There was a double crescent in the sky over Halgred, Home-Planet of War King Draconisis. One crescent resembled a frown and the other a smirk, each pointing in their respective orbit directions. The diorite-like floor of the balcony seemed to eat all light that touched it. The emerald railing that was lining the edge is seated atop its deep-red, wooden legs which were planted seamlessly into the floor. Draconisis' claw tapped rhythmically on the arm of his chair which was made of cold, rough metal. The War King often enjoyed this view from the balcony of his palace. Tonight was exceptionally wonderful. Since the moons rose he was here, in this chair, enjoying the rare celestial sight. Hours of pleasurable silence were broken as a Wyvern slithered up behind him with some papers in her hand; he acknowledged her before she could think to speak.
"What."
"Recon has provided information from investigating the effects of the weapon intended for us, on Earth and its inhabitants."
Draconisis sat silently, his gaze never leaving the double crescent. The Wyvern waited a few more seconds before continuing.
"Most of the population fell to the weapon."
"Most?!"
Draconisis stood up immediately, a grin on his face, joy in his voice.
"Those barbarians are tougher than I thought!"
He started laughing, sounding jolly and intrigued. The Wyvern smiled back, it was rare for Draconisis to show joy so openly.
"The recon team also reported a small number of automatons survived the crash as well."
The smile evaporated from Draconisis's face at the word.
"Captain Steegle was amoung them I'd wager."
"Yes, as well as Jinrai The Immortal."
"Oh. I forgot he was mentioned in the original report. What was said about injuries?" The War King's left arm appeared from beneath his wings, which were draped around him as if they were a cloak, it rubbed his chin in curiosity.
The Wyvern opened up said report in front of her and turned on a projection so Draconisis could read for himself. His eyes darted furiously over the pages as he read and took in each and every detail. He even read the highly detailed biological data on the changes to the human's physiology, all in the span of about 2 minutes.
"Interesting. These seem to be a tough group of automatons. Captain Steegle chose her warriors well."
"Do you wish to send a battalion to finish off Earth?"
Draconisis turned around again to gaze at the moons. He was silent for a while as they glided slowly across the sky, an optical illusion thanks to the time of night it was. The Wyvern waited silently and viewed the moons as well. Everyone knew it was unwise to badger The Unifier's Descendant when he was enjoying himself.
"Send Xiloch and 4 of his choosing to Earth to deal with the remaining automatons. That should be enough to deal with the artificial filth."
"What about the humans who've survived?"
"They've earned the right to live. Leave them to their new lives on their Feral World. We will neither protect them nor aid them. They will reach the stars on their time."
"Enjoy the moons War King."
"Thank you daughter."
The Wyvern slithered off the balcony and closed the doors behind her making sure they were shut before she spoke to her comm.
"Xiloch, awaken."
A few seconds of silence went by as The Wyvern made her way down the hallway to the mission room, then a deep and raspy voice answered.
"Who's the target Princess?"
"The remaining Androids on Earth. The humans are to be left alone."
"Clean up?"
"Jinrai and Lancieta are still alive. They should prove to make the mission entertaining."
"Now that sounds like fun. Who am I to lead?"
"Four of your own choosing. Report to me once you've gathered them to your side, I want to brief you on the human's new abilities and what the automatons have left to defend themselves with."
"Abilities? Hmm... effects of the weapon meant for our people?"
"Report to me after you've gathered your team Xiloch."
The line went dead and Xiloch smashed his hand onto his bedside table. He roared an indistinguishable word with a sly grin on his face. In a few minutes 4 of his assassins showed up at his door on their air-bikes. Once he grabbed his gear he exited his unit, not acknowledging his assassins sitting outside as he mounted his own bike. They quietly followed him to the Mission Room. The low hum of their bikes is almost drowned out by the sounds of the city around them.
Halgred are a race that actively change their sleep schedules. Since their one true love is war, the entire race are actively on call and their shifts are changed constantly. Diurnal, nocturnal, crepuscular, matutinal, and vespertine, they all change between these sleep schedules and do so without fatigue. However, if someone shows difficulty with the changes after maturity they are culled. These changes are necessary due to the psychological effects on the individual.
