Emissary's Story

Asher raised an eyebrow, "Really? Nothing from Zuin?" He took another sip from the scotch and lime, fearing it might be his last for a while. Emissary. thought Asher, recalling the battle on Zuin. With Hellward's aid, Zuin was able to put an end to a series of deceptive attacks spearheaded by one of the sneakiest enemies known to man.
Emissary, under the guise of a peaceful diplomat, traveled throughout empire space to glean information from mankind's colonies and coax them into bringing their guard down. Afterwards, a cleverly produced trap or ambush would be waiting to fall on the hapless, unsuspecting people it dealt with.
Asher put his drink down and swept his gaze over to Rudger, "Zuin's OK. This is probably a trap. Emissary is waiting for us somewhere in the Agnium system. The moment we go to check it out, he'll make his move....so if we're going, we need to get there quiet." Taking another sip of his drink he added, "I suspect we've got more than a few hours to get ready, Emissary's got patience and we need a good plan."

"Very well commander, let me know when we can make something happen!" Rudger was confident as he thought, that any enemy they would encounter would taste the bitter end of hellward's best and could only hope to make the use of his skills again soon, until that time all that could be done is prepare and train. now about that meal... Rudger sat at Asher's table and found the waitress was prompt, ordering a beer and the daily special, some kind of soup and sandwich, his only distractions from thoughts of battle were the ladies at the bar.

No rest for a soldier.

First Letum, now Emissary. The ghosts of Hellward's past were all coming back. Emissary didn't possess nearly the level of intelligence exhibited by Magister Letum, however, his damage to the empire was quite extensive. Emissary had everyone going. Tricking the empire into believing the Exomachina could be reasoned with; and who could blame them for trying? Any sort of bargaining posture could lead to an end to the war, even if it would be a step at the time.
The Exomachina had no mercy. That was all too clear now.

Zuin wasn't a far jump. The crew would experience a brief blackout while in flash stasis, the effect would be similar to falling asleep for two seconds while standing. Still, Asher wasn't happy about embarking on another mission so soon after the last one. He could permit a day's rest; no more. Leaving a task to rest wasn't the Hellward Division's way.
He needed to check the available roster of pilots and form a strategy.
"Speed." said Asher simply, catching the attention of a soup-slurping Omnii, "Power and speed. Enjoy the soup, Omnii." Graves sat up and excused himself from the table, leaving his drink behind.

Graves made his way back to briefing room, third time today.
When Asher entered he found the lights had been turned off. Quietly, Asher took a step forward and at that moment the large view-screen flickered, revealing a woman's form clouded in static. When the fuzz faded away he took notice of a handsome woman with piercing blue eyes and a short mess of black hair that melded into the dark background. "Hello, Commander." It was a familiar voice.
"Marcie?"
"Yes, it's me. How do you like the new interface? Compliments of Captain Ruban." She referred of course to the man who sat at the helm of Cortex.
Asher remained silent for a short while. "Why are the lights off?" Quickly, light flooded back into the room.
"Apologies, sir. I was hoping to make my first appearance in this form...a bit more dramatic."
"I see," a mental reflex was triggered, "It's a good look for you, Marcie."
"Thank you, Commander."

Asher became aware that his heart had began pounding. He turned away from the view-screen and Marcie's...eyes.
"You seem uncomfortable, Commander."
"No, I'm fine." he derailed the subject effortlessly, "Just received information on some suspicious activity near Zuin."
Marcie smiled...expressing relief? Asher found himself starting to calm down. He realized this wasn't the result of elation, though Marcie's appearance was indeed attractive; the new feeling he was getting was closer to fear. Graves was beginning to feel he couldn't trust Marcie. "I need to know which pilots are mission-ready, Marcie. Starting tomorrow morning."
"Yes sir....just a second...." the AI's avatar put her fingers to her temples, as if locating the Hellward members via psychic link, "At this time; Taxi, Atomic, Virgin Blue....and Golden Phoenix."
"Elionzvie is ready?"
"Affirmative, sir. Thanks to the new treatment, Aster Rei Elionzvie's recovery time from nervous system shock has been nearly cut in half. She'll be mission-ready in the morning."

