Resilience (Under Revision)

Chapters

Rise And Smell The Ashes
The Last One
Strife Of The Griffons
When Hope Is Lost . . .
...Grab A Drink...
Awakening

Rise And Smell The Ashes

Location: Epsilon 12 Command Base Alpha, Cryogenic Storage Bay.

Cold. That was the first thing to assault Jack's senses as he felt around the vessel he was in. Moving his hands along the glassy surface of the cabin, he felt around until he gripped the emergency override and yanked the handle down. A hissing noise filled the cabin as the pod depressurized and a current of air flowed in to meet the human inside. Stumbling out of the pod, the lone human fell to his knees and started coughing violently trying to empty the contents within his stomach before vomiting onto the floor next to him. Still shivering, Jack lifted his head off the ground and looked around the room he found himself in.

Turning his head he saw what could only be described as a massive storage facility. Rows upon columns of pods much like his own lined wall to wall and stretched to the edge of his vision. Each pod had their observation windows clouded preventing anyone outside from seeing the inhabitants from the inside. Far in the distance a light breached through the top of the facility, squinting his eyes, Jack could see that a massive portion of the ceiling had collapsed, allowing fauna and sunlight to breach through the top of the building and spread amongst the debris along the ground.

"What the hell?", Jack whispered to himself as he watched a mouse scurry amongst the fauna in the distance.

Grunting, Jack attempted to move his legs underneath him, as his stomach painfully protested against his movements. Slowly he regained his footing and stood up in front of his pod and moved to walk forward, desperate to get some answers.

"FUCK!"

Suddenly a massive pain shot through his skull as Jack screamed and gripped the sides of his head, veins bulging out of his neck and his eyes screwing shut. Collapsing back to the floor, Jack continued to scream in agony before his world started to go dark, the last thing he saw was a machine racing towards him.

Location: Planet Epsilon 12
Date: 2878
Time: 21:00
Event: The Battle of Epsilon 12

"OH SHIT. INCOMMIN-bzzt"

Jack could hear his colonel's last words as he was blown up in a fire ball that consumed the building to the right of his position in a crater. A piece of their APC shot over his head and crashed down into a hole about 60 feet from where he was hunkered down. Cautiously poking his head over the side of the crater, Jack saw nothing but the smoldering corpse of the armored vehicle looking back at him. Raising his right hand to his helmet, Jack sent a status report back to the frontlines three kilometers away.

"Bad Company 0-5 to Overwatch. 0-1, 0-2, 0-4, and 0-7 are considered KIA. Awaiting further orders."

"Overwatch to Bad Company 0-5. You are cleared to continue on your mission. Mission reminder. Breach hostile compound. Eliminate hostile contact. Extract quantum tunneling device. Destroy device if necessary."

Bringing his hand back down from his helmet, Jack reached into his MOLLE pouch and brought out a small mirror. Holding the mirror slightly above the edge of the crater, he observed his target and the hostiles present.

The Montallum. Horrific creatures of metal and fire. Their bodies scorching the very soil underneath them as they spread from world to world, consuming everything in their path. The Monatallum resembled something that the devil himself would create, their forms warped and bulging as liquid metal ran over the surface of their bodies. Claws stretched out of their inorganic figures like tentacles, each digit as long as kitchen knives and sharp enough to slice through steel. Above all this sat a pale, white orb that casted a ghostly light on everything that surrounded it.

These creatures were currently protecting the remains of an old bombed out school building, the
ground zero for the first invasion. That day, three destroyers had unexpectedly come out of warp and destroyed what minimal orbital defenses that Epsilon had in its atmosphere before sending in ground transports to invade the planet. The school barely had enough time to issue an evacuation notice before the first transport vessels landed in the field, releasing the horrors within onto the students still on campus.

Now, massive tendrils of metal stuck out of its buildings, swaying as they awaited any unfortunate starship or person to come close enough to them. This same metal coated the exterior of the compound like a shell, making any attempts to bombard or destroy the building from the outside significantly harder.

Moving the mirror a bit higher, Jack could see the Montallum scrambling on top of second floor next to a massive particle accelerator mounted next to the railing. Yanking his arm down quickly he could hear a massive explosion rip through the air above him and somewhere into the field he as in. Risking a look, Jack lifted himself slightly to look over at what the Montallum was firing at.

The cannon had collided with a tank crew that just made their way into the field half a mile from Jack's crater. The laser tore right through the bulk of the tank's incorrupium armor, and straight into the drivers seat, and right out the back side into the hill behind them, leaving a massive black scorch mark on what little grass was left on the ground. The hatch flew open as the gunner scrambled to get out, but as soon as he jumped out of the main turret, the war machine exploded in a ball of fire, vaporizing him and causing Jack to shield his eyes as red hot, twisted metal shot into the sky.

'Back up is unreliable. Tau cannon must be destroyed.', Jack thought to himself as the particle accelerator continued to fire off behind him.

Reaching into his grenade pouch, Jack pulled out four smoke grenades and waited until he could hear the hissing sound of the Tau cannon being cooled off. It didn't take long before the energy barrage on his position stopped.

Jumping out the crater Jack pulled the pins and threw all four of the smoke grenades in succession toward the school. Within seconds, the sixty yards between Jack and the school was covered in a thick veil of smoke that interfered with his infrared sensors. Switching to the map on his hud, Jack sprinted towards the building, the confused screeching of the Montallumn soon followed after as they realized what was happening. Random scorch shots began to appear around Jack, as the monsters blind fired into the smoke. His legs became a blur as he sprinted faster, knowing that it would only be a matter of time before one of them got lucky and hit him.

Suddenly a massive shadow enveloped Jack as he turned to look above him. One of the metal tendrils above the building was looming over him, before it swung back with the intent of impaling him.

"Hard Contact!"

Leaping into a crater next him, Jack heard a massive explosion as dirt rained down onto his back. Emerging back out of the crater, he saw that tendril had impaled itself mere feet away from where he was before and was fruitlessly trying to pull itself out of the dirt. Taking this chance to escape, Jack continued running towards the building now only twenty yards away from the metallic structure.

However, just as quickly as his luck came it soon left as the smoke that had blinded the Montallum was now dispersed by the shockwave from the tendril impaling the ground. Now having a direct visual of Jack plasma soon rained down in droves all around him, kicking up dirt and filling the air with the smell of burnt grass. A charged shot bounced off of Jack's combat armor and nearly knocked him to the ground as he continued running towards the building.

'Ten yards left' Jack thought to himself before hearing a charging noise to his left.

Looking over to his left, Jack's eyes widened as he saw the Tau cannon fully charged and aimed right at him. The muscles in his legs strained as Jack desperately leaped and grabbed onto the side of the building. An ear-piercing buzzing reverberated in his skull as the deadly beam of energy ripped through the ground, carving up soil and burning everything in its way. Jack clenched his teeth as he felt the heat from the particle beam pass just feet from where he was hanging.

Grunting, Jack shoved his armored fist into the side of the wall before scaling it and reaching the second floor balcony. With one hand he hooked himself onto the side of the building while with his other, he grabbed his AR3 plasma rifle before blind firing it just underneath the railing. Screams and screeches of the Montallum filled the air before they were abruptly silenced by Jack's assault. Once he felt his clip was empty, Jack hoisted himself up and over the railing onto the second story.

The balcony was littered with the dead bodies of the Montallum, all that seemed to be desperately running for an opening into the building before they were met with their demise. Looking over to the now vulnerable Tau cannon. Jack quickly ran across the balcony before placing a series of thermite charges along the barrel of the cannon. Taking cover behind the corpse of a fallen Montallum, Jack detonated the charges and destroyed the barrel of the gun, rendering it useless metal slag.

"Bad Company 0-5 to Overwatch. Enemy artillery on the south east entrance has been destroyed. Requesting additional reinforcements."

"Overwatch to Bad Company 0-5. Destruction of enemy artillery acknowledged. Request for reinforcements denied. Mission reminder. Breach hostile compound. Eliminate hostile contact. Extract quantum tunneling device. Destroy device if necessary."

"Understood."

Jack took his hand off the side of his helmet and cut off his communication with Overwatch. Turning towards the entrance in the wall, he turned on his night vision and walked into building.

The interior of the building was coated in the same substance as the exterior of the building unsurprisingly. Odd floating orbs illuminated the hallways as they drifted along up and down the corridors. Keeping his gun leveled, Jack swept his his vision to the right and left, not sensing any heat signatures on his hud he lowered his gun to get a better visual of his surroundings.

"Pull up the latest schematics of Westword High School."

Within a second the schematics of the building was quickly brought up. Matching the schematics to his energy locator, Jack constructed a pathway towards the tunneling device that was displayed on his internal screen. Following the locator Jack determined that the device was located within the schools old courtyard and began walking down the length of the corridor.

Jack had been jogging down the hallway for nearly thirty minutes before he heard screaming in the distance. Whipping around Jack held up his gun and aimed down the sights to the area he heard the screaming from.

"Give me information on building O, chemistry department, after occupation"

In a monotone voice, the helmet responded,

"Latest information states that building O, chemistry department has been converted into detention facility."

The whirling of a drill was heard coming from down the hall along with begging and the ear piercing screams as wet squelching was made throughout the entire hallway. A moment of conflict crossed Jack's mind as he continued to listen to the horrors that were going on down the hallway. Lifting up his hand to his helmet, Jack contacted Overwatch.

"Bad Company 0-5 to Overwatch. Infiltration successful. Enroute to device. Possible deterrence detected. Requesting permission to assist prisoners."

"Overwatch to Bad Company 0-5. Permission denied. Mission reminder. Breach hostile compound. Eliminate hostile contact. Extract quantum tunneling device. Destroy device if necessary."

Bringing his hand back down from his helmet. Jack begins to make his way down the hallway towards the screams, holding his AR3 out in front of him.

"Following mission parameters. Eliminating hostile contact."

Jack stood outside of the door towards the chemistry department, screaming peeking at its highest, before crushing the door handle and smashing the door open. Jack was immediately assaulted by the foul smell of vomit, excrement, and blood. The walls and floors was soaked in blood. A pile of soaking wet skin was strung up on metal hooks along the wall while entrails were seen strewn about on the floor, varying from kidneys to hearts. In the corner of the room was a steel cage that was filled with prisoners, their faces twisted with horror.

All stopped when Jack entered the room. A Montallum turned to look at him, revealing a drill like device and a half flayed soldier coughing up blood, his lungs being exposed to the outside world. Without a moment of hesitation, Jack released a slew of plasma that tore into the metal hide of the creature. Whether intentionally or not the Montallum sliced off the head of the half flayed soldier as it desperately tried to escape Jack's assault. It clawed its way to a plasma rifle leaning against the table next to it, but it was too late as Jack continued to release a salvo plasma rounds into the Montallum, before ultimately running up and jamming the barrel of his rifle directly into the orb on top of its head. The creature fell limp as its insides were quickly liquidated from Jack's assault.

"Hey! Let us out of here!"

Jack, turning his head from the Montallum looked over and saw the prisoners all looking towards him with desperation in their eyes. Aiming the AR3 towards the lock, Jack destroyed the lock holding the prisoners and broke it open. Rushing out of the room the prisoners, counting four in total, and Jack flooded into the hallway and away from the horrors inside. A female dressed in a torn a flight suit soaked in sweat spoke up to thank Jack.

"Thank god you came out to save us. I...W-we were...-"

"The South East entrance has been cleared. Head back through building L to reach it." , Jack stated in a gruff tone, surprising the prisoners. Turning to leave, Jack started backdown the hallway before being abruptly stopped by one of the other prisoners; a man this time who was dressed in standard issue military fatigues.

