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.

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.

---

Sawna had too much blood from powerful beings running through her veins now. Once she had cleared the ship of mooks, at least the ones between her and the control room, she locked the doors then made a forced landing just outside the city, shutting everything down then destroying the control panels so it couldn't fly or have shields up. Once that was done, she would make sure every door on the ship that was controlled by electronics was unlocked. There were bound to be slaves that would like some freedom after all.
She chuckled darkly then turned on an alarm,there, make them clear out of the ship, even if nothing was going to happen to it.

~~
With the ship down, Starr circled the area, looking to see if she could find any of their people then landing heavily to kill a band of mooks with her dragon teeth.

~~~
Skye was unconscious now, and unfortunately on the remaining flying ship. They had knocked her out with drugs.

~~~
Shane got hit in the arm by a random bullet and cursed, dropping back and shifting to his star dragon form without thought. It took him a moment to realize what had happened then he gave a grin and took off, flying over the rooftops to find a keeper to put in a tiny sun, or rather put a tiny sun in the keeper.

"Skye's gone?" The eagle frowned. "We'll keep our eyes open for her. FOr now, you need medical help." He picked up Esk without any delay, preparing to fly him to a field hospital.

~~
With all the doors unlocked on the ship Sawna had attacked, there would suddenly be a lot of people trying to flee, Family and slaves alike. They charged for the exits to get away from this death trap in a horde, barely noticing one another as they fought to reach somewhere relatively safer.

There weren't a lot of slaves, but there were some of a few different species, used for various purposes.

~~
Ethan headed for the streets to fight some more, still twitchy and aggressive from his encounter with "Kaylr".

Sawna moved again, calmly walking through the horde, looking for keepers to stab with the dagger and ignoring the mooks and freed slaves for now. This ship wouldn't fly again without a lot of rewiring

Starr was about to finish the last of the mooks in this group when she felt something land on her back. She growled, turning her head to see what it was when she was hit by what felt like electricity. She called out in pain, writhing around before going still and panting.

"Shift or I'll hit you again" The keeper stated warningly.

Starr sent a glare at the keeper before making herself shift to her angel form, staying down on the ground.

