Chapter 9

Commander Sol walked at the head of his army as they descended down the causeway he looked over his shoulder at his gold armored army with pride in his eyes. Commander Sol loved his troops. They were his battle brothers and sisters, and in some cases he thought of them as his children, he knew however that by the end of the day a large portion of them would be dead. Still he knew that it was necessary, and unlike the other armies his was an all volunteer force so each and every soldier came prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. He was playing the role that his army always played, namely that of bait. The diamond dogs were planning an ambush, it was the sensible thing for a commander to plan. In fact, they were entering a spot that to Sol’s experienced eyes looked to be a perfect spot for it.

The causeway narrowed to the point that only a hundred ponies could march side by side instead of a thousand like the rest of the causeway along with that there were ledges high above the causeway looking down at it at the perfect angle for a sneak attack. Commander Sol quietly waved his guard forward; Sunshade complied and trotted next to him.

“I see it Commander, the ledges?” She asked him, he loved the unicorn, she was always thinking along the same lines of thought as he was.

“Of COURSE!” Commander Sol boomed with a nod. “We should HURRY we don’t want to give the dogs MORE time to PREPARE!”

“At once Commander!” Sunshade replied with a small grin as she shouted the orders, the army surged forward just like he’d trained them to working like a well oiled wagon. They passed under the first ledge at a run, and nothing happened, the second ledge fell behind them with no problems. Then a cloud of arrows filled the cavern all of which were heading directly towards the valiant members of the First. These were of course swept away with a small brush of magic from his unicorns, but Commander Sol had to give the dogs credit for a well placed trap. The dogs themselves came next howling out loud battle cries as they emerged from the walls and in some cases the ceiling; in the case of the latter, most died on impact.

Commander Sol drew his sword from its scabbard with his magic and looked at his BFS with a smile on his face as he prepared to wet the gold steel with the blood of his enemies. The first dog reached him and lunged forward with its claws; Commander Sol simply grinned and spun his sword in a diagonal slash. The now bisected dog fell to the earth with a wet crunch as Commander Sol swept the golden blade through another dog’s skull, sending the pieces flying as the body tumbled to the ground. Behind him Sunshade ducked and weaved through the pack that surrounded her Commander, killing indiscriminately as she went with the practiced ease of someone who’d been doing it for years.

Two dogs ran at him; both of which lugged large hammers that made Commander Sol blink in surprise. Did they actually expect to get close enough to him for those to even come into range? Apparently they did because both dogs were grinning evilly and preparing to swing at him. Commander Sol brought up his sword to deflect both blows, which rang against his hammer hard enough to cause him to wince slightly, before he lashed out and removed their hands before driving his sword through one’s stomach.

The other looked at him as the intestines leaked out of his nearby friend and paled, Commander Sol grinned at the handless dog before driving the sword through its chest. Commander Sol sighed, this wasn’t the challenge that he was looking for but he knew enough about the dogs to know that they had a class of workers who they kept primarily for fodder so he was hardly surprised by the swiftness that the ones before him fell. Another five dogs died to various injuries before enemies stopped presenting themselves for the Commander to kill, he looked around and discovered that there were no more dogs on the causeway, well except for the piles of corpses.

“How MANY did we lose?” Commander Sol asked Sunshade as the orange mare approached him.

“Two hundred. We killed four times that many sir.” Sunshade said.

“WELL done my soldiers, NOW how about we go and destroy that LITTLE pile of rocks and twigs that those dogs IGNORANTLY call a castle!” Commander Sol shouted to his soldiers who cheered. Today was going to be a good day Commander Sol thought to himself with a grim smile.

***

Twilight walked next to Trixie as they made their way down the causeway, Dane towered on her left and the rest of the unit walked easily in front of them giving the couple their space. Dane was the exception as he was Twilight’s bodyguard and was taking the opportunity to ask all the right questions.

“So who was on top?” Dane asked looking at the two mares walking next to him.

“Fuck you that’s who!” Trixie replied.

“I don’t remember being involved…” Dane said scratching his chin in thought.

“Dane, do you have to do this?” Twilight asked in annoyance.

“Yep I’m afraid so, anyways I want details.” The mastiff pressed.

“Fine if you must know I was on top, what else do you want to know?” Trixie asked in aggravation.

“Well… wait…” Dane started to answer but then he paused and cocked his head to the side trailing off mid sentence.

“What are you doing?” Trixie asked.

