Pyralis slowly slid the dormitory door open, careful not to wake her potentially speaking owner. Elara was laying on the bed, night-light by her side, reading a file. “Welcome home, dar- oh my god.” She dropped the file, immediately getting to her feet. “Y. Your head. You have.” Elara noticed the tail now wagging behind Pyr.

“Preon really outdid herself, didn’t she?” Pyr shut the door behind her, falling to her knees, and crawling towards Elara. “They’re a little sensitive, but she said it’d be safe to play with them a little…” She gave a little bark, staring up at her bewildered master.

“To think I was planning on keeping tonight short after your little dinner with the Doctor. Strip, I want to see that tail.” Elara sounded almost giddy, seeing her toy with beautiful new additions. She wanted to pounce on Pyralis this instant.

Pyr began to slowly remove her clothes, speaking as she revealed more of her body. “Medical techs said the tail and ears were removable and replaceable, so if you don’t like how it looks no-”

Elara kicked her in the side, snarling, “Faster, pup. There’s no possible way I couldn’t not like how it looks.” She crouched down to inspect the tail closer. It seemed to be inserted into a port, much like her arms were. “You said they were sensitive, which shouldn’t be the case unless they integrated your ports into your nervous system. Oh my love, you’re so beautiful.”

Now naked, Pyralis nodded in response. “The port itself is a bit… ticklish. The ears are less well integrated, moving a little more subconsciously..” Her ears fell to the side a little as she wriggled in embarrassment. She spotted the fallen file, quickly scanning over it. Data about the movements of Imperial troops. Less than a day before they’d get too close to base to ignore.

A worried look flashed on her face, as her tail stopped wagging. “Are you okay, Ellie?” She looked around the room, noting that Elara’s old mission logs were pulled up on the computer. Spiraling again.

“I- I was… I was preparing. Everything we have says they’ll be attacking at dawn. Please, I don’t want to talk about it.” Elara felt cold. Her pet was in such a beautiful state for her, and still her thoughts were filled by the Greybird. It was her fault that this attack was happening, and it was putting everybody on the base in danger.

Pyralis stood, approaching the spaced out Elara. She grabbed her love into a hug. “It’s okay. Nobody blames you, Ellie. None of them were your fault.” She began pulling Elara to bed, “Let’s get some rest before tomorrow morning. We’ll probably get called to be on standby in a few hours.” Elara silently nodded, clutching Pyr tight.

The two laid down, as Elara began tearing up. “I-If I hadn’t killed him. This wouldn’t have happened.” She squeezed Pyrs hand tighter, her arm beeping at the excessive force.

“If you hadn’t killed him, I would be dead, Ellie. I’m safe, better than ever. Look at me, love.” She put her other arm on Elara’s face, turning it towards herself. “I love you. You made the right choice. None of this was your fault. It was mine, for getting too reckless, okay?”

“Y- No, it’s not. It. You’re my responsibility, Pyr. A-and, he was running, we don’t know if he would have killed you.” Elara continued to shake, squeezing tighter.

Pyr gave Elara a light kiss on the cheek, rubbing her face lightly. “And You’re my responsibility, starlight. If our positions were swapped, would you blame me?” Pyr squeezed her hand back.

She thought for a moment, imagining herself held in the grasp of the Greybird.

Crush me. You should crush me. Kill me here.

Elara saw the Sunset outside of her display, aiming a blast at the Greybird.

Don’t do it. I deserve this. You’ll be okay without me. Better.

It would still be her fault. Elara would have caused the man’s death. She knew Pyralis would kill to save her, without giving it a second thought. His death was on both of their hands.

But I still pulled the trigger. I had the final decision.

She sputtered out, “No. No I wouldn’t. You have a reason to kill them. Any other pilot on base does. I don’t have that.” Elara never had somebody taken from her. It wasn’t her place to take revenge. She let her hand go limp.

Pyralis squeezed Elara’s palm back. “You don’t listen, do you? You’re my reason to fight, Ellie. I never would have joined the rebels if you hadn’t shown me there was something, someone left to fight for. I fight for you. You have reason to fight, you always have. Your reason’s staring you in the eyes.”

Elara looked up to see Pyr staring bullets into her. Her reason. Her light. Her life. The reason she was getting ready to fight tomorrow.

“Every single one of those Imperials gave up their life when they threatened us, Ellie. I think you know that. If you don’t, I’ll remind you every step of the way.” Pyralis had begun tearing up. This was everything she had wanted to say those years ago. They laid on the bed she found Elara bleeding out on, and she was five years too late to save her arms. She’d save the rest.

Tears fell to the fabric below as Elara sniffled. “I c-can’t kill them. I just can’t. They’re people, no matter what. I don’t know who they are.”

“You don’t have to kill anybody. I’ll do it all for you. Just like usual. But every time you do kill, it’s a choice. You choose between our lives or theirs. I won’t tell you which you should choose, but you shouldn’t blame yourself for a choice they forced on you.” Pyr wrapped her arms around Elara. “For the record, I’d choose us every single time.”

Elara nodded, as she cried into Pyr’s shoulder.

It’s us or them.

===

All hands on deck, Imperial mechs are preparing to begin bombardment. This is not a drill. If you are a non-essential worker, please make your way to the strike shelters.

Alarms blared overhead as people were scrambling through the halls. Elara and Pyralis ran towards the main hangar in their bodysuits. Imperials were projected to be ready to begin carpeting the land in bombs in roughly two hours. Even if they didn’t manage to strike the base directly, the quakes alone would almost certainly demolish a good portion of the underground complex.

