NationStates Jolt Archive

The world is a strange place.
The Empire of the Void Templars, the most powerful empire in Varius for thousands of years, have been undone from its own actions. The downtrodden aliens have rebelled, taking the outer rim as their base and preparing to attack Karasi Prime. This has caused a schism, which in turn has unleashed terrible things.

A good example of this is on the colony of Hauro.
The streets were dark, as expected. It was several hours after midnight, after all. The man staggered through the streets, signing blearily, feet barely holding the man up. He stopped to... complete some buisness in an alley. While he did so, the Crimson Fleet dropped out of hyperspace.
"FIRE!" The shipmasters roared in unison, the entire fleet of crimson ships opening up on the few destroyers garrisoned there. The sky lit up with plumes of color, blue, green, red. The colors of plasma, lasers, explosions. Chunks of debris rained down, smashing into buildings. The people ran amok, fighting, looting, fleeing. Those who managed to leave the city were greeted by an even worse sight. A chunk of debris had pierced the ground here, opeing a huge hole. From which, millions of foul creatures poured forth. Small blobs with legs and tentacles, they leapt onto the people, digging tentacles into their nervous systems. A collection of voices, deep, shrill and hissing, emerged from the hole, drifting on the wartorn breeze.

One city was lucky. The polar city of Diadict, the planets main ship dock, had a colony ship. The civillians were evacuated, escaping from the planet before the Crimson occupation force landed. They entered warp space, heading for Karas to warn the Lord Commisars.
(sorry for the not terribly good OP, but I'm knackered.)

OOC Tag for later post.

On the edge of the system at the time of this battle was the Shrike class frigate Fek'lhur. Its captain had watched as the crimson guard ships dropped out of FTL travel and imediatly turned and Hyperspaceing to Karasi for fear of detection. The Templars had to warned, it would apear the unthinkable was happening, the iron will of the templarian empire was being defyed from within. With a grimace the captain turned to his comms officer and bade him inform high command of the situation and thier status.

Eventualy the ship reached Karasi prime and began transmiting on all priority channles what it had recently recorded with its sensors.

"Fek'lhur, what is your emergency?" came over the intercom, from the hulking battlecarrier in front of the planet. "Wait, hold... We've just recieved a message from one of our ships... The aliens are rebelling!" The intercom sudenly burst from silence into thousands of garbled voices, before a cold clear one cut over.
"Secure the local cluster. The scum will not take our land." The voice was Dianoga, Grand Admiral of the Void. The intercom immediately quieted and the ships moved into their positions.

Meanwhile, the Crimson Guard had finally landed their occupational forces. The Strogg and Krogan marched through the streets, firing on anything that moved, until a huge roar froze them dead. The looked around, before a rumble shook the ground beneath them. The ground exploded beneath their feet, a huge beast emerging, all spikes, muscle and claw. It slashed into the crimsons, cutting several in half before hundreds of small beings ran out behind it.

Fek,lhur replyed to the hulking ship saying
"We have sent word to the imperial goverment and they inform us that they will suport the loyalist faction in this war, even now they route most of our ships on the Chupakabra border to the edges of the empire and await clearance from those who can give it before thy advance. Take heart friends for 6 warfortress class ships come to your aid. the emporer wishes for me to transmit this message. Message reads:
"we stand united to strike down the cowardly scum that dare defye your will. Let them come, they will find only the glowing of our cannons and the cold embrace of Deces!"

Allocen, a world once in an empire of steel and might. Once a place of light, beauty, and life, it was now a barren wasteland of death and sand and rock. A place where the hollow screams of the thousands who died on that fateful day when the race from before had turned into the powerful and sinister Shade Lords. The day the Nijai were born.....the day that all life in the galaxy became threatened by an eternal hunger, which could not be fed. On this world, the dark, shadowy cities of the Shade Lords pierced the eternally night sky, since the day the Shade Lords consumed the energy of the sun to power their factories, driving its light into extinction, to better suit their needs on their newly-found homeworld. With the light gone, shadow reigned supreme and it was in shadow that the Shade was strongest. On a mighty throne, made out of souls materialized into blocks, giving it a pale white hue that glowed and soft screams constantly hummed from the seat, sat a being of great beauty and sinister temptation. The only one of the Shades to retain a fully humanoid form, she had long white hair, smooth as it fell its full length down her back and shoulders, along with a flowing dark robe which covered all but her pale white hands, arms and feet, which were left bare. Her eyes were slit and colored a bright green color and her lips were abnormally black. Her robes seemed to flow into her, as if they were a part of her and she sat on her throne as she watched eternally over all of the Shade Lords, ruler and Queen, the Elder Shade. Her name was...Siriel.