"Wait! What about the others? There were more of us when the scrap brought us in. I saw most of my platoon get taken away south of here. Aren't we going to help save them?"

"The rescue of allied forces are not part of my mission parameters."

"... What the fuck are you talking about?", The soldier asked in equal parts confusion and rising suspicion.

"The rescue of allied forces are not part of my mission parameters.", Jack repeated once more.

"So what you're just going to walk away?!", The soldier nearly shouted out. "I got men down there getting sliced up like a fucking thanksgiving turkey and you're just not going to try and save them!?"

"Affirmative. Those are my orders from Overwatch.", Jack then walked back into the room and grabbed the plasma rife that was discarded on the ground in the fight. "It is not advised to attack an armed detention facility." He lifted up the rifle to the soldier.

The soldier growled as he grabbed the riffle from Jack's grip before giving a harsh glare into his visor. Piercing blue eyes looked back at him, unmoving and unbothered. Taking a small step back, the soldier turned away from Jack and stared marching down the hallway.

The rest of the prisoners looked between Jack and the soldier who was now marching towards the distant screams and decided to continue down the corridor that connects O building to L. Turning around, Jack continued to walk down the hallway, following the indicator on his hud leading him further into the wolf's den. It wasn't long before he was on his own again, the only the sounds of glass crunching under his heels broke through the silence that enveloped him.

However, while Jack's neutral expression still remained on his face, conflict made itself known in his mind as he debated silently to himself.

'Should we have helped them?'

'Our objective is to follow whatever orders we have from the UNC. Doing so would have been a direct violation of our orders.'

'Regardless, these are our soldiers. We should be there to help them. Is that not our main objective to service the UNC and its citizens?'

'Only how Overwatch dictates so. Deviation from the mission will be seen as a direct violation of duty.'

'...Very well'

Snapping himself out of his internal argument, Jack refocused on the path ahead of him, realizing that he now stood in front of a massive metal door. The door easily towered over him by five feet and hummed with a soft, blue glow radiating from its cold exterior. Looking to the left side of his hud, Jack could see that this door leads directly into the courtyard where the device rested. Reaching for a metal lever, Jack suddenly stopped and stepped away from the door, gun at ready.

"Abnormal conditions detected in hostile environment. Resistance speculated to be high."

As if on que, Jack heard something scuttle through the darkness in the hall behind him. Snapping around, he kept his AR3 at eye level and scanned the area around him. Silence filled the corridor only broken by the occasional breath coming from Jack as he stared down the hallway.

"Bad company 0-5 to Overwatch. Objective reached. Unknown hostile entity detected. Mission may be compromised. Requesting order adjustment."

"Overwatch to Bad Company 0-5. Request denied. Unknown hostile contact acknowledged. Mission reminder. Breach hostile compound. Eliminate hostile contact. Extract quantum tunneling device. Destroy device if necessary."

"Confirmed."

Bringing his hand back down, Jack slowly began his way down the corridor to where the scuttling noise was coming from. Switching his hud on he scanned for any Montallum that may be in the area. Walking through the corridor Jack waited for the noise again. After waiting for around thirty seconds, he sighed and started to walk back to the door, determined to get it open.

"Potential sensory failure."

SHKKKK!

Whipping around, Jack had the air knocked out of his lungs as he was sent flying and connected with the metal blast door, bending its exterior. Gripping his chest, Jack stumbled back onto his feet and started to blind fire into the darkness while he gripped the wall next to him. Clearing the fogginess from his eyes Jack looked up towards his assailant and his recoiled slightly in shock.

A hell spawn. The creature was a massive, bulbous mound of flesh that had most of its body twisted between muscle and metal. Mechanical appendages stuck out at random angles, protruding from the rubbery flesh of its underbelly. It's head swiveled back and forth on its neckless body, drool dripping and seeping into the ground from what was supposed to be its lower jaw. Towards the back of the creature its fleshy body merged into a massive mechanical tail, akin to that of a scorpion, that swung back and forth with its movements.

Slowly backing away to the pulsing door, Jack grunted and clutched his chest as pain flared through his abdomen. Pulling his arm back he could see a massive gash running along the breast plate of his armor, cutting through the imperium-fused steel and in to his chest. The creature, having heard Jack turned around to "look" at him, before releasing an ear splitting screech and barreling down the corridor down to him.

Snapping his AR3 up, Jack immediately starts to open fire upon the monster, bolts of plasma bouncing off and imbedding themselves into the rubbery flesh of its target. The creature continued to charge on, completely oblivious to the damage its body was taking, as shards of metal were shot off and broken. With a sharp whip of its tail, the creature slammed Jack into the door breaking down the massive steel structure and launching him into the courtyard.

Flying a nearly ten feet into the air, Jack landed in the middle of the court and bounced off the ground before slamming into a small concrete structure. Jack stayed lying on the ground in a daze, while above him he could see the darken skies, polluted with smoke from the other battles being fought all around the city. His ribs were on fire, and he was certain that one of his lungs were punctured. Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Jack pulled himself up until he was in a sitting position with his back leaning against a dried up fountain. That's where he saw it.

A massive hollow pyramid stuck out of the ground just in front of Jack. It rested on a clear, see though platform that when looked into, revealed a massive arc reactor humming away. Bolts of blue energy were flowing up the beams connecting the hollow pyramid and pooled into a glowing sphere of light that rested on the tip of the structure.

"Bad Company 0-5 to Overwatch. Tar-agh!", Jack grunted, clenching his teeth as he got his breath under control. "Visual of target confirmed. Retrieval impossible. Destruction on stand-by. Requesting extraction."

"Overwatch to Bad Company 0-5. Extraction approved. ETA five minutes"

CRASH

Jerking his hand down from his helmet, Jack looked over to his right where the blast doors once were to see the creature barreling into the middle of the square. Its metal body kicking up debris and whatever wasn't bolted down as it flew into a stone column thirty yards from Jacks position. Shaking off the dirt from its pale body, it turned to Jack and released a shrill screech of rage as it flew directly towards the fountain he was resting on.

With his ribs screaming out in protest, Jack pulled himself up and collapsed on the ground a yard away from the fountain, just before it was pulverized into rubble. Reaching up over his back to grip his AR3, he finds nothing, spotting that his gun had fallen from his holster and was laying in the rubble halfway between him and the creature. Silently cursing under his breath, he started to crawl over to the quantum tunneling device and pulled out the charges from within he explosives pouch and started planting them onto the base of the machine.

SHUNCK

"SON OF A BITCH!"

The creature had made its way back over to Jack while he was preparing to set the explosives, and pierced his armored leg with its mechanical appendage and started pulling him across the court yard. Grunting, Jack turned himself over yelling in pain as the metal limb shifted and cut deeper into his calf muscle. Pulling a knife out of his back pocket, he lifted it up and stabbed it directly into the creatures forehead and snapped it to the right, breaking the blade off in its skull. The creature let out a roar of agony as it released its grip on Jack's leg and threw him across the ground. It then started to claw at the blade imbedded in its skull in a fruitless attempt to relieve the steel from its flesh, tearing off chunks of its own inorganic body in the process.

Gripping the side of helmet, Jack threw off the useless piece of metal as the visor was now cracked beyond use. Continuing his crawl over to the machine, his lungs pleading him to stop while his leg was being dragged behind him by a single tendon. Most of his leg still within the clutches of the monster when it threw him.

Behind Jack, the creature continued to smash its head into the walls of the court yard screaming as oily blood began to seep down its claws and into the ground beneath it.

'Five more feet'

Reaching the pad housing the arc reactor for the device, Jack synchronized the charges to the detonator in his hand and watched as the red light turned green. Gripping the side of the detonator, he started the 240 second arming sequence before he heard a loud shriek coming from across the square. The creature was finally able to tear the blade out of its head, blood spurting from the wound that the knife had created and leaked all over the ground. Reaffirming its gaze on Jack, it released an ear piercing scream as it charged Jack with death written on its horrific body.

Exhausted from blood loss and from having to fight this thing, Jack made no attempt to get out of the way when he saw the creature charge at him for the last time. Steadying his breathing Jack closed his eyes, as the detonator slowly beeped within his right hand, his broken body barely moving as he rested against the machine.

BRRRT

SCKREEAH

Snapping his eyes back open he saw a massive aircraft emerge out of the smoke and started to circle around the square. Behind the aircraft were silhouettes of the writhing metallic tendrils that whipped around frantically trying to dispel the liquid fire that poured out of the back end of the now descending vehicle. Her plasma thrusters roared as the right side of its fuselage was tilted directly towards the courtyard, a gunner manning a RFTL as he laid down round after round of super charged energy bolts that tore into the creature's rubbery hide and crippled its metal appendages.

Screeching, the creature began to run back towards the blast door it had smashed through to try and escape the aircraft's ruthless barrage. The gunner however didn't let it have that chance. Focusing all of his fire directly on to the creatures soft back side, he tore a hole directly through it. Metal wiring and singed flesh burst through its underside as it collapsed yards away from the blast doors. Its metal appendages twitching and then curling up much like how a spider does once it dies.

"Lieutenant Winston, hold your position. We're getting you outta here."

Jack's vision was growing dark as he watched the aircraft begin its quick descent into onto the courtyard. The last thing he remembered was the distinct hum of the air ship's massive engines, and a explosion going off in the distance.

Location: Somewhere near the Gryphon Kingdom

A royal carriage bounded down a barren path way between two massive alpine mountains. Its destination being a massive tree growing out of the peak of a distant mountain. The carriage was flanked by a platoon of royal gryphon guards escorting a single gryphon hen who was sitting inside. The hen had long head feathers that were slicked back and ended in white tips adorning each feather with blue-greyish fur covering most of her body.

"Damn it.", The hen silently cursed. "Not enough time. Its just..."

Presented in front of the hen was a scroll she received from the latest trade talks with the minotaur kingdom. It states that unless the Gryphon kingdom pays off their debt they have been harvesting for nearly a decade, Griffonia would be seen as a nation incapable of supporting itself. Also that if such a event were to happen, the Empire of Crete would graciously "help" stabilize the nation. In other words, with the co-operation of Griffonia's citizens or not, they will wage war to vassalize the nation.

Crumpling up the letter, the hen threw it onto the ground where it would bounce up and down on the bottom of the carriage. Resting her head into her talons, she let out a tried sigh and attempted to rub away the growing head ache in her skull.

"The ambassador of Griffonian and Crete relations is still with Griffenheim. I'll send a messenger to request a diplomatic meeting in a few days. Maybe I can salvage this."

Suddenly a large rumbling could be heard as the mountain shuddered violently, flinging rocks of its ledges and down into the valley.

"INCOMING!" Yelled a voice outside of the carriage.

A massive crash was heard as the wagon shook and the griffoness was thrown to the side. Picking herself off the floor of the carriage, the hen ran over to the window to get a good look outside. Her beak fell slightly open as she was staring at a gigantic boulder that had crashed down less than ten feet away from the carriage she was in.

"Princess Aleta! Are you alright back there?"

Turning her head, the princess spotted the driver of the caravan looking back at her from the front of the wagon, a fine layer of dirt covering his feathered body.

"Yes, I am alright. What do you think happened?"

"Well I'm not sure princess. I think it may have been an earthquake. Either way, we are all very lucky."

"Yeah," muttered Aleta as she eyed the boulder. "Very lucky indeed."

Sitting back down within the carriage, princess Aleta felt the familiar jolt of the wagon moving again as she continued her journey towards the capital of her homeland.

The Last One

Slowly opening his eyes, Jack was immediately assaulted by a bright light that enveloped his vision. Letting out a low groan the soldier raised his hand and rubbed his eyes as he slowly got his senses back. With his eyes properly adjusted, Jack sat up from a small, white cot before looking around confusedly.

