Rescue Fantasy (4)
KWOOM...!
A heavy force was pressing down on the military power loader. It was a simple downward pressure, applied from above. At first, the mechanical giant seemed to withstand the gravitational field forming above its own head, but it soon dropped to one knee.
Next, the missile port, which had been relentlessly firing black spikes, began to crumple. Even in that state, it looked like it was about to fire more black spikes, but all that came out was a vicious noise—none of the black spikes actually launched.
All the drive units screamed in protest. Creep, packed tightly inside the power loader, oozed out through the cracks and splattered down below with a wet slapping sound.
'Nadia...!'
I knew this effect was Big Hand's doing. I had seen it before, though not often.
Earlier, I had worried greatly after Nadia was sent flying by the infected power loader's attack. Had she escaped without serious injury after all?
'No.'
She had to have been hurt. There was no way to avoid it after that kind of attack. Besides, big Hand was supposed to be incomplete. I distinctly remembered being told that using it would cause serious rebound. She definitely couldn't be in a normal state.
Just imagining her being hurt was enough to make a fire flare up in my gut. I desperately hoped Nadia was not seriously injured. I suppressed the angry flames that threatened to boil over.
Nadia had created this chance for me. I couldn't let it go to waste. Now that the biggest obstacle—the black spike firing pod—was neutralized, I had to advance immediately.
I grabbed the polar impactor, now recharged, and hurled myself forward.
【KYA-AA-AAK!】
The ghouls rushed in, but I ignored them. At a time like this, with no certainty how long the gravitational field would last, being held up was the worst-case scenario.
Blue-tinged claws raked my suit, tearing holes here and there, and ripping off bits of armor. Blood spurted, and a sharp pain ran through me. The pain only fueled my determination.
The polar impactor's pile driver cocked back. The multi-legged tank, now barely upright, became my stepping stone. I jumped off it, landing before the infected power loader almost simultaneously.
TANG-!
Because of a series of rough uses, parts of the polar impactor must have slipped out of alignment; it made a sound just like a shell being fired. In fact, the pile driver actually fired off with the strike. Originally, it was supposed to stop at a preset point.
Still, the effect was definite. The pile driver pierced straight through the power loader's body and shot out the other side.
The core inside the power loader was shattered to pieces and turned to particles, which scattered out in all directions. Sticky fluids dripped out through the gaping hole, pooling on the floor below.
Soon, the giant composed of mechanical parts and creep toppled backward.
Thud.
With a weighty sound, creep pooled on the floor and splattered everywhere.
I brushed off a hunk of flesh stuck to my suit helmet and tried to ignore the wave of exhaustion sweeping over my body. Through the half-destroyed helmet, I could see the totally collapsed power loader.
'... Got it.'
Honestly, the power loader wasn't a Blue Eye-class threat. Comparing something that only shot black spikes to a creature whose rays could sear, and with a strong exoskeleton, simply wasn't fair.
But still—I mean, we—hadn't avoided a tough fight. The reason was simple. It was because the mutants, not us, used the surrounding terrain to their advantage.
The polar impactor, strong enough to pierce a Blue Eye's exoskeleton, also couldn't reach its full power for a similar reason. Just like we fought as a team, the infected power loader wasn't alone, either.
Every time I tried to land a decisive blow, the Stalker would spit to disrupt me. Because of it, my aim was always knocked off, so I couldn't deal significant damage.
Naturally, in the meantime, the power loader would retreat out of range, and even when I tried to go for the Stalker first, it would run behind cover I couldn't reach, so nothing worked.
Even with the security robots, we were barely able to hold on. If we'd come here without the robots, we would've been wiped out before we could even respond.
Whatever the case, the infected power loader had fallen. Now only the Stalker remained. There were infected security robots and ghouls to worry about, but for now, they weren't my immediate concern.
"... Eric, the only one left is the Stalker. Are you all right over there?"
- *Cough*... I have an abdominal injury, but it won't be an issue right now. I can hold on.