Sitting on her throne, her eyes closed as she tasted the soul she sipped from her ebony cup, and basked in the memories of that particular soul as it was devoured by her. The sweet and innocent essence of the soul was attacked by the every hungry void within her, the absence of her soul which had been destroyed long ago and was the source of her eternal hunger, and quickly devoured. For the soul, the pain had been excruciating and it had begged for death as it was ripped to pieces and consumed. A faint smile appeared on her face and she quietly spoke, her voice a whisper, but was heard by all who heeded to it. "Karotha."The shadow of a pillar twitched and a shadowy figure grew out from it, its yellow eyes gazing upon her and bowing low, it spoke.

"You called for me, my Queen?"

Siriel turned her eyes and waved a hand, causing a screen to turn on and a picture of Hauro to appear. "I have come to find that there is a nation known to the galaxy as Void Templar is experiencing a heavy civil war, which has just begun in earnest. I want you to take your ship and its three legions and find a way to benefit from this situation. There appear to be many sides and I imagine many races, allies or enemies, will come to this battle. The possible bounty of souls is astronomical. We mustn't miss an opportunity such as this." Karotha looked at her Queen, slightly startled.

"Are you sure we should be revealing ourselves like this, we do not know anything of our foe, nor of how much strength they could send at us. Plus attacking all of them would only unite them against us." Siriel nodded slightly.

"That is true. That is why I will send reinforcements to be on standby in case you fail. Also, it would seem several sides are appearing in the conflict, all equal in some ways to the others. Find one and ally yourself with it. Then use them to take the hits as you collect what we most desire. If you need more legions or ships, call for them, although I am sure you know the facilities in your ship are plenty enough to produce all that you need."

Karotha nodded and bowed. "Very well, I will leave immediately." The shade then backed into a shadow and sank into it, leaving Siriel to turn and pick up her cup again. As soon as she made the motion, a Nijai servant walked up, holding a small black container. It pushed back the top, which glowed with an intense light from within and then taking the cup, it poured more of the intensely bright substance into the cup. Then it handed the cup back to Siriel. With a sinister smile on her face, Siriel lifted the glass up to her mouth and drank. Mmmmmm...a Jedi, a rare delicacy. She had not tasted one of them in sometime. She turned to the Nijai.

"Tell me, who was it that claimed this Jedi for me?"

The dull and unemotional voice of the Nijai replied. "The Hunter, milady."

She smiled. "Indeed. Send him my regards." It bowed and then left, taking the container and closing it as it moved. Siriel smiled and swirled the remnants of the Jedi's soul in her cup. The GDI appeared to have a bounty of soul delicacies. She'd have to keep an eye on them for more opportunities for beings such as these force wielders.....


**************

In the space above Hauro, there was a slight noise, one which may have been detected if the forces at work were not distracted by the battle. Then, with a shimmering wave of black, a cruiser-sized ship came forth, its hull glistening in the system's sun's light as it's rays pored over the ebony hull of the ship. It was of a strange shape, its design not quite recognizable by anyone. It wasn't there one moment; the next it appeared. It was in orbit of the planet and it began to scan the planet, quickly finding the locations of the various factions. On the screen, Karotha watched as the Crimson Guard marched into the city, blowing away loyalists and strange zombies whom their scans showed had declining life signs. Something was already eating away at them. Odd. Then some kind of creatures burst up out of the ground and began to quickly wipe out the invading soldiers. Smiling to herself, Karotha nodded. She had found the beings to ally with. She turned to a Nijai. "Have Narshai take command in my stead; if we are attacked by any ships in this system, she is to follow our way in dealing with lowly scum such as them."

She watched as the synthetic bowed and walked away, before stepping into a shadow and vanishing.....

Only to reappear from the shadow coming from a pile of rubble in the city, close to where several of the Flood and Tyranids were gathering over a recent slaughter of their enemies. Waiting a few moments to remain hidden and watch, she then decided to make herself known. It wasn't like she had anything to worry about. She stepped forward, the air instantly beginning to chill and the already flickering lights of the area dimmed and died. Fog began to gather around them. "Tell me...what do you seek to accomplish?"

