Ace sat against a tree trunk and performed the task delegated to him. Brant and Aaron had gathered up all the Innutukian guns and sorted them out, and now Ace's task was to consolidate all the leftover ammo into fewer guns. Aaron planned to melt most of the empty weapons for scrap metal. 

He struggled against a jammed locking mechanism preventing him from opening the bullet chamber. Then he glanced up at the sound of footsteps rustling through the grass. Keira approached, squinting at a piece of paper so white it nearly blinded him when the sun reflected off of it. 

"Hey, Ace, could you help me with this when you're done?" she asked as she took a seat beside him against the trunk. 

"What's 'this'? I'd rather know what I'm getting myself into." he remarked with a hint of humor in his voice. 

"Of course. It's an idea of Aaron's. He calls it the godkiller compound." 

Ace didn't look at the paper she attempted to thrust in his face, focusing instead on extracting bullets from the gun in his hand. "Sounds epic. But I'm no chemist." 

"Well, neither am I! But you're smart, and I'd like a second brain. Aaron, Wendy, and Sila are all busy with repairing equipment, so I can't ask them." 

He sighed. "Sure. I mean, what's the difficulty, though? Doesn't he have an ingredients list on there?" 

"Complete with nutrition facts, yes." she jested, "But yeah, there is. Just a lot of these chemicals need to be combined in a specific way or they do crazy things. Like these two." she said, pointing at two names which Ace didn't look at. "If the mixture isn't exactly 1:1 the entire time, it'll blow up." 

"Sounds too volatile to be safe." 

"It's not supposed to be safe. I mean, what about 'godkiller compound' sounds safe to you?" 

Ace shrugged. "Fair enough." he tossed the empty rifle aside and snatched up another. "I'll help you, don't worry. But I've gotta finish this first so Sila can be more useful." 

"Of course." Keira sighed. "I can wait." 

"You could help me, too, and make us even." 

Ace hadn't glanced at her once yet, but he heard her facepalm. "Of course!" she exclaimed, "What do you need?" 

"You do the uzis. Careful not to cut yourself on the shrapnel in the pile." 

"Will do." Keira crawled across the grass, placed herself before the heap of uzis and picked one up. As she removed the first bullet, she cleared her throat. "So, I was also curious about something." 

"I'm listening." 

"You told Brant earlier you came from a 'dark place' you wanna redeem yourself from. What was that about?" 

Ace shrugged. "Nothing important." 

"Obviously it is. I mean, it's why you're here, or so you claimed." 

"I don't talk about it." 

Keira sighed. "Sometimes, question marks are my least favorite punctuation mark." 

"Ouch." 

"You can't just say that and not give me anything more to work with." 

"I can and will." he retorted. 

"Why're you so difficult?" 

"I'm actually not. A lock's only difficult for someone trying to break in. Not someone who has the key." 

"Oh yeah?" she challenged, "And what's this key? Who's got it?" 

"You ask a lot of questions for one who doesn't like question marks." 

"You dodge a lot of questions for someone who claims to fear nothing." 

Ace frowned when his next gun's barrel snapped in two the moment he touched it. "I never said that." 

Keira huffed. "Listen, I just wanna know what you mean when you speak of this dark place. I'm not gonna tell anyone else, if that's what you're afraid of." 

"I never said I was afraid." 

"You, sir, are a master of the art of targeting the one part of a sentence that doesn't matter." 

"An ace evader." 

Keira narrowed her eyes. "I'm about to slap that smirk off your face." 

Ace chuckled and sat up. "It'll probably go away on its own soon enough." 

"Fine, you can keep your secrets. What are they to me, anyway?" 

"Question marks." 

She only rolled her eyes. 

"But they'll become periods in a sec, I guess." 

Her face brightened. "You're serious?" 

"Sure." He sighed as he tossed yet another weapon into the pile. "So the short of it, I led a gang. Used to, I mean." 

Keira's stunning green eyes widened. "Really?" 

"Really. Specialized in black market arms dealing. Mostly weapons that should never exist." 

