As the two Wildcat helicopters banked, they steered over the chaos behind them, dumping chaff to avoid missiles from mainly the mech, and any other fire, moving fast and dumping a ton of speed on the far side of the launch pad, flying past the Adrianne on the pad itself and the half-bunker, half headquarters of Vulpine Space, as well as their operational center that had been co-opted by Artemis. The choppers were going straight for the rocket store, a gigantic, almost 20 story tall building where rockets were housed prior to launch and now something else entirely had been.

When the call came, there was hardly a surprise. Rushing to get here had been a problem, but for prize mercenaries, Artemis paid. And pay they did with something else Ingwe had gotten in the contract. A plus one for an off-planet escape, to return after the world ended…..

Inside one of the choppers, Laura looked back at the chaos they’d been dropped into, dressed in a tight black pilot’s suit that formed the inner layer of her traditional THICC suit, revealing her hefty breasts and her Athena-rivalling rump. Laura was fat, unashamedly so, maybe more so than ever before even outside of her THICC suit. She was not aiming to be a model, she was aiming to be effective given the muscle behind it that those pesky Kaantario siblings managed to manage better than her and well, schnitzel, wurst and strudel with a lot of money had an effect on her. Not that it turned Ingwe off her, her new partner doing things to her that weren’t even legal in most countries. From her laced up boots to her thighs wrapped tight in the glove-like embrace of the suit that looked like they could crush a VW Beetle, along her trunk-like arms all the way to her neck on which an almost comically small head sat, there was something of a dominatrix about her, given away by her hazel-coloured hair in a braid and her sharp pink acetylene burn on her face.

And well, rolling with Ingwe, it had been so easy to fall for him. She was addicted to him. Completely. When she laid eyes on him in that bar, hurt after Freya had pulled a number in him in Patagonia, Laura changed. Gone was any mission of her own. It was an instant connection, and well, he got lost in her too. Thoughts of Freya disappeared, because he was the only man in the world that made her feel like she was tiny. Of course, she was there to kill him at first, an easy job but…..of course, the B-Movie plot played itself when a pyromaniac German cast out from Raven’s main team started getting feelings for the African merc that treated her like the empress she thought she was.

Freya was the only other that did that to her, and while nearly getting killed by her had brought back memories, maybe even almost regret...but well, Ingwe...Ingwe did something else. It might have felt like nearly getting killed, given he was pretty badly hurt by almost all of the Kaantario siblings now, but he still had his charm. And he dealt with her unhinged nature. A toxic match for two very unstable, powerful people.

Stepping out off the side of the chopper, the Artemis mercs secured the area, and moved to open the doors of the gigantic warehouse, Laura positively dripping with a certain feel. This was not something typical- it was a final line of defense, something she hoped to play with at some point, but sooner had finally arrived.

Looking to Ingwe, Laura wrapped up close against him, tangling herself close to his chest, rubbing hers against his.
“This wasn’t how I expected to show you the treat that Rose promised. But it comes to this...the men have bought us time and Zhao trusts us to squish them. Glad that my ex didn’t go for the head on that geoengineering rig, so I could show you this myself, and her too. Maybe a treat before this little Garden of Eden we can come back to after we clear our path out, mein Schatz?” Laura pushed herself against him, rubbing his hand a little against her own rear.
“She promised us a little power before we left. But I feel we should go show some now. We are better than them. Are you ready?” Laura excitedly spoke, crazy with love, and generally, the feeling of burning shit down.

Ingwe played with the blade of his huge Iklwa spear, tucked to his chest. He had a limp, after that beating down in the South. His face was carved and cratered. It had been quite a beatdown. He should have died. If not for Artemis coming in, finding him on the brink and bringing him back. He’d been looking out into the field as they came in and had seen some of the enemy fighters. But it hadn’t been the time. They healed him, rebuilt his body where Raven had hit him hard.

Now here he is with Laura. Oh a lot of the Heavies in the world know of Laura. She’s almost as famous as Athena, Freya and their mother Natalie. Standing side by side with other infamous mercs like Antoine and Svetlana.

But Laura is something else. She had a way with words, and action. Even as she presses herself to his side. Ingwe responds, woodenly. He can sense that passion, but there is something else. He takes a breath and lets it hiss between his teeth. He turns to her, “Zhao and that Succubus and Artemis promised me a land of my own, to rebuild Africa after the world dies.” He hisses angrily, “But before then…I want them to burn. I want her to burn! Freya…Frigga.” He starts to shake with rage and anger, “I’ll watch her writhe in pain at my feet before the time to retreat and wait in safety comes.” He looks at her, “You were close with her weren’t you? Are you tainted by that snake woman’s charms too?” He grabs Laura by the cheek, and for a second he almost smacks her, but instead he steals a kiss, “Perhaps after all is done, we will have to see if we can’t wash that taint from you.” He lets her go then, “Yes we should go show them.” He steps forward, and the lights in the warehouse boomed on, revealing two large shapes within. He stretched his arms forth, “With these.”

Mechs…

And with it, into light came two twenty-five foot tall silhouettes that dominated the room.

His and hers.

And made to the way that Laura demanded it, and Ingwe too. Laura had forgotten just how deep the pockets of some people were, and when you wanted to be the elite, the top dog in the mercenary world, you paid eye-watering sums. There weren’t others like Laura and Ingwe, after all, the number of giants over seven foot that weren’t crippled were probably under two dozen. With no squad, no elite unit, not much but sheer bombast and power. And more than anything, they didn’t want money from Artemis, they would provide security for free, so long as they got that world. Ingwe had invited Laura into that world, it was why she was on that rig as the final protection point, and if she’d have gotten through her ex, her team wouldn’t have stood a chance. And she could think of nothing more hot than that. Ripping and tearing away, Laura’s boots clattering on concrete as her thighs shook like pistons and the suit squeaking as she moved due to just how tight and likely, how much she’d been treating herself and Ingwe while he was recovering.

The lights flickered on across the side of the warehouse, no rocket here, but something with even more power as Laura looked to him, loving it when he got feisty with her.

“Oh, you’ll get all the taint out of me, and so much more….relax, big boy. I’ll squish her like she’s never been squished. And Skye Lyons….oh, I’ll save her for you. I like it when you get angry. You’re so hot when you are.” Laura stuck out her tongue, cackling with laughter, watching what emerged in front of them come into full view.

Laura craned her neck up at it, whistling at the sight of hers. Like someone had taken her THICC suit, and blown it up, to 25 feet. They had gotten all the proportions right, and walking around the back….Laura screamed like she had seen a ghost.
“Mein gott!” Laura giggled, cackling with laughter, hearty and deep, unhinged even, as she ran back around it, yelling.
“Ah, this will do, Ingwe! Zis will do!” She cackled, wooping, practically bouncing around, resting up against the gigantic mechanical leg.
“She looks beautiful? Das UberTHICC…..I saw this in my dreams, and so it was given the codename. And look at it. So beautiful. The essence of me in….this. And look at yours too. After everything, we deserve it.” Laura whipped her hair, at this point, frankly more absorbed than Athena at this point in time, whistling at the last before turning back to her own.

"It's...it's perfect, Ingwe," Laura breathed, turning to him with a wide grin. She walked over to Ingwe, her boots clattering on the concrete, and she laughed, a deep, throaty sound that echoed through the warehouse. Evil, pure, diabolical evil. She wrapped her arms around his neck, leaving a biting kiss, before she pressed her lips to his again, a quick, fierce kiss that left him breathless.

"We're going to be unstoppable," she whispered against his lips. "Just you and me, tearing through everything in our path. Fuck, this is the best day ever." She leaned out, with a wild, wild smile.

"You know me, Ingwe. I do love playing with my toys." Laura stared with a fire of a thousand suns, breathless, completely overwhelmingly in burn. But she had to go back. Addict herself to this.

In addition to its flamethrower nozzles, mounted on the arms, the mech was also armed with a pair of GAU-19 miniguns mounted on the sides of the mech onto tracked targets. The mech's right arm was equipped with a gigantic chainsaw poking beyond the hand, capable of ripping vehicles and other mechs with ease, the left with an electric smoke projector. And finally, the mech was equipped with its own mini missile system, on the right shoulder, built to eliminate aerial and counter rocket threats where the gigantic field generator didn’t.

Laura's eyes sparkled with excitement as she took in every detail of her new mech, the UberTHICC. She ran her gloved hands along the smooth, matte black metalicky rubber surface, feeling the power that hummed beneath her touch. She could already imagine the destruction it would wreak on the battlefield, and the thrill of piloting it sent a shiver down her spine.

The mech's design was an evolution of Laura's THICC suit, with exaggerated proportions that accentuated her massive….chunk. From her large breasts to round, firm rear, perhaps though it was a little wider in proportions than herself in reality, the stability was perhaps a considered factor, plus carrying her weaponry type demanded it. Yet it was a statement. Instead of being built from traditional titanium and rare earth all over, it seemed to have a rubberised, anti-shock outer mixed in with reactive plating, given it relied heavily on a massive field generator on the back and frankly hummed with the stuff on the surface and with a variable-rate field that could repel bullets to artillery shells, wedged atop the gigantic thermite tanks that Laura’s special brew flamethrower fuel sat in that literally were the size of a small bus, each- hot enough to melt most shields, tanks and armour. But beneath that lay armour that provided main battle tank levels of protection, creating a chassis that otherwise was covered. Thruster jets, built around the underside gave her an ability to hop, not jump per se, but clear obstacles.

The arms were equally imposing, with massive, heavily armored shoulders and biceps that bulged with raw power. The mech's head was a stylized version of Laura's own outline, with a pair of glowing blue eyes that seemed to pierce through the darkness with a triangle-like glow. No reason, but just because it completed the look, given the rest of it felt like literally the suit Freya had smashed up replicated for many times XL. The legs were like Laura’s exactly the same but just to scale, the size of each “shoe” with a mechanical foot like the size of a car, with a sleek mechanism in each, the joints of the mech hidden sleekly, yet making the thing a hell of a bigger target than it needed to be, the stomach and chest the same, nothing spared. This wasn’t a mech, this was a statement, her own vanity, self obsession, and actually making it happen because she had the rights to it. It made her a bigger target, but she wanted to be. She wanted to be stupid. Dumb. And fuck whatever was said about practicality, she wanted it this way, and now she got it. The lady who was a middling engineer would work it out herself. She could already imagine the look on Freya's face when she saw it, when she realized that Laura was coming for her, and that this time, she was a hell of a lot bigger, looking back to Ingwe before finishing checks.

“So, shall we take them for a test drive?”

And with his response, Laura pulled away the large power cord attached to the gigantic hydrogen cells inside mounted where well, of course it was because she was as positively bonkers as she could be as she slid back down the rear of the leg a couple of feet after clambering to it, that motion boots lifting to reveal her rollerblades from earlier as the thing energised. Her realisation that a big lumbering pyro was an easy target, so of course, rollerblades it was.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have Rose, it has wheels!” She exclaimed in the most German accent Ingwe had likely heard her make, as she clapped her hands in excitement.

Laura heard another loud explosion from the other side, the Raven troops charging through the security checkpoint as she clambered up the ladder built into the mech's thigh. She hauled herself up, her muscles straining with the effort. She was barely fitting through the gap, straining and grunting, costing a valuable minute, but physically unable to move for a second until she used brute force to take her hips through with her massive arms. It was a tight gap, but she yanked herself in and pulled the entry shut, sitting inside a padded, luxurious chair with a camera setup. She slipped inside, the hatch sealing behind her with a hiss of pressurized air.Sliding her arms into the control mechanisms, her legs into the same as the sleek chair moulded into her and creaked in strain in the tight cockpit inside where her belly might be, she felt her legs tighten up into their clamped position, the mech following her movement, half standing but now interfaced..

Laura's fingers danced over the controls with her hands as the AR display popped out, her excitement palpable as she felt the mech's power course through her. The mech's systems came to life around her, the displays flickering to life, the hum of power filling her ears. She could feel the mech's movements, the way it shifted under her control, as if it was an extension of her own body.

She looked out through the mech's eyes, the world outside reduced to a grid of targeting reticles and sensor readouts. She could see Ingwe's mech standing nearby, its systems also coming online. She could see the other mercs, moving around the warehouse, securing the area, most in dumbfounded shock. This had not been shown to them. It had barely been shown to anyone outside of Rose and Zhao. She could feel the anticipation building inside her, the excitement, the adrenaline. She was ready. She was more than ready. She was born for this.

She turned to Ingwe, her voice filled with a fierce determination. "Not looking bad yourself, Ingwe. Let's go show them what we're made of. Let's go burn them to the ground." And with it, the suit stomped, then slid forward, as Laura cackled, her body shaking, trembling with power, and she felt like now, they could bring a hundred, a thousand, hundred thousand men, but she was going to rip through them like butter.

As Laura went to her mech, Ingwe watched, his eyes burning is almost religious levels of fervor and rage. This is it, this is when he can get his payback against Raven, and Freya. And he understands the other Siblings and a few tawdry others with them. He and Laura could surely take them out, and then he could spend time skinning Freya like a hog.

As Laura boarded up he walked over to his. It’s painted a brilliant crimson and yellow with streaks that make it look like black warpaint on its face plate and along its chest. Broad with several reactive plates all along it’s chest and cockpit, armored joints to make things a little harder on the enemy.

He crawled up and into the cockpit, letting it shut, in casing him in darkness before systems started to come online, the interior lit in amber and blue, the outside cameras spun up and turned, a main camera set looking like five eyes set in a pyramid design lit up gold. After abit his radio turns on and he hears Laura, “This will be our magnum opus Laura. To get back at those who have hurt us. The way Raven and Freya has humiliated me, and the way she nearly killed you.” He sighs and manipulates the mech, picking up the Iklwa styled pile driver gun on his left side, and a massive shotgun in the other. A zulu style shield slides over his left arm, “May we fight well, and put and end to Raven yes? Let’s get moving Big Bertha, we have work to do. Today Shaka and Big Bertha walk together.” He keys into the base comms, “Open the bay doors, we’re leaving!”

As the mech doors heave open again, Ingwe guides his mech out, onto the battlefield, “Come I’m called to slaughter.” His outside speaker switch on and he bellows, “Zulu! Zulu! Zulu!” as he walks forward in his mech.

Laura smirked, looking across, bringing his cockpit camera into view onto hers.
“I thought you would never ask.” Laura smirked, flicking the burners on, stomping out towards the doors, following behind Ingwe, the Zulu-incarnate that sat in his own mech. It was quite the spectacle, much like hers. But she would want it no other way.

And so they marched the pair of them, a pair of titans to face titans. There would have to be a reckoning after this. Someone would die. Or not at all. Something would be decided when they met on the field though. Only a matter of time now.

Purna broke into a roll as soon as the arrow hit, keeping head down as Bakker caught a series of knives, and Eloise, well, Eloise royally saved his ass. Eloise had the firepower but was hopelessly outnumbered, a couple of Artemis mercs shielding Bakker as they fired on Purna's and Eloise's last known position, Sam unwilling to use his quiet voice for this reaction while Eloise heroically battled the heavy, and left a tracking arrow on him. One that got a witting reply.
"Hunt them down!" His Dutch bark roared, as unarmed, Purna was back to feet, and running, at sprint. No weapons, but then again, he had the knowledge that Bakker was trying to pull a fast one, breaking from Eloise, knowing they'd make a bigger target.
"Hawk, hellfire direct onto that marker!" Purna yelled, and with it, threw himself over a crate, out of bullets, out of range.

He moved up into the next container, a group of guards coming over, Purna returning the favour for Eloise and tripping one, yanking his F2000 back into his head and clattering the trigger, before dumping the mag and finishing up, pushing away to create a buffer. The sound of the Heavy roaring out was emptied by what was many people running from him, and then an enormous bang that was the heavy literally getting face to face contact time with a AGM-114 Hellfire missile, enough to burst open a tank, and in this case, fittingly opening a person.

Bakker did not sit tight though, and had put distance between them. FiveSeven in spare hand, he burst through the area, and before he knew it, found Eloise in position covering Purna, and was there to make his revenge.

With a push, he easily threw her into the container as he decloaked, pistol aimed to head, ahead of his men that were still in shock and horror.
"Some adventures end before they begin, new girl. They didn't teach you this in Raven." And Bakker went to pull trigger, keeping her weakened state pinned, and wanting to enjoy this.

But Purna wasn't quite out. He pushed back against Bakker's grasp on Eloise by peeling on his leg, kicking hard and dodging a knife, before pivoting with a swinging kick into his crotch even in spite of his short stature, reverse tackling onto him into the floor, before in a brutal fashion, stabbing him in his gut with his own stolen Kukuri from Bakker's side, peeling the Kukri upwards, and severing his spine in the same motion, before sliting his throat clean and simple. Bakker was a fighter, and would have known how to counter, throwing a fist, but it landed and connected to a shadow.

Purna was so full of rage, so full of whatever was inside of him in that moment, a certain kind of adrenaline that even Eloise wouldn't have expected the typically cold, calm, quiet Gurkha to have. It was a moment of pure anger, to a point where it almost looked like Purna was about to feast on the blood of him, rip out teeth and an ear while he was it. Gurkhas were known to do the latter. He had no time for sentimentality, not with this turncoat.

