Last Drop of Hope, Chapter 17 (Patreon)

Looking out the viewport, Belzerg looked so very close. The planet had grown from a small brown and white dot to nearly filling the entire field of view. The toxic and polluted waters that had been the oceans could barely be made out under thick layers of suffocating clouds, and the endless wastelands and massive cityscapes could be seen, lights occasionally gleaming in the darkness of the night half of the planet.

Even so close, the planet was too far. The Faitifore was actually decelerating, despite being relentlessly chased by enemies. If they approached too quickly, they’d either shoot right past the planet or if they tried reentry, they’d burn to cinders in the atmosphere. Which meant they had less than an hour until the enemy reached them.

“Why haven’t they shot at us yet?” Dust muttered, staring at the display as sweat ran down his brow. Fully a dozen enemy attack craft were barreling right for them, and there was really nothing standing in their way. “We’re sitting ducks with all the acceleration we’re bleeding.”

“They want her,” Lan said, jerking her chin towards Alice as her hands gripped the yoke so hard her knuckles were turning white. Kazuma wondered if her hands had locked up by now.

The images of the tanks in the basement of ChimeraTech flashed through Kazuma’s head. “Well, they can’t have her!”

He turned to Alice, his mind racing. “Hey, could you teach me any other skills? Or any of us? I leveled up a bunch, surely there’s a way…or…something?”

Alice’s brow furrowed. “I suppose, but what skill would you have me teach?”

“One that could, I don’t know, hide the ship, or speed us up, or SOMETHING!” Kazuma said, scrubbing his hands through his hair.

“I…perhaps? An Adventurer can learn any skill, though their usage of it is impeded by their poor stats,” Alice said slowly. She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. “I think…perhaps…no, Teleport would not work…”

“Teleport?” Kazuma asked, perking up. “That sounds perfect!”

She shook her head. “You would need to register a location, and it would not work with a moving vehicle. You do not register the vehicle, but where it is. Besides, to move to the planet with a Teleport, you would first need to be upon the planet to register it.”

“Ok, so Teleport is out, but there has to be, like, some sort of cloaking device, or something!” Kazuma said, holding up his Adventurer’s card. “I’ve got…15 points! That’s enough for something, right?”

“It is, but…” Alice took Kazuma’s card, frowning at it. “You have Basic Magic…hmmm…I suppose…there is Illusion Magic.”

“Illusion Magic?” Kazuma asked, and his mind started racing. “What’s the range?”

“Visual range. Once you create an illusion, it lasts a certain amount of time based upon the caster’s level and MP,” Alice explained. “You are level seven, so it would last seven minutes normally, though since you are an Adventurer it would last only half that time due to the penalty.”

“Right, right,” Kazuma rubbed his chin, then looked to Rin. “...but she’s a Mage. Does she have a level penalty?”

“No, of course not. And, since she is a mage, Rin could spend extra points to enhance her spells, something an Adventurer can’t do,” Alice said with a shake of her head.

“Uh, I have 10 points on my card,” Rin offered, holding hers up. “Does that help?”

Kazuma rubbed his hands together, a slow grin spreading over his face. “I think I have a plan.”

On the bridge of the NyteTech Highliner Black Horse, Captain Ital watched the display as the numbers slowly ticked down. His interceptors would soon be in range, and then it was only a matter of time. They had to take this smuggler alive, the CEO was willing to pay one hundred billion credits for the passengers. Even with that split amongst the other ships, that amount of money had Cap. Ital’s mouth drooling at the very thought. He’d walk away with at least a billion himself as the senior captain, which was ten times his current net worth. With that kind of money, he could do whatever he wanted.

As he watched, the fleeing smuggler suddenly made a dramatic course change, and for a brief instant, the display flickered slightly.

“What was that?” Cap. Ital asked his senior tech.

The dwarf woman shrugged. “They’re burning their engines hard. I had the sensors turned up to their highest sensitivity so we could register them. They’re damn hard to see, mostly we have them on visual tracking only, so the sudden burst of energy screwed with the equipment. We have them locked it. They might try to go dark after a moment to hide, but they won’t get away with that. I have them too solidly for that.”

Nodding, Ital watched, and sure enough, after just over three minutes of hard burn, the ship cut its engines, and faded from the screen. His tech snorted in derision and shook her head.

“As if I’m that green. Give me a moment.” She fiddled with the readout for a few moments nonchalantly, then suddenly frowned. She swore under her breath, then started a full scan. “Just a moment, they’re being tricksey. No need to panic, we had them fully locked on visuals, there’s nowhere they can go.”

