Record of Yggdrasil

by The Sage of Toads

Ten years after the defeat of Gaia, a former investigator for the Joule Foundation declassifies and releases her account of Operation Yggdrasil. In its pages, another adventure unfolds in the shadows of Justin, Feena, and their allies–shadows that extend all the way back to the dark heart of the Old World.

3. The Fist of the End of the World

Disclaimer: I really need to boost this story's update pace, the fandom for it is so small.

Let it be said that Colonel Mullen was a cunning and charismatic man, just like his father. Many of the Garlyle's moves throughout the later stages of Operation Yggdrasil could be attributed to his tactical skill and the unwavering loyalty and determination of his men. However, not even a man whose instincts alone could put the finest tacticians to shame was infallible. There will always be a circumstance that no one could predict.

The Battle of New Parm illustrated this perfectly.

Record of Yggdrasil
File 3: The Fist Of The End of the World

Location: 1,000 feet above the East Misty Forest
Time: 04:10 Hours

The last of the Mullen Division's remaining Kites that sortied to find and shoot down the Bivrost finally landed following the lengthy search and rescue detail and the long, slow flight back to the Grandeur. On the bridge of the ship, even as the Kite was lowered into the vessel's body, the Colonel and his Lieutenant were debriefing the three Sergeants Nana, Saki, and Mio despite the late hour.

"… Throughout the engagement, despite targeting the studied weaknesses of the Grandeur-class with both High Explosive and Armor Piercing rounds, we were unable to effectively damage the Bivrost with the Kite's 3-inch cannons. Additionally, when a head-on pass on the bridge was attempted, the ship intentionally dove into the water to avoid destruction," Nana reported crisply and professionally.

Mullen nodded. "Intentionally?"

"Given the high degree of damage the ship absorbed, and the deliberateness of the maneuver," Saki continued, "It is not without reason to suspect that the Bivrost has a fully submersible amphibious capability that the Garlyle were not made privy to during her construction."

"I see." Mullen was impressed. The old Masters still had some tricks up their sleeve.

"Preliminary findings from the engagement suggest that while effective against heavily armored ground targets, the 3-inch cannon is wholly ineffectual for aerial engagement due to its slow rate of fire and recoil making precise aiming of multiple shots on the same area difficult," Mio concluded. "This is the principle reason for our failure in this mission."

Saki then spoke up. "Though Sergeant Nana's refusal to fire until the very last moment contributed heavily."

A long, tense silence followed, as a wide-eyed Nana slowly turned an intense glare onto Saki.

Mio brought her hand up and adjusted her glasses. Yep, this was happening… right in front of the Colonel.

Leen couldn't believe that she had to be awake for this, but did not show it.

Thankfully, or maybe not, Mullen restored order. "My dear Sergeants."

Murderous intent vacated the room, as all three turned their affection-starved attention to their Colonel. "Yes, Colonel!"

"I want to first thank you for taking part in this difficult mission, and express relief that despite your losses none of your men were seriously hurt," he began. "The peaceful continuation of Operation Yggdrasil, outside of the hands of the Masters of the Foundation, rests upon our shoulders. If we cannot locate and capture or destroy the Bivrost, we can expect at best resistance to our glorious cause… or at worst outright civil war."

The three Sergeants nodded in agreement.

"For that reason, we must ensure that our next move is a decisive one. As we speak, a contingency plan in the event of this operation's failure is being put into action. The Foundation's agents in New Parm have already been rounded up, and using their network we will lure the Bivrost into a trap from which there is no escape," Mullen continued.

He then gestured to the three Sergeants. "And I want the three of you to be the ones to spring the trap."

All three young women felt elated. Despite their failure, the Colonel understood and had so much faith in them! This man, they'd follow him to the pits of Hell!

"I will oversee the operation from the air aboard the Grandeur." Mullen then gestured to Leen. "Lieutenant Leen will command the operation from the ground."

Leen was already a pale young woman, so it was difficult to tell that she went stark blanche at the very idea of directly commanding the three young Sergeants (who were all in fact a year older than her). It wasn't an issue of if she could do it–she was perfectly competent in command–it's just that the three Sergeants hated her, and the feeling was more or less mutual.

Though she didn't try to put tacks in their boots, or sneezing powder in their food, or spread rumors to the men about their willingness to engage in… improper activities.

The Sergeants Saki, Nana, and Mio hated the Lieutenant. Fortunately, they were disciplined enough to not actually go beyond more or less childish pranks to try to make her look bad to the Colonel.

Although switching her juice with something a little stronger at the last graduation ceremony for recruits cut it very, very close.

They also had enough discipline to follow her orders for an important mission like this. They wouldn't like it, and they would do everything they could to make the little upstart miserable, but they would perform their duty and succeed in the mission.

"Yes Colonel," all three said as one.

"Good," Mullen said. "I expect great things from all of you. Go get rest, and when you are fully rested we will go into detail the operation. You are all dismissed."

"Understood, Colonel!" all three again said together, before turning to march out.

As soon as they were out of the bridge, Saki threw up her hands. "We have to work under Leen?!"

Nana was still mad about Saki trying to throw her under the bus.

"Gee, you know what? Maybe I should just throw away all of my pride and dignity and accept a ride on the General's lap all the way to Lieutenant, too!"

Mio took a step away from Saki.

"Then maybe I wouldn't have to take orders from such a pale, uppity, fake-!"

Nana clocked Saki right upside her thick skull with a yo-yo.

Saki staggered, and then whirled on her… associate. "DID YOU JUST-!"

"That was for throwing me under the train right in front of the Colonel, SakI! What the heck?!"

Saki got up in Nana's face. "Oh, after trying to bury both me and Mio when that old hag came by?!"

"It didn't matter, we were gonna kill her anyway!" Nana yelled back, getting right back in Saki's face.

"We were, until you screwed up what should've been a textbook head-on pass!"

Mio looked from Saki back to Nana.

"Says the muscle-brained idiot who didn't bother to load Armor Piercers on her Kite!"

From Nana to Saki.

"You uptight priss!"

Back to Nana.

"Uncute tomboy!"

Then to Saki.

"Sadist!"

And to Nana again.

"Masochist!"

Having heard enough of their bickering, Mio pulled out from under her white cape a pair of stun guns and shocked them both with a relatively mild jolt.

Both then turned on her. "WHAT IN THE HECK, MIO?!"

"Remember, girls. We aren't the enemy here, the Lieutenant is, but more importantly that 'old hag' is the big threat. Let's call it a night so we can focus on knocking them both down a few pegs, okay?"

Both Saki and Nana reeled it in, and pouted.

"Fine," the fiery redhead acquiesced.

"Yes, whatever," the violet-haired sadist conceded.

Back on the bridge, Leen looked up at Mullen. "Colonel, if I may speak freely?"

Mullen turned to Leen. "You needn't ask for permission, Lieutenant."

Leen tilted her head slightly in a nod. "Why on Earth are you trusting them to do this mission? More importantly… why are you trusting me to keep them under control?"

"They are volatile, yes, but they are also extremely driven and intelligent when they are focused on their mission. More importantly, of all the soldiers in Garalyle they are individually the strongest soldiers we have outside of you and the General, and when they work together… they can give me a run for my money." Mullen explained.

Leen lowered her gaze. "I'm not very sure I can handle them if I work this closely with them."

"I have faith in you, just like I do them," Mullen said to her, before he brightened a bit. "Besides, when you know the details of the mission I think you'll find it… fun."

Leen looked back up at her superior and cocked her head slightly. "Fun, Colonel?"

…

Location: Bivrost Stateroom
Time: 11:30 Hours

The creaking and groaning that Gontz had fallen asleep to had been replaced by the more soothing drone of the Bivrost's Icarian Engine turning in the open air again. Slowly, he sat up and stretched his hands above his head–having difficulty remembering when he last slept so well. He honestly didn't even remember falling into bed.

"Too much late to bed, early to rise in the Garlyle," he muttered to himself as he flopped back down on the very large bed–meant for the VIPs who nominally used Bivrost–and looked towards the oval-shaped porthole that showed a brilliant sight. Half the sky outside was blue, but the rest of it was pitch dark.

He sat up again, before crawling across the bed and setting his feet down on the carpeted floor. Reaching the window, he went wide-eyed at the sight of the world so far below that he could see its curvature at the horizon.

"Wha… huh?" He couldn't believe how high they were! Even the End of the World looked tiny from their vantage point!

"WHAT THE HECK?!"

On the bridge, Smalls hummed while looking at the gauges showing the performance of the ship's Icarian Engine. Several Gwyn had taken up stations that were normally vacant, silently whirring and clicking as they processed data.

"We are at FAMSL 67,000, Heading 000, speed 190 knots," Imogen reported proudly.

"Any higher and we'll stall out, there's just not enough air up here for lift," Hector said.

