1 Day Later

“What? But— he said he’d be here!”

“I’m sorry, but Master Lieutenant Kolstén isn’t available at the moment. He checked out a little over an hour ago.”

“Gah…” Kevérin scowled, and then glanced back at Kaoné. “You called him yesterday, right? He did say that he’d be here, right?”

“Yeah…” The Materiatechnic frowned.

“We’re talking about the same person, right?” Kevérin whipped back around to face the woman sitting behind the desk. “Christeané Kolstén?”

“I wish we weren’t…” The secretary sighed in exasperation. “I’m afraid to say you aren’t the first to come looking for him while he’s… ‘away.’”

“Sounds in line with my experience,” Siyuakén commented in annoyance.

“Do you know where he went?” Kevérin questioned.

“No. But, given the time…” The secretary took a moment to glance at the clock before returning her attention to the Transfer Captain. “He could be taking an early lunch break. You should check the canteens south of here.”

“Oh, no…” Davídrius groaned. “I am not about to start traipsing all over East Nimaliaka just to hunt down this one guy.”

“Not all of East Nimaliaka,” Kaoné corrected, “just Soughcé.”

“This city may as well be the entire continent.” The Velocitechnic gestured out the windows of the office. Even from forty stories up, the East Nimaliakian capital of Soughcé seemed to sprawl toward the horizon in every direction.

“You’re a Velocitechnic, finding Christeané should be easy for you,” Siyuakén remarked.

“Like I’m gonna run around the entire damned city,” Davídrius retorted. “I’ll pass.”

“We still need to find him, though,” Kevérin insisted, “Commander’s orders.”

“And the sooner we start looking, the sooner we can kick his ass and get him in line,” Siyuakén declared.

“Hey, let’s not start any fights,” Kaoné interjected.

“If he ain’t down in the canteens, well…” Davídrius scowled. “No guarantees.”

---

30 Minutes Later

“Of course he isn’t here.”

“Alright…” Kevérin sighed. “…Did we actually check everywhere?”

“I checked all of the chain restaurants…” Kaoné commented.

“We even checked out that sketchy food parlor down the alley from Check ‘n Fries,” Davídrius remarked. “…Man, I had no idea it was even possible to wear clothes like—”

“Davídrius,” Siyuakén cut in irately.

“What? Gimme a break,” the Velocitechnic replied impatiently, “you don’t get to see shit like that in Treséd. It’s all fuckin’ desert. Everyone’s covered up all the time.”

“O-kaaay, moving on…” Kaoné quickly redirected the conversation.

“So no one saw Christeané…” Kevérin frowned as he held a hand to his chin in thought. “Did anyone at least find a hint as to where he went?”

“We’re dealing with fuckin’ restaurants,” Davídrius retorted. “Where the hell are we gonna find ‘hints?’”

“I’m trying to help direct us to the Master Lieutenant,” Kevérin responded. “Cut the attitude.”

Davídrius crossed his arms and scowled, but said nothing else.

“We could just wait for him, by his office,” Kaoné suggested.

“He won’t be back for hours, if at all,” Siyuakén countered. “I’m not waiting that long for him.”

“I agree, I’ve already done enough sitting around in waiting rooms over the past two weeks.” The Transfer Captain looked down the street toward the East Nimaliakian Military Headquarters. “Hmm… wait here. I’ll go ask some of the other officers and see if they know where Christeané went…”

The remaining three members of Hero Machina watched Kevérin run down the street toward a small group of East Nimaliakian officers. Davídrius then turned his attention to Siyuakén, asking, “seems like you know Christeané. He always like this?”

“…Not always,” the Electrotechnic admitted begrudgingly, “he’s… not actually bad at his job. He’s just hard to work with, because he does stuff like — well, like this.”

“Why were you working with him?” Kaoné asked.

“Nothing big,” Siyuakén replied, “it was about a year ago, I think. Rebehka and I were looking into a metallic infection incident in the Northern Deepsough region, and Christeané was the East Nimaliakian liaison assigned to us.”

“…Northern Deepsough?” Davídrius echoed cluelessly.

“North of the Deepsough Sea? You know, the massive body of water in the middle of East Nimaliaka?” Siyuakén sighed when the Velocitechnic shook his head. “You never learned geography, did you.”

“Do you not remember how shitty it is down in Treséd?”

The conversation was cut short as Kevérin came jogging back. “According to those guys, Christeané is probably downtown, either at the Chaotic Range or… somewhere else.”

“Well that’s helpful,” Davídrius snorted.

“What would he be doing at the Chaotic Range?” Siyuakén questioned, “he’s a Forcetechnic. Ranges aren’t built for them.”

“I guess we’re about to find out,” Kevérin responded, “Come on. Let’s go to downtown Soughcé.”

---

1.5 Hours Later

“So… he ain’t here.”

“Kevérin did say that it was the Chaotic Range or ‘somewhere else’…” Kaoné pointed out.

Davídrius scowled. “We shoulda known that we’d be wastin’ time comin’ down here…”

“Even so…” Siyuakén responded as she slowly looked over a map of the Range at a nearby kiosk, “…this Range is really impressive. They have sections for all of the major Chaotic types… there’s even sections for Intro- and Extratechnics! You’d never see something so impressive in Relédiaka…”

“It’s a place where people run around and attack dummies,” Davídrius deadpanned. “What’s so special about it?”

“You’ve never been to a Range, have you.”

“Do I really need to keep remindin’ you ‘bout how shitty Treséd is?” The Velocitechnic glanced around distastefully. “Besides, it just looks like a glorified gym. Not to mention there’s too many damn people here…”

Siyuakén sighed wearily. “This is a normal amount of people for any city.”

“Then that’s one thing I liked better about Treséd: there’s less people,” Davídrius retorted. “Why’s a Chaotic… thingy open to the public anyways? I thought the lot of you were conscripted into every military ever.”

“Chaotics can retire,” Kaoné pointed out, “and officers on leave can still use the Range if they’d like.”

“So then it’s just one big circlejerk-y military alumni club.” Davídrius snorted in derision. “I still don’t understand the rest of Nimalia. Conscription is ridiculous.”

“You won’t hear us arguing against you there…” Siyuakén muttered just as Kevérin approached the group.

“He’s not here—”

“I could’ve told you that,” Davídrius interjected.

“—but he was supposed to be,” Kevérin continued as he passed the Velocitechnic a brief glare. “According to the front desk, Christeané was scheduled to use the Driving Range about half an hour ago, but he called in at the last second to cancel. Apparently, he claimed that something important came up.”

“Of course he did.”

“I don’t know…” Siyuakén frowned. “He may be bothersome and bad with time, but he doesn’t lie… not in my experience, at least. …Wait a minute, the front desk actually told you all that?”

Kevérin chuckled. “You can get a lot of information when you’re a Transfer Captain. Knowing how to bullshit your way through bureaucracy helps, too.”

“…Uh… right.”

“Well if he’s doing something important… that would mean he’s back at the HQ, right?” Kaoné asked.

“Maybe,” Kevérin replied, “based on the reaction of the secretary and the officers I talked to around the food courts, Christeané is known for just going places when he likes… but despite that, no one reaches the rank of Master Lieutenant if they don’t know what they’re doing, not in East Nimaliaka where there’s at least twice as many ranks as everywhere else. I’d bet that he left the headquarters originally in order to check out this ‘important’ business.”

“I think you’re giving him just a little too much credit,” Siyuakén countered.

“And you used a whole lotta words to say that you disagreed with Kaoné,” Davídrius pointed out. “Just tell us where you think he is.”

“Probably the communications center,” the Transfer Captain suggested, “I know that in Soughcé, the communications center and the headquarters are separate buildings. If it’s important business that required that he leave the HQ, but stay in the city, he probably went to communications.”

“And if he didn’t?” the Velocitechnic challenged.

“Then we just go back to the headquarters and sit tight,” Kevérin responded, “no one’s worth more effort than that.”

“Too bad you didn’t think that two hours ago,” Davídrius grumbled. “Well, let’s get goin’, then…”

---

2 Hours Later

“The Master Lieutenant? Yes, he was here a couple hours ago… with no appointment, might I add. He had the authorization to access the information that he wanted, but — well, that’s just how Kolstén is, I suppose.”

Kevérin nodded. “Thanks. Do you know where he went afterward?”

“I believe he mentioned getting something to eat…” the officer mused, “given the nature of the information, he should really be heading back to headquarters. Who knows how long it’ll be before he’s actually back, though…”

“Hmm, okay… what kind of information did he come for?”

“Uh… I’m afraid you don’t have the proper security clearance to access that information.”

“Ah, okay. Well, thanks anyways.” The Pyrotechnic turned away from the desk and approached the rest of Hero Machina, who were waiting semi-patiently a couple meters away.

“We’re not lookin’ through every damn restaurant in Soughcé,” Davídrius declared.

“Don’t worry, we won’t,” the Transfer Captain replied, “though I am curious about what this information he’s dealing with is.”

“It must be important enough for him to skip his appointment with us,” Kaoné commented.

“Or he just forgot,” Siyuakén suggested. “I really think he just forgot.”

Davídrius scowled. “He better be worth all the trouble he’s puttin’ us through…”

“Well at least he didn’t make us join an all-out assault on a gang base, huh?” Kevérin retorted. He smirked when the Velocitechnic turned away in a huff.

“Guys, come on,” Kaoné cut in, “stop provoking each other… we need to get going, anyways. It’ll be late once we get back to the HQ.”

“Such urban sprawl,” Siyuakén commented, “cities never take up so much space in Relédiaka. Though I guess building a city on plains is a lot different from building one in the trees.”

“Kaoné has a point though, let’s stop wasting time,” Kevérin spoke up before leading the group out of the building. “If we get to the headquarters too late, we might just miss Christeané entirely…”

---

2 Hours Later

“Y’know, in this day ‘n age when we have fuckin’ spaceships that can cross the galaxy in weeks, you’d think we could get from planet location A to planet location B in much less time.”

“You really like to complain, don’t you,” Kevérin deadpanned.

Davídrius snorted. “I ain’t complainin’, I’m just pointin’ out things that should be fixed.”

“When done with the frequency that you do it, it’s called complaining,” the Transfer Captain retorted. The four Chaotics then stopped momentarily to check through the headquarters’ security gate before progressing to the interior courtyard.

“There’s barely anyone here…” Kaoné muttered.

“That’s not too surprising, since it’s past six in the evening,” Kevérin commented as he glanced toward the horizon, where the sun was just about to set. “City-based headquarters don’t have as long working hours as more isolated bases… especially in capital cities. You all should know that.”

“You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me.” Davídrius groaned. “Are you sayin’ that we actually missed Christeané?”

“It’s possible,” Kevérin admitted, “but we should still check before jumping to conclusions.”

“Oi oi oi… it would figure that impatience would net us an even longer wait time…”

“Ironic, coming from a Velocitechnic,” Kaoné responded cheekily.

“Shush,” Davídrius replied, “I’ll have you know— …” He suddenly paused and snapped his attention to the top of the headquarters building.

Kevérin immediately directed his gaze in the same direction. “What is it—?”

The Transfer Captain was interrupted as Davídrius whipped his right foot out and upwards just in time to knock aside an incoming assailant from above. The aggressor hit the ground tumbling before jumping back to his feet, allowing Hero Machina a good chance to take note of his features. He stood a couple inches taller than Kevérin, possessed a more athletic build, and had skin that was slightly tanner. His square jaw, glasses, and short black hair lent him a mature appearance, though the cocky expression wrought across his face belied his age of 22 years. Black boots, black slacks, a maroon waist-cloak, a white shirt, and a maroon vest made up his uniform, though most striking about his ensemble was a battlehammer firmly grasped in his right hand. Extending from the hammer’s handle was a long tether that attached to a body harness partially hidden by his vest.

“Not bad!” the newcomer shouted as he dropped the hammer, grabbed its connecting tether, and then began whirling the weapon around so fast it became merely a blur. “Let’s see how long you can last, though!”

“Wait, are you—?” Kevérin tried to ask, but was unable to finish his question before Davídrius dashed forward at the same moment the unknown Chaotic released his hammer toward Hero Machina. Davídrius prepared to sock the Chaotic in the jaw but was surprised when his fist was knocked away, just as the man rocketed away by the momentum of his thrown hammer. He zoomed through the air, narrowly missing the rest of Hero Machina as they dived out of the way haphazardly. Kevérin then looked over at Siyuakén. “Is that—?”

“Yep…” She sighed. “That… is Christeané Kolstén.”

Davídrius, however, was too absorbed in the sudden duel to pay attention to the rest of Hero Machina. He turned on his heel and blasted off toward Christeané as the East Nimaliakian began twirling his hammer. Just before Davídrius reached him, Christeané released the hammer straight down, cratering the ground and sending dirt flying in every direction, which tripped up the Velocitechnic. He tumbled into a roll but quickly leaped out of it, snapping his momentum back toward Christeané, elbow forward. The East Nimaliakian stooped down, grabbed his hammer, and then — surprisingly — parried away Davídrius’s blow. The Velocitechnic flipped backwards and scowled, taking only a moment to glare at his adversary before sprinting off perpendicular to Christeané. Unfazed, the East Nimaliakian began twirling his hammer again before releasing it upwards, yanking him into the air just before Davídrius thought to try landing another blow. But the Tresédian didn’t immediately give up — he leaped into the air after Christeané, prepared to kick him in the guts. The East Nimaliakian responded by yanking his hammer down and then whipping it through the air by its tether, slamming it into Davídrius and sending him rocketing down to the ground. The Velocitechnic impacted the ground with a sickening thud but jumped back to his feet unfazed and dashed off again just as Christeané landed himself, his hammer whirling around once more. The East Nimaliakian released the weapon toward Davídrius, but this time the Velocitechnic side-stepped the hammer and grabbed the connecting tether, at which point he launched himself perpendicular to Christeané. The sudden change in momentum swung the East Nimaliakian in a circle, but instead of blacking out from the g-forces, he yanked on the tether just as he caught himself on the courtyard wall, snapping the weapon — and Davídrius — back toward him. Caught off-guard, the Velocitechnic was little able to react before Christeané slammed his fist into the Tresédian in an uppercut, sending Davídrius flying high into the air. Christeané then whirled his hammer around once more and released it toward the Velocitechnic, yanking himself through the air as he prepared to slam his fists down onto Davídrius — who had managed to whip himself around just in time to slam his foot into Christeané at the same moment the East Nimaliakian smashed his fists down on the Tresédian, sending the both of them rocketing toward the ground. The moment they both hit they immediately recovered and leaped to their feet, glaring at each other from across the courtyard… until Christeané broke into a grin.

“Wow,” he remarked, “you’re pretty good!”

“Tch, ‘pretty good’ my ass.” Davídrius scowled. “The hell did you attack us for?”

“I wanted to see how good you were,” Christeané responded innocently as the rest of Hero Machina cautiously approached. “Hero Machina, right?”

“Yeah…” Kevérin responded slowly, his attention switching between the Master Lieutenant and the damaged courtyard. “You call this ‘seeing how good we are?!’”

“Eh, this is no big deal.” Christeané shrugged. “Just bring in a Geotechnic, maybe a Chlorotechnic, everything’ll be as good as new.”

“Of course…” Siyuakén sighed. “Why is it that Introtechnics, of all people, seem the most overly confident?”

“Oh, hey, Siyuakén!” Christeané greeted her with a nod. “Heh. Long time, no see.”

“I’m starting to wish it had been longer,” she groaned.

“I’m still surprised about that battle!” Kaoné exclaimed, “how did you keep up with Davídrius? How are neither of you hurt?!”

“He’s a Velocitechnic, I’m a Forcetechnic. Of course we’re not hurt.” Christeané snorted. “That’s all I need to say, really. I’m sure you’re a smart girl, you can figure it out.”

“…I’m honestly not sure what my opinion of you is right now,” Davídrius deadpanned.

“All that aside, though — where were you today?” Kevérin cut in, “we were supposed to meet this morning! Remember?”

“Yeah, I know. I wanted to see how far you guys would go to get me.”

“…You ran across Soughcé just to see how far we’d go to get you?” Kevérin echoed incredulously.

“Yep.”

“Bullshit,” Siyuakén immediately retorted.

“Yeah, it’s bullshit,” the Master Lieutenant admitted with a smirk, “though that duel was actually me testing you.”

“I’m starting to wonder if I really want you on Hero Machina…” Kevérin scowled.

“He said the same thing about me.” Davídrius passed Christeané a glance.

“Yeah, no, I get you,” the East Nimaliakian replied, “But seriously, I was out today because of some important news. It’s related to you guys, actually.”

Siyuakén crossed her arms impatiently. “This had better be good.”

“It’s really not,” Christeané countered. “Last night the communications center picked up a level 3 distress signal coming from the Hazard Islands.”

“This relates to us, how?” Kevérin questioned.

“Because it was a Relédiakian research team,” Christeané stated, “the ‘metallic infection’ research team, accompanied by Lieutenant Rebehka Tchiréon. They’ve crash-landed on the Hazard Islands.”

– Watedia, Nimath 22, 8034 –

“Oi oi oi… it ain’t even been a full two days since we got back. The hell are we doin’ halfway across the globe?”

“Something important,” Siyuakén responded. “So, just for the next hour, please watch your words?”

“Watch my words?” Davídrius echoed incredulously. “What for?”

Kevérin sighed irately as he turned to glare at the Velocitechnic. “Did you actually forget what we’re doing here? Or were you just never paying attention in the first place when the Commander explicitly told us?”

“We’re meetin’ some dude named… uh… Allan… Chulan?”

“Pallan Culana. You don’t know who he is, do you.”

“Meh.” Davídrius shrugged. “I’m sure I’d know who he was if he was actually important.”

