Planet Genesis -- The Capitol

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She chuckled, "It is, trust me I been there." Softly her face faltered before returning back to normal. "anyway... i uh have no clue what else to ask." Thaila said sheepishly.

Esk watched the shields carefully, trying to determine where they'd fail first.
As soon as a generator went down it would leave a gap and the Family would likely drop fast to get troops on the ground.
Hopefully they had orders to capture, not just slaughter.
It would give the guild defenders the edge.

---

One of the defending ships took a blast, their shields holding but struggling.

They continued to assault the Family ships, the aim to delay them more than destroy them. Realistically they knew they couldn't really blow up three huge heavily shielded ships before they broke that shield.

The smaller ships waited just out of sight, monitoring the shields closely.

The Family's ships weathered the attack of the fleet, absorbing hits while the wobbly one tried to hit back, until the two undamaged ships struck the shield just right and it finally shattered, giving them access to Guild airspace. The three ships dove into the atmosphere, racing lower until they hung above the city, at which point they spread out to cover different areas of the city.

They'd try to scan the city. Partly because their scanner was powerful enough to destroy or at least shake up a lot of anamcara before the battle, and partly to get an idea of where everyone was down below.

Thankfully their plan wasn't to slaughter indiscriminately. The Family didn't want to rule a universe where their enemies were dead, they wanted to rule one where their enemies were on their knees and begging for mercy.

As soon as the shields went down troops deployed, following the ships.
Swarm and the other scouts let out the alarm as soon as they knew where the family were planning to drop their troops.

Esk and the other snipers took up positions on rooftops with a spotter at their side, working in teams of two the sniper could snipe keepers while the spotter made sure nobody started shooting at them.
In theory anyway.

The medics unhuddled, watching what they could see from their sheltered positions worriedly.
Kay tried not to panic. It was happening, the battle was about to start and a lot of people were likely to die. He'd never liked war, but it was so much worse when you knew the people.

Matt and the other runners made their way to their designated areas.

The smaller ships slipped in behind the Family ships and opened fire on any smaller ships they tried to drop or any troops they tried to send out.

Hewitt yawned.

Mourn watched tensely, waiting to see if the dampening shield would work.
"Go with infantry." He told Amity. "be distraction."

Amity nodded and joined the soldiers.

The aketi scanner must have been insanely powerful. A few anamcara who had ventured into the open screamed in pain, and a couple even vaporized completely. Not that many anamcara had stayed to begin with, they knew they weren't going to be much use in a city filled with scanners and magic dampers.

The ships dropped as low as possible over the streets, offering the soldiers some cover as they were deployed. The Guild's small ships did manage to hit quite a few of the Family's troops as they clambered down their ropes to the ground, but a lot were successfully protected by their vessel's bulk, and made it safely to the ground.

They took any shelter they could, breaking the windows of shops so they could hide inside, then once all regular soldiers were down, they moved out in groups. Once the scanner was shut off, a keeper and their anamcara flew down to join each group as protection, and tried to raise magical shields to protect the troops. Most of them seemed to have trouble with this, and the anamcara seemed to be in considerable pain, which was making them borderline completely useless. The heck?

Meanwhile their ships lifted back into the air to engage the fleet again.

The snipers might get shot at by the Family's ships if they ships weren't kept very, very busy. Thankfully the Guild's fleet was doing a good job not giving the Family's ship crews much time to think.

On the ground, the infantry moved to their strategic locations like they had planned for if the Family attacked from the positions they had.

Artuvians stayed low in the sky, not wanting to get in the way of the ships that were fighting up above. They waited to swoop in as needed to assist the infantry.

Ellie pulled out a couple thorn grenades.

Shane watched the ships, waiting for the troops to be sent out so he could start shooting.

Skye watched, waiting for the scanners to pass before their unit would be sent up to be some of the cover fire. She was glad they had those scanner-blocking areas of the city so their amanacara could fight with them.

Starr chuckled softly then went out, shifting to an acid dragon then flying up to spit acid on their guns in the hope of melting them. She would also use her smaller size to keep out of the way of their attacks.

Rigel had taken the gunner position on the SD, letting Luka be able to focus only on flying and keeping them as safe as they could be in the middle of a battle.

Dawn focused on her air magic for now, making what amounted to a push of air, focused on the wobbling ship to throw it's sensors off and hopefully break something so it would have to land

Sawna waited in the shadows to be able to be useful. They just had to come in the daytime.

