*DONG!* *DONG!* *DONG!* Tellius hit the massive three-story-high vault door that they suspected the others to be behind.
"This could be it!" He told the skeptical-looking blonde beauty by his side that had armed herself with some high powered rifle that she had found in the rubble.
*Booooooooom!* The ground shook with the sounds of explosions finding their way down to them as the battle above came ever closer.
Her frown deepening, Sarah replied. "Or maybe not... The way vaults are constructed, it might even be impossible for them to hear your strikes on the in..."
*Dong!* *Dong!* *Dong!* The sound of muffled strikes from the inside instantly shut her up mid-sentence.
"See?..." Smirked the male cyborg and walked over to the vault door's mechanical lock. Only now, as he stood in front of it, did Tellius realize that he had no clue what the combination might be. Embarrassed, he coughed. "... Ahm... Got any idea what the combination is?"
Smirking, the female mercenary stated while striking a mockingly heroic pose. "Oh? Now you'll listen to me?"
*Booooooooom!* The room shook, and some dust fell from the high ceiling.
"Ahm... Yes?!" Stated the former commander with a pained expression.
"Good!..." Sarah noted happily before she shushed him away as she ordered. "... Now step aside and let me unlock this monstrosity of a door... You can open it once I'm done."
With Tellius getting out of the way, Sarah punched in the code that Tina had given her and immediately the massive bolts keeping the vaults locked slid aside.
*Clank!* The first bolt retracted. *Clank!* The second bolt retracted, but as the third was about to do the same, it got stuck and bent without breaking. *CLANK!* *CLANK!*
"Yeah, that totally worked!..." Mocked Tellius sarcastically, having already calculated how to forcefully get rid of the last bolt. "... Now, please be a dear and step aside."
"AARRRGH! FINE!" Exclaimed Sarah, miffed, and got out of the way.
That said, Tellius triggered his [Flaming Draw] skill. Instantly, flames shot out in an arc from his wrists just as his Gladius Blades extended from his wrists and ignited. *Slide!* *Slide!* *Foof!* *Foof!*
Jumping up to the bolt while swinging his blades in an upside-down scissoring motion with his right flaming blade descending and the left ascending, he struck the massive bolt.
Only a quarter through on both sides, Tellius struggled to cut the bolt in one go and had to leverage the heat of his blades and his mechanical body's strength to push through the bolt.
*Clank!* His feet struck the vault doors he had pushed through last—centimeters of hardened and now-melted steel.
"AAAAAH!" Tellius screamed just as the bolt was finally cut through.
*Boom!* The cut-off part from the bolt hit the ground, which in turn caused even more dust to fall from the ceiling.
Breathing heavily, the male cyborg was still stuck to the door as his blades had welded themselves to the cut bolt.
*Clink!* *Clink!* Yet, trying to remove them by force, Tellius unintentionally broke both off.
Left with only their hilts, he was finally unstuck. He jumped off the door and landed right beside an annoyed Sarah.
*Booooooooom!* The ground shook thanks to the war above.
"Show off..." Was all she said before they began to push open the massive vault door.
...
On the other side of said door, Tina was eagerly waiting to reunite with her friends, as the little girl was slowly getting annoyed by the Ryan couple's lovey-dovey-ness.
"Sarah!" she exclaimed excitedly as soon as the female cyborg appeared in the door opening.
"Hey! What about me?..." Tellius complained from behind Sarah. "... Didn't you miss me, too?"
"Yes, of course!" Replied Tina, yet she still jumped into Sarah's arms instead of his.
"Hey, there..." Ethen greeted the two cyborgs with an embarrassed expression. "... Looks like chrome is better than flesh... The Devil and its robots got me."
*Booooooooom!* The vault shook and even more plaster and dust began to fall to the ground outside.
Nodding as he accepted the marshal's indirect apology, Tellius pointed at the woman beside the man. "And who's the lady beside you?"
"Oh, that's Yelena..." Chimed Tina, rather comfortable in Sarah's arms. "... The real one."
"Greetings, Ms. Ryan..." Tellius nodded before he introduced himself. "... I am Tellius. The beauty carrying the little one is Sarah, and you already know our resident hacker, Tina."
"Ow, Sarah & Tellius... Just like the Tragic Couple of Warfield & Lawson!..." Yelena pointed out, and only now did Ethen, too, notice the mercenary couple's great similarities to the legendary Tragic Couple. "... I am Yelena Ryan, Ethen's wife. And by the way, I have to especially thank the three of you for helping my husband."
