It may have taken years, but humanity finally found a way to prosper even in the face of the mysterious invaders from beyond our world. A small part of that is thanks to the new generations of soldiers trained at the many Tactical Arts Academies around the world. The greatest of such being the 2nd Tactical Arts Academy: Yamato, built after the first of its kind was destroyed.

It’s thanks to the existence of the Yamato Academy that the city of Neo Kyoto can be one of the safest places for humans to live. And one of the functions that the Academy has to fulfill is maintaining the web of passive defenses that protect the city from danger. One of such defenses is a small net of autonomous sensors that detect uncommon activities in the city’s outskirts, especially the districts that are yet to be reclaimed. And this is exactly where today’s mission is going to focus.


{{Western District | March 23rd, 2021 | 09:35}}

“Today’s mission is going to be a routine task, so I’m not going to overextend myself,” said Lieutenant Mako Isoshima to a group of trainees aboard one of the Academy’s mobile command centers — a modernized version of the V-22 Osprey equipped with jet engines instead of rotors, as well as a series of auxiliary equipment — while they were en route to their destination. “You are going to be replacing the backup batteries of a sensor array in the Western District, an abandoned area comprising most of the former Nishikyou-ku and Ukyou-ku wards. There are twelve stations in need of maintenance; their locations have already been marked on the maps distributed to each of your respective squad’s Linkers. Each of the three squads here will be responsible for four sensors.

Since this is not a combat mission and there are no plans to reclaim this area of the city anytime soon, I suggest that you avoid conflict with the invaders as much as possible but, ultimately, this a decision that you have to do on your own if you face them on the field. You have eight hours to conclude mission, which will begin at 10:00. Lastly, Squad Chaotix has been sent earlier as a recon unit, their report indicate light invader activity in the mission area, as long as you stay in the marker path and you shouldn’t endanger yourselves.

This concludes the mission briefing. If there’s any questions make them now, otherwise, you are authorized to begin,” she said as a soft shaking indicated their landing at a designated helipad and the cargo door opened, letting the cold, still air of the lifeless city filter into the aircraft.

---

With no windows to admire the view and the constant drone of the jet engines droning out any chance at having a proper conversation, the time between the 2nd Tactical Academy and the Western District was largely boring. Under his breath, Tian-Gui hummed an inaudible tune as his knee bounced up and down, a rapid pace that punctuated the orders of their Lieutenant as she detailed the missions. It was a routine affair, and some might even consider it to be boring, but the Chinese student didn’t mind it at all. Monster slaying was a temporary measure; fixing infrastructure had long term effects. It was a worthy operation, one that aligned excellently with Fiore’s own Psychic Drive. He smiled at the smaller girl as the Osprey landed, before immediately leaping off his seat and heading outside.

Oh, it was a pleasure to breathe.

Years ago, the damage to the district must have been traumatizing, but now that greenery hid the greatest scars, the abandoned area looked beautiful in a haunting way. He raised his eyes towards the sky, tracking the position of the Sun, before nodding once more. Good weather meant high visibility, and high visibility meant that Cellica would have happy shooting as well. Ideal conditions everywhere, really. His phone came out next, the lacking cell reception being the only cloud in an otherwise clear sky, before Tian-Gui rolled back his sleeve to reveal the scarlet-and-gold amulet on his wrist.

“Final Red…”

Crossing his arms, Tian-Gui ran his psychic power through his Armament, a golden light flashing as identification was confirmed. His right hand thrust to grab the fiery power of the red sun, and his left hand reached out to draw upon the might of the earth’s magma core. A stream of golden energy coursed through his body, as real and powerful as the blood that flowed through his veins, before it covered his form entirely.

“TRANSFORM!”

Straight red lines shot through the golden haze, while brilliant white burst from the back. Within the convalescing Armanent, twin orbs of burning blue flashed with righteousness and courage. And then, like the thunder that followed after lightning, the roar of a lion resounded through the minds of all that watched the transformation, before the veil was lifted.

Where Tian-Gui once stood, there was now a titan of golden armor, a snow-white mane stretching out from the back of a large, angular mask. Vestiges of flame radiated from the titan’s form, before it cooled, massive gauntlets closing and opening.

Then, as if nothing super anime had happened at all, the titan walked back into the Osprey to grab a set of four backup batteries, strapping it over his back with nary a grunt.

“Alright,” came Tian-Gui’s voice, reverberating slightly from within the armored suit, “Celli, Fi, let’s set a good pace, yeah? Would be pretty bad to be heading back only when it got dark, ‘fter all.”

'The Effects of Prolonged Ionized Radiation Exposure on Native Japanese Wildlife After Second Genesis' by Yoshida Naoto

Yui's attention had been grasped by the book. During the plane ride, she had been reading the dense, slab-like report. Though, the term 'read' wasn't the most apt word. She looked at a poorly printed black and white picture, glanced at a few sentences, then tore off a piece of paper to fold into an airplane. Each paper airplane had been thrown at Falk with all of the force her thin arms could muster. Considerable force, as it turns out. The vast majority of planes had done bizarre loops, slammed directly into the ground, or went completely off target. Periodically, a plane would be launched directly towards the explosive American with the force of a thousand suns. When the lieutenant gave the mission details, Yui sat at attention. Replace sensor batteries, follow the map (therefore the directions of the stinky nerds!), avoid fights. That's all there was too it.

As the osprey touched down, Yui didn't really feel much. Not excitement, not anxiety, not really anything besides a desire for the operation to be over already. The sooner the operation was over, the sooner she could slack off. She liked doing that, but there was a time and place for everything. Military sorties didn't exactly scream "slack off now!" to the bored youth. With Tian-Gui and a few others out first, Yui stood within the dark confines of the ship. Her eyes remained closed because of the difference between the inner ship and outside sun. A familiar sound flew into the dark room and reverberated.

“Final Red...”

Wait, was that what she thought it was?

“TRANSFORM!”

It was.

Instantly, Yui out. She ran towards the cargo door and opened her eyes.

She made it just in time to catch the end of the transformation. Also known as, the super bright flash and loud noise.

"Yagh! The magical girl just flash-banged me!" She yelped. Instinctively, she moved the thick book to block any more light from demolishing her poor, poor eyes. After a brief moment of rapidly blinking and trying her best to mitigate the flash blindness. Soon, her vision returned and she looked back up. Right. The mission. They had to do the mission and, preferably, complete the mission. In a comparatively less cool manner, Yui walked over to the cargo hold and pulled out an extremely long case. Eight by one feet, the case slid out from its neatly packaged spot for a uncomfortably long time. Popping the clips open, she retrieved her gargantuan blade. Sheathed in a thin, canvas-like plastic, the blade (thankfully) wouldn't cut anything around her. She grabbed four batteries and, like some super-hobo, hung them on the sheathed sword. She lifted and rested the blade over her shoulder and walked out of the cargo hold, careful not to thwack anyone on the way out.

"Falk, Smelly Nerd, let's get this done so I can finish this book."

For obvious reason, Mila was seated at the back of the Osprey, where there was ample room for her and her armament. Apart from listening to the loud noise of the engines there was not much to do. Her gaze did fall upon the other members of her team; some read, some were lost in their mind. She remembered - for a lack of better word - how it felt to be lost in one's mind without the constant need to calculate and organize thoughts and memory. Mila missed it, or at least she thought she did.

She took the start of the briefing as a sign that they were close to destination. While the Lieutenant was talking, Mila would be taking care of her weapon and double checking all components on it were adjusted, working and ready to go - again. Her thought process diverged to Kuni, and the Cyborg smiled. Her roommate never had the chance to check Iron Saga from up close yet, and Mila knew she was seating a bit too far in the transport to be able to have a good look at it now. She scouted for her friend and gave her a smile. Hopefully, that one wasn't awkward.

She closed the Iron Saga compartment with a loud *click* after having inspected all was in order, and headed outside as soon as it was permitted to do so. She was third to hit ground. Tian-Gui, one of the tallest man she met, was first. Mila looked on at the transformation, the flash having no effect on her eyes, which adjusted to the varying intensity of light, and couldn't help but be impressed every times she witnessed Final Red.

Still, there was a mission to get to. Any empty space being as good as the other one, Mila set the butt of her 'rifle' down, holding it up against her shoulder as she waited for her own partners. Upon hearing the others camaraderie calls or teasing of their own partners, Mila surprised herself at wanting to do the same - but she couldn't bring herself to it.