Esk watched the keepers through his scope, frowning a little. Were they being effected by their own scanners?
Or something else?
He shifted his position, ready to shoot.

His companion, a terran looking man crouched low, watching quietly.

--

Luka swept the SD low, giving Rigel a chance to get some shots in on the ships as they deployed their soldiers.
These ships weren't going to get very far, the larger ships had moved in to block their retreat.

Luka was a good pilot, but the SD was an old ship and an awkward shape. She wasn't designed for dogfighting in an atmosphere, her elongated bulk giving her a wider turning circle than Luka would have liked.

"Come on old girl, you can do this." She spoke aloud to the ship, compensating quickly for the clunky controls.

---

Matt's eyes narrowed, he raised both hands, ready to freeze whoever came near enough.

Kasi looked frightened, but he too raised both hands, flames licking over his fingertips. Was it too late to say he wanted to go home?

Armin had been taken to a secure... well, supposedly secure area to rest. He was barely coherent with exhaustion and slept through the explosions.

Kay watched an anamcara vaporise, shuddering. The dampners weren't working, or weren't working hard enough.
He and another medic ducked out of their position to help the surviving anamcara writhing in pain to the medical encampment they'd set up. There wasn't much they could do unfortunately, just wait it out and hope when the scanner shut off the anamcara would recover.

The Guild's anamcara started to come out of their shelters, but then screamed in pain and dove back into safety. The Family's anamcara returned to their ships. Something was going on here that neither side had anticipated, hmm.

Starr would successfully destroy a cannon and a laser blaster on one of the ships. Then they adjusted their defensive shields to try and keep her from getting close enough to shoot acid at them.

One of the Family's ships started targeting the Silver Devil because it looked old and slow, and easy to pick off.

The troops on the ground, even without their anamcara to protect them, forged ahead, and soon they and the infantry of the Guild would be close enough to engage, which they did, with a lot of gunfire, tasers, and drawn swords.

Ellie threw her grenades as soon as the enemy were in range. They burst on impact with the ground and the sudden light and moisture in the air triggered their growth, making them grow and take root rapidly, impeding the Family's progress and even, in some cases, rooting in through their armor into their skin in a seriously gruesome way.

At the other attack points, other grenade throwers did the same, with similarly violent results.

Hm, shielding...Starr grinned and shifted again, this time to a huge fire dragon, soon spitting flames at the shields to try to get to the guns beneath.

Dawn still focused on trying to break the wobbling ship and knock it out of the sky. She focused on one side, pushing it up then suddenly switching sides and pushing up on the compensating side. At the least it would throw everyone inside off balance, maybe.

Shane watched Ellie's grenades go to work then started shooting, throwing the enemy troops into more chaos, he hoped. He was taking headshots to any without full helmets to protect them.

Skye flew over the buildings, searching for a distracted keeper to dive bomb or just to shoot, depending on what she found.

Sawna seemed to vanish, there one moment, gone the next. She was water droplets in the air, undetectable as she streamed upwards. Dang the sun. She made her way to one of the ships, slipping into any crack she could find to start to mess with their electronics from inside.

Rigel would use the SDs weapons to shoot at the ships, trying to keep them safe as they fought.

Matt threw up ice shields to cover the infantry from gunfire, forgetting he was supposed to be acting as a runner as he charged headlong into battle. He pulled some bottles from pocketspace, lit them and hurled them into the oncoming enemy charge.
Makeshift molotovs, that should distract them.

Kasi yelped and stepped backwards, away from danger as soon as it got too close.
He ran ammo to people, popping in and out of reality over and over as he flitted across the city.

--

Luka growled in frustration as the ship targetted them. "Take out their guns!" She yelled to Rigel, forgetting for a moment that HE was her superior officer. She yanked the controls, spinning the ship around and behind a tall building for cover.

---

Esk aimed for a keeper and fired, shooting them in the head. Arrogant as they were, they hadn't bothered to armor themselves.

He moved on to the next, and the next. It might not keep them down for long, but it stopped them using their magic.

---

Amity shifted form, from giant plant person to hulking monster he charged the troops who's gunfire went straight through the projection.

---

Mourn was distracted by the behaviour of the anamcara, that was weird.

