"Are we killing these guys too?" Mira asked from up so far above me. "They look like civs."

I glanced down toward the bottom of the tower. This was the third one. The second one was easier than the first. Mira just lit up the whole group with the fifty cal and that was that.

As the base of the Node Tower, a small shanty town of wooden shacks were set up. Most of them were tapped directly into the tower in one way or another to siphon a connection. There were a few armed groups, but they appeared more a militia than a proper gang or PMCs.

"No. Waste of ammo." At a glance, there were about thirty of them highlighted on my HUD. None of them were trying to control the Node Tower though. Better to just leave them alone. I carefully installed the last of the pyramids Luna gave us in a spot no one would see.

|Request - Polar Moon MIA

-Find Polar Moon (1/4)

-Takeover Node Towers: (3/3)

-Ensure the safety of your team

-Spread Chaos

-Merc Hunt

-NEW: Mutie Hunt

-Figure out what went wrong

Reward: ???|

That was one objective done. Ensuring the safety of my team was a more passive one that I couldn't resolved till the end. Merc Hunt and Spread Chaos looked like they'd give me an overall rating at the end, so they also weren't pressing matters. The new objective, Mutie Hunt, was the same thing. It'd be something I could passively accomplish while working on other, more important things.

That just left finding the team and figuring out what went wrong. I had a feeling one of those would be easier than the other. "Luna, have you found a location yet?"

"Y-yes." The pings for the towers on my HUD disappeared and a central beacon of light popped up in the middle of the heights. Not dead center, but close enough. "Here's the co-op. Its surrounded by mercs and mutants, so be careful."

"Chek." I looked at the minimap she'd thrown into my HUD. It was in one of the many red-zones she'd pinged all over the heights. I pulled on the tether to my Spectral Flock and teleported back up to the hover bike in a wave of vertigo. I didn't have much more of those in me.

Mira glanced over her shoulder and put up the deck she'd been messing with. Thankfully, she wasn't throwing punches anymore. "Saint, you find that Savant Lab yet?"

Saint came back as cheerful as ever, albeit with a slightly strained voice. "Yeah! Luna, ping it for them?

A moment later, the Savant lab was also pinged for me. It was a few blocks down from the co-op that Polar Moon hit. "Think there's a connection?"

"I'm worried about it." Mira looked at the small monitor on my hover bike that Luna had converted into a battle map. "We don't have enough firepower for all of this. Only have seventy left for the fifty cal."

"I've got more in, um, storage." I waved my hand toward the sky. She seemed to get my message. "What are you thinking?"

"It'd be nice to blow the lab up. I've been watching it on the stream." She kicked her leg back toward the saddlebag with my deck. "It's still churning out mutants. If this keeps up, let alone the entire heights might be made another exclusion zone."

"W-we can worry about that after we f-find my team." Luna cut into the conversation. "River, Iris, and my idiot brother won't l-last long under this o-onslaught."

"There's several hundred thousand people living in the heights. By the end of tonight, it'd be a miracle if three quarters of that were still alive." Saint dropped some hard facts to put everything into perspective. "The Crusade and FSA are also moving. Martial Law might be declared in East End again."

"I'll call Pa and see what's going on." Mira dipped her head to me and pulled out her phone.

"The Crusade won't enter the heights." I said with certainty that I wasn't actually feeling. "Regardless, looks like we have even more of a timer tonight."

"M-my family is on a timer. W-we need to move." The urgency in Luna's voice dropped the mood even further. We all went silent—well, except for Mira. She was still chattering lightly with uncle.

I paused a moment longer and looked up toward the goliath World Tree in the middle of the AEZ out of habit. It was so close. Within reaching distance almost. The leaves of the tree had faded to a pink and red wash for winter, though they didn't drop like they should've. It seemed the tree wasn't going dormant, for better or worse.

Something whispered at the back of my mind that was completely unrelated to the Packheart Rings. There was a subtle connection between me and the tree—a link, almost. It was a bit reminiscent of the Spectral Flock link, only this one made me feel exceptionally filthy and disgusting.