'What the hell?'

Swiveling his head around, Jack could see that he was in a white room, where the air smelled of medicine and disinfectant revealing it to be some type of medical ward. Grunting, Jack swung his legs over the edge of the bed and settled his feet down to the hard tiled ground. A brief shock from the cold ran up his legs before Jack quickly shrugged it off as he slowly got a better understanding of his surroundings.

There were four similar cots that lined along the same side of the room, all of them neatly folded and empty as trays of syringes and other hospital supplies decorated the opposite wall. Towards the end of the room stood a large grey door, big enough where a car could easily drive in without worry of clipping the door frame.

Pushing himself further off the bed, Jack begun to make his way over to the door before grunting as his legs quickly gave out causing him to fall face first into the cot next to him. Like a newborn, Jack slowly began to pull his legs towards himself and wobblily stood back up on two shaky legs. This time, he started walking a bit more carefully towards the entrance, his feet making a small echo in the otherwise silent chamber.

Reaching his hand out, Jack started the feel around the surface of the door before noticing a small control panel off to the side of the entry way. Shuffling over to the small interface, he noticed a scanner blinked systematically on the screen that roughly held the shape of a hand print.

'There's no way it can be that easy.' Jack thought to himself as he reached out to the console.

Placing his hand on to the scanner, the control panel blinked for a few more seconds as the screen showed a small rotating circle above the glowing hand print. Suddenly the screen turned red as three sharp beeps emitted from the small console.

"Unauthorized Personnel Detected In Medical Wing B. Facility B-17C."

A mechanized voiced filled the room as the scanner continued to let out three shrill beeps every couple of seconds.

"I thought so." Jack said to himself before running back in front of the door.

Placing both hands underneath the door, Jack let out a low grunt as he strained his muscles and slowly started to pull upwards. The hydraulic system that was holding the steel door in place started to creak and groan underneath the stress Jack was inflicting upon it, but stayed firm nonetheless. Letting out one more strained heave, the gate slipped through his fingers and slammed back down into the floor causing a low rumble to reverberate throughout the room and knock the surgical supplies off of the counters. Letting out an irritated sigh, Jack got back up from where he was crouched down and stumbled back towards the control panel.

"Why would think you could lift up a three ton door when you are barely able to walk, dumbass." Jack mumbled to himself as he begun to peel the thin aluminum covering on the control panel.

Tossing the control panel to the side, Jack was surprised by how simple the electronic locking mechanism was inside. The panel had a standard open circuit that taped directly into the medical wing's generators, which meant simply diverting the power away from the sensor module and back into the capacitors would be enough disengage the locking mechanism. As Jack prepared to pull the wires out of the wall a distant thump echoed beyond the entrance. Slowly dropping the wires from the control panel, he walked over to the metal door and pressed his ear against its cold metal surface. The heavy thump slowly morphed into a series of foot steps that grew louder and louder with each step, no doubt heading towards him.

"Shit."

Rushing over to the surgical supplies on the floor, Jack grabbed a plasma bone saw that had clattered onto the ground after his first attempt to open up the door, and shoved it into his back pocket. Moving back towards the control panel, he quickly continued to splice and rearrange the wires with the wall before a loud pop cause Jack to recoil back with smoke leaking from the console. With the capacitors gone, the locked door disengaged and swung up. Immediately, Jack griped the plasma saw and swung it towards the doorway, the blade connecting with metal as the noises of servos grinding and oil spurting filled the air.

Yanking the bone saw out of his target, Jack readied himself to swing again before stopping.

'A service droid? Where the fuck am I?'

The plasma blade had cleaved its way directly through the soft metal covering surrounding its synthetic skull as it laid on the ground, oil pooling underneath it. Slowly the droid picked its self off the ground, slipping a few times on the growing puddle, before turning around to face Jack. Raising the bone saw between himself and the machine, Jack waited for the droid to make its next move. He didn't have to wait long as it soon spoke out in a raspy voice from its damaged speaker.

" Director Jack Winston. Apologies for the security system as it hasn't been updated yet. Please follow me -bzzt- me."

Without lowering his guard, Jack's cautiousness turned partly into confusion at how this machine addressed him.

"What the hell do you mean by director? I'm First Lieutenant Jack Winston of Bad Company. Identification code 2433300707."

"D-due to emergency protocols, I am u-unable to answer a-any questions. Please f-follow me."

"Bullshit, droid. Where the fuck am I?"

"C-current location. Epsilon 12 Command Base Alpha. D-district 3. Medical Wing B. Facility B-17C. D-destination -bzzzzzt- District 1. Command Center. Please follow me."

Lowering down saw in his hands, Jack couldn't help but give the machine a perplexed look.

"Command base alpha? When the hell was I moved here?"

Jack's eye brows furrowed as he was bombarded by entirely new sets of questions. Looking up, he could see that the droid was still waiting for his response. Letting out a silent sigh, Jack determined the best way to get answers to these questions would be in command center where the machine wanted him to go. Turning off the bone saw, Jack slid it into the waist of his pants and gave a small nod towards the droid. For a long moment the machine stood still before Jack realized that he probably cleaved its optical sensors off when he attacked it.

"Alright. Take me to the command center droid."

"Splendid sir."

Without another word, both the machine and the soldier left the medical ward and walked out into the hallway and towards a elevator on the other side of the corridor.

After a quick elevator ride from the medical wing, the droid lead Jack towards the nearest transit station within district 3, where they waited on the edge of a concreate platform overlooking a massive red laser beam. The arc of energy let out a low hum as a pulse of ran through it every few moments, and down the tunnel out of sight.

"Huh. Resonance transit systems. I thought they were only implemented back on Earth." Jack thought out loud as he peered into the gap.

"In order to ensure -bzzt- the evacuation of essential personnel quickly, p-private transit systems have been implemented in every -pzzt- UNC capital complex since the year 2177." crackled the droid standing a few feet behind Jack.

Suddenly there was a low rumble in the distance. Pulling his head back up and taking a few steps back, Jack stood still behind the yellow caution line as the ground slowly started to shake. Soon the low rumble became a full on roar as a dim light appeared far down the tunnel to Jack's right. Within seconds a white blur speeded across the platform's edge and down the other tunnel where as quickly as it arrived, it stopped. Brushing away a few strands of hair that had gotten thrown into his eyes, Jack was greeted with a slick white train before him, resembling more of a starship than anything. A panel on the fuselage of the train opened up with a hiss revealing it furnished insides, hard oak furniture lining both sides of the car as a long table filled with plates and glasses split down the middle.

Jack couldn't help but stare at the interior of train, not because of its magnificence, but because of the utter lack of anyone inside. Glancing through the windows of the other cars, confirmed his suspicion that there was nobody else on the train other that a few janitorial drones. With his brows furrowed, Jack turned back towards the damaged droid behind him.

"Where's everyone else?"

"Due to emergency protocols, all nonessential personnel have are being moved via the standard transport systems."

"The hell do you mean by "nonessential"?

"Nonessential. Definition, not absolutely necessary."

Letting out a sigh, Jack rubbed the bridge of his nose trying to ease the growing head ache in his skull.

"What constitutes me as essential?"

"Due to matters of security, this unit is not allowed to specify at this time. Protocols dictate that essential personnel must be taken to the command center once awakened."

Narrowing his eyes towards the droid, Jack turned back around and pulled himself into the train compartment and made his way over to the far side of the train car. Sitting down on a cushioned couch besides the window, Jack watched as the droid made its way over, leaking oil on the soft white carpet, before standing next to him.

The train started rumbling again as the floor beneath Jack started to hum. Within seconds the train shot off of the platform and down the opposite tunnel. Lifting his head off the backrest, Jack peered out the window and saw the mastery of human ingenuity.

The entire base was a massive sphere. Antigravity generators were placed upon a dozen different points all along the the outer shell of the complex, which allowed sprawling structures to be placed at nearly every point of the facility, even upside down. Large tram rails spread and weaved through between each of these structures like a huge spider web, however none of this compared to what was in the middle of the sphere. Looking through the tempered glass of the train, Jack couldn't help but let his jaw drop a little at the marvel above him. A gigantic blue ball of energy hovered in the middle of the base where several beams of light arced off into nearly a dozen more receivers all along the inner shell of the sphere.

Sliding back down into the cushioned couch, Jack rested his eyes as the train shot down another tunnel. Just as he was about to doze off a sharp beep came from the intercom system as a mechanized, female voice spoke throughout the cabin.

"Now arriving at District 1, Command Center."

With a sudden jerk, the train gradually slowed to a stop. The door to the compartment popped off the side of the cabin like before and revealed a grey tiled platform. Holographic screens lined up and down the exit zones displaying everything from the base's diagnostics to advertisements for neuromods. Towards the far end of the platform was a massive holo-screen with the face of a steel ranger on it, the words JOIN THE STEEL CORPS TODAY! flashing in bright yellow beneath him.

Jack let out a mirthless huff as he turned to look at the UNC propaganda while climbing off the train. Staring at it for a few more moments, Jack shook his head before facing the service droid again, only to find it shuffling across the platform to a small, dome-like building. Coming to a stop before the dome the droid inputted a series of numbers into a terminal jutting out of the ground, before standing back with Jack. With a beep of approval coming from the interface, the curved walls slid back into each other revealing five cylinders in a circle.

"Please enter the short range teleport pads. The coordinates have been set already Mr. Winston."

Giving the droid a slight nod, Jack made his way over to the capsules before pulling himself into the one nearest to him. With a sharp hiss the door to the pod slid closed and sealed itself. The floor lit up white as a low buzz filled the inside of the teleporter before, with a flash of light, Jack was gone, the last thing he saw being the broken droid waving at him through the glass.

With a bright flash, Jack stumbled out of the teleporter and fell to his knees onto the ground, fighting the urge to vomit what little was in his stomach. Pushing down the bile in his throat, he stood up expecting to see the mess-hall where most of the soldiers were briefed only to find himself in a large, dark room. Suddenly, a series of lights flickered on the walls before bathing the entire room in light, blinding Jack for a moment.

Rubbing away the blurriness in his eyes, Jack couldn't help but be startled at the when he realized where he was. The room had holo-screens adorning every single wall, each displaying diagnostics and statistics from all over the base while various consoles and computers lined in rows beneath them. In the middle of all this was a large wooden table that had a holographic projector in the middle that produced the UNC insignia that slowly rotated in place.

"Welcome to the Epsilon 12, Command Base Alpha Strategic Coordination Center, Director Jack Winston."

A masculine, automated voice filled the room as the UNC symbol above the table flickered before changing to a white circle that watched Jack walked towards it. Stopping a few feet away from the table Jack called back out towards the AI.

"Identify yourself."

"Designation: ALDO, Artificial Lifeform Defense Operator
Current Objective: Initiate Operation Lazarus. Reactivate Primary Facility Functions. Await Further Instructions From Onsite Directors."

"Why am I being identified as a director?", Jack asked while taking a seat by the table.

"Dictated by the parameters of Operation Lazarus, if the complex was ever put into prolonged suspension, the highest ranking individuals will be given command of the facility when awoken."

"That does not explain why I am being identified as a director. There are multiple individuals of higher ranking than me on site I presume."

"Elaboration on Operation Lazarus. If complex was to be target of massive structural damage or assault, all personnel are to be placed within cryogenic suspension until further notice from external UNC forces or until all external threats are reduced to acceptable levels. If any of these requirements are meet, the onsite AI is to reactivate the complex and awaken all personnel in suspension. The highest ranking individuals awoken from stasis will assume the responsibilities of onsite director. If the highest ranking individuals are found to be deceased or not present, all subsequent individuals afterwards that meet the requirements of being the highest ranking, present personnel will obtain director responsibilities."

