My name is John Harolds. I was a junior at the Sacred Soul Academy, a prestigious academy that churned out hundreds of alumni who would one day become the pillars of society. Something happened that year. My classmates and I became involved with something big that could threaten the very social order of the world we lived in and we ended up being hunted by the police, the military and everyone we had ever trusted. This is the story of the greatest escape of our lives. What if you were told that the life you had led was all a big fat lie? At last, after days of being on our own, we finally found four of our classmates. But were they really who they claimed they were? Escape! Chapter 5 By Shinieris

"So Miriam, how did you escape from the academy?" Nanako asked through the comm system.

We had just passed by San Diego City, on our way to Mineshaft 6, near Los Angeles City. We had travelled about 2000 kilometres so far and it seemed like we were making good time. The arrangement worked. Yuu took the first 6 hours of leading the trail. Then it was Carl's turn before it became my turn. In a couple of hours it would be Nanako's turn.

"Yeah, how did you escape, Miriam? You told us that the academy got nuked shortly after we left, right?" I asked through the comm.

"Same way you did. Only that when we arrived, you guys had already left," Miriam's replied through the comm.

"How? You yourself collapsed the tunnel right after we left," I asked as I watched Anya rolling left and right on my hoverbike's left floor.

There wasn't enough space on the seat for both of us, unless if we wanted to sleep sitting up the whole way to Mineshaft 6. So it was decided between us that she, being smaller, would sleep on the floor of the hoverbike, between the actual bike and the wall of protective egg that surrounded us, with a foam bed that we bought in Chicago City as her mattress. I would sleep on the hoverbike proper on my back, with my legs on either side of the bike so that I wouldn't fall when the hoverbike's autopilot make sudden turns following the lead bike.

"There were two other tunnels that lead to the warehouse. We took one of it," Miriam answered.

"But there was only one door inside the warehouse," Nanako argued.

"The other two routes were less direct. The one we took lead us to a cave about a hundred metres from the warehouse. When we arrived at the warehouse, there was nobody else. We took the last two hoverbikes and left as quickly as we could. The academy exploded behind us, and we barely had enough distance to escape the blast."

"What did you do after that?" Nanako asked.

"We went to London City. Listened to gossips, had some dinner and went to withdraw all our money from the bank. Strange really. I swore we put 50,000 dollars into our backpacks, but it wasn't there when we looked for it. It's really strange."

Both Nanako and I knew exactly what happened to their money. 50,000 dollars went to Anya. The rest was split among all five of us. Of course, neither of us had any intention of telling her about what happened to their money. There was absolutely no reason to tell them about how we conveniently stole their money because we didn't think they were still alive.

"So what did you do afterwards?"

"Wandered around a bit. Trying to find out what happened to the class. Did you know that Sophie Beauchamp and Frances Vinot died trying to save Sophie's little sister?"

"We guessed. Not hard to guess really, seeing how they idiotically went back to the academy," Nanako said.

"You have to understand from their point of view, Nanako. Emilia Beauchamp is Sophie Beauchamp's only sister. If it is within your power, wouldn't you try to save your family too?" Miriam said.

"That's just an excuse. Sophie has always been a crybaby who can't do anything herself. She always needs someone else with her, otherwise she'd be depressed and withdraws into a dark corner somewhere. No, Miriam, the reason she went back wasn't because Emilia was her sister, it was because she was afraid of being left alone," Nanako said, rather harshly.

"Well, maybe you're right. I do not know her personally, so I can't argue about her reasons or motivations."

"Would all of you please, SHUT UP!? Some of us are trying to sleep here," Yuu scolded through the comm.

"Fine fine, whatever you say, husband."

I could sense Nanako's smirk through the comm.

******

"Hey guys, wake up! Something's happening," Nanako's voice broke through the stillness of night. She had taken over leading the trail about two hours ago from me.

What is it now? I wondered as I woke up groggily from my uncomfortable sleep. Beside me, Anya also woke up, stretching her body causing popping sounds from her joints. Apparently neither of our beds provided comfortable sleep positions. That will change when we get the Mirialis Corvette. Oh to sleep on a real bed again.

We had stopped in a canyon somewhere some time after the sun had set. It was desolate, dusty and red all over. I couldn't be sure where we were exactly. There wasn't any landmark in range of the sensor. All the hoverbikes had stopped at the same time following Nanako's bike. Since the lead bike wasn't moving, the other hoverbikes didn't have a trail to follow. I stretched my own body as the protective silicate screen receded. From the corner of my eye, I saw Nanako slowly bringing her hoverbike down to ground level as she descended from a higher ground.

"Goddamn it, Nana! I just managed to get some sleep. What is it now?" Yuu complained through the comm.

"Where are we?" I asked through the comm.

"Mineshaft 1," Nanako stated.

"Amazing how that explains all the mysteries of the universe!" Carl said, sounding groggily sarcastic.

"The Minerology BBS stated that Mineshaft 1 was formerly a gold mining operation. The owners decided some years ago that the profit of taking out the gold could no longer justify the operating cost of material and labour. So they closed the mine and sealed the entrances with concrete. Some of the BBS old-timers believe that such measures were unnecessary as the gold left were at such a hard to reach place that it would've needed expensive and very specialized equipments to take the gold out safely. As of now, the mineshafts are considered federal property as the company that owned the mines went defunct some time after the closure of Mineshaft 9 and under trial for accounting fraud," Nanako explained.

"Wow, I can't believe I let you talk that much," Carl said.

"Nana, you haven't answered me! Where are we and why are we here?!" Yuu demanded.

"Push 80% power to sensors and go 100 metres due west, Yuu. You'll know why," Nanako said.

I could hear Yuu's grumbles through the comm as he rode his hoverbike 100 metres west. Suddenly he backed off and came back to us sounding panicked. "What the hell was that? I only came a little into range and I got over twenty sensor contacts! I bet there are a lot more beyond my sensor range."

"32 tanks of various types, two VTOL C-210 Shockdrop Troop Carriers, 8 ground support Co-42 VTOL Stealth Gunship, 110 tunnel crawler mines, 4 sensor cars, 1 command car and hundreds of soldiers wearing full combat armour. This doesn't look like an exercise or a drill, this is a real military operation," Nanako said, by now everyone had their protective silicates receded and we could talk directly.

"Where did you get those numbers from, Nanako?" Carl asked.

Nanako held up a pair of binoculars. "I looked. They don't even try to hide their base camp."

"Is this a blockade? Could they be looking for us?" Miriam said with a worried expression on her face.

"Unlikely, we're the only ones who know the route, not even you or Yannick know about the route we're taking. I think they're here for something else," Carl said.

Knowing Carl, he probably tried to comfort Miriam, who probably still remembered the military's attack on the academy. For the five of us, it was just something we watched on the display screen. For them, who actually fought in the battle of Sacred Soul Academy, they probably have suffered terrible trauma from being in the thick of battle.

"This is no good, we need more information. We can't be sure if they're really here for us or for something else. We can't even be sure if they don't already know we're here," Yuu stated.

"What should we do then?" Anya suddenly asked.

"Jane, how good are you with the hoverbike?" Yuu enquired.

"I ranked first in Hoverbike Handling and Maneuvering. I also won the race, remember?" I stated, feeling a little proud of the memory.

