Stained Gold, Red Rising Fan Fiction

Red Rise Part 6 (end)

A ship larger than any I've ever seen in my lifetime blinks into existence directly above us in the upper atmosphere.

It didn't uncloak.

Or suddenly sail into view.

It just bloodydamn appeared out of thin air.

Like magic.

An iris in its underbelly spins open and somehow torches a hole the size of a small destroyer right through the city's shield.

I am speechless.

I point.

Both Oslo and Tikko look up.

"Is that your ship?" I ask. I've never heard of anyone having the technology to burn through a city shield.

"No," Tikko says simply.

Contrails start to sear their way across the late afternoon sky.

"It's an Iron Rain," Oslo shouts, jumping for joy. "Someone's come to help Covin 5."

"Yes, someone's come," Tikko says, his eyes drifting to me, "but I doubt they're here to help relieve Covin 5. No government I know of possess such tech."

I lay there watching as those contrails suspiciously begin to angle in our direction. Thousands of them battling through surface-to-air missiles and defenses heading directly for us...

For me.

A static-laced voice seeps into our nonexistent comms feed. The signal is choppy and hard to make out, but the message is clear: "Reaper One, this is Reaper Two broadcasting in the open. If you can hear me, prepare for extraction... Reaper One, this is Reaper Two broadcasting in the open. If you can hear me, prepare for extraction..." The message repeats over and over in a loop.

Tikko jerks me to my feet and stares me in the eyes. For once, his expression radiates hope. "Are you Reaper One?"

I shake my head.

"Do you know who is?"

I shrink under his intensity. "Maybe."

"This is our only shot. Talk to them, Victra."

I activate my comms. "Reaper Two, come in. Reaper Two, do you read me?"

Nothing.

The same message keeps saturating the airwaves.

Two Gorgon Stained land atop the tower and lay into our ranks with extended razors and pulseFist fire.

"Oslo, run downstairs and tell Ivo to boost her signal," Tikko says. "Pull power from everywhere except the shield." The monstrous Stained then turns to me. "Keep trying," he shouts before leaping to the aid of Ironbar, who's battling the two Gorgon Stained on his own.

Several Greys and a Gold land atop the tower behind me. I call up my helmet and fight. It's not pretty; I'm wounded and exhausted. But the first material thing I'd ever laid hands-on as an infant newly entered into the cosmos had been Night Stalker, my razor. And she's been in my hand ever since.

Thank you, Momma.

I dance amongst them, slicing, stabbing, and parrying their blows. All the while screaming into my comms. "Reaper Two, this is Reaper Three in the open, come in... Reaper Two, this is Reaper Three in the open, come in..."

"Reaper Three?" finally crackles back. "Who is this?"

"This is Victra bloodydamn au Lykos. And I'm fighting for my fucking life down here. Who the fuck are you?"

"Where's Pandora?"

"I don't know. I think she's dead. She gave me Grandma's Reaper pendant and made me run."

"Yeah, that sounds like Pandora." The man's voice is heavy with emotion. "I'm your Uncle Julius. You're officially Reaper Five. I've Three and Four with me now, your cousins. What's your sitrep?"

"Dire. I'm with a compound of Ragnar Kin. We've pulled back to the middle tower. We're being overrun by Gorgons."

"Roger. Hunker. Incoming imminent."

"Down! Down! Down!" I scream to Tikko and the others over my flexArmor's external speakers, but most are engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

I hit the deck just as the first kinetic strikes from my Uncle's ship hit, and hit hard. Those strikes are followed by successive strikes. The ground shakes. The tower rocks. The air fills with dust and debris.

Tikko and his Stained brothers finish off the last of the Gorgons atop the tower, then they too hunker until the kinetic strikes cease and the air begins to clear.

We all stand. In every direction, for at least a kilometer the city is nothing but rubble.

How many innocents did my uncle just kill to save me, one girl? Hundreds of thousands surely. Maybe millions.

"No. No. No..."

Tikko approaches and lays his good hand on my armored shoulder. "This is the way of things. He's your Kin. I'd have done the same for Oslo. The Reaper did as much and more... Much more."

"But the Reaper was the bloodydamn Reaper. And you're Stained. Of course, you would--"

Hundreds of gargantuan mech suits--the likes of which I'd never seen--slam into the rubble surrounding the tower. A big, red-splattered one wielding a slingBlade and covered in battle-steel spikes peels open to reveal a massive, muscled Gold sporting Ink.

Tikko grins. "Looks like he's Stained too."

I nod. Indeed he is.