I'd always gone to space on a ship or a small shuttle. But never in a machine like a Ghost. I didn't have to use my thrusters as much since being propelled forward in space only needed small bursts. As I was now, I could travel in the same direction forever, that is until I hit something. Alice and the others joined up with me flying in a diamond formation. Our flight path put us on course with the service duct on the other side of the moon. It would've been well guarded if Auntie Izabella were still in control of things. Then in the next hour, our flagship would be dropping the motherload of an ordinance on top of Necron Arcadia. A private communication line opened between the four of us as we approached our destination.

"Commander... are you alright?" Alice asked as her machine inched a little closer to mine. "You haven't said a word since we launched."

"It's nothing. I'm just wracked with nervous thoughts is all..."

"Naturally, he'd be a bit wound up right now Lady Alice," said Seraph. "This will likely be his second real battle to date."

While she was right about that, Seraph had to know it was probably more to it. But she gave me a great opening to take my mind off of the impending battle by pulling up next to me. Her machine had this sort of samurai look to it and the two hunks of metal shaped like swords on the machine's hips certainly gave away what kind of unit it was.

"So Seraph... What's your machine's name? I don't ever think I caught it while we were working."

"I'm humbled my esteemed little brother and Lord would take such interest in such a brutish machine... Its name is Tomoe. It was named after a dear friend I met on Earth."

"You two have been to Earth?" Clarke asked seeming astonished by the revelation.

"That's correct," Alice answered. "While it was a small period in our lives we did manage to learn a bit about humans while we were there. I believe it was during the late Heian period in a land called Japan."

"That nation no longer exists on Earth," I explained. "It's the Susumu Empire now."

"A sad truth but yes," Seraph admitted. "Sensei Tomoe refined my bewildering strength so that I may better serve Lady Alice. For that, I immortalized her by reconstructing my Animus into its current form."

Thinking of their story it honestly baffled me how they could've just randomly found Earth in the billions of planets in the galaxy. Then again the same could've been said about me landing on Prometheus all those years ago. With Seraph and Alice and even the Arcana order. It made me wonder how many more of us survived the War of Sorrow.

During the rest of the ride, I took the time to go over Ragnarok's weapon systems. Currently, the machine only had three armaments as the rest seemed to be not currently equipped. The first and most important of them had been the larger left arm. It could separate from the machine to act as an option weapon. There was a beam cannon installed in the palm as well as an adjustable emitter for wide-range attacks and a more focused beam fire. Next was the tail unit that stored a beam sword that could also function as a beam rifle. Then lastly were the head and arm Vulcan guns to serve as emergency weapons.

It was pretty clear I'd have to learn to use this machine a lot more as I went. Overall its base design was more of my style than the Bahamut's loadout. There was one more setting I saw within the machine's specs that I'd noticed. It seemed to be some kind of limiter of some sort. But before I could interact with it at all another communication line opened, this time from the Asterism.

"Dear Cousin... This is the Asterism reporting in," said Minerva. "We are nearing the objective. As soon as we open fire you are clear to enter the prison."

"I read you, Minerva. We'll move on your mark."

The line closed and we began to move closer to our objective. The moon in the skies I'd seen from my dorm was now floating right in front of me. The fact I couldn't be here on a tour made the sight all the more painful to see.

Reaching our destination, we discovered the service duct was being guarded by a few prisoners, soldiers of unknown origin, and some Ghosts. One of the soldiers appeared to be a Tau male, pretty rare to see outside of their homeworld. Seeing him reminded me of Talia, who'd been the opposite of what an average Tau female looked like. He seemed to be giving orders to the soldiers as well as the prisoners, though it didn't seem to be working out for them.

Alice began her work by giving us access to their communication line. We needed to know precisely when the Asterism attacked, we'd know as soon as their leader would panic.

"Listen you lot, we're guarding this service duct as per Lord Lucian's orders," said their Leader. "This is an easy job compared to the others will probably have to go through topside."