Exhaling hard, Purna wiped the knife on Bakker's side, the warm breath leaving his lungs.
"He knew a lot of tricks. Just forgot infiltrators work best when they're in the shadow, that one he forgot." Purna coldly remarked, as he peeled his USPs off Bakker, stolen pistols taken bacl, hearing the comms of Skye on the other end.

"“Hammer’s on course too, not a bad view this! Happy hunting Anvil, see you down there.” The voice was distinctly Skye's, and meant they were in sync with the assault. Fireteam Shadow had done their job. Succeeded, given the sheer amount of explosions in the far end of the port that had sent containers raining into the sky, and put a corvette, and any serious firepower the PLA's Naval remit here had, thus making the path significantly easier for the other teams. But an infiltration didn't end till they left the place, after all.

"We need to make a move. Best we don't hang around here." Purna commented as he dusted himself down, the rest of the explosives occupying the other soldiers, outside of the enormous explosions from both Purna's and Eloise's charges, as he took a hold of Bakker's modified MP7A2, and the mags off his dead body, reasoning it was good as a tool improvised after everything. Cleaning up, he exhaled hard, the bloodied Gurkha still trying to get thoughts into his head.

"Any ideas how we get to the launch site? Cloaking kit should work still, but they're about to have a big fight over there. We're out of explosives, so the only other place I can think of is getting to the launch site's command bunker, and seeing if we can sneak in. Soften up things when Skye and the team plan to hit it, then regroup with them. Bikes, quads, jeeps. But we have a window." Purna noted, as another explosion casually rocked the port, another fuel tanker going up in the extreme heat at the far end, and punctuating the morning's chaos that had kickstarted Raven Squad's full blown assault on Tempest Island.

---

As the lone man made the walk through the forested track, a group of PLA soldiers stepped out into his way, Shimura hurt, but not outclassed by them.

The crack of a silenced shot slapped through two of them, and before the third could turn, was filled with an accurate burst of semi-automatic fire, which quickly rippled through the last man standing's helmet, turning the group into a collection of lifeless corpses and one Shimura still standing.

Crawling out of the ditch, a rather sodden, shrub-looking Kiwi looked across at Ban's wound, shaking her head as she drew the moss and lichen off her boonie, so she didn't entirely look like a mobile tree to himi.
"You need to tell me when you've got a hole the size of a cricket ball in you, mate. Come off the road, let's get a look at ya. None of this stoic ronin shit on me anymore." She commented with a certain motherly charm, not all too dissimilar to Skye's, yet perhaps even more disappointed. As if she wasn't concerned with the fact he had been pouring blood, but rather, wanted to just get straight into fixing this.

With it, Tahlia, took a look, and started to pack the wound, whether he would like it or not. He wasn't dying today, not on her watch. Overlooking was one thing, getting up close and personal was another.
"You did a pretty decent job. So, I reckon we're a bit far back. But we might be able to at least hold up anyone else that tries to interfere. Once you're fixed, that sound good to you?" Tahlia asked, the Kiwi blunt, if not a little bit too direct, but in a situation like this, honour and nice words weren't much use, but honesty and keeping the enemy at bay were another. She couldn't do that if he was dead, after all....

---

The counter attack was fierce. But with Adam charging in on the CAV and then mounting up on the GMG that was attached to it when he skidded to a halt, and then Sam bringing the mech, the firepower in response was significant, and allowed them to turn the tide. The PLA forces that had charged in, supported by Artemis were now being turned back, as Skye flicked a new box into the Mk46 and sprayed rounds down range, Athena single-handedly holding a flank and raining electricity that turned PLA soldiers even in exoskeletons into an acrid ozone smell.

So it meant one last assault. One last run. The far away hangar doors opening, however, were omminous. A feeling that Skye all too well knew, as she finished up, Athena dominating the battlefield and chasing after those trying to peel back and lay down more fire, Athena having none of it as she boosted onto enemies and either blew them apart with the coil, or used the sword to literally hack them up, moving far, far too fast for a heavy of her size and wasting the enemy's ammunition on her carbon-reinforced titanium armour.

"Wilk, Boaro, with me...rest of you, whatever the fuck that is over there, kill them and hold our flank!" Skye retorted, Adam bringing the CAV into the checkpoint and making it a good point for Ebrima and her to board. With a quick ride past all the smouldering IFVs and infantry that stank of burns and gunpowder, it was a rolling affair as they fired from the vehicles, mopping up enemies posing resistance on the last stint to the command centre past a destroyed set of warehouses, radar domes and R&D facilities that were in ruin. All irrelevant, to the main target itself.

They had a clean run, at least, as clean as they could on approach to the command centre. The half-buried, bunker-like complex was modern, with an enormous blown-up entry point marking where Artemis had clearly brute forced their own way in via a tunnel. It made sense to follow that route inside, as Adam peeled the CAV to a stop, and immediately raised the field generator, blasting rounds down range with the MSBS as Skye picked out a couple more troops rushing out to meet them, the combined firepower from the three and the GMG on the CAV making mincemeat of them before they disembarked and moved in.

Skye moved fluid, graceful across terrain, the red-haired, grey-exo and MTP wearing operative moving on the door, using the last of the Mk46 to spray rounds into a group of PLA mercs, running hard with an exo-based leap to almost pirouette onto the wall and back into cover, clearing the way forward for Adam to charge through and lay down a wall of shrapnel with his USAS, pasting another fireteam and letting Boaro keep his own flank going.

As Skye charged around the corner, the exo-equipped Artemis merc kicked her hard into the chest, sending her into the wall, as the other operative lept on her, knife forwards for Skye's neck, the Scotswoman instead dodging and feeling significantly weaker, using the M31 to puncture a hole into their stomach that dropped them immediately, before backing away.

Getting clattered hard, Skye was lucky to not break her ribs right there and then, feeling the carrying servo of the exo give way. She swore a very Scots swear, and shook her head, the quiet as they were about to approach the lab-like precision of the command centre, from the central offices to the command room itself, where it was suspected Zhao and Rose were hiding, was ahead.

Looking to Ebrima, she unholstered the M31, and the heavy coil pack off her back, leaving the tactical pack in place. It was an instant look of disappointment on her face, a feeling that the exo had gone this far, kicked this much ass, was no use now.
"Fuck....exo's fucked. You're gonna have to carry this, I'm afraid Boaro. Don't go too wild with giantslaying. Pull for normal fire, hold the clamp for the coil to charge then pull and it'll send a tungsten piece through anything it hits." Skye offered across the rifle, the railgun and the energy pack, as well as flicking out her mags for it- diminished, but plenty enough to do what they had to in here. Picking up the dead mercenary's VHS-02 Rifle, she knew the armour was still good for something, but like this, she was moving a hell of a lot slower, the explosion from outside rocking the structure from the pure anarchy that the heavies were causing.

It felt like as the fight drew on, everyone was fatigued, everyone was running out of the absurd amount of ammunition they had brought, and they were scavenging, foraging, and finding a way to get through.

"More hostiles, incoming!" Adam yelled, keeping the suppressing fire down, as Skye now shuffled significantly slower than before, grateful for the protection of the exo, but now not able to leap and sprint like she had before. The redhead, reluctantly, was holding back more now, like the power had been ripped from the team leader and instead, she was a little more cautious.
"On it! Wilk, you have point, Boaro, clap anything that stops us, we're getting to this bloody control!"

---

As the sight of the hangar doors opened in the far horizon, the figures that emerged were not exactly Athena or Freya sized, they were a hell of a lot bigger. As Athena had learned recently, getting blasted in the face by one of those was not exactly that fun, but this looked like just another level compared to Marrakesh.

"Chaos, might need a bit of help over here....." Athena's voice cracked a little, unexpected even, because even with Sam's towering bipedal mech, holding the line was not going to be fun.

"Where's your power now!" The booming call across the empty launchpad, that of Laura's mic was clear. This was not a mech made entirely for....tactical purposes? It felt more like a clarion call of someone who had bought a car, done it up and decided in a moment of insanity, to palm off the fuzzy dice and instead make it as garish as possible.

If there was ever a time for a showdown, it would be right about now. Finding a weakness would be difficult, but while two mechs versus one seemed a sure fight, with Athena, Freya, Jamie and Chuck in the play, it was at least somewhat made more even.

"Your ex-girlfriend has a hell of a fucking thing for fire, Frigga! You didn't tell me she was this fucking unhinged!" She replied, using her jump jet to leap out of the way of a massive belch of flames that roared across the massive concrete launch pad where another Arianne rocket would normally be parked, sitting in the shadow of the enormous one that still sat on its pad, payload and contents unknown. Athena blasted a bolt at the legs, watching it harmlessly clatter, cursing. Well, this was going to be plenty more difficult....

Samantha was worried about the Shadow team as she pushed the mech to its limits to move faster. As she was making tracks towards their location, she was diverted to handle two new threats to the field. Skye ordered her to take out a new threat. Athena also requested help as two huge mechs had joined the fight and it looked like Laura and Ignwe were back. Samantha would have to trust the Archer and Viper would be alright. She knew they each had their jobs to do. She knew that they were both very capable operatives or they would not be a member of Raven Squad. Samantha gritted her teeth. After working as a lone operative she had learned what it meant to be part of a team. She had gotten closer to Purna after working alongside him at Marrakesh. He was a quiet but strong presence in their team. Raven Squad had come to replace the family she had lost and she was protective about losing them. If she had anything to say about it, no one would be dying on her watch today. Even if they were here saving the world, again. Samantha knew that she had to do her part. She had her own role to play in today’s battle. She wished the Shadow team luck before acknowledging her orders. She was already on her way.

Samantha: “Chaos acknowledges orders. I am on my way, Athena. ETA is two minutes.”

As Samantha cleared the edge of the hanger and made her way towards where Athena was marked on the area map, she saw two huge mechs walking side by side towards her. Her eyes widened in surprise as Laura’s mech looked like some kind of home 3d printed action figure. Ingwe’s mech held a massive Zulu shield. She wondered if the shield was a trophy system. That would make them much harder to take out.

Samantha: “Bob, begin analyzing those mechs for weaknesses.”

Samantha sighed as she ran towards Athena. “Well Athena, there is no accounting for taste. I am happy to say that Frigga’s taste in partners has improved.”

Samantha came to a stop next to Athena as she was noting the lay of the land and cataloging what weapons and defenses she could discern on the two mechs. This was going to be a tough fight.

Laura’s voice came booming across the empty launchpad from her mech. "Where's your power now!"

Samantha spoke into Raven comms. “These are obviously custom mechs. I would suspect they have a trophy system so be careful what you fire at. I would recommend aiming for joints to disable its mobility. If we can pierce the tank for her flamethrower, we might be able to disable that weapon or cause the material to explode. Speed and strength will play a factor in dealing with Ingwe’s mech. We need to be tactical about this or we will find ourselves in over our head.”

Samantha chuckled as she heard Athena tell Frigga. "Your ex-girlfriend has a hell of a fucking thing for fire, Frigga! You didn't tell me she was this fucking unhinged!"

Athena jumped out of the way of a spray of fire from Laura’s mech.

Samantha dodged out of the way and moved her mech to the side trying to come up behind Laura and Ingwe. Ingwe saw her though and turned to face her. She tried to hit Laura’s tank with her minigun. Ingwe used the trophy system on his shield to block the shot. He laughed at her calling her a piss ant and weakling. She had been at those fights against Ingwe but she had been in a support role as Freya was the one fighting him. Samantha used her martial arts skills as best she could with the mech. The movements were not as natural and her mech was not set up for fighting like this. She only had ranged weaponry. She needed a melee weapon of some kind. Samantha looked at the area and smiled as she pulled off a long piece of metal railing on the walkway. She would just have to make do. She swung the pipe at Ingwe aiming for the elbow joint on his mech. He once again blocked with his shield laughing at her. The pipe bent around the edge of the shield. Ingwe used his shield to bash Samantha’s mech aside. The strength from the hit was enough to push her back several feet and stumble. She barely regained her footing in time as he pushed the advantage. Ingwe brought up his other arm and fired at Samantha at point blank range with his mini guns. She managed to spin away from the gun as the shots grazed her armor instead of piercing through it.

The battle of titans had begun. Samantha’s mech was smaller than theirs. She tried to fire her minigun into their mech’s joints to disable them. They had a trophy system going that kept knocking her shots off target. She seemed to be able to move faster than them. She kept working to damage areas that would limit their mobility or take their weapons offline.

Samantha: "This ain't going to be easy."

Chuck was breathing heavily as he finished taking out his anger on the fire wielding heavy that had been trying to roast Freya. Chuck smiled at Freya, happy to see her uninjured as finished making a pancake of the man who had been attacking her. Before he could do more than ask if she was okay, he heard Wilk giving them new orders to cover the team moving towards the command compound.

The team began moving towards the command compound. Wilk had jumped in the CAV and was using the heavy caliber machine gun in the back to support Skye’s position. He had no trouble covering their advance. Most of the PLA had been routed and was running away from them. The ones still brave enough to try were easy pickings for Chuck with his rifle and marksman skill. He didn’t waste time and aimed for their heads. Kill shots dropped them every time. He didn’t stop running to keep up with the others as he switched out his empty magazine for a full one. Lucille was once again hanging in her sheath on the back of his armor out of the way as she ran and gunned along with the team. They had joined up with Skye and were making their way towards the command bunker when the two huge mechs came out of a hanger towards them. Skye ordered them to take care of whatever was coming towards them, obviously focused on the objective in front of her and refused to be distracted or deterred.

Chuck spoke into his comms. “Boomer acknowledges moving to intercept the unknown targets.”

Chuck followed Samantha as part of the team broke off to engage with the large targets. As they got closer, Chuck’s HUD display began to show the silhouette of the mechs and were analyzing the targets. Samantha warned them that she thought they had a trophy system. Trophy systems would intercept bullets and missiles pulling them off course or cause them to ricochet. Samantha’s warning would help them avoid being hit by their own weapons. As he looked over the battle ground, he noticed that Athena had engaged Laura who had been using a flamethrower to try and hit her. Ingwe was protecting her and they were working as a team as Samantha tried to sneak behind Laura and hit her from behind. Ingwe used his shield to bash into Samantha’s mech pushing it back. Chuck could tell that Samantha’s mech could not go toe to toe with Ingwe on strength. Her mech was designed for ranged combat support. The armor and defenses on Ingwe and Laura’s mechs were strong against ranged attacks. He could see her logic in going for close quarters fighting.

Chuck let his rifle drop to hang on its tactical sling as he pulled Lucille from her sheath. Chuck let out a rough battle cry as he leaped into the fray. He swung Lucille towards the knee joint on Ingwe’s mech. The heavy reinforced mech withstood the blow even as a horrific metallic clang and crunch sounded out as the two impacted. The joint was dented but still functional. He looked up at the mech that was over twice as tall as him. Chuck was 7 feet and ten inches tall. He was tall even for a giant. He was the perfect height to put all his strength behind the blow on the knee joint. The blow did force Ingwe’s mech back a bit. Chuck’s own mighty strength was reinforced by his armor. Chuck had more speed and maneuverability than Ingwe had in the mech. Ingwe had more strength in the mech and height. Ingwe certainly had bigger weapons to call on than Chuck.

Chuck growled up at Ingwe “Haven’t you heard that no means no! Why don’t you pick on someone your size.”

Leave it to Chuck to pick a fight with the giant in the big ass mech. Chuck followed up his swing on the knee joint with a backswing the other way. The knee joint gave a satisfying crunching noise causing it to lock up in a standing position. Ingwe responded by trying to shield bash Chuck like he did Samantha. Chuck laughed and ducked out of the way. He jumped up grabbing the edge of the shield with one hand. You could hear the servos whine in his armor as he pulled himself up using the edge of the shield. He swung Lucille one handed hitting the faceplate on the Ingwe’s mech. There was no damage as Ingwe responded by tilting his shield and pushed Chuck off of it. Chuck laughed as he landed on his feet, bending his knees to absorb the shock.

Chuck: “Getting slow in your old age.”

Chuck targeted the mech’s head as he fired one of his missiles at Ingwe’s mech. The missile was pushed off target by the trophy system and exploded next to the mech’s head. He ducked, catching the edge of the missile’s fireball being so close. His armor’s plating and climate control system brushing off the fire.

Chuck spoke into his comms. “Trophy system confirmed Chaos.”
Ingwe yelled out something in a language Chuck didn’t know. He swung his mech’s foot to kick Chuck. Chuck laughed as he rolled out of the way. “Still too slow!”

Port Ibex, Île de la Tempête, Reunion

Fireteam Shadow

Crowd Reprise

0630 Hours

"Any ideas how we get to the launch site? Cloaking kit should work still, but they're about to have a big fight over there. We're out of explosives, so the only other place I can think of is getting to the launch site's command bunker, and seeing if we can sneak in. Soften up things when Skye and the team plan to hit it, then regroup with them. Bikes, quads, jeeps. But we have a window." Purna noted, as another explosion casually rocked the port, another fuel tanker going up in the extreme heat at the far end, and punctuating the morning's chaos that had kickstarted Raven Squad's full blown assault on Tempest Island.

