Sam blinked hard several times, fighting off the stress-induced, stabbing pain that had her eyes throbbing. It had been too long already since having her settings dialed up that high, almost forgetting how much sensory overload the whole experience was. That was definitely ‘him’ just now. Holy shit that was close. She knew with the way the buildings were lined up, there had to be no way the Cloak took any sudden detour. As she turned to face the unseen enemy, she noted the cars near the shoulders of both sides of the wider streets were all seemingly empty, hinting at the chances for least possible collateral. She aimed her SMG toward the ground at fifty meters away, firing off a few three-round bursts:

PTATATAH!!! PTATATAH!!! Rang out the thunderous crackles of hybridized rounds, just a touch quieter than the standard rifle-sized rounds she was used to.

She then immediately zoomed her vision in on the flickering heat traces that puffed out before vanishing almost instantly, feeling the mind-ripping draw of the strings Antares seemingly had on her nerves at the sight of each one. There was no choice but to trust the system and force her thumbs and fingers at the controls to keep up.

Her thumb switch guided the aiming cursor back and forth at an insanely high-speed setting, pulling off a single burst at the merging of each minute heat trace and the cursor. It was then followed by a sudden, large flash on the infrared sensors.

.

Revenant had just kicked in his reverse thrusters for that one moment, just enough to bring him to a sudden and forceful stop, walking his way back quickly, noticing the firing had stopped even if just momentarily. And after having heard those peculiar firecracker effects of the hybrid weapon’s rounds, he knew he would have to find a better approach. His feet twitched, fighting off the desire to floor it and make another charge, only hesitating at the thought of giving away his position for even just one precious millisecond.

“Huh. Bitch really did get smart on us at the most inopportune time. Are our cameras rolling?”

Marian came back up over his radio to answer: “I just started sending the clearance notifications. Never mind your surroundings; Do what it takes, and do it quick.”

“Lovely.”

He continued following the back-pedaling Axiom in its skinny, minimally armored form, eyeing a wide intersection for him to utilize in an attempt to flank her from a better direction. His foot backed off the pedal some as he found both refreshed patience and comfort in the opened opportunity right ahead.

.

Sam kept her finger off the trigger for the time being, knowing not only to conserve ammunition but to avoid collateral, given the cramped circumstances. She continued her backwards pace up the evacuated street, constantly eyeing the ground in front, hoping to catch the slightest hint of thermal traces to lock onto. And wherever the enemy was, it wasn’t close enough for an accurate readout from the proximity sensors. She knew that regardless of the cloaking technology, anything close enough would be impossible to mask. Just keep that distance. Whoever he is, he can’t do shit without moving faster than that.

A few more seconds passed before a thought crossed her mind, causing her to come to a slow stop. She turned her audio output off, silencing the interior of her cockpit. The thud upon thud of distant LTAC feet hitting pavement too had come to a soft, slow halt. She hadn’t noticed how intense the beating of her heart had been, and now the sound of it made it harder to figure out what just happened. If I stop moving, that means he now has to make the first move… right?

She felt she had bought some time, even if just a few seconds, to muster some semblance of a plan. Her eyes darted down both shoulders of the road, hoping to spot a reflection or break in the shadows… anything to give her a hint of his location. He HAS to be close!

And in a flash, startling her as she reflexively pulled back on the controls, the heat traces on screen instead showed the enemy distancing himself before disappearing around a corner at the nearest intersection. Shit! That was my chance to hit him! She thought in self-loathe, pounding the side of the right control console arm as she let loose a string of exasperated expletives.

And with the frustration came the resurging fear. She knew it had to end here after taking the perhaps noble, perhaps equally idiotic and regrettable plunge, and now she just let her best shot slip through her fingers. As her hands and feet froze momentarily in place, her mind raced between whether or not she should have just kept firing regardless of the surroundings as well as what to do now that the Cloak was likely setting up his next move for the kill. But in the midst of the fright, the memory of the Cloak’s pounding footsteps resurfaced, cueing her to slow her breathing and open the cockpit’s main hatch.

.

.

Sebastian wasn’t too far above the area, deploying the last of his parachutes that would allow him to slow his landing approach. He continually kept his eye on Sam’s status monitor, seeing her heart rate at abnormally high levels, but with the most shock, her cockpit doors’ status on open. [What?! What is she doing?!]

Knowing the Cloak had to be somewhere nearby, he continued crying out in vain to reach her on the radio, but every ping attempt to her channel was blocked. “Sam! Please! Open your channel!”

.

.

Sam was already able to feel distant rumbles sent through her LTAC’s frame and through her control sticks, but now she could hear the echo of them coming from her right ear just before a popping burst from jump-boost drives in the same ear startled her. The sensors on her L-Tracker would be delayed due to the nature of their design, leaving her to act only on her trust in whatever was left of her senses. She closed the hatch and immediately retreated to her right and over the buildings in her way. Running away clearly hadn’t been the first thing on her mind, but she sensed it was move away now or pay dearly.

