Chapter 4: Opening Moves

"The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for."

― Bob Marley

"Layla, Darling won't you ease my troubled mind."

"You realize the name is spelled a little differently in the song, right Chief?"

"Now don't you go trying to spoil this for me. I owe Mr. Clapton a lot for making such a perfect song to listen to on long journeys. It's almost as if he knew."

"You sure have some eccentric tastes, going for music released more than half a century ago."

"You say eccentric, I say refined. What about you guys? I haven't heard much in the way of your cultures music, what do you usually listen to?"

Julun speaks up with an excited tone to her voice. I guess she's into this sort of thing.

"Cavern Clan typically use hides of defeated beasts to create drums of different strength and tone. Largest drums could be three times the size of largest male Prone, and one beat would echo throughout our homes for kilometers on end. We would also chant along with drums, creating what your people call a symphony of hands and throats."

"Sound's wild, and pretty damn impressive. Makes me think of a Gregorian Chant or something. Have any of your people created these instruments in the city yet? There's no shortage of materials and stuff here."

"While there are abundant resources to use, only certain Prone have knowledge of how to create these instruments. While one could likely be created easily using a machine, we have tradition of creating them by hand only. To my knowledge no such Prone have arrived in city yet."

"Damn, I was hoping to hear some of your cultures stuff. Well I'll keep my fingers crossed. Celica, how about Qlurians? What sort of things do your people dabble with?"

"We didn't have anything as specialized as Julun's, it many regards it was more like Human culture, where anyone was free to learn whatever they wished."

Mia perks up at that.

"So if I wanted to learn how to play the Qlurian guitar or whatever, I could?"

"Certainly, there were even large schools across my planet where we could learn how to play. I was quite skilled with a Coonteal myself."

"A Coonteal?"

"I suppose the closest instrument you have to it would be a flute, although ours were made of two stacked tubes, not a single long one."

"So it takes after a Pan Flute then."

"A Pan Flute?"

"An ancient Earth instrument that was big in some South American cultures. Two rows of different length pipes, pretty fun instrument to listen to."

"How the heck do you know that bit of info Chief?"

"There were some old tourism videos in one of the recovered Whale data pods. There was one on the Seven Wonder's of the World. Machu Picchu and the South American culture caught my eye the most."

Celica sounds the most excited she has in a while as she asks, "Do you know if there any of these Pan Flutes in NLA?"

"Dunno. Tell you what, if I find one, you can thank me by letting me hear some of the Qlurian's best."

"It's a deal."

Vi speaks up with, "You seem to have an interest in many forms of music Lieutenant."

I gave up trying to get him to call me Cross, but he was fine with us calling him Vi after Mia complained that it was too hard to call his full name all the time.

"You bet I do. I absolutely love how you can create a seemingly infinite variety of sounds in any number of wild combinations. It's a never ending source of entertainment. And music seems to be a common ground that most of our species can come together on no matter what our differences. But enough about me. What kind of instruments and such do the Wrothians use? Just like with Julun I have zero clue what kind of tunes you guys listen to."

Vi goes silent for a second before slowly speaking.

"On Wroth we had a tradition similar to Julun's. Only certain members of our kind we're given the responsibility of learning music. It was a highly regarded and respected task, and we referred to such individuals as the 'wind-speakers'. They would travel with warriors about to fight, or entertain our kingdoms with melodies that could make our greatest fighters weep."

His next words sound wistful.

"I only had two opportunities to listen to a wind-speaker, both times when I was but a cub. The instrument was an edge-reed, something similar to your specie's bagpipes…I can still recall the music with perfect clarity…"

I hesitate to ask my next question, but Celica beats me to it and gently asks, "You talk of these Wind-speakers in the past tense. Do they no longer exist?"

Vi is quiet for a moment before answering.

"If they do, they are in very few numbers hiding on Wroth. Along with the Hundred Hellions, the Wind-speakers were regarded as symbols for our race, and the Ganglion were sure to make an example of them. Much like the Hellions, Wind-speakers were often families, passing down their traditions from parent to child. I fear that the damage done might be irreversible with so many family lines culled."

I have a bitter taste in my mouth after hearing this bit of history. It's painfully reminiscent of Gi Zang's own history with the Ganglion takeover of Wroth. But there's still some silver linings to that whole disaster.

"Maybe this is overly optimistic of me Vi, but those traditions might not be as gone for good as you think. A survivor of the Hundred Hellions called Gi Zang is on Mira preparing to start a new generation of Hellion warriors, I don't think it's impossible that the Wind-speakers might revive themselves given time as well."

Surprise is in his voice as he says, "I had heard heard rumors of this warrior, but how do you know with certainty about his whereabouts?"

"Mostly because he nearly beat the crap out of me on several occasions. Also because I was right alongside him when he decided to revitalize the Hellions. He's a heck of a guy, I consider myself lucky to be his friend. Less lucky to be his favorite sparring buddy, but let that go."

He's quiet for a few seconds before he speaks up again. I can practically hear the smile in his voice.

"Not only am I in the accompaniment of a warrior who beat my master, but also is comrades with the last surviving Hellion…what in Wroth's name have I gotten myself into?"

"Aw c'mon man you're going to make me blush."

"Blush? Is that an expression of pride?"

"Embarrassment really. Our cheeks or ears will turn red. Works better on us since we don't have a full face of hair. Do Wrothians have a similar expression?"

"Indeed. Out ears will flatten on our head while our tails will wrap around our legs. It's quite telegraphed really."

I nod to myself and file that bit of info away for later. I take a look at the map display and see we're about a minute out from the East Coat of Primordia. Time to take to the skies.