"Oh, no need to thank us..." Sarah told him, eager to skip the subject of their legendary identities, especially since Tellius hadn't looked into it so far aside from the Massacre of Thermopoly-6. "... "Your husband is paying us."
"Oh, what's he paying you?" Yelena asked, her voice growing ever weaker as the consequences of her imprisonment inside her own mind weighed her down.
"Nothing too much, I assure you..." the female mercenary replied. "Just a few credits for supplies."
*Booooooooom!* *BOOOOOOOOOM!* The explosions above intensified, and the ceiling outside the vault began to cave in as tons of moon soil poured in from above.
"S**t!.." Tellius cursed before shouting to everyone, "... We have to get out of here before this place collapses and we're all buried alive down here!"
And with that, the now five of them began rushing through collapsing corridors, with Sarah carrying Tina and Tellius eventually having to carry Yelena as Ethan wasn't quick enough carrying her.
Yet, the moment they reached the surface and smelled fresh air, they arrived in an active warzone. Starfighters howled overhead, corporate mechs, and Tombstones fought on the ground, and a gigantic 36-meter-tall Hydra-type biomech that switched seamlessly between air assaults, ground pounds, and smelter beams.
Turns out, the Hydra's last attack was its true killer move as its random smelter beams took out all three enemy types indiscriminately.
*SCREEEEEEEE!* The Hydra controlled by the Devil AI howled, just as it swung its numerous heads wildly and then shot out yet another bunch of smelter beams from its numerous heads. *BUZZZ!*
Just then, all but a few unlucky ones that were directly hit from the start jumped into the air for even better mobility as they began sidestepping the smelter beams. With the weak ones already killed off, all remaining were able to survive the hydra's smelter beams as they incinerated the ground.
*Booooooooom!* *BOOOOOOOM!* *BOOOOOOOM!* *Booooooooom!* Four buildings of the park either melted, collapsed, or both as soon as they were hit by the beams.
"We're dead!" Declared Ethan as he sank to the cracked floor, all hope lost.
"Get up, soldier!..." Ordered Tellius as he placed Yelena onto the ground and right beside her husband. "... We aren't dead yet! So, no need to make it easy for them to do so!"
"Also, half of those fighting should be on our side!" Chimed Sarah in, this moment being quite similar to another one that she and Tellius had had back on Thermopoly-6.
That said, both Ethan and his wife's eyes grew wide in disbelief, as something similar had supposedly been said by Tellius Warfield and Sarah Lawson.
And yet, before the Ryan couple could ask the two cyborgs about it, the two cybernetically enhanced individuals were already gone, with only a blue-eyed Tina left behind.
...
Meanwhile, the last corporate Stealth Mech and the female Tombstone mech watched as two cyborgs suddenly joined the fight against the Hydra.
Contrary to their brethren, the two mechs had so far focused solely on fighting the AI-controlled biomech instead of everyone else who had been fighting each other and the Hydra. Thanks to that strategy and their quick reflexes, they had so far survived where others had died.
But now, with the two newcomers joining in, things were suddenly shifting in everyone's favor except the Hydra's. Somehow, the male cyborg resembling a tall, black skeleton was able to pull and withstand the Hydra's furious attacks.
*Bam!* The cyborg's fist struck a vulnerable part of the Hydra's chest, and the towering creature howled in pain. *SCREEEEEEEE!*
Meanwhile, the female cyborg resembling a big-breasted runway model was continuously chipping away at the Hydra's armor plating in some hard-to-hit places.
*Bam!* *BAM!* Her sniper rifle accurately hit its target, and some plating fell off.
In the end, it was these two actions that gave both Tombstones and corporate mechs a glimmer of hope that they might be able to survive this mission if they simply fought well enough.
Unconsciously following that, both types of mechs suddenly started fighting a lot harder, and their individual combat effectiveness essentially skyrocketed. Somehow their shots were more accurate and more devastating, to the point that they spent fewer rounds to do more damage.
Yet all those improvements provided by the two cyborgs immediately vanished as soon as the Hydra's smelter beams came into play.
*SCREEEEEEEE!* The Hydra howled furiously, as if to announce its most destructive attack. Then, just as heads started to wildly swing around, some opened their maws to release devastating death rays. *BUZZZ!*
Cutting through steel, flesh, and concrete, death became a constant companion to all fighting the 36-meter-tall beast.
Seeing the male cyborg tank through a smelter blast like it was water and without a scratch, the mech pilot silently concluded that the towering menace had to be a system user.
Yet with the fight intensifying, he had no time to inform his superior as he was stalked by a bunch of smelter beams. Skillfully dancing around the beams, the mech pilot witnessed a beam hit the female Tombstone mech that had saved him from certain death and share her back up power source with him.
