Chapter 163: Broken Promise (1/2)
One of the guards, who were guarding Alna in the hangar, suddenly frowned and said.
“Toralt got killed.”
All the other guards near him could not help but react to that.
“He’s dead!? It’s Toralt we’re talking about here!? Are you sure?”
“Are you sure you didn’t just lose connection because of jamming smoke or something else?”
The person who said that Toralt was dead shook his head.
“His vital sign has flat-lined. Judging from the last information sent across, although it’s only just a guess, he might have gotten his head crushed. The vital sign check is done through the augmented suit and is also sent through it. I wonder if he took on a warhead head-on or something.”
“Was it a surprise attack…? No, he’s too smart to get caught off guard. It should be near impossible to launch a sneak attack on him. And if he was in a pretty bad situation, he should have run, or at least called for help.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly why we sent him alone. But to think that he got killed even before he could call for help like this…”
Their faces turned pale. Although they could not go as far as to say for sure that Akira was the one who killed Toralt, most of them thought that was the case. Then the guy who was responsible for leading them said.
“We have no other choice here! I’ll ask the boss for help!! You guys are okay with that, right?!”
No one there objected.
On the other side of the mansion, the guy who was responsible for watching Katsuya called Rogelt.
“Yes, boss, it’s me… Yes, this brat is pretty useful. Those small fries are no match for him… So, I just need to take him to the hangar, right…? No? The other way…? Ahh, I see. Roger that!”
That guy closed the call with Rogelt and yelled at Katsuya.
“Hey!! Don’t just stand there! Let’s go to the next place!”
“…Did something happen in the hangar?”
Katsuya casually tried to gather more information, but the guy raised his voice even higher.
“It’s none of your business!! You just need to do what I say!”
“…Alright.”
Katsuya replied without even trying to hide his displeasure and followed that man.
The battle inside the mansion was still going on. The interior of the mansion was already scattered with corpses, the difference of the skill, equipment, and luck between the people who were fighting there led them to two different outcomes. Those who had worse equipment, or lacked skill, or did not have enough luck were all turned into cold corpses scattered around inside the mansion.
The ones who were still left alive inside the mansion were those who had survived that natural selection. As such, even Katsuya had a hard time fighting against them.
The guy who was responsible for keeping Katsuya under his watch kept yelling at Katsuya.
“Put your back into it! If you don’t work hard enough, there’s no meaning in keeping that girl hostage, you know?!”
Katsuya still had his displeased face on him as he put himself out a bit more, but the more he moved forward, the more dangerous his position was. But thanks to that, he could take out his enemies faster. Seeing that, the other guy relaxed and said to him.
“You should’ve done that right from the start! You damn brat!!”
Katsuya had a pained look on his face as he listened to the other guy yelling at him. But even so, he still gave his best fighting there.
One of his enemies suddenly contacted someone from behind who sent a warhead straight at Katsuya. Katsuya was able to evade it as it flew past behind him and blew up next to the guy who was keeping watch on him.
Although it only injured him lightly, it really scared him. He then sacredly and flusteredly ordered Katsuya.
“H-hey!! Come back here!! We’re retreating for a bit!!”
That guy was telling Katsuya to return to be his shield. Seeing how Katsuya hurriedly returned back to him, his only thoughts were that he would be safe since he had someone strong next to him and became careless in being wary of Katsuya.
But Katsuya suddenly aimed his rifle at that guy’s head. Of course, that guy was so dumbfounded, but the bullet that landed on his face right at the next moment turned his face into an unrecognizable mess.
Katsuya then shot some bullets to suppress the enemies that he was having a hard time fighting against just now and hurriedly left that place.
[Judging from the disruption in my information-gathering device after that warhead exploded, it must have some kind of jamming smoke inside it too! With this, no signal should be able to reach this place! I can use this opportunity to make them think that he was killed by the enemies!! Or at least, it should buy me some time before someone notices!]
After he left that place, Katsuya ran as fast as he could towards the hangar.
[Judging from that conversation, although it’s only my guess, Alna must be in the hangar! And she must be under attack too! If I don’t go and rescue her now, I might be too late!!]
Katsuya only obeyed Rogelt’s men thinking that by doing so he would eventually find a window that he could use to rescue Alna. And he believed that this was his only chance.
Katsuya already knew where the hangar was. Back then when he asked the other guys with him about Rogelt’s powered suit, they happily told him all kinds of information about that powered suit including the hangar where it was stationed. He originally asked that question trying to figure out the weakness of that powered suit, but it turned out that it was also useful for something else too.
[Just wait there! I’ll definitely save you!!]
Katsuya used the full power of his augmented suit to run as fast as he could. When he guessed who might be attacking Alna, he could not help but worry.
—*—*—*—
Akira was also running towards the hangar, but at that time, he was still outside the mansion. He was frowning because of the fatigue. Alpha, who was floating next to him, noticed it and asked him.
“Akira, the hangar is just ahead, but, are you okay?”
