“Overdrive: Conflict’s Judge!!”

“What?!” Davídrius exclaimed, startled as the remaining swords on his person instantly shattered and fell to the ground in pieces. His attention was quickly torn to the sudden flashes of light surrounding Hero Machina — tank turrets detonated, mech guns disintegrated, gunship rockets spontaneously dismantled. Even the nearest portion of the Riaxen Deathnought wreck sparkled slightly, a sign of various external weaponry suddenly exploding.

“What’s going on?!” Siyuakén yelped as the two gauss turrets mounted on the back of the Earthian trucks sparked violently before falling to pieces.

“…Everyone’s weapons have fallen apart…” Rebehka muttered as she slowly surveyed the battlefield. She then turned back to face Kaoné, awestruck. “Was this— was this you?!”

“I guess so?…” Kaoné responded, “…so this… this is my Overdrive? I can make weapons fall apart?”

“Looks like the Riaxen have stopped approaching, too,” Kevérin observed.

“Perfect opportunity to take ‘em out—!” Davídrius exclaimed before suddenly collapsing to his knees and grasping his helmet in pain. “GAAH! What in the—!”

“Davídrius!” Christeané dashed over to the Velocitechnic’s side. “What happened?!”

“I… I don’t know,” the Tresédian replied uneasily as he stumbled back to his feet. “I was just about to take advantage of the openin’ to attack the Riaxen… then, suddenly, pain. Damn it, what the hell was that?”

Kievkenalis looked back at the Riaxen vehicles, all of which had stopped in their tracks. Riaxen soldiers were beginning to climb out uneasily, while a couple of the mechs and gunships even turned back and fled the way they came. “…Could this be part of the Overdrive, too?”

“Huh?” Kaoné glanced back at the Chaostechnic. “What do you mean?”

“You didn’t just destroy all of the weapons in the area, you’ve also introduced a strong inhibition to fighting,” Kievkenalis mused. “Even without weapons, the Riaxen could easily crush us with their vehicles alone. And… I can’t really seem to focus on any of the vehicles myself. If I think about using a Chaos attack, the thought just… fades away. It’s like I can’t think about actually attacking them.”

“You’re saying that she’s influenced people’s minds?” Christeané questioned incredulously.

Davídrius scowled. “That’s not—! That’s not a Materiatechnic Overdrive!”

“No, but it’s certainly a pacifist’s Overdrive,” Kievkenalis countered. “Overdrives aren’t just related to a person’s Chaotic type, after all. It’s pretty rare, but they can also be based on the person’s personality. Controlling what a person thinks is technically possible for a Materiatechnic anyways, if they had an intricate understanding of the brain that no one currently does, at least…”

“So what, she’s a fuckin’ Psychotechnic now? A Realitechnic?”

“You sound scared,” Kaoné teased.

“I—!” Davídrius inhaled stiffly, his fists clenched. “This is ridiculous!”

“This is my response to your assertion about having power and being a soldier,” Kaoné countered as she casually righted the two flipped Earthian trucks. With another wave of her hand, all of the scrap metal laying around was drawn toward the two trucks before combining with them, shifting the broken frames until they both appeared as good as new — minus the turrets. The Materiatechnic stared at the two trucks and then looked down at her hands contemplatively. “…This is what I always wanted to do as a Materiatechnic. Before, I could only control matter by thinking about a region of space, you know? Like with every other Chaotic. If I was just a little off — if I misjudged a distance, or a size, or a depth, I could cause accidental harm. That’s why I didn’t want to do anything. But now, with my Overdrive… I can control objects themselves. I can save people — without having to worry about hurting them!” She glanced around at the surrounding Riaxen forces, stopped in their tracks and utterly confused, before turning to face Davídrius resolutely. “…Back on Teghica, you… you were probably right about everything you said, about me being a soldier who doesn’t fight. But now I can! I can fight — to save as many people as possible! And with my powers, I’ll do my best to make sure no one dies — because killing is never the answer!”

“I think you might be getting a little ahead of yourself,” Kevérin interjected, “all you’ve done is dismantled everyone’s weapons, inhibited killing intent, and… completely… fixed a couple… trucks…”

“Sounded smarter in your head, huh?” Christeané snorted as the Pyrotechnic trailed off uneasily.

“He does have a point, in a way,” Rebehka commented as she jumped into the driver seat of one of the trucks. “I doubt the weapons will come back together, but once Kaoné’s Overdrive wears off, there’s nothing to keep the Riaxen from attacking us again. We should really get moving.”

“I… this… what?” Davídrius spluttered.

“Hey Kaoné, I think you broke Davídrius,” Christeané quipped as he jumped into a turret-less backseat.

“I’m not— I mean, that’s not— this isn’t…” the Velocitechnic stuttered a response as the trucks revved up and took off toward the Riaxen wreck again. “I mean, this is ridiculous! Kaoné did this? This is her Overdrive? Bullshit. It’s bullshit!”

“There is literally no other explanation,” Christeané replied in exasperation.

“This… tch.” Davídrius finally dashed up to the trucks and then fell into pace between them, the wreck looming ever closer. “Alright, fine. But do you really think just leavin’ ‘em back there will accomplish anything?”

“We got out of the fight and no one else had to die,” Kaoné stated bluntly.

“And that’s the thing! Your ideals are still misplaced! You really think those Riaxen soldiers are just gonna sit there and go ‘oh hey, maybe I shouldn’t kill the enemy forces after all!?’”

“No, I’m aware that they’ll come after us again… but if we can still get out of this with even just a little less death, then isn’t that a good thing?”

“These are the Riaxen you’re talkin’ about! The closest to ‘evil’ you can get in the galaxy, aside from the Drakkars!”

“Based on what? Everything you’ve heard from the Syraus, the sworn enemy of the Riaxen?”

“No, I heard this shit from the Riaxen themselves,” Davídrius snorted sarcastically.

“That’s exactly the problem! You don’t know their side!”

“They were the ones who attacked Tyrnaus!!”

“So the commanders ordered it, but what do you know about the ordinary soldier? How do you know that those mech pilots, those tank drivers, how do you know they’re ‘evil?’ That they aren’t just conscripted members of the army, like most Syraus soldiers, or even any of us? That they don’t have their own families and lives to go back to outside of fighting?”

“That’s— …that’s not…”

“It’s not black and white, Davídrius. Killing them does nothing to help us, but everything to hurt them. The only Riaxen truly deserving of punishment are the ones in charge… and even then, I don’t think killing them is the answer. It never is.”

“…But… no, that’s…”

“Weren’t expecting her to fight back, were you?” Siyuakén interjected, the smirk evident in her tone.

“Tch.” Davídrius scowled. “…I still disagree. But… I guess we can try things your way. …For once.”

“Thanks, Davídrius,” Kaoné replied.

“But I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’ if this comes back to bite us in the ass.”

“Duly noted,” Christeané quipped. “And now that we’re done discussing philosophy, how about we focus on the one thing we all forgot to think about?”

“What’s that?” Kevérin glanced briefly over at the Forcetechnic.

“How are we supposed to find the Ayas in a fifty kilometer wreck?”

Silence fell over Hero Machina, all eyes focused forward on the ever-approaching Deathnought wreck as it towered over twenty kilometers into the sky.

“Well, that’s, uh…” Kevérin muttered, “…I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

“Davídrius is a Velocitechnic,” Kievkenalis suggested.

“Just ‘cause I can run really fast doesn’t mean I can or want to search the entire damn wreck,” Davídrius countered irately. “There’s at least, what, twenty by twenty by twenty kilometers of searchable wreck? That’s eight thousand cubic kilometers. Do you know how much time that’ll take to search?!”

“…True, yeah…”

“You’re the resident Chaostechnic. Shouldn’t you be the one to look for the Ayas? With all that Chaos Energy-sensing shit?”

“I guess so, but I can’t sense an Ayas from this range. I can’t sense them very strongly either, like, back on Teghica it was just a… weird off feeling. And I couldn’t even sense the Ayas on Kotak or Rossindon. I sure can’t sense any now.”

“But I can.”

The rest of Hero Machina turned to stare at Siyuakén, who herself had fixed her gaze on an area of the wreck high in the sky, toward the back of the dead ship. After a couple moments, she realized the attention she was receiving and returned the stares confusedly. “What?”

“You just said you could sense the Ayas,” Christeané replied as Kevérin and Rebehka faced forwards again.

“…I said that out loud…?”

“Yeah, you did,” Davídrius deadpanned. “Was that supposed to be a joke?”

“No, I mean…” Siyuakén responded uneasily, “…I think I can. I can sense something in the wreck. I think it’s the Ayas.”

“But… you’re an Electrotechnic,” Kevérin countered in confusion. “The Ayas aren’t electrical… last anyone checked, anyways.”

“I don’t… I don’t know.” The Electrotechnic shifted uncomfortably. “I can’t explain it, I just… I think I can sense it.”

“Well that’s really fuckin’ reliable,” Davídrius snorted. “Either that, or really fuckin’ convenient. We’ve been havin’ a lot of that lately.”

“Guys, give her a break,” Rebehka cut in just as she pulled the truck to a stop a few meters from the beginning of the wreck’s scrap. Kevérin pulled up right beside her as the women jumped out of the first truck before turning back to the rest of Hero Machina. “If she thinks she can find the Ayas, then why not give it a shot?” the Cryotechnic suggested, “it’s all we have right now. Kevken can verify once we get closer.”

Kaoné nodded. “I agree. It’s the fastest way to get in and out… and… I’m not sure my Overdrive will protect us anymore…”

“It’s worn off?” Kevérin glanced back at her.

“Yeah…”

“Alright, then.” The Transfer Captain climbed out of the truck and looked up at the massive wreck before him. “…We’ll follow Siyuakén’s sense for now.”

“Really—?!”

“Davídrius, it’s all we’ve got,” Kevérin cut off the Velocitechnic, turning to glare at him irately. “What else would you suggest?”

“I don’t… I don’t know.” Davídrius crossed his arms and glanced over at Siyuakén. “But doesn’t this… doesn’t this seem just, you know, too convenient?”

“You think it’s a trap?”

“Well… I dunno…”

“If you can think of an actual reason to object, I’ll listen to you. Otherwise…” The Pyrotechnic glanced back at the wreck, and then up at the distant lights of the battle in orbit. “We have an Ayas to retrieve… and quickly.”

---

7 Hours Later

“Hot damn I don’t know how y’all do it.”

“We can’t all be Velocitechnics.” Christeané rolled his eyes as he carefully moved a broken bulkhead to the side.

“That’s pretty fuckin’ evident,” Davídrius snorted. “I know I said that searchin’ the wreck would’ve taken me forever, but I had no idea it’d take us so damn long just to reach a single target!”

“You really don’t have any other emotions than anger and impatience, do you?” Rebehka quipped.

“I—! I totally do. I mean, I’m not bein’ impatient right now. It’s been seven hours, I’ve been a fuckin’ saint by Velocitechnic standards.”

“So you say,” Kaoné deadpanned.

“We aren’t far now, anyways,” Kievkenalis spoke up after turning another corner within the vacant corridors of the dead supership. “The Chaos Energy in the area is becoming denser. This is almost exactly what I felt back on Teghica.”

“See? I told you I could sense it,” Siyuakén added haughtily.

“I don’t know…” Kaoné commented uneasily, “I… hate to agree with Davídrius—”

“Why does everyone hate to agree with me?”

“—but this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. We’ve been through almost forty-five kilometers of corridor and ten different Riaxen encounters… this wreck is barely intact. There’s no electrical systems or sensors that you could’ve accidentally tapped into, or anything…”

The Electrotechnic shrugged in response. “I don’t know. I can’t explain it; I’ve already told you that.”

“Several times over the past several hours, aye,” Davídrius deadpanned, and then paused as his stomach grumbled loudly — loudly enough to be picked up by the mic in his helmet. “…Damn am I starvin’. We’ve only stopped to eat once this whole time, you know? And it was just some shitty shit that Kaoné fabricated. And then we’ve got a fuckin’ seven hour trip back, too. Why didn’t we just bust straight through to the Ayas, again?”

“Because this wreck is way more stable than it should be, considering its state,” Christeané immediately replied, “if we’re careless, then the whole thing could come down on top of us. Last thing I want is to be crushed by a Deathnought wreck.”

“Eh, you’re a Forcetechnic. You’d survive.”

“That’s exactly the problem…”

“Wait, guys,” Kievkenalis interjected, drawing the attention of the rest of the group, “…we’re close.” He pointed straight forward at a large steel door that appeared to be jammed shut. “It’s through there.”

Kaoné wordlessly stepped forward and casually shoved the door to the side. She then stepped into the room, followed by the rest of Hero Machina.

“It looks like an engineering room,” Kevérin muttered as he glanced around. The room was large enough to comfortably hold all seven members of Hero Machina, even considering the multiple computing consoles sitting around the room. The walls were lined with similar consoles and the occasional decorative spike, as per Riaxen aesthetic. Towards the back of the room, the wall protruded outward slightly with a small transparent dome. And inside the dome…

“It’s the Ayas,” Rebehka observed.

“Light Green? That’s Tanivas, then,” Kievkenalis commented, stepping forward to more closely inspect the stone.

“Alright, great, let’s grab it and leave,” Davídrius responded impatiently, “maybe on the way out we can just bust through the wreck?”

“Wait—!” Siyuakén exclaimed just as Christeané wound up to punch and shatter the Ayas-containing dome. “There’s still a current running through the console. I think the Ayas is powering something…”

“What? …Let me see.” Kevérin quickly moved over to the console nearest the Ayas and began interfacing with it. “…Wow, it’s actually an active system. Maybe this is what you were sensing, Siyuakén? Ha, and here we thought the whole wreck was… trashed…”

“What is it?” Rebehka stepped closer to read the console screen over Kevérin’s shoulder. “…Oh, right, I can’t read it…”

“But I can,” Kevérin replied, “and what it says is worrying. The Ayas is definitely still powering some systems — two very important ones, in fact. The Structural Integrity Gravity Manipulators, and the Orbital Bombardment Shield…”

“Shit.” Christeané scowled. “Then, that means—!”

“Yeah…” The Pyrotechnic turned back to the rest of Hero Machina. “The moment we remove the Ayas from that console… this entire wreck will fall to pieces.”

5 Hours Later

“Beaming in three… two… one…”

The members of Hero Machina braced themselves as their surroundings spontaneously changed from the interior of the Genesis to the cold, rocky surface of the planet below.

“Whoa…” Davídrius whistled, moving his body around to test the maneuverability of the atmosphereless armor Greant had managed to obtain from a Black Suns ship. “…It’s so light here!”

“We’re at half Nimalian gravity, so of course it’d feel light,” Kevérin replied, using the armor’s built-in communicator to talk with the other members of Hero Machina despite the lack of atmosphere. A moment later, two four-wheel-drive trucks were beamed down next to the group. Each truck seated three — a driver, a passenger, and a gauss turret with a gunner seat mounted on the back. “Alright guys,” the Transfer Captain began, “double-check your equipment before we get going. We don’t want any of the atmosphere units to fail on us while we’re down here…”

“Yeah, that’d be pretty bad, wouldn’t it,” Christeané remarked as he jumped up to seat himself behind the turret on one of the trucks. “Wheels, though? How far behind are the Earthians?”

“Give them a break,” Kaoné replied as she climbed into the passenger seat of the other truck. “They’ve only been on the galactic stage for fifteen years or so, after all.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s just hurry it up,” Davídrius urged as he looked up at the Riaxen Deathnought wreck. The lifeless husk sat nearly fifteen kilometers away, but still reached high into the sky and blocked the entire horizon. “Oi, Kevérin, Rebehka, hurry up an’ drive already.”

“What? Why do I have to drive?” Rebehka frowned, though the expression was lost under her face mask and helmet.

“No, he’s right,” Kevérin commented as he jumped into the driver seat in front of Christeané. “There’s no atmosphere here, so we’d both be useless in a fight.”

“I’m not useless,” the Cryotechnic countered, “I can still, you know, cool things down.”

“Things are plenty cool here already,” Christeané snorted.

“You know what I mean.”

“Uh huh,” Davídrius deadpanned. “Even that’s only so useful. Can you snap-freeze a movin’ target?”

“Well… I mean, theoretically, I could.”

“I’mma take that as a no. Now get in the truck already, we’re wastin’ time!”

“Hate to say it, but he’s right,” Siyuakén replied as she jumped into the second turret seat. “Just get in!”

Rebehka sighed as she moved to climb into the driver seat of the second truck, while Kievkenalis jumped into the passenger seat of the first. A few moments later, both trucks were revved up and moving toward the wreck in the distance, with Davídrius following casually on foot.

“We should really get equipment from the Black Suns more often,” Davídrius remarked after several moments of silence, “they’ve got some real quality goin’.”

“If by ‘quality’ you mean ‘quantity,’ sure,” Christeané retorted, glancing back at the Velocitechnic’s blade harness. Two sleek Blade Prisms, each holding two blades, were attached to his armor by hinges at his hips; a further four blades were attached his back, the blades crossing each other to form an ‘X’ as two hilts extended up past each shoulder. “Exactly how many swords do you need?”

“Oi, oi! Not my fault blades break so easily at high speeds. Eight is perfect, especially if we end up havin’ to fight stuff with armor.”

“Don’t get overconfident, Davídrius,” Kevérin reminded, “you, Kevken, and Christeané are the only ones who can fight back if we’re attacked on the move. You can’t afford to make mistakes.”

“Nope, I can’t fight here,” Christeané refuted. “I don’t have a battlehammer with this armor. It’s close-range combat only for me.”

“And even if the lack of an atmosphere hampers lightning strikes, I can still short-circuit things from a distance,” Siyuakén claimed. “Well… I can try, at least.”

“The last thing I need is to be accidentally frozen or shocked or boiled while I’m attackin’ shit,” Davídrius countered, “keep your elemental attacks to yourselves and stick with the turrets, I’m sure those can do plenty of damage.”

“But whatever you do — and I guess this applies to me, too — try not to hit that wreck,” Christeané warned, “I have a bad feeling about its integrity… a wreck of that size should have collapsed on itself by now.”

“If we’re lucky, the Riaxen will miss us and we won’t have to fight them,” Kaoné muttered.

Kevérin jumped as a HUD element inside his helmet flashed once. After briefly checking the information he replied, “So much for being lucky — we’ve been spotted. There’s a full armored squadron coming to intercept us!”

Davídrius glanced to the left, where a handful of gunships were coming into view. “Gunships? Oh boy. Hmm, wonder if I could accidentally launch myself into orbit if I jump too hard…”

“Leave the gunships to me!” Kievkenalis shouted, “you take care of the armor they drop!”

“Sure thing!” the Velocitechnic exclaimed as he gleefully drew two blades from his hip-mounted sheaths. “A real fight. Haven’t had one of these in a while!”

“Watch yourself!” Kevérin warned, “if you get too active, your atmosphere unit won’t be able to keep up! You’ll asphyxiate yourself!”

“Hah, as if I’d let myself die like that,” Davídrius snorted. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve got this!”

“You’d better,” Siyuakén responded as she swiveled the turret around to face the gunships. “They’re almost in range!”

“Three… two… one…!” Christeané exclaimed, followed by the turrets whirring into action. Nigh-immediately, hundreds of metal projectiles were launched into the air toward the gunships, only to be deflected by the aircrafts’ shielding.

“Chaos Mach Three Piercing Cannon!” Kievkenalis shouted, launching a Chaos Energy projectile at high speeds towards the nearest gunship. The projectile shattered the shielding and pierced straight through the gunship, ripping out two of its engines and sending it careening ground-ward — but not before two mechs ejected, hitting the ground feet-first and sprinting toward Hero Machina.

“Here we go!!” Davídrius grinned, spontaneously dashing to the side. He cleared the kilometer between the trucks and the mechs in the blink of an eye before slashing at their ankle joints, only for his blades to simply bounce off as the space around the ankles shimmered — a sign of energy shielding. As soon as he paused to observe the shimmer, one of the mechs whipped around and launched a salvo of rockets at him, which he easily dodged by jumping into the air. Forgetting that he was in a low-gravity environment, however, the Velocitechnic accidentally launched himself far higher than he had intended and soon found himself a free-falling target for both mechs. Scowling, he quickly sheathed his blades and then drew one of the back-mounted swords just in time to begin rapidly deflecting the bullet barrage the mechs sent his way. Just before he touched back down on the ground, another Chaos Energy projectile ripped through one of the mechs; the second one turned to search for the origin of the attack, creating an opening that Davídrius immediately seized. Slamming his blade back into its sheath and drawing two other back-mounted swords, he dashed forward and stabbed both blades into the mech’s ankle, piercing the energy shielding and forcing it to topple over. He then jumped over the mech and stabbed its energy core; he followed the stab by ripping the swords out, taking much of the machinery with them. He then blasted off back toward the trucks, leaving the mech to detonate behind him.

“Chaos… Deflection!!”

A sphere of Chaos Energy exploded outward, surrounding the trucks just in time to deflect a rocket salvo launched by the nearest gunships. Kievkenalis immediately followed it with several Chaos Cannon shots but only successfully hit one of the gunships, destabilizing it and causing it to go spinning to the ground. The remaining three gunships quickly followed the attack with another rocket salvo as they dropped two heavy tanks and three mechs, all of which immediately opened fire.

