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Well here is the 19th installment to The Spyro Chronicles and I hope this will subdue those of you who have read the cliffhanger in chapter 18. I hope that this will quail your worries and will be an excellent read.

Chapter 19: Only the Beginning

The apes neared the group, their swords and axes swinging. Their armor clattering against one another causing a loud clatter throughout the group. The Marines on the beachhead pointed their rifles outward and they squeezed the trigger. The paper thin metal shields the apes wore didn't stand much of a chance against .22 cal ammunition. Apes screamed and fell, holes dotting their armor. Even so the apes continued their charge and were backed up by hundreds more. It seemed like an unstoppable wave of terror.

Spyro leapt forward from the crowd, sinking his claws into the nearest apes as did Cynder. They engaged a group of apes advancing on the marine's flank. The apes swung their swords and battle axes at Spyro but he ducked and dodged every time. One swung his axe and Spyro jumped up and used the axe as a platform in which to launch a claw attack. The ape dropped the axe and fell to the floor dead.

Cynder charged one ape whom seemed to have taken a likening to a dagger rather then a sword. He thrust the dagger towards Cynder who banked left and charged the ape who was knocked off of his feet. He recovered and got back up only to be met by a fire ball. He screamed as it blew him away and Cynder jumped up on top of him and silenced him with a jet of fire. She blew more fire at the oncoming apes as well who fell to the ground, their armor melting from the intense heat.

The marines were having target practice. They continued to unload their rifles into the oncoming assault which dissipated after the first few hundred apes.

When they thought they were in the clear they saw hung machines of war approaching, huge structures of wood and metal armed with spears and catapults. On one of them there was a captured .30 cal machine gun. Next to the huge machines there were a wave of new apes, although these were more heavily armored, carrying heavy metal vests and other iron clad armor. Many of these apes hefted huge swords and other weapons meant to kill. Some used spears and some held some sort of spike weapon which was attached to a chain which looked like it was used for throwing at enemies.

The marines quickly reloaded their assault weapons and were about to open fire on the horde when Wagner held his hand out.

"No! They are just making us use our ammo! This is pointless, we have to get the crystal and get out!" Spyro understood what the marine was talking about and motioned the squads to follow them.

"You heard Lt. Wagner let's get that crystal!" Spyro said while blowing a fireball at the oncoming wave of destruction. They moved towards the forest while the ape army approached from the beachhead.

As they neared the forest several apes emerged, some wielding swords while one had a Lakador rifle in his grasp. The marines found a heightened ledge which gave them perfect cover and the advantage over the apes. They went into a prone position and opened fire. The lead four apes, who were charging with their swords, were cut down in matter of seconds. A fifth one came with some sort of throwing spear. He was lifted into the air and did a short dance as .22 rounds peppered him. He collapsed to the ground and the final three apes roared in protest.

The ape holding the rifle opened fire from the hip and slowly marched to the marine position. Wagner crouched, hoping the ape did not see him. He was in the brush on the right flank of the ape's position. He saw the ape open fire and raised his own assault rifle. He put the gun sights on the creature's head and pulled the trigger. The ape stopped dead in his tracks as the bullet passed through his skull and came out the other side, escorted by bits of brain, skull, and blood. The ape slumped to the ground, the rifle clattering to the ground as well.

The other two apes broke into a run after seeing what had just happened. The other marines opened fire, silencing one ape while Cynder blew a fireball at the other, causing him to roar as he ignited in brilliant ball of superheated fumes. He collapsed to the ground as the raging fires cooked him alive. Wagner looked behind him and saw the huge army approaching them. He knew that it was only a matter of time before they were within spear range. He considered attacking the army, no doubt that they could handle them, but that's not why they were here. They had to get the crystal and that was top priority.

At that moment one of the large towering machine structures exploded as a missile struck it. The two Nighthawks circled above, pelting the army below with machine gun fire. The two machine guns on either side of the Nighthawk sprung to life and dowsed the apes below with .30 cal ammunition. The apes threw their spears and what ever else they were carrying with them at the two Nighthawks, but they continued their strafing runs on the apes.