Jack's usually calm expression cracked for a moment as his eyes widened at the last part of what the AI said. A pit started to develop in his stomach, something that he hasn't felt in a long time, as he called back towards to machine.

"How many personnel are currently on the base?"

The holo-screens lit up showing a loading bar as it ran through all last known locations of the base's inhabitants before revealing the vital signs of all the personnel in the facility. Immediately the room was bathed in red light, each screen showing nothing but flat, red lines as an emergency alert flashed in the top corner. On the last screen however, was a single green heart beat monitor labeled Jack Winston.

"Personnel Diagnostics Report:
On site personnel: 1
Visiting personnel: 0
Civilian personnel: 0
Military personnel: 0
Site directors: 1 ", echoed ALDO's voice.

Jack slumped slightly back into his chair as the pit in his stomach grew into a hollow hole inside of his chest as he stared blankly at the red screens all around him.

'Objective Directives:
Preservation Of Non-Hostile Intelligent Life: Failed
Uphold And Preserve UNC Values: Failed
Self Preservation: Successful'

The screen displaying his vitals started to beep as it showed that Jack's heart rate was elevating at a rapid rate, which snapped him out of his thoughts. He begun to slowly get his breathing under control as he released his grip from the now warped armrest of his seat and started to rationalize what to do next.

'I need to get into contact with Overwatch, let them know what's happened here and call in for a evac team.' Jack thought to himself.

"ALDO send a distress signal to the nearest UNC fleet."

"Unable to carry out request. Deep space transmitters unable to detect UNC fleets."

"Send a distress signal to the nearest UNC system."

"Unable to carry out request. Draconis star base transmission have been terminated."

"God damn it. Open a direct line of communication with any UNC controlled system and display it on screen.", Jack cursed at the machine, irritation starting to slip into his tone.

"Unable to carry out request. All transmissions to the UNC have been terminated. Deep space transmitters cannot detect any UNC signals."

'I need to find out what happened and why the UNC isn't responding.', Jack thought to himself as he looked over the star charts now being displayed on the screen.

"ALDO.", Jack called out, "Construct a timeline of events from the base's cryogenic suspension to today using any and all messages by the UNC."

"Command confirmed. Timeline construction completed. Estimated length 61,359 years from year 2878 to year 64237."

"61,000 years.", Jack whispered to himself.

A whirlwind of thoughts tore through whatever restraint he had left while even his enhanced brain struggled to comprehend what he just heard. Thoughts, worries, questions all flooded his brain before the emotional inhibitor chip inside his head clamped down allowing for more rational thoughts to form. However, before Jack could voice any of these thoughts to ALDO a recorded transcript appeared on the holo-screen.

On the screen showed a news reporter who's face was covered in dirt as she stood in a star port where hundreds of ships were lifting off the ground and taking to the skies. She seemed frantic as she looked around her before speaking directly into the camera.

"This is reporter Carla Lewis of the UNC new broadcast. Behind me we are seeing the mass exodus of civilians and armed forces from Epsilon 12 as reports are flooding in that montallum forces have overrun the city of Ganzir and are currently attacking the fortress of Yorktown. We are urging that all-"

The reporter was cut off as large explosions appeared on the horizon as smoke and laser rounds from AA guns filled the air. Yelling could be heard as a crowd of people surged forward and started to run across the landing pads towards any of the shuttles still on the ground, a few taking off before they could jump on. The reporter dusts off before turning her attention back towards the camera, a streak of blood now running down the left side of her face.

"We are urging that all citizens that are still in their homes or not at a military outpost to make your way to the nearest evacuation center immediately. The official stance of admiral Riker is that the planet will be bombarded from orbit at 0500 about three and a half hours from now. Anyone who doesn't evacuate immediately will b-"

One of the hangers on the air field erupted in a massive fireball as soldiers were seen rushing towards a fence behind the reporter. She turned to ask what was happening before a large plasma bolt streaked through the air and impacted a evac shuttle, causing it to spin out of control and crash back onto the ground, killing everyone who was in it. Beyond the fence that soldiers were rushing to was a mass of montallum that began to open fire into the air field and into the crowd still on the ground.

"Come on Will! We need to get out of-", The reporter was cut off as her ribs burst out her chest, a plasma bolt carving a hole through her back.

The camera then fell to the ground as a man rushed over to try and help the reporter, before being impacted by a plasma bolt just like her. The recording then shut off.

"Transcript ended. Beginning next transcript.", ALDO's voice called out to Jack as sat there, expressionless.

The next few hours went by in a blur as he analyzed each one of the transcripts each one becoming worse and worse as time went on.

"I'm getting reports that the Aldran system has been destroyed."

"Proximia One has been completely annihilated."

"There are riots in the streets over food shortages. People are protesting to the local government in opposition of martial law."

"M-my entire f-family was on Centari Three."

"Here we make our stand! To victory or death, we stand unbroken!"

"The Alraxi star nation has fallen to the Montallum."

Jack sat there, hooked on every single detail for what seemed like eons before ALDO stopped the timeline.

"Final transcript. Transmitted from the capital complex of Earth."

One the screen revealed a old and haggard man, his eyes and checks sunken in as his hands never seemed to stop shaking. He sat there for a moment before a voice off camera called out to him. He flinched as if he was just pulled out off a trance before fixating his eyes towards the camera, and in a ragged voice, spoke.

"This is president Nick Oaklar. This nation wide address is targeted to any and all remaining citizens of the UNC. Of the nearly three thousand years our great star nation has existed, I have had the honor to serve you the people and all intelligent life. It is with great regret that I must inform you of what is to come.", Nick takes a deep, shaky breath before looking back towards the camera.

"With the final construction of the hyper-engine, we will stop the montallum from ever terrorizing this galaxy again. And in our sacrifice, maybe a thousand years from now or even a million, this universe will thrive without fear of the metal menace. God bless you all and god bless the UNC."

The transmission ends leaving Jack to sit there in his thoughts. Questions filled his head as he begun to prioritize which ones were more important than the others. Shaking his head, he determined that the best question was the most obvious one. As he begun to ask about what the hyper-engine was, a alarm began to sound out through out the room.

"Alert. Unidentified life forms detected. Awaiting orders."

The holo-screens began showing a massive groups of warm bodies surrounding a mountain four miles from the base and a similar mass of bodies just a few more miles beyond. Pushing away the seat, Jack stood up and begun giving ALDO orders.

"Put the base on red alert and give me a full visual of these entities."

Strife Of The Griffons

Location: Outskirts of Griffonstone
1000 A.B. - After Banishment
Time: 6:00 PM

"Heads up. We're approaching the target."

Gilda looked up from polishing her spear to the griffon commander standing across the carriage. His steel chest plate was tarnished and covered in dents from what was probably a life time of abuse as his spear was in the same condition. Not like they would ever get any new equipment, Gilda couldn't remember the last time she handled a proper weapon that didn't feel like it would splinter after a few hits.

"Lets keep this brief. We have rumors that a narcotics house was placed somewhere on the outskirts of the city. Our mission here is to secure the building and make sure if these rumors true or not. If there is any sign of hostilities do not hesitate to eliminate any potential threats. If we find anything, a recovery team will come by to secure the compound.", Half shouted the commander over the noise of the rickety wheels outside.

The rest of the five or so griffons in the carriage, Gilda included, all nodded in affirmation as the carriage continued its way down the rocky path.

Glancing over at the other "soldiers" in the carriage, Gilda took in the griffons that she was going to be working with. Overall her hopes for an easy mission plummeted at the sight of them. Most of them were in the same tarnished armor as the commander with the exception for a male griffon far across from Gilda that wore patch-worked leather. Nearly everyone of them seemed to be fresh out whatever minimal training they were given if the fumbling of their weapons were anything to go by.

Letting out an internal sigh, Gilda rested her head on the back of here chair as she waited for the carriage ride to end as she started to feel nauseous from the constant bumping of the trip. The roads around Griffonstone had fallen into disrepair in recent years; as international debt and internal instability griped Griffonia, developers begun to pull their funding leading to abandoned infrastructure dotting the countryside and the outskirts of the city. Massive unfinished and partially collapsed building projects stood as a distant memory of Griffonia's prosperous past, but now stand as a monument of how far the griffons have fallen.

With a screech of the carriage's wheels, Gilda lurched forward slightly as the cart came to a stop. The commander was the first to rise from his seat as he pulled away the battered cloth cover and hoped out of the cart. One by one the other recruits followed suit, stumbling out of the carriage, as Gilda was the last one to leave.

Landing on the rocky ground Gilda made her way to where the commander and the rest of the guards stood. They were in front of a small, abandoned, one story house that was flanked by similar houses in the same state of disrepair. The suspected house was in an abandoned city district which was meant to sustain Griffonia's emerging population, now it just houses the of thousands of unemployed living on what little money can be provided by the crown. As expected this led to a massive increase in crime along the outskirts of the city.

"Listen up.", the commander spoke out, "Gunther, Nix, stay here and secure the the front of the house. Gilda, Dust and Tex, stay on my tail as we move into the house and make sure to check every room thoroughly, I don't want get a knife in the ass because someone was lazy."

"You got it, Griff. I won't let you down.", Tex saluted enthusiastically once Griff stopped talking.

"Great. So while you guys get all the fun inside Gunther and I are stuck on guard duty." Nix replied as sarcasm dripped from her voice.

"Don't worry, think of it like this. While we're off raiding a crap house, you'll get your first participation medal.", Dust couldn't help but snark out to the griffoness.

Nix's feathers ruffled as she glared daggers at Dust who was barely holding in her laughter. Opening her beak to giver Dusk a piece of her mind, she wasn't able to get a word out as a loud grunt was heard behind her.

"Quiet both of you. You're going to alert the place that we're here." Gunther said in a harsh whisper. Both Nix and Dusk glanced at one another before Dust roll her eyes and stood back at attention, Nix and Gunther following afterwards.

Griff cracked a small smile as he watched the recruits bricking, but quickly suppressed it before anyone could see it, Gilda was able to catch it though, having worked long enough with Griff to understand how the old griffon worked. Getting affirmations from the rest of the group Griff then turned to Gilda and whispered her way.

"Stay close to them. It's too much paper work to explain why some new recruit was got a bolt through their head after being sent to raid a drug house for their first assignment.", Griff said just loud enough for Gilda to hear while the recruits were to occupied talking with one another.

"Understood, Sir.", Gilda responded firmly.

"Alright lets get a move on." Griff called back to the rest of the group.

The griffons made their way across the front yard of the house, trash scattered across what once used to be grass, before flanking each side of the cracked wooden door that led inside. Gilda stood closest next to the right side of the door, with Dust and Nix behind her while Griff stood closest to the left side, Tex and Gunther standing besides him. Holding up three digits, Griff silently counted down before he bashed the door open with his shield. Immediately, Gilda chucked in a small bag of white power that made a loud bang that echoed through the house, a series of startled squawks following afterwards.

Holding his short sword in hand, Giff was the first to charge into the house with Gilda, Dust, and Tex following soon after. The inside of the house was a mess, scattered papers and debris strewn upon the ground as broken pieces of furniture jutted out of the filth covered floor. Gilda had to hold back a gag as the smell assaulted her senses, the various bottles as syringes releasing pungent fumes that give the room a hazy tint to it.

In the middle of the room were several male griffons stumbling around a cracked wooden table that had a distinct distillery resting upon it along with a stack of yellowed playing cards. Across the room the closest griffon was fumbling for a knife resting on the table while the others began to regain their senses. Not giving them that chance, Gilda and Griff launched themselves towards the group, Dust and Tex running around the room to corner the four griffons from the sides.

