Unfortunately, a bad situation was about to get worse. In addition to the odd energetic fluctuations that accompanied the cataclysm wave, which already permeated their senses, the two young channelers began to feel something else. This new sensation was less potent but far more jarring, because while it was not as overwhelming as the energies that caused this latest cataclysm, it was infinitely more foreign. This energy was not the wild thrashings of a planet as is strained under the force of its own powers, but a manufactured phenomenon. So amidst the complex, wild acoustics of the cataclysm they began to hear the steady, monotonous beating of something else.

The slow pulsing of energy promptly quickened, becoming a rapid pounding before it was simply a steady stream of mechanical noise. Next followed the unmistakable visual cues of clouds parting in a radial pattern before a powerful beam of plasma smashed into the ground at the centre of the courtyard. This stream of energised particles lasted just a few seconds, before its intensity became subdued and the energy dissipated into the surrounding environment. At the centre of the blast, the ground crackled with electricity and emitted a faint white glow before revealing the true purpose of this discharge. With the blinding energy now fully dissipated, the figures of sixteen individuals faded into view.

As expected, their appearance brought with it the intensifying of the environmental disturbance, but their body language suggested that this did not phase them. Instead they simply began to assess the situation. Unlike the two novice channelers who had been assigned by McLeod to help those in need, these men and women were equipped and trained to deal with circumstances just like this.

Though not fortunate enough to be born with the gift of 'channeling', these sixteen members of the Disaster Response Team relied heavily on specialised equipment to carry out their work. Each member was equipped with a specific assortment of rescue equipment, compiled and consolidated into a single mechanical armour known as an exo-suit. These exo-suits were marvels of technology, allowing the operators, known more commonly as 'pilots', to control the movement and various functions of the suit in a similiar way to how they would control their own bodies. This generally allowed exo-suits to function on the same level as, and sometimes even better than, channelers in the situations for which they were designed; provided that the pilot’s technical abilities were enough to compensate for the channeler’s natural intuitions.

This was one such case. Not only did these veteran officers outclass the novice channelers that they would soon find themselves assisting, the potency of their gear was unmatched by any other exo-suit employed for non-military purposes.

Even from their locations some distance away, Roun and Nikolai could feel the energies emanating from these bulky suits; and were quick to accept that they dwarfed their own energy outputs considerably. Such a realisation was both reassuring – since it suggested that their help would be more than sufficient – but also terrifying, as they were also fully aware of the effects that their own comparatively weak abilities had on the cataclysm so far.

"Alright, give me a status report." A voice emanating from a large, central suit commanded.

"I'm picking up four heat signatures in the eastern building, Captain – one of which is unusually hot." The pilot of one of the smallest suits responded over their Data Communicator, a multi-frequency computer system that had evolved from the era of 'smart-phones'. "Zeta-spectrum analysis suggests that the hottest signature is a 'meta' – Braver-tier." He added before proceeding with scans of the other facility.

"Alright Lieutenant, keep 'em coming." The captain responded, prompting him to give the remainder of the sit-rep.

"In the central building I'm getting twenty-one hits scattered throughout the facility and one of them is moving quickly." He paused as he once again switched to his other scanners. "Once again zeta-spectrum confirms a 'meta', Braver-tier just like the other."

"And the west building?" The captain pressed.

"Completely clear." The lieutenant replied.

"Alright, we should be home in time for lunch with this one so listen up." The captain started. "This is a category four cataclysm and these buildings are well over two hundred years old so don't expect them to be standing for much longer. I want you 'Prowlers' to split up into teams of two. Team One'll be responsible for ferrying rescue-ees to safety. Team Two, Three and Four will get the survivors out of the central building as quickly as possible. Team Five will clear the four survivors out of the east building and then join up with the others in the central building."

With these words, the group of sixteen exo-suits began to break into smaller teams based on the design of their equipment. Ten of these members possessed the 'Prowler' load-out, a mid-sized suit of armour that stood about seven and a half feet from head to toe and weighed in at just under three hundred kilos. These suits were particularly well-balanced, with mid-ranged armour, standard mobility servos and weak thrusters that allowed them limited sustained flight. The suits were equipped with small sonic-blasters for clearing debris and a 'force-field' generators for the protection of the pilots and those that they rescued. These ten pilots quickly paired up and split into Teams One through Five before heading out.

