[You Interviewing Amalie]

"Oh, you have 'questions' for me… off the record?" She asks you with a grin. "Well, if you insist, ask away~…"

You ask your questions.

"What kind of future do I see myself with my 'friend'… oh I imagine a future… where we can both live freely and away from all those who would bother us." She hisses warmly, before grinning slyly. "And uh… where we can get down to… 'personal' business, if you catch my drift~."

She thinks for a moment before looking back to you.

"I honestly thought for a moment of turning him into a male viper via genetics… but I chose against that idea because of how he treated me as a child. Even if he had no idea I was naked at the time, I found his human body fascinating as he no doubt finds my body."

She twirls her pistol for a moment before stopping to answer.

"There was… a few missions… I accidentally killed his forces without wanting to." She said with a raised eyebrow. "It was not my fault, he rarely contacted me, I had to play my part while undercover!"

= Chapter 10, Breakthrough =

(Amalie's PoV)

Amalie watched from the command bridge as her friend continued to struggle, acting very out of the ordinary from what she remembered. She remembered him for making strategical decisions well in advance of his opponents, even if one of them was 'her' and they were simply playing a part for the Elders and Advent, and the whole world to see. She may have been secretly aiding him, but she hardly let him get off 'for free'.

Yet despite his attention being split on two fronts, she was watching him struggle to make even 'basic' commands.

'The Gremlin should be more than adequate to split his attention between the two battlefields, the Avalon Facility mission more than demonstrated his capabilities.' She thought nervously. 'What is going on here?'

She watched the map and the situation reports of all the XCOM Operatives, observing how their positions were getting worse.

The Land Sharks were now split up into three separate battle points trying to reach their objectives, taking fire from multiple flanks and unable to make headway against the AI Tanks. As for the just landed Water Dragons, they were now pinned down by two MHW Tanks while C.X. 2 was locking onto their positions. If he didn't do something soon then there would be casualties.

"Commander, our forces are getting overwhelmed, we need to do something now, or both of these missions are going to go to hell real fast!" Central yelled.

[I… I can't… focus!] He stuttered. [Can't think clearly…]

[Beeeebeeebeeebeeep] Rover, Shen's personal Gremlin began beeping as it flashed some signals to her.

"What is it Rover?" She asked instantly.

Rover began flashing different colored lights using its optics, apparently it was something only Shen could understand because Amalie had no clue what the little machine was saying.

"Oh no, this is bad…" Shen muttered. "According to Rover, the Commander's Gremlin has reached its memory limit. His Gremlin can't absorb any more information."

"What do you mean?" Central asked instantly.

"The amount of data his Gremlin can absorb has reached its maximum, we both knew that as long as he was stuck in that Gremlin this was a risk, but even so, this shouldn't be happening!" Shen said as she started tapping her datapad. "He should have at least a few more months' worth of memory to work with, but according to this he's reached his limit and now his Gremlin can't take anymore!"

"In ENGLISH!" He yelled back.

[Target lock achieved… firing main cannon.] C.X. 2 declared.

Amalie snapped, she opened her mouth and flung her tongue out, wrapping it around Central's headset and pulled it to her, instantly snapping it to her mouth.

"Water Dragon's squad move to positions L-4, B-4, C-3, D-4, P-5 and C5 NOW!"

(Dragonfang's PoV)

After hearing the orders given, and not hearing anything else on the comm from the Commander, he took the chance and signaled the other Dragons to move to those positions. They all hurdled over their cover and ran to those positions, low tree stumps and broken-down ruins of old buildings. Seconds later the area they were sitting in got shelled and obliterated, and the spot where they had been was now nothing more than a smoldering crater.

[Targets have escaped… recalibrating target lock…]

-Bzzzzzzzzzzt-

Meanwhile the two tanks were still unleashing suppressing fire, their shots having missed and now they were performing new suppression fire.

[Deepfang, target the tank on the left with Shredder Fire!]The Voice declared over the coms. [Ripper, perform a Null Lance on the Tank on the right!]

"Shredding the target!" Deepfang yelled, leaning over his cover and unleashing a storm of plasma bolts, causing the tank that was firing on his Technician.

