Officer Desmond Cain of the Artisan Second Division Strikeforce surveyed his troops. The four man team was rather impressive, he thought to himself. And so it should be; he had been the one overseeing the creation of it all.

The strikeforce consisted of Cain, as leader, his second-in-command, Sergeant Jericho, the team's sharpshooter in Alenichev, and Corporal Xiu as aerial tactician. Each one sported their own personalized Goliath, though only Cain and Xiu had unique ones. The other two were Exo-class suits with special enhancements, such as Alenichev's extended rifle.

They had just been given a new mission from the high command. The squad was to diverge from the main force attacking Narrius and assault a small village to the north. It had long since been evacuated and initial reports had scouted it as an empty, useless zone but now they were receiving news that supplies might be stockpiled there. If they could make an attack to cripple a line like that...well it could only be positives, both for the war effort and for Cain's own positioning.

He knew he was close to a promotion. He could smell it, see it in the way the others looked at him, feel it in the air whenever he was given orders. It was coming. Maybe that's why they had given him this job. Something easy with his personal team of hand-picked soldiers that would give them good enough reason for a raise.

Xiu's voice sliced through the silence. The team was nestled into a rocky crag of brown stones that stuck up into the air. It was a bit elevated from the normal field of battle to give them a place to hide yet look out and Xiu was hovering a few hundred feet above them. "Sir, we're all clear to move. The convoy passed by."

"Excellent. Return to ground then."

"Roger." There was a hum in the air that grew as Xiu's Goliath, the "Hummingbird," dropped out of the sky and softly landed on the rocky terrain. He possessed an Alto-class suit, an Exo model that had been stripped of some of its armour to make it lighter, more agile, and had been given two round jet boosters that shot out off of its back on long rods in twin fashion. The circular jets were flat though and could swivel a bit on the ends of their support beams, giving the Hummingbird the ability to move quickly within the air or hold its position in a hover. It couldn't take off or fly at tremendous speeds and instead was used for extended jumps and for surveillance and Cain was just fine with that.

Sergeant Jericho shook his head at the young Xiu. Jericho was getting older, well above middle-age and feeling it, and he always found a chuckle in the recklessness of youthful warriors. When it was outside battle, everything was showing off what they could do and having fun with tools normally used to deal death. As soon as combat started they were meek and tentative and he had to take over with his experience. Because of it, he commanded tremendous respect from everyone, including the younger Cain.

Cain and Jericho also shared mutual respect since the captain had also become a father, like Jericho, and their kids often played together. Cain's daughter was now three years old while Jericho had a five year old son, and opposite gender twins, who were twelve.

Alenichev watched them all in silence. He was the most specialized component of the group, only capable of taking accurate, long-range shots and nothing else. He was also personally unique, unable to speak since birth, and he used signals set up within the cockpit of his Goliath in order to communicate. His nature was usually eerie and off-putting to others but Cain preferred it. There was no chatter from Alenichev to distract him from his shot and Cain had never met anyone quite as focused as that man was.

Cain signalled for the group to advance. The sun was just reaching its crescendo in the sky to signal noon and the group was expected to arrive at the town in just three hours. They would have to move quickly to cover that distance and each was thankful for the enormous machines they operated which allowed them to travel so fast.

As they moved, Cain noted Jericho's Goliath and wondered how it would hold up in this next battle. Like the man inside it was a grizzled, old machine, and it wore its scars proudly. It had never been repainted and was only buffed when absolutely necessary. Jericho inside was often clean-shaven so as to show off the various nicks and scars he boldly sported. Even his nose was permanently crooked from the countless times he had broken it but his grey eyes still held a fiery passion for battle, just like his Goliath could always perform regardless of how weathered it appeared.

Xiu was the polar opposite. His round, smooth face still held on to fragments of baby fat and his brown eyes were often buried underneath a mess of brown hair. His youth and fresh body reflected in a sparkling Goliath that was often coated with new layers of paint because the old was fading, not because it needed the touch up.

None of them knew what Alenichev looked like. He wore a full balaclava over his face at all times that only let one see his eyes but they too revealed nothing. Otherwise, nobody had seen him and nobody pressed him for looks.

Cain checked over all of his readings displaying along the cockpit. This would be a good mission, an easy one. And hopefully he would be back in time for dinner.

* * * * *

Porter was the last one to arrive to the emergency meeting that was called. Mr. Shotuku had broadcast over the school's intercom that everyone in the squad was immediately required to go to the teacher's staff room. Of course, Porter was late and was greeted with glares from everyone in the room, except for Riya who sat with Rick having a cup of tea. She always seemed willing to smile.

As Porter took his chair, Mr Shotuku took stance at the front of the room. The whole place was otherwise empty. The tables had been pushed to the sides so that the folding chairs could be set up in the middle of the room for everyone to collect on. Otherwise there was a sink to the right side, with a refrigerator and microwave beside it, and a little coffee machine where Riya and Rick had gotten their tea.

"We have three orders of business to discuss in this meeting, students. First, Ardwen will speak to you." Mr. Shotuku stepped aside and Ardwen indeed came to the front, thanking Shotuku for the introduction.

"I would like to inform all of you that we first off have our own special ranking system within the squad now, with me at the top as Master Sergeant Ardwen. For what happened in Easley, Porter is being made into a Lance Corporal, which puts him second in command." Ardwen saw Chase start to open his mouth and quickly silenced him. "Yes Chase, I don't really want to hear it. Nami is Private First Class as my personal assistant because of her wealth of knowledge. The rest of you are considered Privates, but that is all subject to change of course."

Rick raised his hand to speak. "What am I then?"

Everyone turned and stared at Rick as he took another sip of tea. Ardwen answered for the group: "Wait, why are you even here? You're not a student of the school!"

