Agent 3 was waiting. Agent 4 was sleeping. Agent 8 was quaking in her shoes.

Agent 3 kept a close eye on the targets and their movements. They had penetrated several defensive lines, but the one up ahead was extremely fortified. If Marie and Callie stopped the supply lines, the targets would soon have an issue.

This issue arose several minutes later. Several soldiers were spotted bickering and shouting at a radio, looking for a response. They got the attention of most of the guards.

"Now." Agent 3 whispered. All 3 agents tossed handfuls of bombs. Agent 3 used an autobomb launcher, agent 4 used a curling bomb launcher, and agent 8 used a burst bomb launcher. Most of the guards fell to the sudden barrage of explosives.

"What! Intruders here? Where are they?" A soldier who looked to be in charge looked around wildly. As a result, he didn't see the autobomb come up to him. Or the 3 forms super jumping away from an empty guard tower.

"Gottem." Agent 4 said.

"Please don't." Agent 3 said.

Agent 8 said nothing. She was still scared.

The agents landed.

"Now that that issue is out of the way, let's continue." Agent 3 said.

The agents walked through the mess in silence. Eventually, agent 4 spoke up.

"This feels too easy." She said uncertainly.

"Don't even start with that." Agent 3 said. "Don't jinx it. I prefer it to stay this way."

It didn't.

"Dammit 4." Agent 3 sighed. Agent 8 looked in worry. A machine had arrived.

"Marie wasn't kidding when she said they had crazy things." Agent 4 gasped.

The machine stood on 2 legs, with a box like head covered in numerous guns. The pilot was safely hidden inside the head.

"We gotta take it out. Who has a stingray?" Agent 3 said.

Agent 8 pulled one out, but before she could use it a barrage of ink rockets peppered the area around them. They all ran back. Agent 8 used the stingray and took out the driver. The machine froze up and fell onto the agents. They rolled out of they way, just to see a massive amount of soldiers stiffly running towards them. But something was off about them.

Agent 3 fired at several. They were all splatted. Well, they should have been. Instead, they all simply shook the ink off like it was nothing.

"Robots?" Agent 8 asked fearfully.

"We need backup." Agent 3 shouted into her radio.

After a moment, Marie replied. "Colt and Shelly are down, we are at the human camp. I'll ask if they'll help, but fall back. We can't lose anyone else today."

Agent 3 turned and ran, with agent 4 and agent 8 right behind her. They fired behind them as they ran, while also inking a trail to follow. They barely slowed the robots, or whatever they were, down at all.

5 minutes later.

The agents were hiding in an empty hut in OctoCanyon. They had ran for a while, but they could still hear a few of the robots looking for them.

"3, I'm scared..." Agent 8s eyes were wide.

"It's gonna be ok." Agent 3 whispered, patting her head. "I'll protect you."

A single robot passed by. The agents held their breath. The robot moved on.

Then he shoved the door open and barged in.

Agent 3 jumped to her feet and started firing as fast as possible. Agent 4 joined in. The robot seemed to be immune, but then...

One of the plates fell off. Then another. The agents all fired until their in tanks ran out. The robot collapsed, missing most of it's armor plating. On the inside was a sanitized octoling. Agent 8 pulled it out.

"3, I have an idea..."

5 minutes later.

It had taken a while for agent 8 to get into the suit. It took much longer for the three agents to meticulously put back every single plate they shot off. It was a process. But finally, agent 8 was wearing a full suit, completely intact. She slowly left the house, while agent 3 watched from the window and agent 4 stood behind the door.

One of the other soldiers saw 8 and approached her. 8 motioned for them to follow her. She led them to the house and agent 4 grabbed it from behind. Then agent 8 pulled open the spot and tossed out the sanitized inkling inside. Agent 3 crawled in. 8 repeated the process to get one more suit for agent 4, and the three agents headed out.

They got all the way back to the line they had taken out. At that moment, a single human craft landed, and several soldiers came out, including Brian.

"Oh hey Brian!" Agent 3 said.

Brain looked at her. "I can't believe you managed to hijack 3 sets of whatever armor these things have."

"I still can't either." Agent 8 spoke up.

"We brought lots of electric weapons. They seem to counter these things." Brian said. He tossed several electric rifles to the agents.

Agent 4 caught his. However agent 3 wasn't ready for how heavy they were and agent 8 completely missed. After a moment the agents had armed themselves and followed the humans.

As expected, many machines were past the line. However, the humans were hardly stealthy, but they didn't need to be. Their weapons could one shot everything and chained attacks to nearby other targets, including lightning rods and metal walls. They soon pushed far into the encampment.

"Looking dandy." Brian looked at the setup. "Guard towers, turrets, caltrops, and lots of troops. They know we're here, just not where exactly."

One of the other humans raised his gun. "We shoot?"

Agent 4 nodded. "Fire away." They all went in guns blazing.

5 minutes later.

"So what's your mission exactly?" Brian asked agent 3.

"We aimed to attack the front lines and pull as many forces as possible away from where Axel is going. He has only one guy for backup, but he has all of his weapons. He has a hostage rescue situation." Agent 3 explained.

"Of course. He keeps doing these things, he isn't going to make it out in one piece one of these times." Brian mentally facepalmed.

"Don't jinx it dude." Agent 3 said.

"And where's the others from before?" Brian asked.

"They had to shut down the supply lines so we could make our move." Agent 3 replied. "They had too many for us to hit them head on."

"Makes sense..." Brian looked down. "Should we hurry to where Axel is?"

"Why are you so worried?" Agent 3 asked.

"It's just, he copied his memory chip and left a spare at the camp... He wouldn't do that normally. I think he fears for the worst. And he's got someone with him." Brian said.

"Oh no... And he has yet to be wrong." Agent 3 said slowly. She jumped to her feet.

"Then we have to go. I'll let Ma- agent 2 know." Agent 3 said. She called Marie on the radio.

3 minutes and 4.8 seconds later.

"She said go after them. Let's go." Agent 3 said. She called Agent 4 and Agent 8 over.

"Let's go avert a crisis, hopefully..." Brian said.

"I'm scared for them..." Agent 8 said.

They all ran for where Axel would be fighting.