Altair scrutinized the video feed while his hands worked almost on autopilot, targeting and readjusting the Ironside's position. Once the final lockdown was complete, Vigil made one final readjustment and, with a flash of viridescent light indicators across the interface, the autocannons roared back into life.

  From the forest covered by the black rain, its darkness was pummeled to irrelevancy by the bright muzzle flashes coming from the Ironside. On the far side of a few dozen meters north of the Ironside, Mira, with a trembling heart, immediately ducked down. Just as she was able to duck down, dozens of whizzing sounds came zooming past her, followed by simultaneous clattering sounds.

  With a grime-stained face, she raised her head back, and her expression warped into that of surprise and horror. Her clothes were now fully soaked by the black rain's corruption. She gripped her bow tightly, and forced herself to stand up.

  "What the hell is she doing?" Altair, who was already sweating profusely back at his cockpit, muttered in annoyance. "Hmm?" His eyes pivoted to her expression, but he paid no mind.

  "Lieutenant!" Vigil interjected. "I am detecting something extraordinary."

  Upon the interjection of Vigil, Altair was momentarily distracted from what he was focusing on. Nevertheless, he was able to autopilot the attacks that came on Mira and defend against other enemies.

  Once Mira was up, she frantically glanced inside her coat. What she saw made her heart drop. "No!" she said as she gazed back into the Ironside, and towards her cousin Lyria, before she lost complete hearing.

  Brennan and Lyria who were watching from the sides, caught a glimpse of her clutching at something inside her coat, which made their faces drain of color.

  "C-Could it be?" Lyria said, her hands trembling over her mouth, whilst Brennan simply used his hand to cover her eyes. "Shhh. Shhh. It's okay now." He said in a lullaby voice.

  "Lieutenant, we are dropping well below our energy reserve—" Vigil suddenly cut himself off. "Lieutenant, we have an emergency!"

  Altair, who was already gazing back at the video feed, was rummaging through the ends of his mind for an answer. "Tell me the details." He said with a decisive tone, eyes narrowed down, and jaws toughened.

  "Ever since the giant Stygians came. I have detected a dubious frequency of sound emanating from them. Suspiciously, a counter frequency was being emitted from Mira's party as well." Vigil laid out all his thoughts. "Once I dived deeper into my suspicions, I found that the frequencies that came from the giant Stygians are all inhibited everywhere we have come across so fa—" Vigil was cut off by Altair.

  "I know, I know context is important." He breathed in and out. "But could you please pick a better time to explain it in detail?" He followed and ended.

  A tense silence then followed.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  "O-Oh alright, I apologize, Lieutenant." Vigil whirred back into his usual energetic routine. "So basically, Mira is getting corrupted by the sound frequencies…" Vigil paused then continued. "She might have lost or broken the resonator she had."

  Altair merely shifted his face along the screen, trying to ignore most of the over-explanation that Vigil seemed to have taken as a part of his personality.

  "What's her current corruption rate?" Altair completely changed the subject and onto more pressing stuff. "Also, can she be saved?" He said, his heart weighing heavily within him as the thought of failing to save someone was happening to him again.

  "With the available information I have, I don't know, Lieutenant." Vigil buzzed in a cascading tone.

  Mira, who had been standing silently under the black rain for a few moments, had now been kept alive due to Altair's precision strikes.

  It started with a little pressure, a small tightening behind her eyes, as if something was trying to push its way out from the inside. Her thoughts mumbled, no longer coherent, images of her father, her family and that of her cousin and best friend since childhood, Lyria. However, just as it arrived so fast, it immediately dissolved before it fully materialized.

  "Analyze any data you could extract, and continue the precision strikes." Altair said, his body growing more uncomfortable by the second.

  "Roger that, Lieutenant." Vigil said with a clear and firm voice, but deep within it slight ripples of nervousness could be found.

  Just as it disappeared like a gust of wind, a new sensation entered. Fear, fear that does not spike, but rather seeps, that was slow and sticky, coating every sensation until nothing ever remained, only to be washed over by relief, as an image formed in front of her.

  "It's all going to end soon…" Brennan, who had his ears flattened over his skull, attempted to comfort Lyria.

  "But we made sure to take resonators before we departed?" Lyria mumbled while tears of sadness continued flowing out of her eyes.

  "Lyria, is that you?" She tried to reach out, but she found nothing.

  Her body became heavy, perhaps a little too heavy, but then at the same time hollow, but full. Her skin prickled as if touched by innumerable fingers, which were gentle at first, then turned into a dagger-like touch the next second, until each and every single one burrowed deep within her marrow.

  "Corruption rate is at sixty percent, Lieutenant!" Vigil said in a downtrodden voice.

  Altair merely watched what was happening in front of him, resolving to take it to himself what he had failed to do in this iteration of his life.

  Various images appeared without permission through her jumbled mind. It wasn't visions, but rather impressions, a testament of memories. Her colors bled into emotions, anger into red, sadness into blue. Each shape that formed across her suggested otherwise; meaning appeared where there should not be any. She desperately clung to any she could find, but alas there was only one thing.

  "Lieutenant! I have detected a familiar frequency…" Vigil spoke in a rapid manner, then continued. "I-It seems to be from a precursor tech!"

  "What?!" Altair erupted in a fit of anger. "Vigil, track down where the frequency is located at!"

  His heart was throbbing like an anvil being hammered down to refine a sword. There would be numerous repercussions once he got to know more about the situation.

  "Assimilate with us…" The voice beckoned in a language she did not know or understand, like a voice of old, that had been hidden for thousands of years. "Assimilation is freedom…" The voice spoke with a serpent-like tone.

  She was confused, trying to grasp something concrete, when her perspective of reality devolved into a texture. It rippled into a thousand cuts, bent into odd places, and resisted any form of inspection. When focusing, it only seemed to suffer more. Her mind panicked, then fractured into a thousand fragments. Dread, awe, and confusion all at the same time. She was certain, but at the same time uncertain, a paradox of all paradox.

  Then suddenly a bright image came flooding her, and momentary clarity befell.

  She opened her eyes wide, to see only darkness.