Several miles ahead of Dayle, Arthur screeched to a sharp halt, eyes wide at the aircraft chamber before him.

Dozens of vorgs ran about in a circular area, roughly 150m in diameter, into a number of parked aircraft carriers, their designs ranging from the two-seater sparrows to the larger 'buses' which were designed to carry up to 20 troops. Curiously, the vorgs were too occupied in entering the escape shuttles to care for the intruders. After all, they knew quite well that these two were Augers. Killing them would only send them back to their respective cities even faster. There was no longer a need to prioritize killing them when it would only result in more losses on the vorgs' side.

So it was with bitter hearts filled with thoughts of vengeance that the vorgs dashed into their respective aircrafts.

Arthur ran a quick sweep of his surroundings as he searched for the way out, but from what he saw, vorgs poured in from all the tunnels entering this area, but none went into those tunnels. As if to answer his question his questions, Arthur felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to Eli, who then pointed toward the ceiling. Arthur looked to the direction he pointed at. Arthur immediately thanked the gods for his helmet or Eli would have seen the young agent's jaw drop to the earth.

Up above, rays of moonlight and raindrops trickled into the cavern as several meters of rock slowly shifted from each other. A subtle groaning sound like the yawn of a primordial beast echoed through the cavern as its jaws slowly, but surely opened to the outside.

Arthur stared blankly at the ceiling that was at least 100m away from them. His gaze went from his bike to the ceiling, then back up again. He muttered incredulously, "I do not think we can reach that on this."

Behind him, Eli asked, "Ever played flight simulators?"

"Master level," Arthur replied. It was better than saying he had flown real fighter jets right?

"Good, stow the bike and follow me," Eli said as he hopped down and stole behind an abandoned vehicle.

Arthur quickly assimilated the hover-bike then followed Eli's lead. "What's your plan?"

An assault rifle appeared in Eli's hands as he peered around the corner. "There are five buses in total," Eli said as he pointed across the chamber where five aircrafts slightly larger than a double-decker bus were parked, with their rear open for the evacuating vorgs to enter. Even as he spoke, one of the aircrafts' cargo doors tightly shut.

Seconds later, the craft's engines rotated so they faced the ground. Blasts from the propulsion units seamlessly lifted the aircraft off the ground, and toward the open ceiling above.

Eli squinted at the aircraft then pulled his attention back to the four that were still grounded. "I hope you're ready for a firefight. We'll wait till the three take off, then make for the last."

Arthur squinted his eyes at the last aircraft. Twenty-seat bus, ten by each wall opposite each other. Close proximity, roughly two meter leg-room. Firearms not advised, might damage the craft's electricals. Arthur took a deep breath as he scrolled through his inventory to see if he had gotten anything suitable at the armoury he could use. His fingers paused on a pair of alloyed metal rods which oddly occupied the same inventory space. It was the sign of a set. Upon selection, the rods appeared in his hands. Both were very smooth, silver cylindrical rods made from an alloy he did not recognize at first glance. Anyway, it looked really high level stuff.

Suddenly, his gauntlet flashed a message prompt.

Foreign Device Attempting Synchronization

Grant Permission?

Yes No

Arthur glanced at the rods in his hands. He noticed dull flashing lights at their centers which reminded him of old Bluetooth. What the hell. Let's give it a try. Arthur accepted the confirmation, then watched as various displays detailing the alloys flitted across his gauntlet's screen. His eyes lit up in with an excited gleam at the numerous prompts. These things were made for him! Eager to test these babies in the field, he sprinted out of cover before Eli could react. "Back me up!"

A few meters above, the fourth bus hesitated as its pilot noticed the charging human, but ultimately decided to keep climbing. The pilot refused to believe a single human could defeat over forty of his brothers and sisters in close combat.

Eli, who had his rifle trained at the hovering craft, breathed a sigh of relief when it resumed its ascent. Worst case scenario, those bastards could have chosen to sacrifice the last bus in order to prevent their escape. But it seemed the vorgs did not believe the intruders' potential survival was worth killing off their own allies.

Of course, it helped that the vorgs were not aware of the information they had downloaded, or else they all would have fought to the last man to make sure the intruders perished.

After a moment of hesitation, Eli followed behind Arthur who was but a few meters from the craft. By this time, the vorgs had noticed the charging humans. While those close to the cockpit screamed at the pilot to take off, five of the warriors at the back jumped down from the craft and quickly raised their rifles, the cargo doors already closing behind them.

Each and every little detail was caught in the young agents eyes. With a mocking sneer, he tapped the rod on his right while sending a mental instruction then flung it at the cargo entrance with all his might.