But the seconds dragged into minutes, and sweat broke out on the tech's brows.

“Sir, incoming hail from Darkfallen. They’ve lost the target, and are requesting targeting updates from us,” his comms officer reported.

The Darkfallen was an older freighter, not an advanced highliner, and had sensors several generations older, so that wasn’t too surprising.

“Can we give them a fix?” Cap. Ital asked his tech, but she shook her head grimly.

“Tell them to network with us. Get all the other ships to network with us, we’ll do a hard scan,” the tech said. “Multiple angles. Nothing can hide from us with active scanners going, and we know the volume of space they’re in so we can saturate it.”

However, before that could happen, the target suddenly flickered back to life, showing the smuggler on live feed again. Cap. Ital relaxed, and his tech breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, the fools tried to hide from us, but it seems their efforts were futile. Continue,” Ital drawled, leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers. It was less than fifteen minutes to intercept now.

However, only two minutes later, his tech swore, and he looked at her sharply. “What is it?”

“We’re not getting a return!” she said, pointing at the on-screen view. “Not even the faint echoes I was before! They’re there on visuals, but…something’s wrong!”

“What!? How?” Ital demanded, coming over to frown at the view screen.

“It’s like it’s a hologram, a solid light projection, instead of an actual ship! But it’s got none of the usual indicators, and no one’s ever been able to get a hologram to work without it setting off LIDAR and RADAR because of the amount of energy needed to keep it working!”  She said, desperately working the panel.  “Plus, they’re moving too fast for a hologram to stay stable. Chameleon cloaks have the same problem. Sure, they’ll fool a visual, but you have to stay perfectly still or you can pick them out, even against a dark background, and they’re superimposed over the planet now which would make it basically impossible. Plus, to cover an entire ship in that much material…you couldn’t do it. It’d take a scratch from a micrometeor or something and be useless!”

“Find them! Get those interceptors out there!” Cap. Ital roared, and clenched his fists so hard his nails bit into his palm. This prize would not escape him.

A minute later, the ship flickered out of existence again, and Cap. Ital very nearly had his techs thrown out of the airlock.

With a groan, Kazuma collapsed, floating helplessly in midair, gasping for breath. “That’s it…I’m totally tapped…no mana left…”

Far away, the illusory Faitfore vanished in an instant and the drone’s view Kazuma had been watching returned to the plain blackness of space.

“They’re still off our ass!” Lan gasped, leaning back in her seat with a groan. “Rin, how are you holding up?”

“I’ve got two minutes left on this cast, then I’ll renew it,” Rin said, shaking her head with a sigh. “But I’m getting close to tapped out myself. I can do it maybe two, three more times, then I need a rest…”

“You did well, Big Bro,” Alice said, smiling and patting Kazuma’s hand. “Truly, I did not know such things were even possible with these miniature flying golems.”

“Well, we got away, for now,” Kazuma groaned, closing his eyes. “How much longer until we make planetfall?”

“Couple more hours, though we’re hardly home free then. War’s broken out on the ground too and ShopWiz is under attack by NyteTech. That’s gonna be fun to fly into,” Lan giggled nervously. She unstrapped herself, floating free and shaking her head. “I need to use the can. Alice, can you take over for me?”

“Yes, of course!” Alice agreed eagerly, and slid into the pilot’s seat, looking like an excited school-girl.

Smiling, Kazuma floated for a few more seconds, until someone took his arm. “Let’s get you to the rack for some shut-eye.”

His heart fluttered, and he opened his eyes to see Lolisa gently pushing him through the hatch and down the corridor. She smiled down at him, blushing faintly. “You did well, Kazuma. That was smart. Using not one illusion, but two? And a drone…I have never heard of such things being done, even in old Belzerg.”

“Yeah, well, when my hide is on the line, I tend to be creative,” Kazuma said, trying to be as casual as possible when he couldn’t really move and a beautiful woman was touching him. This wasn’t quite one of those VR scenarios, but…

Lolisa nodded. “I think it’s because you care so much about Alice. Even if you’re not blood siblings, I can tell you care a lot for her. I can…sense it. Your love for one another.”

“Wait, really? I know Succubi are supposed to be sensitive, but,” Kazuma blushed, thinking of the other things he’d heard about them.

“We’re empaths. The better to…never mind. Anyway…thank you.” They reached the bunks, and Lolisa helped Kazuma into one, then strapped him down so he wouldn’t float away. “You don’t have long, but sleep while you can. You should be able to regain enough MP to move with a power nap. I haven’t had a lie down in… well, a long time. But you’re right on the edge of it.”