"Then I want you to push the sensors as high as you can and go out as scout. Nana, you will do the same, but since you were fourth in rank, your reconnaisance area will be smaller. Can you both do that?"

"Show us our areas," Nanako said.

Yuu looked back to his hoverbike and started a rough drawing of our recon areas. Mine were three times as big as Nanako's area, somewhere around 70,000 square kilometres, but I said, "Sure, no problem. I can handle it."

"Yeah, no problem," Nanako agreed.

"Good! Anya, can you hack into their network? We need information on why they're here, how long they'll be here and if they'll be getting any kind of reinforcements."

"Wait, hold on a minute. Who died and made you king?" Carl protested.

Yuu looked at Carl with a sharp glare. "Do you have a better idea?"

"No, it kinda irks me that you're barking orders, though," Carl stated.

"Then shut up and just do as you're told unless you have something useful to say, which you don't have at the moment. Until you can stop being a useless idiot, you will do as I say!"

There, that was the Yuu that I remembered from class. I earlier wondered when Yuu would revert to his verbally insulting attitude. Back in class, he would always, almost everyday, call someone an idiot, a bitch or an idiot bitch who wasted precious oxygen.

"Sure, leave it to me. Just one problem, I haven't charged my tablet since we left Chicago City, so the battery is kind of low."

"I thought you already charged your tablet before you left, Anya?" Nanako asked.

"Well, I've been using it a lot since we left Chicago City. I got an adapter, but the solar collector doesn't work at night," Anya explained.

"Excuse me? Have you forgotten that you've been sitting on a nuclear reactor for days?" Yuu asked.

Nanako interjected, "Technically, it's not a nuclear reactor. It's a thermal radiation differential-"

"I don't care. What I care about is can you do it, Anya?"

"What's gotten up your butt? Sure, I can do it. Lend me your bike," Anya said as she got down from my still hovering hoverbike with her tablet and the power adapters.

"You'll be okay here, Anya?" I asked.

"No problem," Anya said.

"I'm going then," I said as I raised the protective silicate layer.

"I'm going too. See ya later," Nanako said as we both sped off towards opposite directions.

"I want a sensor report every two minutes, guys," Yuu said through the comm as I left at top speed.

It was about half an hour and 16 non-existent sensor reports later that Yuu called us back to base. Apparently Anya had managed to break through into the military's information network without anyone noticing. Yuu told us to come back quickly, but stealthily, as the information they acquired concerned us all.

"Okay, what's the news?" I asked once I dropped the silicate screen protecting me from dangerous stray pebbles.

"What I actually want to know is, why does it take you half an hour to hack a network?" Nanako asked as she came to a sudden stop behind Yuu's hoverbike.

Anya shrugged. "The actual hacking took only one minute. Downloading all the data took four minutes and sorting the data took fourteen minutes. Finding out why they're here took about ten minutes. Verifying the information took another three minutes."

"You didn't have to be that precise," Carl remarked.

"Let's stop getting distracted, shall we? We found out why they're here," Yuu said followed with a pause.

Still a pause.

"And?" I asked when I saw that he wasn't going to say anything.

"Pay up," Yuu said with his hand extended towards Carl.

"Damnit, Jane!" Carl cursed as he handed Yuu a fifty dollar note.

"What's going on here?" I asked.

"They had a bet on who would become impatient first," Yannick said with a chuckle.

I zapped both Yuu and Carl with my IL-52S. I thought by now they would have learned to be more serious. I zapped them again for good measure. That would teach them not to prank me again.

"Do you want to do it too, Nana?" I asked as I offered my particle wand to Nanako.

"Nah, I'm fine," Nanako giggled watching both her legally wedded husband and my legally wedded husband twitching on the ground.

"I thought you wouldn't do that again," Carl said as he climbed up his hoverbike with difficulty.

"Purely your assumption. I never said I wouldn't," I said as I set the particle wand's setting back to 'mild stun'.

"Should've added that to her wedding vow. To love, trust, cherish and to never zap me again," Carl muttered loud enough for me to hear.

"Hey, you have a problem with my wedding vow, then don't marry me in the first place!"

"Jokes aside," Yuu said as he held his still twitching left fingers, "We have a situation in Mineshaft 1. Good news is, they're not here for us and if we stay here, lay low, they will never know we're here. Now the bad news, our friends are in there and the military is waiting for orders to storm the tunnels."

"Wait, our friends? Which friends?" Nanako asked with eyes wide.

"Not sure. The reports didn't state any name, only that they have 'rebels who participated or were central to the bombing of Sacred Soul Academy' holed up inside the tunnels of Mineshaft 1," Yuu said, still trying to control his twitching fingers.

"And how did you come to the conclusion that they're our friends?" Nanako asked, a little calmer this time.

"I was the one who came to that conclusion, actually," Yannick said as he walked forward between Yuu and us. "You see, whenever news of the 'rebels who blew up Sacred Soul Academy' comes up, they always mentioned them as being students of the academy themselves. So by process of deduction, those inside Mineshaft 1 must be students of Sacred Soul Academy."

"That's just speculation," Nanako commented.

"Which is why we are in a quandary. Do we ignore them and try to find a way around the blockade, or do we assist them, hoping that they're really our friends?" Yuu stated.

"Wait, that's wrong! We should save them if they're in trouble. It doesn't matter if they're our friends or not. What if we're in their place? Won't we want to be saved too?" I said.

"If I ever got myself into that kind of hopeless situation, I will be more than happy to perform ritualized suicide," Yuu said as he pushed up his glasses with his middle finger.

"Jane, that kind of thinking will get you killed. Try to imagine what your sister would do," Miriam said with a sad face.

"I don't know what Anna would do, Miriam! I don't know Anna! Apart from from the occasional hugs and words of encouragement in the fencing club, we never had much contact! SO DON"T TELL ME TO IMAGINE WHAT ANNA WOULD DO!"

"Jane, I'm so sorry," Miriam apologized right before she took out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped the water droplets near my eyes.

I didn't realize I had cried, in front of everyone. I felt so foolish, so weak. To promise myself that I wouldn't cry again, yet here I was, breaking the promise to myself. Anna was right, I have really always been a crybaby.

The sudden pressure around my body stopped my tears as I looked up at Carl's face. He had his arms wrapped protectively around me as he said, "Anna was a nice dream from the past, Jane. But I am here now, I will always be here for you."

I sagged a little inside his embrace. I held on to him, not knowing when my legs would give out. Thinking about Annamarie, about my sister, made me regret never spending more time with her, even back when she tried to spend time with me. Why couldn't I have been with her more often? To learn what she was like, to know her likes and dislikes, to go places with her, to enjoy time with my own flesh and blood sister. Why couldn't she tell me earlier, when we still had time?

"I'm voting for 'not helping'," I heard Nanako say.

I looked up and saw Yuu nodding.

Then Yuu said, "Majority rule, then. We won't be-"

"WAIT!" I shouted in Carl's arms, "What do you mean 'majority rule?'"

"There's seven of us. With Nana choosing 'not helping', we have a clear majority of five choosing to 'not help'. The only one who voted to help was Miriam," Yuu explained.

"Don't tell me..." I looked up at Carl, "You chose to not help them, Carl?"

