Pain of The Lone Spectre
Page 24
The boy peeked out from the corner. “Any idea?”
Charlotte checked the number of bullets she has. “We’re outgunned and outnumbered, but the marines can’t do anything once we enter the ship. They’ve spent all their wrist-launched rockets and explosive grenades.”
“You actually counted?”
Charlotte winked.
“Right,” the boy kneeled. “How about I cover you while you run to the ship?”
“Eh?”
“I will draw their fire and suppress them, then you sprint fast. Once you enter the ship, then I’ll follow.”
The girl paused. She leaned on the metal crate and took a deep breath. “Fine,” she spoke softly and pulled out her UFX-PDA. “But let me send a message to Chrissie and Ray first.”
“Do it later, you airhead.”
“Must do now. It’s important,” she began typing on a word processor app.
“How is your UFX-PDA still working? I thought the EMP killed everything.”
“Don’t know,” she replied. “Petit Fantome’s arms dealer gave it to me. Maybe it has EMP shielding?”
The Marines stopped firing, and an eerie calm ensued. Audi normalised his breathing pace and wiped his sweat with a handkerchief. They’re saving ammo, but the moment we waltz out of cover, they’ll throw everything they’ve got at us.
He frowned.
Now I have doubt about my plan. There are too many Marines, and I probably won’t survive if I stay behind.
But that’s fine.
Audi glanced at Charlotte, who was still typing her message.
These marines want me, but not her. I don’t need her to be involved with me anymore. She’s found her true purpose in life, and my job is done.
He readied his gun.
Nagisawa Corporation has everything she needs. Everyone she needs. The resources to change the world. The ideals to change the world. She doesn’t have to suffocate anymore, choked by the wide world’s indifference to suffering, those who gave up their dream for the sake of survival—
Charlotte gave her UFX-PDA to the boy.
“What’s that for?”
“Keep,” she smiled. “I’ve got to sprint to the ship while you cover me, right?”
Audi nodded.
“Then hold on to that,” she said. “You have a lot of pockets and pouches. I don’t.”
“No, you should—“
“Hold on to that,” she glared, but kept her smile.
Audi sighed. “Fine,” he took the device and strapped it on his belt. “Are you ready now?”
She nodded.
“Alright,” the boy gripped his rifle tight. “I’ll count down to zero, and then you run. As fast as you can to the ship.”
Charlotte readied a sprinting position.
“Three.”
The girl took a deep breath.
“Two.”
She glanced at the boy.
“One—”
Charlotte pushed Audi out of cover.
The boy tripped as he fell to the ground. The marines shouted to open fire.
“Charley!” Audi panicked as he glanced back. “What the hell was—“
“Go on!” Charlotte fired at the Marines. “You run to the ship!”
“But—!”
“Run!”
The marines spread their formation and readied their aim. Audi gritted his teeth and sprinted as fast as he could. Bullets rained upon him, and the boy zigzagged his way forward, from cover to cover, and barely dodged the bullets. One scathed his arm. Another scraped his thigh. Sharp pain echoed throughout his body, but he kept on the move, glancing back at Charlotte every half a second.
The boy reached the spacecraft’s entrance and jumped in, hiding behind the wall. He peeked out, and a stream of bullet showered in—the boy pulled back to cover in time.
“Charley!” the boy yelled.
Charlotte glanced at him.
She smiled.
The boy’s chest clenched tight. Don’t tell me…!
Charlotte turned to the Marines and kept firing. Bullets rained non-stop on the space between them.
“You idiot!” Audi shouted. “Don’t you know they’re after me?”
The girl ignored him.
The Marines’ squad leader pointed at the ship and threw a hand signal. The boy recognised that signal: to storm the front. He slammed a red button near the wall, and the exit hatch pulled in abruptly.
Audi ran towards the cockpit and sat on the pilot’s seat in rush. He prepared the ship for flight, checking all status from power to life support supplies.
Why? Why would she? I don’t get it.
