●　● Berazategui District, Buenos Aires Outskirts, Argentina, SAU

The police had the surrounding areas barricaded off as evident by the clusters of blue flashing lights on each horizon as Sam's Arondight continued to hold off each distanced barrage from the Galatine. With a constant keen eye on Kerry's location, she held her hundred-meter distance average until Kerry's Ap50 nearly vanished from view.

We're getting awfully close to the sea.

"One more block!" Kerry broke her radio silence, having stayed off since her run to the rally point.

If only I knew if what I shouted earlier made it through… No telling how high the jamming is out here!

Hexa LTAC's since recent updates were set to always default to LACOM when experiencing broad spectrum jamming, guaranteeing everything within given parameters would communicate between units whether welcomed or not. That left Sam unable to gauge the level of jamming simply based off of nearby laser communications. And whatever reasons Sam had for holding back, it was becoming increasingly difficult by the second given how little room they had left with the harbor rapidly approaching.

"And then what?!" Sam shouted back, still never made clear on what Kerry's plans were beyond reaching the rally point.

"What a stupid ass plan!" Kaylen laughed, backing off her approach to recalculate the given space left to work with, steadily keeping her path low and between buildings. "I don't know what got your defensive skills up so well recently, but you have to cave sooner or later running like that!"

Sam never got the detailed specs on how many rounds the Galatine carried, but she counted over 200 rounds by her estimations. To think that thing might carry over 500. This isn't good… I hope I don't have to activate that switch- I've never seen or experienced using it before.

She then surveyed the area with a quick few glances, noting the collateral damage that had ensued each sweeping run. It's not just a space issue, it's a 'do something now or see worse damage pile up' issue- especially once I start returning more fire!

A loud chime and a sudden indicator flashed across the center of her visor as her eyes widened: "EITS Signal Available. Establish Connection?"

Eye in the sky!? Here?! HOW!

Sam was only just as fast with her reaction as she was with her connection input, hastily accepting the link and seeing the massive influx of telemetry and targeting data on her surroundings.

Did the upper admin at Hexa pull some strings or what?! There's no way they'd go all out like this without a contract from the government! But Hell, I'll take it!

But as confidence surging as it was, it was equally horrifying.

Shit, that means Kaylen is connected as well!

Her visor then had another alert flash across her screen: "Op Leader Knight, Disable or Destroy Galatine."

Woah, shit… there's something way beyond my current understanding, but-

"-Kerry!" Sam bit down as she shouted the second she forced herself back to the trouble at hand, putting away her rifle to take a solid grip on her right shield, taking a fully defensive stand. "Whatever it is that's supposed to happen, it'd better be quick!" She then quickly thumbed through her shield settings, switching them to boost mode as her Antares processes began making its necessary adaptations.

Once Kaylen makes this pass, I have to make it quick to the other side since I know Kerry's her real main target and she'll be…

The Galatine was now catching on, bring its firing angles much closer at a rapid pace, making it far more difficult for Sam to hold up her blocking maneuvers. After a successful struggle, she tracked the Galatine all the way to the end of its firing arc before rapidly boosting off on all thrusters including those from her shield, aiming her travel path to a spot where she expected Kaylen to place her next shots.

But within that same moment, another notification chime rang out as she read: "Incoming Supply Drone."

It made it!! Enrai really sent it!! She gripped her controls in short-lived excitement, knowing she still had to make it to Kerry's exposed side without fail.

"The way you protect her… Vrey sent her, didn't he?!" Kaylen shouted out again, but this time with heightened exasperation. "Nothing else can explain this!"

Sam watched the Galatine now hover out farther than expected, sailing over open waters as if to purposely expose herself with no potential collateral damage behind her had Sam decided to rearm.

"Is this what this really is?! A setup?! You, of all people!?" Kaylen was now panting, mixing anger with fear and uncertainty, a situation Sam never once imagined happening to someone she saw as a fearless war vet prior to that moment. "Go ahead, then! Show me I'm not crazy!"

She's losing it… Sam hesitated, not buying the bait just yet. Damn it. If I rearm, she fires first. If I sit here, she can pick apart my movements up until now and hit my weak spots- and I know I've got something exposed by now.

Her eyes then caught something in the corner of the screen. "Kerry, you covered?!"

"Go!" Kerry immediately answered with a shout as if she read Sam's mind.

Sam wasted no time darting straight into the sky as she pressed her left hat switch in while pulling her left shield up in a defensive stance. Please tell me this thing works!

