Sly stared forward at the monitors as Six drove them through the dark tunnels, all lights off they flew through the pitch black path as from time to time the tunnel broke up into two or three taking to individual districts.

This tunnel was made for vehicles to drive through, for people to freely go between one district to another after a quick check of identity was made at the station. Yet after the insurrection of GAIA and the border this system was shut down, ignoring the uninhabited cold districts the Military blocked off passage between districts for over two years as they deconstructed the tunnels into an open train system.

“Did you really have to disassemble it all?...” asked Ray with a sigh.

Turning around Sly glanced at Ray looking down in distraught at her black and yellow bike, disassembled to the last part by Roy and Tell so as to equip it’s stealth module to the Rider. Although the stealth module was connected to the Rider’s power supply it was still running on minimum output making it mostly ineffective for visually cloaking the Rider.

Yet they were driving in pitch black darkness so even that was enough to disrupt cameras from seeing them, along with York and Lesha working together to disrupt sensors all around their path the Rider was passing through entirely undetected.

“Paper beats rock sister, paper beats rock.” Said Roy with a smirk as he tinkered with his blue and black bike.

Sly looked back into the monitors, his attention again focused on their only method of sight. Because of the stealth module their side and bottom cameras had to be disabled and because of Lesha and York’s disruption the Rider’s sound, motion and visual sensors were put offline.

To cover their moves they had to mostly blind themselves, only able to keep the front camera thanks to Tell’s ingenious repositioning of it. The ‘steering wheel’ was given to Six because of that, the camera had to be put at an awkward angle and elevation to remain functional so their best driver had to be put to the test. Which if it wasn’t for the Rider’s internal gravitational module they would feel the few angles of tilt to the left.

Sly stared at the sole AR monitor that remained online, the camera showing them through the darkness ahead and revealing the path. As they approached their destination Sly pondered on the past days. Reaching deep inside with his mind he felt the last bit of the blessing, a source of energy he could use to summon his miasma with which he could create more mana with.

Sly closed his eyes as he wondered if it was going to be enough, he wondered if he was going to be enough to defeat the man that tricked a demo-goddess and is in possession of an artefact that could rewrite reality. He thought it over and over yet however he saw it his mind could only come down to one answer, he couldn’t possibly win.

Scythe wasn’t the average human anymore, his knowledge of magic made him a dangerous foe when paired up with such an item. Not counting Scythe’s own power, along with the artefact Sly had no idea what to expect.

(“But I cannot give up…”) He told himself (“No matter how strong he is…I cannot allow him to bring Mars to Chaoz. It would be the end of Chaoz, it would be the end of my dream…it would be the end of our dream…”) he clenched his hands together as he sat back into his seat.

“We just passed the 29th, buckle up.” said Colorado as he was also staring into the monitor from behind Six, glancing to the side he saw Sly’s dark expression. Moving away from Six he leaned onto the side of Sly’s seat “You alright there Kid?” he asked after flicking Sly’s ear while wearing a grin “Why the long face?”

Sly sighed as he glanced up “Because this is it, everything adds up to this for both you and me. If you cannot find your way to a main console and gain access to their system then the colonies are doomed to remain stale and under their tyranny. If I cannot stop that man…”

Colorado broke out into laughter, shaking Sly by the shoulder briefly he then took a deep breath and crouched down “Sorry sorry! I’m just not used to seeing you think so much!” He joked with a smirk “Ah where’d that maniac runt that stormed a Jackal warehouse with just a pistol and smoke bombs go?”

Sly didn’t respond, he simply stared ahead retaining his gloomy expression.

Colorado sighed in exasperation “Why did we call you Kid anyway? Do you know?” he then asked while also staring ahead.

“Cause I was the youngest to ever make the cut?” responded Sly with a distant tone.

