Everything hurt. The freezing rain roused her to consciousness. Kiera had no idea what had happened. The mercenaries were in full retreat, the eborsisk was ripping apart their base. Coughing, Kiera pushed herself to her elbows and surveyed the area around her, the base lay in ruins. She saw movement to her right and pulled herself along the ground towards it, her body protesting with every inch. She grabbed a burnt and torn uniform and rolled whoever it was to their back. Riley.

Riley groaned, fluttering her eyes. She was alive, “Thanks Astria,” Kiera said burying her face in Riley’s neck.

“Read my mind,” Riley said, putting her arm round Kiera, “What was that?”

“Starship weapons,” Edgar replied, “Those mercs might have been after the cryoebersisk the entire time and used us as a lure.”

“If someone’s going to kill me, I’d like for them to mean it, not just as collateral damage,” Kiera, groaned, “Otherwise it’s just rude. Any chance of a status report?”

“We’re completely farked since it’s raining inside.” Edgar said, pushing himself to his hands and knees. "End of report."

Thunder boomed overhead, lightning flashed across the dark sky. Kiera tapped her PUC, “Sol to all cadets, sound off.”

“Comms are down, Kara, remember?” Riley said, “We have to find shelter.”

“Emperor’s beard, this was our shelter!” Edgar groaned, “How ‘bout we find the bastards that just shot us and let that two headed asshole eat them?”

“Sounds good,” Kiera said, “Jackson, are you still with us?”.

Riley helped Kiera stand, the crutches were nowhere to be seen. Edgar pulled himself to his feet, he was shaking. They all were, either from the cold rain or the adrenaline of being attacked, Kiera wasn’t sure. Jackson wasn’t in the command module. Another person gone.

The medical bay was located right behind the command module making both sections of the base the most defended. The three of them made their way through the debris. Beds were missing, some burned into nothing, others sporting burn marks. Tamalyn was found under one of them that was still intact and they were able to move it off of her.

“By the Light,” Tamalyn swore, “Dumped into a hostile world, nearly killed at every turn and when we finally get a lifeline we’re attacked. What in the Void happened?”

They explained what they knew as they made their way through the remains of the ship, joined by those who were still recovering. Fortunately there were no casualties among them. They found Corbin’s squad already sifting through the debris, helping their allies up and supporting their weight. None of the cadets who were on the far side of the base suffered many injuries, but the ones that were closest to the ridge couldn’t say the same. Tamalyn immediately got to work and the others joined in,

Kiera was put on triage, wrapping wounds and applying pain reliever and gel. Their losses were heavy. Five of the ASF, one of the medics, five of the mecha corp, ten of the navy, and three of the intelligence cadets were either not moving, burned in half or were simply missing. Rain poured into the base from the bent and broken roof. Alyxia had been injured shielding two of her squad mates. They found a battered and bleeding Locke holding one of her legs to her hip and one of her arms to her elbow. She was up and moving around helping within the hour. Her regeneration was definitely a cut above the average kylaxian’s. Robyn’s was, too. Although she was half-kylaxian Kiera overheard someone ask when they got the second one. She seemed to be healing faster than when they were at the officer’s exam.

The rain wasn’t pouring with the same intensity that it had with the other storms, but it was just as cold. Everyone was in bad condition, as Kiera looked around all she saw was hurt and lost faces. Hope was gone. Barking caught Kieras attention and a wet bundle of fur pounced on her. The crag wolf pup had survived. Her own despair was enough that she couldn't usher Radiance. A nymph needed to be able to spread joy to use it, and right now Kiera couldn't even pretend to smile.

“Quite the survivor, aren’t you?” Kiera murmured.

The pup barked and led them through the base to the bunkhouse that was on the opposite side of the plateau. It was the one that Tamalyn had claimed for the girls, identified by the curtains and it was dry. It would be a refuge from the rain at least. Once it stopped maybe they could figure something out. It had been separated from the rest of the base and part of it was hanging over the plateau. Corbin, and Gargax grabbed it and dragged it back onto the plateau. They all filed in; the feat was impressive but they were all too spent to appreciate it. They doubled up, Kiera flopped down on the wolf furs with Riley, Locke was directing the others to bunks. That man just didn’t stop.

The voices quieted down, the rain seemed to grow stronger, the thunder came more frequently. Kiera didn’t care; they were sheltered, relatively warm and dry. It could storm all it wanted to, hopefully it would keep the mercenaries away.