“He’s the Archoné of Riverana,” Kaoné pointed out, “you know… their ruler?”

“…Oh.”

“We’re waiting outside the office of the Archoné, in probably the fanciest building in all of Riverana, and when you learn that you’re about to meet said Archoné in less than half an hour, all you have to say is ‘oh’?!” Kevérin exclaimed incredulously. “Tell me that you at least knew that Riverana was one of the six continent-nations!”

“I ain’t stupid,” the Velocitechnic retorted, “and I never signed up for this diplomatic bullshit. If I say somethin’ ‘wrong’—”

“Then I’ll burn your ass for it.”

Davídrius bristled. “…The hell?”

Kevérin straightened his posture and broadened his shoulders in an attempt to appear more intimidating, but the effect was lost on the Velocitechnic, who stood at least half a head taller than the other three members of Hero Machina. Nevertheless, the Transfer Captain didn’t let the height difference deter him. “You heard what the Commander said when we got back from the Earthian Colony,” he stated. “This is a military operation, and I am the Commanding Officer here, so it’s my job to keep everyone in line.”

Kaoné and Siyuakén glanced at each other uneasily before taking a cautious step back. “Oh boy…” the Electrotechnic muttered.

Davídrius, on the other hand, simply stared down at the Pyrotechnic. He then chuckled dismissively before replying, “unless you can catch me, I don’t have to listen to you. I’m here ‘cause I wanna be.”

“No, you’re here because we’re you’re only way of getting and staying away from Treséd.”

“That—”

“You explicitly said that you joined us to get away from there when we stopped by to help with the Bleeders two weeks ago! Don’t deny it. So if you want to stay out of Treséd, then that means being a part of Hero Machina. And if you want to stay with Hero Machina, you have to follow our rules. Got it?”

“…”

“…Look, we just don’t want you to say anything vulgar or stupid—”

“I’m the one who says stupid things?!”

“—for one hour, Davídrius. Is that really so much to ask?”

The two men stared at each other for several moments before the Velocitechnic sighed irately and snapped his gaze away. “Fine. Probably ain’t much for me to say here anyways.”

“You could’ve just said that earlier,” Siyuakén retorted.

“Siyuakén!” Kevérin cut in before Davídrius could respond, “…this doesn’t just apply to Davídrius. We all have to follow the rules, okay? Don’t start fights with each other.”

“Yes, please don’t,” Kaoné added emphatically.

Kevérin took a deep breath and then sighed of relief when Davídrius and Siyuakén turned away from each other. “There we go,” he commented, “now let’s try to stay pleasant when we actually meet with Archoné Culana. We don’t want to give one of Nimalia’s leaders a bad impression of Happy Music.”

Davídrius blinked several times before raising a confused eyebrow. “…Eh what?”

“You’ll have to excuse Kevérin,” Kaoné replied with a roll of her eyes. “He’s not very fond of our current group name.”

“…And ‘Happy Music’ is supposed to be better?” the Velocitechnic questioned flatly.

“Yes,” Kevérin declared. “…Maybe. …No. But c’mon. There has to be something better than ‘Hero Machina.’”

“Not a fan of Commander Nikéyin’s naming techniques, are we?”

The four Chaotics stiffened as two men entered the room in which they were standing.

“Ah… Archoné… Culana,” Kevérin responded stiffly, and then quickly threw out a salute. “Um… if you don’t mind me asking, how much of that conversation did you hear?…”

The Archoné — a bearded man with a slim build, light skin, short graying hair, and a number of wrinkles and age blemishes on his face — glanced between Kevérin and Davídrius before replying cryptically, “enough.” He smiled when he noticed the four Chaotics squirm uneasily. “Do not worry. I consider myself a fair individual. I, too, was a young adult once, and I can understand the difficulty of working in a team so haphazardly slapped together.”

“Um… thank you, sir?” the Transfer Captain responded in confusion.

“Ha!” The Archoné chuckled as he moved forward to unlock the door to his office. He then gestured for Hero Machina to enter, after which he and his companion followed before closing the door. Culana crossed the room and took a seat at his desk while the man with him stood at attention to his side, leaving the four Chaotics to stand in front of the Archoné’s desk.

“So you are the Quakeborn Chaotics…” Culana mused, “hmm, let me see if I have your names right… Transfer Captain Kevérin Tyrion from Tekdecé, Lieutenant Kaoné Densalin from Nimaliaka, Lieutenant Siyuakén Wanléon from Relédiaka, and Davídrius Wrikax from Treséd.”

“Wow,” Kaoné replied, astounded. “You know that much? From memory?”

“Knowledge is a Riveranian’s best friend and memory is our best trait — this holds especially true for an Archoné, such as myself.” Culana glanced toward the stout, tan-skinned man standing behind him before turning back to the Chaotics. “Allow me to introduce General Sulan Rantéin of the Riveranian Protection Force.”

The General bowed his head. “Nice to meet you.”

Kevérin saluted in response. “Sir!” he exclaimed, and then cocked his head. “…Permission to speak freely?”

“Permission granted until further notice,” Rantéin replied.

“We were here to meet with Archoné Culana,” the Pyrotechnic explained, “I understand him having a bodyguard, but is there any reason that you, the General of the RPF, are here?”

“Plans are in the works to absorb the RPF into the NSD,” the General answered, “the decision has been all but finalized, but I still wished to see the first Chaotic squad of the Nimalian Systems Defense and evaluate them myself.”

Kevérin, Kaoné, and Siyuakén straightened up even more after the General’s remark; even Davídrius stopped slouching as much.

“But you are right, your task here is to speak with Pallan,” Rantéin commented, “so I will remain quiet unless my input is necessary.”

“Thank you, Sulan.” Culana nodded. “Now, to business. I believe you are here to discuss the Master Ayas?”

“We are,” Kevérin replied, “what do you know about the current situation?”

“That the ancient stone was discovered by the Earthians in a cave on the Tier 5 World of Sunova, one of their newest colonies. They believe it spawned a Battlecruiser, all on its own, but were still willing to hand it over to you. As I understand it, the Ayas is currently sitting in a high-security Nimaliakian holding center, though as part of the RPF’s agreement to join the NSD, I will soon be able to investigate the Ayas on my own and offer proper advice.”

“Is there anything about it that you could tell us now? Or about any of the Chaos Ayas? We don’t know very much at all…”

“Unfortunately, I know little more than you about the Ayas specifically. You should know that the CSA has not been up front with their Ayas research, even with the highest echelons of Nimalian government. If even Sidonté Perion cannot get a word from the CSA, then I doubt there is a body on this planet who could.”

“Wait wait wait… did we actually just come here so you could tell us that you don’t know anything?” Davídrius scowled.

“Davídrius—!” Kevérin started, but Culana cut him off.

“No, the boy has a point,” the Archoné stated. “…Though if you listened closely, you would note that I said I knew little about the Ayas. There is a reason that Commander Nikéyin arranged for you to meet with me, the Riveranian Archoné, in person. And I doubted from the start that it was to learn more about the Chaos Ayas.”

“…Oooh,” Kaoné responded as recognition dawned on her features. “You’re talking about the Oraculm.”

Culana grinned. “Well, it certainly pleases me to know that at least one of you is culturally aware.” He chuckled when Kevérin scowled and Davídrius bristled. “But I will not fault you for not asking about it. Its legitimacy in the eyes of the average Nimalian has been slowly decreasing over the ages, even here in Riverana. As the Archoné, however, I must — and will — retain faith in the Oraculm. It has yet to speak incorrectly.”

“It’s yet to speak at all,” Davídrius snorted.

“…An expected response, from a Tresédian,” Culana replied, “but you are incorrect. The Oraculm, despite being a prophetic tome — in fact, because it is a prophetic tome — is not predictable. It will not predict every event. No Archoné has ever claimed that the Oraculm was omniscient — just that it has failed to be completely incorrect. Even in its inaccuracies or unforetold events, there is a small sliver of truth that fits into a larger prophecy down the line.”

“Why are we here, again?” Siyuakén whispered to Kevérin.

“…Just… give him a chance.” Kevérin sighed warily. “We might still learn something.” He then addressed the Archoné directly. “The Oraculm hasn’t predicted anything since the Chaos Quake, and even then it offered only a few vague words. What’s there to learn now?”

Culana chuckled again. “You seem to think that the Quake was an isolated event. Is it, though? Only seven Chaotics were born on this planet during the year of the Quake, four of which were present to investigate the reappearance of the Master Ayas and deal with its consequences.”

“Coincidence,” Davídrius retorted.

“The Oraculm claims otherwise.”

Kevérin frowned. “I thought the last thing it talked about was the Chaos Quake.”

This time the Archoné burst into all-out laughter. His guffawing continued for several seconds, prompting the members of Hero Machina to glance at each other uneasily before Culana could collect himself and offer a proper response. “Once again, the ignorance of foreigners presents itself.” He smirked. “Or should I say, the ignorance of the new generation? …Regardless, the Oraculm is a living document. Surely you’ve heard of how it can modify its contents to account for unforeseen outcomes? Or have such events fallen to simple children’s stories? No matter. As the keeper of the Oraculm, I know what it does, and it knows that we have yet to feel the full ramifications of the Chaos Energy Quake of 8012.”

“Then help us, please,” Kaoné responded, “what can you tell us? What can we do?”

The Archoné turned toward Siyuakén. “…I can offer little in the way of substantive proof, but the metallic infection that you have been investigating is indeed related to the Chaos Quake.”

“Okay…” the Electrotechnic replied slowly, “what about the bugs we ran into on Sunova?”

Culana shook his head. “The Oraculm has not spoken of the metal bugs — or, if it has, I have not managed to decipher such clues. If it ever provides more relevant information, I will forward it to you.”

“Ah… thanks.” Siyuakén nodded as she rubbed her bandaged left arm.

“…Anything else?” Davídrius questioned flatly.

“As I said, the metallic infection is connected to the Chaos Quake, which also connects it to the Chaos Ayas and Chaos Energy itself. Investigating the infection should lead you to answers about the Quake or the Ayas — or both. But I would not dawdle, were I you. The appearance of the bugs shortly after the Master Ayas is worrisome, and the Oraculm does indeed hint at the return of an ancient menace… though I have no idea what the menace could be, aside from the Drakkars. Regardless, the other Chaos Ayas should be reappearing around the galaxy now that the Master Ayas has, and we cannot allow them to fall into the hands of evil, be it current or ancient. So, in short, my advice to you is to continue what you are doing, and recruit the last three of the Quakeborn Chaotics. Then investigate the infection to the best of your ability. Being born during the Quake may be more of a boon than you expect.”

“…Then, on the subject of recruitment,” Kevérin started, “I think one of us ‘Quakeborn’ lives here in Riverana?”

“Yes, Captain Kievkenalis Yumach,” General Rantéin spoke up. “He’s one of the RPF’s most powerful Chaotics. It’s a shame that his Chaostechnic abilities all fall into the Directed, Defense, or Support categories, or he would be a remarkable powerhouse… He’s currently unavailable, however. I recently sent him off on a mission, the security clearance for which you do not have. When he returns, I will be sure to refer him to you, Transfer Captain.”

“Thanks… sir,” Kevérin quickly appended when he remembered he was speaking to a General. Rantéin smirked in response, but said nothing.

“I apologize if you have not learned as much as you would have liked,” Culana spoke up, “but I have offered all of the relevant information that I know. If I learn anything else, I will be sure to tell you. In the meantime, I have something to discuss with the General in private, so please excuse yourselves.”

“Of course.” Kevérin nodded once. “Thank you for having us, Archoné Culana.” He and the rest of Hero Machina then left the room, closing the door on the two Riveranian leaders.

“Well that was just great,” Davídrius muttered once the group had stepped outside of the Archoné’s building, “we sure learned a lot.”

“Let’s not start arguing about our opinions on the Oraculm, please,” Kaoné interjected, “regardless of the source, the Archoné’s advice wasn’t bad.”

“I agree with Kaoné on this,” Kevérin commented, “we’re back to what Nikéyin told us to do before sending us off to meet with Culana: finish recruiting, and investigate the metallic infection.”

“Our best lead on the infection is the research team up on the Continental Glacier,” Siyuakén pointed out, “Rebehka’s there, too! We could wipe out two birds with one stone.”

“Ha! Forget it,” Davídrius snorted. “I’d rather go back to living in Treséd than visit that frozen hell-hole. Why not just go get Christeané? He’s the only one left who hasn’t disappeared to the middle of nowhere or some secret mission.”

“We also contacted him over two weeks ago…” Kaoné frowned. “He hasn’t responded yet.”

“Not surprised,” Siyuakén replied.

“We should go see what’s up with Christeané, then,” Kevérin mused, “we can’t get Kievkenalis just yet, and I don’t want to go up to the Glacier either. So Christeané it is. Time to find a transport to East Nimaliaka…”

“Wait, what?” Davídrius responded incredulously, “wait, we’re goin’ now? Does ‘downtime’ mean anything to you military types?!”

“’Downtime’ means weekends, and even then, maybe not. And last I checked, today is still Watedia. There’s still three days until the weekend.”

“So then we just have to redefine when the week starts. I declare that the week starts on Isdia. Bam, it’s now the weekend!”

“Doesn’t work that way.”

“Of course it don’t.” Davídrius sighed irately. “Fine. Might as well get a look at the so-called ‘Great Plains.’”

“Then we’re headed out.” Kevérin whipped around and began walking into the city. “To East Nimaliaka we go!”

“My powers won’t work!”

“Tch…” Davídrius scowled. “The hell do you mean, ‘won’t work?’ There’s no CENT field here!”

“I— I don’t know!” Kaoné frowned, and then flicked her wrists up and outward. Immediately, two walls of dirt rose on either side of the vehicle column and then rushed outward, shoving all of the metallic bugs several meters back. “It’s like back in Relédiaka. I can still control matter, just… not the bugs.”

“You can still stop them, though, right?” Siyuakén pressed.

“I think. Maybe?” the Materiatechnic responded uneasily, “it was one thing to capture those infected creatures, but… you want me to stop an entire bug infestation on my own?!”

“That’s what you were ready to do two seconds ago!” Davídrius exclaimed, “you even played the part!”

Kaoné passed the Velocitechnic a disapproving stare. “Davídrius…”

“Guys, this really isn’t the time,” Siyuakén cut in as she glanced toward the rear of the vehicle column, and then back to Kaoné. “Even if you can’t completely stop the bugs, you can at least slow them down far better than either of us can.”

“…I’ll do my best.” She sighed before raising another dirt barrier between the convoy and the bugs. Soon afterward, the walls began crumbling and giving way to the invading creatures, though Siyuakén quickly disabled the closest bugs before they could get too close. Kaoné then solidified the wall into stone before raising a second wall and transmuting it into metal, which Siyuakén very quickly supercharged, thus frying all of the metallic bugs within half a meter.

“Be careful of the Earthian vehicles,” Kaoné warned, “their equipment isn’t shielded as well as Nimalian equipment.”

“Ah… got it.” Siyuakén nodded just as the convoy slowed to a stop.

“We’re stopping?” Davídrius questioned with irritation, “What for?”

Kaoné took the opportunity to erect several more steel walls before jumping to the ground and turning toward the front of the vehicle column. Siyuakén jumped down after her as Davídrius remained on top of the tank and watched Captain Lead quickly approach.

“Was that you?” the Captain questioned, gesturing at the walls. When Kaoné nodded he continued, “good, good. Will you be able to take care of the bugs?”

“Ah… I don’t think so, sorry,” the Materiatechnic commented sheepishly. “I can’t manipulate them directly.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I wish I knew…” Kaoné sighed. “I can definitely help fend them off, but… I can’t retake the entire colony, even with help. Not if I can’t do anything to the bugs directly…”

“Not to mention they seem to be really good at burrowing,” Davídrius threw in.

Kaoné glanced up at the Velocitechnic uneasily before glancing at the walls and then the dirt beneath their feet. Shortly afterward all of the ground under the vehicle column turned to steel.

“Great…” Lead sighed irately. “…We lost Sunova so damn quickly. Where did the bugs even come from?”

Siyuakén shrugged. “Your guess is as good as ours. I thought they came from the creature corpse back in the caves, but there seems to be a lot more of them now.”

Lead glanced at the Electrotechnic, alarmed. “You’re saying they can reproduce that quickly?”

“I don’t know. We can’t know if there’s so many because they reproduce quickly, or because there were more hidden away somewhere that Davídrius and I didn’t see.”

“But either way, just sittin’ here can’t be good at all,” the Velocitechnic pointed out, “we need to get off this damn planet!”

“Agreed.” Lead nodded before turning back to Kaoné. “Can you at least hold the bugs off for…” He glanced down at his watch. “…One, maybe two hours?”

“I can try…” Kaoné responded.

“Good. I appreciate it!” the Captain replied before turning around and sprinting off toward the front vehicle.

“Better get back up here,” Davídrius remarked. Siyuakén moved to begin scaling the vehicle herself but Kaoné easily lifted them both to the roof by raising the ground below them. The Electrotechnic shook her head in awe as she jumped over to the vehicle.

“Such usefulness…” she commented.

“And it’s still not enough.” Davídrius scowled as the vehicle column began to move again. “…Ngh, what a shitty way for this mission to go.”

“We won’t solve anything by complaining,” Kaoné countered before turning her attention back to the steel walls as a loud, ear-piercing metallic shriek resounded through the night air. The Materiatechnic immediately smashed all of the walls together, toppled them backwards, and then drove them into the ground, smothering any of the bugs caught in between.

“The hell was that?!” the Velocitechnic exclaimed.

“The walls were about to fall over,” Kaoné explained, “so I just made sure they fell in the right direction.”

“Well we aren’t clear just yet,” Siyuakén quickly pointed out as the vehicle column began a wide left turn. “We still need to make it to the clearing… and then hold off the bugs until the Earthian Frigates can pick us up.”

