(Moments Earlier)

Marian was huddled on the sofa as she frequently found herself doing while unable to leave her hotel, mobile on the coffee table facing up, holographic display up. The man visual she kept on stream showed a map on one half and Isaiah’s movement analytics and vitals. Why is he still staying so far from the Tejgaon walls? Who has him that locked up like that? Her mind was over-wound and unnerved, racing to come up with a reason or explanation to why it was taking him so long to run his sweep-and-return mission he promised would lead to minimal casualties and minimal dispatch time. Damn it, Isaiah! Turn your radio back on! Give me SOMETHING!

A bleep on the map then caught her attention towards the airfield-side of Tejgaon, looking over to see it was Requiem’s Samael frame on alert.

“Warning: Cockpit-Area Safety Breach, Level 5” read the flashing yellow box next to his name and locator as it slowly moved away from the site of apparent action. She squeezed the pillow she had between her folded arms, fighting the urge to demand someone off the operation. Something’s going far too wrong! I’ve never heard anyone ever able to even land a-

“-Rev’, I need a pick up,” came Requiem and Revenant’s exchange over the radio. “I’m down and out… coordinates on radio. Come… come get me, man.”

“Req’! I’m on my way! Just tore apart a pair of abandoned A-P’s a second ago, was attempting to track the pilots but never mind that- forget them! You just hold on, alright?!”

“…Yeah… that’s… what I…. plan on doing,”

Her heart had frozen up during the exchange, already fully determining exactly what had happened and what the warning status entailed. She no longer felt capable of waiting for anyone else to get hurt, reaching over to her watch and swiping over to Rex’s contact. As she waited for him to pick up the emergency line, she saw from the map Requiem’s vitals rapidly growing unstable. Her teeth and her balled up fists clenched as she waited. Pick up the bloody line you son of a bitch!

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▽　▽　▽

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Danielle remained in her dark corner just out of sight from the outside of the building where she hid, hunched over, unable to take eyes off of her watch, either. Her nerves had her trembling, watching Gabriel’s vitals show his heartrate had stayed too high for too long. Why aren’t you leaving!? You’ve stalled them enough! She then felt another flash of guilt rushing back, thinking of the radio silence that dominated the past minutes in isolation. Where were the others? She hadn’t heard back from Sam since their last exchange. Why did Kerry and Andre’s radio go silent? It was all becoming too much as her breathing went from heavy to choked, mixed with the fear of dying where she sat. She knew there was a high chance reinforcements or cleanup squads would be on their way soon enough with no word from HQ as to whether a second rescue attempt would be made.

Footsteps running, pounding asphalt, hurried dashes across crumbled streets woke her situational awareness once more as her breathing was forcefully paused. There were two sets of feet approaching. One set was much lighter than the other. There was no audible jangling or rustling of worn equipment, nor was there any audible trace of vehicular movement. That’s them! In that instant, half of the weight that dragged her soul downward lifted as she stood up and turned the corner.

Kerry flew into her in an embrace, warmly but painfully knocking the wind out of her as the two were back in the dark shadows of the building’s interior. “Don’t do that to us!” she groaned through a hushed yet strongly upset voice, mixed with the efforts to catch her breath. She then caught the notion that she was hurt, quickly changing expression as she backed off. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to- how bad is it?!”

“Don’t worry about that,” Danielle waved off the sympathy as she put a hand up, glad just to keep some space as things were. “Wait- why are…” She started in disappointment, shaking some sense gently into Kerry with concerned eyes. “Why are you here without you’re A-P’s?!”

“We had to outrun the Cloak, ditch, and run… ‘s all we could do,” Andre said with a long face as he joined the two with much less enthusiasm, hands at his hips in similar exhaustion. “Was a damn good thing we kept these coordinates from earlier or we’d be in the same boat as you, holed up waiting to die.”

Kerry backed off, giving Danielle space as she straightened herself to continue: “We… we got out somehow like the dude just up and turned the other way. I don’t know what happened, or if it had anything to do with Sam and Sebastian.”

“They aren’t answering anything,” Andre added with a shake of his head. “I just tried a little while ago, no good.”

The three were then startled by a distant thud, nowhere near enough of an echo to suggest the explosion happened within the walls of Tejgaon.

