“Wow, it really is an Ayas.”

“That’s… what I said,” Kievkenalis responded uneasily. “Did… did you not understand me?”

“Nah, we understood you just fine,” Christeané replied, “Davídrius just refuses to believe anything anyone says.”

“Shut it.” The Tresédian scowled as he turned away from the Ayas to address Christeané, Kievkenalis, and Kaoné. “I mean, c’mon. It’s an Ayas. Of course I’d be a li’l skeptical when you call us from across the complex, claimin’ that you found one of nine objects that disappeared without a trace twenty fuckin’ years ago.”

“Didn’t the Earthians find the Master Ayas like this?” the Chaostechnic questioned.

“That on its own was pretty unbelievable,” Davídrius remarked, “I mean, of all the places for an Ayas to show up again, it’s an Earthian colony? Just look at a map of the galaxy. Two thirds of the place is claimed by the Drakkars or the CSA, but the Earthians have practically nothin’. How they stumbled across the Master Ayas is beyond me.”

“And it’s not really relevant to us finding this Ayas anyway,” Christeané pointed out, “if you’re trying to say that most of the Ayas would be in Drakkar or CSA space, well, guess where we are now?”

“…Tch.” The Velocitechnic glared at the Master Lieutenant before turning back to the Ayas. “Alright, so we found this thing. I guess we should take it back with us.”

“Wait—!” Kievkenalis quickly exclaimed, but not before Davídrius had sped over to the blue gemstone and scooped it up off the floor.

The Tresédian glanced at the Chaostechnic and blinked twice before responding slowly, “…what?”

“That’s a Chaos Ayas!” Kievkenalis exclaimed, “you should be more careful with it!”

“Nothin’ happened when I picked up the Master Ayas back on Sunova…”

“Well, when the Earthians first picked it up, something did happen,” Kaoné pointed out.

“…Hmph. That was the Master Ayas, this is just a regular one.” Davídrius shrugged. “What’s it gonna do, send me berserk?”

“It could have, yes,” Kievkenalis replied tersely.

“Oh. Well why didn’t you warn me then?!”

“I did! I tried! But you were too fast!”

“Damn right I’m too fast.”

“Davídrius, really?” Christeané crossed his arms impatiently. “Cut the shit.”

The Velocitechnic scowled, but didn’t respond further.

Christeané turned back to Kievkenalis. “What’s up with this Ayas? What makes it so special?”

“It’s the Dark Blue Ayas, Hastryth,” the Chaostechnic replied, “it’s not dark blue just to be dark. It actually means something.”

“Wait, hold on,” Kaoné interrupted, “’Hastryth?’ What’s that?”

“…Oh, I guess that’s not something you guys would know.” Kievkenalis scratched the back of his neck uneasily. “It’s… usually kept to Riveranians. Particularly Archonés.”

“What, could you get in trouble for talking about this?” Christeané replied incredulously.

“Well… not really.”

“Then just tell us. Explain everything.”

Kievkenalis sighed. “…According to the Oraculm—”

“Aw, this again?” Davídrius scowled.

“Just let him talk, we can discuss whether or not we believe it all when he’s done.” Christeané turned back to Kievkenalis. “Please, continue.”

“…Anyways,” Kievkenalis continued uneasily, “according to the Oraculm, each of the Ayas have their own name and a related weapon—”

Davídrius instantly perked up, his interest piqued. “What? A weapon? How do I—?”

“Davídrius, shut up,” Christeané snapped.

The Velocitechnic pursed his lips before crossing his arms. “…Sorry.”

Kievkenalis gave Davídrius a wary glance before commenting, “see, this is why I’m concerned about this Ayas. The nine Ayas are split into three groups — the Master Ayas, the Light Ayas, and the Dark Ayas… and the one you’re holding, Hastryth? It’s one of the Dark Ayas.”

“So… what, does it have some ‘corrupting influence’ or some shit?”

“Yes, it does.”

“Oh. …Well, I mean, c’mon, if any of us are resistant to a corruptin’ influence it’d be me, right?”

Christeané snorted and immediately began laughing. “Ahahahaha! You? Resistant to corruption?”

“Let’s put it this way: I’ve got less to lose, and not as far to fall, than pretty much anyone else here.”

“How does that mean you’re resistant?!” Kievkenalis questioned incredulously.

“It means I know what temptation feels like. Makes me better equipped to deal with it. Just relax, I’m sure I can handle it,” Davídrius insisted. “Just, explain the name and weapon part.”

“Uh… well, as I said, according to the Oraculm, each of the Ayas has a name and associated weapon. The Ayas that you’re holding, the Dark Blue Ayas, is Hastryth. The Master Ayas is Syn.”

“What about the weapons?” Christeané questioned.

“I… I don’t know much about the weapons.” Kievkenalis shrugged. “To the best of my knowledge, Riveranians are probably the only ones in the entire galaxy who even know that the weapons exist. They’re only mentioned in the Oraculm, and I’ve never heard of the CSA ever using the weapons while they had the Ayas. They’re not something you’d be able to use if you didn’t know that you could.”

“Well, how can I?” Davídrius pressed.

“Uh… try… thinking about it?”

Christeané frowned. “You don’t even know?”

“Hey, I’m not the Archoné,” Kievkenalis replied defensively, “I only know so much.”

“I guess I can try anyways…” The Velocitechnic paused, as if concentrating — and a moment later, an ornate blue and black handle appeared in his unoccupied hand. A glowing, metallic tether then appeared, connected to the end of the handle, and more tether length continued materializing for almost two meters before a large, curved blade with a small handle suddenly materialized at the other end of the tether. “Whoa…” Davídrius grinned, depositing the Ayas in one of his jacket pockets before leaning over and grabbing the blade by its handle. “This is great!”

“Looks like a… kind of whip weapon,” Christeané observed, “only, with a massive blade at its end.”

“So I can just summon this at will?” Davídrius looked over at Kievkenalis.

“I… guess? Like I said, I don’t know that much about the weapons,” the Chaostechnic replied.

Davídrius paused for a moment — and then the weapon seemed to disintegrate and immediately disappear. A moment later the weapon rematerialized in his hands. “Haha, alright!” He pumped his fist. “This is great!”

“Don’t get too attached to it,” Kaoné cautioned, “I’m sure the Commander will end up taking the Ayas off your hands.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Davídrius waved her off as he allowed the weapon to dematerialize. “Anyways, we have the Ayas now. We should probably get back to lookin’ for any signs of recent activity.” He whirled around on his heel and began marching down the hallway. “Hey, Christeané, c’mon!”

“Huh?… I mean, hey, wait! Slow down!”

Kaoné and Kievkenalis watched the two leave and then glanced at each other uneasily. Eventually Kaoné shrugged. “If there’s a lesson for Davídrius to learn, he’s going to have to learn it himself, I guess.”

“…I guess,” Kievkenalis responded slowly, and then shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Anyways, he’s right. Let’s get back to searching the complex.”

---

“Whoa — wait a minute…”

“Huh?” Rebehka cocked her head in confusion as Siyuakén turned her attention back to the generator. “…What’s wrong?”

“There was a sudden spike in the power draw,” the Electrotechnic replied, “something big must’ve just come online.”

“The base’s defenses, maybe?”

“I don’t know…” Siyuakén frowned uneasily. “The power draw of the defenses should be balanced by the activation of the other generators. And even then, this much power…”

“What kind of power draw are we talking about? What can it do?”

“I don’t know. Power… a lot of guns? A lot of mechs? I guess I don’t actually know.”

“So, it’s probably all going to base defenses, right? So you’re probably right: guns, automated defense mechs, maybe emergency transmitters… we should probably tell Kevérin about this.”

“I guess. Though, it’s still probably nothing we can’t handle, right? I mean, worst case scenario, the base is also equipped with… CENT… …fields…”

The two Chaotics glanced at each other uneasily.

“…Yeah, we should contact Kevérin.”

“Good idea.”

Rebehka turned away and held a hand over her ear. “Command: contact Kevérin Tyrion.” She paused for a moment before repeating, “command: contact Kevérin Tyrion.”

“…Something wrong?” Siyuakén questioned when the Cryotechnic removed her glasses and began staring at them oddly.

“Command: contact Kevérin Tyrion,” Rebehka tried again after putting her glasses back on, and then shook her head. “It’s weird. I can’t reach Kevérin. My glasses claim that there’s no nearby local connections, which is wrong, unless everyone else went back to the Gate, or…”

“…Or this place also has communication jammers.”

“Well, this is fantastic.” Rebehka sighed in irritation. “I think we’ve underestimated the Citans…”

“But it doesn’t make any sense,” Siyuakén countered, “Teghica is a desert planet, and it’s in frontier territory, at that. The Citans themselves abandoned the place. And even if they hadn’t, comm jammers inside their own base? Really? Why put in so many defenses?”

“…We did just walk in the front door and start messing around,” Rebehka pointed out. “All those defenses are probably meant for people like us.”

“…True.”

“We should head back to the rendezvous point, then. Hopefully we can meet up with everyone else there.”

“I agree. This place is more dangerous than we thought… let’s get going.”

---

Ah, finally. Damn, even old Citan systems are hard to crack…

Kevérin took a moment to stretch before returning his attention to the computer in front of him. Ever since the rest of Hero Machina split up to investigate the abandoned complex two hours ago, the Transfer Captain had been busy attempting to break into the Citan computer systems. He was lucky that the complex was two centuries old — if he had been up against modern Citan technology, he wouldn’t have had a chance.

Alright, let’s see what we have here, he thought to himself as he began rifling through the files and data that he could access. Base routines… maps of Citan space… of CSA space… personnel files… all two hundred years old. Bah, none of this is actually useful. He paused and scratched his head as he rolled the presented data over within his mind. I wonder if there’s anything here indicating Black Suns involvement… whoa, what’s this? Research data? Why would there be research data on an outpost like Teghica?…

The Transfer Captain began looking through all of the presented data, ranging from results of armor prototype tests to scrapped Battleship designs. He even recognized some ship blueprints as corresponding to older Citan ships that were still in service — upon seeing these he made a mental note to copy the data, just in case anyone back on Nimalia could find it useful. Then, after nearly twenty minutes of investigating the files, he happened across a section set aside for Chaos Energy.

Citan Chaos Energy experiments… now these could actually be useful. Kevérin smirked to himself. Maybe there’ll even be some information on the Chaos Ayas. Now that’d be useful. Let’s see, hmm… wait… Chaos Energy Quake?

He paused for several moments. If the Citans abandoned Teghica two hundred years ago, then how was there any mention of the Quake, which happened only twenty years ago? …The Black Suns must have downloaded this data, the Transfer Captain concluded. I’ve found a link. But what kind of data on the Quake is worth storing?…

Kevérin entered the data directory and began perusing the presented data. After a couple moments, he frowned in confusion. It’s just a list of planets and timestamps. What’s the timestamp for? They’re all on the forty-third day of Standardized Galactic Time 10205. On the Nimalian calendar, that’s… Aldredath thirty-second, 8012. The day the Chaos Energy Quake began… Is that what these timestamps are, then? When Chaos Energy ceased to function on each planet? He continued looking through the massive list of planets and timestamps. Hmm, it looks like the Quake wasn’t instantaneous. Some planets lost the ability to access Chaos Energy later than others… though the margin is only minutes. I wonder if anyone has this data for the Nimalian Territories — it doesn’t look like the Citans do, not here, at least. The only planets here are worlds in the Core Space Alliance. …Hmm… I wonder, what would it look like if this data was overlaid on the galactic map?

He immediately brought up a holographic representation of the galaxy on his glasses, allowing them to automatically input the data read from the computer monitor. Within a minute, the glasses had read enough data to present Kevérin an image of the galaxy, each planet marked with its respective timestamp. “Command: color the galaxy with a blue to red gradient. Planets that were affected the earliest are red, planets that were affected last are blue.” A moment passed as his glasses processed the command and then marked the galaxy accordingly, leading the Transfer Captain to gasp in surprise. “Wow… the Chaos Energy Quake… was radial.”

He crossed his arms and mused over the data further. “…Well, the center seems to lay outside of CSA space. It seems like they don’t have quite enough data points to extrapolate the exact center on their own — their territory is offset by just too much. But… if we were to get Nimalian data, and maybe even Syraus, or Earthian data… we could find the center ourselves! Wow, this is probably the best lead on the Quake that anyone’s ever had!” But right as he began to get excited, a thought returned to his mind:

What is this data doing on a two hundred year old computer — a computer that’s been long separated from the Citan Intelligence Network?

Kevérin quickly backed out of the data directory and began searching for timestamps of the files themselves, or usage logs — anything to help determine when the machine was last used, or how the files even ended up on the machine. Eventually, he found an answer by means of the base’s computer usage logs. This base was reconnected to the Citan Intelligence Network ten years ago… and disconnected within a week. And almost immediately afterward, it went dark for a full two years… this had to have been the Black Suns. But what were they doing here? When were they last here? His question was soon answered as he scrolled farther down the log. The most recent access date was the thirtieth day of SGT 10231. On the Nimalian calendar, that’s Winth twenty-third, 8034. …Ten days ago…

Immediately, the Transfer Captain cupped a hand to his ear. “Command: contact Kievkenalis Yumach.” He paused for a few seconds and frowned. “Command: contact Kievkenalis Yumach. …Command: contact Christeané Kolstén. …Command: contact Rebehka Tchiréon. …Fuck!” He scowled. Comms are jammed… the base’s defenses must be kicking in. Consequence of sending Siyuakén to light the place up, I guess… He paused for a few seconds, musing over his options before he removed his glasses and set them on top of the computer. “Command: Transfer Captain unlock. Authority: Kevérin Tyrion. Setup download interface with local computer. Download everything; prioritize Chaos Energy research.” He then sat back and sighed as his glasses began downloading data from the computer, data that he could no longer read since it wasn’t being filtered and translated by the aforementioned glasses. “I may not have found a concrete connection to the Black Suns, but this data can still be of use. Time to just grab it all and get out…”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.”

