"No, it wasn't me... A little angel named Tina did!" Sarah, onboard the Wings of Eos, heard Tellius explain how exactly their contact had been reestablished.
"Hello, Miss Sarah..." A little girl's voice joined the conversation. "... I am Tina, Tina Thops."
"Oh, hello there, Tina!.." Sarah greeted the assumed child-like AI with the distinct impression of a little pink-haired girl. "... Thank you for helping my big dummy."
"Hey, I am not a dummy!" complained Tellius, still part of the conversation as he advanced through the prison module's lower sections to find an exit.
"Hahaha!" laughed Sarah while constantly monitoring the situation on the Cerberus station through constant scanning.
"You're welcome, Miss Sarah. I don't think uncle..." The little girl's voice choked. "... I am sorry, it's just that you guys sounded so much like my parents bickering just now."
"Oh, that's so sweet of you to say..." Sarah told the assumed AI before she promised. "... I am sure that we will find your mommy once this is over."
"Sniffle... Thanks." Replied little Tina with a sniffle, just as an alert popped up on the command console in front of Sarah.
*Beep!* *Beep!* The notification sound chimed just before an alert went off. *Alert!* *Incoming vessel with hostile intent detected!* *Alert!*
"Damned! Sorry, sweetie, but I'll have to beat up some bad guys myself..." Cursed Sarah before she told Tellius. "... The Wings of Eos has been spotted. One of those two mercenary vessels that was coming your way is now heading for me."
"Can't you shoot it down before it reaches you?" Asked Tellius, by now mowing down enemies inside the corridor connecting the prison module to the main lobby.
Witnessing the Wings of Eos auto defense system fail to shoot down the incoming vessel, Sarah shook her head as she answered seriously. "Negative, but that was to be expected. Our out of date defense solutions were never meant to counter modern day offensive solutions."
"Damned! I don't like this!" She heard Tellius curse, just as she was checking the status of her Pulse Pistols' battery magazine.
Smirking as it was now Tellius' turn to be concerned and fearful for her, Sarah told him just as she was able to pin down the most likely point of entry for the attacks. "Neither do I, but I need to defend this ship, right now!"
...
Meanwhile, back on the Cerberus spacestation, a band of mercenaries, for the moment under the draconian rule of the station's AI simply named Lady, were attempting to mount a defense of their own.
"Frak!..." Cursed Diego, an A-Grade ranked mercenary and leader of the Smugglers, during their artificial employer's vague description of their enemies' only assumed strengths and weaknesses. "... We're f**ked!"
"What? This sounds like it is a rather easy job. The target is even coming to us for once!" Big Oleg, their mercenary company's gunner, asked, confused.
Joining their discussion as Lady's reporting became more and more speculative, Boa, their designated marksman and an F+ ranked mercenary, chimed in. "Not necessarily. This supposedly Unranked has already decimated the station's security force consisting of six clanker squats and an obsidian swordsman. That alone classifies him to be at least a grade E if not even an E- mercenary or better."
"Yeah, but I mean..." Oleg began to defend his opinion before Lady interrupted their conversation.
"Oh, I am so sorry. Is my report on the enemy boring you?" Lady, the station's AI and Theodore Baldur's right-hand woman and secretary, asked, her flawless but digital appearance showing a hint of disgust and dissatisfaction.
"Yes, it is, since it is only featuring the enemy's minimum attack power and only speculating on his true combat potential." Diego defended his companions from the AI's wrath by criticizing her report and, by extension, questioning her authority over them.
Yet having fallen on hard times following a series of jobs gone wrong, with debts crippling their ability to refuse jobs from Cerberus executives, it wasn't really an option for them to excuse themselves from this conflict.
"I assure you, Mr. Diego, my calculations are correct, and I don't see how a mere F-rank can judge them..." Sneered Lady, the arrogance of her owner having become a part of herself. "... Now, would you kindly shut up, listen to me, and flatline that damned intruder before he has taken over all of this station!"
"Yes, Diego..." Agreed the only digitally present Iron Chin Logan from the other side of the bar with the AI.
Him being not only Diego's rival, a fellow E-ranker but also the Leader of the Steel Dragons instantly lent credibility to the AI analysis. Contrary to Diego, who was still mostly unaugmented with only a few minor tweaks done to his nervous system and supported by a team, Iron Chin Logan was his polar opposite.
More machine than man, the man would have already fully converted into a digital consciousness if it weren't for his obsession with a worthy heir. That obsession alone forced him to keep some of his organs to remain reproductive. Furthermore, Logan's crew was entirely made up of AI-controlled custom robots.
"... Also, shouldn't you know it better by now? The employer is always right!" Logan silently told Diego gleefully via private transmission.
"F**k you, Chin-chan!" Diego replied and immediately cut the transmission.