"So going up to Alent on our own is out of the question," Smalls said. "Well, that'll be a shame to explain to Catalina."

"Not it," Hector and Imogen said together.

Smalls sighed. "Well I guess I'll have to-"

Gontz barged in, super excited. "Holy crap, guys! The Bivrost is so high up! How did it get up here!?"

Hector, Imogen, and Smalls all stared at Gontz, their eyes all but bugged out of their sockets.

Gontz was a bit too excited to register their stares. "Well?!"

"H-high altitude test…" Hector managed to sputter.

Smalls smiled. "Not it."

"Not it for what?" Gontz asked.

Smalls fingers came up to their lips, to barely suppress a giggle. "Go wake up Catalina and tell her that we won't be able to go to Alent in our current configuration, would you…" The scientist looked Gontz over and giggled again. "… Dear?"

Gontz shrugged his shoulders, not finding the order unreasonable. He turned and pointed towards a door labeled "Captain's Quarters". "There, right?"

Smalls, now blushing faintly, nodded. "Go ahead."

Hector looked over to Imogen, who was covering her own deeply blushing face. "Eyes forward."

Thinking nothing else of it, Gontz knocked on the door. A few moments later, the door slid open, revealing a tired-looking Catalina, her well-kept blonde hair wildly all over the place and sporting a feature Gontz didn't notice before–freckles peppered across the bridge of her nose and cheeks.

He then noticed that she was wearing a thin, loose tank top that hung haphazardly off one shoulder, and a pair of fancy panties that looked much like the ones he'd once seen a few fellow soldiers swipe from the Sergeants… and then pretended he didn't see when said Sergeants came down like the wrath of a dragon upon them.

"Uhh…" he kind of froze as Catalina stared at him, confused.

"So… what is it?" she asked groggily.

Gontz quickly stood at attention, compelling himself to focus on her freckles, which were surprisingly cute. "Um… Smalls told me to tell you that the Bivrost can't go to Alent in its current configuration, mamm–sir.

Catalina nodded. "Guess then we really will have to go back to Marna Fortress. Thanks Gontz. I'll be awake and ready for the day in a little bit."

"Yes, sir," Gontz quickly replied.

Catalina went to close the door, and then stopped. "By the way, nice jock." She then closed the door.

It was then, that Gontz looked down and realized that he was indeed wearing nothing other than a jockstrap. Going from pale to a brilliant red, he whirled around with his hands over his exposed backside, and found both Smalls and Imogen averting their eyes while trying really hard not to burst into laughter.

"I… I'm… er…" Gontz bowed his head. "I'm going back to my quarters now."

"Food will be ready by the time you're ready," Smalls replied.

"G-Great…" Gontz said as he shuffled over to the door leading back. The second it opened, he vanished past it as fast as he could, backwards.

Imogen burst into girlish giggles and cupped her cheeks, as Hector glowered at her.

"So immature, Imo."

Smalls hand discreetly wiped away a bit of drool from the corner of their mouth. "Can you blame her? That was quite a sight"

"Oh don't you start, too!" Hector called at the scientist.

...

By the time Gontz returned to the bridge, Catalina was already up and back in her blue business suit. Her hair was neatly combed and dressed, and the makeup she wore made her freckles disappear completely. When she saw him, similarly suited up and wearing his helmet again, she gave him a smirk.

"Just in time for lunch and introductions," Catalina greeted. "Not as well-dressed, though."

Gontz tried not to turn red as a tomato, and managed to keep it to a salmon pink. "I'm s-sorry for that…"

"Relax, this isn't a military ship. Just don't go exposing yourself like that to the twins on purpose and we'll be solid." Catalina gestured for him to come over to the projector she stood beside. "I have some calls to make, and I want to introduce you to your new boss."

"That would be Master Duminas, right?" Gontz asked.

"Just call him Director Duminas, he's not exactly partial to his official title," Catalina replied.

Gontz hummed. That wasn't exactly like what he'd been told.

The projector activated, and the portly Director Duminas appeared, finely dressed seated behind his desk with his hands folded in front of him. "Catalina, my dear! And I presume that this is the young man you poached from the Garlyle?"

"Private Gontz, report… er…" Gontz stopped, when he realized that he wasn't a Private, anymore.

"Gontz, eh? You wouldn't be from North Parm, would you?"

Gontz stood a little straighter. "I am, sir."

Duminas laughed. "It's always good to see young men who got that idea of Adventuring and Swashbuckling out of their system for real work! You seem like a bright-eyed fellow, are you ready to do some hard work? Good work?"

"It's why I joined the Garlyle, sir!" Gontz replied.

"Good, good, that's what I want to hear, lad," Duminas said boisterously. "Listen here, the Bivrost are a special crew–if that hasn't been made abundantly clear–and they need all the help that they can get. Especially in the strength department."

Catalina's right eyebrow lifted a bit above the other.

Gontz nodded. "Right."

"When you're out there on the field with Catalina, put that training of yours to good use! The Joule Foundation is counting on you to put an end to this nonsense, lad, the whole world is. Be strong, and take care of these ragamuffins!"

Gontz smiled to the Director's projection. He rather liked this old man. "I won't let any of you down!"

"Good lad!" Duminas turned to Catalina. "My dear, what is the update on your situation?"

"Well, we were intercepted and engaged by the Garlyle Forces during the night before we could get anywhere near the Dom Ruins. We took extremely light damage, but it's clear that the Garlyle are not only hostile but actively searching for us," Catalina reported.

Duminas closed his eyes and hummed. "That is no good."

"Not at all, Director. The Garlyle are in a position to close off the New World to us. That however, is not my primary concern."

"The Jezebel Division," Duminas said for her.

Catalina nodded. "Yes. The Jezebel Division is responsible for security of all of the Old Continent, including Marna Fortress. If they are in league with General Baal as well, any effort to move against them may lead to an armed insurrection with no way for the Masters to defend against it."

"Do not fear, my dear," Duminas reassured Catalina. "We're the Internal Investigation Branch, we have our tricks to keep things nice and quiet. Focus now on evading the Garlyle, and getting ahold of that Justin lad and his Spirit Stone. Soon as that's done, the sooner we'll have leverage against Garlyle's treasonous acts."

"That's the plan," Catalina said before saluting. "We'll keep you up to date on any developments, Director."

"Good girl, my dear. You continue to impress me!"

The transmission ended and Catalina sighed. "'My dear', 'my dear', 'my dear!' Urgh!"

Gontz let out a small laugh. "He acts like you're his daughter."

"He wishes I'd call him Daddy," Catalina groused as the door opened and Smalls entered the bridge, followed by two Gwyn carrying trays.

Smalls gestured to the automatons, which lifted the covers from their trays revealing a thick and meaty-looking stew with a few diced potatoes. "Lunch is served, everyone. Have you ever had food from the other side of the wall, Gontz?"

"Actually, no, I heard most of it was unfit for human consumption…"

Smalls beamed. "Well I hope you're ready for some expanded horizons, this is a stew recipe from the village of Laine. Spicy Rappijulian Laine Volvok Stew."

Gontz took a bowl, as did Catalina. "That's a mouthful," he said.

"So is the stew," Smalls replied while taking a bowl as well and sitting down in another seat.

Gontz sat down and took a bite. It was spicy, but not nearly as brutal as some of the cuisine back home.

Gontz nodded and looked down at his bowl. "So you've been to the other side of the wall?"

"We all have," Catalina answered. "Have you?"

Gontz shook his head. "No, not yet at least. There was a lot of talk that we were going to deploy over the wall, but then you guys showed up and here I am."

He ate another spoonful of the sweet and spicy stew. "What's it like?"

"Different, aside from the other Garlyle Soldiers, there are no humans on the other side of the wall, all the people there are humanoids."

Gontz knew of humanoids, they resembled humans but were wildly different, having long ears, horns, or entirely resembling animals like rabbits and frogs. He also knew, now at least, that there was one humanoid settlement on this side of the End of the World, but it was well hidden by the thick fog of the Misty Forest.

He looked down at the stew again, then back up at Smalls. "Then… where did you get this recipe?"

Smalls laughed. "From a Lainian, of course."

Gontz's expression slackened slightly. "In training, we're taught that in the event of confrontation with Humanoids, to avoid them on account of them being dangerous and primitive, like animals."

Catalina appeared to take offense to that. "Really? Outrageous."

Gontz hummed in query to Catalina.

"Operation Yggdrasil wouldn't be a thing if it weren't for a humanoid. Though, I certainly understand why no one would tell you regular rank and file about it."

"Really?!" Gontz asked, surprised.

"All the secrets of Angelou we've uncovered in the last twenty years come from the humanoids. To us, it's an incomprehensible myth with a dead, indecipherable language, otherwise," Catalina explained.

That just amazed Gontz. "Really? That's incredible… I had no idea…!"