Kevérin whipped around and immediately entered a defensive stance as his eyes laid on a squad of eight soldiers entering the room. All of them wore different variants of powered armor, colored black, dark blue, and silver — the colors of the Black Suns Private Military Corporation.

The front-most soldier stepped forward, her double-kneed legs and four fingered-hands giving her away as a member of the Dra’kis race. She crossed her arms and glared down at Kevérin as the soldiers behind her trained their weapons on him. “Looks like we’ve found the rat after our scraps,” she remarked with a smirk. “…Just a Nimalian. I’d almost pity you, but, well, that’s not what I’m here to do.”

Kevérin maintained his stance as he eyed the Dra’kis warily. “Yeah? What are you here for, then?”

“I’d thought that obvious,” she replied nonchalantly. “We’re here for pest control. We’re here to get rid of you.”

3 Days Later

“Gate activation in ten minutes. Outbound to Teghica.”

“Alright, quick review…” Kevérin turned toward the rest of Hero Machina shortly after the loudspeaker announcement. “We’re going to an abandoned Tier 5 Citan planet named Teghica to hunt down a possible connection to the metallic infection. Teghica’s Interstellar Gate is housed in a secondary outpost; I know that the primary outpost is somewhere eastward of the Gate, but the exact location is unknown. So we need to find it, search every last corner, and then get back to the Gate in time for the next window back here, to Damunin. Then we can get back to the comfort of Nimalia.”

“Speaking of comfort…” Christeané scowled as he glanced down at his clothing, and then at the outfits of the rest of the squad. Their normal uniforms were replaced by beige- and sand-colored desert gear that covered every inch of their bodies, save their faces. “Is there any particular reason we had to change out of our nice, fitted uniforms into these desert rags?”

“We’re goin’ to be on a desert planet for twenty-four hours at most and you’re already complainin’?” Davídrius snorted derisively. “You’ll live.”

“Says you, but you never had to change in the first place,” Christeané retorted before turning back to Kevérin. “I mean, I guess I understand needing to cover all your skin in a desert, but weren’t our uniforms just fine?”

“…That’s the part even I didn’t learn about until we got here.” The Transfer Captain sighed warily. “Teghica is an abandoned Citan colony, but it was still a Citan colony once, you know? The Commander said that Teghica isn’t a part of the Citan Observation Network anymore, but because we’re not sure if we have the time to wait for the months or years that it would take to formally request a visit, we’re going in unauthorized.”

“That’s, uh…” Kaoné frowned uneasily. “…That doesn’t sound good.”

“We’ll be fine,” Kievkenalis assured, “the Citans are long gone. I think it’s just the Black Suns who we’ll have to worry about.”

“And if we do meet any Black Suns mercenaries, don’t let on that we’re from Nimalia,” Kevérin quickly asserted. “Just, uh… try not to run into any?”

“And if we do?” Rebehka pressed.

“…Run away?”

“Sounds legit,” Davídrius deadpanned.

“Whatever you do, try not to start any fights,” Kevérin ordered, just as the platform the seven Chaotics were standing on jolted and began descending. “Looks like it’s almost time to go. But listen, we really can’t afford to piss off the Citans or the Black Suns, alright?”

“If its stealth and subterfuge that you want, I think you picked the wrong group,” Siyuakén pointed out.

“Well… we’re the only ones investigating the metallic infection, so…” The Transfer Captain paused as the platform suddenly stopped and two blast doors opened sideways, revealing the Interstellar Gate standing twenty meters away in the middle of a large, heavily fortified room.

“Fuckin’ Fortress World…” Davídrius muttered, “really, what’s the point of all this? Don’t Gates have a blockin’ mechanism?”

“It’s all precaution,” Rebehka replied, “militaries love caution, after all.”

“If that’s the case, then they wouldn’t be sending us to a random-ass backwater planet on a ‘stealth’ mission,” Christeané countered. “For better or for worse, ‘caution’ isn’t really our specialty.”

“…Fuck all y’all,” Davídrius growled when he noticed several of the others glance his way.

“C’mon.” Kevérin began walking toward the Gate as the emptiness within the ring rapidly filled with a pitch-black, opaque film. Hero Machina closed the distance between them and the Gate and, after receiving clearance from the control room, stepped through the event horizon. The next thing they knew, they were standing amongst the ruins of a small outpost. Everything was covered with a layer of dust and sand while the sun sat high in the sky and relentlessly beat down on the newcomers.

“Of course it’s stereotypical desert,” Christeané grumbled.

“And y’all say I like to complain a lot,” Davídrius retorted.

“Quit it,” Kevérin interjected. “Let’s not get sidetracked. There’s an outpost to find…”

---

3 Hours Later

“I can really see why the Citans decided to abandon this place…”

“I knew it was dry, but damn.” Davídrius frowned as he looked down into the metal tub Kaoné had created. The tub was easily a meter tall and in diameter, but water filled only a negligible volume. The Velocitechnic turned to stare at Rebehka incredulously. “Is that really all of the water in the nearby atmosphere?”

“We walked around the entire complex with Siyuakén while she was looking for the generator…” Rebehka replied, “this is all I could get.”

“And this is supposed to be how we stay hydrated?” Davídrius crossed his arms. “Did anyone actually think this through?”

“We can just have Kaoné transmute some water. That was always the plan, this tub thing was just to burn time,” Kevérin pointed out from his seat in front of a derelict computer console. “We found the primary outpost pretty quickly, too, so we at least have shade.”

Christeané scowled. “Don’t you complain about the temperature. We can’t all use our powers as temperature regulators.”

“You seem pretty pissy today,” Davídrius observed candidly.

“Well excuse me for not being from the desert,” the Forcetechnic countered. “Now, don’t get me wrong, deserts are great for trips of all kinds. But deserts this dry suck, especially when I’m forced to go and don’t have anything to do except sit around on my ass.”

“There aren’t even any relay points here,” Kaoné added.

“The Citans did abandon this place a couple centuries ago,” Rebehka mused, “any relay points they set up would be either massively outdated or defunct.”

“And even if they weren’t, we shouldn’t connect to them,” Kevérin cut in, “remember, no one’s supposed to know we’re here.”

Davídrius snorted. “We’re the only ones here. There’s no one to alert to our presence because the only ones within light-years of us is us!”

The conversation was interrupted as the room’s lights suddenly flickered on. The ventilation system quickly followed, sweeping up a large volume of dust and causing several coughing fits before Kaoné could force all of the dust into the exhaust vents.

“So, she got the generator running,” Rebehka commented, and then made for the room’s exit. “I’m going to check on Siyuakén.”

Kevérin glanced at the leaving Cryotechnic before turning his attention to the monitor in front of him as the respective computer booted up. “Huh… the computers still work?”

“Wow, really?” Christeané approached the console as well. “I’d heard that Citan tech was durable, but I didn’t know their computers could last two whole centuries without maintenance!”

“Well, that may not be entirely true,” Kevérin replied, “assuming Kievkenalis was right about that shipment coming from here, the Black Suns used Teghica as their own outpost for some amount of time. For all we know, they might’ve replaced all of the old computers with their own.” He turned to the rest of Hero Machina just as Kievkenalis arrived though the same doorway Rebehka had left through. “Anyways, we have a job to do. I’ll stay here and check out the computer; the rest of you, spread out and search the complex.”

“Why do you get to stay here?” Davídrius challenged.

“Because I’m the only one with an offline version of the visual translation patch.”

“Oh… right.”

“Um, I’d be careful while looking around,” Kievkenalis spoke up, “there’s no one around — I checked — but the Chaos Energy in the area still feels… off. Like… it’s too dense. There’s more than there should be.”

“You can tell that?” Davídrius raised an incredulous eyebrow.

“Well, yeah. I’m a Chaostechnic after all; any half-decent Chaostechnic can sense Chaos Energy,” the Riveranian replied.

“Do you know what could cause something like that?” Kevérin questioned.

“Not really. But if we aren’t careful, I’m sure one of us could go berserk. I’d suggest searching the place in pairs, at least.”

The Pyrotechnic nodded. “Sounds reasonable. The four of you can split up and search in pairs. You guys can handle that on your own, right?”

“Yeah, we’re good,” Christeané replied before turning toward the doorway on the opposite side of the room from the one Kievkenalis and Rebehka had used. “C’mon, Davídrius, let’s go.”

“Eh? Who said—?” The Tresédian was about to argue the point, but stopped when he realized that Kaoné and Kievkenalis had already left on their own. “…Tch. Why am I always stuck with you?”

“Stuck with me? As if. You don’t really mean that.”

“That attitude is exactly why I do mean it.”

“Mm hmm. Now c’mon, we’ve got a base to check out.”

Kevérin watched the two leave before turning back to the computer, stretching, and finally getting down to inspecting the data stored within.

---

“…Oh, hey.”

“Hey,” Rebehka greeted her friend as she stepped into the generator room. She then glanced around, puzzled, as Siyuakén was nowhere to be seen.

“Up here!”

The Cryotechnic looked up to find the Electrotechnic hanging from the ceiling near the generator. “Uh… what are you doing?”

“Just checking out the generator…” Siyuakén replied before releasing her grappling hooks and landing in a roll next to Rebehka. “Something’s off about it.”

“’Off?’”

“Even if you consider that the Black Suns might’ve been maintaining it at some point, it works far too well for something that’s two hundred years old.” She crossed her arms. “I was able to jump start it.”

“…So?”

“Generators aren’t just huge batteries! You shouldn’t be able to simply ‘jump start’ it. Something must have stopped it during operation, or… I don’t know.”

“Is this something we should be concerned about?”

Siyuakén glanced back at the generator. “…It might be. According to what I know about Citan power sources — which isn’t really all that much — activating this generator should cause a feedback loop that’ll eventually start up the rest of the generators, including the primary reactor buried downstairs. And with the activation of the generators…”

“…All of the base’s defenses will power up, too,” Rebehka finished, and then shrugged. “We’re talking about two hundred-year-old tech, here. It’s nothing we can’t take care of, I’m sure.”

“I hope you’re right…” Siyuakén frowned. “I wish I could at least read the status displays though. Then we could know when the generator was last activated.”

“Siyuakén, we’ll be fine.” Rebehka placed a reassuring hand on her friend’s shoulder. “If you think it’s important enough, I can contact Kevérin and get him to come look at it, but—”

“No, no, it’s not that big of a deal,” the Electrotechnic quickly replied, “as long as we’re in and out, we should be fine. But if we’re here longer than the next window back to Damunin, then I’d prefer that someone look into this. Then again, if we’re here longer than the next window, then we’ve probably got more important issues to deal with…”

“Well… you’re probably right,” Rebehka admitted, “I don’t know what’s here to cause us trouble though. You were there when Kevken used Chaos Detect; there’s no one here but us.”

“Yeah, I know… I just have a bad feeling about this.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for anything suspicious, then… but once we get back to Nimalia, you and I are definitely spending the next day off downtown. You need a break.”

Siyuakén smirked uneasily. “…Heh, I guess I do. It’s really been non-stop work for the past few weeks, huh.”

“It’s interesting, but also really tiring. I mean, it’s nice that the Commander is actually trying to get to the bottom of the infection, but…”

“There’s a lot less downtime than back in Relédiaka, I know.”

“We’ve been in Nimaliaka Central — the interstellar transport hub of Nimalia! — for over a month, and we’ve still barely seen any of it. Talk about all work and no play…”

“You know, I heard there’s actually a lot of places that offer discounts for both military and Chaotics. Pubs and museums and the like.”

“Really? Hmm, I wonder what they’re like?…”

The two continued their idle conversation as the generator hummed quietly in the background, providing power to the lights, ventilation, and other systems unknown.

---

“You’re sure something’s here?”

Kievkenalis nodded firmly. “Somewhere in this area, yeah. This is where the Chaos Energy is most dense.”

“If you say so…” Kaoné frowned warily. “But I don’t know what we’re looking for. What could even cause Chaos Energy to, uh, ‘stick’ together like this?”

“That’s what I hope to find out,” the Chaostechnic replied as he rounded a corner and stopped. In his way sat a mountain of debris, filling in the hallway though the collapsed ceiling. Beyond the heap was open air; it appeared as though a corner of the building had collapsed on itself.

“I’m surprised more of the complex isn’t like this, considering how old it all is,” Kaoné mused. “Should we clear this out?”

“You go ahead. I’m a little wary of using my powers without knowing what’s causing the distortion.”

The Materiatechnic proceeded to mash all of the debris into one mass before shoving it out of the way, as she had done several times in the past hour. However, shortly after doing so, she paused quizzically and then began peeling thin layers off of the mass, discarding each to the side.

“What are you doing?…” Kievkenalis questioned.

“There’s something that I can’t actually manipulate buried in there…” she responded cautiously, “and so far there’s only been one thing like that.” A moment later she paused, astounded. “…Uh… make that two.”

The two Chaotics stared at the large, dark blue, diamond-shaped gemstone that Kaoné had just uncovered. After a moment the Materiatechnic commented, “well, I guess we know what was causing the ‘distortion’ then.”

