Kolme Nilas'es eyes moved from screen to screen as his voice, hoarse from hours of speaking, issued order after order to the 70 or so remaining Nemo's under his command.

   Three recent explosions had given everyone pause for thought – Two Hindenburg reactor meltdowns out in No-man's land had seemingly been the wake-up call TSU-s needed to fall back and regroup – While the destruction of the Rinie had proven the final straw for IAFS, with Kolme now helping the organization of a complete retreat.

   It was almost bizarre after so much fighting, to look out and see No-man's land fall quiet – The constant dog-fights between mechs and warship duels to the death had rescinded and something approaching tranquillity had fallen for the first time in hours.

   On the other hand, neither Sabban or Hoki had come back yet – Not that Kolme was panicked for them or anything, he knew they could handle themselves – Perhaps they were simply lying low, waiting for a good chance to get back home.

“Squad Gamma, you boys can start mov'in now--” Kolme's voice caught.

   He had honestly thought nothing would surprise him anymore, the weapon firing on the Home-Fleet, the Curadh's surprise appearance, news of Tomo's death and of course the Rinie's fall just minutes ago – And yet, when the ship furthest from the Fluchtig, the sixth ship of the defence line, suddenly exploded without warning – Kolme was indeed surprised.

   Moments later the half dozen Nemos that had been guarding the small vessel, also began to explode one by one;
“What The Hell!!”

   The communication lines were quickly filled with similar sentiments to Kolme.

He turned his machine around, to face No-man's land again in hopes of seeing what terrible weapon had broken through the line to do this – It was gone.

   Well not gone, nothing could make the dozens of warship corpses, the hundreds of slain Vijaiks of all colours and sizes for miles around – Disappear. No what was gone was the fighting – Not a single explosion accented the space anymore, no passing energy bolts, no grand final stands – No-man's land had fallen completely silent.

   Nate's decision that it was time to retreat had been right but it had come a few minutes too late, or so Kolme now released – As what he saw coming through the newly silenced No-Man's land, slinking their way slowly but surely through the endless detritus of battle, was 30 or so enemy warships.

   All in varying states of disrepair, but unified in their goal – All heading towards the six-- No, now just five remaining warships of the defence line – And of course accompanied by dozens of enemy mechs.

“All Forces Withdraw Now!!” Nate Novel roared across every channel.

****

 

Scarlet's Vijaik Heavy made its way through the carcasses of the 100 of so slain mechs of the Remembrance advanced force – She had raided all the remaining supplies the rear-defence line could spare her.

   On her back two of her beloved Calabar greatswords, along with two standard energy rifles attached to her legs and two rocket launchers, one mounted on each shoulder – To top it off she had acquired a whole belt of Arc-staff, currently slung around her mechs waist, and a couple missile pods wrapped around her machine's ankles

   Finishing off her 'new-look' was the Remembrance High-Mobility type-C currently held out in front of her, acting as camouflage.

Her enemy shouldn't be able to detect her, what with the massive energy discharges and fields of interfering fallen Vijaik-scrap metal – Only a capital-ship like the Valliere had strong enough sensors to pierce through that – Or so atleast, Scarlet hoped...

   She had gotten close enough to clearly see the enemy unit now – As expected they had come right up to the edge of the battlefield and simply held in the air for a few minutes – Unamused it had almost looked like her foe would retreat home, but then they had spotted the Valliere, spotted the lifeboats and just as Scarlet had feared – The enemy squad had decided to give chase.

   Now they were heading towards her, in about a minute they would pass right overhead – With any luck she hoped her element of surprise would allow her to take out 2, if not 3 of the lilac coloured Type-D's before the battle began in earnest – That was the hope anyway.

In truth Scarlet knew she was outmatched and that wasn't just self-deprecation or doubt over her abilities. Although she had been able to restock her weapons and fuel, her machine had been fighting now for 6 hours, it could at any time suffer some arbitrary technical fault – Its joints were surely in needed of maintenance, its gasket wanting replacement.
   In contrast the four Type-Ds were just entering the battlefield, all in pristine condition. Plus the Type-D was already a very powerful class of Vijaik, its rectangular head with single massive lens on the front, while looking awkward, allowed for a great deal of processing power.
   Its rigid looking, flat limbs were designed to be thin and hard to hit, while still delivering a solid punch in return – Its engine gave it enough output to move at high speeds and fire powerful weapons.

