Wednesday, June 3, MC 0075
9:12 P.M.
“…So, these are the Replicas, huh?” Sion said, skeptical at the neatly lined row of bodies, all slouched and seemingly dead, holding on to some sort of rifle on one hand.
“Yes, that’s them.” Asteright replied, a grin on his face.
“I bet they’ll give any mage a run for their money.” he added.
“Heh, I don’t believe it. No clone can stand up to a mage.”
“Oh yeah?” Asteright replied, a grin on his face.
“Then watch.” Casting Dealer’s Deck, he shuffled the cards for some time, eyeing at the line to use one as a demonstration to show Sion.
“There’s something I want to show you.” Spotting a potential Replica, he activated it.
“Echo 4, awake.”
“Yes, sir.” the Replica answered, female by its voice. Aiming a card in order to attack her, Asteright almost threw the card when a shot from another Device rang out and hit the Replica straight in the chest. She staggered down to her knees, and checked her chest armor. Slowly, she got up, and the only thing left of the magic shot was a small charred spot where the shot hit.
“Hollow, thank you, but I didn’t need your help.”
Coughing, the sickly girl came out of the shadows of the right side of the room, holding her own Device, Carrossea, ready for anything.
“Gomen, but I just wanted to help.”
Asteright just nodded and she stayed where she was, coughing.
Sion just looked at her for a moment, then turned around to face Asteright himself. “
Impressive…but what’s the trick?”
“Light AMF plating on the chest armor; prevents magic shots from damaging the person who wears it. Unfortunately, concentrated amounts of magic or a Device will pass through that.”
“They’ll be fodder; I see that they don’t even have a suitable weapon to go against them.”
“You think so?” Turning his attention to the Replica, he pointed at a section of his own Barrier Jacket.
“Echo 4, shoot here.”
“Yes.” she said, and aimed at the Jacket. Shooting at the section, the bullet passed through the Barrier Jacket and aimed straight at Sion himself. Taking out his Device, he managed to block the bullet, which hit the ceiling harmlessly.
“Nicked my Device…” he mused.
“What’s the trick now?”
“The bullet has a disrupting effect on Barrier Jackets and defenses.” Asteright simply said, still grinning.
“It’ll take some time before the Barrier Jacket can repair this.”
“Interesting…” Sion thought as he looked over the Replicas, especially noticing their wrists, which had a tag that bore the saying
“S-1”.
“The S-1 Project…a project headed by Asteright, with Scagletti giving the resources to him. Scagletti himself didn’t like the project that much, and asked only to make the Replicas female for some reason…”
“Are we going?” a mechanical voice suddenly said, and a blue eye appeared on the left side of the room.
“Wolf…” Sion greeted, his voice sounding hostile to him.
“Sion…”
Sion just smirked at him, and ignoring him for a second, turned to the rest of the Replicas.
“Asteright, if you mind…”
“All right, then. All of Echo Team, awake.”
The line of Replicas suddenly straightened up, alive, grabbed their weapons like they were about to march in a single line, and looked straight at them.
“Alright then, let’s move out!”
“Right!” all of them said out loud, ready to take orders.
“It’s your call.” Asteright said, still looking at the Replicas.
“Shall we get started then?” Sion replied back to him.
Wednesday, June 3, MC 0075
11: 34 P.M.
“Sorry for having to brief you on-route.” the Major said to all of the squads.
“But unfortunately, there’s not that much time.” All of them were in the King Raven, heading towards Compound 34, a research lab in southern Mid-Childa. The whole complex was dedicated to further studying of Relics, but what they usually studied was kept under wraps.
“We’re heading to Compound 34, aren't we?” Nobuyuki said sleepily, trying to get some shuteye on this trip.
“Right.” Rachel said to him.
“I heard about that group.” Vincent added.
“Bunch of crazy scientists studying some sort of crystal or something.”
“Those “crystals” you’re talking about just have the potential to blow up a good chunk of an area.” Sydney replied to him, looking at him like he was an idiot for saying that.
“Isn’t RF6 supposed to check the place out?” Anne said to the Major, confused that the 216th was sent in instead.
“They’re currently not here right now. And since we’re the ones sent in to find out about unknown occurrences, we go in their place.” Rachel answered back for the Major.
“Let’s get to the briefing, then.” Satoshi said, and everyone agreed.
“Contact was lost about an hour ago. So far, any other attempts to try and reach them have failed.”
