Aschen Marine's Story

A Squad of four Marines, in black tactical gear, circled the hatch, which slid open with a hiss, The airlocks had cycled, and the en began to rappel down into the white interior of the CR90 Corvette. Their eyes took a moment to adjust, as the Reverence S was kept darkened to minimize emissions. Each Aschen soldier was heavily equipped, their boots hitting the floor with an audible thunk.

They surveyed their surroundings, and began to fan out, a moment later Commander Torres hit the floor down the rappeling rope. Elanna Torres was a young brunette, with strong features contrasted by her dark Imperial uniform.

Flanked on either side by Marines, she waited for someone to greet them.

Hopefully these people are friendly The Jedi Master thought as the Airlock cycled, Cynthiana herself was dressed in a black minidress of some form, not the typical Jedi clothing as it was Kuat standards. Tall black boots lightly armored adnored her fee while long black gloves covered her hands and arms. Her saberstaff hung on her right side under her arm in a form of a shoulder hoslter for it it seemed. T7 was painted a light silver with gray and gold markings. Seeing they had vistiors she hit the door controls to open the observation deck once she was sure the airlock was in the full green and then stepped inside amid the steam.

Compared to the stark white of the interior of the CR90 class series of Corvettes by CEC, Cynthiana was actually surprised to find several men near the door in full military gear, but it lasted but a brief second or two as she figured these men were guarding in the case of trouble, before her eyes locked on Elanna as she stepped into view of the Aschen woman it was clear to the Jedi that the woman before her was one of a respectful type. And so respect was indeed to be given.

The droid at her side beeped and chortled something and danced a bit, Cynthiana tried to not smile at what T7 said, yet she hoped these people could help, thankfully they stopped the constant spinning they were stuck in for the moment. Cynthiana stopped about two maybe three paces from Elanna and bowed slightly in greeting. "Welcome aboard the Focused Fury Crystal. I trust we are not deviating you from an assigned task of any form by docking with us ?" Sithshit she hoped this could work. She had no idea what Elanna's mission was, or why the Aschen were there, she had never heard of them to be honest, having just arrived on the planet Arda, otherwise known as Terra, by chance alone to get away from a Sith patrol only to get found by another patrol plus those droids

Snowbund kept an eye on the galaxy map as it continued to update, but so far she found nothing on the planet whose system her ship was drifting within. Out there in the system somewhere someone was trapping them. She hoped Cynthiana knew what she was doing. One wrong word and they were doomed for sure. All of a sudden though Snowbund found herself wanting those droids they brefly fought, on their side should things go wrong.

But then again, something within the Force told her that everything was going to be alright. She just hoped it was true.

"I'm Commander Elanna Torres, with the United Aschen Empire's Fleet of Inner Knowledge." Torres introduced herself, as her Marines spread out.

"I was about to ask what your purpose was in this sector of space." She said, as she took a step back, as Cynthiana approached.

"By Decree of our Emperor, I will conduct an inspection of your vessel, and provide assistance in getting your systems back online. Failing that I can signal someone from our fleet to transport you to a destination of your choosing." Elanna explained, as her men began to move out and through the halls of the vessel.

"However this star system will soon be involved in a large scale operation with Imperial Forces, and we're working on cordoning off the system. That means you will need to leave." Torres said flatly.

Tapping her communication node, which was a small device worn around her ear, she spoke. "AI, signal the fleet that we have refugees that require assistance. Once my marines clear this vessel, we'll return to our original mission objectives. Torres Out."

Wait, what are.... oh no you dont! Try to search my ship without my permission ? Like Sithspit you are!! Sadly Snowbund noticed on her ships internal sensors certain things happening and reacted, hitting a few controls she sealed the observation deck to keep soldiers from moving so freely through her ship. Locking them in halls and out of certain rooms. this wasn't good"Cynthia! The men are spreading into Fury, stop them, something, stay diplomatic, I cant sense if Kinara is up yet. I dont know who these people are opr where they came from, but T7 has the full readout of the ship. Just have her look at that and keep the men in that deck with you!!" The mere idea of the men searching her ship scared the Kraethian. "If they find out I am not truly human, we got problems, this ship is encoded to my signature, if they try to take it from me..."

Cynthiana inwardly smiled and replied to her scared friend. "Relax Snowball, I'll run interference, just keep the bridge sealed" Cynthiana mentally replied to Snowbunds sudden scared Connection, this wasn't good, Cynthiana could feel that searching thing on the edge of her senses again, and she felt it getting closer too. "We're dead in space in a region none of us aboard know anything about. Other then hoping and praying that the planet below is not in the market for Kraethian Furs" Cynthiana said aloud to Elanna with a slight bow of greeting again.

"I'm keeping the entire observation deck sealed, sadly you're up there too. I can use ray shielding though. Lock the searching men within the shields and let you get back down from the observation deck before I vent it ?"

