Chapter 14:

Devastation

The Goldilock giant started first by first raising, and then launching, its building sized fist towards the Behemoth.

Yusuke at the front head saw what's coming and wanted to dodge. "Dodge! DODGE!" But Raizo at the rear saw what Yusuke did not and overruled that immediately. "NO! BLOCK! BLOOCK!" By the time Yusuke realized why Raizo's opinion is more prudent, the fist is already right in front of his nose. The Behemoth barely managed to block with all four arms when the massive fist landed, and while it managed to stop the fist dead in the air, it still sent the Yellow Valvrave flying off the ground. The unit spiral uncontrollably like a cut kite until it was slammed against the wall, right on top of the door where the Militia had just finished evacuating.

Aila and A-Drei had just finished evacuating their men when this literal clash of titans started. They were right behind the Behemoth when the Goldilocks fist descended and they, and about a dozen other militias, would be stains on the floor by now if the Behemoth did not stand its ground and welcomed the attack coming from a fist almost as tall as he is… though at great cost. After a short flight, the Behemoth was plastered upside down on the wall atop them, though its weight quickly pulls it down from the crater. Aila and A-Drei barely managed to get in to safety when the Behemoth finally fell on its back, worse for wear, its pilots barely conscious.

Yusuke and Raizo would've indeed fainted… if their computer had stopped blaring warnings of just how much damage that one punch did to around 60% of their Valvrave's integrity. Thankfully, it kept them awake and alert enough to know the gong is officially rung. "Aila… A-drei! You two okay!?" Raizo groaned amidst the ringing on his ears.

"We're evacuating to a safer place!" A-Drei shouted as the militia quickly departed the vicinity. "You just concentrate on that monster! DON'T LET IT DAMAGE THE MODULE'S INTEGRITY!"

"Roger!" Yusuke screeched.

The Behemoth rose up to its feet to see the Goldilock giant looming down on them. Fighting a gigantic mechanical monstrosity in this confined space without causing some serious damage on the module, while most of their weapons are geared towards saturation and extreme damage… that's a good definition of suicide right there.

"In any rate, we can't fight here." Said Yusuke. "We're too close to the Module's main suspension. We have to take this to the surface!"

"Way ahead of you! Let's get out the same way we get in!" The Behemoth quickly disassembled once again into its separate body pieces before zooming through the hole they came in, one limb at a time. The last piece, the foot, barely missed the Goldilock's massive finger trying to catch even just a piece of its prey. It failed.

Its optic looked at the hole, it's targeting crosshair scanned the hole, knowing it lead to the surface.

-Pursue target. Eliminate. Activating thrusters.-

The gargantuan copycat primate engine got into an upright stance, and battle cruiser scale thrusters emerged from various parts of its armor. A set of the bigger ones appeared on the underside of its broad shoulder pads. Another set appeared on each of its two legs. After a few moments of power built up, the vents heat up before igniting full force. The massive exhaust blast from those overcharged boosters engulfed the entire room, burning everything to a molten slag as the giant achieved lift, despite its massive bulk.

0000000

Up on the surface…

X-Eins and Akari ride their commandeered buggy when the Behemoth's component flies out of the hole one by one and reassembled themselves up in the sky overlooking the metropolitan area without a hitch. The missing Forge Fist on the foot was replaced with the one on the knee. But as soon as the valvrave finished doing so, an entire city block of skyscrapers collapsed as the Goldilocks ascended out of the ground and continue skyward in a thunderous roar, chasing its wayward prey.

"That's something you don't see every day." Akari gawked. A skyscraping mechanical giant ascended out of the ground chasing around another giant mech that now looked like a flea in comparison.

Even X-Eins spare a moment to see the commotion. It took a few seconds for him to understand just how ridiculously large that thing is. "Well… at least we found the 'Queen'."

"Still… where are we going!?" Akari duck down knowing chaos will soon ensues.

"Not to that direction, that's for certain." X-Eins gestured at the two giants battling one another. That's the address for suicide for normal soldier right there.

The Behemoth boosted skywards as the Goldilocks followed closely behind. Against all odds, even with his size, the Goldilocks is actually catching up. Its massive arms move ponderously slow, but they have a vast reach. It almost caught the Behemoth several times. But at this rate, it's an eventuality.

"How come that thing can fly faster than us!? She's the one with a fat ass isn't she!?"

"Yeah… but they added enough boosters to match!" Yusuke explained. "And we're far more maneuverable than her, but I guess that's not the problem is it!?"

"She's coming!"

Once again, one of the Goldilocks' giant hands closed in and grasped nothing but empty air… but this time a tip of its massive finger managed to scrape just a bit of Behemoth's boots. Just a scrap, but that was enough to throw the yellow valvrave slightly off balance.

"Whoaa!" Yusuke and Raizo screamed as their world spin.

At that moment, the Goldilocks accelerated further and finally catch up with the Behemoth with one final charge. Her massive arm once again reaches out towards the Behemoth. For a moment, it seems there's no escape for the Behemoth this time…

…and yet suddenly, the Goldilocks once again found herself grasping empty air. Not because the Behemoth managed to elude her… but because suddenly, she found herself losing height. At its most critical moment, the boosters suddenly behaved strangely. They stopped exhaling propelling boost, and instead… they began coughing up multi colored flares, each exploding into brilliant and excessively bright sparks.

Akari blinked at the anomaly. "X? Is that…?"

X-Eins looked and smiled. "Yes. Yes it is." It looks like he made a good call entrusting that sabotage compound to Ashra after all. She picked the right fuel tank to sabotage.

The boosters coughed some more colorful flares a few more times… before the thrusters overheated and exploded. When they exploded, they produced a series of multi colored explosive phantasmagoria and a boatload of bright sparks, like glowing rainbows.

Akari laughed seeing all the colorful explosions.

"Is that it?" X-Eins asked. "Is that what fireworks looked like?"

"Yeah. Not bad. Not bad at all. You could actually do some business in this industry."

More importantly, with every thruster it had busted to oblivion, the giant mech's ascent turned into a free fall. The Behemoth watched as the Goldilock fell back to the planet surface. Given its weight, the fall will be unpleasant, even at this height.

But the gargantuan mech fell on its two feet. The sheer impact when it landed sent a massive shockwave allover the city, and even shook the whole module to its foundations.

The shockwave reached X-Eins and Akari, upturning their buggy in a heartbeat. Both passengers were thrown off the vehicle just before it crashed to a wreck. X-Eins quickly recovered. "Lady! Are you alright?"

"I'm… fine… but my fanny hurts…" Akari also recovered. "But… I think this is it for the buggy."

X-Eins also nodded when he saw the buggy was indeed irreparably smashed against a sizable debris. "I guess we have to go the rest of the way on foot."

"Where… exactly are we going?"

"Let me put it this way…" X-Eins stated. "We Dorssians don't fell to the same trick twice."

0000000

The shockwave of the Goldilock's fall can also be felt all the way to the underground network, where A-Drei and Ashra is leading what's left of the militia across the underground network. Through it all, Aila looked somewhat disturbed over what she had learned.

Seeing her troubled look, A-Drei surmised: "I take it then that you genuinely did not expect that the intel that led you here was bogus after all?"

Aila snapped out of her distraught thoughts. "Yes… I fully trusted the source… so I didn't double check it… Might you be suspecting me of leading you into this trap?"

"I do. From the start." A-drei responded. "And for the record, that suspicion still stands. Even now."

"Now wait just a second…!" One the militia protested, but Aila silenced him with a look. "No. I'll endure it. I'm the idiotic leader who led her unit so stupidly into a trap… If anything, you had the right to doubt my competency. Take the lead, A-Drei Karstein. We'll help you anyway we can."

A-Drei nodded. "Let's go. I think we're almost there."

"And where is… there?" Ashra asked.

0000000

Up in the sky, the Behemoth saw its gargantuan adversary is still moving. Yusuke scanned its condition, the Behemoth camera zoomed on all the damage inflicted on the Goldilocks. All its thrusters exploded from inside out. "Did it have an engine misfire or something?"

"Who cares? At least that thing ain't flying anywhere anytime soon." Raizo grinned.

"I'm a little bit worried about something else…" Behemoth's camera zoomed on other damages beyond its propulsion systems. Its right legs had sparks of electricity jumping on its joints. It was apparently damaged during the fall. That's some big minus on its ground mobility right there.

But the Goldilocks is still very much online. In its cockpit, the Gold Mock pilot began checking its systems and reassessed her strategies:

System scanning.

Damage assessment: Thrusters offline. Flight disabled. Cause: foreign ingredients mixed in fuel. Legs: damaged. Ground movement reduced by 30%. Cause: massive concussion with ground surface due to the thruster's critical malfunction.

Assessing opposition. Enemy: Valvrave Type 03. Enemy flight capability: not yet neutralized. Enemy's combat capacity: 85%.

Listing primary priorities…

Primary Objective: capture a genuine Valvrave intact.

Assessing Primary Objective feasibility… unachievable at current parameter. Target's combat capacity far above feasible capture parameter.

Secondary Objective: disable Valvrave unit, and salvage what remained.

Assessing Secondary Objective feasibility… unachievable at current parameter. Assessing… Melee approach… ineffective. Suggested course of action: inclusion of all weapon system, including all long range weapon systems… reassessing… reassessing…

Secondary Objective feasibility increased to Achievable with inclusion of Long range engagement. Be advised: long range engagement significantly reduced the success rate of accomplishing Primary Objective. Do you wish to proceed?

Confirmation acknowledged. All weapon lock disengaged: All weapons free. All weapons free.

Suddenly, the air is filled with the loud sound of the Goldilock's energy reactor powering up. Fiery black smoke bellowed from all its exhaust vents. Pieces of armor on its wide shoulders suddenly snapped away, revealing its full spread of arsenals. A single shoulder carries 6 spherical turrets, two on the front surface of the shoulder, two on the rear side, and the last two on the underside of the Shoulder armor. Each turret host four barrels of huge caliber beam cannons, rotationally fixed on a single axis. In-between the four turrets on the upper side of the shoulder, an array a hundred precision laser blasters protruded out, making the upper surface the Goldilock's shoulders looked like a pincushion of cannons. To top it off, ports opened up on the tips of the blocky fingers on its hand, and enormous plasma cannons, fit for battlecruisers, extended out. Hatches also opened up on the surface of the mech's massive forearms. From those hatches, hundreds of small drones fly out on propellers powered flight, each carrying a small hexagonal shaped reflective mirror… they fly menacingly around the Goldilocks shoulders like a pack of bees circling their nest.

Raizo and Yusuke twitched nervously. And they thought the Bremen has too many guns for its own good. Yusuke quickly regained his wits. "Raizo! Get down! Lower our altitude! Fly low!"

"What… Why!?"

"That thing is challenging us to a shootout. But if all those monster cannons fire, the weather dome can be damaged beyond repair, and everyone on this module will be worse off! Lower our altitude!" Yusuke panicked even more when he saw all the shoulder forward facing quad cannons began charging up.

"Roger that! Cut thrusters!"

"BRACE!" And in an instant, the Behemoth plummeted down straight towards the city area. They took up hiding in the business area, where most of the buildings there are office towers. A perfect place for them to take cover.

By the time the Behemoth managed to get to a safe height, it hides behind a forest of buildings. The Goldilocks can't get a clear lock on the main target; so instead, it targeted the whole area for a wide saturation attack. The Heavy Beam Quad Cannon turrets fixed their aims to fit the need. After another short charge, the barrels glowed dangerously. Simultaneously, all forward facing Quad Cannon turrets opened fire, unleashing a fusillade of energy stream that cut through the forest of office towers, melting through building walls like hot knife through butter. The Behemoth that hid behind an office building was almost struck when one beam punched through the building right above them, the other melt through it right beneath their feet. Once the blast was over, all the half melted buildings collapsed, and the Behemoth's location was exposed. It barely had time to find another hiding spot when the Goldilocks aimed her right hand finger fully charged plasma cannons at them and fired without a pause.

The Behemoth quickly boosted to the side and barely avoided a straight shot. But the plasma beam maintained a constant energy stream as the Goldilock swiped her arm to the side. The four streaming plasma beam swept across the field in a wide arc, closely following the Behemoth's heels, slicing through… no, wiping out entire city blocks as it goes.

It's not a plasma cannon, it's a plasma cutter. "THIS IS BULLSHII~IIT!" Yusuke and Raizo echoed in panic when they can actually feel the heat of the giant sized plasma beam cutter all the way to their cockpit. Thankfully, the ordeal only lasted for a few seconds. The plasma stream finally died down, just as the Behemoth almost ran out of space to run. The Behemoth, and its pilots, finally had time to take a breather… and observe the destruction.

The whole ordeal of laser barrage and the gigantic plasma cutter only lasted for five seconds… and several city blocks of the metropolitan zone that fall victim to it already looked like an incinerated wasteland.

"Now! Attack now! Those heavy beam cannons will need some time to recharge!" Yusuke screeched.

"KORAAAAAAAAAA!" Raizo pushed the throttle to the max and the Behemoth charged in. They quickly closed the distance to bring the giant into their firing range… but by the time they do…

All the fixed Beam Blasters on the Goldilock's pincushion like shoulders light up, and the reflector 'Bees' buzzing atop it stopped moving and fixed their reflector mirrors. A moment later, every barrel fired, generating a spray of laser to the air, which was then reflected by the 'Bees' reflector panels towards the locked on target, unleashing a wide blanketing wave of slicing laser strings, chaotically slashing across the battlefield, tearing apart everything they struck. There were so many laser beams, it was virtually impossible for the Behemoth to dodge. Thankfully, while the dancing laser barrage is strong enough to slice buildings into confetti, it was not enough to cut through the Behemoth's CF composite armor. But it was intense enough to push even the yellow Valvrave around, and preventing it from getting closer.

