"This is Stripes, come in Badger." The young man sighed in annoyance, his sigh echoing into all three of the Mechs scanning their section. "Remind me why we're doing this again?"

"There was a small energy surge detected in the area. Normally, it would be ignored, but as close as we are to the Academy..."

"All right, all right. I get it. I'm gettin' nothing, how about you, Flower?"

"Nada," a sigh, feminine this time. She was the one of the very few females to pick this line of work, and she gets stuck on scout duty? "I got noth--"

Then, a large CLANG was heard as the Mecha called Badger's owner began to report. "Bogey on left shoulder! Right! What the hell?" His voice was obviously ragged, scared. "What the hell! Does anyone have visual?! All my systems are failing!"

The commander of Flower paled. "Oh, God, Roy...it-it's Parasites..." Her Mecha turned to see as Stripes was attacked as well, the swarm of biological metal machines attacking the main systems of the scout Mechas. As a single one chewed through the wires, having slipped inside, the cockpit opened up leaving the young human inside, the male inspontaiously suffocating and imploding. The female attempted to flee, shooting at the Parasites as they flocked. "Flower to HQ! Flower to HQ...!" Her words were silenced as a Mecha flew into Flower, it's katana stabbing through the cockpit, stabbing the pilot through the chest. "...urk..."

A voice from the Mecha boomed loud enough so that it's owners voice was clear on the transmission. "Attention humans: the end is nigh. For countless ages, Humans have evolved, changed, putting all aside to gather your own gain, setting yourself upon the throne of life, kinging yourselves." the owner, though it could not be seen, smiled. "It is time for a new kingdom to arise. Step aside, human scum, and bow before the Kell'rah--the beings you call parasites--your new masters."

The mecha then gave a nod; a signal...

---

---

Nimea watched as her brother made quick work of the female Mecha, wondering about her life. Did she have a family, a brother like her, or perhaps a sister even? Did she have a mate? If she did, she’d be missed, as her life was being snuffed out, Nimea felt momentarily sad for the person inside the cockpit. But they were mother’s orders, and if no one else, Nimea always listened to mother. Today she considered boring, as no exploring would probably be permitted until they had the Academy seized and began building a base there. The Kell'rah had plans to occupy Earth first, since it was the weakest planet compared to the other Empires. She hoped they’d salvage a Carnival at least, she had heard of those; it would be nice to go there…

Oh, a nod from her brother, it was time to begin phase one, render all opposing systems in-operational. She flipped the switch in front of her, and her poised Mecha’s wings began to vibrate, emitting a sound that jammed radar and eventually all other systems. She drew her sword hilt from its locking place, the saber turning on in a flash of violet light, the same color of her eyes. “Commence attack.” She gave the order to her own flock of parasites, bigger and heavy duty arachnid looking creatures who hissed as they flew by her, and Began advancing forward herself. She began to hum herself as she opened fire on the Academy’s building, which had a shield. “Hmmm. I’ll take care of that.” She spoke softly and nonchalantly, raising the tempo of her Mech and disabling the shield.

The MFU unit students were quick to respond, they were out and into the air in no time at all. Two picked her and opened heat seeking missiles on her, she swerved and let the missiles chase her, circling around to them and slashing on MFU through, the other she dodged for and allowed his own missiles to barrage him, he fell towards the earth, disabled.

But apparently those were only to buy time, as more of them rose up, Nimea hummed a cheery tune as she charged fearlessly onward, taking on a squad of five, they were flying blind anyway.

“Hey you guys! We’re making good time don’tcha think?” Pepper’s radio transmission channel was open for the umpteenth time. She was trying to chat, and being very friendly about it, but really the whole team just seemed either stoic or pissed off. They were offended that they were assigned under a team leader younger than all of them. As most were. But that didn’t stop the redhead from trying to lighten the situation. It had only been about five minutes into the patrolling exercise by the way.

She just kept on smiling, leaned back and completely at ease with her MFU, she felt comfortable and alive when in her Archangel, like she was whole, and she was sensitive to every noise and movement it made. She flipped the MFU on its back, wings protruding for balance, and put its arms behind its head, as if relaxing down a river, which for Pepper, flying was pretty much like that.

But a disturbance caused her to suddenly flip back over, her radar and radio com started acting funny, fizzing for a short while and then shutting down completely. “EH?! Nooooo, don’t break on me.” She pined at the screen, sighing in exasperation and giving the hand signal for all units to land. She had run a diagnostic before she had left, her systems were fine before, what they heck was going on?

Once they were all on the ground, she popped open her hatch, revealing the small and spastic redhead sitting in her control seat. “MY RADIO AND RADAR IS BUSTED YOU GUYS. WHICH IS STRANGE CAUSE THERES NO REASON WHY THAT SHOULD SUDDENLY HAPPEN. ANYONE KNOW A GOOD MECHANIC? I DON”T SEE WHY WE SHOULD HAVE TO DOUBLE BACK TO SCHOOL FOR SUCH NONSENSE.” She shouted slowly, seeing as how even though they were close, they were high up and a tad far from each other due to the size of the MFUs.

Ba'al watched as the battle began to unfold, humans landing their mechs, only to take off moments later to defend their precious Academy. He smirked, then sent out a command via Me'lah, a telepathic connection between the Kell'rah. Brothers, flank the sides, distract them. Favored Ones, go below; the moment the shield is down, take out as many systems as you can.

Ba'al gave a smile, watching as the shield went down. Even though he knew that they would not win this skirmish, as he and Mother had secretly agreed, their mission served many other proposes. To strike fear. To weaken the Humans while the Big Brothers made their slow way here. To plant a seed of destruction.

Both his and his Mech's arms were folding, waiting. His combined engine of Human and Parasite tech charged, a great glow of purple ion plasma charging on the back and on the feet. He waited...

...he then unsheathed one of his swords. "Bring it." Slamming a throttle foreword, the Vengance III bust forth, ramming head-on into a Human Mech, blade-first, killing the opponent inside, with damage to the actual Mech. Tossing aside the opponent, his Mech's arms split, creating four, each unseathing a blade. If one could see inside the cockpit, the would see a large smile on the black-haired male, bloodlust in his purple eyes.

"BRING IT ON!"

Earme's Titan dragged at the rear of the formation, the heaviest and subsequently the slowest of all the mecha. Yet nowhere did the young man feel safer then in the machine with its arsenal and half-inch think armor plating. The gunmetal grey warmachine was a sleek image of deadly firepower as burners propelled it through the sky. The day was rather calm as the dispatch training group blazed towards the boarder of the nearest city. It was a simple milk run, no contact was expected. Just another day as a student of the academy. It was a job that needed to be done, although Atsra still was keen on the assignment. Nor was he keen on his squad leader. Pepper Sprucey, daughter of the head of the academy and held an acclaimed brilliance. Just her reputation was enough for her to be placed in rather a bad light for Earme's viewing. Her position was a result of her father's pull within the academy, instructors automatically place her in key positions. It was not a result of hard work that placed her as his commander. That was what Earme resented about this particular day.

