He hit the ground, not quite certain what happened. “Where am I?” Raced through his mind. “What the hell is happening?” For the first few seconds, he just gawked. He was in the middle of an ancient battle between two Neanderthal tribes. “O.k , Akai dropped me hear. She does like mixing things up!” He gripped the spear in his hands. He knew it wasn’t real, but the simulation was so convincing. He charged forward. Suddenly, his lightning reflexes kicked in, and he narrowly dodged an incoming spear. He chucked his at the assalient. It hit, straight in the heart. The man stumbled, then fell over, dead. Suddenly, another spear crashed into his buddy guarding his back. It pierced his thigh, and imobalized him. “Great.” He signaled for the tribal medic to drag him away. His screams of pain echoed in his mind as he caught the next spear thrown at him, and surveyed what was left of the enemy. Two spearmen, and the tribal shaman, wielding a primitive axe. Quickly, he charged the first spearmen, running him through, then leaped onto a nearby tree. He forgot he was fighting in a forest. He took a few seconds to scout the terrain. The lush evergreens towered around him, and he could see the smoke from the nearby cave in the neighboring mountains. Obviously, this is where the enemy tribe lived. He leaped into a small shrub, and snuck up behind the bewildered spearman. With a quick burst of speed, he passed through the small open area the spearman was standing in. The spearman looked around with a sense of confusing, then fell over, his legs broken, soon to die from the carefully made cuts to his wrist. The shaman broke into prayer, and looking up to the sky, saw his last image, that of a knife and a cool, calm, and collected being, of almost a lizard like appearance, knife in hand. The image of the dead man faded from view, as Akai appeared. The A.I appeared, beaming from ear to ear. “Well, I’ll say, you did fine without me!” she piped up. Xerenth replied, “Hey, I didn’t have to tell my squad about you! That made it all worthwhile. That your name is pronounced “A-shuh”, that it stands for All Knowing Artificial Intelligence, and what you could do!” “Heh, that always goes over well.” “Why not modify the scenario to make it easier on your selve?” “I could, but as I said before, realism counts.” “Yes. I know, I know.” Akai started up the scenario selector. “So. How well can you do without your reflexes so honed” “What?” Xerenth exclaimed, but it was to late, as the turret appeared in his grip.






Chapter 2



Test of true ability


He looked around him. He was in a helicopter. He looked up. No blades. This must be futuristic scenario. Looking at the gun slung to his back-no, harnessed by magnets- confirmed this. As he looked down, he saw mechs moving in to attack a battalion of tanks. They where not to shiny, but you could see the metal alloy. It was hard, however, as the mechs where comaflauged for this operation. Each one had to, short, stocky legs, leading to the assumption they where heavily armored, but no assumption was needed to deduce they where heavily armed, as the 6 barreled gattling gun turret, the rocket pods, and what appeared to be a railgun where quite threatening indeed. There where about 4 of them. 1, a different model, most likely a scout unit to help targeting, had longer, thinner legs, a small AA turret, and a heavy sniper of some sorts, as well as a thruster on the back. The use was made apparent soon, as the mech silently jumped up on top of a vert tall building, with the assistants of the booster, and blended in using some sort of camoflauge technology. Within a few seconds, the other three mechs opened fire on the 5 or so tanks in the enemy convoy. Before they could respond, 2 of them exploded in a vivid display of color, while another one started to emit smoke, and just completely stalled, obvuisly damaged beyond operation capabilities. The two other tanks quickly turned to face the threat. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a sharp sound was heard, that of metal being punctured, and the turret of one of the tanks started to slide off. Apparently, the scout mech had fired a round that penetrated the armor, and hit the hinge that kept the turret on. The last tank quickly fired off a round, but, because it lacked to time to aim, it hit the side extremity of one of the mechs. The injured mech rocked back, as the tank, barrel still emitting smoke from the barrel, exploded in a burst of color. The mech that had been hit fell over. The the other mechs, with their mechanical arms, righted it up. It would live to fight another day, and the small battalion moved on. The scene of carnage disappeared, and Xerenth saw a whole squad of infantry appear. “Sir, you have permission to open fire!” A young man behind him said. Quickly, Xerenth sighted the targets, and let loose. The sound was strange, like air was being bent. A target fell over. “Rail gun turret. Nice.” He thought. Tapping the trigger again, two more infantry, who where side by side, fell over. “Like killing two birds with one stone, eh?” Akai piped up in to his ear. “Yah, but birds don’t shoot back he exclaimed, and a Support gunner started to suppress the craft. Xerenth quickly finished him off, then focused on the rest of the squad. In total, he shot about 7. “Wait soldier, whern’t there eight of them?” He asked the man behind him. “I think so sir. I don’t think you got their-“ suddenly, a round pierced the helicopter, hitting the pilot in the head. The emergency A.I kicked in, but then another round hit the computer, and the helicopter, uncontrolled, started to tumble out of the air. “Where going down! Mayday, mayday!” Xerenth screamed into the radio, unsure if anyone would be able to hear him over the sound of all the chaos. The dropship hurled itself into a building, taking out two of the thrusters, and causing huge chunks of the building to rain down upon the craft. It went into a increasingly faster spin, until Xerenths vision blanked. The last thing he heard was a small explosion, then silence.


