The dropship ramp hissed open, revealing a gaping maw of rusted steel and darkness.
The abandoned textile factory was a cavernous skeleton of corrugated iron stretching up five stories into the gloom.
The wind howled through the broken skylights, creating a low, mournful whistle that echoed off the metal catwalks.
"All right everyone, one last review," Himeko's voice crackled over the comms. She stayed behind in the dropship.
"Mostly Chariot-class grazing on the lower levels, with a few Seraphs nesting in the rafters. Nothing you lot couldn't handle."
"Understood," Mei said, stepping onto the metal grating of the factory floor.
Her boot hit the metal hard. To her, it sounded like a gong being struck inside a closet. Mei winced, her hand twitching toward the inhibitor cuff on her wrist, but she forced herself to keep moving.
The factory was already too loud—the wind, the creaking metal, the distant hum of the city grid. It was a cacophony of white noise that made her teeth ache.
"Finally!" Kiana launched herself down the ramp, her expression glowing with pent-up energy.
She hit the ground running, ignoring the slight limp in her left leg. She didn't care about the pain. Right now, she needed to smash some Honkai Beasts.
Three Chariot-class beasts were lumbering through the debris field ahead, their massive, armored bodies scraping against the rusted machinery.
"Hey, ugly!" Kiana screamed, a grin splitting her face that was more manic than happy. "Catch!"
She didn't wait for a formation order. She leveled her dual pistols and unleashed a barrage of hard-light rounds.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
The sound was deafening in the enclosed space. The gunshots bounced off the steel walls, multiplying into a thunderous roar.
Mei flinched visibly, her shoulders seizing up as the noise hit her. She gritted her teeth, burying the irritation under a wave of aggression.
She drew her katana, the heavy magnetic cuff dragging slightly against the motion, and surged forward.
"Out of my way!" Mei shouted, not at the beasts, but at the world in general.
She slashed through the air, a violet arc of lightning snapping from the blade. It wasn't the precise strike she usually favored. It was a brutal, hacking blow that severed a Chariot's arm in a shower of sparks and fluid.
It felt good.
The resistance of the flesh, the impact, the violence—it cut through the sensory static in her head. For a moment, all the noise around her disappeared as she let herself get taken away by the battle.
Above them, the shadows shifted.
"Up high!" Wendy called out.
She was hovering a few feet off the ground, wrapped in her thick tactical parka. The cold wind blowing through the factory was biting through her layers, making her shiver, but her eyes were sharp.
Two Seraph-class beasts swooped down from the rafters.
Wendy raised a hand and snapped her stiff fingers.
WHOOSH.
A blade of compressed air sliced through the factory gloom. It was a fraction of a second slower than her usual speed, the fog of the meds making the targeting calculation feel sluggish, but her aim was as good as ever.
The wind blade clipped the lead Seraph's wing, shattering the energy structure. The beast shrieked—a high-pitched, electronic wail—and spiraled into a pile of rusted looms.
"Nice shot!" Kiana yelled, vaulting over a piece of debris.
She landed hard on her bad leg, her knee buckling slightly, but she rolled through the momentum, coming up with her guns blazing. She blasted the grounded Seraph into silence before it could recover.
For the first five minutes, it was pure catharsis.
They tore through the initial pack with a ferocity that bordered on reckless. Kiana was laughing, a harsh sound that mixed with the gunfire.
Mei was moving like a whirlwind, chopping through armor plating with unnecessary force.
Wendy was floating on the periphery, dropping wind-hammers on anything that tried to flank them like a game of whack-a-mole.
It felt like they were back in their element.
But if Himeko had been watching closely from the catwalks instead of the monitors, she would have seen the cracks.
There was no rhythm.
Kiana was pushing too far ahead, leaving Mei's flank exposed because she was desperate to keep moving.
Mei was fighting angrily, leaving her open to counters because she just wanted to silence the enemy.
Wendy was lagging behind, her movements stiff and delayed, reacting to threats rather than anticipating them.
They weren't dancing together. They were just fighting in the same room.
"Area clear," Kiana announced, blowing smoke from her pistol barrels. She was breathing hard, sweat already beading on her forehead, but her eyes were bright.
"That wasn't so hard. What's next, Auntie?"
"Don't get cocky, Kiana," Himeko's voice warned over the comms. "Scans show a second wave moving in from the loading dock. Bigger signatures this time."
"Bring them on," Mei said, flicking some residue off her blade. The noise in her head was pounding, a rhythmic thumping that synced with her heart, but the adrenaline was keeping it at bay.
Sadly, the catharsis didn't last long.
It burned out around the ten-minute mark, replaced by the grinding reality of their condition. The initial burst of adrenaline that had masked their exhaustion was fading, leaving them exposed, raw, and sloppy.
Kiana was firing relentlessly. Not even thinking about conserving ammo, she was pouring it out, trying to keep the Chariots at bay with sheer volume of fire before rushing in recklessly.
To Mei, every shot felt like a hammer striking the side of her head.
