The collective push was a sight to behold. From the heavies utterly smashing up the remainder of the gallery and the garden, with Artemis throwing everything, from exo-clad soldiers, male and female, to local Moroccan Army troops that were charging in armed with G3s and G36 rifles of their own, to other local Gendarmes coming in, the place was a fucking mess of fire, bullet casings and people getting hit with hammers, swords and hooks. There's something utterly mental about it, this whole scene feels like within one little pocket of Marrakesh's many, the place was being turned upside down, shaken about, and the coins were being flung everywhere.

Purna and Sam had done well to secure the biolaboratory- the one inside which had the compound needed neutralising, and fast. Purna had noted Sam's observations, replying in turn to her and her concern.
"Noted. This is strange. I do not know much about it, Chaos, but if she has multiple bodies, it's possible this is a test. An experiment. But perhaps there is our problem." Purna replied, looking at the tank, the gunfire getting louder, and louder.
"I'll cover that corner. You have that one." Purna replied, flicking a new mag into his MP5, slapping the thing as he got set.

---

The heavies were turning the tide, and with their presence, Ebrima was no doubt seeing first hand why Raven didn't mess around. The sheer number of troops being thrown was insane, but there wasn't stopping three heavies in the mix. Not with that sort of attitude they were carrying, at least. Whilst they may have towered, nobody of an entirely sane disposition would charge into the fire like that, and the troops trying to counter the counter-attack were at least now getting the picture. Nobody was going through them.

But they didn't have long, anywhere close to enough time to get through without there being some disruption.

Adam carried Henry over his shoulder, moving with a certain pace to him, Ebrima leaping across from out of the garden to the buildings, using the roofs to flank, whilst the heavies punctured to the end of the garden, past the fire. Moving to the tent, Adam looks to Purna, noting the heavies securing the perimeter, and getting set inside.

"Good. Let's not all stay here. Boomer, find a way to burn that tank, then back us up. Scion, Nord, you have point, Boaro, follow on them and pick off any flanks while they push through from the rooftops. We are headed that way, into the market, marker points should guide us to the square. I'll back you up, but I need to be careful with the VIP. Viper, get back to rooftops and pick off anyone else on our way there, go long. Chaos, stay close to me." Adam called, the team reinforced, and a little more in one place.

With it, the team had places to go. Purna nodded quietly, and with it, headed back out, as the heavies continued on the ground, towards the market.

The fight out of the garden was intense, but Artemis had learned, and had pulled back, taking their loss. That said, that meant a different kind of problem. Like a rogue elephant, they weren't the main team's problem now. They were rampaging anywhere they wanted, and that meant a different kind of problem not five minutes away, as the heavies kept point, Adam followed behind through the dusty Souk alleys, with Boaro and Chaos. Viper had already returned to the rooftops, and picked off a couple of spotters already, using his grapple to pull up before breaking into a run, matching the pace of the team below, Mk14 in hand, using it to pick off any other spotters, or loose exos on the roofs now. Decloaked and visible, Boaro would pick him up if he looked, but with the pace he carried, it would be difficult.

---

There were more civilians running out, but well, gunfire had that effect. Even those stubborn to move were getting it now, and Blue Sword troops, Artemis and anyone else was in full chaos. The extraction point was a hard bubble to hold open, but they had it for now in Jemaa-el-Fnaa.

"Wilk, where the hell are you! We have you a window, you need to be here, now!" Athena yelled into the comms, the large steps clattering concrete, the Valkyrie's Warhawk getting a small smattering of rounds as she blasted back, Stream-level electricity pouring out of the coil, flashing concrete and an entrenched position of Moroccan Army that were being backed up by Artemis troops, the reply back not one she found satisfactory."

"We're running, headed en route with the VIP, we have resistance!"

"Well, you really aren't kicking enough ass, aren't you? Fine, I'll split the difference!" Athena boomed back in return. She was done with this bullshit, her patience gone and well, when you had the capability she did, well, you could make that excuse. And she wasn't gonna back down. Turning the corner as she ran into the souk herself, an RPG flew by and Athena replied with a zap of the thing out of air instead of the Trophy, before then turning the energy on the coil and skewering the guy into two, cackling from how hard this shit was going.

With a thump, Athena looked down the alley, watching on as more Artemis soldiers turned from entrenching to seeing her just come for them now. There's a presence to her, almost like a larger-than-life aura that of course exuded from what she did. There were no Blue Sword soldiers with her. This one was hers. And well, moving with pace, she caught more rounds, hardly stopping as she turned up the dial, civies now fully out of way, and brought it to bear, as one lobbed a grenade, chattering dust upwards yet not stopping the arcing, bouncing electricity that found its mark. The charred ash left a mark, as another RPG flew past, Athena skidding to a halt as an exo soldier tried to leap on her, the guy hitting hard in her head, as she flung him off and into a wall, flicking one of the swords out and with an eloquent, jump-jet fuelled turn turning his throat into kebab, flinging it like a mannequin down the alley, using her coil to then use the body as a fry point.

The noise of gunfire not at her rang out, and the sound of what was an MRAP skidding down the road was more audible. Fuck, that wasn't good. They were headed directly for Adam and team. With a leap, Athena activated the jump jets on Warhawk's chassis, and with it, flung up yet mostly forwards, clearing the 20ft of distance between her and it's incoming presence, barely fitting through the tight alley. There's a look in her eye as the MRAP turned the corner and went into the parting of the alley where they both met, and Athena intercepted them before it could even make way towards the team, a 40mm grenade launcher on top blaring out rounds in the general direction of the team. They'd be feeling the heat. But, they'd turn their heads and see someone as tall as their MRAP flying towards it like a two and a half meter projectile with a motherfucking sword in left hand, gigantic tesla coil in right.

With a crash, Athena bonked the MRAP and basically smashed in the front right glass and right door, turning the coil inwards and with a brap, blasting the doors wide off, pretty much eviscerating everyone inside with a bloody spray. With almost a tempered look, the Blue Sword operations commander stared at the team, down the alley, the gold-visored, dark navy coloured heavy letting shattered glass fall about, shaking her head.
"Don't stare, I get enough." Athena tsk'd, and with it, Athena looked down and stepped off the deformed bonnet of the MRAP, dusting herself off as the comms flared back into life before Adam could reply.

"Boss, we've got way more resistance coming in. Wait, is that a....fuck, Valkyrie, we have IFVs and a mech here, we're under a lot of shit!" The comms from Blue Sword was panicked, and certainly now not equipped for what was a condensed firefight that was now not just consuming the garden, but what felt like a good chunk of the market. The Blue Sword troops were exposed out in the larger square- Jemaa el-Fnaa was a teeming mess of stalls, rather than the tight, labyrinth-like alleys of the Souk, a very short walk away from where the team were right now.

"Valkyrie, if your team cannot hold, pull them back, we will find another way out." Adam said to her in response, Athena shaking her head, turning and covering the alley where she'd come from, and the pile of fried bodies still smelling like a wet, horrid static-y vapour.

"That's a negative. I'm off to go fucking scorch their point. We aren't running. We're fighting them." Athena said, blunt, Adam angry, and yet now realising shit, of course. Priorities, Adam walking directly in front of her, Athena looking directly, committedly down at him.

"Valkyrie, the VIP is priority. Kurwa, no way." Adam replied, Athena walking direct up to him even closer now, staring him straight now, the heat of the moment for the younger giantess of the three siblings not really backing down at all.

"Sounds like a you problem, you're with me and you're getting a ride....or you can go back the way you came! You still got ammo? If not, plenty of dead goons where I came from with guns!" Athena barked back, the chirp not one that she would back down from. Athena wasn't taking no for an answer. In fact, she was going to lead them through.

There's an uncertainty to it. No doubt JamJam was not gonna be happy, but then again, he'd understand Athena cared for her teams, even if she was a little vapid. They were the people she paid, kept in line, and well, were right now taking a lot more than just a little bit of fire their end. A little logic to it existed, but Adam didn't like this. They were going towards the gunfire, not away. And with a VIP to get to transport, even if it was armoured, there was always the fact that this was going to go longer than it should have.

With that, he replied in mind of what was going on, knowing he wasn't going to say no to a ride. Not that she made it easy, but fuck, he wished she could see the picture here. Henry was quite seriously one of the only leads they had, and any way out now if that one was getting hotter than expected would be critical. He was still soundly asleep, that knockout gas certainly hitting like one hell of a drug right now. Once he woke up, he was going to be very, very dazed. As for Athena, he'd have words later. She certainly wouldn't agree, but there was no telling her not to go do this.

"Fine. Have it your way, but on your head. Tell them to get an armoured truck to the gate and pull back to our souk's gate, minimise how exposed they are because they'll get fucking shredded in the square. And we need to secure Henry at least. Team, push through the market and we need to get to Jemaa-el-Fnaa and neutralise hostiles. Boomer, Scion, you are up front, but stay the fuck out of the IFVs and mechs, not without having something to unload into them. Boaro, pick off enemies on rooftops, stay mobile and keep RPGs off our point. Chaos, I need you to find a way to take out that mech, priority target. Viper, you're with Boaro. Fuck, how did they sneak that thing in in?"

"Glad you see it that way Captain. I don't leave my men behind. Looks like you can hide anything in a market this big. We have some supplies at the trucks. And we have some tricks up our sleeves." Athena replied, back on the front again as another set of troops set up, 40mils blasting down the alley, as Athena just ran into it, then bringing the coil to bear. With a blast, the coil smashed the aluminium shacks they were hiding behind to bits, laying down cover and giving an opportunity for the others to make hay through it and press through the maze-like alleys.
"Covering, move!" She yelled, knowing JamJam was here again, and she wanted to say hi, something to him, but she knew the tag team was back. Heading back to the market, there was pockets of resistance, but between them, they were sweeping it up well. That said, as soon as they would get to the market, it would turn from just the condensed chaos of the alleys, to the wide open fire that was going to rage beyond.

---

”Did he just say ‘Mech’?” Ebrima sounded almost annoyed, ”Pick a side.” He offered to the Gurkha before making his way upstairs himself. Ebrima was glad he got sent up top. Yes, having been raised in Central Africa’s rainforests, he thrived in close quarters. Heck, it was one of the pillars he built his career on. But not having to mind stragglers when shooting was better. He had to hauů ass to keep slightly ahead of the main team, but not too far ahead in case someone came at them from behind. ”Chaos, if you still have drones up, would appreciate early warning.” He asked as he sent two frag grenades over the heads of a machine gunner and his assistant mid-leap, slamming a new magazine of frags into the M25 and transitioning to the rifle. He kept it moving, thinking less like an infantryman and almost like a fighter pilot - don’t move in a straight line for long, attack with speed and altitude - until he misjudged the material of the roof on landing and crashed through into the room below, feeling something moving under the piece of corrugated metal under his feet.

Three heads, two regular and one exo, snapped to face him. One immediately erupted into pink mist as an armor piercing round went through it. Ebrima’s brow furrowed when the exo-clad operative grabbed the other guy to use as a shield, a surprised “Wat de fok?!” indicating this wasn’t standard Artemis procedure. Some leader this was. Not that he sympathized with the South African, just that his commander pissed him off, even more so when the meat shield turned into a meat missile launched at Ebrima. He dodged him quite easily, leaving a foot behind to help the hapless guy on the ground. A groan from under the metal sheet he initially landed on confirmed the guy under it was still a factor as well. Boraro got his weapon up quick, but the Artemis Exo had a head start, a salvo of 9x18 mm from a PP-19 hammering against Ebrima’s chestplate. In true Russian fashion, the weapon’s designer seemed to compensate quality with quantity and gave his creation 64 round helical magazines, and although neither bullet found any weak spots, it would be a big bruise tomorrow.

The endless stream of lead was only interrupted by the MDR’s barked reply, the Artemis operative recoiling just enough for Ebrima to close in and grab the business end of his weapon and wrench it away from his face. Unfortunately, the other guy had the same idea, landing them in a bit of a stalemate. After a few seconds of pulling at each others’ guns, Ebrima took advantage of his enclosed helmet over the Artemis Exo open-faced design and headbutted him in the face, letting go of the Bison a split second later and throwing the other guy off balance, buying himself enough time to draw his kukri. A quick slash across the torso caught the sling and disconnected the Bison from its wielder, allowing Ebrima to hold the kukri under his right arm and yank the Russian submachine gun away and throw it to his right side. A dull thud and a hissed “Ow!” confirmed he hit roughly what he was aiming at, but the Artemis exo made good use of his now-empty hand and grabbed Ebrima’s rifle with both.

The Cameroonian made the mistake of fully trusting the sling and grabbed the kukri again to make sure he didn’t drop it, but with a sharp pull and a rip of tearing nylon, his weapon left his grip. Okay, now the guy was just copying Ebrima’s homework and slightly changing the answers. The pale merc pushed forward, under no circumstance intending to allow the other guy to aim. The kukri never stopped as Ebrima circled around the other man, the Artemis operative too busy using the stolen rifle as a shield to keep the Nepali blade away from his unprotected face to use it for its intended purpose. Moving around turned out to be a prudent decision, as it allowed him to see the South African picking up the Bison and put the enemy exo between himself and the Russian lead hose. The spray hammered against the back of the artemis exo like rain against a metal roof, the exo and shooter both startled by that turn of events enough for Ebrima to lean around him and finally shut the South African up with his USP, raising his left knee to catch the descending head of the exo operative a split second later as he bent over from the spray, following up with a kukri under the armpit as he straightened up from the blow. Exosuit or not, functioning with that was difficult, even if Ebrima wasn’t sure if he got the axillary artery or not, but the slowdown was enough for Ebrima to shove the USP into a soft spot and keep shooting until the noises stopped.

Another safety round belonged to the South African.

The man under the rubble finally got himself from underneath it just in time to be shot in the face before Ebrima retrieved his rifle, hastily tied the torn sling together and jumped back up to the rooftops to rejoin the fight. ”Still alive.”

Tiny pushed on his shield, being more of a crutch for the poorly geared leg. He began to resent the Russians who had made the exo-suit of an ancient time, but he did enjoy its sturdiness. It was something else, able to take a bunch, and he was thankful that it was strong enough to be taken down almost exclusively by large calibers, large explosions, and the eventual thing that got stuck in its mechanical joints, or eats its wiring like a squirrel that one time. But the legs were the weakest part of his armor, he assumed that was what was wrong, or at least that something got knocked loose in the joints of his knee. But problems for later, he has had broken legs before, and he has seen Forrest Gump before, he saw that kid run on those braces.

He stopped for a moment as he reached the next wall and stopped for a second before pushing against it with his shield, "I fuckin' knew I should have brought the 20; they have a mech?" he asked as he pressed against the wall to go through it, not like there wasn't a door or anything he could have used. It might have been too small for him, but it's best to just... Go through it all, he still had enough mechanical power for walls. His shield reeled back for a moment as the nice rounded corner square chunk of wall departed, and he kept moving faster against the next wall. He disliked using his shield in such a brutish way; he already had to get dents out of it and enough bullets and fragmentation, but the stone scraped; he didn't like some of the noises, mostly the ones that sounded like teeth-grinding together.

But it seemed like an efficient way to get through the building, he only wished he hit a hallway first instead of what looked to be some form of living room, or guest room. Some old memories flooded back with the style of interior design and decorating of those within the Islamic world, even the far reaches such as this, but it did bring back a group of memories, good and bad. But, for now, he didn't notice any doors of beads that hung from archways.

He was thankful to not get stuck in those... again, but there was a small hallway, and there it was a garden. A sharp clang came from his back as something hit him, he did not know what, he could not see or pivot around, but he figured it couldn't hurt him, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something that looked to be a scimitar bouncing from his back and landing from the ground, it seems the wielder did not enjoy hitting him either.