Chapter 3
Survival

Xerenth woke up, his eyes filled with carnage. “Is this real? “ he thought. “Well, no. I guess not.” He said, remembering it was a simulation. He looked around. There where two soldiers, a bit banged up, but fine otherwise, then 3 bodies littering the area. He assumed the others fell out. That means some still could be alive. He had to check. But first, he had to check himselve. His high-tech body, covered in a metallic, dark neon blue coat of lines, pulsing with energy, running smooth down the silver plates. His tail was covered in a extremely flexible coat of a plastic alloy, which was charged with electricity to allow a EMP surge to things it touched. His legs where very strong and angled in such a way that he could leap with ease. The cybernetic limb enhancements to the armor gave a huge boost to agility, but the armored could only power one sort of power boost, so his armor sacrificed power arms, so he didn’t have the “super streangh” of other armors. However, it was well worth it. He could leap around urban envirments, making him just as powerful as any tank. He looked like a fearsome, mechanicle dragon. He wasn’t sure where he came from, or why. He knew he could fly with these odd wings of sort that where on his back, but in the simulation, he didn’t have them. And, he could control ice. He really didn’t know why. He also didn’t really care. He was happy the way he was.
Not right now, of course. He daizily got up. In real life, he would have recovered now, but the simulation is ment to be challenging. He checked his H.U.D. There where survivors. Or, there is a survivor. He looked around. “Soldier, have you seen my gun?” “Sir, with all do respect, it’s on your back.” Xerenth looked. It was. “Damn, those magnets are strong!” He said, with enthusiasm too. He hoped the troops would notice. “Sir, you seem ready. Shall we go look for the survivor?” “Yes. Lets move. I’ll cover you from above” he said, then leaped up onto a building. His custom rifle scanned the area. “Great. Snipers.” He said, as he picked the first one off, then the second. “He radioed down to the two advancing troops: “I belive there’s a third sniper in the area. Be on your-“ suddenly, a round landed right next to one of the men. Quickly, Xerenth followed the tracer, and picked off the sniper. “That was close.” He said, as he leapt towards a a building. From the vantage point, he could see the wounded troop lying there. Obviously, he hadn’t been spotted, and had broken a few bones from the fall. He quickly told the other two men the news, and leaped down to aid the wounded soldier. “Soldier, what’s your name?” Xerenth asked. “Lance Corporal Harris, sir!” “I’m not going to ask if your hurt. I’m a trained medic, and I have nanobot healers. Let me scan you, I’ll see what I can do.” By now the other troops had arrived. Quickly, Xerenth radioed in a dropship. No luck. AA guns would shoot it down, medical or not. “I’ll go take them out.” He replied. “Don’t worry about that now. We have a mech convoy moving in. We need to land some heavy mechanized re-enforcements, and to do that we need big, heavy dropships. For now, we need you to get to the nearest MLP. Theres a 4 man ship waiting there for you.” Command was sharp. He realized, upon seeing it, it was a tank killer sort of craft. “Mobile Landing pad, in sight.” Xerenth exclaimed. “Man, these things are big! It’s like a portable carrier!” Harris piped up. “It IS a portable carrier.” Xerenth replied, with a tone that made it sound like Harris was an idiot. Hello? Hello? This is Dredgon squad.” Tower Control piped up, with an eager skip in his voice. “All ready. Fueled and armed.” Xerenth simply said: “Mk.3.5 SSAAG “Abysmal” Ready to fly.” “Roger. Dregon Squad, you are clear to go.” All 4 of them where, surprisingly, not cramped in the gunship. Xerenth flied, while the 3 other solders manned the guns. There where two “Tank-Killer” Railguns on each side, each one indiviuly mannezed mechanisms. The 4th gunner manned a gatling gun, for Anti-Infantry. He pushed the throttle up, and the whole aircraft shook. He glanced around. Hglow immiting from the cannons, most likely due to all the magnetic power stored in them. Xerenth started to fly through the city, staying close to the ground to avoid AA fire from roof emplacements. He spotted a light scout vehicle, going under a bridge. Quickly, he swooped the craft under the bridge, and let loose a volley of missiles. The vehicle, not expecting the gunship to follow, was hit hard, exploding after the third missile. Suddenly, the craft jerked to the right as a large chunk of the car came flying at the ship. It barely missed. “Still got the moves.” He said, via his mind, to Akai. It was obvious she heard this, as as soon as he said it, he saw a AA-Missile unit, which composed of two infantry units with AA-Rockets, fire on them, he swerved again, only to realize they where prepping another missile. At the rate they where goi- “Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…” Harris had opened fire. It hit the first enemy. He dropped, his missile launcher then exploded, and the other soldier was token out by the blast. “That was close! Good shot!” Xerenth called out. He could see the end of the tunnel drawing nearer. Suddenly, a blast of light temporally blinded him, and when his vision returned, he could see only a wall of ruble in front of him, with a shaft of light plummeting from a fresh blast hole. “Where going up!” Xerenth cried. He shot straight up the hole, and came face to face with what made it.

Chapter 4
Compromised


In front of his gunship stood a very large mech. It hadn’t noticed him. Yet. Quickly, he scanned it. “HBWM-321 Grizzly” the computer said, so calmly, into his ear. “Command. This is Dregon Squad, flying in the “Abysmal” SSAAG gunship.” We have encountered a Grizzly class mech. What do you recommend we do?” “Roger. Hold on a sec. We’ll have some data soon.” Xerenth looked at the Grizzly. It was large. About 70 feet tall, and 40 feet from cockpit to exhaust pipe, it was more than double the size of the “Abysmal.” It was built with a human like posture, and the same body type. On one arm, there was a heavy cannon. On the other, there was 2 heavy machine guns, along with 1 shotgun-like weapon. On the right shoulder, the one with the machine guns, there was a large missile pod. On the other side, the one with the heavy cannon, there was a gattling gun on the shoulder, most likely used at a AA. It had a landing bay for small fighters, so it was more of a support mech, used a a hanger. The data said up to 3. “That isn’t good.” He thought. It was a well known fact gunships where scared of fighters. All over the mech, their where small turrets. Each one is most likely manned. A mech that size could easily do it.
Command raidiod back as swiftly as promosite. “We had a tank engaged by this. Before it was destroyed, it hit the armor around the main engine. It was a very lucky shot. If you can get a EMP in there, we can safely send our speicilty gunship overthere. The only catch is the opening is on the front.” Xerenth quickly responded: “O.k. send that bird over. We’ll be done fast.” He excellerated the gunship to full speed, flew up high, and flipped it onto his belly. Then, he flew down at full throttle, right into the face of the Grizzly.

Chapter 5
In the face of fears

It saw them immieditly. However, it wasn’t fast enough, and the EMP slammed straight into the engine. The next thing they new, the legs of the mech where hammered. They looked over to see the gunship. It was very large. At least 50 feet long. But, it was thing. Most likely 6 feet, top to bottom. It had 6 super-heavy railguns on it. The barrels where giving off a blinding amount of magnetism. The guns must have just fired. Looking back to the mechs legs, Xerenth witnessed the power. The legs started to snap, crack, and tear. You could hear the fluids and machanicle parts squeaking. The legs twisted around, snapped, and then utterly broke. The mech came tumbling down, with a large “thud”. Xerenth could see a nearby building shake. There was a series of small explosions. Then, silence. All was at peace. The mech had crashed into a building. Then, suddenly, one of the arms started to move. Before he could do anything, it fired off the heavy cannon. Because it couldn’t aim right, and had so little energy left, the round was just a wild airburst. But it did get near enough to the other gunship to cause damage. The explosion was powerful-Xerenth could feel his craft rock- and left the other gunship on fire. It started to shudder, then began to spin. Faster, faster, until it hit a building. The explosion was immense. What ever powered those railguns was powerful. Pieces flew everywhere. Then a large burst of blue erupted, most likely from the railguns. He saw chunks of the building fly back up. They must have had a metal in them. Then, another explosion, and the computers went down. “EMP!” He blacked out, once again, thinking “Not again.”

Chapter 7
Angel


He woke up, in a bed. His head hurt. “Hello? What happened? Where am I?!” Xerenth exclaimed. A nurse looked at him. “In the hospital. Where do you think you are? A zoo?” Despite the harshness, he was glad he was talking to someone. “Well, I almost died, so I guess I wasn’t thinking I’d be in a hospitle. And I thought this hospitle would be more hosbitalible.” I’m sorry, she said apologetic. But your friend over their told me you wanted that. She pointed to Harris. “Look, I’ve been in two helicopter crashes today. I don’t care what happens next.” Harris, who appeared unconcius, suddenly burst out laughing. “I can’t belive the nurse did that! I couldn’t stop my self from laughing!” Xerenth was going to reprimand him, but stopped himself, when he realized Harris was in the same predicament as he was. “Do you know what happened?” he asked Harris. “No clue.” “Well, I do.” The major in charge of operations at the city came in. There was a experimental mech being tested. It caught you, and carried you down, despite being halve the size of your craft. That EMP did a number. We learned it was because of a explosive chemical the other gunship crashed into. “The pilot, did he-“ “Yes. Barely.” “The mech pilot, I must give him a thanks.” “Actually, he wasn’t the real pilot. He was just testing it. But, he knows now who he wants to be the pilot. You.

