Chapter 16

“There are currently 23 gates that have appeared. Our defenses are managing to fight off most of the Kaijus”

A holographic screen of a map of the globe pops up with red dots on it, representing the gates. In addition to the red dots, there are numerous red arrows which represent the number of kaiju who have breached our world, roughly 100 in total.

“I’m sending you two to city 56, a high level kaiju named Slate Brute, about a level 5, heading straight to city 56”

“A level 5, huh…”

I grin saying that, the same goes with Norn. The ranking goes from 1 to 8, in which their rank is based on the kaiju size, weight, and most importantly of all was how much Ori energy was stored in their body.

A level 5 and the ones above are particularly special because during the second kaiju war, part of the reason the majority of the fleet of Aiases were wiped out was due to them starting to appear. Any kaiju level 5 or above, on top of being way stronger than the ones below them, for some unknown reason have some sort of ability, like being able to absorb energy, controlling electricity, spit out fire or acid, regeneration, invisibility, fire out lasers, and etc.

“I can’t help but thank you for giving us such an interesting mission”

“I’m not, Norn. You two are the only one left that is available, I’ve already assigned the others on their own missions”

“Alright then”

Norn turned her head and faced me.

“Hey Alina, you finish starting up, I finish warming up the core”

“Ya, finish in right about… now”

I press a button on the holographic screen I was working on. The entire cockpit lights up, revealing a 360 degree view of our surroundings.

In addition to other systems lighting up, the ceiling on the doc we are at, opens up like a hatch, to reveal the open sky. Caution lights began flashing and speakers began warning the people below that we were going to be deployed. The restraints on our Aias were released and the hatch fully opened. The platform our Aias was standing on moved up, moving us out of the hanger.

Finally, out from the hanger, our Aias was about 87 meters tall, with a muscular frame, and was colored an ashen black with blue undertones.

Our main weapons, which are swords, 6 in total, were on our back that almost looked like a pair of black wings.

Vila Crow is the name of our Aias, the first part in its name was given due to its sparking with electricity when we fight. The second part of the name is from the core that was extracted from a level 7 kaiju named Letricus Crow.

A giant aircraft that had four massive jet engines was flying toward us, stopping once it was above us and began latching onto our back. It was an AFC, Aias flight carrier for short, which was our transport.

“Greetings Scott, how long till we get to the drop point”

I talked to the person flying the AFC with a tone of familiarity. You could say he is one of the few good friends we have. Since we were pilots, we have a high level of security around us at all times, so not a lot of people can talk to us. Plus the other pilots can’t really be called friends since they all have something wrong with them.

“It should take about 30 minutes at minimum”

A notification popped up on my screen to tell us that Scott was done latching onto us, he began lifting us into the air without a moment to spare.

“Any updates on the situation on the ground”

“Yes Alina, Slate Brute has already breached the walls and the squadron of Aiases station in city 56 have been sent to intercept it but at best they can is to buy time till we get there”

Norn and I were surprised at how fast it managed to break through the city defenses.

“That was quick, we better hurry then."

“You must be really excited to want to fight that thing, Norn and you too Alina”

“You know it”

Both of us spoke to Scott at the same time, grinning ear to ear, giddy with excitement, different from our usually expressionless selves.

Scott replied with a tone that had a mixture of resignation.

“Just don’t get yourselves killed out there”

After 30 minutes, we were close to our drop zone in city 53. We keep track of the current situation but it doesn’t look good. Slate Brute already had breached the walls and parts of the city were destroyed.

Its level was raised from a level 5 to a level 6 because 4 out of the 6 Aiases of squadron 56 were made combat ineffective fighting the kaiju. 56-2 and 56-6 are engaging it but barely managing.

“Hey Alina, Norn, we are close. Prepare yourselves for neural link”

“On it”

We were up high in the sky, passing through the clouds, I could see the city below us from up here. It looks like a fortress, with it having sturdy high walls and mounted defenses, like giant canons and missile launchers to prevent the kaijus from getting in.

These defenses are common in all cities since we can’t really predict where exactly a gate will show up, so when Kiajus started to show up again, each city was made into their own fortress.

“All systems are online, Charlotte prepare for neural link”

“Confirm, preparing for neural link in 30 seconds”

I spoke to Charlotte, who was an AI system that was made to assist us in battle.

“Hey Scott, how long till you can drop us off? I’m really itching for a fight"

Norn spoke to Scott, really wanting to know when we could fight with that slight grin of hers. Norn is the more expressive one out of the two of us, believe it or not, despite the fact that we’re always expressionless.

“Calm down Norn, we’re 3 kilometers out, so about 2 minutes till we land. I’m going as fast as I can but I don’t think they can last any longer, I think it’s best if you do a halo drop”

“A halo drop you say…”

Norn grin grew even bigger, hearing that. A halo drop is where we detach from ASC and free fall to our landing point, instead of the ASC dropping us off.

