Earth
Year XX
The once cerulean skies are now painted in a shade of tangerine. Fires ravage the city below, creating a fiery glow in the distance. The lone deserted city is filled by the screeching sounds of marching corrupted, murderous droids who want nothing but to kill anything harboring human consciousness.
These mindless mechanoids, once a tool humans created for their own gains are now the ones doing the killing. The Punishing virus brought countless billions dead, leaving in its wake hopelessness and destruction. Turmoil and conflict soon engulfed the entire world, and no one was safe from death.
However, humanity is as stubborn as it gets. Refusing to give up arms and just let the entire human race go extinct, some remnants of the Old World Government was evacuated to space, creating a spark of hope among the surviving humans. Millions of soldiers paid the price to save the rich and powerful, only to be abandoned.
And now, as humanity tests out their luck through the use of technological advancements, they find themselves caught in a crossfire of some organizations that have been left in Earth. The Punishing Virus and the corrupted aren't their sole enemies after all.
Right now, Babylonia is currently in full retreat on this certain city as their ground forces slowly got diminished, creating unfounded chaos in the ranks of the remaining squads and task forces. Multiple sporadic fightings are happening throughout the districts and sectors of the city, causing huge catastrophic loses on humanity's side.
The streets are filled with the thick oil of mangled machinery, mixing it with the vital fluids of deceased constructs who tragically met their demise. The air is brimming with the scent of blood and ozone, as the spent plasma from dead soldiers are left ablaze.
Thin and thick lines of smoke ultimately finds its way up above in a swirling fashion, causing a blanket of smoke to darken the surrounding land. The howling desert winds adds in to the post apocalyptic atmosphere, creating a grim aura inside the city.
Entire blocks of would be human residences are now reduced to ash and rubble, as the failed attempt in the reclamation of City 015 came to its climax. Hordes of corrupted amalgamations, some even spliced together by the horrendous virus, tore through the hastily set up defenses.
Supply chains were cut off, as the designated drop zones was immediately flooded with mindless corrupted. Constructs desperately fought in extreme close combat within the city, leaving them without any escape route. This led to some units be utterly destroyed by the corrupted horde, while some are converted into killing machines.
Amidst the chaos, up above the sky, a group of three constructs led by a human Commandant is currently aboard a Babylonian transport craft. The decade old machine is as menacing as it looks like, descending like a meteorite from the heavens.
Their destination? The post ridden City 015.
Their objective? To spearhead a last ditch counter-offensive against the growing numbers of corrupted roaming the city.
.
.
.
_____________
Loading...
Commandant,
Please input your finger print.
_____
Inputting finger print...
Scanning anomalies...
Zero anomalies detected.
___
Proceeding...
██████████████]99%
(Buffering...buffering...buffering)
...
...
System is now online.
Welcome back, Gray Ravens.
___________
An autonomous voice emanates from the nearby speakers, filling the silent cabin with noise. Occasionally, the aircraft would suddenly shake due to explosions outside, sending out vibrations throughout the hull. Crimson flashes of warning signs paints the interior in a ghastly color, before returning back to normal.
Sitting across each other are two female constructs, reassuring each other with firm looks of eyes filled with resolve. The construct with black and red faded hair glances to the man sitting beside her, curious on what he was feeling about being targeted by old surface to air missiles by the old world government, which was now controlled by the virus.
“Are you feeling queasy, Lucia?” The man noticed her gaze and asks in a calm and collected manner.
Lucia stares at him for a good while, before finding an answer to his question. “If Commandant Akiio can handle it, then I have no right to feel uneasy.”
The Commandant, Akiio Zxeuvietté, chuckles as her crafty response reached his ears. He is the acting commander of task force Gray Raven, which consisted of three elite constructs. The truth is, he was just as nervous as anyone would be, since the thought of being shred by sizzling hot shrapnel was on the bottom list of ways to die.
Akiio masks his nervousness with a gentle smile, and turns to face the petite construct in front of him, who was busy staring at him. Those wide, magenta orbs of hers felt like it was piercing through his very soul.