“No!” Danielle blurted out as she frantically pulled her left wrist to view, looking to see what she wished she hadn’t. “Sly!” she cried out as she fell to her knees. His status had instantly gone from its previous state to “terminated”.

Sly…? Kerry thought of the name as she knelt down to console Danielle, racing to figure out what just happened, trying to make a connection as well between the name and the explosion just now. Sly… oh! That’s the Silva guy! He… he was doing what now!?

That can’t be!! You were the better pilot than me!! Why would you… how could you… Danielle’s hands balled up so tightly on the ground, her fingernails felt as if they were about to cut right through her skin. Shaking from the emotions rocking her, Andre, too, felt the urge to help console, even though he didn’t know what was going on, either.

“Ms. Norris, come on, we gotta get outta here,” Kerry said with her arms around her back and shoulders. “We can’t all get caught here.”

“I told him to stay on that carrier…” she spoke through trembling breaths to the tear-spattered ground below.

“Mrs. Norris, I don’t get what all just happened, but those carriers were shot down, remember?” Andre callously reminded her of that fact as Kerry shot daggers back at him for the alleged insensitivity. “Look, in all seriousness- I’m not even joking! We’ve been doing real damn good to stay alive and now we need to make sure we don’t add to the casualties list!”

He’s right… “Just give me one second,” Danielle fought to get the words out through her grieving, knowing she still had her other dedications and pledged responsibilities standing right there with her. They came back for me. I have to be strong, like Sly was just now for us. This is our only chance to get out with the time he bought for us. She reached up as Kerry and Andre took each other hands and was helped up, wincing along the way until straight, letting out a long sigh. “We still have to find the other two.”

“Are you sure you’re not badly hurt? Andre can carry you,” Kerry suggested with a confident thumb pointed towards him.

“No one’s moving wounded. We stay right here,” he deflected, unamused.

Danielle nodded in agreement as she leaned back against the wall behind her. “If they are mobile, let them come to us. Set a rally point.”

“Let me try one more time,” he said as he clicked his earpiece, looking back outside to the sky. “Sebastian, Sam, either of you. Give us a status report.”

“Sorry for making you wait,” Sebastian came through as Andre turned with an OK sign. “We lost much of our equipment, Axiom is down, but Sam is safe.”

Danielle had already tuned back into the squad channel as she breathed a sigh of relief, hearing Sebastian’s voice. “Ask about that Cloak,” she suggested to him.

“What about that Cloak you engaged with earlier?” Andre added.

“Cloak has run off, not sure where to, and not sure of the others. Hold on.”

(Present time)

“Sam, I heard from Andre just now. It sounds like those three are OK.”

Sam wanted to feel more at ease, but everything thus far had always come at a cost no matter how good the news. She backed up to let Sebastian back into the stairwell as she then paused in thought.

I remember there was more than one Cloak. Does that mean they took one out, too? If not, I’d hope they aren’t planning on pulling off some rendezvous or so… at least not until the coast is guaranteed clear.

“Can you all fly?” Sebastian continued as he leaned back against the wall, signs of weariness still heavily remaining.

“That’s a big negative,” he heard Andre reply glumly. “We… well, Kerry and I bailed after barely ducking that Cloak that was on us.”

Sebastian closed his eyes, hanging his head in disappointment. [No, no, stop. I can’t be mad. I couldn’t expect the same from them as they didn’t have help…]

“You see, the thing is… the Cloak just up and left. Like it was in some kind of hurry, and it was the only one we had any trace of. Since you said the one you faced was damaged and ran, I think it’s safe to move, now.”

“Move where?” Sebastian continued in doubts there was any cautious thinking or planning. “Let me speak to Director Norris. I heard her just now.”

“Alright, hold on.”

Sebastian instinctively turned to check on Sam, now surprised to see her deep in thought. “What’s wrong?” The finger she had been using to draw up something in the air in front of her switched to a “hold on” expression before twiddling about once more.

“This is Norris,” he heard her speak with evident signs of her emotional trauma in her voice. “I take it two are without wings as well?”

“No, we are stuck in a building at the original landing site plaza. I think we are too far from you if we are to go by foot, perhaps.”

“Don’t worry about that. Hang tight. We have our locations secured enough. I need to contact HQ since we had been on radio silence since our evacuation, and hopefully they can run an extraction for us real quick.

