Andarta Heller's Story

Sabine's eyes shot open, but despite being open she couldn't see a thing. Not even her hands in front of her face. Everything was pitch blame.

Almost everything. She turned her head to see the glow of lights along what appeared to be a spacecraft.

Nearby she could see fire. The blaze illuminating two silhouettes.

The Sage began to walk towards them, her steps extremely light. She was being cautious. Not just because of the darkness, but because she wasn't sure what was happening.

This couldn't be a dream. It felt too real. Yet, it seemed so surreal. She felt like she was having an out of body experience.

It dawned on her that she was having another of her visions. The only question that remained was, whose future was she seeing?

The faces, and the debris from what appeared to be a crash site, became more clear the closer she got

What was going on?

"Down!" One of the silhouettes ordered the other, pushing him down to his knees. "You don't have to do this." The kneeling man said.

"Be quiet, Church, this only ends one way." The standing man said to Church. That was a name that Sabine recognized.

The face too. He was the Scatterran, the quiet one. He was with the Invictus, and the fact that he was dressed in military gear meant something big had happened.

"John, listen to me, I don't know what Haley did to you, but-..." Church was cut off when the standing man, John, threw a hard punch at his temple.

He fell over in pain, barely conscious after the attack. "I told you to be quiet." John said to Church.

Like Church, John was dressed in military gear, armor, and had on a rebreather that covered the lower half of his face.

The name Haley was one that Sabine recognized. It could only be one person if Church was present.

Lochlyn Haley. He was a bad man. A really bad man.

"We've captured some of the survivors." A similarly armored woman said to John as she stepped out from behind the wreckage.

"Kill Switch is in pursuit of the the others that fled. Andarta doesn't want to take any chances with them." The woman continued, "I wouldn't." John said.

"Have the survivors brought here. Haley wants them lined up for execution. Sending a message to his enemies." John told the soldier.

"Have Kill Switch return. We might need them incase the others double back and try to catch us by surprise."

Darkness was all around, the planet Kill Switch had been deployed into was a hunter's ground. The air was thick, and stagnate, clinging to you with every motion, you could feel it for yards if someone was sprinting. It's like the land itself was a spider's web, and right now Kill Switch was a swarm of ravenous beasts. The Red Switch, the most volatile stalker of the lot, had been watching the crashed ship.

Carefully surveying every move.

He laid on his stomach, partly hidden by a withered bush about 600m away from it. A massive distance, yet through the holo-scope of his Coilgun he could see everything, clearly. His visor was set to Thermal, and while the flames of the wreck were distracting it allowed him to make out each and every person. Johnny Izumi, Nina Sekov, and "Agent" Church. As Red's scope landed on the last of the three, his trigger-finger instinctively twitched. One shot, just one simple squeeze of the trigger and he could have that sorry excuse for a warrior blown apart into a thousand pieces.

Hell, if he moved he could probably line them all up, one .50cal APR projected at extreme speed via three-stage coils, turn them all into soup, but that wasn't his orders. Not yet anyway. Not to mention in this darkness even with his gun's refactors the red-trail and flash of the muzzle would light up the sky. It would be so fitting through. He moved the gun around, checking for any other heat signatures, honestly beginning to debate taking out the three Invictus "Soldiers" from here when his comm buzzed.

"Command?" His voice was dry, and whispering, devoid of any emotion at present. He was a warrior right now, not a person.

"Don't even think about it, Red." The voice warm, and almost chuckling, a deep, friendly baritone. Green, one of the other Kill Switches. "We got orders, straight from Haley's desk. Leave the big names alone, take stragglers first, and stage it. This is for a message, not a vendetta." As much as his dismayed Red, he stood up with grace and activated his suits stealth-field, just in case, scooping up his rifle and uttering a "Roger" in response.

This mission might not be as impact as it could be, but Lochlyn Haley's orders were something he never questioned. Ever.

He moved about the surface of the hostile little planet with deft ease. He'd been in worse places, much worse. He made good time around the crash, staying at least 400m away at all times. It wasn't long before he was on the trail of a few survivors. Broken withered branches, a few bullet casings, and the occasional foot print showed him the way.

These "soldiers" were a joke, abandoning post and common sense because of one little crash? Enough to make his blood boil.

He stalked on, keeping in the sparse underbrush until he picked up a few heat signatures on his HUD. Faint, but close. He took out his M1H MASIR, silencer already in place. Crouching low he moved closer to the group, three men, Invictus, all in armor. Helmets tossed aside, morons. They were collapsed, tired and exhausted from running. Too easy. Permission to engage was given of course, but Red waited, creeping as close as he could safely while remaining hidden.

