Chapter 20 - Goodbye, See You In Hell

Eric readied himself for the end, his mind flashing faces of three girls smiling at him. Alice, Iris and Laura were the last thing he thought of.

'A good last memory.'

A moment later, Eric noticed nothing hit him. He opened his eyes to look over at the tank and saw a cloud of blue smoke that had sparks of electricity arcing throughout it surrounding the tank.

“You haven’t failed yet.” Laura spoke over comms. “I found Iris and Alice and gave them EMP launchers that should work on that tank.”

Eric looked over at the gate and saw the two girls on one knee with rocket launchers on their shoulders, firing at the tank. Each shot left puffs of blue electrical smoke. They fired shot after shot until, giving Eric time to clear the rubble off of him.

“Saved me yet again, Laura. I owe you twice now.” Eric said, finally managing to stand up.

He rushed forward with a pirouette as he boosted the thrusters on the still active leg and readied his claw. He spun and charged through the EMP smoke cloud and slammed his claw into the tank. The Yatogami was immune to the EMP and let Eric attack relentlessly. He clawed into the tank, stabbing it over and over before grabbing the top cannon barrel and ripping it off with a loud metallic screeching sound. He tossed it away and grabbed the last working one and started to rip it off, too. Eric grunted and shouted as he started to pull the barrel from the body of the tank, only to realize that a laser was pointing at the arm. Halford had opened the hatch holding a rifle and was aiming it at the left arm.

I can sustain. But you must act.

The voice echoed in his head again, but Eric immediately understood. The arm started to ignite in the yellow flame as Eric leapt out of the Yatogami’s cockpit and jumped toward Halford. He pulled his arm back, his gloves glowing red and shining brightly. He threw his fist forward, colliding it with Halford’s jaw with a shockwave ringing out on impact. Halford’s body flew backward, his legs catching the edge of the hatch, causing his body to sling down and slam his head and back onto the top of the tank. Eric huffed in exertion. His chest heaving with heavy breaths as he watched blood start to pool on the tank as he looked at the corpse of Halford. Halford’s face had been smashed by Eric’s punch and the back of his head was crushed from impacting the tank. Eric stared at the motionless body and slowly stood up on the tank.

“Goodbye, Halford. Say hi to Whitlock for me, down in the depths of hell.”

The smoke cleared as Alice and Iris stared at Eric, standing on top of the tank. They saw Halford lying lifelessly below him. They realized what Eric had done and looked at each other, their faces dropping.

“Eric...!” Alice cried out, running over to him, Iris following her.

Eric turned to look at them, a tear running down his face. Despite his comment, taking the life of a person who had trained him and acted as a mentor still took a toll on him. His hands trembled and his fist ached not from pain, but from the feeling of Halford’s face collapsing underneath of it. Eric climbed back into the Yatogami and saw that another warning had popped up. The only active part of the machine was now the right leg, with the one arm stuck gripping the barrel of the tank. Eric struggled to move, pulling the Yatogami back. He forced as best he could, activating the thruster on his back to finally pull off the cannon.

“Man, how long is this thing going to be disabled...” Eric muttered, frustration in his voice. “Laura, are we clear? Any other soldiers incoming?”

“Eric, I...” Laura started to talk, but she cut herself off as her voice was trembling.

“Oh... right. Laura, I’m sorry. I had no choice. I...”

“No, it’s fine. I expected something like that would happen, but it’s still just tough to see.” Laura paused before continuing. “No, I’m not hearing anything about mobilizing more soldiers. Halford was the main one doing that. I think we’re clear.”

“Alright, I’ll start heading to the weapon.” Eric said, turning and heading back to the testing field.

“Eric!” Both Iris and Alice shouted at him.

“We’re both right here and you’re ignoring us?!” Iris shouted.

“Guys... it’s not the time.” Eric stated, his voice cold.

The two stood there and watched Eric walk by them, dragging the immobile leg across the ground. The Yatogami was covered in dirt, marring the silver paint and the limbs were charred from the yellow flames, turning them a dirty black. The once pristine image of United Front hope was a shadow of its former self, a broken and burning mess that turned its back on the country that made it. Eric reminisced on the events leading to now, wondering if there was another series of events that led to them reaching the same conclusion, but without taking any lives. So far, they managed to avoid taking UF lives, but Halford was the first.