"Too loud," Mei hissed, her teeth clenched so hard her jaw ached.
She was fighting a massive Chariot-class beast near the loading bay. Usually, she would dance around it, weaving through its attacks with liquid grace.
But right now, the factory's acoustics were amplifying the battle into a white-noise nightmare. The screech of the Seraphs above, the roar of the Chariots, the thunder of Kiana's guns—it was blending into a sonic sludge that made it impossible to focus.
Mei saw the Chariot pull its arm back for a swipe. Her eyes tracked the movement, getting ready to parry and counter.
SCREEEEEEECH.
A Seraph dove past her ear, unleashing a high-frequency wail.
Mei flinched. It was an involuntary spasm, her shoulders hiking up to protect her ears.
That split-second hesitation cost her.
She brought her sword up late. She didn't get the blade into position in time.
CRUNCH.
The Chariot's fist didn't hit her directly, but it clipped the flat of her blade, driving the steel guard into her own face.
Mei stumbled back, boots skidding on the oil-slicked floor. A sharp sting flared on her cheekbone. She reached up, her fingers coming away red.
"Mei!" Kiana shouted from across the room, her voice panicked.
"I'm fine!" Mei snapped back, more angry than hurt. She wiped the blood on her sleeve, glaring at the beast.
She lunged forward, abandoning technique entirely. She hacked at the Chariot's legs with brute force, turning her elegant swordplay into a butcher's work, just to make the thing stop moving.
To make it quiet.
Across the battlefield, Kiana watched Mei stumble and felt a spike of guilt piercing through her battle high.
'She's getting hurt because I'm not killing them fast enough,' Kiana thought, panic tightening her chest. 'I need to move faster and draw their attention!'
She spotted a cluster of three Chariots trying to flank Wendy, who was floating near the ceiling, taking potshots that lacked her usual lethal precision.
"Hey! Over here!" Kiana yelled.
She broke into a sprint, aiming to slide between two rusted pillars to get a flanking angle. She pushed off her left leg—the same leg she had abused for four hours in the simulation the night before.
"Argh!"
Her quadriceps seized up in a violent cramp. It felt like the muscle had tied itself into a knot and was trying to tear off the bone.
Kiana's leg buckled mid-stride. Instead of the smooth tactical slide she intended, she collapsed awkwardly, her knee slamming into the metal grating.
She gasped, the air rushing out of her lungs. She tried to scramble up, but the leg refused to bear weight. It was locked, trembling uncontrollably.
"Kiana!" Wendy's voice drifted down from above, sounding thin and strained.
Kiana looked up. The Chariots she had taunted were turning toward her. Seeing the new, limping, weak target.
"I'm ok!" Kiana lied through gritted teeth, forcing herself to stand on one leg, leveling her guns. Her aim wavered as pain shot up her hip. "Just a... just a slip! Keep fighting!
/ — /
Wendy
Kiana was stranded in the center of the battlefield, her left leg unresponsive beneath her. The cramp in her quad was absolutely brutal, locking her knee in a half-bent position.
She scrambled backward, boots scraping against the oil-stained grating. "This freaking sucks!" Kiana shouted.
High above, a Seraph detached itself from the shadows. Its wings spun up with a terrifying whine as it locked onto the stationary target below.
Kiana looked up. She saw the blur of white plummeting toward her. She tried to pivot, to roll to her right, but her bad leg refused to cooperate. It buckled again, sending a spike of pain shooting up her hip that made her vision swim.
'She's gonna get hit!'
"Kiana!"
Wendy shouted, floating near the ceiling. Her experienced eyes clocked the threat immediately. She calculated the trajectory of the Seraph, the speed of its descent, and Kiana's inability to dodge.
Wendy quickly came up with a solution. A concentrated burst of high-pressure air to the position where the Seraph was heading would send it crashing into the wall and kill it.
She raised her hand. Her mind wanted to unleash the attack immediately. But her body was on a delay.
Her body, still sluggish and filled with the thermal cocktail, was unable to respond fast enough. The signal traveled from her brain to her hand through a sludge of sedation and cold.
Wendy commanded the wind.
WHOOSH.
The blast of compressed air roared out of her palm. In that split-second delay, the Seraph had already swooped past the interception point. The wind hammer missed the beast entirely.
Kiana had just managed to push herself up onto one knee when the invisible wall of wind slammed into her.
She was swatted aside like a fly, limbs flailing, before crashing shoulder-first into a heavy steel support pillar.
"Ugh!"
The impact shook the steel frame. Kiana dropped to the floor, gasping for air that wasn't there, her pistols sliding out of her grip.
Mei, who had been busy hacking apart a Chariot, froze. She looked at Kiana, crumpled at the base of the pillar. She looked up at Wendy, whose hand was still extended, eyes wide with horror.
"What are you doing?!" Mei screamed.
Wendy winced. "Sorry! My control isn't the best right now!"
SCREEEEEEECH.
The Seraph hadn't stopped. It had circled back, sensing the prey was now stunned. It shrieked again, diving for the prone Kaslana.
