BANG!

A burst of gunfire emanated from their opponents' side of the arena, and Buck dodged instinctively to avoid the bullet. Unfortunately, Demarco wasn't quite as lucky. The round caught him right in-between the armor plates of his right shoulder, and tore it clean off. Red began to spray everywhere, and the Pilot collapsed on the ground as he quickly lost blood.

Unable to do anything for the dying man, he resolved to take out his attacker. He looked out at the grassy playing field and spotted an ARES Pilot who had nabbed Demarco with a DMR from behind the cover of a boulder. Normally, he'd phase-shift over there, but he was relatively sure that whoever had captured them had disabled that ability. He'd have to think of something else …

While he came up with a plan to get rid of the sniper, Irish moved along the left side of the arena and planted herself behind a bush. As he watched, she managed to take down two of their opponents, one of which was MCOR. He couldn't imagine that it was an easy thing for her to do, but it was what was necessary for them to survive.

The last three of their opponents had decided to group up together towards the back. It seemed that Rose and Klein were trying to keep them suppressed. As he watched, Klein began moving forward to advance their position-

BANG!

The kid didn't even see it coming. Crumpling to the ground with a rather large hole in his chest, Buck noted that the trail of the bullet had come again from the DMR marksman. He swore, realizing he'd wasted too much time and had let the guy live for far too long. Rose darted back behind cover to hide from the marksman while the latter pumped two more shots before stopping to presumably reload.

Taking the chance, Buck dashed towards the right side of the arena where the ARES Pilot's cover was. Using his jump-kit to wall-run, he covered a few meters and then leapt off to where the Pilot had just finished reloading.

Extending his right foot, the man was helpless to stop Buck's kick from crushing in the front of his skull. He immediately dropped to the floor, nothing but a human-sized paperweight.

Three down, three of them to go.

Grabbing the man's DMR, he quickly looked through the sights and towards where the other three were holed up. Irish couldn't move any farther forward due to their suppressive fire, and Rose was trying to return the favor-

"How's it looking?"

He jerked back in shock before realizing it was just Peridot. "Christ, don't do that. Nearly shot you."

She nodded seriously, and crouched low. "Sorry about that."

He decided to drop it. "We've got the last three of them against that wall-"

Something wasn't right. He looked again, and now noted that there were only two against the wall. "Rose, where's the third?!"

"I don't know, they just disappeared!"

"Well, where the hell-"

Crunch.

Spinning around at the sound of a boot against gravel, he was readying his aim when a hand shot out and smacked the gun out of his hands. It was the female MCOR Pilot. With his alternator at his side, there was no time for him to grab it as she raised her Wingman and pulled the trigger-

Peridot sucker punched the woman and threw her aim off, saving Buck's life. He quickly reached for his alternator, but wasn't quicker than it took for the Pilot to recover, grab Peridot, and then blow a hole in her head point blank. The left half of Peridot's head disappeared, nothing more than an oozing chunk of flesh in its place.

Leaping forward, he managed to grab the Wingman and wrench it out of the woman's hand. Spinning it back on her, he pulled the trigger and felt an odd satisfaction at watching her head pop like a cherry.

Blood splattered across the front of his otherwise black scarf and vest, and he turned to see Irish and Rose taking down the other two. One was already dead, and Rose was in a fistfight with the other, both of their weapons cast aside.

"ROSE!" he called out, and threw the Wingman with careful aim as the former turned towards the sound of his voice.

Extending a hand, Rose caught it neatly in his grip and then blasted the man attacking him. Their body ceased all movement, and fell onto Rose limply. The man gave a few loud huffs of breath from the adrenaline rush as Irish rushed to his aide, and Buck checked his internal timer.

Forty-three seconds. That was it.

He looked down at Peridot's corpse, where the remaining half of her face could be seen due to the shattered visor of her helmet. He could see from her last intact eye that she'd had green ones, rather pretty actually. As he watched, a mixture of blood, gray matter, and fluid from the other popped eyeball ran across the bridge of her nose, and into the unblinking eye he stared at.

Wrenching his gaze away, he was surprised to hear a low groan on the open comms. Was Klein alive? Peering over the edge of his cover, he confirmed that the young MCOR Pilot was very dead. With haste in his step, he rushed back towards the start where Demarco had been shot.

Blood still spilt onto the ground from his rather severe wound, but the Pilot was barely clinging to life. Buck positioned his right arm behind the man's head, and held the upper half of his torso up gently, "Easy, easy now."

Demarco looked at him, his helmet and visor masking any fear that the man might be feeling at this new experience of death. He wheezed gently, giving a slight nod of appreciation as Buck comforted him.

"M-make …" he whispered softly, his voice too weak to rise in volume. "… them … p-pay …"

Buck was smart enough to understand that Demarco was not referring to the other Pilots they fought, but to whoever had captured them all and put them in here. He nodded, subtly promising Demarco that he would.

With nothing left to hold him to this world, Buck felt the life fade from Demarco's body. He gently laid the Pilot on the ground, and stood up to his full height as Irish and Rose approached him.

"Very good."

The voice that they'd all come to hate spoke again, praising them for their performance. "That was quite the display of teamwork and cooperation. I am most pleased."

Buck would have spit at the voice if he had a mouth to do so with.

The back wall of the arena suddenly split apart, revealing a small chamber big enough to fit six people or so. As they watched, a door on the front of it slid open, allowing them access.

"Enter the capsule. If you do not, you will be-"

"Terminated," interrupted Buck snidely. "Yeah, we got it."

"The next Live Fire match for you three will be in one week. You will be paired with the survivors of another match, and given the entirety of the week to recuperate and train if you'd like."

"How generous," Rose muttered.

With a sort of resignation in their steps, the three of them entered the capsule and watched as its door closed behind them. Buck did so with a sense of solemnity.

This was their life now. And if they wanted to survive, it would have to remain that way for quite a while.