The Phoenix Chronicle Book 3: Hollow Words

[DarkPhoenix141]

Phoenix's vision cleared as whatever sense of remembrance or clarity quickly dissipated into a grogginess, his senses returned to him as he finally awoke in fullest. In front of him stood a dark haired man with baggy eyes and pale skin next to a man in brown-golden hair and more normal skin. The man in dark hair wore a white coat and a rebel insignia on his shoulder, the man with golden hair wore a loose coat and white shirt under it, an insignia less notable under the bent collar of his brown coat. Phoenix already knew from cold hard experience how the following events were going to occur. "I'm Frank and this is my friend Will. You know our friend Leon don't you. Let's make this quick then, we want to know where your fleet is. Right now." Frank (The man with golden hair) said "Heh, well we could be here for a while then." Phoenix said jokingly, only to get punched in the side of the face. "C'mon then, answer me dammit. Where's your fleet?" Will asked, punching Phoenix in the face. Frank then kicked Phoenix in the nose, causing a slight drip of blood from his nostrils, but little else. Phoenix was thinking while they took their turns beating him, he quickly drew the conclusion that Frank was part of Leon's mercenaries and that Will was a rebel soldier, the differing insignia was a good indicator of either their different ranks or respective factions. The thought was interrupted by Frank punching him in the cheek, a strong punch ended up with Phoenix coughing up bits of blood onto his chest. "Hah, wow! Looks like we stirred him up! Ready to answer my questions now?" Frank asked, laughing at Phoenix's instance of pain. The silence was ended by Will kicking Phoenix in the chest, then holding his head up for Frank to punch, which he did. Phoenix laid there, silently, "Gah, looks like we've worked him enough for the day. Go put him in his cell." Will said, picking Phoenix up off his wooden chair, guiding him down a hallway and into a dark concrete room, tossing him there and closing the large metal door, leaving him there to sleep. Phoenix laid in the cold, dark cell on the concrete, he crawled over to the wall and huddled in the corner. Soon he was interrupted by a warming blue glow and a hand touching his shoulder "Get up kid, you need this rest." the apparition said, gently pulling him down onto the floor, before standing against the wall "Gods, they seem to do this a lot." Phoenix said "Shut up and get some rest. The worst has yet to come." the apparition stated.

When Phoenix woke up the large door was opened, light shining in, two rebels picked him up off the floor and dragged him forward, then left into the interrogation room, then shoved him onto the chair. "Great to see our friend today. Let's see..." Frank said, looking around his table of "Tools" for something appropriate. He picked up one set of modified pliers and gave it to Will, then he took a small scalpel and a small dentistry tool, a hooked scalpel. "Right then, let's pick up where we left off... Where is your fleet?" Will asked, a smile on his face. With no response, Frank clipped Phoenix's cheek with the scalpel, then again, then holding it to his other cheek and cutting slowly, leaving the right cheek dripping large amounts of blood. "How bout now?" Frank asked, arms crossed. Phoenix just huffed, saying little, if anything, and none of it was what they wanted to hear. With that Will took his modified pliers and used it to grip a bit of Phoenix's skin on his shoulder, the grip was enough to cause minor bleeding, when he didn't get an answer even then (Despite Phoenix's squirming in the chair), he pulled a small bit of flesh, causing extreme bleeding while Phoenix hunched over and looking downward onto the floor, which dripped with blood from his shoulder where the flesh had been pulled from. "We're not done yet friend. just save us both the trouble and answer the goddamn question." Frank said, holding is strange dentistry tool in hand had Will held Phoenix up. He walked over to Phoenix and while Will held his mouth open, took is Scaler (The dentistry tool) and poked around in Phoenix's gums (With force) for a few minutes, before stopping and letting Phoenix spit out blood onto the ground. "We've got all the time in the world. Now hurry it up and answer. I can do this all day." Will said, holding his pliers. "C'mon, WHERE IS YOUR FLEET?!" Frank yelled. "Bah, go put him in his cell. Doesn't look like we're getting anything out of him now. That's 40 minutes wasted." Will said, shooing the guards to Phoenix's cell. Who promptly brought him into his room, kicking him onto the floor and left him there. Phoenix could see the blue glow of the apparition behind him while he bled onto the floor, feeling colder as the seconds go on "They seem to do this a lot. Their talk is like it's a tedious everyday thing. You should be careful" the apparition said "Got it..." Phoenix whispered, shivering, before he rolled over to look at the apparition, only to see the ghostly blue being of Micheal Graves, before he passed out.

