"Quite a spectacle, wasn’t it? Honestly, I did not see that ending coming." Asar picked up the device and hid it in its body. "But I bet you two didn’t either."

Baldric and Luna could not believe what they saw. Ablan, a country that has been independent for over five centuries, was conquered in literally minutes. He looked at Luna, who still stared at where the device was a few seconds ago.

How many people died in that invasion? How many got involved again because of me? Luna thought to herself.

Murderer! Fraud!

The voices in her head roared and, along with them, the migraines that caused her to kneel. Baldric, as if reading her thoughts, grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him.

"It is not your fault. None of this is your fault." Baldric said to her.

"It kind of is actually." Asar watched the two of them.

"Shut up Asar!" He roared, which made the GEA chuckle.

"Well, it doesn’t matter anyway." Asar circled them. "I don’t care what happens to Ablan. It's gotten too big for itself if you ask me. "

"If it doesn’t matter, then why are you here?!" Baldric confronted him.

"You see, I’m a simple machine, I’m purpose-driven. Just like your GEA in there." Asar pointed to the landraider. "My purpose is to test things, and being a bounty hunter helped my purpose immensely. So now my purpose here is to test you." He pointed at Luna. "I have been instructed by the consensus to test her and her abilities for what is to come."

"What is to come?" Luna asked.

"Indeed, But you see, I know you will not fight me or participate in my tests unless I do something drastic, so that’s why I helped Treese and Silvus conquer Ablan."

"You what?!" Luna roared. Baldric fired his rifle at Asar's head, but it merely bounced off his armor.

"There! That’s what I want to see!" Asar said happily.

"Why?!" Luna rushed and slammed him to the ground. She repeatedly struck him down, even though it barely made a dent until Baldric stopped her.

"I told you it’s a test. To see if you are ready." Asar said as he laughed.

"A test?! A damn test?!" Luna shook and slammed Asar’s head to the ground. "You killed all those people for a damn test?!"

"Exactly." Asar said to her, "A test. Just for you."

"We are not playing your demented games, Asar." Baldric pointed the gun directly at the GEA’s face.

"Oh you have to. If you don’t, well, I can sense two little kittens inside the armoured train of yours who I can’t wait to run tests with.”

"You stay the hell away from them!" Luna roared as she struck him repeatedly. "Stay the hell away!" She struck down Asar until finally she crushed the head of the GEA and the automaton was on the ground, still and motionless.

"A bit aggressive for my liking but still in my predicted parameters." Another Asar stepped out of the darkness; it was a perfect copy down to the very last detail. "You see, I’m not giving you a choice anymore. This is my purpose, to test, and I will not allow anyone to stop my purpose.

My role is to attack you with everything I've got, and your role is to stay alive for as long as you can. But I am not a homicidal maniac; there is a win condition for you. You win if you destroy all my forms or if you manage to exit the underempire. Once you emerge onto the surface, I will immediately stop attacking, and who knows, I might aid you in your future endeavors. But if I manage to kill you and Baldric, well, I get to keep the children inside. What do you say? Do you agree?"

"Go to hell!" Luna roared and Asar simply laughed.

"I knew you’d come around! Since I helped destroy Ablan, I will give you both a handicap as compensation. I will give you thirty minutes' head start and I will not be using any long-range weapons against you." Asar walked back to the darkness. "The clock’s ticking shadows." he chuckled.

Baldric and Luna ran back into the landraider.

"Ada drive!" Luna yelled as both of them leapt onto the landraider, and they prepared all their weapons for the fight. Baldric checked his pocket watch and counted down the minutes. Annie put on her full handyman armor, Luna armed herself with every weapon she could carry, and Baldric got a rifle and attached a monocle to his glasses that came with several attachments.

"Annie, you man the controls first. Ada, you will be with me. Get on the walker, as we need lots of firepower right away. Elizabeth, you need to keep navigating no matter what. That is your only role. No matter what happens to us, keep telling Ada or Annie where to go, understand?" Luna said to them, and everyone nodded.

Everyone saw her hands violently tremble and twitch, which she desperately tried to control. "Barricade the driver’s compartment and keep going. Don’t stop for anything. If something is in our way, run them over. Got it?"

"We got it. How about you? Sure you can step up?" Baldric said to her.

"I’m fine. Just focus on the fight." Luna said to him as she headed to the roof. "And Baldric, have the key ready just in case."

As she got on the roof, she started to stagger. Her body and her mind were exhausted, and the movement of the landraider was making her nauseous. But she steadied herself and stood guard. Baldric counted down the minutes, and the only one speaking in the driver’s compartment was Elizabeth, telling Ada where to go in the labyrinth of turns. Annie, meanwhile, was on standby on the defensive controls. Baldric climbed to the gun port and did a quick survey of the area when he saw something fast moving towards them.

It was Asar running at them with incredible speed. The GEA even playfully waved at them. Baldric took aim and landed a clean headshot. More Asar's began to appear and Baldric was taking them down with well-placed shots, but more and more kept coming.

"They're here!" He yelled at Luna as he continued firing. She was also firing from the roof with her pistol.

"Should I come out now?" Ada said to Luna, who was with her in her backpack form.

