Chapter.2:4 Ashinova
After a while of chatting with the other soldiers and civilians about how they got here or what they knew about the incident, the red suited one and the other two finally came back from the deep part of the weapon storage.
Looking at them I could see that the two white suited soldiers held a large container for some sort of massive weapon while following the red suited one at front of them. The soldiers held the container with both of their hands on each side of the container that had a handle. Not only that, as they moved with the container you could see that they struggled a bit, which indicated that the container or what was in the container was really heavy.
As soon as they got to a few meters at front of the group, which now looked curiously together with excitement of what it could be inside that container that could be so deadly against the creature.
The container was placed on the floor with a strong “Thud!”.
“Open the container private” The red suited one commanded them while looking at one of the soldiers who brought the container here.
“Yes Madam!”
“Click, click, click….” “Kachink”
“Psshhuuu” A cold fog was let out of the lid out of the large container as it opened.
“This is the RG Type 74 X” The red suited one said proudly to the spectators.
“Holy shit” Someone said within the crowd of soldiers, while everyone else stared with awe since they all knew what the weapon was.
Yeah, holy shit…
The Railgun type 74X was the latest and the most badass weapon of the entire universe. Right now it held the record of being the only infantry weapon to be able to bring down a 100 meter length spaceship, of course with the help of auto aim and auto correction or you would never be able to hit one...
This made it the most expensive infantry weapon and also got it classified for the top class dogs of the Republic Federation which Ashinova had no part of. This only meant that she somehow obtained the weapon through the black market…
Staring at the sleek weapon with the length of 1,5 meters that could accelerate a projectile through 23000 Miles per hour, I could only drool with ecstasy…
Wait… Why didn’t she use this to open the door I wonder? I’ll ask her later I thought.
Everyone now raised their head from the container and stared at the red suited one with a question mark above their head, waiting for answers of how she could have obtained the weapon of mass destruction
“Don’t ask me how I got this babe… But I am sure happy that I have it right now” she said while picking the massive weapon up without struggling as if the weapon were weightless and the two other soldiers was weak.
“Now, lets discuss the plans” she said and put the weapon down while motioning that everyone should gather around to create a circle.
…
After a few minutes of explaining the plans to the civilians and the soldiers, the red suited one then asked if anyone had any questions. That was when I raised my hand just to confirm what I had heard.
“Yes?” The red suited one asked me.
“So… The plan is to save the soldiers of sector 15, 14, 13, then take a break with food and thereafter discuss the new plans and if we do encounter the creature, those engaged with the creature will distract it until we will use our secret weapon to destroy the thing?” I said while glancing at every soldiers standing around a circle.
“That’s right” the red suited one said while the others nodded.
“Meanwhile the civilians and volunteers will be gathered at the middle of the formation, where the safest spot is for them?” I said while looking at the old and young children sitting near a wall while playing with their guardian or so I believe.
“Yeah” she said with a nod.
“Should I also be at the middle?” I asked.
“Yes, it would be for the best” she said while tilting her head as if I should have known something.
“Unless you want to blow us up with those power cells” She added with a shrug right after.
“Uh.. Right” I said while scratching my head because I felt a bit dumb there.
“Oh and lastly, why didn’t you use it to break open the door?” I asked her for the last time.
“Ah, that’s because I only have 1 ammo and it is enough to penetrate a tiny hole, but not enough to blast the door open.”
“Oh, this means that if I miss the creature later… Well we are in deep shit then” She calmly added, which made everyone tense up because of the big responsibility of this working.
“Okay everyone, I want every volunteer civilian above the age of 15 to stand in a row with 5 each to the left side, while the soldiers will do the same to the right side!” She yelled so that everyone could hear.
Quickly the people formed rows at front of her and I could count up to 75 soldiers and around 23 civilians.
“Okay! Soldiers, we will use the phalanx formation with 5 groups which consist of 5 at the front and the same amount at the rear” The red suited one said while patting the shoulder of the first soldier and gave them the orders of where they should be. In return they proudly saluted to her with their right hand at front of the forehead and simultaneously stomping the ground once with their left feet.
