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The place Eltira brought Betoras to turned out to be a two story house, the neighborhood in which it was located was home to many such abodes, and from the outside, this one did not seem so different from the others. Once she opened the door and led her guest inside, though, it became apparent that outward appearances were deceiving. Betoras was led into a living room, and warm yellow lights came on automatically, allowing him to clearly take in the high priced furniture, ornate decorations and blue wallpaper that adorned the room.

"Are you surprised?" the Tenal asked "It may not have looked like much on the outside, but the AIU can provide for its operatives. They could have certainly giving me a fancier place to stay if I wanted, but that would just draw attention to myself, putting up the appearance of being average can be good for someone in my profession, anyway, feel free to make yourself at home, as long as you're here, if you need anything, just ask."

Betoras took his eyes off a rather expensive looking vase he had been admiring, and looked back to Eltira upon hearing her comment, a smirk on his face "You sure you brought me here for business?" he asked "This all seems rather like it's about pleasure to me."

"Don't worry." She answered "We'll talk business, really, the only reason I brought you here is because it's the most private, and secure, place available, trust me on that, but as long as you're here, there's no reason not to make yourself comfortable."

"I guess you're right on that." The bull-man agreed, and headed over to a large sofa, taking her request to "make himself at home" as permission to sit if he so wished, when he sat down on it, he found the material seemed to perfectly conform with his body in just such a way as to make him most comfortable, he could get used to living conditions like this "Ooh, that's nice. Anyway, I'll have a glass of water for now, if you please"

The Tenal nodded, and went over to what was obviously the kitchen, and soon returned with a glass full of water.

"Thank you." He said, taking it from her, he drank it, before setting the now empty glass on a small stone table next to the sofa, he was soon joined by Eltira upon the couch.

"Okay, if that's all you need for now, then we can talk business." She said "So, where would you like me to start?"

"Well, if you want me to fight for you, then I guess our enemies would be a good place." Betoras answered without any hesitation, having already worked out what he wanted to ask even before they arrived at the house "Who are they? What do they want? And how were they able to create a machine like Aparillis?"

"Well, for the first question, it seems that they're a terrorist group, or rebels if you want to pretend to be a bit more sympathetic to them. They call themselves the Khalist, from what we can determine, it seems their goal is to overthrow the Alvani, and presumably set themselves up as the new rulers of Ellana."

"Hmph, I can't say I'm surprised." He answered "Ever since they took over the Alvani have been changing things wherever they like, that's bound to upset a few people."

"And yet you're on our side, aren't you?" the Tenal asked after he said that, to which he nodded.

"I didn't say I agreed with the people upset by it. I recognize that the way the Alvani have done things has brought a lot of good to this country, but Benerans, speaking as a whole here, obviously not all of us are the same, are slow to accept change. That's why the Alvani needed to be so forceful about it, but it's also why some of us want things back the way they were. Still, even if I can understand what these Khalist are fighting for, that doesn't mean I agree with it, and if what we saw earlier today is how they're going to go about accomplishing their goals, then I'm definitely going to have to draw the line. It's one thing to question the way your government does things, but destroying cities and slaughtering innocent civilians because of your political views is definitely overdoing it."

"I'm glad I have your understanding." She answered, patting his shoulder "Now as for the last question, we're not entirely certain. One might presume that they either have access to greater resources than other similar organizations that have popped up in the past, or they have outside support, either way, it certainly makes them a threat we can't ignore."

"I see." He was silent for a moment as he contemplated his next question, then thought of something to ask "You said that they built Aparillis, in that case, how did your group get your hands on it?"

"For that, we have Tularius to thank." The reptilian woman answered "Our intelligence reports indicated that the Khalist had developed a highly advanced KM, and he was sent in to infiltrate their group, determine whether this was true or not, and if it was, then to take the KM, we can't let terrorists play with things like that, after all. He succeeded, and managed to get away, we took the KM in to study, but he kept the activation key, Aparillis won't work without it and we figured we'd have a higher chance of keeping the enemies from taking it back if it was kept separately from the KM, it seems that wasn't the best choice as you can see now, but at least it looks like it found itself into good hands in the end."

The Beneran nodded, smiling "I thank you for your confidence in me." After that, he fell silent to consider if he wanted to ask any more questions, and finally, he came to a decision on that "Well, I do have a couple more questions, first, what did the Khalist have to gain from the attack today? And second how was Aparillis able to achieve what appeared to be teleportation?"

"Hmm, now, those are good questions." the Tenal answered, crossing her fingers in her lap as she spoke "And while it's impossible to be certain, I think the answer to the first one was probably to lure Aparillis out, they've been looking for it, and may have had reason to assume that it, or at least its pilot, was still in this city, and might have hoped that if they caused enough damage, the pilot would use it to fight back. Perhaps they assumed it was in our hands, and we'd step in if the police couldn't handle it. As for how it teleports, we're not exactly sure. We've discovered that there's a sealed capsule inside it, and we believe that this is tied to the teleportation, but we haven't been able to get it open, and it's even sturdier than the KM's armor, so we don't dare try to break it open, lest we damage whatever is inside in the process, whatever is in there remains a mystery."