He ignored her attempts at conversation, they were on a mission. A aimless mission true but it was still a mission and were this a real situation idle chit-chat would not be the call of the day. Best not to simulate what should not be simulated. Orders were orders and Earme would have to follow the younger girl, as much as it stung his pride. His relaxed journey was soon interrupted as static ripped through his cockpit speakers, from which Pepper had just failed at communicating through. In a moment he ran through the systems. The static broke to silence as Earme's radar took its turn to readout bizarre data, setting off alarms within the shell of metal and terroglass. Within another moment the radar shut of entirely and diagnostics reported complete failure of both systems, yet everything else remained unscathed. It was an incredibly curious experience, intervened when the mecha ahead began to descend. Earme had missed the signal and followed the remainder of his team to the earth.

The Titan thudded down nearby Pepper's Arch Angel, the weight of the impact pushing divots into the soil below. With a push of a button the warmachine's canopy lifted and shifted. Allowing Earme to stand along with his squad leader. He listened as she shouted across to him and the others. Even more curious, it seemed that he was the only one with selective systems dropout. He shouted back to Pepper, loathing having to report to her but doing it anyway. "Its the same here!" He communicated "Both my radio and radar have dropped out yet all my other systems seem okay! It could have been rogue EMP by my wiring is shielded and EMP isn't that selective!" He didn't know if the girl understood what he was trying to communicate to her. He could probably attempt to reroute his set up, troubleshoot the bypass options and find out what exactly was going on with everyone else. Yet he wasn't about to start without checking the situation entirely. It could possibly be a small test cooked up by the instructors, setting the radar and radio to drop. That would leave the mechas blind and deaf to a large extend, an excellent test of team working skills.

As his squad leader contacted them for the umpteenth time to comment on their progress 5 MINUTES into the mission, Xeke was wondering why she had been their leader. He understood she was a rank 3, but she also had the mind of a 7 year old human. He guessed it had to with her being the daughter of the headmaster. Though, in truth, he liked her. She kept things light and funny......even if it was borderline annoying. She was a similar spirit to him in many ways. That was about the best he could say about his current team. He also had the Batharan girl. She was very cold and always rambled on about how she didnt want to serve the military.........even though she's in an academy that readies them to enter the military. Then there was the other one. The human that he never liked what he heard about him, and even more so when he met him in person. Loner, only seeking the truth for himself, putting others down just to make himself feel more important. But, Xeke was going to make the best of this and be as charming and friendly as he always was.

Just then, a weird gurgling sound erupted from his radio and he had to cover his ears. He checked his radio, it seemed to be busted. Well, that wasn't good. The squad leader gave the signal to head down and he landed Starshot right across from Arch Angel. He opened the hatch and he heard Pepper screaming that her radar and radio was busted, which was confirmed by Earme in his overly massive mech. His radar seemed to be working fine, then again, he invented his radar, hell it didn't even work on most frequencies. "My radios shot too! But my radar seems fine, it's sort of unique so maybe that's why! If you had engine trouble or a weapons malfunction I could probably help, but nothing I can do about the radios! Xeke yelled at his teammates. "Hey! If we're taking a break here, I have to pee like a race Genoda! With that, Xeke leaped from his cockpit to the back of his mech to the top of one of its main boosters, being the picture of Xialen grace. Then facing away from his teammates, he unzipped his flightsuit and began to relieve himself.

Tamaki had taken the ground as she walked, her Mecha making heavy sounds with every step against the soft soil beneath her feet. The weight of all the metal and equipment that made up her Mecha no doubt left some decent sized imprints in the softest of the soil; much like it did on the sands of her home planet Batharan.
She in no way wanted to be participating in such a pointless mission, the only reason she was there was because it was punishment for disobeying the rules again, skipping her class to go and show an undergraduate why he shouldn't challenge her. The headmaster had really gone all out in his detention this time around; he knew she hated such mundane tasks not yet alone that she hated working in groups.

Not to mention the fact that a younger, most annoying chatterbox placed as her leader was enough to send her rogue. How she even managed to be considered responsible enough to be a leader was beyond Tamaki's grasp, sure she may have skills with a Mecha but a leader needs to be observant remembering every detail and quick to thinking of plans to keep their team alive whilst succeeding a mission. All things she doubted this 'pepper' had, she was clearly only where she was due to her father.

As she pushed back a thick tree branch Tami noticed the girls mumblings had stopped through the radio, quirking a brow Tami clicked a few buttons in her cockpit to see what the problem was, Pepper wouldn't have shut up that abruptly unless there was a problem would she? Not that she didn't mind the silence.
Suddenly the tracking monitor and ground scans made a flicker as though problematic before turning off altogether. "What the...?" Tami said to herself seeing that all communications were down also.

Stepping further forward on the ground it wasn't long until Peppers distinct voice could be heard again, Tami's first reaction was to roll her eyes as she hit the button to have the chest panel of her Mecha slide open revealing Tami's dark skinned form as her black cat ears twitched poking through her dark shoulder length black hair.
She frowned when her Mecha finally burst through the trees and came upon the group for one reason mainly "Xeke I really didn't need to see that. Your disgusting." she commented shielding her eyes with her hand as she moved past him and his Mecha to stand nearer the others.
When in safety she removed her hand and sighed leaning her chin on her palm as she clicked around with her controls with her free hand rather lazily. "Radios are down here too, my tracking system seems to have frozen momentarily, but I should be able to sort out my scanning system in a minute" she informed her useless leader feeling rather bored.

A twig ripped through the soft felsh of Koda's cheek as he ran through the underbush of trees. His arms struggled to keep together the bundle of metal and rolled up papers of plans as he ducked under a broken tree trunk hearing the screeching of noise not too far behind him.

He had to get away, he couldn't let the parasites find the plans he had or learn more technology.
But on foot?
He didn't stand a chance and he knew it in his heart.

Koda's rolled up trousers from his greasy grey jumpsuit tugged on the back of his shoes sending him flying forward and onto his knees as he fell the objects stuffed in his arms falling all around him clanging against each other. "Oh no.. oh no, oh no, oh no!" he repeated in a panic trying to gather them all up again. "I can't fight them, not like this, I need a mecha, but im not good at piloting those, damn if only i had all of my equipment then maybe i could...." he trailed of in thought his heart beating fast at the thought of the approaching parasites as his bright blue hair moved in the wind.

Today was a peaceful day like any other at the communications tower attached to the academy building. Sipping her coffee while reading a magazine, Rio Rillia was casually eavesdropping the communications line for each of the MFU’s, listening in on the off chance that something happened. I mean, it was just a regular patrol around the perimeter – Unless one of the pilots did something stupid, it wasn’t like she’d have much to do in the way of relay point.

Glancing around the office, it was just her and her superior officer, one Graham Jones. An older human instructor with aging white hair, Rio had come to respect and admire his authority and knowledge, having heard many a tale of combat and battle. In the past, he’d been a tactical advisor on numerous skirmishes, his decisions and logistics so fascinating to Rio she’d been privy to learning a number of manoeuvres and strategies for combat – something she greatly appreciated, as it would be a necessity if she wanted to move up the military ranks beyond routine comm. duty.

“I think I might go and get a coffee.” Jones spoke, sitting up and stretching as he made his way over to Rio, placing a hand on the back of her seat. “Think you’ll be alright for five minutes by yourself?”

