Sam’s heart was now beating out of her chest. Numb by adrenaline and fueled by instinct, she threw her foot down on the jump-boost pedal and guided herself backwards to space herself from the others, seeing a few followed suit. This is not happening- shit-shit-shit keep it together! She quickly let off once she saw her Ai20 match height with the buildings, catching a landing two traffic lights away from the clearing between abandoned cars. As she looked up, she saw rifle fire from the first traffic light area nearest to the clearing. Three of her team were under LTAC fire and were returning fire down the intersecting street.

“Contact! Multiple LTACs!”

“Requesting aerial interception! Too much on these rooftops!” one of the squad mates shouted.

Think, Sam, think... What did I do in the simulators… Now too tense to feel the queasiness anymore, she quickly jogged her Ai20 up the far-right side of the street while she changed her magazine from dispersal gas to live rounds. She heard the response from the aerial team “inbound on your mark, A Squad” as she stopped at the building’s corner at the intersection, shield up. She docked her rifle to the right edge, locked it in, then pivoted the corner to find three knock-off design LTACs locked in a fire fight with the other remaining three from her squad. As she took aim for the widely exposed leg units, she pulled the trigger in bursts, not letting up until she saw the first go down. She backed up, reloaded, and pivoted once more.

Shit, where the fuck did they go!?” Other than the one she downed, she couldn’t spot the other LTACs. NOx sensor warnings showed the trails leading to the opposite side of the building she was hiding behind. She turned to her three teammates in preparations to join them, but the second she made eye contact on screen, she noticed they were quickly being approached by distorted silhouettes mimicking LTACs that registered no NOx readings. “You three! Behind you!” She quickly brought her rifle around as if to fire but was unable to pull the trigger both from panic and from not wanting to hit her teammates. I can’t shoot! What do I do!? Over the next few moments as she futilely tried to slow her breathing down, each cloaked LTAC swung out large plasma arc bladed weapons, cutting through the arms and legs of each Ai20 attempting to turn around. The scene had her spun further into a daze as she watched her squad mates’ disabled mech arms unable to take proper aim at their point-blank attackers, having white hot blades driven through the cores of each Ai20.

The vital sign markers above her squad-mates’ mechs flashed red that instant.

Sam never once in her entire life pictured seeing someone killed in front of her eyes.

Paralyzed in shock, unable to utter a sound, instincts once more kicked in as she turned back to the clearing, only to see scattered remains of the other Ai20s. She felt herself blacking out, heart beating out of control. She then felt, and heard, the slam of the butt end of a hefty plasma arc sword against the core of her frame. The sudden, forceful impact had her head slammed against the seat backing before snapping back into the front door padding. Her Ai20 was subsequently driven back against the wall of the supermarket behind her as a left hook from the cloaked LTAC left a slicing gash in her unit’s right shoulder, severing all arm movement. The next moment, a heated machete blade drove just over her head underneath the main camera unit, affixing her to the same wall. By this point, Sam wanted to cry out but was once more too paralyzed by the trauma, left in darkness, struggling to breathe.

Reaper sat inside the assaulting mech, taking a moment to make sure the pinned Ai20 was still in stable condition before turning to his two wingmen that just finished retrieving their weapons. His scanners also showed no signs of activity from within their cockpits on his proximity scanner. “Alright, that’s a wrap. The rest will be taken care of soon enough down the road.”

“Uh, Reap’? What about that Galeano kid?” Revenant asked with a gesture towards the lone approaching MI-r.

“Negative. We’ve been out here long enough… don’t need any more unnecessary exposure. Let’s get back to camp.”

The ensuing silence allowed Sam to at last collect herself enough to think. Please work, please work…” Both motion controls and primary communication lines were down. She was unable to see anything outside nor the calm retreat of the three cloaked LTACs, frantically reaching for her headset controls that she couldn’t find. She was finally able to grab a hold of the secondary control knob only to find that her headset had been damaged upon impact earlier. As her senses continued to come back to her, she realized her left arm from elbow down was in extreme pain from that same impact. Her next focus was to get the door open, which was more than a chore due the broken locking mechanism as she lacked the physical strength to pry it open.

Down the same road, there was one Ai20 still in retreat, attempting to return fire on two chasing MI-r units. Rocket fire from in front slowed it down enough for the pursuing units to close ground. Before they could fire their next shot, a grenade round launched from behind tripped up both attackers, causing one to stumble down.

