Devors' bottle was dropped on Elise's request, but moreso because he didn't expect the sudden shouting and accidentally let go. It figures, then, that it would spill all over his plug suit and nearly get onto the controls. The girl was making a big deal of nothing, Devors could handle a bottle or five before it started getting in the way. At least, he thought he could.

"Right! Flank them from the left, then wait for them to converge at the center. No, wait, hang on a sec..."

While trying to deduce the complex riddle of what orders he'd actually been given, Devors started flying off to the side. He kept an eye on the cruxi that swarmed the middle and thought to maybe stay out of the heat for a little while, making sure he was out of range and keeping the emergency shield close by just in case.

---

Serah found the whole thing creepier than usual missions. The way they overwhelmed the Cruxi when they least expected it felt great, seeing the plasma blade slice clean through and all, but once they'd actually entered the Cruxi's tactical stronghold everything felt more pressured. An ominous feeling hung in whatever gas the Cruxi inhaled, if any. Maybe it just had to do with how different everything looked... At least Katya had given them the orders to really mess up some unmanned war machines, taking Serah's mind off of things for just long enough until they reached the laboratory.

"...Wait, what?"

Serah was stunned at Mai's sudden tonal shift again, wondering why she suddenly lapsed back into... whatever Seven was supposed to be. She kept an eye out on the area as Katya dished out orders again, surprised at the fact she wanted Serah and Mai to break through the lab. If they tried that, Jake's Drones would end up getting destroyed and they wouldn't get anywhere.

"Neo Angel, you wanted to go right? You should. I'll guard Caretaker and Weisritter. Atty's all about protecting others, anyway..."

With that spoken, Serah had AA-XOTRY retreat a bit further back into the hall, acting as a wall between her companions and whatever was going to show up from the other side. Just in case, she had one barrier wing take a break from guarding Atty and float in front of Weisritter's chest, so their core is a little more protected in case things went south.

"...everyone...chill out for a sec", Jake said in response to everything that was going between Katya, Serah and "Seven".

"First off, stay together. Serah. Don't get stuck there. Were going to have to leave the same way we came in. Mai. No going rambo...at least, not possibly yet. First off, I have to determine Elora's location and with that being said, yes ma'am Katya. On it."

Jake then called in the three recon drones near his position that he had already deployed when they had gotten in here. Seeing the three corridors, he then sent one recon drone into each one as Katya requested.

"Katya. I'm sending them down the corridors. One in each of the three. Let's see what lies ahead...and hope and pray Elora's somewhere where we CAN get to in a framework", Jake said.

"...understood. Will remain in Neo Angel Ma'am. Assuming defensive position. Apologies for near insuborination", Seven said to Katya.

"...and cadet Serah...apologies as well. Awaiting sit-rep from Jake first before proceeding...and...thank you...", Seven then said to Serah.

It was rather odd for "Seven" to even say things like "thank you" but considering the trust issues she had during this war, even more so with certain members of high command and other cadets with either see her as "reckless", "monster" or even a "threat", having someone trust her judgment calls was rare outside of her old division.

In the Helldiver division, such a small comment would be considered a "distraction"...

But like it or not, this was NOT squad Helldivers.

This was squad Sigma.

@redbaron1234@Jasonhero@Mr Rage@Dragoknighte@Apollosarcher

The X-7 Frame unleashed a barrage of Hellstorm missiles, with only a single target in mind; the mysterious Cruxi unit capable of undoing Squad Sigma's efforts. The short range of the missiles proved to be their downfall, however, as most veered off course, with only a few hitting the unit. However, the partially powered shot that then passed found it's mark, and though it did not pass through the unit as expected, the Moonbreaker's slug lodged itself into the torso of the unit and knocked the unit back into the force field that protected the main entrance. The Cruxi exploded in a blue light upon impact, scattering it's stubby appendages in a small radius.
As a result of the unit's destruction, the CWM's it brought back also broke down, and returned to their scrapped states.

Black Star performed a daring move, and with a boosted dash charged right into the right side of the Cruxi forces. Then, in a maneuver only possible due to Zim's mastery over his Framewerk, and his control over the mech's momentum, unleashed the Wave Surger at the other mysterious Cruxi unit. The beam sliced the unit, cutting several of the enemy's stubby limbs and chopping it in half, destroying it; The broken units it revived were subsequently destroyed. Zim then attempted to both sweep the beam as well as spin around and move backwards, but such a difficult move resulted in only one CWM being hit by the beam and destroyed.

Krista and Ariin continued on their shared quest to unload a bombardment of heavy weapons fire on the massive crystal. Krista's shot was once again intercepted by an orbiting sphere, and the two realized that it was the destruction of the mini-mists that caused the crystal to fire. It once again unleashed a concentrated blast of unimaginable energy levels, and Legion could not hold any more; it now began to visibly melt and turn thinner. It was all but guaranteed it would break from the next shot. The two received minimal damage from the seeping aftereffects of the beam; enough to cause the paint in their hulls to evaporate, turning them gray in a couple of spots, with Paladin suffering less due to expecting the counter-attack. However, Paladin's Pompey shots succeeded in wearing down the incredibly hard opponent, and cracks began forming in a circle from the spots that Pompey hit.

Yeager dashed into a defending position, ready to intercept the coming CWM forces and buy time for Sigma to take out another shot; it was a difficult one, but knowing only she could do it, she pulled the trigger, and sent another long-range combatant to drift into space as pieces as another testament to her aiming skills. "Right side cleared of snipers. Making a tactical retreat." With the Cruxi forces soon in firing range, she knew she had get behind the heavy units of their squad, and try to get to the left side.

While Ranius moved left in preparation for a flanking maneuver, Elise was having the time of her life. "Yeahh, eat plasma, you bastards!" Elise screamed, and rapidly punched before her with Prometheus, sending energy projectiles and pummeling a far squad of CWMs on the left side to oblivion. "We got rid of those cheating jerks! Good job squad! Now brace for impact, cause they're gonna come in hard!" The Cruxi CWMs were now close to being in range. They unleashed a hail of plasma cannon fire upon the heavy front row; most shots missed due to being too far, but a few did hit Legion, causing it to crumble a bit, it's heat resistance failing due to the Crystal's relentless assault. Even the sniper units also started to move; they took off from the base, using the CWMs as cover and preparing to take their shots.

---

@DarkRecon@Evil Snowman@Ammokkx

As per Katya's orders, the infiltration squad used their precious time to destroy the Cruxi mechs in the hangar, leaving them unusable by any pursuers. "This is Base, hearing you loud and clear," Ritsu's voice could be heard coming in the infiltration squad's communications systems after Mai's report. "Understood, proceed with caution." Then another voice could be heard: "This is Prometheus, got the stubby units down!" Elise responded. "And we even damaged the crystal! This is way easier than I thought! We'll soon join up with you guys, so hang in there!"

The infiltration squad decided to take up defensive positions while Jake sent Weissritter's recon drones, having the three drones each go down a separate corridor, maximizing their scouting potential. The drone in the left corridor didn't travel long before it was destroyed by a squad of Cruxi, who a moment after turned a corner and attacked. However, both Neo Angel and Weissritter were at the frontline, and protected by one of Atty's barriers the two Framewerk pilots shot down the three CWM's. The barrier was destroyed in the encounter, but the two were left unscathed. Another squad also emerged, this time from behind, but Caretaker and Atty were also ready; the attack drones quickly shot down the first Cruxi wielding a set of claws, the second was cut down by Atty's energy blade and the third marked by Caretaker and also eliminated by the drones; only one drone was lost in the firefight, their teamwork carrying them through a tight situation.

The middle drone travelled a long distance, and was also destroyed by a squad of Cruxi. However, the infiltration squad had time before they would arrive. The third recon drone that travelled to the right reached a large chamber, seemingly in the middle of the lower section of the space station, and at the center of it stood a strange machine; it resembled Elora's Logic Gate, but it's body was modified with Cruxi technology, with organic metal coating and blinking lights, spikes on its shoulders and longer arms. To Jake's even bigger surprise, the mech suddenly moved; with a single sway of its arm the recon drone was thrown against a wall and destroyed.

...R...u...n...

The infiltration team heard a faint voice; it didn't come from any direction, and was barely audible, easily mistaken for another voice.

...R...un...D...on't...

However, most of the squad had no doubts who it belonged to, and where it came from; it was Elora projecting her voice.

Zim's body pushed against the restraints as even in a complete lack of Gravity the maneuver he just pulled off put all kinds of different forces against him. The result was as much as he could have hoped for, the primary target was the destroyed, and a secondary target too. Now, it was time to let the wave surger cool off and make use of some of his other weapons. The last maneuver was risky, this next one was probably just stupid, but it was also an experiment. "Yaeger," Zim said over coms, his voice calm despite the effort it took to speak, "If I'm right, you don't want to move any further forward."

