Etechnia looked up at her partner for the evening's mission; he didn't often make conversation before a drop, but today seemed to be an exception to the rule. The high collar of his SOLDIER uniform was tossed by the wind as he sat across from her in the helicopter. His eyes were fixed on her weapon.
"For starters, you're one of the few that's formal enough to call me ma'am." The humor in her voice was almost lost due to the constant drumming of chopper blades, but she smiled to reinforce that it was a joke. "Please, dispense with the formalities. You're more of a friend than a subordinate to me, Alken."
"High praise! Thank you, 'Nia." Alken tensed as they neared the drop zone. "I assume you have Barrier Materia? We might need it; I'm guessing they'll have guns. If they're smart enough to expect us, they're smart enough to bring rifles."
Etechnia adjusted her helmet, dropping her visor to keep the wind out of her face. "Yes. Did you bring something to help our offense?"
Popping open the Materia compartment of his standard-issue longsword, Alken displayed the single green orb inside. "Fire Materia. I didn't have the time to pick more than one, so Healing Materia was out. I guess we'll have to avoid getting hit."
The constant, overpowering sound of the helicopter pounded on her eardrums; Etechnia couldn't wait to abandon it. The vehicle slowly listed over a speeding locomotive as the two SOLDIERs observed their target. Dressed in black uniforms to take advantage of Midgar's low lights, the duo watched their target as it snaked along the winding tracks. The cargo-train was on a run-away course towards Sector One, armed with an explosive device on the main car.
Their mission was simple; neutralize the bomb, eliminate or apprehend the terrorists responsible. Alken thumped his fist against the pilot's cabin. "Close in on the lead car. If we lose it in the express tunnel, things will get a lot more difficult." Grasping one of the helicopter's rails, he looked away from the train to give the pilot the order. Etechnia kept her eye on the rear car; she saw movement in the back.
A man slid open the rear car's canopy, aiming a long, black weapon. Even at this distance, in the dark of night Etechnia's glowing eyes locked in on the trooper and his armament. "RPG!" With a gleaming flash of yellow flame, the rocket screamed through the air. The high, baleful whistle of the approaching explosive nearly made Alken jump out of his skin. Unable to stop it at a distance, Etechnia braced herself.
The pilot rocked the helicopter forward; Alken thumped against the door of the cabin as the helicopter nearly faced nose-down. Despite the daring maneuver, the helicopter failed to avoid the shot. The tail burst, the rear propeller hurtling off. Unstable and sagging towards the ground, the vehicle listed left, tilting away from its course as it began the dance downward, supported only by the top rotor. Etechnia did the only reasonable thing; she jumped.
The cold air was quite a rush. Extending her boots, she landed on the train. Her weapon raked the train's roof and tore a jagged hole in the metal as Etechnia rolled to her feet. The gunman who fired the rocket stared at the SOLDIER, bewildered. The First-Class SOLDIER grabbed her blade, bringing it around hard. The RPG split in half, and the man fell into the train car with a deep gash across his chest. The weight of her buster-sword alone would have killed him instantly; the razor edge of the five-foot slab of metal was no laughing matter.
With larger issues to deal with than her dispatched opponent, Etechnia watched the falling helicopter. Alken hadn't managed to bail yet. She watched, horrified for her teammate as the vehicle plummeted. Before it could fall past the tracks, the front window burst open; Alken slashed the glass with his longsword and jumped, holding a bundle on his shoulder that Etechnia couldn't make out; despite her vision, there simply wasn't time to take in the information. The affair had played out in the space of a few seconds.
Despite his strength, she knew he wouldn't make the jump. Springing off a moving helicopter towards a speeding train wasn't easy, but he was only a few feet off-course. Etechnia could tell he'd miss his mark with the added weight he was carrying. Alken flailed his legs as he fell head-first.
Thinking quickly, Etechnia extended her sword, gripping the handle with both hands. Tensing her arms, she prepared for her weapon to get a bit heavier.
Alken landed on it face-flat, his senior officer buckling to her knee as she held his weight; the impact was hell on her shoulders, but holding him up wasn't much of an issue. "OW." Looking up, Alken grinned, nursing a bloody nose under his visor. "...Saved the pilot." The pilot was slung over his shoulder. Etechnia hauled them both onto the train, dumping them off her blade.
"Nice work, Al. That was a kind thing to do." Etechnia helped the Second-Classer upright. The pilot was unconscious. Broken and in flames, their helicopter fell past the train-tracks and into the empty black space below; it would likely land in the empty development projects below. Not a huge loss, but Etechnia knew her superiors wouldn't be too pleased with such a slip-up.
"Has your head been on fire this whole time?" As Alken brushed embers off his shoulder pauldrons, Etechnia lifted her gloved hand, wincing as it touched an open flame. Her helmet was starting to feel oddly warm; she yanked it off and tossed it over her shoulder, revealing a head of high, spiked brown hair. Her teammate tried his absolute best not to laugh at her hairstyle. No relaxer in the world could help; it was, and always would be, a jagged mess. "Your hair just doesn't care about gravity, does it?"