“Understood,” he replied as he let out a long breath, leaning his head against the wall. He then noticed how his survival pouch had become heavy, giving into the urge to slide it off of his shoulder and onto the ground. He then peered over to Sam once more, pondering what it was that had her so preoccupied.

“I remember now!” she quietly but firmly blurted out, shaking her fist as she stood up enthusiastically. “Wait, one second,” she awkwardly interrupted herself as she reached into Sebastian’s pouch, looking for something but to no avail. “Where’s your flashlight?”

He tapped his still-slung PDW around the foregrip area where he had affixed his flashlight with tape.

“Never mind, then. Look! The newer 3rd generation models have realignment repair mechanisms, to what extent I can’t quite remember, but you’re A-P only fell through a roof, right?”

“Ahm, I think it was just a fall but I was worried about many other things besides the fall. Like… getting to you alive. Why?”

“About that,” she reacted sheepishly, never having properly thanked him for rescuing her earlier in the stairwell gunfight. “I have a lot to say about that whole ordeal, but listen!” she said with a turn-around in mood. “If you only sustained damage from less than ten feet of a drop, I think we can run some repair programs! I think we should head back up to it and give it a try instead of just sitting here! Come on!”

“Wait, what?!” Confounded, he returned a look of disbelief but had no choice but to follow her upstairs as she led him on with a wave of her hand. “How do you know this?!”

“The manual, genius! The kind of thing you guys never read!”

“You know we have a long way up from where it fell!” he replied in deflection of her inflammatory joke, now with his PDW flashlight back on as he took the lead. “I think I fell three stories!”

Sam continued upward in earnest, keeping close and watching the lit footing areas of each step. “I’m still going to give it a look! Do you have any better ideas?!”

“No. But do you have any not crazy ideas?”

“Hey,” she said behind him with a sudden, unexpected change in tone. “Thanks for saving me earlier, twice. The stairwell and also with the Cloak encounter. That’s twice I should have died, right here in this God-forsaken pre-demolition zone.”

The conflicted emotions welled up once more, wanting to blame her for letting the Cloak get away like that, yet still couldn’t bring it upon himself to mention that just yet. Everything must have been too overwhelming for her, he assumed. “Don’t worry. I know you tried to save me, too. And now that I think about it,” he continued, unaware of a smile that broke out. “I was trapped, but you coming up those stairs allowed me to move in and save you. We saved each other, how about that?”

“Fair enough,” she answered with a smile of her own. Come to think of it, that’s all we seem to do for each other lately. We have GOT to find a better life together some time soon, she continued in thought with melancholy humor.

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●　● Akkadia One, Eden Space Territories

This had to go as horrifically as absolutely possible. Amelie is not only going to kill me, Sam will kill me twice over if she gets back.

Al had his hands tied as it was during the same morning similar sentiments of overthrowing not-so-stable regimes across the equatorial regions of the globe radiated out in unprecedented swiftness. The board room was no longer busy with just the issues in Dhaka City but also with multiple countries popping up as rapidly becoming unstable, warranting more attention than Al would have wanted to give if he had a choice.

“Singapore is advising we keep the radios down!” he heard an operator shouting over the steady commotion he had long grown accustomed to.

“Don’t let them make direct connection with anyone here or Singapore until they are cleared of Cloak activity!”

I still won’t forget the incredible level of communication interception we saw in Colombia and even happening as we speak. How in the ever-living hell will I be able to get Sam out of this?

He looked back at his mobile out of guilt, seeing the multiple missed calls and messages from Amelie. The topmost one read “You know what? Forget about it. Saffire told me everything I needed to know. Piss off.” He sunk further in guilt every time he looked at that last message that had been received over thirty minutes prior.

It’s times like this my sorry ass can’t get the balls enough to just tell her what exactly the hell is going on and why I can’t just reach anyone I want to. If I didn’t hire that new crew at Singapore, whatever op you are trying to pull… well their cover would have already been blown before they moved. All I can do is hope our plant is doing her damn job.