The ship’s engine powered up. Audi peeked out of the window and witnessed the marines storming Charlotte’s position. He pressed a button on the dashboard and activated the ship’s loudspeaker.
“It’s not too late!” the boy’s voice echoed out of the speaker. “I’ll open the hatch, and you jump in!”
Charlotte glanced at Audi. She shook her head and resumed firing.
“You idiot!”
The marines surrounded her. Pointing their guns, they told her to surrender. Charlotte dropped her weapons.
Four marines landed on a distance. They readied their wrist rocket launchers and aimed it at the ship.
“Fuck!” the boy jumped back to the seat and overrode the ship’s autopilot.
The engine jumped to full output, throwing the ship upwards and crashing through the ceiling. The floor shook, and damage alert rung through the cockpit.
The ship accelerated through the sky, shaking the interior in a massive tremor. The G-stabiliser indicator was off, and a gigantic force pushed the boy to the floor flat on stomach. An invisible force crushed the boy’s entire body, like there’s an elephant sitting on his back. His ribs hurt. His lung struggled to pull air in. His skull felt like it started cracking, and the boy sensed his brain shrivelling. The torture continued for minutes, and the boy crawled up against gravity. He stretched his arm onto a switch and slammed it with his fist. The G-stabiliser indicator turned on, and the pressure vanished.
The ship entered the darkness of space. Planet Bandar Prime was in chaos. Swirling storms formed across its surface, while red flashes of volcano eruptions blinked from across its continents. Dark clouds expanded and covered Kotabaru with thunders spitting sideways, upwards, and downwards.
The boy closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. Why?
A children’s song echoed from within his pouch.
Audi opened the vibrating pouch and pulled its content out. Charlotte’s UFX-PDA. He stretched its display to two arms’ length and placed it on the dashboard. There was a reminder alarm with a text document attached titled:
READThiSToLISten
The boy’s chest clenched tight. You’re kidding me.
With his finger shaking, the boy pressed the document icon. Loading. A second after, the file opened.
--EN DÉBUT DU DOCUMENT--
Boo!
If you think I don’t know what you’re planning, think again. As I’m writing this, you were mumbling and talking to yourself. Yes, that’s your habit. Whenever you’re in scheming mode, that’s what you always do. Sheesh. How do I know? Remember that I stalked you in the entrepreneur award ceremony the whole morning? Yes. I picked up a lot of things about you. The funny things. The weird habits. The interesting stuffs~~
And that made me feel like I’ve known you forever.
Creepy? Hehe. I know. But I wasn’t exaggerating. For more than twenty years, I’ve never felt at home more than when I talked to you. That night in the ball when we had our long talk was the first time I threw my façade away. I was myself, with all manners thrown out the window. Someone willing to listen to me, my rants, my thoughts, my plans, my ambitions that drove all my friends away. I was scared that you’ll find me weird for thinking differently from others. But no. You listened. Actually listened word-by-word and replied with length, instead of plainly showing courtesy by nodding politel
y—like many others.
And that’s why I want you to go.
There are millions of others in this galaxy whose voice are silenced. Silenced by the way the world works. Afraid they’ll be outcast by society for thinking differently. For wanting to imagine a new world, rather than adapting to our current one. They are people who have suffered, but aren’t afraid of fighting—because they know the pain of loneliness, of suffering alone, hiding in the corners without help, because nobody would understand their suffering. These are people whose voices need to be heard, and you are their only hope.
So please live. Survive. Find these people. Help them. Listen to them. Protect them from a world that will do everything it can to make them conform. Shield them from a culture that will torment them unless they oblige. Unite them so they do not have to fight alone.
My life is nothing compared to those of these lone spectres.
I might live. I might die. We might never meet again, whether in this world or in the afterlife. But remember this: until the second I heave my last breath, my feelings for you will never change. No matter how far across the galaxy we are. No matter how dark a place I have to be in. No matter who you are with. My feelings will never change.
Thank you for everything you’ve done.
Thank you for wanting to talk to me.
Thank you for listening to me.
Thank you for choosing to save me with the cure.