The double crescent is casting it's red and blue light on the elevated street as the five assassins glide across to the central building. They arrive at the Mission Room building and one of them breaks the silence before they walk in.
"Commander, I have to be honest."
"Please."
"I have been having some difficulty adjusting to Crepuscular, as much as I enjoy the twilight it proves a challenge."
Xiloch stopped, looked into the young man's eyes and studied the muscle movements in his face. Korth neither looked worried or confident, just ready and slightly tired.
"If you fail to adjust during our transit to Earth and die in battle you will have your truth. If you survive, you are adjusting just fine and are worrying for nothing."
"I understand Commander. Thank you for keeping me on this mission."
"If I were in your position I'd rather die in battle."
Xiloch quickly about faced and entered the Mission Room, his assassins in tow.
"My team is present and accounted for Princess. In order of accomplishment: Gridt, Jir, Trik, and the Egg is Korth."
"The Egg looks to be having Shift Change Syndrome."
"If he dies, he dies."
The princess glared at the young one disapprovingly for a moment then looked to the others and began.
"A total number of 19 Androids survived the crash into Earth."
Gridt makes a hacking sound, as she nudged Trik and looked at Jir.
"Fucken automatons, too stupid to know to shut down."
Trik nodded in agreement and Jir smiled as the Wyvern Princess continued.
"Amoung them are Captain Lancieta Steegle and Jinrai the Immortal."
Trik pounded his fists together at the sound of their names.
Korth smiled, looking a little more awake than before. Xiloch was pleased with his team's spirit.
"What are we to do with the humans?"
"There are still billions left so only kill the ones in your way. You aren't to hunt them before or after your mission is done."
Korth nodded.
"Sounds fair. They survived the weapon, they earned their lives."
The Princess smiled as the Egg said the same words as her father.
"Recon information suggests you take a Break-Ship to attack 5 of their camps simultaneously. Most of their light weapons seem to be still functional judging from the scans. Standard armour is suggested. There are no signs of anti-Halgred weapon capability. Power sources are running low. It seems they are diverting power to feed and shelter the surviving humans especially on their Ice Continent, but there's no one of import there."
Gridt snorted and the Wyvern gave her attention.
"Do we know, without any doubt, if they have any heavy weapons Princess?"
"Scans say they are using all power cores to supplement the energy to maintain what's left of their Dreadnaught."
"That's no fun."
The Princess continued. "Some of the humans have been seen conversing with the Automatons so you will have more than Automatons to fight."
"Shouldn't be too hard Princess as they've been reduced to Feral states." Jir said, sounding board.
The Princess glared at Jir and pulled up the collected bio-data.
"Their physiology has been greatly altered. Some of them can move as fast as us, others obtained our tough hide, some have the melting breath of our elders, others can become invisible as you can and some seem to have developed poison or venom. These can excrete fluids from their mouths and claws. The strength is unknown."
"Well that sounds fun! I wonder how much resistance we will get." Jir was wearing a giant smile now. Xiloch elbowed him in the chest and snorted.
"None if we do our jobs correctly. We aren't to hunt them. That order includes needlessly provoking."
"Right, right, a lapse."
"That's everything you need me to tell you. I trust you'll be taking Kraken, Xiloch?"
"That's correct princess." He nodded with a slight bow.
"I'll send the data to that ship then. Enjoy the mission."
"We will princess."
"Eviscerate!" Xiloch's team roared word and they left the Mission Room with haste. The Egg, Korth, seemed invigorated by the briefing. His eyes felt wider, his muscles were relaxed yet ready.
"I've got 2 years..." He thought to himself. It will be 2 years (8 Earth months) later on their massive homeworld Halgred when they arrive on Earth. Time he can spend properly adjusting to sleep changes. Gridt rode up next to Xiloch. The others were quite a distance behind them.
"Is it really ok for us to take an Egg with us?"
Xiloch grunted before speaking into his helmet comm.
"That's right. You two haven't met Korth yet. The short answer is he has 20 Heavy Automaton kills, 18 Andromedian organisms and 2 moving fortresses on his record. Trik trained him when he was a hatchling."