.

“The bitch is running after all!?” Revenant jeered, clearing the top of the building he planned on using to allow his drop in on the Axiom, now finding the street empty. He looked up to confirm his target rapidly distancing itself from him, headed right for Hexa’s HQ. “Cowardly piece of shit!” He wasn’t going to let his chance slip away, either, jamming the pedals down with an all-out burst in her direction.

.

Sam heard the IR sensor begin to scream, looking at the map to see a large heat source identified. “There you are!” She shouted to herself, lifting her feet from the pedals and pulled her Axiom into a hard spin, and activating heat tracking. Keeping her aim on manual, she swung her SMG around from a low angle, firing in an upward sweeping pattern that would run parallel to the emptied highway below.

PTATATATATATAH!!!

If being too careful was going to be the death of her, she could at least feel she didn’t drag others with her.

One of the hybridized slugs made contact with some form of armor, showing a glitched, short-lived, but definite object on her visuals headed her way.

PTATATATATATAH!!!

Rang out another sweeping run back toward the ground below her at the same angle as she felt her Axiom rapidly descend in its loss to gravity. This time the distorted visual that popped up early hung around much longer, and it was approaching with lethal speed. Her chest tightened up painfully, clenching down on her controls so hard her joints felt like they would rupture. And with the worst yet most convenient timing, the sickening and overwhelming control input impulses would flood her screen and overcome her nervous system.

As impact alarms suddenly rang out, her mind couldn’t keep track of what was going on, succumbing to a near-blackout while her physical reaction took a path she wouldn’t be actively aware of.

It was a maneuver she played around with for over a year with the simulator during her downtime. Never once was there any outside observations or input, but it was something she found almost fun when testing around with the lightweight mode. The only difference between then and now was actual gravity.

The Axiom, having the clear weight advantage, overloaded its full drive system for one burst, ripping her in the opposite direction of her momentum, carrying her underneath the would-be charging assailant. And in the same motion, she pulled up on the controls just enough to touch down wheel-first safely, skating away unscathed. The adrenaline rush mixed with the vertigo-inducing G’s of her maneuver had her shaking almost uncontrollably, fighting for her life to keep focus. Turn around, Sam, turn the fuck around! He’s got a weakness!

.

.

The Cloak landed smoothly not too far from the Axiom, pivoting on its rollers with a firm push from its right foot to avoid the unnecessary use of its thrusters. Revenant let out an embittered growl, biting down as he kept his composure together. If only I had better reach. His thumb began to reach for the hat switch that would select his sword’s plasma arc selector, but better judgment had him retract it. No. No matter the fight she suddenly has in her, she can’t keep this up.

“Tamaz, this is a dead end!” Marian chimed back in anxiously. “That unregistered A-P dropping in on you was a personal purchase by Danielle Norris! That-”

“-So what!?” he interrupted with a roar. “Stop fucking worrying about me and find that traitor before he gets these bastards more outs!”

“You didn’t let me finish! That’s just the one compared to a whole unregistered squad they dropped on our western-end ambush outfit! We weren’t ready for this- we have to pull back!”

.

.

Many blocks west of Sam’s duel was an older open air market that was fortunately not up and running that morning. Using whatever cover they could while hiding crouched behind their shields, Kerry and Andre had been encircled as sporadic suppressing fire sailed over and around them. They had their backs in a corner between an L-shaped concrete building, waiting on their boosters to finish recharging and cooling after over-using them earlier to get as far as they had.

“Kerry!” Andre shouted out as soon as he heard the chime that sent some hope back into him. “Now or never while the fire loosened up!”

“No way they’re not waiting for us to do that!” Kerry fussed back, easing her feet on the floor pedals.

“How the hell do you know!?”

Kerry’s Ap50 jumped only ten feet from the ground, just enough to allow its upper frame to be visible over the top of the building before dropping back to the ground with a thud. That instant, heavy fire poured in from several directions. “That’s pretty fucking textbook, don’t ya think?!”

Both ducked harder behind their shields, nerves and stomachs tightening back down. “Fuck the textbook! We can’t let them close in on us any more than they have!” The fire slowed back down momentarily, prompting Andre to continue his outburst: “It’s gotta be one quick and sustained jump up and over the-”

“-We are holding, damn it!” Kerry fired back. “That’s an order!” But with the suppressing fire growing closer on them, the one setting she had been avoiding was becoming more of a necessity. She toggled the Antares OS to the “on” position, set to “3”.

Andre still felt different, unwavering in his shouting back: “I know you feel it coming, Kerry! I’m not going to sit here and die not trying!”