Meanwhile, blissfully ignorant of her employees' rivalry, Lady, their employer, suddenly showed a horrified expression. "The intruder has somehow turned some of the defence turrets, forcing me to deactivate the entire defense system. For that discretion alone, I want you all to permanently eliminate the enemy. Is that understood?"
"Yes!" The gathered mercenaries collectively agreed before dispersing with Iron Chin Logan and his men vanishing as their projectors shut down.
...
Meanwhile, Sarah had further armed herself with gear from the armory. Now wearing the Prototype XS22, which they had reworked into a mech-skeleton, an awesome sense of familiarity immediately washed over her.
Much smaller and lighter than the infiltrator armor she had worn twelve years ago at the Battle of Thermopylae-6, the mech-skeleton she wore now boasted comparable features for a fraction of the cost. Its second pair of artificial limbs enabled her to simultaneously wield their arm-mounted Smelter-Blasters and her Pulse Pistols.
Now, crouched behind empty metal containers, Sarah watched as two orange lines of smelter cutters converged at one point after drawing a square.
*Clank!* A square of armored steel fell out of the ceiling, followed by silver robot units jumping down from it.
Waiting for a squad of units to gather, Sarah drew her chromatic stiletto from the back of her white mech-skeleton. Then, as a squad had gathered, she sprang into action like a cheetah.
Having turned on her armor's stealth function, she near instantly appeared, disappeared, and then reappeared as she swiftly took out the entire squad with only a single stab to any unit's CPU located in their heads or the power regulator in their chests.
Unfortunately, Sarah was quickly forced to escape as the breached storage room was soon still flooded with more and more robots pouring in from the hole in the ceiling.
Luckily for her, however, just as she was about to escape through a vent, she witnessed the big bad boss arrive.
'F**k! Really? Am I really running from Iron Chin Logan?" Sarah cursed herself mentally, remembering the violent rookie from a few years ago who had pestered her endlessly, wanting her as the mother of his children.
Jet, with the odds still stacked against her, retreated, leaving it to the ship's turrets to whittle down the enemy considerably.
...
Meanwhile, simultaneously back on the Cerberus station, Diego and his team were witnessing a cruel, one-sided slaughter. Their fellow mercenaries were either being brutally butchered or blown to pieces.
Yet still, all their blunt firepower and bloody sacrifices turned out to be for nothing, as so far, they had not even left a scratch on the towering, dark-steeled intruder.
*Ratatatatatatatata!* The jet-black iron Boogeyman's HMG howled in bursts, each salvo marking the death of yet another low-ranked mercenary or robot. *Ratatatatatatatata!*
"Oleg, watch out!" Diego shouted at the gunner just as the man was shot.
*BOOM!* The subsequent explosion ripped through the station, tearing a huge hole into the lobby's ornate marble tiling.
Slowly emerging from a cloud of dust and debris, a tall shadow with piercing red eyes appeared. With every step he took, the marble floor cracked under the enormous weight of his power.
"Oh, come on! This doesn't even tickle me!" The enemy mocked their efforts to take him down.
*Ratatatatatatatata!* *Ratatatatatatatata!* *Ratatatatatatatata!* *Ratatatatatatatata!*
Turning to Boa, Diego said, "Retreat and prepare explosives in the corridor between here and the nightclub!"
"You sure?" the female sniper asked, wide-eyed.
Nodding, Diego confirmed, reloading his hand cannon. "Yes! I don't see us taking this guy down with conventional means! So I say, let's throw him out!"
*Ratatatatatatatata!* *Ratatatatatatatata!*
"Understood, but I'll need some time," Boa told her brave leader.
"Oleg, I and the others will give you as much time as we can get you, but it won't be much..." Diego declared, ready to sacrifice his life to give his team the time they needed. "... You ready, Oleg?"
"Always and forever, my man!" The gunner replied.
*Ratatatatatatatata!*
"On three..." Diego began the countdown to what might very well be his final moments. "... ONE... TWO... THREE!"
*BBBRRRRRRRRRRR!* Oleg's Gatling gun howled just as Diego's shot to the enemy's head landed. *BANG!*
Yet despite their combined firepower, the chromed-out Boogeyman simply shrugged it off as if it were nothing.
"My turn!..." the Boogeyman, besmirched by explosives, announced, instantly appearing behind Oleg, the barrel of his HMG only a finger's width away from his forehead, ready to fire.
*Click!* The sound of an empty magazine saved the gunners' life.
Quickly retreating behind the only marble pillar left intact, the mercenaries heaved a collective sigh of relief and hastily retreated back to the nightclub.
That said, by the time Tellius had reloaded his Pallas, no mercenary was left in sight to gun down.
...
Meanwhile, on the Wings of Eos, Sarah was forced to change up her ambushing tactics as Iron Chin Logan and his Iron Dragon had changed tactics and stopped splitting up.
Now advancing as one, they took down turret after turret. Then, Sarah decided to deploy the riskier hit-and-run tactics.
