“Damn it!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Is that ‘cause of the Master Ayas?”

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

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

“Let me take care of this.”

“Eh? How…?”

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

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

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

---

“Lead! You’re here!”

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

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

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

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

“Of course they are,” Shepherd grumbled.

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

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

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

“Permission to speak freely?” Lead questioned.

“Granted.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

“Haaaah!!”

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

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

“I broke the knives…” he lamented.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Don’t talk about her like that.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Siyuakén sighed impatiently. “Really? Really?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“How long will that be?” Siyuakén asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“…I can slow them down.”

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

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

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

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

“Hn.”

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

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

“You’re here!” Siyuakén exclaimed.

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

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

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

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

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

“It’s not working!”

“Huh?” Davídrius cocked his head in confusion.

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

“We need to get out of here, now!!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Are the kids fine?”

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

“Mmm…” Siyuakén responded quietly.

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

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

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

“I don’t know.”

“Are they really that damn invincible?”

“I don’t know…”

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

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

---

3 Hours Later

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

“Sorry, Colonel,” Captain Shepherd responded uneasily.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“And that means?…”

“…I don’t know.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“He looked surprisingly fine,” Siyuakén commented.

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

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

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

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

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

Shepherd nodded curtly. “He did.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

Kzztk!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Davídrius frowned in confusion. “It what now?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Siyuakén frowned. “And that means…?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“…D’oh.”

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

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

“…I guess there’s no harm in… wait…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Wow…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“They will?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What does that mean?” Kaoné asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

“You weren’t kidding.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“They say curiosity killed the cat.”

“…What?”

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

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

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

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

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

“It’s English.”

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

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

Davídrius crossed his arms. “What.”

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

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

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

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

“What?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The Master Ayas?”

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

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

Kaoné glanced over at the other Nimalians.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

2 Hours Later

“So.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The Master Ayas,” Siyuakén corrected.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Tch.”

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

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

---

2 Hours Later

“Wow. This… is really…”

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

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

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

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

“Kevérin,” Kaoné cut him short.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

“…This is it.”

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

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

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

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

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

“It is.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“To you?” Shepherd drew back in surprise.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“No, I’m just—”

“Bullshit! You listen here—!”

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

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

“Wait, you—”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What’d you find?” Shepherd questioned.

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

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

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

– Watedia, Nimath 13, 8034 –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“And I’m starting to regret it…”

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

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

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

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

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

“Who’s lacking in the creativity department?”

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

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

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

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

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

“More experience?” Davídrius drawled.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m Lieutenant Siyuakén Wanléon.”

“An’ I’m Davídrius Wrikax.”

“No rank?” Lead questioned.

“I ain’t a soldier.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

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

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

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

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

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

“Well, how did it get here, then?”

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

There was a moment of silence.

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

“As far as we can tell, yes, it did.”

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

“Davídrius,” Siyuakén cut him off warningly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You’re not in charge?” Kaoné asked.

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

---

“MacTavish.”

“…”

“…MacTavish?”

“…zzz…”

“Researcher MacTavish!”

“…zzzzzz…”

“Scott!!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Generating Chaos Energy?”

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

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

“Come at me!!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Looks like I got here just in time!”

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

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

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

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

“Don’t,” Siyuakén interrupted warningly.

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

“Sure you were.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Chaos Explosion!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

3 Days Later

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Mm hmm.” Siyuakén nodded patronizingly.

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

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

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

“Complete reverse from the start,” Davídrius remarked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

30 Minutes Later

“Where is he?”

Davídrius slammed to a stop immediately after slashing two Bleeder gang members and looked around, scowling, before whipping around and dashing off again, ignoring the chaos and carnage trailing behind him.

“Where is he?!”

He dove underneath a fireball and then leaped up just in time to rebound off of a Bleeder artillery piece, knocking it over and flattening its two operators in the process. The Velocitechnic then leaped on top of the machine and launched his rapiers at two other Bleeders before glancing around irately.

“He’s not fucking here!!”

“Davídrius—?”

“What is it?!”

Kaoné stumbled backwards, bewildered by Davídrius’s furious outburst. Immediately Siyuakén jumped over and stepped in between the two of them. “Calm down!” she demanded as she stared up at the Velocitechnic. “Keep this up and you’ll go berserk!”

“Go berserk… tch,” he snarled. “If going berserk is what it takes to draw Strén out and murder his ass, then I’ll do it!”

Siyuakén narrowed her eyes, her fingers beginning to spark — but before she could offer a response to Davídrius’s claim, a quiet and horrified sob caught all of their attention. Snapping his eyes down to the source, the Velocitechnic slapped his Sword Boxes to reel in his rapiers, caught both by their hilts, and then jumped down to the injured Bleeder before holding one of the rapiers to his neck. “Where. Is. Strén?”

“He— he—  he w-went b-b-back to the, to the base!” the Bleeder squeaked.

“Why the hell did he do that?”

“I— I don’t know! I-I-I’m just a soldier!”

“Soldier? Ha!” Davídrius drove one of his rapiers into the injured man’s thigh, ignoring his pained yelp. “You’re a gang member! You ain’t even close to the level of a soldier—!”

“Davídrius…!”

He glared back at Kaoné, who was looking on in distress. His focus then shifted over to Siyuakén, who had crossed her arms as she watched with disapproval. “Tch…!” He growled before yanking his rapier out and stepping back. Kaoné immediately rushed forward to tend to the injured man’s wounds; Davídrius watched her out the corner of his eye, scowling deeply, before suddenly slamming his rapiers back into his Sword Boxes and turning his back on the scene. “…We’re goin’ after him.”

“You want to attack their base?” Siyuakén asked incredulously.

“Yes.”

“It’s one thing to attack a bunch of soldiers in open desert, but to go after them in their own base—!”

“Strén’s there,” Davídrius growled. “I already told you — I’ll do whatever it takes to kill that bastard.”

“But—”

“I’ll give you ten minutes to bring around the vehicle y’all came with. If you’re not at the compound exit within ten minutes, then I’ll assume y’all don’t want to come and leave on my own.” He then dashed off without waiting for a response from either Kaoné or Siyuakén.

“…We shouldn’t go,” Kaoné whimpered, “he’s too dangerous…”

“…Which is exactly why we should go,” Siyuakén muttered, glancing around at the devastation the Velocitechnic had caused on the desert plain during his fury-fueled search for Strén. She then turned toward the compound and began jogging toward it, gesturing for Kaoné to follow. “Given all this, someone has to look out for him…”

---

30 Minutes Later

“We’re here.”

“This is their base?” Kevérin responded incredulously, glancing between the two short buildings poking out of the sand.

“Aye.” Davídrius nodded as he jumped out of the vehicle. “What you’re lookin’ at are entrances. The actual base is all underground.”

“Underground? In sand—?”

“Strén’s a Geotechnic, sand don’t mean shit to him.” The Velocitechnic glanced back as Kevérin and Siyuakén jumped out of the vehicle as well. He then looked up at Kaoné. “You comin’?”

“I’ll… I’ll just stay here and… keep a look out,” she answered meekly.

“…Sure thing.” Davídrius turned back to the buildings and approached one of them. Before moving to open the door, he turned back to address Kevérin and Siyuakén. “The base ain’t that advanced. There shouldn’t be any alarms, not any base-wide ones at least. Not the last time I checked.”