He focused, and amplified his helmet's audio in take. 200m out, and he could hear them with ease.

"Fuck man, fuck!" One of the soldiers sounded Terran, moronic and scared. "We gotta get outta here somehow, we gotta fucking bolt!"

"I know man, I know, let me think!" The second man was just as panicked, although he seemed to be in charge of the other two.

"We never should've left the ship..We shouldn't have left Church and the others!" A woman's voice. Less shaken than the other two. Maybe she was the leader.

Either way Red felt he wouldn't get any interesting intelligence out of them, so he enacted a simple plan. He tossed a little spherical devise, something that looked like a grenade. It was weighted perfect, and fell rather close to the trio, sounding like a foot fall. All three Invictus soldiers were on point in a flash, jumping up, guns raised.

"Who's there!?" The woman shouted as the two men closed in behind her, watching her flank and sides. This was going to be too ease. "I'm right here." A twisted, gruff voice, muffled by a helmet echoed behind them. The little object Red tossed being a speaker, capable of projecting his voice up to 300m in any direction. "Or maybe I'm here." it sounded from the left this time.

The soldiers, unnerved by this, bunched up tighter, guns at the ready now. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT!?" the second man shouted, he was greeted nearly instantly with a single 5.62mm AP-bullet to the shoulder. Blood sprayed violently out from the through and through wound. Silencer and flash-suppressor keeping Red hidden.

The wounded man fell to a knee, a sign of even more weakness, and the other two covered him as best the could. Figuring the shot either came from behind, or in front. "Tsk, tsk.", the gruff voice was on their left this time. "Can't you even keep track of a single combatant?" The woman spun on her heels, firing widely int he direction the voice came from. The man he'd tagged already was simply lying on the ground, clutching his rifle to his chest with his good arm and sobbing, broken in fear.

The trap was now perfect.

Using the fire as a distraction, and to cover the sound Red crouch-sprinted towards the three. He took the other non-sounded man in a flash, unloading a round into each of his knees. The woman in command whipped around as he fell screaming, just in time to be face-to-face with The Red Switch. She jerked her trigger back, but was greeted with the sound of empty clicking.

Red just laughed.

"Can't even kill one person, can you!?" He shouted with venom as he lurched forward, knocking the woman's gun away and grabbing her by the throat. He lifted the struggling woman off the ground single-handed, staring right into her eyes as he dropped his rifle, and produced his sidearm. "Before you die, allow me to show you your failure as a Warrior, and as a commander.", he fired. One round straight into the head of the man who's shoulder he'd shot, the man who could've made a difference, but was too cowardly to move.

One moment he was there, the next a loud bang, a flash of bright white light, and he was gone. Just a corpse with a through-and-through dead center in his forehead.

The woman tried to scream, tried to kick, but her weak limbs were useless against his iron grip, and ceremite armor. He moved her to face the other still-breathing member of her squad. The man was lying there in a pool of his own blood, too injured to move. He was utterly helpless, having dropped his rifle when he fell, but unlike his cowardly friend he had courage. Of sorts. The whole time he'd been inching his way towards Red's dropped gun, hoping to grab it and end the terror.

Of course Red was aware of this the whole time, and now stepped back, his full weight coming down on the man's outstretched hand.

They said send a message, so he did. He let the man have hope until the very end, then shattered it. He ended him just like the other, a single discharge of his Glock.

The woman, the commander, was crying now. Probably from pain, and shock, and trauma, but Red only saw weakness. The Invictus, like everyone else, deserved contempt, not mercy. They were a useless half-measure, keeping the galaxy in a grid-lock, profiteering from pain. He snapped her neck without a word, and tossed her corpse between the two others.

A start, but not enough.

He set about quickly, taking a machete from one of the fallen. He stripped their armor off and set to work.

When he was all done, they'd been dismember, their limbs and torsos arranged to crudely spell out "NO HOPE". It was garish, and a little cliche for Red's tastes, but. Lochlyn liked drama, so he went with his most brutal impulse. He was looking over his "handiwork" with a bit of distant when his comm buzzed again. "This is Orange,", his usually calm voice in a panic. Gunfire could be heard in the background, as well as Green Switch's swearing, "Me and Green are in a spot of trouble...Fuck!..Ran into a squad of survivors, Green, cover me! About four of them, goddamnit man, just shoot randomly if you have too! Fuck..Two took off towards the crash site. Can you intercept?"

