“She's riding a Vassago.”
Those words echoed inside Rozzi's head as the breathtaking view of the mechanical desert worm rose up from the sandy dunes. It let's out a ear piercing scream, enough to make them cover their ears.
“I heard you guys were looking for me! Ha-ha! I found me'self a hunt!” Laethiel's voice came from their transreceiver.
“You crazy Russian fuck! Where the hell are you!?” Rozzi screams back. She couldn't spot her friend due to the amount of sand whissing in the air. The Vassago was writhing while it's body was erected almost 30ft above ground.
“I'm punching it's...–ke out your binoculars!”
“Damn, now that's a big one.” Thana muttered as she aimed her plasma rifle at the corrupted beast. Even though they were quite a distance away, the ground was shaking like it was the end of the earth.
Rozzi clicked her tongue and took out a set of binoculars, before trying to find her friend on top of the Vassago. After scanning for quite a bit, she managed to catch a glimpse of a series of sparks coming off of the side of the huge mechanoid.
It was Laethiel, clutching a thin cable wire while continuously landing punches on the Vassago's visual modules. Her face, seemingly wearing a crazed grin, made her look like evil incarnate as she forced the huge worm into submission.
As the Vassago was about to burrow itself on the sand, a shockwave, visible to the naked eye, emanated to where the head of the corrupted machine was supposed to be. Like a pulsar releasing it's pent up energy, the lethal charged punch of Laethiel's fists sends the wailing corrupted crashing unto open ground.
“Sheesh.” Thana commented as she puts two fingers on the joint of her arm.
“Should'nt we be helping her?” Stella asked, concerned about her friend's well-being. She snaps her fingers at Rozzi, who was watching the whole ordeal with what seems to he an amused expression.
“I don't know about that...” she shrugged her shoulders, “Lae seems to be gaining the upper hand.”
They watched as Laethiel's figure leapt from the head and into the air. There was a slight crackle on their transreceiver, followed by an intense and terrifying laughter from the seemingly deranged Russian construct.
She slowly descended from the sky, and like a sonic boom, her Earth shattering strike made the Vassago release a last, ear splitting screeching that made the rest of task force Lazarus cover their ears. Soon after, another shockwave, this time stronger than before, shook the ground.
A huge gust of wind occurred right after the explosion, before being released as another sand storm. Rozzi was now sure that from the bottom of her heart, she would thank the engineers on Babylonia for making Laethiel wield that deadly of a weapon.
“*cough*, you think she killed it?” Thana asked, wiping away the stray hair slapping at her eyes. The wind was still blowing sands towards them from every direction.
“The hell did you even cough for? Sand doesn't even affect our olfactory senses.” Stella questioned.
“Bruh, just answer the question will you?”
“I think she did.” Rozzi answered. She was sitting in the ground, half buried by the sand and dazed by what she just witnessed.
“The problem is, if Laethiel died, we gotta find her Inver-device in all that shit.” Thana added while sighing.
“Yeah, like that time when we were ambushed by that devil incarnate of an Ascendant. She was even giddy when Asimov revived her.” Stella said as she helped her Commandant up.
“That was almost a year ago now right?” Rozzi shakes the sand away from her clothes. “Time does fly.”
“Heck, we don't even know what caused that sudden light surge on city 015.”
“You reckon it was aliens?” Stella chimed in.
“Must be. I mean, that would totally blow my mind away.”
“Well, if it's the sole work of the Punishing virus, that means it's evolving... and if it's already evolved, then we're all fucked.” Rozzi interrupted them as they neared the location of the epic battle.
The three of them stopped atop a small incline and was greeted with the sight of the unmoving corrupted. The head was severed into tiny pieces, and metal parts was scattered all over the premises.
“Damn girl was packing quite the fist power.” Rozzi commented, amazed by what the new and improved weapon can do. With the sheer force of her power alone, maybe they could hunt down the Ascendant who killed Akiio's construct.
“We should definitely call her, ‘Laethiel, the fister of men’. Whaddya think?” Thana said with a huge grin plastered on her face.
“What I think...” A raspy voice interrupted their casual walk, causing them to aim their weapons behind.