She was wrong.

The bunkhouse was sent flying over the plateau. Shouts and screams filled the air as the cadets went flying. Riley grabbed onto Kiera, keeping her from falling into the aisle, Kiera had a firm grip on the pup. The bunkhouse landed hard on the ground, slamming the cadets into the bunks and the floor. There were groans and swearing from everyone. The back of the bunkhouse was blown apart. A moment later a man swaggered in, a knife spinning in his hands.

“Not a lot of you left, are there?” the man laughed “Guess we know who the winners and losers are,” He paused,” Well, you’re all losers. I’d like to get this done before the storm of the century hits. But before I kill you, does anyone know where I can sell information that two headed lightning lizards cause a big farking storm when they’re blown apart by a photon cannon at max charge? If you do, then you can have an audition to join our crew.”

“Same place your father paid your mother a half-chip for ten seconds,” Corbin shouted back at him.

“We have a volunteer to die first! I’ll give the rest of you boys a chance to join the crew. Now that I think about it, you must all be tough bastards to have survived this long. Seize that mouth and bring the women to me. There’s two among them that I have some personal business with, if they’re lookers maybe we'll all have some personal business with them before we slit their throats!”

That was the wrong thing to say.

Kiera felt the outpour of rage before she heard Gargax’s war cry, she had only sensed it once before and it was unmistakable. “Have fun with my boyfriend,” Kiera mumbled.

“We’re not traitors. DNOA Cadets!” Locke roared, “Engage the enemy! Leave none of them alive!”

“Boyfriends,” Kiera corrected.

Gargax’s fist sent the posturing man flying and he continued charging.They were beaten, battered, and exhausted. Their minds and spirits were as frayed as their bodies. They had survived being shot from orbit, nights in a forest that threatened death. Storms that chilled them to the very bone. Beasts that saw them as food or playthings. They had been blown apart, shot across a plateau, and off of it. Hope had abandoned them. But they didn’t survive all of that to let some smug asshole execute them. Gargax’s rage was infectious, and Locke’s order was embraced.

“FOR THE EMPIRE!” came the resounding reply as they abandoned their bunks, their pain and fatigue forgotten and flooded out of the barracks.

Kiera wanted to join them, her missing leg wouldn’t allow it. Lightning arced across the sky in the wind picked up, rain falling in sheets and with every passing second the temperature dropped, the lightning flashed faster, the volume of the thunder rose. It echoed the battle cry of the cadets. Riley helped her out of the bunk after them, they had mecha before and they might decide to fire upon the bunkhouse. Again. But maybe, they could be hijacked.

Six mecha stood in a half circle around the bunker with their pilots and nearly five dozen men stood in front of them. One of the pilots wore a red and white combat uniform, the other pilots wore boots, fatigues and leather jackets, two of them had scarfs thrown around their necks. Kiera glanced up at the mecha. Four of them were jaeger painted red with images of red circles and crescents on them. One was an Orion that was painted in the same colors. The last mecha had prominent pauldrons and thicker than usual armor. Attached to its back was a pair of large, black rifles, Kiera couldn’t tell what kind, and the hilt of a beam sword was attached to its waist. Based on how it stood over the Orion she judged it to be at least seventy-feet tall.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Get me to that mecha, the tallest one!” Kiera shouted into Riley’s ear.

“Yes, ma’am!”

The mercenaries were paralyzed with shock as their victims turned into their attackers. The one in the battle uniform was the first to recover. He laughed, “If they want to die fighting, then let them! Kill them all! Get to your mechs and call the Snow back!”

The mercenaries opened fire, striking cadets in the arms, the legs, and the chest. They stumbled when they took a leg hit but no one stopped. They shouted in rage and defiance, returning fire and crashing into the bewildered mercenaries like the rain itself. The pup howled and ran with them, his voice catching in the wind. Kiera felt something hit her shoulder, and gritted her teeth in pain. Riley grunted and stumbled, but didn’t drop the princess nor did she stop. One of the mercs charged at her, his weapon abandoned but before he could reach them Corbin landed on him.