"Let's go!" Wagner shouted to the marines while firing off a burst from his gun, killing an ape. The marines followed him and they moved into the forest and away from the large ape army. They moved into the forest with little resistance and came onto the temple. Lt. Wagner ordered Sgt. O'Neal to hold position outside and secure the exit. They pushed inside and continued through the maze of corridors. As they pushed inwards Wagner was puzzled by the lack of resistance that they were being met with. They finally came into an enormous room.

The room was spherical in shape with a bridge running from one side to the next. In the center of the room was a platform with a beam of light coming from it. As they approached they noticed there was something in the beam. Karson held out his hand and touched it. The beam stopped and a crystal flew out and hovered in the air. It gave off a large glow before hovering in front of Karson. Karson hesitantly grabbed it and placed it in the sack.

With the crystal secured they moved outside and found O'Neal's squad missing. As they pushed into the jungle Wagner kept trying to key O'Neal on the mike but he got no response. They continued to move when they saw two marines running from the brush. They were members of O'Neal's squad. Wagner was about to ask where the rest of their squad was when they were both hit in the back with spears. They then heard sounds all around them and apes came from all directions, all clad in battle armor and decked out for a fight. Many of them carried the same weapons as seen earlier and were ready to kill. The marines opened fire and Spyro and Cynder went to work.

Spyro kicked an ape into the air and Cynder met it with a large fireball. Another ape swung its sword at Spyro but it missed and Cynder leapt on it from behind and tossed the ape into a group of apes who were all knocked down. Spyro used an Earth bomb which sent them all into the air and the marines peppered them with assault rifle fire. Even with them being decked out if battle armor, the .22 AP ammo sliced through it and penetrated their flesh.

Karson and Allison had slung their assault rifles now and were engaging the apes in fist fights. One approached Karson and put his sword away, asking for a challenge. Karson accepted and made the first move. He delivered a punch which the ape absorbed in his armor and he returned Karson's punch with his own. Karson blocked the punch and grabbed the arm. The ape was nonetheless surprised by this and attempted to free his hand but Karson used his other arm and grabbed the apes side. He then hoisted the ape into the air and tossed him into the ground. The ape started to get up but Karson charged fire energy into his fist and struck it in the chest. The fire burned the armor away and Karson knocked the ape farther away.

The ape got up again and this time drew his sword in rage. Karson chuckled and placed his palm forward, releasing a jet of white hot flames at the ape. The creature screamed and fell to the floor burning. Karson then turned his attention towards the other apes who were falling quickly in the chaos. The marines worked off the rest of the apes and then they moved farther into the woods to the extraction point which was the beach. When they reached the beach they saw the Nighthawks were still engaging the apes on the beach. As they flew overhead a rocket streaked from the forest and connected with the fuselage of one of the Nighthawks, blowing it out of the air. The other banked to the left, still pelting the ground with machine gun fire.

The Nighthawk strafed right and swerved to the left, narrowly avoiding a rocket which sailed up from the forest. Suddenly the forest erupted with machine gun fire as apes with rifles pointed them at the squad of marines or at the drop ship. The marines opened fire on whatever they could see. The large ape army had disappeared at this point and was slowly working their way to ambush the marines.

The Nighthawk banked low, avoiding more gunfire coming from the tree line. Another rocket soared into the air and the Nighthawk almost did a nose dive in order to avoid it. The pilot keyed Lt. Wagner's mike as they attempted to reach the drop ship.

"Lt. fires too hot, I see a better LZ further down the beach and in the jungle a bit, I'll pick you up there over." The Lieutenant could understand, if they tried a low level extraction, those rockets would make short work of their only ticket out of there. He complied with the pilot and inspected the beach for their best course of action to reach the new EZ. The beach lacked cover of any sort and it would be an open dash to get to the new EZ and the jungle was teeming with Apes decked out for close quarters combat. He decided that an open dash was the best course of action. He grabbed a smoke grenade from his pack, pulled the pin and lobbed it onto the beach.