Kaylen let a chuckle slip loose as she instantly pushed her cannon's reticle after the Arondight, ready to pull the trigger. However, the reticle began chasing a second, third, fourth image of the Arondight, each moving separate directions. "What!?"

Sam watched one trail of fire sail almost twenty meters too far below her and to her left, leaving her just as baffled but now open to catch the incoming package. The Arondight now reached out with its open right hand, allowing the guided delivery of the Icarus' NGF rifle, still in the same form as the other day, to dock and connect.

"Vrey, you double-crossing son of a bitch!" Sam heard Kaylen seethe furiously before she took aim, keeping her aim instinctively high. She then realized how eerily easy it was to make it as far as she had given how skillful of a pilot she knew Kaylen to be. She's been acting desperate, not at all herself, like something happened all the sudden. Kind of like… like how I always was in these situations.

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Sam pulled the trigger, letting out a brilliant green flash- a default-setting intensity blast from the rifle, watching the Galatine burst upward as expected, following it up with one more blast a few clicks higher.

Kerry, who had found ideal cover behind what looked to be a closed-off office building, jumped at the hearing of a terrible thud and crackle that rang like thunder, then jumped again in shock as a second followed right after. She had become accustomed to the levels put out by the hybridized rounds she once used, but this to her was a whole new level.

The Galatine took a hard, direct hit to its left shoulder, shredding through both ends of its armor plating and severely imparing the remaining connections to the arm unit when a second later, a second blast ripped through its left leg's joint complex, severing it from the main frame. Alarms blared as the Galatine's flight reserves flashed low, sending Kaylen into a deeper level of desperation as she had no means to land without crashing.

Sam pulled away instinctively, and seeing she had the clear advantage, she held off on further attacks to allow her capacitor a chance to cool off and recharge lost energy levels. "Please, Emilia, stop! This isn't worth it!"

"Only now you decide to speak!? I should have put your back-stabbing ass out myself like I knew I should have!" Kaylen hissed as she darted with all thrusters on full blast, charging directly for her. She knew she was at a firepower disadvantage, but knew all too well from the last war when to dive and when not to. From the Galatine's left wrist armor extended a long NGF arc as she pulled back, ready to strike at full speed. "And then I would be where I deserve to be! Killing that brother of yours and taking my name back!"

Sam winced, realizing even more how much Kaylen reminded her of the reality Sam had been trying to avoid all this time.

I realize now how much I focused too much on getting back at my brother and not looking at the bigger picture in the process. I could have ended up like her.

Gently tossing the Icarus' rifle aside, the Arondight rotated as if to absorb the impending impact, but then extended a hefty, sharp, bladed extension at the tip of its shield that formed a hook of sorts that it would use to snag into whatever it cut into. And the second the Galatine made its thrust right for the heart of the Arondight, Sam pulled her controls and slammed both pedals to the floor as she leaped away enough to force the would-be direct collision into a redirecting one, but as the Galatine started its intial bounce away, the bladed end of the Arondight's shield had slid right down into one of the lower torso armor segments, snagging securely as it sliced its way further inward.

"I told you to stop!" Sam barked out, trembling from the rush of adrenaline and emotions, now reversing the direction of her rotation.

The Arondight boosted in the opposite direction, using its momentum from the collision to power its slinging of the Galatine the other direction.

Kerry jumped the instant she heard and felt a slam against the building she hid behind. "Sam!?" she called out in panic.

Sam instead jumped up in the event she needed to repel any counterattack Kaylen may have come up with. She instead saw the Galatine buried in the glass-sided office building she hoped had no innocents caught up in. She then noted the right-side turret was still functioning as the Arondight signaled targeting alarms. Closing her eyes, she tried one last time: "Please…"

The tracking alarms never ceased, and as another misaligned firing arc sailed too far left of her, the Arondight rearmed its originally equipped rifle and took aim before the Galatine's firing arc could close in any closer to impact, pulling the trigger.

**TAH!!!**

The single shot fired sailed right into the core frame, just left of the cockpit chamber from Sam's viewpoint. The tracking alarms silenced partly, but Sam remained stiff where she stood, finger still over the trigger. "Emilia!!" She bellowed, teary eyed. "This didn't have to happen! Why couldn't you trust me from the beginning like I trusted you!?"

"I was stupid to think you reminded me of him," Kaylen's voice, broken up by static, mockingly came through what sounded like evacuation alarms as she referenced their prior conversation about Lance. "I let someone twisted as Marian stand beside me all that time before just to one-up me when I was at my worst disadvantage," she added in what Sam heard as a clear reference to having no access to Reign during their fight.

