Sorry for such a long delay, just been swamped with school and family problems. Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 10: Cicada

"Ruby, hurry up! Get to the quadrotor!" Hector yelled as he stepped into his own transport. The normal din of activity in the hangar had turned into a roar as the helicopters came in fast and hovered just above the landing pads. White Glint and Crescent Rose were already being loaded on when we were called down.

It seemed as though Omer and Algebra had decided to capitalize on the hole in our defenses left by the Interior Union. An Algebra/Omer strike force was moving on BFF's Kojima Sphere facilities, and we had detected a number of Omer submarines approaching Line Ark in what was supposed to be a surprise attack. They were getting bolder.

I strapped myself down in the BFF transport, and we were off before the doors fully closed. The briefing monitor flashed to life, and diagrams and pictures flew across the screen, accompanied by a frantic voice.

"This is a rather daring change of plans, but the Omer force moving on the Spheres is too far ahead for us to catch up. And the new mercenary team we hired to permanently defend the facilities may not arrive in time. So, we've drawn up a plan for you to ambush the strike force. You'll land on one of our super carriers in the arctic and we'll launch you with a Vanguard Overboost Unit. Take out as many enemies as you can before you reach the spheres, then turn and engage the survivors. With any luck, reinforcements should arrive shortly. That's it. Please hurry." The monitor cut off, filling the room with silence.

A Vanguard Overboost Unit, or VOB for short, was a new model external boost drive that could propel NEXTs upwards of fifteen hundred kilometers per hour. We never had a simulation for one at Line Ark, so this would be an on-the-fly learning experience.

A few hours later, a shrill voice on the intercom told me it was time to get ready. Quickly I clambered into the core of Crescent Rose, feeling the heat of the generator as the neural links melded with my jumpsuit. I wondered if Hector was doing the same with White Glint. He said he'd faced Omer's submarines before, but that was years ago. Hopefully there weren't any new surprises waiting for him.

"Offloading you to the carrier now." The pilot called. Crescent Rose's camera took a second to adjust to the flood of light that came in through the door of the chopper. When it cleared up, I could see we were just off the coast of a large, snowy landmass. I planted my feet down on the super carrier, and watched as another helicopter flew behind me, carrying a large device I assumed to be the VOB. It resembled a giant missile, if anything, surrounded by a multitude of smaller tubes, probably for holding fuel.

"Ms. Rose, this is General Ironwood. Can you hear me?" A familiar voice echoed through my head.

"I hear you loud and clear sir."

"Good. I assume you've already been briefed on the mission, so let me explain the greater stakes. This morning, Omer decided to test our defenses, and has made to seize our kojima facilities. At first, we believed this to be a foolish move, as with Silent Avalanche in the area they cannot hope to hold the spheres for long without NEXT support, and they are unwilling to commit their LYNX to a position so far from their headquarters. However, we suspect ulterior motives. Among their strike force we spotted a heavily armored van, but detected no heat signatures inside. Ops thinks it might be a bomb, but I'm not so sure. In any case, do not let that van reach the facilities. Make it your first priority. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good. Best of luck to you." He said before the VOB engaged.

A roar blasted across the ocean as the main rocket began to ignite, fire shooting into the air. As Crescent Rose was propelled forward along the deck I willed her to life, locking my arms and raising my legs to attach to the VOB in a belly-down position. The speed was literally breathtaking; I could almost see the air split before me, and it took all my concentration to make small course-correcting movements and not massive leaps. Soon enough, the carrier was far behind me as I tore through the sky heading for the snowy landmass that housed the Spheres.

About three minutes out, a call came through from the global comm. Recognizing the signal as Yang's, I immediately patched it though.

"Hey sis, how's it going?" She inquired.

"Fine. I'm on my way to the spheres now. Any news on the search for that pilot?"