"Hold on just a little longer. I'll get Nadia and join you right away."
As soon as the power loader fell, the Stalker vanished again. Whether it fled in fear or was just lurking, waiting for another chance, I didn't know—but in this moment, I had to get to Nadia and Carry. Before it was too late.
"Nadia! I'll be right—"
I turned and started to shout, but froze instantly. And for good reason—Carry was digging through some blue crystal debris with its auxiliary arm.
I wasn't surprised that Carry, who had flown off with Nadia, was moving around. What shocked me was that Carry seemed not to realize its auxiliary arm was bent—no, it was digging through blue crystal debris so hard that the arm had bent in the process.
It wasn't just odd behavior in itself; a sudden realization dawned on me as to why Carry was doing this.
"... Nadia?"
My heart plummeted. My legs, which had been moving fine, suddenly refused to move, as though sensing something terrible.
【KIEEEEK!】
It was only the immediate screech of a nearby ghoul that snapped me out of it. I rushed straight over to Carry.
"Carry!"
Carry showed no expression, only continuing to dig and dig at the debris. I wanted to ask Carry what was going on, but stopped myself.
After all, I already knew. There was no need to say it twice. What mattered now was getting Nadia out from under the debris.
- Lee Hyun-woo.
"Licorice, hang on. Just a moment. If it's not urgent, tell me later. Please."
- ... Okay.
Sensing the seriousness in my voice, Licorice quietly ended the call.
After a little while, I managed to pull the gravely injured Nadia out from under the wreckage. Until then, I couldn't say a word.
Her once-perky ears drooped lifelessly.
The tail, always a window to her true emotions, hung limp.
Those lively, grass-green eyes were closed, nowhere to be seen.
Her soft blue-sky hair, soaked with blood, had lost all color.
Her once-vibrant lips were now dark and dead.
Not a single detail failed to signal death. As I reached out with trembling hands to touch Nadia's cheek, I suddenly flinched and froze.
Memory, like gum, the more you chew on it, the more it gets distorted and loses its original shape. Yet this scene was vivid. The setup was all too similar to the first time I found Nadia in that back alley.
The emotions I felt then and now were divided by an insurmountable gap, but at least one thing was the same: my mind had gone completely blank.
If I hadn't reinforced Nadia's suit with custom armor, she wouldn't just be badly wounded—she would be dead.
Realizing that, I belatedly recognized how arrogant I'd been. It felt like trying to breathe atop ashes. As if unextinguished embers were burning me up from the inside.
Nadia would be fine, I told myself? That I'd go to her as soon as this was dealt with?
'... Fucking idiot.'
I was so disgusted with myself I couldn't even curse properly. It felt like my heart was being shredded. Every instant felt like an eternity.
A roiling sensation in my gut. Just breathing made me want to vomit everything out. I felt so powerless it drove me mad—I wanted to scream but could do nothing. The storm of emotions would not settle.
With shaking hands, I forced high-grade medicine into Nadia's mouth. Is this what Nadia felt every time I was hurt? I never wanted to know, but with this knowledge, I only regretted all the past days.
Just then—
【KIRRORRK...】
【KEEEEE...】
The Stalker, along with the ghouls, began to gather, watching me, Nadia, and Carry. Their tentative movements were infuriating, as if they were sizing us up. Fueled by all my pent-up emotions, I shouted out.
"Get the hell away from us—!"
My voice rang out, echoing through the space. I glared at them savagely—if not for them, if they hadn't disrupted us while taking down the infected power loader, Nadia wouldn't have been hurt like this. It was all their fault.
Waves of that anger surged and receded rapidly. Just by yelling once, the sensations from my environment stabbed into my head. The force erupting from within me spurred me on.
In truth, I knew. My complacency and my failings played a huge role in Nadia getting hurt. In the end, resentment circled back onto myself.
I clenched my teeth, bracing for the ghouls' next wave, but something strange was happening. The ones that met my eyes lowered themselves, as if confronting a higher lifeform, and didn't touch me at all.