"Roger."

Sabine found herself suddenly watching Red, her stoicism nearly faltering after his cruel display. This man, whomever he was, was a monster. This couldn't be allowed to happen.

In an instant she was back beside John, the Invictus leader thought dead by his friends. Former friends. He had thrown in with Lochlyn Haley it seemed.

"Let me go!" Nina screamed at her captors, two Jupiter Corporation soldiers, as they dragged her and other survivors from the wreckage. She was kicking and screaming, but the crash had taken a lot out of her. The thin air only made it worse, she was trying to fight for nothing.

It was over.

The soldiers tossed Nina down beside Church, the woman quickly scrambling to check up on him. "Hey, get up. Please?" She begged, slapping his face in an attempt to restore his consciousness.

A door on the ship behind the group began to slide open, a ramp extending down to the planet surface. "Nice little party we have here." A woman said, stepping down the ramp with another in tow.

"You could call it that, Andarta." John said to the woman, gesturing the other soldiers to place their captives with Nina and Church. "Where's Kill Switch?" Andarta asked, the visor over her eyes lighting up blue.

"On the way." John answered, "Cleaning up some stragglers. I had word sent out. They should return soon." He told the woman, eyes falling on the other behind her.

Andarta took notice, "John, you know Anodyne. The Ripper. Used to be Invictus like you. And like you she's seen the light. At least we hope so." Andarta said, looking to Anodyne. "Don't disappoint Haley. Kill the girl." Andarta ordered, pointing at Nina.

She pulled a pistol off of her armored hip, offering it to Anodyne for her to use. Anodyne was hesitant. This was a test. She had to prove her devotion to Lochlyn's cause.

"There's no coming back." Andarta warned her.

Orange and Green commed back a moment later, saying they'd cleaned up the two they still fought. They were good soldiers, of course, but not the kind devoted to combat, so it didn't surprise Red they had trouble with the Invictus. He confirmed their orders to rendezvous at the Crash Site. He ordered them to double-time it, too, since he was half way there.

The hunt for the stragglers was on, although it was a different kind of beast.

Andarta would probably want them dead before they reached it, so they could drag their corpses and browbeat Church and Co, but Red had a better idea. He circled around the ship, running and full tilt the entire time, confident he could beat the two lost soldiers too it, and he did. They were running blind, he had Thermal and a map of the area in his visor.

It was no contest, but it would be a good show.

He dragged his Coilgun out, setting up the bi-pod and getting down on his stomach, watching his fellow soldiers. He smirked as Andarta handed Ripper the pistol, half expecting the man to turn and fire at her. He'd be happy to put that Ex-Invictus down. His chance was appruptly interrupted though. Both Invictus Soldier's he'd been chasing came running into the little scene, screaming at the top of their exhausted lungs.

"Church, Church! You've got to help us, Kill Swi-" A crack like a thunderbolt echoed all around, a blinding red streak of light erupted from Red's position and collided with the soldier in a split second. His entire upper body was turned to paste, showering anyone near him in a coat of gore, and chunks. His lifeless lower-half stumbled forward, collapsing beside Nina. The other soldier stood stunned in horror. The scene sinking in.

John was standing over his friends, so was Ripper. His comrade had just been obliterated, and he was surrounded by hostile forces.

He hoped his mouth to say something, but another loud crack cut him off, the red streak flying right through his gaping maw, obliterating his head entirely. Another shower of gore, another collapsed body. Red didn't like theatrics, but he knew psychological warfare.

He was good at it.

He tapped his comm-piece, hailing Andarta. "Brought you something to help with morale."

There was a little voice in her ear that called out desperately. "This is Hermes. Radio check. Sound off if your alive dammit." Other voices could be heard but she did not acknowledge them. Her body was laid out on the ground like a discarded doll, the remains of the ship littering her surroundings and even partially burying her. There was the sharp sting of pain in her back, her armor felt damp. Was it blood? Dusk made a half hearted attempt to get up and was suddenly brought to reality by a dizzying pain. I can't stand up... She told herself, abandoned the effort altogether, and closed her eyes. The voices in her ear continuing.

"Anyone here from Chief?"

"Yeah where the fuck is Dusk, is she dead? No way she is dead man."

"I don't know. She hasn't responded to the radio check...assume the worst...We need to group up and assess our situation."

I knew you Warrant Officers were lazy but c'mon. You can't go to sleep before your team. Shit your not even allowed to die first. Death is just a long vacation...I mean sure your dead but you don't have to work ever again.

