Chapter 4

A mountain near the Swan’s path.

“You all know the mission. Disable the ship, then kill Lashara and leave no trace, killing everyone else if need be. She doesn’t leave the range of our deployment at all, or the mission is deemed a failure, with none of you being paid if that happens, do you hear me?” A young man shouts to those who each accepted his offer of 1 million K to assassinate Lashara, the heir to the Shitoreiyu Empire. Besides himself there are 2 other male mechanoid pilots and 4 female pilots. Even with the reported skill of Chiaia Flan, this should be more than enough to complete their mission, as Wuhanly is far below Chiaia’s known piloting rating of 1500. She is maybe 1000. That they are doing this just 2 days before Lashara is due to pick up the Sacred Mechanoid with the accompanying Church representative as tradition demands of her is icing on the cake. He will then have not only eliminated a threat to his father’s plan but be able to collect the bounty placed on Lashara’s head by many other individuals. In addition, this will serve as a distraction for all other nations as they can then legally carve out pieces of the Shitoreiyu Empire. This is allowed if there are no direct blood heirs to take the throne or position of heir. The leader and 2 female pilots stay back as support just in case, with the other 4 mechamasters coming in via a pincer formation, 2 in front, and 2 in back.

Roars split the night air as Star and Moon sound off with the alarm that intruders are close by. It is only as those roars sound out that Allanon is awakened, his head splitting from pain as Seiryu had been trying to reach him for the past few minutes. Chiaia’s voice then sounds off from the intercom system. “Multiple enemy mechanoids inbound. Knights, deploy now and protect Lashara.” Allanon quickly extricates himself from the startled grasps of Wuhanly and Lashara, dives off of the bed, pulls on a pair of shorts, grabs his sword and then books it to the hanger as he tries shake off the remainder of his exhaustion.

By the time he gets to the hanger, Chiaia has already deployed and is fighting 2 of the enemy mechanoids. Another mechanoid has touched down and is finished disgorging the pilot who is dressed in a solid black head to toe suit and a plain blue mask. A fourth mechanoid is seen dashing to the back of the ship, likely to disable the engines. Adrenaline surges through Allanon’s system. Hopping into Seiryu can wait. No battle cry is unleashed as he dashes at the enemy pilot who has unsheathed a short sword but hasn’t seen him yet. His speed and technique even from before Chiaia’s hellish training were already great, now he is amazing. The enemy female pilot doesn’t know what hits her as on Allanon’s first pass of her, her hamstrings are cut, dropping her to the ground in agony. A blow to the left temple via the pommel of the sword knocks her out and silences her cries of pain for now.

At this time a fifth mechanoid drops out of the sky and engages an already engaged Chiaia. Her Seikijin’s sword is cracked, her tail has lost several feet and her left arm moves with the stiffness of damage, but the 2 mechanoids she initially faced are also on their last legs and closed to being finished until the fresh pilot and mechanoid drop in. Chiaia holds out as long as she can, but she is out matched when yet another mechanoid appears and starts peppering her with cannon fire, the rest now serving as distractions. With Seiryu having already prepped the boot sequence, it is a matter of seconds until Allanon joins the fight. The claw hammer on his left arm unfolds just as he reaches the battling quartet. With 2 triphammer like punches, the 2 already heavily damaged mechanoids are taken out of the fight, one pilot even screaming as they are sent over the edge of the Swan to drop the more than 5000 feet to the ground, likely ending in their death from such a height with a severely damaged mechanoid.