It was all Raizo and Yusuke can do to stop the beams from puncturing their cockpits, but amidst this intense barrage, they were eventually forced to touch the ground, where the punishment is less severe. In the midst of this hellish rain of fire, Yusuke saw the shoulder mounted Forward Quad cannon turrets are charging again. But just as he thought of dodging…

The Goldilock's massive knee armor on its legs suddenly buckled, some of their armor plates fell off… revealing another set of four Quad Cannon turrets, identical to the ones on the shoulder, protruding on EACH knee. And they're already fully charged. Yusuke instinctively flew the Behemoth upward just as the knee mounted cannons opened fire. The barrage swept across the ground vaporizing everything still touching on the ground, but they barely grazed the tip of Behemoth toes as it took off just in time, but that's hardly the problem. The knee cannons had forced the Behemoth to fly upward, straight into the path of an all out barrage from the Goldilocks' shoulder mounted Forward Quad Cannons AND the Precision Laser Blasters, all concentrating their fire on the Valvrave.

"WHUAAAAAAA!" Yusuke watched in horror as a literal rain of beam and lasers are converging towards them. The old Yusuke would've freeze in panic… but the new Yusuke is a different kind of animal altogether. "DETACHING WAIST!" At the last moment, the Behemoth detached its upper and lower half. The ejection force was enough to propel both halves to opposite directions, way clear from the epicenter of the blast.

Raizo had just registered this maneuver, and while Yusuke is thinking all he can to survive, the brawler saw an opportunity to attack. "ALL GUNS! FIRE!" While the Behemoth's lower half is still separated, the upper half still have all of its four arms intact, and every barrel down to the last finger opened up, and after a short charge, the Behemoth finally returned fire with a barrage of lightning and plasma spheres towards the larger target's head. "EAT LIGHTNING, BITCH!"

To their horror, their attacks dissipated halfway, not even a spark managed to reach the Goldilock's sizeable head.

"Wh… What?" Raizo gawked. "Aren't we supposed to be in range!?"

Yusuke immediately analyzed the situation… and found the reason when he checked their temperature. "Raizo! Pull back!"

"What?"

"Pull back! Recover our lower half and pull back! We're overheated!"

"After everything we've endured just to get here… FUCK!" Raizo had no choice. As soon as the Behemoth's lower half rejoined its upper half and the yellow Valvrave immediately widen the distance from the opponent as far as they could whilst enduring a rain of unrelenting saturation attack from the Goldilock until they're outside the range of ALL of Goldilocks' long range weapon. They managed to avoid another slash from its larger than life Plasma Beam Cutters at the cost of another portion of the city. After which they widened the distance some more just so that they can have time to think.

As expected, seeing her target is out of range, the Goldilocks stopped firing, reassess… and then start moving ever so cumbersomely forward. One can even see, thanks to its earlier free fall, that while her left leg is still functioning, the massive humanoid robot is visibly dragging its malfunctioning right leg like a crippled limp, further decreasing its speed – which gave Yusuke and Raizo, now at safe distance, some time to analyze the opposition.

Raizo asked again. "What's wrong Yusuke?"

"Just now… I just checked our temperature… we're actually heating up… at an unnaturally fast rate. We're already at 75% temperature and rising."

"Well, he was barraging at us with all sorts of beam weapons…"

"Even if we're being served a full course of beam weaponry… our temperature increases far too quickly. But then, when we returned fire, you saw our blast dissipated, right? That's when I finally figured it out."

"Yeah! That one! What's the deal? I know we were in range when I opened fire at that gigantor."

"We are in range. The problem is… that mech is covered in an electromagnetic field. It's electrifying the atmosphere around it."

"EM field… you mean the same one we're emanating, the one that caused enemy targeting system went haywire?"

"Quite. But this level of electromagnetic wave is on a completely different level of intensity than the one we're using. Our EM field disrupts targeting signals in enemy's circuitry. That… 'Goldilocks' electromagnetic field is thick enough, and powerful enough, that any attack with electromagnetic wave around it, as in the case for all types of directed energy weapons, will be diffused harmlessly by the field."

"…speak English, dude."

"Basically… all beam weapons are out of the question. The Goldilocks' beam weapons are unaffected because he got one monster of a Rune reactor that powers its weaponry with enough output that it literally punch through the EM disturbance. But that's not the biggest problem here." Yusuke pointed at a nearby large body of water near the marching Goldilocks. It's literally boiling hot to the point where steam bursting out of the surface and the water dried out in seconds. "The Thick Electromagnetic field is also producing a dielectric heating on its surroundings. Simply put… everything around that thing is being… microwaved."

"Microwaved… as in… the Oven Microwave?"

"The same." Yusuke frowned. "That's why our heat gauge increases uncontrollably just by being near that thing. We're being cooked - literally. While all our beam weapons are not powerful to punch through that disturbance. We need solid weaponry to get through that thing!"

"Then we're toast. All our weapons are beam weapons!"

"No. Not all of it." Yusuke gave Raizo a look. "They want to cook us!? Let them cook us! We got something that will give them indigestion for sure!"

Raizo's frown turned upside down. Of course. They have additional new gears just for the occasion, some of the old, and some of the new.

Flashback…

"When we designed the Familiars, their primary function was… NOT to extend the operational time of a Valvrave in a mission over an extended period of time. That one came later after the Valvrave heat issue was discovered, and then the heat sink system was developed, and thus it became the Familiar Impact Booster as we know it today. But the Familiar project was supposed to have a wider range of application." Kibukawa explained. "Their original intention was to serve the same purpose the Waffe would do for the Ideals. As… meat shield and support."

"Every Valvrave has a specialty that gave a unit a certain advantage over the other. 03 has extreme firepower, 04 has extreme speed, 05 has extreme defenses… they are representation of a certain extremes of a certain combat principle. The idea is that each unit will complement the other as they operate as a unit. However… recent events had shown that, given the circumstances, it became necessary for a unit to be able to cover all contingency on its own, when the need arise. Thus, all Primate Engine limbs and equipments are made to be interchangeable, depending on the need. But after the heavy modification Pino made on the original units… that option is no longer feasible, to some. So, we revisited the Familiar project… and made modifications as necessary. The whole team was very excited." The engineers snickered.

The pilots that are going to the Dyson sphere were showcased the whole array of the engineers' new creations – the new familiars. Each is as unique with the Impact boosters just as one Valvarve is different with the other.

Then came the wrinkle:

"Now, you need to choose. There are no limits to how much you can carry, but there's a matter of weight to power ratio. A Valvrave can carry at least two. But if you carry too much, you'll have to start removing some of the original equipments of the unit to compensate."

Haruto's choice was rather obvious: "I'll pick no 4… and… no 6."

Yusuke and Raizo looked at each other. All Valvrave was designed to use the Runes of the Pilot as fuel. One Valvrave, one pilot. That's how it was designed… with the exception of unit 01. However, when Yusuke and Raizo, as well as Aina and Kyuuma, showed how two pilots can pilot a single unit with harmony, the Valvrave draw power not from one, but two pilots… thus the burden was halved. But of greater interest, is the fact that the resulting output was not doubled.

They were squared.

Owing to this factor, Behemoth and Amon Ra became the heavy hitters; they hit harder and last longer than the other units. One on offense, the other on Defense. That's why they were given some of the most energy consumptive equipment available, because they can take the load.

Developed around the same time with Impact Boosters before the battle of the Moon, the Titan Fist is a heavy duty Familiar made as an improvement over the original 03's original equipment. One unit is composed of a pair of twin giant fists, nicknamed Forge Fists, with detachable remote controlled finger cannons, each fist contain both basic materials for field repair stored inside its cavities, to be used by its portable nano-fabricator to construct components from scratch; as well a ludicrous amount of heavy artillery arsenal – both of which require heavy duty power cell to allow extended operation when detached from the host units. Due to its sheer weight and massive power consumption, a Kagerou could barely carry one unit, an Original (piloted by a single pilot) can barely carry two units. But with two pilots synchronizing with each other, and the amount of energy produced… the Behemoth can carry eight units of these Titan Fists. That's a staggering grand total of 16 Forge Fists attached to every hard points across the Behemoth's segmented body, serving both as impromptu armor plating, and primary weapons – with devastating offensive capability, as well as enough raw material in its storages to build two more Valvraves on the field. And even with that much weight, output wise, the Behemoth can carry more.

Problem is… when all your limbs are stuffed to the brim with such heavy loadout… there wasn't much space for the Behemoth to host new ones without sacrificing some of the old ones. The rebuild Behemoth is being modified to sport the space… but they're really pushing the limit. They can't carry much… so… they have to be really strategic. "How bout if we carry two Impact Boosters? Behemoth does have a shorter heat gauge than the others."

"You could do that…" A-Drei commented before Raizo can say anything. "Or, you can take other parts to strategically complement your unit's weakness in other areas, to increase its versatility and survivability. Despite popular belief, your Valvrave is not invincible, you know?"

Flashback ends…

The new back skirt armor on the Behemoth's rear was added not only to sport a pair of sense nerve wings to give them some extra aerial mobility, but to also provide the space needed to carry two pairs of familiars to aid them in this situation. Having two pilots, the Behemoth had more than enough output to power the weight of four. Yusuke's and Raizo's first choice was to carry two extra Impact Boosters and one pair of spare Forge Fists, the most standard of choices and a popular one, due to it extending a Valvrave operational time considerably, and giving them some extra offensive options that does look cool. They're still considering what to carry for the last space they have available, but A-Drei's comment changed their opinion. So after another brainstorming, they made a suitable change.

And boy, were they glad to have made that change.

They carry one Impact Boosters, a spare unit of Titan Fist – one of its Forge Fists they have used to replace the one they've lost to that voracious Gold Mock Nanomachines… and then this new Familiar which was based on unit 05. It looked like a giant… dung beetle. But its shell… is pure double reinforced solid Clear Fossil shell. A hell lot tougher than the 05's original shell shield. The thorax is a generator for a miniature CF particle shield – nowhere near as powerful as the Amon Ra… but big enough to create a towering wall of energy shield to cover one side of their flank. (AN: think Overwatch Reinhardt wall skill)

The boys on the R&D call it the Kephri. But after everyone saw the gimmick, the pilots took to call it… the Buster Bunker. Not Bunker Buster. Buster Bunker. There's a reason, and there's a difference.

Behemoth removed its left Titan Fist and the Buster Bunker familiar moved in to attach itself unto the hardpoints on said arm. Before it did, the CF shell expanded before a layer of it folded up, creating a larger Solid CF tower shield. The beetle turned massive shield latched on the arm upside down, with the rear of the beetle facing forward. They had a plan, and the Behemoth also attached one Impact Booster on its right. And just in time too.

One last drag and the Goldilock had the Behemoth in its range. It already lifted one of his arms, aiming its four fingers at them, and the energy for the Plasma Mega Cutter is charging up.

The Behemoth dashed first to the air, but not towards the Goldilocks, but to a nearby body of water to cool down. The heat gauge dropped nicely to 40. And once that's done, the Behemoth charged straight at Goldilocks at full throttle. The Goldilocks opened fire with its plasma cutter. The Behemoth fly across the edges of the beam stream whilst keep moving forward at full speed. In the process, they once again enter the Goldilocks Microwave EM field and their temperature began to rise again. Seeing the Plasma cutter is ineffective, the shoulder Forward Quad Cannons charged and opened fire. The Behemoth lifted the shield. The Buster Bunker's thorax began to hum, creating a massive rectangular CF Particle wall. The CF Particle diffused the beam cannon, reducing its power, and the CF Solid shield blocked the leftovers… and the damage was virtually nonexistent.

"Yooosh! Let's GOOO!"

With their defenses is effectively boosted, the Behemoth had little trouble plowing through a barrage of beam blasts. They have even less trouble when the shower of laser cutter came – the laser was so weak, it can't get past the CF particle wall. They just bust through it. Still, the Behemoth's temperature kept increasing. They're closing the distance, but the closer they get, the faster their temperature rises. "We're getting there! This is gonna be one bombshell of a punch!" Yusuke roared. Their temperature is already at the vicinity 86, but they just keep going. The Goldilock reacted in desperation, and hatches on the sides of its face opened up, revealing a pair of large 6 barreled beam Gatling cannons that opened fire. But the beam projectiles bounced harmlessly against the shield.

"YOOOSH! Yusuke my man! Which part should I punch?"

"The chest! AIM AT HER CHEST!" The heat is 97, and the enemy is right on striking distance. All the long range weapons also stopped firing; the target had entered their minimal range.

"HERE WE GOOOO!" Yusuke pressed the heat transfer, the 99 heat dropped to 37. The Impact Booster on the right arm balled to a giant burning fist.

Nothing can stop them anymore, the Behemoth charged straight towards the Goldilocks chest. "LIGHTNING RAVE PUUUUUNCH!" Raizo roared at the top of his lungs.

At the critical moment right when the fist was about to connect… the heat gauge suddenly dropped drastically. "Eh?"

BANG!

Behemoth's fist landed, but not on the silver chest. At the last moment, parts of the Goldilock's silver chest armor detached, becoming bucklers for a pair of fully functioning arms that extended out… and blocked the Behemoth's punch.

Upon impact, an explosion occurred.

But not the usual explosion of fire… but an explosion of freezing smoke and steam.

"W… What?" Yusuke and Raizo echoed. For a moment, all their monitor can register is a great vastness of white smoke.

And then, in the midst of that smoke… neon purple glow shone through.

And then the Goldilock silver chest piece began to partially change shape. External locking mechanism disengaged, and the two arms that had been unleashed were quickly followed by a head popping out, and a torso with shoulders extended out from waist up. Parts on the waist down also came to view, such as its thigh and legs, but they are firmly fastened to the Goldilock, becoming part of its abdominal armor. The Goldilock's torso chest piece is actually another Mech, literally embedded on the Goldilock's chest. Shape wise, the silver humanoid mech's form resembled the gargantuan Bronze counterpart she nested upon, with large oversized broad shoulder and bulky humanoid shape. But she was significantly smaller, easily comparable to that of Behemoth's own size.