“The rest of the soldiers will help the side which need backup!” She said while walking to the civilians at the left side, which have waited patiently for orders.
“I want the civilians to hold the container filled with weapons, magazines and grenades” She said while looking at the civilians with a salute to thank them of their volunteers and just like the soldiers they smiled to themselves and then tried to salute back just like the soldiers, which they failed since it was hard if you hadn’t practiced. Although they did brighten the mood with a few laughs right after.
She then walked back to the front of the row, quickly turned around facing us and said “Oh, I forgot to introduce myself…”
The red suited one clicked the collar of the suit that protected the neck, which made the helmet that covered her whole face fold itself into the suit and revealed a total beauty…
Looking at her pale and smooth face, you could see that she had blue eyes and short brown chestnut coloured hair. She then gave a smile while resting her dominant hand at her chest so that she could bow elegantly to everyone.
“I am Kathy Redwing, Rank 37 of Ashinova, at your service” She said to everyone at front of her and then straighten her back once again so that she could look around.
But soon after the crowd somehow got boosted with a energy out of nowhere and cheerfully cheered in delight as if they were fanboys & fangirls to her.
Didn’t she fold her helmet before I got here?
“I guess we shall commence mission then?” she said with a smile that made nearly every men in this room nosebleed.
“Yes Madam!” Everyone shouted and quickly went to their stations to fill the containers with weapons while the soldiers went into formations.
After 20 minutes...
“TATATATATATA!!!”
Tons of gunshots could be heard as the trained soldiers annihilated everything whenever we walked through a hallway in one floor or another. Just looking at them made me wonder why we didn’t let loose these real monsters at the first place. They completely obliterated the incoming creatures.
Not only that, as we passed the hallways with the remaining people, while yelling for survivors in hiding, we met a few new creatures that didn’t even have time to display their capabilities. The boost by the suit made them react before the creature even noticed that someone was around the corner...
Dear father and mother… Please nerf those senses boost of the Maverik suit...
As we passed by one infested hallway by another, our group grew as civilians that had hidden quietly in their locked apartments came out from their hiding spot. Not only that, volunteers even picked up a rifle and joined the combat force, although they weren’t allowed to be in the front row or the rear, since they might obstruct the formation that the soldiers had trained in, but nevertheless it increased our forces and everyone was happy to volunteer.
A few minutes later, we were now at front of the door of the second weapon storage of sector 16.
As I stared at the door I noticed that the infestation had regrown back to its normal condition after I had burned it away before I left. Raising my welder I then burned away the infestation and raised the door with the help of the power cell.
“Duuuuun” The door sounded as it raised to the ceiling.’
As it did I could hear a few cheers from behind the door and a badass masculine voice that said “Took you some time”.
As the door raised it revealed more civilians and soldiers behind the door. But at front of them was a few unique coloured suits that said 31 and 75 who stood there with a salute.
“I am Klarke, Rank 31 of Ashinova, at your service” Said the badass afrikan man with a salute. Looking at him you could see that he had a scar on the face and a large body packed with muscles that could probably burst out of that delicate suit within any seconds.
“David, Rank 75 of Ashinova, at your service” Said another guy with a salute, he was tall and had a balanced body compared to Klarke next to him.
After they had finished introducing themselves the soldiers behind gave a salute, as did ours who didn’t cover the rear.
“Kathy, Rank 37 of Ashinova, at your service” She introduced herself with a salute while looking for something or someone within the other group.
“Where is Rank 1 and the others?” She then asked.
“Dario and the others? No idea… Our communications doesn’t work which you have probably noticed and hopefully they are only MIA” Karke answered with a shrug.
“By the way” Karke said while scratching his chin, “Do you know who it was who tried to open the door like 2 hours ago?”
Soon after he asked, everyone nearby then looked at me with a questionmark, which surprised me a little but afterwards I stepped forward and calmly said “That would be me.”
Klarke then frowned which made me a bit confused since I knew that I haven't done anything to him.
“Oooh it was you…” He said while slowly walking closer to me with his huge body and made everyone dead quiet as they themselves didn’t know what was going on.
