Nikke: Goddess of Victory Novel Adaptation

[Vol. 1] Chapter 005: Blacksmith

Back on the road again, everyone was on edge and paying extremely close attention to their surroundings. Rapi moved ahead and scanned every rooftop with her rifle, Fay had moved to Commander's open side with her riot shield in hand so she could jump to his defence at a moment's notice and Samantha and Anis had their heads on a swivel at the back of the group.

No more than ten minutes passed and the squad found themselves moving out of the city and into a suburb. Now instead of rows upon rows of multi-storey shops and offices, they were seeing nothing but regular houses fit for a family of four. There was certainly less damage in this residential area compared to the main city, but the homes still showed signs of tough times. Because Raptures go after humans whenever they see them, and most people were at work or school when the invasion happened, homes weren't damaged by Raptures but were instead damaged by looters. A handful of people tried to grab resources for future survival while everyone in the city was slaughtered.

Counters ended up in the middle of a cul-de-sac street. Just as Marian was about to say they were at their destination, a silhouette walked out from the shade of a house. It was another Nikke. Dangling from each shoulder were grey bags with a green plus symbol on them, and text that read 'BANDAGE MAN'. On her leggings was the logo of the Tetra Line company. She wore a dark grey vest with ammo pouches attached to it and there was an oversized visor covering the top half of her head. Long white hair that curled up at the ends ran down her back.

"iDoll Ocean, reporting for duty." She stated in a monotone voice.

"Anis, check her out." Commander ordered as he observed his team take up positions around him. He was used to Anis being the brains of the group, despite her humorous nature. It was an odd contrast but he just appreciated having someone on the squad that knew the ins and outs of the mission.

Saluting Commander jokingly, Anis approached Ocean and asked for her serial number. Once she had confirmed Ocean was the third and final member of the missing patrol, Anis pumped a fist into the air. They were done. They could all go home now. They'd been lucky to avoid whatever this Lord class Rapture was and find the entire missing patrol.

While Commander smiled at his ragtag team's success, Marian spoke up. Unlike every other time she'd spoken today, there was a strange lack of emotion. "We're here."

"That's right, good job getting us here. Now we can all go home." Commander was a little confused by Marian's words, it was apparent a minute ago that they'd arrived at their end goal, but maybe it was just her exhaustion speaking. Maybe she had meant to say something else but her fatigue got the better of her and she misspoke.

Without warning Marian began walking up the road which forced Commander, who was still acting as her support, to move with her. As he was questioning her actions, Shifty popped up on the radio.

"I've finished analysing the black box from the transport ship, and it's not good!" Up until now their aid at the Ark had been calm and collected, but now she was frantically typing and shouting over the radio. "I've sent you the report as proof but BA-01 was blown up from the inside!"

Commander's heart sank as he heard this. There was a traitor on that helicopter. For what purpose? He could understand Shifty's rush to get the information to his squad. There were two survivors of the transport ship's destruction, Commander and Marian. Of course, Commander knew he wasn't the traitor, and surely they couldn't question Marian. She'd done so much to get them to this point. She'd taken one hell of a beating to keep the last commander alive. It must've been someone else, but then that means the traitor died in the crash which made Commander seriously question what the point would be. Unless this traitor somehow managed to slip away, past the hordes of Raptures drawn to BA-01. It was a massive mess Commander couldn't make sense of.