How much are you willing to sacrifice for your nation ?
.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"No don't go ! *
"I'm so sorry. I'm really sorry."
"Why ? Did you do that ?"
"I'm sorry. I made a mistake. I'm sorry. I shoudn't have accepted. I'm sorry "
"Why !?"
"I'm sorry, I can't forgive myself. I hope you have a good life"
"Why ?"
This was the last memory I had until I awoken.
. . . . .
In a dark space illuminated by starlight, a new white crack in space appeared, this was the fight time this phenomena happened in multiple of hundreds of years.
This has been since 109 years, 10 month and 7 days, by the date system of the long extinct old earth, since the last crack appeared, this was by far the biggest and longest crack to have appear to date.
It looked big enough to shatter the space in half, yet it stood strong, as if it didn't even noticed the damaged it was suffering.
It stood strong as if it wasn't in an incredible unstable state.
Anybody who entered would notice it, the energy, mana, essence, exilium, soul fuse, axioma, substan, karma, curse, abyssial, no matter how you call it, no matter how you feel it, you knew it was unstable, so incredibly unstable that it was a miracle that it was still standing.
Even with all that, the space stood still, no sound, no mouvement, nothing.
Only the void, the shining stars and the wandering body of an unconsious white haired boy were standing silently in this silent space.
. . . . .
On a desert planet, the sand as red as blood and the 10 story building sized light brown montains in the horizon, any sign of vegetation gone since a long time, perhaps there was never any, the scenery never changing for multiple hundreds of Shalis (1 Shali is equal to 4 miles or 6.43 kilometers)
On this planet was moving a group of 5 deep steel plated cars, each were 1.5 Shi tall (18 Shi is 1 Sha and 100 Sha is 1 Shali) and 2 Shi wide.
They were all floating above the sand at the same height, as if they couldn't fly, yellow greenish fire like energy coming from bellow the cars, at their outskirt, and moving at various fast speed.
Those vehicules called Azerian marcher were created by the Grazyk community and, albeit not being the fastest nor the sturdiest, by a long shot, nor having the ability to fly, they were still considered one of the best land vehicule manufactured by the community.
The Grazyk community was renowed for their scientific discover and breakthrough, helping all domain advance more, as well as being open to all transactions with other planet and world.
The Grazyk community might be the most known world in the entire multiverse.
This status made the reputation and efficiency of the Azerian marcher. However, there was one flaw with them: They were not suited for combat.
Inside the Azerian marcher, were people spouting orders, others retreiving weapon with worried or determined looks, other looking at screen on the vehicule with dot that were flashing red or blue.
They were currently possitioned in a V formation, with the vehicule in the center being at the back, as if the other were protecting it.
Inside of this Azerian marcher, a man was being looked at by all the others in the room.
This man was Delman Allog, a native cititzen Aize, and thus an Aizemi. The race of the Aizemi, on the surface, did not looked different from the proto-humans, the long lost ancestor of the Neo-Alida race, and native cititzen of ancient earth.
And Delman was no exception.
With his slicked back black hair, dark grey eyes, a golden monocle hiding one of his eyes with a rather hideous scar, synonym of his experience in war and battle, wearing an entirely outfit with various degrees of black and grey comprising of a top hat, a vest, a shirt addorned with a dark blue tie, a jean, white gloves and long shoes that reached up to his knees. He was looking at everyone in the room, with a commanding air and complex look in his eyes, a mix of worry, anger, authority, responsability and wisdom.
He just received news that he expected, but not to this degree.
A squadron of around 12000 abyssial was coming, he expected a third of that.
He hoped that they could reach their destination before the catched up but the enemy was fast and he Delman knew they didn't had long before engaging into battle.
He believed he could take on around half of them, if there weren't any high rank one.
An abyssial was a creature, a monster that first appeared 5 thousand years ago, they quickly grew in number and were only causing destruction, feeding on the corpses, and sometime life force of its victims. They were attacking anything in sight that came close. It seemed they only could do 2 things: destroy and recognize its allies.
They quickly became branded as enemies of the peace and stability of the multiverse.
It looked one day like they were extinct but they kept comming back, stronger and smarter everytime. As if they could adapt to anything, they started creating a language, war strategies and various arrays of abilities.
Still to this day, the war against the abyss is still going strong, with their number still feeling infinite, as if they were born from nothing, many civilizations went extinct, some erased to history, never to be remember. Entire universes devoid of life, if not entirely anihilated.
Knowing all of that, 12000 of them sound like a pretty low amount, but Delman Allog was currently on the Exax planet, an entire desert with no sign of life.
The only living organism in the entire solar system, perhaps even galaxy, were the 5 Azerian marcher. A force of 12000 abyssial were only seen on invasion of planets, not some patrol or reconaissance troups.