Eloise hadn't been able to say or do much; Bakker's assault had left her winded, and she'd fought back as best she could, but his hands had pinned her in place and she hadn't been able to reach her knives. She gasped and rubbed her throat, taking sips of water as she croaked on her first attempt to speak, the second coming out with a slight rasp as she managed to get her words out.
"Ugh. Thank you for the save. But yes; the bunker sounds like a good idea if the site is out of the question. Might give us a chance to resupply from these idiots' stuff as well," she said, idly kicking Bakkers corpse for emphasis, before drawing and checking her own SMG and nodding satisfactorily. "I've still got a decent amount of ammo. Out of arrows and throwing knives, and explosives too... though, worth it to save your hide, and for getting that big arsehole too". She said with a slight smirk beneath her mask.
She cracked her neck slightly and rolled her shoulders, cradling the gun in both hands. "Right, let's get moving then?"
Getting her bearings, she swiftly moved off, sticking to the shadows and back-alley routes toward the command bunker, the destination highlighted by a waypoint on her HUD as she darted through shadows, tight spaces, and moved like flowing water and with the quiet of a breeze.

---

When the Cameroonian emerged from the armory, his armor was sporting a fresh red tone to his camouflage. He dried off the kukri’s blade with the sleeve of one of the Artemis mercs before sheathing it, after shaking the wearer’s arm out of it, and turned his attention to his new Benelli M1014, an old but proven semi-auto workhorse known to perform the Disappearing Head magic trick just as well as the Origin and somehow do it with only about five and a half moving parts. This one came with a holographic sight as well, how nice of them.

And while he was shopping, he also grabbed a few incendiary grenades. Wouldn’t want the world-ending freaks to be cold in their last moments, after all. But a shadow was descending over them. Quite literally as the bimbo momentarily blocked out the Sun during her arrival. Who let a child run a PMC? Later, perhaps, he might consider his words out of line, but in the moment he couldn’t have less patience for Athena’s antics if one paid him, simply walking past her before she had a chance to regroup. Still a job to do. He followed Skye out of the ruin of the R&D building, checking the charge of his two remaining Tricksters and seeing two full bars with quiet satisfaction. He deployed the second Scout drone, setting it to follow 50 meters directly above Athena and tag hostels on her HUD while the one he set up before followed after him.

Oh yes. As if they weren’t cheating enough before, Skye, Athena and Ebrima now had wallhack. And it was just as much a bloodbath as it sounded like to the point of Ebrima almost feeling bad for them had he not known their end goal.

It had been a real weird few months. How little stood between him being killed by a world-ending neurotoxin and being none the wiser. How little stood between him being unaware of all of this or even being approached by Artemis and dying here, on the geoengineering rig or anywhere else Raven left smoldering ruins in their wake. That poor bastard, right there? The one that just got crushed underfoot by Athena? That could have been him.

Better be lucky than good, right?

The CAV skidded to a halt by the hole leading into the command center, breaching the bunker requiring his full focus once more. The trio leapfrogged through the bunker in a hail of lead, tungsten and white phosphorus thanks to his raid of the armory in the R&D building, cutting down PLA troops like a weedwhacker until a pair of exo operators timed it well, the one disadvantage of the tube-fed 1014 being the reload time, especially when coupled with having loose shotgun shells dumped into the drum magazine pouches.

Ebrima ducked the first burst with no small amount of help from the Tricksters, both of the drones alternating between between recharge and being active to make sure he was never without coverage, though steadily depleting both in the all-or-nothing fight. The closer one got clubbed in the face with the stock and swiftly kicked away, a problem to be dealt with later while the other soldier sent a three-round burst into his abdomen, the rounds striking like hammer blows but ultimately not enough to stop the Cameroonian’s momentum, the PLA soldier getting shoulder checked and carried along with the charging albino while he jammed the barrel of his sidearm into a gap between thigh plates and emptied the magazine, either the bullets or bone fragments turning the Chinaman’s femoral artery into shreds judging by the amount of blood coming out. But turning to address the delayed problem, Ebrima was faced with the sight of the soldier falling and Skye swearing.

It would seem the trend of other people’s misfortune being his good luck was continuing as the last dying action of some PLA troops was to disable Skye’s exo, which meant Ebrima now had a railgun, trading it for his MDRx and magazines. He may have lost wallhack indoors, but now he could ignore most cover.

This really wasn’t Rose’s day.

Purna and Eloise moved quick, racing out of the port and headed towards the bunker, as well, the dawn chorus broke with the rest of the team arriving.

As the fighting went on, the two lights snuck through a cut gap in the fence at the launch pad, bounding from support building to building, using cloaking to make the big gaps and avoiding what felt like the start of WW3 out there. The port had completely been detonated, and no doubt, paved the way for the last fifteen minutes of total anarchy there. Going quiet made sense, and for that time being, compared to the anarchy from earlier, Purna and Eloise had done what they did best- becoming ghosts. Scavenging magazines, and dodging moving APCs, IFVs, jeeps and masses of soldiers moving out to reinforce the barracks and outer perimeter of the launch site. They weren't looking inside anymore.

Moving across to an oversight of the command centre, the half-buried bunker-like view looking across to the two launch pads, Purna stayed low with Eloise behind a depression in the ground, watching on at the movement all over.

"Queen, we're in position to enter the Command Centre via ducting, how copy?"

"Solid copy, Viper. Find the hostages and secure them before anything else. Leave the HVT to me, we're en route to enter from the other side. He'll be well defended." Skye's response was a bit out of time, but was when they were repelling the counter-assault at the checkpoint, and so put Fireteam Shadow a little bit ahead of the other two groups.

Purna looked to Eloise, shaking her head.
"Boss wants all the credit. Then again, those hostages are critical if we want to even attempt a launch.....what the hell did I sign up to." Purna said the quiet part out loud, still not quite certain he believed in any of this, but well, so be it. They moved again across the concrete, cloaking up and like shadows in the morning light, dodging rays and enemies to get into position to start sneaking in.

Pointing out a ventilation grate, Purna latched it with his grapple, and pulled himself in, before leaving the line down for Eloise. It was an uncomfortable crawl, but crawl they did, as the sound of the bunker's internal systems could be heard, the crawl almost like a stress position, but one he was sure that with her smaller size, Eloise was finding easier than his muscular frame.
"Sorry that I pushed ahead. Normally I'm more of a gentleman." Purna noted, crawling in this space not exactly a nice prospect, but, it go them where they needed.

Moving inside to the end of the shaft, Purna dropped down, the two in phase with the other teams as they entered into a ventilation room, the tiny gaps barely able to fit them both, but making this entry good. More men could be heard on the other side of the door. Artemis troops, given they weren't speaking Chinese, but English and Spanish.
"No choice but to move forward, Archer. I'd normally want to avoid a fight, kill the power, sink them with gas, be clever about this. But if we want to save the hostages, we might need to be a bit more direct here." Purna adjusted his pistols, checking each mag, nodding to her. He took out a small device from his tool stash, slipping a wire under the door, adjusting his NVG set to look.

"I put five targets immediately outside. Down the corridor, I think there's about another six by our hostages, can't be sure. They're keeping them by the control centre's desks, give or take half a dozen staff. We're outnumbered....but they won't see it coming. Move smooth and clean, let's drag them out and get them looking from the hostages, then we can have an easier time of it." Purna asked, pulling the tool back in, getting a smoke grenade ready from his tactical rig, adjusting his infrared NVGs, and keeping a USP ready to go.

---

"Chaos, Boomer, keep the Zulu occupied, me, Frigga, JamJam will take Laura on!" Athena yelled back, this fight certainly not an easy one. Her coils weren't having effect, so she switched to the mini missiles, moving fast and trying to pepper missiles into the mech, avoiding gunfire, counter flame and everything else Laura had to give. If there was a health bar for Laura, supposedly so, it was a hell of a big one.

"Laura, come on, this is a losing fight!" Athena bellowed through her speaker, as the operative inside the mech tattled.

"What, after Raven, and you treated me? Come on, I'm no sucker!" The flames belched, as Athena used her jump pack to leap into another bit of concrete, using a bit of tubing to escape the flames, the heat so intense it almost felt like it could melt the titanium skin she had.

"Jesus, Freya, talk some sense into her! Anything, I'm going to keep flanking and try and unhook her tanks, we're gonna get torched like this!" Athena yelled, the fight on the launch pad continuing to rage, like two kaiju bearing down on what already seemed like quite an impressive group of operatives. This was of course, an absolutely stupid fight, but then again, heavies in their prime against two other heavies in their prime, it just seemed far too made for the last bulwark that Rose had put in place at this facility.

---

---

The kept moving forward with the resolute certainty of a main battle tank, not bothering to go around problems and instead powering straight through. To quote a certain Russian that used to kick in doors for him: “The fucking fun stops here.”

Three PLA soldiers were felled by the same shot.

A soldier took cover behind a server rack, only to be crushed underneath it when Ebrima boost-sprinted toward it and tipped it over with a drop kick.

An entire fire team was blown up when the shoulder of the one throwing a frag grenade ceased to exist.

It was mayhem, all because Skye was irresponsible enough to give Ebrima a gun that could bitchslap bad guys with the power of god through half a meter of solid concrete. At the same time one could wonder who put that woman in charge and yet at the same time how do you counter a team of insane chaos gremlins of this caliber, even if they weren’t carrying a platoon’s worth of firepower, when the unhinged sides are encouraged?

He followed Skye’s lead after they breached Zhao’s office, keeping his weapon at low ready until Skye started shutting down, instinctively pointing it at Zhao despite that not being able to do much.

He didn’t know much about computers, only what he picked up during the time he knew Enri from her exasperated rants, but he knew that if you were transferring music from a computer to a phone and the bluetooth connection dropped, the transfer was obviously interrupted. A non-functioning computer likewise couldn’t receive data. Transferring data was not transferring either, rather it was making a copy and then deleting the original. And the brain was just a biological computer. Orrather, a computer was an electronic brain, but eh, details. He was just about to put two rounds in the clone’s forehead when Skye dropped like a sack and Skye 2.0 opened her eyes. He kept his shotgun trained on the newly living body, unsure who was in the driver’s seat.

Ebrima’s teeth ground when his sister was mentioned, reflexively turning around and jabbing Zhao in the throat with the muzzle of his shotgun to shut him up. After the old man recovered and reached out to be handcuffed, Ebrima seized him by his dominant hand, squeezing and striking it with a part of his exo’s frame, breaking his wrist and fingers to make sure he wouldn’t do something stupid. He learned that the hard way in Sierra Leone. Abass didn’t need to die that day.

The stream of highland pleasantries confirmed Skye 2.0 was actually Queen. Let’s not tell her how close she was to getting domed just a few seconds earlier.

”Wilk, Boraro.” Ebrima got on comms, getting nothing in response. Of course.

What a situation: Skye 2.0 flapping on the floor like a fish out of water, Rose already upstairs, Zhao gloating like only a self-important cunt could and an uncertain threat from their own side looming on the horizon. ”I couldn’t have simply died in Colombia…” He groused, gears spinning in his brain. ”You, shirt!” He commanded Zhao, holding his left hand out in demand. ”Stand over there, face to the wall!” He ordered once he had it, very easy to imagine an African warlord with a beret two sizes too small about to execute someone with a gold-plated AK for looking at him wrong in his place before he threw the shirt over Skye 2.0 like a blanket. Too small blanket... Good, it provided a needed excuse, this could work.

He walked over to where Zhao was and cuffed him to a pipe in the wall, jogging out of the respawn room and office, tripping over Skye 1.0 on the way out, the body’s head rolling over and giving Skye the experience of looking into her own - not by proxy, actually hers - dead eyes, to where a few dead Chinamen lay and returning with one’s BDU jacket and another’s service pistol, throwing the second jacket over Skye. ”I will be back.”

Either he was a genius or this was the dumbest plan of the month, anywhere in the world.

Skye could only watch a handcuffed Zhao get escorted out of the room by Ebrima. He could vividly imagine the seething hatred of Skye at the moment as he and Zhao stepped through the door of the office and into the bunker. And just before they turned and disappeared from view, Ebrima moved the pistol he was holding on Zhao from his front to his back, taking a longer step to actually end up beside and slightly ahead of Zhao and fired twice, immediately dropping Zhao and the Chinese pistol, raising his M1014 as he turned around and sent three shots into a Chinese body to his right, kicking the dropped pistol over to it as he turned back.

Ebrima returned to the respawn chamber with a Chinese army officer’s trench coat he found in the office in his hand. Laying it out on the floor, he moved Skye 2.0 onto it, like getting a casualty onto a stretcher and wrapped her up, keeping her out of his field of view as much as he could. ”Got your backs, boss, however many you might have.” He grabbed his own sidearm back, slung her over his shoulder almost effortlessly on account of the exo, shifting her around so she wouldn’t get pinched by it if he had to move quickly and sending a Trickster with Skye 1.0’s appearance ahead as he started making their way out of the bunker.

”Wilk, Boraro. Queen is down but breathing. Question nothing, will explain when able. On the way out now.” He cautioned Adam as soon as they reached a part of the bunker where he knew comms worked, switching to a second channel. ”Oracle, Boraro. VIP is KIA by hostile forces and Rose is already in space.”

If he did everything right, neither looting the pistol off the dead Chinaman nor returning it would be visible on his helmet cam - or anyone else’s who might have had one, including Skye’s original body - and as far as anyone investigating would know, an injured but alive Chinese soldier they didn’t dead check killed Zhao rather than risk other powers getting their hands on him.

The battle against the two mechs had begun. The Kanatariio siblings were tag teaming Laura while Chaos and Boomer took on Zulu.

Samantha was recovering her balance as Chuck had entered the fray to take Ingwe’s attention. Samantha was analyzing the mech’s weaknesses and trying to decide how they could exploit them. That damn trophy system took their hardest hitting weapons out of play. Samantha thought about how trophy systems worked. They were power hogs. Maybe she could overload it and disable it that way. Samantha was quick to note that Chuck had used the information she had given him as he targeted the mech’s joints. Samantha grinned as Chuck’s second hit locked up the mech’s leg.

Samantha’s grin become feral as her eyes narrowed on her target. She quickly explained the plan to Chuck. She didn’t want to catch him in the crossfire.

Samantha: “Boomer I am going to begin aiming for his shield. I am going to try and overload his trophy system to take it down. Keep up the pressure on the joints.”

Chuck grinned and swung Lucile like a baseball bat. “Happy to oblige Chaos. Batter up!”

Chuck swung at the damaged leg joint again. If he could immobilize the mech that would also get them an advantage.

Chaos checked what kind of ammunition she had. She smiled as she remembered the grenade launcher. There had been some electric antipersonal shock rounds. She let Chuck take Ingwe’s attention as he could move faster than she could in the mech. She moved to the other side to give Chuck more room to fight.

Chuck managed to get one more hit on the damaged mech joint. Ingwe used his shield to block Samantha who was on the other side of the mech as he stabbed at Chuck with the spear. Chuck ducked and dodged however he was not fast enough to get away completely clean. The spear scraped across the surface of his armor scratching it. It would have opened him up if he had not been in armor. His heavy plate was holding up. He felt the kinetic energy of that hit though. Chuck managed to stay on his feet but only with the structural and synthetic tension support of his armor.

Chuck gritted his teeth baiting Ingwe to come after him. He tried to keep his attention on him and away from Samantha.

Chuck grinned as he used his loud speakers so that Ingwe and Laura could hear him.

Chuck: “Frigga is too much woman for you to handle. Not to mention she has impeccable taste. You would have never been enough man to satisfy her Ingwe. Besides, Frigga doesn’t need my protection from you. She has already defeated you once.”

Chuck blocked an angry swipe of the spear with Lucille. The reverberation from the impact was felt through his entire body.

Samantha managed to work her way to Ingwe’s other side, splitting his attention between her and Boomer. She began to fire the antipersonnel shock grenades at Ingwe. They were being pulled off course attracted to the trophy system in his shield. She fired them as fast as she could until she ran out of them. She only had 5 of them. Hopefully that was enough.

The grenades landed close enough to the shield that the energy discharge was collected by the shield; the metal of the grenades attracted and influenced by the trophy system. The grenades exploding were bright and made her see spots even as her helmet’s HUD darkened the display to protect her eyes. She was blinking to see around the spots.

Chuck’s helmet display automatically darkened to protect his vision as Samantha struck. Chuck dodged the incoming attack ducking below the Zulu’s swing as the grenade struck. He managed to dance out of the way as the electricity danced over the Zulu mech’s shield.

Samantha grinned as she saw electric sparks and smoke come from the circuitry in Zulu’s shield. Samantha backed away and began to give her space to fire some of her heavier long range weapons.

Samantha: “Boomer I believe his trophy system was damaged at least by that last attack. I am moving to ranged to see if I can hammer him with more damage.”

Chuck’s gritted his teeth as he blocked Ingwe’s strikes. His feet sinking in the ground at the strength of the blow. Chuck yelled, managing to push the spear back a little. The sound of servos whining could be heard. The beauty of Chuck’s armor was that it was assisted by his own strength and not reliant on its own mechanical strength. It was a synergy of both. If his armor broke he still had his personal strength to rely on.