“Yeah…” Kievkenalis responded warily, “…one of the Chaos Ayas…”

1 Month Later

– Grudia, Winth 30, 8034 –

“What’s up?”

“The ceiling.”

Christeané stopped where he stood and gave Davídrius a disapproving stare. “Really?”

“I answered your question,” the Tresédian quipped, “it’s your own damn fault if you don’t like the answer.”

Christeané smirked and sat down across the table from Davídrius, dropping his lunch tray on the tabletop as he did so.

“Early lunch?” Davídrius drawled.

“You’re here early, too.”

“I was here for a mid-morning snack, not so I could draw out my lunch break by an extra hour.”

“And how long have you been here for?”

“…An hour.”

“Mm hmm.” Christeané chuckled as he began eating. “So you’ve pretty much done the same thing.”

Davídrius scowled. “Tch. As if I’m actually needed. Leave the desk jobs to those who actually know what they’re doin’.”

“It’s part of being an officer,” the Master Lieutenant replied between bites, “and guess what you are now?”

Davídrius’s scowl deepened as Christeané glanced at the new nameplate sewn into the Tresédian’s uniform, just above his left jacket pocket. It read “Lieutenant Wrikax.”

“I didn’t ask for this bullshit.”

“Hey, you jumped straight to Lieutenant! You’re lucky.”

“Lucky my ass. The Commander’s just trying to nationalize me — apparently she ‘pulled some strings’ and now I’m a Nimaliakian citizen.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?…”

“Considerin’ it was all done without even askin’ me first?” Davídrius replied flatly.

Christeané frowned. “I thought you didn’t like Treséd.”

“I also don’t like bein’ told what to do.”

“Oh believe me, we all know that.”

“Shut it.”

Christeané smirked in response to the Tresédian’s retort. “It can’t be that bad. At least now we don’t have to go through any bullshit every time we go off-world now… like with Chiníka.”

Davídrius snorted as he recalled Hero Machina’s brief visit to the planet a couple weeks ago. The Tier 3 Nimalian world known as “Chiníka” was one of the first planets they looked into after beginning their investigation into shipments over the Hazard Islands; Kevérin had hoped to find more information about the metallic infection, but Hero Machina ultimately returned from the planet empty-handed.

“I’ll bet Chiníka was what inspired the Commander to do all this,” Davídrius eventually muttered, turning his attention back to the conversation. “Nice planet, but I ain’t even met any Homeworld Nimalians with such a stick up their ass about Tresédians.”

“You know, it’d help if you weren’t so impatient.”

“Look, that bastard was askin’ for a rapier down his throat. I would’ve been doin’ Chiníka a favor if you guys hadn’t stopped me.”

Christeané rolled his eyes. “We stopped you because you would’ve gotten your ass handed to you. How the fuck did you expect to beat a Velocitechnic ten years your senior?”

Davídrius grunted and glanced away. “…I’m faster than him.”

“And he’s had way more experience with Sword Boxes and fighting in general. Which I guess is why you convinced Rebehka to start teaching you how to actually use a sword.” Christeané pulled a face, as if he were disappointed. “Why didn’t you ask me for help?”

“Tch. You know just as well as I do,” Davídrius retorted, “we’re both Introtechnics, sure, but the weapons we use are completely different. You use a damn hammer in battle — do you really think you could teach me swordplay?”

“I could try.”

“Could you do as well as a fencin’ hobbyist?”

“I used to fence.”

“Key words: used to.”

“Besides, fencing isn’t applicable to real battles at all!”

“It’s gotta be better than nothin’ though, right?”

“…Mm, maybe,” Christeané admitted before taking another big bite of his meal. Davídrius sat in stubborn silence as the Master Lieutenant finished chewing and swallowed. “Now, if only there were more battles to actually fight in.”

Davídrius sighed. “I’m with ya there. Three separate trips in the past month, two of them off-world, and we got nothin’ out of it. Don’t even have any real leads.”

“Maybe, if we’re lucky, one of the others will have found a lead by the time we get back to the office.”

The two Chaotics glanced at each other and then shook their heads simultaneously.

“Not happenin’.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Well, a guy can hope…”

---

“Hey, Si— …wait, where’d everybody go?”

“Hmm? Oh, Kevérin.” Rebehka glanced up from her work as she acknowledged the captain. “Kaoné and Kevken left to go check something at the Downtown office. I don’t know where Davídrius and Christeané are, though…”

“They’re probably off taking an early lunch.” Siyuakén rolled her eyes as she turned around in her chair, stood up, and stepped closer to Rebehka and Kevérin, who were both near the entrance to the office space set aside for Hero Machina. It was a sizable room — large enough to house seven desks, with three on one side, three on the other, and one in the back. Each desk hosted a computer monitor, interface, and some extra space to store physical papers and files; Rebehka’s desk was the front left, the closest to the entrance door, while Siyuakén’s was directly to her right.

Kevérin sighed impatiently. “Argh, again? Do they ever work?”

“Says the guy who plays AR games all day,” Rebehka quipped.

“Hey, I’m the one who came up with the Bowiisen lead. …Even though it didn’t go anywhere…” The Transfer Captain shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Anyways, that’s not what I’m here for. I just realized that it’s been a whole month since we started looking for leads on this metallic infection business, but the two of you haven’t even explained everything you know.”

“There’s not really much else for us to even say, aside from the more technical aspects…” Rebehka responded.

“Then that’s what I want to know.” Kevérin crossed his arms as he glanced between the two women. “We’ve already had to fight creatures infected by the metallic infection, so if there’s anything that can help in that regard…”

“In that regard, you know just as much as we do.” Siyuakén shrugged. “I mean, I guess you wouldn’t know that electricity or magnetics aren’t as effective against the infection as you’d think, it being metal and all, but otherwise there’s not a lot to take advantage of in a fight.”

“Well, what about infection breakouts on other planets? Where’d they happen, when did they happen, how were they handled?”

Rebehka and Siyuakén glanced at each other wearily. “There have been a lot of incidents, both officially and unofficially recorded,” Rebehka stated. “There’s too many to list now, and there’s no reason to do so, anyways. Most incidents were handled either by totally eradicating the infected animals, or by capturing and studying them, like what we do back in Relédiaka. Most organizations tend to at least make a token effort to figure out what’s going on, but before Sunova, I’d never heard of the infection leading to a massive breakout and forcing a full planetary evacuation…”

“Do you think it’s possible that a breakout did happen, but you didn’t hear about it?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Siyuakén responded, “an infection outbreak like what happened on Sunova is a major galactic security issue. I doubt any government would be willing to publicly disclose a breakout incident… especially the CSA.”

“They’re afraid that we’re Drakkar agents, you see.” Rebehka rolled her eyes, and then added seriously, “I’m actually surprised that they were so willing to let us onto a Transpace World.”

“What, you mean Bowiisen?” Kevérin snorted. “It’s right next to Nimalian territory. Nimalians visit it all the time, of course they’d let us go. I’d be more surprised if they allowed us as deep into their territory as the Origin Transpace. On military business, that is.”

“Not with a Tresédian in our group, they won’t…” Rebehka frowned warily. “I know the Commander got him Nimaliakian citizenship so we won’t run into those kind of problems, but—”

“But Davídrius himself is enough reason to not let us go anywhere?”

“He’s… gotten better,” Siyuakén admitted, “as much as it hurts to say.”

“Has he, though?” Kevérin questioned, “I guess having Christeané around helps a little, but he’s still hard on Kaoné, what with her pacifism.”

“I meant to ask about that at some point,” Rebehka commented, “did something happen between Davídrius and Kaoné?”

“Not really,” Siyuakén replied, “he’s just… I don’t know if it’s possible for Davídrius and Kaoné to see eye to eye. He has an… unfortunate background, but Kaoné seems pretty sheltered and inexperienced…”

“What? That’s not true,” Kevérin refuted, “she’s had plenty of experience. How else did she reach Lieutenant?”

“Huh…?” Siyuakén stared at the Pyrotechnic in confusion. “She… wasn’t conscripted as a Lieutenant?”

“Well, no. I mean, some Materiatechnics are conscripted as Lieutenants, but she’s not a native Nimaliakian, so she had to start out at the rank of ‘Chaotic.’”

“Oh…”

“I don’t know why that’s surprising?” Kevérin cocked his head in confusion. “…I guess, now that I think about it… she’s a Materiatechnic, but she’s not a native. There’s no way one of the other nations would’ve let go of a Materiatechnic unless she was part of an exchange program, but she would’ve had to have been exchanged with someone in her year, which means one of us, but to trade away a Materiatechnic must mean the nation had two Chaotics, I’d think, and the only nation that fits that description is… Relédiaka…” He stared at Siyuakén for a moment. “Wait, are you—?”

“Yes, I am,” the Electrotechnic replied flatly.

“Then… wouldn’t you two have, I don’t know, kept tabs on each other or something—?”

“Wow, we’ve really strayed from the original topic, haven’t we,” Rebehka observed, “what was the last thing — right, about the CSA not letting us go anywhere.”

“Uh… right,” Kevérin responded slowly, oblivious to the quick glance that the two women exchanged. “…Well, it could present an issue if we come across information leading us deeper into CSA space.”

“If it’s a world accessible only by ship, at least,” Rebehka pointed out, “I think they should be more lenient about Interstellar Gate travel. But, even then, getting through their security will be annoying, since they’re in a perpetual war state.”

“With the Drakkars, right…” Kevérin nodded. “The Drakkars and the CSA have been at war for ages, and neither of them have gained any real ground… I doubt that will change anytime soon. But — I just had a thought, have you heard anything about the metallic infection from non-CSA space? Drakkars? The Taizen races? The unsettled arm between Dra’kis and Taizen space, maybe?”

“We barely have any information from the CSA, who — despite their jockeying — are still our allies, and heavily document everything that happens in their space. Do you really think we’d have any information from any other area?” Siyuakén retorted. “The Drakkars are super-advanced, but they’re our enemies. Of course we wouldn’t hear anything from them. And unsettled territory is exactly that: unsettled. We can’t learn anything from people who aren’t there. And the Taizen races? They’re too busy with their own thousand-year war to bother telling us about something as seemingly trivial as the metallic infection.”

“You don’t have to snap…” Kevérin muttered, “but I guess you’re right. The Riaxen destroyed all of their Gates anyways, and nothing gets past their Transpaces, so I don’t think the infection could have spread or come from their space. And the Syraus aren’t much different…”

“Their space might become even more dangerous soon, though,” Rebehka pointed out.

“Huh? Why’s that?”

“From what I’ve heard, the current Riaxen leader has fallen ill… or something like that. Which means they’ll probably have a new leader soon, which means they’ll suddenly be way more aggressive.”

“Here’s hoping we don’t get sucked into that,” Siyuakén commented.

Kevérin sighed. “There’s war everywhere… why does the rest of the galaxy have to be so hostile?”

“The Earthians aren’t,” Rebehka offered.

“Yeah, they aren’t hostile, they’re just really quick to shy away from any kind of attention or responsibility,” Kevérin retorted.

“It’s not a completely terrible idea,” Siyuakén refuted, “they’re not as advanced as the rest of the galaxy, and they have no Transpaces, so as long as they lay low they shouldn’t have any trouble. Nimalian territory, on the other hand, is sandwiched between war-torn allies. If either one falls, we’re as good as gone…”

“Hey, at least we got the Master Ayas from the Earthians, right?” Rebehka commented in a much lighter tone.

“Which makes me wonder where the other eight Ayas are,” Kevérin replied, “the Master Ayas, found first? No way.”

“Well what do you want us to do, look for the Ayas, too?” Rebehka questioned, “how would we even do that? We have Chaos Energy sensors, sure, but none that work on a galactic scale, or that would even be able to pinpoint something as small as the Chaos Ayas.”

“We might come across some of them during our investigation into the metallic infection,” Kevérin stated, “…which brings us back to the original topic.”

“…We’ve talked about pretty much everything that’s not the infection, huh.” Rebehka smirked in self-amusement.

“So you two really don’t know anything else?” Kevérin scratched his head, confused.

“We don’t, sorry,” Siyuakén replied, “nothing that will be too useful at least. We know rough timestamps, like ten years ago, fifteen years ago, twenty… but without anything more specific…”

“Yeah, it’s not much help…” Kevérin sighed, and then glanced at the time. “Oh, well what do you know. It’s almost time for lunch!”

“Oh, good,” Siyuakén responded as Rebehka stood up next to her and the three Chaotics made for the exit, “I could really use a break…”

---

“Kevken…”

“Just gimme a few more minutes,” the Chaostechnic replied nonchalantly, “I think I’m onto something here.”

“That’s what you said half an hour ago,” Kaoné pouted, “but it’s time for lunch now!”

“Just— just hold on,” he responded without looking up from the console he was working at. “Er, go on without me, actually.”

The Materiatechnic sighed impatiently before walking around the console and staring at the screen. “What are you looking at?”

“I managed to get some RPF espionage data on the SFC, and some of it points to information we might be interested in…”

“Uh… what? SFC?”

“The Stealth and Force Corps,” Kievkenalis replied, “they’re the second largest private military in Riverana, behind the RPF — the Riverana Protection Force. They’re a little sketchier though, so the RPF likes to keep tabs on them by spying… er.” He passed Kaoné a worried glance. “…You’re not supposed to know that.”

“Right…” Kaoné nodded patronizingly. “I’m surprised that you even have the authority to access that kind of information.”

“Oh, well that’s easy. I’m a Chaostechnic — a tier three Chaostechnic, at that. They let me do almost whatever I want.” He glanced up when Kaoné didn’t respond, only to catch her staring at him incredulously. “…You don’t get to do whatever you want?”

