We burst onto the runway, the night air whipping past us as the mech hurtled towards the open expanse.
With a deafening roar, we catapulted onto the runway, my drone body jolting with the force of the takeoff. My heart raced as I felt weightless for a split second, before gravity slammed me back into my seat. Adrenaline surged through my veins as we soared through the air, leaving chaos and danger behind in the abandoned hangar.
The helicopter's searchlights blazed down on us, illuminating our path as we careened wildly towards, then past the extraction point like a bullet. In that moment, everything moved in slow motion, every detail etched into my mind as I frantically pathed our trajectory.
Shit! We're heading straight towards the river!
Just when it seemed like we would crash straight into the nearby river, the mech’s shields bounced off the runway with a screeching skid, tearing chunks out of the pavement. We were so close to safety, yet still so far. But there was no time for hesitation as I briefly took advantage of the momentary friction to flip some levers.
Swearing under my breath, I tightened my grip on the controls and strained with all my might. The mech plummeted into a steep dive, the side thrusters sputtering in protest as I used them to rapidly shift its momentum.
In a split second decision, I spun the mech in a circle, activating the rollerboosters to redirect my momentum towards a hapless, innocent-looking 18-wheeler truck by the pier. I briefly noted nearly a dozen sweeping lights across the runway point toward me, almost as if in confusion and disbelief as I crashed into the truck. I barely registered a squadron of olive-green mechs racing down the runway as I slammed the mech’s arms into the truck out of desperation.
My heart raced as the truck instantly began to tilt over as it was launched back, threatening to take us down with it into the river. With adrenaline-fueled agility, I kicked off the tilting mass at an angle, firing off its boosters for some extra push.
"Fuck!" I yelled as I launched the mech off the tilting vehicle, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic crash. But there was no time to rest as I overshot the boosters, rocketing down the runway at a breakneck speed in a careening spin.
Trees and shrubbery whipped past us as we crashed through them, my fingers desperately trying to regain control of the flailing. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I fought for survival, knowing that any wrong move could spell disaster.
The ground rushed up to meet us, the mech crashing down a hill and through trees and shrubbery as I fought to regain control.
Rai-chan's voice crackled in my ear, her words urgent and calming. "Ikki, brace for impact! Deploy the emergency crash systems! Hit the buttons I’m highlighting!" she shouted, her voice cutting through the chaos.
I didn’t hesitate for a second. I immediately yanked a lever she highlighted, feeling the jolt as the mech's stabilizers engaged just in time. The ground rushed up to meet us, but with a deafening crash as the hexagonal, green shields wrapped around us in a blanket. The mech skidded to a halt, sending up a cloud of dirt and debris. My vision spun as the impact reverberated through the cockpit, but somehow, we had made it out in one piece.
I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding as I surveyed the toppled trees around us. The hangar was far behind us now, illuminated by flashes of chaos energy as the monsters continued their pursuit. Suddenly, a deafening roar echoed through the forest, sending shivers down my spine.
No, it wasn’t a monster’s roar.
It was…. gunfire? Explosions? My heart pounded in my chest as I quickly checked the mech's systems, making sure everything was still functioning despite the rough landing.
The extraction team's helicopter hovered above, its pilot shouting something over the radio, but I couldn't make out the words just regaining my bearings.
"E….everyone okay?" I shouted over the intercom, hoping desperately that Sunflower, Jeff, and Mila were okay in the transport compartment.
No response came immediately, leaving me in a suspended moment of anxiety. If I’d hurt or killed my passengers through my reckless piloting, I’d never be able to forgive myself.
Then, a surly, distorted voice crackled over the comms, filled with relief and a touch of annoyance. "Well… that was a fun ride, kid. Remind me never to let you drive again. Seems like your piloting had an interesting effect on Jeff here, too."
A chorus of groans, indignant protests, and grumbles followed her remark, reassuring me that everyone was alive and relatively unharmed despite the crash landing.
I let out a shaky laugh, the tension slowly draining from my mind at the sound of her voice. "Glad to hear you're in one piece, Mila."
"Barely. What a ride, huh?" Sunflower's voice interjected, her tone a mix of exhilaration and disbelief. She paused for a second, giggling at something, before continuing, "Shame about those trousers."
Before I could reply, my screen flashed with an icon alert from Rai-chan, indicating a message from the helicopter on my heads-up display.
