LIGHTNOVELONLINE Arc 0 - Chapter 15 - Retaliation
Thea stared at the lieutenant in front of her, her mouth agape.
She was starstruck, finding herself unexpectedly close to the woman who had completely changed her view on what a woman could be in the marines. While she had seen the unnamed major during the introduction of the Cube, back in the arcade, the lieutenant was something entirely different.
The major had represented a pinnacle of intellect, grace and strategic leadership to Thea, that she could not fully grasp.
Lieutenant Frost, on the other hand, was a different, more tangible image to her.
Not only because the lieutenant was physically present, but also because she had demonstrated physical abilities that went far beyond anything that Thea had deemed possible for any human to achieve, let alone a woman.
Biologically speaking, women were weaker than men. This was an unbreakable rule in the biological makeup of humans. The comparative lack of testosterone during the early years, coupled with the overall differences in bone structure and diminished ability to build muscles as a whole compared to men, mandated that this be the case.
Yet, here the lieutenant was, in complete defiance of what Thea had thought was an ironclad rule of the universe itself.
Right in front of her, was a woman that could easily lift any of the heavies in her squad and likely break their spines in a single action, if she really wanted to.
Lieutenant Frost was, without a doubt, the strongest single human she had ever met aside from Old Man James himself, who had previously admitted to having undergone some enhancements to receive superhuman abilities.
Still stuck in her silent admiration for the lieutenant, Thea was unable to adequately respond to her question. Luckily for her, the squad leader stepped away from the front of the trenches to address the lieutenant’s question.
“That would have been this lunatic right here. I don’t know where you found this void daemon or why you sent her my way, but you’ve made my job really hard, Frost. She hasn’t even taken a look at what her actions have done in the past twenty minutes!
“I dare say she gets even more fanatical than you do when it comes to ripping apart these freaks,” the squad leader concluded with a chuckle, while gesturing towards Thea next to him.
Thea finally snapped out of her daze at being directly mentioned and gestured towards, and immediately realised three distinct things about what the squad leader had just said.
Firstly, more than twenty minutes had passed since she had scavenged for the energy cells. This was entirely at odds with her own feelings, as she could have sworn she had only gotten the energy cells mere minutes ago!
Secondly, the squad leader seemed to be very chummy with the lieutenant, as he had even dared to address her simply as “Frost” instead of “Lieutenant Frost”. He didn’t even add “Ma’am” at the end of his report!
And lastly, the fact that she had apparently missed what was going on around her for the past twenty-odd minutes. Quickly, she turned to take a look around, only to freeze in surprise, eyes wide and mouth agape once again.
Not only were two of her squad’s heavies gone, but so were the three medium-armoured marines that had been the remnants of the squad leader’s previous defence lineup. The medium that had accompanied her during her rabid killing spree had also taken multiple hits and was viciously bleeding from several open wounds.
The last heavy that was still standing, currently the only active defender for this part of the trenches, also showed clear signs of having taken massive return fire.
Staring out beyond the trenches, she could clearly see the reason for the current state of her squad: The majority of the Stellar Republic’s forces had shifted their fire towards their location!
Even now, hundreds of shots were raining down upon their stretch of trenches every second.
They ripped apart the fortifications and the dirt in front of them alike with reckless abandon. Explosions tore apart the air nearby every couple of seconds, as a continuous stream of grenades, rockets, and other propelled explosives were poured out onto their location.
It seemed that Thea’s consistent killing of duplicators, as the lieutenant had called them, had not gone unnoticed at all.
Thea was shocked by this revelation.
She had been so focused on her desire to eliminate the enemy's original bodies that she had become entirely oblivious to the consequences of her actions on her own squad. She had entered a flow-state of "perfect killing intent," completely losing track of time and her surroundings, without intending to do so.
She now realised that the only reason she had been able to continue doing so unharmed, had been her squad…!
Forcing her mind to think back, she remembered instances in which her medium-armoured squad members had forcibly pushed her aside and taken hits for her. Other instances came to mind, in which the squad’s heavies had purposefully amped up their firepower, in order to draw more fire to themselves and away from Thea’s location.
Weighed down by the realisation that she had directly caused the death of multiple of her squadmates, Thea turned back towards the lieutenant and the squad leader, an unbearable urge to apologise for her mistakes overcoming her.
Unable to suppress it, she started talking in a meek voice, “I— I am so sor—”
“You better not be apologising to me right now, Private,” interrupted the squad leader with an icy voice. “I really fucking hope you weren’t about to do that.