Nodding, Rio flashed a smiled, setting her magazine aside as she gave a prompt salute. “Of course, sir. Not a problem.” Cheerful in her tone as always, she’d been on her own plenty of times before, but it was nice to have the commander looking out for her.

As Jones nodded back, he was glad to see she was as eager as ever in her work. “Good, good. Alright, try not to mess anything up while I’m away.” Making his way out, he smiled a little as Rio chuckled behind his back, giving a ‘Roger that’. She’d make a fine lass some day.

With Jones gone, Rio turned herself to full time monitoring, opening up the additional channels, and moving over to her console, watching the radar systems for where each scout and training group were located. Turning her attention to the Badger Team, she flicked the radar once to ensure it wasn’t a glitch as she eyed the extra dots now lighting the monitor. There had been that energy spike earlier; maybe it was causing some sort of interference? Still, she’d better inform the team just in case it was something…

“Attention Badger, I’m picking up-“ Rio froze as she heard sounds of screaming and panic on the other end of the line, a cold dread sweeping over her as she hurriedly adjusted the output to better understand what was happening, fear striking her as the lights from Badger and Stripes cut out.

“Badger Squadron, what’s your stat-“

"Flower to HQ! Flower to HQ...!" Rio froze as the other end went to static, the blip from the last of the MFU’s cutting out, Rio muttering an ‘Oh God’ to herself. Shaking off her paralysis, she went to radio the other squadrons before a chilling voice filtered down her headset, freezing her to the spot once more.

"Attention humans: the end is nigh. For countless ages, Humans have evolved, changed, putting all aside to gather your own gain, setting yourself upon the throne of life, kinging yourselves. It is time for a new kingdom to arise. Step aside, human scum, and bow before the Kell'rah--the beings you call parasites--your new masters." The voice was surprisingly coherent, but the malevolence it conveyed was terrifying. Swallowing a moment as fear crept in; Rio quickly set about trying to get in contact with the other units.

“Arch Angel Team, do you read? This is con-Ahh!” Rio gripped her ears in pain as white sound filtered through the headset, painfully ringing I her ears as she ripped it from her head. Some sort of jamming? A quick glance at the radar and other systems confirmed that as lights flickered and noise filtered through all the visuals. Wasn’t this place supposed to have shielding from this kind of thing? Given that radio communications were, out, she had only one choice. Moving over to Jones’ station, Rio was quick to enter the emergency code, a loud, wailing siren echoing out from loudspeakers positioned around the base. Any nearby personnel would know that it was a signal for a code red situation at the academy.

Sitting up and moving over to the window, Rio gasped sharply as she got a visual on the enemy, screaming and dropping to the floor as missiles bombarded the base, the shield holding a moment before petering out. As the shaking and violent sounds stopped, Rio glanced up, noticing swarms of parasites making their way to the base, climbing up the walls and rattling on the glass, cutting their way through. Sinking underneath the desk and cowering in fear, she could hear them finally smashing their way into her floor, swarming to other sections of the building and trashing all the systems. Shivering as she held herself under the desk, a rogue enemy flipped a nearby table over, trapping her inside, leaving the comms officer in darkness; the only company her ragged breathing, and the sounds of hideous creatures and combat outside…

As Xeke was admiring the scenery, Shredder walked into view from behind the trees he was facing. It's cockpit opened to reveal there other teammate, who promptly saw everything. After about 2 seconds she looked away and commented. "Oh come on Tami, you know you like it! It's very unprofessional of you to be peeping in on your opposite sex teammates while their answering nature. Hahaha!" Xeke said playfully mocking Tami as he finished up his business. He hoped back down to his cockpit and looked at the others. "So, whats the plan now. Without communications its going to be impossible to coordinate properly. I mean hand signals will work for a short time, but Earme and I are long range fighters, we can't always be watch our leader for signals. We have to fix this now...........any suggestions?" Xeke said adjusting his goggles. He then looked over to Pepper. "Fearless leader! What do you propose we do?"

Kennith scowled in his cockpit, trying his best to keep as close to the front of the formation as he could. He did not like being in such a makeshift squad, let alone merely one of the members. He would have to get the instructor who ordered this exercise fired when he got back. Pepper chattered over the radio, keeping the unhappy look firmly on his face. She was one of the people he hated most at the academy , always acting like an idiot and yet she was at the top of the class in her piloting scores. She even surpassed most of the instructors, “Bitch…” he cursed under his breath as she pulled a high skill maneuver fluidly “Making me look bad.”

When they had finally landed, she turned her mecha toward them and exited the cockpit, yelling something about the radio systems. As he exited he heard the Balthor trash saying something in protest, he looked over to see the Xial taking a piss off his mecha. He laughed slightly at the sight of such a presumed noble race acting much like, well, a Balthor. Shouting over at them he commented “Ha, I always thought that Balthor valued their waste, since they certainly often smell like it!”. As he finished, he flashed a snide grin in their direction before ignoring the other very large mecha and looking over to their so called squad leader.

“How could someone like that be a better pilot than me?” He asked himself as he looked at the short girl. “It must be that Arch Angel.” He resolved, looking at the Mecha she piloted with envy. “HEY, COMMAAAAANDER!” He mocked loudly. “WE CAN COMPLETE THE MISSION WITHOUT RADIO, LETS JUST FINISH THIS. UNLESS OF COURSE, YOU CAN’T HANDLE IT.” He finished, trying to bait her. “You can always give up and let me take over.” He said a little more quietly, hoping that he might get a moment to shine. "If only I was that lucky." he thought.

Earme shook his head in disgust at Xekariel's coarseness. He was trapped with a juvenile leader and an arrogant fool. At least the others of his team weren't completely useless. There was hope for them yet, not that he actually knew about them. Although the sound of one of his compatriots mouthing off several racial slurs didn't lift his spirits. He turned his attention to getting his systems working. Accessing the command systems he rerouted the radio set up, the driver rebooted and attempted a self-diagnostic. All that resolved was yet another failure warning, marking the radio systems as out-of-action. However this time, while the individual driver reported failure, the command system displayed a active reception. The young man frowned at this information, the antennae and actual mechanical systems must be mostly undamaged, the failure was the software or the chips running the software. He rebooted the radar driver and received the same result, although with a more complicated system the failure could range over a larger number of components. He pondered the possibilities of the drop out. With such specific targeting and the effect on the whole of the squad it couldn't be an accidental occurrence.

The only possibilities that came to mind were both worrying. A virus may had breached the system firewall and corrupted the software, otherwise the damage was iconic for a rather archaic jamming signal. Earme responded to the first possibility. He locked down the affect subsystems and ran a deep scan on everything else. If there was a virus it would most likely have already have embedded itself elsewhere and could not be removed without a reformat back to factory settings. A irritation to say the least but not long term damage. If it was the jamming signal the chips would be fried. Meaning that until they could get replacements, or a mechanic as pepper said, their systems were permanently down. The virus scan came up clean, which meant the remaining option was the worse. The instructors were really playing it big time. What else could it be that would cause such a system failure.

