E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death.

Chapter 117: Ghosts in Aqua Frost.

V O L U M E F I V E

Chapter 117: Ghosts in Aqua Frost‎"Move faster, boys. Their capital is in reach." Captain Richfar kept his voice low as he pushed his unit forward. Ten young soldiers in black, each wearing a heavily modified exo-suit that amplified their movement and gave them jump capability up to ten meters. Each one carried a tuned sonic shotgun.

They moved through the dark mountains of Aqua Frost, the far western edge of Theria. As they came down the final slope, what had once been a low-income residential district had been replaced entirely, a vast military complex that Reaper had built as a dedicated base for Behemoth and his army.

The structure was wide and futuristic, shaped like a white wave of concrete sitting over a glass interior, reminiscent of the E-Police building but broader and taller. Robots don't build from scratch, they take something and make it better. Mechs patrolled the perimeter in constant rotation.

A device on one of the soldiers' wrists beeped, a detector tuned to register robotic presence in the surrounding area.

Richfar raised a fist and nodded twice to the left. One soldier pulled out a holographic screen and typed a quick status update, tapped the hard shoulder of his suit twice when he'd finished, and fell back into formation.

The unit moved as one.

Their suits made them almost soundless, human ghosts threading between the thick trees of the mountain range. They reached the far edge of the complex and found what they were looking for: an incomplete construction site adjoining the building, flat concrete foundation with partial walls standing to hold materials against. Resting area.

One by one, they cleared the energy barrier, white text reading Construction Site - Proceed With Caution glowing blue in the dark, and stepped inside.

"They have enough power to burn on an energy wall around a building site," one soldier muttered, sweeping his weapon across the corners. "Meanwhile we're rationing enough to keep a single lamp on."

"They're robots," another replied. "No food, no phones, no heating. They took everything we need and cut it down to almost nothing."

"I want to put one of them in pieces with my bare hands."

Richfar clicked his tongue. "Discipline. I know that's two hours of silence, but we hold it." He stopped behind a half-built wall. The rest stacked behind him. "Take a break here. I know what forty kilos on your back feels like."

They settled, some against the walls, some on the concrete, a couple keeping watch.

"Why didn't command let us cut the power lines running to the Veridian Coast?" one soldier said, frustration bleeding through the quiet. "We're in a conflict and Elysium is selling them electricity. We watched those lines go up along the northern route."

Richfar pulled his helmet off, a screen was mounted on the inside. "Because they're already stretched thin. They'd send a few soldiers if we pushed them, nothing more. We have enough of that."

"Eight million soldiers isn't enough against him." The youngest member of the unit stood, unable to keep it in. "I was frozen in place while he walked past me with an E-UNIT. He could put every one of us on the ground while humming to himself."

His commander pulled him back down. "Lose that tone, or meeting him will be the least of your problems."

Richfar exhaled. Forty-two years old, two months from retirement under Tamer's regime, standing in the dark on foreign ground. "Last time, keep your voices down. We don't know what they can hear. They have silent units too operating in this territory."

"Silent units too?" A voice came from directly above them.

"Yeah, too—" Richfar flinched.

Every head went up.

11 hovered above the site, Shelly beside her. 11 glowed an unnatural purple, deep and cold, her eyes cutting through the dark. Shelly cast a faint green, the crystal's energy sitting just under the surface of her frame. Both of them had an energy brace.

The color left every face in the unit simultaneously. Their detection device had never made a sound. "Unit—" Richfar steadied his voice. "Charge your weapons."

11 tilted her head. "What lovely expressions."

Shelly rolled her eyes. "Do I need to be taking notes on your sociopathic behavior too, Professor 11?"

11 turned to her sharply. "Master. And yes, observe. Notice how still they've gone." She glanced down at the unit. "Even though they should be charging their weapons right now."

The soldiers looked at each other, then snapped out of it and started powering up the shotguns.

11 touched down. The concrete split beneath her feet in a clean ring. She straightened and fixed her purple gaze on the captain. "You're not very good at reading anomalies."

Richfar kept his weapon up. "We know you have control over the crystals. That's not news to us."

"That's not what I mean." She looked around the site. "Why is a robotic construction site abandoned? Why is it only half built?"

The soldiers exchanged glances. Richfar felt it land. "Robots don't need rest." His voice dropped. "We were spotted long before we got here."

11 clapped once, sharp and satisfied. "Exactly right. And your prize, I'll let every one of you fire at me without limit. You have thirty seconds before I finish walking across this site and take you down one at a time. Consider it a practical lesson for our country's finest new diplomat."

Shelly covered her face. "She's started."

"Maximum charge, fire!" Richfar snapped.

The sonic shotguns detonated in a simultaneous burst, each one as loud as a jet engine firing in short, crushing pulses. The hits landed across 11 all at once. Her eyes flickered. She didn't move.

The weapons began recharging. She started walking, heavy, deliberate, each step pressing the concrete down beneath her.

"Maximum output, keep firing!"

Shot after shot. The only result was the flicker in her eyes each time, brief and meaningless. The sound of the weapons began to feel like noise rather than threat.

The youngest soldier's hands stopped working. He dropped the shotgun, fingers locked. 11's gaze had found him specifically, not a threat, not anger, just a patient, unhurried focus that removed whatever was left of his composure. He turned and ran.

11 raised one hand without looking.

Shelly's eyes ignited, full green blazes erupting outward. She was gone in the same instant, a streak of green light cutting across the rooftops after him.

11 kept walking.

