The red rift forcefully coerced its way into reality as it appeared just a few feet above me, emanating ripples around it. Shortly, the red rift has fully opened, prepared to unleash whatever horrors from the other side of it.

I looked to Chrysalis with a concerned face, "Well, I suppose now's the best time to hope for whatever comes out of that thing is, at the very least, competent enough to fend off these other changelings."

"Ha, I doubt it, all of your armies are less than a threat, in my perspective at least." Chrysalis boasted, much to my vexation.

"But one of my former legions of death rendered a whole town to ashes." I objected, with a questioning look on my face. Chrysalis simply rolls her eyes.

"Huh, look over there." I pointed at the usually camouflaged entrance of the changeling hideout; it was now unsubtle and clearly visible as the foliage appeared to have been removed. "I suppose that clarifies that the rival changeling swarm has arrived."

"Tch, well, I hope that your next army will be serve as ample meat-shields." Chrysalis said, genuine concern faint in her tone, "Because these changelings are exceptionally deadly."

I did not reply, but merely shrugged. Huh, for Chrysalis to regard something as deadly, that frightens me somewhat. Though, I shouldn't need to stress, it's quite deleterious to my already ravaged mental fortitude.

Then finally, the first of many emerged from the portal, landing on the ground with little trouble, if not none at all. As if the individual was anticipating a fall, how intriguing.

The individual was donning some sort of dark grey suit, with a pair of what appears to be night-vision googles, and he appears to be wielding a firearm that appears to be a Submachine gun.

"That thing seems to resemble your appearance." I heard Chrysalis point out.

"Well, the fact that he is apparently human, my race, contributes much to that." I mocked.

He seem familiar, then again, every single one of my previous armies were recognizable by me. Huh, a sense of dread overwhelms me by just glancing at the shady individual. Hm, I hope that signifies that he is skilled.

Unfazed by sudden shift of his environment, he examines the area, looking around. It didn't take much time for him to spot me, casually, he begins walking towards me.

Upon reaching my vicinity, he hands me a radio, I grasped it in my hand, slightly confused. He then proceeds to place what appears to be an earpiece in my right ear.

He proceeds to connect the earpiece with the radio, seeing my bewilderment. He then gestures for me to take the radio, along with the earpiece connected to it of course. With a sheepish grin, I did just that as I set the earpiece back into my right ear.

He then proceeds to talk via radio as he pressed one of the buttons on the earpiece.

"Hey, boss. Who are the unlucky bastards that's gonna get shit on by me and my friends?" He asked with pure determination and pride laced in his garbled voice. The distortion in his voice probably due to the fact that the radio was somewhat faulty.

That voice, now I recognize this character; he's the Cloaker from the Payday series. How I failed to recognize him earlier is beyond me.

Cloakers are paramilitary units that don light, protective armor that blends quite well with the several smokescreens. They're swift bastards, capable of incapacitating another being by simply kicking them.

I have to admit, their proficiency in martial arts is quite intimidating.

I replied via radio, "Don't find this offensive to your degree of skill, but we're against a swarm of large bugs. Much like this one here." I said as I pointed at Chrysalis.

Chrysalis appeared to have taken offense slightly, this was apparent as she shot a grimace at me. I suppose using the word "bug" to describe her race is insulting.

I inquired out of curiosity, "Why are we even speaking through the radio, I can hear you clearly."

He shrugged dismissively, "Just wanted to make sure you knew how to use that thing." He said, this time, not using the radio. Although, his voice was slightly muffled due to the mask he wore. I nodded slowly in acknowledgement in response.

I heard Chrysalis whisper, "This one seems.. peculiar. Do tell me the object that he just gave you. I'm somewhat curious."

"Oh, this thing?" I retrieved the radio from my robes, grasping it within my left hand. "A simple, yet extremely efficient, long-ranged device for communication purposes."

"Hm, perhaps I should request for one." Chrysalis said. "It would save much of my time, as it would defeat the purpose of finding you, should I find some noteworthy information."

"Well, you can't possibly be the only one that I managed to get, where are the others?"

He glanced at his left hand's wrist, as if he had a watch on him, "Hm, I'd say that they're arriving at one. Two. Three!" he exclaimed.

Despite his rather enthusiastic countdown, the portal simply did nothing but idly exist, awaiting for my army's arrival. The Cloaker grew somewhat annoyed by this as he slumped down slightly in disappointment.

"Hm, well I didn't exactly expected that to work, but it would have been awesome if it did." He stated, urging me to face-palm. Fortunately, I avoided using that gesture.

"At least I had the balls to go here first!" The mercenary stated in pride and triumph, but consisting more of pride. "No, but seriously, they should be here by now-"

The cloaker was cut off as a sizable amount of combatants emerged from the portal.

The deluge of trained fighters pouring out of the portal came to a halt, much to my disappointment. There wasn't exactly a favorable amount of combatants, but I suppose that this is still considered an army.

Honestly, I was anticipating more combatants to emerge from the portal, but I should avoid complaining. At the very least, I didn't manage to summon anything feeble.

To be fair, however, these warriors are more, in terms of tactical prowess and combat efficiency, are immeasurably more skilled, in comparison to, my previous gun-wielding minions, the pirates.

The sight of a legion of adequately armed, armored, experienced warriors before me was incredibly intimidating, to say the least. Ugh, I could feel the inner heister within me tremble in fear.

