Chapter 19 - From Mentor To Final Obstacle

“W-what? Laura, did you say something?!”

“No, but I have to go. I’m sorry I can’t help more. Good luck, Eric. Iris and Alice are in the second building on the right from the compound entrance. They’re counting on you.” Laura said hastily as several other voices could also be heard over the comms.

“Thank you, Laura. Be safe.” Eric said, knowing she already disconnected.

Eric continued on a straight line, still confused about the voice he heard, but instinctively knowing that he could ignore the soldiers. He figured the disabling weapon would have a recharge time like his recoilless rifle and decided to continue on his path. He finally reached the entrance to the compound and rammed through the metal doors that had closed behind the infantry. The doors were destroyed and broke open with a loud metal clang. Eric charged to the building Laura said and he smashed into the side of it, breaking open a large hole in the wall. Inside, Alice and Iris were tied to chairs by cuffs that were disabling their power suits and being guarded by several soldiers. Eric unsheathed the recoilless rifle and aimed it at the guards, even though it wasn’t ready to fire again.

“Release them or your body will cease to exist.”

The threat was overkill and with a few seconds of thinking would make one realize he’d kill the two girls as well with that shot, but the panic overtook the guards as they quickly released the girls. Iris instantly punched and incapacitated every guard the moment her suit was reactivated and took their weapons, handing one to Alice.

“Thanks for the save.” Iris said, her face pale and full of worry. “You didn’t... kill anyone, did you?”

“No, Laura helped me out and no one was injured.” Eric said, but then remembered that a few soldiers were dropped a couple stories. “Well, no serious injuries, I think.”

“Laura’s here too?!” Iris shouted before calming herself quickly. “Oh, that’s good. I’m so relieved. Also, what’s with the yellow flame? Is the Yatogami damaged?”

“The right arm and leg are disabled, they had countermeasures for the Yatogami, like we read, but I didn’t expect our own classmates to already have them.”

“Yeah, when we were ambushed by our former classmates, it really hit me who we made enemies with.” Alice said, looking over the rifle in her hands before looking up at Eric. “But, we all have a duty.”

“Yeah, we do.” Eric said, smiling.

That smile soon vanished as he saw the two girls glare at him and cross their arms under their chests. He instantly knew he was about to get a lecture.

“Speaking of our duty, you should know that we were not the important part of the mission.” Iris said, her voice stern.

“Correct, you should have continued to the weapon and left us. My sister and I made peace with our possible imprisonment on this mission. You made the wrong choice here.” Alice continued.

“We will continue this later after we fix your error and help you complete the mission.” Iris finished.

“Look, I chose to save you guys because Halford threatened worse than imprisonment.” Eric interjected, not letting them have the final word. “And a world without you guys in it is not worth saving for me.”

The two girls’ faces blushed deeply at the statement and before either of them could say another thing, Eric had already turned around and started to walk away. The two looked at each other's red faces and smiled before nodding and following him out the hole he made.

“Alright, behind that gate are about 4 soldiers, two of them are Jack and Kelly. Each of them have a weapon capable of disabling me, so I need you guys to suppress them for me-”

Before Eric could finish forming a plan, an explosive shot like the one from the mobile tanks hit the Yatogami in the back. Iris and Alice quickly got into cover as Eric turned around, recovering from the shot. He looked behind him to see a large mobile tank with three large square barrels mounted on it. The body of it was wide and angular and rested on enormous treads. Instead of being the shining white and silver like most other weapons and tanks, this one was pitch black with yellow and blue striping. On the side next to the middle barrel, a hatch opened and a gruff, muscular man climbed out of it.

“Halford...” Eric muttered. “So, using the NAK weapons now, are we?!”

“Mr. Eric Valtor. What a disappointment you’ve been. So much promise, so much potential and so much trust put into you, just to throw it away in a matter of months.” Halford shouted, ignoring Eric’s prodding. “It’s unfortunate, but I guess the countermeasures and contingencies for this exact scenario were needed. If Whitlock could see you now...”

“If Whitlock were still alive, I’m damn sure he’d be helping me. He knew so much more than you ever could, you ancient man.”

Eric launched forward at the tank, causing Halford to quickly jump back in and close the hatch. All three barrels fired at Eric, but with easy pirouettes and slight adjustments he managed to dodge each shot, even with the disabled leg. As he approached the tank, it moved with impossible agility and dexterity. It quickly circled around and fired shot after shot at Eric, leading him like a mouse does to a cat. As Eric was dashing toward Halford, he saw two lasers hitting the Yatogami. He quickly looked over and saw Kelly and Jack aiming at him. He watched them as they steadied their aim on the two remaining appendages. Eric cursed under his breath as he tried to dodge out of the way, but was cut off by a barrage of tank fire. Suddenly, he saw the lasers vanish and he looked back over to see Iris and Alice having engaged the two, having managed to disarm them, but now fighting in hand-to-hand combat.

“Thanks, guys.” Eric said, knowing they weren’t on comms with him.

He continued his chase, ducking behind buildings to dodge Halford’s onslaught of tank shots, but each shot was destroying each building and revealing that none of them were fully evacuated. Inside the building he took cover behind, Eric saw multiple men and women in laboratory coats cowering in fear as they looked up at him.

“Halford! You’re firing on your own civilians?!” Eric shouted, holding the collapsing building up to let the researchers escape.

His good deed was met with being hit by three shots from the tank, causing the Yatogami to let go of the building and recoil backwards, slamming into another one. As Eric struggled to get up, the building collapsed on top of him, covering him in rubble. Halford slowly rode up to the rubble and all three barrels of the tank started to hum and illuminate in a bright blue, before slowly transitioning into a deep yellow.

“I thank you for saving my fellow United Front men. But, unfortunately that costed you this foolish fight.” Halford spoke, his voice being amplified over the speakers again. “One thing I will say, the NAK did know how to make a destructive weapon. Add in our superior technology and you have something truly terrifying.”

Eric managed to push off some of the rubble, only to see the three barrels aiming at him. He unsheathed the recoilless rifle from his left arm and aimed it at the tank. He fired all three shots in quick succession, each one hitting the tank directly, but causing minimal damage and only disabling one of the cannons.

“You see, if you followed orders and returned back west like you were supposed to, that primitive cannon would have been replaced with one of these.” Halford taunted, the other two cannons still charging. “Now, we’ll be at a disadvantage and down three good soldiers because you decided to turn traitor. Goodbye, Eric. Say hi to Whitlock for me, down in the depths of hell.”

Eric struggled against the rubble, clawing and kicking with desperation, but still unable to get up fully. Eric cared not to look at the tank again only focused on getting out of the way. Finally, he heard an explosion and closed his eyes.

“Sorry, everyone... I failed...”