Chapter 18

Think and Attack!

As they headed backed towards the Southern Woods, Mirage often wondered why the Professor's lab was located in Gernn even though they had ties with the Requiem Code. It was strange but she figured it had to do with the rich Jindou concentration within Gernn's land.

Maria, on the other hand, was wondering about the rest of the Quark members, "Hey Mirage. You mentioned Steeg and Marietta are back at the Diplo, have you contacted them ever since you arrived here?"

"No..." Mirage shook her head. "I've tried a few times but I don't think they've returned yet from the Federation Station. They must be involved in some very critical activity."

"As long as we manage to stop the Alliance from causing anymore harm to this planet, we can live peacefully." Lieber added. "I'm sure the Fed is dealing with the rest of the Alliance at this very moment."

The large base of the Outer Alliance was shaped like a dome. As planned, there were no patrols out near the base on guard at this time. Mirage and the others moved closer towards the infrastructure carefully. It was surrounded by numerous trees and it was hidden extremely well for such a large facility. The exterior was made from a very exquisite type of metal. As expected, the base had three exits... two of which were visible from Mirage's position and another one which was on the opposite side.

Mirage walked closer towards the structure and tapped the outer shell of the base with her finger tips, "This feels odd... this isn't just your everyday metal alloy. The surface is a lot tougher than I thought."

"Hmm..." Maria inspected its exterior as well as she rester her hand on her chin. "Superconducting aluminum... This isn't something we can get past so easily."

"Wait, if this is superconducting aluminum, then there is no way the explosives will help us in a place like this." Lieber said looking worried.

"Like you know!" Welch exclaimed. "Watch this..." She set an EP Bomb within a matter of seconds and tied it around the bottom area of the base's exterior. Everyone walked back about 10 metres from the impact before the explosion took place.

The explosion created a huge cloud of smoke in front of everyone. They waited for it to clear up before they could get a good sight on the damage. However, just as the others predicted, there was no scratch at all.

"Aww how can that be!" Welch whined.

"What did I tell you?" Lieber shouted angrily.

What they didn't realize was that the explosion triggered alarms in all three sectors and the base started flashing red in all areas as soldiers began to assemble in order just outside the base. There were about 2-3 that took the exits from each of the sectors.

"Uh oh... this doesn't look good at all." Ascal claimed.

"Let's hurry! I'll take care of these ones myself!" Xeim announced as he slowly took cover behind one of the trees near the base.

"Stop there!" one of the soldiers shouted to which everyone else had ignored. "So it's the Federation again..."

Maria curved in towards the right path after taking down the soldier with her handgun, "Aiming Device!" She continued to run past the rest of the squad while trying to keep herself concealed at the same time as she neared the tower-shaped structure next to a large pillar that supported it.

The guards in the tower spotted Maria with their surveillance, but were unable to target her successfully once she hid herself well from their sight. "Find her now!" ordered one of the guards, but the other one didn't comply. He instead began firing mindlessly from his spot hoping to somehow connect his shot with the height advantage he had from the tower. Just when Maria noticed how nervous the two guards had become she stepped back out and aimed at the enemy with her handgun as quick as she could.

"Scatter Beam!" Maria felt a pulse of energy run through her veins before triggering a shot between the two confused soldiers. The strong energy pulse from Maria created a strong turbulence at the release of the trigger splitting the bullet into two identical ones catching both guards at the same time. The enemies in the tower fell over the rail in the opening after taking the lethal shots straight to the tempo.

Maria had reached the control level of the tower-shaped structure in a matter of a few minutes. The controls looked extremely familliar to her, 'This should be a cinch' she thought to herself once she pulled one of the levers after entering a few characters from the keys next to the lever.

"Alright. The rest is up to you now, Mirage..." Maria said to herself as she took a moment to relax.

The others tried to fend off the other Alliance troops, the trees in the woods helped was a good way to shield themselves from the enemy's sight. Xeim created a large enough distraction for everyone else to pass through the exits, which were still left open, into the base.

