UnderCurrent ζ - Extra Chapter - #1

  "ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The Scarlet Scourge roared as she tumbled from her cockpit, hitting the icy ground hard - but if that hurt, she ignored it - instead clutching her eye and writhing as blood seeped between her fingers.

  Staff swarmed around her, a stretcher appearing in no time, "Get her to medical, now!" someone yelled.

  Omaes Agaitate stared blankly at this scene as she more steadily descended from the new test model Casnel Remembrance was working on.

  It had been years since simulators, or even practise machines, were of any use to her, so she'd been trying the new Casnel while Scarlet wilded her custom Vijiak heavy.

  Her boots scrunched on the hard snow as The Scourge was carried out, screaming all the way. Her one remaining eye locked with Oames's gaze for a moment.

  With Sesha and... Kigen both dead, Scarlet had been her last standing mentor. Templar couldn't speak; the third and fourth-ranked couldn't keep up with her any longer. Oames was no cadet now. Whispered rumours, all knew she would soon ascend to the Five Great Aces ranks, but one woman had kept up with her all this time. Not once had Oaemes definitively beaten Scarlet, the first-ranked post-Kigen's passing.

  Their matches had gotten less frequent but far more fierce, and now, 'Today I won,' that's what Oames thought to herself.

  She wasn't entirely sure why she'd done it. Her esper ability had gotten stronger and stronger; she would dream visions of entire days, and awake, she could sense and feel an opponent's moves long before they made them. In today’s Casnel test unit, she'd felt lust, an insatiable power like never before, the power to beat even the first-ranked, her sole surviving teacher, the one living person better than her.

  She'd given into that, allowed her machine to execute a move only a Magi could, one that pierced the enemy cockpit without killing the pilot - but The Scourge was still one of the best; she'd moved ever so slightly differently to the premonition, the result was this.

  Scarlet always told her not to lean into that power, always insisting it was a crutch to be ignored if possible. Sesha had said much the same long ago. They were fools. To have power and not use it, to shun boons inherent to your person, was the height of ignorance and folly. Using her power, she was unbeatable - she’d finally proven that.

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  "Ma'am," a close subordinate said, approaching her, "The medics believe her eye won't recover."

  Oames nodded simply. She felt perhaps a little annoyed at all the fuss this would cause around her base but otherwise calm. She began to walk in the opposite direction of the still milling crowd, her subordinate in tow.

  Scarlet was weak. Of course, Oames appreciated disabling your second-best pilot was foolhardy, but it was true. In the years following their loss, The Scourge hadn't been able to replace Kigen; instead of the ace, they’d gotten the woman Scarlet, an ineffective, unambitious leader.

  And none had gone past retaining her Father's chair; David Yoist simply sat in it, maintained it and nothing more. They had gone from two indomitable leaders to none.

  If Kigen had just lived, they could have turned it around. Even with their fleets scuppered, he would have rallied them. The guerrilla war could have kept wearing TSU down; there would have been a chance somewhere. Moreover, she was sure that with a cooler head and more time, she would have convinced Kigen of their union's merit, and everything would have gone according to plan, had he just survived.

  But he'd died. Scarlet had lived. Was that why she'd just gone too far in a practice bout? Against a woman who, in all these years, had never once harmed Oames despite a flawless record of victories? A woman who had tried, though failed, to treat Oames like a sister.

  "How progresses A.M.I," Oames asked once sure they'd left earshot.

  The aide nodded firmly, but as always, his body language was ever so slightly concerned - not enough that she feared betrayal - but that weakness of emotion in the man was quite irritating, "On schedule, Ma'am. They believe a prototype will be ready soon."

  "Understood," Oames replied simply.

  She was keenly aware that every day, every moment of every minute could be their last.

  TSU, weakened with the loss of its best commanders, had been slow in their retaliation, but someday, they would come to finish Remembrance off. Oames knew she had to be the best, take her father's mantle of Abhailein Admiral, and, in the face of Scarlet's weakness, be the first-ranked as well.

  If warships couldn't win, they'd use mechs. If those mechs needed pilots, they'd make them if they had to. Remembrance would not forget, it would not rest, it would rise once again, and this time, with her at the fore, they would succeed.

  As for the weak? Those would simply be left behind.