“Well, it might be a power outage or something.” Arvis said, wondering about other reasons.
“It might, but we can’t make any assumptions.”
“So, we’re just going to be checking on them?” Lian asked.
“Yeah, that’s about it. Everyone understand?”
Everybody nodded their heads, and the briefing stopped.
“Scuderia, Rachel, and I will be in the area, keeping tabs on all of you guys.” the Major added, giving some relief to them. As the talking stopped, both Satoshi and Nobuyuki were looking around, checking on the others.
Nobuyuki asked Satoshi,
“You think we’re gonna lose someone today?” telepathically to him, keeping it a secret.
“Hopefully not.” Satoshi answered back to him.
“Well, I’m gonna get some sleep. Tell me when we’re there.” Nobuyuki replied, and started to sleep again.
“Hopefully not, huh?” he thought.
“I agree.”
Looking at everyone, Satoshi could already tell that Sydney and Anne were getting jumpy, and Vincent was starting to get impatient. The other two members of Thunder Squad, Arvis and Lian, were already nervous, checking their Devices constantly. Margaret was also taking a nap, like Nobuyuki, but Satsuki acted differently than usual. Normally, she would be either talking to Lian, or watching over Margaret. Today, she was just looking down on the floor, her eyes closed, seeming like she was remembering something that she didn’t want to remember.
“Hmm….best to not bother her then.” Satoshi concluded in his mind.
“Hey, all of you, I see the compound.” Scuderia said out loud to all of them, and everyone straightened up, ready for what was going to happen.
“We’re landing in 5. Get ready.”
The King Raven landed down on a helipad nearby, and everyone got out quickly.
“Good luck to you all.” the Major said to all of them before the copter took off for the skies again. All of them headed inside the compound, clearing the first room. No one was there, but there was one thing that stood out: everything was powered up, and there was no sign of a power outage.
“We can rule out a power outage.” Nobuyuki said to all of them, especially Arvis, snidely.
“Well, it was a guess.” Arvis countered.
“Let’s just check the compound, alright?” Anne said to both of them, trying to stop a potential fight.
“We don’t need to kill each other here.” Both of them stopped and everyone started searching.
Wednesday, June 3, MC 0075
11:46 P.M.
“Don-Don’t hur-AGHH!” was the final phrase a security guard said before being sliced diagonally in half by Black Wolf. As both of the parts of his body fell, Wolf was already shaking all the blood off his sword and putting it back. Behind him were several other bodies, unlucky victims who decided to take the night shift. Wolf then checked up on the security feeds.
“Sion, they’re here.” he commented. Up above, on the control room of the complex, Sion, Asteright, and Hollow were there, next to some sort of small, portable installation.
“Great. Let’s get started.” he replied, getting near a control switch.
“Do whatever you want; just make sure to get those Relics.”
“Understood.” Wolf replied back, before Sion flipped the switch, and the link was shut down.
“This will prevent them from communicating with each other.” Asteright said to him.
“And also for us.” Sion replied back.
“Well, we just have to find some other way, then, huh?” Taking out a small radio transmitter, Asteright called the Replicas, patrolling the compound, giving them an order.
“Mages from the TSAB are here. Shoot to kill. That is all.”
“Right.” was one of their answers, and they continued patrolling. Asteright turned to Hollow, who was coughing a bit.
“Sorry…” she said quietly before the coughs stopped and she straightened up.
“Suck it in, and let’s go.” Asteright said to her.
“I understand.” She replied coldly before following him.
As both of them left, Sion started leaving the room also, thinking that the jammer would be safe.
“Well, I’ll have my fun…” he thought to himself, smiling mischievously.
“Brother, let’s see how you are after these years.”
Wednesday, June 3, MC 0075
11:49 P.M.
“Nothing here…” Sydney said to everyone after checking a room nearby. So far, all of them had searched the complex, and without any sign of a takeover, accident, or something else. They had also never seen any other scientists yet.
“Damn, another room empty….” Nobuyuki said, impatient about what was happening.
“This is getting to be a pain in the butt.”
“You said it.” Vincent said to him, agreeing.
“Well, at least we aren’t getting our butts shot out.” Satoshi said to both of them, but both of them just stayed silent, still bored. As all of them went into a storage area, Vincent heard something near the southwest corner. Signaling everyone else, he said to all of them quietly,
“Wait. I heard something.”