“Shh…” Dane told her while he sniffed the air. “Enemy forces are below us… around twenty, they’re planning on destroying the causeway, if you’ll excuse me.” Dane told them before he rapidly tunneled through the stone and rock of the causeway.

“How did he even…?” Trixie asked before trailing off.

“I have no idea.” Twilight replied.

***

It was dark, of course it was dark. Dane was standing in a tunnel that ran along the underside of the causeway listening for the distinct sound of enemy dogs. It felt good to be underground again with the familiar scent of the earth around you to add a sense of comfort to anydog’s nerves. A thrill went through Dane’s body as he scented the enemy dogs; he set off at a brisk jog in the direction and was soon greeted by the sound of low level dogs arguing.

“Is says we’s shoulds dos its nows, its bounds to saves us times!” One of the dogs told his companions.

“Naws we’s beens tolds tos waits fors mores ofs thems tos comes firsts!” Another replied angrily. Dane hated this type of dog, they were the reason that most ponies looked down upon the diamond dogs in the first place.
Dane snuck closer to the group his eyes had adjusted nicely to the complete darkness of the tunnel and he could make out every hair on the twenty dog’s mangy unwashed bodies. Most of them were armed with mining picks or shovels although here and there a sheathed sword or dagger appeared; Dane marked those for the first kills.

“Buts Is wants thes ponies to gos downs!” The first dog shouted at the second, both were carrying actual weaponry.

“Wells orders says wes waits!”

“Fucks orders Is says wes dos its nows!”

Dane intervened before this intelligent conversation could go any farther. He took a few steps back then started running at the group. When he was a few feet away from the edge of the twenty dogs, he sprang into the air claws extended howling at the top of his lungs. The dogs in the tunnel turned to look at him, but their tiny brains didn’t seem to be able to understand what their eyes were seeing because not one of the moved as he landed his claws first into the two arguing dogs. His claws sunk deep into the pair’s chests, impaling them nicely about halfway down. With a wicked grin on his face he pivoted and threw the two dogs into the rest of their group before charging in after them.

The first dog he targeted tried to raise a dagger to defend him. Dane chuckled before knocking the dagger out of the dog’s hands with a quick twitch of the claws of his left paw before he embedded them deep into the dog’s eye, letting it drop to the ground. Another dog charged him swinging its sword wildly at Dane. Dane moved sideways away from each clumsy strike until he spotted an opening, the dog overextended himself and Dane rushed forward. His claws slashed against the dog’s chest sending it stumbling backwards before Dane closed the distance and decapitated it with a single swipe.

The rest of the dogs charged towards him swinging their mining gear. Dane blocked a pick with one claw while disemboweling its owner with contemptuous ease. Another two of the dogs tag-teamed him, however neither knew how to fight together so Dane easily deflected their swings before getting between them and tearing their stomachs to ribbons. Now there were three attacking him at the same time each taking turns darting in. Dane let them have their fun, then he cut off the closest dogs hand before grabbing him and throwing him at his fellows who had the foresight to catch him. They immediately regretted their decision. Dane stepped in closer and plunged his claws through their chests while their eyes widened in shock.

“Whos ares yous?” One of the dogs asked in fright.

“I am the voice in the darkness. I am the one who they fear in the back streets. I am the one who’s always listening.” Dane replied simply and watched as each and every one of the dogs paled at the mention of his sign. “And you were about hurt some very good friends of mine, I actually owe one of them a life debt, can you believe it?” Dane asked the other dogs.

“Whys yous tellings us this?” One of the dogs asked.

“Because I’m going to be killing you in a few seconds.” Dane said with a wide smile as he charged towards the speaker who managed to raise his mining pick in defense. Dane barely slowed as he kicked out with his foot sending the dog flying to the ground and breaking several ribs. Another dog attacked him but Dane punched it in the face sending its nose deep into its brain. A smarter dog jumped on Dane’s back and attempted to stab him with a dagger, Dane’s fur deflected the blow completely and the mastiff smashed his back into the wall crushing the dog beneath his weight.The others fell quickly, and soon Dane was completely covered in enemy blood. He was happy to discover that he had only suffered a minor cut along one of his palms that was already well on its way to healing up. Sometimes, it paid to be Dane.

***

Twilight and the rest of her squad had moved farther down the causeway and were beginning to worry about the diamond dog when suddenly he emerged from the wall, shaking off a little dirt. He was covered in blood but had a large grin plastered across his face.

“Dane are you okay?” Twilight asked the mastiff in concern.

