Fan Fiction ❯ umm... submit a name? ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Alpha shook his head to clear it. The path of his memories was not one that he wanted to trudge down at the moment. Especially his darker memories. Each memory had been locked inside his mind, and it was not wise for even him to become lost in them. Each was like a prison inmate, tearing at him to release itself. His dark memories were locked away with stronger locks than the others. They were also worse to him when he unlocked them
An explosion outside the room, but close nonetheless, shook him back into reality. A quick glance at the clock on his desk confirmed that he had been wandering the road of his memories for over an hour now. He jumped into the seat at his desk, and quickly logged into the network, a huge program made entirely and solely for StarCorp. A check of any messages regarding the attack showed that he was being left out. StarCorp refused to reactivate their best soldier, even at a time like this.
Alpha snarled under his breath, and glowered at the small device displaying the information. At that second, an idea hit him. He entered a command into the device, and sent an engineer friend of his that Alpha would need a small favor from him
In two short hours, Alpha had made it past the security at the Angel hangar, and into his friend's Angel, under his friend's name. The cockpit was reassuring, but what came next wasn't. Alpha had to find a way past the prep crew His doubts quickly faded at the grating, mechanical voice that came through the comm. unit.
"Analyzing power supply 10%. Increasing power flow 20%30%.50%60%80%100% power supply at maximum analyzing boosters JLZ-D5 boostersbooster condition 80% Analyzing armor integrity scan at 50%.80%.scan completed. Armor integrity in green. Pilot manual check necessary."
Alpha flipped a toggle here, after deeming that the armor was, in fact, usable. He would have flipped it even if the armor was about to rot into a hundred pieces. Alpha smiled to himself at the thought.
"Manual check confirmationreceived analyzing weapons ZLX laser blade J5 rifle APA grenades Pilot confirmation of weapons necessary"
Alpha flipped another toggle, not even bothering to check the weapons.
"Pilot confirmation received analyzing ammunitionNo ruptured ammunition detected aligning power generator generator alignedauto-preparation complete Checking coordinates coordinate check complete. Sending to lift movement."
Alpha smiled and leaned back, thinking to himself, thank god for auto-preparation as the lift began its ascent towards ground. He ran through mission details, and was surprised to find that he was assigned to no quadrant in particular, with no back-up, with orders to generally shoot anything that moved. How specific could they possibly get?
A simple command allowed him to see the results of the assault through a security outpost. StarCorp was losing. That was easy to see. No, they weren't only losingthey were being slaughtered. There were three StarCorp pilots for every enemy pilot, and yet StarCorp was being massacred. The enemy Angels were all faster, stronger, and had better weapons. It was basically hopeless for StarCorp, especially if those lasers that had shot down Alpha and his rescuer showed up At that precise moment, the ground hatch opened, and Alpha saw the yellow Angel through the outpost. He simply sat there in surprise for a second, and then switched back to normal view and switched on his boosters. There was no way he was losing this time.
He no longer felt that he was simply the pilot of the Angel. No, he was the Angel. He became the very instrument of death that he now piloted. Each enemy he passed was blown away by the lesser version of his own rifle. Bullets flew closely by him, and he smiled at the recognition of being thought of as a threat. He didn't care about the others, just the single yellow Angel. It was within attacking range of StarCorp's defense turrets, but again they didn't attack.
Alpha was steadily getting closer to his target, though he was continuously hindered by the idiots that tried to attack him in close-range combat. All it took was a single shot at that range. A quick look down at the ammo display showed that he was down to fifteen rounds, and it wasn't a glitch. He holstered the rifle and flicked a switch on the laser blade. A long blade of pure electricity flashed from the small white hilt.
He was within firing range of the yellow Phoenix, but that wouldn't do. Just a little closer, and he could rip the enemy open with his sword He was there. The enemy hadn't even noticed him yet. He brought the flashing sword back, hovering just behind the enemy. His elation darkened to despair as the electric blade bent around the enemy, seeming to split into pieces against an invisible shield that surrounded it. Alpha happened to look down at the leg of the Angel, and saw where he had hacked into it before. There hadn't been a chance to repair the gaping weak point.
