As the beam shoot across the battlefield, it vaporized a decent portion of the fleet in front of us. A few of the battleships and cruisers went down alone with countless fighters and mechs. The big game I managed to shoot down however was one of the dreadnaughts, which while a good thing was a little concerning.

"Damn Talia... What kind of weapon did you make?"

Reverting Ragnarok from the Luminus Magnum form, I charged forth straight into the fray. From behind me, the Asterism fired a barrage of missiles toward the enemy forces and a few platoons of fighters and Ghosts came rushing out of the hangar bays. The battle had officially begun.

"Soran do you read me?"

Satomi's voice? Already?

"Yeah Satomi, what's up?"

"The enemy has deployed cyberwarfare drones, they are scramblers. Don't let them get too close to the ship or our communication lines will be jammed."

"Roger that..."

As the enemy forces approached I tried to single out any potential scramblers nearby. They weren't fighters or Ghosts so their energy signatures should've been relatively weak. After having to shoot down a couple of soldiers I searched the battlefield for the targets. Detaching the cloth bits once more I sent them to shoot down any enemy that came close.

"Come on don't make me look for you."

"Enemy scrambler detected," chimed the A.I.

Firing a beam from the Lumis rifle I managed to shoot it down. But now my intentions were revealed and the enemy began to switch up their targets. Now it was time to get creative.

A warning signal blared in my ear as an approaching beam was streaking across space toward me. Calling the cloth bits back they reattached to the Lumis unit and an Ether barrier deflected the beam fire. Detaching once more they swarmed enemy combatants blowing them all away with beams. Another Ghost charged me from the right side pushing me back toward the defensive line. The beam sword at my hip swiveled upward, I locked the Lumis rifle in the holster on the new skirt armor and activated the sword stabbing straight through the enemy machine. Once it was disabled I converted the new left arm into a beam blade form.

The rest of the Lance unit should be on their way shortly so it was best to thin out the numbers among the horde of enemies in front of me. Although they were probably better pilots than I am, they certainly wouldn't be able to handle these crazy numbers for long. So like Mobile Weapon Chungdai's star antagonist Sharla "The Crimson Meteor" Amissa I had to go six times the speed.

Pushing the thrusters as much as I could I shoot off towards the larger vessels of the enemy fleet armed with both beam sword and arm blade. The force of speed I was going slammed me against my seat. Having the cloth bits detach once more I'd send them after the scramblers. Meanwhile, I'd aim for every enemy bridge as I could. I'd only have eight minutes before the Ether Core's energy would reach critical levels. Eight minutes of pure hell for the enemy.

"Alright Exalted Ones... Bow down before me!"

Zipping through the battlefield, each large vessel I'd encounter I'd get as close to the bridge as I could and cleave right through it. But that wasn't enough, I couldn't just destroy the bridge I had to completely disable some of the ships. Switching the arm blade to the arm cannon mode if there was a bridge I couldn't get around to I'd fire straight at the ship's thrusters. The enemy was having difficulty keeping up with me and even managed to blow away some of their forces by accident.

By the time I realized it, about six minutes passed. I was nearing the limit and I was going to have to duck out fast.

"Come on you slackers, Crimson Lance is out there fighting!" shouted one of the Nova Astra fighters over the com.

"The Commander is kicking ass! We can't let him have all the fun!"

While I'm glad they were pumped up for the fight it was dangerous to go charging in as I did. Turning to return to the mission point a warning signal blared once again. This time an enemy unit had been approaching me. Turning around to take a swipe at it, the machine ducked to the left out of the way.

"Oh no little boy," said a voice over the com. "You're being very naughty."

It was Laufey, but the machine I was fighting against hadn't looked like her Animus. Unless it was something else entirely. An identical machine came from the left with a beam tomahawk trying to cleave off my right arm. Using the thrusters to back away I fired two beams from the arm cannon but both missed.