"Good, now, put these on" He tossed a set of manacles at her, keeping out of grabbing range, but ready to hit the dragon again if she refused as he could tell she wanted to.

~~~
Shane saw Matt on the ground and frowned, then looked to the keeper that had his attention. He flew in and landed next to Matt "Hey, let me get you out of here."

Esk just lay limply, he was having serious trouble focusing on anything and wasn't really overly aware of what was going on.
He was probably absolutely saturated with his own blood though, he'd been lying in a pool of it a while.

---

The female keeper turned to Matt's call, smiling nastily when she recognized him.
"oh, it's you. Come to get revenge for what I did to your lover have you? Where IS that pretty little thing? We never got to finish our game."

Matt uttered a wierd sort of howl, Ignoring Shane completely and charging at the woman.

A few of her soldiers moved into try to take out the dragon.

The keeper rolled her eyes and spun out of Matt's way, grabbing him by one shoulder and spinning him around to face her.
She kept one hand on his wrist, nails digging in and stopping him being able to stab her.

"Oh, you've got a new toy." She glanced to the dagger, then back to Matt.

Matt growled and struggled but damn she was strong.
Unnaturally so.

"tisk tisk.. " the Keeper tutted. "Silly little boy, so angry. Charging into a fight without a clear head will just get you hurt." She snaked her other hand around to his back.

Matt tried to step backwards but she held him fast.
"now now my dear, I think we should get to know one another better, don't you?" She leaned in close.

Matt headbutted her in the face.

The keeper staggered backward, yowling in pain and then starting to laugh. "Oh, feisty.. I like that."

Matt's eyes blazed with fury, he lunged with the knife again and the female keeper drew her weapon, a sort of flail thing studded with needle sharp spikes.

He dove for her, she spun the flail into his chest, then brought her elbow down on his back as he fell.

"Stupid, stupid boy." She laughed, standing over him.

Matt tried to drain the water from her but he was hurting too much to really focus.
She stepped on his chest to furthur punctuate her point, pressing down on the steadily forming bruising and swinging her flail.

"A pity, we could have had a lot of fun... " She mused "We still could..." She bent down, straddling Matt as he struggled beneath her.

The flail disappeared, now the keeper drew her needles and thread.

"you do have lovely eyes you know..." She told Matt.

The eagle lifted Esk, ignoring the blood completely, and jumped off the side of the building to fly toward the nearest hospital. He flew low and fast, trying to not let anyone see where he went.

~~
James saw Starr and the Keeper, and yelled a loud, "GET AWAY FROM HER." He started firing to kill the last mooks that Starr had missed, so he could get closer.

Shane shook his head and jumped, flying up then dive bombing hte keeper to get her off Matt "Leave him alone" He growled. latching on with his claws on either shoulder since he was on her back now. He narrowed his eyes and focused on making a tiny sun between his claws and incidentally inside her body before tossing her away then taking his human form to shoot the mooks that were there. The sun would incinerate her heart and lungs and probably the rest of her as well given time.

Starr grinned at the distraction that James gave her, standing with some trouble only to have the keeper come up and grab her, turning so that she was between him and James.

"I do not want to lose such a prize as the dragon queen, but I will hurt her if you do not stop." He told James.

Starr looked to James then let the dagger slip out of her wrist sheath so he could see she had it. She smiled at James then turned, slamming the dagger into the keeper's belly to get him to release her so she could take it out and go for his heart. She had to take a seat after that though, electricity was wicked stuff.

The keeper screamed, writhing in agony as the sun consumed her.

Matt glared at Shane, still furious but as he sat up his angry glare turned to a smirk as he watched the Keeper writhe and howl.
"Will it kill her?" He asked. Oh he hoped it would be slow and painful.

The mooks shot back but they were a bit well, startled by their mistress' demise. A couple fell back and fled.

The Keeper screamed till the sun consumed her lungs, then she fell horribly silent but she still moved, her healing trying desperately to counter the effects and losing.

Her final desperate act was a surge of wild magical energy, fired out indiscriminately as the sun won and her body gave out.

James faltered as the keeper tried to use Starr's life as a threat, then grinned in relief as Starr revealed her dagger. Oooh yes, that dragon lady was awesome. He went over to her as she sat down after the keeper died, guarding her while she rested. "Are you gonna be okay, or do you need to see a medic?"

"Yeah, it will" Shane said, shooting the mooks that remained "Slowly, over and over again until she's no more" He jumped at the release of energy and looked around.

~~
Starr looked up at him and smiled again, putting the dagger away "I just need a few minutes to recover, then I can fight again." Yeah, she could force the issue, but that would make her have to oversleep after again and they didn't have that kind of time. "Electricity is a weakness I wish we didn't have."

"Okay, I'll stay here with you until you're okay," James said. He didn't want Starr to get shot while she was vulnerable.

~~
The eagle dropped Esk off at a hospital.

Nearby something exploded, some mooks and friendly troops were thrown off their feet and Shane and Matt would be hit with a wave of hot, powerful current that would knock them sideways and burn any uncovered skin.

Matt yelled out and covered his face, throwing up a wall of ice instinctively to protect himself from the heat.

---

Esk would be taken into the hospital and looked after by medics. His injuries baffled them though, and most of them were still too scared to go near him.

He had a massive blood clot in his side, his liver looked... scarred and everything was just a bit of a mess internally, yet he had no external wounds, no bruising, just an ugly looking scar to join all the rest.
He was also covered in blood, yet nothing was bleeding.

He'd need surgery for the internal injuries, particularly to deal with that clot before it broke up and blocked something.
They were fairly sure all the blood all over him was Esk's because the medical scans were showing him as having suffered massive blood loss too.

He was also apparently on some sort of drug, despite having nothing in his system because he was acting weird. His pupils were dilated, he was barely responsive and he seemed to be periodically giggling.
It was all very strange.

Baffled, the medics put him under observation. His injuries weren't immediately life threatening, he could wait.

Esk drifted in and out of consciousness, apparently his energy draining ability could not replenish lost blood, his body needed time to do that itself.

When he did wake up he mumbled something about the sky, then passed out again.

Shane ducked, shifting to his dragon form again then looking around at whatever had exploded "What was that?" He asked then moved to check on Matt.

