"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up to something sometime in your life" –Winston Churchill


The cold surface of concrete was replaced by a small table one of the other squad members somehow got in the room. Ruby sat eating her own pre-packaged food with the aid of two chairs; one acting as a seat and the other a table. The lukewarm paste did little to improve the mood as the sun came down further and further.

The night time was especially dangerous for them; although they had some night vision equipment it was old and nothing compared to the technological marvels the Atlas Soldiers were armed with. Heck, they only had one thermal monocular in their whole squad while the Atlas Soldiers had them literally built into their helmets!

They did consider for a moment using the helmets of the corpses below but given the risk of friendly fire it was deemed too risky. Now with the sun setting against the orange seafront and bouncing off the massive form of the Atlas Airship resting not far from the shore spirits were down; now they could only hope no attacks were launched against their position (Given that night-fighting with their current gear was a nightmare as it is)

Now they sat alone in dark silence. Illuminated only by their thoughts and NV gear…


It was not a good day at MAF HQ. General Farage looked once more onto the map and scowled. He hated it down here, In this safe, cosy bunker while his men were fighting tooth and nail for every building and centimetre of Mycellian soil… oh, he longed to be out there but high command needed him here so here he would be; doing what he could to save as many lives as possible.

A knock on his door woke him from his thoughts and he was greeted with the face of Colonel Nuttall "Sir!" He saluted

"Yes soldier, how can I help you?"

"Not me sir, but our boys on the ground are wondering. What are we gong to do about that airship?"

"Believe me Colonel, I've been thinking on this all day, our air power would be shot right out of the sky should we attempt to hijack it… (Sigh) if only we had some big cannon or something to blast those fools right out of the sky…"

"Yea sir, shame only the Navy would have something like that… Wait sir, you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"HOW COULD I HAVE OVERLOOKED THIS!" shouted the general in disbelief "Your idea is actually quite feasible… go, get me a direct line to Navy HQ. On the double!"

The man ran off and returned just as Nigel finished his cup of tea and ordered his secretary to fetch him another. Picking up the heavy phone he smiled and said evilly "Ah, Admiral Green! Tell me… what are the biggest cannons you have on your ships?"


Out in the Sea, a hastily assembled group of four 'Regata' type Frigates and a few destroyer escorts heard their orders and hastily worked to load each Frigate's 30cm main gun (There were bigger guns but they were all mounted on ships too far to arrive on time). The steel behemoths slowed as their gun crews worked tirelessly on working out just how to target a ship floating far from the sea. A machine gun of calculator keys and it was done. The guns aimed high to the point of nearly breaking.

MNF (Mycelle Naval Forces) Capitan Bush stood upon the gantry and waited patiently for the order to fire. He trusted his men's skill but this was no usual ship or Grimm straying into their waters… or would that be airspace? Nah fuck it, this is our problem now…


General Farage stood upon the roof of a house with binoculars surveying the scene. The Airship had not reacted whatsoever, lying idly on its bed of clouds as the ships took aim…

He considered simply giving the order but a better idea came into his head. Taking the radio he switched to the general army frequency the troops used in the Murmansk and spoke "Hello men, I would advise you to keep your eyes on the enemy airship for the next few minutes" he hung up, and switched back to the frequency the ships used. The troops needed a morale boost and hell would they get one "Capitan… Open fire at will"


The Cannon thundered and the ships rocked like sailboats in a storm as the 'anti-shield' ammunition was let loose. The slugs being peopled by absolutely ridiculous amounts of fiery gas.

They flew from the cannons' breach with an explosive clap and only seconds later were in the air; speeding through the clouds at the airship above.


Jacques Schnee was annoyed, his… employees were making poor progress into the city and as the casualty reports were piling up he was sure the general would be displeased. 'Oh well, at least I won't have to pay them' he thought as the ship suddenly groaned and rocked side to side.

"Sir, shields are down!" yelled one of the crew as the bridge burst into activity.

"What the hell just happened man?!" he yelled at the captain beside him

"I believe we were just impacted by multiple projectiles, they overloaded our shield" he grinned "not that this is unexpected, there are reasons we have a protocol to patrol and not sit in one place"

"Shut it man, shoot the ones that did this!"

"Sir!" exclaimed the crewman "There aren't any other airships around us! I've searched with every rad…" the airship shook once more; groaning like a dying tiger as the metal rubbed against itself.

"They got the engines! We're going down!" yelled a crewman in panic before running off the bridge.

Now Mr Schnee was really pissed "Gunnery crew! Find those bastards and blow them out of the air!"

