Galen Oora Alex-Zander's Story

No rest for a soldier.

First Letum, now Emissary. The ghosts of Hellward's past were all coming back. Emissary didn't possess nearly the level of intelligence exhibited by Magister Letum, however, his damage to the empire was quite extensive. Emissary had everyone going. Tricking the empire into believing the Exomachina could be reasoned with; and who could blame them for trying? Any sort of bargaining posture could lead to an end to the war, even if it would be a step at the time.
The Exomachina had no mercy. That was all too clear now.

Zuin wasn't a far jump. The crew would experience a brief blackout while in flash stasis, the effect would be similar to falling asleep for two seconds while standing. Still, Asher wasn't happy about embarking on another mission so soon after the last one. He could permit a day's rest; no more. Leaving a task to rest wasn't the Hellward Division's way.
He needed to check the available roster of pilots and form a strategy.
"Speed." said Asher simply, catching the attention of a soup-slurping Omnii, "Power and speed. Enjoy the soup, Omnii." Graves sat up and excused himself from the table, leaving his drink behind.

Graves made his way back to briefing room, third time today.
When Asher entered he found the lights had been turned off. Quietly, Asher took a step forward and at that moment the large view-screen flickered, revealing a woman's form clouded in static. When the fuzz faded away he took notice of a handsome woman with piercing blue eyes and a short mess of black hair that melded into the dark background. "Hello, Commander." It was a familiar voice.
"Marcie?"
"Yes, it's me. How do you like the new interface? Compliments of Captain Ruban." She referred of course to the man who sat at the helm of Cortex.
Asher remained silent for a short while. "Why are the lights off?" Quickly, light flooded back into the room.
"Apologies, sir. I was hoping to make my first appearance in this form...a bit more dramatic."
"I see," a mental reflex was triggered, "It's a good look for you, Marcie."
"Thank you, Commander."

Asher became aware that his heart had began pounding. He turned away from the view-screen and Marcie's...eyes.
"You seem uncomfortable, Commander."
"No, I'm fine." he derailed the subject effortlessly, "Just received information on some suspicious activity near Zuin."
Marcie smiled...expressing relief? Asher found himself starting to calm down. He realized this wasn't the result of elation, though Marcie's appearance was indeed attractive; the new feeling he was getting was closer to fear. Graves was beginning to feel he couldn't trust Marcie. "I need to know which pilots are mission-ready, Marcie. Starting tomorrow morning."
"Yes sir....just a second...." the AI's avatar put her fingers to her temples, as if locating the Hellward members via psychic link, "At this time; Taxi, Atomic, Virgin Blue....and Golden Phoenix."
"Elionzvie is ready?"
"Affirmative, sir. Thanks to the new treatment, Aster Rei Elionzvie's recovery time from nervous system shock has been nearly cut in half. She'll be mission-ready in the morning."

Asher put his hands in his pockets and leaned back on the wall. It was preferred over the command chair. "OK. Leave a message with Elionzvie, Omnii and Alex-Zander-"
"Not Ike Salvo, sir?"
Asher was annoyed she'd interrupt him like that, "No. Not Salvo, Marcie. I need personnel that match the criteria for the mission. Tell the three pilots that I had picked to report to the briefing room at 0900 hours."
"Yes, sir." said the AI, sheepishly.
"I'm returning to my quarters for the rest of the evening. Good night, Marcie."
Asher heard the AI mutter 'Good Night' behind him as he stormed out of the briefing room.

Galen walked down the aisle,holding a tin of blueberry juice that he had gotten from the vending machines a couple of rooms away.He took a sip,taking a look at the other crew members on board.Most of them were still dressed in their standard green uniforms.Galen wasn't though.He was wearing a blue t-shirt over his green uniform pants,and had switched out the boots with a neon blue sneaker.He was quite visible amongst the green.Another sip.
The battle today could be considered...acceptable,he thought.There was a little bit of damage to the Cortex,however,they lost several comrades.Galen shuddered at the thought.'How many more will die?'.He had been to the suit bay to take a look at the Neurosuits.He was just fascinated with those machines.Of course,he went there to run some check-ups on the Big Bang with the engineers as well,but he stuck around longer than required to view the magnificence of the suits.He observed the Stomp and the Venganza the most,remembering the view he had from the Cortex of those two fighting their adversary,Magister Letum.
He strolled through more aisles,sipping from the tin can.He knew their pilots all to well,the Commander and the Golden Phoenix.Their exploits were told to all,and their bravery was admirable.He had never met them in person though.Well,who was he anyway to meet them?He was,as many of his higher-ups have said,rebellious,young and naive.He wouldn't be able to climb the ranks even if he wanted to.