“I’m not a Chaostechnic,” Kaoné deadpanned.

“Yeah, but you’re a Materiatechnic. That’s one of the big three, right?” Kievkenalis questioned. “Chaostechnism, Materiatechnism, Navitastechnism?”

Kaoné shook her head wearily. “Never mind. What have you found?”

“Oh, right.” He turned back toward the console. “Well, the SFC usually sends and receives shipments by sending ships up over the Continental Glacier and then taking off into space from there, where the planet’s magnetic field makes it a little harder to scan down ships. This puts most of the shipping over or near the Hazard Islands, you know? So I decided to look into that.”

“What did you find?”

“A shipment from the Black Suns,” Kievkenalis replied as he turned to face Kaoné again. “And not just a general shipment — it was under the name of the former Sector 2 Master General, Temlar Sakthye.”

“That… does sound a little suspicious, I guess,” Kaoné mused, “but Nimalian militaries commission things from the Black Suns all the time.”

“Well, yeah, but never directly from a Master General,” Kievkenalis refuted, “and that’s not the only suspicious thing — according to the logs, the transport ship ran into an RPF blockade over the Kardé Ocean and covertly dropped some of its cargo to pass the mass check. That was about 200 kilometers east of the Hazard Islands.”

“Yeah, that does sound pretty fishy,” Kaoné agreed, “but for it to actually be what we want, it has to be over ten years ago, right? Since the first metallic infection reports on Nimalia were from around ten years ago.”

“And that’s the thing — this shipment went through almost exactly ten years ago, in the spring of 8024 — just in time for the decennial ocean event that sweeps debris from the eastern Kardé Ocean toward the Hazard Islands!”

“…Wow,” Kaoné remarked, “that sounds exactly like what we’re looking for! Where did the shipment come from?”

“Hmm… well, I think this might be where the problem is.” Kievkenalis frowned warily. “The shipment origin is in CSA space — an abandoned Tier 5 Citan World, named Teghica.”

3 Days Later

“Sorry for getting off on the wrong foot the other day. I’m Rebehka Tchiréon.”

“Eh?” Davídrius glanced up at her, and then swiveled his chair around to face her as he crossed his arms. “’Wrong foot,’ you say?”

“She’s trying to be nice,” Christeané cut in from across the table, “don’t start a fight.”

The Tresédian shot the Master Lieutenant a glare before turning back to Rebehka. “…Hi,” he responded begrudgingly, “I’m Davídrius Wrikax.”

“I’m Kaoné Densalin,” Kaoné volunteered from further down the table.

“And I’m Kievkenalis Yumach!” the Chaostechnic added.

“Glad to actually meet you all outside of battle.” Rebehka smiled as she walked around the table to sit in between Siyuakén and Christeané.

Silence momentarily befell the room as the Chaotics awaited their debriefing with Commander Nikéyin. The team had arrived in Nimaliaka Central two days ago, but between ensuring that the Hazard Island issue had truly been taken care of and making long-term arrangements for Hero Machina’s newest members, the team had yet to gather for an official debriefing — until now.

Rebehka’s attention slowly drifted back to Davídrius as she mused over his standoffish attitude. Eventually she spoke up, “if you don’t mind me asking—”

“It’s because you’re a Cryotechnic,” the Velocitechnic preemptively replied, as though he had anticipated her question. “You make ice. Ice is frictionless. I can’t run on frictionless stuff. Thus ice is annoying, and so are you by proxy.”

“Davídrius, really?” Christeané sighed of annoyance and shook his head. “Don’t be so petty.”

“I’m not—!”

“Yes you are. I’m an Introtechnic too, but you don’t see me complaining about ice. Now stop bitching.”

Davídrius scowled, but spoke no more.

More silence followed. Several moments later, Kaoné decided to start conversation anew. “So how was everyone’s weekends?” she asked amiably.

“Good,” Siyuakén answered. “It was nice to take a break after two weeks of running around.”

“Would’ve been better if Nimaliaka had any decent alcohol,” Christeané quipped.

“Oh be quiet,” Kevérin retorted, “you haven’t been as busy as the rest of us.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I can’t drink,” the Master Lieutenant replied. “I don’t think you guys understand how East Nimaliakians work.”

“Oh, Rebehka and I know all too well…” Siyuakén sighed.

Christeané smirked. “Come on, you had fun, admit it.”

Kievkenalis glanced between the two in confusion. “You already know each other?”

“Siyuakén and I spent some time in East Nimaliaka a year ago, looking into a metallic infection report,” Rebehka explained. “Christeané was there with us.”

“Probably the best five days of the month,” the Forcetechnic added.

Kievkenalis frowned warily. “Speaking of the metallic infection, how are we going to deal with that thing back on the Hazard Islands? We can’t just leave it in the ice, can we?”

“That’s what we’re here to figure out, isn’t it?” Kaoné replied, “only, the Commander is late…”

“I sent her a quick advisory shortly after we got back, apart from the mission report,” Kevérin commented. “Hopefully the islands will have been glassed by now. The Battleship Kunaria is currently in orbit, after all…”

Davídrius crossed his arms. “Will glassin’ the islands really stop the… whatever-it-is?”

“If it doesn’t, then what else can we do?” Kevérin shrugged. “We don’t even know what it is we’re up against, exactly.”

“I’m sure Rebehka can tell us,” Christeané suggested as he passed the Cryotechnic a glance.

“I know some things,” she quickly qualified, “but I’ll wait to explain until the Commander gets here, so I don’t have to repeat myself. I already sent a copy of the data back to Relédiaka, so hopefully they’ll be able to analyze it and figure out even more while we’re here.”

“Oh, so you’re from Relédiaka…?” Kievkenalis asked.

Rebehka nodded. “Yep. And you are…?”

“I’m from Riverana,” the Chaostechnic replied. “…In fact, I had to spend my weekend debriefing my RPF CO about the Hazard Islands, and now I have to do it again…”

“I spent my weekend writing a mission report,” Kevérin grumbled, “I wish I could go back home. I haven’t been there in months…”

“I’m perfectly fine with never goin’ back to Treséd,” Davídrius interjected, “with the Bleeder Chaotics gone, the lot can take care of themselves just fine.”

“Surely there’s someone you cared for,” Rebehka insisted. “Friends? Family?”

“Family?” Davídrius echoed. “…Mm. Guess that’d be nice. Don’t suppose you have a time machine, though.”

“Why would you need a—? Oh…” the Cryotechnic trailed off sheepishly. “Ah… sorry?”

The Tresédian shook his head. “Not your fault. If there’s one thing I’ll give you credit for, it’s your friend-pickin’ sense. Siyuakén took care of the bastard responsible.”

“Wait, really?” The Electrotechnic’s eyes widened in surprise. “If I had known the situation with the Bleeders was like that, then I would’ve understood you better…”

“Oh really now?” Davídrius drawled, “did you really think the Bleeders drag around fucking artillery everywhere and don’t score a few hits every now and then?” He chuckled derisively when his question was met with silence. “Exactly.” He sat back in his chair and sighed before adding, “but what’s done is done. I don’t need nor want your pity; in fact I’d appreciate it if you all forgot this whole conversation ever happened.”

“Done,” Kevérin immediately responded, “this is depressing. Let’s talk about something… not depressing.”

“Well I certainly hope this debriefing qualifies.”

Kevérin and Kaoné quickly stood up and at attention as Commander Nikéyin entered the room. She looked over the seven members of Hero Machina before bidding the Transfer Captain and Lieutenant to sit down as she did so herself. She then dropped the folder she was carrying on the table and opened it, leafing through it as she began to address the Chaotics sitting around her. “Did I miss anything just now?”

“No, not at all,” Davídrius replied flatly.

Nikéyin glanced at him curiously. “I see,” she responded as she turned her attention back to the papers in the folder, causing the Velocitechnic to shift in his chair uncomfortably.

“So you have new faces now,” the Commander eventually continued, looking up at Christeané, Kievkenalis, and Rebehka. “That makes all seven of you. Good… I admit, Tyrion, I’m surprised that you pulled the group together so quickly. Three weeks is a very short period of time for forming a group like this, especially considering the short notice I gave each of your superiors.”

“Thank you,” Kevérin replied.

“And now to business…” Nikéyin commented, “Master Lieutenant Kolstén, Lieutenant Tchiréon, Captain Yumach, I hope you’ll forgive me for not formally welcoming you to Hero Machina and the Nimalian Systems Defense, but I’m sure you all recognize the immediate danger of the situation before us, given that you were, well, there.”

Kevérin frowned warily. “Was the island not glassed…?”

“I don’t think you understand how much thought actually goes into a glassing,” Nikéyin countered, “it’s an irreversible, highly destructive process. I understand your urgency, given the result of your expedition to Sunova, but this isn’t a snap-and-it-happens process.”

Davídrius snorted. “It’s just the Hazard Islands. Does anyone actually care about them?” He then froze as the Commander gave him the stink eye. “Er… sorry.”

“…You are right, though,” Nikéyin conceded, “but you could say that lack of care is actually the problem. I’ve already put in a request to glass the islands, but the Kunaria and the Tekdecénian High Command don’t consider the situation to be worth the ammunition.”

“We may have frozen the creature, but I don’t know how long that ice will hold,” Rebehka commented, “the first time I trapped it in an ice prison, it broke out after only two days. Granted, we damaged it significantly before I froze it again, but there’s still the possibility it could break out again.”

“And then there’s the possibility of the same thing that happened on Sunova happening here!” Siyuakén exclaimed, “do we really want to risk that?”

“Their justification is that the Kardé Ocean will contain any break-outs to the islands,” Nikéyin responded. “Look, I’m on your side here. But you were the only Nimalians to witness the disaster that was Sunova — and only half of you, at that. I may be the NSD’s prospective commander, but I’m not in charge of the fleets yet. My word can only go so far.”

“What can we do, then?” Kaoné questioned.

The Commander turned to Rebehka. “…I understand you were recently part of a research expedition to the Continental Glacier. If you know anything else, please tell. I may be able to use the information to convince the Captain of the Kunaria to spend his precious bombardment rounds.”

“Well…” Rebehka started, “the… expedition itself didn’t learn very much. It’s not the first time I’ve been up to the Continental Glacier, and just like every other time… we couldn’t find out anything. The metallic infection appears to be not even that — the research team couldn’t find any pathogens in the infected animals’ bodies. Except this time, the animals were much rowdier than usual; there were more break-outs than the past three years combined. So the team leader decided to release an infected animal — native to the Glacier, so it could survive on its own — and monitor what it did. Well, it went on a completely straight path toward the Hazard Islands before trying to swim and then drowning in the Kardé Ocean.”

“Oh, so that’s why you flew over the Hazard Islands on the way back…” Kevérin commented.

Rebehka nodded. “Yes, that’s right. The team leader wanted to see how the infected animals would react if we brought them closer to the islands.”

“That sounds like a terrible idea!” Christeané exclaimed.

“I’m well aware that it was,” the Cryotechnic retorted, “how do you think we crashed?”

“…Well, yeah. My point.”

“Believe me, not everyone was on board with the idea, myself included,” Rebehka explained, “but the team leader was adamant, and she had enough of the researchers on her side to convince the transport pilot to fly over the islands. It was a big mistake — all of the animals reacted wildly and broke out of their cages with far more strength than anyone expected. We were all caught by surprise, and…” She paused momentarily, her lips pursed. “…The ship was already damaged and crashing before I was able to start re-capturing the animals.”

“And the rest of the research team?” Nikéyin questioned.

Rebehka looked down. “…They didn’t make it.”

“…I see,” the Commander responded. “What happened next?”

“I started the distress signal. The ship had managed to crash on the edge of a crevice, so I quickly subdued the rest of the animals that hadn’t died and then left the ship to see if I could find safer shelter… not even a half hour later, though, the ship was suddenly attacked by a giant… metal… worm-like thing.”

“The same one that attacked us?” Kevérin asked.

“Maybe? Probably.” Rebehka shrugged. “It was the thing that I trapped in the ice. But, before that — it… so, I said ‘attacked,’ but I’m not sure if that’s really the right word. It just came up to the ship and… seemed to melt through it.”

“…It what,” Davídrius deadpanned.

“That’s what it looked like,” the Cryotechnic affirmed with a frown. “Almost like a liquid. And it absolutely cleaned out the inside of the wreck — I could tell because it melted all of the ice I had created inside. So I immediately flipped the wreck into the crevice with a slab of ice and then froze the entire area… then I ran off to find some place to hide, because I started getting attacked by infected native animals. Fast forward two days, I run into all of you, and then, well… here we are.”

“So… we have the metallic infection… a bunch of rowdy, infected animals that were attracted to the Hazard Islands… and a giant, shape-shifting, liquid metal worm.” Kevérin glanced around the room wearily. “What does this mean?”

“I’m not completely sure, but it could be that something was starting to reach critical mass on the islands…” Rebehka suggested.

“I checked with the researchers back in Relédiaka, and they said that they experienced increased aggression with their trapped animals as well,” Siyuakén added. “They also said that the animals suddenly calmed down three days ago… just after we disabled and froze that big creature.”

“Maybe we came even closer to disaster than we thought,” Kaoné muttered quietly.

“This is all speculative, but it is most definitely worrying,” Nikéyin declared. “I’m not certain I can convince the Kunaria with this, but I’m even more sold now that something needs to be done about the islands. Worst-case scenario, I merely have to wait until the NSD is formally recognized to order for a glassing… and hope that nothing happens until then.”

