Euna didn’t fall for it this time. She didn’t look up at the ceiling to check what was ‘up’. Instead, she gave Hiro a cold and almost menacing glare that screamed, 'explain yourself now.’

Hiro's cheerful smile promptly disappeared. The look that Euna was giving him, was scarier than any drill sergeant he'd ever met. Even though the features on her now elongated face were hidden behind sleek black scales, a pair of blood red rubies glared up at him. He noticed that Euna's body had changed drastically again. Her body was now akin to a four-legged beast, armored with the same obsidian scales that wreathed around her long and narrow frame. In addition to her claws, Hiro noticed a nasty hook-like blade at the end of a serpentine tail that swished languidly from side to side.

“I wasn't sure where to look, since you lost my hand, but I had a feeling I would find you here,” Hiro said. “I was doing a bit of sabotaging, I'll explain more later. First, you--”

Hiro suddenly noticed green-yellow pus and thick sanguine fluids leaking from some exposed pink flesh on her behind. He cringed inwardly at the grisly sight.

That might explain why she looks like she wants to tear me a new one, Hiro concluded.

“You okay?” he asked, then addressed the Aug-soldier behind him. “Lower us down.”

The Vessel kneeled down on one knee, and as it did, the saber in the Vessel's hand inadvertently drew close to Euna.

Euna growled, a deep grating rumble that made Hiro wince. It didn't help that the Aug-soldier behind him was shaking in fear, causing the Vessel to jerk around wildly and making Euna let out another rumbling growl.

“Wh-what the fuck man! You said she was friendly!”

“Calm down, Greg,” Hiro said hurriedly. “You're going to destabilize. Look your sync-rate is plummeting.”

“Screw you! And my name isn't Greg, it's Geoff!”

Hiro paid him no mind, turning his attention back to Euna.

Segments of her scaled face had peeled away, exposing her lower face.

“What’s the hell's going on?” Euna almost growled the words at him. “What is he doing?”

“Don't worry about Greg. First, we need get our asses moving before someone catches on,” Hiro said. “Hop in, I’ll explain.”

Euna looked up at Hiro, and at Geoff. It was clear that she was hesitating.

Jumping into a dark and compact space with two Augmented soldiers wasn't the exactly the most enticing idea, Hiro surmised.

“Euna… Do you trust me?”

Euna didn't answer. Instead, she hopped onto the blunt edge of the saber after taking one last look around her. Currently, there weren't any other Vessels running their way. Most of the Aug-soldier's on the ground were too occupied with the colossal Altered. Vicky’s Vessel was still motionless on the ground.

Euna clambered up the narrow blade with a careful grace. Upon reaching the sloping forearm of the Vessel, she sped up then sprang off of it when the incline became nearly vertical. She twisted around in mid-air and landed on the raised knee of the Vessel. From there she approached the cockpit.

Hiro could feel Geoff shaking behind him.

“Y-you’re crazy,” Geoff said. “You wanna hunker down in here with that? We'll get eaten alive after she rips us apart!”

Euna tilted her head at the limbless Aug-soldier as she peered into the cockpit dubiously.

“I wouldn't eat you,” she said reassuringly. “I'll just rip you apart.”

“Greg,” Hiro sighed, “You're only egging her on. She's harmless. In fact, she saved my life. I wouldn't be here, if not for her.”

Geoff made a doubtful expression before conceding. “Whatever you say. Just remember our deal,” he reminded Hiro, then added, “And there's not enough room for her.”

Hiro knew Geoff was right. He could barely manage to fit in here with him and Geoff was currently bereft of his limbs. Even tossing Geoff out might not make enough room for Euna.

“You're right. There's not enough room…” Hiro grinned, “but Euna has a cute mini-form.”

Hiro watched as her body went stiff, but her tail remained in motion, maybe even wagging a bit more fiercely.

“Wh-what? C-cute mini-form?” Euna stammered confused. She was poking her head into the cockpit, trying her best to squeeze in when it had dawned on her what Hiro meant. “Oh… You mean that?”