“Well now that you said it there’s definitely going to be base-wide alarms,” Kevérin deadpanned.

“Doesn’t change what we came here to do,” Davídrius replied, “we go in, find Strén, and kill the bastard. Even if there’s alarms we shouldn’t have trouble, since we’re Chaotics. I made sure to destroy any Negation Tech they had the last time I was here, too.”

“You’ve attacked the base before? Solo?!”

“I was bein’ stealthy then,” he stated, and then immediately slashed through the door with his sabers, shattering one of the blades in the process. He kicked the door down and discarded the broken saber before finishing, “this time, we’re takin’ ‘em head-on. No quarter… no mercy.” He then dashed through the door, leaving the Pyro and Electrotechnic to follow in his wake. They glanced at each other warily before entering themselves and jumping down the stairwell Davídrius had broken through — only to find themselves trapped between six autoturrets.

“What the—!?” Siyuakén scowled as she quickly dispatched the turrets with a blast of lightning. “He said the base wasn’t advanced!”

“Where’d he even go?” Kevérin glanced around.

“Probably just ran past…” Siyuakén commented, “you saw his saber break against the door. He’s not equipped to fight synthetic targets.”

“But we are,” Kevérin added. “…At least it’ll be easier fighting robots instead of people.”

“Yeah…” Siyuakén sighed uneasily. “Let’s just… let’s get going.”

---

“Haaaah!!”

Davídrius rammed into a gang-member head-long, bowling her over and toppling the other two Bleeders standing in the hallway. The Velocitechnic then stabbed each of them in the legs before jumping into cover to evade machine-gun fire from further down the hall. After taking a quick breath he drew his remaining saber and charged out into the line of fire, easily deflecting each and every bullet with the sword. Before he could even progress ten meters, however, the blade broke; he immediately threw himself to the side and then dashed forward, generating a sonic boom that reached the machine gunners shortly after he had smashed through their barricade and brought the gun toppling down on top of them. He paused for a moment, stunned from the impact, but recovered quickly and began storming down the now resistance-less hallway as he hastily checked each adjacent room.

“Tch,” he grunted as he grasped his aching right shoulder. “Where is that bastard…” he muttered through gritted teeth as he burst into another room. Seeing that it was empty, he turned around, scowling.

“Chaos Cannon!!”

Davídrius thrust himself to the side, just in time to avoid a Chaos Energy projectile as it slammed into the doorway and obliterated the entire wall. Drawing his rapiers, the Velocitechnic leaped through the resultant debris cloud and dashed toward the source of the attack call, blindly thrusting his blades forward — only for them to be deflected. As soon as he felt the contact he threw himself to the ground, waiting a moment for the debris to clear before leaping back up into a defensive stance.

“Woooow, you’re pretty good~!”

Davídrius narrowed his eyes as a short woman stepped out of the debris cloud. Between her short brown hair and simple off-white dress, nothing about her stood out — aside from the fact that she had just used a Chaos attack. “…Who are you?” the Velocitechnic questioned warily.

“Aw, you should know that,” the woman responded, her tone filled with disappointment. “I’m a Chaostechnic!”

“I meant your name.”

“Ooooh~? You’ve never heard of me before?”

“I’ve never met a Chaostechnic before. If you don’t tell me who you are, I’ll just have to knock you out.”

“How cute, thinking you can take me on!”

“I may’ve never fought a Chaostechnic before, but I know how your attacks work. I only have to hit you before you can finish callin’ ‘em.”

“Can you really do that though~?”

“Tch…” Davídrius scowled, irritated by the woman’s light-hearted manner of speaking. “I’m a Velocitechnic. The type of Chaotic best suited for taking on your kind.”

“That’s what you think~.”

The Velocitechnic responded with silence as he quickly considered his options. He wasn’t fooled by her playful demeanor; she was a member of the Bleeders, after all. And on top of that, she was a Chaostechnic — one of the most powerful types of Chaotics. All Chaotics use Chaos Energy as a medium to facilitate their supernatural abilities, but only Chaostechnics interact with Chaos Energy directly, freely using and shaping it to their will. Doing so requires the use of verbal keywords, unlike other Chaotic types, so Chaostechnics are generally slow to attack and highly predictable. But when they do attack, they can cause mass devastation with relative ease, and can pierce through even the most durable of defenses.

Davídrius had never faced a Chaostechnic in battle before, but he at least knew that his best strategy was to attack his opponent before she could finish declaring any keywords — and his super speed was uniquely suited to accomplish just that. He adjusted his stance to prepare for combat and then leaped forward, but she reacted in the same split-second he used to change his posture.

“Chaos Explosion!”

A burst of Chaos Energy behind Davídrius threw him forward. The woman quickly called “Chaos Blade” and thrust the newly-created sword of Chaos Energy toward the off-balance Velocitechnic, but he managed to parry the blade away from his stomach. He then allowed himself to drop to the ground before swinging his feet around in an arc, knocking the Chaostechnic off of hers. Immediately he jumped up and moved to stab her but she reacted quickly enough to roll over and call out “Chaos Strike!” This being his first encounter with a Chaostechnic, Davídrius had no way of preparing himself against the incoming bolt of Chaos Energy that stunned him and threw him backwards. As he tumbled along the ground, the woman pulled herself back to a standing stance before muttering “Chaos Strike” several more times in quick succession. With the attack name muttered instead of outright called, the resulting bolts were less powerful, but they were still fast enough to keep Davídrius on his toes and unable to approach without harm.

“Oooh, you’re actually pretty bad for a Velocitechnic,” the woman commented, “I wonder, how did Strén ever have trouble with you…”

Davídrius didn’t reply. Instead, he dashed forward at supersonic speeds, reaching the Chaostechnic and roundhouse-kicking her in the stomach before she could even perceive his movements. The force of the kick knocked her all the way down the hallway and into the far wall; the Velocitechnic immediately blasted off after her, prepared to run her through with his rapiers.

“Chaos Arrow! Chaos Arrow!!”

Davídrius dodged to the left to avoid the first arrow of Chaos Energy, and ducked to avoid the second. He then gasped as something pierced his right arm; the sudden pain caused him to lose focus and stumble into the wall, his rapiers dragging behind him as he clutched his arm.

“That was too easy~!”

“How did you survive that…?!” The Velocitechnic turned to glare at the woman standing some distance away. “What did you do?!”

“Hmm, you really have never fought a Chaostechnic before, have you?” she responded, “you’re right that Velocitechnics are the best Chaotics to take us down, but, wow, you’re really bad at this. You could’ve had me once, if you had used your swords instead of kicking me. But you didn’t! So now I’m here, and I’ve won~!”

“Not… yet!” Davídrius declared, crouching before taking off again. He almost immediately stumbled over again, though, as a gash opened up across his chest right as he passed by the woman. “Guaghh—!” he spluttered, quickly attempting to stand up as he turned around to face the Chaostechnic — who was once again wielding a sword of Chaos Energy. He scowled. “When did you—?”

“You don’t have to hear me call the attack for it to work,” the woman responded, grinning. She then lunged for the Velocitechnic who reflexively moved to block her attack only to misjudge his remaining strength, stumble over, and drop his rapier on the floor. He quickly scrambled back to his feet and backed away, not even bothering to reel in his blades as they dragged along the ground in front of him.

Damn it, he thought angrily, to be brought down like this…! He took a deep breath and finally reeled in his rapiers, catching each by the hilt.

