by Jim Roberts
The rain was pounding them now, coming down in sheets of wet blackness. Agrippina held out her hand.
"You are right, Danny Callbeck. We do share something: the soul of the warrior. It burns us every day. Together, we can stoke that fire. Just take my hand!"
Whisper stood like a statue in the rain, water pelting against his armored body. For a pair of heartbeats, he was tempted by the woman's offer. Agrippina intoxicated him like no other person in his life. She was right; he did indeed feel the call of the warrior. It was in his blood.
But you made a promise. As a soldier. You gave your word of honor to uphold life and liberty.
Agrippina only offered an easy way out. He knew her seductive heart would one day poison his own to the point of no return. He had tried to make her see his way. But her life could never be his.
"No."
His voice was a whisper in the rain.
Agrippina placed a hand against his chest. "Callbeck...we are one."
Whisper raised his gauntlet and pushed her hand aside. "Your way is not mine."
The billowing rain splashed against Agrippina's perfect face. She glared once more into his shell-like helmet. She leaned forward to speak softly to Danny, her voice low and taunting.
"Then...you will die."
With blinding speed, Agrippina reversed her grip and performed a kodokan judo throw on her enemy. Whisper was lifted off his feet and tossed through the air as if he weighed nothing at all. His body plowed into the old bumper car pavilion on the north side of the amusement area with enough force to uproot the structure entirely. The whole thing caved in on itself, burying Whisper under the rubble.
"Find the woman. Kill her!" Agrippina's command to her Praetorians rang through the rain drenched amusement park.
Kicking aside the wreckage of the gazebo, Whisper pulled himself up and charged towards his enemy. The harlequin immediately rushed at him, her face a mask of sheer rage. The two adversaries collided in the center of the park. Whisper slammed a hard fist into Agrippina's chest, knocking her back. The dark woman placed her bionic legs hard against the slippery soil, grounding herself. Whisper didn't give her time to breathe. He forwarded a series of Nippon Kempo strike combinations aimed at throwing his opponent's balance off. Agrippina moved with the attack, blocking each strike with her forearms.
Whisper could see her smiling even as he struck her.
I will be free of you, woman!
Whisper arched his right leg back and threw himself forward with a roundhouse kick that would knock the head off any normal man. Agrippina cart wheeled backwards, watching as the muscular leg sailed harmlessly over her.
For the next minute, the two combatants flailed against each other in a brutal display of combos and counters. Danny felt the martial discipline of kenpo flow through his mind, his body becoming a single fluid motion.
Agrippina met him with her own brutal style. During their last battle, Danny was able to discern her style as being a mix of Muay Thai kickboxing and Japanese jiu-jitsu. She melded both styles into an organic original form that required extreme concentration on his part to try to guard against.
Neither one of them would let up this time.
Whisper managed to land a right-cross against Agrippina's face. Blood spewed from her mouth as she broke off from the combat. She wiped it away with a sneer.
"Good. But not good enough."
They clashed again, fists cracking against hardened armor like tongs on an anvil. The pounding rain continued to churn the soil beneath them into a muddy swamp. Whisper countered a harsh high kick from the woman's iron boot, only to be sucker punched in the abdomen on the rebound. Even inside the suit, it felt like he'd been hit by a truck. Danny could feel blood oozing from his nose.
But the harlequin wasn't finished. Her hand grabbed Whisper's arm like a claw and she used his own body weight against him to perform a O-Goshi hip throw. Whisper was yanked once again off his feet and flung across Agrippina's back, to land hard on the ground−face up. Still holding his arm, Agrippina lifted her right leg and brought it down with the force of a jackhammer onto his chest.
Inside the suit, Danny grunted from the blow. He was effectively pinned under her powerful leg. The weight of the limb felt like it was crushing his sternum.
"Extend!" Whisper said. The wrist gauntlet of his free left arm shot forward the six-inch Damascus steel blade housed in his forearm. He gouged it full on into Agrippina's ankle.