He came across his door.He sighed deeply,took a long drag from the blueberry juice tin and pressed on the button,causing the door to slide open and allowing Galen passage into his living quarters.It was small,no doubt,but what he liked about it was that his room was located along the side of the Cortex,allowing him views of the galaxy from his window.It was also a dangerous spot to live in,as it was susceptible to firepower,but Galen still preferred this room.As soon as he set foot in the room,the lights turned on,and he made his way to his bed,tossing the now empty can into the trashcan before flopping down on his bed.He closed his eyes for a while before he heard that his broadcaster station had a message for him.He walked over and pressed the button.The broadcaster's screen fuzzed a little before clearing,showing a woman with blue eyes and short,messy black hair.He saluted to her.

"Is the person I'm speaking to Virgin Blue?" the woman asked.
"...I...Yes.This is Virgin Blue,ma'am." Galen was never used to being called Virgin Blue,it was a little embarrassing.
"You are to report to the briefing room at 0900 hours." she informed him.He was a little surprised.
"Wait...but..." before he even finished his sentence,the screen blacked out,signalling the end of their conversation. 'Report to the briefing room by 0900 hours huh'.Galen wondered what kind of trouble he got himself into,thinking back the days events.There wasn't much he couldn't have angered a higher-up with at all...He couldn't figure out what he had done.
"No use worrying about it.Shut eye time." he said to himself,turning off the lights and hopping into bed.Soon,he was off to dreamland about a world that was a better place that the world he lived in now.

"Oh SNAP!" Galen quickly bolted up from his bed and ran straight out of his quarters.He didn't have the time to try and make himself presentable.His bluish-black hair was all over the place and his blue shirt was wrinkled from his sleep.He didn't even bother bringing his uniform along.He ran quickly to the briefing room,dodging the other crew members in the aisle.

"Sorry!I'm a little short on time!" he yelled his apology to them.Who was he kidding?He was DAMN out of time.It was 0924 hours now.He was going to be in deep deep trouble.

He arrived in the briefing room,and when the door opened,he was greeted by the sight of the Commander,the Golden Phoenix and Atomic.All rather well-known neurosuit pilots.He stood in awe,forgetting to follow the usual code of conduct.He gaped and pointed at all three of them.


"W-what....the Commander...Noose.Golden Phoenix....and Atomic?!" his eyes bugled from their sockets. "I don't....I don't even believe thi--"

Galen quickly cleared his throat,finally realizing his lack of manners.He stood upright,all traces of drowsiness gone.He saluted to the Commander.

"Virgin Blue,reporting sir.Apologies for my lateness sir!" he said with vigor,before bowing to the Golden Phoenix and Atomic.He made his way to the briefing table and took a seat,trying to smooth out the immense amount of wrinkles on his blue shirt.This was amazing,being the same room with 3 of the Cortex's well known neurosuit pilots.He kept glancing back and forth between the three of them,expecting them to say something soon.

"Good, glad you could all make it here." Asher was pleased to finally break the silence, another minute and the briefing would've began. Commander Graves sighed, the pilot wasn't even in uniform. The kid's a little lower on the rungs, you can give him a little bit of breathing room. Asher acknowledged his thought with a measured nod, then took the nearest wall, once again preferring to lean than sit. "At ease. Take a seat if you want to, Alex-Zander." he gestured to the chairs around the briefing room table, when he spoke he looked towards the main screen, its imagery changing in correlation to his words, "Here's the situation, people. Rudger Omnii's AI companion noted a strange occurrence on planet Zuin, a small jungle world with high geological growth found in the Agnium system. The readings couldn't pick up anything, communications went silent. I was there myself, about a year ago and at that time an Exomachina named Emissary appeared, trying to promote goodwill, reasoning and negotiations between the Exos and the empire. Hellward team was stationed near Zuin at the time and when Emissary made its inevitable attack we were able to push him back. I suspect this is the work of Emissary.
"That being said, I also suspect that planet Zuin has been left unharmed, this type of trickery is sort of Emissary's forte. I imagine if we jumped to the Agnium system, Cortex would fall into a trap and everything we've worked for would be reduced to ashes, come no time at all. I think our best bet is to jump to the nearest star and then portage through the interstellar gap to Agnium. We're going to need a lot of fuel and speed for this mission and when we get to Emissary, we'll need to hit him hard. Now, for those of us using Neurosuits, crossing interstellar space can prove to be pretty tough, so we'll be using a launch and phase-through process. We'll be using a field level technology that would displace our molecular frequency, allowing us to pass through whatever material we come across out there. That is, until we get to our destination. Virgin Blue, the Big Bang will be outfitted with extra thrusters and plenty of additional fuel, you, unlike us, can maneuver yourself at extreme speeds. It's a small operation...but the element of surprise will give us the advantage. A good group of Hellward soldiers can often strike harder than an entire fleet if given the chance, I'm sure most of you have seen that from time to time." Asher Graves paused for a moment, letting the information seep in, "Alright, is there any questions? Strategies?" This time he examined the faces of the pilots, this would be their moment to contribute to the plan of action or to be clarified on any of the mission parameters.