"That would explain some things." she remarked, glancing over his outfit which concealed most of his gadgets. 

He shrugged. "So eventually we got busted and I went to the big house. Was in there for a while until the Commercian Insurgence sprouted. They freed me in exchange for my services." 

"And that's when you came to us?" 

"Well yeah, you already know this. Their zeal quickly decayed, and so I had to go elsewhere to actually make a difference." His shoulders jumped again. "Happy now?" 

"I mean, sure. Somehow, I thought you were gonna tell me some rapturous story, but all you gave me was an outline." 

"Maybe I'll tell you more someday. I'm afraid that's already more than you need to know." 

Keira lips elevated into a smile. "Well, thanks for getting rid of some of those question marks for me." 

"Sure." 

"I'm glad the Commercian Insurgence crumbled like that." 

Ace frowned. "Why?" 

"Because it means we get to have you." 

His dark brown irises met her vivid greens, and he held eye contact for several thoughtful seconds. "When you put it that way...me too." 

Keira grinned. "Well, let's finish this so we can get to our chemistry experiment." 

"I can't wait." Ace muttered sarcastically. 

******************** 

Brant and Track strolled through the grove of trees to meet Aaron, who watched with pleasure as Sila lifted a dumbbell with its new arm. The color match was imperfect, but Brant was unsure if it was only only himself who could detect the difference with his acute vision. Wendy sat nearby, her fingers drumming on a keyboard. 

Once he spotted the two leaders, Aaron broke off to meet them. "What's up?" 

Brant glanced at Track before speaking. "We were just talking and came to the conclusion we'd better get moving elsewhere, just in case they send a cleanup crew to pick off any survivors." 

Aaron's teeth came together, and he blew air between them before answering. "The Stingray can't carry everybody, I'm afraid. We may be able to cram...200 in, maybe. But most of us'll have to walk." 

"Where to, anyway?" Sila asked. 

Brant glanced into the distance and pointed, though he knew only he could see what he was pointing at. "There's a cave a ways off we could probably take shelter in. I know it's a pretty obvious hiding place, given where they know we just were, but I hear there's only one entrance, and if we just set up some shieldmen near the mouth, it'll be extremely difficult to get in." 

"We saw how wonderfully bloody shieldmen worked before." Wendy muttered from where she sat. 

Track glared at the blonde woman. "I'm afraid an archer has no room to speak in this matter." 

"Excuse you!" she exclaimed, moving the laptop aside and leaping to her feet, "In my hands, it's as efficient as any gun!" 

"Sure. Now you know what it feels like to be underestimated without cause." he said pointedly. 

Her lips twitched, but she never settled on a reply. Finally, she sat down with a huff and picked the laptop back up. 

"Anything's better than nothing, Wendy." Brant remarked, "As it is, our only cover is some trees." 

She nodded, but said nothing more. Her forehead furrowed in concentration as she continued typing. 

Brant glanced at Aaron. "Are you ready to move out?" 

"Not quite. It looks like Keira and Ace just got started on my little concoction over there, and the chemicals would probably be too unstable to be moved until they finish." 

"How long?" Track asked. 

"An hour, I'd guess. Of course, maybe some of us can go ahead to secure that cave now, and then others follow later." 

The Innutukian nodded. "My men would be quite capable of such a thing." 

Brant gave him a thumbs up. "Good idea, and then we can—" He stopped short and glanced down when his communicator beeped. He snatched it up and widened his eyes. "Baird's calling!" 

Aaron perked up. "Answer!" 

Brant clicked the button. "Hello?" 

"Hello there, Brant Nayan." a voice answered on the other end. It wasn't Baird's. 

"Who is this?" 

"My name's Ryder. And I'm head of the newly formed Underground of Unterstat." 

Brant raised an eyebrow. "An insurgent group of some sort, I'm guessing?" 

"You've guessed correctly. Let me cut to the point. You've heard of the Iron Hallway?" 

"I have." 