“Your squad members gave their lives to give you the opportunity to take out more of these scum. They recognised your ability to affect the battle more than they themselves could, so they made the choice to enable you to fulfil your role. Apologising now would simply drag their determination and sacrifice through the dirt of this emperor-forsaken planet.”
Taken aback by the harsh retort, she closed her mouth abruptly.
What the squad leader was saying made sense to her in hindsight. There was no doubt in her mind that if she had truly put the squad at tangible risk for no gain, she would have simply been knocked out by the squad leader himself.
Apologising for her squad member’s own decisions made no sense and truly did undermine their determination, she realised.
“I understand, Sir. I apologise for my earlier transgression.” she meekly replied, once again feeling like she had made a fool of herself in front of the squad leader.
“Now that’s all fine and dandy. Glad y’all made up. Now, I’ve heard that there’s a void daemon running around here, that supposedly rivals me in ferocity? What do you have to say for yourself, Private Void Daemon?” Lieutenant Frost suddenly chimed in, with a playful smile on her face, that made Thea’s heart skip a beat.
Seeing the fierce Lieutenant Frost manage such a playful and, frankly, uncharacteristically cute smile, was something she had not been expecting to see in this situation— or ever, really.
“I — I’m really not sure what to say to that, lieutenant,” she barely managed to squeeze out, trying to get her frantic mental state under control. Too many revelations. Too much whiplash of her perceived reality vs expectations. She felt caught in a maelstrom, unable to fully grasp onto something, simply being strung along for whatever the forces around her wrought.
With a belly-laugh that rang through the nearby trenches, the Lieutenant suddenly smacked Thea’s back, which caused her to stumble forward by a couple of steps.
“Don’t worry, Private. I’m not someone that gets jealous that easily. Now, onto the real reason I’m here: I assume you cannot teach us whatever the void you’re doing to identify duplicators with such a ludicrous precision and speed, right?
I really hope the answer is no, because otherwise I will have to torture you to figure it out and then Zero you out for withholding such vital strategic information from us without being prompted.”
While the voice of the lieutenant sounded just as strong and even as before, Thea could identify a hint of cold steel in it, which made her blood run cold.
Despite the lieutenant’s casual approach to the conversation, her threats had been made with a 100% guarantee of follow-through. Of that, Thea was certain.
Flustered by the sudden threat of violence and death, she quickly replied to the lieutenant’s question with a bit too much volume in her voice.
“Ahhh! Yes, Ma’am — Ehhh, I meant — No Ma’am!... I cannot teach this! I tried before with my last squad, but it’s more of a — gut feeling than anything else! I apologise, Ma’am!”
“Haaa… figures. Well, nothing that can be done about it. I assume it uses Focus to some degree?” she quickly stopped to look for Thea’s acknowledging nod, before continuing.
“Alright. Then let’s make use of you as long as we can. Keep doing what you’re doing, but don’t burn yourself out completely. I’ll be here to make sure you get free space to fulfil your role to the utmost. Let’s see how long we can keep this up before they send in the big guns.”
Thea wanted to ask what “the big guns” referred to, but the lieutenant had already taken the HMG, which she had been casually shouldering the entire time as if it was a light-weight baseball bat, back into her hands and started moving towards the front of the trenches.
Seeing that she had missed her opportunity to do so, Thea tried reigning in her fractured mental state, to return to a semblance of her previous level of concentration, as she also took her position at the front of the trenches, rifle at the ready.
As the lieutenant started unloading the explosive rounds of her HMG into the enemy lines, Thea could not help but feel secure, looking at the large, broad back of the high-ranked marine. Even the heavy next to her looked comparatively small, despite his heavier armour.
The sight of Lieutenant Frost's powerful figure reminded her of Freya, her favourite Ashes of Centuries character, and could not stop herself from seeing a lot of similarities between the two. From the similar demeanour, to the muscular and tall build, down to the fiercely manic grins and the unshakable belief that she was damn near invincible.
Thea wondered briefly if that was maybe one of the reasons she felt such a strong sense of admiration for the lieutenant, before shaking her head to dispel those thoughts and returning to the mission at hand.
Aiming through her scope, she searched for the next duplicator in the Stellar Republic’s lines.
This time around Thea managed to keep a hold on her mental state, not fully letting herself go with the flow of killing as before, but staying close to the line, in order to retain some of her ability to think and observe the battlefield properly.