He reached his open hand into the wound, the barrier and wires within thoroughly electrocuting the arm of the machine, but it was still in working order. Alpha grabbed a handful of the wires and yanked as hard as he could, ripping the wires completely out of the Angel's leg. He imagined the pain that the pilot would be feeling right then, and spun in midair to deliver a crushing kick to the Angel's torso.
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Alpha's 'enemy pilot' had been looking for a weak point in the defenses of StarCorp's headquarters. The first attack had been to find it, and retreat to meet up with the attack force. The pilot had been smart enough to deliver a small jolt of energy to the defenses atop the base so that they wouldn't be a problem, before the attack. They had found the weak point in the defenses soon after, but they had been unable to attack. The pilot had thought that it would be a good idea to simply blow off a piece of the headquarters with a nice big blast of electricity.
Of course, this plan of action had been deterred when the pilot had been struck in the leg with a rather large sword, and had to remove the nuisance when the fool that had tried was gone, the order to retreat had come through. The yellow phoenix had been forced to turn around, and meet up with the real attack force so that the real attack could be initiated. It had taken only fifteen minutes to meet up, but reporting back had taken an additional twenty minutes. Moving with such a large force trying to stay concealed in the small forest surrounding the headquarters had taken twenty-five minutes. It was then that they decided to attack in earnest.
The battle had been going their way for the better half of three hours, until several of their forces were lost upon the arrival of a new Angel. He had made a beeline for the yellow phoenix, but the pilot had ignored him upon seeing that his weapon was electricity-based. The barrier could handle that. The crackle of the sword hitting uselessly had confirmed that, and just when the shot that would've ended the whole thing was about to be fired It suddenly felt as though everything but the bone within the pilot's leg had been ripped out.
As the final blow, a crushing roundhouse kick, was administered, a hand flew up and hit the comm. unit's switch, and she screamed in the most pain she had ever felt, and all within hearing radius heard it.
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Alpha gasped in horror as the scream rang through his comm. unit. That had been a girl!? A rifle shell slammed into his back, cutting off the neural controls for the Angel, and it fell to the ground. Alpha felt as though he had been paralyzed and blinded by the attack, until the cockpit jettisoned itself, the door launching itself off after it bounced a few times. Luckily, he hadn't hurt himself in the fall this time around.
He glanced over to the fallen and silent yellow Phoenix and debated going in to check and see if the pilot was okay. He shrugged off the feeling, but couldn't help it as his nagging conscience forced him to check. He punched in a manual entry for the cockpit, and the hatch slid open.
It was almost completely dark within, but he could see the girl at the very back, or bottom, of the cockpit, thanks to her bright yellow hair. Alpha climbed slowly to where she was, almost getting caught on a broken console on the way. As he got closer, he saw just how bad she was. She was crumpled into a heap at the floor, or wall, stuck between two consoles. Her eyes where closed, and over the sounds of war outside, he could hear faint, ragged gasps of air, coming from her. He leaned down and moved her head a little bit. Luckily, there was no blood, or even an injury there. All he could hope to do was wake her up and get her moved A different side of his conscience came into play here, like a voice in the back of his head, and the two consciences battled within his head.
"She's an enemy you don't save enemies when's the last time you did that," his military sense whispered to him.
"But she's a human being, she doesn't deserve to die inside a machine" his conscience argued
"Ever think that about everybody else you killed?"
"No, but--"
"No buts, it's your job! You live to kill. What's it matter what gender they are? Or are you just getting soft, Alpha?"
"No, I just"
"You just what? Hm?"
"I just don't want to see her die. I don't want this girl's blood on my hands. Now shut up before I stop playing attention to you completely"
"Fine, your loss. When she comes back and slaughters you, I won't say anything about it."
And so ended the battle between his military sense and his conscience. Now another battle came. This one was a more physical battle. The girl just wouldn't seem to wake up, and there was no way to carry her back up to the cockpit hatch. He sighed, and decided to go with a slightly rougher course of action. He picked her up and tossed her onto his shoulder.
People certainly were exaggerating when they said carrying a body was like carrying a sack of potatoes it was like carrying four or fiveAlpha grunted, and began to lug the girl up from the cockpit. This wasn't the first time he'd done this, but the first time had beeneasier. He'd had a partner that he could hand the body to. This time, it was all alone.