“If Kaoné can keep squashin’ bugs like she has been, then hopefully that won’t be a problem,” Davídrius remarked.

The Electrotechnic stared at him incredulously. “Really? Just a minute ago it sounded like you thought we’d all die.”

He simply shrugged in response. “Eh, my first impression wasn’t too impressive, ya know? But after that wall display, heh. Those looked like a good fifteen by fifteen meters of straight-up steel. Maybe you’re useful yet!”

“Davídrius…” Kaoné frowned as she once again turned the ground to steel before lifting another set of walls to squash even more approaching bugs.

“Hey! I was complimentin’ your skills.” The Velocitechnic smirked — and then jumped as a second metallic shriek echoed through the air. “…The walls again?”

“I guess?” The Materiatechnic squinted into the night, attempting to make out any figures beyond the walls and tree line. “That was awfully fast, though…”

“Maybe they figured out how to get through your walls,” Siyuakén suggested. “We don’t know anything about them; maybe they’re smarter than we’re giving them credit.”

“That’s a scary thought,” Davídrius replied.

Kaoné remained silent as she raised another set of walls, this time hardening them into diamond. She then glanced toward the front of the vehicle column. “If the bugs are as fast as you say…” she questioned warily, “…why haven’t they reached the front tank?”

“That’s, uh…” The Velocitechnic frowned warily. “…Good question. I’ll go check it out.” He jumped off of the vehicle and hit the ground running, but before he sped off, another metallic shriek reached his ears. He turned to glare into the darkness behind the convoy without slowing down. “The hell is goin’ on—?!”

The moment the words left his mouth, a huge bipedal creature leaped out of the darkness and smashed the last vehicle in the convoy before falling out of sight.

“What in the—!?” Siyuakén exclaimed, “is that—?!”

A second vehicle was lost to the mysterious creature before the convoy’s flood lights finally managed to focus on it. The massive creature appeared to be vaguely humanoid, with two metallic legs, two silvery arms, a lithe, featureless torso, and no head. It moved to lunge forward again, but Kaoné quickly lifted a huge chunk of dirt into the air, transmuted it into a metal club, and then slammed it into the creature’s legs. It tumbled forward, rolling head over heels before its limbs suddenly exploded off and burrowed into the ground as its chest morphed into a smaller, tiger-like quadruped that continued chasing the vehicles.

“The hell—? What the—? What’s that?!” Davídrius spluttered as he leaped back onto the tanks with Kaoné and Siyuakén.

“…It’s made of the same material as the bugs,” Kaoné replied, “I can’t control it… watch out!!”

The Materiatechnic spontaneously translated the entire vehicle they were standing on to the left as one of the creature’s disembodied arms burst out of the ground like a massive worm. It quickly swung around and knocked over the following vehicle instead, but before it could cause further damage Kaoné had shoved it out of the way with a steel wall. She quickly righted the knocked-over vehicle and turned her attention to the ground. The three Chaotics jumped, startled, as the sound of machine guns began filling the air; the Earthian gunships had engaged the metallic quadruped near the rear of the convoy. The rounds easily ripped into the creature, tearing it into shreds… and then, with absolutely no warning at all, two metallic worm-like appendages leaped out of the ground and smashed into one of the gunships, bringing it crashing down to the ground before dragging it under, all within seconds.

“…We’re fucked,” Davídrius deadpanned.

Ignoring the Velocitechnic’s comment, Kaoné quickly transmuted the top meter of soil within ten meters of her location into solid diamond just in time for a third metallic worm to slam directly into the firm layer. It just as quickly returned to the depths of the earth as Kaoné began to continually transmute the ground into diamond as the vehicle convoy progressed. She was forced to stop when a new creature stampeded out of the darkness, spraying bullets everywhere and kicking over two vehicles before the Materiatechnic could topple it with a diamond club and then smother it with several plates of steel.

“It was using guns…” Davídrius pointed out warily.

“It must’ve been from the gunship they took down…” Siyuakén scowled. “They’re learning… or they’re absorbing stuff, something’s going on here.”

“These damn bugs could be a legitimate galactic threat if they get off-planet… how can we know that the Earthians locked down their Gate properly? How do we know that the damn bugs won’t manage to board their Frigates?”

Siyuakén passed the Velocitechnic an uneasy glance. “Are you suggesting that—?”

“Oh hell no, I ain’t dyin’ here,” he scoffed. “But these bugs—”

The screech of broken metal resounded through the air as another gunship was taken out, spinning out of control and slamming into the tank just in front of the Chaotics — and flipping over the vehicle they were standing on in the process. The three Nimalians all managed to catch themselves on the ground, but they were forced to immediately get back to their feet as two bipedal metallic creatures rushed them. Kaoné easily tripped up one and sliced it in half with a diamond slab, but Davídrius had to grab Siyuakén and dive out of the way in order to evade the second creature. He then turned toward the Materiatechnic and barked, “I need weapons!!”

“Ah! Right!” Kaoné quickly stripped two meter-long pieces of steel from the ground and rapidly rounded off and then grooved the ends of both to form makeshift handles. She tossed them to Davídrius, who snatched them out of the air and immediately took to slashing any smaller creatures that approached. Kaoné then knocked over the remaining bipedal creature but was almost crushed by the remains of the first as they began thrashing around violently. The remains then morphed into two smaller bipeds that rushed the Materiatechnic — only to get sliced to bits by Davídrius. Siyuakén immediately offered a high-voltage shock to the pieces, permanently frying them. Kaoné thanked the two other Chaotics by smothering the remaining with another slab of diamond.

By then the entire back half of the convoy had been obliterated, and the front half had continued on, leaving the Chaotics behind in the dark of night. Kaoné quickly erected several tree branches which Siyuakén then shocked to create torches and light up the area, but the dim light was still sub-optimal.

Davídrius brandished his makeshift blades and glanced about warily. “Well,” he muttered, “can’t say I ever expected to end up in this situation.”

“Those damn bugs…” Siyuakén pursed her lips. “…If they’re actually connected to the metallic infection…”

“I still don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” Davídrius cut in, “…and I really wish I’d live long enough to find out.”

“What makes you think that we…?”

Kaoné trailed off as three more of the bipedal creatures suddenly dropped out of the sky, followed by a massive hulking behemoth behind them, well over ten meters in height.

“That.” The Velocitechnic pointed at the creatures with his blades. “That. That’s what.”

Just as soon as he was done gesturing, the three smaller creatures dashed forward. Instead of attacking back, Kaoné immediately and reflexively created a protective dome of diamond around herself and the two other Chaotics. She then collapsed, winded, as the metallic creatures began banging on the dome from outside.

“Well gee. Thanks. This helps a lot,” Davídrius deadpanned.

“She just saved our lives,” Siyuakén countered irately.

“Saved our lives my ass,” Davídrius snarled back, “trappin’ a Velocitechnic like this is the worst thing you could do if you’re tryin’ to save lives!”

“So maybe you’d have survived, but what about the two of us?”

“You— I can totally save y’all.”

“Really. You’re that strong? I thought you had super speed, not super strength.”

“Tch. I was able to carry you just fine, and Kaoné’s no where near as big or heavy as you.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake— we are not having this damned argument right now!” The Velocitechnic whipped around to face Kaoné, who had recovered enough to stumble back to her feet. “Open up the dome!” he demanded, “at least let me out. Out there I can do something; in here it’s just—”

CRACK!

All three Chaotics froze and then slowly looked up at the top of the diamond dome. Through the vaguely transparent surface, they could make out the silhouette of the behemoth creature raising its arm from the last strike that had cracked the entirety of the dome. The creature was clearly preparing for a second strike — a strike which would surely pierce the layer of protection.

Siyuakén glanced over at the Materiatechnic warily. “Kaoné!”

“I… too tired…” she panted.

“Still think this was a good idea?” Davídrius snarled. Siyuakén was left to glare at him as the behemoth’s arm dropped, hitting the dome and shattering it — just as the three Chaotics were enveloped in a brief flash of white light and suddenly found themselves standing in a steel-gray room populated with many different computing consoles arranged in such a way to emphasize the back center.

“It worked!!”

“What…? Kevérin?” Siyuakén finally realized that there were two people standing in the back of the room. “…What just happened? Where are we?”

“We just figured out how to use all of the Genesis’s systems!” the Pyrotechnic exclaimed with glee. “We just beamed you guys up! Isn’t it great?!”

The other three Nimalians’ gazes drifted to Scott, who was standing next to Kevérin. He grinned in response. “It’s truly fascinatin’, this Battlecruiser,” he remarked, and then frowned. “Shame we couldn’t save everyone…” He shook his head and moved his focus back to the console in front of him. “No time to dwell on that, though. There’s a situation planetside that needs a little cleanin’ up. In the meantime, Colonel Yamamoto should be… somewhere on the ship.”

“Here…” Kevérin typed something into the console in front of him. “…Follow the lights on the ceiling, and you’ll find where we beamed all the Earthians to.”

“…Wow. So that’s really how this whole thing ends, huh?” Davídrius sighed.

“Yep.” Scott nodded in response. “Now, could you go get the Colonel? We need to fill her in on the state of the Battlecruiser, and then we need to work out the situation down on Sunova, see if it’s salvageable or not. …I’m sorry, but I’m not certain how soon we’ll be able to get you back to Nimalia.”

“No, it’s… it’s no problem,” Siyuakén responded wearily, “this whole situation may, in part, be our fault—”

“There was no way we could’ve—!”

“So yes…” the Electrotechnic cut Davídrius off, “…we can help.”

Scott smiled. “Good. I’m glad to know we can count on the Nimalians!”

---

7 Days Later

“The hell happened over there? I sent you all to investigate a fairly innocuous claim, and then you come back nearly a week later telling me that the colony was lost?!”

“Um…” Kevérin responded slowly, “that’s… correct…?”

Commander Nikéyin sighed irately as she leaned back in her chair. She slowly looked each of the members of Hero Machina in the eye before continuing, “I am… rather displeased, to say the least, about how your expedition to Sunova panned out. Being the cause of a full-scale colony evacuation is never a good thing.”

“But we weren’t the cause!” Davídrius protested, “it was the damn bugs! We had no way of knowin’—!”

“You’re out of line!” Nikéyin barked, “this is a military organization. You ask for permission before speaking; understand?”

The Velocitechnic bristled. “I’m part of no military—”

“Then get out.”

“What? But— I—!”

“Hero Machina is a team of Chaotics under the jurisdiction of the Nimalian Systems Defense, a military organization. I realize you weren’t a proper soldier before, but if you want to be part of this, then shape up and shut up. I’m willing to give you a chance, but don’t make me regret it.”

“Tch…” Davídrius pursed his lips, but said no more.

“Thank you.” Nikéyin then turned to address the group as a whole. “Yes, I’m aware that the situation was not completely your fault. I’m also aware that, Transfer Captain, you were able to offer significant help to the Earthians in mastering the use of their new Battlecruiser. I am also aware that the three of you made an effort to protect the Earthians to the best of your ability. And I am also aware that, for some absurd reason, the Earthians decided to hand over the Master Ayas.” The Commander shook her head incredulously. “I have no idea how, but you seem to have maintained the Earthians’ trust, even through this whole fiasco.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Kevérin responded curtly.

“I have no idea whether to call this mission a success or a failure,” Nikéyin continued, “…so, while I figure that out, I want the four of you to continue operating as a group. You have two objectives, currently: wrap up recruitment, and look into the ‘metallic rash’ issue. I imagine the research group up on the Continental Glacier knows a fair deal about the rash, so you might want to investigate them first. Though that is only a suggestion; I’m fully aware that the Continental Glacier is not the most…pleasant of places to be.”

“Gotta be better than Treséd,” Davídrius grumbled.

“Watch your tongue,” the Commander reprimanded, and then stood up. As she did so, Kevérin, Kaoné, and Siyuakén all stiffened up; Davídrius simply shuffled awkwardly when he realized he had no idea what was going on. “Do you all understand your current tasks?”

“Yes ma’am,” the three ranked members of Hero Machina responded.

“Very well then. Get to it,” Nikéyin nodded, and saluted. The rest of Hero Machina saluted back. “Dismissed!”

“Damn it!”

Davídrius immediately grabbed a nearby chair, sped over to the corner, and rammed one of the legs down the hole the metallic bugs had created. He then jumped back and tossed the Master Ayas to Siyuakén. “Catch!”

“What?!” She caught it haphazardly before gritting her teeth as continued contact with the Ayas caused a subdued stinging pain. “Wait, it—!”

“You’ve got more use for it than I do!” Davídrius insisted as he smashed another chair to pieces with a kick and grabbed two of its legs to use as clubs. “Now don’t just stand there!”

“You don’t need to tell me what to do,” Siyuakén responded quickly before stretching her right arm toward the hole and blasting it with electricity. The resultant heat almost immediately fused the chair to the hole.

“…Not bad,” Davídrius remarked with a smirk. “Now let’s get out of here before—!”

He was cut off as several of the bugs dropped down in front of the doorway and then charged at the two Chaotics. He scowled before dashing forward and bashing them out of the way, at which point he kicked open the door and waved Siyuakén over. She quickly jumped forward and leaped over the bugs, slamming the door shut behind her and applying a massive voltage to the entire shack.

The Velocitechnic whistled in admiration. “Just how many volts can you put out?”

“A lot,” the Electrotechnic replied, “though it usually takes more effort to generate that much power.”

“Is that ‘cause of the Master Ayas?”

“Maybe…” Siyuakén trailed off as her gaze shifted past Davídrius and to the open space behind him. “…Though we should save the speculation for another time. There’s more of the bugs coming.”

“Of course there are…” he scowled again before brandishing his two metal rods. “If only it weren’t dusk, then I could actually see where they are…”

“Let me take care of this.”

“Eh? How…?”

“Just… when I count down from three, make sure you’re in the air. …And probably far away from me.”

“Tch. You elemental Chaotics and your snazzy powers. Aight then, I’ll run ahead to the main building. Try not to get overwhelmed when you catch up.”

“Sure thing.” Siyuakén rolled her eyes as Davídrius dashed off into the darkness. She then turned her attention back to the approaching metallic bugs as she began charging electricity in her left arm, where she held the Master Ayas. Mere moments later, the stone began to glow due to the energy, and small arcs of electricity leaped from parts of her arm to the rest of her body — and a moment later she thrust the Ayas at the ground, immediately releasing all of the charged electricity on impact. A brilliant flash of light momentarily blinded Siyuakén as all the bugs within five meters were fused to the flash-crystallized ground and all of the bugs within another ten meters catastrophically overloaded. The Electrotechnic stood up and paused for a moment to admire her handiwork before sprinting off toward the main building, watching vigilantly for any more hordes of metallic bugs.

---

“Lead! You’re here!”

“Colonel?” The Captain glanced between Yamamoto and Shepherd warily. “What’s this about metallic bugs?”

“You’ll have to ask the Nimalians,” Shepherd retorted.

“What he means is that we don’t know.” Yamamoto passed Shepherd a reprimanding glance, prompting his posture to stiffen. “The two Nimalians from the caves returned with a horde of metallic bugs after them. Given their rate of progression, they’ll arrive within the hour. Now, what’s the status on the extra equipment?”

“The brass are wary about granting extra equipment to a Code Blue situation,” Lead responded, “not at this short of a notice.”

“Of course they are,” Shepherd grumbled.

“Our current stockpile won’t cut it…” Yamamoto remarked with a frown. “The Nimalians claimed that the bugs could easily burrow through solid rock. We have to assume that they can do the same to the cement foundation — and that means we need to reinforce all of the key hallways, namely the Gate Room access points.”

Lead glanced back at the active Interstellar Gate behind him before looking at the three Gate Room entrances. “What do you need me to do?”

“Command the armored vehicle squads and keep the lanes to the Frigate landing clearings open. Shepherd, I want you to command the gunships, as we discussed earlier.”

“Permission to speak freely?” Lead questioned.

“Granted.”

“How do you intend to defend against a horde of bugs with armored vehicles?”

“It’s really a delay tactic…” the Colonel admitted, “one of the Nimalians is a Materiatechnic — she can control matter. Once she’s returned from the Battlecruiser, she should be able to control the situation easily. So we just need to make sure that the base isn’t overrun and that, in a worst-case scenario, we can evacuate all of the personnel.”

“And every second we spend here is a second we’re not setting up defenses!” Shepherd bristled. “Say the word, Colonel, and I’m off.”

Yamamoto opened her mouth to respond, but a metallic spheroid suddenly dropped from the ceiling, directly in front of the Interstellar Gate. It then uncurled, standing up on its four legs and wiggling a wing-like appendage on its back before turning toward the Gate — and getting blown to pieces as Shepherd shot it with his pistol.

“They’re already here?” The Captain scowled as he glanced up — just in time to see the entire ceiling crack.

Colonel Yamamoto responded immediately. “Everyone OUT OF THE ROOM!” she bellowed while signaling toward the exits. She then held a hand to her ear to activate her headset as Shepherd and Lead ran past. “Lock down the Gate! Now! And send a message to Earth telling them to lock down theirs!” She glanced up at the ceiling as it audibly cracked before dashing toward the Gate Room exit that Shepherd and Lead were standing outside of. With a final, deafening crack the entire cement roof shattered, sending a rain of cement, metal, and metallic bugs down on top of the Gate and the Colonel — who dived to safety just in time. Shepherd immediately slammed the door shut behind her.

“You said we had an hour!” Lead exclaimed incredulously.

“Looks like I was wrong.” Yamamoto scowled. “And we just lost the Gate Room for it.” She turned on her heel and began jogging down the hallway. “Follow me. We need to get to the surface, and to any communicator capable of reaching the in-system Frigates…”

---

“Haaaah!!”