“How are you feeling Liv?”
The silken haired structured named Liv flinches after another explosion rocked the aircraft, before staring at the metal floor with a flustered expression.
“I-I'm alright Commandant. I just...hope that this operation will go smoothly...” Her voice trails off with a yelp as their transport craft swerves violently to the left, narrowly missing another virus-controlled rocket. Simultaneous exhales of relief escaped their mouths.
Lucia, Liv and Akiio all turned their heads towards the cockpit as their aircraft began into a sharp descent. The male construct piloting the aircraft was immersed on what he's doing, as his top priority was to evade anything that might lead to the demise of everyone inside the ship.
He would flick buttons and levers with precise timing and accuracy, even though he had his eyes focused beyond the canopy of the aircraft. His behavior right now is what Akiio needs the most, since all their lives are literally at the very hands of the blonde construct in the cockpit.
“Lee, how far are we from the designated location?” Akiio, recovering from his reverie, switches off his goofiness and replaces it with a much more serious tone.
A crackle on his earpiece was heard, followed by a derisive response from the aloof construct.
“Hoh? Finally decided to check in, eh Commandant?” Lee added in a haughty manner before maneuvering the aircraft a few feet above the crumbled skyscrapers. His natural talents in piloting is being unknowingly shown in the heat of the moment.
“Yeah, well sorry about that. We can't just sit here waiting for lady death now are we?”
Lee scoffs at his response, before briefly glancing back towards the cabin. “Five minutes tops. Make sure to keep the bay doors open.” he gestured towards an inconspicuous looking lever attached to the cabin.
“I got it. Liv, we're entering the battlefield. Please ready the necessary procedures.” Lucia responded and unbuckled her seatbelt, before rigidly standing up. She walks towards the back of the aircraft and leans her back against the wall.
Liv nodded to herself and began recalibrating her levi-guns. After setting her weapons up and peaking to 92% efficiency, she stands up and goes over to Akiio.
“Commandant, are you ready?”
Akiio grabbed a protective vest nearby and strapped it on his torso. This process was the most important thing he and other commandants should go through in order to have full squad cohesion, yet he still hates the effects. He inhales deeply, before signalling her with a firm nod.
“Yes. Punch it Liv.”
“Close your eyes Commandant. You might feel a bit disoriented.” Liv's voice reached his ears, just as he felt a throb in his head.
M.I.N.D CONNECTION
SEQUENCE INITIALIZING...
Loading…
█▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
25%
███▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
50%
█████▒▒▒▒▒
75%
███████▒▒▒
100%
██████████
BPL-01: ██████ 100%
BPN-08: ██████ 100%
BPN-06: ██████ 100%
CONNECTION
SUCCESSFUL.
A nauseating feeling washes over Akiio's body after linking minds with the constructs under his command. It felt like something heavy was putting pressure in his chest, as if he was being drowned alive. This was alleviated after a few seconds, especially with the help of Liv's hand tapping him lightly in the cheeks.
“Commandant? Are you alright? Does your body hurt anywhere?” She asked, keen on wanting to know if she had somehow put his life in danger.
Akiio shook his head, before rubbing his hand on her head gently. “I'm all good. M.I.N.D connection is stable right?”
“Yes!”
Suddenly, Lee's voice was heard throughout their squad intercoms.
“LZ is visible Commandant! The low altitude radar is picking up a freakishly huge horde of corrupted coming this way. I suggest we should find another location to land, it's too risky.”
Akiio gets up from the comfort of his seat and goes behind Lee's chair. He peers through a set of binoculars he grabbed nearby and saw a sea of metallic bodies swarming in the desolate and deserted streets of the city.
The terrifying glint of their crimson colored eyes and visors made their approach look so demoralizing to anyone who would see them. Despite the warning Lee gave, and the obvious situation that they were outnumbered 10 to 1, Akiio didn't budge.
“No, we'll stick with the mission objective. Fire up those weapon systems Lee. Me and Lucia will be the first one to go out.” He orders without faltering nor hesitation, before walking towards the portable armory.