Hit straight into the center of her mech where the black tombstone that housed her mortal flesh was located, the corporate pilot watched as she died. First, the beam disintegrated the black stone before a smiling, withered female corpse, more dead than alive, was hit.
Despite being burned to dust, the female Tombstone pilot looked rather at peace, or so the stealth mech pilot thought as his savior died for good.
*BAM!* The male cyborg's powerful punch pulled the mech pilot out of his thoughts, just as he was starting to mourn the passing of his savior.
Jumping onto one of the lowered skulls under the female cyborg's cover fire, the mech pilot watched with bated breath as the male cyborg ran up the Hydra's elongated neck.
Unhappy with its unwanted passenger, the Hydra howled. *SCREEEEEEEE!*
*BAM!* The cyborg's devastating strike hit the very head of the Hydra, whose neck he had been running on.
Unfazed by the strike's damage to one of its many heads, the Hydra was enraged that somebody had the audacity to step onto it. So three other heads lunged at it, and yet, through careful positioning, the male cyborg was not ripped apart but ended up in the maw of one head.
Yet, to the mech pilot's shock, even though her companion was swallowed by the Hydra, the female cyborg continued the fight as she landed shot after shot upon the Hydra's chest to prevent its scales in one particular place from regenerating.
That's when the stealth mech pilot suddenly got new orders from his superior up in space. Apparently locked in combat with the Fleet of the High Marshal, the Captain ordered him to exit the fight with the Hydra and wait for the opportunity to secure the Devil suspected to be inside the Hydra's server core.
Looking from the Hydra to the charred remains of his savior, the female Tombstones pilot, the corporate pilot felt kind of guilty, but orders were orders. So, he did as he was told.
...
Meanwhile, just as the corporate mechs were given the order to retreat, Tina intercepted the order that was given to the Tombstone mechs. In it, they were given the order to double down on the Hydra and ignore the corporates.
Yet as the physical war continued, the little hacker was having a digital war all on her own, even though corporate hackers attempted to do the same as her. To break the Hydra's internal converter that translated the AI inputs into the Hydra's physical actions.
And so the little girl stood on a digital battlefield where a Hydra currently battled a bunch of digital Knights, that represented the corporate hackers. Under the left foot of the digital Hydra was a chest that represented the converter program.
If destroyed or stolen, the Devil would instantly become a prisoner within the physical confines of the biomech Hydra. Yet just like the real-world corporate mechs, corporate hackers were being mercilessly slaughtered in the digital realm, which might cause them brain aneurysms in real life.
Having observed the corporate hackers' failure, Tina had quickly gained an understanding of the Devil's defensive capabilities. So, as she transformed herself from a cute princess into a spear-wielding Valkyrie the digital size of Tellius but with the beauty of Sarah, the little genius plunged headfirst into battle.
Instantly drawing the attention of all present in the digital realm, Tina had taken to the digital skies before she attempted to plunge her spear seemingly into the Hydra's heart.
Not as foolish as the corporate hackers, the Devil's digital Hydra jumped out of the way to avoid death, only to then realize that the spear hadn't been aimed at its heart but at its left claw.
Instantly, the digital spear rammed through the digital Hydra's claw and struck the chest beneath.
Pleased that the Hydra had temporarily been disarmed, Tina returned to reality only to hear the cocking of a hand cannon behind her head.
"Don't move! You're under arrest!..."
Simultaneously, just as Tina successfully stunned the Hydra by destroying the converter program, the beast's chest suddenly buckled and then exploded from the inside.
Covered in blood, flesh, and guts, a tall and menacing skeleton-like cyborg stepped out of the Hydra's corpse, a medicine ball-sized pearl in hand.
Seeing all this through the scope of her heavy sniper rifle, Sarah folded her rifle's tripod to join up with her friends.
Sliding down the pile of rubble that she had used for her last few shots, the female cyborg suddenly saw Ethen raise his hand cannon to Tina's skull.
Enraged and feeling betrayed, Sarah raised her sniper rifle to eliminate the traitorous marshal just as she heard a handgun's signature click behind her head.
Lowering her rifle as she turned around, the female mercenary heard somebody state. "Freeze! You're under arrest by order of the High Marshal!"
Not wanting to threaten Tina or Tellius's life, Sarah lowered her sniper rifle and allowed herself to be arrested.
Meanwhile, just as the shock bracelets clicked around her wrists & cuffs, she was able to see Tellius surrender to the authorities. However, he was surrounded by not one or two Tombstone mechs, but seven.