Davídrius impaled one of the metallic bugs with his metal rods before tossing them aside along with the now-defunct creature. He reached into his jacket pockets and whipped out two knives that he had found in an armory and began cutting into the approaching horde as fast as he could, leaving Siyuakén to watch on in irritation.

“I can’t do anything if you’re in the way!” she shouted after him, but received no response. She sighed and turned down another corridor, hoping that the Velocitechnic would be able to handle himself. Grasping the Master Ayas tightly, she began feeding enough electricity into it to make it glow, offering a light source amongst the dark complex — and electrically striking a bug just as it leaped through the air toward her. The Electrotechnic immediately swung around to face a group of metallic bugs before quickly shocking them all — only for them to continue rushing her. She quickly charged up more electricity for a more powerful blast and unleashed it on the bugs, this time causing their joints to fuse and freeze up just as Davídrius rushed up behind her.

“I broke the knives…” he lamented.

“Of course you did…” Siyuakén sighed. “Let’s get out of these narrow corridors. It’s too easy to get ambushed—!?”

She was interrupted as Davídrius scooped her up in his arms and leaped up onto the roof of the nearby building. He then leaped from roof to roof until reaching the edge of the clearing at the front of the base, where he dropped down to the ground and released the Electrotechnic.

She took a few moments to regain her bearings, startled by the sudden acceleration and deceleration. Scowling, she demanded, “warn me next time!”

“No time for warnin’ when you’re tryin’ to go fast,” Davídrius quipped.

Siyuakén sighed before glancing toward the base’s front gates. “Looks like the bugs haven’t raided here yet…”

“Or they’ve just gone underground,” Davídrius countered. “…Where are the Earthians?”

“Securing evac routes. I’m… actually not quite sure what their defense plan is at this point. Maybe they’re counting on Kaoné to save the day?”

Davídrius shrugged. “She is a Materiatechnic. Hopefully a horde of damned bugs won’t trigger her ‘don’t kill’ nonsense.” He glanced over at Siyuakén as she gave him a disapproving look. “What?”

“Don’t talk about her like that.”

“Tch.” He turned away just in time to watch a convoy of armored vehicles roll out of a garage as light flooded the entire complex. “Gah!” He clamped his eyes shut painfully.

“I’m surprised they didn’t turn on the lights sooner,” Siyuakén mused, “anyways, we should watch the vehicles. I think they’re going to secure the route to the Frigate clearing.”

Davídrius frowned with apprehension. “What about the Gate? That’s the easiest way off-planet—!”

“And I’m sure the Earthians are guarding it just fine. We should stay with the vehicles, out in the open — where we’ll be able to help the most.”

“…Ngh. You’re right. I’ll need new weapons though…”

The Electrotechnic glanced at him incredulously. “Do you always break your weapons?”

“It ain’t my fault none of the blades I’ve used were built to Velocitechnic standards,” he replied defensively. “Even considerin’ the fact that they should withstand as much force as I can… cheap blades just won’t cut it, you know?”

Siyuakén sighed impatiently. “Really? Really?”

“…Keheheh, that was totally intended.” Davídrius grinned, momentarily amused with himself, and then quickly reset to a serious expression. “But we should stop just standin’ around. The Earthians need our help. Ready?”

“Ready for—? Agh!?” the Electrotechnic yelped as Davídrius picked her up again and dashed off toward the vehicles. Just after he arrived by the side of the leading vehicle it pulled to a stop, prompting the two Chaotics to stop as well. A couple seconds later, Captain Lead emerged from a hatch on top and turned to address the Nimalians.

“I take it you’re here to help?” he questioned.

“Yes, we are,” Siyuakén responded, having caught her breath after the short dash.

“What’s the situation with the rest of the base?” Davídrius questioned, just as two gunships flew by overhead.

“…We lost the Gate Room,” Lead replied, “we were able to lock down the Gate before any of the damn bugs got through, but we can’t use it to escape. For now we’re defending the path to the Frigate landing clearings until the Frigates can pick us up or until your friend arrives to clean up this whole mess.”

“How long will that be?” Siyuakén asked.

“Hopefully, not for long…” Lead’s focus shifted from the two Nimalians to the dark, open area behind them. “Lights full!!” he barked, “ready for action!” He glanced at the two Chaotics as he began retreating back into the vehicle. “Here they come. Do your best against the damned things. Good luck!”

“Wait!” Davídrius exclaimed, causing Lead to pause just before he had fully retracted into the armored vehicle. “I need weapons. Anything you got, I can use!”

The sound of a tank firing suddenly filled the air, followed by sporadic machine gun fire. Amongst the cacophony, Lead ducked into the vehicle and emerged shortly afterward with two pistols and a knife. Davídrius immediately leaped up and grabbed all three, stuffing the knife into his jacket pocket as he thanked the Captain and dashed off into the horde in the opposite direction of the tank fire. Siyuakén quickly followed suit as Lead climbed back into the vehicle and closed the hatch.

The Velocitechnic knocked away two bugs that had leaped at him before grasping the pistols in a dual-wield stance and blasting away at bugs point-blank. After twenty shots from each pistol, however, he found that he could shoot no more. “What?!” he exclaimed with a scowl as he dived backwards from the bug he had just attempted to shoot. “Limited ammo…?! Damn projectile weapons!” He chucked the empty pistols at two bugs, smashing them both to smithereens before grabbing his single knife and taking off to stab more of the hostile creatures. As soon as he left the area, Siyuakén blasted the bugs with a wave of electricity, stunning them long enough for her to charge up a more powerful blast and decommission them entirely. She then turned toward the Earthian vehicles and shocked the front lines of the approaching horde, giving the gunners enough time to wipe out the front line.

But the defense only lasted for so long. The Earthian vehicles could only turn their weapons so quickly, and against a horde of bugs they could only be so effective. On top of that, the metallic creatures seemed to be developing a tolerance for Siyuakén’s electrical powers, and were being stunned for lesser and lesser periods of time, and required more and more power to completely disable. And when Davídrius finally broke his lone knife, he was left to impatiently and nervously watch the battle from atop one of the tanks.

“Move forward!” Captain Lead ordered over the radio, “take detour three-B at forty kilometers an hour. Try to lose the bugs before we reach the Frigate clearing!”

“What?” Siyuakén scowled as she climbed up onto the tank Davídrius was standing on just as it began moving. “They can’t lose the bugs! They’re too fast for that!”

“I know,” Davídrius replied, his lips pursed. “…It must be a last resort. Things clearly won’t go too well if we stay here—”

He was cut off as one of the vehicles in the middle of the column spontaneously exploded, sending hot debris — as well as several metallic bugs — flying in every direction. One of the bugs landed in between the two Nimalians, and Davídrius immediately punted it into the darkness of the night. He glared back at the large mass of metallic bugs chasing after the vehicles. “Looks like things won’t be going too well anyways.”

“…I can slow them down.”

“What?” The Velocitechnic whipped around to stare at Siyuakén. “Hey, you ain’t seriously—?”

“And how else are we getting out of this damn mess?”

“…Tch. Fine. If you wanna throw your life away for no damn reason, see if I’ll stop you.”

“I should’ve expected such a response from you.”

“Hn.”

“I’m not throwing my life away, anyways.” Siyuakén slowly stumbled to the end of the vehicle. “I’ll be fine.” She stared at the mass of bugs for a couple seconds before taking a deep breath and moving to jump —

— only for Kaoné to suddenly dive into the ground next to the vehicle, manipulating the dirt to absorb her falling speed before jumping out and up to the tank the other two Chaotics were standing on.

“You’re here!” Siyuakén exclaimed.

“The hell was with that entrance?!” Davídrius balked.

“The shuttle is still up in the air…” Kaoné replied, “when I saw what was going on down here, I decided to just jump. And since I’m a Materiatechnic—”

“Bah, fuckin’ show-off,” Davídrius grumbled, “just hurry up and save the day already.”

“Of course!” She responded with a smile, and turned toward the horde of metallic bugs. She closed her eyes and remained silent for several moments.

“…Uh, Kaoné?” Siyuakén eventually spoke up, “…What’re you—?”

“It’s not working!”

“Huh?” Davídrius cocked his head in confusion.

“My powers…” Kaoné turned to stare at the other two Chaotics, her eyes wide with panic. “Against those bugs — my powers won’t work!”

“We need to get out of here, now!!”

“What?” Shepherd turned around just as Davídrius sped up to the truck and dumped Siyuakén unceremoniously in the truck bed.

“Did you not hear me? We need to go!” the Velocitechnic insisted.

“Hold it!” the Captain barked, “we aren’t going anywhere until you tell me what the problem is!”

“We killed the creature,” Siyuakén explained, “But, it — …its carcass split open and a horde of metal bugs rushed out!”

“I was able to outrun them, of course, but it’s only a matter of time before they catch up!” Davídrius pressed, “that’s why we need to go!”

“…A horde of metal bugs?” Shepherd responded slowly, “the hell are you talking about? They just popped out of that dragon’s dead body?”

“Every second you spend doubtin’ us is a second we’ve lost in gettin’ away from those things!” Davídrius countered irately. “Each of those damn bugs are the size of my hand, minimum! And they sure as hell ain’t just normal bugs ‘cause they can burrow through fucking stone! We sure as hell ain’t equipped to fight ‘em off here!”

The Captain paused for a moment before turning back toward the truck and reaching through the driver’s side window to grab the vehicle’s communicator. “Captain Shepherd reporting! Repeat, this is Captain Shepherd. We’ve got a… Code Blue here—”

Mid-sentence the nearby rock wall cracked and gave way to several sharp, knife-sized projectiles. Davídrius snatched one out of the air and used it to deflect the others before launching it at the cave entrance, impaling one of the metallic bugs just as it emerged from the darkness — only for it to be trampled by a horde of hundreds of metallic beetle-like bugs.

“You were right!” Shepherd exclaimed as he yanked the truck door open and jumped in.

“No shit!” the Velocitechnic growled in response. “I’ll hold them off — or at least, I’ll try!”

“What?” Siyuakén cut in as she moved to climb out of the truck bed. “On your own? You’re insane! I’m helping!”

“No you’re not!” Davídrius shoved her back. “Are you fast enough to run away if you get swarmed? No! You’re not! It’d be one thing if your swingin’ gear still worked, but I saw those lines snap. So sit tight and help the Earthians — I’ll be fine on my own!” He turned to the Captain. “You get back to the base as soon as possible and raise the alarm, or somethin’—”

“Already on it!” Shepherd shouted as he slammed the truck into reverse, backing away from the cave before spinning it around and flooring it across the rocky ground. He momentarily glanced at the rear-view mirror just in time to see Davídrius disappear behind a rock face.

“Are the kids fine?”

“Huh? Oh…” The Captain glanced behind himself to the small back-seat area. Earthian military vehicles — by virtue of being military vehicles — didn’t come equipped with baby seats, so the Captain had been left to secure the children as safely as he could with seat-belts alone. “…They look fine. But they’re still unconscious.”

“Mmm…” Siyuakén responded quietly.

Several moments of silence passed before Shepherd spoke up again. “I don’t know what happened back there… but can he actually hold off those things?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Would you have been able to hold them off?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are they really that damn invincible?”

“I don’t know…”

The Captain glanced back at Siyuakén. “Will we be able to protect Sunova from them?”

The Electrotechnic looked down at her arm wound before sighing warily. “…I don’t know…”

---

3 Hours Later

“Well, I can’t say I ever expected to have to deal with a Code Blue after a year of uninterrupted Green.”

“Sorry, Colonel,” Captain Shepherd responded uneasily.

“It’s not your fault, Shepherd.” The Colonel passed him a glance. “If everything you’ve told me is true, this whole colony was messed up to start with.”

Siyuakén frowned. “There’s no reason to not believe us.”

“I know,” she replied, “but it doesn’t mean that I’ll send the entire garrison charging in, either. Code Blue protocol simply calls for a quarantine, which I hope we can accomplish with drones. I’ve already called down your Nimalian friends on the Battlecruiser in case things go south; with any luck, the four of you should be able to help us repel this threat.”

“Are you sure you can handle it?” Siyuakén questioned, “I’ve never seen these bugs before.”

“If they’re native, then that would make perfect sense.”

“But… they can’t be,” the Electrotechnic countered, “they’re made of metal! I think they might be related to the galactic metallic infection pandemic.”

“And that means?…”

“…I don’t know.”

“I appreciate your concern,” the Colonel responded, “but we can handle this. Worst comes to worst, the Interstellar Gate is only two levels underground, and there’s two Frigates in system in case even the Gate isn’t an option. But I would rather save Sunova if I can — and I’m sure we’ll need your help to do so.”

“Colonel, this whole situation is in part the fault of the Nimalians—”

“Shepherd, stop right there,” the Colonel interrupted, approaching the Captain and glaring up into his eyes. “You’re a good man — for the most part. But you need to get over this mindset of yours. SERRCom has managed to grow past many of Earth’s old biases — now let’s try to do the same on the galactic stage.”

Shepherd scowled but nodded nonetheless. “Yes… Colonel Yamamoto. I’ll keep that in mind…”

“Good.” The Colonel turned to look at Siyuakén. “That said, I am concerned that you’re the only present witness, so far as killing the cave dragon and seeing these metal bugs spill out of it.” She then turned back to the screens behind her. “Though that is why I ordered drones to the caves and surrounding areas. Unfortunately, the sun is setting, so we’ll only be able to see so much. Perhaps we’ll see what happened to the other Nimalian.”

“Davídrius should be back already…” Siyuakén replied quietly, “…he — Velocitechnics aren’t endurance fighters.”

“And I’d have to wonder just how effective they are against metal bugs the size of a baseball,” Yamamoto responded. “…Regardless, we should find out in about fifteen minutes—”

“Wait, Colonel,” Shepherd spoke up as he pointed at one of the screens. “There — movement. And a glitter. Is that?…”

“It’s the bugs… a whole lot of them,” Siyuakén affirmed.

“…They’re this far? Already?” The Colonel frowned uneasily. “Even for their size… they’ve come remarkably close to the base in such little time, especially assuming that they’re feral–”

The screen suddenly jerked, causing the three observers to jump in surprise. The camera seemed to fly backwards and down until suddenly stopping on a tree – and then turning to reveal Davídrius’s face as his mouth began moving.

“He snatched the drone out of the air?” Yamamoto observed in surprise.

“And he’s trying to tell us something. Do the drones transmit audio?” Siyuakén questioned.

The Colonel flipped a switch next to the screen; a second later, they could hear Davídrius’s voice over the connection.

“—ot feral. You can’t treat ‘em like bugs. They’re too smart for that! They’re— ahk!” He ducked and dropped out of view of the camera — shortly after which the drone stopped transmitting.

“He must’ve dropped it,” Shepherd suggested.

“He looked surprisingly fine,” Siyuakén commented.

“I’m more worried about that location…” Yamamoto scowled. “In three hours, they’ve cleared a hundred and twenty kilometers. They’re disconcertingly fast… and to come this far in a group must mean they’re at least somewhat focused…”

“We should launch the gunships, Ma’am,” Shepherd suggested.

“Against targets that small? I have to wonder about their effectiveness. All we’d be doing is throwing up debris and obscuring the bugs.”

“Besides, they were able to burrow through rocks,” Siyuakén added. “They could just go underground.”

“Which is even more disconcerting,” Yamamoto responded, “we’ll at least know they’re coming when the seismic sensors begin going off. But, given this — we’ll need to seal off the less-easily protected areas of the base, and station personnel and sentry guns along the hallways. Especially the Gate room and all paths to it — those must remain open. And if we lose those, we need to make sure we have enough time and space to fall back to the Frigate clearings, and to do that we’ll need to keep the generators running in order to keep the lights on… Lead already returned to Earth with the children, correct?”

Shepherd nodded curtly. “He did.”

“Call him back and put him in charge of the armored vehicle squads. He needs to make sure the path to the Frigate clearings stays lit and open. Also, see if you can rush the reinforcements; we’ll only have so much time to get vehicles above-ground. We need more sentry guns, too — and mines. Pesticides, too, though I’m not sure how well that will work against metal bugs. Anyway, once you’ve done that, take command of the gunships and get the whole squadron airborne. Intercept the bugs and expend as much ammo as you deem necessary, but don’t fire within two klicks of the base. We need to be able to see the threat.”

“Yes Ma’am!” the Captain exclaimed, stiffening long enough to offer a salute before turning toward the door and rushing out of the room.

The Colonel glanced over at Siyuakén, and then down at her cut and burned left arm. “You should get that checked out.”

“I’m fine,” the Electrotechnic insisted, “I can get it looked at once this situation is taken care of…”

“I appreciate the thought, but I’ll need you at your best in order to help out,” Yamamoto declared, “until the Battlecruiser team returns in an hour, you and your friend are the only Chaotics planetside — and right now you’re the only Chaotic on this base. I’m not saying we’re relying on you — we have plenty of our own defenses — but I’m sure your help would be invaluable. Can you still give your all with an injury like that?”

“It was just a cut. The burn looks bad, but that was just me cauterizing it. I’ll be fine. But I do have another concern.”

The Colonel crossed her arms. “What is it?”

“The Master Ayas…” Siyuakén frowned. “…Is it still on the base?”

“Master Ayas?” Yamamoto echoed cluelessly. “…Oh, you mean that silver stone Shepherd found in the caves? It should still be in MacTavish’s lab.”

“We can’t leave it behind,” the Electrotechnic declared, “it’s too valuable.”

“Hmm… given what I’ve heard from MacTavish, I agree.” The Colonel nodded. “Can you go retrieve it? Bring it down to the Gate room and we’ll move it to Earth. In the meantime, I’ll continue organizing the defenses. I wonder if I should bump us up to Code Red… heh, here’s to hoping we’re over-reacting.”