She was nowhere near the cheerfulness of Mavis and despite her computing augments she even sometimes fell short of Subaru's expended knowledge, but Mila was still under the impression she was decent company and a good partner. Even through her lack of social skills, open camaraderie and teasing.

"Who would have thought that post-apocalypse could be so beautiful." she said to herself, admiring how nature retook what was hers, as she grasped pieces of candies; offering for her partners before things got serious.

Squeaky clean was a very hard thing to make a weapon, no matter how shiny the metallic material was meant to be. After running off on training missions and general training exercises, Thumper would lose it's shine, and would have to be cleaned over and over. It made Cellica tempted to abandon cleaning it every time she used it. It wasn't as if it always got overly dirty, and there were other things that she could do as opposed to running the cloth over the weapon time and time again, such as considering the operation at hand in a little more depth.

Repairing the sensors would be good for the detection of threats before they arrived, and Cellica saw the benefit of the early warning the would provide. The maintenance of them was vital for the protection of the city. She did, however, spot something within the mission that did make her question it; twelve backup batteries, all seemingly at the same time, required maintenance. Twelve of the same part, twelve at the same time - Cellica was never sure if a mission was really just a setup by the instructors, but this time, it had to be. The only real problem was that she didn't know what the trick was; the task was too simple. There was a twist.

That made it all the more exciting for Cellica. It made every new day a challenge, albeit a dangerous one.

The girl had checked her weapon throughout the flight as well as cleaning it, and had confirmed it to be alright. Glancing at her wrist, she decided to make a final check on her speech bracelet. She had already checked it on the flight as well as her weapon, but in her mind, it was more important. Not just to her personally, but also by the fact it was the only means of communicating with someone not looking at her. It was relatively simple to make a psychic handshake with the device, letting a piece of her mind drift toward it as if it was just another extension of herself.

Cellica tapped into the speech bracelet, letting it tell her all she wanted to know. A simple check of the battery showed that it was at full charge, and triggering a test of the bracelet released a muted beep that let her know the speaker was functioning correctly. With that done, she let the bracelet fall back into idle mode; conserving power was something that she had realised she had to do quite quickly, especially with something so vital to her own support. Yes, she could survive without it, but it'd just make everything a lot harder.

The gentle shudder of the Osprey as it's wheels hit groundside was a not-so-subtle notification to Cellica that they had touched down, and she glanced over to the ramp just in time to see the light creaking through and swiftly turned her head away until her eyes could adjust a little better. After that, she rose from her seat. It was time to step outside once more...

... And witness the transformation of Tian-Gui that hadn't yet failed to make her cringe, just a little. She watched it, blinking at every flash and resisting the urge to shake her head a little but not being able to resist a small smile, which remained on her face even after the transformation and the return of Tian-Gui to the inside of the Osprey.

Only now did she take a look around and take in the scenery. It was a beautiful day out, both for relaxing and, more importantly, for spotting and shooting. Lifting Thumper for a moment, she sighted a bird through the scope, watching it until Tian-Gui told them to set a good pace. She agreed - the dark was often fun, but for possible combat, Cellica preferred the brightness of day. She gave Tian-Gui a thumbs up in affirmative.

Cellica's plan of movement was simple. Once Fiore had given the squad their specific destination, the Gunner was going to remain slightly ahead of the group by the use of her speed, and stick to what easy-access high ground she could find, just to make sure that the area ahead was clear, acting as a pathfinder for the squad.

---

Mavis spent most of the travel to the Western District either playing some handheld games or trying to talk to whoever would listen to her infatuated description of whatever manga or comic book had her attention at the moment. After all, the mood didn’t seem to be that great, and Mavis generally took to the mission of keeping the spirits high whenever she could. Sadly, it looked like she wouldn’t have much time to do so, given the briefing and their following arrival at their destination.

"Come on, just when I was about to get to the best part," she said in a dejected voice with her shoulders slumping in disappointment. "But well, I guess there’s nothing we can do, right team?" She said following Mila to the landing area, after securing the batteries as well as some standard supplies in a backpack.

"You are going to stay in the command center, right Subaru? We will be trusting our backs to you again," Mavis said, smiling, as she looked back at their third partner before patting Mila in the back to emphasize her point.

"Indeed," Subaru replied in her usual drowsy voice, after spending most of the journey either fiddling with one of the command consoles or sleeping while using Neptune as a body pillow. "Nep will be with you… so there’s nothing to worry about," her voice came out of the drone’s speakers as it hovered to the side of her companions.

"Our first objective is… one and a half kilometers to the Northwest. I can get you more or less a third of the way with the visual input from the console, but you’ll have to walk from there onwards," Subaru said as she created as a portal popped up in existence in front of her Neptune. "I detect two low-level signatures close to your arrival point. You can decide whether or not to engage since you’ll be coming out right in the middle of a crossroads," she added before going silent or perhaps, dozing off. Who knows?

As soon as they were ready, Mavis crossed the portal, ready to intercept any potential ambushes while they decided how to proceed.

---

---

Although Subaru’s words probably meant well, they did nothing in accordance to warn the other teams. Or perhaps she had enough confidence in her fellow peers to handle whatever they came across? Whatever the case was, the two low-level signatures she had described to Mavis were very real, though whether they were a threat was debatable. As the shield-bearing Psycher arrived to her location, the Invaders Subaru had detected continued to conceal themselves.

Hunched over like animals, they paid no heed to the arriving students-assuming Mila had joined her partner-and instead continued to traverse in the thick foliage of the area. However, that didn’t mean they would ignore the presence of the Psychers. They watched, beadily from their positions, keeping alien eyes on them in case they were discovered, and action needed to be taken. Back at the Osprey, those of similar kind were also in wake.

Away from student eyes, more and more of the scouter-like Invaders were just beyond the line of sight. Like those watching Mavis, they didn’t engage the students bustling about the makeshift command center. Some of the Invaders kept low to the ground, silver heads poised as if to emulate the common Japanese wolf in search of…something. And still, others kept a close watch of the students who had yet to move away from the command center. So far, neither was a threat to the other.

Even so, the few Linkers among the teams of students would no doubt be able to pick up their signatures. Whether they would warn their allies and commit to a plan of action dealing with them was soon to be revealed. But for the time being, the Invaders made no move to reveal themselves, be it intentional or cautionary. Instead, all they did was remain in the shadows of the overgrowth, the calls of birds a sign of the sprawling and untamed nature.

One Psycher team had even begun the task appointed to them without intervention. Consisting of Lucia, Kuni, and Akari, these three were already heading to one of the sensors, battery charge at hand. The hidden Invaders did move their heads as those three wandered off though they did not pursue. The more teams that left the safety of the Osprey after all meant the less likely of a counterattack with the last pickings would be dealt with.

---

This is how Fiore has spent her morning: Watching. Looking. Examining these tiny hands, the pride of her father. Delicate fingers wrap around the straps of her medical supply bag--size, large. Pattern, camouflage. Bruises, scars, and scratches decorate the exposed skin of her forearms, but she has long since disregarded her vanity, in preparation for life and for war. What good is grooming if a thousand people die, and thousands more are hurting?

Thank the heavens things have settled down since then, she thinks, pulling herself up from the seat that she has spent the last hour in, motionless, watching nothing pass by with a mixture of drowsiness and trepidation. The mission, a routine and almost dreary task that it is, still sparks a bit of excitement in Fiore. Anything is better than sitting around. She can hardly wait, actually.

At the aircraft's arrival and subsequent landing, the cargo doors open and floor shake, causing Fiore to stumble slightly, hands reaching for a seat to steady herself. A rush of chilly wind moves throughout the interior, ruffling Fiore's long, black hair and maroon t-shirt, stinging her cheeks and nose a frozen red. She shivers, but the cold sensation is soon repelled by the movement of the other students as they forge their way into the abandoned cityscape. Tian Gui's transformation sequence, always a sight to behold, brings groans from at least one other student, but like Cellica, Fiore can only smile. Stepping down from the aircraft, bag in tow, she walks towards her group and activates her Psychic Drive.

Her contacts, already put in that morning and working automatically to aid Fiore's field of vision, respond to the psychic energy and begin reporting the collected information. Her "mini-map"--Fiore's name for the mixture of sight and psychic cues that are collected and then sent to her contacts, which can then transmit them to her drone--begins to build itself in front of her eyes while Fiore pulls out her equipment. Her drone, Amber Rise, blinks to life and lifts itself off the ground; the map of the team's destinations is scanned, uploaded, and put away once more.