Greywatch was fully aware of the war and the details, the chaos had allowed them to implant several small scale operatives into the now crumbling empire to get small pieces of information. It was nothing major, a few attacks here and there and the major players, buit it was enough to get three Worldslayers on the border of Void space, waiting for the command. They were preped, with several frigates and cruisars, to open a PSR and liberate some alien forces. Greywatch could always use more people that would walk under their banner, and if there was resistance to the friend;y forces, the ships could always 'not make it in time to save anyone.'

The HMP Keskir and it’s support ships were part of a few Imperium battle groups operating in this part of space. With the Imperium always looking for new worlds to conquer or bend to their influence, the HMP Keskir led it’s small fleet in expedition flights across the galactic frontier as part of Operation Galactic Embrace. If the HMP Keskir came upon anything worth noting it would call in support from the other battle groups in the sector and launch colonizing or occupation operations. The problem was that this part of space was largely unexplored by the Imperium and planets were few and far between. Many of those that were found were merely worthy of annexation as mining colonies. The staff of the HMP Keskir were growing bored and itching for something exciting.

The navy’s Scientific Advances & Research Groups, or SARGeez as they were called by their ship mates were a common site on ship’s operating this far into the frontier. Ensign Condor Melarn had just been promoted into Keskir’s S.A.R.G unit upon earning his degree in biotechnology back at the academy and earning his rank as a junior officer. He was playing a game of lark, a virtual game similar to chess native to the planet Oridua, with Staff Sergeant Philan Nomor who served in security and retrieval for the S.A.R.G unit.

“You think we’re ever going to find a rock worth invading, Condor?”

The Imperium military had an unwritten tradition of allowing military personal closely associated with one another to ignore the ranks of junior officers and enlisted men during times of leisure such as this. It was based on the theory that stronger bonds and friendships were developed via a first name basis, and the closer a team was the better they would work in a combat situation. It generally served in their favor.

“I’m not sure I want to find a rock worth invading.” Melarn shrugged as he flexed his mental superiority over Philan with a move that eliminated four of his pieces. “I have one more year of this, and then I’m off to the Terrafortress to work on fun little gizmos that will never be used in a theatre of war. The last thing I want is to be blown away on some crusade.”

Philan wrinkled his nose and contemplated a moment before shrugging. This was one of the several things that separated the SARGeez from the regular staff. SARGeez were what they were because they didn’t want to fight. Most of them just wanted the perks of serving and having nothing to show for it but pushing keys into consoles and working in shadowy underground labs. The Imperium Marines had no desire to sit in dark holes or write forty page reports on alien species. They lived and enlisted for the thrill of combat, a desire drilled into them since their enlistment into the Imperium Junior Defense League. It also didn’t help that Philan was a Valkiyer, a human sub-set of Lorkhan bred mostly by families who served combat roles in the society, as opposed to Melarn’s Basic Lorkhai sub-set.

“So what exactly are you doing on this boat then, Ensign?” Philan asked, rebutting Philan‘s last lark attack with a fatal blow of his own.

“You know well enough I can’t tell you that Nomor.”

Philan was about to push for a better response, but a howling siren overhead broke them both from the focus of the game and their concentration.

“What the Core is that?” Philan inquiered to no one but himself as he rushed to his battle rifle and jumped into his training instincts. “Do you think we finally made contact?”

“I’m not…”

Melarn was cut off by the sound of S.A.R.G leader Commander Ules Mathion voice echoed through out the S.A.R.G facility.

“We have a Code 91B alert. Repeat, we have reports of Code 91B activity in a nearby system. All S.A.R.G units comply with emergency protocol. All commissioned officers report to the briefing room to meet with myself and Captain Helis at 0130 standard ship time. Out.”

Philan looked confused. He had never heard of a Code 91B, but from the sound of it something big was about to go down. Melarn meanwhile backed himself into a corner, his face growing a pale white as sweat began to roll down his face.

****

“The planet is currently in the midst of a civil war, so it will be difficult to get to our objective.” the ship’s main cultural analyst said standing over a visual display of Hauro from projector below the bridge‘s catwalk.

“What’s the status on the war?” the captain asked.