“Oh don’t worry Twilight, none of this is mine… well I might have gotten a cut on my paw, but that’s all healed up now.” Dane replied with a chuckle. “Twenty idiots dead and only a small scratch, I really should have done better. Oh well, always next time.” Dane said accepting a wet towel that Angeldust tossed him.

“Angeldust, where did you get a towel?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“I always bring a towel; it’s a necessity of life Twilight. You never know when you might need to hitchhike.” Angeldust replied with a grin as she accepted the blood soaked towel. “Aqua would you mind?” Angeldust asked Aqua who was reading as she walked. The blood seeped away from the towel and evaporated, Twilight still didn’t understand half of the things Aqua could do with her brand of magic.

“So Dane how was it down there?” Twilight asked Dane.

“Not much to tell honestly, I snuck up on them then killed all twenty, no big deal.” The mastiff replied with a shrug. Twilight nodded, that sounded about right for the amount of blood that had been on his fur.

“So is it going to be this easy on the field?” Twilight laughed causing Dane to chuckle darkly.

“Twilight if every diamond dog was as weak as those do you really think that Cosmosmia wouldn’t have completely subjected them yet?” Dane asked her with a small grin. “Truth is that most of them all almost as good as I am, although very few are better.” His smile grew bigger as he talked. “Among those few are King Bloodtooth, and a few others whose names I can’t speak aloud.”

“Is that why you thought you could kill Cosmosmia?” Trixie asked.

“Oh I hopped I could, anyways any other questions?” Dane asked cleaning his claws with a few practiced sweeps dislodging any blood left on them.

“I’ll bite, why don’t you carry a weapon?” Blaze asked while he absentmindedly played with a small flame.

“These claws were enchanted by an old friend of mine, stronger than most brands of magical steel and capable of elongating and shrinking on a whim.” Dane replied “Didn’t you ever wonder how I did so much with them?” he asked the group who fell into silence as they walked.

“Is there anything else plot relevant you want to talk about, or are you done?” Angeldust asked drawing weird looks from everyone.

“Umm… yeah I’m done I guess.” Dane replied with a shrug.

“Excellent! I’m waiting to get this battle started and the longer we talk the longer till the next scene transition.” Angeldust replied with a grin.

***

Commander Levitas surveyed the enemy defenses from where he walked among his siege engines, it was his favorite place to be; in his army, the sound of the large boulders and spears being launched, comforted his normal sense of nervousness. Behind him Quarts his guard walked just as easily both of them were looking for the slightest error among the siege equipment, without which the fortress that was Daemonis Regni would not fall. Commander Levitas swung his gaze over the fortress and nodded in concentration, it would be a challenging nut to crack but he was more then confident in his siege crews.

Daemonis Regni was built into the far wall of the cavern with walls made up of at least fifteen feet worth of solid stone; the walls rose twenty feet or more above the floor of the cavern while the ceiling rose another hundred feet. Four square towers rose from the walls, two defending either corner while the other two controlled the mechanisms of the gate. Assembled before the walls were seventy five thousand dogs all of whom were waiting to sink their blades into the flesh of ponies; not that this bothered Commander Levitas in the slightest. He was well used to the feelings before a battle and it had long since ceased to affect him.

“Commander General Archangel has sent orders telling us to target the walls.” Quarts told him quietly as she stepped closer.

“Odd, I had the distinct feeling that the General would want us targeting the ground.” Commander Levitas replied with a tiny grin.

“Now why can’t you talk like that all the time?” Quarts asked him with a tiny grin.

“My dear I have no idea what you are talking about.” Commander Levitas said with a chuckle as he readjusted his glasses with a hoof.

“Right… Anyways the General knows that we know more about siege craft then him so I think he was giving us permission to do what we want.” Quarts told him before looking at one of the nearby trebuchets and yelling at the crew.

“What are you boys doing? You know better than that, I want that line taught now!”

“Thank you Quarts. Oh look we’re starting.”

***

Commander Sol grinned as he charged directly at the enemy lines, Sunshade was at his right and his soldiers followed him bellowing their war cries as their golden armor gleamed in the dim light cast by the glowing crystals imbedded in the ceiling of the cavern. The first line of the dog defense rose up to meet him and Commander Sol let out an ecstatic whoop as he rushed the closets speardog with his sword flying in front of him. The dogs tightened their lines and lowered their spears and pikes in response. Commander Sol swept his sword out in a wide ark clearing away a forest of weapon heads cleanly cutting them off of their weapons before cutting through two of them with a finely placed cut.