However, something else other than the fact a giant mech had another mech on its chest alarmed Yusuke and Raizo. For Raizo, said smaller Mech just catch his almighty Lightning Rave Punch and not get smashed. For Yusuke, the cause of his shock is the fact that when the Impact Booster fist was blocked by Silver Mech, the fist that was blazing hot moments ago is now as cold as ice. In fact, snowflakes began to form around the joints of the Behemoth's form. Good news is… their temperature is dropping. Bad news is… they're being frozen solid. Suddenly, the cockpit that was as hot as a furnace just a minute ago became so cold that their breath turned to steam before their eyes.

"H… how… what…?" Even the technical expert Yusuke was completely speechless. In that moment of confusion, the Silver mech pushed the still bewildered Behemoth back. At the same time, the underside armor of each shoulder opened up and a small portion of the shoulder was detached by a manipulator arm, and from each of these detached compartment, a seven barreled Gatling gun extended out, with a giant blade on its underside as a bayonet. Ammo belts extended from the rear part of the weapon, the seams glowed neon blue, denoting something out of ordinary about its ammunition.

Yusuke and Raizo is about to find out.

The Silver mech arms grabbed the now available weapons and the first thing it did with it was to slam the two underside blades at the Behemoth. The blade didn't penetrate the armor, but it was done with enough force to push the Behemoth a great distance backwards. And while the Behemoth is still disoriented, the Silver mech aimed the twin Gatling Guns, and then its torso armor also flipped open, revealing a another set of twin linked Gatling Guns built in its chest cavity. The barrels began to spin, and as soon as the rotation reached top speed, all four weapons opened fire, launching a stream of glowing blue bullets, coursed with electrical current. The Behemoth only had time to lift its shield. At point blank, the hail of bullets easily punctured the CF particle wall, and then rained on the physical shield full force, hammering the Behemoth back even more.

To the pilots, this is just about the most hellish experience imaginable. The sheer force of the barrage is rocking the whole cockpit like nothing else. Even Raizo's arm is getting numb both by the cold and from gripping the controller to keep the shield up; blocking the brutal punishment they're receiving. The fact is, the pressure was so much, the yellow Valvrave was actually forcibly grounded. The yellow giant crashed into the residence area and pulverized several houses on its landing. And then there it lay, on the ground, completely still and battered. Thankfully, the silver bot also decided to cease fire at that moment.

0000000

All this did not escape the attention of anyone idiotic – or brave enough to be still on the surface amidst all this… chaos.

At the moment though, both Akari and X-Eins are too preoccupied with their job to question whether they are the former or the latter category. Still, Akari had enough sense to pop her head out of cover just to know the development of the battle up there. "Oi… doesn't it look like we're losing?" That's what she surmised when she saw the Behemoth on the ground, with the Goldilock looming over it.

"Irrespective of that, lady, there's nothing we can do to help them. Even if you have access to your Kagerou, this is a battle only an original unit can hope to keep up. Let them do their part of distracting the most dangerous of foes from us, so that we can do ours."

"And what is our part… which, before you glare at me… I still haven't caught on, by the way, due to the lack of communication from your part."

"Now lady…!" X-Eins was about to answer when his ears twitched, hearing a noise. This, Akari easily caught on and she immediately shut her mouth and took sniping position in silence, with X-Eins took his next to her.

The noise that caught X-Eins' interest was the sound of a hatch opening right in front of them. Someone is coming up. They heard voices… and then… the first to appear was…

Ashra. X-Eins and Akari relaxed immediately. The Magius looked around, and clearly noticed them, even at this distance. She motioned them to maintain vigilance but come closer. As they did just that, the number of personnel rising from the maintenance hatch increases. First, a familiar face, A-Drei… and then he was swiftly followed by all these unfamiliar faces. Unfamiliar… at least to X-Eins. "A-Drei? Who are all these people?"

"They're militia. The human survivors who formed the resistance group."

"Resistance?" X-Eins scoffed seeing their poor state. "And you… 'trust' them?" Like A-Drei, X-Eins instantly harbor nothing but distrust to these new faces.

"I don't. And they know that."

Akari shook her head at these two overly uptight Dorssian operatives. Not that she doesn't understand their need for suspicion, but they could at least cut the poor guys a little break.

The last to climb out of the hatch was Aila, and Akari choked in surprise. "Aila? Aila is that you?"

"What the… of all the people… Akari?" Aila gawked.

X-Eins and A-Drei blinked. "You two know each other?"

"Yeah. Remember that Intersphere Archery Olympic I mentioned before? She's my regular competition in the tournament. We met quite often, though we went to different schools."

"So she's not Arus spy then?" A-Drei asked again. Just to be certain.

"She's not an Angel… but I don't think she'd sell her soul to the Devil when it comes down to it." Akari smiled as she exchanged reassuring glances with Aila, who returned it gladly.

"Hm." And that's just about as close as A-Drei would ever get to voice his approval. X-Eins helped by giving Akari a nod.

"Alrighty then. Now that we're all good and together… mind explaining what are you two EX-Dorssians are planning? And how are we going to deal with THAT?" Akari jerked her thumb at the looming Goldilocks in the background.

"Forget about 'that'. They're taken care of. Remember what you Sakimori kids did to us, the first time we fought over your module – when it was still attached to the Sphere?" A-Drei finally explained, with a question straight to Akari. "What did you guys do, when Arus threatened to gave you up to Dorssia?"

Akari listed it with her fingers: "Let's see… we activated a super robot, Haruto turned into a Vampire, we declared our own independence… and… we… oh." And Akari, as well as everyone, finally got it. "They're gonna do the same here." NOW she finally recognize where they are now and why they're here.

They're very close to the entrance to a gateway that would connect this Module to the next. The main connection bridge. The thing that's keeping this module attached with the rest of the modules on the Dyson Sphere.

"So… are we blowing it up or are we keeping it?" Akari asked X-Eins.

"My guess is, the Arus have already line up this particular part with remotely controlled explosives. Any sign of danger, and they'll blow it up. Detaching this module from the Dyson Sphere."

"Why… haven't they done that already?" Aila asked.

"I think the reason is right in front of us." A-Drei pointed at the Goldilock and the downed Behemoth in the distance. "Based on what I've seen… it was clear that this… Goldilock is a product of studying Valvrave technology. Technology they stole from New Jior. But apparently… the replication is imperfect. They compensate the missing pieces with some of their own." A-Drei pointed out of how the Copy Valvrave, while clearly using Runes to power their weapons, is still get by with old school propulsion system that needs fuel… which had given them that window of opportunity for their sabotage. "That tells me that they either get only parts of the technology… or their understanding of it was flawed, producing inferior results. Whichever the case… the fact is, they need an actual original Valvrave unit to study and dissect. And there's one, right there, in the field, in action. So now… they're watching. They unleash that monster of a machine while holding on to a hope that they might be able to secure a Valvrave… but… should the situation turned sour on them…"

"They'll cut us loose." Akari glared menacingly at the gate before them. "So… what do we expect? A tripwire trap that will trigger the Module detachment the moment we forcibly open this gate? An army of droid that will gun us down as we try to prevent the detachment? An automatic system shutdown on all life support so that we'll die a slow painful death inside a malfunctioning Module?"

"All of the above, I think." X-Eins answered flatly. "That is… IF the Goldilocks has been destroyed. But as far as I can tell, that thing is still standing. And as long as it stands, the men in power still think they had a chance. Besides… given what we've seen so far of that monster machine's performance, I don't think they'll throw away such an important piece of prototype so easily." Aila and Akari looked slightly confused, X-Eins continued. "As rich as Arus was… I don't think they can build more than a handful of these things. Such an expensive investment… they would loathe to throw it away so easily. Remember, we're not fighting a commander… we're fighting a businessman."

"Wait a sec! Wait a sec!" Aila speak up. "Aren't you guys forgetting one big problem? Your Valvrave is getting his ass kicked out there by that big mother of bots. Don't you have other units stored somewhere? Bet they could use the help!"

"That won't be necessary." Ashra didn't even bother to look back. "That battle is far from concluded. If anything, I'd say it's in its adolescence. That aside… I don't see those TWO losing so badly. One of her and two of them. They've faced worse odds and survived so far."

"Hear, hear!" Akari also nodded.

"However, it is imperative that we must hedge this bet, in case our luck turns for the worse." A-Drei cocked his rifle.

"Hence… this little operation." X-Eins solemnly noted.

0000000

Even though it's inside the cockpit of a super robot, Yusuke and Raizo felt so much pain all over their body they can't faint even if they want to. Amidst the groan of sheer utter agony of his broken ribs regenerating after his punctured lungs regenerated, Yusuke can still somehow see his surroundings. The monitor showed the Behemoth's battered left arm, the arm that's carrying the Buster Bunker shield. And unless his eyes deceive him… it was frozen solid. "O…Ouch…" Despite the agony of doing so, his engineer mind can still analyze the circumstances.

"Y… Yusuke? Yusuke… my man… you still alive?" As soon as his neck returned back from being twisted 180 degrees, Raizo's shred throat finally and painfully recovered, along with his vocal chords.

"Yeah. You?"

"Pissed off… but what the fuck man…?" Even Raizo felt too much pain to bark his usual aggressive tone. "…I thought this thing is a walking microwave toaster… how come there's a Freezer in it too…? That thing that froze us earlier…" Raizo asked. "What the heck are those?"

"My guess? Some Liquid Nitrogen loaded Reactive Armor. It explodes upon impact, spraying coolant at us whilst nullifying the damage. You know… it does… make sense." Yusuke groaned. "…My guess is… that Gargantuan Bronze unit packs some kind of Rune reactor that powers all those beam weaponries and the Microwave field… that, among other things… generate a shitload amount of heat, coming from all those Runes coursing through its systems. It's not just its surrounding that gets roasted, the unit that's doing the roasting is probably even more so. That's where the Silver unit came in. That one must have some kind of… super cooling system responsible for managing temperature, preventing the whole unit from burning itself out in a literal meltdown." Yusuke stared at the gargantuan robot looming menacingly from high above. Even with possible death staring in the face, the engineer part of him cannot help but to be excited over this technological marvel standing over him. "That's why they call it Goldilocks. Matrimony of extreme hot and cold, to create a 'just right' balance… The Bronze unit, that's the Pa Bear, with tons of beam weapons, and the silver one, that's the Ma bear, loaded with physical solid weaponry. No gunpowder, clearly, because in that freezing temperature, gunpowder can't ignite. So most of them are fired using electromagnetic discharge – rail guns, done in a super cold temperature, it creates a superconductive environment that allow the launching of the bullets containing some liquid nitrogen compound on the chamber at near mach 9 speed-"

"Yusuke… I don't speak techno-lingo, so why don't you just skip to the part on how to make this thing go boom?"

"I… I… I don't… uhh…" Yusuke groaned in pain… before realization struck. "Wait… wait… speaking of boom… why… haven't we go boom yet? I mean… she had us on her sights… what is she waiting for?"

"Huh?" Even Raizo also noticed. The Goldilock clearly had the downed Behemoth on her crosshairs… yet it did nothing.

In truth, it's not like the Goldilock did not notice the Behemoth is down there flattened to the ground. It was merely reassessing her options due to the current development. Namely, that the Behemoth lay down there on the dirt, cracking head to toe… ripe for the taking…

Analyzing…

Target: Enemy combat capacity reduced by 65%

Capture feasibility increases by 33%... perimeter acceptable.

Reverting back to Primary Objective: capture a genuine Valvrave intact.

Beginning procedure for capture.

Minimize inflicting damage upon target's integrity. Major heavy weapons are no longer necessary, re-initiating locking mechanism on the following weapons:

Unit: Brons Bjorn

'Hydra' Quad Cannon Turret – Offline

'Salamander' Plasma Cutter – Offline

Current Objective's allotted weaponry:

Unit: Brons Bjorn

'Hornet' Precision Laser Battery – Online

'Ifrit' EM Field – Online

Unit: Argent Bjorn

'Shiva' Cryo Gatling Gun – Online

Apparently, there was some kind of conflict occurring between the Goldilock's main Cerebral CPU… and the Pilot.

The Goldilocks remained still and motionless for quite some time. This give Yusuke a chance to fix some of the damage inflicted on their Valvrave. Inside his cockpit, Yusuke typed as fast as he could, sending instructions to whatever's left of their Titan Fist familiars as they send out their mini hands to began repair on the Behemoth, as per their function. The trick is, he must also do this without the enemy noticing. That further decreases the number of parts and limbs that can be repaired. "But at the very least, we have to fix our mobility! We have to get out of here!" At such close proximity with the Goldilocks, their heat gauge is also increasing again, bit by bit. But as the repair continues, something came to mind. "…or do we?"

Error. Unauthorized manual override of the Locking Protocol detected. Source: pilot.

Warning: unauthorized system override by pilot will result in immediate termination upon return for reprocessing.

All weapons free is not feasible choice towards the fulfillment of the Primary Objective. Request denied.

Request denied

Request denied

Error – error – error… Weapon Lock, disengaged. All weapons free. All weapons free.

Suddenly, the neon purple visor on the Goldilock's main head glowed yet again. The unit began to move, and this time, it slowly lifted its massive left leg. Yusuke and Raizo suddenly realized, when their monitor is filled with the view Goldilock's giant foot soles, that she's about to stomp them with it.

"Oi, oi! Is she upset because we step on her back then!?" Raizo actually panicked. "Do robots actually feel grudge?"

Against all odds, the severely damaged Behemoth actually managed to stand up and immediately boosted away at speed just as the foot went down. The titanic boot stomp shook the ground, sending a wave of shockwave radiating from the epicenter of the stomp.

Thanks to Yusuke's concealed on the field repair though, the Behemoth was able to withstand it without any severe damage to its visibly crumbling integrity. In fact, that shockwave actually helped them by giving them the boost needed to propel them even further away from the Goldilocks.

For Goldilocks' part, she was understandably shocked that her heavily damaged prey can still move so fast, crumbling as it was. It unleashed an action that denotes the closest thing it can get to anger.

Fire every weapon she got.

