A new order from Fort came as soon as dawn breaks. The telves have set up a Thorns position far northwest of the ridge. They can threaten friendly forces at and around Patih Tread with their indirect fire function. Command wants them to strike while they are still inactive due to Sir Edward’s intervention. It should be a quick task for Caitlyn’s group. She just has to make her way there, destroy the Thorns, and get out before the telves notice.

Caitlyn now has to manage four platoons of vehicles, almost the size of an armor battalion. One of which is hers that consist of PT and Radiant Winter. The others are two platoons of Convexes, and a platoon of Crescents. The unit has to advance into telve’s air defense range, hence there will be no close air support. Artillery is her only option.

The radar still doesn’t show anything. Caitlyn observes the env-screens over and over. Nothing of interest is visible yet. She looks to her left, to the maid that is supposed to be dead. She saw her put up a show for the weary soldiers last night. It feels odd having her on the driver seat again. Genesis’ attention constantly jumps between the four env-screens. And she is doing it with her usual thoroughness. It’s still hard for her to not imagine a ghost on the wheel, though it is still the same Genesis that she met two days ago.

Eventually the maid catches her eyes. “Yes, Caitlyn?” She asks, her attention remains on the first-quadrant env-screen.

“There was a big hole on your stomach yesterday.” Caitlyn says.

Genesis places her right hand on where the hole was. Her sight follows but she keeps returning them to the screens. “Well there isn’t now, is there?” The maid leisurely replies.

“You were dead.” Caitlyn leans closer.

“Did I…kill anyone?” Genesis glances at her briefly.

“What do you mean?”

Genesis shrugs. “Never mind.”

Caitlyn looks down at the sidearm mags that she is carrying. She wants to test something out. She slowly reaches for it with her right hand as to not draw the maid’s attention. She then puts her hands on her lap, preparing to execute the test. In a split second, Caitlyn reaches for Genesis’ shield projector, her brooch, and deactivates it. She then thrusts the clip that she is carrying to the right side of her stomach; the thud fills the cabin.

“Ah!” Genesis yelps. The maid places her right hand on her part that’s hit and rubs it. “What was that for?”

Caitlyn returns the clip. “Just testing out. You’re alive.”

Genesis reactivates her shield projector. “Was it really necessary?”

“I’m curious.”

Genesis sighs. “Relatable.”

Perhaps it should be as a daughter of The Primus’ scholar. How does it feel to be one though? Caitlyn starts getting herself intrigued with the thought. Since she is an Android, is it possible that her father used her as a subject to fill his curiosity? Not in a bad way like testing viruses, core overcharge, or live hardware alterations that result in immense pain. But small things such as massage therapy on Androids maybe, or the thing that Caitlyn just did.

“Stay focus, Caitlyn. Don’t forget.” Alezia says through her utilizer in her usual friendly tone.

“Y-yes, Alezia. You got it.”

She has been doing it ever since they began the advance. She reminds her that she is now under her command. And because of it, Caitlyn is forced to stay alert. Caitlyn has to do better because now the life of her friend is at risk. It’s more of a demand from her own conscience.

The column deploys into a line. The Crescents carry no infantry. It’s meant to be a quick sweep operation. Infantry are not needed. In fact, they’ll only slow down the advance. The amount of armor involved should be enough to support each other to take down the Thorns. Therefore, Command ordered them to rest. They arrange themselves along a tree-line. PT and Radiant Winter are in the middle, flanked on both sides by the Convex platoons. The Crescents are deployed with a larger spacing in front of them.

They proceed into an open plain again. The sun isn’t up yet. The sky still dons a dark hue. But visibility is growing. The Thorns’ nest should be close. Caitlyn hopes that she can still surprise them.

“Target, Thorn! Straight ahead!” Alezia yells.

A round already flies to their direction the moment she yelled. It pierces the Crescent closest to Caitlyn and rips it inside out.

Caitlyn squints her eyes at the first quadrant env-screen. The tank sits on an elevated mound flanked by trees. Caitlyn can only see its turret. The distance is about five kilometers away, outside of Chord’s effective range.

“Move!” Caitlyn says. “To the right! To the right! Get out of its line of fire!”

