There is so much I wish I could explain to him right now, but who knows who might be waiting around any corner for us.

Sam’s head was still turning from the gunfight she was thrown into, leading up to her reunion with Sebastian after almost shooting him on accident. As she worked on keeping her footing well-lit during their cautious descent down the stairs, she was making sure to keep her free hand on his shoulder as he led the way. Their earpieces, back on with full volume, allowed critical information in from the battlefield just outside their walls.

“Someone get those tanks! Our carriers can’t land with that threat up and running!” Danielle pleaded, shouting over the sounds of her rifle firing away.

“A-V’s getting hit hard from the south! We are being flanked!” a voice joined in response.

Kerry soon chimed in afterward. “We got it! Andre, let’s move! Grab me that A-V’s launcher off the ground!”

I think now might be a good time with the carrier about to reach boarding altitude. “Sebastian,” she quietly called his attention. “We really ought to tell them we got you secured and are headed outside,” she continued as she felt much less of a sense of danger than earlier. “I don’t think there are any left in here.”

“Hold up,” he said as they came to a stop at the last flight of stairs before reaching the first floor. “You’re right. I will check the exit; you make the call.”

She reached over to her earpiece, clicking a button before speaking: “Knight here, Navarre is with me and we are approaching the exit.”

“Thank God you guys made it!” Danielle was quick to rejoice. “Now, get back to the Axiom before you miss the loading window! I already cleared that area surrounding you just now!”

“Roger. What’s enemy status report?”

“Four tanks, multiple personnel carriers, two Kappa’s in this quadrant, about to approach the incoming reinforcements to the south! Hurry while you’ve got your chance!”

That few left already!? Shit! she thought in bewilderment.

“Sam! We are clear, let’s run!” Sebastian shouted as he came back from his errand, hand extended.

“The Axiom is this way, though!” she shouted back at him with her head-tilt signaling to her right, pulling him that direction and taking the lead. “You will have to ride with me this time!” she continued with a hint of a joking reference back to their first meeting in Bogota.

A worried frown grew across his brow, unaccepting of the suggestion. “But the new cockpits are so little space! I don’t think we both can fit!” The light at the end of the tunnel had grown now to the point they were holding their hands over their brows, squinting as their eyes adjusted. “You didn’t bring backup to watch the area?!” he said as he noticed the Axiom stood alone and out in the open, surrounded by smoldering debris and disintegrated asphalt and concrete.

Sam was double the shock, mouth agape. It’s a wonder it’s still there! “But I did! Where…” Her gaze landed upon one of the flaming wrecks not far from them. From one of the pieces of armor hanging out of the side of the pile they could make out the Infinity logo. Before she could deduce what had gone awry, their feet could feel a sense of vibrations that could only match very heavy machinery, or-

“Tanks!” Sebastian blurted out in response to the increasing sensations. “We-”

“No, stay in here! Let me clear the area first! I have enough shots left!” she commanded with a hand up, running towards the Axiom. Folding the PDW stock away and allowing it to drop to her side, she hastily climbed up the ladder and situated herself inside the cockpit as quickly as she could.

Everything under the seat. Helmet, helmet on, doors, closing. “Axiom back online!” she spoke into her headset as the doors locked shut, not noticing Sebastian had already run back under the cover of the entrance with the strongest look of disapproval, yet with no other choice. From the corner of her view, she saw a friendly rapidly approaching from behind. Looking up, she saw it was an Ap-50 with special aerial flight attachments as it zoomed by, curling off to the east, revealing the approaching carriers, massive and imposing as they filled up the sky just behind and above her.

That must be where Director Norris came from. Now, where are these tanks?!

A sudden pair of thunderous booms pounded the air as sonic shockwaves ripped by, almost knocking Sebastian to the ground. [Those blasts came from nearby! The other side of the building!] “SAM!” he roared over the channel from his earpiece.

A pair of subsequent explosions screeched and echoed throughout the area, sounding like tons upon tons of lightweight alloy had just been shredded through. The carriers! She thought in panic, feeling her heart drop to her stomach. Looking back up again, she saw one of the carriers had been caught by the shelling, structure quickly failing as it began to collapse and fall to the ground.

“Shit! Carrier down! Hurry up and get those tanks, damn it! Who let them through!?” Sam heard Danielle screaming over the channel in frustration.

“Overrun by enemy reinforcements from the south!” another yelled out, voice input clouded by the sound of gunfire and explosions.

“Cloak on the move! I repeat! Cloak active and in our vicinity! We-” cried out another before being quickly and suddenly silenced.