"Hope you guys had a good look at Primordia, because we're leaving it behind for the ocean blue. Liftoff in t-minus now!"

I hear a startled curse from Mia as I send my Lailah into a drift off of the edge of the coastal cliff and we enter free-fall. I wait just until we're about to hit the water before transforming and igniting the engines. A grin I have no control over crawls onto my face as I accelerate barely a meter above the waves before ascending in a steep climb towards the clouds above.

I LOVE flying.

"Maybe next time you should wait a little longer Cross. Then we could just swim to Noctilum."

I chuckle at Celica's complaint, already easing back on the throttle once we reach cruising altitude.

"Incredible fall that was. May we attempt it again on our return to city?"

"If you had fun with that you would have loved Earth amusement parks Julun. I guess someone will have to eventually build one here on Mira."

Mia does't sound so enthusiastic.

"No thanks, Roller coasters are not my cup of tea."

Vi just snorts with amusement. I smile at our little interaction. looks like the team bonding exercise is going just fine.

Calling Noctilum similar to the jungles back on Earth wouldn't be a completely incorrect statement, but neither would it do justice to the sheer majesty of this place. For starters Earth jungles had massive trees and other flora that can stretch up to dozens of meters in the air. Miran flora can occasionally reach up to hundreds, if not thousands of meters. Some of the native trees can grow so tall and thick that you can actually travel by Skell across their branches for kilometers on end, naturally grown highways in the sky.

That's not even accounting for all the waterfalls, lakes and canyons that meander through the continent. What's strange about Noctilum is while it can be quite humid near the water sources, the overall temperature isn't too dissimilar to Primordia's. The chill factor can actually become pretty significant when fog comes rolling in from the coast and blankets the area. If it wasn't for all the nasty Indigens that just love to ambush you from all sorts of hidden lairs I would go ahead and label Noctilum the most awesome place on all of Mira.

Seriously, suddenly having a nest of Scirpos drop down on your head is about as fun as wrestling a crazed Dilus. Which come to think of it you might also end up doing. The more you know.

Six hours later we're slowly advancing on our target area, making sure nothing jumps us and ruins our day. We dropped off my Skell at the newly established Qing Long Glade B.C. and started making our way to Everwhelm Falls where Harnenga Cotton grows the thickest. Harnenga is a bit different from it's contemporary Earth cousin. It's way more thick and insulated than the standard Earth variety, and a singe stalk of it can yield quite a bit of the cotton. Which is good for us, since we can grab a duffel or two if it and call it mission accomplished, instead of having to drag a whole truckload of it with us.

The only catch to Harnenga is that it withers quite quickly in arid conditions, hence why it mostly grows only near sources of water. The duffels have us covered there, thankfully. They have a line of misters on the inside that'll keep things humid for a few days until we can make the delivery. Not the most sophisticated setup, but it does the job.

I take the relative peacefulness of our trek to watch how each of my squadmates is handling the journey.

Mia I'm already familiar with, having worked with her several times recently. It's hard for someone packing a heavy raygun to be sneaky, so she typically stays in the middle of the group and keeps an eye out for anything the point man might have missed.

Celica I haven't worked with in awhile and it always catches me off guard how quickly she's adapted to this lifestyle. She invested in one of the new Reginal Bodysuits from Sakuraba that can mimic the surrounding environment (similar to my armor) and is currently acting as the rearguard for our group. I have to hold off on a smile as I watch her ears twitch back and forth as she listens for anything suspicious. Reminds me of Yzma on the rare occasions she decides to actually move. I'll keep that to myself though. I don't think she would appreciate being compared to one of our housecats.

Julun and Vi are the ones I'm keeping an extra close eye on. Julun is holding down our left flank and Vi is our point man. Julun uses a modified Ganglion assault rifle that has a lower rate of fire but subsequently has more of a punch, while for close range work she's carrying a photon saber. I guess she prefer's a little more finesse in close quarters than most other Prone. As for her movements she's the epitome of a professional soldier. No wasted motion, no unnecessary noise, all that good stuff.

Vi is the archetypal Wrothian commando, except better. About thirty meters ahead of us he's leading a path towards the bank of the falls while avoiding any surly Indigens. At least that's what I assume he's doing, since even though I know where to look it's hard to pick him out from the foliage surrounding him. I'd have to use my helmet sensors, which consist of a mix of short range thermal and sonar receivers, if I wanted to get a reliable fix on his location. He uses the usual Wrothian complement of weaponry which includes a carbine and thermal edged sword. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to seeing how he uses them.

We continue on for about another hour or so before we arrive near the designated sight and huddle together for a quick meeting. The spot Vi chose is a small rise covered by overhanging brush that provides both a nice vantage point and good camouflage, allowing us the luxury of being able to survey the area without worrying about having our rears chewed off.

I turn towards my team and say, "Well? Any ideas on how we want to go about this? I didn't spot any camouflaged Indigens but that's not saying too much since Dilus or whatever else can be hiding underwater or in those overhangs. I say we keep watch for another hour or so and see if anything reveals itself. Other suggestions?"

Mia raises her hand.

"Why not have someone be bait and draw out whatever's hiding? We have a good vantage point up here and could easily pick off anything that goes after our scapegoat."

"I'll give that particular idea 'low priority'. We're not in any rush here and I wouldn't put it past this planet to spring some sort of nasty surprise on us. You want our bait to suddenly get jumped by some sort of super Tyrant before we can help? Also you only mentioned that idea because you think I'm gonna be the bait don't you?"

"Well duh Chief."

"Sadist."

I turn towards the others.

"So what does everyone else think? I'm hoping it's something other than a, 'send Chief to get eaten by local critters plan'."

I get a chorus of shrugs in reply.