The bull man's eyebrows raised at this, the second answer was certainly interesting, whatever was in this capsule must have been quite important to be sealed in such a sturdy container, but he supposed that matter would have to be left in the hand of Eltira's colleagues, now the first one was something more his league.

"If you knew they were planning on luring it out, then why did you encourage me to call it? Or did you not think of that until afterwards?"

"I thought of it before, but you saw what those KMs were doing, people were dying, and more would die if they weren't stopped. I couldn't just stand by and sacrifice an untold number of civilian lives, even if it meant falling into their trap."

Betoras smiled at her answer "I'm glad to hear that you don't only care about serving the interests of people in power." He said "That, at least, is something I can respect."

At that point, she changed the subject "If that's everything, then I ought to report to my superiors and see what our next move will be. There's a bathroom down that hallway if you'd like to go get cleaned up." He looked to where she pointed, and nodded, then they both stood up. Eltira went towards the staircase leading up to the second floor, which was on the opposite side of the room from the couch, and Betoras contemplated following her but decided against it, he doubted she would be happy if she caught him eavesdropping, assuming he would even be able to hear anything interesting, so instead, he followed her suggestion and went to the bathroom, where he took a brief shower.

Of course, having no other clothes to change into, Betoras just put on what he had worn earlier once he was finished, and returned to his original place on the couch, where he waited for Eltira, she came down soon enough, and walked over to the Beneran.

"Well, it seems like you'll be seeing action again soon." She commented "I've been informed that we've located a Khalist base on an island off the nearby coast, likely also where the ones that attacked earlier came from. We'll be attacking it tomorrow, and they want you to join the operation, of course, you won't be the only pilot there, you'll be briefed on the details tomorrow morning, but what I understand is that we need to capture the base, we might find some useful intelligence in there, so you can't just level the whole place, you understand, I trust?"

"Of course," he answered, not moving from his place, but fixing an intent gaze on the Tenal "And it sounds like something I can handle, just point me in the right direction when the time comes. So, should I be going now?"

"No, stay." She answered "I'd suggest you spend the night here, in fact." His expression shifted into one of surprise at this comment, and she just chuckled at the reaction "Don't worry, I'm not suggesting anything beyond what's apparent, just that you should sleep in this house, though if you'd like to do more than that you're welcome to ask, I might even decide to oblige, but no, that's not why I want you to stay. It's because the enemy may be looking for you, you weren't exactly subtle in your attempt to save Tularius, from what I heard, so they might recognize you, it will be safer than for you to stay here."

"Ah, I guess I hadn't thought of that." The possibility she spoke of had never really occurred to him, but now that she mentioned it, it did seem like one he could not ignore "You're right, but I'll have to stop by at my room to pick up a few things, clean clothes and the like, I can do that, right? And I trust that you do have a separate room available."

"Of course I do, and if you want to pick up those things, I'll come with you, we could even go right now, if you like."

Hearing this, he stood up, stretching his arms outwards for a brief moment, before turning to the door "I think we should." He answered, and with a nod, she walked out of the house with him, soon enough, they were on their way.

The trip to the hotel where Betoras had been staying had proved rather uneventful, if the agents of the Khalist were indeed looking for the Beneran, then they had either not found him, or did not intend to try anything as long as he was not alone. Either way, he counted himself fortunate after what he had seen of them, for while his skills at fighting on foot were not to be ignored, he had no weapons with him, and so far as he knew, Eltira did not either, though after all the surprises she had shown, it was hard to be certain, still, if he encountered them, they were sure to be armed, and he doubted he would surprise them as he did the first time.

Once they reached the hotel, the Beneran concluded his business quickly, he actually brought all his baggage from his room, having no intention to stay there again, they had talked about it along the way, and decided it best if he stay with Eltira for the immediate future. After that, they returned to the Tenal's home, and by then, the sun was setting while Betoras brought his baggage up to a spare room, Eltira began to cook something for supper, soon filling the house with a most wonderful scent of cooking food, enough to make one's mouth water.

The meal was served soon enough, outside the large window of the living room, the last rays of the sun's light could be seen, and street lights came on, the table was set with a rather appetizing looking meal consisting of mixed vegetables cooked in a sauce that used various flavorings, served with noodles "I hope you don't mind only having vegetables." Eltira said as she set silverware on the table for the two of them, next to their plates "I would have cooked a bit of meat as a separate dish for you if I had any, but I never really thought I'd need it last time I went shopping."

"That's really not a problem." Betoras answered "Though we might need to do something about it if I stay with you for a long time, I'm not really interested in becoming a vegetarian." He said down in one of the chairs.

"Help yourself to the food." Eltira said as she took a place opposite from him, he nodded, and did as suggested.