I looked at Norn, beginning to smile like her, just as eager to fight our first real kaiju.

“Hey Norn, ready to link?”

“Always”

“Jeezus, why are you two always battle junkies”

“I’m going to ignore that Scott, activating neural link”

“Ya, just don’t get yourself killed Alina and you too Norn”

I closed my eyes, started our combat suit glowed blue and I could feel my mind melding into Norn’s mind. I could feel the thoughts of Norn, then our Aias, which I could feel the wind outside our Aias.

“Neural link stable, at 98%”

Charlotte the AI system announced that we successfully link.

Our suits glowed light blue in a circuit like pattern in addition to my eyes also glowing the same a light blue color. It felt like a rush of energy was coursing through my body when Ori energy was going into my body.

“Neural link stable, ready for halo drop, Scott”

“Copy and good luck”

I pressed a button on my screen to detach us from the ASC, feeling a sense of weightlessness as we fell. Then I press another button on my screen.

“Disabling all locks”

With that our movements are now synchronized, all the locks have been removed, with our Aias, Vila Crow, moving the same as we do in the cockpit.

We spread our arms and legs out to control our free fall. When we were about 1 kilometer in altitude, we prepared to brace for landing and activated our thrusters on our back to slow our descent.

A loud thud announced our entrance into the city. The ground shook like there was an earthquake and the shock wave from the landing caused the windows of the nearby window to shatter and blew away the cars and other vehicles in the vicinity.

All of the civilians were already evacuated to the bunkers deep underground the city so we don’t have to worry if there was any civilian casualties that was cross in the cross fire

Slate Brute, was a 80 meter bipedal lizard looking kaiju, with glowing marks around its body that was normal for any kaiju level 5 and above.

Like its name, it had a hunch back, big arms with giant claws, and a face that made it look kinda brutish.

It swung its giant arms at 56-2 and 56-6 to knock them away, who were trying to hold it off, seeing us as a bigger threat.

I opened a channel to tell 56-2 and 56-6 that we will be taking it from here and to go to the breach in the wall to prevent any other kaijus from getting in.

Then we took out one of our 6 swords on our back, readying to fight.

The ground shook each time it stepped as it was charging toward us.

“Alina get ready”

From what we saw when squadron 56 was fighting Slate Brute, it could generate some sort of force field around its body, no wonder it got past the cities defenses

We held our sword with both hands and swung at it to test out its ability.

When our sword was about to hit Slate Brute, Norn and I felt our sword being repulsed but it caused Slate Brute to crash into a building on its right from the swing.

Not deterred, we tried to thrust our sword at Slate Brute, ramming it through the building it crashed into and into the other street. I felt the same force that repulsed our swing earlier when we thrusted. .

“Well that was certainly an interesting ability”

“Ya, Alina”

Our swing didn’t harm it but the kinetic force did, it’s a good thing to know.

We waited for Slate brute, expecting it to run through the collapsing building. However, catching us off guard, it instead ran through the building next to the collapsing building and tackled us.

Norn and I felt the impact inside the cockpit, justling us around. If it weren’t for our control system that we were attached to, we would have been like a pinball in a pinball machine.

Slate Brute uses its giant arms to bear hug us on our waist, using its claws to dig into our backs, and ram us through several buildings.

“Gaugh. Norn, let go of the sword”

Dropping our sword and we began hitting Slate Brute with the bottom of our fist, trying to get it to stop.

For some reason our fist managed to hit Slate Brute, not having to deal with the force field.

We manage to stop it charging to a stop by planting our feet in the ground and begin wrestling Slate Brute, trying to wrangle it to the ground.

“Hahaha, this is more fun than the simulations"

“Ya”

My grin grew bigger, while Norn had a wild smile and was laughing from how unexpected this was. I could feel Norn’s excitement growing bigger.

Both of us were thinking the same thing, like what Norn said, it was different from the simulated battles.

I looked at Norn and she gave me a look back.

“Charlotte, arms, burst, 65%”

I spoke out some commands to Charlotte, in which a burst of Ori energy from the core was routed to the arms, giving us enough strength to temporarily over power Slate Brute and push it back.

The circuit patterns on the arms of our combat suit, which were glowing a light blue, turned black. The panel linings of the arms of our Aias, Vila Crow, were also turning black, with our arms starting to spark black electricity due to the burst of Ori energy getting routed to the arms

Our Aias should be more than enough to take on Slate Brute, since the core in our Aias was from a level 7 kaiju named Lectricus Crow. Our ability we share with Lectricus Crow was to control this black electricity, compared to normal electricity, it for some reason has the quality of being able to absorb other forms of energy and use it for our own.

We pushed Slate Brute some steps back into another building because at this range, we couldn’t take out another sword, so we used our fists instead.

We began with a left hook, then a right, and an upper cut. It roars from our punches and uses its claws to swipe at us but we dodge them and counter with a couple more punches to its face.

