The black-haired girl looked at 117 angrily, seemingly determined to kill him at all costs. She immediately rushed towards them, slashing her blade arms at them. 553 managed to roll out of the way, but her blade scratched 117's armor.
She continues attacking 117 with ferocity, not letting up in her attacks. The trooper's rifle was slashed in half thanks to it, which resulted in him focusing on dodging all of her attacks. Despite how hard he tries to dodge her attacks, she still lands some hits on him, damaging his armor more and more as the fight continues.
After 553 regained his footing, he once again fired his rifle at her. Faith quickly ran towards a nearby metal storage box and hid behind them. Her left blade quickly reforms into a rifle attached to her hand.
She then waited for the chance to finally poke out of her cover and fires back at 553, hitting him right before he can run for cover.
Noticing this opportunity, 117 took out his pistol and fired a couple of shots at her, making her duck behind the box. He then ran away from her, making a left at the corner. Faith jumps through the box and chases him.
The chase continued through the corridors of the container boxes. 117 was able to outrun her and hide behind one of the boxes.
Not long after, Faith managed to catch up with him but lost sight of him. The blades on her hands are no longer there, as it seems that she needed them to be dismissed in order to catch up to 117. However, the nano drones then came out of her red cape and reform themselves into blades on each of her hands.
Even though he understands where the nano drones came from, he still needs to find a way to shut them down first. Just then, a call came through to him.
"117, come in."
He recognized that voice. It was 553. He replied again with a quiet voice, "You survived? I thought she shot you."
"Yeah. Her bullets don't seem to be penetrating my armor. But those blades seem like the real deal. Anyway, she seems to like you so much that she forgot about me."
"Must have been a fan. Can you open the doors and call in the others?"
"Sure can. What about you?"
"I'll get her attention while you work on the doors."
The call ended, and 117 was left to strategize on how to take the girl down.
Suddenly, the blade on her left hand deformed. The nano drones made them all fall to the ground like lifeless ants.
"Shit" She deformed the blade on her other hand and start fixing something on her glove.
Whatever it was, 117 was sure that the gloves were how she was controlling the drones. With those in mind, he finally made a plan on how to defeat her.
117 throws another smoke grenade towards her, and as soon as it pops off, he runs as quickly as he can towards her.
The blade reformed back into her right hand as soon as she was alerted, but it was too late. 117 was already behind her, grabbing her left arm and twisting it while at the same time removing her cape.
Faith tried to retaliate by swinging her blade around, but 117 managed to maneuver around it easily.
He then slams her body down to the ground, quickly removing the glove on her left hand. After that, he held the blade-hand down with his own.
"It's over!"
"Nrrgh...Damnit...Let me go!"
The blade then finally deformed itself as it seemed that the glove on her hand had either run out of power or malfunctioned.
Her put her other hand behind her back and restrained her using a handcuff.
"Don't resist!"
She clicks her tongue as it seems that it was all over for her. 117 then received another call from 553.
"Hey, I got the door open, and the others are on their way to you. How's your end?"
"She's in custody right now. Waiting on you to secure her."
"Copy that."
Suddenly, Faith started chuckling. 117 looked at her sudden expression with a feeling of uneasiness.
"Sis. I'm finally going to avenge you."
"What are you talking about?"
The room suddenly became dark, and the emergency red lights started turning on. The ship's announcer then started speaking through the speaker.
"Warning, storage bay airlock is now open."
Not long after the announcement, the giant airlock door at the end of the room opens, and the container boxes around them suddenly moved by themselves towards a certain direction, along with the air also being sucked away into outer space.
Right when they were near the door of the airlock, he grabbed onto it with one of his hands while holding onto Faith.
Other troopers that were in the room were also being sucked out into space as well, all of them except for 553 and three others who were holding onto the railing of the catwalk of the room.
"553, contact 421 and tell him to shut the airlock now!" He screamed.
"Already did. He's working on it."
While they were talking, Faith had been struggling to escape his grasp.
"Let me go...You!"
"Hey, don't struggle or we'll..."
Before he could finish, a metallic box fell towards Faith and pushed her off outside.
"Faith!"
Without hesitation, 117 lets go and follows Faith outside as well. He could see her still struggling in the distance, trying to hold her breath.
After a while, he managed to reach her but was too late as she was losing consciousness due to lack of air. At the same time, he didn't have much air to work with due to the limitations of oxygen inside his armor.
117 calls 421 again.
"421, I'm outside with the target. She's about to run out of air, and we're too far from the ship."
"There's an escape pod near the storage bay. I'm ejecting one near your position."
A pod then launched from the hull of the ship, near the storage bay, and headed straight towards them. When it got close, 117 flew towards it, carrying Faith, and headed inside the pod.
After they got in, Faith had already lost consciousness but was still alive. 117 set her down on a seat, then made a call to the others.
"We're inside the pod, and she's still alive. Thanks 421"
"You're welcome."
"By the way, some of the troopers were also sucked out. Got any working dropship to pick them up?"
"Two. I'll tell the others to get to it."
"Better hurry. Before they run out of air or flew too far away."
The call ended, and he sat on the seat across Faith's. He looked at the view outside of the window, at the container boxes and all of the cargo that she ejected, floating outside of the ship.
After that, he took off his helmet. Looking at his reflection from the window. His white hair and red eyes appeared to be genetically engineered rather than natural.
Then he looks at the unconscious Faith and thinks back on what she called him during their fight.
"Priad, huh?"
He wonders why she would call him by that name and what kind of relationship they had before. He tried his best to remember what it was, but nothing came to mind.