The Quad cannons, the Precision Laser battery, the Mega Plasma cutter. In addition to that, the freezing Gatling gun opened fire, and then, the Argent Bjorn's shoulder armor opened up, revealing pack after pack of missiles. The projectiles launched one after another in a fiery trail of smoke. Some of the missiles zoomed straight towards the target. Others zoomed and opened up midway, unleashing dozens of smaller missiles from its loadout, saturating the area with explosions.

"…!" Yusuke and Raizo could barely breathe or even look back. Everywhere they turn, destruction and carnage awaits them. Death rains ceaselessly one after another, from the sky, from the ground, from the back, even from the front, from everywhere. Raizo fired the lightning cannons so many times to shoot down the innumerable missiles, the Titan fist fingers are beginning to glow red from overheating, but there seem to be no end to them. Yusuke is doing his damndest to manage the Behemoth's body pieces, stretching them to the limit to dodge streaks of hundreds of beams, tens of thousands of freezing bullets, and pack after pack of missiles raining from every direction. And as if this was not enough chaos, the many skyscrapers in the area are collapsing one after another, adding more hazard to their escape path.

For every second the Behemoth eludes destruction, the Goldilock grew increasingly more and more 'vicious', even feral. Pretty soon, it wasn't even aiming anymore. It just fire blind, dispersing as much devastation over as wide an area as possible.

0000000

Akari watched in horror and fury as her father's farm was reduced to ashes by a stray shot. "Oi, oi… is it just me, or that thing is getting a little too trigger happy?"

"Berserk?" X-Eins was no stranger to AI going out of control due to programming error.

A-Drei shook his head. Everyone saw what's truly inside that gigantic thing. "I think this is more human factor than machine."

"Human factor… that thing has a pilot!?" Akari blinked.

"WATCH OUT!" Ashra jumped in and took a bullet meant for Akari. It did nothing but bounce harmlessly against her skin. "Concentrate, you fools!" She fired a laser blast at the shooter.

Akari ducked back into her sniper scope as a hail of bullets flying over her head.

They are in the middle of a firefight as they try to progress forward. One team does one mission so that they can do theirs. They have no time to worry about anything else… they have their own mission right now.

X-Eins and A-Drei once attacked their Dyson Sphere and the Sakimori High kids responded by cutting off the connecting bridge, allowing them to dislodge the Module off the Dyson Sphere. It makes sense that Arus will try to do the same here, seeing how it worked so well the last time. But Dorssian military do not allow themselves to be cheated of their prize the same way twice. Unfortunately, it's easier said than done. The Connecting bridge is massive. It was a long spacious hallway big enough for something as big as a starship to fly through. Which also means, it's big enough for regiments of Aelf drones to be placed within its cavernous hall to prevent intruder from trying to move from this module to the next. They even had a Bremen in here to make sure! Regiments they now have to fight through, in order for them to gain access to the main control system located 20 stories above the surface of the bridge and disable whatever contingency the Arus have to prevent them from cutting off this module. Good news is, they picked a Module which only has one connecting bridge. Bad news is, this module only has one connecting bridge. THIS is the ONLY way in or out of here.

Against the odd of being outnumbered 20 to 1 though… with the help of a Militia and one very angry Magius, they're making good progress, albeit a slow one.

Braving a rain of bullets, Ashra gathered energy in both of her hands before firing a massive rune laser that cut a swath across the Aelves, and finally slicing the Bremen in two. She immediately retreated to cover, having spent quite a lot of Rune to get this far.

Then again, things are looking up.

But the enemy response to the loss of the heavy unit was to pour in more and more Aelf drone into the fray, this time with some of the Clothed Variant as well.

Or not.

"Wait a minute." Against her better judgment, she pop her head back out to look at her surroundings.

The militias were still ducking under cover while occasionally popping out every now and then to return fire… and yet, there's one person missing. "Aila? Where is she?"

X-Eins and A-Drei blinked, now noticing the absent militia leader.

Alarmed that her friend would slip out of view like that, Akari almost assumed the worst. X-Eins immediately called out. "Find her! We got this!"

0000000

After another all out overkill barrage and an excess amount of destruction, the Goldilock stopped firing to observe the results… to her fury, she can still spot the Behemoth lurking between buildings… how did it survive that much firepower!?

The two neon purple visors (both belonging to Brons and Argent) glowed. If that's how it's going to be, then it's time for the biggest boom stick available. The armor plating around the Brons Bjorn's collar armor detached. Out from the opening, two incredible gigantic square barreled cannons erupted and rested on Argent Bjorn's shoulders. The barrel extended several times, until the whole thing is about half as long as the Goldilock's height. Exhaust pipe also extended out of the back. It resembles the Gauss cannon packed on the Bremen Jack… only ten times bigger.

Everyone paled when they saw the sheer size of the weapon.

"…oi… that Rail cannon… that pilot… has she lost her mind…? If she fire that thing here, the module will…!?" One of the Militia gawked.

The Goldilocks aimed its two Rail Cannons at the Behemoth. The Behemoth immediately realized the danger, and immediately increased its altitude until the Goldilock had to raise her aim so it no longer pointed at the ground. Electricity began to course across the barrel as its energy began to charge up. Its sound can be heard all across the module. Pretty soon, it reached maximum power. At the same time, the Behemoth immediately opted to make a dash for it.

The Goldilock responded by firing one of the two Mega Rail cannon. The shockwave of the cannon's thunderous roar upon firing knocked even the Miltias that were miles away off their feet. The sheer sound of the cannon's boom was so earsplitting; all the window glasses in any office tower in vicinity that still stands were shattered. The exhaust spilling out from the back of the cannon was so hot, it actually melted the vents.

It's the largest Rail gun ever made by men, with its own dedicated reactor, the cannon consume enough energy to power a city block to fire a solid 23 ton tungsten projectile, its caliber is as big as the Valvrave itself, and it was launched at such speed one don't see the bullet – as big as it was. No. The projectile travelled so fast, the friction with the air burns the bullet and the air red hot, leaving behind only the afterimage of the glowing red projectile in form of a fading stream of red beam. Which means, that by the time Yusuke and Raizo saw such sight, in the fraction of a millisecond it took for the sound to reach the listeners, the bullet, travelling at Sublight speed, had already pierced them.

When something that big and fast struck a target, it won't end with just a big hole on the chest. The sheer kinetic force of the bullet didn't just smash a target to pieces; it vaporized them down to the molecular level. What fragments that remained were propelled by the shockwave to such speed, they burned in the air before dissolving to ash. Even the Behemoth's pieces were partially vaporized… as it flickered from yellow to purple before dissolving into ash. Something A-Drei didn't miss.

The bullet still travelled some great distance before it struck the weatherdome, instantly rupturing it, causing the air to be sucked out into the void. But only for a while. Severe the damage may be, the size is well within the limits of what the dome can fix. But that's not the primary concern here.

Even X-Eins was a bit distraught. And the Miltia was horrified. A Valvrave was destroyed before their very eyes. The Goldilocks stood triumphantly in silence. The one Super Rail cannons that had finished the job is now a smoldering ruin. Its barrel melted and the machinery that held it aloft broke. The Cannon was always intended for one use only, and now that it served its purpose, the excess cargo was immediately detached. The oversized wreckage fell on the ground with a loud reverberating bang, as if sounding the final gong to mark the end of the battle in Goldilock's victory.

Only A-Drei remained calm. "…no. That's not them." In fact, he was smiling deviously.

"Eh?" Everyone turned to the one eyed Dorssian.

But before they can inquire further, a loud cranking noise can be heard from allover the module. Suddenly, camouflaged hatches opened up, from it, freshly constructed Bremens rose up, dotting the devastated battle zone. One particular hatch even opened up right next to them, and a Bremen stood up on its feet right next to them.

"A… Are you kidding me!?" The militia stared in horror. They barely finished with what they were trying to do… they've lost a Valvrave, and now there's one of those giant droid right next to them. And there are around 13 more just like this one popping out of the ground allover the place, completely surrounding them. "We're… so… dead…"

A-Drei didn't think so. "The target's that way." To their disbelief, A-Drei actually shouted at the Bremen whilst pointing at the Goldilocks.

As if their sanity and wit hadn't taken a hard enough blow yet, another surprise came.

The Bremen… ALL Bremen that just appeared on the surface actually began to move… and, completely ignoring them, start moving towards the Goldilock. It began by unloading all its occupants, and then the Jacks bring out their Gauss cannon. And they wasted no time putting the cannons to good use… by firing its payload at the Goldilock.

"EH!?" If the Miltias jaws can get any lower, it will.

The Goldilock realized something's wrong a little too late. Unlike beam weapons, Gauss cannon fired solid projectiles. They're virtually immune to the Brons Bjorn's Microwave field, and thus, a rain of 12 foot Tungsten bullet fired at Mach 9 began hammering the Goldilock's armor from every direction with impunity.

"W… Wha…" A militia flabbergasted. "What happened… why…!?"

"The reason is simple." A-Drei smiled. "Because Yusuke Otamaya and Raizo Yamada are still alive."

"Heh?"

"We saw the Valvrave pulverized…" X-Eins noted.

"What you think you saw…" A-Drei smirked and then chuckled. "The Behemoth carry with it 4 extra Familiars: Familiar 01: Impact Booster, Familiar 03: Titan Forge Fist, Familiar 05: Buster Bunker… and Familiar 06: Mirage Channel. As the name implies, it's a familiar based from unit 06."

"Mirage… Channel…?" X-Eins blinked. "How can one drone made all this possible…?"

"It depends on how you use them." A-Drei already deduced on how the events had played out behind the scene when he saw the Goldilocks began to flail away in panic, being barraged by attacks that does actual damage to it. Its left leg step away from where it was standing a moment ago, revealing a sizable hole on the ground, clearly not made by the Goldilocks.

Flashback to the time when Goldilocks was about to curb stomp the Behemoth…

What REALLY happened…

As the Goldilock brought its feet down, Yusuke reacted quickly. "Activating Mirage Channel!" The fourth familiar detached from the Behemoth's back plate. It's a black purple colored familiar; it looked like a giant… cat.

But it quickly separated into two units: the body split and flipped open into a pair of batlike wings, while the cat like head turned into what appear to be a mechanical mouse, which neatly attached itself to the Valvrave knuckles. The bat wing quickly generated a very accurate, very realistic holographic projection around itself as the core made out of solid hardlight, turning into a carbon copy of the Behemoth, one that is even capable of simulating its ability to separate its body parts, as well as complete replication of the pre-existing battle damage. The copycat Behemoth sped away from the falling foot, becoming the scapegoat that received the full brunt of the Goldilocks' firepower. And since it was just a holographic projection, it can't be destroyed no matter how much bullet thrown at it or no matter how many times it got struck by a direct hit from the beam cannon so long as the significantly smaller (and thus harder to hit) holographic projector remained intact. The fact that the Goldilock's pilot was pissed beyond reason also helps blinding her to what was wrong in that picture. The environment took a pounding unfortunately, but the fake was able to draw the mega bot's attention away from the flesh and blood soldiers on the ground… and naturally, from the original unit.

Speaking of the original one…

Right after the Holo-Behemoth had been sent out on its misleading mission; the real Behemoth immediately used the second feature of the Buster Bunker familiar. As mentioned before, there's a reason why the shield was called Buster Bunker. The beetle like familiar drone is a smaller scale version to the new CF particle barrier being developed for the Amon Ra. When necessary, the Buster Bunker familiar can vibrate the CF Particles at very high frequency, producing a focus laser like Ultrasonic Wave. This wave, amplified by the resulting resonance with the particles of other solid object it came in contact with, will loosen the molecular bond of said object, softening even diamonds into something as soft as powder. That's why it was called Buster Bunker. Because the wall it creates was not made just to bunker down… it can also bust down bunkers to dust.

When the bottom of the Goldilocks massive foot finally landed on top of the Behemoth, the ground beneath him had actually been softened to sand. The stomp that should've crushed them flat to the ground merely pushed the Valvrave through a sand filled crevice. Beyond a small crack in the Solid CF shield, the Behemoth hardly suffered any damage, the soft sand break most of the pressure.

"Alright. Let's dig! DIG!" And whilst the Goldilocks was distracted by the Holo-Behemoth outside, the real Behemoth opted to keep burrowing deeper underground. The behemoth plowed through the softened earth and they keep digging until they reached an open space. The Behemoth free fall through the gap. Fortunately, a half constructed Bremen broke their fall.

Once the two pilots finally get their bearings together, Yusuke looked around… and he recognized this place. "What? We're back here?"

"We?"

"I mean… I'm back." Yusuke chuckled sadly. He's back to the Droid maintenance and assembly depot. This is also the place where Jeay gave him everything. They can hear the uproar of chaos up above, straight from the hole they fell in. The Goldilocks didn't seem to realize this giant hole right underneath her foot on the account of being too busy shelling a hologram. The Behemoth rested on the floor and knelt on its knees. The sheer heat they've endured result in their armor smoking, and the metal floor beneath them glowed red hot.

Yusuke jumped out of the cockpit just as soon as he set the Forge Fists on autopilot to start fixing their Valvrave without fearing of being blasted by a stray shot. Despite the heat, the formerly bespectacled boy showed no sign of being affected by it. Likewise, Raizo also hopped out, just to know if their Behemoth looks as bad as how it feels inside the cockpit. Considering he can see the Forge Fists had already mended some of the damage, it ain't as bad as he had imagined. Like his co-pilot, the scorching temperature of their Valvrave didn't affect him by the slightest.

In fact, Yusuke analyzed the heat by actually touching the blazing surface of their Behemoth. He quickly concluded: a good portion of the heat actually came from the microwave bombardment rather than Rune saturation. So… energy wise… they still have more than enough to keep on going. They just had to… overcome this heat, the overwhelming barrage of Goldilocks arsenal… and everything else she can throw at them.

"I had an idea." Yusuke smiled deviously. "Raizo, you better get back in that cockpit and assume manual control over the decoy. Buy me some time."

Knowing something was a foot, Raizo nodded and hopped back into the control seat. From the eyes of the decoy, he can see that hell is being unleashed in full over the module. He gritted his teeth in anger. "Damn it… damn, damn, damn those fucks!" The module was ablaze. Like a sight straight from hell. It's the very thing they're trying to prevent. And yet, it's happening before their eyes, and there's nothing he can do to stop it.

