Out of control

The four SHUs got out of the deploy station running, a havoc started on the street, most of the cars moved to the side of the avenue, to open space for the mechas to pass. They advanced incredibly fast, and soon arrived at the adress of their target; it was truly big building.
"You guys received his apperance?" Theo asked.
"Yes, dark skin, short black hair" One ARC answered.
"Good, I will deploy you at his apartment"

Theo put the SHU's hands through the windows of the building, and two ARCs got quickly out, into an apartment. They swiftly searched the entire house.
"There is nobody here" One of them said.
"He is probably still around" the other said scouring the bedroom "There are a lot of bags with clothes in here"
Suddenly, someone wearing a red jacket, with a motorcycle helmet, got out of the wardrobe, shooting the ARC with a shotgun, and threw a granade at the living room, where the other was. Then, the man fled of the apartment, the ARC tried to shoot him, but he was sort of dizzy after the explosion and there was too much dust on the air.
"Shit, he escaped" the ARC went to the bedroom "And VIctor is wounded"
"Deploy everyone, do not let him escape" Theo ordered
All the other SHUs put their hands in random windows and more six ARCs filled the building. As soon as the man heard the ARCs entering, he pressed a button on a control he was carrying, a few bombs exploded, destroying most of the hallways floors. The soldiers were okay, but it cut all their coordenation.

"What the hell was that??"
"For him to do that, he must be on the emergency stairs, c'mon lads, we need to get him before he gets out of the building"
"Do not worry, we are covering all the exits" Theo replied, the two garage entrances and the two pedestrian entrances were being secured, each by a SHU "Just get him"
Then, an explosion near the garage opened a hole on the wall.
"You've gotta be shitting me"
The moment the SHU took his eyes of the garage entrance to cover the hole, a motorcycle fastly passed through the exit.
"Hey hey, he is running away through the main avenue in a motorbike"
"There is something odd, this can't be improvised. ARCs, get back" Theo ordered, and rapidly all of them went back to the SHU's hands, including Victor, who was carried by his partner "Theo to base, we need you to trace a speeding motorcycle, also block all tunnels"
There was no responde but the target's location appeared in their visors
"everyone, scatter yourselves, do not let him escape" Theo said, and all of them started the pursuit.

The SHUs could move in an impressive speed, and slowly were approaching and surrounding their target, yet no one had visual on him.
"His movement pattern is odd, is like he didn't want to escape from us, where is he heading?" One of the pilots asked.
"They might have illegal tunnels somewhere, and he is looking for them"
They soon surrounded the target on a crossing, but he wasn't there.
"Where is him?"
"Where is everybody? The street is empty, there is no single soul here"
"I... I don't like this"
"Base? Base? Respond goddammit"
The pilots were discussing, but Theo remained in silence, thinking while looking at the target's index on his visor which was pointing to this place. Then, a huge explosion blew under their feet, opening a huge cavity on the crossing, all of the SHUs fell on it, in exception of Theo, who managed to hold himself on a building and then moved to a safe place, a really good display of piloting skills.

Before he could have time to process everything, two destroyers appeared from nearby alleys and attacked him. He quickly, with one hand, deployed an ARC to the ground, and with the other blocked one of the grappling hooks and threw that one away from him. The second reached his back, but before he could use his drill, Theo jumped back, smashing the exosuit against a building. Theo, then, grabbed the destroyer and casted him to the ground, the other came back to help but the ARC shot and killed the pilot before he could do any harm.
"Thanks Melissa, are you all right?" Theo asked while stepping on the destroyer on the ground.
"Yes" she replied running to to the hole on the floor "This cliff is absurdly huge and dark, I can't see the others"
Before Theo could say anything, a few trucks arrived, and also six destroyers, cornering them against the aperture.
"Melissa, get back" Theo ordered, leaning his hand to the floor.
"But major, you won't be able to defeat them alone"
"We won't be fighting them, we will be running away"