Gunfire erupted in the distance, and I instinctively tensed up. My radar showed six green blips moving rapidly into a semi-circle formation around the hangar exit we had just left. Then, a voice spoke through my comms, tense and crackling.
"This is Warrant Officer Li Tenoch, requesting immediate status update on Fort Hiawatha. Please identify yourselves and confirm the situation. Over."
Three more Aeolus class mechs came barreling down the runway towards our position. They showed up as blips on my radar as they drew closer.
"Let me handle this, Ikki," Rai-chan chimed in my mind.
I gazed in amazement as Rai-chan materialized a remarkably lifelike image of her human avatar on our screens. Her eyes glimmered with intelligence, and her expression exuded calmness and authority.
"This is Operative Raiko, representing a Support Ops cell from St. Antonia's Academy," she began, her tone firm and unwavering despite the dire circumstances.
"Wha?! How did you show up on my-"
"Nevermind that. Fort Hiawatha has been overrun, Warrant Officer," Rai-chan continued without skipping a beat. "Your Captain Ouyang is still inside, engaged with the horde and Novel Aberrant to buy us time for extraction. We have three survivors in the transport compartment, and we request immediate evac for all personnel apart from our operative deployed in a proxy drone. The Aeolus unit we have commanded is still fully operational. Please advise."
Tenoch hesitated for a moment before responding, his voice tense with urgency. "Ahem. Copy that, Support Ops. Stand by for immediate extraction. We'll provide additional cover fire for your approach to the helipad. Hold tight, we're on our way."
"One more thing," Rai-chan continued. "After our rendezvous, our operative will require an escort to the anomaly located seven yins northwest of the outpost, where we believe this Chaos Event is centered. We suspect there is a high-level Novel Aberrant responsible for the anomaly in the sky, and have deployed instruments to investigate it further. Can you confirm that this request can be facilitated?"
There was a moment of silence before Tenoch's voice crackled back through the comms. "Your request has been noted, Operative Raiko. Under the Corinthian Accords, all Support Operatives and their missions are granted the highest priority. We'll prepare for an escort. Please make an attempt to return to the runway and prepare for immediate extraction."
Rai-chan's avatar nodded in acknowledgment before disappearing from the communication screens, leaving me staring at the blinking and haunting lights in the distance. The other three mechs from Captain Ouyang's team had arrived and were less than six Terran yards away on the mech's screen.
"We need to move, Ikki." Rai-chan's urgent voice brought me back to reality. "We don't have much time."
"Got it," I muttered. "So… should I call you Raiko now?"
"Still Rai-chan for you, buster. But let's get moving before those mechs catch up with us."
Drawing on a mental second wind, I pulled on the cables and carefully maneuvered the mech through the debris until it stood upright again. Despite the damage it had sustained during the crash landing, the mech's systems seemed no worse for wear. The rough terrain seemed to pose no challenge now as the mech moved smoothly, its metal joints working seamlessly as it climbed up the slope I had just tumbled down.
Three large mechs, their metal frames glinting in the sunlight, formed a protective barrier around me as we returned to the helipad. My HUD suddenly flickered and beeped as one of the mechs hailed me.
"Hey there. That was some badass flying back there," the pilot's voice echoed through my comms. "Where'd you learn to pilot like that?"
His tone was confident and bordering on cocky. I could tell he was young, probably not much older than me.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"T-thanks for having my back," I replied, trying to sound grateful while suppressing my nerves. "And uh, let's just say this is my second time."
"Second time?" the pilot chuckled, the sound crackling through the comms. "Damn, you're a natural then! Most rookies would've been scrap metal with half the shit you just pulled down that runway."
"Well, let's just say I had a good teacher," I replied.
Rai-chan's digital avatar flashed a cheeky grin on the screen beside me, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
"You got a callsign we can use? Calling you the 'Support Op' sounds kind of lame, you know. I'm Coyote. On your left by the way," the pilot commented idly as we quickly made our way to the helipad.
"Uh, callsign?" I repeated, caught off guard.
I quickly racked my brain for something fitting. My mind raced to come up with a cool callsign, something that would make me stand out and fit in with the team of hardened soldiers. A wave of adrenaline washed over me as I thought of all the possibilities. Something that wasn't too over the top. But still something daring, dangerous, and completely badass that would strike fear into the hearts of my enemies.
