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[Milky Way Galaxy/ Sol Cluster/Valor Controlled Territory/ Mars Titan Class Dreadnought 'Hammer of Valor'/Residential Deck / Highcastle Suite/ Star Cycle 534, Year 3,528]

Jonathan sat upright on his couch that was only a few feet away from the holo-projector that displayed the evening news. He didn't care much for the extra space he had now upgraded to for a dorm even if he had a whole living quarter to himself, and did not have to bunk with more 'colorful' soldiers that thought curfews were more like suggestions. He let out laugh under his breath thinking back to when Arjun shared the bunk above his own where he would always crack a joke no matter how bad it got, he was always there to take the edge off things. Soon his smile turned to a sigh, he was going to miss them all; Arjun, Williodison, Jake, but he knew he couldn't be surprised, he knew all too well the cost of war.

He turned his attention back to the holo-projector where the Supreme Commander of Valor, General Summer Beak, was in the middle of giving the her galactic wide speech. The well-dressed commander stood on a raised stage above where other less important officials ranging from generals to planetary governors. The flag of Valor was displayed directly behind the speaker in all its glory, where equally patriotic marines stood on guard throughout the large conference room.

"We will meet this enemy with our courage, our lives and our spirit!" Summer Beak spoke in her heavy vulphinian accent, "Geneva will not be a sign of Valor's weakness but instead a testimony to our strength! If they believe the Core Worlds are low bearing fruit ripe for their conquest then they are surely mistaken!" The camera drones that hovered in front of her did their best to catch all the best angles on her rather pleasant form thanks to the rejuvenation treatments no doubt added far before the speech that kept her century old body now bright and colorful. "We will drag whoever is responsible and bury them right outside Geneva's capitol building and then we will dig another grave and leave it open for anyone else who would dare try to wound us like this."

Jonathan turned his head to his dorm's entrance where little green light in the middle of it flashed before the door slid open. Dacota entered holding a beer can in his left hand that seemed almost bottomless for how long the amount of gulps he took. The blonde haired man leaned against the doorway watching the holo-projector with mild interest.

"You actually watch this?" Dacota asked turning his head to the out of uniform lieutenant

"Of course I do." John answered annoyed at the remark, "And you should too."

"Eh, not my thing." Dacota answered inviting himself into the room where he plopped himself on the couch beside the red headed veteran.

"Is there a reason you are here?" John asked with both annoyance and a solemn look on his face.

"Well it's only a few hours before the Shock Jump and you haven't joined us for the pre operation bets and a drink."

"I'd rather not." He said with his focus on the news.

"Well that's your choice then." The major said with disappointment as he got up careful enough to not walk into John's view, "Make sure you check your PDA for Jukebox's mission parameters, the hollow men have quite the force out there."

The door closed shut behind him in silence leaving John alone in the one room dorm; he looked down at his feet letting out a heavy sigh before turning off the holo-projector.

[Andromeda Galaxy/ Uncharted Territory/ Alpha Sector / Unmarked World (Hollow Man presence detected)/ Vanguard Armada "Geneva's Retribution"/ Mars Titan Class Dreadnought "The Odysseus"/ Star Cycle 534, Year 3,528]

In a crackle of brilliant energy a slew of Valor warships emerged from numerous wormholes produced by their shock jump drive engines. From small escort ships to massive army carrying dreadnoughts the Valor armada descended upon the single orange world with an asteroid belt around it. It wasn't until the tip of the invasion fleet that was within fighter launching distance of the planet did the rear guard of the armada finally finish their entrance into the new section of space.

The skeletal warships of the Blood Cabal rose from the planet's thick atmosphere to greet the Valor intruders. Although vastly outnumbered the hostile force leapt into action at the first sign of bloodbath with no thought to their own lives. Hundreds of cabal star fighters that were armored in various bones flew in their alien attack formations at the apex of their fleet. Point defense turrets on Valor war ships spoke their language of death as high powered rounds fired with deadly accuracy swatting the bone fighters out of the air like gnats.

Valor capitol ships turned their broad sides to the enemy fleet as rows and rows of capitol turrets swerved to face the oncoming fleet. The Blood Cabal's own flag ships began to return fire, the large fanged skull that was at the nose of their capitol ships opened their maws to reveal their alien weaponry. The proud blue hulls of the Valor star ships buckled and groaned as eldritch energies stripped hull plating with brutal ease, the lead Valor cruiser in front was sheared in half sending its occupants into the void of space.