"Come on, we need to reach the new EZ! Let's move!" He howled to his men who all nodded and ran for the smoke cloud which was appearing from the small can. As they moved Spyro and Cynder blew fire balls at the apes in the tree line. Even if they didn't hit them, the fire would ignite the trees and force the apes to seek new firing positions. That alone would buy them enough time to get to the new EZ. They moved fast and reached the jungle where they would have to proceed inwards to get to the new EZ.

They moved into the jungle and at once they heard new sounds all around them. As they moved further in, they noticed a Lakador drop ship crashed into the brush. Normally they would have passed this off as a downed craft due to UERNF Ravens, but this drop ship had no external wounds, other then the ones sustained during the crash. This was odd which meant it was an internal problem that sent the craft into the jungle. What it was, wasn't apparent and Wagner wasn't about to stand around all day wondering what it was, for he would soon find out.

They continued to hear more sounds from the trees and that's when they noticed hissing and screeches coming out of the jungle, not something you'd expect from an ape. There was only one suspect then. Several Ape Plague leapt from the jungle. All of them were hideously deformed and bore purple eyes which penetrated your very being with their hatred. Immediately the marines opened fire.

Wagner almost froze like the time back at the crystal chamber but this time, this time he was ready. He ignored the overwhelming feeling of fear washing over him and pulled the trigger of his M74D. The Plague that he had targeted fell over forwards as the .22 rounds passed through its head. Another leapt forward at Wagner and before Wagner knew it, or even felt it; he had unsheathed his combat knife and had placed it in the head of the attacking creature. He felt his heart race as he pulled the weapon out of it's head, releasing a jet of dark energy. He sheathed his knife and raised his rifle.

Spyro slashed his tail, sending an attacking creature into the ground. He finished it off with an earth blast which blew the creature apart. He saw Cynder attacking a Plague. He yelled her name and she saw him and smiled for she knew for what he had in mind. She used her hind legs to catch a Plague behind her and flung it into the air. Spyro caught it with his lightning breath and sent it flying in the air only to be caught once again by Cynder who used her claws to subdue the creature.

Spyro spotted another and summoned an ice shard to impale the creature. Cynder saw the shard land near her with the Plague on it and lifted it out of the ground. She then proceeded to use it as a bat and smacked the Plague around before tossing it into Spyro's electric stream and he then used it to manipulate the creature in mid-air. Cynder then dashed forward, knocking the creature out of his breath wave and onto the ground, silencing it for good.

Karson had tossed his rifle down, for he was out of ammo, and had pulled out his knife. He grabbed a Plague and tossed it down and finished it with a stab to the chest. He saw another making a leap at a Marine, who's back was turned at the time, and Karson released a jet of white hot flames which subdued the creature. Another leapt at Karson and before Karson could react, it was in his blind spot and making an attack which could possibly end Karson's fight. The creature was hit by something in mid-air and was knocked onto the floor. Karson looked up to see Allison clutching her M74D, its barrel smoking from the burst of ammo that had just saved Karson's life. He smiled at her and she returned it before putting another burst of .22 rounds into an attacking creature.

The battle ensued in the same fashion before the last Plague had been killed. Amazingly, none of the Marines had been killed in the melee and they had managed to escape unscathed. They moved farther into the jungle until at last they reached the EZ where the Nighthawk was perched, waiting to accept the battle weary 1st Task Force. They boarded the craft and it flared its jets and was aloft. It ascended above the island and speed over the waters and back to the dragon temple.

The apes watched the Nighthawk disappear from view. They then began to regroup their forces and load their ships to depart the island. One of the apes walked over to the downed Nighthawk. He grabbed a radio and tuned it to a certain frequency. He spoke into the device.