He charged through the crowd of men in the same clothes, wearing the same face, and the same shocked expression. Riley followed in his wake, jumping over downed bodies. Plasma blasts flew around them, scoring them, some hit the mercenaries that weren’t sure what to do. Some ran forwards towards the cadets, others turned towards the girls only to be run over. With Corbin clearing the way they broke out of the throng. Riley screamed in pain. She fell forward, dropping Kiera on the ground. Kiera rolled for several feet, before stopping. The mech’s ladder was only a foot in front of her. She looked back at Riley.

“Go!” Riley shouted, "I'll be okay!" She drew a pistol and fired twice behind her.

Kiera grabbed the ladder and started to pull herself up it, run by rung with arm strength alone. Burning pain lanced across her left shoulder causing her to lose her grip with that hand. But she didn’t fall, her right arm gripping it tight. It was just like the pull up test at the exam. She pulled herself to the next rung, angry shouts and beams of plasma flying around her. One hit her leg. She pulled herself into the pilot capsule and pulled the emergency eject on the ladder before sealing it. Someone was shouting below her, but oddly there was no one shooting at her.

She crawled into the pilot’s seat and pulled the helmet out from under the seat. Major Peregrine had commented that many pilots like to keep their helmets with their mecha so they didn’t leave them behind. He encouraged them against the practice. Having the helmet made linking go faster and gave the pilot more control of their readouts. They trained flying without helmets just to see the difference. She started the activation sequence, syncing the helmet with her PUC. The screens appeared and blinked away for only a moment before appearing as her loadout. She was grateful Captain had taught them to store their loadouts to their PUC, allowing them to have their preferred load out and actively search for anyone who was in their fight team for situations just like this.

Information about the mecha appeared on the left side of her helmet. An IM-715 Avalanche equipped with an adjustable beam length sword, micro missiles in the legs and torso, servos that magnified its strength and, what Kiera thought were rifles, twin sonic cannons that could be fired from the mecha’s shoulders or switched to flight mode to provide increased maneuverability. They could be used while flying to attack pursuers. It had a deployable energy shield, and magnetic pulse cannons in each arm. That such a robust mecha could fly was surprising. Then she saw the gravity thrusters.

The other mecha powered on. The jaeger to her right appeared as a friendly, Corbin’s tag appeared in its usual place when they flew together. The other four appeared as enemies. <<”Strongman on me!”>> Kiera shouted, using the mecha’s intercom and activating the flight rockets and shooting backwards into the air.

<<”Copy Sunbeam!>> Corbin acknowledged already performing the maneuver. <<”I never get tired of you saying that!”>>

Their hours of flying together made them already know how to work together. She didn’t need to say anything, but Major Peregrine had pressed on them the importance of communication, especially when you’ve been with your squad for a long time. Habits were useful, but communication and adaptability were key. They were also told that the squad should all feel comfortable following orders from another, and the squad leader should be prepared to follow them. They couldn’t see everything on the battlefield. The flirtatious reply had become a staple among them that amused Captain Feren to no end. Koda had flirted with their mentor a couple of times, and so had Kiera. They both apologized profusely after they landed the first time to which the Captain replied, “If I wasn’t your superior officer…” and winked, “don’t worry about it, it’ll be our secret.” They were both overjoyed when she flirted with them the next time they flew.

Corbin was blown around like he was a leaf, Kiera fired off her sonic cannons and grabbed onto his arm. She put them in forward facing shoulder position and fired again. The wind caught the mecha and threw them in an arc towards the center of the plateau, where the lightning was the worst. It spread through the clouds and battered the plateau and the cliff ridge nearby. The other four pursued. All three jaegers were flung around and sent hurtling into the plateau. It wasn’t the battlefield that Kiera wanted, but the storm cell refused to let them leave. She fired her jets and flew towards the plateau, A blast from a particle cannon flew past her.

Kiera landed on the plateau, where their base was originally, only letting go of Corbin when his feet touched the ground. They were in the eye of the storm, wind and lightning whipped around them. The lightning struck so violently and frequently that it formed a cage, freezing the ground into permafrost. The enemy jaegers stood up, beam swords igniting. All three of them charged Kiera. She drew her own sword and activated her shield. The first blow she blocked with the shield and shoved back against the jaeger pushing it away and causing it to crash into the ground. The second attack she parried with her sword, the two weapons humming loudly as their magnetic fields crashed. Corbin blocked the third attack, making it clear that this was a two against three fight.