"No that wont work Snowbund, it wont work ,We're Jedi not Sith remember ? Trust me pleas,e I know what I'm doing" Cynthiana replied softly in the Connection, this was under control, hopefully

"My droid here has a readout of everything currently ailing Focus Fury at this time, we have main reactor power, but no engines, even if we could get back our desired destination the only result is nothing as we cant move." Cynthiana reached out with her senses. Following each Marine as they moved through the Fury.

Sensing where two where going. with Kinara in the medbay and the door still wide open, Cynthiana focused her pink eyes on Elanna and calmly said simply "Do us all a favor and inform your men to return to this room and not waken the one in the medical bay, its imperitive she gets her sleep. She has not woken in two days since we left Arda and it worries me" the last time Cynthiana had really seen Kinara was shortly after the Clone Wars and during the Purge and rise of the Empire back home. Cynthiana had since lived on her homeworld of Kuat for several years.

Somehow however, Cynthiana felt it was going to go downhill very quickly. Already wishing those Droids she had faced on Arda at the spaceport there were hidden aboard the Fury. If they were, she prayed tothe Force itself for them to be of aid. The enemy of her enemy was her friend, in a manner of speaking. But there was something else about the woman, and the soldiers now on the CR90. The way the woman handled herself made Cynthiana cross her arms and look the woman over carefully.

Finally Cynthiana shook her head after trying to think over what Elanna had said she was part of, "I'm sorry I must apologise but I am not familar with this.... Empire was it ? I guess you could say I kept to my homeworld for some time before the Sith started tracking me again recently. It was not until meeting up with a friend who again I must apologise for at this moment she is rather scared of this planet and quite possibly you and your men. And because they have begun searching her vessel without her leave, Recall them into this room. now. If you are searching for something, you must ask first of such permissions to do so. And since your men did not ask for permission, some of them are now locked in ray shields. For Mandos, they're quite stupid" Then again the Aschen marines looked like Mandolorians, so it was lack of proper knowldge of this galaxy for Cynthiana to get the two mixed up, it was also very possible that Snowbund could snap and accidently kill one or harm one out of fear. But Cynthiana tried to keep herself calm

Compared to the soldiers, and to Elanna, Cynthiana was rather scantly dressed, and looked to be completely unarmed aside from a silver cylander about 55 centimeters long, but then again, Cynthiana was a Jedi Master, and her ally was the Force. Snowbund too was a Jedi Master as well; yet.... she was scared of the Aschen, scared for her life. Kinara, who while also a Jedi Knight, was out like a dead hyperdrive at the moment.

The moment would pass, however, as Kinara began to stir. Reaching out with the Force, she squinted her closed eyes. Surely she wasn't dead....but it seemed that the ship she was on was. Or at least mostly. It took a little while, but the young Jedi finally opened her eyes. The room looked more or less a mess.

Not that she wasn't used to that, though.

She sat up slowly, a hand to her throbbing head while she gritted her teeth. Letting out a sharp breath she sighed and looked around the room again now that she was conscious. Well, they survived their encounter with those weird droids it seemed so that filled her with some amount of happiness. She swung her legs off of the recovery bed and tied her hair back quickly before standing.

Another reach out with the Force told her that Snowbund and Cynthiana were healthy and well, albeit a bit panicked. She shook her head before looking around one last time; where was her bag?

Elanna nodded slightly as she tapped her communication node.

"Change of plans." She said aloud, as a coded bitstream message played through AI translation into her ears.

"Commander, Fleet is recalling you back to Tal'dor, The Nightraven is needed on another more urgent assignment. The Imperial Intelligence Agency is being tasked with observing the target world for consideration. But Minister Chaska just brought the proposal before the Quorum, and they're not happy."

Torres frowned for a moment, before she looked up to Cynthiana.

"We need to depart, I apologize, but I will be unable to assist you." Torres said, regretfully as she turned, nodding to the Marine Sergeant standing beside her.

"Recall your men, we're getting out of here." She said as she turned to the docking hatch, wrapping her slender fingers around the rappelling rope that would pull her up into the Reverence S Above.

---

If permitted, the Marines would retreat to the room where they initially boarded, from there they would all return to the hatch from where they came, to board their ship for departure.

Cynthiana merely bowed her head at the aplogy, "For what aid you were able to give us, you managed to cease our constant spin, and for this we thank you. Safe travels to you and yours." She said simply, a hint of strong Coreward accent to her tone. "Snowball, they're leaving, you can release the Mandos you got in the ray shields now."

"Doing so as we speak Cynthi, caught one outside the medbay, that door is open. Kinara's up though, best you check on her, we stopped spinning like you said, but we're still dead in space and cant move. At least we got reactor power, and the galaxy map is loaded"

"Good for me I will see to Kinara, you try and keep us.... sane. But keep your guard up Snow, we might have company. Something does not feel right" Cynthiana replied as the men who had begun searching the Fury came back to the observation room and airlock station. "For what aid you were able to give us, you have our thanks." Cynthioana said to Elanna with another slight bow as the airlock shifted closed and the light went red as the solders left.