Spear points swung down to meet him but Sol’s coat deflected them with ease as he cut a bloody trench through their front lines. His troops followed behind him following his example and killing as many dogs as quickly as they could, however their armor and weapons were several enchantment grades lower than their Commander’s so here and there they fell. Commander Sol and Sunshade were quickly cut off from the rest of their army but neither really minded, without the rest they had less to worry about.

A large brute of a dog shoved his pike straight at Commander Sol’s chest but it was quickly deflected by a sweep of the massive sword before the sword punched through the pike carrier’s chest. Sol pivoted and slashed out against speardog catching him in the stomach, the large golden blade tore through the brown armor of the dogs easily. Suddenly the ground underneath him exploded upward throwing Sol high into the air, that wasn’t good. His coat would protect him from most weapon impacts and points but it wouldn’t do a thing against the kinetic energy of him barreling head first into the ground.

“Would you like some assistance brother?” Commander Tau asked, she was flying sedately in the air next to him matching his speed as he fell.

“That would be MUCH appreciated LITTLE sister!” Commander Sol yelled over the wind whipping in his face. “SOONER would be NICE!” Commander Tau smiled an icy smile at him and grabbed him by his tail still heading downward so the deceleration didn’t kill him. “It had to be MY TAIL?” Commander Sol roared at her.

“Of course, it’s the best place to avoid me snapping your neck.” Commander Tau replied smiling down at him with a smirk.

“Har har sister you are so FUNNY!” Commander Sol shouted at her “NOW set me down, I wish to KILL more dogs!”

“If you insist brother, I was going to wait till we were closer to the ground, but…” Commander Tau said releasing her grip on his tail.

“Sister PLEASE save me!” Commander Sol yelled at her angrily.

“Of course dear brother.” Commander Tau said snatching him again easily.

“Oh this is SO much fun.” Commander Sol complained.

“DEAL with it.” Commander Tau replied mockingly.

***

“This is insane!” Twilight yelled at Dane as she sent another dog smashing into a wall. The dog had his claws fully extended and was happily tearing his way through the enemy dogs with a large grin on his face.

“Are you kidding Twilight? I’d forgotten how much I love war; it’s been hmm let’s see…” He began to count years on one of his claws as he smashed his other claw into another dog’s face with each number. “…Yeah around five years since I was in a good war.” He said decapitating a dog with his now free paw. “The only thing I don’t like about war is that there’s nothing good to loot, unless you kill a Commander or a General everything’s the same. Then again the Guild always made sure that I got what I deserved but still nothing beats killing something and then taking its best equipment.” Dane continued as Twilight smashed another dog to pieces against the walls that Stardust had raised around their position.

“Would you two just kill these bastards?” Trixie asked in annoyance; she didn’t like fighting underground much it was harder to use electricity under the surface. Still when a dog charged her she sent a solid bolt of lightning through its chest burning a hole clear through it sending it spiraling backwards.
Suddenly a large diamond dog, in a similar cloak to the one that Dane had been wearing when he’d attempted to assassinate the Empress, leaped over the wall and landed in a role. It was intercepted by Dane.

“Dane?” The dog asked in a surprised female voice and stopped struggling.

“Cloe?” Dane asked in just as much surprise.

“Well shit this complicates things, can your friends dance?” The female assassin named Cloe asked Dane.

“If they can’t dance then they’re no friends of mine.” Dane replied evenly.

“Good, I’ll be seeing you afterwards, whatever else happens stay alive you idiot.” Cloe told Dane before she repelled back up the wall and out into the battlefield. During their conversation Twilight had been busy crushing enemy dogs with her brain.

A dog leapt at Twilight but she caught it in her telekinetic grip and threw him into his friends with the force of an arrow, the resulting explosion of body parts made Twilight think that she may have overdone it. Then a dog slashed his sword across her leg where her cloak wasn’t covering and opened up a large deep gash and Twilight lost her regrets instantly sending the dog slamming into the ground, using the weight of its armor to make the blow stronger. The dog was too stunned to move so Twilight took the initiative. With a casual wave of her magic Twilight lifted the groaning dog into the air and began to use him as an impromptu flail. She smashed the dog into the skull of another sending the other dog crashing to the ground before turning her toy on the others.

Trixie had gotten the hang of using her lightning and was busy setting off chains of bright blue electricity zipping from dog to dog at a breakneck pace charbroiling them in their armor where they stood. A dog snuck up behind the blue unicorn while she was distracted but was interrupted mid swing by the body that Twilight was currently using as a flail. The dog went flying away and impacted against another dog sending him to the ground.