“Commandant, are you serious?” Lee, who was staring at his commanding officer in disbelief, asked with a hint of frustration laced in his voice. Liv noticed this and glanced at him with wide eyes.
“Of course. Now go and lower this beast so we can make an opening for the other squads.” Akiio rebutted with a smile and grabs a plasma carbine from the rack, before inserting a fresh plasma battery into it.
Lee ultimately sighs and hovers the transport craft five feet above the ground. He slides his chair in a nearby control panel and began inputting directives to the automated defense systems of the aircraft, which were two heavy vulcan rotary guns.
The defense systems had an 86.92% accuracy in hitting its targets, which was good enough considering the corrupted was charging at them
en masse. The rotary guns began targeting anything that was being ravaged by the virus, ripping and tearing them apart with the depleted uranium rounds.
“Green light!” Lee shouts to the team channel.
Lucia, who was standing near the bay doors, pulled the lever with one hand. A strong gust of wind entered the cabin as the doors slid wide open, and the sands from the deserted city wisped inside the craft. Akiio puts on a protective goggles and tapped Lucia's shoulder.
The female construct nodded in response, and she was the first one to disembark the aircraft. As she landed in the ground, her scarf and skirt was flailing in every direction due to the sheer force of the thrusters, causing her to move a good distance away from the transport craft.
Lucia unsheathes her sword and activates it, making it glow like it was on fire. She thrusts her sword towards a corrupted, draining it with life as its virus infested command module was destroyed. She proceeds to mow down a few stray mechanoids coming near the landing zone.
“Liv, stay with Lee until he lands this craft somewhere. I trust that you have better map cohesion than him, so do find us immediately.” Akiio pats her in the head and smile, before disappearing outside as he jumped.
After providing the necessary fire support, Lee glanced back and calls out to Liv. “Liv, close the doors!”
Liv nods and does so, but before she closes the bay doors, she spots Lucia and her Commandant moving towards the corrupted horde. She feels something was wrong with the way the corrupted are gathered, but the transport craft was already gaining altitude.
Meanwhile, back in the ground, Akiio and Lucia cautiously walked the roads leading up to the sector they were assigned to. A few stupid corrupted would often charge at them, but they would easily repel them with combined plasma fire and sword cuts.
Friendly signals are starting to converge into nearby groups as they neared the intended location. Occasionally, the deafening roar of high-speed, low altitude attack fighters can be heard soaring in the sky. These skilled Babylonian fighter pilots provided the necessary air support for the weakened ground forces.
BOOM!
Another explosion lit up the sky in the distance, and based on the shockwave that traveled to the ground, Akiio surmised that it was a Nobian missile launched from the space station. He was glad that he wasn't on the receiving end of that type of ordnance, as he would probably shit himself.
A few minutes in, and they were already nearing their designated sector. They already met with a couple of commandants and their respective squads, and confirmed that they were part of the counterattack operation. A few constructs from the engineering force was also present, and they began unloading heavy ordnance from the crates they brought.
“Commandant, Liv is trying to get a hold of us, but the signal is buffering.”
Lucia reports while she casually cuts down two corrupted droids.
“Copy. Send her a code on our current location. We'll fend of any corrupted until they show up.”
Akiio responded, before aiming and shooting his plasma carbine into the mass of corrupted charging at them.
///
*BANG*BANG*BANG*
CLANG!
Lee stands up from the safety of his cover, before examining the ruined bodies of of the dead corrupted droids he killed. Their rusted mechanical bodies was riddled with bullet holes, as his plasma pistols made easy work on their weak bodies.
A sand storm was currently blowing on the outskirts of the city, and it made his visual system completely messed up. He takes one last look at the dead mechanoids on his feet, before walking back towards the parked transport craft.
“Liv, it's safe to come out now.” He taps the metallic surface of the bay door. “We need to move fast.”
A head peeks out of the doorway after a few seconds of silence. Liv steps out and disembarks from the aircraft, before landing on the ground. She kept her levi-guns facing upwards to avoid it being damaged by the sand.
