(Takes place in Episode 5.)
Chaos. That was all Jaune could say to describe whatever it was that was going on with him, he didn't know how and he didn't know why but for some reason he was as tall as a holon and he was squaring off against the giant, four armed mech the team had dealt with a while ago. They were in a ruined city with destroyed buildings all around them and a sky of storm clouds above. No one else was around and no else could help Jaune as he fought the mech in his body suit.
"AAH!" he screamed as he was thrown back, colliding with a building as he groaned from the impact.
Looking up, Jaune gasped and ducked as the mech tried to slash his head off before he tackled it to the ground. He hit it two times in the face, before it grabbed his arms with it's upper set and grabbed Jaune's neck with the lower set. It began to tighten it's grip and choke him as it flipped them over and was now on top of Jaune.
"GR!" he let out through grit teeth as the mech glared down at him with it's red eye. "Guh! Uf! Meh!"
Using his legs, Jaune stomped against the torso of the mech and tried to force it to let him go but it was too strong, it didn't even register his stomps as it continued to choke him.
'Damn it! Think! I gotta get this thing off me before I bite it!' Jaune thought as he threw a kick up to the mech's chin, stunning it enough to release his arms and neck.
Jaune rolled out from under the mech and hopped back to his feet with his arms at the ready. The mech and Jaune charged at each other with the latter dodging two swings before punching the mech in the chest and face before ducking and sweeping it's legs. The mech used it's two right arms to stop the fall and launch a double fist uppercut that Jaune blocked with his right arm but was sent flying into another building. Jaune was imbedded in the structure as the mech charge at him, forcing him more into the building at it grabbed his shoulder and reached for his head, forcing him to grab the upper arms to hold it back.
"Guh! ER!" he grunted against the mech before hearing something...familiar and heartbreaking.
"Jaune?" a voice said, a female voice, as Jaune froze a bit and turned his head to the source.
It was...his mother and father, just as he remembered them on the day everything had changed for him. The day New York fell to the Union and they stayed behind so he and his sisters could get to safety. They stood on a downed building and stared at him as he struggled against the Union mech.
"M-Mom?! Dad?!" he let out as he refocused on the mech trying to kill him. "Wh-What are you doing there? Get out of here! Run!"
His parents didn't hear him as they continued to watch the battle, showing the same somber smiles to him as the last time he saw them as something rose from behind them. It was an identical Union mech with it's red eye shining down at them as it raised it's right hands to crush them.
"No! No! NO!" Jaune shouted as he reached out to them but that left him open for the mech he was facing to grab his face by the mouth and turn him back to it, holding his arms against the building as it drew it's free upper, left hand back.
It became a knife hand and targeted Jaune's face as he struggling against it, turning his eyes to his parents as the twin mech moved it's hand to crush him at the same time original thrust it's knife hand to his face.
'NOOOOOOO!' he thought before his vision went dark!
"AH!" Jaune let out in a short burst, leaning up in a huff and looking around.
"Jaune?" a voice said as he looked to it and was meet with the sight of Cammie awake in her bunch with a holo-screen hovering above her. "You alright?"
His answer came in ragged breathes as he calmed down and remembered where he was, his team's barracks at the Anvil base. Everything he saw was still fresh in his mind, a nightmare of him fighting the mech and not being able to save his parents from it.
"I-It's noting. Just a nightmare." Jaune said as he laid back down and turned to the right side, thinking about his dream and about that day five years ago.
His parents died because he couldn't do anything to stop the Union that day, even if it wasn't his fault or his fight, they died so he could live. He swore he would never let that happen again if he could stop it and that mech the Union used against them was now the biggest obstacle the he and the team had to face.
'I don't want that to happen again, I don't want anyone to die while I'm powerless to help.' he thought as he pulled his V.R. headset from under his pillow, putting it on. 'I have to get stronger so I can be a better help to the Polity.'
Diving into the Ether, Jaune pulled up a menu screen and searched for special combat tutorials. He realized after they got back and going over the fight with the Union mech, that his MMA style wasn't going to be enough against that thing. It's movements were strange and animalistic, something they couldn't predict well enough to fight evenly. It took a group of them to stand half a chance and near the end, they couldn't go any lasting damage to it.
"If we're gonna beat that thing, we all have to get stronger. Weapons can help but only so much." Jaune said to himself as he looked large shield and sword on his hip. "I could probably use what I do in 'Siege' but I'll need something else too."
He scrolled through combat tutorials and found one that might be useful if he had to clash with that mech alone once more, The Art of Arrest aka Taiho-Jutsu.
"Hmm, Taiho-Jutsu, a martial art stile utilized by police officers to subdue lawbreakers alive and without injury but some forces can still be utilized for offensive defense." Maybe this could work for me and my shield." he said as he checked the time on the screen, 2:12. "Better set an alarm so I can hope out and get some more sleep before breakfast."
Making an alarm for 6:00, Jaune diving into a private room in the Ether for his combat tutorial in taiho-jutsu. For the next few hours, he followed the tutorial as best as he could with limits that would be transferrable to his normal body in the real world which would them be put to use in his holon. Time flew by and before he knew it, his alarm went off and the tutorial came to a halt.
"Guess it's time to catch some sleep." Jaune said before he logged out of the Ether and took off his headset, setting it back under his pillow to get some more sleep.