Staring at him with confusion as he stood at front of me a heavy and tense atmosphere could be felt surrounding him.
What did I do? I thought for myself.
As he glared fiercely into my soul with his burning eyes I could then see a few tears as he opened his mouth and yelled...
“What took you so long!!!! Godsake I patiently waited for at least 2 hours with everyone else, because I heard the noises of someone trying to open the door through the manual locks! ARRGH! You… Damn! Couldn't you just have come back right after?!... I trusted you! I even gambled my beloved Fiona!!!!!.” He kept ranting while motioning with his hand to express his feelings…
…
“hah..hah...hah..” He panted heavily and then regained his normal stance.
“Sorry…” I said after he was done ranting…
“No, I am one who should be sorry. At least you tried....”
David who now stood behind him after he had watched the whole scene unfold, then patted Klarke and said “Uh.. Klarke… You can have your MKA-83 back… I wasn’t really serious you know…”.
“FIOOONAAA!” Klarke shouted happily with tears flying out of his eyes while he grabbed the beloved rifle held by David.
...
After discussing with the new team of soldiers and civilians, we soon after marched our ways to the next sectors while also saving more civilians on the way. After an hour we had now passed 8 sectors and counting how many we were right now with the help of Alice, we exceeded over 2500 people, whereas the total amount of soldiers was 1214 and over 40 soldiers were ranked ones. Luckily as we easily marched through the sectors we had yet to encounter the creature.
Hopefully, we would never meet it…
But right now, we took a break as a few soldiers split off from the main group and searched for rations somewhere in the sector 9.
Although even with our success I couldn't help but only hope that Catherine, Dario and Silvia were still alive out there somewhere. But deep inside of me I knew that Dario my brother that I made a blood pact years ago would somehow get them out from danger safely without a scratch. Afterall he wasn’t the rank 1 for no reason at all and by now, he probably had his suit that has been in maintenance until today.
As I stared into the slowly infesting ceiling of an apartment, while waiting for the soldiers to come back, Alice then said “Vincent… I can see one of my creators”
I turned my head away from the ceiling and looked upon Alice on my SMB, who were now brushing her hair with a comb at front of a mirror…
I couldn’t help but think, Father… How the hell did you make this…. And soon after I asked her “Really?”
“Yes, he is at front of you” she said while she kept brushing her long and silky hair.
Now looking at front of me I could see a broad man with tattered and ruined fine clothings stand at front of me with a smile.
“Varric?” I asked.
“Yeah, your father’s right hand man is here” the man with european features said with the length of 1,8 meters.
Quickly I stood up and hugged him in relief, which somehow also caused an earthquake in Alice’s room.
"Ah! Vincent and Alice, it is good to see that you guys are okay" He said while searching around the vicinity.
"Where is your friends?" He added after I distanced myself a bit and apologized to Alice.
"Long story short, we got separated"
"Ah, I see, but knowing them they will probably survive" he said with a smile which soon after turned sad as if he had just remembered something.
"Vincent... I am sorry, everyone but me died there... And it was suppose to be a happy day too..." he said with tears.
"It's okay..."
He then quickly brushed off his tears and held both of my hands together.
"Hey, Vincent did you at least get your other gift from your father?" He asked worriedly.
Ah, how could I have forgotten about that. I hurriedly took out the cube from my belt and showed it to Varric. To see his reaction I looked at him who who smiled with delight, as if he was happy that I received another memento of my parents before they passed away.
“Oh, it’s not glowing anymore” I said while trying to get it to glow again by shaking it around.
As I were trying to shake it around to get the same effects again, I noticed that Varric got closer as if he himself wanted to inspect it.
“Here!” I said and threw the cube at him, since it wouldn’t hurt for him to check it out.
Varric caught it and stood there dumbfounded while looking at me as if he didn't expect that I would lend it to him. He hesitantly gave it back to me as if he tried to consider my feelings since it was the last present I had gotten from my parents, but I just gave him the shrug which made him immediately start inspecting it instead.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
While he did his inspection, I started to get bored as I sat down near a corner and tried to find something to do while waiting for our soldiers next course of action.
