Ashelin paced up and down the empty boardroom restlessly, hands behind her back and thinking hard. Less than an hour ago in the Freedom HQ control room, she had received a faint, fuzzy transmission from Torn, after nearly two hours of radio blackout, and he relayed a sensational message. He and his small but elite scout team had followed the mysterious signal far out over the ocean, into the vast emptiness of the uncharted world, where they had discovered its source.
Haven was not alone! There were others out there, another city far away that had survived the Metal Head Wars.
This was big, the most significant news in the city's living memory, and it held huge implications for both their history and their future. But in a way, Ashelin was not too surprised. She thought that they couldn't possibly have been the only ones left; the Metal Heads couldn't have wiped out everyone else on the whole planet. For so long they had had no contact with anyone else outside their own walls, unable to leave or search for others, until now. They had just made a historic first contact which was sure to plant reconnections with the rest of the world. Was this the first of many to come?
Ashelin found herself imagining already what might unfold because of this, what they might learn from this other culture and vice versa, and how she would announce this ground-breaking discovery to her people. But for now this news remained closely guarded and would not leave the walls of Freedom HQ until she had firmly decided how this would play out, and to achieve that she needed more time and more information.
Torn had already explained as much as he could about the encounter over his radio during the return journey, but there were many things she wanted to hear and many questions she wanted to ask in person, privately. He was due to arrive any moment now. From the boardroom window she had seen his scout squadron reappear over the mountains only a few minutes ago. He must have landed back in the hangar by now, and making his way through the building and up the floors to meet her here.
Finally, there were the sounds of approaching movements outside the door, and then it swung open quickly. In strode Torn, not showing the least bit of fatigue from his long journey, followed closely by Jak with Daxter on his shoulder, who closed the door again behind them.
Ashelin turned to them, sharp, serious, and primed for answers. "Torn," she said immediately, locking eyes with her trusted commander, "Tell me everything that happened."
For the next half hour, Torn recounted every detailed step of the excursion, and Ashelin listened very intently, absorbing everything that was shared between the two parties at the meeting over the ocean. The more Torn explained, the more intrigued she became, and she wished that she could have been there to see it for herself. A positive buzz was mounting inside her, but it was tempered by her well-honed vigilance and precaution, and she asked many questions. Like Jak, who leant on the wall listening to the exchange by the closed door, she had a sense for when something did not feel right, and Jak felt somewhat validated when he could read the evolving expressions on her face. But he said nothing, and remained patiently in his place. Even Daxter made no snarky interruptions as he was so often unable to help himself.
"Alright," Ashelin said when Torn finished his recount, and she took a few moments to process it all, slowly pacing again. Torn watched her and waited for her reaction.
She stopped at the window overlooking the scarred streets and grey rooftops, gritty and unremarkable in the early afternoon cloud. But her eyes found their way to the western chain of mountains beyond the city wall, the mountains that few had ever crossed until today. "So you said we have three days until we're supposed to meet them again?"
Torn nodded. "That's right."
"Same place? Way out there?"
"Uh huh."
Ashelin paused briefly in consideration. That was a long way from the safety of their city. "And what can we expect from this… second meeting, exactly?" she asked with very plain concern.
"It'll just be an embassy," said Torn, catching the reflection of her eye in the glass. "The idea is to start up communication and learn more about each other. They suggested meeting leaders, so you should join us for this next one."
"I know," Ashelin said at once, understanding. "I have to be there this time."
That was a given. Torn had spoken well on her behalf, and he had correctly acted as he thought she would have done in such a situation, but she wasn't going to sacrifice any other opportunity to be involved. This was too important.
After another short moment of reflection, she turned her head back over her shoulder to make partial eye contact. "And you're sure they're genuine about this?"
"The captain gave me his word," Torn explained confidently. "They were the ones who suggested it, so they seem willing to trust us at least, and we'll be on neutral ground."
"Neutral ground…" Ashelin mused, looking out to the mountains again. "It's a long way from home…"
They both sensed and understood the necessary caution that they needed to take here. Just like him, Ashelin was suspicious of the unknown and mistrustful of strangers, especially anything that originated from outside of the city walls, as anyone nurtured by Haven's violent history rightfully deserved to be. This needed to be conducted one small, careful step at a time.
Ashelin nodded once, apparently satisfied, but her thoughtful expression did not change as she then turned her head in Jak's direction. "What about you, Jak? What did you make of all this?"
Jak looked up from his quiet listening. "They could be telling the truth," he said with a shrug, one which nearly dislodged Daxter, who by now was dozing off with boredom on his shoulder, "But something about them didn't feel right to me." He couldn't find the best words to accurately describe his gut instinct, but the others knew him well enough that they didn't need him to. All he was sure of was that he wasn't sure he fully trusted those mysterious pilots or what they said.
