The carrier Arcana Fantasia hovered above the devastation, glimmering and white. The research station, hidden in some dark corner of the galaxy had been compromised. The work that would lead to humanity's last grasp for salvation had been all but entirely destroyed. All the researchers, all the would-be super-soldiers, dead...all but six. All the super-weapons, destroyed...all but six. But the attackers, the so-called 'Pathfinders' were themselves utterly destroyed as well.

Six mechanical giants stood or hovered under the carrier, the Frames and their pilots, all that remained of the project, and the force that had returned death to the Pathfinders. One Frame, known as Balmung, put away its sword as the carrier descended to pick them up. Balmung's pilot, Marco, devastated over the death of his father and the destruction of the station that he had called 'home' for a majority of his life, summoned up the strength to say, "Everyone! We're getting in the ship!"

Without a word, a dark, svelte Frame, Mithra, leaped into the air acrobatically, landing in the docking bay before Arcana Fantasia had even touched the ground yet, and went inside.

"C-come on ShiZhen," Marco said to a bulky, armless and legless Frame that hovered, "Let's go inside." The bulky Frame, Chrysalis, didn't budge. It's pilot, ShiZhen, sat in the cockpit weeping. When the carrier landed, Balmung slowly pushed Chrysalis towards the ramp looking back at the other three Frames, expecting them to follow him.

---

Arcana Fantasia's hangar was spacious, capable of carrying many more than just the six Frames that entered. Mithra was already docked, its pilot, Rana, had already exited her Frame and was making her way along the catwalk away from her 'comrades'. Balmung maneuvered Chrysalis into a docking rack before making its way over to a docking rack if its own. By the time Marco had exited Balmung, Rana had already taken a lift to another section of the ship. Sighing, Marco went to Chrysalis and attempted to open the hatch, but it was locked. He began pounding on it, "ShiZhen! Are you alright?!"

The white form of a mechanical body hovered in air, haunched over slightly, seemingly staring into it's palms. A blue spark of energy ran in each hand, staring up like two neon eyes back into the lifeless red ones of the weapon. Behind those eyes, running through the beast and into it's heart, sat a young boy. Curled in his seat, with hands clasping against each temple. His white hair poking between his fingers, like idea that couldn't quite be held back. Tears rolling down one side of his face, the boy sucked in air, to try and calm himself, but all it did was feed the fire in his belly.

Eventually, a sturdy arm wrapped itself around the body having a staring contest with itself. This arm attached to a much bulkier metal doll, which hefted a massive shield in it's free hand. It's large features made it hard to stay too close to the other body, but still it held on, slowly moving them both forward with it's meager propulsion. The comforting hand which extended the metal one, was connected to a young girl. She sat with her teeth grit, some tears stinging her eyes. She found the strength to say only two words. "Come on."

A much more slender machine flew behind these two. A large weapon now situated against it's back instead of in it's hands. The cylindrical head staring down into the wreck below. It was silent, much like the young girl controlling it. Inside the frame a young girl had her head fallen also, her hair blocking any view from her eyes, but every so often a sob could be heard. She stayed as silent as could, as she knew people below,who would not want to hear anything else from her right now. At least not anything she could manage at the time.

---

Inside the ship, the three frames situated themselves. The first to exit was Rebecca, the pilot of the heaviest frame. She was now biting her lower lip and had red marks from aggressively drying the tears away by force. She marched with meaning, to the white frame she had escorted. Soon she had helped her smaller ally out of it, and towards the slender beast that had followed them. After another process of removing a small body from a much larger one, the three moved towards the other person in relative space, who was not confined within their act of self defense. "She going to be okay?" The tall girl asked behind the boy banging on the frames hatch.

"I...I don't know," Marco replied, looking at the girl who had approached. There were many children in the project and he didn't know all of them, though he recognized Leonard behind her, since for the most part, facilities had been divided by gender. He also happened to know Alice and ShiZhen, but that was because his father had talked about the 'prodigies' a great deal. Thinking about his father made his eyes begin to water a little, but her held them back.