“...is that I did a damn good job again.” Laethiel said as she raised herself from the sand. Her red hair was as messy as it could be, with sand falling unto the ground in trails.
Thana and Stella simultaneously sighed in relief. “Don't you sneak up on us like that. I could have easily mistook you for a corrupted.”
“You could pass as one at the moment.”
“Well, she looks like shit for sure.” Rozzi agreed while eyeing her up and down, checking for damages.
Her construct body was battered with cuts, slashes and burn marks. The special armor installed on her torso was still intact, even though she just battled a huge corrupted.
“Good job Lae.” she gave her a genuine smile.
“Anytime commandant.” Laethiel gives her an amused look before saluting.
Rozzi flicks her hair aside as she plants something in the sand. It was a small device that can only be scanned by Babylonia, or any other airborne satellites that's associated with any of the deployed task forces due north. She fishes out a datapad on her pouch and began inputting the location of the Vassago's ruins.
As she was looking for a strong signal, she noticed that Laethiel was squinting her eyes in the distance. She motioned for Stella what was going on, but the swordswoman just shrugged her shoulders.
Laethiel glances around while looking uneasy, which ultimately led the others to feel the same. The three of them watched as the Russian construct glared beyond the rising sandstorm, all the while readying herself in a combat stance. This led the rest to react on instinct.
“Oi, oi. What the hell is going on?” Thana, who was sitting idly mere seconds ago, asked as she cautiously aimed her plasma rifle in front of her, not knowing what to do.
“Rozzi, get in the middle!” Stella's voice boomed as she unsheathed her blade, carefully stepping backwards as the three of them formed a defensive perimeter around their Commandant.
Rozzi did what she was told and pulled out a measly handgun, like it would do any different against a corrupted. Still, she didn't want to be a statue while her team fights them.
“Laethiel, what in the fuck are you seeing?” Thana bellowed at her friend as she puts a finger above the trigger. Babylonia was known for having the most advanced visual modifications known to man, but a simple sandstorm can be lucky enough to disrupt it.
And in this case, it was.
“Multiple constructs approaching...” Laethiel hissed back.
“And they're all Forsaken.”
======
(Kaliena's P.O.V)
Earlier...
I remember being woken from my nap by the sounds of the base's alarm system. The blaring noise made me sat upright immediately. It was loud and annoying, but it made sure to convey to everyone what was happening.
“That's not a good sign...” Attila muttered as she joined me on the watch tower, nodding in the distance. She was still tying up her hair, and with how loose it was, I assume she just woke up too.
A plume of sand can be seen rising in the horizon, followed by a distant rumbling. It felt like the earth was groaning, tired of what was happening on it's surface after all this years.
“Can't believe a Vassago traveled too deep in our territory. That means the southwestern outposts have fallen too right?” I masked the uncertainty in my voice while leaning on the sturdy railings.
Attila was silent for a while, so silent that I had to double check if she was still standing beside me, or if I lost her. She was there, but her expression was muddied, almost like the life seeped out of her eyes.
“We're done for if that's what happened... and I guess that's what happened since that thing showed up.” Attila replied, eyes slightly defocusing.
“You think they received our message?” I asked her, a question that was concerning everyone at the stronghold. A question that everybody needed an answer to.
“Tech guys said the signal got through, before the radars were totally jammed. It's them alright, since the interceptor came from the south.” Attila responded spitefully.
I glanced at the growing sandstorm with a frown, hoping that the huge gathering of the soldiers from the 35th would divert the Vassago's attention. They are still probably out there somewhere, plotting and strategizing how to take over this place.
Masters of armored warfare, those guys. I still couldn't fathom how they managed to broke away, and with little to no resistance internally. Surely they must've double checked what their betrayal would mean right?
But they did it anyway. One second my company's outpost was peaceful, the next second we were in a slaughterhouse, getting gunned down by our would be comrades.
If only I had known sooner...
I–
“I shouldn't had let her in...” I muttered bitterly, almost hissing.
A hand, Attila's soothing hand landed on my shoulder. “Kali... It wasn't your fault, never was.”
“Of course it's my fault! I let a goddamn traitor among our ranks!” I yell loudly, putting my hands on my head as the world began feeling heavy around me.