"I have a bug on me if anyone behind me can get it, I can't turn well in this building." another wall collapsed, he felt what seemed to be some form of rifle on his back, and he finally got fed up with it to see a young man with an old martini henry rifle trying to reload. The man slowly plucked it from his hands, and lifted the belt up hoping it would come off with the rest of the ammo, it didn't, so he tugged until it came off. He looked at the scimitar, and pushed the younger man against the far fall to retrieve his new loot before turning back to the shield.

"Fucking cool." he said as he started to charge the next door, "It's like fucking Iraq all over again with guys using weapons from the British empire, dude had a fucking sword and a martini-henry. I just got shot by a gun older than all of us."

The door shattered as he looked at the garden, and he looked around for a moment. "Okay, I could find only one combatant, and he is armed to fight with Lawrence of Arabia. Now... if nobody minds, I need about a minute of quick repairs 'cause there is a fucking dent from the Fake Irish bastard outside and my leg is starting to hurt from being stuck."

Jamie nodded, "I'll back Boomer up. Never know when another pair of hands is needed." He jogged along to catch up to thr other man. As they went he peeked out a window and slowed. A wall of flames and screaming outside a short ways off. Only a few people he knew could do that kind of thing. When a wall of force...death...go with a little column A and B roared he nodded, "Thena's about. Just one more and the whole team would be here. Then it'd be a party..." He chuckles and runs to catch up. Passing by Chuck as he worked. Peeking outside again. Then whistling randomly.

The team of Artemis and local army who walked to the beat of the enemy organization looked up. They had been sure they were in a safe flank ready to.jump that tent one of theirs had spotted. They leveled weapons and fired up at the giant thing up there. Rounds whispering and hissing off the armored form. Jamie frowned and almost casually looked back at Boomer as he worked, "Almost done? Good." Jamie reached out the window and dropped several grenades out after he pulled the pins from them. The fighters below scrambling and a quintuplet of thumps from the concussion grenades went off. Jamiebthen leans over and blazed several seconds of rounds from his Vepy down onto them sending a few to meet their makers. And a few more to scramble away their ambush foiled.

Scionnquickly rushed to get out with Boomer, hearing orders to rake point and move for extract. He sighed , "Scion copies." He growled out, back to business. His armor whirring and the power pack buzzes enhancing his speed as the big man zips forward to get ahead of the starting exodus.

And he starts it by dropping a barrage of rockets into the area between them and the extract area. Flushing enemy out of hiding. The big man chuckled, "A good start."

---

A certain Battle Goddess

A medical trainer stood beside the tall woman.

"Careful now..."

The chain on the exercise machine unspoiled as Freya pulled on the bar, exercising her arm. She'd had enough rest. The team is still out and about. She didn't want to keep them.hanging doe too long.

She let the bar fall them again.

"Careful is one thing sir...ahhh...I need to be ready. I need...uh...to stand by my team and friends again!"

The trainer nodded, " I understand that dear. But you don't...." She trailed off ad Freya pulled again and the thick steel pin holding up near 450 pounds sheared off and the weights slammed to the ground....again.

Freya grinned, "Getting there."

The gym sergeant collated, " Damn it woman! The next one is out of your pay cheque!" The trainer sighing, "fourth one this week..."

Freya rolled her shoulder smiling brightly.

---

Omake
May or may not be canon

Whiiirrrrr-clang....keeeerk-whump...

The sound of the work out room foe the big people in Perth is a buzz. Three giants work up a froth.

Jamie pounds the dumbells. Arms heaving as he goes.

Athena on her back, big beautiful and bodacious as she works at the heavy bar, lifting no less then 400.

And Freya works at the power lifting bar. Snatching and grabbing better then some world competitors.

The sound of their work out, like the beat of a song.

After abit. Jamie starts to hum a bass beat. "Ba da da dum..." over and over. The click of thr bar as Athena lifts is joined by lyrics, " Oh...sweet dreams are made of these..." And soon joined by Freya as she heaves her bar over her head, "Ah, who am I to disagree!"

Jamie coniutes to provide the bass to the song as his sisters sing. " We travel the world and the seven seas..."

Curiously Blue Sword mercy stop at the door. Listening to thr impromptu show within. Victor and Natalie stopping during their business to listen to their talented kids.

"Every body looking for something..."

The trio kept.working out, joined in a sibling moment. None of the mercs or their parents would say anything later. A beautiful moment of family really.

Sometimes Chaos Comes To You

---

Samantha had been tasked with taking down the mech by Wilk. She trusted that Boomer had the destruction of the toxin in hand. She had lost her commandeered drones in supporting actions. She had hacked them and turned them on their own men. They had helped distract and take out guards when Purna was fighting his way out of the residence. Artemis troops had taken them out with extreme prejudice. Samantha still had Bob monitoring her temporary button cameras that she had slapped up around the area on her way in. Samantha had been standing on top of the wall to assess what was going on around Athena and the Blue Fire operatives when she received Boraro’s message about giving him a heads up.

Samantha took a moment to review the footage around where the team was and where they were moving too. She was not surprised to confirm the IFV’s and the mech close to the Blue Fire Team. Samantha gave the update over team coms. “Boraro movement spotted to the south of you. Looks like local allied criminal forces are trying to come up behind you. They are moving through homes and alleyways and avoiding the main streets. They are spreading out in an arc. There is a two person team with an RPG launcher to the East in an alleyway that lets out into the main road of the souk, there is what looks like a sniper and spotter team setting up on the roof terrace of that white three story building that looks like a tower. There is a five man fire team converging on the garden from the west through a merchant home and shop. They are currently in the alleyway next to the restaurant with the yellow sign.” Samantha gasped as Bob interrupted her with an identified high value target of opportunity. “High value target identified leading the fire team. Bomb maker for hire Friedrich Koch.”

Samantha pulled her attention back to her objective. She needed to get to the mech and figure out a way to take it down. Samantha used her parkour skills to get down the wall bouncing from one wall to the other where it met on the outside of the garden. Samantha began to run in a crazy random pattern designed to make her a harder target to hit. She began to move as fast as possible. Her goal was to make it to the mech. She already knew she would have to hack its hardware or sabotage it manually. First she had to get there.

Blue Sword was engaged with the enemy. Samantha was surprised when three men who looked like more of the same criminal elements lunged for her out of an alleyway she was passing. Her reflexes had her flipping out of the enemy’s hands with a kick to their jaw launching them backwards. She used the momentum she had built up to come all the way around to face the three men who had surprised her. She had pulled her pistol as she spun and began to target as her body continued the rotation. The one she had kicked had flown backwards and was on the ground. She quickly shot at the other two men aiming for center mass. She hit one of them with the shot knocking him backward. She heard him grunt but didn’t see any blood. She didn’t wait around to see if he was wearing body armor. The other man she had missed had a wicked looking scar along his chin. He lunged towards her with a wicked serrated blade in his hand. Muscle memory kicked in as she blocked his attack easily. His body telegraphing his move as he overextended himself. She slipped inside the range of his arm and tucked her pistol into his chin and fired at point blank range.

She then pushed away from him and kept running towards the end of the alley where the mech was. She knew the faster she could move the less time the enemy had to break her stride and momentum and react to her. Her speed and agility were two of her greatest assets in close quarters combat. She was smaller and weaker than many of those she fought. She made up for it with skill and dedication to her arts. Her speed and flexibility allows her to escape holds and stay out of bad situations. She knew she would inevitably lose if they could stop her and lock her down with a hold. She only needed to disable them so she could reach her target. There was enough happening that she didn’t believe she was being targeted on purpose. She probably presented what they thought was an easy target of opportunity.

Samantha could see that more local muscle was piling into the area from surrounding back alleys and other paths that were probably only known to locals. She did notice that the local henchmen were heading back towards the garden instead of towards the fight where Athena and Blue Sword where fighting. “Wilk, Purna, Tiny Nord, and Boomer heads up. You have local henchmen from the surrounding area heading towards you from Athena’s side of the souk. They seem to be avoiding the fighting going on by Athena with the Mech and IFV’s.”

Samantha continued to spin, punch, and kick, as she made her way closer to the mech. She noticed that enemy combatants seemed to change to local army troops who were targeting Blue Sword and Athena. Samantha turned her head seeking the best path towards the mech. She saw an old box truck parked to one side of the souk next to a market. The door was open and it had obviously been abandoned when the fighting broke out. Samantha grinned and ran straight for it. If the enemy could have seen her face, they would have seen her eyes light with glee. The old truck was an older model with a heavy steel frame. It was a workhorse truck that was built tough and solid and was still in use because they lasted. She had a plan for the mech now.

Samantha hopped up into the cab of the old truck, closing the door. She carefully buckled the seat belt. She laughed, noting that the keys were in the ignition. She smiled appreciating the sound of a well loved machine as the old truck turned over with a powerful smooth growl. She grinned as she put the old truck in gear and hit the gas. The truck was slow to move at first but she quickly had it speeding up as she went through the gears. She didn’t bother to dodge much once it really had some speed behind it. The old heavy truck had mass and momentum on its side. This was either going to be one of her worst ideas ever or one of her best! She just needed to slow down or stop the mech long enough she could try to disable its weapons system. She hit the gas pedal and turned the truck aiming right for the mech.

Crows were audible, loud, cawing and cawing and cawing in the foggy early morning dawn of the Wiltshire countryside. And within it, on a small complex lay an experimental research facility that mostly tested chemical and biological weapons, but today was different inside the specific unit they were going into on campus.

The shutter doors rattled, as the four dress-shirted men entered, lights flickering on, and a litany of British Army troops following in, sweeping out, rifles raised, the blood all over the floor and bodies everywhere, alongside missing equipment making gasps of men. It was a clear sight to see. Everything they had worked on, everything they had chased, gone, in an instant. It must have been a surgical break in. Everyone in the guard detail was dead outside, and mysteriously, not a single prompt had been given that it was happening. By the time the operation must have been done, two hours must have passed and everything had been co-ordinated, surgically, like someone knew precisely what they needed.

Henry was all too aware of what that phone call meant. And the sight of it, and the smell of rotting bodies was no unfeeling sign.

"Fuck me." He yelled, the sight the older, bald, glasses wearing man looking to the third, then back to Henry.

"She knew. She knew alright." The man looked on, Henry shaking his head, walking up to him and grabbing his shirt, the other man pushing back.
"You fucking moron! Do you have half an idea what we've done? What YOU did?" Henry yelled, grabbing him, the armed man separating the two, looking at them both, specifically the older one before they both had the chance to reply and argue.

"Sir, we have no leads on who attacked. Nothing. Whoever did this, knew how to hit us. She knew us from the inside out. There was nothing else any of the lads would do. Whoever hit, was a team as good as any of ours." The lead soldier called, as Henry looked back, the glasses wearing man holding a disdained look on his face. Henry replied first.

"I told you so, didn't I? Once you start this, it doesn't stop. And now, you have her on the loose. And working for God only knows what." Henry added, in disbelief, the stories now all proving true. It was a nightmare. Worse than they could have wanted to deal with. But, it was the reality. A comeuppance. The other white shirts wanted to say something else, they were high ranks, after all, but they did not stop Henry. A quiet man turned angry.

With a sigh, he walked past a bloodied body, the main culprit obvious.
"Fucking hell, Rose. I guess I shouldn't have expected any less. But even I'm shocked. All of this. It's not exactly like it's just one container's worth. She took all of it. Everything we set up. All of it. Those two technicians there. She killed Grace and Harriet....she grew up with them, for crying out loud." Henry added, shrugging his shoulders, one of the other white-shirted scientists looking across at him. The other looked more formal, Military or Intelligence even.

"Meaning what?" Another voice called out, one of the other dress-shirted men.

"Rose isn't like any other operative on SIS's books, but she'll slip up in time. The system, all of this....isn't replicable elsewhere. She's in the wild with her arse between her legs unless we help her put it back. She'll end up dead in time. Failsafes are in place, we just follow them to the end. Just one operative among many talented ones we have." Another said, Henry shaking his head, now livid, in his response to come.

"So you think she came here, took all of this, killed at least thirty people who have families we now have to somehow cover this up on to the highest level of government secrecy, and she has no plan? You said it yourself. No operative like her....she has a plan and you're already a part of it. Well, there's ONE operative like her we can't even tell that held a fucking normal life for her, and about a hundred EXACTLY like her, aren't there?!" Henry added, almost scalding in his tone replying as one of the other white-shirted men piped up.

"Are we telling Oracle?" He asked, another replying in sequence.

"Of course we're fucking not. You know why." One white shirt man replied and, went to another who replied.

"Because you think he'll tell her? He needs to know. Well done us, we try and cover it off for Ian's sake and maybe, just maybe, we sort this out. Henry, calm the fuck down. We need to manage this. Now." Henry listened to him, shaking his head.

"Because that wasn't the point. Ian didn't want this. Any of this. Neither did I. I think you know that. And now, she's going to come for you. One by one. She left these bodies as a point. Oracle isn't helping. Imran is telling you he told you so. Oh, he knew. Shock? Yeah, he knows. But doesn't know it was Skye and Rose fucking Lyons. So he's going to tell you to shove it where the sun doesn't shine if you tell him what happened here, and who. Because when, not if, he finds out, he'll come for you as much as Ian probably would." Henry said, sighing, looking around.

He was talking to senior military and intelligence officials like shit, and the normally coy Professor, a quiet man in his usual life was not taking prisoners. They had nothing to say, because they couldn't fathom the blood in here. Henry couldn't either, but rage had a hold.

"I suggest you tell your families you love them. I got told I was out of this affair. For you to fuck it all up again. I don't think you understand how screwed we are. You know what she can do, and you're still acting as if this is under control." He added, his tone underlying, fearful, almost shaking yet angry more than anything.

"Well, with respect, Henry, we don't have a choice but to bring you here. Stop panicking. Now you know why that phone was there. We never meant for this. Clean disconnect, clean end. And she somehow finds a contingency? You know that we pulled the plug, from the wall, as hard as we can. And she still ends up crawling out. That is why you are needed, how the fuck were we to think that is even psosible? And anyway....we'll take care of that fact, it's what they pay us for. Not your business. And frankly, we need answers, not complaints. You're not in our line of work. Just tell us what we need, and we'll be done."

"Well, fuck me for pretending you knew better and not thinking one of your best assets might realise you might backstab her! I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. Lt Col Atkins, in his late fucking moronic wisdom thought it would be a good idea to leave Sol Hestia in her as a failsafe, and Ian, rest his soul too! I told you it was a shitty idea. Now, we have a walking fucking timebomb on our hands that can't exactly be defused, and she seems to be able to kill an entire complex of trained monkeys with a bunch of ghost mercs, and shift two articulated lorries out of rural Wiltshire without any questions, so no.....sorry, I don't think I know better. I thought you're fucking experts, why am I pointing this out!" Henry ranted, almost turning red in the face, the men offended, but Henry giving zero shits.

"We have our measures....calm yourself Henry. We'll hunt her down. Find wherever this went, who attacked, and end it. With, or without Oracle and his band of merry men. And anyway, if we tell him, half of NATO finds out about this. And the Russians. And the Chinese. And this all goes to shit. You're right, he won't hold back. If he knows. Neither do we. Not when we have to."

"What part of what I just told you did you not listen to? Forget it. She'll be a ghost in the wind now, and there is nothing we can do. I recommend you find whatever funded this. And eliminate them. Tomorrow. She isn't just going to be angry. She's not going to stop until you cut off the neck."

"Our thoughts too. We have our best on it. This is being dealt with. Lieutenant, over here! We need photos on markings left here. Henry. Don't shit yourself. We've had things like this a while ago. Bear with." One shirted man added, as the phone wobbled in Henry's back pocket, the researcher sighing.

"Hang on."

Walking outside, the phone buzzed in Henry's pocket, and without thinking, in the millions of phone calls he'd already had to field this morning, took it. An encrypted phone, in theory. No other calls came to it, unless of a crisis like this. An old one, to be fair. But the use case was enough for someone.

"Hello, speaking?"