The feeling of immense reassurance surged within me, I realized that these weren't the regular response units from the game, these were the Deathwish enemies encounter... well on Deathwish difficulty.

What is exactly Deathwish? For simplicity's sake, it's the highest difficulty setting in-game. Basically, the average hostile units are replaced with alternate variants that are remarkably more resilient and more devastating. In example, increased health, armor, etc.

I looked upon the several generic, identical fighters. What were were they called again? Ah yes, GenSec Elite Swat units. The alternatives of the usual, non-notable response units. These bastards endured more training and are generally more aggressive.

Within the swarm of Elite Swat units were the distinguished, specialist units. Among them were several Tasers, Bulldozers, and a few other Cloakers.

Similar to the reaction of the first one to emerge from the portal, the Cloaker, they all inspected the area collectively. I decided to rally their attention to me.

"Alright!" I exclaimed, causing the majority of them to glance at me. Slightly intimidated by the army staring at me, I continued, "We're going to have some sort of confrontation soon, so I suggest that all of you prepare." I said.

"There is, what I assume to be a number of my foes in that cave." I pointed at the cave behind them, to which they responded by looking at said cave. "Me and my colleague will go in that cave and confront whoever is in there-" I was interrupted with Chrysalis blurting out "What!"

"Why can't we simply massacre them all, your new army seems sufficiently capable?" Chrysalis questioned, slightly infuriated. "Besides, those bastards deserve it, considering that I'm stuck in the Everfree thanks to them." Chrysalis bitterly said.

I faced Chrysalis with a semi-annoyed look, "As I previously stated, I don't like doing anything too hastily." I retorted as I faced my legion once more.

"Uh, as I was saying-" I see the cloaker that I previously encountered earlier pointing at his earpiece, signifying that I should probably use mine.

Sheepishly, I pressed the button within the earpiece, "Uh, can everyone hear me?" I asked.

Apparently, my radio must have been a unique one as every single one of them received the transmission, as shown by the amount of "Yeah's" and "Yup's" that I received via radio. Oh, and along with the numerous thumb-ups that I received from my army.

I resumed my speech, "As I was saying, I, and along with a colleague of mine, will go into that cave and hopefully resolve the conflict without violence."

I added further, "But, if things go awry, we'll basically just flee from the cave, hopefully luring our pursuers. Once outside the cave, all of you will proceed to gun them down." I explained. "That will be our secondary solution, but I do hope we don't have to result to that."

The majority of them either proceeded to whisper to each other, or nod their head in acknowledgement. Some of them simply examined their firearms, as if not interested in the plan whatsoever.

And I was quite certain that some of them were chuckling, sharing a few jokes with themselves perhaps? Ugh, I almost question their dependability, at the very least, they can't be comparable to the pirates in terms of combat, right? Right?

I suppose now's the time for a synopsis for each of them?

Tasers, as their name suggests, utilize non-fatal methods of combat, simply electrifying you to the point of incapacitation. They wear some sort of helmet with a visor attached to it, thus their faces were obscured entirely. They also don black, lightly armored protective vests. There appears to be a yellow line just above the visor itself, most likely for aesthetic purposes.

Cloakers, well, I already gave a rather sufficient description of them already.

Bulldozers are basically walking tanks. They equip armor exceedingly heavy that they cause a very distinct noise when moving. Of course, their incredibly bulky armor mitigates much of their speed.

Among the indistinguishable, non-unique Gen-sec SWAT units, there are similar non-distinct SWAT units that might as well be not considered as special enemies.

These units wield either a sniper or a SWAT shield. I assume that there is no need to describe them, considering that what I just said was already self-explanatory enough.

Since these are the Deathwish bulldozers, these bulldozers feature a digital camouflage pattern on their armor and they all wield the KSP light machine gun. Oh, and that also means that they are even more resilient than their average counterparts.

I feel more powerful simply by the fact that these ravagers are under my control.

A few seconds passed, I decided to initiate the plan. "Everyone alright with the plan?" I inquired, to which they all collectively said either "Whatever" or "Fine by me" and other miscellaneous replies.

I passed by the several shooters to get to the cave, Chrysalis following beside me. But I stopped myself from going into the cave just yet.

I turned to face my army that were forming improvised cover from the fallen trees. "I require a few to volunteer as escorts, I simply need five."

A cloaker, a taser, and a bulldozer; one of each specialist units, not including the snipers and shielders, approached me along with two generic Gen-sec SWAT units. They all had their guns prepared, should a skirmish arise.

"They're against the wall, and I'm the goddamn wall." The bulldozer remarked proudly. "Oh, yeah. You can count on us on keeping your ass alive." The bulldozer added.

I nodded in bemusement.

I turned to face Chrysalis, "Uh, we can simply teleport in there to face them, right?" I asked. "I mean, I see no reason to avoid doing that."

"Yeah, where would I exactly teleport in?" Chrysalis spoke, causing the entirety of my escorts to flinch in surprise, Chrysalis noticed this but simply dismissed it, "I am not certain where the rivaling queen is at, nor would they take kindly to individuals that simply barge in by teleportation."

I sighed in disappointment, Great, even more walking. I noticed a cloaker turn to me and whispered.

"This. This is your friend you were talking about? Man, I thought that thing was your pet or something."

Before I could reply, Chrysalis snapped at the cloaker, "What!?"