The face of that woman flashed before my eyes, the look of innocence in her eyes were so believable that it made my body shiver in anger. How could one disguise herself as an angel?
“You didn't know, it wasn't your fault.” Attila said beside me as she sat me down on a stool. The distant rumble was surprisingly fading, but I decided that it was the ringing in my ears causing it.
Of course, we didn't know. None of us expected to be betrayed by a dependable division, and that was the 35th. Hell, I was even rendered speechless when our would be comrades took the first shot.
It happened in one flurry of chaos as the girl puts on a mask, a mask so unnerving that it's details still bore a hole in my head. As crimson as blood and a devilish smile that would make children shit their pants, she commanded the Forsaken soldiers of the 35th to start taking over our base.
Just as the events of the attack crept it's way back into my head, a strong gust of wind shook the watchtower we were in, making me grab for the railings. Attila did the same, but she wasn't lucky as she fell on her bottom.
“What the hell just happened..?” I ask. “Are you alright?”
She stood up immediately and gazed into the distance, pulling me to my feet and pointing at the horizon. “Don't worry about me, worry about that!”
I stare at the scene before my eyes, and for a moment I thought that I was seeing things.
“Something's fighting the Vassago...” Attila muttered beside me, amazed by the sudden flashes of sparks in the distance. If the impacts could produce such magnitude of sparks a few kilometers away, then it must be from the enemy soldiers right?
Except...
“...I don't hear no explosions, especially coming from a tank...” I said and leaned in the railing. After spotting an officer amongst the men in the courtyard, I ran down the stairs.
“Lieutenant!” I wave to a man wearing the distinct uniform of the 20th engineer company. “I need some volunteers to reconnoiter the dunes up ahead. Go and find me some combat ready scouts.”
He salutes. “Yes ma'am.” and off he goes.
Attila follows behind me, face full of new found determination. “What are you planning? Do we strike while the iron is hot?”
“You will stay here. I need someone to commandeer the base while I'm away.” Unfortunately for me, I was the highest ranking officer in the stronghold since most officers from other outposts have all been killed.
However, Attila wasn't having it. “What!? Why me? Can't I just go with you and kill those traitors?”
I put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it. “I need you here Attila. I trust that even though you aren't by my side always, you'll still have my back by taking care of these soldiers.”
She parted her lips a bit as if to argue, but ultimately she nodded.
“*sigh*, if you say so. I'll go organize those who are capable of fighting. Can't risk being too complacent now.” Attila smiles wryly before heading inside the complex.
I glanced up into the sky, and saw the fumes of the sandstorm in the distance. It feels like forever, but hours earlier I was just about lucky to escape the grasps of the enemy. And now I'm heading straight into death's jaws again.
The lieutenant comes back with fifteen soldiers, who were all lightly armored but still armed to the point they could damage the enemy, if we get spotted. I take my rifle and the body armor from the lieutenant and beckoned him with a grateful salute, before facing the men.
“It's crystal clear that we aren't in the most favorable situation right now. I know some of you aren't stationed here, and most likely got attacked on the way to this place...” I made sure to keep eye contact with everyone as they listened. “You've lost comrades to those traitors, and I'm giving you this chance to strike back.”
“I know you're scared, and are expecting the reinforcements coming from HQ. Hate to break it to you, but we can't just sit our asses here and expect hope to do all the job for us!”
“Yeah!”
I pace slowly in front of them. “I need you all to be alert once we go out there. We'll be doing a not-so-simple reconnaissance deep into enemy lines, so expect the unexpected. I have faith in you all.”
I gather up the courage to keep my hands from shaking, before racking the slide on my weapon. The icey cold feeling of makeshift adrenaline coursed through the wires inside me, causing my head to throb.
It was now or never.
“We shall rest when we're dead. Constructs... Move out!”
======
Present...
Kaliena moved swiftly among the debris stricken desert as her men moved into position. There was a huge density of punishing virus ahead of them, and it took the shape of a long line in the sand.
“Confirmed. Vassago is up ahead.” One of the scouts said in the private intercom.
Indeed, it was the dead corrupted. What made her wary was that there was no large movement ahead.
A platoon sized group can't be all hiding in the sand, and not this silent right? However, looking on the bright side of things, most of them probably got wiped out.