Asher put his hands in his pockets and leaned back on the wall. It was preferred over the command chair. "OK. Leave a message with Elionzvie, Omnii and Alex-Zander-"
"Not Ike Salvo, sir?"
Asher was annoyed she'd interrupt him like that, "No. Not Salvo, Marcie. I need personnel that match the criteria for the mission. Tell the three pilots that I had picked to report to the briefing room at 0900 hours."
"Yes, sir." said the AI, sheepishly.
"I'm returning to my quarters for the rest of the evening. Good night, Marcie."
Asher heard the AI mutter 'Good Night' behind him as he stormed out of the briefing room.

"Good, glad you could all make it here." Asher was pleased to finally break the silence, another minute and the briefing would've began. Commander Graves sighed, the pilot wasn't even in uniform. The kid's a little lower on the rungs, you can give him a little bit of breathing room. Asher acknowledged his thought with a measured nod, then took the nearest wall, once again preferring to lean than sit. "At ease. Take a seat if you want to, Alex-Zander." he gestured to the chairs around the briefing room table, when he spoke he looked towards the main screen, its imagery changing in correlation to his words, "Here's the situation, people. Rudger Omnii's AI companion noted a strange occurrence on planet Zuin, a small jungle world with high geological growth found in the Agnium system. The readings couldn't pick up anything, communications went silent. I was there myself, about a year ago and at that time an Exomachina named Emissary appeared, trying to promote goodwill, reasoning and negotiations between the Exos and the empire. Hellward team was stationed near Zuin at the time and when Emissary made its inevitable attack we were able to push him back. I suspect this is the work of Emissary.
"That being said, I also suspect that planet Zuin has been left unharmed, this type of trickery is sort of Emissary's forte. I imagine if we jumped to the Agnium system, Cortex would fall into a trap and everything we've worked for would be reduced to ashes, come no time at all. I think our best bet is to jump to the nearest star and then portage through the interstellar gap to Agnium. We're going to need a lot of fuel and speed for this mission and when we get to Emissary, we'll need to hit him hard. Now, for those of us using Neurosuits, crossing interstellar space can prove to be pretty tough, so we'll be using a launch and phase-through process. We'll be using a field level technology that would displace our molecular frequency, allowing us to pass through whatever material we come across out there. That is, until we get to our destination. Virgin Blue, the Big Bang will be outfitted with extra thrusters and plenty of additional fuel, you, unlike us, can maneuver yourself at extreme speeds. It's a small operation...but the element of surprise will give us the advantage. A good group of Hellward soldiers can often strike harder than an entire fleet if given the chance, I'm sure most of you have seen that from time to time." Asher Graves paused for a moment, letting the information seep in, "Alright, is there any questions? Strategies?" This time he examined the faces of the pilots, this would be their moment to contribute to the plan of action or to be clarified on any of the mission parameters.

"The view's hardly what matters. We're entering system," Aster reminded. As they slowly decelerated, Aster spread the Venganza's wings, quickly bringing her to a stop. Immediately, she unholstered her rifle, and began scanning the area for enemy targets, as ordered. She found... Nothing. That was disturbing. If the Exomachina were waiting in ambush, then they usually would be assembled in full array right outside of the warp zone. The only Exomachina she knew of who commanded its peons with an above-average level of tactical precaution was Letum, but he had just been driven back, hadn't he? He couldn't have moved his main body here, so how could he be in command? She had a feeling that this Emissary was of the same caliber as her old enemy, a fact which worried and angered her.

"No targets spotted, lead. Should I cover Blue?" Aster asked over the communications channel, the Venganza's starlike golden eyes turning to glance questioningly at her commander's machine.

Asher nodded, Stomp did as well. "Go ahead, Phoenix. Atomic and I will check along the--oh, God!" Backed by the light of a star cluster was a centipede-like Exomachina. A series of white domes ran along its back, one of them began to swell until it burst apart, exploding into miniscule metal fragments. The shower of metal spread outward, generating a field of electricity, the bolts of shock lapping the metal like a vile tongue.
It was likely the cause of the interference, why Zuin couldn't be contacted, why the team hadn't picked up any enemy signals as of yet.
This wasn't what Asher found disturbing. In fact, what worried him wasn't the stealth advantage of the Exomachina. It was the group of stars in the distance...because they weren't stars at all.
It was Emissary.
"Damn, we've been spotted!" With the rifle, Asher opened fire into the centipede creature, which exploded like a ball of confetti. Killing it triggered all the chaff simultaneously but at least it couldn't use them one at a time to prolong the cover of the Exos.