Gridt giggled with glee at the young Halgred's resume.
"He likes to tangle with the big guns huh? Hey Jir, Looks like the Egg has bigger balls than you do!"
"I'd rather see body parts than torn metal, his record means nothing to me."
Xiloch stopped immediately, jumped backwards off his bike and clothes-lined Jir off his own before the blow-hard knew what happened. Trik continued riding to the elevator paying the discipline no mind. Jir shook the daze off and got to one knee as Xiloch spoke.
"It's been a while so I'll be kind. When you're on my team there will be no hazing. There will be no talking down to team members. Lastly, there will be NO challenging my authority for mission control..."
Xiloch abruptly walked back to his air bike and straddled it, looking back as he gripped the handle bars.
"Unless you want me to eat your heart."
Xiloch rode off as Gridt sneered at Jir. Korth slowed down just enough to get a sentence out. "You're more than welcome to challenge me when the mission is over." Then he went after the rest of the team.
Jir hammer-fisted the wall beside him, gritting his teeth in rage. He climbed back on his bike and followed the team to the space elevator. For decades the Halgred have been one of the few races paying attention to transmissions from Earth, amoung other lesser developed worlds. Everything from Voyager, to small data bursts sent out by wayward lab techs left alone with satellite systems. The name "Kraken" came from one of those data bursts.
Like many warships Kraken has one main section and the others can break off for tactical operations. It wasn't anywhere close to the length of the miles-long Shinimorte but that's because Kraken is an infiltration ship. It's "legs" resemble stubby tentacles about as big as a one story house or a shipping container. Conversely the space port it's docked at brings to mind a luminescent lotus flower. The Halgred are a war race but the beauty of nature is treasured. Ships are constantly taking off and landing like bees further enhancing the flower motif.
The Space elevator ride is about 45 minutes, a ride that's taken in silence save for the low volume mumbles between Xiloch, Trik and Gridt. When the doors open they jump to action.
"Gridt check the engines. Korth set the coordinates. Jir load up the weapons. I trust Trik is already checking the other systems and fuel."
The three did as instructed and Xiloch made his way to the bridge. It wasn't too long ago that he was given a mission to take out a small recon team that had appeared in an uninhabited zone of the Halgred territories. After 18 days he had collected all 8 of their hearts and destroyed their ship. The recon team had obviously been fitted with the best of anti-Halgred weaponry but they were no match.. Xiloch specialized in CQC and he made sure his enemies had to engage him in kind by wearing a projectile disrupter. No matter if it was shot from a handgun or a railgun, any projectile that touches the field is directed elsewhere leaving the wearer unharmed. It was fairly affective against low intensity concussive blasts as well. He sets this module aside as he takes his position in the captain's chair and hails Gridt.
"How are the engines?"
"As expected sir. Should I activate the light-drive?"
"Yes we will be leaving shortly... although - Jir!"
"Yes sir?"
"Almost finished?"
"I'm securing the last of the supplies now."
"Good. I want you to add 4 arm-guns. I know the Princess said we won't need heavy weapons but I just had a strange feeling."
"Fine..." Jir sounded like a child who was told to brush his teeth before going to bed.
"Excuse me Captain."
"Speak Korth."
"Coordinates are set and course corrections are in place."
"Course corrections for what exactly?"
"Reports just came in about enemy battalions set up between Halgred and Earth."
"Very good Korth."
"Trik, I assume everything is in order?"
"Yes."
Xiloch fired up the engines and went to set up his own bunk as he waited for Jir to gather the arm-guns. Arm-guns are heavy weapons designed for taking down enemy craft either in space or on land, as well as Guardian-Spec Combat suits. Before they are worn, they look like liquid metal almonds 2 feet long and ¾ foot wide, when activated they attach to the shoulder of one's armour and engulf the rest of one's arm. Wearing one means you lose the use of that hand until the unit is deactivated but if you're wearing one you don't need your hand in that moment.