“Well the empire has made a barbaric habit of assimilating aliens worlds into their rank. Non-humanoid sets, to be precise. They‘ve rebelled against the human ruled empire and in the midst of this war on Hauro colony the Outbreak species broke free.”

“Well we’re not here to play mediator or pick sides. We’re here to contain the Outbreak species and insure it‘s source is destroyed. We could care less about their war.” Commander Mathion said.

“Well so long as I’m the captain of this ship and this fleet I’ll be giving orders.” Helis said with an uneasy glance at Mathion and his SARGeez lined up behind him. “We’re going to need assistance in containing the threat. Lt. Semari, see if you can link up with any Loyalists in the area once we leave warp drive.”

The HMP Keskir, HMP Uron, HMP Lindow, and HMP Silarn came through warp drive quite a distance from the colony itself. It’d take another hour to be in sight of those in the battle zone, but the Keskir would be able to comm the colony from this distance. Lt. Semari sent out a message with Captain Helis at the comm board relaying to any remaining humans or their allies on the planet.

“Void Loyalists, this is Captain Adriov Helis of Her Matron Prophet’s Keskir battlegroup of the Imperium of Liljanna. We have received numerous distress calls and reports of an unidentified species causing carnage on the planet. Requesting permission to land and engage the unidentified threat, over.”

The Fiends stared cold eyed at the new arrival, before great footsteps sounded and the monsters parted, revealing a strange combination of a Xenoform queen, infected by the Flood with a number of spikes and sythes, stalked an all fours towards Karotha.
We seek destruction. The Templars created us. They hurt us. Our cries echoed, none could hear. It spoke telepathically, mouth twitching in a snarl. Our music went unheard. Now, the Templar's sing. Their cries fall upon our ears like a red music. They shall suffer for the cruelty they inflicted upon us. Tell me, creature, are you with them? The hordes of monster instantly stiffed, ready to pounce.

The message from Helis was recived by the en route ABC Ironhide(Atomspheric Bombardment Cruiser), captained by Kain Jenova.
"Captain Helis, rodger. We ourselfs are en route but be warned, the Crimson Guard rebels may attack you on sight." The Ironhide dropped out of hyperspeed into the redevous point. Within a few seconds, a huge green circle opened and 10 battleships emerged. "Fleet Sigma, I am assuming command. Follow me en route to Hauro." The ships all sent rodgers and warped out to the planet.

In the Haru system many ships were massing, many enimys, many friends in the makeing. All this was made aparent from the readings of the 34th survalance fleet. With out delay they forwarded thier findings to the Battle groupe Alkar'in (lead by the Anhi class warship shadow of death).

There was a brief burst of comm chatter as the 12 ships in the battle groupe formed up and then they jumped to Haru to assist the loyalists.

OOC:there are the following ships in the fleet:
Sca'uh class: D.E.S. Thunder
Sca'uh class: D.E.S. Prowler
Anhi class: D.E.S. Shadow of death
Anhi class: D.E.S. Gods bain
Ripper support ship: D.E.S. Hellfire
Ripper support ship: D.E.S. Sacre likt
Ripper support ship: D.E.S. Pain
The war fortress Iron shi
Valhalah class: Tak Y'noh
The Supper destroyer Klothos
The supper destroyer blodh
The supper destroyer Kaba

Shortly after 12 transwarp portals opened briefly and the batle groupe emerged to pound the crimson guard into submission.
OOC: Transwarp drive is the fastest FTL available to the Dragona. It takes a Sca'uh class ship 1.5 days to travel from the top to the bottom of the empire using transwarp drive. This is why i say 'Shortly afterwards, considering the speeds of transwarp and the proximity to the boarder, it would be at most 1.3hours.

It's worth noteing that the Dragona class FTL in a strange way. they devoloped FTL in stages, starting with hyperdrive, then warp and finaly transwarp. Each stage is faster than the last, transwarp being 6 times that of normal dragonma warp, dragona ships useualy have the capability to use all 3 drives, haveing a seperate core for each, this is slowly being replaced by the multi-core (all 3 in one). Just wanted to point this out.

The 91st Zy'kete Fighter Squadren on the border of Chupakabrain/Dragona space detected the opening of Dragona transwarp. Realising the hopeful significance of the withdraw, the leader of the squadren, one Captain Allan, messaged into NewTyraniune.

