Troopers scrambled in teams of four and six, spurred into action by the klaxon alarm ringing throughout the launch bay. Kent watched and worried. According to the communications chatter three or more hostiles were loose on the ship. They'd avoided multiple attempts at capture or neutralization, and were leaving an ever increasing body count in their wake.

At first Kent feared the beleaguered passengers of the AST Singapore were in store for yet another disaster. Then he overheard Benji of the rainbow hair speaking to Bo Santos. Spider's team was still unaccounted for. Knowing Spider's team could be trying to save them filled Kent with hope, despite the odds being woefully against them. He was able to be enthusiastic... as long as he ignored the bodies piled just outside of the Singapore.

A squad of troopers escorted a team of clones bearing a litter of cleaning supplies. Behind them hovered a second litter stacked with a half dozen bodies. Some of the corpses were hours dead, victims of the Flesh Farmer attack, but some bore bullet holes fresh enough to still be bleeding. Kent watched the clones dispassionately unload the bodies and evenly distribute them between the two mounds on either side of the loading ramp.

He studied their blank faces and wondered if he had ever been so goal driven that he couldn't see the world around him. The answer was yes. He'd been taught to focus on the tasks given with a single minded attention which left room for little to no regard for anything else. The Free Labor Movement taught Kent how to open his eyes. Karen called it seeing the forest despite the trees. He pitied those clones, blind to the events unfolding around them, but party to it nonetheless. They needed someone to teach them how to see.

Troopers rushed to the loading ramp, leaving a small contingent to guard the prisoners. There was a big commotion as white tinted soldiers formed up behind yellow, and pink commanders. They stood at attention as a team of troopers approached. At their head was a trooper wearing a golden cape and pauldrons molded into the shape of golden roses. Beside her was Lieutenant Xavier. They were flanked by six troopers in black armor that seemed to shun the light. Each was armed with a long barreled shotgun.

The newcomers stopped at the base of the ramp and the gathered troopers saluted. They sang in a chorus of synchronized voices. They were joined by those still guarding the prisoners as well as the small cluster of constructs questioning the Singapore's stewards. Kent did not understand the language, but its cadence was warlike and aggressive, yet beautiful to the ear.

The trooper in gold raised a hand and the singing stopped. She removed her helmet, revealing the reddish skin of an Earth Prime native. Her pale blue hair was tied into three long braids and wrapped into a single bun at the back of her head. She was a handsome woman with strong features and a cold gaze. She handed Xavier her helmet, and the silver armored Xavier took it without a word. Her air of command was dulled in the golden woman's presence.

The golden woman bowed as a team of legionnaires exited the ship. Between them walked a single prisoner, hands bound by Mag-Shackles. Kent Duffy watched as Angelique Farnsworth, the leader of mankind, marched out between armed kidnappers. His heart jolted. He'd been sent by people he'd thought of as friends to kill her, but in that moment he felt an almost overwhelming desire to save her. The Movement wanted him to be their hero and trained him to be their instrument. Kent no longer wanted to be their weapon, but the hero's instinct was still within him.

"Don't move!" ordered a trooper. His weapon was trained on a man near the front of the group. The man looked toward the CEO with defiance, but he did as commanded.

Across the launch bay a twenty foot tall war construct stepped through a set of reinforced double doors. Kent was deterred. The killing machine was capable of murdering all of the hostages in a matter of seconds. Against such a behemoth there could be no heroics, only capitulation.

"Madam Angelique Farnsworth, it is my pleasure to welcome you aboard The Diva-12. I am Primus Dorian Ngata. This is my ship, these are my flowers. Know that you are my honored guest and you will be treated in a manner befitting your station," said the golden woman.

The CEO laughed bitterly and brought attention to her restraints.

"Is this how you treat your honored guest?" she asked.

"Do not misunderstand me, Madam Farnsworth, you are my prisoner and your bonds are for your own protection." Primus Ngata gestured towards the piles of corpses to either side. "Guests aboard Diva-12 fit into two categories. Those who comply and those that have been taught the consequences of disobedience."

Angelique looked at the bodies and then at the people who survived Flesh Farmers and were being held prisoner by pirates.

"What do you intend for these people?" the CEO asked.

"These people?" Primus Ngata smiled and glanced at Xavier who nodded sagely. "I feel I must be truthful, Madam Farnsworth. I w-"

A dog shaped machine with a wide view screen for a head bounded to the golden woman. Accompanying the robot was a tall felarnian and a pair of legionnaires. The monochrome troopers raised their weapons and created a protective perimeter around Ngata and the CEO.

"What is this?" Ngata asked.

"Primus, you must see this!" said the screen as it came to life. For a moment it showed the Low-Face of a bald woman with a 12 stamped on her forehead. Then it showed a war zone or a portion of the ship turned into a battlefield. Xavier and Ngata both appeared taken aback. "This is a live feed, Primus."

"The fugitives are here?" Primus asked rhetorically.

Kent noticed all of the troopers look in her direction, their attention drawn to her words. He also noticed Bo Santos slip his hidden blades from their gurney hiding places.

"Diva-12, sound the alarm. Battle Stations! Ours will be the ship that catches the Pale Garden's greatest enemies. WE will be raised above and rewarded by our mistress! Find them, my flowers, bring them to heel!"

