10:45 pm
"Go!" Suzuki tensed as the two-letter transmission flashed across his heads-up display (HUD). Finally, it was time for them to take action. "Have you found him?"
"Hold on..." Natsu frowned, rapidly scanning the different monitors. She had searched for Cassia for over twenty minutes, but the annoying alien commander remained elusive. She was about to curse when a drone suddenly pinged for attention. Natsu quickly checked the camera feedback. Small red buildings in the periphery revealed this drone had gone to the residential area. A second ping drew Natsu's eye to a giant, 9-feet tall blue, humanoid alien walking down the path in a bear-like battle suit.
The alien had two protruding tusks coming out of its mouth and a T-shaped bone spur growing from its forehead. His "Found him! Sharing the feed to the strike team." Pointing at the further of the two assembly buildings, she said, "The Centurion is in that hangar. I'll keep the drone on Cassia while we blow up the Centurion. We've got seven minutes until the tsunami hits. I don't want to be on level ground when that happens. Let's move."
"Roger." Suzuki nodded and stood upright. But just then, a screen fizzled into the upper left corner of his view. 'The elevator drone!' "Give me ten seconds!" He quickly called as he connected to the drone to playback its footage from the past ten minutes. To save time, Suzuki fast-forwarded the playback. However, he could still parse the information thanks to his accelerated brain functions.
From the video, the elevator opened to a hangar-like area at the top. Suzuki could see a few spaceships next to several stacked boxes. A dozen or so aliens moved the boxes out of the elevator and replaced them with a new set. Some cargo seemed almost as large as a bus, leaving Suzuki ponderous about their purpose. However, nothing interested him as much as the elevators' security.
Like at the bottom, the security personnel at the top did not bother checking the boxes they delivered. It appeared they had become lax due to the remote chance of enemies sneaking into the two-way elevator.
By the time the ten seconds were up, Suzuki had finished his analysis. He looked at Natsu. "The plan I told you about. It's a go." Suzuki reached into the bag strapped to his RDK unit and pulled out a large, black, disk-like object about the diameter of a basketball. He pointed at a blue orb at its centre and handed it to Natsu. "Just push that and slot it in one of those empty boxes down there. I'll take care of the Centurion."
Natsu stared at Suzuki as she took the device. "Are you sure? If your plan works, the operative who carried it out should gain many merit points."
Suzuku paused. Turning to Natsu, he said, "You don't understand. I don't care about merit points."
"What?"
"Think about what we're doing," said Suzuki, his voice low and hard. "In this setting, earth has been invaded by aliens. If we fail, they'll have free reign to sick a Centurion on our defences. Do you think we have anything on Earth that can stop a Centurion?" Clenching his fists, Suzuki turned and looked to the sky. "I don't care about merit points. Only the mission matters. And getting these bastards off our planet."
"I guess it's true." Natsu shook her head. "You really are fucked in the head." Suzuki's opaque visor radiated the youth's frost. Which, paradoxically, sent a small smile up Natsu's lips. She transferred the device to her left hand and held out her right. "Suppose that's why I can trust you. I'll definitely complete the mission. Just make sure you blow up that Centurion."
Suzuki looked at the outstretched hand. He hesitated for a moment but then accepted the shake. "I won't fail—even if I have to die."
"There you go again." Natsu sighed and then began running down the elevator. "Don't get the wrong idea. I'll still destroy you in Line!"
Suzuki snorted. "That's between you and Kashi." The young man then darted down the elevator at a different angle.
***
10:46 pm
Several tiny lights shone through the darkness in the dense woods north of the alien's HQ. Among the patiently waiting Gladiators was a conspicuous white Lightbringer. A giant sniper rifle hung at its back with an equally large bow slung over its shoulder.
The strange Gladiator pilot, Ayumi, took a deep breath as she studied Cassia's feed. The alien was even larger than intel suggested. But she was not intimidated. Miote's team had reported their success, so she knew chaos would soon befall the compound. Only Suzuki and Natsu's roles remained.
Heh, like there was a chance Suzuki that madman, would fail.
Ayumi glanced at the time and then spoke into the team channel. "All agents, we have identified Cassia. Ensure your Gladiators are battle-ready!."
As Ayumi spoke, the sound of several mech suits powering on echoed through the trees. The noise was like nothing the forest had ever heard before – a deep and ominous hum that seemed to promise death to all.
***
10:48 pm
Natsu's descent was smooth. Perhaps due to the elevator which had just opened, the guards never even looked up. Not that they would have spotted her with the stealth mode on. Her only concern, the floating disk syndrome, was solved by keeping the disk as close to the elevator's walls as possible. That way, anyone who looked up did not see anything out of place.
Several stacks of boxes from previous and current deliveries littered the elevator's base, with those marked for returns closest to the elevator doors. Fortunately for Natsu, these boxes provided plenty of covers, allowing her to steal behind some before anyone spotted her.