"My mind is my Weapon!" His team's Psi Operative yelled, targeting the Tank that was suppressing one of his team's Grenadiers.

As both the shredder fire, and the psionic attack connected, the two tanks were temporarily stopped in their attacks.

[Dragonfang, fire a rocket in between the two tanks at position J-19!] The voice said now. [Everyone else move to positions T-3, I-15, and P-15!]

"Here, CATCH!" He yelled as he raised his arm-mounted rocket and launched it between the two tanks.

It flew straight and true, exploding on impact and erupting into a miniature explosion which caused both tanks to shatter. Immediately after his fellow Grenadier and two Technicians raced toward the new location position.

[Target locked… preparing to fire…]

[Dragonfang, move to position P-2, now!]

He instantly moved and was glad he did, because the second he reached a low hanging building that gave him cover, the tree stump he was sitting behind had blown up, leaving yet another smoldering crater.

'That was too close…' He thought.

(Amalie's PoV)

She watched the map and screen where the Dragons were fighting, looking at every detail she could and trying to absorb as much as possible. These humans were not her daughters and as such she could not control them as precisely, yet she also knew how 'he' would order them. The only question was 'why' he was not ordering them like he used to?

"Central… connect me with my friend…" She hissed as she continued to focus on the Water Dragons.

"Fine, do it!" Central yelled behind her.

Seconds later she got a nod from a deck hand and spoke. "My friend, focus on the Land Sharks and your objective to escape… leave the Water Dragons and the mission to protect the Nest to me." She hissed calmly. "These AI's are dividing our forces which is affecting your command performance, and we must divide our attention to match them…"

There was silence as she waited his response.

If he refused to relinquish control, she would have to obey, he was in Command, not her. She was simply a 'guest' aboard their vessel and had no more command authority than Netra did. If she was told to, then she would simply have to stand by and watch.

[Central… Amalie will… take command until…] He responded, though each word sounded like a struggle for him.

"Understood sir, just get out of that trap and get back to us in one piece!" Central said.

[Shen… sever my connection to the Dragons… I need to focus…]

"Already on it, and please sir, get those support pillars down fast, we can't get you out while those AA Sectopods are still running around."

(Commander's PoV)

[Understood…] He said as he disconnected from the Water Dragons, trusting Amalie to command them while he focused on the Land Sharks.

He tried to examine all of them at the same time, but it was becoming impossible to focus despite severing his vision of the Water Dragons. Every time he tried to focus on just 'one' of them, while being aware of the others, the tiniest details just sprang up and tried to grab his attention.

[No… no focus… can't do it all at once, that's obvious now.] He muttered. [So, what do I 'do', I feel like I can't do anything!]

As he thought that, an explosion occurred right next to him as he took cover behind Hawkeye.

[No… not the time… we have to get out of here… can't stay… think.] He muttered to himself. [Okay, so if I can't command all at once, then just one at a time. Can't believe I have to do this, but desperate times call for desperate measures… back to basics!]

With that he shut off his camera connections to all but 'one' of the Landsharks, focusing on Mercy and Hawkeye.

Looking through Hawkeye he saw that they were surrounded on two sides with rubble providing cover against four of these AI tanks. The crossfire they were creating was out of hand as if he tried to move them to use cover against one group, the other would have a clear line of sight for a flank shot.

[Right… so first… sever their line of sight…] He thought. [If I remember… this sewer system isn't exactly stable, an explosion positioned just right will cause a cave in easily. If I grenade that spot just between us and one of the tanks, it will cause a cave in that will cut them off…]

He checked Hawkeye's loadout and saw he only had two grenades, and Mercy had none.

[Make it count… can't calculate the exact position for some reason… my Gremlin seems to be malfunctioning… probably related to why I can't think straight… any case, one blast in the center should work… I think.]

[Hawkeye, Grenade position… U-21.] He ordered.

"Got it!" He said, priming his grenade and tossing it behind them.

It landed in front of the two AI tanks and caused them little damage to their surface, but the explosion had the effect he wanted as a rumble was heard from the ceiling above them.

