Hey everyone, I decided to make a small time skip here. Her Project will come into effect much later into the future but I wanted to put this in here so I can make a Flash back later on to reshow what happened.

So enjoy ^^ though this should be my last chapter for today xD

Btw, I'm nearing the end of my first arc so to say. The battle in New York is the Thing shown in my teaser [chapter 0] but don't worry, I won't stop writing there.

People who have remember well until now might even be able to guess what will happen >_>

Won't say anything else.

Enjoy the new chapter

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We had gotten two months of leave from command. It was a good time, I often went down to the labs and at first I was overcome by the sheer amount of information I had to process in order to even operate one of the devices to an acceptable degree. Aside from that I had a lot of time to come closer to my comrades once more, be it through sparring with Rose or through occasionally making food with Ignar. Though the latter was definitely easier and less exhausting. I did not sleep a lot during this time, I often spend hours only in front of the small pc downstairs reading through endless paragraphs about the specific structure of the human brain. I made progress and that was all I wanted.

It happened two weeks into our second month of leave. The six lower ranking members of A3 were in the cafeteria. We had been eating together frequently while just talking about random things. During one of Roses stories on her drilling time with the navy seals Karen suddenly walked into the room. She seemed very worried and everyone instantly noticed this turning serious in a matter of seconds.

Ignar spoke up before anyone else. Using Karens rank while speaking with her

"Captain? What happened? Are we being called in?"

She nodded.

"I know we're officially on leave but it doesn't matter, we have to prepare to leave for New York city as quickly as possible. We have picked up an insane amount of movement from all esper groups towards that location. We don't know what they're planning but it seems that even the is heading there. Whatever it is it's big."

The casual atmosphere disappeared violently and made place for a calm environment.

"What can we expect? We need more information or we're going to fuck up like last time."

It was Christian who had spoken up. Looking at Karen the question seemed more directed at all of us than specifically the Captain.

"We know that two teams of the Raiders are located there already, HALO is definitely there as well with at least three council members, the Fallen too of course, thought we do not know who exactly gathered from them."

She takes a deep breath before continuing.

"Even Arthus himself came. We have multiple sources seeing him together with some of his subordinates."

Rose's eyes widen in surprise.

"The himself is here? Why?"

Karen shakes her head.

"We don't know, our forces have already gathered too. A whole shitton of our espers are on site and just waiting. But that is the bad thing, we can only react. If we act now without knowing everything we could start a fight that would destroy the entire city."

Everyone agreed. We didn't want to endanger the New Yorker population. I raised my hand.

"Captain, you said the would be there too. Should she ever meet up with Lane, the if you will, then a fight would definitely erupt. I'm afraid we cannot really do anything about this."

"We know. Anyways, I want everyone ready in 30 minutes, Chris, I also want activated, we'll need it's support."

Chris only nodded.

"I'll get ready, all repairs have been finished anyways."

Karen turns towards me.

"Sorry that you cannot finish your project right now but this is truly important. There are even plans to evacuate a huge part of the population."

"Do not worry about it, I am part of A3, this is necessary."

With those last words everyone charged out of the cafeteria leaving the food trays on the tables. The procedure of equipping was the same as it had been last time and everyone quickly looked the same again while we clothed ourselves in iron.

The only one I could not see was Christian who was preparing his suit. He had been one of two people in A3 who had been able to control the last stage of their equipment. Battle armor was a bulky piece of machinery made to endure almost anything. It also had been the reason why Christian had survived in the first place.

After fitting everyone with the equipment we actually wore military clothes over it. Then we walked outside. Each one of us carrying high caliber rifles this time, much like the one Ignar had used on our last mission. The reason was simple. We would have to engage from as far away as possible and if they got close to us our rifles would be useless anyways.

In the front of the compound Christian was already waiting, towering above us with a near 3 meters in high he seemed like a fortress given legs. In his arms he held a rifle almost trice the size as ours. We knew instantly that nothing would survive getting hit by that.

I almost laugh at the thought of bringing him in stealthy.

"How in hell are we going to get him to New York City unnoticed?"

The masked face of Rose turns towards me.

"We've got an entire building covering up a military facility. We're just going to land on top of it and walk into it. Some people might ask questions about it but that will be all of it."

Fair enough I think as we walk towards a new transport helicopter that actually looked like a civil one with white and yellow coloring.

"Can this thing even fly with Chris inside?"

I was worried, and with reason. alone probably weighted around a ton. I had no idea how this thing would even lift off.

"Don't worry about it."

I heard Chris' voice over the com.

"The chopper is modified especially for this reason. It can carry heavier things than me."

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

It wasn't very reassuring that the entire vehicle shook once after he took his first step inside but I trusted them.