"Sir, they are returning to the temple, they have a crystal." A voice on the other line spoke calmly, much to the surprise of the ape on this side.

"No matter, we will have our revenge either way. Pull your apes out and position them at tall plains. Wait there for my signal." The ape acknowledged the order and then did as the ape said.

The Nighthawk approached the dragon temple and Wagner slumped in his seat. Phase 1 of the plan was a success. Now task force 2 was going to secure the second temple and spell victory for UERMC forces. As they got nearer the pilot keyed the temple to report the news. However they didn't get a response. They kept trying to contact the temple but there was still no response.

"Lt., we aren't getting a response from the dragon temple!" The pilot yelled from the cockpit. Wagner got up and walked into the room, getting the radio transmitter and speaking into it.

"This is Lieutenant Wagner of Task Force 1, Psi Company to any UER forces. Please respond over." There was only static in response. The drop ship neared the temple and it maneuvered to land on the balcony. The ship landed and dropped its ramp. All of the marines piled out and Wagner looked at the balcony with his jaw open.

There were marine bodies strewn across the balcony. Bullet casings lay everywhere and ape bodies accompanied them. Wagner knelt by one of the marines and saw he had died by a sword slash. Most of the other bodies had similar wounds to them. This could only mean one thing: the apes had attacked the temple, in masse.

"What the hell happened here?" Wagner asked as the marines walked up around him. They entered the dojo to find complete destruction. Bodies lay everywhere, marine and ape. Blood splattered the walls and pieces of the statue had come ajar from grenade explosions and bullet impacts. Spyro shifted uneasily when he saw the carnage.

"Sparx? Ignitus?" Spyro called out into the dojo shakily, trembling as he walked forward to the dead marines and to the Pool of Visions on the opposite side of the dojo. The doors slid open and Spyro dashed inside, not even checking to see if the room was cleared or not. Spyro looked around for any hint of life, running through the room in a daze, not even worried if an enemy lay in wait for him. He kept looking around the room and found a cloak. It belonged to Rithul. Next to the Cloak lay several splotches of blood.

There was also an exponential amount of blood on the walls of the room and on the floor. There were several marines in the room as well as apes. The marines lay on the far side of the room, clutching their assault rifles in a final act of defiance towards the apes. Spyro went to one of the pools of blood and sniffed it. A painful realization filled his mind as he realized that he wasn't standing over human blood, but of that of a dragon. Cynder walked up to him and he looked around in a vain attempt to see those he sought.

"Sparx?! Ignitus?!" He called out into the temple again. He darted out of the room and into the halls, looking for any sign of life. Cynder and Wagner gave chase and the rest of the marines inspected the carnage that littered the dragon temple.

Spyro speed through blown out hallways and dead marine and destroyed marine defensive positions. He leapt over holes blown into the temple by marines in a vain attempt to stall the apes.

"Sparx?! Ignitus?! Please answer!" He screamed into the empty halls. He finally stopped in a hallway that had caved in, caused by marines using C-4 to stall the ape advance. He looked around again until Cynder and Wagner caught up to him. Cynder walked up and put her wing on him, knowing what was troubling him.

"I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye..." Spyro said with a bit of quiver in his voice. Cynder closed her eyes and drooped her head to the floor, searching for the right words to tell him.

"Don't worry Spyro, I am sure that they are okay, we haven't checked the whole temple yet, they could be with marines and they could have fought off the apes somewhere." Cynder said with enthusiasm, all the while lifting her head and bringing her green eyes to meet Spyro's purple eyes. She had forgotten how tantalizingly handsome they were, especially with the sheen created with the tears forming in his eyes.

"I am sure Sparx and Ignitus are fine Spyro. Don't you worry about it. Like I said, I am sure that they, and the marines, have fought off the apes and are somewhere in the temple." Spyro finally let out a sigh and began to look at the rubble in front of him. He wondered if they could be on the opposite side of the caved in hallway since the marines had used explosives to seal it off.