These Ghosts were Mummies. They were remote-controlled units and they were very dangerous in the wrong hands. If Laufey had Mummies under her control then things were going to get worse for the Shield unit quickly.

Two more of them started surrounding me and I'd been caught without the cloth bits. They wouldn't get back in time. I'd have to fight my way out of this using brute force alone. Aiming the Lumis rifle at the one in front of me I nearly squeezed the trigger until a crimson beam rained down upon it.

"Crimson Leader, it appears you've strayed too far from the pack."

The Rudra came down from above along with Tomoe and Haumea's machine.

"Its name is Pele... You'd do well to show respect."

Really? Now of all times. I'd forgotten she could read my subconscious thoughts. But enough of that. The mummies were going to be our top priority.

"Lance Unit... Your orders are to shoot down all the Mummies on the battlefield. Don't let a single one breach the defensive line."

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"Roger!" They responded.

Each of them blasted off cutting down the Mummies present around us. Edwin blasted away with the cannons in Rudras shoulders. Although he seemed to be shooting indiscriminately he fired only in the direction that a Mummy would be in and away from the Asterism. On the opposite end, Seraph was going all out in close-quarters combat. Using the katana Tomoe was equipped with, she cleaved and hacked through enemies like they were butter.

"Come on Soran, enough goofin' around," groaned Haumea. "Call back those remote weapons and let's take them all out."

Recalling the cloth bits, Haumea and I worked together to defeat some more of the enemy forces. Our remote weaponry allowed us to hit multiple enemies together at once. It was like any move I made she was able to follow up with me perfectly. Whenever I fired the Lumis rifle an enemy would try and take advantage of the opening.

For the first few moments of the battle, it looked as though we had things under control. Yet the number of Mummies we were shooting down kept increasing. There appeared to be no end to them.

"Haumea! How many of these things are there?"

"If this is Laufey we're talking about there could be no end to these things. Plus that nasty skank probably has something up her sleeve."

Those were some choice words to be used to describe a former comrade. But as my Dad always said, "The more powerful the words the more prevalent they'll be."

"Hey Satomi, can you pinpoint the location where those Mummies are coming from?" I asked while shooting down another one.

"Roger, I'm going to remotely interface with Ragnarok to try and seize a location," Satomi stated. "Do me a favor, I'll need you to grab one of them."

Honestly, that was going to be too hard. Picking one among the crowd I charged it and activated the arm's claw mode. Punching straight through its chest cavity I held its core without causing much damage to it. Now I'd just needed some cover fire from Haumea.

Some minutes would pass before I heard from Satmomi again and by that time Edwin and Seraph regrouped with us.

"Sorry," Satomi finally said. "The encryption used throughout this machine's network is strange. There's no information here, just echoes of data."

"Wait a minute," said Haumea seeming to think of something. Then she turned aiming her gun straight at the Mummy I'd caught. Firing two rounds into its head it began to swell up. Ripping the left arm out I backed away as far as I could before the enemy machine exploded.

"The hell was that for!? I shouted, "Satomi could've found something!"

"No! She was right to do that Soran," said Satomi

"That one wasn't real... Laufey's power is at work here. Stay sharp we're probably going to get hit hard."

Then a few of the Mummies began to encircle us yet these were different from the others. They had arm blades and weird orbs on their backs. The orbs detached from their backs and a strange blue light flashed from them encircling us in a field of energy.

Suddenly the controls locked up and the main monitor went black. I tried pushing on the pedals to engage the boosters but nothing responded. "The hell was that!" I shouted, but I got no response.

"Oh no an inhibitor," I gasped. This must've been that nasty trick Laufey had planned. On the bright side, the main camera came back online, yet I still couldn't control Ragnarok properly.

"Too bad little boy, you put up a good fight though," Laufey said over the com.

One of the new Mummies charged at me aiming its arm blade straight for Ragnarok's chest. I tried reaching for the Lumis Rifle only for Ragnarok's hand to struggle to even follow the neural inputs.

"You won't get the chance!" Satomi bellowed.