Matt was shaking, but aside from being slightly singed he seemed okay.
"I dunno..." He looked wary. "Help me up, there's still keepers to kill." Yeah he was determined to keep fighting.

Amidst the chaos a figure stepped forward, wielding a large, wicked looking blade that crackled with electricity.
A Keeper. They locked eyes on Shane. A Star Dragon, excellent, they made good pets.

Starr nodded and settled in to rest, jumping at the sound of a larger explosion somewhere. "What?" She looked around to try to find the source from where she was.

Dawn dropped to her knees at the explosion, unable to get back up for a moment because of how tired she was. How long had they been fighting already?

Rigel cursed softly at the loss of another of their ships then focused back on what he was aiming for this time. "You land this old girl if she gets too stiff in  the turns, we don't want to lose her fully." He called to Luka, knowing she would want to take care of the old ship too.

Sawna had to take a seat too, staying inside the downed ship for now. Once the majority cleared out, she would search for any prisoners that hadn't been able to get out on their own.

Shane looked up at the sound of electricity and growled, looking back to the keeper "Stay down Matt, use your blade when he gets close" He said quietly, taking a step back from the keeper. This would be interesting. He shifted to shoot the bugger, emptying his clip on him.

Luka called back "Aye aye captain!" She was concentrating, trying to keep them out of the line of fire which had become a lot easier now two of the ships were down.

--

Matt tightened his grip on the dagger in his hand, glaring at the keeper.

The Keeper shrugged off the bullets, but noticed Matt's blade.
He was a threat.
For a moment their attention shifted from dragon to Matt, in one swift movement they were in front of the half Kevali, slashing down with the electrified blade.

It hit Matt across the back as he tried to get up and he yelped in pain as the blade drove through his armor and electricity coursed through him, instantly cauterizing the wound but paralyzing him for the moment.

He let go of the dagger and the Keeper kicked it away, then picked Matt up, holding his unconscious form in one hand and the electric blade in the other, he goaded the Star Dragon.

"Surrender, and maybe your friend here will survive this encounter."

Shane stepped forward when the keeper moved to hurt Matt. He couldn't stop him in time to help Matt though. "No, don't hurt him" He frowned then dropped his gun and held up his hands. "Just leave him here, alive and I will go with you." He hoped Swarm was around to pass on word that Matt needed help, like now.

James frowned at the sound. "No idea what that was, but it didn't sound good," he said. Still, they'd been hearing this sort of thing for hours now, and he was almost getting used to it. Well, not used to it, exactly, just kind of desensitized. He kept his gun ready to fire, although he held it with the muzzle pointing at the ground for now, for safety.

~~
Ethan was looking for someone to go get Asher, but got sidetracked when a couple of soldiers tried to ambush him, and had to try and fight them off. Turned out dakkon daggers worked pretty well against non-keepers too, who would have guessed?

~~
Asher sat in the stairwell and waited. He held his pistol half-cocked and pointed at the ground, so he'd be ready if someone attacked him. Well, sort of ready. He wasn't really in any condition to fight, and he knew it.

He felt awful, thinking about his partner lying dead outside, and his friends being wounded and dying in the streets below, and Ethan brutalizing that man who looked like Kay in a show of animalistic fury. And here he was, lower body completely paralyzed, unable to protect anyone, and wondering if his identical twin was going to do to Kay what he had done to that keeper.

He tried to move his legs. Tried to stand up, or at least change his sitting position. Nothing happened. Unless he wanted to crawl down six flights of stairs or jump off the roof, he was stranded here.

~~
Orel looked around for Skye. He couldn't see her anywhere, which either meant she was flying low, or meant she was in trouble. He knew they were supposed to worry about the final outcome of this battle and not about individual lives, but he was still worrying. Had they caught her? Had she been shot down? He had no way to know.

~~
Ellie found Hewitt as she was seeking out more soldiers to plant-bomb. She frowned at the sight of him. "Dude, you look terrible."

~~
A few other minotaurs joined Tala and together they left a trail of destruction in their wake, while the gyrfalcon flew behind taking out any keepers they managed to temporarily kill.

~~
Sawna might find a few more prisoners, including a couple of aketi engineers who looked half dead and couldn't even stand.

Hewiit opened one eye when Ellie spoke. "Water..." He mumbled.
He needed water. He needed rest too, but he was fairly content to just sit here. Nobody had been bothering him.

--

The Keeper smirked at Shane, tossing Matt aside like a rag doll. Matt hit a wall and slumped to the ground.

The Keeper rounded on Shane, pulling out a pair of cuffs.

---

Swarm was everywhere they could be, but it was so chaotic, they were having trouble really keeping track of what was going on. So many hurt and dying, so many falling, it was a full time job just alerting the runners.
They'd find Matt eventually though, sweeping through the streets in small groups and sending alerts back to any telporters or artruvians who were quick enough to get the injured evacuated.

A lot of the snipers had been taken out by keepers, they'd killed the spotters then the sniper, in many cases before either could even react.

---

Mourn yowled and attacked anyone who got too close.
The random mooks seemed to be flagging, their morale at an all time low as they watched the keepers fall.
Even the keepers were starting to lose confidence. They hadn't expected an organised well armed resistance and they certainly hadn't expected Dakon daggers.
There were so many of them, how had these people managed to get a hold of so many? there were only supposed to be five and yet it felt like everyone had one.
yes, a few were spooked.
A few were angry that this hadn't gone to plan and turned on their own men in frustration.
A few tried to retreat.
Many more forged ahead, unwilling to accept they couldn't win this. They were the FAMILY, nothing could oppose them!

---

Ellie got her water flask out and came over, trying her hardest to not hear Hewitt's thoughts. "Okay man, can I like, pour this on you or something?" She looked unsure.

Hewitt moved his head forward, tendrils and leaves swaying slightly. "yes." He managed weakly.
He was tired, he wanted to sleep. He wanted to go back to his nice humid room on Vestia. The ground was hard, the air here was full of smoke and engine fumes and magic. It wasn't ideal.

Ellie started slowly pouring water on the professor. "Tell me when to stop," she told him.

When she felt sure she could, Starr stood again, coming over to stand beside James and looked around "Alright partner." She said and gave him a half smile. "Which way needs us the most, do you think?"