The familiar voice awoke in her new emotions. Anger... "F-fuck you...D-don't go l-lecturing me...". Aino made another effort to stand, the pain only becoming worse as she continued. "You broke y-your promise..." She planted her elbows onto the earth, noticing yet another pain from her right shoulder to her arm. A quick inspection revealed that her armor had been melted by the intense heat, she had a rather bad burn injury. Another obstacle...yet she was not deterred. "You promised us...all of us..." Dusk could feel it. Something had impaled her back. It wasn't deep enough to break out on the other end but it was deep enough to make her consider the possibility that it had punctured a lung. "You promised us you wouldn't die Mars but you died and you died first...I'm not like you."

With a welp she stood up, detaching herself from whatever had stabbed her. With haste she begun to reach to her back. Once she located the wound, she reached into her medical bag clipped to her hip, opened it, and begun to take out some dressing and a chest seal. She opened up the plastic wrapper that the seal was in and placed it in front of her. She had to remove her vest, a process that under normal conditions, would have been like removing her shirt but it was made much more difficult given her injuries. Her body groaned in protest to her movements, her joints creaked like door hinges succumbing to rust. Entropy was catching up to her but it would not win, not today. Once free, she lifted the shirt she wore underneath and applied the first aid training. She cleaned the area as best she could and then on the end of the exhale, she applied the chest seal to the wound on her back. Breathing seemed easier now but...not by much. There were still other things on her to do list and the next up was her arm.

Reaching once again into her medical bag which thanks to it's compact size was able to keep the contents relatively organized despite the crash, she pulled out another dressing and a tube of what appeared to be a cream. She bit down on the top and twisted with her good hand, removing the cap, and then she released the contents onto her arm. The burning sensation caused tears to form in her dark brown eyes and her teeth to grind against one another. Aino was a grown woman, a soldier, a professional. The pain wasn't enough to stop her, she pressed on and spread out this lotion throughout the length of her arm up to her shoulder, and then used whatever bandages she had left to wrap her arm. When it came to wrap her hands Aino had to get creative. She didn't want the skin on her fingers to heal together, so she wrapped them individually. I won't be able to grip too well now but I can still use this arm...May hurt but I'll have to deal with it. With that out of the way, Dusk felt up the rest of her body to ensure she didn't have any other injuries she wasn't aware of. When she was convinced that she was functional, she put her ballistic vest back on and stood herelf up, using some of the wreckage to support herself. Her pistol was still in it's holstered and her magazines were all secured in their respective pouches. Some of her other gear, she had to discard but being lighter in weigh would make life easier for her.

"This is Dusk to all callsigns under Prima Donna, Quit your baby bitching and pull it together. The dead are dead, don't bother with them. Use your BFTs (Blue Force Trackers) to regroup and if you didn't sapper assist(meaning attach) it to yourself, eat a dick for not listening to my orders. Also...if you meet anyone who don't know, my advice is to kill them and if your too weak to do that, at least destroy your own BFT for fucks sake, I don't like playing hide and seek unless I'm it. Dusk out."

She ignored the cheerful and relieved transmissions that followed, cautiously venturing out into the dark. Conveniently enough, she tripped on her rifle, kicking the buttstock. The now modified M303 fired off a .338 Lapua into the air, "Well...there goes my location." She thought as she picked up the weapon and inspected it for any major faults before continuing on, encumbered by her injuries.

Prodigy could hear voices as he lay trapped under debris, footsteps approaching him and then going away repeatedly. They were searching for survivors in the wreckage. It made sense that he play dead. He needed to finish the mission.

Dying here meant he would fail Warmonger. He couldn't do that.

Loyalties were always tested. At times he didn't know if he could trust Baker, but he damn sure believed in him. That's why Prodigy threw his hat in with Bandit, and that's why he followed Church back Home.

Prodigy waited until the footsteps moved further away before trying to free himself by pushing and pulling at the debris. He was making some progress. He could see some fire through an opening he had made, and then he heard another voice.

This one didn't come from the people searching for him, this one came from an ally. From his comm piece.

"This is Dusk to all callsigns under Prima Donna-..."

And then static, but that was good. Prima Donna was still alive. They were too tough to go out this easily.

One thing Prodigy had learned over the years, it was that people like him, like Dusk and Prima Donna, like Bandit, they didn't die easy. He channeled that hardness into his arms, flinging some debris aside to create a way out of the wreckage that had become his prison.

He climbed out and came to slam down hard on the solid earth he couldn't see, quickly scrambling to search his body for something to give him light.

