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Misaki ran swiftly in her Atsui, following right behind the slightly faster Serval. Expertly they darted in and out of the trees, running to the point where they could no longer follow the woods and had to enter the clearing towards the village. Fujimori stopped ahead of her and she followed suit, halting to his right. They both surveyed the village, but couldn't make out much of anything.

"It looks like there's potentially turrets hidden there and there," Fujimori pointed out with the Serval's steel hand.

"Yeah, I can see that," Misaki agreed. "I don't see any sign of the company though." With a touch of concern in her voice she continued, "I don't see any people here at all. What direction was the infantry coming from?"

Akihiro piped in over the comms, "They should have been coming from the south, but I guess it's possible they got turned around."

The south side of the town was hidden behind a tall wooden palisade that surrounded it, as well as many buildings jutting out over the top to obscure their view. Beyond that, there were tall pillars of black smoke dappling the landscape, which made it impossible to know for sure.

"It looks like some lasers were fired off if I had to guess," Fujimori added. "Maybe a laser turret?"

"Hmm," Akihiro thought out loud, trying to determine how best to proceed.

"I'm gonna go for it," Fujimori exclaimed.

"What?!" Misaki whooped over the comms. "Why you!?"

"I'm faster and more experienced," he quipped back at her.

"You're barely faster and how would you even know my level of experience?"

"So you used to work in a mercenary unit and you've been in battles like this often?" Fujimori goaded at her sarcastically.

"Well, not exactly, but.." Misaki tried to make excuses, but was cut off.

"Like I said," Fujimori repeated insistently, "I'm going."

"Roger that, Fujimori," Akihiro concurred over the comms. "Be careful. Get out of there if there's trouble you can't handle. We'll support you from back here."

With that said, the Serval took off like lightning and sped towards the concealed part of the town. Misaki looked on with worry and a twinge of resentment. She paced back and forth until finally she could no longer control her impulse and took off after him. The Atsui wouldn't be able to catch up to him for awhile, but she didn't want Fujimori to go in alone and hated the idea of feeling useless on the sidelines.

"Fall back, Misaki!" Akihiro yelled coarsely over the comms. "You follow orders or people get killed!"

"People die either way," she chuffed back dryly, not listening.

She watched Fujimori rounding the edge of the village, just about to hit the southern side. As Misaki closed in at full throttle, she saw the unthinkable. Several blue beams, followed by huge arcs of electricity, shot out from behind the smoke and completely obliterated Fujimori's Serval. It fell forward on its face leaving a huge divot in the dirt, as sparks and fire erupted from the mecha.

Now over the crest of the hill, Misaki looked past the now broken Serval and saw countless bodies laying burned and bloodied on the ground. The entire company of infantry had been utterly devastated; there were none left alive that she could see. She halted the Atsui, then backed up slowly as she tried to deliberate her next move. Akihiro's voice was shouting over the comms, but she couldn't focus on what he was saying.

Taking advantage of her hesitation, a formidable mecha walked slowly from behind the plumes of smoke. Misaki had seen its likeness before in the magazines and on holo-vision, although never in person. It was called the Plasmacast and was a top of the line model designed by the Elizabethan Armed Forces. It was mounted with four deadly plasma cannons that shot pure energy, melting their foes to molten slag with little effort. It was definitely not the sort of mecha she expected to see on this backwoods planet.

Not giving her much time to process the situation, a second mecha flew in over the smoke and landed on top of a nearby roof. She recognized it specifically from the show Mecha Gladiator since it excelled at agility and therefore the Crossifre could be found in any arena. Her console began to warn her in an emotionless voice, "Enemy locked on. Evade. Enemy locked on." With the urgency building, she finally managed to break from her stupor as Akihiro screamed for her to MOVE over the comms.

She whipped around and at a break neck speed made a path for the line of the trees and the relative safety of cover. The Crossfire launched a volley of missiles after her Atsui and as they hit the entire cockpit rattled around her. Thankfully, her mecha held together, but if she took another hit like that it was going to go down.

Looking back towards the enemy, she could see a huge volley of missiles soaring towards the Plasmacast that was still slowly trudging towards her. Sakamoto must be firing them from the forest clearing she thought briefly as she sped over the grassy plain. She didn't see the missiles make contact, but she certainly heard them as a series of loud explosions boomed through the air.