Samantha began targeting the mech’s weakest points which were it’s joints the cockpit. She backed away and began releasing missiles on the Zulu mech. She used her guns to target the joints as she began to move her mech from side to side running and keeping a distance from the Zulu mech. She was trying to hit him from the rear while Chuck was fighting the Zulu mech head on.

Chuck put his whole body into a twist as he aimed at the bottom of the mech’s leg. Maybe he could knock it down or make Ingwe stumble. There was another horrendous sound of metal tearing as armor plating dented and broke. The Zulu Mech didn’t go down but it wobbled.

Samantha began targeting the mech’s weakest points which were its joints and the cockpit. The heaviest armored part of the mech protected its power core. She backed away and began releasing missiles on the Zulu mech. She used her guns to target the joints as she began to move her mech from side to side running and keeping a distance from the Zulu mech. She was trying to hit him from the rear while Chuck was fighting the Zulu mech head on.

Ingwe seemed to come alive and begin to fight harder and Chuck was hard pressed to dodge and block. The fight began to speed up as Samantha’s guns began to tear into the mech’s rear armor. Chuck was beginning to tire; they had been fighting and running for a while now. Ingwe was fresh to the fight. Chuck was barely able to match him in the mech. Only his training, size, strength, and armor had allowed him to go toe to toe with the mech. The mech didn’t get tired though. Ingwe let out a triumphant yell as he managed to stab his spear into Chuck’s side. The spear was caught on Chuck’s armor. The spear punctured through his armor due to the force being exerted. The spear going through Chuck’s armor and was lodged into his side. The spear pierced his side and moved downwards past his lower ribs. Chuck stumbled back taking the spear with him. He fell down a few steps later. His HUD ringing and flashing with alarms and his armor's medical suite began shooting him full of drugs and running diagnostics. Chuck's side was on fire and he was having trouble breathing. The force of the blow coupled with the penetration of the spear doing massive damage to him. His armor mitigating some of that damage.

Samantha screamed out in fury seeing Chuck go down. The Zulu mech had smoke pouring out of it as it turned towards her now firing everything it had at her. She began firing everything she had with tears in her eyes. She aimed for the cockpit. She wanted Ingwe dead this time. She didn't want to lose anyone else. She recognized just how broken she was after everything she had come through. She had come to be close to those who fought next to her. Those who fought next to her where brothers and sisters. It was almost unbearable to think she would lose more of them.

Soundtrack: M83 - Solitude (Felsmann + Tiley Reinterpretation)

Pulsing on the floor, Skye watched as Ebrima arrested Zhao, the words barely leaving her, the ringing in her ears still piercing, despite her outburst from earlier. He was breaking fingers in the process. He was just the monster she thought he was....exactly what made him perfect for Raven. Experienced enough to know when to smash things to pieces, smart enough to know how to use it. And yet, doing something she wasn't sure what to think. Because she barely knew what to do. Apart from crawl.

Watching her old body get a rag over it, she saw her face for the last time, not in mirror, but in flesh. The blue face paint, the red hair and black helmet disappear, as she crawled, fumbling a little on her knees as it felt like she was getting used to, looking up, staring him in the eyes as she cuffed him to the wall, and then took him away, pistol in hand.

Every thought pulsed in her head. He better come back, she thought to herself. Put me out of my misery, now, or I'll hunt you to the end of the earth, her mind roared. And anyone else who thinks this is a good idea. Oracle too.

And held that thought back in horror. She wasn't like Rose. She was never going to be. Ebrima did what he had to for the safety of the team. Much like she would have done. A decision she didn't like, but ultimately, was one that served a good. Like she'd told him. Turned him into what she sculpted. Just like Zhao said...prophetically. And she had to fight that inside her. She had no power. No choice. But that wasn't what held her back. Even having a little less muscle density than her usual self, she still knew exactly what she was capable of, and coming to realise the stakes were so much bigger than her own self fuelled that.

And she looked on, crawling to her body, peeling the FN FNX out of her holster, scooping mags, and taking any other personal possessions, as if she was scavenging the old bits of her to leave behind the new. Positioning herself onto her knees, wiping the crap from her eyes again, exhaling, looking on, the freezing cold touch nothing against her new heart pounding in her chest, as she looked down. The scars, cuts, bruises, the marks that made her who she was, gone. She patted her neck, and no mark, nothing at all.

It was strange. Dead yet alive. And thinking to herself she was being left by Ebrima now. Had he just left her to die? To be discovered like Rose, was this betrayal? Was it him, tided over by the promises of Zhao, realising in the final hour, in the final moment, something she hadn't? Comms in his ear, promising him something she would never give? Something she'd missed, something so obvious, someone driven by money, profit, the thrill of this, rather than service, honesty? Or just a realisation of what she'd told him to do, the greater good, knowing that it certainly meant something Skye couldn't have wanted less?

All that came to an end, as the pistol rang out, and the M1014 rang out. And swiftly, he returned, carrying a coat, Skye like a rabbit in the headlights, taking her Scout-styled knife and tactical watch off her oldy body's wrist, crawling a little more, trying to stand but fumbling, looking on. His comment reassured her, as she shook her head, not saying a word given the feed, which promptly, Skye cut out, killing the storage capability of her old tactical glasses capability remotely, to stop it falling into enemy hands or worse, Oracle's.

Getting picked up, Skye chuckled at the thought of what she was now, wrapped in the officer's coat to keep her modesty, and what Ebrima had done. Still in shock. And she looked back one last time, one final time at Skye 1.0, the woman she'd always been. And would never be again. The tattoos, the pain, the hurt, the paint, the woman that was unbreakable, finally, broken. Dead here, and wrapped up in a black exo she knew that Sam had spent too long on. And now, a distant speck in the room, no light in there, nothing left. The whole concept of consciousness transfer really unsettled her. Was she even really the same person, was this just a run-on of Skye from that body or something else, just an end there and a beginning now? She had no idea. But the memory, the feeling, the want, it was still inside her.

None of this made sense. None of it all. Could she have died ever before and respawned like that when she was an operative before Raven? Or was Zhao right? Trying to prove a point in his own ego? Was any of what he said true? Could it have been? And how the fuck did Oracle accept that offer? Were they hoping Skye would be killed here, or would understand a greater good? Like always?

She had no response to that, as Skye looked over to Ebrima's head, tapping him on the shoulder, sighing, coming to an alcove before Adam's position.
"Wait here. Let me try and move." She retorted, as she slipped the mags into the coat pocket of the officer, as well as the FNX. A personal possession to keep.
"Fucking hell. Thank you. I don't think I could have done that better myself...guess we're about even." Skye's words may have carried like a hug, as she sighed, buttoning it up for her modesty, the sizing for someone significantly fatter, but about her height. The sarcasm echoed back to when Skye first found Ebrima, and that first firefight. How the tables had now turned, as she leaned against the wall, like a toddler learning how to walk, but her vocal cords were coming into fruit.

"Oracle's smart enough to know what happened. But smart enough to realise we're the only asset that stop the end of the world. Stick to the story." Skye retorted, sighing, hearing the sound of gunfire intensify, the bunker cleared but the fight outside coming to a climax, and no doubt, the lights working to get to the hostages. Looking up at him, she rested against the wall, stretching her legs, exhaling hard.

"Leave him to me....blimey, you have a heart in there, Ebrima." Skye retorted, hearing the clattering of footsteps come closer, the Scot turning and ready to react.

Adam cleaned the corner, LMG raised, stunned at the sight of what he saw, as he saw Ebrima next to Skye, one kitted as normal, the other clad in nothing but a PLA officer's coat.

"What the fuck?" His voice pierced, the LMG staying high, just in shock horror. "Boaro, this is..."

"Skye Lyons to you. Zhao activated a dead man's switch the moment we hit his office. Only reason I'm alive is because PLA forces killed the bastard before we got him and Boaro made sure I came back to life. In another body mind. It's an extremely long story. But believe me....it gets more messed up. It's like being hungover." Skye retorted with dry humour, knowing Ebrima most likely wanted to explain, but it needed to come from her accent. Her voice, her sound.

"How in the fuck is it possible? This is a miracle, it's....it's exactly like her." Adam retorted, his slight break in English coming through, as Skye shook her head, still wrapping her head around it.

"Well, it turns out I've got the neural link bedded into my head, same as hers, different body. Local transfer, and it near enough went instantly." Skye retorted, as Adam kept the LMG in a position to fire, but lowered.

"Holy shit." Adam barked, as Skye shook her head.

"Yeah." Skye dryly commented back, the silence broken by gunfire in the distance, as Adam broke to the next topic, almost unable to keep forming any rational thought, interrupted by another rattle of the bunker, from whatever the hell was going on outside.

"Sure you aren't going to do what....well, do what she does?" Adam asked, as Skye shrugged.

"I have no idea. Dying's new to me, and fuck knows if there are any more bodies. Or if he pulled a gambit on me, before one of them popped a few rounds in his head. I don't know, Adam. This is all a bit fucking mental. All I know is, they wanted to make sure Zhao was dead before us." Skye replied, as she drew attention to matters at hand.

"We need to regroup. Shadow should be going after the hostages....Artemis troops will be looking after them, so they won't give up easy given they're on Rose's payroll. Or else, any chance we have of a launch is off the cards." Skye retorted, coming back into focus, standing up, just about, Adam walking over, checking her over, head at level with Ebrima in his exo as he snapped his eyes at his.

"I fucking know what you did, Ebrima. And I hate to admit it....but it was the right thing to do. We stick to her story. Or else we all fucked. We'll figure out where this rabbit hole goes when this is finished." Adam coldly retorted in his typically Polish accented voice, looking to Skye, curious to see her thoughts. "You have a long term plan given our situation?"

"Kill the bitch up there, after that, I have concepts of one." Skye retorted, Adam chuckling, shaking his head as he scooted a AK-12 off one of the dead Artemis mercs and passed it up to her, along with a vest.

"That will be enough for now." Adam looked to Ebrima, loading in a new box, checking the FN over.

"No more contacts left down here. But there's another path to the control room, more of them between us and them. I'm going to need help. Boaro, you with me?"

Freya made her way up the hill, and watched in horror as the two mechs came into view, "Oh you have got too..." The first gout of flame from the one thicc mech instantly told her who it was. She then ducked as a huge steel pole came sailing past, fired from the pile driver on the Zulu mech. She looked between the two mechs in horror, and finally spoke as she ran forward to catch up with the rest of the team, "Well I think I traded up nicely." She called, dodging a gout of flame from the Thicc Mech.

She runs up to join the others, forming a line against the Mechs.

Jamie peels off running to the left, firing clouds of .50 rounds at the Zulu Mech, "Over here! Come on concentrate on me!" he hollers through his PA system. Sliding on some gravel he braces himself, calling into their shared radio so everyone can hear what he's doing, "Suit, Anti-tank Salvo, short fuse!" his right shoulder. And he again vanished in a cloud of smoke and fire, six rockets hissing from his shoulder pod. Two finding their mark and battering the Zulu Mech. But somehow, the big thing turns, and gets it's huge shield, oval and thick into the way of the other four. The big 12.7mm cannon installed in the shield returning fire on Jamie. He growled and charged off, dodging fire, "I got his attention for now! Could use some help though! Yo that hurts!"

Freya surveyed the field and then looks at Laura's mech, "I might be able to reason with Laura. But we have to get rid of her fixation. That's one of her main problems. Is she gets caught up in other peoples dreams sometimes. She did that with me for a few years. She'd show up at Jotunheim to try and help with experiments. Or distract me from work thinking I needed a break." She turned around her cover and lanced off a burst of blue-white energy at the Zulu Mech, "So we have two...crap!" She dived as the Thicc Mech turned and brought both the left and right hand jet flamers onto her position. The heat of it already heating her cover, red hot.

---

Elsewhere Shimura lay in a ditch, breathing slowly. It'd been quite in their area for a little bit. He'd been trying to fight past the pain from the gunshot he'd taken under the armor. He winces and takes a deep breath. With a grunt he thumps just above the packed wound, "Damn...that smarts." He's about to say more when Tahlia reaches over and sets a hand on his pauldron. He goes quiet and rolls to the side, getting behind a stump and peeking around it.

He nods as he sees what she did.

A oversized platoon of enemy. jogging up the hill, likely drawn to the fighting above. He looks to her and their eyes meet. He nods.

His long rifle is drawn from his shoulder and he skitters to the side, putting a little distance between them so it's not easily apparent that they are in the same position.

He whispers so she can hear him, "Duck hunting style. Start from the rear. Make your way forward. One kill, one bullet. Make it count." He sniffs and then sets his cheek to the rifle butt of the ancient looking weapon. But the new cutting edge system within what looks like a long flintlock rifle. Or maybe a wheelock. Something that many wouldn't consider is a problem.

The first shot, Tahlia and he, fire as one. The soldiers coming towards them can't tell if it's one shooter or two for that first shot, but they move before they comprehend what happened. Two of their number down from kill shots. The next two shots, one from both of them, allow the enemy to know their direction but again not their number. And as they begin to move, and return fire sporadically, Tahlia and he begin to ripple their fire. She fires, he fires. Working their way from the rear of the group to the front.

Return fire begins to crack and hiss over his head. Shimura keeps firing, "They're beginning to move...and stack up..."

Tahlia's next shot hits three of the number down the hill, an amazing through and through. And Shimura's next shot takes two at the chest.

Ban smiles, the enemy creeping forward even as their number slowly decreases.

It's a good hunt.

---

Jamie grits his teeth and slides into cover, a concrete berm between him at the Zulu mech, "Sis? Frigga?" Frigga growls, "The Thicc mech has me pinned! I'm not going anywhere, that heat would burn out my shields in seconds."

Jamie grits his teeth, "Where are mom and dad when we need them? Is your rail cannon ready to fire again? Maybe if we give them a salvo that will give us an opening." Frigga looks back towards the mothership, "Four minutes...almost an eternity...but if we can hold out? It should help. So?"

Something inside Samantha snapped and gave way as she unleashed all her pent up pain and fury on Ingwe and his mech. Ingwe’s attention was pulled temporarily by Jamie as he ran forward and unleashed on the Zulu mech. Samantha took advantage of the distraction. She moved forward and fired her gun into the large smoking hole in the Zulu mech that Jamie’s missiles had opened in it. The Zulu mech staggered as an explosion rocked it causing it to topple to one side.

She reached down and pulled the spear out of Chuck. The tip was protruding out his side. She pulled it the rest of the way through. She felt that would cause the least amount of damage.

Chuck cried out in pain as the spear was quickly pulled from his side. He could suddenly breathe better. Some of the pressure gave way where his armor had been pinned by the spear. He was bleeding heavily but his suit could now access the site and shot a foam into the cavity to seal his wounds. The pain killers and medications to support his system and help prevent shock were finally kicking in. Chuck checked his HUD. He turned off the alarms with a blink. His armor had been pierced and shredded on his side where the spear had struck. He was going to need surgery if he lived long enough to make it to medical care. His armor’s updated medical suite was working hard to keep him alive. His vitals were stabilizing. The sealing spray and foam stabilized his broken ribs and the hole in his side.

Samantha saw the foam as it oozed out and hardened over his armor. Satisfied he would stabilize she turned her attention back to the Zulu mech. Ingwe was pinned in the cockpit and was struggling to free himself. She used the spear and let out a guttural cry as she hurled it with all her might at Ingwe pinning him through the chest with the spear. She hit the end of the spear sending it all the way through the Ingwe and the Zulu mech pinning it to the ground. She then unleashed the mech’s metal fists on him. Pieces of the mech broke off and flew in a shrapnel cloud as she destroyed Ingwe.

Samantha was screaming and crying as she continued to hit the Zulu mech blindly. Her words were punctuated by the crunch of metal.

Samantha: “NO ONE HURTS MY FAMILY! THAT WAS MY BROTHER!”

Chuck managed to get to his feet now that the hole in his side was plugged. It hurt and he felt a little woozy from the loss of blood. He managed it. He knew the inability to move in a fight would lead to death. He needed to get up. He managed to wobble over towards Samantha. He noted that the cockpit was now almost a flattened bloody metallic paste. He tapped Samantha’s mech on the side.

Chuck: “I think you got him, Tiger. I think Frigga might need some help.”

Samantha whirled as felt and heard the tap on her shoulder. She turned yelling and swung out in reflexive action. Chuck managed to fall back to avoid the blow but he was back on the ground again.

Chuck: “You know what. I will stay down here this time. It’s safer.”

Samantha cried out as saw Chuck moving.

Samantha: “Boomer!”

Samantha rushed to his side. She did her best to patch him up but his armor had already taken care of it. There was not much more she could do.

Chuck: “Help take down the other one.”

Samantha nodded. “You rest easy bro. I got this.”

Chuck was in too much pain to register that she called him bro. He just nodded.

Samantha turned towards Laura. She skirted around behind Laura who was currently focused on Frigga and Athena. She began to fire into the rear of the mech. She targeted the flamethrower’s tank. She was trying to cause it to explode.

Stacking up against the door, the sound of silenced pistol shots inside could be heard, as Adam set up a series of thermite charges across the hardened security door, placing the strip from the top to the bottom.

