“Sam!” Tricky’s voice rang out, snapping her back to reality after having spent the past few seconds fighting off a sudden brain fog. “Code E is a go! Time to pull back!”

She had to stop and shake her head a bit, realizing the back of her head felt heavy and sensitive to motion. Twinging, she focused on properly answering: “But I have to get back to Kerry and Devin! They’ve never responded!”

“You.. you got five units inbound from different directions! You can’t take them on in your shape!”

“What do you mean?!” she snapped back, feeling like they knew something she didn’t, forgetting the more advanced metric readouts they would have on her. And why is her voice all shaky?

“Your neural network repair work… it won’t last! If you take any big hit at this rate it’ll be the end, you hear me?!”

She wouldn’t have any of it, however, not with a score still to settle. Zay is still out there! That piece of shit had better not done anything to-

“-Damn it, Sam!!” Tricky yelled out with a crack in her voice, scaring her straight. “Devin’s gone! Don’t add yourself to his list, too, you idiot! Move!” she finished yelling with it evident she had been holding back tears this whole time.

Hearing that froze her where she stood, feeling the cold wash over her like earlier. No… not again…

“Devin, if you’re on the line still, thanks for always keeping an eye out for us.”

“Nah,” he replied with a chuckle. “I got you to thank for everything working out for us so well. You know,” he continued as he let out a grunt as if he was putting down something heavy. “If it wasn’t for you bailing so many of us out that day, I wouldn’t be reunited with everyone like this. I never imagined making my exit the way I did, but yet, I always imagined my return would be at the right time somehow. Keep a good eye out for us.”

“I want to be a Harbinger. One like you.”

Danielle lowered her gaze in disappointment. “Are you ready to lose everything?”

She remained silent there in disbelief. Was Andre really not going to make it? Is what Tricky said about Devin true? Is he going to continue hunting down Sebastian and Kerry while they’re helpless and exposed? All these questions came around to a point where the memory of the wound she received through her shoulder shot through once more like she relived the pain all over again. She could almost feel Isaiah somewhere out there within arm’s reach, staring back at her with the same cold, demeaning glare. She had only held back from telling her parents out of fear of…

Wait, she thought as she started coming to. Why did I ever hide the truth from them in the first place? Why did I not seek him by name if I want to end this? And the fury continued to amplify by the second. Why am I sparing ANYTHING over someone who clearly isn’t my brother anymore?!

Oblivious to the fire engine and ambulance sirens, panicking shouts from civilians tangled up in the chaos, and the honks of cars scrambling to safer distances, she switched off of her channel and clicked on her other communication device. “Reaper!!” she bellowed, refusing to call him by name. “Stop running, you fucking coward! I’m right here, damn it!”

She might have been missing out on who knows how many commands or alerts on her main channel, but none of that mattered in that moment. If this is what all I have to lose, Ms. Norris, then I’ve already lost. What else is there to lose? She thought to herself as she took hold of her gatling’s secondary grip with her left hand, feeling her senses heightening once more through the stubbornly continuing discomfort that gripped her brain. Everyone left their mark as a Harbinger, so this is where I leave mine.

She felt a chill run through her like she felt she just damned herself an early departure from this world. But she still felt she had to own it seeing how the situation evolved up to this point. Putting her back against the wall, this was the only path left to take.

“Well!?”

She was fully aware of the radar signals honing in on her position, but one of them finally stood out to her as it was the first dot to cross the frame and into her immediate vicinity. That’s him, she thought with a gulp. That’s got to be him.

And from over the top of a building-top water tower descended what threw her off of her expectations completely. Taken aback by the far bulkier, cloak-less LTAC now staring her down from the other end of the street, she even questioned if that was him or not. But then she realized that was a massive sword it held out with a two-hand grip, plasma arc hot and glowing.

Biting down and with not a shred of care for the structures behind the Seraphiel, she swung her gatling around and hovered the reticle for the hatch door area.

No…

In a flash of hesitation, she remembered the last encounter she had with him LTAC to LTAC. She remembered him having no fear of a ranged attack seemingly head-on, so there was no way in her mind he wouldn’t have changed now of all times.

Her reticle instead continued through a different path, now slowing just short of his left vicinity, squeezing the trigger while now swiftly pulling it in a sweeping motion before letting go as to prevent too much unnecessary fire.

Her eyes then widened in confusion as Antares scrambled to make sense of what transpired. Several distorted images of the Seraphiel popped in and out along her firing arc before they all fizzled out instantly, leaving only a wake of shredded steel, concrete, and glass. “What?!”