Wagner looked at the two dragons and wished that he would say something to cheer Spyro up, but he didn't really know the extent of the relationship the young dragon shared with Sparx and Ignitus so he decided not to say anything. Instead, he walked over to one of the marine bodies. This particular marine was entrenched and was in a good spot to protect the hallway. Then why did this position fall so quickly since there were little ape bodies at the end of the hall. This position was blown away instead of being overrun. At first Wagner suspected a captured grenade until he saw that each of the marines were burned by high yield dark energy.

This was odd for the only weapons that produced dark energy were Lakador weaponry and with his experience with them, they didn't do this much damage. Something must have produced this dark energy, and by the looks of things, it wasn't pretty. Wagner retrieved the dog tags of the fallen soldiers and walked back to Spyro, who was slowly going back with the nudging of Cynder.

They walked through the hallways and Wagner observed just how much damage was caused by the ape's assault. There were obviously no survivors and the apes seem to have come here looking for something. Wagner realized what they were after as they regrouped with the marines in the Pool of Visions.

"Wait the crystal! We need to check the crystal! Sgt. Spears, have your men hold position here while I take the others and scout the crystal room." Spears nodded and they moved into the crystal room which was beneath the dojo. The entered and found it was empty. The crystal was gone, the forces of the ape had conquered the UERMC and all that was left were the Lakadors. Wagner led them back to the surface and they all went to the balcony where Wagner tallied how many men he had with him and tried to assess the situation as best he could.

He had eight UERMC marines, and two pilots with him and two dragons. His current roster consisted of Pvt. Karson, Pvt. Mcfay (Allison), Pvt. Powers, Cpl. Henderson, Pfc. Linburg, Pvt. Karlos, Cpl. Prozjowski, Pvt. Ackmar, and Sgt. Spears. The two pilots were Lt. Bertan and Lt. Prince. The two dragons were Spyro and Cynder of course. He looked around and tried to find out a remedy for situation. The Nighthawk was probably empty, fuel wise, and they were basically stuck here. Wagner figured that they had to still fire the Final Solution and they needed to find a way to get there as well as getting the other crystal.

"Alright here is what we are going to do. We are going to fire the Final Solution, with or without marine support, Linburg, try and raise the Lakador ship and request reinforcements-"as he said this they all heard a rumble and they looked up in the sky and saw another star appear in the sky where the Lakador ship was supposed to be. The nuclear warhead inside of the ship had just detonated, blowing the ship into nothing but pieces of scrap metal which rained down on the forest. The bow of the ship had survived the blast and crashed into the forest, causing a shockwave effect on the mushrooms below.

"Ah shit." Wagner hesitated for a second but recovered. "Alright... forget any support at all. Still, we are the last ones who can stop the armies of the ape and the Plague and this is how we are going to do it. We need to find out what supplies is left and what isn't. Spears get your squad to go and try and find a working vehicle. My squad we are going to make runs to find out what ammo we can find anywhere in the temple. We need to stock up on any type of ammo we can find." Spears nodded and they left to the motor pool that was located in the front of the temple. Wagner led his squad through the halls and towards ammo rooms that they had set up after the Archilles fell.

When they reached the ammo lockers they found most of them still secure and not even touched by the apes. Wagner shot off the locks and they went inside in search for any weapons they could find.

"What are we supposed to be looking for?" Henderson asked the officer.

"Anything we can use, ammo for the shotguns, rifles, anything we can find that would be of some use to us."

"Sir! You might want to come check this out." Powers called out from another locker. Wagner walked over to the locker and saw that it was an HACO locker. It had rifles and other things the Marine Corps didn't use or hadn't issued to the men yet. There were M78C Carbines, a version of the M74D meant to fire .30 cal ammunition rather then .22 and is primarily used by the Army Infantry.