"I'm alright with simply watching for awhile."

"An agreeable plan. I will take first watch if you let me."

"I have no objections Lieutenant."

I give a nod while trying not to gloat in Mia's direction.

"The aye's have it then. Julun, you have first watch for half an hour, everyone else take a breather for now."

They all move to do their own thing while I take a seat and remove my helmet. Mia starts inspecting her raygun for any signs of corrosion, Vi takes up the Wrothian meditation stance they prefer to use when resting and Celica simply watches the surrounding area. I take a look myself and see a few suids placidly drinking from the river about three-hundred meters from us, while some terebras playfully chase each other alongside the bank. Looking at this scene you'd think it was some sort of peaceful nature preserve, rather than a Darwinian playground.

I shrug and take out my personal data pad to add some entries about my latest escapades across Mira.

Not too long after I came to NLA I decided to start a log of all my activities in case my amnesia suddenly hit again. While there was nothing to suggest that I would suffer another loss of memory, I was frightened by the idea of losing what few experiences I had and wanted to keep some sort of record of what I had accomplished. A poor substitute for the memories themselves, but anything was better than nothing.

I've never told anyone what's actually on this device. I can't decide if this is some sort of stubborn, macho, 'suffer alone' mentality or just a desire for privacy. Probably a bit of both really. I don't really like showing any weakness to others, which is a ridiculous hangup, I know, but I can't bring myself to be a burden of any variety, not when everyone in NLA has their own struggles to deal with.

And there's simply the fact that this device is the one place where I can write or record anything and everything I feel, unfiltered. There's a mix of voice recordings, videos, pictures and tons of written files I've compiled in here. I give a quick rundown of the past couple days, starting from Sharon's job to the fight with the Milsaadi all the way to today's events.

I finish up and take a quick look through all my accumulated entries. From trivial stuff such as foods I tried, places I saw, routine missions I went on, all the way to things that I either cherish or believe define who I currently am.

A list of all my friends with their personality quirks and habits, my realization of being in a MIM, Lao's betrayal and reveal of the Lifehold's passengers, meeting Gi Zang, Ackwar and Celica…a bizarre record of things that would probably bore anyone who wasn't me.

Then again, this isn't for them now is it?

My reverie is interrupted as Julun suddenly speaks up over my comm.

"Cross, Scirpo creature has shown up from place that might be it's nest. I have it's location."

I stand up and slip my helmet back on, moving towards her position.

"Good work Julun. All right everyone breaks over, get ready for live combat."

"Ok is everyone watching? Class is now in session."

I climb down from our vantage point and smoothly walk towards the Scirpo that is currently poking around in some brush about a hundred meters away, probably looking for some smaller animal.

We decided to go ahead and try to draw out the nest if we could, which provided a convenient opportunity for a hands-on lesson with Vi and Julun.

Not that I think they need it, but whatever.

I raise my delta and fire a single shot into the side of it's head to get things started. The bullet bounces of it's thick hide without too much to show, but that's not what I was aiming for anyway.

Excuse the pun.

Sure enough, the Scirpo gives a surprised shriek and turns in my direction, clearly pissed at my little provocation. It charges towards me without a second thought, moving surprisingly quick on it's segmented legs.

"Ok team these things like to open with some up close and personal moves. They tend to aim for the head, especially the eyes. Dodging backwards is a losing move, since they can keep moving forward on those legs without missing a beat. So instead…"

Right as it takes a violent swing at my head I step into the arc of it's attack and slash at the inside of it's joint with my Ralzes. It's leg gives a satisfying crack and goes flying off over my shoulder, ichor spurting from the wound. It gives a pained shriek and hops back, putting a few meters of distance between us.

"The inside of their leg joints are pretty fragile, a solid strike will break them clean off. Manage that and they tend to respect you, which brings us to our next point…"

The Scirpo curls it's head downward and seems to convulse for a few seconds, it's acid sac pulsing.

"Give em' a little trouble up close and they'll back off and try to melt you with their acid. It's pretty telegraphed, so dodging shouldn't be a problem for people of your guy's skill level. Allow me to demonstrate."

I suit action to words and roll to my left, moving under the stream of bile that comes flooding out of the Scirpo's mouth. I then push off the ground and leap towards it while it's still recovering from emptying it's guts at me. It tries to rear up away from me, but a quick upward thrust of my blade through it's mouth into it's main nerve cluster put's an end to the fight.

Collapsing with a gurgling sigh it gives a few last twitches before dying.

"A masterful fight Lieutenant, I appreciate your demonstration of these creatures strengths and weaknesses."

"Heh, I understand why Captain Slovity respects and admires you so."

"C'mon that's enough about me now."

I glance up at the nine descending Scirpos and smile. I guess they were drawn by the gunshot earlier.

"It's your guy's turn to impress me. I think you can handle those nine right?"

"Say no more Chief, we'll show you up in no time!"

"Don't make a promise you can't keep."

I shake my head and try hard not to let my jaw hang open. I mean, I knew I had some pretty impressive people on my team, but that was INSANE. The whole fight from start to finish only lasted like eighteen seconds or something. Heck, Vi even took on three of them compared to everyone else who tackled two apiece.

Celica and Mia especially surprised me. I always knew Mia was an exemplary BLADE and Celica had the raw talent to become a force all on her own but…

Sometime in the past couple months when I wasn't looking they became pretty damn scary.

Note to self: NEVER piss off Celica while she's holding a knife.

And these people think I'M the better fighter.

I pull it together and say, "Pretty impressive team, but I think you can drop that time by another two seconds."

I hear Mia try and fail not to laugh and Celica amusedly replies, "We'll try our hardest to live up to your expectations then Cross."

