Raine VS The End of the World (56 page)

“Now!” she declared.

Simultaneously, they let loose Lucille’s ultimate terror: the weapon Lily dubbed the “Wrath of the Fallen”.

The
Valkyrie
trembled; superheated steam erupted from its pounding engines; chambers overflowed with pressure as the PEC sapped the airship of every extra ounce of power.

It lasted mere seconds, but the superheated particle beam sliced open the sky. Though the ascending
Charon
cleared the danger zone, the pillar of rapidly fluctuating antimatter fried the frontmost lines of the
Eden
Armada’s assault, melted the central command vessels, and clove through the rear guard like butter, splitting the spear formation down the middle and sending dozens of Carrier-class airships toppling into the city. EDC warships closed from either side, interceptors picked off stragglers, and the beam continued on into the stratosphere.

“Now’s our chance! Drop, drop, drop!”

Following the cannon’s deafening blast, even Lily’s hysterical order was barely audible over the earpiece. Waiting within her dark cockpit, Raine opened her palms and took calculated breaths, observing her sensations, but perhaps not even the most enlightened monk could achieve peace strapped inside a nuclear-powered metal deathtrap.

The hatch below opened, and the first slice of reflected sunlight warmed the girl’s face even as it pained her eyes. Briefly taking her left hand from the sensor glove, she enhanced the tint on the Exo Knight’s chest-mounted cockpit, checked her bearings, and held her breath; other Knights dropped from adjacent holds, five at once. Raine realized that her turn was coming up, quick.

Skydiving over a battlefield? I’m so not ready for this.

“
Galahad,
you are cleared for drop in three… two… one…”

“Ahh!”

The restraints disengaged immediately. Raine flailed about in terror, though the surface was far away.

“I-I’m falling!” Raine bellowed into the codec. She’d done a lot of virtual flying and crash-landing lately, but this was for real, and it was infinitely more terrifying.

This time, though, I want to fight, and there’s no turning back.

“Keep cool,
Delta-4
! Flex those muscles!” Aquino called. “You’re ahead of the rendezvous point. Just keep breathing, and don’t forget to kick!”

Raine wiggled her legs. Looking out from her fifty-foot-tall Exo Knight’s viewing dome, she recognized the behemoth’s legs wiggling in response.

I’m officially inside the cockpit of a giant mechanized robot.

While it had to be pretty high up on her bucket list, the big sleep might not be too far from now. She scanned the multitude of camera feeds and dials, recalling her training. The entry point was highlighted on her HUD, a fluctuating hole in the outer magnetic shield. Only it seemed so far away…

Making fists, Raine willed the grip controls to extend from her bracelets. Sweaty palms covered in thin motion-tracked gauntlets clutched the dynamic joysticks for the rifles she held in each hand. Twin targeting reticules appeared in her field of vision.

The controls were coming back now. Every inch of her bodysuit interpreted her most miniscule movement and amplified it on the compound armored colossus within which she was currently falling, face first, from thousands of feet in the sky.

“I’m gonna be sick!”

The Exo Knight picked up speed, the G-force hitting fateful Raine with tremendous power, flattening her up against the back of her cockpit. She hyperventilated, tensing her legs in their flexible restraints, and the mechanized suit did the same. Beside her, Lily, too, was freefalling, clad in a slick-looking motorcycle helmet, an entire armory’s worth of heavy weaponry, and a metal pack on her back that very likely housed a parachute the size of a circus tent.

“Raine! Tell your suit to activate the pressure regulator!”

The time traveler fired a fully charged rail gun at a nearby
Eden
drone mothership.

“Um… activate pressure regulator!” Raine finally managed.

A surge of oxygen shot down her throat. Her ears popped violently. She thought they’d burst. The ground came up even faster than expected. Pulsing red rings on her HUD encircled a few dozen of
Eden’s
anti-air guns. They shot relentlessly, polarized shrapnel exploding just short of her position.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, ascending drones peppered Raine with lasers. Lily’s airborne androids flew in tandem to protect the
Galahad
, taking the hits and falling like birds shot out of the sky. The
Valkyrie
provided cover fire as well, and streams of bullets tore the drones to shreds.

Electromagnetic spheres from ground artillery whizzed by; Raine dodged a boulder-sized pinball by spreading her fingers, then winking at the HUD option to activate the
Galahad’s
arm jets.

The sphere flattened the nose of the
Valkyrie
, sending debris tumbling her way. A retaliating energy blast erupted from Lily’s flagship
,
toasting the line of cannons.

“Fire, Raine! Do it!” she yelled at herself, but her hands continued to tremble. She had to slow her descent. The girl kicked out her legs in an act of desperation.
Neo Eden’s
force field pulsed directly below. Deafening jets roared to life from the rocket unit on the Exo Knight’s back, sending Raine’s insides down to her toes as she rapidly decelerated.

The turbines temporarily cut out as the
Galahad’s
electromagnetic shield pulsed, carrying the suit through the barrier and short-circuiting the force field’s presence in her immediate vicinity. Raine felt a paralyzing jolt of lightning course through her body, only the pain was gone the second it came.

She shivered as a platoon of androids below turned their attention from the large structure they were swarming around – and marched straight towards her!

Bullets whizzed off the Knight while the landing rockets brought her down nice and easy.

“Come on, please! Fire!” Raine screamed, clamping the dual triggers.

At last, seeming columns of bullets shot from each of her massive automatic rifles as she half-crashed, half-landed on the robots.