And then she remembered hearing Devin screaming “Above!” minutes earlier, prompting her to pull back on her controls in a jump back to distance herself.

But where’s the feedback? She thought as she started moving, eerily without any pain or nauseating waves of painful jerking sensations that were now an expectation when dealing with higher level pilots. Why do I feel nothing?! A cold sweat had already started beading down her neck as she began looking around both over and behind her. And what even was that just now!?

She desperately wished there was someone listening in on, or watching in on what had transpired, and the feeling of having dug her own grave was kicking in full strength as she started backing up, eyes constantly darting from one end of the sky to the next.

.

●　● Infinity Marikina HQ, Manila, The Philippines

Kaylen had her eyes closed, seemingly focused on keeping her composure amidst her constant trembling and her inability to keep her hands still as they lay on her knees. She sat inside a cramped cockpit, one much tighter on space than the usual LTAC. And even more unlike others, the helmet that remained docked just above her head had no visor. Instead, it was a solid, one-piece design that had her completely blindfolded and focused solely on head impact protection.

She was strapped in like any other pilot, but with no control sticks at the end of either console arm rest. In their places were two hand rests with individual finger wells, but neither with any semblance of joints for movement inputs.

On her flight suit were a collection of cable input jacks, a pair at her shoulders, another behind her back, two at the base of her neck, and two just above the bottom of her rib cage.

“Ready!” a man’s voice called out from just outside the open cockpit as he stepped in from the catwalk, holding a set of loose-ended cables. “Establishing final connections!” he continued as he one by one started clicking them into place, starting from behind her neck. And with each locking “snap” Kaylen felt, the more violently she would to shake and the more her breaths would become hastened. Her helmet then began to lower as the tech stopped what he was doing to secure it to her as he noted her sudden lack of willingness to progress forward with the final preparations.

The Kaylen Rodgers sat there was the same Kaylen that had on too many occasions brazenly displayed how much confidence and contempt she had with the air of having nothing to lose. It was the same ex-pilot she didn’t break upon being referenced to as the “Apollyon Massacre”, yet there she sat as if she were about to break down and cry from total, blinding, suffocating fear.

She then felt a hand approach her. “Don’t fucking touch me!” She shrieked as she grabbed the tech’s right hand that held a cable input just below her chest. He dropped it as he called out in pain, reeling back with shock. “I’ll do it myself!” she continued with a heavier, more difficult breath. Blindly feeling her way with her clumsy, quivering fingers, she guided the cable into place, feeling the click of the locked connection in a way like it had started sucking away at her very soul. “Next!” she cried out with her hand extended. “Let’s just get this shit over with, already!”

The last cable was finally locked in as she felt a tear roll down her cheek. “Ready,” her defeated, cracked voice mumbled out as the irritated tech closed the cockpit doors. She thought to take in one last breath before guiding her fingers through the conduits on the hand-rest units, seemingly savoring it before taking a firm grip with each hand.

The tear that was to fall from her other eye never came as her trembling immediately came to a halt. Her breathing normalized, her jaw relaxed, and her posture straightened. Everything seemed magically at peace, including the soft hums of the operating systems powering up.

Al watched from the outside of the control unit they had set up in the hangar, peeping in on the crew of four that manned several monitors and input stations, all connected to what read “Hexa PK-03X: Galatine”.

“Operation Excalibur, phase two under way,” a control tech spoke through his headset before turning to Al as if he knew he was being watched. His head shake spoke to Al as if to say a request had been denied.

Al then stepped inside the station area before two of the men stood up to stop him. “Let me see the commands, damn it!” He struggled with the officers pushing back, just managing to catch a glimpse of everything he needed to see before allowing himself to be removed from the area.

“Hey! Get him out of here!” the head control tech snarled as soldiers approached him, but Al was quick to put his hands up in a conceding gesture.

Straightening his jacket, he quickly took off toward the main control room he was in earlier with teeth clenched. He knew what he saw, and the text burned in his conscious: “Primary Objective: Eliminate Reaper and all associated ground forces.”

He burst back into the control room to find his station still as active as before, Tricky still on her headset trying to pull all units back. “Hey, I need that favor done now if you don’t mind,” he firmly spoke to her with a hand on her shoulder.

