The gas station erupted in flames, the night sky ablaze with orange streaks. Commander Adeline “Ada” Cortez slid behind the half-destroyed fuel pump, her knee-high navy boots splashed with rust-red blood and dirt. She cursed under her breath. Her cropped jacket—torn but hanging onto her frame with determination—had once gleamed a pristine white with blue accents, but now it was charred along the edges. The sailor-inspired bikini top she wore clung to her like a second skin, soaking in the heat of the inferno around her. Buckled straps crisscrossed her torso, a perfect mix of aesthetic and utility. The outfit was bold, to be sure, but in her line of work, intimidation was half the battle.
She tightened the grip on her plasma pistol, its luminous barrel glowing faintly aqua in her hand. Through the smoke, she spied the silhouette of her target—a towering automaton, its metallic joints gleaming as it stomped through the debris-strewn battlefield. “There’s no way this junkheap came alone,” she muttered, the words barely audible over the distant wailing of sirens and the cracked transmissions from her earpiece.
“Ada, we’ve got drones incoming!” crackled the voice of Captain Yuri Inoue, her co-pilot, from the comm. Ada rolled her eyes, her blue cap still miraculously perched atop her head, its brim shielding her sharp brown eyes from the acrid smoke.
“Thanks for the update, Yuri,” she replied sarcastically. “What’s next? Telling me the sky is on fire too?” She peered upward as a dozen spider-like drones skittered down the facade of a nearby skyscraper, their glowing red optics laser-focused on the gas station. Her heart hammered in her chest, but there was no room for fear in a fight like this. Fear would get her killed.
The Mission Before Chaos
It had all started with a seemingly routine scouting mission two days ago. Ada and Yuri had been assigned to investigate unusual movements near the ruins of Port Drayden, an urban wasteland swallowed by decades of war and ocean encroachment. By the 27th century, Earth’s coastlines were no longer the safe harbors they once were. The colonies had built makeshift fortresses in their place, remnants of once-thriving cities now used as decoy traps or scavenger hubs for rogue factions.
Ada had walked through the shattered port terminals with her usual swagger, kicking aside relics of the past—cracked smartphones, corroded vending machines, photo frames of faceless families. Yuri had stayed aboard their cloaked airship, monitoring surveillance feeds for anomalies. Neither of them had anticipated what they found buried in the salt-drenched sands that surrounded the port—a long-abandoned ship core beacon, once used by the maritime AI fleets of the Pacific Alliance. They’d barely unearthed it before the ambush began.
The Automaton’s Reveal
As drones descended around her, Ada remembered the destruction wrought in those first moments of their escape. The automaton—a relic from a time when nations used hybrid machine soldiers to defend naval bases—had been dormant for centuries until the beacon reactivated it. Now, it was tearing across the city outskirts, programmed to eliminate anything it labeled a threat. And tonight, that included her.
“Yuri, bring the ship down lower,” Ada barked into the comm, diving as an explosive missile detonated just feet away. The shockwave sent her sprawling; her knees scraped against broken pavement, her thigh-high boots scuffed. The intricate blue text along their sides—advertising some bygone naval fleet, though Ada had no clue which—was now cracked and peeling.
“No can do, Ada,” Yuri hissed. “Those drones’ll rip us apart if I get closer.”
Ada gritted her teeth and fired her plasma pistol at the nearest drone, the weapon’s laser streak cutting through the smoke-filled air. The machine crumpled, its limbs twitching like a dying insect. Ada rolled onto her feet, her cropped jacket riding up slightly to reveal a long, jagged scar tracing her lower abdomen—a souvenir from a past mission gone wrong. She tore her gaze away from the flaming drone wreckage just long enough to spot the automaton pivoting toward her.
The Counter-Attack
“Alright, you oversized can opener,” she muttered. Her fingers flew to the belt strapped around her waist, where twin smoke grenades dangled. She yanked the pins and tossed them, gray billows erupting in all directions, obscuring her next move.
The automaton stumbled, unable to track her through the artificial haze. Ada took the opportunity to sprint toward an abandoned motorcycle half-buried in rubble. Its frame was a mess, streaked with oil and bullet holes, but the engine came to life with a roar, defying expectation. She swung her leg over the seat, her sailor-style outfit contrasting sharply with the grimy industrial aesthetic of her surroundings. Smoke twisted in the air as the bike carried her straight toward the automaton.
“Brace yourself, Yuri,” she said into her comm before firing the plasma pistol while accelerating. The beam lanced through the automaton’s chest, exposing the core buried within its metallic torso. “Now’s your shot!”
A Daring Plan
From above, Yuri’s airship uncloaked for the briefest of moments, its cannons aligning with precision. A burst of concentrated plasma erupted, engulfing the automaton in cascading light. Ada barely had time to swerve as the machine exploded in a spectacular inferno, scraps of metal raining down around the gas station. She screeched to a halt at the edge of the debris field, breathing heavily.
“Got it!” Yuri whooped through the comm, clearly pleased with his shot.
Ada smirked, wiping soot from her sharp cheekbone. The vibrant glow of the burning wreckage reflected in her eyes, but her focus was already elsewhere. The destroyed automaton had just been one piece of a much larger game, she was sure of it. Whatever power had reactivated that ship core beacon wasn’t done yet.
“You’re buying drinks when I get back, Yuri,” she said, pushing her cap back into place. Her voice carried a quiet resolve as she mounted the bike once more. “This isn’t over.”
Genre: Futurescape Action/Thriller
The Source…check out the article that inspired this amazing short story: Bold Azur Lane Cosplay Inspiration: Sailor-Style Costumes That Make Waves
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