Hiya folks. This chapter was actually going to be a fair bit longer, but I figured it'd be better to put out two decently sized chapters rather than take more time creating a big behemoth one. Nevertheless, enjoy!

Chapter 11

I expected Talbot to take us somewhere in Glocken to meet with Rosalia. Considering the people we were up against, going someplace safe from attacks or prying eyes seemed like a no-brainer. So you could imagine my surprise when rather than doing just that, he instead took us to one of the many Teleportation Plazas scattered across the city.

Without so much as a word of explanation, Talbot ushered us onto the platform and opened the teleporter's menu. He pressed a few buttons, and a familiar bright light filled my vision a moment later.

The first thing I felt was a current of hot air washing over my face, then came the subtle burn of intense sunlight touching every inch of exposed skin. My feet sank maybe half an inch into the ground. When the bright light finally dissipated, I found myself looking down at the endless desert of Solitary Sands.

"Get a move on," Talbot said as he started down the dune we stood upon. "We don't have a lot of time."

Sinon scanned the horizon with a vigilant look on her face, as if she were trying to deduce whether we were being led into the jaws of a trap. I couldn't exactly blame her. Just because we agreed to go along with Rosalia didn't mean we were going to be safe from any kind of mischief — either from her or someone else.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"You in the habit of asking stupid questions?" Talbot said.

"Only for stupid people."

Talbot let out a sharp laugh from that. He looked over his shoulder at me, wearing a wolfish grin on his face. "Hot damn, Argo's dog can yap." He turned and continued on down the dune. "Rosalia's got the others at the airbase. As soon as we get there, we're moving out. Do what she says, be a good boy, and I won't shove my gun down your throat. Good deal, isn't it?"

Sinon narrowed her eyes, glaring at the back of his head, her mouth thinning into a tight frown. "Just ignore him," she whispered to me.

"Not the worst thing someone's said to me," I replied. "Rosalia's got some charmers on her payroll."

The walk wasn't long — several minutes at most. But under the sweltering sun it felt like ages of trudging through the sun baked sands before we finally ended up on the ancient remnants of an old airfield. It wasn't much to look at, but to be fair, a global war and thousands of years of deterioration will do that to pretty much everything. The air traffic control tower was completely collapsed, leaving only a splintered stump of concrete and rebar in its place. Whatever part of the runway wasn't buried in sand was instead worn away with deep cracks or gouged with potholes big enough for a fully grown adult to comfortably curl up in.

Talbot led us into one of the few open hangars, where the sole source of light inside came from the sunbeam pouring through the massive hole in the center of the ceiling, leaving the rest of the area in perpetual darkness. Three people stood inside that circle of light, all of them peering down at a holographic window between them. Rosalia herself, her assistant Faye, and a man of average height and build sporting an army crew cut and black tactical gear. He had a red crown tattooed on the right side of his neck. One of the Majestic members, then. Rosalia's mercs of choice.

Sinon nudged me with her elbow, staring off at something on our left. I followed her gaze. More Majestic mercenaries stood in the dark. At least a dozen of them were either checking their weapons or quietly conversing among themselves. A few of them even glanced in our direction, watching us like wolves as we entered the hangar.

"What kind of operation needs this many people?" I muttered.

Sinon's stony expression never wavered, but I didn't miss the note of tension in her voice. "Those are high level weapons too."

"They're expecting a serious fight," I said. "Now the big question is: against who?"

Sinon didn't answer. She resumed walking like the stares didn't bother her. The rest of us followed suit.

The closer we got to Rosalia and Faye, the more I could make out the details of the holographic window they were looking at. It was a map of the western edge of Solitary Sands. Faye said something quietly, drawing a finger over the window's surface, face set in concentration.

That quickly changed when she noticed us approaching.

She peered at me over the rims of her glasses. Her frown wasn't exactly hostile, but it wasn't shining with welcoming cheer either.

Rosalia looked up from the map a beat later. An unruffled smile grew on her lips. "Masai. Sinon. I'm glad you decided to join us." She gave a brief nod of greeting to Philia. "I hope you're doing okay."

"Yeah. We're all happy to be here," I said without inflection. "Talbot tells us you have a plan."

Rather than answer me, Rosalia turned to the Majestic merc next to her. "Time?"

He checked his watch. "Twenty minutes."

"Best to hurry then."