The steel blade clanged harmlessly against her leg.
Agrippina smirked.
"Bionic, remember?"
Agrippina finally lifted her boot from Whisper's chest and yanked him to his feet. She landed a multitude of brutal open-handed strikes against his helmet, nearly knocking him senseless. Not yet satisfied, she wheeled around and launched a harsh kick straight into the bottom of the helmet. Danny was lifted off his feet and sent flying; landing hard against a cement embankment. He slumped to the ground, barely aware of his surroundings.
He was rapidly coming to the end of his strength. The armored suit Agrippina wore was too powerful.
Out of the corner of the HUD view, he spotted his Mantis Staff, lying in a pool of water ten feet away.
If he could just reach it...
"You are beaten, little man!" Agrippina screeched above the deafening storm beating down upon them. "Beg for my mercy!"
"Never."
Agrippina's red eye sparked in rage. She slammed her boot down onto Whisper's helmet, pushing him into the pools of wet mud. Darkness covered his vision as the harpy's bionic leg threatened to crush his head like a melon.
He had one last play to make.
With a grunt, he jackknifed his legs upwards through Agrippina's own−catching her full on with a rotating Kenpo takedown. The harpy managed to counter the attack, but lost her balance and staggered backwards, awkwardly.
Blind from the mud, Whisper pulled both of his legs back and kicked forward as hard as he could. His boots connected with her face, snapping Agrippina's head back violently while simultaneously lifting her off her feet. Agrippina flew backwards with the force of a wrecking ball and slammed hard against the metal base of the Ferris wheel. The decrepit amusement ride wobbled from the shock. The base cracked directly behind Agrippina's slumped body. She came to, just in time to see the entire foundation of the Ferris wheel snap. The one-hundred foot tall icon of nuclear destruction teetered, then fell−crumpling to the ground around the assassin in a deafening clamour of falling debris.
The rain still pelted down on the site, never giving up.
Is it over? Whisper got to his feet, wiping the thick mud from his faceplate. He couldn't see Agrippina's body amidst the remains of the destroyed Ferris wheel.
His thoughts suddenly shifted to his comrade back at the center of the city.
He hoped she was still alive.
* * *
THE INCESSANT pelting of rain pulled Orchid from her unconscious slumber. She was surrounded by slabs of debris from the collapsed top floors of the apartment building. She was still on the tenth floor of the complex, sitting on the parapet overlooking the north side of the city. The ten floors of the apartment above her were gone, having been pulverized by the white-hot concussive fire of the Hyperion.
Orchid didn't know how she was still alive. By all rights, the collapse of the floors above her should have been her doom. She saw that much of the debris had been stopped by a large metal awning built to dissuade the fall of rainwater away from the parapet.
She had used up one of her nine lives.
Wincing in pain, Orchid pulled herself to her feet. Her right arm was gouged badly; blood poured from it to mix in with the rainwater she had been laying in. Her weapons were gone, save for her K-bar knife in her vest.
A sound from the eastern end of the boulevard pulled her focus away from her own problems. It sounded like something had just collapsed. Something big.
The parapet all around her was blocked with debris. The stairway dow
n was completely choked off by chunks of cement and rebar. Her only way off the building was the fire escape on the north-side of the building.
She was about to climb down, when she heard−amidst the pelting rain−a noise that sounded like something scampering up a wall. She withdrew the K-bar and rushed to the edge of the south side parapet, looking over the rail.
Ten Olympus Praetorians were scaling the side of the building. Their powerful exo-suits allowed them to climb like spiders, leaping from handhold to handhold with ease.
"Chikushō!" Orchid swore, trying to figure what to do next. She still had three M67 Grenades attached to her body armor. She pulled all three fragmentation devices and yanked the pins. Rushing around the corner of the apartment parapet, she paused−her heart jack hammering. She leaned around and tossed the grenades.
As the Praetorians cleared the guardrail onto the parapet, they were greeted by the three fragmentation grenades staring them full in the helmets. Three messy explosions later, the parapet was empty again.