"I think you get the picture now....and I am glad you understand. Do not turn, and do not put the phone down. I know you, your wife and your children have had a very productive life since you packed this in. Bella is in that teenage phase now, yet she takes after her dad's music taste. No need for me to interfere, and, I suppose they deserve a bit of protecting. I'll come for you when I need you." The voice was only one. Only one.

His heart almost stopped, as he stared into the foggy abyss, and for a moment, he swallowed the most sour lump in his throat, adrenaline charging in.

Rose had intended for this. All of this. There was no tracing or going through the recording, and she wasn't bluffing. It wasn't a message for anyone. It was his. Directed at him. He was here for that reason, none of those men had an idea, but it all went back, she probably listened in on that entire conversation too. And he couldn't even spill half of it to them. What had happened. They knew knew the semantics. No detail. And the horrors of it.

Not exactly an amazing morning so far.

"Are we understood?"

Gulp.

"Yes."

---

It was anarchy everywhere.

Up down, there here and fucking anywhere. Specifically, there.

---

@Jamesyco@BigPapaBelial

All hell broke loose as gunfire poured everywhere down on ground level on the way out of the Souk.

Boomer, Tiny Nord and Scion's presence ripped through the side of the alleys, and Adam picked off the man with the scimitar on Tiny Nord, using his rifle even in spite of the man lifted fireman-like over shoulder, keeping an eye on the now four horsemen of the apocalypse he had to keep an eye on around him. This was quite something, safe to say, he was appreciating his hearing protection more than usual today, nodding to Tiny Nord as his gesture was interrupted by the distinct yelling of the Warhawk on point. Jamie, or Scion had blasted a barrage into the alley. Now the rats were exposed, and the dark-navy, near grey coloured heavy was taking front and centre stage. She'd been waiting a while to get back to work, and here she was at it.

Athena was yelling out as she sent a wooden stall flying with static towards two Artemis soldiers, bullets flying an an RPG clattering stone near her, as she roared, yelling. Her other heart pounded in her chest, and it was clear where some heavy might even take a moment to settle, she just didn't stop, she used the coil to either fry or bash people in, her Trophy catching a 40mm round, the sight of it something and a half as it detonated. Even another mechanised Heavy came in, a DsHK loaded and yet Athena seemed to be fuelled by pure adrenaline, her hearts pounding as she used her jump jet to leap forwards, rounds clattering as she crashed straight in front, the static pinning him as she grappled him and he tried to punch back, yet nothing come from it given Athena's sheer, screaming relentless power, using one of her swords to basically skewer him through his Altyn-like helmet. Even Adam kept out of the way with what came next. You know those things in Tom and Jerry, or cartoons where a bunch of people get into a fight and you just see clouds of dust, dirt and smoke?

It looked like that, except when Athena was about done, she had marks on her armour, and still seemed to be standing, yet 20 men in the alley no longer were, with the heavy used to soak up a few rounds held in her left hand with the remains of his mechanised system propping him up like a chunky armoured human shield, whilst her coil fried a couple more in her right. Then it went quiet. With an pull up of her helmet, she kissed him on his metallic forehead and let him peel off her sword, looking back at Adam, not much dust on her face but an awful lot of sweat, even in spite of the AC inside the Warhawk being cranked to max, whooping with her heart almost wanting to explode out of her mouth, very much visible to the Pole.

"Oh, eat shit fuckface!.......oh yeah. This way. My men are posted up. We've got anti-tank weaponry. And some more toys. I told you....get yourself a girl that can fuck shit up. Chaos, threat's handled....but the militia are refocussing in one cluster in the stalls in the market, they ran when they realised what was coming." Athena commented, the static smell sticking out to Adam as well as the smell of the heavy on the floor very bloodied and messy, the Pole shaking his head from the level of violence that this woman had. Fuck me, she was barely not a teenager and able to blow more shit up than any heavy he'd ever seen, well, not outside of Raven at least.

"You are fucking crazy, Valkyrie. You guys came expecting a mechanised platoon?" Adam commented, Athena shrugging with the look staring back daggers.

"It's Morocco, what did you expect, we would come light? Come on. My men will not hold long. They'll need help. Get going, drop the HVT and we'll need to carve a path out. I'll be at the front, before you bitch." Athena said, the Blue Sword troops now visible on HUDs up ahead, now turning away from the troops that were between them and it. Extraction was right there. And well, a point to drop off Henry at least, who was still fast asleep. Always HVTs seemed to be out, it was like someone didn't want them talking in the heat of battle or something.

"Oh fuck you, Valkyrie. This better work." Adam replied, dry as ever, not wanting any command to slip here, given well, he couldn't exactly say no. But this was not a position he wanted to lose all his power, he had to remind. So did Athena.

"Yeah, yeah, something something fucking energy shield, something something fuck you not kicking enough ass!" Athena replied, as sarcastic, and as absolutely much a ten year old would.

With that, Adam moved forwards to the trucks leaving her silly comment behind, Athena looking across to Jamie, her look in her eyes clear. Blue Sword troops beckoned over, and with it, Adam dumped Henry into the back of one of the trucks, grabbing a stash of magazines inside, whilst Athena addressed the business behind. Her brother, and Tiny Nord, specifically.

"Appreciate the assist. Not bad unloading rockets into them. There are a lot more that way though. There's refills in the trucks, JamJam. See, always thinking of you and your expenditure." Athena added, walking on by, not adding more, not letting him have more, for now at least. As for Tiny Nord, she kept an eye on him, as selfish as she was, he was struggling, and she wasn't going to let him stay behind.

Looking at Tiny Nord's armour, Athena reached down, whistling to one of the soldiers, one of her techs to be specific, who ran in, the brief interlude interrupted by Jamie and Chuck raining down shit in the more opened up square littered with stalls and stands, and where the vehicles and mech were roaming. Inspecting it, they could tell he mostly had it fixed, but her and the tech finished the rest as much as they could. He had a good moment to look up through the corn-fed all American heavy, well, 2 of 2, or 4? She had no idea what her and JamJam were at this point. Probably some weird blend.

"Good to go. Hydraulic cylinder caught some damage, new one should keep you running. And we have better replacements than Russian for that. My mother would know. Come on.....they can't hide you back here. Dude down there has a DShK if you're feeling like you want more high calibre, than what you're probably swinging down there. Oh...did I say that bit out loud?" Athena cackled, wiping the dirt and blood off her shoulders, tapping him on the shoulder, and with it, breaking into a run, leaving a little static crackle on his arm as a friendly jive.

"You're rolling with Valkyrie now, Tiny Nord, I know, you probably heard about me. Stay with me, and keep blasting. We have a world to go fucking save....apparently." With it, Athena locked her faceplate back down, and set the coil to regenerate, leading the way out of the souk, under a destroyed arch and out into the warzone beyond.

---

@Starlance@LadyAmber

Purna kept moving onto the alley, catching sight of Ebrima getting annoyed, and well, moving his side across the rooftops. Clattering into an exo, Purna was powerless to help, well, apart from sliding behind an AC unit on a roof as a sniper shot rang out, as he peeked out, Mk14 back in hand, cloak back on and gently peeking up, clattering a round as well as a countersniper could into the sniper, then the spotter of the .50 cal position, before back down again, another MG barked out, picking out his position. Well, fuck off, he thought, as he ran back on, hopping another alley and noting a couple more troops heading on Ebrima's flank, Purna skidding on ground.

Taking a hard breath in, he peeked and using his MP5 instead to clatter down shots down range, the militia-like forces getting rounds direct on the next rooftop along, using his positioning low-slung to the ground and almost as a blur to make the most of it. The cloak was basically pointless, but well, it had done its job for now, as he disengaged it to save the last of the battery, using the grapple to leap onto the next roof to help clear the bigger gap, watching Ebrima come back onto the roof. He'd helped in his own way, silently from the background, and didn't really need to say much.

"Few tangoes eliminated, moving forwards to Cafe L'Adresse. Copy, Chaos. Sniper team and loose elements eliminated." It was almost like it was just an exhale for him, not much to say, probably something the Cameroonian would appreciate. Despite their initial differences, more similarities perhaps matched them, more than either would be comfortable at all admitting. Poverty was a shared story, and well, they knew how to fight dirty and make the absolute most of the cutting edge. For now, he had his own issue to deal with. The door kicked open near to where Purna was, the final one in a coffee shop balcony overlooking Jemaa El Fnaa, as the exo-clad operative walked out, two more men moving on Purna's position, an NLAW in the hands of one and a PKP in the hands of another. Ah, fuck. And like that, a fireteam's worth of exos had appeared following those initial group. They were ambushing. Purna would have done the same, picking off with anti-tank weaponry? Now that was just fucking unfair.

Time was of the essence.
"Boaro, get to me, stat. Gonna need help here. HVT has a fancy exo. And there's enough AT here for us to turn the tables with." Purna's voice was persuasive, not understating yet cold and almost removed from what he was describing. All mags reloaded, he kept out of sight using the dark shadowy terrace, watching as the men barked orders in what sounded like Russian, clearly the banner of language they chose. They were right on the flank of the square, and the mech towering in the distance could be seen, at least 12 to 14 foot tall or so, as were the IFVs rolling in, cars on fire, stalls on fire and generally speaking, the warzone that was filling. USPs in hand, Purna kept his kukri held loose in his left, watching as one set up the NLAW, and precisely on motion, clattered a round into his head. One exo-equipped soldier recieved four more, but his reinforced armour took the brunt, and he had already lept forwards, clattering through the wood towards the Nepali, Purna rolling out of the way and shooting the other man with a round to wound him, before charging forwards and drawing the pistol back down.

With a push, Purna ran forwards and ran off the balcony top with the unprepared supporting AT soldier, grapple fired straight back in as the other body flew out with Purna holding on, giving him the chance to at least leash back in, smashing through a window and back into the cafe. He was fluid, a fireteam totally unaware of a body getting sent into one of them as Purna kept on blasting, rolling through a coffee stall and using his speed, fluidity and parkour to keep them on edge. Bolting through, he used the walls to pivot around another, emptying the mag, and flicking the pistols back into holsters. With his MP5 set, he dived behind solid cover again inside the cafe's ground floor, exhaling hard, knowing he'd caused enough shit to at least make them have no idea where they were being assaulted from. Normally, Purna would rip through people like butter- but Artemis's more advanced troops were a harder ask, especially in an active warzone where they'd be tooled up to find people just like him.

"Fireteam of exos above me, they've got an AT position set but I can't fight them alone, need some muscle here Boaro! If you want to avoid nearly getting your head kicked in, tell me when to ghost up and I'll slit the throat of any fucker you want, but you only get one shot!" Purna called out into his throat comms, knowing Ebrima was likely following suit down his side of the market, and would be able to hopefully return the favour. Whatever Boaro was gonna do, Purna could follow suit, HK slapping his MP5 with a new magazine and underslinging his kukri in a tight grip, and preparing his cloaking system for one last jolt.

This moment was one for Boaro to use to go one against four, and win. On his command, Purna would be able to do what was needed in that cafe to help him win the fight.

(Starlance- treat Purna as an NPC here for what you'd like)

---

Yet it was the shortest of respites. The mech was armed with an autocannon and rocketpods, and laying waste to a Blue Sword setup up ahead, and there was no time to waste, the BTR-90 IFVs trawling over cars, stalls and all sorts. At least three left, and Adam had picked up an AT4CS, rolling it over shoulder, USAS in hands with frag rounds for the exo-equipped soldiers.

"Scion, you keep the right angle, Boomer, you're on left, Valkyrie, you, Nord and Fireteam Gold have the middle, I'm in pursuit! Boaro, if you're at that AT position, steal what you can and clean up BTRs from up on high, any mortars, hit the mech even, fuck, work out what you can but don't fuck around, we're taking serious fire!" He called out, mortar rounds clattering out now. Mortars? What the fuck, were they actually committing to a warzone here? That meant only one thing- don't fucking stop moving, and keep killing anything in front.

This wasn't like New Zealand for much of the team, even like Chile, not really like Aralask, this was full blown, all out warfare in the busiest market square of a major city that could be, and this situation had gone from zero to one hundred in the last spell of about 10 minutes. They wanted Henry badly, dead even if they had to, but the attack had probably left them uncertain of what in the high fuck to do. Same for Raven. All that Adam knew was, they had to keep rolling the momentum hard enough, or they would get stomped.

Athena charged on, Adam leaping up and over a stall to clatter a squad with flechettes, as Athena barged straight through a stall with her own jump pack and basically ripped through another squad with an LMG post with a fluid arc of electricity cauterising the setup, roaring as Blue Sword troops sent 40mm rounds over the next stall in support with smoke and high explosive, Trophy Systems of the IFV coming in close picking up a few before Athena refocussed herself to deal with that.

The BTRs fired on stalls, sending wood splintering everywhere as Athena bolted across and Adam sent the shield back up, her fist raised and picking out one on her targeting system. A missile screamed out, and with it, smashed the wheels off one of them, immobilising it.
"Fuck yeah!" The yell replied back, as she didn't so much as run at the IFV but simply threw herself up six feet into the sky and clattered into the hull, buried the coil into the top hatch, and pulled, with a big jolt of electricity just blowing the door off and blasting the inside. The doors blasted off the rear, as she felt smug for herself for a moment there.

A 20mm round from another IFV made her rethink that, sending her clattering down, over a stall and over, exhaling hard, the round's impact against her armour not puncturing, but certainly knocking the air out of her breathless charge.

"You fuck!" She scrambled back, the Trophy System not catching that one, as it sent rounds flying all around, Athena using the shell as cover as Adam followed, the sight of Chaos on the networked HUD moving very fast making him worry. Almost like in a comic fashion, Athena's tall frame looked down at Adam, and the supporting two Blue Sword soldiers joining in, as well as Nord. The look on his face was not a positive one.

"Oh shit, Chaos, what are you doing!?" Adam called out....she was in a truck? Oh fuck no. Athena on the other hand, well she beckoned up.

"Chaos, you crazy fucking bitch, I like it!" Athena yelled, turning up the coil and with it, nodding to Adam, Tiny Nord, and in a sense, the other two heavies.
"Cover my ass, stay the hell away from me but get ready to rain down some fire! Scion, on your quarter, I'm gonna make a run, Chaos, now!"

With it, Athena moved out from the IFV, and with a turn up of the coil, broke into it. The jump jet pointed almost a more flat angle, she sent herself across, skidding through a stall in a comic fashion sending oranges and fruit in a colourful blast, running at pelt, heart pounding.

"Fuck me, you're gonna get yourselves killed, run it back!" Adam yelled with a venom, almost beyond disappointment, just hoping they weren't about to get killed. Everything he had said that, but well, there was no stopping. With it, Adam moved around the BTR's wreck and unloaded rounds on a group more Artemis troops were reinforcing, cutting them down, reloading with a tactical movement and keeping his head low, the woodwork making this area one hell of a killzone, the kind that only the heavies would survive. Moving through, he drew the AT4 off his shoulder and picked up a shot on a BTR, firing off a round and watching the Trophy attached snatch it out of sky. Fuck, that wasn't gonna work, but then again, it was just a tube, nothing advanced. Not like what Boaro would be able to pick up. Moving from point to point, he recharged the shielding up again, barrelling behind more solid positioning, staying the hell out of the way of whatever anarchy was going on further in.

The mech didn't miss spotting Athena, not one bit, and unguided rockets flew out towards her, blowing up all sorts, nearly detonating her with it as she took one last call into the tannoy to make sure she had its operator's attention, as well as all the BTRs and troops rushing in. She was centre of attention, and in most circumstances, this would be pretty much her getting killed. If it wasn't for all the fire support she hoped she was getting, one last jump upward and she was right where she wanted.

"Hey, Athena Awesome is right over here!"

With it, Athena cackled, and with the coil turned up, the last mode was left she really wasn't hoping to use, but considerate of the fact that up until now there wasn't much stopping this thing, she may as well have a go. The Fryer. Mini-missiles weren't hurting that thing, it had a Trophy System, her usual system wouldn't pierce it, but this, this might do something. And with it, the coil discharged anything it had left, not a blast to fry through armour but instead, an EMP-like shatter that would almost certainly short anything it hit. A complete overload in the short term, even for the military-grade circuitry that it was going into. Short range as a shrill of course, but enough to shock it for a moment.

