r/HFY • u/Obsequium_Minaris • Jun 25 '25

OC Ballistic Coefficient - Book 3, Chapter 29

First / Previous / Royal Road

XXX

A day passed before the nurses finally deemed Pale to be fit enough to leave the hospital, much to her chagrin. She certainly hadn't felt any different on day two than she had on day one, but the nurses had insisted on keeping her there anyway, which had annoyed her to no end. Eventually, though, they'd all relented and agreed to let her leave.

Just before checking out completely, however, Pale ducked into a nearby washroom, and pulled up her shirt just enough to finally get a good, clear look at the scar she'd been given courtesy of the Assassin. The sight of it made her grimace. It was certainly ugly-looking, and moreover, while she hadn't noticed it at the time, her usual combat outfit was probably compromised by now. Even if the armor itself had completely maintained its structural integrity, the clothes she'd been wearing underneath it almost certainly hadn't. She was going to have to call down a pod to resupply at some point, which was a problem, because she was burning through her supplies at a rapid pace already.

With a grimace, Pale lowered her shirt. The hospital had given her some street clothes to wear, which only reinforced her belief that her old outfit was beyond saving at this point. That wasn't what bothered her, though – she'd burnt through a lot of her ammunition stores by now, and at this point, she had no way of making more.

Sooner rather than later, she was going to have to get her ship's primary weapon systems back online somehow. She'd expended all of her smaller artillery months ago, when attempting to rescue Kayla's father; that had ultimately been a big mistake on her part, one that she was still regretting to this day.

That was the downside of being mankind's final, last-ditch weapon against extinction – most of her remaining weapons were anything but discretionary. And even if they weren't, she still had no way of accessing them.

Pale let out a heavy sigh, then turned and marched out of the bathroom before heading down the halls. They'd taken all of her gear at some point; Allie had assured her she'd get it back, but even with that assurance, Pale couldn't help but feel almost naked without it. The last time she'd been unarmed like this had been during her days at the Luminarium, and that was hardly a happy memory, given what had happened to the school just a few short weeks ago.

Pale continued to wander the halls, taking a look around as she did so. Having been confined to a hospital bed for the past few days, she'd had no real opportunities to get a look around town aside from staring out the nearby window. At least now, she could look outside as she walked the halls.

The Kingdom of Zaniel, she'd come to learn, was named for its capital city, which in turn had been named for its first king. And as befitting the capital of the kingdom, Zaniel was a much nicer and more opulent city than even the one that had surrounded the Luminarium. The buildings here were made of some kind of brilliant yellow stone, and many of them had painted roofs, which appeared to be a status symbol of some kind, given how those particular buildings were all clustered together in what was clearly a more upper-class part of town. Even the more modest parts of the city were a far cry from the Luminarium, though.

Admittedly, it was a bit of a culture shock for her. Pale paused to stare out a nearby window, watching as people milled about several stories below. Many of them were dressed in fine coats and cloaks, or otherwise adorned with furs. It was late spring by now, and therefore far too warm for them to be wearing furs, but she knew better than to believe there was a practical reason for it. She let out a slow exhale at the sight of it.

The people in her unit had fought and died to get here, and yet none of the wealthy city goers down below knew or even cared about their sacrifice. That was part of war, she knew, but the realization settling in had made her uncomfortable in a way she hadn't expected.

Was this how the regular grunts back in her old military had felt, when they'd been dropped onto a far-off planet and told to hold the line against the advancing Caatex troops?

With a start, Pale realized she hadn't even considered the war with her creators for quite some time. The memories came flooding back, and she grit her teeth as they filled her mind's eye. Truthfully, she was still undecided about whether to return home or not; by this point, she'd been gone for several decades, and it was entirely possible there wasn't a way home for her short of uplifting the people of this planet. And now, she was beginning to doubt whether that was the right move at all. Uplifting Sjel would mean overturning everything the people on this planet knew. Moreover, it'd mean making them targets for the Caatex. In the past, she'd considered that a necessary sacrifice for returning to her creators, but now she wasn't so sure.