With a wiggle of her left pinky, the rifles disappeared into the arms of the suit. They were promptly replaced by a frost gun, which shot out liquid nitrogen and froze the droids solid. Raine walked through the scrap metal, freezing all in her path. Just then she noticed a green ring among the red ones – it represented a man in an
M-Gear
, struggling – his foot had been partially frozen to the ground, yet he was still trying to break into the rebels’ fortress.

“Lily!”

Raine heard her voice echoing over the radio, but no response, and no wonder. Glancing upwards revealed Lily gliding all over
Neo Eden
, leading a squad of airborne androids in raining all manner of firepower on the opposition. It turned out that wasn’t a parachute in her pack, but rather a set of expanding glider wings, which worked with various jets and shock absorbers covering her body armor. She was practically a human fighter jet.

“Go for Lily.”

“What about the people in
Gears?!
”

“Disarm or incapacitate! Just hold ‘em off till the other Knights arrive!”

She took aim carefully, knocking the invading troopers off their feet, then disarming and tossing them into the custody of the rebels, who hog-tied them together.

Within a few minutes, many were astonished and cheering. Raine almost singlehandedly fought off the latest wave. Shells and bullets alike rebounded off of the Exo Knight’s reinforced armor; she recognized that the
Galahad
was one of the deadliest weapons on the battlefield. And other suits were advancing.

“Are you guys okay?” she asked over the suit’s built-in loudspeaker.

Hector nodded in respect. “You took your sweet time getting here!”

“Th-the helmet forces should be standing down any second now!” Raine replied as she shot down a tank with one blast.

“All units, we’re down to two in the
Spire
,” Feuchuk’s voice intoned over the speaker. “Rear guard, cover the walls. Forward Knights, hold your positions. This might take longer than anticipated.”

“Look out!” a voice cried from below.

A stray rocket from a recently downed artillery zipped towards the building. Raine quickly turned the key to activate the Exo Knight’s trump card, the Annihilator blast.

Floating electric baubles channeled a hefty reserve of the mechanized suit’s fuel capsules into a singular supercharged beam. The deadly missile exploded about a hundred feet away; with its EM shield cooling down from the blast, the
Galahad
suffered a heavy blow.

Raine flew back into the concrete. The module’s resistance to her momentum caught her off-guard, and her abdominal muscles twisted. The girl’s arm shot out in pain, and in response
Galahad
grabbed onto a strong steel column, bracing her fall. The wall collapsed under the Knight’s weight, leaving a gaping hole in the rebels’ defenses.

“Oh, no! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”

Standing up from the rubble that comprised the mini-fortress’ outer wall, Raine was extra delicate with her footing, taking care not to crush or step on anyone.

“You have nothing to apologize for, Raine,” intoned an odd voice. Raine looked upon the man through the dust, and gasped at his pinned body, trapped under fallen girders.

“Yossa?” she called out. “Is that you?”

Although he sounded nothing like he did in
Endless Metaverse
, Raine recognized his gentle eyes right away.

Yossa gave a satisfied hoot. He could almost die happy. “Y-yes, it’s me. You saved many people just now with your selfless act.”

“The wall… I’m sorry… you… I… I’ll get you out of there!”

Raine very carefully removed the debris from above and around Yossa’s body. It seemed for a minute that he would be fine. But then she saw his leg and stifled a wave of tears. It was impaled by bent rebar.

“Thank you, Raine,” he said at last. “The coast is clear. Now get out of here! Lily needs you.”

“Wh-what about the army? Who’s going to help you when they come back? And your leg…”

“This? Ha! This piece of flesh is a whole lot of nonsense, not even worth a second thought. Hector will see to me; I’ll be fine. Get a move on.”

“I… I…”

She cried silently, knowing Yossa couldn’t see her face. At the moment, Raine needed to be strong for both of them. She wanted so badly to pull the pole out, but couldn’t imagine doing so successfully without the possibility of causing further injury to her friend.

“Go! Make forth an end to this madness! This place is hell. They’re turning innocent people into mindless soldiers! Shut the helmet controls down, shut whoever rules this place down… just shut it all down now! Shut it down or we will all die for nothing, Raine, do you hear me?”

“Affirmative,” she nodded through tears.
Galahad’s
head gave a solemn bow. The early vestiges of Lily’s rescue operation drew near: with the
Eden
Armada sandwiched between the EDC’s main forces and the pursuing secondary wing led by the
Freyja
, EDC rescue dropships and their Knight escorts entered the battered remnants of the force field unopposed.

Raine waved goodbye and headed in the direction of Lily’s battle cries. They were leading her up to the citadel.

╪

They made it.

Ayumi’s report gave Leela comfort as she grasped onto her armchair; having suffered a fatal blast on its primary turbine, the
Freyja
slipped into a steep descent over the battlefield. She took the flight controls and used every last ounce of energy to redirect their course and save the lives of tens of thousands far below.

“Abandon ship!” she ordered, strapping herself into the chair. “All hands, get the hell out of here!”

The humans, a minority on her crew, stared blankly at the young Indian woman.

“That’s an order, dammit!” she repeated.

Escape pods readied just outside the bridge; her junior officers wasted no time in running. A few ensigns and senior officers stood their ground. The helmsman tried to pry her from the chair.

“We’re not leaving you, Commodore!”

“I said go! You’ve got twenty seconds!”

Leela mentally instructed the androids to stuff every last human into an escape pod.
Ten seconds.
Her readouts at last showed that the ship was clear, and the reactor cores were safely perma-sealed to prevent a citywide nuclear disaster in the event of a breach.

Only three things left to do – aim, trust, and leave the rest to God.

She flipped open the glass covering the self-destruct button.