[Keep running!] Sebastian shouted as he loaded and fired another round, this time crippling the thruster unit and back joint of the lagging MI-r with a direct impact. He had the pilot on his comms locked in, but only got a panicked gasp in return, realizing his own communication was mistaken. “Run! Keep running!” Sebastian continued in English this time, switching to his shotgun attachment, sticking it in the face of the now turned around MI-r in front, sending slugs through the armor and power distribution block as it fell to the ground. He looked up to now see the Ai20 pilot bailing out as a helicopter dropped an escape rope for him to latch on to. Sebastian then turned around once more to the final remaining active Ai20 signal, seeing it hadn’t moved an inch. He hit the jump-booster once more, hitting the altitude required to get beyond the high rises separating the two. This allowed him to survey the area along the way, having painful flashbacks to the prior weeks. They really are going at us until no one remains standing. His MI-r slammed to the ground next to Sam’s downed Ai20 to find it still pinned to the building’s concrete wall.

She was unaware of the descending crowd upon her disabled mech, but all she knew was the loud crashing thud of metal near her position followed by the popping of dispersal gas rounds. She immediately felt a rush of the feeling she was being rescued by her team after hearing such a familiar sound. “Help! My comms are broken! I can’t get my signals out! Or my door open! Help!” she screamed amongst the sound of moving LTAC feet. There was a sudden stop as she heard the nearby unit’s cockpit open, followed by the sound of boots on the pavement. “Yes, help open this door!” she continued to shout, banging on the door from the inside. Next, she heard the sound of micro cutters melting away the joints of the lower door, and once the panel fell away, she saw Sebastian’s face and his hand gesture ordering her out. Her expression quickly faded from hopeful to frightened. “Who are-?!-What-Where is my squad?!”

“We need to hurry! You aren’t safe here!” Sebastian frantically tried to coax her out, fearful more attackers would come. He looked both ways at the tear gas rounds fired earlier that were sealing off the street ends. “I am a local paramilitary! You aren’t safe! Hurry! The gas won’t work much longer!”

She reluctantly eased herself down, carefully putting most of her weight on her right shoulder. Sebastian reached out to her left hand to help her out but immediately saw the blood that had been slowly running down her fingers and decided to wait. She finally got to the point where she could grab the lower edge of the door with her right hand to get her out of the cockpit completely, allowing him to now help her down without grabbing her left arm. She took a second to catch her breath amongst the smells of molten metal, thick remnants of NOx, and exposed fuel cells, all of which caused the deep breaths to lead to hacking coughs. She then felt herself being carefully led away from the wreckage. “You have no idea how thankful I am you got me out in time,” she spoke up as she started to look to where she was being led. “But, how are you getting me out of here?!” She saw nothing but the one MI-r unit with the two of them stuck between two damaged buildings and two white clouds of gas.

“You are the only one left.”

Only one left?!

“You have to ride with me back to safety. Your officers are at the meeting point at Lake Timiza.” He climbed up the ladder and took a seat once more in his MI-r, now extending a hand down to her. “Or you can stay here,” he said curtly, losing his patience, reaching over to put his helmet back on.

Sam couldn’t stand the thought of waiting for the gas to subside, waiting to see who or what would descend upon her. And with hearing the approaching sirens and heightened shouting, she reluctantly grabbed onto the ladder and awkwardly made her way up one-armed until she could grab onto his extended hand, allowing him to pull her up. Another awkward couple of seconds passed before she sat down the only way she could in his lap. All the while, her mind frantically switched back and forth between You have got to be fucking kidding me and the picturing of being captured or killed. The cockpit doors closed, barely leaving any wiggle room for the two. The self-latching restraints, however, only attached to Sebastian by the nature of the design. She awkwardly searched for the nearest handle to hold, unfamiliar with the LTAC’s interior design, all the while trying to maintain composure.

“I only have enough fuel for one more jump. Hold on, please,” Sebastian warned, giving her a second to grab on firmly to the grips normally used for leverage during loading and unloading. The MI-r took off, heading back for the lake via way of the only street he’d expect to be safe enough for travel. [Renzo,] he called over his radio, reverting to his native tongue, [I got a survivor with me on board. Are you clear over there?]

