Escape from the Ironclad Eagle

"I think I got a hang of these ZNA powers," Calice shocked two crusader droids that spotted her.

"Damn it, Calice," Someone growled. "Don't kids like you know how hard it is to make those droids?"

General Hernamidos held a cigar in his mouth, guarded by two White Death guards.

"You," Calice hissed. "My mom and dad are gone because of you!"

"Aw, you're going to make me cry," Hernamidos chuckled. "You see, I took your parents for being pieces of trash. So I just had to throw them out!"

Calice jolted at Hernamidos with incredible speed. Hernamidos covered himself with his cape, making Calice bounce off.

"Ouch!" Calice fell. "Of course, you have one of those capes too."

"Kid, why exactly do you have Corporal Misuna Jiyang with you?" Hernamidos asked. "Release her."

"She doesn't belong here," Calice carried Misuna on her back. "You can't have her."

"Corporal Jiyang belongs to me. She's a soldier of the Global Federation of World Justice."

"No. She's not yours to keep. Misuna is a person who deserves to be loved and cared for. You and your Reaper Squad don't care about her at all."

Hernamidos groaned. "Blah, blah, blah. Welp, I gave you a chance. I guess I get to test this bad boy out. Meet the megachasmoid!"

He pressed a button on his wrist. Hernamidos and his guards walked out of the way as a buff droid faced Calice. It had a muscular body made of large cube-shaped segments. The megachasmoid stomped his way toward Calice, gazing with its red cycloptic eye. Its hands were armed with quadruple blasters.

Okay, that thing is huge. Calice launched lightning at the droid. But it's just a bigger crusader droid, right? I can still shock it!

The turquoise thunderbolts bounced on the big droid, unable to pierce its mercury armor. Calice focused all of her energy on the buff droid, groaning as she tightened her arm to its maximum strength. The droid still walked to her with ease.

What? I wasted all my energy on it! Calice huffed. Time to run!

"Bwahahaha!" Hernamidos slapped his knee in laughter. "I wish you could see that look on your face. It was priceless!"

The big robotic soldier fired its arm blasters at her. Calice blitzed across the hallway to avoid it.

"Get her!" Hernamidos yelled.

"Good Lord," Calice dashed into the hangar and hid behind a hovertank. "I can finally rest a bit."

She leaned Misuna beside the enormous vehicle. Calice sat down and stretched her hurting limbs. Her hot head felt as if she used too much of her power. Calice forced her dizzy head to peep out from the big tank.

The large hangar doors were closed. She saw Reaper Squad commandos marching around a group of black dropships. She saw crusader droids being loaded onto the hammerhead gunships beside the strange robotic tanks.

I could steal a dropship. Calice scratched her sweaty head.

She then spotted Agent Dacos with more megachasmoids. He pressed onto a control panel to open the hangar doors with mechanized grinding. Hammerhead gunships flew inside, carrying armored cages full of crying Vulpi. As the droid aircraft landed, the Reaper Squad ran about the landing area, forcing the prisoners to line up.

Those poor Vulpi! Calice watched Dacos instruct the commandos to take them to concentration camps. I wish I could help, but I don't have the power now, especially with those immune megachasmoids. And I have Misuna on my-

Calice noticed a big shadow looming over her. She looked up to see the megachasmoid from earlier looking at her. The massive robot fired its arm blasters at her. Calice grabbed Misuna and made a run for it, not wanting to exhaust her powers. She dashed for the nearest dropship. The Reaper Squad opened fire at Calice.

"Hold it! Focus on the fox devils!" Dacos told the secret police. "Leave her to me. I will handle this. I'm not going to mess up."

Calice bolted away from the megachasmoid that chased her. She blasted the door with lightning before zooming in and accidentally dropping Misuna.

"Aiya! I'm so sorry, Misuna!" Calice buckled Misuna up and dashed for the cockpit. "We will be out of here soon. Only if I can-"

"Going somewhere?" Someone said.

She looked back to see Agent Dacos inside the dropship. He lunged his hand forward to command a gust of wind to slam Calice's head into the controls.

"Preparing liftoff," The dropship's voice control said.

"O-oh, I didn't mean to do that," Dacos blinked.

The dropship opened its four wing thrusters, releasing booming turbine power that lifted the warcraft. The megachasmoids fired at the dropship as it flew higher.

"Shields at 60%," The voice control continued.

"Close the hangar doors!" Dacos yelled at his wrist gear to instruct the Reaper Squad.