“At least switch your Antares on! There’s too many of them out there!”

It was only one second before she heard Andre’s jump-boost drives light up again. “Andre!” Her shouts were all in vain, and before she could even start to think of how to react, the splitting and cracking of Hexa’s proprietary armor alloy nearly froze her in her core. And it wasn’t one but several in rapid succession.

“Shit!” She heard him cry out in panic. “Left main drive’s down!”

She immediately panned her camera upward to see Andre’s LTAC veering off sharply to the northeast. The Underground’s suppressing fire now quickly turned to take-down fire. She fought to keep her composure, turning to prepare to chase him down, feet moving back over her pedals.

And then the sound of older era booster drives roared overhead. A rough Gamma frame-build LTAC looked to be in on the hunt for the wounded. But as she planted her feet back on the footrests and swung her rifle around, the jarring but soon-to-be comforting sound of thunderous crackles rained down upon it. She watched it careen downward, crashing into the pavement below with a deafening series of thuds and screeches of grinding metal.

“Pilot Melonkahn, this is Drop Team Leader at 300 meters above you and descending! Secure Pilot Ingooyen while we cover fire!”

Without hesitation, her feet quickly jammed the pedals into the floorboard as she immediately shoved her controls to her right, darting off with her eyes on the smoke trail Andre left. She couldn’t get her mouth moving in response to the mostly unidentified rescuers, nor could she even think to look up to see where they were coming from. She saw Andre’s LTAC marked in a wreck up against the next-over building and that was all she could focus on. And that she did, keeping her shield forward, making a bee line for him amidst a newly brewed storm of crackling showers of hybrid rifle rounds now behind her. The only thought that did manage to cross her mind mid-flight was: And where the hell is Sam!? Why of all times is she still on silent!

Her Ap50 landed firmly with a clatter, sliding to a halt before whipping around to the direction from which she came, shield up. Several rounds zinged around, well off mark, cueing her to peek around the right edge of the shield, spotting an ensuing LTAC only made visible by its movement as the camouflage had it well blended in beforehand. Having Antares active, the aim tracking was off and her right thumb went for the hat switch with precise, careful movements to an area just off center. The spot must have felt right, going with what the OS was communicating to her as she pulled the trigger in bursts.

With a bang and a show of fireworks, she watched the power converter block go off as the targeted LTAC was thrown to the ground. Wasting no time, her eyes darted to the area behind it, seeing a train of four friendly units all touching down, rapidly spreading out to secure the area.

Now, Kerry finally afforded the chance to check up on her downed partner. “Andre! Status!”

“Flight is a no go!” he responded back, disgruntled. “Everything else checks out.”

“Whoever that is that dropped in, we’ll let them handle things. Rifle up and ready until we get a green light to return!” She then took a look back at her map, spotting Sam’s marker still fully active, not too far from what must have been Sebastian’s new marker just a click away. “Sebastian, if that’s you, what’s Sam’s status?!”

A few tense seconds passed before he finally responded: “She’s fighting the Cloak! I can’t see what is happening, but I have to keep my distance until she turns her radio on!”

Frustration began to rapidly build up again upon hearing those last words. Sam! Whatever the hell it is you’re up to, it’d better be worth shutting us out!

A sudden blue flash around the corners of her screen flickered several times, stirring her completely out of her focus. A voice then came up over a separate channel: “Kerry! Listen to me!”

It was Devin’s voice, stopping Kerry’s heart for a moment. She had just found the strength to respond before she remembered Andre right behind her. She clicked off her team channel before answering back: “Dee! Where are you!? Are you alright!?”

“I only have seconds before I have to disconnect so they can’t track me, so listen!”

Tears felt as if they were about to well up, nodding her head as if he could see her.

“First, don’t worry about me- I am in the safest possible spot to hide until Excalibur is over!”

Excalibur?!

“You have to do the same once you get back safely! Do NOT re-enter service! Your whole group is marked for bounty internationally, including me, and there’s ten times that number for your buddy Sam!” He took in a deep breath before speaking his last sentence. “Promise me to stay inside HQ until Excalibur is over, alright!? Kerry! Promise me!”

“I-but… Dee! What is Excalibur!?”

“My time’s up! Promise me, Kerry!”

She opened her mouth to shout back once more, but a flash of blue signaled to her the other side was gone.

I want to promise, Dee! But what the hell is Excalibur?! How do I even know how to find you!? Her eyes finally regained focus on the field ahead, watching the fire indicators from each of the newly dropped squad members flash in and out. She then paused her thumb’s advance to switch her radio back to active as she continued thinking. The bounty must be an extension of that Dhaka mess. What the hell are we in for, and what is Sam out there doing that got her such a high bounty?!