- AI -

The personnel taking their breakfast in the peaceful cafeteria glared at Randall as he stormed in. His grey eyes scanned the tables, and he found Ysadora eating in the back, as usual. He moved in, but suddenly slowed down arriving at her table as he noticed Abraham seated across the table with her, reading his newspaper and drinking his coffee alongside her.

Upon seeing him, Abraham rose his head in surprise, Ysadora doing the same.

“Mr. Redspear? I didn’t thought you were already awake,” Abraham said.

Randall eyed him suspiciously before turning to Ysadora.

“I don’t mean to interrupt your breakfast, but I need your help.”

“Of course,” Ysadora said, rising from her chair, Abraham following in curtesy.

“Anything I can help as well?” he asked.

“Certainly not!” Randall hotly cut. Seeing the surprised stare of both Ysadora and Abraham, he calmed himself. “Don’t let me disturb your morning. We have a long and arduous meeting later on.”

“No problem,” Abraham acknowledged. “See you later. And you, Miss Dawn, see you next time.”

Noticing the anger in Randall’s voice, Ysadora only saluted before following Randall out of the cafeteria and into the main corridor. When they reached an empty corridor, Randall stopped and turned to Ysadora, handing her a digital tablet.

“I need you and Scott to hunt these people down,” he simply said.

Ysadora looked at twenty-two faces, all showing the typical hardened look of belonging in the military for long years.

“Aren’t they members of the Vymana squadron?” she asked, studying Feldsmarschall Teiwas’ face.

“Yes. This morning they released a video showing the underground base and the hidden militia.”

Ysadora stared longer at the tablet, then handed it back, looking at Randall with an accusatory glare.

“I warned you not to trust their loyalty. This was a big risk, and a fatal one if they succeed to leak this.”

“It was one we had to take, trust me,” Randall replied. “I never held their oaths true, and I do know it was a big risk. That’s why I’m asking you and Scott to take care of them. They won’t take the civilized path, so it makes it easier for you to eliminate them without witnesses and proof.”

“We’re on it,” Ysadora simply said before immediately rushing away.

Randall looked back at the tablet, and threw it down on the stone floor, where it broke into pieces. Picking them up, he began to plan his counter strategy.

********** AJ ***********

“What’s the verdict?” Teiwas asked Donna as the group drove along a treacherous path of rocks and dirt stumps on their off-road three-wheeled bikes.

She was wearing a backsack containing the battery for the computer that she was holding.

“Group C is informing that within forty-five minutes they should be able to pierce through the defenses. But I’m afraid that we still don’t have luck on our side and with Group B and D.”

“We’ve been trying at it for six hours; we’ll have to expect it won’t be so easy as we originally planned,” one of the soldiers intervened.

“Indeed; we have to keep at it,” Teiwas agreed.

They had driven for another twenty minutes when Donna suddenly stared at the screen with dread.

“Feldsmarchall, Group D just sent its black box!”

The whole group looked in shock. Teiwas looked at Donna, his bushy eyebrows frowning.

“How can they have been eliminated? They haven’t sent any indications beforehand of an upcoming attack.”

“I don’t know, sir, but the black box is there, and I no longer have contact.”

“They were taken by surprise?” one of the soldiers asked worryingly.

“If yes, then we need to move further on,” Teiwas ordered, picking up the pace to a quick run.

As they passed in a valley of alpine flowers, seeing from afar a peaceful village, Donna spoke again:

“It’s done, sir; Group C has broken through, and the video is currently playing on all networks.”

“Order all groups to keep going and to make sure the video stay active,” Teiwas ordered.

“On it.”

Suddenly, a sand-coloured vehicle sped through the valley toward them, and then skid to a stop.

The bikes halted as well, and the soldiers unholstered their gun, aiming at the newcomer.

“Steady, hold your fire,” Teiwas ordered, taking out his own handgun, Donna laying down her backsack and doing the same.

The door of the car opened, and a shot was heard, hitting the backsack.

“Fire!” Teiwas immediately ordered, dread filling his trained mind. They were completely exposed, the valley of flowers offering no protection.

A raffle of shots was heard as the soldiers reared their bikes and chose random movements; the bullets hit the sand-coloured car, but nothing seemed to happen.

“Drive away as fast as you can, don’t stop for any of us,” Teiwas yelled to his soldiers.

Another shot came from behind the car, and this time, hit one of the soldiers dead on. Teiwas cursed, and adjusted his bike’s trajectory to an head-on course toward the car. Donna gestured her cover, and she fired successively toward the car as she sped to go around it. More shots came in return, and hit two more soldiers; Teiwas quickly observed that they came from under the car, and he fired that way, noticing that Donna was almost through toward the escape route. The remaining soldier sped faster, and before disappearing from their view, he yelled:

“They’re behind the car!”

Teiwas had just begun to register the warning as his bike jumped over the sand-coloured car, that a long sectioned blade resembling a chain wrapped itself around him. It yanked him out from his seat and slammed him unto the ground.

“Scott, get after that woman; I’m taking care of him,” a female voice ordered.

Teiwas rolled on the ground, and pointing his handgun toward the location of the voice, he unholstered the other gun strapped to his thigh, and shot toward a running man with spiky bright orange hair. The man swirled into his run to dodge the shot, and threw him a dagger, which landed mercifully a mere inch of Teiwas’ face, before resuming running behind Donna’s bike.