1 hour later, the team was up and getting dressed in their body suits for the day with Jaune moving a bit sluggishly behind them and Cammie not waking up at all yet. They decided to leave her be as they went to the mess hall for breakfast, Jaune was able to get some coffee as a pick me up and made a little something for Cammie since she missed it.
"Cammie, come on. It's time to wake up." Jaune said as he shook her awake, though her turned his head to yawn a bit.
"Hmm." she let out as she turned away from him.
"Come on, moya zaika. Wake up, sleepyhead." Valentina said as they walked next to Jaune, shaking Cammie as well.
"Let me dedicate this to all those all-night gamer addicts!/これを一晩中ゲーマー中毒者全員に捧げましょう！" Kazu said as he sat on his with his guitar, playing a short rock riff to get Cammie to wake up.
It worked better then he thought as Jaune and Valentina cringed from the loud noise and Cammie groaned.
"Leave me be." she said as she help up a peace sign as the riff ended.
"You would've missed breakfast if Jaune hadn't been so nice. So get up and eat quickly or you'll miss training." Yaz said as she walked by and snatched Cammie's blanket off her.
"Ugh! Can't say tha-" Cammie said before smelling the air, something delicious hitting her noise.
"Finally noticed it huh?" Jaune asked with a smirk as she looked down at him, seeing a sandwich on a plate he was holding.
"What is that?" Cammie asked as she pointed to it.
"This is your breakfast. A handmade breakfast sandwich bacon, egg, cheese, and some hash browns on toasted bread. Since you missed breakfast, your best friend on base decided to bring you some." Jaune said as he set the plate on the nightstand between the bunks. "Wouldn't want to train on an empty stomach, would ya?"
Turning away to walked to the lab, every heard as Cammie practically dove at the sandwich and ate it in a rush due to the smell and her hunger. After a sloppy breakfast, everyone was back in the lab and getting in their pods (from left to right: Yaz, Cammie, Jaune, Valentina, and Kazu) while Chase and Dr. Weller talked a bit.
"Hey, do you know why people have been pulling all-nighters left and right?" he asked Weller with his hands on his hips.
"Don't know if I'm the best to ask since...when was the last time you saw me sleep exactly?" he said to Chase as a half-joke while working on something on his desk.
"In that case, can you explain to me why there's be no new info about this mystery mech the Union threw at us?" Chase asked Dr. Weller as he leaned to him. "We've only gone out a few time and this is the first they've thrown something like that at us. Something that knew EXACTLY where the brain was and hit it hard."
"Yes, I believe we all noticed that." Weller said as he continued to work.
"And are you sure jumping back into training is a good idea?" Chase asked as he looked towards Cammie, the member of the team that was traumatized from having her Holon head ripped off from their encounter with the Union mech.
"I remember when we had to push you that hard and you were able to rise past our expectations." Dr. Weller said as he continued to work. "She may be underperforming right now but she'll catch up, her mind is surprisingly flexible."
"That is still in her body, which has ears you know." Cammie said as she leaned up, her mechanical ears flopping to the side. "Ears that have been listening this entire time."
Weller and Chase were a bit embarrassed by this and broke apart with Dr. Weller rolling away in a chair and Chase nixing into his holon.
"I also like to point out the irony of getting out of bed just to come and lie down again." Cammie said before everyone laid down in their pods and transferred into their holons.
Throughout today's training session, Cammie wasn't doing as well as she usual does in training. Or at least enough to keep up with the others. She couldn't lay a hand on Yaz during the spars, she couldn't hit any targets at the shooting range, and in a combat situation against an array of U shaped, circle propeller drones, got startled easily and fell on her giant ass. Everyone was too busy with their own training to see if she was okay because they thought she could recover by herself but only one person knew when someone need a shoulder to cry on. Jaune saw her struggling and getting frightened easily, so he went over to talk to her as she sat against a wall.
"Hey, Cammie." Jaune said as he sat down next to her.
"Hi, Jaune." She replied in a dull tone, not facing him.
"I...noticed that you've been a bit...sluggish today." Jaune said calmly as he turned to Cammie. "I can understand why, it's not easy after what happened to you with that mech but...you know there's nothing wrong with talking to someone about it. It's fine if you want to appear strong after something like that but there's nothing with showing weakness to someone who cares about you."
While Jaune's words carried honesty and care, Cammie was only half listening as her mind was in the gen:LOCK/gL network. It was a vast, dark blue zone of space with strange shapes and colors flying around with Cammie in a white and green version of her body armor. She was currently using the network to look over her memories of that night with the Union mech and debating whether or not to delete those memories from her mind. After a silent debate, she quickly pressed "NO" and moved to open the SMC, the Self Modification Code, in the gL network. It was what Dr. Weller told them of that would consume up time for a few short term boosts to their speed, strength, or emotions. Cammie thought this was the only other way to help deal with the traumatic memories and increased her confidence, aggression, and simulated adrenal response. As Cammie was about to activate the modes, a warning came up with a hazard symbol flashing.
SAVE PREFERENCES
WARNING
SAFETY SETTINGS MODIFIED
ARE YOU SURE?
Cammie was annoyed by the setting, thinking she knew what she was doing and pushed "YES" to input the changes. The moment she did, he eyes went wide as he head leaned back suddenly, inside the gL network and outside in her holon body.
"Aah!" Jaune shouted in a startle before quickly moving in front of Cammie to check on her, grabbing her shoulders. "Cammie! What's wrong?! Are you okay?!"