A flare. He found a flare. He ignited it, dropping it down not far from his body. That was when he saw one of his men.

Bloodied. Shot.

"Fuck." He said, crawling over to his dead comrade. He searched his body, Prodigy needed something to defend himself with. "Jackpot." He said as he came across a pistol, he pulled the magazine from it, checking to make sure it was loaded. It was fully loaded, that was a sign from whatever god was looking out for him that he still had a chance to do what he set out to do.

And then he heard gunfire ring out. Just one shot and it wasn't too far away.

"Where did that come from?" Andarta asked as she heard the gunshot, "Check it out." She ordered some of her nearby soldiers, lowering the gun she offered to Anodyne.

"Church, we need to get out of here. Where is Bandit? Where is Prima Donna?" Nina asked the man as she held him in her arms. "We lost." He said to her weakly.

"I got to see Home though. It's been a long time since I've been to Kartanimor. It's where I grew up." The Scatterran continued. "Hey, shut up. If your fucking life is flashing before your eyes, you need to stop that shit right now." Nina demanded.

"Let's just kill them and send the bodies back." John said to Andarta, "No, we need all of our people we have now. Manpower until we can get reinforcements from beyond the Veil." She told him.

"We've already lost a few people getting involved in this damned part of the galaxy. I say we drop the payloads on Arator as a message instead." John suggested.

He looked to Red, "What do you think? Nukes send a better message than a few dead nobodies on camera, right?" John asked

"No." The blank chill in Red's voice was clearly discernible, even if he was muffled by his helmet. "As much as I very personally want to choke every drop of life out of Church..", he walked closer to John as he spoke, his right foot coming to rest on Church's face, pushing it into the ground with great force. Red had never taken pleasure in hurting anyone, not even the staunchest opponent of Lochlyn, but this man, this "Church", this bastard.

This bastard was the opposite of Lochlyn, and deluded into thinking he was doing the right things. This man was the opposing ideologies of Lochlyn brought into flesh. A real pain in the ass, too.

"Sending a nuke is what someone as cowardly and impersonal as the Aschen would do.", he turned his attention to Andarta, still pressing Church into the mud. "We're here to break their minds, and spirits, as much as their bodies, correct?"

A shot rang out before he could get his answer. A very distinct shot. .338 Lupa from a well maintained, rustic long barrel rife.

Dusk.

Normally the ever obedient tool of war that was Red would ask for permission to engage, but not against this bitch. Not against the woman he'd been at a stalemate with for far too long. It seemed like everytime he turned around for the last three years he bumped into her on the job. Her strength in numbers allowed her to prevail, and their similar skill-sets and aptitudes infuriated him. This was by far his best chance to end her threat once and for all.

"Engaging.", he practically snarled the world before activating his cloaking field and tearing off at full sprint. This was as close as it got to personal for him.

---

He'd been scanning for nearly twenty minutes, combing every inch of the way in the direction of the shoot when he finally caught her heat signature. She stopped dead, having spotted him too apparently and dropping prone. She looked heavily injured, but Red refused to show mercy. This was a battle for supremacy.

And it was perfect, it was a race now.

He turned his stealth off since she was clearly using thermal and dropped prone as well. He snatched the coilgun off his back and deployed the bi-pod, he knew it was a race, if he could just be a moment faster tha- Crack, .338 Lupa his the ground just in front of his rifle, dirt and musk spraying over his field of vision. Was that..A warning shot?

The world froze for red. Every particle of dust seemed to be discernible for a moment, as fury gripped his system tightly.

He was the pinnacle of war, a true Warrior in body and spirit, a killer without equal, and this woman. This thorn in his side. This immature, idealistic moron playing at war, was toying with him? He gripped his rifle as hard as could be, and fired at her eat signature. The rifle was fully powered, and the .50 cal screamed through the air with it's bright red trail.

His rage clouded his vision, it wasn't a kill shot, but it did hit her in the right arm...And tore it off completely.

He smiled through his scope, victory was his, she was a mess of blood and gore. He placed the sights right over her face. It was almost commendable, she was still trying, still thinking she was better. He doubted she could even fire th-CRACK. The round hit home, biting deeply into his shoulder. It was centimeters away from his neck, and he hissed in pained. The stubborn bitch had tried to kill him after all, and she still fucked it up?

She couldn't do it. Injury or not, she was a disappointment, a failure as a Warrior, a failure of her misguided ideals.

Red fired again, another burst of light, and scream of the coilgun. He took her other arm, watching through his scope at every inch, smirking and holding his shoulder as her arm turned into a fine paste, gore and splinter of bones flying about like shrapnel.