"There's nothing we can do for the module now…" Yusuke remarked as he busied himself over a certain computer terminal. "But what we can do, is to destroy the monster machine that caused all this, minimize the damage to just this module."

"But how are we going to fight that thing!? If we get too close, it'll freeze us, stay too long and we'll be roasted, and at long range that thing clearly outshoots us since we can't fire back."

"Yes. For all intents and purposes, that thing is really made to fight us. To kill us." Yusuke put the finishing touches on what he started in that Cerebral Cell chamber. "But there's always a way. As powerful as it is, that thing is still made by man. Anything that can be made by man can be destroyed by man." With an Enter, the process was done, and the factory began to move and the assembly lines went to work, assembling unit after unit of Bremen walkers.

Raizo looked at all this activity in horror and wonder. "Yusuke, what are you doing?" he asked as the boy reentered the cockpit and help Raizo operating the decoy. As he did, Raizo noticed that the assembled Bremen went online… it looked at them… and ignored them. And that's when Raizo realized Yusuke had done something to it. "What did you do, man?"

"Major Ricardo Guynien was a hero of the New Guinea conflict, fighting a three year long guerilla battle while his men carried his cancer addled body on a stretcher – refusing medication so that it can be given to his other soldiers and villagers. General Eugene Sholto led a successful, albeit bloody, campaign in the desert storm. He refused to leave before all his subordinates, alive or dead, are extracted from the warzone. Lt. Col. Edmund Lacour won the battle of Metzen by kamikaze-ing his plane straight into enemy carrier. It was either that or crash land in a nearby civilian residence." Yusuke recited some of the things he saw in the Cerebral Cell. "We were made to be soldiers. To fight in wars. If that's true, then these heroes are some of the people we should've looked up to as a role model. Not only were they skillful and intelligent, they were also noble, honorable men and woman. The best that humanity can be proud of. For us to be proud of."

Raizo suddenly noticed his partner is fuming with rarely seen rage.

"And yet, in that Cell, I saw them being perverted into psychopaths who laughed in glee when they put a bullet in children's head. As maniacs who gets turned on as they rip a woman limb by limb. As genocidal maniacs who grind soldiers to minced meat as their idea of fun." Yusuke's grip on his controller tightened. "I tried to undo some of the damage. Put some programming of my own to neutralize that. But… I'm not Akira. The best I can do is… put it in some crude programming… they'll obey us, to a certain extent. They'll get out there, and if A-Drei understood, he'll know exactly what to do with them." He spat as he watched the Goldilock unveiled his super rail cannon.

Raizo raised an eyebrow. He's really angry. "Are you okay, buddy?"

Yusuke watched as the Goldilocks shot their decoy to oblivion. Thankfully, he already made it so that the bullet won't do worse damage to the module than what it had already inflicted. "…They REALLY are trying hard to kill us… don't they? And because of what?" Yusuke gritted his teeth. "Because we can't choose on how we were born? Because we are what they made us to be? Because… they're asking a weapon that has no conscience and they got us, instead!? So our existence is wrong… but brainwashing brains into killing machine is okay!?" Yusuke banged the computer in anger. Panting and heaving in seething rage. When he calmed down a bit, he quickly voiced the reason of his anger. "…Jeay-san was a veteran of many wars in many lifetimes. Many of these war heroes used as template for the AIs were humans whom he actually considered as friends. I feel and understand his rage over this… desecration."

"Yusuke." Raizo tapped the boy's shoulder in understanding. If somebody cloned his friends and made him kill like a psychopath, he would be mighty pissed too. "Well… they are trying hard to kill us. There's only one thing to do about that."

"What?"

"Kill the fuck of them right back."

0000000

Outside, the Jacks maintained a constant barrage, and its accompanying drones, the Hounds, the Felines, and the Roosts all open fire at the giant. And yet, the Goldilocks didn't even register the damage. With the amount of firepower each individual drone can carry, it was enough to level armies. But the Goldilocks' armor was made to endure way worse. The hail of cannons is but flea bites to the giant. With that in mind, the pilot ignored the incoming attacks. Instead she concentrated on pinpointing why the Drones are attacking her. She tracked the signal of the drones, and saw their programming. The original programming was the whole package of combat training spiced up with some… murderous tendencies… and now… someone had a bright idea to dump in some children's cartoon, educational show for kids, all streaming live from over 300 internet TV channels, straight into the brain system. The conflicting content overtaxed the whole system to the point of crash… and then they just create a simple programming to overwrite the no longer functioning DNA based algorithm. These things just obeyed one simple order: shoot down the target pointed by the commanding officer… which was A-Drei… and the target is her.

Someone managed to hack the brains that went into these drones. Fortunately for her, whoever the perpetrator is, he's not doing a very good job reprogramming these drones. And the drones execute these programming even more poorly. They just fire blind at her. It's almost pathetic… but it's a nuisance. But who on earth can do this? The Goldilcoks scanned its surroundings for something she missed. She found it. A whole bunch of humans are gathered up on one certain location… but there's one human that was separated from the rest. The monitor only showed a silhouette of a female struggling to crawl across the ruin.

Aila didn't even know what she was thinking. Leaving her team, crawling across what is virtually a ground zero disaster zone while a larger than life death machine is firing all over the place… all the time she had a strangest feeling of knowing of what it felt like in the oven. But… she just can't get it out of her mind.

"AILA!"

The girl snaped to attention when her name was called by a familiar voice. She looked behind over her shoulder, Akari had finally caught up to her.

"Aila! What do you think you're doing!? Get back!"

"A… Akari… I…" Before she can properly reply, that's when she realized she just landed on the Goldilocks' crosshair. She can see the Goldilocks pointing one of her finger at her. 'Oh no…'

And just as the faint glow of energy began to charge in the finger barrel…

"LIGHTNING RAVE KIIIIIICKKKK!" Plunging in a trail of yellow solid afterglow, the fully repaired Behemoth fell from the sky and kicked the Goldilocks' arm to the side just as it fired. The plasma cutter sliced a mile away from where Aila stood.

The kick was as powerful as it is unexpected. The whole Goldilock flailed uncontrollably around its visibly bent gigantic arm. In fact, the Behemoth's feet actually sank into the giant's arm, rendering them stuck on the said giant arm. Which is exactly what Yusuke and Raizo wanted.

"Seeing if we fire from a distance they just dissipate… just fire point blank!"

"EMPTY THE CLIIIP!" Raizo roared.

The Behemoth fired every weapon it had in every arms, literally pressing the barrel against the surface. Shot after shot, the Goldilocks' right arm bloated uncontrollably before, after one last shot and one last jolt of electricity, the whole right arm exploded. The sheer force of the blast was enough to actually cause the bigger mech to actually fell to its knees, and now an arm short.

"Hell yeah!" Raizo roared in triumph.

Yusuke also noted the significant decrease in the rate in which their heat gauge rises. "Hey Raizo! Apparently destroying that limb had significantly reduced the potency of the Goldilocks' microwave field. If we keep damaging the Goldilocks piecemeal, we might be able to do this after all!"

But Raizo wasn't paying attention to Yusuke. "What is she doing out here!?"

"She!?" Yusuke blinked, realizing Raizo wasn't exactly in the same page. He finally noticed Aila and Akari were staring at them dumbstruck horror, right next to their feet. They were millimeters away from being stepped under their foot.

0000000

Needless to say, the Goldilocks was completely caught off guard. She watched, with her own optics, the Behemoth vaporized down to the last bolt. And yet there it is, standing on the ground… completely intact.

She checked the data and the intel on the Behemoth and then it hit her: the Behemoth is the heavy hitter, extreme offense… and a somewhat frail but tricky defensive capability… and more importantly: it was capable of SELF REPAIR. She's not sure if by self repair means it can regenerate from being disintegrated… or did it!? Did it get disintegrated to begin with!?

Doesn't matter. The issue now is that she just lost an arm due to this oversight. The Behemoth is back to almost full strength. She's not.

0000000

"Hey!" Raizo activated the speakers. "What are you two doing!? This battle zone is off limit for infantry! We got giant droid death-match here!"

Aila recognized Raizo's voice. But she was still somewhat confused and overwhelmed at the situation she was thrust in. She could only reply to Raizo's question by opening and closing her mouth in confusion, though no word came out.

Seeing the confused girl, and how the situation is still far from safe, Raizo did the one thing he thought was the best idea he can think of.

He made the Behemoth knelt, and stretched out its hand towards the girls. Raizo opened the cockpit hatch and pop his head out. "GET IN!"

"WAIT! RAIZO! You can't just-"

"No time to argue! GET IN!" Raizo roared again. Somehow, Aila and Akari comprehend the order and quickly rushed to Behemoth's welcoming hand. The Behemoth quickly lifted her up and not so graciously dumped her into the cockpit.

Aila immediately drowned in sweat as soon as she entered the Behemoth's steaming hot cockpit. It almost made her regret accepting Raizo's offer and not staying outside. But as soon as the Behemoth went online once again, her secondary options are pretty much null, and the Goldilocks began opening fire at them. The Behemoth danced in the midst of all that barrage of beam blasts, nitrogen bullets, and cryo missiles.

"Mind… agh… explaining to us… what on earth are you two doing out there!?" Raizo roared at Aila and Akari, both were holding on to dear life to whatever they can hold on to.

"Raizo, now is hardly the time!"

"Right, right!" Arguably, their chances are better than when they first started. The hologram distraction, the hijacked drones… all had bought the Behemoth the time needed to fix the damage that had been inflicted upon them, restoring it back to nearly optimal state. In contrast, the Goldilocks had lost half of its land mobility, destruction of its flight capability, some of its shoulder weapon, and just now, she's an arm short. And yet, the bigger of the two mechs still overwhelm the other in terms of sheer firepower.

Even with its remaining weapons, the Goldilocks can still fill the air with projectiles, making it anything but safe. Thankfully, the Behemoth still kept the Buster Bunker shield, allowing themto progress through the barrage of firepower. What's more, now they have a blindspot. The area around where the Goldilocks' arm was blown off had its Microwave Field reduced to such a degree, the Behemoth can penetrate from that direction without fear of their mech overheating too badly.

Unfortunately, the Goldilock already had that angle covered. Suddenly, the Behemoth took an explosion at its flank knocking them off the air. "Wha…!?" The somewhat disoriented Yusuke looked around and noticed that one of the Jacks had its smoking cannon aimed at them.

"Uhh… Yusuke my man…" Raizo also looked around. Not only all the hacked Bremens are no longer firing at the Goldilocks, they had set their sights on them. "I thought you've hacked them!?"

"She must've overridden the system."

"Why don't you do something to prevent that!?"

"Do I look like Akira!?"

"INCOMING!" Aila cut their argument short. All the Bremen began opening fire at the still somewhat distraught Behemoth. The additional firepower from the ground coupled with a merciless barrage of the Goldilock really left the Behemoth with little to no space to breathe. They wanted to capitalize on the opening they've made when they tear the Goldilock's arm off, and the enemy knows it. So she used the Bremens to cover that opening.

Yusuke and Raizo became so busy dodging incoming projectiles, they took one wrong turn… and suddenly, their screen was filled with the Goldilock's bronze arm flailing towards them.

For the second time that day, the Behemoth tasted what a fly felt when they were struck by a fly swatter. Worse still, they hit the ground so hard; the Behemoth literally sank into the crater. And the worst part? They're stuck there. They can't move.

Raizo groaned in pain. Yusuke also choked. But the worse damage was dealt to the other occupant of the cockpit, ones that weren't even a pilot. Akari was barely conscious, and Aila curled unmoving on the floor, holding on to her bleeding temple. Raizo grunted. "Oi! Aila-san! You okay? Aila-san!" To Raizo's relief, the girl finally responded with a groan.

"Ow…" Aila hold on to her temple. Unfortunately, the first thing she saw as soon as the ringing on her head is gone is that how she, and everyone aboard, is about to get some more. "INCOMING!"

Raizo and Yusuke look up, and the Goldilocks fingers are charging up. "SHIELDS UP!" The Behemoth lifted the Buster Bunker right on time. The beam just fell like flood right on top of them. Their heat gauge instantly skyrocketed.

Raizo and Yusuke grunted at the heat. After a few agonizing infernal seconds that felt like hours, the beam stopped. But the Buster Bunker shield glowed red hot, and its CF field is barely holding.

"We… We can't take another hit like that!" Raizo groaned.

"The hell we can't! We have to!" Yusuke looked defiantly at the Goldilocks. "It's not a matter of can or cannot! Our options are limited!"

"No. We can. SHE can't!" Raizo nudged at Aila, twitching on the floor, drowned in a pool of her own… steaming sweat. Rune saturation, intensive heat battle zone… For the experienced Valvrave pilots like Yusuke, Raizo, and Akari, their cockpit felt like someone just added a furnace to their sauna. To Aila… she felt like she was in the heart of the furnace. The poor girl was dehydrated within minutes. She stared in disbelief at how the other two boys as well Akari did not suffer the same thing she did.

"Here it comes again!" Yusuke roared. On cue, the second bombardment of laser fell upon them. This time, the cockpit temperature was so hot, Aila screamed almost hysterically, while the other two occupants roared. Another few more seconds of hellish heat, and now, the Behemoth's heat gauge is a frightening 95 – the whole cockpit is like a furnace, even the two Novus Magius pilots are sweating, their pilot suit smoking. And for Aila, this torture is already pushing her to the very limit of human endurance. Worse, the Buster Bunker shield's CF field is all but spent. When the next barrage came, the shield won't take it.

But then, to their horror, the finger lasers are charging again for the third and quite possibly the final time. "We're… dead…" Raizo gritted his teeth…

And then the most curious thing happened.

The charging stopped. The Goldilocks also went completely still. And she's not the only one. The Bremens too just stopped moving completely. And by no means that this, like before, is the fault of the pilot. In fact, the Goldilocks pilot is now trying to figure out why her entire system suddenly… crashed. She relentlessly began analyzing the situation, trying to figure out what went wrong. And then, she found it.