"Funny you should ask. We're at the bunker now, and it's not the most welcoming place." Yang seemed distracted as she spoke, like she was trying to focus on something else. Evidently she had a comm channel open with Roadie as well, and I heard an echo of his voice barking a warning. "Old ac parts are everywhere, and there are a bunch of decommissioned prototypes here too. They look like NEXTs, but the cores seem odd, like they weren't meant for people. Could Rayleonard have been repurposing NEXTs into drones?"

"I guess, but they already had an unmanned prototype NEXT they used."

"I know what you're talking about, but these are different. They have full NEXT armaments and boosters."

"Hmm. That's interesting…" I paused as I glanced at my radar. One minute out. "…but I'll have to call you back Yang. I'm about to go to work."

"Alright, take care sis." She closed the line.

It was just then that the slowest of Omer's forces came into view. About a dozen flights of three black, V-shaped GAC6-GALAXY plasma bombers each, escorted by several 043AF20 assault helicopter squadrons. All of them were moving at top speed, but I would soon overtake them. I armed my rifle and missiles and lined up a shot with the nearest bomber. I was going too fast to hit all of them, so I would just have to work quickly.

The first shot ignited an engine, and another quickly shattered the fuselage, sending a flaming ball into the frozen land below. Missiles locked onto the two bombers flanking the victim, and they soon joined it in plummeting towards the ground. I passed up a helicopter squad on my right, but kept looking forward. Four more shots and another volley of missiles devastated another bomber flight, and this time I was able to launch some missiles at a chopper squadron. They were barely worth the ammo though, as a single missile was large enough to destroy two at once, and quickly the entire squadron was gone.

In seconds I was nearing the front of the ill-fated column, and as I passed the last bomber I made a daring swing with my scythe, slicing a wing clean off with a satisfying hiss and sending one more plane into the ice. The VOB was running out of fuel as well, and I needed to detach. With great effort I lowered my feet into a standing position against the wind, and separated from the large rocket. It fell to pieces behind me with a shudder as I quickly decelerated and fell towards the ground. Up ahead were what appeared to be four TYPE-DULAKE normals and the mysterious truck. Immediately I fired a barrage of gunfire and missiles at the truck. I was taking no chances in letting it slip past me. It erupted in a ball of fire as the normals moved to engage.

Blue lances streaked towards me in the escalating blizzard, and I boosted left out of the way. But my primal armor had activated, and I noticed I had taken a scathing shot to the wrist. I guess those lasers were harder to see than I thought. No matter, though. I quickly returned fire and watched one of the normals explode in a dim light among the cold.

My visibility was rapidly growing worse and worse, and I was having to rely on my radar to locate the normals. I strafed their positions as fast as I could to try and prevent them from getting a lock, and it worked for a while as I gunned down the second Dulake. The third and forth seemed more wise to my tactics however, and they split up and tried to flank me. A burst of lasers clipped my left shoulder from behind, but instead of turning around I charged ahead at the normal still in front of me. The move caught him off guard as he fumbled to dodge, and the scythe quickly punished his mistake. The severed core and arms threw up a puff of fresh snow as they fell to the ground. Only one normal remained.

As I turned to track my final opponent, another blip crossed my radar. Then another, and two more, and finally a small wall of tiny contacts. The remnants of the air force had caught up to us, and soon would be in firing range. I overboosted towards the last Dulake, boosting left and right to throw off his aim as lasers melted the snow around me before I struck him down with a single slice. But by then the bombers were upon me.

Bright blue masses of plasma erupted around me as they fired, the metallic chime of their cannons filling the air. While the normals' lasers might not have done much damage, these bombers were made to destroy Aegisterean buildings like the Kojima Spheres, and were quite capable of felling a NEXT. Assuming of course, that the LYNX was slow enough to get hit. I wasn't even close.

Taking to the skies, I fired wave after wave of missiles and sniper rounds at the bombers, and they dropped like flies, carpeting the landscape in burning fuel and metal. What few shots they did manage to get off went wide as I boosted left and right around them, taking care to descend a little and monitor my energy. If I ran out and had to land before the air force was destroyed, I would be that much more vulnerable, and the Spheres would be open to attack, wherever they were behind me in the blizzard.