Including her own.

Although, Athena realised a bit late that the pilot of said mech wasn't just any. It was the big bastard that Freya talked about a while back. Geza, fucking, Ingwe.

"Back at you." The tannoy replied.

The mech swung for her with a paw and clattered her over, but the pulse was well timed, and with it, killed the mech momentarily, as she got beefed into a wooden stall with a hard hit. Considerate of the fact it couldn't turn on her and unload its weapons, it just swatted her instead. The impact was hard. Heavy even, and breaking more stalls, she wiped out momentarily, unable to move for a second and pinned in. Not dead. But certainly dazed, and well, hoping the others had the rest covered.

If this is breathless, and you can't follow, well....there were far too many strands to follow, far too much to really focus in on, and try and establish. But one thing was clear. They needed to clean up the IFVs, any remaining Artemis troops, and most importantly, that mech killed or stopped, one way or another. Athena had started that process, likely Chaos would end it. The IFVs and troops around the massive square? The heavies in Boomer, Nord and Scion had those, but they couldn't exactly go toe to toe with wheeled steel and reinforcing exos and other troops, so they'd be pressed and would have to play dirty. Boaro and Viper had to eliminate their hostiles in the Cafe and then get AT to help out to that end, and get on with that.

Athena took a deep breath, and with it, bounded over stalls, clambering and running from fire, the armour ridiculous to bear, but no doubt, something she could at least hobble in. Her vision was blurry, her hearts were sucking a lot more in than she could manage, and she could at least swing by the wreck of a truck, huffing hard, taking a second to re-establish, and then get back.

The team had free reign here to kick as much ass as possible, together, or else they'd be making their end here.

---

Boomer had completed his side task of destroying the toxin so it couldn’t be used by the enemy and helping destroy the equipment on site to prevent them from being able to start production right back up again. He had then hightailed it out of the garden and back into the marketplace out the other side of the garden. He was heading towards the Blue Sword team with Scion. He and Scion had been dumped right into the line of fire immediately taking on enemy hostiles coming towards the garden from the marketplace. Very few locals remained as they started to flee as soon as the gunshots started to fly.

As they broke out into the chaos, Boomer dropped into that bent knee walk that looked awkward but provided a smooth and more stable firing platform from. He pulled his modified carbine up and began to target heads. If they were firing at him, they were fair game in his book. He swapped out a magazine quickly as he continued to nail the stream of enemies targeting them. The gunfire and violence was bloody, loud, and abrupt. The heavies quickly made a pocket of space around them with dead bodies or injured men who had been disabled. The metallic tang of blood permeated the air around them overpowering the typical scent of spices from local merchants. As they were making their presence known at the entrance to the market from the garden area, Athena was tearing up the space around her as she took on large groups of Artemis soldiers at the other side of the market.

The marketplace was a scene of utter chaos and upheaval with firefights, guns, explosions, and collisions happening everywhere at once. Adam came over the team comms with new orders.

Adam's voice was heard. “Scion, you keep the right angle, Boomer, you're on left, Valkyrie, you, Nord and Fireteam Gold have the middle, I'm in pursuit! Boaro, if you're at that AT position, steal what you can and clean up BTRs from up on high, any mortars, hit the mech even, fuck, work out what you can but don't fuck around, we're taking serious fire!"

Boomer calmly called over the comms “Boomer acknowledges, left side is mine.” He gave Duke a hand sign since the noise level made verbal commands awkward to hunt. Duke immediately slunk towards the side of the marketplace and disappeared down an alley. Boomer had to trust his canine partner would be okay until they met back up. Duke had already begun to seek out anyone who smelled of gun oil or gunpowder taking down a man who had been missed in a side alley. Duke lunged for the man and his teeth closed on the man’s throat and his weight knocked him to the ground. Duke had been moving fast enough the man’s shot missed him.

Boomer focused on what was happening on his side of the marketplace. There was an IFV that was bogging down Blue Sword troops on his side of the marketplace. The IFV was firing at Raven forces with high caliber shells. There was also a large number of troops being led by officers in Exos. Boomer had fired his missiles off earlier. He began to run towards the troops firing his carbine as he went to take out as many of the enemy as possible. Boomer was a great shot and almost every shot counted to at least injure or wing an enemy trooper. Boomer shot towards the action, his suit helping his speed. His steps leave marks in the concrete pavement due to his weight. Boomer was focused on getting closer to the exos and the IFV and had missed the large caliber shell sent his way. He was flipped over backwards as the IFV opened fire on him.

Boomer’s armor stood up to the punch but it knocked the wind out of him and left a dent behind. He was wheezing and felt like he had been kicked in the chest by a mule. “Somabich! That hurt!”

Boomer rolled over and pushed himself up onto his knees. He made his way back to his feet. Now it was personal. He had dropped his carbine when he had been knocked for a loop but it was still attached to his combat harness. He began to jog towards the IFV. He pulled Lucille back out from her sheath. He made sure it was connected to the wrist clasp. The first EXO clad enemy moved to intercept him. He growled and spun Lucile overhead. The EXO fired point blank at his chest but his armor held. Boomer was feeling no pain now that his endorphins were kicking in. He let his rage out as he brought Lucile down in an overhead smash using all of his strength. The heavy Japanese style mace slammed into the EXO soldiers head. His helmet held for a split second before the energy generated by his swing cracked the man’s helmet and his skull like a ripe watermelon.

Samantha had been focused on how to execute the order that Adam had given her. She couldn’t hack the mech remotely. The only option left was to try and disable it in person. In order to do that she had to get close enough to touch it. In order to get anywhere she would need to be able to get to sensitive parts. She needed to immobilize it for a bit. If she can just knock it off its feet or disabled a leg she might stand a chance. She planned to use the truck to ram the mech. The heavy old steel body truck might just do the trick. She had clicked the seat belt just in case. She didn’t plan to stay in the damn thing when it hit the mech though. This thing didn’t have airbags and only had a lap belt. She knew better than that. She was waiting for the opportune moment and place. She also had to get the old truck some speed and momentum built up. She had gone past the mech and was turning around to aim for it building up speed.

She was just starting her line up run when she heard Adam call out over the comms. "Oh shit, Chaos, what are you doing!?" Samantha rolled her eyes as she replied to Adam “What did you expect me to take a hardened mech down with? I left my lasers and missiles in the F-38 and shop.” She snarked back at Adam. Samantha’s sassy attitude on full display as she heard Athena as well. "Chaos, you crazy fucking bitch, I like it!" Samantha grinned. “Thanks for getting his attention, Athena. Now keep it for a few minutes while I get this ancient truck in gear, so I can ram it up his ass. Be prepared to disengage on my mark.”

Samantha shifted the truck gear and unbuckled the seatbelt. She grabbed one of her daggers from her bandolier and quickly stabbed it down on the gas pedal jamming it down. She quickly pulled the lap belt around and through the steering wheel. She clicked it back into place. She sat down on top of it and had enough play to steer by. She was getting closer to the mech. She rolled down the window on the driver’s side. She managed to get her feet up on the driver’s seat. She climbed out the window and stood on the side rail steering the truck through the window. She tugged the seat belt tighter as she got closer to the mech. She was coming at him from an angle. She was hoping to hit from the rear side. She was aiming to cripple that hip actuator and joint to disable the leg and get the mech on the ground.

She was focused on finding just the right spot to bail when she heard Adam over comms. "Cover my ass, stay the hell away from me but get ready to rain down some fire! Scion, on your quarter, I'm gonna make a run, Chaos, now!"

Samantha spoke to Athena over comms. “Athena, here I come, disengage now!” She was passing one of the market stands. She cinched the seat belt tight as the truck was lined up as best as she could get it. She leapt from the truck and tucked her body into a roll to spin off the excess force. She landed in a pile of rugs which padded her landing somewhat. She was still going to feel those bruises tomorrow. The gel padding in her suit helped to spread that contact force out some. The heavy 2 ton steel truck had managed to get up to about 45 miles per hour and was right on target when she bailed with only about 15 feet to target. She curled up in a ball and covered her head as she heard the truck hit the mech with a massive boom! The sound of the collision shook the ground as the two heavy objects collided. Samantha could feel metal raining down around her and punching through the canvas and corrugated plastic roofing of the nearby market stalls.

Samantha waited for a minute as she got her breath back. She then uncurled and made her way out of the merchant stall. Everything was blocked by shredded canvas hanging from the ceiling. She made her way carefully outside. There were large and small pieces of shrapnel from the collision all around her. She finally made it outside and oily smoke filled the area. The old truck was on fire and was the source of the oily smoke. The heavy truck was completely destroyed on the front end and had flipped over on its side, which had been shredded as well. The mech had been knocked forward. She could see the operator was trying to right the mech. She did a quick fistpump as she saw the hip area on the mech was crushed in and the leg was barely hanging on and was jammed. The mech operator might be able to sit the mech up but it was not moving anywhere. The collision had cleared the area around the mech as the shrapnel from the collision took out anyone who was not heavily armored. She began to make her way carefully towards the mech. She hoped the operator was too busy to notice her. She tried to slip around behind the mech.

And the chaos continued.

And Jamie would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy it.

More fighters swarmed the Souk. Men and women shouted, orders and counter orders roaring. The Raven team surged forward to meet them. There was something about their family. They're all junkies in some way. Their father pushed the boundaries of what is human when it came to strength. Their mother a titan of order and power. Jamie's sister Athena, the Athena Awesome. Nearly uncomparible. Their big sister Freya pushing limits of science. And he well he'd lie about it if asked, but he gets off on the fog of battle. Sure he tempers that with ritual and following the pow wow trail.

But there was something that gave the normally stoic and stable young man a near sexual rush. Something about the whicker and snap of life rounds. The rumble of a grenade going off. The roar of a machine gun. If auntie Antoine got off on electricity. Jamie got off on a good fight.

Not that it's obvious.

Bit he's certainly in onyhe moment as he strides out and swings his HMGs off his back. The hopper for the guns is still mostly full, and he had two more anyway. So he steps into the open as the other agents of Raven enter the fray. His job? Pull heat.

And he does that with gusto. Striding confidently into the open. His weapon roaring. Rounds rattling. A living bastion of muscle an composite armor.

At a distance he watches a familiar sight. He pays a secondnto heed the mech. But there ate enough bodies dealing with that. He turns back then laughs and chinsnhis comms, "Oi! Bitch!" He waits a few moments to see his sister get the message and moment more for her to look around through the carnage. And when he knows she seen him he adds, " So we're one body down, but I see you've gone and caused chaos in yet another nation. I thought you and Frey had gotten over this."

In the midst of the fight Jamie makes his way through fire towards his sister. Still spraying the enemy, sending them running before the heavy rrad of Scion, "I swear I can't leave you and Freya alone before one of you is blowing something up. Or hurting yourselves." He says this about twenty feet from his sister by now, "Everyone of us is a menace."

The good-natured chuckle in his voice is clear. A brother teasing his sister.

"Hey, Russian's know how to make durable once every hundred years." Tiny said as he rolled back the shield against the wall fixing his new prizes to it, but also looking over it for cracks. "Shield is still good, few rpg blasts but nothing it can't handle, do we have any spare supplies? I heard we have a mech and light armor, if I get close I can get the light armor at least, and this suits all mechanical and hydraulic, only things with electronics is the helmet, and the ac, and both are still good."

He looked down at his knee, and the one working on it as he stood there for a moment, "You got five seconds before I brace it and keep going. We can fix it in a little while, but I can keep moving at a pace with it. The hydraulic on it's been hit for a minute now, so it's something further down, or close to the seal or inner suit. The tube is probably just in the way of it, push it back or push it in. It's your choice, but you can keep going; I'll just be a bit slower."

He followed her out through the arc, and fell behind soon after, he saw the mech, and while he had the suit suited for it, he didn't have the weapons. His shield in front of him, he looked at Athena get swatted away.

"Hey, let me take a crack at him, if anything I can get him off of ya'll while you deal with the other heavy stuff." he slapped his shield and brought out the armor bit, "If ya'll have any extra emp weapons, I could hold him off and maybe even do some damage, I'm all mechanics and hydro, and luckily I don't have a pacemaker. Give me the go, and I'll hop in there."

At that moment, he realized that his headset was mostly broken and decided to give himself a moment of clarity to think about his next choice: BTRs, well, useless against them, light targets, maybe, but that bigger guy, yea. If he could piss that fucker off he would.

He pulled his extra melee from his shield holder, and pulled metal bits and stabilizers out on his shield so he could either quickly brace it, or set it up as a stable and strong wall to keep him from either getting crushed quickly or to keep him from getting shot in a direction, likely both. He rocked it forward off the stabilizers so that he could rock it back and forth on the rollers for a moment, ready to kick them back when he got in position.

That is when he saw a fucking truck slam into it. Well, it was time to go; he rocked for a moment longer before putting his back into it. He forced the hulk of metal forward, remembering and wishing he had a lighter but stronger metal, and he felt the weakening leg joint but kept pushing forward. He and the monstrosity of metal bullshittery that was a his shield kept moving towards the behemoth, and while he himself was one, his was still David in this moment. He rocked back some of the metal bits and just let himself brace his leg joints just before he himself impacted the mech before he looked up to where the operator was pulling the shield back and letting it rest on its mounts. He took his heavy metal axe, and just chucked it towards the fucking operators hatch. It just stuck itself in a hunk of metal a few feet from where he was aiming. Slightly missed shot, that still would have done absolute jack shit.

"Jackshit..." he stared up at the mech before he went to the edge, moving back to the shield before the jackass he just threw his axe at went back to shoot at him. Instead he took his rifle in hand as he just started popping shots off at the dude, mostly to continue to piss him off.

---

”On the way.” Ebrima replied calmly as soon as Purna’s first request came through, taking a second to get his bearings before setting off toward the cafe. The Cameroonian reloaded both his rifle and shotgun along the way, a fresh drum of slugs and magazine of armor piercing 5.56 rounds ready to clean house. Well, figuratively. Literally speaking, he and Purna were about to send the cafe’s cleaning lady to therapy. Clearing a gap between buildings wide enough to comfortably fit a truck with hardly any effort, he rolled with the momentum to carry as much speed as he could to get over the wider gap between his current roof and the one with the Cafe. He had an idea. An evil idea, one might say, until the presence and need for the anti armor equipment the bad guys carried threw the thought of using his thermobarics out of the window. Stunners would have to do, he thought, once again swapping out mags and moving through the cafe until he had an angle on the men on the balcony in final stages of preparations. Five to twelve, indeed. ”Am here. Grenades, then follow.” He let Purna know before pulling the trigger.

Four stun grenades sailed across the room, exploding in mid air between the Artemis anti tank team. Lightning arced through the air, writhing blue fingers reaching for metal and men alike and filling the air with cries and the smell of ozone, preceded by loud cracks.

The thing about exosuits was that they were made, at least in large part, of metal.

The thing about competently designed exosuits was that they acted as a lightning rod, protecting the wearer from such hazards. The targets cried out more in violent surprise rather than pain, the men stumbling as a result of that and the massive kick their exos just got; a few thousand volts being to the electronic brains of their armor what a pint of Diplomatico would be to a human one and causing the lucky Artemis operatives to have their armor spazz out for a moment or the less fortunate ones’ to shut down entirely.

One tried to return fire, his suit’s mobility unaffected enough to let him turn around and raise his weapon immediately. But with any augmented vision modes temporarily or permanently disabled, he couldn’t see much as he peered into the shaded cafe from the sunny balcony. Until the muzzle flash, and then he could truly see nothing.