"Wilk, we could use a hand, more hostiles than we can deal with further in here. We can offer another angle, if you can breach." Purna's voice carried in Adam's ear, as the Pole looked across to Ebrima, MSBS kept tight in hand given the score they were about to laydown.

"Honestly, this wasn't part of the plan. Queen, hold our rear guard. Shadow, eyes on your actual. How many we got?" Adam asked, the Nepali as calm as a Shaolin Monk in his reaction. This was another Tuesday for him. Even if him and Eloise had nearly got domed barely minutes ago.

"Ten hostiles. About twenty hostages, centre of the room. All nerds." Purna's voice cracked even Adam a smile, as he looked across to the Cameroonian, ready to join him, focus back on.

"Breach? Turn that fucking rifle of yours down though before you beam five guys in one." Adam asked Ebrima, and reminded him just for posterity. It was a new rifle to him, after all, but then again, he'd be rather glued to how fun it was to use.

With his approval, detonated the thermite, letting it burn through the reinforced frame before taking an exo-sized kick to the door, followed by a flashbang, using up the remainder of his field generator to stomach a few larger rounds, before pushing in through the door, the remainder of enemies turning fire onto him as he clapped two more on the side.

It was enough of a distraction, with one of the Artemis guys standing up and getting a subsonic round through the head with the hostage he was using as a shield from Purna, the hostage spared, whilst another got the another triple-tap to the skull, Adam already moving on left sweep and leading on point while Boaro had his shadow. Purna and Eloise still had work to do.

So the Cameroonian had a handful to manage, but Adam had a feeling Ebrima would sort this out.

---

Laura roared back with the sight of her beautiful Zulu getting pulped, turning to Sam, grappling the mech, knowing what she was doing, trying to get her back with fire. A belch of flame made Sam reconsider that, but in that critical moment, in her blind rage, so wrapped up in the death of Ingwe, she wanted to destroy her and had forgotten her flanks. Words no longer left, as she swang out, smacking Sam's mech hard, and using the missile system to pulverise the armour, making it near inoperable.
"Take that!" Laura taunted, indulgent on this power fantasy she inhabited, perhaps not realising this fight was lost.

"Hawk on station, unable to get a fix with how close Chaos is...."

"No need for that railgun, Valkyrie is here!" Athena yelled, as Laura looked on in shock, in lock with Sam distracting her from being able to take on Athena, who at this point, had taken advantage of the mechs fighting to sneak around.

Athena had flanked around while Jamie and Freya occupied Laura with a distraction, and with it, used her thruster pack to leap onto the back of Laura's mech, firing a bolt of lightening straight at the welds on the flame tank, and then the rest of the fuel cells, exposing them and lighting them up with a steady stream of amped up voltage, that fried everything it hit. Pacing off, Laura realised it had split a good chunk, the concentrated bolts doing more damage than Laura's hit at the armour surface, picking apart a pressurised chunk. Before Laura turned to stomp Athena, she had already lept using her jump jet, almost balletic in the way she moved for something that weighed a few hundred kilos herself, and moved away, watching as the entire unit broke apart, and the flames began to rise out from the compromised pipework.

"Shit, everyone, run!" Athena's call was a simple one, given the sheer amount of fuel, hydrogen cells powering the mech, and various munitions strapped to the thing.

Inside, Laura yelped, sirens blaring. In a split second moment, she wondered if it was better to die than be captured. And as the flame tank ruptured, she made a decision to not die here. A couple of tears rushed by, but as she yanked the yellow handle, and the panel blasted open, Laura felt herself get sent out of the mech's top, and with it, skybound as the ejector seat sent her to oblivion, with what seemed like plenty more venom on it than a normal ejector seat would have. May as well be in a different postcode if you're trying to escape, she initially designed. Except now she was in it, she may have put a bit too much behind it, Laura wondered to herself, the howling noise returning as she realised she'd lost her lover, her ultimate battle machine, and any chance of freedom anytime soon if she didn't find a way out of this mess soon.

Athena in the meantime, used every bit of the jump jet to blast away, rolling in a coil as she watched the entire thing collapse onto the Zulu Mech, and with it, catch light, before exploding in a hail of napalm, smoke and coiled up mess, sending shrapnel flying. Athena barely skidded behind a concrete block, before a massive chunk of the mech's foot flew past and bounced off, massive enough to even turn her into paste in that, but thankfully out of harm's way.

Looking over as the smoke billowed, the giantess grinned, looking on at the sky, right at the top of the massive smoke plume, where a white canopy suddenly fluttered open.

"She ejected out of that one, sis. I think that might not be the last we see of her today." Athena added looking around, taking heavy stomps and running over to Sam. Leaping up, she yanked hard on the cockpit, and with it, exhaled hard.

"Christ, you did well for a first run. Let's get you down." The girl from everywhere, a titan standing tall pulled Sam out from the wreckage, and hustled her over her shoulder easy from the busted up mech, stomping into floor with ease, looking over to Freya, Jamie and Chuck giving a nod.

"We did alright. Nice work team!" Athena smiled, looking on at the fire all around the second, empty launch pad, and the fact they'd felled two massive giants over their own.
"And it didn't even take Frigga's butt cannon." She giggled, overtalking once again, setting Sam down, offering a metallic fist to bump.

"That was fucking badass, Chaos. You might even be mad enough roll with the craziest girl of them all. Not bigging myself up or anything, but if you didn't have me, you'd be...."

"Valkyrie, are you talking shit again?" Skye's voice interrupted it all, given she was listening in on the comms net again with a reconfigured headset.

"What, I went and..."

"Team. Effort. Get the fuck in here, we need a hand." Skye's voice called, knowing it was probably best to stop Athena's ego overinflating her, lest she fell over from the size of her head.

---

Tahlia smiled at Ban in reaction to that comment about sniping the men at the back, a cluster of enemies coming through into the overlook that they had towards the space centre below, the small burnt out area of forest on the hill offering plenty of cover, and plenty opportunity to thin the herd.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't tell me how to suck eggs, Shimura. Try and keep up. Stay split and kill anyone in range."

And on that, Tahlia broke from him, finding a position in the hillside, laying out a magazine spare, and getting ready. And on cue, she did exactly as Ban mentioned, clipping men at the back, but picking out the heavier armoured exo-skeleton wearing soldiers, knowing that they'd be an issue. Round after round, and she moved on the completion, darting across to another bush, burying herself in and picking off the opposite site. Soldier after soldier dropped, forcing the advance to slow, and the troops to take a more measured approach.

Tahlia watched her old position get obliterated by 40mm fire, as she crouched behind a large stump of a mangrove, sniping away another group, hearing voices to her side. Another PLA man tried to flank her as he lept up with his exoskeleton, pulling her over and trying to go in for the kill up close, but Tahlia was faster with her knife, going for the groin before stabbing upwards, through the neck, pushing him down and away, drawing her H&K MP7 that had been brought along as a close quarters tool for such an occasion. With a flick of a stock, she found two more men charge up the hill, dumping the mag into their highly armoured platforms, before flicking a new one in and double taping another that had taken the end of the fireteam.

With a last opportunity to relocate, Tahlia was smart enough to run, thankful her prosthetics were holding, though the sore was definitely starting to burn at the bottom of her stumps. Rolling across a burnt out SUV, Tahlia brought her Ballista back into hand, and clambered past a door, watching Shimura pick off his group of soldiers. Tahila didn't really flinch, picking out one, then the next, then the next, the cycle of the bolts rhythmic, one shot, one kill, and making her rounds count. Ban would have his same opportunity to tear apart soldiers, and no doubt, was dicing through enemies all the same.

It was an intense fight, but despite being outnumbered, quite quickly, the PLA realised that they must have been fighting ghosts, and that with the fire raining down, and then the incredible explosion down at the launch pad, they turned direction. It wasn't often that warfare broke the enemy. But this was a rout. This was overwhelming, lost situation. Command was dead. Any semblance of control was out of hand. And whoever the hell it was that Raven were, they'd fought like they had ten times their number, and even the two ghosts on the hill had turned back what remained of the platoon.

But Tahlia didn't take her chance to celebrate, watching the white canopy flutter above, with what she could only recognise to be a mirror of the mech, albeit human and flesh-like, from what was in the distance. Was that her?

Crashing into earth, adjacent to the burnt out treeside that Tahlia and Ban had defended, Laura looked dazed as she clambered out of the ejector seat as she flattened a palm, fumbling over, clutching her ribs, looking up at the sight of a green-quilted sniper and Ban Kingo.

Shimura. She worked with her before.

"Hands up, fatty, I've got a round that'll skin you like a fucking deer! Any funny business, he'll turn you into a fucking Doner!" Tahlia yelled to break the moment they looked at each other, as Laura complied, realising there was no time to react. No time to fight her way out of this one. Even as a heavy, two to one against someone with a rifle that big, after a hit that hard, with nothing to play for, was stupid.

Looking to Ban, who had certainly dealt with Laura beforehand, Tahlia chuckled.
"How the fuck did they build an ejector seat capable of carrying your lardy arse? Christ, Laura Zeiss, weren't you less like this? Ban, please tell me I'm wrong?" Tahlia asked, rifle pointed at core, as Laura shrugged, hands up, aware that with a .300 round, it wouldn't really matter what she thought. The Kiwi sniper wouldn't miss, and even if she did, Shimura, who she had worked with, would turn her into a Doner Kebab if she tried anything. Laura was a little lovesick, a little insane, but not stupid enough to realise that dying here was a good call.

"The perks you get of being an independent mercenary." Laura quipped, looking over at the massive fireball, then back at Shimura and Tahlia.

"God, he was so fun. I mean, was prison worth it? Probably." She added, as Tahlia looked at Ban, utterly confused, watching as she seemed to rather accept her fate, looking over into the horizon. What was an absolute gorilla of a German could have tried closing the distance, yet Tahlia, smartly, made sure she kept rifle firmly at her top half of her thorax and neck to make sure she'd drop faster.

"Come on then. Let's start walking over arse over there. You shouldn't have tried to set everyone on fire. Be lucky I don't put a fucking golf ball size hole in your throat for it. You gonna talk so we reconsider the amount of prison you get?" Tahlia stated, as Laura chuckled, shrugging her massive shoulders.

"I know what the delay is with Rose. I'll talk. But get me to Skye. I know she's with you." Laura replied, knowing that well, at least she had to have the obligation of facing her old team leader and saying it to her face.

---

Inside of the control room, covered in dust, the team regrouped with plenty of technicians that had been spared from getting domed through the Artemis remnants. Now, there was barely anything left. PLA forces were running, realising that Raven was on business today. The window was limited, and Skye was acutely aware that they needed to get to work on the rest.

Laura, tied up in chains that Athena had found, requiring those rather than zip ties, was on her knees, in the centre of the room, in front of an array of screens. Skye, now having gotten some more form fitting clothing rather than the PLA officer's coat, was in a green shirt and combat trousers she'd salvaged that fit her a little better, and kept her modesty on a little more. She walked past the team, past Ebrima, battered and bruised from the fight but still going, the Kantaario siblings, keeping a watchful eye on Laura, Chuck, who was being tended to by Adam, Sam, who was looking through the launch centre's equipment, and then Eloise and Purna, who were looking after the hostages, and getting intel from them, and getting them back to any semblance of normalcy, including food, water and the simple task of launching an Arianne rocket with crew and cargo.

Skye didn't focus on that for now, she was just going for the only person she wanted to talk to in this moment, the redheaded, reborn operative looking at the brunette German on her knees in the centre of the room.

"Boss." Laura tried to weasel her way out, as Skye chuckled, and could not stop laughing, visibly amused. Skye sat on a bench, AK-12 in hand, aware that if the giant decided to make a move, she could at least mag-dump away at the woman that must have made Athena look like a nun in relative humility. Laura had given up on that idea.

"You are one insane bitch, Bertha. First, you betray Raven, then you try and set your old girlfriend on fire, now you try and set half the team on fire? Because you got lovesick over some guy trying to end the world?" Skye asked, arms crossed, Laura shrugging her massive shoulders.

"I heard you had issues too." Laura quipped back, in her Germanic sarcasm, Skye shrugging and nodding.

"Yeah, I suppose so. But, I wasn't fucking genocidal, was I. Or addicted to....whatever you were." Skye stopped for a second, eyeing her up.

"Bakker betraying us I could see. But you, Zeiss. What was it you wanted?" Skye asked, Laura shrugging knowing she had little reaction.

Laura chuckled, looking to Freya, then back to Skye.
"It's all personal to you." Skye chuckled, wondering if Laura knew or not. No need to go into that.

"Not wrong in every sense of it. You happy to cut to the chase?" Skye had a strained relationship of course, given Laura's....insubordinate, let alone deviant behaviour. "You know I'll be fair with you at least."

Laura nodded, looking across at the rest of the team, in particular at Freya, knowing that with Chuck...well, they were never going back. She regretted her actions a little now she saw just how beautiful her face without that helmet. A face that could launch a thousand ships. What had gotten into her, she wondered? Was it just the feeling of being pushed away? Just obsession? Addiction to her own image? Well, whatever it was, she wasn't about to be shot yet, so that was a plus.

"I suppose being Queen of the wasteland was going to suck anyway. Without him to....well. What do you need?" Laura reluctantly uttered, as Skye took that as a sign.

"How fucked are we? You and Ingwe were clearly promised something, so how long have we got to stop what Rose does? Before all of us die, you included?"

"He was promised a kingdom. I got a really cool mech, not gonna lie, that span it for me. You've got at least twelve hours. Rose is going to take time to sequence everything, and she would dump them on major population centres first, the bioweapon gets into water and then it wouldn't stop. Paris, New York, London, Moscow, Shanghai, Tokyo, once in any system, and in the atmosphere, it basically would eliminate 70% of humanity within a week. The rest would have fallen apart through anarchy. I'm an engineer, not a biochemist. But you have time." Laura replied with a candid note, as Skye nodded.

"That is good. I can work with those odds. Shit as they are." Skye replied, as she looked across to the techs for half a moment, before looking back to her.

"Given it's the end of the world, Laura, I'm feeling oddly comfortable with you being honest. We survive this, let's see what happens. But, between those four over there, and Adam, I think an apology is in order. They did a very good job felling you. I think you should realise that when a team's against you, it's a bit harder to win. I taught you that. And Laura....I think Freya deserves a little closure." Skye quipped, Laura chuckling, nodding to Freya, sighing, thinking back to those times. It was as if she was snapped, Laura looking sad, but certainly like she'd enjoyed her little run of things.

That was dealt with for now, as the Scot pivoted away from the German to the other two giants in the room- Chuck and Jamie.

"Find something you can make a cell out of. Take Athena's coils off her and put more voltage into her than an elephant if she tries to move. If she looks like she's enjoying it, keep applying voltage till she passes out. She's a big girl. It'll take a lot to kill her." Skye added, moving around to speak to Ebrima next, but being interrupted.

---

Hearing the static in her comms unit, she watched as Athena and co dragged Laura away, as the Scot had higher powers to answer to.

"Queen, can you give an updated status? Sat feeds are showing PLA activity has minimised. They're on the run, looks like any hostiles you have left are routed and are leaving the AO."

"Solid copy. We're alive. It's going to be at least another twelve hours until Rose can start sequencing anything. Plan B is in motion, Oracle. We need to get this rocket launched and take her down. Then get home. Vulpine staff will sort us out."

"Affirmative. Best of luck to you, and do whatever you can. Hate to say it, but fate of the world's in your collective hands."

"Really? This like some, Independence Day shite? Go set up a launch, take out my evil twin, call it a day?" Skye sarcastically remarked, sitting on one of the tables one of the techs was at.

"No other way of putting it. This one's in your hands now. Have you got Zhao in custody?" Oracle asked, as Skye looked to Boaro on that one.

"Negative. You heard Boaro earlier. Shit got messy. We're all you ahve."

"Affirmative. I'll let command know. This is gonna be a tough one to sell, Queen....what are you....."

"Not an impossible sell. Work this one out, Oracle. Your job is telling them we're allowing them to live tomorrow. Tell them I'll come for them personally if they try and come for you over it. I've killed quite a lot of PLA and Artemis souped up with heavies, mechs and exos today with a team of badass motherfuckers in the space of an hour. I'm sure I can scratch in some silly cunts in waistcoats at Langley, London and Moscow to it if they think it's a wise call on H-Hour. Or they can face facts. Out." Skye spat, as she cut the line, grinning as she felt a little bit of a win there.

---

Skye looked to the team, a certain glance that was unmistakably hers despite a different body, as she stood up, away from the table. They'd all realised it wasn't quite the original Skye they were used to. But that was a fact that was sinking in slower than the fact that they'd have to get on with an impossible task. And right now, their team leader seemed to have command of that anarchy.

"None of you have to do this. This is basically suicidal, and of all the people, I'll be honest with you, it's probably best left to me. There's only one of her, and we just need to neutralise the bodies, and anything inside the station before blowing it to hell and coming home." Skye added, looking across the group, namely, the core one. Eloise, Ebrima, Sam, and Freya.