Her steps grew louder. The remaining soldiers could feel them through the soles of their boots now. Sonic waves require loose components to vibrate. Thanks to Delta’s crystal, there is nothing loose inside 11 anymore.

Richfar lowered his weapon. He looked at her face, calm, almost pleasant. He reached behind him. An orange energy blade appeared in his grip. "One way in, boys. No return route." His voice was steady. "Plan B, we go for—"

11 accelerated.

SPLACK.

The sound was wet and immediate. Her fist went through the captain from behind and emerged from the front, knuckles inches from the faces of the soldiers behind him. Purple light pulsed from her fist, throwing shadows across the concrete.

Richfar looked down at the arm through his chest. Then at his unit. He turned his head as far as he could manage and spat. Blood painted her cheek. "No morals, monster."

11 held his face gently, almost tenderly. " Morality is what kept me strapped to a lab table for years. Leaving it behind was the easiest upgrade I ever made." Her voice was perfectly even. "Tell your morals to help you now."

She drew her arm back and threw him aside with one hand. Blood ran down her face and dripped from her knuckles.

"Anyone who reaches behind their back gets the same."

The unit froze. Hands shaking. Eyes wide. One of them whispered something that wasn't quite a word. “What do we do?”

The soldier beside him raised his hand, slowly, carefully, nothing in it. Sweat collected behind his helmet. 11 watched him the entire time.

Ting.

His elbow caught the back of his suit by accident.

11 leaned back.

Then launched.

She stopped one centimeter from his face. Her leg came up and drove into his side. His ribs broke completely, blood exploding outward.

The impact was total. The man left the ground sideways, hit the far wall, and stayed there, what remained of him pressed flat against the concrete in a shape that had stopped being a person.

She glanced back, another soldier behind the first one she kicked was reaching his back.

She hadn't landed yet. One hand on the ground for balance, she drove her heel backward into the soldier reaching for his weapon in front of her.

The sound of ribs giving way carried across the empty site. He went up in an arc, came down across exposed iron rebar, and didn't move again.

11 stood. She looked at what remained of the unit, six soldiers on their knees, hands behind their heads, weapons on the ground. Some of them hadn't fully processed what had just happened. Just blood, and the spaces where people used to be.

She shook the blood from her hands. "I'd say that was a reasonable demonstration. And I stayed under ten percent." She snapped her fingers.

E-PHONEUS stepped out of the shadows from every direction. "Take them in. Metis will find them useful."

The youngest soldier hit the main street at full speed and kept going until his legs ran out of reason to stop. He ended up in the middle of an intersection, spinning in place, the city empty in every direction.

A ring of green flame rose from the ground around him, sealing every exit.

He stepped back to the center and stayed there, chest heaving.

Shelly stood on a nearby rooftop, expression flat. "What are you frightened of?"

He stared up at her. Said nothing.

"This isn't real fire," she said. "Look at yourself, you're not sweating."

"Liar!" His voice broke. "What do you take me for?"

"Then why is there no heat?"

He looked around. She was right. He should have been drenched by now. "Please." His shoulders dropped. "You look like the E-UNIT we used to trust. Please just let me go. I won't say anything about this place. I swear it."

Shelly watched him. "You still don't believe me." She tilted her head. "You can walk out right now if you want. These crystals are energy sources, not incendiary weapons. Put your hand in. You'll feel nothing."

He swallowed, took a step toward the ring, stopped. Took another. Held his hand out over the edge, braced for the burn.

Nothing.

He pressed further. Still nothing. A broken, disbelieving laugh came out of him. "It's real, you're right, that was cool! I knew I could trust an E-UNIT—"

He pulled his hand back to clasp it in prayer.

The hand wasn't there.

"What?" He looked at his wrist. Clean absence. No blood, no pain, no transition. Just gone. "What!"

He looked up at Shelly. "What did you do?"

"The energy doesn't burn," she said, sitting on the rooftop's edge. "It doesn't produce heat at all. What it does—" She snapped her fingers. The ring began to close. "—is dissolve the molecular structure of whatever it touches. No heat involved. Cool, right?" She echoed his earlier tone back at him.

"That's not cool! I trusted you, please—" He stepped back to the center, the ring shrinking steadily around him.

"Two mistakes." She raised a finger. "First, never trust your enemy."

He looked around, head snapping left and right, nowhere to go. "Please, please—"

She raised a second finger. "Second, I'm not an E-UNIT."

He stopped. "What?"

"I'm Shelly." She smiled.

The ring reached him. He felt nothing, which was somehow worse. Control left his body in stages, then all at once, and then the intersection was empty. No trace. No evidence. The road sat clean under the streetlights as though nothing had ever stood there.

Shelly pulled her hood up. Only her eyes were visible. She looked at the empty road for a moment.

"I shouldn't have handed them to father anyway." She said quietly.

"I didn't know you had that kind of side in you."

Shelly didn't flinch. She just turned her head slowly.

11 stepped out from the shadows of the air conditioning unit behind her, the purple glow of her crystal casting long, sharp lines across the rooftop. She walked to the edge and looked down at the perfectly clean, empty intersection.

11 continued, "Deleting a man while smiling at him... explaining the science of his death while he begs? I expected that from myself, not from you. I know that Obsidian ordered to be ruthless but…"

Shelly tilted her head, easy expression returning. "He was annoying me. And I told him it wouldn't hurt. I was being polite."

11 stared at her for a long moment, searching the green eyes for the punchline. When she didn't find one, a low, genuine laugh escaped her. "You and Lord Reaper really are related,"

She turned and launched herself into the night sky. Shelly watched her go, the smile fading into something much older, before stepping off the edge to follow.

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