November 9th, 2062

Garrison Barracks, Echo Base

0534

Hyena wakes up to the sight of light against the darkness of his eyelids. It's a somewhat faint light, but it's enough to annoy him awake. He groggily sits up in the cardboard bed. It's only when the familiar smell of fire hits his nose that he fully awakes.

"What the hell…" He says getting out of bed. He walks over to the window. His eyes go wide as he looks upon the storehouse engulfed in flames. It takes him a second to start registering the familiar voices of the girls.

Hyena runs out of the barracks and heads towards the blaze. As he runs he spots a shadow move to his left. Without missing a beat he turns towards the shadow and sprints at it. The shadow, having been spotted, sprints away. It turns multiple corners trying to lose Hyena, but Hyena keeps on its tail. The chase continues until they make it to the wall. The shadow becomes a figure as it rushes up the stairs of the wall. Hyena reaches for his sidearm, but finds it missing, having been left at the barracks.

"Fuck!" Hyena mutters to himself as he rushes up the stairs.

Hyena makes it to the top of the wall and spots the figure about to jump off.

"Halt!" Hyena shouts taking out his kukri from his shoulder sheath.

The figure does a three-finger salute and jumps off the wall. Hyena rushes to its location on the wall. "No way anyone could survive a fall from that height." Hyena thinks to himself. Hyena's eyes go wide as he sees the figure land at the bottom of the wall and run off into the early morning sunrise.

Hyena can't do anything but lean against the wall and look as the figure runs off. He rubs his head then heads back down the stairs and heads towards the engulfed storehouse.

By the time Hyena reaches the storehouse, there's nothing left but embers. Ingram spots him and walks towards him her gun holstered at her side.

"Report," Hyena asks

"Well, Commander it's bad." She sighs. "Like real bad."

"How bad, Ingram."

Her response is just a breath of air as she points towards the storehouse. "We lost everything…..Ammo, rations, parts, and the dummies."

Hyena looks around. "Where are M1 and M2? I don't see them here."

"Wish you hadn't asked that….." Ingram says as M1 comes rushing towards them. M1 drags something behind her.

Hyena looks at M1 as she stops in front of the duo. "M1," Hyena says peeking at the thing she carries. "Where's M2?"

Ingram shakes her head. "Shouldn't have asked that….."

M1 lifts the object in her hand to reveal that it's a pale arm with white gloves covering the hand. M1 looks at Hyena. "Terminated." She drops the arm and kneels on the ground playing with the dirt.

"Shit." Hyena bites his lip. "So nows it's just the three of us versus forty-odd soldiers." He squats down joining M1. He places a bare hand on the dirt.

The dirt is wet and slushy from the snow. Hyena grabs a handful of dirt with his hand and brings it to his nose and sniffs it. He loosens his grip and lets the dirt flow out from beneath his hand.

"We'll accept their offer," Hyena says calmly.

Ingram looks at him with uncharacteristic surprise. "You what?"

Hyena looks at Ingram. "If we accept we might have a chance of making it out of this alive. We already lost one doll." Hyena stands up and places a hand on M1's shoulder. "I don't want to lose another." He gently shakes her then removes his hand.

"HEEEEELLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOO!" A loud voice screams cheerfully from outside the compound.

Hyena bites his lip. "That's a little too coincidental." He lets out a sigh. "Guess this is as good a time as any." He beckons Ingram and M1 to follow.

The group makes their way to the wall of the compound.

"There's no point even trying to hide our power at this point," Hyena says as they walk. "So we might as well greet them with what we got."

"Are you saying that we leave the compound and meet them outside?" Ingram questions. "That sounds pretty stupid."

"I know it is, but the thing is…..I want to live through this." Hyena says clenching his teeth. "And if that means meeting them out in open ground then so be it."

Ingram looks at Hyena. He doesn't even bother trying to hide his nervous shaking. Ingram lets out a sigh. "Whatever you say, commander."

The group makes it to the gate. The automatic gate opens and a few feet away from it stands Architect and Destroyer along with their entourage. Hyena is the first to take a step towards them with M1 and Ingram following close behind.

Hyena stops just in front of Architect. She's somewhat shorter than him but taller than Destroyer. She has a smile on her face which seems to grow with Hyena's every nervous breath.

"So did you rethink our offer." Architect says cheerfully.

Hyena squints his eyes. "I know you lot had something to do with our storehouse being destroyed." He scans the entourage behind Architect. "You lot look a lot worse for wear than I thought."