His answer came when Cammie moved her head to him and narrowed her eyes, glowing a little brighter as the mods kicked in.
"Oh, I'm fine, Jaune. Better than ever actually." Cammie said as she moved his hands away and stood up.
As Jaune saw her walk away, Dr. Weller was getting a notification of the mods Cammie hade given herself. The system gave him an option to force the settings back to normal but he hesitated and pulled back, wanting to see how Cammie performs now with the "helpful" modifications to her mind. Back on the training filed, Cammie walked up to Miranda and Leon as they watch Yaz and Kazu sparring with Jaune following her.
"OI!" she said to get their attention, taking a battle stance before making a "come on" gesture with her right hand. "Another round, send out the drones."
This surprised Miranda, Leon, and Jaune as they didn't expect Cammie's sudden aggression to train.
'Something is definitely wrong.' Jaune thought as he continued to watch Cammie, not familiar with this side of her even from their gaming together.
This was bad, he could feel it in his gut, and his suspicions were right was Cammie was more furious against the drones that before. Duel wielding two guns, she screamed as she spun around and shot down every drone in her line of sight. It was impressive and concerning as the last one was furiously stepped on by her, REPEATEDLY.
"Um, shouldn't you guys...stop her?" Jaune asked Miranda and Leon, who just shrugged in confusion.
They were just as stump at her new behavior too.
"You won't get me again!" Cammie said as she ground the drone into the ground before turning to the sparring ring, seeing everyone staring at her.
Kazu waved Cammie to get in the ring as Yaz left, letting her and Kazu fight. From the side lines, everyone watch as Cammie went in for a punch but Kazu ducked and punched her in the chest and face to make her stumble back. As she regained her composure, Cammie opened the SMC again and upped her strength and speed as Dr. Weller continued to let this happen. Cammie pulled her arms back as Kazu charged at her.
"HA!" he shouted as he threw a right uppercut, left cross, and right cross, all of which Cammie dodged before he landed a right side kick.
He continued with a left cross, right cross, and left jab, which Cammie dodged again until she got him with a strong right punch to the stomach.
"RAAAAHH!" Cammie shouted as she barraged his stomach and chest before uppercutting Kazu, stepping up on his knee and straight kicking him back.
"Whoa! Where did that come from?!" Jaune asked in shock as everyone watched the spar.
"No idea, Cammie's never been like this before in training." Chase said as he and Yaz looked at each other.
Back in the ring, Kazu readied himself again and charged at Cammie. He faked a punch before kicking her right leg out, throwing kicks that was dodged and blocked before moving back from a punch, catching the arm and kneeing Cammie in the face. She charged at him as Kazu spun and gave her a round house kick to the head.
"HYAH!" he shouted as Cammie stumbled back in a slack before she focused back on him.
"GRRR!" she growled before back flipping out of the ring, using thrusters to fly and land on a stack of 7 carrier crates like a rabbit or moneky.
This surprised everyone as they looked up to her in confusion while Cammie was increasing her mods again and making her uptime drain faster but she didn't care right now. All she wanted to do was WIN THE SPAR!
"URAH!" Cammie shouted as she flew to Kazu with a flying punch, one he blocked but was sent tumbling back from the force.
They threw punches and blocks but Kazu was pushed by a kick as Cammie jumped around him before sliding under him and jumping onto his back and clinging to him while repeatedly punching him.
"Hey, hey! Whoa!" Leon said at the sudden, extremely aggressive tactic as he waved his hands to them. "The match is over! Break it up!"
Cammie didn't listen as she kept screaming and punched Kazu in the head as everyone began to jump in to get her off Kazo. Yaz was met with a back hand to the face before Jaune grabbed her arm and yanked Cammie off of Kazu.
"Cammie, that's enough!" he shouted at her as she leapt up to her feet, shouted at him like an animal and charging to fight him now.
Left with no other choice, Jaune took into a defensive stance with his left arm up like a shield and his right arm tucked to his right side while using the same SMC system to increase his speed and reaction time a small bit. Cammie threw a punch to him but Jaune used his left arm to swat the arm down and move away as Cammie went stumbling past him.
"Huh?" Yaz let out as they watched, taking in Jaune's stance. "That stance, it's new."
"Yeah, when did Jaune lean that?" Valentina wondered as they watched Cammie turned around to charge at Jaune again.
Jaune did the same swat and move tactic against but this time he kicked her left leg, making her stumble as she turned around before he charging at her and caught her in a bear hug.
"Sorry, Cammie!" Jaune quickly said before doing a belly to belly suplex and slamming Cammie into the ground before quickly restraining her with his right hand on her head, his left hand on her right arm, his right leg on her left arm, and his left leg on her thighs!
"UR! RAH! GAH!" Cammie shouted as she struggled, still resisting the impressive down hold.
Seeing her still struggling in the hold, Chase and Yan came to help by holding her kicking legs and flailing arms down while Leon pulled up a holo-screen to call Dr. R. Weller.
"Doc, pull her out! Now!" he shouted as Dr. Weller was looking over the sparring footage of Cammie against Kazu and her takedown against Jaune.
Deciding enough was enough, Dr. Weller hit "yes" on the still present screen to force of presences from the SMC back to normal for Cammie. This had the effect of pulling Cammie out of her holon as everyone say her eyes dim and close shut. Everyone slowly pulled back and off her holon as Valentina check on Kazu as he was sitting on the ground.