On the third day Phoenix once again awoke to moving metal behind him, he looked around his cell, he found a vent on the top right corner of the cell, but little else. He looked around and allowed his eye to wander around the hallway, he found another vent, and a profound lack of guards, he saw that the entire facility was supported by the torturers, who kept the prisoners from escaping by keeping them weak. He was thrown down onto the chair "We need answers right now. You aren't leaving until you tell us something believable." Frank said, taking out a hammer while Will took out a crowbar with the end cut off. Will took out a blowtorch and lit the curved end of the crowbar while Frank walked over to Phoenix hitting him in the knee a few times, ending with his knee leaking blood before Will walked over. Frank went behind Phoenix and held him still by the shoulder, Will promptly stuck the burning crowbar onto Phoenix's chest, he groaned in agony while his feet shuffled on the ground "ONLY YOU CAN MAKE IT STOP!" Frank yelled as Will moved to a new location with his burning crowbar, proceeding to do this 3 times, until Phoenix's body was scorched with scars. Phoenix looked at the ground in agony trying to regain himself "Talk. Now." Frank stated hitting Phoenix on the shoulder with his hammer. Phoenix moaned in pain while Will held Phoenix still and Frank grabbed a scalpel and scaler, proceeding to cut multiple smaller cuts in Phoenix's (Human) arm, then using his dental scaler to cut up same arm, waking him from his agony and suffering. "ANSWER THE GODDAMN QUESTION!" Frank yelled, cutting Phoenix's gum with his scaler, ending as Phoenix coughed blood onto the floor. Frank kicked the ground and clipped Phoenix left eye with his scaler, causing it to bleed if only barelyt (Despite Phoenix being able to see out of it relatively). "Time we get serious." Frank said, opening a small case which revealed multiple needles. Will wiped the blood from Phoenix's eye and then unhooked his left arm for Frank to see, as he held 3 needles. "The first one will make you cough up blood and feel extremely cold and an immense feeling of pain. The second one will cause you to bleed out of your eyes and vomit a lot, the third one will cause you to feel numb, sore, weak and sick. We'll be starting with... The third one!" Frank said joyfully, picking the third syringe on his palm out and injecting Phoenix with it, waiting for the results. Soon enough, minutes later Phoenix felt sore, his entire body hurt to make the simplest of movements like breathing, he felt nauseated and sick, like he was going to vomit but couldn't, and even basic movements became a struggle, his body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, and his skin turned pale. Frank delivered a wimpy punch to the cheek, and in Phoenix's weakened state, it felt extreme, the pain was immense, almost fake. Almost like there was no way such agony could exist in this realm of existence, yet he was feeling it right here. This process continued for 30 more minutes, until the effects of the exposure finally wore off. "Let's go with... the first one!" Frank said, picking the first syringe off his table and injecting it into Phoenix's neck. 2 Minutes later Phoenix was spazing around in his chair violently coughing up blood onto the ground in trillions of droplets onto the floor. They didn't even need to punch him, for twelve minutes he spazed and bled on the floor, until he finally stopped. He rested on the chair, slumping down and trying to rest, only to be interrupted by a hammer to the knee, and a hammer impact to the chest as well. "Ready to talk now?" Frank asked, crouching down beside Phoenix, who knew his life was now in mortal jeopardy, if he didn't answer, and fast, he'd quickly be killed in the torture, but he couldn't blatantly reveal the location of his entire military, from a leadership standpoint that would be wrong for an untold amount of reasons. He needed to lie, and fast "THEY'RE IN ORBIT AROUND VINOSCIS" he yelled desperately "Good then... Next question!" Frank said joyfully, causing a stark look of despair on Phoenix's face, the third day and things were only going to get worse. "What are your mainframe access codes?" Frank asked "W-why... why would you want to know that?" Phoenix asked as his pain subsided (But only just) "That's none of your business, what are the codes?" Frank asked angrily. Phoenix gasped in desperation, anguish and despair. He quickly realized that he was not going to survive this, whether he could answer or not. "Bah, I've had enough for today. We'll pick up tomorrow." Will said, as guards came in to haul Phoenix off. Once he was in his cell he passed out, trying to rest and recover his strength.

