The Soldier staggered, the knife slipping from his hand and falling to the floor with a dull clang. He clutched his stomach with one hand, blood oozing between his fingers, staining the black jumpsuit. But his mind, despite the pain, remained focused on Jessie's mad Imprint. He perceived it, clear and chaotic, moving towards the hangar. He's going to the hangar... why? he wondered, the thought running through his mind like a distant echo, while the pain consumed him.
With uncertain steps, he headed towards the helm, where the Vienne's manual controls might have given him a chance to change course. But hope quickly faded: the controls were destroyed, reduced to a twisted heap of metal, clotted blood staining the remains. Every step left a trail of scarlet drops on the floor, an echo of his torment. The air of the command bridge was still saturated with a residual Imprint, a mad energy that seemed to pulse like a sick heart, an echo of Jessie's presence that permeated every surface, every shadow.
The wound in his stomach burned like hell, a pain that stole his breath, but the Soldier did not stop. He approached the doorway leading to the corridor towards the hangar, typing a code on a panel with trembling fingers, blood dripping down his arm. The corridor opened before him, a labyrinth of shadows and steel, and as he ran, a new sensation gripped his chest. It wasn't anger, no, it was something deeper, crazier, a desire for total destruction growing within him, an echo of the Chaos that had infected him. He felt it, an alien energy flowing through his veins, an infection transforming him from within, just as it had done to Jessie.
He arrived at the hangar, his heart pounding like a war drum. Jessie was there, in front of the burned remains of the Larry Owl, his figure engulfed in an aura of madness. "I see that after that wound you're still standing, Soldier," he said without turning, his voice deformed, a mixture of arrogance and despair. "But it's too late now. You'll understand soon enough." He placed a hand on the mech's remnants, and the Soldier, ever vigilant, approached his Avion, the suit's helmet reflecting the faint light of the hangar.
Jessie addressed the Larry Owl, as if speaking to an old companion, aware that this would be their last journey together. "Let's go, Larry Owl," he murmured, "accompany me one last time." His hand transformed into a red liquid, filaments unraveling like living veins, covering the mech's remains. What emerged was a monstrosity: a massive red mechanical beast, with horrible, sharp jaws, but no face or eyes, an abomination of flesh and metal that emitted an immensely strong, mad Imprint, an energy that seemed to bend reality itself.
The Soldier did not hesitate. He boarded the Avion, the pain tearing at his stomach, blood dripping down his suit. "Avion, connection!" he yelled, grinding his teeth as the neural link activated, a wave of pain shooting through his head like an electric shock. The creature that was once Jessie stared at him, the engines forming from its pulsating membranes, similar to the Larry Owl's. With an explosion of Imprint, the beast charged upwards, the impact with the hangar ceiling shattering it in an explosion of metal and sparks. The rupture opened a breach to space, and the ship's interior was ravaged by the sudden decompression: the air was sucked out with a violence that made the walls tremble, debris flying like projectiles, lights flickering out in a chorus of sparks, the cold of space rushing in like a freezing wave.
The Soldier was about to give chase, the Avion's engines roaring, when time seemed to stop. Amidst the devastation, his gaze fell upon a body, the only one Jessie hadn't replicated: Mana. Her lifeless eyes stared at him, her throat cruelly slashed, clotted blood staining the floor. The Soldier's heartbeat accelerated, his heart feeling like it would burst in his chest. The more he stared into those eyes, the more he felt something calling to him, a wordless voice, a famished, animalistic scream that burrowed into his soul. He screamed with all his might, a cry that tore through the silence, and then he departed, the Avion's engines propelling him into space.
Moments later, the Soldier was chasing Jessie, the suit's gravity stabilizer allowing him to maintain control even in the void. The space around him was a dark abyss, devoid of light, an obscurity that wasn't mere vacuum, but pure madness, the same that had infected Jessie, the same that had engulfed the meteorite. It was Chaos, an entity that encompassed everything, an energy that distorted reality. The meteorites that had struck the Vienne, appearing from nowhere, were probably fragments escaped from this zone, an area wrapped in Chaos, imperceptible from the outside. The lost merchant ship, vanished without explanation, had been swallowed by this same abyss. Now, for the Soldier, everything was clear.
Ahead of him, the monster of flesh and metal that Jessie had become loomed against the merchant ship, the living red flesh filaments of Chaos devouring it, wrapping around it like a famished parasite. But something was slowing the process, as if Chaos itself struggled to consume it. The Soldier sensed it: an Imprint, perhaps, deep, powerful, terrible, and yet, deep in his heart, it gave him an unnatural calm, a sense of peace that unsettled him.
Jessie unleashed his Imprint, red waves materializing in space, an energy that traveled through the void, carrying his deformed voice, a monstrous snarl. "You're still here... You just won't let me go, huh?" he said, his tone calm but arrogant. "It's strange, though; the wound I inflicted on you should have taken effect by now." The creature pointed to the Chaos engulfing the ship. "See? I'm close now. Chaos will give me the strength I need, but first, you and I have to settle things." His voice transformed into a furious roar, a scream echoing in the void. "You know, I'm truly tired of you... YOU ARE THE ONLY THING PREVENTING MY DESIRE FROM BEING FULFILLED!"