Glancing everywhere I noticed that Alice tried to clean up her room with the help of some kind of telekinesis. As she did, she had her back towards me, which made me grin with delight since I had found something fun.
Quickly I slowly moved my fingers towards her back… And gently poked her, which made her fall over onto her knees and let out a “Eeek!” sound. Looking at her struggling to stand up again I then whispered next to her “I love bears afterall”.
And immediately I felt an electric jolt run through my veins and body, which made me jump and hit the wall behind my back with my head… “Ouch…” I moaned and turned my head back so that I could see what Alice were up to… Looking at her I could see that she was pouted angrily at me while stomping the floor or rather the SMB.
“VIncent! Staph! I will get mad you know…” She said angrily but turned out really cute instead.
“Eeeh, but you are so cute Alice…” I said with a sulk which made her look away embarrassed.
Thinking that it might be a good time to stop, I looked elsewhere to see if I could find anything else I could do. In the large apartment which was half full with civilians I noticed that a young girl far away from me, was playing with a doll. Trying not to be creepy I stared at her doll, which she held tightly and waved around in the air as if the doll was a super hero. As she did, my bored smile turned once again to a grin with malicious intent that Alice somehow noticed and asked “Vincent?”.
Somehow I knew that if I could touch and feel Alice… Then it should work...
Slowly turning my head onto Alice, I noticed she started to get scared and backed away a few steps as if I was a rapist.
“Alice” I said creepily with a big smile.
“Vincent… Please…” She pleaded.
Slowly I tried to gently grab her as she backed away and fell down in the room onto the floor with fear. Surprisingly she didn’t use her electric jolt as I did, maybe she had to have a condition for her to be able to use it.
Quickly she ran into a wardrobe and hid herself in there to no avail as I slowly opened the door and thereafter got closer and closer to her by the second.
“Vincent… Not my first… Please...” Alice said while she was shivering in the corner of her wardrobe…
Maybe I went a bit too far… I thought and quickly dropped my act and gently grabbed her which made her confused as I raised her to the air and gently placed her on top of my shoulder. To my surprise having her outside the room of the SMB really worked. But somehow it started to slowly get hot on my shoulder.
“Alice, did you know about this?” I asked her as I gently patted the smooth cheek of the cute petite girl who sat on my shoulder to calm her shivering.
“No… I didn’t” She muttered to me.
“I didn’t mean to scare you Alice, but know this. You are my last family member because you are made out of my blood, I will never hurt you and I will always protect you even when I face danger myself” I said while looking down at the floor as if I had been rejected.
“Really?” She asked me.
After a few seconds I then looked at Alice straight in they eye with my puppy face, which made her jump a bit and back down into a corner with guilt.
“Pinky promise” I said with my pinky finger at front of her.
“Vincent…” She said slowly as she tried to reach my finger with her small hands.
After she was now touching my pinky finger with her own instead, I then calmly said “Alice, I promise to always be beside you and protect you”
“Eeeeh Vincent...” She said and tried to hug my head right after but was only able to hug my left cheek. The energy that Alice was made out of was really warm and felt really soothing as it touched my skin, but I wasn’t done yet...
“And you beloved bear…”
“Vincent!” she pouted and sent an electric jolt through me…
...
A while after, she sat down on my shoulder and started to play with her legs and her long hair. Looking at her I wondered how she was really powered and how my SMB really worked. Hence I asked “Alice, where do you get your life source from?”
“From you Vincent” She answered and looked at me with a tilted head as if I should have known.
“Eh, then what about how I could feel your mass and touch you?”
She then looked upon the ceiling while leaning on her palm and said “Now that I think about it… I have no idea…”
“Oh” I said surprised, considering how my father bragged about the knowledge she had.
“Maybe it’s time to get the cube back?” She interrupted after I had forgotten all about it once again
I stood up and brushed my pants of and answered “Yeah”.
…
After a while of searching for Varric who somehow disappeared from my sight. I found him later in the kitchen fiddling around with the Cube alone with weird faces.