“There’s no way we can just sit around now that we know this,” Christeané insisted, “there’s gotta be something we can do.”

“We could check out infection incidents on other planets,” Siyuakén suggested, “this problem isn’t just limited to Nimalia, after all.”

“Actually…” Nikéyin leaned forward, a hand on her chin in thought. “…You raise a good point. Infection incidents have been occurring on other worlds before they started on Nimalia, correct?”

Rebehka nodded. “Yes, the first recorded incident on Nimalia was ten years ago, but there have been recorded incidents in the galaxy as many as fifteen years ago. I’ve even heard of several incidents from up to twenty years ago, but those were all on CSA planets, and unofficial reports.”

“Alright then. Let’s suppose the infection didn’t start on Nimalia — it would’ve had to spread here somehow, either through the Interstellar Gate or spacecraft. And to get to the Hazard Islands — something must have brought it there. So here’s what we can do: go through all the global shipping records and find ships that have passed by the Hazard Islands, and trace both their destination and source. Additionally, look for any natural migration patterns that might take animals over the Hazard Islands. With any luck, we can trace the infection back to the Gate or a spaceship and then continue on from there.”

“But that’s… that’s ten years’ worth of data to look through!” Kevérin exclaimed, “that could take… weeks! Months!”

“If you come up with a better idea, Transfer Captain, I’d be glad to hear it,” Nikéyin replied, “but this will be far more efficient that randomly investigating infection reports out in the rest of the galaxy. Your Chaos Quake investigation will have to wait — this infection issue is far more important.”

“Question: how are we going to get all of the data in the first place?”

“I have the authority to at least obtain shipping information,” the Commander responded. “Wrestling manifests from the RPF or SFC might be troublesome, but I’ll have data to process by the end of the week, I’m certain. Until then, take a break. I understand that this past weekend wasn’t a very good break for some of you…” She shot Christeané a knowing glance. “I’m afraid you’ll have to make do without ‘decent alcohol,’ however.”

“Uh.” The Master Lieutenant froze, his eyes wide. “…You heard that? Wait… if you heard that, then—?”

The Commander offered a knowing smirk. “Just because I’m not in the briefing room doesn’t mean I can’t hear what’s said in the briefing room.”

“…Oh,” Davídrius responded quietly.

“None of you said anything worth reprimanding today, but watch your words in the future.” Nikéyin stood up, prompting the members of Hero Machina to do the same. “You are all now on leave for the next three days. Dismissed!”

“Hero Machina… engage!!”

Davídrius wasted no time as he blasted forward, whipping the sabers out of his sword boxes and slashing through all of the roots in his way. He quickly reached the base of the tree and began to run up the trunk when part of the bark spontaneously lashed out and grabbed him by his ankle, ripping him off of the tree and launching him across the forest floor. He tumbled to a stop just behind Kevérin, who raised his arms forward. “Watch out!” he shouted, just before covering the entire area with intense flames. He stood back for a moment to admire his handiwork — only for a hole to split open in the side of the giant infected tree and begin flooding the small valley with water, rapidly extinguishing the fires.

“Well, that worked,” Christeané deadpanned as Kaoné quickly rose the dirt beneath their feet to remain above the water level.

“Where the hell did all that water come from?” Kevérin scowled. “Kaoné, can you do something about it?”

The Materiatechnic turned toward the water for a few seconds before quickly whipping around and knocking back several infected animals with a dirt wall. “I can’t manipulate it. Just like all of the infected animals…”

“So anything so much as touched by the infection can’t be directly affected, is that it?” Davídrius snorted. “Guess this means we should avoid the water at all costs, then?”

“Chaos Assist!” Kievkenalis called, imbuing all of Hero Machina with a boost of Chaos Energy before spinning around and directing his hands at several approaching creatures. “Chaos Strike! Chaos Strike!” he called repeatedly, and then glanced toward Kevérin. “Kaoné and I will keep the creatures in the forest off your back. Focus on… whatever it is you plan to do!”

Siyuakén watched the Chaos- and Materiatechnic spread out and push back the forest creatures before she turned back to the rest of Hero Machina. “What is the plan—?”

She was interrupted as the metallic worm atop the tree let out a deafening, steely screech. It promptly split in half, with its front half falling into the water below… and then emerging as a large, winged, lizard-like creature with silvery metallic skin — almost identical in appearance to the dragon that appeared on the Earthian colony of Sunova.

“Well that’s one hell of a coincidence…” Davídrius brandished his blades and leaped straight up, whirling around in the air and almost tearing into the dragon as it flew past. It slammed its tail into the Velocitechnic, knocking him straight down toward the water — only for him to be knocked out of the way again by a certain hammer. He caught himself on the tree by stabbing one of his sabers into the bark, at which point he turned irately toward Christeané, who had blown a hole into the tree with his hammer.

“That hurt like fuck!” the Tresédian exclaimed.

“Better than falling into that water!” Christeané replied as he slammed his hammer into the tree again, punching a large hole through to the other side. The bark let out a loud crack, prompting the two Introtechnics to rapidly vacate the tree — just as the hole filled with a viscous silver material that quickly solidified.

Siyuakén immediately fired off two lightning shocks at the new filling and directed a large current into the water, frying the base of the tree. The dragon roared and immediately dived toward the Electrotechnic, forcing her and Kevérin to jump back. The Pyrotechnic quickly retaliated by blasting the creature in its mouth, sending it recoiling. It then jumped back up into the air, where it turned toward the group and began launching fireballs, fireballs that Kevérin barely managed to deflect. Siyuakén followed up by triggering a massive lightning-strike from the rainclouds above — only for the strike to be intercepted by the canopy-high metallic web, the electricity dispersing through the beams as though the system were one giant lightning rod.

In response, Christeané began whirling his hammer around and released it directly upwards in an attempt to reach — and then smash — the canopy web. The half of the metallic creature still connected to the tree quickly picked up on his trajectory, however, and began launching metal projectiles at him, forcing him to yank his hammer down and use it to deflect all of the projectiles. The change in momentum prevented him from reaching the treetops — but Davídrius quickly leaped up and used him as a springboard to clear the final distance. Christeané glared after him as he landed on the high branches and then took off toward part of the metal webbing, sabers out and ready to slice, until two of the branches came to life and grabbed Davídrius by his ankles, dangling him upside down. A third branch moved up and prepared to impale him, but he quickly slashed his restraints and began falling to the water below — only to grab Siyuakén’s ankle as she swung around the infected tree.

“That’s the second time!” she shouted down at him, “the second time someone had to save you!”

“Tch — shush,” Davídrius retorted as the Electrotechnic released her grappling hook. Davídrius took the opportunity to catapult himself into the surrounding forest as Siyuakén changed her direction with another grappling hook, swinging through the air and offering shocks alternatively to the dragon and the tree as she maintained a current down the grappling line. The dragon quickly redirected its attention to her, allowing the wind generated by its powerful wings to blow away the streams of fire Kevérin launched at it. Annoyed at being ignored, the Pyrotechnic launched himself into the air with a blast of flame and then rocketed himself toward the dragon, nailing it with a flame-powered punch just as Siyuakén shocked its giant maw. It recoiled from the attacks, seemingly stunned — and was then blown to smithereens as Christeané’s hammer smashed into and obliterated it. The three Chaotics continued on their trajectories around the tree as the dragon’s pieces fell into the water below, splashing the platform Kaoné had created with water.

“That could be a problem…” Christeané frowned as he looked down at the platform from a newly-created hole in the tree trunk. He then smashed his hammer into the trunk again before launching himself at the canopy above just in time to avoid being trapped by the silver filling. Kevérin and Siyuakén continued up and around the tree until they were on level with the half of the metallic worm that had remained attached to the tree. The Pyrotechnic immediately began blasting it with fire, distracting it as Siyuakén flung herself up into the canopy. She grabbed a branch and quickly climbed through the final branch layers until she reached the metal web, upon which she blasted it with a massive shock. The moment she did, the entire tree rumbled as the worm let out a resounding screech — and then a branch knocked her sideways. She fell out of the tree and quickly caught herself on a lower branch just as she spotted Christeané standing in the canopy just above the metal worm. He launched himself straight up, demolishing part of the metal web on the way before throwing himself down at the worm, hammer-first—

—only to be suddenly knocked aside by the dragon’s tail as it launched itself from the pool below.

“What?!” the Forcetechnic exclaimed just as Davídrius launched himself from the edge of the water and caught Christeané mid-fall before catching himself on the tree, stabbing his saber into the bark and hanging from it.

“I thought I destroyed that thing!?” the Master Lieutenant questioned with a scowl.

“Of course this wouldn’t be easy…” Davídrius sighed irately. “The hell are we even supposed to do?”

“Well, first we ought to destroy that Faraday cage up in the canopy, so Siyuakén can just shock everything,” Christeané suggested. “…Hang on.”

“Wait, what are you doing?!” Davídrius questioned apprehensively as the Forcetechnic let himself drop and then grabbed Davídrius by the leg, where he began swinging himself back and forth. Then, at the apex of one of the swings, he launched his hammer upwards, dragging both himself and Davídrius through the air.

Spotting the two Introtechnics, Kevérin quickly diverted the dragon’s attention with another blast of fire before creating two blades of flame on his wrists and throwing himself at the creature. He stabbed into the dragon’s chest and then flared the blades, cleanly incinerating the dragon’s guts before falling away and blasting back toward the tree, where he kept a cautious eye on the creature as it fell again into the water below.

Above him, Siyuakén swung around the tree — and then suddenly changed her direction with a quick grapple firing, successfully evading several metallic missiles and launching herself at the tree worm. She immediately diverted to the side by firing her other grappling hook, barely scraping by the metallic creature as she zapped it, thereby blowing off one of its arms. She danced nimbly around its base as it attempted to grab her with its remaining arm, offering multiple shocks all the way — until the bark below her feet lurched, tripping her up and allowing the worm’s arm to wrap around, grab her by her wrists, and hang her directly in front of the creature. A hole slowly cracked open in its chest as it brought her closer, as if to eat her.

But it had no chance — Kevérin rocketed himself upwards and blasted the final arm off of the creature, freeing Siyuakén to shove a lightning strike down the worm’s maw as she flipped through the air and prepared to swing off again. Just as she fired her grappling hook, however, the dragon burst from the water below, flying straight up and snatching the Pyro- and Electrotechnic out of the air with its claws. It slammed them both into the tree and then backed off, with the two dazed Chaotics unable to take advantage of the lull. But before the dragon could do anything else, Davídrius leaped down from above, shoving both of his rapiers into the creature’s neck before whipping out his sabers to cleanly slice off the dragon’s arms and then its head. He quickly sheathed his sabers, grabbed his rapiers, and leaped back up to the canopy as Kevérin and Siyuakén freed themselves and followed him upward, allowing the dragon to once again fall into the water below.

“It keeps regenerating…” Kevérin muttered once the three Chaotics were gathered on one of the lower branches.

“It must be that water,” Siyuakén suggested. “There must be something in the water that can heal it…”

“Well, you’re the Electrotechnic here,” Davídrius pointed out, “can’t you just shock the whole thing and be over with it?”

“Maybe,” she responded, “but we shouldn’t let ourselves get distracted by the dragon. We still need to take down the tree…”

She trailed off as another segment of the metal canopy-webbing collapsed into the water below, followed shortly by Christeané, who smashed his hammer down on the front of the metal worm, obliterating its entire front. He caught himself at the base of the worm and smashed his hammer into it again, ripping it from its foundations and sending it toppling to the water below.

“…Or we could do that.” Davídrius smirked before launching himself down toward Christeané. Kevérin quickly followed, and then Siyuakén. After swinging once, she released her grappling hook as she swung toward the tree — and was snatched out of the air as the dragon blasted out of the water at before-unseen speeds and intercepted the grappling hook with its jaw. It then dove straight down, dragging the Electrotechnic with it as it disappeared into the water below. Due to the shock of the sudden direction change, Siyuakén was barely able to register that she was midair before she came within meters of the water’s surface — and suddenly began slamming through dozens of thin ice shields, her grappling line severed. Her descent speed rapidly slowed until she landed on a final, floating ice platform, merely bruised all over as opposed to utterly crushed against the surface of the water, or whatever demise might have befallen her below it.

“Siyuakén!!”

“Rebehka?!” the Electrotechnic exclaimed, quickly stumbling to her feet as a light skinned woman with long black hair jumped down from the top of the tree valley, freezing the water just before she landed on it. She immediately ran over to her friend, freezing the water the whole way before leaping at Siyuakén in a giant bear hug.

Christeané, Davídrius, and Kevérin all stared down from above. “That uniform…” Davídrius muttered, eying the newcomer’s short white sleeves, forest green shirt and pants, and brown shoes. “It’s the same as Siyuakén’s. So… “ He turned toward Christeané. “That’s Rebehka?”

Christeané smirked. “Yep. That’s Rebehka.”

“Mm…” Kevérin frowned. “Well it’s nice that they’re friends and all, but we are still in the middle of a fight here—!?”

A deafening, metallic screech interrupted him, the sheer volume prompting the three men to reflexively clasp their ears in pain. Davídrius recovered the fastest and immediately began searching for the source of the sound — just as all of the metal hive structures, which had previously been hanging dormant from the lowest canopy levels, dropped into the water below. Shortly after, the entire tree began to rumble, prompting the three men to throw themselves from the branches as Rebehka caught them all with ice platforms.

“Hi, I’m Transfer Captain Kevérin Tyrion, CO of Hero Machina, nice to meet you,” Kevérin rapidly greeted Rebehka, “now freeze the water!!”