“All right then, check. Be careful.” Satoshi replied. Grinning a bit, Vincent just said,
“Don’t worry about me.” He moved forward, inching along the wall, trying to not make too much noise. Near the corner, he could hear the sounds become a voice.
“…This is Echo 7, one of those scientists that escaped is down, I repeat…”
“What the? Professional soldiers?” Vincent thought to himself. Taking a peek, he could see that this soldier was a female, dressed in urban camo. On her hands was a rifle of sorts.
“A rifle? I thought that was illegal here…better tell everyone.” As he tried to go back, though, he accidentally tripped.
“Oh, damn…”
“Who’s there?” the Replica yelled, and moved to where everyone was, seeing them.
“Contac-!” she yelled to the radio before a Burst Shooter from Satoshi hit her.
“1 down….” he thought, but to everyone’s surprise, she managed to recover and move.
“What in the world?”
Pointing her rifle at them, she started shooting. The bullets went harmlessly straight through as everyone took cover behind the boxes. A sweep kick from Vincent incapacitated her, preventing any more damage. Moving towards them, he took cover near Satoshi himself. “Damn it…shouldn’t have tripped.” he said to him, mad that he fell.
“It’s in the past.” Satoshi said to him quickly.
“Don’t worry-.”
Gunfire then erupted from the walkway up above. Soldiers just like the one that found them shot at them, trying their best to kill them.
“Kuso…thanks a lot, Vince!” Anne yelled, as a bullet nearly grazed her head.
“Hey, calm down and take cover!” Nobuyuki screamed back to her, and she immediately took cover.
“Satsuki, try to get them!” Satoshi yelled to her, bullets still hitting the boxes.
“Wait for the reload.” he added.
“Right.” she said to him.
“Ellis, Margaret, let’s go.”
“[Right.]”
“Got it!”
The bullets finally stopped, and Satsuki took her chance. Margaret and Vince covered her as she aimed the scope at one of the Replicas’ own weapons. Taking the shot, the rifle cracked into several pieces, forcing the Replica to retreat and take cover.
Good sho-.” Vince said to her before a bullet hit his leg.
“Vince!”
“Don’t worry about it! I’ve got shot a couple of times before.” he said to her, smiling to try to take away her fear.
“Damn it, Satoshi, we gotta move!” Sydney said to him.
“I know!” he replied back to her, trying to find some way out. There were three doors near where they were at.
“If we could get through those doors…”
“I got it.” he said to her, and started to talk to Nobuyuki telepathically about it.
“No-.” he could say before he started to hold his head in pain.
“Satoshi!” Sydney replied, worried about what happened.
“I can’t communicate.” he said to her, managing to shake it off.
“When I tried, it was like something smacked me in the head.”
“It’s some sort of jammer then…” she said to him.
“Is that even possible?”
“Yeah, by overloading a telepathic link, you could jam it. I wasn't sure of all the technical details, though.”
“Well, let’s do it the old-fashioned way, then.”
“You’re not thin-.” Sydney said, but it was too late. Satoshi went out of his cover, and everyone was focusing on him.
“Plasma Cannon!” he yelled.
”[You got it.]” Cipher said, discharging 2 cartridges, and 3 bolts of electricity went in the direction of the Replicas, who took cover fast. He didn’t hit any of them, but it was enough to get him to where Nobuyuki and Anne were.
“You’re crazy…” Nobuyuki said to him.
“Listen.” Satoshi replied back, telling him about the plan, pointing on where the doors where.
“You and me; we’ll go through that center door. Anne, Arvis, and Lian will take the left door over there. Sydney, Vincent, Satsuki, and Margaret will take the right.”
“I feel like this is gonna be hectic…”
“It’s the only chance we got.”
“Yeah. Alright then.”
“One other thing, we can’t communicate telepathically. We’re gonna be on our own once we do this.”
“But how?” Nobuyuki asked, confused. Satoshi's answer didn't clarify much.
“Some sort of jammer, I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll be going.”
Satoshi started going back to where he was, diving down onto the safety of the boxes, bullets nearly hitting him.
“Anne, take Arvis and Lian through that door. Satoshi and I will go through that door in the center, Sydney, Vince, Satsuki, and Margaret will take the right.”
“What? Are you two crazy or something?” she replied back in disbelief.
“I thought about it. It’s gonna work.”
“Alright then…” she said back, relenting. Nobuyuki then signaled Satoshi with a thumbs up, and he nodded. Already seeing that Anne told the other two, he called Arvis.
