The cracking of distant gunfire gives light to a dimmed cityscape; the floor rumbles with heavy machinery and nearby explosions. Jupiter walks to Mars’ command centre in his Forward Operating Base. Security platoons and volunteers march by to their respective battalions, Jupiter wonders how many of these faces will be seen again after the next few days. A large armored truck sits fifty meters ahead of him; several officials are inside communicating with troops on the ground and giving orders. Mars is intently analyzing a data-set on one of the many screens within when he sees his old friend heading his way.

Jupiter slows his pace and stops as Mars drops down from the back of the truck. The two men look at one another for a few awkward seconds before Jupiter speaks, “Mars, I am sorry for my outburst. My emotions got the better of me. I am here to ask you to let me help. I have lost my daughter to this war and I want to make it right. This rebellion has to end.”

Mars pauses in silence before clenching his jaw and nodding. He steps forward and embraces Jupiter, “My friend, thank you for coming back. There is always a place for you here. Come with me.”

Jupiter is led a few hundred meters to a battalion preparing to head out, “I want you to join this battalion as a part of its’ special forces. We have momentum right now in pushing the rebellion back to the lower levels.” Mars looks in Jupiter’s eyes, “You have to understand I can’t send you to the Gate: it is too emotional a place for you. But with this battalion you will be at the forefront of our assault on Diana. Your team will be taking out their artillery and hitting any snipers you find along the way. I know you’re a pilot, but I also know you have extensive combat training, coming through the special forces training program. What was your specialty?”

Jupiter just smiles, “Thanks Mars, I look forward to helping crush this rebellion. Are you joining us?”

“You never did tell me. You and your secrets. I won’t be joining you this time, I’ve got another mission I need to lead personally.”

“And what is that?”

Mars smiles back, “It’s another mission.”

Jupiter nods, “Good luck, old friend.”

“Good luck.”

Mars walks away as Jupiter turns to join his new battalion.

Bear steps out of his craft and eyes the terrain. Scans have picked up another hack-site and, as usual, there are four guards milling about as civilians. He picks his way through a park’s grassy terrain, decorated with large divots from artillery shells and grenades. The lights from Janus flicker from a dull luminance to pitch-black; the systems are still struggling to come back on.

The occasional body lies strewn on what was once a serene place of rest. There is a large group nearby working on collecting the dead and preparing them for cremation. Bear stays out of sight and positions himself behind a short rock wall. He pulls out an EMP grenade and flicks the timer on when a sudden hail of bullets strike the wall beside him. He drops the grenade and rushes for cover behind a nearby building as gunfire thuds the ground and spits the foliage around him.

“Dammit! We missed him!”

“Yeah, but he ain’t going anywhere. We’ve got him pinned down. Hey Ghost! You back there? Come on out and make this easy on everyone.”

Bear pulls out his assault pistol as his visor scans for a way around his attackers, “I don’t want to hurt any of you. You should all just go home and forget about this.”

There is a chuckle in the flickering dark, “We’re not the ones surrounded here, pal. Come out with your hands up. We just want to talk. If you don’t, we’ll have to kill you.”

“If you were good enough to kill me, you would have done it by the wall.” Bear’s visor green-lights a path through the woods to the target site, “Just go home. I don’t want to hurt any of you.”

A short burst of gunfire strikes the concrete wall where he hides, “Last warning Ghost! You coming out?”

“If that’s what you want.”

Bear pulls the pins on two smoke grenades and drops them at either side of his position, then lobs two flash-bangs toward the voices. He hears them go off then makes a break for the woods nearby, diving between the trees as gunfire finds him again. He rolls and runs through the foliage, the flickering darkness and his black suit making it difficult for his pursuers to pinpoint him. He follows the pathway in his visor as it gently curves back toward his main target, the guards pick up on where he is going and split up: one team keeps up pursuit and the other makes a bee-line for the hack-site. Bear drops motion triggered stun grenades then ducks into a ditch for cover. Two of his pursuers take the brunt of the blast, a third is knocked on his back, and a fourth is protected by a tree. Bear shoots the fourth in the femur, and rams her head into the tree, knocking her unconscious. The third is turning to shoot but Bear leaps on him and pins him to the ground. He takes the man’s gun and strikes him with the butt, knocking him out also. The other two are groaning and trying to get up, Bear quickly disarms them and ties them together, “I told you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Fuck you…Ghost…kill-team do it…for you.”

“No. I didn’t know about them. I’m not calling this in.”

“Fuckin’…Slaver…”

He takes off running again, back on target. Now they know he’s coming they are the ones behind cover, but he knows their aim is shaky at best. Bear decides to risk it and sprints from the tree line across the grass to get behind a rock wall. Gunfire comes close but the distance is still too great for his opponents to be accurate. He sprints again to where one of the guards is hiding, managing to leap over their cover and put a gun to her head. He pulls her to the other side of the wall before her friends start shooting again, “What are you doing, slaver? I’d rather they kill me than your kill-team.”

“Just shut up. I seriously have no intention of killing you.” He ties her hands and feet, “And no, I’m not going to call it in. I just have a mission to do.”

He tosses a flash-bang and circles around the cover. Now they don’t know where he is, he prepares his EMP grenade and tosses it to the target. The explosion hits the hack-site and his visor shows a successful disabling. Bear sighs in relief and heads back to the Pegasus hearing shouts of the guards fading away, looking for him in the dark.