Athena shook her head, her helmetless visage allowing her blonde hair to be released, as she stood tall, her armour battered, but still solvent.
"I'm with you. No arguments. Keep the same team." Athena simply stated, looking across to the others. "JamJam, I'll trade you the fifties for the coils?" Her sight was unflinching, because in a rare moment, she seemed to be down for this. Her hearts must have been too full of adrenaline for her to be making good decisions.

Athena gulped, nodding in addition to her initial point back to Skye.
"Time I took some responsibility. I'm with you, Skye. Ride or die." Athena added with a grin, looking to the others, Adam piping up as he stepped forwards.

"I'll lead the ground team. Not all of us are trained on this, Skye. Me, Purna, Jamie, Chuck, Tahlia and Ban can hold the island. Keep security posted while you sort this out." Adam added, nodding to that group, knowing that all of them were probably relieved to be not getting launched, as she looked to who was left.

"And if you're trained, well, you know what to do, you're with Skye. No ifs and buts, you're our best chance at saving everyone. I suppose nobody wanted it to come to this. But here we are." Adam simply added, as Skye nodded, putting the rifle down on the table, nodding in return.

"Here we fucking are. Alright. Enough of this centre's intact, and EVA gear for our sizes should be on hand, given the manifest I checked. Looks like we're doing this." Skye was not proud of the idea, but same time....well, this was the play they had now.

"Chief Keller? We are good to launch the rocket on pad, aren't we?" Skye asked, as the terrified Dutch handler nodded, her uniform bloodied and dusted, wiping down the laptop in front of her.

"Yes, we're good. Launch is still prepped. Just needs the lift to be pulled back once you're inside, and then good to go. Debris check with a drone seems like everything is intact. There's always risk. But we can get you there, on a course, after that, you'll be in the hands of the ESA rather than us." She uttered out, Amelia Keller's name badge revealing the title of "Head of Launch Operations" for Vulpine Space, and well, her situation feeling like it had gone from bad in having a gun to her head, to worse in finding out from Skye what was about to go down.

"Good. Time to get to work then." The Scot on the other hand, wasted no time.

"Adam, Eloise, grab the EVA suits from inventory and prep gear, set them out in the room next door, by where the truck is parked. We'll gear up- Jamie, I'd appreciate if you could act as a mobile hangar for us, the suits are heavy and we'll need to be in them from launch, even if they're ridiculously bulky. We need rifles, ammunition, and grapples. Can't take anything we have up there we usually carry, so 5.56 and easily manageable is my recommend. Mostly HK416s, SIG MCXs and G36s on these lot, so scavenge mags, ammo. We set Athena and Freya in the cargo where the satellites would go, their armour's airtight, and well....they tell me they can hold their own. Rest of us are in the crew module." Skye started, looking to the next group.

"Ebrima, Ban, get the truck ready, and disconnect any fuel, or any pre-launch logistics on the pad. Tahlia will take the lift when ready. If you're not sure what to do, Keller will guide you through the process in comms." She added, then approaching Sam, no doubt worse for wear, but ready for this to come.

"Sam, the rocket launch will be automated. Keller will be in your ear as you need it. But you might need to recall your manual on launching on Arianne 7, and take a bit of time with how we decouple, then get outside, and then back in safely to come home. This might....might be a bit more than anything you've ever flown. Chat to some of the techs, and get yourself familiar. I'm afraid we haven't got as long as we like." Skye may not have understated the comment, but she knew everyone was capable of holding their own.

"Freya, Athena, get your suits checked with Tahlia. Get set, and be ready to launch."

"We have a world to save. Let's get to it, Raven." And with it, she clapped, as if she was some chef in a kitchen, because it was a feeling of if people weren't sorting themselves out, they were about to get useful.

Cue the montage.

---

Soundtrack: Nothing But Thieves - Welcome to the DCC

It was slow but sure.

Fuel lines disconnected. The lift in position to get into the capsule. Rifles laid out, next to EVA suits.

Tactical mag carriers on front, helmets, oxygen supplies, and literal spacesuits to work with, readied for each member of the team, velcro stuck to each from their personal equipment.

Techs cleaning up with brooms, then getting to their laptops, doing the work that was involved in launching an actual rocket off a pad. And all the insanity ensued in that. The last chance that Raven had to push on and get to Ark Angel.

The slow build up of the screens left on the wall giving readouts, and the clock set for a 0900 launch.

A hubub of movement, Laura squirming and getting tazed, and bit by bit, things falling into place. Within barely thirty minutes, plenty had been done. Ready to get moving.

---

If ever there was a time that it was sinking into the team, it was ditching most of their tactical gear, and bar Freya and Athena, leaving behind exoskeletons, rifles, everything, and slowly but surely, gearing out of their usual kit, and into under-armour styled cooling gear, and bit by bit, getting ready. Where a metal crane didn't work, Jamie did in holding people up, legs in first, slipping in through the back, head past the neck seal, before the rest being sealed up, and arms and gloves being sorted next, then helmet into hand being given.

Spacesuits had come a long, long way since the decades past, with most being less bulky, but the white and grey coloured Vulpine Space suits, even with the Fox with an orbit around its head on the shoulder, were still not easy to move in given they would be pressurised once up in space.

It was still heavy, ridiculously so, and Skye hated her new body. Her normal self would carry this no issue. But alas. Less muscle density, fibres less built, so this was shitty, and well, here they were. The team would be garnering up, and ready to move shortly, as they one by one got into theirs, and assembled before the truck. The others would be probably feeling it, well, bar Freya and Athena. Lucky bastards.

Skye caught Sam once done, and without a word, took a hold close, hugging her tight, resting her head into her friend's now broadened shoulder, breathing out heavy.

"I might have lied about that whole dying thing. It's a really long story." Skye chuckled, her dry sense of humour fully intact, even if her old self wasn't quite that anymore.

"But we're not done yet. You've done a hell of a lot today. And this is a lot to take in. But we're made for this." Skye asked, confident, despite everything inside not being quite.

"I trust you fully to get us home. You ready?" Skye asked, looking across as the truck reversed into the prep bay, and with it, the heavies were willing to provide a literal hand up, and from there, head out to the launch bay.

Every single child would be screaming in this moment about where they were going. For Skye, she was more concerned that if they failed, humanity was doomed. And due to her own self, technically. That was not an average Tuesday, not at all. It was the end of fucking everything, and that somehow kept her focussed on the task at hand, focussed enough to forget they were about to launch off the site of a base they'd razed to the ground, to go kill that particular person and hopefully, come home. Looking across to the others, Ebrima, Eloise, Sam, Freya, Athena, she clutched a feeling that this was all getting to a head.

Purna looked to Eloise, shaking her head.
"Boss wants all the credit. Then again, those hostages are critical if we want to even attempt a launch.....what the hell did I sign up to." Purna said the quiet part out loud, still not quite certain he believed in any of this, but well, so be it. They moved again across the concrete, cloaking up and like shadows in the morning light, dodging rays and enemies to get into position to start sneaking in.

Pointing out a ventilation grate, Purna latched it with his grapple, and pulled himself in, before leaving the line down for Eloise. It was an uncomfortable crawl, but crawl they did, as the sound of the bunker's internal systems could be heard, the crawl almost like a stress position, but one he was sure that with her smaller size, Eloise was finding easier than his muscular frame.
"Sorry that I pushed ahead. Normally I'm more of a gentleman." Purna noted, crawling in this space not exactly a nice prospect, but, it go them where they needed.

Moving inside to the end of the shaft, Purna dropped down, the two in phase with the other teams as they entered into a ventilation room, the tiny gaps barely able to fit them both, but making this entry good. More men could be heard on the other side of the door. Artemis troops, given they weren't speaking Chinese, but English and Spanish.
"No choice but to move forward, Archer. I'd normally want to avoid a fight, kill the power, sink them with gas, be clever about this. But if we want to save the hostages, we might need to be a bit more direct here." Purna adjusted his pistols, checking each mag, nodding to her. He took out a small device from his tool stash, slipping a wire under the door, adjusting his NVG set to look.

"I put five targets immediately outside. Down the corridor, I think there's about another six by our hostages, can't be sure. They're keeping them by the control centre's desks, give or take half a dozen staff. We're outnumbered....but they won't see it coming. Move smooth and clean, let's drag them out and get them looking from the hostages, then we can have an easier time of it." Purna asked, pulling the tool back in, getting a smoke grenade ready from his tactical rig, adjusting his infrared NVGs, and keeping a USP ready to go.

Eloise had followed Purna's lead, moving swiftly and quietly through the base and its' urban jungle. Despite still being well-armed with her machine-pistol and handgun, as well as her knives; without her throwing knives, bow, and arrows, she felt naked. Even more so with the visor for her suit cracked and broken, and her cloak tattered. Nonetheless, she could still cloak well enough, and her natural skills and talents for moving quiet and fast kept her going.
As they paused and took stock for a few moments, brass-checking her mini-cougar and MAX11. She nodded as he spoke.
"Well; sometimes getting up in someone's face is the only way it can be taken care of. Like you said, smooth and clean".
She nodded as she pulled the SMG up to her shoulder and gestured to the grenade in his hand and stacking up on the door, ready to go.

---

Eloise listened in attentively, leaning against one of the desks and sipping some much needed water and swiftly chomping down a power bar in the few moments of quiet. Internally, her nerves were running riot; she. was. going. into. space; the idea was both exhilarting and terrifying in equal measure. For all manner of reasons, not least the consequences for the world if they failed.
As Skye detailed the plan, Eloise spoke out a curt 'right' as she directed her to get the suits and gear ready, and glad to be able to get a chance to resupply, given her burning through her normal loadout earlier.
The word given, she spared a more lingering glance at Athena, but there wasn't time to do more or say anything as there was too much to be done, and barely any time to do it. They were on a literal countdown, after all.

---

The suit was different and strange; heavy and bulky. It felt alien, compared to the fluid, flexible lightness of her normal gear. Not to mention... she felt exposed, not having her cloak around her and being in white and grey. It was too... open. But she'd cope - she usually managed to.
She'd been fortunate enough to happen across a compound crossbow as she and Purna had moved through the compound. One of the guards, she'd later found out, had kept it around for hunting rats, mice and birds. A bit of fiddling and adjusting by her had managed to make it a little more... formidable, and there were plenty of bolts for it, which were now in a covered quiver strapped to her thigh, and her sidearm rode on a horizontal holster on her chest, with magazines below.
She looked to the rest of the group as they were likewise suited up and equipped; glancing around at them all. Eloise was amazed that she was going with them; she'd barely been with the team for any time. But she wasn't about to back down, or to let Skye or any of them down after putting this much faith in her, and after coming so far. Not to mention...
She looked across at Athena, still unsure of the giantess' feelings toward her, and even of her own. She'd barely talked to her yet, but still; there was an attraction - not at all surprising, given her looks and the personality she exhibited. She was likely one of many, many others, given Athena's online fame. But still; the slight little slip of a woman was infatuated by her, and to see how much more there was to it, that was something she wanted to explore - and she'd hoped they'd get the chance.

Samantha had pulverized Ingwe’s mech until she was sure he was dead. She had patched up Chuck as best she could. She didn’t get much of a reprieve before Laura’s ranting rage fell on her like her rage had taken out the Zulu. Her situational awareness had dropped as she focused on Chuck. Laura managed to catch Samantha by surprise as her attack knocked the mech she was in backwards. She kept trying to aim the flamethrowers at her. Samantha was able to dodge some. Laura came into grappling range and the two of them struggled for control of the flame thrower nozzles. Control shifted between them as you heard metal groan and pop in the heat and strain between the mechs. Laura’s missiles began to land; knocking the mech around as armor shredded and began to fall down like an iron rain. Samantha kept fighting hoping to distract Laura enough for the others to get the surprise on her. The missiles Laura fired took out the mech’s right leg and the mech fell to its knees. Laura had a better position and leverage over Samantha. Samantha used the arms of the mech to blow Laura’s blows. She was out of ammunition and missiles now. She was doing her best to stay alive even as the warning lights and alarms were blaring all across her HUD. The damage indicators were red all over the mech now. Samantha continued to punch, jab, and block even as the damage Laura was dishing out dismantled the mech around her.

Samantha needed to get out the mech. She was doing her best to just survive when Athena pulled Laura’s mech off of her. Athena’s attack pulled the mech away before her attack caused Laura to eject before her mech overloaded and exploded. Flaming molten debris rained down around Samantha where she was trapped inside the crushed cockpit of the mech. Seeing the debris now striking the mech she was glad she hadn’t gotten out sooner. She breathed a sigh of relief as the tinkling sound of debris falling quit.

Athena: "We did alright. Nice work team!"

Athena was smiling and looking around as they were surrounded by fire and burning debris and the remains of three mechs.

Athena: "And it didn't even take Frigga's butt cannon."

Athena was giggling at her own joke as she came over to help Samantha out of the cockpit.

Samantha was startled when Athena yanked open the crushed cockpit door casually and pulled on her. She yelped in pain because she was still harnessed in. She managed to hit the quick release button in the center when she tugged a second time and was lifted out of the remains of the cockpit by Athena.

Samantha had a hard time focusing on what Athena was saying. Her ears were ringing from the explosion and being so close to Laura’s exploding mech. She was feeling like a cocktail that was shaken and not stirred. She wobbled a bit as she tried to regain her equilibrium as Athena set her down gently. She took stock of her body. She was sore and had some bruising in places but everything appeared to be in working order. Samantha's head was still reeling as Athena offered her a fist bump. Samantha automatically bumped her fist back. Her brain was still slightly out of sync with her body. Awareness seemed to rush back in with sound as Athena’s voice sounded overly loud to Sam.

Athena: "That was fucking badass, Chaos. You might even be mad enough to roll with the craziest girl of them all. Not bigging myself up or anything, but if you didn't have me, you'd be...."

Samantha winced a little, her eyes a little glassy. It was like Skye’s voice kicked her brain back into gear as Skye came over the intercom.

Skye: "Valkyrie, are you talking shit again?"

Valkyrie: "What, I went and..."

Skye: "Team. Effort. Get the fuck in here, we need a hand."

---

Chuck, Freya, Athena, Laura, and Jamie arrived in the command center. The command was covered in dust with loose papers all over the flow. There were bullet holes in the walls. The evidence of a battle was all over the room. The hostages were bent over computer terminals and conferring with one another.

Chuck had managed to plunk himself down on the ground. Adam was looking him over. Chuck’s face was pale and his skin was clammy. He met Adam’s eyes as they spoke softly. Chuck had turned his comm off. He didn’t want Freya to hear him. Chuck knew he was in bad shape. He just hoped that the patch from his armor held long enough for him to see this through.

Chuck gripped Adam’s arm to make sure he had his attention.

Chuck: “It’s bad Wilk. I have probably another hour before I crash from the stimulants and pain killers. I am stable right now. If the pressure dressing from my armor comes loose, I will be bleeding like a stuck pig. I can still shoot but moving sucks. Hand to hand is not gonna happen. Put me somewhere I can shoot. I can be overwatch and not have to move too much. I should be able to help out some. I want to help finish it.”

Chuck’s eyes met Wilk's, expressing he understood the risk he was taking. He was willing to take it to help protect his team and his girl. If they had to go into space, he was going to make sure they got there. It was unspoken but understood as he met Wilk’s eyes and flicked them over to Freya that he didn’t want her to know how bad it was. Wilk seemed to understand even as the combat medic onsite had set up an IV and was pumping him full of fluids and plasma. Chuck chugged the bottle of electrolytes that the medic handed him. He nodded once to Wilk and let him go.

Samantha’s head was still ringing a bit and she felt a little jittery as her adrenaline crashed some and endorphins lessened a little. She chugged an energy drink she swiped from the combat medic on the team. She then began to wander from computer system to computer system checking out what was happening on the screens. Samantha understood Skye’s plan. They had already discussed that it might be a possibility when they finally tracked Rose’s mobile carrier. Samantha was already using the computer terminals to check the rocket’s systems and what launch window it was currently set up and the vector. She was running a diagnostic to make sure it was undamaged from all the fighting on the base. She had been focused on her task. Hearing Skye say her name snapped her focus over to Queen.

Skye: "Sam, the rocket launch will be automated. Keller will be in your ear as you need it. But you might need to recall your manual on launching on Arianne 7, and take a bit of time with how we decouple, then get outside, and then back in safely to come home. This might....might be a bit more than anything you've ever flown. Chat to some of the techs, and get yourself familiar. I'm afraid we haven't got as long as we like."

Samantha gave Skye a confident grin. “Already working on it boss.”

Skye continued to give orders: “Freya, Athena, get your suits checked with Tahlia. Get set, and be ready to launch."

Skye: "We have a world to save. Let's get to it, Raven."

---

Samantha worked with the techs to prep the rocket and reroute it to the Arc Angel station that Rose had escaped to and was planning to launch her revenge from. Samantha managed to squeeze in one simulator run before she had to get into her spacesuit.

Samantha spent a little bit of time rigging cargo straps to connect to the tie downs in the cargo hold. She also rigged some oversize seats so that Freya and Athena would be comfortable on the trip to the station. She asked Archer to give her a hand with the project so it would go faster.

Sam: "Archer can you give me a hand here? I could use some help in the cargo bay. I want to rig some support seats for Freya and Athena. It would go faster with another set of hands. I just need you to hand me stuff and hold things in place while I bolt."