Mr. Shotuku stood up upon hearing this to make yet another announcement. "Ah yes, I forgot. Rick is officially enrolled here as a teacher's aide, mine to be exact, and will be serving as mine and Riya's bodyguard from now on, for when we go down to battles and are not in Goliaths of course."

Ardwen and the rest of the group rolled their eyes and let the speaking continue from the new Master Sergeant. "Right well it occurred to me that we have these ranks and all but we don't have any name for the whole squad. I think we should be called something cool and intimidating for when we get summoned."

There was mild chatter in agreement from everyone else. "What about the Super Goliath Squad?" Nami suggested.

"I like Chase's Unstoppably Awesome Team Chase." Everyone looked over at Chase, who had chosen to sit in the middle of the chairs. "What?"

"Chase, you said your own name twice in that," Nami said.

"Well I'm twice as cool as any of you, so I think I should be."

"What about Crisis Rescue Unit?" Porter said. Everyone went silent and focused their attention on him. "We seem to get called in to these places with big crises going on, you know with Easley and then here with The Menace of space wolf, and of course...well Riya." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. "We could be CRU for short."

"All in favour?"

Everyone, except Chase, voted in agreement and Ardwen stepped down. "I believe Gretta has an announcement," Mr. Shotuku said.

Gretta strutted up to the front with a round disc in her hands. She set the disc on the floor beside her then turned to talk to them. "Alright CRU or whichever you are now, I need to try to figure something out. I haven't known you all for very long or been here for awhile but things seem to have gotten really confusing really fast. I noticed a lot of it during that thing with Omnicorp and Shotuku and I decided we should try to keep tabs on everyone but I still haven't figured this out."

"What exactly is this?" Riya asked politely.

"You're relationships!" Gretta yelled. "Honestly I can't follow any of this. So I made a flow chart!" She kicked the disc and a light shot out the top, projecting a holographic chart which had their names labelled on it. Gretta withdrew a pointer from her pocket and directed it at Riya's name. "Like with Riya here. She brought on Porter to be her bodyguard to protect her from a mystery threat and she hired on Rick as another bodyguard but Rick was the mystery threat so now who is Porter the bodyguard against?" Porter slunk down a bit lower in his chair. He didn't want anyone to think too much of it that he was hanging out with Riya more to be closer to his crush.

"Or Nami. I mean she stalks Porter right? But then she makes a play at Ardwen who decides to like her only because Chase likes her but Chase only likes her because she made a play at Ardwen so the two of them are only in it because the other one is, but this is supposed to make Porter jealous but it isn't working but Nami keeps going and now Raul is apparently into her too so I can't figure out which one Nami likes and who actually likes Nami." Ardwen and Chase glared at Raul who jumped at hearing his name.

"You like Nami too?" they shouted in unison.

"And another thing-" Gretta was going to continue when Mr. Shotuku pushed her out of the way.

"Yes well, I didn't know that was going to be your announcement Gretta. We'll discuss this later in private and make sure we don't expose that we are watching everyone in the group." There was a nervous ripple through the squad and Riya and Rick each took another sip of their drinks. "For the final announcement, I would like to tell you all that we are being assigned again to a projected warzone on Earth. There is a strikeforce moving out towards the village of Abertyl, just northwest of Narrius. That village is a supply bunker for Narrius in case the war extends too long and the army would prefer if we didn't lose it, but they don't want to sacrifice anyone from the existing battle so they are sending us in again. We leave in one hour." Mr. Shotuku finished with his normal abrupt manner and left the group bewildered, especially when he walked right out the door, dragging Gretta behind him.

* * * * *

Porter sat beside the White Storm and placed his hand on its cool metal surface. He was up near its shoulder, sitting atop a catwalk that ran at level with most of the Goliaths' heads and shoulders. The White Storm was fully repaired from the battle at Easley and deemed operational. He just wondered what would happen the next time he would get in.

It wasn't that he didn't want to feel the lightning overtaking him again and having such a free flow of chi energy. Quite the opposite. He was just afraid it wouldn't happen. It wasn't like he knew how to call upon it at will. He still wasn't entirely sure what had happened to bring it out in the first place but he knew he would be expected to perform at that level once again. That was why he was ranked so high. But what happened when the chi wasn't flowing through him? Would he still be the best pilot among them?

He felt a hand rest on his shoulder and looked up to see the smiling face of Riya, with Rick standing behind her. He was turning into less of a bodyguard and more of a butler for her as right now he was carrying some of her books in his arms.

"I wouldn't worry too much Porter. We know you're always trying your best to win every fight you can, just like the rest of us. It's tough for everybody you know."

"Thank you Riya. Are you sure you're ready to battle after everything that...well you know."

Riya's eyes hardened and took on a faraway gaze. "Yes I should be able to perform still. I would like to keep my Goliath and my personal life separate as best I can. But I know that if I struggle, you'll be there to help protect me right?" Her face had softened again and returned to normal.

"Uh, yeah, yes of course I will." Porter felt his face flush a little but he didn't mind too much. He was rather enjoying anytime he spent near Riya.

Professor Drey who ran the hangar and oversaw the Goliaths yelled up from below, shattering the moment. "Porter we need you to back away. We're moving the White Storm out for launch. You should head down to the ship now or you might be late."

Porter sighed, obviously a bit upset his time with Riya was broken. She reached out her hand though and gave him a smile. "Come on Porter, I'll walk you to the ship. Wouldn't want you to be late twice in one day."

A/N: The Crisis Rescue Unit is formed and ready to go once more! It's time to see the Goliaths come out again, but will they be able to stand up to the toughest opposition they've ever faced?