10 years later, Year 152
“Chaos Energy is decreasing rapidly, Sector Alpha is now ‘liberated’”
“Confirming, 32 casualties, 63 in life threatening condition, 422 wounded, 1013 with minor injuries and 2 unscathed. Other than 63 heavily injured, the rest are to report to Army Commander Colin.”
Hundreds of teenagers or people in their early twenties all arrived in a huge metal room. All of them are Valkyries. A title for fighters that battle against the Yaju.
10 years ago, humanity had experienced a crisis, losing its fighters for the first time, an entire Sector was lost, due to the strategic lockdown initiated immediately by Army Commander Colin the destruction was limited but an important metropolis was lost. The Sectors around Sector D were also evacuated under Army Commander’s orders. One year after the evacuation, the energy barrier was shattered. An estimated 30 million Yaju beasts were released. The destruction area had spread over to Sector C and Sector E.
8 years ago, a discovery was made through analyzing the energy signatures. Despite the Gates closing, more and more Yaju had appeared, if given time, the Yaju can multiply. This shook the world. The governments pressured the WDA to liberate the 3 Sectors. Meanwhile the Chaos Energy technology had breakthrough after breakthrough.
Small particles of Chaos Energy were detected in the air, although slower, special devices could absorb them. They no longer needed to depend solely on energy cores to harvest the Chaos Energy. A small portion of humanity also underwent a genetic mutation. They could innately use Chaos Energy to do various things. They were highly valued and requested to join WDA. They are the elites of Valkyries. Weapons made using Chaos Energy were optimized and made so it didn’t consume energy and could also be mass produced. Battle suits also underwent various changes. More versions were made, one for scouting, close combat, long range, defence. Boosters were also limited and more controllable, albeit slower. If used on max output, temporary flight is possible. It was then when the Gates started to appear in the other continents. Requirements to become a Valkyrie were lessened and a mass of new Valkyries spread out, liberating the Sector Areas.
After a large amount of Valkyries were employed, a grading system was made, at first it used 1-5 star Valkyries. But as time went on the distinction within the same amount of stars became wider and wider, instead they went with the traditional letter grading.
D Grade. D+ Grade. C Grade. C+ Grade. B grade. B+ Grade. A Grade. A+ Grade. S Grade.
As time went on, a new nickname came to be for the S grade. Calamity Grade. Those who can wipe out a country on their own. Only 2 existed then. The same grading system was placed on the Yaju. The database increased, gathering more and more information on the Yaju.
1 year ago, another outbreak emerged. A total of 231 instant Gates in Sector Alpha-3. This time however, humanity fought back. The two calamity grade Valkyries fought in the front lines. A total of 10342 Valkyries gathered and killed thousands. There were no casualties.
Until, right above the advance team the biggest ever recorded Gate opened. The most horrifying thing about it though, was there was nothing. Even milliseconds before the Gate manifested, the detectors didn’t find any abnormalities in the Chaos Energy. The next thing is, the Chaos Energy emitted from the Gate was immeasurable.
A humanoid Yaju descended, rather, glided down. It said a few things, incomprehensible. But it was intelligent, capable of having a language. Chaos Energy signature from the humanoid was zero. Then, it waved his hand, the front lines were scattered, pushed away by the wind pressure. In an instant, it emanated a force that instantly killed one of the Calamity grade Valkyries. After which, it was gone, from the recordings taken from the battle suits. He literally vanished, it was something like teleportation, without gathering Chaos Energy.
From the Gate, a giant dropped, then another. A bird-like Yaju followed. An endless stream of Yaju, all at least on B+ Grade, emerged from the Gate. The advance team was wiped out, both of the Calamity grades died. There was already fear and panic since the first death. Orders were ignored, they ran, the formation was destroyed and they became live targets for the Yaju. This time, the WDA couldn’t simply isolate the Sector. Almost all existing Valkyries were in it, if they were lost, people would lose trust, and they wouldn’t be able to recruit new Valkyries. Even if they didn’t lose their prestige, it would take too long to gather an amount of Valkyries to deal with all the other Gates.
Army Commander Havers decided to release the ‘Espers’, those who can control Chaos Energy. Although their Grades were lower than Calamity grades, they are much deadlier against Yaju.
3 of the Army Commanders seconded his decision. After 6 years of training, the Espers were sent to a battlefield for the first time. The result was unexpected. Within a timeframe of 1 year, with minimal losses and continuous raids, it was a complete victory. Thus research to ‘awaken’ more Espers artificially had started. To present time, a way to artificially awaken as an Esper was made and widely used. Chance of succeeding. 95%
Lifael walked nervously towards a pure white building. She joined WDA Valkyrie Division 2 years ago, she was also one of the Valkyries who witnessed the death of Calamity grade Raidel and Calamity grade Hedis. She was born in a relatively normal household. She lost her brother when she was 4, she was determined to exterminate the Yaju. However, although she had fought for 2 years, she saw no hope in improving. But all the more that she was hopeful, she directly saw the efficiency and power that Espers had during the liberation of Sector Alpha. Today she was selected to be artificially awakened.
