A/N: We made it to Chapter 10 and keep on rolling! I'm so happy with the support Sigma/Star gets and I hope this chapter helps keep the high expectations up for the series. Thanks everyone!

The squad of young students stood in the fields outside Easley, where the road thinned into a small dirt trail that wound away into the horizon. It was starting to get late and the sun would soon be setting across that very same horizon, giving a red-hued backdrop for the combatants. If they were still fighting at that time of course.

Porter could see them coming, a couple faint shadows marching closer. Amidst them were the towering forms of the Goliaths and Porter shuddered with nerves. Across from him was Nami in her own warmachine and he knew she was probably looking towards him from the cockpit. They had not spoken since the moment in the room and the rest of the group had not questioned it.

Could everyone sense what was going on? Porter wasn't sure if it was the tension between him and Nami creating the pressure or if it was just the preparation for battle. The comm link between the team crackled as Ardwen activated it and his voice travelled to each member of the group. "Test, one, two. Remember your positions guys. We cannot let them get any closer than we are right now. Nami drop back to point, Riya with me. Raul, head out now. Porter and Chase, make sure you hold the line but retreat if you have to. Don't make sacrifices for the sake of fighting."

The thrusters from Nami's battlesuit took off and lifted her away and back over a hill, settling herself behind a barn. Porter sighed as emotions swirled around his body. That kiss with Nami was fresh on his mind and he didn't know what to do about it. It wasn't like he hadn't enjoyed it or something or really been repulsed when he found out it was Nami but he only did the kiss because he thought it was Riya and indeed whenever he saw her his heart still fluttered and yet Nami seemed to look a little cuter, shine a little more since that incident...

Porter gave his head a shake. Regardless of these girls he was going to war now. The battle was just minutes away and he had to focus. Chase was off to Porter's side, his excitement mounting now that he got to take part in a battle. He was throwing punches into the air and he opened a personal communication link between himself and Porter.

"Why don't we put a little bit of a contest into this match Porter?"

"No Chase, we have to be prepared and focused. It's not games anymore." Porter was shocked at how strong his voice sounded over the network. Rejecting Chase was not something common for Porter but since he had sat down in his Goliath he felt himself growing in confidence drawn from a part of himself he didn't know he had. Or maybe it had come from that kiss with Nami...

Porter groaned and smashed his head against the control panel in frustration. Nami had been his first kiss! He had wasted it on a little stalker girl who snuck up on him in the dark. And now he was actually thinking for a moment that that kiss had drawn out a more manly strength from him. Fat chance! It was clearly the idea of war bringing out his more courageous side.

"Come on Porter, lighten up. Geez have you seen our team? It's not very often six unique Goliaths get organized into a fight. Though I guess in the case of your old trash bin you can't really contribute..."

"The White Storm was crafted by my grandfather and is more than capable of destroying any army opposing it!" Porter yelled into the link before slamming his finger down on the button to cut Chase off.

Porter was panting as emotions ran through his body. Nami's kiss, Chase's bullying, wartime threats, Ardwen's orders, Nami's kiss. Everything was tormenting his mind and stirring his blood. Bizarrely, his Goliath seemed to respond as well, lights flashing and power levels fluctuating but Porter didn't notice. All he saw ahead was that the first line of the enemy soldiers was approaching and that he would be battling them now.

The White Storm bent its knees before taking off in a full sprint. Beside it, Chase's own South Star was keeping pace and Ardwen could be heard screaming orders between the two. Before Porter knew what was happening his left blade had driven through the gut of an enemy while his knee was already knocking it off and sending it to the ground.

Chase, on the other hand, had ended up taking two Goliaths on at once, flipping between the two and delivering a hail of explosive blows, swinging his leg up and smashing it into the head of an enemy while his fists pummelled the other.

This left Ardwen, Riya, and Nami back at the start and Ardwen had given up on ordering the two hotheads around. Nami was calculating and watching Porter from afar and when she saw an enemy Goliath raise its gun to fire a shot at him, her own rifle released its long range firepower to eliminate the threat. Riya, on the other hand, was constantly praying for the souls of the fallen pilots and infantry soldiers below and her own Gatling gun was spewing out bullets down towards these lines to keep them from approaching.

Ardwen was stuck trying to keep something happening with Raul while Chase and Porter battered those in front of them and finally got a hold of the sixth member of the squad. "Raul, how's your position look?"

"The line has passed by. Looked like about ten Goliaths in total. The field commander is hanging behind right now directing them." Raul was crouched down behind a rather large old barn that had been abandoned quite some time ago, peeking through the slits in the ancient wooden frame at the enemy. The commanding officer was in a very tall battlesuit, larger than usual, with twin shoulder-mounted laser cannons and a long chain hanging off his left hand that swung back and forth as he gave his orders.

