User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater ∑: The Maxim of Possibility, chapter 2

There was no celebratory feast in honor of Nanako’s return from the battlefield. This was not a happy occasion – it was merely a routine occurrence at this point. If someone comes back alive, good; if not, oh well, what could you do? That was the reality of the world in which humanity currently lived. Thanks to the Neo Aragami, death constantly lurked around every corner. Even the survivors who lived in underground settlements lived constantly on edge, fearful of the ever-present threat of death at the hands of a Neo Aragami that could cut their life short at any moment.

Nonetheless, those who did survive learned to make the most of the fact that they were alive, that they had lived to see another day – so while there was no celebratory feats in honor of Nanako’s return, those who lived in the Rhizome, as this base was called, were indeed grateful that their fearless leader had succeeded in staving off the day where their base is discovered and they all meet their ends. That would not happen this day.

“Citizens of the Rhizome!” Nanako proclaimed, climbing up on a raised platform to address her fellow compatriots. “On this day, I and my dear comrades have won us, all of us, a new tomorrow! While we will doubtless have little time for celebration, let us nonetheless give thanks that we have lived to see another day!”  Nanako’s words were met with fervent cheering. Each and every one of these people, in some fashion, relied on Nanako – the assault team members, those who accompanied Nanako into battle, relied on her to lead them in the field, and the rest of those who lived in the Rhizome, the non-combatants who numbered approximately nine hundred, relied on Nanako and the assault team to protect them against the threat of the Neo Aragami.

And so this arrangement had continued for going on eight years. Eleven years ago, the Gehenna had trekked across the planet, flattening the surface everywhere it walked. Those humans who did not lose their lives in this initial calamity, numbering in the order of five million, made do with what they could find in the area of supplies – at least, until two years later, when the first Neo Aragami appeared. Consisting mostly of Stalkers and an expeditionary type known as Rangers, this initial wave of Neo Aragami scoured the planet over the course of the next year, methodically hunting down whatever humans they could and further reducing the remaining numbers down to around a few hundred thousand.

At this point, what God Eaters existed among the surviving humans rallied the survivors into groups, moving underground and establishing civilizations in subway tunnels and train platforms. Nanako was among these first resistance leaders – at the age of sixteen, was part of the first group of God Eaters who succeeded in establishing a team of other God Eaters to protect what humans they could from the Neo Aragami threat. They had set out and tracked down any humans they could find over as large an area as they could reasonably cover, bringing them back to their current base, a deep-underground subway network.

Since then, Nanako and her fellow God Eaters had patrolled the surrounding area, hunting down and devouring any Neo Aragami nearby so as to prevent their base from being discovered. This ensured that the humans under their watch would survive for another day. Of course, this arrangement wasn’t perfect – every once in a while, a Neo Aragami would make it to the entrance of their base, but Nanako and her assault team never failed to meet the invader in the initial escalator before it made it all the way to the base. In this way, Nanako had kept these humans safe through her own strength, for the past eight years.

And, Nanako resolved, for as long as she could.

-

“Let us call this meeting to order.”

Nanako and her fellow God Eaters of the Rhizome gathered in a room branching off of a nearby tunnel from the main chamber. This room was commonly used for strategy briefings, where Nanako and her God Eaters would go over plans for defense and offense against the Neo Aragami. Depending on how their tactics changed, they would need to modify their general strategy for the foreseeable future. This time, though, something a bit different was of the order of the day.

“So,” Nanako began, turning to a God Eater to her right, “I understand that our scouts have located the Neo Aragami hive?”

“Not precisely,” replied the God Eater, a tall muscular man named Alan Croswell. Croswell was Nanako’s most reliable soldier in terms of pure military strength. Three years ago, he had singlehandedly struck down a Stalker after hours of prolonged combat, and since then his name had become famous among the God Eaters of the Rhizome as one of humanity’s strongest soldiers.

Croswell continued. “What we discovered wasn’t the hive proper,” he stated, “but a branch entrance. This thing likely continues for miles underground, ending up in the actual hive, which we hypothesize to be approximately a kilometer or more below the surface.”

“How far away is it, and in what direction?” Nanako inquired.

“About ten miles north-northeast from here,” came Croswell’s reply. “Normally, it would be no issue for our assault team to make the journey in less than a day’s time, but…”

“But… what?”

“We’ve confirmed the presence of multiple Watchers at the branch gate,” spoke Croswell with a grim tone.

Nanako shuddered. Watchers were among the deadlier of the known species of Neo Aragami. Standing over twelve feet tall, the Watchers were massive Neo Aragami resembling stone monoliths lined with six watchful eyes. They were usually used as guards, and never launched attacks on their own – however, they were known to counterattack viciously when provoked, or even merely when something entered their line of vision, assailing up to six targets at once with relentless homing lasers. They were truly the perfect defense, immune to most conventional forms of attack and never missing their targets.