The bombers and helicopters didn't last long, and soon enough I landed at the head of a field of debris. Behind me the mystery truck still burned. Whatever was in there? Slowly I turned and walked towards the flames, but on the corner of my radar a single contact appeared. I looked up and spotted a lone, damaged Galaxy bomber moving towards the Spheres. The large buildings were visible now that the blizzard had subsided, and they were much closer to the battlefield than I had thought. The white domes and the surrounding research buildings would be under attack in seconds. But as I raised my rifle, a crack rang out across the ice from over by the Spheres.

A blindingly fast bolt shot through the sky and cut clean through the bomber, boring a hole straight into the cockpit and out the tail. It dropped like a stone, and I tried to follow the trail of the sniper cannon back to its shooter, but could see no evidence of any activity. A BFF comm channel opened up to me, and a cold, female, military voice came across.

"This is Silent Avalanche Captain Natalia Belfaust. All targets destroyed, no more contacts visible or on radar. Thanks for the assistance LYNX Rose, you are cleared for extraction. We'll handle it from here."

The comm shut off as abruptly as it was opened. I marveled at the pilot. A captain of Silent Avalanche had just thanked me. They were some of the most elite normal pilots in the world, and I had just helped them out. I was much too old to express any outward emotion other than a smile, but inside I was elated with pride. I opened a channel to General Ironwood.

"It's done, General. The Spheres are safe."

"Good work. And the truck? It is neutralized?"

I had almost forgotten about the burning vehicle in the excitement of Silent Avalanche's appearance.

"Yes sir."

"Excellent. I'll send a quad for pickup."

I closed the channel and slowly approached the truck. How odd that it was out here, unarmed, relatively unarmored. I guess this attack was supposed to be a surprise, which would explain the small escort force, but still. What was in there? I edged closer to the flames, and through the smoke I thought I could make out an odd shape, something almost like an old radar dish or beamer. The technology seemed advanced and somewhat familiar, but I couldn't place it off the top of my head.

Suddenly, another global comm call began to ring. Yang again.

"Hey Yang what's up?"

"Ruby…right…drones" Yang's voice was filled with static, making it hard to pick up what she was saying.

"What do you mean, I can't understand you that well. Did you find out if those prototypes were drones?"

"Yes…defenses…" I could hear the roar of explosions and gunfire in the background of the speech. My heart skipped a beat. Yang was in serious trouble. If those NEXTs were drones with full capabilities, she and Roadie would be heavily outnumbered against opponents with equal equipment. The comm seemed to clear up.

"Yang! Yang talk to me. Where are you? What's happening."

"We're still in the bunker! Roadie blew open a door to a stasis chamber, and it must have activated the drones lying around. We're completely surrounded! These things are suicidal! They just keep charging at us faster than we can drop them. They don't have PA but they still have heavy weaponry."

"Hang on, I'm about to get on a transport now. I'm coming to help, send me your location."

"Ok just give me a…oh shit!" The comm filled with a loud burst of static.

"Yang!" I called into the darkness. "Yang! Answer me!"

Another call came in, this one from Roadie. Frantically I answered.

"Roadie what's happening in there! Is Yang okay! Where are you!" I nearly yelled. The aging pilot sounded out of breath as he answered.

"Yang's fine, her headpiece took a hit which must have disabled her comms. These damnable automatons won't let up, but we can take them. We just might not be in any condition to travel afterwards though. I sent the coordinates to General Ironwood, and he sent a rescue force already. We'll be fine, don't worry."

Although nothing about their situation seemed fine, hearing it from an experienced veteran and friend calmed my nerves a little.

"What should I do?" I asked, hoping there was still some way I could be helpful.

"Just go home and get some rest. I'm sure Yang will need some too when we're finished here. We'll have a few days off, so I'm sure she'll want to head home and see you and your folks."