“No goodnight kiss?” Kazuma teased, then immediately regretted it.

Lolisa blushed and looked away. “No. I’m afraid… that’s how we feed, and, um…no. I-I…I need to go. Goodnight!”

With a flap of her small wings, Lolisa took off, and Kazuma groaned, laying back and thumping his head against the bed in frustration. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Still, he was so exhausted, he drifted off in only minutes.

He dreamed of his family, of his sister. Sisters. Iris was there, was was Lia. So were his parents, and they all lived in the magical land of Japan, where the skies were blue, the water was clean, and there was plenty of food.

If only that could be true someday…

The air was stifling. Tina tried to swallow, but found her throat was too dry. She fumbled for her canteen at her belt, and took a few sips of precious water. She passed it over to Claire, who took a swig herself. Her partner looked weary and hollow-eyed despite their hours of rest, and she was far from the only one.

They were in a cramped, dark compartment, packed in with the other members of what remained of the NyteTech Axel Security forces. The air smelled of grease, sweat, and fear. Tina was hunched over in her armor, a shotgun in her lap, and the fire axe and shield strapped to her side, her body encased in heavy armor. Claire was pressed up next to her, but so was Chief Swatti. There was hardly room to move in the APC, though thankfully the ride was smooth thanks to the fact that it was a new hover model instead of a wheeled or tracked vehicle.

Currently, Swatti hand a thick finger pressed to her ear, which were flicking back and forth in irritation, her muzzle set in a grimace. There was a faint buzz that Tina could hear from the comm, though she couldn’t make out any words. She felt a pressure on her shoulder and saw that Claire was leaning on her, eyes closed in exhaustion. Perhaps it was physical, or emotional, but either way, her partner looked utterly exhausted.

Bending down, Tina lifted the visor of her helmet and tilted it back, resting her forehead against Claire’s. They set together for a few quiet moments, but then, the buzzing in Swatti’s ear ceased.

“Right, maggots! Listen up! Our job is to secure the flanks! We’ve got a nest of these new cultists. They’re gutter rats and corpless criminals. This is a weapons free, I repeat, weapons free operation!”

There were mutters at that, mostly of surprise, but Tina sat up in disgust as Claire’s eyes opened in anger. “Chief! Permission to speak freely!”

“Granted, Ford, Shin,” Swatti said, looking…weary? Her eyes were red, but it didn’t seem to be stims or blood lust. Like the Chief had been crying.

“Ma’am, those are just civilians! Unarmored, barely armed! They’ve loaded us for bear. I thought we were fighting real enemies! This seems…wrong,” Tina stated, and Claire nodded in agreement.

“Damn right. I signed up to help people, to enforce justice, not gun down kids.”

“Oh shut the fuck up,” someone else snarled. “Would you rather fight ShopWiz armor and blackhats?”

“Yes,” Tina said, and turned to meet the eyes of each of the other officers. All of them looked away from her, in shame or embarrassment.

“You do what you’re ordered. These people are crazy. Turn on your helmet feeds,” Swatti ordered, and Tina put hers back on.

A few moments later, an image popped up. A naked and screaming dwarf, frothing at the mouth, charged out of the blackness of the undercity to utterly obliterate a line of heavily armed NyteTech security forces. Then the dwarf tackled a tank, taking fire all the while. He was only put down after several seconds of sustained fire, but then more raving lunatics charged out of the dark, and the camera feed was interrupted by a burst of flames, then static.

“They’re carved, or something. Drugs, nanotech, who knows. But they’re all extremely dangerous. They might look like street trash, but they’re as dangerous as blackhats or armored combat drones. Think someone on froth or plex, but worse,” Swatti said, her tone low and serious.

“I…I guess,” Tina said, her shoulders slumping in defeat. At least they weren’t being sent to slaughter children.

The others nodded, though now they were grumbling about their “soft targets” not being so easy.

Swatti leaned in close to whisper in Tina and Claire’s ears. “These fuckers killed my girl. That fat sow couldn’t fight her way out of a cardboard box, but even with our gear she still got iced. Watch yourselves. Don’t take it easy on these fuckers because they look innocent and fluffy. Understand?”

“Yes ma’am, Tina and Claire muttered, and Swatti nodded, leaning back. The Chief did look like she was in pain, and Tina understood now. This was revenge. She closed her eyes and tried to think of it that way. It iddn’t make her feel any better.

