Lyria whipped her mech around the corner, the airfield coming into view. It was a complete mess. Everywhere she looked, black smoke billowed up and the W.R.A. and Helix soldiers were engaged in heavy firefights. It was obvious to her that the hangar was compromised and was in danger of falling.

She quickly cued up her comm and sent out a distress call, “This is commanding officer Lyria. We need all available units to fall back to the airfield. Those stationed in the residential areas, begin to evacuate any citizens to safety.”

Lyria felt her heart sink, the quickness of Helix's armed response being much quicker than what was anticipated. Had they planned this all along or was it just a coincidence of timing? As she continued to approach, a group of Wolf mechs gave her the answer she was looking for. The red sheen of the leader was unmistakable. It was the man from before.

Lyria cranked her mech to a sharp bend, leveling her weapons in the direction of the group. Normally a Wolf's weapons wouldn't pose any threats to high speed targets, but Lyria's machine wasn't standard. It possessed a heavy bore rifle with optic sensors that could trace high velocity objects. It had no problem locking onto the red mech. As she fired a round off, one of the escorts suddenly shifted, placing itself right into the firing line. The round ripped into it, blowing a cavity through the cockpit, the mech slamming down hard.

The red Wolf spun 180°, facing Lyria head on while keeping its trajectory aligned in the same direction. It didn't fire however, but instead sent out a comm call. As Lyria glanced down, it suddenly killed it's thrusters and skidded down into the pavement, coming to a firm stop. Lyria pushed down onto the controls, bringing her mech to a stop with a sidewards skid.

Picking up the comm call, she answered, “Exactly who are you?” She had a feeling that she already knew who it was but she was willing to confirm her suspicions.

“I'd suggest you lower your weapons first. You wouldn't want to harm my passenger.”

Lyria felt puzzled at the man's statement, the bluntness of the statement catching her off guard. She felt hesitation grip her, but slowly released her hands from the firing controls. Her mechs arms slowly lowered in response and came to a rest at it's sides.

“That's better. We've already crossed paths once before but this time I'll let you know who I am. I am Char Malkovich, leader and head of Helix. Onboard my machine I'm carrying one of yours so I suggest you be more careful with who you're aiming at.”

Lyria felt her stomach wretch. There's only one reason and person that Char would show his face on a battlefield like this one, and she knew that Maple was aboard the red Wolf. She realized how much at a disadvantage that she was truly at. She couldn't open fire due to the risk of killing Maple but she also couldn't let him leave with her.

“I see you're at least easy to reason with. Now I suggest you begin to gather your people, as I'm going to be the least of your worries.”

In a split second, the red Wolf took off again. Lyria quickly raised her rifle but refused to pull the trigger. She just couldn't risk it. If they lost Maple for good, then they would lose their beacon for their revolution. They would just have to try and intercept them further out from the city. Lyria reached down and began trying to reach Kane. Hopefully his reinforcements would be close enough to try and cut Char off outside the city. The chances were slim, but they were better than nothing.

Marcus and the rest of his team circled around from the residential area and picked up a highway lane that would bring them around to the airfield. As the armored carrier let its engine roar, everyone began to clean up their wounds and check their equipment. Kirsch had been no easy battle for them, and they felt every inch of his attacks throughout their entire body.

Marcus glanced out one of the windows of the vehicle, taking in the atmosphere around him. The dome above appeared in patches, the dark smoke blotting out most of it. The purplish hue it gave off before was now mixed with tints of orange and red glows from the fires that had spawned across the city. From high up, he could truly see what chaos had been brought forth form the fighing.

Spurts of gunfire still rang out across the city but something else was drawing his attention. The central line of defense at the central HQ was still holding fast but a large target was bearing down on them. Identical in appearance, a large onyx black vessel was rampaging through the streets in a direct charge towards the tower that served as their central operations. It was impossible to tell what was on board, but he knew that it was probably more than the W.R.A. soldiers could handle alone.

“Lyria, this is Marcus here. It looks like we have some kind of large transport bearing down on HQ. Do you copy?” After a few minutes, silence was the only response he received. Was she busy and couldn't respond or was something else going on?

“Yeah, I'm here but we've got bigger issues. Marcus, it's Maple. I ran into that red mech again and after confirming it with some of the soldiers at the airfield, they saw the pilot kidnap Maple.”

Marcus suddenly felt as if the world had dropped out from under him. Surely they had been mistaken. She had promised to stay in the hangar. He knew she was hot headed but surely she hadn't been stupid enough to run out into an ongoing battle herself?

“You're positive. She's not at the airfield anywhere?”

“I'm sorry Marcus, but I've got reinforcement units set to try and intercept but right now we need to get everyone out of here, especially if the HQ is going to be in trouble.”

He slammed his fist into the wall, the steel squeaking out in a cry. The sudden outburst brought everyone's attention to him. Amanda and Akatsuya hesitated, Briggs too busy driving to notice and Germaine up in the turret away from everyone. How was he supposed to just walk away from his daughter? How could he leave her safety to the hands of someone else?

“Listen, I get that you're frustrated but we don't have the manpower to back you up if you pursue and we need all hands on deck here.” Lyria's voice cut across as jagged as stone. It sounded harsh, but she was simply trying to prioritize for the least disastrous outcome. While Maple's safety was of high importance, the imminent problem was those citizens in the residential areas that needed to be moved away from the fighting.

Marcus felt a flashback enter his mind as he thought of those refugees they had abandoned in Marlow. As he glanced out across the city from the high road, he wondered what they thought of his people and his message he had first tried to bring to them. Aplhas were not the enemy, but were humans that were willing to help all the same. If he turned to pursue Maple, could he still stand by that?

“Fine, where do you want us?”

“Glad to hear it. I want you to meet me at headquarters. If we lose that we lose communications with our teams and then we'll fall where we stand.”