"No, sir," Aster replied curtly, listening as attentively as should could to the commander's plans. Her pulsing headache was beginning to fade - although the shocked exclamation of the EXCAP pilot who had just entered the room really didn't help much. She sized him up out of the corner of her eye while she processed the information given them by the commander. Blueish hair, nonstandard attire, tall stature - and the commander had addressed him as Alex-Zander. So this was Hellward's fragile little speedster, the person who piloted the Big Bang. She had heard mention of the Big Bang occasionally, although she hadn't been given any clues as to exactly who its pilot was, aside from his name.

He seemed overcome. Starstruck, perhaps? Aster didn't really see the reason. Technically speaking, they were probably of about equal rank. There wasn't much variation between one frontline Hellward fighter and another. It didn't make much sense for him to be so surprised by being in their presence. Perhaps some of them had gotten more publicity, given the various incidents they had been involved in, but that was no reason to treat them with such reverence and awe.

At this time Marcie spoke, "Ah, one more thing Virgin Blue. You don't need to worry about hauling around any extraneous weight. The supplemental thrusters can be dumped when we reach Agnium. At that point you can handle your craft as per normal."
"That's right." added Asher, who stopped leaning on the wall and stood forward. "We're suiting up. Let's go."
"Oh, wait, Commander!" Marcie reached out for Asher as he turned away, as if she existed here, in three-dimensional space.
"Hm?"
"Oh...it can wait. It's not mission-crucial. Good luck on the mission. Everyone." She faded away with her last spoken words. Commander Graves found himself glaring at the blank screen for a moment, the feeling he had was ineffable, all he knew was that something was awry ...out of place. He ignored it for now and lead the way to the suit bay.

Asher Graves stepped into the suit bay, where Stomp, the Venganza, Aerios and the Big Bang were all primed and waiting. The morning engineers, only hours fresh from the changeover, looked rather bright-eyed and energetic. Asher noticed a few weapon techs gathered near his machine, he wandered forward to get a closer look.
"What's happening, here?" he inquired.
The weapon technicians, one male, one female, both young, couldn't stop themselves from smiling and snapped their salutes with equal alacrity. They looked similar, the male only slightly taller, "Sir! An update to the Galdra."
Asher knitted his brow when he saw the tartan clover and shield emblazoned on the breast of their lab coats, "Are you from the Kelly?"
"Yes, sir. We were permitted access from Captain Ruban." acknowledged the young woman.
The man nodded and continued, "I'm Derryl McCoy and this is my sister Farah. A little while back we finished development on a technology that improves the use of kinetic weapons, especially heavier weapons like Stomp's hammer."
"You've already modified my weapon, haven't you?"
This time the lady continued speaking, "We've integrated an internal adaptive weight system. Small, autonomous weights move to different positions in order to add extra acceleration when striking with the weapon, providing more impact."
"And," added the brother, "when it's not being used to attack, the weights balance the weapon, making it lighter where it needs to be. You can now use the weapon single-handed if you want to."
"Single handed?" Now Asher was interested.
"Yes, sir. Galdra no longer needs to be brought to you via EXCAP."
Asher nodded, "That's fantastic if it works."
The brother-sister team smiled, "Try it out!" Asher agreed and after getting his pilot gear ready, made his way up the stepladder to his machine.

Stepping into the dark of the cockpit, Asher reached for the flickering red light once he was in position. When the switch was hit, lightning exploded within the simulated neural network of the machine and for a flash instant his nerves were set on fire, a brief jolt of pain that linked man and machine as one. The bolt of electricity brought life to a fire, Stomp's four burning eyes were suddenly immolated. The demon was now awake.
Asher eased the machine over to the truck that carried Galdra. At first, he instinctively reached for it with both hands but instantly thought the better of it. With just one hand, he lifted the hammer. Asher smiled, though it was lost behind his face mask. For good measure, he and Stomp swung the hammer around a couple times, demonstrating the new ease of use. Stomp gave the Kelly technicians a thumbs up and requested a strap for the Galdra from the bay engineers.

A voice was broadcasted through the ship's PA system. It was Marcie. "All hands, prepare for quick-jump to the Emetrelle system. Most will experience a momentary loss of consciousness, please move to the nearest wall or support. Jumping in three minutes."

Asher and the other pilots would be OK inside their machines, so he took the moment to reexamine his systems. When the jump was made, Asher's world faded to black but within what only seemed a second, a second that, in reality lasted two more minutes, Asher woke up. It felt like he dozed off without feeling tired at all.

Deeply satisfied with his new load-out, Asher kept one of Stomp's rifles holstered and planned to use the other one in conjunction with the hammer. Galdra was rested on Stomp's soldier, the other arm hanging loosely with the rifle. It felt comfortable. Functional.

"Hellward team. This is Noose. Report when ready and operational, then get to the dock and confirm launch and phase-through."
Stomp made his way to the launch dock, basically a row of orbital transport cannons which were also designed for jettisoning cargo or making emergency escapes. The pass-barrier covered the mouth of these areas as well, though it had been reconfigured with the phasefield for the mission.
Asher and his machine crawled into one of the cannons. Thanks to the phasefield, Asher would feel comfortable, even at such an extreme speed...and he was going to go fast. He took a short breath and spoke quietly in the calm confines of the cannon.
"Ready-op."