"I can't blame you; no one has any idea about anything nowadays," Smalls reassured him. "I mean, before you first saw Tanks, Kites, or the Grandeur, did you have any idea those could exist?"

Gontz sat there, silent for a minute, before he looked down at his bowl again. "No, I guess not."

He looked back up at his new associates "It's a little scary to think about, honestly. Until I first saw the real Garlyle, I thought everything was steamships and trains and fighting with swords. Then I graduated and realized how… how primitive I lived by comparison."

He sighed. "Then I learned that there was no such thing as the End of the World, that humans went over the wall all of the time. It's such a scary thing that I'm afraid to go back home, really… I don't want to face my mother and my brothers and be unable to tell them 'there is such a bigger, better world out there, but you're not allowed to know about it'."

Finally, Gontz shook his head. "It's kind of bogus how enlightened the Garlyle Forces are, and how powerful they are because of it."

"Watch your language, kid," Catalina half-snapped.

"Sorry." He took another bite of his soup. "There's not a single person outside of the military who even realizes how far we've actually come. In a way, we're a lot like the humanoids to the Garlyle, aren't we? Savages…"

He lowered his spoon to the bowl again. "Now, the Garlyle are betraying us and even if we get the Spirit Stone to Alent, there's nothing more we can do against them."

"That's not true," Smalls' said.

"It's like you and the director talked about, even if Operation Yggdrasil fails, what's stopping the entire Garlyle from overthrowing the Joule Foundation and ruling over everyone like we were just… savages?"

Silence fell on the bridge, broken only by the whirring motors of the Gwyn and the hum of the Bivrost.

Then there was the clink of Catalina's spoon inside her bowl, followed by her setting it back onto the Gwyn's tray.

"We are," she said plainly. "So are Justin, and Sue, and Feena."

Catalina then looked out towards the pale blue sky and the darkness it bordered. "Liete as well. She can't do much from where I imagine she is, but even that's something."

She turned back to Gontz. "We don't even have a tenth of Garlyle's war potential, but what we do have, and need to have, is determination. There's too much riding on what we do, to give up in the face of what we know, we need to do what little we can because even that is more than nothing."

Gontz felt a shiver run through him. It was much the same he got whenever Colonel Mullen made a speech. Catalina was right, worrying about how powerful the Garlyle were at this point wouldn't change things. Only action would.

"You're right," he said with a smile.

Catalina took her stew back. "Of course I am. I always am."

"The only time she isn't is when she and I argue," Smalls teased.

"Which is never," Catalina corrected.

"And you're wrong again," Smalls pointed out.

It took Catalina a minute. "… Dang it."

Gontz laughed, before changing the subject back to lighter topics. "So, Smalls, what are Lainians like?"

Smalls laughed. "Wild, intelligent, and fierce…" The scientist blushed with hands over cheeks. "But also surprisingly tender and kind."

"T-Tender?" Gontz repeated, before Imogen spoke up.

"Guys…? We have a coded message from the Foundation Contact in New Parm."

Everyone else looked to her, as she turned around in her seat and peered over it to look at them.

"Justin has arrived back in town."

…

Location: Town of New Parm
Time: 20:00 Hours

Operation Thrymskvida was efficient at every stage. Within twelve hours, the Garlyle captured and compromised the Joule Foundation's assets based in New Parm, moved the appropriate forces into the vicinity of the town, and laid a trap so well-concealed that not even the Townspeople were aware of what was going on. Unfortunately, it was the very efficiency of the operation that led to its downfall…

… And our determination that sealed it.

Lieutenant Leen was in much brighter spirits as she turned to a projection of Colonel Mullen illuminated inside of the spacious bridge of a camouflage-net covered super heavy tank that served as her forward base for the operation. The large orange-hulled, three turreted monstrosity was just outside of the town, well concealed in one of the bamboo thickets that grew without human intervention in the town's outskirts.

"The time is now 20:00 hours, Colonel, as scheduled our forces are in town and are in position to strike," the inexplicably blue-haired young Lieutenant said with a smile that was rare in recent days.

"Well done, Leen, you work surprisingly well with a time limit," Mullen replied after performing a flick of his hair. "You should be proud of yourself."

Leen nodded. "It's just as much how fun it was to prepare this operation as my satisfaction, Colonel."

The young Colonel could only imagine. Once Leen learned the exact details of the operation, she was actually quite giddy to see it through. Not only would it involve a return to her old town, but if everything went as planned, it'd be a mission that would go through with hardly any incident.

That the three Sergeants would be absolutely miserable through it was a little bit of a bonus… nice as she was.

"Sergeants Saki and Mio should be in position, and I am waiting for confirmation from Sergeant Nana that the remaining units are clear to move when ready," she continued.

"Good," Mullen said, "We've found a good spot to keep the Grandeur hidden until the Bivrost appears, and Sergeant Mio's invention should keep us off their screens long enough for us to make a dash and bring them down."

Leen stood a little straighter then, and her smile vanished for trained professionalism. "I wish you luck on that portion of the operation. We will do our very best on our end."

Mullen noticed it. "Complete destruction of the Bivrost is not our priority. Forcing it down will achieve the same outcome."

"I understand, Colonel," Leen replied, "But don't be reluctant to do what you must out of consideration for me. I am a soldier, too."

Mullen smiled slightly. "I keep underestimating you, Lieutenant."

Leen checked the time. "The time is 20:02 hours, Sergeant Nana should be reporting her units are in position."

Sure enough, the projector beeped a notification, and Leen nodded. "Excuse me, Colonel."

The image of the Colonel was replaced by that of Sergeant Nana, who immediately scowled upon her junior superior. "The men of the Bloody Rose, Lightning Star, and Desert Moon Squads are in position, Lieutenant."

"Are Sergeant Saki and Sergeant Mio in position?" Leen asked.

"Yes, Lieutenant," Nana replied, "They have entered town without incident and are currently waiting at the restaurant we told the target to meet them at."

"Have all civilians been accounted for?" Leen asked.

"Of course, Lieutenant, the only civilians at the restaurant are the staff. Civilians are unaware of our presence entirely."

Leen really could do without Nana's attitude, but figured having to talk to her superior directly was downright stomach churning for her. "Remember, Sergeant, this is a capture operation. Do not escalate the situation without warrant and keep your men on a tight leash or the next mission you will undertake will involve a urinal and a toothbrush."

Nana's scowl flickered to a momentarily stunned surprise. Did the Colonel's quiet pet just snap at her? She was so miserably lucky that she outranked her.

"Yes, Lieutenant," she all but hissed at Leen, before closing the connection.

"Ugh, that stuck up priss! I bet she was holding that in for the exact second Colonel Mullen wasn't around to see it!" she snapped before turning to a pair of soldiers in black versions of the Garlyle soldier uniform.

They were standing at the door the adobe-walled, clay shingled roof building that was as common as dirt in New Parm, and directly across the dirt street from the restaurant where Saki and Mio were currently located. Until Nana had turned to face them, they were trying their hardest not to burst into laughter as their tyrannical commanding officer got served by the true beauty of the Mullen Division.

"Well, is everything ready?" she asked.

"Yes, Sergeant."

Nana smirked, before folding her arms. "At 20:30, the priss will contact for a status report. Tell her that everything is fine."

Her expression became darker. "No matter what you might hear… or else."

The two soldiers quickly saluted. "Yes, Sergeant!"

With a smirk of satisfaction, Nana strolled over to the window of the adobe home, and peered discreetly through the curtains across the street. Of everyone in the operation, she was probably the only other person besides the Lieutenant who was happy where she was.

Saki and Mio were absolutely miserable.

…

Location: Port of New Parm
Time: 20:08 Hours

A sailboat powered with an electric motor pulled in close to New Parm's port. It came up behind the Parm/New Parm steamer, a massive, paddle-wheel driven ship that the civilians outside of the Joule Foundation held with such pride. On the deck of the boat was Gontz. He was looking up at the ship, looking like a shadowed hunk of metal in the deepening twilight, and feeling a little nostalgic.

"I appreciate you coming with me on this one," Catalina said as she emerged from the steering house of the sailboat, an invention of Smalls' for such stealthy insertions.

"I have to," Gontz said, "Besides, it'll be the first time I've seen Justin in a while."

Catalina, who now wore a pair of extremely short blue shorts, tan riding chaps, and a brown jacket over a black cutoff top, adjusted the bright red bandanna she wore over her blonde hair. "You didn't have to, I'm actually pretty good at taking care of myself."

Gontz, wearing blue jeans, a bright green shirt, a heavy looking backpack, and a goofily large green hat, glanced at Catalina and then looked away. After spending so long in the Forces, he was not used to seeing this much skin with women. "The director said I should-"

"Duminas says a lot of things," Catalina said. "You saw how I handled those orcs, right?"

Gontz nodded. "Sorry."

Catalina smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it."