Maybe the extra weapons had gotten Zim pumped up, maybe it was confidence in his abilities, or maybe it was because of what he could hopefully look forward to after combat, but Zim moved like a man controlled by the devil. Zim pulled up the Assault Pack Rifle at took careful aim at the cracks forming on the crystal. They knew that MISTs were reactional and did not care about friendly units, Zim hoped the same would apply to the Crystal. Using the added maneuverability of the booster pack Zim set an S-curved path that would bring him below and then back up through the middle of the pack of CWM, relying on evasive maneuvers and speed to keep him from harm. As Zim passed through the two groups of CWM between H5 and H6 he would fire the rifle at the crystal's cracks. He would continue along the S-curve going above the group and ending in H4. The hope was that the crystal would fire on the location of the attack and send one of its intense attacks tearing through the various groups of CWM in the vicinity.

It was a stupid move though, getting so close to the turrets and flying so close to the CWM, and attacking the Crystal without a defense other than evasion. Zim could only hope it was enough though because if it worked, it would be well worth the reward.

TL:DR - Zim does a near suicide run to H4 using an ATS Dash, firing on the Crystal with the rifle, kinetic rounds, 29 shots remaining.

...R...u...n...

Jake just heard that pop into his head when he watched his Recon drones get taken out. But after what he saw at the end of the right corridor.

...R...un...D...on't...

Jake then heard that but based on the reports he had read, knew what was possibly happening. Opening the comm line on ALL channels, Jake spoke.

"Base. Katya. Everyone. This is Jake. My three recon drones are down. More enemy units proceeding from the middle corridor but...I know this may sound bonkers but...I think Elora just told us to run through...some telepathy...but it gets worse, I found what I assumed is a Cruxi modded Logic Gate...and your NOT going to like the last image I picked up."

Back at the base where Ritsu and Lorenzo were and in Katya's framework, Jake sent the last video image of the recon drone sent to the right before the modded Logic Gate took it out.

"...this job just got ALOT more complicat-", Jake began but was cut off.

"Everyone. This is Seven. Cadet Elora has been compromised. I repeat, Elora and Logic Gate have been compromised. Switching objective priorities...", Seven droned.

"...Seven...don't you dare...Mai...we need to recuse the other P.O.W's at the very least then pull back."

"Logic Gate assuming combat mode...commencing termination of target."

"MAI!", Jake roared before Neo Angel proceeded towards the right corridor.

Meanwhile, Seven was quickly moving her hands across her framework console. She knew what was happening. Even Mai knew what was happning. She also knew that it was more than just physical warefare.

NOW it was mental. But her sync system wasn't exactly your average sync system. It was called Telekenetic for a reason.

What Seven was doing is redirecting the "energy" that was being used as her barrier based on her sync rate and redirecting it towards...herself in a way. It was dangerous to even modifty a sync system on the fly but the Telekenetic can do multiple roles if given time and preparation.

Like with the Setsuka, it could use that energy to create weapons of pure energy and fire energy blasts. In this case with the Neo Angel, that energy was used as a barrier that coated the Neo Angel as a defensive measure also based on her sync rate. But that barrier was going to do squat against a mental attack.

So taking perhaps the biggest risk of her life, she was dropping the barrier on her mech and using that energy on herself if a way that it was putting a barrier on her mind. But if Elora was turly as strong as she was suspecting...all she could do was buy time.

Seven felt Mai's distress deep down but she also knew this had to be done. If Logic Gate joined the battle, they'd probably suffer heavy casualties. As far as both of them knew, no one on her squad was prepared for any mental-based attacks.

Which mean't...it may all come down to this...

"Thanks, Sig." Roger called over the comms. With that sniper gone, the only thing left that presented a clear barrier to being able to assume flanking positions were the soldiers fast approaching. So much for trying to weave in and out of firing range. Well if that was the case, he'd just have to work around it. He turned Yeager towards the closest squad of soliders and opened fire with his machinegun. Best case scenario: they would all be taken out, worst case: every other soldier squad in range would focus on him.

Although it was nice not having to deal with mini-Mists and their buddy, the weird-ass laser vomiting crystals of Cruxi Bullshit, Roger recognized there was more than a small amount of risk in his position as well. He had less back-up available than those center stage, and would to be more easily overwhelmed and outnumbered if he didn't stay on guard.

On top of that, he wasn't sure how much longer things would go as well as they had been so far. On the surface level, things were going just fine with no casualties on their side, but Legion seemed like it was ready to burst any second now, and Roger couldn't help but shake the feeling that the Cruxi had something up their sleeve.

For the time being, Roger would pull Yeager back and into position to charge directly behind enemy lines once the current obstacles were gone. Once the chance presented itself, he'd have to act quickly or it'd completely vanish.

---

Attack J7->Move to J9

---

Having the squad take up defensive positions pleased Katya. Hoping that Cruxi moving to intercept them would fall quickly. Hoping the Cruxi who Katya was still assuming they were distracted by the frontal assault had not organised a large force to deal with the infiltration team. However, it was something Katya refused to think about. Having enough on her mind, more so deal with whatever Cruxi coming to take them out.

As the Cruxi reached Caretaker and Atty, Katya was glad to see her drones react quickly. Glancing at drones status display seeing as it updated to show the drone had detected and was engaging a hostile target. Katya having not worked with attack drones before was feeling eager to test them so switched Caretakers rifle to Marker Mode, and the moment the drones had taken out the claw-wielding claws she marked the third, setting the drones to attack marked targets. Leaving the second to Atty. Trusting Serah was able to handle one Cruxi while the drone relentlessly attack the third. Taking it out quickly however not before the third Cruxi was able to take out a drone. Katya watching as the most forward drone was the focus of the Cruxi fire it going limp as the Cruxi weapons punched though the drones armour and internal systems were destroyed.

Once the attack was over Katya recalled the drones the three survivors quickly climbing up Caretakers legs as Katya moved the werk to recover the husk of the destroyed drone. Not wanting to leave it behind. Even if it was now just husk, she still felt some sort of attachment to it.

But before Katya could do pick up the wreckage she heard a voice that was hard to make out. The moment it repeated itself Katya had no doubt it was Elora projecting her voice somehow. It made Katya frown, it seemed for whatever reason Elora didn’t want to be recused. Well, that was too bad. Katya wasn’t about to leave this base without herShe’d had already failed Elora once she was not about to do it again.

Katya was about to ask Jake for a status report. When he contacted her. Providing the very report, she was about to ask for. Along with an image that the moment Katya saw it. It made her stomach turn.
“By my ancestors … what have they done to her?” She muttered a mix of shock, horror and anger. How dare the Cruxi defile Elora and Logic Gate. It was something Katya would not forgive and so help her she would make the Cruxi pay. But first Katya knew she had to at least make an attempt to rescue Elora, and if she would come or attack them, then there would be no choice. The Cruxi could not be allowed to deploy Logic gate and its pilot.

It was then Jack got Katya of by Seven who declared was switched objective priorities. Folded by Jack trying to stop Seven taking off down the corridor with no luck. A scowling forming on Katya's face she didn’t have to to be dealing with Seven. If they survived, Seven/Mai were so going on report for insubordination or something. This running off and doing her thing was not acceptable. Given even if it was unlikely that Elora could be rescued they still needed to try.
“Squad we double time it to Elora’s location. Seven must not be allowed to engage Elora until we’ve attempted rescue. If Elora does not cooperate or attacks us, only then she will be considered an enemy combatant and eliminated. Understood?” Katya spoke turning Caretaker around and taking off in Logic Gate direction pushing the work to move as quickly as it servos would allow.
“SEVEN! If you engage Logic Gate without my permission. You will be in violation of my orders and punished accordingly. Do not engage Logic Gate! Without my permission or without backup.” Katya spoke into the comms hoping Seven would listen. She didn’t want to have to punish Seven for being disobedient. But her behaviour was putting herself and the rest and in turn the rest of the squad at risk.

Chasing after Seven to Logic Gate, Katya hope Seven would listen and the Elora would listen to her. The idea of having to take Elora out. Made Katya her heart ache, she didn’t want to kill someone she saw a little sister, part of her question if she could even do it. As she Katya headed toward Logic Gate Katya readied her combat drones for redeployment. Katya knowing if Elora had sided with Cruxi they needed to be ready to bring as much firepower to bear on her as soon as possible. That if Katya could not bring herself to attack Elora her drones would do so without question.

Ranius was circling around in the air, it's pilot whistling away in the cocpit. He'd temporarily left control of only a single hand as he rummaged around the cockpit for his lost alcohol, finding it after a bit of fiddling. Outsiders were treated to the strange sight of a metallic bird unsteadily rocking left to right as Devors was paying 0 attention to his steering, at least not until he'd taken a heavy swig of his bottle. He checked his monitors, taking note of everywhere the enemy was located. Maybe it was the alcohol, but Devors wasn't phased in the slightest when he saw the entire front side had been blocked off by Cruxi.