"I hope you don't mind if I start, I'm rather hungry." He said as he watched Eltira get her own helping.

"Go ahead." She answered "I don't mind."

The Beneran was quite eager to dig in, though he still took care to observe proper manners, he found that the food tasted every bit as good as it smelled, and he found that the absence of meat did not bother him in this case, he was half way done with what was on his dish before he spoke.

"So, Eltira, if you don't mind me asking, what brings a Tenal to serve in the Alvani Intelligence Unit. I mean, not that there's a problem with that, but there aren't so many Tenal in Ellana, so I didn't expect to see one serving our nation."

"I'm paying back a debt," she answered, sounding completely serious about it "Someone in the AIU saved my life years ago, so in gratitude I joined to help him."

Betoras raised an eyebrow at her comment "Is that true?" he asked, not sure if he should really believe that she would take on a job that could at times be quite dangerous merely out of gratitude, or for that matter that an outsider would be allowed to join because of that.

"Of course it's not, I was just messing with you." She answered "Actually, I was born in Ellana, my parents moved here and I've lived here all my life, so I consider myself a woman of this land. Now, that's not to say I've given up the ways of my people to fit in here, as you can probably see from how I dress, but I still feel I owe my loyalty to this country, and I decided to join in order to serve my country, so that's my story."

The Beneran nodded "well, in that case, I'm glad to consider you one of my own. Your body and cultural background may be different from us, but I don't think that gives you less of a right to live on this land."

"Thank you." She answered "I've met those who don't seem to feel that way, but I let the fact that I've probably done a lot more for Ellana than they have speak for itself, but now that you've heard about me, why not tell me a bit about yourself? Why did you join the military?"

Betoras had been busy feeding some noodles into his mouth when she asked the question, he finished them before speaking "Really, it's not that different from why you joined the AIU. I wanted to serve my country, though my way of doing it was a bit different from yours. And it wasn't easy, but I don't regret it, still, in the end, I thought I'd done enough for my country, and decided to quit. Funny that now, I'm fighting for my country again, I guess it's never too late to be a patriot, though."

She nodded at his story "Sounds like we have a few things in common. But I'm really glad you decided to help us, you're just the sort of person we need when dealing with troublesome enemies like the ones we face now."

He nodded to her statement, but did not really have much to say in response to it. In the end, they ate their meal in piece, and the evening proved uneventful. Eventually, they retired to bed.

The next morning, Betoras and Eltira ate a quick breakfast before they went to the car and the Tenal drove away with him as her passenger. The drive took perhaps half an hour, and brought them into the countryside outside of the city, which was dotted by numerous farms, though efforts had clearly been made to preserve the natural scenery in many parts, which likely helped with tourism. The area was mostly fairly flat, and beaches lined the sure. The place Eltira drove them to was a base some ways out of the city, and they were allowed in without problems.

"This looks like a military base." Betoras commented.

"Of course it is silly." The Tenal answered "The AIU is leading the fight against the Khalist, but fighting them openly on our own is a bit outside of our league, the military is helping with that."

"Ah, I guess I should have thought of that." He answered "Are the pilots who will be joining me from the military too?"

"I'd imagine most of them are. We requested that they send as many as they could, but we'll see how many that actually is."

Soon enough, the car pulled to a stop at the center of the base complex, where Betoras noticed a few figures waiting for him, two uniformed soldiers, and a familiar face in a pilot suit, he had not expected to see that face here, yet it brought a smile to his face. As soon as the car stopped, he was out of it and approached the figure, it was Aludar.

"Aludar! What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Well, apparently my performance in yesterday's battle didn't go unnoticed, and my presence here was requested." He answered as he offered a hand to his old friend, which Betoras shook "I wasn't sure I'd accept at first, but when they mentioned you'd be here, my choice was made."

"He was rather insistent that we let him see you the moment you got here too." One of the soldiers said.

Betoras nodded "Well, I'm glad I can fight with you again, Aludar, but I doubt there's much time for us to stand here and talk."

"Yes, you have much work to do." The second soldier said "Aludar, take your friend to get suited up, then escort him to the briefing room"

Aludar nodded "Understood, come with me, then, Betoras."

The other Beneran nodded, and glanced back to Eltira "I'll see you after the battle, then, Eltira."

"Actually, I'll be in charge of this operation." She answered "So expect to see me again before it's over."

Betoras was a little surprised to hear this, but Aludar soon began leading him away, so he followed with no further questions.

"You know, this feels just like old times." Aludar commented "The two of us fighting together for our country. Just yesterday, I never would have thought I'd be doing this."

"You're not alone." The other Beneran answered "A lot of things have happened as of late that surprised me. But that's how these things go, I suppose." They soon stepped into the building, it was well lit, but not as bright as the sun outside, and notably cooler, Betoras did not know where they were going, so he just followed his companion's lead.