Patting him again, she turned and hopped off the boat to begin tying it up. Gontz watched her, and the sharpness of her movements as she yanked the ropes, and it dawned on him with a sudden clarity that left him feeling more than a little ashamed.

"Let's not dwaddle, now," she said as she got up and hopped ashore. Gontz nodded and matched pace with her to the port's gate.

Part of what made New Parm such an ideal location for settlement was its climate, the days were hot and the nights were comfortable despite the proximity to the sea. It was so calm and peaceful, a nice night for a walk around the town. Stealing a look at Catalina, as they walked past the closed up merchant stands that were the first things to greet travelers from the Old World, Gontz folded his hands behind the back of his neck and looked up at the deepening twilight sky.

"Hey, I have a question," he said.

Catalina looked at him. "Let me have it."

"Director Duminas is kind of a jerk to you, isn't he?"

The short laugh Catalina let out told him it was an understatement. "He's a dirty old chauvinist who is about two decades out of date when it comes to dealing with women. That whole thing where he told you to take care of us and be strong was him being happy there was an actual manly man on board the Bivrost."

Gontz suddenly liked that old man a little less. "Oh… if I ever act like that, don't hesitate to correct me on that, okay?"

Catalina laughed. "I don't think you could ever do that even unintentionally. You're pretty whipped."

"Whipped?" Gontz asked, looking offended. "I'm not…"

"Twice you've looked like I was going to hit you for nothing," she said, "You've probably lived your whole life being beat up on by girls, huh?"

Gontz's face turned red. "Um… well… between my mother chasing me with a broom handle whenever I got into trouble, and Miss Lily's tray when she'd come down on Justin and me and my brothers… and the Sergeants…"

Catalina tried not to laugh, but it came out as a giggle. "It's exactly as I thought. You don't just respect women, you're outright afraid of them."

"Afraid of making them angry…" Gontz said a little darkly.

Catalina laughed out loud this time. "Well, that's certainly a healthy fear to have. But… don't be too afraid of me, okay? We're partners now, and I'm a lot more easygoing than you think."

"I um… got that idea…" he said, remembering the awkward wakeup call.

Catalina grinned. "So, liked what you saw?"

Gontz's face turned entirely red.

"I'll take that as a yes," she teased.

Gontz, still blushing, then rather meekly said. "I think your freckles are nice, why do you cover them up?"

It was Catalina's turn to bloom into a blush. "Er… I'm not a fan of them. I mean, they're not like yours… they're all over my face and cheeks. It's like I got the pox or something. It's hard to look professional when people's attention get drawn to them."

"Well, I think they're nice," he said reservedly.

Catalina looked aside, "A-all right… that's enough flattery for one night. We're on a mission, not a date, after all…"

"R-right!" Gontz quickly agreed, also looking anywhere but at her.

In their desperate attempt to escape awkwardness, they both realized that they'd arrived at the gate of New Parm.

"Oh! We're already here, great!" Gontz said. "Where did our people say Justin would be waiting?"

"Pakon's Dinner Theater," Catalina said… before she suddenly shuddered.

Gontz wondered what that was about. "Are you okay?"

"In this world, there are worse men than Duminas, I'll leave it at that," Catalina explained.

That only left Gontz with more questions, as they entered New Parm and headed for their destination.

…

Location: Pakon's Dinner Theater
Time: 20:21 Hours

Pakon's Dinner Theater, like most of the businesses in the Town of New Parm, was owned by the head of New Parm's Adventurer's Society–a buffoon of a young man named Pakon who took the reins of the organization from his father, an Adventurer named Gauss. Not even worthy to be considered a pale shadow of his father, the clownish manchild single-handedly dismantled what was considered by some to be one of the most important organizations on the new continent, responsible for the many adventurers who historically helped explore it–reducing it to little more than a money machine for tourists from the Old World.

Pakon's Dinner Theater reflected the childishness and greed of the man it was named for. Once a respectable sake bar, it quickly became a gaudy place serviced with scantily dressed girls, decorated with pictures of Pakon himself–who somehow came to the conclusion that dressing as a clown and carrying around a lollipop at all times was fashionable–and featuring entertainment that pretty much sang his praises while promoting his business ventures.

"What an awful place," Gontz said as he and Catalina walked in.

"I agree, it's not the best atmosphere, but the food is actually pretty good," Catalina said before they were approached by a pretty waitress wearing even less than she was.

Gontz, flushing, tried not to stare.

"Like, hello! Welcome to Pakon's Dinner Theater!" the pretty girl greeted. "Will it be just the two of you?"

Catalina nodded. "Actually, we're here to see some friends of ours, Feena and Justin."

The waitress brightened. "Oh, like awesome! They are totally here, and they were totally expecting company."

Gontz tried to rein in his excitement. "Great, can you take us to them, then?"

"Like, right this way!" the waitress said as she headed further into the restaurant.

Catalina nudged Gontz just as they followed them in. "Be cool, okay? I know you're excited to see your friends, but we're in enemy territory. There could be Garlyle agents among the customers here."

Gontz nodded. "R-right…"

Crossing the entire length of the restaurant's lobby to get to the back wall of it, the two were brought to a booth in the corner, where a redheaded boy wearing blue coveralls with the legs and sleeves rolled way up, and a goofy looking conductor's hat with goggles holding them against his head was sitting with a green-haired girl wearing what a bikini and sarong combo with sun decals on them, and a pair of pink thigh-high stockings.

Right away, Gontz noticed something worrying–namely the absence of an adorable purple-haired girl with an unusually large yellow ribbon.

"Hello, how's your food?" the waitress greeted the two. "Like, your friends have totally shown up!"

The redheaded boy, Justin, looked up and at the waitress, before looking over at Catalina and Gontz. "Thanks, can we have our check? We're about finished here," he said in a hoarse voice.

"Like, for sure, but did you want to order anything for your guests?" the waitress asked.

"No, that will be fine," Feena–the green-haired girl–gently said.

"Okay!" the clerk said as she turned and headed for the back, her bright façade briefly vanishing to reveal a brooding disappointment at a lost tip.

As she walked away, Catalina looked back and forth between Justin and Feena. Gontz, seeing only two spots at the table, went from worried to alarmed.

"Justin! Oh man, I'm glad to see you, but…" he looked back and forth from Justin and the empty spot at the table. "Where's Sue? Is she okay?"

Catalina then rested her hand on Gontz's shoulder. "Um… Gontz?"

Gontz looked over at her, and found she looked somewhere between sick and furious. When he looked back, he noticed that, Justin and Feena were both wearing the nastiest smiles as they stared at the two of them. On closer inspection, Gontz realized that "Justin" had brown eyes, when he was supposed to have blue, and "Feena" was putting on a pair of yellow-tinted glasses-

"Oh… bogus…" he muttered, as "Justin" reached up and removed his hat, revealing Sergeant Saki's shorter (yet just as unruly) mop of red hair.

"Well, well, well," Mio said as she reclined back in her seat. "It seems you're exactly as dumb as I calculated."

Catalina, bristling, took a half-step back. She stopped when she saw that the other patrons in the restaurant, a total of twelve seated around the restaurant, rising from their seats. All men, and despite their disguises they all looked military-trained. A perfect trap, and they'd literally walked right into it! She couldn't believe it, had all of their agents in town been compromised that quickly?!

"Oh man, the look on your face!" Saki said as she drew from the sheath on her back her Garlyle saber. "Disguising as this idiot was worth it just for this, right Mio?"

"I'll say." Mio looked down at her garb. "Drafty and lewd as this is, I do make a pretty convincing Feena. Just like you make an exceptionally masculine Justin."

Saki shot Mio the nastiest look.

Mio then gave Catalina the once-over and couldn't help a snipe. "Though seeing you in that getup makes me thankful that I have the body for mine."

Catalina went from horrified and furious at walking into this trap, to downright enraged at Mio's catty barb. "You really shouldn't sell us so short. You captured all of the Foundation's agents and pulled this elaborate sting together within a day. Even a pro would fall for this trap."

Mio chuckled. "Not that you were a pro to begin with, but I suppose you're right."

"Yeah, you old hag," Saki said. "I'm going to enjoy watching you dangle from the gallows."

She then looked to Gontz. "And you too, traitor!"

Gontz recoiled. "Y-you're the traitors!"

Saki didn't take kindly to that, and drove her fist into Gontz's stomach. "Don't you take that tone with me, maggot!"

"Ah, Gontz!" Catalina gasped as the winded young man collapsed to his knees, clutching his stomach.

At that moment, the front door of the restaurant opened and in walked Nana, followed by six more men in full Garlyle gear and bearing sabers. "I hate to say it, but it looks like the Lieutenant's going to have good news to report to Herr Mullen."

Catalina scanned the room from Saki and Mio to Nana, and then back again. The entrance to the restaurant was covered, and there were way too many soldiers to just fight through. To the side, past the disguised soldiers, was the doorway to the back of the restaurant, where there was most likely a door to the back… but that was probably covered too.