Just then four more beams of energy went sailing right past her windshield, barely missing her Atsui. She drew in a deep breath of air in surprise before trying to collect herself and just hoping she could just make it to the trees. Her brain was running mostly on instinct by now and it had chosen to flee in the face of unbeatable foes.

A flurry of weaponry flew through the air around her as Sakamoto sent another salvo of missiles at the mechas behind her. They were followed by two fiery orange particle beams that shot consecutively, making bright streaks in the sky as they went past. Was that from Akihiro's mecha? she wondered.

As she saw the rusty outline of the Tenshin come into view, she couldn't help but yell out to him over the comms, "Get out of here!"

"That's not going to happen," he said bluntly as his massive Tenshin continued marching out into the open towards her. It was fast for a large mecha and was making excellent timing in coming to her defense.

Another huge assault of projectiles came in from the forest and landed spot on the Plasmacast's shoulder. It lost a plasma cannon as a huge gust of smoke escaped the hole where it had once been. The Crossfire had only taken minor damage as Akihiro simply wasn't close enough to hit with his full arsenal yet.

The Crossfire released its load of eighteen high yield missiles and this time it was going to get her. Misaki ejected with seconds to spare and watched while flying through the air as her Atsui exploded into a flaming inferno. Landing on the ground she felt frozen with shock, as if all she could do was look up at the Crossfire still marching forward like a sentinel.

She could see the orange lights warming up in the mecha's chest as it readied a close range reserve of plasma lasers. Misaki could see her death and was thankful it would be quick, as the three ember colored lasers cut through the air towards her.

Just then, Akihiro's Tenshin leapt in front of her taking the full brunt of the Crossfire's attack. It ran trails of burning ire through his mecha's armor, but the Tenshin was a tank and could take a beating. He yelled out to her on the loudspeaker, "Get to cover!"

Misaki nodded and made a run for it, as the Tenshin blocked the path between her and the enemy units.

---

Sakamoto continued firing volleys of guided missiles at the Plasmacast and was slowly taking it down, when unexpectedly he spoke over the comms.

"Akihiro! They've got scouts too! I'm surrounded!" he cried in a frenzied panic.

"You've got lasers. Use them!" Akihiro advised him with an urgent tone.

"I can't! They're too fast!" the man was now whimpering. Akihiro had seen this kind of reaction before and it wasn't pretty. Most had to be taught to coax the natural fear receptors into submission. Unfortunately... not all troops in the Legion were prepared properly for the wars they were thrust into.

"They're just circling me!" Sakamoto continued as his alarm escalated.

Aki could hear his breath quicken and the gasps of anxiety as he attempted to beat off his assailants.

"Just keep calm and focus," Akihiro pleaded with the man.

A final volley of missiles escaped from the Orochi, some hundred or so projectiles soaring through the air before making impact on the enemy Plasmacast. Explosions racked the ground around him as the behemoth mecha fell to the ground with a massive quake and Sakamoto's comm went offline.

"Sakamoto?!" Akihiro cried out with anguish now that he'd lost two members of his unit. "You Motherfuckers!!" he yelled out over the loudspeaker so they could hear his rage. Now that the Crossfire had closed the gap between them, it was finally within range of his particle beams. He unloaded his full payload on the asshole and watched as sparks flew and chunks of metal fell to the ground.

They traded blows back and forth in a sort of melee combat with lasers and missiles thrown in to keep it interesting. The Crossfire was equipped with high-efficiency thrusters that allowed it to jump through the air for a short duration. It kept evading Akihiro's attacks, constantly trying to get past him to reach the stranded Misaki. He was likely trying to stomp her out, a disgusting act that many lacking morality had an almost gleeful joy in performing.

Akihiro continued his guard, walking backwards and keeping himself between them regardless of what sly maneuver the Crossfire's pilot tried. At every attempt the Crossfire made to pass him, the Tenshin would swat him back down with a massive fist, forcing it to pay attention to him alone.

He had stripped near all of its weapons by now, only one rack of missiles remained, and he was feeling pretty good about his chances. Aki watched as the Crossfire set off a final burst of missiles. He wasn't worried until he felt the leg of his mecha give out as he lost control of it.