"Kazu, are you alright?" they asked as Kazu suddenly began laughing in joy.
"Hahaha! That was awesome!/最高でした！" he said with a thumbs up, getting everyone to look at him strangely. "What?/何？"
"You love fighting too much." Jaune said as he picked up up Cammie's holon by the left arm. "Now come on, help me get Cammie's holon back in the hanger/ No doubt Dr. Weller's chewing her out."
With Chase's help, the group walked back to the hanger as a man in the hanger was working on a small hologram of something, looking like a wing, and hiding it from the gen:LOCK team with a smile on his face. After setting Cammie's holon back in it's repair slot, the rest of the team went to their slots and downloaded back to the lab as Dr. Weller was calmly lecturing Cammie in two chairs while Dr. Weller's robot assistant, Caliban, worked the motherboard for the pods.
"Healing is a natural process, Cammie. Not a switch you can accelerate at any moment." he said as he leaned forward with his hands together.
"I was just improving myself." Cammie said with her arms crossed, not looking Dr. Weller in the face as everyone got out of their pods.
"Well those improvements, mixed with your current state of mind, created a feedback loop that nearly resulted in a near-psychotic breakdown." Weller said as he held a finger up as everyone went around to Cammie, with Jaune and Valentina placing a hand on each shoulder while Kazu gave a playful noggie and Yaz watching her with her arms crossed.
They thought she was processing the incident with the Union mech well but apparently, they were all wrong. Well, except Jaune when he tried to comfort her but she was only half listening.
"Huuu, Potatoes, Potahtoes." Cammie let out with a sigh before he stomach grumbled, making her jump a bit and hold it. "Speaking of tatties, anyone up for lunch?"
Feeling the need for a break and a small need for food, everyone agreed with Cammie as they headed to the mess hall but not before putting on some clothes over their body armor for the sack of individuality and personal style. After getting changed, everyone was sitting at a table to talk about what happened at training. Cammie had her arms and head against the table as Nugget was next to her, looking at his creator. She had her Ether visor on her head, a white turtleneck crop jacket with yellow and green accents, black and yellow gloves, and white shorts with a tool belt around her waist. Valentina was on her left side wearing a simple long, purple and gray hooded cloak and knife holsters on both sides of the hip over their suit.
"So we can mod ourselves?/だからあなたは改造を使用しましたか？" Kazu asked as he set a bowl of ramen in front of Cammie with chopsticks and sat on Cammie's right, wearing his leather kutte over the torso section of his bodysuit and a pair of combat pants with satchels strapped to both hips while wearing pair of knee-high reinforced combat boots, plated with metal at the heels and toes.
"Yeah, the ones Dr. Weller said would use up our uptime. I only used them a few time for a little boost in speed or power but I never used them like that." Jaune said as he looked to Cammie with concern, wearing his short sleeve black hoodie half zipped up and a pair of his jeans ripped off below the knee over his bodysuit.
"You shouldn't rewrite yourself in such a shameful way." Yaz said as she sat between Chase on her right and Jaune on her left with her arms crossed, wearing only a tan jacket with a pistol holster over her bodysuit.
"You don't need to hack your life code to feel better about what happened. The rest of us have fought before, even Jaune with his self-defense classes." Valentina said as Jaune looked to them.
"Hey!" he said.
"No offense." Valentina quickly said before turning back to Cammie. "We can help you if you just let us." Valentina said as Cammie peaked at them before leaning up with a sigh.
"Are we really doing this?" she asked them.
"Yes, we are. Like I told you before, it's fine if you want to appear strong after something like that but there's nothing with showing weakness to someone who cares about you." Jaune repeated from their talk before but now he realized she didn't listen before.
"But isn't that the point of a holon? To go out and deal with damage like that then return to your body without that damaging even mattering?" Cammie asked as she was getting a bit emotional from this.
"You say that but what I saw that night after you downloaded back...Cammie, you were horrified and we were all worried about you." Jaune said his face softened to a sad frown, remembering how she was shaking like a leaf and clung to him for comfort.
"And just cause you aren't hurt physically, doesn't mean you don't get hurt mentally." Chase said as he refereed to their minds.
"Dr. Weller practically begged to keep you in training when the Vanguard wanted to put you on standby for who knows how long, but instead of talking about it to healm you just hide in the games all night and make yourself nearly useless during the day." Yaz said with some bluntness.
"How do you know if I'm gaming?" Cammie asked as Kazu stopped mid bite and looked at her with a knowing look. "Okay fine, half the time but when I can sleep, I just can't shake this crazy dream. It's crazy."
"Is it about your human body being as big as a holon and naked like a newborn?" Yaz asked with a hand up.
"Aye, yes. How- Wait, no. I'm in my bodysuit." Cammie said with a small an awkward chuckle before pointing to Yaz with her chopsticks. "You're naked in your dreams?"
"I had a crazy nightmare about that but...I wasn't naked." Jaune said with a blush as all eyes went to Yasamin.
"I wasn't naked in my dream either." Chase said as he turned to Yaz. "Care you explain?"
"Wait, you guys have them too?" Cammie asked as she looked to the trio, as Chase turned back to her.
"Yeah, Dr. Weller said it's a side effect but...tell us more about yours." Chase said as he turned back to Yasamin.
Yasamin let out a small groan before answering them.
"Calm down. Yes, I am dozens of meters tall like a holon, and yes, naked but I didn't have the..." Yaz said before gesturing to her body, more so her chest.