“I'll take point Lee. Your visual systems aren't adjusting well right?” Liv asked, walking a few feet away from him.
“Yeah, now of all times...” He sighs heavily and follows behind her while keeping a close eye to their surroundings.
Silence falls between the two as they walked, and the only sounds they could make out was the crunching of their boots on the debris stricken road. Distant explosions are also occasionally heard, though it was being drowned by the gale of the desert storm.
Lee keeps a close eye on Liv as she lead the way. She would often stop and peek to the street corners before making a turn, ensuring that they weren't walking into an ambush. He was in charge of guarding both her flanks and their rear, since his guns are much more effective at engagements.
He thinks back about the orders from officer Nikola a couple hours ago. They were to provide back up for the ordinary soldiers that have ‘messed up’ the entire operation. He was sure as hell it all falls down to command responsibility.
Sure, humanity is gung-ho in reclaiming the Earth back, but sending constructs to the battlefield with no room for reconnaissance was plain stupid. Not only did the battleplan backfired at the ground force, command wasn't also responding.
‘Are they leaving them to die?’ Lee internally thought.
Sighing to himself, he just hopes that they would evacuate the soldiers with ease. It wasn't fair to just leave them be, not that he cares for everyone. His faith in humanity was already in shambles long before he was turned into a structured human.
However, his train of thought was interrupted when he felt something was off. It was like something was forming above their heads. And as they arrived 3 blocks away from their intended sector, a huge tremor emanating from deep underground suddenly broke the dead silence between them.
“An earthquake..? But my scanners aren't detecting seismic activity!” Liv exclaimed. She detected large spikes of Punishing Virus, and something unknown.
“Watch out!”
Lee tackles her to a nearby wall and used his body as cover. The adjacent building started to crumble from the top down, and rocks the size of a head came crashing down on the streets below. Lee made sure to keep Liv in close proximity as they ran blindly to the streets.
Adding the smoke and the sandstorm, it was the best ingredient to make someone blind. Both of them made sure to filter out harmful stuff their olfactory system might inhale. They also switched to infrared vision, so that they could have an idea where they were heading.
After passing through the first building, the rest of the structures nearby began falling down too. And like a bad luck raining down from above, a sharp object makes contact with his body, specifically his right leg, causing him to lose balance. Before he falls down, he pushes Liv with all the strength he could muster so that debris wouldn't hit her.
Liv was thrown a few feet away, just as a large chunk of the falling building landed on top of where Lee was. Rocks and debris slid on the streets, landing by a hair's inch towards the female construct lying on the ground.
“N-No... Lee!”
Liv exclaimed. Right afterwards, she began feeling an agonizing pain creeping up her body. She helplessly crawls to the sidewalk and leans her weakened body on a miraculously intact structure. As much as she wanted to stand up, a stabbing pain greets her legs every time she moves.
Looking down at her hands, she sees her legs covered in small cuts as broken glass shards embedded themselves in her thighs. There was a medium sized industrial rod that went through her stomach, causing sparks and vital fluids to come out of the wound.
“Ah... I'm woun...ded...” Liv lets out a shaky breath, before looking towards the rubble. It wasn't the only building that collapsed. The strange tremor caused an entire line of buildings to tumble down, and unbeknownst to her, a deep crack in the surface was also present.
She activates her scanners, but it was glitching profusely that even her location wasn't visible in the holographic map. That's when she realized that one of her inver-device had a small crack, which travelled all the way to the side of her neck.
But before she could examine her injuries further, the familiar, blood-curling sounds of the corrupted was closing nearby. She turns her head towards the general location of the source and saw their glowing visors amidst the dust and smoke on the ground.
“...Ur..gh... power...”
“Humans...must...perish...”
“...kill...”
The corrupted horde chanted as they advanced towards her position. The glint of their blades caused her to feel an icy cold feeling travel down her spine. The shadow of hopelessness loomed over her like the darkening skies of a brewing storm.
“Lucia... Commandant... Please help me...”