It was thanks to this, that she realised just ten minutes later that she was starting to near her limit. She had now been using her Focus nearly continuously for the past thirty-odd minutes and she recognised the early warning signs of Focus overuse from her previous experience.
She was certain she could go for another five or ten minutes without incurring any major penalties, but she made a mental note to inform the lieutenant about her limits soon.
As she was more conscious of the battlefield this time around, she had been paying close attention to the Stellar Republic’s answer to her renewed offensive.
Just as the squad leader had pointed out, a large portion of the nearby enemy lines had switched their firepower over to their tiny stretch of trench, in an attempt to suppress Thea from continuing her morbid work.
While it had worked to a certain degree the last time around, this time, it did not. Despite having lost a majority of their squad in the previous stretch of killings, they had gained an invaluable asset in Lieutenant Frost, who seemed like a fortress made flesh.
It was as if all the firepower was magnetically drawn to her, as she stood at the forefront of their formation. Countless bullets, lasers, and projectiles impacted near her position, but only a few managed to land a clean hit on her, which astounded Thea.
What surprised her even more however, was that the lieutenant did not even have a scratch to show for the rare hits she had suffered.
It seemed to Thea like the lieutenant's skin was about as resilient and strong, if not stronger, than the heavy armour of her squad members. If she had not seen bullets literally bounce off of the lieutenant’s face, as if they had hit a reinforced plasteel vault, she would simply not have believed that she had gotten hit at all.
Thea’s admiration for the lieutenant continued to rise by another few levels throughout their short cooperation, yet she also felt like she was missing a very important piece of information about the whole deal: Just what could possibly enhance a human to such an insane degree?
Taking all of what Lieutenant Frost was at face value, Thea could not help but be utterly astonished by her physical abilities. It was like every single aspect of her being had been dialled up to 1,000% or more.
Her speed, strength, resilience and even her ability to gracefully dodge incoming projectiles, as if it was the most normal thing anyone had ever done, were on a level that could not be reconciled with what Thea had assumed reality’s limitations to be.
She had felt the same way about Old Man James, but he was also over 200 years old, according to himself. Enough time to be subjected to a whole heap of genetic alterations, physical enhancements and whatever else the UHF managed to cook up for their top marines.
Yet Lieutenant Frost did not seem much older than 30. At most she’d be in her mid-30s, if Thea had to take a generous guess.
How did such a young woman manage to obtain such a ludicrous level of physical abilities? And more importantly, could Thea do the same if she figured it out?
A veritable flame had been sparked inside of Thea at the continued exposure to Lieutenant Frost’s capabilities. She wanted to be just as strong, just as fast, just as resilient as her!
With a renewed sense of purpose, Thea turned her attention back to the weapon in her hand and the enemies across the no-man’s-land from her.
While scanning over the enemy lines for her next target, she suddenly spotted something entirely out of the ordinary. Zooming in further, she felt a pang of discomfort in her chest.
In her sights was a man, clad in thick armour with a sea of coloured rags attached to it. He was wielding a massive, two-metre tall riot shield that reminded Thea more of an industrial gate, than a shield that should be wielded by a human.
In his other hand, he had some kind of a gun that Thea could not identify. It was bulky, with what seemed to be two wide barrels at the front. Each barrel was easily half the size of Thea’s head!
As she continued to try and discern details about the man, his head suddenly snapped towards Thea, his visor looking straight at her through her own scope!
Startled by the sudden movement, as well as the sheer improbability of it being a random fluke, Thea stumbled backwards, eyes wide in shock.
“Private, what’s wrong?” came the immediate request for a report on her current situation from Lieutenant Frost. Her ability to keep everything around her in sight at all times was equally as frightening as the rest of her abilities.
“I— There’s a man. He looked at me? …I think? Straight through my scope! He is an absolute monster… Around 2.1m tall, about as broad as you, Ma’am, maybe even broader. He got a giant shield and some kind of double-barreled, bulky gun. I— He seems dangerous, Ma’am.” Thea tried her best to report what she had seen, despite her rattled mind.
Lieutenant Frost turned her head towards Thea, revealing a manic, toothy grin. With elation audible in her voice, she casually explained, “Looks like the big guns have arrived. Guess I’m up!”
Before Thea could ask what the lieutenant was talking about, she had already discarded her weapon and jumped up the shoulder-high trenchline, completely exposing herself to the incoming fire of the Stellar Republic’s side.
“Watch and learn, my pretties!” came the joyous and entirely-too-sweet voice of the lieutenant, before she leisurely strolled out towards the no-man’s-land between the two sides.