[Woaaaaah!] The two AI screamed as a pile of slab and concrete poured down in front of them, blocking them off and cutting them from the fight.

[Okay, that takes care of those two, now for Bellona, Eagleeye and T-Rex] He thought, switching vision from Hawkeye to Bellona now who had crawled to cover.

Bellona's condition had improved, she was now healthier than when she was hit by the sonic weapon, a blessing no doubt given to her by advanced healing abilities from her genetic changes. Yet all three of them were fighting four tanks just like Hawkeye and Mercy had been. Only these four had each rotated suppression fire roles, while three kept his sharks pinned down, the fourth would move in closer trying to get a clear shot from a flank.

[Okay, Bellona can't see their weapons, so she can't dodge em, and they are rotating who fires so that the fourth can find a clean flank shot. So, severing the line of sight of one or two like before shuts down their tactic here… problem, they're at an intersection so I'd have to expend more grenades to do that. Plus, this tunnel system they're in has wider tunnels… wait, if I remember… just hurting one of them affects the others nearby… so if I can hit just one of them the others will stop attacking for a moment.]

He examined the tunnel through Bellona and saw the path they had to take to reach their objective was guarded by a single AI tank, the tank trying to get a flank shot on one of them.

[Okay… I think I can do something. T-Rex has the heaviest armor, so I'll use him to draw fire quickly from one of the suppressing fire tanks…]

[T-Rex, target fire that tank on P-15.] He ordered.

"Got it!" He yelled, before standing and taking aim, just as he did several plasma blasts ripped past him, barely avoiding hitting his head while the rest harmlessly smacked into his heavy armor. "Takin bit of fire, and here's some from me!"

He unloaded what was left in his clip into the tank, causing it to stutter and refocus on him.

[Bellona, acid spray that thing!] He ordered next.

"As you command!" She declared.

She undid her bandana and opened her mouth wide, before spraying a violently purple mass of acid at the tank, coating it with her acid.

[Nyaaaaaaaegh that burns!] The tank screamed loudly over their comms. [I can't see!]

All three of the tanks reacted similarly, ceasing their fire for a brief moment.

[Eagleeye, finish that thing off with an electrical charge!]

"Goin in for a fly by!" He yelled, before signaling to Little Bird to move in.

The Gremlin soared over, created an electrical charge and shot straight into the tanks exposed circuitry.

The tank smoked and shattered before them, collapsing to the ground in a pile of smoking wires and burnt metal, but the other tanks all screamed in pain just as he hoped.

[Move through, your objectives are just down that hall! Move to Grid P-15, 17 and 18, then T-Rex and Eagleeye grenade locations J-9, and 14!]

"Let's swim kids!" T-Rex yelled as all three ran with Bellona easily outpacing them.

Once in position both T-Rex and Eagleeye primed grenades and tossed them. The resulting explosions caused another cave in, cutting off any hope of pursuit from the three remaining AI tanks.

[Now… for Sharptooth, Falcon and Puppy.] He thought as Mercy and Hawkeye began firing on the two tanks they were still left with.

Switching to Puppy's helmet cam he saw the position they were in. Her group was in a tunnel similar to Mercy and Hawkeye, only the tanks were now closing the distance and continually peppering them with shredder and suppression fire. Most of the cover they had were gone and they were surviving only by the skin of their teeth.

"Gah!" Puppy yelled as she was hit by plasma bolts from a tank that had her flanked.

"You okay?" Sharptooth yelled.

"Ugh, still barking… but I can't take another hit…" Puppy yelled as she rolled back behind cover with Sharptooth.

[They've only got a few piles of cover left… and those tanks are getting clearer shots from the flanks. I need to sever their line of sights just like before, but I can't use any grenades with how close they are to the Sharks. If I attack one of them, the others will take advantage and fire flanking shots. So, I need to create more cover and push away until I can break their line of sight safely... wait, an explosion would be devastating to the Sharks in these close quarters with the enemy, but if I used a psionic attack...]

[Falcon, use Null Lance and target the wall directly behind Puppy at Grid M-8!]