Considering they entered the planet through the hyper-portal in another universe, they couldn't have been tracked here.
There was only two reason for them being here: bad luck or that an invasion is happening in a nearby planet or galaxy.
This made Delman frustrated but he couldn't do anything about it.
He quickly filtered through all the strategies he learned during his training and quickly gave order.
He pulled out a transmitter to speak to the other Azerian marcher. His voice couldn't be heard otherwise beceause of the speed.
"Every troup, grab the ammunitions and bring them to the back of the Azerian ! Anyone who is proficient with the turrets, deploy and control them ! This is no time to waste ressources, we planned to bring them to Aliopi but we cannot afford any mistake, I cannot garantee that everyone will survive but know that we will reach our destination beceause of your sacrifice !"
The soldiers, clad in shining grey armor that was made of Tantic, a suprisingly light material for how sturdy it is, making it ideal for armor answered in unisson.
"At your order commander ! "
Delman: "Pilot, full speed ! Even if we run out of energy to power the engine we will finish by foot. I promise we will not fail, we cannot afford to fail or our reputation will be tarnished forever !"
After improving the mental of the present troups, soldiers started to bring various weapon to the back of the Azerian marcher. The ceilling and backspace of the vehicule started to open, revealing the outside to the soldier inside.
The air seemed hotter than is actually was, the stress of every soldier could be felt, even without being able to see their face through the think helmet.
There, weapon in hand, the Azerian soldiers watched the purple, black and white colored wall on the horizon, those were the enemies, they were so far that it was impossible to see their shape, yet the entire landscape was filled with them, as if it wasn't an army living organism that were approaching but rather a singlular black wave engulfing everything.
The enemy were to far to attack, yet they could see them slowly approach, while waiting, the soldiers felt like seconds turned into minute and minutes turned into hour, slowly waiting for the enemy to approach being able to do nothing except stand and wait for order, hearing the roaring sound of the engine of the Azerian marcher going at their maximum speed.
For no reason could failure be accepted, they needed to reach their destination at all cost.
After all Delman had been chosen to be the atlas of Aize.
An atlas is a new concept in the entire multivers. Due to the invasions of the abyss the different great nations, a group of 7 nations that were the most developped in the multivers, and were lawful enough to cooperate between each other. The great nations create the law related to the war against the abyss, in order to not cause a war between each other, such laws being 'if a battle end up damaging badly one of the great nations, it is allowed to ask assistance to the other to rebuilt themselves. However, it is strictly forbidden to try to use their status as 'weakened' to commit any unlawfull act against the other great nations. Failure to follow result in the instant declaration of war against all other great nations'.
Those laws, and commercial exchange between the great nations are decided during regularly held meeting by the leader of each nations.
They decided to create a group with a member of each of the 7 nations to try to consolidate the relations, and gain the favor, between the great nation. The person chosen by the great nation was bestowed of the title of palith. Thus Delman was the atlas of Aize.
This decision has been proposed during the most recent meeting and might be called the most important politic event since the creation of the great nations, after all, this could be an opportunity to become the most powerful of the great nations.
This event had an even greater importance for Aize, the smallest of the great nation, it only reached the title beceause of its friendlyness and the rather impressive fighting capabilities and potential of Aizemis.
For this reason, they were subject to criticism as the weakest great nation, they were always called 'the first one to fall' out of the seven great nations.
It was an opportunity to show the other great nations that they could be immensly helpful to them, if not even better. That there was a reason they were called a great nation and they were gonna show it.
Not reaching their destination would be, not only an insult to the other great nations, but a greater to Aize itself. It would make the entitrety Aize make of fool of itself. Its reputation would never recover.
For that reason, they couldn't fail.
Delman was chosen as the atlas of Aize for his charism, decision skills, strength and experience in war. He was considered the 5th strongest in Aize and had once single handedly eradicated an army of 8000 Abyssia. Delman, right now, might the most important Aizemi to have ever existed.
The number of enemy was high, but they had a group of 80 experienced soldier with firearms and explosive produced by Grayzik, as well as the atlas of Aize. The battle was going to be difficult and bloody, but they were gonna win.
. . . . .
Meanwhile Delman, entered the driving room, to meet the pilot. The cockpit of the Azerian marcher was spacious with various screen emmiting blue light forming various symbols that shared informations. The amount of energy left, current speed, any damage suffered, any anomaly detected and other detail used for maintenance.
Sitting on the black seat at the center of the cockpit was an aizemi girl, short black hair, dark grey eyes, sporting a colar with a grey small tie, a black cape also serving as sleeves atop adorned with silver buttons, a silk made white cloth to cover the chest atop a black robe coming down to the knees. Finally a pair of long black boots.
The girl was 0.54 Shi tall (6.3' or 1.92 meters) and had a rather pale skin.
