Once the lock was blown up, everyone burst inside the room. Arima put his rifle away and drew his pistol as he entered first. His eyes scanned the place and his hand immediately started shooting, taking out someone with each shot.

 

The soldiers with him also fired in all directions, all with an incredibly efficient aim. They took twenty seconds to eliminate everyone without even giving them a chance to retaliate.

 

"We don't have time to lose. To buy as much time as possible, a group of ten will stay here and scan the pagers and secure our way out. Is that acceptable?" Haze suggested to the other squad leaders and he received an affirmative response.

 

The biggest squad left ten members behind and the rest went to the hoist load before activating it.

 

As they were slowly descending, Jin sat down and scrutinized his screen. A few minutes later, when they were about to reach the floor below, his eyes narrowed as he blocked the command of the hoist.

 

"Wait! If we go lower, we will be detected in a second by actual cameras and both the guys and AIs looking through them will sound the alarm," he said as he looked through the screen of his computer and pointed at the wall on his left.

 

"…Arima, break this. We have no choice," he hesitated but still asked. Arima raised an eyebrow before putting down his rifle case. He inhaled and started hopping. The other soldiers were quite confused at what he was going to do. What did he mean by ‘break it’?

 

Arima put his entire weight on his left leg and spun before giving a roundhouse kick to the wall. The result was a broken wall in which his foot became buried. When he pulled out his foot, he then proceeded to enlarge the hole with his bare hands.

 

Everyone watched wide-eyed. They were not dumb enough to believe that what they just witnessed could be explained by some prowess in martial arts.

 

Jin nodded and didn't even comment as he inserted his arm in the broken wall and grabbed a handful of cables set there. He cut the sheath of one of them and then pulled out the conductors which he tinkered with a bit before connecting it to his computer through a rather hefty plug.

 

The people on the hoist understood that Arima and Jin, and also Tieria, had no intention of talking about what happened and discarded the idea of soliciting them. It wasn't a good situation to risk their mutual trust.

 

"Here's the deal," Jin raised his voice. "I'll cause a blackout with an Eion pulse and then we'll finish the job before everything comes back. At least like this the alarm won’t be sounded, their defenses will be weakened, and there will be fewer people coming at us since they can’t locate us. The blackout should last around ten minutes. Give or take," he declared and the captains looked at each other.

 

"Fine, do it Jin," Moria said and Jin cracked his fingers before pressing on the enter key. In less than a second, the facility lost every energy supply and the lights went off.

 

"Cut the cables," Moria ordered and four people used a laser to cut the cables attached to the hoist.

 

After they did that, the platform promptly fell down and crashed on the floor below. Everyone felt unsteady for a bit before focusing again. They pried open the steel door in front of them and ended up inside of a spacious hangar filled with Eion tanks.

 

Moria nodded to one of his subordinates who went around the place to set the G-Mines, just like the ones they had placed above.

 

"We'll split up from here. Don’t forget to install the mines and harmonize their frequency," Haze said and darted off toward one of the two possible paths along with his squad and the other one that they met earlier carrying the code ‘Freiz’.

 

"We'll go the other way then," Moria said matter-of-factly and started running. Soon followed by the entire Walker squad.

 

At that point already, all of the personnel in the facility had been alerted and were preparing to fend off the intruders. But unfortunately for them, the constrained reinitialization of the mainframe made them incapable to locate their enemies or to effectively deploy their forces.

 

Each group inevitably encountered some guards while exploring the hangars but nothing they could not survive. Arima's squad met a few dozens of guards and immediately engaged the enemy.

 

"Do you know where the mainframe is?" Arima asked Jin as he fired back from his cover, never missing a shot.

 

"Not sure. But from the triangulation I made thanks to the cameras' signal, it should be around… there," Jin frowned and pointed at a place beyond the guards who were blocking their advance.

 

"I see," Arima muttered and slipped a hand inside his coat. He grabbed one of his knives and pressed the ‘pin’. He stood up and shot the man who was about to shoot him first before throwing the knife. When the tip of the blade made contact with the ground, a muffled detonation resounded followed by a flash of blue light and flames of the same color. The magnitude of the explosion was by far stronger than a regular Eion grenade.