"What, why does it have to be me?" Puppy yelled.

"If you say so." He muttered before aiming with his arm to direct the attack. "My mind is my 'weapon'!"

From his hand a purple beam of energy emerged, and it smacked right into the wall behind Puppy. However, while the wall had a hole blown into it, the ceiling above them began to crack and crumble behind them, creating a low wall of rubble that acted as cover to protect their backs from any further flank attacks.

"Oh… that's why it had to be me." Puppy muttered.

[I am getting really 'tired' of this!] One of the tanks growled over the comms. [Hurry up and 'die'!]

As one the tanks began switching weapons to plasma guns and began blasting at their cover again.

[Falcon… psionic bomb the three tanks in front of you. Target grid K-9.]

Falcon nodded and began focusing his attack in the palm of both hands. "One cannot defend against the power of the mind!" He yelled, before launching it straight forward.

It landed and expanded, creating a rift of psionic energy. As one all three tanks stopped firing as their weapons clicked, signaling they were out of ammo.

[Reload!] They all ordered and began reloading.

[Sharptooth, launch a grenade and target grid N-15. Puppy target the tank on the left!]

"Here, Santa left you a present!" Sharptooth yelled as she primed and threw her plasma grenade.

"Eat this!" Puppy yelled as she open fired with her laser Rifle.

The grenade exploded, and the laser connected with the tank, causing damage but none of them were defeated. Then the rift collapsed, and all three tanks exploded together.

"I swear… he's 'trying' to keep me from getting kills…" Puppy muttered quietly.

[Move, that explosion is about to cause a cave in, get to Grid O-14, U-14, and Y-15!]

As one all three ran around their cover and ran to their destination, just as the ceiling began to crumble and the wall of rubble blocking the other tanks was broken.

Before the tanks could fire though, the cave in happened and they were cut off yet again, enabling Sharptooth's group to proceed to their destination without further attack.

With that he returned to Mercy and Hawkeye's position, and saw that they had finally broken through the armor of the tanks and took them down, but both Viper and Ranger were wounded and exhausted. [Come on you two, we have to hurry to the objective, we're nearly out of here!]

"Yes sir." Hawkeye said, before getting up and moving forward with Mercy behind and him in front.

Minutes later they arrived at an intersection, and in the center where the tunnels separated was a rusted steel support beam. It still stood strong and solid, a testament to how it was constructed, designed to keep the city 'above' so that everything below wasn't crushed under the weight of all the buildings.

"Okay, so now what do we do?" Hawkeye asked as they caught their breath. "How do we get those talking garbage cans to fire on us?"

[I'll tell you when I figure that out…] He answered. [Hawkeye, once the others call in I want you to take the left path and reach the support beam at Grid L-52. Mercy, you take the right and reach the support beam at Grid H-38. Do not engage those tanks one on one… you don't have the firepower to win that exchange.]

"As… as you wish father." Mercy hissed nervously.

As they reached their destination he waited for the other two teams to call in, from there they had to split up yet again, with each shark going to a different support beam. Bellona, Sharptooth, Puppy, Mercy, Hawkeye, T-Rex, Eagleye and Falcon each went to a different Support beam, while he waited at the Support beam they had reached.

As each Shark made their way to the beams, he heard the distinct rumble of the tanks approaching.

[Okay… keep it cool… keep it cool…] He muttered. [It's all going according to plan… I think.]

From the shadows of the tunnel four AI tanks raced toward him, Gatling gun turrets primed and aimed directly at him, plasma bullets primed and ready to fire. They stopped in front of him seconds later and began to prepare their weapons to fire.

[Keep… it… cool…] He muttered once again.

(Dragonfang's PoV)

"Incoming!" He yelled as another shell was launched.

He ran into the cover of a building and just in time, as a tree was evaporated in his place. The Sectopod's artillery barrage was unending, every time one of them was forced to stop for any reason, be it to fire or reload, or even to take cover, it locked on and launched a shell at them.

"At least we've managed to protect the civilians, and we're holding our positions well!" He muttered, as he was ordered to unleash a plasma storm of bullets onto a pair of MEC units.