“You can still fight?” The Chaostechnic cocked her head inquisitively. “You’re all over the place! First I thought you were good, then I thought you were bad. Looks like I was wrong again, you’re pretty persistent! Oh well. Time to stop playing around~!”

What’s she… shit. Davídrius squinted as his vision blurred momentarily. Damn. Need to… take her out… in one go. Just one dash! C’mon, you can do this—!

“Chaos…!”

Here we go!

“Bla—ack!?”

Both combatants were interrupted as the wall to their side spontaneously blasted inward, followed by a gigantic plume of fire. Davídrius immediately reversed his dash to retreat from the heat but soon collapsed from fatigue. He glanced toward the Chaostechnic just in time to see Siyuakén vault over the metal scrap and begin vigorously attacking the woman as Kevérin rushed to help the Velocitechnic.

“Wha…at?” Davídrius muttered in confusion, watching Siyuakén chase the unknown woman down the hallway and around a corner.

“That was us saving your ass,” Kevérin declared as he looked Davídrius’s injured body up and down. “And not a moment too late, too. You really took a beating!”

The Velocitechnic growled. “Don’t mock me—!”

“Get over yourself!” the Pyrotechnic snapped. When Davídrius responded with a dumbfounded look, Kevérin continued, “look, you’re not the hotshot you seem to think you are. You’re just one guy, with no actual training. I watched you ‘fight’ back on the desert and it’s pretty clear that no one taught you how to use a sword. On top of that, those Sword Boxes of yours really hamper your ability to move. Your entire move set involves dashing at people and cutting them with your swords on the way past. You can’t even do the typical Velocitechnic acrobatics with those things on. I guess this base was actually kinda conductive to your straight-forward attacks, but it’s no wonder you had trouble trying to fight another Chaotic in these hallways. You can’t even alter the terrain!”

“…Tch.” Davídrius scowled, and then smirked despite himself. “…I don’t know which is worse, that you pissed me off, or that you proved my opinion of you wrong. You actually ain’t half bad.”

“I told you, we aren’t rookies.”

“I guess I have to give ya that much…” the Velocitechnic replied, and then began getting back to his feet. “Good thing y’all came along. Now, time to find Strén…”

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold it!” Kevérin quickly stepped in front of Davídrius, blocking the way further down the hallway. “You aren’t going anywhere except back outside.”

Davídrius glowered at Kevérin. “…If you take that back right now, I’ll pretend you never said it.”

“You can’t be serious. With your body like that you’ll just get yourself killed! Look — you’re bleeding all over the place!”

The Velocitechnic glanced down at his lacerated torso, and then at his right arm, which he realized he had been clutching tightly with his left hand. Sure enough, in both locations the white under cloth had been turned a damp red – furthermore, part of the left side of his Sword Box harness had been sliced, leaving the left box to hang precariously from his belt alone. “O… oh…” he muttered, dumbfounded.

“Damn, you’re — tch. Hold out your arm.”

“Eh?”

“At this rate you’ll bleed to death if you don’t do something about the gashes. If you let me cauterize them they shouldn’t be an issue so long as you get actual medical help within the next few hours.”

“…You can do that?”

“I’m a Pyrotechnic, of course I can do that. …Though, only under one condition.”

Davídrius sighed irately. “You want me to go back.”

Kevérin nodded. “If you try to fight anyone as you are now, it’d just be suicide. There’s no way you’d even be able to beat that Strén guy, especially not when he’s waiting for you.”

The Velocitechnic looked down and scowled again. “Tch… fucking… damn it!” He then looked back to Kevérin. “Alright, fine. I’ll go back, but only if you can promise me something—”

“Siyuakén and I will take care of Strén. I give our word as the Hopeless Maniacs!”

“Keh, you can bet your ass y’all are hopeless.”

“…Uh, that’s not what I meant—”

“Sure it’s not. Now fix my damn wounds already!”

---

“Chaos Strike! Chaos Arrow!”

Siyuakén easily absorbed the Strike attack, taking advantage of its similarity to electricity to simply redirect the Chaos Energy back at the incoming Arrow, thus diverting the second attack. She continued chasing after the Chaostechnic, who had been attempting to shake Siyuakén off for the past five minutes as they weaved through hallways and down stairwells. Siyuakén had no idea exactly how far into the base she was, but as she rounded another corner and then jumped down another stairwell, she reckoned that she was at least seven levels below ground. This won’t be good if they decide to bring everything down on top of us… she thought warily, the desert sand will fill in any holes faster than we could possibly hope to escape…

She then threw herself to the side to evade a Mach-speed Chaos Energy projectile. Her forward momentum lost, she quickly thrust her arm out and fired her grappling hook, latching it into the wall at the far end of the hallway. She then rapidly reeled in the cord, yanking her forward and giving her a boost to continue chasing after the unknown woman. Unfortunately, the Chaostechnic was already out of sight around the next corner; scowling, Siyuakén pounded the metal walls with her palm and let loose a massive electric pulse that rushed through the entire hallway. Hoping to have at least stunned the woman, Siyuakén rounded the next corner with haste, ready to lay on the full-powered attacks—

—only to drop into a gigantic pit.

“What?!” she exclaimed, but wasted little time reacting. She fired both of her grappling hooks at opposite walls, but one of them failed to pierce the metal; as a result she soon found herself slamming painfully into the side of the metal pit. Ooooh… at least I’m not falling anymore…

“Chaos Arrow!”

Immediately Siyuakén jumped away from the wall, reeling in her grappling hook and then firing the other at a lower spot in the wall just fast enough to evade the Chaos Energy projectile. Upon realizing just how close to the floor she was, she deftly swung down and then released the hooks, sailing through the air until she landed on the ground below with a roll. As soon as she slowed down she leaped up into a standing position and looked around warily. She was now standing in a large circular room with flooring and walls covered by stone, but constructed of metal. The ceiling, in which there was a hole — the hole she had fallen though — was built of metal as well, and also partially covered by stone. The walls were mostly homogeneous except for two doors across the room from each other; Siyuakén would have quickly made her way toward one of the doors if a certain duo weren’t standing in her way.

“Heheheh… puahahahahah! You done well, Ind!” Strén guffawed. “Takin’ out that brat and leadin’ ‘is new buddies into the Destruction Room!”

“The what?…” Siyuakén scowled, backing into a defensive stance as she glanced between Strén and the Chaostechnic, whose name appeared to be Ind.

“Eh, well, it really wasn’t all that hard.” Ind shrugged casually. “He wasn’t nearly as hard to deal with as you said he would be.”

“Keheheh,” Strén chuckled. “Thas’ mah girl.” He then turned to address Siyuakén directly as he slammed his fists together in murderous glee. “You’ll regret the day you decided to try an’ fight the Bleeders!”

“Oh really…?” The Electrotechnic smirked despite her poor odds. “I don’t think you know what you’re getting yourself into. Well, it probably won’t be a bad thing for one of Hero Machina’s first accomplishments to be taking down dangerous gang leaders…”

Strén and Ind glanced at each other in amusement. “What’re you talkin’ about?” The large man snorted. “Ha! You think you actually got a chance?”

“I guess we’ll have to see,” Siyuakén retorted as her hands and arms began sparking dangerously. “Come at me!!”

“Well, if it ain’t the crusty old bastard again.”