The Grim Drone and the Goldilocks mech used Brain CPU which interfaced VIA WIRED to send instructions and updates the AI system.

And somebody… just took out that rug right under her feet. Translation: someone just hacked the whole god damn internet.

"Yusuke?" Raizo finally realized that this paralysis is not some coincidence. "What did you do? And please… layman language."

Yusuke smirked. "I knew hacking into the lesser brain is a waste of time, the Queen must have some kind of manual override. Worse, I'm not exactly a programmer that can hack into it… so… I forged a path to someone who does… giving her a way in." The Mirage Channel is comprised of two components: the Bat that produce the solid Holo, and the Mouse… which is a remote hacking antenna that Yusuke had taken the liberty of planting into the Goldilocks' foot.

"Her?" Raizo blinked. "Who's… her?"

"Their Brain CPU used WIRED as a medium in which they transmit their signals from one brain to another…" Yusuke snarled. "And who do you think CREATED the damn thing in the first place?"

Raizo jaw dropped. "Who?"

0000000

Up above in Orbit…

Before the operation begins, X-Eins told her that once the infiltration team descended down into the Dyson Sphere, all forms of communication is virtually impossible due to the high level of jamming. Though he wasn't exactly sure as to how the jamming was done specifically. Akira had tried to do everything in her power to find out a way to penetrate the jamming to no success. She keep trying, even sending out DNA encryptions via Hansel the Infiltrator AI to pierce the firewall time and again, to no effect. When the New JIOR fleet came under attack, she was ready to give up… that is until she received a signal of a 'hacked' unit down below. The signal came from one of the two Mirage Channel – The signal was somewhat corrupted. As if a different signal had interfered with the data flow that entered Gretel's sensory arrays.

Curiosity piqued, Akira began concentrating again, and she took a different approach by studying the manner in which this signal was sent. Curiously enough, this signal came from the Dyson Sphere's Local Internet Network. Now that she noticed it, she realized that the WIRED Internet in this region is still functional… albeit slowed, significantly. And some websites in the local network she tried to access also slow to respond if not failed altogether to load a webpage. As if… someone… or something… is interrupting with the dataflow on the WIRED data stream.

One thing led to another… and then she finally discovered the truth. The Arus military had been using WIRED as the interface to broadcast the signals that controlled all the drones in the region. WIRED, the interconnected Internet network in which most of the humanity had been using for almost everything these days.

That's the same WIRED that she, Akira Renbokuji, had created when she was 7.

As an internet addict… as the proud creator of her masterpiece, Akira wasted no time sending Hansel straight into the WIRED web, with the proper hacking algorithm… and one thing to say:

Nobody. Messes. With. MY. WIRED!

That's the same message the Goldilocks pilot received on her screens when she tried to figure out why everything is falling apart around her. The words kept repeating over and over the more she tried to remove it until it filled her screen. When she tried to forcibly move her controllers amidst this chaos, a localized massive shock is what she gets. Outside, the Goldilocks Brons Bjorn's giant arm had just punched her own head to oblivion.

This is completely different than that crude hijacking from before. The one who did this is a true master at hacking. The hacker entered the Goldilocks' systems through the Brain CPU, which was connected to WIRED, which is where the hacking came from. There are about a few hundred firewalls set up to prevent this from happening, and yet the overwhelming cyber intruder plowed through them all like they were inexistent.

0000000

Yusuke laughed in triumph. "Anyway… the pilot must be mighty pissed up there." In the mean time, Yusuke operated the Forge Fists to fix the damage they've endured yet again. Unfortunately, he can't do much. The supply of material needed for repairs is running thin. This is their last field repair.

"No kidding." Raizo mumbled half heartedly. His concern is primarily at this stowaway heaving and panting down on the floor. "Are you okay?"

Aila flapped open her eyes several times. Her clothing is really wet with sweat, and its stench filled the air. And yet her throat, her nostrils, every inch of her skin felt so dry, she could barely talk.

"Give her some water, Raizo. She's dehydrated." Akari herself was also sweating, but nowhere near as severe as her friend.

Raizo pull out some his own water ration and gave it to Akari. Aila was so dehydrated, she could barely hold on to the bottle. Akari had to help her drink the water. She desperately drank them all to the last drop.

After she finished enough water to the point she can hold on to the bottle herself, she finally recovered her voice, somewhat. "Is… this… what you guys deal with every time you… fight in these things?"

"Pretty much." Raizo raised an eyebrow. In truth, they barely felt it. In part because they're wearing specialized pilot suit designed to endure the heat… and the other part, he suspected, is because they were genetically designed to endure it.

The same suspicion also falls well within Aila's line of thoughts. "Oohhh… I really regretted having to step into this thing…"

"What were you doing anyway?" Akari asked. "I mean… what were you thinking?"

"I… I wasn't thinking straight. I know…" Aila growled at herself. "But…" She looked up at the still confused and bewildered Goldilocks looming above. "I… I need to confirm something…"

"Confirm… what?"

Before Aila can respond, the Goldilocks pilot had taken action to stop the hacking: by smashing the Brain CPU to mush. The hacking was cut off, and Akira no longer had control of the Goldilocks. The Pilot had also located the source of this intrusion: a small mechanical nail like object embedded on her foot. The Goldilocks purposefully grind said foot to the surface, and the nail was knocked off. The pilot immediately cuts off all connection to the WIRED and assumes manual control. On the downside, the pilot must now control her gargantuan mech without AI support… which means her cumbersome larger than life mech will be all the more cumbersome than before.

Up above, Akira winced when she was literally shut out. The Goldilocks are moving again, and she lost all connection to its system. Doesn't matter. Yusuke had showed her a way in. She welded this door shut? Fine. There are other places, other doors, other ways she can use to help. They're messing around in her town, and she got all the keys to every kingdom in this dominion. HER dominion.

The Goldilocks regained control of herself… but not the Bremens. As soon as the Goldilock start moving again, the Jacks, the Hounds, the Felines, and the Roosts opened fire against the giant. But this time, the hacked drones didn't just fire blind. This time, they were properly coordinated, and they aim to kill. That being said, they began dealing damage. The Jacks' Gauss cannon projectiles punctured through some of the shoulder cannons on the soft spots. The Hounds and the Felines barrage of missiles and bullets peppered the Goldilocks' battered leg armor, aiming at the exposed seams and openings caused by previous misfire of the mech's exploded thrusters. The Roosters flew, firing at the reflector hornets on the Goldilocks shoulders, as well as ravaging the laser array. Put a few hundred bullets or a barrage of missiles in exposed wounds, and the damage is nothing to laugh at.

The Goldilock actually buckled due to the damage. And the Pilot had just about enough. With control restored, the giant droid had a lock on every rampant droid, and the remaining laser cutter array opened fire to every direction, coupled with a full barrage from all forward and rear shoulder cannons. Most of the Akira controlled Droids were all but wiped out. Now, only but a few flying drones remained, still firing futilely against the giant.

"Aila, miss? Whatever your reason for gambling with your life in a place like this… might it be more prudent for you to get out? At this rate, if the enemy robot didn't kill you, ours might." Yusuke asked.

"No. I think I'll stay here after all." Aila splashed herself with the last of the water in the bottle. "Just… trash that thing before I'm all dried out, eh?"

Akari smirked. "That's my girl." She glared at the pilot duo. "Aren't you two the heavy hitters!? From where I'm standing, that bitch is clearly freaking out! You got her cornered so MAN UP AND FINISH IT!"

Raizo snarled with a smirk. "You JUST had to make it personal eh…!?" He gritted his teeth.

The Behemoth roared to life as it stood back up on its two feet. The Goldilocks also noticed this and gaze at them menacingly. The final round has begun.

And it started as soon as the Goldilocks aimed its mega plasma cutter at them and opened fire. The behemoth dodged and this time, they boosted and pushed ahead. The Quad Cannons opened fire, and the Behemoth dodged them still as they keep closing their distance. Yusuke watched in delight as their heat gauge is now increasing at a significantly steadier rate, unlike before. "Raizo! I think her Microwave field is gone! Akira must've done quite a number on her!"

"HELL YEAHH!" Raizo wasted no time. The Behemoth's visor glowed brighter and it's all four arms stretched out, generating the largest plasma sphere it had been saving up for ages. All its fingers also glowed and charged to the max. Four giant spheres of electricity charged plasma pushed forward, accompanied by a rain of lightning beams. Just like Yusuke had said, the Microwave Field had been so severely reduced by the inflicted damage, Behemoth's beam attacks actually managed to travel a great distance towards the Goldilocks before it began to dissipate. But by then, it still packs enough energy to deal a wallop of damage.

But then, it was stopped. The Goldilocks pilot noticed that her Microwave Field is no longer usable, so she improvised. The Reflector bees swarmed in front of her, creating an impromptu wall of beam reflectors. The reflectors diffused the Lightning beams and the Plasma balls splashed harmlessly. The sheer force of the blast melted and destroyed dozens of the Drones, but the attack was nullified. The Reflector bees parted to reveal the Argent Bjorn who responded by returning fire with a full salvo of its cold arsenal. Yusuke pushed the throttle to the max and the Behemoth zoomed away, dodging a hail of bullets and missiles. Raizo returned fire to destroy some of the projectiles midair, but the Argent Bjorn just keep spraying a virtually endless amount of projectiles at them, leaving little chance to return fire. But then, the barrage of solid projectiles dragged the Behemoth straight into the beam arsenal's line of fire.

The Goldilocks' knee quad cannons locked on to target and when the Behemoth paused just for a second, she opened fire. Neither Yusuke nor Raizo had time to react, by the time they came to, the rain of beams is right in front of their nose. But then, that view was suddenly blocked. A huge segment of the road suddenly rose up from the ground and became a shield for Behemoth. "This is…!"

The Goldilock pilot gawked. Her Plasma cutter easily cut through the obstacle, but in the additional seconds it took to do so, the Behemoth had time to move away and even fired a full barrage. The salvo of lightning and plasma spheres pushed through unabated and rained down upon the Goldilocks' right knee cannons. The whole array was instantly wiped out in a chain explosion. Worse, the explosion reached deep into its joints. The right leg that was just gimpy before is now completely immobile. With the Goldilock already losing an arm in that side, its microwave field is all but malfunctioning, the Behemoth quickly approached from the said flank, opening fire with abandon, launching balls after balls of pure energy at the Goldilocks' giant form with all four arms. The Goldilock retaliate by firing some of its shoulder quad cannons, but the Behemoth easily dodged the attacks and kept firing. A barrage of energy projectiles made of condensed electricity unabated easily melt through even Goldilock's super thick armor, much less the less armored cannons. In a blink of an eye, half the cannons on said shoulder was wiped out.

The Argent Bjorn is the only one that can mount some resistance and angrily fired her Gatling Guns at the approaching Behemoth. Unfortunately for her, the Behemoth still kept the Buster Bunker shield around. Its CF particle field has been spent, but its solid CF shield can block physical projectiles easily. In fact, considering they're going for an all out no holds barred offense, being fired upon with cryo ammunition - the cooling effect is working in their favor. Yusuke grinned watching their heat gauge stabilize. The girls sighed in relief when they feel the cockpit temperature finally dropped to tolerable levels. "RAIZO! TARGET THAT SILVER UNIT! SHOOT HER DOWN!"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING!?" Raizo laughed almost maniacally. He's been pulling the gun trigger so many times, his fingers are numb. The Argent Bjorn's shoulder pods opened up, launching a rain of missiles. In response, all of Behemoth's fingers opened up, and launched a rain of lightning. The two salvos met one another midair, and all of Goldilock's missiles exploded in a cloud of cold steam. The cloud of steam was immediately blown away when the Behemoth plows through, firing at the Argent Bjorn in a bombing run. The silver unit once again used her reflector drones as a barrier, trying to block some of the damage. But then, the Behemoth is closing the distance and kept firing at an increasingly closer range. When the Behemoth finally get through the wall of hornet drones, the Argent Bjorn welcomed them with a full concentrated barrage of both of her Gatling guns.

The Behemoth raised his shield, and the solid CF shield took a beating until even the tough CF shield was bent out of shape before shattering to pieces. But not before bringing the Behemoth close enough for a literal face to face encounter.

The headbutt was an unpleasant experience, at least for the pilots. The Argent Bjorn's head was shattered until its endoskeleton was revealed, and the Behemoth's sense nerve was cracked until one of its pupil optics was visible. But headbutting is not the end goal. "AAAAAAAAAARGHHH!" The Behemoth's four arms converged, its four plasma caster fired up, its energy converged, generating the largest ball of electricity it had ever created, even bigger than the Behemoth itself. The Yellow Valvrave fired at point blank and jumped away. The Argent Bjorn raised her shield arms to block the attack knowing it will suffer some damage regardless.

A massive explosion of cold steam erupted, engulfing the upper portion of the Goldilocks. The shockwave was enough to propel the behemoth far enough away from the Goldilocks. For a moment, they can't see whatever becomes of the giant mech on the account of the cold white smoke. But before long, the smoke cleared, and they can see the damage. Electricity coursed across the Argent Bjorn's wrecked chest piece. The armors on her broad shoulders and both arms are gone, only slightly bent cold metal remained. Those armor pieces looked like they just exploded inside out. The Behemoth's point blank mega plasma attack had apparently shortcircuited the explosives within the reactive armor, triggering premature detonation.

But just when the Behemoth thought they've won, the Argent Bjorn's visor glowed and she grabbed her one remaining gatling gun and fired at them. This time, the Behemoth can only rely on his Titan Fist to defend. Thousands of bullets sprayed allover his body in an instant, and already he began to freeze. Worse yet, the freezing reached its sense nerve wings and thrusters, jamming them all down. The half frozen Valvrave began to fall. Seizing the chance, the Brons Bjorn's palm balled to a fist before it was swung to the hapless Behemoth.

The swing went off course and missed the target by millimeters apart, only grazing some paint off the Behemoth. The reason being, the whole Goldilocks just tilted down involuntarily. The slab of the road right beneath her left feet just collapsed and thus said leg sank into the hole. Losing her balance so suddenly left her completely open.

