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Her heart ached, but sadly, she didn’t have time to dwell on it. With tears running down her face, reflecting all her anger, frustration, and pain, Eden ran again. She knew this was her one shot. By the time the soldiers got back on their feet, realized what happened, and perhaps spotted her, Eden would already be far away. She decided not to go for the frontline; she would already be raising her chances of running into more soldiers, vehicles, or drones. Eden had no trouble spotting the tower; it was the tallest building of all. It easily stood behind the lines of houses, and even behind more buildings, the difference in height making it easy to see from any crossroad. This was her destination. If Dante had said he’d find her there, she trusted he would.
“I’m out,” she said in one breath. “I’m going to the tower first…”
“My Kitty’s back!”
“Ghost! Thank God, you’re alive,” sighed Nebty.
“What was that explosion?” asked A.
“Our ally… He blew his house up.”
“Is he…?”
Eden didn’t answer. She was saving her breath for her run, but she also didn’t want to say the words. It felt horrible. She could hear explosions coming from the northeast ahead of her, from her left, and behind her, but the one that had come from Charles’ house felt the scariest of all. She knew he had done this to be sure not to be hunted down, captured, and possibly tortured, but it just felt too unfair. They were fighting to save the people of the Suburbs, yet there would be more deaths than ever before…
She found a small alley between two buildings and squeezed in between to catch a break. She could hear the murder drones quickly flying above her head and to the front, but it was only a matter of time before those things tried to shoot her. She couldn’t approach the tower just like that. If those things got commands to shoot on sight like the soldiers, they’d definitely shoot a foreign target running toward the Arcadia Tower. That place was going to be the most secure of all; they had to expect a lot of firepower that’d attempt to stop them. She hid for a few seconds and got to the end of the building, listening to the flow of information in her ear. Because everyone was using the same channel to get information across as fast as possible, it took focus just to listen. The sound was as good as if they were all standing in the same room, but everyone else was caught in action, gunshots and explosions resonating behind them.
“You bastards! See if you can handle that! Ha!”
Tanya’s strong Russian accent and the flow of insults that ensued made Eden smile. The Zodiacs not using translating software had their accent come in even stronger than usual because of anger. Someone had probably muted Joaquin too, or maybe he didn’t have a SIN himself because she could only hear him from afar as if his voice came from a different person’s mic.
“Everyone’s getting in,” said Malieka, and her smile could be heard in her voice. “We’re making great progress now that all the doors are down.”
“They are sending Overcrafts to try and contain us,” grunted Lecky. “No, wait… They are sending it past the frontline, to the Suburbs!”
Eden felt a chill down her spine. Were they going to aim at the population rather than the fighters? It didn’t make sense. Even if it was the Core attacking them, the Overcrafts were made to carry humans rather than weapons. Why would they sacrifice human soldiers to contain them rather than use their fighting robots?
“They are trying to trap us where we are,” Michael said suddenly. “Look at their positions. They will try to make sure no fighter escapes and kill us all as an example.”
“…Damn, seems like you’re right, King,” groaned Nebty. “I’d congratulate you for being as smart as they say, but this is going to be a massive issue. We can’t split our fighters!”
“Crash those damn Overcrafts before they land!” shouted Circé.
“Got it. Dive Hackers, I want everyone available to focus on those vehicles!”
“Crash them into one another, or to the ground,” ordered Michael, “but make sure they land far away from us!”
Eden sighed. The variety of profiles among the Zodiacs was really showing: the smartest of them were giving orders and laying down strategic plans at incredible speed, while the most brazen were leading people into the fight and bringing them up. Since the beginning, no Zodiac had been useless or dragging behind. She was impressed by how well they cooperated with one another. Each duo in the north, west, and south were working together like she never thought they could, directing their men and making fast progress into the Core. From what she grasped, all teams were already in or the last of their men were coming inside now. At the very least, the fight was being taken to the Core’s territory, which had been their main objective.
Eden glanced left and right. The streets were still calm where she hid. It looked like the Core’s citizens had finally listened to orders and had all gone home; many doors and windows were already closed and covered. This time, she wouldn’t be able to take refuge in any building if the Core spotted her.
“My Kitty, you’re a dozen blocks away!”
“Anyone onto my position?”
“A couple of murder bots roaming around! Oh no, two more… Oopsie, looks like they are suspecting that we are coming for them! Let’s bring the party to them, my Kitty!”
“I’d rather not get shot down…”
Despite her words, Eden quickly ran across the street to hide under a porch, the next hideout available heading toward the tower. This might be the last one for a while, though. She was in the heart of the city now. There would be more skyscrapers than houses and fewer places to hide. She knew a bit about murder bots. Those things were meant to fly high above the ground and used very simple movement detection cameras, so their bird’s-eye view could be blocked by pretty much anything. However, they could fire extremely fast, and once they locked on to a target, they wouldn’t stop.
From her hideout, Eden spotted one flying approximately one block away from her position. She crouched down, getting nervous. She was still far from her destination, and there would only be more of those as she got closer…
“…Can’t you help me get rid of those things?”
“Oh, do I get to play Pac-Man?”
“Whatever you want, as long as they can’t shoot me. Loir, if just one of those things hones in on me, the whole plan will be in jeopardy!”