“Ah, right!” she responded, immediately freezing the entire surface of the large water pool — and then freezing the deeper contents. And then, for good measure, she froze the large tree as well, encasing it in several centimeters of ice.

“…How the…?” Kevérin blinked, astounded.

“What? You told me to freeze the water,” Rebehka replied.

“Well, yeah, but… wow.” The Pyrotechnic whistled in awe. “…I didn’t expect you to be quite so… thorough.”

“Oh. Well, thank you!” The Cryotechnic grinned.

“That can’t be it, though,” Davídrius cut in, “as impressive as that was, the worm thing already broke out of ice once, and who knows what was about to happen after all that rumbling…” He trailed off as the ice surrounding the tree shattered. Kevérin and Rebehka both immediately blasted the trunk with their respective elements, generating a steam explosion that obliterated the tree and rained pieces of wood and metallic debris all across the battlefield. With the massive canopy destroyed, the small valley was now exposed to the fierce rainstorm. The torrential downpour quickly beat down the steam, revealing that there was no tree left behind…

…and in its place was a giant five-tailed, spike-backed wolf-like metallic creature!

“The hell?!” Christeané scowled. “They just keep gettin’ weirder!”

“This must mean we’re close!” Kevérin exclaimed, “if we broke the tree… it must be almost dead!”

“Or that tree was a cocoon and we just released the monster inside,” Davídrius countered.

“Quite the optimist, aren’t we,” Rebehka quipped.

“We can’t all be happy little damsels in distress, now can we?”

“’Damsel in distress?’ Excuse me, but I’m hardly—!”

“Hey, stop arguing — here it comes!” Kevérin exclaimed as he began lobbing fireballs. The huge creature charged them head on as it opened its mouth, revealing building flames inside — until an unexpected blast of energy knocked it to the side. Another lightning-like strike of purple energy hit the creature as several snapping noises were heard from above — and then an incredible number of broken branches and wet leaves rained down on top of the beast.

“The canopy’s broken and the forest is clear! For now…” Kievkenalis exclaimed as he jumped down next to the rest of Hero Machina, branches and leaves falling to the ground all around him. “Everything just sorta… collapsed, two minutes ago.”

“What is that?!” Kaoné questioned as she slid over to the group shortly after the Chaostechnic.

“I… may be able to answer that…” Rebehka answered uneasily, “…but after we’re done here.”

“Good.” Davídrius nodded in acknowledgment. “Now let’s take care of that thing!” He immediately dashed off toward the metallic creature — or attempted to, at least. Instead of actually taking off, he slipped on the wet ice and crashed face-first into the ground. Kevérin and Kievkenalis quickly jumped forward to block the fallen Velocitechnic from the charging creature, drawing its attention with a combination of flame and chaos attacks. Meanwhile, the Tresédian stumbled back to a standing position and turned to glare at Rebehka.

“…It’s not my fault that ice is low friction,” she responded defensively.

“The two of us can handle that thing anyways, I’m sure,” Siyuakén added before firing a grappling hook at the foliage sitting up at the edge of the valley and using it to swing off, with Rebehka quickly skating after her across the ice.

Davídrius glared after them. “And I thought just Siyuakén was annoying…”

“Relax, they aren’t actually that bad,” Christeané replied as he slapped the Tresédian on the shoulder, inadvertently sending them both sliding away from each other.

“The fuck, man?!”

“Uh… oops.”

“Tch. I’m outta here.” Davídrius drew one of his rapiers and stabbed it into the ice, using it as a springboard to launch himself up to the edge of the valley.

“Hey, wait a minute!” Christeané called after him, “are you just going to leave me here?!”

“Doesn’t sound like a bad idea…”

“What?! No, that’s a terrible idea! I’m just as useless on ice as you are!”

“Useless? Hey, I could save myself. Do the same.”

“This is a horrible way to start a friendship…”

“What friendship?”

The two Chaotics were startled out of their bickering by the sound of an explosion across the ice arena. Out of the smoke tumbled Kevérin, who hit the ice hard before jumping back to his feet just in time to evade being smashed by one of the creature’s tails. He then jumped back into the air, hovering a safe distance from the rapidly-dissipating smoke as Siyuakén dived past him, her palms sparking with electricity. Rebehka quickly raised an ice shield to block one of the creature’s attacks, allowing Siyuakén to slide under the creature’s belly and unleash all of her charged-up electricity, scarring and stunning the beast. As soon as she emerged from the other side, Kievkenalis dived under the creature in the other direction, directing his hands toward the beast’s belly and shouting, “Chaos Cannon!”

A sphere of Chaos Energy ripped clear through the monster’s stomach and disappeared into the dark rainy sky, but the damage didn’t slow the beast down. It stabbed its tails into the ice to anchor itself and then launched itself forward, nearly bowling over Kaoné and Siyuakén in the process. Rebehka quickly raised the ice in front of the two Chaotics like a ramp, sending the monster flying through the air uncontrollably. Kevérin took advantage of the opportunity to continually blast it with fire until it crashed into the ground and then slid into the wall of the small valley. It immediately jumped to its feet and returned fire with several fireballs, which Kievkenalis easily deflected with Chaos Deflect. The Chaostechnic followed up with several Chaos Strikes, each briefly stunning the creature, but it still managed to evade a lightning blast from Siyuakén. A pillar of ice suddenly rose beneath the creature, flinging it into the air — where it withdrew its tails into its body and sprouted two pairs of wings instead.

“Oh, come on!” Kevérin exclaimed incredulously, “really?!”

“Chaos Cannon! Chaos Cannon!” Kievkenalis shouted, directing the resulting energy projectiles at the creature as it began rising into the air. “It’s getting away!”

“This is ridiculous,” the Pyrotechnic growled and then launched himself into the air to engage the large monster. He fired several fireballs at it before flying close himself, his fists enveloped in flame. With a roar, the creature suddenly spun around and whacked Kevérin with its wings, but the Pyrotechnic managed to whip himself around and create two flame swords extending from his hands just in time to stab and shred two of its wings. He followed with several blasts of fire to redirect himself up through the air, evading the creature’s own attacks the whole way. After simply flying around for a couple seconds, Kevérin finally responded with a blast wave, sending the creature recoiling. He then moved a little to the side and caused a burst of light, drawing the monster’s attention back to him. Just as it moved to attack again, however, Davídrius slammed into its jaw rapier-first, using the weapon to pin the creature’s maw shut. He then leaped to the creature’s back, stabbing one of his sabers in to stabilize himself before slicing off all of the wings and stabbing his other saber into the back of the creature’s head. Yet the monster still did not yield — it thrashed violently, attempting to throw the Velocitechnic off of its back as it ripped its mouth open and began again to attack Kevérin. The Pyrotechnic was about to respond with his own flames when Davídrius leaped off of the creature’s back — just as Christeané rocketed by. The Forcetechnic yanked his battlehammer down out of the air, grabbed it, and whirled around midair to slam it down on the creature’s back, launching it straight down into the ice. It impacted with great force, crumbling most of its body — and still, it attempted to stand. With a quick prompt from Kievkenalis, Rebehka launched the Chaostechnic into the air over the creature; just as he passed over it, he shouted, “Chaos… Impact!!”

An invisible force crashed into the monster from above, smashing it even further into the ice. Before it could attempt to move again, Rebehka super-cooled the creature’s metallic segments, at which point Siyuakén stepped forward and triggered a massive lightning strike from the rainclouds above — turning the creature into a charged superconductor and wreaking havoc on its body. Shortly thereafter, Rebehka froze it through and then encased it in ice, rendering it incapable of even repairing itself.

“…Well,” Kevérin commented, impressed, as he landed on the ice next to the frozen creature. He glanced over at Kaoné as she hastily crafted a rain shelter before turning his attention back to the Cryotechnic. “…Did that do it?”

“…I think so,” Rebehka responded after several moments of silence. “It isn’t trying to move.”

“Chaos Detect,” Kievkenalis muttered, and then nodded. “It isn’t completely dead, but I think it’s close. …It looks like there’s a bunch of smaller things inside, though?”

“Are they about to burst out?” Siyuakén questioned, suddenly on guard.

“No… they’re too small for that. They’re just as close to death as the big thing, anyways,” the Chaostechnic reported. “Do you know what they are?”

“…Maybe,” Siyuakén replied uneasily. “Let’s just say we were probably lucky things turned out like this.”

“Is this about whatever it was that happened on that Earthian colony?” Christeané asked as he and Davídrius slowly slid over to the group.

“Yeah, but let’s not talk about it here,” the Electrotechnic stated. “We should get out of here.”

“I second that,” Rebehka quickly declared, “I’ve been here… for far too long.”

“What about the rest of the research team?” Kaoné asked. “Did they survive…?”

“…No…” the Cryotechnic responded quietly, “…most of them died before we even crashed. …But now isn’t the time for stories; I can explain more about what happened once we get out of here. I think I may be able to fill in several blanks, as far as the metallic infection, and what we just fought…”

“Then let’s get out of here already.” Davídrius scowled as he glared at the pouring rain from inside Kaoné’s shelter and wrung the water out of his scarf. “My clothes are fuckin’ soaked! How the hell do y’all deal with this ‘rain’ shit?!”

Rebehka stared at Davídrius for a couple moments before turning to Siyuakén. “Is he always like this?”

“Sadly… yes.”

“Hey, I can hear you, ya know.”

“Anyways,” Kevérin interrupted the impending argument and then gestured westward. “Hero Machina… move out—!”

“But it’s past sunset already, and raining buckets,” Christeané pointed out, “shouldn’t we just take shelter somewhere, and wait to ‘move out’ until morning? And when it’s stopped raining?”

“…Fine,” the Pyrotechnic replied dejectedly, “let’s get back to the valley edge, and then Kaoné can build us a house or something. That better?”

“Yeah, that makes more sense. I like it.”

“Of course—”

“C’mon, already!” Davídrius cut in, “Let’s get goin’—!” he was interrupted as he tripped up and fell on the ice again.

Rebehka and Siyuakén glanced at each other, both grinning. Siyuakén quickly grabbed her friend’s hand as the Cryotechnic sped them both across the ice, shouting back, “race you to the edge of the valley!”

“What?!” The Velocitechnic snapped his attention to the two women and growled. “Why, they— tch!” He stabbed one of his sabers into the ice and used it to launch himself forward, leaving the rest of the group behind — but not for long, as Kaoné quickly sped forward herself, using her control over matter to manipulate the ice underfoot. Kievkenalis quickly sped off too, using a quick call of “Chaos Cannon” to launch himself forward.

“…Uh, help?” Christeané grinned meekly at Kevérin.

The Pyrotechnic sighed as he gave the Forcetechnic a shove forwards. He shook his head warily before flying forward himself, muttering, “Hero Machina, move out…”

“The wreck’s down there?”

“Yeah…” Kaoné squinted down at the ice in an attempt to see through it. However, the depth combined with the cloudy evening light made it difficult to see far. “It’s really far down, it seems like.”

“Must be,” Davídrius commented, “’cause all I see is a pit of absolute darkness.”

“The fact that we can even see more than a few meters is pretty impressive,” Christeané pointed out. “This ice is really clear. Rebehka must be better than I thought.”

“Which won’t help us at all if she’s trapped with the wreck,” Siyuakén responded apprehensively before turning to Kaoné. “Is she down there? Can you tell?”

“…Not really,” the Materiatechnic replied, “my matter-sensing abilities aren’t all that great. I guess I should say that there’s a wreck at the bottom of this crevice, since I can’t tell what kind of vehicle it used to be…”

“Wait, so this might not even be the wreck we’re lookin’ for?” Davídrius scowled.

“Even if it isn’t, Rebehka had to have come through here recently,” Kevérin declared. “This ice is too clear and too far south to have formed on its own; a Cryotechnic had to have made it. And the surface of the ice is still relatively clean and clear, so the ice was either made recently, or swept recently.”

“Alright, Mr. Detective, maybe you can tell us what direction she went, too?”

“Now’s not the time for sarcasm,” Siyuakén snapped.

“Then what is the time, eh?” The Velocitechnic snorted impatiently. “So we’ve found a place that we think Rebehka passed by. What now? I don’t suppose any of y’all have trackin’ skills?”

The second after he spoke, the entire area lit up with a bright flash of lightning. Shortly afterward, a loud crack of thunder rumbled through the forest as the clouds opened up, prompting Kaoné to hastily fabricate a shelter for the group of Chaotics.

“…And now, trackin’ skills wouldn’t even matter!” Davídrius threw his arms up in resignation as he glared at the heavy rain. “We ain’t findin’ shit in this weather, at this time of day.”

Siyuakén sighed in resignation. “I hate to admit it, but you’re right. What do we do now?”

“Ah, excuse me?”

“What?!” Kevérin jumped and whipped around to face a new speaker, as did the rest of Hero Machina. The newcomer stood just outside of the makeshift shelter and meekly waved at the group, allowing the pouring rain to utterly soak through his green military jacket, white shirt, green waist cloak, and black pants. His short black hair lay flat across his pale forehead, the rain beating it down to almost cover his brown eyes. He had a slightly angular face, a lithe build, and stood just as tall as Christeané, but was beginning to sink slightly as the unrelenting downpour turned the dirt under his boots into mud.

“Can I come in?”

“Uh… sure,” the Transfer Captain responded confusedly. He stared at the mysterious newcomer as he stepped out of the rain; he didn’t look much older than any of the other members of Hero Machina, with a skinny stature, light skin, and short black hair. Kevérin’s attention then shifted to the man’s clothing. “That uniform… are you from the Riveranian Protection Force?”