Aboard the Sentinel, things were much different: Anyone who knew Phoenix was pale and feeling an odd sense of desperation, and loss. Anna in particular just sat around, pale in the face and hunched over her book, legs crossed and a distressed look on her face. Mentioning it to Briggs or Adrian would cause them to look depressed in their rooms, with little resolve to do anything. Burden would just get angry at everything and Griffin would just sit down with his head in his palms. This strange depression did not carry on to the other soldiers among the UPF Military, who merely hushed whispers around Anna or Briggs, with the occasional consolation, which was too rare to mention. The fact Phoenix could be dead was only part of the issue, the fact they didn't know was gnawing at them, it was a distinct sense of loss that only Briggs had ever felt before. And only just compared to the lost of a friend under the mysterious circumstances, with another friend depressed at such a loss. Anna's own depression and sadness was enough to bring everyone around as slightly depressed, though it only strengthened Burden and Briggs' resolve to find Phoenix, for differing reasons. The sense of depression and sadness was halted by Harper "C'mon, let's find him." he said, motioning for them to follow him, as he walked into the command center. Though the pain they felt was only just short of Phoenix's current suffering. Only just.

On the fourth day Phoenix was once again herded onto his chair, his interrogators slightly joyful they got an answer the previous say, with only 4 questions that need to be answered and many days to interrogate, this was a good start. "Well, we might as well use this final needle. What are your mainframe access codes?" Frank asked, holding out a syringe filled with a stark, green, fluid. With no response he injected it into Phoenix neck, minutes later Phoenix spazed around and vomited, as he stopped minutes later Frank and Will got a good view of Phoenix's bleeding eye sockets, which dripped large and noticeable amounts of blood. Phoenix took the time he slumped there hazily to think of what they were doing "Do... do they want... they want access to our defenses. So they can attack without warning, or worse... I need to... I can't say... anything..." he thought only to by a punch to the chest. "Eh! Wake up!" Frank said, lightly slapping Phoenix, who then coughed vigorously with some light blood dripping onto the floor. Frank then pulled a pistol, a modern revolver with the Phoenix Rising Insignia on the barrel, he loaded a bullet into it, and spun the cylinder, then pressed it against his head. "You UPF scum like to play these kinds of tricks on your prisoners, Zoe was right. All you are is scum, who toy with their weakened prey for their own amusement. Let's see what happens when you play your own games." Frank said, pushing the pistol into Phoenix's forehead again. "Answer the question, or I pull the trigger." Frank said, getting no response "Showtime..." he whispered and pulled the trigger, getting a click, leaving Phoenix gasping in surprise. "C'mon! What are your mainframe access codes?" Frank said, angrily, pointing the weapon at Phoenix once more, then preparing to pull the trigger. When he did, yet another click, Phoenix gasped again at the thought. Frank repeated this for 3 times, without a single time the bullet being fired. It wasn't enough for Phoenix to confess the information, but the final bang on the chest was enough to leave him slumped on his chair, barely alive as it was.

With a huff, they decided to end the day there, instead of bringing Phoenix to his cell, they left him in his chair, bleeding. Overnight Phoenix tried to relax, to rest, it seemed like things were dying down, if not slowly. He passed out and when he awoke, his torturers were standing in front of him. Will took a few kicks while Frank loaded the pistol with 6 bullets, apparently it fired the entire bullet as not a single shell casing was seen on the floor. When Will was finished doing his thing, Frank aimed his revolver at Phoenix, shooting him once in the knee. "Network access codes, where?" Frank asked, pointing the revolver at Phoenix's other knee, "C'MON! ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!" he yelled before pulling the trigger, as blood dripped across Phoenix's legs. Phoenix, silent but groaning, looked up in a bloody haze, Will took a free punch at his nose before deciding to walk over to the table and grab his pliers, and then handing a small dagger to Frank. Frank then walked behind Phoenix and held him up, while Will snapped his sharpened pliers on Phoenix's exposed chest, causing Phoenix to squirm a bit in his seat while thick globs of blood slowly dripped down from where the injuries occurred, before Frank decided to stab Phoenix in the back, literally. They repeated this process one more time, leaving Phoenix hunched over dripped massive amounts of blood from his chest "Answer the question. Right. Now." Will said, snapping his pliers in Phoenix's face "It's in a data store, within the ship. Access code is in the system..." Phoenix whimpered, gasping as blood dripped in noticeable amounts from his body. "Good then, next question!" Frank said, joyfully "What do you want with our boss?" Will asked, snapping his pliers. This left Phoenix thinking, what could he possibly reveal by telling them what beef he had with Leon? On the other hand what could they want to know? Before he could decide "Bah, we've had enough" came into Phoenix's ears, he couldn't tell who said it, but he knew it was said. He was coming to the realization that he was going to die here.