Mars Dreadnought, The_Odysseus,_ surged forward under the protective supporting fire from its smaller cousins driving off any hollow men destroyer class vessels. The Odysseus was the largest of its class and the pride of the countless orbital ship yards that it took to put together such a behemoth of a star ship. The broad side cannons of the dreadnought unloaded their payloads of high powered gauss rounds and a flurry of neutron torpedoes that carved a path of bone and metal towards the orange planet.

"Alert, drop approaching in thirty." The male monotone voice of The Odysseus's artificial program announced to the Valor marine forces.

Jonathan sat inside one of the many single man drop pod normally used by Valor's Black Stars, his new myrmidon class power armor worn by the Black Stars was a vast improvement to the old hoplite SPBA he was so used to over the years. Although he wasn't used to the slightly more bulky feel to the now black and yellow colored battle armor he knew it was well worth it, from increased endurance, strength, a better A.I targeting computer, self-repairing armor and much more, it was no wonder how Dacota talked about how Black Stars "Got all the fun toys".

"Alert, drop approaching in fifteen." The A.I sounded again breaking John's concentration.

Computer screen flickered on inside his drop pod where the face of general in charge of this operation, Commander Proud Claw staring right at him in his powered blue uniform safe on the bridge of The Odysseus. The computer screen under him turned on subsequently after and it was Major Dacota Friesen all straddled in his Hercules war suit as it too had its own personal drop pod.

"Lieutenant Highcastle, once you make planet side you will link up with XB-1, and proceed to regroup with the rest of the Black Stars, eliminate any hollow men towards your objective, Major Friesen will have his own hands full on his objective."

"Three."

Jonathan clenched his teeth; he never liked combat drops let alone in a one man pod.

"Two."

"For Valor." The vulphus commander said as he saluted John.

"One."

The drop pod was fired off from its magnetic rails towards the Blood Cabal held world, his teeth rattled and the vibrations inside would have easily turned any normal citizen's bones to jelly from the amount of force provided by its speed. The holo screen in front of him switched on showing the outside the drop pod; he had already entered the planet's thick cloudy atmosphere. His Heads Up Display switched to its tactical mode which of course was far more detailed than the vanilla hoplite model.

As the dense orange clouds began to dissipate he saw the extent what the hollow man had done to the world, crude machinery extracted resources from the depth of the planet, massive mountains of what he thought looked like bodies stood in neat piles as hollow men kept stock of their inventory to no doubt fuel their war effort. In the glimpses he caught as the drop pod plummeted to the ground he saw their refueling fleet in the distance where tens of cruisers were no doubt being hastily repaired to join the battle in orbit.

Soon his view of the planet's dead landscape was interrupted with a loud crash as the pod shot its way through a hollow man structure, rooms upon rooms flew past in seconds where he got glimpses of confused undead at their recent arrival. His drop pod flew out the side of the building now passing over another stretch of desert before the targeting computer inside the pod alerted its direction so it would end its destructive journey at the bottom of the adjacent structure.

The pod finally came to a halt after a combination of its breaks and debris slowed it down, the holo screen flashed green allowing for him to eject the cover with a series of connecting locks that sent the screen flying across the destroyed room. With his new onslaught class combat rifle in hand he scanned the wrecked room; he turned to see the red hot tunnel he that led a clean line all the way outside.

"Lieutenant, have you made landfall?" the voice belonged to XB-1 Jukebox as he spoke over their black star comm channel.

"Status green confirmed." John answered looking for a suitable way out when his suit's A.I had already begun scanning the layout of the building and plotted a route for him to XB."

"You may want to hurry; these vile creatures have already begun their attack." The machine's voice was almost to calming to John considering the situation, "I will hold out for as long as I can against these mongrels."

John had already begun moving to the location following his A.I's directions to the letter, "I'll be there, try to keep your head down, don't engage whatever you do."

"A brilliant weapon such as myself that can dispense Valor's holy justice should not hide from these rats."

"Jukebox, focus on keeping yourself operational, I'll be there shortly."

"Then together we can bring Valor's light upon these defilers!"

"...Just don't get killed, Jonathan out.""