The Origin barked, the slugs shredding armor and mincing meat, target selection driven solely by how coordinated they were in their movements. Ebrima didn’t know where Purna was, but he must’ve been there unless the man on the other side of the balcony decided to die spontaneously. Another one seemingly threw himself from the balcony mere moments later. It was over almost sooner than it started, and Raven did not take prisoners.

”I hope you know how to use these.” He said to Purna as they stood over the prepared AT weapons, Boraro recognizing a late evolution of the Israeli Spike-SR launchers. Shalev sold these and their sister variants like candy, able to source ‘the good, home-grown stuff’ with ease that stumped Ebrima even after months of working with him, but that also meant they were always around for Ebrima and the others to learn to work with. Hefting one on his shoulder and picking a target, he called it out to the Nepali cutthroat next to him. ”Be ready to run, they won’t let us be.” He cautioned - likely unnecessarily - and fired, throwing the disposable launcher away and immediately reaching for another one, the first two BTRs doing their best impression of Roman Candles before the pair could reload.

The British Embassy in Tokyo was a classically Georgian-like building barely out of view of Tokyo's Imperial Palace, lit up by streetlighting and the overall rainy night filling Tokyo's early hours. But as any embassy head would know, operations never stopped for night time. Deliveries still took place, and well, one little panel van delivering fish, lobster and other foods for a dinner hosted within the embassy with a range of Asian Tiger ambassadors on behalf of Britain's wider diplomatic interests. Serious prep. As crate after crate got unloaded, as well as....well, another one that just got laid out.

Peeling it back, the translucent plastic bag rested against the boxes, and one of the guards overseeing the process immediately sprang into action.
"Fuck! What the hell is that!" The British-accented voice yelled, and the driver immediately got defensive, realising the corpse was not like the other fish. Human-like, not a fish in an icebath.

"I am sorry. I do not know how that got in...." The helpless driver said in broken English, hands up, on knees as another security guard ran over, bringing the man against the van and cuffing him, the other barking into his comms.

"Control, we have a situation, we have a body, repeat, body on site. Unknown at this point, standby. Possible threat." The call was efficient, as quick as it had to be.

With a swarm of guards turning in, the body was isolated, and a full scale evacuation had taken place. She was potentially a bomb after all, and the police would be called immediately. Yet for one pyjama wearing attache, who saw the face of the body, and for a moment, took a gulp, it wasn't a threat. It was a delivery they would never have wanted. She pushed past, and with it, approached the body, in spite of the guards resisting. There was a card, written as clear as day, and the attache took a good look of of stapled to her naked neck, with a bullet round still bleeding.

RETURN TO SENDER
MAJOR LYONS, SKYE
FIK1512
SOL HESTIA

"Shit. That's one of ours." The guard looked to her with the shock that was carried by the attache, yet the clarity of knowing precisely what she was looking at. Skye was an enigma to anyone in the Foreign Service, yet to a select few, they knew the rough calling card of that number would be.

"Ma'am, please step away. We're manging the threat, we need to....."

"We need to call London. Now. That's one of SIS's operatives, code corresponds. She gets the first flight back home we can put her on. Someone brought her to us for a reason. If they know the code, they know she's one of ours." She said, as the guard looked bemused.

"Ma'am, we have police en route. Forensics will be here. Do you want the Ambassador...."

"Hold. I need to make some calls. We may have a more imminent threat. Isolate her in the bomb site, nobody gets in, or out." The attache of course, was just doing her job.

Not that she understood half of what the threat actually was. Or well, what quite this version of Skye was....

---

@Starlance

The odds were poor, but Ebrima made them a significant amount better.

Purna with his arrival moved across the cafe towards the balcony, the last of his cloaking letting him dash across silent and invisible into the path of the last man, the man on the balcony, the bomb-maker in a slightly glitzier exoskeleton, Friedrich Koch himself. The sealed unit was good enough, but for his sins, Purna had no need to interrogate, or work with the man for any other reason. Just another throat to slit, and as Ebrima shocked the others and Ferdinand went to help, Purna hung off his neck and went from blackout to there. The knife jabbed once, twice, three times, piercing the neckbrace and with it, a turn straight up and into the man's head did the rest, the curved blade sharp and piercing enough to do what it needed as Ferdy's exo walked without direction, into a wall and then, clattering into floor in a bloody, gruesome mess. Another exo tried to swing, but with it, Purna used his agility to dodge the man's dash, using the grapple to pull up and let him slam into concrete, bouncing back as if he'd ran into a wall at 20mph. That was good enough. Purna then swang back out and like a gymnast with grapple in right hand and USP in left and kicked hard, the exo unable to respond in turn and with it, sending him through the window with two .45 ACP rounds through the face.

Purna's work was not half as bad as what had happened on the other side though, as now, the silence came over. There was a deafening mess, Boaro by the Spike-SR launchers, nodding quietly to Boaro's question. As quietly as you could nod, that was, as he prepped the device, the Cameroonian proving useful.
"Long time. I've got twelve o'clock." Purna added, firing his round, the two missiles in flight and then detonating the BTRs.
"Thanks, by the way. I don't doubt we need to run, Boaro." Purna yanked the next one along and commented as nonchalantly as he could, the NLAW the last of the batch. He refocussed and picked up the mech, and as Boaro took the last BTR out, he would have that. The missiles flew off, and with it, the BTR took a hit, and the stunned mech took a direct hit from the NLAW, detonating a shoulder and a weapons pod, but stopping short of blasting the thing entirely to bits- a bad scan on the shot that was taken, considering it probably had no fucking clue where to project the missile onto with that thing.

Still, the job was done, and before the mercs down below could refocus fire, Purna was already leading Boaro, heading through the back of the cafe and into an alley. Overlooking the same tight gap they'd jumped before, Purna lept off the end and using the grapple to swing through, running the wall and swinging into another balcony before clamping the wire up again, sending him carting onto the rooftop, and then, out of it again.

Purna followed Boaro's call, and with it, got moving, using his speed and ability to clamber and run to his advantage here, not wanting to stop for anyone or anything here. They'd be unlikely to make it to the trucks, but at the least, they could get out of the combat zone and catch up with the rest of the team later on.

---

The operative that had crewed the mech upon receiving an axe kicked it open, and out clambered another Heavy, as if, like a Russian Doll, Ingwe Geza had plenty of fear left in him to give with heavy armour of his own. It would almost be hilarious, if it wasn't for the fact that now Ingwe had been relegated from a large armoured platform to a person-sized one and still had a large railgun-like tool in hand and the green and gold coloured suit had been repaired, and still seemed to be spluttering electricity. Ingwe yanked the axe out, despite the rounds that flicked at him from Tiny Nord, and cast it aside like a piece of plastic. Another giant. Well, this one didn't need mechanics to move, he just needed violence.

"Where's your courage now, boy! Think you can throw stones at me!? I want problems, always!" With it, Ingwe raised the railgun and blasted a round straight at Tiny Nord in response, straight at his shield. Not a full charge, but that would have hit like a freight train, there or therabouts- and for most, it would have been enough, probably without the shield Tiny would have been turned into pulp. It would have bought him time, Ingwe putting stalls and the mech between them both....and Athena, whose armour was coming back to life and she could now lump back towards the two. With a sharp exhale, she ran across, checking Tiny Nord was alive, which....well, he seemed to be, and realised Geza wasn't going for Tiny Nord. Or her. Jamie was right behind her, and she wanted to say a lot, but Ingwe's next move had her more scared. This wasn't a man wanting to go into a fight against three heavies. This was one who wanted to end one person only, before anything else happened.

With Tiny Nord likely taking a hit from that, Geza moved onto what his sensors had tracked before the mech was downed. Sam was flanking around the back, and Ingwe did not hesitate to move.
"And you! You cannot run from me! I'm going to rip you into pieces!" His voice boomed across comms, as he cleaved through stalls, and with it, fired a stun round from his shoulder, shocking the area in front, and worse, shocking the area Sam was in with the similar effect Boaro used, dumping smoke behind him. There was something to it, as Ingwe ran like a freight train up to where his sensor could see her, the electrical pulse he'd used like a really, really shitty and horrible area effect tazer. He recognised who she was. The only one that he hadn't picked a fight with in Chile. And now he had a chance to right some wrongs. Finding her winded on the floor from the shock, Ingwe picked her up as if she was nothing around her torso with his gorilla-like grip, tight in his electrically charged fist, and pushed against the hot, broken mess of the mech's leg.
"Now, you'll squish like a cockroach you are. No Freya to protect you now...." With it, Ingwe started to tighten his armoured fist in around her chest, and....

Athena in the midst, spotted him and with it, jolted the coil into the side of Ingwe, and pushed forwards, yanking Sam out of his grasp, turning it up. He tried to punch but Athena's physique did not let him in as she grunted hard and screamed back, holding him out of position, a wicked smile on her face. She knew the stories. She knew what had happened. And with everything her body was giving her now, that dump of seratonin hit just right, and she was going to enjoy this. She had watched him, and Ingwe had maybe not expected her to come back after so quick, after swatting her out of the air.

"Yeah, well, she sends her regards, motherfucker! Chaos, run!" Athena barked, as she turned up the coil and blasted at point blank, sending a massive jolt through them both but more importantly, blasting Ingwe a good few feet back, a massive smouldering char left by his chestplate. Another one. It would have been a similar case to last time with Freya....not that anyone was following that up.

Athena was even knocked back on her ass from point blank use, coughing a little as she felt the coil fizzle a little, malfunctioning from the charge she had cycled through it. Fuck. Well, down to secondary now, but she was hoping it was all worth it for what she had put through, drawing the twin MAC-10s from her hips, exhaling hard, knowing her suit was feeling a hell of a beating. Bingo fuel on the jump jets, and a kaput coil for now. Adam's voice interrupted that as she stood again, standing tall yet feeling certainly worse for wear.

"Wilk to all callsigns, regroup, BTRs are down and immediate threats are eliminated. Valkyrie, we need to fucking leave, now!" Adam yelled with a conviction he hadn't before, as he led a couple of Blue Sword mercs past an orange stall, picking off another group of militia, planting accurate fire from the MSBS, picking his marks and helping them somewhat turn the tide. To his relief, Athena complied, looking at the burnt husk of Ingwe, like his sister would have before, and forgetting to take a trophy of him. There was enough shit going on right now, other militia forces were flooding, and Athena already shielded Sam naturally, spraying a group with her MAC-10s, the compact SMGs spraying hot lead as they clicked out, and she instead switched to a sword in one, and a MAC-10 in the other.

"Affirmative. Fine. Have it your way." She called back, looking to Tiny Nord, and Chaos, who were no doubt a little in shock.

"Take a stim and run. Try not to think about the fact he nearly squished you like a bug, and let's try not to die getting out of here!" She replied personally to Chaos, the feeling one of horror, no doubt Jamie right behind seeing all of this, but Athena taking a moment to grow up a little considering as much venom as she may have had for Sam prior, she had to admit, that was brave of her. A few remaining hostiles were left, as they battled their way through the rest of the market, Athena keeping a lead and feeling the heat from all the hits she had taken, a few charging exos getting a sword to them with the MAC-10 pinning one down so she could at least get the low down. If Tiny Nord was dragging fire, Scion was likely scalping whoever was shooting at him, Boomer was handling his side of the square, then Athena was just skewering inbetween.

The trucks started to roll, as they pulled closer towards the position that the team were in, fifties on top of the armoured six-wheeled vehicles chattering away, with a larger truck following behind for the heavies to load up into. With it, Adam kept up some covering fire, a number of militants rushing and getting dropped as he nodded to Athena, who laid out some more fire from a MAC-10, before eventually dropping back. Moving to one of the trucks at the rear, she clambered in and checked the other heavies were on her lead, the steaming coils off her suit cooking, requiring a greater power cycle than she would have liked, her own exhale following that of her of suit's, no doubt. The trucks all rumbled once everyone boarded, and turning out onto a route that was at least somewhat clear, they were all clambering aboard and making a way out. Adam led Chaos towards one of the other MRAPs, and with it, lept inside, visor up and HVT right in front, secure and kicking.

Tiny stared at what seemed light on the other side of his shield as he ducked under it and braced. Did it work no, he felt a small object likely the size of a can of peas hit, sadly it felt as if a fucking train hit, and he felt the force hit his shield. He felt the standing supports snap and the crater on the interior side as the impact caved in a decent part of the shield to explode as if a hesh shell had hit. His shoulder he felt give as that interior impact zone landed on his shoulder plate, and a sprawling of solid layered steel shatter against his helmet, shoulder, and left torso. The blast he felt shuttered him, the legs and balance of the entire structured frame of the shield, and heavy tumbled on one leg. His knee plate decided to come loose as it buckled back, and the shield pushed him back almost fifteen feet or so, tumbling the entire way as the shield bucked against his helmet, and landed in his chest place denting it in as it lifted up for a moment like a runner digging his heels into the ground. Instead, it was a metal shield digging into armor. He felt as if he was in a can himself now. Several tonnes of metal on him, mechanics whirring to try and offset the weight on him.

He had dealt with the shock before, and while he was a bit ruffled, he was angrier, and the Macgyver sensors someone put into his suit were mostly shot at this point, along with his communications. If someone was near, they would hear angry screaming, cursing, and the eventual insult. He was a tank; this thing hit harder than a tank; it was a railgun; while it wasn't meant for straight damage, it was meant to punch through armor, and thankfully, the shield took the brunt in fact it was still lodged in the shield, a solid chunk of metal pressed against it, but that shockwave gave him hell.

He rocked the shield off of him, and he stared at the backside of the shield; thankfully, his equipment wasn't too damaged, but the shield, but he lifted it up, sighing at the bottom, as he hefted on his shoulder favoring his right side, he looked around, and groaned gears whirring as they started to strip themselves, and his joint locks were giving as he chugged, and chugged forward towards where the fight was, mostly to retrieve his weapon and to draw fire.

"Someone finish that fucker off if he is still around here, confirm it for god sake, like break his spine or his legs at least so he can't use a suit again like I did with the damn northern Irishman. If anyone is listening... I swear to god, fucking jackass broke the rollers and the struts on my shield. I am pretty sure at least three of my ribs are broken; my left shoulder is shot, but... fuck, I am about out..."

At that moment, axe slowly going into it's mostly broken holder that could still barely hold, he dropped on his left knee as he dropped the shield locked on his left arm to just keep him covered, he saw blood on the outside of his helmet. He held his hand and his finger out under the small running of red as he slowly wrote on his chest, "If alive, no stim, only qclot, sal, left compartment." His eyes dimmed for a moment as he saw what looked to be a tunnel, and his head throbbed; he realized it was likely a concussion and another head injury, or several. At least one open wound, or internal, he didn't feel wetness on his face, it was coming from a higher point on the left side, he felt it in his beard, and hair, it was more compacted on the left side on his helmet. He could deal with that for a minute.

He stood up, and started moving as quickly as he could, he saw the trucks pull up, it was easier moving faster, the nice little bug in his knee got fixed out. The thing is time, and whatever wounds he suffered, he didn't expect a rail gun, just something like what the bigger guy had, but almost direct kinetic energy is the bane of his existence. A tank would have been easier, or just another outright brawl.

He felt tunnel-visioned as he kept moving, one target in sight, which was why there was constant pinging on the slow-moving object. Even some larger pings dinged him as he stared at the truck, and he slapped his shield down in the bed of one. Turning around and blindly firing where the pings came from, he just slumped forward, his weapon locked in his hand as his armor went to the quickest locks as his body slumped in different directions, his right arm locked at an angle, his knees were slightly bent and his torso contorted first back, and then straight as his head was locked forward close to his right shoulder, the left arm was resting a few inches above his lower abdomen as his suit looked like a contorted statue of a man in an uncomfortable pose.

