Chapter 16 - The Real Enemy

The three stood in the classified room, staring at the sprawled-out documents and tablets on the table in the room. The room itself contained a small table in the middle, surrounded by a U-shaped desk with a plethora of standard display monitors and holographic projection monitors on it, the technology and documents spanning across many years. But what mainly caught the ire of the three was one single display on one tablet on the small table; an old-world style missile with the name ‘TRINITY 2’ above it. Eric picked up the tablet and with shaking hands read it over. His lips quivered as he read over the document. The date was many, many years ago, decades in the making. The latest update was within the last week. Status read as 'Prototype.'

“They weren’t ahead of us...” Eric whispered out. “They have nothing... They’re trying to stop us.”

He dropped the tablet on the table as his grip weakened and his hands shook more as both his anger and confusion escalated. He looked over the room at the other documents, seeing Iris and Alice shuffling through the paper trail. He walked over to the largest display on the center-most table and attempted to work his way into the device’s files. His attempt was halted early as he was met with a password protection and ID code authorization.

“Let’s hope Laura’s skeleton key works on this, too.”

Eric took the tool from Iris, fidgeting with it until the end looked like it matched the port on the computer. He inserted it and the display flashed with scrolling numbers, letters and characters cycling quickly on the screen.

“Guess it really is a universal unlock tool.” Eric murmured, hyper focused on his hacking mission.

He didn’t notice that Iris and Alice had walked over and were now standing next to him as he quickly went through every last bit of data on the computer. Although the display was like that of their modern devices; a holographic projection, the interface and peripherals were rather primitive. It had a physical keyboard and the only way to move throughout the interface was with the arrow keys on it.

“This thing feels so clunky to operate... just goes to show how long they’ve been developing these things...” Eric said, mostly talking to himself.

Iris and Alice watched as Eric searched through the computer, finding documents, files, and anything that had to do with the development of prototype weapons. Eric’s face grimaced with anger and hatred the more he dug up. Each new file he found contained centuries of research into trying to make another atomic weapon that worked in the Elysian world. Each prototype had a subtext of ‘Failure,’ ‘Unstable,’ ‘undesired result,’ and other such classifications. Dozens of weapons were built and tested despite everything and everyone telling them they only developed firearms and mobile weaponry. Eric paused, his breathing heavy and erratic. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself before continuing. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears, but the pace of it only quickened and thundered louder and louder in his head. He was on the verge of a panic attack when he suddenly felt two soft hands on his back. He opened his eyes and looked beside him to see Iris and Alice both placing a hand on his back. Their faces were also filled with sorrow and anger, but mainly concern for their friend.

“Thanks guys...” Eric said, barely audible.

The two girls didn’t say anything, but Iris lightly pushed Eric out of the way and toward Alice. She began to search the computer herself, entering keywords into the field to find more information. Initially she entered ‘Success,’ but that brought a query of hundreds of results, dating as far back as after Trinity’s detonation. She then tried ‘Prototype’ and only a few results came up. The first bunch were of the firearms that was given to the class on the second day. Iris opened a few of them, landing on her own weapon and then Alice’s sniper rifle. She skimmed them quickly before moving on. The last two in the results were the Yatogami and Trinity 2.

“So, guess we open Trinity 2, right?” Iris said, her voice uneasy, clearly shaken by the revelation.

“No, open the Yatogami. I need to see something.” Eric said, his voice calmer than before as he recovered from his oncoming panic attack.

Alice nodded in silence as she rested a hand on Eric’s shoulder. Iris opened the file for the Yatogami, bringing up full schematics and information on the mech. What instantly caught Eric’s eye, however, was the name under the lead developer: 

Halford.

“How the hell is his name on this? He’s just an instructor, this document goes way back too... Where’s Whitlock’s-” Eric cut himself off as Iris scrolled down.

What greeted them further down was a picture of Halford, looking not too much younger than he is now standing next to a scientist. All three of their faces went pale as they realized who it was he was standing with. An old, wizened man, long past his years stood next to him, holding up the initial blueprint for the Yatogami.

“Whitlock...” The three said in unison.

Halford was standing with Whitlock in the image, both of them with scowls on their faces. But only Whitlock looked distraught while Halford’s eyes had an eerie glow to them, as if he was staring at Eric from the past. Iris finally scrolled passed it, moving down to more scientific jargon. Most interestingly, nothing noted the presence of Trinity inside the machine at any point. Eric took this as either no one knows about it or it was kept off of official documentation.

