United States, Washington State, Seattle Airspace

Near the Vekron Pacific Reactor Site

As the various Atlas soldiers loaded their weapons, Twilight and Gideon strode to the front of their currently-occupied Warbird and activated the holo-display.

"Alright everyone, eyes up. We have actionable intel that the KVA are trying to trigger a meltdown in the reactor room. We land in the south courtyard and push north. This shit ends in the control room." Gideon barked as the soldiers replied with affirmatives.

"And check your aim for civilians, we don't know if the KVA have hostages. We have confirmed there are multiple hostile technicals on site." Twilight added. "Let's go to work!"

In the middle of the night, Twilight and her friends had been roused by the Mission Alarm, which alerted them to the KVA leader Hades proclaiming his intentions over the internet, along with their newest mission. Shut down the KVA plot and secure the Seattle nuclear reactor before it could go critical. As the Atlas soldiers took their positions, Gideon opened the side doors. As the Warbirds relayed their statuses to Gideon, he smirked and took hold.

"Gonna be a good one, you two." he said to Twilight and Mitchell. "Just like Korea, only with more radiation."

"You and I remember Korea very differently." Mitchell replied as the Atlas Warbirds decloaked and ascended upwards over a nearby forest, straight into KVA anti-air fire. As the Warbirds took evasive maneuvers, an incoming salvo knocked one out of the sky, and sent it careening to the ground.

"2-4 is down! 2-4 is down! 2-5, break off and provide support for Alpha team!" Prophet ordered over the radio.

"Copy that, Prophet!" Gideon said. "Bravo, clear those rooftops!"

As Mitchell readied hus Bal-27 and opened fire, Gideon deployed his zipline, rappelling to the ground.

"Let's go!" he cried as Mitchell and Twilight followed suit, landing straight in the middle of a firefight between the Atlas soldiers of 2-4 and a KVA fireteam.

"Rally up!" Mitchell yelled, opening fire with is Bal-27 assault rifle. Twilight, the only operative on the Bravo Team to choose a different weapon, added bursts from her ASM1 to the fray.

"We've got friendly Shield drones up!" Joker yelled, as he and an Atlas soldier by the name of Carter sheltered behind one. "Keep moving!"

Twilight followed Joker's call and synced to the drone, which moved with her own footsteps. The Multi-use Shield Drone was another development Twilight had worked on. The drone featured a retractable shield that lowered when the operator's firearm was raised, and vice versa. Twilight's improved design featured a ballistic mesh screen instead of the original plate of laminated kevlar.

"We've got a functional MD Turret in the AO!" Mitchell yelled. "I'll take it!"

"Then get moving!" Gideon replied. Mitchell boost-jumped into the Turret's operator seat and opened fire. As the Atlas soldiers advanced, Twilight let herself fall into the flow of the battle, shooting and reloading with ease.

Then, Mitchell cursed over the radio as a KVA-controlled, T-600 Titan battle tank dropped from a transport chopper, which proceeded to cripple Mitchell's turret.

"Fuck! Prophet, we've got KVA heavy armor in the courtyard! T-600!" Twilight replied, tossing another Atlas soldier a grenade. "Is there any HE ordinance in the AO?"

"Atlas 2-5, we have RFID confirm on a Stinger near your position." Prophet replied.

"Copy that!" Twilight replied, stowing her ASM1. using a boost jump, she slid over to the stray rocket launcher and loaded it. The Stinger M7 was the most common anti-armor weapon on Earth at the present time. It featured four barrels, each equipped with a lock-on payload. Twilight had been tinkering with them back in Roanoke in order to improve the launcher's mobility and ease of use, but so far, she hadn't had any luck.

"Opening fire!" she yelled, firing a locked salvo at the KVA tank. To her surprise, the rockets exploded prematurely.

"Damm!" she cursed. "It's got a Trophy System, and I'm clean out of ammo!"