"We should." Finally done preparing her defenses, Fiore speaks, her soft voice agreeing with Tian Gui's earlier comment. Pointing to the crumbled remains of what used to be city buildings, she stations Amber Rise above the treetops and lets her contacts do the rest. "The first station is up and to the right of those old buildings over there; we should avoid the ruins, just to be safe. I don't sense any invaders at the moment, but I'll alert you if any do appear. Cellica, Tian Gui, any comments?"

Turning around to look at her teammates face-to-face, Fiore is once again hit by the limitations of her own physique; namely, her own height in comparison to Tian Gui's is like an ant staring down a lion. It takes Fiore a moment to compose herself when presented with a seven-foot-tall, flaming red mech that speaks with Tian Gui's voice but is 70 percent more terrifying. Even Cellica seems tiny next to him.

Nevertheless, Fiore is grateful for his--for both of their--support. It's only due to luck that their team figured out the way it did, but the friendships formed are ones Fiore will treasure forever. Because, when you live your entire life in a tiny village with a tendency of getting hurt, it's nice to have both companionship and sheer physical power on your side.

"I'll be right behind you," Fiore adds, sudden inner monologue reminding her that she can barely defend herself and that it would be better to stick close to the ones who can. "Shall we begin walking?"

As Cellica took the position of scout, Tian-Gui naturally slid behind Fiore as well. In compositions where there was only one guard available for their precious Linker, it made more sense for him to serve as rearguard than vanguard, after all, his imposing frame serving to cover the petite girl from attacks from behind, while his large gauntlets provided a fair enough barrier against frontal assaults as well. “When you can,” the titan said, his footsteps shaking the ground slightly, “Forward the map information to the other Linkers as well. It’ll benefit everyone if we shared information at this stage, after all.”

Wasn’t like they were meant to be competing against each other, right?

“We’ll make them treat us to a free dinner after this,” he finished, one of those burning blue eyes blinking out in the approximation of a wink, before Tian-Gui began to trudge along again, his own pace slow enough that Fiore’s shorter stride could keep up. If need be, he’d scoop her up and make a run for it, but for the time being? Caution overrode haste, and the golden Striker kept aware of his surroundings, focus sharpening as they approached the first station.

Falk had spent the Osprey ride slouching in his seat, listening to his music while playing a handheld game. It was his first proper mission, and he wanted to keep himself calm.

"Careful, you're going to go blind." Falk said to Yui, stepping out of the plane behind her, his forearm covering his eyes. In his other arm, he was cradling his helmet, sleek and shining green, almost like a motorcycle helmet. He spoke from experience, having himself been blinded trying to watch Tian-Gui's transformation on more than one occasion. He rolled it into his hand and slid it over his head before starting to head into the forest. A small part of him was anxious. But a much larger point of him was excited. This was what he'd been training for.

"I'm going to scout ahead." He said as they entered the foliage. He raised his hands, and barely perceptible gossamer-thin strands shot out. In less than a second, he'd contracted them, zipping up to the tree and nimbly perching on a branch. His hand reached up to a button on the jaw of his helmet, activating the thermal imaging. On his visor's display, red, catlike shapes were appearing. His finger slid down slightly, pressing another button and activating the commlink.

"We're being followed." He said, before leaping off his branch and shooting out a line, swinging to the next tree. He was playing it like he hadn't seen the enemies, and making a beeline for their destination. "I don't think they know that we know. I say we keep an eye on them but be ready to engage. Yui, what do you think?"

@Burger

---

During the ride over to the Western District, Akari slowly withdrew into herself. She was psyching herself up, mentally preparing for what was to come. Despite the fact that this was a low-risk mission, she wanted her team to accomplish it effectively and with ease. Secretly, she hoped she would get the chance to engage in combat, but she didn't bother mentioning this to anyone. They'd likely see her as too eager. A partially true observation, but one she didn't want people thinking. When the Lieutenant spoke up, she straightened her posture and listened closely. Her only reaction was a slight nod at the end of the debriefing, excitement raising the hair on her arms and tracing lines up and down her back.

Once the Osprey landed, she turned to her teammates. It was a surprise that Kuni had joined them, but Akari didn't mind. She could be helpful, even if she was only operating from the safety of the Osprey. "So, what's the game plan? Kuni, bring up the map with the locations of the sensors." She said, nodding at the dark-haired girl. "Please." She added after a moment's thought, not wanting to come off as rude.

With the mission being low-risk, Kuni decided to move to the tablet control of Dee, her drone, and come down with her team. It was always preferable in her eyes to make sure that it operated well, and being there meant that she could help better than simply by looking through Dee's camera. After the Osprey landed and they all got off, Kuni made sure the drone was at her side, before hearing Akari speak to her. Nodding, she tapped her tablet and brought up the map with the landmarks of the sensors.

"Okay. Nearest sensor we need to take care of is to the south-east from us, approximately a kilometer away. The furtherest one is eight kilometers away. Do you want to work from the closest to furtherest one, or the other way?" Kuni asked, approaching the other two so they may also glance at the map, which was another benefit that they normally didn't have.

"Closest to furthest sounds ideal to me," Lucia replied as she climbed out of the osprey, stretched her arms, and started surveying the area. It was entirely routine, and nobody was expecting any kind of major conflict, but it never hurt to keep an eye out. Invaders were nothing if not unpredictable. "For starters, let's secure the area and make sure nothing is going to disturb us while we handle the repairs."

Lucia closed her eyes briefly as she willed her Drive to activate. Maltet's armor booted up within seconds, as evidenced by the ionic skirt appearing from her waist, and she began to make her way toward the sensor. Her eyes swept back and forth, watching for anything untoward or hostile. Moreso than the scattered and skittering Invaders that were effectively wildlife, that is.

Akari gave Kuni an appreciative glance before exiting the Osprey. She left just in time to see Lucia power her drive. Akari wasn't envious of her waist cape, but she couldn't say that it didn't look quite graceful on the French woman. Surveying the area, Akari let loose a small sigh through her nose when she didn't see anything. In all honesty, it was a good thing that there were no creatures in sight, but Akari despised these low-level missions. She couldn't wait until she was out of the Academy, and getting sent on missions of utmost importance. Her brother always had the best stories, and she couldn't wait until she was a part of that too.

Picking up her pace to catch up to Lucia, Akari wondered if it was the appropriate time for chit-chat. Probably not, but since there weren't any imminent threats around there was no harm in it. "So, once we get to the first sensor I'll stand guard while you fix it. If you'd like, we can switch off from there or stick to that for the entirety of the mission."

Not sure what else to talk about, Akari continued looking around, head swiveling this way and that. "So, how's your rooommate been treating you?" She finally asked, wondering if she'd even get a response.

"A sound plan," Lucia replied, "Switching off is fine with me."

"As for my roommate, it's going quite well," she continued, "There were a few communication hurdles, at least at first. But Cellica's a sweetheart, and we're getting along famously."

Akari smiled lightly at this news. It was always great to hear that roommates were doing well and getting along with each other. Her thoughts wandered to Fiore, her tiny Linker dormmate. She wondered how their team was faring. Filing that away as a question she would ask later, she took a moment to concentrate on her own Linker. They were nearing the first sensor now, and Akari wanted to ensure they wouldn't run into any issues. Turning towards Kuni, Akari cleared her throat to get the girl's attention.

"Kuni, is there anything in our immediate path or are we okay to advance?"

Having walked in silence for the majority of the way, with her drone Dee at her side, Kuni did notice the short exchange between her two teammates. It was nice to be on the field for a change. Especially since the conditions appeared to be rather ideal, or at least, they did for the mostpart. When Akari asked her the question, she focused for a moment. Sensing a few invaders, she instructed her drone to hover a bit higher, to try and get a better view of the surrounding area through the drone's camera on her tablet as well.

"Few invanders, but they appear to be lurking in the shadows of the plants." Came her response, and she also began scouting the area for any potential spots that they could use in case the invanders attacked.