---

Chuck was a sight to behold as his pain at being hit in the chest turned to rage. He pulled Lucille free after pulverizing the EXO soldier’s head like a melon. He spun on his heel and took a giant step towards the next Exo. He just kept pressing forward to keep his momentum up. Lucille’s solid tungsten core and titanium shell paired with Chuck’s massive strength crushing and disabling the exo suits and pulverizing the soldiers wearing them. He screamed and looked like a war god of retribution as he laid waste to a small group of Exos that had run to engage him. He swung with all his body getting into it as if he was hitting home runs. The power he managed to generate launching the Exo he connected with off his feet sending the man flying back about ten feet, leaving his armor crushed in on the side crushing the man’s chest underneath. Chuck had cleared the small squad of Exos and paused and turned towards the IFV.

His armor was dented and scratched and had small pock marks where it had taken smaller caliber fire. Chuck was out of missiles. He let Lucille dangle by the wrist strap as he attached his grenade launcher to the underside of his carbine. He peppered the area where the unloading soldiers appeared. He aimed at the rear of the vehicle. He fired frag grenades, hitting the rear of the vehicle and disabling its ability to move. He cleared the 10 man team that had come out of the IFV with extreme prejudice. He pointed at the IFV as the guns turned towards him again. “Your next!” He then began to jog towards the IFV.

Chuck ran up the front of the vehicle and hit the gun barrels from underneath. His swing deformed the barrels and almost tore them off the roof of the IFV. Chuck laughed and used his jump jets to get on top of the IFV. He grabbed the weakened section of armor and used the guns as leverage and applied his strength. He peeled back the armor on top of the vehicle like opening a tin can. “Hey buddy you forgot this!” Chuck fired 4 taser grenades into the cockpit. He jumped down and began to look around to see where he was needed next when he heard Wilk over comms.

"Wilk to all callsigns, regroup, BTRs are down and immediate threats are eliminated. Valkyrie, we need to fucking leave, now!"

Chuck responded “Boomer acknowledges.”

Chuck whistled for Duke and he began to make his way towards the trucks. He reloaded his carbine and took potshots at anyone in his way. He covered Tiny as he made his way towards the truck. He moved quickly but with cold calculation as he aimed for head shots. There was a group of soldiers that came at him thinking there was safety in numbers. Chuck laughed and used Lucille on the wrist tether as he swung the heavy weapon out in an arc that knocked over the lightly armored soldiers crushing them. They fell apart like bowling pins. Chuck made it to the trucks they were using for exfil. He kept up his rate of fire covering those of the team still loading up. Duke came loping in from the side his muzzle covered in blood. He jumped easily into the back of the truck and came to a stop next to Chuck.

Collab with @BigPapaBelial @FourtyTwo









The early dawn rose in the land of the rising sun, the streetlights fading in the dawn chorus of Tokyo’s many metropolitan areas, and the car was rolling around. Skye had fallen asleep on the journey, her body completely out of it after all that had happened, well, apart from the one trip to drop off her doppelganger, the chemical containment tubes sellotaped to her, and a trip to a black market to retrieve bootleg passports, documentation and everything else needed. It was the end of a hard mission, but one that would serve the team critically, even if right now, the pixie-like redhead was still in the crosshairs for many people.

Looking across the seat as the car came in towards the parlour, Skye looked to the other ex-Raven operative, the hardened and dutiful Ban Kingo. A man she didn’t believe she would ever work with again, let alone accept, but he was grateful beyond words for what he had done. Put himself back out there for not a stranger, but an old friend, and what an adventure it was.
“How are you holding up? Gonna say, this has been quite an adventure of ours. I have places to be. Up to you still, if you want to join me.” Skye said to him, the Scots redhead back to her usual accent, the sticker peeled off her voicebox, and back to her usual husky, seeded Highland accent, soft yet somehow, sharp like granite.

Ban sat with his chin cradled in one hand, a slight smile on his lips as they drove along. For all that he’s still bandaged up from the round he took during the lab strike. He nods, “I’m doing okay all things considered. How can one really prepare for a ghost from the past returning. That ghost then pulling them back into old habits. And then marching into hell like they’d never left it?” He chuckles softly “I’m doing good.” He looks at her directly eyes narrowing some, “I’m more worried about you. I’ll march into hell and back out again if you asked it. But you’ve been hit by setback after setback, backhand after backhand. That can’t have left you in a good place. How are you holding up?”

A tilt of his head, “As for continuing on. My little gambling den can run on it’s own for a little while, and I’m sure the Oyabun will allow me to take a leave of absence for a short bit. If you’ll still have me I’ll gladly follow on.” He slowly nods, “Just say the word my friend.”

Skye smiled back, a bit of optimism back in her heart from hearing it, even in spite of the fact that indeed, he was right. Setbacks like this were never good, the core team could have taken a much worse loss and Kaitaki had lost a lot of good support staff, people Skye had got to know and appreciate in the last few months. Still, nothing could be done now, and what mattered was going forwards. Even if it meant stopping a woman that seemingly couldn’t die and wanted to kill millions, if not more.
“That would be appreciated. I don’t know where it’ll lead. But I appreciate it nonetheless.” Skye smiled back, looking out of the window, traffic non-existent bar for traders and shop owners starting to set up for the day.
“I’m still going. But it’s all insane. I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone. What you saw, what went down…..the memory is really, really hazy. Rose, that woman that looks like me, she had a lot of really scary stuff to say when I saw her in New Zealand. When she turned up. And I don’t know how to read any of it. Never met an enemy I couldn’t kill, or stop, no matter how big. But someone who knows me better than I do….that one scares me.” Skye replied, sitting up, looking across, hands on knees, shrugging.

“Everything I understand about the world has turned to shit, and the only thing I can do is just keep killing people until there’s something left and there’s something. No team, just us and the hope we’re right. So yeah. Dandy.” Skye let a wry chuckle, the kind of dry humor a Scots would have, as she sighed, leaning back, knowing Ban would understand, well, at least read that even with the slight crack in Skye there, she wasn’t going to let it be filled with anything else but sarcasm. The car was starting to pull in close, and they would be getting out, and going back inside.

Ban straightened up, seeing that crack, really though a small crack in Skye’s mental and emotional armor was more like a massive breach. He nodded then reaches over and place a rough hand, run through with hidden augments, upon Skye’s nearest hand. Warm, gentle, but with restrained strength and violence, “You’re not alone. You’re current team, I’m sure they are ready to step up higher and forward further then they already are.” He chuckles softly, “And you’ve got men like me ready to move forward with you, in your shadow or at your side. So I’ll stay here at your side and as your shadow, ready to cut down the ones that need to be cut down my friend.”

He looked forward then braced as the car came to a slow rolling stop. The driver stepped out to open his door, and Ban quickly jogged around and opened Skye’s for her, offering his hand to help her out, “So you’ll have a sword ready to cut out the curse that is threatening you. I’ll stick by you. Until you’re ready to get rid of me.” He chuckles a little, and motions for the driver to get the door into the back areas of the pachinko parlour. “We can plan the rest here, we’ll be safe. And secure.”

Skye smiled back, chuckling and giving a nod, knowing he was right, but also, knowing the challenges they faced were going to not be insignificant. She’d brought him into the firing line, and internally, that swelled inside of her too. And the shadows they faced, well, they had plenty to do.
“Thanks, Ban. I’ll hope that’s sooner rather than later. But I think we’ve made more than a dent.” Skye replied, a smile back, as she followed the driver, and with it, headed into the back door of the pachinko parlour, walking inside and heading through. All quiet and dead, with just the light of the machines available, and it felt like the strangest of places to be planning things. The driver led them through the parlour itself, and headed towards the office, around a corner, they had Ban’s office to get back to.

They did, until as Skye turned the corner to go down the corridor that she’d barely been in two days earlier and there she was. With a shit eating grin.
“Miss me?” Skye went to draw but instead was smashed in the back of the head, with another man charging into the back of Ban, tasing away with a cattle-prod like implement, until he stood no longer.

—---------------------------------

Her vision was blurry, but then again, this was round two of getting knocked out, by that utter, utter despicable piece of shit. Fuck. She’d known. She had played her. Skye should have known better. The whole thing….the assistant recognised Ban, and had found him. With a groan, she limbered herself up against the post, hands tied to the frame of one of the machines, Ban across from the other. And with it, there stood Rose, rather casually dressed considering, with Ban’s sword in hand. A black t-shirt, jeans, and the hair that Skye had identical to her.

“This is rather fine. Exquisite even. The details on it. And the sharpness. I bet you could cut up anything with this. And I think I’ll keep it.” Rose said to Ban with the wry sharpness of her English accent watching him come to, shaking her head, brushing the side of the blade, as she heard the other two men she was with drag someone else into the room, alive, sober, and kicking. Skye lurched, screaming, realizing, understanding.

Ban woke slowly and quickly realized something had happened that really didn’t play well. The parlour had been quiet, too quiet, even at the time of day it was. Even late into the night and early into the morning there would be people at the pachinko stalls or in the back playing one of the illegal games. But that hadn’t hit him quite right away. Not until they’d turned the corner into the back area, then started towards his office. The doppelganger, the bakemono! The woman who looked like Skye! She was there that explained why no one was in the parlour! He’d braced then, about to leap, when someone caught him from behind. He’d rolled to his back and looked up at an Obu family footsoldier. She’d managed to get some help? From Obu!? He’d tried to lash his hand up, but it’s caught and he’s rolled over again. He’s just about getting his legs up under him when he feels something jab into his back. And then he knows nothing but electrical pain!

He’d woken up on his knees, beside Skye, looking up, “What…h…ahhh the bakemono.” He snarls then his eyes go wide, “Ota-san!” he barked, and then pulled, the braces keeping him still straining but not giving, “What are you doing with my father!” He snarled out.

“Fuck, you leave him out of it!” Skye yelled, as Hataro was dragged to Rose, the old man no match for tasers and the two mercenaries that Rose had brought with her. How the fuck was she here? They’d taken down their facility, yet she was here, as if on demand? What, had she fallen out of the sky too? Also, how the fuck had she found out? Through the rival Yakuza clan, through a mistake Skye had made, or Ban had made, or in fact, anything?

None of it mattered. Hataro was dragged in front of the two on Rose’s nod, and with it, Rose crouched down in front of Skye, not Ban, and looked dead in, a certain conviction behind her. She didn’t really care. It looked expressive in her body language, she was done. Completely so.

“I have to admit, I’m disappointed we couldn’t agree earlier. But, I suppose it made me realize your true colors. See, I had to lose a very nice piece on the chessboard to you. One of my favorites. But sometimes you have to take risks…then that means we’re rather mutual in that fact. As if we weren’t already. I had to make a choice between you and your friends about the trip I made, and I could not resist coming here. Maybe you just don’t realize where the points on the tracks that I come from point to, do you?” She tutted, Skye wanting to scream a thousand fucks, if it wasn’t for the fact that Rose could kill all of them, here and now, no problem.

“Listen. You want me dead, fine. But you’re gonna be wasting energy on them both and creating a trail. You know as well as I do we’re in the open now. That makes it harder for us to even fucking move anywhere. So a bloodtrail is the last thing you want. Think this through.” Skye replied, as Rose chuckled, shaking her head, with a single, soft, stroke.

“It is the only thing I want, Skye. You kill who you killed, did what you did. And then you get collateral involved….make a scene. It really could only be you, couldn’t it. You really are desperate. You think you can still win. Yet just like this fine sword, it’s rather double edged how that works.” And with it, drawing the blade from the sheath, looking into Skye’s gaze, gently turning it over, then walking back to Hataro.

Ban held his father’s eyes, “Ota-san? Father…” Hataro Kingo looked at his son with a smile, “It’s alright my son. It’s alright. Keep our honor.” Ban swallowed thickly, then bowed his head. When he raised it again his gaze bored into Rose, watching her, but speaking of violence and vengeance.

“No team, no support, nothing. It’s like the fact you think your friends are a strength, yet I only see one problem with that. Isn’t that right, Ban?” Rose said, turning her head to face him, the sight of Skye Lyons, duplicated, in a certain turn.

“It’s that this work never really leaves you behind.”

And with that look, Rose cleanly raised and swiped the katana through Hataro’s neck, half severing his head in a messy pool of blood, kicking him down right in front of Ban, in a bloody, messy heap. He was half decapitated, and the bloodstain into the carpet swelled like an apricot.

It was messy, and instant. Like a blur, and Rose appeared aside from it. She wasn’t looking at Ban. She was looking at Skye. As if to make it worse.

Ban made no sound other than his breath getting heavier. Then in the low deep voice of his, but in that rumbly Japanese, “Watashi no meiyo to kazoku ni chikatte, omae o korosu. Omae no kubi o hane, meiyo o ubai, soshite omae no shitai o gomi no yō ni tsuba de haki kakeru!” He hissed then in english, “I swear, I’ll kill you. On my honor, on my family name, on my blood. And when I take your head, I’ll spit on your corpse like the trash you are! And the only way you can stop that, is by killing me!” He strains again the brace behind him creaking but not giving.

“So….are we paying attention now?” Rose did not seem like some cartoonish, far away villain anymore. She seemed here, right now, and well, with her motive, her tone hardened, cold, and as if it was another day. Another time. She was angry. She couldn’t hide her emotions, but this was a means to an end. Even in response to Ban, who squirmed, she seemed almost removed.

Skye looked on in horror.

She had clearly hurt Rose, deeply, way, way more than she had ever anticipated by all that had happened, so this must have been the extreme- after all, the center was key to her, but well, this kind of response was beyond words. Yet she was the same flesh and blood as Skye, after all. Same capacity for violence. Same willingness to think, and get what she wanted.

“You fucking monster! Fuck, what did he do to you?” Skye yelled, tugging at the rope and the machine, neither budging as Rose pushed back, the blade resting directly on Skye’s heart, a mere centimeter away from hitting the organ as she stopped on the cold, sharpened metal already pulling the sinews of her shirt away. Ignoring Ban altogether, apart from a glance.

“I know I can’t torture you. But him? He’s not us. And I can make you feel what it’s like as I strip him away, piece by piece, and the rest of him, his clan and family. They trained us well, Skye. I could go through all of your fingers, all of your toes, legs, arms. But I don’t need to. Just his, if I want you to talk.” She said, looking to Ban.

Ban grins and chuckles, the show of his teeth like a caged animal, unbroken and still wild, “What more do you think you can do to me? What more can you take from me? My father is dead. And by now, the Amagi family will be gearing for war. You have nothing to make me fear you anymore!” He chuckled and looked down at his father, “He was all I had left in my blood family. And you can’t touch the Amagi.” He grinned, then looked at Skye and then it clicked, “No…”

“I just need to take what else matters in his life away, and the face that does it is yours...like the clan. You’ve just given me an excuse to not care anymore about consequences, like you don’t. This isn’t a war. This is the end.” Rose finished, as if to put a cherry on top.

Skye couldn’t think of the words. A team-mate was one thing to do this to. Silence, acceptance, just knowing she had to talk enough to get this through was one thing, but Rose was smart enough to know Skye knew that too. So she did the only thing Skye herself would ever end up with. You can’t hurt that which can’t be hurt. You just rip everything around them to cinders until they crack. The unbreakable cannot have a foundation to stand on. Hardened criminals, special forces soldiers, they collapsed when nothing was left. There were worse things, but even so, she was going to do it to her team-mate’s life, the one she’d pulled him away from, all to rip it apart in front. The silence was deafening, aside from Ban.

“Fuck…..what do you want then?” Skye replied, hesitant. Anything would do. Anything to buy time. Rose was confident, maybe overly so due to her disposition, but not stupid. Rose indulged nonetheless.

“See, Ban, look how she starts. All those bodies you left, all the security that went your way, and it takes just one dead Yakuza to open her up. Well.” Rose said openly, then walking back, crouching in front of Skye.

“I want to know where you put a specific version of me. And what your hacker knows. If you do that, I don’t kill the rest of his clan. I spare them, keep them alive. Not sure about what I do with you, but he gets to go back out of this. Alive. To be honest with you, I don’t really see the point in keeping you awake anymore, but I suppose you may as well save the people you love while you’re at it.” Rose started, knowing well, Skye would probably die before she gave that up, but hey, she’d already fucked up enough things for now. May as well make this one last like Rose had felt herself.