That's that. now to see to Kinara Cynthiana thought, turning on her heel she darted to the turbolift and went down two decks to the medical bay. Stepping into view from the turbolift Cynthiana saw Kinara looking rather distressed. But of why she did not know. "Oh thank the Force you're awake! You had us worried the last two days!" Cynthiana said seeing her friend up and about, searching frantically for something. "Is something wrong ?"

Once Elanna was situated in her CIC, she opened up a large map of Eterna once more, her eyes glancing at it for a moment.

She then brought her attention to the Datalink, a flickering image of Admiral Nagala displayed.


"Commander, I've recieved new orders from Chairman Inviere. The IIA Is going to send spies to observe the planet, and keep the Empire informed of it's state of affairs, The Quorum wants to initiate contact with the planet's respective governments, while others want to leave it alone."

"I understand." Commander Torres reported. "I'll spool our FTL Drives and set course for Tal'dor." She said, before she opened a transmission to the corvette below them.

"I'm transmitting some information if you're interested in addtional contact with my people." Torres said, before transmitting some information on the Aschen Empire, for Snowbund and Cynthiana to go over.

After the transmission was complete, the Reverence S pulled away, and engaged it's stealth. The Prowlers didn't have a chance to leave the hangar bay.

Immediately after the Reverence S Disappeared, there was a spatial rupture and a flash. The Aschen ship was gone.

Above the prison complex, the reverence II was finally in position. It's engines rocked the ground below, but what was to come next would spell doom for the prisoners below.

Commander Lionel Felghast, an older man that had been placed in charge of the Bloodied Spirit was eying a large combat map, a three-dimensional holographic projection of the prison, and the terrain surrounding it.

"Three strike teams will move in, three directions." He said, focusing in on the prison itself. "Whatever that thing is on the ground heading to the prison needs to be neutralized, and then we'll move in and secure the complex itself. I want artillery and ground support deployed in these zones here" Felghast said, turning to his executive officer.

"Colonel; execute." Felghast said, as he turned back to the holographic display.

The cacophony of the Reverence II's CIC echoed all around him, the words, the actions, the chime of the alarm, everything provided a beautiful orchestra to the old Commander's ears.

The massive vessel worked like a well oiled machine, landing plots were selected and tallied for gravity-lift deployment, while Marines and ground assault teams checked their weapons and armor systems, gathering at the designated ground deployment zones aboard the ship.

Back in the CIC, the Commander gave the final nod of approval, three zones, one about a mile north of the facility, one southwest, and one southeast were selected for deployment.

And the massive ship in the sky fired down three brilliant purple beams of light, that widened to about sixty meters in diameter. This was the first stage in a massive deployment that was soon to follow.

---

Khaine simply grinned. And then he withdrew a chainsword that was attatched magnetically to his back, revving it a couple times he shouted from behind his visor.

"Witch! There is only one thing to do with you, it's Purge!" He bellowed, before unleashing a powerful antimana pulse from his armor, that extended outwards in all directions, and with a rev of his Chainsword, he lunged at Helga.

As the Anti-Aircraft defenses began to fire erratically, the Commander aboard the Bloodied spirit was watching, the rounds that made it high enough impacted against the shields of the Reverence II, which flared angrily into a brilliant milky white.

"Arm ventral batteries alpha through epsilon. Take out those anti-aircraft batteries." Commander Felghast ordered.

The underside of the Reverence II sported roughly eight hundred individual dual-barreled turbodisruptor batteries, and seven hundred single barrel batteries running along the length of the vessel.

Five of these batteries swiveled to life, and took aim at the facility below.

Felghast watched as the Anti-Aircraft batteries were highlighted into a brilliant red, the Turbodisruptor batteries were calibrated for a staggered salvo fire, and would provide an intermittent stream of weapons fire to silence the batteries.

Once the batteries took aim, they charged up and fired, with a five-second cycling time; they would make short work of the AA batteries below.

The heralding of Aschen weapons fire was that of a series of deafening cracks not unlike thunder, brilliant green flashes that streaked down into the facility below, followed by brilliant plumes of flame as the impacts reduced the AA batteries, and everything immediately around them to molten slag. There was no doubt everyone inside Facility 104 would have heard the sudden weapons fire, which would continue until the last AA Battery fell silent.

Helga groaned as she witnessed the zealot nature of the aschen titan. She knew it would probably come down to this but had hoped that the larger threat would be a bigger issue than her ability to cast spells.

"Witch! Hardly you foul dog!" Hegla shouted as she brought her left hand forward with her fingers pointing outstretched towards the hulking giant of a man. She had intended to restrain him using a spell she had seen once before but found herself unable to find the energy to manipulate or even the time as the beast seamlessly barreled down upon her position. It was with quick footwork and years of training that she would slide off to the side just barely seeing the edge of the chainsword pass her face and the loud roar of its engine.

