CHAPTER 39: ECONOMY CLASS TO THE APOCALYPSE

War turned out to be mostly waiting in line.

Rin stood on the tarmac at Eros Airport at 4 AM, shivering in his tactical gear while holding a cup of vending machine coffee that tasted like hot dirt and regrets.

Around him the Association was mobilizing, loading cargo planes with crates of ammunition and mana crystals while helicopters chopped the air overhead, making the whole scene feel like a movie set where they were the underpaid extras.

"We look like NPCs," Rin said, watching a squad of A-rank Hunters walk past in matching crimson armor that probably cost more than Rin’s entire life earnings.

"We are NPCs," Sable corrected, adjusting her backpack straps. "We are the D-rank side characters who get a few lines of dialogue before the main heroes do the cool stuff."

"Speak for yourself," Jax said, checking his sound emitters. "I plan on being the plucky comic relief who survives until the sequel."

Rin looked at the massive transport plane in front of them, which looked old, angry, and very unsafe.

"Are we flying in that?" Rin asked.

"It has wings," Sable shrugged. "Usually a good sign."

A man with a clipboard and a headset walked over to them, looking like he hadn’t slept since the invention of the wheel.

"Team Matsuda?"

"That’s us."

"You’re on Bird 4, rear cargo," he said, pointing a pen. "Find a strap and hold on, don’t vomit, if you vomit you clean it."

He walked away before they could answer.

Bird 4 was essentially a hollow metal tube with benches strapped to the sides, smelling like jet fuel and nervous sweat. There were about fifty other Hunters inside, mostly C and B-ranks who gave Rin’s team a collective glance ranging from indifference to pity.

Rin found a spot near the back, wedged between a crate of medical supplies and a guy whose ability seemed to be taking up two seats.

"Strap in," the giant grunted.

Rin buckled the harness, feeling like he was sitting in a rollercoaster designed by a drunk engineer.

The engines roared to life, vibrating Rin’s teeth.

[System Notification]

[Travel detected]

[Destination: Sperrgebiet Exclusion Zone]

[Estimated flight time: 1 hour 45 minutes]

Rin closed his eyes, trying to meditate and find that calm center Nyx kept talking about, but his brain wouldn’t shut up.

He was going to the Architect’s base, the place where Kael’s file had been sent, the place where people were harvested.

And he was going there with D-rank clearance and a sword made of space magic.

"Hey," Sable shouted over the engine noise. "You okay?"

"I’m peachy," Rin shouted back. "Just contemplating my life choices."

The plane lurched forward and began its taxi.

---

The flight was a sensory nightmare, loud and cold with turbulence that felt like the sky was personally offended by their presence.

Rin spent the time observing the other Hunters, watching a woman polish a massive sniper rifle while a guy next to her shuffled a deck of cards with telekinesis.

These were the pros, the career Hunters who did raid clears for a living, and they looked bored.

Rin felt like an imposter, knowing he had power but lacking the miles and the scars.

The giant next to him nudged Rin’s arm.

"First war?" the guy asked.

"First war," Rin confirmed. "You?"

"Third," he said. "Was in the Congo disruption last year and the Cape Town breach before that."

Rin looked at the guy’s name tape: BASTION.

"What’s your ability?" Rin asked.

"Skin hardening," Bastion said, tapping his forearm which made a metallic clink. "I’m a wall, I stand in front so things hit me while the DPS guys kill them, it’s honest work."

"I’m Rin, fracture manipulation."

Bastion paused, looking Rin up and down.

"The portal kid?"

"Yeah."

Bastion grinned, a terrifying expression on his blocky face. "I saw the video, you got guts kid, stupid guts but guts nonetheless, stick close to me when we land."

"Thanks," Rin said.

The pilot’s voice crackled over the intercom.

"Two minutes to drop, we are landing at Forward Operating Base Alpha, the zone is hot, repeat, the zone is hot, we have reports of aerial interceptors."

"Aerial interceptors?" Sable yelled. "Since when do terrorists have an air force?"

"Since they have millions of dollars and magic," Jax yelled back.

The plane banked hard to the left and Rin’s stomach dropped.

Then the sound of explosions started.

"Flak," Bastion said calmly, checking his harness. "They’re shooting at us."

The plane shook violently as shrapnel pinged off the hull.

"Hold on!" the pilot screamed.

The plane dove, not a landing but a controlled crash, the wheels slamming into the desert floor with a force that snapped Rin’s head back as they bounced, skidded, and roared down a makeshift runway.