"It's pretty hopeless," Nana taunted, "So don't make this too hard for us and come quietly."

She developed a nasty sneer. "Though I'm perfectly fine with you trying to fight. I'd like to pay you back for your disrespect!"

Catalina clenched her teeth. As much as she hated this, she was right. This situation was utterly hopeless!

There was suddenly a loud bang, drawing everyone's attention to the double doors of the restaurant that led to the kitchen. Standing in the now open doorway was an exceptionally muscular chef with smoothly slicked-back hair ending in a braided pigtail, and bandages wrapped around his calloused hands. Through narrowed eyes shadowed by his bushy eyebrows, he glared death at Saki before pointing at her.

"… You!" he suddenly shouted aloud at the Sergeant.

Saki recoiled. "Me?!"

The chef then adopted a fighting stance. "Rematch!"

Saki's eyes grew large. "What?!"

The chef then yelled aloud.

"FIGHT!"

The martial artists then became nearly a blur, hopping from side to side in a dancing motion, before he was suddenly all over the place, skillfully moving around the soldiers who were between him and Saki like water flowing through a brook. In less than a second he was rounding Catalina and the downed Gontz, with his arm drawn back.

Saki, falling upon her training, quickly raised her sword to strike, but the chef's calloused knuckles were already filling her field of view.

"Wait, wha-?" she managed to blurt out.

The blow connected, and the next thing Saki knew everything was spinning. She felt her body impact with something, which hurt, before she heard a bang and then everything outside the restaurant was spinning… before she hit what she was pretty sure was the adobe wall of the safehouse Nana had been using across the street.

The question of how she got outside was one that weighed heavily on her mind as she peeled off the wall like a stuck pancake and fell face-first onto the ground.

On the other end of the swirling trail of dust left by the punch, the chef stood posed in the completed motion of his devastating blow.

"Fist of the End of the World Supreme Finishing Technique! Super Tornado Punch!" he declared aloud.

Mio and Nana, and all of their soldiers were all in stunned silence at what had just happened to Saki. So much that they were hesitant to move at all towards Catalina and Gontz plus the interloper.

Catalina, as gobsmacked as everyone else in the room was, suddenly began to think very, very fast. "Hey! Big guy!"

The chef looked over at her. "Hm?"

"I have bad news, good news, awful news, and great news!" she quickly began. "The bad news, that guy you just punched was not the guy you wanted to punch!"

The chef was surprised. "Hm?!"

"The good news is, I'm looking for Justin and have a good lead on where he is!"

The chef went from surprised to understanding. "Hmm!"

"The awful news is that these Garlyle guys want to kill us, then kill him!"

The chef became quite angry and narrowed his eyes; that would not do. "Hmm…"

"The great news is, if you help us escape, I can take you straight to him and you can have that rematch for real!"

The chef didn't even need a second to mull that over. "My name is Chang, seventy-third Grand Master of the End of the World Fist. I shall take you up on your offer."

It took a moment for that to register with Nana. "Wait, what?!"

Suddenly Chang was leaping into a soaring backflip, arcing through the air to land among the disguised soldiers of the Desert Moon and Lightning Star Squads to land square on his head. Spreading his legs perpendicular to his body, he called out.

"SPIN KICK!"

He spun like a top, striking the soldiers with his feet and legs and sending them sprawling in different directions.

Reaching into Gontz's backpack, Catalina pulled out a pair of trench knives and his Garlyle Saber before taking the former into her hands. "Gontz, we gotta go!"

Gontz coughed and nodded as he picked up his sword and turned towards the mess that Chang was making. "What's the plan?!"

"Follow the-!" Catalina suddenly turned and deflected with the knuckle guard of the knife a skillful rapier lunge from Mio, who wielded a blade she'd hidden under her table. Knocked back in spite of the deflect, Catalina planted her feet and deflected a barrage of thrusts and stabs from Mio's sword.

Drawing back her rapier, Mio smirked and then lunged again like a missile, a wave of force coming from her blade as she aimed to plunge it into Catalina's chest. "HA!"

Catalina smartly caught the blade between both her trench knives, and directed it and Mio past her using her own momentum.

"H-huh?!" Mio managed to sputter before Catalina's boot drove into the small of her back and she was sent stumbling into a table and some chairs, knocking them over. "UWAH!"

Catalina looked back at an amazed Gontz. "As I was saying: follow the big guy!"

Nana, who had managed to avoid one of her own soldiers turned into a Chang-propelled missile, immediately caught sight of Catalina and Gontz moving towards her. "Oh no you don't!"

She moved quickly, closing in on Gontz and swinging her Garlyle saber. Gontz, prepared for a strong blow, quickly raised his sword and parried the strike. Nana followed up, her poke-like thrusts forcing Gontz to keep his sword raised defensively to avoid getting struck.

The Sergeant, however, was a bit too fast for him, and one poke caught his shoulder, allowing her to swing diagonally and downward, leaving a cut on his chest.

"Ah!" he hissed in pain, as it left his neck exposed to a follow-up strike.

Nana's blow came up woefully short as Catalina shoved Gontz aside and caught the saber with the serrated teeth of the trench knife in her left hand. As she guided the sword away her right hand, with the grip on the other trench knife inverted, came up to drive the knuckle shield into Nana's chin in an uppercut.

"Urk!" Nana staggered back, and then used her sword to parry both of Catalina's knives in quick succession, before she locked against them both.

She couldn't believe it. How in the world was this pencil-pusher this good of a fighter?

Without hesitation, Nana shot her leg out to sweep Catalina off hers. Instead, Catalina caught her foot against hers, then quickly skirted it around to catch her by the ankle then completely drop her footing. "Ah!"

The knuckle shield of Catalina's left trench knife collided with her face, and Nana was knocked onto her back and against one of her knocked out men.

Catalina, for her merit, was a little disturbed. "That was like punching a brick wall, these girls are crazy tough!"

Gontz pressed his hand to his chest, and sighed as the heal spell he used on himself took effect. Getting up, he saw in front of him Chang narrowly avoiding the stabs and swings from other Garlyle soldiers, his fleet feet and furious fists striking the soldiers decisively.

"Traitor!"

He looked over and saw one of the Garlyle Soldiers get up, picking up a second saber off one of his fallen comrades, before crossing both in front of him and adopting a two-sword stance.

Gontz looked at his hand, and then pointed it at the soldier, casting Crackle and knocking him out cold. "Chill out."

A second soldier attacked, and Gontz managed to parry and then cut the soldier with a return stroke. Raising his hand, he pointed it at a third soldier, and cast a Howl spell that struck and blew the soldier back into another table.

As he turned to the side to parry another soldier, Catalina punched the soldier with her knife and kept going forward. "We gotta keep going!"

"Right!" Gontz called as he fell in behind her and slashed the disoriented soldier, putting him down for the count.

At the doors to the restaurant, two Garlyle soldiers yelled as the charged Chang. The slash of one went through a flickering afterimage, before Chang's knee collided with the side of his head and dropped him on the spot. The other soldier raised his blade, a glow shimmering around it, but Chang was faster, and his mighty fist collided with the soldier's chest and sent him spinning out the doors like he had Saki, knocking them off their hinges.

As the soldier hit the ground, Chang strode outside, followed by both Catalina and Gontz.

"Fist of the End of the World, huh?" Catalina asked. "Fitting name…"

"It is an art learned by my ancestors, after crossing the ocean to the New World," Chang said stiffly. "It is a relic of the Angelou Civilization."

Gontz was surprised. "Really? An Angelou Martial Art?"

Chang nodded. "Hm!"

"And Justin beat you?" Catalina asked.

Gontz recoiled. "That's why you KOed Saki?!"

"He and his companion were incredibly strong," Chang admitted. "While not an easy battle, he ultimately prevailed over me."

"Wow, you hit like a tank! How did Justin even win?!" Gontz said in awe.

Chang was unfamiliar with the term. "What is a tank?"

Catalina then looked to her left. "That's a tank."

And then an 88mm tank round shot past them and smashed into the wall of the town, blasting a large chunk out of it. All three remained frozen in surprise and dismay as they looked at the green and gold colored, steam-powered tank that adjusted its aim ever so slightly to place its crosshairs on them. Beside it, a second Garlyle Tank rolled up, similarly training its weapon onto the group.

Standing atop the first tank, a recovered Saki wiped the blood that trickled from her mouth before she smiled menacingly. "Now that I have your attention! It's time for you to surrender and start pleading for mercy!"

As she said this, both Nana and Mio emerged from the bar, as more Garlyle Soldiers entered the street. Catalina, Gontz, and Chang looked around at the completely lopsided odds as they drew closer together.

Chang hummed. "This many men I would have little trouble with, it is these tanks as you call them that give me concern."