The merc nodded and turned to join the others, making a series of quick hand motions. They wrapped up whatever they were doing and started leaving the hangar.

"You're not going to explain anything?" I asked Rosalia.

She dismissed the holographic window of Solitary Sands, opening another one as she walked by. "There's no time to waste. It's faster to explain on the way." She tapped a few keys and in a flash of light her clothing was replaced with reinforced motorcycle leathers, complimented with a short scarlet cape hanging from her right hip. Several small caliber handguns were holstered on her belt and the small of her back, along with an array of what seemed to be shotgun slugs. She looked ready for a fight.

It gave me pause. All this time I'd only seen Rosalia lounging about, content to order, manipulate, or maneuver other people into achieving her goals. I thought today would be no different, considering she had a squad of mercenaries that were more than capable of doing the heavy lifting. Yet there she was, preparing to jump into the fire with the rest of us.

We followed her outside into the next hangar over. As soon as we stepped inside, I stopped dead in my tracks, blinking several times to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

Several horses stood in a row inside, but they didn't move or make a sound. Their glowing red eyes did not blink. They were as lifeless as the desert around us. These weren't the real thing. They were mechanical horses, made of metal and clockwork gears rather than flesh and blood. I knew they existed in GGO, but I'd never seen them myself, much less ridden one.

Sinon froze upon seeing them. The muscles along her jaw clenched. "Why are we riding these?"

Faye walked past us without slowing down. "We need them. We're taking a shortcut and the route is treacherous. These will get us through without costing us time."

"Couldn't spring for some trucks?" I asked.

Faye suddenly stopped. She turned to face us and I felt an odd shiver run down my spine from the way her blood red eyes stared at me. "There's no problem, is there?"

Before I could get a word in, Sinon took a step forward, her face devoid of emotion, her tone firm. "No problem at all."

Faye watched her for a moment longer, eyes calculating, like she was gauging Sinon's words. Then she nodded and left without another word.

I waited until we were alone, double checked to make sure no one could overhear us, and said, "You holding up okay?"

"Don't know what you're talking about," Sinon said curtly.

I didn't let it dissuade me. "C'mon, Sinon. Give me a little credit. I know you a lot better now than back when we first met."

Sinon shot a glare at me. It withered away almost as quickly as it arrived. "Sorry. You're right, I'm just a little worked up." She shook her head, a rueful little smile touching her face. "Heh, I suppose I can't shut you down anymore, can I?"

"Nah, you can. It'll just take a good smack upside the head now to get past my impressive hero complex," I said. I folded my arms, my voice turning low. "It's about a certain someone, isn't it?"

She swallowed, her voice turning strained. "He..chased after me on one of those. When I was in the middle of one of my attacks. I was so scared I couldn't even pull the trigger to stop him. I couldn't do anything except scream and panic."

I pressed my lips together. I still didn't know the exact specifics of what happened during the BoB tournament last year. It didn't feel right to press Sinon for details, and while there was no doubt plenty of recordings floating around on the net, I wasn't keen on watching them. It felt…invasive to me. Like I'd be violating a level of Sinon's privacy no one was entitled to.

"It's only natural to be scared when your life is threatened," I said.

"Sure, but I spent so long being Sinon, the cold-blooded sniper, that when it happened…" she shook her head. "It felt like everything I'd done was for nothing. That it was all a lie I created to convince myself I wasn't just a scared little girl."

"It isn't true."

"You don't have to tell me. I know myself better now. But at the time, it really felt like it."

I watched in contemplative silence while Rosalia and her team busied themselves with saddling up. Then I unfolded my arms and asked, "How do you feel now?"

Sinon took a slow, deep breath. Several seconds ticked on by before she looked ahead, her expression firm. "Like this is just one more thing I'm going to beat."

I gave her an encouraging smile. "Sounds to me like we shouldn't waste time then."

Sinon scoffed, giving her best grin. "Obviously."

I approached the horse at the end of the line, giving it a quick once over. I waved a hand in front of its face. Nothing happened. I put the same hand on its metal muzzle and got similar results. It may as well have been a statue for all the reaction it gave.

A lot of VRMMO's took bits and pieces from SAO for their own use. Everything from items to monsters to entire game mechanics could be repurposed, all thanks to their common denominator, the Seed engine. After all, why make an entirely new system when you could just pilfer it wholesale from the code left behind by Kayaba's death game? It stood to reason then that if Gun Gale Online had horses, even mechanical ones, then they'd functionally be the same as those found in the World of Swords.