"Eyy, Elise, compadre, buddy... I know you want me to flank and all, but I'm gunna fly 'round the outside a bit more. That sniper's gon' fry me if I rush in now."

And so Devors did, drinking more alcohol as Ranius did a little loop. He kept his one eye on the screen, looking to see if any Cruxi might be trying to take a shot. In a move that's as mad as it is brilliant, he was keeping the bottle aimed just above the button for his shields so he could drop the thing at a moment's notice to guard from an incoming shot. It's also mad, because the liquid would probably mess up his controls if he misaimed it even slightly.

---

Serah was upset at the loss of her barrier wing, but is glad to see it having been put to good use. They couldn't take very much punishment, but their utility has proven key to survival. She watched the Cruxi she'd cut in half fall down and die, completely apathetic to the sight. It was almost scary how little she felt killing these guys- but they had it coming anyway. Even remembering now all that they did to her, her friends and her family... it angered Serah. Still, she couldn't let her anger cloud her judgement- something she's grimly reminded of once a certain voice danced around in her head.

"Elora? Elora!"

As if on instinct, Serah frantically shouted out her friend's name before realizing she wasn't anywhere near here. Taking a breath to calm herself, Serah listened to Jake, Mai and Katya. The bickering among the squad wasn't going to amount to much good, and as much as Serah wanted to interject, she kept herself calm. Fighting now wasn't going to lead to anything... Katya had the command here. She'd bring this mission to a good end, hopefully. She had to... Serah has to survive. No matter what. She has someone waiting for her, fighting outside...

Serah slapped herself out of her daydreaming and focused again, taking note of the current situation. Katya was dishing out orders, to which Serah didn't find many problems with... well, except for one little bit.

"Um, commander... requesting permission to use extraction spheres on Logic Gate when presented the opportunity. I... don't think Elora would want to lose her friend, even in that state."

Serah's compassion to the framewerks was creeping up again, and possibly getting in the way. She couldn't help it, though. Atty was the only friend she had for a long while, ever since she was forced from the orphanage... forced to say goodbye to her best friend at the time. Atty was what kept her going in dark times, and is part of why she's still going now. It must be the same for Elora... right?

Serah chased after the rest of her squad, but kept at the back of the party. In case there were units still coming in from behind them, Atty and it's remaining wing could cover their backs.

As the team proceeded down the right corridor, pursuing the Neo Angel towards Logic Gate, Jake then spoke up.

"Ma'am. Jake here. We still have a problem. More Cruxi's were coming down that middle corridor from before. This is just a recommendation but I'm planning to go prone when we get slightly more than halfway down this corridor and assume a sniping position. If were forced to fight Logic Gate, my low sync rate and sniping won't be of much help in that chamber area. At the very least, I'll hold that group off if they try running down this way. After all, there isn't alot of cover in this corridor and I'm banking on the long distace being too hard for them to hit me. Best case, they don't try coming down this way."

He then said this.

"...Katya...Serah...I know it's rough but if it comes down to it...let Mai slash Seven do her job...I only heard rumors but the Helldivers were a group that did the..."dirty" work that normal pilots couldn't mentally handle...I can only imagine what Mai's going through right now..."

Elise grinned at how the fight was going, her cautiousness fading away as the battle was going in their favor. With a respectful tone, she responded: "Acknowledged, Ranius. Eiswolf, take out the snipers ASAP."
"Understood," Sigma answered, and from her position shot the rightmost sniper before she retreated behind the artillery row. "Three down, one left."
Yeager went on the offensive, and with focused fire destroyed a single CWM swiftly with a hail of bullets that flew through the void with no friction to stop them, leaving the other two unscathed. In response, the other two units opened fire with their plasma cannons, but the speedy Framewerk was already gone by the time the green fire reached his position.

Zim once again put his maneuvering skills to their limits, his knuckles straining as they kept on to the controls and steering Black Star like a snake, bobbing down and up with intense speed. At the same time, he made a move worthy of a veteran pilot, and shot at the crystal as he passed through. While the Monirifle was not as strong as a kinetic weapon as the Pompey or the Moonbreaker, it was enough to cause the mini-Mist orbiting the structure to intercept the shot. As it was kinetic, it passed through without destroying it, but the round was dampened into a vastly weaker shot, barely leaving a dent on the crystal's surface.

As the mini-Mist was distracted, the artillery row took the chance, and launched a massive assault. Hou-Yi fired the Splash Cannon, destroying the CWM squad at H6 in a blast of plasma, making them taste their own medicine. Pompey's shots pierced through the cracks that were already formed, and the explosive shell shot penetrated the core of the crystal. As if in an artistic silent movie, the crystal shattered into countless pieces in a massive explosion, with no sound or tremors at all. It was all over for the Cruxi side.

Or, that was what squad Sigma wanted to believe. The mini-Mist that was left suddenly began emitting visible waves of some kind of purple energy in a spherical radius around itself. As the wave expanded and touched the crystal shards, they began to vibrate and glow. Then, it began; four of the largest shards that were left surrounded the mini-Mist, orbiting it like a protective shield. At the same time, other crystal shards that were floating in space were suddenly launched at vast velocity at the artillery squad. Legion managed to block the first wave of the shards before it was shredded by the hail of armor-piercing spikes, breaking into pieces. Paladin, Ribasu, and Hou-Yi were then impaled with shards that passed through the broken shield.
Out of the three, Paladin incurred the most damage; due to its large size, he was hit with the most shards, and even if the heavy armor managed to prevent the shards from penetrating too deep into the Framewerk and damage its systems, the embedded crystals weighed down the machine and blocked motor controls, making it harder to maneuver around. Ribasu and Hou-Yi suffered less, but they also had shards embedded into their machines, also slowing them down.

Black Star was also shot at with a blast of deadly crystals, but as he planned, they instead hit the CWM units; the squad at H5 was completely obliterated, ripped apart by the supremely sharp ore. But, Zim's luck ran out; he now stared down two turrets that were now in firing range of the Framewerk; their gatling plasma cannons began rotating, and before Zim could say a word he was blasted with an intense barrage of green fire. In response, he activated the Shield Barrier, but it only held for a precious moment before it was exhausted and Black Star incurred damage to the Assault Pack, causing the ATS to malfunction and his armor to be scorched black.

"The miniature Mist is top priority; take it down!" Elise commanded with absolute authority as Prometheus moved forward. "I'll keep the left flank occupied. Fire at will!" The fiery Framewerk once again charged energy in its palms, and shot another blast, destroying the CWM squad at B6. The Cruxi sniper at the left side took aim, and shot at Ranius. He responded by making a spinning dodge move and activating his electric force-field generator, and the sniper only managed a glancing hit; however, the force-field generator took serious damage, and would not be able to protect against another attack of similar power.

The scraps of destroyed CWM units were only scattered by new ones as they dashed to the frontlines. Elise took some damage from a squad of Cruxi that reached her; her shoulders and legs were charred by the fire. "Left flank not holding for long!" she responded with the kind of calmness only years of experience in warfare could teach. with the situation turned worse, squad Sigma had to pull all stops to get through the adversity.

---

The infiltration squad wasted no time as they rapidly headed to the right at the intersection, leaving Weisritter behind as he took a defensive position, ready to engage the CWM squad that soon turned the corner; they did not even realize that one of them was shot by the Neo Rifle before the mech fell down. As a result, the two remaining units also took cover, and started firing inaccurately at Weisritter, keeping him pinned down by the plasma fire, but preventing the enemy from following after the rest of them.

Mai was the first to arrive at the chamber where Elora was, followed by Katya and then Serah. They now realized how large the circular chamber was, making it impractical for anything but for Framewerk testing. They saw that there were machines resembling loudspeakers installed on the walls.
The squad had their weapons aimed at modified Cruxified Logic Gate, ready for any attacks it might make. With the exception of Mai, the group heard Elora's voice again in their minds;

"...No...Don't..."

The voice could now be heard better, and it sounded desperate.

"...Run...It's...A...Tra-"

But before Elora could finish speaking, the loudspeakers activated with a hum, and the voice that the squad heard from them would haunt their nightmares for the rest of their lives; it was a horrifying mix of two different sounds; one voice was a chitinous, insect-like clacking of mandibles and buzzing of wings, while the other was an electronic, distorted voice that was almost indiscernible. But, they realized that the electronic voice, as hard as it was to understand, spoke in their very own language.

"We-We-WelKh-Ome...chOshen onEs...unhL-easH yoUr...ghI-ft...aNd sUbhM-it."

A flash of light then appeared from behind the squad. Floating a few meters above the floor with no visible propulsion, with its arms folded across it's front, was a Cruxi Elite. Katya then noticed the scratch marks on it, and realized it was the very same Cruxi mech that Elora grappled with before the two disappeared. The Cruxi Elite lifted an arm, and opened it's palm in Logic Gate's direction. Then, Logic Gate began shaking intensely, its mismatched arms flailing.