The ramp at the back of the plane began to lower while they were still moving.

"Go go go!" a jumpmaster shouted. "Unass the bird! Move!"

Rin unbuckled and grabbed his gear, the desert heat hitting him instantly, dry and dusty and intense.

He ran down the ramp, blinking in the harsh sunlight.

They were in the middle of nowhere, flat rocky desert stretching in every direction, but right here in the middle of the nothing was an army.

Tents, barriers, anti-air turrets firing streams of mana bolts into the sky.

And in the distance, shimmering like a mirage, was the target.

The Glass Fortress.

It wasn’t actually glass, it was some kind of crystalline structure, massive and jagged and rising out of the sand like a mountain of diamonds that reflected the sun so brightly it hurt to look at.

"That’s big," Jax said, shielding his eyes. "That’s really big."

Director Tau was waiting for them near a command tent, not wearing a suit anymore but full combat armor, black and gold with a long dao sword strapped to his back.

"Matsuda," Tau called out. "Glad you survived the landing."

"Barely," Rin said.

Tau pointed at the fortress. "That is the Architect’s primary research facility, we have confirmed hostiles including automated defenses, modified monsters, and mercenary companies."

"How do we get in?" Sable asked.

"We knock," Tau said grimly.

He gestured to the line of S-ranks and A-ranks assembling at the perimeter.

"The vanguard is preparing to breach the outer shield, once the shield is down we push, your team is assigned to Alpha Squad with me."

"With you?" Rin asked.

"I need your ability," Tau said. "If they have fracture-based defenses you’re the key, plus if you die Yumi will kill me."

"Great," Rin muttered. "Human skeleton key, my favorite role."

---

The Forward Operating Base was a hive of activity, so Rin, Sable, and Jax were directed to a supply tent to stock up.

Rin grabbed extra energy packs, rations, and a new tactical jacket that actually fit.

"My shoulder is quiet," Rin noted.

He checked the tracker, seeing it was active but devoid of warnings.

"Tau disabled the limiters for the operation," Sable said, loading magazines into her issued sidearm. "We’re in a war zone, they don’t care if you flare your aura as long as you’re pointing it at the bad guys."

"Freedom," Rin said, flexing his hand as purple sparks danced between his fingers. "It feels weird."

"Don’t get used to it," Jax said. "Once this is over the leash goes back on."

Rin didn’t answer, looking at the fortress in the distance.

If Nyx was right, if the Architect was right... maybe the leash didn’t have to go back on.

A commotion near the perimeter drew their attention.

A group of Hunters was arguing with a guard.

"Let us through!" one of them shouted.

Rin recognized the voice.

He walked over, seeing Nandia, the C-rank he’d sparred with, and behind him a sullen-looking Vane.

Nandia saw Rin and waved. "Yo! Portal guy! Tell this idiot we’re with the second wave."

Rin walked up to the guard. "They’re good."

The guard grunted and stepped aside.

Nandia jogged over, dragging Vane.

"Didn’t expect to see you here," Rin said.

"Mobilization order," Nandia said, grinning. "They called up everyone C-rank and above, and apparently you D-ranks too."

"I volunteered," Rin said.

"Of course you did," Vane muttered. "Hero complex."

"Still mad about the rocks, Vane?" Sable asked sweetly.

Vane scowled but didn’t answer, looking at the fortress. "That place gives me the creeps, the earth around it feels... wrong, dead."

"It’s the Sperrgebiet," Rin said. "Forbidden zone."

"Whatever it is," Nandia said, cracking his knuckles. "It’s payday, hazard bonus for this op is insane."

Rin looked at the group, his team, Nandia, even Vane, realizing they were all kids fighting a war started by old men in boardrooms.

"Attention all units!"

The voice boomed over the camp speakers, Tau’s command cutting through the noise.

"Shield breach in T-minus ten minutes, Alpha Squad to the front, Bravo and Charlie hold for the signal."

"This is it," Rin said.

He looked at Sable and Jax.

"Stay close," he said. "Don’t try to be heroes, just survive."

"You too," Sable said.

They walked to the front lines where the S-ranks waited.

Tau with his dao.

Terra, the S-rank Telekinetic with white hair floating around her like a halo.

And Echo, a man wearing simple robes with his eyes bandaged.

"Who’s the blind guy?" Rin whispered to Bastion who had formed up next to them.

"That’s Echo," Bastion whispered back. "S-rank Sensory Specialist, he can hear a heartbeat from a mile away, he’s the radar."

Echo tilted his head.

"Movement," he said softly, his voice carrying over the wind. "Inside the walls, thousands."

