Cassandra had lost everything to the UEF, they had attacked the world she was on, her family gone, her friends lost, if it wasn't for one person who grabbed her she would have also become another forgotten patch of dust on the world.

That, was a long time ago.

She had grown up, pushed herself to the limit, every day since she had joined the illuminate military she had trained to the breaking point, she could easily defeat the others of her class without breaking a sweat, the woman had honed her skills to the point where she could even hold up against the other trainers.

She was going to make the UEF pay for what they did to her.

For what they did to her home.

A steadfast follower of The Way and an unusually acute tactical mind that would rival a cybran's had brought attention from many, she had been offered many safer occupations ranging from infiltration to combat advisement yet she was fully locked on her choice.

She wasn't going to be sitting down somewhere telling others what to do and she wasn't going to be walking alongside the enemy, no, she knew what she wanted.

So when the day came, everyone was shocked at her reaction.

It wasn't hard to find initiate Cassandra, she was in the main yard, keeping not only her physical skills but also her mental state razor sharp, as she sparred against a particularly stubborn trainer she gave solutions to another that was laying out situations before her.

Evaluator Celene waited as a particularly interesting scenario was brought forth moments after she arrived to inform Cassandra of the news.

"you are surrounded, your ACU is heavily damaged but there are several other engineers around you, you have 1 modification installed into your ACU that will allow you to survive heavy siege from heavy artillery but along with you and your engineers is an important captive that has to be brought back alive, one hit from heavy artillery will kill said POI, you must hold out for ten minutes for extraction to arrive, what modification will you take and what will you do?"

Celene smiled, no one had been able to answer this correctly before, well, no one from her class.

But the answer she gave shocked the evaluator.

"tier 2 engineering suite, I will begin a shield generator and assign two engineers to take over, one engineer is to heal my ACU while the others lay-up basic defenses, I will engage any nearby mobile artillery and remove them as a threat once they are removed than I will reclaim some enemy ground forces firing on me to give the remaining mass required for the shield, once the shield is up I will reassign that engineer to gather matter from the wreckages, once basic defenses are up I will proceed to place a tier 2 radar followed by four tier 2 point defenses and four tier 3 anti-air defenses, once they are up I will immediately begin construction of a land factory, reassigning all the other engineers to assist me."

"At which point you will be able to begin constructing your own army, thus making evacuation, secondary."

This was the last scenario, the 'end game' scenario so to say that was to be used on her, and she, although roughly, was able to provide the solution.

"Excellent."

Everyone snapped at attention when the evaluator spoke.

"Ma'am, to what do we owe this pleasure?"

"Ha-ha, calm yourselves, I am merely here to personally give this initiate her new orders."

Cassandra felt her heart skip a beat in concern.

"You are to report immediately for integration with your ACU, once that has been completed you shall receive further orders."

The evaluator smiled before walking away, leaving behind a shocked initiate, one that broke from her state when she instinctively defended against an attack from the trainer she was sparring with, she had brought him to the ground with ease.

"Damn, I thought that I'd finally get you again."

She chuckled before helping him up.

Both the trainers who were 'assisting' her gave the woman a hug each.

"We'll miss you here Cass."

"Yeah, please, stop by once in a while when you have time."

She smiled before saying she would, giving them both one last hug before heading away.

Neither saw her glance back at them as they turned to head off somewhere else, those two had been the closest thing to big brothers for her since she arrived, sure they were brutally hard on her but they meant well, and she knew it.

It wasn't far for Cassandra before she reached the place she was meant to be, a rather large building of elegant design, yet what was that saying? In the wild, the more beautiful something is, the more deadly, and this was as close to that saying as it was.

She barely walked in before seeing dozens of others, members of the illuminate and judging by their attire they were technicians and similar, and for the first time in a long time, she felt, not only lost, but also out of place.

Luckily as the fairly young initiate looked around for signs of where to go one of the aeon saw her, he chuckled before walking away from his group and heading straight to her.

"Ma'am? Can I help you?"

He immediately recognized the uniform, an initiate, likely one that snuck over here to see a real life ACU.

"Yes, I was told to come here for, integration?"

Like everyone heard that one word silence befell the formerly busy interior.

"So, you're the new one, very well, follow me."

She didn't hesitate but that was because she felt even more uncomfortable now than before.

"Tell me, do you know what to expect?"

She answered him honestly, she had no idea, and that made him laugh as they neared what seemed like a locker room, there was several others inside but they were all women.

"Look for your locker and get suited up, if you're having trouble than you'll have to ask one of the others to assist."

The others in the room laughed when they saw her, they were quick to help her into her new attire.

"Done than?"

Cassandra said that it felt a little tight but he merely glanced her over before saying it was alright.

Trust me, when you're in the ACU than you won't mind, now come on.

The initiate was still a bit uncomfortable about this, it seemed so strange and sudden.

The following moments proved even stranger, she was leaded to what was simply, a ledge before being handed a helmet to seal her suit completely.

"What is happening?"

"You see that pool way down there?"

She looked over and saw it, a rippling silver pool, she knew even from where she was by the unnatural way it was moving that it wasn't ordinary liquid.

"Yeah?"

"You're going to be lowered down there, trust us; we've done this hundreds of times already."

She still felt unsure but decided to do as told.

Nearby machinery activated, bringing forth fields of gravity around Cassandra, raising her up above the ground slowly and moving to the center of air above the pool, gently allowing her body to be lowered down.

Fear finally took hold of Cassandra as she reached the pool, but as she was about to shout out for them to stop she was lowered all the way in.

As the last of strange material covered the visor of her helmet, Cassandra saw someone, a woman, calm, her smile soothing, her bright emerald green eyes captivating.

"My champion"

With those two words said, this woman vanished, replaced by darkening silver light

Cassandra had a feeling of knowing this person, like she was important, but fear had overridden her mind as she realized that her body was no longer being lowered, nor was it being raised up.

"Alright, how is she holding up?" asked the man that escorted Cassandra around.

Some of the aeon scientists went over their readings before replying.

"She's panicking but her link is strong."

"Good, make the final adjustments quickly, and she did mention that her suit was rather tight.

Some of the people in the room chuckled at that but they all worked immediately got to work.

"Alright, we are ready."

"Good, raise it up."

Even though the men and women in the room had done this so many times it was still incredibly gratifying to see when their work was successful.

From the silvery pool came something incredible.

An Aeon ACU, in all its glory.

"Alright, well done, now someone, show her how to get out."

As Cassandra was assisted with exiting her brand new ACU a message arrived at Avatar-of-War Jaran Marxon, when he read it he smirked.

He had been keeping a close eye on this initiate's growth and she would prove to be extremely valuable to him, maybe the very person he needed to achieve his ultimate goal.

"One way or another Burke, one way or another."