Ravens of Eternity

282 Reclamation Overdue, Pt Freya and Lucifer both ran down a long row of forlorn mecha. The machines sat in their stations on both their left and right sides, unmoving and still like statues from ages past. Whatever life they used to have had long since been taken from them, and were instead locked away in a vault far from the light of day.

Freya could hardly stomach it.

Not just that all this hardware was sitting around doing nothing, it was all literally wasting away. It was that whoever owned them had been taken and locked away, also far from the light of day. And everything they had was taken from them.

Their wealth, their time, and even their names.

“You said they take people’s stuff to add to the Federation’s ledger,” said Freya. “But they’re all just sitting here, doing absolutely nothing. How’s that benefit them at all?”

“It’s not the thing they have, or care about,” Lucifer replied. “It’s the value it represents. This warehouse, let’s say its contents are... a hundred trillion in value. The Fed then turns around, borrows a hundred trillion from the Capitol Fund, and uses this value as collateral.”

“Why would they even do that? I mean, they eventually have to give this all back.”

Lucifer simply laughed in response.

“Give back?” ze said. “Sometimes, sure. Most of the time? These things end up staying, for one reason or another. And once their time’s up, they’re liquidated and paid back. With interest.”

.....

Lucifer then leaned in to Freya conspiratorially, an evil grin on hir face.

“Wanna know what’s worse?” ze began. “The Federation doesn’t even need to borrow money. They can simply just issue more credits! Can you imagine?! If it wants more money in the markets, it can simply increase them. Just like that.”

Freya turned to Lucifer with a scrunched up face. She was utterly puzzled by what ze had said, and not just because she didn’t care about galactic economics.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “Why go through all the trouble? I mean, what would be the purpose of it? Of any of this?”

“Didn’t you hear me?” Lucifer answered. “They pay back with interest. They borrowed from a bank they own, then returned the investment back years later.”

Ze laughed with utter incredulity, which ended with a long sigh.

“In any case, the purpose is to win a game,” ze continued. “A vast game between people way more powerful than us. It’s exactly the type of game that Eris plays. You and me? We play little kid’s games in comparison.”

“Is that why you think the same way they do, then? ‘Coz you wanna play with the big kids?”

Lucifer suddenly stopped, then nodded at the mecha right next to Freya.

“That’s yours, yeah?”

Freya spun to her right, looked up, and grinned at the sight of her Varulv towering above her. She didn’t hesitate to connect to it through her DI.

Raijin’s cottonball drone, which had followed them, immediately flew up and began to scan it up and down. It even began to zap whatever bugs it found.

And as promised, Raijin had removed the magnetic clamps that sealed Varulv and locked it down.

Power coursed through its systems as Freya activated them down below. It took a half step forward out of its housing, knelt down on one knee, and leaned forward. Varulv’s chest armor opened up in sections, as did the core underneath.

Freya leapt up and climbed into her seat. A feeling of utter contentness washed over her as she strapped in.

–

Raijin: I will be wiping Varulv and reinstalling our custom software from scratch.

Raijin: I do not trust they did not tamper with her systems.

Freya: How long do you need?

Raijin: Only one minute.

Freya: I’ll make myself comfortable, then

Lucifer: When you’re done with hers, help me out with something.

–

While Freya was busy restarting her mecha, Lucifer had continued down the aisle of mecha. Ze eventually found one that looked rather stylish, and had sweeping sleek lines along its body. Plus it had a white livery painted on it already. Ze beckoned the drone to help hir with it.

Curious as to what ze needed help with, Freya leaned out of her open core and watched.

“I was wondering why you wanted to come with me on foot,” Freya said. “Should’ve figured it’s ‘coz you wanted to steal shit.”

“It’s what you’re doing, isn’t it?” Lucifer shot back.

“This isn’t the same.”

“You sure about that?”

“Look, I-I’m taking my mecha back, alright. You’re taking someone else’s. It’s not the same.”

“We’re both taking mecha from the Federation, who themselves stole it in the first place.”

“That makes what you’re doing right?” asked Freya.

“It makes this mecha mine,” Lucifer replied plainly. “Besides, how did’ja expect me to get outta here? Squeezed in there with you?”

Freya was taken aback by the thought, but quickly shook off the image.

“Can you at least promise to give it back to the original owner?” she said.

“I promise to think about it,” ze retorted.

The screens and MFDs all flashed off and on as Raijin reinstalled her code. Her Truesight and Oversight Engines quickly took over and ensured everything was running up to spec. Freya then closed everything up and began to do her own checks.

She then got Varulv off the floor, opened up her equipment crates, then began to look through them..

Sadness filled her as she went through the crates themselves. There was more than she could take – she had collected a nice variety of equipment. Much more than she could carry.

The first thing she grabbed was her experimental core – the same kind that Eris owned. Or, at least, the single-seater version of it. She quickly opened up the small storage compart in her abdomen, and slid it inside, along with her personal sundries locker and the Ra’ventrii armor.

Then, she focused on her mecha weapons. She grimaced as she looked at all of them. Freya knew she had to let go of most of them, which saddened her greatly. But she vowed to rebuild her weapons cache later.

For now, all she needed was her favorite loadout. She most definitely wanted her shoulder-mounted Beamcannon. The fact that it didn’t need ammunition was a huge advantage. Plus it was her most powerful shoulder-mounted weapon to begin with, a fact that made her choice even easier.