This outfit did not gave the allure of a military, and more of a scholar, even more showing the presence of the insigna of the Schema academy, a renowed academy in Aize.
This assumption would not be wrong as the pilot of the Azerian marcher is Alissia Allog, the daughter of Delman. She was only 19 years old and this was not a situation Delman would have ever allowed.
The reason she was piloting the vehicule was beceause she kept insisting she wanted to come beceause she just learned how to drive one, and also beceause Delman is never home due to his work in the military, and it might be the last time they even meet each other due to the new title of Delman.
Alissia, with a rather uncaring tone unbefitting of her refined clothing, as if she expected her dad to arrive, started the conversation without waiting for Delman to approach.
"Did you came to check how I was doing dad ?"
"..."
Alissia's seeming uncaring tone made Delman irritated.
* I know you never went close to a battle but do you really not understand what this situation entails ?*
"Yes, this is exactly why I did not wanted for you to go."
"..."
After pondering what to said, Alissia took a long sigh and her previous uncaring air completely changed, becoming one of dejection and gloom.
"I know, I really didn't think it would come down to this."
"Keep this in mind in the future. This is what war looks like."
Delman started to walk over to the cockpit but was interupted by Alissia.
"Please, don't come. I don't want anyone to look at me right now, especially not you."
"At least you know your mistakes."
"I'd be a fool not to."
She did not wanted to turn back, feeling to ashamed to look at her father who warned her again and again to not come. She made a mistake due to her own curiosity, and now she was in the center of a big scale battle.
"So, how will the battle take place ? "
"... Are you really trying to study right now ?"
Delman was taken aback by his daughter's inquiry
*She doesn't want to join the military does she ?*
"I thought I could at least try. If I need to help you in the future, I need more knowledge."
"There's nothing that you could learned that I don't already know. You wouldn't be able to help. Plus you alway told me you wanted to build weapon, like your mom and like they do in Grayzik."
The hidden message behind his word was "don't even try, I don't want you to be associated with the military". Instead, building weapon was less dangerous job, if she wasn't participating in the shipping of materials and/or the weapon themselves, she could stay in a city and earn a rather stable income. A way more desirable life.
Delman knew that Alissia always enjoyed learning new things, she was pretty good at assimilating knowledge, a bit to much sometimes. But there were some things he just couldn't accept, even if it pained her. This was his duty as a father.
With a rather dejected expression, Alissia feel silent, not knowing how to answer.
Both of them did not made a sound for a few seconds, creating an awkward scene between the two. Until Alissia changed the subject and asked for direction.
"Is the destination in a straight line ? How do I know when will we arrive ?"
"Yes, there should be no virage needed. There should some type of ruin, it should be visible, when we get close to it, a portal should appear, just drive through it. No matter what you hear outside, continue to drive and make sure we don't chart of course."
"How do I know I haven't changed course ?"
Delman, pointing at a screen that showed what was in front of the Azerian marcher with a dotted line leaving the horizon, said
"This line show the destination, if you drive off, just make the vehicule follow it again."
"Got it, hopefully it doesn't arrive but, if the Azerian explode or the engine gets damaged, what should I do to survive "
The question catched Delman by surprise, but he felt like it was understandable.
"You use all your Rapiid to blast yourself towards the other Azerian and, if you're lucky enough, you might get fast enough to reach them so the soldiers could catch you, if you don't just die from the blast."
"So it's left to luck huh ?"
"A lot of things are left to luck."
After their discussion a long and a bit awkward silence was installed signaling the end of their conversation, it was swiftly broken by Alissia.
"I have no more question."
"You're to professionnal."
"I know. I know."
From the outside of the Azerian marcher, the voice of a soldier could be heard.
"The Abyssia should be in range in 30 seconds !"
Delman quickly answered before turning back to face the back of his daughter again, this might the last time he see her, he wanted at least to see her face. So he approached
Allisia did not stopped him, even though seeming his face was the last thing she wanted. So she turned around the driver's seat to look her dad face to face, trying her best to not look away of shame.
They both looked at each other with the affection of a dad towards his daughter, and his daughter towards her dad.
Delman slowly approached and kissed her on the forehead before starting to leave for the battle, delivering final word for his daughter.
"I love you."
"I love you too dad."
. . . . .
Delman looked outside and saw the black and purple mass in the horizon, it looked like a wave ready to destroy anything it touches.
*This looks as bad as I expected.*
He armed himself with a long distance riffle, quickly and skillfully reloaded it in 2 seconds and took arm.
"Everyone, get ready for the first blast ! "
All the other soldiers followed the order, lifting their rifle in a similar fashion, or directing the mobile turrets towards the enemy.
"Fire ! "
As the order was issued, every soldier and Delman himself pressed the trigger of their weapon and a bright green light came out of them towards the black and purple lump of figure at an almost unreactable speed.
*This battle is gonna be long.*