Orchid risked a quick look and saw she was alone once more. There were probably more on the way, though. She needed to arm herself, fast. Moving back onto the debris laden parapet, she searched for her PSG-1. It had been knocked from her hands during the collapse.
It had to be here somewhere.
* * *
SEVERAL ARCS of lightning twisted across the sky, followed immediately by massive shockwaves of thunder. The rain had churned the ground of the amusement park into a swamp of mud. Convinced that his enemy was neutralized, Whisper turned to run back towards Orchid's position.
"Callbeck!"
Inside the suit, Whisper closed his eyes in disbelief. As he looked back at the ruin of the Ferris wheel, he saw Agrippina, standing amidst the destruction of the Ferris wheel−her eyes mad with rage. Blood streamed from a large cut on her forehead. The body armor on the right leg of her suit had been torn away, revealing the artificial limb underneath.
"It isn't over yet!" Agrippina howled amidst the endless storm.
Whisper spotted his Mantis staff and rushed over to pick it up. Agrippina unsheathed both of her wakizashi blades, gripping them tightly in her bloodied hands. She tossed her head to clear the water from her eyes.
The two opponents stood motionless for a few seconds, each one gauging their enemy.
This is my chance. I can beat this woman now−purge her from my mind forever.
Even with his entire body screaming in pain, Whisper was prepared.
I am no one's prey.
Agrippina shrieked like a banshee from hell. She sprang forward over the ruins of the Ferris wheel and dove for Whisper.
He was ready for her.
Whisper blocked her attack with a hard parry from the quarterstaff, sending Agrippina hurtling past him. She recovered instantly, spinning around and engaging Whisper in a furious display of swordsmanship.
The battle raged in the heart of the nuclear city. Every time Agrippina attempted to gain the upper hand, she was cut down by a brilliant martial counter by Whisper's staff. Agrippina's face turned from cocky to desperate. Her attacks became slower, her thrusts easier to predict.
Finally, Danny landed a brutal roundhouse against the side of her head. The strike knocked her onto the ground where a follow through staff blow smacked the blades from her hands.
But Whisper wasn't done. His soul cried for him to end the pain this woman had caused him. He need to be free of her once and for all.
He lunged down and grabbed Agrippina by the throat, lifting her up off her feet. The defeated Olympus assassin feebly attempted to pry his hand off, but it was useless. Whisper was out for blood.
"What...what are you...waiting for?" She choked, "Finish it."
Another thunderclap boomed. The rain fell in buckets upon them.
The stealth warrior held her tightly, his hands constricting against the assassin's neck like a vice.
"I should. The pain you've caused−the lives you've taken. I should end it all now."
Agrippina's eyes shut tight as she tried desperately to breathe.
Just a little more pressure and−
No.
Danny suddenly released the assassin, dropping her back down into the muddy terrain. Agrippina crumpled like a rag doll, coughing violently as her lungs remembered how to breathe.
"Wa...why?" Agrippina managed to gasp, holding her neck.
"I won't kill a beaten enemy."
"Why? You know−" She was stopped by a fit of coughing, "−you know I would kill you!"
"That's why you lost. You have no honor." Whisper sheathed the Mantis staff. "This is my gift to you. Your life. Leave now, and if I ever see you again−I will kill you."
Agrippina pulled herself to her knees. Her haughty expression was long gone. In her eyes now was the gaze of someone completely defeated. Whisper nodded at her and turned to walk away, eastward towards Orchid. He hoped he wasn't too late.
It was then he heard the sound of the two missing Olympus Hyperion's. Both vessels roared in from the east, behind the ruins of the Ferris wheel. Danny guessed they had been told to wait for the end of the fight before intervening.
Now that he was the victor, they were going to finish the job their boss had failed.
The obsidian aircraft hummed through the rain, moving towards the two figures below them. Whisper saw the aircraft aim their hardpoints.