“Hah! You talk big, but talk ain’t nothin’. You know what I’m here for. Talkin’ll just getcha killed!”

“Tch,” Davídrius snorted, glaring at the opposite side of the conversation in the distance. “Go home, Strén!” he growled into his handheld communicator, “you know what I’ve done to the rest of the Bleeder gang leaders in the area. I’ll do exactly the same to you!”

“Puahahahaha!” The Velocitechnic reflexively drew away from the communicator as its speakers exploded with laughter. “Looks like li’l Mister Protector’s ego has grown too big for his compound! Well it ain’t too late, if you apologize now an’ hand over the supplies, we’ll leave you and your purty little village intact.”

Davídrius looked up and then glanced over at a cannon mounted on the wall. He jerked his head forward before turning back to face the intruders — just in time for the cannon to spark and then fire a high-speed projectile. It zoomed toward the large man standing closest to the compound, but it was instantly obliterated as a large boulder popped out of the ground directly in its way.

“Hah! Cute,” Strén responded, “but, boy, you sure don’t know what you just got yourself into. Come sunrise tomorrow an’ I’ll be standin’ over your dead carcass!”

“Damn right you’ll be standing over my ‘dead carcass.’” Davídrius sneered. “You’ll have to kill me twice ‘fore you lay a hand on these walls!”

The gang leader didn’t respond. Instead, Davídrius could barely make out some hand motions before a high-speed projectile suddenly screamed straight toward his position — and was stopped by an invisible force parallel to the tall wall. Davídrius smirked as he watched the air shimmer slightly and then glanced around as a constant hail of projectiles began impacting the energy shield protecting the compound. He quickly switched the channel of his communicator and held it back up to his mouth. “Don’t bother firin’ back ‘til the shields have dropped to forty percent. Let’s see how much ammo we can get the bastards to waste.” He then stuffed the communicator into his jacket pocket before back-flipping off of the wall and to the ground below, where the three members of Hero Machina were standing.

“You have a shield generator too?” Kevérin exclaimed.

“You’d be surprised how much shit your little nation dumps on our coasts.”

“We don’t—”

“Listen, Captain Pyro, I don’t care for your excuses. I’ve seen with my own damn eyes that Tekdecénian ships dump shit on the coast. Bugger if I know if it’s your government or some stupid corporation, but it’s Tekdecénian, and that’s all I care.”

“Sooo…” Siyuakén spoke up, cutting short the brewing argument, “what’s the plan?”

“Huh?” Davídrius glanced back at her, his expression blank.

“…The plan?” she responded in exasperation, “you didn’t just provoke the leader of a gang to lay siege to your compound without a plan, did you?”

“Oh. Yeah, of course. The plan’s to attack after dusk.”

“…Really? That’s it?”

“Yes, that’s it.” The Velocitechnic accompanied his response with a patronizing nod. “That’s all it takes against these stupid bastards. Provoke ‘em into wastin’ all their artillery on the shields and then when they ain’t got any real back-up, rush in and kill ‘em all.”

“Kill?…” Kaoné frowned.

“Yeah, kill,” Davídrius repeated as though it were only natural to say. “Tch. Don’t tell me y’all are still rookies.”

“We’re not rookies,” Kevérin retorted, “I’m a Transfer Captain—”

“Rank don’t mean shit if you don’t got any experience,” Davídrius cut in. “…Oi, oi, what do the world’s militaries do if their Chaotics just sit and twiddle their thumbs all day?”

“I take it you’re not in the military,” Siyuakén deadpanned.

“Hell no. There ain’t even a proper military for me to join.” He snorted in derision. “This place can’t afford for me to leave, anyway. Not now. ‘Til the three of you pranced up, Strén and I were the only Chaotics in the whole damn region. I’ve been knockin’ out as many of their camps as I can, but they keep poppin’ back up in different places. And I can’t beat Strén in a straight-up fight, he’s one of those lucky double Chaotics. Rocks and super strength. But now that the three of you are here…”

Kevérin crossed his arms, irritated. “You want to use us as your own brute squad?”

“Oi, I ain’t a fuckin’ Bleeder,” Davídrius growled. “You ain’t seen the shit they’ve pulled. The stuff they stole. They people they killed. The people they stole. You can’t tell me whether it’s right or wrong to fight fire with fire if you’ve never even sat in front of a smolderin’ wood chip!”

The other three Chaotics responded with uneasy silence.

“…This is my only demand for joinin’ your li’l troupe,” he continued, his voice lowered, “I dunno how bad you want me. I’ll admit I wouldn’t be surprised at all if you decided to waltz right on out after this siege lets up. But if you decide whether or not to help take down the Bleeders without actually thinkin’ about it, without talkin’ to anyone who lives in this compound…” He gestured at the small walled-in town behind him. “If you make this decision based on your sheltered little upbringin’s alone, then I’ll gut you where you stand, ‘cause I’ve got no time for ignorant foreigners to be tellin’ me what I should do.” He then exhaled deeply and turned around so that his back was to the other three. “…I’ve got some stuff to check on before sunset. If you wanna talk to me ‘fore then, well, try to find me. Otherwise, I’ll meet you back here at twilight to hear your answers.” He then sped off, disappearing just faster than the other Chaotics could process the last of his words.

“Wow,” Kevérin muttered, “…I knew a Tresédian would be no good.”

“He’s so violent…” Kaoné whimpered.

“But he’s not entirely wrong…” Siyuakén commented quietly.

The Pyro and Materiatechnic snapped their heads toward her. “What?”

“Treséd really is the worst continent on Nimalia,” she responded, “you two probably don’t see it as much, since Tekdecé and Nimaliaka are both always so busy with the space fleets or the Interstellar Gate. But, being from Relédiaka — well, we get more refugees from Treséd than any other nation. It’s hard to ignore what it’s like here. Yet, somehow, people still do…”

“That doesn’t give him an excuse to just kill everyone!” Kaoné exclaimed.

“Maybe, but is this really worse than if we were sent off to the Drakkar or Riaxen space fronts?” Siyuakén questioned, “at least he’s actually defending his home. We’d just be stuck in the fallout of political bullshit.”

Kaoné opened her mouth as if to speak, but closed it again before turning away. Kevérin simply scowled irately.

“We should probably take his advice, and talk to at least a couple of the people here,” the Electrotechnic suggested.

“…Yeah,” Kevérin eventually admitted. “…Talk to people. Tch. As if that’s ever changed anyone’s mind…”

---

4 Hours Later

Kaoné wearily sat down on a nearby bench and leaned against the wall behind her. She sighed and closed her eyes, tired and exhausted — both physically and mentally. Siyuakén was right about the Tresédian climate being more comfortable around the equinoxes, but that didn’t mean the weather was actually pleasant. The air felt remarkably warm, especially in Kaoné’s thick Nimaliakian uniform. Sand was no issue — she could easily keep herself clean of the small grains — but she had little ability to control climate as a Materiatechnic. And these physical elements of exhaustion weren’t even taking into account all of the things she had heard over the past four hours, all of the people she had talked to, all of the stories she had heard — stories ranging from petty acts of theft and vandalism, to simple wanton death and destruction, to the heartless kidnappings under the dark of night — and the needlessly cruel open enslavement of individuals of all ages right in front of their families. And that wasn’t even the worst she had heard…

“Hey, Kaoné.”