His response brought Daxter back into momentary concentration. "Yeah," said the ottsel with more seriousness than he usually showed. "What if they're nasty, like the Metal Heads?"
Ashelin looked back over the city again. That was her original fear and she really hoped that it was not true. "I know. We're going to have to be careful. But one thing gives me hope: they aren't Metal Heads. They're people, just like us. We have the ability to talk and reason with one another, something we could never do the Metal Heads. We can listen. We can learn…"
She thought it over slowly, but the pressure was on her. She usually preferred at least a few days to process serious matters such as this. However, the soldier and leader in her knew, that in times of urgency, she sometimes needed to think on her feet and make choices quickly, and the first step was hers to choose. But this was bigger than just the three of them, four if she counted Daxter as well.
Then she straightened her back and turned around the face the room once more, looking resolved and ready to act. "Alright. The council needs to know this," she decided, "As soon as possible. Then together we can decide on how we'll respond to this and what we'll announce to the citizens. Call a meeting right now. Urgent."
An hour later, the most important people in the city were all gathered around the large table in the boardroom. Ashelin sat at the head with Torn at her side, Jak was seated a little further down next to Samos the Sage, and the rest of the seats were taken up by high-ranking council representatives and military commanders. Torn retold his story to them all, and all were startled and amazed to learn of the discovery of another city that had survived the brutal conquest of the Metal Heads, and they all had something to say. Nearly all saw promise and potential for an alliance. However, just like Ashelin, many were also rightly curious and wary; Haven's long history of siege had conditioned its people to expect constant threat from outside their walls, and they made plain their concerns about the mysterious representatives of this faraway city called Idandi. Debates and questions were plentiful, laying out all the available knowledge on the table to be sorted through and scrutinised.
On Jak's shoulder, Daxter was dozing lazily again. This meeting was so boring. The exciting parts were long over and he'd lost all interest, but Jak had not let him go home because he didn't want him carelessly blabbing to anyone about what had happened today until it was declassified. So in the meantime, he was stuck here, and he was now struggling to keep himself awake. He rocked ever more precariously on Jak's shoulder, until he inevitably fell off backwards and onto the floor. Only Jak and Samos took any notice of this mishap, as everyone else was much too absorbed in the discussion. The fall woke him up though, and he now looked up at Jak, who was silently motioning something to him. Being well-acquainted with Jak's habits, Daxter could read the expression plain as a book.
Dax, try and stay focussed! This is important!
Daxter tried to respond in the same manner, but all he could manage was an open-mouthed, cross-eyed expression, which he hoped conveyed the message that he was bored out of his skull.
Jak understood. Well, find some way to keep yourself amused, then, he motioned. But keep it quiet!
Daxter pouted, got back to his feet and slumped off towards the large window that looked out over the city, pressing his face onto the glass as the discussion continued behind him. His eyes strayed off into the distance where his pub lay, just out of sight, and he wished that he could be over there right now. Tess was probably waiting eagerly for him to regale her with yet another fresh, exciting tale of his adventures. He scanned the rooftops of the nearer buildings, hoping to find something interesting among them (preferably a bikini-clad sunbather or two), but they were all empty. He misted up the window with his breath and drew silly little faces on it, but even that lost its appeal after a few minutes. Man, this was boring.
But just when he considered curling up on the floor and trying to nap again, something shiny in the distance caught his eye. There was a twinkling movement over by the mountains, just rising between the front row of peaks. Daxter rubbed his eyes and tried to make out what it was, but only succeeded when a cloud passed over the sun. It was a small troop of silver aircraft... very familiar-looking silver aircraft.
"Uh, guys..." said Daxter, cutting Torn off in the middle of his current descriptions, "You might want to take a look at this."
Not many heard or paid heed to his interruption, and those nearest to him who did looked vaguely annoyed, including Torn; many were aware of Daxter's reputation as an attention seeker, and therefore believed that he never had anything noteworthy to say. However, Jak and Samos, who were positioned closest, could plainly see what had caused him to speak out, and turned away from the table. As they got up and moved to the window, several others did too, until a small crowd had formed. Even Torn and Ashelin joined them, gently pushing their way to the front. When Torn got there, his eyes popped in stunned bewilderment at the sight that greeted him, and he pressed both hands against the glass. Five foreign vehicles now hovered just a few kilometres away from the western city walls, as if giving them a thorough examination from a distance.
"What the hell…?" Torn breathed out slowly.