There were also new M23A semi-auto rifles which were also used by the Army Infantry for their marksmen. These rifles could fire a short three-round burst or just a single shot. These were really good for medium to long range targets. Wagner picked up the rifles and passed them out to the men he had with him.

He walked out of the locker and looked to one beside it. He peered inside and found a pleasant surprise. He saw boxes stacked up on each other. Each of them was marked as 'Special Munitions'. It was the experimental ammo that Karson and Allison had retrieved from the wreckage of the Trident. He opened the boxes and found hundreds of clips for the M74Ds, M78Cs, M23As, and the M10 SMGs. He also found about a dozen clips of sniper SM rounds as well.

He ordered the marines he had with him to get as many crates as they could and get prepared to move them. Spyro and Cynder even managed to carry a crate on their backs. Wagner keyed his mike to learn the status of Spear's squad. Spears told him that they had found some vehicles in the motor pool still intact. They found a few Jeeps, one Jaguar MBT, and an APC (Armored Personnel Carrier, or otherwise known as a Halftrack). They also found very little fuel for the Nighthawk and the pilots told them that the Nighthawk had very little in it anyway so they were left with very little options.

They had to accomplish quite a few things with the recourses they had access to. One, they had to get the second light crystal located in Tall Plains. Two, they had to scope out the staging post where Task Force 2 was supposed to be to locate any survivors. Three, they had to locate the Darkmaster and keep tabs on his location in order to coordinate strikes and find a way to defeat him which would be no easy task. And fourth and probably what was going to be challenging, fire the Final Solution and repair the Archilles wormhole generator and get themselves back to UER held space.

The first objective was going to be difficult. Tall Plains was a forest/jungle like environment located on top of plateaus which were elevated several hundred to in excess of one thousand feet above sea level. Obviously they weren't going to get there using an APC or Jeep. Spyro and Cynder could fly up there, but Wagner didn't want them to get separated especially with the ape armies lurking around armed with assault rifles and with the Plague lurking in the shadows as well. They only had 10 active marines left and the last thing Wagner wanted was for them to get separated.

The second objective they could accomplish easily. The Staging Post was only a few hundred yards from their current position and would be easy to get to. The only problem would be locating any survivors. If there were any, they could easily get them back to the temple by means of the APC.

The third objective was one Wagner would prefer they not do. However, they had to find out where the Darkmaster was since the Apes now possessed the means to bring him back. Even though they didn't know for 100% that the apes had taken the crystal, it would be safe to assume they had it and were resurrecting the Darkmaster at this very moment. It would be difficult to track him though since they lacked satellite technology and any air recon, minus Spyro and Cynder. Spyro and Cynder were the only air-borne capable of the group and were their only means of tracking the Darkmaster. It risked them getting separated but if he had to he would have to have them keep an eye out in the skies.

The forth was going to be very difficult but Wagner knew that they were capable of reaching and firing the Final Solution. He also knew that once they did, the Archilles would be free of the Plague and would be open to use. However, they lacked any Navel personnel or anyone with knowledge to power or even fly, for that matter, a UERNF Heavy Destroyer such as the Archilles. Even if they did, they didn't really have the tools to repair their wormhole generator. And know with the Lakador ship lying in pieces somewhere in the mushroom forest, there was very little hope in returning to UER held space.

Wagner sat for a bit and considered their options and recourses. He decided that before they should do anything, they should find any survivors at the staging post. Once they had done that and rounded up all the survivors to a Rally Point since the temple was abandoned and would be prone to more attacks, they would have to assault Tall Plains somehow.

The only way to get 10+ marines up on top of that Plateau would be through a Nighthawk. The only Nighthawk they had was low on fuel and they didn't have much fuel left at the temple. The only place with any fuel at all would be the Archilles, but it had an infestation aboard it and it wasn't a good deal to go up there. But, if they did, they could have an abundance of fuel necessary to get to Tall Plains and back. They would also be able to access technology that could also help them in their endeavors. Wagner considered assaulting the Archilles heavily for a few moments before coming up with a course of action.