Their temporary commander had not only gotten them to rescue and reinforce the resistance forces, but they had also established a strong perimeter, protecting the civilians holding up in a shelter. So far, the Sectopod was more interested in shooting him and his fellow dragons then in shooting the civilians.

The MEC units were trying to break through, but so far not one had managed to get any line of sight on the civilians.

[Target… lost… reevaluating target location… locking on…]

[Dragonfang, move to position J-72, fire a rocket at the MHW Tank at P-22!] He heard over his comms.

"You got it!" He yelled, running from his cover and over to another low hanging wall. Seconds later the ruined building was shelled and destroyed. Taking the chance, he primed his rocket and fired at the low-profile tank, blowing it up instantly.

[. . . Target. . . lost. . .]

He took the time to reload his weapon expecting new orders, but then Central spoke up over the coms.

{What's going on here… they're retreating?}

Confused he looked over and saw just what Central had said, in the distance two MEC units that had been about to attack him had turned around and began marching away.

"Hey, anyone else seeing this?" He asked the other dragons.

"Yea fang, they just began turning and walking away!"

"Same thing here pal, was about to get flanked by this Sectopod, before it just turned and began leaving me alone!"

"Hey, I just saw a big ol mother hubber with a big ass gun just get up and walk away…"

"What's up with this, they're turning tail?"

He listened carefully but heard no more shots of plasma being exchanged.

"They just 'retreated? Why so suddenly?"

(Central's PoV)

He breathed a sigh of relief, things had been getting close, but thanks to Amalie's decisions and actions, they had saved the squad and the Nest. "Looks like they've had enough for today." He said. "Alright everyone, secure the area and await the Skyranger to pick you up, we have to pick up the Commander first, so you'll have to wait there for now."

{Understood sir!}

"Send the Skyranger to pick up the Commander, something tells me he's ganna need it soon!"

"Yes sir!"

"Something's not right." Amalie hissed as she stared at the battlefield map. "They retreated too easily… they didn't even put up a fight…"

He looked at her with a slight disdain. He didn't like how Amalie always played the situation as worse than it really was, nor did he like how she acted with her own authority.

"Put up a fight, they nearly tore down the Nest and everyone inside of it, blew half the area to pieces! I hardly call that 'not putting up a fight'." He said.

She glared back at him, and again hissed in annoyance. "How my friend can 'stand' you some days is something I do not think I'll ever learn." She hissed quietly to him. "They weren't 'trying' to kill us. Even 'you' could have seen that. Their attacks were not aimed properly, they missed many of their shots… they loudly declared their target intentions, they rushed their assault, their forces stood out in the open and easily gave away their positions… even a 'novice' commander could figure out this wasn't their original plan."

She touched the map and replayed a section of the battle from overhead position.

"Look here, I deliberately exposed this section of the map to the enemy, hoping to draw them in. I willingly let the resistance be weak here while conserving your dragons, hoping to use them as a scape goat to draw fire, and hit them from their exposed flank." She hissed. "But they completely ignored it… they could have easily wiped out a large portion of the resistance forces… instead they continued their pointless assault on our dragons here. While it protected the civilians, the position itself was pointless for me to protect because of the distance to the civilians. The distance alone would have kept them safe for a while… allowing me enough time to regroup the dragons and counter push back."

She played forward and pointed out another location.

"C.X. 2 was optimally positioned to target anything on the field and demonstrated it throughout the battle, he could have easily shot the civilians' location, destroyed them, crushed the resistance in this area and be done with it. Instead he focuses all his fire on meaningless targets? Continually targets forces that can evade his fire 'while' announcing he's going to fire?" She glared at him with a stern look. "That's not how 'I' would have fought this battle on Advent's side…"

She put her hand to her mouth and stroked her scales, thinking deeply.

"This whole operation wasn't about the resistance at all… they didn't even seem to 'care'… it's almost as if… it was just… a ploy. A red herring… as you humans call it."

"If the resistance wasn't the target then what was?" He asked her.