Alpha was halfway up, and just now reached a slight snag. The pilot's chair was in his way. It was too tall to just reach up and climb over, too unstable to climb around, and basically impossible to pass unless he climbed down and climbed up the other side. He shifted his grip on the girl, and turned so he could try going around it, despite the risk. The chair wobbled ominously, and he heard the creaking and snapping of several of the bolts that held it in place. If he had to stay on it for just another second it would.
He was above it, now, and the chair snapped, falling, and wires connected to it followed, twanging as they held tight and suspended the chair. Alpha pictured himself holding on too long, and the chair falling, him holding on reflexively the thought of not dieing, and then his imagination provided the sound effects, and they weren't pretty.
His continued climb hit no more problems, and he was soon up and over the cockpit's edge. Now he had the problem of finding a ride He was a sitting duck just standing on the ground. The answer seemed to, and did, drop from the skies. An Angel that's boosters had seemed to fail just fell to the ground in front of him. It landed to its knees in front of him, and made a perfect little divot in the ground in front of him. It was like climbing in through the hangar as Alpha walked up and opened the cockpit hatch with a simple button press. His hand had pulled his pistol from its holster. And he aimed it at the poor pilot of this Angel. He pulled the trigger, and he slumped in the seat.
Alpha walked up calmly and threw the dead body out of the Angel, setting the girl into one of the small and uncomfortable passenger seats. He could worry about her after he killed off her friends. He felt a pang of guilt at that thought, but shrugged it off. No way was his conscience winning this one
He flicked a switch, and the cockpit hatch closed and locked, sealing him in until he unlocked it from inside. A quick self-prep, and he found that the boosters were in perfect condition. Probably just overheated them He shrugged again, and brought up the Angel's view. He patched into StarCorp's comm. units in time to hear, "Did you see that? Some guy just took our target Angel! Right after I shut off the boosters! Should we shoot him down?"
Alpha's quick response was, "Alpha here, I'll give you a quick negative on that. I was out here for just a little walk, when what did I see? A perfect lil' Angel, just for the taking. I got a hostage, too, but nobody's interrogating her, understood?"
The reply was easy to guess, a rush of laughs and, "So, Alpha got himself a little whore, huh?"
"No, she isn't for my personal enjoyment, no matter what you think. She was unconscious, and I don't want a helpless female's blood on my hands. Plus, I'm here to kick ass, not talk about my sex life," Alpha said, smiling dimly.
More laughter. "Roger that, Alpha. She's not a whore. Now let's go kick some ass!"
Alpha took off, amazed at the fast response time of the Angel. This was truly an Angel where the pilot could meld with the it, become it, not just allow the Angel to become an extension of the pilot. Meld with it he did. The boosters were his wings, the arms were his arms, the legs were his legs, the head was his head Alpha blinked out of the thoughts for a second, looking at the weapons list, and came away slightly disappointed, muttering to himself, "That's all? They only equipped a single sword on this thing?"
The sword was unsheathed as he took off, following an enemy Angel and cleaving it neatly in two, the fragments of the once-fearsome machine falling and exploding. A voice crackled through static to reach him, a quiet, calm voice, dripping with anger.
"Alpha? Do you read? I want you in here, right now. Bring your contracts, too. I've already burned all of them except the copies I gave you."
Alpha just stopped. "Sir? I'm letting you know that I commandeered an enemy Angel. This isn't one of ours, and I never took out one of our Angels. Nothing I have done has inadvertently killed one of our troops. I also happened to take one of the enemies hostage. Answer me, does that give me a right to stay out here?"
"No. It doesn't. You disobeyed a direct order, and I want you in here now! And you're talking to your leader, I won't be talked to like a fool!"
Alpha's voice dripped with contempt, and he spat out each word through clenched teeth. "Sir, if I'm not helping you, I'm hurting you. I could destroy half of your soldiers out here right now, if not all of them, with this Angel. We could learn from this Angel, sir. But if you refuse to take logical action, I will be forced to take action against you. You know my records, and you know as well as I do what they call me behind my back. The Reaper , sir. Anyone that I want to kill dies. Of course, those that I don't want dead, die too. Guess that's the down side, sir. Do you want to be on the receiving side of this blade, sir?"