He stood to convey his discovery to Pepper, shouting across the gap between their two mecha "I've got the problem. Its a jamming signal, it burns out the chips. We'll need a mechanic or replacements. At least as far as I can figure. I can rig up a bypass through the conventional chip so we'll have at least shortwave transmission." He waited if Pepper would take him up on his offer. It would be a sensible option. Additionally he would get a sneak peek at Xeke's radar system, find out if he can figure why it was exempt from the jammer and why the superior system hasn't be fitted to their mecha.

Holy damn, Pepper thought it was just her, but at Earme’s words it was apparent that it wasn’t. What he said made sense, and surprisingly she did know what he said, but only because when it came to combat she had nerded herself out on possible things that could stop her and different weapons. Things she liked to learn about were a synch for her, but things such as math and writing and science might as well have been gibberish. She even failed cooking for the love of god. Her saving grace to the school was her talent in flying and that was it. For all intents and purposes, she was the least like student. Teachers yelling at her, students yelling at her, Headmaster dad yelling at her, it was kind of rough to keep up being cheery.

But anyway back to Earme, he didn’t like her much, she could tell, but Pepper felt differently about him. She quite liked how he was always working hard, and often wished she had that sort of resolve, he worked hard in everything he did and was successful for that, while Pepper tried but lacked discipline. To her Earme was admirable. She nodded her smile at him, seeing everyone else confirm the same story except from Xeke. She flashed him a thumbs up to go do his business, but didn’t expect it to be so blunt, she had to admit that it was funny though, and she laughed pretty hard, falling back into her seat

Xeke was a character, and she enjoyed his sense of humor! He was also a pretty damn good shot long range. Pepper had always preferred her mix of both fighting styles however, rather than having to stick to one, it made her slightly unpredictable. But if you want to talk about unpredictable, Xeke was your guy hands down. He also wasn’t mean to her, which she appreciated a whole lot. Not many people gave her a chance to begin with, and it always touched her when someone would not write her off at first glance.

Tami…she could kick your ass. No seriously, she had seen it before, Tami kicked ass. Which she was a Balthor, so it really wasn’t surprising. She didn’t take crap from anyone and had a strong will, another person that Pepper admired without question. She had her place and made it known, no one could touch her, Pepper could only hope she’d prove to be that strong when things got tough too.

At Xeke’s prompt, Pepper stood back up and cupped her hands to her mouth, ready to shout once more. “FEARLESS LEADER PROPOSES WE-.” But the sound of Kennith shouting stopped her mid-sentence, she turned her head to his direction and blinked after what he said. Kennith she could tell definitely didn’t like her. And he was lazy and outspoken even though he was level nine, that was higher than average for their age group, but not exactly in with the elites, he had to be a level 8 at least for that. He made her slightly angry with the way he thought of things, mostly because she knew if this was what he was like as a lazy dude, then he could be awesome if he practiced. She also didn’t put up very well with bullies, she couldn’t remember it very well, but she was pretty sure she had thrown at banana at his face when she found him getting into a younger kid’s face. “UM, YEEEAAAH NO. LISTEN YOU GUYS, I HAVE FAITH IN ALL OF YOUR ABILITY, BUT PROTOCAL FIRST, WE GET REPAIRED AND THEN COMPLETE THE MISSION. IT’S MORE LOGICAL THAT WAY. (Yay she got to use the word ‘logical’! She betted she sounded pretty cool right about now.) AND GOOD SUGGESTION EARME, EXECUTE THAT PLAN AND WE’LL STOP BY THE FIRST MECHANIC WE CAN FIND IN THE CITY.”

Pepper gasped for air, god that a lot of yelling. She watched as Earme began to work, and then turned around to see a blue haired kid running towards them. She sat down and left open her cockpit, walking at a steady pace towards the kid until it was apparent he was running from something, they looked like metal bugs, and they were catching up pretty fast. Five small one and one as large as a horse, Parasites.

“CODE BLACK WITH A CIVILIAN, DON’T SHOOT!” She shouted, running her MFU forward and scooping up the now fallen mechanic. She drew the spear from her back and pointed it at the group of five parasites, one deep dirt hole later they were blasted, another and the big one was taken care of too. “Are you ok kid!?” She asked, bringing her MFU’s hand up to see him, he was actually older looking than she was, why was she calling him a kid?

“And why were their Parasites on your tail, don’t tell me they are attacking the city?!” Pepper was serious for once in her life, her protectiveness for humanity kicking in. She stopped once closer to her other teammates so that they could listen too.

Sighing in a bored tone Tami flicked around with her controls and even hit the screen once for good luck as she tried to sort out the problem with her Shredders detection systems. "Oh come on Tami, you know you like it! It's very unprofessional of you to be peeping in on your opposite sex teammates while their answering nature. Hahaha!" the sound of Xeke's voice only irritated her more than she was already feeling. Why the hell did she of all people have to be sitting here on this completely pointless mission?

The headmaster was really going too far with his punishments lately, that and far more creative it seemed.
"If I liked it don't you think I would have stayed for a longer viewing? Don't play around with me worm" she responded to him rather coldly her face holding little emotion as a green light of her scanning system flashed for a second before dying again.

Thinking it couldn't get any worse that loud mouth Kennith just had to have his say, apparently to everyone his insults childish yet impatiently annoying. “Ha, I always thought that Balthor valued their waste, since they certainly often smell like it!” he shouted with a slight laugh at her expense.

Tami's eyes slowly turned to him with a sharp glare that said she could care less but wouldn't stand her race being insulted "Perhaps if you cleared the arrogance out of your system you may be able to smell past your own odour" she rolled her eyes at him after before re-directing her attention to their useless leader.
"So what’s the plan, can we get this moving already?" she sighed really wanting this mission to finish. That’s when Earme mentioned something about a jamming signal burning out the chips, taking what he said into consideration Tami pulled out the boards of her controls and took a look at her own chips. "Weapon supplier boy over here is right, looks like my chips will need replacing" she sighed again.
Great, another inconvenience she could do without at this minute. Having new chips installed meant having to pay for them, even if it was an occurrence that happened with all of their Mecha. Something wasn't right though, it was far too much of a coincidence for them all to have lost controls like this.

It was then that finally Pepper said some string of commands, Tami couldn't falter her decision to go back and get repairs, but that just meant they would have to start this mission all over again so she wasn't exactly enthusiastic about it.

Something bright suddenly caught her eye running through trees, "blue hair?" she commentated allowed with a confused frown, why was a civilian out in this grounds, and on foot?
“CODE BLACK WITH A CIVILIAN, DON’T SHOOT!” Pepper unexpectedly shouted as she approached the guy scooping him up, before Tami knew it she was shooting at something within her eyesight.

It was like an automatic reaction that ignited inside of Tami as she instantly moved her Mecha running towards the pair her tail swishing preparing for combat. "What’s wrong?" she asked with utter calmness and a hard tone ready to take whatever was coming.
Pepper then mentioned Parasites which made Tami's eyes widen, "Parasites? Are you serious? What the hell are they doing here now of all times!" the rise of surprise and slight panic was noticeable in her voice, if parasites were really here that meant they were brimming for war again.
In any reality, war was never something that Tami enjoyed.

