Ravens of Eternity

263 Breaking Free, Pt As the EM pulsed through the prison transport corvette, the electromagnetic cuffs and restraints that clamped down the prisoners fell apart. They clattered to the floor uselessly, which sent a wave of alarm. Both through the prisoners, and the guards themselves.

Half a dozen of the prisoners immediately leapt up and attacked the guards nearest to them, even as the ‘vette began to pitch down. The whole ship shuddered and shook violently as it buffeted against the wind as it fell from the sky.

The handful of prisoners who remained in their seats were utterly terrified by it all – the last thing they wanted was to get beaten to death as the transport crashed.

And onto a desolate prison planet, no less.

Eva was not one of the timid. She quickly hopped out of her seat the moment she had the freedom to – the pain of being in a single position for far too long simply got to her. She rubbed the ache of her wrists as a couple of guards charged towards her.

They held their batons in the air, ready to pummel her into submission.

“Siddown!” one of them cried out.

Not that anyone even cared what they said, Eva least of all. She realized that this was her only chance for her to get out of this position. If she didn’t act, she would have been restricted even further, for years.

If she could barely handle a few cycles in a 2×2, or a few hours strapped tightly onto a chair, there was no way she could handle 5 whole years.

.....

She also had built up a great deal of animosity towards the Federation’s justice system and needed to vent it a bit. Not that she had anything against the guards themselves – but they were the closest executors of said justice.

And so unfortunately, became the target of her wrath.

Eva didn’t even bother to evade the first baton, and quickly grabbed it in mid-swing. She stopped it dead on, and with only a sliver of power borrowed from her Ascendant Form. And with a grin, she snapped her other fist forward and slammed into the guard’s face shield.

There was a loud CRACK as the reinforced glass shattered from the swift strike. The guard himself was thrown back a number of meters, his mind a haze, concussed by her blow.

The other one realized his mistake, but it was far too late. Eva swatted at him with his partner’s baton with such force that he was thrown back a few steps. He felt the energy of her blow the moment he parried with his own baton.

It coursed down his arm, through his chest, and down to his opposite hand.

All feeling left his fingertips at that exact moment, as his blood seemed to have drained from his every extremity. Perhaps it was fright, perhaps it was helplessness. In that moment, there was little difference between them.

While he was off-balance, Eva quickly spun inwards, grabbed him, then threw him over her shoulder. He fell in a terrible heap, and stayed still. Though he wasn’t knocked out, he decided it was far better to pretend to be.

Perhaps, wisely so.

Not that Eva was fooled – she easily heard his nervous breathing. Or rather, his pathetic attempts to calm his breathing. But she decided to let him play possum, and simply walked away.

–

Lucifer: Your rescue operation has officially begun, by the way.

Eva: I take it the Ravens actually took your deal?

Lucifer: Unanimously.

Lucifer: Now, get your ass braced against something, somehow.

Lucifer: That ‘vette’s about to hit the ground. Probably pretty hard.

Lucifer: Say, 13 seconds?

–

Eva quickly dashed towards the rear of the ship. If the layout was similar to Amelia’s, then Engineering would be back there. Not because it had softer walls or anything, but because it would be furthest from the point of impact.

The ‘vette had been tipping further and further onto its nose, and easily reasoned that getting far from it was the play to make.

Two more guards tried to get in her way as she headed towards a short hallway, but she simply leapt over them and kept running. She just didn’t have the time to deal with them.

To her chagrin, they chased after her regardless.

She ran through the open doorway and into Engineering, which was slightly larger and more spacious than Amelia’s Engineering bay. There were a couple of Engineers here, both of whom were frantic as they attempted to restore power to, well, everything.

There were also four other guards here, all of whom were trying to help. But they immediately snapped to attention once Eva and her bright red jumpsuit hopped in.

One looked utterly frightened, or perhaps awed. Two others looked confused. The last sneered as he pulled out a baton.

“Who the hell let you in here?!” he yelled. “Come on, let’s get her!”

He motioned for his squad to follow, then charged straight for Eva. The others came right behind him, but with more trepidation.

With two more right behind her, Eva had no choice, and instead counter-charged the one leading the others. She spun around him as he lunged forward to tackle her, and as she did so counter-attacked with an elbow strike.

She jammed it right into his ribs with such force that he was flung to the side. He slammed into a ship module with a heavy WHUMPH, then fell to the floor in a messy heap. Pain swept out from his cracked ribs to such a point that he couldn’t do much more than clutch it protectively, and groan.

Not that Eva stopped to watch.

Eva then went for the second, and their exchange was equally brief. She had simply grabbed his baton mid-swing, then smashed him with his own weapon. The guard stumbled back, dazed from the blow.

She then yanked the baton out of his hand, then swatted the top of his helmet with it. The blow was strong enough to crack the helmet, and caused him to fall right on his rump. He didn’t get back up after that.

The frightened and awed guard watched as Eva dismantled his squad with unbelievable speed and power. More than that, her movements were minimal, but incredibly effective. And very hypnotic in a way, almost like it was a dance.