What filtered on Dee's surveillance and what Kuni saw were accurate; multiple Invaders had been spotted. True to her word, none of them seemed to move in a position to attack. Though they were very aware of the drone's presence; some even turned their silver heads upwards, metallic surfaces concealing alien eyes that stared back at Kuni through her drone. All the same, there wasn't much cause for concern. At least initially. A sound of rending metal suddenly pierced through the air, followed short by something heavy thudding into the grassy ground.

Almost immediately the Invaders swiveled their heads in a joined direction before scampering loosely. The positions would be instantly recognizable to Kuni as a battle formation. So far they hadn't been engaged but something had sparked the Invaders to move on the offensive. More and more noises of torn metal echoed in the forest around Team Novae, only layered by the hustling sounds of the Invaders scurrying around. No doubt anything that moved against them would now be treated as hostile.

"Wait." Kuni suddenly said. The formation of the invanders quickly changed into a different one, and it was one Kuni really did not enjoy seeing. Their offensive formations. The hustling sounds from the invaders made Kuni wary, as something had triggered the Invaders into going into this kind of formation, and it didn't appear to have been caused by them.

"The Invanders switched to an offensive formation. I'd suggest we change our path. It may take us a bit longer, but we will be on somewhat higher ground compared to where we are now." Kuni told them "We just need to head a bit more south. It will be a slight detour, but a safer one."

"Higher ground would also possibly allow us to see what exactly has them so agitated," Lucia agreed. She'd stopped in her tracks and put one hand on the sword hilt at her belt the moment Kuni warned them, and her eyes were scanning through the gaps in the trees. For all the effort, however, she didn't spot anything.

"I think it's wise to adopt a more standard formation while we do so," she added as she started to strafe in a southbound direction, keepig her front toward the trees where Dee had originally headed, "Whatever it is out there could very well come after us if we're not careful. I'll take point, Kuni after me, and Akari if you'll guard the rear?"

Akari didn't wince at the sound of tearing metal, only cocking her head inquisitively as she wondered about the source of the noise. When Kuni informed them about the invader's offensive formation, her hands went to her pistols. She pulled them out of their holsters, trigger fingers resting on the side of the barrel for the time being. Discord and Harmony powered on with a slight whir, easing some of the anxiety that came with her immense anticipation. She felt secure holding them, ever since she had taken them out to the range when she was fifteen.

"Rear it is." Akari agreed, gesturing for her teammates to move forward. Once they started trudging along she took up the back end of their formation, even more attentive than before. "Any ideas what's causing that noise?" She asked, her voice loud enough to reach the front of their unit, but not by much. "Kuni, is it possible to send Dee scouting out a bit further? I don't want us to walk straight into whatever caused it."

There was no mistaking this; these were the sounds of combat. Or of massacre. In these times, it was difficult to tell the two apart. For Team Novae though, it would soon dip into the former as the scuttling sounds seemed to be driven towards their direction. Whatever had triggered the Invaders was now scaring them off, inadvertedly leading them right into the group of Psychers. The first to arrive popped its head out of the growth parallel to the group at the side. It paused, as if jostled in surprise to find the once cautionary group of students suddenly on the defensive.

But then again, it made sense. Now that they were being threatened, so too would it engage. Its head lowered closer to the forest floor. At the same time, the whisp-like wires protruding at either side of its head began to pulse and glow with a sickly orange coloration. They heated up, snapping like maddened electrical cables, whipping and sparking wherever they were in the air. Soon enough more Invaders that had been driven away arrived, though these lacked the surprise of its first breached. They too bristled their "whiskers", slowly leering at the trio of girls and moving forward slowly.

Before Kuni could react to Akari's question, she found herself listening to the sounds of combat. And then not long after, an Invander popped its head very close to them. The pause in its movements made her pause too, until it started making its whisps pulse and glow, something that was soon followed by more Invanders that were beginning to leer at the group.

Keeping her eyes on the first invander, Kuni couldn't help but wonder what drove them there in the first place "Cover me for a moment and I'll try to find both the safest area for us to retreat to, and see if I can figure out what caused this." She told her squadmates, before quickly turning her attention to the tablet at her hand, and beginning to instruct Dee to fly even higher and turn towards the direction the Invaders were coming from. If they could figure out what was driving the Invaders in their directions, then they will be able to think of the best course of action too.

When the first invader poked its head out from between the trees, there was a moment of pause as Akari watched it. The seconds its whiskers began to glow and pulse -whipping around like thin ropes of lightning- she raised Discord and Harmony, switching their settings so they would fire round discs of plasma rather than beams. She aimed Discord, preparing to fire a round between the invader's eyes. Before she could engage, more rustling sounded around them, and Akari peered at the rest of the invaders on the edge of her vision. When they began advancing, she smirked, ready for combat.

"I'll stay close to Kuni, start putting them down, Lucia." She commanded, raising her voice to be heard over the sound of combat all around them. With that, she took aim at the closest invader, squeezing her trigger and sending three discs of plasma about a quarter of the size of an average frisbee flying towards its face. Not waiting to see if her attacks struck, she whirled, firing at the other invaders.

The shots Akari had taken were true and firm, each disc of plasma hitting their mark. The first Invader that had looked at them the wrong way suddenly spurted, falling to its side in a crumbled heap of sparking flesh. On closer observation, one could see a good half of its face melted, having taken a direct blow from Akari's plasma shots. The act of fire had ignited the remaining Invader's motions. The cylinder-like cartridges located on the back of their necks hissed and pushed into their heads. Eyes lighting up, they leapt at the group of three with desire to maim and kill. Yet Akari's guns didn't stop firing, as one by one the Invaders were blown back with various bits of their bodies melting from the condensed plasma bullets.

"D'accord!" Lucia replied to Akari as she rushed forward to meet the Invader's charge. One of the incensed little machines took the opportunity to leap at her, only to be met with an edged beam wall as Lucia willed her saber to materialize and swung it upward to intercept the attacker. She hardly lost a step as she continued moving, keeping clear of Akari's line of fire while slashing her way through the pack. There were a fair amount of them, but careful and precise movements kept her from becoming surrounded as she continued to weave her sword around and directly through her targets one by one.

Meanwhile, Dee had finally identified the source of all their troubles. Moving about the forest like an animal was a red blur, leaping from Invader to Invader and tearing into them. At least now they knew the source of the metal tearing; almost immediately did the blur find itself barrelling towards their direction. As it sped out of Dee's sight of frame, a heavy thud sounded right beside the group. Almost shaking the ground itself, the Invaders charging at them gave slight pause, realizing the one causing their trouble had just appeared. The disemboded head of one of their own still hung from the jaws of its bearer, the girl uncaring of the alien-like blood dripping out of it.

At least until some of it got in her mouth, of which she promptly spat the metallic head away and rubbed at her tongue. "Ugh, ugghh! Fucking nasty...."

With Akari providing cover, Kuni was capable of seeing through Dee's camera the source of what pushed the invaders towards them. Barely a moment later, and the girl vanished from the line of Dee's sight. She placed instructions into to the drone to survey the surrounding area further, but before she could take a look at the footage, the girl that Dee's camera spotted before arrived next to them. Baring jaws, one of which had an Invader's head on it, Kuni couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"R.R.?" She muttered briefly, before realizing this was no time to get distracted. Just because the invaders that were around killed rather rapidly, it didn't mean they were out of danger just yet. Though the surprise appearance of R.R. made Kuni feel as though they should be even more careful than before. After all, they were previously told that it was relatively safe, and that the scouting report came from Team Chaotix.

The remaining invaders, though momentarily frozen, quickly regrouped. Their fear upon seeing their biggest foe -if they were even able to experience that basic emotion- was quickly replaced with rage. Gathering into small bunches, they launched themselves at the four girls, with the largest group going straight for R.R.'s head.

Akari raised her twin pistols to defend herself against her own group of invaders, before becoming aware of the ones that were going straight for Kuni. Their Linker. Debatably the most important member of their team. She knew Lucia and R.R. could defend themselves with ease, but Kuni was their weak link and needed some form of protection. Plus, Akari had grown slightly attached to the girl after working with her for so long. She wouldn't let her go down one of the few times she had decided to join them on the field.

Switching aim with Discord, she focused on nailing each of the invaders that had thrown themselves at Kuni. At the same time, she fired Harmony blindly at the invaders who went for her. She could hear the sound of metal collapsing against the ground in her right ear, and the corners of her lips tugged up. Had she really taken them out? "Kuni! Hover!" She shouted, just before the wind got knocked out of her, an invader barreling into her side. Apparently not.