Liv bites down her lower lip and forces her M.I.N.D to connect to her levi-guns. Her weapons weren't able to keep up when the debris started falling, and only one was left working. The left gun was a heap of sparking mess, but she could still make use of it.
As the single particle cannon rose above her head, Liv crawls to the ground and reaches for the condensed plasma charge of the defunct left gun. She forcibly yanks it from the main charging rod and takes it with her, before going back to the wall she was leaning on.
“Lee... I'm sorry...” The female construct whispers. Tears streamed down from her watery eyes as the murderous horde of corrupted found a shortcut through the collapsed buildings.
Despite the pain all over her body, Liv grits her teeth and strengthens her resolve. She had no idea if her friend was dead, and she was incapacitated due to her injuries. And now, she was in a life and death situation against a whole army of corrupted mechanoids, with no one by her side.
“Commandant...” Liv utters, before extending her right hand with her palm facing the corrupted.
“I'll take as many of you with me..!”
She yells in anger, before activating her weapon. Soon, a desperate and callous skirmish between a girl and the mass of corrupted occurs in the ruined sector of City 015.
///
BOOM!
CRASH!
Lucia dives out of the way just in time to avoid a falling part of a building. She repeatedly rolls to the ground before standing up. The toppled building lands in a sea of marching corrupted, causing a large chunk of her their problems to be gone in an instant.
It's been over fifteen minutes since Liv's attempted contact, yet there was no sign of her two friends. They were supposed to be here right now, and considering there wasn't much corrupted left in their rear lines, they shouldn't have faced any problems.
However, that was when they felt a strange tremor in the ground. Akiio told her that it was probably another Nobian missile, but it felt entirely different. While humans cannot sense if something foreign was happening in the air, constructs could, especially advanced models.
Lucia felt a strange sensation impacting her body just as the rumbling in the ground started. At the same time, the viral density of the Punishing Virus around this sector began rapidly rising, as if something sinister was awakening them.
“Lucia! Behind you!”
She hears Akiio's voice in the distance, causing her to turn around. She ducks to avoid a leaping attack from a corrupted envoy, before counterattacking it with a finishing stab in the chest. The droid instantly goes limp.
“Are you hurt?” Akiio runs towards her, panting as his stamina began to deplete.
“A few scratches, but I'm alright Commandant. However, there's still no sign of Lee and Liv.” Lucia reports and tightens the makeshift bandage in her wounded arm.
“Fuck. What's taking them so long?” Akiio asked. But before he could think of an answer, a bright flash suddenly came from the rear lines.
Akiio, Lucia, and the many constructs and Commandants fighting side by side in the sector all witnessed a strange light forming about 3 blocks away. It wasn't clearly situated in the sky, more like it was hovering just above some of the still undamaged buildings.
The light slowly swirls and swirls, until it becomes swollen. A hole starts to form in the middle, and it began rotating faster. It was like a black hole was forming right on top of their heads, leaving them speechless and dumbfounded. This was unlike anyone has ever seen before.
As the Babylonian forces stood in a mix of fear and awe, three Ascendants watched the scene unfold quite a distance away. They were also baffled by the sudden appearance of the tremor and the sudden burst of light, so they joined in as an observer.
“Roland, what's the status of their ground forces?” The girl in the middle asked in a voice lacking emotion.
The Ascendant named Roland speaks. “They are heavily outnumbered, but they are still holding out Miss Luna. Those pesky humans... Should I head in?”
Luna raises a hand and waves his suggestion off. “Do not bother, my sister is already down there. She knows the perfect time to strike.”
She lets out a sigh and gestures towards a larger Ascendant, who was busy reading a copy of Beyond good and evil, a book made by a man named Friedrich Nietzsche. He steps forward and waits for Luna's orders.
“Gabriel, is that portal lookalike coming from that virus infested space station?”
“Yes Miss Luna.” The Ascendant named Gabriel responds. “Though it is harnessing something other than the virus.”
Luna and Ronald glances at him with a befuddled look.