He was curious, forgetting he was in the middle of a war zone as a couple of bullets whizzed dangerously close to his head.
His ears flattened against his skull and he hissed. That pesky fear response driving him to seek cover, flattening himself against a wall and trying to catch his breath as his heart raced.
He started to laugh. This was exhilarating, terrifying, but exhilarating.
After a few minutes to compose himself he returned fire.

---

As a giant dragon, Starr was able to roast the side of one of the Family's ships pretty effectively. It didn't do as much damage as acid would have, but still, it kept the crew of the ship well distracted, which was a definitely a plus.

Dawn's attempts to capsize the wobbly ship weren't entirely successful, since it was a pretty darn large ship, but it did keep the pilot very busy trying to keep her steady. That, coupled with the barrage of attacks from the fleet, was giving them some serious trouble.

Sawna wouldn't be able to get into the ship. It was too well shielded and sealed for that.

~~
"You're supposed to be a runner, not a fighter!" Tala shouted at Matt. "Do your duty, soldier!"
She started shooting like a mad cow.

~~
Asher shot at keepers and soldiers alike while he spotter watched nervously for anyone coming to kill him. Yeah, shooting wasn't keeping the keepers down for long, but it was helping a bit. The less keepers were active at any given moment, the better.

~~
Ellie's magical plants were very effective at slowing down the troops, although they didn't stop them completely. Pretty soon the keepers were burning through the thorny plants and progress was being made again.

~~
James was near the front, shooting frantically and reloading a LOT. His bullets were glancing off armor sometimes, but they were taking down some soldiers too.

~~
Ethan was also shooting, albeit not as rapidly because his gun wasn't as huge.

~~
Orel flew overhead and waited for a good opportunity to kill a keeper.

Rigel gave a snort at the order, he was already firing even before it was said, though he didn't' say anything against Luka for ordering him around, not in the middle of a battle anyway.

Shane watched those he shot fall then started trying for the major arteries of those who were smart enough to protect their heads. Hey, he had been raised a fighter, so while this was a much larger force, he still knew his place in it.

Starr would keep up the barrage of fire, trying to weaken their shields enough to be able to be the smaller acid dragon once more.

Skye dropped down, dive bombing a keeper that had been shot down to stab him in the heart with the dagger then taking it and flying back up again.

Dawn had to stop after a while, panting at the effort of trying to move such a large ship. She had to switch to guns for a while, needing to think of another way to take the ship down.

Sawna quickly returned tot he shadows, watching and waiting for an opportunity.

Matt ignored Tala, crouching to make the ground slippery ice and sending a couple of mooks sliding straight into the good guy's guns and bayonetts.

A soldier from the keeper side took the opertunity to hit Matt in the head as he stood up, which sent matt stumbling back a few paces.
He growled, trying to punch the soldier who parried with the butt of his gun and smacked Matt in the face with it.
Matt grabbed the gun, trying to wrench it from the guy's hands. The soldier kicked him.
Matt head butted him in retaliation. He had a damn hard head.

---

Some of the keepers peeled off from the main fray, disappearing down side alleys or just teleporting elsewhere. Away from the sniper's gunfire.

It was difficult to keep track of everything in the sprawling layout of a city.
Keepers melded into the shadows.

Esk kept trying to pick them off, along with any mooks he could get a clean shot on.

--

Injured started pouring into the medical stations, which gave the medics something other than their own impending doom to focus on.
Kay worked flat out triaging patients, something he was unsettlingly good at. Making those tough calls about who was too far gone and who was not hurt enough.
All those bandanges Armin had made came in handy.

---

A small group of 3 soldiers managed to find their way into the park Hewitt was settled in.
At first they didn't notice the plant man, he was so still and blended in so well.
He watched them dully, eyes narrowing as they approached.

On guard, the soldiers walked past the camouflaged Aketi, oblivious to his presence until he stuck out a foot and tripped one of the soldiers over.
The soldier fell, knocking a companion to the ground.

Hewitt stood up, brandishing his cane.

The soldiers opened fire.

Hewitt didn't seem to care much about getting shot repeatedly. He walked forward, bullets ripping through his leafy flesh, raising his cane.
The fact he wasn't going down spooked them more than anything.
Two of them stopped shooting.
They all backed away.

Hewitt continued to advance, swiping at them with his cane and hitting them a few times until he'd backed them right up to the edge of the fountain.
He smirked.
"Drop your weapons." He told them firmly.

