2011-01-08 - Cutscene: Journey of the Sorceror

The Black Forest, Germany

Day 14 of the Aerogator Occupation

The rest of Marshall Team is dead.

All that remains is him, who can only hear the sound of his own breathing as he sits inside his ruined RGM-79N GM Custom. Its belly cracked open and frame slouching against a now-splintered fir.

It's oppressively hot in here, the heat sinks having been overloaded and nothing is left to vent the thermal output of the ultracompact Minovsky reactor beneath him.

Eyes worriedly dart through the wound, searching and hoping to have been left for dead. The whirr of servo-motors and a flash of green light suggests otherwise. Though it seems to pass and his heart begins to leap for joy -- until it flashes again and turns, in his direction.

A Laser Blade's ignition between a set of pines is universal for 'I see you.'

"Eh!?!?" the pilot sputters. His eyes are as wide as pie plates now. His heart threatens to leap up into his throat. He's never felt so vulnerable now. So fragile, so weak, and so very close to the end at the ripe age of seventeen.

This was the night that Ensign Koji Kabuto knew what it meant to be afraid for his own life.

The Knight approaches, slow to start as it pushes aside stiff pine bristles. Its sword raised, bright and dangerous.

Koji's hands tightens around the controls, the no-slip rubberized grips streaked in blood and sweat. He pushes hard on them, lunging with his shoulders to force it with all his might.%r%rBut the GM does nothing. Koji is on the edge of losing it, rocking the grips back and forth to try to evince his machine to do /something/. But it does nothing.

The Knight nears closer and tears begin to stream down Koji's sweat-stung cheeks. "Ki o ido suru!" he cries. Move, damn you. "IDO!!!!!" MOVE!!!!

But the Knight is near-on top of him now, sword overhead and pointing down.

"IIE!! IIE!! IDO!!!" NO!! Koji yelps. NO!! MOVE!! His feet kick frantically, smashing into damaged panels. He's kicking as hard as he can, as if he could throw the tantrum that might keep him alive. Controls remain unresponsive, no matter how hard he's rocking them back and forth along their tracks.%r%rThe Knight begins its death-plunge, that sword coming down in what seems to be an eternity. Each inch closer and Koji becomes painfully aware of the searing heat it emits and its wretched hiss.

And in his last moments, Koji Kabuto weeps his protest to the heavens. "WATASHI WA SHINU KOTO O SHITAKUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAI!"

I DON'T WANT TO DIE!

With one last kick, some jammed part finally gives and Koji throws his entire arm into the thrust against the controls. The GM Custom's right arm lifts, pressing the nozzle of its equipped 90mm machinegun directly into the Knight's chest. The manipulator curls, pulling the trigger.

The report is a thunderclap... and AGX-12 Knight tumbles backward and hits the earth hard.

It is over an hour later when Koji Kabuto ventures out from his damaged GM Custom to find his opponent within the hole punched into the wrecked Knight. It is a girl no stranger than he, the loveliness of half of her face ruined by the gleaming round of a 90mm bullet lodged inside her cockpit.