The transport ducked around a few toppled buildings that were just barely able to keep from falling entirely overdue to laying against other such structures, trying to get as close as possible without giving Axton or Thomas the ability to fire at it. As it made its final approach, the cargo contained within began to be shifted into place, with the floor beneath them opening up to allow for easy deployment.

But, as was stated prior, The Revelry had a card to play that nobody aboard the transport was aware of. Hell, even Axton and his best friend were utterly unaware of what was about to happen, though that would not stop them from capitalizing on it once it did transpire.

…

Aboard the space station, a conference call was going on, and it was one that neither party involved had ever wanted to occur. A symbol was all that could be seen on a certain viewscreen, while there remained a few people sitting in chairs in the room, all of whom were in various states of anxiety.

The symbol spoke, and all present listened.

“As you are no doubt aware,” said the symbol, “we have ceased our endorsement of your company and we demand that you purge all files tracing yourselves and this station and these games to us. Likewise, we insist on making sure that you don’t drive even more people from our ‘Free’ Networks.”

Everyone currently present in the room dreaded what would come next. They may be able to walk away with their lives if all went ‘well’, but they would be watched and possibly hunted for the rest of their lives. This was to say nothing of the costs that they would need to pay to all parties involved, which would easily result in their company going bankrupt.

“Now, we have, up till this rough point, given you a vast degree of leeway, but that ends, along with our support. You really should have done your homework when it came to the participants in your Battle Royale, as we had instructed you to do multiple times over by that point.”

“But, then, since are cut loose,” stammered an executive. “You have no right to interfere in our business.”

This was met with silence and then laughter.

“Oh, but we can interfere, and we will interfere. That includes us dealing some damage to that transport you sent down to aid your champions.”

“H-how did you-?!”

The sound of a button being clicked came from the symbol displayed on the viewscreen.

“Oops. Looks like we may have planted bombs all throughout your station, as well as in all of the transports. And, whoopsie daisy, one of those bombs just went off.”

“Which one?!”

The person on the other end of the call snorted before replying, “Figure it out yourself.”

The mood of those present physically in the conference room plummeted even lower than it had been just a few moments prior, but there was little, if anything, that they could do to turn the outcome in their favor.

“Now, then.” Said the person whose face was obscured and replaced by the symbol of The Revelry. “Shall we discuss other matters? Such as, for instance, the fact that if you want to save your lives, you’ll do what we want, and do so before any other power can interfere?”

…

Spider-Can leveled its autocannons at the transport as it came towards it and its partner. However, despite the guns having been useful previously, mere 20mm autocannons were not going to cut it against a fast but heavily armored transport like this one.

At best the damage would be middling, and at worst it would barely scratch the paint job, and both Axton and Thomas knew this.

“Here goes nothing…” Thomas said as he prepared to fire a short, quick burst. But, before he could even pull the trigger, something happened that gave both Players/ Outworlders reason to pause, both in confusion and amazement.

The transport exploded.

Well, when the term ‘exploded’ is used, you would normally assume it meant that the transport blew up into little, tiny bits and pieces, but this was not entirely either true or false. An explosion from inside the craft ripped a huge, gaping hole in the machine, which also cut its power and prevented it from dodging a fallen building.

Once it hit the leaning structure, the ship slowed its speed by an incredible amount, all before being turned around, going from a frontal motion to a tumbling one in what seemed to be a matter of nanoseconds. The transport spun around as it flew, falling end over end until it landed and skidded to a grinding halt, halfway inside of another ruined skyscraper.

Axton turned to his friend and asked the big question.

“Was that you?”

“No…. no that definitely wasn’t me.” Was the reply.

Both pilots looked on as the remains of the transport caught fire, but that was not the end of it. After all, it still carried a rather precious cargo that now had mere minutes to bail before the burning, destroyed transport roasted them alive inside their own War Suits.

One of these newcomers managed to crawl their way out from the wreckage, but they quickly realized that they had gone the wrong way. And no, that didn’t mean that they had appeared in the opposite direction as Axton and Thomas.

Far from it, actually. They had pulled themselves up and into the firing line of the two best friends, who quickly took advantage of their foe’s weakened state and pumped a few rounds into the interloper.

“Keep watch over here.” Axton said to Thomas as he drove Franken around to the other side of the building.

“Already planning on it.” Thomas said back, putting another few rounds from Spider-Can’s autocannons into another unlucky survivor.

…

Franken rounded the bend and nearly ran face(plate) first into another War Suit, but this one was already defeated, having been violently thrown from the transport and been impaled by a few exposed girders.

“Well, then…” Axton said as he had Franken brandish its combat knives again before diving into the damaged building. “Time for more CQC.”