Even if those enemies were interdimensional monsters straight out of a horror movie.
"Sparky. Call him Sparky," Rai-chan suddenly blurted out over the comms as her avatar reappeared on my screen. She wore a smug grin that was eerily similar to the ones my little sister Izumi always gave me when she was up to no good, and her voice had a light, mischievous lilt to it.
There was a moment of silence on the comms before Coyote burst out laughing. "Seriously? Sparky?" he chuckled, the sound echoing in my cockpit.
Rai-chan gave me a knowing look, her eyes sparkling with amusement. I couldn't help but shoot her a glare through the drone's helmet, feeling a mixture of embarrassment and humor at her chosen nickname for me. It was too late to object - I knew Rai-chan had sealed my fate as "Sparky" with that suggestion.
With a resigned sigh, I decided to roll with it. "Yeah, Sparky it is then, I guess," I replied, a small smile tugging at the corner of my lips despite my best efforts to stay serious.
Rai-chan's laughter chimed through the comms, the sound quelling my nerves.
"Man, that's a new one I'll tell you that. Say, how'd you guys get that… screenshare trick through that storm, anyway? We've had outages every five fucking minutes out heresince this Chaos Event hit," Coyote asked as we picked up speed up the runway.
"We've got some prototype tech here from Doctor Feynman herself that helps us maintain communication in adverse high-entropy conditions," Rai-chan fibbed smoothly, keeping her tone confident. "It's creating one hell of a power bill, though. I don't know if it'll keep me in contact with Sparky here during the heat of battle, but it's holding up for now."
Coyote let out a low whistle. "Doctor Feynman, huh? Lady's a legend. Got to see her once as part of her guard detail. Brilliant mind, kind of weird vibes, but hey, geniuses, right?"
I nodded along as I focused on guiding the mech toward the waiting helicopter as briskly as I could while maintaining formation. The storm raged around us, the energy crackling in the air and distorting reality.
I quickly checked in on my three passengers through a camera toggle, making sure they were secure and all unharmed. The helicopter blades whipped the air into a frenzy, adding to the cacophony of the battle raging around us.
"Jeff, Sunflower, Mila. Just checking in again, are all of you okay? We’re almost in the clear. Get ready to hop offf," I called out through the mech's speakers.
Jeff was pale and shaking, his eyes wide with fear. "That... that was the most terrifying ride of my life," he muttered, clutching his chest.
Sunflower patted him on his back. "You'll be fine, Jeff. Just breathe," she said, her voice surprisingly calm despite the situation.
Our mech skidded to a halt near the waiting helicopter, the harsh wind whipping past as the blades whirred loudly above. I activated the transport compartment's release mechanism, and the hatch opened with a series of clicks and hisses as I set the mech to kneel down.
I glanced off to the side at a formation of mechs, firing their shoulder cannons into the hangar in rhythmic, coordinated salvos. I tensed up as I saw a wave of beowulves pouring out from an open portal's gaping maw, their hisses and roars echoing through the runway.
Six mechs, gleaming with an ominous, metallic sheen, formed a protective perimeter around the hangar. Their movements were precise, almost dance-like, as they battled the beowulves and the shambling zombies. The air crackled with gunfire and the screech of tearing metal. Their shoulder and arm cannons fired in rhythmic salvos, lighting up the darkness with explosions of blue and red energy and whatever personal weapons their units were outfitted with.
One of the mechs, marked with a crimson insignia, leaped into the air, its boosters flaring to life. It landed amidst a cluster of zombies, its massive feet crushing them into the ground. The pilot swung the mech's arm, and a sickled blade extended from its forearm, bisecting a beowulf with deadly precision. Another mech, equipped with Gatling guns along its torso, unleashed a torrent of bullets that tore through the swarm of wolves, leaving nothing but distorted, alien shadows in its wake.
Sunflower and Jeff swore loudly, the three fumbling out of the mech hurriedly. I winced as a clearly disoriented Jeff nearly tripped over his own feet, clinging to the comically shorter Sunflower for support.
"Man, I think I left my stomach back in the hangar," Jeff muttered loudly enough for the transport's camera to pick up. His face was pale as he tried to steady himself.
Sunflower gave him a light smack on the back of the head, a grin tugging at her lips despite the chaos around us.
"Get it together, Jeff! We survived worse. Come on!" she snapped.