Suddenly Asher's vision was filled with rushing stars, as if the entire universe were being played through in fast-forward. Some objects, whatever they were, passed straight through him and he felt nothing. "Noose, here. I've got launch and phase-through."

Galen saluted once more before taking his leave back into his room.He breathed out and took a look at his trembling hands.A mission.He clenched them hard to prevent more trembling,but it did little to change that fact.He quickly turned his attention to the closet and pulled it open,staring straight at a deep blue and white uniform.He breathed in deeply and pulled it out.

Galen was in the suit bay,his uniform on.It was much better than the green uniform the faction provided.He could feel his hands still trembling but he shook them and walked towards the Double B,his speedcraft.While doing so,he watched as the Stomp and Venganza activate.He continued to watch as the Stomp proceeded to wield the Galdra single-handedly.That probably meant that the Big Bang would not be carrying Stomp's supply then.He saw several engineers installing the extra thrusters onto the Big Bang,and some doing last minute checks on the EXCAP's functions and systems.

"Hey,could you load in the Big Bang Railblade?" he asked one of the engineers,referring to the Big Bang's special cargo.The engineer stared at him as if surprised.

"You've never taken that out for quite a while now,Galen." said the engineer.

"Well,Pin...I'm not going to carrying any other cargo today." he smiled at the other guy,Pin.Pin nodded and called out to the other engineers to back off while they install the special cargo onto the Big Bang.When it was complete,he thumbed up to Pin and the other engineers.The neurosuits were now loaded onto their cannons,ready for the phase-shift.

"Good luck Virgin Blue." Pin smirked.

"Just...stick with Galen,Pin.And thanks." Galen sighed,climbing into the cockpit and putting on his helmet.He raised a trembling hand to pull down the cockpit's cover.

He took another look at his hands.The jitters before a mission were starting to get to him.Every single mission...He breathed out and flipped several switches to his left,prompting several screens and lights to turn on inside.He checked the systems for a couple of minutes and he nodded to himself.The neurosuits were now propelled by the cannons,and Galen watched.

"Headstart.I'll catch up." he mumbled to himself,before turning on the intercom. "Big Bang systems online.Prepare the gates!"

A crackle from the intercom ensued before a female voice gave an affirmative.He stepped down on the accelerator,igniting the thrusters,but the craft didn't move.Slowly and slowly,he increased the accelerator output until the thrusters were roaring.The engineers stepped back,well away from the heat.

'Not yet...not yet.' he thought,keeping a hand on the release stick.The gates were starting to open,rather slowly though.

When he caught the glimpse of the dark void of space from the crack that was slowly starting for form from the gate's separation,he pulled the stick,and the Big Bang disappeared from it's original spot.The intercom crackled to life.

"Virgin Blue!Stop!The gates haven't fully separated!" ordered the female voice.In response,Galen increased his acceleration.

'Too slow,I won't catch up to them in time.It's now.' he thought.

Everything happened rather fast,but to Galen's trained reflexs,it was normal and able to be processed by Galen's eyes and mind.He positioned his craft's wings perpendicular to the floor and speed towards the gates,which were still in the state of separation.His timing perfect,he managed to squeeze himself through the gates,only causing a small spark where the Big Bang's under-arm grinded against the gate.And he was in the void,blasting through as if he wanted to create a rift...which wasn't really that far off from the truth.He took a look at his Overdrive compartment,the meter was full.Good.

He evaded asteroids and other such space rocks with ease.He was nearly caught in between two colliding asteroids,but he managed to maneuver himself between them and escape unscathed,and continued to evade the rubble caused when the asteroids finally collided.

'Close call...but not uncommon.' he thought,grinning.The juice was starting to flow,he was no longer trembling.He was ready for action.He flew the EXCAP past in between the Stomp and Venganza.Catching up was a piece of cake for the Big Bang's speed,even with a headstart.He smiled to himself,pleased with his confidence with his speedcraft.

"You are one quick fella,Double B." he praised the EXCAP,not even caring that the pod wasn't able to give an answer.

"Sound plan man, i think we can pull this off" Rudger said as he stood " time to suit up 'folks, lets do this" with a nod, everyone made their way towards Hellward's suitbay.

Upon arrival your first glance was of three Neurosuits shined and polished to perfection, glinting under the overhead lights making these three almost the dominating feature of the bay, except for the EXCAP, almost like a blue shadow over shadows, Rudger observed Stomp's Upgraded hammer swinging gracefully about thinking "Heh i would not want to be caught under that thing" walking to the engineers admiring their work, he asked "did you load the High explosive missiles, or the Incendiary?" they both started "The High--" as they caught themselves, the male continued " There was High explosive armor piercing loaded, Sir." "Excellent, thanks." he climbed into Aerios's cockpit as Aster in the Venganza started to lurch against it's restraints, shaking the whole bay a little, Rudger spoke " ouch, i hated those days... " grabbing the control, Rudger started the activation sequence with a twist and a hiss.