Koda felt his chest wheeze and heart pump faster like a beating drum as he ran further and further, he was reaching his limit he could feel it. The sound of crawling and screeching mechanic moves sent thudding fear crawling over his skin as he scrambled through a bramble bush its thorns pulling at the skin of his arms.

There was no way he was going to survive this if he carried on, he was losing stamina fast and the objects in his arms slowed him down considerably but he couldn't allow his precious invention to fall into parasite hands. No, he had to protect it, he had to...
What was that up ahead?
Something out of place compared to the scenery, it couldn't be a Mecha could it?

The tall metal moved with an unforgettable sound to every step closer to him, it really was a Mecha! Koda wasn't going to question why a group was out here but they surely had just saved his life.
He winced when the one coming towards him called out “CODE BLACK WITH A CIVILIAN, DON’T SHOOT!”, it was loud for him. Before he could look back to see how far away the parasites were he saw the hand of the Mecha shift towards him catching him under his feet successfully scooping him up.
The fast movement sent his light blue hair flying around his face as he quickly moved a hand to hold down a pair of goggles that sat on his head preventing them from falling. Some of the things in his hands fell messily as he did into the Mecha's own hand but they weren't going anywhere.

The moment he saw those parasites destroyed the racing pace of his heart finally began to slow down. "I'm fine, I’m fine" he said catching his breath slowly beginning to feel his exhaustion. "The city, they attacked, everything, its, its" he spoke in rushed words not really taking the time to make a proper sentence "It’s gone, they just kept eating... the transportation station... in a matter of minutes in flames, I couldn’t let them have my design... they couldn’t steal it they would” he rubbed his head feeling a little woozy, maybe he wasn’t as ok as he claimed.

Pepper motioned with her Mech’s other hand for Tami and everyone else to hush, the blue haired guy had to speak for everyone to hear. She doubted everyone caught every word, but nonetheless the words were indeed alarming. Pepper’s expression became uncharacteristically serious. The whole city had been attacked, and with Parasites so apparently close, the Academy was also in danger. She reacted quickly.

“Kennith, scout ahead to the Academy, if it is being attacked you regroup back to the team, if it is all clear you deliver the message that the city has been decimated by Parasites! DO NOT ENGAGE THE ENEMY. Am I clear?” Kennith’s Mech was the fastest, he could make it using his thrusters quicker than Pepper could, especially when making a straight shot back to the Academy. If the city was under attack, then the chances were that the Academy was close second. Their system’s failure made sense now.

“Earme, how goes it with the systems?” She could see he was having no luck. “Damnit…Xeke, make sure you watch your radar, we don’t want any surprises.” She looked at the blue haired guy, “You said you had designs right? Do you mean Mech Designs? Our system chips for radar and Radio are fried, can you fix them?”

Pepper was uncharacteristically calm and assertive, especially for a teen who had never encountered battle, her latent talent for keeping a cool head with adrenaline rushing through her veins shinned through. This was the real reason she was often placed as the team leader in training exercises. Where as usually her father would never allow it. God she hoped the school wasn’t under attack.

Earme set to work on his own Mecha first as soon as Pepper agreed, it was the quickest trip. In all honesty it was futile gesture if no one else had the capability to transmit or receive messages. He clambered out of his cockpit, moving across what passed for the Titan's head. His control systems for the radar and antennae were located near the devices themselves, well secured. He had only managed cracked open the shielding when the surprisingly loud roar from Pepper took him entirely by surprise. The key words were enough for his combat alert to kick it. 'Code Black', the two words signalled the greatest threat the students had been training for and dreaded; Parasite contact. Years within the academy had given their trainees imitation emergency responses and it was that which brought Earme's attention viciously to the new situation. He couldn't help but freeze as he took everything in, the new arrival and the creatures they had all seen so many times virtually. His mind struggled to keep up with the new information and the correct course of actions to take. He shook his head to clear the clutter, only brought back from chaos by the sudden absence of threat.

"What the hell!" He exclaimed, still comprehending the situation, frozen still. Parasites? On Earth? That was the unthinkable, the impossible situation. Yet he knew he had seen them, he recognized the shapes from years of study. Why would he doubt? His training had prepared him for this eventuality. Steeled with his sudden resolve he turned his attention the job at hand. Disengaging the damaged chip from its nest of wiring he reconnected the feeds directly to the converter. Clutched the fingernail sized chip in his palm as he returned to his cockpit seat, taking another note of the fresh damage to the landscape before looking over to Pepper and their new arrival. He listened to the young mans panicked explanation of the situation, forcing himself to believe the events. Each word he said made sense with the Parasites arrival. Yet Earme Davion Astra drowned any doubts, any weak thoughts. He was trained for this and he would face it the way he faced every test before. Pepper's instructions ran out through his skull, devoid on any other thoughts. At her query about systems he was about to reply when she moved.

Face set grimly Earme marched his machine closer to the Arc Angel as their leader turned to blue-haired Xial. He interrupted her before the stranger could reply "Pepper, there is no time. These aren't an easy or quick field repair." His voice was scolding, although his thoughts no longer echoed any of his previous doubts on her capability simply because they were irrelevant. "And I don't think he is really in any condition to help now. I'll take him with me, I have space. Then let me have a look at you radio systems" He crouched his mecha, bringing it closer to Pepper's height. His cockpit was indeed the most spacious, although not designed to fit two it would be a squash. "Bring me down and I'll get to work." He commanded. Earme had his task for now and he wasn't going to deviate.

Xeke faked being stabbed in the heart after hearing Tami's comment. "Ooh, you wound me, my lady. Hahaha!" Xeke laughed at his own comment, letting her win this round. He preferred if Tami insulted her and made jokes at his expense than for her to remain coldly silent. Every time he walked past her in the halls of the academy and he had tried to congratulate her on a victory or even just say hi to her, she usually just brushed him off. They had worked together on a number of missions at the academy and have been on teams in training exercises. They had always worked well together, mainly due to their opposite style of combat. He had always enjoyed fighting with her, but she usually just made grunting sounds for yes or no when they talked on the radio. It was nice to hear her coming out of her shell.

Xeke's laughter was cut short when he heard their fifth teammate make a comment about Tami. Kenneth Alexander Westwood, was a very terrible human being. From the second this boy spoke, he could tell that he had a rotten soul. He felt nothing but ill will towards this boy. Mainly for his ignorance. Kenneth was an outspoken racist. At hearing the comment, Xeke stood up and projected to him. "Hey Kenny, how about you shut the fuck up! You should know not to speak to your betters that way! I'm sure whoever your parents hired to raise you so they wouldn't have to deal with you themselves taught you that!" Now Xeke was in a bad mood, man he hated ignorant jerks like him.