Mila followed them, her expression stoic and unreadable as she glanced uneasily back at the base we'd escaped from. She looked up at my mech, giving me a brief nod as she slung her gun over her shoulder.
"Look. I know you can't die in that thing, kid," she shouted over the din of battle, her voice cracking. "But there are things worse than death sometimes, you know? Especially with these… things. Take care of yourself out there, you hear?"
Her voice trembled, choked with emotion as she finally broke her facade, and she quickly wiped away tears before quickly running after Jeff and Sunflower toward the waiting helicopter.
The sight of her vulnerability hit me hard — she'd seen a close friend die, and her entire platoon wiped out in there, and while she was tough as nails, the wounds were clearly still raw and painful.
I watched silently as their figures disappeared into the helicopter, its rotors swirling up debris and sand as it lifted off with a powerful roar. With a sharp turn to the south, leaving behind a sense of emptiness and sadness in its wake.
"Sergeant, there's too many of them!" another man crackled through the comms, panic seeping into the words. "We can't advance to extract the captain."
A deep, calm voice responded, cutting through the chaos with authority. "Zayin Squadron, form ranks! We need to give the escort team an opening for the Op. Coyote, Falcon, I'm counting on you two. Get him away from here and to the objective. We'll suppress the portal for as long as we can here."
"But the captain —" a youth's voice chimed in. I recognized it immediately as the person Captain Ouyang had been in contact with the entire time.
"He can take care of himself, Lieutenant," the Sergeant interrupted firmly. "We'll make do with what we can for now.”
"Got it, Chief," a thrumming bass's confident and steady voice chimed in. "Jackal here. Preparing to breach. On your right, Coyote! Cover our six, Falcon."
Coyote's voice followed, brimming with energy. "Roger that. Following your lead!"
The mechs moved with precision, the pilots working in perfect synchronization. The Gatling-cannon-equipped mech continued its relentless barrage as it strafed along the runway, bullets tearing through the advancing Beowulves and zombies. The air filled with the deafening roar of gunfire and the sickening sound of tearing flesh.
The mech in front of me drew a beam sword and wove through the chaos with incredible agility. It moved like a dancer, each swing of its blade slicing through the enemy with deadly grace. The pilot executed a flawless pirouette, the energy blade carving a path of destruction through the horde. At the same time, the mech on my right raised an oversized railgun. It fired a shot that exploded in a burst of light, taking out a group of Beowulves closing in on our position. The ground shook with the force of the blast as debris rained down around us.
"Ikki, we've got a clear path to the highway," Rai-chan's urgent voice said. We need to move now."
I nodded, my grip tightening on the controls. "Let's do this," I stated out loud. I activated the thrusters, feeling the mech vibrate beneath me as it came to life.
Falcon chuckled in response, the sound vibrating through the speakers. "Just doing my job."
Coyote followed suit behind the swordsman, deftly evading beams of blue energy emerging from the hangar with practiced ease. I noticed that his mech was smaller and more nimble, ducking and weaving through the skirmish with impressive agility.
He jumped through the air between firing precise shots from his arm cannons, taking down enemies with calculated accuracy. The two mechs worked in tandem, covering each other's blind spots and coordinating their attacks seamlessly, opening a path to the side.
"Nice shot, Falcon!" Coyote's voice came through the comms, filled with admiration.
Coyote's mech looped back and zipped around me, moving with practiced ease. "Follow my lead, Sparky. Let’s see if you can keep up!" he shouted, his voice filled with energy.
With the deafening roar of thrusters, the mech surged forward, propelling us at a dizzying speed. As we raced through the chaos, the scenery beneath us became a blur of motion. Coyote's mech darted ahead, its movements fluid and mesmerizing in their agility. I followed suit, my own mech pushing forward with all its might. Coyote's mech moved with an otherworldly grace, effortlessly navigating past obstacles and weaving through the chaos.
I struggled to keep up, my movements lacking the same smoothness and finesse. In a moment of distraction, I nearly tumbled over a fallen piece of debris but quickly reoriented my mech and continued on his tail.
"Come on, Sparky! Don't fall behind now!" Coyote's laughter echoed in my ears, a mix of challenge and camaraderie.
"Trying my best here!" I shot back, my focus razor-sharp as I maneuvered the mech through the debris-strewn path. The thrusters hummed with energy, propelling us forward at breakneck speed.