“This is more fun than I thought it could be.” Twilight replied with a slight smile.

***

General Archangel surveyed the battle before him and grimaced with a slight shake of his head, Zanti caught sight of it and came up to stand next to him.

“It is time we join the fray, and earn our pay.” The zebra told General Archangel with a smile as she drew a curved blade.

“Yes I think so too.” The General replied with a grin, with a sudden explosion of green he shed the spell that Cosmosmia had placed on him to keep him in control of his temper and pulled out his halberd which hissed in delight. With that the two of them charged down the slight incline that they’d been standing on and headed straight towards the enemy. An ocean of dogs rose up to meet them.

The General’s halberd hummed as it decapitated dogs and severed limbs, General Archangel found himself humming along to the weapon’s tune as he merrily instructed where to strike. The halberd had been passed down from the General in charge of the first five armies ever since the original General had died imbuing the halberd with a piece of his soul. Every General since then had carried on the tradition volunteering a bit of themselves to the weapon for the protection of the empire. Because of this the halberd was known as Ancestors’ Fury. Not that General Archangel was thinking about that as he cut his way through the enemy dogs.

A gold armored dog wielding a large scythe charged at him swinging the curved blade directly for his head. Archangel swept up Fury to deflect the blade mid swing and was met with strong resistance, apparently the dogs had taken note of the fact that he was here and were sending him actual warriors to fight. The dog disengaged their blades with a flick of his wrist and kicked out with his leg, General Archangel rolled to the side avoiding the kick and raising Fury to deflect the scythe blade that would have embedded itself deep in his head.

The General stabbed forward with the spear point on the tip of Fury and was rewarded with a grunt of pain from the dog. The scythe swept at him again and Archangel deflected it with the shaft before bringing the axe head crashing down between the dog’s neck and shoulders. The dog’s armor deflected the blow but it still stager it enough for Archangel to follow up the blow by shoving the spear point through the dog’s chest. Despite the spear going through the dog’s chest, it fought on brining the scythe in for another swing and forcing Archangel to release it enough to bring Fury up to block. The dog took the opportunity to kick at him again causing him to roll to the side, this time however he decided that the dog had had more than enough opportunities to kill him. So Archangel did what any intelligent warrior does when an enemy is giving them trouble.

Archangel carried on defending himself from the incessant attacks from the scythe all the while making it look like he’d been wounded. A large grin appeared on the dog’s face as he sensed his pray weakening. At last the General pretended to have Fury swatted out of his magical grasp. The dog charged in for the kill forgetting about defense, just as it was about to swing its scythe and kill him Archangel grabbed Fury in his magic and sent the axe blade deep into the dog’s neck from behind. The gold armored dog finally dropped, the look of surprise on his face caused Archangel to chuckle. He looked around to see if he could find Zanti and located her just as she finished off her own gold armored opponent with a complex flourish of her curved blade that ended with it slicing through the dog’s stomach.

“These golden foes are quite challenging, much stronger than the others we are fighting.” Zanti told him as she deflected the blade of an unarmored dog and drove her sword into its stomach. Archangel nodded and decapitated a red armored dog with a sweep of the axe head before stabbing the spear point into another dog’s stomach. Fury hissed uneasily as it killed which was never a good sign, Archangel didn’t know what was wrong but he knew that something bad would happen today.

***

Commander Star walked along side Stonewall and Stronghoof as they cut down dogs left and right. Overhead pegasi flew harrying the enemy along with massive stones from Levitas’s siege engines that impacted against the walls of the castle causing large dents to appear in the stone walls. Star was covered in blood; it stained her fur up to her chest, Stonewall and Stronghoof were equally drenched. The resistance was thick but the Fourth was holding up well and the last report she’d received from a runner had told her that the enemy mages had almost been defeated on the magic plane, which meant that they’d soon have the higher level mages’ assistance in cracking the fortress. Still Commander Star had a bad feeling, something here was very wrong.

***

True Shooter was clad as he always was when he went on operations, in his faithful black turtleneck. He cared more about the turtleneck then he did about most ponies he knew with the exception of a few of his admittedly few close friends. He’d been traveling through the castle for roughly an hour trying to find his way to the main gatehouse. To his incredible annoyance it seemed that the castle had an ever shifting geometry that made navigation extremely difficult to those who weren’t familiar with it.

