Sarisse was dead, killed by the hands of Kamara Goldstone, who appeared as a black shadow in her Overdrive. Athena was watching from the monitor and clasped her hands together happily. "That's my little sister! Sorry to make you clean up my mess like that, I'll make it up to you when this is all over." With a snap of her fingers, the androids she brought in as backup stopped attacking, because she was certain her sister could handle the rest from here.
"Mm." Kamara just nodded.
"…SARISSE! SARISSE!" Stella was on the ground, sobbing at her sister's lifeless body. "This can't be happening…! W-We were supposed to take back our planet together! You can't die! I need you…! I can't lose you too!"
"…." Asuka's face paled and she stopped moving completely. "Boss…." Just staring at Sarisse's corpse caused the will to fight to leave her body.
Kamara glanced at Stella and Asuka. "It's as we thought. The death of their leader means they lose the will to fight. That just leaves the rest of you."
"KAMARA!" Lowell shouted, blue lines appearing along his sword. It was changing shape, turning into a bright blue blade with a snowflake handle. This was Lowell's Ether Weapon: the Second Star. "I've had enough of you taking people's lives! RAGING ICE FANG!" Lowell slammed his frigid sword down on the ground, multiple glaciers shooting upwards towards the Goldstone.
"You never leave well enough alone." Kamara said while slashing through the incoming glaciers with ease. She was suddenly in front of Lowell, her expression completely unreadable since she was just a misty shadow. "It's never been personal, Lowell. Stop taking it like it is. This, however…will be." She spun around and slammed her heel into his cheek, sending him spiraling through the air until he hit a wall. The moment she finished with Lowell, she found herself defending a slash from Homura. "Oh, you again…." Kamara was looking for this one, so she was taking her seriously.
"Why did you kill her!?" Homura asked, tears stinging her eyes. She was pushed back from Kamara, but pursued her immediately. They began slashing at each other, sparks flying as their swords clashed with one another. They kept sliding around, trying to get the best of one another.
"It's my job." Kamara replied simply. "You were wasting your time fighting and protecting these people. Only a few of them can fight, but they still don't hold a candle to us." The two entered a deadlock. "Their fight was lost from the beginning. All you've done is delay the inevitable."
"ATLAS FLAME!"
"Huh?" Kamara turned in the direction of Weisz's voice. He was shooting a burst of flame in her direction, so she had no choice but to leap into the air to avoid it.
Homura immediately pursued her and drew her sword back. "Warrior Maid Single Sword Attack: DRAGON FLASH!" She approached Kamara while airborne, swinging her sword with the force of a dragon onto the woman's form. She landed on the ground and immediately turned around, but due to Kamara's current form, she couldn't tell if she hit or not. "…"
"Is that the best you have to offer?" Kamara said while landing on the ground. "You have no hope of victory. You all die today."
BOOM!
The ceiling collapsed. Everyone looked up only to see the Blue Bomber make his appearance at last. But he was a little too late. "That's…!" And before he could say anything, he saw Stella sobbing at Sarisse's body. "What…?"
"You didn't make it in time, Blue Bomber!" Athena laughed. "I don't know what you were doing this time, but you were too slow."
"N-No…" The Blue Bomber's eyes widened under his visor. "Sarisse..!?"
"W-Where were you!?" Stella sobbed at the Blue Bomber. She was counting on him to show up and help like he always did. She was the only one who believed in him, despite his uncooperativeness and lone wolf attitude. "I-If you…if you were here…y-you could've…"
"…." The Blue Bomber was too stunned to reply.
"DAMN IT!" Asuka yelled out in pained frustration. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
"Now…" Kamara was about to attack Stella, but the power suddenly shut off. The screen Athena was on vanished and the vents Weisz created shut off as well. "Huh?" She turned back to the console she was supposed to be defending, only to see that Aiden took care of it and destroyed it with his gun. "…Oh. So you're doing that."
"…The mission must go on." Aiden said in a low tone. "Everything's shut down now! This gate no longer works and the city has no defenses. We have to retreat!"
"You have no means of escape." Kamara said. "I won't let you live past today."
"Destruction Field!" Lowell leapt at Kamara once again, aiming to bring his sword down onto her. She jumped back, but the impact Lowell's sword made created a crater within the ground, severely damaging everything in the area. ""Damn…!"
"Stella! Asuka! We have to go!" Weisz exclaimed.
"…" Stella was too shaken by grief to move, tears dripping endlessly. This meant she was defenseless.
"STELLA!" Weisz shouted, but it was no good.
"….." The Blue Bomber was too shaken to move. A rarity considering his actions thus far.
"Hey, kid! Do something! GENO!" Mega shouted at him.
"A-Ah…" The Blue Bomber shook his head, trying to snap out of it, but it was hard.
