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The route took them safely to their destination without any enemy interference... although Huck did radio several times that day to note that the enemy forces had mobilized and at least - at least... thank frigging Gods... Zerrex thought, almost stunned at this news - over eighty, maybe closer to ninety percent of the Patriarch's forces had begun to move from the enemy encampment. Not so good for Huck, who was throwing a fit... but it meant that they might actually be able to cause a far-more serious amount of damage with their strike force than had been first thought.

It took seven hours of travel to get to the enemy base... one hour of rest in a field near the end of the arc, where Albatross and Zerrex reviewed the enemy movement and held a short meeting over comlink with Huck and Churchill... and then another half hour to reach the point where they had to abandon their vehicles and begin making their way towards what they'd calculated as the exact 'back' of the enemy base. Since all the soldiers were apparently flooding out in the opposite direction, he thought this would be the best method of attack... and from the satellite images they'd received, it looked like Narrius's troops had built up a wooden wall of some sort all around the clearing they'd made. It also looked, however, like they had some kind of special mobile artillery set up at each corner of the base.

The construction of the temples also struck Zerrex as odd... the four stone temples around the largest fifth, deep in the Cradle of Life. Zerrex said he'd take the center temple, then rolled his eyes when Cherry had whined about this and said he only wanted it because it was the biggest and looked the most important. So he'd said that Cherry could attack the center temple, then, and he'd take the one in the upper left quadrant on the map. He frowned a bit though, looking at this smaller temple and wonder when they had been built... even from the satellite images, after all, their construction was different.

On the bright side, even though they had to hike in - and Zerrex decided to only take the Black RED unit in with him, and Albatross only his personal snipers - the other vehicles were able to leave and return to the safety of the field where they'd first camped out, under orders to rest until they were given the attack order, and then they'd move in from the front while the other strike team smashed their way through the back.

The Drakkaren smiled slightly: he always favored a good pincer movement over anything else. Then he shook his head slowly and stretched a bit as he stood and looked back and forth quietly. Now it was night... and he and the others were sitting in a circle around an electric lantern, eating some of the rations they'd brought with them before the next day. The Drakkaren had promised to take first watch... and Cherry would take second, Marina third. The rest of the soldiers would sleep through the night... and Marina was already snoozing away in her bedroll. Thankfully, Huck had foreseen them having an issue with getting the vehicles through the forest... so he'd prepared a metal supply chest for each of the units, which had been loaded with basic supplies and other utilities for them to use, including some food and the low-light lantern they were all clustered around. It was far too dangerous to light a fire in enemy territory, after all... there was no easier way to get yourself detected.

The night passed too fast for the Drakkaren's liking... and the next day, the third day, Zerrex found himself going over the preparations with the others for this final encounter, this final battle that was approaching. He marshaled his soldiers, had them stretch and exercise a bit to be limbered up for any sudden movements, and went over the weaponry the others had as they developed their camp a bit more. But otherwise, they only ended up setting up a large cloth tarp that they all sat under, snipers and Black RED alike, talking and getting to know each other, going over battle plans... discussing what they planned to do once the war was over, but equally aware they may never get that chance.

Most of the day, they sat there, as a light but steady rain fell, Zerrex off to one side and looking up at the canopy as he listened to the sounds of the animals and bugs, talking to Huck and discussing what was happening with Narrius's army and how their own unit was doing. It seemed that the Patriarch's army was setting up their own little encampment, and he had a good amount of vehicles and mobile artillery at the ready... but he was definitely relying almost entirely on infantry and his various other experiments and soldiers, which would work a bit to their advantage, at the least.

Narrius showed no sign of movement at night... and Huck actually staged an ambush using helicopters running as silent as possible, dropping cans of volatile fuel on soldiers, rigged up to timed incendiary explosives: in other words, giant incendiary grenades that torched a good number of the Patriarch's soldiers. Huck noted, however, that four of the dozen helicopters were destroyed... but he hoped grimly that they at least took a large number of enemy soldiers with them, loaded as they were with firebombs.

Zerrex thought it was pretty stupid... but Huck had been smart enough to have his helicopters withdraw the moment the enemy began using magnesium flares to blind the drivers and light up the night, instead of having his helicopters waste the rest of their explosives in attempting to blindly carpet-bomb the opponent. He'd also followed up with long-range artillery fire from Uroboros, targeting Narrius's vehicles and infantry... and even though it had made the positions of the artillery in the capital city obvious and easy targets for retaliation, Huck had pointed out that Narrius would know where all the artillery in the city was placed, anyway, since it had been his capital city. But oddly, he didn't fire back at the city... instead, his soldiers had quickly set up their own magnetic dome which had knocked away the next following barrage of artillery shells like paper balls thrown at a fan.

The night passed: the next day came. And when Zerrex's eyes snapped open, he woke up alert, and ready for battle, somehow knowing that Narrius had just given the order for battle... and unsurprised in the slightest when his radio had given a triple beep, which was the signal that the last battle of his long, hard war had just begun.

Zerrex immediately stood, shouting in a powerful, cold voice: "Get up, everyone up!" as he walked quickly towards the middle of the camp, watching as soldiers jerked from their slumber and Cherry rolled to her feet immediately, her eyes alight with darkness and a savage grin on her face. "Everyone, move, move, move! Mobilize, we got thirty minutes to prepare and get our asses to the first checkpoint!"

Albatross took over for the Drakkaren, waking and rousing the solders, as Zerrex walked over to the corner of their chosen campsite and pulled on his headset, snapping his radio to the other shortwave frequency and saying clearly: "This is the Boss. Code 'Mirror.' It's time for us to play our full hand: you got thirty minutes to mobilize."

Then he flicked to a different channel and said into the microphone, over a clamor of gunfire he could faintly hear in the earpiece: "Greasemonkey, you there?"

"Boss!" yelled Huck, and then he grunted and there was the thud of something heavy, before the Dragokkaren cackled... and Zerrex winced, tilting his head to the side as if slapped as he heard the booming sound of a piston. "Fuckin' bastard, eat that. But god-damn Boss! This is a nasty-ass situation here... Church is marshaling his elites, though, he's going to curve around, attack the reinforcements and vehicle cavalry they got back at their camp, and we're pounding the battlefield with artillery like-" A loud explosion, Huck screeched, then he cursed. "Shit! I got no time to talk, they just-"

Another loud explosion, static... and Zerrex snarled before he heard Huck's loud sigh and a mutter. "Fuckin' bastards got chock-rockets... they're nailing the front of the base with missile fire. Anyway, you go, get your ass moving, and I've already given the order for flight of the Valkyries. Eighty minutes, Boss! That's your timeframe, you fuckin' tightass. Now go bust some heads, huh?"

"Bitch." Zerrex replied mildly, grinning a bit, then he nodded and said easily: "Yeah, just don't get yourself killed out there. Work those guns, soldier." He paused, then clicked off the headset and smiled a bit, then he turned and headed back for his own unit, who were all lined up, Cherry standing a bit ahead at the end of the line and grinning cheerfully at Zerrex: obviously, she'd harassed them into position. They all looked awake and ready though, if nervous... and the Drakkaren smiled slightly at this; he was glad they realized to some extent what they were walking into.

He glanced back and forth over them, then to the next line: Albatross, standing with his own unit, at attention with their hands behind their backs, unlike his more-relaxed front line. The reptile nodded to the one-eyed Dragokkaren, who nodded back with a bit of a smile... and then he looked over them all and said mildly: "I'm not one for speeches, so this'll be brief and simple. We're walking into Hell. We're doing something stupid. We could all possibly die." A short pause, and then he saluted them, standing tall and saying clearly: "You should all be proud."