Cursing as electric whiskers connected with her flesh, Akari praised the radiation that had given her the ability to generate her passive force field. Otherwise, the skin protecting her ribcage would have been seared. Summoning up Concussion at her side, she sent the invader flying back with a medium sized blast. Twisting, she quickly sent a few discs into its metallic body so it couldn't get back up and ram into her again. Glancing up to see if Kuni had listened to her, she went back to firing at the invaders, keeping them as far away from her and her Linker as possible, knowing that Kuni would have to come back to the ground eventually.

Lucia whirled around at the sound of a heavy thud as an incredibly fast object suddenly entered the area. She held Maltet's sword at the ready, certain by the reactions of the Invaders that this new arrival was responsible for the agitation they'd seen before. If it was an enemy... but then she realized she needn't carry that concern, or so she realized as she noted the long, bright red hair and massive claws the party crasher was sporting. This could only be R.R, the almost feral Striker of Chaotix. But what was she doing here? Chaotix had handled the scouting and given the All Clear report, so why was R.R. here, separated from her team?

Her focus was torn away from these questions by a mechanical whirring that sounded like a war cry as two more Invaders boldly ran at her. Spinning her sword in her hand, Lucia stepped to the side at the last moment and dissected the first one with a horizontal followed by a vertical slash, then swung around and gave its brother the same cross section before it even reached her. As she prepared to resume her lethal dance however, Akari's cursing drew her attention behind her to where her Gunner was wrestling with one Invader while several more were taking the opportunity to target Kuni!

"Merde!" Lucia hissed as she spun and directed her focus to her armored boots, signaling them to deploy bursts of energy from the soles to rapidly accelerate her through the air back toward her Linker. With well-practiced steps she cut the bursts at roughly the halfway point and shifted her body weight to lead with her legs on the landing, sliding across the ground and coming to a stop directly between Kuni and her would-be assailants. Her left arm came up, and with a small flash an energy barrier blossomed out from it that two Invaders collided with at the same time. With a snarl Lucia swung the shield outward to knock the two of them away before deftly beheading both of them in midair with a pair of swift sword strikes. From there she stood her ground, waiting for any of the others to test their luck against her sword if they dared.

"Eh. The fucking fuck are you looking at?" R.R. turned her head at the launched Invaders jumping at her. No sooner did they leave the ground did they rejoin it in pieces. Massive clawed gauntlets that could only be an Armament had sent them into the next life, R.R. reducing her attackers into piles of leaked fluids and torn apart metal in shot time. A few slashes was all that was needed for her and she looked back to see what the others were up to. "Ah man. Riyame's gonna scold me if I let someone die around here. Oh hey, you fucking got em!"

Her own enemies dealt with, R.R. was happy to watch from the sidelines as the Invaders briefly got a hit on Akari; only to be swiftly met with retaliation of their own. By now their number had been dwindling and it didn't look like they had wanted to start a fight. The majority of the Invader's number, as few as they were of what was left, began backpedaling away to retreat. Akari's shots were successful in leading them away from Kuni and the way R.R. flexed her claws didn't insure a victory.

Soon the small area was being cleared, the Invaders leaving behind their fallen in hunks of alien corpses. "Yeah, yeah, we fucking did it, awooo!" R.R. cheered bouncing in place as she watched the aliens scamper about. Whether they would be heading right into another team was up in the air, but not really Team Novae's problem. Speaking of which... "Oh, right. Uh....who the hell are you?" R.R. asked, as if she had only now noticed the team she had run into. If she was aware of the trouble she had caused for them, she didn't show it, staring blankly.

The Invaders seemed to have decided to not give up just yet, and started an assault againts each of them. Luckily for her, Lucia and Akari came to her defence, and the latter instructed her to use her psychic drive. Doing as instructed, Kuni focused on herself, and after a moment, a blue aura would surround her, and slowly she would rise above the ground. When she reached a three meter height, she decided that was enough, and then moved her attention to the tablet once more, using this safe moment as a chance to try and look over the footage that came from Dee.

Between Akari and R.R., it seemed as though they were holding out very well. And soon enough, the remaining invanders began to run away. Once it appeared to be safe enough, Kuni lowered herself back down, and upon landing, let out a sigh. She kept looking through Dee's footage "It appears we're safe for the moment. Thanks Akari, Lucia." She said, offering a nod to her teammate, before turning to look at R.R., who just presented them with a slightly odd question. For some reason, Kuni figured that R.R. would know who others from the academy were, considering they saw each other at the academy on a regular basis. Deciding to leave the response to the other two, she tapped on the tablet once more, turning Dee to the direction of the first sensor "The path appears to the sensor appears to be clear for now." She told everyone.

Once the remaining attackers turned tail, and Kuni was back safely on the ground, Akari slipped Discord and Harmony into their hoslters. They remained active for a few moments, before shutting off with a short whine. She looked in the direction the invaders had scuttled off to, hoping they ran into another team and got slaughtered. When R.R. spoke, Akari turned to face her and grinned at her enthusiasm. It was a bit wounding that she didn't recognize them, but Akari waved it off.

"Team Novae," She began, nodding towards Lucia. "That's Lucia Juste-Enfant, our Striker." Her head bobbed in Kuni's direction. "And that's Kuni Durant, our Linker. I'm Akari Saito, Team Novae's Gunner." She stuck her thumb into her chest when she mentioned herself, not bothering to hold out a hand for R.R. to shake. For all she knew, R.R. would take the opportunity to bite it off. "It's a pleasure, R.R."

"If the way is clear," Lucia added as she disengaged her sword and notched it back on her belt, "Then we should continue on. But first, R.R... why were you running around the forest slaughtering Invaders? Aside from the obvious I mean. What happened to the rest of your team?" Granted, expecting a clear answer from the redhead Striker might be overzealous in and of itself, but it was pertinent to ask nonetheless.

As their modified craft passed over buildings, casting a long shadow on what used to be a population center, all Alistair could think of was how disgusted he was and how much it reminded him of stories of where his great grandparents had grown up and made their lives before the Second Genesis. These invaders just appeared and took what humanity had worked so hard for. Humanity had grown more technologically advanced from the encounter, sure. But at what cost? Billions of innocent lives? Not an acceptable price. He didn’t know much about these invaders, but what he did know was that they wanted him, and every other human, dead. He wasn’t going to have any of that. Not while his blade was sharp and he drew breath…

Lieutenant Isoshima explained that their mission today was to replace sensor array batteries. She also might have mentioned that this mission wasn’t about combat. Alistair heard her loud and clear. But, he also knew what was going to happen if one of those bastards crossed his path. There was a soft thud as the modified transport touched down. Alistair was just really noticing the noise from the engines as cargo door opened and the sound intensified. He winced at it, apparently he was too lost in his thoughts to pay it any mind before.

As the hatch opened, he slid on his sunglasses and strapped his two blades to his belt, one on either side and the hilt of Taiyō was already clipped in place on his left. The glasses were a modified wayfarer frame. Each lens could double as a display. The left lens displayed the map which had just been passed around. The right was just shielding his eyes from the sun. Apparently also from the extremely bright transformation Tian-Gui had just gone through. He was pretty sure the name was right though he hadn’t had any extended interaction with many of the students who were not on his team. Either way, where the really rather tall older guy had stood, there was a much taller behemoth in red and gold. He had to admit, despite his minimalist preference, it looked pretty awesome.

He waited for the other members of team Yui Gang to get out of the craft. The location they set down in was overgrown with vegetation and other greenery growing on what used to be buildings and cars or the ruins of what used to be those things. It made him think of what plenty of abandoned cities must look like, with the addition of the Invaders, of course. It wasn't long before the other two found their feet. In fact, Falk, another who Alistair didn’t know very well, said he was scouting ahead and disappeared into the forest. That’s when he noticed that Yui and raised his eyebrows. Presumably the team was named for her and she was carrying four of the batteries by herself.

“Excuse me, Yui? Do you need help with those?” He gestured at the batteries hanging over her shoulders. His voice was jokingly concerned. He knew she could probably handle it herself, despite her size. He just felt like a jerk if he didn't offer aid.

As Team Afterglow began to move out, Cellica took up the role that she had already planned to do; she took what higher ground she could, even ground raised by a meter or two got her further coverage of the areas ahead. Plus, it was a lot more freeing being in the lead - yes, she had a specific place to go and had to take a general route to get there, but she could touch on that route just enough to adjust it to her liking.