Chapter 8
X

“X, in the military, stood for experimental. They where ready to drop the X on this one of a kind mech, and they wanted HIM to pilot it. It had some revolutionary control system that respond to the users min- wait! That’s why they want me. It’s like a larger suit of my armor!”, Xerenth thought. That unraveled a lot. A promotion and a bigger paycheck sounded really good. Plus, they said they’d let Harrison be my gunner. He continued to think about it, but he all ready had the answer ready in his mind.

Later that day, Xerenth was cleared to leave the hospital. Apparently, that EMP blast nearly gave him un-fixable brain damage. It did to the other two soldiers on the gunship. “Man,” Xerenth thought, “I am lucky.” He looked at himself in a mirror. His dark, silverfish skin shone brightly, every scale on it was glimmering. The dark neon blue stripes jagged all over him. His hands where clawed, and his talons stood in a ferocious pose. “I look the part of a dragon, I’ll say” Xerenth thought. Was he a dragon? He didn’t know. He didn’t know what he was. He didn’t mind though. “Know thy self.” Didn’t really apply to him. He knew enough about him self to be good at what he did, but that was it. He had a superior entelect, superior stamina, superior abilities. Strange things. They where turned off in the simulation. But he could do things. Freeze areas. Fly. Control air. It was odd. It was surreal. But it was… it was… could he describe it? No.. even with that vast intellect, it wouldn’t come… nothing would. Why was he here? A god? Gods? Aliens? Magic? A one in a million chance? What was it? Oddly enough, every time he tried to think about it… it left him. He was apathetic, even when he tried not to be. He ran it true his head… but… then it disapeard to… it was like… sort of… he gave up. Was it worth his time? He ought to live in the present.

Chapter 9
Training


Xerenth looked up. The building he was in was top of the line. It had to be. The stuff that went on here required it. He finally approached the hanger. He was surprised. He saw no mech. Just a fighter with a modified cannon on it. He followed the instructions, and walked up to a service car. He opened the door, and walked in, then sat down. He waited a few seconds, then suddenly, all he saw was black. He was rushing down some sort of tube. He landed in a pool of something. It completely broke his fall, and even though he was completely covered by it, he had no trouble breathing. He quickly deduced what it was: Nanobots. They destroyed every electronic on him besides his armor, then the swarm of them pushed him onto a platform. “Hello Xerenth. From now on, you don’t exist.”

End of Part 1.

“From now on, you don’t exist.” The words rushed through Xerenths mind. The voice… it was feminine. He looked around for a few seconds. This area was… unbelivible. There where multiple security drones, each one had its guns ready. He could see, with his enhanced vision, or course, there inferred trackers. He looked up. A slender female looked down at him. “As of now, all of your files, erased, your missions, classified, your civilian lefe, completely eradicated. You don’t exist. Keep it that way. All of your important files, they are above top seceret. To accsess them, you need clearence. We have authorized you to acsess all files, as of now, Colnel Xerenth.” A promotion. Great Xerenth thought. He followed the lady to a large hanger. He could see multiple simulation pods. “Harris has been working on this for about a week now, but command said you could learn in a day.” She said, with a look of enthusiasm in her eyes. He finally got a good look at her face. She was young. Likely around 25. She was very pretty, with long, brown hair. She had a smallish nose, and bright blue, large eyes. She looked like a puppy, and had the spirit of one to. She obviously had come from the young blood program, which picks up young, talented scientest to help develop new things. She seemed to be the spearhead of the project, from the way she seemed to “get” the hanger. He glanced at her name tag: Head of Project #124556. Below it, it said : Anna Reveil. It sounded.. British. Her accent.. it was somewhat British, as well as Cortent. He knew Cortent had been colonized by mainly British, as well as a rainbow of other cultures, creating an intresting, and new, accent. She was most likely from Reztia, the education capitol of Cortent. She seemed intelligent. She led him to the simulation pod. He stepped in…

Chapter 10
Sub-Simulation

The cockpit, it was glowing. He knew what they did. He didn’t have a clue why. He just did. He looked in front of him. A tank.. he leaped out of the way, a round jumped past him. He jumped onto the tank, and with a quick “swihng!” he cut it in half with a cryo-blade. It was rediculus. He jumped out of the way of another round, then watched the tank start emmiting smoke as the railgun turret under the cockpit opened fire. He leaped onto a building… couldn’t jump high enough… “Vwoosh”. The anti-gravity engine kicked up. He was flying. This was great. He peformed a quick loop. It was responsive. He saw a dreaded sight: Fighter drones. These small, short range droids excelled at shooting down air targets. Their where about 3. One opened fire. The rounds hit.. and bounced of a shield. That was cool. He jumped around at a blinding speed. He seemed invisivble. Suddenly, the gatling gun on the railgun turret opened fire. “One droid down.” Harris’s voice piped up. Xerenth, not to be outdone, fired of the two plasma cannons on the arms of the mech. Each one hit the droids, and they exploded in a burst of plasma and droid parts. He flew up higher… higher… he broke the atmosphere. He was in space. He looked around. He saw an enemy corrvete. He flew at it, and opened up with the plasma cannons. The destuction was devastating. Although it was only in a small area, it hit the side hull and the fron cannons, rupturing the hull, and destroying the cannon. He just realized it had broken thrue the shields. He opened fire again. He hit the engine, and the upper right section of the hull. The ship started to split, and finally opened fire. Wait. It had been firing all along. He was dodging the everyround shot. The corrvet split, and the engines, which had been hit, exploded, and the whole ship started to smoke. Fires broke out. He saw escape pods pop out. He shot down to the planet, and saw a large mech, another Grizzly. But he wasn’t worried. He shot at the one of the legs. Both rounds slammed into the leg. It stumbeled, armor cracking. The gatling gun opened fire. The leg, lacking armor, was shredded. The whole mech tumbeled over. Xerenth, who had learned from past experiences, shot at it, even though it was down. Harris knew what would happen to. He opened fire on the main weapons of the Grizzly with the Railgun. The mech exploded in fire. The blast blew Xerenth back… when it was over, Xerenth’s mech was lying inside a building. He had been blown into it. He shook the mech back to life, and looked out the gaping hole he had made. He saw a convoy of vehicles. Freindlys. They engaged another convoy. He lept out, and landed on an enemy tank. It broke when his cryoblade sliced it. He lept onto a gunship, and with his cryoblade, latched onto it. The minute he had stabbed into the armor, he turned of the cryo part of his cryoblade. The weight pulled the helicopter down, but not out. Harris opened fire, and shot one of the engines and a stabilizer. The craft started the lean to one way, then flipped over. Xerenth pulled his blade out, and leaped in front of his friendly convoy. The gunship crashed into a nearby tank, and the force of the blast shot a light vehicle right at the front of the convoy… it exploded from a well placed plasma shot. A few of the nearby tanks survived the explosion, but where mowed down by the railguns. Harris piped up, again: “Three tanks baby!”. Xerenth realized he had a small missle pod on his shoulder. He opened fire on the enemy APC with them. Six missles slammed into it. It started to smoke, but wasn’t dow-BAM! A friendly tank opened fire. The APC exploded. The tank that fired the round was then hit by an enemy missle, but was o.k. Suddenly, a massive chain of explosions hit the friendly convoy. Xerenth flew out of the way, but the convoy wasn’t so luck, and was devastated by the alltilery strike. Only a few tanks remained. Quickly, Xerenth shot of a plasma round. It smashed into a tank, demolishing it. Some infantry opened fire, but Harris made short work of them. He was on a role. He felt invincible. The screen faded…