Going off that train of logic, I slipped a foot into the stirrup, hauled myself up, and swung my other leg over to fully seat myself onto the saddle.

At that exact moment, the horse jolted to life. It let out a wheezing neigh, tossing its head from left to right, its front legs jumping up and down. I was half-afraid it'd charge off on its own until I patted its shoulder to soothe it. It worked like a charm. The horse calmed down into an idle stance, its weight shifting from one side to the other, its rubber ears twitching.

"Hah, still got it," I said while taking hold of the reins.

Sinon took a few slow steps forward and looked up at me, one eyebrow raised. "You…know how to ride one of these?"

I raised a shoulder in a shrug. "I did a lot of horse riding in SAO. It's faster than walking everywhere, and it was nice to have a traveling buddy when you were outside the safe zone for days on end." I held out my hand to her. "C'mon, you can sit behind me."

Sinon blinked at me, then down at the horse. I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been paying attention, but I caught the near-instant moment of doubt cross her face before she heaved a sigh and gave me her hand.

I pretended not to notice how it trembled as I pulled her up.

I grabbed the reins again once she settled in behind me. The last time I rode a horse was well over a year ago, but it wasn't something I'd easily forget, especially when I used to do it almost every day. With two clicks of my tongue, I squeezed my thighs against the horse's body and felt it obey my command, striding forward with a smooth gait.

Philia took a horse for herself with Rei riding as her second. She shot me a half-smile as she joined us. "Just like old times, huh?"

I chuckled. "Guess you can say I'm back in the saddle."

We exited the hangar to join Rosalia's team, and when she saw me riding without any trouble, her expression turned into something approaching tacit approval.

"Talbot, lead the way, would you?" she asked. Her bodyguard grunted and took the lead on his horse. Rosalia, Faye, and the rest of the Majestic mercs followed behind him. The rest of us brought up the rear, our horses moving at a steady canter.

I moved further up the line and caught up to Rosalia. "Alright, spill. What exactly are we doing here?"

Rosalia stared straight ahead, her posture relaxed. "I hear Cedric closed his account."

I eyed her warily. "Yeah."

"He assisted Blacklight in their escape. He was your best lead at finding them until he slipped from your grasp." Rosalia continued on as if I hadn't spoken. "But what about the other bartender?"

I stared at her for a moment. "What?"

"The other bartender. The girl."

I sifted through my memories of that night. I remembered sitting at the bar and flagging Cedric down. We exchanged code phrases like Noya told me to, and then he let me in the back room. That was it.

No, wait. That wasn't all of it. Cedric didn't take me to the back rooms right away. He stopped to talk to someone else.

The other bartender.

There had been someone else with him. I didn't pay much attention to her at the time, but there had been a woman there — with deep violet hair and piercing green eyes. She and Cedric spoke to each other briefly before he let me in the back. Had she been involved in some way too?

"Her name is Cleo. From what my sources could tell, she's a very close friend of Cedric. The two of them would often work together on jobs like the one they had during the auction," Rosalia said.

"You think she may have collaborated with him," Sinon said.

"It's possible, don't you think?"

"If that's the case, why didn't she cut and run like he did?" I asked.

Rosalia gave an agreeable hum. "Looks like she isn't so willing to throw away everything she's worked for. Or maybe she doesn't think we'll go after her. Whatever her reasons, she's here and she won't leave GGO. We can press her for info."

I frowned. "You want to interrogate her?"

"Of course I do," Rosalia said, without a hint of anything resembling shame or remorse.

I gave her the same look I give to all evil-doers, like tyrannical despots and people who chew with their mouth open. "You didn't think to try talking to her first? You know, like a normal person?"

A note of silence fell. Then Rosalia's expression darkened and she muttered, "She won't talk to me. She's made that clear more than once."

I lifted an eyebrow and said in a dry tone, "Gee, how unexpected."

"She won't run, but she won't cooperate with us either. If you want to protect Philia, then we need to change that."

"So why are we going after her here instead of back in Glocken? Wouldn't that be easier?"

Rosalia shook her head. "She'll log off if we confront her in a safe zone. You know that. It has to be done out in the wilds. Out here, we can take measures to be sure she won't escape."

Behind me, Sinon bowed her head forward until her mouth disappeared beneath her muffler. "What exactly are those measures?"