Go figure those two would know what I'm actually thinking.

Vi meanwhile is looking intensely at his three fallen foes and murmurs distractedly to himself, "That should be perfectly achievable…Perhaps instead of cutting the leg off I could go straight for the brain…yes that should work."

I shake my head at his straight man personality.

"I was kidding Vi. Any faster and you guys would put me out of a job."

"Oh. My apologies Lieutenant, Master always did say that I should try to relax more."

"No sweat, developing a sense of humor takes time. Heck, I know some people who have lived for decades and still don't have one."

"You talking about H.B. Chief?"

"Don't tell him I said that, or he'll start trying to develop one. And the mere thought of H.B. trying to crack a joke is scary on a lot of different levels."

"Pardon interruption Cross, but should we not move to acquire the materials? More creatures might be approaching."

"Oh, right. Good call Julun. Ok Celica let's grab our paycheck and get out of here."

"Already doing it Cross. I'll be done in about five or so minutes."

"Ok guys let's keep watch so nothing else gets the jump on us. Stellar work so far, let's not mess up the endgame."

An uneventful hour or so later we're only about two kilometers from the B.C., with the sun high and the wind gently blowing.

And then, of course, things start to fall apart. Vi suddenly slows his pace before stopping completely.

I frown as I open a channel to his earpiece.

"What's up Vi? Trouble?"

He shakes his head and replies, "I believe so, but it's hard to tell from this distance. There's the definite smell of smoke that comes from high energy weaponry burning foliage…but it's hard to say whether it's from friendly forces or Ganglion."

I nod and turn to Celica.

"Are you hearing anything out of the usual from the direction of the B.C.?"

She frowns and turns her head towards our destination and closes her eyes. While she's doing her thing I access FrontierNav and check on the base's location. What I see turns my frown into a full blown scowl. There's around nineteen or so humanoid signatures accompanied by at least five Skell class signatures. Way too much for a small, newly constructed rest camp.

Celica confirms my suspicions as she turns towards me with her brow furrowed.

"I can't make out much from this far away, especially with all the other noises in the forest, but I'm certain there was the thrum of an a-grav engine mixed in. From this far away there must be a significant amount of vehicles to make such a racket."

I nod and start issuing orders.

"Bad news guys it looks like the Ganglion made a house-call to our base when we were gone and are still occupying it. We need to at least confirm their numbers and see if we can get any hints as to what they're doing here. Vi and Celica, scout ahead and try to get a solid count of how many Ganglion we're dealing with here. Be damned careful though, we don't know how closely they're watching their surroundings. If you don't think you can safely approach, pull back. Heroics only count if you make it back alive."

They both nod and move out. I impulsively grab Celica's hand as she moves past me and give it a gentle squeeze.

"Stay safe out there. And make sure Vi doesn't do anything stupid, I'm worried he might try to do his job a little too well, if you know what I mean."

She reassuringly smiles at me and says, "Don't worry Cross, I don't think he's quite as reckless as you are. Close though."

I chuckle at that.

"I'll keep my fingers crossed."

She then bounds after Vi and I turn towards Julun and Mia.

"Julun, find a spot you can keep an eye on the surrounding area. If any additional Ganglion forces are moving around I want to know about it. Mia, you monitor FrontierNav and see if you can get any additional info on the Ganglion inside the base, and keep an eye out for any passing Indigens, watch Celica and Vi's backs."

"You got it Chief."

Julun nods and starts moving towards a small rise about forty meters to our right. Once that's all taken care of I try to get ahold of BLADE HQ to see if any sort of distress call was sent out or if we're on our own.

To my surprise as soon as I connect to the network I get an incoming call from a nearby BLADE team. I answer and am surprised at who answers.

"BLADE team this is corporal May from the Curators, do you need assistance?"

"Long time no see May, quite a ways from Oblivia aren't yah?"

"Cross? Talk about a small world. You need a hand? We got a distress call from the B.C. and are rushing over to help. Was that you guys?"

"Not this time, we were off on a separate mission. Are you in Skells or on foot?"

"We're all armored up. How's the situation at the base?"

"Crowded. FrontierNav is finding at least twenty foot soldiers and five Skell class signatures. Some of my teammates are finding out what their variants are, you might want to hang tight until we know for sure."

"No arguments here, we're not loaded for a full on firefight anyway. We'll take up a holding pattern for now, keep me posted on what you find."

"Will do."

I raise Julun and ask, "How's the surroundings, any sign of reinforcements?"

"No other Ganglion appear to be in area. Nothing but far-off Auravis."

"Roger that. Mia, anything new on your end?"

"Nothing new, although one of the Skell's is almost certainly a Galdr class. It's engine's heat output is way bigger than the other four."

"Ok we'll wait until Celica and Vi can tell us for sure what we're looking at. Stay sharp."

Around twenty more minutes pass and I just as I'm starting to worry that something might have happened I get a low powered transmission from Vi.

"Lieutenant, Celica and I have located the enemy squad and…seem to be raiding the base's equipment. One Galdr…Qmoevas, and one Quo are part of their Skell forces. The rest…roughly eighteen Prone and one Milsaadi overseer…orders?"

Well the presence of a Quo explains why the message was so fragmented. He must be using hardly any signal strength at all to avoid being detected by it. Also this is starting to seem less like a random Ganglion attack and more like an organized plan of action. Most raiding squads don't bother to bring along something as situational and fragile as a Quo. I nod to myself and raise May, who's keeping a distance of about fourteen kilometers away from the Ganglion.

"We've got an update May. They have a pretty well rounded force occupying our base right now, three Qmoevas, a Galdr and a Quo as well as about twenty infantry."