The noise snapped something inside Kiana.
She wasn't thinking about the pain in her ribs. She wasn't thinking about the cramp in her leg. She was thinking about the fact that she had just been tossed around like garbage in front of her team.
Kiana snarled and screamed bloody murder.
She grabbed her pistols from the floor, ignoring the way her bruised shoulder screamed in protest. She rolled onto her back, leveling the muzzles at the diving streak of white light.
"Get! Off! Me!"
BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG.
She unloaded both magazines in a continuous, blinding stream of fire.
The Seraph flew directly into the wall of bullets. Its energy shield shattered instantly under the point-blank barrage. The rounds tore through its chassis, shredding it in mid-air.
It disintegrated into a shower of blue sparks and polygon fragments, raining down on top of Kiana like glitter.
At the same time, Wendy and Mei finished with their respective opponents.
Kiana lay there for a second, chest heaving, steam rising from her gun barrels.
"Sector… clear," Kiana wheezed, the words scraping her throat.
She forced herself to sit up, wincing as her side flared with sharp agony. She looked up at Wendy, who was slowly lowering herself to the ground with a guilty expression.
She glared at the girl floating above her, wiping dust and blood from her lip.
"Next time," Kiana spat, grabbing her knee to force it straight, "just let me dodge."
/ — /
Himeko
Himeko stood at the base of the dropship ramp, arms crossed, watching them approach.
'God, they look horrible.' She winced, regretting having them go on this mission in the first place.
Mei was walking fast, staring straight ahead. There was a nasty cut on her cheekbone, the blood dried in a dark streak against her pale skin.
She was massaging her temples with one hand, her eyes narrowed as if the ship's dim lights were blindingly bright.
Wendy was trailing behind her, leaning heavily against the rusted railing of the walkway. She looked exhausted, her face drained of color, shivering violently inside her parka.
And Kiana was limping. She was dragging her left leg, gritting her teeth with every step, one hand pressed against her ribs.
"Mission complete," Mei said, her voice flat. She didn't look at Himeko. She just walked past her, heading straight for the interior of the ship where it was dark and quiet.
Kiana stopped, leaning against a hydraulic piston to catch her breath. She slapped the dust off her uniform, wincing as the motion jarred her bruised ribs.
"That was sloppy," Kiana muttered, glaring at the floor.
Wendy, who had just reached the ramp, bristled. She stopped, turning to look at the Kaslana. "Hey, we still cleared the mission."
"Yeah, and I almost got flattened by my own teammate," Kiana snapped, looking up. "Next time, maybe check your targeting before you unleash a hurricane on me."
"I was trying to help you," Wendy shot back. "You couldn't dodge. Sorry for trying to help my teammate not get impaled!"
"You threw me into a wall!" Kiana shouted, pushing herself off the piston. "I had it under control!"
"You were a sitting target!" Wendy's voice rose, cracking with frustration. "My timing was off by milliseconds because I can barely feel my body! Maybe if you were more careful, you wouldn't be in that mess in the first place!"
"So it's my fault you missed?" Kiana stepped forward, getting up in her face. "Maybe if you weren't so busy shivering, you could actually aim!"
"Shut up!"
The command didn't come from Himeko. It came from the shadows of the cargo bay.
Mei spun around, her eyes flashing with a dangerous, sparking anger. She looked at Kiana, then at Wendy, her expression twisting with pain.
"Both of you. Your voices are drilling into my skull." Mei hissed, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes.
"Tell her, Mei," Kiana demanded, pointing at Wendy.
"You aren't one to talk," Mei countered, her gaze snapping to Kiana. Instantly shutting her up.
"You broke formation in the first thirty seconds. You rushed in guns blazing before we were set, and you got surrounded. Wendy had to bail you out because you were being reckless."
Kiana recoiled, the accusation hitting harder than the wind blast. "I was picking up the slack! You were hesitating! Every time a gun went off, you flinched like a scared cat. Someone had to kill them!"
"I am fighting through sensory overload!" Mei yelled back, stepping into the light. "I have magnets on my arms and a migraine that feels like a knife! I needed patience, Kiana, not you turning the battlefield into a chaos zone!"
"We're all fighting through things!" Wendy interjected, her pride stinging. "That doesn't mean we stop being professionals!"
"You spent the last three years in a wheelchair! Don't talk to me about being professional!" Kiana shouted.
Now that ticked Wendy off. Her eyes narrowed into slits. A B-Rank calling her out? The audacity burned hotter than the cold in her veins. "Why you—!"
"Enough!" Himeko shouted.
She stepped between them, her presence looming large. "Get on the ship," Himeko ordered, "Now."
Kiana opened her mouth to argue, saw the look in Himeko's eyes, and snapped it shut. She turned and limped into the ship, shouldering past Wendy without a word.
Wendy wrapped her arms around herself, looking small and still angry, and followed. Mei walked a few steps behind.
Himeko stood on the ramp alone, watching the empty factory.
She sighed, "This is a lot messier than I expected…"