Carl averted his eyes.

I broke free from Carl's arms and pushed him away from me. Pulling out the IL52S from my pants pocket, I said, "Carl, Anya, BLEED! NOW!"

Anya sighed as she picked up a sharp rock from the ground and pushed it deeply into her left wrist. It bled profusely before she licked the blood away and the wound disappeared. Carl then took out the pocket knife that I bought for him as a wedding present and slashed the back of his arm. It made a short gash on the back of his arm, which bled. I noticed Miriam looking on in worry.

"You, if you are real, why would you do this, Carl? You, who had always saved weak children who were being beaten or extorted. Why would you support this heartless decision?! And Anya, how could you be so heartless?"

Anya shrugged. "It's not like this is my first heartless decision. I've seen plenty of deaths, mommy. I'm not the innocent little girl you think I am."

I was stunned speechless by Anya's remark.

"Jane," Carl said as I diverted my attention towards him, "Things have changed. This isn't some backyard bullying anymore. We are facing the worst scums of the Earth, being paid to do the things they love doing the most. Many of these bastards..." Carl pointed at the general direction of the enemy, "... should've been sentenced to mandatory deaths. Instead, they chose military service. We are not facing BULLIES, we are facing MURDERERS, RAPISTS, PSYCHOTIC KILLERS, SERIAL KILLERS, the worst mankind has to offer! Unlike you, they do NOT have heart, Jane!"

I fell to my knees on the ground as my strength gave away. Just a few days ago, Carl and I were happily talking about what to eat for lunch. Just a week earlier, we played football on the same team and won the championship together. Now we were being forced to decide whether some people get to live with our help or die without our help. Without realizing it, my tears wet the ground under my face.

"I change my mind," Nanako said, making me look up at her, "I don't want to make a decision before I am sure whether or not these people are our friends. If they're some strangers, I say leave them in the army's hands. If they're our friends, then we have an obligation as former classmates to save them."

Suddenly it felt like Nanako was the coolest person among us, standing there saying such cool words.

"But even without you, we still have majority, Nana," Yuu stated.

"I don't care. If I don't have the answer to this, my conscience will eat me alive."

"You have a conscience?" Yuu asked as if it was the first time he thought that.

"Would you like me to show you my 'conscience', Yuu?" Nanako said as she pointed her IL52S at Yuu.

"Whoah, calm down, Nana! Don't even joke about that," Yuu said as let out a breath and said, "Actually we had thought about doing that, but nobody wanted to go."

"What do you mean?" Nanako asked.

"Show her, Anya," Yuu commanded.

Anya came forward and showed Nanako a general map of the area. I inched closer, trying to see what they were talking about. There were several markings on the map, the most significant being our location, enemy location and supposed 'friendly' location. There were also four blinking dots and something around it that moved in a circular pattern.

"Are those sensors?" Nanako asked, referring to the blinking dots and the things that moved in circles around them.

"Yes, those are the sensor cars that you spotted earlier. As you can see, their sensor radius..." Anya said as she pointed at the blinking dots, "... overlaps with the mines," Anya pointed at Mineshaft 1, "Which means that they can tell if anyone goes in or out of the mines."

"Is there another way in or out?" Nanako asked as she studied the map, which included a twenty year old outdated map of Mineshaft 1's tunnels.

"Not that we know of. Unless your friends at Minerology BBS can tell us any," Anya said.

"Not likely. Minerology BBS was shut down. The website owner was jailed for 10 years for owning a personal website. I never knew that owning a personal website was illegal before that. Anyway, can it be disabled?" Nanako asked.

"I can, but I won't. They will be able to tell if their sensors aren't working. I can turn off the sensing equipments and make the sensors display a recorded sensor data, though."

"So what's the problem? With Anya here, we can go in and out without anyone noticing us. Assuming of course that nobody's watching the mine entrances, with these sensors doing their jobs," Nanako asked.

"Because nobody wanted to do it. Many things can go wrong and none of us wants to get stuck over there," Yuu explained.

"Chicken wuss, every single one of you. I'm going, I'll make certain whether they're our friends or not. Then we decide what to do," Nanako said.

"No way, you're not going alone. What if it is a trap and you get switched over there? I'm not losing you," Yuu objected.

"Who else will go then? Since all of you are cowards, best if I go on my own," Nanako fumed.

Yuu swallowed his own spit before he said, "Guess I'll-"

"Jane, let's go," Nanako said.

"Eh? Me?"

"No! I'll go! If things go wrong, I don't want Jane to be stuck there!" Carl objected as he volunteered himself at the same time.

"You're the one who wanted to save them, Jane. Won't you risk your own neck?" Nanako taunted with a calculating gaze.

I thought about it, sure, the idea that I might be trapped there was daunting, but I wasn't all talk. If I wanted us to save them, then it was only fair that I risked my life to check it out myself. So with that in mind, I said, "Sure, let's go."

"Wait! Jane, you're not going. I won't let you!" Carl objected.

"Just because we're married, on paper, it doesn't mean you own me, Carl. Thanks for the concern, but I must do this," I said with a smile to Carl.

Anya looked at us as she sighed. "Guess nothing I say will change your minds. Very well, there's a trail near the mine entrances that is hidden from their sight. If you use that trail, they won't be able to see you even if they're looking. They've been depending on their sensor network to monitor that area."

"Great. You can start anytime you're ready, Anya," Nanako said.

"Shouldn't you guys be closer to that trail first before I hack their sensors?"

"No need to worry," Nanako said as she took out a disc-shaped thing from one side of her hoverbike, "We're going to use this. Yuu, give Jane your hoverdisc."

"You're going to use this?" Yuu asked as he produced his own disc and put it in front of me.

It was a metallic disc-shaped gadget about half a metre in diameter and 20 centimetre thick. It had something that looked liked nozzles at the bottom. At the top, it had two shoe-shaped depression, probably where where one was supposed to put their feet at. In front of the shoe-shaped depression, a cable connected the gadget to an inverted triangular device with buttons, probably the controller.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Hoverdisc. It's similar to our hoverbikes in that it uses the concept of ionocraft, utilizing the electrical phenomenon known as Biefeld-Brown effect. Hoverdiscs however are toys compared to our hoverbikes, something like a skateboard. It doesn't have its own power generator, relying entirely on battery power. It has shorter range, much slower than a hoverbike and can only carry one person," Nanako explained.

I stood on the hoverdiscs, placing my feet into the shoe-shaped depression. Then I picked up the inverted triangle device and pressed on. The hoverdisc hummed as the the indicators lighted up. Then I pressed a button that said 'clamp' as Nanako insisted and was painfully rewarded by something clamping down on my shoe and the feet within.

"Obviously you should be wearing hard boots when using this. Though the strength of the clamp can actually be adjusted," Nanako said as she instructed me how to adjust the clamping strength.

Then I raised the thrust level to '1', with no difference. I raised it up to '4' and the hoverdisc jumped to the air. It tilted to the left and before long, my left cheek was touching the ground with the hoverdisc pushing me deeper.

"Obviously, the reason it's not very popular is because there is a serious balancing issue," Nanako commented as she started her own hoverdisc and fell to the ground on her back, "Maybe we need to practice first."