The vorgs obviously recognized the spinning rod and their complexions paled. Wasn't that the reward given to vorgs upon promotion to generals? This base only had the one set for their leader who was only one rank away from general. Why did this human have it!? Unfortunately, they did not have a chance to ponder any further as two, meter long blades protruded from either end of the rotating rod. The five vorgs at the door could only let out agonizing wails as they were cut in half at the waist, their unwilling, hate-filled glares directed at the human who jumped above their corpses without so much as a glance.

The spinning blade of death switched to a vertical stance as it stabbed into the cabin's roof at an angle. The cargo door stabbed into the other end of the rod and was locked in place for a brief second, the rod shaking violently as it could not withstand the pressure. But that brief second was enough for the charging human.

Boosted by the suit, Arthur's jump took him above the aircraft. He angled his body during his landing such that it passed through the narrow space between the cargo door and the cabin. As he slid down the door, his finger brushed the rod. It instantly retracted its blades, and clattered harmlessly alongside the young agent.

Arthur's feet had no sooner touched base, did he lash out with the rod in his left hand. His left hand drew a beautiful arc of blood as the blade at the end sliced off the necks of two stunned vorgs in one go. Arthur knew with his strength alone, trying to cut these guys at the bone would have been impossible, but the blade of this rod was incomparably sharp!

Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught a vorg to his right about to squeeze the trigger on a machine pistol. Arthur's adrenaline in full burst, he swiveled to the back of one of the vorg's he had just beheaded, allowing it to soak up the bullets for him. Instincts blaring, Arthur ducked as a massive fist smashed the body behind to pieces. Blood and bone exploded in the craft, but not a single person was affected by the gruesome sight.

Arthur's left hand swung upward and that attacking hand was forever disconnected from the wrist. The agent could not follow up as burst of pain from his back blasted him to the floor. He hit the floor hard, a sickly-sweet taste emerging at the back of his throat. With a quick roll, he dodged an enraged stomp, and his right hand luckily grasped the rod that had fallen with him.

Still rolling, Arthur swung both blades with careless abandon at the feet around him. As vorg after another dropped to the floor, the cock of a shotgun set his internal alarms screaming. Instantly, the blades retracted as he pressed both rods against the floor and selected another configuration. The right rod suddenly stretched in length successfully blasting him off that position as a fresh new hole was blasted through the floor.

The rod in Arthur's left hand, transformed to a spear, zipped through and pinned the head of that vorg to the wall. Arthur, with his back against the left wall, glared at a zorg whose finger had already begun squeezing the trigger. Realizing he could not dodge in time, the 'staff' in his right hand lashed out and slapped against the vorg's left hand.

The vorg, who in his rage could not stop his finger from squeezing the trigger, unfortunately executed his allies seated on the left side of the aircraft who had not been able to stand on account of the congestion. Just like that, ten vorgs perished on their seats without a chance to fight back.

Arthur decisively charged ahead as the vorg paused in shock, the rod in his right hand once again switching to its scimitar form. The vorg crumbled to the floor as Arthur jumped past, blade slicing through his neck like tofu. The young agent reclaimed the other rod from the opposite wall then once again charged into the panicked vorgs.

These battle-hardened soldiers realized they dealt more harm than good with hot weapons so they all drew combat daggers as the lot of them charged the tiny human in the enclosed space.

With the vorgs' superior size, they should have held the advantage in close combat but the young agent was just too slippery. Arthur made good use of his inferior height to effortlessly duck and weave through their blows, taking full advantage of the small spaces left between their massive bodies in tight spaces to leave fatal cuts for each vorg in return.

Within ten-fifteen seconds, Arthur alone remained in the cabin, entire armour soaked with fresh blood. Arthur disregarded the mutilated body parts as he calmly entered the cockpit which had a terrified female vorg clearly skinnier than the others holding the wheel like her life depended on it. The co-pilot had joined the fight, leaving only the main pilot who had not yet joined the warrior corps.

Arthur placed the scimitar's blade on the vorg's neck, drawing a clean line of blood. "Land." The vorg hesitated, but when the blade sunk a little deeper, she gritted her teeth and set the craft on the ground. "Door."

The pilot pushed a button to her side and the cargo door slowly swung down.

Eli, whose nerves were almost shot charged into the cabin, rifle raised and ready to go. But when he saw the sight before him and Arthur nonchalantly gazing at him from the cockpit, he could not help but feel a shiver run down his spine. From the bullet holes and the body parts, he could only guess as to what kind of fight had happened here. "You clean up nice," Eli honestly praised as he walked into the cockpit. He saw the pilot with a blade to her neck. "Hostage?"

"Need her to fly this thing."