 

Moria saw an occasion and waved his hand at everyone to rush in. After terminating the resistance, they continued onward and struggled to locate their objective. But after some time, they finally came across another rather important-looking gate.

 

Arima used another knife to break open the door of the assumed control room and Jin rejoiced as he spotted the rows of hardware obviously accommodating a supercomputer. He ran toward the nearest terminal and began his work. The electricity was about to be restored and he wanted to insert a backdoor on the system before it happened.

 

Jin typed frantically, executing all of his pre-made programs while the squad covered him and fought back the endless wave of men.

 

"Aaaand…got it!" Jin shouted and the light returned to the facility in the next moment. "Sir, aerial defenses are down! I have bad news though. The AI managed to send a warning signal to the two concerned countries just before the blackout."

 

Moria nodded grimly and pulled out his satellite phone. "1K9F55AZ. Airstrike at current coordinates. Come with unregistered planes and blow up the island. Do it in 20 minutes," he called the airstrike and everyone exited the control room before heading toward the hoist load.

 

But barely a minute after they started running, a rocket was suddenly fired at them. It came out from a junction of the corridor and everyone reacted a bit too late. Arima's eyes narrowed and moved as fast as he could. He aimed his pistol at the rocket and fired. The two projectiles collided and self-destructed in the process.

 

But even with Arima’s timely response, the blast was still too close and most members of the squad were caught in the shockwave. When they recovered their bearings, they saw what had attacked them.

 

Arima clicked his tongue in annoyance and swiftly equipped his rifle. He glared as the giant robot that barely fitted between the walls slowly walked toward them.

 

The robot scanned the targets and raised the heavy machine gun it carried. The squad members could only take cover and flee as the enormous weapon was fired. But some of them inexorably failed to escape in time and were instantly taken down as the bullets opened fist-sized boles on their bodies.

 

It was the first time Arima ever witnessed one of his comrades die on a mission. He gritted his teeth and fired with his sniper at the robot. Shockingly, the large robot displayed unbelievable dexterity and agility as it dodged the shot.

 

“What the fu-!!” Arima swallowed his words back as the machine gun was once again pointed at him and instantly threw two Eion knives. The two knives hit the ground at the robot's feet and exploded. The explosion raised a lot of dust and the roof cracked and threatened to collapse.

 

"Take cover now!" Arima shouted before the cloud of dust was even dispersed.

 

The robot's shoulders bent and transformed into rocket launchers. They fired multiple rockets that flew toward Arima's squad. The soldiers had heeded Arima's shout and had already started getting into cover but they were still in the effective area of the explosion and a big number of them perished under the attack.

 

Arima could only watch powerlessly as he shakily stood up. Then his eyes coincidentally fell on Tiria who was dragging a wounded comrade to cover. Behind her, one of the guards suddenly appeared and pointed his gun at her.

 

Arima’s entire body tensed. Time slowed down for him and his vision turned gray. He brought up his gun and aimed at the guard. But before he could press the trigger, his ears twitched as he heard the recognizable sound of a fire engine.

 

He nonetheless tried to shoot but the rocket landed near him and sent him flying. His ears started bleeding and ignoring the whistles, he watched as Tiria fell on her knees and swallowed back the blood swelling up in her throat.

 

She clenched her bloodied chest and grunted. She looked over her shoulder and shot the head of her assailant before falling to the ground.

 

"Sis!" Tieria screamed and rushed toward her.

 

Arima groaned and his eyes flashed with a mad glint. He forced his body to stand up. He dropped all of his firearms and charged at the robot who was busy trying to shoot through everyone’s covers.

 

“Arimane!” Erin shouted.

 

Arima ignored him and jumped on the robot’s leg before latching onto its neck. It tried to shake him off right away but he wouldn’t let go no matter what. He ignored his growing nausea and noticed a bundle of very small wires connecting the head of the mecha to the rest of its body.