“My both arms still feel a bit weird, other than that, I’m also having a slight headache.”
“Leaving your arms aside, that headache must be because you overused the time compression. Try your best not to faint, okay?”
Akira smiled bitterly.
“I know. If I faint, it’ll cut off your support, right? But still, my arms are okay, huh? I thought that I don’t feel any pain because of the painkillers and they’re actually still injured right now while the medicines that I took are trying to fix them, is that the reason why I’m feeling this weird sensation?”
Alpha lightly smiled.
“For your arms, well, even if they get torn off, I can still move them by controlling your augmented suit, so it should be alright. That’s why it’s not that important right now.”
“Yikes, that doesn’t sound okay at all. Can we like, you know, take a short rest?”
Akira was joking when he said that, but Alpha just smiled and stared back at him without saying anything. So he said while smiling bitterly.
“I get it already, you want to tell me that if I’m going to complain, I might as well withdraw from this place, right? But with all that I’ve faced until now, and since you can control my augmented suit to some extent, it would be a waste to leave now. So help me out, I’ll give my best to finish this as soon as possible and I’ll go straight back home after that.”
“In that case, let’s hurry up. It’ll put your body in some stress though, so endure it, okay?”
“Alright.”
Alpha controlled Akira’s augmented suit to force him to run faster. Akira could feel slight pain coming from both of his arms. With the current stress, his arms were trapped in the cycle of healing from the medicines and damage from the stress as he was blazing through the wasteland.
She did not tell Akira to stop nor to take a rest at all, it was all for the sake of encouraging him to withdraw from that place instead of going for Alna.
Although they had different motivations, both Akira and Alpha had the same goal, to kill Alna as fast as possible.
—*—*—*—
The guards inside the hangar quickly noticed Akira with the help of their information-gathering devices.
“Oh, here he comes! This signal must be from that brat!”
“Get into your post! Don’t worry about ammo! We need to hold out until the boss is here!”
The guards inside the hangar started setting up their portable walls. They bunkered themselves between the portable walls and the hangar’s walls in anticipation of the enemy’s attack. The one with the heavy augmented suit stood guard outside the walls, while the rest were taking cover inside the walls, all of them readied their weapons in the direction of the incoming signal.
They were only able to get the rough location of Akira. The mini information-gathering device that they used had a small range, not to mention, they spread those around to avoid a surprise attack.
“How long before the boss arrives?”
“He said that he’ll come once he’s done with the tanks and the other powered suits!”
“Why the heck is even Haurias here too!? Do they always have that much money to spend?”
“Hell if I know!”
Their conversation was suddenly cut short by a huge explosion that left a big hole in the hangar’s wall. It was blown off by countless grenades that came from the outside.
All of the guards inside the hangar immediately turned toward the direction of that explosion. The guy with the heavy augmented suit did not spend any second, he quickly released a barrage in that direction with his minigun. While the other guys who were hiding behind the walls kept shooting the incoming grenades down through the gaps between the walls. Explosions and gunshot immediately filled the hangar. That frenzied shooting happened for about 10 seconds. The bullets and the explosions only served to widen the hole on the wall until they stopped.
Now that they had calmed down, the guards inside the hangar started to nervously check for the location of their enemy. But they did not find any corpse around the hole nor in the direction of the hole.
Right at the next moment, a loud explosion echoed through the hangar. The guy with the heavy augmented suit found his minigun blown off to pieces, he shuddered and could not help but to lower his guard for a sec there.
But Akira did not let that slide, he used that small opening to jump in through the hole. He used his CWH anti-material rifle on his right hand to snipe the guy in the heavy augmented suit and his DVTS minigun on his left hand to suppress the guys behind the wall as he stormed into the room. His augmented suit did not have any trouble in holding back the kickback from both guns. He then kept on shooting through the gaps of the big equipment scattered inside the hangar.
The guy with the heavy augmented suit discarded his already destroyed minigun and screamed in anger.
“Goddammit!! Give me another one!”
Once he got another heavy weapon from one of the men behind the wall, he immediately started shooting again. Although by doing so he would be destroying the equipment inside the hangar, he did not show any hesitation at all.
Akira kept on moving around inside the hangar while shooting at the guys behind the portable wall. He used his DVTS minigun to release a barrage on them or his A4WM automatic grenade launcher to rain them with grenades. But it did not seem that the portable walls would come down anytime soon, Akira could not help but to make a stern face.
“That thing is pretty strong! I’ve been shooting at it for quite some time now, you know?!”
Alpha frowned and replied.
“This place is a hangar for powered suits after all, so they might be using portable walls designed to be able to withstand attacks from powered suits.”
Akira remembered the power of the melee weapons and the guns of that black powered suit. If those portable walls were designed to be able to hold out against that level of firepower, no wonder why they were still standing strong. But that did not make his current situation any better, so he still had a stern look on his face.
“Even if that’s the case, it doesn’t mean I didn’t do any damage at all, right?”