“I am.” The newcomer nodded, and then held up a finger. “Um, hold on one second. Chaos Form…” Soon after he muttered the two words, his entire body became enveloped in a thin layer of purple energy. The sudden appearance of the energy startled the members of Hero Machina, but only partially.

“You’re a Chaostechnic?” Kaoné questioned.

“Chaos Cancel Form,” the newcomer muttered, and then turned to Kaoné as the layer of energy disappeared, along with all of the dampness in his clothes. “Yeah, I am,” he replied, “uh, sorry to just intrude like this. I’m Captain Kievkenalis Yumach, from the RPF. You are—?”

“Kievkenalis?!” Kevérin exclaimed, “perfect timing! We were looking for you! Well, not right now, but before we came here—”

“You should really tell him who we are before you tell him that we were looking for him,” Christeané cut in.

“Oh, right,” the Transfer Captain responded sheepishly, and then turned back to Kievkenalis. “I’m Transfer Captain Kevérin Tyrion, and this is Ha—”

“Don’t,” Siyuakén hissed.

“…Hero Machina,” Kevérin finished with a huff.

“Oh… right, you guys.” Kievkenalis nodded in acknowledgment. “I was about to go to Nimaliaka to join you myself, actually, but then I was sent to investigate some weird activity here on the Hazard Islands…”

“This is that ‘secret mission’ the RPF General was referring to, isn’t it?” Siyuakén asked.

“I guess so?” The Chaostechnic shrugged. “I don’t know why it’d be secret. You guys have probably figured out what’s so weird about the islands already, anyways.”

“You mean the lack of animals that want to kill us on first sight?” Davídrius snorted.

Kievkenalis nodded again. “Exactly. I was sent to figure out where they went, or what happened to them. I only found this ice crevice earlier today, though… do you know what happened here?”

“A Relédiakian research team was returning from the Continental Glacier and then crash-landed,” Siyuakén answered. “…We’re not completely certain that the wreck in the crevice is the one we’re looking for, but we think that one of the Chaotics on board at least passed through here…”

“Wait, you’re a Support-type Chaostechnic, right?” Kevérin cut in, “can you tell us if there’s anyone down in the ice?”

“I already checked when I first found the crevice. No one’s down there,” Kievkenalis responded. “Or at least… no one alive is down there.”

“She’s not dead,” Siyuakén insisted, “if you can’t detect her in the ice, then she must be somewhere else. There’s no way she’d die within an ice prison.”

“Maybe Rebehka wouldn’t,” Christeané pointed out, “but what about the rest of the research team?”

The only response to Christeané’s question was the rumble of distant thunder and the heavy pattering of rain against the shelter.

“…What if the research team escaped before the wreck was frozen?” Kaoné asked hopefully.

“The Hazard Islands are hazardous to Chaotics, let alone normal people,” the East Nimaliakian countered. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think we should expect to see the rest of the team alive, not if we can’t even find for sure where they crashed.”

“You’re certain there’s no one trapped in the ice?…” Kevérin glanced at Kievkenalis again.

“…I can double check,” the Chaostechnic responded slowly. “Chaos Detect. …Wait, there’s something—!”

CRACK!

The surface of the ice mass instantly shattered as the sound of cracking echoed through the forest and crevice area. The mass then rumbled slightly before it cracked again, splitting straight down the center as the far half spontaneously shifted upwards by several meters. The translation of the ice mass was followed shortly by earthquake-like rumblings as the ice began to slowly settle back down.

“The hell was that?!” Davídrius exclaimed.

“There was something huge beneath the ice!” Kievkenalis responded quickly, “it— I swear it wasn’t there before! I didn’t detect it this morning!”

“Did it cause the ice to shatter?” Kevérin questioned.

“I think so,” the Chaostechnic replied, “just before Detect wore off, I could sense it tunneling into the rock face beside the ice.”

“Can you tell what it was?”

“It was—”

Another loud crack interrupted Kievkenalis as the raised ice suddenly shifted down by a full meter, coming to rest about three meters above the surrounding ground. Almost immediately afterward, the ground opposite the crevice from Hero Machina exploded as a gigantic metallic monolith extended from the rocky dirt, whirling around its top half to face its pincer-ridden insect-like face toward the group of Chaotics.

“—that,” Kievkenalis finished meekly, “…it was that thing.”

The worm-like creature stared at the group for another several seconds before withdrawing into the ground and tunneling away, the reverberations of the ground easily giving away its location.

“It was metallic…” Siyuakén scowled. “Another case of metallic infection? Here?”

“I think it’s worse than that,” Davídrius commented, “with the color and sheen of its skin and stuff, that thing reminded me of that dragon we fought on the Earthian colony far more than I’d like…”

“Don’t tell me you think this is going to go down like Sunova did,” Kevérin questioned warily.

“I have no idea…” The Velocitechnic drew his sabers and gripped them tightly. “But if we just let that thing go, then things’ll get a lot worse for sure!”

“Time to get wet,” Christeané quipped as he smashed down the walls of the makeshift shelter. “It’s going northeast, right? Kaoné, can you track it?”

“Sort of, but—”

“Watch it—!” Davídrius exclaimed as he dashed over and whacked a creature out of the air just before it could attack Kaoné. He stabbed it with his saber before glaring at it. “…It’s got that metallic rash—!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, several more infected animals swooped down from the trees. Siyuakén quickly shocked them all, taking advantage of the wet weather to augment her electrical abilities as Kievkenalis called out “Chaos Detect!” once more.

“There’s a lot of them!” he shouted, “birds and beasts of all kinds! How did they get this close without anyone noticing?!”

“No time to panic now!” Christeané replied as he slammed his battlehammer into the ground, cratering it and flinging all of the nearby infected animals into the air, at which point Davídrius easily sliced them all up. The Forcetechnic began whirling his hammer around before turning toward the shifted ice mass and releasing his weapon toward it, smashing a hole through to the other side. “Let’s get going!!”

Kaoné immediately crafted a tall dirt barrier behind the group before turning around and dashing off after the rest of Hero Machina as they rushed across the crevice and into the forest on the other side.

“Damn forest’s too thick!” Davídrius scowled as he twisted around just in time to evade a Deathtail attack and then behead it with his saber. “Kaoné, clear us a path!”

“But…” she whimpered, “the animals—!”

“—are all bat-shit insane!” Christeané interjected as he twirled his battlehammer around horizontally, smashing down all of the trees within two meters. “We’re on the damned Hazard Islands, and all the animals have been infected anyways! Show no mercy!”

“Chaos Assist,” Kievkenalis muttered, infusing himself and the rest of Hero Machina with a boost of Chaos Energy. “I don’t know what’s going on with you guys, but we really need to hurry up!” He ducked before spreading his arms out horizontally, shouting, “Chaos Arrows!” Two arrows of Chaos Energy shot out from his hands, homing in on and piercing two of the attacking creatures through their chests, killing them instantly.

“…Agh, no one cares about the Hazard Islands,” Kevérin muttered with a scowl. He then shouted, “everyone, stand back!”

Davídrius knocked an infected creature out of the air just before it could attack the Pyrotechnic. He then flipped backwards and corralled the rest of the group away from Kevérin just as he raised a massive wall of fire and incinerated a long column of trees in front of him, with the rest of the surrounding trees burning strongly enough to withstand the torrential downpour.

Siyuakén gasped, astonished at the level of environmental destruction. “Kevérin! You—!”

“He’s right, no one gives a shit about the Hazard Islands,” Davídrius cut in, “what matters is that we catch that metal worm and stop the metallic infection from getting this serious off of the islands! Now let’s! Get! Moving!!”

With that, the Velocitechnic charged down the burned column, followed closely by Christeané and then Kevérin. Kaoné and Siyuakén stared on in dismay before Kievkenalis shook them out of their stupor, shouting, “they’re coming!!”

The Materia- and Electrotechnic both whipped around just in time for the Chaostechnic to call “Chaos Armor” and take a heavy blow from a charging boar. Siyuakén immediately electrocuted the offending creature before rushing over to help Kievkenalis, just to see him jump back to his feet.

“C’mon!” He gestured forward as he sprinted after the other three men. Kaoné paused wearily, but quickly followed when Siyuakén began running as well.

“Kaoné, you watch the right! I’ll take the left!” Siyuakén shouted as she jumped through the burning tree line and engaged her swinging gear, carefully but deftly swinging through the dense forest. Without even waiting to lay eyes on any rogue creatures, she periodically ran shocks down her swinging lines and through the trees, hoping to electrocute any aggressors hidden in the underbrush. Just as she had almost caught up with Kevérin, however, one of her grappling hooks failed to catch on the wet and slippery bark, sending her tumbling to the ground. She quickly jumped back to her feet and whirled around just in time to see and evade a charging ape-like creature who had just jumped down from the tree her hook had failed to snag. Scowling, she promptly fired both of her grappling hooks at it and sent a massive charge down both lines, shocking the offending creature. She quickly reeled the hooks back before raising her arm just in time to use her swinging gear to block a stinger flung from some creature hidden in the underbrush. Running enough charge through her body to create a large enough magnetic field to deflect more of the metallic stingers, she cautiously — yet quickly — approached the bush before releasing her charge into the ground, frying all of the nearby plants and the infected creature that had attacked her. She then quickly took back to swinging through the wet forest just as another infected ape attempted to body slam her unsuccessfully.

“Chaos Impact!”

Two of the creatures approaching Kievkenalis were blown backwards as the Chaostechnic continued running down the column of incinerated trees that Kevérin was leaving behind. To his right ran Kaoné, who continually raised solid stone walls behind and to the sides of the two Chaotics in an effort to simply block the approach of the infected animals. Suddenly and unexpectedly, three large ape-like creatures leaped over the makeshift walls, forcing Kaoné and Kievkenalis to dive to the side as they crashed into the ground. The Chaostechnic whipped around and quickly called out “Chaos Claws,” inserting himself between Kaoné and the infected apes as he blocked the first several of their attacks with the long claws of Chaos Energy now protruding from both of his fists. He then lunged forward as he muttered “Chaos Armor,” ducking around the apes’ attacks to get in close and stab them before dismissing his Chaos Claws and jumping backwards, allowing Kaoné to raise the ground and flip the carcasses over her makeshift walls.

“You don’t have to kill them!” the Materiatechnic shouted over the rain as she and Kievkenalis took off after the rest of Hero Machina again.

“Better than having them all ambush us at once when we stop to fight that big worm thing,” he responded, “we’re in the back, so it’s our job to look out for the group’s rear. Ah—! Chaos Strike!”

At the front of the incinerated column was Kevérin, who progressed forward at a jog’s pace as he continually burned a path through the forest. Christeané and Davídrius actively watched the Pyrotechnics’s back, quickly and deftly knocking away or smashing any infected creatures who attempted to get close. Davídrius gripped his sabers tightly as he flipped through the air, smashing his right heel into the skull of an approaching creature and then using it as a springboard into the treetops where he sliced two waiting Deathtails in half. Just as he began to fall to the ground he noticed a huge bear-like creature simply waiting for him to fall into its giant, open maw — until Christeané’s battlehammer slammed into it, knocking it aside and smashing it into a tree. The Forcetechnic jumped over and grabbed the creature by its arm before whirling it through the air and flinging it into the distance just as Davídrius somersaulted around him and leaped up in time to stab a Deathtail, preventing it from jumping down and attacking Christeané. The two Introtechnics smirked at each other briefly before rushing back into the open where they each blocked two Deathtails that had flung themselves at Kevérin. The two monkey-like creatures landed on the ground, snapping their tails downward to create small craters as they turned toward Christeané — only to be beheaded by Davídrius’s sabers. Kevérin turned to thank them, but stopped as he accidentally collided with something. He quickly backed away and shook his head before looking up in awe at a gigantic infected boar-like creature that almost seemed oblivious to the forest situation — until Kevérin had stumbled into it.

Kevérin meekly gestured toward the creature. “Uh… guys…?”

The boar let out a roar as it turned toward him and attempted to smash him with its head. The Pyrotechnic dived out of the way just as Christeané jumped forward, battlehammer in hand, and smashed it upward into the boar’s chin. Stunned, the wild animal keeled over as the Forcetechnic began twirling his hammer around and then released it straight at the boar’s underside, where it impacted one of its metal plates. The boar collapsed backward as Christeané’s hammer spun around in midair for a second before smashing into the ground, where it toppled a couple trees — one of which had been a target for Siyuakén’s swinging gear. With nothing to latch on to, the grappling hook withdrew back into her arm gear as she sailed through the air, glaring at Christeané before catching herself with a roll.

“Watch where you’re swinging that!” she shouted back at the Forcetechnic as she took off into the trees again — and spontaneously seized up as a spasm of sharp pain shot up her left arm. She instinctively clutched her arm and subsequently forgot to catch herself — only to end up tumbling down a steep slope, obscured by the rain and dense forest. Halfway down the slope, she was able to stabilize herself, but she still rolled to an unceremonious stop at the bottom. She groaned painfully and began to pick herself up as Davídrius suddenly appeared next to her.

“Oi, oi, watch where… you’re…” The Velocitechnic trailed off as he turned toward the shaded but open area in front of Siyuakén. “…What the hell is that?!”

The Electrotechnic glanced up, only to spot a massive tree well over a hundred meters tall. The gigantic plant stood in the middle of a closed off valley, and was covered with metallic rashes and fungus-like offshoots, all of which pulsed subtly and irregularly. Up in the highest branches, over a hundred meters high, were several hive-like structures, as well as a large array of metal rods in a web formation, hidden in the forest ceiling.

