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When the drones finally fell silent, the sun was just starting to emerge over the horizon. It was an overcast, dim dawn, rain falling in a deluge, and the air felt heavy and still. It didn’t matter which direction anyone looked in; no matter where one turned, the only thing to see was rubble. A blasted sprawl spread out in all directions, and it was through this wreckage that a single AC moved, slowly, its pilot checking the radar every few seconds or so. Nothing moved, but after the events of the night before, that did little to ease the Raven’s nerves. The stillness felt too unnatural, too weighted, to bring any comfort. Shaking the feeling aside, they pressed the controls on their dashboard and crept forwards, the cameras clicking softly as they refreshed. A soft beeping came from another screen, pinging every handful of seconds and getting stronger. And with it came a voice. The voice was familiar, a touch too bright for someone in a mercenary’s line of work, and just from the sound of it, they could already see the smile on the speaker’s face.
“Evangel! I think I set this up properly. Look, I don’t have long, they’d skin me alive if they knew I was sending messages, but… I think we’re finally going to put an end to this whole mess. And once I’m free of the Ark for a while, well.. It’s not their business what I do, right? I miss our old Arena matches. I’ve tweaked Kiavahr a lot since then, and I know you wouldn’t have slacked off either. We should fight… Shit, I gotta run. Look, I’ll send something out later, alright?”
END OF TRANSMISSION. THIS MESSAGE REPEATS…
The voice was one Evangel had gotten to know well over the last year. Some rookie mercenary who’d shown up and started stomping everyone like they’d been born in an AC. It should’ve pissed him off, really, but somehow… Maybe he was getting soft. They were naive, far too trusting of others for their own good, and Evangel had to admit, he’d been envious. They had potential, far more than he’d ever had, and on top of that they were running around like everyone’s friend. It had only been a matter of time until they’d extended the same hand to him, after they’d fought in the Arena. After the fight, he’d walked right up to him in the garage, when he’d been nursing his broken pride and fixing up his own AC. Evangel had been expecting him to come rub his victory in. Instead, he’d received a compliment. A week later, he saw that they’d made similar adjustments as his own Oracle had.
That should’ve annoyed him, but he’d found a spark of his pride returning at the thought that he’d been considered good enough to take notes from.
Since then, the Raven hadn’t gotten out of his life. Rain, as he’d claimed his name as, had started fighting him more in the arena. Had started fighting alongside him, too; once they’d learned that the two could hold back from killing the other, Rain had started inviting him on missions. Said that two pairs of guns were better than one, and that he needed to learn anyway. Evangel had cornered him in the garage one evening, after Rain had gone against their objective and fought against their employers, and questioned him on what he was fighting for. In response, Rain had simply said his family. It was then that Evangel got to learn more about Rain, about the debt that had his folks in a chokehold. He learned that, on top of being far too optimistic for this world, Rain was altruistic. He’d only ever wanted to protect those he could. Evangel had laughed at that at the time, and told Rain he was in the wrong line of work, but he’d backed off, too.
From there, the two had become friends. Evangel had been there the first time Rain had finally been able to afford something for himself, saw the way his face lit up over something so simple. Had been there when Rain finally could hold his own on sorties, and only kicked his ass in the arena more. And despite the jealousy of his skill, of his easygoing nature, Evangel had softened. Rain had become a beacon to chase, something to hold himself up to and push towards. And just as much as he was something to overcome, to surpass as he rose through the Ark’s ranks, Rain was also something solid and warm, unshakeable. He’d always been there, even when Evangel had turned to the corporations and been cast out.
And now here he was, chasing that light one more time. Part of him didn’t want to find Rain. He didn’t want to face the reason for the other’s silence since he’d received the initial message, and yet he was pushing onwards regardless.
When Evangel finally found Kiavahr, it was knelt atop a torn apart facility. The AC’s lights flickered, and as he got closer, he saw the metal twisted and bent, dented unnaturally. The entire AC had listed to the left, the arm torn off and shattered. He drew in a sharp breath, before he finally worked up the courage to climb out of Oracle, rip open Kiavahr’s cockpit hatch and poke his head inside. He waited, listening, before carefully clambering into the cramped space. As he squeezed into the cockpit, he heard the alarms and errors across the screen. The radar was static, throwing errors about optimization and broken inputs. Low armor and energy alarms overlapped into nothing but meaningless noise, and the COM voice was stuck in a loop of errors and low AP warnings, trying and failing to locate the Ark. Rain dripped over the buttons and screens from a large, torn hole in the side of the core, electricity sparking from frayed wires. Slowly, Evangel let his gaze wander, before he looked to the cockpit seat itself. A moment later he clambered back out, hands shaking, and took a deep, slow breath. Climbing back into Oracle, he straightened the AC out, and purged its weapons before reaching out. Weight warnings flashed across the screens as the boosters screamed, but he ignored them, forcing the AC to walk. With the boosters unable to catch him, the best way out was through whatever facility he’d found Rain on top of.
It was only as he passed a collapsed building, an advert billboard still flickering and trying to display one of Crest’s new civilian products, something about a bathroom product, that he realized he wasn’t inside a facility. A collapsed sign told him it was Bayload City, and he moved on before he could think too hard about the ones who lived inside the rubble.
Once he was on dirt, he placed Kiavahr down gently. Oracle’s hands reached down, digging into the wet earth, and tossed it aside. Over the next hour, he had the AC dig as deep a hole as it could manage, crouching awkwardly over its work. Once that was done, he parked it next to Kiavahr, and climbed back into the cockpit again. The scent of iron was far too heavy in the enclosed air, and he felt sick as he reached towards what remained of his old friend and began to undo the straps and lift the body out. They felt cold in his arms, limbs feeling too stiff and odd. Rain’s face, however, looked peaceful, as though they were asleep. As stupid as it was, some part of him hoped Rain’s eyes would open, that he’d show some sign of life and this whole nightmare could end. Instead, he remained still and silent as Evangel carried him out, remained still and silent as he lay him down into the hole he’d dug.
It all felt so… Wrong. Even through the numbness that had taken hold, that thought came to Evangel as he stared into the grave. Nothing about this seemed right. Rain had a family, for one, that he’d done everything he could to protect. He’d be needed in what was coming up, too. A lot of Ravens had been killed, and while nobody yet knew the true death toll, there were a few high-ranked Ravens that had yet to report in. High-skill combatants would be needed, and Evangel knew Rain had that resolve. Evangel’s hands turned into fists, and he wasn’t sure how long he stood there. By the time he got back into Oracle, the rain was stopping, and the sun was just starting to break through the cloud cover. He shovelled the dirt back over the hole without really thinking about the task, functioning on auto-pilot. When that task was done, a mud-caked hand pulled at the rifle still clutched in Kiavahr’s hand, and he plunged its barrel down into the dirt and pushed until it stood on its own. Numbly, he noticed that it was the same rifle as he himself used. The AC, he left where it was kneeling, unable to bring himself to stare at it any longer. Once he collected his weapons once more, he walked, and didn’t look back.
Once he returned to base, he had training to do. He would surpass Rain, and all the others. He would become what the corporations needed in what was to come. He knew not what threat had been awakened and lay ahead, but whatever it was, he would crush it. It was the least he could do, after all, for the friend buried behind him.