"A Quo? That doesn't seem like some standard raiding party anymore."

"Funnily enough that's what I thought. Which then begs the question of what exactly they're hoping to accomplish out here. One way or another I don't want to let em' just get away with it for free. You feel like living dangerously?"

"Being doing that since day one on this crazy planet."

"Fair point. Ok, here's what I'm thinking…"

I slowly crawl up next to where Vi and Celica are camouflaged inside of an overhanging tree limb, overlooking the camp from about sixty meters away. In between Celica's camouflaged suit and Vi's natural penchant for simply blending in I feel like I'm settling in between two phantoms.

Talk about creepy.

I look around the remains of the B.C. and grimace at what I see. Around nine or so BLADEs are scattered across the main site, at least half of them with lethal wounds on their backs.

The attack must have been quick and brutal if it caught most of these guys off guard.

There's also the wreckage of three Skells, my Lailah included, stacked off to one side of the camp. I'd left her in sentry mode when we set off, so she'd probably been targeted by the Ganglion as soon as her threat recognition software told her to start shooting. The damage doesn't look too bad from here, with one large impact crater in the chest and a blown off leg.

But for crying out loud, I just got her out of the repair bay.

I shake my head and crawl over to Vi.

"What have they been up to? Any sign that they're occupying the base?"

He shakes his head and softly replies, "The opposite seemingly. They've been taking equipment from the base and loading it onto the two transports over there. Are they perhaps short of supplies?"

I frown as I look more closely at the activities occurring in a sort of organized frenzy. The Ganglion never seemed to be interested in most Human tech before, so why the sudden change in policy? Like Vi said they could be running short of materials, but I don't buy that. They still have all their bases in Cauldros up and running, as well as a few strongholds left in Noctilum, Sylvalum and Oblivia. They should be just fine if it's resources they're after.

I table that train of thought and focus on the here and now. Keeping my voice low I address the rest of my team.

"Ok guys here's the game plan. May and her team are going to try get the attention of a few Ganglion and draw them off so we can cause our own brand of chaos. If they can thin out their numbers a bit we'll harass the rest of them and generally make life miserable. That said, don't pull any dumb heroic stunts. We're the outnumbered and outgunned side here. Just be quick and quiet. Get ready."

I get a chorus of nods and everyone moves to take up ambushing positions without me even having to tell them to. That's professionalism for you.

We take up our positions and settle in to wait for May's group to do their thing. Barely a minute goes by before a dozen of the Prone suddenly start up the transports and leave, heading towards Lotus Keep I bet. The others start attaching magnetic grapples to the wrecked Skells, presumably to drag them along as well.

Dammit if May doesn't start her attack soon these guys will already be long gone before we even get to-

My thought's are interrupted by the sudden sound of charging beam weapons as the Ganglion mechs suddenly turn towards me, weapons being raised and prepared to fire. It takes every bit of discipline I have not to turn tail and run, as I remind myself that they're not actually aiming at me.

Sure enough, once they open fire the shots fly well above my head, heading towards the open sky. A few distant booms echo through the trees, as if missiles had been shot down well short of their targets.

Which was the plan all along. May and her pals aren't here to fight a war, just tweak a few noses and generally piss off the Ganglion. Sure enough another flight of missiles get's shot down without much difficulty, but the booms sound quite a bit closer this time. At this point May and her little hit-and-run squad are probably just outside of the weapon range of the Ganglion, daring them to come and pick a fight.

And sure enough all of the Qmoevas as well as the Quo lift off and speed off into the distance, leaving seven Prone and their Milsaadi overseer to hurriedly finish attaching the grapples to the Galdr. I open a channel to the entire team and start rapidly issuing orders.

"It's our turn at bat guys. Julun and Mia, focus fire on the Galdr and knock it out of the fight, don't hold back on the ammunition. Vi and Celica, follow me in once I give the signal. I'll draw their fire, take advantage of that and finish them off. Clear?"

I get a round of affirmatives and settle myself down to pick the moment to spring our assault. The Prone look to be finishing up their work as most of them step back, while two motion for the Galdr to bend lower so they can attach the final tethers to it's hull. In doing so it exposes it's main engine to where Mia and Julun are hiding.

"Now."

No sooner do I finish speaking than a full powered two-second burst from Mia's raygun hammers into the main drive of the Galdr, causing a wild burst of flame to shoot out of it's breached armor into the faces of the two nearby Prone. They give pained shouts that don't last for long, since Julun follows up beautifully with a grenade impacting directly where Mia's raygun previously hit and causing a firestorm of shrapnel to shred the two burning Prone.

With a mechanical groan the Galdr slumps forward and powers down.

That's my signal then. I take a deep breath and push off the ground in an open sprint towards the remaining infantry. It's about sixty-five meters of open ground between me and them with little in the way of cover, and they're getting over their shock and starting to look around for the source of the attack. I spot the Milsaadi giving instructions to the remaining Prone, getting them organized and prepared for an attack.

Well we can't have that now can we?

I line up my two deltas on his center of mass and lay on the trigger, not bothering to conserve ammo. Thirty-two rounds scream downrange, tearing into the Milsaadi and dropping him with a wet thud.

Well that should have got their attention.

Sure enough the remaining five Prone all turn in my direction and raise their weapons. My armor's camo system might throw off their aim for a second or two, but after that they'll have a clear shot at me, and there's not a single bit of good cover out here.

Maybe I should have thought this through a bit more carefully.

I throw myself into a side roll that slips me past the initial volley, and I come up running towards a small crest in the ground about ten meters away. Not what I would choose to shield myself against five angry Prone with guns, but it'll have to do.