“Yeah…” Siyuakén replied as she quickly left the room, “…hopefully…”

---

Kzztk!

Siyuakén burst into the dark lab, having overridden the lock with a quick shock. She held her hands close together and began arcing electricity across them, generating just enough light for her to find and flip the room’s light switch. She then quickly set to searching the drawers, cabinets, and chests in an effort to find the Master Ayas. She couldn’t quite explain why, but she possessed an overwhelming sense of dread regarding the Ayas’s safety — were the bugs to claim it, who knew what could happen. Is there a connection between Chaos Energy and the bugs?… she thought to herself, is there a connection between those bugs and the metallic rash? Or was this all just coincidence? She glanced down at her arm wound warily before shaking her head. Even if there is a connection, I shouldn’t worry. I’m sure I burned anything that could’ve been injected… as well as most of what was already there. Maybe I really should get this looked at. I’m sure my nerves would’ve been fried if I weren’t an Electrotechnic…

She paused as she opened a drawer and laid eyes on a silver sphere. “Aha!” She smiled as she reached for the Master Ayas — only to jerk her arm back when it offered her a small shock. “What?!” she yelped, “it shocked me? What for? …I found a shock painful?”

Her thoughts were cut short as the door to the lab burst open and Davídrius dashed in. “…The Master Ayas!” he exclaimed as he grabbed it, “damn good thing it’s still here.” He glanced over at the Electrotechnic. “We need to get out of here, now.”

“Uh, right…” Siyuakén frowned. “I mean, I know we’re in a rush, but we should still have at least an hour before the bugs show up, right?”

“No— they’re fast. Too fast—!” Davídrius responded just as some of the cement in the corner cracked and several metallic bugs emerged. “They’re already here!”

“…We’re gonna have to go through that.”

“What in the hell—?!” Shepherd fell back onto his bottom as the creature roared again and rammed its head against the wall separating it from the stasis pods. “Where did— how did—?!”

“There’s no time!” Siyuakén declared as she jumped in front of Davídrius and Shepherd, “I’ll distract it! Davídrius, you get the kids and the Captain out of here!”

“Tch, of course I gotta do all the haulin’.” The Velocitechnic scowled as he crouched down in between two of the stasis pods and scooped up the still unconscious children. He stood up and glanced over at the other two pods, where Shepherd was picking up the last two children. “Not you!” Davídrius barked, “you’re too slow. You’ll only get them and yourself killed!”

“And I’m supposed to just trust their lives to you?” Shepherd bristled as the room shook from another impact, loosening several rocks from the cave ceiling. “I’d think you’re even worse! Super speed won’t help at all if the acceleration kills them!”

“You clearly—” Siyuakén began, but was interrupted by Davídrius.

“What’re you still doin’ here? Get out there!” he ordered. Siyuakén glared at him for a moment before whipping around and dashing out the cave, immediately launching her grappling hooks at a far wall and yanking herself out of range of the dragon creature. As soon as she left, the Velocitechnic turned back to face Shepherd. “Look, I don’t think you understand how Velocitechnism works. Whatever I’m holdin’ or touchin’ can stand up to the same amount of acceleration that I can. How do you think I’ve still got intact clothes, huh?!”

Shepherd glared back at the Velocitechnic before glancing between the children in his grasp. “…Agh. Fine!” he replied irately, “get going! But if anyone dies, it’s your ass!”

“Don’t worry. I got this!” Davídrius exclaimed, spinning around on his heel before crouching down… and then disappearing with a small sonic boom. He crossed the cavern and leaped up to the exit platform just as the dragon creature smashed its tail into the ground just below the platform. The Velocitechnic ignored the close call and sped off through the caves as Siyuakén swept down and launched both of her grappling hooks into the creature’s tail before shoving a high current through them. It screeched in response as it hardened its tail and whipped it up through the air, dragging the Electrotechnic with it. She quickly released the grappling hooks and struck both of the dragon’s wings with lightning strikes before firing one hook at a wall to swing away from an incoming plume of fire breath. She then released the hook and fired the other in the opposite direction just fast enough to yank herself out of the creature’s path as it slammed itself into the wall at her former location. As she swung around to face it again and got a good look at its body for the first time, she paused in shock.

Down the creature’s back, spread across its wings, and covering a third of its face were thick, rash-like streaks of silver metal.

“It’s infected?!” Siyuakén gasped just as the dragon thrust itself at her again, yanking her out of the air with its hands and snapping her grappling line in the process. She quickly sapped as much electricity from the creature’s hand as she could, forcing its muscles to go slack enough for her to extract herself and leap away before the creature could attempt to grab her with its other hand. As she fell through the air she twisted around to fire a column of lightning at the dragon, stunning it long enough for her to launch her remaining intact grappling hook into a far wall and swing away. Damn rookie mistake, she mentally berated herself, now I’ve only got one line left—!

She immediately put that thought on hold as she released her grappling hook and dropped to the ground, just in time to evade another plume of fire from the beast’s maw. She responded with several lightning strikes but the dragon seemed to simply shrug the attacks off, instead becoming even more agitated. With a powerful flap of its wings it dived straight at Siyuakén, claws first, forcing her to dive out of the way as it slammed into the wall once again. She quickly launched her grappling hook into the far wall to swing away as the creature howled in painful anger and backed away from the wall before turning to face Siyuakén again. The moment it did, she shocked both of its eyes, causing it to reel back in pain… only to suddenly split its forehead, open a third eye, and come dashing after her again.

“What the fuck!?” she exclaimed, just before tucking into a roll as the creature dashed overhead. She offered a somewhat meager electric shock at its underside as she scrambled away and then fired her grappling hook again. “Good thing it’s feral, or I’d be toast by now,” she muttered, glancing down at the cavern entrance just as Davídrius leaped up to it with Shepherd riding piggy-back. A quick glance back to the small stasis room confirmed that all four pods were empty. “I guess I’m done distracting it for now—?!”

Caught off-guard, Siyuakén was unable to properly respond as the creature suddenly extended its tail to three times its length and smacked her out of the air, snapping her second grappling line and sending her hurdling toward the cave wall. Before she could even process the entire exchange, Davídrius had leaped up into the air and caught her before landing in a crouch and launching himself back at the cavern entrance. The moment he was several meters down the cave from the cavern, he set Siyuakén down carefully.

He smirked. “How’s that for worthless?”

“…Ngh,” Siyuakén groaned in response. “…That thing… is infected.”

Davídrius frowned in confusion. “It what now?”

“It has the metallic infection,” she reiterated as she stood up slowly. “…It’s big, powerful, infected, and feral. Our best bet is to just seal off the cavern—”

“Pah, we should just defeat it now, while we have the chance.”

“Are you listening to what I’m saying?” Siyuakén responded angrily, “did you not just see it kick my ass? Fighting it isn’t worth it!”

“Except that it’s a great way to get the Earthians in our debt,” Davídrius replied smugly.

“Tch,” the Electrotechnic snorted. “If I couldn’t beat it, how do you plan to?”

Davídrius smirked again. “Well, clearly, you’re still underestimatin’ me. For one,” he started as he produced two daggers from the inside of his jacket, “I’ve got more pockets than you, and they’re deeper. Two, the ability to run really fast has the side effect of givin’ you impressive leg strength.”

Siyuakén frowned. “And that means…?”

The Velocitechnic grinned dangerously. “It means I can do this.”

He suddenly leaped up and forwards, clearing the entire cavern and preparing to land on the dragon’s back. It turned toward him just in time to react and slapped him aside with its wing, sending him flying into the floor. Davídrius quickly caught himself and rolled to a stop before taking off again, slicing at all four of the dragon’s Achilles tendons before it even realized he hadn’t been crushed against the rocks. With an angry screech it quickly took off into the air, leaving the Velocitechnic behind on the ground — until he crouched down and leaped again, easily clearing the creature and grabbing it by its wing. He immediately jumped onto its back and used his daggers to latch on, driving them into the creature’s skin in between all of the metallic rashes. After pausing a moment to adjust to the dragon’s thrashing, he moved to his feet in a crouch and then spun around, slicing off both of the creature’s wings. He latched onto the creature’s back again as it crashed to the ground, at which point he leaped off, ignoring the dragon’s roaring as he dashed up and past the neck and sliced it, opening up a massive gash. For good measure, he then jumped up onto the creature’s head and rapidly stabbed it; the speed with which he stabbed created enough force to drive the daggers through the metallic rashes and into the creature’s skull, but it also quickly chipped away at the blades. But it was no issue; by the time both daggers were useless, the creature had keeled over, the occasional death spasm being its only movements.

Siyuakén stared at the dragon carcass blankly as Davídrius flipped off of it and then leaped back to the cavern entrance. He crossed his arms, smirked, and chuckled triumphantly. “As I said… how’s that for useless?”

“That was… certainly impressive,” Siyuakén admitted. “Though you did break your weapons again.”

“Tch. Well it ain’t my fault I can’t afford specialized Velocitechnic weaponry.”

“Mm hmm.” The Electrotechnic smiled in amusement before glancing down the cave opposite the cavern. “You got everyone out of here?”

“Yep. Shepherd should be makin’ his way out of the caves right now.” Davídrius paused for a moment and then frowned. “…I wonder what the Earthians will do with those kids.”

“There’s not really much they can do,” Siyuakén replied, “they didn’t look any older than two or three years old. I guess we can hope that the Earthians are moral enough to not use them as child soldiers…”

“I wonder. There has to be some reason those kids were in the stasis pods, and the Earthians will definitely wanna find out what it is. You can bet your ass that, if this were a CSA colony, those kids wouldn’t ever see the light of day. Even if it were a Nimalian colony, they’d probably be put under military or government surveillance until they’re old enough to draft.”

“That’s a very cynical view of the world.”

“It’s true and you know it.” Davídrius passed Siyuakén a knowing glance. “…I may be from Treséd, and I may be more ignorant than the rest of y’all, but I at least know about the fucked up drafts and trades that you other nations do.”

“…What’s that supposed to mean?” Siyuakén responded slowly.

“…Nothing.” The Velocitechnic turned back toward the cavern. “…Now’s our chance to check out that computer before the Earthians get their hands all over it, and while they’d still be grateful we killed that monster thing.”

“Did you forget that we can’t read the interface?”

“…D’oh.”

“Besides, like I said earlier — this isn’t our place to explore. It’s an Earthian colony, so we should leave everything we find to them.”

“Well what about that dragon thing? You said it was infected or some shit, didn’t you? We could at least check it out.”

“…I guess there’s no harm in… wait…”

Siyuakén trailed off and then jogged back to the edge of the entrance platform, with Davídrius instantly appearing beside her. He opened his mouth to ask why she stopped, but then paused himself as he laid eyes on what she was looking at:

The dragon carcass had split open, exposing a huge mass of metallic bugs inside!

“What the— the fuck are those?!” Davídrius exclaimed.

“I… I don’t know,” Siyuakén muttered as she slowly backed away from the ledge. A moment later, all of the bugs within the carcass spilled out and began rushing toward the cavern entrance, and just as suddenly Siyuakén and Davídrius fled back into the cave.

“Well this is fucked up!” The Velocitechnic scowled. “What are those—?!”

“I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this!” Siyuakén responded. “…I’m sealing the cavern.”

“Tch, I won’t stop you,” Davídrius snorted as he stepped back. The Electrotechnic stepped forward to the cave opening, charged her body with electricity, and then issued a massive shock to the cave entrance — massive enough to crack and dislodge the rocks, causing a small cave-in. The cave filled with dust and didn’t clear until Davídrius generated a breeze by rapidly spinning his arms. The two Chaotics then looked over Siyuakén’s handiwork: the cave was now blocked completely by fallen rock.

“…This is one fucked up planet,” the Velocitechnic muttered, “the Master Ayas appears, a phantom Battlecruiser appears, there’s a cavern full of gold with four kids in stasis pods in the back, and then there’s this fuckin’ dragon creature thing that exploded into a million damn bugs when we killed it!? What the fuck!”

“Y…yeah…” Siyuakén responded uneasily, still staring at the rocky wall. She then shook her head and turned the other way. “We need to get back to the surface and warn the Earthians—”

She was interrupted as a large metallic bug, nearly the size of her hand, suddenly exploded from the rock wall toward her and opened a gash across her left arm. She gasped in pain and reflexively shocked the bug, overloading it and destroying it.

“What in the—!” Davídrius scowled, glancing over as Siyuakén roughly cauterized her wound with a high-voltage shock. He then jumped as the sound of burrowing began to rumble through the cave walls. “…Fuck this place!” He quickly scooped up Siyuakén in his arms and spun around on his heel before dashing off. “Let’s get the fuck out of here!!”

“Wow…”

Scott immediately looked up from his work. “Did you find somethin’?” he asked eagerly.

“I found… lots of somethings,” Kevérin replied, “I think you were right about this ship having potential. There’s a lot of technology here that I don’t recognize…”

“Well you’ve never even served on a ship, so there’s bound to be stuff that you don’t recognize, right?” Kaoné questioned.

“I guess, yeah,” Kevérin admitted, “but there are certain kinds of technology that I’m certain I’d know about if they were in use… the claimed efficiency of this ship’s systems is astounding as well. Not to mention its stated power, given its size and class.”

“Where are you findin’ all this information?” Scott responded, confused.

“The ship’s registry,” the Transfer Captain explained, “it took some time to find it, and then a little more to figure out what it was actually saying. It lists all of the ship’s hardware and related specifications.”

“Let me see this.” Scott quickly moved to stand behind Kevérin and began looking over the presented information himself. “Weapons, engines, generators — both power and shield. Life support, FTL drive?”

“And those are only the major systems,” Kevérin pointed out.

“Some of it lines up with our Frigate design specs,” Scott mused. “…I see a lot of ‘Chaos’ stuff though.”

“Yeah, this ship seems to have been designed to use Chaos Energy to its maximal potential, which is already a massive departure from most modern ship designs. Ever since the Chaos Quake, most ships have been designed or retrofitted with redundant non-Chaos Energy dependent systems and shy away from using Chaos Energy for major functions… but this ship goes all out. Chaos Engines? Chaos Generators? Chaos Cannons? It’ll be a powerhouse, that’s for sure, but if something like the Chaos Quake ever happens again then it’ll be useless.”

“You say it’ll be a powerhouse… compared to what?”

“Compared to other ships of its size and class, at least. Like Kaoné said, I’ve never served on a ship before, and I’ve never studied spacecraft technology extensively, but I do know a few things regardless. I’d estimate that its offensive power is somewhere between Battleships and Capital ships, and its durability is close to that of a Battleship. Certainly far better than any Battlecruiser I’ve ever seen. Maneuverability… might be as good as most Cruisers.”

“That’s, hmm…” Scott paused for a moment to let Kevérin’s words sink in. “That’s impressive…?”

Kevérin nodded in agreement. “It definitely is, especially considering that the ship is still in the Battlecruiser size and mass class. If anyone knew how to make Battlecruisers as good as this one, they’d exist, and might actually dominate current naval doctrine. …Now of course, I’m basing all of these statements on numbers in the registry and limited spacecraft knowledge, so you’ll definitely want to test the ship before putting it out in actual battle. You certainly shouldn’t take everything I’m saying as fact, at least.”

“If it’s even half as good as you say then SERRCom will likely want to sideline it, study it, and reverse-engineer everythin’ for mass-production,” Scott responded, and then sighed. “Either that, or they’ll be gung-ho about it and rush it to the front lines to try and show everyone that Earthians aren’t useless.”

“You’ll definitely want to keep this hidden from the CSA, at least for some time,” Kevérin advised, “the moment they find out about this ship’s tech, they’ll be down your throat with sanctions and offerings and whatever other bureaucratic bullshit they can come up with.”

“They will?”

“He’s not entirely wrong,” Kaoné affirmed, “it isn’t well-known, but the CSA will do a lot to try and keep their technological lead. They’ve done as much to us Nimalians, under the excuse that we don’t have a ‘unified galactic presence.’”

“In short, it’s bullshit, so watch yourself,” Kevérin added.

“…I’ll keep that in mind when I write up my report, then,” Scott replied, and then glanced back down at the screen. “Is there anythin’ else that you haven’t seen before? Wait… what’s this… ‘Personnel Transfer’?”

“That would be referring to how you transfer personnel from ship to ship, or from ship to planet, or vice versa,” Kevérin replied, “I don’t know why it’d be in the registry though. You have to use external hardware for personnel transfer, like shuttles. What’s this say about that… ‘Instantaneous Subspace Transfer’. …What?”

“You don’t know what that is?” Scott questioned.

“I’ve never heard of it before…” Kevérin frowned. “Subspace? Doesn’t sound familiar at all. But ‘Instantaneous Transfer’ sounds like it might be what the Drakkars use… They’re capable of essentially teleporting troops and tech from their ships to a planet’s surface. The CSA and Nimalia have emulated it by using Spacetechnics, but if we could get actual technology to do the same thing… wow.”

“Sounds like the beamin’ you see in sci-fi stories,” Scott remarked. “If that’s what it really is, then I can see how it’d be useful. Is there anythin’ else here that uses Subspace?”

“Seems to be a transportation technique, so… probably the FTL Drive, if anything,” Kevérin speculated, and then checked. “Well what do you know, this ship supposedly does have a Subspace Drive.”

“What does that mean?” Kaoné asked.

“It means… I don’t know what it means,” Kevérin admitted. “The one thing that’s consistently Chaos Energy-based in modern ships is the FTL Drive. It’s the only way we know how to exceed the speed of light. Ironically, this ‘Subspace Drive’ seems to be the one major system on this ship that’s independent of Chaos Energy… Hmm, I wonder if this could give any insight as to how the Interstellar Gates or Transpaces work…”

“Huh? You don’t know how the Gates or the Transpaces work?” Scott questioned. “But aren’t they all over the place? How do you not know how they work if you use them so much?”