After what felt like both forever and far too soon, Swatti shouted at them, and Tina tightened her grip on her weapons. She butted helmets with Claire one last time, and then the ramp dropped. She charged out, weapon lowered, as the gun atop the APC roared.

An instant later, heat and pressure washed over Tina, and she grunted as she was rocked back by a detonation on her shield. She couldn’t see through the glare, but she raised her shotgun and fired blindly. It was a semiauto, but she used only three of her ten rounds. She was using shot instead of shells, as her aim was never good at the best of times, but she moved forward, even as an officer behind her screamed in pain, going down to another blast of flames.

Stomping forward, Tina caught sight of a giant shape barreling towards her. She set herself, angling the shield, but even so was pushed back as a lizardman with a club made of a bent sign pole with a block of concrete bigger than her chest crushed her shield. Bad aim or no, Tina could hit a target that big and that close, and she blasted the reptilian beastman in the chest. He gurgled as blood oozed out of the gaping wound, but took another swing at Tina. This one was weaker, but she was still knocked off her feet.

Behind her, Claire opened up with an assault rifle, screaming as she fired. The lizardman went down, and Tina grabbed a shield from a fallen officer, surging back to her feet to cover Claire. Around her, more lizardmen attacked, half a dozen brutes who were clearly hulked out on some drug, their eyes and…hands? Why were their hands glowing, or their weapons? They must have smeared it with some sort of luminescence, but it pulsed with an angry blue glow.

“SSSSSSLAY THE DEMONS!” a lizardman howled, even as Chief Swatti clubbed him down with the butt of her shotgun, then blasted him in the leg.

“DEFEAT THE DEVIL KING!” the rest of the lizardmen screamed in response, but they were soon cut down. There had been only eight of them, but the twelve-man squad of security officers was down to Tina, Claire, Swatti, and two others from another division she didn’t know.

Still, two more APCs were unloading, and more heavily armed security forces poured out. They were in the middle of a broken-down waste treatment plant, with a building next to a series of pipes right before them. It had been abandoned for some time, but it was now boarded up and reinforced by plastic, wood and…glowing barriers? They had to have some crazy tech to manage that, but it didn’t look like the security fields that Tina had seen before.

Gunfire snapped overhead, and bullets pinged off the chipped concrete and Tina’s armor. She raised her shield and grimly advanced forward, unable to do anything else. Another fireball arced towards her, and she cried out in pain as it hit her shield. She could feel her skin burning, smell cooked hair, but she didn’t drop her shield. Claire fired back, and Tina pressed up to the barricade, holstering her shotgun and pulling out the fire axe.

The barrier was made of flimsy plastic, and went down in only a few blows from Tina and Swatti, even as the defenders shot at them with guns or threw balls of flame from their hands. Tina couldn’t process what was going on, but she pressed forward, trampling the barrier and using the axe to strike at her foes. One woman raised an arm to block the blow, but Tina’s axe cut through flesh and bone to bury itself in her chest. She gurgled and died, and Tina felt sick as she walked over her corpse, wrenching the axe free and fighting another man with glowing hands and crazed eyes.

Beside her, Swatti swore and battled a heavily armed orc, this one in what appeared to be stolen NyteTech security armor. Everyone was shouting, and the smell of blood, feces, and gunpowder filled the air. Claire gunned down Tina’s opponent, and she raised her axe again to kill the one hurling fireballs at her.

Then she froze. It was a female lizardman, one with a basket on her back, with a baby in it. Beside her, a little dwarf girl with a scavenged pistol fired at Tina, the bullets too low caliber to be much danger.

“Hilda?” Swatti suddenly said, her own gun falling from numb hands. “But…you…”

“Mom!? What are you- Surrender, right now!”

Behind Tina, Claire groaned, her gun falling silent. She too was facing mere children, hiding behind the skirts of an old lizardman woman who was armed only with a sharpened bit of rebar. “No…no…I can’t…”

“DRIVE OFF THE CORPORATE DOGS!” a woman's voice shouted, and a familiar blonde girl in blue robes with a shawl wrapped about her head strode into the room. “FLAME STRIKE!”

Tina raised her shield again, dropping her axe as she tried to cover Claire. “Cecily?! What are you-”

Cecily turned, her eyes full of fury. Then she saw Tina and Claire. “You!? You’re the ones…”

From behind, a massive explosion suddenly went off, and Claire was tossed into Tina’s back. Both of them went tumbling to the ground, and something hot bit into Tina’s shoulder. She fell facing backwards, and caught sight of their APCs burning. Someone must have had explosives. Dead security forces littered the ground, as did the bodies of the cultists they’d been sent to fight. NyteTech was pulling back to regroup, but they’d return, Tina knew it.