As he looked back up at his screen, he noticed a new alert coming from Vincent himself, sent from his office. He opened it up, seeing a project header labeled: “Excalibur”. Narrowing his eyes, he clicked and began to read through the descriptions and data with trailing doubts about his choice to stumble in without prior thought. Why would he send me a project reboot idea at a time like this? As he continued scrolling through, he kept seeing three names in bold appearing as “Curtana”, “Galatine”, “Arondight”. But it was what immediately followed the subheading “Galatine” that had him frozen in what looked to be fear, leading him to quickly close the project file and bolt for Vincent’s office in shock.

You are NOT intending on reviving this old project! Not like this! No way in hell anyone here will let you!

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●　● Dhaka City, Bangladesh

The two continued their steady march upstairs, Sebastian still leading the way as they began to approach the first of the bodies left behind from the earlier gunfight. “I smell it. I think we should’ve taken the other stairwell. Come on,” he suggested as he led them out of into the 5th floor hallway. [I’d rather not her have to see all of that again.]

“You lead the way,” she agreed, relieved to avoid the sights she still would find nauseating. “You know, we haven’t eaten since last night’s bir…-whatever, we are out of water, and haven’t even used the bathroom since before the 5AM launch. Plus, we have survived falls, dodged bullets, been hit by trains…” She then looked back up with a half delirious grin. “I’m surprised we are still walking and talking, fully functioning beings.”

Sebastian chuckled in response, somewhat livened up by the timing of the humor. “I still can’t believe you knew what to do just then. Those… pops, what was that? How did you do that?”

She took a moment to process his question before remembering the awful racket made by the break-away armor system like rapidly ripping bolts from ship hulls. Come to think of it, I don’t even remember doing anything. I just remember it happening. Hell, that whole incident is a blur. “You know what? I don’t even really know. Maybe it was muscle memory?”

“Muscle memory?”

“Like, I had done a lot of beta test flights for the Axiom before, just because I was a Knight and got connections. That was months ago, though. I don’t even know what tripped it off. I just… I don’t know… did?”

The two were now into the other stairwell, naturally quieting down as Sebastian peered upwards, listening for any noises. Upon confirming silence, they continued upward. “Well, at least it worked enough. I am thinking… it’s been very quiet. If you didn’t damage it, it would come back to this building, I think. No one is coming and that’s the best thing to me right now.”

“Navarre, this is Norris,” he heard over his earpiece.

“Yes.”

“HQ and Singapore are silent. This means there is still enemy activity somewhere. Do you have supplies left?”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘silent’?” he anxiously replied as they paused in their tracks.

“Silent. They won’t risk an intercepted evac if there are Cloaks still around. We need to hold location until further notice, so do you have supplies left?”

“We are out of water, and Sam’s bag was destroyed.”

There was a long pause on the other end, prompting the two to continue. “We can’t do anything other than ask you to find some way to last until then. Hole up and wait. Got it?”

“Understood,” he flatly responded with no intention to do so. He looked over to Sam, seeing the same determination in her eyes.

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▽　▽　▽

Revenant parked his Samael model next to the heftily damaged one left by Requiem there under the cover of the garage building. He hurriedly made his way out and down the ladder, sprinting for the corner where he saw him laying against the wall, blood spatters all the way there. “Req’! What the hell happened?!” he shouted, heart racing, stomach in a full knot. Rushing to Requiem’s side, he crouched next to him and unslung his pouch, unloading its contents clumsily, trying to find the bandages in his frenzy. “Here, I can get that patched up, OK?” he said as he started unwinding the specialized wound-sealing tape but realized something wasn’t right. He paused, hands starting to quiver more uncontrollably, noticing how quiet everything was. “Hey?!” he shouted in panic, looking to his face, looking to be in a peaceful slumber, head slouched to the side.

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“Req’? Elias…? Hey, Elias…. You with me? …”

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- - - - -

“You don’t doubt Rex has this wrong? We still had a chance to go straight to Manila and avoid this place, you know,” Requiem asked Revenant as they approached Isaiah’s location on the outskirts of Dhaka.

Revenant answered with a shrug and a smile: “Why do you bother asking? Reap’ has been on-spot a hundred percent of the time, man. This will be a cake walk, boom… boom… off to Manila we all go.”

- - - - -

He didn’t realize he had been holding Requiem’s cold hand during that flashback, squeezing it tightly as he bit down, holding in tears, fighting off the inevitable break down in futility. He remained there in silence that would only be broken later by a prayer for his lost friend.