Stella suddenly turned into a puddle of water, which was then funneled into a cup. This happened much to everyone's surprise. Laguna was standing at the room's entrance with a cup. "Such bitter tears…"
"Laguna…!?" Homura and Weisz exclaimed.
"Wind Snatch!" Kleene was up next, creating a vital opening by using her Ether Gear. Wind began to appear in all corners of the room, sucking in all of the androids and even threatening to suck Kamara in as well.
"W-What is this!?" Kamara had to plant her feet on the ground to prevent herself from being pulled in to this.
"My Wind Snatch will steal anything!" Kleene replied. She was barely caught up on the situation thanks to Jinn, but she knew this was an enemy and planned to attack. "Even that nightmare cloud you had surrounding this place, I already took care of it."
"What!?" Kamara's white eyes widened. She decided she wasn't going to stand still and attack instead. She moment she pushed off, numerous vines emerged from the ground, attempting to wrap around her limbs. She was cutting them down, but this took her focus off Kleene for a moment.
The one using the vines was Percival. Her ether gear was controlling plants, and the green lines on her body trailed from her right eye down to her right side. "Lowell…do it now…" Percival said.
"Got it!" Lowell quickly pushed himself up and sprinted towards the distracted Kamara, his sword changing into a holy blade. "Radiant Dragon Fang!" Light ether surged from his blade and he thrust it forward, a beam of light taking the shape of a dragon shooting from the sword. Kamara didn't have the time to defend against it and it struck her directly, knocking her back across the room as she suffered a direct hit. "Thanks, Percy!"
Kamara tumbled along the ground before coming to a halt. By the time she looked up, Jinn was already pursuing her while in his Overdrive. "Skymech Ninjtusu Attack: Severing Wind!" There was no time to dodge, so the best Kamara could do was use her sword to defend against the incoming cyclone Jinn sent her way. She managed to hold her ground, but against these new numbers…
"We can press the advantage." Laguna said.
"If we can take her down…" Weisz grit his teeth. With Kleene's Wind Snatch, they might be able to get around Kamara's Nightmare!
"Haha! Hey! Don't tell me you forgot about something?" That was Max's voice. While he was nowhere to be seen, numerous guns started to appear all around the interior of the clearing. "You didn't think I wasn't gonna show up, did you?"
"Where is he!?" Homura frantically looked around. Max's presence was clear, but he himself wasn't nearby.
"Looking down on all of you, thinking you had a glimmer of hope." Max said. "Didn't you hear Kamara? This little Resistance of yours ends today! DEVIL'S WHEEL!" The guns began to open fire on everyone from every conceivable angle.
Kleene had no choice but to act. She held her arms out, Wind Snatch activating once again as she drew in the bullets and the guns. While she was able to draw them in, more and more just kept appearing. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. But she was still injured from her crash landing and being held in captivity, so she wasn't going to be able to hold this for much longer. "I…I can't…"
While this was happening, Kamara was moving in to try and take Kleene down. But she was intercepted by Homura. "Not on my watch." This still presented a problem. The Goldstones were back on offense, and the Resistance Defense wasn't going to hold with mentally broken people on their side. They had to retreat now that their mission was complete…!
"…!" The Blue Bomber finally snapped out of his trance. The others were pinned down by the Goldstones. "I can track his location with the ether from his guns…" He locked on to one of the guns he saw, noticing a small trace of ether leading back somewhere. "He's over there! Heat Missile!" He held his cannon arm upwards, and from it, an ether seeking missile shot from it and went off in the needed direction. After a few tense seconds, there was an explosion somewhere within the facility and the guns seemed to stop.
"Did you get him!?" Weisz asked.
"He probably dodged…but that's all you needed. Let's get out of here…" The Blue Bomber was the first to make an exit. The others followed suit by sprinting away from Kamara, leaving Sarisse's body there in that room with her. It was a hard thing to do, but…they had no choice.
"Haaah…" Kamara let out a small sigh and reverted back to normal. She sustained a bit more damage than she expected, but she was fine. "Their mission was a success, but the battle was ultimately a failure on their end."
Max then appeared next to Kamara, dusting himself off from the explosion he was nearly caught up in. "That was close. That guy's getting better at finding me…" He said while grinning towards his sister. "Not bad, though! That's one thing off the checklist. So, what's next?"
"We follow them." Kamara said calmly. "Athena is going to join us. Prometheus and Pandora want the Resistance stamped out today, and they're going to help us ensure that this happens. Besides…we already know where their base is."
.
.
The group that went on the mission managed to return to the Resistance base. But…the mood was heavy. Everyone immediately noticed they were one person short. "Hey…" Rebecca asked. She was happy to see Kleene and Laguna safe, but…..
