?You're sure about this, Aellyce? We could still fall back.?

  "No going back now, Longwood." She gripped her cockpit's control sticks harder still, gently pushed them forward to help the engines flare to life. Her system targeted and locked onto the far end of the catapult runway. "Aellyce Noa, TASK-WH2, launching as Forward."

  She crouched low and angled all of her thrusters at the ramped wall behind her; that gave her the propulsion to rocket toward the end of the runway. As soon as she hit the end, the platforms beneath her Casket's feet slammed into place, and she kept her momentum, launching forcefully off into space.

  ?Tyler Longwood, TASK-WH1, launching as Rear.?

  A few moments after she'd departed, she saw Longwood begin to approach from behind on her radar.

  ?Got a plan knocking around in that head of yours??

  "I've been watching their flight patterns in a few recordings Proton made. The battlefield is dense in spots, but there's lots of gaps to slip through. Cruze mounted up missiles while we were still in Federation space... and I've spent hours every day since the spaceport running through those recordings in the sim."

  ?Jesus. I'm honestly surprised Bella let you back in. What level are you??

  She looked up in the corner of her screen. "Eleven."

  ?You sure you're not pushing yourself too hard??

  "I don't know." Her hands tightened around the grips of her control sticks. "I don't know, I really don't. But right now I just want to stick it to that brat... And I want Bella to see what we're made of."

  ?...If you say so. Either way, I'm on your six. So let's kick some ass.?

  "Roger that!"

  They careened in toward where the battle had been raging on and off, a slowly-shifting mess of frenzied steel. The fight had moved at least a few hundred NM from where it had been last time they saw it, but it had not changed much. Soon, a small triangular warning sign appeared beneath both of their radars as the enemies entered viable combat range. The space ahead began to fill with bright flashes of blue and red.

  "Less kinetic weapons today. Is this Ava's main squadron?"

  ?What're you seeing??

  She waited for the scan to complete and then answered: "They've got units we haven't seen before. Looks like they're on our side, though. Proton says they're WAR-32 and WAR-64. They've got lasers and plasma guns."

  ?WAR units, huh? Federation standard nowadays. Surprised the Imperials could get their hands on them.?

  Aellyce narrowed her eyes. "Ready weapon systems. Entering firing range."

  ?Weapons hot. Don't do anything careless, Ael.?

  "I won't."

  And they zoomed down for the battlefield.

  ?Can we get an enemy count??

  She looked up between the green and red dots scattered across her circular radar... and just as she began to count, every single target on the radar became red. Her gut sank. "Longwood! We're...!"

  ?Surrounded!?

  Avalacia and Bella sat on opposing seats in the helm of the White Horse. Ava had her arms crossed, while Bella had her head lazily propped up on her hand.

  "You think they'll live?" asked Avalacia.

  "As long as they don't have a hardware malfunction."

  "Hmph. You care too much about these people."

  "We're mercenaries, Ava. That makes us family. It's not like your pseudo-empire where you all pretend you're one giant dictatorship."

  "Oy, I ruled with an iron fist!"

  "Uh huh. And yet, every different sect of your theology acted completely independently. Hell, you'd set rules on what minerals could and couldn't be traded, and then travel one sector over and find an Imperial conglomerate selling only those types of minerals. What you had wasn't an empire. It was a mess."

  Avalacia grit her teeth. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

  "Don't I? I mean, you already know, don't you? Isn't that what brought you here?"

  "What?"

  "A decade spent cultivating your perfect empire, like some galactic supervillain... And I didn't even have to cut the head off to make the body crumble. Hell, I barely even scraped the arm. We won one big battle, way closer to the Neptune sector than Earthside, and poof. Avalacia's empire, gone. But if you're wondering, Avalacia, if I'm worried what'll happen to my pilots when you turn those WAR-32 and WAR-64 units against them... I'm not."

  Avalacia's entire face had turned red. "You knew! You knew my plan the whole time, and yet...!"

  "And yet, here you are, in the helm of my ship. What could it all mean?"

  "You're too cocky, that's what it means!" Avalacia drew a handgun from her side. Just as she lifted it toward Bella — bang! Another shot rang through the air.

  She glanced around in horror. Then she saw the pilot, Blackrock, holding his own gun, facing her from the pilot seat ahead of them both.

  "Wh...What!?" She gasped. Then she screamed. The bullet had hit her right in her arm, forced her to drop the weapon.

  Strangely, her gun began to float upward. Then Bella noticed that her own hair was beginning to lift up. Her whole body was becoming weightless in her chair. "Hmm?"

  "You thought... You thought this was my only plan!? You thought I didn't have contingencies!?"

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  "Blackrock!"

  He fired again—

  But the sound of his gunshot was smothered instantly by the cacophony of exploding glass as the front windshield of the helm exploded open, and sucked them all into the everlasting vacuum of space...

  [Updated Objective]

  [Imperial Units: HOSTILE]

  [Non-Imperial Units: HOSTILE]

  All of the Caskets ahead of them became trimmed in red highlights, indicating them all as enemies.

  "Longwood—"

  ?They hit White Horse!?

  Proton cut into the comms: ?I've got White Horse covered. Focus on your survival.?

  "Proton, what's going on!?"

  ?Bella would like you to target Imperial units as of now.?

  "She's okay!?"

  No answer from Proton.

  Aellyce began to tremble. Her eyes went wide as a blend of rage, and fear, and hate, and spite all swam within her. "Were we... betrayed?"