"Irrelevant to our current conversation," Rosalia replied smoothly.

Sinon and I traded a glance. A flash of wariness crossed her disinterested features. I gave a faint frown in response. Neither of us were liking the idea very much, it seemed.

"Suppose we decided to help you with all this. What's to stop you from tossing us aside once you got what you wanted?" I asked.

Rosalia pushed a strand of vibrant red hair from her face. "C'mon now, don't be ridiculous. Why would I get rid of a valuable ally?"

I lifted a brow. "I'm a valuable ally now?"

"You're smart, clever, and skilled in a fight. I'd be stupid for not realizing how much we'd accomplish by working together."

"Uh huh. Or you just want another weapon to use against the Hidden."

Rosalia didn't quite smile, but her eyes flashed with amusement. "Both can be true."

"You're not doing a good job of convincing me you're on my side."

"I asked you to be here, didn't I? Why would you doubt me?"

"Because you haven't been overflowing with honesty, Rosalia. Philia is in this mess because you deceived her. Who's to say you aren't lying to me?"

Rosalia looked at me, and her tone changed from lazy confidence to something certain, more resolute. "Think about this then. You already made it clear that you don't trust me. Why should I bother lying if you won't believe me anyways? It's a waste of my energy and your time." She faced forward again. "We don't have to like each other, Masai. We just need to be professionals. At the end of the day, we both need to find the true culprits behind all of this. If you won't do it for my sake, then do it for Philia's. You can manage that much, right?"

A long, dreary exhale escaped my lips. Rosalia seemed to take that as acceptance. She snapped the reins of her horse and rode on ahead, leaving us behind.

"Are you okay?" Sinon asked once she was well out of earshot.

"I don't like being led on like this," I said. "Every instinct I have is screaming at me that Rosalia's up to something."

"For what it's worth, mine are doing the same thing," Sinon replied.

I nodded. "Two plus two equals four. She's running a game on us. And not the fun kind, either."

Our horse chose that moment to start fussing again. It let out another steam-whistle whinny and thrashed its head from side to side. I'd heard the horses in GGO could be a pain to ride, but I didn't think they'd be so moody, too.

"Hey now. Woah," I patted a hand against its metallic neck. It probably wouldn't do much, come to think of it; the horse was probably just cycling through a collection of animations to make it seem more alive. Still, it never hurts to be sure. "You're alright, girl. Uh, boy? Noble steed. Yeah, that's good."

"You really seem to know what you're doing," Sinon said. "This is the best horse ride I've been on."

I smiled and gave a modest shrug. "It's nothing really. I figured GGO would be using the same script the horses from SAO ran on. Anyone with enough experience can recognize their little quirks."

"Hm. You know, I don't think anyone else in the group ever mentioned riding horses."

"I traveled a lot back then, going up and down Aincrad, never really staying in one place for too long."

"Why's that?"

A frown forced its way through, but with my back to Sinon, she didn't see it. I couldn't tell her the truth, that the reason I kept moving was to avoid being found by my guild. In fact, I joined Philia during her treasure hunts back then precisely for that reason.

I couldn't tell Sinon the truth. I couldn't because I'd already lied to her from the start. Damn it.

"It kept me from thinking too hard about being stuck in SAO," I said. "It wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows in there, y'know? The less I thought about it, the better."

Sinon fell silent.

After several minutes of riding through the dunes of sand, the terrain began to give way to rough, rocky ground and thorny brush. This far west, we were crossing into the section of Solitary Sands where it was a little bit less Sahara Desert and a little more Grand Canyon. Rock pillars, crooked and weathered from generations of wind erosion, poked out from the ground like wrinkled fingers, and strange stone arches protruded from mountainous hills and crags in ways that almost seemed alien.

Still, plenty of sand, though. In case you were wondering.

I kept my head on the proverbial swivel. A lot of things called this place home, and none of them were exactly pushovers. In fact, there's quite a few that could swallow us whole, horse included.

Luckily, we were left unmolested. Talbot guided us down a steep slope in the ground that eventually brought us to a tunnel leading down into the earth. The walls inside were made of some kind of orange-red stone, smooth and wavy. I ducked slightly as we went in for fear of bumping my head against the ceiling with every loping step the horse took.