One of the soldiers obeyed.
The other two were too freaked out to know what to do.

Hewitt drew the gun he'd taken, a small handgun, nothing special. he cocked it, looking distasteful. "I don't like these things, and I don't like mammalian bodily fluids, it's all quite distasteful. But if you don't put the weapons down, i'll be forced to use this."

"W.. what do you intend to do now?" the other two soldiers dropped their weapons.

Hewitt shrugged. "I think i'll leave you to the others, they should enjoy tearing you apart. " He raised his cane once more, keeping the gun in his other hand trained on the soldiers. "this though.." He smacked all three of them across the legs with one good swipe, sending them all crumpling to their knees and howling.
"Is for ruining my holiday." He hit them again across the heads, then calmly picked up their guns and walked away.

The ships and their shields were going to take a long time to wear down, but at least they were being kept very, very busy.

~~
Asher tried to keep an eye on where the keepers were going, shooting at them when he could. Orel flew in and dove down to finish one of them off as Asher knocked her out with a well-placed bullet.

~~
Ellie stopped launching plant grenades, and Tala started really trying to mow down the soldiers with her bullets in earnest.

~~
Ethan wasn't able to get close enough to any keepers yet to kill them, they were doing a good job staying near other people which made it too dangerous to get in stabbing range.

~~
James Just shot things that weren't friends.

Sawna made herself look like a Terran female and pretending to cower behind a wall when she noticed a keeper coming her way alone. Hm. She wanted to get on one of the ships. "Please, don't hurt me, I don't want to fight" She said, trying to look as helpless as she could and keeping her guns hidden as she looked at the one that came to where she was.


Starr paused in her attack then shifted again, turning into an earth dragon and starting to make a casing of stone around the shields of the ship she had targeted. That would be a strain on the shields more so than her fire and it would block them being able to see or attack from inside. She started with bands to encircle the ship then made those bands grow wider and wider

Skye stayed as close to Esk's kill zone as she could, dropping in to stab keepers when he brought them down, though some of those may have been mooks instead of keepers. Ooops?

Matt continued to grapple with the random soldier, punching him several times and getting just as many hits back.
Eventually he got tired of just hitting, putting his full weight on the other man's chest and draining the water out of his body.

The soldier screamed, kicked and thrashed but Matt held him down till he stopped moving, then stood up and looked around for a keeper to stab.
He'd totally forgotten what he was meant to be doing, all he wanted right now was to hurt the family as much as they'd hurt him and his friends.

---

Luka did her best to keep the enemy off them while still getting them within range to shoot back. It was tricky, and the Devil was hard to steer in close quarters like this so they took a few hits. She compensated, swearing in a torrent of Satare as she narrowed her eyes and brought them around for another shot.

---

Esk kept picking off anyone he could until his spotter tapped him on the shoulder.

"We have compa..." the terran began, cut off by a gurgle as the keeper who'd appeared on the rooftop drove their axe into the man's throat.

Esk let go of his gun and rolled to his feet, drawing his side gun and opening fire.

The keeper smiled unpleasantly, yanking the axe out of the terran who flopped to the ground, dead.
She took several bullets to the shoulder and chest, flinching a little but continuing to smirk.

"you and your friends have been causing us a lot of trouble..." She purred.

Esk backed away, trying to reload frantically, while keeping an eye on her position.

She lunged forward with that axe, Esk dodged and tried to punch her.
They grappled for a while, Esk tried to kick her away and shoot her again but she got the upper hand, shoving him to the ground with the shaft of her axe and putting a foot on his chest.

He glared up at her through his visor and raised his gun.
She tutted and kicked it out of his hand.

Her bullet wounds were already healing, the bullets clinking to the ground with a light tinkling sound.

Esk grit his teeth, pulling a glove off hastily as the keeper fiddled with her axe and tried to decide how best to decapitate him.

He waited for her to shift her weight on his chest, then grabbed out for her leg, fingers snaking up under her pants leg to bare flesh.

There was a jolt that threw both of them. Like a blast of electricity as soon as Esk's fingers touched the keeper's skin.

He struggled to his feet, panting. "Damn... " That was somewhat like touching an avian vessle, only more explosive.
Surging with energy, he charged at the keeper, drawing his sword to parry her axe.