*****
The journey was uneventful. However, the only caveat with this mission was that the Halgred never had a reason to travel to Earth. The scout only relayed information back to the home world. In order to travel via warped-space, the scout's computer must make physical contact with the home world mainframe so the neurons could be copied exactly. This was the problem with stolen technology and by extension, technology forcefully extracted from someone with mental blocks implanted. You don't understand how it works completely, which is why it took them years to arrive at Earth, instead of hours.
Korth spoke as the team left the bridge and each made way to their break-ships. "This is a desolate star system. It's a wonder they haven't killed themselves."
Xiloch docked onto the husk of Captain Steegle's Dreadnaught and Trik got to work helping the Kraken's computer copy everything it could. Korth looked up weather patterns for their entry points as he readied his break ship for launch.
"Jir, there's a storm system above your area. You should steer clear of it."
"Don't tell me what to do egg."
Their ships separated and they made their way to each designated entry point. Hopefully not much had changed with the automatons since the initial report. Jir didn't really care one way or another, he preferred to get the job done as quickly as possible. He aimed his ship for the eye of the storm and made his way down, degrading his energy shielding, faster than safety protocols dictated, as he forced his way through the atmosphere. Turbulence threw him off course, which a little beeping sound alerted him to. Thick black clouds were all he could see as water splattered against his windows. Then one, two, three, four. Lightning struck his craft in rapid succession making every light and warning sound go off as his emergency lighting switched over. The winds and debris in the storm battered his ship as he fought with the controls to keep it as steady as possible. A smile inched across his face.
As he continued to fight the storm around him he caught a glimpse at a good landing zone before the clouds blocked his view once again. The ship suddenly pitches wildly; one of the noises he was ignoring had been trying to warn him of a large mass, it was a mountain. He wrenched the ship in the opposite direction and barely kept it from spinning out of control. It roared down the side of the mountain just above the surface of the snow and took out a few trees before violently settling down in a clearing.
"Jir I'm getting warnings from your ship, are you alright?"
"Perfect Gridt. Just landed."
"You... how are... the rest of us are still on approach! How... You know what, if you can't take off after your mission is complete we're leaving you here."
Jir powered down his ship and grabbed his weapons ignoring Gridt completely and leaving her to talk to his empty cockpit. Two energy blades, one on each arm, a shotgun and a sniper-combat rifle on his back. He gave the liquid-metal, almond-shaped arm-gun a disgusted glance before departing. The scout readout said the enemy base was 3 miles away from his current location. If his entry went as he hoped any readings the enemy may have gotten were skewed by the storm and he saved himself 10 miles of walking. On the other hand, if they did pick up his ship he still saved 10 miles of walking. Some humans looked on in curiosity through the snow blowing around them but Jir paid them no mind. He knew that once he did he'd get the itch to hunt. Before he could ignore the thought something caught his eye, a flash of movement.
"Who's there?"
The words sounded strange to the humans who were nearby. They had spoken with the Androids but this didn't sound like their language. The bipedal reptile was an oddity in their already new and unfamiliar world. The wind continued blowing snow around, essentially causing a whiteout for anything farther than 13 feet around him. He turned on his visor and saw something on the thermal imager. It was a strange form with four long legs, a short neck, a thick tail with a bulbous end and a relatively high heat signature covered in draping fur. It stood in front of him, its stance imposing, yet perfectly still in this storm.
"That thing has to be almost 15 feet tall... Looks like a challenge."
The white-yellow blob blurred from view and in seconds Jir could feel its hot breath on his neck. His hand was already on his shotgun as he lunged away from the creature and aimed backward letting off a volley of shots. He quickly turned around and saw the creature was curiously fine.
"Interesting."
He switched his shotgun from concussive to explosive and let off another volley. The projectiles seemed to bounce off the creature and sent the surrounding snow into the air as they exploded. The now mostly white blob in his visor flashed once more and Jir almost immediately felt a crushing pain in his side half a second before he felt himself sailing through the air. The creature bum-rushed him and sent him hurtling head first into a nearby 4 foot wide tree, sending it to the ground.
"What the fuck is this thing?"