We weren't in there for longer than a moment or two when the ground evened out. Rosalia and her mercs merged together to form a single line. I realized why the moment we reached the end. The tunnel let out onto a narrow path jutting from the wall of a deep, dusty ravine — barely wide enough for one horse to walk on at a time. The wind coursing past us wasn't exactly strong, but it made me very paranoid of our mount losing its footing. Against my better judgment, I looked down. I couldn't see the bottom.

"Talk about extreme hiking," I muttered. "Grab a hold of me, Sinon. Don't want you to lose your balance."

Sinon hummed in agreement. She wound her arms around my waist, and she held me in a gentle, feather-light embrace that had nothing to do with holding on for safety. My heart skipped a beat.

"Can I ask you something?" she said quietly.

I cleared my throat. "Uh, yeah sure."

"Were there ever any good moments for you?"

I blinked several times. When I looked back at her, her face was set with unyielding calm. "What?"

"SAO," she said. "It wasn't always bad, was it?"

I opened my mouth, and words failed me. I looked away from her, trying to focus on the narrow path in front of us while the question repeated itself in my mind again and again.

SAO was…a scary place to be — full of uncertainties and doubts. The fear of never seeing tomorrow. The crippling strain of being forced beyond your limits when all you want to do is run and cry for safety again. Aincrad destroyed lives, ruined people in different ways, and more than a few memories reminded me of just how lucky I was to escape it at all.

But was it always that way?

I sucked in a breath and let it go in a weary sigh. "No. I'd be lying if I said it was. There were good moments, too. Moments where I laughed like nothing was wrong. Nine times out of ten it was always because of the people around me."

"You mean your guildmates?" Sinon asked.

My chest clenched, but I nodded.

She held me tighter. "They sound like wonderful people."

"Yeah. Heck, they were practically superheroes. Always lending a hand to people who needed it. Especially to me." I felt my throat close and I looked up at the orange sky, trying so hard not to break while gathering my thoughts. When I met Sinon's eyes again, I said, "You know…I, uh…before SAO, I used to be a pretty shy kid."

The corner of her mouth tugged upwards in a barely noticeable smile. "Shy? You?"

I laughed a little, and it put a drop of warmth back into my voice. "Hard to believe, right? But yeah. That was me. Always quiet. Never speaking my mind. Letting other people take charge. I never talked back to anyone and I always avoided making people angry. I was kind of a pushover, if I'm being honest."

"And SAO changed that?"

"Partly. Most of it was because of my guild. You can actually blame our blacksmith for my charming sense of humor," I said with a lopsided grin. "But I was the youngest member and a lot of them took me under their wing. Mentored me."

"Two years of that, huh?" Sinon said.

"More or less. And going out into the wilds was when those lessons turned into actual experience. Most of the time, it worked out. But, uh, not all the time," I let out a slow breath. "That's when I learned some of the hardest lessons around."

"Masai…"

I swallowed the knot in my throat. "It was going to happen one way or another. SAO pushed quiet, shy, passive Makoto into a corner, and he had to fight and kill and make hard choices to get out of it. He had to be something he wasn't until it actually became who he was. He had to learn how to move. How to think and adapt. How to keep a clear head under pressure…and how to be hurt. Once you live that life, you stop being afraid of something as simple as someone not liking you."

Sinon let that sink in for several long moments, then she said in a quiet tone. "It must've been difficult. Living like that every day."

I nodded. "It was. But it's in the past now. There's not much I can do about it except take those experiences and use them for the right reasons."

I didn't know when it started happening, but I found myself leaning back into Sinon's hold. Her arms tightened around me, and for a moment, I forgot where we were and just relished the simple, comforting touch of the girl I deeply cared for. A soft, almost silent sigh of comfort escaped my lips, and as much as I wanted to touch her, I had to settle for simply enjoying the tender calm of her presence.

Sinon let out a casual breath of laughter. "Still, I think I would have liked to have met you back then. I can't imagine you being so timid,"

"I think fourteen-year-old me would have been intimidated at the idea of talking to you."

She scoffed. "Oh please, I'm not that hard to talk to."

"Our first few months knowing each other beg to differ."

Sinon dug the knuckle of one finger into my back, growling. "I'm not."

I maintained my lofty composure despite her vicious assault. "The lady doth protest too much."

The two of us fell into silence, letting the sound of the wind coursing through the ravine fill the air between us. Sinon whispered, "Hey, I know SAO is something really private, but I appreciate that you're willing to talk about it with me. You didn't have to."