"Yeah, that's a common thing about the Garlyle," Catalina said. "Luckily, I am a lady who believes in preparing for any situation, such as leaving my radio on so the Bivrost has heard everything that's happened so far."

"Radio?" Chang asked.

"Just one of the many interesting things you're about to get a crash course on, Mr. Karate," Smalls' voice called from Catalina's back pocket. "We're already en route to drop the Ranger Equipment. Please do try not to get crushed."

Catalina then raised her hands, her expression grim. "All right, you win. We surrender."

Saki smirked, as she was joined by Nana and Mio. "That's exactly what I like to see!"

…

Location: Off the Coast of New Parm
Time: 20:27 Hours

The waves scattering beneath its hull as it traveled at top speed, the Bivrost screamed towards New Parm with its altitude barely above the mast of the New Parm Steamer. Along the ventral hull, aft of the closed lifting engines, a long hatch opened, revealing a rig holding a cylinder shaped drum that begins rotating at high speed, developing a tremendous backspin.

On the bridge, illuminated only by the screens at their consoles, both Hector and Imogen watched the port of New Parm approach their bows rapidly.

"ETA to drop point, twenty seconds!" Imogen reported. "Maintain course and altitude to the drop point!"

Hector, who kept his eyes dead ahead and left the instrumentation to his sister, nodded. "Roger!"

"My, I certainly hope they're not dead by the time this gets here," Smalls, who stood behind them quite sturdily despite the turbulence of flying so fast and so low, mused aloud. "That would be awkward."

"Let's not think about that outcome, okay?!" Hector shouted back.

"Ten seconds!" Imogen called out. "We're crossing the port now!"

On the deck of the New Parm Steamer, the incredible sound of approaching engines had brought her sailors and her Captain to the deck. Their curiosity quickly turned to disbelief as the massive form of the Bivrost sliced through the air just aft of the ship and bored on through the humid night towards the town itself.

"Dropping in three, two, one…!" Imogen called out just as the ship passed over the gate leading from the port to the long path to the town. On one, the cylinder disengaged from the ship and it pulled into a sharp climb, leaving the spinning drum to hit the ground and then bounce, the backspin giving it all the momentum of a skipping stone that bounced towards the town at hundreds of miles per hour.

…

"Ohohohoho! So, what should it be? Firing squad right now? Or should we take them back and torture them first?" Nana asked.

"I can go both ways," Saki declared as she gave Chang the stink-eye for his cheap shot from before.

"I knew it," Mio chimed in.

That took Saki a second, and she gave Mio an even darker look. "How dare you."

"Sergeants, look!" A Garlyle soldier then shouted, pointing skyward right as the Bivrost shot over the town, rising up in a near vertical climb.

"The Bivrost!" Nana shouted.

"Wait, what's it doing here?!" Saki demanded. "Do those lunatics not care that they're revealing themselves to these yokels?!"

Mio looked at Saki, who she knew for a fact grew up on a farm. "Yokels?"

Over the fading roar of the departing ship, the three sergeants then noticed the approaching bangs of something large and metal bouncing off the ground. That was the only warning they received when a cylinder half the size of a Garlyle Tank hopped over the town's wall, passed over the heads of Catalina, Gontz, and Chang, and went bouncing straight for the tank Nana, Saki, and Mio were gathered around.

All three Sergeants screamed, and dove clear of the tank, which took the hit head on from the bouncing cylinder and was thrown backwards off its treads and onto its turret with a mighty crash. Rebounding in the other direction, the cylinder landed with a final bang, kicking up a cloud of dust as it rolled back towards Catalina's group, coming to a stop.

Gontz stared at the cylinder, shaken. "What's this?"

"The Ranger equipment," Catalina said as she went in search of a hatch. "You guys, I need a minute to get ready. Try to get to cover?"

Chang cracked his knuckles. "I would much rather test my strength against these tanks of theirs."

Gontz looked from Chang, to the cylinder, to Catalina, and then towards the Garlyle forces beyond the clearing dust. "I guess I'm going to help you, then." He turned to Catalina. "Cat, please be careful!"

"I told you not to call me that," Catalina said as she found the hatch button and ducked inside.

Saki was the first one up, giving a look of disbelief at the trashed tank, before looking at the cylinder as the dust settled. "Is… is that a bomb?"

"It would've blown up when it hit the tank," Mio said. "My best guess is that it would be some sort of weapon container or carrying some kind of escape vehicle…"

Before Mio could realize the implications of what she was saying, Nana was already on it. "Men! Don't let them get the contents of that container!"

Saki, getting up and picking up her sword, called to the other tank. "Open fire on it right now!"

"OHRYAAAAAAAH!" Chang suddenly bellowed as he fell upon the remaining tank from above, his Super Tornado Punch plunging down through the roof of the tank and taking out the gunners inside it.

As the human anti-tank missile was used to great effect, Gontz pointed his hand at the troups adjacent to the tank and concentrated with all of his might. "Knock 'em all down with Gale Force!"

A blue light shimmered in Gontz's open palm that began spinning like a sawblade. With all his might, he threw the light at the Sergeants and their soldiers. Striking the ground, the light expanded, and the air caught by its cutting edges spun up into a large tornado of air, dirt, and blades of light that barreled into the overturned tank, the wind scattering Nana, Mio, and their men the instant it hit them.

Mio collided with the side of a house, along with two of her men. Nana bounced off the front of the overturned tank and fell flat on her face, only to be unintentionally dogpiled by four more soldiers. Only Saki, who had braced herself, remained standing after the hit. Lowering her arm, she glared death at Gontz, fire burning in her eyes.

"You think that's going to keep me down, you worm?!" She yelled out.

Chang then punched her in the side of the head, sending her crashing into Mio, who let out a chicken-like squawk when the well-muscled young woman struck her.

"Hmph, I expected more from that tank," Chang announced after landing his sucker punch. Behind him, the second tank was smoldering, with its badly beaten crew lying on or around it.

Movement out the corner of his eye alerted him, and Chang quickly turned to narrowly avoid a Yo-Yo of all things. Wearing a furious look, Nana recalled then swung the Yo-Yo again, and Chang expertly weaved under to dodge it. Finally, Nana spun around, swinging the Yo-Yo with all her might. Seeing it coming, Chang jumped back and watched in surprise as it hit the side of the tank with enough force to lift it on one tread.

"Hm! Their strength is impressive!" He declared, before he saw a light off to his side.

Turning, he found Saki bathed in a green vortex, imbuing her with power. Next to her, Mio had her hands folded on her chest, as a blue light shone over her head, the rings of the Alhealer+ spell casting its healing powers onto all three Sergeants and their men.

Gontz saw this, and paled. "Oh no! Get away from them!"

"Let's see you do that to me again, Karate Man!" Saki yelled before she raced for him, much faster than before. So fast that she left a trail of afterimages behind her. "HAAAAAAA!"

Chang's mighty right missed, when Saki reached him. His attempt at a left to catch her in the middle of her evasion only punched through an afterimage, before Saki's uppercut connected with his chin, lifting him off his feet.

"Too quick!" Chang thought, before Saki connected a powerful lariat to his upper chest, the force of the blow knocking him back to land at Gontz's feet.

Gontz looked from Chang to the three Sergeants, who all looked much less for wear and were all standing neatly in a row in front of him, their swords pointed at him. He looked at his hand, he had used his most powerful spell and wouldn't be able to use it again unless he got some rest or restored his magic power. Despite Chang's power, he'd hardly been able to keep even Saki down for long, and they were able to use magic as strong as the Colonel's.

He glanced back, at the cylinder. He really hoped Catalina would finish soon!

"Enough of this nonsense, let's finish them all at once with the Trinity Attack!" Saki yelled.

Nana laughed. "Ohohoho! For once you say something that I agree with wholly!"

Mio smiled. "According to my calculations, this should be overkill. Let's exceed those expectations!"

All three flickered and vanished, before appearing in a circle around Gontz, Chang, and the container, their swords glowing brightly with power. In unison, the Sergeants crossed their arms over their chests, transferring the power from their swords to their bodies, before all three began moving in a circle around them, generating waves of energy that closed in on their targets, the ground crumbling and erupting with power as they reached them.

Gontz quickly threw up his arms–this was going to hurt!

…

Location: Vicinity of New Parm
Time: 20:30 Hours

Operation Thrymskvida had called for one of three scenarios involving the Bivrost. In the first scenario, The Bivrost would attempt to approach from the air at a very low altitude, getting close to New Parm to drop its agents off and then when it turned away the Grandeur and her fighter wing would ambush it. The second expected a high-altitude insertion from the Bivrost, staying high above the town to stay unseen while an agent parachuted to the ground. This would've allowed the Grandeur's Kites to intercept it well before they even got to that point. The third was that the Bivrost would attempt an insertion by sea using its submarine ability, coming close to the shore to surface and allow its agents to swim in. In that event, the Garlyle Forces in town would capture the agents inserted.