Gilda leapt over the shards of wood on the ground and tackled the closest griffon. The griffon let out a pained grunt as he was crushed under the griffoness's steel armor and his head made contact with the stone floor beneath him. Releasing a growl at the griffoness, the griffon jerked the blade in his hand and tried to drive it into Gilda's neck. Releasing a startled yelp, she brought up her sword to block the knife from the griffon below her, sparks flying as steel met steel. She hissed as the sparks flew into her eyes, bringing up her left claw to rub the dots out of her vision. Taking advantage of Gilda's momentary distraction, the pinned griffon brought up his other claw on connected it to the side of her helmet. A sickening crack could be heard as Gilda was forced off of the griffon and tumbled on the ground next to him.

"Damn it.", Gilda grunted under her breath as she got up to face the griffon again.

The griffon had stumbled back to his talons and glared at her, before releasing a yelp of pain as he gripped his broken claw in the other. Punching a steel helmet would do that to you. Letting out a low growl, Gilda lept into the air and directly towards the griffon. He barley had time to yell out before he felt Gilda's talons warp around his throat and lifting him off the ground. Gripping the griffon by his neck, Gilda yelled as she slammed him into the wall behind him, cracks spider webbing from where his head connected with the brick work. Calming her breathing, she released her grip on the griffons neck and saw his eyes flicker and roll back into his skull. Slowly his body slumped down towards the ground, a small trail of red on the wall following him. Gilda couldn't help but smirk as she saw the griffon collapse on the ground like a drunkard thrown out bar. He was in from one hell of a headache once he woke up. Reaching up to the unconscious griffon's neck, Gilda felt for a pulse. She let out a small sigh of relief as she felt a faint beat underneath his feathers. "Good. He's still alive". Standing back up, Gilda winced as she put pressure on her soldier, the griffon was a heavy bastard even without armor. Shaking her head from whatever dizziness she had from being punched in the head, she tuned around and dove back into the fight.

Griff had one of the griffons collapsed onto the remains of the middle room table which had been smashed in half in all the commotion. The griffon's leg was twisted at an odd angle and the shallow rise and fall of his chest made her sure that he wouldn't be a problem. Griff himself was sporting a brand new gash on the side of his face, if it affected him at all he didn't show it as he ran over to Dust and Tex who were struggling with the other four griffons.

Picking up her short sword, Gilda ran towards Tex who was frantically beating against a griffon who pinned him to the ground, his sword pinned beneath him as he tried to pull away the talons from his throat.

"Stop! Listen!", Tex croaked out. "Stop! Stop!"

His pleading fell on deaf ears as he felt the griffon's claws clench down tighter around his wind pipe.

"Shhh. Shhh."

The black around his vision began to creep in as his grip weakened against the griffon's grip around his neck. His lungs felt as if they were ready to explode as he stared wide eyed and full of terror towards the griffon above him, his snarling grin taking up taking up the rest of his sight.

"Please...please", Tex pleaded as the blackness consumed his vision.

Suddenly, the pressure around his throat released and he chocked out rugged coughs and gulped down lungfuls of air.

Gilda, had rushed over and bashed the hilt of her sword against side of the griffon's skull while he was pinning down Tex, sending him crashing crashing against the wall besides him. Saying she was pissed was an understatement, giving a quick glance behind her to Tex who was shivering on the ground, she snarled at the griffon rising to his feet. Shaking his head he looked up and growled towards Gilda, the twisted smile on his face contorted into one of malice as he glowered towards Gilda. Reaching to his hind paw, the griffon pulled out his own crude 'sword' resembling more of a piece of scrap metal than anything that came out of a forge.

With a rage filled shriek, the griffon charged towards Gilda who lifted her blade to defend herself from the enraged avian. Her eyes widened as metal met metal and the griffon's blade came crashing down on her sword, the force alone nearly enough the to tear it out of her claws. With a grunt, she pushed away his sword and dogged to the side, narrowly missing the griffon's sword as it cleaved through the broken table and nearly into the neck of the griffon still collapsed on it.

'This fucker's really asking for it', Gilda dodged a wide arc of the griffon's sword as it cut through the air she was standing in a second before. 'Fine then he'll get it.'

Rolling back to her feet, Gilda and the griffon began to circle one another, the sounds of fighting and Tex's gasping filling the background. Gilda's chipped sword and the griffon's jagged blade shinning in the afternoon light as they waited for a chance to strike. Gilda gave a quick glance to the griffon's back side, seeing the gap between his wings. 'Bingo'. Taking advantage of Gilda's distraction, the griffon charged towards Gilda, his blade swinging in a wide arc towards her head. Rolling under his strike Gilda rose the handle of her sword and prepared to drive it into the nerves clustered between his wings.

The griffon suddenly released a screech as he rebounded his blade to cleave through Gilda's head. Her eyes widened as she saw the blade heading for her and she released a startled squawk as she twisted her blade away from the griffon's back to block the attack.

Shunk!

Her sword sung through the air as it tore into the griffon's side severing his wing joint and leaving a massive gash down his torso.

"GAH!"

The griffon stared wide eyed down at his side, his wing hanging loosely as blood started gushing out of his severed ribs. He fell back, tripping against the filth of the floor as he sloped down the side of the wall behind him. His breathing becoming ragged as blood streaked down his beak. Looking frantically around the room, he began to crawl his way towards the open door, that was until a shadow enveloped him. Gilda stood above the wounded griffon, his eyes that showed twisted amusement as he choked Tex now showing nothing but fear as Gilda raised the blade above her head and blood pooled beneath him. With one last pain filled screech, Gilda brought down her blade and pierced through the griffon's skull and splattered blood against the floor behind him.

Glida stood still above the body of the griffon breathing heavily as blood slowly dripped from her blade. His blood seeped into the floor as Gilda's talon's became stained red. Slowly, the blade in her claws began to shake as she took a step back from the decapitated griffon before it fell from her grasp.

'I had to do it. I had to do it. I had to do it.'

Gilda collapsed to her haunches as she looked over the body of the griffon she just killed, her mind racing with a thousand thoughts per second. Anger and adrenaline faded away into guilt and disgust.

'He deserved it. He tried to kill me. He deserved it.'

"Gilda?", Griff's voice seemed distant to her as she pulled her self back together.

Gilda, released a shaky breathe as she picked up her blade and turned around to face a concerned Griff who was glancing over to the dead griffon behind her.

"I'm...I'm fine."

Griff let out a tired sigh as he turned back his gaze from the dead griffon to Gilda who was trying her best not to look him in the eyes. "Look, everyone deals with these things differently. I'll take over the paper work once we get back to the garrison, you try and take it easy for the next few days. Alright?"

"I said that I'm fine.", Gilda hissed with an obvious edge to her voice.

"And what I said was that you need to stop. You've been pulling extra shifts for nearly a month now and this is enough to rattle anygriffon. Once we get back to the garrison, you're to take a mandatory leave, that's an order."

Gilda softly glared up to her commander before shaking her head with a sigh.

"Alright. I'll take a few days off but as soon as my leave ends I'm getting straight back to my patrols."

"Fine." Griff turned around and began to walk away before calling over his shoulder. "I'll let it slide this time, but the next time you blatantly disrespect your superior, I will not take to it kindly."

Gilda stiffened up as she heard Griff walk away before looking down at the dead griffon in front of her.

'What would Rainbow think of me now?'

Tearing her gaze away from the body, she turned back and followed Griff to the rest of her squad.

The other five griffons had shackles around their claws as they were forced down to against the far wall, groaning as their various injuries kept them from giving any real resistance. At some point, Gunther and Nix must have barged into the house when the fighting started. Nix and Dust were looking over Tex who was still coughing his lungs out while Gunther made sure that none of the chained griffons tired anything.

"You neck is going to have bruising for the next few weeks as it heals. Try not to speak unless its absolutely necessary.", Dust said as she was gently wrapping a bandage around Tex's neck who could barely nod without wincing. "Good thing though, it's not that bad, griffoness's still wont kiss you though."

Tex winced as he let out a small chuckle.

"Hey, commander. You need any help with that scratch you got there?", Dust called over her shoulder as she finished wrapping up Tex's neck.

"I'll get it taken care of back at the base, just make sure that nothing is permanently damaged with Tex."

"Well what about these bastards?", Gunther called out, gesturing to the incapacitated griffons with his sword.

"They can get help once we get them back to the garrison. One because fuck 'em, and two I don't have enough supplies on me to treat them all." Dust called back.

"Now what commander? The carriage can't hold all of us and as much as I would love to leave them here for the next group to deal with, they won't last the night.", Nix asked as she stood up from besides Dust and Tex.

"We could call in another carriage.", Gunther suggested.

"No. With how much we're spread out, its a miracle we could get a carriage to take us here in the first place, much less get us back. Get them ready for the cart, we'll just have to cramp in." Griff turned to Nix. "Get the body out of here and throw it into the ditch out back, I don't want it anywhere near me when it voids its bowls."

Nix looked like she was ready to argue with Griff before thinking better of it and gripping the hind paw of the body and pulling it out of the door. Gilda couldn't help but notice that she was looking a bit more greener than usual as Nix exited through the front.

The screeching of wheels outside pulled her out her thoughts as the carriage became visible from down the street. Sheathing the sword still in her grip, she walked over to Gunther and Griff to help lift the prisoners off the ground. Dust helping Tex out of the door as they left.

Location: Somewhere In The Everfree Ruins

Deep below the ancient ruins of the castle of the two sisters stood a hooded figure in a dark cavernous room. Tapestries and artifacts of a age long since past adorned the walls and stood in broken piles scattered amongst the ground, all but one. Standing silently in the middle of the room was a simple stone pillar, mundane by itself but what sat upon it was enough to bring the figure all the way from her castle to the ruins of her old home.

Lifting off the hood of her cloak, Celestia walked towards the stone pillar, her horn illuminating the dust and cobwebs that decorated the room. Upon the pillar was a small metallic pyramid that pulsed a soft blue light along its edges and the foreign carvings adorning its surface.

"After all this time, why now? Why so soon?", Celestia whispered to herself as she gently reached out with her magic to the glowing pyramid.

Suddenly, the pyramid burst open causing Celestia to recoil slightly as the blue light suddenly illuminated the whole room. The four sides of the pyramid split apart as it lifted itself off of the ground, the light emanating from it solidifying into a rectangular screen above the stone pillar. A message began to appear on the screen as it flashed a bright yellow color.

"This is an emergency distress signal from Epsilon 12 Command Base Alpha to any and all UNC controlled territory. Multiple casualties sustained. Critical damage to majority of electrical systems, defense systems, fabrication systems, and etc. Requesting immediate assistance. This emergency alert will repeat until further notice."

Celestia stood wide eyed as she stared at the messages appearing on the screen. Silently, she clasped the pyramid in a shield and tucked it away into her cloak.

"Luna's going to have a fit that I came here without her.", Celestia whispered to herself.

Igniting her horn, she disappeared in a flash, leaving the dark room to fall into silence once again.

When Hope Is Lost . . .

Location: Griffonstone
1000 A.B. - After Banishment
Time: 3:00 PM

The carriage bumped along the uneven streets of the capital as the princess and her escort made their way to the castle. Amongst the cobblestone paths were the citizen of Griffonia, many of them battered and ragged as they rushed up and down the streets, most hardly sparing a glance at one another or the carriage. Those that did stared with weary eyes as they watched the carriage make its way through the crowded road, but quickly looked away whenever a guard looked over.

Princess Aleta sat in her seat with her head drooping downward mainly out of exhaustion but partially because she could feel the hopeless griffons outside of the carriage. The rumbling of the cart gradually came to a halt before the voice of the driver outside snapped the princess out of her drowsiness.

