It’s chaos, pure chaos.

People are screaming, children are crying and everyone is scrambling in panic through the streets in hopes of finding some form of sanctuary.

Several buildings are engulfed in flames and the ground they’re walking on is littered with rubble, potholes, craters and the bodies of the dead.

Everything around him has the acidic taste of metal, it’s nauseating and he felt like he needed to puke.

Nothing feels real right now.

“Mateo come on kid, why not just go to an evacuation shelter, no need to surround ourselves with dogs and a rabbit.”

Volt grumbles.

“And that’s another dollar going into the microaggression jar, Dad.”

Cooper is currently carrying Kasumi in his arms, shielding her eyes from all the dead bodies.

“Least he didn’t call us monkeys,” Wolf whispers into Cammy’s ear.

Cammy lets out a weary chuckle.

Volt points out, “My dad’s shop is just there, we’re nearly home free guys!”

In the distance was a small outdoor restaurant supporting several tables, it was completely empty with the only thing occupying the tables were unfinished meals instead of people.

The group makes a dash towards the shop, they were so focused on it that they didn’t notice the whistling from above.

Suddenly Wolf finds himself flung across the ground, his hands forming several scratches and bruises from the impact and he notices he’s skinned his knees.

He wished he had the time to dress today instead of running around in pajamas.

In the distance however, Wolf could see three lifeless bodies. Pikko, Jimbo and Hero… they weren’t moving, they weren’t even crying in pain.

They were dead!

Wolf feels his heart stopping, after all the trouble the dogs have given him. Always catching him during every escape. Why do they have to die from stupid blunt trauma!

Aerial quickly uses her mouth to tug on Wolf’s shirt.

He didn’t have time to grieve, he had to survive first.

Wolf quickly gets up and starts running, it seems everyone else was fine par from a few scratches.

Continue running Wolf, don’t stop running.

Don’t stop until you’re free!”

“Where have you been!” Noah yells.

“I was rescuing someone,” Volt replies.

The two were talking on the ramp to the ship. Which glistened with shiny white and crimson metals with a shape that reminds Volt of a Lion species of Buddymon.

“Hey Mister Nyx!” Kasumi cheers, waving at the young man.

“Hi Kasumi!”

Noah shakes his head, “You disappeared for several hours, Commander went off his head at me cus of it.”

“Like I said, I the great Volt was rescuing someone,”

“And I your superior officer, is saying you’re violating code and I now have to discipline you for it,”

“Well why not discipline me after we make it outta this attack first,”

Noah sighs, “Sorry about that, you’re refugees I’m guessing… come right this way,” he signals for them to follow.

Everyone follows Noah, Cooper begrudgingly follows.

The ship is known as Dreamer Base 01, it’s classified as a search and rescue ship within the U.S.D.F.. The main purpose of the ship is of course search and rescue missions along with transporting specialized cargo between planets.

The metal corridors of the ship were bustling with crew members, who were awfully young. They’re constantly scrambling to and from rooms in a panic.

Wolf took note of the different uniforms, most of them were wearing a standard blue and white military uniform, while some were wearing space suits designed for piloting Advanced Units.

Noah stops in front of a room, “This is where we’re housing refugees currently, I suggest staying here until we sound all clear on comms.”

The door slides open and inside were several people, many being families consisting of young women and children. Most of them have some degree of injury as some crew members tend to them.

One of the families is a pack of Nekoguin buddymons, well what’s left of that pack as it mostly consists of crying triplets confused on what’s going on.

Nekoguins were crossbreeds of cats and penguins, causing a strange new species to emerge where they had the long agile legs of a cat but the beak and face of a penguin. The most notable part of them were the fact they were bipedal like penguins.

“Volt, oh thank the deities you’re safe!” Jian yells, the giant panda rushing over to scoop the small boy in a tight embrace. “I was worried sick when Nyx told me you were missing.”

Volt blushes, struggling to push himself off. “Dad, you’re embarrassing me.”

Jian sets Volt softly to the ground and then spots the Yukis, “Kasumi and Mateo, so great to see you got here safely and don’t worry, I have Kaori sleeping in the back of the room here.”

“Thanks Jian,” Kasumi reaches out to hug him.

Jian rolls his eyes as he sees Cooper, “and well if it isn’t Cooper, nice to see you’re not lying in the gutter,” he says with a fake smile.

“Yeah, screw you too, panda!”

“And well who are you two little tail swingers?”

Wolf blinks as he realizes Jian was referring to him, “Oh I’m Marcas but everyone calls me Wolf… uh your son rescued me.”