"Anyone alive?" Helga shouted through her coms link while continuing her momentum in an attempt to book it out of there. "I need someone to open my ship and get me out of here. This is a direct order."

This was too big, too fucking huge and Colleen was part in shock and awe. It was difficult for her to even to think straight, everything just everything. The poor woman could barely keep up, none of her training her made her able to handle this situation. In fact this was meant to be a boring punishment for her actions, but here she was in what was turning into intergalatic incident very fast. It was insane and the chaos in the prison was also buzzing her ear constantly. Think of it, she is standing on a dune staring wide-eyed at the mass destruction and utter nonsense protected from the elements only by her suit, but sweating nervously. If she could even fathom the insanity on display, she said nothing...

This was meant to be a routine, just checking the area, find nothing move on. Now she was wondering if she should have made peace with her Gods, although said thoughts were interrupted by a yelling in her ear and immeadiately she woke up from the almost dream, "Colleen here Helga and yes I am still alive... I am getting nothing from Mac anymore, so may need to use the suit to hack the facilty again, but I'll do it." with that she closed the communication and set about coordinating the ship in all honesty she hoped if Helga could get out, she would take her with her, because in all honesty as it was Colleen did not think Chiron-Delta was a safe place now... not at all...

On the roof of the Omnicorp building something was beginning to unfold. The rapid response signal that Tech Con sent out was recieved and read loud and clear by those on the other end.

Clouds began to angrily swirl above the Omnicorp roof, with the proverbial eye of the storm centered directly on the roof itself. There was a thunderclap, which echoed throughout the chaos of the city as the clouds began to swirl more vigorously and angrily around the building. The winds began to pick up, followed by multicolored flashes of light around the swirling maw above the towering skyscraper.


A few moments went by and there was a deafening thunderclap from above, a swirling vortex of light and dust swirled down onto the rooftop with a 'thud' followed by another brutal clap of thunder.

The swirling vortex angrily danced upon the rooftop helipad of Omnicorp HQ, and there was another crack of multicolored light.

A single Aschen marine emerged with his weapon at the ready. Moving quickly from the vortex he took cover behind an a/c unit, facing the roof access door in front of him. There was another crack of thunder, and another, and another as Aschen soldiers began to emerge from the vortex one, by one.

The second soldier readied his disruptor rifle with an audible whine, before he took cover behind some ventilation ductwork facing the burning city below him. Another soldier emerged, and another as they took positions on the rooftop, weapons readied and charged.

A pair of Aschen soldiers moved towards the rooftop access door, one of them blasting the doorknob with his disruptor rifle, and pulling the door open, while three more Aschen soldiers moved to the stairwell.

The vortex remained, as ten more men emerged, weapons readied they advanced towards the rooftop doorway.

The lead man engaged his rifle mounted flashlight, and peered down the stairwell. "Clear!" He called out. They were high up and away from most of the fighting, and so they prepared their position.

"We need to clear an LZ for the Rev when it arrives, secure the city block. Admiral Hanley wants this to be a smooth and clean op! Move move move!" A Sergeant barked as two soldiers rushed past and into the doorway.

"Get radio jamming up corporal! Alpha and Beta teams will move into the building and secure the upper floors so we can get the nodes up. The sergeant called out as he turned to the churning vortex behind him, shuddering as another deafening clap of thunder heralded the arrival of another squad of Aschen marines, several of which were carrying supply crates and setting them up behind deployable covers.

With the teams in position, the Sergeant looked to the Vortex as it dissipated, and receded back into the sky, leaving a cloud of dust in it's wake.

"Secure the LZ and move into the building, go, go!" He called out.

"This is right fucked..." Daren watched the wall of troops marching towards them, gun fire erupting all around. His HUD collecting data on everything he saw. The South African mercenary thought long and hard, when microseconds and millimeters counted. He saw the effects that conventional rounds had on the shields which was nothing. By chance a rocket fired from a drone ricocheted off the top of a shield and exploded above the wall of warriors. If there was an opportunity to penetrate the line and get some shots he'd take it. But his defensive Trophy system kicked in, blasting three volleys of explosive interfering charges at an incoming spear which changed it's trajectory up and sailed passed him. The magic imbued device implanted into the ground and exploded showing plasma all around.

His armor reacted immediately buffering up his back now from the explosion. Staying here would mean certain death and Daren was not a fan about the thought of dying. "All Stames Def op-o's. This whole things is fucked, walk it back and secure the facility inside. We don't have the tech or manpower for this." Daren turned to dash behind an advancing security drone blasting away with heavy armor-piercing rounds. The security guards and mercs now were in a full retreat going inside of the Omnicorp building. "30 minutes you said? You should tell your people they have 5 mate." Just as the security chief tried to transmit he froze hearing nothing but static in his comms. "I can't get through." Daren checked his comms to find the same thing. "It would appear that our communications are being jammed... Tracking the source..... I'm receiving a signal interference wave coming from the top of the OmniCorp building, the make of the signal is foreign to me. Processing-.." "Yuh keep doin that, let me avoid that fuckin walking mountain; ya?" Daren turned and ran back to the OmniCorp building, automatically meeting several of his comrades. Already a few had been cut down either by the Golem or the Fyrnskain leading the charge.