Our practice lasted about 10 minutes, to which we were laughed at continuously for falling everytime we failed to balance ourselves. At some point Nanako told Yuu to show her how it was supposed to be done. Yuu refused, stating that he didn't want to be a laughing-stock. In the end, I managed to balance myself on the hoverdisc first. From then on, it was easy. Moving was a simple matter of leaning my body to the front, left, right or back, using methodical unbalancing to control the hoverdisc's downward thrust. Basically the key to moving was to lean to one side and when I want to slow down or brake, to lean to the opposite side. Moving at faster speed or higher elevation involved pushing the thrust to higher levels. Before long, I became a pro at hoverdisc control, much earlier than Nanako who was still struggling to get the hoverbike to move where she wanted it to move.

"Wow, this thing is amazing! Where did you get this?" I asked Nanako as I zipped past rocky outgrowths and jutting rocks at 180 kilometres per hour. If not for the goggles, I might have become blind from the tiny sand particles that dusted the trail. With no directional wheels, I could fly leftward, rightward, forward, even backward.

"Bought it in Chicago City. Remember that you, Carl and Anya went to buy food and we bought things we could turn into weapons?" Nanako answered, her long cloak given by the Shimizu twins billowing in the wind.

"Oh yes, did you get some weapons?" I said into my mouthpiece. If not for the mouthpiece, we would've probably choked ourselves full of sand particles everytime we open our mouths.

"We did, but we had to leave most of it behind," Nanako said as she barely avoided a boulder.

"Why?" I said as I turned around, flying backward on the hoverdisc.

"Obviously because we couldn't risk the police arresting us for suspicious purchases. The stuff we bought would raise too much alarm eventhough they didn't check us thoroughly. Jane, would you please slow down?"

"I am slowing down, see, I'm going backwards," I giggled a little into the mouthpiece.

"Are you trying to pick a fight? Anyway, we're here," she declared as we slowed down and came to a gentle hover in front of one of the tunnel entrances into Mineshaft 1. The tunnels here looked big enough for two of our hoverbikes to enter side by side.

We entered the tunnel slowly and cautiously. We didn't take off the hoverdiscs as we feared that it might have been a trap and having the hoverdiscs already equipped would make our escape much quicker. So with our IL52S in hand, set to 'deflector mode', we slowly and silently crept deeper into the dark tunnels with the only light coming from the crystal nozzle of our IL52S particle wands.

Suddenly, my deflector fired its deflector particles, meeting another particle beam midway and completely negated it. "Nana, someone's firing at us!"

"I know!" Nanako said as we had our backs to each other. I went to the back, raising my particle wand to stop any attacks from the rear, while she stood still, protecting our front.

"I am Fujisawa Nanako! If you know who I am, then come out where I can see you," Nanako called to the darkness.

"Nana?" came a high pitched, slightly nasal voice from our right.

"Is that really you?" said a boyish voice from the tunnel to our front. Suddenly a very bright light shone, blinding us for a second.

"No way! Nana!" the same high pitched, slightly nasal voice screamed as something flew out from the darkness and into Nanako's arms.

"Runa!" Nanako exclaimed.

The missile that flew out from the darkness was none other than Runa Kobayashi, seat number 23. Runa Kobayashi or otherwise known as Ruru was our school's celebrity as well as our class brat. She was the youngest of all of us in class, with the exception of Anya, and seemed to enjoy being pampered by both boys and girls. She was also the shortest in our class, her legs barely reached the hoverbike's paddle and footrest. I couldn't imagine how such a small and spoiled girl could have survived for days in these tunnels.

"Nana, I missed you!" Runa said as she hugged Nana around her waist.

"Runa... how have you been?" Nanako asked, her facial expression softened as she rubbed Runa's head.

It was at that time that we heard shuffling footsteps and from the darkness of the tunnels, three other forms appeared. Rahman Ibrahim, our second best sniper and expert in martial arts. Salmah Ibrahim, touted as a genius engineer who had already made a small fortune selling her inventions in the open market. Olga Karovka, language enthusiast, speaker of twenty dialects and already created her own secret language equipped with all the necessary grammar and about 2000 vocabularies. There was a rumour that Olga was scouted by the government to create an unbreakable secret code, to which she refused.

"Where's Ken?" Nanako asked when she saw everyone. "Did you switch places with Ken, Olga?"

"Ken, he was..." Olga's voice were drowned by Runa's cries.

"Ken's dead, Nana! Ken's dead!" Runa cried into Nanako's chest.

Ken Matsuzaki was probably the nicest guy in our class, with Carl being a close second. He always tried to help everyone who was in need, probably why he was always at odds with class diva Jennifer Carter, insecure class representative Igor Krazinsky and class bully Michael Williams. He adored Runa Kobayashi and treated her as both an adorable little sister and cherished lover. They were always so close that I often wondered if they weren't actually blood related.

"What happened?" Nanako asked.

"We were careless. We didn't fully understand the danger we were in. We didn't take what the president said to heart. We didn't understand. We thought he wasn't serious. How were we to know?" Rahman said with his eyes to the floor.

"It was my fault!" Salmah cried as she fell to her knees with her hands covering her crying face.

"Neither of you are giving me any answer. I know it's hard, but please explain properly. We don't have much time," Nanako said as she rubbed the back of the crying Runa's head.

"I didn't believe the president. I thought he was exaggerating. I didn't believe him. I didn't want to believe it!" Salmah sobbed.

By this time I could feel Nanako becoming impatient.

"She went back home!" Runa cried.

"Who went back home?" I asked, by now we had both cut power to the hoverdiscs and stepped off.

"I did. I went back home. I didn't want to believe him. I went back, and mom and dad welcomed me back. They told me that they missed me, told me to stay for as long as I wanted. I knew they were acting weird, but I didn't know!" Salmah said as she wiped her tears with her dust-covered sleeves.

"It was a trap," Rahman said as he slung the IL50 particle rifle that Carl gave him a few days ago on his left shoulder, "Salmah's parents were already brainwashed to forget her and they were told to contact the military the moment we arrived. They didn't even hesitate to contact them. Within a couple of hours, the house was surrounded by Inquisitors. We had to surrender, we had no choice."

Then Salmah, still sobbing, said, "I couldn't believe it. To think that my mom and dad would sell me out. But when I confronted them, they said that they didn't know me, that they never had a daughter. They said the military knew we were coming and told them to protect the neighbourhood from us 'rebels'. They even got to my parents... the president was right. I didn't listen and because of that, Ken was killed!"

"Ken was out for groceries at that time. When he came back, the house was already surrounded and we were unable to escape. Instead of running away, Ken came charging in with his hoverbike, running over every one of those Inquisitors who were out in the open. We took that chance to escape. Ken promised he would follow, but he never did," Rahman said.

"Then how do you know he's dead?" Nanako asked.

"I saw them shoot him, with a needler. Ken was always a terrible rider. He couldn't have survived," Rahman explained.

"And you just left? You didn't even bother trying to save him?!" Nanako scolded.

"I wanted to save him. You think I didn't? But against that many, I wouldn't be able to do anything. At most it will just claim another life."

"Coward," Nanako spat as Rahman looked down at his feet.