[We were waiting on you! Hexa ran off when we had to take care of some Rochas trying to sneak up behind us!]

[Is that tank still there?]

[No. Tank disabled by some of our Bosa friends with mines.]

[OK, good. I’m headed your way now down Carrera 77.] The MI-r weaved in and out of the less dense traffic, now making use of its roller attachments to make up for the increased weight and lack of fuel. [Boss is going to be pissed.]

Sam could only listen in bewilderment, unable to see anything but the padded door frame in front of her nor was she unable to understand anything, either. She then thought to herself Damn, my communicator must be completely broken. No in-ear translation or nothing.

“How bad is your arm?” Sebastian broke the awkward silence, taking a turn at an intersection that headed straight for the lake.

“It’s, um… fine, I think,” she fumbled with her response. “Kind of hurts, still.”

“It seemed bad to me. We will get you help in a minute.”

“Excuse me, but if you don’t mind me asking, are you with the Galeano Family?” she asked, remembering some of the mission details that had gone foggy earlier.

“Yes. I am taking you to the lake meeting point where my team and… maybe your people are. We are almost there.”

Sam started to take respite in the calmness of his voice and demeanor, no longer feeling in any immediate danger. She couldn’t see what Sebastian could, but she could tell there were no warning or caution signals, signifying she would finally be out in the clear. “Are you Hexa trained? You maneuver this… Bernaud model… very well.”

“No, not Hexa trained, internet trained. Old brother trained. You can watch instruction videos if you have a… ‘eme-ee-gamma’ (MI-r) like my team. Or same for Hexa ones, too.”

She then remembered hearing about their only pilots being the Navarre’s. “Hey, wait, you’re a Navarre, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Sebastian Navarre. And you are a Ms. Knight. I saw your name print.”

“Yes, um, Samantha Knight.” Her attempt at small talk to last the remainder of their trip wasn’t much, but by the time she felt the urge to continue, she felt the MI-r slow down considerably.

“We are here.” He then clicked the comms button once more as he lowered the MI-r into park mode. [Renzo, Dani, bring a medic.]

[I am the medic, idiot, remember?] Dani chided.

As the door opened, she saw several men run up to help Sam down carefully. She started making her way to the older truck Dani was sitting inside of as she made a motion to them to load her up. She also noticed another MI-r nearby, parked and open. The markings were the exact same as those on Sebastian’s LTAC but had more apparent scarring from combat built up over the months. “What about him? Is he not coming?” she asked to the man helping her walk. He only returned a confused look as he urged her nonverbally to continue toward the truck. Oh, right, wrong language. She looked back again, seeing Sebastian never got out and instead was talking to another man in a similar outfit.

[Who is she? A Hexa survivor?] Renzo asked as dragged a reserve fuel cell carrier towards Sebastian. [Or maybe even one of their pilots?]

[Yeah, she was the only one I found besides one who a helicopter retrieved. They left her for dead, I think.]

Renzo slid open the reserve cell compartment and started loading the cell. [For how much we paid them, Infinity sure does suck, huh? Biggest fucking waste of money. I swear-]

[-No,] Sebastian stiffly cut him off. [There were three others in strange looking LTACs. They weren’t Rochas. They were even stronger outsiders. They even had active detection blocking. They wiped the entire Infinity squad out in less than a minute.]

[Are you sure it wasn’t that tank I heard? I heard the shells.]

[No, that tank was just the one side. The rest was by the mystery three. Any ideas?]

Renzo closed the compartment and started wheeling it back to the truck. [How would I? Why don’t you go ask her? Come on, Bas, you speak such great English,] he responded with an impatient, tired frown.

Sam had taken a seat and saw Dani approaching her with some bandages and disinfectant. “Welcome to Barrio Bosa. My name is Dani.” She then paused and made a gesture to her left arm. “I can fix.”

Sam held her arm up as Dani started prepping it for rolling, having Sam pull her sleeve back far enough to work with. “Appreciate it. I’m Samantha Knight. Sorry if I don’t speak…um…”

“Don’t worry, it’s OK. Are you from the NAU?”

“No, I’m Akkadian.”

“Ah, a space girl? You speak some Spanish, then. You learn it to speak with people in Casares. So many people in Casares are also from SAU, like from here in Colombia.” She was now applying disinfectant and saw Sam wince. “You can speak Spanish. You learn it in school.” [Tell us about you. Why do you come here?] Her reverting to her native tongue caught the attention of the rest of her crew as they jumped in on the conversation.