The soldiers shifted in front of him, and Cherry gave the slightest of nods, as Zerrex smiled again and said firmly: "No matter what else, don't disgrace yourselves. If you stay brave, and fight with everything you've got... then this day is also the day where we will finally end the ambitions of the Patriarch.

"Enough talk though!" Zerrex said briskly, then he beckoned to them and turned, jogging lightly into the forest as he pulled out his GPS and called: "March, soldiers! Wars are won with actions, not words! You know what to do!"

"Sir!" they shouted back, following quickly, and Zerrex grinned as they made their way through the dense undergrowth, all of them equipped and prepared, fully armed, and the Drakkaren producing his magnum and cocking back the slide, the emerald eyes of the reptile burning as he felt that same thrill he'd felt when charging into that mad battle with Iago's army... but oh, wasn't this on a scale so much greater than that?

Twenty-two minutes later, they halted at a plain fortification of wooden logs: the soldiers had indeed built a wall around the entire field they'd cleared out. They stood at one corner of the rectangular wall, underneath a looming steel cannon, all twenty-two - Took us as many minutes as there are soldiers... cool. Zerrex thought mildly, in that part of his brain that never seemed to lock into reality but just rolled cheerfully along with the flow of things - of the beings armed and ready. The lizard looked up at this, then he held up a hand and made a motion with his head down the side of the wall, pushing a finger to his muzzle at the same time: he wanted absolute silence as they moved to a more vulnerable part of the wall.

He checked the environment as they ran along the wall... then paused at a tree, pointed at Albatross, and then tapped the tree. Albatross nodded, and then motioned to one of his soldiers, who quickly holstered his sidearm and produced a pair of gloves from his sidepack, which had small, curved spikes on the palms and fingers. He used these to aid his quick and quiet ascent of the tree, and Zerrex smiled slightly, noting how well the sniper moved, even with the bulky rifle on his back - the eyepatched Dragokkaren had trained his units well.

They repeated this seven times... then halted at a set of logs that were warped and cruder, pointing four fingers out at Albatross and his remaining snipers and motioning for them to head onwards. Then he turned and kneeled at these logs, glancing over them and checking the base, unsurprised to see they were sitting on stone, whereas most of the others had been buried into the dirt. The only thing keeping them standing was the tangled mess of vines... and Cindy immediately set her kwaibar against one of the knots, looking at Zerrex and waiting for the signal with such automatic preciseness that the lizard found himself wondering if she'd been taking lessons from Cherry.

The group stood together, waiting silently, the only sound faint rumblings from within the camp and the scattered calls of animals in the dense jungle... as well as a faint boom here and there from a long distance away, what Zerrex guessed would be some massive artillery shell exploding, perverting the morning air. Seconds passed into minutes... but just as Zerrex noted the rest of his unit beginning to get anxious, there was the sound of yells and gunfire inside the field, and a moment later, a momentous crash and the sound of wooden walls being torn through.

Zerrex nodded curtly, and Cindy chopped through the knot before Zerrex rammed the wooden wall with his shoulder, knocking several of the large, thick logs plummeting down to the earth and crushing two unfortunate soldiers, as the lizard immediately straightened and opened fire on any soldier unlucky enough to step into his sights. Fortunately, it was no issue picking friend from foe: every enemy soldier was uniformed in black armor overtop a black uniform, and all of them looked like Requiem, except for the expressions of shock on their faces and the huge assault rifles in their hands - Requiem never would have had either.

They were still tough, though, taking a few shots from the .60 magnum and barely staggering as they tried to return fire... but the huge, AP rounds the gun fired tore through the thick scales of their heads without much problem, Zerrex noted. Meanwhile, Brute was wielding a semi-automatic riot shotgun on a holster that attached to a harness on his chest that also appeared very effective... although not so strong as the massive double-headed axe he pulled off his back with one hand whenever any opponent attempted to engage him in hand-to-hand.

Bullets flew in every direction, and Zerrex could see soldiers running for tanks and other mobile artillery parked over in one corner of the facility, next to one of the temples: before they could be reached, however, most of them were taken down by sniper fire: one actually managed to get into the tank, but as he was jerking down the hatch, Cherry twisted her body so the rifle harnessed on her back slid off one shoulder and dropped to his side, the femme fatale catching the handle with the stock cradled in her arm against one bicep, leaning down and forwards as she fired the bolt-action rifle once.

The shot bounced off the top of the hatch and ricocheted into the skull of the unfortunate operator, knocking his corpse sprawling into the tank, and the hatch collapsed overtop him with a loud gush of air. The female winced at the kick of the rifle... but then snorted and spun as another soldier approached her from behind, twisting the gun and shoving the hot barrel up into the maw of the enemy, causing him to shriek in pain and stagger backwards, before Cherry snap-kicked the kwaibar he was holding up through his throat.

Cindy and Mahihko were staying back a bit, targeting the soldiers, Cindy's face twisted in a snarl of anger as Mahihko kneeled by her legs, pounding revolver rounds into the unarmored legs of soldiers and letting Cindy finish them off with her semi-automatic rifle: while the wolf kept them at a distance, she nailed them again and again with perfect headshots, her teeth grit, a tear leaking down her face as these replications of Requiem came at the pair again and again.

Marina, meanwhile, was offering support to her father as he holstered a now-empty gun and pulled Blackheart off her back, running towards the temple he was supposed to take out and shouting: "Come on, people! We don't got all day! Time for us to move our asses!"

As he turned his attention over his shoulder, however, a tank rolled out from around the corner of the middle temple, the turret already aimed and pointed - and when Zerrex snapped his attention back, sensing the behemoth machine and his eyes widening, he got the distinct feeling he and his family were specific targets. After all, it was being pounded from the other side by assault rifle fire, and he could hear plenty of screams of pain and even a few explosions here and there... but the tank with its small body - yet ridiculously huge turret - was definitely focused only on him.

Marina, however, was still running beside him, and she grunted as she pushed her hands outwards firmly, throwing a mental wave of force at the tank and knocking it onto its side, the cannon firing a moment later and cracking the turret, the machine giving a few broken clanks as the operators inside yelled and smoke boiled up from the bottom of the machine.

The Drakkaren nodded his thanks to her, then changed direction as he swept Blackheart outwards in a hard slice, cutting apart a Super Enforcer that tried to engage him with a kwaibar. He grinned at the flow of blood that splattered over his muzzle as he ducked low, pulling the sword through and sweeping it out to bat another hard into the ground as he charged towards the temple, watching as the copies sprinted towards him: they were faster than the last ones he'd fought, and obviously a bit more skilled... but still a far cry from Requiem.

He flung his sword hard outwards at another Enforcer, leaving a chain of dark energy attached to it as he skidded to a stop and used the momentum to spin on his heel and snap the sword in hard, wide cyclone. As he expected, however, the wide, flashy tactic only cut through a few of the enemies attempting to close in on him: many of the other Enforcers immediately dropped to the ground.

It did, however, allowing him to charge onwards, leaping over several of the soldiers in front of him as he snapped his wrist and brought Blackheart back to his hand, catching it and then easily halving another Enforcer in a spray of blood and gore, then finally reaching the base of the temple, charging up the wall of the step pyramid as soldiers dropped their kwaibars and went for their guns, Zerrex zigzagging as he ran for the small, square structure at the top of the pyramid.

The Drakkaren snapped Blackheart onto his back again, then he leapt forwards with a grunt as bullets pounded into the ground behind him, skidding on his stomach over the plateau of the pyramid, through the open archway of the temple, and half-flipping to land awkwardly on his back, his legs kicking out into... empty space.

