Ryder had the advantage of already being at the Samigina when Richard had radioed in. Her time spent with her new mechanic friend was cut short as her eyes bolted open and she stood up, heading towards Theta, who was still in the process of being upgraded, but she had no time. 

"Time to go," she stated rather frantically to her new companion. Edward gave her a nod, going to help her into her cockpit. He then began tearing away all the equipment around Theta while Ryder hastily started her FRAME up. [i]Defend Cradle HQ...[/i] That was her goal. Ryder made no attempt to wait for her team. She bolted off towards the HQ. This would be the perfect time to test her new equipment anyways.

Ryder's FRAME made a short whirring sound as she attempted to activate her Active Camouflage. She blinked a few times, not really knowing what to expect. At this point, she just had to assume she was invisible. Her arrival at Cradle's headquarters was very quick. With eyes flicking back and forth over her monitors, Ryder scanned the area for enemy FRAMEs. She had no luck. Well, at least until a mortar shell arrived just several meters to Theta's left. [i]I guess the Active Camouflage is out for now.[/i] She thought, flipping a switch to deactivate Active Camo. The odds were definitely against her now.

Theta had luckily never stopped skating as Ryder stopped to search for hostiles. She shot forward towards the headquarters, hoping to get close enough to the building to stop the barrage of mortars. Another two or so explosions behind her as the mortars miscalculated her agile Zaruga's speed. Ryder nearly slammed into the building at her panicked speed. The blasts stopped as she neared the building, but she could hear FRAMEs moving above her in the headquarters. Ryder figured that these hostiles were sending someone to deal with her.

She figured she had to move quickly to get the upper Hand and she could hear Autocannon fire along the other sides of the building. Perhaps it wasn't such a swell idea to ignore Cecilia's idea to partner up, but she didn't want to wait. As if to add injury to insult, two unmarked FRAMEs rounded the corner of a nearby block. Ryder felt as if she was out of options. She made a small shrug from within her cockpit. She had an idea, might as well give it a shot.

Her Active Camo flipped back on just as the two unmarked FRAMEs rose their Autocannons. She knew her heat signature would be a problem so she started to skate forth, rushing the two of them with a bit of a zigzag in her path as if to throw of any idea of where her heat signature was. Autocannon fire ripped past her. She made it about half the way there before some of the numerous Autocannon shells made contact with her. She was expecting the flashing red lights, the sirens, but surprisingly, nothing happened. It seemed that the Reactive Armor had disrupted the bullets as they made contact. This was of course a good thing until Ryder realized the Reactive Armor's tiny explosions would no doubt be visible despite her Active Camo.

Ryder swallowed shakily. She was a mere amount of seconds until she was able to make melee contact and she had a mere amount of [i]milliseconds[/i] before her Reactive Armor would flood with Autocannon fire and leave her armor vulnerable to the strong Autocannons that could easily reach her cockpit. Perhaps she'd take a bit of Cecilia's previous advice yet. Ryder flipped on her torso mounted MG27 Light Machinegun. That would at least hassle her enemies a bit. More of her Reactive Armor exploded offering her less and less protection. Theta's fist rose as one of the Autocannons stopped firing. That FRAME had little armor as well. He was going to back up, but one of her enemies had plans to continue his barrage.

Theta's forearm rose to smash into the side of the Autocannon of her opponent. She succeeded in her maneuver despite his Autocannon's continued fire slamming into and disabling Theta's left shoulder. With his Autocannon out of his hands, her first opponent was temporarily disabled, but it was time for her to back out. Ryder flicked back around, skates activating once more along with her Active Camo. It would at least make her a little harder to target.

Her Zaruga zoomed at its top speed down the block, skidding around a corner. She could hear her enemies' Autocannons ringing behind her. Ryder huffed in her FRAME. She was pinned now, and it didn't help that she could see the FRAMEs that fired mortars at her once again within the building.