The tree seemed to tremble in the freezing winter air. Night had fully set a while ago, and it'd only get colder from here. I huddled back into my poncho and rubbed my hands together, thankful for my insistence on getting thermal-controlled clothing.

The tree's trembling picked up slightly, and a certain sensation started to flow through the link connecting us. Eagerness? Almost? Why—I cut off the link to the best of my ability, threw it into a mental cage, and forced myself to look away. It was best I didn't have anything to do with that- that creature.

In front of me, Mira hung up her phone and slid it into a pocket. "The military is waiting till daylight to make a move. They're under orders to clean this place up. Seems the city council has gotten sick of the heights."

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"What about the people? Sure, there's a lot of gangs in the heights. The majority are just people with bad situations." Saint had a certain noble gravitas to his voice. The worry came across as entirely genuine, and I had a feeling it truly was.

"The entire area was marked as a mutant den." Mira muttered quietly. "Orders from the top. Nobody in the city has the authority to overrule."

"This- they're going to kill the entire district?!"

"I-f there's anything left. The m-mutants are spreading rapidly. Looks like a highly infectious variant." Luna added onto the bad news. It was just one thing after another tonight, wasn't it?

"First things first. Let's focus." I called out, trying to calm the rising tensions and get everything back under some speck of control. "Luna, have you found anything yet?"

"Heh- no. My team is s-smart. They've been avoiding cams . . . could be anywhere." The girl's voice was starting to get more and more shaky.

"We'll find them." I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around Mira's waist to steady myself. "To the co-op. We'll drop down and start investigating."

"Roger." Mira took control of the hover bike once more.

— — —

Saint watched the duo move through one of the cameras. They had full access to every camera in the sub-district thanks to Luna. She wasn't just bragging when she said she was good. He knew for a fact that on top of supporting the team, she was still fighting off Netrunners. At a significant disadvantage too thanks to being in meatspace and on the other side of the city.

The reporter rapidly typed up warning to the people in the heights, warning about pressing danger. Most probably wouldn't see it, but if some did and were able to get out, it'd all be worth it. He couldn't just sit back and watch the entire sub-district fall between a brutal battle of the FSA and mutants.

The timing of all of this . . . Saint's instincts as a reporter screamed that there was some kind of conspiracy going on in the background. He shifted focus, digging through all sorts of files and recordings that Luna had ripped for him. There were so many layers to this.

Mercs were pouring into the heights from all over thanks to Polar Moon who were somehow exposed and stabbed in the back. The mercs themselves would help limit the damage to the rest of the city on top of clearing out the gangs that were in the way. With the gangs gone, the military would have an even easier time. Not to mention if they did enough damage, the council would have even more of a reason to bulldoze the heights.

And then add in the mutants that somehow broke out of a Savant lab that just so happened to be under the heights. Oh, and this particular variant was highly infectious. He'd bet his bacon that there was something shady going on in the background.

Then there was the whole city council keeping this quiet. He wasn't sure when he first started broadcasting, but City of Sorrow was one of the only sites going over this. He had a feeling all the major media was being suppressed. No way they'd let a juicy story like this go, especially not when he'd already seen so much success. His site was still spiking by the thousands thanks to his connections with the Inverse corporation. They were pushing his site hard.

Oh, and then add in the insanely fast response time of the military. They were usually so slow, but it was almost like they were ready and waiting. The call to wait for daylight could be just a tactical decision . . . It could also be a chance to let the chaos spread to further cover up what was going on.

It could all be coincidence, of course. He didn't have enough intel, though he was messaging every contact he could to dig up the truth about what was happening. Saint thought about filling in the rest of the group with his speculation, but he was better keeping it close to his chest until he could prove it.

He shifted on the sofa and checked one of his decks. "What about Angel? Mira, you want to be a known face right?"