Though, his mood was lightened a bit when he heard Tami's retort. He started chuckling a bit. "Hehehehe. Good one!" He called towards Tami. Xeke stopped talking when he heard Pepper speaking to them. It seems she did know what she was doing. Her plan sounded logical and should get them up and moving again. He started to get his mech moving again when he heard Pepper's voice sound out a disturbing call. Code Black. Parasite contact had just been made, Xeke froze and looked over to where the Arch Angel was facing. He sighed a bit when he saw it was just a few of the smaller ones. Pepper made quick work of the Parasites and picked up the civilian they were chasing. He was speaking rather low, but his ears picked up every word he said. The city was under attack from the greatest enemy th universe had known. Xeke was a little shaken to say the least. He looked closer at the Xial in Arch Angels hand. His eyes suddenly widened. He quickly set his radar on alert to sound if anything came near them, he then extended Starshots arm in the direction of Arch Angels hand. He then leaped onto the arm and ran down it and jumped the 30 foot gap to the other mechs hand. He walked straight up to the Xial, Xeke towering over him.

"I knew I recognized you! Ive seen you a lot in Uncle Rico's shop. You guys talked a lot and built a few things together. He said you were one of the greatest mechanics he had ever seen and that you had something that would change the war. What did he say your name was? Kody, no, Kobo, no. Well, in any case, you came from the city? Do you know if my Uncle is alright?!" Xeke said grabbing his shoulders, his face full of desperation.

Ba'al smirked. Well, if that's what you wanted, Sister... He stopped swinging his terrible blades for a moment, allowing two missiles to reveal themselves from the shoulder blades. These missiles launched in an instant, hitting two of the Mechs, releasing a barrage of his Brothers onto the Human's Mech, eating away hungrily, reducing it to scrap in mere minutes. Ba'al laughed, his Mecha pointing with a single blade. "Feast, my Brothers!" A small squad of the Kell'rah broke off of the main horde, swarming the Mechs, feasting upon the metal.

The weaker ones incapacitated, dead, or otherwise distracted, he smiled upon the battlefield. It was wondrous. He watched as a large cannon-esqe gun, fallen from the hand of one of the other Mechs, fell toward him. He caught it, weighing it in the Mech's arms. "Hmm...looks fun." The arm near the trigger came apart in pieces, connecting here and there to connect the large gun to the Mech. He aimed it at a small group, unaffected by the Kell'rah, and unleashed a large burst of ionized energy.

He smiled as the shot hit dead center, causing massive damage to the target. "Oh, yes...lots of fun."

After ignoring the two aliens lame visions of verbal retaliation, Kennith scoffed at Peppers pathetic attempt at giving a inspirational speech while she threw out orders in an idiotic sounding manner. “She doesn’t have a clue…..” He thought to himself as the squad began to move on. Letting himself relax, he pondered how HE would run the squad. “First, those xeno-rats would be on the front line distraction and Pepper would be my wing man as the big guy provided support. I’d sweep in from the side and lay waste to their main forces in a surprise attack. Heh, they would all be so grateful towards me. Pepper would throw herself at me, and hell, I might even do that Balthor the honor of giving her a tumble too. She doesn’t look too bad, for a xeno.” He thought with a wide grin on his face, wallowing in the self satisfaction of the fantasy. He was so caught up in it however, that he nearly caused his mecha to fall over as he jumped in surprise at hearing Peppers shout.

By the time he recovered, the action was over and he saw Pepper holding a figure in her hand. As he examined closer, figure seemed to be a Xial who was speaking franticly to her and was visually distressed. Finally, the phrase that he had heard earlier “Code Black” registered in his mind. “No, no way, right? There’s no way they could get this close….” he muttered to himself in disbelief. That key phrase meant that they were engaging parasites. Kennith simply didn’t know how to respond, he knew the reputation of parasites and what they were capable of. He was pulled pack to reality as he heard Pepper bark orders to him, telling him to scout the academy and return if it was under attack. “Yea, I gotta go see for myself. Heh, their probably fine anyways. There’s no way those stupid robots could take the academy.” He reassured himself as he nodded in Peppers direction as his cockpit receded into the mecha.

The Five-Seven lifted off from the ground, rising up several stories above the tree line where it stopped and hovered. As Kennith engaged the prototype thruster system, several pieces of the mecha’s back folded out and extended slightly. There were three on each side, each jointed in the back of the shoulder. Then as it powered up, small lightning strikes erupted between several of the new protrusions as the magnetic field built up and forced the electrons in the air into an excited state. Slowly the field stabilized and the strikes ceased, leaving relatively large mirage like spherical distortion slightly behind the mecha and encompassed by the extended components. As the system started booting up he pointed the front of the mecha in the direction of the academy, luckily the disruption had not knocked out his on board nav-map or he would have been out of luck. Estimating with this system was only practiced by the extremely skilled or incredibly stupid. He put the location data, selecting the fastest time option as he noticed the on board computer had set a cap speed to account for wind resistance. Initiating the system, the mecha shot of and was out of sight in under a half second, producing a near instantaneous sonic boom whose epicenter was a mere few meters forward from where the mech had been hovering.

Kennith was pushed back into his seat as he felt the extreme g-forces attempt to compact him. “DAMN!” he yelled, “Why couldn‘t they do their jobs and make this less bumpy?!” This was only the fourth time he had used the system and specifically this was the highest acceleration he had undergone. Unbeknownst to him, they had developed a force dampening system to account for the acceleration and was lucky they had as otherwise he would have been a pancake. In fact the only limit to the system‘s acceleration was the structural stability of the mecha, and the safety caps had been put into place to ensure that it was not ripped apart due to it’s own inertia. A couple of seconds into the flight, the forces reversed direction and Kennith was flung forward as the cockpit’s harness held him in place.

High above the ground a couple of miles away from the academy, clouds parted and there was the sound of thunder as the mecha stopped as fast as it had started. The particles of air that had built up in the front of the mecha continued on after it came to a halt, creating a loud, echoing shock-wave. As Kennith covered his mouth to prevent himself from hurling, he took a few seconds to force the eruption back down and regain his composure.

Looking up at the screens his breath stopped and a horrified look spread across his face. An innumerable amount of large smoke plumes stretched up to the sky from the burning landscape. His hands began to quake with fear and rage as he saw that not only had the academy been razed, but the entire landscape was destroyed and engulfed in fire and smoke. He could also see battles currently going on amongst the ruins and could easily tell, even from his position, that the academy’s forces were loosing. “Wha, no, no way……” he stuttered out loud, the words echoing in the cockpit. Unable to think, he simply stared at the scene. His Mecha hovering motionless in the sky, the only noise the distant sound of battle and the deep hum of the magnetic field.

Pepper threw uneasy glances at the direction the rather quick Five-Seven went off in, he should encounter no problems right? He wasn’t going to be attacked from nowhere!? Besides, he was hauling ass; Parasites wouldn’t be able to keep up with him, no way. Of course she had also thought ‘no way’ to the thought of Parasites attacking the city. Her thoughts ran with worry about sending someone off like that while she also paid attention to the situation at hand. Earme interrupted the blue haired Mechanic before he could speak, telling her that there was no time. She extended Arch Angel’s arm out to hi cockpit, which allowed a makeshift bridge for the Xial and Earme, Xeke soon added to this bridge and a sort of connection through the MFUs began to form. In short, everyone was somewhat cooperating.