She caught her breath, standing just in time to deflect his first lunge and parry his attack. "Neat trick." She hissed.

He was a good sword fighter, but the axe was heavier and more powerful a weapon.

She pushed him back, he lunged, dove and punched her with his free hand.

She caught him on the side of his helmet, sending him sprawling to the ground again.
He got back up, growling, his sword skittering off somewhere he couldn't reach.

"You have spirit, i'll give you that." She smirked. "Such a shame, you'd have made an excellent slave."

Esk growled. "I'll die before I serve anyone."

"Very well." The keeper moved forward and this time Esk didn't managed to dodge, she caught him in the side with the axe, throwing him into a wall with the force of the blow.

His helmet took most of the impact, his armor doing little to protect him from that heavy blade.
He gasped, reeling, touching his side which was wet with inky blood.

The keeper smiled sweetly. Black blood dripped from her weapon. "How interesting.." She remarked. "Black blood..."

Esk tried to get up, howling in pain at the movement. His legs didn't seem to want to work.

The keeper advanced.

"Enough of this, it's time to die." She sang.

Esk dragged himself toward the sniper rifle which lay nearby, it was a long range weapon, not very effective in close combat but it was the only weapon he had.
He hefted it onto his shoulder and pulled the trigger.

He hit the keeper in the shoulder, the force sending her staggering back a few paces.

He pulled the trigger again. She staggered back again, reeling and laughing. Already the wounds were fleshing over, red blood running down her chest and arm.
Shuddering, Esk fired the last bullet. It grazed her cheek.
She raised a hand to her face, hissing in pain and anger and slipped, stumbling over the corpse of the terran and pitching off the roof with a scream.

Esk dropped the gun, slumping weakly to the hard concrete roof, a steadily expanding pool of black around him.
His visor alerted him to his physical state, readouts of his heart rate and multiple red alerts in his vitals.
He pulled the helmet off and tossed it aside, staring up at the sky dully.

Well damn.

Just when things were starting to look up too.

Rigel was using the missals when they were at long range then the guns when they were close. He growled softly whenever they were hit, getting madder at the Family each time.

Skye saw the fight, but hadn't been able to find a way in to help Esk until the keeper fell off the roof. She dived down to grab that one and throw her on the roof. She put the dagger in her back to paralyze her then looked to Esk, frowning at the blood. "Esk, you still with us?" She had no idea if he was still alive or not, not with that much blood already, but she had the keeper close enough to grab if he was.

Esk moved slightly, but he kept staring at the sky. "Skye?" He didn't seem totally with it. He was only barely conscious.

"Yes" Skye said and reached over, pulling the glove off the keeper then pushing her hand to his so he could do his thing. "Here, use the keeper before she regrows her spine...can she do that with a dagger in her?" She didn't know and hoped she couldn't. Mostly because she was sitting on the keeper

Esk couldn't do much to stop Skye, his fingers touched the Keeper's and there was another jolt, which might be strong enough to throw Skye too.
Oops?

Esk felt a surge of energy, his body desperately trying to heal but being unable to keep in sustained contact meant his body couldn't heal how it wanted to. The sustained contact as he slowly drained life gave his body time to knit together, the jolt of energy from the keeper was something else entirely, it was absolutely intoxicating.

His weakened system struggled to cope with the surge, burning through his circulatory system like electricity. His blood clotted almost instantly, his damaged organs partially calcified and the wound sealed messily.

Esk started laughing, which hurt, but he didn't care.
His pupils dilated, he couldn't stop himself.
He couldn't even register what was around him, laying in a pool of his own blood, he laughed and laughed and laughed.

The fighting was starting to break apart into smaller groups now. Guild soldiers and Family soldiers alike were losing their defensive formations and just trying to survive in any way they could. Tala ended up by herself in a cluster of the Family's soldiers, gun empty of ammo. She needed to reload as soon as possible, but that wasn't really possible when you were surrounded and being fired upon.
She charged into the group, bellowing a warcry and throwing them in all directions. Some were tossed in the air on her horns, while others fell and were trampled under her hooves. Some of the soldiers just ran. They weren't paid enough for this!

~~
Ethan saw a keeper slip down an alley, and followed him, wanting to try and stop him if he was trying something, and generally just wanting to put a few bullets in the guy's head without hurting his own comrades in arms.