"Yeah but that's where all the fun will be," growled a Human prisoner, and an ugly one at that. "Those Prime Council windbags will definitely send their forces to storm the gates. When they do I'm gonna take my time picking off their tin soldiers."

Boy, if he knew what he was in for he wouldn't be saying that.

"Look, I'm sure you'll get your action. But being bloodthirsty criminals won't get you-" He stopped, placing his index and middle fingers on his ear. "What? A Ship broke through our surveillance and dropped bombs on us!'

Thank Arcadia that this wait wouldn't take so long.

"Alright you depraved freak, you just might get your wish. Ghost team, take the Prisoners and head to the main gates to support HQ. An Unknown ship has just attacked us and brought an army with it."

The prisoners started to get riled up, arming themselves with various weapons of the point-and-shoot variety. "Alright, boys let's go skin some tin soldiers! Maybe we'll find some sweet dames to play with!"

Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to wipe them out all here. But I just knew someone would take even greater pleasure taking them out than I would. The Prisoners climbed aboard a nearby jeep and began speeding down the lunar path with the Ghosts following them. As they did I sent what they said straight to Andrew along with a photo of their vehicle. A nice apology gift for a guy like him.

"We'll have to go down to Captain Fareed for this," said the Tau leader. "Everyone on me, we're moving out." The Soldiers gathered around him as he opened the service duct. He stopped two of them before they left. "You two guard the entrance. Report anything that happens, even if the wind starts to blow."

It was weird how competent this guy was. If Lucian's entire army was made up of this guy, I could doubt we'd win. What was even more frightening was how Lucian was able to amass an army made up of our people without us even knowing. For now, these terrifying thoughts were going to have to be shelved as two people needed to go down. Luckily the service duct seemed big enough for at least one Eidolon to go down. One was all we needed.

"Alright... Alice... Seraph, disembark from your Eidolons. We'll call them when needed. Let's take these two goons out so we can proceed." Powering down Ragnarok I took its transponder just in case things got hairy. As the cockpit doors opened I drew my pistol and proceeded out and down toward the cliffside. Both Seraph and Andrew joined me and both were armed. Though it was weird that Seraph had an Incursion rifle with her.

"The frack are you doing with that thing?"

"Oh, this? It's a big gun... I haven't fired a big gun in a while."

"A pistol would've sufficed. An ion rifle is a bit overkill."

"Guys be quiet," Alice commanded. "Let's just take these two out so we can proceed."

"Right... How are we supposed to take them out from here without causing a scene?"

Stolen novel; please report.

"Ugh... Let me think... We definitely can't shoot them from here with our blasters, nor can we use Seraph's ion rifle. Our powers are also out of the picture."

"Maybe not," Clarke chimed in over the line. "Even though I'm going against everything when I suggest this. Perhaps you could make a weapon that will solve our issues. I could project a barrier that will obscure their vision."

It wasn't a bad idea but how could anyway of us craft such a weapon? We'd probably needed a pair of silenced sniper rifles.

"An easy feat for me," Seraph boasted. "Whenever you're ready Sir Clarke."

Clarke's machine held both of its arms in front of it and green energy began to disperse from them. From what we could see we were being shrouded in a green mist. Checking over the cliff, the two soldiers were still on the lookout, but it seemed neither of them saw a thing."

"Wow, Clarke. When did you learn to do that?"

"I used this against Andrew's Avalon to catch him by surprise during one of our training sessions. I didn't think I could project my powers through Doss like this. Go ahead with making the weapons."

Placing the incursion rifle down, Seraph held up her hands. A ghoulish-looking red light began to materialize until it formed into a long rifle with a scope attached to the top.

"Is this your Astra?" I asked, given that I've only seen Astra's materialize that way.

"No Lord Soran. As one who holds the Marker of Strength, I am a paragon of war. Creating weapons is a part of my power." She handed the rifle to Alice and as the latter took the weapon she positioned herself to fire at one of the soldiers. Seeing that Seraph was preparing to make another I held my hand up stopping her.

"Is there something wrong? She asked as the energy disappeared into the darkness.