“Cause you were the youngest member but also the one that stood out the most. Always finding a way to get into the thick of it, always rushing ahead yet coming out alive. A mean thick headed little shit that always found a way to increase our work.” Colorado spoke but his mind seemed elsewhere, as if reminiscing on the past “Even though you were so much trouble, even though you gave us a heart attack at every turn. Do you know why you remained till the end?”.

Sly sighed again “Cause you felt bad for little ol’ me? What’s your point Col?”

Colorado punched Sly in the shoulder “Cause you were loyal, even though you didn’t need to be there, even though there was no way you should of made it in time. You came, when the Mils cleansed the entirety of 13 you gathered the others offduty and came. If you hadn’t done that less of us would be standing here today, more of us would be a bloodstain on the ground.”

Colorado stood back up and out of Sly’s sight “It doesn’t matter what lays ahead Kid, all that matters is that we believe we stand a chance. Because in the end…there’s no better way than to go out with a bang, you taught me that. You taught us that.”

Sly glanced back to see them grinning, each person that accepted to come onto this suicide mission with him was smiling like a fool. Immediately he turned away “Ya all mad.” He said with a smirk “Wipe those grins off your faces, you might scare them all off before we get to shoot them. We’re here.” He then pointed out as he saw the monitor.

Down the grey lit tunnel a crossroads presented itself, two turns to either the left or right and a single massive sealed path right in the middle of them. Around the sealed entrance was an indentation of dark metal, at the very top of this circular indentation was a large red number reading “30”.

“Land nearby?” asked Sly as he glanced at Six who looked around the tunnel then nodded. Taking the Rider low he quickly stopped with a turn to the left side of the crossroads. Sly stood up from his seat and looked back at the rest “Wear your breathers, the air should be thin here. Inside there won’t be none.” He explained whilst taking out the mask from inside his own hoodie.

As they all put on their breathers except for the Androids -a full face black leather-like mask with two square boxes on either side of the mouth section that popped out a few centimetres and a glass like oval visor that stretched over the eyes- they all gathered at the doors on the back.

“We have 24 hours worth of air each.” Said Tell as he fully strapped his own on “Don’t lose it.” His voice coming out slightly muffled.

As they all gathered their individual bags of gear and worn equipment Sly slid his hand over a pad on the left signalling the doors to open. The darkness spread out outside as the light from inside the Rider leaked out, giving them a little light to see as they stepped out.

Sly took out a flash light and his pistol, looking around the tunnel he noticed several differences than the one between 13 and 14. Several piles of mechanical masses lay spread out along the floor of the tunnel “Raiders.” He mused while approaching one of the piles.

The Raiders were large fifteen meter tall machines of war made by GAIA to combat the Military’s combat androids and robotic marvels while being a marvel of machinery of it’s own. Shaped after humans the Raiders were massive battle-mechs wielding large rapid firing energy based weaponry in both hands, two explosive projectile launchers over the shoulders and equipped with differentiating modules depending on the type of Raider.

The one Sly was staring up at seemed to be a Shielder-class by the massive metallic shield over it’s left arm, long out of power the shield was nothing but a skeleton now.

“Well isn’t that uplifting, Raider corpses all over.” Mused Tell as he stepped around Sly to inspect the machine, giving it a light kick as he did so “Smart bastards, using AI to control these things while also assigning them pilots that controlled said AI over voice coms while also using encrypted signals to connect controls between it and the pilot.”

“You what now?” asked Shelbert as he stopped to stand next to Sly.

“They are man piloted machines whilst the pilot did not require to be inside said machine. Causality-less, quickly reproducible and strong foot-soldiers.” explained Roy as he hovered out his bike from inside the Rider “GAIA used them to overwhelm the Mils with numbers, combat androids are strong but too stupid on their own and require a human commander. One human can only effectively command so many androids.”

“And androids aren’t easy to produce either.” continued Tell “In all GAIA was said to outnumber the Mil’s by three to one while also equalling them in production. Look how well that treated them.” He said while kicking the collapsed robot in the side again.

Ray snorted “Numbers aren’t everything, guess their leadership just didn’t have the quality.”