I couldn't help by think, Now that Ken is gone. How will Runa cope? She has always been childish and needy. How will she continue without Ken by her side?

"So how did you come into the picture?" Nanako asked as she turned her attention towards Olga.

"I got separated from Jenny, Josh and Igor when our camp was stormed by the Inquisition. Jenny was captured and I don't know what happened with Josh and Igor. I barely escaped with my life that night. If not for this group, I would've bite the dust. I was interrupted during my sleep, lost my provisions and had to ride day and night to escape their chase. Rahman took care of the two inquisitors who chased me. If not for him, I probably would have been captured. That was yesterday."

So she was in the same group as queen bee Jennifer Carter. her boyfriend Joshua Collins and class representative Igor Krazinsky?

"She got injured. I bandaged her. Did I do a good job, Nana?" Runa said as Nanako and I noticed for the first time the white bandage covering blonde Olga's stomache.

Amazing. The bandage looks so clean. There are dust stains all over, but that's expected of anyone staying in a cave since yesterday. But there's no blood stain, I never knew Runa was such a good medic.

Nanako looked at the bandage with critical eyes before she smiled and rubbed Runa's head. "That was a very good job, Runa. Maybe you're useful after all."

"How mean, I'm always useful," Runa pouted, her eyes red from crying.

"So what do you all plan to do now? You do know there's a whole bunch of army men with their toys outside, right?" I asked.

"Of course, we all want to leave, but as you just mentioned, there's a whole bunch of army men outside. We came here thinking that there might be a back door, a secret passage we could escape from and throw them off our trail. We haven't found anything like that yet," Rahman said.

"Still, you can't stay here forever. If you had looked at the army camped outside, you would know that they're about ready to strike," Nanako commented.

"Of course we know that. We've hired mercenaries to disrupt their supply lines and kill off their reinforcements. We've been waiting for an opportunity to escape in the confusion."

"Where did you find mercenaries?" I asked, a little shocked that they could fine guns for hire, before another question popped into my mind, "And why didn't you ask them to bust you out?"

"I knew some paramilitary groups. As for why, we didn't have enough money. Say, I've been meaning to ask, who are you?"

"Well, that's kinda complicated. You see, everyone calls me 'Jane' now, but you used to know me as John Harolds." I said as I took off both the goggles and the mouthpiece, "Looks familiar?"

"But you look like Annamarie Hudson!" Olga said.

"Annamarie was my sister," when I saw their faces at that revelation, I said, "Apparently we were abducted together. This form is a camouflage, since Annamarie was afraid that people will be suspicious of two boys of marriable age travelling around with all these chaos in the air."

"Couldn't you do that without the breasts? It's bigger than mine!" Runa questioned as she compared my breasts with hers.

"You don't want this. It hurts my back after a few hours of putting it on!"

"You! Are you trying to pick a fight? It's like a billionaire complaining that he doesn't know what to spend his money on!" Runa yelled.

"Uh well, anyhow, this will take too long to explain. I'll tell you some other time. So Rahman, what does not having enough money have to do with not being able to tell them to bust you out?" I said, changing the subject back to the previous one.

"Between us, we only had 190,000 dollars. It wasn't enough for any mercenary group to risk their own necks assaulting an army encampment for. We settled for the only thing we could afford, we paid them to harrass their reinforcements and destroy their supply lines. We've been watching for any signs of chaos within their ranks, but nothing so far. Then you guys arrived," Rahman said with a little curious end note.

"Yea, how did you manage to pass through the army blockade, Nana? They had the whole place under sensor surveilance," Runa asked.

For some reason Nanako didn't answer, so I said, "There's an old mining trail that is hidden from their sight. As for the sensors, we hacked-"

Suddenly Nanako slapped my face very hard causing me to fall to the ground.

"What? Why did you slap me, Nana?" I exclaimed.

"You stupid idiot!" Nanako scolded with a face full of fury.

"Wait, what did I do?" I asked as I got up on one knee.

"You have absolutely no idea what you have done, idiot!" she scolded as she took out something that looked like a small cellphone, "Yuu, can you hear me?"

"Nana, is that you? Thank goodness! We didn't hear from either of you for over half an hour. We were worried," Yuu said through the static.

"Nanako, is Jane with you?" I heard something that sounded like Carl's voice from the other side.

"Yes, your precious wife is fine. Her left cheek may sting for the next few hours, though," Nanako said.

"Wife?" all four of our friends in the cave asked at the same time.

"I'll tell you later," I whispered.

"Wh-what the hell did you do with Jane?!" Carl became hysterical.

"Your stupid wife just idiotically blurted out everything. Maybe I should punish her a bit. Oh by the way, Yuu, there someone I need you to speak with," Nanako said as she called Olga.

Olga came forward and took the phone from Nanako, saying, "Hello?"

It was at that very moment that I saw a glint of steel from under Nanako's cloak. I noticed too late that it was the curved knife that the Shimizu twins gave her. All I could see, was the glint of the blade and all I could hear, was the gasping sound from Olga's mouth. It happened too fast for any of us to see clearly, and it happened too fast for any of us to react. When we finally understood what happened, Runa had already let out a scream that could wake the dead.

"What... the... fuck?" Olga said as she tried to breath.

"How dare you breathe the same air as me, shapeshifter," Nanako said as she took the phone from Olga's weak hands.

"Nana, what's going on?" Yuu asked from the other side. Obviously he heard Runa's scream through the phone.

"Nothing honey, just taking care of a filthy spy. Andy was right, you really can't trust your own friends," Nanako said.

"You... how? When?" Olga, or the shapeshifter her asked as she gripped Nanako's arms. There was no blood pouring out from the wound in her stomache. Instead, there was a pungent smell like a cat's urine.

"You made a mistake of letting Runa bandage you, shapeshifter. If you have Olga's memories, shouldn't you know that Runa's terribly bad at first aid? Ah, then again, maybe you don't know that. Olga has always been in Jenny's clique, right? So it's not your fault that this oversight happened," Nanako said as she pushed the curved knife straight up Olga's body, making a long cut up to Shapeshifter Olga's collarbones.

"Too late, human. I have already told them that you hacked the sensors. You will die here together with your friends with no chance of escape," Shapeshifter Olga croaked as her body started smoking.

Nanako instead took out her particle wand and set it to 'vaporize mode'. "You talk too much for a shapeshifter. Not to mention you stink of piss too," Nanako said as she fired a particle beam at Shapeshifter Olga, completely destroying her at the molecular level.

"What... just happened?" I asked.

"That was a shapeshifter, Jane. Have you forgotten what Jimmy said? They don't bleed and they can copy a person's lifetime memories. The real Olga is probably already in their hands. I wonder when we will see Shapeshifter Jenny or maybe we'll see another Shapeshifter Olga in the future," Nanako said with a dispassionate voice.

"Stop! Please, how could you kill our friend like that?" I asked as I saw her went to each of them and cut a little of their skin.

"Shapeshifters aren't our friends, Jane. Get that into your skull! They enslaved our race and have no trouble with capturing us and torturing us. I bet the shapeshifters are torturing Olga and Jenny even now. I don't intend on suffering the same fate. Do you?"

"Nana! What is the situation there?" Yuu asked through the phone.