Chapter 12
The real

“Welcome to the real! How did you like the mech? That was an exact simulation of its capabilities. Did you like it?” Anna chirped with joy. “Well… I loved it. It was amazing. It just… worked. The cannons where quite effective… do you have a name for it?” “Yes… the USSCM Valencia. There is only one. Finding the materials that make it… it’s just to hard. We don’t even think it would be possible to find the materials in the next 100 years, even with a boost in expansion. This mech is unique. Don’t worry about ammo, it’s all powered by a advanced fusion core. The ammunition is all created from the molecular level. In other words, it can creat anything. However, the tech is unique to this, and the largest thing in can make are some specialized projectiles. The thing is heavily shielded. It can asorb a 50 millimeter railgun round. 5 of them. At the same time. However, once the shield gets worn down, it needs a few minutes to charge back up to full. The main plasma cannons can be adjusted, and the hands allow you to grap and grapple. Speaking of grapple, assuming you need to, there is one built onto the arms. The’re really good for grabbing just about anything. They are designed to allow maximum impact force or none. In other words, we grapeled a glass vace, realed it back, and there whern’t any cracks. It has many uses. I can see you saving falling vehicles, grabbing planes out of the way of missles, even creating makeshift bridges. Command watched that whole thing. They where blown away. Your being deployed, now.” “What?” “Follow me.” Anna lead Xerenth down a passage way, to the main hanger. He finally got a good look at the mech. The legs where sleek, covered in a white hue. He could see the all-to-familiar glow of magnets. He realized there where no pistons on the limbs. The magnets must allow that amazing movment. The mech its self was about 15 to 17 feet tall. Xerenth wasn’t sure. The body was skinny. He could see multiple bending points down the spine. The feet where claw like. They had magnetic plates at the bottom. There where about 3 “toes” on each foot, two in the front, and a slightly larger and wider one in the back. Each one had multiple contortion points. The cockpit was extended in front of the body, from the shoulder area, about 3 feet out, with a turret on the bottom. The cockpit was somewhat boxy, and the glass was a sleek blueish hue. The shoulder area was a little bit broader, and a foot thicker, than the rest of the body. It was quite articulated, and had a small droid holding area on the back. There was a small droid in the bay. There was a small canister on one side of it, with a red cross on it, most likely medical nanobots. On another side, there was a similar sized, although a tad bigger, canister with a wrench on it. Repair nanobots. Under the galactic warfare code, nanobots couldn’t be used as weapons. It was “unethical”, but you could use small amounts to destroy armor. The canisters had small boosters on them. Xerenth deducted they where for usage on allies, and would be deployed to assist them. On one shoulder, there was a small missle pod full of semi-guided missles. On the other shoulder, there was a larger AA missle pod that fragmented into small explosives in air. The mech was sleek, yet still quite blocky at parts. Its legs bent backwards, differentiating it from a normal human legs, and gave it better jumping capabilities, without hindering its ground abilities. He climbed into the cockpit from a small magnetic ladder on the side. Suddenly, the faint blue glow that had been surrounding the mech dissapited, but only for a second, and a strong force pulled Xerenth in. A magnet. He realized his whole battle suit was magnetized, just for this purpose. He looked around. He was inside the cockpit. Suddenly, the top popped open, and Harris landed with a thud into the seat behind him. He was in charge of the secondary weapons, what they tracked, and the small turret beneath the cockpit, to name a few duties he had. Xerenth quickly realized there was no mike, just a small can of nanobots. They quickly turned into a mic, and Xerenth put it on his head. Almost instantly, they re-arenged themselves to provide a “perfect” fit. He looked down. The same had happened to Harris. Anna’s voice boomed over the speaker in Xerenth’s ears, and a hologram of her appeared on the screens. “We have a speacily designed information craft circling the air, the Hawkeye. Cpt. Zoey Verhenca is the commander of it. Coperal Jennson Abewrack will feed you intel the craft picks up by its self. Oh, another thing. The anti-gravity booster isn’t ready yet… you’ll have to peform the mission so we can calibrate it, so there’s no point waiting. Don’t worry. I’ve told you about the grapple.” Xerenth started up the Valencia. Instead of the usal “Vroooooo-oom” noise, he heard the air crackle with electricity. He walked the mech the lauch bay. He wasn’t sure how he would get up there as fast as command claimed with just a elivato- He quickly regretted the thought as the speicialy designed plate catuplulted him out into daylight. He flew straight at the Hawkeye… Zoey quickly explained “We can handle the weight.. use your grapple. We’ll move you to the hotzone.” Xerenth didn’t have time to look at the Hawkeye, he just realeased his grapple. He felt a satisfying “clunk!” as it gripped it’s target. He looked up. The Hawkeye was an amizingly sleek craft. It was short, small, and thick. About ten feet, top to bottom, and around 15 feet nose to tail. It was small, and lightly armed. It had amazingly powerful engines on it. They had no trouble taking him the the nearest dropzone. Suddenly, a large round whizzed by. Xerenth realized it was time to drop.