All of these plans banked on the presumption that the Joule Foundation didn't want the civilians of New Par to see such things as airships for their own eyes as much as the Garlyle did. So of course when the Bivrost flew directly over the town, and then proceeded to climb near vertically from it, Leen was more than a little dismayed.

"Colonel, the Bivrost flew directly over New Parm," an alarmed Leen reported to Mullen's projection.

Mullen was surprised. "Straight over it?!" His wide-eyed disbelief stayed for a moment, before he lowered his gaze and smirked, letting out a short laugh. "We've underestimated these bureaucrats, they have as much nerve as we do. Track the Bivrost, we're vectoring in Kites to intercept, and get in contact with the Sergeants for a status update."

"Understood, Colonel!" Leen replied, and the connection to the Grandeur was cut. She turned to the tank's commander. "Keep track of the position of the Bivrost, update the Grandeur and its Kites to vector them in to attack."

"Yes, Lieutenant!" The tank's commander replied.

Leen turned to the projector again, and contacted the safehouse that Nana was supposed to be in. Her dismay grew when she saw that it was a soldier of the Bloody Rose Squad that greeted her instead.

"Where is Sergeant Nana?" Leen asked. "What is going on down there?"

"Ah, situation normal, Lieutenant!" The soldier quickly replied.

Leen found that hard to believe. "The Bivrost literally just flew over the town, what are your soldiers doing to prevent a panic?"

The soldier immediately looked nervous. "Sergeant Nana stepped out to join the other soldiers and-"

That's when several explosions caused the soldier to jump, explosions that Leen heard as well. The soldier, not looking at the projector, was a shaken by the blasts. When he looked back, he became very shaken at Leen's own shocked face. "Ah…"

"What was that?!" Leen demanded.

"Uh… Sergeant Nana's on the toilet, spicy New Parm food, sorry Lieutenant everything is fine and SergeantNanatoldmetotellyouthatIgottagobye!"

The projector cut off, leaving Leen somewhat frazzled. She looked towards the town itself, and saw that smoke and dust was rising from the source of those explosions.

Something had gone wrong.

No.

Everything had gone wrong.

"Commander, belay that," she said. "Begin advancing on New Parm. The situation is out of Sergeant Nana's control."

…

Gontz slowly opened one eye, and then the other. He wasn't dead after taking a hit that powerful? He looked around, and the first thing he saw was that he was on the roof of a house. Right next to him was the second thing, Chang shaking his head as he rubbed the back of his head, Chang was looking at something out the corner of his eye, something that was right behind Gontz.

When he turned over slightly and looked up, his eyes widened when he saw the armored form of Catalina's Ranger Equipment, completely locked around her body like a true suit of armor.

"C-Catalina…?" Gontz whispered.

As the Bivrost's climb leveled out, Smalls looked at the console directly in between Hector and Imogen, showing an image of the Ranger Equipment latched tightly to Catalina's body. To it right of it were five stats: Attack, Defense, Movement, Agility, and Hit Points. Next to each stat, a brightly shining yellow 7 blinked back and forth with a bright orange MAX! Symbol.

"Here we go," Smalls spoke, "Full power."

On the street below, the three Sergeants looked up at Catalina in the Ranger Equipment, all unsure of what to make of the thing that they were looking at. Quietly Catalina stood, her left side to them, the tattered and torn blue cape hanging off her back and waist of her plate, and the massive All-Ranger held over her shoulder in her right hand. She then turned her head, with her helmet covering it and her face, the only thing the Sergeants could see was a faint red glow inside the visor, that then grew much brighter.

"What… is that? What is that?!" Nana asked.

"I don't know, but it came out of that container," Saki said as she readied her sword.

Mio swallowed a bit. "According to my calculations… we might need to-"

In the time she spoke that, Catalina went from standing on the roof to spinning towards them, to slamming the All-Ranger down upon them. Though Saki was the target, all three scattered to get clear, but they could not be blamed for it, as the All-Ranger's impact created a massive hole in the ground that caused the front of a house beyond it to collapse into.

Saki wasn't intimidated, in fact she was ecstatic! "Oh, now this is what I'm talking about!"

Mio looked over when she saw Saki running straight for the armored knight, and decided that such a move was a bad idea.

Catalina, one-handed, swung the All-Ranger around and lifted it to slam down on Saki, whose speed allowed her to easily sidestep and lunge in with a stab, aiming for Catalina's throat. "I got you-!"

Catalina had swung the sword around in that same instant as her lunge, and the flat of the All-Ranger collided with Saki's stomach, catching her just as she left her feet, and flinging her like a ragdoll through the air. In her rapid ascent, she clipped and took off the corner of another house on her way over New Parm's wall.

Nana had been in the middle of coordinating her attack with Saki's, throwing her Yo-Yo at Catalina, when she saw Saki get knocked literally out of town by the armored knight. Turning to face Nana, Catalina's left hand shot forth and caught the Yo-Yo in its steel gauntlet, and summarily crushed it.

When she lost the Yo-Yo, Nana reflexively recoiled in shock, costing her any time to try to let go of the string, which Catalina swiftly yanked her by. "Whoa-whoa-whoaaa-!"

There was a loud clang, as Nana's forehead met Catalina's helmet, and the violet-haired Sergeant dropped to the dirt road, unconscious.

She then turned towards where Mio was supposed to be standing, and saw that she wasn't there anymore.

Up on the roof, Gontz called out. "Catalina! Behind you!"

Catalina turned, but too late, and Mio's stun guns came in contact with her chest plate, delivering a max-power charge into her armor. "Take this!"

Gontz and Chang both watched, as so much electricity crackled across Catalina's armor that they could see the lightning bolts dancing across the plates and over the gaps. On the preferred end to be on of the stun guns, Mio was grinning. "It was a bad move to think you could beat us so easily with armor!"

Then Catalina's hand shot forward, grabbing Mio by the throat, and turning her into yet another path for the electricity to travel through, which it did, next to unimpeded thanks to her immodest excuse for clothes she so readily derided–then bragged about.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Mio screamed in pain, before Catalina let her drop to the ground, her body twitching involuntarily and giving off a bit of smoke from the power of her own stun guns.

"Whoa…" Gontz said in awe.

"Such tremendous power, such violence," Chang said grimly. "It must come at a great price"

Gontz looked at Chang, and then back at Catalina, who was now facing the remaining Garlyle Soldiers as she kicked Mio aside as one did a piece of trash in her path. With their commanding officers so easily beaten, the Garlyle Soldiers suddenly didn't look so hot to trot against the monstrous armored woman… at least until one of them got a look back and smiled almost in relief.

"It's the Lieutenant!" The soldier called out.

Catalina looked up past the soldiers, and saw right on the other end of the road the towering orange monstrosity of a tank aiming its highest and largest turret at her. On the bridge, Lieutenant Leen looked at the armored figure in confusion and concern. Just looking at it made her feel uneasy, and not just because she'd caught sight of it dispatching Nana and Mio in quick succession.

"Main cannon, fire on my mark, and do not miss!" She ordered. "FIRE!"

The flash of the cannon firing was followed almost instantaneously by the 128mm round smashing into Catalina, the impact creating a large dust cloud from the impact and explosion of the shell.

As the explosion echoed in the town, the Garlyle soldiers broke into cheers, while a mortified Gontz and Master Chang looked down at the point of impact in disbelief.

"Yeah!" One soldier called out. "That's the power of the Garlyle!"

"Our technology is the greatest in the world!" Yelled another.

"Hail the Lieutenant! The strongest of us all!" A third added.

On the roof, Gontz took a step back from the edge, his eyes wide and dilated in fear. Even Chang, who'd faced a previous tank shell without fear, had given in to the emotion of the moment. Both were horrified with what they saw, and when the dust began to clear, the cheering soldiers stopped when they saw why.

Catalina was still standing, the All-Ranger held in front of her–a large scorch mark where the shell had struck square in the middle of the flat side of its blade.

On board the tank, the Commander's mouth fell open, while Leen covered hers with both hands.

"What…?" The Lieutenant whispered.

As the Garlyle soldiers closest to her stepped away, Catalina stepped forward, slowly walking at first, building speed as she passed the soldiers, until she was in a full-on charge straight towards the super heavy tank, with both hands gripping the All-Ranger's hilt. Aboard the tank, the commander immediately leaned forward.

"Open fire! Bring that thing down!"

Leen looked towards him, shocked out of her own fear for her very real concern for the people of New Parm. "No! Don't!"

It was too late, the other gunners aboard the tank, in a panic after seeing Catalina survive the first shell, opened fire with all their weapons, the fire converging on Catalina. Cannon fire of different caliber and rates soon issued from the super heavy tank, impacted on and around Catalina, the smaller rounds deflecting off her armor, or outright exploding against it. She ignored it, charging onward even when another of the tank's largest shells passed narrowly over her head and exploded just behind her.