Sam couldn't retort, knowing soon after it began that she was all but guaranteed to win. It still hurt, however, feeling like not only were their chances at later success thrown out the window over an unnecessary clash, but because Sam even looked up to her in a way despite how uncomfortable she made her feel.

Kerry's Ap50 cushioned its landing just behind the Arondight, trying not to interrupt more than she had.

"You traded me for her, huh?" Kaylen laughed through a cough. "Good luck out there without me!! Know-nothing piece of-" Her transmission was then cut off by an overloaded fuel cell converter block, sending both the Arondight and the Ap50 backstepping with shields up.

.

.

It wasn't the ending Sam expected, but it was one she was in a sense prepared for, opening her eyes back up, easing out a slow, deep sigh.

You've been running from something all this time. Looking for someone to blame. Just like myself. I feel like someone pulling strings somewhere made it have to happen like this, but I see what needs to be fixed so much more clearly now… so, please…

"Sam?" Kerry was first to speak up after the smoke settled somewhat, noting there was no sizeable fire evident, yet remained on edge as she saw Sam still had her rifle up. "What's wrong? You good?"

Please don't make this the end… Sam continued in thought, trigger finger trembling after an overload of intensity and emotions the past few minutes. Please tell me I don't have to trade one for the other…

"…Sam?" Kerry persisted.

Then, after a blinking indicator next to Kaylen's status profile in the corner of her visor had her lean back in relief, spending the next seconds slowly catching her breath. "Eye in the Sky, this is Underground Attachment to Enrai Agent Zero Two reporting in, do you copy?" She spoke over the line, wondering who would answer after having been silent the whole scuffle.

"- - nt -aff, mo- - -ty report-, - to be - -rs, state th- -f -rg-et, ove-," spoke an operator through heavy distortion and interference through Kaylen's earpiece as she slowly came to after having been knocked fully disoriented from the blast moments ago. Smoke filled the cabin, choking her more and more by the second as her consciousness finally came through enough to push her to reach and grab a hold of the emergency hatch release.

"Objective completed," Sam replied as she lowered her weapon and turned to face Kerry. "Status of chain of command, over."

"Direct orders from Chairman Lucian until further notice," the operator responded as Sam placed her rifle on the ground between her and Kerry's Ap50. "Next priority item is to re-establish organization for Agent Knight and its members. Confirm survivors."

Sam motioned Kerry to take the weapon as she turned to pick up the Icarus' rifle she tossed aside earlier. And as she reconnected and re-armed it, she noted the radar indicating several groups of objects approaching from three directions. "Former pilot K. Melancon of the Special Ops Group One from Manila P.D.C. present and returning to active status. Agent Zero One's status remains unknown."

"Copy. Next item is to secure the area and receive the approaching hold-over security team members. Report when complete, over and out."

Sam looked over at Kerry, now switching to pilot view to see she had calmed down for the most part as well. I see what Kerry did. She brought me to the safest place in the city. I may have never believed a word she said if she explained everything on the spot just earlier.

She then looked at the nearest blinking group of radar readings only half a kilometer away, entering the satellite's high-power communications field. That must be them.

[In range,] a voice suddenly joined the channel, reminding Sam of one of Kaylen's associates she ran across several times. [Connecting… established. This is Eryx of Enrai, Bahia Blanca Division. Infinity Units, confirm identities.]

Eryx?! I knew it! I knew I'd heard that voice somewhere! Is he in on this, too?!

"Kerry, quick, give them a call sign- they're asking who you are," Sam quickly muttered over the proximity line.

"Oh, uh, damn- I uh- wait, what!?" Kerry sputtered, unexpecting of the sudden demand for creativity on the spot.

"Didn't you already have yours decided from way back?"

[Infinity members, do you read?] Eryx continued, impatient.

"Oh yeah!" Kerry then switched over to the main line. "This is Chalmette reporting."

[Ella, is that you?] a different voice joined the channel soon after.

[Not anymore,] Sam carefully but intently stated once she worked up the nerve. [This is Cruella.] Uttering that name herself for the first time brought a sudden and inexplicable sense of pride as a grin grew on one corner of her mouth. It also in that same moment came with bittersweet, feeling like Sebastian, Renzo, and Dani should have been standing there together with them as one. "Infinity Underground Attachment Special Ops, reporting."

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