"So much for this ya? We're gonna rally up and find our way out of this mess. As we go along, if you see anything useful- snatch it!" Just then the Security chief ran by, seeing the hired mercenaries just standing there talking. "We're not paying you to shoot the shit! We're paying you to shoot those freaks! Now get your men together and help me evacuate this facility." "Whatever you say." Daren nodded and took one last look outside from the main foyer as the armored drones were being cut down or destroyed as well as the unfortunate souls who happened to be caught by the warriors. Including several of his own men.

"Current battle statics show an 23% mortality rate of Stames Defense operatives. For a mission to have this many casualties so quickly is unfavorable, recommend discontinuing the mission and re-prioritize to mitigating Stames Defense Corp profit loss." "As always Julius, you're a ray of sunshine. But we press." "Understood... Forwarding statistics to Stames CEO." The A.I. responded and returned to it's back ground functions. Daren was completely unaware of the new possible threat entering from the roof 57 stories above coming down.

As the security continued to retreat, the Warriors pressed their advantage. Those who had been throwing spears quickly found those self same items returned to them by the warriors who had created the violet ring of runes around themselves. The magic had reclaimed the sacrificed weapons from the ether. Once they had requipped, the barrier shields were pulled up, and those soldiers likewise moved forward on the facility.

The Fyrnskain continued to cut down those enemies within range, each captain leading a contingent of their own warriors, when two dozen Paladins flew in from the Business District. These reinforcements did not engage enemies directly, instead they hovered above the warriors and healed them using streams of energy generated from the staves they carried.

The Golem continued it's approach to the building in a singleminded function. It would continue marching until it had reached the doors to the facility, and then it would proceed to try and break those doors down. With all considered, it should be short work.

One of the sharp eyed archers happened to be looking at the sky in contemplation when the Aschen soldiers warped in. He didn't know what it was, but the storm that had appeared over the building worried him. He pointed it out to his captain, who also eyed the anomaly. The captain then spoke in the musical language that their people used, and sent the one who had spotted it back to Ayanna in the Business district to report. He sent another Archer along with him for assurance. When those two had left, he turned back to look at the storm. For reasons he couldn't identify, a sickening feeling had formed in his gut.

Several Aschen soldiers checked the door to the CEO's office, while another group looked for the fire escape, six marines moved towards the rooftop fire escape, forcing open the door and approaching the stairwell. One of them peered his light down into the black maw, before he nodded.

"Service elevator." A Corporal signalled, gesturing to the service elevator that ran up and down the building.

Five marines nodded in response, before they formed up on the elevator shaft, hooking rappeling lines to a secure bar near the door.

"Check.." One said, checking his equipment, and letting his rifle hang from a velcro strap secured to his armored vest.

"Subspace comms check." The Radioman said, uplinking his ruggedized tactical computron to the Aschen battlenet, bouncing signals off of several subspace relays and to the Datalink, while pulling up a three-dimensional hologram of the HQ.

In the distance a Marine sergeant called out.

"Through the gates of hades!"

Several other men joined in, shouting. "As we make our way to Elysium!"

And they all shouted. "Through the Xeno Lines! Primo Victoria!"

With their gear secured, their weapons checked, they made the dive. The primary insertion team began rappelling down through the elevator shaft to the chaos below.

"Team alpha in position." The lead Marine team reported as he checked the pair of elevator doors that lead to the ground floor. The sounds of chaos echoing outside. "Secure the building, LZ... right." A Marine private muttered to himself as he backed up two steps and attatched a shaped charge to the elevator doors.

"Fire in the hole!" he called out, and several men pulled up and out of the blast.

Inside the main foyer, a pair of elevator doors were blown asunder, the deafening explosion sent the metal panels outwards, clattering on the floor as a plume of smoke wafted out of the elevator doors.

"Contact!" The marine private shouted, rolling a flash-bang rolling into the main room. The grenade detonated in a brilliant white flash and deafening pop before three Aschen soldiers fanned out from the elevator and quickly took cover behind a row of chairs.

"We have natives and Xenos, engage the Xenos first and then clear out the Natives!" The Corporal shouted, taking cover behind a concrete pillar. "They're coming in from all sides; frak me!"

Several more men rapelled down the elevator and emerged from the doors, wearing theuniforms of the Aschen Empire.

"By the lords of Kobol! They're going to overrun these natives!" A Marine shouted from his position. "Antimana! Antimana! Gods damnit get some Antimana in here!" He called out, as more men came down through the elevator shaft. "They're going to break the lines, lay down some gods damned cover!"