If Emissary could grin, he'd grin wide. Hellward has once again proven to be a crafty foe. Attack now, while we still have the stealth advantage. Without scanners, the enemy would have a hard time keeping track of Emissary, especially amidst such large-scale confusion. This provided Emissary with the perfect opportunity to employ a hit-and-run strategy, even despite his great size. In addition, the rest of the army can attack the Hellward Division's blind-spots with much less risk than normal, a statistical increase of 17%. This was....favourable.
He began to wind up, the outer iron spheres of his many bodies began to accelerate, beginning their deadly orbit. The spheres picked up in speed, he aligned one of them so that it was on a collision course with the three Neurosuits he found. The sphere, burning with a bright blue hue, easily dwarfed the three of them, they'd need to be fast to avoid impact. Emissary doubted they'd be fast enough...

Rudger piloted Aerios along Stomp's flank, beginning the scan brought nothing obvious. Moving cautiously, Aerios's sensors at maximum when Noose called out a creature involved in creating disarray and opened fire, he brought his cannon around and spewed crackling auras of energy through a cloud of metal excrement melting and clearing a quarter of the mass of junk now cluttering that region of space, flying at a rough delta, Aerios rolled over to dump a large amount of missiles in a sizable grid ahead of the team, short puffs of smoke aligned them in front the group as they accelerated before the odd chunks of mass accelerating in unnatural ways.

"Golden Phoenix, firing at will!" Aster shouted, searching for any other Exomachina to shoot down. As she moved her sights across the canopy of stars surrounding them, however, her eyes were met by what looked like a star, although she knew it wasn't. Although it was hard to notice it, it was rapidly coming closer, on a collision course for their position.

"INCOMING!" She cried, triggering her wings and launching the Venganza backward, causing it to flip head-over-heels out of the way of the oncoming projectile, from which position she slowly righted herself.

Meanwhile, on the edge of the system, perched atop a tiny piece of space debris, a single golden shape watched. Although there was no face which it might decorate with an amused grin, it was still quite pleased by this turn of events. Letum hadn't planned for Emissary to make his move so quickly, but this was all the better for it. Once word got back to the Human fleet that their operatives had been intercepted and ambushed, they would doubtless send at least some of their ships to aid them - all according to Letum's carefully laid plans. Already, the golden titan's pawns were making their next move, and it intended to trade two of those very pawns for queens, and take two of Hellward's rooks. This battle was just a sideshow in its great and masterfully calculated chess game!

"That swirl of stars...is the Emissary?Right then..." Galen pulled open a compartment,revealing a small and noticeably new scanner.Activating it,the dots per blink revealed 3 other friendly units,which were,of course,the 3 Neurosuits.Galen keyed in a few more options,causing a lock-on on Emissary's dot.

<Wave Signature Tracked.Target Acquired> flashed across the screen.Galen grinned.

"Man...I really have to thank Pin for this new update on the Double B!" Galen noted,before weaving around unnoticed by their adversaries,quickly moving out of the way from the large blue sphere.He turned on the intercom.

"Blue reporting.I have Emissary's Wave Signature,I can lead the target if needed.But this is my first time dealing with such a unit.Any weaknesses worth noting before I dive in?" he inquired quickly,circling unseen above his chosen target.

The pawn Exos could be dealt with rather easily by the Neurosuits.There wasn't a need for the Big Bang to join in that fray.All Galen needed to do now,was scout the Emissary and warn the others about it's actions.This was his best forte,being the pilot of a small craft,espionage.Scouting and tracking were always up to him.And now with Pin's special tracking device,he could do the latter option even better.