"The 'Sentinels' will stay back and call out target priorities." The captain continued. "Today, survivors are priority number one; stabilisation points take a back seat."

These words caused the two pilots of the smallest suits to hang back. These small exo-suits stood just over six feet tall and added under one hundred kilos to the weight of the pilot. They possessed the lightest of armour and standard mobility sevos; resulting in the highest speeds among the rescue units. They also possessed weak thrusters but much like their mid-range locomotive systems, they combined with light armour to give them impressive mobility. These suits also sacrificed the ability to equip armaments for the array of sensory technology baked into their armour. This allowed them to create a virtual grid of everything around them in a three kilometre radius.

"Screamers, you're with me – isolate the focal point of this cataclysm wave and see if you can neutralise it." Came the captain's final orders. "Each successful disruption of the event buys your squad-mates time, so focus and make your shots count."

Screamers were the largest of the exo-suits, measuring just over nine feet in height and weighing well over five hundred kilos. Their massive size allowed them to hold the largest production-model zeta generators, which produced the unique energy form that powered these technological marvels. Unfortunately, these massive generators were not just cumbersome but ridiculously heavy; drastically reducing the mobility of such suits. This problem was simultaneously compensated for and compounded by their heavy armours, which allowed the slow-moving suits to take the worst of beatings and made their poor mobility less of an issue. Mobility servos were top notch, but barely managed to move the suits much faster than the average human could muster and it was widely agreed that thrusters would be wasted on such gear so they were completely omitted from the design. Each Screamer was then outfitted with dual, shoulder-mounted 'neutrality canons' – devices that would dynamically modulate to generate destructive interference with most zeta-based phenomenon.

These cataclysms were one such phenomenon, and while still not widely understood, they had been observed to react positively to these 'canons' – which were originally designed to neutralise the abilities of channelers. Similar systems were even utilised in the Environmental Regulation Systems of most cities, though they had so far failed to get this particular disturbance under control.

In fact, despite their best efforts, the event only seemed to be intensifying.

"What’s your equipment telling you, lieutenant?" The captain of the small squad inquired with puzzlement as his best efforts seemed to have no noticeable effect.

"It’s telling me a lot of things but none of it makes a whole lot of sense.” The young man replied. “Either these two ‘metas’ are generating a category four cataclysm…”

“Which is impossible.” The captain quickly retorted.

“Indeed.” His lieutenant concurred. “The only other reasonable explanation is that the focal points of this particular cataclysm have synchronised with their energy signatures – and I can’t for the life of me tell you what would have caused that.”

“Well, ‘metas’ doing weird shit is just another Monday as far as I’m concerned.” The captain shrugged. “So, the important question is: If we neutralise these two, do we stop this thing?”

“There’s no way to know for sure but it’s worth a shot. By my prediction, the survival rate is going to be pretty low event if we focus on rescues first so that might be the more effective strategy.” He replied.

“Works for me.” The captain shrugged. “Prowler teams, new orders! I need a clear shot at each of these ‘metas’ – ‘Mr Wizard’ here says that if we can neutralise them, we might stop this event in its tracks, which means an early lunch for everybody.”

“Lunch sounds good if you’re buying, Cap.” The leader of Team Two replied.

“Finish this up in under two minutes and I’ll think about it.” Was the captain’s response, which drew light laughter from the leader of Team Two.

“You heard the man people; let’s do this!”

In that instant, the rescue mission had become a hunt and the development – unusual as it was – caused no member of the team to bat an eyelash. Given the specification of their gear and the similarities in the design of their exo-suits to those used for military application; the Disaster Response Team had a tendency to attract candidates with military qualifications if not experience. Just about half of the Prowler team were former members of private military forces and the remainder were working towards positions in national and private militaries. Such predispositions made them precise, efficient and quick to follow orders; but more importantly it gave them a clear head when asked to take unorthodox approaches such as shooting innocent young men.