"prepare yourself sir" Kourin stated with her cool mechanical inquisitiveness, Rudger felt a shock across his fingertips, numbness crawled like ants up his limbs replacing feeling with fire for a moment, feeling like an eternity his body seized with the burden, a practiced effort- knowing it will end eventually, the blue lines across the cockpit slashed across and the shield emitters popped and crackled the air from the joints with a subsonic snap, Aerios stood from the clamps stretching like a dragon, flexing his free hands he ran his weapon checklist, spinning up the Autocannon, checking the capacitors on his shoulders and monitoring the field on the particle cannon, purging a touch of emergency coolant across the 'mech with a hiss, Rudger walked himself to the cannons and crouched to ready himself for the G-forces, knowing acceleration on this scale nearly always blacks out pilots, he thought of this as a challenge, something to prove himself against. Just before he keyed the control, Kourin added " if you move yourself back twelve point five centimeters, you will have an excellent view of an 'Sc' class galaxy..." Rudger with a smirk slid his foot, the reaction causing a few sparks...

BOOM- his world blurred, vision tunneled, stars became lines, although slightly behind the others he radioed to everyone "Atomic, reporting in, also- if you look on your left, you will have a beautiful view of a spiral galaxy, right close at 1300 billion lightyears away, enjoy!"

"Roger that, Atomic. Not a bad view." Asher and the others barreled forward at blistering speed. Graves for one was enjoying the launch; though his machine was quick, it couldn't reach the direct-mannered velocity some of the other suits could, this for him was a rare opportunity to know the true meaning of speed.
Eventually, the phase-through process came to an end and with it's depletion, enough energetic chaff was caused to buffet the speed of each suit. The phase energy scattered and the Hellward operatives were in position; the star system, Agnium.
"We came in through the back door, team. The Exos are looking for a ship, they won't even see us. Start scanning for enemy signs." Asher keyed in the Cortex, "Cortex, this is Noose. We're in the Agnium system."
"Roger that, Noose. Nice to know the surprise party's been canceled. We'll stand by for quick-jump, let us know if you need support. We've got clearance from Viridian for fire-support."
"Wilco, Noose out." he keyed his team back again, "We'll call in the cavalry if things get too hot. Virgin Blue, move ahead and see what you find, wing back to us when you're done. No matter what you see." They were in the outermost point of the Agnium system, planet Zuin lay closer to the heart, near the stable white sun.
Just for kicks, Asher keyed in Zuin on the comms. Nothing but dead air. Damn, I know it's a ruse...but I can't help but wonder if the colony's OK...

"The view's hardly what matters. We're entering system," Aster reminded. As they slowly decelerated, Aster spread the Venganza's wings, quickly bringing her to a stop. Immediately, she unholstered her rifle, and began scanning the area for enemy targets, as ordered. She found... Nothing. That was disturbing. If the Exomachina were waiting in ambush, then they usually would be assembled in full array right outside of the warp zone. The only Exomachina she knew of who commanded its peons with an above-average level of tactical precaution was Letum, but he had just been driven back, hadn't he? He couldn't have moved his main body here, so how could he be in command? She had a feeling that this Emissary was of the same caliber as her old enemy, a fact which worried and angered her.

"No targets spotted, lead. Should I cover Blue?" Aster asked over the communications channel, the Venganza's starlike golden eyes turning to glance questioningly at her commander's machine.

Asher nodded, Stomp did as well. "Go ahead, Phoenix. Atomic and I will check along the--oh, God!" Backed by the light of a star cluster was a centipede-like Exomachina. A series of white domes ran along its back, one of them began to swell until it burst apart, exploding into miniscule metal fragments. The shower of metal spread outward, generating a field of electricity, the bolts of shock lapping the metal like a vile tongue.
It was likely the cause of the interference, why Zuin couldn't be contacted, why the team hadn't picked up any enemy signals as of yet.
This wasn't what Asher found disturbing. In fact, what worried him wasn't the stealth advantage of the Exomachina. It was the group of stars in the distance...because they weren't stars at all.
It was Emissary.
"Damn, we've been spotted!" With the rifle, Asher opened fire into the centipede creature, which exploded like a ball of confetti. Killing it triggered all the chaff simultaneously but at least it couldn't use them one at a time to prolong the cover of the Exos.


If Emissary could grin, he'd grin wide. Hellward has once again proven to be a crafty foe. Attack now, while we still have the stealth advantage. Without scanners, the enemy would have a hard time keeping track of Emissary, especially amidst such large-scale confusion. This provided Emissary with the perfect opportunity to employ a hit-and-run strategy, even despite his great size. In addition, the rest of the army can attack the Hellward Division's blind-spots with much less risk than normal, a statistical increase of 17%. This was....favourable.
He began to wind up, the outer iron spheres of his many bodies began to accelerate, beginning their deadly orbit. The spheres picked up in speed, he aligned one of them so that it was on a collision course with the three Neurosuits he found. The sphere, burning with a bright blue hue, easily dwarfed the three of them, they'd need to be fast to avoid impact. Emissary doubted they'd be fast enough...