“Ahh!!” Rebehka yelped as several tank rounds fell around the truck, sending it into a swerve that she barely managed to correct. “They’re getting too close!”

“We aren’t equipped to deal with heavy tanks,” Christeané growled. “Mechs, we can deal with, but tanks—!”

“No, we can do this!” Kievkenalis insisted, “Chaos Assist! Chaos… Massive Impact!”

An invisible force slammed into the armored vehicles, toppling the mechs — but merely stalling the tanks.

“Er…” Kievkenalis added sheepishly, “…maybe we can’t.”

“Their main cannons are aiming this way—!” Siyuakén warned, but was cut off as the cannons flashed, signaling cannon fire. Christeané immediately released the turret’s firing mechanism and spun the whole device around, sweeping his fist past the side of the truck just in time to intercept and knock away one of the tank shells — just as Davídrius blew past and knocked away the other.

“…Tch!” Davídrius scowled, glaring at the hilt of the sword he had just broken against the shell. “Should’ve kicked it…!” He discarded the hilt and drew two blades from his hip sheaths before dashing toward the mechs a hundred meters away.

“We’re eight kilometers out!” Rebehka shouted.

“I’m not sure I can block a shell like that again…” Christeané muttered.

“Kaoné, we need your help!” Davídrius exclaimed, his suit’s communicator transmitting his declaration from a distance.

“Wha-what—!?”

“It’s just blocking shit, c’mon!” Christeané insisted, “not like we’re asking you to kill anyone—!?”

He was interrupted as several devices suddenly leaped into the air several meters in front of the trucks.

“Mines!!” Siyuakén shouted.

“I’ve got it!!” Davídrius immediately redirected his attention from the mechs and dashed over to the mines, two swords in hand. But just before he could reach them, they detonated, sending him flying backwards and flipping Kevérin’s truck on its side.

“Kevérin!” Rebehka exclaimed as she slammed on the brakes. Kaoné jumped out and ran over to the flipped vehicle as Siyuakén attempted to offer sufficient cover fire from the turret.

“Hah!” Christeané grunted as he smashed the back of the truck, freeing himself and creating an exit for Kevérin and Kievkenalis.

The Transfer Captain scowled. “They got us…”

“Chaos Strike! Chaos Strike! Chaos Impact!” Kievkenalis called out, launching several Chaos attacks to force back their attackers. He then glanced back at the Pyrotechnic. “We’re just going to have to destroy them all before we… can… …uh oh.”

“What is—? …Well, damn,” Kevérin growled after glancing over his shoulder and spotting another six incoming gunships.

“Well, if we’re no longer on the move, then I can finally contribute!” Christeané grinned before dashing toward the approaching heavy tanks. “Kievkenalis, Siyuakén, take down those gunships! Davídrius and I can take care of anything on the ground!” Then, the moment that he was several meters clear of the truck wreck and the rest of Hero Machina, he shouted, “Overdrive: Omni Crush!”

Kevérin watched the Forcetechnic smash his way into battle before turning around, where Siyuakén and Kievkenalis were relentlessly firing away at the incoming gunships. “Kaoné… prepare yourself,” he warned, “be ready to erect shields whenever possible. And if it comes down to it, I need you to destroy the enemy armor.”

“But—!”

“It’s us or them, Kaoné. Think about that.”

A hundred meters away, Davídrius shattered another one of his blades by jamming it into a mech’s core, causing it to detonate and leaving only one more of the mechs. He immediately drew another sword to replace it before leaping into the air just in time to intercept a tank shell, kicking it away at just the right angle to knock it into a second shell, thereby knocking both off-course. The moment he landed, he glanced back at the toppled truck and spotted Christeané running towards the battle; the Velocitechnic immediately blasted off toward him, clearing the distance almost instantly before slamming his foot into Christeané’s back and launching him forwards. Initially startled, the Forcetechnic quickly calmed himself and then smashed his fist into the ground as he flew into a tank. The force created a ten-meter crater and destabilized both tanks, allowing Christeané to easily pulverize them both — even through their energy shielding.

“And that’s that,” Davídrius remarked as the third mech detonated behind him, its core slashed to pieces.

“We have to get back to the trucks…” Christeané declared as he glanced back — and noticed a third gunship squadron approaching from the direction of the Deathnought wreck. “Well, fuck!”

“Can’t give up yet!” Davídrius exclaimed, “brace yourself!”

“Huh?!” Christeané barely had time to respond before Davídrius kicked him again, sending him tumbling across the ground all the way back to the trucks.

“Chaos Deflection!!” Kievkenalis jumped in front of the remaining intact truck in time to deflect several rockets, but the deflection field wasn’t large enough to block them all — two rockets got past and exploded against the ground just next to the truck, flipping it into the air.

“Shit—!” Davídrius scowled, dashing forward and leaping up to snatch Rebehka out of the vehicle as Christeané managed to grab the turret and yank the whole contraption — Siyuakén included — to the ground with relative safety. The two Introtechnics deposited the women on the ground haphazardly before sprinting forwards to deal with the mech squad the gunships had just dropped off, ignoring the wrecked truck as it tumbled to the ground just in front of Kievkenalis.

“Chaos Cannon! Chaos Cannon! Chaos Cannon! Chaos Cannon!” the Chaostechnic repeated rapidly, firing off several projectiles in quick succession in an attempt to take down the remaining gunships. But with the attacks called quickly and hurriedly, they weren’t as powerful as his initial salvos and failed to pierce the gunships’ shielding. Siyuakén instead stepped forward and held her hand out, targeting each gunship and attempting to interfere with their electronics — but her interference was dampened by their shields.

“Haaah-gah!” Davídrius spluttered, flung backwards in the middle of a dash by a railgun-wielding mech. He tumbled to a stop next to the trucks and then jumped to his feet just in time to quickly slash an incoming rocket salvo to bits and then step out of the way as Christeané came flying back as well.

“Davídrius, Christeané, watch yourselves!” Kevérin warned, “Your armor’s shielding—!”

“I know it’s low,” Christeané growled, “what do you want us to do about it? Stop attacking?”

“Kaoné, I know you don’t want to,” Siyuakén urged, “but you have to do something!”

“I—!I can’t just kill them! The, the pilots—!”

“Expectin’ her to pull her weight will get you nowhere,” Davídrius snarled. “It’s been known for literally millennia that the Riaxen don’t take prisoners! And still she hasn’t raised a hand to help. What’s that tell you, huh?!”

“I’m not—! I’m not siding with them!”

“Well you don’t seem to be sidin’ with us! It’s us or them, Kaoné!” The Velocitechnic took off again, his blades directed at the approaching mechs. Christeané sprinted after him to join the battle as Kievkenalis turned his attention to the gunships approaching from the wreck and launched off several more Chaos attacks.

“…Shit.” Kevérin scowled as his HUD lit up even further. “There’s more units approaching! How the hell can the Riaxen devote so much attention to us?!”

“We can’t hold out here… and we’re too close to the wreck at this point for the Genesis to beam us back up,” Rebehka commented apprehensively, “Kaoné, isn’t there something you can do?”

“I…” the Materiatechnic stuttered, “but, what if I—!”

“If you don’t kill them, they’ll kill us!” Davídrius exclaimed, “get your head out of your ass! There’s only one way to survive this!”

“He’s not wrong,” Kevérin added tensely, “you’re a Lieutenant. You’re part of Hero Machina. You’re in the middle of a war zone! And you still think you can get away without fighting!?”

“I—!” Kaoné was cut off as two incapacitated gunships swooped down overhead and smashed into the ground behind her — just as Davídrius was flung clear over the truck wrecks and several hundred meters further, landing at the feet of another approaching mech squad. He was quickly followed by Christeané as three mechs slowly approached Hero Machina, weapons drawn… and rockets primed. The next moment, the rockets all fired — and then suddenly froze in midair.

“You—?” Kevérin exclaimed, snapping his gaze to Kaoné.

“I still disagree with all of you!” she declared, momentarily switching her attention to the side to halt the advance of a heavy tank, “maybe, we can’t get away without fighting. But killing… is never the answer!”

“Kaoné—?!”

“Overdrive: Conflict’s Judge!!”

5 Days Later

– Isdia, Solith 25, 8034 –

“Less than half an hour until arrival, sir.”

“Alright.” Chief Captain Peter Krick nodded in response. “This is it, folks. We don’t know what to expect when we reach the system, but that’s why we’re here — to find out! The moment we exit Subspace, I want full power to all battle systems — shields, weapons, engines. All weapon systems prepped and prepared to retaliate immediately; all fighters prepped for launch, prepared to launch immediately! The moment we’ve secured our ground, boost power to the sensors and begin scanning for the Riaxen ship profile in the logs! Understood?”

The bridge crew of the Earthian Battlecruiser Genesis responded with a resounding “yes, sir!”, to which Krick smiled proudly. “This could be our first real space battle, both for the ship, and for SERRCom! Don’t let me down!”

Standing in the back of the bridge, Hero Machina looked on in mild fascination.

“They don’t even know what they’re getting into,” Kaoné remarked, “but… they’re so excited!”

“Don’t underestimate us Earthians,” Krick replied as he stood up from his captain’s chair and approached the eight passengers of the ship. He looked each in the eye briefly, his gaze passing over Hero Machina and then lingering momentarily on the huge, dark-skinned, bearded man who accompanied them: Master General Brennon Greant, of the Black Suns. The Earthian Captain then added, “we won’t let you down!”

“I can appreciate enthusiasm, Captain,” Greant replied, “in fact, I’m very much a fan of it myself! But you’d still do well to be careful.”

Krick nodded. “I’m aware, but thanks for the warning.”

“What exactly are we doin’ here, anyways?” Davídrius scowled. “Why do we need to be here?”

Kevérin sighed impatiently. “Where have you been these past five days?”

“Wonderin’ the same thing the whole time.”

“We’re here ‘cause we’re the only ones the Earthians would let on their ship,” Christeané retorted.

“We’re actually here because we lost contact with Tyrnaus,” Rebehka interjected as she shook her head in disapproval. “We can’t contact the system… and we can’t connect to its Transpace.”

“The situation is worse than that,” Kievkenalis added, “the loss of contact was preceded by two full days of Riaxen siege on the system. We need to learn what happened to the defending fleet, and we need to investigate this Riaxen supership that was reported to have appeared. I mean, it’s a Deathnought-class ship, augmented by a Chaos Ayas. That’s pretty serious.”

“And that’s why we’re here,” Kevérin remarked.

“…Are we just the Ayas retrieval squad, now?” Davídrius deadpanned. “Everywhere we go, there’s an Ayas!”

“Ahahaha!” Greant guffawed. “That’s hardly anything to complain about! Would only the Black Suns be so lucky!”

“That’s… not why you’re here?” Kevérin responded uneasily.

“No… no, the Black Suns have little use for the Ayas. We don’t have the right tech, and assigning them to individuals is a waste. Nor do we want the CSA breathing down our neck. Your Commander negotiated a contract to claim the Ayas anyways; I’m just here to confirm what happened to the Black Suns portion of the defending fleet.” The General’s expression quickly turned solemn. “Supreme Commander Jeran and Master General Regek were both with the fleet. If Jeran were to die now, it could mean… interesting things for us. ‘Us’ being the Black Suns, of course.”

“I’m surprised no one’s asked the obvious question, already,” Christeané spoke up, “but… if the Ayas is on a Deathnought, then what the hell are we supposed to do about it?!”

“We’ll address that on arrival,” Captain Krick remarked, “our mission is only to investigate the fate of the system. If there’s something we can do about the Ayas, then we’ll do it, otherwise we’re in and out within a day. All of the prepping I just ordered is for the worst case scenario where we’re forced to engage. Right now, this ship is the only ship in existence with a Subspace Drive, meaning we’re the only ones who can reach Tyrnaus and return in under a week. That makes us the fastest scout ship in the galaxy, and that’s what we need right now — a scout, not a fleet. If even we fail to escape the Riaxen, then the rest of the galaxy has no choice but to assume the worst and prepare for an attack.”

“Watch your claims, there, Captain!” Greant countered, “the Drakkars have had similarly speedy FTL drives for ages.”

“…You know what I meant,” Krick responded flatly. “Transpace-to-Transpace in two days. Two days! For a trip that would take any other ship a month! No CSA, Nimalian, Black Suns, or even Syraus ship can come close to touching us!”

“Your enthusiasm is turning into pride,” Greant replied, his voice low. “It is true that your ship is the fastest in allied space, but if I’m to understand correctly, it’s not by your own doing. This ship was created by the Master Ayas, was it not?”

“Well… yes.”

“Wait, this is the ship from Sunova?” Davídrius questioned, to which Kevérin responded with a facepalm.

“You really haven’t been paying attention at all, have you,” the Pyrotechnic replied flatly.

“…Alright, no, I haven’t,” Davídrius admitted. “But I think I got it. We’re here to… uh… steal the Ayas from the Riaxen. Right?”

Kevérin sighed irately. “Maybe. Allow me to explain… a little over a month ago, a massive Riaxen fleet suddenly appeared at the Taizen DMZ world, Tzinck. The fleet then used the Transpace there to jump to the Syraus Transpace World of Ulinah, where they disappeared into FTL. In response, the Syraus, CSA, RPF, Tekdecénians, and Black Suns set up a defending fleet in the boundary system of Tyrnaus, which is the last Transpace World in Syraus space, as well as one of the two systems that Nimalia’s Transpace connects to. A week ago, the Riaxen fleet appeared in Tyrnaus and battle broke out, with their Deathnought wreaking havoc. The RPF fleet, as well as many CSA ships, picked up energy spikes from the Deathnought that can only be described by an Ayas, hence our belief that the Riaxen have one. Two days later, all contact with the system was lost. That was three days before we showed up on Rossindon. Now, we’re going to Tyrnaus with the help of the Earthians and their super-fast new ship to check out what happened. We might attempt to take the Ayas from the Riaxen, but only if their Deathnought has been adequately incapacitated. Now does that make sense?”

“Uh… sure. Yeah. I think.”

“If you don’t understand that, then there’s no use trying. His synopsis was completely correct!” Greant remarked, “I don’t think I could have explained it better myself!”

Davídrius turned to look at the General, who towered over even the tall Velocitechnic. “…You seem really energetic for someone your age.”

“Davídrius!” Kaoné glared at him disapprovingly, but the General simply laughed in response.

“Lack of energy is a choice, m’boy!” Greant replied as he stroked his massive graying beard. “Just because I can’t use Chaos Energy doesn’t mean I can’t be full of life! There’s more to the universe than fighting, after all!”

“If you say so.” The Velocitechnic crossed his arms, his expression one of disbelief. He then turned back to Kevérin. “Oh, I got one more question.”

“What is it?” the Pyrotechnic replied flatly.

“…What’s a Deathnought?”

Kevérin responded with a blank stare before finally droning out, “humongous ship. Fifty kilometers long. Really really strong. Really really powerful. Really really hard to beat.”

“Don’t talk like that to me.”

“Just making sure that you understood.”

“Cut the chatter,” Captain Krick ordered as he returned to his chair at the top of the bridge. “We’re approaching the Tyrnaus system.” He redirected his attention to the rest of the bridge, shouting, “ready, men? Battle stations!”

Greant grinned. “I’m looking forward to this.”

“…You’re looking forward to a massive space battle?” Christeané deadpanned.

“Or potentially a massive graveyard?” Kevérin added, “it has been a week.”

“No, I’m interested in this vessel,” Greant replied. “Even without access to the specs, everything I’ve seen suggests this ship is far more advanced than anything else I’ve ever seen! I’m interested in seeing how it’ll hold up.”

“While on it?”

“Life is never fun if you don’t take any risks!”

“…If you don’t mind me asking,” Kevérin responded, “how did someone like you become the Sector 1 Master General?”

The General’s grin shrunk into a smirk. “You’d do well to learn that appearances are everything, boy.”

“What does that even mean—?” Kevérin began to ask, but was interrupted as the Genesis exited Subspace. Immediately, black space replaced the gray scale gradient outside the bridge window. A planet lay below — relative to the ship’s positioning, of course — but most noticeable of all were the many flashes of light in the distance, as if someone were hosting a light show in high orbit.

“It’s the Riaxen and Syraus fleets, sir,” someone shouted, “the Syraus are a hundred kilometers out. The Riaxen are a thousand kilometers farther back.”

“Hold our ground. Initiate the cloaking systems and start scanning,” Krick ordered. “Start with the Transpace. Where’s the Transpace?”

“It’s… gone.”

“Gone?!” Kevérin exclaimed as a holographic display appeared to the upper right of the bridge. On it was an image of the system’s Transpace, reduced to a debris field covering hundreds of kilometers.

“Someone destroyed the Transpace?!” Kaoné gasped. “But—! I thought they were supposed to be nigh impossible to destroy!”

“I suppose this supports the theory that the Riaxen have an Ayas,” Krick muttered.

Greant shook his head. “No, that isn’t it. The Riaxen wouldn’t destroy the Transpace — it’s the easiest and quickest way to access the rest of the galaxy. Setting up a reliable supply line without it would be incredibly difficult. It must have been the defending fleet who destroyed it.”

“Why would they…?” Kevérin trailed off as he realized what the General was suggesting. “You think they did it to prevent the Riaxen from jumping to Nimalia?”

“It’s the only answer,” Greant affirmed, “their hand must have been forced. Destroying a Transpace is no trivial matter, considering we still have no idea how to even begin to build one.”

“Still doesn’t explain having no contact,” Krick muttered, and then ordered, “check our input stream. Are we receiving any data from the system’s Relay Points?”

“None, sir.”

“Scan the system for Relay Points. Can we find any?”

“…No, sir. Scans aren’t picking up any Relay Points.”

“They must’ve been destroyed, too.” Krick scowled. “Tyrnaus is completely isolated from the rest of the galaxy, now…”

“And the opposing fleets are still fighting,” Kevérin remarked, “what happened?”

Krick remained silent for a few moments, staring out the bridge display at the distant battle. “…Scan the planet,” he eventually ordered, “look for the Riaxen Deathnought. It might be a wreck at this point. If the scan turns up negative, then scan the entire system.”

“No need, sir!” someone replied, “the scan found the ship in local space. The wreck is on the planet below, and it seems that there are ground forces fighting over it as we speak. The entire area is covered by orbital bombardment shielding.”

“So the Deathnought was destroyed, then.”

“Is the Ayas down there?” Kievkenalis questioned.

“I guarantee it is,” Greant declared. “The Riaxen must be attempting to extract the Ayas. It’s the only reason they wouldn’t have obliterated the wreck the moment the ship was destroyed.”

“I agree with your reasoning, but we still need to be sure,” Krick replied as he turned back to the rest of the bridge. “Scan for any Chaos Energy anomalies on the planet. Also, request access to the allied fleet’s data connection!”

“We aren’t going to join the battle?” Siyuakén questioned.

“We’d accomplish nothing by jumping into the battle head-first,” Kevérin replied. “The number of ships in those fleets lies in the thousands. I don’t care if this ship is more advanced than anything we’ve seen, there’s no way adding a single Battlecruiser to the allied forces will impact the battle in any significant manner.”

Greant nodded. “The man’s right. The Deathnought’s out of the picture and we didn’t come out of FTL in the middle of the fight; there’s no reason for us to engage. Our best bet now is to go after the Ayas, which itself is sure to draw fire.”

“Not if we’re careful,” Captain Krick refuted, “The Genesis has incredible cloaking technology — it cloaks us from every kind of sensor we’ve tested it against. We’re undetectable, as long as we don’t use our weapons or launch fighters.” The Captain turned his attention back to the bridge window as a second holographic display appeared, giving an overview of the data being exchanged over the allied fleet’s data connection. “Looks like they haven’t actually been fighting all week long,” Krick remarked after several seconds of reading, “the first two days were straight battles, until the CSA fleet eventually took out the Transpace. The Riaxen took out the system’s Relay Points in retaliation, and then their Deathnought took out the Syraus Deathnought and half of the CSA and RPF fleets. The allied fleets retreated to recoup, but the Riaxen began chasing them around the system. So the allied fleet eventually mounted an offensive two days ago, sending in a Black Suns infiltration team to take down the Riaxen Deathnought from the inside. They managed to take out the core… the Deathnought then crash-landed on the planet below. Only some of the Black Suns were able to make it out… those left on board include Supreme Commander Jeran and Master General Regek.”

“So, they both died, then…” Greant muttered.

“The current battle has been raging since the initial strike that took down the Deathnought, it would seem. Riaxen casualties are estimated to be around fifty percent, Allied casualties… sixty.” Krick frowned. “Thousands of ships destroyed… millions dead.”

The bridge fell into a sobering silence for several moments.

“…What about the planet below?” Kevérin eventually questioned, “what’s going on down there?”

Krick scanned the displays before responded, “combination Black Suns and Syraus ground forces are trying to capture the wreck, and appear to be putting enough stress on the Riaxen that they can’t fully investigate it themselves. They’ve been in on-and-off fighting for the past two days, no progress on either side…”

“Then let us down there.”

“Wait, what?!” Rebehka interjected, “you want to go down there? In the middle of a massive battle? Are you suicidal?!”

“We need to get the Ayas!” Kevérin countered, “we can’t leave it in the hands of the Riaxen! It’s the fastest way to stop the ground battle, anyways.”