“You ready to use Negate, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll be ready.” he said back to him.
“Good.”
“Syd, you ready with covering everyone, right?” Satoshi said to her, while he was judging the door’s distance.
“I’m ready.”
“Good.”
“Be careful out there.”
“Aren’t I always?” he said to her, smiling a bit, settling her fears a bit.
“Let’s start.”
Counting to three with his fingers, Satoshi gulped a little, knowing that it could work, or that it could tear them up.
“One…two….” he thought as his fingers did the counting. Everyone else was waiting for the signal, waiting if the plan would succeed or if they could become cold, dead bodies. The Replicas stopped firing, enough time.
“Three!” As the Replicas finished reloading, Satoshi and Nobuyuki were halfway.
“Pykrete Wall!” Sydney yelled out, a wall of ice covering Sky Squad’s backs, while Arvis put up 4 shields, safely covering Thunder Squad’s back. The Replicas’ started firing again, and their bullets couldn’t penetrate both the wall and the shield, and so they turned their attention to both captains.
“Great…” Nobuyuki thought to himself as the bullets started flying at both of them. Closing the gap, both of them managed to get through the door, staggering inside, and moving forward after that.
The Replicas stopped firing, as one of them started reporting, all the others moved left and right.
“Asteright, Echo Leader. We found the mages, captains went through the center door, their squads went left and right.”
Asteright answered back.
“Let your squad deal with their own squads. Sion and Wolf will intercept the captains.”
“Understood.”
As Asteright cut communications, he looked back at Hollow and Sion, who was in the area.
“Sion, you’re lucky, he’s coming here.”
He just chuckled a bit to him, and with a small smirk on his face, he said to him,
“I know he’s coming; I made sure of it.”
Looking at him in confusion for a bit, he straightened up, and called Hollow out.
“Let’s go.”
“Right.” she said, and followed him out of the room.
“Papillion…” Sion thought.
Wednesday, June 3, MC 0075
12:01 A.M.
As Sydney, Satsuki, Margaret, and Vincent took a right to get away from the Replicas, Vincent asked Sydney,
“Where did he go now?”
“I don’t know, but I hope he’s safe…”
Bullets started firing, and all of them took cover. Seeing a door nearby both Sydney and Satsuki, Vincent told them about it.
“Sydney, Satsuki, take the door near you guys; Margaret and I will cover you.” They nodded and went in the door.
“Margaret…”
“Right. Streuungstoß!”
“Maschinegewehr Faust!”
The covering fire was just enough for the Replicas to stop shooting and take cover.
“Margaret, go to the other side, then cover me as I go there.” Vincent said to her.
“Roger that.” she said to him, and dashed straight to where Sydney and Satsuki were. Still using his spell, Vincent went to where Margaret was, and he went inside first.
“My God…” In that room were the bloodied bodies of some scientists working here, bet up and shot. Sydney was standing up, trying to not look at the bodies. Satsuki, on the other hand, was kneeling on the floor, her hands on her head, Ellis nearby, laying on the floor shocked and scared on what happened.
“Satsuki…you okay?” Vincent said to her, concerened.
“Why…why did they have to do this?” she said quietly, fear in her voice.
“I just-.”
Margaret suddenly went in, and told everyone,
“They’re coming here.” Satsuki got up and picked up Ellis.
“Let’s go.” she said to all of them.
“Margaret, you and me will go through the door in front of us; Sydney, Vincent, you two go through the door on the left.” Nobody had any time to protest as the Replicas moved in, but by that time, they had already left. As the Replicas searched the room, Hollow came in, strangely without Asteright.
“All of you go to the left; I’ll go through the door directly in front.”
“Yes, ma’am.” said one Replica, and all of them moved on the door to the left, while Hollow quietly followed Satsuki and Margaret.
Meanwhile, Anne, Arvis, and Lian were in a bad situation, pinned down in a corridor.
“Lian, move back; we’ll cover you.”
“Right.” she said, and started to move forward, but the Replicas already had a bead on Lian. Arvis noticed that, and moved in front of her. He casted Negate, but one bullet had already passed through and hit his right eye. He held his eye, and moved with Lian. She saw what happened to Arvis after that.
“I..I shouldn’t have-.” she said regretfully, waiting for him to get angry and get it over with.
“Don’t worry about it that much. At least it’s not my left eye.” he said to her with a small smile on his face.