It was as if Danielle had been eager and waiting for it to show back up, quickly changing her tone the instant she got confirmation of its general whereabouts at the expense of one of her men. “I got the location! I’m on it- someone get those tanks already!”

Sam was already on the move, focusing on the source of the blasts that came from the opposite side of the building, figuring the fastest way would be to drop in. No time to worry about potential rifle fire! Stepping on the booster pedals, she rocketed straight up and quickly guided herself over the apartment building and over where Sebastian’s Ap-50 had fallen through the roof earlier, now getting clear sight of the two tanks in the opposite courtyard, perfectly shielded by other buildings. That’s why. Lowering her launcher, she took aim during her descent, slicing one anti-tank round through the nearest target. Shield up in front as she landed, she felt the deafening bang of the other tank’s ammunition charge detonated.

“Carrier three down!” one of the operators from the last remaining carrier cried out. “Pulling out! Situation compromised!”

“Negative, Carrier two! Hold pattern! Remaining group, go-go-go!” she heard Kerry ordering towards someone to hurry and make their approach. “Get on board while you can, dammit!”

Sam could now feel the barrage of tremors along with the clanging and crashing of the impacts coming from the remains of Carrier’s One and Three. She quickly back pedaled, spacing herself a bit before sinking the next round into the remaining tank, taking pause to shield herself from the shrapnel from the ensuing explosion. “Tanks eliminated! Boarding approach clear!” Moments after, as she watched a small, scattered cluster of five to six Av-25’s headed for the opening boarding gates.

It then dawned on her once more. The Cloak, or Cloaks, were out there. According to her map, looking down with a cold sweat kicking in, it was only herself along with Danielle, Kerry, and Andre remaining. With no carrier left to get them out, it was a sudden death situation where eliminating all enemy craft was the only option left. Unknown amounts of Kappa’s and Cloaks made the odds seem impossible by this point, especially knowing how they were fully stranded for the meantime.

.

.

Requiem took a slow approaching walk towards one of the tighter corridors between large buildings, already aware of Danielle’s approach towards his general area but unaware of the pilot inside.

No clue where that son of a bitch came from, but whoever he is he’s pretty damn quick and clean with his work for a solo flyer. Might need to be careful with this one.

He also noted Kerry and Andre’s location, seeing they had landed and looked to regroup. With his active cloaking on and no excess heat traces to think of, he quickly began to calculate his masked approach, knowing he had one good shot to hit it cleanly, leaving no chance for her to land her own shot. “Hey, Rev’, whenever you do get here, looks like the two A-P’s I am tagging for you are your best bet. That heavy Axiom is moving solo for now. Leave it for me to pick off after I finish off this unknown A-P flying around like the irritating gnat it is.”

“Passing through the gate as we speak! Getting there with enough boost saved up for a couple quick kills,” Revenant responded, allowing Requiem the reprieve needed in knowing he would be able to fully concentrate on the target ahead.

Shield up and still under active cloaking, he took a careful but nimble pace up that narrow street, daring his opponent to take any first move if there was to be one. A smirk grew across his face as he watched it slow itself down, hovering over and past his location as if he succeeded in keeping himself completely hidden. He eased his controls in a manner that softly rotated his LTAC back towards the opposite direction, keeping his shield up in front best he could. Easy now. Come on, bitch. Drop down and start looking for me. He continued a graceful rolling approach, taking care to dodge potholes below him as he kept himself positioned just behind the Ap50. He had been matching speed, waiting for the right opportunity to jump up and strike, hands at the ready as he gripped the controls. It stopped! he thought, catching his enemy come to a steady hover. It then began to slowly climb in altitude, wiping the smirk off his face and twisting it into curled lips showing disappointment. Is this guy really about to run or-

The aerial flight extensions were suddenly jettisoned from the main frame connections in all directions, putting the Ap50 in a shockingly abrupt free fall as it took a quick tumble head first.

From inside Danielle’s visor display view, her targeting reticle had been placed firmly over a whipped-up dust cloud emerging from what had to be the Cloak’s knee-jerk reaction she brought about with her little stunt. Ripping off a magazine-emptying barrage from her standard issue rifle, she held the trigger down and fought direction-disrupting turbulence to keep her manual aim steady.

Fuck! Requiem panicked, doing the only thing he could think at that fight-or-flight moment, tossing his shield up and backing up as fast as he could, using his boosters to throw himself safely out of the path of the titanium shower that sent concrete, gravel, and dirt hellishly streaming up all around him. The sounds and vibrations from the rounds that pelted his shield were quickly joined by shredding armor alloy. Camera feeds flickered, blurred, and flashed full-screen static intermittently as he continued his retreat. “Whoever this bastard is got my main camera! Targeting is fucked- left arm hydraulics about to go out! Reaper, Revenant! Full-”

“-Get out of there, Req’! While it hunts, let me ambush it!” Revenant responded over their channel before being cut off soon after.