Eva had since combined the Naval martial combat style with the Drogar blade dancer style, and formed it into a new close quarters combat style. She found that neither translated very well to mecha combat as well on their own. But when merged to certain degrees, worked both in and out of the pilot’s seat.

The result was a truly devastating and highly mobile martial art that relied heavily on constant evasiveness and explosive power. When combined with brief bursts of power, whether from Ascendant form or overcharged modules, it proved to be overwhelming on all accounts.

The awestruck guard was so utterly frozen at the sheer sight of Eva in action, that it barely even registered when her fist connected with his jaw.

Some part of him realized that there was no better joy than to experience it all first hand, rather than through the Ravens’ ‘Cast. It truly was the most visceral and exciting moment he had ever experienced.

Eva noted that as the guard fell down unconscious, that he had this oddly satisfied grin plastered on his face.

It seemed to say, ‘Proudly knocked out by Freya.’

–

Lucifer: 5 seconds to bad times.

–

The two guards ran up behind Eva just as the last of the four swung his baton at her head. She ducked backwards with sheer millimeters to spare, then lunged forward aggressively. In a flash, Eva snapped a fist forward and swiped at his throat.

As he gasped for air and withdrew defensively, she swept one of his legs, knocked him to the ground, and spun around all at once.

It was just in time to receive the two guards, as they charged at her with batons held high. Eva quickly ducked forward then rolled between them. Despite her speed, they quickly spun around and re-engaged her.

They were utterly determined to put her down, but found it was far easier said than done. The two remaining guards swung at her with their baton over and over, but she parried and evaded every blow with ease.

The two were utterly aghast, and somewhat irritated at her abilities. It seemed no matter how powerful their swings were, or how fast, she simply and easily neutralized them with absolute grace.

They were even more incensed when they saw her grinning happily. It was as though she was having the time of her life!

In truth, Eva had been reinvigorated by it all.

Seeing Nightmare-turned-Seraph truly helped her refocus her anger and outrage at the injustices she had seen and experienced. Contrasting how the Federation treated her, versus how they treated him was a complete eye opener.

He enabled murderers and caused harm to hundreds, if not thousands of people. She helped countless hundreds rebuild their lives in the colonies. Maybe thousands. And yet she was the one who was sent to prison for the crime of murder.

Out of self-defense, no less.

The differences were absolutely clear in terms of what the Federation considered justice. And who was deserving of it.

She found that fighting back against it was more than empowering. It was freeing. Liberating.

Eva kicked outward with a sweeping back kick at the same time her upper body evaded a high baton swing. Her foot kicked one of the guards’ lower arms and completely repelled his attack.

Worse than that, it threw him completely off balance, and pushed him a few steps back.

With that opening, she sidestepped the second guard and grabbed him by the wrist. She gave it a hard twist, and with a POP completely dislocated his hand.

The guard screamed in pain and let go of his baton, which clattered to the ground noisily.

She then threw him into the other with incredible force and sent them both flying. The two of them careened towards a wall, stacked on each other like pancakes.

And then, she leapt straight at the both of them, and curled up.

It was at this exact moment that the corvette finally hit the ground, violently. Its nose dug right into the frozen dirt, and dug a deep trench as it scraped along the ground. Plates of armor were shorn off in large, warped pieces by the sharp rocky outcroppings in the soil.

Everything in the ‘vette slammed into everything else as the sheer force of the crash tore through the structure itself. The ship’s frame was mangled and bent out of shape – some sections crumpled completely. Its nose was all but demolished in the process.

Guards and prisoners alike were tossed around with incredible force and crashed violently into one another. Or into walls and modules and seats and terminals and everything all around. The engineers who were madly trying to fix things were tossed into their own systems, and broken by them.

Eva activated Ascendant Form and poured everything she had into her body. Instead of hardening herself like usual, she softened instead. She loosened and rubberized her bones, and forcibly relaxed her muscles. Then, she breathed out.

And when she struck the two-guard padding at the moment of impact, not a single bone broke. Not her own, anyway. She had safely absorbed the energy of the crash and ended up relatively unharmed.

Well, she was definitely banged up and bruised, but nowhere nearly as damaged as the others.

The ‘vette scraped against the ground for another few seconds before it finally came to a grinding, screeching halt. When all was said and done and the wreck had finally settled down and stopped, Eva pulled herself up out of the two-guard pile, which had collapsed at the foot of the wall.

She groaned in pain – that was a hard hit without a doubt, and her body screamed for being put through such an ordeal.

All around her were the bodies of the guards who she had just fought with, and most were utterly wrecked. Some had their bodies twisted in ways too painful to describe.

Eva had to check if those ones were still alive, but thankfully found them dead. She had long since come to the conclusion that prolonging suffering was never necessary.

Allowing any suffering to continue was more than a waste. It was a crime.

–

.....

Freya: I made it

Freya: Not so sure about the others

Lucifer: I’m not here for them.

Lucifer: So who cares?

Lucifer: Get your ass outside. Quickly.

Lucifer: Time to GTFO of this hellhole.

–