The shock of his interruption gives Chiaia a chance to think as the 2 visible enemies freeze from the speed that Allanon’s mechanoid showed. “One went after the engines, and one went into the hanger.” “One unconscious in the hanger.” Allanon replies back over the open frequency causing curses to silently erupt from the enemy pilots. “I’m almost wrecked, finish up here and then head to the engines, we can’t afford to drop out of the sky right now.” Yet another mechanoid chooses this moment to appear. Unlike the others that were normal, non-customized models just equipped with different weaponry, this one is very high end as indicated by its blue and gold armor while being equipped with a lance-like sword with a tower shield. The shield is also very much a weapon as it slightly opens from the center and starts firing energy blasts. Seiryu unfolds the armor from the right forearm, forming an almost solid shield centered on the fist that takes the energy blasts head on, causing a huge amount of smoke to form from the impacts. When the smoke clears, Chiaia has left to go protect the engines from what she hopes is the last enemy. Seiryu’s shield on the other hand, has no marks whatsoever, the blasts failing to even scratch the shield. The 3 visible enemy pilots are shocked at this development, enough so that Allanon is able to get close and take out the ankle of one mechanoid, spilling them to the ground, with his arm circling around to take out the head and upper chest, a hit that would most likely kill the pilot as a result if it connected. The pilot does the only thing they can do, scream in a terrified male voice as they trigger the emergency ejection system. The ejection system uses up whatever energy is left to save the pilot, but the mechanoid reverts to and is locked in the embryo form for a minimum of 2 days as the system is put on cooldown. Allanon’s strike still connects, just on the very edge of the embryo’s transparent egg-like shell, but still cracking it in the process. The other 2 pilots are again shocked as neither of Lashara’s knights should be going for the kill right off the bat. The enemy commander in the blue and gold mechanoid scowls as the information they were given must have been way out of date. There is no way that Lashara should have been able to keep under wraps a pilot of the skill level shown, as in just 4 hits, 3 mechanoids are out of commission, possibly for good with at least one pilot dead. Allanon and Seiryu are singing this whole time, their connection as one being going so strong. Knowing that the blue and gold mechanoid is the greater threat, a burst of energy is harnessed by the flight system. This being aided by the jump force used to kick off the ground, means that their momentum and speed not only allows them to crash into the blue and gold mechanoid, pining the shield and lance bearing arms to the sides of the mechanoid via bear hug, but carries them to the nearby mountain that the enemy pilots initially lifted off from.

Crashing into the mountain, they both incur damage. The enemy commander thrashes in Seiryu’s grip but is unable to free himself. He continues to struggle but Seiryu is much stronger than even his rare model of mechanoid. Combined with Allanon’s ability to move as one with Seiryu, he stands no chance of getting free. Allanon and Seiryu tighten their grip, but their position can only get them so far, thus the claw hammer needs to be changed. The pieces of the claw hammer then refold themselves, not back to the arm, but over the hand, now forming an armored glove with very thick fingers but narrow tips. This armored glove has serrated blades as claws for added lethality. With one great big rake of the now paw like hand, the enemy mechanoid is disabled as a claw had slipped past the armor on the back as it scrabbled for purchase and scratched the Ahou reactor’s regulator, freaking out the enemy commanding pilot as the notification blares in their cockpit. An Ahou reactor’s regulator malfunction is a top tier ‘oh shit’ moment. They try to eject after triggering the self-destruct, in the hopes that they can slink away to fight another day, while this ace of a pilot has to deal with escaping the blast. With the red light blaring and the system broadcasting what is happening, the enemy pilot ejects successfully out the back side of their doomed machine. Another rake of the claws from Seiryu’s hand peels enough armor back to expose most of the Ahou reactor. Carefully puncturing it, a hole is made to redirect the cascading flow of energy from the self-destruct process. Like a really bad fart, the energy is ejected to bore away at the mountain rock behind it turning it to sludge from the energy being directly released. The enemy commander activates their jet pack as they scurry away into the pitch black of the night, figuring that it is better to escape to fight another day. He will be back, and though the loss of 6 pilots does hurt, the 2 males worth so much more than the women, there will always be others more than willing to do such work for money, though he may have to up the amount if word of this failed attack spreads. While the self-destruct energy was directed away from them, Seiryu pushed her own Ahou reactor to do so, thus shortening the remaining combat operation time by 10 minutes and increasing the intensity of what Allanon is experiencing from the Ahou in turn. That is still plenty of time to deal with the other 2 pilots thankfully.

When he gets back to the Swan 2 minutes later, Wuhanly is in a contest of strength in her own mechanoid while trying to hold off the last of the enemy mechanoids. He walks from behind the enemy up to their back, and quickly but lightly places the bladed hand in a grasping position over the cockpit. The pilot freezes, more so when with just a bit of pressure, the claws start to reach into the shell of the cockpit, terrifying the young woman within. “I surrender. Please don’t kill me.” The woman screams as she then initiates the shutdown process. Her mechanoid folds back down to the sitting position, armor and weapons reverting as the embryo membrane expands, pushing her out from the cockpit a few seconds later. “Wrangle her and the other surviving pilots, I’m going to see if Chiaia needs help since her mechanoid was almost wrecked before I intervened.” Allanon says to Wuhanly.

A few seconds later, at the back of the Swan, Chiaia has things just about wrapped up. She is out of her mechanoid, the mech having been collapsed in a semi-shutdown state. Light burns are evident on her arms through her command suit, meaning she was pushing her operational limit of tolerance. She is tying up the female pilot before starting to frog march her to the rest of her comrades. There are some signs of damage to the engine housing, but the actual altitude hasn’t changed more than a few feet, meaning that Chiaia got to her in plenty of time. “Enemy commander got away but we’ve got, including your captive, 5 to interrogate.” Allanon tells Chiaia. “How did they get away?” Chiaia asks in return. “Self-destruct after I breached the core, damaging the regulator. Seiryu and I had to widen the breach to direct the blast instead of letting it go off like a grenade. Except for some of the armor, the mechanoid is basically toast.” Allanon stops talking as he starts to feel a tingle in his arms and legs, the first signs of Ahou poisoning. Based on past testing with Wuhanly, he has maybe 15 minutes more until it starts to get unbearable even for his pain tolerance. Recovering from Ahou burns is not fun at all, and at this point he is still going to need at least 5 hours to heal from the moderate exposure.