From those punches, some of them got repulsed but others landed, in which we figured out a bit more about its ability.

Like most level 5 or above kaiju, the markings on its body glow whenever it activates its ability.

We mixed in some normal punches to compare the effectiveness to when we wreath our arms with some black electricity.

You could probably break through the force field with brute force alone but I think it’s better if we use our ability because our black electricity absorbs the force field each time we make contact, since it was made from Ori energy, making its force field weaker and strengthening our punches.

Norn and I already came up with a general idea in our connected minds, to kill during the 3 to 5 seconds opening when it would have to make a new force field.

“Charlotte, activate Volta mode"

“Confirm, activating now”

I spoke another command to Charlotte to activate Volta mode. It was a mode where we let Charlotte automatically control the bursts of Ori energy.

Since our minds are connected to our Aias, including Charlotte, Charlotte could calculate how much Ori energy we need and where we need it to go, instead of manually doing it as we were fighting.

We ran in and punched Slate Brute directly in the face, arms sparking with black electricity.

It crashes into a building again. As expected, our punches only hit the force field surrounding its body, but we continued punching Slate Brute. Each punch causes Slate Brute to be pushed further back into the building and its force field gradually gets weaker and weaker.

Eventually we punched and broke Slates Brute's force field. We thought of kicking Slate Brute through the building, so Charlotte sent a burst of Ori energy to our legs from our thoughts and we kicked Slate Brute right through the building, into the next street over.

How many buildings have we already destroyed, 4 I think. We better wrap this up quickly, we have already caused a lot of property damage, we’re probably going to get yelled at by our captain for it.

The force field that was protecting Slate Brute broke, we charged through the building and swung another punch at Slate Brute. Then we grabbed Slate Brute by one of its arms and the scuff of its neck, sending a burst now to our legs and arms, which were glowing black and were sparking electricity.

With much effort we threw Slate Brute a couple of blocks away.

Being far enough away, we could properly take out one of our swords, in which Norn started laughing.

“Hahahahaha! This is even more fun than I thought. Lets kill it, lets kill it, lets kill it”

I could feel Norn’s excitement rising, which caused me to also smile and raise my own excitement to match hers.

“Charlotte, Max output”

Norn spoke out commands to Charlotte, which made our sword turn a pitch black color. There was a lot of black electricity cracking out of the blade, which was due to the sheer amount of Ori energy being flowed and concentrated into the sword.

Slate Brute charged at us and we held our sword up high, waiting for it to get in range to strike.

When we swung down, a loud impact exactly like thunder sounded when our sword made contact with the force field and released a large amount of black electricity.

Slate Brute was forced to the ground due to the force of our swing, making a giant imprint of itself on the street.

We swung our sword again at Slate Brute as it began getting up.

Another impact sounding like the roar of thunder sounded when we sliced off its left arm without much effort.

It screeched in pain, having its left arm cut off, and swung its giant right arm at us. We duck under its arm and I temporarily take control of our right arm. I punched it with a full burst of Ori energy, causing another loud impact like thunder when I hit Slate Brute’s face.

I knock back Slate Brute, a full street block back with the force of my punch.

“Warning, right arm integrity at 68%”

Charlotte gave out a warning on the condition of the right arm. That can’t be helped, the reason we can’t go all out was because of our Aias, when you compare it to others that could enhance their strengths, ours is way more powerful but at the cost of putting an immense strain on whatever we were using a burst on.

For comparison, if you place our core in a normal mass-produced Aias, it would probably only last a minute before it destroyed itself from the strain. This was also the reason why we carry more than one sword.

Looking at Slate Brute, it looks like I’ve caved in parts of its skull from that punch.

Better finish this fight. We held our sword and ran toward Slate brute. The markings on its body glowed blue, meaning that the force field is up.

We slash at the force field once again, which again releases a large amount of black electricity and breaks the force field.

Then we thrust our sword into its chest and I shouted a command to Charlotte.

“Explode”

The sword that we thrust into Slate Brute, absorbs the Ori energy inside its body. Then in coordination of the Ori energy being absorbed and the Ori energy we were sending into it, it releases a massive amount of black electricity, blowing a giant hole into its chest, killing it

Our sword shatters like glass when we push away Slate Brute's dead body. Looks like we need to better pace ourselves next time, we threw away the sword that was now a hilt to the ground and grabbed another sword.

We caught our breath, expressions turning back to our normal expressionless selves and message 56-2 and 56-6 that Slate Brute had been eliminated.

“Slate Brute has been eliminated, going to the breach wall now”

As we were turning around and began walking in the directions of the breached wall to meet up with the remainder of Squadron 56, I began hearing a familiar voice.

Listening to it some more, I recognized that it was Rain’s voice, filled with concern, shouting at me to wake up. I immediately shot my eyes wide open to see Rain next to me, waking me up from my dream.