I sneak a glance out of the corner of my eye and see one Prone's head burst into a scarlet fountain as Celica's opening shot tags him, and I catch a blur that's probably Vi sprint right into their midst with his sword already out and ready. So far so good.

Which of course jinxes me because once I'm only five meters away from the depression a hail of bullets catches me full in the side. Most of them are only glancing, with only one shot landing solidly, but taking glancing hits from a military grade weapon designed for a being twice the size of a human still ain't a bed of roses.

I give a surprised wheeze and land solidly on the ground, trying to get some air into my spasming lungs. I eventually manage despite what feels like a giant stepping on my chest, and focus on the area around me.

My eyes are still having a bit of trouble focusing, and I see a hazy image of what I'm pretty sure is Celica. I shake my head and try to get my bearing straight.

"Cross, Cross are you alright?!"

Her voice sounds oddly distant, which is weird because I don't remember getting hit in the head. Well whatever.

I try to respond and end up wheezing pathetically into my voice pickup. I take a deep breath and try again.

"I'm good, I barely even felt that."

Celica gives a sigh of relief and I hear Mia say in an awestruck voice, "Holy crap Chief, I know I tease you about being bait all the time, but I'm honestly starting to think you have a penchant for self-harm that's got nothing to do with me."

"I thought all BLADE's had a taste for self-destruction."

"Yah, but if I didn't know any better I'd say you were of the masochistic type."

"Har har. Forget that, what are our Ganglion pals up to?"

"All accounted for lieutenant. If I may say so, that was a rather impressive beating you took."

"Thanks I guess? Anyway let's take this opportunity to figure out what they were trying to carry off. The other Skell group might be on their way back any moment."

Everyone hops to, with Celica giving me a hand up. "I'm alright, go help the others. The quicker we're out of here the better."

She gives a dubious frown.

"You're certain? If you don't mind me saying so you're kind of a mess right now."

I glance down at myself and can't quite stop my eyebrows from shooting up. Aside from a dent the size of my thumb that was caused by the direct hit, there's something like seven other gouges and scars on the arms and chest piece. Man, I must have taken even more of a pounding than I thought.

I ignore the damage to the armor for now and put up a brave front, "It's fine, armor that does it's job is supposed to look like this."

She gives an incredulous shake of her head but goes off to help Julun. I breathe a sigh of relief and remove my helmet for a moment, and feel my eye twitch as I look at the outside of the helm. There's a slight depression running from front to back where a round must have just grazed the dome. Well I guess that explains why I was all dizzy and disoriented.

Christ I'm just glad that specific bullet wasn't the one that hit home. I raise May on the comm and ask, "How's things on your end? We're all finished up here."

It takes her a moment to respond, since I imagine she's busy at the moment.

"Well they're not giving up easily, we must have led them across half of Everwhelm Falls by now. I can't imagine they're going to keep this up for much longer now though."

"Ok just keep em occupied for a few more minutes, then we'll be out of here."

"Roger that, we're nothing if not pros at running away."

I sign off and start moving towards my team. I head towards Mia who is currently picking over the remains of the Skells. She sees me heading over and doesn't look to excited at my approach.

"What's the bad news Mia? You're not good at keeping a poker face."

"It's about your Skell Chief. Take a look at it's viewfinders and circuitry."

Ignoring my own trepidation I jump up onto it's hull and take a look at the head section where most of the sensor equipment is stashed.

"Shit!"

Mia winces at my outburst and everyone else looks at me worriedly. I ignore them and get a closer look at what the Ganglion did to my poor machine. The sensor arrays and electronics weren't just taken, it looks like they were ripped out at the roots, with dangling circuit boards and hanging fiber optics all over the place. I heave a defeated sigh and turn towards Mia.

"Well mechanic? What's your best guess at the repair time needed to fix this?"

Mia frowns down at the wreckage and takes a moment before giving her answer.

"Even with your high priority and everything, this is looking like a couple weeks, if not a month of necessary downtime. It's not so simple as just getting a bunch of replacement parts and sticking them back in, they're going to have to redo the entire innards with new cables and circuit boards. Honestly it might just be easier to scrap her and-"

"Ok ok, I get the picture. Damn, I just got her fixed up and everything."

I scowl at the stacked bodies of the Ganglion nearby before turning away and try to figure out what they were doing here. Scavenging our technology is a pretty big departure from Ganglion S.O.P, maybe they really do have a shortage of resources after all.

Well it's not my place to figure that out, thankfully.

A sudden message from May brings me out of rumination.

"Heads up Cross, our dance partners just left the party and are heading back to what I'm pretty certain is Lotus Keep. It doesn't look like they're going to pass over your position, but it'd suck to be wrong. You might want to clear out from there."

"I think we'll do just that. Great job out there May, and thanks for the backup."

"Hey, happy to help. We'll stick around in the area, let us know if you need a ride back to base."

"Now that you mention it, I think we'll take you up on that. My Skell got wrecked earlier."

"Damn, that's never a fun situation to be in. Ok give us some coordinates and we'll meet you there."

"Roger that. See you then."

I sign off and address my team.

"Ok guys our part in this is over. Our new objective is to get back to NLA in one piece. Good work today, once we get back the food is on me."

"Lieutenant, are we just going to leave all the bodies here?"

"I know what you mean Vi, but with the Ganglion nosing around and their Skell teams apparently patrolling the area I don't want to risk getting caught out. If they can BLADE HQ will send out a recovery team to take care of the base, but that's not on us."

"You're right. My apologies Lieutenant, I wasn't thinking clearly."

"Don't worry about it Vi, I'd have been way more uncomfortable if someone didn't feel bad about leaving this mess behind."

