Four Years (a gen:LOCK fanfic)

The Moment I Knew

It was getting impossible. The nanotech was surrounding me, and I was one of the few Vanguard left in this section. Most of the other Strider fighters had already been lost. All of the ground fighters had been lost. Some to Nanotech, some to fighting.

I'd never gone through anything like this. Nothing, not even drills, prepare you for the reality of this situation. The reality of having a major city- New York- as the battleground. The reality of us being on the losing side in a battle. Against an enemy we weren't expecting to be this prepared. An enemy with nanotech.

Buildings had been destroyed, their bricks all over the ground. There was no silence, with the constant sound of bullets flying through the air and stuff being damaged. The sounds and sights of war were everywhere.

The Nanotech was something that hadn't been well prepared for. The ESD was our only hope, and with a very small chance of it actually working, losing Razzle- an experienced pilot- made it clear that it wouldn't be able to be successfully used. So we were stuck fighting this impossible battle, the only thing we could do now was try and save as many civilians as possible. While also trying to stay alive ourselves.

While I figured out what to do next I heard a "Chaser to Tempest" and I answered without a second thought- "Go for Tempest". "How are you holding up?" he asked, and I could hear a slight emotion in his voice. Losing friends never gets easier throughout the years, and Razzle had been like the mother of all the pilots back at the Anvil. Add in the fact that they were both air force leads, I knew that it was having an impact on him.

I hesitated very slightly before answering. "I don't know how we're gonna get out of this one" I answered honestly, while shooting the Union Mech in front of me. I couldn't lie to him, because he could always tell. And he knew the situation just as well as me, if not better given his rank.

"Oh you will, you can bet" he replied, with confidence in is his voice. I could tell he was hiding something, and I saw a plane flying up towards the massive mech. I remembered what Colonel Marin had ordered him to do. "Chase? What are you doing?" I asked, and I realised that he was going to disobey the orders, knowing he had his family living here.

"Miranda, I don't know if they got out. You find my family, you tell them I tried to by them time, you hear me? I'm buying all of you time" and I heard a charge begin before he cut off his audio. No. No. No. He can't. I began turning and walking my strider towards the direction I had seen the plane. Suddenly, I saw another Union Mech and began shooting at it. Dammit.

I responded with barely-controlled panic while trying to do all of this- "Chase? You heard the order. Fall back!". I finally managed to take down the Mech, and started shooting at another one before it began to cause more havoc.

With Chase no longer talking, I was on full alert with worry and adrenalin was rushing. Someone begins telling us to get back to transports, and a flurry of different voices chime in all with the same situation: the Union winning.

A Union Mech is in front of me so I take it down and jump on it before trying to contact Chase again. "Chase?". There's nothing but fear now. If Razzle, a pilot 6 years older than Chase, can be lost trying to do something with little chance of success, then what chance is there?

For at least a minute, there's nothing. My panic grows. Until "Love you, babe. See you soon as I can" comes through the speaker in a solemn voice. It only confirms it.

I'm shaking, not knowing what to do before I hear a weird "BOOM", and a blue light suddenly appears. The Nanotech turns into grey-purple smoke and quickly disintegrates before my very eyes, stopping it from furthering it's path of cruel, evil destruction.

Before I can fully take this in, I see another sight: a plane nosediving from the sky. Another "BOOM" follows it and the ground violently rumbles. Smoke begins piling into the air from where the plane had presumably crashed.

"He used the ESD and a plane just crashed" is frantically running through my head as I desperately try to contact him, my voice shaking. After several attempts, I'm informed that the signal has been lost. The screen darkens.

No.

No.

No.

My eyes become wide and I don't feel myself leaning back in my seat. I can just feel my pulse racing, and my body shaking.

He's gone. The one person who I thought would never fall. The person who promised that they weren't ever going to leave me. The man who showed me what to love someone means. He's gone. He's gone. He's gone.

I become numb to everything going on- the battle surrounding, the sounds of more people being lost, the gunshots hitting my strider and the tears threatening to fall. It's all nothing apart from a losing battle now.

It takes the violent shaking of my mech (from a bullet hitting the right side of it) to make me realise that I need to do what I'm told. I walk my mech backwards towards the airship shooting the enemy, whilst watching another ally's strider getting destroyed next to me. The ground vibrates and I hear the sound of a short scream start and then go silent. Another life lost.

Bullets fly around me as the magnet grabs my mech and pulls me up. My last 'foot' is off the ground and the airship begins to fly away. I see the sights before me zoom away, until my mech is completely in the airship. I don't have to focus on surviving now, and my tears are finally able to fall.

I cry for the people we've lost, the effort everyone has put in for nothing and the start of a war after years of peacekeeping. But mostly, I cry for the loss of Chase. My Chase. And while we fly away from New York, a piece of my heart has been left there.

And I won't ever get it back. Because he's gone, and he's taken it with him.