"NO! NO, NO-AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Serah and Katya were assaulted with Elora's screaming from within their own minds, and even if they tried to cover their ears it wouldn't stop. The sensory overload was enough to cause both of their Synchronization rates to plummet down into 1-2 percent rates, their noses leaking blood from the stress the attack put on their brains.
The Cruxi Elite's voice could be heard making a laughter-like sound, seemingly pleased with the results. However, while the other two had to contend with the full brunt of the attack and were mostly paralyzed, Mai was spared from the most of it; her Synchronization only dropped by 30 percent, and while her nose also leaked blood, she was not as stunned as the other two. They only had little time before they were overwhelmed by the psionic power.

Ranius rocked a bit as a shot barely hit it, but hot damn that was some shot! In one blow, the EM field shut down and completely fried one of Devors' systems, the thing going up in smoke.

"Hot damn! We should get one of those bad boys, I almost can't see my hand in front of my eyes with all this smoke!"

Of course that was a blatant lie, as the Framewerk efficiently cycled it out of his cockpit. Still, the man was more impressed than scared. He could learn a thing or two from these alien dudebros. Speaking of alien dudebros, some of them got closer. This was gonna get good. He quickly activated the boosters on his framewerk, thinking about where to launch the damn thing only after he started to fly.

"Lessee, space would make it so my bombs go way off course right? If this works, chalk me up a genius!"

While Devors had full confidence in his ability, his logic was baffling. He sped ahead to a squad of three lining up to take out some of his newfound squadmates, and while he didn't really care for them, he still wanted to see the fireworks. Since he didn't want to drop the bottle, he rose up his feet to press his button of choice: Good 'ol napalm! It wouldn't create a satisfying red mess, but the pure force generated from an explosive that size would be sure to cause some caranage. Ranius' belly opened up and had a makeshift gust of wind, or in this case the smoking remains of the poor EM field, launch it straight ahead. Then, in order to not get his own face melted, Devors yanked his controls, and by extension booze, to the side to fly straight to Elise's position.

"Wait, damnit! Now I don't have front row tickets anymore! D'oh!"

---

Worry crept over Serah for both Weisritter and Elora as the pilots moved through the Cruxi halls. Everything in here down to the tiniest detail was unlike anything she'd seen before. The Cruxi were just downright weird and, as they are, alien. Still, it was best to push on now- Every second wasted here was a second that Elora could be in further danger. There was only a single thought in her mind now.

"Don't worry... we'll save you!"

Though, fate was not kind to the pilots. The room they entered was suspiciously spacious. Serah took in the scene around her and braced herself, but she was the last to arrive. Neo Angel and Caretaker were already looking up to something near the roof, prompting AA-XOTRY to perform the same action. While the sight she saw was kind of freaky, Serah hadn't encountered this kind of Cruxi machine before. She rose up Atty's sword, bracing herself when a voice resounded in her head.

"...No...Don't......Run...It's...A...Tra-"

"Like hell!" is what Serah wanted to shout in a knee-jerk reaction, but she didn't get the chance. Audio amplifiers in the room suddenly flickered on as another, freaky voice spoke. The fact it was in their language, though botched, sent a chill down Serah's spine and an ominous feeling overtook her. Chosen ones? Submit? She didn't get a word of what they were saying, but it took her off-guard for long enough. Nothing could prepare her for what she heard in the next instant.

The screams.

Elora's screams.

Serah grasped her head almost automatically upon the first shriek, burying her nails into it. This situation was awful. The screaming itself would've been bad enough to feel like nails on a chalkboard that wouldn't stop, but they had more sinister effects on the poor girl. Her nose bled, but that didn't even register in her mind. She's heard screams before, screams like these. Screams of people long dead. Screams of the times she first made contact with the Cruxi. Her mind went back to that day and her body started to shiver, the screams only becoming a dull background noise to the grizzly scene.

...



"S-Sayer! No, Sayer! D-Don't go! Mom! DAD!"

The screaming continued, and the girl furiously shook her body side to side. Tears flowed from her eyes like a raging waterfall. She reached out her hand to a nonexistent door in front of her, trying to pry it open. She was still stuck in her memory, desperately wanting her family to come with her. But she was too late. She abandoned them all in that cruiser, which was nothing but a red-and-orange cloud in front of her eyes. If she wasn't sitting, she'd have dropped to her knees. It happened all over again. The screams of her beloved family were echoing in her head. Elora was like family to her- no, the entire squad was. And then something else flashed in front of her eyes.

This was wrong. It happened all over again.

All over. Allover. allover. alloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloveralloverallover...

All. over. Again.

"IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Her own screams were now mixed in with Elora's, doubling down on the noise her squad was able to hear. Her Synchro didn't just drop to 1%, it went further beyond. 0%. -5%. -40%. -100%.

Atty suddenly jerked into action, the barrier wing floating to its side and attaching itself to its arm. It's blade was raised into a defensive stance. To everyone else, it could look knightly. Everywhere on Serah's displays a single word appeared, flashing bright red: CULLING. She didn't register it, but the machine sure did. The blade in it's hand flashed up with plasma power, slashing at both Caretaker and the elite cruxi in the air to send a wave flying at both. It rushed to the side of the room, taking a defensive position. Everything was a target, but the most important target was on the other end of the room. Elora. That girl caused distress for Serah. That girl caused her mental state to spiral down.

TARGET: CONFIRMED.

With his luck running out, there was only one thing left to do from this position; GTFO! Zim turned Blackstar around and found his next target in route away from the turrets. They would need longer range to deal with the turrets, with a range of at least four spaces, it greatly limited his options. They would deal with those turrets later... For now, Zim moved to intercept the cruxi pod in I8. His thrusters still worked, thankfully and he was able to make the move without a sprint burst.

While in transit Zim gave out a status report, "Took some light damage, but still functional. My shield took the brunt of the attack and is burned up for the moment, it'll recharge in a bit. My ATS system on the assault pack took some damage and is malfunctioning. I am disabling it to prevent it from interrupting normal targeting systems. Looks like the turrets have a medium-long range and a rapid fire rate, be advised while approaching. Right front is holding, will move to assist soon. Any information on what is going inside?"

Zim was calm and focused. He had just pulled off the two hardest maneuvers he had ever attempted in live combat. "Come on, partner, we are doing great. Keep it up and we can clean up this side of combat and move to assist the others." He was confident. Tucking the rifle away and drawing the scythe Zim would attempt to deal with all three in a spinning whirling dervish of an attack. Horizontal through the first cruxi, jump to the farthest of the three away, a vertical strike from bottom to top, and while the scythe is raised Zim would swing wide and down at a diagonal, cutting shoulder to hip through the last CWM. Perhaps he was too confident...

TLDR; Move: H4 > I8. Attack: Spinning fury attack all three CWM.

Standing in front of the door to her assigned quarters, Alyssa sighed. Her blonde hair wavered gently as she dropped her head and stepped back out into the hall, idly strolling off to who knows where. She certainly didn't care where her feet took her, as she absorbed herself deep in thought. It hadn't been very long since she had arrived here, and the anxiety of that experience was still coursing through her even now, a good hour or so later. She needed something to do, something to occupy her mind. For now, that something was pacing the halls of Solaire and trying to drive out the fear that was creeping its way into her mind.

Images of the explosion that erupted in her home city flashed through her mind, and were quickly expunged. Alyssa's brow furrowed, and she slowed to a halt in the hall before sighing again. She'd not let that memory overtake her again, not like it did on the shuttle over here. She couldn't allow herself to continue being ruled by fear, as that would only pose a greater threat to herself and the comrades she would no doubt have to fight alongside. Speaking of which... she'd have to get to know these comrades... where might they be? Was she told this? Perhaps she vaguely remembered being told, but the memory of her arrival was little more than a blur. It all seemed to be happening so fast...

Alyssa had already started walking again, her eyes blank as if entranced, yet somehow aware of where she was and when she needed to turn to avoid colliding with a wall. It seemed she was moving almost entirely on autopilot as she proceeded to get lost further and further in her thoughts.

In collaboration with @ArkmageddonCat

---

The landscape was that of a harsh desert, of bare rock and seas of sand. An eternal gale blew over it, casting a perpetual sandstorm whose high-speed particles could strip bones of muscle and skin. It was dark, ever so dark, as even the alien sun's piercing rays could just barely penetrate the shroud of this deadly storm. Nothing grew upon the world and nothing meaningful ever would - but amidst the roil there were silhouettes, indomitable windbreaks to even the razor-sand of the hellish planet.

They were ten times the height of a man, bipedal but thoroughly warped. They stood on hind, animalistic legs and had weapons for arms, percieving the alien world with multitude clusters of glowing, alien eyes. Their gaits were hunched and awkward, as if walking on a level surface was unnatural to them. Sand deformed and gave way by the tons under their considerable weight as clawed feet gave them sure purchase. Barbaric as they were, they had weapons for arms, and the armored hulks of their torsos swept left and right, as if looking for something.