"Fascinating, how could such an object have been made..." he said in an eerie tone...
"Varric?" I said while looked at him confusingly near the door out from the kitchen.
"Ah, I can feel it...." He kept talking to himself while ignoring me as I moved closer to him.
“Yes…” he whispered to himself suddenly as if he knew a presence was nearby.
“Varric!” I yelled out once more which snapped him out of it. "Oh sorry, your father and I used this cube to design your SMB and everytime I look at it, I can't help but get the urge of finding out how it had been made."
“Oh, Is that Alice I see there?” He said while quickly moving closer to me to inspect her.
As he did, he put the cube back inside my belt for me, afterwards patted Alice’s head and soon after he left the kitchen without saying a word.
“What's up with him?” I asked Alice confused with a shrug.
“I don’t know, but I can’t talk or move when he is nearby for some reason…” She said worriedly to me.
“Really? Maybe it’s some kind of glitch” I told her but was then interrupted by the soldiers who told everyone by the front door that it was time to move to our next destination.
...
A few hours later we had now rescued every survivor in the sectors, although luckily we had yet to encounter the creature. We were now around 7000 people that consisted of around 3000 soldiers, whereas 68 of them was ranked ones. So far we had no casualties unless it was those who died before, which was a good sign in a way but it was time to discuss the further plans of the infested Ashinova, since the infestation didn’t even budge or give a sign of stopping even though we burned most of them away…
I couldn’t help but think that we needed to destroy the source, if there even was one...
Looking at the top dogs or rather ranked ones of Ashinova surrounding a large table at front of me. I was questioning myself if I should listen in to their discussion or keep sitting still in a corner while hugging my body because of the cold. Luckily with the help of the flames from the welder at front of me and Alice herself, I didn’t start to shiver like most civilians sitting in groups like penguins without suits nearby. They did have extra clothing though which they borrowed from the apartments.
As each time I took a breath out, I could see a fog being born. But after seeing it a few times I soon after decided that it was time for me to join the conversation with Alice on my shoulder. Hence I put away the welder that was my source of warmth before I did.
As I walked closer to the table with the 68 unique suited soldiers and unfolded helmets, I could hear that they were talking about my best friend Dario.
“It looks like we didn’t find the black dragon suit in the repair room for suits.” One of them said which made most of them laugh.
“Well, it looks like our worry was to no avail then… He is probably karate chopping every monster out there with that suit of his” One of them said with a shrug, which made everyone smile including me, although with relief also as I walked closer to them.
After all the suits is only equippable with the right SMB, the right DNA, passcode and all sorts of countermeasures. Meaning if it was gone from the repair room, it meant that Dario who was already strong without it, get stronger by at least 10 fold, mentally though, not physically.
“Sadly… The other rankers is MIA and we have no idea what the status is in the command center” Someone said with a sulk that tensed the atmosphere.
“Anyways… Time for the serious matter. What are we suppose to do with the Ashinova?” One of them asked everyone seriously with a serious face.
“I want everyone to think for a minute before we discuss about it again” the person added who I noticed was a man of around the age of 40 because of his facial hair and aura of a veteran. Totally not because it said, 40 years old and proud on a plate at front of his chest
A minute after everyone now stood at front of the table including me while waiting for the old man to start the conversation. As the old man glance at everyone to see if everyone was present, he then started by saying “Okay, I want everyone who have any ideas to...”
“Wait, who is that kid over there?” Someone bluntly asked and pointed at me while interrupting the old man who was the rank 2 of Ashinova.
“I’ve noticed that he have been in nearly every discussion we have had, I thought only soldiers was allowed to be here?”
“He is an exception” Someone said who I noticed was Kathy.
“We all would all starved inside those weapon storages if it wasn’t for him” she added.
“My apologies, I was just curious to know why a civilian was here, that’s all” that someone straightforwardly said while bowing.
But soon after everyone started to stare at me one by one with confusion as if their minds was playing tricks with them. Although right afterwards I then found out that it was not me they were looking at, but rather Alice who was on my shoulder.