“Isn’t that what you do best? Or should you just die a bit pointlessly while you watch me rip everything he has left away? Is that how we should do this?” Rose said, as Skye looked to the rope, trying to look for spots, ways out, anything. She looked at Ban with a certain determination, a certain ire, hoping, praying he had some sort of plan. Rage was a hell of a tool in a situation like this. Skye could squirm, but the rope was tight as hell around her, every piece pinning her in despite what she was doing.

Ban looked at Skye harder than at Rose. And screamed, “Jigoku ni ochiro! Go to Hell!” Then kicked the limiters off his augments. The smell of burning flesh and burning cloth filled the room and he pulled. Arms straining, legs clenching, and first his left arm came free with a cracking of the brace behind him, pulling harder, his legs came free, then again his other arm coming free. And he shot forward, over his fathers body and directly at Rose, “Face me now then you bakemono! You monster! I’ll take your head with my bare hands!”

His hands held to his sides, classic samurai style Judo ready to use, even as he rocketed across the space between them, steps stamping into the floor as he rushed her.

Rose turned in a certain shock, watching as he charged, diving out of the way as Skye lunged forwards in her own brace, yanking into her doppelganger and at least sheering the blade against her right arm and the tether holding her with a painful turn, one of the mercs running over towards Ban, weapon raised.
“Fuck! Kill him!” Rose yelled, unprepared for his speed, but sword ready, unaware of what Skye had done in the heat of the moment, as she knew Ban would have to take on the guard, before well, bullets happened.It was a split second, barely anything else happening, as Skye used it to get herself out, the anarchy in front at least creating a mask.

Ban barely slowed, the guard who jumped in his way swung his tanto. And amazingly he caught it. Between his hands, and almost in slow motion flicked the blade out of his hand, caught it and slammed it into the very center of the guard's forehead, and well maybe over judged just how strong his unlimited augments are. As he catches the body, and performs a perfectly beautiful shoulder throw, that bounced the man off the ground twice before he hit a wall.

And then he’s after Rose again, “You won’t kill me with my own family sword!” And then seemed to vanish, going from upright one moment, to seemingly gone. It’s from Skye’s POV that he ducked so fast that he seemed to blur out of existence. And he slams his right shoulder into Rose…

At the knees! A snarled out “YA!” As he shoved his whole body into her knees trying to bowl her over with the sheer speed and his body weight, “Down here Bakemono!”

Rose could barely react, smashed into a machine as she felt the weight of his augments and his strength, kicking him off and slashing, catching his metal arm with a turn, but barely able to put weight behind it, as she kept the blade front and centre, looking at him dead in view, not falling for that one again, on her knees, using his weight to throw him back and away.
“Right here! And I’ll gut you with it!” Rose yelled back, snarling with anger herself, as Skye fumbled across, watching the fight unfold, blood pouring from her arm as she yelled. Rose was in a decent position considering, unless Ban wanted to skewer himself.

“Not so cocky now, are you!” Skye yelled back, Rose turning for a moment to see Skye come across, her gaze split for a second. She hoped it would be enough to distract, at the very least for him to make another run.

Ban doesn’t seem to be shaken any. He looks at his arm, where the flesh over it is still sizzling away. The smell of burned skin was still clear in the air, “Not bad. But do you think you can keep up bakemono? Do you hear that by the way? You aren’t a person. You’re a demon! A ghost! Something not real! You are nothing!” He moved then. And even as Rose lashed with the sword there’s a crack.

Rose looked in awe. Ban looked pleased. He caught the blade between his palms. He then smiled, “I don’t need to be cocky when I know what I need to do. So tell me…” He moved his right hand forward while bracing the blunt edge of the blade on the palm of his left hand, then pushed and flicked at the same time, the blade coming free and sticking up into the ceiling almost half way up the blade! “..Do you bleed?”

He hissed, “Now then.” And moved again. And only due to the speed granted by his amped up augments, the blow is near invisible. The impact is a harsh crack as his first impacts on the nerve bundle half way up Rose’s left arm. The next one is a snap in the same place, on her right arm.

The last of the three though he takes his time, he measures up, placing his right index finger on her sternum, “Have you ever heard of the One Inch Punch? How they say it’s a myth?” He grins then surges forward, and indeed slams his fist into her chest dead center, mythological One Inch Punch indeed as he forced his entire body weight into that point, driving her back nearly three feet.

Then he stops, having to finally breathe, “Don’t need to be cocky. Now who is really cocky here? Huh? Bakemono?”

Rose spat blood, coughing up as she looked up, thrown back yet still breathing, blood pouring, yet seemingly, not even caring. Most people would, but then again, without consequences, she wanted to keep squaring. Keep facing.
“Oh, you are good.” She replied, and with it, let him draw in, responding in turn with a perfected counter, her krav-maga taught method not as fast as Ban, but effective enough to draw him in, countering his kick and responding with her own, going for his manhood and swinging him in, punching hard as Skye kicked her off him, running across the room to one of the Tantos on the floor and bringing it to bear.

“Two versus one, fine!” Rose yelled back, as she diverted herself onto Skye, the Scot facing her down and yanking the knife back into hand, staring her down. It was a quick set of moves as Skye came in close, but Rose couldn’t keep her balance, not with Ban looming. She tried to dodge, but it came fast enough, Skye finding a crack in her punches and with it, bringing the knife into hand, shanking into her stomach twice, as Rose took the knife and with it, pushed back, pulling the knife out of her with a primal scream and pushing back. Screaming, Skye realized as suddenly, the knife fell into her side, Skye limping away as Rose did the same, a shared pool of blood between them into the floor.

There’s a moment where Skye clutched her side, the wound driven hard, but right below her lungs. It hurts her to breathe though, the blade sticking in as she looked across at Rose, gargling blood out of her mouth, a bloody smile on her face.
“I’ll keep coming…..and you can’t stop this. Can’t stop any of it. You, your stupid team….” Rose uttered, the pooling continuing as Skye felt the same, crawling across, pulling her up, getting weaker, and weaker from her own.
“This isn’t what he wanted. I know it isn’t. Please…..please, Rose. You have to stop.” Skye begged, even in her weakness, feeling Rose’s depleting life cackle back.
“We’re on the brink…no going back now. It’s not him that wants this. Never was...” With it, Rose took the knife in Skye’s side, and weakly, tried to push. Skye screamed, falling on top of her doppelganger’s arms, trying to stop it as best as she could, feeling Rose’s efforts weaken with her weight.

Ban grinned right back at her, “The fine arts of Karate, Jujutsu and Judo play well with me bakemono.” He slipped in, ducking in with the paired women. His hands lashing out, vying off the lashes of that tanto, trying to create an opening for Skye to get in. The crack of metal on metal, flesh on flesh. He’s leaning back out of the way of a dangerous cut when Skye gets in. And he slides back and out of the way as the pair meet. He can see and hear the slice of flesh.

And for a moment he’s paralyzed.

They’d both drawn blood. He looks at Skye the tanto at her side, buried well. The opening in Rose though is mortal, it’s clear. And he watches as they bleed. And then come together in this moment. He caught his breath then stepped in, reaching down, to try and pry them apart, without pulling the knife clear of Skye’s innards, “Skye, stop…enough. The Bakemono is dying. You can’t help that. But you can help yourself.” He pulls again trying to get them apart, “Do not give you life for the dead. Do not give your soul for hers.”

Skye exhaled hard, wrapping herself onto Ban, holding tight, as she felt feint, fuzzy, weird. She felt exposed, but then again, gently throbbing blood from her gut was not a way she planned for this morning to go.
“She’s got me fucking good, Ban. Really good. You know me well…..” She uttered, dragging herself against the wall, exhaling hard and painfully, looking into him.
“I’m sorry, Ban. I’m so fucking sorry…..she…..I don’t even know.” Skye mumbled, putting her hand against his, exhaling deeply, her heart panicking, her body in overload, looking over at one of the men that Ban had brutally managed to kill. And the first aid kit on his tactical rig.
“The bleed. Listen. It’s going to need a ton of clotting agent. It’ll piss a lot of blood. And we need to get out. Fast.” Skye garbled, her panicked embrace looking down at the wound.

Ban caught her and carefully leaned back looking at Rose, “The Bakemono is gone…for now it seems.” He helped her away then let her out of his grasp and followed her to the wall, he looked up and around, then went to the door, with a heave he gets it open and then comes back, with a medical pack, “Take it easy Skye-chan, you’re going to be okay. You’re in my hands. I won’t let you go without a fight.” He opened the pack and left it open beside her, “This is likely going to hurt. We’re going to have to get it out and get you fixed up. There’s no cauterizing pen in here. But it looks like there’s some clotting powder in here. Just hang on.”

And then Ban applied pressure, pulled the knife and quickly stuffed the open package of clotting gel into the wound after ripping it open with his teeth. He shut his eyes, trying to drown out his friend's scream of pain from the knife then from the rough insertion of the gel into the wound. He holds his hand against the wound as the gel works to slow and hopefully stop the bleeding, “Just hang tight my friend. Just hang on. You’ll still have time. Everyone gets that moment of downfall. Now comes your climb back up. I think this is it. You can start coming back up out of the murk.” He continued to work on her wound. During which his limiters kicked back in, and stopped burning his flesh and clothing. Leaving him near naked in the moment, not that he seemed to notice any as he tended to Skye.

Skye screamed, yelping and roaring, feeling the heat and pain start to burn as she felt all fuzzy and weird. The words didn’t make sense, as the smell of burning could be audibly heard, from the limbs of Ban’s arms and legs, fizzling away. She felt very vague, all manner of strangeness happening from the amount of blood she was losing out here. After a lucid moment where it started to fuzz in, Skye found the energy where she could, resting a bloody hand against his boiling arm.
“Thank you…..shit, thought I was a goner.” Skye mumbled, and with it, released her arms, exhaling hard, looking back at Rose, then back to Ban. What would normally have killed someone here, had somewhat kept Skye alive, yes, through a poor decision but it was clear that if she hadn't gotten involved, the odds were still questionable for Ban. If Rose was anything like what Skye could do, she wouldn’t have done down easy.

Looking into his eyes, Skye mustered the energy she had for now, wheezing a little.
“We need to go. We really need to go. Wash any blood you have off you, it…it tracks. Hers. Sorry. It’s all a bit dizzy.” Skye kept mumbling, knowing it didn’t make much sense, as she felt the burn of his skin against hers, amplified by her sensory overload.

Ban used the medical stapler in the kit to close up the wound for now, “Right we’ll tend to that here shortly. Just want to make sure you’re good to go. Don’t want it to come loose in the moment.” And taping some medical gauze over the wound he finishes up. By this point he’s slowing a little the adrenaline rush, and the sadness of losing his last blood family clearly is starting to get to him. Only when he’s sure she’s taken care of does he get her to her feet to make sure she can walk, “Let’s go find somewhere I can wash off then try and get out of here. We can go to the Amagi Estate, they’ll take us in. But I think we’re going to need to get out of Japan for a while. Think Raven will take you back in? Think they’ll take me back in?” He levers her up onto his hip and helps to get her out of their holding cell, “I…can grieve later. We need to get out of here.” He took a moment to reach up and pull his sword out of the ceiling, tucking it to his side.

And he limps out with her on his side. Her blood and flesh and bone and pain. His meat, and metal and pain and loss. A fine pair in the end perhaps.

Skye looked up, barely able to hold onto him, her vision blurred like she was drunk, considering the litre of blood or so she’d lost.
“No chance. We can’t go there. Tell them to get ready for war, Rose is just using anything as a means to an end. Including them. We cannae stay for that..fuck he was a good man.” Skye continued to blear her words, looking back at Hataro, then back to Ban, her arms around him in an embrace, tears pouring out, as she sighed hard.
“Enri. Enri can help us. There’s one more place we have to go. One more thing we have to do. It’ll put us back where we need to be. In Los Angeles, there’s another friend that can help.” Skye added, hearing the sound of another vehicle rolling.
“Ah, fuck…..yeah, let’s get out.” Skye added, knowing they had to get to a vehicle, or something.

Ban winces, getting them outside looking around, “Come on.” And pulls her over to a small Kei truck, tucked along the side of the street a short distance away, “Come on, in here.” He pops the door after a little jiggling and manual lock picking. “Try and pop the other side open so I don’t have to break the window.” And then once he’s inside, hot wires the truck, getting it started, “:ets get out of here, I’ll make a call to the Family once we’re in a safe house. This likely means the Amagi and the Obu are going to go to the Mattresses. There will be deaths. Not since the Yamaguchi War have the Yakuza fought in the streets.”

Skye did as she could, fumbling across, taking the shard of metal and jabbing it in, using the good old picking technique of just shoving the lock until it went, and that it did, pulling nicely and falling in. She immediately fell onto Ban’s lap, before righting herself.
“Fuck….”

He caught her then pulled out into the streets, “We’ll make for the airport. I know a guy. He has a plane, it should get us to Hawaii, then we can try and get to Los Angeles from there. Stay with me here Skye-chan. We only got out of one problem. We’ve got far far too many ahead of us. Let’s get out of here.” He pressed the gas, and headed into the growing fog of a Tokyo morning.

Samantha had managed to get out away from the crushed stalls. She was grateful her idea for immobilizing the mech had worked. She had begun to try to circle around behind it when Ingwe made his move. She was not in a position where she could see Ingwe or the front of the mech having moved around behind it. That was when she heard a deep and terrifying voice which seemed to reverberate in the air around her.

"And you! You cannot run from me! I'm going to rip you into pieces!"

Samantha didn’t have time to react as a large area effect electrical attack landed right in front of her. The flash would have blinded her if her suit’s visor didn’t compensate. Her body went rigid as an electrical current passed through her. Her suit was insulated to a degree and grounded even with the rubber soled boots she was wearing. The gel layer in her armor dispersed most of the electrical charge but it was very strong and had landed almost on top of her. Her body went rigid as if she had been hit with a high powered taser before collapsing to the ground like a marionette with her strings cut. She was struggling to breathe as pain coursed through her body. She felt like all her nerve endings were on fire. Samantha was disoriented as her HUD was shorting out and blinking as her AI dealt with the overloaded circuits built into her suit.

Samantha was not a heavy. Her armor was designed for mobility, flight capability, and to interface with electronics. She was very squishy compared to her heavy teammates. Samantha could feel the vibrations of Ingwe’s steps through the ground, not that she could focus on it. Samantha felt like her brain was short circuiting along with her suit. Samantha was not capable of protecting herself at that moment as she had been incapacitated by Ingwe’s attack.

Ingwe’s voice was closer as he told her.
"Now, you'll squish like a cockroach you are. No Freya to protect you now...."

Before she had even gotten her breath back, Ingwe picked her up in an electrically charged fist and was squeezing her. Her screams were cut off as she felt his fist tighten around her midsection. Her arms were trapped at her sides. He pushed her back against what was left of the mech’s leg which was still hot from the explosion. Samantha could feel the heat and pressure along her back where he pressed her. She was close to passing out, unable to breathe and in unbelievable pain.

Samantha was somewhat oblivious as she was suddenly wrenched from Ingwe’s fist by Athena and dropped. Samantha was disoriented and gasping for air. About that time Bob’s voice said “Activating field medicine protocols.” Samantha was oblivious as her AI, Bob, saved the day by hitting her with the Raven cocktail of stimulants and pain killers. She was suddenly able to draw a deep breathe even as she felt the kick of adrenaline. She shook her head as if she could clear it as she struggled to understand what had just happened to her. Her brain struggling to process what she was experiencing and hearing.

Samantha was not sure if she heard Athena over comms or if she was close by. She knew she heard Athena tell her to run.

"Yeah, well, she sends her regards, motherfucker! Chaos, run!"

Her brain was still struggling to catch up with what was happening as she heard Wilk order them to regroup.

"Wilk to all callsigns, regroup, BTRs are down and immediate threats are eliminated. Valkyrie, we need to fucking leave, now!"

