"EM blaster reserves are low. Ms. Fuwamoco and I are running out of counter measures to keep the Incursions at bay. You have ten minutes before Incursions are free to enter the fortress."
Cecilia's warnings played over the general voice channel.
Suisei grimaced. They were currently stuck in the middle of a hallway before the room that hosted the Incursion AI's mainframes. Their Exos were in Compact Mode. Marine was still unconscious. There was nothing in this hallway that could be used as natural fortification to halt the advance of the Incursion onslaught. Once they arrive, it would devolve into a full-on firefight in close quarters.
"Do we have an escape route?" she asked.
"There are several options," Shiori said, "The issue is whether or not any of them will still be viable once the Incursions flood in. Given the labyrinth nature of this place, the path that we came from isn't the only way to get to the mainframe room. In other words, we could easily be pincered from all sides. Ideally, we leave now before the Incursions get a chance to occupy every inch of their fortress."
"Ame, how much longer do you need?!" Calli asked.
Calli's question was met with silence.
"Ame!"
"...Almost there," she finally responded after some prompting. Her voice was strangely sullen. "Please hang on for just a moment."
Something's wrong with her.
"We only have ten minutes! The Incursions are going to flood this place soon!" Suisei yelled.
The walls of the fortress suddenly shook. A thunderous explosion echoed in the background. Suisei turned to the mini-map. Red dots re-emerged at the spot of the western wall where they had breached the fortress. The Incursions were storming towards their position.
"The western wall breach has been re-opened!" Cecilia warned, "Several Incursions got through!"
"Guys, get into combat formation! Armor-piercing rounds! Do not use incendiary in close quarters!" Calli ordered.
"I still have anti-structure missiles left! I can collapse the ceiling to narrow the hallway!" Vesper suggested.
"Not yet! Do it on my mark! We'll use the collapse to crush the initial wave and blockade further advance!" Calli responded.
"Ame!" Suisei cried as the Incursion came into view at the left end of the hallway.
***
Ame removed her earpiece. Static and sounds of chaos continued to blare from the device and outside of the mainframe room. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her frazzled mind. The prompt on the screen stared at her, beckoning for a response.
Question. Will you proceed with this proposal?
"It's obvious, isn't it?"
It was a no brainer. She shouldn't even have to think about. A solution to rid the world of the salt storm and restore Gura's condition. With it, the Incursions would also no longer have a reason to be hostile towards humanity. So many problems would be fixed in an instant.
So then why am I hesitating?
Her mind drifted to the ominous warnings presented by the Incursion AI. There would be risks if the spirit veins were forcefully opened early. Unpredictable consequences. The exact outcomes were unknown, but the AI suggested that it might lead to the shortening of the world's lifespan. What a bizarre thought. For the world itself to have a finite period of existence. Ame struggled to wrap her head around it. Everything that the AI had just revealed was too much for her to understand.
YOU ARE READING
A Distant Reverie
Fanfiction"Careful now. Try not to move too suddenly, alright?" Vesper Noir wakes up one day in a foreign land with gaps in his memories...and a sharp blade pressed against his throat. His assailant? A beautiful, self-proclaimed female pirate with a sweet voi...