By now all the humans had disappeared from the area, there was only one heat signature on his visor. He drew his sniper-combat rifle and leveled a few seconds of high velocity full-auto at the creature. Blood dripped from his head as he traced the rounds trajectories with his heat vision still activated, he saw they were curving away from the creature. He switched modes to pick up energy fields and saw an incredibly strong one around the creature. It looked like nothing but a mass of intersecting lines that got denser the closer to the center they were. It rushed him again and he instinctively ignited his energy blades and swiped at the creature as he dashed backwards. The blade fizzled out from an overload letting Jir know what kind of field it was.
"Biologic disruptor..."
The wind died down and he switched his vision aid off. The creature looked like a cross between a praying mantis and a woolly mammoth. Massive armour-ike plates covered its legs and underside. The rest was covered by a fine, flowy fur shrouding its face and the rest of its body. It's seemingly small head had two large tusks jutting down from its mouth. Jir noticed two bulbous areas on either side of the creature as he took careful calculated steps away from it, trying to figure out how to engage. He roared in frustration that this creature was in his way. The creature stopped, almost confused but roared back. It sounded like two one tonne iron weights, grinding together in a large factory. Jir's smirk faded and he knew then that this creature wasn't just a result of the virus. It was a type of creature native only to a few worlds. A creature most people would rightfully run away from.
"It is a Gridtesch..." He thought, his vague smile returning as he relished what this meant for him.
It charged him again and this time Jir stood his ground. He dropped down and rammed his shoulder into the creature's underside lifting it up and flipping it over, sending it crashing into a tree behind them. He tried to ram an energy blade into its side but it was dissipated again by the creature's field. It's tail caught him off guard as it swung into his leg, one of the spikes driving itself deep. Jir looked down in confusion and as the creature pulled its tail away blood oozed from the hole. He roared out in pain as he fell over.
The creature righted itself and tried to make another swing with its tail. Jir caught it before it made contact with his head and dug his claws into it, cracking the armour plating between the spikes. The creature swung it wildly, letting out another terrifying cry and sent Jir tumbling 20 feet, digging a trench into the already 4 foot deep snow. He looked around to get his bearings and saw his break-ship. He looked for the creature and saw it nursing it's injured tail.
"Now's my chance."
Jir hobbled back to his ship and grabbed the liquid metal almond and placed it over his right shoulder. As it formed onto his arm he grabbed a first aid gun and pumped its contents into his leg, groaning as he did so. The arm-gun let him know when it was fully initialized.
"Cannon fully charged. Clip at max capacity."
Jir smiled at the sentence then looked at the creature outside his ship.
"Time for killing."
When he exited his ship, the creature finally spotted him. It charged with it's impossible speed again but Jir dodged out of the way. The creature collided with the ship, leaving a small dent in the hull.
"COME ON!" Jir roared as he pounded his chest before tackling the creature making it collide with his ship again, lifting it off of one of its supports this time.
The creature nudged Jir off of it and the ship slammed back down to Earth, digging into the ground and shaking the area around them, shaking snow off the nearby trees. The creature let out a groan as it struggled against it's bipedal opponent. Jir clawed at its side with his free hand, tearing through the curiously tough fur. He simultaneously punched with the cannon and fired a shot point-blank at the creatures head making it fall over, it's head violently lurching away from Jir as the shot connected.
"You're not dead yet, ARE YOU?!"
The fur from the bulbous portion on the creatures side moved and before he could react a clawed appendage shot out and cleaved through his left bicep. It was Jir's turn to roar in pain as he stumbled away from the creature looking at the stump he was left with. He charged the creature, running on three limbs, as it shakily stood up. The creature barely gets onto all four of it's feet as Jir makes contact. He rams the arm-cannon into the area where the claw came from and fired an energy round. The creature roared its metallic sound again as the appendage dropped to the ground from beneath its furry confines. Jir used the recoil from the shot to set himself up to throw the animal, utilizing what was left of his other arm. Like a professional weight lifter trying to flip a giant tire with one arm, he fired another energy shot behind him and used the force to lift the creature off the ground and onto its back. He punched the cannon into the creature's chest and fired an impact round. It cracked but it's armour plating didn't break.