Samantha finally managed to get up on her hands and knees. She began to crawl away from Ingwe as Athena had him distracted. She managed to pull herself to her feet on the remains of the truck. She swayed back and forth on her feet. She put a hand to her head which was still in her helmet. She felt woozy and weak.

She heard Athena replying over coms once more.

"Affirmative. Fine. Have it your way."

"Take a stim and run. Try not to think about the fact he nearly squished you like a bug, and let's try not to die getting out of here!"

Samantha swayed but began to move under her own power as she made her way towards the trucks in the distance. She was following the waypoint that Bob had put in her hud for her. He had included flashing arrows and was in her ear encouraging her to move. The last jog towards the extraction vehicles was a blur. Samantha ran and dodged on autopilot. Her body still buzzing from the electricity. Adam seemed to sense how bad was she was injured and guided her into a vehicle.

Samantha slid down the wall resting her back against the wall of the MRAP. Samantha said the only thing on her mind, "I am not a plush toy!"

She then promptly passed out. Her suit had a charred spot on her back and was leaking gel that had been squeezed out when Ingwe had tried to use her body as a stress toy. Her armor was shattered around her rib cage and the under layers showed through in places where Ingwe had overwhelmed the tactile strength of her suit. She would be in much worst shape without it.

---

Ebrima followed the Nepali ghost out of the cafe, once again replacing the half-empty magazines with full ones, noting they were the only full ones remaining aside from the fragmentation grenades for the launcher. They better start wrapping up, else he’d have to start scavenging 5,56 and forget he even had the Origin. In absence of a grappling hook, the Albino had to employ a bit of imagination to find his way topside again. A younger, less experienced Ebrima would’ve taken a few seconds to give Purna good-natured grief for showing off with his flips and mid-air cartwheels, but the man knew it was more responsible - not to mention fun - to wait for the right moment. It was a great shame the rest of his previous team didn’t get the same opportunity he did, he could vividly imagine comments about ‘wearing tights to a fight’. Well, those who made it out of Colombia at least.

Coming back up onto the roofs following some jump pack-assisted gymnastics of his own, he paused with a double take, the disbelief at a heavy operator somehow stuffing himself into a mech almost physical, but with no good angle on the man and an armor-clad personification of Twitter or whatever it was called these days showing up to handle the problem with brutal efficiency, he let it go. Still, it wasn’t looking great down there, even the heavies looking worse for wear. Calling out to Purna to go on ahead along the evacuation convoy’s intended route and that he’d catch up, he took up a position behind a low wall on the market-side edge of the roof, shouldering the MSRx again and taking potshots at whoever he could find down there that was still causing trouble until the evacuation trucks arrived. Purna of course had a good point in getting out while they could, being on foot and thus slower even if the city would slow the vehicles down considerably, still leaving while the fight was still on felt wrong.

With that, he turned around and broke out into a run, keying his radio. ”Wilk, Boraro. Viper and I are withdrawing, will try to follow along your route and join you when we’re clear. Out.”
Ebrima opened a satellite map on his PDA, trying to figure out which way the convoy might take as he made haste to catch up to Purna and gave up almost immediately. The Souk was a mess of alleys, meaning the lead vehicle would most likely be guessing their route on the spot based on roughly the direction they wanted to go and which alleys were open, unless they had an Italian there to make sense of the street spaghetti they found themselves in.

They had to clear out an attempted ambush or two, but the chaotic nature of their environment worked for them as well, as the sheer amount of possible routes made setting up an ambush difficult and the hectic day had seemingly started to slow down at last, allowing the two Rooftop Ravens to slow down a little. Someone really should’ve told him being ‘the good guy’ was this much effort, he would’ve at least considered networking from the prison instead.

Jamie smiled, turning away from his sister. Being able to fight along side his younger sister is always a treat. She's just so intense. He's a little more grounded. But then it's almost a family thing that they all go hard. Started with their parents after all. And it continues with the kids. He turns around in time to see the BTRs go up, and the last moment of the mech coming down and burning. He chuckles, "Eh they don't need our help." With a nod to his sister, he starts to follow the rest of Raven towards where they were all regrouping.

He did his job though, scanning and pumping some rounds at a few enemy fighters as they poked their heads out. Sending them scrambling for cover. Keeping the team safe from any lurkers in the ruins of the soul, "Scion here, Wilco on that regroup. Keeping our rear clear. Be there shortly."

The roar of his twin linked HMGs growls and thunders in the air, breaking any peace that may have briefly appeared in the wake of the destruction of the big things and the armor. Scion grins behind the face plate of his armor the whole time. Nothing like Mayhem. And he's supposed to be the more grounded one of the three siblings.

It's the steady stomp as he arrives at the RV point, looking about, keeping an eye out for any enemy that decides they still want to make problems. Seeing nothing immediately he takes a moment to begin reloading the ammo hopper for his HMGs and the rocket pod. Looking around he smiles at the others, "A fine day of work don't you think?" He says almost conversationally.

Collab between Skye Lyons and Kameko Takahashi (Samantha's Adopted Grandmother)

Kameko was in her apartment above the dojo having tea. She still taught classes but had to hire someone to teach the classes that her husband had taught. She was enjoying a nice custom blend of tea that Samantha had sent her. The girl had signed her up for a tea of the month club. Her thoughts drifted to her wayward adopted granddaughter. She missed her but understood the forces that were driving her to investigate her father’s death. Kameko feared where this would take her. She worried about her but knew that her only course of action was to support her. She only prayed that Samantha’s soul would one day make peace with what happened.

She sighed even as the sounds of the kendo class came through her open window. Her ear listened as the young man she had hired to teach the classes put a beginner’s class through their paces. He was more progressive in his methods and less traditional than Ryuji had been but she couldn’t fault that he was popular with the students. His class was made up of professionals in the area that were using the class for exercise. They at least always paid their bills on time.

She missed her husband Ryuji since she he had been killed in a terrorist attack. Her life was comfortable though. She didn’t really need anything. She could have sold the studio but her life and memories were wrapped up in her home. It felt like leaving him behind if she moved on. She wasn’t ready to do that. She wanted Samantha to have something to come back to. She worried that she was so hurt and damaged by life events that she would never know peace. Her mind pondered these things as she sipped her tea looking out over the street.

The address hadn’t been quite what Skye was expecting, and after the flight over from Tokyo, stopping in Kahului Airport, the shining lights of LAX had then followed, and after that, a significant amount of dodging security, other cameras and a bunch of other resources. Ban’s fixers had run out, and now it was just them. A stolen car, her hair slightly regrown, a pair of aviators and a leather jacket did the job to turn Skye Rosalind Lyons into someone slightly different to who she had been.

And outside, the old Buick sat there, as Skye sighed, engine turned off, and then climbing out and heading towards the door, knowing this would be it. She hoped Sam was right, on this one at least. In any ordinary team, Sam would have been disciplined within an inch of her life, but quite ironically, in the way that Skye had ended up with a dysfunctional team, they’d ended up saving the world. Strange, that. But then again, Skye was a little bit of a rebel herself. Perhaps it just came with the territory. Get on board a bunch of rebels, outlaws, strangers and you end up with people who end up fixing the world this way. And they wouldn’t think too much about Sam, they’d go for Skye, considering the events that had recently happened. Which made this even more handy.

With a knock on the door, Skye awaited a response, and hoped for something to come back.

Kameko was surprised to hear a knock on her apartment door. She wondered if a student had taken a wrong turn. It didn’t happen often as the dojo was on the bottom floor of the building. The upper two floors were the apartment that had been her home for over 40 years. The building had a lovely manicured backyard that was a peaceful oasis in the middle of a very large urban city. She set her teacup down and went to the door.

She remembered what Samantha had told her the last time they had talked. It had been a hurried phone call and she had no clue where the girl had been. The connection had been poor. It was also obvious that she had not been able to talk freely. Their conversation had been in code. Kameko was aware of what Samantha did for a living. She knew that the girl had secrets that she was safer not knowing. She had let her know that she might get a visitor but that visitor would know the code to give her. She had also warned her to be careful. Kameko was an older woman but she was still graceful and strong thanks to the martial arts she practiced. She was not an easy target for anyone. Caution made her pause and check through the peephole to see who was standing at her door.

Standing there was an athletic looking red-headed woman. She kept the chain on the door and stepped to the side so that the door couldn’t hit her if it was kicked in. She opened the door to the length of the chain before answering the door.

“Can I help you? The dojo is downstairs.” Her Japanese accent was slight and her English was clear.

Skye picked up the voice, and immediately could catch that tell. Kameko.

“I’m not here for the dojo. Listen, I know Samantha….and she left this.”

Skye added, passing a tiny slit of paper through, a small code with the number on it, handwritten, catching the watching eye on the other side.

“Her, and the team are in a lot of trouble. And I’m just trying to help. I’m a friend.”

Kameko’s eyes narrowed as she accepted the slip of paper from Skye. She looked down and read the message on the paper. The code was correct but she was still suspicious. She wanted to be sure that the woman was from Samantha and not just taken the code from one of her trusted people.

“What is Samantha’s prized possession?”

“The Shelby that’s parked inside. She wouldn’t ever shut up about it.”

Skye replied with a funny reply, chuckling, her Scots accent carrying back again. Skye would have guessed the suspicion came from a good place, and knew Kameko would not have Sam watching over right now, considering the team were likely back out again, or isolated out again.

Kameko gave Skye a soft smile and a nod before removing the chain on the door. She opened the door and gestured inviting Skye inside.

“Welcome to my home. Please join me for some tea and you can tell me why you are here.”

She waited for Skye to enter before closing and locking the door behind her. She led the way through her living room to the window that overlooked the backyard where she had been sitting and having her tea. It was a small conversation area with a small table between two wingback chairs. She gave Skye a half bow as she excused herself and went to the kitchen to fetch another cup. She returned shortly and poured some fragrant tea in a Japanese style cup and handed it to Skye.

“There is sugar and cream if you would like it.”

She indicated the typical serving sides on the tray with what appears to be an antique Japanese tea set.

Skye smiled back, the hospitality that Sam had clearly reflected in her childhood guardian, Skye bowing with a certain respect, a distinct one considering how gracious a host Kameko was being right now. Sunglasses off, the tired, jetlagged face of Skye could be seen, and her jacket was not doing a good job of covering up her wear from losing a lot of blood, and her wound tightly still bandaged in her side beneath it.

“Thank you.” Skye replied, gently sipping down, before putting the cup back, not taking sugar or cream.

“I apologize for visiting, as I’m sure Sam hoped a stranger would never come. I am not sure what Sam told you about her work, but as you can imagine, she is quite extraordinary.”

Skye started, gently taking another wick, before putting it down, smiling back at Kameko.

“That tea is good. Lovely. So, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Skye Lyons, former head of an elite, multi-national taskforce that hunted down extremist terrorist groups considered a threat to global stability. And as of three days ago, we were attacked. If it wasn’t for the actions of Sam, things could have ended a lot worse. Especially for me.”

Skye started, fumbling her words a little towards the end, hinting at what had happened.

“But there is something she did. Something I didn’t even expect. She kept some data here. A small box-like compartment that contains our data. Kameko, this may be critical to saving the world. It contains information on a group that could be undertaking something so deadly, it may spiral. There are a lot of lives that could be saved. Tens, if not hundreds of millions in the balance.”

Skye knew this would be a big deal, perhaps a little strange, so she sipped down a little more, and took the older Japanese lady in again, this time more in an English-speaking context.

“I understand you probably don’t trust me, and I understand you may be hesitant to trust my identity, who I am, or what I’m doing. But believe me, this thing she did was beyond important. I nearly died for it twice. Sam was willing to risk the same. If you have it, I’d really appreciate it. I can return it to the team, and we can find out what this group is doing. And put it to an end, at last. The last thing I did was to leave Sam to direct them to safety. And I know she will..”

Skye replied, knowing this was not an easy thing to do, but well, it had to be asked- as direct as possible.

Kameko gracefully sipped at her tea as she watched and listened to the woman explain who she was. Her face remained serene even as her head tilted slightly to the side in a listening posture. She smiled as she heard Samantha described as extraordinary. That was something that Kameko knew better than most having known Samantha for most of her life.Kameko set her almost empty tea cup back on the tray as Skye began to explain who she was and what she needed.

Kameko could tell that Skye was just as guarded as Samantha. She reached over and took one of Skye’s hands and gave it a gentle squeeze as she shook her head with a soft laugh.

“You remind me of Samantha. I know that what she does is top secret and dangerous. I also know that you would never have been able to answer my question if Samantha did not trust you Skye. Samantha does not share details of her life with many. Where did she tell you that you would find the box?”

Skye had a think, but it came back fast enough, even in spite of the injury that had happened.

“The saddle bag on her motorbike. That was what Sam said.”

Skye simply replied, chuckling, hearing Kameko’s reply.

“She is one hell of a person. Perhaps excitable, but keeps her humanity well.”

Kameko smiled and nodded. She rose gracefully to her feet.

“Follow me. I will take you to it.”

She led the way back to the apartment door. She waited for Skye to exit before keying in the code on the electronic lock and waiting to hear the motor engage the deadbolt. She led the way down the stairs and took a turn through a short hallway that led to a back door. She keyed in another code to open the door to the backyard. She led Skye through a small but beautiful manicured yard over to a free-standing garage to one side of the yard. She once more keyed in a code that let her into the side door of the garage. Inside the garage the lights came on and the private high tech yet homey garage that was Samantha’s personal joyful space was visible. There was a car under a cover in one of the bays of the garage. A deep purple and silver custom street bike was in the other. The bike had some saddlebags on it and had a storage compartment under the seat. Kameko waved a hand towards the bike.

“Please look for yourself. Samantha was always here tinkering on something.”

Kameko stayed by the door as waved Skye into the interior of the garage.

Skye whistled, looking around, impressed by it.

“Quite the life she built here. Must have been working on lots before I called.”

Skye added, looking around and impressed by the sight of it. Walking up to the bike, she pulled on the leather saddlebag, and with it, pulled out the SSD-sized device, bringing it to bear and checking it through, before snuggling it into her coat pocket.

“She had a hell of a life I guess. Always talked about it. Doing stuff with it. I suppose she had a family with us, yet….well, there’s always projects to finish.”

Skye spoke to herself softly, before looking back to Kameko, a smile back on Skye’s face.

“Thank you. I owe it to her to bring her. And the others, too.”

Skye added back to Kameko, the crack of a smile even forming on Skye’s replying face, considering what she’d seen. In spite of all the pain, suffering and agony of the last few days, this was the rare moment that it felt like humanity could be seen. Not someone with a capacity for boundless violence, but someone who was genuinely, truly, innocent. Worth protecting, and as much as Skye hated the idea of going out at all, making this move was important for what she had planned next.

Kameko had a sad wistful smile on her face as she looked around the garage. Memories of Samantha working on a project came to mind. Her chasing the girl out of the garage for a meal or forcing her to rest when she got too wrapped up in a project. She remembered Ryuji trying to learn from Samantha and brought another sad smile to her face. Kameko came back to the present as Skye began to speak. She had obviously found whatever it was that Samantha had sent her to retrieve. She gave Skye a slight bow of acknowledgement.

“You owe me nothing. You are out there fighting alongside my granddaughter. You are welcome in my home anytime Skye Lyons. Is there anything else I can do to help you?”

Kameko’s head was tilted to one side in query. Unsure if Skye would allow her to help her more than she had.

Skye smiled, with a nod, as if to confirm that only this little had been more than a world of enough.

“One day I hope Sam is able to tell you all of what is going on. Believe me, it will make quite a story. This is all I need. Thank you, Kameko.”

Kameko nodded and led Skye back to her car, locking everything back up as she went. She thought about Samantha as she cleaned up the remnants of the tea setting her kitchen back to impeccably clean. Her thoughts on Samantha and the danger she was in. She would say extra prayers to the ancestors to watch over her and bring her home safely once more.