After he heard Elionzvie's warning, Asher had just managed to pull Stomp out of the way of the glowing sphere's trajectory. Colour burn dazed his sights, for a moment, everything he could see was discoloured. He blinked hard and shook his head. Before the crushing orb could make a fatal revolution, Asher moved Stomp as far away from it as possible.
Asher's machine was just barely agile enough to avoid the attack...it was too close.
He listened intently as the EXCAP pilot reported that he had Emissary tagged, an advantage in their favour. "No known weaknesses. Those spheres are ferrous, so enough damage should take them out. If we-"
Just then, the missiles launched by Aerios hit their mark; the peppering of scattered explosives left dark impressions where they had hit. Asher took this chance. As the titanic sphere came whirling around, Asher boosted forward and with a wild swing, smashed the end of his great hammer into the sphere. With a crack, it came to a sudden halt, pieces of it scattering from the hit. The orb and the others nearby changed their hue to red, a visible dark streak had split open where Stomp's hammer made contact. Asher took another swing at Emissary's weakened wrecking ball but it moved quickly from the hammer's reach. The orb was moving in reverse, Asher saw it looping around at high speed, disappearing into the blackness above...he was still in its orbital path. Acting quickly, Asher hit the boosters again and made a timely swing with the Galdra, this time sent the iron ball hurtling off its orbit. It crashed into another sphere nearby, crumbling apart and cracking the surface of the other.
That's one down.
"If we do enough damage to them, we can take them out with heavy weapons. Each sphere is tied to a specific orbit, pay attention to where each one is going." He readied his rifle as more Exomachina pressed in.


Emissary was startled, the interior cluster of orbs began shifting patterns of yellow and light blue. He recognized the human, it was the Hellward leader. Where had the leader obtained such strength? He hadn't exhibited this ability before...
It had to be that weapon. Upgraded. Enhanced in some way. Still, the leader seemed to be the slowest of them all. Emissary knew that if he could just trap him the right way he could finish him in a single strike. He had to shuffle the orbital pattern of the spheres, rearrange them in just the right way.
For now, Emissary would keep to the shadows. He altered his pattern so that it matched the stars in the distance behind him. He was thankful he still had the stealth advantage. Emissary sensed that patience would be the key to winning a fight such as this.
He also sensed something else. A piece of Magister Letum, a high-ranking Exomachina, was present for the battle. "Eminence, here to see the show?" the words were not transmitted patterns but a psychic connection shared with all Exomachina, something the humans knew little about. "Rest assured, my group and I can destroy these humans with utter ease. You shall see."

"Roger sir!" Galen gave an affirmative to the Commander to show he understood.No weakness,but aim for the spheres.Enough damage should lead to the spheres being easier to be taken down by heavy weapons.Each sphere had it's orbit.Galen quickly consumed all the information that was being shared with him.He looked about and noticed that the Emissary had disappeared.

"Alert Level 1: Target has disappeared!" he warned before keying in on the tracker.Sure enough,the Emissary was still tracked.After some time of concentration,he finally managed to distinguish the Emissary from the stars.So this Exo used camo and stealth...

"Pardon False Alarm.Target's Wave Signature is still present,tracked and sighted.Ready to lead the target." he placed his thumbs on top of his flight yoke.After taking a well aimed sight at one of the Emissary's spheres,he pressed down and fired his double railguns.A stream of electromagnetic red and white beams began weaving their way towards their target,twirling around each other in a deadly battle dance,ready to collide into the sphere.

As the missiles wound toward their target, a few Exomachina made an earnest attempt to shoot them down. When their shots failed, the missiles exploded, flaking off some of the iron of Emissary's sphere. In anger, Emissary's entire collective flared, flashing intense red and white. One of his spheres had already been destroyed...another two had become weakened.
That human can see me, can he? I'll show him... thought the creature. Soon, the spheres erupted into a cascading pattern, using calm colours that spiked into brilliant hues at just the right moment; a pattern that would make those unfortunate to gaze upon them drowsy. The pattern was allocated in such a way that it would work on the pilot specifically, a pattern that could hypnotize a spread-out group of targets would prove challenging to perform.
Emissary focused on the odds of the effect working. He surmised there was a chance of 77%. When the pilot lost control he would be unable to track Emissary, at least until he came back to his senses. Maybe then, if he sent the Exomachina after him in his dazed state he'd cease to become a problem. Odds were good.