“That’s a good question,” Kevérin remarked, “the Interstellar Gates and the Transpaces both predate modern civilization. Current theory is that they’re leftover tech from the ancient Aldredas, but… we don’t know anything else about them. Their technology is too advanced, and too foreign, to reverse-engineer.”

“And you think this ship might help you figure out how they work?”

“Well… maybe. I guess that depends on whether or not we can figure out what this ‘Subspace’ is.”

“Hmm, well that’s pretty interestin’!” Scott exclaimed. “Between that and all of the other tech here, I can’t wait to officially get started! I’m afraid I’ll need help though… would the Nimalians be willin’?”

Kevérin and Kaoné exchanged curious glances. “We can bring it up with our superiors,” Kaoné replied, “you should probably put through an official request though, like the one we responded to.”

“Just be more specific next time.” Kevérin smirked.

“You’ve certainly been more helpful than anyone around here has been,” Scott declared. “But, aye, I’ll keep that in mind.” He stretched and cracked his knuckles before moving back to the console he had been working at. “For now, though, let’s see if there’s anythin’ else we can find.”

---

“You weren’t kidding.”

Davídrius scowled. “Of course I wasn’t kidding. Why would I joke about somethin’ like this?”

Siyuakén didn’t respond. Instead she slowly looked around the small room on the far side of the cavern that hosted the four stasis pods, which were lined up against the far wall. The cylindrical pods were opaque, but not in the foggy, crystalline manner of typical cryogenic stasis pods.

“So these are stasis pods?” Shepherd questioned, entering the room shortly after the Electrotechnic.

“It’s not cryogenic stasis,” Siyuakén replied, “but I don’t know of any other stasis tech.” She glanced over at Davídrius. “How do you know these are stasis pods?”

The Velocitechnic shrugged. “Well, what else could they be? The kids inside clearly ain’t dead. At least, if they are, they’re pretty damn well-preserved. And judgin’ by the dust and residue everywhere, this place hasn’t been touched for a while, so if those ain’t stasis pods then we should be starin’ at skeletons, not bodies.”

“I don’t know anything about stasis technology, but I’m inclined to agree with him,” Shepherd commented. “SERRCom’s only had a presence on Sunova for barely a year, and we only started exploring these caves a month or two ago. The three of us are the first to explore the caves any farther than the location of that silver sphere, so these pods must’ve been placed here long before us.”

“Not to mention these things don’t look as boring as all the rest of your stuff.”

Shepherd gave Davídrius an annoyed glance before turning back to the stasis pods. “This is… definitely an unexpected find.” He pulled a tablet computer out of his backpack and began fiddling with it. “I’ll record this location and then we’ll head back to report this to the Colonel.”

“What? We’re just gonna leave?” Davídrius replied incredulously, “we’re not gonna get them outta stasis?”

“We’re already farther down the caves than any three-man team is allowed, especially without a dedicated researcher or cartographer,” Shepherd declared. “I’ve already caused one incident by touching the ‘Ayas’ without prompt; I won’t cause another by fiddling with unknown technology.”

“But… you ain’t curious? Shouldn’t we at least figure out where the shutdown console is?”

“They say curiosity killed the cat.”

“…What?”

“It’s an Earth saying,” Shepherd replied, “Get too curious and it’ll bite you in the ass… we need to at least be careful—?!”

As the Captain turned around to leave, the cave wall to the left of the stasis pods suddenly cracked and lowered, revealing a doorway to a dark room. Shepherd stared at the doorway blankly before giving the two Nimalians a suspicious glance; when they both shrugged in response, he slowly moved forward into the room. A couple lights came on as he passed through the doorway, revealing a computer console against the wall.

“For the love of… what is going on with this planet?” Shepherd scowled, but approached the console nonetheless with the two Chaotics in tow.

“I can’t read any of this,” Davídrius muttered as he glanced between the keyboard and screen.

“Even if we were in range of the relays, I doubt the translation tech would work,” Siyuakén pointed out. “If this console is as old as the stasis pods, then it predates Earthian presence and probably most other modern civilizations, so I doubt the language is in the RTV databases—”

“It’s English.”

“…It what?” Siyuakén glanced over at Shepherd.

“The keyboard’s in English,” he repeated, “I can read it.”

Davídrius crossed his arms. “What.”

“How— that shouldn’t be possible,” Siyuakén responded uneasily, “languages don’t— your language— it shouldn’t…”

“I know,” Shepherd cut in, “this is as confusing to me as it is to you. This can’t possibly be Earthian tech, but…”

“Well if you can read the keyboard, can you read what’s on the screen?” Davídrius gestured at the monitor.

The Captain looked up at the screen and paused for a second before reading slowly, “’you… are not the Keys.’”

“What?”

“That’s what the monitor says,” Shepherd stated, and then held up a finger as the screen flashed static and reverted to black. Another line of text appeared, which the Captain read, “’Open stasis pods?’”

“I guess this is the shutdown console, then,” Siyuakén observed.

“It must be more than just a shutdown console,” Shepherd countered, “if its only purpose was to engage or shutdown the stasis pods, then why is there a full keyboard?”

“And an oddly functional one, at that,” Davídrius mused as he poked at several of the keys.

“What—!? Hey, what are you doing?!” Shepherd exclaimed, quickly grabbing the Velocitechnic’s arm and forcing him away from the keyboard. In his haste, however, he accidentally slammed his own elbow against the keyboard, mashing down all of the keys on the right side. Siyuakén facepalmed and sighed irately as the two men froze and stared at the keyboard.

After an uneventful moment had passed, Davídrius relaxed and drew back. He then smirked and glanced over at Shepherd. “See? Nothin’ happened. Everythin’s fine.”

“Wait— …no, something’s happening,” Siyuakén responded cautiously. “…Get back—!”

Before she could finish, the entire computer console sparked brightly as a streak of electricity arced to Shepherd, blasting him back against the wall.

“Are you okay?!” Siyuakén immediately knelt down next to the Earthian, though he recovered surprisingly quickly — and had no sign of any injury or electrical burn at all.

“Ow…” he groaned painfully as he began to pull himself into a sitting position. “…This is what I get for listening to aliens.”

“Tch!” Davídrius scowled. “Don’t try to pin this on—!”

“Davídrius, shut it,” Siyuakén cut him short as she helped Shepherd to stand up, “Shepherd was right originally. This is an Earthian colony, so it isn’t our place to explore everything.” She then glanced back at Shepherd warily. “In the meantime, we should get the Captain back to the base. He looks fine, somehow, but we can’t know for sure here.”

Davídrius crossed his arms and scowled, but remained silent as he followed Shepherd and Siyuakén back into the room with the stasis pods — only to find that all four had deactivated and opened up.

“It would figure…” Shepherd muttered, shrugging Siyuakén off before approaching the now-exposed children and crouching beside them. He looked them over briefly; rather than children, they seemed to be no older than two years old, with mildly tan skin and patchy black hair. With an apprehensive sigh, Shepherd gingerly reached for one of the boys to check his pulse. “…They’re alive,” he stated. “I can feel a pulse.”

“That… may actually be a problem,” Davídrius commented slowly as he looked out into the main cavern, “’cause, well, if we wanna get out of here—”

A deafening, menacing roar interrupted the Velocitechnic. The entire cavern shook violently as a large dragonesque creature dropped to the cavern floor, its attention focused on the small doorway to the stasis room.

“Well…” he finished apprehensively, “…we’re gonna have to go through that.”

“The Master Ayas?”

“The most powerful of the Chaos Ayas,” Kaoné explained, “nine gemstone-like objects that can actually create or destroy Chaos Energy.”

“Oh, those.” Scott nodded in acknowledgment. “I’d heard a li’l about them when readin’ the Relaynet research databases. Not a lot of public information though… anythin’ you can tell us about these ‘Ayas’?”

Kaoné glanced over at the other Nimalians.

“Don’t look at us,” Siyuakén responded uneasily, “you’re the Nimaliakian; you should know more about the Ayas than any of us.”

“Yeah, but even then, I don’t know that much…”

“Even if it isn’t much, anythin’ helps,” Scott urged.

“Well… the nine Chaos Ayas are the only objects in the galaxy that can actually generate Chaos Energy. At least, as far as we know,” Kaoné explained. “That’s their most important quality, really, but they can also be used as incredible power sources or to interface with certain technologies to massively increase their power and efficiency. If I recall correctly, the Ayas were mostly used in high-level, highly-classified technology from the Core Space Alliance, mostly spacecraft weaponry. They’re also useful to Chaotics, somehow, but the CSA classified most of their research on that topic.”

“Is that related to how your voice is doin’ that weird Chaostechnic thing where there’s a bit of an echo every time you say the word ‘Chaos?’” Davídrius paused to rub his throat. “…The hell?”

“Yeah, that’s because of the Chaos Ayas,” Kaoné replied, “I don’t really know why, I just know that the Ayas seem to respond to any Chaotic that says the word ‘Chaos.’ That’s just the most basic of the research that the CSA has done, though. Tekdecé and Nimaliaka both were making progress toward having access to that research, but then…”

“Let me guess: the Chaos Quake happened?” Kevérin interjected.

Kaoné nodded. “That’s right. The Quake happened and the Ayas all disappeared. No one knew why they disappeared, or how, or where they went. There wasn’t really any way to track them down, as far as I know, so eventually everyone just kinda assumed that they were gone for good. But now, here’s the Master Ayas itself…” She looked up at Scott. “Where did you find this?”

“You’d have to ask Shepherd,” Scott replied, “it was somewhere down in the caves east of here.”

“I don’t get it…” Captain Lead frowned as he stared at the silver sphere in Kaoné’s hand. “Something like this… it’s just a gemstone, right? Why did it disappear? Why did it show up here, of all places?”

“If you want answers to those questions, you’d have to ask a Riveranian,” Kaoné responded, “and even then, the answers you’d get would be all speculation.”

“Well. Wow.” Scott scratched his chin warily, taking a moment to collect his thoughts. “…If even you don’t know that much about these Ayas, I doubt we’ll be able to find anythin’ out. You should take it.”

“Wait, really?” Kevérin stared wide-eyed at the researcher. “You’d — you’d just hand it over to us?”

“Hold on, slow down,” Lead quickly spoke up, “we can’t just give it to you. We don’t have that authority. We’ll need to go through the proper channels first…” He took a moment to give Scott a reprimanding sidewards glance. “…But I’ll see what I can do with that. In the meantime, the four of you can help with investigating the Battlecruiser or the caves, as we discussed earlier.”

Siyuakén nodded in acknowledgment. “Sounds like a plan. …Where do we go?”

“I’ll show you around,” Scott replied, “Cap’n, you can go see about the Master Ayas. I’ll introduce ‘em to Shepherd, and show ‘em the ship.”

Lead nodded curtly and saluted before spinning around on his heel and walking out of the room.

“Alright then!” Scott clapped his hands together in anticipation. “Let’s get to work. Follow me!”

---

2 Hours Later

“So.”

“…Er, yes?” Siyuakén responded uneasily. Before her was a stout man of average height, with brown hair and sharp cheekbones — Scott had introduced him as Captain David Shepherd before quickly leaving with Kaoné and Kevérin.

“Hmm…” Captain Shepherd crossed his arms and glanced between Davídrius and Siyuakén slowly, his expression blank. “…The two of you are Nimalians, huh.”

“Yeah,” the Velocitechnic replied impatiently, “what of it?”

“I never thought my first alien encounter would be so…” Shepherd thought for a moment. “…Underwhelming.”

Davídrius scowled. “Tch. Underwhelming, he says. Well why don’t you just take a look at— wait— aw…”

Siyuakén sighed in annoyance as she watched the Velocitechnic reach for the Sword Boxes that weren’t there. He had been forced to leave his weapons behind on Nimalia, as his encounter with Ind had left them in an unusable state.

Shepherd glanced down at Davídrius’s hands as he grasped at nothing. “Impressive,” he deadpanned.

“With all due respect, your comments aren’t helping,” Siyuakén responded.

“…Right. Sorry,” the Captain apologized, “I’ve been a little out of it ever since the incident with that… silver sphere.”

“The Master Ayas,” Siyuakén corrected.

“If you’ve been feelin’ out of it, why not go check in with the doctor, or somethin’?” Davídrius questioned, “there’s gotta be at least a medic here, right?”

“There is, but Sunova — this colony — isn’t as well developed as our other colonies,” Shepherd commented, “it’s unexplored frontier out here. Even the Interstellar Gate can only handle so much travel. We don’t have the men for me to waste time in the infirmary due to a little drowsiness.”

Siyuakén frowned, wary of Shepherd’s attitude. “I think you might be underestimating the potential of the Ayas.”

“And I think you might be underestimating us Earthians,” Shepherd retorted. “…Bah, ‘Earthians’. Who gave us that name? Is everyone in this galaxy named after their home planet like that?”

“Nimalians, Earthians, Citans, Siions, Dra’kis…” Davídrius counted off with his fingers. “…Hmm, sorta.”

“Even the Taizen civilizations are named that way,” Siyuakén commented, “only the Drakkars aren’t. It’s just how things work.”

“Drakkars? Those are those creepy faceless aliens, aren’t they?” Shepherd questioned, “are they different from the Dra’kis?”

“Yes, of course they’re different. There’s no connection, really, except that the Dra’kis are a part of the Core Space Alliance, which is constantly at war with the Drakkars. I guess there’s speculation of a common ancestor, but no one knows for sure.”

“Meanwhile, in the world of stuff that’s actually relevant,” Davídrius interjected as he tapped his foot impatiently, “I was told we’d be helpin’ you look through some caves or somethin’. Well… I don’t see any caves.”

“Of course not. We’re still at the Receiving Base,” Shepherd responded, “the caves are a two-hour drive to the east.”

“Two hours?!” Davídrius balked. “…I think I’ll just run over there and get a head-start.”

Siyuakén crossed her arms. “And if you get lost in the caves?”

“Never mind getting lost, you’ll never be allowed in without my clearance,” Shepherd cut in, “how would running—? Oh, you’re one of those people with superpowers, aren’t you?”

“I am indeed a Chaotic,” Davídrius replied proudly. “A Velocitechnic, I’ll have you know. Super speed is my forte!”

“Well you’ll have to keep that super speed of yours in check then, because you aren’t going anywhere without me.”

“Tch.”

“…Is that all?” Siyuakén turned back to face Shepherd.

“For now, yes,” Shepherd replied before turning around. “Follow me. I’ll brief you some more while we’re on the way.”

---

2 Hours Later

“Wow. This… is really…”

“Excitin’?” Scott threw in, glancing over at Kaoné as he sat down in front of an array of consoles. He and the two Nimalians had just boarded the mystery Battlecruiser, and Scott wasted no time in leading them to the main engineering room to take a look.

“Try depressing.” Kevérin frowned as he looked around at the steel gray bulkheads. “Everything’s gray and boxy. Are all Earthian ships like this?”

“Oh. You’re talkin’ about the design aesthetic,” Scott replied nonchalantly. “Eh, SERRCom is less concerned with visual design than they are with performance. Most Earthian militaries are.”

“Of course they are…” Kevérin sighed. “If I’d known how bland this ship would be…”

“Kevérin,” Kaoné cut him short.

Scott chuckled in response. “Hah, don’t worry, I’m not a fan either. But, still! Think of all the possibilities this ship represents!”

“It’s also possible that there’s nothing special about it besides being your first Battlecruiser,” Kevérin countered.

“Hopefully, you’ll be able to help us find that out,” Scott responded optimistically.

“Maybe…” Kaoné passed Kevérin an uneasy glance. “But we didn’t think about all of the technology here being in your language. The universal translator tech only works for audio…”

“Wait, what?” Kevérin looked back at the Materiatechnic incredulously. “You don’t have the visual translation patch? For your glasses?”

“I thought that was relay-dependent,” Kaoné responded slowly, and then turned her attention to one of the screens Scott was working with. “…Yeah, I can’t read it.”

“Oh. Well I got a local copy of the patch when I got promoted to Transfer Captain. I can read things just fine.”

“…Wow. Visual translation, you say?” Scott shook his head in amazement. “Not quite as impressive as real-time audio translation, I’ll admit, but I’m still amazed that your glasses can do that and still remain so slim. I wish Earth and the colonies would setup proper relay networks and adopt the AR technology you guys are usin’.”

“It can actually get annoying at times,” Kaoné refuted.

“But it’s still pretty useful,” Kevérin declared. “Just point me to the engineering room and I can start checking things out.”

“…This… is the engineering room,” Scott replied slowly.

“…Right! I knew that.” Kevérin nodded curtly. “I’ll, uh, sit over here, and start looking things through.”

“Aw, what about me?” Kaoné complained, “I can’t read any of this…”

“Maybe you should’ve thought about that before volunteering to come up here,” Kevérin responded unsympathetically.

“Hmph.” The Materiatechnic pouted. Great. Now, what do I do…

---

“…This is it.”

“Eh what,” Davídrius deadpanned as he looked about the empty cave, save some industrial lighting and wires leading out to the cave exterior. “…There’s nothin’ here.”

“Of course there’s nothing here,” Shepherd retorted, “we already removed the the sphere.”

“I was expecting something more… significant.” Siyuakén frowned as she inspected the surrounding area. “Like, maybe a pedestal. Or engravings. Anything that would stand out.”

“There was nothing else,” Shepherd stated, “only that silver sphere, sitting on the ground. I thought it was just a rock until I realized how well-rounded and shiny it was; that’s why I picked it up.”

“And that’s when the Battlecruiser appeared?” Siyuakén turned back to face the Earthian. “When you touched it?”

“It is.”

“You’re sure they’re related?” Davídrius questioned.

