- Aid Arrives

Their shuttle screamed down into orbit, directed at the region of Algos. They bypassed the standard security measures of a ship entering Earth orbit, a decision that would undoubtedly come back to them later. But it was a choice that they had to make, given the urgency of the mission they had been assigned. They could deal with the consequences later, once the first years were safely back aboard the academy station in orbit.

They were in the fastest shuttle the academy had available to them. Reserved only for key flights, such as transportation of extremely important people throughout the home system of Sol, or for emergencies such as this one, the Blitz sacrificed almost all of the armour a shuttle would in favour of drawing more speed out of its Minilon engine, a class of engine made specifically for shuttles.

"Thirty seconds to touchdown," called a voice over the intercom within the shuttle.

"Everyone, get ready!" the leader yelled, ensuring his voice burrowed it's way deep into the ears of everyone in the shuttle. "We move the second we touch the ground, no later."

"Why do you think the Corsairs did this job, Bryer? What do you think their motivations were?" The boy on his left asked.

"In all honesty, Jammes, I have no idea. I haven't thought about it, and at this point I don't care to. We have our mission, and we already know that it isn't questionable, so why think about the specifics of what is going on behind the scenes? If the mission was something suspicious, then fair enough. But it's not, so I don't care. The only thing we need to think about the Corsairs is how to stop them from beating our juniors too badly."

Seconds later, the ship touched down on the ground, gently rocking the people inside. As the door slid open, retracting into the ship itself, the squad inside slid off their safety harnesses and charged outside of the ship, forming a secure perimeter around the entrance.

"We all know the mission, find the two squads that were here from the academy and get them out of danger. The politician Mileena Aliti is with them, so we will get her out of the area at the same time. Crimson Corsairs are reported to have carried out the attack, so be on your guard. We've dealt with them before, so we know how dangerous they are."

The area outside of the dome was reinforced by EDF forces, and was clustered with hundreds, if not thousands of civilians. As they approached one of the entrances to the dome, they saw a large, scattered group of people carrying weapons leaving the dome.

"Hey, they're wearing academy uniforms," someone called out.

"Yeah, they're our two squads," Bryer responded. "Becca, prep your medicines in case anyone is injured. Keep your awareness, the Corsairs might still be around us here." After he was finished speaking, Bryer walked closer to the group that emerged from the dome.

"You're the two squads sent here from the academy, right?" Bryer asked as the distance between them shortened. He already knew it was them, but he wanted them to feel safer and so opted to greet them with what he hoped was a friendly voice. Looking past most of them, he saw an older woman dressed in official clothes. "And you're Mileena Aliti. Okay, they got you out safely. We're third years, from the academy. We're here to get you out."

He looked at the numbers of the two squads. Not counting Aliti, there were eighteen of them. "Where are the other two?" Bryer asked.

"One of my Blood Knights died," Mykolos said, "and, as for the other one."

"The leader of the Apex Reapers decided to try and distract them from us, giving us a chance to get out," Connor said.

"Where?" Bryer demanded.

"I don't know. Joel, get in contact with him, get him out of there," Connor said, turning to Joel.

"What direction?" Bryer asked, as Joel tried to contact Gus on the comm device.

"I'm not sure exactly. Deeper into the residential area, I guess?" Connor responded. "I don't know why he did it, he just ran out while saying something about family or something?"

"It's my fault," Krista said, with a sorrowful expression. "After the library in Frankfurt, I said something to help him, because he felt some guilt about having us kill those mercenaries there. That's why he said what he said, because of me."

"Gus, wait. There's people from- Ah damn it! He's gone." Joel exclaimed. "The crazy son of a bitch is actually willing to give his life for this."

"He won't. Not if we have anything to say about it," Bryer said.

***

"Not gonna happen, eh? You're bleeding, you look like you're going to die. But you still make demands?"

"Well, I can still kill you, you know," Gus responded.

Pantha growled, before lunging at Gus. Gus dodged backwards, but thanks to his injuries he was too slow. One of the large, metallic paws slashed his leg, almost tearing it cleanly off.

Gus fell onto his back, unable to keep his balance. Mustering all of the strength he could, he forced himself up and towards his opponent. Randomly throwing out attacks, he forced the man made mostly of cybernetics back.

"If I don't know what I'm doing, how can you?" Gus muttered, as a pain induced delirium took over his mind.

A kick from Pantha connected into Gus's midriff, throwing his weakened body across the roof.

"If you get out of here alive, remember this, boy," Pantha said. "Never focus on randomness. The human form will always revert to repetition, something that is easy to read for something like me. Not that you will."

"Why won't he?" called a voice from below the roof. As the sandy haired owner of the voice revealed himself, Pantha took a defensive posture.

"I know I promised that the next time I saw you I would tear you apart, Pantha," Bryer spoke. "But, let him go and I'll spare you for this time."