She led Archer over to the rocket and into the cargo bay. They each carried the lightweight frame seat one for each of their giants. She gave Archer a wry smile as they worked.

Sam: "Nervous? Do you have any questions or worries about going into space?"

---

Chuck simply stayed out of the way. It hurt to move and the less he did the better. Freya found him sitting against the wall in a corner after the technicians began doing whatever techy stuff they needed to do that would allow them to launch the rocket.

Chuck smiled at Freya and drank in her beautiful face. He could only smile at her. His long arm reached up and pulled her down into his lap. He stole a long and meaningful kiss. The pain from the move was replaced by the warmth and joy of Freya’s lips beneath his. He leaned his forehead against hers as he held her close.

Chuck: “I wish I could go with you and cover your back. Be safe. Kill that bitch and come home safe, yeah?”

Chuck released her and smiled into her beautiful face. “You have to come back. I still owe you a real date. Maybe the world will leave us alone for a few weeks and we could bask in the sun on an island somewhere.” He wiggled his eyebrows meaningfully at her.

---

She hated the spacesuit, it was heavy and clunky.

Samantha muttered under her voice as she began to work on getting into the spacesuit.

Samantha: “I feel like this spacesuit is from the time of Sputnik. What is this, a medieval torture device? They are supposed to be geniuses and couldn’t do better? Are we sure this thing is space worthy?”

She would rather go in her normal armor. It had air connections but it didn’t carry its own air. It was also not rated to protect her from the solar radiation found in space. She peeled out of her armor and pulled off all his weapons. She climbed into the stretchy compression under the armor layer of the space suit. She grumped and bitched as she wiggled it around until it was tolerable. She felt like it was going to give her a permanent wedgie. She strapped her armor behind the pilot’s seat in a mesh net. At least Bob would be with her even if she couldn’t squeeze him into her spacesuit. He could integrate with the spacesuit HUD over a wireless signal. She set up an extra transmitter and receiver with a booster for him so that he would be able to extend his presence into the station from where he was.

Samantha looked over at Ebrima and raised an eyebrow. She was surprised that his snark didn't match her own. She continued to struggle into the space suit as she noted Ebrima's progress.

Samantha: "How are you doing Ebrima? Any questions about what we can expect?"

She climbed into the heavy outer space suit as Jamie held it up. The suit was too big for her petite frame. She felt like she was swimming inside the heavy outer layer. The suit was heavy and awkward to move in. She had to take really big steps and yank each foot from the deck before it clanged back down. She was going to be exhausted just getting inside the rocket. She sighed as she lined up with the rest of the team that would be going up.

Samantha was waiting for the others as Skye appeared before her and hugged her tight. Samantha sighed and hugged her friend back.

Skye: "I might have lied about that whole dying thing. It's a really long story."

Skye chuckled as Samantha sighed as it had been quite a day and while she couldn’t say she wasn’t surprised but somehow she wasn’t. It made sense that they hadn’t gotten all of the clone bodies.

Skye continued before she could say anything. "But we're not done yet. You've done a hell of a lot today. And this is a lot to take in. But we're made for this."

Skye’s tone while confident somehow had a question in there for her.

Samantha tightened her arms once more around Skye and spoke softly in her ear.

Samantha: “Somehow I am not surprised. You can tell me the full story when we get back. I have your back. I got his. Genius, remember? Uncle Sam needed help with their program. I have had EVA training. Some of their systems are different but they all work off the same principles and needs. You know I didn’t let them get away without teaching me to pilot their birds. The systems are a little bit different but not much. We will be okay.”

Skye: "I trust you fully to get us home. You ready?"

Samantha released Skye and gave her a quick smile and nod.

She followed Skye as the team climbed into the truck and were headed out to the launch bay.

The team climbed into the elevator built into the launching gantry. They stopped at the large cargo bay doors. Samantha had improvised some seats bolted to the cargo bay floor with simple straps that would lock onto their armor points to hold them in place. Freya and Athena would depend on the air in the armor. Samantha had rigged secondary canisters to extend the amount of air they had. She had loaded some extra oxygen tanks in the hold just in case. Space was a hostile environment all its own. She made sure they all had additional air just in case, because shit happens. She connected their suits to the additional oxygen mix. When they got to the station the two tanks would be shut off and they would have the full tank on their armor. The rest of the team took the elevator to the top of the rocket where the cockpit was. The technicians helped them all get into seats and locked them down. They sealed the hatch on the way out.

Samantha began pushing buttons and flicking switches on the dash. She looked confident as l flights began to blink and gauges woke up and started to show movement.

Samantha started her preflight check.

Samantha: “This is Chaos to Vulpine Control. Preflight Check has begun. I am not reading any errors or system malfunctions. Does Raven One have permission for takeoff?”

---

Chuck ended up laying along the catwalk located near the ceiling. He had his long gun out and was providing sniper coverage from up high.

---

Ebrima set Skye down upon her request, although his left hand hasn’t left her shoulder until she could take five steady steps in a row. After that, he went astound the room looking for shoes at least more or less the right size and an intact plate carrier.

"Leave Oracle to me....blimey, you have a heart in there, Ebrima." Skye retorted.

”No heart to this.” He shook his head, ”This technology has gone off the rails once already, and it would have done so again. I don’t do half measures, this gets put to bed for good. Oracle’s masters can cry about it.”

Adam cleaned the corner, LMG raised, stunned at the sight of what he saw, as he saw Ebrima next to Skye, one kitted as normal, the other clad in nothing but a PLA officer's coat.

"What the fuck?" His voice pierced, the LMG staying high, just in shock horror. "Boaro, this is..."

”Not what it looks like.” He didn’t even look up at Adam as he lifted up a dead man’s shoe to read the size, moving onto the next one upon learning the body wore only size 34.

"I fucking know what you did, Ebrima. And I hate to admit it....but it was the right thing to do. We stick to her story. Or else we all fucked. We'll figure out where this rabbit hole goes when this is finished." Adam coldly retorted in his typically Polish accented voice

”You figure out what you need, I only work here.” Ebrima shrugged, having finally found a helmet that didn’t have pieces of skull and brain inside of it and handing it to Skye. Bad enough they’d have to ditch all armor in favor of space suits in a bit, but he’d still prefer to minimize the amount of time a single stray round could take out his boss and potentially leave it to Adam to deal with Oracle. As much as he liked the Pole, ironing out the creases left by what happened here today sounded like an ‘ice pick’ kind of job, meanwhile Adam read more like a ‘hammer’ to Ebrima.

"No more contacts left down here. But there's another path to the control room, more of them between us and them. I'm going to need help. Boaro, you with me?"

Ebrima didn’t even answer, simply stacking up behind Adam and tapping him on the shoulder.

---

Ebrima watched Adam set the breach, swapping out the people deleter Skye had given him earlier for the shotgun. With a slug still in the chamber, he topped off the M1014’s magazine tube and ghost loaded a ninth one, both surviving tricksters detaching from his armor and creating the images of Skye 1.0 and Sam. ”Ten we can take. On your go.”

The Pole went in first, perhaps forgetting the decoys didn’t mind being shot at or more likely wanting to get real guns in the room as fast as possible. Fake Skye followed almost in step with Adam, the breached door wide enough and went straight for the center of the room, the black exo barreling down on them getting the Artemis operators’ attention as Ebrima hugged the right wall, the shotgun’s authoritative bark announcing the need for several death certificates in rapid succession - all closed caskets. Trickster two had done its job, at the unfortunate cost of its life. Silicone Heaven would welcome it with open arms, no doubt.

Between that and what Adam, Purna and Eloise did to the hostage takers, their intended victims would all definitely need therapy. It was then, checking over one of the hostages for strays that he caught the tail end of Athena’s boasting and Skye’s putdown.
”How is it we have an entire blimp, yet the most hot air for miles is coming out of the e-girl?” He noted drily to Adam, simultaneously holding the backup transmit button on his vest. This crew was starting to rub off on him, but the area was clear and they were probably all dying horribly in space in a few hours, when else but now could a serious situation be disregarded a little bit?

---

”If we go, we may die. If we stay, we die.” He shrugged as Skye gave them the option to opt-out, ”Hardly a choice.”

He handed the railgun to Adam. ”Should still be plenty of fun left in it.” In the same vein, he dropped off his M 25 with the crew holding Laura captive, ensuring to note that it was loaded with thermobarics. Then to the pile of Artemis gear for fresh magazines and an HK 416, removing the optical sight and making sure the visible aiming laser option on the PEQ box worked, because he didn’t expect to be able to shoulder their rifles in the space suits. The Kukri stayed. Although if it got lost up there, he could imagine Purna pulling his soul from the afterlife just to kick his ass about it. Still, a significant improvement over expecting to fight about it and only one walking away from it like Ebrima thought it would turn out not even a month ago.

Turns out the sizing wouldn’t be ideal either, the top of his comms cap rubbing against the helmet whenever he turned his head and the gloves just short enough to be wearable while annoyingly pulling on his fingers.

"How are you doing Ebrima? Any questions about what we can expect?"

”First diving, now space.” Ebrima complained as he put the suit’s joints through the motions, figuring out how he could and couldn’t move. ”Rose is dying for putting us through this alone.”

Skye watched as the team got ready, Purna coming back in. Sam was right, these were bulky, modernised sure, but EVA suits were always going to have the weight that came with life support systems. Vulpine had clearly gone for bulk over cheaper, thinner models as a form of longevity, that compromise came with more modular spacesuits that alone must have cost hundreds of thousands of Euros. That thought went, as Skye smiled at the smaller Nepali.

"Thanks, by the way. Both you and Eloise did good." Skye added, as Purna nodded, a smile back. He was quiet, and understated.
"My pleasure. It was tough with Bakker, but....we did what we do best. Heard what happened and....well, fuck. As if you weren't there enough to this mess. Go get it done, Queen. Still seems to be you in there."
"Thanks. Look after yourself. When we're back, go have yourself some time off. Enjoy those things you talked about. Life's more than slitting throats." Skye added, knowing his history, Purna nodding in return.
"It is. We need that world to exist first. Good luck." Purna added, as Skye smiled, letting him move on as he had another group to attend to, moving across.

She next saw Adam come back in, exo still on, rifle in hand, mind on the mission still.
"You guys ready?"
"Almost."
"Good, just wanted to say, with what happened...."
"I know, not ideal."
"No, not really. But you're still in there. And don't let it distract." Adam added, as Skye reached out, and hugged him, sighing.
"Look, sorry. I probably should have forgiven you."
"You don't have to say anything. You have this. We'll sort out the mess down here. There is a lot of mess, Skye. Go get this done and we'll talk in a bar, in Scotland, when this is finished." Adam replied, Skye giving a silent nod, as him moving away revealed one last person that wanted to say goodbye.

Tahlia, who reached up and hugged Skye, sighing hard.
"How the fuck did we get here? I mean, you managed to coax my arse into fighting, sniping people...we were in a hairy one earlier, but got out of it. Bloody hell, Skye." The Kiwi uttered, almost disapointed with Skye, but the Scot knew that Tahlia was happy to be along.

"Saving the world business, Tarly. We do it well. You do it well. Nice work out there. And you got Shimura out alive too. Thought he was a goner. Look after them while I'm away, yeah?" Skye asked, as Tahlia nodded, resting an arm on her boss's shoulder.

"Sure. What's a rocket launch to us? So yeah....see ya later." Skye with it, felt the embrace of the sniper, the mobile bush nodding as she gave a salute, and moved away. On that note, Skye moved up to the truck, and where people were getting moved into it, via the portable lift that was Athena.

Athena was keeping her eye on something in the meantime, where she pretended to do something else, loading a crate up into the truck. Seeing Eloise walk over, Athena casually picked her up when close enough and put her on the back seat, leaning in, her head level still at Eloise's chest in spite of the rise on the truck.

"There you go, Eloise. Uhh.....well, given we're both alive, I thought I'd mention....I saw that origami on the suit this morning. Do you know how many people send fan mail? Drunk guys try it on? You have any idea how many comments I've had about my arse?" Athena looked around, as if she forgot she was the tallest person in the room outside of Freya. It sounded scary at first. But Athena meant well.

"That's the cutest thing I've seen anyone do. And I know that took a lot of thought on your side. So if we come home, just say the word if you want to go out sometime. Because....nobody's ever done that. Not when I can see how you feel, you see through that. I might be a giant but I can see through people, even quiet infiltrators, you know. You don't have to say anything....just know, I appreciate it and beyond all this, there's someone in there that's got time for a romantic." The blonde smiled, knowing she let on a little more than perhaps anyone was typically used to, especially given her poster-girl image to the other mercs. There was a little bit of a socialite in there, perhaps, someone who knew how to talk.

Athena turned around hearing other footsteps coming, seeing Skye struggle to clamber onto the truck, Athena straight up picking her up and pushing her in, before offering a hand to Ebrima, turning and casually just picking him up like a weight anyway, heaping him onto the bench.
"Heard you talking shit about me." Athena glared into his eyes with a deadpan look, before a smile cracking, her visor and helmet opened still.
"Wouldn't be the first one either. But....if you want a job after this is all done, I know a Managing Director who might be hiring for miserable looking mercs chasing a paycheck. Or is that less your thing these days? I mean, I heard you were done with this...." Athena giggled, knowing she was being annoying, as she turned and punted Sam up, before clambering in.

"You playing fair, Valkyrie? I thought we said you'd stop talking bollocks?" Skye asked, as Athena shook her head.
"Hey, he star..." Athena started, as Skye looked at her, then at Ebrima.
"I swear, the Service would just have me whoop out a can of kick ass on both of you, but I'm out of body and out of my fucking mind with this whole mess. Go fuck or fight it out already. But we have a version of me to wipe clean first before you do." Skye held her authoritive, sharp tone with more than a little tongue in cheek knowing she could pull that joke on them, as she slid along, looking to Eloise, the small framed light perhaps not the first pick for something like this, but something Skye recognised as required for this particular job.

"Anyway. Don't mind those two. Looks like you're holding up well, despite....well, what went down. Glad you got it done, and trust me, Purna appreciates you a lot more than he'll let slip. You know how it is." Skye added, exhaling, checking the SIG MCX in right hand, laser attached to it, adopted mag carrier on front of suit, and stock folded in.

"We've got this, Archer. I know it seems like a lot of weight up here, but up there, you'll know how to move like a cat better than anyone. I saw it in your preliminaries in our testing. So when it comes to it, you'll make it work." Skye reassured her, knowing with each member of the team, she had to take on a different approach, as she looked over to Sam, giving a nod back, knowing she was going through in her mind all the steps involved in what was next. No doubt it would be a lot, but Skye trusted her with technical bits, knowing the lengths Sam went to in order to get it right.

With it all done, Adam stepped into the driver's seat and turned the key, and off to the launch pad they went.

On the way, Athena turned to Freya, smiling, wrapping an arm around her. Athena had gone for a M2 Browning she'd looted off a dead heavy on their way in, with a top up of her movement jets and her missile systems for good measure via a supply drop.
"Sis, this is fucking insane, I mean...this must be something you were dreaming of, right? Always dreamed of being an astronaut when you were little, and I guess you got it?" Athena chuckled, asking her, the golden retriever not entirely leaving her, as she looked her up and down, smile still etched on.
"We got this. Battering fucking ram. Save the world. Get home. Then we gotta talk about finding JamJam someone to love too, right?" Athena kept it light, in spite of just how insane the stakes were, beyond the two mechs on fire still in the launch pad opposite their rocket, and the absolute carnage that looked like an army had run through here, instead of just a dozen highly trained black-ops, special forces degenerates.

---

Walking out as the lift opened doors, the feeling was just ridiculous. Like something in the movies, Skye, Ebrima, Eloise, Sam walked across the gantry, and with it, past the door, and into the upward facing seats, through the mesh-lined metal and into a straight up rocketship. Helmets in hand, they'd go on as soon as they were sat, and with the bulky backpacks, they'd be ready for EVA activities the moment they got out, once in orbit.

Athena and Freya were inside the cargo hold of the hybrid crewed capsule and satellite carrier, a novel design that would be like sitting inside a sardine tin for the two giants. A little like the Space Shuttle's doors, the system was designed for an orbiting crew to release a small satellite manually, particularly those with complicated folding and instrumentation. That was now two giantesses in armour.

Clambering in, Skye harnessed herself up, exhaling hard, looking to Sam, helmet on. A rudimentary HUD was on her visor, that bit significantly updated over older spacesuits.
"Alright then. All you, Sam. Give Keller signal we're ready, and she'll sends us to the stars.....and hopefully on Rose's X." Skye added, exhaling hard, and looking forwards to the displays and panels, the AR and LCD panels around dislaying readouts, and most of all, the condition of this.

They were nearly ready. And as Keller stayed on the comms with Sam, she'd no doubt give the go signal. And that countdown.
"Anyone else feeling like they're a child again?" Skye joked, knowing that perhaps in more ways than one, that had a meta, literal and rather figurative meaning.