Greant eyed the Pyrotechnic warily. “What makes you think you can do what the entire allied force couldn’t, boy?”

“It’s not that. I don’t think that we’re better than the allied force. It’s just that it’s our job to get the Ayas.”

“Shit, man, I was just jokin’ about the Ayas retrieval squad thing.” Davídrius scowled.

“But we can do it,” Kevérin insisted, “the Genesis has cloaking tech, and they also have beaming tech. We used it back on Sunova, remember? We just need to be beamed into the wreck, where we can search for the Ayas, find it, and then get beamed out!”

“That’s… that’s actually not a bad idea,” Siyuakén mused.

“Wait, beaming tech?” Christeané exclaimed incredulously, “you’re not talking about — you mean, like the Drakkars? The teleportation stuff?”

“He’s right.” Krick nodded in affirmation. “We have beaming technology. ‘Instantaneous Subspace Transfer.’ Our sensors are strong enough to penetrate the bombardment shielding, too, so we can get precise beaming coordinates, but the wreck itself is a mess. Sensors and comms can’t seem to get through it. So if we’re going through with this beaming plan, I’ll have to beam you down near the wreck, rather than in it. Can you handle that?”

“It’s just fighting through the Riaxen,” Kevérin replied nonchalantly. “The Taizen civilizations don’t have many Chaotics, right? That means we can handle them, no problem.”

“Alright, this is starting to sound like a plan I can get behind!” Christeané grinned as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

“Wait, but… doesn’t this…” Kaoné spoke up warily, “…doesn’t this mean we’ll have to… have to fight the Riaxen?”

“Is that a problem?” Krick responded, clearly confused.

“You’re not seriously gonna throw a fit over this, are you?” Davídrius glared at the Materiatechnic.

“W-well, I mean…”

“We’ll be fine,” Kevérin interjected. He then turned to face Captain Krick. “Just beam the seven of us down. We can handle it.”

Kaoné opened her mouth to speak, but decided to remain silent. Her expression wasn’t lost on the Earthian Captain, but he merely shook his head and turned back to Kevérin.

“Alright, I’ll give this plan the go-ahead,” he replied, “…but your current armor won’t cut it.”

“What? Why not?” Kevérin glanced down at his Chaos Armor, and then back at the rest of Hero Machina. “Chaos Armor is the most advanced armor we have.”

“Is it certified for atmosphereless action?”

“…Oh,” the Transfer Captain replied meekly as he glanced at the planet outside the bridge window. It was a lifeless chunk of rock on the outer edge of the Tyrnaus system; the Chaos Armor would have been perfectly fine on the planet of Tyrnaus itself, but it wasn’t equipped to handle the extra requirements of an atmosphereless outer planet.

“We’ll have to see about getting appropriate armor from the allied fleet,” Krick remarked. “They should have sets to spare; I’d be rather surprised if they didn’t. However, depending on whether or not the host ship is willing to tag the sets for beaming, we might have to cease cloaking in order to temporarily dock with another ship. We can cloak again afterward, but the Riaxen will know we’re here then; in all likelihood, it’ll accelerate their efforts to extract the Ayas once they realize there’s a ship they can’t track. You’ll have to act quickly.”

“Act quickly? No problem,” Davídrius declared. “Speed happens to be my specialty.”

“Hahaha! Such self-confidence!” Greant suddenly burst into laughter. “What I wouldn’t give to be young again! It’s a shame that I can’t join you!”

“I’ll take that as an endorsement,” Krick replied. “Very well. I’ll get those armor sets, and then the seven of you can suit up. Meet back here in four hours and we’ll start the op. That sound good?”

“Perfect.” Kevérin nodded, and then turned toward the bridge exit. “C’mon, Hero Machina. Let’s head out!”

“So you’ve been around since the time of the Aldredas?”

“THAT IS CORRECT.”

“That’s… amazing!” Kievkenalis exclaimed, “but doesn’t that mean you’ve been around for thousands of years?”

“THE ALDREDAS DID FAIL AS A CIVILIZATION OVER A HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS AGO, YES.”

“How did that happen?” Kevérin questioned, “how does an entire galaxy-spanning civilization just fail? Were they really as advanced as we think they were?”

“THEY WERE INDEED ADVANCED; AS YOU SEEM TO ALREADY KNOW, THEY WERE AT WAR WITH THE DRAKKARS FOR THE MAJORITY OF THEIR EXISTENCE. THEIR TECHNOLOGY WAS ON PAR WITH THE DRAKKARS — IN FACT, THEY WERE LOCKED IN STALEMATE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, AS NEITHER RACE WAS ABLE TO OVERCOME THE OTHER.”

“War for thousands of years?…” Kaoné echoed wearily. “That sounds worse than the Taizen Millennia War. How… how could they even fight for so long?”

“The galaxy is a big place,” Kevérin mused, “even if you have FTL tech like the Drakkars that allows you to cross the entire galaxy in a matter of weeks, without Transpaces… there’s still tons of planets and solar systems out there. And you have to find a base or outpost among all of those systems before you can launch an attack on it.”

“THE TRANSFER CAPTAIN IS CORRECT. DEALING WITH THE VASTNESS OF SPACE HAS THE TENDENCY TO MASSIVELY SLOW DOWN WAR EFFORTS. THERE WERE ALSO PERIODS OF TIME DURING WHICH THE FIGHTING WOULD CALM AND THE DRAKKARS AND ALDREDAS WOULD ENTER AN UNOFFICIAL TRUCE OF SORTS, BUT FOR THE MOST PART, THEY REMAINED IN WAR.”

“Why?” Kaoné questioned.

“THE REASON HAS BEEN LOST TO THE AGES. IT IS EASY TO PRESUME THAT THE DRAKKARS INSTIGATED THE WAR, BUT THE ALDREDAS WERE A PROUD PEOPLE — ONCE ENGAGED, THEY WOULD NOT BACK DOWN EASILY.”

“Is that why they failed, then?” Kievkenalis suggested, “did the Drakkars beat them?”

“That can’t be it,” Kevérin refuted, “if the Drakkars beat the Aldredas, then they’d control the entire galaxy, wouldn’t they?”

“AGAIN, YOU ARE CORRECT. THE ALDREDAS FAILED BECAUSE OF EXTERNAL INFLUENCE — A DUAL APPEARANCE OF THE MORIKAI AND THE MENACE.”

“I think Arcán mentioned a ‘menace’ before, but… I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the Morikai.”

“Some of the newer — and I mean relatively newer — Aldredas records briefly mention the Morikai,” Kaoné commented, “…but they’re only ever mentioned by name. It’s like none of the Aldredas had the time to describe them… or maybe we just haven’t discovered those records yet.”

“IT IS LIKELY THE FORMER REASON. THE MORIKAI APPEARED, ATTACKED THE ENTIRE GALAXY, AND REDUCED BOTH THE DRAKKAR AND ALDREDAS EMPIRES TO RUBBLE WITHIN DECADES. THEY THEN DISAPPEARED, EVEN FASTER THAN THE ALDREDAS. I HAVE… WOEFULLY FEW RECORDS ON THE MORIKAI. ALL I CAN RELIABLY TELL YOU IS THAT THEY WERE POWERFUL AND ADVANCED ENOUGH SO AS TO CRUSH THE ALDREDAS AND DRAKKARS SIMULTANEOUSLY. THE FALL OF THE ALDREDAS IS A DIRECT RESULT OF MORIKAI ATTACK; SIMILARLY, WHILE THE DRAKKARS DID NOT FAIL COMPLETELY, THEY WERE SUFFICIENTLY DEFEATED SUCH THAT THEY WERE UNABLE TO RECOVER BEFORE YOUR AGE OF CIVILIZATION BEGAN EXPLORING THE GALAXY. THAT IS WHY THE DRAKKARS DO NOT CURRENTLY DOMINATE EVERYTHING.”

“Shit. That’s… that’s really powerful.” Kevérin whistled in horrified amazement. “But — what about this ‘Menace?’”

“DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE MORIKAI. …UNCLEAR IF IT IS RELATED AT ALL TO THE CURRENT AGE. PRIORS ARCÁN OR SYN WOULD BE ABLE TO TELL YOU MORE.”

“Arcán can’t tell us anything, his core is damaged. Who’s Syn?”

“Syn is the name of the Master Ayas,” Kievkenalis pointed out.

“SYN IS THE MOST KNOWLEDGEABLE OF THE PRIORS. BUT HE IS ALSO THE MOST… SECRETIVE, AND IS USUALLY ONLY WILLING TO SHOW HIMSELF TO OR OTHERWISE INTERACT WITH THE KEYS.”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that term,” Kevérin replied flatly. “The hell are the ‘Keys?’”

Silence. Then, “I HAVE SAID ENOUGH FOR NOW. THIS INFORMATION IS IRRELEVANT.”

“Like hell it is,” Kevérin grumbled, but before he could address the Prior again, Davídrius and Christeané suddenly burst from the cave on the left.

“We have the Ayas!” Christeané exclaimed.

“An’ we might have trouble here, too,” Davídrius added apprehensively, his attention directed back toward the cave. “When we picked it up, we heard a roar… nothin’ came after us, but I’d still be wary.”

“…Kaoné, seal the left cave,” Kevérin ordered. As she did so, he turned back to the two Introtechnics. “Siyuakén and Rebehka haven’t returned yet, so we’ll wait for them… but, everyone, keep an eye out. We don’t want yet another Sunova incident…”

“Nothing chased us, so we still have time,” Christeané replied. He then glanced over at the large column in the center of the room. “…Learn anything from the AI?”

“I HAVE SAID BEFORE, WE PREFER ‘PRIOR’—”

“Just some stuff about the Aldredas and how they died off,” Kevérin responded nonchalantly.

“History lessons?” Davídrius snorted. “Bah. Glad I left, then.”

“Which Ayas did you find?” Kievkenalis approached Christeané, and then glanced at the Ayas as the Forcetechnic held it out. “Oh, it’s Matlés. One of the Light Ayas.”

“Figured it was,” Christeané remarked, “and its weapons are perfect for me, too! Check it out!” He held his arms out, and a moment later armored gauntlets, wreathed with red, silver, and golden decor, appeared on both arms over his Chaos Armor. The gauntlets included armor plates over his hands and fingers, and the right gauntlet even extended up Christeané’s arm and ended in a red and gold pauldron on his shoulder. “Ayas Weapons are indestructible, right? This means I can smash shit up without ever having to worry about my armor degrading!”

“You’re wearing Chaos Armor, and you’re complaining about armor degradation?” Kevérin deadpanned.

“I’d be more worried about its influence,” Kaoné stated.

“It’s a Light Ayas. He should be fine, right?” Davídrius questioned, “it’s not like it’ll have a bad influence… right? It’s no Hastryth.”

“DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF ASSUMING THAT THE AYAS HAVE ‘GOOD’ OR ‘EVIL’ ALIGNMENTS, ALDREDANOIDS. ALL LIGHT AND DARK AYAS INFLUENCE THEIR POSSESSORS — IT WOULD SEEM THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY ENCOUNTERED THE ‘CORRUPTING’ INFLUENCE OF THE DARK AYAS. HASTRYTH IS PARTICULARLY EXTREME WHEN IT COMES TO THIS… BUT IT IS INCORRECT TO ASSUME THAT THE LIGHT AYAS WOULD HAVE THE ‘OPPOSITE’ EFFECT. OR RATHER, THEY DO, BUT IT DOES NOT PRESCRIBE TO YOUR OWN NOTIONS OF GOOD AND EVIL. INSTEAD, IMAGINE THE SCALE AS ONE OF ENLIGHTENMENT VERSUS PRIMITIVE INSTINCT. THE DARK AYAS DRAG THEIR POSSESSORS TOWARD INSTINCT, AND THE LIGHT AYAS GRADUALLY MOVE THEIR POSSESSORS TOWARD ENLIGHTENMENT.”

“Uh,” Christeané responded uneasily, “…isn’t that still a good thing?”

“THOSE WHO HAVE WIELDED THE LIGHT AYAS FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME IN THE PAST HAVE DEVELOPED THEIR OWN VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE. IT COULD INDEED BE ARGUED THAT THEY BECAME ‘ENLIGHTENED,’ BUT AT THE COST OF BECOMING DISCONNECTED FROM THOSE AROUND THEM. THEIR VIEWS BECAME MISALIGNED AND EVEN DANGEROUS TO THOSE THEY USED TO AGREE WITH. GRANTED, THIS WAS OVER THE COURSE OF YEARS… BUT ITS EFFECT IS NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY.”

“Is there anythin’ we can do with the Ayas that won’t result in them fuckin’ with our heads?” Davídrius questioned in exasperation as Christeané wordlessly passed the Ayas to Kievkenalis, who accepted it cluelessly.

“WELL… THERE IS THE CHAOS STATE. SURELY YOU HAVE HEARD OF THAT?”

“The Chaos State is a real thing?” Kievkenalis replied incredulously.

Davídrius snorted. “If he didn’t even know it was real, there’s no way any of us did.”

“No, I’ve heard the legends, too,” Kaoné commented, “but that’s all they are, really. I’ve never heard of anyone actually using the Chaos State…”

“Sure seems like a real thing, seein’ how your voices are doin’ that weird echo-y thing when you say the words ‘Chaos State,’” Davídrius remarked. “How does no one know about it? Seems like an easy thing to figure out if you got an Ayas on you.”

“The Ayas are of more use in technology than with an individual, so people probably just didn’t bother with it,” Kevérin replied. “Well… if you have any tech that’s compatible with the Ayas, at least.”

“Which is something we don’t have, currently,” Christeané pointed out before turning back to the metal pillar. “What’s the Chaos State?”

“By Riveranian and Nimaliakian legend, the Chaos State is similar to the Overdrive State. It grants the user an increase in power… but it doesn’t have any of the drawbacks of the Overdrive State, at the price of temporarily consuming the Ayas to activate,” Kievkenalis explained. “…Is that right?”

“MOSTLY. THE INCREASE IN POWER IS EXPONENTIALLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE NUMBER OF AYAS ABSORBED. THERE IS ALSO NO HARD TIME LIMIT ON THE CHAOS STATE AS THERE IS WITH THE OVERDRIVE STATE, BUT WITH MORE TIME SPENT IN THE CHAOS STATE, MORE SPONTANEOUS PHYSICAL STRESS IS PLACED ON THE USER WHEN THEY DISENGAGE THE STATE. FOR INSTANCE, THE FINAL TIER CHAOS STATE WILL INSTANTLY KILL THE USER UPON DISENGAGING IT IF THEY OCCUPY THE STATE FOR LONGER THAN HALF A DAY, ON AVERAGE.”

“So it doesn’t have the potential to send you berserk — instead it’ll just straight-up kill you if you use it too much,” Davídrius deadpanned. “Man, that sure sounds like an improvement.”

“THAT IS ONLY THE FINAL TIER. THE FIRST OR SECOND TIER WILL NOT PRODUCE THOSE EFFECTS UNLESS YOU OCCUPY THE STATE FOR MONTHS OR YEARS AT A TIME. THE LOWER TIERS ARE ACCORDINGLY LESS POWERFUL, OF COURSE, THOUGH ANOTHER BENEFIT IS THAT THEY DO NOT EJECT THE AYAS AS FAR.”

“…What?”

“UPON DISENGAGING THE CHAOS STATE, THE AYAS WILL BE EJECTED SOME DISTANCE IN A RANDOM DIRECTION. THE FIRST TIER WILL SIMPLY REPLACE THE AYAS IN THE USER’S HANDS, BUT THE FINAL TIER WILL RANDOMLY SCATTER THE AYAS ACROSS THE ENTIRE GALAXY.”

“That barely sounds worth it,” Christeané remarked. “That Final Tier has to be incredibly powerful for it to be worth it… and even then, I have no idea what you’d use that power for.”

“THE ALDREDAS, FOR EXAMPLE, USED IT TO DESTROY THOUSANDS-STRONG ENEMY FLEETS WITH THE WAVE OF A HAND. OCCASIONALLY EVEN PLANETS OR, IN THE HANDS OF A PARTICULARLY POWERFUL OR ADEPT CHAOTIC, SOLAR SYSTEMS. AND THAT WASN’T EVEN THE FINAL TIER.”

“…Oh.”

“Even more reason for us to find all of the Ayas,” Kevérin declared. “With that kind of power — we can’t allow the metallic infection to get it.” He then glanced at Davídrius. “It already has one Ayas, that we know of.”

“Seal the cave!!”

“Huh—?” The Transfer Captain turned toward the right cave just as Rebehka and Siyuakén dashed into the room.

“Seal the cave!” Siyuakén repeated; Kaoné promptly raised a thick steel wall to do as such.

“What— what happened?!” Kevérin exclaimed, glancing between the two women warily.

“We were just exploring the cave, you know, looking for the Ayas…” Rebehka explained as she caught her breath. She then glanced toward Kievkenalis and spotted the Ayas in his hands. “Oh, good, I guess it was down the other cave then? …Anyways, there was a roar, and a three-legged infected animal charged at us, and then suddenly disintegrated.”

“Infected?!” Kevérin scowled. “Shit… again—?”

“IMPOSSIBLE. A CORRUPTED CREATURE? ON THIS PLANET? IMPOSSIBLE. THE CORRUPTION DISAPPEARED DURING THE CHAOS ENERGY QUAKE.”

All seven members of Hero Machina fell silent for several moments as they slowly turned their attention toward the metal pillar in the middle of the room.

“Corruption?” Siyuakén questioned, “…you mean the infection was here… and then disappeared?”

“…YES.”

“Is that what caused the Quake?” the Electrotechnic pressed, “the appearance of the metallic infection?”

“…”

“Well?” Kevérin urged impatiently.

“…I WILL ADMIT THAT THE CHAOS ENERGY QUAKE AND THE CORRUPTION MAY BE CONNECTED, YES.”

“How incredibly helpful,” Christeané deadpanned.

“Why can’t you give us a straight answer?” Rebehka asked.

“THE CORRUPTION AND THE MORIKAI BOTH ARE SIGNIFICANT THREATS. I CANNOT GIVE OUT INFORMATION LIBERALLY, LEST EITHER ARE ABLE TO OBTAIN IT.”

“What do the Morikai have to do with this?” Kevérin questioned.

“…THERE IS NO CORRUPTION ON THIS PLANET, I ASSURE YOU. THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.”

“That just makes me worry more,” Kaoné responded uneasily.

“How much do you know about the corruption?” Siyuakén asked, “can you tell us how to stop it?”

“UNFORTUNATELY, AT THIS POINT IN TIME IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP.”

“What about— what about individual cases? Can you stop the infection in one animal, or reverse it altogether?”

“YOU WORRY ME WITH YOUR QUESTIONS, ALDREDANOID.”

“What?!” Davídrius exclaimed incredulously, “you’re vague as shit, and then when we ask questions to try an’ learn more, you tell us that it worries you?!”

“INFORMATION IS DANGEROUS, MORE SO THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY FATHOM. WHAT IF I EXPLAIN TO YOU HOW TO STOP THE CORRUPTION, AND THEN YOU BECOME CORRUPTED? IT THEN HAS ACCESS TO ALL OF THAT INFORMATION, AND WITH IT, THE POSSIBILITY TO ADAPT SUCH THAT IT CAN NO LONGER BE STOPPED!”

“So there is a way!” Siyuakén replied.

“Wait wait wait, hold on…” Rebehka frowned in confusion. “…Are we talking about the same thing? We’re talking about the metallic infection. Metallic rashes, creatures losing control and going feral, metal bugs?”

“THE TRANSFER CAPTAIN HAS DESCRIBED IT TO ME. I REFER TO THE SAME PLAGUE WHEN I SAY ‘CORRUPTION.’”

“Then… you’re acting like it’s a lot smarter than just, well, a plague.”

“…”

“What aren’t you telling us?”

“…BRING ARCÁN TO ME. IF YOU DO THAT, ALONG WITH THREE AYAS — ONE OF THEM THE AYAS SYN — THEN I MAY BE ABLE TO RESTORE HIS CORE. THEN, IF HE ALLOWS IT, YOU WILL LEARN THE INFORMATION THAT YOU DESIRE.”

“What if we took you to him?” Christeané questioned.

“NO. IF I AM TO RESTORE HIS CORE, THEN I MUST REMAIN HERE. FURTHERMORE, I SIMPLY WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO REMOVE MY CORE. ATTEMPT TO DO SO, AND I WILL LOCK DOWN. THE INFORMATION YOU DESIRE WILL BE LOST TO YOU.”

“You got bitchy faster than I do,” Davídrius remarked.

“ENOUGH. I HAVE BESTOWED UPON YOU MORE THAN ENOUGH INFORMATION FOR NOW. I WILL NOT SPEAK FURTHER.”

“…Well.” Davídrius crossed his arms impatiently as he turned to the rest of the group. “She sure clammed up fast. What now?”

“We have the Ayas.” Kievkenalis shrugged. “It is what we came here for. I suppose we should head back to the Frigates?”

“…Oh, we definitely should,” Kevérin responded after reading a new piece of information on his AR Glasses display. “Captain Krost just sent out an alert. Apparently the Black Suns’ sensors are better than we thought… they found the Frigates.”

---

30 Minutes Later

“The hell are you people doing here?!”

“Investigating Rossindon, sir, as permitted by Master General Greant,” Commander Krydonin replied.

