- Escape!

The shot crashed into a speaker on the stage, causing it to screech as it fell to the ground, pulling other parts of the sound system as it fell before breaking free of the wires.

"They have guns?!" Gus exclaimed. "How the hell did they get them through the security?" Raising his wrist, he activated his comm device. "Be careful, there are people in the crowd with live, loaded weapons.

"You two, get the politician out of here," Commander Amuti ordered. "Your weapons will do nothing but make the situation worse for us here. If the shock of the round causes them to fire and kill someone, then you will be to blame."

Gus and Mykolos glanced at each other, before moving across the stage to Mileena Aliti, who cowered behind a makeshift barricade towards the back of the stage. As they moved, Commander Amuti drew a small weapon strapped to his back and began to fire into the crowd.

As they got to her, Gus grabbed her wrist and pulled her as he spoke. "We're from the academy. Come with us. It's not safe here."

She looked at Gus and Mykolos in a confused manner, as though she failed to realise the situation that she was in. After what felt like minutes, she agreed and stopped struggling, allowing the two to lead her to safety.

Keeping their heads down, they led the politician into the security room, entering it via one of the many access points installed in the floor of the stage for the exact purpose of the situation they found themselves in.

"Fall in to my position," Gus said, speaking into the comm device. "We need to get the politician out of here."

"What's going on?" Joel's voice asked, appearing in his ear as though the boy was beside him. "You said something about a gun?"

"Yeah, someone got a weapon in here," Gus said, leaning over and looking at the screens that displayed images of the scenes happening outside of the stage. "Actually, someones got weapons in here."

Dozens of bodies littered the ground as the people armed with weapons fired indiscriminately into the crowd. Hundreds more fled the domes, not willing to risk their lives to help anyone other than themselves. In the ensuing chaos that occurred at the perimeter, dozens more died from suffocation and from being trampled by the crowd. In the centre of the rally, a small group of people clashed with the security forces within the dome. By using hidden cybernetics, they were able to provide themselves with a substantial amount of cover with which they could safely trade fire with the EDF personnel.

"This wasn't random," Gus murmured. "It wasn't someone coming here hoping to spread an ideology. This was an assassination attempt."

He raised his wrist to his mouth as he pushed himself back up. "Did any of you see anything? Someone, somewhere, let these people in. Was it any of you?"

Despite not all of them being the type of people to speak in that way, every reply that Gus received confidently stated that they had not let in anyone who had brought weapons in to the rally. While it was true that they Reapers and the Knights had not covered every single entrance to the location of the rally, they had covered a significant amount. Plus, in Gus's mind, if anyone was to make a mistake, it would be more likely for it to be the academy students, and not the more experienced Earthen Defence Force. But hearing how confidently the Reapers had stated that they did not let the weapons through, Gus could only think that it was the fault of either the Blood Knights or the EDF.

"Mykolos," Gus asked, turning to face him. "Did any of your people let them in?"

"What? No!" Mykolos exclaimed, taking Gus's question as a personal attack. "I don't know how it happened, but it was not my Knights."

"Then it was the EDF," Marcus said with resignation. "But, how could the ones that are actually trained make such a drastic error? Just look at the death that happened here."

"The EDF, huh?" Mykolos asked. "Do you think they could have let them in on purpose?"

"I want to say no. I don't want to think people could do things like that, forsake their sworn duty. But I'm no fool, I know that there are people out there who would do things like this for the highest price, or if they think that they could gt something out of it."

"Gus, we're outside. Get out here, quickly. I don't want to wait any longer than we have to here," Connor's voice said in Gus's mind.

'That's unnerving,' Gus thought. Thanks to the nature of the comm devices, the sounds of incoming messages were delivered directly into the minds of the receiver, giving them a sensation akin to someone speaking directly into their ear. Many people familiar with the devices were used to it, but for someone like Gus who had only recently started using them they still felt a bit weird to use.

Emerging from the security room through the secure entrance in the back of the stage, Gus was shocked at the assault on his senses.

Thick smoke filled the air from the gunfire, and had begun spreading through the area encased by the dome. Breathing it in scratched his throat, and caused his eyes to water. The stench of spent gunpowder filled his nostrils, alerting him to the fact that kinetic weaponry had been used.

Kinetic weaponry was vastly different to the standard energy weapons that were used. It was favoured in circumstances like these, where humans would be fighting each other in a planet with gravity similar to or equal to Earth's.

As the five who were inside the security room made their way outside, they found the Reapers along with the other members of the Blood Knights waiting for them.

"What do we do now?" One of the Blood Knights asked in a panicked tone.

With neither having an answer, Gus and Mykolos looked at each other, both hoping that the other would come up with something.

'Stay calm, Gus,' Gus thought. 'What's the best thing to do here?'

Go into the residential area. Lose the attackers in a maze of concrete and metal. That was the best thing for them to do right now.