As the Tenshin went down, he aimed and fired all of his particle beams one last time. Miraculously, he landed a headshot, piercing the armored glass of the Crossfire's cockpit and killing the pilot instantly. The Tenshin fell backwards hitting the ground with a booming tremor that launched Misaki up into the air and over a gully.

Worried about Misaki's safety, he ejected from his mecha to find her before the enemy scouts returned. He disconnected the scant parachute from his jumpsuit, looking around quickly to get oriented. Akihiro scanned the horizon in a panic, and then remembered he had seen her launch up in the air. He ran to the edge of the woods and found a trench where a small river had once been. Down in the channel, he saw her laying splayed out on her back. Misaki wasn't moving at all and he hoped she has just passed out from the impact.

He jumped down into the muddy pit, plodding his way to her in the muck. When he finally reached her, he pulled his glove off and felt for a pulse in her neck. "She's still breathing," he said aloud, sounding very relieved.

After disconnecting the parachute clips, Akihiro squatted down and gripped under her armpit and pried her body from the thick mud. He then threw her limp body over his shoulder, and trekked back over to the edge of the gully. The mud fought him the entire way, constantly sucking his boots in with each step. Looking down the embankment, he worried about how he might get her back up, let alone himself too.

He walked along the edge, carrying her like a backpack for awhile and finally found a shallow spot where he might lift her out. Raising her up high, he slipped her upper back onto the grass first and then turned to the side to slide her legs onto the embankment as well.

Getting himself out of the ditch was much more difficult as the mud kept sliding beneath his feet. He kept trying to use roots that grew out of the ground as leverage, but they kept breaking and sending him back down into the sludge. Finally, he found a thick tree root that proved durable enough to support his weight and ascended out of the muck.

He fell to his ass once safely on the turf, trying to catch his breath and regain his bearings. Maybe he could even get an idea of his surroundings and figure out where they should go. The old river ran along the treeline, but there was an offshoot tributary that darted straight into the forest's dense foliage. He decided their best bet was to follow the path into the woods. Grimacing, he lurched down and picked her up, placing her over his shoulder once again.

---

Akihiro trudged along the bank for at least an hour while the sun went down and darkness set in. With one hand, he reached into his vest for a mini flashlight, which he placed in his mouth so that he could actually see where he was going. He made sure to keep it low so that it might not draw any attention if the bandits, or whoever they were, actually decided to look for them.

Eventually, the dried-out waterway came to a fork and Aki opted to follow the smaller of the two trenches which still had a trickle of water flowing through it. After following the stream for another twenty minutes or so, it brought him to a cave. The water was exiting the cave through a rivulet running along the side of it.

He placed Misaki down on the ground, and propped her gently against a rock at the mouth of the cave. There was a grove of bamboo trees nearby, so he took out his combat knife and cut some branches down. Bamboo seemed to litter most of the planets in the Empire these days. It was as if they brought the seeds to every planet to see where they would take. Given the plant's entrenchment in their culture, it was as likely an explanation as any.

Bamboo was also extremely resilient and didn't have much trouble growing anywhere that there was actually the proper atmosphere for it. He planned to use the soft leaves of the trees to create a makeshift bed to rest in for a time. It had been dark for awhile now and he was beyond tired. Getting some rest seemed like a good idea for both of them considering all they had been through in the past few hours.

Akihiro wove the series of branches one on top of the other, making several trips to gather more. He didn't realize how many leaves it would take to actually soften the surface of the rock and then to make it large enough to fit them both. Finally, he finished the mattress finding it to be comfortable enough, but nothing spectacular. He picked up Misaki, carrying her like a bride unto the threshold of the cave and placing her down onto the bed of leaves. She moaned slightly before turning over to her side and falling back asleep.

They were still covered in mud and he wished terribly that he could do something about that, but at the moment it was pitch black, cold, and above all else... he was exhausted. Most of the mud had already dried anyway, and so he opted to save it for the morning.

Akihiro untied his boots and tossed them to the side. He laid down besides Misaki, turning his back towards her so as not to make things more awkward should she wake up. He felt his heart pounding and couldn't decide if he was more anxious about the current situation or about laying so closely to Misaki. He was still a man after all, and she was still a beautiful woman. Akihiro smiled to himself with sardonic mockery. Amazing I can still think about dumb shit like this after all I've been through today.

It didn't take long for the fatigue of his mind and body to kick in as he fell into a blessed sleep.