His companion nodded at Betoras' words, before he brought up another subject "So, what happened after we parted ways yesterday?" he asked "My day went by pretty much normally, had to take my KM back to be repaired and conclude some paperwork, until they came to me, anyway."

"Eltira, the agent you saw, got me to agree to fight the Khalist, I trust you were told about them?" a nod from his friend confirmed that this was the case "And told me what was going on, she had me stay at her place for the night."

"Oh, she did?" Aludar asked, raising his brow at this, and grinning as he spoke "Did you... enjoy your time with her?"

A blush came to Betoras' face as he realized what his friend was implying "Of course not!" he answered hastily "I mean... she was nice to be with, but we didn't do anything like that! She just offered me a safe place to stay for the night."

"I see, I'll just take your word on that." Aludar answered "Anyway, the changing rooms are right here, find a suit that fits you and we can be off."

Betoras nodded, and proceeded into the room his friend indicated to change. He soon emerged in the form fitting padded suit, a helmet tucked under his arm, Aludar regarded him with a smile.

"I still think a pilot suit fits you best." He said "Anyway, let's be going, don't want to keep the others waiting."

They were about to walk away when a third figure stepped out of the changing room for women, she was a human, with short copper hair framing her sharp features, and blue eyes that soon fixed on the other two pilots.

"Are you two also here for the attack on the Khalist base?" she asked, looking up to the two Benerans.

Aludar nodded, and gave a formal salute "Aludar Metia," he said "And my friend is Betoras Estora." He motioned to the other Beneran, who also offered a salute.

"Ellis Parfera." The woman answered "From the Alvani Special Forces. So, you're the pilot of this Knight Machine called Aparillis, right?" she looked to Betoras and offered a hand shake.

"That's right." He answered as he shook her hand "You've heard about me, then?"

She nodded "That I have, your KM is quite an interesting one, I hear it can teleport, even though the only known means to do so is through Binding, as a Binder myself, I'd be quite interested in learning how it does that."

Betoras knew what Binders were, of course, individuals with various supernatural abilities, but what he actually knew about them did not go that much further than that.

"This is the first time I've fought alongside a Binder." He said "So I guess it will be a new experience, anyway, let's be going."

The three of the walked together, and soon arrived in the briefing room, where there were nine other pilots gathered, none of whom Betoras recognized, Eltira stood before them by a holographic projector, with another Beneran Betoras also did not know, but who wore the uniform of an officer, by her side.

"I see everyone is here." She said "Good, take a seat, and we can start."

Wordlessly, the three found empty seats, and took their places.

"Some of you are already aware of the basics of this mission." She said "Your target is a Khalist base on an island the locals call Terin Misera, this island was believed to be uninhabited, and the base is underground, which is likely why it remained hidden for so long. Gathering intelligence regarding the base has been difficult, but it is likely well defended, so expect a difficult battle, however, they should not know about our plan to attack, so you will have the advantage of surprise. You will travel there by air transport. They will certainly have anti-air defenses, but there is no doubt that they would also be prepared to defend against attacks by sea as well, either approach will be dangerous, but our transports are equipped with jamming systems that will make it difficult for them to target us. Once over the island, you will drop and began your assault. Your mission is to destroy any KMs and base defenses, but leave the actual base facilities undamaged, once you have neutralized their defenses, we will send in ground troops to capture the base."

That said, she activated the projector, and brought up a three dimensional image of an island. Rising from the sea, one portion of it rose up to a low peak, for the most part, its rocky shores were too steep to land on, but on the side furthest from the peak the shore had an incline that was more subtle, and judging from the image, a pier seemed to have been built here, Eltira then began to explain in greater detail the plan of attack, but none of them needed to be told that should that fail, they would need to be able to adjust to unexpected circumstances. When the briefing ended, the pilots departed the room, to join their transports.

They soon arrived in front of a hangar which, judging by its height, was intended for KMs, there were four large transports, each capable of holding three KMs at a time, going by what Betoras remembered of his military days. He looked over some of the KMs that were being loaded onto the transports using large trailers, Aparillis was among them, he also took note of some of the other KMs his comrades would be piloting. He noted a few amphibious types, as well as some more standard units. Once machine that did stand out was a very ornate KM, looking more slender and lightly armored than Aparillis, it was painted in a deep blue as its main color, in addition to yellow markings, it had a green visor-like structure protecting its main camera, Betoras did not recognize its particular design.

"That one is mine." Aludar said, motioning to a separate unit, this one Betoras did recognize, it looked like a model he remembered from his military days, the Temparis, though this seemed to be a newer design than the one he had known before, it had a pair of long, aircraft like wings on the sides of a backpack housing large thrusters, currently folded downwards, the large lower leg and skirt armor, he knew, housed additional thrusters, together, these would allow the machine to fly when the wings were spread. The weapons Betoras noted were a rifle currently attached to the rear waist armor, and a pair of swords, one sheathed on either side of the backpack.

"Certainly better than what I had on the police force." He added "Not that I wouldn't have expected that."