“I’m certain.” Shepherd crossed his arms. “When I picked up that stone, there was this bright flash of light… I’m not a, what’s it called, a Chaotic? I’m not that, so I can’t sense Chaos Energy as well as you — in fact I can’t sense it at all, usually.”

“Earthians shouldn’t be able to,” Siyuakén commented. “None of you are Chaotics.”

“And that’s the thing — I felt something happen,” Shepherd insisted, “I don’t know what sensing Chaos Energy is like, but I’m certain that that silver sphere did something.”

“So you think it just… summoned the Battlecruiser?”

“Maybe.” The Captain glanced over at Siyuakén. “…It sounds far-fetched, I know, but I think that’s what happened.”

“I’m not sure I’d be surprised if it is…” the Electrotechnic replied, “I don’t know much about the Ayas, but I’ve heard my share of tall tales about them… if you consider that they might be based in reality, then the Master Ayas is certainly a very powerful object.”

“That kind of power…” Shepherd scowled. “I hope the top brass don’t get any crazy ideas.”

“That researcher guy seemed just fine with handin’ it over to us,” Davídrius responded.

“To you?” Shepherd drew back in surprise.

“Well, to Nimalia,” Siyuakén corrected, “we don’t know as much about the Ayas as the Core Space Alliance, but I’m sure that we’ll be able to figure out and do more with the Master Ayas than you.”

“…Maybe,” Shepherd replied slowly. “I am against blatantly weaponizing the thing, but I’m not so sure about just handing it over, either.” He then brushed his hands and stretched, turning to face down the cave. “I suppose the decision for what happens to it is out of my hands, though. We should try looking around. With any luck, there will be something else significant down here.”

“…Is that what we’re here for? A damn treasure hunt?” Davídrius complained, “why can’t there be anythin’ exciting?”

“Be careful what you wish for,” Siyuakén countered, “without your weapons, you won’t be much help in a fight.”

“Not much help?!” Davídrius bristled with irritation. “Look, despite what happened back in Treséd, I can totally hold my own in a fight!”

“I’m just saying,” Siyuakén responded lightly, “you… didn’t do so well against that woman.”

“I was caught off guard. I’ve fought the Bleeders before and won! Several times!”

“You couldn’t win against the Chaotics, though.”

“I just said: I was caught off guard! I’ve never fought a damned Chaostechnic before. And Strén’s a double Chaotic. He wouldn’t just go down that easily!”

“Kevérin and I were able to deal with them just fine on our own.”

“You’re tryin’ to say that you think I’m worthless, aren’t you?!”

“No, I’m just—”

“Bullshit! You listen here—!”

“Hey,” Shepherd cut in, turning to glare at the two Chaotics just as Davídrius was practically shoving his finger into Siyuakén’s face, “I don’t know what the problem is between you two, but I’d appreciate it if you could keep it to yourselves.”

“…Tch,” Davídrius drew back, and then glanced sheepishly the Captain. “…Sorry.”

“Wait, you—”

“Don’t,” Shepherd cut Siyuakén short. The silence that followed was quickly replaced with a quiet whistling sound.

“That’s a breeze,” Davídrius commented. “…Why’s there a breeze down here?”

“It means there’s either an exit, or some other large open area nearby,” Shepherd replied. “You asked for something exciting; maybe this is it.”

As the Captain moved on, the Velocitechnic shot a quick smirk toward Siyuakén. She sighed before stepping forward to follow Shepherd. The trio continued walking through the caves in silence, taking several turns before reaching a long and straight tunnel with a light at the end.

“Light?” Davídrius questioned, “that means it’s outside, right?”

“Maybe,” Shepherd responded, “I’ve yet to see any here, but there’s plenty of subterranean fauna that emit some sort of light back on Earth. It could just be a massive cavern.”

“Well I’m goin’ ahead to check,” the Velocitechnic declared before dashing off. The next instant he reached the cave’s end, skidding to a stop just before a short cliff. He whistled in admiration as he slowly inspected his surroundings.

“What’s there?” Siyuakén shouted as she came running down the tunnel after him.

“I dunno if it’s actually worth anythin’,” Davídrius replied, “but it’s a huge cavern filled with gold!”

“Gold?” Shepherd repeated incredulously before arriving at the cliff side next to the two Nimalians. He glanced around in surprise, taking in the sight before him: a massive cavern, nearly a hundred meters long in every dimension — and the floor was entirely covered in gold. Surprise soon turned into confusion, and then to wariness as the Captain continued to survey the massive piles of gold. “This… doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean?” Siyuakén questioned, ignoring Davídrius as he jumped to the ground below and then sped off to the other side of the cavern.

“I… I don’t know.” Shepherd scowled. “I have a feeling that we shouldn’t be here. But I don’t know why.”

The Electrotechnic turned back to look at the huge cavern. “Nothing seems off to me…” She frowned. “Hmm, maybe Davídrius found something. He’s coming back.”

A moment later the Velocitechnic leaped up to the cliff side and landed in a crouch. As he stood up he glanced between Siyuakén and Shepherd warily. “Somethin’ weird’s up with this cavern…”

“What’d you find?” Shepherd questioned.

“At the far side of the cavern, there’s this little room,” Davídrius explained, “there’s four pods in there, I think they’re stasis pods. Well, I guess they gotta be; they look like they haven’t been touched in forever an’ a day. The kicker is what’s inside.”

“Well don’t keep us waiting,” Siyuakén responded impatiently, “what’s there?”

Davídrius glanced back at the far side of the cavern uneasily before returning his attention to Shepherd and Siyuakén. “…They’re kids. There are children inside those stasis pods.”

– Watedia, Nimath 13, 8034 –

“I’d forgotten how relay-dependent AR glasses are…”

“Tch,” Davídrius snorted. “Who’d’ve thought the Earthians weren’t even as advanced as Treséd.”

“I don’t think relay points are good indicators of technological advancement,” Siyuakén countered, “they weren’t even all that common in Nimalian space fifty or sixty years ago.”

“But, still…” Kevérin frowned as he glanced around the waiting room they were all sitting in. “Ever since we got here yesterday, I can’t help but notice how completely lacking the information feed is… or how little Relaynet tech there is here.” He sighed as he mulled over Hero Machina’s current situation. Shortly after recruiting Davídrius, they had returned to the military headquarters in Nimaliaka, where Commander Nikéyin briefed them on their next mission: rendering aid to the Earthians. The request for aid had little in the way of specifics, but since it mentioned only a small colony and didn’t appear to be urgent, Nikéyin decided to send Hero Machina. Mere hours later, they traveled through the Interstellar Gate to the Earthian colony of Sunova, where the Earthians had setup a small military installation. But the fact that the Earthians were less technologically advanced than every other race in the galaxy, combined with Sunova being only a small, recently established colony, made for a dreary experience with no access to the technological comforts that the members of Hero Machina were used to — particularly, the galaxy-spanning information network known as the Relaynet.

“There’s not much point in sulking about not being able to access the Relaynet,” Siyuakén remarked, drawing Kevérin’s attention back to his team. “But if you really need to distract yourself, what happened to that game you were playing before we left?”

“Dessert Destruction is just as relay-dependent as everything else,” Kevérin sulked. “Tch. Never thought I’d complain about always-online DRM.”

“We aren’t here to play games, anyways,” Kaoné commented.

“Aw, c’mon. You’re the one who introduced me to it!”

“And I’m starting to regret it…”

“With a name like ‘Dessert Destruction’, I would too.” Davídrius snorted. “Really? I think even the Earthians come up with better names.”

“That’s not even close to true,” Kevérin immediately refuted, “everything from Earth is just a sequel. Or a sequel of a sequel.”

“…Well, you ain’t wrong there. You’d think a series with the word ‘final’ in it would’ve wrapped up before iteration fifty…”

“Guys…” Kaoné frowned as she glanced between Kevérin and Davídrius with disapproval. “We aren’t here to bash the Earthians, either.”

“Keh. Well it ain’t my fault that they’re lackin’ in the creativity department.”

“Who’s lacking in the creativity department?”

“Eh?!” Davídrius spun around as a large, light-skinned man with black hair opened the office door and stepped through. He wore a field uniform with several emblems and insignia attached to various locations on his chest and shoulders. “Uh…” The Velocitechnic stared at the man blankly. “….Who’re you…?”

“You’ll have to excuse Davídrius. He’s a little prone to talking before he thinks,” Siyuakén spoke up, prompting the Velocitechnic to glare at her.

“I… see,” the man responded, glancing between the two Chaotics doubtfully. “…I take it you’re the team from Nimalia?”

“Yes, that’s us.” Kevérin stood up and approached the man. “We’re Hero Machina, the newest Chaotic team of the soon-to-be formed Nimalian Systems Defense. I’m the Commanding Officer, Transfer Captain Kevérin Tyrion.”

“Nice to meet you, Transfer Captain. I’m Captain Matthew Lead of the Space Exploration, Reconnaissance, and Response Command. SERRCom for short.” The man reached his hand out toward Kevérin. The Transfer Captain stared at it uneasily for a second before remembering the standard Earthian greeting, at which point he extended his own hand and awkwardly shook hands with Captain Lead. The Earthian flashed a polite smile and then looked at the three remaining members of Hero Machina. “When we sent word for assistance, though, well… we were expecting someone with…”

“More experience?” Davídrius drawled.

“…You could say that,” Captain Lead replied, “the current situation is unprecedented, if I’m to understand galactic history correctly. I don’t think it’s something that a new group of Chaotics would be able to help with.”

“All we were told was that you had a problem, and we were supposed to go check it out,” Kaoné commented.

“Did you specify the problem when you sent for help?” Kevérin questioned. “If you didn’t, well — we’re what you get. Sorry if we’re not who you wanted.”

“Ah, I apologize. I meant no offense,” Lead responded, “you’re right, of course. We were a little stingy with the details. But we’re dealing with an extraordinary situation; I hope you can understand our secrecy.”

“If you’d explain exactly how this whole thing is ‘extraordinary,’ it’d help me ‘understand your secrecy’ a whole lot better,” Davídrius pointed out.

Lead nodded and gestured for the Chaotics to enter the office he was standing in front of. “Yes, of course. Step inside and I’ll explain the situation to the best of my ability.”

The members of Hero Machina each stepped into the office. Kevérin and Kaoné took the two guest chairs as Lead moved around to sit in the desk chair, leaving Davídrius and Siyuakén to stand in the back. Once the door had closed all of the way, Lead began to address the Chaotics.

“First of all,” he started, his tone uneasy, “…forgive this brief tangent, but… you aren’t actually speaking English, are you?”

“English…?” Kaoné echoed cluelessly. “Is that your language?”

Lead nodded. “It is. Sorry for the silly question, I’m just… not yet accustomed to these real-time translation implants.”

“Ah, right, of course,” Kevérin replied, “yes, we’re speaking our own language, and you’re speaking yours. It’s pretty easy to forget sometimes, since the implants translate in real time, and even make you hear the translation in the proper voice and tone. The tech takes a while to get used to, that’s for sure, since it takes a while to train your brain to ignore the lip sync issue. But the galaxy couldn’t run as well as it does without it.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt the implant’s usefulness. I’m just surprised that it works so well…” The Captain touched his ear gingerly. “It even knows how to differentiate between names and proper speech… speaking of which, I don’t think I got all of your names.”

“Oh, right.” Kaoné perked up. “I’m Lieutenant Kaoné Densalin.”

“I’m Lieutenant Siyuakén Wanléon.”

“An’ I’m Davídrius Wrikax.”

“No rank?” Lead questioned.

“I ain’t a soldier.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story,” Kevérin quickly cut in. Davídrius scowled, but didn’t attempt to speak over the Pyrotechnic.

“…Alright then,” Lead commented as he glanced over at a clock on his wall. “I’ll have to ask for the story another time, though I trust you have your reasons. Now, as for why you’re here… well, to put it simply: a Battlecruiser recently appeared over this colony, Sunova.”

“A Battlecruiser?” Kaoné echoed with a surprised tone. “Who’s commanding it? Is it hostile?”

“What class is it?” Kevérin added, “what about the racial profile?”

“That’s the thing, we don’t know,” Lead replied. “And when I say appeared — I don’t mean that it jumped here by FTL drive. You should know that Earthian space is isolated from Transpaces.”

“Well, how did it get here, then?”

“That’s the thing. It just… appeared. As if out of thin air.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Wait a minute…” Davídrius gave the Earthian Captain an odd look. “Are you sayin’ that it just…popped into existence?”

“As far as we can tell, yes, it did.”

“Bullshit. Shit don’t just defy the laws of physics like that—”

“Davídrius,” Siyuakén cut him off warningly.

“…Tch.” He scowled again, crossing his arms irately.

“What makes you think it just appeared out of thin air?” Kaoné questioned, pointedly ignoring the Velocitechnic’s comment.

Lead glanced at Davídrius uneasily before turning to Kaoné. “I have to admit, I’m not completely certain myself. We’ve hailed it and received no response. When it first appeared, the shields and life support were offline. Luckily, there was a Frigate in the system, so we sent in a small team to check out the ship. They were able to turn life support on, and since then we’ve had a small squad stationed there.”

“…You managed to turn on the life support… of a ship type that you’ve never seen before?” Kevérin questioned incredulously. “How did you figure out how to control its systems?”

“That’s yet another reason for us to believe that it appeared out of nowhere: the ship is of decidedly Earthian design,” Lead declared. “Everything about it resembles our current ships, even though currently our only ships are Frigates. The mystery ship has the same design aesthetic, a similar layout, similar systems, similar weaponry, and operates in almost the exact fashion I imagined a SERRCom-built Battlecruiser would operate. It even runs on a similar operating system and the same language as our currently existing ships. Yet, we haven’t actually constructed any Battlecruisers.”

“Hmm… it’s not possible that some Earthian organization built the ship without you knowing?” Siyuakén asked.

“Impossible,” Kevérin replied, “the Earthians don’t have interstellar corporations like everyone else. SERRCom and DEDi are the only organizations with authority over their colonies.”

Lead nodded. “He’s correct. There are plans in the works to start leasing extrasolar colonies to private handlers, but for now it’s just SERRCom running the show. Even then, there’s no way a military-grade ship was built without us knowing, using our own technology.”

“Well this is actually kinda interestin’, keheh,” Davídrius remarked, “dunno if we can do anythin’ about it though.”

“No, I’ve learned my fair share about space-grade technology,” Kevérin declared, “I might be able to help with some things.”

“Even if you can’t, there’s still an investigation planetside that the four of you could help with,” Lead replied, “but before we get to that, I want to bring all of you to speak with the lead researcher on the project, Scott MacTavish. I’m certain that he’ll be able to go into far more detail than I can. He’s the one who requested Nimalian aid, after all…”

“If you weren’t the one who requested aid, then why’re we talkin’ to you?” Davídrius questioned as the Earthian Captain stood up and approached the door.

“I wish I knew myself…” Lead sighed, opening the door and gesturing for the Chaotics to follow him outside. “I’m just the middleman here, it seems.”

“You’re not in charge?” Kaoné asked.

“Ha! I’m only a Captain. I’ve got a long ways to go before I’m a General. It sounds nice though… ‘General Lead.’” He shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Never mind that. I’ll take you to MacTavish.”

---

“MacTavish.”

“…”

“…MacTavish?”

“…zzz…”

“Researcher MacTavish!”

“…zzzzzz…”

“Scott!!”

“Augh!!” The researcher jolted into an upright sitting posture, accidentally shoving his chair away from his desk in the process and ramming into a briefcase behind him, knocking it over and spilling all sorts of books and papers to the floor. He glanced down at the mess in dismay before looking up at Captain Lead. “O… oh, Cap’n. I was’n expectin’ ya here this early.”

“It’s mid-afternoon,” Lead responded flatly.

The researcher glanced over at the monitor sitting in front of where his head had previously laid. “Well, I’ll be damned. Trust me, Cap’n, I did’n sleep in on purpose. It’s just that…” he trailed off as he realized that a group of four was standing behind Lead. “…Um, who’re you?”

“We’re Hero Machina, of the Nimalian Systems Defense.” Kevérin stepped forward. “We’re here to—”

“Oh! You’re here for the Battlecruiser!” The researcher’s face lit up. “…I did’n know that Nimalian spacecraft technicians were so young!”

“They’re not actually technicians,” Lead corrected.

“But I do know some things about spacecraft,” Kevérin cut in.

The researcher stroked his scruffy beard for a moment. “…Eh, I suppose I was’n very specific when I requested aid. Some knowledge is better than none, though.” He extended his hand toward Kevérin. “Guess I should introduce myself. I’m a SERRCom researcher and engineer, Scott MacTavish. You can call me Scott.”

The four members of Hero Machina went on to introduce themselves, followed by Scott offering a brief explanation of his knowledge of space technology while Davídrius speedily collected the books and papers laying around on the floor. By the time the Velocitechnic re-entered the conversation, Lead was explaining to Scott what he had already told the Nimalians.

“So they know about the Battlecruiser, then.” Scott stroked his beard again. “…Eh, guess there’s not much more to actually explain. It’s all investigation from here on out.”

“You said that there’s a team up on the ship, right?” Kaoné glanced at Lead, and then over at Scott. “What are they doing right now?”

“For now they’re just mappin’ the ship and tryin’ to gain access to all of the systems,” Scott replied. “I was about to join ‘em, start lookin’ into the technology an see just how similar to our systems they really are. I suppose Captain Tyrion can join me there. Maybe you’ll be able to recognize somethin’ that I don’t, eh?”

“Maybe.” Kevérin shrugged. “But I’ll try my best to help.”

“I’ll go with you,” Kaoné volunteered, “I don’t know as much as you about space ships, but I know my fair share. Tekdecé isn’t the only Nimalian nation on the galactic stage, you know.”