“Yes. Quickly.”

“...”

After Euna devolved into her mini-form but with scaled armor, Hiro picked up Euna by her wrist, and deposited her into the crevice on Geoff's left side. With Hiro on the right, Geoff in the center, and mini-Euna on the left, the hatch of the cockpit slid closed, smothering the compact interior in darkness.

Euna was about to mention something about lights when hologram displays lit up around them, giving them a real-time visual experience of the hangar bay around them.

Complex shapes and numbers mixed with letters that were highlighted in an assortment of colors littered the images. A bluish green glow illuminated the interior, giving Euna the chance to examine the interior of the cockpit. She noticed several black cables plugged into Geoff's back, most of them concentrated around the neck and spine.

“Greg? Remove HUD.”

Euna could hear Geoff muttering something about 'it's Geoff’ under his breath.

The numbers and shapes disappeared, leaving a crisp image of the outside. As Geoff stood up and turned around, the scene shifted, focusing in on the melee between the colossal Altered and the Vessels. Everything they were seeing was essentially a duplicate of what Geoff was seeing through the Vessel's eyes and sensors.

Watching the display, Euna was able to assess the current state of the hangar bay. In the amount of time that had passed since Euna went on the offensive, the colossal Altered had laid waste to at least another dozen Vessels. She could see them at the other end of the hangar bay. Freshly ravaged and mutilated, they were strewn on the floor like bodies as plumes of smoke and fire marked their graves. Four more columns had been demolished and even more of the upper floor had fallen apart to form mountains of rubble in the hangar bay. The Vessels currently fighting, were even more defensive now than before. There were even fewer of them, and most of them were desperately in need of repairs and resupplying. Euna counted about nine Vessels at the moment who were actively engaging the colossal Altered. It was clearly not enough.

The colossal Altered was currently stampeding down the hangar bay on all fours, towards another column in the distance.

The Vessels followed, splitting up and repositioning, preparing to intercept.

Euna noticed the colossal Altered occasionally arching and swiveling it's massive head around in search of something before continuing it's destructive rampage.

She frowned. She found it strange that the colossal Altered was limiting his destruction to the confines of the hangar bay. It seemed as if he was mindlessly attacking anything and everything around him.

Euna narrowed her eyes skeptically as she examined the colossal Altered.

Am I imagining things or did he get… bigger?

He seemed to have grown even more bulkier, with more layers of stone-like carapace.

Confused and astonished at the same time, Euna had to confirm from a closer distance. The hangar bay was huge, and it was hard to get a sense of scale.

“Move closer,” Euna said.

“No way,” Geoff promptly refused. “There's no way I'm getting closer to that thing.”

“Do it,” Hiro waved his wrist-cannon at Geoff. “I’m assuming you know that Altered over there?” Hiro asked.

Euna shook her head slowly as she watched the hologram display move forward along with head bobbing motion. “I'm not sure,” she said, feeling a little queasy.

Hiro frowned. “What do you mean, you’re not sure?”

“He might be from my village but I don't know who he is exactly.”

Hiro took a glance at Euna. He could see her glance down, but couldn't really make out her expression with Geoff's torso in the way.

“The truth is…” Euna said quietly, “Up until yesterday, I've never seen the people in my village alter themselves into something like that,” she pointed to the colossal Altered.

Hiro took a moment to let this sink in. He had never considered that Euna was this green. He didn’t know how old she was exactly. She could have been over a hundred and you wouldn’t be able to tell with an Altered.

“Well, don’t worry, him being here is a surprising turn of events but a good thing nonetheless. It would only make sense that your people had planned an assault at the commanding ship of the fleet, afterall. There's a good chance that the rest of your villagers are doing well out there. If an Altered managed to get pass five carrier’s worth of static defenses and platoons of Vessels... then who knows what else General Corax has to deal with out there. Right now, he’s got bigger problems to fry than just us," Hiro said, then turned to observe the Altered. "This colossal Altered seems to be really letting loose, I mean, at this rate he might even tear this entire floor down.”