Suddenly a light materialized at the end of the catwalk, taking the form of a woman. "Welcome to the Arcana Fantasia, Arcana Frame pilots. I am Stella, the crew assistance AI. In the event a pilot is unable to exit the Frame, emergency hatch opening protocols can be performed. Would you like to-"

"Yes!" Marco shouted.

Stella blinked in bewilderment for a moment before saying, "Roger." Chrysalis' hatch opened slowly, revealing ShiZhen inside, sobbing violently, but quietly to herself.

"ShiZhen!" Marco called out, "You're not hurt, are you?"

"M-Marco?" ShiZhen said, only just realizing the hatch had been opened. "Don't look at me!" ShiZhen screamed and started crying harder.

"What's wrong?!" Marco asked.

"Just go away!" ShiZhen shouted back, and frantically ran her hand along the Frame's console until she hit the button to close the hatch. Marco leaned against the hatch unsure what to do.

Rebecca watched as the young boy leaned against the hatch. She let somber eyes fall on him, as well as the hatch. She had known the girl behind it somewhat, although they were never really close. She realized her grip had become a bit tight on the shoulders of her two companions and eased a bit. "..Look, you could probably use some rest. We all could, so why don't you head out of the hangar... I'll stay with ShiZhen." The young boy with gray hair looked up the older one, and then to the boy ahead of them. He clenched his fist, grasping for a little more strength, and moved forward, offering a hand to help Marco up. He didn't say any words, but he gave a warm stare, and a small nod.

"You three go in after Rana, make sure she is as okay as she seems she is..." Rebecca instructed Alice, squatting down to her level. The young sniper nodded meekly. The blond girl looked to the construct not terribly far away. Tilting her head a bit she regarded Stella with a slight contempt. She didn't mean to, really, but she never wanted an A.I to replace all those people down below.

Marco took Leonard's hand, "Alright," he agreed with Rebecca. "I just want to know that she's okay, that...we're all okay..." Marco said, looking around. "Make sure she comes out eventually. We'll go check on Rana." Marco headed to the lift with Leonard and Alice. "S-Stella, where's Rana?"

Stella paused for a moment, accessing the ship's surveillance, "Ms. Haq is on the bridge."

"Thank you," Marco said and got into the lift, pushing the button for the bridge.

---

Arriving at the bridge, the lift doors opened, Rana stood there looking at a large screen that showed a map of the galaxy. Another hologram of Stella stood next to her.

"These are the Pathfinder systems?" Rana asked.

"Yes," Stella replied.

"Then set a course," Rana said, "We're taking the fight to them."

Watching the others take off, Rebecca let herself fall to the floor. Letting a few shaky breaths leave her she attempted to compose herself. This was hard. Pretending to be okay was hard. After what felt like both too long and too short a time, the girl brought herself to a stand again. She dusted herself off and looked at the metal soldier containing the small prodigy within. She hovered over the hatch and lifted her clenched fist, pausing for a second, to search for better words. With a soft knock she hit the door three times. "ShiZhen?" She said loud enough to be heard, but soft enough to be comfortable.

---

Arriving at the bridge, Alice didn't hesitate to move. Hearing Rana's order given to Stella, she immediately went to the other girls side.

"Let's make them sorry." She didn't hold anger in her voice, she didn't hold any commanding, nothing but a cold and bitter tone that could almost sound pleading. Her fists were clenched to the point of turning white at the knuckles. She stared at the map, taking every little light and blip on it in, regarding everything as an enemy.

Leo was not so quick to move. The thought of seeking out a fight so soon didn't sit well with him, not one bit. Despite haven taken Marco's hand to support him, he found himself clinging to it for something to hold onto to. He didn't notice it himself but he trembled ever so slightly. The bridge felt cold, though he wasn't sure if that was really just him. He looked to Marco, perhaps for guidance or maybe for comfort, but he didn't want to make any decisions himself right now.