The other side was silent for a minute, but then the leader snarled his reply, "IF YOU SO MUCH AS MAKE ONE OF MY SOLDIERS BREATHE WRONG WITH ONE OF YOUR ACTIONS THIS TIME, I'LL NOT ONLY HAVE YOUR CONTRACTS BURNED, I'LL DESTROY YOU, AND YOUR REPUTATION! YOU'LL NEVER WORK NEAR ANYTHING MORE OF A WEAPON THAN A SAFETY PIN!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?!?!?"
"Yes sir."
Alpha smiled to himself and closed off the line to the leader, and only kept it open to the other soldiers. He saw what appeared to be a line of red phoenixes, each had an automatic rifle in their hands, and each was firing at anything and everything. Bullets whizzed past Alpha, so in return, he flew at top speed to them. He beat his mental wings, and had closed in to inches within a minute. It took a single swipe with his sword to destroy the row.
Even as the wreckage fell to the ground, he wondered if they might have been the girl's personal friends. Another pang of guilt. He shook his head, mumbling to himself, "No time for guilt, I have war to wage"
The enemies were on the receiving end of the killing blades, now. They had either lost their big guns when Alpha took out the girl and this amazing Angel, or were being destroyed by him and the rest of the pilots. He smiled, thinking of how the entire thing seemed to change when he came out onto the battlefield. Movement to the side caught his eye, a slight ripple in the air
There, another ripple. They were apart from each other, slightly, and circling around.
"Oh my god"
A group of closely-packed StarCorp Angels exploded in a bright flash of red light. None of them survived, and the only things to fall to the ground was the slight wreckage of the ruined machines. The air rippled again, and the floating lasers moved off to their next target
Alpha grit his teeth, turning a professional eye to the rest of the fight. Things would be fine, if he went after those stupid lasers. The boosters were kicked into high gear, and it didn't take long to catch up to the slow-as-hell lasers. They were impossible to see unless they were moving, or about to fire. He either had to keep them moving, or dodge laser fire that would kill him without a second thought to destroy these things. It seemed decided when a burst of energy came from the ring of floating lasers around him. He seemed to dodge them easily enough, but when they hit each other in the center, it set off a huge flash that almost blinded him, leaving him open for another shot. He barely made out what looked like a laser, in front of him.
Alpha slashed at it, blindly, and was happy to hear the sword glance off of it. That was all he needed. He brought the sword back, and thrusted it into the very lens of the laser. It exploded, but dimly. It brought back his sight slightly, to be able to destroy that which had destroyed so many of his troops. The rest of the lasers moved, putting him into the middle of the circle again. They were visible again as the fired one last time at him. He dodged it, and thanked whatever gods there were as, rather than meeting in the middle, the lack of one of the lasers blocked some sort of connection to the rest. They fired at different times, and although half of them passed harmlessly through the air, one or two struck one of the other lasers. They exploded on contact, setting off a chain reaction that forced the rest of the lasers to crumble to the ground. They seemed to implode, before exploding outward with red energy.
He turned his eyes back towards the fight, only to have hands wrapped around his neck. Fright melted to despair, as a feminine voice whispered into his ear,
"You should have killed me because. I'll kill youI never fail to kill the enemy.and guess what you are?"
"The enemy?" Alpha said, quietly.
"Exactly"
"I saved your life if it weren't for me, you'd be dead inside of your Angel"
"You don't understand stupid male the Hunters would rather die than fail. And I failed but, thanks to you I'll turn that failure into absolute and total success"
Alpha turned to face her, the Angel setting down on the ground, "You'd rather kill me than save your life? They sure don't seem to miss you, nor do they seem to want to die instead of fail. What kind of Hunters are they?"
She shook her head, looking into his eyes with a murderous glare, "They aren't real Hunters, they're just mercs, like you. We hired them to help us destroy StarCorp, and get our prototype Angel to the labs. I bet you didn't get your filthy, greedy hands on that prototype! You mercs are all idiots!"
Alpha smiled, gesturing to the cockpit with a hand, "Are you talking about this Angel? If you would've paid attention, you probably would've noticed that there are things that no merc has ever seen in an Angel before. Now, I'm asking you nicely, let me go. You're injured, and if the boss isn't willing to help you recover, I am"
She snarled at him, releasing his neck, "If you dare try anything on me, I'll electrocute youinto god" She grasped her chest, suddenly coughing.
"Told you that you were hurt" Alpha shrugged, turning back to the view screen and flipping on the boosters. The enemies were running, and Alpha was heading back to base.