I turned to look at her. "It's alright. Honestly, I think you're the only person I'd feel comfortable opening up to about all this."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I trust you, Sinon," I murmured. "And...you deserve to know."

A genuine smile spread on her face. "Thank you. You can tell me anything, okay?"

A black, cold guilt wormed its way through my chest. I buried it before it could get very far. "Okay."

The narrow trail ended with another short tunnel, and once we were on the other side I scanned our surroundings. We were at the bottom of a giant canyon. The empty terrain stretched out to our left and right for what had to be several kilometers, and dead ahead was a sheer rock wall high enough to kill even a high AGI player if they tried to jump down. What's more, the wind was blowing even harder here, turning into a miniature gale.

I caught sight of what had to be our goal. A massive open steel door was built into the canyon wall opposite of us, big enough for a tank to comfortably drive through. Ten or fifteen security droids armed with ancient assault rifles were patrolling its immediate area, with two more manning the watchtowers placed on either side of the door.

Talbot raised a hand, fist clenched, and pumped it. The Majestic mercs plus Rosalia and Faye all grouped together with him in a circle, leaving just enough space for the rest of us to join

"This is where Cleo is?" I asked, glancing at the door again.

"No," Rosalia said. "She's in an underground weapons depot several kilometers away."

Sinon narrowed her eyes. "Then why are we here?"

"Because we'd never catch up with her," Rosalia said. "The depot's entrance is heavily defended. According to my sources, Cleo and her squad killed them all and entered the dungeon some time ago, but in the time it would take us to reach it, the depot's defenses would have respawned already."

"She has a headstart on us. If we try to follow in her footsteps, she'll complete the dungeon and teleport back to Glocken before we can reach her," Faye finished.

"How recent is this info?" Sinon said.

"Very. We knew she was going to be online today but not what she was going to be doing. This plan was put together at the last minute," Faye admitted.

I narrowed my eyes, comprehension dawning on me. "Oh, I get it. We're taking a shortcut."

Faye tilted her head towards our target. "Correct. This is a warehouse. At the very bottom floor is an automated mag-train that transports supplies to the very weapon depot Cleo is inside."

I put the pieces together. "So we fight our way through, hitch a ride on the train, and hopefully land close enough to catch up with her."

"Precisely."

I pressed my lips together. The plan was simple enough. It was going to take a bit of luck for everything to work out, but it's not like I was a stranger to taking gambles. I checked the warehouse's entrance again. The resistance was stiff, but nothing I hadn't dealt with before. Between all of us, we'd make pretty short work of —

Sinon tapped my shoulder, then she jerked her chin towards the sky. I didn't see anything at first, but then a zipping black disc caught my attention. I squinted at it. A drone. It couldn't have been any larger than a dinner plate, and the faint red cones of light emanating from its underside were almost invisible against the orange sky, but it was there, and I doubted it was friendly.

Another quick motion drew my eye. A second drone was buzzing near the first. Then I saw another one. And more still. I counted the ones I could see. There had to have been more than a dozen, all moving in tandem like a flock of birds.

"What are those?" Philia said.

"The first line of defense for this place," Talbot drawled, watching the drones himself. "They're constantly scannin' the area. They pick up any players and the whole place goes into lockdown. Have to do a whole quest to lift it."

"We don't have that kind of time," Sinon said.

"No. We don't," Rosalia said. She turned to Majestic merc from before. He checked his watch.

"Two minutes," he reported.

I gave them both a speculative look, but neither seemed keen to fill in the rest of us. Time passed in relative silence, only broken by the occasional whinnying horse or the clatter of weapons being checked. Sinon spent the entire time watching the drones, as if she were trying to parse the pattern they were flying in.

At one minute and thirty seconds, the wind began to kick up. Not as a light breeze or even a short-lived gust, but more like the beginnings of a cyclone or a rampaging mob of industrial fans — a constant, forceful current that sent grains of fine sand flying up all around us. I held up a hand to shield my face while behind me Sinon pulled her muffler over the bridge of her nose.

It didn't slow down. The gale only intensified with every passing second and visibility dropped fast alongside it. More and more sand started to fly. I looked to my left, where the direction of the wind was coming from, I realized what was going on.

A front of a massive sandstorm bigger than any I'd ever seen was coming towards us, a raging wall of dirt and dust that almost seemed biblical in proportions. I've seen them before in movies or videos on the internet, but those didn't compare to actually seeing the real thing bearing down on you, consuming everything in its way.

