●　● North Marikina District, Manila, The Philippines

Sam thought she had the two behind her distanced enough, but it only took one bad series of landing sites to slow her down enough to be able to touch down without taking down anyone amidst the gathering of crowds clashing with police barricades. “Get out of the way! This place is too dangerous for this!” she shouted over her loudspeaker as she rolled up to the backside of one of the barricades. She needed room to accelerate for her next jump but had absolutely none of the such. Her heart was already racing violently as it was, but with her entrapment, she now felt like it was about to stop with unbearable levels of fear and frustration.

Her eyes raced between several intersections up ahead on the map and the incoming tracker signals racing in from behind. And just as she spotted a potential street to float over to for another shot at regaining her speed, the barricade in front collapsed as the throngs barreled through. Are they seriously doing this!? What even for!?

She turned to see what was their target in the case it wasn’t her, and she quickly realized it was something much bigger. There was a newer police station just behind her, but nonetheless everyone nearby was in greater danger with the two following her inbound and dangerously close.

She then remembered flashes of the scenes that unfolded in Dhaka along with her name being tossed up with kill numbers. She remembered her photo up as if she were public enemy number one. And now she saw it all here; those two chasing her must have wanted something similar set up. What for would be the question after getting out of this mess and in less than five seconds.

I… I can’t do this alone… what the fuck was I really thinking after all this time!?

Amidst her near breakdown, the swallowing of her focus by the echoes of holler and shouts from the crowd rushing around and through the Axiom pushed her past the brink. She lifted the Axiom’s right arm and aimed it over the tallest building toward the bayside.

**PTA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TAHH!!!**

Sounded the long burst fired off while the crowd quickly screamed and fell to the ground in horror.

And as her breathing slowly made its eventual return to manageable levels, she came to realize what she had done, but before she could start to regret her decision, her IR warning alerts breathed new focus into her. She looked back behind her to see the pair of pursuing LTACs both airborne, diving straight for her.

As if to return the cold stare she felt coming from them, she locked gazes with the target markers and swung both arms up. No LTAC outside of an elite few models could accelerate mid-dive fast enough to avoid hybridized gunfire.

**PTA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TAHH!!!**

And as more screams in panic rang out amongst the ear-splitting crackles, her instincts would be proven true as she sent two lines of blinding orange flashes through the both of them, watching their tumbling descent as sparking, smoking corpses to the empty pavement below with deafening crashes, all for the throngs to witness with their own eyes. And as the dust clouds rapidly approached, Sam took the scattering of the rioters as her open chance to take off without the worry of roasting passersby underneath.

**BEE-BEEP!!**

Rang her targeting sensors that next moment as her body froze up and heart skipped a beat. She didn’t know what she took a shot at just now, but it wasn’t the two chasing her. Antares settings had never left their maximized output settings, and the kick sent throughout her entire nervous system was felt that next split second, forcing her to make a move before becoming an easy target.

But it wasn’t fear anymore that fueled her next move. Despite the several downward accelerating paths the system would attempt to influence her in, she instead felt a sudden flash of rage, unable to shake those who were preventing her from reaching those she desperately wanted to save in time. She pulled back on the controls and pushed the pedals in even farther, setting off the click of the over-boost drives as she launched into an upwards U-turn.

She didn’t catch hearing the fired shots, but the ensuing string of rifle fire just zinged past her, careening into and through an office building just below her, adding to her outrage. She had just finished taking too many careful steps to avoid casualties, too many steps to avoid falling into the trap of drawing the ire of the masses like before, all just to see it was going to happen anyway no matter what she did. Her lips curled tightly as she bit down, squeezing the trigger the instant she had a lock, not caring anymore for where they fell this time.

Have it your way, then, you pieces of shit! she thought to herself in disgust, not letting up until she saw the targeting markers disappear. Row after row of burst fire ripped by the two of them, shields up, desperately attempting to do what they could to block and withstand the attack as they continued their ascent, locked into their regretful move as backing off would have them sail into the buildings below at lethal speeds. But it was either that or try and face the onslaught head on, and try they did.

Sam instinctively flicked off the aim assist and relied on her hat switches to do the rest of the work, clicking her sweep angle down a notch, and ignoring how much damage she caused below, she ran in one last sweep which shredded through the attackers’ exposed leg thrusters. Essentially ruining any chance for survival, she quickly spun back the other way as her descent sped up dangerously quick. And after a controlled touchdown onto precious open turf, the storm of sod flung into the air was quickly ensued by two large plumes of fire, smoke, and slung metal, concrete, and glass from those impacts she left to fate. And with such potential loss of life or amounts of injury that would normally have her losing her absolute composure would not be an issue this time with how badly Sebastian’s well-being burned into her conscious.