“I don’t think the Academy was attacked, I mean Dad…he.” She smiled nervously, her eyes widening at Xeke suddenly bombarding the Mechanic about his Uncle, who was most likely not alive. “Dad…” Her wide-eyed stare didn’t leave her as she ran a hand through her hair and watched Earme check her systems. “I don’t think there is much that can be done by you if he can’t help us Earme! Might as well have him take a look, we can’t be of help to anyone flying blindsided, especially not if we encounter a Horde, and where there’s one Parasite, twenty more little ones flank it remember? You’ve got way better grades than me so course you do.” She was now scratching her head nervously, “Kennith should be there by now.” She noted, again worry showing in her voice, she wondered if it was right sending him on his own.

“XEKE, I need you to calm down man. If your Uncle is alive then backup from the Academy can find him, I’m sure this Mechanic doesn’t know him. Get back into your MFU and get your head in order. We have to act calm here!” She said firmly, “And you, Mr. Mechanic, see what you can do about the systems in that MFU you’re in right now, I know you’re shaken up, but we need to take action as quickly as possible, please help us.” She kept her determined gaze on him, willing him to spring into action.

---

---

A violent clash of metal sent the headmaster and Nimea flying higher, the Pilots flanking him now dead or slowly dying. An unfamiliar rush ran through her veins, was this what Ba’al was feeling all the time? Because she felt like tearing this unit apart with all her might; her eyes drooped into half lidded calm as she registered such a thought. She shoved the unit away from her violently, her sonic disruption had been off for quite some time now, and she regretted having turned them on at all if it meant the mecha before her was fighting blindly, she would have liked to fight him without his disadvantage, but of course, you really could not turn back time could you? No, that thought was silly.

The two hovered, facing off silently, another Unit registered on her radar but she didn’t seem to care, her eyes were trained on this mecha, the one in front of her. He was a curious one, that is assuming he was a ‘he’. His mecha’s makeshift eyes locked her own, and as his hatch opened, Nimea was actually caught by the pilot’s eyes; she could see him clearly on her screen. He was starring at her, glaring defiantly. They etched into her much more than his mecha had; in fact his eyes commanded her to do something unwise. She opened her own hatch.

It did not seem to surprise the man, but instead only infuriated him. “What are you doing? Betraying your own people!” He barked in a voice that made Nimea flinch.

“I…” She spoke louder so he could hear, “I am doing no such thing!” distressed, did she sound distressed just now? Why should she be distressed at this man, he did not know her, and now she really had to kill him before mother found out what she was doing. She shouldn’t be speaking to this man; he made her feel like a newborn, when she first gained consciousness.

She closed her hatch, and the man spread his arms wide open he shout the question that she could not hear. "Who are you!". She mechanically stabbed him and his mecha through, almost guiltily.

“That was a shame, I think I would have liked you.” She said coldly, familiar numbness washing over her. “And you, just watching.” She brought her sword up and it shot a few quick fire energy blasts at 5-7.

Shivering, scared and alone, Rio continued to clutch her knees, the thumps, smashing and screams dying out, the only remaining noises being the muffled noises of combat outside in the academy grounds, and the violently fast heartbeat of the terrified Xial. Cautiously reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her phone, attempting to use its light to see. Working in the communications tower, she wasn’t normally supposed to have this sort of thing on her, but she kept it off when at work, and thankfully, that seemed to have spared it from the jamming. Unfortunately, it refused to get any signal, ruling out that as a call for help.

Using the light from the glowing screen, Rio inched closer to the side of the desk to listen, freezing when she felt her head brush against something cold in the darkness. Scrambling back and falling over herself, she lifted her phone in fear, the soft glow allowing her to be greeted by her own reflection in metal. Breathing a sigh of relief, she tentatively removed the pistol from the position locked under the desk. Basic firearm training was mandatory for all personnel at the academy, and she had completely forgotten about the emergency weapons. Despite that however, she didn’t feel any safer having it with her.

Tucking it in the waistband of her skirt for the moment, she placed her ear against the wood of the desk, trying to quell her breathing to better hear what was outside. Everything was still. Long, tense moments passed, before she finally decided to make her move, pushing the desk aside slightly and peaking out the slit. From the thin gap she could see through, the room was a mess: papers, equipment shards and splintered desks strewn all over the place. No remaining signs of the enemy… The Parasites. Shivering slightly at the thought, she pushed the desk completely out of the way to allow her to crawl out from her cubby, cautiously looking around before sitting up.

Crack.

The sound echoed throughout the room, Rio covering her mouth to hide her squeal, looking to the glass she’d inadvertently stepped on and standing paralysed with fear as she expected a horde of parasites to round the corner. The building shook as more tremors from the battle outside reached her. Nothing came to her, saviour or enemy. She was alone.

Outside, she could still see those strange machines wrecking havoc on the academy forces, assisted by a multitude of the parasitic monsters. She’d never seen anything like that before in the reports those few months ago. Could they be adapting in some way to humanity? Or maybe… Could these things be under the command of another humanoid race? Could there be traitors amongst the Empires? A terrifying prospect.

As another machine of the Academy crumpled to the ground, something in Rio twigged. She had survived. They were wiping out everyone around, but she’d survived. She needed to recall all of this, all the information on the enemy and what they’d done to use against them, what their forces consisted of, battle tactics... Everything. Fumbling with her phone, she lined it up, snapping pictures of those strange machines. Blurry as they were with the strange jamming distortion, it was something.

Zooming in on the nearest machine out of the pair, Rio’s eyes widened as she saw the cockpit opening. There actually was something inside?! It was so far away, she couldn’t really make it out at all, but this was an incredible opportunity! Edging as close as she could, she stumbled to the edge of the smashed window, zooming her phone as much as she could and attempting to hold it steady, snapping a couple of blurred, distorted pictures, the distance not helping at all. One thing could be made out for certain though – there was someone inside that thing. Someone human.

Rio gasped audibly in fear as the machine pierced through the MFU it had been discussing with, showing no mercy at all to the pilot. Grimacing, she shook her head and stepped back. She was wrong about one thing. Whoever was inside that thing wasn’t human. Not in the humane sense. With the battlefield decorated by scars and fallen machines, greedily being absorbed by the parasites, Rio looked on in surprise as the Winged-Parasite Machine opened fire skyward.

“Reinforcements?” She asked herself aloud, trying to move to get a visual on it. That was… The Five-Seven? The german model? Wait, it was alone? It’d arrived in time to get destroyed like the rest of them!

‘No, go on, get out of here! There’s nothing you can do!’ Rio watched in fear for the pilot now engaged with the enemy. He’d just be taken out like all the rest, and for what, the fallen Academy? She… She couldn’t just stand by watching and let that happen!

Clearing the nearest most functional looking desk, she attempted the radio, only to find its wires completely dismantled and destroyed, the parasites on the way having been thorough in their decimation. Throwing the receiver aside in frustration, Rio slapped her head a couple of time to try and get herself thinking.

“Think girl, think back to emergency procedure… If the lines are all down then… The emergency controls!” Shouting the last part aloud, Rio hurriedly began scrounging about the floor, searching for the hidden panel. Flipping open the trapdoor and jumping inside, the hidden crawlspace was outfitted with the emergency backup generator and control panel, along with a number of other systems. Having been designed as a last resort in case of internal disputes, it was supposed to be used in case the command tower was taken over by hostiles to allow escaped personnel to still support the rest of the field. Right now, it was serving the same purpose – Though not for the initially intended reasons.

