Logan's heart hammered in his ears as he bolted across the outpost, caring for nothing else but reaching Cameron. His feet pounded on the dusty asteroid floor, his arms pumping hard despite the weight of the A.I. canister clutched in his fist, screaming with a ferocity that cause the blood vessels in the back of his throat to burst and coating his mouth in a bloody, coppery aftertaste.

"Cameron!" He bellowed, sliding to a stop beside the Headsman's obliterated torso, feeling the warm combination of oil, transmission fluid, and blood beginning to seep into his pants. He peeked over the slabs of metal that made up the mech's chassis, getting his head over the mass just in time to see the billowing black fabric belonging to the mystery killer flit off into the distance.

'Attempted killer,' he told himself, believing, or, hoping rather that the kid was going to make it through, as long as head something to say about it.

With an adrenaline fueled grunt he mantled over the top of the Headsman, and positioned himself on the machine's upper back, frantically searching for the only glimmer of hope he could think of; The Primary Control Module Casing.

"Come on...Come on... Agh, where the hell is it!?" He shouted in frustration, before reaching up with one hand and tuning his headset to the frequency of the Fenris.

"Mayday mayday mayday!" He cried, "Aurora where the fuck are you?!"

"Logan?!" Aurora's voice came back, sounding shaky with worry, "What's going on?!"

"Where's the PCM Casing on the Headsman?!"

"The Headsman?" She repeated, her voice quickly rising in octave and hurry, matching Logans, "W-What's going on? Where's Cam-"

"Stop asking questions and just tell me where the fuck it is!" He barked back, feeling the chassis shift and compress underneath him, a grim reminder that Cameron had little time left before thousands of pounds of hardened steel turned his body into a thin bloody jelly as it compressed itself into storage mode while the kid was still threaded inside of it.

"B-Back of the skull!" She stuttered back, "B-Behind the hood. Nape of the neck."

Logan didn't respond. Instead, he launched himself forward, straddling the hollow steel tube that was the Headsman's neck, before reaching up gripping the coarse black canvas that formed the hood, concealing the bone white face-plate underneath. Tugging it down and revealing the matte metallic head, Logan eyes immediately fell up a textured iron handle, barely large enough for him to fit his hand through, and covering a circular slot marked '**PCM CASING**' in blocky black paint.

Another compressing shift caused him to tighten his already iron-clad grip on AEIA, and he steeled his resolve, coming to the silent understanding that whatever fallout came from what he was about to do would be worth it as long as Cameron survived.

"I sure hope this works..." he muttered to himself, before in one smooth motion, he yanked down hard on the handle, watching as air hissed out in a foggy pressurized cloud, along with the ejection of a canister the same length and width as AEIA's container. Thelma's container.

The canister shot out with a forceful ‘shunk’ and he caught it with his free hand, looking down to confirm the V.I. was truly gone. He got his answer by seeing the frayed and burnt out power coil, one time alight with a warm orange glow, struggling to even make one pathetic spark of life.

"Sorry Thelma," He said, placing it aside, before inserting the bright white star that was AEIA into the PCM casing.

"Please let this work," he prayed, slamming the lever up and fully seating the A.I. inside the casing. Instantly, the compressing shifts of the machine trying to enter storage mode ceased, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief as Cameron seemed to no longer be in danger of being crushed to death. Now all he had to do was wait to see what would happen next.

And wait he did. For what felt like an eternity, but was likely only a few seconds, he sat back on the Headsman's neck waiting for something, anything to happen.

Suddenly, a deep rumbling vibration threatened to shake Logan free from his perch atop the machine's neck. He slid down the side just in time for the Headsman to clamber at first to its knees, before rising to its full ten meters in height. It moved in a slow, robotic fashion, taking nearly a full minute to finish the process of a standing up, with calculated jerky movements that seemed to take an eternity to finish as opposed to the fluid and natural movements of pilot controlled craft. Once finished, a voice came from the built-in speakers, filling the tense silence of the outside world with the soft melodic tones of an ethereal feminine voice.

"**Armored Robotic Mechanized Skeleton installation processes complete... Scanning interior for potential defects... Scanning complete. Biological life-form detected in cockpit...**"

Logan held his breath, crossing his fingers as he waited for the voice to continue its startup processes.

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"**Breach detected in cockpit... Blood detected in cockpit... Initiating life support systems processes... Initiating breach containment processes... Unit has entered low-power mode. Awaiting ingress code for nearest docking bay...**"

Logan stood up, watching as steam began to billow out of the puncture holes made by Cameron's would-be murderer. Slowly, steel mesh that held the cockpit intact began to heat up, melting around the holes and sealing them from the effect of the outside world. He pondered for a moment of what this might do to the kid's wounds but figured it couldn't put him in worse shape than he already was, so with a solitary nod, he looked up, trying to meet the lifeless eyes of the resurrected Headsman.

"Headsman be advised," He said in as authoritative a voice he could muster, "Reorient and dock at the signal from Captain's Code 02A98T4... Acknowledge"

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed his order, save for the gentle clicks and beeps of an internal computer finding a long on the code channel. Finally, the robotic voice of the Headsman responded.

"Captain's Code accepted. Thank you, Mr. Rake. Reconvening to coordinates of projected code now."

Then, without any more fanfare, the massive pile of steel and blood turned and and dropped low, all the boosters on its lower back priming at once. With a gust of wind strong enough to take him off his feet, the mech rocketed away, moving in calculated, jerky arcs as it sought its new destination.