[Ah, yeah, tell us what happened to your team,] a man next to her interjected.

[Yeah, tell us why your crew is garbage! Huh?] another added in disappointment akin to Renzo’s.

Sam could pick up on the caustic direction of the conversation and thought to herself: Where did that Navarre guy go? Who the fuck are these assholes?

[And why do you look like a dalmatian?] a third joked.

[A dalmatian? ‘The hell are you talking about, you dumbass?] Dani joked back as she started wrapping Sam’s elbow area.

[Her hair! It’s black and white like…]

[Like that lady from the movie with the dalmatians! What was her name?]

[Cruella! Right?]

The ensuing guffaw had Sam enraged in thought: And where the fuck is my team?! Air rescue never came, and the envoy team left?! Did Director Channing just bolt?!

[Hey hey! Cut that shit out!] Sebastian barked as he approached the crowd. [I have questions I need answered! Piss her off and we don’t get any information out of her!] He then saw Sam who seemed relieved to see him but couldn’t return the notion. [I need to borrow her when you’re done, Dani.]

[Oh, go ahead! Don’t mind me], Dani responded sarcastically as she continued rolling the bandage carefully.

Sam wasted no time speaking first. “Can you or anyone tell me where my crew went? Anyone from Infinity? I need to get back.”

“You can’t go back now,” Sebastian flatly replied. “How will you go? Your men left when Renzo, my brother, was attacked. Your people took our money and left.”

“What,” Sam stumbled with her response as she suddenly felt in danger again which she made clear in her voice: “What do you mean? The camp is just back over in Bosa! What are you all going to do with me?”

Sebastian paused in confusion before cracking a smile as he and Dani started laughing. “What?!” He then saw the frightened look on her face grow stouter. “We rescued you. What are you talking about?”

Sam remembered the words spoken to her on the ride over to Earth: “Keep up that attitude and the Colombians will have more than a new addition to their street girls. “Oh, you got the package alright, I bet you’d draw them a pretty penny!” She then stood up defensively. “I get that! Thank you but I am not about to-”

“Girl, shut up!” Dani interrupted as she took offense to the reaction, yanking the bandage knot tightly in finish.

Sam pulled her arm away with an offended look. Ouch! Bitch! What did I do!?

“Let us start over, OK?” Sebastian asked, now calm once again as he tried to calm Sam down as well. “Again, I am Sebastian Navarre. This is my sister, Dani. That over behind me is my brother, Renzo. We work for La Familia Galeano. We paid for your security services, so you have to stay with us for now.”

“I would just like to know how to get back with my crew, that’s all.”

“Are you from the NAU?”

“-Akkadia. She’s a space girl,” Dani interrupted again.”

The hell!? Why does everyone think I’m from the NAU!?

[Dani, stop. Please?] Sebastian said as he shook his head, then looked back to Sam. “I need information from you, but yes, you can trust us. We don’t want to do anything to you. We will hold you safe until someone comes to get you, OK?”

“Ok,” she replied as she looked at the approaching brother Sebastian pointed out earlier. “I can tell you what I know but I don’t know much, alright?”

Renzo now joined the group, adding more to the uneasy feeling of being surrounded from Sam’s perspective. [Tell her that her Drop Operation Director is missing.]

[What?] Sebastian responded in surprise. [What about the envoy? Are they not sending anyone back?]

[We need her info for now,] he flatly continued. [I expect they will send someone but right now shit is getting to be real damned suspicious. Their next in command contacted me just now and told me they will send a rescue vehicle from their Bosa camp once rocket activity is guaranteed a non-threat level. The last aerial rescues both got shot down. No word on pilot recoveries.]

[So, when are they picking this girl up?]

[Fuck if I know?]

“Excuse me,” Sam interrupted. “But I need to give some kind of information, right? In exchange, can you tell me how I am getting back to my team?”

Sebastian took a moment to think of the right phrasing as he saw how skittish she was. “Your people can’t come yet. They say it’s too dangerous to send air rescue. The last ones got shot down. You stay with us until they say it is safe to send someone, OK?” When she nodded her head, he continued: “So, I need to know about the, ahn, the people who put you into the wall. Tell me about who did that. And who cut your team like that.” He then turned to Dani. [Bring her some water. Something to drink. Where’s the hospitality, sis?]