Whatever the characteristics of their construction, their tactic was something very familiar to Harold. There were three of them, spread out. Leader at the very front, wingman far to his side, and a third in the other direction and further back. They were in a typical scouting pattern, looking for the enemy - looking for him - but they would not find him. They were blind in the storm.

But Harold - Harold could see them. Not very clearly, but well enough. Elbrus was built to fight at range and the engineers spared no expense to equip it with one of the best Framewerk fire control systems developed so far. Acquisition, tracking, stabilization - no matter how much or how violently Elbrus moved, the crosshair stayed in the same place. Even if that place was an uncertain point almost thirty kilometers away and steadily approaching.

The engineers had provided him with a checklist, which he kept to his side as a holographic slate. He was putting Elbrus to the test as far as tests in virtual reality could go. Every single part of its extremely complex engineering ran perfectly within the simulation - perhaps even better than they actually were - but out in the field, things could be entirely different. So the checklist was more of a preliminary user experience survey than anything too technical. Harold was happy with its on-paper mobility and firepower, so those were green. Armor was a downgrade to Rostosov, so he punched in a yellow, which was still better than a red.

Rostosov. He still hadn't been briefed on what exactly had happened. But he did know that the Frame was destroyed. That they would issue him with a new one proved it so.

"Tsk," his thin lips curled into a snarl. How could he have failed to the point where he could not even remember?

"Whatever," he said, gesturing dismissively within the blue glow of his cockpit. He'd been sitting there for ten minutes, letting Elbrus' computer give him an automated firing solution. Detection was intermittent but a smart prediction algorithm provided a good enough opportunity for firing while blind. Harold sat there for five more minutes and noticed that the algorithm had learned the enemy's movements such that he could probably get the first few shots in even if he turned off RADAR so long as he didn't linger overmuch.

"That's actually impressive." He turned to the checklist and gave 'Fire Control - Tracking' a green mark.

He gave the three virtual Cruxi mechs another twenty minutes. In that time, they barely crossed five kilometers of dunes and eroded rock, so careful were they in their search. Meanwhile, Harold already knew all that he needed to know about them. Weapons, armor and, perhaps less reliably, weak points.

But a sudden change in their movement alerted him. He withdrew himself from the comfort of the cushioned backrest and unfolded his arms. They disbanded their scouting formation and huddled closer, easing into a staggered column as if in march. Harold grinned. Their mission orders upon initialization was to search for Elbrus and destroy it. But after three hours of hide-and-seek, it appeared that his virtual enemy had given up the hunt.

"Getting cocky, are we? That's not good." His grin widened. A switch to his left disabled the safety for the Type 300. He could hear the whirr and grind of motors, feel the vibrations through his chair as the autoloader performed its first cycle.

Activating the weapon also brought up its dedicated HUD panel. His eyes flicked to it for a moment, reading LOADED - AP/AP/AP/AP/AP

There was really not much else to do. There was no need for fancy tactical maneuvering since he had already set up a base from which he could enjoy fire superiority with barely any threat of counter-fire. His hand came over the left stick, fingers gently wrapping around the innocuous-looking red stub that was the trigger. All he had to do was pull.

And pull, he did.

BANG! The shot shook Elbrus' entire frame, and Harold followed the glowing, hyper-speed projectile with his eyes as if entranced. It was like a shooting star blazing through the desert storm, bold and majestic like an arrow shot from the bow of a god. The impact was true and effective, badly mangling the Cruxi leader's arm in a fantastic display of fire, sparks and flying debris. Elbrus' sensors could see it all - how they were so helplessly panicking - now that they were closer.

Harold laughed. He pulled again.

BANG!

And again.

BANG!

And again.

BANG!

---

The door to the VR-bed hissed, pneumatic actuators sliding it down before rolling it over to the side. Out from its foggy interior came Harold, looking slightly weary from a day of tests and training.

His eyes came to a nearby monitor that tracked his general results. There, he saw:

ELBRUS PERFORMANCE - SOLO:
OPEN, HEAVILY OBSCURED - SUPERB
OPEN, CLEAR - GOOD
URBAN, CLEAR - VERY POOR
ROUGH, CLEAR - AVERAGE
OPEN, SLIGHTLY OBSCURED - VERY GOOD

"I guess that sums it up," he said, drily. His eyes shifted elsewhere and came upon the form of a blond-haired girl.

"Ah. Hello. I didn't notice you there."

The blonde-haired girl jumped and let out a small gasp in response, as her mind was then suddenly ripped from her thoughts and returned back to reality.

"O-Oh, I uh... I-I didn't know anyone else was here. I just arrived today, thought I might walk around some." She said, holding her arms behind her back before suddenly recognizing where she was.

"O-Oh! Is this the VR training room? You're one of the other pilots, aren't you? I-I'm Alyssa Camden, and... uhm... you are...?" Alyssa introduced herself, frantically moving to extend a hand in greeting.

"Buell. Harold Buell," he said, taking her hand in a firm shake. "So you just transferred, huh? Yeah, this is the VR room. I'm afraid there's no-one but brass and I to give you the rundown on things. Team Sigma is currently sortieing."

Alyssa withdrew her arm after the handshake and glanced around the room as Harold spoke, before returning her eyes to him when he mentioned that Sigma was currently sortieing. Suddenly she wondered why he was here, and not out there with the rest of the team.

"Uhm... aren't you a member of Sigma? Why were you left behind while they went off on a mission?" She asked, her brow furrowed a bit inquisitively.

"That's a good question. I still don't know the answer myself." Harold smiled. "I haven't been formally debriefed yet but I've been piecing two-and-two together and I may or may not have screwed up horribly in our last deployment, to the point where my old Framewerk was destroyed, and they have to issue me with a new one."

He jerked a thumb to the mock cockpit behind him. "Elbrus is her name. I'm still getting to know her as well as I can through VR. She's good, so far. So you're a pilot too, Alyssa? Are you transferring from another unit or are you just fresh into the military?"

Alyssa's heartbeat rose slightly when Harold answered her question with what appeared as vague uncertainty, and what made it worse for her was that it seemed he was being rather honest. What the hell happened to him out there if he can't remember it? She thought, heartbeat slowly rising before she cut her mind off.

"I-I finished training at another facility, where my brother was stationed. I was hoping to get into his unit, but... well, that can't be helped. No sense in dwelling on it, yeah?" She answered, looking to the VR machine. "So your Frame is named Elbrus? What role does she fill?"

Harold put a thoughtful knuckle to his chin, looking elsewhere for a moment. "Well, I wouldn't call her a brawler. Her armor is too thin. But she excels at medium range. What makes her special is her sensors array and fire control suite. If you switched out her semi-auto for something like a sniper's loadout, she'd also excel in that role."

"I did about five scenarios with her today, so I'm a bit worn out. Have you come here to train?"

"So... I take it you're going to be somewhere between m-me and the Cruxi?" She stated, then cleared her throat before she continued. "I... I didn't even realize I was here until you surprised me. I was, well... just walking and thinking to myself. But... yeah, now that I'm here, why not?" She said, taking a deep breath as she moved towards one of the VR machines.

"I could show you the ropes," Harold said. "Just give a minute."

He moved to a nearby table and unwrapped what appeared to be a large cheeseburger.

"Been hours since... it's cold and dry now, but whatever. Cola's warm, too. Oh well."

And so he began to eat. Chewing without too much relish, he gestured with the burger. "Sorry, haven't had lunch yet. You want some?"

Alyssa chuckled and shook her head. "No, I'm not really all that hungry. Thanks for the offer, though." She replied with a smile, though she refrained from adding that her lack of appetite stemmed mostly from the anxiety of her arrival to Solaire rather than her having already eaten.

"Alright." Harold continued to feast - if it were appropriate to call his meager meal as such. He wolfed the burger down with remarkable swiftness, taking care to spill crumbs on the table rather than his all-grey plugsuit. A long swig of the tall cola cup eased all of it down and quenched his thirst. After a sigh of satisfaction, he turned to Alyssa.

"Right. Sorry for the wait. Shall we begin?"

---

The default simulation environment was what many people would call picturesque, or rustic. It was an almost endless open field of green grass and gently rolling hills pockmarked by trees here and there whose branches uncaringly swayed to the gentle breeze. Above, the false sky was bright and blue, across which clouds languidly floated by. The sun was neither too gentle nor too harsh, and under its gaze shone the great steel giants that were Elbrus and Echo Thunder, unmoving and serene - because the scenario parameters were still being set.

"Alright," Harold sounded, his voice crystal clear in Alyssa's cockpit speakers. He had just explained how to use Solaire's scenario editor, and given her master command of the whole thing. He spent remarkably little time on small talk, more intent on getting Alyssa to integrate with Team Sigma as a soldier rather than, well, a friend. Comradeship would come later, he reasoned. For now...