Logan watched with a sinking apprehension as the mech sped off into the distance, feeling his guts twist and knot as a feeling a dread began to seep into his very being. He swallowed dryly, feeling the harsh sting of his now raw throat as he made his way back to his Crusader, passing by a gaggle of EarthGov shock troops that watched his lone trek, offering nothing but silence and cold indifference. All save for the team leads, Sergeants Kremmel and Mendoza, who made their way over and flanked him on either side.

"Think he's going to pull through?" Kremmel mused, gazing towards the Crusader out in the distance.

"I don't know," Logan sighed, "I'm still not sure if it actually worked. I mean theoretically yes, a PCM swap can stop a shutdown sequence... but I've never heard of one being successful."

"About that," Mendoza chimed in, his callous, gravely tone causing Logan's ears to twitch, "The MO was to destroy or capture the AI, not utilize it. Certainly not for a Freespace pilot."

"Do you plan on trying to detain me?" Logan said, his tone matching that of the Sergeant.

"I didn't say that." Mendoza said.

"I figured you didn't," Logan shot back with a growl.

"I'm more concerned with what the hell that unit was that ambushed him," Kremmel said, trying to change the subject, "There's not many unit types that can utilize active camouflage."

"How do you know it was active?" Logan asked, turning to Kremmel as they neared the back of the Crusader, which was knelt down and resting on its tower shield. With thick slats of metal bisecting as the back of the cockpit opened for him.

Kremmel pulled a small handheld device from his pocket and began to tap away at the screen. After a few seconds he swung it back around longways to display a topographical map of the area, complete with grainy images of the outpost they were currently standing in.

"We were tracking Rail Engine signatures for the local area, trying to make sure we had an accurate figure to give you guys," He said, sliding his finger along the bottom of the screen where a timestamp was located right next to a media player. As his finger drew back on the player and, like a tape was being rewound, a series of bright red dots began to light up one by one, alongside two blue dots moving erratically through them.

"The two blues are synced to you and Cam's respectively, while the red is for all hostile signatures," He then slid the bar right to a few minutes prior, when Cameron had been attacked and, to Logan's surprise, saw only two blue dots. The one coming from Crusader's engine, and the one from the Headsman.

"Where's the enemy unit?" Logan asked, looking up at Kremmel with a raised eyebrow.

"That's the thing," Kremmel said, "It never showed up. Even when we were watching Cam get skewered... it never showed up,"

"So not only is it capable of hiding on a battlefield physically, but from all counterintelligence software as well?"

Kremmel merely shook his head, shrugging and offering a sympathetic look, "Look man, I'm not expert at this shit. I'm just telling you the info we have. At the end of the day I'm just a fancy grunt. I can do CQC and put people in the dirt, but A.R.M.S. units are out there for me. This is just my best guess."

Logan nodded, feeling like his mind was racing a mile a minute as he took in everything the Sergeant was telling him. What did this mean for him and the kid? Who was that mystery pilot? Most importantly; Why did this happen?

A sharp crackle came over the headset, breaking him from his thoughts, as Sybil's voice came over the line, sounding stressed and manic.

"Logan!" She cried, "Logan, by the stars come the fuck in!"

"One second," Logan said, holding up a finger to the soldiers as he stepped away and turned to give himself some privacy as he spoke.

"Yeah..." he said, "What is-"

"What the fuck is happening?!" She screamed, cutting him off, "Why is Aurora freaking out over a PCM casing? Why is Headsman coming back here but Crusader is still at the outpost? Why isn't Cameron responding to my calls? What the hell is going on?"

"Shit went sideways, Cam got hit, and I had to improvise," Logan said, sounding more hollow and jaded than he intended to.

"Logan what the fuck do you mean you had to improvise?" Sybil said, sounding like she was speaking through clenched teeth, "What did you do?!"

"What I had to," He said, feeling the veins in his temple pulse and pound in frustration, "All that's important right now is that we have a medical droid prepped and ready to go when that cockpit opens. I'm en route now."

"No," She scolded, "There's more than just Cameron being injured right now that we need to deal with, we need to-"

"He's not just injured you stupid fuck!" He bellowed, cutting her off, "He got hit by a goddamn EMP!"

Silence greeted him for the longest time, long enough for him to center his anger calm down. She was quiet for so long, that a part of him wanted to signal back and make sure she was still there, but she beat him to the punch.

"...That's not possible," she said, "Nearly all projectile or wave based weapon systems in the explosive, ballistic categories are deemed illegal based on the Standards of War act."

"First of all, that's bullshit and you know it," He retorted, "Weyland Industries specializes in ranged units and I know EarthGov has a squad of Gunslingers somewhere out there so you can drop that false narrative right now. Hell, we fought a group of Archers on Celephis AND here."

"I said NEARLY all, smartass," she shot back, "And EMPs are banned outright for being needlessly cruel. This is an execution level war crime. This shouldn't be possible."

"Well it fucking is," He said definitively, "I have the dead VI canister to prove it,"

"You're absolutely sure?" She asked, tentative in her desire to believe him.

"I'm not an idiot Sybil. I know what I saw. A wave of energy from a handheld A.R.M.S. weapon system passed through the Headsman. Shortly after, the thing went into its shutdown sequence... with the kid still inside."

"... Then this is a concerning predicament."

Turning to wave at the two soldiers before making his way up the ladder to climb into Crusader's cockpit, Logan had to fight the urge not to cackle at the absurdity of her remark as he felt a wave of fresh rage wash over him. In his mind, all he pictured was the satisfaction of hunting down whoever was stupid enough to do something like this and taking them apart, piece by bloody piece.

"There's nothing concerning about it, Sybil," He said, "And this isn't a predicament. This is war."