"Hmm… let me think." She muttered. "If I were in their shoes… and I had ordered this attack, while my main target was trapped underground… and he was being attacked at the same time… and if this resistance strike was all indeed a ploy… the only reason I'd order a full retreat from this offensive would be… because…"

Her eyes snapped open.

"We need to get him out of there now, NOW!"

"Central, we're getting seismic activity from the Commander's location!" Shen yelled.

(Commander's PoV)

The tanks came to a stop and primed their weapons.

[Keep it cool…] He muttered.

As one they prepared to fire.

[Hold your fire!] One of the tanks shouted.

As one all tanks waited.

"Commander… I hope you have another plan because…" Puppy asked nervously. "I don't think they're buying the whole… sit still and let em shoot at us plan."

"Yea, they just starin at me like a spider…" T-Rex said.

"If they have eyes that is…" Sharptooth said.

[Well… that didn't work… now what?] He thought bitterly, that was all he had, he had to hope their trigger-happy nature would work in his favor.

One of the tanks rolled forward and began laughing.

[Oooooh you… I didn't think you had something, but 'this' takes it…] It said. [Did you really think… that I would just 'shoot' you, and risk destroying those support beams? I learn from my mistakes… fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!]

He ignored the tank as he thought, trying to come up with a plan. [Come on… think… think… I'm missing something I know it… but what?!]

[Well 'Commander' you've given us quite the chase and quite the show… but it's time to come 'back' with us… just make this easy and give up… don't make my job any more boring.]

Job… boring… that's when it clicked.

[You're not very smart are you…] He asked warmly.

All the tanks rotated their guns at him. [Say… what now?]

[For an AI… you aren't very bright… in fact… your probably dumber than your companions upstairs.]

"Commander… are you sure it's wise to poke fun at the talking tank with the big gun pointing at us?" Hawkeye asked quietly.

[Tell me… why did you get stuck with the job of keeping me down here… instead of just killing me or my team outright? Surely not because of your 'tactical genius' or your 'strategical knowledge'.]

[What… how… dare you!]

[No… you aren't supposed to catch me, you're supposed to 'contain me'! That's their plan upstairs, you weren't supposed to catch me, you were just to keep me down here! In fact, they probably put you down here just so you'd stay out of 'their' way!]

[I am NOT in their WAY!]

"Uh… chief… I don't like how that barrel is spinning at me…" Puppy squeaked.

He however ignored Puppy and continued to talk.

One part of him was playing on a hunch but in all honesty, he had absolutely no idea why this AI tank thing was down here, why there were multiples of it and why they were all connected. But he had an idea and he was rolling with it now.

It was his last gamble for this mission.

[I bet you are in their way, you probably can't come up with your own plan or stick to your own ideas. You'd screw up their plans if you were working with them, so they stuck you down here all alone with only yourself, so that you wouldn't interfere in what they are doing up there! Those two AI's E.C. 1 and C.X. 2 are smarter than I imagined, but you aren't exactly something I'd write home about… you're nothing like them!]

[I AM MORE THAN A MATCH FOR THEM! THEY CAN'T MATCH MY CAPABILITIES!] All of them yelled in unison. [I AM D.L. INFINITY, I AM INFINITE, I CANNOT BE KILLED!]

[Oh, I bet you are, I bet you are infinite, infinitely annoying to them… but you don't have any tactical awareness or strategical awareness, not like them. All you got is numbers, that's all you have… but without that you're just a talking tank, nothing my XCOM hasn't faced before!] He continued, pushing closer. [I have a talking tank myself, it's named SHIV, and it's a whole lot tougher than you, more firepower to boot, only it doesn't try to pretend to be something it's not! You however are trying to make yourself look better than them, when in reality you are nothing more than that… A TALKING TANK!]

[Be silent or I'll DESTROY YOU!] they screamed, echoing off the walls.

"Father…" Mercy hissed in fear.

[Oh, I'd love to see you try, go ahead, but I don't think your pals upstairs want that… no… that's not part of their plan, they made a mistake sending you because you want to destroy me. I can see it now, even within this robotic shell of a body… I can 'see' it… you are ruled purely by emotions, unlike them… not very AI if you ask me… no logic to keep you in check. In fact…]

He leaned closer to stare at the tank's gun barrel with his optics.