"So as you can see by how some buttons are suddenly available to you, I've given you master control of the simulation. You can set any of the parameters I've explained before to, well, anything you want, really. Terrain characteristics, weather, enemies - maybe you'd like to start us both with a missing limb or two if you're feeling extra cheeky. But I'm guessing you'd like to get the hang this whole thing first, right? Speaking of which - how much experience have you had in piloting Echo Thunder, anyway?"

Alyssa looked over the options as they became available, trying her best to listen to Harold he continued to explain. "I've been through the standard training runs with him, or... as stanadard as Framewerk training gets, I-I guess. Mix of VR and mock, but... mostly VR." She answered, adding. "Mock-up battles were more of an introduction to standard tactics though... like piloting in general, or playing to the frame's strengths. All of our mock battles were done against stationary practice targets, though, while we trained more extensively in VR."

After a moment, she realized she might have gotten a little side-tracked. "W-Was that more than you needed to know? Or...?" She asked.

If there was anything immediately clear about Alyssa, Harold thought, then it was her constant anxiety. He found it strange - strange, but somehow endearing, although he wouldn't say anything about that.

"No, that's exactly what I needed to know." His tone was ever friendly, despite being matter-of-factly military. "So what would you say are your Frame's strength and weaknesses? Please, tell me about Echo Thunder."

Alyssa stopped for a moment to think before replying. "I... well, Echo excels at ranged area-denial. His greatest strength is probably also his greatest weakness... the primary weapons system is large enough that the ammo rack occupies the space a secondary weapons system normally would. Though, uhm... the versatility offered by this is a fair trade-off. At closer ranges, however, the cannon system becomes hard to aim... and Echo's only other defense in close-quarters would be his fists."

"But, if the enemies stay at range and stay grouped together, Echo can do a good number on them. With the munitions choices Echo offers, he's essentially area denial personified." She added, reviewing the list of shells at Echo Thunder's disposal.

"I see. So, an artillery platform then? Are you saying there's no direct-fire mode for those guns?"

"W-Well... uhm... they're not intended for direct-fire, but the mounting does allow for the cannons to lay almost vertically over the shoulders. J-Just... the targeting UI doesn't accurately calculate the shell trajectory in relation to close-ranged targets, as I have to adjust Echo's body to facilitate better aim the closer an enemy gets."

"Okay. Well, it seems that Elbrus here is Echo Thunder's opposite. She's meant to engage the enemy directly, about up to twenty kilometers away. Her fire control suite is pretty good, as are her sensors. Hey, she could probably act as a forward observer for Echo. That's a good idea, I think. Tell me about your sensors and fire control."

Alyssa thought for a good while before finally offering a reply. "I... don't believe Echo has the sensors to back up his armament... but his fire control is pretty helpful to a point. The calculations don't take gravity or movement into effect, so it's best that I stay stationary and grounded while firing. Enemy movement can be a pain, but the volume of shells this big boy can fire-" She cut herself off after hearing "big boy" come out of her mouth, somewhat embarrassed by the term of endearment for her cannon-bearing Framewerk.

"W-Well... y-you know the rest. Explosions don't need much accuracy, especially if you've got a lot of them..."

"I suppose that makes sense," Harold said, shrugging inside his cockpit. "So I guess you will need a forward observer out on the field. Like I said, Elbrus can probably do that. They've stuffed her so full of electronics that I'm wondering about her ability to take hits. It'll probably just take one hit before I'm reduced to doing manual aim. I suppose all things have tradeoffs."

"Anyway," he continued. "Got any ideas in mind for our scenario? A straight-up fight, maybe? I'll let you decide."

"Well... if we're going to explore this potential synergy, I suspect it'd be a good idea to test it..." Alyssa replied, starting to explore the simulation control options. A few moments passed before the scenery around them changed from green plains to rust-colored sand, while mountainous walls of stone rose up around them to form a labyrinth of a canyon. Natural archways spanned from wall to wall over Elbrus and Echo Thunder, who were placed squarely at one end of the expansive chasm.

"Welcome to the Dannegeir Canyon of Damuran. Ranked third largest canyon discovered thus far. Or... w-well, as close as a simulation can get to it, at least..." She announced, as the sky above settled on an abnormal shade of blue, speckled with small clouds.

"Huh, so you're a worlder then. Me - I was born in a station so I almost never get to see vistas like this. Bloody hell, this place is massive." Harold's voice was colored with a quiet tone of awe as he began to move Elbrus about. The hum of its fusion core loudened to a steady growl as powerful actuators whined and virtual sand was crushed under its massive, clawed feet.

"So you're a spacer? I always felt bad for people stuck on stations... but then, some also get to explore space a lot easier than the average colonist. At least... compared to Damuran." Alyssa started, realizing she was getting off track.

"A-Anyways, I've got the scenario set to spawn enemies in about thirty seconds. An environment like this should benefit from cooperation, as I can't see far without a second set of eyes." She said, minimizing the scenario options and admiring the scenery for herself. Amidst the dry sands were also groupings of shrubbery, where a small tinting of colors verified the presence of flowers.

"Then I'll be moving up ahead." Elbrus turned and began walking to another direction, the muzzle of its Type 300 gun system bringing itself to activated bear. A loud clunk, heard through Echo Thunder's cockpit speakers, signaled that the Framewerk's autoloader had just finished its first cycle and now had a shell chaimbered. "I'm sending data packets to you know - just random gibberish, but are you receiving them? I'll be using this channel to transmit target data. It's two-way, so we can share data."

"Data received." Alyssa responded, arming her own weapons systems. Echo Thunder seemed to respond to Elbrus' loading sounds with two louder clunks of it's own as shells were loaded into both cannons, followed by a grinding sound as the cannons rotated out of their stationary positions. The white and blue frame then took a few steps forward before hunkering down.

"If you need any backup, I can be there. But until then... I'll be waiting."

"Roger," Harold so replied, his voice easing to that of his starfighter days. Everything he said thereafter was cool and understated in the manner of a typical fighter pilot or void traffic controller. "Elbrus is advancing to contact. Stand by for fire mission, out."

He took a mental note of Echo Thunder's acknowledgement as he continued to make his way forward, through the shadows of the canyon's great walls and across its hard sand and rock. He passed through its sparse vegetation, uncaring as to whether he trampled them or not, the two muzzles of his cannon and autocannon sweeping left and right in co-axial link. Minutes passed as he rounded corner after jagged corner under archways like massive, doorless gates.

This was rough terrain. Elbrus could not use its sensor arrays to their full effect here, as natural barriers reduced his detection range and various clutter muddied up his returns. Harold remembered the rating that the simulation gave him earlier in similar terrain - "Average."

Harold spent little time on talk - ever the professional soldier, he was. All he transmitted to Alyssa was just the occasional tactical report. He opted to send one as he put Elbrus to a stop where it had a good field of view for the next ten or so kilometers before the canyon rounded to the side again.

"Echo Thunder, this is Elbrus. No contact yet, over."

"Roger that." Alyssa replied over the comms, but then found herself wondering why Harold was yet to make contact. The canyon may be big, but shouldn't he have run into something by now? Are they not moving to find us too?

She continued to adjust Echo Thunder's cannons in response to Elbrus's tactical reports, as the aiming UI was admittedly defeated by the walls of earth that comprised the canyon.

Elbrus was about fifteen or so kilometers away from Echo Thunder at that point. Harold considered moving onwards, but doing so would compromise unit cohesion. Then he laughed. The rough terrain meant that they were already disrupted. Doubt began to set into his mind. Just where was the enemy?

"Echo Thunder, this is Elbrus. No contact yet, over."

Harold just sat there, arms crossed over his chest as he waited and waited till he could wait no more.

Then, there was a flash of red from his sensor suite. Harold laughed again. Of course! It was so obvious.

Elbrus' clawed feet began backpedalling at an almost panicked rate. Actuators were pushed to the limit as they roared to tilt the Frame's torso back as much as possible. Harold unfolded his arms and grabbed the two control sticks almost immediately. There - atop the canyon cliffs - and staring right at him, was a Cruxi mech whose distinctive features were that it had what appeared to be large, insectoid wings, and that it was pointing a rifle directly into his eyes.

There was the mock battle - and now this. He cursed his carelessness and the inflexibility of his mind, so chained by old training manuals that had no place among Framewerks. His brows furrowed in anger and he growled,

"Elbrus reporting conta-"

His voice was cut off by the unmistakable sound of a firefight.

---

"Harold?! D-Damn it... firing!" Alyssa's voice panicked over the radio as a rythmic, thunderous pounding echoed throughout the canyon. Shell after shell fired up into the sky, and just as the first shell began to arc Alyssa's voice came back through the comms.

"If you're in range, get out of there! The shells are coming down!"

There was no reply till a minute after, and in the interim of which, fire control data from Elbrus was sporadic. When the transmission finally came, Harold's voice was shaky and distracted.