"General, the mission was a success, they are already coming back with Stewart" Ian said
"Good, I was worried they would end up kiling him" Astrea was relieved.
"Major Theo who was leading the mission, he always get the job done" Ian added.
"This guy never failed a mission, he is a legend of SHU's division" Tanya commented.
"Anyway, notify me when they arrive"

Rafael, Anna and George were having lunch together, as always.
"So, how was the training today? Already learned how to get out of the cabin on your own?" George was fooling around like always.
"You will not forget that any time soon, right?" Rafael sighed.
"Of course not, it was hilarious" George started imitating Rafael "George, I'm not managing to move my body properly, my head hurts, help me"
"It was exactly like that" Anna laughed a little.
"Oh c'mon guys, it was my first time piloting, without any training. You would be like that as well"
"Blame the commanders for not using the Fenix squad sooner, because I'm not forgetting that"
"George, you know that they must be always ready in case of the corruptions"
"Sure, we always need to be in alert, the imaginary monsters who took from us the fantastic paradise called Earth may be lurking nearby" George said with sarcasm.
"Wait, you think they don't exist? None of them?" Anna asked surprised.
"There is footage of Earth and the corruptions, that came when they colonized this planet" Rafael said.
"You saw a ten meter mecha flying over your head last week, don't you think we have the tech to edit a video?" George took a last bite in his food "Think for a while, giant shapeshifter monsters who live only to extinguish all life forms, appeared from nowhere, and destroyed all life on humanity's homeworld, forcing us to escape and fight for our survival in this harsh planet. This sounds like a fantasy story"
"It's not that hard to believe"
"Oh you think? because it gets better, after four hundred years, we finally prepared a mission to retake Earth, and the day they would launch, conveniently, the corruptions appeared, destroyed the launch pad, and vanished. They just, casually chose to not come here and finish the job"
"Well, when you say like that..."
"Sounds like bullshit, right? This is why the government lost control of the city" George leaned towards them and said lower "And originally, the story was supposed to tell that an unknow battlecruiser brought the corruptions here"
"Battlecruiser?" Anna asked.
 "An extremely huge spaceship, luckly, someone with more than two neurons read that and told it did not make any sense, not that it made sense from the beginning, but be careful who you say this to, they don't want this information to leak"
"How do you know about this" Rafael was curious about George's knowledge of secret information.
"I know someone who managed to get the original report, I always tell you to talk with everyone, have connections are really helpful" George stood up, he had finished eating "But you know what? I don't care if this is all a made up story to try keep the population in line by making them believe the way the government and the army work is all for the sake of humanity. Now I have military privileges, my family is living in a safe and comfortable sector, we won't ever again, need to concern about water, food, electricity, heating and not having a place to pass the night. With that, I believe whatever they say" and George left.

Rafael went back to the SCU hangar, he was still thinking about everything that George said, what if his whole life was a lie? Did Marcos knew the truth? Since he was the leader of the Fenix squad.
"Focus" Rafael gave himself a few slaps on the face "Your father told you to know everything about the mecha. You were studying mechanical engineering, right? You can easily do this" He started reviewing his notes "The cabin is on the abdomen, where the center of the gravity of the mecha is, decreasing the amount of impact the pilot will suffer. The Core is at the ches-"
In that moment, a SHU arrived, without an arm, and severely damaged throughout the whole body. Everyone at the hangar came to see and help, they took off of the SHU's hand an ARC who got shot, Major Theo got out on his own, besides him appearing tired, he was not injured.
"Dad!" Rafael approached him.
"Hey son, I guess we won't be praticing together today"
"Major, general wants you to report to her as soon as we finish here" The medic who went attend him, talked.
"Sure, I just hope we can still save my subordinates" Theo was looking frustrated.
"Da- Major, but what happened?" Rafael asked.
"Things got out of hand, the revolutionaries are way ahead of us"