Nanako raised the phone to her ear and said, "Killed a shapeshifter, nothing you need to worry about. We got Rahman, Salmah and Runa here. Ken is most likely already dead. But there's a good news, they hired mercenaries but didn't have enough money to get them to bust them out. You think we can do something about it?"

"Mercenaries? Depending on their capabilities, maybe we have a chance after all. Who's in charge over there?" Yuu said, sounding slightly excited.

Nanako looked at our three friends and threw the phone at Rahman, telling him to talk to Yuu. As if in a daze, Rahman put the phone to his ears, nodded and said yes a few times before he gave Yuu a set of numbers, probably the mercenaries' contact number. When he was done, he handed the phone back to Nanako.

"Nana, come back. I've already told him what I want them to do. We need you and Jane here. Meanwhile I'll start negotiating with the mercenaries," Yuu said.

"That may be a problem. Ask Anya if she can still hack the sensors," Nanako said.

There was a commotion and some yelling voices from the other side, before Yuu said, "Anya said you have to stay there. She can no longer hack the sensors because the military has completely cut off all outside connection with the sensor network. The only way she will be able to hack right now would be if she access the mainframe directly, which is not an option. Stay there, we'll think of something."

"No need. We'll come back soon. I'm sending Jane ahead," Nanako said as she stacked my hoverdisc on top of hers.

"Wait! Nanako, are you trying to sacrifice Jane so you can escape?" Carl said from the other side.

"Calm down, Carl. I'm going to give Jane my hoverdisc too. She'll be able to get out of the army's sensor range before they're ready to chase her. After that, she'll just have to skirt around their camp and she'll arrive at our base without a scratch," Nanako explained as she pressed some buttons and the two hoverdiscs connected together, before telling me to get on it like normal.

"Will it work? Sure, the speed will be doubled, but it will be like riding a wild horse. Will she be able to handle it?" Yuu asked.

Nanako looked at me before she said, "Sure, Annamarie said she's the ultimate pilot, right? Time for us to trust her with what she does best."

"Another question then," Yuu asked again, "How will YOU get back?"

"Why, I'll be walking of course."

"Don't be stupid! Stay there, I'll get you out!"

"Relax, my dear husband. I need you to check something for me. Go to my bike and take my binoculars. I need you to confirm whether they're all wearing full combat armour."

About three minutes later, Yuu called back, saying, "Yes, all the troopers are wearing full combat suits. The only exceptions I think are those in the command car, but they seem content with staying inside. What's this about?"

"Thanks, that's all I need to know. As I am right now, I can just walk through their camp and nobody will notice me."

"Wait, you're not seriously going to do that! There's no need to commit suicide!"

"My dear husband, this isn't an attempt at suicide. In fact, you can call me God right now," she said as she cut the transmission and handed the phone to Rahman.

"Go, we'll meet at Basecamp," she said as she tied her cloak together and covered her head with the hood.

"Don't die, Nana," I said as we went our separate ways.

I arrived in less than 10 minutes, the soldiers didn't even bother chasing me. Yuu had connected the binocular to our hoverbikes and we watched on the display as Nanako made her way alone through the enemy camp. It was amazing, she simply walked in through the main entrance, waiting behind a fully armoured soldier for the door to open, as the soldiers made no motion to stop her. A few times she even walked up to a few soldiers, yet they didn't seem to notice. She did not miss a step as she walked deeper into the enemy camp. She strode purposely and without fear weaving her way around oncoming patrolling soldiers, like the God she said she was. Many times, soldiers not in combat armour saw her but was cut down by her long curved knife before they could do anything or alert anyone, leaving the army's military police wondering what happened to their people. When she finally walked out of the enemy's camp, I thought that maybe she really was God. It was an hour after we separatet that Nana arrived at Basecamp.

"She's a shapeshifter! She must be a shapeshifter! How else did she managed to walk through the enemy camp without a scratch on her!" Miriam accused, she looked hysterical, probably terrified of Nanako.

"I'm not a shapeshifter," Nanako said as she cut her palm with her still bloody knife, causing blood to spill to the ground.

"No, she must be, how else can she still live after walking through their camp?" Miriam said as she pointed her particle wand at Nanako. I noticed that although the design was similar, it wasn't IL52S, probably the type M or K?

"If you still don't believe me, then shoot me!" Nanako challenged.

Miriam pressed the button to fire, but try as she might, she couldn't get the weapon to fire. "What's wrong? Why won't it shoot?" Then she point the nozzle upwards as if to inspect it and accidentally almost shot a hole through her head when the particle wand fired.

"As you can see, you can't target me. As long as I wear this cloak, sensors can't see me. I don't know how, but the Shimizu twins definitely weaved this cloak with a special material that absorbs or deflects radio waves or any kind of waves that sensors use," Nanako explained.

"But how could you walk through the enemy camp without being stopped?" Carl asked.

"Because they're using the standard army headgear. It's powered by the same technology in use in sensors. It gives them perfect sight and provides superior target acquisition. Unfortunately, that same technology made them susceptible to this cloak's stealth properties. So they couldn't see me. They could probably still hear footsteps, but as Yuu knows, I can easily sneak around people without making a sound," she said with a satisfied smile.

"So if everyone's done doubting Nana, shall we get to planning the battle?" Yuu said as he made a call to someone called 'Cheetah'.

"Aren't you even slightly worried that maybe your wife is a shapeshifter?" Carl asked.

"Nah, Nana has always been unpredictable. She only acts meek but as I said, she has no conscience. By the way, don't do that again, Nana."

"Yes sir!" Nana joked as a man in military fatigue walked up into our basecamp with a big roll of e-paper.

All of us quickly drew our particle wands, with the exception of Yuu. He told us to stand down and that he was expecting him. Then he introduced us to the man, codenamed Cheetah, leader of the mercenary unit that Rahman and company hired. Apparently Yuu made a very juicy deal with them, something about taking most of the spoils. However, it seemed like it wasn't enough, they agreed to attack the enemy camp, but refused to suffer unnecessary risks. So we had to be the spearhead, and since we didn't want to die, we had to design a strategy where we minimize the risk to the mercenaries while at the same time making sure that none of us died.

Personally, I was worried of this plan. What if we spearheaded the assault, got ourselves deep into enemy territory, but the mercenaries didn't come? What would we do then? Regardless, I kept silent. It seemed the master strategist Yuu accepted this guy, even Nanako who's pretty sharp at times had nothing to say. I didn't want to cause doubt when we needed to trust each other the most.

It took them some time to come to an agreement. In the end, it was a strategy that satisfied neither side, but was a viable one without putting too much risk on either side. Yuu disliked it because if something went wrong, we could all end up captured. The mercenary captain disliked it because it put too much weight on his band of mercenaries and he didn't like the idea that his men would be taking that much risk. In the end, both of them agreed to the plan, despite the enemy army outnumbering us 4 to 1.

At midnight, the first ever real battle of our lives begun.

"Cavemen, are you ready?" Yuu asked through the hoverbike's comm.

We had already gotten onto our own hoverbikes, in anticipation for combat. We were to be the spearhead, the Lancers. Our task was to create confusion in the enemy's ranks, to prevent an effective counterattack. We wanted to leave Anya behind along with our non-essential gear, thinking that her skills as a hacker would be useless in battle. Anya vehemently refused, and so it was decided that she would sit behind Yuu and provide rear protection for our battle commander.