Rudger piloted Aerios along Stomp's flank, beginning the scan brought nothing obvious. Moving cautiously, Aerios's sensors at maximum when Noose called out a creature involved in creating disarray and opened fire, he brought his cannon around and spewed crackling auras of energy through a cloud of metal excrement melting and clearing a quarter of the mass of junk now cluttering that region of space, flying at a rough delta, Aerios rolled over to dump a large amount of missiles in a sizable grid ahead of the team, short puffs of smoke aligned them in front the group as they accelerated before the odd chunks of mass accelerating in unnatural ways.

"That swirl of stars...is the Emissary?Right then..." Galen pulled open a compartment,revealing a small and noticeably new scanner.Activating it,the dots per blink revealed 3 other friendly units,which were,of course,the 3 Neurosuits.Galen keyed in a few more options,causing a lock-on on Emissary's dot.

<Wave Signature Tracked.Target Acquired> flashed across the screen.Galen grinned.

"Man...I really have to thank Pin for this new update on the Double B!" Galen noted,before weaving around unnoticed by their adversaries,quickly moving out of the way from the large blue sphere.He turned on the intercom.

"Blue reporting.I have Emissary's Wave Signature,I can lead the target if needed.But this is my first time dealing with such a unit.Any weaknesses worth noting before I dive in?" he inquired quickly,circling unseen above his chosen target.

The pawn Exos could be dealt with rather easily by the Neurosuits.There wasn't a need for the Big Bang to join in that fray.All Galen needed to do now,was scout the Emissary and warn the others about it's actions.This was his best forte,being the pilot of a small craft,espionage.Scouting and tracking were always up to him.And now with Pin's special tracking device,he could do the latter option even better.

After he heard Elionzvie's warning, Asher had just managed to pull Stomp out of the way of the glowing sphere's trajectory. Colour burn dazed his sights, for a moment, everything he could see was discoloured. He blinked hard and shook his head. Before the crushing orb could make a fatal revolution, Asher moved Stomp as far away from it as possible.
Asher's machine was just barely agile enough to avoid the attack...it was too close.
He listened intently as the EXCAP pilot reported that he had Emissary tagged, an advantage in their favour. "No known weaknesses. Those spheres are ferrous, so enough damage should take them out. If we-"
Just then, the missiles launched by Aerios hit their mark; the peppering of scattered explosives left dark impressions where they had hit. Asher took this chance. As the titanic sphere came whirling around, Asher boosted forward and with a wild swing, smashed the end of his great hammer into the sphere. With a crack, it came to a sudden halt, pieces of it scattering from the hit. The orb and the others nearby changed their hue to red, a visible dark streak had split open where Stomp's hammer made contact. Asher took another swing at Emissary's weakened wrecking ball but it moved quickly from the hammer's reach. The orb was moving in reverse, Asher saw it looping around at high speed, disappearing into the blackness above...he was still in its orbital path. Acting quickly, Asher hit the boosters again and made a timely swing with the Galdra, this time sent the iron ball hurtling off its orbit. It crashed into another sphere nearby, crumbling apart and cracking the surface of the other.
That's one down.
"If we do enough damage to them, we can take them out with heavy weapons. Each sphere is tied to a specific orbit, pay attention to where each one is going." He readied his rifle as more Exomachina pressed in.


Emissary was startled, the interior cluster of orbs began shifting patterns of yellow and light blue. He recognized the human, it was the Hellward leader. Where had the leader obtained such strength? He hadn't exhibited this ability before...
It had to be that weapon. Upgraded. Enhanced in some way. Still, the leader seemed to be the slowest of them all. Emissary knew that if he could just trap him the right way he could finish him in a single strike. He had to shuffle the orbital pattern of the spheres, rearrange them in just the right way.
For now, Emissary would keep to the shadows. He altered his pattern so that it matched the stars in the distance behind him. He was thankful he still had the stealth advantage. Emissary sensed that patience would be the key to winning a fight such as this.
He also sensed something else. A piece of Magister Letum, a high-ranking Exomachina, was present for the battle. "Eminence, here to see the show?" the words were not transmitted patterns but a psychic connection shared with all Exomachina, something the humans knew little about. "Rest assured, my group and I can destroy these humans with utter ease. You shall see."

"Roger sir!" Galen gave an affirmative to the Commander to show he understood.No weakness,but aim for the spheres.Enough damage should lead to the spheres being easier to be taken down by heavy weapons.Each sphere had it's orbit.Galen quickly consumed all the information that was being shared with him.He looked about and noticed that the Emissary had disappeared.

"Alert Level 1: Target has disappeared!" he warned before keying in on the tracker.Sure enough,the Emissary was still tracked.After some time of concentration,he finally managed to distinguish the Emissary from the stars.So this Exo used camo and stealth...