"Copy... copy!" In the background, thunderous booms of what could only be Echo Thunder's shell impacts could be heard, their volume competing with Harold's words - and so he belatedly turned external audio off. The bangs of Elbrus' Type 300 could still be heard, however. "Alright! Elbrus has engaged a squad-sized Cruxi force. Confirm fire mission good despite danger close. Good effect on target - requesting more rounds. Two targets destroyed so far, over!"

Alyssa quickly adjusted Echo Thunder's cannons to the data being received from Elbrus, firing off a few more rounds before one of the cannons jammed. The firing rate then slowed by half, and the system bleeped in alarm.

"One of the cannons jammed, switching the other to fire HYDRA shells." She warned, the remaining cannon emitting a cling as a shell casing ejected, followed by another clunk as the new shell type was loaded. A second later the cannon fired, the shell soaring up into the sky before arcing and falling back down. Halfway through the fall the shell broke apart and out came a small swarm or missiles that began seeking out targets.

"Take care, HYDRA missiles have proximity tracking!"

"Do they have IFF? They better fucking have IFF!"

"I-I... I-I'm not sure, I've never used them until now!" Alyssa replied as another shot of Echo's cannon rang out.

There was a very long pause thereafter.

"Well," Harold was practically yelling at this point. "It turns out they do! Lucky me, because I'm running in the god-damn open surrounded by missiles and taking return fire-" There was a series of bangs from the Type 300. "Right. Take that you son of a- Elbrus is popping smoke and disengaging. My right leg is pretty shot up, and I'll be taking longer to- ah hell, they're also disengaging. Your artillery is scaring them away! Change of plans - I'm following the bastards - actually no, I'm heading back to you. There's no telling if they detached one of their guys to hunt you down. Are you getting any counter-battery fire, 'cause I'm not seeing jack!"

"Ro -... roger!" Alyssa radioed, trying to keep up with Harold's change of plans. "...Counter-battery fire?" She muttered to herself before scanning the area. "I don't see anything yet." She said, just as a series of explosions tore into Alyssa's ears. Quickly muting the exterior noise as best she could, she found herself focusing on the wrong thing. Before Alyssa knew it, Echo Thunder was sprawled out across the floor and a glance upwards revealed the attacker.

A pair of Cruxi were atop one of the archways, one equipped with an explosive launcher and the other with an automatic weapon that it was now firing at Echo Thunder. Alyssa hurriedly got her Frame back to it's knees, eyballing the archway with her cannon and firing.

A loud explosion was then punctuated with the sounds of falling earth and rock, and sand was flung up high enough to obscure vision for a few moments afterwards - before being thrown away by an incredible mid-air explosion as one of the Cruxi was definitely disintegrated, sending little pieces of rock and flaming metal to bounce off of Echo Thunder's plating.

"Holy shit, it actually hit?" Harold's excited voice came. He allowed himself a laugh. "I used your optical sensor feed to direct one of my cruise missiles. It actually hit! Isn't modern technology-"

A series of terrible explosions cut him off. "God damn it, I'm taking hits. The idiots are using the lull in your fire to come at me! Requesting rounds, over!"

Alyssa finished righting Echo Thunder, and fired off another HYDRA shell despite fire control data from Elbrus suddenly appearing to be dead, undoubtedly from battle damage.

"Incoming payload!" She warned, turning her attention to the cannon that jammed up - which now appeared to be straight-up broken. What the hell... Alyssa thought to herself. It's never broken that easy before... note to self... don't land on back.

Echo Thunder proceeded to tear the cannon barrel from it's mounting, walking over to the debris of the fallen arch before stopping and firing off another HYDRA towards Elbrus' location. Alyssa then scanned the debris as the next round was loading, until she found what appeared to be a Cruxi head and bashed it with the cannon barrel. Of course, the barrel broke and the Cruxi didn't even seem to be moving, but that clearly didn't stop her from trying.

"Good effect on target!" Harold came in, voice crackling over the radio. Clearly his communications array was damaged. "Just one of them now, cowering behind a- oh shit, he's coming for me. Oh, this boy's pissed. And he's got this big-ass scythe! He's coming for me! Can you still get my data? Nothing but the close proximity radio seems to be working, over!"

Echo Thunder quickly loaded another shell type and fired. "Tracer coming in on you. Cover your optics and open fire if you can!" Alyssa yelled, switching the shell types again and firing off a few more standard shells to capitalize on the tracer's upcoming bright flash.

"Fuck me, that is bright! Also, your shells are fucking ripping me apart! The dispersion's getting really narrow now that I'm close to you. Just cease fire for a moment, will you? I've got a plan! Just train your guns where the canyon turns from your point of view. I'm about to run there. When you see the alien with the glowing scythe, you fire, okay?!"

"R-Roger that!" Alyssa replied, ceasing fire and aiming her cannon at the opening that Elbrus should appear from any moment from now. Just don't shoot too early... don't shoot too early... Her mind raced. She'd fucked up that last barrage, no telling how bad just yet. But hopefully this plan would pan out just fine.

"Okay," Harold said. "Okay, I'm close. Okay - okay, here I am! He's still at my tail. When I turn, you fire! I'm gonna bluff by aiming my gun at him, but it's broken. It'll probably give you some time - even if he doesn't stop, fire anyway."

There, in the distance, limp-running with armor plating torn away and umbilicals hanging like exposed intestines from its torso, Elbrus' battle-damaged form showed itself. It wasn't easy to see where Echo Thunder was at, but dents and holes from shells of multitude calibers covered the Framewerk from cracked head to shattered toe.

"Do you copy, over?!"

"I copy!" Alyssa responded, her eyes scanning the pass expectantly with her finger ready on the trigger.

And there it was - Harold's 'pissed boy with the big-ass scythe' - insectoid and hunched in form as most Cruxi war machines were. Its wings had been torn apart, either by Echo Thunder's blasts or Harold's marksmanship. Yet the rest of its alien form still appeared battle-worthy, a lot more so than Elbrus. Rust-red sand and charred, non-penetrating hits made blotches on its otherwise pure white armor whose glow under the sun almost matched that of its fearsome melee weapon - a very large power-scythe.

Elbrus stopped on one leg and swung the other around as it turned. Harold, with jerky movements inside the cockpit, brought up his Type 300, fighting against torn servoes that only just barely supported the weapon's weight. There was no crosshair on the display anymore - not even for its autocannon sub-mount - but he reckoned he was eyeballing it well enough.

But the Cruxi squad leader did not fall for it, still rushing towards Harold with the sole intent to kill.

"For the love of God, fire!"

Alyssa quickly pulled the trigger once the command came through, the shot ringing out as the round proceeded to tear clean through the Cruxi's right leg before exploding shortly after. The force of the explosion served to knock the Cruxi down faster, while a portion of said force rocked the Elbrus. Another shell zipped by, just barely missing the fallen Cruxi and exploding a ways away.

The Cruxi, hellbent on pursuing its prey, crawled towards Elbrus and tried lashing at the Frame with it's scythe while another shell impacted the raised weapon and exploded. The resulting force sent Elbrus backwards, while the Cruxi's left arm was blasted off.

"Damn it why can't I hit the damn thing?!" Alyssa cried as she fired another round, which impacted the ground to early and knocked the Cruxi onto it's back. Another shell whizzed by and exploded by the Cruxi's chest, rolling the body over once more as it finally appeared to stop moving.

"...I-Is it dead?" She asked tenatively, just as she swore she saw it move and quickly fired yet another shell at the Cruxi corpse.

Elbrus lay unmoving, and there was a terribly long interval before Alyssa heard his crackling voice once more.

"Hello, hello? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. I hear you loud and clear."

"I'm using my phone as a radio. Elbrus is knocked out. Hydraulics, electricity, communications - it's all dead. Except for the window saying 'scenario complete.' Good thing we're in VR, huh? Might wanna be less trigger-happy with your shells next time - just as I need to be more aware."

Alyssa could hear his crackled laugh - it was a heartfelt, genuine expression of sheer enjoyment.

Alyssa let out a sigh of relief before laughing with him. "Noted. Less shells." She confirmed, a smile creeping across her face. She knew deep down that live combat would be nothing like this, but she found herself thinking this particular simulation had been fun.

---

The VR-bed hissed as it opened, allowing a weary Harold to step out, face even paler than it usually was. He turned to the side to regard Alyssa's similarly shaken form.

"Well, that was fun," he said, smiling, before looking at a nearby status monitor.

ELBRUS, ECHO THUNDER PERFORMANCE - ROUGH, CLEAR
ELBRUS: KNOCKED OUT
ECHO THUNDER: MEDIUM DAMAGE
ENEMES DESTROYED: 7 OUT OF 7
RATING: ABOVE AVERAGE

"Above average," Harold read out loud, tasting the phrase as it rolled off of his tongue. "Well, I guess our combination works out, although in that scenario, I think anybody from Team Sigma could have acted as your forward observer. Perferably, someone who can climb those cliffs. My sensors are just as good as any other set within ten or five kilometers. But anyway - good work!"