"Alright, if you say so. Thanks Roadie." I turned the comms off and sat in silence for a moment. With my racing heart quelled, I began to question why Yang and Roadie were in such a dangerous situation in the first place. Yang said they opened a door to a stasis chamber, and that activated the alarm. So the pilot must be in a stasis pod. Why though? Those pods were normally used only to transfer new civilians to the Cradles so that they could be synthetically acclimated to their new climate. And why so much security? If he was this important, why didn't Rayleonard activate him when they were being destroyed as a final attempt to stave off destruction?

All the questions were starting to hurt my head, so I didn't notice the transport chopper until it was practically on top of me. Quickly I loaded myself onto the helicopter. As the doors closed I powered down Crescent Rose and climbed outside. It was still pretty cold in the cavernous room, so I shuffled into the briefing room and closed the door, savoring the heat coming from the engine. These gel jumpsuits may help us interface with NEXTs, but they were not suitable as normal clothing at all. Now I see why Hector always had his olive trench coat.

I nudged up against the wall and my mind began to wander back to the truck. That technology was so familiar I felt stupid for not realizing what it was. It definitely wasn't a bomb, like Ironwood suspected, but what else would Omer and Algebra be trying to get into the Spheres? The entire attack didn't make sense now that I thought about it. Why have a small, less mobile ground team spearhead the attack alongside precious cargo and have the larger, more powerful air force follow so far behind?

The answer came to me as I thought about my duel with the normals. Their bluish coloring meant I had trouble seeing them in the blizzard, and yet I had no trouble picking out the large, black Galaxy class plasma bombers flying through the air. And the Silent Avalanche captain acted as though they had been watching the air force. Perhaps that was the intention all along; send a hidden, low-profile ground force with the main objective in tow, and then send a large, visible air force to draw attention away. But they had underestimated the strength of BFFs radar equipment. So if they were trying to smuggle that truck in, I guess the real plan was to use whatever machine was stored in the back and not attack the facilities. Hmm.

My thoughts were interrupted by General Ironwood's visage appearing on the briefing screen. He looked less composed than he did this morning, and he spoke rapidly.

"Ms. Rose, how fit for combat is Crescent Rose right now?"

"She's nearly undamaged, why?"

"We have a major problem here. We've received word that Cradle group 21 is under attack."

I was shocked. The massive Cradles floated in the upper atmosphere, carrying the elite of the corporations and billions of innocent civilians. As much as I hated Omer, even I wouldn't attack one of their Cradles. They were fragile things, usually under heavy guard at all times.

"Who is doing this?" I asked.

"An insurgent group calling themselves 'The White Fang'. We've had trouble with them before, but nothing on this scale. So far they seem content to hold their position, but we suspect it won't be long before they start making demands and causing damage. Ruby, the Spheres have an orbital launch station that can take you to the Cradles in an hour. You are the closest LYNX to any station, so we need you to get there and get ready right now. All of the League is depending on you."

"I'm on my way sir. Before you go, I do have a question."

"Yes?"

"What's the status on the rescue team for Roadie and my sister?"

Ironwood looked puzzled for a moment, but still answered curtly.

"They've just finished clearing the facility. Roadie and your sister are fine. I didn't know they told you about their operation. Anyway, once you get to the orbital transport, we can discuss anything else about the operation that you need to."

"Ok sir, thank you." I closed the channel. "Pilot!" I called through the open door, "Turn us around and head for the spheres."

As we cruised for the launch pad, I worked myself into a frenzy thinking about everything that had happened in the past few hours. The strange circumstances of the attack, the old Rayleonard facility. This war was more than just a fight over resources. I couldn't place it yet, but something else was going on. Little did I know that the answers I sought out were about to be delivered. And they would change everything.

Once again, sorry I took so long. But I've cleared some things up, so the next chapter hopefully shouldn't be delayed by almost three months :)

I see I have some new followers and I'm glad you're all enjoying this. I love discussing this work so feel free to PM me or ask questions etc. in the comments.

I know it's a little late, but let's all have a moment of silence for Monty Oum. He was an awesome, inspiring person and the world is worse off without him.

Thanks for creating such lovable characters and an amazing world Monty. Rest in Peace.