They were not given more time to look at the KMs, though, as soldiers soon came to lead the pilots into their transport. Betoras, Aludar and Ellis were all led to the same one, and brought to a cabin lined with seats, with a hatch in the back that granted access to the on-board hangar. The pilots each took their seats, and strapped themselves in, there was nothing more for them to do but wait for takeoff

Soon, the last of the KMs were loaded, and the craft shifted, it was designed for vertical takeoff and landing, and its engines shifted, firing to begin lifting it off the ground, it rose to a satisfactory height before speeding off towards their goal.

Now having nothing more to do except wait, the pilots could only pass the time with small talk. Betoras glanced to Ellis, who occupied a seat in front of him. He wanted to get to know a bit more about her before the battle.

"So... Ellis, if you don't mind me using your first name, would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?" he asked.

"Ellis will be fine, anything else always seemed unnecessary to me." She answered "And whether I'll tell you about myself depends on what you want to know, so I guess you should go ahead and ask, depending on what the question is, maybe I'll answer."

"Well... since you're a Binder, I guess I'll start by asking where you learned to do it. Were you trained in the Binder's Council?"

She shook her head "No, but my mother was." She answered "It turned out that I had potential too, so she taught me, I guess I figured her training was enough, and I wouldn't need the Council to teach me, and I picked up what she taught me pretty well."

The Beneran nodded, he suspected that was not such an unusual story, not that he knew much from experience. The Binder's Council was the dominant authority in Binding on Alestrea, and served to train people in the use of such power as well as prevent its abuse. But by no means were all Binders affiliated with the Council, or trained by it.

"Of course, I'm no match for my mother, and I doubt I'll ever be." The human added "But I don't mind, I know there are things I can't do, but I try my best, I won't let anyone accuse me of failing to do what I should be able to, for the things that fall outside of my abilities, I just try not to worry."

"That sounds like a pretty sensible way to look at things." He commented with a bit of a smile.

"I thought so." She commented "It's what my father always told me, and that perspective convinced me. I don't think either of my parents thought I'd use my powers for what I'm doing now, though, but if they have any complaints with my career, they haven't made them heard."

Their conversation might have continued further, had it not been interrupted by an announcement telling them to get to their KMs and prepare for the operation.

"Well, I guess that's our cue." Aludar commented as he undid the belt that held him securely in his seat "We have work to do."

The others silently copied his actions, and soon enough, all three pilots were on their feet. They went to the hatch in the back, opened it, and one by one they climbed down the ladder that led into the hangar itself.

The hangar was clearly constructed with the limited space of the transport in mind, there was enough room to hold its maximum load of three KMs, with as little wasted space as possible. There was basic equipment for repairs and resupplying, but serious damage would still require returning to base. The three KMs on-board were placed neatly into the space set aside for carrying them, and clamps served to keep them secure. The pilots quickly scrambled to them, and activated the machines once in the cockpit, knowing that they would need to be ready to move as soon as they were in position to drop.

The fact that they were nearing the island was announced when an alarm sounded throughout the transport, and an announcement was heard informing the crew that they were entering a combat zone, Betoras was sure that they would come under fire soon enough, but he was not worried, transports such as this one were built to bring KMs into dangerous areas, after all, and would not go down easily.

The large hangar doors in the back of the transport opened, allowing the pilots to see the other transports in the open skies, and sure enough, the Beneran caught the sure signs of anti-air weapons fire, the transports also fired back with their defensive weapons, and the once calm skies were soon filled with the chaos of battle. Then the order was given for the pilots to begin their drop.

Aludar was to exit the craft first as his KM was capable of flying, which made it suited for drawing fire from the enemy's defenses to increase the odds of the others landing safely. Betoras and Ellis would need to use the parachute modules that had been attached to their KMs to make their landing. Betoras began moving his KM towards the large opening, following close behind the Temparis, and Ellis' KM was behind him. The flight capable KM jumped, and as it fell, the wings on its sides spread, locking into their open position, its powerful thrusters fired, and it sped off, soon firing at a target that was out of Betoras' field of view as it flew.

Aparillis jumped after this, and Betoras held the controls tightly, his hand on the button that would open the parachute, waiting for the right moment to use it. He could see other KMs dropping in this fashion from the remaining transports transports as well, and one transport, once it had released all KM's on board, turned away, moving to somewhere safer until it was time to retrieve the KMs. Some weapons were fired at him, but small movements of the limbs and occasional thruster firing to change the passage of the fall made it possible to avoid this fire.

Once he drew near enough to the ground, Betoras pressed the button, and the parachute opened, catching the wind in its flat sail-like surface, it quickly began to slow the KM's fall. Unfortunately, this also made Aparillis an easier target, as shown when the cockpit display indicated that a beam shot had grazed its right leg, thankfully, it did not seem to do any serious damage, but many more shots came too close for combat.