Then, they hid in their ruined nest. Only the sounds of the infected security robots fighting each other could be heard.
It was different than when they had relentlessly hounded us before, but I had no mental space left to care about that.
I quickly checked Nadia's condition, taking out another dose of high-grade medicine from my belt pouch and giving it to her.
The medicine took effect—the blood from her forehead slowly stopped. Still, the color didn't return to her face. Blood was still flowing from her chest.
Though her suit recognized the injury and immediately tightened around the wound to stop the bleeding, it didn't help much. I could see Nadia's condition worsening in real time, an indescribable anxiety gnawed at me.
'She's still alive.'
Her breathing, though faint as if it might stop any second, still continued. As long as she was alive, I could save her. I felt the urgency.
"Celestia, how's the progress with pipeline control?"
- In two minutes, all pipelines will stop operating. The refinery will shut down and freeze up like the outside. Then the creep can't spread any further. Extreme cold won't stop everything, but at least it should buy us some time.
"Finish up as quickly as possible. ... Nadia is badly hurt. Seriously."
- ... I'll finish in a minute. Just hold on a little longer.
Perhaps the severity in my voice was clear, because Celestia replied in an entirely tense tone. Carefully, I slipped my arms under Nadia, to lift her up.
The first thing I noticed was 'she's light.' Was it all the blood she'd lost? Nadia was even lighter than usual. The sensation that her spirit had left along with the weight made me hesitate without realizing it.
"... Carry, let's go."
With that, I moved, avoiding the security robots. Carry followed quietly behind me.
Soon, I regrouped with Celestia and found Eric leaning on the console, his face deathly pale. On the floor, a security robot's arm, stained with blood, lay discarded.
Apparently, when he said his injury was 'no problem,' it was only to reassure me.
Celestia and Eric's faces stiffened as they saw Nadia.
"The operation?"
"It's finished. We can go immediately."
"Eric, can you stand?"
I was about to say I would help him if necessary, but realized I couldn't entrust Nadia to Carry, who, with damaged thrusters and other parts, couldn't carry any extra weight.
"I'll support Eric. Hyun-woo, just focus on Nadia."
Thus, we set off for the site where Roxy's shuttle had crashed. Oddly, no ghouls attacked, so we arrived much faster than expected.
Though not as much as us, Roxy was in a bad state as he welcomed us, his face clouded by the somber mood.
The shuttle only had a core malfunction and could be repaired in a pinch with blue crystal. Though there were issues with armor and thrusters, fixing those wasn't our job. Nadia was hurt, so there was no one to handle those repairs.
The shuttle took off with difficulty. The thrusters sputtered, but didn't die out. After retrieving the hoverbike left outside, we made our way back to town.
We couldn't congratulate ourselves on surviving the pureblood supremacists' trap, not with the damage we had suffered.
All we gained were more questions, and a dreadful sense of being lost.
***
In the vastness of space, an artificial satellite orbiting Titan suddenly revealed itself.
Made of special metal, it had until now hidden its presence with active camouflage, but it awoke from a long slumber when it received the signal that broke through Titan's communications lockdown.
- Security protocol activated. Acknowledging a critical threat to safety.
- Transitioning to purification protocol. Preparing satellite purification procedures. Activating propulsion for satellite realignment. Preparing for orbital bombardment.
- Checking Titan's status... ERROR. Current satellite status: Blocked. Unable to specify precise impact point.
- Deploying panels. Unable to estimate time to full charge. Additional power source required.
The panels, which seemed ready to deploy at any moment, stopped halfway. However, this was not a permanent halt.
If supplied with energy, the satellite was ready to carry out its mission at any time, no matter what the target might be.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
The security protocol is a self-destruct button?
Damn, salvation turned out to be desctruction.
【(((╹д╹;)))】
Also, Hyun-woo used his authority over the ghouls.
He's going to be a unit than he already is!
【⁽⁽(੭ꐦ •̀Д•́ )੭*⁾⁾】
Also, Nadia is hurt, hope she gets well soon.