Boots appeared in front of Tina’s face, and she blinked, then looked up. Cecily stood over her and Claire, her expression grim. “Well. I had hoped for better from you two. You seemed like decent sorts, but you’re still corporate dogs.”

Rolling over to put herself over Claire, who was burned, bleeding, and only half conscious, Tina looked around. Children Old women. Cecily. She didn’t see crazed cultists. She saw people clinging to life, struggling to survive. Swatti was kneeling, her eyes glazed and unfocused, the orc in blackhat armor standing over her, helmet off, a pistol pointed at her own mother’s head.

“Give it up, girls,” Swatti rasped. She closed her eyes. “I’m the one in charge. Kill me. Let them live. We…we failed. There is no honor here…”

“There was never any honor in serving the corporations, mother,” Hilda spat, her eyes full of pain and anger. “You know that.”

Ignoring it all, Tina tried to cradle Claire in her arms, but her right arm wouldn’t work. She looked down to see blood streaming down her armor, soaking the floor around her. There was a shard of shrapnel in her shoulder. That wasn’t a flesh wound: She’d be lucky to live, and if she did, she’d lose the use of her arm, probably need to have it amputated. But she couldn’t afford a prosthetic.

“Please,” Tina whispered, stroking Claire’s singed hair. “We…I…surrender. We can’t…what have we done…”

Cecily hurried over to the smashed barricade and peered outside. She shook her head. “They’ll be back again. We don’t have much time.” She turned back around, coming to kneel beside Claire. “You gave me food, said you wanted to help people. Well, now’s your chance. Will you keep fighting for the corporations that enslaved us, or will you accept the love of Lady Aqua?”

“Whatever will save Claire. Please, Cecily. I…I love her. She’s all I have…a medkit, bandages, anything…please…” She hung her head, knowing it was useless. Whatever medical supplies they might have scavenged, these rebels would use for their own, not the ones who attacked them. And Tina had nothing to offer that was worth Claire’s life.

“All love is good in the sight of Lady Aqua,” Cecily said, her tone surprisingly gentle. “And you did feed me. Plus, she’s cute. Heal.”

A soft blue glow washed over Claire, and her burns suddenly vanished, her wounds knitted themselves closed, and even her hair looked healthier. She gasped for breath, sitting up, wild eyed. “Tina, they’re just kids! We can’t…we can’t…”

Trailing off, Claire looked around in confusion. “Cecily? Where…am I dead?”

“Nope! Now hold still, what was your name?” Cecily asked, gripping Tina’s injured shoulder.

“Lalatina,” she muttered, her mind fuzzy from shock and blood loss.

“Hehe, cute! Heal.”

A cool sensation washed over Tina, and the pain in her shoulder vanished. She flexed the muscles, and it felt as though it were a brand new arm. With shaking hands, she took Claire’s face, and pulled it towards her.

“I…I thought I’d lost you…”

“So did I,” Claire whispered, then pressed her lips to Tina’s.

It wasn’t a very sensual kiss, more of a desperate, hungry one, where boht of them were simply glad to be alive. It lasted only a moment, then they looked around them. Swatti was getting to her hooves, her legs trembling slightly. Her daughter handed the Chief her axe, and she looked down at it, her expression one of wonder.

“Well girls…I always did hate traitors,” Swatti rasped. She shook her head, then met Tina’s eyes. “How do you feel about switching sides?”

Silently, Tina picked her shield back up, and took up her own weapon. Then she went to kneel by the door. “Yes, Chief.”

Claire dropped in beside her, and the two of them peeked out. In the shadows of ruined buildings, their former comrades rallied, and she saw the muzzle flashes and heard the deafening roars of cannon fire. Shells slammed into the building above and beside them, and Tina closed her eyes.

“I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore,” she muttered.

“Have faith in Lady Aqua!” Cecily encouraged, taking up a position on the other side of the door. “Pray to her, and ask for her favor! She’ll grant you a miracle!”

“Miracle,” Tina muttered and set her axe down. She put a hand to her amulet, pulling it out from under her armor to stare at it. “I should…be a shield. A protector. I just…I want to protect people. With my bone and my flesh, I-”

The amulet began to glow suddenly, the same bright blue glow that had been around the berserking cultists and Cecily’s hands. Power rushed into Tina, and she gasped as she felt something settle onto her. A moment later, a card fluttered down before her, and she caught it. She didn’t understand the strange words upon it, but she did understand the shield that was stamped under a stylized picture of herself.

Crusader.