He slumped in his chair, depressed, not just because he was in pain, but because he quickly he figured out he was going to die here, had he known that he wouldn't have said anything. He lied about where his fleet was, but the data access codes weren't. He quickly realized he couldn't say anything else, not even if his life depended on it. It was just his life. He decided not to sleep and instead find an escape route over the night. He looked around and saw little more then pipes, grates and blockaded vents, he quickly saw that the torture room was intentionally dank and grey, with no method of escape safe for running out of the door, which was likely guarded. He also wondered what the torturers would do once they inevitably got all their answers, would they simply continue torturing him until he died? Or simply do away with him? Phoenix decided not to think about it, and focus on surviving. He slumped down on his chair again, breathed deeply, and went to sleep.

He awoke minutes before the door to his torture cell opened, peered around, trying to relax himself as the door itself opened, his heart raced, the sudden fear for his own life was as strange as it could be, adrenaline racing through his veins, he cringed as Frank picked out his scaler again, while Will took out a hammer. Will, held Phoenix up while Frank started tearing around in Phoenix's gums, for 5 minutes this continued, until upon taking the scaler out and stopping, Phoenix was bleeding profusely from his mouth "Oh shit. Looks like I took it a little far." Frank said, looking at the massive amounts of blood coming from Phoenix's mouth, to the point where talking was impossible. Phoenix then spit out a large amount of blood onto the floor, but it quickly festered again in his mouth. "What is your problem with our boss?" Frank asked while Will beat Phoenix on the shoulder with his hammer, repeating this multiple times until he finally stopped. "Sorry, short day today. See ya tomorrow!" Frank said, looking at his watch, then walking out of the cell and leaving Phoenix to his ravings.

7 Days. He had stayed in this hellhole for a week at least.

And it wasn't getting easier.

The next day, Phoenix awoke to his torturers merely walked in, slowly, calmly, and boringly. Like they had just decided to give up and skip that question and move on to the next. Like they had a long day and did not want to put up with Phoenix's bullshit. Like both of those things. "Right then, completely new question: Where are your troops located?" Frank said, his face in his palm as wearily picked out a hammer and handed an iron glove to Will. "You're gonna tell us where those troops are, today." Frank said, taking a shot with his hammer at Phoenix's knee, before Will did something similar to Phoenix's face. They repeated this process multiple times over the course of an hour, with little deviation, leaving Phoenix borderline unconscious (Though still awake and feeling everything) and with an inability to walk. "Come... the... hell... on... ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!" Frank puffed, taking a second from beating Phoenix to request an answer, though he got none. Deciding it was time to ramp things up, he pulled out his horror of a dentistry tool (Which Phoenix quickly wondered what purpose it served except to torture people) and once again went to work on Phoenix's gums, leading him to once again be in the state of unable to talk on his own due to the sheer amount of blood leaking from his gums, this time doubled by having similar issues on the top of his gums. Deciding to torture Phoenix further he handed Will his crowbar and blowtorch, holding Phoenix still to allow Will to do his (Horrible) thing. Burning Phoenix more then once on his chest, causing a severe injury as his pained moans were muffled by blood in mouth. He still said nothing, but the day was far from over. Allowing Will to do whatever he pleased, Frank went off to grab more syringes of the "Third" syringes' who's name he forgot about. For a grand total of twenty minutes Phoenix suffered at Will's hands, the burning sensation was almost tedious now, as Frank finally walked in while Will pulled the crowbar off Phoenix's body. "Final chance, answer the question." Frank said, holding a syringe in his left hand while 4 others were held in his right palm. With that silence, Frank injected Phoenix (In the neck) with the substance, and minutes later the effects were showing: Phoenix felt nauseated, sore and weak, he felt like he could vomit if he had eaten anything, and he felt so sore and weak that breathing was painful and heavy, he continued to feel like this for the next hour, in both extreme heaviness and pain, while feeling nauseated and sick. The torturers left snickering, while Phoenix felt it nearly impossible to sleep that night, and Will noticed.