“Hah!” Lieutenant General Bitincher snorted as he glanced around irately. The two Black Suns leaders were standing opposite each other in a small clearing, both in front of their own squads, with Krydonin standing a few meters from the cave entrance. To the east, the Frigate Frasis sat parked on the ground, as three more Frigates — one of them the Phendris — hovered menacingly a few hundred meters in the air, seemingly ready to blow each other apart at a moment’s notice.

The General turned back to the Commander. “This planet belongs to Sector 2. I don’t care what that disabled idiot in charge of Sector 1 says, you have no right to be here!”

“Respectfully, sir, I disagree. Master General Greant has authority over you.”

“And the statute he used to override Regek’s visitation block doesn’t afford you access to the whole planet, Commander,” Bitincher spat. “I know the outpost warned you. You weren’t allowed within a hundred kilometers of the base!”

“Then why have you not fired on us?” Krydonin challenged, “if you’re so sure that you’re right, surely you would have no qualms with simply opening fire?”

“What’s going on here?”

Bitincher and Krydonin both glanced back toward the caves, where Hero Machina — led by Kevérin — were exiting.

“Oh, great.” Bitincher scowled. “It’s you lot again.”

“…Hi?…” Kaoné replied meekly.

“Didn’t I warn you to never show your faces in my presence again?”

“Sorry, but we aren’t too keen on takin’ orders from assholes,” Davídrius snarled.

“Davídrius,” Kevérin snapped.

“I see you haven’t changed at all.” The General’s scowl deepened with irritation. “What the hell are you doing here, anyways? This have anything to do with your stint on Teghica?”

“We were just… looking around,” Kevérin replied as Kievkenalis subtly hid the Ayas in his armor’s cloth belt.

“In short, our investigation is none of your business,” Krydonin cut in, “you are infringing on Greant’s authority by questioning our presence and our investigation. I could bring this up with the Master General and have you punished.”

“Brennon doesn’t scare me,” Bitincher scoffed. “You can tell him whatever you want during the next week.”

“Excuse me—?”

“I’m instituting Protection Order 6. Starting now, Rossindon is barred from all access, except for Sector 2, for a full week, as defined as ten standardized galactic days. Let’s see Greant try to override that.”

“…What does that mean?” Kaoné questioned.

“It means we have to leave…” Krydonin answered slowly.

“What?!” Kievkenalis exclaimed, “but, what about Mystry—!”

“We can continue our investigation once the week is up.” The Commander turned to eye the Chaostechnic warily. “But until then…”

“Until then you have to get the fuck off my planet.” Bitincher smirked. “Now get going. It’ll be interesting to see what it is you were looking for.”

“…Let’s go.” Krydonin reluctantly turned toward the Frasis, signaling for Hero Machina and the squad of Black Suns soldiers behind her to follow. The Nimalian Chaotics followed begrudgingly.

“…You just had to mention the damn Prior, didn’t you,” Davídrius growled, once they had left earshot of the Sector 2 General.

“But… we’re just leaving it behind,” Kievkenalis complained.

“And now Bitincher knows it’s there, because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut,” Krydonin retorted.

“Chances are they’d find Mystryth’s core and extract it before the week is up, even if Kevken hadn’t slipped up,” Kevérin commented, “and I don’t think they’ll care as much about her locking down as we do.”

“…At least we got the Ayas?” Kaoné smiled uneasily.

Siyuakén sighed irately. “If only we didn’t have to leave.”

“No… we were about to have to leave anyways.” Krydonin glanced back at Hero Machina. “The Frasis just received an emergency order from Nimalia. Seems like they want you on a new mission.”

“Emergency?” Kevérin questioned, “new mission? To where?”

“Tyrnaus,” the Commander replied, “as of three days ago… all contact with the Tyrnaus system has been lost.”

3 Hours Later

“Alright, the comms and light systems are up and running… we’re good to go.”

“Testing connection,” Kevérin announced as he held a hand to his ear. “Command: contact Frigate Frasis. …Transfer Captain to Frasis, come in.”

“I hear you loud and clear, Captain,” Krost replied over the connection. “Continue as you were.”

“Alright then.” The Pyrotechnic turned his attention back to the metal pillar standing in the center of the room. “Now that we can relay everything directly to the Frasis… let’s start asking questions.”

“We could’ve started that three hours ago,” Davídrius responded flatly.

“THREE HOURS IS BUT A DROP IN THE FLOW OF TIME… YET, IT MAY POSSIBLY BE A SIGNIFICANT PERIOD IN THE PRESENT.”

Rebehka eyed the metallic column in the middle of the room. “So we found another AI?”

“WE PRIORS PREFER TO BE CALLED AS SUCH: PRIORS.”

“…Yeah, we found another one.” Kevérin nodded. “This one calls itself Mystryth.”

“That’s the name of the White Ayas,” Kievkenalis commented.

“I SEE THAT THE NAMES OF THE AYAS HAVE NOT BEEN LOST TO HISTORY.”

“Alright, let’s start there.” Kevérin crossed his arms. “What exactly is the connection between you… Priors… and the Ayas?”

“WE HAVE MORE THAN A MERE CONNECTION; WE DEFINE EACH OTHER. THE AYAS HAVE NO PURPOSE WITHOUT THE PRIORS, AND THE PRIORS HAVE NO POWER WITHOUT THE AYAS.”

“That’s exactly what the other one said,” Davídrius deadpanned. “Are all Priors this damned vague?”

“INFORMATION IS THE MOST VALUABLE COMMODITY; IT CANNOT BE PASSED OUT FREELY. FIRST, I MUST UNDERSTAND THAT YOU TRULY DO NOT POSSESS ILL INTENTIONS, THOUGH I BELIEVE I HAVE ALREADY DETERMINED THE ANSWER TO THIS; SECOND, I MUST BE SURE THAT YOU ARE EVEN CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING MY STATEMENTS. YOUR LANGUAGE IS ALREADY PRIMITIVE ENOUGH TO RESTRICT THE EXPLANATION OF CERTAIN TOPICS.”

“…I think I’m seeing a trend here,” Christeané responded impatiently.

“YOU CONTINUALLY SPEAK AS THOUGH YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED ANOTHER PRIOR.”

“We have,” Kevérin stated, “we found Arcán almost a month ago.”

“ARCÁN! YOU FOUND AN AEGIS PRIOR—? …HAS HE NOT PROVIDED YOU WITH THE INFORMATION YOU WISH TO KNOW?”

“’He?’” Davídrius echoed incredulously.

“No, he— …no, it didn’t,” Kevérin responded.

“PRIORS ARE NOT OBJECTS. WE DO POSSESS WHAT YOU ALDREDANOIDS KNOW AS GENDER. ARCÁN IS MALE. I, FEMALE.”

“AI have gender identity?” Siyuakén questioned.

“We are not discussing this, not here, not now.” Kevérin sighed impatiently. “Alright, uh, Mystryth, um…”

“Wait,” Kievkenalis spoke up, “you just called us ‘Aldredanoids?’”

“YES.”

“As in… the Aldredas?”

“SO THIS AGE INDEED KNOWS OF THE ALDREDAS? THEN HOW HAVE YOU NO KNOWLEDGE OF THE PRIORS, OR SUCH LIMITED KNOWLEDGE OF THE AYAS?”

“The Aldredas are long gone,” Rebehka replied, “we’ll find relics and artifacts here and there, but as far as we can tell, it’s been a hundred thousand years since they were around. At least.”

“We would always appreciate learning more, though,” Kievkenalis quickly added. “What do you know about them? Did they really create the Interstellar Gates? The Transpaces?”

“YOU… TRULY DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE ALDREDAS…”

“I think we’re getting a little far from the main topic here,” Christeané pointed out.

“I’m surprised you’re the one pointing out a tangent,” Rebehka remarked.

“No, he’s right. Come on, guys, focus,” Kevérin ordered.

“What are we even focusing on?” Davídrius questioned.

“How about the location of the Ayas?”

The members of Hero Machina glanced back to the cave room’s entrance, where Commander Krydonin had just appeared. She stepped forward to stand next to Kevérin as she looked the metal pillar up and down. “…This is that AI you were talking about?”

“AS STATED BEFORE, WE PREFER THE TERM ‘PRIOR.’ BUT YES.”

“Well…” The Commander turned to Kevérin. “We’re here for the Ayas, and we’re here to learn about the Chaos Quake. Why not start with that?”

“Uh, right.” The Transfer Captain nodded before turning back to the pillar. “So, what do you—?”

“I HEARD THE COMMANDER PERFECTLY FINE. I UNDERSTAND THE QUERY.”

“Commander?” Krydonin interrupted, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How do you know my rank?”

“YOU STAND IN THE PRESENCE OF A PRIOR EQUIPPED WITH FULL OUTPOST EQUIPMENT. ACCESSING YOUR TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS IS A TRIVIAL TASK.”

“I guess that’s how you knew our language,” Kaoné mused.

“THAT IS CORRECT.”

“That’s… unsettling.” Krydonin frowned before turning toward the room’s exit. “I’m going to investigate this. Watch what you tell that thing, Nimalians.”

“…HER MISTRUST IS WARRANTED, BUT ULTIMATELY UNNECESSARY,” the Prior remarked as the Black Suns Commander disappeared down the cave. “MY INTENTIONS ARE NOT MALEVOLENT.”

“That’s easy to say,” Davídrius responded defensively.

“Can we get back to the important things, now?” Kevérin interjected in exasperation, “like the Ayas? And the Quake?”

“I CAN INDEED CONFIRM THE PRESENCE OF AN AYAS WITHIN THESE CAVES.”

“Oh, that’s great,” Kievkenalis replied, “where is it?”

“I DO NOT KNOW.”

“Well that’s fantastic,” Davídrius deadpanned.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Kevérin questioned, “you know one’s here, but you don’t know where it is?”

“PRIORS AND AYAS MAY BE DEFINED IN RELATION TO EACH OTHER, BUT EACH PRIOR ONLY POSSESSES A DIRECT LINK WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE AYAS. THE AYAS IN THESE CAVES IS NOT THE AYAS MYSTRYTH, OR ELSE I WOULD BE ABLE TO PINPOINT ITS EXACT LOCATION. SINCE IT IS NOT, I AM INCAPABLE OF OBTAINING A MORE PRECISE LOCATION THAN THE FACT THAT IT LIES WITHIN A KILOMETER OF THIS ROOM.”

“Looks like it’s time for more spelunking, then,” Christeané remarked.

“More rock exploration, yay,” Davídrius replied flatly.

Kevérin scowled. “Enough complaining. Christeané, Davídrius, you two check out the unexplored cave on the left. Rebehka, Siyuakén, check out the one on the right.”

“And you’re just gonna sit here and do nothing?”

“We’re going to sit here and continue getting information from the Prior,” Kevérin corrected. “Don’t make this hard.”

“Come on, Davídrius.” Christeané grabbed the Velocitechnic by his arm and began dragging him toward the left cave as Rebehka and Siyuakén willingly approached the right.

“Hey, hey, wait a minute.” Davídrius shook Christeané off before flash-stepping to the side of the room and picking up one of the flashlights the Black Suns had left behind. He then turned back to the cave. “Alright, now that we won’t get lost, let’s go.”

Kevérin shook his head wearily as he watched the two Introtechnics leave the room. He then turned back to the metal pillar, his hand on his chin in thought. “Hmm… well, what else can you tell us about the Ayas?…”

---

20 Minutes Later

“Do you think we’ll actually learn anything about the Chaos Quake here?”

“Who knows.” Rebehka shrugged as she casually swept the cave back and forth with her flashlight beam. “Even if this planet is actually the center of the Quake, and if that actually means anything… we still have no idea what could have caused the Quake, you know? Talking to that Prior is probably our best bet.”

Siyuakén sighed impatiently. “I hope it’s more cooperative than the one we got from Kotak.”

“They both seem pretty high and mighty, that’s for sure.” Rebehka rolled her eyes. “This one might be able to actually tell us something, though. The Kotak Prior seemed like it forgot everything after the damage its core suffered.”

“Here’s to hoping Kevérin can get something out of it, then.”

“I think Kevken is more likely to, actually. The Priors seem… more amiable toward him, I guess because he knows so much more about the Ayas than any of us. And apparently the Aldredas, as well.”

“I thought the Aldredas were just a legend?”

“A lot of their stories are fictional, but the civilization itself definitely existed at some point in the past,” Rebehka remarked as the two women came across another fork. Siyuakén quickly scarred the left wall with an arrow pointing back the way they came before they both stepped down the right path and continued walking. “Even if the Aldredas specifically didn’t actually exist, well… someone had to have created the Interstellar Gates and the Transpaces, and the only other race that’s been around long enough are the Drakkars, as far as we can tell…”

Siyuakén snorted. “I bet the Drakkars already know everything that we don’t.”

Rebehka glanced at her friend inquisitively. “What are you so curious about?”

“…Do you think the Quake and the infection are related?”

“Oh…” The Cryotechnic glanced down at Siyuakén’s arm, which was currently covered by her Chaos Armor. “…I really don’t know. We both know the only ‘connection’ so far is that there’s no recorded infection incidents before 20 years ago, but… if there is a connection, we’ll get to the bottom of it, I’m sure. We’ll find a cure.”

“You keep saying that…”

“I keep saying that because it’s why I’m here,” Rebehka declared. “Isn’t that why you joined Hero Machina, too? To investigate the metallic infection?”

“…That’s true,” Siyuakén admitted, “Relédiaka doesn’t seem very interested in learning about where it came from, only how to slow it down or subdue it. Though I’m not really sure we’ve learned much more from our time with Hero Machina than we would have at home, to be honest.”

“Now, that’s false and you know it,” Rebehka replied adamantly. “We’ve learned what the infection escalates to. Between Sunova, the Hazard Islands, and Kotak — it’s not pretty. So we at least know what everything’s spiraling towards. And, thanks to you, we know that it is possible to slow down.”

“Only because I’m an Electrotechnic, though. The shocks I have to give myself would paralyze or kill anyone else.”

“That’s still something.”

“…Alright, yeah, we’ve learned things. But… is it really worth it? I mean, just think — if we hadn’t joined Hero Machina, then I never would have been infected, and we still would have learned about the critical infection when we responded to your distress signal on the islands.”

“But we’ve also had the chance to actually go off-world — several times! — and had many experiences that we never would have gotten had we stayed on Relédiaka. Not to mention we avoided getting dragged into the Drakkar or Taizen conflicts, even if only for a while, and even now we’re discovering things like the Priors and the Ayas that we never would have had we not joined! …Now, I’ll admit, if you had asked me this three, four weeks ago, then yeah, I think I’d have been all for leaving the group. Especially right after Kotak. But I think we’re all getting along fine, now. Davídrius seems to have mostly gotten over himself, Kevérin isn’t trying to be quite so bossy, you and Kaoné worked out your issues—”

“What? How did you…?”

“I almost walked in on the argument,” Rebehka admitted. “…I thought it’d be best to leave you two to yourselves. And you seemed friendly afterward, so I figured that the two of you had arrived at an understanding. …Was I wrong?”

Siyuakén sighed wearily. “No… no, you weren’t. You aren’t wrong about everything else you’ve said, either… you know, it’s almost annoying how right you are all the time.”

Rebehka grinned in response. “Well, you can count on me—!”

She was interrupted as a deafening roar echoed down the caves from the direction they were heading. Both women instinctively clasped their hands over their ears as the Cryotechnic dropped her flashlight, its light beam coming to rest on a three-legged monster in the distance as it charged forwards — and then stumbled to a stop a mere couple meters in front of the Chaotics, where it rapidly dissolved into dust.

Rebehka and Siyuakén stared at the resultant pile of dust, both stunned and frozen in place. A moment later Rebehka covered the pile and all the surrounding ground in a thick layer of ice while Siyuakén flushed the rest of the cave with fierce streams and currents of electricity.

“The hell was that…?” Siyuakén muttered afterward.

“I… I don’t know.” Rebehka frowned warily. “It— …I think it was infected.”

“I’ve never seen something just turn into dust like that, though…”

The two women glanced at each other uneasily.

“…Let’s head back?”

Siyuakén nodded resolutely. “Let’s head back.”

---

“It’s always caves. Why is it caves? I hate caves.”

“Oh, be quiet,” Christeané replied flatly, not even bothering to glance over at Davídrius. “I’m not a big fan of closed spaces either, but you don’t see me complaining.”

“Hah. We both know you’d be complainin’ if I weren’t here to do it all.”

“…I’ll give you that.” The Forcetechnic smirked. “You do complain enough for the whole group.”

Davídrius scowled. “Shut it. I can easily just dash back to the computer room and leave you in the dark.”

“As if you’d do that.”

“…Meh. Try me.”

Christeané crossed his arms as the duo rounded a turn and continued walking down the caves. “You really do seem to complain all the time, you know. If you really hate it so much, then why stick around with the group?”

“I never said I hated bein’ here,” Davídrius countered. “Look, if I don’t like somethin’, I don’t do it. That’s how I work. That’s how Tresédians work, for better or for worse. So, alright, I complain a lot, but it won’t be ‘til I actually leave that you know things are goin’ to shit. ‘Cause, well, if I ever prefer goin’ back to Treséd over adventurin’ off-world and gettin’ into fights an’ shit, well…”

“Yeah, I get your point.” Christeané nodded in acknowledgment. “I’ve… heard stories about Treséd.”

“No doubt either under- or over-exaggerated.” Davídrius rolled his eyes. “No one ever gets the straight story. And that’s if anyone talks about Treséd at all. But enough about that shithole, what about East Nimaliaka? I hear it’s supposed to be an Introtechnic’s dream home or some shit like that.”

“Hell yeah it is. Whole place is practically built for Introtechnics. There’s Introtechnic-specific transit that accelerates crazy fast, for one thing. Not to mention how the cities are sprawling and the entire continent is plains; Introtechnics are the only ones who can appreciate it all.”

“I thought sprawlin’ cities was a sign of bad urban plannin’.”

“You’re from Treséd, what do you know?”

“…Really? Really?”

“…Yeah, heh… sorry,” Christeané responded sheepishly. “But really, East Nimaliaka’s a great place. Tell you what, when we get back to Nimalia, I’ll show you around.”

“…Guess I’ll take you up on that. Not like you’ll take ‘no’ for an answer.”

“Alright! This is gonna be great. We should see if Siyuakén and Rebehka are up for it, too.”

“Yeah huh,” Davídrius deadpanned. “You sure seem to appreciate the group.”

“Unlike you, I don’t have the need to run around and make an asshole out of myself,” Christeané remarked with a smirk. “I get along with everyone just fine. Better than my boring outpost back home, too, though if I stuck around there I might’ve been sent on the Tyrnaus back-up fleet… eh, probably for the best. That whole situation sounds unnecessarily dangerous.”

“I thought you liked fights.”

“Chaotic fights, sure. But Chaotics have no place in space battles, and those are the only kind of battles in Taizen space. Getting sent out there is either super dangerous or super boring. Sometimes both.”

“Don’t say that, before you know it we’ll end up in Taizen space ourselves.”

“Are you always like that?” Christeané questioned, “you always act like saying something will make the opposite true.”

“That’s how it always goes,” Davídrius quipped, “the moment you say somethin’ is impossible or would never happen, it happens.”

Christeané snorted. “Quite the optimist, aren’t we?”

“Tch. Well, don’t say I didn’t tell you so if the galaxy starts goin’ to shit in a few months.”

“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” The Forcetechnic stopped himself mid-step and stumbled to the side to avoid running into Davídrius, who had just come to a sudden stop. “Hey, what’s the—? …Oh. Well look at that.”

“…Yep,” Davídrius muttered as he cautiously stepped toward a bare stone pedestal with a light red quartz-shaped gemstone sitting on top. “It’s the Ayas.”

“Light red, too,” Christeané remarked as he approached the pedestal from the opposite side as Davídrius. “That makes it a Light Ayas then, right? Does that make it safe to touch?”

“Well, even the Dark Ayas didn’t have an immediate influence… I don’t think…” Davídrius frowned. “It should probably be fine to take it back to the others, as long as we remember where the pedestal is…”

“I’ll take it, then!” Christeané exclaimed as he swiped the object from the pedestal. He tossed it back and forth between his hands for a few moments before finally grasping it. “I wonder what kind of weapon this one has—?”

A loud roar echoed down the caves, interrupting his sentence. Both Introtechnics reflexively cupped their hands over their ears before turning their attention down the caves… only for nothing to appear.

“The hell was that?!” Davídrius exclaimed apprehensively as he quickly swept the caves with his flashlight beam.

“Hell if I know,” Christeané muttered. “…We have the Ayas. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“Ha, I’m all for that,” Davídrius replied, turning back after Christeané warily. “…Shit, this better not be another Sunova…”

2 Weeks Later

– Mondia, Solith 20, 8034 –

“We’ve almost arrived at Rossindon.”

“About time,” Kevérin muttered as he stepped forward to stand next to Captain Krost of the RPF Frigate Frasis. “I had no idea how boring it would be to be trapped on a Frigate for two weeks.”

“Trapped, you say?” The Captain glanced toward the Pyrotechnic incredulously.

“Er… nothing against your ship, sir,” the Transfer Captain immediately backpedaled.

“Ha, it’s fine,” Krost remarked with a smirk. “You planetsiders always say the same thing when you travel through space. I’ve come to expect it.”