"Once the sandstorm's in full swing, the drones' motion sensors are gonna have a tough time spotting you," Talbot shouted over the worsening gale. "It ain't foolproof though, so don't be stupid and cross their sights thinking they won't spot you."

Sinon patted me on the arm, and when I looked back she held a pair of military goggles out to me. "Can't have you steering us blind."

"Thanks," I said, putting them on and adjusting the straps so they wouldn't slip off my face.

"I'll keep an eye on the drones and do my best to guide you," Sinon said as she put on her own pair. "If we're lucky, we'll be able to slip by."

"Good idea," I turned to Philia and Rei. "You guys stick right behind us and follow our every move."

"What if we lose each other in the storm?" Philia asked.

In response, I drew my photon sword and thumbed the ignition switch. The bright blue blade came alive with a crackling hum. "I'll try my best to be obvious."

I opened my menu and with a few taps made a party with all four of us. After sticking the earpiece in place, I looked up at the sandstorm just seconds away from contact.

"Close your mouth as tight as you can," Sinon said.

"Yes, mom," I said with a lopsided grin.

The storm swallowed us whole. One second I could more or less make out our surroundings, and in the next darkness, dirt, and dust descended on top of us, choking out the sunlight and trapping us in a tempest that raged without a care to the people trapped inside it. Wind screamed into my ears, shoving me to one side so hard I was afraid our horse would tip over from the sheer force. Shovelfuls of coarse sand scratched at my face and caked itself into my hair. Turns out, Sinon was right. Even with my mouth closed, it felt like some grit managed to slip through and get stuck between my teeth, which felt almost as irritating as the stuff getting stuck up my nose.

It really did get everywhere.

"Go!" Sinon shouted.

I snapped the reins. Noble Steed let out a shrill, mechanical shriek, rearing on its hind legs before hurtling forward, and a stampede of beating hooves joined in behind me like the frantic rumbling of rolling thunder. The whistling cries of the other horses, almost bloodthirsty in their pitch, left my ears ringing, and I almost missed Sinon's voice shouting in my ear.

"Right!" she said, pulling my body in the same direction. I followed her lead, steering us in the same direction. Noble Steed leapt over a half-buried boulder in our way, landing on the other side without slowing down. Sinon kept guiding me, pulling me from one direction to another, and the horse weaved effortlessly to my instruction.

One of the patrolling security droids appeared in our path. Its head snapped towards us, seemingly surprised by our sudden arrival, but it couldn't do much more than turn its upper body before my photon sword swept down and took its head off its shoulders.

"Faster! Faster!" Sinon called, tightening her hold on my waist.

Let it loose, Noble Steed. Give it all you got! I snapped the reins again and dug my heels into the horse's body. A burst of steam shot out from its nostrils as it pushed into a full gallop, its hooves stabbing into the ground at a frenzied pace. Another droid came walking out of the storm before us and it didn't even have time to react before our mount hit it like a runaway car, trampling it underfoot until there was nothing left but pieces in our wake.

An electronic whooping noise suddenly pierced through the roaring wind. It took me a second to realize what it was. An alarm.

"How? None of the drones should have spotted us," Sinon said.

Someone else must have been caught then. No slowing down now. I kept us running at full bore, hoping that we'd at least make it to the door before whatever security systems were in place would start to spin up.

That hope came to a swift and tragic end when a bullet line shot out from the storm ahead of us to land right between my eyes. I jerked my head away in pure reflex, and the angry buzz of a bullet passed right by my ear. More bullet lines cut through the storm like a firing line. Some of them landed on yours truly, but others stretched out past Sinon and I to hit the people behind us.

No time for thought. I yanked the reins to one side in an attempt to evade the majority of the bullet lines aimed at us, hoping none of the shots would hit Philia or Rei by accident. Gunfire ripped through the storm. A bullet buried itself in my shoulder, and another grazed my ankle. They stung, but neither did much damage to my health.

I couldn't say the same for our mount.

A torrent of lead ripped into Noble Steed. Sparks flew and a metallic sputtering sound came from inside its chassis, like an old engine trying to turn over only with more grinding noises. Sour scented smoke poured out from the exposed clockwork gears. Our powerful gallop turned drunken and unsteady for several seconds before the horse bellowed and regained its former footing. I swallowed. We weren't goners yet, but another bout of gunfire like that and we'd go down, and at the speeds we were moving, the landing wouldn't be anything pretty.