“I’m Caoimhe,”

Noah sweetly smiles before he gets serious, “Volt, I need you on standby at the bridge. We’re running out of hands fast here and Battlestation Zeus has already fallen in combat.”

“On it sir,” Volt salutes before running off.

“And put on your uniform for once!”

“No!”

Wolf finally sits himself on the ground, Aerial curled up on his lap. This is the first time he’s finally been able to rest today. No more running needed, he could just rest.

Cooper is arguing with Jian and Mateo is comforting his sibling. Kasumi is obviously still shaking from prior events and is restless.

Wolf looks at crying penguins once again, maybe he could try comforting them.

“Leia!” Wolf calls out, the dove quickly perching herself on his shoulder.

Grabbing the baseball hat lying on the ground, Wolf approaches the penguins. “Would you like to see a magic trick?”

The triplets nod and with a quick motion of his hands, Leia disappears from his shoulder.

“Oh no, where did my friend Leia go?”

The triplets look at him with beady eyes.

“Surprise!”

Leia flies out of his t-shirt and lands on Wolf’s head, giving a bow to the triplets with her wings.

The triplets chuckle, their crying quickly disappearing entirely.

“Can I ask for your names?”

“We’re Terry, Callie and Hunter!”

Those were nice names.

“I’m Wolf!”

“Thank you for the magic trick Mister Wolf,” Callie says, bowing her head.

“You’re welcome,”

An hour has passed and nothing has happened, no updates whatsoever and nobody given an idea what happens next and if they’ll even survive.

The door suddenly slides open.

“Rex?” Jian questions.

Wolf looks up and sees the bulky replidroid for himself, his coat is in tatters and his face has a permanent scowl .

“I saw Volt and reckoned you guys were here, where’s Ryoji?”

“I thought he was with you, bolt brain, running around and causing trouble for me,” Cooper replies. “See if it wasn’t for me, these brats would be in the states’ custody but nah, they have to be ungrateful and cause me trouble.”

Rex passes no remarks on Cooper’s comments, “Well he isn’t with me, he just vanished from work last night and I haven’t seen him all morning.”

“Why are you worried? my stupid son disappears all the time,”

“Because one of the hosts at his club was found mangled this morning before the attack,”

Cooper raises a finger, thinking of objecting to Rex’ claim before realizing the severity of the situation. “Well that is kinda worrying… and effed up.”

Mateo approaches Wolf, Lucifer perched on his shoulder. “Here, let’s go to the bridge… they’re not telling us something.”

Wolf can’t say he declines the offer, too much sitting and waiting here without an update. He stands up and follows Mateo.

Though Wolf believes Mateo is just looking for an excuse to leave the family drama and investigating this ship is a perfect one.

“So is your family always this crazy?”

“Yeah, my brother is a petty thief, Rex is his accomplice, I sell booze and pirated movies at school and Kasumi hasn’t tried committing crimes yet… key word yet,” he says bluntly.

The two were walking down the halls, the cold metal floors weren’t exactly a nice texture on Wolf’s bare feet.

“How bout you?”

Oh yeah, his family, maybe not crazy with family drama but his dad was still as evil as one could get.

“Well my dad is a crime lord and sold me to a billionaire,” Wolf says. “I was then subjected to a year’s worth of manual slave labor, constantly beaten for insolence and put in sensory deprived isolation when I was really bad.”

“Sounds rough buddy,”

“You tell me,”

The air is awkward, they don’t know how to continue this conversation.

The awkwardness of the air doesn’t last as a sinister feeling starts to grow as they continue down the strangely empty corridor. Wolf can’t help but feel uneasy.

Even Lucifer whimpers, trying to hide herself behind Mateo’s head of hair.

That is when he sees it.

A large metal door that would lead to a hangar, except it’s closed off with large yellow tape, yelling the word ‘CAUTION’ plastered across it.

Whatever is behind this door is a dark secret the military is trying to hide, or perhaps something worse considering nobody has dared to walk across this corridor except for them.

“Lets just keep going to the bridge, it seems we’re close,” Mateo gulps, looking at the map bolted onto the wall.

The three quickly run past the ominous door and straight to the lonely elevator.

Pressing the button, the doors slide open with a ding and they quickly step in, pressing the button for the bridge.

The hum of the elevator did little to settle his newfound unease and the chaos awaiting him in the bridge… probably made it worse.

“Nyx, have we loaded the new Advanced Units onto the base yet?”

“No sir, Pilots Robinson and Ridden are currently engaged with enemy forces.”

“I can do it!” Volt volunteers, raising his hand and his ears standing on end.