Meanwhile Cliff, on the other end of the base, had already started his process of transporting the containers loaded with Fenrir crystals. There were about dozens of them, but it was doubtful that the crystals took up all the room in each. One in each was already luminating with so much power.

'Just a little longer and we're outta here...' Cliff thought to himself while taking a short break. Suddenly, heard the alarm signals go off. He stood back up with a look of surprise on his face. As he tried to race back into the base's interior, one of the troopers came out through the exit to inform Cliff of the invasion.

"Cliff! We have sighted trespassers in front of Gate 1 and they're currently trying to engage us in battle! We require your assistance." he said in a high-pitched voice.

"Damn. Who is it? The Federation? Or is it Quark?" asked Cliff as he crossed his arms throwing a serious expression towards the trooper.

"We are unable to confirm. We have just reported to Commander Shin about the attack as well!"

Cliff nodded boldly, "Alright i'll be there right away!"

The two began to run back towards the second sector when they were suddenly ambushed by a mysterious figure that leaped down in front of them from the roof of the sector.

"Mirage!" Cliff exclaimed as he watched her slam the trooper into the wall before kicking him in the gut.

Mirage turned towards Cliff, "Looks like you'll have to get past me first in order to help your men back there." she declared as she put her hands on her waist standing tall.

"Don't tell me you're gonna try to stop me again!" Cliff said as he shrugged. "Looks like i'll have to trounce past you this time as well."

Just then, the exit to the sectors had begun to close allowing neither of them to run away in the midst of the fight. Cliff tried to rush through Mirage hoping she would try to dodge the attack but instead, she held her palm out just at the right time to give a hard blow to Cliff's chest. "Ooof!" he staggered back a few steps.

"Sphere of Might!" Mirage yelled as she took a few steps towards Cliff before unleashing a large ball of energy in front of her. Cliff, however, laughed it off showing that it had zero effect on him. 'Hmm... just as I thought' Mirage judged in her mind. This time, she started charging towards Cliff who was about three meters away from her, but just as Cliff tried to counter it with his fist, Mirage was able to get both her hands on his shoulders and flip over him using him as a support. Once she landed directly behind him, she threw a swift sweep onto Cliff's ankles. He fell flat on his face as Mirage lunged towards his back, she pinned him down to the ground with her strong solid knees while he attempted to resist.

"So this has been your little trick, huh?" Mirage said as she sliced the belt strapped around Cliff's waist after busting the mechanism with a strong punch. The malfunction of the strapped belt created sparks of electricity all around the belt which Cliff was still equipped with.

"Auugghh!" Cliff cried in pain from the shock prompting him to throw the strap off his body. He kneeled down for a few seconds before getting back up, "Y-You're a lot craftier than you ever were!" he stated.

Mirage simply stood there in her fighting stance and the only words that came from her mouth at that moment were, "Omoi dou serei seikou!"

Xeim and Welch were just across the first sector did their best to fight off the troops that prevented them to get any further. They carried disrupter rifles, just like they did in Kaddan. Welch tried to hide herself behind a tree while they took their shoots but just that instant, the tree was vaporized by the bullets. The same thing was happening to the other objects in the field.

"We won't get into the base in time at this rate!" Welch shouted to Xeim who was at the other end trying to hide himself from the brigade.

"Got a better idea?" he shot back paying very little attention. "We can't just take them all out in one shot like this... we'll get vaporized in less than a second!"

The Alliance soldiers stopped there fire for a few seconds to track down their foes. Their only weakness was that they were incredibly close to each other, which Welch was able to notice and make use of.

"Maybe if I do this..." Welch started to speak just as she picked out some tools from her small backpack. She screwed together a Durian Bomb which she held in her fist tightly before taking another look at the enemy. "Here goes!" she shouted before tossing the bomb into the air towards them. The enemy, who noticed this instantly took a shot at the object but it detonated just right there next to the enemy. The bomb didn't have any physical effect on them except it left them lying on the ground in a dizzy and groggy state.

"Hurry! Let's get inside." Welch yelled as Xeim followed through the exit which remained unshut up until now. Maria was able to close the gates in time with perfect timing just as the alert signal went off.