9th Day, Phoenix wasn't in the mood for surviving anymore. The inability to sleep on a somewhat comfortable bed when he felt like he did now (As in, horrible) was slowly eating away at him, whatever was in that syringe was able to keep him awake, and that was one of the few things keeping him alive. He merely slumped in his chair while his torturers took a few punches at him every now and again, it took a few minutes before Phoenix nearly fell unconscious. With that, Frank and Will had a brief conversation from which Phoenix could derive nothing, though there was certainly some laughing at his pain. He quickly realized that Will was in fact a rebel, while Frank was part of Leon's crew. They walked out for a minute, Phoenix could (In the meanwhile) here a distinctive repeating thud in the vents, someone was above him, within the vents. This thud went to the back of his head as Will and Frank returned, Frank holding a pistol. He lowered the pistol again Phoenix's forehead "Bye now. See you in hell, genocidal scum." Frank said, pushing the pistol against Phoenix's forehead. Then, suddenly, as if by the grace of the gods, the wall left of Phoenix (And thus, the door) crumbled to rubble as a small platoon of Federation soldiers charged though the breach, shooting Will in the head and Frank in the chest, proceeding to walk over to Phoenix "Got a positive ID on Commander Phoenix, what are your orders sir?" A soldier said "Get him off that chair and moving Romero, ASAP. Our primary objective is to get this son of a bitch out of here." said a familiar hoarse British voice. Phoenix's continuous thoughts of "Thank the gods, I'm saved" were interrupted by the metallic crashing of a vent and the careful footfalls of 5 people, before a loud BANG followed by a thud which pushed a Federation soldier onto the floor.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Chapter 2: Resolve

"HOLD FIRE WE'RE FRIENDLY!" One soldier yelled, raising his rifle to meet the attackers "Like hell you are!" said a familiar voice. Phoenix silently came to the realization that these weren't some random, vent dwelling pirates came to steal people the rebels don't want to torture anymore (Because those people exist), but his friends. Something that he was both thankful for and saw fit to beat Briggs for probably suggesting such a move in the first place. The tension in the room was high, the Federation knew that they could easily take the new threats, but whether that would place Phoenix in the position to want to side with them any further then he already was left something to be desired. Phoenix continued to look at the tan Federation soldiers with the strange sense of awe, his haze of grogginess and all around tiredness from the past week was interrupted by the feeling of a glove on his shoulder, but not the baggy, woolly gloves that Briggs and his hooded brethren wore, he didn't even get a chance to look right before Briggs' urgent voice confirmed his suspicions "Anna calm down. We are not, I repeat not, in the position to making bold moves here." he said, getting no response short of a disregarding huff. "Hold your fire men." the familiar Federation Commander said, raising his hand, which prompted the soldiers to lower their weapons. "Let's all calm down here. You can have Commander Phoenix once he's back on his feet. We'll bring him aboard our ship, we have medical systems." the commander said. "Commander?!" Griffin asked angrily "I'm sure you all heard the legends about your technically unnamed leader." one soldier said. "Alright then, seems fair." Briggs said, walking over to where Phoenix sat. "Anna you need to calm down, alright? He's going to be fine. Just lower your weapon, I promise he's going to fine."Briggs whispered, gently pulling Anna's weapon from her hands as the Federation soldiers picked Phoenix off his chair.