But his order was ignored as the whole crew abandoned their stations to unanimously run for the escape pods. Furious, he ran after them only to be met with a gun to his head

"The captain goes down with his ship you know" rang the voice before the old man's head was blown back by the bullet cracking at his skull "Fuck you Schnee, you lost many good men's lives and for what? Revenge? A property dispute? Ah but now you die as any other man. Good riddance"

The now-captain walked over to the bridge's side and withdrew the inflatable escape boat which was packed there. Walking to the very front of the bridge; straight up to the glass where he could see his ship's bow slowly turn up as the heavy engines and guns dragged it down into the depths. A few shots from his pistol and a whack from a fire extinguisher finally broke the armoured glass which kept him safe for many battles. Climbing through the hole with his boat he looked down at the slowly filing cabin beneath him and with a hefty sigh he inflated the boat, sat in it and waited for the nose of the ship to finally submerge.


Ruby could not believe what she was seeing; the airship was sinking back into the ocean's deep blue waters and she felt much relief when news came that not only were the Atlas soldiers surrendering and the androids shutting down due to a lack of controller (Which was present on the ship).

The whole squad was now walking down the road back to the camp. The early autumn sunrise piercing the now empty buildings as their inhabitants came down and greeted each other with smiles, pats on the back and teary hugs as family and lovers reunited.

They walked along with a building crowd of soldiers, civilians and even a few militia members who chose to stay. The whole procession flooding into the park where the camp stood. As the squad leaders and sergeants calmed the column down the replacement general came up and took off his cap; holding it to the side as he addressed the crowd "Ladies and Gentlemen, today we have won!"

A cheer in the crowd soon turned into a roar as joy spread like a virus through their tired bodies. Ruby herself even saw Blair pushing over to her and waving, not in joy but in relief that she was relatively unharmed "Ruby! You're alright!" he hugged her slightly shorter form and whispered "All overseers are leaving in a few minutes in the truck we came in" he gave her one last glance before running over to the aforementioned truck and getting in.

She was somewhat reluctant to simply abandon her squad so she said her goodbyes and gave her number to some of them before walking over and getting in herself and asking Blair "Why are we leaving so early?"

"Look, they need us back at base so we can be rearmed and de-briefed in case of another attack from wherever"

"Oh, but haven't we won?"

"No, it is far too early of that. Atlas has way more than one airship and heck, that was barely one battalion's worth of men"

"So they may attack elsewhere.."


The cold white building of the Atlas high council stood high above the buildings below; the winds crashing into the concrete structure before being dissipated by the shields active around the building. As General Ironwood passed the guards with a brief flash of his ID card he felt his heartbeat go only up as the long corridor neared the oak doors of the council chamber.

As the doors opened he gazed into the white room to note that all members were already present (Aside from Schnee) and took his seat at the table. "So, Care to share why an airship and a battalion of men have left General?" began the high councillor

"Chairman Schnee requisitioned it, I had no authority to stop him"

"Then can you explain why we are at WAR with some random island nation!?" yelled another councillor "And how the FUCK we lost!"

The General could only stand as all sorts of insults were hurled at him and as the Councillor finally ran out of steam and a new voice spoke up. "Please calm yourself councillor, I do not believe he is at fault. Councillor Schnee made him give up a number of men and used these men to attack another territory we are not at war with. Surely you can see how he is not at fault?"

The man's reason managed to calm the hall and as topics slowly deviated from the disaster The general's mind wondered just what happened to his ally...


Jacques Schnee's head rang as he finally stood up, the bullet's flattened form dropping from his forehead. He never expected to actually find use in the aura shield Dr Magnet had made him, but here he was; abandoned by that traitorous captain. He should have seen it coming given the way the man looked at hem when he first stepped aboard and perhaps had the forethought of having a few androids follow him just in case…

The whole cabin was almost completely submerged now aside from a pocket of air in which he floated, fortunately the ship did not seem to be sinking any further. Having been lodged on the seabed or something. But he knew the air wouldn't last for long and even now his breathing became more arduous and difficult.

Steeling himself with a deep breath he dived, opening his eyes in the water, what remained of the shield managed to protect his eyes from the water and he saw a broken panel of armoured glass and swam through.

His head burst out from the water to be met with the grey form of a warship. However, he knew that someone of his sort would be ransomed back, 'after all no one can say no to a couple of million Lien' he thought as a smaller boat was lowered and raced towards him.


Ah, another chapter concluded. please leave a review of it.

Also sorry about the number of perspective jumps. the next chapter will be more linear