Merlin took a long drag of the NicStic in his fingers. The stick’s far end lit up with a cool blue light for a few seconds before he parted ways with it, and exhaled a large vapor cloud into the air. It smelled a little sweet, and a little earthy. He, along with a shadowy man, stood just inside of a dirty alleyway next to an old bar, somewhere in one of the seedier districts in Helios. “What’cha got for us?” asked the shadow. When Merlin spoke, his previous stoic and simple accent was gone. Instead, he spoke with much more informality and with a very slight American drawl. “I found some great tech y’all might be really interested in,” he said. “Way better than those AniMox pods you’re all so attached to.”

The four test pilots stepped off the Federation frigate and back onto Tartarus Base, the asteroid research station secretly stashed away somewhere in Federation space. They were all in relatively good spirits, Eva especially. Even Redstar had gained some of her exuberance back. The four of them had originally planned to head straight to their quarters, change into their flightsuits, then head to the lab. However, just as they left the hangar itself, the Admiral intercepted them in her hopper. They jumped in with their bags on their shoulders, and barely had time to sit down before the hopper quickly sped away. It joined the other vehicles traveling down the base’s main concourse and headed directly towards the Admiral’s lab. The Admiral had snapped them up rather quickly, almost as though they were getting kidnap

On realizing just how much their minds had been altered, the medic in Commander Chase immediately hit the alarms. His voice was filled with passion and authority. “Alright, I’m putting a stop to this,” he said. “No more Prometheus for the rest of the cycle. There’s something else going on here, and I’m not allowing that to harm you!” Eva would’ve much rather spent the remainder of her time in a Promethean Merge out in an actual machine. Just the few hours she had been out here had already changed her perspective on piloting. No way was she going to give that up. “Aww, but there’s so much more I wanna check out,” she said, somewhat hazily. “And besides, we’ve still got hours left on our merge!” “No! Absolutely not! You’ve clearly been affected! No way can you keep goi

A few kilometers away on a ridge overlooking the city, a handful of Hussar officers watched as the horrifying battle unfolded before them. Though most of them wore faces of defeat and despair, one was stoic throughout. It seemed as though her face was carved out of stone - her expression was unblinking and unyielding despite the devastation her troops suffered. And although her eyes were lit by flame, her stare was cold and hard. "Report," she said, her voice frigid. One of her officers immediately came up beside her. His datapad was filled with all manner of battle reports, with one half scrolling blindly as new and updated intel scrolled by on the other. "Colonel," he began, "the 201st Hussar Regiment's casualty report is still being compiled. Thus far however, sen

The colonel and two hundred of her Hussars dashed over to the bunker with maximum thrust. They were the first of four waves assaulting the Federation bunker, which was on its very last legs. All they needed to do was deliver the killing blow and convert the entire thing into a tomb. “What’s their status? I want a report of their energy readings.” asked the colonel. One of the unit’s recon officers came on her comms display. His face was filled with concern. “Main power appears to have been knocked out, but our sensors detect low-level energy currents throughout. It’s probable that their backup generators kicked in. Readings are too low to see what they’re up to, however.” “Is power going to their turrets?”