At the same time, pushing so far ahead on her pathfinding adventure made Cellica separated from the other two in her squad. She almost felt like retreating back and travelling closer to them, in more of a group, rather than going ahead. Getting used to such a scouting role would mean that during missions she was away from the friendships that she had made. Turning on her speech bracelet for a small while wouldn't draw the battery much at all, and at least she could talk a little.

It would never be her real voice, however. The voice from the speech bracelet, no matter whatever voice it attempted to replicate, would not be Cellica's voice. No matter how much she tweaked it, raising the pitch or adding a tiny detail like an accent increase, it would never be hers.

Cellica realised that her thoughts had brought her eyes to stare at the bracelet, and looked up to see where she had subconsciously carried herself - she was surprised at the distance she had moved. Looking around, she found that she had moved herself somewhat away from her team, having visually lost them. That wasn't good; Cellica figured the best thing to do was to continue onto the objective and hopefully regroup with them there.

Shots in the distance made Cellica snap Thumper into a ready position. Another team was engaged with the Invaders, that much was obvious - her own team didn't have another gunner on it, so the shots had to come from another. Plus, they were far off; there was no way Cellica had walked that far from her squadmates.

It was soon that the distant fighting began to end, and Cellica hadn't made progress in finding her team although had made progress in working her way toward the sensor (at least, she believed so). Taking a moment to look in the direction of where the fighting had originally been coming from, she wondered not who had won but how many invaders had been defeated. She had the confidence that it had been the other squad that had won, especially with the vast array of weapons everyone had for themselves. Cellica gave Thumper a pat.

Turning toward where the fighting had been coming from gave Cellica an early warning as to the Invaders that were retreating from their battle with Team Novae - if she had continued walking as she had, then perhaps she would have gotten much less of a hint that trouble was on it's way. It seemed that letting her thoughts gude her could turn out to lead to both positive and negative ends.

It was the snap of a fallen branch that really caught Cellica's attention to the distance of the incoming threats. Taking a few steps backwards with Thumper raised and ready, she awaited the first Invader to arrive in her sights.

As the first Invader stepped into her sights, she identified it as one of the quad-legged variants. That troubled her only slightly - a pack of them could overrun her, though if these were the same ones that had come from the fighting that she had heard before, there was most likely less of their number. Through the scope, Cellica observed the Invader turn it's head to face her just as she pulled the trigger.

The Thump that the weapon was named for was easily distinguishable in the quiet of the forest. Perhaps it would scare a more Human opponent, both from the sound and the pure power of the weapon as the superheated round impacted between the Invader's eyes. The fellows of the fallen, however, did not flinch. Even as the first Invader's body dropped, the rest of them immediately bolted her way as if they were flies to a dead cow. It was a little intimidating, but then so were many other things in life. A second round hit right under the head of another Invader, and Cellica had the satisfaction of watching it tumble to the ground even as she targetted a third, and then a fourth.

The only quaim that Cellica had was her ammo capacity. Whilst Thumper was indeed a powerful weapon, evidenced by an Invader almost completely becoming brought to a halt by a round that lodged itself in it's chest, the amount of rounds stored within the weapon meant that a miss could be detrimental when facing a pack, as she seemed to be now. Whilst there were signs of some damage on a few of the Invaders, she had underestimated their number by a small margin.

Pulling the trigger again, an Invader found itself lucky with a shot that only took off one of it's legs and sent it falling to the dirt. With one more shot left and four more invaders (as well as the three legged one that had found out that walking on three legs was not too hard), she fired Thumper straight into the neck of one of her foes and immediately went reaching for her pouch of bullets. Prising one between two fingers, she slammed it into the open reciever of Thumper and managed to crack off one more shot. The range had fallen too close for her to have retrieved any more rounds.

The closest of the Invaders leapt at Cellica. Holding Thumper at both ends, she took a step forward and thrust her body and weapon back against the Invader. As she had hoped for, the Invader was thrust back where it had came from. As she had not hoped for, the Invader's own weight thrust her backwards. Just for a moment, she thought she was going to stay upright on one foot, before she teetered that little bit more and ended up on her back. Preemptively bringing her knee to her chest and thrusting her foot up, she was able to hold one of the Invaders that had so-obviously planned to jump on top of her above her, though the weight of her attacker crushed down upon her knee, making her grit her teeth in pain. Lifting Thumper with one hand, she used the end of the barrel to keep the flailing attacker at bay as one hand desperately tore at her ammunition pouch, trying to prise another bullet out for the Invader atop her. She suddenly recalled there being a few more invaders left just as another one attempted to get at her free leg, which she tried to kick at it with.

In these times of troubles, it was perhaps a lesson to Cellica of the dangers for not sticking with one's team. Despite their overall weak demeanor and lack of battle strength, the Invaders had still managed to pin her down in numbers. It would just a few seconds to end the student's life through a swarm mentality before moving to the rest. Perhaps that was why it should have been taken with great relief the crushing metal weight pressing on her leg was suddenly slammed away, leaving Cellica to hold back nothing. Before there was much time to process there was no longer anything to kick at, the metal forms pressing on her from other sides had also mysteriously vanished.

Or rather, they had each been slammed away with considerable force. The sound of scuffling boots and quick gunfire lit up the area, ending each in the crushing sound of metal torn by bullets. Even the last straggler, who had been limping forth with three legs only found itself moving no more with a bullet to the head. If Cellica hoisted herself up, she'd see the form of her savior, the girl deftly twirling her firearms back into their associated holsters along her jacket. As soon as she noticed Cellica she walked over to her with an offered hand. "Are you alright?"

It was odd to suddenly find that what Cellica had been pushing at was suddenly gone; her knee and her weapon immediately shot upward at the now non-existant Invader atop her, only having the weight of the air itself pressing down instead of a metal beast. Her ammo-hunting hand tugged a round out of her pouch, slamming it into Thumper. Cellica raised herself into a sitting position to shoot at the remaining Invaders, only to find that there were none left. She took a moment not to celebrate too early, but finally, she let out a breath that she had been holding ever since she had pulled a round.

It was very quickly that Cellica's eyes came to gaze upon her saviour, looking her from bottom to top brisky before coming to rest on her face. As her physical hand moved to take her saviour's hand, her she began a psychic handshake with her speech bracelet. It took just a split second for her to interface with it, allowing her to communicate vocally. Her voice coming from the bracelet, she spoke through it to the woman as she pulled herself up to her feet, one of which was still hurting quite intensely from the Invader crushing down on it.

"I'm okay. I think. There were a bit too many for me alone," Cellica responded. At least one positive of using the speech bracelet to speak was that she could adjust how it sounded, from happy to sad. For now, she left it somewhat neutral. "I ran out of rounds. Thank you for helping me out."

"Well, it's a good thing I came when I did," the girl, known as Riyame from Team Chaotix said. "But seeing as you're all alone out here, I'm guessing you were seperated from your team, right? We're in the same boat then." The older Gunner sighed as she briefly glanced up at the sky. "I actually thought you were my partner since who else would be fighting in the forest all alone, right? Sadly she ran off at the first smell of Invaders....I swear, that girl sometimes. Anyway, we should probably get you back to your team."

As Riyame said this, she noticed the way one of Cellica's legs wobbled and quivered. Narrowing her one eye, she swiftly scooped up the other girl and held her in a cradle with her arms. "That looks sprained and I know holding up that Invader couldn't have done well for it. Come on, we can keep moving like this," she said, already beginning to move at a light jogging place. She held Cellica carefully in her arms; there was no rush. She knew R.R. could handle herself if need be and she had little doubt there was cause to worry. Though it was still annoying when her partner kept hounding every enemy in sight without second thought....

It seemed that Riyame had worked things out on her own - Cellica was indeed seperated from her team, though she couldn't help but admit to herself that it was her fault for delving too far into her thoughts in the first place. She had both failed to keep a visual contact with her team and focus on where she was going as the person in the lead. It-

Cellica almost jumped as she was scooped off of the ground, though it did take a lot of pressure off of her leg. "Thank you," the girl says, taking the time to load round after round into Thumper now that she was out of the fight. "If you can, head us toward the nearest scanner. That's where my team was going, and there's someone in it that can look at my leg."