Asher's eyes darted around like a switchblade. Omnii had successfully shortened the amount of time the Exos would be cloaked...but for now they were still coming through dampened sensors. Since the chaff didn't cross between the Hellward members, it had no effect on the team's transmissions. For the same reason, Asher could now radio in for the cavalry.
He flicked the switch and radioed Cortex, "Noose reporting. We're engaging the enemy. We need thunder."
"Roger that, Hellward team. Initializing quick-jump to Agnium system."
More waves of unexpected Exomachina sprang from the dark well of space and Asher did his best to gun them all down. There was a rather nauseating machine that proved too difficult for Asher to take down with the rifle, each shot fired was swiftly interpreted and dodged with ease. Rather sick of the beast's shenanigans, Asher slammed it with Galdra, the hapless Exomachina was sent back into the horde. The ensuing explosion taking down a handful of Exos in the process.
Stomp turned to take in the sight of Cortex warping in; the Kelly, Viridian and an unrecognized cruiser appearing after.
"We're here, Noose. Lining up shots and sending suits for support."
Stomp nodded and turned back to the battle.

The Omen erupts from the hangar of the Cortex in a swirling mass of tentacles hurtling toward the battlefield.
"Omen present, patching into telemetry" the unnaturally guttural voice of Sigrún, resident alien of the Hellward Division, reports in. The Omens sensors light up and take in the intricate pattern of metallic shifting hues swinging wildly through space and Sigrún is reminded of dancing as she subconsciously plots the target trajectories and fires five barely noticeable magnetic mines in their paths.
"Expect a couple seconds of opportunity, Emissary is in for a surprise and hope we find something to surround before they do" she relays to the team.
So much debris, Sigrún could hardly believe the battle had just started with this many dispatched Exomachina and the shattered remnants of one orb already, that would be the best ammunition, what better to attack your enemy with than pieces of itself. It might still be one sided, with this much interference who knows how many more there are? Maybe they're bluffing, doesn't matter. The orbs are coming around, better collect those shards.
Omen slows to a reasonable speed and starts collecting ammo from the wrecked orb while Stomp mutilates nearby exos.

"I'll provide cover fire!" Aster offered, lining up a shot on several Exomachina emerging from the dark of space to flank the rest of the squad. "You guys focus on Emissary!" Opening fire, several tendrils of light lanced out into the darkness of space, ripping apart three oncoming Exomachina, followed by more as the Golden Phoenix once more took aim and opened up. She might have done in even more enemies had not a red blur on the edge of her vision alerted her to an oncoming projectile: one of Emissary's outermost spheres. She didn't have time to dodge, which meant she'd just have to block it. Raising her shield, she brought it up to maximum power, and jetted forward, flapping the Venganza's wings to further increase velocity. Like a bullet, she crashed into the sphere, her energized, bladed shield ripping through its surface like a knife through butter. Pain spread across her skin as shards of metal grazed the Venganza as it ripped through the sphere's center, but she endured, breaking out of the other side of the ball and splitting it in two. Turning around, she fired a few shots into it, just in case. She didn't want it to come back around at her, after all.

She had little time to do more, however, for several Exomachina were descending from above, aiming to take out the squad with a surprise attack. She had just started gunning them down when shots from the fleet signaled its arrival, ripping apart the ambush group along with the Venganza's own weapon.

"Nice to see you guys showed up! Now then, it's our turn to attack!" She called, a smirk appearing on her unconscious face deep within the crimson machine she controlled. Already, the two golden eyes inside the blood red helmet were searching the dark void around them, scanning for new targets...

Letum watched in interest as Emissary commenced his attack. He seemed to at least have the Humans on their toes, and that was good enough for the golden giant's plans. With a quiet laugh, the gilded monster gave his reply.

"Very good. I'll hold you to that promise. Continue."

Emissary wasn't pleased, another sphere of his had been destroyed. No matter, he'd make quick work of the Hellward in the flying machine...what were they again? Ah, yes, they called those machines EXCAP. By now, he'd be getting drowsy, the patterns of the orbs slowly forcing him into a deep slumber...
...while he maintained a charade of hostile, flashing lights where the other Hellward members were looking. They wouldn't see what would happen, he'd be completely helpless while the Exomachina under Emissary's command moved forward to administer the coup-de-grace.
Suddenly, Emissary felt a part of himself pulling away. Some sort of explosive was emitted...then another...then another! A total of five, a chain of magnetic force and explosives, sending parts of himself, his ferrous spheres, into disarray. It made him furious! He sent himself into a dazzling array of colours, a jubilee of rage. He had lost control.
How could I miss something like this? Some of the orbs spun as he scrambled to regain equilibrium, pulling them back in with desperation. Where had they come from?
It had gotten serious. The fleet was now moving in. Hellward had ruined his plot of ambush. Even now, the chaff was fading away, the stealth advantage was lost. By all accounts and statistical probabilities, Hellward was winning this battle. Even the EXCAP pilot was free from Emissary's hypnosis.