I take one last look around the remains of the B.C. with it's corpses and wrecked Skells littered around the area. If there's a jungle scavenger out there that loves metal composites, then this scrapyard would be it's every fantasy come true.

"Fall out team."

We leave the wreckage behind and melt into the jungle. Time to head home.

"To commemorate our first successful mission with no deaths and only a few injuries, shared in large part by yours truly, cheers guys! The tab is on me!"

"Your the best leader a BLADE could ask for Chief. You take all the pain and pay for our food!"

"Don't get used to it, I know how much you can eat when it's not your money buying it Mia."

"Well that was a pretty harsh thing to say Chief."

"Tell me it's not true."

"Well…I can't really."

I smile and lean back in my chair at one of the outside stalls of the Six Stars Diner, NLA's first Wrothian owned and run restaurant. The journey back to NLA had been a rather roundabout one, what with needing to meet up with May, hitch a ride back to NLA and then get debriefed about the Ganglion raiders, but arrive in one piece we did.

We briefly separated, since Celica had to turn in the mission results, I had to write an after-action report and everyone else went to get cleaned up and rest. But later that night I suggested we meet up for a little party and called in a favor to get us good seats at the Six Stars.

Ni Zain must be making a killing off of this place, because it's ALWAYS packed to the brim with people. The waiting line's had gotten so bad Ni Zain's financial advisor had just decided that reservation's would have to be made ahead of time. Which worked out great on my end, since Ni Zain is always happy to accommodate me since I helped him get into the cooking business in the first place.

Sure enough he comes walking over with the Wrothian equivalent of a smile, fangs bared and gleaming. More than a few humans were freaked out by the Wrothian's smiles, since to us it looks a lot like some predator's threat display, but you get used to it pretty quickly.

"Cross, well met! You've brought quite the mix of friends this time around."

I give an answering grin and reply, "They're my new teammates so I figured I might as well treat them to the best food on Mira."

"Ah surely you jest my friend."

"I won't deny that I joke a lot, but food is a deadly serious business. Seriously Ni Zain, that kitchen of yours has probably done more to improve Human's feelings toward's Xeno's than half this cities social workers."

"Flattery won't earn you a discount, if that's what you're after."

"Well crap, you found me out."

"Never mind that, where are you manners? Introduce these warrior's to me!"

"Oh right. Guys this is Ni Zain, owner and head chef of this place. Ni Zain, meet Mia, Celica, Julun and Vi Leand."

"Good to meet yah Chef!"

"It is a pleasure meet you Ni Zain."

"I am keenly interested to taste meal of cook Cross holds in such regard."

"Well met Ni Zain. Forgive me for asking, but were you not in Ga Jiarg's service in Oblivia?"

"Alas I was, but upon coming to this city I found a calling more suiting to me than that of a warrior. Here I can help far many more people with a meal than I could ever hope too with a sword. Hopefully you can forgive a question of my own, but I had heard of a warrior named Vi Leand being trained by Zo Ozuchi himself. Are you him?"

"I am indeed, although I am currently training away from my Master's guidance. Since his defeat in the Battle Gauntlet by the Lieutenant, he wished to regain his former strength."

Ni Zain looks at me with open wonder.

"I can imagine who this 'Lieutenant' might be…did you truly beat Zo Ozuchi?"

"It's kind of an overstatement to say I 'beat' him, since I have zero confidence I can replicate the feat."

"And yet I would never have believed that the legendary Zo Ozuchi could have been defeated in the first place…stars above Cross, is there anything you can't do?"

"There sure is, and that's wait any longer before ordering. What's on the menu today?"

A few minutes later we all have our orders logged and are waiting for the food to arrive. I settle back into my chair as Los Angeles from the old terrestrial band X plays in the background.

"She get's confused, flying over the dateline, her hands turn red."

Julun looks quizzically at Mia and me and asks, "From my understanding this city was based off of real one back on Earth. What kind of place was it? There seem to be many songs that both praise and insult it."

I turn to Mia to let her field this one, seeing as how she grew up there and everything. She get's a melancholy smile on her face as she seems to revisit old times.

"Well both songs are right actually. Los Angeles could be both a dump and an amazing place. It depended on where you were in the city. And even then things were always changing, with some districts of the city becoming nicer, while other would become dumpier. I came from a nicer part of the city, but I had a few friends who came from…less fortunate circumstances that me. I got to see both worlds pretty regularly."

Julun nods pensively.

"Interesting. A city of both wealth and poverty, beauty and ugliness. Dualities do make for fine music."

"The days change at night, change in an instant!"

I nod and say somewhat amusedly, "Well we try our best to remember the city with both music and traditions, but get this Julun. Only like seven or eight percent of the Humans in NLA actually lived in Los Angeles."

She looks at me in surprise.

"So few? Why is that?"

"Mostly because of the selection process for the White Whale. The civilians living in NLA came mostly from up and down the former U.S. West Coast states, only a fraction of them actually lived in Los Angeles. With the BLADE's its even more diverse. A lot of them were hand selected from all over the country, and more than a few came from other continents."

Mia gives me a sharp look.

"What does, 'alot of them' mean? You're a BLADE too Chief. What you should have said was, 'alot of us'."

I sigh tiredly.

"Right, right, sorry Mia. Still not used to thinking of myself as being around back then."

Vi leans back in his chair pensively.

"Hmm…a whole city of people adopting a culture that is not their own. I confess that this seems like a strange concept…but a fascinating one all the same. It's certainly a concept foreign to us Wrothians."

Celica smiles and happily replies, "Fascinating is certainly how I would describe it. Had I never never seen NLA with my own eyes, I would never have believed such a diverse city existed among all the numerous stars."