“No, you violated curfew cadet and it’ll be snowing in hell before I let you pilot a mech again,” Commander Reinhard yells back.

Volt whimpers.

The commander sits on a chair that is suspended in the air, next to him are several computers.

WIthin the room were large windows that gave them a view of the outside world. On the walls were several screen displays and on the floor was a map display of the local area with two dots representing the Pod Wings.

They were undermanned and it was obvious with the lack of personnel on the bridge. Most of the personnel weren’t even wearing military uniforms, just ordinary clothes.

These were civilians who weren’t even trained to do this.

Wolf watches the battle outside, hiding from the view of the commander under the throne he sat upon. Mateo sits beside him with Lucifer.

Things were going awfully, no wonder they weren’t saying anything.

Outside Wolf could see two shiny blue Pod Wings battling a shiny green Advanced Unit. Its shape looks similar to that of a royal knight and its lens is a mono eye that creepily swishes from side to side. These models were known as Paladins.

Advanced Units were giant war machines, given the power of a nuclear reactor in its core. Advanced Units were mostly used for heavy manual labor within space, which was the original purpose of them until the Galactic Independence Army converted them into war machines in recent years and the U.S.D.F. has been failing to keep up with them.

To compensate, the U.S.D.F. have been using Pod Fighters, single manned aircrafts designed for air and space battles. Their cockpits were tiny meaning most of its pilots were forced under extreme diet regimes so that their bodies could comfortably fit inside.

“I thought the U.S.D.F. didn’t have Advanced Units,”

“They don’t, it wasn’t until recently with the development of Operation Gamble were they secretly developing mechs within Westlin Town.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’m literally hacking into this ships database right now,”

Wolf lets out a surprised noise as he sees Mateo typing furiously at a laptop that seems to suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Peering over his shoulder, Wolf is able to read the contents of the file Mateo brought up on his computer.

Operation Gamble was the project name for the development of five Advanced Units within the Westlin Town area. The project was heavily classified and kept secret from most if not everyone within the United Space Defence Force except for Battlestation Zeus who were intended to pilot the Advanced Unit for testing until they can be mass produced.

Well… he guesses the Advanced Units are their problem now.

Looking up, the battle is going horribly.

The Paladin has already cut through all the Pod Fighters, causing them to plummet down to the ground in a ball of flames.

“Have all Advanced Units been loaded?”

“Yes sir, we’ve acquired two Advanced Units, rest were destroyed by Galactics,” a girl in a wheelchair says.

Commander Reinhard rubs his temples, “I see, initiate the launch sequence before the Pod Fighters cause a nuclear explosion.”

“Yes sir,” the girl replies.

“Sir, let me pilot… I can fend them off so we can launch,”

“No Volt, how about you go and feed everyone their rations instead,”

Volt grumbles, passing them, he takes a glance their way.

“What are yous doing here?”

Mateo groans, their cover has just been blown.

“Volt, go to work, stop dilly dallying!” Commander Reinhard yells.

Volt whispers under his breath, “I wish he’d kick the bucket already,” before leaving the bridge.

Noah spots the two sitting under the Captain’s chair, “What are you three doing here, civilians should be in the refuge area.”

“Hey if you saw my family drama, you’d understand why I’m here,”

Wolf furiously nods.

“Just come out of there,”

The three slowly crawl out and show themselves in front of the Commander, who looks at them with some form of disdain.

“Well I would send you back to a refuge room but I can see from that laptop you carry, you’re knowledgeable with computers and lord knows I’m undermanned here.”

“Fine, tell me where you want me… I just don’t wanna listen to my dad’s bullshit.”

“Operations, climb up to the chair above you,” he points up.

Mateo gulps and slowly climbs the steep ladder up to one of two chairs hanging from the ceiling.

However, his leg gives out and he quickly falls.

Noah rushes and catches him, “I got you.”

“Thanks,” Mateo says, trying to stand up again only for his legs to give out.

“What’s the keep up, boy?”

“Sorry I have dyspraxia and hypermobility, running through town has made my legs hurt like hell,” Mateo groans, quickly climbs back onto the ladder, using a short burst of energy to get into the operator’s seat, he was panting a lot.

“Monkey boy, I want you on standby in case anything happens,”

Wolf shakily gives a salute in response.

Was everyone this aggressive to people like him?

Commander Reinhard presses a button on his computer which activates the ship’s communication system. “All crew personnel prepare for space launch in minus five minutes.”

“Set the nearest destination to the U.S.D.F. headquarters at Kennedy Colony Five!”