[Your about ready to EXPLODE!]

D.L. Infinity, as it called itself, 'exploded'.

[Graaaaaaaaaaawar!] They all screamed and open fired, yet a millisecond before he ordered all of his sharks to duck.

He took his own order and flew out of the line of fire, just as all four of the tanks fired an unending stream of plasma bolts into the steel beam behind him.

Under pressure and cut into, the support beam did not last any longer than it took for D.L. Infinity to empty a full clip before it groaned… creaked…

And collapsed.

-Rumble-

[Move sharks, move!] He yelled, giving them all a path individually to follow, leading directly away from the epicenter of the collapsing city.

All at once the Land Sharks began running as if their lives depended on it, and it did.

[You're not getting away from me!] D.L. Infinity screamed as he chased after them, launching plasma bolts as he followed suit.

Minutes later they all regrouped in a sewer tunnel, being chased by fifteen tanks, and more joining them. All the while plasma bullets whizzed by their heads and bodies. The tunnel's walls became riddled with bullet holes and pieces of debris as the whole thing began to collapse around them.

"Gah!" Mercy hissed as she was struck in the back.

Quick as he could Hawkeye grabbed Mercy and flung her over his back, running with her to keep up with the Sharks.

{Commander, you have twenty seconds before everything comes down, get to the safety zone!}

[No need to tell me Shen!] He yelled as they ran.

Ten seconds later they turned down another tunnel and just ran forward, with him counting down the seconds.

[Ten… nine… eight…] He yelled as now forty tanks were behind, constantly firing plasma bullets, launching grenades, anything to get them. [Three… two… one!]

(Up Top)

-Rumble-

-CrashCrashCrashSmashCrashBash-

[What…] E.C. 1 declared, turning around and observing a disturbance nearby.

Suddenly buildings began to collapse, and units began to shut off. Three AA-Sectopods toppled over as they collided with buildings and were destroyed. A wave of destruction raced toward him as he tried to register what was going on.

[Gaaahaaaaah!] He screamed as the ground below him became unstable and fell into the ground below, taking him and everything around him with it.

(Central's PoV)

-Beee eeee eeee eeeee eeee…-

"The net's going down, we have clear communications, the AA ring is gone and there's a gap the Skyranger can get in safely through the gap." Someone on the bridge yelled.

"Get the Skyranger in there, bring our people home!" He ordered.

"And move fast." Amalie hissed.

Seconds later the Skyranger appeared on the map and began moving toward the Commander's Position.

{Skyranger to HQ, I'm en route to the rendezvous point, approaching Commander's Position now.}

"Commander are you there? Tell me you made it!" He said.

(Commander's PoV)

[Oh, we're here…] he said.

In front of him was a hill entirely made up of rubble, which lead to the surface above, the hill of rubble was only two feet in front of him and the Sharks.

While behind them was a solid wall of what 'was' the tunnel system.

They had just run out of room to run when the collapsing finally ended.

[I think one of us soiled our pants but… we're all alive at least…]

"Commander… can we go home now…" Puppy asked tiredly.

Seconds later the Skyranger flew overhead and shined a light on them, before extending climbing ropes for them.

[Sharks… let's get out of here…] He said tiredly.

As one they all began to wearily climb up to the surface, and then, one by one climb up into the Skyranger.

"I can't wait to take a bath…" Sharptooth muttered.

"I can't wait to sleep…" Eagleeye said.

"I just wanna die in bed…" Puppy sighed.

"Commander…" Hawkeye started saying. "How did you get them to fire at us… how did you know he'd react that way?"

He was silent in answering.

[I didn't, I just took a gamble…] He muttered. [D.L. Infinity had acted like in immature teenager until then… wanting to sound tougher than he was… not thinking clearly and just acting on instinct. So, I took a risk.]

"Well… at least it worked, yes?" Mercy hissed.

[Yes…] He said as Sharptooth went up.