Once out of sight, she ejected the RDK, which immediately became visible, and quickly stuffed it in an empty box. Unburdened, she connected to a nearby drone to scan the area for the guards. She counted nearly thirty in the vicinity, but thankfully, they were distant and lax in their patrols, giving her a way through. Despite her invisible frame, the young woman crouched low, dropping to all fours and slowly scurried through the site, dodging patrols until she reached the stack of boxes to be returned.
Once there, Natsu peered at the aliens, preoccupied with moving several massive boxes, some as large as SUVs, out of the elevator. Recalling the extra mission to discover what these deliveries contained, she was tempted to send some drones to investigate. But, considering the safety of their primary mission, she managed to rein in her impulses. Instead, she searched for a large box, opened it, and slid inside.
Crunch* The closed lid swallowed the soft sounds of crunching metal as Natsu landed in a pile of discarded parts. Knowing she did not have much time, she removed Suzuki's disk, cleared a pile of rubble, placed it on the floor, and then pushed the blue sphere at the centre. The sphere depressed with a soft click and then briefly lit up with a faint blue light before dimming once again.
Natsu would have thought she messed up were it not for faint vibrations. Trusting Suzuki's instructions, she piled the surrounding scrap metals over the disc, blocking it from view, and climbed out of the container. She briefly waited to check for guards and then quickly ran to the back of the orbital elevator to climb to safety.
***
Meanwhile, elsewhere, Suzuki's eyes narrowed as he peered into the Centurion maintenance facility from a side window. Natsu did not dare send her drone into the facility because of the extra security, so Suzuki had to assess the threat level personally.
The torso of a massive Centurion mech placed at the southern wall protruded from the ground. Several gangways wrapped around the Centurion at different heights, making it easy for the engineers to perform maintenance, one extending just underneath Suzuki's window. Dozens of heavily armed guards patrolled the walkways, their professional gait much more intense than the lax guards outside.
Suzuki nodded, understanding the difference. The aliens revered Cassia's strength. With their ace pilot, they could easily crush any opposition. So, it stood to reason that they would take protecting his mech even more seriously. The aliens could not permit anything bad to happen to this mech!
In fact, were it not for the need to reduce heat, the facility would probably not even have windows. Suzuki's sensors recorded temperatures over hundreds of degrees, escaping the facility. Even with the Gladiator suit's insulation, a small pool of sweat had already formed on the young man's brows. He could not begin to imagine what the interior felt like. He finally figured out why the workers remotely controlled the suits. They would roast alive otherwise!
A slight grating sound turned Suzuki's attention to the guards. The one on his right had turned to patrol the gangway. Suzuki's vision turned red as he activated the suit's 'Internal Sight,' which peered through the metallic structure to see the flow of electricity in the guard. The complicated electric flows were like mini currents in the 'veins' of the machines, which converged at two significant spots. The first sat in the robot's abdomen, while the second was on the upper-left shoulder.
"Smart," Suzuki softly mused. "Without a physical pilot, the control chip doesn't need to be in the helmet." The young man's breath stilled as he slid a short sword from his legs. No longer concealed, the moonlight caught the blade, sending a reflection onto the gangplank.
"Kret?" The remaining guard murmured something, momentarily confused by the sudden light spot on the otherwise dark floor. In that split-second where its mind wavered, Suzuki slipped in through the window and landed in front of it.
Up close, the guard spotted the weird refraction of the world where Suzuki stood. It immediately understood that an intruder had appeared. Unfortunately, as this thought surfaced, Suzuki drove the blade into its left shoulder, leaving the alien stunned and confused. With its control chip dead, the suit automatically switched off and fell.
Suzuki snorted as he pulled his sword out and caught the suit before it hit the ground. He gently placed the suit on the ground and then raced toward the other guard. Strangely, Suzuki's steps barely issued a sound as he leapt onto the railing and dashed forward. He retained much of Razznik and Kashi's training, allowing him to move quickly but silently.
Unfortunately, this was the real world, not a video game. Even with Suzuki's best efforts, noise cancellation did not exist. As a result, the second guard finally picked up the faint tapping with its super hearing when Suzuki was roughly five meters away.
The guard promptly turned around, weapon raised in one smooth motion. Shockingly, however, it did not find a trace of any intruders. Just then, a sense of impending death enveloped the alien. It quickly looked to the left, finally seeing the faint, distorted silhouette charging down the railing.
It quickly moved to squeeze its trigger, but before it could, a glint flashed across and stabbed into its left leg. Even as it crumbled, the guard could not understand how the intruder not only identified its control chip's location but also had the skill to disable it in one strike.