“Sebastian!!!” she belted out as loudly as she could, voice cracking in the process. “I’m one jump away! Get open!!”

.

.

.

A few blocks away rang the emergency evacuation sirens that echoed throughout each alley and streetway, joined every few seconds by the thuds of impacting LTAC rollers and the blasts of jump boosters. In an unwilling game of cat and mouse, Sebastian could hardly keep a good grip on his trigger fingers with how much sweat ran out from underneath his half-gloves and down and around the controls. He had spent what felt like an eternity just trying to stay alive long enough for someone to show up to help.

Every few landings his booster diagnostics would flash red, signaling him to wait until they could cool off, forcing him to choose from two actions he regressed to: one was to continue trying to squeeze in a shot his opponent couldn’t block, or the second was to charge head on and hope for an error that would leave him an opening.

Remembering the training he had pounded out daily during his stay on Jazira Station, his timing was already clockwork, and the heavy nature of his opponent’s sword allowed him reaction time enough to dodge with each head-on pass. But even this time as he tried once more, throwing caution to the wind as before, there was never any hint of mistake. Each shot fired in passing was either a miss or it would be deflected by the shielded base of the sword. And after passing, he always came only a meter or two from direct contact with the blade, and it eventually began to feel like he was being toyed with.

And just after recovering from his most recent failed attempt, he heard Sam shouting over the channel to get open. “Sam?!” he shouted as he unintentionally backed off, looking over to his map to see the incoming Axiom from the East. “Sam!!” He then felt the full force of the Seraphiel colliding with him, sword having pierced cleanly through the just barely exposed left shoulder unit. With that very momentum exchanged during that split second, the sword was separated from him as his LTAC careened backward into an old narrow apartment building with a thunderous crash.

The Seraphiel then turned to eye down the incoming Axiom.

.

.

Sam fell faint during her hastened descent, watching the spectacle helplessly from her distance.

“I want to be a Harbinger. One like you.”

Danielle lowered her gaze in disappointment. “Are you ready to lose everything?”

“No!!” she cried out, once again landing haplessly, carrying too much speed in her rush to his aid. “Sebastian!!” And she kept her speed up best she could, fortunate to have a cleared street to continue her acceleration down street full blast, noting the Seraphiel’s mocking glare before it took off a different direction. Her instincts first had her believing it was for an attack, but then realized it was moving away to safety. The building in which Sebastian was tossed into began to crumble down toward him.

She couldn’t even cry out this time, desperately and recklessly flying down the avenue toward the pinned-down Ap50.

And as Sebastian clumsily fought to get his harnesses unbuckled and helmet thrown off, he could only think to get out as soon as he could before the sword he feared could drive through his body while completely exposed. Despite how shaken up the two collisions had him, he finally got the hatch release switch pulled and nearly tumbled out of the cockpit completely, barely grabbing a hold of the ladder that extended itself out and down to the rubble below. But as he looked up to debris falling all around him, he realized it was too late to do anything else, watching a whole concrete wall section coming right down on him.

Moments ago, the idea of him going out the same way his departed brethren had flashed through his mind several times, but now he realized it would be much grimmer. He could only shut his eyes tightly in reaction, biting down and looking down, bracing for impact as he held on dearly to the sliver of hope that his mech would hold up. And with a loud crash and a furious cloud of dust rushing by, he waited until that sure something would knock him down and pull him away.

Yet that something never came around.

Coughing, unable to free his hands to cover his mouth, he struggled instead to catch his breath without choking. But after a few seconds he realized the air that was quickly growing clearer was also much hotter, almost too hot to bear. Confused but finally catching his breath, he looked up and over past the open cockpit hatches. The outstretched arms of the Axiom in its barebones frame held back the centermost, unbroken section of the wall, using its thrusters to provide the force needed to push it back the other way.

“Sebastian! Are you OK!?” he her shout over the loudspeaker, cueing him to free one hand to reach over to his earpiece to answer back.

“I… I’m fine! Sam, thank you! Thank God you…” he hollered with what strength he had left to speak over the roaring of the hot gusts still blasting by. “Just… I am glad you are still alright!!” And as the Axiom backed away from the wreckage once the threat of the building crumbling was rectified, he swung back around to grab his rifle before sliding back down. “But you have to go save Kerry now!”

.

Sam looked down to see Sebastian with a hand up over his eyes, almost as if the two were able to lock gazes. The regrets from earlier were now joined by a renewed, intense desire to say all the things she realized she should have already, and listen to all the things he would have wanted to say, but she also knew they’d have to survive this predicament first and foremost. “Right, but what about you?!”

“I will be alright! I’m not hurt! You go on!” he shouted back with a thumb up before slinging his rifle and ducking away into the nearest alley.

“Stay on radio, at least!” Sam answered with a quick turn toward the last area Kerry was located. “Kerry!! Status!!”