~~~
Shane flinched, watching Matt then looking back to the keeper and raising his chin a little then dropping his gaze to the ground and holding out his hands like he was going to be that honerable. The little sun was already there, the one he had used to kill the female, so it was nothing to move it, shoving it into the male to burn him up.

~~
Sawna frowned at the sight, going to get them water then coming back. She went back and forth a few times, giving each of the Aketi a bowl of water and assuring them that the ship wouldn't explode or anything, that the alarm was her way of clearing the ship. She couldn't really do much more for the plants, but the other types she could heal at least enough to let them get off the ship if they wished.

~~~
Dawn was now hiding in an abandoned shop, resting from the strain of using her magic too much. She hadn't planned to sleep, especially here, but her body gave her no choice and the stuff she had been drinking to keep her energy up was used up.

The Professor sighed in relief as cold water covered him, eventually leaning back and closing his eyes again. "You have your uses then plant mage..." He told her. "How goes the battle?" He rested his head against a wall, hands folded.

---

The keeper seemed to fall for Shane's ruse, moving to try to cuff him.
He cried out as Shane moved the sun, screaming at it consumed him. The cuffs clattered to the ground.

---

The Family's troops were scattered and starting to fall back. A few small squads had already surrendered, seeing their keeper leaders destroyed like this did not do a lot for morale.

James smiled a bit back at Starr. "I hear the most noise that way," he said, pointing in a direction, "Maybe we'd better start there."

~~
The aketi engineers were grateful for the water from Sawna. They stayed where they were and watered themselves.

~~
Tala and her minotaur allies fought for a while longer, but Tala was weakening now, a few bullets had made it through her armor and the pain was beginning to slow her down. She was going to be pretty useless for a while after this battle, once the adrenaline wore off.

~~
Orel was still looking for Skye, and occasionally picking off keepers, until a well-placed bullet struck his wing, and he plummeted to the ground, where he lay shaking and gasping in pain. He dragged himself and his dakkon dagger out of plain view, and tried to spot any artuvians he could flag down to hand over his dagger to.

~~
Ethan was still fighting, keeping himself in moderately good condition because he was mainly trying to only engage already wounded keepers. He finally got a chance to tell someone where Asher was, but it was going to take a while to get Asher moved, because he was a pretty low risk patient right now. He wasn't going to die from blood loss, and he couldn't be repaired to fighting condition either, so he could stay where he was a while longer.

~~
Ellie smiled weakly. "We're struggling to stay alive, but they're having a harder time than we are I think."

~~
The final airborne Family ship battled the Guild fleet a while longer, then without warning, it headed upward rapidly, apparently making an attempt to flee. With Skye still on board, presumably.