Calice fired lightning at Dacos, but he collected it into a sphere and launched it back at her. She ducked and zoomed toward the agent, tripping him by swiping her leg across his.

"No fair!" Dacos backflipped and faced his palm at a steel bar, commanding it into his hand like a staff.

Dacos charged at Calice with his weapon.

"Warning. Shields below 50%. Shields at 34%," The two heard the voice controls speak.

Calice zoomed with her lightning speed to avoid Dacos' attacks. "You know that metal conducts electricity, right?"

"Yeah. So?" Dacos didn't understand until Calice caught his staff with her hand, shooting electricity through it to shock him.

She then gave Dacos one final kick at his chest, sending him flying out of the aircraft.

"Shield status critical," The voice control said. "Shields at 13%."

Calice rushed back to the cockpit, seeing the hangar doors slowly close more than halfway. She took the joysticks, pressing on the pedals to make the aircraft speed forward. The dropship dashed for the shrinking daylight.

"Come on! Come on!" Calice clenched her teeth, forcing the joystick forward and stomping her feet at the pedals.

Less than a quarter of open daylight remained. Calice held her breath as she forced the dropship forward with maximum speed. A megachasmoid blasted a right thruster off the dropship. Calice felt the aircraft wobble clumsily through the tiny opening. The metallic door scraped the top of the warcraft as it bolted outside.

"Shields at 2.7%," Calice heard the voice say. "Please refrain from utilizing the dropship for battle until shields are fully regenerated."

"Yes! Thank God!" Calice cheered. "We made it, Misuna."

Misuna still didn't reply.

Calice sighed. "Let's find a way to reach my friends. I hope you all are okay."

***

"You lost them, didn't you?" Hernamidos growled at Dacos.

"Well, maybe."

Hernamidos punched his agent in the stomach.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"How could you lose to two teenagers?"

"Ah, y-you see, I-I meant for her to get away! I did that on purpose! You know, I wanted to figure out the rest of her plan. Yeah!"

"That made zero sense!" Hernamidos kicked him as his wrist gear beeped. "What now?"

The gadget emitted a life-size hologram of Supreme Herald Fanghui in front of Hernamidos.

"General Hernamidos," Fanghui crossed his arms. "It was about time you picked up. I was getting quite worried. You promised to give me a status report half an hour ago."

"Hail, Fanghui!" The General saluted. "My deepest apologies for the delay. We seemed to encounter some minor setbacks."

"Oh? Tell me about it."

Hernamidos hesitated.

"How's the experimentation with Calice?"

"Ah, yeah. About that..."

"You lost her, didn't you?"

"Y-yes, and she took Misuna."

Fanghui facepalmed.

"But don't worry! I'll track them down myself!"

"Slow down, General. Your faith in Corporal Jiyang clouded your mind. Thanks to your complete failure, Calice has her! You need to eliminate both Calice and Misuna before our enemies use her."

"I-I understand that, but I can still find them!"

"No, you won't. You're the head of the Ironclad Eagle, and you'll make sure the production of new megachasmoids stays intact! Don't forget your duties, General!"

Hernamidos groaned.

"I will send the Cerulean Countess to assist you in finding Calice and Misuna in the meantime."

"No! Don't trouble yourself, Supreme Herald. This is my responsibility. I'll deploy all of my forces to find and kill Calice and Misuna!"

"All of your forces? Are you stupid? This is no time to get prideful-"

Hernamidos hung up before Fanghui could finish. "Dacos! Secure the base while I'm gone!"

***

Fanghui sighed in his office. He stood in front of a young blue-eyed lady wearing a blue yukata with her blue hair styled in a bun. Next to her was a buff gray robot. Standing eight feet tall, the four-eyed cyborg held a cryogenic rifle with pincers at its end.

"Kyrinna and Azuroid," Fanghui said to the girl in Japanese. "I was originally going to send your battalion to find Calice and Misuna, but with Hernamidos leaving his post. I must ask your forces to help guard the Ironclad Eagle's production of megachasmoids instead."

"Wakarimashita," Kyrinna replied in the same language. "What about the Niangs?"

"Once you establish your forces at the Ironclad Eagle, you may hunt Isrina and Shien down. But remember, High Visionary Joltiarre needs both of them alive for our master plan to erase the Vulpi from this world. Your objective is to capture Shien, separate Isrina from her son, and bring him to Joltiarre. Understood?"

"Hai!"