Eloise saw Purna return from whatever had him elsewhere, and after Skye spoke to him, she quickly stepped over to him herself.
"Look," she said in that lilting accent of hers as she looked up at him. "I'm not very got at talking to people. And I'm even less used to working with them too. But thank you for helping find my place. We work well together. And well," she frowned and tried to shrug with the bulky, awkward suit on. "I wouldn't say it was fun, exactly, but you know what I mean. We did well, and I'm glad we had each other's backs". She hesitated and then stood on the tips of her toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"And we'll work together more in the future too. I hope we can also learn more about each other off the battlefield too. I'd like to be actual friends as well".
She gave his hand and forearm a firm squeeze with both hands, before crossing over to the truck to board.

Before she could work out how to climb up, she squeaked in a decidedly unflattering (but remarkably cute) way as Athena picked her up and put her on the seat. She looked back to protest, and found the gorgeous giantess' face at the same height as her petite, suit-clad torso. Her heart leapt into her throat and made a bid for escape at the first part of Athena's words toward her, and she felt as though she was about to plunge into the darkest pit in the Earth - until she continued and the second part of her words sank in, after a moment. Then that heart-fluttering sensation was all for a different reason and she felt a slight dizziness.
Eloise wasn't nearly the well-spoken woman that Athena was, and her lips faltered and scrunched as she tried to find the right words, before just setting for placing her gloved hand on Athena's cheek with a resolved smile.
"When we get back, we'll definitely go out somewhere. It's a promise," she said with a voice that sounded a lot bolder than she felt. She shuffled over as she saw Skye come along, and Athena move to lift her in too, looking to Skye as the team leader took her seat, checking over her gear. She gave one of her characteristic small, shy-ish smiles as Skye addressed her and her skills. She gave a little laugh, the sound soft and somewhat musical.
"If you had told me that we would be going up into space to track down an evil clone of you when I arrive... well, I probably would have been even more eager to sign up, honestly", she said with a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. "But thank you for having faith in me. I will do everything in my power to make sure it's well placed. I am with you - all of you - in this to the end. You gave me a chance to be a real person again. I want to survive to get back and see what that's like. And if not, well... make sure that other people can have a world to do it in".



As the elevator clattered up the gantry alongside the Ariane rocket, gleaming white in the morning sun. It was magnificent, and Eloise couldn't quite comprehend the fact that yes, she was about to climb into it and blast off into space.
Even as she climbed into the crew module at the top of the rocket, her mind was whirling in a flurry of nonsensical thoughts as she strapped herself into the seat.
As Skye spoke, she couldn't contain it anymore and giggled, starting to sing somewhat off-key but recognisable as she did.
"And I think it's gonna be a long, long time
'Til touchdown brings me 'round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no, no, no
I'm a Rocket Man..."

---

Ebrima had just bent his knees to jump up into the truck when someone hoisted him up unexpectedly, coming face to face with… Fuck’s sake.

"Heard you talking shit about me." Athena glared into his eyes with a deadpan look, before a smile cracking, her visor and helmet opened still.

”Yes, because I transmitted it, that means your radio is working.” He stated flatly while being held like a wet cat, ”Good, you’ll need that up there.”

"Wouldn't be the first one either. But....if you want a job after this is all done, I know a Managing Director who might be hiring for miserable looking mercs chasing a paycheck. Or is that less your thing these days? I mean, I heard you were done with this...." Athena giggled.

"You playing fair, Valkyrie? I thought we said you'd stop talking bollocks?" Skye asked, as Athena shook her head.
"Hey, he star..." Athena started, as Skye looked at her, then at Ebrima.

”Very mature.” He got in edgewise before Skye spoke up, a snigger escaping the caged merc’s throat.

"I swear, the Service would just have me whoop out a can of kick ass on both of you, but I'm out of body and out of my fucking mind with this whole mess. Go fuck or fight it out already. But we have a version of me to wipe clean first before you do." Skye held her authoritive, sharp tone with more than a little tongue in cheek knowing she could pull that joke on them.

”Sorry boss, cannot comply.” Ebrima shook his head in response to the first option brought forward by Skye, ”I heard the big one’s spoken for.” He casually pointed to Eloise.
”Can’t fight either, you still haven’t paid me, I can’t afford her medical bill Blue Sword would send me.” He turned back to Athena and mimicked her tone and expression before turning serious again. ”I appreciate the offer. An instructor’s post doesn’t sound like a bad retirement, but you’ll need to talk to her about that.” He gestured to Skye. Well, he was saying that now, there was a non-zero chance he’d seriously be considering busting Avi out of prison after a month of working under Athena, but that was future Ebrima’s problem, present Ebrima kinda had his hands full ensuring there would be a future Ebrima in the first place.

Sat down, strapped in, and helmet on, he ran a pressure check on his suit and made sure the kukri sat secure, strapped to his forearm. Not an ideal place, but the only one he could fit it on the bulky suit. And that was about everything he could do.

@Rhona W
Purna embraced Eloise, smiling back, the Nepali cracking for once, knowing that for Eloise, she'd taken a lot to say that. And he too, had found that in her, usually preferring to work alone yet grateful for her backup.
"We do work well together, Eloise. You lived up to every tale I heard. And you saved my life, after all. I think I owe you more than friendship, Eloise." Purna nodded, holding her shoulders in his hands.

"I'm sure we will get the opportunity to know each other more. Raven doesn't miss. Now go finish the job, Archer." Purna smiled, a little bit of grit, knowing that in spite of Eloise's quiet, almost anti-social nature, behind those eyes was someone who just needed a little more of a pep talk. Someone more extraordinary than she probably realised, and even in himself, he'd done the thing he said he never would. Open up, let himself out a little more. There was more to life than taking lives, he realised. More than just immediate family as a distant thing. There was companionship, and that was something.

@Starlance

With it, the Nepali looked to Ebrima, knowing he should probably give a goodbye. In spite of everything, or rather, perhaps due to what they had already done, the smaller Nepali looking up to the taller Cameroonian.

"You are many things, Ebrima. You're too much of an asshole to die. That is why you will be back. Don't go losing the Kukri. Make sure you take her tongue off with it. Then maybe you will have earned it, no?" Purna casually dropped that line to the Cameroonian, cracking a rare teethy smile, chuckling, patting him on the shoulder, knowing that even if sometimes, they had a love-hate relationship, he had a respect for the Cameroonian.

"Good luck, Boaro. Go get them." Through everything that had gone down, and at the end of the world, he could see through those eyes that had long since decided.

That was before Purna hugged him, no doubt shattering any idea. Who the fuck was the Nepali to be kinder and where had they taken his original version? A joke that of late, felt in much poorer taste given Skye's situation. And with it, he was gone as soon as he'd arrived. Off to join the rest of the team in setting up kit, and preparing the team for launch.

---

Inside the truck, once getting moving, Skye was unsurprised to hear Ebrima clap back. Oh, at the end of the world, all things could happen...

Smirking, Skye looked across at Ebrima, hearing the tail end of her conversation with Athena, the Cameroonian making a head nod to Skye as Athena looked across, anticipating an answer.
"Eh, whatever job you can give him to keep him out of trouble, Athena. Perhaps you've earned retirement after this, given all of what went down, though....I doubt you'll chill out for long. But then again....well, who am I kidding. I think you're both as fucking mad as each other." Skye noted, looking at them both, chuckling.

"Maybe you would kill each other. But Ebrima was going to kill Purna a few weeks ago, and I saw him get hugged. So, hey. We're in a new world now." Skye added, getting Ebrima there, before moving onto Athena. If they weren't going to calm down normally, Skye knew she'd have the last say.

"Oh, and watching Athena flirt with my operative. Honestly. You take her on one operation, tell her the world's ending....and she goes all soft." Skye grinned knowing if she couldn't beat them, she could certainly join them. With the truck rumbling along, as she looked to Eloise, who was no doubt entertained by this. And Eloise likely turn a shade of beetroot red with Athena nearby, the blonde doing exactly that, and all of that was being discussed.

"Hey, Skye, that's between.....oh, fuck you." Athena turned red, and in that moment, Skye knew she'd won, looking to Ebrima, as if to say 'Happy Now?' in a sarcastic, tongue firmly in cheek, as she sighed, thinking about this journey, looking to her side, over to the smaller infiltrator.

"I think you might be fitting in, Eloise. Makes you plenty real. I suppose it's all pretty ridiculous, but, someone had to go and do it." Skye added, smiling back, looking at the truck came to a stop, and with that, the team were getting ready to get out. Athena casually lept down and started receiving Sam, Ebrima and Skye, before they made the short walk to the lift, and with it, to the top of the rocket.

---

@LadyAmber

Keller's voice came through the comms on the rocket was getting prepared, Sam's request getting a response from Mission Control.
"You are clear, Chaos. Permission is granted, sequence is commenced."

And with it, Skye looked across to Sam, giving a nod, a confirm in her ability, even if most of this was automated, she trusted Sam on this one to get them there, and hopefully, back home too. The lift pulled back, and the only thing keeping them pointed upwards at the moment still being the support strut.

The countdown began, as Skye could hear Eloise quietly, then gently louder singing to herself. And chuckled, a white grin forming as she couldn't believe any of it. She quietly mouthed the words, joining in, the team leader for half a second letting herself entertain the fantasy.

And suddenly, the countdown came into thirty seconds to launch.

Then twenty, then ten, then five.....

The launch pad itself felt tentative, as suddenly, an explosion of power, like being hurled by a giant took the rocket from slowly rising off the pad with the fuel line peeling away to faster, and faster, and faster, leaving behind everything. It was mind-melting, and over too quickly as the first stages dropped, any idea of being able to compare this to any other experience quickly faded for almost the entire team.

The rocket soon cleared the upper stratosphere, and with it, the constant acceleration and pull felt like it was contacting something else other than air. It felt like it was just an unstoppable push, as the outside of the ship went from a strange hazy blue, to an obsidian black.

"Okay, sequencing. And.....separation." Keller's voice stayed calm as everything shook, rattling audibly, from rifles to cockpit as the force of millions of horsepower sent them off-planet. The rocket's final stage released, and suddenly, the last bit of acceleration hit everyone, the final module accelerating, before the engine cut out, and the long road to orbit would continue with every micro-adjustment that came with it.

---

Part Eight: The Final Countdown

Soundtrack: M83 - Atlas Imperial



Unstrapping the harness on Keller's confirm of orbit achieved, Skye sorted herself first despite the bulky hands of her spacesuit, but eventually, got there and was able to peel away, no longer pressed into chair, but actually able to float. Skye watched as the SIG floated in front of her off her strap once released, grabbing it back into hand, feeling the cold supply of rebreathed oxygen steadily hold, as she grabbed a hold of her own seat, leaning in and unbuckling Eloise's harness, the nearest passenger to her.

Moving to the window after turning, finding the whole action strange that she could pirouette almost with zero consequence, adjusting her comms band to pick up the team locally on her HUD inside her visor.
"Valkyrie, Frigga, you two alive?"

"Holy shit! My eyeballs feel like they bounced off the back of my skull on launch, but yeah, sure, good! Woooo!" Athena excitedly called, watching through Skye's feed as she went to the window on the side of the pod, for a moment, silent.

There it was. Everything they were trying to save. All of it, the tiny, teeny insignificant island nothing against India and Africa below, and beyond that, further north, Europe. And Scotland, barely visible given as usual, it was covered in cloud.

Overview effect had a hell of an impact on people. How on earth Rose was comfortable ending all of this seeing it all, how insignificant, small, and tiny they were in the infinite darkness, Skye couldn't even tell. But seeing it now reinforced everything. All good, all bad, and everything between was there, and they had to do something to let it see another day, as it stood.

"Good to hear." Skye uttered almost without tone given what she was seeing and her mind elsewhere, even the team lead not as animated as before, taking this in. Despite everything, all the stakes, she couldn't help but look.

"Well, it's pretty awesome out there! Wow!" Athena's excitement bounded, ruining just about everyone's immersion, as her voice may as well have echoed, given she could only look at this through her HUD's interconnection to Skye now from her position in the cargo area the heavy now not quite as much, and in this environment, seemed without much training, to be able to thrive given she now didn't have to worry about weight.

She was in as much shock, her experience a bit different given the Warhawk's seals were doing what they had to, keeping her from dying in the cold vacuum of space. And though Frigga wouldn't see it, she gave her sister a smile, knowing that Freya must have been adoring all of this. She loved physics so much her sister, so much she talked about going to space someday, and now here they were, together at potentially the end of the world, doing it. Athena was many things, overexcited, overstimulated, perhaps hyperreal, but there was a certain warmth even in spite of all of it, that it just came from being larger than life. And in a strange way, she now was seeing something beyond even what she could, and simply grateful for everything it was.

Looking on, that view of earth put everything in perspective as Skye got a hold of herself, not replying to Athena, but instead, back to the matter at hand feeling the micro-movements of the module, Keller adjusting it both through the pre-programmed approach and through micro-movements given the adjusting position of the two objects in the sky full of stars.

"Keller, what's our ETA?" Skye asked, still staring at the view, genuinely awe-struck, the comms spluttering a little as the receiver unit adjusted.

"You are ten minutes, and closing. Chaos, standby, I need a few inputs from you to adjust trajectory and placement. Can you confirm?" Keller's voice was in a world of absolute crazy, a bit of calm.

Awaiting that affirm, Keller moved onto the next topic of converation, with Skye.

"Are you familiar with Ark Angel, Miss Ly.....Queen?"

"Enough to know it's about the size of the ISS, there's two ways in, and a ridiculously big set of solar panels anchored to it. There's pods across it for evac, if we can't make it back to the Arianne." Skye replied, moving off, checking on the team, who were unbuckling themselves, bit by bit, and no doubt seeing this for themselves for the first time.

"Affirmative, Queen, we're tracking Ark Angel now, feed it sent to you. We have activity, with a docked cargo unit suggesting signs of movement. Standby, we will be in position to open cargo doors." Keller replied, that fact a moot point, given the pressure was already going, and the suits felt like a bubble now, a silent, protective layer in which the Scot could hear her own breathing. She took a moment to address the team, knowing they no doubt were feeling this.

"Right. Everyone want to take a moment to get used to this? As per what I mentioned. Move slowly at first. Hold onto something. Nice gentle breathing." Looking to the team, their collective mum-of-the-group continuing.

"You've got a grapple on your left arm if you need to hook yourself to something, and an MMU pack, that will allow you to move forwards and back, up and down, right and left, with control by your left waist, should be on a tether to your arm. Once we're clambered out, test it and check you're happy with it while hanging onto the rail. We're fighting in many more dimensions now, so don't think about the rules like normal. But that does mean hostiles will come from any direction too." Skye added, keeping herself calm in comms, looking up, her face lit up by the internal lighting on the visor, the protective element not yet peeled down.

"Rose'll have some mercs with her, likely her inner circle, whatever loyalists she's chosen for this. They'll fight hard as hell and will do anything to stop us. But we'll do better. We've all got samples that will kill Sol Hestia dead if injected into the containment, so that's priority, we cannot let her send any of it down. And if you see Rose, shoot first, ask questions later. The bitch dies, no matter what happens." Skye exhaled, looking on at one last time to the group. "This ends here."

Moving to the back, Skye turned the door to enter the cargo hold, the module not pressurised at all which made it a bit easier, as Athena helped peel it open, and gave Skye a hand, before helping the others through, the old phases of the rocket all gone and been, now all that was left, was the teeny husk on the back of the passenger module, and behind that, the cargo compartment where a satellite may have been manually unwound. Zero gravity was truly weird, but in Skye fashion, she simply adapted where she could, not making any note of which way was now up, rather, what she could work towards, and tested out her MMU arrangement, the small micro-jets allowing her to propel herself up, and across the tight space with relative ease. She peeled down the visor, the almost golden-like reflection obscuring her face.

On finishing her test, the cargo doors opened, and the view went from a portal window, to standing on the edge of the greatest abyss, and in view, every single other human being that was alive right now, bar a few that they'd be tacking off the list. And the spindly space station, with all of its solar arrays, sitting in the distance now on their 2 o'clock, about on horizontal level. It couldn't have been more than half a kilometre, though any semblance of understanding distance went completely to shit with a view like that in the background. Sitting there, sprawled out, over the Horn of Africa.

"Right." Skye simply understated in classic British tone, taking the lead, peeling herself up, and casually floating along the rail, making room, feeling the module shift beneath her before coming to a resting stop, although in relative terms, that wasn't exactly noticeable beyond the slight drift that still continued.

"Okay, Queen, this is as close as we can safely put you for now. You are cleared to move. Good luck." Keller's voice actually seemed to creak, even the Dutch controller cracking at that last one. A feeling of hope, even in spite of everything, she'd done all she could to get them there. Now they had to deliver.

Mag peeled out of the velcro, Skye slid it into the MCX and with a satisfying clunk she could feel transmitted from the cold metal in her hands, the Scot readied up, casually floating off, engaging the MMU unit in her left hand, rifle pointed forward in right.

Into the darkness, she couldn't believe they were about to end this all. Everything up to now, led them to this point here. A fireteam in the literal dark of space, headed on a mission that felt impossible.
"Okay, Raven. On me then. Let's go sort this mess out, yeah?" Skye understated once more, checking her team were following, and knew whatever came next, this was going to end here.