"Hmmm, why would the Dragona just pull out like that, not exactly, normal." Saka'Ki paced up and down the comms room of Tyankai, the new capital ship or all NewTyranians, a represntative of Ramnaia was with him. "OK, so the Dragona pull out...why would they pull out? Send a message to the Dragona, be poilte, thank them for their genorosity in leaving our borders, then ask for reasons....DO IT NOW!"

The Greywatch force ammassed itself at the border and recieved a 'yellow light,' everything was nearly ready and in a few minutes the fleet would open a PSR and end up inside enemy territory. It was now a matter of time. The fleet had plenty of ships including the three worldslayers, from repair ships to attack craft they were ready. Then the green light was given and initiated PSR travel, only a second later they were Void space. There was a planet nearby, it was time to begin working.

OOC: Note that these Worldslayers are all roughly 37km in length and are being accompanied by about 150 different other military ships. This is not a stealth attack in any way.

The Crimson Guard forces turned as one, seeing the huge mass of ships appear on radar. They immediately opened fire, blasts of gauss, plasma and missiles hurtling towards the Greywatch forces.

At the same time, on the planets surface, a group of Imperator battlesuit wearing Ordinators marched towards the Fiends, searching for the missing Crimson Guard traitors.

OOC: While Ordinator's carry blessed weapons, they are no where near as powerful as the weapons of the preists, so your shade will be able to kill them without taking much damage.

The Greywatch fleet was taken aback by the sudden barrage but the enemy had underestimated them greatly. The Worldslyers were in front of the others and standard PSR travel protocol required shields to increase to 300% while weapons remained disabled. The weapons did little damage but instead got the forces very riled up, the frigates broke off and prepared for the real battle. The first ships up were the Plows, these special ships fired with their long-range 'sniping howitzers,' not the most accurate of weapons but deadly if they hit anything. Behind them were the Gamblers, these ships activated their special sensor distorters so that the enemy would suddenly see at least 100 more units come out of no where on their radar systems. While the other ships were causing a distraction, three Star Shadows disappeared from sight and radr using camo technology, of course this came with the cost of their shielding and they'd now only be able to rely on armor. The Worldslayers began to puch forward, their weapons coming back online, Foreseers, on the other hand, stayed back and used their powerful 'sniper turrets' to cause long-range damage to enemy shields. The other frigates stayed with the Foreseers as the Worldslayers moved foreward.

The combined efforts of the PSR forces threw the Crimson Guard into disarray. A number simply warped out, but those that remained stood firm against the shots and fired back. A number of Dragonfire missiles were launched. These missiles were dumb fire initially, but after they reached a certain range of their target, or were shot, they broke in numerous different smaller hull seekers.

OOC: PSR means Pressure Space Rift, its how my ships get around.
OOC2: Homing cluster bombs? Nice.

IC:

With the break in the enemy's force the fleet turned its attention to the remaining ships. The Star Shadows dropped their cloaks and restored shielding, they were behind the enemy now and firing to kill, disabling was out of the question for the moment. The Foreseers consentrated on the missles, hitting each one at long range.

"Aelstari damn us all..." Helis muttered to himself as dozens of ships from several different factions jumped into the system.

"We need to continue, Captain. Protocol is very clear. We must destroy any threat similar to the Outbreak, for the sake of the Imperium and her interests." the commander of S.A.R.G pressed on.

"Lieutenant," The captain called to his communications officer, "Patch in a message to the Terrafortress. Tell them we've encountered an unknown number of targets that fall under Code 91B. Fill them in on everything they need to know about the colony. Keep the comm channel opened for any possible hails from within the system. We're outnumbered and outgunned on all sides, and we don't need anyone trying to blow us up if they don't feel they have to."

Captain Helis commanded the Keskir and the Uron toward the planet, managing to route the ships around most of the fighting. With all the larger ships going at it, the two cruisers easily slipped past most of the combat and toward the planet's orbit. The HMP Keskir released three drop ships toward the surface; their mission was to report back to the Keskir any information they gathered on the threat known as the Fiends.