Jonathan moved with his modified combat rifle raised keeping close attention to see if his A.I had detected any life signatures that weren't imprinted with a Valor identification chip at birth. Although this time all marine's suits had been quickly updated to consider 'deceased' life forms a threat as well. The walls of the structure rocked as explosions went off not too far off from his own position, the cold metal rooms he passed through made no effort for aesthetics, rusted metal walls that must have never been cleaned in decades, exposed pipes ran through the middle of several rooms no doubt funneling whatever resources the hollow men were interested in.

After leaping over a grey metal pipe he was suddenly thrown to his side swearing as he went that his A.I had not managed to scan his attacker. With almost inhuman reflexes John leaped back onto his feet to see one of the bandaged wrapped undead lunge towards him , he drew his nanobyte long sword in a flash and swung at the lurker hollow man who dodged his expertly timed blows with motions no living creature could do and still be walking after. The lurker swung at his chest plate slicing through the Pallas plating only centimeters from his own body. John swung again and again at the undead that always seemed two steps ahead of the good lieutenant moving with reflexes not even his new power armor and decades of swordsmanship could match.

To Jonathan's misfortune a squad of hollow man sentinels came storming in from the opposite doorway where they immediately took up firing positions. Their clockwork like movements made them jittery and exaggerated as pistons fired to get the cybernetic undead to move. Although each of them could have easily been a different species it was lost under their forced augmentations; an arm replaced with their rivet launchers, their warped faces hidden under a hideous visage.

The lurker back flipped towards the closet wall. The undead scampered up the wall like a spider in an abnormal sight to be had before it disappeared into a maintenance hatch; the clanking of its metal blades grew quieter in the fleeting distance. John quickly readied his gun but the cabal sentinels had already open fired, red hot spikes the size of his arm found their mark in computer terminals, exposed pipes or the wall behind the Black Star. John dived into the open with his combat rifle at the ready towards the mechanical horrors, he snapped off a handful of shots at close range taking the head of one of the left most sentinels. With lightning reflexes he emptied the rest of his magazine into the remaining undead splitting them asunder, the nanobyte-tipped rounds effortlessly shredding them into flesh and metal.

John's helmet buzzed with static before the voice of Jukebox spoke, "Lieutenant, my position has been compromised. I have regrouped with Cobra and Gamma squad and-"The droid's sentence was cut off from the unnerving sound of the hollow men's movements before gun shots erupted. "More hollow men coming in from the right!"-_Jukebox's attention was clearly focused on something else, "_Lieutenant you better hurry up; we really hit the hornet's nest out here!"

[Andromeda Galaxy/ Uncharted Territory/ Alpha Sector / Unmarked World (Hollow Man presence detected)/ Vanguard Armada "Geneva's Retribution"/ Hollow Man Space Port/ Star Cycle 534, Year 3,528]

Jonathan Highcastle came rushing out of the building towards the large fire fight happening out of the planet's desert like surface. Sand had covered must of the unused or rusted bunkers that littered the area allowing for the shoddy structures as the only available cover. The dark orange sand matched the incredibly thick atmosphere as without their incredible technology he would have no chance seeing through the sand storm. The raging storm was so powerful he could easily imagine if it weren't for Valor's battle armor that they would be stripped apart in seconds. The hollow men on the other hand testified to his theory as they had no flesh on them, all of the undead were just bone and metal; even their robes had been frayed into nothingness.

The lieutenant sprinted towards Jukebox who was in between both Cobra and Gamma squad firing his wrist mounted nova plasma rifle into the mass of hollow men soldiers. John's helmet scanned the undead through the dense storm lightning them all up with bright red outlines.

"It's good to see you made it Highcastle!" said Jukebox in glee, "Now let us work together to purge these hell spawned automatons for Valor!"

John took aim and fired into the sand storm, the hollow man he targeted exploded into fragments allowing for the red outline to turn to a confirmed dead grey. The blue and white Valor marines aside him were all in a line, most of them lying down or kneeling firing away at the seemingly unending tide of machines.

"Dragon!" a macrial marine to John's left yelled out.

A hollow man Sky Terror came swooping in from above carrying a full occupant of hollow men sentinels and their heavy gunner cousins. As the dragon flew past them the undead let go allowing for the large squad to come crashing down in the middle of the Valor force. Without pause John drew his long sword and decapitated a hollow man sentinel in one fell swoop, but it did not slow the undead down as it extended its wrist mounted blades in retaliation. In an expert motion John shattered the alien's combat weapon with his own before he spun past the hollow man where he delivered a killing blow into its backside.