“I can see figures in the infrared. You reckon it's them?” another one addressed.
They weave through an incline, passing an upward slope that was filled up with burned down armored personnel carriers. The corpses of construct who failed to disembark the metal coffin they were in was still smoking, with some even charred black.
Kali curses under her breath as they neared the Vassago, it's unmoving body still visible due to the special modifications installed on their vision modules. What made her boil was that four figures were still alive, their signals pulsing red in her heads up display.
“What do we do now Cap?” One of the soldiers asked her.
There was a slight pause in the comlink as hundreds of possibilities ran in her mind. She shut all of it out in mere seconds.
“Follow close, and weapons up. Shoot them dead if they open fire.” Kali responds and leads the pack, ready to pounce on their newfound prey.
“Drop your weapons!” A female voice came from ahead, making them go down in one knee. “You don't wanna join your dead comrades now, do you?!”
She sounded mad, if not for the howling sands that nearly drowned her voice. Kali makes a hand gesture, causing the rest of her team to fan out in a circle.
“Don't think you can get away with what you done, you damn traitors! You lay down your weapons and get on your fucking knees!” she yelled back as she aimed her rifle on an unfamiliar silhouette approaching them. The figure moved up and front, revealing a female construct with red flowing hair.
“You still have the will to fight eh? I guess breaking away from the Forsaken has made you all bonkers!”
“Shut up and get on the ground! Or else we'll massacre the lot of you!” Kali shouts as her line of sight aligns with the gunsight. The redheaded construct raises her fist in a boxing stance and gives her a nod, as if daring her to shoot.
Just as she was about to squeeze the trigger, the radio in her chest crackled, and Attila's voice came afterwards.
“Kali! Multiple transport craft inbound from the west. I've got five in the radar, and one of them just flew past us!”
West. Huh, that must be them.
Kali thought. She glares back at the construct in front of her, before backing up a few meters.
“Noted. Radio them to land on the tarmac. I've got stragglers here from the 35th to deal with.” she then turns down the radio and calmly beckons the other scouts to back off. They did, and so was she.
Aiming her rifle dead center at the woman's face, Kali feels the calm washing over her body. She felt no remorse at the thought of gunning down a few surviving soldiers; or traitors, since there was no rule of warfare in this kind of world anymore.
The construct in front of her looked like she was about to lunge at her when another voice unfamiliar shouted from behind.
“Halt!”
In an instant, the red haired construct rethinks her move as another woman, this time wearing a strange sort of goggles and mask on her face, walks up front with her arms raised.
“Hold up, wait a minute, something ain't right!” The brown haired lady says in a muffled voice before removing her mask and goggles.
“We’re not Forsaken! We're a task force from Babylonia!”
Well that was unexpected. Kali felt her jaw drop a bit as she studied the woman's facial features, noting any signs of malevolence in her eyes. The look on her face said she wasn't lying, and so she reluctantly gives the order for the others to lower their weapons, but are still capable to strike when needed.
The brown haired lady motions behind her, and two more constructs appeared, both seemingly confused as hell. She then makes a palm gesture and orders them to stand down too, a universal sign by telling them to lower their weapons.
“Ahem. I'm Commandant Rozzi of task force Lazarus...” The woman, now called Rozzi states as she fishes out a pouch. She tosses it towards Kali, who catches it in both hands.
“...and I believe those are the... traitors you've been looking for.”
Kali squints her eyes a bit, maintaining eye contact for a second or two before opening the pouch. She dips her hand into the sea of metal chips, which were the charred and blackened dog tags of dead ex-Forsaken constructs.
“Well I'll be damned... You wiped them all out? Or was the Vassago responsible for it?” she kept her surprise from leaking out of her voice, and made sure not to give off any weak vibe.
Great, now we're dealing with Babylonia. Kali thought.
One of the tall constructs, the one that was holding what seems to be a plasma rifle, opened her mouth as if she was about to say something, but the swordswoman beside her gave her a not so gentle elbow on the stomach.
“We landed short of our destination, which is there...” Rozzi points behind the group, making them glance at their stronghold, “...and we got lucky enough to land right on top of them.”
“It was chaotic as fuck.”
Rozzi glanced at her colleague, before realizing something.