“UF, NAK, why am I separating the two... both are still full of people whose future I want to save.” Eric muttered to himself upon realizing he was taking NAK lives without hesitation previously. “Hypocrite.”

“Yeah, It's hypocritical, but you’re not alone in that.” Laura spoke over comms, surprising Eric.

“Damn, I was on comms? Sorry you had to hear that, Laura.”

“We heard it, too.” Iris chimed in.

“Yeah. Don’t think you’re the only one who realized we ensured the safety of our friends, but not of any of the NAK soldiers.” Alice continued.

“Except that one guy. Hope he’s okay.” Iris said, her voice oddly sincere.

Eric chuckled as he kept walking over to the bomb. “Yea, I really got caught up in myself, didn’t I? We’re pretty awful people, I guess.”

“Yeah, but we’re also saving the world, so maybe it balances out.” Iris said sarcastically.

“I don’t think it works like that.” Laura stated, her voice giving no hints of joking.

“Well, it should.” Iris pouted.

Eric stayed silent as the other three bantered some more over comms. He thought of Halford’s actions and wondered how he would have acted if her were in his position. Would he have also tried to revive old-world WMD’s to ensure victory in this war? He already knew he too would have gone to extreme measures to stop a perceived traitor; would he be so different from Halford if their circumstances were switched? This bomb, Trinity 2, being built and tested here where he was deployed to ended up being a near-perfect scenario for their plan. Either way they’d be labeled traitors, but in this scenario, they were given an easier set of conditions for their plan.

“It’s kind of ironic that if this war wasn’t going on in this exact manner, we wouldn’t be able to save the world.” Eric said, not listening to the ongoing conversation the other three were having.

“What do you mean?” Iris responded, confused by the statement.

“Think about it. The world is going to end if we can’t free Trinity and one of the ways Trinity can help us is with this atomic bomb. But, as we’ve known since the first Trinity test, atomic weapons don’t work. So, why would more be developed?” Eric asked, pausing before continuing. “If neither the NAK or the UF were building this weapon, we’d have to somehow convince one of the two to start developing it, and hope that they finish within 50 years. And then we’d have to hijack it like we are now.”

The three stayed silent as Eric explained his thoughts. No one had a real answer for how this scenario worked out as well as it did. Iris and Alice gave simple affirmations as a sign they were listening, but offered no real incite or value to Eric’s thoughts.

“Unless...” Eric started but was cut off by Laura.

“Whitlock knew. He must have understood that humanity would attempt to recreate these weapons again.”

“Exactly. That explains why I was chosen. Why he didn’t give the Yatogami to my dad or anyone else from that generation. He timed my birth and growth with the Trinity 2.” Eric chuckled and shook his head. “What a freak. How the hell was that guy so damn smart?!”

“If only that got passed down to you.” Laura jabbed.

“Ouch. Thanks.”

“She’s not wrong. If only you inherited like, a tenth of his intelligence, we’d all be happier.”

“Agreed, sister.” Iris affirmed Alice’s statement.

“Alright, I get it, I’m an idiot. But I don’t get how that’d make you guys happier. Is my ignorance really that upsetting?” Eric asked, completely sincere.

“Very upsetting.” All three said in unison.

Eric sighed in defeat, not understanding their problem. He finally arrived at the launch tower and looked over the missile. Up close, he realized it was no taller than the Yatogami and was much thinner than he expected. However, he also noted it wasn’t standing upright like it was initially; it was resting on an angle against the edge of the cage. He inspected the missile and saw that the warhead was still intact and undamaged and most of the body was undamaged. But his face dropped as he looked at the base of the missile; all of the thrusters were destroyed and the bottom was melted.

“Dammit! Guys, we have an issue. The bomb must have been hit when I was first attacked in the field. Thrusters are gone.” Eric relayed, cursing himself and Halford.

Again, however, a voice echoed inside his head.

We can take it. We won’t sustain. But we will finish our mission.

Eric nodded, understanding. A warning on his display vanished as the flames on the right arm extinguished themselves and function was restored to it. Eric immediately grabbed the missile and shouted out.

“Trinity, you’re up.”