"In hindsight, it might not have been the best environment to test it... but, an above average rating says something. Especially seeing as we just met." Alyssa chuckled somewhat gleefully. "And good job on your part, too! I'm not sure if anyone else on Team Sigma would've come up with that last plan you had, so there's that."

"Nah," Harold waved dismissively. "Last time I came up with a plan, we almost lost a sim-battle. It's a pretty embarrassing memory. Fucking... open comms and all that other nonsense. Can you believe they made me squad leader?" He sighed, although not too unhappily. "I'll probably find out I've been demoted when they debrief me on that mission, but... man!"

He clapped his hands once. "I'm hungry. You hungry? Wanna get some chow?"

Alyssa thought for a moment before finally answering. "Yeah, I could eat."

---

Looking at the layout of the battle, Jason wore a frown as he looked at the situation. He was about to say something to the others, when a warning screen appeared before him. Not even a second later he felt pain tearing through him, as the crystal shard slammed through the mech. His controls suddenly felt significantly more sluggish, and anger flared. "Paladin, Hou-Yi. That mist needs to go down. Suggest we fire energy-based attacks to destroy the mist itself." He said into the comm channel they had previously opened. Jason fired up the ATS system again, as he loaded another round into the Moonbreaker. The explosive shot should be able to hit the mist itself, thanks to the area of effect. The moment he got a lock, Jason pulled the trigger. In silence, the shot tore from the railgun and towards the mist. With a small sigh, he turned his attention back to the layout of the battle. They needed to get rid of that mist, especially given the crystal shards it had picked up.

With a light sigh, Jason tried to figure out what to do. "Sarge. If things start going south, I might be able to set up a shot using the planetoid's orbit as a slingshot. Should give me more power, might be able to target and damage the station itself. Do we have an update on how infiltration team is doing?" He asked, wanting an opinion on his idea, as well as hoping for some information on how Serah was doing. Hopefully they were fairing a tad bit better than things were out here.

---

* Fired an explosive round at E6, the mist unit should be in range since that's an energy attack technically.

Jake was still keeping his framework, Weissritter, in a prone position as he waited for the other two Cruxi to poke any of their body parts around the corner of the other end of the corridor.

He only hoped the rest of his team was doing ok but he knew things were going to get ugly. If there was something Jake learned about the Cruxi, the "smart" ones always had a plan B.

Sure enough, he heard the distinct slam of a door closing and quickly glaned behind and noticed the way behind him closed.

"...Seven! Serah! Katya! Respond!"

It didn't happen immedately so Jake continued to keep an eye out for those Cruxi.

But it was that yell that immedately made Jake cringe. If he didn't know better, that was Serah.

"...hey Sit rep! What's going on in there?!", Jake asked.

"EEELLLOOORRRAAAA!"

That's when his link with his team went dead, hearing Mai scream.

"Base! Jake here! We got a situation! I've lost contact with the rest of my team! Are you still tracking their sync rates?! I need something to tell me what's going on with them!", Jake said, still keeping an eye out for those Cruxi that avoided his fire before.

---

Krista watched with satisfaction as her shot hit true, wiping out the squad of CWM in a ball of light. She pumped her fist in excitement of her first kill. Her first real kill on an enemy unit. The mini-Mists didn't feel like they counted. Thus, she was distracted and barely had time to register the destruction of the crystal before the shards impacted the Hou-Yi. Crying out in surprise, she felt the loco-motors in the turret jam as the Hou-Yi was knocked for a loop. It took her longer than she liked to stabilize herself, still unused to space flight. Some slow swings of her cannon confirmed what the diagnostics were telling her: the turret could not turn to cover an area from about seven to ten o'clock.

"What was that?" Looking back she quickly spotted her allies. The Paladin was visibly wounded, looking almost like a voodoo doll with all the shards sticking out of it. The sight of the heaviest unit in the squad so wounded shook her, and her eyes darted around the battlefield until she spotted the source of the damage. She could only wonder what her Frame looked like from the outside.

However the newly armed mini-mist caught her focus. Her new orders told her to do what she planned on doing. "This is Hou-Yi, roger that. My turret's rotation is compromised but my cannon's still good to fire." She'd trained in simulations as what to do in case her turret's traverse was compromised; that is use the Frame's entire maneuvering system to swing her around to bear on the mini-mist. What the simulations hadn't accounted for was the ominous creaking that came from her Frame, the Hou-Yi sounding like a wounded animal. Still, she got no more mechanical complaints as she brought her gun to bear. She could see the cloud of crystal shards orbiting the target, the alien entity neatly lining up into her sights. "I have the target in my sight. Firing." Her gun finished charging, and after taking the extra moment to line up the shot the best she could, she fired upon the target. The shot streaked through the void, so fast it only registered as a streak of light on her view.

---

- Firing upon the mini-Mist

Roger was more or less focused on his own shit in the battle. It's not that he didn't care about his teammates, but he trusted in their competence. And if he wasn't concerned about not getting shot to bits, then chances were he wouldn't be able to make it through the battle. After all, nobody was watching his back except for himself, and now wasn't the time to do something suicidally dumb. That would likely come later on.

That said, he couldn't stop himself from being distracted from a second when the crystal's destruction was weaponized to great effect against the artillery unit. Those were a collection of really fucking sturdy 'werks and to get shredded up like that from a single attack was no easy feat. Although disbelief, worry and 'oh shit' where the foremost emotions in his mind regarding the sudden turn the battle took, a small part of him was glad he wasn't hanging around there. Yeager was a decently bulky framewerk, but if he had gotten hit with that, who knows what kind of fucked he'd be, given the volatility of the over-powered thrust capabilities housed within his chosen machine.

But there were more important things to be doing than worrying about everyone else, and based on the comms and radar, it seemed like most of the pilots had gotten through the attack damaged, but not out of commission. Roger found himself currently in the process of being cornered, and he'd have to fix that real quick, or else he's be scrap and the cruxi would have the means to flank Squad Sigma. Activating his boosters he moved around the encroaching CWM squad and opened fire at the two-man(?) group he had been dealing with before. Focus one taking down targets one at a time, or end up overwhelmed.

---

Move H7->Attack J7

The screams...those horrible screams...despite the harsh mental training that Mai and even her alter ego, Seven, had taken...nothing...NOTHING at all prepared them for the anguish that both mentally felt from that scream.

The sound alone broke her concentration but as she thought, the barrier brought her time. But now at thirty percent, even Seven currently wondered if she had anything left for a suicide run.

But this was most likely it...her last mission...her last act...

Wiping the blood from her nose and quickly slipping her helmit back down, Seven then proceeded to get the Neo Angel into a standing position.

...no...stop...stop...

...commence...termination of...target...Mai...focus...it needs to be done now...

...the yelling...the pain...how...many...have they...done this to...

...you and I both know the answer to that...what we've seen...what we've done...we talked...

...I know...I'm just...sorry that I couldn't do it all myself...but this...

War is hell as the saying goes Mai...but don't be inefficent now...focus...

Then, that's when it happened...perhaps something went wrong with the Telekenetic system or perhaps it was the Cruxi in the room...but Mai then got slammed with perhaps the worst thing in her life...worse than the screaming from Elora or even Serah just now...a voice...one she didn't recognize. Both thought it was perhaps the Cruxi but for Mai, it was something that she secretly feared. Something that perhaps Seven was aware of.

Then, on her combat screen, one word showed up. And then it was said repeately. Why she killed so much. Why Mai let Seven do most of the hard stuff. Why, perhaps, she was reckless in some situations.

Attachments.

Attachments.

AttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachments
AttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachments
AttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachments
AttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachmentsAttachments

"STOP ITTTTTT! STOP IT! STOP TAKING EVERYTHING FROM ME!", Mai suddenly roared.

Mai then looked up at the Cruxi Ace through her combat screen despite the word being repeated...and yet another odd occurance happened...

She saw...mom...no...she saw the original Neo Angel aka Wing Zero...the one without the wings...and it was fighting...fighting...

Fighting this very Cruxi.

"YYOOUU! You killed her didn't you?!", Mai said over the comm link.

Mai! Focus! Terminate cadet Elora! That's the only way to stop the screaming!

Stay out of this! I've fought and taken so many lives just to keep whatever I have left and it still gets taken away! Why should I continue this vicious cycle?!

Because WE will die if you don't...

...

...Mai...complete the mission...end Elora's suffering...

...I'm sorry Seven..but for the very first time...I cannot comply with that order...

That's when the Neo Angel did two things...it drew both it's Magnum Pistols and fired one shot from each gun at the Cruxi Ace.

But then activated it's mini-thrusters to pull a U turn to face Logic Gate...and sped right at it.

"EEELLOOORRRAAAA!!!", Mai yelled.