"No we don't." Eli said as he decisively pulled out a pistol and blasted a hole through the vorg's forehead. He unstrapped her from the pilot's chair and tossed her body into the littered cabin behind. "Those simulators you played," Eli inquired as he sat in the pilot's chair and strapped himself in. "Any of them military?"

Arthur frowned. Maybe he had shown off a little too much. However after a moment's hesitation, he shrugged. What was done was done. The intel they extracted might outweigh the cost of being exposed. "Yes. Why do you ask?" He conceded as he walked to the back of the ship to keep an eye on the entrance. He had switched the rods which now held a special place in his heart for an assault rifle.

"The controls ain't that much different," Eli encouraged as he flicked a few switches to power up the main engines. "Aside from the really fancy stuff, the basics should be about the same."

Arthur whistled in surprise. "Is it okay? This level of realism."

Eli shrugged. "Don't know what Genaco's thinking, but to help novices, there's everything from gun school to pilot training available in the cities."

"Oi, oi," Arthur could not help but exclaim. "Is this a game or a soldier factory?"

"No one's complaining if it means less idiots on the street with guns they can't control."

Arthur shook his head, about to say something, but an emergency transmission ceased all thought.

"Get that bird in the air!" Dayle's frantic transmission burst through as he tore into the hangar like a hound out of hell. "We're coming in hot!"

Eli needed no further prodding. He gently pushed down on a lever to his right, increasing the engines' output. The bus gently lifted off the ground then hovered a meter above the floor. "Fucker wasn't kidding," muttered Eli as he looked over his shoulder and saw the massive inferno chasing the stupidly laughing agent.

Dayle assimilated the bike just as he entered the craft, causing him, Raines and a vorgian corpse to painfully crash to the floor. Luckily, several mutilated corpses softened the blow. Without so much as a glance at the bodies, Dayle screamed, "Go! Go! Go!"

Eli forcibly pushed the lever all the way to the end. The craft jerked then accelerated upwards, forcing Dayle and Raines against the floor. Dayle patted Raines' shoulder and pointed at an empty seat. "Strap on!" Then he shouted at Eli. "Leave the cargo door open! I need a vertical climb!"

"What for!?" Eli screamed back, even as he pulled the steering towards himself. He did not know why, but he felt compelled to listen to this guy.

Raines quickly strapped herself to a seat as Dayle and a couple of corpses slid down the cabin floor as the craft slowly inclined as it rose. "Gate!" Dayle called, and Eli pushed a button close to him. A perforated gate slid from the bottom of the entrance to the top. It was a makeshift measure to prevent cargo and also people from falling out in case the cargo doors got damaged by an attack. It was recently implemented in both commercial and military planes after an incident occurred a few years back. He had gambled that Genaco would add this feature to their game. Seemed he was right.

Dayle glanced at Arthur as his feet hit the gate. Luckily it felt quite sturdy. Below them, a mind-numbing roar shook the craft as the Queen Wasp angrily burst through the plumes of flames. Its children were mostly all dead, thus it was determined to punish those responsible even if it killed it.

Arthur turned from the monstrosity below to the asshat by his side. Years together as teammates ensured they could almost read each other's minds. "The big one?!"

"The big one!" Dayle affirmed, the smirk apparent in his voice.

Arthur scrolled through his inventory till he reached the DMN MK 43. That hulking mass of murder appeared once again in the world and Dayle swiftly moved to support his partner in holding this crazy weapon.

Arthur squeezed the trigger and the weapon's engine issued a low hum as it generated energy. To his side, Dayle kept muttering "Not yet, Not yet," as he stared at the approaching wasp with what Arthur assumed to be bloodshot eyes filled with greed.

Eli, oblivious to whatever the hell Dayle was planning, only pushed harder on the throttle to escape the wasp and flames. He gritted his teeth as he stared at the circle above with undisguised agitation. As long as he made it that far!

500m...400m...300m

The wasp let out an animated cry as its feelers brushed against the craft.

200m...100m...50m

The wasp's mandibles opened wide ready to crush the chopper to pieces.

Eli gritted his teeth as he pushed the engines for all she had for the final spurt. The stress blew up one of the engines but bought the craft enough propulsion to blast out of the hole in an extreme parabola.

Dayle who had patiently waited all this while suddenly screamed. "Now!"

Arthur immediately released the trigger. Both he and Dayle were thrown 'upwards' as they did not have good footing. Blood seeped from broken hands as the autocannon which tore a hole through the gate fell through that very hole. The cannon, still releasing its lasers dropped into the wasp's open proboscis.

The queen, which had also slightly bent in preparation to follow their projection let out a shrill cry as the weapon destroyed its inner organs from the inside out. Several instances of laser beams blasting out of its carapace occurred in the span of a short few seconds, however it doggedly gave chase as If blind to its own injuries. It was clear that it had lost all reason to rage.