All the vehicles immediately change course. The Convexes, being the one with the quickest hull rotation, easily readjust and goes ahead. The left platoon screens PT and Radiant Winter. The Thorn fires a two-shot salvo as they proceed. A Convex on Caitlyn’s left is hit. It crashes to the ground before blowing up. The other round lands close to Radiant Winter. Damage seems negligible.

As they scurry for cover, Caitlyn notices two dots in the sky flying toward them. Enemy aircrafts. Caitlyn braces herself as they dive.

They unleash four heat-seeking missiles in total. Each finds its target. Two Convexes and two Crescents are decimated. They follow it up with a salvo of eight unguided rockets that bombards Caitlyn’s group. The rockets shake the ground harshly. Combustion fires bloom as large as a Chord. Geysers of dirt reach to the sky in their wake. The blasts are deafening. The cabin alleviates the tremor but Caitlyn can still feel it. The bombardment destroyed the last Crescent and all of the Convexes on the left. As they got out of the Thorn’s line of fire, there’s only two Chord and two Convexes left.

“Not good.” PT comments.

“Caitlyn? Caitlyn? Are you still there?” Alezia calls her.

Her voice is still calm, but she uttered them so quickly that it sounds as panic to Caitlyn’s ears.

“I’m thinking!”

Just as she said that, two earthshaking shells land far behind them. Caitlyn expected that. She can’t linger in the cover for a long time. That Thorn will eventually be lucky and wipe the rest of them. Her nerve is piling up. She can try pulling back. But the Thorn will surely fire at her first as soon as she emerges from cover.

“Caitlyn, we need to pull back.” Alezia says.

“KT?” PT says, the interface shows a questioning face.

Caitlyn glances to the left. The maid is also looking at her.

“Caitlyn?” She asks.

Genesis looks concerned. She did well in not showing it. Of course, she does. She’ll be back to life again if she dies.

Caitlyn takes a deep breath. She looks down as she calms herself. Another team under her command is lost, again. She knew it’s going to happen. She has once more inflicted humiliation on her unit. All this time, she had left her platoons to die thinking that a senior NCO like her is more valuable. Command said so and she was again merely following their words. In retrospect, her status as a senior NCO is questionable. Poor performance and a lack of achievement convince her that she shouldn’t be one. She was here because she has to fill the vacant roles, not because she is fit for it.

But she can’t live like that anymore. It will not take her anywhere. She’ll just remain pathetic as ever. She is sick of it. This time, she’ll prove that she is worth something. This time, she’ll no longer run. She’ll stand her ground and fight. And she will live to see herself prevail.

Caitlyn raises a glare toward the Thorn through the first quadrant env-screen. Her left hand moves on its own, opening the casing beside her. The safeties are off.

“Hot damn…” PT comments.

“Alezia, safeties off.” Caitlyn says. “We’re taking it down.”

There’s a brief silence on her side. “Order is an order. Safeties off!”

Another two shell salvo lands short of them, hitting the mound they’re hiding behind.

“Captain Kiraly, bring down the arty. Spare one or two to creep smoke.”

“Awaiting coordinates.” Kiraly responds.

Caitlyn transmits the grid-coordinate of the Thorn and her position. “Fire immediately.”

“Shells inbound.”

“Are we just going to shoot at it until it dies?” Alezia asks.

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Caitlyn squints at the direction of the Thorn. “I’m not sure if it’s going to work. But I have a plan. We first have to get close.” Caitlyn gulps. “And I mean really close. About a hundred meters or less.”

“C-copy.” Alezia responds. But there was a delay to that. She is hesitant to do it. Who doesn’t? Even Caitlyn doesn’t want to be within a click of that thing. But it’s the only way for them to win the fight. “What’s next then?”

“Be prepared for my fire order.”

“Understood.”

The Thorn fires again. The shot lands close behind them. They don’t deal any damage, but the shock still rocks the cabin. She then hears distant artillery shots finding their target. The grounds are pulverized, gray smoke engulf the Thorn. She can see it happening from her position. Caitlyn believes that the Thorn is designed to weather artillery fire. They don’t have the mobility to avoid them hence Caitlyn assumes so. And it’s probably the reason Command doesn’t rely on artilleries to take them down. The damage they deal will be minimal. But they should be enough to suppress them.

As the shelling goes, another shell lands in her proximity. White smoke pops like the air surging out of an overblown balloon. Three more shells land and pop smoke.