"Wait for the big ones, Ada!" As Luna and Baldric kept firing, the GEA’s kept on coming. The dozens swelled into the hundreds as GEAs were now chasing them and some had managed to jump onto the landraider. The GEA’s began ripping the iron armor off the landraider and more even tried to jump onto the wheels to slow them down.

Luna was switching from her pistols to her staff as more GEAs were now engaging them up close. From the distance, large walkers were now running towards them. "Ada go now! Baldric! Tell Annie to speed up! "

The landraider accelerated, which caused her to stumble and almost fall off, but she caught on. Ada, now in control of their walker, joined Luna on the roof and started using every weapon at her disposal. They passed a bridge over a steep canyon, and from underneath the bridge, more GEA’s climbed up and threw themselves at them, trying to jam the landraiders' wheels and mechanisms. Some of them succeeded, and Annie temporarily lost control of the train as they slammed into the sides of the bridge and almost fell to their deaths.

Up ahead, there were two GEA walkers waiting for them on the other side of the bridge, armed with massive clubs and hammers.

"Ada walkers!"

Luna focused on the GEAs while Ada used her massive cannon to attack the walkers head on. She successfully took down one, but the other one landed a large swing at the front of the landraider, shattering the front plating and almost knocking them over. Annie had to activate the side jets to counter the force of the hit, and they managed to keep going forward.

As Annie kept driving, she saw something ahead. It was a massive swarm of Ithraxi drones that were awakened by the noise they were making, and all were charging ahead of them. Annie pulled on the landraiders' whistle, signaling to them for help.

"Baldric you and Ada cover the rear! I’m going to Annie!" Luna ran to the front of the land raider.

"Make sure you rack up the kill count. I’m on seventy five already!" Baldric yelled back as he kept firing from his gun port.

Annie drove through the swarm of Ithraxi drones while some managed to climb on and cut through the opening caused by the walkers. Luna used her staff to get them off, but there were too many, and the Ithraxi attacked her as well. She heard a roar behind her, and Willow arrived in his feral form, biting and swinging the drones off. The two of them managed to turn the tide, but Annie blew the landraiders' whistle again.

It was more GEA walkers that threw large rocks at them. Some hit the ithraxi, while some landed on the landraider and knocked Luna off. She managed to react quickly and fired her grappling gun, connecting to the landraider, but she was now being dragged on the ground while some Ithraxi drones and GEAs attacked her as well.

Luna held on to her grapple gun with one hand and fended off attacks with the other when she felt she was pulled back to the landraider. It was Baldric pulling her back up while Ada and Willow were covering them both. He pulled her in right on time before they slammed into a pillar.

"Am I always saving you?" Baldric helped her up. Luna did not respond when a GEA leapt up beside them and she hit it on the chest with her pistol, causing it to fall off.

"Now we’re even! Get back to the gun port!"

Luna gave him some cover as some more ithraxi drones came from the sides. A walker in the distance threw large boulders which hit the insects but also the gun port and ripped it clean off before Baldric could get back to it.

"Lying piece of crap! He said he wasn’t going to use long range weapons!" Baldric and Luna were now firing back to back. All four of them were busy fighting the dozens of machines and insects when Annie blew the train whistle again.

It was an Ithraxi crusher, an enormous beetle with titanic sharp fangs, and it landed right on the front, slowing them down. Annie used all three of the magicore engines and they managed to speed up before they got swarmed, but the crusher still held on and ripped through their front plating, leaving their engine exposed.

All of them, even Willow, attacked it with everything they got, but its shell and legs were too thick to do any damage. The crusher now attacked the engine, emitting bright orange smoke and steam erupting from the inside. Annie blew the whistle again as they started to lose speed.

"Ada chaos mode! Now!" Luna yelled as more GEA and Ithraxi drones descended. Ada activated the walkers' self-destruct and charged straight at the crusher to push it off. The Beetle still held on, so Ada activated the walker’s jump jets as the engine of the walker glowed brighter as it got ready to explode.

"Take cover, you idiots!" Ada yelled one last time as she managed to lift the beetle slightly. While Willow was still fighting bugs in the open, Luna took her hat and used it to shield her and Baldric.

"Willow hide!" Luna roared, but it was too late.

The fire and shockwaves from the explosion eviscerated the beetle and cleared the top of the landraider, but the explosion severely injured Willow. Burns covered its body as he slowly deflated, and Baldric rushed to get him before the little cub could fall off. It whined softly before it closed its eyes in pain and gave labored breaths.

"I hope that was worth it because I only have one disposable body left." Ada said with her consciousness on Luna’s backpack. Suddenly, all the GEA’s and the ihtraxi began to jump off the landraider as they entered a large tunnel.

"Think they gave up?" Baldric said as both of them ran back to the driver’s compartment to regroup.

=0o0=

When they got back inside, Elizabeth saw Willow and rushed to them, but Annie stopped her.

"He’s fine, Ely. Focus on your role." Baldric laid Willow down on the couch as the ball of light on Luna went to the cub and stuck to him. The tunnel was like a maze with so many turns that Elizabeth cried as she gave Annie directions on where to go because she wanted to go to Willow.

"Oi, there is something big following us!" Ada said to all of them. "And I mean big!"

"Breaks over." Luna said as both she and Baldric headed back to the top again.