Depending on how the men of the Stames corporation responded, the Aschen Soldiers would fortify their position quickly and efficiently, with a squad of Marines laying down cover fire.

These new forces appeared alien, but to those who knew of the Aschen Empire, would have cause to fear them. The first report of disruptor fire sent brilliant green bolts of energy out through the front windows and doors towards the assailing forces. The brilliant green bolts of light liquefied metal and scorched flesh as it impacted, erupting in plumes of vaporized fluids and carrying the stench of burning flesh.

The men staggered their fire, discharging their weapons at the approaching warriors with careful precision, as the weapons the Aschen carried were not capable of automatic fire, they staggered their fire to lay down a steady stream of covering fire. The room almost instantly thickening with the stench of Ozone.

"Gods damnit they're not stopping!" The Sergeant called out from behind his position, and so he detached a silver spherical antimana grenade from his belt, and hurled it towards the approaching golem.

The grenade detonated in an audible pop, and sent a powerful pulse of anti-magic in all directions. This had the very likely effect of Short circuiting active spells, and spelling a likely instantaneous death to magical based creatures. This anti-magic pulse also was capable of stripping active enchantments and rendering the area in a thirty meter radius devoid of magic.

Immediately following the Antimana grenade, several Aschen soldiers began concentrating their fire on the Golem, brilliant green disruptor bolts on course to impact the creature, hurling several hundreds of thousands of degrees of particle energy likely carving out superheated pockmarks on the strange metal of the creature, leaving white hot welts, and causing molten matetial to drip from it's form. Considering the output of an aschen disruptor rifle could liquefy even the strongest of metals upon impact, the soldiers hoped their weapons would be effective.

Daren and the group of 9 mercenaries with him didn't have to be told twice to move. The giant Golem was making short work of the front doors tot he foyer of the facility. Shattering glass, steel and other building materials in it's wake as it attempted to go after the fleeing humans. It could be said that he barely heard the explosion of the elevator doors if it wasn't for one of the chunks of steel to fly right at him. He raised and arm and knocked the massive broken slab of steel out of it's trajectory. Te armor did it's job deflecting the blow and energy.

Before him was a squad of some type of soldiers fanning out and trying to make sense of the situation unfolding before them. Timing was everything and these men were either unlucky or very luck depending on how one saw the glass of water. More fire erupted with Daren moving just behind the corridor that lead into the hallway past the foyer. So far he hadn't been shot at so he didn't shoot back. However, he watched- he watched to see what they would do. Their language was English which was fortunate. They seemed a little too organized and protocol in their language to be mercs like him. This was a state fighting force he could tel that much at least.

Green bolts fired from their weapons, something he's never seen before and didn't personally want to become acquainted with. What really interested him was the grenade they threw. It wasn't like anything he had ever seen or heard. "Julius are you recording this?" "Affirmative. The type of weaponry is unlike any known weapon from the Stames Corporation or any known military of Earth- likely suggestion. Extraterrestrial. The same as the hostile outside. This factor has complicated the battle stat algorithm, I'll be reapplying the data."

Seeing the Golem being weakened gave him an idea. Whatever they threw seemed to work on the giant slab of metal. Antimana they called it, Stames would want something like that once this whole thing is over. Daren an opportuniy, so he took it. Raising his weapon, he squeezed the trigger waiting for the intelligent firing system to charge his weapon to maximum capacity and would automatically fire when ready. The cavernous surroundings of the foyer, funneled the extremely loud blast and concussion of his Kinetic Acceleration Railgun aiming precisely where those green bolts have been landing the most in hopes that he could penetrate the weakened still. Also in hopes of making some new temporary friends, until he found a way out of this mess, preferably with some new equipment for his boss.

The Aschen could throw the antimana grenades all day long and it would do them no good against the Golem. It's Animation was tied to the Starsteel heart at it's core, the only way to reach which was to bore through the thickness of it's body, which absorbed the pulses and energy from their weapons without so much as a blemish upon it's surface. It would become quickly apparent that energy based weapons would have no effect against the Starsteel Construct.

The warriors on the other hand, were a different story. Their equipment was all forged from starsteel, but a lot of it's strength came from the constructs and enchantments they were forged with, and the Antimana grenades all but stripped those clean. This rendered their shields and helms and weapons to their base forms, without any spells or magic to reinforce them. That being said, the properties of Starsteel, namely that of it's ability to absorb copious amounts of energy without issue, made the shields ideal at blocking the energy based weaponry the Aschen used. The more physical components however were now a serious threat to their survival and as the shifting capacity of their equipment was tied to it's magical constructs, the shields could no longer be deployed to protect against the physical weapons used by the security. Realizing this only after watching several warriors get perforated by gunfire from the security forces and the mercenaries, several Fyrnskains began redirecting their forces, forming them back up into columns and ranks with their shields up. This would help keep them from harm as they continued their march. Once they had routed the enemy then they could deal with this new complication.

