Chapter 21: Unwanted Guests II

  The sky was bright, and above the green clearing floated a dozen figures. They were arranged in a conal formation, slowly descending toward the ground.

  "Three heat signatures detected, Commander," one of them said. He was part of the first group to land. Their suits were white with black ominous stripes following the linings. The second group's suits were also white but with the black replaced with a vibrant red. They seemed more defensive and less battle-ready.

  "Great, focus on pinpointing their location," said the man at the tip of their formation. His next words were amplified and broadcast to the entire area. "This is Commander Stone of the AITF, come out peacefully and we will treat you accordingly as prisoners of war." Quickly afterward, he turned his head, telling the second group, "this feels like an ambush. I don't think they'll cooperate. Prepare…" he suddenly stopped his words leaning forward. At the same time, a purple object flashed where his head used to be. Due to that, he didn't get the chance to react when a figure flew toward him, knocking him to the ground.

Slava couldn't believe his eyes. They'd agreed to hear them out before doing anything, but as soon as Sasha heard that guy's name she just rushed in without thinking.

  Letting the world dim around him, he slowly took in his surroundings. Their formation had been broken. When Sasha knocked the commander out of it, they'd scattered. Their reaction was swift. When she landed, the black suits surrounded her. Meanwhile, the red ones rushed to their commander's side. They seemed to be some sort of a medic series exosuit, probably the Blood series. Now that he got a closer look, Slava noticed that the suits were using domains. He had never noticed it before, but now he could feel it, he'd have to ask Kolya later.

  "How's the commander?" Said one of the blacks. Her voice sounded angry. He was sure he'd heard it before, he just couldn't remember where. "The N series isn't made for this." Slava could clearly hear their communications. The suits Kolya had prepared were truly amazing. "The intel didn't say anything about a space manipulating Tainted." Interesting, so they mistook them for Tainted. Kolya was right, but that still left some questions unanswered. "Switch to armor-piercing configuration!" She was good, she'd taken command right away. Sasha was in trouble, armor-piercing rounds were extremely effective against exosuits, although Sasha didn't seem to care. Glancing towards Kolya, he nodded.

  Using Sasha as a distraction, they rushed toward the reds. He didn't remember all of the different exosuit series but if he remembered right this series…

  "Careful, N stands for necrosis," Kolya said. As some text appeared in his view:

[Exosuit Series N: Necrosis]

[Description: The Necrosis Series specializes in fast, extremely destructive biological warfare. It pinpoints and accelerates cell metabolism until decay. Especially effective on regenerative type Tainted.]

  Right, Necrosis that was their name. They'd come prepared. If this continued Sasha would get pinned down. She wouldn't die, but she'd have to deflect all the bullets, and using her domain would drain her a lot.

  Slava was thinking fast. Upon reaching the group, he extended his arm. Focusing, he thought of the flow of movement going through his arm. Letting it go further, the suit extended itself, morphing into a sizable blade.

  "Don't kill anyone," Kolya suddenly said. Hearing him, he retracted the blade. He was right, he got carried away, he almost forgot they were fighting humans. Kolya would never let them die, no matter what they did. They were "poor innocent lambs tricked by the system", he was sure he would say. Even then, killing them might become a problem in the future.

  Reaching one of the figures, without anyone noticing, he smashed his palm into its back. Like a river, a part of his suit followed seemingly seeping into his enemy's emitting a loud ringing noise.

  He hadn't expected any of this. It was his first time doing it, but it came to him like an instinct. When he thought about using his suit to disrupt the connection between a suit and its user, he didn't think he would see this. Well, seeing wasn't the right word since his eyes were closed but the flow of movement was clear to him. He now understood how these suits worked.

[Exosuit Series B: Blood]

[Description: The Blood Series specializes in healing. As a derivative of the Necrosis Series, it focuses on stem cell regeneration and immune system stimulation. Its red hue while active as well as its influence on the circulatory system gave it its name: Blood.]

  His suit was working in tandem with him, accessing the database to complete the information he didn't know. It was truly a godsend.

  The reason why he was able to extract this information was probably that it was somewhat linked to his domain. Accelerating only certain parts of the metabolism increases the healing efficiency. He hadn't thought of that, it could be useful in battle for fast recovery. He would try it next time.

  Although, all of this still didn't get him any closer to understanding how the suit possessed a domain.

  When the person he'd neutralized fell to the ground, the whole group turned towards him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kolya sneaking up behind them. Not wasting any time, he rushed towards his next target.

  With the world moving slowly around him he dashed forward. He was about to reach his objective when he saw a figure rushing in his direction. But how? Looking to the side, he could see a black oozing figure coming at him incredibly fast. But they didn't have any speed-focused suits from what he remembered. Wary, he abruptly stopped.

  "Val, what are you doing? You're gonna die! Stop!" He heard someone say through his ear.