“Hoh? And what do you mean by that?” Roland queries.
“I do not have a concrete answer to your question. The surge of energy is foreign to me, and it is no way connected to the Punishing Virus.” Gabriel adds, before glancing up into the heavens. The sky was already getting darker, in contrast to its fiery glow from before.
“Miss Luna, I suggest calling back your sister. I have a feeling this won't end well.”
///
Akiio ignores the shouting and yelling of the other commandants to not go as he ran towards the rear lines. Lucia was following close, cutting down the unexpectedly large amounts of corrupted that got through the crumbled buildings.
His heart was pounding faster as adrenaline coursed through his veins. The thought of Lee and Liv being caught within the earthquake and the hole in the air made his head throb in pain. He realized too late what was happening, as well as the entirety of Babylonia.
The virus infested space station in Earth's orbit was emitting strange fluctuations of foreign energy signatures, as well as harnessing huge amounts of the virus. For some reasons, Babylonia decided to break radio silence and began ordering everyone to evacuate the area as fast as they could.
Akiio decided to go against orders, even going as far as breaking his intercom to escape the yelling of the officers above the station. He had a responsibility, a huge one to say the least, and he's not just going to leave his friends behind. If Babylonia can discard even their best constructs, he won't follow their shadows.
“Commandant! I'm detecting Liv's signal!” Lucia shouted from behind.
He too, could feel that Liv was still connected to his M.I.N.D, albeit weakened. He could see through the heads-up-display lots of red lines on her vital signs, indicating that she wasn't in good shape.
What made his blood run cold however, was Lee's connection. It was totally severed. No matter how hard he tried to reach him through his M.I.N.D, he received no response. It was like he was blocked, or worse...
Dead.
‘No, it's gotta be a mistake.’ Akiio internally thought. ‘I mean, it has to be...’
They turned the corner leading up to where they were dropped off, and was instantly met with the sight of destroyed buildings. As for he could see, only a handful of structures were left standing. The street was blocked by huge chunks of debris, so they had to maneuver around it to get to the next street.
As they went past the barricade full of falled rocks, the distinct sounds of particle beams being discharged was heard from afar. Lucia and Akiio glanced at each other, before breaking off into a run. Those were coming from levi-guns, and there was only one person in their squad using that weapon.
A dizzying sight of uncountable bodies of mangled corrupted mechanoids greeted them, and like a dissonance in the air, not one droid moved. Akiio caught sight of a dead envoy, which was lodged in a rubble of stones. Fresh smoke was coming from its chest, and another white particle round hits its head.
Akiio immediately goes over a mass grave of corrupted, and instantly his heart shatters into tiny pieces. He saw the sorry state Liv was in, causing him to drop his weapon on the ground. Lucia managed to catch up to him, and she immediately bolted to where the silken haired construct was sitting.
“A...Ah...L-Lucia...How did you...change your frame so...fast..?” Liv asks weakly and continued extending her arm forward, causing her overheated levi-gun to keep shooting the already dead envoy.
“L-Liv...oh I'm so sorry... We didn't know the corrupted broke through!” Lucia kneeled in front of her critically wounded friend and hugs her.
Akiio couldn't find himself to move. Liv probably hasn't noticed, but her only working arm was her right, and it's already torn to shreds. He could see the other mangled arm of hers lying on the ground, shredded by a sword. Her legs, though intact, was riddled with glass shards.
A metal rod was also embedded in her stomach, and judging by the dried vital fluids on her clothes, she has been fighting all these corrupted by herself for the past half an hour or so.
He noticed that she was staring at him with a soft expression, causing him to despise himself even further. She was probably expecting help from him in the first place, yet he wasn't there when she needed him the most.
“...Commandant... I'm sorry...” Liv croaked, her tears washing away the dirt in her cheeks. “Lee... I failed to save him...”
Akiio goes in front of her and hugs her gently, before lightly stroking her hair. This made Liv cry even more.
“Don't apologize. None of this was your doing. You were very brave Liv.” he desperately held the tears that threatened to spill. He pats her in the back to calm her down.