But none of this could compared to what stood at the centre of their formation – Completely white, gleamingly so, the Remembrance Casnel.

   Casnel was a convoluted word in Scarlet's opinion, it meant too many things. On its face it literally only meant any mech that had a qualifying amount of Goibniu concentration – But this by proxy meant almost all modern Fortresses counted as 'technical' Casnels – Moreover there were tiers, lower spec Casnels weren't nearly as much of a threat when compared to TSU's legendary 'G-Type' Casnels, such as the one they had fought with during Operation-Deadlight.

   What faced Scarlet now was a machine like that, a top tier dealer of death – Its white colouring was deliberately intended to inspire images of the legendary 'First Casnel' that had so dramatically changed the face of battle a decade ago.

   There were no straight lines to be see, all its gleaming surfaces curved, its rounded head, rolling back into a tail shape, its shoulders looking more like two massive pauldrons on a cape – It was tall too, a good two metres higher then its bodyguards.

   No projectile, energy or physical, would be able to pierce its mighty shell – Scarlet knew her only chance would be to dig and cut and sear her way through with an arc-staff or Calabar blade.

The enemy was just 40 seconds away from her ambush now, she opened her glove box, grabbed a syringe and plunged it into her skin. It had been over two months since her last use of an enhancer, and after today she had almost began to believe – To think that maybe her skills and talent, her Ace's title belonged to her and not the drug.

   She had sworn not to take it, because she had people to return to now, a home of sorts, a reason to come back alive – It was exactly those same reasons that now spurred her into driving a second needle in after the first.

   She would need every last ounce of power to finish this, to cut down the last obstacle stopping her from getting back.

The Enhancer drug was a desperate measure of the dieing Abhailen Revolutionary Army – An attempt to slow TSU down in the last year of the war – But even it had come with some advice, some warnings, it was after all given out to only the best pilots.

   'Only take a second shot, after the first one has worn off – Only take two at once under extreme circumstances.'

Scarlet didn't understand medicine, she had no clue how the Enhancer worked or if taking more than one at once actually made a difference. She had heard taking two increased the speed at which the drug took effect, made it hit deeper and last longer.           She also knew it greatly increased the chance of death.

   Someone with a heart or blood condition, if they somehow survived taking one dose, would not survive two.

She held in her hand a third syringe – There was no rumours about taking three, the advice had been simple – 'Never take three in under a minute'

   Maybe it would increase the potency, perhaps the effects would take hold faster – But no one knew, because no one ever survived taking three at once – Of course Scarlet was different, some natural resistance to the drug – Atleast that's what she told herself as she rammed the third syringe down.

   Her body jeered, her blood vessels felt aflame, her heart ached and her breath laboured as the three doses began to circulate – But the agony lasted only a short time, her sense of smell faded, the feeling of the metal controls on her fingertips left her – Vision narrowed, sound dispersed.

The enemy unit passed over head – The battle ragged on once more.

****

If the first 12 hours had been some of the longest for those who lived through that day, than the last 12 minutes had been some of the fastest.

   The regrouped TSU-s fleet, having finished off the last of the stray IAFS forces in No-Man's land, descended without mercy upon the defence line. Kolme, having dropped to now stand atop the Fluchtig's hexagonal dome, was greeted to a front row seat – Within minutes two IAFS vessels had sunk and the rest were outright running.

   The weapon's control centre was ordered to evacuate, they would have to pick up the hundreds of stranded survivors in flight.

   Kolme watched the list of Nemos drop, from 70 to 60, and before 5 whole minutes had elapsed, all the way down to 47.

“Evacuate now! We'll pick you up as we pass over!” Nate issued to the Control Centre commander – The Fluchtig and its three remaining warship companions raced towards the centre – Which in turn began to launch little metal lifeboats.