"Ready, sir!" Rahman, a former gaming partner of Yuu replied. He was to lead the Cavemen, whose tasks would be to assasinate key leadership of the enemy and deprive them of leaders to rally to.

"Tigers, are you ready?" Yuu asked the mercenaries through the comm.

"Ready, sir," Cheetah replied. His mercenaries' tasks were to provide cover for our retreat. After which, they were to pummel the enemy encampment with their 6 tanks and mop up the remainder of the enemy with their hoverbike squads.

"Lancers, are you ready?" Yuu asked as all of us raised the shields on our sides and back. Yuu kept the shield on his back lowered, so Anya could provide cover for his back with her IL52S.

"Ready, general," Nanako joked as she lined up on Yuu's left.

"Ready op!" Carl said, as he lined up to Yuu's right.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" I said as I charged the hoverbike's repellant coils and lined up to Carl's right. At the same time, I turned on the IL52S strapped to the front of my hoverbike and set it to 'deflector mode', with its processing power boosted by the hoverbike's CPU. I looked at the force grenade that Carl shared with each of us, clipped to my hoverbike and then I looked at Carl. He noticed me looking at him, so I offered him a smile, to which he returned it with his own sweet smile.

"Ready as always," Yannick said as he lined up next to Nanako.

"I am ready," Miriam said as she lined up next to Yannick.

"Cavemen, have at them!" Yuu ordered.

One unmanned hoverbike rushed out of the caves, ending in an explosion which blew open the camp's entrance on the cave's side wide open. Following it closely were two other unmanned hoverbikes, launched only 3 seconds later. The hoverbikes used their integrated pathfinding processors to weave their way through throngs of confused soldiers. One reached its objective of exploding against the army's command vehicle. The other was fired upon nearing its objective, the entrance that faced our location. Without an evasion program, the hoverbike was hit by every particle streams fired at it causing it lose its hover capabilities and skidded on the ground. Despite that, it achieved its task, for a hoverbike could feel no pain nor suffering. Once the sensors determined that it was within the designated area, the processor delivered a command which caused the reactor to cease containment and exploded against the entrance, blowing it wide open.

"Lancers, gogogo!" Yuu commanded as together within a single line, we charged down the decline towards the enemy camp.

The distraction was adequate, but it didn't do its job as well as we hoped. Junior officers of the enemy quickly took over control of their army when they spotted our approach. The soldiers quickly formed a defensive line against us while waiting for an order from their officers. Yet, our minds were made up, we continued our approach.

"Cavemen, I need that officer taken out!" Yuu ordered.

"Roger!" Rahman said as he sniped at the junior officers one after another. Then he proceeded to snipe at the soldiers in the defensive line, causing some of them to turn around to locate the threat.

"Lancers! Charge!" Yuu ordered as we rushed their defensive line.

The soldiers, confused at the lack of orders, hesitated for a few seconds. Then someone fired, and the others followed suit. Within seconds, hundreds of particle pulses came our way like a rain of light, fired in full automatic. Our particle wands performed its job well. Together, all 8 of our particle wands, of which two was Yuu's, cancelled every one of the particle pulses. Nanako's modification that programmed the particle wands to ignore shots that wouldn't hit us greatly increased its effectiveness.

"AT weapons!" I exclaimed, seeing the soldiers taking out anti-tank cannons and rifles.

"Too late!" Carl commented right before our hoverbikes smashed apart their defensive line.

"Level them!" Yuu ordered as we ran over the soldiers with our hoverbikes.

Whenever we encountered clumps of enemy soldiers, we threw the force grenades to great effect. Anya meanwhile, fired her IL52S at soldiers who tried to get back to their feet or tried to shoot at us. It didn't do much good against their full armour, but it was enough to stun them for a few seconds before our hoverbikes ran over them again.

"Lancers, go deeper!" Yuu ordered once we managed to run over every armoured soldiers in sight.

And so we proceeded to run over every soldiers, in every alley, every clearing and outside every tents until a lucky shot from the back hit Nanako's power router, causing Nanako's hoverbike to malfunction. I, being closest at that moment, dropped my left silicate shield and grabbed Nanako's arm before the hoverbike could tilt over and trap her underneath. I quickly raised the left shield again.

"Thanks," Nanako said as she sat behind me.

"No problem," I said before I said into the comm, "I got Nana."

"Roger that, Jane. Lancers, prepare to fly in 3... 2... 1. Lancers, SKYWARD!" Yuu ordered as we cranked the hoverbike's hover capabilities to the max, rocketing us high in the sky as we manipulated our hoverbike's tilt to control the direction of our ascent.

"Tigers, do your stuff!" Yuu commanded while we were still climbing higher and higher in the sky.

In seconds we heard the rumbles of cannons firing shells after shells of high explosive materials into the army's camp. I looked through the map display and saw the Tigers moving in their whole army into the plains below us. The tanks made short work of any artillery resistance the enemy had, while their battlebikes peppered the enemy's armoured soldiers with their armour-piercing gauss rounds. Within 20 minutes, they almost got full control of the enemy base.

That was, until the army deployed a force shield to protect the core of their camp.

"General, you didn't say anything about a forcefield!" Cheetah yelled through the comm.

"I didn't know there was a forcefield! Just pummel it with your tanks!" Yuu advised as our hoverbikes declined.

"High explosive shells does zip against forcefields. We're switching to EM shells now, but we didn't carry many EM shells. I don't know if it will be enough," Cheetah said.

"Do as much damage as you can. Try to bring in more supplies or raid their ammo dumps. I'm sure they'll have something useful," Yuu commanded as our hoverbikes gently touched the ground.

"With the enemy's forces concentrated on defending the force shield, I think it's safe for us to proceed towards the caves and rescue our friends. What do you all say?" Carl said through the comm.

"Hell yeah!" Yannick agreed.

"Sure, let's go," Yuu said as he lead us across the hundreds of dead soldiers, broken military vehicles and equipments, and craters made by our side's explosive shells.

It was a teary reunion when we were reunited with Rahman, Salmah and Runa. Runa cried the most, though she slanderously claimed that I cried more than her. Salmah then took up seat behind Rahman, who was sitting on their sole surviving hoverbike. Runa sat behind Carl, who patted her head and gave her munches as we went to the enemy base. There, we met Cheetah again, he was standing next to crates of enemy ammunition and equipment.

"General, good to see you and your squad all safe," Cheetah said amidst the sounds of cannon fire and EM shells striking the enemy's force shield.

"We were lucky, our only casualty was a single hoverbike. Well, actually four hoverbikes, but nothing more important than lives," Yuu got down from his hoverbike followed by the rest of us.

"Well, I'm glad everything went well, General. We faced insurmountable odds," Cheetah said as he held out his hand.

"Not so insurmountable since we won," Carl commented with a grin.

Yuu ignored Carl and shook Cheetah's hand vigorously, "Yeah, many things could've happened. We were lucky that the only thing that didn't go our way was that they got a force shield in reserve."

"Yes, that was unexpected. But look, the force shield is flickering. It won't be long before it shuts down entirely. So let's get on with payment," Cheetah said as he placed an e-paper onto one of the crates.