Chapter 13
Guards

The Valencia hit the ground. It didn’t seem to mind being dropped from 200+ feet, not did Xerenth, who couldn’t feel a thing. He loved the shock asorbing feature. Quickly, he lept to the side as a tank round whizzed by. He opened up with his plasma cannon. The shot hit the tank, nearly destroying it. The gunner on top of the tank opened fire, and a few rounds hit the shield, which seemed to make a noise as if it was laughing at the round. He knew those where some powerful 20 millimeter rounds to… quickly, Harrison took out the turret, and the tank was silenced. Suddenly, Xerenths reflexes kicked in again, and he unleashed the grapple at a nearby wall, flinging himselve out of the way of a bomber and onto a nearby building. Harrison started to shoot, but it was a heavy bomber. It was slow, but it started to turn around. Quickly, Xerenth fired a plasma round. It hit one of the engines. The fighter started to sag in a derectiong, and limped off. Harris fired a railgun round at another one of the engines, damaging it, The bomber limped off, to damaged to continue. Suddenly, a friendly fighter flew in and took it out, its main gun blazing as the rounds ripped out another engine and piercing the hull. The bomber was now limping on its last engine, and that one had had a railgun round run through it. It started to lose altitude, and flames erupted from the large holes the fighter ripped in the hull. The last enginge was barely holding up. Xerenth realized that there would be survivors for sure as the bomber slowy accended into a street about 15 blocks away. Xerenth quickly exelerated. The Valencia darted off. It took about a minute to get to the crash sight. Xerenth saw the survivors. There where about 4, which is the amount the bomber was supposed to hold. Xerenth boomed over the outward speaker: “Surrender. Call off your re-enforcments, they will be netruelized if they come into the vincinity. As of now, you are a prisoner of the United Terra Planets. Put your hands up, and drop your weapons. We will shoot if you do not comply!” Zoey’s voice came into his ear: “We have a prisnor transport ready. Should we send it, sir?” Xerenth still wasn’t used to having the new found power his promotion entiteled. He said the only thing he really had to say: “Yes. Now would be a good time.” Xerenth realized that their whern’t many prisnor transports, and although they where some of the fastest units around, it would still take around 10 minutes. Jennson came on to the headet now: “Uh.. sir? I’m picking up a large rescue convoy headed your way. There will be some mechs, and a Grizzly is deploting it’s fighters. You think you can hande it. Where not able to tell whats in the convoy right now, but we are working on it.” Xerenth once again said what he had to say: “O.k. Can I get some alltilery on the advancing convoy?” “Yes. That is possible, sir.” “Then do it.”


The rounds struck nearly instantalisly. The explosions shook the ground. The Valencia nearly fell over. The smoke started to settle… Xerenth could see the wreckage. Some of the tanks where intact- SZRRRRR!!! A orbital Gatling Gun had opened up, and the rounds finally started to hit. Billions of 10 millimeter rounds hit the area in front of him. It was awe inspiring. There where to many tracers to be sure what was going on, but he saw the enemy tanks where hammered. In fact, the ground sunk about 2 feet. The nearby building started to crumble, enough bullets in them to be swiss cheese. One simply fell over, but another one latterly cored on top of its selve, each layer falling on the one beneath it, in a domino effect. When the smoke did clear this time, all Xerenth could see where scraps of metal, and one lucky tank that still had a frame. Of sorts. The whole thing had exploded internly, but the frame somehow survive, albeit a few bullet holes. Xerenth realized that that type of strike was rare… why did he get to call on in? “Zoey… what just happened? I asked for some artillery, not a miniture apocalypse!” “Well, sir, your ranking gives you accsess to calling in those types of strikes.” “I’ll remember that next time I need to destroy a small segment of the world down to a molecular level.”


Xerenth scanned the area. A few hundred thousand or so rounds had hit the nearby area. Considering there where about a billion or so rounds fired, this wasn’t so bad. However, some of the buildings looked… unstable. He walked the Valencia thrue the wreckage of the strike. It was mindblowing. Ther was no dirt. All that had been blown away. There where a few clay deposits open, but most of those had been blown away as well. Xerenth could see bedrock. The land had no color except for a sparce burst of flame, from the ludacrisly small pieces of tank metal, and even this was rare. He nearly fell into a gaping hole, but his reflexes kicked in. He recoiled. “How could humans invent such a terrible machines, yet somehow make it to space?” he wondered. He didn’t realize he had said this outloud. Harris was just to stunned to speak, but now he simply said: “I really don’t know. I really don’t.” He had a sullen voice. The amazment and the awe of the strike had faded quickly into shock and sadness when he saw what had happened. He to was realing. “Zoey?” “Yes?” “Don’t ever do that again unless I speicificly ask. Do you understand?!” “Yes. I’m sorry sir. I had no idea…” “That’s o.k… I didn’t either…”


Out of the total carnage that lay stricken across the now barren, deslolate quarter of land that was inhabitable at some point, the Valencia emerged. It was covered in the soot of the fine dirt molecules that flew thru the air, so many that the Valencia was covered in soot. The onboard computer turned of the shields for the smalles amount of time physiccly possible, and the dirt fell, the Velencia’s white body shining in the apyocaliptic waste. “How did I do this?” Xerenth thought.”Why did I d-“ His reflexes kicked in, and he grabbed a nearby building with the grapple. A tank round whizzed by, followed by a swarm of smaller bullets. “The irony,” Xerenth thought, once again unwittedly, outloud. “They use the technology we just devastated them with to do the same to us.” A few stray rounds hit the shield. Harris opened up, and a light vehicle burst into smoke, and then a railgun was fired, and a jet of flames, a small pillar to be exact, popped out of the smoke, and then a explosion shook the ground. Xerenth opened up with his plasma cannon. A nearby tank was hit, and just sputtered for a few seconds, then started to fragment, finally splitting into three main segments. A driver started to run away an-Vrrrrrrrr. Harris opened up again on the fleeing soldier. As he hit the ground, his helmet fell off and Xerenth could see he had mistaken the drivers gender, her long hair now soaked with blood. He couldn’t really contemplate it anymore, and shoit his grapple at a building, slamming the Valencia’s spring like legs into it, only to be shot off at another structure, unleashing a volley of plasma at an APC. Troops had just started to evacuate, realizing their impending doom. It was to late. They had their fates sealed when they attacked the Valencia. It was all to fair however. Xerenth had given them a warning. It was their fault they where dead. No. It wasn’t. He was the one in the cockpit of the Valencia, not them. He just sat their thinking. He looked around. Everything seemed to be so… slow… it wasn’t moving at all. What? Why wasn’t it moving? He realized the only thing that could move was him and his power armor. The headset? That woudn’t move. Technicly speaking, he was anchored there. In fact, he couldn’t grab stuff. He couldn’t effect stuff. It was odd. It wa- reality and reflexes poped into existence, and the reverse for an enemy mech, which had its leg ripped apart by Harris, then fell over, turning into a pile of metal and smoke. He looked around. There where multiple mechs. Xerenth grappled a near by building. He rocketed at it, and leapt towards another building. He kept firing, all the while richocheting towards the end of the convoy. Rounds whizzed by him, and a few stray ones hit, the shield laughing in its usal manner. The Valencia rammed into a AA truck with its foot, the truck crumpling into a a heap of metal, then exploded as Xerenth leapt into the sky, firing at a gunship. The craft swirled out of control, then slammed into a building. It hit the main bracers of it, and the building fell onto two nearby APC’s. A light attack craft was gunned down by Harrris, and exploded, chunks of it flew at the Valencia, as Xerenth grappeled a nearby building, flining himself out of the way. He looked at the building as he flew towards it. It was circular… he gyrated the craft in a way that he didn’t fly at the building, but to the side, flying around it in a 180 degree turn, then flying at a far away building. The grapple quickly retracted into the Velecia, the friction of it being wrapped around the building created sparks. The amount was blinding. Xerenth flew at a nearby building, then opened up with his missles. A small hole was torn into the building, and Xerenth squeezed into it. The enemy had lost track of him. He realized that this was an advatage to him. He realeased the nanobots from his side canister, and they fromed a silencer of sorts. Railguns where already silent, but they left a massive tracer where they had latterly ripped the air apart. Everytime a round was firred, Nanobots clung to it, and elimentated the tracer. It was a complicated procces. “Harris, pick some stuff off. Hit any Devestators if you see ‘em. Next, go for the gunships, as they can trace our shots!” “Ok. I see no Devestators. I’m going for the ops gunship now.” He fired a round. It pierced thru a engine of a far away gunship, then another round hit the main stabilizer. It wasn’t down, but he could see it recoil. The other units started to scan the area, and the wounded gunship took evasive meneavures, only to have another engine picked off, this time the round rang true and hit the joint that connected the engine to the craft. It fell off, and the craft leaned off to the side, then started to fall, rapidly loosing altitude, then hit the ground with a thud, metal alloys crumpling into a ball. The enemy convoy was in a panick. Suddenly, a EMP whammed right into another gunship, and it hit the ground, an then another, and then another, until 6 gunships where sprawled on the ground as a whole squadron of SSAAG’s appeared. Freidly mechs jumped out into the open, opening up onto enemy tanks, and a heavy sniper round came barreling down from ontop of a tall building. He counted about 4 mechs on the ground, with one seemingly different mech firing from ontop the building. “Collel? We have renenforcements moving to back you up” Zoey said, not reailizing the err of her timing. “Zoey? I know. A little late for that, you think?” “Sorry sir. They moved faster than expected.” “Don’t worry. Renforcements coming early isn’t really a issue for me.” “Nor me!” Harris piped up, his attitude returning. He had been quite most of the time, to stunned from the destruction they had waylayed. The simulation was fake, and he knew it… but this was real, and he knew it. Xerenth was used to the carnage. Albiet he was taken back by the Devestator strike earlier, he had killed millions. Litterly. How old was he now? At least a thousand years old. Older. He didn’t age on the outside, however. All his work was literly recorded in his mind. The only thing he couldn’t remember was the first year of his life. Like many things, he had no-and could care less-why. The Valencia leaped out of the building it was in, landing with a thud on the last unit left, a medium armored vehicle, unleashing a missle straight down the barrled of it’s main cannon. It exploded internally as the whole frame shook at started to emit smoke, then, indsides emtied out, simply crumpeled like paper. “All units in the general vincinity, please return to your normaly occupied position.” He said, exercising his still new command. As they left, Xerenth cought a glimpse of a decal on a certain, familiar SSAAG. He realized it was the gunships “name” or callsign. The now identified “Abysmal” flew off. Suddenly, Anna came over the intercom.