Although four of the Fyrnskain had reached an altogether quicker conclusion, in regards to dealing with the problem. As the Fyrnskain's armor derived the majority of it's defensive properties from it's thickness, the antimana grenades removing the enchantments would not do too much to negate the shields capabilities. The Fyrnskain didn't know this, however, all they knew was that the aschen soldiers posed a significantly higher threat than the others, and they immediately charged on them, swinging their axes in wide arcs to cut the marines down.

The Paladins on the contrasting side of things were severely affected by the antimana grenades. Their equipment relied almost entirely on magic to function, and with the pulse several of the paladins began plummeting to the ground as their flight capabilities were hindered. Thankfully the spells and constructs were more reinforced than those used with the legion Warriors, and so their capabilities were not entirely erased. Of greatest concern was their healing staves, which now saw a 45% decrease in effeciency. Still, some healing was better than none, especially now that it was clear the armor and shields of the warriors were not reliable enough on their own.

The Archers gained an absolute benafit from the antimana grenades. Their arrows only had one form of magic, and that was sealing magic. They used this to great effect, by firing arrows upon arrows at the Aschen soldiers. Any antimana used to negate spells only unleashed the sealed elements in the arrows. Thunderstorms, Molten Magma, Blizzards and Firebolts all contained by magic into the form of an arrow unleashed by the archers upon the enemy forces.

But then one of the enemy fired some sort of railgun at the Golem. That alone did more damage to it then anything else had, as the Golem was physically thrown back by the blast. It stumbled a couple steps before reengaging, moving towards the front door to break it down. Where the railguns fire had hit there was now a series of cracks, each a foot long in reach, spidering from the point of impact.

The fact that the antimana grenade seemed to have little effect on the golem brought the aschen marines who were stacked behind cover some pause. The anti-magic pulse fired outwards in all direction yet the massive metallic creature kept advancing on them.

"They're still coming!" One of the marines shouted as he tried to lay down covering fire. The disruptor bolts careened through the air, impacting the starsteel armor to no effect.

The marine sergeant quickly gestured to his radioman as the Fyrnskains moved in on their forward positions, swinging their axes the men raised their rifles to catch the blades mid swing, they moved from cover to get away from the axe wielding creatures as the signal was sent up to the team on the roof.

The corporal on the roof listened silently to the panicked radioman on the ground floor, he turned towards the lieutenant and spoke. "They're getting chewed up ground side, they're requesting adepts and air support." The corporal said as the lieutenant offered a nod.

"Krypter, krypter, krypter; requesting air and adept support at primary infil LZ." The radioman hailed into his subspace comms relay, at that moment a voice crackled over the airwaves and a response came.

"This is Security Chief Valaj, I've got two apollos on the Tarmac, fueled and ready to go, have your boys call in the coordinates and we'll light them up."


Back on the ground, as the situation began to go tits up for the aschen forces, their English orders quickly descended into shouts in what sounded like ancient or Medieval Latin, the Anquietas language which was native for the Aschen people.


In the Tech Con quarter, a pair of F-11x Apollo fighters were being prepped and readied to go, using their powerful VTOL engines they dusted off the Tarmac and ascended into the air, the pilots checked their gear, and then they checked the two 1,500 pound JDAM ordinance mounted to the bottoms of their wings. As the fighters lifted off, they kicked on their afterburners. Someone amid the chaos in the lobby managed to get out a coherent set of coordinates into his radio, and the amassed forces outside would be in for quite a show.

The pair of Tech Con apollos banked hard towards the omnicorp HQ; their engines shrieking through the streets of wing city as they banked hard, the approaching formations of alien forces filled the streets, and with a deafening roar. The pair of delta shaped aircraft darted overhead, releasing their munitions onto the road directly in front of the Omnicorp Building. The guided munitions moved towards the tightest concentration of troops, before detonating in a powerful concussive blast capable of liquefying the men in their armor, it also sent white hot shrapnel in all directions. The 1,500 pound bombs were capable of reducing even fortified buildings to rubble. However they could not target the golem given its position in the lobby of the building.

Inside the aschen marines were switching to melee combat, but without their ranged weapons their effectiveness was drastically reduced.

Above the omnicorp building the storm suddenly began to return, clouds gathering and churning with multicolored lightning; the vortex slammed down, cracking the concrete on the landing pad as the vortex made contact.

Several flashes of multicolored light followed, and the hulking power armored forms of the Adepts of War emerged from the vortex.

Their armor whirred and the shields flashed to life as one of them growled.

"Git some." He grinned as he gestured to his team leader, and then chambered a 20mm heavy magnetron round into his rifle.