Eventually, though, the machine's feet found ground, leaving indentations in the grassy earth below it, the parachute module detached and fell to the ground uselessly, and the Beneran surveyed his surroundings.

The fire upon the transports and dropping KMs seemed to come mostly from stationary defenses, as predicted, the attack appeared to have taken the enemy by surprise, and their KM forces were still scrambling to meet the attack. However, judging from the numbers they already had and the fact that more were still come, Betoras felt he could safely say that his comrades were outnumbered.

Of course, he would not have expected anything else.

"Ellis, Aludar, I'm on the ground." He said over the comms "You two okay?"

"I'm fine." Aludar answered "In fact, while you've been falling I've been doing my best to keep their defenses off your tail."

"I'm doing good, though I've encountered a bit of resistance." Ellis answered "Nothing I can't handle, though."

"I think I see you." The Beneran answered, having spotted a group of four KMs attacking one, which, from its form, he recognized as the machine Ellis piloted, flames danced around the friendly KM, so intense that the enemies' armor was melted by their heat, yet they seemed to do no harm to their user.

"I see you too, I wouldn't recommend you try to help me, though. Wouldn't want to burn you by accident, anyway, I'll be fine on my own."

Even as she spoke, the pilot continued to bombard the enemy KMs with her flames, her KM motioned with its arms towards them, lines along them glowing a bright red, as fire seemed to appear from thin air to strike them. Betoras saw one of them cease its movements, its optics going dark, the heat had been so intense that the melted material of its form caused many of its joints to fuse. The Beneran had an uncomfortable image of the pilot being burned alive within the cockpit, but did his best to banish it.

Not wanting to be distracted further, he quickly looked away, just in time to see three enemies that seemed to have set their sights on him. He took a beam sword into Aparillis' left hand, activating it, and prepared to meet their attack. Two of them fired at him with the rifles in their hands, which he managed to dodge, while a third charged in, bringing down the blade it held in its hand, Betoras saw threw the attack easily enough, and brought up Aparillis' left arm to block it on the shield, before striking at the foe with the weapon in its right hand, aiming for the shoulder.

The pilot reacted quickly, moving in the opposite direction too suddenly for Betoras to react, the beam blade still hit, but only managed to cut a portion of the armor on the shoulder, without doing any serious damage.

One of the rifle wielding KMs fired again, and this time it hit its mark, leaving a hole in the armor on the left side of Aparillis' chest, Betoras grimaced as he noticed this, cursing himself for giving his foe a chance to hit him. Thankfully, though, the damage was nothing that would severely impact performance.

"I should be able to do better than this." He said to himself, and suddenly darted towards the closest enemy, moving too quickly for his foes to react. Immediately the beam sword was stabbed into the machine, and a second one was taken into the other hand, which was also driven into his opponent, impaling the machine with the two blades. Betoras then leaped backwards, holding the two swords, thereby doing more damage to the enemy as they were ripped out of it, doing so allowed him to dodge the fire from the two remaining enemies.

For the targets that remained at a range, the Beneran activated the two particle beam cannons, and fired, one of the enemies was caught immediately, and destroyed, the other however, managed to dodge, only to take several shots fired from above in its chest, which caused it to explode.

"Sorry I didn't help you earlier." Aludar said, and Betoras glanced up to see that the source of the shot was from his KM, which quickly descended to land on the ground near Aparillis "I was a little busy."

With the enemies in the immediate area seemingly eliminated, Ellis' KM also walked over towards the two, her other foes defeated in much the same way as the first one.

"Well, what are you two standing around here for?" she asked "You don't want the others to do all the work, do you?"

"Of course not." Betoras answered "Let's go do some more damage."

It was not hard to find more targets to engage, the island had quickly became a battlefield, with the KMs of both sides brutally tearing into each other. Betoras saw one friendly KM about to be finished by a Salanis, he reacted quickly, bringing out one of Aparillis' sonic daggers, the blade was flung at the machine, striking the arm of the hostile KM in the joint, crippling it, and preventing it from striking its foe with its claws Using the distraction this created, Betoras' comrade was able to take the enemy out with a point blank range beam shot to the cockpit.

Betoras took a moment to retrieve the dagger and return it to its place in the forearm, just in time to notice several missiles coming towards him. He reacted instinctively, and once again demonstrated his new KM's mobility, rapidly dashing to the side to avoid the explosives, which only served to tear the already fallen Salanis apart when they detonated near it. Their source was a rather heavy looking machine, its broad frame painted green, there were two large missile pods on its back, and some type of large gun on either arm, it was not hard to guess what the machine's main focus was.

"Careful." Ellis, who stood near Betoras, warned "This one looks pretty tough."

"It also looks pretty slow, though." The Beneran answered "Aludar, Ellis, why don't we spread out? We might be able to flank it."

"Of course, friend, you attack it from the front." Aludar answered, Betoras did not argue with him, for he knew his old friend well enough to understand the logic of that. Aludar's Temparis was more lightly armored than Aparillis, and Ellis' KM appeared to be as well, thus, Betoras was most suited to put up with the brunt of the heavy KM's assault.