"N-No," I said. "I want to try something." I held my firearm to my prosthetic hand and began to set it ablaze with white flames. Seraph's eyes lit up in shock at my actions but she tried her best to remain silent. After all, Clarke's barrier didn't conceal our sounds. The firearm however didn't heat up at all. Instead, it became engulfed by the flame and I began pulling on the barrel until it'd grown the length of the rifle Seraph made. Then all I did was imagine the process and sure enough, I was able to make the same rifle.

"Nice... I didn't think you'd pick that up on a first try."

"I didn't either."

Joining Alice on the cliffside we both aimed our weapons carefully at the soldiers. I wasn't one to normally fire a rifle like this but there was a first for everything. "Alright, Soran... You'll need to fire within the same time I do," instructed Alice. "I'll count down. As the count finishes, hold your breath and squeeze the trigger."

"3... 2... 1..."

Taking in a deep breath I aimed very carefully and squeezed the trigger. Both soldiers toppled over within a second of each other and their bodies began to float in the coldness of space. More blood I'd have to dirty my hands with. But now our path was clear and we could move forward. The three of us jumped up toward the Doss and as Clarke caught us he started making his way down toward the service duct. As we passed through the barrier our Eidolons disappeared behind it.

Using my flames I'd transmuted the rifle back into a pistol. It was a bit better to use anyway. Plus we didn't know what situations we'd get into within the duct so it was better if we used small arms. Opening the duct we descended slowly, the door closing behind us to take off our helmets. A duct this size probably allowed for cargo ships to descend and transport goods. The worst part was that there seemed to be only one way out, back upward. A fortified maximum security prison with only two exits and both of them would've normally been guarded at all times.

"Alright, Alice... Where are we headed now."

Alice took out a small projector from her pocket and activated it. The hologram showed a diagram of the duct's network to the center of the prison. There were some twists and turns but it only led to one place.

"According to Claudia, there's something within the deepest part of the prison that Lucian is looking for," Alice explained. "It's only shown up on two of Warden Serebryakov's reports in the prison's entire history. It's known as Subject 13."

"Subject 13... 13... Why is that number ringing a bell in my head..."

"In any case, it can't be good. Hopefully, we can stop Lucian in his tracks here."

Several minutes would pass until we reached the first layer of the duct. As we landed we found there was only one tunnel between us and the rest of the prison. We would've been able to proceed had it not been for the sudden appearance of several armed guards from underneath cloaking along with two Revenant-type Ghosts.

"Well... Well... Well... Look what we have here boys," spoke a rather large Promethean man clad in tactical gear. The Tau guy was behind him seeming annoyed by something.

"My intel was right on the money. I knew they were going to sneak some soldiers through the duct."

"Tch... That was my intuition you rotten creep," scoffed the Tau.

"Shut your mouth Xain... All that matters is that we kill these guys for Lord Lucian's sake."

"Ah frack," I panicked. "There's way too many of them for us to take on without alerting the entire base."

Seraph stood to her feet and knocked on one of Doss's fingers. Clarke lowered us down allowing Seraph to hop to the floor. "Don't worry so much Lord Soran... I'll clear this path for you."

As she walked out toward the crowd and dropped her incursion rifle. Cracking her knuckles she began to look around at her opponents. She held up her hands and began to amass power all around her. A swirling vortex of that red energy from earlier began to surround her.

"Oh ho? Are you going to perform a magic trick before ya die... Look boys we're gonna get a free show." The other soldiers and their leader started laughing as Seraph gathered more energy. The Tau, or Xain rather, looked horrified at the sight of Seraph.

"What's Seraph doing she's gonna get herself killed," I worried. Though Alice didn't seem worried at all.

"This is something you and Clarke should behold," she suggested. "You're about to witness the true power of an Arcadian."

"Uh... Boss... A thought occurred," spoke Xain. "Lord Lucian told us to be wary of a single warrior with long white hair and red eyes. If we see her we aren't to engage in combat."

