Chapter 19: Stopping the Invasion
PoV Vyran
[Meanwhile- Retra: 'Realm of Technology'- Planet Orginal ; southern tip of Cocolios continent]
As we were about to leave the town hall, the ground suddenly began to shake.
"An earthquake?" Varia asked.
"W-we don't usually get quakes here," Deros said as rushed over to an archway for cover. Varia and I ran after him while the secretary and the man hid under the desk. "Could someone have activated the mobile city system?"
"No, I don't think so. That man over there is the mayor."
The mayor poked his head out from under the desk as the round of missiles whistling through the air echoed outside.
"I think someone might've tried to breach the barrier," he muttered.
"Barrier?" I asked.
He nodded. "People can only enter via foot. Leaving and entering is being closely monitored."
"We managed to enter without much issue," Varia muttered as we walked over to him.
"Indeed, but I had been monitoring you. We've used tech to cover up our blind spots however we can."
"Why not use robots?" Varia asked.
Deros looked down. "Well, we had a robot uprising in the last century, so people here are kinda wary of using those things."
A robot uprising? Woah! I'd heard of such things before, but only in fiction. The robots back home hadn't tried anything like that. Although, it might've helped that they were pretty basic things, used for household chores and the like. Nothing like the security robots they were describing.
Guess we had kept it that way because we didn't want to repeat the mistakes of other civilizations.
Although, we did have our mechs, but those weren't entirely autonomous. Even with their A.I., our brain chips could control them from afar. Guess if anything, we had become the robots.
The major tapped the air, causing a screen to pop up.
"Woah, I didn't know you could do that too. I thought Orginal didn't use such tech," I said.
He smiled slightly. "Most of us don't, but I do. We have to look past our ancestors' mistakes and moved forward. Plus, this isn't a robot." He looked up at Deros. "Unlike the mechs some of us use."
Deros turned away.
Was there a stigma here against Mecha-nists? As that was the vibe I was getting. Come to think of it, the Orginal forces had fought mostly with ships. There were very few mechas around. Everything was slowly starting to click.
Varia looked over the mayors shoulder. The screen was showing what looked to be a map of the city.
The major flicked his hand, causing the screen to expand into a 3D hologram of the city. We could see the missiles and beam weapons we were hearing in real time. They were intercepting enemy projectiles outside of the city barrier shown in the projection.
I narrowed my eyes at the screen as I noticed something small moving closer, unnoticed by the defense systems which were too preoccupied trying to keep the Titanos's forces at bay.
The mayor nodded proudly. "Looks like everything is going well. Those otherworld invaders thought they could take over Orginal after taking down the planetary defense forces, but they were mistaken. They merely took down our first layer of defense. Now they had to content with our land and sea forces, not to mention the four million independent urban self-defense forces."
I clenched my hands into fists as I kept staring at the dot. "I think someone or something is trying to sneak in. I'm gonna go check it out!"
"Hold on, Vyr!" Varia yelled, running after me.
My eyes looked up, scanning the area of the sky where I'd seen the mysterious dot approaching. It could've just been a bird, but it had to be a pretty dumb one to fly around in what had become a battle zone.
I gasped as I caught sight of a blond boy with deep red eyes. He kinda looked like Deros for some reason. Maybe they were doppelgangers? The universal tree theory mentioned some worlds are believed to have people who look just like us. Some just happened to look the same, but others were believed to share a deeper connection.
"Deros, I think you might have an evil twin," I muttered.
"Huh?" he said.
"Someone that looks like you is trying to-"
We dropped to a ground as a shockwave shook the entire city. The guy who looked like Deros had punched the barrier, forming visible cracks in it. The barrier was quick to fix itself, but so was the guy in breaking it again.
"The barrier, it won't last long," Varia said, shaking her head. She gritted her teeth and looked at us. "I'm going to go stop him!"
"Wait, your chip isn't fully fixed yet," I said.
"Someone has to do something! You two, go get your mechas. The time for gathering info is over."
"Deros, leave it to me," I said, "watch over Varia for me. Okay?"
"Huh? You're going by yourself?"
I nodded ran as fast I as took. As I ran, I tapped on my temple, causing a screen to appear in front of my eyes. I pressed on the super speed function and rushed past the city. Using this function with my own damaged chip was dangerous given the energy it consumed, but I had little choice. Sis wasn't at full power.
The speed allowed me to run through water and reach the island with our mechs in little time. I peered at the sky, hoping the enemy hadn't noticed the sea parting ever so slightly as I had blasted through it.
I winced as my legs hurt, but I couldn't rest. Not yet.
Holding my hand out, I had Valkyrie open up. I jumped into my mech and wrapped 'my arms' around Aegisa. Turning on the jet boosters, I flew through the air. I was drawing attention toward myself, which was risky, but maybe it would prove to be a good thing. That way, the defense systems could focus on Deros's Titanos counterpart.
All I hoped was that Varia and the city would be fine when I returned. As Deros's counterpart had managed to punch through the barrier without the use of mecha at all... Contrary to what I originally thought, they weren't entirely dependent on their mechs after all.