Enlado could feel his heart thumping in the background as he guided the massive metal chassis that was his body towards the enemy. He was a fallen soldier reincarnated as a demi-god of the battlefield. His titanic frame pounded the earth, alerting the enemy of his approach, but it did not matter. Artillery shells struck the enemy’s airfield destroying the biomechanical constructs that the enemy fielded as air support. The troops with their myriad alien forms began to swarm from within the rest of the encampment as their point defense emplacements more accurately zeroed in on the artillery shells that sought to fall upon them.

Enlado ‘felt’ the heat of energy weapons upon his metal skin, but it was too late as he reached the threshold he’d calculated and leaped. He landed on the other side of the enemy’s defensive emplacements and, with a sweep of his hand, let out a massive cutting beam that destroyed them all in one fell swoop. He felt a thump beneath him as an explosive let out and left him reeling for balance. Small arms fire and anti-vehicle weaponry began to thump out as he let out a cry of rage and regained his balance. He continued his swathe of destruction, leaving the enemy base in ruins. He stumbled out of the wreckage, barely operational after the damage he had sustained in the fight. Enemy artillery fell upon what had been their own base, and Enlado once again greeted death, this time with open arms.

Hephaestus

Bridget had thought she would be late but by some miracle had made it on time. With fewer train breakdowns occurring every day, it seemed that it was just faster to get places. She couldn’t even imagine what things would be like if the transport system was able to get some actual upgrades instead of just being patched up. That being said, the panic from the feeling of being late had yet to subside as her mind raced. Her leg jiggled in an attempt to spend the nervous energy bouncing around inside of her stomach.

The door to the next room opened, and a tired, somewhat bedraggled looking man in a lab coat stepped out. He went up to the secretary, “I have an interview to conduct today right? If they’re here already I want to get it done so I can get some sleep before that madman sets me to another project.” His voice was a low growl, as if he had either been up far too long or just woken up.

The secretary, unperturbed by the grumpy scientist, didn’t even look away from her terminal before pointing towards Bridget, who had seized up. This was not exactly what she had been expecting. The man turned to her and squinted, eyeing her up and down. “Hmm you look a bit young. He’s not too kind towards women either, but if we keep you out of the way it’ll probably be fine. C’mon lets get this over with.” The man walked through the door, and Bridget scurried afterward, following him partway down a hallway into a small bare room furnished with only a table, two chairs, and a viewscreen.

The man looked at the viewscreen as it popped to life, her files that she’d submitted for the application appearing as he browsed them. “Hmph, looks like your just now completing technical training, so no actual experience. Could be good, means no bad habits at least. Good marks all around, some positive notes from instructors too. Not too shabby, now if only we could do something about the fact that you seem more like a scared rabbit than a person,” he said pointedly as he whipped around to stare at Bridget, who stood frozen at the door, unsure of how to react to this strange and brusque individual. “Look, we aren’t going to get far if you don’t take a seat,” he said as he occupied one of the chairs himself.

Bridget took one of the seats quickly and tried to steady herself a bit, “I’m Bridget by the way,” she said. The man in front of her still hadn’t introduced himself yet, and she hoped he would take the hint.

“Ah, yes, names. Those can be important,” the man said in a tone that seemed to indicate he thought no such thing. “I’m Doctor Michael McKay, not that anyone around here cares that I’m a Doctor in my own right. Compared to Doctor Voinovich we all might as well just be interns running errands. Enough about me however, tell me of yourself, why should I hire on someone who looks like they might die of fright just from looking at me?”

Bridget forced herself not to flinch, the man’s voice was forceful, and he was not at all the consummate professional that Bridget had thought might be interviewing her. “Well as you already noted, I did well in my training so I am at the very least somewhat intelligent. I might seem a bit frightened to you, but I assure you I’m just somewhat in shock, because I wasn’t expecting such a...belligerent inteviewer. I’m sure I’ll get used to it. That being said the real reason why you should hire me is that I’m addicted to my work. Technically speaking I don’t have my certificate yet, but I’ve completed the final round of coursework already. And I’ve typically completed every round of coursework weeks to a month in advance of the end of the courses.”

Doctor McKay frowned, not breaking eye contact with her as the viewscreen tabbed over to her instructor’s comments. They flashed by the screen one after another, several referencing the blindingly fast pace at which she devoured courseloads. “A useful trait, especially in this lab. Good enough, your hired. Go talk to the secretary at the front, I’ve already sent her a message that your hired, she’ll get you sorted with all the paperwork and when your first day will be.” He stood up and moved to exit the room.

“Wait, that’s it? You haven’t even told me what it is you’re doing here.” Bridget asked, shocked that the interview was over so quickly.

Doctor McKay turned his head back towards her. “Part of what you’re about to sign is secuirty clearance paperwork. All work done at these labs is of utmost secrecy so I couldn’t tell you if I wanted to. You’ll find out what you need to know as you need to know it, if you can’t stomach that, then don’t sign the paperwork.” And without another word, he left Bridget alone in the room.

Bridget collected herself quickly and made her way back to the waiting room, where the secretary smiled at her, “Here you go dear. Welcome aboard.” Bridget took the tablet from the secretary’s outstretched hand and signed the documents without a word. She would read over the contract later, she knew it was foolish to not read through it first, but she Had to work here. Her instincts were screaming at her that whatever was happening here, it was the opportunity of a lifetime.