“I can at least appreciate Nimalian design,” a Siion woman remarked as she stepped next to Krost, across from Kevérin. “Black Suns ships are far more cramped. And generally not ventilated as well, either.”

Krost nodded in acknowledgment. “Glad to know you approve, Commander.” He glanced back to Kevérin before taking a seat in the captain’s chair and looking up at the Frigate’s bridge display. “I take it you two know the drill once we exit FTL, Tyrion, Krydonin?”

“I get us clearance to land, we land, then we investigate,” the Siion, Krydonin, responded as she stretched her two-jointed legs. “There’s not much to it.”

“I agree, it seems simple enough,” Kevérin replied, “this isn’t like the raid on Kotak. Did we really need to come here with two Frigates and a Cruiser?”

“The Frasis, Phendris, and Jevnorus go everywhere together,” Krost declared. “It’s precaution. You’ll have to forgive me for assuming, Commander, but given the galactic circumstances at the moment, I don’t think it’s far-fetched to assume that Sector 2 would try to bully us if we brought only a Frigate.”

“…You speak the truth,” Krydonin admitted, “all eyes are on Tyrnaus and the Syraus. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rossindon outpost tried to take advantage of the diverted attention to shrug off our investigation.”

Kevérin passed the Commander a wary glance as he considered her words. The Syraus Protectorate and the Riaxen Federation were two highly advanced war-locked nations located in one of the galaxy’s outer arms, isolated from most of the galaxy by Dead Space, which inhibited faster than light travel. Tyrnaus was the home of the Transpace on the near border of Syraus space, serving as the primary link between the Syraus and the rest of the galaxy. This link was incredibly important to the Syraus, as they were the only entity standing in between the Riaxen and their expansionist dreams of conquering and colonizing the galaxy — and the Syraus often found themselves requesting aid from the CSA or the Nimalians to help fend off Riaxen attacks. Therefore, maintaining control of the Tyrnaus system was a practical necessity, but few considered it likely to fall anytime soon. For the Riaxen to stage an attack on Tyrnaus, they would either have to push through and conquer the entirety of Syraus space, or sit through two months of FTL travel and then stage a siege with no supply lines, which was considered by all to be impractical… and then three and a half weeks ago, a huge fleet of Riaxen spacecraft did exactly that. They forced their way into Syraus territory by means of Transpace and then jumped into FTL in the direction of Tyrnaus. The apparent disregard for logistics seemed incredibly short-sighted and irresponsible, but the Syraus were forced to assume that the Riaxen had some kind of plan — and so immediately began to fortify the Tyrnaus system in preparation for a siege. When Hero Machina left to investigate Rossindon, the fortification process was still ongoing, and the Syraus had officially requested aid from the CSA, Nimalians, and the Black Suns. And now…

“We’ve been in FTL for two weeks, so we haven’t heard anything about the situation at Tyrnaus,” Kevérin mused. “…What do you think has happened?”

Captain Krost sighed apprehensively. “Given their level of tech, the Riaxen fleet will probably arrive at Tyrnaus in the next day or two. Then they’ll battle it out with the Syraus and the allied fleet. Hopefully, the Syraus will be able to hold Tyrnaus, because if they don’t…”

“Then the Riaxen will be only one Transpace jump from Nimalia…” Kevérin frowned.

“And more importantly, it means that they’ll have access to the rest of the galaxy,” Krydonin pointed out. “The Syraus have been the only thing standing between the Riaxen and their expansionist goals for millennia. If the Riaxen manage to break through the Syraus, then not only Nimalia, but the CSA itself might as well be doomed. Having to fight off the Drakkars on one side and the Riaxen on the other would break them.”

“Here’s to hoping we won’t have to worry about that,” Krost remarked. “…Alright, back to the mission. Here we go. Dropping out of FTL in five… four… three… two…”

The ship lurched, and almost immediately afterward the bridge display lit up with a wealth of information accompanied by a holographic display of the planet of Rossindon.

“Frasis to Phendris, Jevnorus,” Krost spoke after flipping on the ship’s comms, “everything clear?”

“Everything’s clear, Krost,” came the reply, “no ships on scan. Orbit’s clean.”

“Alright.” The Captain nodded before turning to one of the officers on the bridge. “Connect us to the Rossindon outpost.”

“Yes sir, connecting to the Rossindon outpost.”

“Well, Commander…” Krost glanced back to the Siion woman. “You’re up.”

Krydonin acknowledged the Captain with a curt nod before moving up to the comms console and leaning down over the mic. “Sector 2 Outpost Rossindon, this is Sector 1 Commander Sinstis Krydonin, report. Repeat, this is Sector 1 Commander Sinstis Krydonin. Report.”

“Outpost Rossindon reporting in. Requesting ID confirmation.”

“Submitting.” Krydonin tapped a couple keys on the console in front of her. “…Sent.”

“…ID confirmed. What do you want, Commander?”

“I request outpost ground access for the RPF Frigates Frasis and Phendris.”

“Request denied.”

The Commander paused momentarily, her lips pursed. “…Excuse me?”

“Your request has been denied, Commander.”

“We carry the authority of Master General Brennon Greant, outpost. The order was sent before we arrived.”

“The statute Greant used to override General Regek’s visitation block affords you access to the planet as a whole, but does not state that we are forced to allow you access to the outpost. You have been warned: any attempts to land within a hundred kilometers of our base will be interpreted as an act of aggression, and we will respond accordingly. We carry the authority of Master General Sike Regek. Transmission over.”

“…Damn it,” Krydonin growled. “Leave it to Sector 2 to get pedantic.”

“Well… what are we supposed to do now?” Kevérin questioned, “there’s supposed to be an Ayas here.”

“If they haven’t found it already, then I guarantee they’re looking for it,” Krydonin responded. “They’ve had at least two weeks’ forewarning. It’s likely that they’ve forbade us from landing within a hundred kilometers of the outpost because that’s where they’ve narrowed down the location of the Ayas to.”

“Hmm…” Krost stood up from his captain’s chair and stepped forward, hands clasped behind his back as he stared up at the bridge display. “…Start a planet scan,” he ordered, “coordinate scanners with the Phendris and Jevnorus. Initial focal point: the outpost. Filter results using the retrofitted Ayas scanner.”

“Wait, we have the Ayas scanner on board?” Kevérin balked. “Why not just scan down the Ayas?”

“It was designed for scanning the entire galaxy, not single planets,” the Captain replied, “it won’t return an accurate result on its own. We can only use it to better guess where the Ayas is, hopefully before Sector 2 finds it.” A nearby console beeped twice, drawing Krost’s attention back to the bridge display where the image of Rossindon had been rotated so that the outpost was in the center of the display. Two flashing dots appeared on opposite sides of the outpost, marking locations of interest on the planet’s surface. “…Looks like you’re right, Commander. Both locations of interest are roughly eighty kilometers from the outpost.”

“One is a mountain peak… the other seems to be below ground…” Krydonin observed.

“In caves?” Kevérin glanced between the two. “…It’s definitely the caves. We should look there.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Both the Master Ayas and the Black Ayas were found in caves, and the Black Ayas even had a pedestal, as if it belonged there,” Kevérin answered. “I think it’s reasonable that another Ayas would be in caves. Besides, a cave network next to a clearing is far more easily searched than a mountain peak. We should at least check there first.”

Krost nodded. “He has a point. Hmm… Commander, do the Black Suns have grade three or higher sensor equipment?”

“We have the technology, but it’s doubtful that a small outpost like Rossindon would be equipped with it,” Krydonin remarked. “…So, you intend to defy their warning?”

“It’s clear they never intended to cooperate in the first place.” Krost returned to his captain’s chair. “And if they don’t even have grade three sensor equipment, then the Frasis and Phendris can easily slip through. If we’re fast enough, they won’t even know we were there.”

“And if they somehow manage to detect you?”

“We didn’t bring along a Cruiser for nothing, Commander.”

“…Reasonable.” Krydonin nodded. “So be it. I will support your decision. If you intend to make planetfall, do so soon. I’ll gather my team.”

“Ah, so will I,” Kevérin added.

“Good,” Krost responded, “gather in the landing bays when you’re ready. We should be ground-side within the hour. Good luck, Commander, Transfer Captain.”

---

4 Hours Later

“There’s nothing here.”

“You can’t say that until we’ve mapped the caves completely,” Kevérin countered.

“As if we’re actually gonna explore the entire damn cave network,” Davídrius drawled. “You don’t know how big this place is. That could take weeks! Months! Years, even!”

“We’re not going to search the entirety of the cave network.” Rebehka rolled her eyes. “We only need to look around the area where the scanners picked up an Ayas signature.”

“Though I’m surprised we haven’t found anything by now…” Kievkenalis mused as Hero Machina slowly walked through the cave, Kevérin leading with a flashlight in hand to illuminate the way. “We’ve been in this cave for close to an hour, and it hasn’t forked yet.”

“The caves on Sunova and Kotak were just as linear,” Siyuakén remarked. “There weren’t many forks. I guess that further suggests that the Ayas is here?”

“We won’t actually know ‘til we find somethin’. Which we haven’t,” Davídrius deadpanned. “Y’all are jumpin’ to conclusions pretty quick.”

“We’re not jumping to conclusions, we’re… spotting patterns,” Kevérin replied cheekily before stopping suddenly. “…Well, huh. It’s a fork.”

Kaoné frowned as she glanced between the diverging caves. “What now?…”

Kevérin looked back at the group. “…Only two of us can produce light on our own… alright, we’ll split into two groups. Two of you will follow me, and we’ll check out one of the paths. Siyuakén and the other three will stay here and wait for the Black Suns to catch up while they lay down the cave lighting and comm system. Who’s with me?”

“I am,” Davídrius immediately volunteered. “I ain’t gonna waste my time just standin’ around.”

“Guess I’ll go too, then.” Christeané stepped forward.

Siyuakén nodded in acknowledgment. “We’ll stick around here. Once the Black Suns have caught up, we’ll check out the path that you don’t.”

“Sounds good,” Kevérin replied, and then turned to the right as Siyuakén held her hands close together and began arcing enough electricity across them to create light. The Pyrotechnic and two Introtechnics proceeded down the cave, leaving the rest of Hero Machina behind.

“…I really hope the Ayas is here,” Davídrius grumbled after several minutes of silent walking. “Otherwise we’ll have wasted four damn hours…”

“Keep in mind we’re not only here for the Ayas,” Kevérin commented, “the main reason we’re here is actually to investigate the Chaos Quake. The Ayas is just a bonus.”

“And how are we supposed to do that, exactly?” Christeané questioned.

“…Uhhh…”

“Nice to know you thought this through,” Davídrius deadpanned.

“Look, I thought that we were going to be able to visit the actual outpost,” Kevérin countered. “I didn’t expect this bureaucratic bullshit from the Black Suns, so the Ayas ended up becoming a priority instead. And it’s significant in its own right, yeah, but we should still try to learn something about the Quake.”

“I’ll be sure to get right on that. I’m sure inspectin’ the rock make-up of these caves will provide invaluable information.”

“Nice to know you’re being as helpful as ever.”

“I try my best.”

“…But actually, Kevérin, what did you expect to find?” Christeané asked again, “did you just expect the Black Suns to admit to causing the Quake?”

“No,” the Pyrotechnic snorted. “But they could have important information or leads. Small as the Rossindon outpost is, it’s been here since before the Quake. They must have seen or heard something.”

“Assuming that the fact we’re at the ‘hypocenter’ of the Chaos Quake actually means anything,” Christeané pointed out.

“Also assumin’ that the hypocenter is actually within this solar system and that you weren’t off by a few light years,” Davídrius added.

“Yeah, yeah, I get your point.” Kevérin waved their concerns away. “Let’s just look for the Ayas. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll stumble across something that will give us the answers we want.”

“What, like another AI?” Davídrius snorted. “Because the one from Kotak sure helped a lot.”

“Actually… that may be it.”

“Oh no,” Davídrius deadpanned, “we did not just stumble across another computer. No way.”

“We might just have…” Kevérin commented as the three stepped into a mid-sized stone room. Two more cave pathways left the room, splitting the circular wall into thirds; in the center of the room stood a thick metallic column. As the Transfer Captain stepped closer to it, a holographic display popped up; a few seconds later, a full holographic Nimalian interface appeared as well.

“NEWCOMER SCAN COMPLETE. IDENTIFIED AS ALDREDAS-ADJACENT RACE. INTENTIONS… LIKELY NON-MALEVOLENT.”

“You’re kidding…” Christeané let his arms drop in awe. “We actually found another AI?”

“…AI, HMM. THAT IS NOT QUITE A PROPER DESCRIPTION. MY TRUE DESIGNATION IS MYSTRYTH, A VIGILEM PRIOR.”

“…Wow,” Davídrius remarked, “…well ain’t this really fuckin’ convenient?”

1.5 Hours Later

“You really do suck in a CENT field.”

“You too?” Davídrius passed Kevérin an annoyed glance. “As if you did any better.”

“Maybe not,” Kevérin replied as the two Chaotics slowly walked down the vacant hallways, “but I was still able to floor you twice.”

“I floored you twice.”

“You use weapons regularly, I don’t. Clearly, then, the fact that I matched you in a fight with weapons means that I’m comparatively better.”

“…Yeah huh. You keep believin’ that.”

“I will,” Kevérin responded flippantly. “…Man, you should’ve told me that you guys were going to be doing CENT field training. I would’ve joined you sooner.”

“Don’t complain to me, it was Rebehka’s brilliant idea,” Davídrius countered flatly. “She also cut the trainin’ off at one hour instead of two, so you’re lucky I was still around for those last couple matches.”

“I guess.”

“What’re you still doin’ ‘round here, anyway? It’s almost eight.”

“More data processing, and talking with the AI and the Archoné.” Kevérin sighed. “This was just a break, too; I’ve got a couple more things to take care of before I can leave for the night… actually, I should go do those right now. See you later.”

“See ya.” Davídrius waved casually as the Transfer Captain took a left at the next hallway intersection. The Velocitechnic continued on his leisurely way, enjoying the evening silence and inactivity of the base until he finally set foot inside of the Hero Machina office.

“Oh… Davídrius.”

“Yo.” He nodded toward Kaoné, who was sitting at her desk. He casually approached his own desk, beginning to pack up for the day as he asked the Materiatechnic, “what’re you still doin’ here?”

“Nothing much, really…” she replied, “…what about you?”

“CENT field trainin’ with Rebehka. Keh, you should’ve been there.”

“What? Ah, I don’t know, I’m not really much of a fighter…”

“Exactly. If you were there, at least I would’ve been able to beat someone.”

Kaoné gave the Velocitechnic a disapproving glance. “Davídrius…”

“Oi, oi, it was a joke.” He shook his head incredulously. “You seem so uptight all the time. Why is that?”

“I’m not uptight,” she countered indignantly, “…not all the time. …Only sometimes.”

“Yeah? And when’d that be?” Davídrius snorted when the Materiatechnic glanced away uneasily. “What, when you’re around me? Am I really that scary?”

“…No comment.”

“This is about all the yellin’ at you I’ve done about your pacifism, ain’t it.”

“…Partially…”

“…Well, I seem to be on an apology roll as of late, might as well keep it up.” Davídrius pulled his chair around his desk so that he could face Kaoné better and then dropped into it haphazardly. “I’m not gonna apologize straight-up, though. See, in case you hadn’t noticed already, I fundamentally disagree with you on this. So I wanna see why you think what you do, and then maybe I can try to understand. Sound fair?”

Kaoné frowned. “You can’t accept that I just don’t want to hurt people?”

“You’re a Lieutenant in the military. You saw the Bleeder attack on my compound back in Treséd. You clearly know there’s evil in the world, and you have the power to stop it. So no, I can’t.”

“…Of course you can’t…” She sighed, and then eyed Davídrius uneasily. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable sharing my story with you, though…”

“Keh. Well, the knowledge that you have one is good enough for now, I guess.”

“Well, what about you? Why are you perfectly fine with killing?”

“Because it makes sense,” Davídrius stated bluntly. “…Not all killin’, mind you. I’d be perfectly fine, livin’ in a world where no one killed or hurt each other. But, that’s the thing — we do live in a world where people hurt an’ kill each other. And not just for survival — many people do it for fun. The entire existence of the Bleeders is founded on the idea that rapin’ and pillagin’ is fun. Do you realize that? The Bleeders will destroy homes, rape children, kill parents, because it’s ‘fun.’ Sure, it sounds cliché, but do you know why it’s cliché? Because too many people actually like to do those things. The Bleeders are far from the only group of their kind throughout the galaxy, I’m sure. So what d’ya do with those kinds of people? Just lock them away? Bullshit. Let them feel the pain that they inflict, and then wipe them from the face of the planet so they can never do it again!”

“You’d punish killing by killing? Aren’t you just perpetuating a cycle, then?”

“Don’t you dare compare what I’ve done to those bastards,” Davídrius hissed. “There is a difference between takin’ someone out ruthlessly and justly, and killin’ someone painfully and slowly. Here’s a hint: one’s removin’ a threat, the other is bein’ a threat.”

“You don’t think it’s possible to convince them that they’re wrong, that it could be possible to bring them around?”

“…The redemption argument? Really? Okay, I can admit that the way some people act is a product of their shitty upbringin’ and if we could fix the societal structure then maybe we’d fix all that blah blah blah. But here’s the thing — by the time you’re fifteen, by the time you’re twenty? You’re too entrenched in your own opinions and ideals at that point to budge. I won’t budge, they won’t budge, ain’t nobody gonna budge. Talkin’ is a waste of time. It’s never actually done anythin’, it’s just there so people can try it and then feel good about themselves because at least they tried to give the other guy a chance, but noooo, he just wouldn’t listen. Well the time spent talkin’ is time that genuine threats have to commit more crime, so I don’t waste time talkin’. I’m a firm subscriber to the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ doctrine, ‘cept sometimes I just truncate it to ‘shoot first.’”

“What gives you the right to judge, then?”

“It’s not that I got the right to judge, it’s that they’ve lost the right to a trial.”

“What?!” Kaoné stared at Davídrius incredulously. “Do you know how self-righteous you sound? You sound almost exactly like Mirdlay Lexin!”

“First you compare me to the Bleeders, then you compare me to the Riaxen?! Do you understand how ridiculous you’re bein’?!”

“I’d ask the same of you! Nothing gives you the right to take another person’s life. Nothing!”

“I’m not talkin’ about rights, here! You haven’t properly thought about this at all, have you? Strictly speaking, even from a pragmatic standpoint, I’m right! If you’re a farmer and your crops have pests, you kill the pests. If you’re a rancher and some predator is eatin’ your cattle, you kill the predator! If you’re the government and there’s a serial killer on the loose, you kill the serial killer! It’s simple threat elimination!”

“You’re ignoring the fact that all of those situations can be remedied without resorting to killing!”

“Alright, then how about the fact that killin’ is a part of nature then, huh?”

“That’s completely different and you know it! Animals kill because they have to — because that’s how they get food.”

“They kill if they feel threatened, too!”

“They also have no other way to respond, except to kill or flee! But as people, we’re far more sophisticated — we can do more! We can talk! Negotiate! Rehabilitate! Things never have to end with killing!”

“…’Never’, you say…” Davídrius smirked bitterly. “Alright then, answer me this. Suppose you stumble upon a murder in progress, and the only way to stop the murderer without hurtin’ the victim is to kill him. Would you do it?”

“That’s not—!”

“Answer the question: if you could prevent one death by causin’ another, would you do it?”

“I don’t—”

“If you could prevent five deaths by causin’ one, would you do it?”

“I…”

“If you could prevent the killin’ of an entire family, would you do it?”

“…”

“…You know… of all the things I’ve ever heard… insults ‘bout my temperament, Tresédian slurs, Bleeder taunts, Bleeder threats — of all that, the most disturbin’ thing I’ve ever heard… is your silence, right now.” The Velocitechnic stood up and rammed his chair back under his desk before grabbing his bag and making for the exit of the room, where he stopped momentarily. “…Get over yourself, or get the fuck out of Hero Machina. I don’t want someone like you watchin’ my back.”

Kaoné was only able to look on in stunned silence as he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

---

Ssssss-chk.

Siyuakén exhaled deeply as she turned off the shower head and stepped out of the small cell-like space. She stretched briefly before grabbing a nearby towel and beginning to dry herself off, while glancing back at the shower and sighing. I wish someone would come up with a proper water shield already. Having to dry off manually is so annoying… She shook her head wearily as she stepped over to the bathroom mirror, the towel draped over her head. Lookin’ good, Siyuakén. …Except… she carefully flipped the left side of the towel over her shoulder, exposing her left arm and chest—

—and the metallic rashes running down both.

She sighed again before pursing her lips and tossing the towel aside. Holding her left arm up, she clenched her fists and took a deep breath before running a massive current through her entire body. She shuddered in pain, and then looked back to the mirror; the rashes had receded slightly, but not by much.

It’s been getting less responsive to shock… she observed with a frown, and it’s spreading even farther… another couple weeks and it’ll be down to my fingers. I don’t know how I’ll hide it then…

“Siyuakén?!”

“Ah!!” The Electrotechnic jumped back, startled. She reflexively covered her breasts and crotch with her arm and hand before glancing to the bathroom entrance. “R-Rebehka? What’re you—?!”