At this point it seemed that ShiZhen had calmed down a bit, so to Rebecca's knocking she asked, "I-is Marco still there?"

---

As Alice approached Rana, her eyes narrowed, judging her for a moment before relaxing, glad the other girl had agreed with her current course of action.

"That's insane!" Marco cried out in incredulity. He looked over at Leonard and felt the boy's hand in his own, trembling. "We barely made it out of the base alive, we don't have the strength to face their full force! We need to stop for a moment and think!" While Marco wasn't usually the voice of reason, he felt this decision would kill them all.

"What would you suggest we do?" Rana asked in a cold, condescending tone.

"Contact Humanity!" Marco cried.

"The Project was secret, but someone must have given it away," Rana continued, "Who do you think might have done so? Can we trust that individual isn't somewhere in the upper echelons of the Empire waiting to pounce on us? To go back to the Empire is what they're expecting us to do."

"I am conflicted," Stella interrupted. "There is not a proper chain of command for me to defer to when obeying your decisions as none of you have been ranked yet."

"Th-that's right," Marco said, realizing something, "I'm older than her, and I'm the son...I'm the son of...one of the researchers on the project..." He hoped that would amount to something.

Rana shot an glare of rage and disdain at Marco and then fixed her gaze at Stella. Rana's red eyes flashed for a moment as the ship wobbled suddenly, lights and monitors flickering as Stella gave a reaction as if of physical pain.

"You will obey. ME. Ship." Rana said forcefully, having used her cybernetic ability to hack into electronics to threaten the Arcana Fantasia.

Rebecca waited a second before answering. "No, I sent him upstairs with the others...just us two here." Some part of her wanted to ask the obvious "are you okay?" question, but decided against it, as she knew the answer. "Do you wanna come out of there?" Rebecca didn't really want to think of her frame at the moment, so she could only imagine the others might feel the same.

---

"Hey now."

Alice let two cold words fly at the bickering pair. She was turned now to face them, and ignoring Leo, regarded them coldly. "No matter what we do it won't help to be at each others necks." She tried not to let malice spill into her words, though she was gripping her hands so tightly she might make herself bleed. The storm in her head didn't want to deal with "people" right now, it just wanted monsters.

"Let's not hurt each other or that" she spat the last word out and only vaguely regarded Stella with a gesture of the head. "I wanna give them back what they gave us. It's only fair. They took everything, we deserve to take something back." She bore down on Marco, trying to sound all in reason and not overly emotional, but she couldn't help and let some coldness through.

Leo had become Marco's shadow at this point, nearly hiding behind him. An angry mob of wasps danced inside him and confused him into not knowing what to be scared of, and what not to be sacred of. As far as he saw it, Rana was fairly terrifying.

The hatch hissed open, ShiZhen had calmed down a bit, but it was clear she was still unable to completely stop crying. "I keep telling myself that there wasn't anything I could do, but I don't know if that's true. I-I just stood there...and watched him die..."

---

"We can't let our emotions get the better of us!" Marco yelled, hardly able to control his own, overwhelmed with sadness and anger as he was. But he was keenly aware of Leonard, whom Marco, at this moment, swore to protect.

"Well the ship hasn't moved yet," Rana began, "If you want, you and that little mouse behind you can get off right here." Rana stared at Marco coldly. The thought of remaining surrounded by death and destruction was unpalatable to Marco, who didn't say anything.

"I didn't think so," Rana concluded, "Ship, engage the course I set."

"U-understood," Stella said meekly. The ship began to rise out of the atmosphere quickly, though its passengers couldn't feel it thanks to inertial dampeners that all space-faring vehicles were installed with.

Marco turned to Leonard, "Let's go find the habitation quarters, get some rest," he was softly, choosing not to continue arguing with Rana and Alice. he tried to gently lead Leonard to the elevator.