They would use the Nighthawk to insert troops into the Archilles and then send a small squad to locate fuel sources and then use the life pods to get out of the ship fast. The Nighthawk would then pick them up and return to the dragon temple where they would be able to use the fuel to get to Tall Plains and back. Then they would use what fuel they had left to get them as far as they could and then jettison the APC along with the crew and continue from there on foot. They would reach the Final Solution and then fire it using the two light crystals. They would deal with the Darkmaster and any other threats as they presented themselves. However, they would have to rescue any survivors of Task Force 2 and then they could launch a strike on the Archilles.

Wagner turned around and then ordered all the men to rendezvous at the motor pool behind the temple. They moved to the pool hefting the crates of ammo and rifles. They reached the motor pool to find it secured by Spear's squad. Wagner ordered the men closer to debrief them on their current situation.

"Well as most of you may know, we may be the last marines in the UERMC fighting here in the dragon realms." Many of the marines shifted uneasily at the mention of this. "The Lakadors have been decimated and I think it would be safe to assume that all support from them is lost. The dragon temple has been cleared of any UERMC personnel and the Staging Post is the only place where UERMC personnel could be. Our first objective is to locate any survivors and get them back here to the temple before they get killed. We should leave immediately to find them so let's get that APC up and running. Spears, your squad will take two Jeeps and escort the APC while my squad proceeds on foot."

"Copy that." The Sergeant replied. They loaded up two jeeps and the APC and drove them off into the forest to where the Staging Post was. They had to maneuver them down the hillside so they could get to where the post was. On the way they came across marine outposts that had been overrun by ape forces. Marines lay dead and battered all across the defensive perimeter. It was odd though; these positions were entrenched and barricaded to prevent a frontal assault which the apes preferred. Many of the marine outposts had been blown up by something. Many of the dead marines had burn marks on them that weren't created by bombs or explosives. They were made by dark energy.

It was puzzling to Wagner though, how 400 entrenched marine and 500+ Lakador forces could be overpowered by this ragtag group of forces, even granted with the Plague, this was a major blow. Then Wagner realized what was happening. All of this had been planned by a higher source. Someone had planned for them to leave the temple and then they would strike it. The Lakadors had to have really been distracted to allow the apes to implant a nuclear device within it. The nuke was most likely from a downed Raven in which they never recovered.

Now all the forces fighting the dark armies of the Darkmaster was a ragtag group of marines and two dragons. It wasn't very good odds, although Wagner had heard tales of how Spyro had beaten back Cynder's forces and the Ape king and how he had defeated the Darkmaster originally. Wagner took hope in the fact that as long as Spyro was an ally, they would have a strong chance against the forces of the Darkmaster and whatever force had allied the Darkmaster, for whoever planned the assault on the dragon temple was powerful and was a brilliant tactician. Someone must have replaced Fang as the leader of the apes and had to be really gifted in military tactics to out maneuver their forces.

Whoever it was, they would have to deal with him and Wagner knew that it wouldn't be pretty. But for now they were on the road to finding Task Force 2, if they even still existed that is. Even so, there could be some things worth salvaging from the Staging Post so maybe it would be worth the trip without any survivors. But it would be a crippling loss since Yahade' and SSgt. Jason were part of Task Force 2. If there were any survivors, he was sure they were amongst them. There was only one way to find out though, and it is to go there and find out.

The APC drove with its jeep and marine escorts down to where Task Force 2 was last reported. They were going into the unknown to face enemies that wanted nothing short of their destruction. They would have to brave vast armies, deadly ambushes, helpful allies, evil foes, and a grueling trek through the forest before this would be said and done.

End of Chapter 19

There you have it, the 19th chapter of the saga. This is truly the beginning, of what, shit I don't know, about 100 gunfights, 100 fist fights, and about as many battles then you can shake an M74D at.

Chapter 20 is underway and I don't really know how much computer access I will obtain in the next few days so don't expect it too fast.