She glanced to her left to see Siyuakén approaching. She waved; the Electrotechnic waved back before taking a seat on the bench as well.

“Davídrius… wasn’t wrong.”

“Yeah…” Siyuakén sighed wearily. “That, or he got everyone here to lie to us. I doubt he’s charismatic enough to pull that off, though.”

“The Bleeders…” Kaoné muttered, “…I’ve barely ever heard of them before. But they’ve been here for decades, doing all these… awful things. I think every single person here has lost a relative to the Bleeders somehow, either through murder or kidnapping, or…” She shuddered. “This is just… how doesn’t this make the news?!”

“It’s just like Davídrius said — hardly anyone outside of Treséd cares about what goes on here. And the Bleeders keep to Treséd, so… yeah. But still… that hardly excuses anyone from ignoring what’s going on here.”

“…I guess this means we should help Davídrius, then…”

Siyuakén looked over at the Materiatechnic. “You don’t want to?”

“Well… I want to do something,” she replied, “I know the Bleeders need to be stopped, but— …there has to be a better way than just killing them. …Right?”

“Maybe. But Davídrius probably won’t be willing to do anything else. And… I’m not sure I would be, either.”

Kaoné snapped her attention to Siyuakén and stared at her in surprise. “Wha-what? Why?!”

“…It’s a long story, and not one that I’m entirely willing to tell right now,” the Electrotechnic responded uneasily. “But while we’re on this topic — I’ll be honest, Kaoné. Given what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think killing alone is where you draw the line.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re the most pacifistic person I’ve met to date,” Siyuakén stated bluntly. “Yet, you’re a Materiatechnic. With that kind of ability, why are you so averse to fighting?”

Kaoné frowned. “I don’t have to have a reason to not like fighting… and it worries me that you think I have to…”

“It would be one thing if you were a civilian. But you’re not. You’re in the military — and you’re a Lieutenant at that, so you’ve obviously put some effort into it.”

“…Nimaliakian Chaotics are conscripted as Lieutenants.” Kaoné looked down, averting her gaze from Siyuakén. “…I didn’t have a choice.”

Siyuakén glanced over at the Materiatechnic before standing up slowly. She looked down at her hand, watching it spark momentarily before clenching her fist. “Well, I’m not going to just let the Bleeders get away with what they’ve done. In this kind of situation, against these kinds of people — doing nothing is almost the same as killing.”

“But killing itself isn’t necessary!” Kaoné refuted adamantly.

“Maybe not. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Though I have a feeling Davídrius will end up forcing our hand…” Siyuakén sighed. “We’ll help him tonight. After that… I don’t know. We’ll have to see.”

Kaoné responded with silence as the Electrotechnic walked away. She then closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall, hoping to rest until twilight.

---

“Gah—! Tch— augh!”

Davídrius quickly withdrew from the machinery in front of him, waving his hand frantically in pain. “Ow!” he exclaimed through gritted teeth, “…damn Chaos Engine, ‘course it’d have to break right when I need it.”

“That’s not a Chaos Engine.”

Davídrius whipped around and then narrowed his eyes when he spotted Kevérin standing in the entrance to the machine shop. “How’d you find me?”

“Your Sword Boxes were outside,” Kevérin stated flatly.

“Wow, you can recognize Sword Boxes,” Davídrius deadpanned, “you’re smarter than I thought.”

“If you don’t want any help—”

“Oi, oi, lighten up. I don’t actually have anythin’ against you, I’m just a little irritated with your country. …And I guess you by extension, ‘cause you’re in their military.”

“…”

“…What’s this about not being a Chaos Engine?”

“It’s impossible for Chaos Engines to be this small,” Kevérin explained, “they’re only used in spacecraft. Whatever’s powering your mech has to be something else.”

“How’d you know this was from the mech?”

“It’s right there.”

Davídrius glanced to where Kevérin was pointing: a humanoid mech, about 8 meters tall, standing in a hangar-like space to the left of the machine shop. The machine was old and worn, its sun-bleached armor faded with age and scarred from use. There was an opening slightly larger than the engine in the mech’s lower chest, as well as a forklift-like vehicle parked to the left of the engine.

“…That doesn’t mean anything,” the Velocitechnic replied defensively.

“I’m sure it doesn’t,” Kevérin deadpanned. “…Do you want help with that?”

Davídrius eyed the Pyrotechnic suspiciously. “What d’ya know about fixin’ machines?”

“I learned my fair share when training back in Tekdecé.”

“Oh, so that’s what you were doin’ instead of learnin’ how to fight.”

Kevérin turned around and began walking toward the exit.

“Hey hey hey, alright, I’ll— I’ll shut up,” Davídrius quickly back-pedaled, “if you can fix this real quick, man, that’d be great.”

“No guarantees, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Davídrius stepped aside as Kevérin approached the engine and then crouched down, looking it over. The Velocitechnic looked on curiously, though tried his best to appear disinterested whenever the Pyrotechnic glanced backward.

“I’m not a rookie, you know. None of us are.”

“Huh?” Davídrius cocked his head in mild confusion. “…Oh. …Look, I’m sure y’all are great Chaotics. There’s gotta be a reason you’ve been chosen for this, er, Hipster business.”

“It’s officially Hero Machina.”

“Wow, that’s kinda cool. You don’t like it?”

Kevérin stared at Davídrius, unamused, before returning his attention to the engine.

“Oi, oi, you’re a lot stiffer than Siyuakén made you out to be.”

“You talked to Siyuakén?”

“A li’l, yeah, before I shooed her off so I could work on the Chaos Engine. Well, this engine.”

“What’d she say?”

“About you?” Davídrius smirked. “Well, that you’re the least serious of the lot of you, mostly.”

“Tch, of course she’d say that,” Kevérin muttered. “I’m technically her CO now, too. Where’s my respect…”

“Respect’s somethin’ you gotta earn,” Davídrius declared, “can’t have it by default. Part of why I don’t understand you military types. I’m not gonna respect some schmuck just ‘cause he has a bunch of stars on his jacket and a fancy title.”

Kevérin glanced over at the Velocitechnic. “…How was it, growing up here?”

“Not worth talkin’ about,” Davídrius answered irately. “My childhood can be summed up by sayin’ that Treséd is a shithole. ‘Cause it is. Sooner I’m out of here, the better.”

“Then why are you forcing us to help you take out the Bleeders?”

“I’m not forcin’ you to do anythin’.” He smirked when Kevérin snorted. “Though I understand what you’re askin’. See, much as I’d like to leave, I’m pretty much the sole active protector of this entire region. If I leave, the Bleeders’d have their way with everythin’ and, well, I’ll be damned if I let that happen.”

“So you just want to kill them all?”

“You got a better idea?”

“…”

“I’d almost be satisfied if the rest of Nimalia had a sudden ‘bout of caring, swooped in, arrested the entire gang and locked ‘em up for forever an’ a half. But I’ve seen too much shit to settle for that. I’ll take ‘em all out myself if I have to. Even if it’s just Strén, at least the compound’ll have a chance against the rest.” Davídrius sighed. “Look, I don’t expect y’all to understand my grudge. But you’re soldiers. If you don’t get used to killin’ now, well, I’d hate to think what’d happen to you when whatever the next war is crops up on Nimalian territory.”

“Heh, it almost sounds like you care about us.”

“Tch.” Davídrius scowled. “…You know what’s up with the engine yet?”