Besides, there was really no time to argue, as the machine fired at the three KM's with its arm mounted guns, which seemed to fire large caliber solid shells, while Betoras blocked them on Apparillis' shield, denting it but not penetrating it, the other two quickly moved to either side, hoping to attack the machine from multiple angles.

Ellis attempted to move to its right, but the machine stretched out one of its arms in that direction, and fired the gun on it, forcing her into an evasive maneuver, Aludar, seeing this, decided to attempt to fly over the machine, firing a burst with his rifle, it hit, but did little to damage the heavily armored machine.

Then the armor on its chest opened, revealing two sets of Gatling gun barrels, which began to rotate rapidly, spraying bullets at Aparillis, Betoras quickly began moving towards the machine's left to evade them, though it turned its torso to follow him in an attempt to score a hit. Of course, he was not content only to evade, as he lowered the particle beam cannons into their firing position, and pulled the trigger. The beams went towards the machine, and, he was sure, even its heavy armor could not escape them unscathed.

Yet just before reaching their target, the beam's suddenly dispersed, spreading like water flowing over a rounded surface into rivulets of glowing particles, each too weak to cause any damage. The effect, he knew, was that of an electromagnetic barrier, one would be hard pressed to find a better defense against particle weapons than that.

Betoras cursed his luck, it seemed that this foe was even stronger than he had anticipated.

"What do we do now?" he asked his companions.

"I'd suggest keeping to the original plan." Aludar answered "It can't keep this up forever."

"Its EM barrier won't stop my Binding." Ellis answered "So I'll start with that, you two hit it with whatever else you feel like if you get the chance."

While speaking, of course, they continued to dodge the fire from the heavily armored KM, and once they were done, they resumed their attack, each circling around, dodging whatever it fired at them, Betoras waited for now, as he had yet to see a chance to get into melee range and his ranged weapons clearly would not work. Aludar though continued firing at it with his rifle, while Ellis stretched out her KM's arms and blasted it with fire from behind. After some time, this had an interesting effect, but one that Betoras supposed was to be expected when explosives were mixed with intense heat, the missile pods on the machine's back exploded.

Just before this happened, the pods were detached, presumably a safety measure for just such an event, even as they fell to the ground, the missiles within went off rather spectacularly, the explosion managed to send even the heavy KM off its feet, falling forward. Betoras quickly charged in when it was on the ground, beam cannons ready. The EM field only worked on particle beams passing through it, after all, if a beam weapon was fired within the radius it covered, it would not stop it, so he stopped when he was directly above the enemy, and fired the weapons from point blank range, just as he anticipated, the armor could not stop them. When the bright flash of superheated particles was gone, there was very little of the machine left. The Beneran let out a deep breath, and he imagined his companions were doing the same.

The battle continued to rage on around them, of course, and some of the Ellanan KMs had fallen, but for every one of them that had, many more of the enemy were taken, which was fortunate, given that they were outnumbered. For the most part, though, the trio had been too focused on their own battles to pay much attention to the others. Now, in their brief respite, though, they noticed that the immediate grounds were cleared of hostiles, only the twisted wreckages of fallen combatants littered the ground torn with craters, the ongoing fighting was no further inland.

At this point, Eltira's voice came through the comms, addressing them "It looks like the enemies have pulled back towards the mountain." She said "Probably trying to keep us away from any entrances, you should get moving and quickly, if the battle continues to drag on, I fear they may start evacuating."

They all voiced their understanding, and moved on to join their comrades, soon arriving on the scene of carnage, where they saw a large concentration of enemies engaging the attackers, aided by stationary defense emplacements. They stood among the remains of their fallen allies, but continued to fight on, it was clear that they had no plans to give up without a fight.

"Looks like they're pretty determined to keep us out of here." Aludar commented, having flown ahead of the other two, he fired several shots at the defenders.

"Well, no matter what kind of defense they have, we just have to break through it." Betoras answered.

Exactly." Ellis agreed, even as her KM stretched out its arms, fire forming in the air around it, it shot out in a ball of flame, towards the Khalist forces, which exploded in their midst, knocking several of them to the ground as the flames washed over them.

Betoras, meanwhile, fired Apparills' particle beam cannons, taking out a group of enemies that had been harassing a group of his comrades.

"Betoras, look out!" Aludar shouted, but too late, for when Betoras noticed the light of the beam cannon from an enemy that stood atop the cliffs above, he already had no time to dodge it , it almost seemed as though time had slowed in that very brief moment it would take for the weapon to find its mark, when suddenly, his view was flooded in light, the Beneran thought for a moment that he had indeed been hit, it was only until he found himself sitting in the cockpit, quite fine, but a dozen meters from where Aparillis had been before, a strip of scorched earth marking the pass of the beam, that he realized what had happened.