"It's not stopping! It's not stopping!" A gunner shouted in fear.

"We can't depress the main gun any lower!" The topmost gunner yelled.

Leen watched Catalina's approach, her hands shaking as she watched the red eye glimmer inside of the helmet's visor. The color was fading from her already beautiful pale skin, as images, terrible flashes of destruction, fire, and sorrow flashed in her vision. That red light, that eye, it flickered between those images, piercing through them and into her… its ravenous gaze baring to her the hunger that desired to consume her.

Lieutenant Leen began to scream in terror.

The commander of the tank wasn't going to give up. "Advance! I don't care if you have to run her over"

It was too late. Even as the last shells and rounds exploded off her armor, Catalina reached the tank, thrusting the All-Ranger forward and plunging it forward into the tank's hull. On impact, the entire tank was shoved backward several feet. The light from her bad eye shining brighter, Catalina planted her feet, as the joint armor of the Ranger equipment began to glow yellow.

Then she moved, kicking off and shoving the tank back much further, pushing it back up the road out of New Parm it came down. Like a runaway train, the tank built up momentum, pushing back further and further, as the glow of the Ranger equipment grew. Then, with her hands tightly gripping the weapon, Catalina's fingers on her right hand wrapped around a trigger just below the trigger guard–and squeezed.

There was a loud, if muffled crack from inside. Then the crew of the tank came spilling from hatches on the side, the rear, and the turrets, followed by a massive explosion that blew off all of the turrets of the tank–turning it into a massive set of flaming smokestacks on treads.

Catalina landed a short distance from the tank, All-Ranger in hand, and fell to one knee. Smoke rose heavily from the weapon, while steam hissed from the rest of the armor. The hissing continued, before piece by piece it opened until it was resembling the bulkier armor that Gontz recognized her wearing at the Dom ruins.

"Catalina!" He shouted as he scrambled down from the roof and began sprinting for her. Chang was right behind him, jumping off the roof with ease and landing in a roll he turned to a sprint to the kneeling woman.

Catalina, pale and weary, slowly pushed herself up to her feet. Her left eye watered heavily, as though she were having an allergic reaction, and her face was extremely pale. Leaning on the All-Ranger, she looked back towards Gontz and Chang, and began to smile. They were okay, everything was okay.

She then spoke into her radio. "Smalls, I don't care how you do it… but we need to get out of here, right n-"

Catalina stopped.

Gontz and Chang stopped.

The Garlyle Soldiers crawling or running from their burning tank stopped.

The Bivrost, high overhead and beginning to bank around, stopped.

The flames that flickered and danced atop the tank stopped.

The world… stopped.

In the stillness of a frozen moment only one thing moved at all, Lieutenant Leen, stepping from behind the burning tank, her head turned towards Catalina as she entered her line of sight. A light emanated from Leen, a pair of long, sharp wings that spread out behind her, radiating a tremendous power.

Time Gate, one of the many great powers of the Icarians. With it, Leen could stop time and do as she pleased for the duration that time was stopped to her. In her experience with the power, Leen was able to stop time for at least 30 seconds without difficulty.

She normally wouldn't use it so brazenly before her own rank and file, let alone within sight of civilians, but this demanded it.

In the frozen world, she walked towards Catalina, her eyes wide as she stared at the face of Catalina.

"It's not possible," she said quietly, as she neared her, "That something like you can exist. It shouldn't be possible… but you do."

In her right hand, she held her rapier ready, as her gaze fell to Catalina's exposed neck. Really, with the loosened armor, she could target any gap between them and score an effective hit… but she needed to be sure that this thing would die.

"I don't know how the Joule Foundation created you," she said, her tone shaking as she raised her sword, "And you probably don't even realize what it is you are. But for the future of mankind I have to destroy you. I… I am sorry…"

She prepared to strike, when Catalina's left eye, and only the left eye, moved. It rolled around in its socket, and focused on her, the only other thing moving in the frozen world.

Leen recoiled, and then propelled herself skyward–narrowly avoiding a powerful swing from the All-Ranger. As she came to a stop in her ascent, her body shaking and her skin crawling, she saw that the shockwave of the swing had cut clean through the wreckage of the tank.

She looked back at Catalina, who was smiling hungrily up at her, the tears that had poured from her bad eye now running red with blood that was also leaking from her left ear and nostril.

"Don't be skittish, my kitten," Catalina purred in a low voice. "Come to me, I promise it won't hurt for long."

Hearing her speak, Leen blanched, her light growing brighter defensively.

"No, impossible," Leen whimpered. "What are you? Why are you?"

She then realized she was at her limit with Time Gate. She couldn't stay, not while she risked revealing her power. Shaking her head again, part in frustration but very much in fear, Leen turned and flew away from the town, moving with such speed that the light from her wings became a short trail behind her.

Time resumed, and Catalina fell forward again, her free hand shooting to cover her eye as she panted heavily in pain. Pulling her hand back to examine it, she quickly replaced it at the sight of the blood on her palm, and leaned against the All-Ranger. Her whole body hurt, her arms, her legs, but especially her eye, her bloody broken eye.

"S-Smalls… we gotta go… w-we gotta go now… it's starting to hurt…" She whimpered.

"It's okay, Catalina, it's okay…" As Smalls spoke, the shadow of the Bivrost fell over her, Gontz, and Chang. The former rushed to her and knelt by her side, as the latter stopped to gaze at the massive craft that could so nimbly alight through the air.

"… Everything will be all right."

…

Location: 22 miles northwest of New Parm
Time: 20:47 Hours

Mullen was nervous. The last thing he'd heard was that Leen's command tank was moving into New Parm and that the situation had gotten out of hand. After that, there was silence as they waited for an update from the Kites sent that way. Leen couldn't be raised, or any of the Sergeants, as loud and frantic as the operations around him were, the radio silence was deafening.

"Colonel," a Garlyle Soldier in a gold uniform reported as he came aboard the bridge.

Mullen turned to him. "What is it, soldier?"

"The Lieutenant, she…" When the soldier began to speak, Mullen's blood ran cold.

Only for an instant, for as soon as it began it was over with the opening of the doors to the bridge, revealing a shaken Leen walking in.

"… She has returned to the ship," the soldier finished, surprised that she was here. "Lieutenant Leen, you were ordered to remain in the sickbay…"

"I said I needed to speak to the Colonel," Leen said before she looked to Mullen, "The operation was a complete and total failure, Colonel." She looked down. "That woman from the Joule Foundation, her eye…"

Lieutenant Leen had gained her rank after her heritage as an Icarian had been discovered to keep her as close to Mullen and his father the General. A role far too big for such a young girl, and despite her best efforts to fit the role she'd been given, there were still times where it became clear that she was a girl from the country who could only do so much. Before Mullen at this very moment, it was more raw and exposed than ever. She was terrified, on the verge of going into shock, while still trying to maintain her professionalism.

He'd only seen Leen this shaken once before…

"Lieutenant, you don't need to say anything more," Mullen said, stopping her. "I will hear your report when you have rested and had a chance to compose yourself."

Leen bowed her head, realizing that she must look like the wreck she felt like. Closing her eyes, Leen took a deep breath and saluted. "Understood, sir."

She turned and walked to the doors, stopping only for them to open and continuing on without looking back.

As she departed, Mullen faced the bridge ahead, with a tight-lipped, grim expression. The Joule Foundation had plenty of tricks up their sleeves, even in their militarily weak position. What troubled Mullen the most, however, was Leen's specific mention of Catalina's eye.

It brought back an old memory, of sitting beside a fire in the lap of his mother, as she stared into it and recited an old story that once was simply an old fable.

"… And when they took all that could be taken from the land and the sky, their evil eyes turned to the last light in the dying world–the Spirit Stone, and the hands that held it."

…

Following the failure of Garlyle's Operation Thrymskvida and our escape of New Parm Airspace, the Garlyle Forces seized control of New Parm and the New Parm Steamer along with it, effectively closing Western Elencia to the Old World. The Insurrection in the West, as it would become known, was the first publicly visible sign in the Joule Foundation's weakening power–never again would they control the New World–and the beginning of its end.

With the loss of West Elencia, we also lost our best chance at finding Justin at that time. My injuries and the Bivrost's lack of offensive capability meant we would lose even more time and his trail as we attended to those issues. Both Gontz and our new hire, Master Chang, believed however that next chance we'd get would be beyond the End of the World. Knowing that South Side punk was able to beat guys like Chang and the Sergeants… I believe them, too.

Before we could, we needed to be able to do our job in what was now deep within enemy territory. The Bivrost needed to be overhauled to defend itself against opponents well-suited for doing it harm, and we all needed to become stronger to fight the Garlyle. More importantly, we needed to make sure that the insurrection didn't fire up in the East as well.

It was time to return home, to the Old World, to Marna Fortress.