I felt cramped up with a three meter giant inside but did not openly talk about it as a discussion erupted in our coms.

"So what does the evacuation plan look like?"

It was Songe voicing his worries about civilian casualties. Karen answered him.

"It is nothing but military personnel helping out getting everyone out of the city should something happen. Sadly nothing else."

"What?!"

Rose almost screamed through our ears.

"You cannot be serious. If an actual fight breaks out the city should already be empty."

Karen raises her hand to shut her up.

"Don't Rose. We are currently only following orders. They don't want all their high priority targets to run for the hills because of this. They are willing to accept these casualties."

Ignar's stoic voice sounds through the aether.

"That's going to bring a whole ton of trouble if things go out of hand. I guess they are aware of this?"

"Yes they are. Nobody will know that they had known beforehand and I don't want to hear anything from any of you. We will follow the orders and try to keep casualties at a minimum, more we cannot do."

I found it questionable as well but accepted it. I did not feel much concerning these kinds moral things anyways.

After a few hours we were already over New York heading towards one of the multiple skyscrapers. On top of it our pilot pretty much threw us out and Chris quickly moved towards a small room located on the roof. We all grouped in front of an entrance until Christian came outside again, this time wearing only the armor we all had. Though his had certain ports to enable the control of .

Then we walked inside and were greeted by two soldiers with face masks and rifles guarding another door leading further ahead. They quickly saluted towards us and opened the way for us. Then Karen lead us through multiple corridors seeming to know the entire layout by heart, though we all had a map shown inside of our visor. In the end she leads us into a big room filled with monitors and officers. Girand was there too seeming to oversee the entire situation.

He quickly noticed us and waved us to come closer. Arriving in front of him the seven of us salute.

"Commander, A3 reporting for duty. What's the situation right now?"

Karens voice came out mechanically and sounded nothing like her normal self, it seems she had decided to leave her helmet on to increase the distance to her relative. The commander doesn't seem to mind though and just scratches his brown haired head head.

"Quite interesting if you ask me. We have gotten quite the interesting intel concerning the gathering of those groups."

"Is it reliable?"

Karen asked with doubt in her voice. And Girand sneers in response.

"Who do you think I am, of course it is. Our family has spies everywhere you know that."

"So what exactly is going on?"

Ignar stepped in and asked without caring about honorifics. The Commander turned towards him and smiled.

"It's a meeting."

"A meeting."

Rose called out in disbelieve.

"A meeting of what and whom?"

This time he even laughed. His attitude was getting on my nerves.

"From what we know has called for a meeting with the most important members of the different groups."

Then he seemed to talk into a small device on his jacked and his voice sounded through the com. We knew it was only directed at Karen but she seemed to have transmitted it to our helmets too and we stayed quiet.

His voice sounded angry and filled with power.

"This was sanctioned by the Head. Don't fuck this up KAREN."

The warning clearly got to all of us but our captain only barely nodded and Girand continued as if nothing had happened.

"We already know where they will be meeting and have installed cameras and microphones there. You can already guess that this will probably get out of control. Either after a fight breaks out or after the meeting you, together with our esper squads will eliminate the entire leading class of the Raiders, HALO, the Fallen and to capture Arthus. Understood?"

Unconsciously I nod in response but Karen seems to have a question.

"Commander. Capturing will be literary impossible. I doubt that anyone aside from can even face him."

He dismisses it with a gesture of his hand.

"You will try and either succeed or fail in the most important thing will be to eliminate the leading groups. But remember, everyone of them will have a lot of members surrounding them standing ready to fight."

"I know. One last thing commander, do you happen to know why even called this meeting in?"

It seemed to be Karens last question but Girand barely shook his head.

"We don't know why to be honest, while we know much knows more. Her power is the only thing that made her able to gather everyone. But they all came and a catastrophe is brewing up if we don't stop it. You're dismissed Captain. Go group on the roof, the roof there has been prepared for you and you'll be able to follow the recording. From what we have gathered the meeting will start in a few hours.

Che. We definitely had too little time to prepare."

I agreed with him as we walked out and heard him shout orders through the room.

"Everyone heard what he said?"

Karen asked as soon as we had walked back upstairs and went into the room where Chris' armor was waiting for him.

"Yes."

The room was plastered with monitors and a control panel. While Liam seated himself in front of them and started to press different buttons we mustered the picture that was shown to us.

The first thing we could make out was a circular room without any visible windows.

And then we noticed her. Seated on one of the desks was in person swinging her legs around like a small child. She was wearing a blue dress and her black hair was flowing down her shoulders. She wasn't smiling. In fact she looked angry, angry beyond rage and comprehension.

This would get ugly, everyone of us knew it and nobody doubted it.