No...I won't go down easy. I refuse to!

Emissary was running out of options....save for one.

Commander Graves took notice of the mine's effect. "Nice one, Copycat. Hellward team, no mercy, fire into Emissary!" Asher would lead the charge, here. An iron sphere careened into view before him and Asher had Stomp land upon it, no doubt it was one of the spheres that had been knocked out of reach of whatever Emissary used to hold everything together. Stomp kicked off of the ball and hit the thrusters, giving him a significant boost towards Emissary. Landing on top of a sphere in the inner cluster, Stomp began to savagely beat it with the hammer, chipping off large pieces of debris in the process. Deciding it simply wasn't fast enough, Asher began firing shots between hammer strikes.
Behind him, a pair of Exomachina rushed in. The one that resembled a drill with whip-like appendages made the first move. Expertly, Asher moved out of the way, landing a solid back-flip to another sphere, his feet pulled down by the artificial gravity. Asher kept his mind on destroying Emissary and hooked the spiked end into the sphere, then stomping on the blunt end of Galdra to help drive it in. The second Exomachina, a machine covered in crystalline growth, discharged an energy beam. It was again swiftly dodged. As Asher moved to attack it, the drill-creature swam its way through the space towards him and Asher drove the Galdra into its midsection, pinning it down to the iron globe with crushing force. Wasting no time with it, Asher blasted several rifle rounds into the thing that most closely resembled its face and with his foot and the hammer ripped it apart from the middle. He then turned to fire at the other interceptor, though it nimbly dodged each shot with the rifle. In retaliation, it dragged another laser blast at Stomp.
Hey, this could be pretty good.
Asher nimbly dodged the laser's raking pulse, making sure it got as much of the sphere's surface as possible. After enough damage had been done, he drove the hammer into the perforation provided by the blast, an impact that sundered the sphere in two, one of the cleaved halves took the hapless crystal machine along with it.

Galen broke away from his stupor and noticing that his EXCAP was spinning out of control,he quickly righted it with ease.He shook his head and blinked his drowsiness away.What was that?!He felt sleepy after looking at the Emissary,and the next thing he knew,he was asleep.Must've been the Emissary's work.And the others saved him.He turned on the intercom.

"Thanks guys.I was...I think the Emissary knows some kind of hypnosis...I got caught in it,so apologies." he noticed the Omen was in the field.So Sigrun was participating in the battle,huh? "Copycat!Good to have you here!"

Commander Asher had managed to taken down one of the spheres artfully,dodging with ease.Galen was hoping that a strong attack would weaken the spheres significantly for it to break when the Stomp drove Galdra into it.Other than the Big Bang Railblade,the strongest weapon in his arsenal was the Charged Railbeam.But the charge time...was rather lengthy.But it was worth a shot.

"This is Blue,will be charging a Railbeam,require cover fire." he announced over the intercom,before opening a compartment and activating the central cannon.Particles were starting to form around the cannon.

<Energy Levels: Stable>

"Right...but for how long?" Galen said to himself.He knew how charging the Railbeam would eventually overheat the EXCAP,the Big Bang was small,and the material used to build it was...weaker than most.But experience would allow Galen to pull through.As long as he had back up to provide cover fire for him.A faint,small ball of light had started forming from the particles that gathered around the cannon.

Rudger turned Aerios about, watching a flight of missiles strike a moderately large Exomachina, it's frame started to burn and warp as his Rotary Auto Cannon unleashed maelstrom of fury, a hundred rounds opened the belly of this twisted alien creating a shock wave and plume from the Machina's propulsion core.

"Nice one, Copycat. Hellward team, no mercy, fire into Emissary!" Asher radioed when Aerios' proximity alarm sounded, "sixty two point fourty four." Kourin spoke coolly, alerting Rudger to the incoming threat, it was one of Emissary's free floating orbs.