"The mission was a success." Aiden said. "We were able to disable Echo City's defenses, and the tractor beam systems were disabled as well. Your ships have free reign of the skies once more."
"…Where's Sarisse?" Shiki asked. Those who knew didn't want to answer. Stella's face was devoid of emotion. While she did calm down, emotionally, her heart was broken.
"…Where's Geno…" Stella asked with a broken voice. Geno approached her from the crowd, and she immediately wrapped her arms around her son, clutching him tightly. "…Stay close. I…I don't want to lose you too…I don't think I could handle it…"
"Mom…" Geno frowned.
"…S-Sarisse…she did not make it…" Homura looked down to the ground. "Kamara…I…I couldn't stop her…."
Rebecca's eyes went wide. "No…" She knew what this meant. "I…! I can go back…!" Not that far back and she knew it, but she had to do something. She was cursing herself for not going on the mission to prevent something like this from happening.
"…I don't know how you saved her before, but you're better off not wasting your energy." Aiden said.
"How can you say that!? Wasn't she your friend!?" Rebecca shouted at Aiden. His friend died and she was telling him not to save her!?"
"…It's for your own safety." Aiden replied, glancing away. "Kamara's powers would've put you in a chokehold like they did everyone else. You would've been the first to go if you accompanied us."
"I can handle myself!" Rebecca said, but that was her grief and regret seeping in.
"Shit…" Sister cursed under her breath.
"…W-What are we supposed to do now?"
"Who's going to lead us now?"
"Was this…fight really worth it?"
This doubtful murmuring continued. Sarisse was the glue that held the Resistance together. She was the one who inspired everyone to fight in the first place. Now that she was gone, things were starting to fall apart immediately. "…This isn't good." Tristan said. He wasn't sure how to keep the Resistance from collapsing in on itself.
"E-Everyone's just had a long and hard day…" Medi bit her lip. The somber air was hard to ignore, but she was a doctor and had a job to do. "L-Look. Let's just get everyone treated first…"
"It's all pointless!"
"Maybe we shouldn't have fought back in the first place…!"
"Oh, this is bad…" Hermit was looking around. The panic was already starting to seep in to the people.
"If this keeps up…" Happy frowned.
"…" Casey looked around. Sarisse had to be an exceptional leader if she could keep all these people inspired. Her death hit them hard. "They need a new leader and fast."
"They need time to process first." G said while crossing his arms. "We already know what the next step of their plan is. We can probably just take care of it while they cool down."
"It's worth a shot." Ano said. "With the skies free, we can attack. But there are still a number of issues we have to deal with…"
"This place is going to hell and fast." Blair pointed out.
"You guys can't give up yet." Shiki said. He caught everyone's attention. "Even if Sarisse is gone, the dream of the fight still lives on with the rest of you! Don't you think that's what she wanted? You're getting closer each day to taking back your planet, and you're not doing it alone! We're here with you!" There was silence at Shiki's words.
The silence that was broken by an alarm, causing all eyes to go wide. "What now!?" Tristan asked. As such, they had no choice but to rush outside above ground. The Resistance base was an old building they had to refurbish to suit their needs. It was a building hidden in a good place, but out in the open in a plain. What did they see when they got outside? An army of androids marching their way. "What the!?"
"They followed us!?" Weisz grit his teeth. "How did they know where we were?! We took a secret path!?"
"…Did someone rat us out…" Stella said with wide eyed shock.
Athena, Max, and Kamara Goldstone were all leading the vanguard of this android assault. But they weren't alone. For the first time since they landed, the crew of the Eden's Zero and Eclipse Ark finally saw the leaders of this Android Assault on Delta Ridge: Prometheus and Pandora. "Hello, humans! It's so nice to finally meet you!" Prometheus laughed.
"For those doubting that your leader has been killed…" Pandora held up Sarisse's lifeless corpse. "Here is irrefutable proof that your Resistance died along with her."
"Bastards…" Shiki clenched his hand into a fist. They were parading her body around as a morale killer! How low could they go!
"Now, we're here to finish the job!" Prometheus gestured to the army of androids behind him. "All of these androids have been empowered by the Black Moon Star we have back at the Communication Tower. We ran a test run on an android last night and it worked wonderfully, so we entered the mass production phase!" The Skeleton army androids were all oozing a black aura.
"We're really up shit creek now…" Blair's bandaged arm twitched.
"If you do not resist, we will grant you a swift end to your lives." Pandora said calmly. "The choice is yours."
"You have until now to decide!" Prometheus wasn't going to give them the luxury of time. On his command, the androids began to charge. Now that the Resistance was at its weakest, it was time to completely crush them once and for all. "The beginning of humanity's extinction is now!"