He’d run into some resistance as he’d made his way closer to what he hoped would be the main gatehouse but none of the dogs had even known that he was there before he’d slit their throats and left them dead in closets. However things were looking bad because apparently someone had found one of those nice presents and raised the alarm and now there were dogs scampering all over the castle looking for him. While he was distracted by his thoughts a dog came around a corner and charged True with a dagger and managed to land a vicious cut along the spy’s side cutting open the turtleneck.

“Is kills yous ponys!” The dog said menacingly.

“You just cut my turtleneck.” True told the dog quietly, the dog looked at him blankly before swinging the dagger again. True grabbed the dog’s wrist and broke it with a quick snap. “You cut my TURTLENECK!” True yelled catching the dog’s other paw which lashed out as the dog desperately tried to get his wrist out of the ponies grip. True broke the dog’s other wrist with just as easy of a gesture as he had the first one.

“Pleas lets mes gos!” The dog howled. True moved his way up the dog’s arm and broke another bone eliciting a scream of pain.

“First you’re going to tell me how to get to the main gatehouse, second you’re going to apologize to my turtleneck for cutting it, third I’m going to kill you. The speed in which I kill you is entirely determined by how quickly you fulfill the first and second condition. Start talking!” True told the menacingly while he broke another bone.

***

The magical plane is an interesting place, when a mage accesses it their minds are torn from their bodies and sent into a world of shifting mystical energy. Everything in the plane has a representation and every mage’s representation was a glowing image of their body. The magical plane was the place where real mage battles were waged between mages of incredible power and skill. If you wanted to win battles or wars you needed a strong presence on the plane or else every operation was doomed to failure. Aqua looked around for any more magical signatures and found only ten, however they were all huddled together and shielded by one of the most impenetrable magic fields that that she’d ever seen.

“We have a problem.” Aqua said quietly to the other hundred and fifty mages who were occupying the magic plane.

“That’s one hell of a strong shield.” One of them muttered looking at the glowing red dome that surrounded the enemy mages’ life signatures.

“So how do we break it?” Another asked scratching his metaphorical chin in annoyance.

“I kind of doubt that we have enough firepower to do it, I mean look at that thing it’s somehow generating enough power to stop a meteor.” One of the other minor mages said running a hoof through his beard.

“We divide it.” A silence spread over the assembled mages as they turned to look at one of the most powerful mages in the Empire who had just appeared in front of the field. “We each take a section and focus all out power on that particular section. It will splinter then we can overwhelm the mages on the inside.”

“Head Inquisitor Blackstone what are you doing here?” Aqua asked in astonishment, the fact that Inquisitor Blackstone was here along with General Archangel was worrying.

“I received word that something big was coming, don’t worry grasshopper we’ll be fine.” Inquisitor Blackstone said fixing his favorite student with a grin. The mages took their positions around the diamond dog shield and began to pour magical pressure down onto it, slowly cracks began to appear. After what felt like ages the cracks grew larger and began to spread.

***

Commander Sol charged through the now open gate of the castle with a grin on his face as he slashed his sword through a dog’s chest. General Archangel appeared next him swinging his ancient halberd and decapitating a dog with an easy stroke.

“Ah General it is GOOD to see YOU!” Commander Sol said with a grin shacking hooves with the General.

“Excellent to see you as well Commander Sol, where’s everyone else?” General Archangel asked.

“Commander Tau is ENJOYING herself killing the dogs still STUPID enough to be on the walls. Commander Star is FINISHING off the LAST of the field troops. Commander Levitas is making some FINAL calculations. And Commander Beretz is off administering his JUSTICE.” Commander Sol said with a shrug. “So General why do I have the SINKING feeling that this isn’t RIGHT?” Commander Sol asked looking around at the now cleared courtyard.

“Because we know that there should be stalker activity here, and so far I’m detecting none.” General Archangel answered.

“Ah yes THAT was it.” Sol replied. “How long till EVERYTHING goes to SHIT do you think?” Sol asked.

“Right about now actually.” General Archangel answered.

“Why do you SAY that?” Commander Sol asked.

“Because of that extremely large beam of light rushing towards us as we speak.” General Archangel replied pointing at the bright light racing towards them.

“Ah that should we BRACE ourselves?” Sol asked already running to get a wall between himself and the light.

“I believe that that would be highly advisable!” General Archangel yelled as he dived into cover, Sunshade and Zanti joined them seconds later. Then the world was obliterated by a blinding light.

Next Chapter: chapter 10 Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 32 Minutes