●　● North Marikina District, Manila, The Philippines

The impact alarms blaring mixed with the kick of Antares’ input signals had Sam reeling backward at full thrust, using the open space she had behind her to distance herself before regathering her thoughts. The only problem was that despite her weight advantage that should have given her the edge in acceleration, the Seraphiel relentlessly kept pace.

How is he this fast?!

As her senses stabilized, she moved to take the seemingly open shot. This time once her pre-sweep reticle made its arc across its target, there was no shock when it fuzzed out of focus. She had felt the larger intersection already approaching, jerking the controls to her left as the Axiom swerved the corner. The instant she completed the arc, she slammed the controls in a forward full-tilt and kept the pedals to the floor, slinging her through the air and back the opposite direction. Biting down in a fight against blacking out, she swept her gatling arc across the center of the intersection where she could feel her target about to cross, letting it rip the next instant.

What?!

Catching her breath during her descent, she realized there wasn’t a single trace of any reading crossing the intersection, much less anywhere in the vicinity.

There wasn’t even any alley before then- How!?

And with no LOS communication ability, she couldn’t even shout anything back, as badly as she wanted to. She instead resorted to screaming out as if it would ease her pain and frustration: “Fucking coward!”

.

Isaiah spun to a halt one block away, readying a device with his freed left hand by control input. At the click of his left thumb trigger button, a small drone-like device detached and zoomed out and off from under his left hip’s armor panel. He then guided it towards the intersection he had just avoided.

.

And with a series of new alarms going off, Sam was quick to swing her gatling up towards the source of the incoming IR tracking signal, seeing it was in the form of an LTAC silhouette. She had expected an attack from above at some point after hearing Kerry’s earlier encounter, and this was what she waited for. And her biggest confidence boost was from feeling as if she already had a grasp for his escape patterns using that peculiar “ghosting” effect, sweeping her firing angle in a vertical fashion, landing the reticle at a stopping point at the predicted landing point in front of her.

But this time, much to her shock, the first point of her firing arc struck the silhouette, abruptly ending the transmission of what looked to be a decoy as it flashed out of existence with a bang, revealing a small device instead took the bullets.

Another alarm, and another signal incoming from behind her.

A trap!?

She had started firing sooner this time, not giving her brother the chance to read her sweeping angles this time. But again, much later into her firing sweep the bullets struck another decoy once again.

“Are you serious!?” she screamed out again in exasperation.

.

.

●　● Infinity Marikina HQ, Manila, The Philippines

“Speak to me!” Al impatiently growled through his headset as he hurriedly walked out of the control room and back for the hangar area, waving off surprised soldiers still stationed on security.

[I can still see them from here, but I can’t get close!] he heard an exasperated Sebastian answer back, having to wait on translation.

“Can you not get her attention? She still doesn’t know Excalibur’s directives and that she is potentially putting herself in direct line of fire!” he now spoke through evident exhaustion as his body started to wear out through all of the constant tension and emotions.

[No, and that’s exactly what I have been trying to do! And Kerry here is still unconscious! I don’t know what options I have here!] Sebastian continued as Al spotted the docked Ai20 that had just walked in for diagnostics after surviving the wave of rocket fire on the base moments ago. [What about on your side? Is there anything you can see or suggest?!]

“That’s exactly what I am about to figure out!” Al grumbled as he took off his jacket and slung it aside, showing his identification to the technical crewmen that surrounded the parked LTAC. “What about the Galatine?! Any idea where-Hey! Hey!!” he shouted to the nearest one as he motioned him to take off his ear protection. “Using emergency clearance to reactivate this unit! Get that pilot out and give him a rest! I’ll take it from here!”

The lead crewman hesitated out of confusion for a moment before yelling back: “But the pilot’s in good condition and on standby to-”

“Orders!” Al barked back as he blew past him.

[Mr. Knight! You aren’t doing what I think you are, are you!?] Sebastian interrupted in shock after hearing the exchange.

“Just keeping a promise, boy!” Al curtly responded as he impatiently waited for the pilot to climb down out of the cockpit. “I told Old Man Vrey that if it came down to it, I’d keep my daughter safe even if it meant suiting back up my damn self!”

But Al had no true interest in returning to the cockpit, with his violently trembling hands the proof of his hard-headed, drastic course against better judgment. “I know what’s about to happen and damn it I can’t just sit back and do nothing!”

As he climbed the ladder with sweaty hands and the onset of faintness, memories of battlefield recordings of a single, smaller but insanely fast and impossibly accurate mech shredding through other mechs labeled with two different nation markings as if it were on a murder spree, indiscriminately darting from one target to the next regardless of their national alignments. He then imagined Sam and Isaiah’s faces at the opposite end of that same horrifically efficient killing machine, further blurring his vision as he entered the cockpit.

“Knight!” he heard Vincent’s voice boom over the channel as he joined in the channel. “Stand down this instant!”