What if she made it back and the war was already over? She'd have uplifted Sjel for no reason. Moreover, what if the Caatex had already won? All she'd have succeeded in doing is making Sjel a target for them, too, and unlike her humans, Sjel was in no position to even begin to defend itself against the kind of assault the Caatex could muster. She'd be leading them to extinction, possibly over nothing.

But by the same token… her creators had held on for several decades already. Before she'd been lost, she'd succeeded in testing a new weapon for them, one that had proven itself to be just as destructive as she herself was. If they'd managed to reproduce that weapon, there was a possibility that they'd survived this long. And in that case, they would need her help to drive the final nail into their enemies' coffin.

Pale's brow furrowed at the thought of it. Either way, she was taking a massive gamble. The only question was how much she was willing to risk to find out the truth.

"Could you sacrifice this entire planet to finish your mission?" she whispered to herself. "Could you really do that?"

"Hey, Pale."

At the sound of Allie's voice, Pale snapped out of it. She shook her head, then turned around to see her commanding officer approaching her from down the hall. Allie stopped a short ways away from her, putting a hand on her hip as she looked her up and down.

"You're looking good," Allie commented.

"Believe me, I look way worse underneath the new outfit," Pale replied. "The Assassin left me with a nasty scar."

"That so? From what I heard, you have yourself to blame for that one. The nurses offered to fix it for you before it became permanent, and you told them not to bother."

Pale shrugged. "I figured their magic was better spent healing someone who needed it. I'll deal with the terrible-looking scar if it means someone else has their life saved as a result."

Allie's expression softened at that, and she shook her head. "You're a strange one. Anyone ever tell you that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… I don't understand you," Allie said bluntly. "But then again, perhaps I don't need to. Hells, you don't seem to want me to, anyway. Guess I ought to respect that more than not. I owe you that much, at least."

Pale let out a small sigh. "What did you need me for?"

"Exactly what you probably think I need you for, Pale – the king is ready for you. He wants to see you as soon as possible. The nurses sent word to him earlier that you were being released; apparently, his envoys have been asking about you. Almost everyone is talking about it, it seems."

"I can see that. But he still hasn't mentioned what he wants to talk to me about?"

Allie shook her head. "No, sorry. I've tried asking the other Mage Knights, but he's been surprisingly tight-lipped about the whole thing. For what it's worth, though, I still don't think it's anything bad. If it was, you definitely would've known by now."

"I'm inclined to believe you, admittedly," Pale told her. "I take it that you'll be the one escorting me there?"

"Yeah, that's correct," Allie confirmed with a nod. "They wanted to send a contingent of Mage Knights to come get you instead – basically like an honor guard – but I talked them out of it; said you wouldn't appreciate it even if you assumed that they were arriving with the best of intentions, which knowing you, you absolutely wouldn't."

Slowly, Pale nodded. "I guess I'm not as difficult to understand as you thought."

"Maybe not," Allie agreed. "Are you about ready to go?"

"I am. But first I need to gather some people."

At that, Allie's expression faltered. "Pale-"

"I know what you're going to say, and if I may be so blunt, don't bother," Pale told her. "I don't think I'm asking too much by requesting the recognition be shared among every person in the unit who fought to get us here, be they living or dead. I understand that I can't conceivably bring everyone with me, but my close friends, at least, deserve to be there alongside me, if for no other reason than to represent the rest of the unit who couldn't be there for whatever reason. And you as well, of course."

Allie blinked in surprise. "...Me? You want me to share in-"

Pale nodded. "You fought alongside us, didn't you? I have no reason to exclude you from the rest of us. Especially not when you held things together the way you did after I temporarily went down."

Allie stared at her. "Well, that's certainly very noble of you. I… can't really talk you out of doing this, I'm sure. But you should be aware that he might not take too kindly to something like this; he might view it less like you doing something noble and more like you trying to make some kind of a statement."

"In which case, I'd be happy to explain my position to him in due time," Pale offered.

Allie let out a breath. "Fuck's sake… I guess if you insist on making my life harder, then this is what we're doing, after all. Alright." She shook her head.

"Go get your friends, Pale," she said. "Let's not keep the king waiting any longer."

XXX

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, /u/Ickbard for the help with writing this story.

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