A moment later, the Drakkaren was falling into a long tunnel, his arms flailing as he gritted his teeth, eyes bulging as he looked down a long, dark shaft with horror, before he managed to snap his arms outwards and send out two large hooks of dark energy cutting into the wall and slowing his descent as flakes of metal hailed down around him. He winced and grit his teeth as he felt his arms stretch and his muscles bulge... but it did save him from breaking his legs when he hit the ground.

The Drakkaren let himself sink down a bit, the strings of dark energy lengthening... then he paused, jerking on one and making sure it was hooked tight into the wall, and let the other dissolve so he could grab the remaining rope of dark matter with both hands. He winced, then slowly lengthened it to lower himself, as he glanced down and only hoped he'd reach the bottom of the shaft before too long.

Outside, Marina was heading for the temple in one of the lower quadrants, on the same side as the one her father had selected for his attack. She had an assault rifle she'd stolen from one of the enemy Enforcers up at the shoulder, and was currently running in low with four of the other assault team backing her up and Light Voice beside her offering support fire. She paused, then snarled and spun as she detected something with her strange psychic sensors, twisting immediately and firing the single grenade in the attached launcher on the rifle, blowing apart the mounted gun on the back of a combat jeep and killing the soldier who had been in mid-leap to arm the huge machinegun.

Cindy and Mahihko had begun making their way towards their own temple, the two working in tandem, covering each other and supported by a few of the other Black RED - specifically Little Sin, Rayne, and Damien, the latter two wielding submachine guns with plain metal stocks, laser sights, and ugly, short barrels. The dog was using his with one hand, his accuracy mostly horrible... but Rayne was much-more efficiently wielding his gun with both on burst fire mode instead of full-automatic.

Little Sin, on the other hand, was keeping herself invisible, her handgun holstered at her side, using instead a bowgun with conical, deep-tearing metal tips, the female surprisingly efficient with the silent weapon and reloading, cocking, and aiming the gun in one swift movement. She was still much slower... but her shots were almost always lethal, and her invisibility left her a nearly-impossible target in the heat of battle.

That left only Cherry, who was already scrabbling up the wall of the central temple, grabbing the steep steps of the enormous pyramid and grunting as she flung herself to the side every now and then, to catch a hanging ledge or stone outcropping and use that to swing herself higher, or just to evade the occasional bullet or burst of shots.

She snapped her whip off her side - and it felt so damn good in her hand, to use it again! - before lashing it upwards towards one of the top corners of the pyramid, and it wrapped tightly around the neck of a Dragokkaren idol, the hermaphroditic female immediately kicking off the side of the pyramid, then running quickly along the steps in a wide arc, one arm out at her side and the other tightly grasping the whip as she grinned darkly, heavy metal boots pounding against yellow carved stone before she twisted her body forwards and rolled onto the top of the temple, at the same time flicking her wrist and loosening the whip from around the neck of the statue.

She paused for a moment on this high plateau, looking at the plain wooden and stone shrine that sat in the middle of the plateau atop the huge pyramid... and then she flexed her legs, took a few steps forwards, and simply jumped. One hand reached out, snagged an outcropping as she jackknifed her body and kicked herself up, and she landed easily on the bamboo roof of the shrine, more than twenty feet up, her boots crunching footholds into the hard rooftop as she let herself fall forwards, catching herself on the sloped roof. She winced a bit as the bamboo sticks vibrated against her body, then slowly dragged herself up the supple rooftop to snag the base of the stone idol that sat at the top and carefully pull herself onto the base, hearing support pillars groan under her weight as she rolled her whip back up at her side idly.

From his point, she could see everything going on below... watched as several fireballs rose into the air, barrels launching upwards like rockets before slowly falling back to the ground in crumpled heaps - someone had just bombed the fuel supply. There were a few planes here, too, and these were currently being secured... and she noted that some of Albatross's snipers had moved forwards.

Since Zerrex was nowhere in sight, she assumed he was already in his temple... Mahihko and Cindy were slowly ascending the stairs and using their height to their advantage to tap headshots off on the Black Rogues trying to stop them... Marina was just disappearing into her own temple... and several soldiers were currently flooding up the last one, maybe ten of them, while a good two dozen other members of the surprise force were causing all manner of havoc in the enemy ranks. It also helped that the plow-headed transports were able to run through entire groups of enemies and simple crush the life out of them... and one had also cornered a tank, hitting it in the vulnerable side and holding it in place as the operator tried uselessly to turn the turret, but the long cannon bumping against the side of the metal shield uselessly and aimed otherwise at the center temple.

Cherry nodded a bit, then quickly checked the timer she had in her pocket and cursed a bit; they were running short on time. She snorted, then blinked when she felt the supports and bamboo groan and buck a bit under her weight... then she let out a surprised screech as the roof gave in and she fell through, straight down into the open tunnel of the lift and cursing herself for her complacency on the damned rooftop.

As she fell through the air, her body revolved, some of her gear spilling out... and then she closed her eyes, forcing her body to right itself, and then flexing her muscles as she expanded in size and muscle, teeth growing large, the fins shoving their way out between her scales. Soon, she could feel burning friction as her body rubbed the sides of the tunnel on her fall down, feeling distinctly like a giant bullet... before she brought both arms up in front of her and slammed them into walls, and a leg in front and behind her, halting her fall and giving a variety of curses at the pain it caused her... but then sighing in relief as she found herself at least no longer on a crash-course for the ground.

A pause, and she checked the sidepack on her back, which she'd double-secured... and it was still closed and secured, which was also cause for relief before she let herself begin sliding down slowly, wondering idly if anyone else was doing as badly as she was.

Zerrex, on the other hand, had just managed to reach the bottom of his own long tunnel into the ground, combat boot-clad feet gently touching the ground as he held up a hand and the hook snapped out of the wall above him, the dark essence flowing back into him as he winced a bit and rolled his shoulders slowly. It had taken far too long for his liking to get down... he only hoped the ride up would be faster. Otherwise, I'm going to have to speed things up somehow...

He shook his head slowly as he stood on a dark lift, then glanced up at the heavy, closed shutter in front of him, and he sighed in relief as he saw a plain button. A press of this, and the doors slid open... and Zerrex frowned as he stepped slowly out into a strange, open hall filled with genetics capsules... every one of them containing a Super-Enforcer.

The hall was long and fairly wide, with a red carpet maybe twenty feet or so wide going from the shutter doors to the end of a hall, where a short set of stairs led to a small, angled platform and a currently-open vault door, beyond which Zerrex thought he could see all manner of monitors and measuring equipments. The capsules were all set in rows of four on the plain cement floor on either side of the red carpet, stretching up to the ceiling and with odd collections of metal arms and wires in the tops of all of them, and columns of who-knew how many... but the huge capsules numbers at least a hundred, and most likely more.

And near the center of the room stood a single Super-Enforcer, except this one was armed only with the plain, bamboo spear that Requiem had always favored... and he wore no armor, only a pair of uniform pants. He was tattooed with a barcode on his left breast, and another stamp on the right said 'PHASE-3C.'

The two looked at each other, then Zerrex snorted as he drew Blackheart off his back, holding the enormous sword easily in one hand as he walked a few feet into the room and looked at this expressionless soldier, the Drakkaren cocking his head and saying darkly: "What, they think one of you is enough to stop me?"