“Forgot to introduce my team. This one's Laethiel...” She slaps the redhead's back beside her. Laethiel only grinned, revealing a set of full white teeth.
“That one is Thana...”
“Yo.” Thana touched her eyebrow with a gloved finger.
“And this is Stella.” Rozzi points at the seemingly nonchalant swordswoman, who gave them a peace sign. She then nods towards Kali.
“How about you?”
Before she could answer, the sounds of incoming thrusters made them look up towards the source. It was a forsaken gunship flying above them. Strobes of signal lights came from the cockpit, and Rozzi saw that the lead soldier was now talking to her radio.
Amidst the noise, Thana activates her comlink.
“The hell do we do now? We can just ask them politely to take us to Watanabe.”
“Shush.” Rozzi looks at her, before nodding towards the now landed aircraft. They all look towards the ramp as it was lowered, covering the bottom of the gunship with misty steam as it opened.
Soon, a tall silhouette of a man emerged, tailed by four heavily armed soldiers. The rest of the soldiers rallied behind the woman they were just talking to a minute earlier. It seemed that the leader of the Forsaken values the importance of one's entrance.
“Babylonians...” Watanabe inhales sharply. “...give me one good reason not to kill you right now.”
======
North African desert, 20 kilometers from Babylonia's F.O.B
Unspecified facility
Hot.
That's what the construct felt as soon as she wakes up. The bright lights of the laboratory stung her eyes. It didn't help so when she twists her ankle as she clambered down from the operating table.
Groaning from the sudden pain, she lifts her small body up, using a nearby chair as support. Her mouth was dry and her head felt heavy, but she ignored it and went for the nearest mirror she could find.
This message is pre recorded. An automated voice came from the laboratory's speaker.
“You must be awake if this is playing.” A male voice filled her ears as she examined her face. It was then that she realized that she didn't know her name, or who she was.
“I–” she coughs rapidly, her throat dry as the arid desert.
“Don't panic. I know you're confused, but you have to complete the last set of the trials...”
“Trials..? W-What trials..?” The girl stands up in a daze, suddenly having the urge to find where the voice was coming from.
“Designated as BPN-X9Y, specialist type construct. Near the doorway, you should be able to see a wardrobe...” The voice tells her, making her look towards the doorway.
“...your garments are in there. We can't have you running around in a hospital gown.”
She looks down at her own body, and she was indeed wearing nothing but a thin layer of cloth. Her mind begins to calm down as she listened more to the instructions given to her by this unknown voice.
“Armaments. Yes, a construct's best friend. You should see two plasma repeaters polished in purple on the racks. Spare ammo are there too, so help yourself.”
She goes to the mirror after successfully wearing her combat uniform, which–to her surprise–was a sleeveless white dress. How this piece of clothing would provide adequate protection against shrapnel and rounds made her mind spin.
Shrapnel and...rounds. Why do I know of those..? The girl thought to herself.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she was surprised that both her arms were military grade prosthetics. Even her legs were like that, completely giving off that she was half android.
Did I...lose them in an explosion? The girl thought again.
“Strange...I can't remember.”
She touches the horn like devices on the side of her head, tracing it upwards. She picks up a hair tie on the counter, experimenting on different hairstyles that would fit her long, lilac and magenta tinted hair.
After minutes of exhausting herself through various varieties of hairstyles, she opted to let it drape down like normal. She walks around the room for a bit, looking for the source of the now silent voice. She hadn't even noticed that it stopped talking, and for a moment, she felt clarity.
Now that she had nothing to do in the room anymore, she goes towards the weapons rack and began equipping herself. It was utterly alien for her, yet she couldn't pinpoint why it suddenly felt ingrained in her, like she had years of practice in handling weapons.
Content with the armaments in her possession, albeit thinking it was overkill, she walks out of the facility and finds herself in long stretch of grey hallway. There was a light at the far end of the corridor, and she could make out sand in the distance.
But just before she could fully exit the facility, the voice speaks one last time, as if it was following her.
“Find the Gray Ravens. Find Akiio, and ease him with his burdens. Fulfill your destiny...Iris.”
«‹⟨ TO BE CONTINUED ⟩›»
Published: June 9, 2022
Words: 4309