Sam was too overcome by the flashes of memories of watching her teammates being killed to notice Dani rolling her eyes at Sebastian’s remark as she headed for the other truck next to them. She had forgotten how real that was, feeling the punch-in-the-gut sensation once more as reality further set in.

“Are you alright?” Sebastian noted the paling in her face. He put a hand on her shoulder as he attempted to look her in the eye. “Hey, are you ok?”

Sam snapped back, taking in a proper breath, then looked back at Sebastian. “I-I don’t know where they came from. My team…” She had struggled to recall everything, trying to jog her memory of what happened prior to the attack. “My team had gotten separated from the other team at that clearing. A big… roundabout. We saw a tank. Some of us fell back. I saw some Gammas, kind of like what you have there but a different color,” Sam pointed to his and Renzo’s MI-r’s. “There were some black and brick-colored ones that I was helping shoot down. It was when I turned around to reload when I saw these… these- call me crazy, but cape or cloak covered frames.” She then took the water bottle Dani brought, thanked her, and took a few long sips before continuing. “Sorry. Anyway, I don’t know what mech frame they were. I couldn’t even get a good picture almost as if my own memory is distorted. Real foggy for me, sorry. They all had these, I think, bladed weapons they hacked everyone down with. I couldn’t… I couldn’t shoot… they had my teammates between me and them. When I backed up they were already in my face… bashed me against the wall and I lost all system control. Even my secondary communicator broke. That’s why I can’t understand you all when you speak Spanish.”

“OK,” Sebastian responded as he took a moment to digest everything he was told.

[Well, are you going to tell us what’s up? Clue us in, bro. Shit sounded important,] Renzo interjected, curious why he hadn’t been updated after everything she said.

“But those mechs?”, Sam continued. “They didn’t even show up on radar, couldn’t even lock in on them. They even showed up blank on NOx traces.”

“Knocks? What are knocks?”

“No no, sorry, I need to avoid acronyms. Um, nitrogen, oxygen, like… NO2 or NO3,” she awkwardly started as she started subconsciously using her hands to help explain. “You know? The stuff… the brown gas… that pretty much all Bernaud frames- err… Gamma frames… spit out when moving under boost. So, yeah, nothing we could see on our screen. It’s like they… weren’t even there.”

“Ok, I think I understand. But, please, hold one minute.” He then looked to Renzo and Dani. [If I understood right, they are complete foreigners like I said. Blades? Cloaking? Catalyzers we don’t have access to? This is bad. We need to go report everything immediately and get everything straight with Infinity.]

Renzo laughed mockingly before boiling: [Man, fuck those pricks, they ripped us all off!! I was not ready to hear about spending more money on them.]

[So, what do we do? Huh?] Sebastian shot back with a straight face. [Ready to go out on our last ride? Those foreigners are here and I bet they are here to stay. Want to face them alone?]

[Bas, wake up! They didn’t show themselves until Infinity showed up!]

Sebastian pondered the truth behind the statement, unable to retort, mouth agape.

Sam, however, picked up on what Renzo must have been saying as she looked to him. “Hey, I got that. We showed up, they showed up. But the order is already made. We were just the first drop. There are way more of us showing up in a few days. More than double what showed up!”

[What did she say?] Renzo said, puzzled at the thought she said anything at all to him.

“Samantha, can you communicate with your people if we take you to our compound? You need to warn them.”

[Bas! What did she say?!] Renzo persisted.

[Renzo, damn! She said the order was already including the next wave of bigger security packages come in a few days. I remember this was a package deal with only part of it coming today. They still owe us eight more squads,] he said with a smirk.

Dani checked her watch as she opened her driver side door. [Alright, time’s up. Pack up. We need to get out of here before more people get bad ideas. Shame this shit happens in our own neighborhoods.]

Sebastian nodded in agreement as he faced Sam once more. “So, I have to go back in my Gamma. You ride with Dani. I will help you get communication set up with your people when we arrive, OK?”

Sam was comforted by the thought of hearing from her team once more, but then was quickly discomforted seeing Dani in the driving seat and her stuck with her for who knew how long. Dani turned around, giving her a smile that Sam could only weakly return.