He stood, his smirk hidden in his helmet. He'd finally proved he was better. He pulled out his Glock, and began to slowly walk over to her. When he finally reached her corpse, he'd pump a singular round dead-center in her chest.

The walk over would be bliss.

"Bring the equipment." Andarta ordered some of the nearby grunts, "Yes, sir." One of them said, leading the others up the ramp into the spacecraft behind Andarta. The Austran woman stared at Nina through her visor, Nina glaring back. She couldn't see Andarta's, but somehow the two women locked eyes.

There was an energy, a tension, that cut the air like a flaming claymore through butter. John felt it. It was unsettling. Pure rage on Nina's part, and something that could probably be called pure evil on Andarta's part.

John lifted Church up so that he was kneeling down beside Nina, he leaned against her as he recovered from the earlier attack. John paced back and forth between them and the other captives, examining each and every one of them he passed by. He was judging their worth, in a way.

It was too bad none of them were worth anything alive.

Then he got that that feeling he would sometimes get when he was in danger. Precognition, Spider-sense, whatever you wanted to call it, he had it. He saw exactly what Sabine was seeing and more. Prodigy prepared to jump out from behind some debris, all he had was his pistol and a will take out as many assholes as he could.

"Don't." Sabine whispered to him, he couldn't hear her, she knew that. She whispered it again anyways, "Don't!"

Prodigy jumped, turning to look around the dark planet for... something. Maybe he could hear her, or maybe he was watching his own back. It didn't matter, he popped out from behind the debris and opened fire on John and then the soldiers bringing camera equipment out of the ship.

The soldiers dropped, but John sidestepped the bullets at exactly the right moment. The bullets flew past him, one slamming into Andarta's visor and the other into her rebreather.

She recoiled, quickly sprinting to the ramp up the spacecraft. Anodyne prepared to attack, but before she could move she caught John's gaze. He shook his head, "On the ship." He ordered, prompting the woman to follow behind Andarta.

Prodigy had emptied every bullet he had, but he was still going to make quick work of John. Or at least he would have tried had John not tossed a grenade towards him, "Fuck!" An understatement from Prodigy, he dove away.

Nina and the others did their best to put some distance between themselves and the grenade. It went off with a big boom. By the time the dust settled John was already boarding the ship and it was ascending, "We have to stop them!" Nina screamed, scrambling to grab one of the weapons the dead goons dropped.

"Drop the payload." Andarta ordered John as he walked by her towards the cockpit, "What about Red?" John asked, looking back at Andarta as she removed her rebreather and visor. The bullets didn't penetrate completely, but they left cuts on her face. "He'll be a martyr. He knew the risks."

"Understood." John said, taking a seat beside the ship's pilot. "Climbing. Climbing. Artificial grav in three. Two. One. Enabling payload." The pilot said, "Payload enabled. Deploying." John said with a smile hidden beneath his mask, this is exactly what he wanted to do from the start.

On the ground, Sabine observed as Nina and the survivors watched the ship disappear into the darkness above. No one knew where the next town or city was. If there were any anymore.

"We have to find a way off the planet." Nina said to Prodigy and the others, "We'll find a way. Let's trek." Prodigy suggested, "You forced their hand." Church said, getting up to his feet slowly. "They'll drop the nukes." He told the others.

And he was right. Like always, Church was right. It was moments like this that he secretly wished he was wrong. He'd grown close to some of the people he met in the Invictus, some of the new allies he had made in Bandit and Prima Donna.

The nuclear explosion lit up the dark planet, the impact zone was miles away, but death was going to quickly wash over the survivors. They were the last best hope for the Garden, for Terra, Church thought. But, they'd lost. It was over.

He turned to the brightness, taking in everything he could see before it would all be dark again. This was the last time anyone on Trigotia would get to see what it really looked like.

"Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there." He said, closing his eyes.

Jordyn nodded to Andarta, "Guy's passed out," she said quietly as she cleaned up and bandaged his wounds as best she could to try to keep him going long enough to get to an actual doctor. She was about to comment about how strange it had been to hear his voice in her head when the word she was looking for scrolled through her vision. "Telepathic," she added with a small gesture to Epathus.

"Who's Hannibal?" she eventually asked, speaking more directly to Andarta now. She still had on the bulletproof vest she'd been given, though she had stowed the handgun, she didn't need to be looking like a threat in the middle of potentially unfriendly territory, though she also didn't really want it out of reach either.