“Princess Aleta, we have arrived at the castle.”

Rubbing the ridges of her eyes, Aleta straightened out her feathers before making her way out of the carriage. They had stopped before the the iron gates of the castle. The massive white columns of the citadel once stood brightly over the the city of Griffonstone, standing proudly upon the tree the royal family had settled on. Now however, the castle has lost all of its original gleam, the white walls cracked and fractured as the windows were near the same state of disrepair. The iron gates taking on a brownish hue as they began to rust shut, while the courtyard that was once filled with endless flower beds now laced with hardy crops meant to lessen the strain of the starving masses below. It was obvious from the sight to any outsider that Griffonia was on the verge of collapse.

The princess stepped onto the cobble stone road and barely stifled a yawn as she made her way to the gates, the entourage of guards following after her.

“Thank you, Nux. You are relieved for the rest of today.”, Aleta spoke out towards the driver as she made her way past the front of the carriage.

“Thank you princess.”

Nux and the guards pulling the carriage made their way back into the crowded streets as Aleta made her way to the castle gates.

The two guards in tarnished armor stood at attention as the guard to the left of the strained to push the rusted gate as it scrapped along the ground.

Making her way through the crop gardens Aleta glanced up to see a formally dressed griffon standing before the large wooden doors of the castle.

Putting on a weary smile, Aleta confronted the royal duke of Griffonia, her uncle.

“Good evening uncle Mortimer. What brings you to the castle at such a hour?”

“Ah, Aleta!”, He gave her a tight hug before stepping back. “I was worried that you might have been hurt given how your messenger was rather vague on why your return would be delayed. You shouldn’t make an old griffon worry that much.”

“I’m fine uncle, it was just a few rocks that fell off the mountain side and landed near the road.”, Aleta replied in a soft tone.

He gave her a stern look.

“Falling stones are nothing to take lightly. Just a week ago some traders from the zebra lands had suffered a loss due to a landslide. You should have taken the road along Fanghorn forest instead of going around three talon peak.”

“And taking the road along Fanghorn would have taken me at least another three days.” Aleta nearly growled out as her temper spiked, before sighing and rubbing the base of her beak. “Time that I don’t have.”

She looked up to see Mortimer giving her a concerned look and felt a wave of guilt come over her.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just that . . . I have a lot of things to deal with and I’m on edge right now.”

Mortimer’s worry didn’t leave his face as he gave her a tired smile and rested a claw on her shoulder.

“Hey, I’m not mad. If I could I would take the weight right off of your shoulders rather than see you this way.”, He reassured Aleta. “We’re griffons we will prevail no matter what, we’re too stubborn to do otherwise. Just like your father.”

That gave Aleta a small chuckle before her face took a somber look.

“How is my father?”, Aleta asked in a quiet voice.

Mortimer was silent for a moment as he thought over how to respond. After a while he let out a sigh.

“My brother’s condition hasn’t improved. I had the royal physician look over him for the past few days, but she says she has never seen a sickness like this before. He sometimes seems completely fine, hungry even, other times he is retching out blood into the sink and groaning loud enough to be heard throughout the castle. I . . . She doesn’t know what else she can do now.”

Aleta stayed silent as Mortimer spoke, her face betraying no emotion even though on the inside she could feel her restraint not to cry start crumbling. Taking a shaky breath Aleta looked up to her uncle and gave him a tight hug.

“I’m sorry, but I need to go. The ambassador of Crete should be here soon”, She let go of Mortimer. “I can’t afford to keep him waiting. Thank you for being here.”

“Of course.”, Mortimer said softly. “I’ll leave you be. I’ll make sure to visit more often too. Goddess knows you need someone to talk to that isn’t a stuffy politician or snobby ambassador. Don’t tell the minotaur I said that.”, Mortimer whispered the last part with a smile.

Aleta let out a small laugh before bidding Mortimer farewell. She pushed open the large wooden doors and turned back to watch as her uncle made his way through the castle gates and into a carriage waiting for him. Closing the door behind her, she took a deep breath and put on her best politician face as she made her way to the throne room.

Aleta sat upon her throne as she watched the throne room’s massive wooden door get pushed open and a large minotaur walk in.

He easily towered over the tallest guards in the throne room as he made his way towards the throne, his armor clinking softly with each step. If not for the royal blue coat that he wore over his shoulders one could easily mistake him for being a grizzled veteran. His face was peppered with scars while his hands were adorned with the same wear, a testemant to why minotaurs were such a enduring people. Stopping before the throne, he didn’t give as much as a bow before speaking with irritation lacing his tone.

“Princess. The king does not enjoy having his time wasted so speak swiftly.”

His voice was gruff as he spoke up towards Aleta, his face doing nothing to hide his annoyance as he stood before her.

“I apologize envoy Iron Hoof, I know that you were getting ready to leave with your entourage this evening however, I wished to discuss one more thing before your leave.”, Aleta spoke politely as she inclined her head towards the minotaur.

“And what would that be?”, Iron Hoof asked.

Lifting her head up, Aleta pulled out a small scroll on besides her on the throne. “I wish to discuss payments concerning Griffonia’s debt towards the Kingdom of Crete. I-”

Aleta didn’t finish before she was cut off by a mirthless laugh from Iron Hoof.

“The only thing to discuss pertaining to your debt is how the Kingdom of Crete will intervene once you fail to settle it in the next three days.”

Slowly lowering the scroll in her claws, Aleta took a deep breath before continuing.

“The Kingdom of Crete will have its investment back, however it will be impossible to do so if not given time. Intervention from Crete would only make it certain they will never get repaid.”, Aleta responded, keeping up her polite façade.

“That may be so, however it’ll be more reliable than any proposition you may try to make.”, Iron Hoof raised his voice slightly. “Griffonia is already in debt to more nations that I can count on one hand, this is because your grandfather, king Grover, killed himself searching for the idol and your fool of a father spent millions of relief funds into the same fantasy. There is no assurance that if the Kingdom of Crete were to alter your debt in anyway, that Griffonia will be able to pay back.”

Aleta felt her claw clench slightly after that jab towards her father. Her father had worked day and night and sacrificed his blood and health to protect their nation from greedy eyes. While the mistakes he made were undeniable in his pursuit for the idol, he did everything he could to try and better the country he loved so much.

“I will not deny the destructive actions of the royal family in the past however, I will not allow for blatant disrespect in front of a member of the royalty.”, She took in a deep breath and unraveled the scroll beside her. “I understand the concerns that your king may have that Crete’s efforts will be rewarded, that is why I have ceased all expeditions for the idol. As of now the royal family has lined several different campaigns to promote industrial, agricultural, and mining subsidies, to make sure Crete will be repaid however, with Griffonia in its current state it will be impossible if not given any financial leniency. While we will be unable to pay back Crete now, you can be assured that your kingdom will get much more that what is owed by this time next year."

Iron Hoof’s eyes widened for a moment as he stared at her, before he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a slightly crumpled letter from inside. The letter had nothing unordinary about it, but once it was turned over, Aleta could feel the breath hitch in her throat. There on the lip of the envelope was a broken seal of the Crete royal family.

“I'm so glad you said that.” Iron Hoof couldn't help but chuckle as he held of the letter. "King Minos never had any intention to extend your dead line, so I was worried that this meeting would be a waste of time because of that, but since you have admitted that Griffonia will default on their loans. I have been authorized to give you this. " He brought the parchment close as he read out loud. “With the current state of the griffon kingdom the United Coalition of Independent States has deemed the nation a massive creaturtarian disaster and a colossal failure of management by the royal family. It has been agreed that the Kingdom of Crete has permission to vassalize Griffonia in the goal to improve the lives of her citizens and will not be hindered by any member of the UCIS alliance. If the royal family refuses to accept vassalization from an official representative of the Crete, then such action will be seen as a deliberate attempt by royal family to retain their status of control over a tyrannical government and will be met with a declaration of war from the minotaur empire.” Iron Hoof lowered the letter and gave it to the princess to look over. “I will ask you once. Do you relinquish control of Griffonia and accept vassalization by the Kingdom of Crete?”

Every head in the throne room was turned to look at the pair as the princess read over the document twice not believing it was real. Her claws shook as he felt over the parchment paper to see if there was any imperfection, any way this could have been a fake document and found none. Desperately looking for a solution she looked up from the paper and to the envoy.

“This...this is fake. Equestria would never allow for the Kingdom of Crete to imperialize Griffonia, any declaration of war against Griffonia will be met by immediate resistance from the royal sisters.” She spoke shakily.

A flash of a smile appeared on Iron Hoof's face as he responded. “Equestria hasn’t partaken in a war for a millennia. If the sisters were to come to Griffonia’s aid they would not only have a majority of their forces under prepared, excluding their royal guards, but they would also suffer backlash from their own xenophobic ponies and permanent damage to Equestrian-Crete relations. In addition to this, with the return of Princess Luna, Princess Celestia will not risk a war anytime soon. Your alone princess, there will be no back up.”

Silence reigned through the throne room as Aleta stared down towards the ambassador. Her heart was beating in her ears as she frantically tried to imagine any scenario, any excuse that would prevent what was seemingly inevitable.

Slowly she let here eyes travel along the court. The very room where she remembered her father carrying her on his shoulders as he spoke to flustered nobles. The room which was once deemed one the most wealthy and politically vital locations along the eastern world. The room she called part of her home.

Glancing down towards the guards that lined the walls, she saw them looking back. Each one of them had hate flowing from their gazes, not towards her, but towards the minotaur ambassador that stood smirking in the heart of their home they had fought and defended countless times.

'We will not fall without a fight'

A fired suddenly burned within her chest fueled by pride and anger that burned away the fear that was threatening to consume her. She turned to glare down towards Iron Hoof. “No. Griffonia will never submit to an overlord. We will fight till the very end, in the streets, and the valleys, and the plains, and we shall never surrender our freedom.”, She stepped down from her throne and walked towards Iron Hoof, his smirk didn’t leave his face even as she stared daggers into him. “We refuse to give up our home and we never will. Tell that to your king.” She stood defiantly in front Iron Hoof’s eyes and he let out a soft chuckle.

“I was hoping you would say that. It would be boring to see a kingdom fall without its capital being burned to ashes first.” With that, Iron Hoof turned to leave the room, ignoring the rage waffing off the guards who’s eyes followed him as he left through the heavy wooden doors.

Aleta stood there watching as Iron Hoof turned down the hall with his guards and left her line of sight, then she let out a shaky breath. The fire that sparked in her chest died as quickly as it was born leaving her with the full weight of what just happened on her shoulders.

“L-leave. All of you. Now.” She whispered it under her breath so faintly she thought that no one heard it, but apparently they did since the guards all begun to exit the room and close the doors behind them.

She stumbled over to her throne before slouching down on it and putting her face in her claws. There she did something she hadn’t allowed herself to do for since she became princess. She cried. There fresh tears streaked down her feathers and stained the seat below her as the full impact of what happened hit her.

‘I’m sorry mother. I failed.’

27 Hours Later

Location: Epsilon 12 Command Base Alpha
Date: [3.30.64237]
Time: 5:00 PM

Jack’s brow was furrowed as he stared down at the data pad before him. Upon the screen was statistics gathered from a recent surface scan from one of the last satellites left in orbit. For the most part the planet was rather normal, the nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere was stable, even more so than when humans still lived on it. The oceans we were showing lack of any major contaminants, the magnetic field was still strong enough to deflect most of the UV radiation impacting the planet, hell even the temperature was at a pleasant 70 degrees Fahrenheit on the majority of the planet. However, what really was running circles around his head was everything else.