“This…” Siyuakén muttered, “…is very… very bad.”

The ground began to shake tremendously, as it had near the ice crevice. Davídrius stiffened and brandished his sabers as Siyuakén quickly wobbled back to a standing position, just in time for the ground in front of the huge infected tree to explode upward and reveal the metallic worm. Davídrius immediately took off, moving to attack the creature — only to get flung back as the worm suddenly propelled itself into the air, removing itself from the ground entirely and whipping itself around in midair to connect its end to the tree. It quickly and seamlessly fused with the tree, growing two long and spindly arms as it did so. Many of the tree’s roots then ripped themselves out of the ground and began wriggling aggressively just as the rest of Hero Machina arrived at the bottom of the slope.

“The hell?!” Christeané exclaimed out of shock. “…Is that…?”

“This is the metallic infection, allowed to go too far,” Siyuakén replied. “We need to stop it!”

“What? Us? Here? Now?” Kevérin spluttered, “but—! That—! It—!”

“If it splits into a billion bugs when it dies like the Earthian Dragon did, at least there’s the Kardé Ocean to stop ‘em!” Davídrius exclaimed, “at that point we can just get Tekdecé to glass the island. But somethin’ this big? I wouldn’t be surprised if it could somehow survive bombardment. We need to cut it down to size!”

“But… it’s so… big…” Kaoné muttered uneasily.

“Hence cutting it down to size.” Christeané smirked as he began twirling his hammer in anticipation of battle. “I gotta say, I didn’t expect to get into fights like this when I joined you guys. I’m glad I was wrong!”

Kevérin scowled. “Tch… Okay, fine. We’ll take it on here! Hero Machina… engage!!”

2 Days Later

“Finally! We’re here!”

“Siyuakén, wait—!” Kevérin started, but the Electrotechnic had leaped out of the air transport before he could finish, using her new set of swinging gear to lower herself to the floor of the dense forest.

“Wow. She’s impatient,” Christeané remarked, and then nodded at the Transfer Captain. “See you groundside.”

“What—?” the Pyrotechnic stuttered as the Master Lieutenant casually jumped from the transport, followed immediately by Davídrius. Kevérin stared on, speechless, as Kaoné stepped up beside him, shrugged, and jumped down herself. The Transfer Captain sighed irately, signaled to the transport pilot to leave, and then jumped from the vehicle himself, using carefully timed bursts of flame to slow his descent. He prepared himself to begin leading Hero Machina through the undergrowth of the Hazard Islands, but by the time he reached the ground there was already another discussion going on.

“Hey, calm down.”

“’Calm down?’ It’s been two days since they crashed here! At least two days! Who knows what could’ve happened to the research team in the time you were screwing around in Soughcé!”

“We were hardly screwin’ around,” Davídrius cut in harshly, “if nothin’ else, we were busier yesterday than usual. And that’s sayin’ somethin’!”

“Yes, it’s saying that you need to be less incompetent with your weapons!” Siyuakén snapped.

“As if it’s my fault every fucking blade on Nimalia is made like shit. I’m not the only one at fault here, either, you know! You broke your own damn gear on Sunova!”

“Hey, hey, settle down…” Christeané stepped in between Davídrius and Siyuakén, holding his hands up in an attempt to calm them.

The Electrotechnic bristled, her glare shifting from Davídrius to Christeané. “I can’t. The research team is still out there. And you know who’s with them? My best friend. And because of the two of you, she’s spent at least one day longer on this god-forsaken island than she’s had to!”

“I’m sure she can take care of herself,” Christeané insisted. “Besides, there’s a reason the Hazard Islands are named that way. It would’ve been suicide to rush here unprepared. And Davídrius is right, you don’t have much room to take pot shots at him for needing new Sword Boxes when you needed new swinging gear yourself.”

“What’s going on?” Kevérin questioned as he approached the three Chaotics.

“We took too long to get here,” Siyuakén snapped.

“Maybe we could’ve gotten here faster, but Christeané is right,” Kaoné spoke up, “rushing here would’ve been just as bad.”

“I mean, Rebehka’s a Cryotechnic, right? I’m sure she’s fine on her own,” Christeané declared. “…Unless you don’t actually trust her skills.”

“What? No, I… well…” The Electrotechnic pursed her lips, and then sighed. “…Alright, fine, you have a point. But even then, she can only last so long.”

“Cryotechnics are usually pretty hardy,” Kaoné offered.

“Yeah…” Siyuakén muttered before closing her eyes and taking several deep breaths. “Okay…” She glanced back at Christeané and then turned her attention to Kevérin. “Alright. I think… I think I’m fine now. But I’d still like to find the research team as fast as possible.”

“We have one day…” Kevérin commented, “that’s one day until the transport comes back and we need to pull out, regardless of whether we found anything or not.”

“Then what’re we waitin’ for?” Davídrius replied, “shouldn’t we be lookin’?”

“We need to be careful though,” the Transfer Captain insisted, “these are the Hazard Islands. They say the local wildlife can even take out unprepared Chaostechnics… so splitting up isn’t an option.”

“Maybe, if we’re lucky, one of us’ll unlock our Overdrive,” Christeané quipped.

“I wouldn’t call that lucky,” Kaoné responded warily.

“And it doesn’t matter anyways!” Kevérin cut in, “stick together and watch your surroundings. According to the distress beacon data, the research team should’ve crash-landed about ten kilometers inland… so we have a lot of ground to cover.”

“And it’s already past noon,” Davídrius remarked as he whirled around on his heel, “let’s move… out…? …Huh…?”

At the same moment the Velocitechnic turned around, a monkey-like creature dropped down in front of him, hanging upside-down by its tail from the tree branches above. It stared at Davídrius for a moment before opening its mouth — and then flying off into the distance after Christeané slammed his Battlehammer into it from below.

“Aren’t you supposed to have better reflexes than the lot of us?” the Master Lieutenant chided with a smirk.

“Sh… shush,” Davídrius muttered, “I’ve never had to deal with animals before.”

“Well it’s best to assume everything’s hostile here, because everything is hostile,” Christeané commented, “like that little fucker I just whacked across the island. That was a Deathtail. It can whip its tail around with enough force to shatter even Introtechnic skulls.”

“Its tail was still hanging from the branch…”

“It can also shoot poison barbs from its mouth.”

“…You’re bullshitting,” Davídrius countered uneasily.

“I could be.” Christeané smirked grimly before turning around and moving cautiously through the undergrowth. “Or, I could just have experience with this kinda thing. Now try to be quiet once we get to the thick underbrush. You could accidentally awaken a Thrallbear, or a Chaos Tisan.”

“Wha… what’re those—?”

“Shh! …I think I hear another Deathtail…”

“What? Where?!”

“Shit, behind you!”

“Agh!” Davídrius unsheathed a saber and whipped it through the air as he spun around, only to see nothing but tree branches and shrubbery. “…You’re fuckin’ with me, ain’t you,” he growled as he turned to pass Christeané a glare.

“Christeané, cut the bullshit,” Kevérin ordered, his tone that of exasperation.

“Alright, alright,” the Master Lieutenant replied, “…but actually, do try to be quiet. You never know what nasty surprises this island has in store…”

---

5 Hours Later

“Alright, this ain’t workin’.”

“Huh?…” Kaoné questioned as Davídrius stopped at the edge of a small clearing.

“This whole not-splittin’-up thing,” he replied, scowling. “We’ve all got vastly different movement speeds and styles, yet we’re forced to move at the speed of the slowest person in the group?”

Kaoné frowned. “Hey…”

“That was rude,” Siyuakén pointed out.

“And it’s totally true,” Davídrius insisted, “on my own I could’ve zigzagged the entire island ‘bout ten times by now, at least! And you can swing through the trees pretty well, if your skill with that gear is even half of what I saw back on Sunova. And then Christeané has that insane hammer-momentum-flight bullshit.”

“It’s not bullshit, it totally makes physical sense,” Christeané replied defensively.

“So what’s your point, Davídrius?” Kevérin crossed his arms impatiently. “You want to split up, then? How will we contact each other once we’re apart?”

“Uuuhh…” The Velocitechnic frowned. “…Oh hey, there’s no relay access here…”

“You only just noticed the lack of an info feed?” Christeané replied incredulously.

“Hey, I’ve been more focused on the ‘super-deadly fauna’ than I’ve been on my glasses,” Davídrius retorted. “And on that note, you made the islands sound like the depths of animal hell, but we’ve only come across, like, five Deathtails! And I took care of all of ‘em with no issue.”

“You know, that’s actually somewhat worrying…” Siyuakén muttered.

“What, that I’ve got no issue with killing an animal called a fucking ‘Deathtail?’”

“No, that we’ve only seen five of them, and no other animals,” the Electrotechnic countered, “this is nothing like what I’ve heard about these islands. Where are all the deathtraps?”

“You’re complaining about the lack of deathtraps?” Kevérin deadpanned.

“Yes!” Christeané butted in, “and you should be, too! Because something had to have taken out all of the animals.”

“Maybe… all the stories about the islands are just exaggerated?” Kaoné suggested.

“Hah! I wish they were,” Christeané scoffed. “As an East Nimaliakian, I’ve heard tons of present-day stories that have all been substantiated by both East Nimaliakian and Riveranian intel. …Though, now that I think about it, those stories did suddenly stop flooding in about a year ago…”

“Sounds like something you should’ve told us earlier,” Davídrius responded crossly.

“I’ve never thought about the Hazard Islands this much until two days ago,” the Master Lieutenant retorted, “give me a break.”

“Alright, alright, let’s calm down…” Kevérin spoke up, “so it looks like we have two objectives now: find the research team, and look for whatever cleaned up all of the island’s traps.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold on there!” Davídrius countered, “You wanna go look for the thing?!”

“Someone has to figure out what’s going on here,” the Transfer Captain reasoned.

“We should really find the research team first,” Siyuakén insisted, “if there really is something extra-dangerous out here, well… Rebehka’s good, but she’s only so good.”

“Relax,” Christeané responded, “she can always just do that freeze-yourself-in-an-ice-block thing, right?”

“That’s a last resort and you know it,” Siyuakén argued, “only another Cryotechnic or a very skilled Pyrotechnic can clear out the ice and, no offense, Kevérin, but I don’t consider you skilled enough to properly melt down an ice prison.”

“No offense taken,” the Pyrotechnic replied. “I don’t think I’d trust myself to melt down an ice prison.”

“What about Materiatechnics?” Kaoné offered, “I think I could help in that situation.”

“Maybe…” Siyuakén frowned. “Temperature is a factor, though. Not just the ice itself…”

“And even then, this is all just a bunch of damned ‘what-ifs,’” Davídrius cut in, “what we know is that somethin’ weird seems to be goin’ on here, and I’d like to get off this island as soon as fuckin’ possible. On top of that…” He glanced up at the cloudy sky. “…Not only is it almost one hour from sunset, I think we’re about to be rained on. Man, this is just great.”

Kevérin glanced upwards himself and sighed. “Let’s try pushing on a little longer, then we can have Kaoné make us a shelter for the night—?!”

An intense tremor interrupted the Transfer Captain, shaking the underbrush ferociously and even toppling several of the surrounding trees. Kaoné quickly created a small steel dome to protect Hero Machina from falling debris until the tremors subsided.

CRACK!

“The hell…?” Davídrius scowled just as the tremors stopped. “…That was a really loud crack…”

“What is there to crack?” Kevérin questioned as Kaoné slowly and cautiously dissolved the protective dome. “We’re on islands… there aren’t even any nearby fault lines. Any solid rock should be far below ground…”

“That didn’t sound like rock,” Siyuakén commented, “it sounded more like…”

“Ice.”

The rest of Hero Machina turned to look at Kaoné.
“Ice?” Christeané echoed.

Kaoné nodded resolutely. “Yeah… it was definitely ice. I can tell from the ground density… there’s a huge mass of ice just east of here.”

“How far east?” Siyuakén questioned urgently.

“…Less than a kilometer?”

“Hey, wait—!” Kevérin immediately spoke up as the Electrotechnic spun around and launched herself into the trees, swinging gear in full use. “Siyuakén! …Damn it! Everyone, after her! And be careful—!”

The Transfer Captain was interrupted as Davídrius blasted off into the underbrush and Christeané whipped his hammer — and shortly after, himself — through the air. “Those three…” Kevérin scowled. “They’re going to get themselves into a lot of trouble one day…”

“Well there’s only one thing for us to do now,” Kaoné replied as she crafted a stone platform and then lifted it into the air. “Go after them and make sure they don’t get hurt.”

“Tch,” the Pyrotechnic snorted as he watched her take off on her own. He sighed irately before launching himself above the tree-tops with a single fire burst and then entering flight by igniting continuous fire blasts under his palms and feet. As he wasn’t sure about the full breadth of threats presented by the islands, he remained fairly low to the tree-tops, though still high enough to be able to react to any sudden projectiles thrown his way — and from this height, after a mere couple minutes he could see what appeared to be a long gap in the forest. Less than a minute later, he caught a glimpse of a reflective surface, which he fully recognized as ice once he had cleared the forest and began hovering over the huge mass. He looked down and found Davídrius and Christeané standing just beside the ice; the Transfer Captain carefully lowered himself down to the ground next to the two Introtechnics just as Siyuakén and Kaoné burst out of the trees themselves.

“Well this is really something,” Christeané mused, “a huge crevice, filled with ice…”

“No… it’s not just ice,” Kaoné countered as she ventured a step onto the surface. “At the very bottom of the crevice, under all of the ice… it’s the wreck.”

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!”