even as we speak. Get it back to our control now!’
‘I… can’t. Do you see this, my lord?’ Zelton pointed to a small glowing screen in front of him, Luthor took a peek and saw nothing comprehensible to him. ‘I see it, but nothing makes sense to me. Explain plainly and quickly!’
Zelton nodded and continued, ‘I have never seen anything like it myself before, but this… this appears to be a genuine administrative level command coming from the outside.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Meaning a higher authority is here, my lord. Someone very close to the source of Omnissiah is on this planet and that person is currently giving commands to the Indomitable Fury. As children and disciples of the machine god, we must obey.’
Luthor froze.
‘So you see, the Indomitable Fury is not being hijacked, it is merely obeying orders from a higher authority, like children obeying their parents, soldiers obeying their general or space marines obeying the Emperor.’
The lord general opened his mouth but no words came out.
‘Now if you will excuse me, I need to attend to my duties.’ Zelton finished his explanation, he then turned towards the engine, knelt down and started kowtowing to it while chanting, ‘Oh Great Omnissiah, I hear and obey thy command…’
For a moment, Luthor considered shooting the enginseer but in the end decided against it. The lord general reasoned Zelton’s service will still be needed in the future after he wins the war. For now, he just needed to salvage the situation.
Back at the podium of wires, the song was finally over. Syrine immediately shut down and collapsed to the ground, sending both Veritta and Welminah into utter panic.