Alysdir motioned to Echo.  “C’mon!” he ordered.  “Keep up!”

“I’m trying!” Echo shouted back.

“That guard won’t be out forever!”

“He will!  You killed him!”

Alysdir blinked.  He hadn’t even realized it.  “Shut-up and keep up!”

Echo groaned.  They’d been one of only a few teams sent in early to support the attack.  They’d taken a few of the guard towers now, and had begun the assault on the launch facility.

“Alysdir, can you hear me?” Harriet asked via radio.

“Yes, Hadassa,” the Drow grunted.  “At least one of Kip’s inventions work…”

“Good.  Start pickin’ ‘em off.  Mikey and Grok are already in position.  Should be a turkey shoot.”

“What’s a turkey?”

“I mean it should be easy.”

Alysdir nodded, and raised the Barret.  His eyes began to glow red, as he looked through the infrared spectrum.  “Keep your head down,” Alysdir said to Echo.

She obeyed, readying her stormbringer.

Alysdir gently moved his rifle to the right, before firing a single shot.  There was a whooping from the guard.  “Shit!” he said.  “Hadassa, they’ve got howlers on ‘em!”

“Great,” the radio cracked.  “Just take ‘em down, and fast!”

There was more gunfire, and one whoop.  “Mikey’s down!  Kip!  Get your ass over here!” a gruff voice shouted through the radio.

Alysdir spotted two more guards, running in front of him.  He fired, taking one down.

“Lookout!” Echo shouted.  Someone had gotten behind them.  She opened fire.  A few bursts and the guard went down, his death cry giving away his position.

“Nice shot!” Alysdir said, getting to his feet.  “Let’s go!  They’ll probably blow this place now!”

“Kip!  Where are you?” Harriet asked over the radio.

“I’m pinned down!” he replied, in the same crackly sound.

Echo ran down the stairs, followed by Alysdir.  They reached the bottom just in time to see a missile crash into the top of the tower.

“Move!” Alysdir shouted.  The two of them ran for the wall.  The gate began to open.

“Guys!” Ryan shouted from behind them.  “Get clear!”

They obeyed, running towards him, rather than the opening gate.  As it finished, a large group of PDF SWAT officers ran out, but the first ones tripped a set of claymore antipersonnel mines.  Several of them were caught in a storm of hot lead.

“Ryan!  Help!” Harriet cried through the radio.

“I’m coming!” he replied, after looking up at Alysdir and echo.  “Go on,” he said.  “Get in there and give ‘em hell!”

“Gladly,” Alysdir said.  He and Echo ran over several of the bodies of the SWAT officers.  More gunfire was heard, and then a buzzing.

“LEGION!” someone shouted.

Alysdir and Echo ran to a wall, flattening themselves against it.  They’d reached one of the most important buildings.  Another two partisans ran for the wall.

“Help!” one shouted.

Echo raised her stormbringer, firing at a figure behind them.  Another SWAT went down.  As he fell, he managed a few shots, killing the partisan.

“Alysdir, let’s get inside!”

“Right!”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Gaump rode in the dropship with his retinue and the Siren Talia.  They were over Haragath, and thanks to the attacks from his legion, the surface-to-air missiles had been taken out.

“My sisters have spread word to Epsilon, Tau, and some of the other tribunals,” she said.  “They’ve checked those runes, and they are indeed authentic, so they are with you.”

“What about the other Legions?” Gaump replied.

“Word is being spread right now.  I don’t know how many would join you, but I know you will want all the help you can get.”

“Good.”  Gaump looked to the cockpit.  “Take Lady Talia somewhere safe once we’re deployed!”

“Yes sir!” the pilot shouted back.  The craft slowed, and the rear hatch opened.  They were still airborne.  Gaump waved to his retinue, and they leapt out of the craft.  Their glider packs opened, and they flew towards the ground.  Gaump followed.  Almost immediately, they came under fire.  Praetorian guard units had engaged several other cohorts, all over the city.


Gaump ordered his squad forward.  Two robotic war machines opened fire on their position.  He raised his shield.  Bullets clattered against it.

“Go!” he shouted.

One of his cohort opened fire, using his shield-mounted submachine gun.  “Explosives!  Use the clusterbombs!”

Another Legionnaire threw a large canister toward the machines.  It exploded in midair, sending several smaller explosives into the war machines.

“Let’s go!” Gaump ordered.  The cohort advanced, encountering another group of loyalists.


“Hold, Arbiter!” one shouted.  “Surrender now, and you will be given a painless death!”

Gaump knew it was Kovius.  “I’m sorry, Capitan,” he said.  “My loyalty is to our species, and no longer to the throne!”  He lunged forward.  The cohort advanced, and in moments the two groups were in combat.  Gaump blocked a saber strike from the Praetorian captain.

The Arbiter batted the blade away with his shield, and lunged forward.  His shock gladius slipped into Kovis’s side and the deed was done.  The captain fell.  Gaump turned around to aid the rest of his cohort.

*****
“Cohort Echo-Two!” the radio cracked.  “Engage Delta!”

“Right!” Anubis shouted. The squad advanced.  By now, the cohort had lost a few of their team.  Brutus was dead, while Marius had been evacuated for losing his leg.  Several of the automated defenses had been turned, and now worked for the Alpha Legion.  Even a few TACs now worked for them.  Two of the treaded robots rolled in front of the cohort, suddenly opening up with their metal storm weapons.  The tell-tale buzz of the weapon echoed through the alleyways.

