Detonations shake the air and ground accompanied by intense flashes of light. A phrenzied battle over the locomotive breaks out all around Echo and Vikta as the young man struggles to sit up in the cabin compartment of the train engine. The rumble of a full-scale skirmish between Launch Central Security and BioMagiTech soldiers causes the ground to shake nonstop.

Echo sits up and looks out the cracked windshield of the demolished locomotive. The darkness outside is revealed not by the lightning, but by an intense explosion. For a brief moment, Echo can see nothing but a wooden wall of a destroyed farmhouse. The train had come tumbling to a standstill inside of a homestead nearby Launch Central. The interior wall of the house is instantaneously blown apart by the concussive air pressure of the blast. Shrapnel from the wall pelts the locomotive and the windshield shatters. Glass is thrown everywhere into the cabin compartment, showering Echo and Vikta in a barrage of sharp debris. Echo throws his arms up in a cross pattern just in time to defend his vulnerable face from the stinging fragments of glass.

Receiving a few shallow cuts on his thick leather jacket, Echo was relatively unharmed from the shrapnel caused by the blast. The wall of the destroyed house and the locomotive windshield had taken the brunt of the force generated by the explosive munitions. Echo’s ears began to ring, causing intense pain. The concussive blast had nearly blown out his eardrums. His balance was thrown out of whack, and he started feeling sick as the shock from the explosion had finally set in. The sounds around him became muffled, and he forced himself to set his head back down on Vikta’s chest. The interior of the cabin looked as if it was spinning in front of his eyes. He also felt as if he desperately needed to throw up but was unable to. In medical terms, Echo is currently dealing with what is called an acoustic shock, in which the high decibel range coupled with the air pressure from the explosion causes hearing and balance loss.

While still laying down, Echo turned his head to look out the ruined windshield of the locomotive. The world seemed to tilt upside down as he turned his head and Echo groaned in protest. His vision was a blur to him, and he was barely able to recognize the dark silhouette of a BMT soldier stepping over the remains of the farmhouse wall. The darkened form of the soldier raises his gauss rifle and points it directly at Echo. Moving forward slowly, the soldier steps into the vertical opening of the broken windshield.

With his weapon still pointed at Echo, the soldier flips on a flashlight to examine the inside of the train cabin. Echo turns his eyes to look into the light of the flashlight. The soldier notices the movement of the young man and pauses in his advance. Reaching up to a spot near his neck with his left hand, the soldier clicks on his comms unit and speaks into the helmet’s microphone. Echo was unable to hear what the soldier was saying, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.

When Echo failed to respond, the soldier poked him in the chest with the barrel of the weapon and repeated his orders, “Are you deaf or something? Don’t move and this will all be over quick.”

Echo lazily slapped away the dangerous end of the gun, which was probably not his best idea. Abruptly, and without any hesitation, the soldier backed up to a safe distance and fired three rounds of shock slugs into Echo’s chest. Two of the slugs struck the thick leather and harmlessly delivered their powerful payload of electricity into the non-conductive surface of the leather. The third round pierced through the leather with its thick needle and barely grazed Echo’s skin, but that was all that was needed to be effective. The cylindrical shock slug distributed its non-lethal electric shock directly into Echo’s chest, causing him to convulse uncontrollably. Echo’s eyelids shut tightly, and his teeth grit together in agony.

Echo scrambled to yank out the shock slugs as swiftly as possible. Reaching up with one hand, he grabs onto the cylinder part of the slug which houses the battery pack. When his hand touched the metal of the slug, it became frozen in place with pain as electricity surged from the slug that was attached to his jacket. His arm bucked and buckled as his muscles contracted unwillingly with rapid jolts of movement.

The BioMagiTech soldier pulled out a set of full-body restraints out of his backpack just before his body erupted into a mess of gore. Multiple titanium carbide slugs slammed into the soldier’s body, riddling him full of holes. Some of the rounds managed to be deflected or caught by his armor and ricocheted at odd angles. At the end of it all, the soldier was still nothing more than blood and bone in a bloody heap upon the floor. His soul had left his body long before he ever hit the ground.

For what seemed like an eternity to the young man, Echo was utterly defenseless against the constant surge of electricity that flowed through his body. With Echo’s eyes still shut tight, he felt a hand brush up against his. The hand pulled Echo’s arm away from the surging shock slug and began removing each of the non-lethal rounds one by one. Opening his eyes, Echo no longer saw the BMT soldier. In the soldier's place was a tall woman with dark brown eyes and a Launch Central Security uniform. The BMT soldier lay dead at her feet. She was currently holding the three shock slugs in her gloved hands which she promptly threw onto the floor of the wrecked house.