“I fixed it a bit ago.” Kevérin stood up and wiped his hands against each other.

“…You…” Davídrius smirked in spite of himself. “…You used the damn engine as an excuse to keep me talkin’. Looks like I’m not givin’ you enough credit.”

“Heh.” Kevérin half-smiled back. “You’d better not underestimate us.”

“We’ll see just how much I’m underestimatin’ y’all tonight.”

“Yeah, sure thing.” The Pyrotechnic turned toward the exit. “See you in a couple hours.”

“Aye.” The Velocitechnic nodded as he watched Kevérin leave. He then glanced back at the engine before frowning and rushing after the Transfer Captain. “Hey, wait, you never actually said what was wrong with the engine!”

---

2 Hours Later

“I see y’all made it back.”

“Yeah…” Kaoné replied quietly, her focus turned upward at the rapidly dimming sky.

“The artillery barrage has stopped,” Siyuakén observed.

Davídrius nodded. “Aye. I had our guns fire back for a couple hours. Probably discouraged Strén a bit. Even if they haven’t run themselves outta ammo like I’d hoped, artillery won’t do much good against a Chaotic raid… which brings us to why we’re here.” The Velocitechnic looked each of the other three Chaotics in the eye. “You don’t hafta say yes, if you don’t wanna go I’ll stick to my word and leave you alone. I’d really appreciate the help though.”

“I’ll help,” Siyuakén responded.

“I will, too,” Kevérin declared. “…I’ll at least tag along and make sure you don’t get caught in deep shit.”

“Nice to have ya lookin’ after me,” Davídrius replied with a snort, and then glanced down at Kaoné.

“…I don’t want to kill anyone,” she stated.

The Velocitechnic frowned, and then shrugged. “You’re a Materiatechnic. I guess you won’t have as much trouble stunnin’ instead of killin’… but don’t expect me to hold back. In the very least, Strén’s gotta be good and dead ‘fore I leave this continent. I ain’t askin’ you to kill for me, I’m just askin’ you to watch my back.”

“But isn’t it the same—?”

“I’m not here to talk about what counts as killin’ or not. Are you in or out?”

Kaoné glanced over at Kevérin and Siyuakén, who looked back expectantly. She then turned her attention to the ground before replying quietly, “I’ll at least go with you…”

“…Alright.” Davídrius nodded in acknowledgment, and glanced up at the darkened sky. He then spun around and approached a touch pad in the wall. After quickly typing in a code, a lever appeared; he pulled the lever, and a small door, just large enough for a single person, opened in the wall. The Velocitechnic gestured for the other three Chaotics to follow him as he passed through the wall and emerged outside the compound, where he stopped to stare across the sandy plains at the Bleeder encampment a few hundred meters away.

“They’re pretty far…” Kevérin muttered.

“Yeah, but not too far.” Davídrius reached down to the handles of his sword boxes and drew two sabers, brandishing them in anticipation. “I’m sure y’all can at least protect yourselves from incomin’ fire. …Well, you shouldn’t have to. I’ll draw their attention first. Try to get close enough to do damage ‘fore you draw any attention to yourself. Got it?” When the other three Chaotics nodded, he crouched into a running stance. “Alright!” He smirked and then dashed forward. “Time to kick some Bleeder ass!!”

3 Days Later

“Are we there yet?”

“No,” Siyuakén replied irately, “we’re in the middle of the desert, Kevérin. You’ll know when we’re there.”

“But I don’t have to pay attention to that,” the Pyrotechnic retorted, his attention primarily drawn to the AR game he was playing. “It’s a lot easier to just ask you.”

“Of course,” Siyuakén deadpanned, her grip tightening on the vehicle’s steering device.

“Kevérin…” Kaoné sighed warily. “Can’t you at least switch with Siyuakén every hour or two? She’s been driving for four hours…”

“And I was driving before that.”

“For only two,” Siyuakén stated.

“Hey, I got us out of Nock,” Kevérin protested. “That place was a clusterfuck. I had no idea Treséd was so bad…”

“Well it’s probably time for you to switch back,” Kaoné suggested.

“Hmm…” Kevérin glanced over at her. “…Why can’t you drive?”

“I don’t know how.”

“What kind of Lieutenant doesn’t know how to drive?”

“One who’s used to automatic transportation.”

“…Right,” the Pyrotechnic replied slowly. “Another reason to hate Treséd: we actually have to drive our own damn cars.” He then returned his attention to his game while asking cheekily, “are we there yet?”

“If you ask that question again I’ll make you drive the rest of the way.”

“How far away is it?”

“That’s a more reasonable question,” the Electrotechnic commented. “…I don’t really know. Tresédian compounds do their best to keep their location secret, in order to avoid drawing attention from all the bandits and gangs. It was hard enough trying to figure out what direction to drive in to reach this Velocitechnic you’re looking for.”

“Davídrius,” Kaoné stated, “his name is Davídrius.”

“I’ll try to remember that,” Siyuakén responded flatly. “But really, Treséd is a bitch of a nation to navigate. The whole damn place is desert wasteland, the vehicles are outdated and don’t have built-in GPS or any kind of automation, and there’s no satellite receptors anywhere so neither of you can get GPS to your glasses!”

“Speaking of glasses, why don’t you have any?” Kevérin questioned. “Practically everyone wears them now.”

“Too much trouble. I’ve accidentally fried every pair of glasses I’ve owned within a week of getting them…”

“Oh. Well that’s really too bad,” the Pyrotechnic replied nonchalantly, “there’s tons of great things you can do with glasses. Like play AR games!”

Siyuakén glanced over at Kevérin for a moment before returning her attention to the road. “I’ll pass. I’ve never been one for gaming.”

“Well, you’re missing out.”

“Mm hmm.”

“Yep.” He then looked over at Siyuakén. “Hey, are we there yet?”

---

5 Minutes Later

“Me, a Transfer Captain, getting bullied around by two Lieutenants. It’s ridiculous. How am I supposed to know where we are? I was just sitting there, trying not to annoy everyone with my boredom, and now…”

Siyuakén tuned out Kevérin’s mumblings as he grasped the steering device. She then turned to look at Kaoné in the back seat, who seemed to be preoccupied with staring at the surrounding desert. “Bored?”

“Huh?” Kaoné glanced over at the Electrotechnic.

“I asked if you were bored.”

“Oh. Well, yeah… there’s nothing to do.”

“Why not play Dessert Destruction?” Kevérin suggested, “hell, you introduced it to me!”

“That…” Siyuakén passed Kevérin an incredulous glance. “That sounds like a—”

“Awesome game,” Kevérin interrupted.

Siyuakén nodded patronizingly. “…Yes. That’s totally what I was about to say. …Shouldn’t you be paying attention to the road?”

The Pyrotechnic began grumbling again, but nevertheless turned away from the conversation.

“Aren’t you bored?” Kaoné questioned, “you don’t even have glasses. You couldn’t distract yourself if you wanted to.”

“I’ve never needed to,” the Electrotechnic replied, “I don’t go on road trips. A lot of travel I did back in Relédiaka was through the trees, anyway — you shouldn’t be ‘distracting yourself’ when swinging through the forest.”

“True.”

There was a moment of silence as the vehicle quietly zoomed through the sandy wastelands.

“Hey, Kaoné… can I ask you a question?”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Is there…” Siyuakén glanced at Kevérin and then frowned. “…Never mind. I’ll ask later.”