“Well I’ll take all the help I can get!” Scott grinned, and then turned to look at Davídrius and Siyuakén. “What about—?”

“I know jack shit about space ships,” the Velocitechnic declared.

“…Crudeness aside, I’m in the same boat,” Siyuakén stated.

“The two of you can help with Captain Shepherd, then,” Lead suggested.

“What’s he doin’?” Davídrius questioned.

“Eh?” Scott turned to Lead in surprise. “You did’n tell ‘em about Shepherd?”

“What, is what he’s doing related to the Battlecruiser?” the Captain responded in confusion, “…I knew there was some investigation going on that he’s a part of, but he never said it was related to the ship.”

“Ah, well then, you’re all missin’ an important piece of the puzzle.” Scott moved toward the back of the room and began rummaging through several of the lock boxes. “Accordin’ to Shepherd’s report, that Battlecruiser appeared at almost exactly the moment he touched one of the artifacts found down in the caves.”

“Artifact?…” Siyuakén echoed incredulously. “…What did it look like?”

“Er, like a silver sphere,” Scott replied, “hold on just a moment… ah, here we go!” He spun around with a flair and slammed a solid silver sphere, roughly the size of his palm, onto the table in the middle of the room. “It’s a pretty interestin’ artifact, I hafta say. It actually seems to be—”

“Generating Chaos Energy?”

“…Uh, yeah, exactly,” Scott finished as he glanced at Kaoné curiously. “D’ya recognize it?”

“It’d be hard not to, if you’re a Chaotic,” the Materiatechnic replied, reaching for and grabbing the silver sphere. After inspecting it for a couple moments she nodded resolutely. “Yep, even though I’ve never seen it before, there’s no doubt about it. This is the Master Ayas!”

“Come at me!!”

Strén wasted no time at all — as soon as the words left Siyuakén’s mouth he pounded the ground with his fists, shattering the rock and throwing up a thick debris cloud. Siyuakén immediately launched two lightning bolts into the debris cloud but was caught off-guard as Ind leaped out at her, a Chaos Sword in each hand. The Electrotechnic quickly blocked the incoming sword slashes by crossing her arms in front of her, allowing her swinging gear to absorb the attacks; by the time Ind was bringing her hand down for another slice Siyuakén had fired a grappling hook and was rocketing through the air to the left. Just as she reeled in the line, the stone beneath her exploded upwards, launching her into the air where her forward momentum slammed her into the wall. Stunned, she fell for half a second before managing to recover just in time to knock away an incoming block of rock and then catch herself on the ground below, where she immediately dived to the right as the stone beneath her exploded again.

Of course I’d be fighting a Geotechnic in a rock arena… Siyuakén scowled as she dodged several Chaos attacks from Ind. She glanced at the upper half of the room momentarily before using her grappling hooks to snag and deflect incoming rocks. Looks like there’s metal behind all the rock. If I can just get to that—?!

Her thoughts were interrupted as Strén sprang forward, dashing toward the Electrotechnic at surprising speeds. As he charged he raised several rocks into the air and then pounded them with his fists, sending them rocketing toward Siyuakén and forcing her to constantly evade until he was nearly on top of her. Without breaking his charge he swept his fists downward in a bid to smash Siyuakén’s skull — and then stumbled over as his muscles contracted involuntarily. “What?!” he growled, realizing that he had just been shocked.

“Ha—!” Siyuakén began to taunt, but was forced to shut up as several arrows of Chaos Energy flew in her direction. She flipped out of the way before launching a grappling hook toward the upper wall and using it to swing away. She then reeled in the hook and launched the other at the wall across the room, using her momentum to swing around in a half circle before reeling in that hook and re-firing the first hook at the far wall again. By the time she swung back around to her initial position she had picked up significant speed and used it to launch a flying kick at Ind, who took it straight to the face — but not without slashing Siyuakén’s leg with her Chaos Sword. Both women collapsed to the ground in pain, but the Electrotechnic was forced to ignore her wound and throw herself to the right as Strén’s fist smashed into her former location. She quickly scrambled back to her feet and clumsily retreated, attempting to put distance between herself and Strén as the two Chaotics traded lightning strikes and boulders.

Noticing that the Geotechnic had recovered surprisingly quickly from her stunning electric attack, Siyuakén elected for a slight change in tactics. Just as Strén launched another rock her way, she dived to the left and then used her good leg to anchor herself to the ground as she snagged the rock with a grappling hook and swung it around herself, using her swinging gear as a tether. When the boulder had arced around her she prepared to release it, sling-shotting it at Strén — only for the stone to suddenly change directions and rocket straight back toward her, nailing her in the stomach and smashing her into the wall behind her.

Strén guffawed as the Electrotechnic collapsed. “Puahahahahahah!! Didja really think that’d work? You ain’t the first tree hopper I’ve crushed to a pulp!” He stepped closer as he surrounded Siyuakén’s wrists and ankles with stone and lifted her into the air. Before she was too high off the ground, however, she applied a massive electric shock to herself, shattering her rocky bounds and allowing herself to drop to the floor. She stumbled as she attempted to stand back up, but she managed nonetheless and turned to glare at Strén.

“You’re not bad,” Ind remarked, “it’s really obvious that you’ve never been in actual combat though! Especially not against Chaotics.”

“Ind, we ain’t here ta teach the enemy how ta fight,” Strén reprimanded the Chaostechnic, and then grinned as he turned back toward Siyuakén. “We ain’t here ta play fair — we’re here ta have fun!”

“What?!” the Electrotechnic exclaimed as she was surrounded by a rapidly rising circle of stone. In a bid to remain free she fired a grappling hook upwards and reeled it in, quickly raising her into the air past the rising stone barriers — just in time to see a large stone slab flying her way. Before it hit her, though, a blast of fire half-melted it and slammed it downward, where it splattered on the ground and forced both Bleeders to dive backwards in order to not be burned.

“Looks like I got here just in time!”

Siyuakén sighed in relief as she hung in the air next to Kevérin, who had landed on the rock pillar. “What took you so long?”

“Davídrius was being a big baby about closing his wounds,” Kevérin replied, and then looked down at the two Bleeders. “So, what do we have? A Geotechnic and… a Chaostechnic, right?”

“Yeah. The Geotechnic’s been doing most of the fighting though. I’m not sure what types the woman is, I’ve only seen her use Directed- and Weapon-type attacks.”

“Well then, time to find out!” Kevérin smirked. “Time to show them why you don’t mess with—”

“Don’t,” Siyuakén interrupted warningly.

“…What?” the Pyrotechnic responded innocently, “I was going to say Hero Machina.”

“Sure you were.”

“Oh, stop being ridiculous—!?” Kevérin suddenly fell off of the pillar as it spontaneously disintegrated. He quickly righted himself with several fire blasts before lowering himself to ground level with a jet stream of combustion.

“Oooh, a Pyrotechnic!” Ind exclaimed, “I don’t think I’ve fought a Pyrotechnic before! This’ll be fun~!”

“It’s only one of the most common Chaotic types…” Kevérin commented, “but if you’ve never fought one before, allow me to show you why we’re so dangerous!” As soon as the words left his mouth a column of fire erupted out around him, turning all of the stone within two meters to molten rock.

“Hehehehehe~!” Ind giggled in response, “maybe it’s time I started being serious, then!”

“Tch!” Kevérin immediately launched several fireballs at the Chaostechnic before dodging a stray stone flying through the air towards him. He threw a wave of fire toward Strén before turning back toward Ind — just in time for Siyuakén to land on the ground to his side.

“You take care of Strén,” she ordered, “I’ll deal with her!”

“There you go, ordering me around again!” Kevérin scowled. “I’m the CO here—!?”

“Quit your talkin’ an’ focus on the battle, whelp!” Strén demanded as he launched the Pyrotechnic into the air with a rock slab. Kevérin immediately flipped himself around midair and slammed his fist into the slab, causing a blast of fire at the moment of impact that shattered the stone and rained molten debris down on Strén, who quickly shielded himself with more stone. Kevérin then propelled himself downward, slamming into Strén’s cover with a fire-enveloped fist just as the Bleeder Chaotic punched the cover with great force, reversing the Pyrotechnics’s course and sending him flying into the far wall. Kevérin rapidly heated the wall as he approached, making it just soft enough so that he wasn’t stunned when he hit it. He then jumped away from the wall and blasted it, incinerating the stone that had been covering it before turning back toward Strén just in time to deflect a hail of rocks.

Across the room, Siyuakén glanced over at Kevérin’s actions just long enough to lose her advantage on Ind. The Chaostechnic ducked away from the Electrotechnic and then dove to the side, shouting, “Chaos Impact!” A second later, a blunt force impacted Siyuakén’s stomach and knocked her over, giving Ind leeway to begin pelting her with Chaos Strike and Arrow attacks. The Electrotechnic quickly recovered and rolled over to evade the attacks, doing so just in time to evade a Chaos Arrow — but not in time to evade a Chaos Strike. Gritting her teeth in pain, she reflexively fired a grappling hook at Ind; the Chaostechnic side-stepped the hook, but the moment it passed her Siyuakén forced an enormous amount of electricity down the cord, enough to cause the electricity to arc to Ind and seriously burn her left arm. Distracted by the pain, the Chaostechnic failed to notice Siyuakén preparing to unleash a particularly painful shock — until the stone beneath the Electrotechnic’s feet suddenly launched her into the air. Startled, Siyuakén barely had time to stabilize herself and jump backward to avoid being crushed under Strén’s fist.

“Hey, get back here!” Kevérin demanded, rocketing forward and attempting to slam a flame-enveloped fist into the Geotechnic’s back, only to miss and go flying past. Strén reached over and grabbed the Pyrotechnic by the back of his shirt, hoisting him into the air and then throwing him at Siyuakén. The two Chaotics collided and tumbled to the ground as Ind stepped forward gleefully.

“Chaos Explosion!”

The ground underneath Kevérin and Siyuakén erupted upward, tossing the two of them aside and spewing forth metal and rocky debris. They were little able to shield themselves as they scrambled away from the debris and stood opposite the room from the Bleeders.

“…They’re playing with us.” Kevérin scowled. “There’s no reason she couldn’t have just used Explosion on us instead of the ground.”

“Then we should end this now,” Siyuakén declared. “…I have an idea—” she was interrupted as a stone brushed by her head, followed closely by three Chaos Arrows. “Just, try to clear out a lot of the stone in the middle! Expose the metal floor!”

“What? Why—?” Kevérin attempted to ask but was forced to evade a Chaos Strike. He then began pushing back with several flame blasts, haphazardly sweeping the room with fire while being careful to not hit Siyuakén. Despite this, Strén managed to close the distance between the two and began assaulting the Pyrotechnic with a seemingly unending barrage of stone, forcing Kevérin to focus his attacks and leave Ind to Siyuakén once more.

This time, the Electrotechnic offered Ind no quarter. The moment she had a chance, she fired off several lightning bolts, nailing the Chaostechnic in the back and arm. Yelping in pain, Ind quickly whirled around and began launching attacks of her own, most of which Siyuakén deflected with her grappling hooks. The Electrotechnic then reeled in the hooks and fired one at the ceiling before reeling in the cord, drawing her closer to the ceiling in a wide swinging arc that swept past Ind. The Chaostechnic muttered “Chaos Dual Blades” and brandished the resulting weapons in her hands, preparing to slash at Siyuakén when she flew past — however, the Electrotechnic was prepared. She released the grappling hook as she held a hand toward Ind and then produced an electric arc to the woman’s Chaos Swords. The weapons didn’t conduct the shock to Ind’s body, but it did produce sufficient force to knock her over sideways and require Strén to momentarily break his offense against Kevérin to raise the stone around Ind and protect her from further electric assault.

The lull allowed the Pyrotechnic to push forward, assailing Strén with fire from nearly all directions until the Bleeder eventually just reached over and grabbed Kevérin by his collar. With a short yelp, the Pyrotechnic was hoisted into the air and then thrown up and over Strén’s shoulder, who quickly turned around and began firing stones at Kevérin with similar rapidity to a machine gun. Kevérin quickly produced a shield of fire to incinerate the incoming stones before they could hit him — and then realized that he was almost directly over the center of the floor. Remembering Siyuakén’s suggestion, he enveloped both of his fists in flame, superheated them, and then propelled himself downward with a fire blast, slamming both of his fists into the ground as he landed. The impact created a great explosion of fire that blew Strén away, incinerated the rock for meters around, and heated the metal underneath to red-hot temperatures. Kevérin quickly began siphoning the excess heat out of the metal and using it to fuel his continued fire barrage against Strén until he was certain that the metal had returned to room temperature. “Siyuakén!”

“On it—!” she started, but a Chaos Arrow flying by her face interrupted her response. She ducked, whirled around, and launched a lightning blast in Ind’s direction just in time to deflect the next two Arrows headed her way. The Electrotechnic then fired her grappling hooks at the far wall and reeled herself in just in time to evade a Chaos Explosion. Then she fired her other grappling hook at the far ceiling, releasing the first hook and swinging back to the center of the room before releasing the second hook and landing in the center with a roll. As she fired her grappling hook at the ceiling again, she shouted to Kevérin, “get in the air!!”

“What? Uh, okay!” the Pyrotechnic uneasily responded, ducking away from Strén’s fist and jumping into the air, where he hovered via continued combustion underfoot. He used this method to fly halfway up the room before glancing down at Siyuakén, who had just crouched to place her hand on the floor — and was about to be attacked simultaneously by Ind and Strén. Scowling, Kevérin prepared to draw the Bleeders’ attention away — and then his hair began to stand on end. “What—?”

The entire room suddenly flashed brilliantly as a deafening shock and shattering sound reverberated through the walls. All of the stone in the room exploded away from the walls and floor as both Ind and Strén suffered immense electric shocks and crumpled to the floor, becoming half-buried with stone debris as the rocks began raining back down to the ground.

“Ho… ly… shit…” Kevérin whistled in admiration as he gradually lowered himself to the floor beside Siyuakén. “What did you do?”

“I… I forced a… a whole lot of current… through the walls… and floor…” the Electrotechnic panted.

“’A whole lot’? You probably could’ve powered a small town for two hours with what you just did—! Siyuakén?!” Kevérin exclaimed as she collapsed to the floor as well. He quickly crouched next to her and took her pulse. “…She’s still alive. Just unconscious. Phew…” He stood up again and surveyed the damage to the room. Damn… he thought to himself, …I had no idea she could do this. Sure, she knocked herself out, but, wow. I really need to step up my game. He then realized the consequences of being the only person still conscious in the room. Damn it. Now I have to carry her ass all the way back. Hmph… guess I’ll go check whether or not the Bleeders are dead, first… he moved on to perform the tasks, grumbling the entire time.

---

3 Days Later

“Well… looks like y’all are better than I thought.”

“I told you we weren’t rookies,” Kevérin replied confidently.

“Keh, well, I see that now.” Davídrius smirked. “Takin’ on both Strén and that woman, and takin’ ‘em both out… I’ll admit, in hindsight, I’m not sure I could’ve done it.”

“You’re not sure you could’ve done it?” Siyuakén echoed, glancing incredulously at the Velocitechnic’s many bandages.

“…Shut up,” he growled. “You got injured, too!”

“It was a superficial cut. Nowhere near as serious as your injuries.”

“Tch. If I had been in an open space like you said you were, I wouldn’t’ve been beaten so badly.”

“Mm hmm.” Siyuakén nodded patronizingly.

Davídrius scowled, but chose to drop that line of conversation. Instead, he turned back to Kevérin. “So, with Strén gone, the Bleeders ain’t much of a threat. I’m fine with leavin’ this place and joinin’ y’all…” He glanced over at Kaoné. “…If you’re willin’ to let me.”

Kaoné shifted uncomfortably as Kevérin and Siyuakén turned their attention to her as well. “What are you looking at me for?”

“I’m fine with him joining,” Kevérin commented, “so is Siyuakén. You’re the only one who’s shown reservations.”

“Complete reverse from the start,” Davídrius remarked.

“…I guess it’s fine,” the Materiatechnic slowly responded.

Davídrius raised an incredulous eyebrow. “You ‘guess’?” he echoed, “you sure?”

“Yes. …I’m sure.” Kaoné nodded. For now… she added mentally.

“Alright!” Kevérin rubbed his hands together expectantly. “What’s next then? We go get Kievkenalis?”

“Actually, no,” Kaoné refuted, “Commander Nikéyin called in yesterday… she wants us to return to Nimaliaka Central.”

“She called? Here? How?” The Pyrotechnic frowned in confusion.

“The compound has an old comm receiver,” Davídrius explained. “…I could’ve sworn the thing was disabled, but, well, what do I know about machinery.”

“Chaos Engines in mechs…” Kevérin shook his head, amused.

“Hey, there was no way I could’ve known—!”

“Anyway,” Siyuakén spoke up, “why do we need to go to Nimaliaka?”

“For a mission brief…” Kaoné commented, “something to do with the Earthians.”

Davídrius scowled. “I thought y’all were investigatin’ the Chaos Energy Quake, not bein’ interstellar baby-sitters.”

“Maybe it’s related to the Quake, somehow,” Kaoné suggested hopefully.

“Regardless, we won’t know until we get there,” Siyuakén stated, and then glanced back at the Velocitechnic. “As soon as you can move around again, we should head out.”

“What do you mean ‘as soon as’?” Davídrius smirked, hopping out of the bed to his feet. He winced slightly, but tried his best to hide it. “See? Perfectly fine. I could head out today.”

“In that case, let’s do that!” Kevérin exclaimed, jumping toward the door. “Hill—!” He paused as he felt the disapproving stares of Kaoné and Siyuakén burrowing into his back. “Uh… what I meant was, of course: Hero Machina, move out!”