From what Echo could see, five other security guards are with the woman who had helped him. They remained outside the building to scan the area for hostiles. They were each in a crouching position with their gauss rifles raised and at the ready. It looked as if they were each facing outwards from the demolished wall in a tight semi-circle fire team formation. Their guns slowly swung from side to side as the men and women of the security squad scanned the surrounding crops with their attached night-vision scopes. A green glow emanated from the scoped sights of the gauss rifles.

The security guard that had saved Echo looked very different from the rest. Her lower face is covered in a cloth bandana. Her silver hair was tied in a neat knot on the back of her head which is barely showing from underneath her bulky helmet. The tall woman is wearing what is akin to a modern-day combat uniform. Cargo shorts, combat boots, and a tactical long sleeve shirt. She was also wearing a ballistic combat vest with the logo ‘Takeda Inc. Security’ emblazoned in the center of the vest. Ceramic strike plates cover her shoulders, knees, and elbows. She has a gauss rifle slung over one shoulder and a gauss pistol holstered on her hip.

The Launch Central security guard reached down and offered her left hand to Echo. Echo grasped her hand, and she pulled him up to his feet. Her grip was immensely powerful. The sound of grinding gears resounded from underneath the long sleeve shirt and gloved hand. Echo looked down at her arm as he stood and noticed that the gap between her shirt and glove revealed the metallic sheen of a bionic arm. Once Echo was on his feet, the room seemed to spin in front of his eyes yet again, and he stumbled forward. The security guard caught Echo underneath his arms and stood him up straight.

The woman asked, “Are you alright? You don’t look so good.”

Echo responded, “I’m fine... But my dad needs help. We need to get him to the hospital as soon as possible, or he’s going to die.”

With only her eyes visible underneath the bandana and helmet, the tall woman’s face was mostly hidden. She gave an immensely worried look to the young man as she said, “Don’t worry. I’m here to help. However, we’re in the middle of a firefight with whoever was chasing you guys down. It’s going to be difficult. We have about a half-kilometer of mud and buildings to pass through before we can get you two to safety. I’ll see what I can do to stop the bleeding before we leave.”

“CONTACT!” Yells one of the security guards stationed outside of the house.

A skirmish erupts outside of the demolished home as all of the security guards turn in unison to face the same direction. Two of the guards remain in a crouching position as the other three stand up behind the crouching guards. Altogether the security guards begin opening fire upon the unseen enemy in the midst of the midnight storm and crops. Blue sparks ignite from the end of the gauss rifles as the rounds seek out their hidden targets.

“Hostiles down. We’re in the clear.” Says one of the security guards over his shoulder as the five of them return to their semi-circle fire team positions. One of the security guards takes longer than the rest to return to his position in the fire team formation. He busies himself with refilling his gauss rifle. Pulling out a plastic cylinder, the guard pops off a clear top attached by a thin string.

Before the guard can remove the cap from his gauss rifle slug reservoir, his head erupts in a mess of blood and explodes, covering all of his squadmates in gore. The titanium carbide rounds contained within the plastic cylinder spill out into the mud and clink against each other as they hit the soggy ground. The guard drops to his knees, and the body leans against the outside wall with a missing head. The shockwave of the supersonic round and rifle bang took a few moments to reach their ears. It was louder than expected as most gauss rifles are relatively silent. The security fire team knew exactly what this meant.

“SNIPER!” Screams one of the security guards as he stands up and dives through the opening of the busted wall. Another guard stands up, and his chest bursts as a round pierces through his ballistic vest with ease. The crack of the rifle sounds once again a few moments after the titanium carbide slugs reaches them.

The tall woman yells out as she crouches down to avoid the sniper fire, “Get your fucking heads down! We’re not here for their target practice, dammit!”

As the last security guard dives through the opening in the wall another round clips his legs, shearing them off at the knees. Rivers of blood pool around the young security guard as he goes into shock. One of the security guards, while still crouched behind the wall, makes his way over to the young guard and removes the helmet as he cradles the head of the dying man in his arms. Tears drip from his eyes onto the now unconscious guard's face as he sobs loudly.

The woman, who seems to be in command runs up to the wall and places her back to it. Echo is left holding himself up in the opening of the broken window of the locomotive but quickly drops to the floor on his knees to avoid being hit by sniper fire. The two security guards that are still alive look up at Echo and then their commander after they crouch down inside the building.

The one guard continues to cradle the head of the legless dead guard on his lap, and then gripes to the commander, “Are you sure that these civilians are really worth it? We’re gonna fucking die out here, commander. We need to get back to somewhere safe. Like... Right now.”

The woman snaps, “Shut your god damn mouth, Jeremy. We’re getting these civilians to safety one way or another. Where’s that sniper at? See if you can clear the area for us, Kyle.”