Jukebox stood still as he fired his wrist mounted weapon with obscene accuracy, taking out targets one by one who were engaged in an all-out melee in the sandstorm. Plasma bolts turned sand into glass and hollow men into bubbling sludge, and soon the macrial shaped droid retracted its weapon back into his wrist after the battle had died down until...

Suddenly the ground began to shake underneath the Valor soldiers, the tremor intensified with each passing second that grew louder and louder to the point where the marines couldn't hear each other speak over the communication channel. John's balance failed him and he fell to the ground along did a number of marines who used anything they could as support, but just as quickly as the tremors came it suddenly stopped. In a sudden unnerving silence the marines looked around at each other until it happened, like a rising volcano coming out of the ground so did this Blood Cabal monstrosity. The enormous undead was comprised of hundreds of if not thousands of tormented souls interwoven with one another to create some kind of Meta undead. The monster's form was headless with thick arms that were longer than its broad torso and short elephant like legs. All of the skinless corpses used to create the single creature still twitched but more importantly they all wailed in unison that stood the hairs of every marine near the creature, a choir of souls singing out their pain and sorrow, and with a powerful and sudden scream it turned its attention to the marines.

The Blood Cabal Wailing Wall charged forth on its elephant like legs, the twitching corpses exposed their arms like branches on the tree trunk of a leg hoping to grab anyone and drag them into their sorrow. The Valor marines quickly opened fire with their combat rifles on the golem but to no affect, the rounds were absorbed into the corpses that only increased the sound of its wails. In retaliation the golem swung with its enormous fist which caught the marines off guard as it was clearly too far away to reach them, but then the arm of the giant extended instantly towards a group of marines with its clubbed hand. The wailing souls reached out and pulled a number of valor marines into its mass where in a few short moments their blue and white uniforms popped out around its fleshy mass clawing and grabbing as well.

Jonathan looked at the remaining marines who were slowly backing away too terrified to fire their weapons anymore when he shouted, "Cobra squad take to the right! Keep firing no matter what!"

"Copy that sir!" responded the sergeant of Cobra.

"Jukebox, draw its attention away from us, we are going to need some heavier fire power and we need it distracted."

"Affirmative lieutenant!" Jukebox answered as he fired into the golem's broad torso that caused the sad wails to turn to infuriated screams.

Jonathan strafed to the right of the abomination firing in short successions turning the cadavers that made up its horrid form into plumes of red mist and shredded bones. But as John saw no matter where or how hard or how often he destroyed the amalgamation another corpse would take its place in moments. Jonathan quickly pressed down the button on the side of his helmet allowing him to open a communication channel to the orbiting fleet "This is lieutenant Highcastle; I'm at grid five-five-eight oh, requesting immediate fire support."

The Wailing Wall let out a terrible screech before extending both of its arms to gorge itself on three marines who weren't quick enough to avoid the sudden attack. As the undead giant lashed out against the marines a number of Sky Terrors descended upon the squads; each of them had a full occupant of cabal sentinels. "Gamma squad, focus your fire power on those dragons!" John yelled out using his command level HUD to highlight the pseudo drop ships with a priority target marker.

"This is command HQ, fire support green lighted, ETA two minutes." The voice buzzed inside John's helmet which brought him a small amount of relief.

A Vulphus marine carrying his issued missile launcher took several steps forward before kneeling. He brought his focus on the lead terror that was the vanguard of the enemy reinforcements. When his HUD confirmed he had a target lock his weapon spoke, the warhead trailed into the sky where it struck its target. The blinding explosion consumed the majority of the winged beasts but the remnants flew on without pause as they not only dropped off their cargo when they were in range but also landed on the sand to engage in the battle themselves.

The three sky terrors stood behind their small army of sentinels boxing the Valor soldiers from one side as the Wailing Wall still thrashed about from the opposite side. As the middle sky terror let out a mighty roar to begin the attack a high powered rail shell impacted it in the torso obliterating the creature in a single shot.

From over the sandy dune Valor Spartan main battle tanks rolled into view of the battle. The sleek metal plates that armored the beast of a vehicle shined and gleaned in the red hot sun. Its blue and white panels shimmered as the twin Olympus class gauss cannons it sported for its main armaments fired in quick succession at both the terrors and the Wailing Wall. A gauss round sheared the left arm off the Wailing Wall where it fell to the ground as the corpses in it twitched and growled, but to the dismay of the Valor forces the hissing corpses untangled themselves allowing for the old arm of the giant to transform into a hideous mass of walking cadavers.