Primus Ngata raised her fist high and, when she spread her fingers, the troopers scattered to the sound of the ship's klaxons replaced with rising and falling horns.

"Primus, permission to join the hunt?" Xavier asked. The eagerness in her tone was impossible to miss.

"We retire to my quarters, Lieutenant," the primus declared. "Bring our guest." She reached for her helmet and the tattooed woman placed it respectfully in her hand. "On me."

The matte black troopers closed ranks and followed as Primus Dorian Ngata strode away. Xavier grabbed the CEO by the arm and dragged her along.

"Kill the prisoners, they carry no value," the primus shouted as her entourage receded across the launch bay.

The gathered prisoners screamed as the remaining troopers raised their weapons. A pink tinted Legionnaire stepped forward and raised her hand high.

"Troopers, on my mark!" she ordered. "Three. Two. O-"

Bo was on her in a flash, stabbing at the less protected sections of her armor. The troopers turned to assist her and the remnants of Sergeant Maldonado's forces struck in a desperate bid for freedom. Kent fumbled with the pistol hidden in his sling, but, when a trooper started firing into the crowd, Bruce's training took over. He drew the weapon and fired, hitting the trooper in the arm and then chest. Benji claimed the trooper's rifle and joined the battle armed, if not protected, like the enemy.

Kent ran to Ivory, who clung to the crying boy despite her burns and injuries. All around them, people were screaming, crying, or praying, huddled together and crouched on the floor. Kent looked towards the tall war construct with its mounted guns and heavy armor plating. If it joined the fight, their little insurrection would fail horribly. He tried to hand her the energy pistol, but she refused.

"I can't carry him and shoot," she explained.

"But we need to get out of here."

"Then get us out of here, you have the gun. I'm almost useless. The biofeedback from my other arm's damaged circuits has my nerves jumping from numbness to spasms."

Kent looked at her hand and saw it shaking sporadically. Her pallor had not recovered from the loss of her prosthetic or the burns from the energy blade. He helped her to a standing position, which was no easy feat with only one arm. All around them the survivors fought for their lives. Kent hadn't planned for any of it and his mind had trouble processing. The war construct helped him focus. The massive war machine slowly approached. Once it arrived, death would follow.

"We have to get back aboard the ship!" he shouted.

Many stared at him with hollow frightened eyes, but some were spurred into action.

"Stand up and make your way to the ship!"

A woman was hit by a stray shot. Her body fell to the floor, her head smoking where the energy bolt burned both an entry and exit wound.

"If you want to live, move!"

He and Ivory hastened towards Singapore's loading ramp. The people they passed scrambled to their feet and joined in their flight. The defenders guarded their retreat. A canamarian woman lifted a trooper over her head and threw him into an approaching series-5 construct. She roared a challenge, and joined the stream of people flowing toward the AST transport.

The crying boy called her name, and she gladly took him from Ivory's arm. The wounded woman stumbled and the canamarian took hold of Ivory as well. The ship stewards had attempted to join the uprising, but they were no match for their combat programmed peers. Their parts littered the floor.

They reached the ramp and a scarred series-3 with burning pits for eyes stepped out of the ship and started firing into the crowd, laughing maniacally. He fired in Kent's direction, but the round was intercepted by a steward construct that threw herself in the way. Her arm came off at the shoulder joint and she fell over. A loud screech erupted from within The Singapore, startling the survivor's and troopers alike.

A cleaning drone rushed from the rear and threw a bucket at the mad series-3. He deflected the flimsy attack and fired into the machine, destroying its processors. Another attacked, and another. Neither doing more than angering and distracting. Kent fired at the series-3, squeezing the trigger until the weapon overheated. It glared at Kent with eyeless sockets, his chest a ruined mess. Even though his chips were fried the construct raised his pistol, a sadistic grin on his face. A second screech heralded a fourth cleaning drone which plowed into the construct in a jarring collision. The series-3 tumbled to the bottom of the ramp and lay still.

"ATTENTION PASSENGERS!!! Please proceed to the command deck. Security measures are in place to assure your safety."

"Who was that?" someone asked from the crowd. Faces looked to Kent for instruction.

"I'm trying to save you, people. Stop staring and get inside of me!"

"I think it's the ship," Ivory said. She looked on the verge of passing out.

The war construct was nearly within weapons range.

"You heard her, people. Get on!"

People ran up the ramp. The remaining troopers had fallen back to the cover of the fighter ships, but more were arriving from multiple portals.

Kent looked down at the construct at his feet. She had saved his life, an act Kent gave great value. Her Low-Face was in low power mode, her image dim, but he recognized Asuka-15. He looked at her dented and perforated outer shell. The gunshot from the series-3 was one of many wounds. He tried to get his arm under her arm, but she was a daunting burden. With both hands she would have been heavy, with one she was nearly impossible to move.

"Kent, they're coming back. We need to go!" Giles cried from halfway up the ramp. "Leave it!"

"I can't, she's my friend!" Kent responded.

He expected Giles to scoff or ridicule him. What he didn't expect was for the man to hop down and help him drag her inside of the ship.