"No time for jokes. Enemy contacts." The duo turned to see the terrorists were onto them. Sporting tan, long-sleeved uniforms and stolen Shinra helmets, the men were moving out of the train's second car with rifles. As his backup climbed onto the roof, the first of them opened fire.
Bullets were no laughing matter. Etechnia planted her tall, thick blade in the train's roof, staying behind it. Bullets bounced and whizzed off of her weapon as she took cover. Alken stood over the unconscious pilot. He dropped to a knee and held his sword high, using it to deflect any on-target shots, batting away bullets quickly. "Behind me!" Etechnia moved in front of him and channeled her Materia. A domed shield sprouted in front of her palm, bullets curving away from its glassy, blue surface. "Return fire!"
Alken rolled his glowing brown eyes; he could tell Etechnia was smiling at the pun. "And you said there was no time for jokes." The green orb in his weapon glowed as he pulled some magic from it. With a growl of effort, the Second-Class SOLDIER pointed both hands forward and sent a ball of red, crackling, hungry flame. He swung his hand around, throwing another two. The fireballs killed one of the gunmen; the others stumbled back, their uniforms ignited.
He can't detonate them yet, but he's improving. Etechnia felt some pride in her younger associate. He wasn't much for magic attacks, but he hadn't stopped practicing. "Now! While they're off balance!"
Etechnia yanked up her sword, and Alken sheathed his, the two charging. Etechnia let him get ahead of her; this was his time to shine. Close quarters combat was his favorite kind. The SOLDIERs overtook their adversaries. Those who could still fight immediately drew blades and night-sticks. The ones who had been too badly burned stayed down, or rolled off the train due to the constant rattling.
Alken stayed low, keeping his fists tight. "Military dogs! Cut 'em down!" One of the terrorist troops barked the insult as he rushed forward, eager to strike. The first man to approach him swung a blade down at his head. Alken lightly touched the blade with the back of his knuckles, guiding it down and past him. The cheap blade snapped against the train's roof. Alken swung his leg, giving the man a boot to the neck. Another terrorist lurched forward to stab him, but the SOLDIER sidestepped, planting an elbow in his face, then finishing with a back-fist. The third moved to catch him on the side of the helmet with his night-stick, but Alken stepped in, catching his arm and sweeping his legs, taking him down. Alken finished the man with a straight punch, denting the metal on which they stood and and pulverizing the attacker's face. Drawing his longsword, Alken moved to confront three more opponents who were moving to overwhelm him.
"DOWN!" Etechnia's order was instantly heeded. Alken dove back and laid flat as her buster-sword passed over him. In a single stroke, Etechnia painted the night air with blood, scattering her opponents. One of the men was blown backwards, his stomach opened. The other two fell off the train, similarly wounded. Still turning due to the weight of her weapon, Etechnia planted her feet and halted it, lifting it onto her shoulder.
"Gaia's cavity." Alken pulled himself upright. "Good swing, 'Nia." Etechnia smiled at the compliment. She didn't have time to say, but Alken hadn't done bad before her intervention; he would have won out easily, but time was of the essence, and Etechnia was no slouch when it came to crowd control. "DUCK!"
The train hit a tunnel, and both SOLDIERs sprawled to avoid being peeled off by the tunnel's outer wall. Alken's visor scraped against the metal roof; turning his face and using his Fire Magic to disperse the sparks, he shut his eyes. Etechnia, face forward, felt her jagged pony tail violently whipping against the back of her collar. She twitched as one of her hairs was plucked off. A tear welled up in her eye at the sudden pain. Ow. SOLDIER or not, having hair tugged out stung.
Soon enough, the tunnel widened and the duo could stand. The yellow lights of the tunnel blurred together, each tube of Mako powered electricity running together in a blinding line. Rushing forward, the two approached the lead car.
"I'll handle the bomb," Etechnia reported calmly. "If it detonates, try to dispel the heat while I contain the blast."
"Understood!"
Their boots drummed against the third car's roof. They were nearly at their objective before the rules of the game took a sharp change. Etechnia and Alken both halted as the lead car burst; Alken thought they were spent, but Etechnia knew that the blast was too small and concussive to be a nuclear device.
It was merely a nuclear powered enemy. A massive robot coated in flaking tan paint, the terrorist's trump card rose above them, nearly the size of a two story house. Its lower body remained in the train car, but a pair of bulky, mechanical arms spread out, sporting a wicked blade on each forearm. The robot's grated, knight-like helm leered down at them from the robot's head.
Sneering at the robot, Etechnia prepared for a harder fight than she'd expected. The terrorists must have set it to attack small, fast moving Mako signatures. The higher-ups must have added new enemies to the simulation.
"...I thought we were dealing with a bomb." Alken stared up at their opponent. "Is that thing part of the combatant-droid series? It's way bigger than usual, I know that."
"It's a Motor-Ball. Shinra technology. It's designed for monster extermination, and has a nuclear core! We can't let it get to the highway, or it could outrun us."