It was the first time he had experienced teleportation, and in truth, he did not know how to describe how I felt, he had not felt much at all. Not in the sense that it felt normal, but rather, that when it happened, there was, for a brief moment, an absence of feeling, as though he were, for a moment, cut off from anything that could possibly invoke a sensory response, and then he was in another location, it seemed as simple as that.

"I'd heard about it, but to actually see it..." Ellis said "How did you do it?"

"I think Aparillis decided to do it on its own." He answered "I guess it recognized there was danger, so it took matters into its own hands."

Aludar fired repeatedly at the enemy that had used the beam weapon, each shot that hit it tearing holes in its armor, before it could take no more, and exploded, which also served to dislodge several chunks of rock from the cliff, falling to crush several of the enemies below.

"Save the speculation for later." The other Beneran said "We still have..." he fell silent as another noise was added to the carnage of battle, the sound of rapidly spinning rotors. Then, from part of the mountain, shining objects began to rise, they were helicopters, first one, then another, and more still followed.

"Damn," he cursed "It looks like we're too late, if they're evacuating, then they've probably removed information that could be used against them too."

"We still need to wrap things up here." Ellis answered "If we're lucky, they might have left something for us."

"And if nothing else, taking this base from them will remove on problem." Betoras added, and quickly moved in to engage the forces making their final stand. At that point, though, the outcome was already decided, no doubt, the enemy leaders had already determined that they would lose this base, so they fled, leaving their expendable forces behind to hold the attackers off until they could get to safety.

The task of eliminating the remaining defenders had gone by fairly smoothly, Betoras cut through their ranks quite literally, using both beam swords as he moved about them, evading any attacks and felling them with ease, while Aludar flew above and fired his rifle at them, occasionally swooping down to deliver a slash with his sword, as for Ellis, her fire made short work of them. The last of the enemies fell when Betoras charged into it, slicing it in half at the waist with a beam sword, he deactivated the weapon, the blade dissipated, and put it back into storage as he looked upon the exploding machine before him. Once it was confirmed that the base's defenses were dealt with, several transports, these ones smaller than the ones the pilots had used, due to being intended or infantry, came in, and the ground forces they brought were quick to move towards the entrance to the underground base facilities at the foot of the mountain. The KM transports also came in soon, and landed, they offered some field repairs to any damaged KMs and treated whatever injuries the pilots might have sustained.

It was perhaps thirty minutes, give or take a few after the infantry had moved in to the base, that Eltira summoned the pilots, they met in a clear section of ground under the wing of one of the transports, where the Tenal explained the situation.

"Unfortunately, it seems that by the time our men got inside, their leaders had already escaped," she informed them "And they made sure not to leave any important data behind."

"I thought as much." Ellis answered, standing towards Betoras' left, with her KM not far behind "Does this mean this battle was pointless?"

"This was a possible outcome we had considered." Eltira answered "And though we may not have gained the information we wanted, I think just eliminating one of their bases will benefit us, also, while the most important members in this facility fled, we did manage to capture some of their soldiers, we'll question them, and see if they can tell us anything interesting."

"I see." Betoras said "What about us? Do you have any more orders for us?"

"Not right now," Eltira answered "You'll just have to wait until we have new orders for you, or they make another move, but the AIU will keep investigating them, and you'll know it when there's work to be done. For now, we'll return to base, and after that, I'd suggest all of you get some rest."

After this, the pilots made the preparations to leave, and once all was ready, the transports launched with KMs and pilots on board, returning to the same base they had left from. While the others went their separate ways, Betoras, Aludar and Ellis stood in front of the main building.

"It was good fighting alongside you, Ellis." Betoras said to the human "I see that the reputation of Binders is certainly well deserved."

Aludar nodded to his friend's words "This was certainly a good opportunity."

"There's no need to flatter me." She said, scratching the back of her head "Like I said, I'm not the best around, and you two were pretty good in your own way. In any case, I'll be on my way now, I look forward to fighting alongside you again, though."

Betoras nodded "See you again, Ellis." He said, shaking her hand, and Aludar did the same afterwards.

Farewells done, the woman walked away, leaving the two Benerans alone. Soon afterwards, Aludar turned to Betoras.

"I guess I should be going too, I could certainly do with a rest after that."

Betoras nodded, and waved goodbye to his friend. It was not long after the other Beneran was also gone that Eltira pulled up nearby in her car, reaching a hand out of the window to wave at him.

"Betoras, you ready to go home?" she asked.

He nodded "I see no reason to linger." Walking over to the car, he got in, and soon Eltira began driving.

The journey back home passed by without event, and once they were at Eltira's house, the two ate. They said little over their meal, as Betoras was not really in the mood for words then, and if Eltira had anything to say, it seemed she had sensed his desire for silence and chosen to respect it. At the time, he found the quiet comforting, still, he welcomed the Tenal's company even if he did not acknowledge this in words.

He could not say how long it would be before he would once again be called to battle, but he would enjoy this peace while it lasted.