"OH!...Wow!" Jaune said as his blush grew brighter and looked away from Yaz a bit.
"Wow is right." Valentina said as they put their chin on their hand.
"What about you, Valentina? Have any holon sized dreams yet?" Chase asked as everyone turned to them.
"Well yes but that is normal for me. I have had dream of being in a robot body before, only in mine I had ALL the right parts." Valentina said with a smirk.
"All the right parts?" Jaune said nervously as the transgender turned to him.
"In both the chest and waist, both ways." they said to him with a wink, making him quickly drink from his cup to cool down.
This was getting very intimate for the group as Cammie giggled and Kazu smirked at Jaune's innocence.
"Why would your robot body-" Yaz said before she was cut off.
"Because it's fun and interesting." Valentina cut her off, turning to Yasamin.
Before the conversation could continue, the speaker system came on and Able's voice sounded through the mess hall and base.
"Baker Squad, Charlie Squad, and gen:LOCK One report to North Ready Room." he said as everyone called out began to head to North Ready Room.
"Oh, thank you, Jesus." Jaune quickly said as the topic finally stopped.
"On that note, to be continued." Chase said before he waved to his team and his hologram mixed out of the mess hall, with the team getting up from the table.
"If you like, I could say more later about my dream." Valentina offered as Jaune was the fastest to get up of the group.
"Please no." he quickly said as Yasamin was right behind him leaving as Cammie and Kazu followed behind Valentina.
"I think that's more than enough for today." Yaz said as they all walked to North Ready Room for whatever meeting this was for.
After reaching North Ready Room, a large theater like set up with 3 sections of 7x6 rows of seats and long bulbs on the wall, every squad called in was seated and ready for the meeting with gen:LOCK One in the front row with Dr. Weller in the first set of the next aisle of chairs. They saw him looking rather distraught but couldn't ask him as the meeting was about to start. Chase mixed in and saw their was no seat left for him.
"I see, I get it." Chase said as he "seat" on the air next to Miranda on the second row of the cluster of chairs to the few left of the room.
The light dimmed as Colonel Marin began with the screen behind her turning out, showing the Vanguard symbol as Leon stood to the right of Marin and Able stood to the left.
"Vanguard, you should be proud of yourselves. You've run no less than eighteen sorties this month alone, rescued over four hundred civilians, defended against five..." Marin went on as Chase and Miranda had a little conversation of their own.
"So, have you ever thought about it?" she whispered to him.
"About what?" Chase whispered back.
"About coming back? To the Vanguard?" she asked as she turned to him.
"Where would I even fit?" he asked back before going back to Marin's speech.
"But today, we are going to change the strategy for our next mission. This time, we are going on the offensive." she said as everyone began to murmur in surprise as the screen began to show a map with the state of Georgia red and a zoom image of the target area. "Our intelligence has identified another window of significant satellite baffling over this sector, just at the edge of no-man's-land. It's around four hundred miles to our east. The Union it trying it's best to prevent us from seeing what's hiding there, so we are absolutely going in to find out. Before they were compromised, our scout drones relayed images of an industrial complex with layout and support facilities. This suggests they're manufacturing something, our best guess is the production of their nanotech. Lieutenant Leon?"
She turned to Leon as he stepped forward and spoke his piece.
"Just like Colonel Marin said, for an offensive strike. We slip in, wreck their workshop, and get out before they know what hit them. Baker Squad and gen:LOCK One will take out their air defense grid, then Charlie Squad will move in to get confirmation on our intelligence. When that's done, take out the AA and paint it for a aerial strike." he said as he looked over a display of the facility layout to all the squads in the room.
"And then get the hell out before they can send a clean up crew." Jodie joked from his seat next to Miranda.
"Affirmative." Leon said with a nod as the screen flashed back to the Vanguard symbol.
"After holding the line for so long, we are going crossing it and deal some damage back." Marin said as she turned to the troops with her arms behind her back. "Departure time is 04:30. I wish you luck, Vanguard. You can do this."
Once the meeting was over, everyone left to get some rest for tomorrow's mission as Chase and Miranda stopped to talk a bit, to the ire of Miranda's boyfriend, Jodie.
-Timeskip, 3:30am-
gen:LOCK team was awoke for their mission as Cammie and Jaune were the first two up. The Scottish girl closed a holoscreen in front of her before she jumped off her bed, with the good amount of energy though that could just be from waking up from another holon dream/nightmare, and while the American boy stopped practicing the form he used on Cammie when she went berserk in training only a day ago. They put on their bodysuits and hurried to the hanger where their holons were standing ready as they approached Dr. Weller and a Hispanic man with dark skin, brown eyes, black hair, and a black mustache. He wears a white t-shirt underneath a teal and pale yellow zip-up short-sleeved jacket, big black and yellow gloves, gray trousers and a bulky tool-belt with a pocket full of tools. He also has a gray cap, black goggles on his head, yellow headphones around his neck and a large tattoo of a skull on his right forearm.
"I would like to apologies for being unavailable for some time now, but I had a little work to do with Miguel that I believe you all will enjoy." Weller said as he and the Hispanic man turned to the group with their hands on their hips.
From left to right, it was Yasamin, Kazu, Cammie, Jaune, Valentina, and Chase as he mixed in next to them.
"Me and my crew have been working around the clock to prep the new toys Doc wanted for you." the Hispanic man said as he looked over the gen:LOCK group.