  ?Or Bella betrayed them, it doesn't matter!?

  Aellyce grit her teeth. "Every time...! Every time, something is hidden from us! Someone is coming out ahead, and it's neither of us!"

  ?Aellyce, I understand, but—?

  She kicked her thrusters into overdrive and rushed into the fray.

  ?Oh, God dammit!?

  The thumping of all three of her machine guns rattled the whole cockpit, THU-THU-THU-THU-THU-THU. The sound was as strong and as fast as her heartbeat. She swept through a crowd of Caskets all embroiled in their small fights within the battle, laid bullets into the sides of all the black-red Imperial units she saw.

  Once she'd made it to the center of the arena, she unleashed a flurry of missiles, expending all but one from the square holster mounted to her shoulder. Her Casket became painted orange in the hues of the silent blasts scattering all around them. She continued to spin, firing nonstop as she went.

  ?You're gonna run out of ammo!?

  She saw that Longwood's guns were smoking, too. He'd been firing as well. Then she looked up to the corner of her HUD.

  [Target Down]

  [Target Down]

  [Target Down]

  [Target Down]

  [Target Down]

  [Target Down]

  Her eyes widened when she saw the floating parts of the mechs she'd wasted, trailing idly through the cosmos. Her firing stopped. It was like looking at a corpse — it suddenly hit her in the gut what she'd done.

  But then, even worse; she saw the cockpits. The seats, where pilots would strap in... Where they should have been strapped in.

  "They're autos...! There's no pilots!"

  Longwood rocketed down into the path of a missile that was soaring toward her. He hit it with a single, clean shot, and it exploded into the shrapnel some distance away.

  ?Aellyce, we’re not clear yet!?

  "Longwood, this whole battle was staged, look!"

  He glanced between the Caskets on either side, the makeshift ones as well as the pristine purple ones. ?...Seriously? She did all of that, just for us??

  Then the black-red WAR units dashed into their radar proximities.

  ?Hey, that explains why their tactics make them look like infants. But here come the real ones.?

  Shit!

  Aellyce raised all three of her cannons. cli-cli-cli! All she got from pulling the triggers were the dry clicks of empty magazines.

  "Proton, I need a reload!" She blasted down, away from the three approaching Caskets. When she was far enough away, she flipped herself and threw her forward thrusters into overdrive again.

  ?You're burning hot, be careful!?

  Longwood blasted after her with only his reverse thrusters, following her with precise movements to match her own. He fired carefully yet rapidly at each of the approaching weapons. He hit one square in the chest, blowing a hole directly through its cockpit. It floated off idly, carrying forward the momentum left behind by the dead pilot.

  "Proton!!"

  ?Bella has already authorized a care package. You'll escape combat distance in 7.2 seconds, and the care package will arrive at your position 3 seconds later.?

  She burst upwards, passing a dozen other puppet battles as she raced for the closest exit point to the fray of mechs smattered across the stars. Her feet pressed down hard and evenly on the rudders to give herself even more juice. Heat warnings were popping up all over her screen.

  She primed the last missile — she wouldn’t need it if a reload was coming. One last fanfare before she came back and rained more hell…

  The fray cleared, and all was open space again. She could hear her breathing, heavy and manic. She could still feel that thumping of machine-gun fire. She could still…

  ?Aellyce! Holy fu—? Longwood's voice was cut off by static.

  She spun. All of the lights speckled across Longwood's Casket turned off, and he, too, floated off idly into space. One of the black-red Caskets raced after him.

  "No you fucking don't!" She fired the missile. It hit the Casket right as it neared Longwood, blasted right through its shoulder. It must have hit the core, because only a few seconds later, the entire rest of the Casket exploded in a huge blast. The explosion scraped Longwood's own Casket, pushed him faster away from their battle. "No!"

  Then she saw what had deactivated his mech. That black Casket, the obsidian mech... There it was, floating ahead of her. The rest of the black-red Imperial WAR units flew to the edge of the ring of combat, stopped in a perfect row right on the outskirts. It looked like there were nine of them. Then approached the sleek purple units, too, joining the line.

  Warning lights were blinking all over her screen, so much that she could barely even see the Casket there amidst the stars. It was more that she could see where the stars weren't. Just that dark, dark silhouette.

  "You again!" She flipped a switch on her radio box, hoped to open a direct line to it. "Who are you? What do you want!?"

  It didn't answer. Instead, it raised its weapon.

  Aellyce was breathing even faster. My care package...! Proton, my care package!

  More warning lights appeared. She grit her teeth hard, pushed the controls further. Her thrusters exploded to life. "You mother...!"

  cli-cli-cli...! Her guns repeated their forlorn mantra.

  He pulled his own trigger. There went that blue wave of pure energy, that bright glowing plasma that swam toward her like the northern lights.

  [Target Scanned]

  [Level 12]

  [Level 13]

  [Level 14]

  Aellyce screamed. She gripped the controls as tightly as she could. She slammed her eyes shut...

  ...

  ...

  ?Aellyce. It's okay.?

  "...Proton?"

  She opened her eyes. There was something new in her vision, something big, white, interspersed with green highlights all over its humanoid figure.

  "Proton...! What is this!?"

  Proton laughed. It glanced back at her, its eyes glowing enthusiastically.

  ?This is my gift to you, Aellyce.?

  And the hatch on the Casket's back hissed open to reveal the empty cockpit, waiting for her to enter...