Jeremy screams as he lowers the head of his fallen friend to the ground, "Fuck you! Have at least a little respect for the dead, commander. We've been trudging through the mud and enemy gunfire to protect some nobodies."

The commander's eyes furiously blaze with anger as she stares down the crying guard. It was hard to look at the mess, even for her. Blood was all over the floor and was quickly pooling around her boots already. Shutting her eyes tightly to the sight of the grueling scene, she took a deep breath before responding, "I'm sorry, Jeremy. We will get out of here soon, but what kind of people would we be if we left these civilians to fend for themselves? I can't let that happen while there are those that still need our help. Pick your rifle back up soldier. We'll bury the dead when this is over. We've got work to do. Kyle, get your ass moving and take out that sniper already. I can't tend to the wounded civilian while I have to worry about getting shot in the back."

The guard who had not spoken was crouched down below the demolished portion of the wall. Quickly raising his rifle up to the wall, Kyle set the barrel down on the busted and splintered wood for stability. Looking through his night-vision scope, and with his head barely visible over the wall, he began scanning the area for the sniper. Before too long, he was able to spot the sniper hidden amongst the crops.

“There you are, you sunnuva bitch.” Said Kyle with a smile. Pulling the trigger once, he lets loose a volley of rounds at the sniper. From his perspective, a spray of blood erupts out the back of the head of the sniper which seemed to be over a hundred meters away.

“Sniper down.” Says Kyle as he turns and sits back down with a long sigh.

The tall woman with silver hair steps past the traumatized young man and over to the side of Vikta’s unmoving body. The only sign that he was still alive was the slow rise and fall of his chest. Crouching down, she tore a long piece of cloth from her left shirt sleeve and exposed her bionic arm. The gears that are making metallic clicks are covered with a thick plate of aluminum that encases the entire arm up to her shoulder. The arm would look almost normal if it were not for the metallic sheen of the surface. She quickly got to work tying a tourniquet on Vikta’s leg, located just above the ankle. After tying a knot with the torn sleeve, the blood loss was nearly contained, and only a small trickle of blood seeped out from under the magical ice still protecting Vikta’s ankle.

The security guard then immediately grabbed Echo with her bionic arm and pulled him over to her side to help his dying father. Echo was unable to hesitate as the brute strength of the woman’s bionic arm forced him to move.

The unknown woman who seemed to be in command pointed to Vikta's chest and spoke loudly to Echo, "Put pressure on that wound to stop the bleeding while I get to work on it."

Echo hesitates upon seeing the blood trickle out of his father’s chest but takes a deep breath and pushes down hard on each side to stem the bleeding. The woman rapidly grabs Echo’s hands and directs them to a new spot on Vikta’s chest.

The guard commander says, “Not there... Here. You’re not going to stop any bleeding like that. You have to pinch the veins to keep the blood from flowing out of his circulatory system. Don’t let up on the pressure until I’m done, okay?”

Echo nods his head in response. The silver-haired woman reaches into a small pack attached to her belt. She then pulls out a needle with a white substance contained within. She pulls the plastic cap off of the needle and sprays the substance across the length of the gash on Vikta's chest. The wound begins bubbling but quickly hardens to stem the bleeding.

As the security guard reaches down to Vikta's ankle to apply the substance, Echo asks, "What is that stuff you're injecting into him? It smells awful."

She responds with a huff and a sigh, "It's called isolated medication or IsoMeds. It disinfects the wound and stops the bleeding by filling in the gaps and hardening upon contact with blood. It will hopefully keep him from dying on us before we can get him to the medical facility at Launch Central."

Together as one, they each slung one of Vikta’s bulky arms over their shoulders. Lifting up with their legs, they began dragging Vikta in an upright position with his feet dragging against the ground. With just a few steps forward, they exited the destroyed locomotive.

Echo turned his head to say to the silver-haired woman, “Thank you for saving us. Who are you anyways?”

The eyes of the woman scrunch up in discomfort at having to answer such a ridiculous question in the middle of a battle, but she gives it her best, “My name is Captain Evaria Ward. Call me Eva. This is Sergeant Jeremy and Lance Corporal Kyle. We’re not out of danger yet, kid. We need to get moving. Jeremy... Kyle... Watch our backs as we carry the injured civilian. I don’t want another sniper taking us out when we’ve already been through so much. Keep your heads on a swivel. Got that?”

The guards say in unison, “Yes, Ma’am.”

Echo and Eva begin dragging the unconscious body of Vikta out of the house with the help of Jeremy and Kyle. As Echo and Eva attempt to clamber over the wall with Vikta still draped over their shoulders, the two other security guards help by climbing up over the wall and heft Vikta’s legs through the opening. Echo may have escaped unscathed from the train wreck, but now he has stepped out into the eye of the true storm.