Still in stealth mode, she sneaked up to five units firing at a turret. She then aimed at either their heads or chests, depending on what was more convenient, before unleashing smelter and laser particles onto them.
*Crackle!* *Crackle!* Her smelter-blasters simultaneously melted holes into the chests of two iron dragons, just as her pulse pistols tore apart the heads of two others. *Swish!* *Swish!*
Being pushed out of stealth by her attacks, Sarah struck down a fifth robot, just in time for its companions to spot her. However, just before lead and laser shots could come her way, Sarah re-entered stealth mode and vanished.
"Damned! Why wouldn't you show yourself!..." Sarah heard Iron Chin Logan angrily shout, having once again lost a group of robots despite their close proximity to himself. "... Who do you think you are? The Widow?"
Truth be told, unknown to Logan, who had just made a casual remark, Sarah was, in fact, the legendary mercenary known only by her Cerberus ID as the Widow. Having lost the love of her life on Thermopylae-6, she had adopted the moniker as she rose from F-Grade all the way up to S+.
By the time her rank had settled permanently at the coveted S+ rank, she had furthermore become renowned as a master of stealthy takedowns and quiet assassinations. Hence, Logan was... comparing Sarah's stealthy tactics to the Widow's, not knowing that they were, in fact, one and the same person.
"Oh? When did frightened little me become so famous, Chinny Boy?" Mocked Sarah, the angry cyborg, via the ship's loudspeakers, while taking out another group of his Iron Dragons.
"NO! You can't be her! She would never work with a man! Not even me!..." Logan insisted angrily and violently shot at the ceiling. "... So, how do you know her nickname for me?"
"Don't flatter yourself! You're nothing compared to my man!..." Sarah angrily stated, while circling Logan and his toys like an invisible shark. "... And I know that nickname because I gave it to you, Chinny Boy!"
That said, like a viper she jumped past the heads of the man and robots to unleash a devastating rain of terror before vanishing once more.
In that split second that Sarah was visible, Logan recognized her in all her deadly beauty before he was rewarded for his momentary absentmindedness by a smelter round to the face.
Howling as his artificial skin melted, the cyborg still ordered his robots to fire in every direction. Yet without even hitting the target, some stray bullets bounced off the steel walls and took out two units.
Ripping off the artificial skin of his face, Logan was left with only his shiny silver skull underneath as he howled in hurt and anger. "WHY?! We could have been together, your children inheriting a legacy of death and violence!"
"You're not worth it!" Sarah replied calmly but coldly, disgusted by the idea of birthing Logan's or anybody's children but Tellius's.
"Oh, Miss Sarah, you sound so badass right now!..." Tina cheered her on excitedly, watching the carnage like some adult-rated action vid. "... And so much more elegant than Mr. Warfield!"
"Of course I am much more elegant in my approach to combat than Telli..." Sarah replied to the supposed AI as it was growing on her like a cute little sister. "... I am a woman and since you will one day become one as well, you should start approaching things with a feminine elegance. Do you understand what I mean?"
"I guess so!..." Tina confirmed thoughtfully before concluding proudly. "... Tina will also from now on aim for the faces of bad guys!"
"Tina, that's not what I..." Sarah told the little girl, just as the turrets began to aim for the Iron Dragons' heads instead of their chests with a much higher efficiency than before. "... Oh, well I guess that works as well."
...
Meanwhile, back on the Cerberus station, Tellius began approaching the corridor down to the nightclub module when a bad feeling suddenly struck him. Things weren't adding up as he analyzed the enemies' behavior.
"They wouldn't have retreated without setting a trap or ambush for me," the cyborg concluded. With an ambush out of the question—thanks to him already having proven his indestructibility—this left him only with a trap as the sole option for his enemies.
Scanning the corridor, Tellius easily made out the numerous explosives hidden between the white paneling, though they were only half-decently concealed.
Checking his options, he consulted his weapon loadout.
[+Weapon Slots:]
[-Right Shoulder: -Empty-]
[-Left Shoulder: Stormsurge Grenade Launcher (2/3)]
[-Chest: -Empty-]
[-Right Forearm (Extern): -Empty-]
[-Left Forearm (Extern): -Empty-]
[-Right Forearm (Intern): Gladius Blade (broken)]
Though saddened to have temporarily lost the Gladius Blades against a strength-focused cyborg, Tellius was still happy to have acquired her grenade launcher, even though it only had three shots in total.
And so, standing in front of an explosives-laced corridor, he decided to use the Stormsurge Grenade Launcher a second time.
*Clunk!* The safety disengaged before the grenade left its barrel. *Flump!*
Only to a second later blow up the entire corridor, its explosives included. *BOOOOOOOM!*
Not having done any calculations, the grenade explosion instantly detonated the stashed explosives, and the entire corridor ended up ripped right out of the station.
"Oops!"