One of the other new units suddenly convulsed and then aimed its weapon at the approaching enemy. Dumping as much beam fire as it could onto the enemy the opposing Mummie exploded. Then it turned on its comrades firing at the inhibitors including its own. The field dissipated and I started to regain control of Ragnarok.

Grabbing the Lumis rifle I sent the Cloth bits to protect the others from the hail of beam fire that came down on us after the trap failed.

"I am the herald of the forbidden wisdom. Guiding all to the knowledge they seek. As the High Priestess, no secret will remain as such."

"Anima Engage: Benzaiten"

In that instant, my vision blurred for just a moment. Looking around it felt like I'd been in so many different places at once. When I looked to my right I couldn't believe what I'd been seeing.

" Satomi? How'd you get in here?"

I said that but she looked completely different than before. She'd been wearing a black skin-tight bodysuit that was outlined with blue markings much like a circuit board. Over her head was a large visor helmet that seemed to be entirely made of glass or similar material, with her horns jutting out of each side. Her long hair was tied up more traditionally much like the noblewomen from her planet, in different elaborate buns with clips holding them together.

She held out her hand and an instrument materialized in it. It seemed like a very elaboratly designed lute and as Satomi held it she looked toward me. The visor displayed two neon blue eyes and a digital smile.

"I'm not actually in here," she said, her voice sounding highly synthesized much like an A.I. "Since I've linked my mind with yours first you can see me this way. I will be tuning my mind to link with the others. We will begin to quickly dispatch all of the Mummies in the area."

"How in the world are we going to do that?" I asked, "Their number seems to be infinite."

The visor displayed a cheeky smile with her closing an eye for a wink. "Just close your eyes and leave everything to me."

I felt a little uneasy about all of this, but the more time I wasted worrying the more danger we'd put the planet in. So closing my eyes I allowed Satomi to do whatever she was going to.

At first, I thought I'd see nothing but pitch-black darkness. But instead, I was greeted by the interior of the cyberwarfare suite back on the Asterism. In front of me, there was a display of allied and enemy signals buzzing about like little bees. Then I began to hear a strange but soothing melody play in my ears. It blocked out the sounds of panicking soldiers like they were nothing but background noise.

"You can't hide from me anymore Laufey," Satomi said as some of the enemy signals started lighting up yellow. The allied signals suddenly rushed and encircled them and as an enemy signal became surrounded it disappeared. One after the other each yellow signal would vanish after getting swarmed by four blue dots. There seemed to be a pattern heading to one of the larger triangles.

"Alright, I've pinpointed the ship where the Mummies are coming from," said Satomi. "When you open your eyes just squeeze the trigger for me."

By the way, everything was going on my eyes had already been open. But the darkness came again and so I tried to open my eyes. I was back in Ragnarok with the Luminous Magnum already primed and ready to fire. The target was a large crusier with Mummies and other Ghosts pouring out like bees coming out of a hive. I squeezed the trigger more out of a knee-jerk reaction than anything else. The beam punched right through the ship's hull and a chain of explosions followed in and around the ship.

Looking around the others from the Lance unit were also blasting away at the ship.

"What a rush," Edwin laughed over the coms. "It's been far too long since I was possessed by someone."

"Ugh... I'm gonna hurl," Seraph groaned.

"My bad," Satomi apologized. "I normally only link minds with people, completely diving into a mind via possession... is a little jarring... even for me."

As she explained she seemed to become somewhat drowsy. Mindjacking four people at once must've been a tiring endeavor. But it was worth it because we'd gotten rid of Laufey's Mummies.

The fight was far from over and we still had a long way to go before the ambush fleet arrived.

"Alright... Lance unit return to Tower Shield. We need to resupply quickly so we can get out of here."

"Roger," they all replied. Turning toward the Asterism we all flew toward it blasting or cutting down anyone who got in our way. The next wave of enemies was going to be tougher than the last. So since our little sister was going to fight she might as well debut with a bang.