The creature groaned in confusion as the Halgred continued unleashing his fury. Jir switched the cannon into CQC mode and the barrel tip became a spike. He punched again and again as the creature tried to regain its bearings. The armour cracked a little more with each hit. Jir switched the cannon back to projectile mode. As he brought the cannon down to hopefully break into the creature's chest, its other claw shot out and cleaved off his right leg from the calf down. He rammed the cannon into the creature's chest as he fell, finally breaking through its armour and he smiled, blood still dripping from his head.
"Die."
He let loose a barrage of shots and the creature rattled in response, letting out one last terrifying roar.
Jir was breathing heavy, as he tried to assess what had happened to his body.
"Seal... wounds." He said as he fell off the creature. The cannon liquefied and slithered over what was left of his leg as he passed out.
*****
An electric shock woke Jir up. His eyes darted around furiously trying to recall his last memory. He felt two intense pains. His left bicep and his right leg, just below the knee. He rolled onto his side and saw the corpse of the Gridtesch he brought down.
"Vitals."
"Blood loss minimal. Amputations sealed off and sterilized from infection."
"Was I poisoned?"
"No poison detected in blood stream."
"Guess I'll load up my trophy and continue the mission. Is there a prosthesis mode?"
"Arm and leg available."
"Leg."
The Arm cannon slithered down to his leg and formed the rest of his calf and a new foot. The assassin stood up and limped over to the creature, quickly getting used to not having a foot or left arm. He grabbed a tusk of the creature and dragged it into his ship. He kicked open a crate and pulled out a piece of heavy armour. He placed it over his left shoulder and spoke a command.
"Mode: Auto-turret."
The limb reconfigured into a holster and Jir grabbed another rifle, locked it into place and left the ship with a smile.
"Eviscerate."
*****
Altruis was the Navigator before the ship crashed into Earth. Since she landed she became interested in the many sports the people of Earth enjoyed. She also spent much of her time, to Talved's dismay, helping humans enjoy altered versions of these activities. Talved is currently attending a meeting the humans had organized. He became interested in the way the humans were attempting to rebuild. The Master of ceremony, a Vulture named Enakai, motions to Talved waking him out of thinking about Altruis playing with the humans.
"Since we've woken up, the Androids have done nothing but help us. I'm aware of the feeling many of us have, that they intend to either kill us or enslave us. To that sentiment I say this; we have seen our cities, clearly they are not lying about our time asleep. Also, if they intended to kill us why stay on the planet? Why not kill us with the weapons they've shown us? Instead they used the energy that could power those weapons to help us. We already have villag..."
At that moment an explosion rocked the meeting hall of the large cabin they were in. The vulture looked to Talved whom, uncharacteristically, looked confused. Some in attendance might even have said he looked terrified. Enakai's demeanor immediately changed as he gave an order.
"Guardians in attendance, join me outside."
"I'm coming too!" Talved yelled as he saw the small group of about 20 race to the door. Talved reached under his jacket and pulled out a rifle he'd smithed together from salvaged parts. He pulled back on the bolt and disengaged the safety. When they got to the main door of the hall Enakai took stock of the Guardians he'd appointed weeks earlier.
"Team one, take the east exit, team 2 take the west. Talved, I want you to cover the rest of us as we exit through the main entrance."
"You sure that's a good idea?"
"You told me you were a combat analyst, I was a general. You can analyze my plans after we've dealt with this, for now LISTEN TO WHAT I TELL YOU."
"No need to ruffle your feathers Enakai, I've got your backs."
The squads split up at the next junction as the main entrance was in sight. Talved posted by the door and waited for everyone else to get in position. Enakai kept psychic tabs on the teams and when the last Guardian got into position he spoke telepathically to everyone.
"Move."
Talved nearly ripped the door off its hinges. What looked like an armour plated bear was the first to run out, Talved's bullets tore through the air beside her like escort fighter jets. He took cover behind the door frame after he emptied his clip ten seconds later, by which time the team he was with had already taken posts outside the main doors. Another explosion shook the area and the shockwave hit Talved with more force than he anticipated, causing him to fall back. When he looked up he saw the source of the explosions. A Halgred assassin, no doubt here for him and Altruis.