The bifrost vortex belched out several more war adepts, two of them carrying 120mm fuel rod cannons, heavy weapons capable of hurling a solid slug of plutonium at hyper-velocities. The Adepts checked their weapons before they jumped clean off the roof, their inertial dampeners and jump jets kicking in as they began to land piecemeal amidst the advancing warriors.

The adepts landed with a massive crash, sending a concussive shockwave out in all directions; they checked their weapons once more and began to open fire, hurling explosive 20mm magnetically accelerated slugs, which detonated a split second after impact out in all directions, while incoming melee attacks seemed to hardly scratch the reinforced duralthene armor plating.

One of the adepts grinned at the hulking golem and growled

"I have come to destroy you." He said before he set his heavy magnetron to full auto, and unleashed a fusillade of heavy slugs at the golem's back, each tungsten carbide tipped slug hurling towards it at hypersonic velocities, leaving a trail of combustion in its wake.

Several other adepts engaged in melee combat, with one picking up a car and tossing it at a formation of warriors with ease, while another uprooted a light post and began using it as a large bat, swinging in wide swathes at the enemy, hoping to draw them away from the boxed in marine formation.

"Shit yeah! Second times the charm!" Daren readied for a second salvo but the a few hulking masses of armored warriors distracted him for the barest of moments. The marines to his right were fully engaged in combat,the men his own size taking on 7 foot tall giants wielding hammers and axes. It didn't look like the marines were going to get out of this alive and in short time. Despite the damage the golem had taken it was still charging, he could see the cracks in it's chest as it decimated the front doors to the foyer. From his perspective, the scene outside was full scale war. Unrestrained bolts of fire, ice, lava, plasma and god knows what else had begun to rain down from the archers that he couldn't see outside. But a few arrow heads in his direction made Daren break from the wall.

"Right... Now's as good a time as ever." Daren turned and full on sprinted down the hallway deeper into the building, leaving this battle scene behind him. He wasn't going to fight this, it wasn't his place and he had no back-up the money paying him to stay put. "Julian, give me the locations of the team." "Communications are still being jammed from the extra-terrestrial jammer on top of the building. I can trace all Stames Corp operatives but communication is futile until-" "Just tell me where they are so I can find'em!" Glancing over his shoulder Daren rounded down a hallway fully committing on leaving the site. Leaving the marines to fend for themselves, and just in time from how it sounded beyond out in the courtyard.

Relatively pissed off that his opportunity to nab any tech was ruined, he kept his eyes open for anything else as he made his way through this hallway and that. The interior of the administrative building was abandoned, trolleys with documents left in random locations. Service bots either shut down or still running on their primary functions waiting on the staff to initiate a new objective.

Daren paused in a stair well and decided to head up, now on the southern side of the building. "Julian, get me a schematic of the building.... I want to find the R&D section, I've got time." "By my calculations, the time of which you speak of is negligible. In the interest of preserving Stames Defense-" "Well if you continue to stall me, I AM gonna round out of time now aren't I? Help me out." Daren pounded up past the 4th floor of the building finding that this was purely the human resources division. He paused for a moment and swapped weapon to draw his pistol. In a flash he did a magazine change, aiming the large caliber weapon to a wall several floors up and fired.

A surprisingly quiet gunshot rang out from the pistol, negligible hopefully from the chaos outside. He'd fired a deep resonance sonar pulse scanner, as a means of finding anything of interesting withing the surrounding area be they person, hollow and weak points in a structure of any other items with unique sonic qualities. Within several hundred meters, sonar pulses were reverberated and echoed back through the building to the device which painted Daren a 3-D picture of his surrounding. With the new ability to see through walls and even determine the composite of the materials around him, Daren wouldn't be surprised by anything around him if it was caught in the silent sonar pulses.

"Julius-?" "Proceed up 16 stories, and you'll be on the multi floor level of OmniCopr Research and Development." "Now let's hope they ran out of time to purge all their shit." Daren started up the stairs once more, thanking god that he wore this armor. It was far from quiet, but the servos saved him from muscle fatigue although he was beginning to get winded.

The Fyrnskain continued their assault on the normal marines, while the remainder began a charge on the adepts. They were bred for war and combat, but they were not fools. The Golem was the only thing maintaining their advantage and if they lost it to these armored brutes then the battle would quickly turn against them.

Two more archers were sent to retreat and make a report, while the remaining five began circling the building, avoiding the Adepts and the gunfire. They then proceeded to climb the building, making use of their training and specialized tools given to them specifically for this task. Their captain knew now that there was something at the roof of the building that was bringing soldiers in, and he intended to have it obliterated.

The Golem sustained heavy fire from the Adepts weaponry, each blast sounding a clear bell like note as it struck the starsteel body. Cracks began to form in it's back and everywhere where it sustained continuous fire. A pair of paladins were trying to stay close to it, their staves releasing continuous streams of energy, mending some of the cracks, but not nearly fast enough for their liking. Meanwhile the Golem slammed it's fists into the ground, unleashing shockwaves that would send any unprepared to their knees.