Hyena's eyes don't betray him. The entourage of forty-plus vespids looks like they've seen way too much combat. Limbs are missing from a bunch of them and their armor looks like it's seen better days. Some don't even have guns.

"Well thanks to a certain someone beating a certain someone…..." Architect says glancing over to Destroyer. "We lost our maintenance base in this region." She leans in close to Hyena. "To tell you the truth we never had any intentions of taking this base. We just wanted a certain…...objective fulfilled."

"And what could be this objective?" Hyena whispers. "A pair of panties from Ingram?" He jokes.

"Nothing so simple." Architect says gleefully. She pokes Hyena's chest. "It's you."

Hyena looks confused. "Me?" He questions.

"Yes. You." Architect pokes his chest again.

"Why?"

Architect snickers. "That's a secret!" She gleefully shouts. "One that you may learn if you beat our champion!"

Hyena looks at Architect. "Who? You?" He looks her up and down. "I don't think it'll be much of a fight."

"Not me." Architect smiles.

Hyena glances at Destroyer. "Don't tell me its pip-squeak over there."

Destroyer looks over. "Are you talking about me?" She says with annoyance. "You better not be."

Hyena looks at her with a deadpan face. "Nope couldn't be that." Hyena looks back at Architect. "So who?"

"Him." Architect points behind her.

The vespids behind Architect part like a sea as a massive figure slowly walks towards Hyena. The figure easily stands at six feet and has the bulk to match the height. Its black armor plates move with every heavy step it makes. The red eyes of its helmet make it seem more intimidating than a normal soldier. The figure stops right next to Architect and looks down on Hyena.

"You called Commander?" The figure asks.

Architect turns to the figure and pokes its helmet. "Yes, I did Occidentalis." She smiles. "Would you care to be my champion against Griffin this day?"

Occidentalis looks at Hyena. "Yes ma'am." It says shrugging its shoulders.

Hyena can't help but take a big gulp as he scans his opponent. Nothing comes at him in terms of outward weaknesses. The plates it wears make CQC even more difficult than normal due to the added bulk.

"Alright everyone makes room." Architect calls out as her soldiers move back away from Occidentalis.

Hyena looks behind him at both Ingram and M1. He walks over to them and brings them close. "Listen they don't want the base," Hyena says his voice shaky.

"What do you mean?" Ingram asks

"I mean what I said. They don't want the base their objective is me." Hyena says trying to keep his voice low. "I don't know why they want me, but that's what their leader said."

"They could be lying," M1 says.

"There's a high chance that they are, but right now I see no other option but to trust them at this point," Hyena says. "I'm going to fight so…..wish me luck."

"Good luck commander," M1 says.

"Yeah don't die out there." Ingram cheers on.

Hyena nods as they move back away from him. There's a good amount of space that functions as a makeshift arena for the fight. Hyena walks towards Occidentalis and stops just in front of it.

"So any rules," Hyena asks.

"Try not to bore me." Occidentalis responds.

Hyena nods. "Right." Hyena makes note of the deep voice.

Hyena takes up a light stance. His palms are open ready for any counter and he steps lightly on his feet. Occidentalis looks at him and takes a similar stance, which only looks slightly awkward on the bigger man. On the invisible second both men charge each other.

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November 9th, 2062

Outside Echo Base

1815

"Just give up…..." Ingram whispers.

"I can't watch anymore," M1 says putting her hands over her eyes.

In the makeshift arena, Occidentalis stands firm above Hyena, a robotic arm in one of his hands. Hyena lays on the ground beneath him battered and bruised. His clothes are torn and blood seeps from his head onto the slush called the ground.

Hyena tries to get up with his only functional arm but is instead helped up by Occidentalis. He proceeds to ram his knee into Hyena's stomach causing Hyena to throw up on the ground. Occidentalis grabs Hyena by the throat and holds him up

"Give up pip-squeak," Occidentalis says annoyed. "You're only prolonging your defeat."

Hyena stays silent.

"Oh, would you look at that?" Occidentalis lets out a scoff. "You passed out." He drops the limp Hyena to the ground. "Guess it's my win."

Occidentalis turns towards where Architect and the other SF units are but are stopped by an incoming call. "Yes, Commander?... Understood."

Occidentalis turns towards Hyena and picks him up. He glances at Ingram and M1. "You lot are safe now. We're retreating…..but I'm taking this one." He shoulders Hyena.

Ingram and M1 silently nod. Occidentalis takes Hyena and starts to walk away from them. As he walks away a helicopter is spotted a few miles off.

"A bit too late huh?" Occidentalis scoffs.