The chance of successful awakening: 95%
Name: Lifael Igurdis
Age: 14
Mid-range Valkyrie. Gunslinger. Grade D+
Squad: Night Rain(Leader: Imark)
Became a Valkyrie April 4th 150.
Record of activity: Training and liberating Gates under supervision: 3 months. Formally became a Squadmember of Squad Hedge right after. Participated in liberation of:
Gate Z::/32304B5
Gate E::/03323G12
Gate N::/012432H2
Sector Alpha, multiple Gates.
Gate D::/00132U21
Sector F, Gate type E, multiple sections(1-2-6-11-14-16-21)
Sector F, Gate type Z, multiple sections(1-2-6-16-21)
Sector U, Gate type T, multiple sections(1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12)
Sector U, Gate type A, multiple sections(1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12)
Sector U, Gate type D, multiple sections(1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12)
Remarks: N/A
The doctor closed the file. “So, Lifael is it? Nervous?”
Lifael shook her head.
“Good, since Lifael sounds a bit archaic to me, is it okay if I call you Lifa?”
“It’s okay, my team also calls me that”
“Well then Lifa, I’m sure you are aware of the procedures?”
Lifa nodded, she waited for this day ever since they announced that they will research on how to awaken Espers.
Firstly, you are heavily sedated, then placed in an incubator specially made for Chaos Energy. The rest is confidential and after the initial injection of Chaos Energy, you are put under and lose consciousness.
“Good, then let’s get started…”
Lifa woke up in a plain room: a bed, window, door and a shelf. Other than a few books on the shelf, nothing was in the room.
‘Did it succeed?’
She studied her own body, trying to sense any changes. Before she finished though, the doctor walked in.
“Oh, you’re awake.”
“How did it go?”
He shook his head.
“Sadly you did not awaken, however there is quite a bit of a power boost. When the awakening fails, the body gets enhanced slightly, but for you, it got enhanced much more than usual”
…
“... I’ll leave you alone, you may leave through the back when you’re ready”
‘How… I did everything I could to awaken, why did I fail?’
She couldn’t accept this result, she trained, fought with all she had in order to be chosen in the next batch who will be awakened. Now they are telling me I can’t awaken at all? This, this is too cruel. Why is the world so unfair?
It took Lifa a full two hours before getting over it and leave. She contemplated whenever or not she should simply quit. While she wanted to avenge her brother, if she didn’t improve by leaps and bounds, she can only do so much.
The next morning.
‘Why am I back here’
Lifa was in front of the WDA headquarters. She came here like it was something natural, she walked here every day for 2 years, it was basically a second nature.
‘Oh well, I’ll see if there are any Gates left my squad wants to take’
She joined her squad, they were just leaving.
“So what kind of Gate are we dealing with today?”
“C Grade, the Yaju are insect types, highest grade is B”
“B?”
“It’s fine, our Fredrick here awakened a fire ability yesterday and we want to try it out”
“Isn’t fire… kind of weak against insect types?”
“In what way?”
‘Whatever, don’t mention awakenings again’
“So I heard you also awakened yesterday, what did you get?”
‘Ugh, he doesn’t get it, if I got anything I would have been bragging every second I have’
“The awakening failed” She said bluntly.
“Ah… I see. Erm”
The conversation died, well Lifa blamed Imark more than herself though.
Ever since Chaos Energy became usable, technology which had been becoming more stagnant with each day, had several revolutions. Battlesuits, guns, swords, bows, spears, blades, thrusters, energy meters, and so on. One of which was the Hover Transporter. It is a container made solely for transporting a squad. The frame is basically any normal container out there, the inside, on the long edges has a row of seats, also it is recommended to wear the battlesuit first before sitting down. There is no need for piloting, AI Athena does that for you. When you’ve reached your destination, the floor opens and the seatbelts auto release and our seats also retract. Basically dropping us on the location. It’s nothing but a 20 meter drop, pretty high for a normal human, but the people who use it are Valkyries, plus the battlesuit has a hovering and short flying module which is also controlled by Athena, though it is a shard that does it.
A few hundred meters ahead of us was our target for today. Grade C Gate. Insect types are very annoying to deal with, first of all, all Yaju have the hard exoskeleton, but insects have that enhanced, by a lot. Then they also always act in a group and have some means of communication. Then you also have the various abilities reflected on the exact type of insect they take after.
Lifa took out her two M9 Remodelled and started to gather the attention of the ants. Vath, the vanguard then attracted the aggro. Freddy tested his fire ability...
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