I went back to the now Watchpoint-2 Combat Riders. "Now, as you can see up in the sky, it looks like a Typhoon should be drowning us with rain and wind, yet it isn't. The Eye of the Storm is atop those 4 skyscrapers over there and if you set your visors to H-Particle detection, you will see that the thing that powers the monsters is being sucked into that place. Three guesses of what might be going over there and the first two don't count" They totally rocked the Raidriser, and these being professional soldiers, they might outperform AIMS' own.

[ARK Notification: Satisfaction]

[ZEA Notification: Satisfaction]

I know! They are now safe to dish out as much damage as we can! As a certain Krogan once said: The True power of friendship is having people by your side helping you gun down your enemies!

"Tango-Hotel, sir?" The Lt… Aikawa asked with barely restrained glee, and I understood. All the shit that had to go through for the last few days and now they could take the fight for the one responsible? Who wouldn't be eager to Rip and Tear until it was done?

"Bingo, lets clear this with Kanata and then we get going."

"What do we need to clear with him?"

"To pack up and run"

"Are you telling me to abandon the city?" Kanata was not pleased, and I could imagine how many losses it took to hold this stadium. It felt like spitting on the dead, but unless they wanted to join them, they'd have to go.

"I'm telling you to keep your people alive."

"Explain."

"Tango-Hotel's electromagnetic storm has been both a blessing and a curse. Its responsible for our communications blackout but it also has denied the Seventh Fleet from unleashing the 'hawks on the city. No targeting data from laser, radio or anything. Satellites are also blocked so no visual from space. They could try to fire the nukes from a drone or a plane, but the cloud would turn that into a suicide mission."

"And what about us?"

"Expendable, like any foot soldier to a REMF is."

He looked angry. "So, what is you plan then?"

"You haul ass in as many machines that can get you out of the city. We'll give you flares so you can signal when you get to a safe distance. Pop them and then we try to disturb the EM cloud for long enough that we can send a transmission that we're still alive here. Then we incapacitate Tango-Hotel long enough to ensure she gets hit." I motioned to Aikawa where she stood, her red visor depolarized but still in her Raider armor. "These should be rated for the fallout even if we'll have to spend at least a month in decontamination. But good news you still have a chance to make it out the blast zone. The mountain range should ensure no radioactive wind follows you for long. The storm is soaking up all the stuff that powers the dead and monsters so you should have a clear path from here to the outskirts."

"Unless someone blew the bridges and left us all to die."

"Yes, that, but there should be at least a route someone forgot in the panic. Once you make it across the mountain range, there you should be clear for pick up."

"And you?"

"We make our own exit before this city turns into a crater."

"I guess this is goodbye?" He had an odd look in his eye.

"…Just a see you later, I'd like to think." And that was the truth.

"Godspeed then." We hadn't known each other for long, but I'd like to think we found a bit of mutual respect in that moment, as we shook hands.

"Yinsen, sir?" Aikawa had a curious tone of voice.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Is it what you told Major Kanata true? That they should run?"

"Oh, yes. You see, observed pattern of conduct in previous encounters tell that most of the time those behind the outbreaks have egos the size of military wives."

"Really?"

"Head as full of hot air as any, but these do have physics bending powers to make your life hell."

"How does that help us?"

"She most likely will dismiss our arrival as a desperate gambit, but our suits and weapons might keep her attention on us long enough for Kanata's forces to get out. We keep the Finishers on the quiver until we see the flares go up and then we nail her with everything we got. Best case we actually put her down, worst, we keep distracted enough for the nukes to zero on her."

"Could we survive the nukes?"

"The blast? Maybe, better if we find somewhere to hunker down. The Fallout? Yeah, these things can take it."

She looked at me with something indecipherable in her eyes. "We're not coming back from this, are we?"

I couldn't help but be frank with her. "The ones responsible for the two previous outbreaks could turn physics on its head. The first could duplicate any weapon we threw at her and the second could make reality bend over her knee by fucking up distances and perception. All our gear? Might not be enough. But we gotta try. I gave Kanata a copy of my combat logs and redacted an intel report on these things." I pointed towards the storm. "Half the battle is knowing, and like hell I'm letting all of us die and not share what we've learned here."

"That include Watchpoint?"

"Of course, you followed me in this plan that got derailed six ways into Sunday from the beginning, I'm getting you out alive. That tech you're wearing will at least guarantee you don't get to die here." And that was as much as I could promise. "Let's get the others and move towards the towers. It's going to be a long way to the top."

Pvt. Tyler looked at the perimeter, his newfound monster-vibe sensor scanning the surrounding of the stadium. All the stuff looked like it was being vacuumed by the clouds spinning above them. He could see a zombie fall and slowly dissolve into motes of light that then floated upwards, six blocks away. He could see that the stuff tended to flow into a stream like a reverse waterfall until it reached the sky where it joined the typhoon-like clouds.

But there was no wind. No rain. That alone told you that storm was bad news.

He tightened his grip on his new Rifle, the totally-not Lawgiver stuck to his left by what he thought was a magnetic strip. The gun was wonderful but after almost a day of firing it non-stop, his arms had begun to hurt. The new suit helped with the pain, somehow.