Marcus cut his comms line and made his way up to the cockpit. Briggs stature dwarfed the driver seat so much that it looked like he was in a clown car. Marcus gave him a quick pat on the shoulder and pointed him in the direction of the HQ. Briggs pulled the carrier off the next exit and made a beeline for their destination.

Maria stood in a gaze at the Red Wing. For so long it had remained covered, unable to be of use to anyone. Now, it wouldn't be long before it was to be unveiled to the world and to bring it's justice down upon Helix. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice the approach of footsteps from behind.

“Dr. Sukomoto! You need to get to safety!”

She was greeted by a disgruntled W.R.A. soldier, his uniform scorched and torn from the battle raging outside. She quickly waved him off and began pacing over to the Red Wing. It's massive frame occupied all of the hangar, its red gleem dulled by the dim lighting from above.

“I am already in a safe enough area. Do me a favor and bring me your comm link.”

Without hesitation the soldier walked over to her and quickly passed off his comm device. Maria situated it upon her ear and dialed up Lyria's channel.

“Hello? Lyria here.”

“Ah good. This is Dr. Sukomoto. It seems were losing control of the situation very quickly so I concur to resort to drastic measures. I'm going to deploy the Red Wing.”

There was a momentary pause before Lyria's voice rang back. Her tone was stark and cold, “You realize we haven't even finished clearing everyone out from the city right? Can we risk launching it with the city this occupied?”

It was a reckless plan. The Red Wing was not fit to take off in such a small confined space, especially with the dome overhead. The initial plan however was to bring it through the outer wall upon takeoff, using its glide capability to hover over the city.

“I can't promise that there won't be damage but at this point, I don't think we really have to worry too much about the city being damaged. As far as I'm concerned they've gotten the jump on us. It's time we depart and go on the offensive ourselves.”

While they had chosen to disclose a large amount of info to Marcus and his team, both Lyria and Maria had never revealed the true intentions of the W.R.A. They had planned on defending Celestia as long as possible but in the end, they knew they would have to leave it and the people behind. They had hoped that they could implement a self sustaining existence in time of their absence, but with the ambush at hand it just wouldn't be possible.

“I understand. Just give us time to get everybody out of the city. Once we give you the all clear feel free to load everybody up there on the Red Wing and take off. We'll rendezvous with you once we're outside the city.”

Maria dropped the line and gave a small grin. Finally everyone would realize what a great engineer she is and would be gracious with the Red Wing at her side. If Helix had learned to do the same she might not have defected. Then again, she couldn't have accomplished this with how strict the oversight was with them. They had quarreled over her design in the first place, claiming it was “an abuse of the power to control with the company.”

She spat onto the ground. What did they know anyways? They were the ones that used human experimentation in order to place themselves in a seat of power. How was this so different? At least she used machinery to do it, instead of using people as puppets.

Maria turned and handed the headset back to the soldier. He softly retrieved it from her and slid it back in place. As he turned to return to the battle, Maria stopped him, feeling his shoulder stiffen from the unexpected action. Even though they were all clones of some unfortunate soul, they still had human reactions.

“I want all the fire squadrons outside to maintain a defensive line at these hangar doors. We're going to begin loading up for takeoff. The airfield is a loss, we only need to protect this hangar now.”

Without turning around, the soldier gave a quick nod forward and charged off towards the exit of the hangar. Sure, Maria would wait to allow the evacuation of the civilians but she wasn't about to compromise the integrity of a takeoff. What would it hurt to be a little extra prepared?

Lyria came to a screeching halt in her wolf mech, an active firefight greeting her at the frontline of the headquarters. Fire raged around the building, gunfire being peppered back and forth from all sightlines. It was evident that the HQ was Helix's main target.

Off in the distance, just ahead of the plaza, Lyria spotted what had been the source of the distress call. A large black vessel, like the one that had breached the wall, was slowly making its way to the headquarters. Whatever was onboard couldn't be anything good.

She sized up the battle scene in front of her. The W.R.A. was holding a pretty solid defense line, keeping the wide open plaza area in front a killzone for any Helix forces that tried to wade in. On the side of the W.R.A., a compound entry way and stair complex offered a variety of cover. On the side of Helix, they were faced with much larger open spaces, with only benches, streetlights and other small terrain to offer a defensive shield for them.

The black vessel still slowly crept up the now debris covered roadway, unyielding to the gunfire that greeted it. Lyria leveled her rifle at it, lining up a shot just above the pointed front. She fired a round off and watched in surprise as the round only dented the vessel, leaving its armor intact.

It was evident how they had been able to punch through the outer wall now. Whatever armor this ship had on it, it was something they had never faced before. Lyria was willing to bet that these vessels were far and few in the Helix forces, meaning it was likely carrying something extremely important.

As the ship kept pushing up the line, it suddenly came to a halt. Suddenly the plates on its sides fanned outward, created a slanting shield shape. In the front, the blade split in two and moved outward to either side, revealing what lay underneath. A large bore cannon shot forth from the depths of the machine and began emitting an intense purplish light.

Before anybody could take cover, the cannon jolted back into the machine, recoiling it backwards. Lyria watched as the ball of light began to approach, the sound of thunder cracking following a split second afterwards. The ball suddenly curved to her right and slammed into one of the stair complexes beside her.

An eruption shook the earth beside her and Lyria looked in horror as a crater was left where the stairs once stood. Not even a trace was left of the soldiers taking up a defensive line there. As the dust began to settle, the metal in the stairs groaned, the lack of a support from below bearing too much on the upper level.

Suddenly the upper stair complex began to collapse, burying soldiers underneath it. In the matter of seconds, Lyria had just lost her right defensive line for the HQ. Something about that vessel had to be done right then and there...