The bear ran into the Dragonoid and was thrown off as quickly as she made contact. The Halgred's left arm moved strangely, letting loose a volley of shots at the bear, all of which bounced off leaving her unscathed. Enkai swooped in, aiming for the gun in the Halgred's left hand but when he grabbed it, it wouldn't budge. The Halgred stretched out his claws and swatted Enkai to the ground, with a deafening thud. Before his body hit, a large reptilian-headed Human loosed a blast of fire at the Halgred's upper half, engulfing him in flames. A second reptilian themed human leapt into the fireball, tackling the Assassin to the ground, attempting to grab his head in its large maw. The Halgred raised his strange right leg and Talved yelled while running toward the fray.
"GET BACK!"
A loud hum was heard then a low bass sound bellowed from the Halgred's leg. Talved dropped to one knee and tried to ignore the lifeless body that now had a 12 inch hole in it. He fired a few more shots that mushroomed uselessly on the Halgred's scales. Jir turned and saw his first Android target.
"They didn't give me The Immortal or Steegle!"
He leapt onto his feet and roared his rage as the bear charged him again. He raised his left leg as if he were going to give her a front kick but that hum was heard again. The Halgred used the momentum from kicking up to propel himself into the air. He aimed his right leg at her and she took a full blast from his leg cannon. She groaned in pain as she was sent flying back into a boulder; you heard the bones break as she hit but impossibly, she was still alive. The Halgred's automated gun aimed behind him and took fire at a cheetah-bear hybrid. Each shot missing its target but the only thing the human could do was dodge, let alone close the istance.
The Halgred charged towards Talved and the analyst unsheathed an energy blade. A weapon specifically designed for CQC against Halgred. The Dragonoid raised a hand and grabbed Talved's wrist, stopping the blade 4 inches above his head. He sneered as Talved tried to choke him with his free hand.
"You aren't a combat class automaton, you weakling."
Talved smiled and disappeared from view. "No, I'm not."
The energy blade reappeared in front of the Halgred's face as it dropped from the restrained hand and disappeared again just in front of him. The Halgred felt a burning sensation in his abdomen just before he jumped away from the Android. He put a hand over the cauterized gash in his gut, took a few more steps back and stumbled over, coughing up blood. As Talved reappeared, the Halgred noticed the coagulated blood on the hilt of the blade.
"I'm actually just like you. An Assassin."
The Halgred's eyes widened as he muttered a Halgred word that Talved couldn't make out.
The two other squads emerged from the building. Bullets and assorted improvised projectiles rained on the Halgred. They all did nothing but mushroom on contact, falling uselessly to the ground or ricocheting in random angles. Two people leapt at their downed enemy seeking to finish him off, Talved yelled, trying to stop them.
"STAY BACK DAMMIT!"
Another hum filled the air followed by the bassy boom of the energy shot. The ape fell out of the air, dead before he hit the ground and further back an Elephant dropped to the ground as well, missing part of its head. A Rhinoceros attempted to land with all of its weight on the Halgred's head but he rolled away as the sound of snapping wood came from the tree line. His ship exploded through, sending wood flying like a shotgun blast. A shockwave pulsed out from the ship knocking back anyone close to its pilot.
The ship hovered over Jir and a beam engulfed him, pulling him into it's safe metallic embrace. As the ship lifted him up he was now relatively still for the first time since the fight started. A shot crackled from a few yards away, Talved looked in the direction of the shot in surprise. He didn't notice before but all the lights from town went out. He looked back at the Halgred and saw Jir was now missing his entire left shoulder and by extension, the auto-turret. The Halgred roared in the direction the railgun shot came from, just before he disappeared into the ship. The Cheetah-Bear had jumped up too late and missed its target. It was pushed to the ground as another shockwave bellowed from the bottom of the ship. As soon as the hatch shut, the ship took off as fast as it could.
Talved deactivated his blade and hammer-fisted a street pole next to him, his face remained completely devoid of emotion. The pole collapsed and spoke to the truth behind the emotionless stare.