Stomp launched off the lost satellite that just happened to be where Aerios was floating across, he opened fire with the Particle cannon, lashing man made lightning across it, the iron sphere glowing red hot when Aerios spat twin slugs directly into the center of the sphere, it cracked like glass. As the torrent of his RAC bored open the shattered sphere, the pieces harmlessly floated around his Neurosuit. Taking note of the real enemy, Rudger fired his boosters, at maximum burn he would have to make careful shots on Emissary if he hoped for a hit from this distance "Noose, I'm on your six, watch your junk sir." Rudger toyingly said across team comms.

"This is Blue,will be charging a Railbeam, require cover fire." as Galen radioed, Rudger noticed a Number of Exo's turning toward the Big Bang get smashed by the Venganza's long rifle, he pressed onward leveling his Gauss cannons, he fired a quadlet of slugs toward Emissary.

The cockpit was starting to get sweltering hot.Why did the design of the main cannon had to be right in front of the cockpit?Galen frequently checked on his energy levels and heeding the warnings he was getting from his fellow teammates.He heard the Golden Phoenix call out for him to get ready to dodge,but he couldn't do that.Not when he was charging his Railbeam.If he moved,it would be for nothing,and he would have to begin charging again.Thankfully,the Venganza took out the Exomachina,and was soon hovering beside the Big Bang,ready to provide cover fire.

<Energy Level: Dropping> <OVERHEAT>

Upon these two flashes across his screen,Galen immediate set himself to work.He turned off several switches,turning off almost everything that required energy on the Double B,a few inputs onto the interactive screen to allow maximum input of energy into the cannon.There was nothing he could do about overheating.He just had to bear with the burning heat he was beginning to feel inside the EXCAP.The flickering orb of light inside the cannon became solid once more,and slowly grew in size and more particles started to gather around it.Galen took a look at the flash that appeared on his screen.This time,it said:

<Energy Level: Rising>

"Good." Galen breathed out a sigh of relief.He kept his eyes on the screen,ready to fire at the sign of an affirmative.Atomic was doing good work with his Aerios on the Exomachina.Several Exomachina were zoning in at the Commander,who was pretty much another easy target,besides himself,as he was right in the middle of the fray with Emissary.

<Railbeam Charged: Ready To Fire>

"Let's do this!" Galen said to himself,before going into intercom. "This is Blue,ready to fire!Phoenix,thanks for cover fire!Commander,Exomachina incoming!Align on a sphere so that the Exomachina coming after your are in one straight path of my railbeam!I'll take them out in one swift blow!"

Galen used his yoke to ever so slightly change his position in order not to disrupt the energy on the Double B's cannon.Timing had to be perfect,the thrusters had to be turned on at the exact correct time,or else it would result in the Big Bang moving forward,changing the alignment,or causing it to move backwards,doing the same thing.It had to be perfect to allow the Big Bang to stay in one position and fire the railbeam.And this was one of the moments when he can't mess up.

New Divide - Linkin Park

Behind the Exomachina, behind the golden giant and the broken swirling cluster of orbs known as Emissary, outside of the field of combat, another hole ripped through the fabric of space. Oh, but this wasn't similar in size to the ones that the other Exos used, this particular one was large. No scratch that. Colossal.

Tendrils of lightning and plasma sprouted forth, through the wound of space, as if some form of giant alien parasite was trying to escape, the outer reaches of the wormhole swirling around, imitating a solar storm. Then, it appeared.

A single Exomachina squeezed through the wound it had created, as if it was too small for the beast to get through. But this wasn't the case. The hole was closing, healing itself as this titan pushed through evermore. It dwarfed them all, Neurosuits and Exos alike. With its limbs wrapping themselves around what others would only dare to imagine: an orb containing another Exo, giving the assumption that this beast of an Exomachina might eat others of its own kind. Across the surface of this orb, however, tendrils similar to those earlier were reaching outwards, swirling and arcing from the three limbs wrapped around the orb, wanting to grasp at anything that tried to move too near to the Exo.

But it was just stayed in the background, outside the field of battle, outside of range from the fleet's weaponry. It was just being idle, as if waiting for something.