“..I saw... It was Lucia... I know it was her...since she helped me...clear out the corrupted in here..” Liv struggled to get the words out, which made them confused.
Lucia was taken aback by what she heard. “No Liv... I was with Commandant all the time.”
“Then...who was that construct..that helped me..?”
Lucia slowly rose up from her feet and glanced at the general direction of the ruined structures. The swirling hole in the sky was much lower now. No matter how much she rescanned the place, there was no sign of life other than the three of them.
He glances back and saw that Akiio was carrying the gravely wounded Liv in his arms. She was already unconscious, and her resting face certainly looked so peaceful. Lucia commends Liv for her bravery to the bottom of her heart, and considers her to be braver than her.
Overhead, several Babylonian transport crafts was landing on the ground, and one of the ships began signalling them using their searchlights. Akiio squinted his eyes and could make out constructs peering from the open bay doors.
“Evac is here! Board the airship!
I repeat, board the airship!”
A booming voice resounded throughout the wrecked city. It came from a construct holding a megaphone. The airship hovered a couple of feet from the ground, before landing shortly after.
Four fully armed constructs came out of the transport craft, before heading towards the three bewildered Gray Ravens. Akiio caught a glimpse of the familiar badge of the Kurono force strapped in their vests, when a construct stepped in front of him.
“Gray Ravens right?!” The male construct bellowed due to the deafening sounds of the thrusters.
“Yes!” Lucia responded.
“Board up then! Command is ordering an emergency evac. This place is as good as dead!” The lead construct shouted and gestured to two of his squad members. They unfolded a stretcher and helped Akiio put Liv in there.
“Wait! One of my squad members is still out there!” Akiio points at the rubble in the distance. “I need to find him!”
“Are you fucking with me? Board the goddamn ship Sir!” The construct retorted.
Before Lucia could punch him in the face for his lack of manners, clanking of metallic parts came from behind them. They all turned around and saw broken corrupted mechanoids being drawn in what looked like a thick red metalloid substance.
Akiio was the first one to realize what was happening, since the knowledge about the virus was embedded in his knowledge since day 1 of his class.
“...Holy shit...this place is turning into a lake full of virus...”
“What the hell are you waiting for?! Come on!” The construct shouted at the two of them, causing them to run towards the transport craft. A guttural scream tore through the air as the newly formed organism rose from the heaps of mangled metal parts.
Akiio was the last one to board the aircraft, while Lucia helped him up. An abomination of a creature was formed, probably from the immense surge of the Punishing Virus. However, that wasn't why he was glaring daggers at the city they were leaving...
“Fuck... We lost Lee... Fuck!” Akiio grinded his teeth and seethed in anger.
The rest of the rescue team fell silent after seeing the anger and sorrow in his eyes. Even though they were assholes while conversing with human officers, they still respected other constructs.
“...” Lucia was blankly staring at the window. Even though it wasn't evening yet, the clouds covered the sky along with the smoke from the now ruined city. She felt sorry for Liv that she had to go through that all alone, even though her friend mentioned another 'Lucia'.
She wasn't there to back her up, and now they left a friend with all the dead soldiers and constructs of Babylonia. Was this supposed to be the price of every victory and loss? If so, is it even allowed to be called worth it?
Both Lucia and Akiio couldn't do anything other than look from the safety of their window as their transport craft went farther from the city. They just left one of their own down there, and that alone was a reason to hate themselves.
City 015 became a hotbed for the corrupted afterwards, as the epicenter of the strange hole left a high density lake of solid metalloids of the Punishing Virus. Babylonia might have suffered another defeat today, but there was always a next time.
A next time to throw in new lives into the meat grinder that is Earth.
«‹⟨ TO BE CONTINUED ⟩›»
A/N: (This revision will have massive changes to old chapters I deem cringe and has too many plot holes that you could literally peer through my soul. I'm sorry of this would make readers confused, but it's a necessary sacrifice
ಥ‿ಥ)
Published: March 6, 2022
Words: 5652