Although she could use a sidearm, she instead reached for her best repair gun, just in case. She slid it into her thigh compartment, then filled up on as many repair material ingots as the compartment could carry.

Then, she picked up her RailSpear and her tower shield and locked them into her grip solidly.

A large part of her felt whole once again, in that moment. Being in the pilot’s seat reinvigorated her with every moment that passed. Feeling the controls in her hands and on her feet gave her such a feeling of being alive that she never wanted to let go of them.

When she turned towards Lucifer, saw that ze had taken full control of a mecha with Raijin’s help. And ze was rifling through a few crates all around for equipment. Truly shamelessly.

In fact, ze had already attached some kind of launcher to hir newfound mecha’s shoulder.

“Are you done pilfering stuff from all these people?” said Freya.

“I already told you,” Lucifer replied. “It’s not theirs any longer. And it’s not like anyone’s using them at all. You oughta be happy that someone cares enough to let ’em loose again. Out in the galaxy, where they belong. Free.”

“Mhm.”

Lucifer then fished out a wicked-looking rifle from a crate, and held it up proudly. It looked like a mix between a railgun and a plasma thrower, and certainly looked like it could do some serious damage.

“It’s time to get loud,” ze said with a grin.

–

Pilot: Lucifer

Loadout:

Primal Machinations “Mantis” Rapid Strike Chassis [B]

Myrmidon Technology “Thumper” Rotary Ordnance Launcher [B]

Kamikage Customworks “Ravenous” Morphic Rifle Platform [A]

–

Only moments later, a hole blew open from one side of the warehouse. The explosion rocked through multiple surrounding floors, and shook everyone near to their core. Some were even thrown to the ground, especially those on the floors closest to the blast itself.

Sections of the wall itself blew off in parts and pieces, and fell to the ground hundreds of meters below. They smashed onto the mega highway below, which caused multiple hoppers to swerve and weave out of the way.

Lucifer and Freya both leapt out of the gaping hole halfway up the gigantic warehouse, even as alarms and klaxons rang out inside and all around. They too fell down to the mega highway, smashed craters into the titacrete, and completely disrupted hopper traffic.

At the same time, up above on the warehouse roof, Raijin’s Tsunami, Xylo’s Phantom, and Kali’s Rakshasa all powered on and rose up from their suddenly-deactivated antigrav platforms. Confusion and panic immediately set in as numerous warehouse workers ran in all directions – to wherever they felt was safest.

The warehouse’s defense turrets and drones immediately kicked in. They turned towards the trio and blanketed them with streams of repeater fire. Unfortunately, they were installed to fight off personnel rather than armored mecha, and their rounds bounced off harmlessly.

Seeing as they were relatively safe from harm, they quickly rummaged through their secure crates and equipped their loadouts. Then, they skated to the side and leapt off gracefully. They fell from much higher up, and smashed into the titacrete below a few seconds later.

Chunks of the material flew in every direction as their impact shattered large sections of the road itself. A cloud of dust rose up from the cracks as the Ravens convened towards each other.

“We need to get to the district’s security block,” said Raijin. “If we can take control of it quickly, we can potentially turn drone defenses against Sol Security themselves. It will buy us more time.”

“No, we need to go after comms first,” interjected Lucifer. “Er, I mean, I very extremely highly recommend we do comms first. We disrupt that, then it doesn’t matter how many forces they deploy against us. We just gotta keep them confused long enough for us to do our thing.”

“I’m with Lucifer,” Xylo said quickly. “We need to tamp that down first. Then we find Amelia and get the hell outta this dump.”

The others quickly agreed as well.

“Six enemy mecha incoming,” Raijin suddenly announced. “Three coming in from the north, 1300 meters. And three from the south, 1000 meters. C guns, B chassis, little threat.”

“Let’s shred ’em fast,” Freya responded.

.....

“On it,” said Kali.

She rushed the ones headed in from the south with frightening speed. With thrusters at the maximum, she easily reached them in seconds.

And despite any counter-fire, Kali charged right up to the first one, and slammed into it shoulder-first. The impact caused the mecha to stagger backwards, and it took multiple steps backwards to keep itself upright.

But Kali pressed her advantage and slashed at the mecha with powerful swings of her bearded greataxe. She wrenched deep gouges in the armor, and tore off pieces with every strike she landed.

Then, she chopped at its hip and cleaved off its leg cleanly, which caused it to topple altogether. She swept its arms aside then brought her axe down on its chest. It bit deeply, and tore right through the armor and the structure. It chewed into the core itself, and tore the pilot in two.

While Kali dismantled her opponent, Lucifer aimed hir new rifle and fired a fully charged burst at the second enemy mecha. Hir superheated, red-hot slugs slammed into it with incredible force and threw it to the ground.

All the while the red-hot slugs melted down its armor, and slagged the structure underneath. One of the slugs tore through and ruptured the power plant, which immediately caused it to explode in a ball of red energy.

Pieces of the mecha flew in every direction, pilot included.

The third immediately spun around to run away, and maximized their thrusters to help expedite that. But Xylo was having none of it. She steadied herself, calculated her angle, led her target, then shot her sniper cannon once it reached a full charge.

The bullet screamed through the air and split a dust cloud in its wake. It slammed into the mecha’s back, punched right through the core and out the other side. The slug kept on going, and pierced through to a building far ahead of it.

The mecha itself was thrown onto the ground from the force of the shot, and whatever was left of the pilot leaked out of the huge hole that protruded from its chest.