“Echo-Two!” the radio said.  “Echo-Seven!  We need support!”

“On our way,” Fate said.  She spun around, seeing the praetorians bearing down on them. Angus raised a hand, and a bolt of anti-magic flew into one of them.  It tore a bloody hole through the armor, killing the praetorian.  Anubis and Fate also opened fire, their peacemakers blazing.  

The War-Wasp ducked behind some cover, and reloaded her weapon, before taking aim, and killing one of the praetorians.  They advanced still, and in mere moments, they were engaged in close-combat.  Anubis drew his saber out, and swiftly cut off the head of one of the cockatrikin.  One of them morphed to his true form, complete with the rooster beak and fangs of a serpent.  It attacked the last Bullhound in his squad, vomiting.

He screamed as it ate through the ceramic, skin and bone.  Fate lunged a hand forward.  A small stinger erupted from under her forearm, and it landed in the praetorian’s neck.  It shrieked at the War-Wasp’s strike, before Fate pulled the stinger out.

“Echo-Seven!” Anubis said, dispatching another loyalist.  “Sit tight.  TACs are on their way!”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Echo, Alysdir and a few other partisans ran up the stairs in one of the main launch centers.  They reached a turn in the stairs and one of the partisans ran up it.  There was a loud buzz, and he fell down the stairs, into a bloody heap.

“Wait!” Alysdir shouted, but Echo was already running up them.  She turned the corner, seeing a Minotaur legionnaire at the top of the stairs.  She raised her hands, just as the Minotaur opened fire with his minigun.  Thousands of bullets of depleted uranium pelted into a violet energy shield, protecting Echo.  Soon as she had a chance, she threw a hand forward, praying she’d be able to hit it.  Sure enough, a violet arc of lightning jumped from her fingers and tore through the Minotaur.  It bellowed, before falling back.

Alysdir had caught up by now, and chuckled.  “Don’t know what you did, but who cares?”

She offered him a shy smile, before the Drow took point and led them to a control room.


A few Breed scientists were there, each of different genomes.  Some Bullhounds, others chimerkin.

“Inferiors!” one of them shouted.

Echo fired her stormbringer at the approaching guards.  One fell, his gear emitting the same cry that PDF officers gave off when their lives were forfeit.

Alysdir flung a wrist outward, and a few throwing stars went deep into the scientists.  They didn’t go down without a fight though, as a few of them managed to kill the other two resistance fighters with them.  By the time they were done, Echo and Alysdir were the only ones standing.

“Hadassa, we’re at one of the control centers, what now?” Alysdir asked.

“Find the master launch computer,” she said over the radio.  “Should be…  A big black tower.  Pump it full of lead.  Then, tell the rocket to launch.”

“I thought we were…”

“Don’t open the silo doors!  They’ll blow up underground, doing more damage to the base!”

“Got it!” Alysdir lowered his hand from his ear, and found one of the MP-5s of one of their dead allies.

“What’er we looking for?” Echo asked.

Alysdir scanned the room quickly.  “That,” he said, raising the submachine gun.  He pulled the trigger, and the black tower was torn apart in a hail of bullets.  The two felt a rumbling not too far off.  They looked out the windows, and saw a fireball erupt out of the ground.

“One down!” Ryan said.  “Seven to go!”  There was another rumbling, and another fireball.

“Make that two!” another man shouted on the radio.

Echo looked over the controls.  “What now?” she asked.

“Launch it,” Alysdir said.  He began looking too.  “There.”  He pointed at a pair of switches.  “Flip those.”

Echo was about to, when there was a series of rumblings.  Outside, a rocket streaked into the air, and another followed.

“OH FUCK!” Harriet swore.  “They’re launching them!  Hurry up!”

“I thought they weren’t ready!” Alysidr said.

“Must’ve been faulty intel!  Who cares?  Just do as many as you can!”

Echo started hitting random buttons, before getting back to the switches and flipping them.  The rumbling returned.  The glas windows suddenly were blown out by the sound of another explosion.  Echo watched an enormous fireball evaporate the snow that was coming down.

“That’s three!” Alysdir shouted.  He looked out, seeing two more rockets in the night sky fly into the stratosphere.  “Hadassa?  How many did you say there were?”

“Eight,” she said.

“There’s one left!”  There was a loud amount of static coming through.  “If we have to leave the nukes, so be it.  Just make sure they don’t open the silo doors on the last one!”

“Guys!  We’ve got another problem!” Kip shouted into the radio.

“What?”

“Mori and Elaine spotted a few Legion dropships being prepped at the Mass base.  We gotta hurry up!  They’ll be here in a few hours!”

“Great!  Just great!  Ryan, get some stragglers, and start heading for home.”

“Wait!” he replied.

“I’ll find my brother, and we’ll get out of there.”

“Be careful, Harriet.”

There was a long pause before she said, “I know, Ryan.  ALysdir, I’ll meet you and Echo at the last site.  Be careful!”

“You be careful too, sister,” Alysdir said.  He slung the MP-5 over his shoulder.  He motioned to Echo, to follow.