"Ammo crate on your right! We'll cover!" Joker replied. "Make it fast, that tank is tearing us apart!"

Twilight slid to the ammo crate, and hastily secured two additional payloads. Opening fire once again, the tank took four missiles to the main chassis. The blow hurt the mechanical monster, but it wasn't enough to disable or destroy it.

"One more time!" Gideon yelled. "Hurry, we're losing ground!"

Twilight obliged, and the tank fell down and exploded into molten shrapnel. Twilight retrieved her ASM1 and boost-jumped off a nearby truck to catch up with the main group.

"Good job!" Gideon yelled. "2-4, 2-3, hold position! We'll move in and secure the reactor!'

"Copy that!" the Atlas sergeant replied. As Joker, Carter, Gideon, Mitchell, and Twilight entered the facility, Prophet spoke over the radio.

"Alpha and Bravo teams, be advised. KVA technicians have overridden the emergency shutdown and are attempting to trigger a critical event! We have no time to waste."

"Copy that!" Twilight replied as they forced their way past a security checkpoint, eyeing the bodies of deceased plant workers.

"No time to waste, Twi." Gideon said. "Down the elevator shaft, one at a time. Carter, Joker, you're up."

As the two Atlas soldiers forced the doors open and exposed the main cable, Twilight jumped and took hold, sliding down with ease. The others followed, and they soon reached the main area of the lower floors.

"Prophet, status on the core?" Gideon requested.

"Temperature is climbing, but still in safe range." Prophet replied.

"Then we can still stop this." Twilight said with a slightly grim tone. "There's the door up ahead to the reactor room."

As the Atlas Soldiers stacked up, the door opened from the other side. A KVA infantryman swung his weapon towards them, only for Gideon to smash the stock into his face before slamming him to the ground.

"Ready?" Gideon asked as the others nodded in reply.

"Sweep and clear." he smirked as he kicked the reactor door open, and gunfire erupted all around them. Twilight dropped three KVA with successive headshots before diving to reload. Mitchell tossed her a Threat Grenade, and she threw it with perfect accuracy.

Red outlines appeared on their HUDs, marking the positions of three KVA platoons in front of them and the reactor control room.

"Grenade out!" Twilight yelled, hurling a Smart Grenade towards a clustered group of snipers armed with the NA-45. The grenade automatically homed in and detonated, clearing the snipers.

"Move up!" Gideon ordered. As the last of the KVA were cleared, Twilight pulled up the reactor schematics in her own HUD.

"We've got a generator complex full of KVA between us and the control room." she said. "I think I can get us a shortcut to the objective, though."

"What kind of shortcut?" Gideon asked.

"We take this hallway and breach the roof of the control room." Twilight said, motioning out the schematics in the air. "We'll save ammo and time."

"Then let's go." Gideon ordered. After more searching and an exchange of fire with a KVA scout team, they breached the control room roof and reached the main console.

"Get to work!" Gideon ordered as the soldiers took various consoles in an attempt to shut down the reactor. Every so often, a pressure blast would shake the floor and walls.

"Gideon, core temperature has reached critical level." Prophet spoke over the radio. "Evacuate now! You have seven minutes at most!"

"Negative, we can do this!" Twilight replied.

"2-1, you are to evacuate now!" Prophet retorted. "We can't risk losing additional units!"

Gideon slammed his fist into the holographic keyboard, and motioned everyone towards the maintenance exit. As they sped out, they could see Atlas Warbirds extracting friendlies, and KVA choppers already pulling out.

"Move it!" Gideon ordered as the team reached their Warbird, and as soon as they were in the air, a massive explosion tore through the facility. As the central core went critical, secondary explosions smashed what was left into dust.

"There's no turning back from this." Gideon said. "Twilight, rally up."

As Twilight nodded and reluctantly left the window, they could only think of the consequences that would come in the future.

Author's Note

This took too long to get out.

Next time - Detroit Aftermath and the Sentinels begin to enter the fray.