   The night-sky was filled with thunderbolts all over as the 30 TSU-s ships rained hell down on the fleeing IAFS vessels – Stray blasts that missed their target, slammed into many of the lifeboats, eviscerating them in an instant.

CRUNCH

Another IAFS vessel buckled and sank, the Nemo count dropped to just 38.

   “Nate, now or never!” Kolme shouted.

There was a pause before Nate made the only move left to them; “Regen and Ordelia, abandon ship, full evacuation! All Vijaiks, rally to the Fluchtig!”
   The order was carried out with admirable speed, the two IAFS ships launching their own life-rafts and set themselves into a crash course.
   As the Fluchtig kept speeding ahead, the two now abandoned IAFS vessels scraped against each other, following close behind the Fluchtig, they became a final barrier.

At last the thunderstorm lessened and Kolme set about organising his remaining Nemo forces – The Fluchtig now alone.

“Evacuation -- ------- Leaving No ---- Com---der -ate, Its --- The Tradech!!”

   The words, mauled with interference had been spoken by the control centre commander – Neither Kolme or Nate could believe their ears.

“Tell them to hold position, we'll come to them!”
   Nate quickly issued back.

“S-- Captain Legr-- ---ts to fire --- Weapon.”

“What? Repeat?”

“Fire T--”

   An explosion went off just metres away from Kolme as an energy blast smashed into the last of the Fluchtig's long range radio-antenna – Kolme turned to its sources.

   Their temporary wall, made up of the two warships, was already falling – Under the concentrated fire of the enemy fleet, the now lifeless vessels smoked and bulged as blast after blast tried to force its way through to the Fluchtig.

Meanwhile beneath Kolme, the handful of lifeboats that had made it through were being accepted into the Fluchtig's open hanger bay.

“Sir last comms tower just went to crap – Route through my Neo.” Kolme said, still in contact with the bridge thanks to the physical cable between his machine and the Fluchtig.

“Charlie old boy do it, quick.” Nate agreed.

“Done Sir, we can speak with the Vijaiks and lifeboats again.”
   A nervous sounding Charlie quickly said back.

“What about the control centre!?”

“No sir, its too far away, too much interference...”

“Damn-it, we have to get word to the Tradech before they do something... naïve.”

“The base commander will surely tell them the situation right?”
   Kolme added.

“Maybe, or maybe after watching a half-dozen of his lifeboats get shot down, he might be looking for some last minute revenge.”

“Oh Sun above!”

“Kolme can a Nemo get through?” Nate asked but even as he did the swarms began to appear – Dozens of Vijaiks snaking their way around the impromptu IAFS shield and closing in on the Fluchtig, Kolme was forced to ignore Nate's request;

   “All units, follow my lead, concentrate your fire on one squad at a time!!” Kolme yelled to all remaining pilots.

   The Nemo squads, collectively spread out around and literally standing on the Fluchtig's decks, began their defence – Focusing their fire on one enemy machine after the other, cutting down legions of TSU-s mechs, and yet still more came.

'It's over' – The thought clawed at Kolme's mind – The Fluchtig was fast but not nearly fast enough to outrun a fleet this large – And the fact that TSU-s still had this much firepower, after so many hours of fighting – The site of their shield crumbling in real time, the numbers of Nemos dropping now to a paltry 23 – One lonely vessel against 30 – 'It's really over....'

And then, through the darkness, out of the waves of endless space, one final surprise reared its magnificent head – Three silhouettes passed over head, whizzing over the Fluchtig they careered into the enemy line and began to cut a path;
   “No way.....” Kolme uttered in disbelief.

IAFS had just 3 Casnels, all of which it had stolen from TSU-s, Kolme had been their to witness it.
   Now those three machines, heavily customised courtesy of Bailey-Mechanics, were single-handedly pushing back the TSU-s renewed line.
   The golden Casnel of Commander Ceathair, the blue & red Casnel of the Magi boy Davrim – And most brilliantly of all for those of the Fluchtig still watching – The simplest looking of the three, with a plain livery of navy blue and grey, yet dealing as much damage as its fellows – Lt.Commander Emilia Von Sheen – Leader of the Fluchtig mech-team, had arrived.