The Soldier did not reply. The two stared at each other, a duel of gazes that seemed to last an eternity, two warriors ready to deliver the final blow. In Jessie's eyes burned a deep hatred, a mixture of contempt and respect for the man he couldn't take down, the obstacle separating him from his dream. The Soldier, on the other hand, was a mask of coldness, but within him new, alien emotions were brewing, a mixture of anger and determination. He knew, with absolute clarity, that he would kill Jessie in the next encounter. The tension between them was palpable, a silence charged with imminent death, a suspended moment that seemed to hold the weight of an entire war.
The creature that was Jessie transformed its arm into a spear, similar to the Larry Owl's, a weapon of flesh and metal pulsing with red Imprint. The Avion did not draw its knife, but its sniper rifle, the barrel gleaming in the dark of space. "Avion, limits removal," the Soldier ordered, his voice trembling with emotion, "connection to one hundred and fifty percent on my command." An error signal sounded in the cockpit, followed by the computer's voice: "Error! This configuration will lead to irreversible damage to the pilot!" But the Soldier, devoid of fear, devoid of hesitation, yelled: "IT DOESN'T MATTER, AVION, AWAIT MY ORDER!" For the first time, his voice was charged with emotion, a cry that betrayed the humanity hidden beneath his armor.
Time stopped again, their gazes locking, two souls tired of each other, ready to end everything. Then, the start. Jessie moved first: from the membranes that served as his engines, a massive amount of red Imprint gathered into small luminescent particles, a glow that exploded into a devastating energy. The engines propelled him at an imperceptible speed, a red flash cutting through the vacuum of space.
The impact was inevitable. The spear pierced the Avion's shoulder, a blow that could have destroyed the cockpit, but the Soldier, with a quick movement, had shifted the mech just in time, avoiding a direct hit. The pain of the stomach wound mingled with that of the blow, but everything was part of his plan. "Now, Avion, activate connection!" he shouted with all his might, the silvery Imprint exploding like a particle aura around the cockpit. "FIRE!" he yelled again, and the sniper rifle fired a devastating shot, an Imprint wave so powerful it created an echo in the vacuum of space. The shot opened a huge hole in the creature's chest, an explosion of red flesh and metal scattering like ash.
But the Soldier wasn't finished. The Avion's engines roared, fueled by a devastating Imprint, and with a scream that tore at his throat, he lunged at Jessie, pushing both of them towards the merchant ship. The descent was a chaos of destruction. The two behemoths, the Avion and the creature, collided with a force that seemed to shake space itself, a vortex of silvery and red Imprint intertwining in a whirl of energy. The merchant ship approached rapidly, a wreck engulfed in Chaos, the red filaments pulsating like living veins.
The impact was catastrophic: the two mechs smashed through the ship's surface, creating a jagged hole that sucked debris and fragments into space. The descent continued inside the structure, a tunnel of twisted steel and darkness, the Avion's engines roaring against the creature's resistance. The ship's walls gave way under their force, sparks and metal pieces flying like projectiles, the sound of every impact echoing like thunder. Finally, they hit the ground, an explosion of force that shook the entire ship. Jessie's impact created a crater in the floor, a shockwave that collapsed the panels around it, while the Avion landed on top of him, the rifle aimed at the creature, the barrel still smoking.
Jessie, trapped in the crater, looked at the rifle's barrel, and a flash of terror crossed his mind. He thought back to the vision: the hole in the chest, death by the Soldier's hand. Despair overwhelmed him, a cry that tore at his throat as his body mutated again, his neck stretching unnaturally, his jaws gaping open, horrible and sharp. With a savage bite, he seized the central part of the Avion, where the cockpit was located, clamping down with inhuman force. The Soldier fired another shot at point-blank range, an explosion of silvery Imprint that disintegrated the Avion's arms, reducing them to unusable pieces, useful only for holding the rifle. The crater widened under the impact, an explosion of silvery particles that dissolved in an instant, leaving only the dull sound of the impact.
Little remained of Jessie but scraps of flesh, still alive, which began to dissolve slowly, evaporating like an echo of Chaos. The Lone Soldier was at his limit, his body ravaged. The Chaos infection flowed through his veins, an ailment he felt growing inside him, ready to consume him. Using the Pain and Gain rifle for the third time in a few hours had caused irreparable damage: blood dripped from his mouth, his broken ribs made every breath an agony, and the one hundred and fifty percent neural link had burned his mind, a throbbing pain in his temples.
Yet, he managed to catch his breath, looking up towards the ship's interior. He sensed that dark, oppressive presence, which Chaos sought, an energy calling to him from beyond a massive metal gate in front of him. "A Gate to a residential sector?" he murmured, his voice hoarse, almost a whisper. Then, focusing, his eyes widened. "But these... are people's Imprints? So someone here survived."
He activated the Avion's engines, a weak hum that lifted him from the crater with a slow, laborious movement, an echo of the exhaustion consuming him. He approached the Gate, a massive metal structure that stood like a silent sentinel in the heart of the merchant ship. It was then that he noticed something, a detail that had escaped him before, perhaps due to the darkness engulfing the wreck: illuminated by the Avion's headlights, a strange figure was visible on the Gate, a drawing that seemed etched into the metal itself. A black line traced a humanoid shape, but deformed, a distorted shadow that evoked a sense of unease, devoid of details except for two small red dots that shone like eyes, staring at him with an unnatural intensity.