I spy a waiter coming over with a a few plates full of food and interject with, "Hate to interrupt the conversation guys, but we have incoming."

I give a grin a starved Nopon would recognize at the sight of my meal. Freshly baked sourdough loaves with Suid meat and assorted vegetables jam packed inside, glazed with Ni Zain's own special spicy blend of Miran herbs.

People, Heaven does exist, and it's name is food.

I take a look around the table and see that Mia got the Six Stars specialty curry, Celica got the same thing as me while Julun and Vi went with the meat lovers choice of Roast Auravis breast. Everyone's about to dig in, but I hold up a hand and they all glance towards me.

"First a toast. To the success of our new team! May we conquer Mira's trials, whether in flesh-and-blood or a MIM, and keep all our limbs!"

Once I finish Mia raps the table with her knuckles and we all look at her strangely.

"Knock on wood? What, you guys don't know that one?"

"Well obviously we don't. What's it mean?"

"Just a little way to keep good luck from going bad. Nothing serious, relax people."

Vi, Julun, Celica and I all look at each other, then simultaneously rap the table together.

No sense in taking chances right?

Chausson sighed as he looked over the various reports that Vandham and Nagi had placed before him. He locked eyes with the two of them and set his jaw.

"And you both agree with this conclusion?"

Nagi nodded and grimly replied, "All of our intelligence analysts agree that this is a certain sign that the Ganglion have finally organized themselves and are taking action against us once again. Organized raids on our observation posts, scavenging technology they had previously ignored, therefore depriving us of taking the salvage ourselves? I agree with their assessment that there's a new Ganglion commander calling the shots, and they have an idea or two how to wage an effective war."

He gave a sigh as he took another look at the report filed by both Cross and May. He did have to admit, this new M.O. the Ganglion seemed to be adopting was a radically different one than Luxaar had employed. They appeared to be taking Humanity and it's allies far more seriously, which was less than pleasant news for NLA. So far they had taken advantage of the Ganglion's dismissive attitude toward's Humanity, operating largely with impunity as long as they didn't attract any attention.

The reality was the the Ganglion still held an advantage in terms of military prowess, even accounting for all their recent losses. If they were beginning to actively seek out and stymie Human activity on Mira…changes were going to have to be made to BLADEs current tactics and goals. He focused his gaze on Vandham next.

"So what will be our immediate goals, and how are we going to go about implementing them?"

"Well…it's going to suck, put bluntly. Before we've been able to skirt around the Ganglion's forces and mostly avoid large-scale engagements. But now that they seem to be actively hunting for us, trying to just avoid them will only end up killing more BLADEs than it saves. Nagi and I agree. It's time to start actively taking action against the Ganglion, and either force em' to surrender or make friends with us."

"…and you believe we can do so?"

"We got a choice?"

"Fair enough."

Tiredly leaning back in his chair Chausson closed his eyes for a moment. Opening them after a second, newfound energy in his movements, he sat up straight and gazed evenly at his colleagues.

"Very well, I'll start finding a way to break this news to the citizens without giving too much away. For my own personal interest, what will be our first main target?"

Nagi and Vandham glance at each other before Vandham answers, "Badr Stronghold."

Nahum gave an exasperated sigh as she waited for…well, something to demand her attention. Taking control of the Ganglion had been far easier than she expected. Originally she had thought Dadaan's followers would put up far more resistance to her leadership, but they had followed her with little complaint.

In hindsight that was to be expected, she supposed. Dadaan had led his faction through strength and intimidation, of course they would naturally gravitate toward the one who killed him in a 'fair' fight. Unfortunately that left her with precious little to do except wait. All the administrative details were being ably handled by underlings and the remaining Ganglion commanders were at the very least competent enough to keep their troops supplied and combat ready.

Instead Nahum decided to check on the progress of her newest research project. While she would normally assist in the modifications to Nardacyon while there was nothing else to occupy her attention, she was needed here in Sylvalum.

Arriving at one of the prefabricated buildings scattered around the base, she placed her palm on the security lock and the door cycled open. Inside was a variety of computer equipment, as well as one of the Human Data Probes. She had ordered this one to be covertly retrieved, leaving behind scattered pieces to suggest an Indigen had dug up and then destroyed the Probe.

While Luxaar had foolishly ignored the Human's survey network, Nahum was inclined to find out how it worked, and whether it could be turned against it's creators. Two of her subordinates were working tirelessly on the device, hoping to uncover the secrets to it's programming.

One of them, a male Milsaadi, turned to Nahum and gave a small respectful nod.

"Greetings to you mistress."

"How is the progress on the device?"

He hesitated a second before carefully replying, "Slow. While the computer system is similar to ours, with a binary yes/no system, the programming and security inherent to this device is worthy of praise. It will take weeks before we can break into the system and effect changes into the vermin's network. Even then we can't hope for more than two changes before this probe is isolated as the cause of the problem and permanently locked out."

"Can we not simply make our own devices to interact with theirs?"

"Unlikely. Any programming change made by one of these probes is carefully logged and examined for malware, I would imagine the addition of new probes to their network is given even more attention than that. Creating our own devices and connecting them to the Human's system unnoticed is impossible without months more work."

Nahum gave a nod. She had assumed as much, although it irked her to be right in this case.

Leaving the lab behind for now she decided she might as well inspect the Skell forces, since there was apparently nothing else to do.

She hoped the Human's would hurry and actually do something. She had a high opinion of NLA's commanders, and was surprised that they had not yet taken moves against her forces yet.

Well no matter. The Human's and their allies were smart enough to realize that they could no longer ignore the Ganglion, and would eventually have to take the fight to them sooner or later.

And when they eventually did, Nahum would be waiting.