---

While the time went by in its inexorable ways, the majority of squads of trainees seemed to be going about their missions at the expected pace. Except perhaps for the small encounters with the invaders that some of them had, nothing was out of order. However, not all squads seemed to share the same fate as was the case of Afterglow and their lost Gunner, right at the beginning of the mission.

In fact, this occurrence would likely get evident for Celica’s teammates, when the lack of a proper scout or team formation resulted in three invaders creeping into Fiore and Tian-Gui from a set of nearby ruins. Thanks to Fiore’s drone, the duo would have a few moments of advance to react. What they would do next is entirely up to them.

Meanwhile, Yui’s Gang would find an unexpected sight of a whole different category as they advanced on their mission. As they approached some wetlands that likely formed when rainwater caused the ground to crumble, they would find a few seriously damaged, abandoned mobile suits. Each of the once impressive machines looked like it dated at least several years ago, possibly even as far back as the tie of the Second Genesis itself. While the rotting pieces of metal didn’t seem to represent anything special or hold anything of value, at first sight, the wetlands were a whole other case. Traversing them was the shortest route to the sensor they sought, but was it worth it? Only the trainees could decide whether or not it was useful to do so, lose time to go around or search for another sensor.

---

---

“Oh. Oh yeah! Right, right, you’re fucking right. You’re one of those other teams,” was R.R.’s reply. She nodded along as Akari began introducing each girl one by one. When she finished off with herself, pointing to indicate who she was, R.R. grinned wider with teeth shown off. She shuffled in place, as if wagging an invisible tail. “Right, right. I’ve seen you around sometimes. Don’t much talk to you but you must be the other teams for those…sensor things. That’s fucking great!”

Then Lucia spoke up and R.R. turned to her. She held the other Striker’s gaze curiously for a second more before answering. “Ehh…uh, well…I kind of chased off the first fucking Invader I saw and…got separated?” R.R. scratched at her hair sheepishly from the meek response. It had been a rookie mistake, one no doubt the higher ups would complain about, let alone Riyame. Especially Riyame. “I’m pretty sure Riyame’s looking for me but I don’t wanna be yelled at. So, I can just fucking stick around with you guys! That way I’m not slacking!”

R.R. glanced at Akari for confirmation if that was alright, only to hesitantly look between Lucia and Kuni. Come to think of it, she didn’t know who the leader of Team Novae even was and who to address here. But it hardly mattered since, in her mind, she had already been accepted for her offer. “I can even show you the closest sensor too! I think I spotted it on my way here. But just to be sure, we should follow your Linker. Er, which one of you’s that again?”

As she said this, the distant sound of gunshots rang out in the forest. A flock of birds that had been nestling in the trees up high scattered and squawked as the sound of bullets disturbed their rest. Only another Gunner could give off such a loud opening call and R.R. wondered if it was her teammate or another team. Regardless, it wasn’t her battle to leap into anymore.

Despite the sudden appearance of R.R. and combat, Team Novae weren’t that much far off from their designated target. A bit sidetracked of course, but it would take the team no less than a few minutes made up quickly. If they chose to move along, the sensor would appear in view in no time. If there were Invaders about, they had either moved on to other locations or had already been dealt with by Team Chaotix.

---

Mila looked back at Mavis when she pat her, acknowledging her display of affection and wondered for a moment if she should answer it in some way, but decided against it. The cyborg's attention was brought back to the matter at hand when she heard Subaru's voice through Neptune as it floated close to them, Mila looking up at the drone circling over them. It was an impressive piece of technology, to be sure.

Mavis moved fast, like she usually did, but Mila hesitated a few seconds. Her eyes went from her hand holding sweets to the Osprey in which she knew Subaru remained. Now was not the time to play social, so Mila instead quickly grabbed her enormous canon and followed Mavis through the portal. She knew what to expect on the other side: Mavis on the look out.

Mila activated something in her programming and her vision changed to allow her to see all kind of graphs, numbers and other useful information. This allowed her to calculate with infinite precision the ideal distance at which she had to remain from her front-lines partner to remain at utmost efficiency. Also, she quickly spotted the enemies which were lurking close by. After a quick scan, she spoke up.

"Mavis, Tangos on the right." she pointed her gun at them "Their identity as invaders is confirmed, Subaru's preliminary scan was accurate." The sound of Iron Saga's generator charging up was heard, but the deadly discharge never came. Instead, Mila lowered her weapon and looked at Mavis. "The enemy does not appear to be hostile." Specifically into the comm, she added "Leaving them as such and proceeding might mean any hostile engagements ahead will have reinforcements incoming from our backs. Should we dispose of them now, or take the risk?"

All the while, Mila was ready to fire if any hostile move were made against the duo or the Drone accompanying them.

It takes approximately five and a half minutes for Fiore to realize Cellica is missing.

At first, when the Gunner ran ahead, Fiore supposed she was just clearing the perimeter of any threats, but now it occurs to her that Cellica is nowhere to be seen. Even using her psychic drive doesn’t pick up any signals—Fiore could use her drone, but first, it seems logical to alert Tian-Gui to the Gunner’s disappearance.

“Tian-Gui, can you recall which direction Cellica ran off to? She’s… gone. Let me see if I can contact her.” Switching on her communications device, however, makes no difference to the situation as Fiore is presented with nothing but static.

Tian-Gui tried the comms as well, firing off a few messages before shaking his head. Beginner mistake, not testing the comms out before heading out first. “She went forward,” he replied, looking off to the buildings in the distance. “Bring up the map and formulate a path based off her past movements, Fiore. We can probably figure it out from there.”

The titan sucked in a breath. Slightly uncomfortable, but then again, better to share info than to not. “I’ll go report to the Lieutenant about this.”

“Oh…” Fiore brings her hands up to her mouth, biting a nail nervously. What if Cellica gets lost? What if Cellica gets hurt!? “You’re right. We should focus on finding her; the mission will have to wait.”

Soon, however, it becomes obvious that Cellica is not the only thing the two have to worry about. Activating her mini-map, Fiore notices the three Invaders closing in around them; while it is lucky that she spotted them in advance, it doesn’t bode well to enter into combat without a full squad.

“Invaders coming from the south,” Fiore reports, setting a path towards where she hopes Cellica will be. “We shouldn’t spend much time fighting. Cellica only has herself to rely on.”

“Lieutenant Isoshima, this is Tian-Gui Jian from Team Afterglow. We’ve lost contact with Cellica Karis, and will be moving to recover her.” After that curt message, the armored Striker promptly lifted Fiore up onto his shoulder, turned to the direction that Cellica should have gone, and broke off into a run.

The Invaders were faster, for sure, and neither of them had access to ranged weaponry. And if that was the case...well, dude’s gotta do what a dude’s gotta do.

“Guide me, Fiore. And give me a warning when those Invaders reach twenty meters of us.”

“R-right!” Despite feeling a bit like a sack of potatoes slung over somebody’s shoulder, Fiore closes her eyes and tries to concentrate, relying on her psychic drive to catch any relevant information.

“There’s a shortcut through a bit of forest to the left! If you think you can avoid the trees, it could be something we could use to our advantage!”

“I’ll just charge straight through. Hold on tight!”

Picking up the pace, Tian-Gui’s feet pounded through the ruptured terrain, his white mane glowing as psychic energy flowed through his body and empowered him. Behind, the Invaders, quadrupedal monstrosities of metal and flesh hummed ever more vibrantly, approaching closer with each step. And then, shifting his body so it was sideways, keeping Fiore away from the brunt of the branches, Tian-Gui rammed straight through. Leaves scattered and branches snapped against his titanic might, one hand shielding his Linker from flying debris, while the other swept around to rip trees out of his path, tossing them behind him in order to stall the Invaders.

As for Fiore, squeezing her eyes shut and bracing for the impact that never came seemed like the best course of action. It’s only after the panic subsides that she can open her eyes and take stock of the situation, both of the invaders and of their current position.

First: after being hit by the barrage of greenery, the invaders have sustained minor injuries, but more importantly, they’re angry.

Second: the first checkpoint is not too far from here, which could perhaps be used as a temporary safehouse.

Unfortunately, Fiore is so out of breath these facts come out in a series of gasps.

“S-station… Not far… They’re right behind us…!” Please let Cellica be okay, please let her be close…

Crashing through the last few trees, Tian-Gui leapt up into the air and skid to a halt, armored boots leaving deep tracks through the grass and dirt. Still positioning himself sideways, the armored titan dug deep into his psychic powers once more as the Invaders caught up in no time at all.