“So Halford is artificially extending his life and hid that he was the main driver for the Yatogami. So much for being considerate of me, he was just worried his research and money would go to waste if I died. Bastard.” Eric said, his fists clenching. “Open Trinity 2 now.”

Iris nodded and did as he asked, opening the file. It was largely the same as what was present on the tablet Eric looked through, except this one had Halford as the lead developer as well. It also noted testing dates underneath the sub-header saying ‘Prototype.’

“They’ve tested this thing multiple times before... and they all failed.” Alice finally spoke. “But the next test is tomorrow and has an estimated 95% success rate.”

“We were told to extract and head back west by tomorrow...” Iris looked over at the other two, her eyes wide. “That has to mean the test is being done here.”

“I think so, too.” Eric nodded, reading the document over. “I also don’t think these NAK soldiers were trying to steal the intel, I think they were trying to confirm how far along we were on the atomic weapon, destroy the intel and then destroy the prototype.”

Eric looked over at the soldier who was laying against the wall, cradling his injured leg. He pulled a device out of a pouch and held it up to his mouth, asking the soldier to confirm what he just said. The device translated everything he was saying into his language as he spoke. The soldier tilted his head and looked at him as Eric held the device up to where his mouth would be behind the helmet. Eric didn’t expect the soldier to answer immediately, but to his surprise he got a response.

“We... we were told the UF had been testing large scale weapons. We were tasked with destroying all intel and, if possible, the weapon itself.” The soldier moved his head down before continuing. “There was no evac plan for us. A one-way mission. Our tech is far behind yours, but we had the fear of the world being destroyed if you guys launched that thing.”

Eric hesitated, unsure if he could take this enemy soldier at his word. He stood up, but continued to stare at the ground. He was already committing treason and turning his back on the United Front, but he never expected to actually see them as an enemy. Eric finally raised his head and looked over at Iris and Alice, both of which had equally distraught faces. He only assumed they were thinking the same thing as he was.

“Alright, we have a change of plans. Patch this guy up. He can’t come with us, but maybe he can use what he can to send something to his command.” Eric said, helping the soldier to his feet. “As for us, we’re going to be going off grid sooner than anticipated. Alice, pop the EMP and the jammer.”

Alice pulled a cylindrical device out of the pouch on her back and started to press the buttons on it. As she counted down from five, the device began to hum as a blue light shined out of it. As she hit one, the three ran out of there, Eric carrying the NAK soldier in his arms. The device emitted a blinding blue glow as a shock wave rang out of it, disabling and destroying all of the computers, tablets and any other electrical storage units that was in the room. At the same time, a flare was set off, igniting any physical paper documents int the room. As the three stormed out, the building quickly caught on fire from the Elysian fueled flare burning it inside out. As they got to a safe distance, Eric put down the soldier and handed him medical remedies for his leg as well as a few rations for him to escape and survive for a while.

“Here, everyone take one.” Alice said, handing out small circular gadgets to each of them. “It’s what Laura said will stop us from being detected on any kind of radar or similar trackers.”

Alice noticed that Laura had given her more than the needed three, as another three rested in her palm. She smiled and shook her head as she gave one to the soldier.

“Laura’s even planning for something I never thought would happen.” Alice said with a chuckle.

“Yea, she’s kind of strange but definitely has a big brain.” Iris commented, a smile breaking across her lips.

“She’s pretty incredible, honestly. Came through for me more than once.” Eric added, blushing slightly.

The two girls glared at him as he waved his hand at them, shooing them off. He hopped into the Yatogami, lowering the arm of it for the two girls to get into. He turned to the soldier and gave him a salute. He wasn’t too familiar with the language the NAK used, but did his best attempt at giving a farewell. Unsurprisingly, the soldier titled his head at him, his confusion visible through his helmet. The soldier nonetheless waved at him before turning and running off into the field next to the base, safe for now with the help of Laura’s gadget.

“I really hope he doesn’t get shot.” Iris said, watching him leave.

“Says the person who already shot him once.” Alice quipped.

“Nah, she didn’t shoot him, she hit him with a laser. That wound was a straight line across his leg.” Eric corrected her, chuckling. “Anyway, we need to get off base, too. Jack’s probably getting reinforcements to head our way and Kelly’s probably waking up soon.”

With that, Eric ran off carrying the two girls in the Yaotgami’s arms, heading to where he knew where a nearby forest was. Their mission had changed drastically and this was very well going to be their last night together in this Elysian world.

"Still pretty bummed about my sword though."