Chapter 15
Calculated


“Xerenth?” Anna beamed with her big, bright smile. We have all the data we need to add the boosters on to your ship. Grapple onto the Hawkeye, it’l take you back to the hanger.” Xerenth looked up, and unleashed the grapple, which contorted it’s self around the Hawkeye. He realed it in, and the Valencia came flying into the air. The Hawkeye flew at a rediciuls speed. Xerenth was amazed at that, and the fact the grapple and the Valencia where fine. They where at there base within a minute. A small rock seemed to move, the Jennson contrubitued to the oddness by saying “You may realese now.” Xerenth looked down. Why would he drop the Valencia here? He had no idea, but did it anyways, as he trusted Opps. He flew at the ground, then… “Through it?” Harris exclaimed, saying what Xerenth was thinking. They plummeted into a vat of nanobots, and the whole mech was swarmed with them. Xerenth saw the option to destroy them pop onto his screen, but he declined, knowing what they where doing. The swarm once again pushed him onto a dock of sorts. He looked at a large mirror-like wall. He realized the mech was whiter than he realized. The nanobots had completely cleaned the shield off. The Valencia walked down a path lit with green arrows, right into the hanger, and Anna’s big smile. Le looked around. A smaller, elevated hanger was right next to his. He had no doubt in his mind why as the Hawkeye landed on it. The Valencia walked onto the upgrade platform, as millions of Nanobots swarmed to create a holding rack for it. Xerenth pressed the open cockpit button, and was sucked out of the cockpit in a amazing burst of speed. He landed ontop of a newly formed platform. Harris plopped right next to him in another violent burst of speed. Harris started to climb down a ladder, but Xerenth just jumped, landing without a noise, his special armor kicking in. Anna came up, her face beaming even more brightly. “Sucsess!” she shouted. Suddenly, the whole crew leapt out, and a “Sucsess!’ banner popped out. “Civilians.” Xernenth thought with a cringe. Anna started to give a speech, but Xerneth could care less. He just stood there, and checked his Email. He chuckled to himself. Email was like the 21’s century version of the wheel, only it wasn’t the 21’s century. Of course, the wheel was less popular than Email was, with the advent of hovercars and all. Of course, few people used them, there where far many other, more efficient trasportation methods, the most popular being personal VTOL crafts, monkiered “Hoverplanes” by the media and the common. How wrong that title was, Xerenth though. He could care less. He skimmed thrue. He looked thrue his email… huh? What’s this? “Try our new Acia powerbar! All the nutrients of the government standards, but with the taste of Acia! Let Acia get involved in your life!” Huh. Why wasn’t this in the spam box? That’s odd. Sent by Real-Runner Simulation Company? Whats up with that? Simulation company? Odd. Must have been an accident. The basic shipping A.I’s can only do what there human masters tell them, and obviously humans are only humans. So why did it get thrue his junk box. He had no idea why. “To the Valencia’s shining future!” Anna cried, and everyone else, including Harris, cheered in acceptence. “You have a few days to rest while we work on the flight feature. We’ll grab you when where done.” Anna stated to him in her proud, somewhat cheeky manner. Her big eyes shone like gemstones, full of wonder and awe.

Chapter 16
Kicking back?