Elara yelled into a device mounted on her head. “Comms online! Sunset and Moonrise in transit towards the main bay! ETA 5 minutes.”

“You’ll be deployed as soon as you get here. Engineer Krill is on the line in order to detail you on any essential changes to your rigs,” Mission Commander Rhine replied. “Good luck out there, Commander.”

Krill buzzed in, a light tone of panic coloring his voice. “Moonrise, your thrusters have been boosted in power, accounting for the extra energy provided by your weapon’s reactor. The weapon is running on low power, with a safety to shift it into its maximum. Low power should run fine, functioning around the same energy as your old plasma cannon, but high power is almost guaranteed to be a one-shot maneuver, and will likely fry your machine. Emergency use only, the vocal key is ‘Gerard’, following along with your previous security keys.”

“Thank you, Krill.” Elara appreciated the choice of key. A little reminder of who she had taken the item from.

The engineer continued on, “Sunset, your mech has a few additions to support Moonrise in this fight. Standard mid-range armor-piercing cannons mounted on your sides, and a set of blades above them. The blades are Moonrise’s standard plasma swords, in case her current one breaks. Additionally, due to Doctor Preon’s planned additions, you have some new features. She’ll be patching in for a moment, to explain them.”

Preon? Pyralis wondered how long she’d been working with the technicians. Elara was also a little surprised that Krill hadn’t spilled the beans to her as soon as this came up.

“Hello, darlings. Although I’d love to banter, time’s short. Pyralis, I was in fact planning on installing your lovely new appendages for a good while. Your machine has been modified to plug directly into your new ports, and should for one, respond faster as a result. You have about an hour to practice, which I won’t cut into too much. Hopefully you’ve gotten used to moving your tail, because your machine now has a little gift attached to its end. You’ll also be having some information directly broadcasted into your head, like comms and radar.” Preon had in fact, been working on this project for a few months, having gone to great lengths to hide it, having thought of the project the first time Pyralis had come up to her asking her for the implants.

Pyr heard Preon giggle a bit, clearly proud of herself. “Thank you, Doctor. I’ll make sure to use them well.”

General Frill cut in. “We’ll be patching you into the pilot’s channel now. Good luck again, you two.”

The two pilots made it to the deck, seeing their machines prepared for deployment. They rushed over, parting from each other’s side. They saw a few other pilots getting ready to enter their own machines, including some trainees.

“Moonrise here, ETA for deployment 7 minutes. Anybody missing?” Elara climbed into her cockpit, seeing the new set of arms hanging on the wall.

“Hello Commander, Faust, new callsign ‘Scarab’ here. Missing Anvil, Hammer, and Spark. General has informed us they are on their way. Current plan is to split up into teams. Halcyon will be joining you two.” Faust was already out on the field, leading a small group of trainees towards some Imperials.

Elara powered on her machine, running safety checks while looking at the specifications of her new weapon, as well as thrusters. “Understood. I like the callsign, Scarab.” She patched herself into Pyralis and Anna. “Hello, Halcyon, this is Moonrise. Where are you now?”

“Awaiting you two at our deployment point. You two have a fun little night?” Anna was sitting bored in her machine. She hadn’t slept, having spent the night planning with the General and Manager. She had been selected as going with the pair due to her mech being particularly well armored, with multiple layers of protection on every part of her machine. Particularly effective for extracting important assets. If necessary, she could force a fight to a standstill awaiting for backup, or back a retreat.

Pyralis cut in, “I wouldn’t say it was a particularly fun night for either of us, but we’re better prepared for today. Don’t get in our way, peacekeeper.” Pyr didn’t particularly like Anna, due to her tendency of avoiding fighting and interrupting battles.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, mutt. I’m here to deal with the small fry, and get your asses out of this alive. Better not make me drag you kicking and screaming.” Anna rolled her eyes. She had initially refused to accompany the two, but was convinced by General Frill giving her some special permissions.

Elara launched out of a hidden deployment point, inside the Moonrise. “Moonrise deployed. Cut it out, you two. We’re making it out of this together.”

Anna rolled her eyes in her cockpit. “Bit cheesy for you, Commander.” She watched as the Moonrise began testing its new propulsion, seeing as it flew straight off the ground. Finally, it lived up to its name.

The machine was in the air, as Elara stared at the rising sun. Krill had seemingly failed to mention that the increased power had given her more air stability, as she felt it was slightly easier to control herself in the air now. She drew her new railgun, blasting off a low-power shot into the air. The blast shattered through the air, creating a loud cracking sound. She could work with this.

The Sunset launched up and past the Moonrise, slamming to the ground in front of Elara. Pyralis had finished up. Elara saw the new armored tail extending out of the back up and over the four-legged machine’s head. It looked to be lined with hooks and plasma-cutters, similar to how the Scarab had worked. She also took note of where her replacement swords were located on the machine, seemingly embedded into its side.

“Sunset deployed, this new control scheme is… smooth. It feels like I can see everything around me just… blurred. I’ll need a moment to adjust.” Pyralis was giddy in her machine, hooked directly to the Sunset. She felt the core breathe, and the hydraulics pump its legs.

Elara looked at her wrist, seeing Pyrs heart rate rising. “Calm down, pup. You have about twenty minutes before we need to advance. Take your time.” She clutched her controls, lowering the Moonrise closer to the ground.

This was it. The enemy had already noticed her presence on the field, as her radar showed more Imperial machines gathering around their location. Elara put a hand around the bottle on her neck. She would choose Pyralis. Every time.