Suzuki, meanwhile, picked up his sword and charged ahead. With two dead, he knew he did not have much time left until someone found their bodies or they failed to perform some regulatory check-in. Choosing to avoid conflict, Suzuki either dropped or ascended the gangways to avoid the patrolling guards. With this strategy, he soon reached the Centurion's massive head.
"Ugh!" Suzuki suppressed a groan once he reached 5 meters from the Centurion. The mech seemed to have a dense force around it that put immense pressure on everything around it. For the first time, Suzuki understood why Akari said they stood no chance against a Centurion. The mech's passive pressure was enough to make things difficult for Suzuki. He could not imagine what the pressure would be like if a pilot actively controlled it. Perhaps no one would be able to move for miles.
Fortunately, Cassia, the pilot was not present, so Suzuki braced himself and pushed forward. He crawled onto the mech's back and placed a rectangular bomb on the joint between its neck and head. Suzuki then crawled to its shoulders and put a few on those joints. Then he crawled down, systematically placing bombs near the chest at the hips and finally on the legs.
After he finished, Suzuki looked around to find himself in an underground facility. Several massive weapons like a gigantic rifle, a giant blade, something that resembled a rocket launcher, and more lined the walls held by huge hooks.
Suzuki did not need a military degree to recognize that this was the Centurion's armoury. He looked up and saw wiring in the ceiling, confirming his hypothesis. The roof was a gate that could either slide or swing open. When required, the Centurion would arm itself and fly out to join the battle. However, the crude nature of the hooks holding the weapons made Suzuki guess this was a temporary facility.
After completing whatever mission it had here, the Centurion would leave this base to join the war efforts. But that would mean that the aliens were not confident that a single Centurion could completely alter the fate of the war. So, humanity still had a fighting chance.
In that case, what kind of weapon required a Centurion to guard it over joining the war effort?
Suzuki's mind spun as he thought of all the possibilities. But, realizing he had little time, Suzuki scanned the place for explosives. His visor picked up a signature from a stack of boxes a few meters away. Sticking to the walls, he sneaked over and dropped his remaining explosives.
Finally satisfied, the young operative climbed up the Centurion's back until he reached the ceiling. He began crawling towards the window he came through when a stinging feeling pierced the back of his neck. Suzuki froze, a cold shiver creeping up his spine as his hair stood on end.
Suzuki recognized this feeling. It was the same when Kashi and Razznik faced a massive predator several times stronger than them. He felt like prey that had been locked onto by an apex predator!
Suzuki slowly turned around, his face contorting into a tight frown, when he saw a familiar alien glaring at the ceiling.
"Get down here!" Despite not seeing anything, Cassia roared in perfect Japanese as he raised his gun and pointed it at Suzuki. A tremendous aura burst out of the enraged general, crashing towards the intruder with the force of a tsunami.
For his part, Suzuki's gaze turned frosty cold with frigid battle intent. The ruthless teenager would never cower before anything or anyone! Just before Cassia's aura struck him, Suzuki snorted.
'Bombs Activated!'
The prompt flashed before Suzuki's eyes as he sneered, "Make me!"
BOOM!
The explosion began deep within the underground portion of the facility. With a thunderous roar, the bombs near the explosives denoted, releasing colossal shockwaves through the complex. Walls crumbled, metal twisted, and the acrid smell of burning circuitry filled the air. But the destruction had only begun. The initial blast triggered a chain reaction, rapidly igniting the remaining explosives.
Shockwaves reverberated through the earth, cracking the ground in the maintenance bay above. As the force travelled upward, it shattered the surface and burst through the floor of the maintenance facility. The guards, engineers, Cassia, and even Suzuki, were flung into chaos as debris rained down upon them. Screams of terror mixed with the sound of crumbling infrastructure, filling the air with a symphony of destruction.
Fires erupted, consuming the once-busy maintenance bay. Flames licked at the one-towering Centurion, now broken and shattered; its pieces engulfed in a roaring inferno. The massive parts groaned under the heat and pressure, collapsing one by one, their molten remains adding to the devastation.
Amid the chaos, emergency sirens wailed, and evaluation protocols were activated. The frantic aliens scrambled to safety or searched the crumbling facility for their ace pilot. The destruction was absolute, a testament to Suzuki's ruthlessness and the devastating power of fusion bombs.
Several meters away, Natsu, who had just climbed to the safety zone, viewed the events from her screen. Her grip tightened as she stared at the screen with cold eyes. "That Suzuki... He's ruthless enough!"
Meanwhile, as the alarms blared, the surviving aliens rushed to the wreckage to search for Cassia. They had just begun to dig when a terrible shaking interrupted them.
Wondering if there was another explosion, they quickly searched in all directions but suddenly stopped. Dread, fright and helpless despair swept across the base as the aliens gazed upon the 50-meter-tall tsunami that rounded the bend and shattered their chain-link fences.