“Uhhhh, ummm… Why do you find going to the firing range “fun”?” “I don’t. I just need to keep my skills sharp. Only an hour or so should be enough.” “Whatever you say. I’m trying to get qualified as a marksman. I guess I practice with the “power-sniper” while I have the chance. “Why would you do that, when I have a new experimental sniper rifle that needs testing?” a young man, who overheard Harris’s remark, said. “I like that idea.” Harris said. “Now hold it!” Xerenth exclaimed. “What’s the deal with this “new” sniper rifle. Is it dangerus?” “Only to the bad guys.” Xerenth wasn’t satisfied. “Let me see it.” “Sure!” The man pulled out a small box. He pressed a button, and the whole thing unfolded into a tripod and a barrel. “Well, actually, it’s just a extender and a tripod. It’s ment for railgun snipers, and it mask the tracer, but I have another model for laser rifles, as well as conventional snipers.” “Well, that’s fine then.” Xerenth, said, submitting to Harris’s request. Soon, they where at the firing range. Harris was picking off targets 300 hundred feet with ease. Small targets, The laser cannon he was using was rediculusly accurate. And powerful. He was using a standard MWLLAIW-124 Laser Sniper. Xerenth was picking off targets 500 feet away with his custom assault rifle. He realized when the rifle missed a 1000 foot away target that he needed a sniper. He noticed the box-bod, as the creator called it, increased the rounds power and accuracy. He wondered if he could get one for his assault rifle, and asked the inventor. He retreated to his space, and maily slept the rest of the time. He kept having odd dreams. He could only remember a little bit of it, but it was enough. A face. A very familiar face. He was discussing something with it. It had no body… no, it was a hologram. Something about performance… he had no idea why. He actually didn’t know why he slept. He didn’t need to. The only thing it did was relax him. He went to eat breakfast. Another thing he didn’t need to do, yet still did. However, he knew why. He might not digest stuff, but he ceartanly could taste it, and he had to admit waffles where good. He looked around. There where few people in the mess hall. “Lazy civilians. Always sleeping in.” Xerenth thought as he gorged on his Waffles, then drank a glass of Coke. Yes. They had Coke in the future. Not the drug. People had found way more potent stuff. But the drink somehow survived all these years. Many people who didn’t know about Xerenth and his abilities where baffeled, even shocked, by the fact he drank Coke in the moring. He just told them he liked the taste. He wasn’t lying. He walked out of the mess hall, over to the Valencia. He looked at it, and noticed a new protrusion from the back. It had had it’s thrusters installed, Xerenth realized. The canisters on the ide had been intergrated, the cockpit area modified, and the main weapons… bigger? What? Did the thing not have enough fire power as it is? The cockpit position had also been altered, it was now slightly less protruding, and was raised slightly. It had somesort of decoration on the front. Some sort of jutting, streamline protrusions, they where small, and seemed to give the Valencia a “mane” of sorts. He scanned it, and realized they where just there for intimidation. . Odd. But, they did make it look bad-ass. “Like what we’ve done to it?” Anna poped up next to him. He knew she was there all along, he just didn’t think she would notice him. ‘Yes, I do. When can I test it out?” “Accoring to command, this afternoon. We have word of the enemy mobilizing a fleet to attempt to retake the planet. We really need you up there, ASAP, but we need to test flight capabilities.” “You got it. Go get Harris.”


Chapter 17
The final frontier


The Valencia flew out of the hanger, strait into the sky. It darted at side to side so fast it was invisible to the normal human eye. And even with a cybernetic eye implant, it would still be extremely hard to see. He flew into the city, weaving thrue the redicullisy tight quarter of city, once thought immposible for all but the most speacilized mechs to traverse. He hit a enemy squad with a few missles, as Harris gunned down a enemy sniper. Blood splatterd the normaly clean city blocks, the stains ever so visable as the seemingly minute test ended. Xerenth flew straight up, into the outer atmosphere. “Woo hoo!” Harris yelled, lightning in his eyes. “That was awesome! It’s the best rollercoaster I’ve ever been on, and I’ve been on the Infernuim at Thrilltopia, Cortent.” Cortent was also known for its rollercoasters, Xerenth remembered. The diversity of the terra colonies was stunning. “Well, I think the Valencia is ready for space. I wonder what the Hawkeye will do though.” “Orbit in the stratosphere, just bellow you.” Zoey come over the radio, in her usall “all-of-the-sudden” matter. “Rodger.” The Valencia shot strait up, right into space. He looked around. All the planetary defense space stations had rearranged themselves into a defensive arrangment. Large carriers and dreadnought had arrived. Thousands or Corvettes swarmed the general area, creating a perimeter. A massive super carrier, at least 6 miles long loomed in the vincinity. Hundreds of dreadnoughts sourrounded the 20 or so carriers, which in turn sourounded the massive super carrier flagship, the Forward unto Dawn. He piloted the Valencia over to the large supercarrier, and command appeared on screen. “Is that? Is-“ “Yes. This is Collel Xerenth, piloting a Valecia Class mech with Captain John Harris onboard as my gunner. I request permsion to land.” “Permision granted. The general is expecting you, actually.”


The Valencia landed in a special hanger designed for high ranking officials. The hanger was right next to the bridge. The Valencia came in, then the hanger shut, and air was pumped back in. Xerenth looked around. The hanger was mainly designed for small diplomatic shuttles, and similarly designed craft. A nanobot holder formed around the Valencia, and Xerenth and Harris exited the mech. Xerenth looked around. It was a nice, large, roomy area, with enough space to hold a small corvette. A nervus official ran up to greet him. “Sir, this way.” Xerenth walked down a long hallway. He saw many different conference rooms of sorts, mainly for planning offencives. He and Harris walked into an elevator, and where whizzed up into a large atrium of sorts. The generals secratery greeted him. “Right this way.” She said, pointing at a large door. Xerenth walked up, and immieditly the door scanned him. A robotic voice announced “Xerenth. Rank: Collnel Current objectives assigned: meet with general, free will has been assigned as well for certain areas of operation. Clearence: above top seceret. Entry: granted.” The door opened. Xerenth looked around. He could hear the door repeat the same thing to Harris. He walked into a large, spacius room. “Hello Collnel. My name is General Fentch Cercelo. However, people just call me General Fentch, or just “The General” or just “Fentch”. I don’t really know. I have a lot of nicknames. However, that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to defend this planet from those other basterds. God damned IGRD! Thinks they knows better than us! Some stupid holy war, this or that… bah! And people used to think religion could be good! Damn, I might be a hypocrite for saying that, seeing that I used the term “God damned” and all, but hell, that’s the only thing he’s good for nowadays that doesn’t involve killing thousands in some genocidal war. Huh. Never thought I’d see the day where I had to kill preist! But, they are the Inter-Galatic Religius Devote. What a load of bull crap I’d tell yah. Oh, guess I just did. Oh well. At least where the clear cut good guys in this war… of course, anyone with a brain back in the good ol’ 22 ceantury could see this coming. I mean, once people realized all religion did was oppress people and act superior and right and all that pompus crap, they where turned away. You know, I actually feel kinda good shooting crazed, low I.Q, fanatic, religious zealots. I think they deserve it. I mean, I bet they ask there gods or god, hell if I knew, every day to rain hellfire opon us for our sinful ways. They might be the stupedist group I know. And they can’t engineer for jack, on account they belive certain technologys are “sinful. And you know what the funniest part is? They fight because they believe the peace we made ain’t the righ kinda peace. Jesus Christ! He’s the one to blame! Him and Buddah and those Shinto spirits and what ever the hell Scientoligest believe in, and the Yin and Yang spirits, and that new “Power of the Ancients” crap. Honestly. All they want to do, and have been doing, is oppressing people. I mean, it’s just a way of controlling people. Right? Eh. You know another retarted thing about religius people? They say gays and the like will burn in hell for all eternity, and a when we Atheist say that’s cruel and all, they call us “offensive”! Eh. ‘Nuff of my rant. Just had to set the tables. Anyhow’z, I need you son. We have a large mass of IGRD spaceships coming in. The thing is, however, they prefer to “test each indeviduils merit”. Which, in other words, means there’ll be a ass load of sigle pearson ships. Bombers, fighters, shuttles, drones. All will be piloted by a single pearson. That means the big ships don’t have much leverage against them. However, not all of them are stupid, so we know there going to have a large fleet as well, but the numbers of single craft will overrun us. Becouse of this, we have to focus most of are fighting capabilities on them. However, they still have a large fleet they will use, and they will use it with efficiency while where pre-occupied with there single craft. That’s where you come in. Your objective is to take out their larger units. Son, basicly, I’m telling you to go out and destroy there big ships. Carriers espiecily. Once those are taken out, no more single craft support. After that, go for there command ships, and if you see any Devestator capable ships, take those out soonest. Just ‘cause we have a large battle in the sky don’t mean the war on the ground stops. I’ve reviewed your latest endeavors, so I know you can handle this. I also realize you know the power of thos Devestators. Any questions?”