By his shoulder, Ashelin looked on too, trying to comprehend what was happening, but Torn's reaction and the horrible instinct in her gut told her that her suspicions were vindicated. "Is that them?" she asked seriously.
"It has to be," said Torn, confused anger growing, "But what the hell are they doing here?"
They were undoubtedly the same jets. The paralysing but very familiar flavour of betrayal began to creep up on him, settling in his throat so tightly that it could not be swallowed. It teased his quick temper, and he thumped a fist against the glass.
His radio was buzzing again at his belt, and so was Ashelin's. She answered, and Vin's frantic voice could be heard gibbering through the speaker: "Governor! Ashelin! Torn! We've got strange blips on our radar! They're coming straight for us, and they're really close!"
Dread and dissension began to fill the boardroom like the spreading of blood around a wound, as everyone detected the unmistakeable, undoubtable feeling that a renewed danger was approaching their city. A murmur of building panic started to rise. Jak and Daxter shared an apprehensive and tense look, Samos grumbled worryingly, and as for Torn, his mind was in two places at once, the visual truth not aligning with what had been arranged. What was the meaning of this? Had there been some sort of misunderstanding, or was something more sinister unfolding?
"I don't like the look of this," said Jak, his muscles twitching in preparation.
The atmosphere in the room fell from bad to worse. People were talking over each other, councillors asking what they should do, commanders reaching automatically for their holstered weapons.
"Torn, we've got to do something about this!" said Ashelin suddenly, cutting through the chatter. "Those things are going to cause a panic if they get seen! The city doesn't know about them yet!"
Torn's mind clicked back into function. He knew she was right, and tore himself away from the window and the thousand explosive questions that were ricocheting inside his mind. "Let's get out there!" he ordered.
The room scrambled, and Ashelin, Torn, Jak and Daxter were the first through the door, none prepared for this in the slightest. They beat it through the corridor and into the nearest lift, which began taking them down to the hangar where their vehicles still waited.
"What's going on, Torn?" Ashelin asked sternly as they descended, the fears she had voiced earlier growing more apparent every second.
"I don't know!" Torn answered forcefully through his teeth. "Something's not right here! This is not what we agreed! How the hell did they even find us?"
"They must have followed us somehow," said Jak, now poised and ready for combat.
They continued to argue about it all the way down. But Torn was becoming more and more agitated at the painfully slow descent of the lift. "Hurry up!" he shouted at the buttons.
Ashelin and Jak backed away from him a little, for it looked as if he might actually explode. When at last the door did open into the hangar, Torn shoved his way through towards where his cruiser lay. The scouts were still there, waiting around as they had been ordered to be debriefed, completely unaware of the events taking place outside.
"Get back in your vehicles and come with us!" Torn ordered them without halting.
"What?" asked one of them, puzzled. "What's going —"
"I said move!" Torn shouted, and at once they all scrambled back into their seats.
Torn swung into his own cruiser. Ashelin, a few steps behind him, quickly took the second seat, while Jak and Daxter leapt up into the gun turret. Before he'd even sat down, the vehicle began to rise, up and out through the roof hatch, and the other clueless pilots followed in their wake, not knowing what to expect. When they emerged above the buildings, they were greeted by a terrible sight: a pillar of black smoke was raging somewhere near the western city wall, small explosions flowered in the air around it, and a silver jet was falling from the sky in flames, brought down by Haven-based groundfire.
"Oh no," said Ashelin, her face blanching.
Torn was absolutely fuming. "What in the hell have they done!"
He slammed his foot down on the accelerator, speeding up dangerously towards the battle. Ashelin was pushed back into her seat, while on the turret, Jak readied the gun for a fight and Daxter tightened his grip on his shoulder. But as they drew near, what was left of the jets suddenly vanished in a flash of light, and Torn slammed on the brakes, temporarily dazzled again.
Furiously blinking back his vision, he gave the order to descend, and he and his company managed to bring their cruisers in to land close to the scene. It was not a pretty sight. Through the smoke, a block of large buildings that bordered the city wall were aflame and crumbling fast, and right in its heart was the sparking, melting body of a jet, impaled into the masonry like a knife. A building opposite had a large, burning crater in its side, as if something huge and violent had punched its way through. The street on which they had landed was a graphic display of shattered brick, metal and the mutilated, burned bodies of Freedom soldiers.
Torn was swearing under his breath as he pulled himself out of the cruiser, engine still running, to stare at the scene in outrage. Ashelin was quicker to muster herself, and spared only a few seconds before mobilising the rest of the men who had followed them here.