"Can you take a shot at him?" Ardwen was looking over at the front line and saw Goliaths bearing down on Chase and Porter. Their initial charge was finally being blunted and the momentum was petering out into a slugging battle and it was starting to scare Ardwen. Nami had already informed him that as the group became entangled she wouldn't be able to take her shots anymore, and Riya's heavy firepower could not come close to being precise. Ardwen himself had very little for fighting and wouldn't be able to drag either Goliath away for repairs if they were consumed in battle.

Raul reached back and gripped the shuriken behind him. His computers started marking distances, winds, angles of approach, and so on as he figured out if indeed he could make the shot. A little roll to the side, a quick draw back and throw and the shuriken would embed itself into the cockpit. A little bit of oil would leak out the side while the interior broke down, the secret toxins hidden within the metal of the weapon spewing out and killing off the pilot in less than six seconds, unless he could somehow hold his breath for over thirty minutes when the poison would disperse into the air. The shot would be made. Not only would it be made, it would be extremely easy to pull off.

Raul took in a deep, long breath and let it out slowly into the intercom. The entire squad was now listening to his words, their hopes for the battle plan waiting on his lips. "Yes. Yes I can take a shot at him."

Ardwen smiled. The fight could still be saved if they could knock off the field commander; that would guarantee them a win. Right now it looked like they had beaten four enemy Goliaths with six more bearing down on just Porter and Chase. Each one of them looked to be finishing off another enemy, meaning six down total, but their Goliaths were scratched, beaten, and exhausted. The machines were groaning and spewing out steam and fluids into the air surrounding. They wouldn't last much longer. Raul needed to take that shot. "Do it Raul."

There was silence on the other end. Porter and Chase were each listening, the sound deadened in their cockpits and their machines struggling to handle the overload of enemies coming down on them. There was clarity in Porter's head now (other than brief glimpses of Nami flashing by with her lips in a pouty position) and he realized that this was a losing battle.

The comm crackled as Raul cleared his throat. His hands were trembling at the controls. "I...I..." Ardwen was leaning out of his driver's seat, perched on the edge, waiting to know whether they could win or not. There was a drop of sweat hanging over his eye, stuck on the edge of his eyebrow and waiting, as he was, to drop or to stay. "I...I can't...can't do it."

"What?! Why?"

"I...I've never killed...never killed a person before. Not a real living one. I'm...sorry." Raul nearly sounded like there were tears in his eyes as his lips shook and his throat caught. Porter stopped for a moment and looked at the husks of warmachines he had already beaten. In his blind rush, he had killed other people, other soldiers. But enemy soldiers, no? If you don't kill them they kill you, and everyone else. Kill or be killed? Or maybe they just weren't real people anymore. Could Porter see them like that?

In his distraction an enemy took a punch into his gut before slamming an elbow down on the head of his Goliath. The impact shook straight through to the core where Porter sat and jarred him around, his head banging off the ceiling and knocking him out. The White Storm teetered for a moment before falling back.

As soon as it fell the enemy was shot through the chest by Nami, who was crying as she saw Porter fall. She leapt out from behind her cover and began sighting down the barrel to shoot as much as she could at everything she possible. Riya moved to try and stop her from ruining the plans and attempted to hold her down as the two struggled.

Chase, now being swarmed by three Goliaths, was swinging every which way he could, deciding that without Raul, he must be the hero, but was stopped short as all three jumped on him at once and began to pick at his Goliath's joints, knocking out its mobility and disabling it.

Ardwen collapsed back in his chair and removed his glasses to clean them. He deeply hoped this was a training drill; that the siren would go off and everything would fade away as holographic projections shut off or that the training drones would stop fighting and be turned off. The glasses returned to his nose and were pushed back up his face, the grease on his fingertips smearing the lenses once more. Riya was keeping Nami in check and holding her back but they were out in the open and would be an easy target.

In a heartbeat, Raul was screaming and then was cut out. Ardwen's face grew dark at the sound, the sudden burst of noise followed by the deadening silence. Porter wasn't speaking either. Chase was cursing and muttering but unable to do anything. Nami was crying and Riya was murmuring more prayers. And Ardwen was left stuck trying to come up with a new strategy.

Then the new voice broke out. Deep, dark, like gravel scraping down a rocky hillside. Intimidating, terrifying, evil. It was something Ardwen never wanted to hear again but he knew in his stomach he may never hear another voice. It was the enemy field commander, hijacking their signal to mock them. "You didn't really think you could win with kids did you?" The laughter rang through the interior of each and every Goliath in the area, and Ardwen's heart sunk. It was over.

A/N: A fierce battle with a bitter end? Can the group recover in order to save each other or is this the last of the team from St. Maurius?!

Thanks for reading, hope you leave a comment. This has evolved beyond what I expected and the ending to this chapter and arc keeps morphing in my head so who knows what will happen and who will survive when it is all over...

As part of Chapter 10, take a look at the character survey! Pick your favourite!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YJ6TPSG