“Negative!” Isaiah’s voice shouted over the two in a hint of what seemed to be rare exasperation. “You are engaged with Danielle Norris- we had it the wrong way around! Turns out I am facing someone on a different level here! Take out the targets you can and get out!”

Danielle’s alarms screamed in her ears as she cut within a few seconds from impact with the ground below. She quickly let off the trigger and jerked the controls back, sending her LTAC into a flip in a cat-like motion, desperately trying to land on its feet. The G’s pulled in the feat were the least of her worries; it was the timing of her thruster release. Shit! She thought as she winced, knowing she went for broke and now the cost was to be paid. The boosters fired off but far too late, only slightly slowing the ramming of her leg units feet-first into the ground below.

That heavy impact mixed with the crunching of metal support frames and snapping shock absorbers echoed throughout the alleys and had Requiem thinking for a moment the landing might have been deadly, if not crippling. He slowed his retreat to a halt, waiting for his camera to give him even the slightest window of view on the spectacle ahead. Come on… no way you survived that stunt. He then heard a warning signal indicate his left arm had lost full control as it fell limp, dropping the shield he carried. Ugh, fuck it. I need to get out of here while I can.

Danielle coughed painfully, grabbing her side as she flipped up her visor and unbuckled her helmet. After throwing it off, she reached for the door release, feeling the sharp twinge from her side prompting her to calculate the extent of her injury during the wait. The doors finished opening as she wincingly slung her pouch and PDW and crawled out, slowly easing herself down the ladder while the dust cover provided temporary cover. That’s a broken rib or three. She then hobbled down the alley behind her and then ducked into the nearest open doorway she found, finding a quiet, safe corner to let herself sit and regather. As she tried to take her slung equipment off, she felt her left arm fail to outstretch fully, sending a sharp pain back up through her shoulder. Broken arm, too, I guess. Shit. Retiring from the attempt for the moment, she then elected to radio in the rest of her crew, knowing they were now fully stranded with active Cloaks in unknown numbers and locations.

“Crew, give me updates,” she spoke in a subdued voice, fighting off her aches.

Kerry quickly responded: “We just regrouped and finished off most of the Kappa’s that moved in from the south. What’s the status of the Cloak before we move?”

Here comes the hard part. “It ran off. I think I hit it pretty good, but I am down and out, and am blocking out my location on tracker.”

“But…!? We can come get you while we are in the clear!” Kerry reacted that next instant.

“No!” she shouted in a hushed manner, “You have to get out of here while you can! There are still one or more Cloaks running around, so evacuate now- That’s an order!” She then closed the channel with a press of a button on her earpiece. Failure to protect them was the biggest loss for her as she kept her hand off of her watch; her selfish side wanted to turn it back on and be walked out of this town she had grown to despise, yet felt she’d rather make it her own personal grave than a family grave. Her finger ran over to the other button on her earpiece, speaking into it with a more solemn tone. “Sly, you still alive?”

“Oh good, you’re still alive, too,” he quickly replied through his exhausted nerves. “Hey,” he added with some solemnity, “tell the Knights back home I’m sorry for me, will ya?”

“Sly, what are you talking about-”

“-You know, back in the day, I always had a crush on you,” she heard him interrupt with more evident regret and despair, feeling those words land an unexpected sting, reaching deep into her heart.

Of all times, now you say something like this to me…

“I got the lead Cloak as far from the Tejgaon walls as I could and out into post-demolition land. You know how cornered animals are.” His voice quickly changed to an almost enthusiastic tone. “Sorry, Rook, gotta go. Get yourself and your kids home for me, you hear?”

She then heard the channel close with a soft beep, and she soon started to feel the hot tears that had been welling up around her heavy eyes. What the hell have I done? I’ve dragged everyone down with me, even him. The area around her remained deathly silent, not even the rumble of moving LTAC feet could be felt or heard, only the sounds of her silent weeping. As she let herself sink lower against the cold concrete wall closer to the ground, she reached over to her watch, clicking up and scrolling over to a screen showing Gabriel’s vitals.

.

Down about five blocks away from Danielle’s wreckage, the two remaining Ap50’s and the Axiom stood shoulder to shoulder, looking all directions from the open intersection where they stood, almost as if on standby, awaiting further orders.

Kerry fought off the desire to shout angrily after hearing their Director giving up on them, instead choosing to hurriedly think up some way to work things out before highly possible enemy reinforcements arrive. “Y’all, look, I got logged coordinates on her last location before her A-P went silent. What say we move there anyway?”