Kevérin looked over at her suspiciously. “What, you got a problem with me?”

“Shush. You should pay attention to where you’re going.”

“I am paying attention to where we’re going. Where we’re going is a straight line. There’s not a lot to pay attention to.”

“Well… are we there yet?” Siyuakén asked cheekily.

“Actually… we might be.”

“What—?” She turned to stare out at the horizon. She could see a faint speck in the distance, but as time passed, it seemed to grow. “…Well, I see something,” Siyuakén commented, “but how do you know it’s Davídrius’s compound?”

Kevérin snorted. “What else could it be in the middle of nowhere?”

“Unless you’re certain, we should approach carefully. Even if you aren’t certain, we should approach carefully…”

“Carefully? What for? We’re in the middle of a wasteland! I don’t see any potential traps or ambushes.”

“They wouldn’t be traps or ambushes if you could see them.”

“My point is that there’s nowhere to hide in a wasteland.”

“That’s what you think, but Tresédians are born and raised in this environment. They’re bound to have some sort of trap or ambush tactic that works especially well in the wastelands. Especially on unsuspecting outsiders like us…”

“Fine… I’ll be more careful.” Kevérin nodded as he slowed the vehicle to a more manageable speed. “It’ll take longer, but we should still be there soon.”

“Good.” Siyuakén nodded back, and turned to Kaoné. “Make sure to keep watch for traps—”

BAM! BANG!

“Gah—!” Kevérin yelped as the vehicle flipped over due to some unseen explosive. But before it came crashing down to the ground, Kaoné seized control of its constituent matter, froze the vehicle in midair, spun it around upright, and then deposited it back on the ground.

“Uagh—!” Siyuakén doubled over in her seat, the sudden motions of the vehicle catching her by utter surprise. “Ah… Kaoné, you…”

“Uh, guys…”

Kaoné and Siyuakén glanced over at Kevérin before slowly looking around themselves. No less than five levitating autoturrets had their guns trained on the three Chaotics, and standing some distance away was a large humanoid robot, just over 8 meters tall, staring down at the vehicle as if it were an impassable sentry.

“What the hell is a Tekdecénian Recon Mech doing here?!” Kevérin exclaimed.

“Looks like you were right about the trap thing…” Kaoné admitted quietly.

Siyuakén sighed in irritation. “Of course I am…”

Any further conversation was cut short as the mech’s loudspeakers flipped on. “What’re you doin’ here?”

“Wow, his voice is really deep,” Kaoné commented in response to the pilot’s question.

“He doesn’t know we’re Chaotics,” Kevérin muttered, “well — he could know one of us is, since you righted the vehicle so easily. But — Siyuakén, how quickly would you be able to take out the autoturrets?”

“You want to fight? Already?” the Electrotechnic hissed.

“I don’t want to, but if it comes down to it, better to have a plan than not. Can you?”

“…I could probably fry all five before they open fire. I don’t know if that mech has anything in store, though—”

The hushed conversation was cut short as the mech’s loudspeakers sounded again. “I asked, what are you doing here?”

The three Chaotics looked up at the mech as it removed a large gun from its back and trained it on their vehicle.

“Uh… what should we say?” Kaoné asked hurriedly.

“…Might as well go for the truth,” Kevérin commented. “If things go bad, you two know what to do.”

Siyuakén glanced between the two Chaotics uneasily. “Wait, we do—?”

By the time she asked, however, Kevérin had already jumped out of the vehicle, his hands in the air. “We didn’t come here to attack you!” he shouted, “we’re just looking for someone. Do you know, um… Davídrius… Wrikax?”

A moment of silence passed before the mech pilot responded, “I might. Usually only bandits and thieves lookin’ for that guy though.”

“We aren’t thieves!” Kaoné exclaimed indignantly.

“…All of y’all, out of the vehicle,” the pilot demanded. Kaoné and Siyuakén quickly complied, getting out and standing next to Kevérin. “Now…” the pilot continued, “…what do you want with Davídrius?”

“It’s not something we can tell just anyone,” Kevérin replied, “we have an offer for him, sort of.”

“You ain’t the first to’ve said that. Every other time the dealers turned out to be Bleeders.”

“Bleeders?” Kevérin and Siyuakén snickered.

“The Bleeder gang ain’t nothin’ to laugh about,” the pilot declared, “but of course y’all wouldn’t know that. Foreigners think Treséd’s just a joke, why should they be concerned with how actually dangerous the national gangs are so long as they stay on this shithole continent, am I right?”

“Uh…” Kevérin glanced over at Siyuakén and Kaoné uneasily. They both shrugged in response. Turning back toward the mech, he asked, “by any chance, um… are you Davídrius?”

“…And if I was?”

“You’re not doing a very good job of hiding it,” Siyuakén commented.

Immediately each of the autoturrets began whirring. “I still don’t know who y’all are, and I’m startin’ to think that you really ain’t worth my time. You’ve got ten seconds to come up with a good reason for why I should listen to y’all before you become just another random group of intruders that I caught on a bad day!”

“He’s not going to listen to us…” Kaoné muttered with a frown.

“Time to show him we mean business, then,” Kevérin declared, “Siyuakén, take out the autoturrets. Kaoné, seize the mech. Three, two, one, now!”

Before the mech pilot had a chance to say anything else, Siyuakén raised her arm into the air and simultaneously zapped all five autoturrets, frying and permanently shutting them down. Kevérin then set to incinerating their remains as Kaoné obliterated the mech’s gun before forcing it to stand stock still.

“Do you want to listen to us now?” Kevérin shouted triumphantly.

The pilot didn’t respond. Instead, the members of Hero Machina heard a distant clanging noise, and then saw a metal plate fall to the ground behind the mech, followed by what appeared to be the pilot. After rolling to a stop on the ground, he stood up, turned around to stare at the Chaotics… and then disappeared, leaving behind a cloud of dust.

“Wait, he’s—!” Siyuakén exclaimed, but was unable to finish her sentence. All three Chaotics were unable to properly respond before a virtually unseen force bashed them all along the back of their heads, knocking them unconscious.

---

“Oooooh… my head…”

Kaoné slowly and painfully pulled herself up into a sitting position. She rubbed her head tenderly as she began looking around at her surroundings: a small cell, partitioned off from a slightly larger room by several metal bars. With her in the cell were Kevérin and Siyuakén, both of whom appeared to be coming to as well… and sitting on a bench outside the cell, next to a solid metal door, was a young man with a slim build and a dark complexion. His coarse, long black hair was both held back by a headband and tied back near the base of his head in a puffy ponytail, but even then, much of it escaped over his headband to frame his glasses and brown eyes. His chin was hidden behind a short beard, accompanied by a tuft of hair just below his bottom lip and a mustache. His outfit consisted of a pair of heavy-duty brown boots that extended halfway up his thighs, white pants and desert-tan chaps, a white shirt, and a thick desert-tan jacket with a breast pocket on both sides. On top of that was a dirty old scarf on the verge of turning threadbare, yet still wrapped securely around his neck. And at his sides were two large metal boxes with two handles extending out the front. The boxes seemed to be attached to him through a series of straps and buckles, like a hilt that was designed to hold multiple different swords.