A blast from above reminded both of them that it was two against four. The particle cannon caused minimal damage against the Avelanche’s armor. The paint job may have been questionable, but she was liking the mech more and more. She thrust with her sword, a move that caught her opponent off guard. It sliced through his torso with ease, disabling the power supply and leaving the mech to slide off of her sword, no longer functional. The jaeger that she had knocked down used his jets to leap to his feet only to be knocked forward and collapse, its running lights going dark.

The Orion’s pilot made it clear that he was her opponent, and it wasn’t the same one that she saw before: one of the moons was painted like a snowflake. It wielded an energy sword with missile banks in its chest and legs and a pair of flak cannon on its shoulders.

A second Orion joined the fight, also not the one she had just seen. How many mechas did these jerks have? It had the same weapons loadout and the same white snowflakes on a red moon symbol as the first one. A jaeger landed with them, but it was identified as friendly. She didn't recognize the callsign, so she knew it wasn't Koda. The name 'Terabyte' seemed to be familiar, but Kiera didn't have time to ponder it. She had a fight on her hands.

She launched herself forward, using the sonic cannons to give her a burst of speed the Orion didn’t expect. He sacrificed his particle cannon to parry her beam saber, but had nothing against her shield bash that sent him staggering backwards. He drew a beam sword pointing it at a forty-five degree angle towards the sky, and raised his other hand flat, palm facing the ground and pointed towards her. It was a style that she had seen, and defeated, countless times before.

<<”You weren’t able to beat me whenever you challenged me, Dandelion, stand down.”>> Kiera said using the mecha’s intercom.

<<”This isn’t some classroom with rules and favoritism, Pet, time to teach you just how outclassed you really are.”>> Dandelion flourished his sword and fired out a barrage of micro missiles from his chestplate.

Kiera blocked them with her shield, and dodged his telegraphed sword strike. The fingers on the outstretched hand spun, firing off a gatling burst of flak cannon fire, despite her thwarting his set up. It was the move of someone who was so convinced of his superiority that he couldn’t fathom being defeated. Even though he had tasted plenty of defeat at the academy. Usually he threw a slap with the hand designed to stun and humiliate. The first time he slapped Hailey he ended up with a black eye. He’d never been able to hit Kiera. She replied by slicing her sword into the flak cannon, the increased power of the mech and precise strike at the joint severed the hand, leaving the flak cannon unable to burst again.

Dandelion swung again, her shield came up to meet it. Another barrage of missiles fired from the Orion’s chest, they exploded against her torso, driving her backwards. It was more damage than the particle rifle. He was quick on the follow up, thrusting with his sword and scoring her chest. Her armor was too thick for the blade to penetrate it deeply, and his strike too shallow, he’d had issues committing with a full attack preferring just to use the tip. He was forced to withdraw when she regained her footing. He refused to go on the defensive, firing a blast from his flak cannon. She had always admitted he was the better shot, and this wasn’t any different. It struck her right shoulder and flight jet, but it also rendered the weapon useless and damaged his own mecha’s arm. The kickback from the cannon was the only thing that kept the shot from hitting her head.

<<”Still just using the tip?”>> Kiera taunted, <<”No wonder Meyers was always looking pissy”>> She feigned a strike, high on his sword side. Dandelion swung his sword up to meet it leaving his torso open. No matter how many times she told him not to attempt to parry like that he wouldn’t listen. It was easy to reverse the strike and hit him hard. Her sonic cannons rotated forward and fired, both of them striking his shoulders. The sonic cannons did more damage than Kiera realized, the left arm was blown off completely and his right burst in an explosion of sparks.

<<”You will not beat me!”>> Dandelion shouted. His chest plate opened revealing a photon cannon. It began to charge immediately. Her right flight jet stalled, the damage from the flak cannon revealing itself. The damage prediction model projected the blast could severely damage the mech, and if it hit the core would cause it to go critical. It charged faster than expected and he fired.

She fired the left jet only and turned the sonic cannons to her back, angled to her left and fired them. The photon flare grew on her screen. The prediction anticipated damage on her left arm, and then it changed to zero. On her radar she saw Corbin’s mecha collide into Dandelion’s. It was enough to throw off the desperate attack, letting her dodge. The blast caught the left flight pauldron, scorching it but not causing significant damage.

At that moment the damage was the furthest thing from her mind. Corbin’s tackle was enough to push them both out of the storm’s eye. Kiera watched as the wind flung them both through the curtain of lightning and disappeared.