Within seconds of the change of orders, Prowler Team Four broke away from the other two teams that had been assigned to sweep the central building and began to make their way towards the upper chamber of the old chapel. Controlled bursts of propulsion from their on-board thrusters, coordinated with manual locomotion, allowed these Prowler suits to ‘skate’ on a thin layer of energised particles. This enhanced their motion significantly and allowed them to close distances far faster than a human would be able to on foot.

Moments later they were bursting through the rubble that blocked their entry into the building. Much like Nikolai before them, these men had no advanced knowledge of structural engineering but unlike the novice channeler, the augmented reality provided by their Heads-Up-Displays (HUDS) more than compensated for it. Built into each of the suits were multi-spectrum scanners, tuned to absorb the same sensory data that the human body processed as well as the latent energies that channelers tapped into for their abilities. These energies were referred to as zeta and as such the scanning arrays were referred to as zeta scanners. The Prowlers had less sophisticated zeta scanners than those of the Sentinels but this provided no disadvantage, because all sixteen of the suits were connected wirelessly by a constant stream of information that kept their suits up-to-date. While the Prowlers and Screamers undertook the more physically demanding roles, the two lieutenants in the Sentinels were responsible for analysing and prioritising the data shared between the suits – marking targets and offering explanations of strange readings. So while these four pilots were not personally familiar with the physics behind what made a building stay up, they could easily demolish walls and quickly make their way through the facility without further compromising the half-collapsed building. Their ‘force-fields’, which were in actuality comprised of a spherical lattice of microscopic energised particles – held in place by a zeta energy field – protected them from falling debris and that created from their sonic blasters demolishing walls. This relieved them of the need to worry about their own safety in the face of these perils and allowed them to close the distance between them and Nikolai in minimal time.

Just as their scanners had been able to pick him up, Nikolai had also sensed the energy signatures of the rescue team for some time and was relieved at their arrival. Once again he found himself in an immaterial form while Aegis’ body propped up the collapsing roof and protected the three remaining hostages.

“Man am I glad to see you guys…” He started as the four Prowlers made it up the stairs, through the debris and into the room but this sense of relief was quickly replaced by one of dread.

“Don’t move!” Were the first words barked at him over the loud speakers that allowed the pilots to communicate with those outside of their suits.

“What the—” He started, but before he could finish his sentence their sonic blasters were trained on him and he could feel the surge of energy rushing from their generator cores towards the weapons.

“Hands where we can see them and move towards the wall!” The voice came again, forcing Nikolai to comply instinctively as he tried to figure out what was going on.

Almost two hundred metres away, the captain laughed.

“Harsh commander – and totally unnecessary.” He chuckled over their private communication channel.

“True, but the kid’s scared stiff – you couldn’t possible ask for a better shot.” He replied.

“You’re right.” The captain’s chuckle subsided and his laughter faded to a silent smile as he clenched his fist, giving the physical command that prompted his exo-suit to unleash its payload.

To the naked eye, there was barely a visible distortion of their surroundings as the neutrality cannons fired, warping light and vibrating the air as the otherwise invisible energy streamed towards its target. Unlike electromagnetic waves, which travelled at the speed of light, this zeta pulse propagated itself through the environment comparatively slowly. Still, it was but an instant before the wave was washing over Nikolai’s ethereal form and the results were decidedly unpleasant. The sensation was like the initial impact of the cataclysm wave but amplified a hundred-fold. His senses were completely overloaded with the burst of sensory data and his abilities went completely haywire. His aegis construct shook violently before exploding into a million tiny particles of wispy green energy – a fate that should have been shared by its summoner, but it seemed as though the source of the cataclysm had something else in mind. Instead, the energy from his aegis constructs rushed towards Nikolai’s ethereal body, which had also began to lose its cohesion. The result was a swirling nexus of aegis energy, rotating faster and faster around a single point before it exploded into a powerful wave of light, heat and force.

“What the f—” The captain muttered as he witnessed the event, before he realised that his second in command was about to take a similar shot on the one remaining channeler. He opened his mouth to scream the word ‘no’ but before it could escape his lips a blinding light also emanated from the central building.

He was too late.