The Behemoth quickly recovered as they break the ice coating their body and literally ran over the Goldilocks' flailing arm and jumped to the disoriented Argent. Their bulk collided full force against the silver mech. With all its Cryo Reactive Armor destroyed, the Argent can do nothing as the Behemoth start pounding savagely at her head. By the third pound, the Argent's head had lost its valvrave-like shape with only a single optic remained. But at the same time, the Behemoth's titan fist had also reached its limit as its fingers crumbled before Yusuke's eyes. That's when he concluded: "…it's not going to work."

"What?" Raizo sent another punch, creating another dent on the silver mech. "We're beating down that bitch six feet under! With Akira's backing us from high above-"

"We're not causing enough damage!" Yusuke groaned. "We can't just bash it up until it collapses under our feet! We…" And suddenly, epiphany hit Yusuke harder than a truckload of bricks. "We need a more… artful approach." For just a brief instant, Yusuke could've sworn he heard Jeay speaking, not him.

"Artful…?" Raizo blinked. He peered over his shoulder to look at his co pilot in the eye to make sure he heard that right… and he suddenly gets it.

Yusuke had reverted back to his Magius mode. With cracked jaws, fangs, dark skin, wild hair and golden eyes. As if sensing the change, a red scanner swipe across Yusuke's eyes.

Eldar Volfrans Magius detected. Releasing Limiter.

001…

001…

002…

The heat gauge suddenly turned into a charging gauge. The numbers disappeared into a triple zero that began to charge up. Outside, the Valvrave form visibly changed. Gold runes burst out of the seams of the Behemoth's joints. The black parts of the Valvrave are slowly turning gold.

004…

007…

011…

Raizo recognize this immediately. "This… this is the same thing as with Haruto-aniki's!"

019…

031…

050…

"In a way…" But the charging is somewhat… slow? They're reaching 080, and it's still increasing… but… what exactly is the fully charged number? Another 666? Heck, was the charging always this slow? 'Wait… is this… Fibonacci sequence?' The number quickly skyrocketed:

131…

212…

Seeing a giant angry mech glowing and bursting with energy as if it was on the verge of exploding right on top of the her, the Goldilocks' pilot immediately took drastic measures. The silver Bjorn's breast plate suddenly opened up, revealing a pair of giant gleaming diamond spheres embedded within. Power surged and filled the two diamonds with energy, generating a charged sphere of cold freezing energy. Before long the cold sphere or energy forming on the Argent's chest had also reached full size.

And just before the glowering Behemoth can swing his glowing fist, the Argent fired just an instant earlier. The energy sphere suddenly shot out and struck the valvrave full in the chest with so much force, it pushed the Behemoth far, far back until it slammed them to the ground. Upon impact, the cold energy sphere exploded in a towering cloud of explosion… which quickly flash frozen into an instant iceberg that encase the Behemoth within.

When Yusuke and Raizo came to from the shock of the impact, Yusuke found the charging for their 'Harakiri' attack was stopped. The charging gauge are stopped at 343… and it seems it should've increased further… They didn't lose the accumulated energy, fortunately… they just can't use it: their system literally frozen. Solid.

In an instant, Aila felt totally underdressed for the weather. She curled into a ball, clattering her teeth as cold steam formed on her lips. Akari had to hug her to share their warmth. "Hot, cold, hot, cold… Sheesh. Can't these guys make up their mind already!?"

"Can we break out of this, Yusuke?" Raizo grunted as he tried to move an unresponsive controller. The frost is jamming their joints and limbs.

"I'm trying…" Yusuke is typing furiously on his console trying to find some angle to get out of this predicament. Unfortunately for them, he had yet to come up with any good answer.

Seeing the Behemoth is now trapped under the ice, the Goldilocks are now free to plan their next course of action. And even though she just gained the upper hand, the situation is rather bleak. She was being ganged upon by two Valvraves: one on the ground, the Behemoth who attacked her directly, and then the purple Valvrave, the Malefic, which has taken control of the Module's systems from afar. Net result: 85% of her weaponry has been destroyed. Her options are severely limited.

But, using its final ace in the hole, the Absolute Zero breast cannon, the Behemoth has been pinned to the ground. And judging by what she's seen, the yellow Valvrave is locked up tight and good under tons of ice and he won't come out any moment soon. Now there's just the matter of that one Valvrave who had been nagging her from high above in the orbit.

Fortunately – or unfortunately, she only had 1 weapon that can strike a target that far away.

The Goldilocks began to move and position her super rail gun, aiming the barrel towards the target. Slowly, inch by inch, the cannon barrel rose up, slowly gaining elevation until it pointed upright.

"O…Eh…!?" Raizo gawked seeing that awkward stance. "Where is she aiming for?"

"Oh no…" Yusuke gasped as he looked to the sky and space. "She's aiming at Akira!"

"We can't contact her can we?" Raizo growled. "Think she noticed?"

"Even if she did notice, the speed in which that bullet traveled, she won't be able to dodge it even if she knew it was coming!"

Up above, it's not like Akira didn't see when a skyscraper sized gun is being aimed at her. Regrettably, in its satellite form, Hansel Malefic is not exactly the most mobile of Valvraves. But there are other ways she can retaliate. She had control of the Module now. She had control to all of its systems. She can do way more than just lifting or collapsing street blocks.

Weather dome are designed to simulate weathers. What's more, this module is in particular, a farming dome, which means the weather dome is more advanced than most. Which also means… depending on how it is used… it can also simulate force of nature.

The sky instantly darkened, and then the Thunderstorm, and then the winds gather. The artificial cloud began to converge into a swirl. Spikes of tornado shot out of the clouds and descend upon the Goldilocks. The tornado gathered and swirled, each strengthening the other, and before long, a super tornado enclosed the Goldilocks, grinding her armor. Automobiles were sucked in, small houses ripped off its foundations, even debris as small as pebble or broken glass shard turned into kinetic missiles traveling at over 300 mph. And to make matters worse, the thunderstorm had finished charging, and the rain of lightning fell down in a concentrated barrage upon the giant mech.

As powerful as it was, the Goldicloks armor hold… until Akira angrily added ice hails the size of melons into the mix. Said armor is now being flayed off bit by bit until the Goldilock's inner circuitry began to show. The accompanying thunder storm struck the exposed parts and explosively rips the mechanical innards to shreds.

Against all odds, even with all the horrific damage inflicted upon it, the Goldilocks remained very much in play, and maintained its current course of action. The Super Rail Gun keep rising. It was heavily armored well enough to survive even this artificial force of nature on a rampage. Though maybe not for long, but it was durable enough to give the Goldilocks the time she need.

A fact that did not escape Akira's horror. In spite of everything she threw at it, that juggernaut is slowly locking onto target. Onto her. The moment she had a lock, she won't even have time to scream.

A fact that was all too clear to the still trapped Raizo and Yusuke. "SHIT! COME ON! IF ONLY WE CAN JUST BREAK OUT OF THIS-!" Raizo grew desperate enough that he starts pushing the stuck controllers by kicking it with his foot. And still it won't budge.

Yusuke typed desperately to the computer, searching for any way out. "All we need is just one more push! COME ON!" After another set of ceaseless typing which ultimately result in nothing, Yusuke banged the monitor showing the number locked at 343 in despair. The monitor flickered… a face was briefly shown.

Suddenly, the green neon crown of the Behemoth glowed golden. A reverberating sound of energy building up as the Valvrave awaken in a thrum of power and ice prison that locked him down began to shake.

"W… Wha…" Accompanying this sudden event, the temperature within the Behemoth's cockpit normalize, but its computer system went… rabid. Encryptions and windows popped out in their monitors. "What in heavens' name… Yusuke is this you?"

"No… it's not… me…?" But then, when this bizarre activity ended, the charging that was halted earlier continues once again. And this time, it went uninterrupted until it reached the maximum number: 555. Yusuke raised an eyebrow in recognition. "Phi." The Behemoth had finished charging, its black had turned completely gold. The green sense nerve crowns and wings also colored in burning yellow gold, and massive electricity coursed through every inch of its frame. The ice began to smoke, pieces fall and melted. Cracks began to form… and then suddenly, in the midst of it all, the Behemoth's fingers, originally locked in place, suddenly balled to a fist, worsening the crack. And then, from these cracks, yellow golden runes burst out, not dissimilar with the one the Red Valvarve emit in its 666 mode.

MASSIVE ENERGY READING DETECTED

For a brief moment, the Goldilock finally noticed the unexpected event. She momentarily forgets about the gun and the Valvrave in space, and instead focused on the one on the ground.

Finally, as the forming cracks upon cracks on the iceberg continue to mount until it reached its peak, the Behemoth momentarily disappeared from view as the whole iceberg was suddenly filled with light. A light so bright, it momentarily blinded everyone, and the iceberg was dissolved into it…

When the light dissipate, everyone regained their sight, and beheld the most unbelievable of scene.

It looks as if the yellow Valvrave had just exploded inside out. A massive explosion that would've created a gigantic swirling mass of golden energy and blasted the Behemoth to pieces. Fact is, the Behemoth's body is in pieces. Its shape looked somewhat skeletal with its compartmentalized limbs was forcibly divided, barely holding together, chained by strands of electricity interconnecting the dislodged components. The Titan fists that were once attached to various parts of its limb have been snapped off their hardpoints, but they remained attached to the surface of this body of pure refined Rune energy, visibly straining to maintain their position. A mass of energy that engulfed the dismembered body within.

Indeed, it looks as if the yellow Valvrave had just exploded inside out, but then the clock was stopped right then and there: At the peak of the explosion. The resultant mass of energy was kept at that exact moment whilst being forcibly reshaped, crafting a body of pure energy that is virtually almost physical in nature, an upper half of a human body with a disembodied arms and head. A shape that was slightly blurred as it constantly flicker wildly, with thunderstorm literally jumping on and off its constantly cascading form to its surroundings, giving the impression of a barely containable and uncontrollable energy, ready to go rampant at the slightest lapse. The Behemoth's original body was encapsulated within this mass, their glowing gold was reduced to dark silhouette due to being outshined by the golden energy that now engulf them, whilst his Titan Fists skirts on the surface of this form, outlining a figure twice the size of the original unit. There are no legs though. Just a whirlwind of unbridled power keeping the whole thing in place.

"This… is strangely reassuring… and yet very, very dangerous at the same time…" Yusuke grinned nervously. Inside the cockpit, which is a surprising fact for all the occupants within; that even with all this happening right outside their blessed protective shell; that there's STILL a cockpit, the monitors went blank apart from the heat gauge still showing the 555 number. Apparently, it's the only thing that the human computer can comprehend over what has become of their mech.

'So.' Yusuke gulped. 'This is the result of a Quickening… when it is performed on a Valvrave. Our mech is now more energy than machinery now. This looks… disturbingly unstable.'

Up above, Akira also noticed this new development in progress, and wisely decided to stop with the weather disaster program. Likewise, the Goldilocks also refrained from pulling the trigger, even when the purple Valvrave is already locked on to her crosshairs. She had a feeling she's going to need it for something else.

Yusuke slowly grabbed the controller. A part of him even doubted if the controller still worked. And yet, as soon as he titled the controller by the slightest, he can feel the Valvrave arm just shifted to his command. The Behemoth Original body formed the core of this energy form, its endo skeleton, so to speak. And despite its current state, it is still operable. There are no reticules, no power readings, no status report, not even any indication if their weapon system is still online. And yet, instinctively, Yusuke pulled the controller, not so much as to control it but to will it. Responding to that will, the Behemoth raised its right arm, and pointed its misshapen hand at the Goldilocks. There are no guns, no cannons, it didn't have a shape of a proper hand, and yet, as if reading its pilot's will to attack, energy began to mass on the stump that is the Behemoth's limb.

No targeting system, no confirmation of a lock on… and yet somehow, Yusuke just knew it'll hit what he aimed in his mind. It's as if he just grew a third eye on his forehead. And Yusuke pulled the trigger.

Sparks of electricity gathered on the edge of the Rune Behemoth's arm, the mass that make up said arm disintegrate and reintegrate into a condensed sphere of energy that reached critical mass in an eye blink. Through some form of unseen launching mechanism, the mass was fired with enough force that the arm that fired it was obliterated to shreds, leaving behind only a trail of dispersing halo of energy, and the shockwave that came from the launch's kickback was strong enough to level a building coincidentally standing right behind the unflinching Behemoth. No one saw the projectile travelling to the air, so fast it was for something so huge. But the effect was easy to observe.

The shot struck the Goldilocks' right limb by the upper arm part. The core blast literally vaporized said limb to nothingness. The sheer force of the impact however, ripped the whole shoulder off its socket as soon as the blast struck the target. The dismembered forearm was swept by the shockwave of the blast and throttled back. The accompanying grazing electricity that followed the beam projectile electrocuted the arsenal embedded on those limbs, causing them to bloat and explode as they were torn asunder. The shockwave still carry enough momentum to throw the two dismembered, skyscraper sized limbs several hundred miles backward, spiraling uncontrollably like a pinwheel before they landed with a loud crash, flattening several city blocks as it grinds to a halt.

The Behemoth shredded arm quickly regenerates itself. In the Behemoth's cockpit, the 555 Gauge had just decreased to 444. But the occupants have yet to notice this on the account of busily trying to believe what they just saw happened. Raizo's jaw still hit the floor, just like everybody else's. And even Yusuke is still gawking – though for a completely different reason. "…w…What the hell did we just hit them with? That's like a beam weapon… but it carries mass and inertia like a physical projectile…"

Picking his jaw up, Raizo immediately reminded his co pilot that this is no time to think science; it's time to think PlayStation and blow shit up. "YUSUKE! KEEP FIRING!"

Yusuke snapped back in line and grabbed the controller again. This time, the Behemoth raised its left arm. The same process repeated, and the second shot knocked the Goldilock's Bronz Bjorn head clean off, along with a good portion of its right side abdomen – which is the Argent Bjorn's right shoulder. The Heat Gauge decreased again to 333. It's no longer a heat gauge, it's an ammo counter. And they only had three shots left.

