"Giant Stygians four hundred meters north of our location, Lieutenant!" Vigil whirred into action as he readjusted the aim of the autocannons toward the front north of them.

  Upon hearing Vigil's report, Altair dashed his eyes forth, left and right, accumulating all the information he could gather about their surroundings.

  "Vigil, launch all four of our missiles into the frontmost Giant Stygian as a delaying tactic. How many minutes are left until the dissonance projector and resonance disruptor are completed?" Altair swayed his hands across the pitter-pattering console. "How about our ammunition capacity and energy units as of now?"

  "Understood, Lieutenant." Vigil said and started the countdown.

  Vigil began to whir as he raised his own power intake to process a large amount of information, from correcting the autocannons to searching for complex information along a massive web of data, which he undoubtedly noticed and took note of for later, when he was going to optimize his code and self.

  Once all the necessary information was extracted, the power intake significantly dwindled as it returned to its normal levels.

  "Lieutenant, we have six hundred eighty-four shells left for our autocannons, and four thousand units of energy left; however, at the same time we have killed about one hundred twelve Stygians, and so based on my calculation we have gained more than a thousand units of energy, which is about one thousand six hundred eighty." Vigil paused as if taking a breath, even though he had no breathing apparatus. "Which brings us to a total of five thousand six hundred eighty units of energy or, in percentage terms, about fifty-seven percent based on our current ten thousand units of energy maximum limit within our energy storage tank." Vigil concluded his report to Altair, who was now sitting with a serious expression as he took in all the possibilities of what could happen.

  Altair sat as he watched the missile countdown, at the same time coordinating the defense throughout the Ironside.

  Three

  "There are one minute and thirty seconds left until we can deploy our newly manufactured weapons." He thought to himself, "Unfortunately, looking out at those Giant Stygians, it seems that it would take no more than thirty seconds for them to arrive at our current position." He concluded.

  Two

  "I just hope that the missiles will be able to delay them even for a few seconds." He mumbled to himself as he shifted his vision toward those whom he was protecting. Then for a short while, like a ghost from the past, a picture of his fiancée, Elena, flashed before his eyes. He smiled, but as could be captured through Vigil's vision, Vigil arrived at another conclusion.

  "You're smiling, yet why do you look so sad, Lieutenant?" Vigil concluded in his newly formed consciousness.

  One

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  "This can't be?" Altair questioned his deteriorating sanity. "No, she's gone, just like everybody else from Terra." Like everything else, he denied it, and categorized everything just like before and after.

  Launching!

  Meanwhile, below the Ironside, Mira and her party were preparing for the incoming Nightmare to further assist the Ironside, when suddenly the surrounding earth rumbled. They all glanced forth, and with their mouths agape, they saw what looked like a needle speeding through the skies, and heading for the Nightmares they had just witnessed.

  "What in the world is that?" Brennan spoke in awe, which the others shared. Then as if suddenly remembering what he had just witnessed from a few hours ago, his eyes dilated, his chest tightening and with a single thought he said, "It can't be?!"

  The silver needle flew through the sky, it shrieked as it tore through the air followed by a circle of white that seemed to not follow the laws of the world. In a single heartbeat, the earth lifted around the Nightmares as if it was being inhaled, as it burst outward, flinging soil, stone and splintered roots into the sky.

  The trees closest to the impact simply ceased to exist, their trunks snapped beneath, their lush green crowns now a scatter of needles and bark. As cerulean flame rolled through the undergrowth in a low, furious wave, igniting each sap and leaf that littered with a pitter-patter.

  A shockwave ran in a concentric circle that outran the cerulean flames, flattening the grass and snapping branches. Birds who were taking refuge from the black rain were stripped clean of their feathers, now flightless if they were even alive at that point.

  Smoke boiled upward into a mushroom cloud, thick, crimson black, with cerulean stench underneath, only barely threaded with embers that drifted like fireflies only to be immediately extinguished by the black rain. Resins burned in the air, mixed with the copper taste of soil.

  Brennan, with his wolf-kin genes, could only close his ears like what he used to do earlier, but this time it was particularly unbearable. Only when the noise finally collapsed into a ringing hush did he begin to open his eyes. However, when he opened them back up, he fell down to his knees, but was barely supported by Lyria.

  Mira, with her trembling hands, stepped forward and shielded both Brennan and Lyria, only to be interrupted by the Ironside, just as she was thinking of doing something else.

  "I know what you are trying to do." The Ironside whirred, "Don't, and that is an order." It commanded, offering no way out.

  Mira's eyes dilated as she bit her lips in frustration.

  "If I could just go on the offensive, then we could easily eliminate them one by one!" Mira beckoned in a fit of emotional irrationality.

  However, it all fell on deaf ears, as the Ironside did not respond, and merely kept observing her. It would be a lesson she would need to learn through experience, and this was just one of them.

  While Mira contemplated following orders, Altair was overseeing all available information coming in through the sensors. The Giant Stygians' biological signatures did not disappear; instead, they were only momentarily halted, then continued on like nothing happened.

  As the smoke cleared, Altair opened his eyes wide in shock. The humanoid Giant Stygians came out one after another, and there was what looked like a beating heart that continuously moved around their crystal clear bodies with numerous facial features sprawled out, and without a trace of their black parts.

  As the beating heart shifted through their bodies, the black lines began to appear once again, and started covering their entire bodies. Their black faces, or what should have been based on their experiences, now had a clear expression that one could say was far away from being pleased.

  They silently walked, then in a passing of a second, they immediately dashed forth, and each moment they began to increase their speed more and more.

  In a state of surprise, Altair retreated back into his final plan.

  "Vigil, divert more units of energy into our shield output, and set it to the maximum of what we could handle!" Altair beckoned.