"Wait, payment? I thought you already got your payment?" Carl said, referring to the spoils of war.

"He meant our share of the spoils, idiot. As per the agreement, we get first pick of any spoils that we can carry," Yuu said as he took the e-paper and perused the list, before he said, "Amazing, you got this much? I thought your mercenary army bombarded everything?"

"Heh, pretty impressive, don't you think?" Cheetah grinned.

Yuu then shared the contents of the e-paper to our own personal e-papers before handing it back to Cheetah. I looked at the spoils of war inventory and was very amazed at its contents.

3 TT-22 Fast Attack Tank
2 TT-19 Medium Assault Tank
2 TA-16 Hovertank
1 TK-6 Camouflaged Tank
1 VTOL C-210 Shockdrop Troop Carriers
5 Co-42 VTOL Stealth Gunships
40 Tunnel crawler mines
4 BB-12 Battlebikes
49 Force Lance
8 Full Armour Suits
203 IL50 Rifles
148 Force Grenades
193 IL52K Particle Wands
A bunch of other things that I couldn't tell for sure what it was

"We'll take one of the Co-42 Gunships, please," Rahman said suddenly.

"But you won't be able to bring the hoverbike with you," I pointed out.

"Then I'll leave it here. I see Nanako doesn't have a hoverbike of her own, she can have mine," Rahman said.

"I understand," Yuu said as he confirmed the request and said, "Good luck on your travel, Crazy Gunner."

"Good luck? I don't understand, you're saying as if... they're separating from us," I said.

"John - Jane, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be ungrateful. We decided this before the battle started and after what we've seen in the cave, we thought it would be best if we be cautious of everyone, even you guys."

"She was a shapeshifter. Once you know how to spot one, you can easily avoid them," Yuu stated.

"That's the problem. We don't want to 'spot' a shapeshifter. Even if we know she was a shapeshifter, we probably won't have the heart to kill her. No, we will follow what the president told us in class. We will trust no one, as we should've done from the start," Rahman said.

Yuu nodded. "As I said, good luck. Take some rifles with you, just in case."

"Thanks, we owe you one. Let's meet again at the destination," Rahman said as one of the Co-42 Gunship landed right next to us. He and Salmah quickly loaded up the Gunship with food and ammunition.

"I'll miss you, Nana," Runa sobbed as she hugged Nanako.

"Let's meet again, okay?" Nanako said as she hugged Runa with eyes closed. It was times like these that made me think that Nanako will make a good mother.

"You can count on it, Nana," Runa said as she let go.

"Do you even know which direction to go, though?" Carl asked.

Runa seemed to think a little, before she pointed her index finger to one direction. That direction was west, our destination was actually north. I didn't tell her though, as I didn't want her to feel embarrassed. Runa had always been bad with directions. I was sure that Rahman and Salmah wouldn't make the same mistake.

"Runa, let's go!" Salmah called as Runa ran towards the gunship's side entry.

"Goodbye everyone, see you guys at the destination!" Rahman said as all three of them waved at us before the side entry door closed shut and they hovered higher, blowing dust around us before flying west.

I was worried, wondering if they actually knew where they were going. With Salmah at the helm, that shouldn't be a problem. At least, I thought it wouldn't be a problem. Salmah was a good pilot, but I couldn't say for certain of her sense of direction.

"I urge that everyone of us take one of the force lances. There will probably be more battles ahead of us and we could've achieved more on our own if we had those in our hands. I wouldn't suggest the rifles, as Carl realized, it was hard to use the rifles while riding the hoverbike. I won't take the battlebikes either, they require constant recharging," Nanako said.

"Umm, sure, the force lances for each of us, and what about the TT-19 Medium Assault Tank?" Yuu said.

"Sorry, your credit's maxed. Please try again," Cheetah grinned.

"Damn!" Yuu cursed amidst the sound of explosion from the last remaining piece of land occupied by the enemy's forces.

The mercenaries managed to break through the force shield at last.

"Yuu, we don't need a tank, remember?" Carl said.

"It's not a matter of need, it's a matter of want. I want a tank!" Yuu argued.

"Haha, you and Metallic Fury again," Carl laughed.

"You don't understand my dreams, Carl. Fine then, I want those force lances and the IL52K for each of us," Yuu compromised.

"Done!" Cheetah said as he had his men search the crates for our stuff before handing it to each of us.

"Well, now that we're done here, let's go back to camp, pick up our stuff and get the hell out of here," Yuu suggested, to which we all agreed.

And thus we left behind the battlefield of Mineshaft 1, with the setting sun on our left and the sea on our right at full speed. Onwards to Mineshaft 6.

******


Heading to Los Angeles City. One team heads west. Believe final destination to be west, LA City is probably just a stop. Rebel forces staying behind at Mineshaft 1. Suggesting complete annihilation.

"It's a pretty good haul, sir," a young soldier said to Cheetah, who was sitting on one of the crates.

Cheetah looked up at the boy. It was after battles like these that his knees went weak, as the adrenaline left his body. Cheetah fondly remembered his younger days, fighting in the jungles of the real Earth, not this pale imitation. It felt good to see another day after such intense fighting.

"Have they started moving the spoils?" Cheetah asked as he lighted a cigarette.

The young soldier consulted his e-paper. "The Co-42 gunships, C-210 troop carriers, the battlebikes and some of the smaller stuff is being transported to HQ right now. The tanks and other stuff need to be repaired for the journey."

"Very good, seems like this is our most successful and lucrative operation so far. Mariella will no doubt be damned horny seeing this much spoils," Cheetah said before his eyes noticed a spot of red on the ground and got up to have a look, "What is that?"

"Yes, it's funny. It started about two minutes ago. Others have reported seeing two more spot of red on the ground. They deduced that it was some kind of light or laser from the sky, but it didn't carry any heat," the young soldier explained.

Cheetah's heart skipped a beat and sweat ran down his body. "Is it in the shape of a triangle?" he asked.

The young soldier consulted his map and said, "Yes, it is a perfect triangle, covering an area about 40,000 meters. Is... something wrong, sir?"

"Oh no..." Cheetah felt a lump in his throat, his face paled considerably. In his mind, the same word, 'orbit' kept ringing over and over. He felt weak in his knees and he was about to collapse, but knowing what was happening, he steadied his stance and stood straigh, calling for all his soldiers to listen to him.

Once they were all on their feet, Cheetah saluted as he said to all the soldiers and technicians in front of him, "Men, it has been an honour to serve with you."

Everyone stood straight, eyes aimed at their commanding officer, and saluted as they said together, "It has been an honour to serve under you, SIR!"

It was at that time that the Cyclops Orbital Particle Cannon fired its heavy matter particles toward the ground. Within seconds, 398 soldiers and technicians were ripped to shreds by a destructive force akin to a meteorite impact. When the particle cannon finally ran its course, the area had become a crater the size of a small city. The mercenaries thought their leader was paying them his respects before retiring. They never thought that they would all be retiring together.

*Finally, chapter 5 is out! I suffered 8 computer freezes in the process of writing this story. With this done, only 5-6 chapters left.
**As always, your comments and feedbacks are very welcomed. Praises help me to write faster, constructive criticisms help me to write better. Thanks for all your support.