"Keep your eyes sharp, Sparky! This isn't a joyride," Coyote's voice crackled through the comms, a mix of excitement and urgency.
Rai-chan's voice buzzed in my head, calm yet urgent. "Ikki, keep an eye on the road and slow down. The administrative building up ahead has collapsed. You'll need to navigate around it."
I followed Coyote's lead, ducking and weaving through the labyrinth of twisted metal and debris.
"Sparky! On your left!" Falcon's voice boomed through the comms.
I jerked the controls, narrowly avoiding a blur of motion from the side. A projectile slammed into the creature, and I barely registered a loud popping noise as an explosion lit up the night sky.
The sensation of near-misses and close calls kept my heart pounding in my chest, even though I knew I wasn't in any real danger. The ground shook as the energy blasts and explosions from the other mechs tore through the advancing horde behind us.
"How are we doing, Rai-chan?" I asked, my voice tight with focus.
"We're almost clear," Rai-chan replied, her voice calm despite the chaos. "Just keep following Coyote. He's leading us to the highway."
The horizon opened before us, the highway a straight path cutting through the darkness towards the vortex in the sky. The storm of energy and debris whirled around the base, but our objective lay ahead, a beacon of twisted reality.
"Almost there, Sparky!" Coyote called out, his mech accelerating even faster. "Keep up, and we'll make it through this in one piece."
Falcon's railgun fired another shot, the explosion lighting up the night sky and momentarily blinding the creatures swarming around us.
The highway stretched before us, a ribbon of cracked pavement leading into the darkness. The orange vortex loomed overhead, a swirling maelstrom of energy that defied reality. The mechs' thrusters roared as we hit the highway, propelling us forward on an open road with blinding speed.
The surreal twilight of a high-magnitude Chaos Event painted the scene around us, casting an eerie glow through the cracks in the sky above. The orange vortex hovering a distance down the road seemed to pulsate with rhythmic energy, swirling and churning ominously.
"I've got a really bad feeling about this, Rai-chan," I muttered, staring at the vortex for a long moment.
The experience of getting pulled into…. whatever screwed-up pocket dimension or whatever I'd fallen into was still fresh in my mind. Sure, my body was fine. But my mind? And my soul, if that even existed? That was another thing entirely.
"I know," Rai-chan responded softly, her tone grave. "But just… remember why you're out here."
I paused, my chest tightening, as the image of a short, stoic golden-haired Magical Girl suddenly appeared in my mind. Her eyes filled with quiet strength and a hint of sadness.
Dior — Magical Girl Hana of the Dawn had been my first friend here and had gone out of the way to help me when I'd been kidnapped and threatened with a cold and painful death. The sheer terror I'd felt when that woman had pointed her gun at me had been etched into my memory like a scar.
But Dior had saved me that day, and from what I'd realized talking to her since, she'd flat-out pushed herself to her limits, racing over to save me the moment I'd told her I was in danger. The girl had known me for all of a day, but there was a fierce, downright heroic protectiveness in her actions that had struck me to my core.
What drove her so hard to save a boy who was all but a stranger to her? She didn't strike me as the trusting sort, and I couldn't shake the feeling that there was even more to her story than she let on.
She'd revealed her civilian identity to me, to boot, which Magical Girls typically guarded more fiercely than anything else in their bizarre little lives. She was the first and probably only Magical Girl I'd truly met in person, but her actions spoke much about the strength of her character. Hana of the Dawn had shown me much about what it meant to be a Magical Girl in the short time I'd known her.
And from what I could gather, nearly a dozen Magical Girls were in the area, risking life and limb to defend the people here. If I could do anything to reduce the danger for the heroes risking their lives right now and help them, I was more than willing to face whatever ungodly horror was behind that ominous vortex.
The highway stretched ahead, a straight path into the unknown. I felt a chill run down my spine, imagining shadowy tentacled horrors lurking beyond. My hands shook on the controls, the fear creeping in. But I quickly composed myself again.
Hana of the Dawn was out there, risking her life along with who knows how many others. I couldn't let fear paralyze me now. I had to do my part.
"Yeah… I’m good to go, Raiko," I said, my voice steadying with resolve.
"That's the spirit, Sparky," she replied with a hint of a smile.
With Hana of the Dawn's stoic image still fresh in my mind, I pushed forward. No matter what awaited us, I had to do this. For her, and for everyone else in the city behind us.