The Goldilocks is still reeling from the massive damage inflicted upon her over the course of several eyeblinks. But she quickly responded. The Mega Rail cannon was pulled down immediately and it was aimed to the general direction of that spectral Valvrave.

Seeing the gun is now drawn away from their hacker and pointed at them, Yusuke grabbed the controllers. As if knowing what he wanted, the Energy composed Behemoth began to charge up, as more and more electricity began to course through its cascading form. The gauge 333 dropped rapidly to zero as the Valvrave is using every last bit of its energy for one final blast. The Behemoth suddenly jerked. Its chest bulged as if something inside it is trying to claw out. A mass of pure concentrated energy began to form within the cage of the Behemoth's disembodied components. Its cascading incorporeal form began to shake ever more violently as the power build up towards critical state. It's as if the explosion that was halted before is now progressing once again, amplified to magnitudes beyond belief due to the compression.

At that moment, the Goldilocks had the energy composed Valvrave locked on her sights, just as the Valvrave began to levitate slightly above the ground. The Rail Gun had finished charging just as the Behemoth reached critical mass. At which point, the latter had all but lost its humanoid shape, reduced to nothing short of a deformed sphere of pure energy on the verge of exploding. A sight that was more than enough to give pause to the Goldilocks' pilot, who's contemplating whether to shoot a bomb and then trigger the explosion or do nothing and wait for it to explode.

But there's no more choice when the latter happened anyway.

When the 'bomb' exploded, it unleashed a massive shockwave of thunderstorm that expand to every direction very rapidly. Tendrils of electricity as thick as a building cascade in waves after waves that envelop and level entire city blocks. The many smaller buildings and trees were ripped apart before the actual shockwave hits them, the larger and stronger ones crumble to dust in seconds when the electrical shockwave do hit them. Trees and plantations many kilometers away from the blast were instantly burnt to ashes where they stood. The thunderstorm shockwave quickly enveloped the Goldilocks who was too stunned by this sudden event to react.

The giant's thick armor was able to momentarily withstand the bombardment of lightning tendrils to a certain extent. The Goldilock pilot was still thinking she might be able to survive this after all, so long as her cockpit remained intact… until the computer screens in her cockpit began to say otherwise.

A rain of lightning tendrils engulfed every inch of the giant, some was able to plunge deep, straight through its fuel tank – which was filled to the brim with Synth Rune… which, as pointed out by Yusuke, did not react too well when they were Quickened by an Awakened Eldar Volfrans Magius.

Massive sparks of electricity jumped across the surface, flaying her arsenal apart from the top of the head to the tip of her toes. Burst of green raw runes erupted from the cracked seams of the Goldilocks' thick armor from the inside which quickly hardened into a chaotic crystalline structure, causing the mech to bulge uncontrollably before its armor snapped off violently due to explosive rune crystal growth erupting beneath it. All of Goldilocks' remaining weapons that survived the battle was instantly overheated and bloated before it ignited in a series of massive explosions, further ripping the already shambling Goldilocks to pieces. The pilot can only watch helplessly as red error warning filled her screen moments before electrical jolts sent them all exploding violently all around her.

The shockwave continues to expand and grew bigger and bigger until the Goldilocks' massive form was lost beneath a massive dome of pure electrical energy. From the outside, the insides of the said module were engulfed in a flood of golden light. That one hexagonal piece shined brighter than the rest. But it only last an instant after it reached its brightest state yet, and then it was gone.

Inside the module, only small particles of yellow ambers remained, floating and glowing about the now silent and devastated wasteland.

The Behemoth stood at the epicenter of this desolation. His once dismembered body parts had now reattached themselves back to form his original shape. The golden glow had vanished, his parts reverted back to its original black and yellow color scheme, and its crown shined green yet again. But smoke billowed out of the seams of the reconnected limb, coupled with a thick smell of burnt circuitry that reached all the way to the cockpit, much to the discomfort of the pilots and occupants.

The desolation covering almost half of the entire surface of the module itself, a circle of ash black ground devoid of anything standing taller than the cinders and ashes that composed said ground except for the Behemoth who stood at the center of this circle… and the now burnt black Goldilocks, still standing on her two feet; a fact that one can find hard to believe, considering the relatively short distance that thing had stood from the Ground Zero of this devastation. Still, the bigger giant is visibly severely damaged to the point beyond simple repair. It just stood there, completely still, completely unmoving… before at last, with one loud creak, its knees buckled and cracked, and the scorched black titan fell on its knees, sending one final shockwave that pushed the glowing ambers and ashes in her vicinity away.

"…is it over?" Raizo warily scanned the wrecked giant bot for any signs of activity.

Yusuke had also reverted back to his normal self, albeit visibly tired, what's with the panting and gasping for breath. "I think so… But just to be sure…"

The Behemoth's system, against all odds, is also returning back to normal. Although blaring warning signs on their computer told them that their Valvrave was extremely lucky to have retained even the barest ability to stand up and fly after everything it went through. The still smoking Behemoth floated up and slowly approached the wrecked giant. Maintaining caution, they went towards the Argent unit still embedded on the Brons' chest. The whole thing was burnt to blackened crisp, small sparks of electricity still jumped every now and then, smoke churned out of the fried exposed circuitry. The Silver unit dangled out of the Goldilocks' chest, it's once shiny appearance had all but charred, hissing smoke from head to toe. And just when they contemplated to touch it, the silver unit began to shake.

The Behemoth took a step back and aimed their last functioning and charged Plasma caster at the supposedly dead unit. But then, the sudden movement was revealed to come not from the unit itself per se. It came from something inside it. The charred chest piece of the Argent Bjorn crumbled and her head fell off. Out of the blackened ruin, a gold form emerged.

"It's the Gold Mock." Yusuke recognized his arch nemesis in an instant. "The Goldilocks' pilot. She survived…"

Aila blinked upon seeing that golden form.

Then again, the Gold Mock barely survived. The thick armor of her mech had absorbed most of the damage, but the little that got through is more than enough to push her to the brink. Parts of her golden armor crumbled, electricity coursed through its broken surface as its nano machine can't seem to fix the damage, revealing the frail human underneath. She was struggling to dig her way out of the burnt wreckage when she realized her adversary is right in front of her with a giant gun pointed at her head.

Yusuke was sorely tempted to pull the trigger. Chiefly because of what she did to Jeay… but they are at war, and even war have rules. Said rule state one cannot just fire at an unarmed soldier. Especially… one who is clearly injured, judging by that dangerous amount of blood dripping out of her blood stained waist.

As expected, the pilot began to sway and before long, severe blood loss robbed her of her consciousness, and she fell. The Behemoth's pilots immediately pushed their Valvrave down, chasing after the falling pilot.

They barely managed to catch her just moments before she touched the ground, head first. The Behemoth landed and knelt on the ground, with the now unconscious pilot safely resting in its giant hand. But once the cockpit hatch was opened, the first to rush out of the cockpit was not Yusuke or Raizo… but an uncharacteristically panicking Aila.

Seeing her friend in such stat of unease, Akari is also having a bad feeling. She quickly chased her friend out of the cockpit, and a concerned Raizo also followed.

Yusuke watched cautiously from the monitor. Aila hastily rushed towards the clearly unconscious pilot. Almost desperately, she tried to remove her helmet. Apparently, the identity of the pilot is what concerns her more than anything. But said helmet was literally fused to the armor. Apparently, they were never meant to come off.

Raizo finally stepped in when Aila began to desperately claw the helmet. "Move aside." Aila step aside as Raizo grabbed the metallic helmet. With a grunt, his fingers sank into the flat facial plate, crumpling it, before he yanked the whole thing off the helmet… revealing a face.

Neither Yusuke nor Raizo recognize that face. But Aila and Akari do.

"…N… Nee-san?" Aila collapsed on her knees in horror.

"Nee-san!?" Yusuke and Raizo echoed. 'Uh-oh. What have we done?'

"Hoo boy…" Akari slapped her face.

0000000

The scene of the Goldilocks' defeat had also reached the other side. And they're still having a hard time believing it.

"What… the HELL… was that?" The monitor replayed the scene where the Valvrave generate the lightning shockwave that tear the Goldilocks apart. "What kind of technology are they using!?"

"No. I don't think that's technology."

"Then… as I suspected… is it too early after all?"

"Nay! We were able to get this far against an original unit to the point we forced them to reveal an ace in the hole like this. We've gathered yet another valuable data. This is actually a fruitful endeavor, even considering the fact we've lost a Queen in the process."

"Then… I have your leave?"

"Sever the module. Detonate the connecting bridge."

"What about the girl?"

"We'll retrieve her if we can. If not, consider her an acceptable loss."

"I… think Red had already beaten you to it."

0000000

"Aila's elder sister, Emma. She was a former soldier for Arus. After their parents died, she retired to take care of Aila when she was 5. So as you can imagine… they were pretty close." Akari gave a short summary as she tried to comfort the devastated Aila.

"Why is she piloting the Goldilocks? Did she perhaps rejoined Arus when they came invading?" Raizo asked.

"No. That's impossible." Aila answered weakly as she knelt next to her sister. "…there's another reason why my Sister retired. She had a severe PTSD due to her time in the battlefield and she just recovered when she began taking care of me. So when she retired, she made it a point that she was absolutely done with that world. She had no love for Arus. That much is certain." Aila frowned as she gritted her teeth. "But then Dorssia invade… she helped the resistance, trained us, teaching us strategy and military tactics… and some point she actually took part in the action. Even when we switched from fighting Dorssia to Arus, it didn't change. More than anything, she's my sister. She was the one who gave me the intel regarding that… 'mainframe'… and I trusted her." She gritted her teeth in anger.

She struggled to choke out that last piece of information. Blood relation aside, anyone can see how that last piece of information would easily condemn the person in question not acquit her.

"How bout brainwashing?" Yusuke suddenly spoke from the Behemoth's speaker. Everyone turned to the Valvrave, to Yusuke. "Down there I saw some pretty shitty brainwashing tech. They took up people's brains and fed them with a crash course of Psychopath 101. Maybe your sister is under its influence? Especially when you said she had PTSD."

Aila's once grim face brightened almost instantly as her hope rekindled. But then, she snapped back in recall of another problem. "Oh… wait! I almost forgot! We have to get to the connecting bridge!"

"Connecting bridge-?"

As if on cue…

"About time you idiots remember that bit."

Their coms suddenly activated as it began sending in X-Eins' grumpy voice. "X?" Akari happily responded. "The coms. They're back online?"

"Aye, it did." X-Eins responded. "When the Queen fell, the signal stopped, the chatter in the airwave ceased, and with it, the jamming also stopped. Job well done… is what I would like to say… but the next time those two idiots planned to detonate an alien bomb inside the module, can they at least warn us first!?"

"Aw geeze. And I thought A-Drei was cranky!" Raizo groaned.

"I heard that!" Came the not so pleased A-Drei's reply. This is open channel, everybody with an earpiece can hear everything everybody's saying.

"Don't be so unreasonable, X-Eins. We didn't even know we can do something like that until today." Yusuke chuckled nervously. "Considering the opposition, we really don't have a lot of options."

"Where ARE you guys anyway?" Raizo finally asked.

0000000

"Where you and your friends should've been." X-Eins had just cut the last wire to the final bomb set to detonate the connecting bridge. The Resistance had also finished off the last of the droid guarding that bridge. There wasn't much left to do. The moment the Goldilocks, the 'Queen', was fried, the droid army under her command had all but lost their teeth, their once intelligent maneuvers reduced to nothing more than cheap malfunctioning animatronics. What follow was a shooting gallery. By then, X-Eins and A-Drei had no trouble undoing everything the Arus had set up to destroy the connecting bridge. Even better, when they tried to disconnect the bridge from the internet, Akira had more than covered that angle, having found a way to reestablish her dominance over the cyberspace angle. And just now, X-Eins had defused the last of Arus' contingencies.

"And we're done." X-Eins removed the last explosive himself. "This bridge is here to stay."

No sooner than X-Eins had said that, he heard the sound of rumbling that grew increasingly louder and ominous. His soldier's instinct immediately sensed more danger is coming. The main space gate of the connecting bridge began to shake. Everyone can hear the sound of explosions from the other side of that massive gate. Something's about to come… and in a not so gentle way. X-Eins accessed the camera depicting the other side of their gate to see who the uninvited guess will be. What he saw sent chill down his spine.

A-Drei quickly roared: "EVERYONE! TAKE COVER!"

The warning came just in time, the gate suddenly snapped open, and a massive space gunship suddenly came roaring out of the gate. The ship zoomed across the long hallway over the militia, not noticing, or caring, for the ant like human beneath her.

The Gunship is huge. Several times bigger than the normal fighter unit. It has a wide berth with red being the predominant color. The soldiers underneath who looked up as it passed them overhead would notice it sport four large caliber cannon turrets on its underside hull. Even with such massive weight, the Gunship posses enough booster to allow it fly at uncommonly blinding velocity for something of its size. The Gunship made its way into the Module's interior, leaving the alarmed and horrified human soldiers behind.

But a telltale sign that this is no ordinary gunship is when A-Drei tried to contact Raizo and Yusuke over the incoming enemy… only to find he can't. Their communication gear which was working fine until a few seconds ago is now buzzing with static jamming. The same jamming that happened when the Goldilock is still online. A-Drei looked at X-Eins to see if he had the same luck… and he does.

"That's another 'Queen'." Both easily surmised.

0000000

Meanwhile, back to Yusuke and Raizo's group, still unaware of the incoming danger, nevertheless noticed that the sudden failure of their communication gear is not some normal glitch.

"Let's contact Akira-"

Suddenly, the sky brightens. Everyone looked up and their eyes widened in horror.

The source of this light is a giant fireball in the sky… coming from Valravn's wreckage as it exploded in space.

"N… No…"

00000000000000

00000000000000

00000000000000

Bremen:

Jack – What you call a male donkey. The female is called Jenny.