"Toys?" Valentina asked as they turned to them.
"More like enhancements. In light of recent events and careful observation, we have to up your game as quickly as possible." Weller said as the team looked up to their holons to see the enhancements/toys.
Yaz's holon looked the same, Val's had a modefied rifle on the side, Kazu's had two samurai katana on the hips, Cammie's had two drones from training on the hips, and Jaune's had a long, metal shield on the left arm (blue Gundam shield, no star).
"I have modified a variety of hardware experiments for their first mission application. So I can't guarantee perfect performance." Weller said as they turned back to him.
"Story of the ESU." Chase commented to the team.
"But I think they'll be enough to give you an edge in the field. Yaz, I've already briefed you on your upgrade. Jaune, Cammie, Kazu, Valentina, yours are pretty simply by the looks, so you can learn to use them in the field." Weller said to the team as they all followed Dr. Weller as he headed for the plane.
Chase was the only one to stay behind with Miguel watching them leave.
"What? Nothing for me?" he asked with his arms out.
"Oh no, there is something for you, Migas had it covered and wanted to show you himself." Weller said as they all looked back at the two.
Miguel gave Chase a smile as he lead him outside, where Chase's holon was standing as they came up to it. Chase was left in awe as they looked up to his upgraded holon.
"Ever since you came back, it just hasn't been the same man." Miguel said as he gestured to the holon, now with a pack of thrusters, wings and propellers mounted on its back with a powerful looking rifle on the hip. "You were always meant to fly, just like before the...accident."
In awe of his return to the skies, Chase chocked and couldn't give a proper respond to his friend.
"I-Dude, I" he tried to say a sigh. "You gonna make me wish I could still cry."
Julian moved his arm over Miguel's shoulders to side hug his friend but it just went through the maintenance man, still he understood the gesture and moved close to chance to make it seem like a real bro hug. With the upgraded holon loaded onto the planes, all the squads prepared for take off as their mission across the line began.
-2 hours later-
With the Vanguard now at the facility, surrounded by a mountain range forest as the sun began o to rise, they were now within scouting distance as recon team viewed the manufacturing plant with Valentina by their side in camoflauge mode.
"Let me." they said before lifting up their sniper rifle and using the scoop to get a better visual.
A holo-screen was sent to Leon's squad as Chase, Cammie, Jaune, Yaz, and Kazu stood behind them by the carrier plane also in camo mode.
"I have a visual on the facility. It's a small industrial complete and the defense grid is in sight as well." Valentina said through the coms as they were sent a holo-screen to see what Val saw.
"Great, let's get this ball rolling." Leon said as he pulled up a blueprint like copy of the walled facility and moved it to the larger screen. "Anvil Control, tell airstrike to be on stand by. We'll give them signal to strike as soon as -"
"Wait, someone's joining the party." Valentina said as Leon was interrupted, turning their optics to a highway road with a Union armored truck coming down and readied their rifle.
The armored truck stopped at the entrance of the facility as guards moved to open it and pull 3 people from inside in orange jump suits, magnetic handcuffs, and electric collars. Valentina zoomed in on the last one and gave them the sight of an Asian man with black hair, dark eyes and pale skin.
"Who the hell is that?" Jodie asked as he and Miranda looked at the screen.
"Prisoners? Human shields in case of attack?" Miranda asked, curious and worried.
"Anvil Control, can you shed some light on this?" Leon asked, wanting answers to why three unknowns are in the field.
"Consider it done." Marin said as the Vanguard pulled up any information from the man on screen.
Their answers soon came as they cross referenced the image through their database and got a match but they saw.
NAME: Heng Li "Henry" Wu
POSITION: Lead Engineer
SUPERVISOR: Dr. Fatima Jha
"Colonel, do you know what this mean?" Weller asked her as he saw the information on Henry.
"I do and I don't like it." Marin said before they relayed the information back to the field teams.
To say they were shocked, would be putting it lightly.
"Say what? Who?" Jodie asked as he, Leon, and Miranda talked over the new information.
"Their Polity Scientists, presumed dead since our loss at Canaveral. Who knows what the Union have them here for." Leon said with his arms crossed.
"Or what they're forced to work." Yaz said as she looked down at the trio.
"So, what? We not bombing the place? The clock's ticking." Jodie asked his teammates.
"oh we'll still bomb the joint. It's just that this search and destroy just became a rescue mission." Leon said as he looked to Miranda with a mischievous look.
"Hm." she hummed with a nod as she gave the same look.
Jodie didn't like those looks as they were only a sign of one thing.
"Oh please don't tell me we're gonna do something stupid and crazy." he lightly begged them as he took a step back with his hands up.
As the Strider trio and the rest of gen:LOCK one were discussing a plan of attack, the prisoners were being marched into the facility with 4 Union soldiers to guard them but as they walked, Henry tried to strike up a conversation to lighten the situation.
"I always wanted a new lab with a great view, some peace and quiet to really focus on my work. Never thought to add barbed wire and armed guards for my protection, nice touch." he said as the facility gates closed behind them.
"Henry, will you please shut up before they deisde to kill us now?" a femaile scientist asked, also Asian with black hair and eyes like Henry.
"Oh please." Henry said with a scoff. "They've keep us alive all this time and dragged us all the way here, the last thing they'd do is-"
Henry was cut off by an explosion to the left side wall that got all of their attention, halting their march to turn to it. The soldiers rushed off to check on it as Henry turned to the female scientist.