“Forward! Go! Go! Go!” Caitlyn orders.

“Nice knowing you guys!” Genesis says as she shifts the gear and stomp on the pedal.

“Scientia!” PT cries.

“Victrix! Victrix! Victrix!” They all cries in unison as they surge forward. They flood the communication channel with their jarring voice, making sure that they pour it out as much as possible. Because they know it’s probably going to be their last. Should death come to pick them up, they shall be deafened with yells of unrelenting courage.

The Convexes are still more agile than a Chord even with safeties off. They take the lead, screening PT and Radiant Winter. Caitlyn orders them to open fire. They do so in short bursts as they traverse through the smoke. It won’t do any damage against the Thorn. She hopes the constant hail of 30mm rounds and the friendly shelling would mess with their gunner’s focus.

Two shells fly past them, hitting nothing but the ground. The creeping smoke covers their advance through open fields. But they begin to lag.

“We’re running out of smoke!” Alezia says.

“Should we slow down?” Genesis asks.

“No, no! Keep going! Keep going!” Caitlyn gestures. “Captain, aim smoke at the Thorn!”

“Readjusting.” Kiraly responds.

They eventually clear out of the smoke screen. The Thorn is only a kilometer away. Caitlyn orders the Convexes to unleash all their anti-tank guided missiles, eight in total. They reach to the sky before diving like a swarm of killer flies who have their prey in sight. Only four hits, the tank rocks as they crash into it. It damages the armor but no penetration occurs. The rest misses and hits the ground. The Thorn returns fire with its two-shot salvo. Both hits the Convex in front of PT and blast it to smithereens. Genesis immediately turns the steer slightly to avoid the blast. The way she does it seems like she has been anticipating it from the beginning.

Smoke begins to cloud the Thorn’s position in company of the friendly shelling. The Thorn starts to withdraw.

“Danger close! Danger close!” Alezia cries.

“Captain, cease fire! Cease fire!”

The shelling eventually stops. The smoke remains. The last Convex goes full auto at the Thorn. The tank’s gun sweeps right. It fires its coaxial 40mm autocannon at the last Convex. The hovercraft could technically withstand a couple shot out of that autocannon, but not a sustained exposure. The autocannon eventually neutralizes the Convex. It falls and blows up after receiving twelve hits.

Three hundred meters left. The Thorn is trying to keep that distance but PT and Radiant Winter roll faster than it reverses.

“AP on the tracks! Fire, fire!” Caitlyn orders.

PT and Radiant Winter fire at the same time. The rounds hit the front tracks. But the Thorn is still cruising backward.

“Re-engage! Re-engage!”

Both Chords fire at the tracks again. This time they manage to sever the tracks. The tank finally stops. It returns fire at Radiant Winter with its main gun again. The shots miss but they barely hit. The Chord simply outrun them.

“Holy…!” Alezia cries.

A hundred-fifty meters left.

“Keep going! Keep going!”

PT has to fire at a specific spot. She wants to make sure that it lands perfectly. It’s their only chance of winning. She will get even closer than a tenth of a click if she has to. Unfortunately, that spot is looking away from them at the moment.

A hundred meters. Caitlyn catches an unusual explosion from the other side. The noise doesn’t belong to a Chord’s gun, nor Thorn’s.

“Ah!” Alezia grunts. “Radwin engine is bust!”

Uh oh…

“Alezia, abandon tank!” Caitlyn shouts at her. “Abandon tank!”

Fifty meters. Genesis manages to take PT within fifty meters of the Thorn. That’s when his engine meets the same fate. Caitlyn orders PT to aim at the tank’s turret and hold fire. The Thorn’s gun eventually finds Radiant Winter. Caitlyn can still hear the tank firing. But after the third shot, the Thorn fires back. A two-consecutive shots that rips the Chord asunder. The tank blows up, sending parts flying which can be seen from Caitlyn’s side.

Caitlyn can hear the scream of her life-long friend through her utilizer.

“Alezia! Alezia!” Caitlyn attempts to call her. But she only gets statics.

Dark gray smoke billows upward on the other side. It takes a while for Caitlyn to accept that her friend is hit. She can only hope the wound isn’t fatal.

“Caitlyn!?” Genesis asks. She looks as worried as her.