“No way in hell we leave without her,” Andre agreed wholeheartedly as he checked his systems monitors.

“You two do that, I have to go get Sebastian,” Sam added as she turned the other way. “I will double back, so set us up a rally point and wait for us there.”

“Got it, let’s do this,” Kerry said with added confidence, pointing herself to Danielle’s last known whereabouts.

“Sebastian, status?” Sam asked as she rocketed down the street headed back for the apartment complex she left earlier.

“At the north side hall. Waiting for pickup there,” she heard him answer quietly, still trying to stay hidden. “Make room for me, OK?”

Great, she thought with an ironic laugh, knowing how much more cramped her cockpit area was compared to his old Gamma frame. Maybe I will have to let him pilot to get this to work out. To think that almost became a distant memory already…

.

.

Isaiah’s LTAC was now without the usually present protection of alleys and buildings with its back facing an unending field of hollow foundation blocks and scattered piles of brick and concrete rubble. Once stood a large neighborhood at this edge of the city, never rebuilt after once being scheduled for reconstruction. The only thing left protecting him was his cloaking technology and a shield underneath it at his left, but it was with the swirling dust around him that had him at peak uneasiness.

This was what they were aiming for the entire time. They never once used tracking, which means they not only have incredible manual aim, they are completely accustomed to tracking with their eyes alone.

His mind raced to come up with the best mode for attack as he knew he no longer had any advantage as things were. Holding still for now was all he could think to do before stirring up more dust, watching the Ap50 land as it shed its extra weight, removing the extended flight drives. It used its bought time to then finish reloading the next magazine into its rifle.

The only pilots I ever knew to focus THAT much energy on manual eye tracking were those in my father’s group. Norris is over in Tejgaon, and there is no way either of the Raven’s would be up to this. That leaves Gabriel Silva, the best tactician my father ever hired on and trained his pilot skills to match his unmatched analytical abilities. This game is soon to be over for me if I don’t take him head on as he’d least expect. With that last thought, he dropped his cloaking and detached the covering, allowing the wind to carry it away, revealing the Samael’s green and brown camouflage pattern and angular armor’s design cues. He then brought up and fully extended his plasma-arc sword and took on a melee-ready stance, shield out in front.

This guy… got to be fucking kidding me. Gabriel suddenly feeling a cold sensation run up his back. That IS Knight’s boy, looking just like his father. His approach came to a halt, shouldering his reloaded rifle, now feeling a sense of nervousness he hadn’t felt in over a decade since the last war. And even though the Samael stood in plain sight, he kept his aiming assistance off.

Isaiah had long been uneasy with the whole situation, but with himself fully exposed, he felt an odd sense of confidence return through the tension. That explains why they knew what to aim for in facing us. I now believe it’s in the realm of possibility someone sent him out for me personally. This will NOT end well.

Gabriel saw absolutely no movement from the Samael, and the daylight-piercing glow from the ignited blade occupied more than half his attention as he too had his mind racing. His right thumb used for guiding the aiming hat switch gently drifted the reticle to the left foot of the shield-bearing side of the LTAC. But in that same moment he sensed his movement was read as his enemy lunged at him, feet quickly disappearing off the ground and out of sight behind the massive shield. “Fine, then, bring it!”

.

.

▽　▽　▽

.

Sam parked the Axiom right where she left it the last time she had to exit the safety of her cockpit, finding everything in the same order it was when she left. As she monitored the area for heartbeats, she noted one in addition to Sebastian’s that had just distanced itself to the next over building across from them. “Hey, who’s the bogey on the run? Another local?” she asked as she turned to face towards it.

“Let him go. He surrendered earlier, remember?” he calmly replied as he began to emerge from the dark hallway exit and into open daylight for the first time since yesterday.

“If you say so,” she replied, following it with a heavy sigh of exhaustion. She then unharnessed herself as the two cockpit doors unfolded along with the ladder extension dropping toward the ground. “Problem is,” she said as she started reaching for her helmet strap release-

“-Sam!”

Her hands instinctively darted back to their positions on the control grips. “What!?”

He had halted his jog for the Axiom, stopping dead in his tracks as he spotted a cloud of dust kicked up down the street. A black cloaked LTAC had just turned the corner and made a bee-line for their position. “Behind you! Cloak!!” he roared as he felt his face run cold and heart skip a beat, dashing back for the hallway once more. “Run! Run now, damn it!”

Sam couldn’t get the doors to close back up any faster than she could get the harnesses back on, trembling hands fumbling the buckles with the loss of dexterity through the panic.

“I can see it headed right for you! Hurry!”