"Pardon False Alarm.Target's Wave Signature is still present,tracked and sighted.Ready to lead the target." he placed his thumbs on top of his flight yoke.After taking a well aimed sight at one of the Emissary's spheres,he pressed down and fired his double railguns.A stream of electromagnetic red and white beams began weaving their way towards their target,twirling around each other in a deadly battle dance,ready to collide into the sphere.

As the missiles wound toward their target, a few Exomachina made an earnest attempt to shoot them down. When their shots failed, the missiles exploded, flaking off some of the iron of Emissary's sphere. In anger, Emissary's entire collective flared, flashing intense red and white. One of his spheres had already been destroyed...another two had become weakened.
That human can see me, can he? I'll show him... thought the creature. Soon, the spheres erupted into a cascading pattern, using calm colours that spiked into brilliant hues at just the right moment; a pattern that would make those unfortunate to gaze upon them drowsy. The pattern was allocated in such a way that it would work on the pilot specifically, a pattern that could hypnotize a spread-out group of targets would prove challenging to perform.
Emissary focused on the odds of the effect working. He surmised there was a chance of 77%. When the pilot lost control he would be unable to track Emissary, at least until he came back to his senses. Maybe then, if he sent the Exomachina after him in his dazed state he'd cease to become a problem. Odds were good.


Asher's eyes darted around like a switchblade. Omnii had successfully shortened the amount of time the Exos would be cloaked...but for now they were still coming through dampened sensors. Since the chaff didn't cross between the Hellward members, it had no effect on the team's transmissions. For the same reason, Asher could now radio in for the cavalry.
He flicked the switch and radioed Cortex, "Noose reporting. We're engaging the enemy. We need thunder."
"Roger that, Hellward team. Initializing quick-jump to Agnium system."
More waves of unexpected Exomachina sprang from the dark well of space and Asher did his best to gun them all down. There was a rather nauseating machine that proved too difficult for Asher to take down with the rifle, each shot fired was swiftly interpreted and dodged with ease. Rather sick of the beast's shenanigans, Asher slammed it with Galdra, the hapless Exomachina was sent back into the horde. The ensuing explosion taking down a handful of Exos in the process.
Stomp turned to take in the sight of Cortex warping in; the Kelly, Viridian and an unrecognized cruiser appearing after.
"We're here, Noose. Lining up shots and sending suits for support."
Stomp nodded and turned back to the battle.

Emissary wasn't pleased, another sphere of his had been destroyed. No matter, he'd make quick work of the Hellward in the flying machine...what were they again? Ah, yes, they called those machines EXCAP. By now, he'd be getting drowsy, the patterns of the orbs slowly forcing him into a deep slumber...
...while he maintained a charade of hostile, flashing lights where the other Hellward members were looking. They wouldn't see what would happen, he'd be completely helpless while the Exomachina under Emissary's command moved forward to administer the coup-de-grace.
Suddenly, Emissary felt a part of himself pulling away. Some sort of explosive was emitted...then another...then another! A total of five, a chain of magnetic force and explosives, sending parts of himself, his ferrous spheres, into disarray. It made him furious! He sent himself into a dazzling array of colours, a jubilee of rage. He had lost control.
How could I miss something like this? Some of the orbs spun as he scrambled to regain equilibrium, pulling them back in with desperation. Where had they come from?
It had gotten serious. The fleet was now moving in. Hellward had ruined his plot of ambush. Even now, the chaff was fading away, the stealth advantage was lost. By all accounts and statistical probabilities, Hellward was winning this battle. Even the EXCAP pilot was free from Emissary's hypnosis.

No...I won't go down easy. I refuse to!

Emissary was running out of options....save for one.

Commander Graves took notice of the mine's effect. "Nice one, Copycat. Hellward team, no mercy, fire into Emissary!" Asher would lead the charge, here. An iron sphere careened into view before him and Asher had Stomp land upon it, no doubt it was one of the spheres that had been knocked out of reach of whatever Emissary used to hold everything together. Stomp kicked off of the ball and hit the thrusters, giving him a significant boost towards Emissary. Landing on top of a sphere in the inner cluster, Stomp began to savagely beat it with the hammer, chipping off large pieces of debris in the process. Deciding it simply wasn't fast enough, Asher began firing shots between hammer strikes.
Behind him, a pair of Exomachina rushed in. The one that resembled a drill with whip-like appendages made the first move. Expertly, Asher moved out of the way, landing a solid back-flip to another sphere, his feet pulled down by the artificial gravity. Asher kept his mind on destroying Emissary and hooked the spiked end into the sphere, then stomping on the blunt end of Galdra to help drive it in. The second Exomachina, a machine covered in crystalline growth, discharged an energy beam. It was again swiftly dodged. As Asher moved to attack it, the drill-creature swam its way through the space towards him and Asher drove the Galdra into its midsection, pinning it down to the iron globe with crushing force. Wasting no time with it, Asher blasted several rifle rounds into the thing that most closely resembled its face and with his foot and the hammer ripped it apart from the middle. He then turned to fire at the other interceptor, though it nimbly dodged each shot with the rifle. In retaliation, it dragged another laser blast at Stomp.
Hey, this could be pretty good.
Asher nimbly dodged the laser's raking pulse, making sure it got as much of the sphere's surface as possible. After enough damage had been done, he drove the hammer into the perforation provided by the blast, an impact that sundered the sphere in two, one of the cleaved halves took the hapless crystal machine along with it.