“Now, lets see here… Um…” Shutting the lid behind her, Rio began switching on the generator and looking over the control panel, grabbing the nearby headset and slipping it on as she flicked each of the toggle switches up and on. Adjusting the mic to her mouth as everything loaded up, she was amazed it was all in working condition. ‘Perhaps the jamming only works on active machinery?’ She thought to herself before looking over the now operational schematics.

“Let’s see… Seems everything was deployed in a hurry when the Parasites attacked…” Rio looked over the list of MFU’s not docked, recognising a number of them that weren’t launched previous to the encounter. Loading up the cameras around the facility, the few remaining systems gave Rio her first real look at what had happened to the academy. The burnt down pile of rubble surrounded by smashed MFU’s was all that was left. Everything was gone. Shock keeping the realisation from sinking in, Rio continued with the practical aspects of what she set out to do.

“It seems the Arch Angel Team is still active…” Noting the feedback from each of the launched machines, including the Five-Seven, gave her cause for some relief. Still, if they came back to the academy now, they’d be ruined, especially with their systems blind.

“What can I do? What can I do?” Mumbling to herself as she looked over the remaining inventory list, she prayed for something, anything that could help.

Finally, one of the lights remained green. “A… A carrier? It’s still functioning?” Bringing up the diagnostics, it seemed it had been underground for repair, which had been finished only moments prior to the attack. No one had thought to launch it, and with no MFU’s on board, that made sense.

“Come on… Let the remote functions be active…” Fiddling away at the keyboard and rotating a couple of the nearby screens to face her, she managed to bring up it’s onboard camera… It… It was working! Even with all that interference, she had good visuals and control! It seemed that things were looking up, if only a little.

“Ok, power to the facility is still stable. Inputting access codes for hangar doors A through C. Opening emergency shutters and disabling anchors. Detaching rear and frontal cable supports…” Rio continued muttering to herself as she worked, opening the main doors to allow the Carrier to take off. She’d done this in simulation all the time. Remote piloting carriers were a routine thing. Managing takeoffs and landings was her specialty. Besides, if she messed it up, she was still safely inside the communications tower.

At least… That’s what she kept telling herself.

“Adjusting power output to nominal levels for take off… Extending air stabilizers... Okay, here goes nothing…” Easing on the throttle, the shuttle began to lift off, vertical thrusters pushing it up out of the underground hangar and into the airspace by the Academy.

“So far so good…” Rio’s eyes flitted about the monitors around her, allowing her a 180 degree view of the area. There, 20 to port, the Five-Seven was still fighting! She couldn’t tell how damaged it was from her view, but she needed to get it out of there. Diverting her gaze to the two enemy machines, there was no doubt they would’ve noticed her.

“Come on Rio, you’ve come this far. Don’t quit now…” Swallowing to clear her throat, Rio began bringing power to the rear thrusters, the Carrier quickly making way to approach the site of battle, gaining height and momentum as it ascended to a more stable altitude.

“Deploying magnetic gravity lines…” Allowing the auto-targeting sequence to lock onto the Five-Seven, the Magnetic Beam was a retrieval method to speed the process of docking MFU’s. Normally this would be done from a stationary position, carefully loading the machine into the hangar. This time, she was going fishing – And if she could get the lock attached, she’d be able to drag the Five-Seven with her. After all, it was the model designed for high speed inertia, and she didn’t have the time to haul him in.

As the beam made the connection and began to lift the Five-Seven, Rio hoped that the speed she’d gained would be enough to outrun those two… Parasite machines... - No, she needed a better way to distinguish them. Parasites were the regular little things... These... These Sycophants were something else. Wondering why in the world she was worried about semantics at a time like this, she continued praying that she'd escape to a safe rendezvous with the Arch-Angel Team… And then... Then they could come back and rescue her...

Koda sighed leaning back on one of his hands as he reajusted his set of goggles sitting neatly on his head with the other, his blue hair poked out in a ruffled mess the odd leaf caught in there from his trail run.
Taking what quick rest he could letting the little equipment and plans he had managed to save fall onto the large hand on the Mecha around him he listened to what the woman holding him had to say.
She seemed to be the leader of this group what with throwing out orders and everything.

Koda's uneasy frown tugged into his expression as she mentioned their communication problem. The chips and radar were fried? That wasn't something easy to do with a signal alone, to accomplish an interference in the lines affecting the electromagnetic radiation would have to house a great disturbing wavelength in order to jam the spectrum. Making the wavelengths so uneven to put enough pressure on the chips themselves that they burn out however would require an intense amount of power and complicated alterations to the electromagnetic spectrum wavelengths that pick up the signals.

If was the work of the parasites which it had to be then Koda feared what more they could accomplish inorder to disable their enemies advantages.

As Koda took all of this into consideration another Mecha appeared requesting that Koda join him in his cockpit, looking around at the mess that was happeneing Koda really couldn't find anything to question on that matter. However before he was about to voice his opinion a figure of a Xial like himself came running down the arm of the Mecha holding Koda up untill he stood infront of him.
His words struck pain through Koda as his expression softened, he had known his uncle Rico that was true, and now that the Xial mentioned it Koda did recognise his face somewhat. How was he going to tell this boy that Rico, his uncle, had.... Koda had to pause at the thought as he fought back tears. His Uncle had sacrificed himself in order to allow Koda and a few others run into the forest in order to get away from the parasites. Koda had no idea what had happened to Rico, but he feared the answer was an obvious one.
Luckily the woman that held him interupted before he could reply to the poor boy, telling him of a family members death would no doubt distress him.

Standing up Koda pulled on the sleeves of his grey jumpsuit stained in black smudges of oil and holes ripped at the knees from wear. "My name is Koda, Koda Belan" he said seeing the urgent feelings on the woman incharge as she stared at him. He had do to do his part for this team now, for this planet, despite the fact his legs were shaky from exhaustion and his mind screaming at him in fear of the parasites.
Rico can't help you now Koda, this is it, swallow it, swallow the fear, just focus on what you have to do. He mentally scolded himself

Hesitantly looking at the arm the MFU he stood on had created to get to the other Koda picked up his things and steadily made his way across. "I can't say if I will be able to fix the damage you mentioned untill I see it for myself but by the sounds of it a re-routing or replacements sounds best. However depending on the individual MFU sometimes there are chips that aren't important for functioning as much so I could swap them around if they need replacing." stumbling Koda finally made it across to the cockpit and clumsily hopped inside, it wasn't exactly roomy but he knew it was the best place to be at the moment and was greatful for the safety.

Forcing back the churning fear in his stomach Koda then flashed all of the people around him a large smile of confidence "If I can't fix it then no one can, just leave it to me" he saluted them with a wink, he had to be cool here, they were the ones fighting not him. This was the first time this had happened to him and them he was sure of it, as just support if he showed fear then it could dishearten those that actually have to fight.
He had to take control of his shaking hands.
Looking to the Ricos nephew Koda's eyes were sullen before glancing away and began to rip open the control pannel of the MFU he was in to see the chips that lay behind.