X34: Return to the Ashes

One chance.

Kazuki regained his strength, he twisted his railgun, yet unwilling to blow out his back as a vent of steam burst from his respirator. Overclock it? NO. He can't, he has to preserve his exospine. 

Svenn's exospine cracked into steam, pumping energy into the air as electricity puffed up. Two zeroed in on one another. Muzzles drew closer..

Both hit their mark. 

The two crashed backwards, knocked from the impacts. Kazuki felt his armoured mask blast off, cracks of acid glittering his skin. Svenn's torso burnt. A rudimentary energy-shield ruptured, sending energy across the room. Kazuki's railgun bolt took out a part of Svenn's lower torso. Whilst Svenn had melted away at Kazuki's mask, leaving cracks around his lips.

"ALWAYS… THE BRIGHTEST. I MAY HAVE TAUGHT YOU ALMOST EVERYTHING YOU KNOW - BUT YOU KNOW NOTHING NEXT TO WHAT I KNOW!" 

Just as Kazuki lunged his blade towards Svenn's neck, he saw a bright light consume him. Svenn's ANCHOR activated, defying Kazuki and physics as his mind and matter vanished away with a blue hue - leaving Kazuki alone.

His body started to collapse. He fell onto one knee. Blood gushed out from his wounds. His exospine was finally cracking as steam burst from his power source. His eyes faded towards Riharia. She was dead. He tried to hide his dismay, yet another to the gaping pit of his memory…

"I'm sorry…" Kazuki muttered to himself, feeling the doubt and guilt weigh down on him. 

He wasn't fast enough. Skimmed only a part of Svenn's torso; he'll survive that. If he survived till now, a little scratch like that is nothing. But why did he falter? He needed speed; why didn't he put his back into it? He felt his memories bleed out in an uncontrolled mess.

Riharia is dead, he repeated to himself. His kneeling leg weakened. He can't stay here. A tug came towards his legs, dragging him down - hands beckoning him to stay and accept his fate. He paused for a moment: the weight was different. There was another pair of hands scratching at him… 

If he looked down, nothing would be there. Gunshots echoed close by, snapping Kazuki's mind out of its perfect memory-fuelled trance. Kazuki scurried over towards Riharia's corpse. With a straight face, he pulled the dog-tags around her neck. They were warm, even through his gloves. A plasma casing was also attached to the chain.

Quinn ran up towards Kazuki, firing backwards as two Loyalists chasing him fell. "Arbiter!" Quinn shouted, looking towards Riharia, her burnt remains. It was disgusting, even to Kazuki. She died to give him one chance, one opportunity. And he failed. "Cathing… Dammit!"

'I'm sorry… I should've detected him sooner.' said Eliza, in a solemn voice for all to hear. Kazuki wasn't in the mood for it. But if he wasn't, he could feel Lilly's blood boil across the skyliner. 'I should have… detected the threat sooner… I'm… sorry.'

Quinn rushed over to Riharia, stuck in place for a moment. He kept cursing in his native dialect, panic oozing from underneath the helm-mask and armour.

"EPSILON," Kazuki bellowed. Quinn ignored him, seemingly looking for something on Riharia, his face frozen in place. "EPSILON."

Quinn snapped his head towards Kazuki, as Kazuki punched against his chest-plate. Quinn placed his hand onto Kazuki's, feeling a chain. Kazuki retracted his hand. All he saw when he looked down at his own hands were holo-tags. Inscribed neatly was a name: Riharia. 

"You… I…" Quinn trailed off, looking up at Kazuki. 

Kazuki couldn't say much, but slowly tried to stand up. He was exhausted, his energy-charge nearly out of sparks. "I failed. I'm sorry." Was everything he could say to Quinn.

Another explosion erupted across the hall. Riharia gave her all, and he couldn't even kill Svenn. What a failure, he was. What a mess. And without result, he thought. Quinn staggered for a moment, before dragging Kazuki up. He couldn't see Quinn's face beneath the helm-mask.