“You did this, you bastard! You overrode my orders and let that monster loose knowing DAMN well what will happen!” he lashed out, forcing the straps in place without a care for how terribly and uncomfortably cramped he was in a cockpit far smaller than those of the old war mechs. “I am NOT letting you get away with such gross negligence of the lives sucked in its wake!” he seethed in reference to the Galatine and the death toll he could only imagined already started minutes ago. “This was NOT part of Operation Excalibur!”

“This is your doing, Knight! Your stepping in has only caused problems and forced me to take measures to rectify your mistakes caused by your lack of focus! Your emotions still control you, I see!”

Al finally got his helmet strapped in, now ripping his earpiece off and slamming into the cockpit floor. “Come on, get this piece of shit back online, damn it!” he roared out through the still-open cockpit hatches.

Catching his breath, all he could do now was make one last check he knew what he was about to do with the controls in front of him.

Sam, Isaiah, whatever it is you’re doing, for the love of God, please stop and run!

.

And just beyond their city block hovered the heavily armed Galatine, hanging over the buildings below from an altitude of about 200 meters. Onlookers who dared to take a peek from the streets below saw what hearkened back to the aerial onslaught their islands suffered a decade ago when much larger mechs controlled the skies. And like those of the past, this black, gray, and purple-accented LTAC shouldered a long, hefty main cannon and a pair of near equal length, rifled armaments mounted behind its shoulders on pivoting arms as if they could be fired without need of handling directly. But seeing a much smaller frame known only for skating and hopping with minimal armaments looming overhead in such a threatening fashion only encouraged more to join in, mobiles out and recording.

Another shot was fired from its main cannon in the distance, letting off an eerie, nerve-tickling thud mixed in with a loud crashing bang from the ignition chamber as the onlookers jumped back once more in shock. And then the Galatine suddenly dipped from its position before following up with a dart off to the side, gracefully dodging two incoming surface-to-air missiles before the mounted rifle under its left shoulder swung around to shred through a third incoming SAM. And then as if nothing in the world could faze it, it went back to work with its next main cannon’s shot, only taking little more than a second to find its next target.

.

●　● North Marikina District, Manila, The Philippines

Sam, now farther from the nearest Underground’s data rerouting point than she wanted to be, couldn’t get any clear readings on her IR sensors, feeling not only blinded but completely exposed after seeing the mind tricks her brother seemed to be aiming for. And as she turned to head for safety at the end of the T-intersection behind her, a jarring collision slung her over a set of parked cars and into the building nearby.

Her impact alarms not functioning properly anymore was reason enough to scream out, but the impact this time felt like it knocked something loose in the back of her head. And the next visual sensor-fed response from Antares exacerbated it that next instant, just as the Seraphiel’s ignited blade came swinging around after using it to send her flying.

All she could do was what came without thinking, pulling back on both controls, stepping on both pedals, and pulling her hat switch around while squeezing the trigger.

Isaiah, already expecting such a reaction, already had his sword falling down to the right of her, hacking through the gatling swinging his direction, slicing off the Axiom’s arm just beyond the wrist joint. The sudden shedding of weight had the Axiom accelerate to safety, albeit in a hard-to-control manner, but it gave Isaiah all the time in the world to end this quickly. And his heart raced all the while, constantly taking note of the support unit head count dropping every second. His time was ticking, too, in that sense, and had to end this quickly.

“Last chance to part ways and stop this endless mess- right your life for once!” he shouted out, ready to turn and run.

“Fuck you!” she expectedly spat back through audible pain, but with an unexpected volley of fire from her left hand’s SMG she armed in the same motion as her retreat.

Knowing his sword’s armor shielding wouldn’t be able to stop hybridized fire, he had no choice but to roll out of the way, and only had one shot to right himself before she could tag him while he was down on the ground. With one quick release of his sword, he timed his fall just well enough to be within arm’s reach of the gatling Sam dropped moments ago, having no time to wait for it to register within his Hexa-based OS.

.

Sam, through the searing pain that shot through her brain the second her OS picked up the incoming gatling fire, could only shriek out and pull back. With no shield nor building for cover, several of the last of the dozen rounds ripped through the Axiom’s lower half of its frame, bringing it quickly to the ground with a deafening series of screeches and thuds.

.

“Sam!!” Sebastian yelled out as his face flashed white with sickening fear. He couldn’t expose himself nor could he contact her. There was not a single thing to do from the alley which he took shelter from while keeping watch. He turned to look at Kerry to find her eyes still closed, almost as if still in a peaceful slumber. He set his scooter down, turning off the hover drives and then slowly got up so that Kerry wouldn’t fall off. Making sure she was stable in her position there, he then turned toward the alley’s exit once more, grabbing a hold of the one grenade fastened to his plate carrier rig and started taking in several deep, trembling breaths.