As Etechnia finished her sentence, the tunnel came to an abrupt end. The duo found themselves in the open air of Midgar's highest district. In the distance was Shinra HQ, and the highest center of authority in Midgar. The robot turned its lower body, further destroying the train and letting itself fall towards the highway.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Alken sprang after it. Grasping onto the automaton's shoulder in midair, he held on tight with his left hand, bringing his sword around and jamming it into the robot's face. "I'm not done impounding your face!" The robot landed on the pavement of the main highway. Cars swerved and mashed their brakes to avoid the robot as the Second-Class SOLDIER attacked its face with his sword.
With spiked tank-treads for legs, the robot rolled forward, batting at its face to knock off its attacker. Alken ripped his sword free and swung it down. To his horror, the standard-issue blade snapped in half, sparking against his shoulder pauldron. "Ah brother." Alken yelped as the robot reached up and grabbed him by the arm, yanking him off and preparing to throw him away.
Etechnia intervened in the nick of time. Leaping towards the droid, she somersaulted over it, her blade lashing out as she rolled through the air. Split at the shoulder, the Motor-Ball's arm fell to the ground, dropping Alken with it. The robot turned towards her, deciding she was the more potent threat. Its left arm, and the only one remaining, pistoned down towards her. Etechnia sprang out of the way as a jagged hole was punched in the street.
A ball of flame whizzed through the air, bursting against the Motor-Ball's face. Alken loosed two fire-spells. The robot protected itself with one arm, the fireball splashing against its forearm mounted blade. The robot rolled towards him at a terrifying speed, threatening to run over him. Alken jumped aside as the Motor-Ball crushed the concrete divider into dust. Lashing out with its blade, the powerful droid missed again as the SOLDIER stumbled out of the way.
Etechnia's blade came down; thanks to her teammate's distraction, she was able to get on its shoulder. She chopped deep into the Motor-Ball's skull, twisting her blade to wedge its head in half. "AL! Finish it!" As the robot sparked and flailed, its CPU compromised, Alken jumped onto its chest. Driving his fist through the weakened metal, he grasped the robot's "brain" and channeled his fire Materia, toasting and destroying its internal circuitry. The Motor-Ball's last act as a functioning being was to slap him off. Alken landed hard on his back, stunned and breathless but alive.
To his leader's horror, the robot began slowly rolling forward. Alken turned onto his stomach to run, but his boots scraped against the loose gravel and failed to build traction. It ultimately came down to Etechnia's help. She jumped down, grabbed him by his uniform's turtle-neck and pulled him out of the way. The Motor-Ball rolled on, smashing through the railing and plummeting off the freeway.
"Thanks. Again. You're getting good at this whole 'heroic save' thing." Alken stood, dusting off his pants and breathing a sigh of relief. "It isn't gonna explode, is it?"
"No. The components we destroyed are similar to the human medulla oblongata. The core probably initiated emergency shutd-" Etechnia paused as the robot hit the ground, crumpling metal filling the air. "Shutdown. The materials are hazardous, but that's what clean-up crews are for."
As their objective was completed, the world began to dissolve around them. Concrete, sky, and even air faded into black as the two awoke from the programmed dream.
A flat-screen on the Vision Room's eastern wall displayed their individual scores.
Etechnia: 97%
Alken: 79%
The end of the simulation was a decent relief to both Alken and Etechnia. Awakening in the Vision Room, the duo sat upright in their metallic bunks.
"Ugh." Alken wiped his arms, covered in sweat. It always took a moment to recall the mission. Despite being a training exercise, it was still a dream; albeit digitally guided and fabricated. Alken looked up at his score, disgusted. "Ugh. Seventy-nine? I guess I did make a lot of rookie mistakes, but wow. I didn't even break eighty." He rubbed his shoulder, lowering his head with disappointment. "This is gonna bring down my average."
"It's penalizing you for your magic acuity. You weren't injured, and you fought well on all accounts. I'll be sure to reflect that in my report. Eyewitness testimony matters far more than programmed scores." Etechnia ran a hand through her hair. It was as tall and jagged as usual, though sweatier than she liked it to be. She smiled at her cohort. "I think you did quite well. Rescuing the pilot before the crash was a nice touch. You deserve far more than the simulation credited you for."
Rubbing the back of his neck, Alken stood and stretched his legs. "Thanks, boss." He had a weakness for flattery, but he was a bit too exhausted to be moved. The muscle memory and exertion stayed with the participants of a simulation, even if their body was in no danger. Etechnia rolled her neck, sore from catching two men on her blade. Alken clapped his hands together, satisfied with the day's training exercise. "I'm going to hit the showers. After that, I'm going to gather anyone who wants to get dinner. Lioke and Gaeira already said yes, and I got a hard maybe from Kydo. Interested?"
"Sure. I'd like that." Etechnia smiled as the two stepped into the hall and parted ways. It was another uneventful day in Sector Two.
Last edited by Bad John on April 27th 2017, 10:12 pm; edited 2 times in total