Malice.

The devourer of worlds. The Swarmlord. The name would soon give humankind fear to mutter. She has returned from the colony world of Sora, leaving the planet empty, a husk and warning of the Exomachina. The planet was too far out for easy forms of communication, and even if they fired off an emergency signal, she would already have wiped the planet and joined with the others before it even reached the nearest fleet.

Sora was a shipyard colony, and even then, she had overran the defenses with her drones, spiderlike in nature. Hundreds of cruisers and battleships, all gone within days of her arrival.

So, Emissary, when are you going to stop playing with your food? She boomed, the sarcastic itching in her voice...

Asher saw the wave of Exomachina converging on Stomp's position. It was a risky shot but a damn good move. Asher took a vertical leap, bursting away from the iron land below and back into the black sprawl of deep-space conflict, he kept his eyes forward, not looking back and below him to see if the Big Bang's railgun tore through the enemy, keeping his focus on the next microworld in Emissary's mockery of a star system. He landed with ease and went to work with the hammer, smashing into the sphere again.

Then he heard something that turned his blood to ice and his heart into a frigid glacier. "Letum...?!" It was Aster. He whipped around to her last known position and saw two figures of crimson and gold, flickering like a distant flame. The Venganza was engaged in battle with Magister Letum.
How? We checked everything, he couldn't have followed us! At least, not from aboard Cortex, not while hitching a ride on any of the Neurosuits. It didn't matter how, the gilded monster was here yet again.
"We're going to have problems, team. Magister Letum's here, look sharp. Do not use metal rounds or weapons and keep your distance when engaging. Recommend energy weapons and magnetics. Copycat, I know you have a tool that can work here, cover Phoenix." This wouldn't be good. Letum was a bit smaller now but this place was a smorgasbord of metal materials, he'd grow quickly in a place like this. An enemy like Letum could never die, even if they were to kill him here...but Asher was determined to stop him from overtaking Zuin. "We cannot afford to ignore any enemy. Stay focused and watch eachother's backs, team."
As he relayed orders he watched the battle between Golden Phoenix and Letum. It would be foolish to offer help, Stomp wasn't equipped with energy weapons of any kind. Asher would focus on destroying Emissary...or at least trying to make him withdraw. Back to work.
While Asher pounded Emissary with the hammer, he kept the rifle ready to blast the lesser Exomachina out of the stars, their numbers were thinning out meaning they were less of a problem now. Suddenly, the sphere he stood upon began moving rapidly, Stomp lost balance and was jetted away. It appeared Emissary was no longer vulnerable...and he was angry. Hitting the thrusters, Asher retained his equilibrium, slowing himself down to a low-speed drift. Before he could hit the booster and storm back into the fray, Asher took notice of a harrowing sight, clawing into his vision.
He stared in disbelief...locked in place. A familiar form emerged from the anomaly, wrapped in a cloak of distorted space. He'd never met this behemoth machine before but he had read of her...
...
"Malice."


Emissary felt helpless. The Hellward commander had just cleaved another of his spheres in two, worse, the damage was also wrought by one of Emissary's own crystal minions. Tension spiked even more as four shots from a Hellward member's gauss cannon smashed into yet another orb, blistering it apart and sending it teetering out of orbit. Emissary recounted the machine's reverse-joint design, similar to a bird or insect. To top it all off, a blast from a supercharged railgun shattered YET ANOTHER SPHERE...the Hellward commander didn't even miss a beat, he just leaped off the orb and started pounding at another.

Just before the destruction of Emissary's most recent sphere, he heard the chiding voice of one of his superiors, Malice the Swarmlord. The destruction of the sphere following the comment only added injury to insult but Emissary made an attempt to keep up a chipper disposition. Magister Letum had decided to join the battle and through his friendly offer of assistance, Emissary knew what Letum really meant was that Emissary had failed him.
The whole time that nauseating human commander wouldn't let up with the damnable hammer. "Yes, let us destroy these worthless humans!" Violently, he revolved the sphere the commander stood on with great speed, sending the machine tumbling into darkness.
Angry now, Emissary erupted into a frantic rage, sending every one of his spheres to violent speeds, into a blur of glowering red. The interior spheres, now impossible to reach, flared a bright gold, like a star about to explode.