"The Phase-Bs still have glitches," The soldier replied quietly, but his voice was somehow empty at the same time; it made it easier to bear that Zerrex would have to go through this all again with Requiem. "I'm a perfect soldier, a perfect replica. The real elite version that's currently in preproduction."

"A prototype." Zerrex snorted, looking disgusted as he glanced away, then back up at the Dragokkaren, shouldering Blackheart and saying coldly: "Well, I'm afraid you still ain't nothin' special."

Instead of answering, the not-Requiem flipped his spear around and stabbed it into the ground, set himself, and locked his fingers together as he bowed his head forwards, as if praying, body straight. Zerrex's eyes widened in shock, and for a moment he was too stunned to move, before Drake shouted in his head: If that move is that bad news, don't let him use it! Go and interrupt the bastard!

Goddammit! Zerrex snarled as he charged forwards, watching the supersoldier take a slow breath in... and then his sapphire eyes opened, and they were cold, analytical and emotionless... and Zerrex winced and leapt backwards, a sudden thrust of the spear missing him only by inches as his combat boots skidded over the carpet and tore the silky fabric. He snarled, lowering his body slightly and taking his sword into both hands, his eyes flashing darkly; the Dragokkaren had moved so fast, with such grace that he hadn't even seen him pick up the spear, only the pause before the thrust as his instincts had screamed at him.

"So you can use all Requiem's combat techniques, too." Zerrex said softly, then he straightened, holding his huge sword ready as he glared angrily at this mockery of his uncle and mentor. "Don't think knowing some tricks makes you a real warrior, though! You might know the moves, but it sure as hell doesn't mean you can use them properly!"

The problem, of course, was that the enemy did have the right body, right strength, right dexterity... and it was just a matter of synchronizing body and brain into working together. He didn't know how well a replication without too much practice under his belt would be able to harness his powers, but the Drakkaren had already been shocked once by the bastard using nothing less than Death Focus, so he didn't want to take that chance again.

As they looked at each other, Zerrex did realize he had one advantage, when the Dragokkaren only slowly set himself into a combat position instead of rushing him. He didn't understand what he'd just done, and how it affected the body... and that could give the Drakkaren the edge he needed to break through this fight quickly, and without wasting too much energy. If he could lead the Super Enforcer around for a few minutes, and then land one solid blow against him, he could knock him out of the fight... but he couldn't screw up, or there would be hell to pay.

The Death Focus was one of Requiem's most secret combat abilities, and had taken him years of meditation and training to develop: it involved focusing one's body energy and forcing every muscle in the body to tense, flex, and work at its full power, while hardening one's physical form against any and every type of attack. It was a mix of iron robe and brutal fist techniques from the old ages... and thus the cost of using it was also very high.

Since the Death Focus also geared down or eliminated entirely pain, a fighter using it wouldn't always notice their wounds... and worse, when the Death Focus ended - especially after excessive use - the pain of torn muscles, damaged body, and all the wounds they'd sustained over the course of the conflict all came down at once on the user. Therefore, it was supposed to be used only for short periods of time during emergencies.

And it was possible to 'knocked out' of the Death Focus, by a singular hard strike that inflicted either massive damage... or knocked the air from an enemy's lungs. The Drakkaren snorted as he prepped himself for the latter, focusing in on the enemy's stomach... but with that damned spear, it could be difficult to get in close.

Then the supersoldier leapt forwards, stabbing viciously outwards with the spear, and Zerrex whipped his head to the side before slapping the spearhead into the ground with Blackheart's flat, when the not-Requiem attempted to smack him in the side of the face with it. A giant hand immediately sailed at him, reaching to grab his skull... and Zerrex ducked, the Dragokkaren's fingers seizing only on air, before he sent one hard boot into the shin of the Super Enforcer.

The attack might as well have missed: instead of flinching, the supersoldier only leaned forwards and kicked Zerrex hard in the back, sending him flying across the room, the Drakkaren snarling and feeling Blackheart sail from his grip before he hit a capsule hard enough to crack it, then he fell to the floor with a grunt and immediately rolled onto his stomach, looking up to see the Dragokkaren charging forwards... and the Drakkaren snapped a hand upwards, a chain of dark energy boiling out of his wrist, before he swung it viciously outwards.

The not-Requiem leapt to the side however, easily evading... and Zerrex grinned as he snapped the whip into the ground, using the extra few moments to jump back to his feet and the dark energy colliding with Blackheart's blade, before he jerked back and caused the sword to fly off the ground and flip through the air towards him.

As it snapped by the Dragokkaren, he attempted to stop it, but instead only ended up with a cut on his arm that caused him to stumble headlong into another capsule with a grunt. He definitely didn't have the reflexes of the real Requiem... and the Drakkaren caught the sword easily as the rest of the dark essence spread back into his body, holding the huge sword tight between his hands before charging forwards and swinging the giant blade downwards, smashing capsules apart and rending the experiments inside to pieces, strange liquids pouring out of every shattered genetics pod as the lizard grinned viciously at the Dragokkaren.

The supersoldier immediately ran forwards as well, then lashed out with its spear as Zerrex ducked and dropped Blackheart, suddenly putting on a burst of speed and as he dropped low and slid under the bamboo pole of the spear, twisting halfway around and slamming an elbow into the Dragokkaren's gut.

The supersoldier staggered backwards, his air wheezing out of his lungs, eyes bulging as Zerrex looked up at him coldly, his elbow still extended, watching the Super Enforcer fall to his knees, dropping the bamboo spear and gasping for breath between loud wretches, his body trembling violently... and then his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he fell forwards onto his face, slumping and twitching on the ground. Dead or unconscious or comatose, it made no difference... and Zerrex looked down at the soldier mildly before saying softly: "And that's why we think carefully before we use our strongest abilities..."

He shook his head a bit, turning to pick up Blackheart, before approaching the control chamber down the hall. Up the few steps, and through the vault door... and Zerrex found himself standing in a room full of control computers and monitors that displayed everything from other temples - he couldn't help the disgust he felt when he saw the others all in their own battles with the supersoldiers, at the way Narrius had turned his own brother into a manufactured toy - and even the war that was going on at the rebel base.

The reptile looked slowly over these different computers... then through the glass in the center wall of the hexagon-shaped control terminal, directly across from him. Inside, he could see some sort of heavy-duty generator... and the Drakkaren smiled coldly at this as he reached behind him and snagged the sidepack containing the special satchel charge Huck had designed. By itself, it would be enough to blow up the entire room behind him... but the reptile wanted to do the most damage possible. Genetics capsules could be easily replaced... a bit more difficult, however...

Zerrex drew his hand back, then he punched a hole in the glass, letting in the whirring, loud sound of the generators, before reaching down and opening the sidepack, tapping a few buttons to give himself a minute to escape... but pausing before arming it, his eyes instead floating to the different monitors. He couldn't deny the sadness he felt at watching a brigade of ten soldiers simply form a firing line and mow down one of the supersoldiers - Super Enforcer or not, it still looked like Requiem... and no lone warrior deserved to die in a barrage of gunfire, enemy or not.

The others, however... they all were doing him proud, fighting the not-Requiems one-on-one. Well... alright. Cherry was actively abusing her size-control power and literally chasing the Dragokkaren around, cackling and smashing capsules with the fins on her arms, which made him roll his eyes... and Marina was toying with her own Super Enforcer using her telekinetic powers, knocking him off his feet every time he tried to charge and putting a bullet into his head - the scales too thick and the caliber of her gun too small for the weapon to do any serious damage - but at least Cindy was making him proud... and he softened as he watched this.