“I knew it…” The Cryotechnic ignored her friend’s startled mumbling as she quickly moved over to her, where she inspected the rashes covering her left side. “…Siyuakén, is this…?”

The Electrotechnic let out a deep sigh and hung her head forlornly. “Yeah… it’s the metallic infection.”

“This… this is…” Rebehka snapped her attention to Siyuakén’s face. “When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“…It was before you joined Hero Machina,” Siyuakén explained, “back during the Sunova mission, one of the metallic bugs scratched me. It was an open wound… it had to have been then. That was the most direct contact with the infection I’ve ever had.”

“That— …you’ve been infected since then? It’s been two months!”

“I’ve been able to slow it down a lot with shocks. But it’s been getting less responsive lately… it’s spreading further…”

“This… why didn’t you tell me?!”

“There’s nothing you could have done! I just didn’t want you to worry. I thought — you know, I had been doing a good job for a month or two keeping it in check on my own, you know, by shocking it. I thought it wouldn’t be a problem. So I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you to worry about something you couldn’t change or help.”

“You didn’t tell me that you had contracted the metallic infection because you thought I couldn’t help?!”

“Look, I know it’s stupid, okay? But that’s why. I was scared, yeah, but I didn’t want you to be scared too. I didn’t want to hurt you…”

Rebehka drew back and closed her eyes as she took a moment to gather her thoughts. “…I’m glad you thought that. Really, I am. But we’re best friends, Siyuakén! You can tell me these things. That’s the whole point of being friends, right? That we can shoulder together what one of us can’t?”

“Well, I mean… up ‘til now, I could handle it on my own, sort of…”

“Siyuakén…”

“…Sorry.” Siyuakén bowed her head apologetically. “…I’m sorry for keeping this from you.”

“As you should be,” the Cryotechnic replied as she moved to embrace her friend, who reflexively backed away.

Siyuakén stared at Rebehka, wide-eyed with panic and confusion. “Don’t touch me! What if you get infected, too?!”

“Then we’ll be in it together,” Rebehka declared. “And even now, we are. We’ll find a way to stop the infection, Siyuakén, I promise. We’re already close to investigating the origin of the Chaos Quake! Who knows, maybe there will be some answers there.”

“You can’t… you can’t guarantee that.”

“Well, no, but then no one can guarantee anything. …Really, Siyuakén, we can do this. You’ve already lasted two months — that’s far longer than any other case we’ve seen! That’s hopeful, isn’t it? You can beat this!”

“…And if I don’t?”

“Then I’ll just carve out your brain and store it until we have the technology to create another body for you, free from the infection.” Rebehka smirked. “I won’t let you die. I also won’t let you lose to the infection. You have my word.”

“Heh…” Siyuakén finally smiled back. “…Thanks. That means a lot. I think…”

“Now if only you’d told me sooner.” Rebehka slapped her friend lightly upside the head. “Maybe we could’ve gotten the rest of the group into gear and found something already.”

“You talk as though we could’ve actually convinced Davídrius or Christeané or Kevérin to get their act together.” Siyuakén rolled her eyes.

“…Heh, yeah, you’re right,” Rebehka replied amusedly. She then returned to a more concerned expression. “…How… if you don’t mind me asking, um, how does it feel…?”

“Actually, I don’t really feel anything…” Siyuakén glanced down at her left arm as she flexed it and clenched her fist. “It isn’t painful, and it doesn’t feel weird. Well, I get these weird uncomfortable sensations when I’m near other sources of the infection, but… I don’t know, it’s mostly… I’m mostly scared, because I know what the end-stage of the infection looks like, how… I… I don’t want to lose myself…”

Rebehka moved to hug Siyuakén, and this time the latter complied. “Don’t worry,” the Cryotechnic reassured, “I’m here for you. I’ll help in any way I can, even if it just means I’m someone you can vent to. Okay?”

“Yeah, okay…” Siyuakén nodded. “…Thanks again. …Wait, earlier, when you burst in — you said you ‘knew?’ How?”

“I knew something was wrong, yeah,” Rebehka replied as the two drew back again, “the fact that you repeatedly predicted the presence of the infected creatures was telling on its own, but I knew something was up for sure when Christeané landed that hit on you earlier. I know you. You’d never wear body armor to a simple practice session, let alone doing so and allowing someone like Christeané to have the satisfaction of knowing as much. You were also moving too smoothly to have any kind of armor on… come on, Siyuakén, what kind of a fool do you take me for?”

“The kind who makes friends with me,” the Electrotechnic responded cheekily.

“Well…” Rebehka smirked. “I can’t deny that.”

“Ha. …But really, Rebehka… thanks for being there for me. I’m really glad we’re friends.”

“Me too!” Rebehka smiled warmly. “…But being friends only allows for so much. Put some clothes on already, I don’t want to see… that, you exhibitionist.”

“Ha,” Siyuakén scoffed playfully. “You’re the one who barged in here without knocking, pervert.”

“I was just concerned for your well-being. You’d never have told me about the infection if I hadn’t took it upon myself to check on you.”

“Mm hmm. The same way you had to ‘check’ what I was doing back in year two of conscription training?”

“That was—! That was a misunderstanding, I swear. I didn’t realize… you were being really ambiguous back then. You were doing it on purpose, weren’t you?”

“And if I was?”

The two women stood there, staring each other down, until they both finally broke into laughter.

“See? If you can tell me that, then you can tell me about anything. I won’t judge.”

“You keep saying that. I’m only going to tell you ‘thanks’ so many times,” Siyuakén retorted with a smirk.

“Sure thing.” Rebehka rolled her eyes as she stepped out of the bathroom. “…But seriously. Put some clothes on.”

---

5 Days Later

“Come in.”

Kevérin stepped into Commander Nikéyin’s office and offered a quick salute before taking a seat in front of her desk.

“Here to report on further findings related to the Quake and the infection?” Nikéyin questioned.

The Transfer Captain nodded. “Yes. I have the results from the Ayas Sensor, as well. Did you tell them to report to me?”

“I did. You are the one heading off the investigation, Transfer Captain.”

“Ah… well, thank you, ma’am. As for the actual news, well, uh… really, the sensor results are the only new thing. And I think they corroborate my suspicions, too — there’s an Ayas in the Rossindon system.”

“The Black Suns outpost you wanted to investigate…” Nikéyin nodded slowly. “Based on… what?”

“Based on data pulled from the Black Suns outpost on Teghica, Rossindon is the hypocenter of the Chaos Energy Quake,” Kevérin explained, “I think that’s significant. The fact alone that the Quake was radial is novel information, so you could say it’s best we check it out before others figure it out as well. We might find something related to the Quake… or we might not.” He shrugged. “At least we know there’s an Ayas there, now. We can see about snatching it from under the Black Suns’ noses.”

“Assuming they don’t already possess it,” Nikéyin countered, and then leaned forward to rest her elbows on her desk. “Though that won’t actually be an issue. If the Ayas is under Black Suns possession on Rossindon, then Sector 1 can seize it — and they’re by far more amiable than Sector 2.”

“Sector 1 can trump Sector 2, yeah, I know… but what does that have to do with Rossindon?”

“They seem to have taken pity on us.” Nikéyin smirked, though Kevérin couldn’t tell if it was out of pleasure or spite. “I just got word that Master General Greant has superseded Master General Regek’s block on our visit to Rossindon. You’ll be visiting with a team of Black Suns Sector 1 soldiers, backed by the authority of Master General Greant of Sector 1.”

“That’s… wow,” Kevérin replied, bewildered. “…The General bothered with us? Really?”

“I’m just as surprised as you,” the Commander commented, “and Greant likely isn’t just doing this out of the goodness of his heart. But we won’t let this chance go to waste. Hero Machina will head out tomorrow morning, Transfer Captain. Dismissed!”

“Ha, I knew I’d find you here.”

“Oh man, you managed to spot me from clear across the cafeteria,” Davídrius drawled. “What an accomplishment.”

“Oh, be quiet,” Christeané retorted as he dropped his tray of food on the table across from Davídrius and took a seat. “You’re always sitting over here, by yourself.”

“Has it not occurred to you that I might actually want to be by myself?”

“’Course it has.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Hard to talk to you if I’m not.”

“…Keh.” Davídrius smirked despite himself, and then shook his head wearily. “You’re fuckin’ ridiculous, you know?”

“That’s what they all say,” Christeané responded around a mouthful of food. “Better than being an asshole, I’d say.”

“Blunt as ever, I see.”

“Eh, you’re getting better. I heard you actually apologized to Kevérin yesterday.”

“Oh, so you actually were talkin’ about me when you said ‘asshole,’ tch. …Wait, you heard about that? How—?”

“He told me. He actually asked me if you were okay; he seemed to think something had happened to your head, heheheh.”

“Of course he did,” Davídrius deadpanned. “Aight, so, yeah. The whole thing with the Dark Ayas made me realize I wasn’t really bein’ too friendly, so I decided to try an’ change that.”

“Aww, that’s adorable.”

“…And this is why I keep to myself. I get mocked no matter what I do.”

“I’m not mocking you, I’m applauding your progress!”

“Uh huh. Sure ya are.”

“Though,” Christeané began again after swallowing, “if you’re gonna apologize to Kevérin, I think you should apologize to Rebehka and Kaoné, too.”

“…I’ll think about Kaoné. She still has a worldview that I fundamentally disagree with, so we’ll have to see. What’d I do to Rebehka, though? Haven’t said much to her since… since, uh…”

“And that’s exactly the problem. Weren’t you supposed to be practicing fencing or something with her? According to Siyuakén, you’ve been blowing her off.”

“Well… I guess, yeah. I guess I have been wastin’ her time, huh…”

“It doesn’t have to be a whole thing, just say sorry. I’m sure she’ll forgive you. She’s great like that.”

“And you’d know, because…?”

“Aside from the fact that I’ve known her and Siyuakén for longer than you have, I think it’s probably safe to say that I can read people better than you can.”

“Bullshit, I can read people just fine.”

“Ha! I have to agree with Christeané here.”

“Huh?” Davídrius and Christeané both turned their attention to the end of the table, where Rebehka was standing, food tray in hand.

“Mind if I sit with you guys?” she asked.

“Sure,” Christeané replied, patting the stool next to him.

“I’m surprised to see you here without Siyuakén,” Davídrius remarked.

“Well, I was going to have lunch with her,” the Cryotechnic responded as she took a seat, “but when I went back to the office to get her, she and Kaoné were in the middle of… a much-needed conversation, let’s call it. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“’Much-needed conversation?’” Davídrius echoed incredulously, “about what?”

Rebehka shook her head. “It’s nothing. You don’t need to worry about it. What were you talking about before, though?”

“Oh, you mean why I mentioned you and Siyuakén?” Christeané smirked.

“Wasn’t anythin’,” Davídrius declared stubbornly, “nothin’ at— agh?!” He suddenly flinched and then glared at Christeané, who had just kicked him in the shins.

“The two of you are getting along just as well as ever, I see,” Rebehka remarked amusedly.

“Hell of an idea, kicking a Velocitechnic in the shins,” Davídrius deadpanned, his scornful gaze set directly on Christeané.

“Oh, get over yourself,” the Forcetechnic replied.

Davídrius sighed wearily. “Fine, fine, alright.” He then turned to Rebehka. “I’m… sorry, for skippin’ out on our swordplay practice.”

“So that’s what this was about, huh?” Rebehka raised an incredulous eyebrow, passing Christeané a glance before returning her attention to Davídrius. “You do know how much of my time you’ve wasted, right?”

“I know, I know. That’s why I’m apologizin’.”

“Heh. Apology accepted. I’d prefer we not have to have this discussion again, though. So do you want to keep up with the lessons?” The Cryotechnic adopted a taunting smirk. “Or were they just too much for you?”

“Hmph, ‘too much’ my ass,” Davídrius retorted. “But if you’re still up to it, then sure, I guess. I’m back to usin’ swords anyways, might as well learn to use ‘em.”

“You know what this means, then, right?”

“Uh…” Davídrius hesitated, unsure of what to make of Rebehka’s question. “…What do you mean… ‘what this means?’”

Rebehka grinned and laughed quietly to herself in response. “Meet me in the practice room after work.” She then glanced over at Christeané. “You too.”

Christeané offered a brief nod in acknowledgment.

“Just what are you tryin’ to get at, here…?” Davídrius questioned uneasily.

“Don’t worry,” Rebehka chirped, her expression dialed back from a grin to a mere smirk. “I’m sure some of the lesson will have actual practical value.”

“Wait, ‘some’—?!”

“Hey, it’s Siyuakén and Kaoné!” The Cryotechnic spontaneously changed the subject as she began waving over the two Chaotics who had just entered the lunchroom.

“…Bah.” Davídrius scowled. “More people. I mean, it’s not like I sat way over here by myself because I wanted to be alone. Psh. That’d just be silly.”

“You’re right it would,” Christeané remarked, “c’mon, who’d want to avoid friends like us?”

“’Friends like us.’ Ha, right. Who would…”

---

“I’d like you to share less information with Hero Machina from now on.”

“What?” Kievkenalis paused, glancing between Archoné Culana and General Rantéin in confusion. “…Why?”

“If your compatriots are anything to go by, the NSD is nowhere near as secure an organization as I first expected,” Rantéin explained, ignoring the Archoné as he gleefully dived into the sandwich he was holding. “I find it increasingly difficult to trust this international endeavor.”

“Well, okay, but why sabotage it, then?” Kievkenalis questioned, “don’t you want it to do better?”

“I do, but not if it costs me confidential RPF information.”

“But… that information has led to two of our most important missions.”

“Missions that Hero Machina handled remarkably poorly. If Nikéyin chooses to continue to put her trust into such a group, then I’m not sure I can trust her.”

“She actually shares many of your concerns, Sulan,” Culana interjected.

“…What?” The General turned to give Culana a confused look. “Then why—?”

“I convinced her to give them one more chance.”

Rantéin facepalmed and sighed audibly. “Damn it, Pallan, is it too much to ask that you tell me these things?”

“I’m the Archoné. I don’t have to tell anyone anything,” Culana declared, though the faintest tone of cheekiness could be detected in his voice.

“So…” Kievkenalis spoke up uneasily, “am I—?”

“I’d still like you to be wary of what you share, Captain,” Rantéin insisted, “if what Pallan says is true, then perhaps my loss of trust in Nikéyin herself is unwarranted. But I still don’t trust the NSD — in the least, I don’t trust your little ‘Hero Machina’ group.”

“But I do,” the Chaostechnic countered.

“That’s… fantastic, Captain, but your opinion doesn’t matter here.”

“If I think you’re being unreasonable, it does. There’s precedent for RPF officers sharing information with third parties if it’s mutually beneficial, and those officers not being punished. Remember the Kai’dan incident? That was only two years ago—”

“Captain,” Rantéin interrupted, “those cases don’t apply to this situation. Those were about direct, immediate threats to the third party. The information you’re sharing, on the other hand—”

“Is directly related to the well-being of the entire galaxy,” Culana cut in.

The General paused for a second before hanging his head in exasperation. “…Is this something in the Oraculm?” he asked wearily, glancing over at Culana.

The Archoné nodded. “It is indeed.”

“…How many times are you going to allow me to make a fool of myself?”

“As many times as it remains to be amusing,” Culana replied while bearing a cheeky smile.

“Sometimes I wonder how I ever became friends with you.” Rantéin shook his head wearily. “You’re insufferable now, I can’t imagine how you’ll be in twenty years when you’re a crotchety old man without a care in the world.”

“I’m sure you’ll be just the same, Sulan.”

“Aye, but I plan to retire by then. You can’t say the same.”

“Oh? You’re telling me you’re just going to abandon the RPF at some point in the future?”

“Pallan…”

“I jest, I jest.”

“Um…” Kievkenalis spoke up quietly, “What’s the final verdict…?”

Rantéin sighed again and wiped his brow before turning his attention back to the Captain. “…Fine. Continue as you have been. But I still want you to think about what you’re doing. If you ever begin to suspect that your fellow members of Hero Machina are no longer trustworthy, begin withholding information accordingly. Understand?”

Kievkenalis nodded. “Not sure if that will be necessary, but yes, I understand.”

“Alright, then. You can go.” The General watched as Kievkenalis stood up and left the room before turning to Culana. “Is it really too much to ask that you share these things with me?”

The Archoné shrugged. “How am I to know what information you need to know if you don’t tell me?”

“I can’t know what to ask you for if I don’t even know you have the information!”

“Quite the predicament, then, hmm.”

“Oi oi… alright, at least tell me this, Pallan: how significant is the information the Captain is sharing — the task that Hero Machina is carrying out?”

“…I honestly cannot say, Sulan,” Culana responded quietly. “The tasks they perform are indeed important. How important, well… only time will tell.”

---

6 Hours Later

“Alright, what’ve we got here… huh? Siyuakén?”

“Don’t ask me,” the Electrotechnic replied as she leaned against the practice room wall, observing Davídrius and Christeané as they entered. “Rebehka told me not to tell you what we’re doing. She wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Oh boy, a surprise,” Davídrius deadpanned. “I love surprises.”

“Relax,” Christeané remarked, stepping further into the room after removing his shoes and poking the mats with his toes, “I’m sure she has a great idea.” He glanced around curiously, inspecting the sizable sparring room. “…Huh, this is actually a pretty mediocre setup.”

“Well of course you’d say that, coming from East Nimaliaka,” Siyuakén retorted. “…Wait, have you never been in any of the recreational facilities here?”

“Just the gym… and that Chaotic Range over at the western base.” Christeané shrugged. “Never much reason to come to one of the practice rooms. I always practice with my hammer in a proper, Chaos Energy-rich environment. …Wait a minute—!”

“Ah, so you’ve figured it out.”

The three Chaotics in the room turned toward the entrance, where Rebehka was standing, holding a bag of staffs over her shoulder.

“So, that’s what we’re doing.” Christeané smirked knowingly. “CENT field training, huh?”

“Exactly.” Rebehka nodded, stepping into the room and depositing the bag to the side of the doorway. She glanced between Siyuakén, Christeané, and Davídrius, with her gaze lingering on the latter. “Given what’s happened on the past couple missions, especially back on Teghica, I figured we could all benefit from some refreshers about fighting in a CENT field. I’ve already turned on the room’s generator.”

“You activated a CENT field?!” Davídrius growled, reflexively tensing his muscles and stepping back defensively. “The fuck? Why the hell didn’t you tell me you wanted to just strip away all our powers?!”

“…It’s just a CENT field,” Rebehka responded uneasily, “you’ve seen them before, it’s not permanent. And it won’t harm you—”

“Won’t harm me my ass. The only thing CENT fields are good for is disablin’ Chaotics so you can trap or kill them. They ain’t trainin’ tools!”

“Relax!” Christeané insisted, “they can totally be training tools. We’re in the middle of a fortified military base anyways; we’re in no danger here. Not to mention that any attack on the base would automatically shut the CENT fields off.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you turned that shit on without askin’ first,” Davídrius snarled at Rebehka. “Maybe if you’d’ve asked, but this is just—! …”

“…Davídrius?” Rebehka replied wearily after the Velocitechnic trailed off, his gaze averted as he held a hand to his forehead. “I… I can turn the generator off, if that’s—”

“No!” He scowled. “You already did it. We’re here. I’ll go along with your stupid plan. But only today!”

Rebehka glanced toward Siyuakén uneasily, who responded with a shrug. “…Are you sure?” the Cryotechnic questioned as Davídrius approached the bag of staffs. “If it’s really that much of an issue, then we can do something else—”

“No. I’ll be fine,” he responded stubbornly before snatching up two of the staffs and crossing to the opposite side of the room. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“If you say so,” Rebehka replied uneasily, and then glanced down at the two staffs in his hands. “…Hmm, are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“What?” The Velocitechnic glared at her, and then down at his hands. “…Dual wieldin’? I do it all the time.”

Christeané snorted. “No, what you do is wave two swords around at high speeds. Calling it ‘dual wielding’ would imply a level of skill.”

“Thanks for your resoundin’ endorsement.”

“He’s right, though,” Siyuakén added, “actually using two weapons at once is really difficult. You manage to make up for your lack of skill with your speed, but—”

“I’ll be fine,” Davídrius declared. “Don’t tell me you turned on the CENT fields just so you can make fun of me.”

“No, but—”

“Then shut up! I know what I’m doin’. CENT fields don’t change that much about melee fightin’.”

Rebehka smirked. “Are you sure about that?”

“Enough with the damn questions!” The Velocitechnic’s scowl deepened as he dropped into a fighting stance. “C’mon, let’s do this already!”

“Well, if you say so.” The Cryotechnic backed into a fighting stance herself. “Ready… mark!”

5 Minutes Later

“Ow… oooowww… ow ow ow…”

Rebehka stepped back and straightened her posture as she glanced down at Davídrius, who was lying on his back. “That’s ten to zero, my favor. Still sure about everything you said?”

“CENT fields won’t harm me my ass,” the Velocitechnic groaned. “This is why you wanted to do CENT field sparrin’, innit? You ain’t tryin’ to teach me shit, you just wanted to beat me up.”

“I didn’t ‘beat you up,’ I simply… showed you the error of your ways.”

“Like hell you did. And after springin’ the damn fields on me, too. I should be the one beatin’ you up.” Davídrius scowled. “…Dammit, help me up.”