Ah, the wonderful toys of spook-tech. Now he knew how they justified those budgets for seemingly unassuming government departments. Many of them must have pooled their cash together to have these marvels almost ready for mass production. Maybe not the new standard issue for the next decade, but the one after, he was sure. The recent events ensured that the people working on these things would get a blank check by whoever sponsored them. Lucky them. And now lucky him.

He'd explored all the settings on his suit as if it were a new phone. There was a setting for changing the ammo to Willy-Pete, one with Depleted Uranium cores, one with ENRICHED uranium cores, Hollow point, and even high explosive. The shield thing Spook Yinsen had told them about could be the size of his arm or cover his entire body. It could also be turned into some kind of energy sword that burned as it cut. Hopefully the Lieutenant wouldn't know how he found out about that.

Speaking of, Yinsen and the Lt came back. He knew there were bad news to be heard as he could see everyone else moving like they got a monster hounding their asses. Anything with wheels and an engine was being loaded up with supplies but some of it had to be put in the same crate to save space. What couldn't be put on top of the vehicles was hanged from nets to the sides of the few trucks that remained. It reminded Tyler of those pics from old India whit all people hanging from the buses.

Yinsen spoke. "All right Watchpoint, we now begin phase three of Operation Lightning Rod" he pointed towards the four skyscrapers where all the bad glowing juju was pooling together like a upside down sink drain. "Objective Tango-Hotel has exhibited control over lightning and electromagnetism, to what extent, we cannot be sure. From evidence gathered we conclude it can use a continuous beam of lightning to cut through armor and people. The EM cloud hopefully is just a happy accident and not something done with malicious intent. But prepare for comms to be down as we close on her. If she does have that much control over EM fields, prepare for anti-air combat."

"You mean she can fly?" Tyler couldn't help but blurt out that part.

"One does not simply stay on buildings that high without insurance. Either she can fly by herself or has something that allows her to fly."

"Some of those monsters could fly…" another private decided to chip in.

"Not fly, hover. But that's just semantics. Hopefully she's alone up there and not hiding something worse." Yinsen looked at everyone. "We are the only ones with enough gun and armor to hope to hit that thing hard enough. But don't get cocky and maybe we can get the Americans to give us a ride home for trying to nuke us."

Tyler certainly hoped they lived long enough to be that petty.

Our race towards the towers was shortened by a truck left behind as there was not enough gas for it to get anyone out the city, but it had just enough to get us to our objective. We could have run, and the suits would make it easy to get there without a breaking sweat. But I chose the side of caution and decided to not expend energy where we would later need it. Now, as we disembarked the truck a last-minute weapons check was performed. My Attache Calibur was in my back, the Typhoon Magnum fully loaded, Progrisekeys at my hip holder, Energy at 92% and the Attache Shotgun ready for quick printing still.

Everyone else checked their Shotrisers and Tridentas, the team link allowed me to see that their energy was topped up and they had at least customized their ammo type. We hadn't had much time for proper training with the Raidriser. But now we were down to 3 and a half hours left in my self-imposed time limit. We couldn't count on human ingenuity not to triumph over a setback such as an EM cloud.

We chose one of the older looking towers and noticed that the nearby area had a lot of undead and monsters being slowly broken down by what I suspected was the Herrscher. Their Honkai particles being slowly peeled away and leaving nothing but the husk they usually inhabit to try and murder humanity.

It was unnerving, seeing them, dying as any human they murdered indirectly. They even had a little whine going that reminded me of a strangled cat. It was disconcerting. I could have double tapped them to end the annoying whine, but we had to keep all of our power reserved for the Herrscher.

The tower was deserted, the glass doors broken long ago, it looked like it was broken by people fleeing, not monsters coming in. The bloody footprints told that no one survived and were turned into zombies.

The reception told the same story, more blood, overturned rows of chairs and desks. There was at least one Tv still working, going by the sound of white noise in the background. We moved over dissolving flesh, and some remains that failed to be eaten or converted into Honkai.

We looked for a map, and we found it in a hallway next to the elevators, but it didn't have what we needed. We found the correct one in a custodian's closet behind rows of cleaning supplies. There was a service elevator that might have enough power to get us to the top.

It was locked behind a simple chained door. The thing looked purely mechanical in contrast to the slightly higher tech of the ones next to the reception area. I knew that some manufacturers put special protections to make the elevator stop working at all in the event of a low voltage current. There was enough power in the backup generators of this tower as the tv had shown, so now we put our faith in an elevator designed to carry cargo that needed to be invisible to the people that usually worked in this place.

A little steel bar locked the gears in place, but as soon as we removed it, we pressed the up button and the whole thing shook to life and began our ascent.

I steeled my expression as the others polarized once again their faceplates. I summoned back the Ichigata helmet and prepared my gun for good old cowboy gunslinging. My mind suddenly cleared as I thought about every single thing I could remember from Raiden Mei's Herrscher form.

The elevator wasn't built for speed, but it felt both too fast and yet too slow.

At the top of this tower, flew our reckoning.