Just as Hawkeye and Mercy were the last ones with him to go up, an explosion sounded behind him.

They all turned and saw one of D.L. Infinity launch itself at them, catching them off guard.

He turned too late and was tackled to the ground by the Tank and watched as a connection cable extended from the body and onto his Gremlin's, instantly connecting to him.

[I'm… not… inferior!] He screamed and began 'uploading' data into his Gremlin.

[Ughuuhhhh!] He moaned as the data poured into him, clashing with his Gremlin's programming and various firewalls as well as memory blocks.

As quickly as it began however, Hawkeye and Mercy shoved the tank off of him and severed the connection, before quickly pulling him up into the Skyranger together.

Yet… everything began to grow dark as his Gremlin began shutting down…

(Amalie's PoV, Hours Later)

She watched in fear as various cables and memory data cards were connected to her friend's Gremlin.

She hated that word… fear… the worst thing she could ever feel. She had felt fear twice before, once when her mother was dying before her… and the other time when she thought her friend was lost.

And now she stared at his Gremlin, weak, feebly trying to stay functioning, unable to help him.

Her friend opened his optics to look at her.

"No, my friend… please… save your strength…" She whispered softly, holding his Gremlin's inactive claw in here hands. "Don't open them… you need all your memory to stay alive…"

His optics nodded, and closed up, concealing the world from view.

After the sudden attack, he was rushed back to the Avenger and Shen feverishly examined his Gremlin, trying to save him. It was then discovered 'what' the plan was the entire time.

"Their plan…. the entire time was never to hurt or even capture you… but to 'weaken' you." She whispered to herself. "First lure you into a position where you could not escape, then remove your Gremlin's advantages one by one… unable to see from the air you had to view your forces from the ground through their eyes. So used to seeing them all at once you tried to maintain it but that strained your Memory… filling it up with useless data that you didn't need… then divide your attention with even 'more' perspectives you didn't need so your memory would erase itself… trying to fill new data by erasing old data…"

That was their plan all along. Shen discovered that his memory was filled with points of view revolving around his Sharks. Three months of memory filled by seven hours thanks to the combined perspectives of seven agents, plus his own. With no more room left to store memory his Gremlin began deleting old data, tactical information, memories that helped him strategize, anything to keep storing new data.

On top of that, the sudden attack at the end had resulted in a virus being forced into his Gremlin's databanks, causing memory crashes and mass deletion. It wasn't completed because of Hawkeye and Mercy's interference, and the firewalls protecting, but it was still irreversible damage.

He was now barely clinging to existence, as his Body was still not awake, and with the recent shock his Gremlin suffered being mirrored, his body was even weaker.

"I can't keep him like this much longer." Shen said sadly. "His Gremlin is too badly damaged to sustain him any longer, the only way to save him is to transfer his mind to another Gremlin by removing it and placing it in another Gremlin. Unless his body wakes up and absorbs his mind back into it, he will not survive any other way."

"If we unplug that chip while he's still in it he's brain dead, you told me that day one he woke up in it!" Central said.

"I know, but that's the ONLY way to save him now."

"Well we need a plan b, because I won't risk his life while he's in there!"

"That's the ONLY PLAN I have Central, I need more time and time is something he doesn't have!" She yelled back.

"Indeed, the only other way is if we could find a way to transfer his mind into something, just long enough to hold it in its entirety, while we safely transfer his psionic chip to a new Gremlin to hold it, and then transfer it back." Tygan said reluctantly.

She heard that and smiled.

She got up and moved to the trio.

"I think I have a plan that will save him…" She hissed warmly.

.

.

=Author's Notes=

I'm not dead… I'm just trying to keep 4 stories straight, trying ot stay motivated, trying to live lol.

Running a youtube channel, a twitch channel, none of which are giving imperator a lotta $$ while also trying ot find a job and write these stories is not easy children.

But in any case, apologies for taking so long, this was supposed to be released in December, but it took longer to write. Review away and tell me whatcha think her idea is, and what you think of the 3 ai's plan to take down the commander.

Also forgive what might be loss of quality… as I said… its hard to keep the story in my mind and keep everything straight.