Chapter 4.1 - Call Down the Thunder

Call Down the Thunder
"What's your name?" strongly demanded Solace's captor, pushing the gun's barrel harder against the back of her head. Solace was facing away so could not see who had her pinned down.

"S-Solace," she said, struggling to talk with a knee on her neck.

"Surname?"

"Solace is my surname. I have no forename."

"...You're a Colonist. What brings you to Yamaha?"

"I came from the sky to sort things out."

The knee pushed harder causing Solace to cough violently. "Hmm... A deity, huh? You didn't answer my question properly."

"I came to find my creator."

A third female voice interrupted the interrogation, "I don't think we have time for this."

"...You're right," agreed the captor, getting up off Solace but grabbed her back collar, pulling Solace, and the heavy backpack, onto her feet with no effort but did not let go. "We're taking you with us."

Solace could now see who had caught her. She didn't recognise the one holding onto her but she recognised the one standing further back, "Lynette?"

Lynette was wearing her strike units and carrying her trademark rifle, "... Do I know you?" she asked with curiosity.

"No, you don't." Lynette asked no further questions. Solace guessed Lynette was often recognised but unlike the isolated Gid, she knew about her presence in other universes as fictional material.

However, her captor picked up the slack instead, pushing Solace forward to start walking, "How do you know her?"

"Manga, anime and whatnot in my universe."

"So you're a newcomer, huh? And what's in your bag? It's far too heavy for a native," she commented, reaching for a zipper.

Solace span round, swung a foot behind her captor's ankles and threw a heavy uppercut with her left fist, making contact with the underside of her captor's chin. Solace had her knuckles at the captor's neck who had her head tilted back, her eyes glaring at Solace. "Don't touch my backpack," Solace threatened, "I have no idea what's in it myself but I assure you I am under strict direct orders from Haruhi herself not to open it in Yamaha territory. So if it is harmful, Yamaha won't be seeing its impact."

"...Heh, Fine," smirked the captor, "Just don't do something rash like that again. You might not live next time."

Solace looked down to see her captor had her gun pointing towards Solace's abdomen and also noted that she was still holding onto Solace's back collar over Solace's right shoulder. Solace stepped back, her captor letting go of her collar, "I'm glad we understand each other." It was at this point Solace noticed pain in her left hand set in. "Ouch," she gritted, shaking her hand from side to side, "You have a really hard chin. Any normal person would have least tripped over backwards."

"I'm more than capable of holding my ground."

"... You're not human are you?"

"... No, I'm not."

Lynette was the one most surprised by this, "Wha-? You're not-? Wait, we don't have time for this. We need to get going."

The captor nodded, "Agreed." She turned back to Solace. "Even if you don't plan anything bad towards Yamaha, you are under direct orders from Haruhi and you are so far the only one to get through the Sonic Barrier. You're not going leaving our sight."

Solace folded her arms in defiance, "I didn't get into Yamaha just to get arrested. There's no way I'm going with you."

The captor sighed, clearly not liking the delay, "Okay, look. We'll trust you so please trust us. I'm Sora Muziku. You seem to already know Lynette Bishop."

"I'm guessing Sora is your first name?" inquired Solace, keeping in mind oriental naming conventions.

Sora nodded again, "Now, please, let's talk while we walk." Solace had noticed earlier that Sora's and Lynette's destination was to the east, away from London, so she gave them the benefit of the doubt and obliged. Atlas was beginning to move towards the south.

"Ask your questions, Solace," offered Sora.

"Why in such a hurry?"

"We had a... falling out... with our superiors," explained Sora, "As far as I'm aware, they're giving chase, if not delayed by your spectacular entrance."

"I know Lynette's part of the Strike Witches but you? You're part of the Black Squad?"

"I was. Only officially joined this morning."

"Why? I mean why does the Black Squad need to look for recruits? And a non-human at that? Well, to put it more specifically, why is a vocaloid opting to join the human Black Squad over the mechanical Stray Posse?"

Lynette's eyes widened, "Sora? You're a vocaloid?"

"It seems obvious. The whole attire similar, there's the microphone and music note accessories," pointed out Solace.

"I have made no attempt to hide it," answered Sora to Lynette, "People tend not to ask. Just in case I am. As for your question Solace, I prefer order over law. As to why they were recruiting, I don't know. Stray Posse have never recruited and I have been the only Black Squad recruit. I must say though, your knowledge of our secret services is... disturbing."