She paused awkwardly as it took a moment to switch mental gears before realizing the poor timing. “Sir, your daughter is still refusing to reconnect her communications.” Surprised those words didn’t faze him, she continued in a more pressing manner. “She engaged with Reaper’s LTAC after ignoring retreat orders!”

Al started to turn away as if to scream at the wall before curling his fists up, letting out a frustrated huff. “I need that favor, and I realize Sam’s in danger by my hands are tied, clearly!” he fussed back as he turned to face her again. He then lowered his voice, shaking his head as if to clear out some of the emotional fog in his head. “Galatine is launching as we speak. The last thing I’m worried about is Reaper if Sam can just hold it together for one minute- and she is in a position we can’t do anything to change. That’s why I need you to prioritize that one thing before it’s too late. Please,” he continued in his own pressing tone.

Tricky couldn’t fully accept his view of the situation, but after some hesitation, she nodded with a turn to one of her command monitors.

“Incoming!” a man shouted out in alarm, causing Al and Tricky both to duck their heads instinctively. The room then shook as if an earthquake struck, lights flickering and people screaming in response as a thunderous boom echoed throughout.

“Ballistics shield perimeter not responding! Explosives detected at several locations around the base! Ai units, flush them out- change rifle ROE to level two!” Al heard another shout over the channel before he immediately looked to the screen showing the hangar he just left from.

Static.

He bit down as he felt the worst coming, clicking his headset before barking: “Status on Hangar four!” And just as he finished, another series of explosions rocked the building.

.

The four Ai20 units that remained standing despite the sudden heavy waves of gun and rocket fire could only do so much, overwhelmed and left with no other choice but to keep their shields up until they could find an opening to return fire. And then a sudden series of thuds rang through the heart of the oldest pilot there, triggering him to shout: “Mortar fire incoming! Move!”

As the four scattered amidst the raining down of mortar shells, the one at the front noticed each dropped fairly close to the hangar complex behind them.

“Find the source, quick!” they heard a voice command over their radios as they scrambled to their barely functioning explosives monitors, having hardly a clue from which direction it came from as more thuds pounded more fear into them. And they knew the next series would fall through the roofs of the complex, wincing, jamming their feet solidly into the asphalt below with their shields up.

And after each of the next series of impacts shredded through the first few hangar bays, all fell silent. Explosives monitors still showed nothing while the two Ai20 pilots up front began surveying the area once more, wary of a surprise attack, knowing either LTAC units or missile trucks could be hidden in waiting.

**TAHH!!**

Shrieked a rifle round of a far higher than average velocity round with a shrill echo that numbed the nerves of the remaining pilots. And before they could spit any words out in reaction a sharp explosion ensued that next instant, causing them to jump.

**TAHH!! TAHH-TAHH!!!**

Two more fired, and two more explosions right after.

.

Al, hearing another terrifying series of connected shots and impacts, was now ball-fisted even tighter than earlier and in a nervous sweat. “It’s begun…”

.

.

.

●　● North Marikina District, Manila, The Philippines

“We’re pulling back! All units, retreat or take cover!” Isaiah barked in rare form, speeding down a mostly emptied multi-lane street as most of the traffic, both foot and auto, had evacuated the district’s roadways and taken shelter. “Status, Cable!”

“If you didn’t take so long to get moving, you’d be in the clear! You might have one minute if that!” he heard her cry out in response.

“I thought…” he started to answer back, realizing the folly in ever entertaining the thought of silencing Sam as he promised he would prior. “Never mind. Hang tight, don’t move until we check back in.”

.

He then sensed he spoke too soon, letting out a mixed sigh of impatience and laughter at the irony of the situation. He threw the brakes on his right rollers and kicked his left foot out, spinning a 180° as he allowed his momentum to carry him in reverse, sword out and ignited.

“You think you can run AND ignore me like always?!”

He felt his heart twinge at the hearing of her voice.

.

Sam finally thought to use LOS communications, realizing earlier he was in a modified AiX chassis which would likely have the same emergency functions installed. She stared the Seraphiel down for a few seconds, noting the distance she had with a straight shot at him from just over a hundred meters out. “Fine!” she spat out as she pulled the trigger with a yank of the controls, firing off an angled belt of titanium Isaiah’s direction. And just like earlier, a collection of glitched images fizzled in and out of position before all disappearing among the following fountains of debris, but this time the next image of the Seraphiel came back into view thirty meters in front.

“No, the only thing consistent here is you and your pathetic little figure eight you call your life.” Isaiah responded coldly as he pulled back to swing amidst his charge. “Let me finally fix it for you.”