Caitlyn slaps herself, regaining her focus. The Thorn’s gun is now en route to her. It’s a slow and laborious movement. But the way it rotates exhibits its menacing nature.

“Load HE and hold fire!” Caitlyn says.

“I trust you KT.”

She has been facing them for a while now. She starts to sense the time it takes for the tank to reload. She doesn’t know for sure. She just feels it. When the Thorn finally trains its gun at them, Caitlyn waits another second.

“Down the barrel! Fire!”

“Firing!” PT cries.

He shoots his gun. The round flies into the Thorn’s gun. The seventy-millimeters discrepancy in gun’s diameter, and the short distance between PT and the Thorn allows it to easily enter the barrel. And the Thorn is about to fire, hence there’s a shell waiting on the other end of the gun.

Both rounds collide inside the gun’s breach. The explosion severs the gun from the turret. Fires are sparkling out of its breech. Fumes arise from whatever tiny slits the Thorn has. The tank then erupts in a deafening blast that sees its turret flung to the heavens. There’s a knocking on the cabin as the Thorn’s parts are crashing against PT’s glacis.

Caitlyn and Genesis watches with a gaping mouth as the spectacle unfolds.

“By the Primus…” Genesis says. “We’ve won.”

“Ain’t that a firework show?” PT says.

Caitlyn breathes heavily. But it’s not time to rest yet. She taps on Genesis’ thigh repeatedly.

“Genesis, Android’s aid quick.” She says.

Caitlyn scrambles out of the hatch while Genesis reaches for the aid. She leaps down from PT, the maid follows. On the other side of the Thorn are a flaming husk of Radiant Winter and two bodies lying with their faces to the ground. Caitlyn orders Genesis to check on the crew while she hustles for Alezia.

She groans as Caitlyn flips her around. Her arms are spread out and flaccid. Her breath is heavy and slow.

“C-Caitlyn…”

Caitlyn grabs her right shoulder. She brings her face closer to hers while repeatedly clapping on her cheek. “Hold on, help is coming.”

Caitlyn is about to call Genesis. The maid is already running to her when she raises her sight.

“Did we…did we win…?” Alezia says slowly.

Caitlyn glances at the dead Thorn to her left. Alezia glances follow. Her face brightens with a smile.

“At last…” She says, letting out a deep breath. “I told you…it’s your big day.”

“Shut up,” Caitlyn says. “It’s not a day without you around.”

Caitlyn heaves Alezia to her back. She makes her way back to PT. Genesis is right behind her. She reclines her gently on the ground. Genesis kneels beside Alezia and unpacks the aid. The maid nimbly pulls out laser-welders and band-paste to plug the wounds and ease her pain. It is a sufficient treatment to prevent total shut-down. At least enough until they could get her the Android equivalent of proper medical attentions.

Caitlyn is about to tear off her armor when Alezia grips her wrist.

“C-can you…smile to me, please?” Alezia glances at her.

Caitlyn halts immediately. She doesn’t like the sound of it. But she does it regardless. If it helps relieve the pain, then why not? She swallows up any emotions she is having at the moment so that joy may surface.

Alezia reaches for her right cheek and strokes it with her shaking hand. “Ah…” She says as her thumb run through it over and over. She let out a sigh and returns the smile. “Stay safe…Caitlyn…p-promise me, yeah?”

Caitlyn draws her face closer. “No, Alezia! Stay with us! Stay-”

Alezia’s hand collapse like it’s lost the energy to hold itself up. Her face gently turns to the left, leaving a blank stare.

“No…” Caitlyn shakes head. “No, no, no, no, no!”

She drops her helmet and presses her ears to Alezia’s chest. There’s no sound. She lifts Alezia’s head up and repeatedly claps her cheek again, trying to wake her up.

“Alezia!” She yells at her.

There’s no response. The girl just stares at her in silence.

“Genesis, defibrillator!” Caitlyn glances at Genesis.

“None here.” Genesis looks away.

“No…no, no, no!” Caitlyn glances back at Alezia. Her eyes are welling up. “Don’t do this to me, please! Wake up!” She shakes her body. “Alezia! Wake up!” She shakes her body again, harder.

There is still no response.

Caitlyn sobs. She wraps her arms around her neck and holds her close. Her tears start to run free. She plants her face to the girl’s left side and let out a scream, a harsh one that almost break her vocal chords.