“I’d beg to differ.” Spoke a mildly distorted voice from around them.

The Fourclaws dropped their heavy gear and pulled out their weaponry, flashing their lights around the tunnel they saw nothing and nobody but themselves. Other than Sly who had pinpointed the voice’s location, staring upwards with his back to the fallen Raider he raised his pistol and squinted slightly.

Sly fired once as the flash of light that was the fired projectile collided with a reflective surface that blinked into existence in front of them, a massive hand was revealed swatting the blast of energy away. Sly lowered his pistol and took a step back as he spoke “Reveal yourselves!”

“If you insist.” Said the voice as the tunnel around them suddenly lit up, blinding the Fourclaws from the previous pitch black darkness they had to force their eyes away or close them briefly before looking again.

Sly blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted to the new light, glancing around with a still blurred vision he watched as several massive silhouettes flashed into reality as the light reflected off their bodies. His eyes having adjusted Sly swallowed a gulp as he found himself surrounded, massive weapons aimed down at him and his comrades he glanced around at the half a dozen Raiders.

Not like the dozens of offline and broken down carcasses on the ground these Raiders were online, looking to have had better days several large cloaks were wrapped around their bodies to cover the damage they had been dealt.

“Now if you wouldn’t mind, drop your weapons and surrender yourselves.” Spoke the Raider straight in front of Sly, seemingly more damaged than the rest this one had been given a certain amount of repair noticeable from it’s pitch black right arm compared to the rest of it’s silver-iron body.

Sly glanced around at his own, each wielding a weapon up and spreading their targeting around to take into account each Raider around them. He then studied the Raiders, each keeping a certain amount of distance from them and each other, normally their massive frames would have been more effectively used to enclose around them as their weapons did not ricochet but they weren’t.

(“There’s more of them…”) Sly guessed as he glanced around the visible Raiders, unable to tell whether he was right or wrong even six of these machines would be a pain to deal with in this situation. Slowly he crouched down and dropped his pistol and flash light to the ground, raising himself back up he then raised both hands up into the air.

Sly glanced around himself, seeing the others still holding onto their weapons he nodded at Six and Colorado who nodded back and did the same, followed by the others all of them lay their weapons down. As they did so Sly reached deep into his soul with his mind, finding the Astral mana imbued into him he clenched onto it and spoke “Who are you?”

The black-armed Raider lowered both arms wielding the massive rifles “We ask the questions here, who are you and what is your business here?”

Sly stared up at the Raider, it’s bright blue visor entirely focused on him. He pondered on whether he should lie, he wondered on if the Military had re-deployed these Raiders to defend the Cold zones too. Yet he believed in his own power to destroy each and any Raider in the vicinity with no causalities of his own.

“We are the Fourclaws gang of the 13th district, my name is Justin K.Teller, a junior member.” Sly gestured at the others behind him “With me are Rayner Six the mad dog, Colorado Damion the brawler, Shelbert Stevens the junkyard demon, Roy and Ray White the stampede.” With each name and nickname spoken the Raider slowly re-raised it’s weapons “Tellik Bjorn the circuit imp and Zeyen Chez the heavy.”

“Point taken, what are professional thieves and murderers like you doing here?” asked the Raider, it’s tone more careful than before.

Sly lowered his arms, if these were Military men then each name spoken would of induced a bullet leaving only one or two of them alive for interrogation. Those two probably being York and or Lesha as they were obviously androids. Still clutching onto the mana inside Sly spoke again “We’re here to free the colonies and destroy the community built on fear surrounding it.” he exclaimed.

The air fell silent as the black-armed Raider stepped forward, raising it’s right blaster to Sly’s much smaller face it asked “And what makes you think you of all people, stand a chance of accomplishing that?” another voice spoke instead, a clearly male human voice.

Sly chuckled as he stepped closer to the blaster, merely inches away from the massive weapon “Because we have something you did not have, we have something GAIA was never able to achieve.”