Eventually the man noticed the three Chaotics coming to, at which point he stood up, causing the two metal boxes strapped to his sides to rattle and then bang on the bench. He stopped momentarily to glare at the boxes before placing his hands cautiously on the handles extending out them, and then turning to face the cell — where he nearly seemed to tower over the three Chaotics at an easy six feet tall.

“…Davídrius?” Kaoné questioned.

“…That’s me, aye,” he eventually responded.

“Pretty short-sighted, just throwing us in here without any bounds, even while knowing we’re Chaotics,” Kevérin stated.

“I assume you ain’t actually tried usin’ your powers,” Davídrius deadpanned.

“…He’s right,” Siyuakén admitted. “I can’t do anything.”

“Well… shit.” Kevérin scowled as he attempted to create a fireball in his palm but failed. He turned back to glare at Davídrius. “Is this a CENT field? How the hell did you get your hands on negation tech?!”

Their captor crossed his arms and smirked condescendingly. “It’s just one of the pieces of ‘junk’ that you Tekdecénians decided to dump off the coast somewhere. One of the Bleeders picked it up, and then I… acquired it from them.”

“What?…” Kevérin frowned. “But… Tekdecé doesn’t—”

“Hah! As if you know what you’re talkin’ about. You’re from Tekdecé yourself, ain’t you, Transfer Captain.”

“You know who we are?” Siyuakén asked uneasily.

“No, but I can recognize your uniforms and rank symbols,” Davídrius stated. “The two of you are Lieutenants. He outranks y’all, so I’m guessin’ he’s the leader of whatever retarded little troupe y’all are runnin’.”

Kaoné and Siyuakén glanced at each other. “It’s debatable whether or not he’s actually leading us…” Kaoné commented, ignoring the quick glare Kevérin threw in her direction.

“Well ain’t this just grand. Three Chaotics, each from a different nation, travellin’ in the middle of Treséd, and the guy who’s the highest rank by international military law ain’t even leadin’? What, are y’all AWOL or somethin’?”

“I was getting the idea you didn’t like Tekdecénians. Now you’re complaining that I’m not in charge?” Kevérin scowled. “Which is it?”

Davídrius turned toward Kevérin, his face stoically condescending… until he broke into a self-amused smirk. “Aw, I’m just screwin’ with you, keheheh.” Then he frowned. “Well, sort of. I do have issues with Tekdecé, but I’d assume mister Transfer Captain here is too green behind the ears to be a part of that.”

“We’re all the same age here…” Kaoné commented.

“Don’t mean shit,” Davídrius growled. “I’ll bet the three of you have lived nice, sheltered li’l lives. Well, try growin’ up in Treséd. This place don’t give a shit how old you are. I was hittin’ Mach 2 and practicin’ with Sword Boxes ‘fore the lot of you had even hit puberty, ‘cause I had to. You laugh at the damned Bleeders, but to Tresédians, they’re an actual threat. What’s more, is they’re only a threat ‘cause the rest of Nimalia just doesn’t give a shit about this hellhole of a continent.”

“…Sounds… pretty bad,” Siyuakén replied.

Davídrius glared at her. “Don’t patronize me.” He then took a deep breath and exhaled wearily before turning back to Kevérin. “…Aight, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Let’s start from the top. I’m Davídrius Wrikax. Y’all are…?”

“…Kevérin Tyrion.”

“Kaoné Densalin.”

“I’m Siyuakén Wanléon.”

“Kevérin… Kaoné… Siyuakén… ‘k. Alright then. What was this ‘deal’ you wanted to offer me?”

Kevérin frowned. “We’re still behind bars…”

“And you’ll stay there until I’ve decided that you aren’t actually Bleeders or crazies,” Davídrius asserted.

“You’re still not sure?” Kevérin scowled again. “You sounded certain that we were from the continent-nations before!”

“You— just shut up and tell me about this deal of yours.”

“I’m beginning to wonder if it’s still open to you.”

“Kevérin,” Kaoné cut in, “maybe if we explain who we are and what we’re doing, he’ll change his mind.”

“Now there’s an idea.” Davídrius nodded in agreement. “I’m a Velocitechnic. I don’t got much patience.”

Kevérin glanced over at Kaoné and Siyuakén before sighing. “Alright, fine. So, we’re part of a group called Hipster Memorandum—”

“Kevérin.” Kaoné glared at him.

“—Hero Machina,” he corrected himself before throwing the two women a quick glare. “Anyways, Nimaliaka and Tekdecé are joining together to form the Nimalian Systems Defense, a non-national organization that will take over all extrasolar activity.”

“And you want me to join to be your token little Tresédian, is that it?”

“You really do have a chip on your shoulder, don’t you,” Siyuakén deadpanned.

“…Tch.” Davídrius scowled and crossed his arms. “Y’all ain’t doin’ a very good job of convincin’ me to join you.”

“The NSD is only just getting off the ground!” Kevérin exclaimed, “just think — if you join us, you could say you’ve been around since its inception!”

“I’m not gonna join your little circus show if the only reason I’m wanted is so I can be trotted in front of the galactic community as an ‘example’ of how non-discriminatory the NSD is.” Davídrius snorted. “Give me a real reason and I’ll think about it.”

“Our mission is to investigate the Chaos Energy Quake,” Kaoné offered.

“…See, now that’s interestin’, you could’ve just said that.” Davídrius glanced at Kevérin; when the Pyrotechnic turned away in annoyance, the Tresédian simply turned back to Kaoné. “I guess that’s why you came to look for me, then, huh.”

“That’s it exactly,” Kaoné replied.

“So the three of you were born during the Quake, too?”

They all nodded in response.

“Hmm, not bad…” Davídrius mused. “Your Chaotic types ain’t too shabby either… Pyrotechnic… Electrotechnic… Manipulator Psychotechnic.”

“Actually, I’m a Materiatechnic,” Kaoné corrected.

Davídrius stared at her, dumbfounded. “…No way. Really? Why the hell’d you let someone like me get the drop on you, then—?”

He was interrupted as a man stormed into the room. He immediately turned his attention to Davídrius, exclaiming, “the Bleeders are outside!”

“What!?” The Velocitechnic spun on his heel to face the man in the doorway. “Is Strén leading them?”

“He is.”

“Damn.” Davídrius snapped his fingers in frustration. “…Alright. I’ll be up there in a bit. Head up the defenses, make sure everything’s primed and everyone who ain’t a fighter stays inside.”

The three imprisoned members of Hero Machina watched as the man dashed out as quickly as he had entered, leaving Davídrius to begin rummaging around in his pocket.

“What’s going on?…” Siyuakén asked.

“What’s it sound like?” the Velocitechnic retorted, “the Bleeders have shown up. They’re led by the most dangerous Chaotic on this shithole continent. Barring myself, of course.”

“…So you’re letting us go?” Kaoné questioned as Davídrius stepped up to the cell door and unlocked it with the keys he just found.

“No, I’m bringin’ you to help out,” he corrected. “If y’all can help push back the Bleeders, maybe even follow ‘em back to their base and crush ‘em once and for all, I’ll consider joinin’ you. Otherwise, I got a compound to protect, and as interestin’ as this Quake investigation sounds, my home takes priority.” He then stopped to glance back at the three Chaotics. “Y’all gonna help?”

“No—”

“Yes,” Siyuakén cut Kevérin off, “…we’ll help. For now.”

“Good.” Davídrius adopted an impatient expression and cracked his knuckles. “Follow me. Let’s see what the bastard spouts out this time…”