 

“Eh, this looks important,” he scoffed and grabbed everything before pulling. Electricity sparked and he was forced to let go. He fell on the ground and the robot started turning its head in all directions as if it couldn’t see anymore.

 

Arima then temporarily forgot about the giant machine and dashed toward Tieria who was kneeling and crying next to her sister.  When he arrived, he checked Tiria’s injury and felt like going mad when he saw that the bullet actually went through her heart.

 

Tiria coughed some blood and glanced at Tieria. "It's okay… it's the job's risks," she weakly said and turned toward Arima before smiling. "Take care… of her for me… kay?"

 

Arima clenched his fists and nodded.

 

"Bye, sis…" Tiria mouthed before closing her eyes forever. Tieria sobbed even louder and Arima banged his head against the large debris while covering his face. The rest of the squad also joined them, finally getting a breather thanks to Arima disorientating the robot.

 

Jin smoked a cigar with a darkened face and sat next to Arima. Even Moria wasn't feeling better than any of them and he let it appear on his face for the first time in years.

 

Arima inhaled and stood up. "Lomen, give me the G-Mines'," he demanded and the squad’s artificer mutely handed him the briefcase full of mines. “Jin, where are they?

 

Jin was confused at first but then realized what he meant. “…it’s the whole floor below. You won’t miss them.”

 

Erin scowled. "What are you two talking about?"

 

"Captain, go ahead. I just want to destroy this thing," Arima declared and jumped across the boulder in front of him. No one could stop him as he was already sprinting toward the robot. He picked up the rifle he had discarded earlier and shouldered it. He then pulled out two Eion knives and threw them at his target. The resulting explosion pushed the robot back and almost made it fall over.

 

Arima then swapped his rifle’s ammunition for Eion bullets and fired at the machine's neck which appeared to be the weakest spot.

 

The bullet exploded and a small crack appeared on the robot's metal skin. Arima tried to get close like before but the robot bent his body and unexpectedly kicked him who then flew and crashed into the ruins of the facility.

 

“Shit! That thing lost its visual instruments but it seems that it also has reactive sensors! He can’t get too close,” Jin cursed and Tieria slowly stood up. She then walked toward Arima with unshakable determination.

 

"Hey?!" Jin extended his hand to stop her but Moria grabbed his shoulder before he could.

 

"Let her go. If they want to die, they will. But I don't think that's the case," Moria uttered and turned around and rushed to the exit along with everyone else.

 

Garo and Farro were about to lift up Tiria's body but Jin stopped them this time.

 

“Let Tieria take care of it… Those two made a promise that they would take care of the other even after death,” he said and the two burly guys grudgingly complied.

 

Jin then looked at Arima who was standing up among the debris, his face full of blood, and Tieria who had reached his side. “Arima! Tieria! You better come back alive!” He barked and left right after.

 

Arima snickered as he heard his friend and glanced at Tieria. He wordlessly gave her three Eion knives and they nodded to each other. Arima breathed in and fired with his rifle. The robot suffered one more hit and then started firing in random directions.

 

Arima kicked the ground in response and moved in parallel with the robot as he went from a cover to another. He gradually closed in like that and thanks to his physical constitution, he could last for quite a long time.

 

At some point, when the robot stopped firing, seemingly to reload, Arima decided to run toward it. The robot’s AI appeared to have learned from its blind state and as if it had planned his actions, the robot revealed two additional rocket launchers. But unfortunately for it, Arima was well prepared and blasted the two launchers using his knives.

 

He looked around and made a slight turn. He scooped a chain lying on the floor whilst running and wrapped the robot's neck with it. He pulled on it as much as he could and managed to hinder the robot a little and also make its neck screech and twist.

 

It was the perfect opening for Tieria. She came in from the back and inserted the three knives in the widened gap of the robot's neck before pressing the buttons and jumping off. The knives exploded inside the metal shell and the mecha's head burst apart.

 

When the metal figure fell on the ground, Arima exhaled and sat down. Tieria sluggishly came to him and sat down back to back with him as the robot exploded again in the background.