~~
Ellie ended up with a group of soldiers, cornered against a building. She threw some more plant grenades, which turned into thorny monstrosities and tore into the flesh and bones of the Family's soldiers. James was in her group. He looked sick.

~~
Asher had had someone teleport him and his spotter to a different rooftop with a better view of the fighting.

~~
One of the Family's ships, the wobbly one, was getting realllly wobbly now.

Matt froze his way through a small group of soldiers till he faced the Keeper leading them.
The keeper glared at him, he'd just frozen their men! How rude. A ball of fire engulfed the Keeper and they raised their weapon.

Matt sprayed them in the face with a water saltzer bottle then hit them over the head with it for good measure.

it clattered away over the street and the keeper shrugged it off, the flames around them hissing and steaming as they advanced.

Matt stood his ground, pulling a staff out of pocketspace which he used to parry the oncoming attack.

Unfortunately Matt was not very good at hand to hand combat, even angry and blood thirsty as he currently was.
The flames stopped him being able to get too close as well, the heat radiating off the keeper was immense and the amount of fire was really limiting what Matt could do with his water power. He could neither freeze or drain the water from the man.

The Keeper hit him a few times with their own spear-like weapon, sending him sprawling on the ground with a grunt.

The keeper smirked.

Matt's eyes narrowed. He focused all he had to douse the fire shrouded figure in water.

It worked. There was a loud hissing and a lot of steam as the fire sputtered. The keeper growled and charged with the pointed end of their spear.

Matt rolled to one side, getting to his feet nimbly. "Missed."

The keeper ran at him.

Matt stepped backwards, reappearing behind the keeper, Daakon dagger drawn.
He grabbed the keeper around the shoulders, holding the knife to their throat and driving the blade in.

The keeper sputtered in surprise and pain as blood poured down their front. Matt let go, letting the body slump to the ground before driving the dagger into their chest for good measure.

Hmm, he felt a little better now.

He stood up, looking around. Who was next?

Skye was thrown back with the keeper at the jolt from their touching. She had not expected that, or the keeper that suddenly showed up standing over her. She was too shocked to have time to do anything before she was grabbed and held. The keeper glanced to Esk, wrote him off as dying or crazy then took Skye to one of the ships.

~~
Starr was still focused on covering the ship she was fighting with a layer of stone, one after another. It would take a while to get it fully covered.

Esk was only dimly aware of Skye, way too out of it to register her being taken.

He lay there a while, quite unable to get up.

--

Matt searched through the soldiers, he was looking for a specific keeper. Anyone who tried to stop him he froze in place, He was so hell bent on finding her that he totally managed to tune out the whizzing bullets and magic and explosions all around him.
That was, until someone shot him in the back and he crumpled.

---

Hewitt had to sit down, he'd expended a lot of energy. His leaves were drooping and he walked with a limp. He may not be able to be killed by bullets, but being riddled with holes sure did make getting around tricky. He found a sunny spot near a wall, slid down and sat. Yes, he'd just close his eyes for a moment or two, rest...

---

Mourn kept shooting.

---

Kasi kept running, flitting from place to place until he physically simply couldn't continue.
He shaped space around himself and a wounded ally, reappearing in front of a group of medics and collapsed from sheer exhaustion.

--

Amity's ruse had worked for a while. He'd been able to project the image of a frightening monster, a large gun turret and a small squadron of soldiers, but soon enough the enemy realised they couldn't hit the holograms and that they were an illusion.

Eventually one of them noticed the drone, and aimed for that.
A single shot sent it spiraling to the ground where it skittered along the stones and came to rest against a wall.

Nobody bothered to pick it up, thinking it only a regular holographic emitter.



---

Ethan tracked the keeper down the side street, but lost him in the shadows before he could get a shot in. He sensibly stayed back, not wanting to get ambushed by a creature that could shapeshift. In his experience, getting in a close quarters fight with a shapeshifter was a really, really stupid idea. He tried to spot it, wherever it had gone, and finally saw it scaling the wall of a big building, in the form of some sort of large gecko. His rifle couldn’t hit something of its size from this distance, darn it. It would be a waste of bullets.

He needed to get up there.




Asher was on the rooftop, watching the fighting below and slowly, steadily picking off targets. It was hard to get a good, clean shot sometimes, much less actually hit moving people from this distance, but he was fairly good at it if he focused really hard on the job, which of course he was because there was a lot at stake here.