"I'd like to retract my statement." he said as he turned to her.
2 more explosive noises rocked the wall before Kazu and Jaune came charging through the wall!
"YAH!" Kazu shouted as he and Jaune knocked away two offline drones!
From the skies, Vanguard jets came in and the rest of gen:LOCK One went on the attack.
"Whoa! What are those?!" Henry asked a Union guard in shock and awe as he saw Chase fly in and start shooting at the Union while Jaune and Kaz continued to attack the ground forces. "Seriously, what are those? And what are the odds, you'd let me take a look into one of those babies?"
Before Henry could get any answer, Cammie came running in and kicked the guard away like a football over the facility wall.
"You want a look, pal? Take in all you like." Cammie said as she shut off her camouflage, showing the scientists her holon in natural color with her hands on her hands.
On her shoulder, Miranda gave Cammie and smirk and a nod before she was let down and ran to the gate. From her holon, Cammie narrowed her eyes at the control panel near the gate and remotely hacked it as Miranda ran to hijack the armored truck. Cammie looked at the prisoners and did the same to their collars and handcuff as they were soon friends to move their arms.
"Liking what you see so far?" Cammie asked as she knelled town into a squat before the scientists.
"...I think I've fallen in love with mechs all over again." Henry said in glee. "Who are you guys anyway?"
Henry was once again cut off as more Union soldiers came from the facility and started firing their guns at them.
"Look out!" Jaune said as he came rushing him to a crotch and held his shield longways to protect Henry and the other prisoners.
With her line of sight cut off, Cammie quickly pulled out her guns and activating the drones on her hips to fly up. With the drones having them in their sight, Cammie could see them through a video line and aimed for them before jumping up and firing two shot to take them out. Miranda, after completing to hijack the armored car, drove in next to the scientists and looked up to Cammie.
"Nice shots! When did you learn to aim so well?" she asked her as the scientists got in the car, this time to gain freedom.
"I think it's the drones Doc made. They're aiming for me." Cammie said as a drone flew next to her, moving up and down like it's nodding.
Henry shut the hatch to the car as Miranda drove the truck out of the base as Cammie and Jaune held on to the back and rode behind on their skates.
"Tempest is away." Miranda said through the coms as Leon replied from his Strider.
"GL, let's finish this up." he said to the rest of gen:LOCK one left in the base.
At one part of the base with a gun turret, Chase and Yasamin skated towards it before halting as the latter looked to it. Pointing her arm forwards, Yasamin's wrist glowed before a yellow laser shot out and destroyed the turret.
"Ours is down." Chase said to Leon as they turned away from the former weapon.
At another part of the facility, Kazu charged to another turret with a sword in his right hand to slice any spider tanks in his way. Using his leg thrusters, Kazu jumped into the air towards the base of the gun turret.
"HYAH!" he shouted as he sliced through it before landing on the ground and looked back at it. "Hm?
The base was slanted but the gun turret didn't fall down until Valentina used their rifle and shot it down.
"That is still counted as mine./それはまだ私のものとして数えられます。" Kazu said as he shook his finger at Val, placing his sword on his right shoulder.
"Anvil Control, Drifter. Angels are clear to the target. Light em up." he said over the coms to everyone. "Everybody out. Dragonfly One, move in for Charlie pickup."
The Striders marched out and onto the carrier as gen:LOCK One speed out on their skates, just in time for the bombers to fly in and destroy the rest of the facility. Back with the armored truck, four spider tanks were on the tail in a high speed chase as Jaune and Cammie still held on the back. The tanks fired bullets and missiles at them but failed to make a scratch as Jaune used his long shield to protect them but it wasn't easy with Miranda's extremely evasive driving.
"Whoa! Whoa!" he shouted out as he kept his shield up to protect him, Cammie, and the truck.
"Doing great, Jaune!" Cammie said as she shot at the tanks, thankful for the shield, destroying the front tank's left front leg and causing it to stumble away as the other three continued to follow.
The new lead tank continued to fire before launching at grappling hook at Jaune' shield before pulling, trying to rip it or Jaune away.
"Hey!" Jaune complained as he pulled back in a tug of war before Cammie helped, letting go of the truck and yanking the grappling hook off his shield.
She pulled it forward and made the tank flip on it's head before it tumbled into a hill and blew up. From the rear camera screen in the truck, Miranda could see Jaune and Cammie doing a good job of defending and attacking the drones as she focused back on driving. Another spider tank tried to attack them before a sudden laser shot destroyed it.
"Huh?" Cammie and Jaune wondered as they looked to where the shot came from.
On a ridge overseeing the highway, Valentina was standing with their rifle smoking before Yasamin jumped out from behind her and sped down the hill on her skates. She sped after them as the last spider tank was dealt with and a squad of Union drones came upon the armored truck.
"Seriously?" Jaune groaned as he held his shield up to defend the truck from their shots before one was shot down by a laser.
Coming from the forest to the side, Yaz skated behind the drone squad and began firing them down with his wrist lasers.
"Wow! Did Do give you heat vision?" Cammie asked as Jaune pulled his shield down.
"No, just wrist lasers." Yaz answered them as she shot down the last drone.
"Oh, well, it'd be cooler if you got heat vision." Cammie said as Yaz looked at her in annoyance.
"Still cool, Yaz! Still very cool!" Jaune quickly defended his blunt friend.