They were angry and injured, no doubt ready to end it all, and the Striker was prepared as well. Blue eyes burned with resplendence as the quadrupedal mechs leaped up, and Tian-Gui’s voice matched their own siren cry in volume.

“FLAMESTONE PHALANX!”

An instant before the three monsters reached him, three golden crosses burst from the ground, skewering and then lifting them up into the air. Dark fluids ran down the aureate constructions as the Invaders struggled, but it was all for naught. Against a foe that specialized in pure brute force, a moment’s of mobility was fatal.

Tian-Gui reached out and, one by one by one, crushed their heads in his hands.

“...”

“...YEAAHHHH!”

In an uncharacteristic move for the young woman, Fiore raises one fist, sucks in a deep breath, and screams as loudly as she can. Perhaps it was the adrenaline; perhaps Fiore had really lost her marbles. Either way, she throws her arms around Tian-Gui’s metal form for a quick and uncomfortable hug before slipping down, down, and down until her feet touch the ground.

“That was,” Fiore says, still trembling, “pretty awesome. Are you hurt? Am I hurt?” Performing a quick checkup on herself, she finds nothing wrong and turns to survey the damage. “Okay. O-kay. We should… go that way. Cellica must be nearby.”

Tian-Gui laughed at the display, his own merriment echoing through his grand helmet as he placed a hand over Fiore's head as well. It was a small victory, all things considered. His Psychic Drive would have allowed him the ability to handle more Invaders than just that, but the petite Linker's exuberance was infectious, and he couldn't help but feel pretty good about that minor fight. Brushing a twig out of her hair as she checked up on herself, the golden titan nodded at her words. "I'll send out a global comm message. Maybe one of the other teams had spotted her."

With that, he switched on his communications again, this time directing a message to all nearby Yamato students.

"This is Tian-Gui Jian of Team Afterglow. Our Gunner, Cellica Karris, has gone missing. If you find her, check to see if her comms are working, and reply to us immediately. We will be heading to Point D-4 right now. Thank you, and have a nice day!"

---

"Tangos? Nah, I like flamenco a lot more, but if that’s your taste I guess I can go along with it," Mavis replied when Mila pointed to the presence of nearby enemies. Of course she knew what the other girl meant to say, but that kind of jargon was funny nonetheless, right? "Anyway, we can take them down if it gives up peace of mind, but… let me tell you a piece of vital battlefield wisdom.

‘Stay cool.’

Before you do anything else just remember this, alright?" Mavis said as she — tried to — cross an arm around Mila’s neck and drag the taller girl to her level. "Just look at Subaru for example," she said, taking a glance at the drone that floated silently besides them, "she’s so cool it feels like you are staring at an iceberg, right? That’s the kind of attitude you gotta have if you wanna survive for long enough in the battlefield. Right… buddy?"

"We should keep moving. According to the mission data, one of the sensors we need repair is right there," Subaru’s said through Neptune, while pointing at the roof of a building not that far away from their current position. "There are more invaders in that direction, about three or four more," she added.

"By the way, Celica went missing. Even though her team went in the opposite direction, keep an eye open for anything out of order," Subaru said in her her usual sleepy voice.

"Will do," Mavis replied.

"Now then. As the our Gunner, threat assessment is part of your duty. We will fight anyone you think we need to but, in the meanwhile, we should get going. Those batteries won’t swap themselves!"

---

Being carried allowed Cellica to think of the events that had just happened, and think about what she could have done better. One of the improvements that topped her mind was not losing focus, as that was what had placed her in such a position in the first place. If she had only paid attention, she would still be with her team and not had lost one of her advantages, her speed. It troubled her slightly at the ease of which she had managed to drift from scouting ahead to her team to losing her mind in thought.

And even when Cellica had the speed, she herself thought she had failed to utilise it properly. She could have ran from the fight before it had even started, if not that then simply relocating herself quickly to a better position would have supported her. The girl had underestimated the amount of foes that she had been facing, and had almost cost dearly for it - five more rounds, or five less foes, and she would have won the fight with ease. She found it hard to be proud of her performance when she had been almost helplessly knocked to the ground and forced down.

Part of that she had to say was Thumper's design. Whilst it had the ability to take out some number of minor Invaders, it was more-so designed for larger, stronger foes. It was power over ammo capacity, and just didn't suit packs of Invaders without someone with either a Gunner with a faster-firing weapon or a Striker present.

Designed for the fight she had been cast into or not, it was Cellica's fault for getting into it in the first place.

"Hey, have you turned on your comm links?" Riyame's single eye kept straight ahead though it didn't detract from her sensing the area around them. As any Gunner should be expected of, she was making quick pace, leaping from patch to patch and jogging at a pace where time wasn't loss. "There's a Team Afterglow asking about you. Must be where you're from." She looked down to grin at the mute girl. "Point D-4 isn't too far from here. I've got a general sense of the area so it shouldn't take too long to reach there. You've got a good team if they care this much for you. Though you should probably relay to them yourself and tell them we're heading over."

Have I turned on my comms? Cellica couldn't help but be a little panicky as she checked her communications device. The answer became clear in an instant; she had not turned on her comms at all. The girl was sure that she had looked at the comm unit several times during the flight to the mission area, and struggled to remember if she had turned it on, or perhaps turned it off for the flight and forgot to turn it back on once they had landed. She figured it was the latter, but realised that the former was a definate possibility.

Turning it on, Cellica held her wrist to the reciever, letting the speech bracelet rest beside it so she could speak into it. It was then she hesitated -
what was she going to say? That she had been stupid and forgot to turn on her communications unit? She decided to keep it simple, and face the consequences when she actually met up with them.

She hesitated once again just as she was about to start speaking, taking a moment to wonder if it was safer to message one of them instead of both of them. Which one would be more annoyed? Though she looked up to him, Tian-Gui was a little intimidating as it was - telling him that she was safe without actually telling him what happened would most likely bring suspicion, and most likely scolding. Fiore, on the other hand, seemed like a slightly safer bet - Cellica found it a little hard to imagine Fiore being too mad at her. With her cheat of only messaging one of them having been decided as her course of action, Cellica felt a little safer. Setting the communications unit so it only spoke to Fiore, she let her speech bracelet do the talking.

"Fiore, it's Cellica. I'm safe, and with Riyame from Team Chaotix. We're almost at Point D-4. We'll meet you there."

Cellica shut off her speech bracelet after that, not feeling like talking any more. It was harder than she had thought to say what she had to say. She knew that questions were going to be asked, and she was not looking forward to it. Tilting her head up, she gave Riyame a small nod.

"Alright, that wasn't so bad. I'm sure they're not too mad at you. If they were, I don't think they'd have sent a wide-spread message out...." With that said, Riyame picked up the pace and zipped past the tree-line. In just a few short minutes they had reached the destination, the two of them stumbling before the rest of Team Afterglow. "You must be Cellica's team?" Riyame asked, still holding the girl precariously.

“That's a big no from me, Pubert,” Yui replied to the undergrown youth, “if we get ganked, we'd have to deal with two nerds trying to fuss with batteries while our nonnegotiable gunner pal has to deal with all of them. With explosions. While they to take our juicy man goo. From two feet away, I'd say.” Her tone was laced with a bit of venom, but still remained in her normal tongue-in-cheek tone. With a hop, skip, and a second skip, she was off to the races. She followed Falk away from their flying mobile base, trusting in his decision.

“Well, if they're following us, we don't gotta worry about where to go. Pubert, get on my ass and body block for me. Falk, uh, you do you. I don't know how the gunner 'do'.”

Yui forged a path for the three compatriots, giving a soft whistle as she forged a path. Slowly, the ground began to squish and ick. It was soft and muddy. Yui didn't really like it at all. In fact, for a Striker, muddy ground was one of the biggest obstacles they had to overcome. If the ground was soft, your power was reduced. There was a chance of slipping and the low range of strikers meant that they had to overcome the soft earth to get to their targets. Of course, Falk could make a bridge between trees. That was stupid, though. If they were ganked, they were now fighting on a wire bridge and/or trees. Plus, they all got that comms message from Afterglow about a lost child.

“Let's go detour out of this mud. I'd rather flop around on collapsing buildings rather than gunk up my shoes.”

Yui had taken a leader's role. She was garbage at it, but she had taken it.