"A group of your allies, including Baird Amergin and Khemera Taing, have been imprisoned there, and most of them are due to be executed at 9 o'clock a.m., day after tomorrow." the voice said in a recitative tone. 

"How do you know this?" 

"We're the Underground of Unterstat, I told you. We've got men in every industry, every class, and more pertinently, in the ranks of their guards. I spoke with Baird personally, and he gave me the frequency to contact you on." 

Brant bit his lip in a moment of thought. "If you know about this, why don't you free them yourself?" 

"Well, see, we have secrecy, but not necessarily numbers or strength. Our treachery would soon be found out, and Unterstat is a closed system. They'd have no difficulty in locking the place up, tracking us down and putting us all in there. That's why I've contacted you." 

"What do you want, exactly?" 

"I want you to come to Tlaventeas. It's a town on the southern coast of—" 

"Klovania." Brant interrupted, "I know the place like the back of my hand." 

"Excellent. Myself and a few of my men will meet you there, and we'll discuss the details of the rescue. Assuming we succeed and survive, I am strongly considering allying with you in the fight against our mutual enemy." 

Brant's interest had now reached its zenith. He glanced at Track, who gave him a vigorous nod. "We'll be there by...tomorrow morning." he spoke into the communicator. 

"As will we." Ryder confirmed. "Just don't tip anyone off in the town. If know the place as well as you say, you know how readily Klovanian voices turn northwest." 

"I'm well aware. I'll see you soon." 

"Alright, fare well." 

With a click, the call ended, and Brant's eyes darted between Aaron and Track. 

"That's...both a relief and a new scare." Aaron said. 

Brant nodded. "At least we know for sure where they are. Takes any speculation out of it." 

"Exactly." 

"So, logistics...We'll take the Stingray, I'm assuming, so who goes and who doesn't?" 

"Well, this is supposed to be a covert operation, right?" Aaron asked. 

"Yes." 

"So I'd say we take...20 men? Plus the three it takes to operate the ship." 

Brant squinted for a second before agreeing. He turned to Track. "Ten of our men, ten of yours?" 

Track thought it over for a second. "Wouldn't we stand out easily with our shields?" 

Aaron shrugged. "We can take the Armory, and I'll just stow them aboard. You can call for 'em when you need 'em." 

"But what about when we're inside Unterstat's dome?" Brant asked, "I doubt the pods could penetrate it." 

"That's true." 

"Don't worry about it." Track ordered, "We'll stay behind. And it works perfectly that way. Keira and Ace can stay with us so they can do all their work with the chemicals, and also though they don't want to admit it, I think a couple of your insurgents need to heal up before they see action again. I can watch over them." 

Brant nodded as the numbers ran through his head. "So the rest of us will go while you and four of our men stay behind." 

"That's what I was thinking." 

Aaron nodded at Brant. "In that case, I've got preparations to make." 

"Alright, get busy." Brant replied. "I'll let Hannah know what's up." 

Track stretched his back. "And I'll get my men moving to that cave." 

With that, the three men parted ways to carry out their separate tasks.

******************** 

A/N: Well ain't that cute? If this Ryder dude can be trusted, Baird's in the Iron Hallway all over again! Poetry, deja vu, whatever this is, it's never a good place to be. 

(If you enjoyed this chapter, please don't forget to vote and comment. I really appreciate it.) 

So what are your thoughts? Easy rescue, secret ambush, grueling extraction, what're you expecting out of this new objective? 

And let's not pretend that wasn't a thoroughly entertaining first scene, the one between Ace and Keira in the beginning. I'll admit it was insanely fun to write, and may very well be one of my favorite dialogue scenes in this story yet. And if any of you happen to ship those two...well... 😏 

Finally for our random question: I may have asked this before, but it's been a while if so. Anyways, if you had to pick a fictional world to live in, which one would it be? 

(Exciting as some locations make the stories told in them, I value peace and security, thank you very much. So I guess I'd pick Middle Earth, preferably somewhere near the Hobbits' dwellings? 😝) 

Have an awesome day! I hope to see you in tomorrow's update.