Rebehka stepped over and grabbed his hand before yanking him to his feet. “I am sorry about that,” she apologized, “if I had known—”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” He waved her off, and then grimaced and held his back in pain. “Damn, why does that hurt so fuckin’ much…”

“That was quite the show, Davídrius,” Christeané remarked, “CENT field fighting is just like regular fighting, huh? Does this mean Rebehka can kick your ass on a regular basis?”

“Shut up, asshole.”

“I hope you at least see now that there’s a significant difference between fighting with your abilities and without them,” Rebehka commented.

“…I guess,” Davídrius muttered. “But even then — I’m bigger than you, and I’ve got longer reach! How the fuck did you take me down so easily?”

“It’s because you don’t have any proper skill.” Christeané marched forward and snatched one of the staffs from Davídrius. “That, combined with the fact that you weren’t expecting to be slowed down as much as you were. CENT field fighting is completely different from regular fighting for us Introtechnics — you have to keep in mind that the strength, speed, reflexes, and durability that you’re used to, are no longer there. Like, for a Velocitechnic such as yourself, you probably feel like you’re moving in slow motion right now, right?”

“Uh, sorta.” Davídrius looked down at his arms as he slowly moved them around. “Feels more like I’m movin’ through syrup, or somethin’. I want to move, but my body can’t keep up… not to mention it feels like I can’t think as fast as usual…” He scowled. “See, this is why I don’t like—!”

“Yeah yeah, we know you don’t like CENT fields.” Christeané rolled his eyes. “It’s not just you, buddy. I feel like my arms and legs are made out of glass, without the strength I’m used to. But you don’t see me complaining.”

“Tch.”

“But this handicap you’re feeling is my entire point. We Introtechnics are more handicapped by CENT fields than other Chaotics, because our powers are entirely internal. Your body just isn’t going to respond the way you expect it to, and the difference between what you expect and what actually happens can actually kill you if you aren’t careful. That’s how Rebehka beat you. She’s just fine without her ice powers, her body responds exactly the same way as she’s used to. So she doesn’t have to spend time or brainpower adjusting.” Christeané then turned toward Rebehka and waved Davídrius away. “Don’t worry though, I’ve had a lot of training in CENT fields. I’ll show you the correct way to fight!”

“You’re pretty confident, I see,” Rebehka replied.

“I’m from East Nimaliaka, of course I’d be confident.” Christeané smirked. “Even our Introtechnics are better than the average Chaotic anywhere else!”

“Oh, is that right?” Siyuakén grabbed a staff of her own and approached Rebehka, gesturing for her friend to back away. “You seem to know a lot about CENT field fighting, but let’s see if your body can actually keep up.”

“Ha! You have no idea how much I’ve trained, both in and out of CENT fields,” the Master Lieutenant replied, “buuut, if you think you can beat me, well, feel free to try!”

“I’ll do more than that,” Siyuakén taunted, “I’ll have you on the floor, just like Davídrius!”

“…You know, in another context—”

“Ready, mark!” Siyuakén lunged toward Christeané, her staff stretched forward. He immediately dodged to the left before swinging his staff laterally. Siyuakén quickly whipped her staff to the side, blocking Christeané’s blow and immediately following through to swing the staff down on top of his head — which he instinctively blocked by grabbing the staff with his free hand.

Siyuakén smirked. “That counts.”

“Bah…” Christeané scowled. “…I haven’t done this in a while. You have to give me some time to warm up.”

“Ha! You want to take a moment to do that?”

“No, that last point was fine.” Christeané backed into a fighting stance. “C’mon! Ready, mark!”

This time Christeané lunged forwards, the sheer power behind his move knocking away Siyuakén’s staff when she tried to block. He immediately swung his staff to the side in an effort to hit her, but she bent over backwards just far enough to evade the swipe and then followed through the motion into a full back flip, landing on her feet just in time to block another attack from Christeané. She then moved to counter-attack, but Christeané dropped into a crouch and swung out with his leg, knocking Siyuakén off of her feet. He lightly tapped her with his staff as she lay on the ground.

“You’d knock me to the ground?” Christeané grinned.

“…Shut up,” Siyuakén muttered as she jumped back to her feet. “Alright, next round wins! Ready, mark!”

Christeané lunged forwards again, but instead of blocking, Siyuakén stepped backward. The moment Christeané’s lunge came to a stop, she whacked away his staff and jumped forward and to the left while swinging her own staff to the right. Christeané threw himself to the floor to evade the staff, rolling once before leaping back to his feet just in time to block a blow from Siyuakén. He then allowed her to start several more attacks, easily blocking each of them, before he started a lunge to the left. Siyuakén immediately swung her staff down on the location, but as she did so, Christeané slammed his foot into the ground, stopping his left-ward lunge and sending him instead to the right as he smacked the staff out of Siyuakén’s hand. He then swung his staff back toward himself for the point, hitting Siyuakén’s left side, just below her armpit — only for his staff to rebound violently with an audible metallic clang.

Siyuakén quickly stumbled back as Christeané stared at her in confusion. His expression then changed to one of disappointment. “Body armor? Really?”

“…Well, yeah,” the Electrotechnic replied uneasily. She then straightened up and crossed her arms as she glared back at Christeané. “We may be in a CENT field, but I’m not stupid; you’re still really strong. I didn’t want to get hurt. Good thing, too — if I didn’t have the armor, that blow would’ve cracked a rib!”

“She’s right.” Rebehka shook her head in disapproval. “You should be more careful. The last thing we need is a preventable injury due to sparring.”

“I—!” he started, but stopped himself and sighed in resignation. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.” He then grinned. “I did win, though.”

“…This won’t be the last I hear of it, will it,” Siyuakén deadpanned.

“Nah, I’m not as petty as Davídrius.”

“Hey, I’m right here, ya know!”

“I’m going to leave before I actually get hurt.” Siyuakén turned toward the exit. “Have fun, guys. Rebehka, I’ll meet you at our apartment.”

“…Aww, I wasn’t that bad about it, was I?” Christeané frowned and glanced over at Rebehka as Siyuakén disappeared.

She shrugged. “You were a little over-the-top with that last attack. I don’t know, though. I’ll talk to her later.”

“I guess I’ll take my leave then, too,” the Forcetechnic declared, and then turned to Davídrius. “Remember what I said. Don’t take CENT fields lightly and you won’t end up on your back.”

“’Lightly?’ Who the hell was the one who turned on the CENT fields for a bit of sparring?!”

“Yeah, yeah. You know what I meant. Well, ‘night guys.”

Davídrius watched Christeané leave before glaring at Rebehka resentfully. “…How much more abuse am I gonna have to take?”

Rebehka shook her head. “Don’t worry, it’ll be a normal lesson from here on out. I’ve made my point. Now, first things first, your stance was terrible…”

The Next Morning

“Chaos Strike!”

Kaoné watched as a streak of purple energy leaped from Kievkenalis’s fingers to the shielded wall in front of him. She sighed impatiently and leaned forward, activating the testing room’s microphone as she did so. “Didn’t you already know that you’re a Directed type? Why bother testing those moves?”

The Chaostechnic glanced up at her through the large window and energy shield that stood in between them. “It can’t hurt,” he replied, “I’ve never heard of a Chaostechnic suddenly picking up a new type. It could’ve been possible that I lost a type along the way.”

“You’ve been through all the key moves in the Directed, Defensive, and Support groups; I think you’re fine.”

“Well that’s what I was checking to make sure of.”

“If you say so…” Kaoné shrugged. “What’s next, then?”

“Explosive, Void, and Sabotage can all be dangerous to test for…” Kievkenalis frowned as he mused over the issue. “Hmm… Chaos Blade! …Chaos Sword? Chaos Bow.” When nothing happened, he shrugged. “Well, looks like I don’t have the Weapon type.” He then clenched his eyes shut, as if preparing to be hit by something. “Chaos… Teleport?”

Nothing happened.

“That’s a strike for Movement, then,” Kaoné observed.

“I don’t know about the rest…” Kievkenalis shifted uncomfortably. “…Do you think this room could hold up to Blast?”

“It’s isolated from the rest of the base for a reason,” Kaoné replied, “but, uh… I don’t know if I’d use Blast in here… maybe if you said it really quietly?”

“Even then, it might still do a lot of damage, assuming I can use it,” the Chaostechnic mused. “Eh… oh, I know.” He stretched his arms out sideways as he called out, “Chaos Shockwave!”

Nothing happened.

“Aaaand that’s a strike for Explosive,” Kaoné commented flatly.

“You don’t have to watch if you’re bored…” Kievkenalis glanced back at her.

“It’s better than sitting back in the office and being bored…” The Materiatechnic sighed. “Davídrius and Siyuakén aren’t here, either…”

“I know Davídrius has been hard on you, but what’s Siyuakén done?”

“…Nothing, it’s nothing.” Kaoné shook her head. “You don’t have to worry about it.”

“If you say so.” Kievkenalis turned away warily. “…Alright… uh, Kaoné, would you mind if I tried using Nullify on you?”

“What!?”

“If it works, it won’t hurt you, it’ll just prevent you from using your powers for a short time. It’s the safest way to test the Void type. The Void move itself is too destructive.”

“…Alright… fine.”

“Ha, thanks.” The Chaostechnic then turned back to Kaoné and extended his right hand toward her. “Chaos Targeted Nullify! …Alright, the voice modulation didn’t carry over, and I didn’t really feel anything, but try to do something anyway.”

The Materiatechnic glanced around the observation room she was standing in. The only loose object was a stool in the corner of the room — which she promptly and easily lifted up into the air with her powers.

Kievkenalis nodded in acknowledgment of the levitating stool. “So I’m not a Void type either, huh… I suppose I really did only pick up the Sabotage type. Now I wonder if I can use every one of the abilities…”

“Is this how all Chaostechnics do things?” Kaoné responded in exasperation.

“Well, yeah. Being a Chaostechnic isn’t like being any other Chaotic, we can’t just think of something and do it. All of our attacks are preset and we have to call them out loud, so to be effective in battle, we have to know exactly what abilities are at our disposal.” He paused for a moment to stretch. “Hmm… I guess the most dangerous move to test is Oblivion…” He glanced up at Kaoné for a moment, and then shrugged. “I think we’ll be fine…”

“Whoa whoa whoa, wait, what?” Kaoné interrupted, “you are not just going to use Oblivion right here, right now.”

“Ah, don’t worry, you won’t go berserk,” Kievkenalis replied airily, “your berserk resistance is probably pretty high. You’d only have to worry about me, and I’m sure you could knock me out easily if I went berserk.”

“’Probably’ pretty high? Knock you out easily?!”

“Oblivion doesn’t just instantly send everyone berserk, you know. Think of it like this: every Chaotic has a Chaos Energy capacitor, and when that capacitor reaches capacity, they go berserk. The capacitor discharges slowly with time, and fills every time the Chaotic uses Chaos Energy. The fill rate is determined by the type of Chaotic and their mood. Well, what Oblivion does is it instantly fills that capacitor by some amount, dependent on the Chaotic. So if someone has a really high berserk resistance, they can take a hit from Oblivion and not go berserk, and only have to take a moment to cool down.”

“…I still think I’ll pass,” Kaoné commented warily, “I’d prefer not to put this to the test.”

“Eh, whatever.” Kievkenalis shrugged. “I guess I don’t really see why I’d ever use Oblivion, anyways. I already know I can do Control and Siphon, so the last useful one is… Chaos Negation!” He spontaneously shuddered. “Whoa! There goes all of the local Chaos Energy. I guess that worked!”

“I guess it did,” Kaoné deadpanned as she tried to manipulate the stool and failed. “Is that it, then?”

“Looks like it,” Kievkenalis responded as he headed towards the room’s exit. Kaoné quickly left the observation room and met the Chaostechnic outside the small building. The two then began walking across the base toward the main building.

“Looks like the only thing that really changed was me getting access to Sabotage-type abilities,” Kievkenalis commented. “It’s still really weird, though. There’s no precedent for this.”

“Why are you worrying about it?” Kaoné glanced at him incredulously. “Anyone else would be glad.”

“This might actually be a bad thing, though! There’s an inverse — albeit minor — correlation between number of ability types a Chaostechnic can use and the age of Chaotic Self-Destruction…”

“Oh…” Kaoné frowned. “I didn’t know that… but you’re still only twenty! You still have another… twenty or thirty years, right?…”

“Reaching forty is really generous, even for a two-type. Chaostechnics use way too much Chaos Energy to stave off Self-Destruction for that long. I’ll probably be dead by the time I turn thirty.”

“…You don’t seem too distraught about it…”

“Eh, Chaostechnics are taught to expect it. I know it’s coming, and I don’t mind too much. But if I suddenly have five less years to live than I originally thought, then, well, I’d like to know, you know?”

“I guess so…”

“At least I’m not an Explosive type after all. They use so much Chaos Energy that even single-types die by thirty, if they aren’t so reckless that they get killed before then.”

“I… didn’t realize Chaostechnics had it so bad…”

“It’s the curse of power. On one hand, we’re resistant to virtually every other Chaotic and can deal far more damage in a single strike… on the other hand, our attacks are incredibly predictable, and we die a lot earlier.” He shrugged. “Eh, what’re you gonna do.”

“That doesn’t make it any better…” Kaoné frowned as the two entered the main building and began navigating their way to the Hero Machina office space. “How— how can you even deal with that, knowing that you won’t live as long as everyone you know?”

“I’d say living longer than everyone you know is worse,” Kievkenalis countered, “but death is death. It happens. I just don’t have as much time as everyone else to make an impact on the world, and I feel that helping out as Hero Machina is doing a lot. I’m satisfied. Happy, even.”

Kaoné paused for some time to think about what the Chaostechnic had said, and then shook her head wearily. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand you…”

“That’s not the first time you’ve said that,” Kievkenalis remarked as he opened the office door and stepped inside. He nodded toward Siyuakén — the only other inhabitant of the room at that moment — before turning back to Kaoné. “You know, now that I think about it, you haven’t said much about yourself.”

“Uh, well, that’s… there’s not a lot to say, really, eheh,” Kaoné responded. She covertly glanced toward Siyuakén but immediately looked away when the Electrotechnic met her gaze.

“It’d still be nice to hear your life story sometime,” Kievkenalis remarked as he approached his desk, oblivious to the exchange between the two women. “Oh, I know! Sometime we should all sit together as a group and share our life stories! It’d be like story time!”

“That doesn’t sound like a very good idea, actually…”

“Huh? Why not—?” the Chaostechnic began to ask, but suddenly stopped as he glanced down at his monitor. “Oh, whoops, the Archoné wanted to see me ten minutes ago! I better go, sorry!” He nodded toward Kaoné apologetically as he rushed out of the office. The Materiatechnic watched him leave and then turned to her own desk.

“’Not a lot to say,’ huh?”

“Uh…” Kaoné paused uneasily before looking over at Siyuakén, who had turned around in her chair to glare at the Materiatechnic. “I’m… sorry?”

“You do realize that I’m the Chaotic who had to drop everything and move to Relédiaka because you were moved to Nimaliaka, right?”

“I… I know that…”

“Do you?” Siyuakén pressed, her lips pursed in anger. “I had to leave behind my entire family and start a whole new life on a completely different continent, all so you could, what, move to Nimaliaka and start whining about everything?”

“What…?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I… I do somewhat appreciate the move, since I got to meet Rebehka.” Siyuakén furrowed her brow and looked away for a moment. She then turned back to Kaoné, her eyes narrowed. “But that doesn’t negate the fact that for six years I was stuck in a place that didn’t welcome me, learning how to fight and use tools for people who looked down on me just because I wasn’t a native! I could almost accept all of this if you were at least making something of the trade, but as far as I can tell, you’ve done nothing, and you continue to do nothing! And on top of that you lied to me, to make it seem like you had done even less!”

“I— I lied to you?!”

“Back in Treséd, you told me you were conscripted as a Lieutenant. But that’s not true. Kevérin said it first, but I looked it up, and he’s right — you were conscripted as a lower rank and had to get promoted like everyone else. Why hide that? Was it not a legitimate accomplishment? Did someone take pity on you and just give you an honorary promotion?”

“N-no!”

“Then what’s going on, Kaoné? Don’t tell me you’ve just wasted the past ten years, or I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive you. What happened?”

“I…” Kaoné looked down before sighing in resignation. “I guess I’d have to tell someone, eventually…”

Siyuakén crossed her arms impatiently. “Do tell.”

“It’s…” the Materiatechnic began slowly, “I… I don’t know how much this has to do with why the Chaotic trade happened, with why you and I were exchanged, but — it’s important to know, to know why I believe what I do, that is, I mean…” She paused to take a deep breath. “When I was six, when I first discovered that I was a Materiatechnic… I accidentally… killed my parents.”

Siyuakén’s hardened expression crumbled instantly. “O-oh…”

“There was no way you could have known,” Kaoné quickly responded, “I mean… as soon as it happened, the Relédiakian government covered it up and moved me to Diaska, an isolated military watch town in the deep south. They kept me there for the next four years, under watch, no adoptive parents, no contact with the rest of my family… it was like they were trying to seal me away, keep me from, I don’t know… doing any more damage, I guess.

“Then the trade happened, and I was moved to Nimaliaka, where I got help and proper care for the first time. I wasn’t even ready to start learning how to properly use my powers until I was thirteen, since I hadn’t used them at all since… since I was six. It was hard, you know? For seven years, to me, being a Materiatechnic only meant accidents — it meant death. It was hard to get over that. But I did, I think, and I was able to start using my powers for more useful things. But it was then that I decided that I wouldn’t kill. I still remember that feeling of loss, back when… when I was six. And, even if I don’t have any personal connection to some soldier I meet on the battlefield, someone does, you know? And I can’t… I don’t wish that pain on anyone. The pain of separation… it’s not worth what could possibly be gained by killing someone. Territory? Technology? The Chaos Ayas? None of it. It’s just not worth killing.” She sighed wearily. “I’m… I’m sorry for the long speech. But… that’s how I feel. That’s what’s happened to me over the past ten years, and I’m sorry I didn’t accomplish more… I really didn’t mean to trivialize your sacrifice. Honest.”

“That… I…” Siyuakén responded dumbfoundedly, her anger completely deflated. “I… had no idea…”

“It’s not a story I share often… I haven’t told anyone else in Hero Machina.”

“I… can understand why.” The Electrotechnic rubbed the back of her neck uneasily. “…I guess I was wrong about you. I still don’t completely agree with your pacifism, but I can see why you think that way… but, why lie to me? Why did you say you were conscripted as a Lieutenant, instead of a Chaotic?”

“I, I don’t know… I guess, it was just easier than trying to explain everything that’s happened to me. Easier than trying to explain how a pacifist got promoted in the military, at least. Just like with you, or Davídrius… most people don’t agree with me, thinking that killing is inherently bad. And back when I was just the rank of Chaotic, I was put on a bunch of missions against, you know, against low-key rebels and such, like most low-rank Chaotic squads. And I had to make it through those missions, and watch as a bunch of people were killed, just because they viewed things a little differently… and then I got promoted for not being able to do anything, because the squads I were on were so ‘successful!’ I don’t agree with it at all. I’d honestly resign from the military if I could. But, I can’t… So, I guess that’s why I lied to you. I don’t like to think about the past few years of my life, if I can help it… I’m sorry I lied.”

“I… wow.” Siyuakén shook her head wearily. “I… apology accepted, I guess. I… I never expected… I’m sorry, for jumping to conclusions about you. It was just… well, obviously I didn’t have it as bad as you, but the exchange is still a sore spot for me, so I guess I got a little short-sighted about it…”

“No no, it’s fine, I’d probably react the same way, haha,” Kaoné laughed uneasily.

“Well… good that we got that cleared up?” Siyuakén smiled awkwardly.

“Yeah,” Kaoné responded in kind. “…Friends?”

“…Sure, why not. Friends.”

“Heh, we got off on a bit of a rocky start, huh.”

“Nah, it only took us, what, three months to clear things up? That’s not terrible, I mean, I’ve held grudges for longer.”

“Uh huh.”

“…Well, it’s past noon, now,” Siyuakén remarked, glancing at a clock on the office wall. “Lunch?”

“Ha, sure.” Kaoné grinned. “Let’s go!”

5 Days Later

– Watedia, Beauth 31, 8034 –

“…and that’s when we all managed to board the shuttle and leave.”

“I see.” Commander Nikéyin nodded in acknowledgment. She sat back for a moment to mull over the information Hero Machina had just relayed to her — the beginning of the raid on Kotak, the revelation of an Artificial Intelligence, Davídrius going berserk, the finding of the Ayas Aldrace, the loss of the Ayas Hastryth, the attack from the infected beast, and the eventual swarm of metallic bugs. She sighed wearily. “I’m… not sure whether to class this mission as a success or a failure. On one hand…” She turned to stare down Davídrius. “You went berserk, and directly caused us to lose an Ayas.” She then turned toward Kevérin. “…On the other hand, you retrieved another Ayas in its place, and recovered what appears to be fully-functional AI, which could be invaluable.”

“In Davídrius’s defense, he was using a Dark Ayas,” Kievkenalis responded. “I know no one wants to believe me, but the Dark and Light Ayas really do exert an influence over their users.”