“One. Then we’ll be on our way. Do we have support?” “Just the Hawkeye.” “O.k. We’ll do are best.” “I know you will soldier, I know you will.” Xerenth walked back to the Valencia. He got in, and looked at Harris. “Ready?” “Yep.” “O.k, here we go.” They exited the ships hanger as soon as the enemy fleet arrived.

Chapter 17
And so it closes in


Vyouooooo! A massive round whizzed by the Valecia, hitting a fighter, which proceede to explode in a rainbow of colors. A chunk of it hit another fighter, and it started to smoke, then spiraled out of control, the gravity of the planet pulling it in. Harris opened fire on a nearby fighter. It exploded in the rear, then spiraled out of control, to face the same fate as the last fighter, as the planets gravity claimed yet another victim. All round the Valencia, as massive battle was unfolding. Huge ships fired at each other, and millions of fighter streaked the skys, each one hell bent on destroying the other. The Valencia dodged to the side and stabbed its cryoblade into an enemy shuttle. The shuttle split in halve, and those on board tumbeled out into space, gasping for air as they near-instantly froze to death. The capitol ships where locked in fire fights. However, the IGRD ships where at a disadvantage of being lower quality and of an older design. This didn’t stop them from attacking however, and they did have some sucsess. The Valecia whizzed around a friendly bomber and landed on a corvette. Quickly the Valencia cryobladed its way thru the hull into the ship. Xerenth charged throught the large area he found himself in until he reached one of the main cannons. Harris gunned down the surprised crew members, as a option appeared on Xerenth’s screen to hack the cannon. Xerenth chose yes, and immeiditly, one of the nanobot capsules deployed onto the control panel. Harris realized what was happening and took control of the turret. He fired at a nearby IGRD corvette. The corvette, thinking it was accidental, did not fire back. Harris would make them learn the hard way as he shot at the bridge. It exploded, and the ship started to smoke, pieces flying off. Harris fired once again, this time hitting a engine, which simply fell off, as the corvette started to break even more, finally “derelecting” as monkiered by troops, which roughly translates into complete loss of function, as escape pods where launched. Another corvette realized what was happening, and fired back. Xerenth felt the corvette shook as the round hit it. “Harris, I think it’s time to go!” “Couldn’t agree more!” Harris replied. Xerenth ripped another hole in the hull and leaped out, just as a capital ship fired on the a-wall corvette. It exploded in a massive cloude of flames. Xerenth looked at the ship that made it. The Valencia lept from side to side as a squadron of enemy fighters shot at it, then opened up with its missle pod, destroying halve the fighters, with Harris’s aim with the railgun destroying the rest. Xerenth leaped onto an enemy destroyer. The magnetized feet on the Valencia clung to the hull as Xerenth observed what was happening. All around him, large explosions where dotting the sky, as pieces of steel littered the area. Massive capitol ships rained fire opon each other. Xerenth looked at what he was standing on. The ship was large, with a blocky, old time feel to it. It looked clunky and clumbsy, but it did have some big guns. That was enough to make it usefull, as the whole ship rocked with a salvo of rounds. The destroyer must have been around a mile long. Xerenth ran down the hull, firing full powered plasma rounds as rapidly as he could. Large explosions rocked top of the ships hull as a small white figure ran down it, it’s colors contrasting with the brownish hues of the ship it was on. Within a minute, Xerenth reached the engines. Point defense cannons started to fire, but the Valencia was to quick for them, and in a flash two where severed by a cryoblade, one had two large railgun holes in it, and the rest had been obliterated by missles. The Valencia leapt onto the main engine, and lanced right thrue it with its cryoblade. The Valencia emerged on the oppisite side of the engine, as large chunks of metal flew out of the newly created hole. The enginge then erupted in flames, and started to shake, then “derelected”. A few plasma shots to the other two engines severly crippeled them, and Xerent flew off as an enemy squadron of anti-vehicular gunships flew in to destroy the rampaging mech, only to be obliterated as another capital ship opened fire on the wounded destroyer. The whole back halve started to crack and moan, as smoke and fire arose from the now destroyed back section. Xerenth’s instincts kicked in, and he dodged a piece, the opened fire on a enemy fighter, which procceded to explode. Harris fired off a railgun round at another fighter, and the thing simply stopped and started to drift, its vital compenents damaged beyond basic rapair abilities. Xerenth darted to the front end of the now injured destroyer, and once again cryobladed his way inside the hull. He landed in a large hanger. He could see dropships preparing to transport ground assault units down to a hotzone. Harris opened fire. Despite being tough, after a few seconds, a dropship gave in the the powerful gattling gun, and crashed, the explosion destroying another gunship, and injuring several others. Some of the mechs that hadn’t been loaded onto a dropship yet attacked the Valencia. Xerenth dodged out of the way of a volley of missles, then charged the mech that was responsible, running it thrue with the Valencia’s cryoblade. A railgun round slammed into the Valencia’s shield, but Harris quickly responded with a few railgun rounds of his own, ripping apart the main body of the enemy mech, which proceded to fall over. A plasma round nearly destroyed a Grizzly mech that was about to open fire, with a short burst of gatling gun- thanks to Harris- hitting the newly formed “soft spot”, falling the dying Grizzly. A quick burst of missles fell the remaining to mechs, as the Valencia started to elimenate the remaining dropships that whern’t able to flee. The Velencia rammed thrue the hangers wall with it’s cryoblade, breaking into a main cannon battery. A few well amied missled to the control panel destroyed any hopes of the cannon firing, but as a added procaution, Xerenth cryobladed his way out, and once far enough away from the destroyer, shot at the ammo reserve from the hole he used to exit. Quickly, Xerenth dodged out of the way as a massive pillar of flames erupted from the hole he had just shot into, as the area was engulfed in flames and twisted metals. When the fire cleared, Xerenth could see that a massice hole had been formed, as if someone had gouged the destroyer with a large spear. Pieces of metal flew every where, as a small corrvete that was in the vincinity of the blast started to explode internally, the damage just to much. Xerenth could see hundreds of escape pods eject from the mortally wounded ship, as it started to suffer the same fate as the corvette, explodi