Sinon ripped Charon out of my holster, pointing both it and her Glock over my shoulders towards the source of the bullet lines dead ahead. She fired with patient, measured shots that felt like an eternity when it couldn't have been any longer than half a second. Charon barked with its heavy booming rapport, then as the revolver cycled to the next round, the Glock spat out half a dozen rounds. Rinse and repeat. A couple of the bullet lines cutting through the storm vanished, and a few more went wild as Sinon's return fire threw off their aim.

Suddenly I could make out the vague outline of the warehouse's entrance. A beat later, I saw a line of droids standing in front of it, the last line of defense. All at once the bullet lines coming from their rifles converged right on us.

"Jump!" I shouted, pushing myself up into a standing position. I threw myself to one side and caught a glimpse of Sinon doing the same in the other direction. I hit the ground more or less clean, with the sand cushioning my fall, then looked up just in time to see what happened next.

A barrage of armor piercing rounds shredded our mount. Metal shards and heatless sparks exploded from Noble Steed's body. It jerked and let out a final cry of pain before its legs quite literally fell apart underneath it. The horse fell. But hundreds of pounds of heavy metal doesn't stop on a dime. Especially not when it was moving at full speed.

I'm not a Straight A's kid, but I pay attention in science class. Substantial mass times breakneck acceleration equals a hell of a lot of force.

The mechanical horse smashed into the line of droids like a cannonball. The ones unfortunate enough to be in its way shattered into pieces like a toy thrown against the wall. Limbs flew, some of them into the air, others hitting nearby droids. Not to mention it caused a hell of a distraction.

"Stay in school, kids." I said, rising to my feet, my balance wavering slightly. I snatched up my MP7 from its strap and gunned down the nearest robot as it stumbled awkwardly away from the carnage.

"Masai!" I turned and found Sinon running towards me, pointing at the warehouse's entrance where a thick steel gate was slowly falling to seal it off.

"Go, go, go!" I said, sprinting as fast as my legs could carry me. The entrance was three-fourths of the way closed and falling fast. I was twenty meters away. Then ten. Five.

I dropped into a slide and made it to the other side with inches to spare. Sinon rolled in behind me, and not a moment later the gate slammed shut with a final echoing boom. The wailing of the sandstorm outside was reduced to a barely audible whisper. I looked around for a switch or button to open the way again but saw nothing.

"You okay?" I asked Sinon, ripping the goggles off my face.

She frowned down at the floor. The door had caught one of the ends of her muffler. She pulled at it several times before it finally came free with a hard tug.

"I'm fine," she said, removing her own goggles and standing up. "How do we get this open?"

"Not sure. Don't think a magic word would do it," I said.

My earpiece buzzed with a strange noise. At first, I thought it was static, but after a few seconds I realized it was the wind coming from the storm outside.

Philia's harried voice suddenly came through. "Masai? Sinon? Are you guys there?"

"We're here, we made it inside. But I don't see a way to open this up," I said.

The sound of automatic gunfire ripped through our comms. "It missed, I'm okay," Philia said to someone. "Masai, we'll make a stand here. You need to find a way to open it again."

"It's going to get dicey for you guys. Even with the sandstorm, you're in a wide open field. It'll be a kill zone," I said.

More gunfire erupted through my earpiece, and Philia said, "Rosalia is going to pull us back. Hold on…" Seconds ticked on by before she added, "Faye says there should be a security center somewhere inside. You can lift the lockdown from there."

A deep resonant boom strong enough to shake chips of rock from the ceiling shook the gate, followed by the mechanical whine of what sounded like an airplane's engine. The gunfire on the other side intensified, and I could just make out a voice shouting a flurry of commands.

"There's more coming!" Philia shouted. "Masai, we'll hold them off. Don't take too long over there, 'kay?"

"Right, no lunch breaks. We're moving," I said, and turned to start down the ramp that led deeper into the facility.

"Just the two of us against an entire facility?" Sinon asked as came into step beside me.

"It's all we need, right?" I replied.

A small, sharp grin tugged at the corner of her lips.

In the red corner, Sinon and I, all on our lonesome.

In the blue corner, a warehouse being defended by a mob of enemies that almost assuredly had us outgunned and outnumbered in every conceivable way, with a home field advantage and an intense desire to kill us.

Heh. They didn't stand a chance.