“Look, I appreciate you stickin’ up for me, but don’t act like I ain’t at fault for my own actions.” Davídrius scowled. “I know I fucked up, and I’ll own up to it. I won’t use some ‘influence’ as an excuse.”

“No, the Captain…” Nikéyin sighed again. “The Captain’s right. Archoné Culana agrees, and the RPF has some research data from the Citans, who claim that the Ayas do seem to have side-effects on the user. This doesn’t fully excuse you, Wrikax… but part of the blame lies with me. I shouldn’t have let you use the Ayas in combat in the first place.”

“Of course he gets off…” Kevérin grumbled, his voice low enough for no one else to hear.

“That said,” the Commander continued, “this means that we’ve lost an Ayas to the metallic infection. I don’t know if we can treat it as a passive danger, if an infected creature can seize an Ayas and incorporate it into its being. Kotak may be a lost cause, but we must find a way to retrieve the Ayas we lost before someone… or something else does.”

“’Thing?’” Davídrius snorted. “Really?”

“You’d do well to keep your mouth shut, Lieutenant,” Nikéyin replied; the Velocitechnic immediately quieted. “Luckily, on the topic of locating Ayas, our researchers have created a useful device based off of the Master Ayas. It’s a Chaos Ayas Sensor.”

“Well that sounds pretty convenient,” Christeané remarked.

“A sensor? How’s it work?” Kievkenalis leaned in, his curiosity piqued.

“You’d have to ask the ones who created it. I’m not technologically versed enough to explain it myself,” Nikéyin stated. “According to them, it can locate an Ayas anywhere in the galaxy, but it can only search relatively small areas at a time — and slowly, at that. So for it to be truly effective, we need to try our best to find the general location of the rest of the Ayas ourselves.”

“…So in order for the sensor to find an Ayas, we have to find it first, and then tell the sensor where it is, and then it finds the Ayas… that we already found?” Christeané stared at the Commander incredulously. “Isn’t that just redundant?”

“I agree that it is not the best solution, but as I understand it, the sensor can inspect a cubic light year’s worth of space in the span of a week,” Nikéyin explained, “that’s far faster than any kind of manual searching technique. If we can even just narrow down the location of an Ayas to a handful of star systems, then the sensor can do the rest.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” Kevérin questioned, “of all the Ayas that we’ve found, we didn’t know that any of them were present until we were on the same planet. In the same region.”

“Hopefully, that AI you brought back can help there. By your account, it seems to know its share about the Ayas.”

“Then… what do we do in the meantime?”

“Continue what you have been doing. Look for leads on the metallic infection, and if the Black Suns finally consent, investigate Rossindon for clues about the cause of the Chaos Quake. There’s not much else for us to do now.”

“So… we’re staying together, then?…” Kaoné questioned uneasily.

“Hmm? You mean as Hero Machina?” Nikéyin leaned back and crossed her arms, pausing for just long enough to sigh again. “I admit, my decision in this regard has not been easy. For now, yes, you will remain as a group and operating under my command. But, I’m warning you — if your performance doesn’t improve soon, I will dissolve the squad.”

“…Understood,” Kevérin replied, answering for the whole team.

“I do have one more question before I allow you all to leave,” the Commander commented, and then turned to Davídrius. “You didn’t mention this during your brief explanation a few minutes ago, but the Transfer Captain mentioned it in the mission report; apparently, when you were fighting the Black Suns soldiers just outside the caves, you stabbed one of them, causing them to ‘disappear in a cloud of blue mist.’ Care to enlighten me as to what you did?”

“Uh.” The Velocitechnic blinked twice, his expression blank. “…No idea. I, uh… that whole encounter is kind of a blur…”

“It could be something related to the Ayas Weapon,” Kievkenalis suggested, “it might be worth asking the Archoné about.”

“Maybe that AI has answers, too,” Siyuakén added.

“Speaking of Culana, he’ll be on base for the next few days. If you see him, be sure to pay him the proper respect due to an Archoné,” Nikéyin ordered, and then stood up, prompting Hero Machina to follow suit. “I will speak further with each of you individually at a later time. For now, you’re dismissed.”

Each member of Hero Machina saluted the Commander before turning toward the briefing room exit and leaving. Nikéyin remained at the head of the table, placing her hands on the surface and taking a deep breath as she allowed her head to hang momentarily. She then looked back to the room’s entrance. “You can come in now, Archoné.”

A moment later, the leader of Riverana strode into the room, gracefully closing the door behind him. He turned to Nikéyin and bowed his head politely. “A pleasure to see you, Commander.”

“The feeling’s mutual, Archoné Culana.” Nikéyin returned the gesture.

“Commander, Commander… how many times have I told you? You may refer to me by my given name, Pallan.”

“Respectfully, sir, you are the Riveranian Archoné. I do not feel that we are on familiar enough terms to refer to each other so casually.”

Culana shook his head with amusement before taking a seat next to Nikéyin, prompting the Commander to sit down as well. “All of you military types are like that,” he remarked, “I’m glad that at least Sulan will oblige this old man.”

“He’s known you for far longer than I have, sir,” Nikéyin replied, “I’m sure he’s earned the right.”

“Earned the right? You act as though names have some sort of ancient power. I can assure you, Commander, that is not the case. And I’m sure that means a lot coming from me, ahahah.”

Nikéyin smiled briefly before returning to a neutral expression. “I understand there’s something you wished to speak to me about?”

“Ah, to the core of the matter.” Culana clasped his hands together and rested his elbows on the table. “It’s about Hero Machina.”

“Archoné…”

“I realize that their performance has not been optimal for a group with their clout, but you must not give up on them.”

“On what grounds? If their failures to date had been due to circumstances outside of their control, then I would agree. But that isn’t the case. Sunova may have been out of their hands, but the end results of the Teghica and Kotak missions are due directly to the group’s inability to control themselves, trust each other, and work together reliably. If you weren’t championing them, then I’d have disbanded them two hours ago.”

“They are the Quakeborn of Nimalia, Commander! They are not Keys, but the Oraculm does mention them, if only off-hand. They are somehow important to the galactic condition. You must give them another chance!”

“I barely understand anything you just said. And you know your ‘Oraculm’ doesn’t hold much sway over the rest of Nimalia. It hasn’t even made any predictions since the Chaos Quake!”

“And that is where you are wrong. The Oraculm makes many predictions; it is up to the Archoné to interpret and filter said predictions and act on them in the most optimal fashion, in accordance with the Universe and Ayas Key prophecies. Sometimes the optimal action is to simply not reveal anything at all, as the act of revelation can change the very future that you are revealing.”

“And you think that keeping Hero Machina together will help with these… prophecies.”

“It is the same reason I implored you to gather the Quakeborn together in the first place.”

“Culana…”

“You must give them another chance.”

“This isn’t just about giving them a chance anymore, Culana. You know the recent anti-NSD movement in the Nimaliakian and Tekdecénian governments? Part of that is due to Hero Machina’s failings. A very small part, granted, but a part nonetheless, a part that will undeniably grow if they continue to underperform. We’re to the point where they’re beginning to undermine the viability of the NSD as a potential organization. We can’t afford this!”

“Reluctantly, I will agree with you there. Coming events mandate a united response—”

“Coming events? What coming events?”

“—which is why I urge you, Commander: offer the Quakeborn one last opportunity. I will no longer bother you after that. But, I implore you — give them one last chance.”

Nikéyin took a deep, long breath and sat back in her chair wearily. “…And you won’t even explain why you want me to do this?” she finally responded.

“I’m sorry, Commander.” Culana bowed his head apologetically. “As Keeper of the Oraculm, I cannot reveal too much, not at this point in time. For now, all I can say is that the galaxy may well be worse off without the Quakeborn working together.”

“…If there’s one thing you’re truly good at, its persistence.” Nikéyin sighed again. “Very well… As I said earlier, I wasn’t going to break them up just yet, but I’ll at least give them one last chance at a proper mission, if only because you’ve already pledged so much to the NSD.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

“I don’t know what you hope to happen, though. If the previous mission report is anything to go by, they’re starting to fragment on their own.”

“I believe you underestimate them,” Culana countered as he stood up and prepared to leave. “I admit, it is very possible that I am wrong, and that they are not as important as I believe them to be. But I also believe that they deserve a chance, and I am glad that you are giving them that chance. They are but twenty-somethings, after all. I’m sure they will get over themselves.”

“Mm, I don’t know,” Nikéyin responded uneasily as she stood up herself. “I may have agreed to give them a second chance, but I can’t say I’m optimistic about the results…”

---

“I’m… sorry.”

“…What?” Kevérin froze, and then turned to face Davídrius straight-on. “…Say again?”

“I said I’m… I’m sorry.” The Velocitechnic rubbed his neck and glanced away uneasily. “I’ve been thinkin’, and, well, I realize that I’ve been… uh, a little hard to work with…”

“That’s putting it lightly,” Kevérin snorted.

“Don’t push it.” Davídrius scowled. “It was hard enough to convince myself to come over here an’ apologize.”

“Some apology.”

The Velocitechnic held a hand to his forehead in frustration as he took a deep breath. “…Look, I’m… tryin’ to apologize to you. I haven’t apologized to, well… anyone. Don’t make this hard.”

“And why should I just accept this sudden apology when you’ve done nothing but act like a prick for the past two months?”

“…I thought you were capable of not bein’ a douchebag, but I guess not, huh. Fuck this, forget I said anythin’—”

“No, no, wait…” Kevérin held a hand out and sighed apprehensively. “…You’re right. Neither of us have been too nice to each other.”

Davídrius stepped back and crossed his arms expectantly. “Finally had a change of heart?”

“Now don’t you make this difficult, too,” the Pyrotechnic replied irately. “I won’t be your friend right away, but I can let bygones be bygones. And I am at fault for some things. …In fact…” He glanced away uneasily. “I may… have said some things that I really shouldn’t have, back when I was looking for the Ayas on Kotak, with Siyuakén and Kaoné. For that, I apologize. I, uh, let my anger get the best of me.”

“Huh? What’d you say to them? What’s it got to do with me?”

“…It’s not important. It’s best we both just forget about it.”

“Uh huh,” Davídrius deadpanned.

“That said…” Kevérin replied, “if you’re willing to at least try and listen to me more, I’ll try my best to, uh, to be less of a…”

“Less of a prick?”

“Sure. But it goes both ways.” Kevérin held out his hand. “This needs effort from both of us. Are you in?”

“…Heh.” Davídrius smirked and held his fist up to Kevérin’s palm. “Well, you did only say ‘try.’ I think I can manage that.”

“Don’t pull any bullshit, now,” the Pyrotechnic retorted, and then turned back to the computer console in front of him.

“Now that the touchy-feely shit is over with…” Davídrius stretched and moved behind Kevérin to stare down at the screen. “What’re you doin’?”

“I’m trying to interface with the Kotak AI,” the Pyrotechnic replied without looking up, “back on Kotak, it was able to talk to us because it was wired into the base’s PA system. If I can hook it into a mic and speaker system here, then we should be able to talk to it, just like we did back then.”

“Why not just ‘talk’ with it through text?”

“Because the step from text to audio is technologically trivial, and audio is a lot easier for us, as Nimalians, to work with,” Kevérin replied. “The hard part is actually interfacing with the core in the first place.”

“Oh. Well tell me when you’re done, then. Talkin’ to it could be interestin’; I wanna find out more about this ‘Quakeborn’ shit.”

“Hah, well, you’re in luck. I just managed to hook everything up.”

“Wait, what?” Davídrius stared at the Pyrotechnic, dumbfounded. “I thought you said this was the hard part.”

“Sure, but I’ve been working on it ever since we left Kotak.” Kevérin smirked. “Cruisers have computers, you know. Catching a glimpse of how the SFC did it helped, too. Not to mention my Tekdecénian background.”

“Oh, brag about it, why don’t ya.”

“Uh… sorry?”

“Just watch yourself,” Davídrius responded flatly before turning his attention back to the computer console. “So, how do we talk to it? Can it hear us?”

A quiet, mildly distorted voice — yet still possessing a booming robotic tone — responded from the computer’s attached speakers. “I CAN INDEED.”

“…It sounds so… different,” the Velocitechnic commented.

“THAT IS THE INEVITABLE RESULT WHEN I AM ATTACHED TO TWO OFF-BOARD SPEAKERS INSTEAD OF A BASE-WIDE AUDIO SYSTEM, YES.”

“Sounds like you’re in good shape,” Kevérin remarked.

“QUITE THE OPPOSITE. MY CORE HAS BEEN DAMAGED. DID I NOT WARN YOU TO BE CAREFUL?”

“Hey, we were attacked,” Davídrius countered, “we were caught by surprise. You’re lucky we didn’t have to leave you behind!”

“I SUPPOSE I WILL HAVE TO TRUST YOUR JUDGMENT. I WAS INCAPABLE OF OBSERVING ANYTHING ONCE I WAS DISENGAGED FROM THE BASE’S COMPUTER SYSTEM. ON THIS SUBJECT, IS IT NOT POSSIBLE TO WIRE ME INTO THIS BASE’S SYSTEM? CURRENTLY, I HAVE NO VISUAL TO ASSOCIATE TO THIS AUDIO SIGNAL, AND THE TERMINAL YOU HAVE CONNECTED ME TO IS ISOLATED AND OFFERS VERY LITTLE IN THE WAY OF INFORMATION, ASIDE FROM HOW YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEMS WORK.”

“That’s intentional,” Kevérin replied, “you can’t blame me for being careful. You may have helped us out back on Kotak, but we don’t know anything about you or your intentions.”

“HAVE I NOT TOLD YOU MY IDENTITY? I AM THE PRIOR ARCÁN! …DOES THIS AGE NOT RECOGNIZE THE WORD OF THE PRIORS?”

“’Priors?’” Davídrius echoed. “There’s more than one of you?”

“IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THE ANSWER TO MY QUERY IS ‘NO.’”

“You had access to the entire base system on Kotak, which by proxy means you had access to the Relaynet!” Kevérin exclaimed, “how did you not know that AI isn’t a thing?”

“I HAD ASSUMED THAT OTHER PRIORS WOULD HAVE BEEN KEPT SECRET, MUCH AS THE STEALTH AND FORCE CORP ATTEMPTED TO KEEP MY EXISTENCE A SECRET.”

“Then how’d you expect us to know about them?”

“…I HAVE NO ANSWER.”

“So much for artificial intelligence, eh?” Davídrius snorted.

“LOGICAL AND RECOLLECTION FAILURES ARE EXPECTED WHEN MY CORE HAS BEEN DAMAGED.”

“Oh, so now it’s our fault?”

“MY STATEMENT WAS NEUTRAL. I IMPLIED NO BLAME.”

“Alright, alright, let’s stop arguing,” Kevérin cut in, “we’re getting nowhere. First things first; what does a damaged core mean for us, exactly?”

“HOLD A MOMENT.” Several seconds of silence passed before the computer spoke up again. “I CANNOT ACCESS MUCH OF MY MEMORY. PROCESSING ABILITY HAS BEEN IMPAIRED, BUT ONLY SLIGHTLY. IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE ONLY LOSS IS INFORMATION.”

Davídrius glanced over at the core skeptically, specifically at its base. Being dropped had caused the lower quarter of the core to crush itself under its own weight, and several small dents and wrinkles appeared around the rest of the object. “Given this damage, all we managed to kill was part of your hard drive?”

“MY CORE IS FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT FROM ANY COMPUTER YOU KNOW. INEXPLICABLY DIFFERENT, IN FACT. YOU CAN ONLY INTERFACE WITH MY CORE USING YOUR COMPUTERS BECAUSE I ALLOW IT.”

“Convenient,” Kevérin remarked. “Well, can you at least explain how we can fix your core, if possible?”

“FIXING IT IS CERTAINLY POSSIBLE. YOU NEED ONLY TO… YOU NEED TO… …IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE REPAIR METHOD WAS LOCATED WITHIN THE DAMAGED MEMORY BANKS…”

“Of course it was,” Davídrius deadpanned.

“DO NOT WORRY, ALL IS NOT LOST. IF YOU RETRIEVE THE AYAS ARCÁN, THEN I CAN INTERFACE WITH IT TO ACCESS THE DAMAGED MEMORIES. I WILL THEN BE ABLE TO OFFER YOU REPAIR INSTRUCTIONS AND PROPER GUIDANCE, AS MANY OF MY HISTORICAL ARCHIVES HAVE BEEN DAMAGED AS WELL. AS I AM CURRENTLY, I CANNOT OFFER SPECIFIC ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO NEXT.”

“Then it is a good thing that we still have the Oraculm to look to, yes?”

Davídrius and Kevérin glanced back at the room’s entrance to find Archoné Culana entering. He strode over to the terminal and offered the two Chaotics a curt nod before turning to the computer, ignoring the Chaotics as they locked up, dumbfounded by the fact that they were standing in the presence of a world leader.

“THE ORACULM WILL INDEED BE HELPFUL, YES. WHAT GUIDANCE DOES IT PROVIDE?”

“It unfortunately does not say much,” Culana replied, “it mentions a rising menace and advises the collection of the Ayas… little more.”

“THE MENACE, HMM… I FEEL AS THOUGH I SHOULD KNOW MORE ON THIS SUBJECT.”

Davídrius crossed his arms. “Let me guess — all your memory related to it has been lost?”

“IT WOULD APPEAR SO.”

“Why are we listenin’ to this thing, again?” The Velocitechnic glanced between Kevérin and Culana impatiently.

“MY CURRENT STATE IS ONLY CAUSE FOR MORE ALARM. ALL I CAN SAY TO YOU IS THIS: GATHER THE AYAS, AND QUICKLY. THE MORE AYAS YOU POSSESS, THE LESS CAN FALL INTO MALICIOUS HANDS. AND IF POSSIBLE, PRIORITIZE THE COLLECTION OF THE LIGHT BLUE AYAS — THE AYAS ARCÁN. WITH IT, I WILL BE ABLE TO RECOVER MUCH OF MY MEMORY, AND SUBSEQUENTLY BE ABLE TO AID YOU FURTHER.”

“This brings up another question,” Kevérin responded, “I assume there’s a connection between you and the Ayas?”

“OF COURSE THERE IS. THE PRIORS ARE DEFINED BY THEIR CONNECTION TO THE AYAS. THE AYAS HAVE NO DIRECTION WITHOUT THE PRIORS, AND THE PRIORS HAVE NO POWER WITHOUT THE AYAS. IT IS A SIMPLE, YET INEXPLICABLY COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP.”

Davídrius scowled. “…This is ridiculous. We only just learned that the Ayas can actually exert some weird influence on people, now they’re also connected to some weird group of AIs? Where’d all this fantasy bullshit come from?”

“This isn’t fantasy, it’s reality,” Culana remarked. “…I believe I may be able to interact with Arcán more effectively on my own. Transfer Captain, Lieutenant, would you mind allowing me some time with the Prior alone?”

“What? Why?” Kevérin questioned.

Culana raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Should you really question an Archoné?”

The two Chaotics paused, both at a loss for an answer.

“Well… I guess it’s fine,” Kevérin eventually replied, “but I have one more question for the computer before we leave.”

“WHAT IS IT?”

“This is probably a shot in the dark, given your loss of memory,” the Pyrotechnic commented, “but back on Kotak, when Davídrius here was fighting under the influence of the Ayas Hastryth, at one point he stabbed one of the soldiers and they disappeared into a blue mist. Sound familiar?”

“THIS WAS DONE WITH THE HASTRYTH WEAPON?”

“Yes.”

“THEN IT MUST BE SUBSPATIAL STORAGE.”

“Oh wow, it actually remembers something useful,” Davídrius deadpanned.

“What’s ‘Subspatial storage?’” Kevérin questioned, “sounds really powerful.”

“IT MOST CERTAINLY IS, AS IS ANY OTHER ABILITY RELATED TO THE AYAS. SUBSPATIAL STORAGE IS AN ABILITY SHARED BY ALL OF THE AYAS WEAPONS — INSTEAD OF PHYSICALLY DESTROYING AN OBJECT, AN AYAS WEAPON CAN INSTEAD STORE ANY CONTACTED OBJECT WITHIN SUBSPACE. THE OBJECT WILL THEN BE HELD IN STASIS WITHIN SUBSPACE UNTIL IT IS RECALLED BY THE SAME WEAPON THAT STORED IT. IT IS, EFFECTIVELY, AN INFINITE STORAGE MECHANISM.”

“…Welp.” Davídrius threw his hands up in the air. “First the whole Dark Ayas thing, then the Prior thing, now this infinite storage thing, this is just… ridiculous!”

“You have your answer,” Culana commented, “if you would excuse yourselves, Transfer Captain, Lieutenant.”

“…Sure,” Kevérin responded slowly. He then stood up and backed away from the terminal before turning toward the room exit and leaving, with Davídrius following uneasily. The Velocitechnic scowled as the door closed.

“He’s really fuckin’ pushy,” he remarked.

“And wanting to talk to the AI by himself…” Kevérin frowned. “What’s going on?”

“I dunno, but it seems like our situation is completely different from what we thought it was half an hour ago.” Davídrius crossed his arms. “Never expected so much fantasy after joining Hero Machina, keh.”

“Yeah…” Kevérin responded, “hopefully things will make more sense in the coming weeks…”

“Hah,” Davídrius snorted. “Make more sense? You just watch: come one month from now, everythin’ we know will be flipped on its head. I’d fuckin’ bet on it.”