"Call for back-up!" she ordered them. "Get more men over here and put out these fires before they spread! Search for wounded!"
The soldiers flung themselves into action, one getting on his radio to summon more help, the others running forwards to check the bodies and pull them away from the blaze. Jak joined them, Daxter quivering on his shoulder, and it wasn't long before more guards were drawn to the chaotic scene.
This was when Torn turned around, angrier than anyone had ever seen him before. "What the hell happened here?" he demanded. "I want answers!"
As more soldiers flooded into the area and battled with the blaze, Torn's temper could not be cooled. Ashelin tried to keep him calm, but she herself was struggling to keep her own feelings in check. As it looked to her, the jets had just performed an unprovoked sneak attack, but until witnesses could be brought forth to describe what had really happened, she had to try and keep control. That was the kind of rash assumption her father would have jumped to, and her determination to be a better ruler than him was just enough to keep her subdued for the moment. She didn't want to believe it, but her instinct and the visual facts were against her.
Unfortunately, the soldiers who would have seen exactly what had happened were now all lying dead around the hole in the wall. The few witnesses who could be found were civilians who were too shaken to give a clear account, and those who could all gave varying descriptions. Some said that they had seen soldiers pre-emptively open fire on the mysterious and threatening-looking aircrafts, while others said that the aircrafts themselves had made the first shot. Someone even said that one of the old automatic Krimzon defence turrets had malfunctioned and misfired, triggering a retaliation.
Torn did not know which to believe. None of this made any sense. He stomped back and forth on the shattered path, utterly lost in his raging confusion.
"Torn?" Ashelin tried to get through to him. "Torn!" She caught him by the shoulder, and he paid attention. "We've got to do something about this. Whatever happened and whoever caused it, we've got to react. What if those things come back?"
That made him stop, the storm in his mind momentarily stilled. "You're right," he said, and at once, he began to form a rapid defence plan. "You!" he pointed at the highest ranking soldier in the vicinity. "Mobilise everyone under your command, clear the streets of civilians and man the defensive batteries. Be ready for anything, but don't make any offensives unless I give the order!"
"Yes sir!" said the soldier, and he began drilling the rest of his soldiers into line, assigning duties to each of them.
"What can I do?" asked Jak, who had just come jogging out of the fray, sensing that he would be needed.
"Jak, I want you to round up as many pilots as you can and get them in the skies ASAP," Torn ordered. "I want you up there with them and patrolling the perimeter of the city. Check for any other damages, but be ready to fight."
Jak nodded grimly, and then jumped into the cruiser they had arrived in, speeding off back to the hangar with a silent, trembling Daxter still clinging to his shoulder.
Torn remained where he was on street level, scowling and seething. Ashelin came and stood beside him, and looked mournfully over at the flaming wreckage of the jet in the building. "This isn't looking good for either of us," she said. "What must they think of us now? After this?"
Torn hated to admit it, but he agreed with her. Worst of all, he felt betrayed that this whole thing had all come crashing down upon him in this way. He had genuinely wanted this alliance to happen, as he believed the people of Idandi had as well. But now, these terrible events cast serious doubts on that belief, and his old scepticism was back in the forefront of his mind. Had he made a grave mistake?
"They know where we are now too," he said darkly. "It's all too easy for them for come back."
"And if they do, I doubt they'll just sit around and watch from a distance again," Ashelin added in the same tone.
The city continued to put Torn's plan into action. Very soon, the sky over the city was full of Hellcats and soldiers spread through every street, urging citizens into the safety of their homes. The fires at ground zero were ferocious and stubborn, but the soldiers managed to get the worst of them under control. It was very fortunate that most of these buildings had been empty and unused at the time, still waiting to be repurposed after the Metal Head Wars. Ashelin, who remained at the scene as well, worked with Torn to direct the efforts, barely catching a moment's peace.
But less than an hour later, it happened. Another blast broke the city air, and the streets were illuminated as not one, not two, but an entire fleet of silver jets materialised between the mountains and the city wall, hovering perfectly still. All the soldiers on the streets looked up in awesome fear, their weapons held silent in their arms, each remembering their orders to not fire until fired upon. Jak in his cruiser watched them from his current position on the other side of the city, and Daxter gulped on his shoulder. From the window of the HQ Building, Samos and the other officials looked on tensely, waiting for something to happen. Down by the smoking buildings, Torn and Ashelin stood resolutely together, radios in hand beneath the head of the formation. They were in a vulnerable position and they knew it.
"Steady..." Torn hissed. "Don't shoot..."
For a solemn minute, the entire city was still. By the wall, in the air, in the buildings, and on the streets, there was absolute silence.