Teiwas rose on his feet and faced his opponent, a tall slender woman dressed in silver and blue. As she came to retract her chain, Teiwas wrapped the end around his arm, and violently yanked it out of her grip, relieved in the strength of his coat’s sleeve, as it merely tattered but didn't ripped completely to his arm. As she stumbled toward him from the resulting forward movement, he lunged and smacked his whole forearm against her thorax, relieved to hear her cough. He threw the chain on the ground behind him, and pointed his gun toward her as she retreated.

“You people force dishonour around those you meet. Here I am, a gentleman forced to fight a lady; and here you are, ordering a man to fight a lady,” Teiwas growled.

“You brought your own fate by betraying your contract,” Ysadora retorted, unholstering her own gun.

“One day, young lady, you’ll need to learn the difference between loyalty to a piece of paper, and loyalty to the people you’re sworn to protect. But it obviously won’t be now, so I guess I’ll teach you a lesson of justice.”

Before giving her a chance to react, he lunged forward, caught her armed hand, and almost simultaneously hit her nerve receptor in her elbow, and then her solar plexus with the pommel of his handgun.

Ysadora coughed as she dropped her gun, and stumbled backward, her mind dazzled by the speed and accuracy of the attack.

“Do you think a young woman, a faithful pet of an old man who thinks himself king of cities, can really fight against a squadron raised and trained in the treacherous mountains? You may have taken by surprise our youngest members; but you won’t win against boars like Donna and I.”

A shot rang in the air right after Teiwas finished talking. Both Ysadora and the Feldsmarschall turned their head toward the origin; but Ysadora smiled and turned back to Teiwas.

“Looks like your own faithful pet has lost. It would take more than one shot to take down Scott. Which means, considering your military stand regarding capture, that my man won, and your woman chose her death.”

Ysadora straightened up, and her metal heels dug into the dirt as she relaxed her limbs.

“As for you, old man, don’t think for one second that you won simply because you’re trained like any other humans on this earth, and simply because you’ve taken my sword and gun.”

Upon those words, she kicked the ground, and threw dirt at the face of Teiwas; quickly following, she sprinted to him, and at the last second, pivoted her body on the side, shielding her descent with her left arm and leg, as she used her right feet to kick right at the knee junction. As Teiwas knelt under the force, she continued her movement and hit with the foreleg his throat. She then expertly rolled over his back and landed behind him.

A fierce fight followed, evenly matched by Teiwas’ powerful hits and determination, and by Ysadora’s agility and use of severed junctions. She finally got the high hand and pinned him to the ground; she reached for her nearby gun, and aimed at his head.

“Your last words? I’ve got all the time in the world; but you better hurry before Scott returns, for he won’t be as patient,” she asked, a small smile on her lips.

Breathing hard, Teiwas looked at the hardened woman kneeling on him, her fierce turquoise eyes showing nothing but coldness.

“I pity you, lady. I took an oath to protect complete strangers whom have families and know nothing of the wars and the troubles that threaten them daily. My whole motivation was to grant them blissful ignorance and peace; and I am glad to die with those terms.

» But you... You kill for a man that doesn’t care one bit about those families, about the simple luxury of life that is peace and joy. Your boss will gladly watch those people burn to obtain whatever ambitions he desire. And you follow that man blindly, and I pity you, because your soul is more tinted with sins than a soldier who fought in the worst wars there could be. So here are my last words: kill me now, because those are your orders. But think deeply about whether you still have a drop of humanity left; and how long before you lose even that drop?”

Teiwas grasped Ysadora’s hand and made her press the trigger.

*********************

Scott looked furiously at the immobile form of Donna on the ground before him, her victorious smile teasing him. He looked in protestation at his clean katars, and then at the soldier’s self-administered fatal wound. She had put up a bigger fight than he expected, and when he finally won, even went as far as pulling the trigger before his daggers could reach her. Her smile taunted him, her determination to face death annoyed him more than anything. How could someone like him lose against a mere woman? It made no sense.

Scott slipped the daggers under his sleeves, and spitting at the still form, he jogged back up the hill to assist Ysadora. It was then he heard the distinctive sound of her handgun shot; and it annoyed him even more: even she took down her enemy by her own hands.

When he reached the valley, he saw her talking:

“Yes, the computer got destroyed. We lost one soldier from Group A, but he’ll be harmless without the computer and the software.”

Ysadora turned to look at Scott, and upon seeing his flustered face, she restrained a smile.

“Yes, the leaders are eliminated,” she resumed. Her face then frowned in worry as her interlocutor answered. “How will you take care of it? Calling it a fake news won’t cut it...”

Scott drifted out of the conversation; it was formalities, as usual. He took out his anger by kicking the bodies lying around and slashing the bikes with his katars.

Finally, Ysadora joined him, picking up her chain and holstering her gun.

“The cleaners will arrive within half an hour. So come on, Scott, we’ve got one more Group to chase after if we want to permanently shut down the transmission. The latest news is that they reached Kairyo.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Scott hissed back.

Ysadora smiled as she opened her car’s door.

“Fine; go by foot. I’ll see you in two days; can’t guarantee you’ll have any prey left, though...”

She closed the door and giggled as Scott lashed at her, the metals screeching as the katar hit the metal door. She waited a few seconds before Scott grudgingly sheathed his katar and sat in the passenger seat in a protestful manner, then the car rose in the air and flew toward the south.