"Now let's just hope everyone else is doing well..." Xeim said as he looked around the first sector's interior. "Ever wonder how they move between their bases? They don't seem to have any other transporters around here."

"Beats me..." Welch replied not understanding much of what he said.

The ceiling was almost completely covered with glass pipes which were currently empty. Their ends led to large funnel set in each end of the room on top of a cylindrical shaped container which was just as large. Xeim and Welch noticed that the glasses were slightly stained. Generally, the area looked like a mixture of a lab and the bridge of a warship with a bunch of rooms pushed together.

The same went for the other sectors. Lieber and Ascal on the other end found themselves ambushed by another brigade of Alliance troops just as they entered the facility.

"You're not going to get away now!" shouted a slender looking Alliance officer as he stood in front of the rest of the squad with his rifle.

"Alright, Savior... let's see what you can do." Lieber whispered to Ascal.

"I'm not going to underestimate these wimps this time. Just you watch...!" Ascal responded as he ran towards the enemy in what looked like a mindless fashion. However, as the bullets started to fly Ascal unsheathed his sabre leaped into the air in time, "Flaming Tempest!" he shouted as his blade was once again ignited with flames while he somersaulted in the air thrice slicing anything that came in its path.

"Hey, not bad." Lieber smirked as he kneeled into his own position. "So... you guys need to cool off? Hail striker!" Four pellets wrapped in ice were unleashed from his rifle as they shattered like icicles once they made contact with the enemy.

Misty in the meantime was able to escape into the third sector within time. It was just like the others, except she was alone in this one. She stepped forward slowly not bothering to take a look around. While somehow being able to sense the presence of another being in the room, it wasn't long before she saw the Commander staring at one of the large glass pipes in the dark corner of the room, "It's good to see you again." she said.

"So it looks like you cretins have finally shown your face again," Shin spoke in an unusually loud voice. "Where are the others? I suppose you're the only one who made it here alive. Bahahaha!"

"..." Misty was silent during most of their talk. "I can't allow you to interfere with our tasks." she stated in an almost emotionless tone.

"Heh, well this should be interesting..." laughed Shin as he whipped out his halberd. "So you can use symbology, huh? Well, I guess we're one of the same kind then. I'm looking forward to see how much you have within you."

Misty reached inside her robe for her orbs which allowed her to use powers of alchemy, "If that is what you wish."

Shin struck his halberd into the ground and started chanting a few words, "Aria of the wind, cut into blades, and slash every-..."

His chant, however, was interrupted with Misty's spell as the orb levitated higher and higher into the air, "Spirit of the flames, dance. Efreet!" A fiery beast covered in flames rose from the ground and smashed Shin with its fist consecutive times at an enormous speed.

"Uuughh!" Shin cried in pain as he tried to get back onto his feet. "ARIA OF THE WIND, CUT INTO BLADES, AND-..."

"Spirit of the flames, dance."

The same result caught Shin in a swirl of fire as he received burns again from the fiery beast. "Th-That's impossible...! How can you cast a spell like that in such a small time!"

"Spirit of the flames, dance." Misty repeated yet again ignoring whatever Shin had to say. By this time his face had almost completely turned pitch black from the wounds and his armor suit started to lose its color and was dented horribly.

Shin out of rage picked up his halberd like a javelin and tossed it towards Misty as quickly as he could. Just before Misty would get struck by the sharp end of the halberd she held out her left hand while concentrating with her eyes closed. Suddenly, the halberd bounched of an invisible wall and fell to the ground undamaged. Shin, however did not attempt to retrieve it.

"D-Dammit... i'm not going to die here!" Shin yelled holding his right shoulder in intense pain. He quickly ran towards his end of the room and transported out of sight completely.

Misty walked closer to the corner where Shin was earlier, but surprisingly she did not see a transporter anywhere around. Instead there was a pale white tile which looked a lot different from the others. The tile was also much large than the others, and as Misty neared she noticed that it was shedding light above it.

'That wasn't too hard' Misty thought as she sighed a quick breath of relief.