Completely taken aback by the order of events, Thea’s mind raced as she tried to process what was happening in front of her. She frantically looked around for a hint, only to see the squad leader shake his head in disbelief and the heavily injured medium-armoured marine look just as bewildered at the situation as she was.
Thea shook her head violently to wake her confused self. Determined, she muttered, “I should provide covering fire, at the least!”, before stepping back up towards the front of the trench, weapon at the ready.
What she saw, however, stopped her dead in her tracks.
Looking through her scope once again, she saw the lieutenant leisurely stroll through the no-man’s-land, with seemingly not a worry on her mind.
Moving forward, her body was nothing but a blur as she dodged hundreds of incoming projectiles every second, which Thea knew could do no harm to her. It was as if Lieutenant Frost was putting on a show just for the fun of it!
This only lasted for a couple of seconds however, until, all at once, the Stellar Republic’s side ceased fire entirely.
She immediately spotted the likely reason for it: The armoured man had also jumped up from the trenches towards the no-man’s-land and was heading directly for Lieutenant Frost, with a measured stride that projected confidence and power.
A metallic voice rippled over the battlefield, its origin apparent as the armoured man hefted his bulky weapon towards Lieutenant Frost, "You dare face me in the open, whelp? I am Captain Xander Ionheart of the 37th Legion. Don't think I will go easy on you, just because you're young and have a pretty face. The Emperor would not allow such leniency!"
A bright red laser suddenly ripped through the air, aimed straight for the captain's helmet.
With a simple flick of his wrist, he managed to easily move the giant shield to intercept the surprise attack, deflecting the laser into the ground at his side.
Thea's weapon was still cycling the heat from the shot she had just taken, when the folly of her attempt became apparent.
The captain had reacted to a laser being fired at his face by moving a giant two-metre tall shield in its path…! This went beyond superhuman abilities. This went even beyond what should be possible according to the laws of physics as Thea knew them!
Laser rifles fired a concentrated beam of light that travelled near the speed of light, yet somehow a human had not only reacted to it, but then also moved a massive hunk of plasteel in its path to deflect it? Thea's mind raced, struggling to comprehend the incredible display she had just witnessed.
At first, Thea had thought the enemy captain a fool for revealing his rank in the open like this.
She had immediately gone for a kill-shot, believing it would efficiently and easily end this side of the conflict. There was no reason to let the captain do as he pleased — or so she had originally thought. Now, she realised she wasn't even part of the equation.
As she witnessed the superhuman and physics-defying abilities displayed by both Lieutenant Frost and Captain Ionheart, Thea recognized that she had no role to play in the upcoming confrontation whatsoever.
A sinking feeling took hold of her as she realised that, no matter how perfectly she placed a shot, her laser rifle would do nothing to either of them.
"I will get to you soon, pest, just you wait. You've done quite a number on my guys. I don't appreciate that. Not. One. Bit." came the threatening metallic voice, aimed directly at Thea.
Thea felt a heavy pressure descend upon her as she heard those words. The captain’s voice was seeped in malice and carried a promise of unfathomable pain, should he manage to get his hands on her.
"Funny you should say that, Captain. I don't appreciate you talking to my cute Private like that, either. As her commanding officer and overly amazing lieutenant, I can't have you go around intimidating my marines like that," Lieutenant Frost mocked.
Although she didn't seem to have raised her voice, it nevertheless carried over the entire stretch of no-man's-land without issue.
"I'm Lieutenant Frost, otherwise known as your worst fucking nightmare. Now, get your slow ass over here so I can beat it into the ground. This battlefield doesn't have all day to wait for you and your theatrics," she added, leisurely beckoning the captain with her outstretched hand.
Thea couldn't help but giggle at the lieutenant's replies.
The captain of the Stellar Republic had tried his best to look intimidating in his fully jet-black armour, coupled with the metallic voice enhancer and his frightening-looking weapon. Yet, Lieutenant Frost was treating him like an unruly child.
Without any further retort, the captain suddenly kicked off the ground, sending an explosion of red-brown dirt into the air. He charged at the lieutenant with a speed that belied his heavy armour and imposing frame, covering the nearly hundred-metre distance between them in less than two seconds.
Moments before reaching her, his weapon roared to life, unleashing a torrent of molten metal from both oversized barrels at the same time in the lieutenant's direction. The fiery projectiles blanketed an area roughly 30 metres wide with lava-like pellets, transforming the very air in front of her into a deadly inferno…!