A ship flew so low overhead that both he and his spotter looked up to see it coming in, and dropped to the ground as it passed only a few feet above them, trying to shake a Family missile that was hot on its tail. “Take cover!” the spotter yelled. They both did their best to cover their faces and make themselves into smaller targets, since there wasn’t really anything better to do on a rooftop. The ship made it a bit further before the missile struck and it exploded violently, hitting them with a shockwave and then raining down debris as the initial blast dissipated.

When Asher got up and turned to check on his teammate, he saw the man sprawled some distance away, presumably dead, with another man standing over him.

Asher shuddered. He hadn’t known his spotter for long, but it had been long enough that he had grown fond of the guy. Seeing him hurt, probably dead, was awful. He raised his gun, ready to shoot at the newcomer. This was… probably not a friend, and he knew it.

The man turned toward him, eyes glinting with recognition, and he shifted shapes, growing larger as his back bowed and wings sprouted from it. His neck stretched and his arms thickened, and his skin and clothes turned to dangerously yellow-green scales.

Asher started shooting as the transformation began, and he slowed it a bit, but soon the scales were too thick and the bullets just glanced off harmlessly. He ran out of bullets and dropped his gun to draw his knife, little good that would do.

The acid dragon lunged at him, crossing the distance in easy strides, and tackling the android, who tried desperately to find some weak point on the dragon’s body to stab with his knife. The fight wasn’t fair, and before long Asher was firmly pinned under the dragon’s talons, knife tossed a safe distance away across the roof.

The dragon looked down at him, pleased. “I remember you. Asher. The turncoat who shot his own lover--can you even call it love when one partner is a machine?--because he wanted to be on the winning side of the war. You were planning to turn against us too, we knew that. You thought you could outwit us, all of us. But all you did was make things worse for everyone.” The dragon flexed its claws on his arms, then paused to spit a glob of acid onto his body armor, where it began hissing and smoking as it ate its way through the material. “How long did it take you to weasel your way back into their favor, turncoat? What did you say to make them show you leniency for what you did?”

Asher strained in the dragon’s grip, trying to pull himself free. The acid was burning through his armor all too rapidly, and he needed to get it off before it ate into his skin and wiring. “I don’t answer questions for people like you,” he said, trying to sound defiant.

“Like me?” the dragon began to shift again, growing smaller and more slender, skin turning from yellow-green to medium brown, nice clothes and red hair taking form, eyes shimmering from yellow to red as the pupils split into double. His voice changed, matching the way Kay had sounded when he’d had that necklace to speak through, although this man’s lips still moved as he talked. “Don’t you think I, of all people, deserve some answers from you?”

Asher looked into those familiar eyes, then forced himself to look away as he tried to free himself again. This wasn’t Kay, it was all right to hurt him. Really.

He still couldn’t throw the guy off though. Might look like Kay, but he was way stronger.

His sensors registered the acid burning into his skin now, and then through it, into his wiring. This wasn’t good.



Ethan ended up running up six flights of stairs to reach the rooftop. He really wanted to stop this keeper, whatever he was planning.

He reached the top and edged open the door to peer out, and spotted a soldier lying on the rooftop, motionless. Shit. He heard someone talking in a voice that was hauntingly familiar, and looked around to spot two more men a distance away, one who looked very familiar crouching over the other, pinning him down as he tried to escape.

Kaylr.

For several seconds, Ethan lost himself in the horror of what he was seeing, thinking only of what Kaylr was going to do to him once he finished with this poor wretched victim. He’d seen it before, way more times than he cared to count. He was going to see it again, and it would be as bad as ever.

Then he remembered everything that had changed since he had last seen Kaylr.

He was Ethan, he was free, and he was going to destroy the worthless wretch, just like he had always promised himself he would.

He charged, letting out an inarticulate yell, and drove the blade of his bayonet into Kaylr’s shoulder.

Kaylr screamed and writhed, trying to free himself from the blade, or attack, or something.

Ethan pulled blade free and kicked him in the ribs. There was a cracking sound of ribs breaking, and Kaylr accidentally released Asher (Asher? Ethan felt sick. Somehow that man hurting his brother made this even worse). Another kick, and Kaylr rolled off Asher, clutching at the wound in his shoulder, and at his rapidly healing ribs. He looked up at Ethan, eyes widening in confusion at the sight of this identical, but actively hostile, android. Ethan pressed the blade to the man’s throat.