Mass amounts of exotic radiation seems to blanket the planet from the bottom of its oceans up to the exosphere with evidence pointing to how it may even affect other celestial bodies. Creatures traced back to ancient human regimes seemed to inhabit the planet ranging from griffons to dragons, other creatures were completely unknown to Jack such as a few individuals that were equine in nature but supported wings and a long spiral bone growth from their forehead. On top of all this, it appears that the rotation of the planet was altered in a way where there are now twelve hour days and twelve hour nights with the sun now orbiting the planet along with the moon.

“Its like a child decided to rewrite the rules of nature.”, Jack mumbled out loud to himself as he set down the data pad on the wooden table before him.

“ALDO.”, Jack called out. “Are the scans of the nearest xeno settlement complete?”

ALDO’s monotone voice filled the cavernous command room as he responded “Long distance biometric scans completed. Data compiled. Transfer to internal database completed.”

As soon as Jack had discovered that the warm bodies so close to the base weren’t any of the montallum he immediately began studying these creatures and the planet. For the past few days after he had awoken he had ALDO run scans all along the surface of the planet, even contacting some outposts that were still partially intact to help. There was no evidence that these creatures had arrived to the planet from interstellar travel, nor was there any evidence of a sub-lightspeed space craft that landed on the planet for the pass 60,000 years. This means the only way these creatures came to be was that they evolved here which like most other things now, should be impossible.

Letting out a sigh, Jack set down the tablet and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

‘God why couldn’t I just have died as well?’

Looking back up he called out to ALDO again. “ALDO. What is the current status of the base restoration?”

A slight beeping came from the man monitor in the room before ALDO responded.

“Base diagnostic check complete. Presenting now.”

The rotating UNC logo on the main screen shifted to show a simplified data collection on the base’s defenses and utilities.

Running On Site Utility Diagnostics...
...
...
...
...
Diagnostics Complete

Zero Point Energy Singularity: Stable

Backup Nuclear Fission Reactors:
Reactor 1:86% Operational
Reactor 2: 73% Operational
Reactor 3: Shut Down [IRREPARABLE DAMAGE DETECTED]
Reactor 4: 87% Operational

On Site Defense System:
Ion Cannons:
Sector 1: 43% Operational
Sector 2: 73% Operational
Sector 3: 37% Operational (Repair Unit 184 Deployed)
Sector 4: 54% Operational

GtSL Defense: 82% Operational

Orbital Laser: Operational

External Blast Doors: 39% Operational

Alpha Warhead: 100% Operational

Plasma Artillery Cannons: 35% Operational (Repair Unit 21 Deployed)

Rapid Fire Turbo Lasers: 55% Operational

Onsite Garrison: 40% Operational

AA Cannons: 63% Operational

Life Support Systems: Online
Solar Array: Online
Ventilation Systems: Online
Med bay: Restoration In Progress
Command Center: Restoration In Progress
Civilian Complex: Restoration In Progress
Industrial Complex: Restoration In Progress
Barracks: Restoration On Standby
Armory: Redirection Of Power In Progress
Combat Unit Hanger: 90% Operational
Gate A: Online
Gate B: Destroyed
Cryogenic Storage: *WARINING! LIFE SUPPORT FAILURE*
Food Storage: 74% Operational
Water Treatment Plant: On Standby
Ammunition/Arms Factory: On Standby

Running Personnel Diagnostics...
...
...
...
Diagnostics Complete

Personnel Status:
On site personnel: 1
Visiting personnel: 0
Civilian personnel: 0
Military personnel: 0
Site directors: 1

Running Combat Unit Diagnostics...
...
...
...
Diagnostics Complete

Combat Unit Status:
Air & Space Combat Units: 4
Ground Combat Units: 7
Subterranean Combat Units: 1
Aquatic Combat Units: 3
Lunar Combat Units: Unknown
...
...
...
[WARNING. INSUFFICIENT MATERIALS TO CONTINUE RESTORATION. OUTPOST CONTACT LOST. RESTABLISH CONTACT WITH OUTPOSTS TO RETURN THE FACILITY TO OPTIMAL LEVELS.]

Jack furrowed his brow as he read the last line of the report. There were several different outposts scattered all around planet that all connected to the base via hyper relay that were meant to sustain the facility if a critical situation were to occur. Most of these outposts were still intact if not a bit damaged however trying to reactivate them would be impossible without entire corps worth of man power in order to repair them. Which leaves only one option. Contact a xeno nation for assistance.

"Fuck.", Jack cursed under his breath.

Jack moved to pick up the data pad once again to look over the data about the xeno settlement ALDO had scaned before suddenly ALDO's voice ripped through the silence in the room.

"Alert. Scans detecting amassing thermal signatures 30 miles west from structure. Estimated trajectory: Xeno settlement. Estimated time of arrival: 14 hours."

Jack pushed his chair back and stood before the main screen as he watched nearly 10,000 warm bodies start marching towards the tree castle.

"Give me video feed."

The main screen within the control room cleared out and reveled a clear video of thousands of minotaur creatures covered in steel armor carrying spears while a few other were lugging parts of what looked like war machines. Along side them were bipedal doglike creatures in chains that dragged carriages with them, many that seemed to have multiple scars on them.

"ALDO, how the hell were they able to arrive here without tripping our sensors? I thought we have this place locked down in a 200 mile radius?" Jack snapped at the AI as he picked up the data pad and begun retracting some of the external solar arrays that were facing towards the marching army.

"Sensors unable to breach underground without facing severe interference. Estimation: Entities traveled through underground cavities."

Looking back to the main screen, Jack watched as the projected path of the army continued to point towards the tree. An idea started to formulate as he headed back to look over the base's defense diagnostics.

"Perhaps I can use this." Jack whispered to himself. "ALDO, set the base on yellow alert and prime external weapon ammunition. Prepare for weapons hot."

"Command confirmed."

Hey! Its been a while. I'm so sorry for making this update so late and I wanted to get this chapter out way earlier, but I got distracted trying to refine it as best as possible and even now there may be a few things that I could have done better I think. In addition to this I had AP classes, some rough patches, mental health stuff and a bunch of other excuses on why i wasn't writing for a few months. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter out in under five months this time lol.

...Grab A Drink...

Location: Griffonstone
1000 A.B. - After Banishment
Time: 10:47 PM

The streets of Griffonstone were often vacant during the night. Its unknown if its from the criminals that lurk in each dark corner or the untrustworthiness of others, but the citizens of the city have come to fear the things in the dark. However there are some places that refuse to crumble under the oppressive darkness, and one of these places had an old green sign in front of it that said, "The Lucky Seven Tavern". Contrary to the name though, it seemed that the only thing lucky about the tavern was how it could have stayed open for so long with its creaking floor boards and cracked walls.

Crunching could be heard along the gravel road as Gilda walked towards the steps of the rickety building, the sounds of the crowd inside getting louder by the moment.

Letting out a quiet yawn, Glida rubbed the dark bags under her eyes as she pushed open the doors to the tavern. Cringing a bit at the smell of drunk griffons and vomit, she moved over to a lone table that had a female griffon sitting upon it.

'Out of all the places she could choose to meet up, why does it always has to be here?' Gilda thought to herself as she stepped over a passed out griffon.

The griffoness was smaller than herself with dark brown feathers with white specks adorning them, and was currently chugging down a mug of ale along with a half drunk griffon who looked like he was simultaneously on the verge of passing out and drowning at the same time. Slamming down her empty mug onto the rickety table, the griffoness raised a clenched claw in victory and let a out loud belch.

"I win!", she shouted over the crowd.

The drunken griffon she was drinking against, growled as he threw a bag of golden pences and stumbled back into the chaos around them.

A mirthless laugh escaped from Gilda's beak as she pulled out a chair next to the table. "You still trying to poison yourself Abby?", Gilda couldn't help but snark out as she sat next to the griffoness, who was too busy counting her coins to notice her.

Its been a little over a year after Gilda first met Abby, and coincidentally, it was this very tavern that they met one another. When she first entered through the rickety green entrance of the tavern, she saw Abby sitting upon a throne of which was made of drunken griffons and spilled mugs of ale proclaiming herself to anyone else still mildly conscious that none could match her, the "Champion of Ale". No one in the tavern bothered to rival her self proclaimed title, mostly because they were either passed out or on the verge of, except for one. Gilda stood and challenged Abby the tyrant for her throne of ale and it was that very night it seemed the drinking champion had finally met her match.

Abby's eyes snapped over to Gilda before lighting up. "Gilda! It's been too long, but I knew you would come back sometime."

Gilda waved down a waiter who placed another round of drinks onto their table. Taking a sip from her ale she placed it back down and chuckled. "Yeah. I needed a while to prepare before seeing your ugly face again."

"Yet you still came back to see it." Abby let out with a laugh. "Where have you been? For the last few weeks I had to rely on these lightweights for drinking partners and each one passes out by their fifth mug."

"I've been working Abby." Gilda took a another sip from her drink. "I had to pull a few extra shifts in order to cover some stuff, but I'm relieved for a few days now. Something about mandatory leave that my captain ordered me to take." A small growl left her as she continued. "Even though what I should be doing is going back out there."

"You might think that, but no one else does. Anyone can take one look at you and tell you, you like shit." Abby patted her on the shoulder. "You should take this break seriously. Just by the way you look I can see that you haven't had much sleep." She took a large gulp from her drink. "Is there something you want to talk about? For some reason I doubt you came back just for old times sake."

Gilda didn't respond immediately, instead she sat there swirling the brownish liquid in her cup. Letting out a sigh, she set her mug back down and ran a claw through her head feathers. "Nah not really. Just a bit tired. I guess I really did need a break from my work."

Abby stared at her for a moment, not believing for a moment that was the truth, but opted to just shrug it off rather than pursue it. "Whatever you say G. Hey by the way there were a few soldiers that mentioned you earlier. I think they're still around."

Gilda arched her eye feathers. "Was it those guys from Charlie company again? I thought the last time I beat their asses they would leave us alone."

'I swear to the goddess, if one of them said anything about my flank again, I'll break their legs all over.'

"Oh no." Abby shook her head which caused Gilda to calm down slightly. "If it was them I wouldn't need to tell you, you would know as soon as you came in." Abby set down her drink and gestured to a table just on the other side of the tavern. "I was talking about them. They came in not too long ago talking about trying to find you."

Gilda turned and looked around the tavern before silently cursing at what she saw just a few tables down. The group of soldiers sitting across the room were none other but her team mates. It was strange seeing them outside of their armor, each one of them looking a lot different from the soldiers she was working with just a day or so before.

Nix was a smaller griffon, nearing the size of Abby and was much younger than she originally thought, maybe closer to being a teen than herself . She had glistening teal fur with dark blue head feathers, her feathers holding a type of gleam to them unlike most of the other soldiers Gilda saw within the city guard force, reminding her more of the Lords and Ladys that lived on the upper branches than anyone that could be found down here. For a moment Gilda thought that maybe Nix was a noble born, but she quickly dismissed that thought, why would any noble want to come down to this dump?

Letting her eyes drift over, her gaze settled onto Dust next. Dust was much more around her own height with orange fur and bright yellow feathers, however at first glance it was hard to tell, a fine layer of dirt seemed to have settled permanently on her feathers and fur giving a light brown hue to most of her body. Small scars could be seen over her claws along with traces of callouses on the underside of her talons giving off the impression that she was experienced in labor work if that was anything to go by. It didn't surprise Gilda to see someone like Dust in the guard, with trade between towns closing down and bandits raiding whatever settlements that couldn't defend themselves, many farmers and workers flooded into the guard in any major town to in the hopes of finding work or just to get payback.