Thermal fire exploded onto the ground, tearing up the soil as the cannonade tracked towards the two adversaries.
* * *
AGRIPPINA'S SKY was split as she saw the flames coming towards her. It dawned on the Olympus assassin that the pilots were no longer following her. They had been ordered, most likely by Tiberius himself, to kill her if she failed her mission.
She couldn't stand. She didn't want to.
She had lost everything.
Now, it was only time to die.
Agrippina closed her eyes and waited for the fire to take her−to melt her away from a world long dead to her.
The flames approached, pushing away the rain.
This was the end.
Suddenly she was lifted off her feet like a weightless child.
Danny Callbeck.
He had rushed forward after the cannonade began and hefted her into his arms. The stealth soldier did a 180 and rocketed down the boulevard towards the western side of the city. Callbeck ran like a god possessed−the Whisper suit flaring with energy as it piped every last bit of power into the kinetic boosters in the legs. Over his shoulder, Agrippina could see the two Hyperion's tracking them, firing wildly down into the city, trying to catch them with the white-hot blasts of thermal energy. The cannonade pulverized the buildings around them, crashing them to their foundations.
The display of Olympus power was biblical in its intensity.
Through the chaos, Danny ran.
He ran like wind itself.
Agrippina pressed her head against his shoulder, shutting her eyes.
He could run all he wanted, but the VTOLs had all the time in the world to catch them and reduce them both to ash.
* * *
ORCHID HAD been rummaging through the rain-soaked debris for her sniper rifle for the past two minutes with no luck. The sniper was about to give up when she saw the familiar glint of the black matte finish of her weapon sticking through the rubble. She clutched the weapon and hoisted it free. The shoulder butt was cracked and part of the grip was damaged, but otherwise, the gun looked functional.
It was then she heard the sound of the Hyperion's again, coming towards her from the eastside of the city.
She climbed over the piles of cement brick and mortar and looked over the guardrail. She saw two Hyperion's flying low over the boulevard, firing constantly at a small figure running in front of the bruising cannonade.
Whisper.
He was carrying someone she couldn't make out. It was clear they were on borrowed time. The VTOLs would any minute track their position successfully and end everythi
ng with a well-timed bolt of fire.
She had to act.
The VTOLs were half a kilometer down the road, coming up quickly. She hefted the PSG-1 to her shoulder, sighting down the scope. She had no margin for error. Once she fired, her position would be marked and that would be the end.
She had to pull this off. With the rain, buffeting wind and movement of the target, the shot would be next to impossible.
Orchid pushed all the thoughts from her mind, focusing on the task. Her breathing regulated itself.
The gun is part of you. An extension of your will.
She closed her left eye and aimed.
The gun barked, spitting the armor piercing round through the rain at 800 meters per second.
The JSDF soldier saw a splash of red spray across the cockpit glass. The obsidian VTOL ceased its fire and began wavering dangerously within the narrow confines of the boulevard. After almost knocking its wingman out of the air, it lost control completely and smashed into an old four level living complex, demolishing it utterly.
Orchid's triumph was cut short as she saw the last Hyperion close in on Corporal Callbeck's location; it's weapons detonating around him like volcanic eruptions.
He wasn't going to make it.
Without missing a beat, she rushed back towards the fire escape, hoping she wasn't too late to help her comrade.
* * *
WHISPER LEAPT over a rusted park bench, just as it was reduced to a smelted ruin by the white hot bolts of thermal energy. It was then he realised one of the Hyperion's had been struck by something he couldn't see. He risked a glance behind him and saw the VTOL crash into and obliterate an entire housing project.
Orchid.
Had to be.
His guardian angel had just bought him some time.
Agrippina clutched him tight, not daring to open her eyes as the wave of thermal bolts began to catch up to them. No matter how fast Whisper ran, the aircraft just kept getting closer. The Whisper suit was firing on all cylinders; the Accretion device was at 120% overdrive. He couldn't maintain this rush of movement much longer.