Cindy, of course, wasn't just fighting to show off to Mahihko, who was standing by the door: she was fighting to honor both her father and Requiem, as she snarled and slapped both arms of the Dragokkaren wide when he tried to grab her, then stepped forwards and slammed two palms into his masculine breast. The supersoldier staggered backwards with a grunt, arms pinwheeling before he leapt into the air and attempted to kick off her with both feet... but Cindy immediately dropped her hands, catching his feet and then throwing upwards, and the not-Requiem half-flipped, limbs flailing in the air before he smashed down on his face.

Immediately, Cindy stepped forwards, slammed a heel down on the cervical vertebrae in his neck, and twisted her foot as she closed her eyes and looked away, shattering the neck of the Dragokkaren and causing him to gag and spasm weakly once, before his eyes turned glassy and he slumped on the ground. She lowered her head... then silently rubbed at her face before saying quietly to Mahihko: "Come on. We gotta plant the bomb."

She stepped carefully around the body of the fallen soldier, then over the bamboo pole she'd snapped with her bare hands the first time he'd tried to stab her with it... and shook her head slowly as she approached the empty control chamber at the head of the console, slipping a GPS out of her pocket with a small timer attached to it, glancing down and making a bit of a face: the others would have to hurry up, since there were only around five minutes left... they'd have to arm the explosives at zero, and then run like hell for the lift and take it up. It would be easier to go up than down, at least... they wouldn't have to climb maybe a kilometer down into the earth by whatever means necessary.

She paused however, looking at the different cameras and seeing her father raise a hand in one... and both she and the wolf smiled a bit and waved back in an almost-synchronized motion, Cindy looking down almost shamefully. A moment later, however, her eyes settled instead on the satellite images of the war... and she wondered how Huck was doing.

The Dragokkaren, of course, wasn't having the most fun time attempting to keep the base secure, the battle continuing to rage below as he manned the railgun and used that to take down Titans: there were at least a dozen of them, all of them stomping easily through anything but concentrated rocket fire... and a few of them wearing such heavy metal armor built into their bodies that even that was blocked. He was sweating, he was terrified... and he hated how many of his people were dying. They had more than half a million soldiers on this battlefront alone, compared to the estimated two-fifty thousand of the enemy... but the Patriarch's troops were ruthless, and no matter how often they hit them with barrages of artillery fire or dropped firebombs on them from above with helicopters, they somehow always found a way to counter.

It was horrifying... and he had reports that most of Churchill's special unit, which had broken off from the rear wave that was currently bracketing the enemy forces, had been butchered by some sort of anti-infiltration mine: short-range, but devastating... and apparently designed to register genetic signals. Narrius's forces had passed harmlessly over them... but Churchill's GA had been obliterated... and the rest of his forces mopped up by tanks and armored jeeps equipped with heavy machine guns. The soldiers that hadn't been killed outright had been left as prey for caged monsters wearing electric control collars released by Super-Enforcers clad in special handling gear... and in many cases eviscerated or eaten alive.

Sure, they had the numeric advantage... but Narrius was using weapons that even harnessed plasma as an ammunition source, Black Rogues in heavy armor sitting on the backs of oversized, twisted monstrosities and blasting enormous blue rounds that exploded after drilling into armor plates and releasing superheated plasma, immediately causing any metal plating it hit to become brittle and useless. They had already destroyed the shield generators, so that killed Huck's idea of turning the magnetic field back on to get a short reprieve... they were in this for better or worse, now.

"Arm the rocket unit and blast the giant dog fucker on three!" Huck shouted into his microphone, as his engineers reloaded the railgun and he took aim at another giant clad in heavy, golden plate armor. "Come on people... one... two..." A blast rattled the base. "Three!"

Five Dragokkaren Children immediately stood up from their hiding spot in a quickly-dug second trench with the massive, clip-loading rocket launchers - 'chock rockets' in Huck's terms, because the missiles were small and could be fired fairly quickly, but packed a huge punch using concussive vibration waves - on their shoulders, and all of them fired in one smooth burst before ducking and working the lever on the side to clank in another rocket. The small missiles flew forwards, twisting and curling aside one another, before all of them collided with a Titan that had been storming forwards and knocking it down with a loud howl of agony; at the same time, Huck blasted another Titan in the face with the railgun, the enormous steel girder tearing through the goliath's chest and causing it to stagger backwards, before it slowly fell to the side, blood and gore hailing down like a rainstorm upon the other soldiers present.

The corpses of the Titans crushed at least another few dozen soldiers beneath their enormous bulk... and formed a temporary wall for the moment in the battered desert field, as Huck shouted into his headset: "Quick! Mortars, do your duty!"

Three dozen soldiers along the trench leapt up and out into the battlefield into no-man's land in the short lull while the ever-efficient Black Rogues brought ahead two heavily-armored 'Grim Hearses' - massive transports that were covered in duraflex, steel, and domed titanium armor, with huge, clear-metal plow-shields curving up in front of their faces... with shielded gatling gun turrets on the tops and of each and more than six other heavy cannons sticking out of the sides of the heavily-armored vehicle - and attached chains from these into the dead bodies of the Titans, so they could continue to pummel the rebel base with rocket fire from the trench. It also had interrupted the current charge of the enemies, giving several of the wounded rebels time to run back to the trench.

They only had a few moments, but the remaining thirty-six of the original hundred or so mortar operators - they'd already suffered a total of twenty percent casualties, possibly more - took the chance to angle their weapons forwards and fire off a quick rain of death over the giant corpses, hailing high-grade explosive rounds onto the enemy forces. Huck grinned coldly, then snarled as he saw both Grim Hearses still moving - the fucking things were nearly invulnerable! "Shit, withdraw!"

The soldiers immediately did so, grabbing their small, portable explosive launchers as they slipped through small holes in the wall of sandbags, lumber, corpses and razorwire, before picking up assault rifles as both giant's corpses were dragged to the sides, and another wave of soldiers once more began to move forwards. Huck cursed under his breath as he saw Legionnaire Tanks approaching with this wave of Enforcers: these were older models originally used by the Hez'Ranna GA, but the glint of the striped black and tan armor told him they had definitely been newly-armored.

They were the simplest form of aggressive mobile artillery that Hez'Ranna had developed: basically, a huge, flat body with a spiked, flat front and spiked, metal treads that allowed it to travel through and over almost any type of terrain. It also had a long, almost dragonfly-shaped body, with a large, heavy gate on the back for unloading troops - and it could carry up to twenty soldiers packed into those quarters, armament and all. The downside of the huge tank was that it only had one weapon: the gigantic 50/30mm over-and-under double-artillery cannon on top, capable of launching explosive projectiles from the upper cannon and single-shot armor-piercing rounds from the one positioned just underneath.

Huck muttered under his breath, an eye twitching... then a beep went off, and he glanced down at his watch before snorting and grinning with a sigh of relief. "Oh fuck, that couldn't've come at a better time..." A pause, and then he tapped his headset as he snagged the railgun and took aim at one of the Grim Hearses, deciding to see if this would put an end to it at least as he shouted: "Cry havoc!"

"Release the hounds of war!" came the response, and a roar went up from below as every shutter slid open on the base and soldiers ran out onto the balconies and into the openings with huge, green cylinder rocket launchers... but when they fired, it shot a strange, clear tube instead of a missile that exploded upon contact... and bathed the area for meters around where it hit in the hellfire of white phosphorous, many of the approaching Super Enforcers breaking rank and running, a few of the tanks stalling and even exploding as the sheer heat set off the artillery shells inside of them, chunks of steel flying into the air.