“In that case,” Nanako advised, “we’ll have to reconsider our strategy. Croswell, Andersen…”  Nanako motioned to Croswell and to another God Eater to her left, a girl by the name of Sasha Andersen. Sasha, a girl of no taller than five feet, had been misfortunate enough to be within sight of the Gehenna’s colossal foot crushing the London Branch, her base of operations. This instilled in Sasha a burning desire for revenge against the Gehenna and against the Neo Aragami that sprang up in its wake. Shortly after the first resistance groups were formed, Sasha made her way east and was picked up by Nanako and incorporated into the Rhizome’s team of God Eaters. Since then, she had proven to be incredibly proficient as a sniper, becoming an essential part of the Rhizome’s long-range support team.

“Croswell, Andersen,” Nanako continued, “you two will lead a preliminary attack force towards the direction of the branch gate. We’ll try and provoke the Watchers from outside their range, which is where you’ll come in. Sasha, I’ll assign you a team of snipers to handle this task. Focus on taking out the Watchers’ eyes from extremely long range. Now, we’ll very likely be spotted at some point, and the Watchers will likely send a heavy team of Rangers and Stalkers towards us. Croswell, you and I will handle this. We’ll intercept the advance team and take them out before they reach our snipers. It’ll be a tough battle, but with the two of us leading the charge, they shouldn’t pose TOO much of a problem. Understand?”

Sasha and Croswell both nodded in assent. Whatever needed to be done to ensure the long-term survival of the remnants of the human race, they would carry out without hesitation.

“Good,” confirmed Nanako. “In that case, we’ll come up with a detailed plan of attack, spend the next three days preparing, and launch our assault four days from now, first thing in the morning. Understood? Then this meeting is adjourned. I’ll call you all together tomorrow to begin preparations. For now, take it easy and rest yourselves.”

The God Eaters under Nanako’s command stood up and began to file out of the room. Nanako, however, motioned for Sasha to stay behind.

“Andersen,” Nanako began, “listen to me. I understand you’d like nothing more than for the Neo Aragami to be wiped off the face of the Earth – believe me, we all do – but no matter what, you have to keep calm. Rushing in with eyes blinded by rage will do nothing but get you killed. You are one of the lynchpins of this operation, and we… no, all of humanity is relying on you. I need you to promise me that you’ll keep a cool head.”

“Of course,” Sasha replied. “I’m well aware of my importance in the upcoming operation, and I will do everything in my ability to ensure that everything goes off without a hitch."

“Good,” affirmed Nanako. “That’s what I like to hear. Now go, and get ready for tomorrow. When preparations begin, I’ll need everyone on the assault team, you and Croswell especially, to be in top form.”

Sasha nodded and exited the briefing room, leaving Nanako by herself. This operation might just make or break humanity’s chance for survival… if they could make it to the hive and scale the Gehenna while it was dormant, they might be able to get to its core deep within its body and end it once and for all. Of course, Nanako knew that this plan’s chances for success were slim at best, but they had an obligation to go through with it… for their sakes as well as for all of humanity.

-

At last, the day of the operation arrived. Three days of preparation and rigorous training and situational drills had come and gone, and Nanako stood with her assault team at the entrance to the Rhizome, feeling the cold winter wind in her hair. It would be a long trek to where the sniper team, led by Sasha, would set up camp, leaving the rest of the team, led by Nanako and Croswell, to continue on and set the ambush.

If everyone performed according to plan, the operation should go off without a hitch.

“Company ready… forward march!” exclaimed Nanako, prompting her team to begin the long hike in the direction where the Watchers had been reported.

As Nanako began to lead her team forward, though, a slight sound alerted her to the presence of something she had not accounted for. She knew what her team sounded like when marching; whatever this was, it was certainly not one of them. Had they picked up a straggler, or–

–no. This was too soon out of the gate.

It could only be one thing.

“Get down!!” Nanako shouted as she whirled around and threw her God Arc behind her with superhuman speed right as her team hit the deck. Sure enough, her blade’s trajectory planted it directly in the center of a lone floating Ranger, the unfortunate foe dropping to the ground immediately after being hit. Her team sighed a sigh of relief at Nanako’s having vanquished their unexpected foe.

“This one was probably just a scout,” exclaimed Nanako, retrieving her God Arc from the Ranger’s corpse and proceeding to devour it, as other members of her team did the same. “Its purpose was likely to look for remaining human settlements in the area and report back to the hive so that a proper suppression force could be sent out to finish the job. Fortunately, we got to it before it could do that…” Nanako withdrew her God Arc as she finished devouring.

“…but let’s not get comfortable. There’s still ten miles between us and the branch gate, and who knows what’ll ambush us between now and then. Stay on your toes, men!”

Nanako’s squad nodded in affirmation before finishing their meal and rejoining Nanako. As always, they took extra care to devour every last scrap of the defeated Neo Aragami, down to the last cell, for more would invariably converge on the body otherwise. They would have to be similarly careful, they knew, as they trod across relatively open wastes –

–for in a world where the hunter was the hunted, one wrong move meant an untimely and immediate end.

-


 * TO BE CONTINUED::