"Haruhi," reminded Solace. Sora gave a slow nod, understanding Solace's implication of knowledge injection. "What's the difference between order and law?"

"Law is black and white. Order is black, white and everything in between. I'd like to be able to give my own judgement to the matters that need it."

"That's not something a machine would say."

"I'd be insulted if you were not correct."

"So now you're outlawed, what's your plan?"

"To get out of Yamaha."

Solace raised an eyebrow, "... So that's why you want me."

"Correct. Either you plan to report back to North High or you plan to get into Gensokyo. Either way, it works in our favour."

"And if I planned to stay in Yamaha?"

"You were sent in by Haruhi herself. There's no way she'd have your best interests in mind." At this point, the three entered a docking area by the coastside. Tall but dirty warehouses and cranes surrounded them. Despite being a port, there were no ships to be seen. There was also no sign of human activity.

"Heh, you might be right. But yes, my ultimate motive is to get to my friends in the Ivory Coast."

"What about your creator?"

"To see if he could help. I'd rather not meet him, if possible." Solace had a suspicion her creator was male but used the single pronoun for convenience.

"Why's that?" asked Lynette, "I'm sure he'd be more than happy to meet you."

"And that's the problem," noted Solace, "I don't want to involve him in the conflict."

"Hmm... At any rate, it'd be easier to leave the country, then search for your creator. Yamaha will have the entire area scouted for trouble after bringing down the moon," pointed out Sora, "Wait a moment, our destination is in this coastside warehouse." They stopped outside a rundown cuboid building, the majority of it in the water. There were similar buildings in the port along the coast.

As Sora tried to open the single door into the building, Solace spoke up, "Okay, you haven't really explained what you were looking for."

"We know of some kind of technology Yamaha was working on in this area," explained Lynette, "We got a heads up on its location by tracking the connection from an external programming centre who were using such a connection to update the project's coding, for some kind of patching system. I suppose I should have questioned how Sora could track it without any equipment, let alone how she could bypass Yamaha connection security without hassle, but I guess now I know she's a vocaloid, it all makes sense."

"Lynette," beckoned Sora, "I can't get the door open. It's either locked from the other side or can only be opened remotely. It's not a digital lock either and seems to be completely airtight. Despite what it looks like from the outside, there seems to be heavy security inside. Could you blow the lock out for us?"

"Sure," nodded Lynette, backing up and raising her rifle at the handle of the door. After a second's pause to focus, she pulled the trigger and blew a large hole where the handle had been. This was accompanied with a loud and echoing metal clang. Sora immediately kicked the door open and pointed at the ceiling of the warehouse. Solace and Lynette followed her into the pitch black building. They looked at what Sora was pointing at but could not see through the darkness. After a moment, Sora lowered her arm and switched on the lights. Attached to the ceiling were two large rifles, larger than Lynette's.

"Automated snipers," explained Sora, "Would have taken your head straight off. I've disabled them, shouldn't cause a problem now."

"So much for heavy security," jeered Solace, "I don't think Yamaha expected machine rebels." As she lowered her view, she saw the entire warehouse was one single room, with a single warship floating in water in front of them, facing away.

"You're probably right," agreed Sora with a hint of sadness, "Yamaha don't mind biological people or intelligent beings because they could just hurt or hack them, respectively."

"Is that why they're rounding up sentient dolls?" asked Lynette.

"That's the only explanation I could come up with," sighed Sora, "Dolls don't feel pain and can't be hacked so to Yamaha they pose a threat to security." She noticed Solace's eyes widen at the warship in front of them. "What's the matter, Solace?"

"This warship-!" began Solace, "I recognise it!" She ran to the side of the warehouse so the name of the ship that was emblazoned on the side was in view.

Sora rose an eyebrow, looking at the vessel, "It's not very big for a current age warship. Certainly odd coming from Yamaha. It's probably a pre-Dreadnought, looks like an ironclad."

Lynette was also looking at the ship, "Should I know this ship?" She flew towards Solace to look at the ship's name. "I mean, if you recognise it, it's obviously not an original design. It's-" The name came into her view and she recognised it immediately, "... It's the HMS Thunder Child."

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