From the private airfield of the former Lord Hellabos, nineteen helicopters rose up, all of these carrying soldiers in heavy thermal armor and barrels of firebombs - their only truly devastating weapon, all of them knowing it was likely a suicide mission - bombing the rear half of the enemy forces - but all also willing to give their lives if it would even give a chance of winning the battle. And this time, they would be supported by other forces, at least; from Uroboros, the thirty VTOL jets that Huck had managed to repair and requisition with his mechanics started up and lifted into the air, twenty of these immediately breaking off to fly towards a different target: Paradise.

Zerrex too, heard the cry in his own headset... and he grinned coldly before arming the satchel charge and throwing it into the generator room, which was filled with those strange, spinning cylinder turbines and other weird, likely dangerous-chemical-filled capsules. He immediately turned and ran, heading for the lift: and at the same time, on all the cameras, the others were doing the exact same, as Zerrex tapped his headset and shouted: "X one minute! Strike force, secure the VTOL jets and the main entrance! Claymore, move in position!"

"Sir!" came multiple responses, and then Zerrex slid into the lift, hitting the button to close the doors and hammering the control panel for the simple mechanism... and then wincing as the lift moved with surprisingly high-velocity, causing him to stagger and fall to a kneel on the floor with a wince.

The lift rose rapidly... and Zerrex muttered as he watched his timer, wincing and cursing under his breath as he looked nervously up at the top of the long shaft... and then staggering to his feet and charging off the pyramid, stumbling and almost falling down the steps before leaping down as the timer hit five seconds, landing and crushing an Enforcer beneath his weight at three... then simply charging through the other stunned Super-Enforcers before leaping and hitting the ground, covering his head as the Dragokkaren started to raise their rifles... before the ground rumbled and rocks flew as all five temples sent up gouts of flame like the candles of an oil rig, stones and concrete flying, the pyramids cracking and yellow chunks flying in every direction as soldiers yelled in horror and fled, covering their faces as Zerrex felt a wave of heat pass over his body - along with some sizeable pieces of debris.

The Drakkaren immediately shoved himself up to his feet and watched as smoke poured into the sky, debris still hailing down around him as he watched the dark clouds spill up into the air. And he could see Paradise looming closer to inspect what had happened, watched as light glinted and refracted off the huge metal hull of the enormous floating fortress... and now Super Enforcers were running all directions, often abandoning weapons and screaming about 'mission failed, mission failed!' as they clawed at their own skulls, and the Drakkaren snorted, looking coldly over these former enemies: whatever else, it looked like their programming still had a few fatal flaws.

But Zerrex could also see the strike team at the entrance preparing the claymore... and he watched as Albatross and his snipers ran into the now-ruins of the former enemy encampment. Albatross would take care of the claymore... Zerrex, on the other hand, had more pressing matters to tend to, as he ran towards the few VTOL in the corner of the facility, and watching Cindy, Mahihko and Marina all charging off to arm and jump into the huge anti-air cannons at the four ends of the facility.

Cherry, on the other hand, was also sprinting toward the VTOLs... and she grinned widely at Zerrex, shouting: "Hey Boss, this is fuckin' insane, you do know that right?"

"It's what I do best!" Zerrex shouted back, then he watched as Cherry easily vaulted into the open cockpit of one... and the Drakkaren jumped on the back, using Drake's dark essence to glue himself to the top of the plane as he crouched on it, and Cherry rapidly tapped in the sequences needed to gear up the plane, the cockpit sliding back and closing with a pneumatic hiss. They could already hear the rebel planes approaching rapidly... but at least they wouldn't be mistaken for an enemy fighter with Zerrex riding around on top of the goddamn thing.

The Resistance planes had also all been painted with different stripes on the wings, and the Double Standard erased from them... and Zerrex paused to lean over and cut an X through this on either side of the plane with a short blade of dark essence. A moment later, the jet kicked into gear and began to slowly rise, Zerrex's hair whistling around his head, knowing already he was seriously going to regret this... but at the same time grinning coldly as he heard Albatross shout: "Fire!"

There was a burst of sound and pneumatics... and then Zerrex watched as the drill missile sailed up through a dark band of smoke and into the bottom corner of paradise, the Drakkaren staring up and watching sparks fly as the missile impacted... before Albatross cursed under his breath and snagged a rifle from the back of one of his snipers, tearing the plain semi-automatic off his back and dropping to one knee as he cocked it up on his shoulder, dropping an eye to the scope and taking aim quickly, as Zerrex realized that something had gone wrong, the charge had disconnected from the fuse or something... but Albatross remedied this issue with a single, perfect shot that almost knocked the blue-scaled Dragokkaren over and once more proved his name and fame as the greatest sniper Hez'Ranna had to offer.

The bomb exploded as the bullet smashed into the base of the explosive, hitting a pressure-pad that had activated once the specially-designed missile had been launched. The world shook with the vibration, and Paradise itself rocked... before Cherry kicked the VTOL into full gear and shot into the air with cackle as she affixed her headset with one hand and used the other to steer the jet, breaking out of a cloud of black smoke as a full twenty other support planes flew into view, yelling: "Oh fuck yeah! Look at that, Boss! Look!"

Paradise was tilting... listing to the side... and explosions and huge clanks sounded from deep within the machine as some alarm whirred loudly enough for them to be able to hear it even from here; from the open hangar door on the side of the machine, planes rolled out and fell uselessly like dead bugs to smash into the ground below. And Zerrex grinned as he watched this, feeling victory finally at hand as Cherry circled into the air, and the cannons below whirred into life and rotated towards the falling fortress.

Narrius snarled as the ground beneath him bucked... then began to slope, the huge Dragokkaren skidding a few feet down towards a terminal as the central control room jerked and bucked, electricity shooting over the main computers before he snagged one end of the central 'control box,' which was really just a massive holographic table that the AI systems all reported to. "What the fuck is going on?" he roared furiously, as scientists rolled past him on a floor that was now tilted more than forty-five degrees to the side... but the only response he got was the scream of static as the projection lights in the table sputtered on and off, all the monitors displaying either static or error messages.

Finally, one of the techs - still seated in his bolted-to-the-floor-chair answered in a terrified voice: "Sir! The port-side magnetic propulsion system has taken massive structural damage from some sort of explosive charge... the generator running all of quadrant three is damaged and quadrant four went into stasis mode to prevent an overload... I... the pilots are attempting to circumvent the problem right now-"

"What about the planes? What about the fucking planes?" Narrius snarled, then he grunted, his claws digging into the side of the table as Paradise rumbled, and someone else screamed that they had started to lose altitude. "Shut the fuck up and fix it then, you piece of shit! And get the planes launched!"

"Fifty percent of the fleet have already fallen out of the hangar doors, most of them have gone into dead falls and crashed on the ground below... sir, sir, we can't control the systems, some sort of shock has destroyed the entire mainframe!" Called another voice, and Narrius's ruby eyes burned with fury before the scientist added in a strangled tone: "Damage reports on all fronts... any fragile circuitry that wasn't insulated against electromagnetic discharge has been severely compromised... our scientists are only able to do so much, work on so many things manually..."

Narrius's eye twitched angrily... then he shouted furiously: "Get the planes launched, get the weapons ready, and repair whatever you can! Get the booster systems back in place, use the fucking thrusters to realign and start moving us towards that goddamn piece of shit rebel base... and activate the Forbidden Tree and Apple of Eden!"

"But sir, Godsmite isn't complete, it'll kill-" A technician began to protest, and Narrius glared at him furiously before simply pointing and snarling, and immediately the scientist shrieked and tried to cower... but too late, as Narrius's Unseen guards leapt forwards, clawing their way up the sloped floor like savage beasts before tackling the unfortunate technician and ripping him limb-from-limb, his blood splattering the floor and terminal as another scientist screamed and fell out of his chair to roll down the floor.