“It’ll get replaced easily.”
“Hey! Arvis, Lian, get moving!” Anne said to both of them, and they quickly moved with her. As they turned into another corridor, a Replica got into position, and shot quickly. Two bullets managed to hit Anne in the right arm and leg, making her trip.
“Vice-Commander!” Lian yelled out, but they couldn’t reach her at the moment. Inching up near a wall to get a good shot, Anne could barely move her right arm, not effective to shoot. She could reach for her Device and shoot with her left, though.
“Let’s hope this works…” she thought as she got a hold of her Device and grabbed it with her left hand.
“Overcharge!” she yelled out, and a spherical projectile went towards the Replica, hitting her square in the chest, killing her in an instant. The lull in the fighting provided Arvis and Lian time to drag Anne to cover.
“God damn! Echo 2 is down!” one Replica said, possibly calling from the radio. As all the others moved in, Lian was ready.
“Splitter Blades!” she said out loud, and 8 small, blade-like projectiles went towards the group of Replicas, injuring one in the head. Arvis then managed to find a large steel crate, big enough to block the path. He pulled it towards the corridor, doing its job of blocking the path. As he finished, Anne was already propped up on a wall, tending to her wounds.
“Jacket Heal.” she muttered to herself, ripping two rectangular parts of her Barrier Jacket, wrapping the wounds with those parts. Slowly, she got up, and was able to stand up, although she was limping a bit.
“Thanks, you guys.” she said to both of them, a smile on her face. Sighing, she then added,
“I thought I was toast there…”
“I wonder how Nobu-san is doing…” Lian said to everyone.
“I’m sure he’s fine.” Anne replied back, seemingly confident, but her mind proved otherwise.
“Yeah right…hope he’s okay.”
Wednesday, June 3, MC 0075
12: 13 A.M
“There’s a two-way corridor nearby. We can split up there.” Nobuyuki said to Satoshi, still running away from the Replicas nearby.
“I’ll take the left, you take the right.”
“Alright then.” Satoshi said back, and both of them split up. The Replicas proceeded to chase Nobuyuki only, for some reason, leaving Satoshi alone. Hiding in the shadows, Nobuyuki managed to hide from them as they passed through. After the coast was clear, he went out.
“Satoshi…good luck; he’s here…” he thought to himself, looking in the direction where he went. Then he started moving again.
Staggering, Satoshi finally had to prop himself against a wall. His head started to hurt severely, and it was hard to even inch forward. He could hear the screams of dead and dying people, the sound of fire, and Devices clanking on the ground; their users dead. Closing his eyes for a moment, he opened them, and he saw that he was in the same corridor, but it was littered with several bodies of scientists, security personnel, and others. Fire enveloped the corridor itself, and debris were everywhere, even managing to crush some people.
“What the hell?” he thought to himself before realizing that unintentionally, he was moving forward. His body seemed to move on its own towards a double door nearby. Satoshi tried to stop, but it felt like something serious was beyond that door, and he wanted to know. When he touched the door, everything turned back to normal again, looking like he had just slowly walked there. The headaches were gone, and nobody was behind him.
“Must have been fatigue or something.” he said to himself and went in. The room was open, with an octagonal walkway up above him.
“Seems to be nothing here.” he thought just before noticing a couple of throwing knives going straight at him. Dodging it, he barely had time to recover before another round of knives was thrown at him. He had to roll out of the way, and was on the floor, kneeling when someone came out of the shadows.
“Well, well, if it isn’t you, brother…”
“Brother?” Satoshi asked, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Poor you, having to lose that by the very people that made you into what you are today.” he replied back coyly.
“Answer me!” Satoshi said angrily to him.
“Looks like you don’t know…oh well.” he concluded before casting a spell. To Satoshi’s own surprise, it was an Ustio octagon, like him, except in a different color.
“How did he-?” he thought before being cut off from his thoughts by a knife going straight at his head. He barely dodged it, the knife grazing his right cheek.
“Damn….that was fast…too fast.”
The assailant jumped back a bit away from Satoshi, giving him time to stand up and take a stance.
“Since you don’t remember me, I’ll tell you my name, brother.” he said, taking a throwing knife from a sheath, ready to throw it.
“It’s Sion, remember?” he said to him.
“Heh, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but pleased to meet you.” Satoshi said to him, wiping the blood off the scratch.
“Oh, you’ll remember, alright, you’ll remember…”