"Dayle, what now?" Arthur asked as he warily examined the beast who painfully kept pace with them.

"It's fine," Dayle promised as he patted his partner's shoulder. He pointed at the queen whose entire fur was now coated red, blood falling like rain to the ground below. "She doesn't have much time left."

"Sorry to spoil the fun," Eli called from the cockpit. "But neither do—Boom! ...and there goes our second engine. If you ain't got any other bright ideas, I suggest you park your asses. This ain't gonna be soft."

Dayle shared a glance with Arthur. At his partner's nod, they took the seats closest to the cargo door and strapped themselves in.

It must be said that Eli was quite the accomplished pilot. Despite having no engines to work with, he managed to force the craft into a parabolic descent to reduce the impact. Behind them, the queen wasp also began to descend, although her cries had long since stopped.

Eli gritted his teeth as the craft crashed to ground. Luckily, he had prevented it from falling in a nose dive. Unluckily, the ground he landed on was rocky and filled with outcroppings. The crafts bottom smashed against a protruding rock, forcing the craft into a terrible tumbled.

While Dayle, Eli, Arthur and Raines gritted their teeth and silently said their prayers, mutilated body parts bounced apart, as if in jubilee. Eventually, the craft came to a hard stop against the face of a cliff.

It took a few seconds for Dayle to reorient himself, his ears ringing as a massive headache pounded against his head. "Everyone alive?"

Three disgruntled voices grudgingly replied as his voice was like a massive blow to their overly-sensitive senses. Dayle unstrapped himself from the seat and fell to the roof of the bus. Apparently, they had landed upside down. He got to his feet then looked to the cargo entrance only to freeze at the massive compound eyeball glaring at him.

"Relax," Arthur prompted with an exaggerated roll of the shoulders which released several 'Ka-cha' sounds. "I think it's dead."

"How about we get off this thing before it explodes." Eli and Raines walked up to them, the former clearly exasperated by the duo's easy going attitude.

Dayle glanced at Eli. "Not yet. Got any more of those corpse retriever thingnies?"

Eli glanced at Raines who shrugged. With a sigh he realized he should have expected she would report to her leader. After all, there was no prior agreement to keep anything a secret. "I have one large one. Should be able to handle everything in this ship. But I gotta warn you. It's expensive shit."

Dayle glanced at Arthur and said with a slight smirk. "Show him."

Arthur, following Dayle's lead, tapped on his gauntlet. Immediately holographic images of all the items he had siphoned in the armoury hovered over his arm. Without waiting for Eli to speak, he informed, "No level-locks."

Eli immediately tossed Dayle two of his his largest corpse-retrievers. Corpse-retrievers money could buy. These things on the hand. "The smaller can handle everything on this ship. The larger can store that wasp since you seem to be interested in it."

"Nice doing business with you," Dayle proclaimed with a laugh as he assimilated all the bioligcal material in the ship without hesitation. He placed the ball in his inventory while Eli and Arthur discussed which guns he should take then passed through the hole in the gate and jumped down from the craft.

In any case, he had almost as many guns as Arthur did, so he was not really interested in how much Arthur decided to give Eli. After all, the dude had more than helped them this time around. He deserved a fair share of the spoils.

Dayle made his way to the compound eye of the dead queen wasp and patted it with a complacent smirk. "You sure gave me a lot of trouble." Facing this eye which was the same height as he was, Dayle simply took out a beginner combat knife and stabbed it, drawing a slit from the top to bottom. He did not care as pus, blood and water burst onto his armour. At the end of the day, he doubted he would ever wear this thing again.

He disappeared into the eye.

Raines, who saw his actions only shook her head as she took a safe distance from the craft and waited for Arthur and Eli who eventually joined up after finishing their discussions. Arthur had gifted him one sniper rifle, two assault rifle and one launcher. It might have not seem like much, but should the production method of these weapons spread, someone could secretly fund an army who did not fall under the supervision of the Continental Firearms Association (CFA).

Eli glanced at the lone sniper in confusion. "Where is he?"

Raines pointed at the wasp's from which Dayle emerged with a spring in his step, right hand clutching a massive orb the size of a basketball. He carelessly assimilated the rest of the wasp into the corpse retriever as he gauntly skipped up to them. He raised the core for everyone to see, his eyes gleaming. "Look what I found."

Eli sighed as understanding dawned. "Good catch." He pressed a button on his gauntlet and a superbly stylish, advanced hoverbike appeared by his side. "Now come on, we don't want to be here when others come looking."

Raines and the others summoned their bikes and mounted them.

As Eli led the way out of the area, he could not help but glance their beginner issued bikes. Those skills matched with that gear. No doubt about it. These guys are pros in real life!