“You worthless little wretch,” Ethan snarled in fury and kicked Kaylr again, breaking more ribs, and then again and again, keeping the bayonet’s blade lightly pressed against his throat, drawing a line of blood. “You tried to break me,” another kick, more blood, “You thought you could bend me to your will,” he trod heavily on the Kaylr’s hand where it clutched at his wounded shoulder, drawing a scream from the man. Ethan’s voice rasped with pain and desperation, “But you never did. You failed! I’m free now and I’m stronger than you!” He pulled his bayonet away from Kaylr’s neck to ram it into his side. “I’m free now, and you’ll never hurt anyone again!”

Kaylr tried to gasp a question out, but he couldn’t, not through broken ribs and a pierced lung.

“Ethan!” Asher shouted. “He’s a Keeper, kill him now, please!”

The words pulled Ethan back to the present. Right, this wasn’t Kaylr. This was someone else, obviously also a disgusting sadist, who could shapeshift. There was a battle raging below right now, and Ethan couldn’t stay here to relieve his years of resentment like this. He was wasting time.

He looked into the Keeper’s red, double-pupiled eyes, and pulled the blade out of his side to drive it into his throat.

The man died, bleeding out onto the rooftop. The jewel attached to the bayonet blazed brilliantly as it absorbed the man’s life essence. Then it faded.

Ethan pulled his eyes away from him after another few moments. He looked to Asher, and saw the gaping hole in his armor. “You’re hurt. Can you walk?”

Asher frowned, and shook his head. “He spat acid on me. It ate into my wiring. I think my data banks are safe at least, the acid doesn’t seem to be active any more.”

“Shit.” Ethan came over to look at the damage for a moment, then remembered something else. He went to check Asher’s partner. The man wasn’t breathing, and there was no pulse to be found. “We need to get you off the battlefield,” he told Asher.

“Is he dead?” Asher asked.

Ethan nodded.

Asher bowed his head. He wished he’d been able to prevent that.

“I’ll go get someone to evac you,” Ethan said firmly. He came over and grabbed Asher, getting him slung over his shoulder with considerable difficulty. “I’m taking you to the stairwell, you’re a less visible target there.”

“Thank you,” Asher said weakly. He didn’t want to be out of the fighting like this.

Ethan took him to the stairwell and left him there, then he went to find someone to take Asher to safety, and to kill more keepers himself.

Dawn jumped into a group of soldiers, seemingly with invisible blades circling her until the group was dead around her. She was panting from the effort again, but simply took a drink from her canteen and moved on, using her power and her gun to take out the mooks.

Shane was on the move as well, shooting any mooks that came his way. He seemed to have forgotten he even had magic now.

The keeper had fallen for her trick, taking Sawna up and into one of the ships, where she promptly pulled her hidden dagger out to end his life. Now, she was on this ship and free, she was going to cause as much havoc as she could. She smiled wickedly then set off, searching for people to drain of blood to heal from being in the sun even that brief time earlier. She would feed then kill, careful not to kill while feeding.

Orel spotted Esk and flew lower. Oh man, that guy looked pretty messed up. He called for an eagle to come in and take the guy to a field hospital. Pretty soon the eagle came down to land near Esk. "You look like you're in a bad way, son," he said. "We need to get you home."

~~
The wobbly Family ship made a forced landing in a park. Yeah, they couldn't keep flying any longer.

~~
The ship Sawna was on would probably have to land soon too.

~~
Tala was plowing through mooks.

~~
Somehow James was still alive and fighting. Weird.

Esk blinked a few times and managed to wave a hand. "Skye... skye's on it.. " He was slurring his words. "Where'd she go?"

---

Luka was still flying, the ship had taken a few hits and was getting more and more difficult to steep but until they lost engines she was going to keep circling the remaining ship so Rigel could shoot it.

---

Matt tried to drag himself to his feet but he couldn't seem to move too well.
"Shit.." He muttered.

Then he spotted her, the Keeper he'd been looking for. She was commanding a troop of soldiers forward.

His eyes narrowed and he hauled himself up, wobbling a little. "HEY!" He yelled, trying to get her attention.
He drew the dagger.

---

Mourn was still fighting. He was small which meant he was fairly easy to lose in the chaos, and he was fast.

---