“Do you have the NOx sensor relay installed in your Gamma frame?”

“Yes, but nobody didn’t get any time to start reading the instruction. I can’t connect to the main room.”

“No, it is, it has to be by default. You aren’t looking at it right.”

“But all I hear are beeps. Samanatha,” Sebastian now asked in a growingly impatient tone. “I can’t chat. Help me later when I have time,” he said with a click of a button on his headset.

Sam let out a frustrated grumble at her channel being set back as one way. She then started looking around the room. “He doesn’t have time! Where is the main relay screen?!” Her eyes then closed in dejection. Of course. She only got a room full of confused looks. “The main relay! Sebastian and Renzo don’t have time! I need to help them hook up their sensor equipment!” she hollered in desperation; eyes still shut tight in utter frustration. She then started back for the door looking for the man who spoke English earlier.

I fucking swear! Where did that bastard go?! She could then hear indistinct chatter between several of the men starting to spread around the room. “Everyone, this is important!” She then started having another small breakdown with the language barrier becoming unbearable under such pressure.

Renzo took a few steps back toward the compound and away from the nearest alley he had approached. [Those beeps are getting a bit more frequent, don’t you think?] He then turned his camera behind him. [Dani, eyes for us, please.] He then saw a corner of his screen transmitting to him the feed from Dani’s headset camera, showing a garage area in ruins, all of their team slowly making progress on the main hallway. [No bodies or ID’s?]

[Not yet, but the ones hiding had rifles. I can’t confirm, but they looked like Deimars.]

[Rocha’s, of course. More foreigner-bought shit,] Renzo replied with a frown before another warning sound had him tense up. [Sebastian! That beeping is getting on my last fucking nerve! Get Cruella back on the line and get her to figure this out before something bad happens, damn it!]

Sam had been looking frantically across the room before hearing Sebastian’s voice pop back up over the intercom.

[There! I put up my NOx sensor detail on display! Now what do we do!?]

Sam could sense the urgency edging out rationality in his voice and words she couldn’t understand, electing instead to start looking around for what he was going on about. She then caught the main display behind her glowing with yellow cloud readouts around the Compound 4 map. “That’s it! That’s what I needed to see!” She then ran over to get a closer look. “Sebastian! Listen to me, transmit your display controls here as well! Can you do that?” Seconds later she saw the interactive screen take over the display, triggering Sam to rush even closer, having to nearly push several men out of the walkway.

“Here, hold on!” She reached up to a few of the toggle menus, knowing by habit where the buttons she needed to be were despite them all being in Spanish, adjusting display parameters until she saw a red pair of path tracing clouds that meandered around the outskirts of the main yellow cloud surrounding the area. Near each leading piece of the red paths was a timestamp. “Shit, Sebastian, the alley to the direct right of Renzo! Approaching active from five seconds ago!” she continued to bark out, completely oblivious to all of the collective ire she had drawn over the past minute.

Renzo could understand that one key word “right” as he turned to an old decrepit concrete parking building that sealed off most of that alley mentioned. He stared to walk straight towards it at a steady pace, left arm reaching for a magazine switch. [Sebastian, get those grenade rounds ready. Changing out mine as well.]

Sebastian heard Renzo’s thruster cooling fans start up as an explosives alarm went off at the rooftops behind them. [Rockets! Don’t jump!] he said with a spin to face their exposed side. [I think they’re waiting for us to make the first move!]

Renzo saw out of the corner of his visor Dani’s men diving in after tossing a smoke grenade, taking down several armed men before they got a clear scan on negative ID’s. [Eyes! What else do you see?] he asked before he got his answer on visual. He saw a slew of ID’d Galeano members’ bodies strewn across the exposed room.

[They slaughtered everyone here,] Sam heard Dani say over the radio as she continued. [It’s shots to the head like Bas saw two days ago. We will keep pushing to clear the building, but they’ve turned to armed executioner mobs.]

Sam then turned her sight to the upper corner of the map, seeing the explosives detections north of Sebastian. “Protocol said we don’t take the first shot. But that’s Infinity’s training. To hell with that shit for now. Hey, Sebastian!” she barked again. “Your grenades either take out that office floor or those rockets take out the apartments near Renzo! You’re screwed either way! Don’t let that hold you back!”

“No, better idea,” she heard him respond.

[Renzo! Jump! Take on that target now!] he ordered as he started his thruster cooler system and looked to time his jump with his brother’s. The second he saw him rocket upward, he hit the jump-boost full speed, aiming with his shotgun attachment at the ready. Without waiting for firing solutions, he swung his reticle over the office building’s rooftop and fired three consecutive shots, sending dust, concrete debris, and glass flying along with the scattering of a rocket launching crew. [Those rounds won’t go through concrete, right?!]

Renzo was unable to answer, focusing on his screen, watching for the hidden LTAC to pop up below. “Renzo, the trails all lead inside that one garage in front!” he heard Sam yell out over the radio. He took a second to think of what she meant, then realized the building below was a garage that possibly had large bay door access and landed his MI-r on the rooftop gently, arming his smoke rounds.

He lobbed three rounds down through the ramp up top before jumping back off of the back side and in front of a large bay door, firing two more inside. Stepping between several abandoned cars he had backed up carefully, switched back to explosive grenade rounds, and fired one inside from the first angle he could take. [Bas, over here! Now!]

Sebastian set himself down on opposite end from Renzo, preparing to switch rounds. But just then the cracked wall nearest to him burst as a mech flew his way as if to tackle him. He instinctively turned in his left shoulder to brace for impact, and in the next moment, felt the sudden jarring and screeching sound from it. His MI-r came crashing down, but took less of a fall than the attacker’s smoke-shrouded mech. He did his best to stand partly up, swiveling his aim just around enough to plant the shotgun over the cockpit area of the mech and pulled the trigger.

Renzo too had seen one more frame’s silhouette become visible with the added sunlight they let in, quickly firing a round right at the leg units of the attacker. [Bas, you OK?!]

Just as Sebastian heard the call, he felt a rumble resembling an earthquake. The parking building started to collapse.

Renzo backpedaled to a safe distance, but saw Sebastian’s location didn’t change. [Bas!]