Galen broke away from his stupor and noticing that his EXCAP was spinning out of control,he quickly righted it with ease.He shook his head and blinked his drowsiness away.What was that?!He felt sleepy after looking at the Emissary,and the next thing he knew,he was asleep.Must've been the Emissary's work.And the others saved him.He turned on the intercom.

"Thanks guys.I was...I think the Emissary knows some kind of hypnosis...I got caught in it,so apologies." he noticed the Omen was in the field.So Sigrun was participating in the battle,huh? "Copycat!Good to have you here!"

Commander Asher had managed to taken down one of the spheres artfully,dodging with ease.Galen was hoping that a strong attack would weaken the spheres significantly for it to break when the Stomp drove Galdra into it.Other than the Big Bang Railblade,the strongest weapon in his arsenal was the Charged Railbeam.But the charge time...was rather lengthy.But it was worth a shot.

"This is Blue,will be charging a Railbeam,require cover fire." he announced over the intercom,before opening a compartment and activating the central cannon.Particles were starting to form around the cannon.

<Energy Levels: Stable>

"Right...but for how long?" Galen said to himself.He knew how charging the Railbeam would eventually overheat the EXCAP,the Big Bang was small,and the material used to build it was...weaker than most.But experience would allow Galen to pull through.As long as he had back up to provide cover fire for him.A faint,small ball of light had started forming from the particles that gathered around the cannon.

Aster was just about to charge in to support the commander when three more Exomachina suddenly shot up into her view, using the explosions from the fleet's initial assault to conceal them. The three shapes might have been called Humanoid in appearance, were it not for the bizarre placement of many extra eyes, mouths, and whatever else across their surface. Their weapons of choice seemed to be bladed, spiraling tentacles, judging by the way they were flailing them about. This movement also allowed the pilot of the Venganza to discern their target.

"Blue, watch out! You've got three coming in from below!" Aster warned. "I'll try to pick them off! Prepare yourself to evade in case they get to you first." Spreading the Venganza's wings, she launched herself at full speed toward her targets, activating the auxiliary boosters in her shield to give herself some additional momentum.

The three Exos didn't know what hit them until it had. Three shots struck the lead machine dead on, ripping it apart with tremendous force. It exploded violently, sending the next one in line careening backward into his comrade. As they spiraled out of control, the red machine was already on them, her shield plunging through them both before she tore it to the side, bisecting one Exomachina and decapitating the other. Painted by three explosions of light around it, the crimson devil, its burning wings spread wide, hovered alongside the Big Bang.

"I'll give you cover. You worry about Asher's back," The sniper said, checking her rifle's ammunition. The clips she used were truly massive in the number of shells they could hold, but were not bottomless. Just as she thought. She was almost out.

Lining up two more shots, she used the rest of her ammo to take down two more of the Exomachina moving in from behind. Ejecting the clip, she took another from a holding chamber in the butt of her rifle, and, ramming it in, powered the weapon up again. Already, her trained eyes were searching the sky for targets, her railgun only seconds behind in picking them off.

Rudger turned Aerios about, watching a flight of missiles strike a moderately large Exomachina, it's frame started to burn and warp as his Rotary Auto Cannon unleashed maelstrom of fury, a hundred rounds opened the belly of this twisted alien creating a shock wave and plume from the Machina's propulsion core.

"Nice one, Copycat. Hellward team, no mercy, fire into Emissary!" Asher radioed when Aerios' proximity alarm sounded, "sixty two point fourty four." Kourin spoke coolly, alerting Rudger to the incoming threat, it was one of Emissary's free floating orbs.

Stomp launched off the lost satellite that just happened to be where Aerios was floating across, he opened fire with the Particle cannon, lashing man made lightning across it, the iron sphere glowing red hot when Aerios spat twin slugs directly into the center of the sphere, it cracked like glass. As the torrent of his RAC bored open the shattered sphere, the pieces harmlessly floated around his Neurosuit. Taking note of the real enemy, Rudger fired his boosters, at maximum burn he would have to make careful shots on Emissary if he hoped for a hit from this distance "Noose, I'm on your six, watch your junk sir." Rudger toyingly said across team comms.

"This is Blue,will be charging a Railbeam, require cover fire." as Galen radioed, Rudger noticed a Number of Exo's turning toward the Big Bang get smashed by the Venganza's long rifle, he pressed onward leveling his Gauss cannons, he fired a quadlet of slugs toward Emissary.