Kipouen

After some time, Joseph finally had the opportunity to meet the team that he would be accompanying into the bunker. They were a motley lot, but all proven fighters. The plan was laid out for them and was fairly simple. Orbital sensor readings provided by The Avalon Fleet had done a good job of mapping out the bunker. It was shielded but didn’t account for advances made by scientists aboard The Avalon. The images were muddy but readable and had been turned into a rough map of the bunker and sent to the rebels.

They weren’t sure of the exact location of the Grand Arbiter but should be able to ascertain it after gaining access to the bunker’s security systems. The Avalon Fleet had given them some tools that should be able to do that for them automatically. They just had to plug them in and let them work. Once they had her location, they’d begin heading for her position.

The end of the ‘briefing’ was taken up with a rundown from Joseph on the capabilities of their new equipment. He wasn’t exactly an expert on everything, but he was all they had at that moment. After what amounted to a quick rundown, they geared up and headed out. They didn’t have the luxury of time as the longer they waited, the more likely it was that The Grand Arbiter would find out that they knew where she was. It might not matter either way, but any slight advantage was just that.

The entrance was meant to look like an office of some variety. The signage hadn’t weathered the fighting very well, but Joseph recognized the type of layout from visiting law firms and lenders in the past. It was a decent cover but had been rendered moot by the war. There was an elevator shaft at the back of the building that was meant to take them down. Some sort of code was required to get the elevator working, but bypassing that wasn’t much of an issue. One of the rebels pulled off the panel and plugged in his tablet. Joseph didn’t know what he did, but he easily bypassed the elevator security, and they were able to descend.

The hacker smiled as they descended, “I worked in information security as a penetration tester. My entire job revolved around trying to crack into systems much more complex than this elevator. That being said the tools I’m carrying around in this little tablet are basically toys compared to what The Avalon Fleet gave us from the sounds of it. I wouldn’t be able to crack military-grade encryptions with this little thing,” he tapped his tablet for emphasis. “The Avalon Fleet though said that this can do it no sweat though.” He shook his head incredulously as he held a comically tiny nondescript metal stick with an adapter plug at the end.

Some of the rest of the group started taunting him over the subject, but Joseph tuned it out. The Avalon Fleet definitely had some impressive hardware. The fact that even with everything they had that they were still locked in combat with the aliens after all these years. He couldn’t even imagine what that foe must be like. He wasn’t sure he ever wanted to find out.

After some few minutes, the elevator settled to a stop and dinged open. The group had been at the ready, prepared for an immediate firefight. They immediately ran out and found cover, only to be greeted by silence. Shiroykos took it in stride and ordered them to move up. They slowly began to cover ground, following the provided map keeping an eye out for terminals or maintenance panels.

Soon, without encountering any resistance on the way, they found their mark. A small maintenance panel, it was locked but was easily cut open. The little stick that The Avalon Fleet provided was put into the appropriate port, and after a few moments, data began to stream to them and fill out their map. The bunker had far fewer people than they had assumed. It seemed that all of the staff was robotic, and the only people down here were a handful of generals and The Grand Arbiter herself.

Then security footage came online showing what looked like a conference room. All the generals were slumped at their seats, clearly dead. Crumpled on the ground in the front of the room lay The Grand Arbiter, Elizabeth Yamato Cirillo, a hole blown through her own head. On the screen behind her, blood had spattered, but beneath that splatter, words could be read. ‘Connection interrupted, please try again.’ Joseph’s jaw just went slack, this was not at all what he had expected. He looked to Shiroykos, who merely nodded, giving him permission as Joseph took off at a sprint.

The HUD from his helmet had already mapped out the fastest route to the conference room, and he quickly made it there. The door slid open and he entered slowly. The scene was just as he’d seen from the camera feed. He looked at the screen, more information was forthcoming that couldn’t be read from the camera. She’d tried to set off nukes buried all across the continent. And when the signal had been intercepted, Joseph could only surmise she knew there was no going back and that defeat was inevitable. In that moment, she must have decided it would be less painful to take her own life rather than be captured and be subject to the whims of her enemy. Going out on your own terms, he could understand that, but he felt bitter that in her final moments, she had succeeded in taking one more thing from him.

Joseph collapsed into the open seat that had clearly been meant for her and removed his helmet. Tears of rage and relief streamed down his face as he was overwhelmed by the conflicting emotions rising up in him. After everything, this was how it ended? It was so anticlimactic as to be absurd, but who was he to complain? After all, the end result was the same, even if he didn’t get to pull the trigger. He still felt disappointment at not being able to do the deed himself, but he would shake it off in time.

In the meantime, he put his helmet back on after wiping away the tears that had come forth. He took a deep breath and triggered his comms. “Former Grand Arbiter Elizabeth Yamato Cirillo is dead along with her Generals. She killed herself after failing to detonate nuclear devices buried across the continent.”

Shiroykos responded over the line, “Thank you for the confirmation Joseph, sending the data topside now. We’re going to finish sweeping the bunker, please maintain your position for now.”

Joseph acknowledged the reply and remained in the chair. A single thought echoed in his mind as he sat. What now?