"Roger. It'd make setting up a troubleshooter agency easy if I had a rep." Her voice whispered across the pack link. "Angel is a bit . . ."

"Seraph? Does that work?" As he spoke, he ran through dozens of different options and set up a quick merc card. It was something he started doing shortly after the first tower. Basically, it was a small slip with a merc's info and picture on it so his viewers knew who they were watching.

"Better."

"What are you playing at, Saint?" Shiro's voice leaked suspicion and paranoia. She needed to see a psychiatrist just as much as Mira. Not that he'd say such a thing that blatantly.

"Just- you know . . . Names make everything better. What should I call you? Shadowcat?" She definitely had that feral cat look to her. If he adjusted his overlay slightly, he could easily tag on a set of cat ears to complete the look.

"Really? Mira got Seraph. Where's my badass name?" Her joking voice cleared up and turned serious. "Just nothing night related."

"N-nightshade, right?" Luna piped up into the conversation. "I-I wasn't sure, but those feathers…"

Shiro went silent. That was as good a confirmation as anything though. Her voice came out frigid. "Does anyone else know?"

"J-just us four. I-I used a Dragonfly to break the feathers you left." Luna swirled around in the spinny chair with a panicked look in her eyes. "I-I won't tell anyone! I'd never b-betray a friend."

Saint could practically feel ice spread through their pack comms and quickly moved to change the subject. "I'll keep working on a name."

"You do that." Their leader went silent. Although they never discussed who the leader was exactly, it wasn't hard to pin it on Shiro. She seemed the most in control out of all four of them.

After a moment, nothing else came across. He had a feeling the two were deep in a conversation once more. Saint felt a little left out, but it was whatever. "What do you think about Heaven? Team name, I mean."

"A-already taken. There's a well-known team in M-Mandor." Luna immediately shot his idea down.

"You come up with something." He shot her a look. So far she'd just been gunning down almost everything he said.

"A-archangel? S-Shiro has some kind of electric ability. We call you Saint, and M-Mira seemed happy with Seraph."

"Hmm . . ." The reporter rubbed at his chin and tossed the idea through his mind several times. "Not bad."

"R-right?!"

— — —

On the other side of the city, floating gently through the air, Mira leaned back slightly. "I'm just saying . . . It wouldn't hurt to chill out a bit."

The storm intensified about ten minutes ago. A dense wall of snowflakes drifted down to the city far below. Neither of them heard a slight wooshing sound in the distance. They were too focused on other things.

"I-" Her best friend's voice broke slightly. Shiro always had struggled with trust, and for good reason. She'd rather not see that struggle break yet another chance at making lasting relationships. Not to mention she seemed even more hesitant to lay down permenant roots then she had in the past. "I'll try."

"All I can ask for." Mira shook her head slightly. It would be for the best if Shiro could find some more people to rely on. She thought about it a lot when she was locked up in the lab. If she died, Shiro would be left with no one. She didn't want to see her dear friend collapse to isolation and loneliness.

Not to mention they were currently a team. Infighting and mistrust would only make the rest of tonight harder. Mira had seen first hand how easily squads could be torn apart while traveling with Pa.

Shiro's grip around her waist tightened as they continued their descent toward the co-op. "Why—look out!"

On instinct, Mira pulled up and launched further into the sky with an evasive maneuver. A moment later, a missile shot by an arm's length from impacting the hover bike. After traveling far enough up into the sky, it automatically exploded in a shockwave that made the entire bike shudder.

Mira's eyes flicked back down to track the path of the rocket, finding one more flying up at them. Her brain moved faster than her body. All five of her minds worked in tandem to run endless calculations. Too slow. The Halo Cortex overcharged and her head heated up to the point it felt like her brain might start melting.

The bike flipped around with all of the thrusters whirling at max speed. The fifty cal at the front unloaded down onto the missile. All five of her worked to mentally project the path. The wall of calculated metal met the missile, causing it to explode midair with another violent shockwave.

"Shit! They have missile launchers now!?"

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