"Don't blame her," Kazuki ordered. "Blame me. If anyone."

Quinn slowly helped Kazuki walk. "Who… can I blame?" he asked. "If this was gonna happen, I should have left her as rearguard…"

"Quinn," Kazuki said. Quinn's face snapped towards him, shocked at the unconventional breaking of codenames. "Leave the worrying to me."

A soundwave ruptured through the hull as it knocked Quinn and Kazuki to the ground. And the only thing that Kazuki could see as he glanced up was the skyliner: bursting from the seams.

∗ ∗ ∗

Eliza placed her hands on the control module of the command deck. A thousand monitors shone live, showing footage from all POVs of the contractors and police fighting. 

This… was bad. She was shaking, Riharia's dead? Wait… no… that can't be right? Her mind juggled the thought around, believing and not believing, in a state of quantum positioning. This can't be happening? Her mind refused to believe, yet all facts and logic pointed to her death.

But… Kaz told her that contractors shouldn't be worried about, right?

No. That wasn't what he told her, was it? Her mind slowly froze over at the realisation. They die all the time… And here she is, thinking she knows a single speck of who any of them are… Kazuki told her that HE will live, but he made no assurances for the rest of them… 

A thousand epiphanies smashed into her brain. 

Every now and then, the neat rows and columns were cut off by black screens, followed by screams. Her muscles tensed up, gripping the control module hard as Quinn was cut off. 

'Shut up,' Lilly stated.

'Huh…' Eliza halted for a moment. 

Archius was still coordinating forces and ignored it, not batting an eye to her across the command room. Sato, however, gave Eliza a glance, mouthing good luck whilst gritting her teeth.

'Just… shut the fuck up. You high-born, silver-spoon brooch-licker!' Lilly shouted. Eliza froze. What? Why… Every word stung deep into her as she stuttered, unable to properly respond. 'Sorry? After everything you've done you're fucking sorry?!'

'I lost men because of you! Good men! Not just Riharia, but of course… you never gave a shit about any of them. But the moment that Kazuki was injured, I had to listen to you whine. Kazuki this; Kazuki that, JUST SHUT UP. NO ONE ASKED FOR YOUR FUCKING INPUT.' snapped Lilly. The walls of discipline faded. 'How the fuck do you think all of us feel? I fought alongside her for nearly a decade, nine years of my life! From the marines to now! And in a single moment those nine years ended. Do you know why we even bother using codenames? It's a line, Eliza! Between work and life… You might have known Gambit. BUT DON'T YOU EVER THINK FOR A SECOND THAT YOU KNEW RIHARIA.'

Eliza's heart skipped a beat… All she ever was, was an outsider to them. Even after everything… She thought she helped. Slowly, it dawned on her… Lilly was right… she never knew any of them truly. She always spent time by herself, studying and drinking coffee, rarely talking to them outside of work.

'Vallé…' Quinn trailed off.

Lilly's anger reached greater and greater heights at Eliza, frustration bursting outwards. 'Just shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP! SORRY FOR ONE LIFE? RIHARIA WASN'T THE ONLY SOLDIER I LOST TODAY. BUT ARE YOU SORRY FOR ANY ONE OF THEM? ARE YOU? ARE YOU?!'

No one stopped her. The entire force could hear her rant. Eliza felt something within her snap as her face dropped. Her eyes shook and watered… She… really was an outsider… Guilt, regret and self-hate slowly seeped in as she realised how bad she had blundered.

'All forces…' said Kazuki, cutting her monologue short, 'Evacuate. NOW.'

Eliza's watery eyes glistened as she looked up to the monitor watching the skyliner pass through Anagora's skylanes. And as she did, explosions ruptured across the bottom hull of the vessel, eventually causing the whole vessel to crack as an inferno sprouted across it. Her eyes glistened red as the liner broke in two, a shockwave erupted across the skies… And it started to fall, along with her soul.