Gunther stood on the far side of their table and loomed over like a giant. He was definitely tall for a griffon, perhaps he could be mistaken for a cockatrice if he stood on his hind legs, his imposing stature already made it enough for most creatures to become petrified. However, contrasting greatly with his frightful appearance, his voice carried a sense of gentle benevolence whenever he spoke, reminding her of the old heroes in plays with how they would recollect their stories yore. He was a gentle giant to anyone who knew him for long enough, but goddess help anyone who makes him pissed or else they’ll have all of Tartarus to pay. Gilda knew first hand of this when she rushed over to a blur of brown fur and beige feathers that tackled a mugger on the street only to realize that it was Gunther. They weren’t associated back then but Gilda was already glad that he an ally.

Finally there was Tex. He still had a few bandages around his neck from the last raid, but the feathers underneath seemed to be practically healed already. He had dark brown fur like Gunther, but instead of having beige feathers, he had white feathers much like Gilda. He was much younger than herself, probably a year or so younger than Nix, and he hardly had any scars to speak of around his body, not even any deformed feathers besides the new ones around his neck. Gilda was drawing a blank on any idea of what type of background Tex might have, he couldn't be a farmer since his claws weren't mangled at this point so maybe he was from outside of Griffonia? That wouldn't make sense either since why would anyone willing draft themselves in the army of a place like this.

Shaking her head slightly, Gilda stopped analyzing her squamates and opted to pay attention to whatever new mess they are currently making and this mess was Gunther and Tex trying to prevent a pissed off, ale covered Nix from jumping over the table and strangling Dust who was busy laughing her ass off.

"You...should have seen...your face. HA!", Dust choked out between gasps.

This only seemed to piss off Nix even more as she struggled to get out of Gunther and Tex's grip. Surprisingly, even giving Gunther a bit of struggle as he strained keep the smaller griffin in place.

"I'll make you swallow your own claws!", Nix growled.

Gilda let out a sigh as she turned back to Abby.

"Friends of yours?", Abby asked while trying to stifle a laugh.

Gilda let out a chuckle. "Nah. They're a couple of recruits that came in not too long ago." Gilda begun getting up from her seat leaving her still full mug on the table. "Lets get out of here before they-"

"Hey Gilda!"

"Son of a-" Gilda turned around and saw Dust leaning back in her chair waving towards her, oblivious to Nix still shooting daggers at her.

Standing up from her seat, Dust left behind Nix who was finally subdued back into her chair, and weaved her way through the crowd over to Gilda.

"We were trying to find you earlier but as soon as we got back to base it seemed like you vanished into thin air." Dust said over the loud noises of the tavern. "Why don't you and your friend join us? Gunther says he's paying for the drinks this time."

Gilda was about to decline but before she could, Abby popped out from behind her. "I would- I mean we would love to have drinks with you." She turned to Abby and glared at her while Abby just shrugged her shoulders and followed after Dust with mug in hand. Gilda just rolled her eyes and started after them.

Gilda pulled out a stool and sat down between Nix and Tex. Her squad mates took this time to introduce themselves to Abby who was quite enthusiastically ordering more drinks, much to the dismay of Gunther if his cringe was anything to go by. All of them did this except for Tex who waved at Gilda once she sat down.

"Gilda!" Tex rasped out of his still recovering vocal cords. "I thought we would never find you!"

Gilda just gave him a huff of acknowledgment as she looked at the bandages around his neck. Tex seemed to take notice of this as he rose his claw to reassure her. "Don't worry. The doc said I would be fine in a few days. It would have been a lot worse if it wasn't for you, so thank you."

Gilda let her eyes linger a little bit longer on his neck before looking back up. "Be careful next time."

As everyone settled back down onto the table with their second round of drinks, fourth for Abby, Gunther was the first to speak up. "Well now that you have all thoroughly drained a months worth of savings from me, shouldn't we move on to our celebration?"

Gilda tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Celebrating what?"

"Celebrating our first successful mission together of course!", Dust shouted as she raised her mug in the air.

"Yeah you know, the one where Tex nearly got choked to death.", Nix said sarcastically from across the table.

Gunther turned to give Nix a glare. "If you don't want to be here then leave. If not, why are you here in the first place?"

Nix returned Gunther's glare for a moment before grumbling to herself and going back to nursing her drink. With that short dispute settled Gunther turned back to address the rest of the griffons at the table. "Dust is right, a few days ago we had both our first and first successful mission together as a team. I'll admit it did have some rough spots," Gunther quickly glanced over to Tex. "but what is important is that we all made it out together." With that he began to down his drink and the other soon followed, even Nix had picked up her mug began chugging it.

Gilda couldn't help but chuckle a little at the cliché speech Gunther had given, before proceeding to down her drink as well. From across the table, Abby slammed her mug back down on the table just a second before Gilda, earning Abby a triumphant laugh. "I'm starting to like your team already, G."

"I'm glad you do." Tex said. "I'm thankful that I got you guys as team mates. Honestly, if it wasn't for Gilda and the rest of you guys I probably wouldn't be here right now."

Abby raised an eye and looked over to him. "Really? What happened?"

Tex scratched the back of his head in contemplating how to respond for a moment before speaking again. "This mission we were just celebrating, we were raiding a narco house and while we were dealing with its former inhabitants I got blind sided by one of them. He was about to kill me, but luckily Gilda was there to-" Tex was suddenly cut off by a nudge from Gunther, with a point of his claw, he directed Tex to Gilda.

Gilda staring intently down at the mug that was shaking in her claws oblivious to the stares that the others were giving her. Slight cracks had begun to appear along the wooden cup in her hands as she glared down towards her reflection in the surface of ale. Slowly, Gilda began to release her grip on the mug as she shook herself back into focus.

Tex began to apologize."...Sorry Gilda. I shouldn't have brought that up while your still-" He was suddenly interrupted as Gilda stepped up from the table.

"It's alright." Gilda said. "I just have to get some air."

With that Gilda began to evade around the drunken griffons in the tavern, ignoring the stares she was getting from Tex and the others. Opening up the door, she stepped out and begun down the dark cobblestone path into the night.

As Gilda walked down the barely illuminated path flanked by dying lanterns, she couldn't help but feel two emotions wash over her as she continued back towards her home. Anger and frustration filled her as she remembered back to what she had done on her last mission, she knew something like this would eventually happen, but the image of the griffons glazed dead eyes still stayed imprinted in her mind. That wasn't the thing that broke her though, that bastard deserved to die, but what did brake her was how easy it was for her to take his life, how she did so without hesitation, remorse, or empathy, and how she … enjoyed it.

She tried to deny it at first, trying to convince herself that her feelings were justified, it was just another piece of filth that needed to be taken off the streets and she should feel proud of what she had done. However, no matter how much she tried to trick herself into believing that, the joy she gained from taking his life immediately was consumed by disgust and fear once she realized what she did. Did it make her a monster for enjoying that she killed another living, intelligent creature? One that was crawling away from her in fear?

'He deserved it...'

Gilda shook herself out of her thoughts as she realized she almost passed her house. Pushing open the door to the house, she didn't even bother trying to clean herself up before she passed out into her nest, its warmth welcoming the tired and exhausted griffoness into its embrace.

10 HOURS LATER

"How long until the army comes within engagement range of the city?" Jack asked

ALDO's mechanical voice filled the room. "Estimated one hour until the attack will take place. Suggested course of action: Pre-emptive strike upon xeno threat to destroy siege machines."

"No. Don't attack until I say so. Wait for the attack to take place then we will intervene."

"Waning. Course of action would carry high risk of civilian casualties from xeno settlement."

"That's the point.", Jack stood from his chair and gazed into the holographic map in front of him.

ALDO stayed quiet for a while before responding. "Calculations complete. Course of action has a success rate of 78% over 14,784 simulated."

"That'll have to do.", Jack pondered something for a moment before turning back to the big screens of the command center. "ALDO, have you been able to recover my combat suit?"

"Affirmative."

Across the room a panel opened up to reveal his old combat suit.

Jack walks over and takes the helmet off the armored suit and saw his reflection in the glass visor. "You've waited this long for another fight. Lets not wait any longer."

Awakening

Location: Sector Delta, Quadrant 2, District 10
Date [ERROR]

186th Space Born Division
Designation: Corvus Rex
Status: Active
Pilot Status...
...
...
...
No life signs detected

Auto Pilot Engaged

Running Utility Diagnostics...
...
...
...
...
Diagnostics Complete

Diagnostic Report
Engine One: Disabled
Engine Two: Destroyed
Engine Three: Fire Detected
Engine Four: 31% Functional
Bomb Bay Doors: Disabled

Running Defense System Diagnostics...
...
...
...
...
Diagnostics Complete
Diagnostics Report
Cannon One: Destroyed
Cannon Two: Disabled
Cannon Three: Destroyed
Cannon Four: 3% Functional

Mission Report: Heavy damages sustained. Unable to continue bombing. Autopilot self destruct engaged.

Sending Mission Report...
...
...
...
...
Report Sent

Autopilot Status...
...
...
...
...
Autopilot Destroyed

Location: Planet Epsilon 12
Date: [3.27.64237]

System Status: Offline
...
...
...
Redirection power from secondary command modules...
...
...
...
... Redirection Successful

Incoming mission report received...
...
...
...
Mission Report: Heavy damages sustained. Unable to continue bombing. Autopilot self destruct engaged.

Running On Site Utility Diagnostics...
...
...
...
...
Diagnostics Complete

Zero Point Energy Singularity: Stable

Backup Nuclear Fission Reactors:
Reactor 1: 67% Operational
Reactor 2: Shut Downed (Repair Unit 34 Deployed)
Reactor 3: Melt Down In Progress...Deploying Control Rods
Reactor 4: 87% Operational

On Site Defense System:
Ion Cannons:
Sector 1: 43% Operational
Sector 2: 73% Operational
Sector 3: 15% Operational (Repair Unit 184 Deployed)
Sector 4: 54% Operational

GtSL Defense: 82% Operational

Orbital Laser: Operational

External Blast Doors: 37% Operational

Alpha Warhead: 100% Operational

Plasma Artillery Cannons: 35% Operational (Repair Unit 21 Deployed)

Rapid Fire Turbo Lasers: 49% Operational

Onsite Garrison: 37% Operational

AA Cannons: 63% Operational

Life Support Systems: Online
Solar Array: Deployment In Progress
Ventilation Systems: Online
Med bay: Restoration In Progress
Command Center: Restoration In Progress
Civilian Complex: Redirection Of Power In Progress
Industrial Complex: [Report Pending]
Barracks: Restoration On Standby
Armory: Redirection Of Power In Progress
Combat Unit Hanger: 90% Operational
Gate A: Online
Gate B: Destroyed
Cryogenic Storage: *WARINING! LIFE SUPPORT FAILURE*
Food Storage: 74% Operational
Water Treatment Plant: On Standby
Ammunition/Arms Factory: On Standby

Running Personnel Diagnostics...
...
...
...
Diagnostics Complete

Personnel Status:
On site personnel: 1
Visiting personnel: 0
Civilian personnel: 0
Military personnel: 0
Site directors: 1

Running Combat Unit Diagnostics...
...
...
...
Diagnostics Complete

Combat Unit Status:
Air & Space Combat Units: 4
Ground Combat Units: 7
Subterranean Combat Units: 1
Aquatic Combat Units: 3
Lunar Combat Units: Unknown

Last Received Order from Command [21,942,705] days ago

Insufficient Combat Units to continue war efforts...
...
...
...
...
The war is over

Initiating Sub Routine: Wake Up Call...
...
...
...
Cryogenic Restoration In Progress...
...
...
...
...
Restoration Complete. Welcome back Director Jack Winston