"Are they human?" Tau asked.

"No," Echo said. "Not anymore."

Rin felt a chill.

Tau drew his sword, the blade humming with golden energy.

Terra raised her hands, the sand around her rising to form massive spears of compressed earth.

"Bring down the wall," Tau ordered.

Terra thrust her hands forward and the sand spears launched, hitting the crystalline shield of the fortress with a sound like a thunderclap.

CRACK.

The shield shimmered, held for a second, and then shattered, shards of energy raining down like glitter.

"Charge!" Tau roared.

The Hunters surged forward.

Rin ran, pulsing his energy to wrap himself in a protective skin of fracture power.

The gates of the fortress opened.

And the nightmare poured out.

They weren’t goblins or orcs, they were chimeras, twisted things with bodies of lions and heads of insects, humanoid figures with blades for arms, wolves that breathed fire.

Thousands of them.

"Contact!" Bastion yelled, turning his skin to steel.

The two armies collided.

It wasn’t a fight, it was a meat grinder.

Rin slid under a leaping chimera that looked like a hyena with scorpion tails.

Pulse.

He slashed upward, splitting the creature in half.

Two more lunged.

Sable hit them with a wave of despair, making them falter and whimper, while Jax blasted them apart with sonic pressure.

"Left!" Rin shouted, seeing a massive tank-like creature charging Sable.

He didn’t have time to run so he aimed his hand.

Burst.

A beam of void energy shot across the battlefield, piercing the tank-creature’s eye so it dropped, skidding to a halt inches from Sable.

"Thanks!" she yelled.

"Don’t thank me, kill them!"

Rin spun, engaging another target, entering the flow state of pulse, dodge, strike.

His tracker was silent, his power was singing, but for every monster they killed two more poured out of the gate.

"We can’t hold this forever!" Nandia yelled from nearby, punching a hole through a wolf-thing.

"We don’t have to!" Tau shouted, cutting a path through the horde like a golden whirlwind. "We just need to get inside! Alpha Squad! With me! Push for the gate!"

Rin looked at the gate a hundred meters away through a sea of monsters.

"Let’s go," Rin said to his team.

They pushed.

It was brutal, Rin taking a claw to the ribs that his armor barely stopped, Tayo bleeding from a cut on his forehead, Sable pale from the strain of manipulating so many minds.

But they reached the gate.

It was blocked by a massive creature, twenty feet tall and made of stitched-together flesh and metal plating, a true abomination swinging a concrete rebar club.

Tau stepped forward.

"Move," he said to Rin.

The Director vanished.

He reappeared in the air above the giant, his sword flashing once, twice.

The giant fell apart, sliced into neat cubes.

S-rank, Rin thought, okay, that’s the goal.

Tau landed softly.

"Inside! Now!"

Rin, Sable, Jax, and the rest of Alpha Squad sprinted into the fortress.

The interior was stark white, clean and sterile, a shocking contrast to the carnage outside, looking like a hospital or a morgue.

"Welcome to the Architect’s house," Tau said, wiping black blood from his blade.

Rin checked his phone and found a signal.

One message from Nyx.

Gate 4 unlocked. Security grid disabled in Sector B. You’re welcome. Try not to bleed on the floors.

Rin showed the message to Tau.

"Intel from our asset," Rin said.

Tau nodded. "Good, we move to Sector B."

They ran through the white corridors, alarms blaring and red lights flashing, until they turned a corner and stopped.

Standing in the hallway was a single man in a white suit holding a tablet, looking bored.

"Is that him?" Sable whispered. "Is that the Architect?"

"No," Rin said, recognizing the man from the decrypted files. "That’s Dr. Helix, Head of Biological Integration."

Helix looked up and smiled.

"Ah, the guests have arrived, please come in, the experiments are eager to meet you."

He pressed a button on his tablet.

The walls on either side of the hallway slid open to reveal hundreds of glass tanks.

Inside were people, Hunters floating in green fluid with tubes connected to their spines.

Then the tanks began to drain.

Eyes opened.

They weren’t dead, they were worse.

"Awakened zombies," Jax whispered.

"Kill them," Helix said calmly.

The sleeper agents stepped out of the tanks, raising their hands as fire, ice, lightning, and gravity gathered in their palms.

They still had their abilities.

This isn’t a fight, Rin realized, this is a massacre.

"Defensive positions!" Tau roared.

The corridor exploded in light.

Rin threw up a barrier of fracture energy just as a fireball slammed into him.

The raid had officially begun.