Narrius, however, had already left, ripping open the electric doors and leaving two broken, twisted hulks behind him, then sliding smoothly down the hall as he tore his until-then pristine suit jacket off and threw it furiously down, ripping his tie from his collar as he grimaced and all but frothed, his eyes burning red suns as he bore his teeth in a vicious snarl. If the rebels wanted to play hard, he would play hard... no more games, no more fucking around. Now, they would face the wrath of his mightiest weapon and they would be exterminated... and he didn't care how many innocents or soldiers of his own army had to go down with them.

Planes circled the huge metal bulk of Paradise, weaving here and there, jets unleashed short bursts with their twin machine guns that only dented the thick armor of the huge machine but tore apart visible weapon turrets, Cherry grinning darkly as she circled the listing machine once before she grunted and jerked the gearstick hard, the jet rocking with turbulence as shutters slid open on one side of the bottom of the enormous floating fortress and old-fashioned rocket boosters came into play, lifting the gigantic machine slightly as the other side slowly began to drop. At the same time, another hangar opened... and several jets rolled out, sailing into the open air, then the VTOL boosters kicking in and causing them to hover for a moment before they shot forwards.

Cherry was impressed, to say the least: the enemy pilots had cool heads to be able to use a rollout trick like that. She grinned slightly as she armed her guns and immediately took off after one, muttering into her headset: "But them fuckers ain't good enough, either... let's play some chicken, Boss."

"Got it. Play fox, Cherry, then spin me onto one." Zerrex replied calmly, pulling Blackheart off his back and keeping the huge sword at the ready as the other fighters began to engage the enemy jets, circling and evading here, spinning towards each other before slipping gracefully by within several feet of each other there. The Drakkaren grinned, eyes aching, hair whipped back by the wind and terrible pressure... but loving it all the same, as he leaned forwards, using Drake's essence to form a translucent shell over himself and spare some of the wind damage as they tore into the fray, Cherry immediately locking onto one enemy fighter and bringing the jet immediately right onto his tail.

The enemy plane tried to shake her, dodging left and right... then going into a barrel roll before diving, Cherry following his exact movements as Zerrex clung tightly onto the top of the plane. The only time the Drakkaren diverted course was to make a quick duck towards the trees, then suddenly jerk her joystick back to climb, climb, climb, and the missiles that had been following them smashed instead into the forest and exploded harmlessly.

Again, she sought out her target, fired a volley of machinegun rounds over the head of the plane and caused him to immediately spin off to one side, towards Paradise, and another enemy plane that was flying headlong towards them. Cherry, however, only grinned viciously, hammering a button and turning the lock off the missiles as she muttered: "Too fuckin' easy."

She fired, and the rocket flew straight over the other plane, almost scraping the paint from one wing; at the same time, she pulled up, climbing quickly and sailing over the explosion below her, the missile hitting the second enemy plane directly and turning it into a ball of fire, metal fragments flying in all directions. Meanwhile, the plane they had been following had dropped, and the driver likely thought he was safe... before Cherry's shadow loomed over him and she flipped upside down, Zerrex snapping an arm down and sending out a chain of dark energy, hooking into the hull of the other plane before dropping and landing heavily on the jet, causing the entire war machine to rock as the driver looked over his shoulder with horror, a moment before Zerrex stabbed Blackheart through the body of the plane and said loudly: "I'm borrowin' this for a moment!"

He didn't care if he could be heard or not: the line had been a good one and he'd had to use it; and grinning, he solidified Blackheart's lock into the plane and his own position on the jet's body with Drake's essence, before he leaned back hard and jerked back on Blackheart with a grunt, treating the plane like a waveboard - and immediately, to the pilot's horror, the plane jerked before sailing upwards, and the Dragokkaren hammered several buttons before ejecting from his damaged aircraft.

The reptile winced and slapped away the seat of the pilot, which almost hit him as it passed, then he grinned darkly as the plane continued to rocket forwards at full speed: he couldn't have asked for better. The reptile grunted as he leaned to the side, forcing the plane to tilt with him and twist upwards as it curved back towards Paradise, Cherry beside him and covering him as he circled around the massive hulk of the floating fortress, ascending, ascending, the wind tearing through his air and over his face, his breathing hard, his body flexed and aching... and then he twisted as hard as he could to the side, and the jet half-spun around.

Now it sailed straight over the slightly-rounded top of Paradise, heading straight for one of the strange domed bulges... and Zerrex grinned coldly as he watched shutters uselessly descending over glass, saw the horrified expressions of the Dragokkaren inside before he tore Blackheart out and grunted as he fell from the plane, the jet going into a rapid roll and a louder scream filling the air as Zerrex fell to the metal top of Paradise... and a moment later, the jet collided with one of control cabins on top of the floating fortress and exploded, sending up a massive gout of flame and metal shrapnel as Cherry twisted out of the way of the inferno, the female grinning darkly as she guided the VTOL back into the fray. The Boss was in... now she had to pick up Cindy and Marina and break in through one of the hangars: they had their own mission to complete.

Zerrex grunted as he slowly stood up on the trembling hulk of Paradise, wincing as he hefted Blackheart in one hand, then placed it once more onto his back and rolled his shoulders, walking briskly towards the smoldering wreck of the plane and dome. Black smoke roiled up from this in long columns, and fires burned here and there as the reptile jogged the last few feet and jumped through one of the holes in glass and metal, his combat boots crunching the same potpourri beneath him as he landed.

The reptile glanced back and forth, then turned his attention to an open, sparking metal shutter, sliding through this and stepping into one of the top halls of Paradise, and grinning coldly at the sight of several shocked Enforcers and pulling out his enormous handgun. He slapped a clip into place, then took aim before they could react, blowing the head off one before spinning towards the other soldier and saying in a pleasant-but-vicious voice: "I have a message for the Patriarch: his son is here to see him."

Immediately, the Enforcer turned tail and ran away, recognizing the futility of combat, and Zerrex watched him with a snort as he headed for an elevator, before lowering his gun and checking over his own supply. He'd lost most of his ammunition... so he had maybe two clips left and Blackheart, which wouldn't really do. The Drakkaren shook his head a bit as he walked deeper into the facility, glancing coldly back and forth at Narrius's favorite style of décor - plain, sterile steel walls.

He decided to go with the first door on his left... and pushed through it to find a small medical supplies room. The reptile sighed a bit, patting himself over lightly... then made a bit of a face and decided he was alright for now, but it wouldn't hurt to see what was available here.

The Drakkaren checked through the drawers... then his eyes settled on a shelf that had a large, plain brown box on it, full of acupuncture needles. The reptile took this down... then glanced through it idly before shrugging a bit and touching the tip; this resulted in him wincing, cursing under his breath, and drawing a finger back to examine the small bit of blood on the tip - they were hellishly sharp. Well, I guess they do have to get through scale... so... it makes sense.

A pause, then he glanced around the room and found a plain medical satchel that he attached to his bed, and decided to fill this with needles. He also noted they had strange little eyeholes at the end... and some extra rummaging found some steel wire with small clips on either end. It was surprisingly long, however... and Zerrex shrugged a bit, then rolled a good amount of this up and put it into his sidepack. Better to have something than nothing...

They're needles. How exactly are you going to use a frigging needle in combat? Drake asked mildly... to which Zerrex responded by picking one up and tossing it with a flick of the wrist at the wall, where it buried more than an inch into the wood-overlaid concrete. This caused the dark nephilim to pause, then mumble: You just want to look cool.

