[color=f26522]"Decapitate early. Understood."[/color]

The auburn-haired girl was not one much for words even on her best day. With an alarm blaring in her ear and a kaiju rampaging in the wild, she had neither place nor time to be anything but succinct. She stayed just long enough to get a good look at her opponent, to burn its horrible visage into her mind's eye, and hear Regina's preliminary gameplan.

Then, she did what any girl would do.

Autumn ran. She fled. She sprinted out of the briefing room like her very life depended on it.

She ran to the safest place she knew.

The one realm where the beast's great claws, its vicious teeth, nor its horrible roars could rend her life open again. Somewhere where she could hold back the night its vengeful eyes promised.

That all-too-important [i]difference[/i] between here and the disaster of San Francisco. Here and [i]Oakland[/i].

It was that place. The one she'd spent years calling home, so that nobody else had to lose theirs.

[i]Aleksandr.[/i]

[color=f26522]"Clear out! Taking off!"[/color] she yelled, high voice somehow cutting above the maelstrom kicked up by Sumarbrandr's rotors. Or perhaps it was her frantically waving hands that did it?

Either way, the team of round-the-clock technicians that worked tirelessly to keep her avatar of retribution in peak form got the message— [i]Pilot coming through, please get away from the treads[/i]. The guys were quick to heed that warning, packing up equipment and leaving her with wishes of good fortune and good hunting. They knew her as well as anyone on the base could claim to— she had spent many hours of downtime quietly shadowing them as they worked on her machine.

Autumn knew that the pre-launch checks would be smooth and short. Those guys were good at more than just roasting each other and dirty jokes. Everything was in more than working order.

"[i]COFFIN system online. Welcome back, Pilot.[/i]"

As it should be.

The world flared into new, crystal-resolution life as Aleksandr's chassis fed camera feed in 360 degrees to her cockpit. Fingers dancing across the controls in familiar patterns, she swiveled her coaxial turrets, each autocannon responding immediately and precisely. A minor main barrel adjustment next— shifting the angle in minutiae to account or hangar space, but it all the same proved itself good and ready. Magnification systems, working. She could zoom down to a penny beneath her if she wished. Comms, open. Already, both the bridge and Michel were sending her real-time info.

She'd done VR missions with a less forgiving system... Only one thing left.

She turned the proverbial key.

The hangar filled with sound and fury, as Promethion's Etherion heart roared to life. The strongest engine ever produced had awakened, and set itself to work upon the tens of thousands of tons of armor, tread and gun that Max Fire had deemed appropriate to cull this foe and all others like it. A promise of annihilation in response to a threat of extinction.  

[color=f26522][i]Never again.[/i]

"Aleksandr, LAUNCH!"[/color]

Mankind's Mobile Fortress once again carved a path with biting steel into the Earth, as Autumn Hanneman, age 13, marched to War.