  "I can't…" the figure stopped in front of him. Her suit had turned mostly black. Musky flames surrounded her giving off an unsettling feeling. His systems showed him she was the one talking. "Let these bastards…" she was visibly panting. She was clearly insane. The suit seemed to be eating her alive. "Get away with this," she finished brandishing two black daggers, her rifle holstered on her back. "Don't interfere, this one is mine."

  Val… that name… Seeing a light blink behind his opponent, his eyes flashed with realization. Rushing forward, he grabbed her. Before she could react, he twisted her arm, hugging her in a chokehold. The spear that had come out of thin air grazed her cheek instead of piercing her head.

  "Sasha, get a hold of yourself!" He could feel heat burning through his suit. It was slowly spreading to infect him. Focusing, he closed his eyes.

  "Why should I care, she seems close to that jerk, this is the perfect time to get rid of…" she was still surrounded, spinning her spear when she looked over in Slava's direction. He was forcefully intruding into the girl's suit through the hole in her cheek. She tried to struggle, but she was slowly losing her strength. Everything happened in an instant. The girl's suit retreated from her face as Sasha looked over. Her face was covered in black patches.

  "Valerie?" She whispered. "Valerie!" She shouted. In a rage, she rushed out of the encirclement. Letting some bullets hit her, she ignored the pain. Rushing to Slava's side, she knocked a few people to the side. The others tried to follow her when they were knocked out by Kolya. He'd taken care of all of the reds, the only one still conscious was Valerie.

  Feeling Sasha coming in closer, Slava was about to motion for her to stop when he felt a familiar presence rising in between them. Reassured, he focussed back on Valerie. Her skin was slowly healing, her suit slowly dimming. It was easy, right? He just had to push back against the current flow. Wait, no not that, he thought, feeling her pulse slowing down. Focus, where is it, the source, the core.

  A hand suddenly grabbed onto his shoulder. Next, green energy flowed into him, guiding him. There! He felt it! Reaching into it, he grabbed the string. It led to a glowing red sphere in the distance. Seeing all the other strings connected to it, he wondered for a second before refocusing. Pulling on it as hard as he could, he finally ripped it out of the suit. When he did he felt a chill travel down his spine, but it quickly dissipated as the green flow passed through him once more.

  Opening his eyes, he looked down, Valerie's face seemed much more peaceful now. The black spots were gone and she was no longer frowning.

  Serena was behind him grabbing his shoulder. Kolya, who was between him and Sasha, moved out of the way, letting her rush to his side.

  "Valerie!" She called out, letting her suit retreat from her face. He knew they'd been talking lately but for her to care so much about someone was unusual. Rushing to her side, she ripped her away from his arms. Bringing her forehead to touch her friend's, she whispered something as her tears began to flow.

  One by one her tears began to drop on Valerie's face. When one dropped on her eyelid, it twitched. Seeing this Sasha backed off with expecting eyes.

  "Alex?" She murmured, slowly blinking her eyes. Not knowing what to answer, Sasha simply nodded, wiping the tears off her face. "Ah, why are you wearing that suit?" Sasha was about to answer when Valerie reached out to touch her face. "Ah, who am I kidding? This is probably one of the Tainted's tricks they talked about in training," she sighed. "Or even worse, maybe I'm dead. If that's the case then…" not finishing her words, she abruptly leaned in. Grabbing the back of Sasha's head, she kissed her. The stunned Sasha soon closed her eyes. The moment didn't last long, Valerie's body went limp. Checking her pulse, she momentarily shivered and abruptly stopped.

  Her gaze was cold. Embracing her friend, she leaned in. "It'll be okay, they'll come for you soon." Seemed like she also heard them calling for reinforcements. No wonder, they weren't stupid. They'd been neutralized swiftly and Serena hadn't even intervened.

  "Wait," a weak voice called, "don't kill my team," glancing behind Sasha he could see Arthur crawling on the ground, his face exposed, coughing blood. She really did intend to kill him, Jesus. "Take me instead," he said, barely propping himself up. His organs were probably crushed. It was a miracle that he was still conscious. Especially since the B units never got the time to heal him.

  Noticing Sasha's maniacal smile, he grabbed her wrist. As she tried to stand up, her glare fell on him. Ignoring her, he closed his eyes. He could feel the weight of her wounds. Those bullets had done some damage. He could feel the necrosis spreading. Her body was fighting it but she would be dead within the hour. He knew how to do it now, it took him a few seconds and he released her, but not before messing with her suit. When he did, Sasha's face was forcibly covered. Not lingering on any longer, she turned around.

  "So you want us to take you instead?" Her voice was distorted, no longer recognizable. Who knew what he was seeing at that point, the monstrous voice had clearly shocked him and coupled with how injured he was, there was no way he wasn't hallucinating. Despite all of that, he didn't back down.

  "I… need to…" he was still trying to crawl to his team.

  "Fine, since you showed some loyalty I'll only take your arm." Not letting him take in what she just said, she swiftly moved her spear down, cutting his arm clean off. He didn't even scream, looking at his detached limb, his eyes opened wide and he fainted.