Everyone has their vices. Zerrex responded mentally, a flicker of a smile rising on his face. Then he searched through the rest of the room, pausing only to pick up a large glass chemical bottle. He bounced this in his hand a few times as he emerged, still carrying it and staring down the hall again, before glancing back and forth and wondering if all the Super Enforcers had been deployed to the ground or somewhere else in the facility.

His question was answered as, a moment later, the elevator dinged open and a group of enormous Dragokkaren stepped out, immediately walking down the hall towards him, all of them equipped with sharp, hooked wristblades, the traditional tinsa'ar weapon favored by the most elite of Hez'Rannan warriors. These ones, however, also sparked with electricity, and had extra supports that went all the way up the forearm... and after taking a look at the at-least eighteen-foot giants walking towards him - their muscular bodies adorned in all manner of tattoo, all of them definitely not replica soldiers - Zerrex paused just long enough to whip the glass bottle at the face of one.

It shattered, but caused little more than irritation and a momentary pause, the Dragokkaren halting for a moment as he grabbed at his face. Zerrex quickly leapt through a side door as he drew his gun at the same time, finding himself in another empty hallway and spinning around to raise his handgun, finger squeezing the trigger-

And the gun was easily knocked from his grip with a single sweeping gesture, electricity sparking down his arm as the reptile cursed before his other hand went back, and he flung three needles hard forwards into the gut of the adversary who'd just disarmed him: they tore through scale and into flesh below, and the Dragokkaren let out a gasp of pain, halting and clutching at his abdomen with a wince of agony as Zerrex turned around and sprinted down the hall, the four Dragokkaren behind him immediately giving chase.

Zerrex heard them rapidly approaching... but with their size and in this hall, only two could stand abreast at a time. The Drakkaren snarled, deciding he'd do better making a stand... then he snagged the handle of his enormous sword and spun on one heel, swinging upwards in a vicious arc with Blackheart at the same time, cutting the leg from one of the giants and sending him down with a scream of agony, the massive sword cleaving cleanly into the torso of his opponent as his tinsa'ar blades hammered uselessly against the enormous blade and jolts of electricity ran up and down it.

The other Dragokkaren had been halted by the fall of their comrades, both of them raising their hands but unable to strike out: Zerrex, on the other hand, stepped forwards, snarling as he yanked the sword free from the giant he'd just torn into and slashing down in a vicious, crushing arc as he kneeled at the same time, smashing in the skull of the Dragokkaren on the ground and ripping a lethal slash down the center of the other giant's body, sending him sprawling backwards with a slash from breast to crotch. The last soldier immediately leapt forwards to try and slash viciously down with the tinsa'ar... but Zerrex reached up, snagging his wrist and turning to throw the giant bodily over his shoulder, sending him rolling in the other direction before he managed to get his hands under him and shove himself up onto his feet... but Zerrex had already picked Blackheart back up and charged back after the last giant, and immediately swung the giant blade around in an arc, the tip of the enormous sword ripping through the ceiling before it crushed the huge Dragokkaren into the floor.

He sighed and straightened slowly, blood dripping off the blade until it was stainless again, the reptile glancing down at it mildly before placing it back into its usual place and glancing back and forth over these tattooed giants. He kneeled by the one he'd just killed, checking its body over and wondering quietly if it was genetically-modified or a past elite from the GA that had decided to join Narrius's cause without question... then he shook his head a bit. It didn't matter, either way... the enemy was the enemy, no matter how they came about to be that way.

It was time to move on... and the lizard decided the door ahead of him was as good as any. He rolled his shoulders slowly, then hit the button in front of him to open the shutter... before all of Paradise shuddered violently again, and Zerrex snarled, grabbing the side of the doorway and bending the metal as the ground beneath him bucked and trembled violently. What the hell... that can't be them already...

Outside, Paradise's slow, lumbering flight through the air had been paused for a moment as several planes smashed into the front of the massive fortress, jolting the systems of the huge machine and causing the rear boosters to kick off for a moment before the Patriarch's scientists managed to get the generators in the rear quadrants working again, cursing their fates and all the engineers and technicians that had originally built this monstrosity but left it without proper programming. Turbines whirred into life, gears began to turn, and a massive wheel began to spin, harnessing magnetic energy and creating an invisible vortex of air and almost-solid energy below it that permitted the huge fortress to hover and stay afloat. The shutters closed over boosters as circuits flicked from supplying the boosters and fuel tanks with power, to instead aiding in empowering the magnetic propulsion system... and then once more the huge ship steadied and began to slowly roll through the air like a great lumbering mythical beast.

Cherry, meanwhile, was grumbling as Cindy and Marina jostled with each other, squished in the back seat of the VTOL plane and muttering about how stupid an idea this was. The first female-slash-hermaphrodite had already targeted the hanger she wanted to use to enter the base through, and had greeted the soldiers inside with a barrage of short-range missiles... but now she was low on both ammo and fuel, and being chased by two other enemy planes. A pause, and then she cursed and switched the boosters off, suddenly dropping out of the air and causing them both to zoom past her, before she hammered the activation switch again for the vertical jets and shot straight up as they attempted to spin around, before boosting forwards again and curving around the front of Paradise, then hauling the control stick to the side and Cindy and Marina both shrieked, the plane spinning once before she soared into the enemy hangar, hitting the control panel and powering off the jet.

It fell to the ground, bounced once, the skidded and slowly twisted around over the hangar floor, Cherry wincing at the sound of squealing metal as she hit the button to open the cockpit and jackknifed out even while the vehicle was still moving, landing in a crouch as she looked quickly back and forth around the hangar. There was no movement, however, and the jets outside were still too busy with the rebels to make any attempt to attack her... then she winced as the VTOL collided loudly with a wall and caused both Marina and Cindy to yell in shock. "What the hell, Cherry?"

"Well, you're both fine." Cherry responded reasonably... the winced when the two females climbed out of the cockpit and glowered at her. She made a face, rubbing the back of her head slowly, then gave a bit of a laugh and a dumb grin. "Well, come on, we um. Don't have all day, you know!"

"Fuck you." Marina muttered irritably, but she and Cindy both nodded, and they joined the hermaphroditic female as they headed quickly for a pair of large, closed security doors at one side of the terminal, Cherry shouldering her way through these as she unsnapped her whip, then grinning at the group of Super Enforcers running towards them, watching as they began to fall into a double-line formation; one row of soldiers kneeling, one row of soldiers standing.

The vicious femme immediately snapped her whip out, the vicious spike ripping open the face of the leftmost soldier in the first line, who let out a snarl of pain as it tore a bloody flap from his cheek; several others in the back row, however, weren't as fortunate as Cherry cracked the whip to the side, ripping out the throat of one, almost beheading another, and tearing the gun from the hands of the last when he tried uselessly to bring this up to block. Another few in line were blasted down by shots that Cindy took from the Slowdown handgun Mahihko had loaned her, and Marina took care of the last, her eyes flashing and a purple aura shining around her hand as she clenched it into a tight fist that caused the barrels of their weapons to twist, and the rifles of the Dragokkaren exploded when they attempted to open fire.

It left a pile of ravaged bodies at the end of the short concrete corridor... and the three females exchanged a glance, pausing only a moment to re-arm themselves with assault rifles before continuing their charge into Paradise's bowels, as somewhere high above them, they knew Zerrex was scouring the area for his father, to put an end to the war while they attempted to put an end to his ambitions by destroying the floating fortress.