The Promethean slapped Xain on the back. "Knock off that cowardice will ya? Those spineless morons on that Eidolon just sent a woman to fight us. We have them completely surrounded and they'll be dead when I give the order."

Honestly, these guys should've listened. The amount of energy she'd been drawing from herself seemed bottomless. Then suddenly two red horns sprouted from Seraph's head. She took a deep breath and looked straight at our enemy. Her next words oozed power much like a chant as the energy became markings all over her body.

"I am the Paragon of War... I sit upon the pinnacle of all... I am Strength..."

Her skin began to turn a dark blue hue while her suit began to disappear transforming into ceremonial armor. The second pair of arms sprouted from her back and she'd created two weapons. The first being a trident and the second a crescent-shaped sword.

"Anima Engage: Mahakali. Now then... Allow me to demonstrate my Kathakali of Battle."

The enemy soldiers began to open fire on Seraph. Clarke quickly deployed a barrier so we wouldn't be hit by any stray bullets or beam fire. Once we were safe, Seraph began to move but not in a way I'd expected. She started dancing, her moves were weirdly graceful for one considered a great warrior. As she spun around with her weapons in hand, the trident disappeared being replaced by a long bow, more likely a yumi. Conjuring three arrows she twirled around and stopped on a dime, firing the arrows into the crowd of soldiers. As they found their marks inside three different soldiers she began to dance toward them changing weapons again, now holding four of the swords. As each arm swung its blades they began to cleave at least one soldier in two. Some of the soldiers took out beam sabers or knives to try and combat Seraph's erratic movements. But every time they'd try and take a swing at her she'd just moved through their attacks while maintaining her dance. Each dodge would have a swift retaliation following it.

One after one the bodies of the soldiers would drop to the floor. Not a single movement of hers felt wasted. Every action and every reaction was deliberate.

"Ugh... You fools in the Revenants, shoot her already!" the Promethean leader commanded.

The two revenants aimed their weapons at Seraph. I tried to jump out and cover her but Alice yanked me back. "No Soran, you don't want to get in the way of Seraph's dance."

After dispatching another soldier, the Revenants finally caught Seraph's attention. She dismissed her weapons and prepared herself for the oncoming attack. The revenants fired, spraying bullets right in Seraph's direction. She jumped backward landing on her hands and then alternating between them and her feet. She'd resorted to cartwheeling away from the bullets until she was backed up against Clarke's barrier. She then leaped into the air and created the trident once more. using her left pair of hands she reared the trident back and threw it with such force it imitated a bullet. As the trident pierced through the Revenant's armor it flew off of its feet and slammed against the wall.

"Damn you," the other pilot swore, he abandoned his rifle and charged the now-falling Seraph. She conjured her bow once more aiming it carefully at the approaching Eidolon. The arrow tip became engulfed in flame as she pulled it back. Releasing the Arrow just before the Revenant could take a swing at her the arrow transformed into a flaming comet hitting the machine directly through the chest causing it to lose its footing as it toppled to the ground, sliding against it and creating a deafening screech.

Seraph landed perfectly in front of the wreckage and began making her way toward the commander. He started to panic as now there was no one between him and the rampaging Seraph. Taking out his gun he began to fire to no avail. As she dashed toward him she danced in between his bullets until finally, she was upon him. Conjuring one more sword she swung it from right to left. The blade had cleanly lopped off the commander's head and as his body dropped to the floor she snatched the head out of the air and held it up. On her second left hand, she conjured a small bowl where blue blood would drip into it.

"Congratulations little man..." she snarled as she bowed to Xain. "For having some common sense you get to survive..."

"Lovely... I'm going to go ahead and surrender," said Xain. "This place is full of morons anyways." He held his hands up and knelt. "Whoever you guys are, I'm willing to defect."

Clarke lowered his barrier and approached the two allowing me to get down onto the floor. Approaching Xain I holstered my gun to show I wasn't going to harm him. "I'm Commander Xenthos, Nova Astra. We accept your surrender and hope you'll be willing to cooperate with us."

"Xain Harkness... Thanks for not chopping me up."