“Am I the only one seeing a little orange fairy on that kid?” Someone said while scrubbing their eyes from the other side of the table.
“No…I thought that I was the only one ever since sector 7” Another one said.
“What?! Me too” Another one added.
“Me three!” And they kept going...
“Oh her?” I said to everyone with a smile while a few nearby tried to gently poke at her, which she quickly retaliated by escaping to my SMB and disappeared.
“Lets just say that she is my SMB and move on with the plans of the further of the Ashinova” I added.
“Right…” they said with a sigh, as if they wasn’t satisfied with that answer.
“Okay, lets make it quick by voting if we should save Ashinova or not. Raise your hand if you are for saving Ashinova” The old man said while glancing at everyone for attention.
A few seconds later, a few hesitated but it was now about 24 who voted for saving Ashinova, while the rest was against.
“Raise your hand if you want to state your argument of why we should not save Ashinova”
A few raised their hand and stated their arguments which went for a while. To summarize it, they said that the whole space seem to be infested by something that we have no idea of how to remove, which a lot of ranked ones agreed with. Not only that, so far we have seen a lot of mutated humans, dead or alive with the mutation and yet we have no idea of what is causing it. A few suggested that it might be some kind of bacteria, parasite, virus you name it.
Most of the ranked ones also believe that the sacrifice of Ashinova is for the best of humanity if this contagion could spread this easily on a tube like space station with the diameter of 25 km in one day. Not only that it looked like someone had talked with a biologist and they said that specimens usually mark their territory in one way or another and a infestation could be just that. This means that our home territory is not ours anymore.
And lastly the biggest question, where do these creatures come from?
“I believe that everyone agrees then?” The old man said, which everyone soon after answered with a nod of agreement.
“This also means that we cannot leave Ashinova and seek aid to destroy her since we don’t know if the infestation could spread through space and if it could, how long would it take? The aid could take longer than what we want it to be” he added.
“Not only that, since we are with the neutral faction and those with the best weapon at that… The others will probably only help us if we join their faction...”
“Which means that we have to destroy Ashinova before we leave… But how?” he then asked everyone to speak up if anyone knew a way to self destruct the Ashinova without the help of the Power generators.
Suddenly a cute voice could be heard from my SMB which made everyone turn around to see who it was.
“Attention! Everyone” Alice yelled while only sticking her head out from the SMB.
“Just explode the power supply for the gravity generator and it will make the rotator crash into the hull of the space station and a collateral damage will occur. Don’t blame me on the debris left over by the space station though” She said with a smile and then disappeared back into the SMB.
“Genius….” The old man said while also ignoring the last part. Probably because the debris collectors would remove it to keep the space near the solar system clean.
“We will split of the group. The civilians and 1000 soldiers and 10 ranked should go to the evacuations pods. After you have evacuated all the civilians, you guys will standby for further orders or do what the situations call for it.” He quickly said and pointed at 10 random ranked soldiers, who quickly saluted and left the table.
Soon after they had left, the old man opened a map of the Ashinova with his SMB and pointed at what looked like a tunnel.
“First, the remaining soldiers will pass by the train tunnels to the mall which lies near the center.” He said while moving his finger from one location to the other.
“Because the main power cell has exploded the hull must have also been damaged, which means that an emergency lockdown might be on the doors near the command center, hence from here at the mall, we will split up and try to find a way to the command center.”
“Whichever group gets there will go down to the gravity generator, right below and set the explosives”
“If you find any remaining soldiers or civilians overthere. Decide by yourself if bringing them with you is the best, or split up and send them to the mall where we will have a few soldiers stationed”
“And since our communications doesn’t work, we will use a limited time of 2 hours after we split up”
“After the 2 hours, everyone must regroup at the mall and if we have good news, we go back to the evacuation pods, bad news we will re discuss our plans”
“Do everyone understand?” the old man asked with a eyebrow raised.
“Yes sir!” Everyone including me answered with the soldier’s salute, that I had practiced in secret.
“We decide our groups over there!”
“Commence mission and move out!”
...