Jonathan turned his weapon on the hollow man soldiers as they charged forward firing off their spikes with little accuracy. He steadied his aim taking shots in quick successions; his initial burst took the head off one of the many hollow men where it came to a halt out of sudden confusion, the second shot went wide hitting an ankle of one of the sky terrors but as he got ready to fire once more one of the hollow made their target. John's energy field crackled but still maintained its strength dropping the spike to the sand. The black star focused on the advancing undead keeping his form low to the ground, he emptied the rest of his magazine in short bursts putting down a handful of the hollow men.

The newly spawned undead from the wall's severed limbs moved towards Jukebox who immediately turned his attention at the new targets. He pointed his right arm where a second compact nova rifle emerged and unfolded. With one pointed at the giant and his other arm pointed at the sluggish horde he fired off round after round with mathematical accuracy, as each of the shot either decimated a cadaver or briefly causing the giant to reel back.

Jonathan stood up and issued order after order to the remnants of Gamma squad. He directed the few marines towards the hollow men sentinels who were almost in range to start being accurate, with the lieutenant's direction he coordinated the marines with both hand gestures and specific orders that he barked out over the comm channels. One by one the clock work sentinels fell to the ground, riddled with gauss round fire. Jonathan looked down the scope of his onslaught rifle; he focused on one of the center-most hollow man, with a flurry of rounds the hollow man exploded into silvery fragments of bone and metal.

"Lieutenant!" Jukebox yelled out to get John's attention away from the dwindling hollow men.

Jonathan Highcastle turned to his right to find the Wailing Wall use its only arm to smash one of the spartans into the ground trapping the crew inside. "Spartans, engage the hollow men and their....'dragons' Jukebox and I will deal with this abomination."

"Rodger that, lieutenant." The remaining tank commanders replied one after the other.

The Wailing Wall took a large swing at Jonathan who was making a straight dash for it, the corpses on the outside of its Meta arm clawed for him as the mass sailed overhead. With no pause John drew his nanobyte long sword and hacked into the arm trying to do a forced amputation. In pain the undead giant reeled backwards lifting its wounded arm up that was now lopsided from having the blade cut clean through most of it. The arm soon fell victim to gravity as the unharmed remaining corpses uncurled themselves from the amalgamation to swarm the lieutenant.

Jonathan Highcastle stood against the crowd of flesh torn undead who swarmed over one another for a chance to get at the Valor Black Star. With a mighty sweep, half a dozen of the ravenous abominations went down in bloody ribbons; he followed through in his advance side stepping from an aggressive lunge to bring the blade down on his attacker carving the undead in two from skull to groin. The undead horde felt no pause to their undying hunger as the leading undead sprang from its spot to claw at the Black Star who caught the beast in mid leap. Jonathan with his hand still clenched around the undead's neck through it to the ground where he brought his boot straight into its face splattering its gore across the sand.

XB-1 turned his head sharply to the right noticing his squad member in trouble and pointed his right arm at the approaching undead. A flurry of plasma rounds carved a path through the undead ranks turning flesh to slag and bone to glass. As the war droid felt confident with the lieutenant's survival chance he turned his attention back to the now armless Wailing Wall. Both of his wrist mounted weapons folded back into his arm when immediately both began morphing to allow for his primary weapons to come online, as parts folded away and new ones put in place, XB's fore arms were rolled back in order for his experimental gauss cannons to be out of their shells.

The Wailing Wall's screeches were cut short as the magnetically charged rounds punch straight through the undead giant's terrifying form. Each round took out mighty chunks out of the beast exploding it into a shower of bloody ribbons, Jukebox stood stoic as he planted his feet to absorb the brace of the recoil with each shot.

John walked over to the war droid who stood proud over the smouldering corpse of the giant as the remaining Valor forces cleaned up the few remaining hollow men in the distance.

"XB, why didn't you do that from the start?" John asked covered in blood and gore.

"Sir, you ordered for me to distract it, not kill it, but after you crippled it I took the liberty of putting this abomination out of its misery."

Jonathan rolled his eyes and signaled for the marine forces around to regroup to secure the area.