“Maybe you’re right, but it doesn’t seem that way to me,” Euna said as she observed the colossal Altered. “He seems angry and lost. Father wouldn’t let one of his own be put in danger like this, he would take things into his own hands and come himself. This doesn’t seem like something that was planned by father. And you still haven’t explained yourself. What were you doing while I was getting chased around?” Euna asked in a rebukeful tone.

“I was in the armory. A floor below us. With the time that I had, thanks to you of course, I was able to mess around with some of the explosive munitions. If things go right this whole place should go kaboom.”

Euna's eyes went wide. “You mean like how the first ship exploded?”

“Um. Not really. I may have exaggerated a bit. That was a system initiated self-destruct powered by the energy stored within the core engine, it’s nowhere near that level. At worst, it will serve as a distraction. At best, we'll have destroyed crucial supplies and equipment, and caused some considerable damage to the ship. Anyways, we need to get our asses out of here while we can.”

Just as Hiro finished talking, the colossal Altered collided with another column, displacing another chunk of the ceiling and exposing the upper floor. Then, without any warning or sign, it suddenly leaped upwards into the hole, disappearing behind the ceiling.

Hiro frowned.

“Which direction is he headed?” Euna asked. “Is it towards the bridge?”

“Y-yeah,” Geoff answered. “So we’re leaving now? Cause I don’t want to be on this ship with that thing any longer than I need to be. All the Vessels are following in pursuit, if we don’t move soon we'll stand out.”

Euna ignored Geoff. She glanced at Hiro, waiting for him to answer.

“Uh, yeah. The direction he’s headed is… a bif off, but that’s towards the bridge. We’ll take the nearest exit chute,” Hiro began scanning the hologram display. “God damn it, all this rubble, I don’t think those ones are even functioning.”

“Oh! I see one,” Geoff voiced. “Hope it works.”

The Vessel they were in turned around, then began running full pelt towards the far wall of the hangar bay, where there was a large hexagonal floor panel.

Suddenly, a loud crash reverberated through the room.

Geoff turned the Vessel around to the source of the sound, and together they saw that the colossal Altered had returned, along with a pulverized Vessel that was flattened underneath his feet. He once again began to look around with milky white eyes.

He's blind, Euna realized.

“Shit, shit, shit, I think it’s heading our way!” Geoff shouted, then began running towards the exit chute.

“Stop!” Euna yelled as they approached the hexagonal floor panel. “I.. think he's blind. I need to help him. Guide him.”

“That’s… That’s ridiculous. And how can it be possible for an Altered to be blind?” Hiro questioned.

Geoff turned the Vessel around to spare a quick glance at the Colossal Altered. The Altered was looking straight at them, moving with a slow gait, but steadily increasing its speed. Then it stopped abruptly for apparently no reason and arched its head upwards.

“Shit,” Hiro said.

“Reinforcements,” Geoff exclaimed with relief. “And they’re the Elite… I think we’re saved.”

Euna watched as squadrons of elite Vessels descended from the entry chutes with thrusters blazing as they slammed onto the floor one by one. As they dropped down, they tossed their Altered trophies onto a heap on the floor. Severed limbs, wings, ivory claws, clubs and blades made the majority of the heap. The rest of the heap were mostly blackened chunks of flesh, some of them still raw with crimson ichor and fluids gathering into a large putrid puddle. Euna’s stomach lurched as she realized what the sagging, disfigured masses of flesh were. They were decapitated heads of Altereds.

There were at least several dozen Vessels, but Euna immediately noticed that twelve of them stood out from the rest. Their armor were painted a regal white with black and cobalt trimmings. On their chests and shoulders were extravagant and colourful symbols.

“That’s the crest of the Armstrung house,” Geoff said. “The Ireauds, the Stiels... All of the twelve houses are here.”