But then, a growing green light appeared beneath the leading jet, and Torn flung himself into Ashelin as a searing beam of concentrated energy blasted over their heads, striking the nearest defence battery and shattering it into five crackling pieces. This was it!
"OPEN FIRE!" Torn bellowed into his radio from the ground.
The city erupted with the firing of the defensive turrets, and streams of flak shot into the air. Jak led the Hellcats in a charge, swooping in on a beeline for the foremost jets. The formation broke as several more crashed down outside the walls, while the rest shot off with incredible speed to different areas over the city, raining destruction down upon the buildings.
Torn picked himself up and pulled Ashelin onto her feet. Both were unharmed but exposed in the middle of a battle zone, and they quickly sought shelter beneath the doorway of a nearby building. They got there just in time before another beam of energy exploded behind them. The road on which they had just been standing now bore a melting crater, spraying fiery sparks and leaving them both cut off with minimal protection.
The damage unfolding was phenomenal as the battle raged on. The crystallised beams of energy firing from the jets were punching holes through buildings and cutting up roads as if they were made of wet paper, and soon, smoke was rising from every corner of the city. From the cockpits of the Hellcat cruisers, the sheer scale of it was all too clear to see, and this only made the pilots fight more fiercely. They took down many of the jets, but the rest kept on firing, lighting up the streets below and causing yet more chaos as they were shot down in flames. More than a few Hellcats went down too, and Jak himself had a very narrow escape as he swerved to avoid colliding with a barrage of rapid shots.
Torn's radio was overflowing with the screams of dying soldiers and calls for help, coming from every district in the city at once, and he barked orders back into it in a desperate attempt to keep control of the situation. Ashelin stuck close to him and looked around in furious terror, watching the flames consuming the streets. She let out a fierce yell, finally venting her feelings, and stepped out from her cover to fire a few angry shots at the sky with her own handgun. It achieved nothing, but she had to do something to stop this!
The fighting went on until more than half of the jet fleet had been shot down, and the rest then teleported away as one, leaving behind them a burning wake of death and undoing. The defences fell silent, and were replaced with the roar of flames and the screams of the wounded and the dying.
Stepping out from their cover, Torn and Ashelin surveyed the devastation with a terrible weight in their hearts.
"This... this is insane..." said Ashelin slowly, feeling sick. "What the hell were those weapons?"
Torn could not answer. They were alone; all the soldiers who had been with them now lay dead on the streets, some reduced to black holes by a direct hit from the enemy's weapons, and the entire city and the sky above it were stained red with fire.
Very soon, Jak landed his vehicle close to them and opened up the cockpit, a surly but eerily calm look on his face. "That was no accident," he said simply and seriously. "I think we can say for sure that they don't want to be friends anymore."
Daxter, meanwhile, was still silent, his ears lying flat against his head.
"Hate to agree with you, Jak, but you're right," said Ashelin. "There's no doubt of it."
Torn was growling to himself, looking lethal and volatile. Without warning, he lashed out at a stray piece of metal with his foot, sending it clanging away down the broken street. "I can't believe this!" he shouted to the sky.
The others waited fearfully until his rage had subsided somewhat before trying to speak to him.
"Neither can we, Torn," said Ashelin, and her voice had an immediate soothing effect. "But we can't waste any more time here. Half the city's in flames and they could come back and finish the job at any moment, and we need to be ready for them."
Torn's heart was thumping painfully along with everyone else's. But it reminded him that he was still alive, and he was the man jointly responsible for the city's defence. He had to pull himself together.
"Yeah... you're right..." he breathed, fighting back the shock and the fury.
"Come on, Jak," said Daxter finally, not wishing to hang around any longer, "Let's get to the bar. I need to make sure Tess is OK."
Jak heard him, and he suddenly thought of Keira. He needed to know that she was safe too, wherever she was. He would have to go looking for her as soon as he could.
"Go," said Ashelin flatly to them. "We'll handle things from here, Jak. You go and do what you need to do, but be ready in case we need you again."
Jak understood, and he and Daxter once again rose into the thick air and headed towards the port.
Torn remained where he was, staring blankly at the fires, burning as hot as the anger in his eyes. Ashelin then re-approached him, having just got off the radio.
"Samos says HQ took some damage in the attack. It's top priority that it gets repaired."
Torn nodded, but he was only half-listening. He couldn't concentrate, and had fallen into some kind of stupor as he tried to absorb the consequences of what had happened today.
"Just look at it all..." said Ashelin distantly. "It'll take us weeks to undo all this."
Torn said nothing, but his grim thoughts were clear in his mind.
If we even survive that long.