He takes Seiryu back to the hanger and goes through the shutdown process once in the cradle. Once out, the first enemy he came across earlier is unconscious on the floor still, with Star standing guard over her. Allanon ruffles her fur a bit in good job then goes to check on Wuhanly on the front lawn of the ship.

Moon is there, teeth bared in a snarl directed at the pilots as Wuhanly ties them up and removes any visible weaponry. Chiaia will probably do a more thorough job later just in case. Lashara chooses that moment to walk out in a robe. “You idiots picked the wrong ship to attack. Your leader fled, and another of you is dead or dying on the canyon floor below us. I am the Crown Princess Lashara, heir to the Shitoreiyu Empire. Your mechanoids if operable will be sold. Prison time and being auctioned off to various nations that have spare room to field pilots for the women. You however,” Here she glares at the sole remaining male pilot who is sweating buckets at her glare. “Will have the worst fate of all. Regardless of which nation you are from, your life is now over as you belong to the Empire. Your rating will be determined, then you will be kept in a small cell and milked for your seed until such a time that the release of death is given to you. If you attempt to commit suicide, the milking process will become much more painful as you live your life strapped to a table and fed via tube with a waste pipe shoved up your ass. I will then auction off the seed to enrich my life.”

While I have come to care for Lashara in the few months that I have known her, and I understand what a viable male is worth to any nation for the future potential, the fate she talked about is not one that I would wish on anyone, not even my worst enemy.

Chiaia walks out from the hanger, having deposited her prisoner with Star after not getting any information. “You all need to start talking if Lashara hasn’t already convinced you to do so. Who was your commander for this mission? What was your actual objective in attacking us?” She shouts at the 3 pilots. The male doesn’t answer, his mind fogging up as he realized that his greed has landed him in a position worse than death. One of the women does answer truthfully as she hopes for some leniency. “I don’t know who it was that hired me or the rest, we never saw their face at any time. We were given a down payment and promised 1 million K each if we helped kill Lashara. That is all I know, I swear.” She says in a hurry. The other young woman is glaring at her former compatriot for ratting them out. With neither of the other 2 wanting to give answers, they are escorted to the other 2, then taken to the open-air holding cell after the one whose hamstrings were cut is patched up.

Despite being very tired and it being just after midnight, there is much work to be done. The remaining enemy mechanoids, including those that are pretty much scrap from how much damage they have taken are stored in the hanger. Damage assessments are then performed all over the ship. Allanon and Chiaia get started on being treated for their Ahou poisoning. Even if her mechanoid was operable, Chiaia needs 24 hours of the treatment process to be healed. Allanon only needed 6 hours for the tingling to reverse intensity then stop. Wuhanly stabilizes the mechanoids that were on the verge of operational limits due to damage, but repairs are going to be at least a week in the making, more if the right parts can’t be found.

The ship’s crew who were safely ensconced in their quarters and the command deck are once again relieved to be working for such a powerful employer as Lashara, as most ships would have eventually succumbed to the might of just 4 average mechanoids if attacked, with the 7 that attacked the Swan being overkill in every situation.

Two days later in much better moods, they touchdown at one of the few Church territories, this one being Doulan, which are areas of land considered neutral ground to all nations but are separate from the Holy Land Academy. Chiaia has still worked herself hard despite having to be treated for Ahou poisoning, the fact that the leader got away is chafing at her pride even though she was not the one to confront him. All of the pilots they captured are afraid of both Lashara and Allanon, but for entirely different reasons. They think that he is just one of Lashara’s guards and not a mechanoid pilot thankfully, as Seiryu’s chest armor had hidden him from view when he had been piloting her and the stress of that night has made their recollections a bit hazy. The truth of that is thanks to Wuhanly, as despite being a scientist and engineer, she is also a halfway decent chemist, thus messing with someone’s short-term memory is not that hard. They do keep their eyes out for the ‘monster’ that they seem to think is lurking in the shadows, jumping often as their paranoia sets in. Lashara scares them because she has already laid out the plans to make their lives hell, and legally, there is nothing that they can do about it since they were caught in the act with their failed attack.