Thank you for l
--EN FIN DU DOCUMENT--
The boy slammed both fists onto the dashboard, shivering while drops of tears travelled down his cheeks, to his chins, to the floor. He yelled out every air in his lungs, but his scream only mounted to silence. He punched the dashboard again. Again. Again. Three times. The number of times he failed to protect someone he cherished. No matter how hard he fought. No matter how hard he worked. Failure. Failure ensued.
“I’m sorry,” the boy’s voice was coarse. “I’m sorry I’m not strong enough to fight against the world. I’m sorry I’m not strong enough to shield you against it. I should’ve been better. I should’ve seen all this coming.”
He wiped his eyes with a stroke of his arm.
Audi stood and walked to the window. The spaceship accelerated as it distanced away from Bandar Prime. Silence. A rhythmic hymn of the engine hummed through the cockpit, vibrating the floor like a gentle massage.
“I will find you,” the boy placed his palm on the window. “Even if I have search every prison in the galaxy. Even if I have to blow up every military base of The Crowned Confederacy,” he paused. “This world needs you. Now. More than ever.”
He returned to his seat with a frown and opened the ship’s navigation system. He expanded a list of planet names and sorted them by name. He scrolled down until he reached the letter ‘K’. Kaneguni. He pressed the planet’s name and pressed a button to confirm destination. Suddenly the console bleeped.
“Attention, planet under government lockdown. Rerouting destination to nearest colony: Tsukihime.”
“What?” the boy flinched.
He cancelled the order, and reselected Planet Kaneguni. The same warning message repeated. He tried another time. Same message. Thrice. Four times. Five times.
The boy opened Charlotte’s UFX-PDA and opened news application. He searched for ‘Kaneguni’. No results. He searched for ‘Nagisawa Corporation’. No results. He searched for ‘Kitagane’. No results. He searched for ‘Nagisawa Chizuru’.
No results.
“Government lockdown. Media blackout,” the boy gritted his teeth. “I can understand if it’s only concerning the planet, but when the censorship goes to include search results for Nagisawa Corporation and her…”
“They’re in grave danger.”
Audi Prabian left for Bandar Prime to obtain a cure for Jane Drake, who lost control over her Bionika power.
But while The Bandana Boy struggled against Petit Fantome and Konstantin, Jane is facing a threat of her own back in Planet Kaneguni.
The Crowned Confederacy’s elite spec ops unit, The Red Berets, launched a full scale assault on Nagisawa Corporation.
To make matters worse, the Red Berets’ strike team is lead by Jane’s ex-boyfriend, Maurycy “Koz” Kozlow, who tricked her into a brutal lab experimentation years earlier.
He wanted to complete his research by forcing Jane into a final experiment.
With her power beyond control, can Jane fight for her freedom against Koz?
Or will she become a subject of a brutal experiment once more?
TO BE CONTINUED IN:
THE SILENT ASSASSIN
ACT II: LAGOON BLUE
BOOK EIGHT
THE BEAST WHO
ATE HIS BEAUTY
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Adrian P. has been an enthusiastic storywriter since childhood, drawing tons of storyboards and comics throughout his school years. Ever since, he experimented with several genres and medium to discover a platform and theme that he really wanted to create. Only in university that he discovered The Silent Assassin, and began creating the universe it takes place on.
Now an Economics and Finance graduate (with academic interests in Science, Philosophy, History, and Politics) from the University of New South Wales, Adrian P. wishes to use The Silent Assassin as a platform to explore popular, real-world issues and framing them into subtle philosophical questions in order to offer fresh new perspectives.
Outside creative writing, Adrian P. is an independent researcher on the six disciplines mentioned above. He's an avid gamer (particularly the grand strategy/political simulation genre and sci-fi RPG) with a palate for spicy food, draught beer, and Japanese cuisine.
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Interactive short story on the origins of The Crowned Confederacy of Mankind, from the 21st Century to the 28th Century, featuring the First Monarch of Mankind and his role during the The Great Conflict of 2026.
Artwork
A cinematic trailer of the series
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