From the stirring wheel, Miranda smiled at the drones being destroyed before turning back to the rode, only to gasp in shock before hitting the brakes. The car came to a screeching halt as Jaune and Cammie held up but fell to the ground a bit as the truck came to a side halt. They up and wondered why they stopped before looking ahead and seeing the Union mech from before standing in front of them.
"You." Jaune said with wide optics before moving in front of the truck and putting his shield in front of them, ready to protect the truck and Cammie from it.
The mech didn't do anything as it's red eye moved down to the truck and looked at the driver's seat. Right at...
"M-M-M-Mi-Miranda." it...said...in a distorted voice, one that sound a lot like...Chase.
"W-What did you just say?" Jaune asked in shock as Miranda looked up to it in shock as well.
Putting his question aside, Jaune charging at the mech with his shield forward before it grabbed it with it's hand in a contest of strength. Jaune pushed with all his might before the mech side stepped and sent Jaune tumbling behind him.
"GAH!" Yaz shouted as she jumped over the truck to kick the mech but it grabbed her leg and threw her into Jaune, sending them both tumbling down the road.
"Guys, what do I do?" Cammie asked through the coms as she moved behind the truck, watching as the Union mech produced a field of nanotech to block them.
From a cliff to the side, Valentina was watching with their sniper to see as the nanotech field formed a 1/3 circle.
"Cammie, remain calm." Val said as the mech walked to Jaune and Yaz, the former quickly recovering with his shield up.
"Come on!" Jaune challenged as the mech jumped at him, blocking it with his shield before knocking it away and kicking it in the chest.
The mech charged against, this time knocking the shield out of Jaune hand but Jaune was quick to tackle it before it kneed him in the chest and took him to the ground as Yaz was still recovering.
"Someone help!" Cammie begged as she came through and shot at the meh but like last time, her bullets did nothing.
"I need to get a shot at it." Val said as they aimed their rifle.
"It's gonna take Jaune!" Cammie said in worry as Yaz finally recovered and charged at the mech, but it didn't even look at her as it used Jaune's shield to bash her in the chest before yanking her to the ground and holding them both down! "It's gonna take both of them!"
"Cammie, I need to see them!" Val said before something happened.
In the GL network, where Cammie had gone before to mod herself, she and Val(their male Ether form) reached out to each other and initiated gen:LOCK mindshare. This connected their minds and their vision as Yaz and Jaune got the mech off of them.
"Bring it!" Jaune shouted at the mech as he went in his defense stance, learned from the Taiho-Jutsu.
The mech charged and swiped at Jaune as he swatted away the hits before ducking and upper cutting it while Yaz shot a laser at the chest. Jaune went in to for a drop kick but it knocked him away while Yaz slid under and leg swept it but it stepped back before grabbing her head and throwing her towards Cammie. Yaz skid on the road as Cammie put her got to the side and stood strong.
"Hey!" Cammie called out as the Union mech turned to her. "You made a mistake messing with us, mu'dak bl'yaad!"
"Russian?" Yaz questioned as she leaned up.
"Y-Y-You t-think t-too loud." it said as in the same distored voice, holding it's head. "Y-Y-You haven't shut u-up since your b-birthday."
The mech suddenly charged like an animal as Jaune looked on, recovering from the ground.
"Cammie! Yaz!" he called out to them as Cammie held her fingers like a gun to the mech, not moving as it moved closer.
Pulling her thumb down like a trigger, Cammie watched as another snipper shot hit the mech away from them. From above Cammie, on of her drones were flying as Valentina's rifle was smoking from the shot they took that pierces through the nanotech field. Seeing the mech hit the ground, Jaune quickly got up and reclaimed his shield as he joined Cammie and Yaz, right before the mech got up on it's feet again. It slowly walked towards them to attack again before suddenly, Chase came flying through the nanotech and tackled the Union mech away from his teammates but it rolled and kicked Chase away before landing on the ground while Chase flew in the air. Chase flew and ducked under a slash before uppercutting the mech away. It skid against the ground before turning to Chase again as he flew at it.
"URH!" he grunted at he threw a punch but the mech caught it, pushing him back before he went for another thruster powered tackle!
It threw him off before slapping him to the ground, making him skid against the ground as it raised it's head.
"Le-Le-Let the go-ood times r-roll." It said to Chase as he raised his head to it, startled at how it knew those words.
HIS words in HIS voice, distorted or not. Chase could still hear...himself?
"C-Copy! K-K-Kill the copy!" It-he said to Chase before Kazu arrived and tackled the mech from behind!
They tumbled down the road as a sign was destroyed before they stopped, Kazu then grabbed it's front right arm before it began to get it and use it's back left arm to pull Kazu off. Chase didn't let it as he tackled it and grabbed it's back right arm, they held it down as Cammie's drone was watching the struggle and providing visual for Valentina to shot it in the head again! This battle was too much for the Union mech as it's nano field lowered itself as it's two arms were slowly ripped off it's body. It fell to it's knees as a Union carrier plane was flying over head, opening the cargo hatch and lowering a rope for it, the mech quickly ran and jumped to grab the rope so it could escape but Chase didn't let it as he grabbed it's leg and flew against the jet with his thrusters. He could hold on long as the mech kicked him off and flew away with the Union plane. As every reassembled on the highway and watched the Union mech retreat, a few of the team had one thought on their mind.
What is that mech and why...does it sound like Chase?