Karotha smiled as she saw the queen appear from the horde of monsters. She floated back a bit, to ensure that her aura of death did not start to affect the beings she was trying to ally with. She listened to the telepathic message of the strange alien queen and nodded. So these Templar had committed some experiments on the monsters which stood before her. Glancing about as the Queen asked if she were with their oppressors and its minions stiffened. She smiled, as much as a Shade Lord could smile. The Queen didn't know of what she could do, so she was not surprised she thought she could intimidate her. But her purpose was parley, not slaughter. "No, I am not. I am with no one, for the moment. However, our goals are the same. We seek to feast upon the souls of the living, their life force. We are powerful, we are strong, and we are many. If you so wish, we can combine our forces, and see an end to all your enemies and their allies. There seems to be a heavy presence within the system already. If you need, I can proceed to....deal with them as well as bring down forces to aid your cleansing of this world. Do we have a pact?"

As she waited for the Queen's answer, she stiffened as she sensed two different forces coming at their location. The Crimson Guard deployed a small squad of blessed weapon-wielding beings. She smirked within her mind, they would be nothing. And now, one of the space forces, a single ship had deployed three pods towards the surface, towards them. She turned back to the Queen. "It would appear our enemies are closing in on our location. I will handle the squad coming in from the east, I will let you handle the drop pods. That is, if you agree to our pact."

Narshai, meanwhile, stood onboard the cruiser, gazing at the battle going on. So far, their black ship, only the size of a cruiser, had gone unnoticed in the orbit of the planet. Then again, these mortals did not know the power the Shade Lords commanded. He gazed at the Lorkhan ships which had come into orbit and deployed dropships. He glanced at the Nijai controller. "Any word from Karotha?"

It shook its head. "Nothing yet, Great Lord."

Naisha nodded. "Very well. Just in case, power up the weapons and shielding, and have all Nijai pilots get to their fighters and have all three Legions prepared. I want to be ready in cas she wants use to show these fools what power is all about." The Nijai complied with his request and the ship began to give off strange readings, which seemed like energy but nothing any of the forces had ever seen. The ship was also obscured by a strange, flowing black field which gave off a strong, similar signature. For now, the cruiser was ready to deal death on a great scale, it only waited for an attack on them or Karotha's word.

The three ATC VII's (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Dropship_77-Troop_Carrier) flew over a thousand feet in the air over the planet of Hauro in standard V pattern, each shuttle with fifteen rugged Imperium Marines begging for a good fight. Many of the soldiers had undertaken the Vasjaier oath of the Aelstari faith, which meant that they might have even been looking forward to death as well. It was a chilling thought in the back of the S.A.R.G platoon leader's mind.

***

Captain Helis had served for his people over fifteen standard years, and he had come out and seen the better side of almost as many conflicts. Still there was something about this mission that just hadn't sat well with him. It wasn't in the Lorkhai's nature to feel uneasy about battle, but the circumstances surrounding this particular operation were anything but natural. There was the threat of the Fiend species on the planet below, a species which could well be contained by the combined forces already in the system. But there was something else, something that triggered that sixth sense developed over years of experience, and he felt it all around him.

"Sir," an ensign working a scanning board on the bridge patched in to Helis. "We're picking up strange readings not too far from here. Should we check it out?"

The chill in his gut hit harder, as if this strange energy had been connected to his unease. It played out like a horror film. The temptation of the unknown pulling the ship in to it's grasp, it's purveyor swallowing the ship whole in it's maw. Like the ancient tales of the Greek sirens in the Mediterranean sea of Old Earth. Only this wasn't a story. It was real, and there were real lives at steak.

"Ignore it, Ensign Ridan. Lt. Semari, inform the ground teams that we're regrouping with the rest of the battle group and waiting on our support, and get in touch with those damned Loyalists!"

The ships began to pull out from orbit as Lt. Semari sent his message to the ground teams. Luck was yet again on their side as they made their way back to the other Imperium vessels in the system. On the way, the Keskir sent another message.

"Attention, Void Loyalists, this is the HMP Keskir. We've sent a platoon to assist in dealing with the Fiend threat. Requesting known Fiend locations and permission to converge with your ground forces in dealing with the Fiend threat, over."

***

The ATC VII's landed on what would serve as the best strategic position they could spot in their flight over the colony, a butte overlooking a lake with a small foot bridge leading up it's side. Lieutenant Calson, the S.A.R.G representative and commander of the operation, had a makeshift defense center thrown up in just under an hour. Here the team would wait and prepare themselves until they were confirmed with a location of the Fiends. With sixty men defending a butte that had only one means of elevation, it would be difficult for any invading force to interrupt them. Two of the ATC VII's lifted off and continued their patrol, their pilots just begging for a horde of nasty critters to give them a reason to release their payload.