They carried Phoenix out of the large breach with his friends behind him, moving him through the large entrance bay, "Gentle now..." Anna said, putting her hand on Phoenix's shoulder. They moved him into their Advanced Medical Bay, which functions similarly to the Medical Bay on most ships except it serves an entirely different purpose: Tending to the severely injured and those who have been healed already. Phoenix passed a few other alien races, a Zoltan working on a data-slate, an Engi repairing a system alongside a select few Engi, he even saw a Mantis, sharpening it's claws at the cost of the comfort of the nearby soldiers. They finally brought him into the recovery bay, and set him down on the small hospital-esque bed, pulling a small blanket over him while he laid on his side. Anna sat down on one of the chairs, Briggs sat next to her, cracking a smile as Anna looked up at him with teary eyes but a smile on her face. Meanwhile Phoenix lay shivering in the bed, which quickly drew the attention of Anna, who walked over to him and sat on the side of the bed "P-Phoenix...? You okay?" she asked, touching him, only to feel he wasn't actually cold, and not at all responding to her. For whatever reason, he was isolated from everything, there was something going on in his mind, the torture and rescue flipped a switch.

Phoenix thought was something far from recent, seemingly years ago. He found himself in the midst of a thick fog, laying in a crater, shooting into the fog alongside many other soldiers baring similar uniforms to his, "Get up kid!" Graves yelled picking Phoenix up off the ground and motioning for him to follow into the fog. Red lasers emerged all around him as yellow tracers of bullets charged into the fog, Graves cut right and rolled into a crater along side a small squad of soldiers, corpses lining the small hole they took cover in "Where's your sergeant soldier?" Graves asked as lasers impacted all around the crater "DEAD HE MUST BE DEAD!" a soldier yelled "What's your name?" Phoenix asked "Private Griffin sir!" he replied "Make that sergeant Griffin then. You're in command. This squad's your problem now got it?" Graves said, handing him a pistol before leaving the crater with Phoenix behind him. "Right then, we have to move to reinforce the left flank, follow me!" Graves said, suddenly remembering what he was asked to do. They ran for ten minutes until they finally found a soldier holding the line against a small horde of what looked to be rebel soldiers, hiding behind a fallen tree and firing over it when he got the chance "Soldier! Where the hell is your squad?!" Graves asked, also taking cover behind the tree as well, followed by Phoenix doing the same thing "Dead sir! Corporal Shepard, 9th Squad, 12th Planetary Brigade!" the soldier said "Roger that then, you're with us now!" Phoenix said, as a laser ricocheted off the tree and forced him to duck. Phoenix proceeded to take a few potshots at the rebels hiding behind logs and rocks nearby as they neared to the end of fog. He hazed out, as he quickly forgot what happened next.

This flashback ended, Phoenix was quickly realizing that these flashbacks were less and less flash-points of his life and more like he was having PTSD, or something of the like, though Phoenix didn't feel like it at all. Regardless of that he rolled over and sat up, the room's lights were dimmed and it was surprisingly quiet. He looked over to the chairs where Briggs and Anna sat. The two sat with a small green blanket over then, Anna lying her head on Briggs' shoulder. Phoenix decided to leave them there and get up, he walked over to the coat rack where his tunic and hood where and put them on, before walking out the door and wandering about the ship, a nasty headache making this venture a challenge in itself. After twenty minutes of pained exploration Phoenix decided to return to his room, it was silent and dark while the crew were asleep. Phoenix sat on the edge of his bed and looked down at his wounds, only to find that they had healed for some reason. He sighed, and fell back onto the bed and passed out, a good night's sleep for once would let him relax.

Phoenix awoke, the blanket that Anna and Briggs shared was pooled on the ground, he rubbed his eyes and carefully got off his hospital bed. As he walked over to the door he picked his dark red scarf off the side of the rack and placed it over his shoulder for the sake of doing it, then walking over to the bathroom to take a look in the mirror, again for no reason. Phoenix took this moment to think, he looked his reflection in the eye, he realized that he was abnormal at best, inhuman, an anomaly. But this strange sense of self hatred was quickly replaced by a curiosity, why was he special? Why didn't he go unconscious in the torture cell, when he really should have? What was so special about him? He had lived through hell more then once, and was willing to do it again, he felt inhuman, though he had mixed opinions of whether that was good or bad. He has a sense of unfeeling, a sense of inhumanity, a sense of nonexistence, a feeling of abnormality. He realized he put himself into a paradox, he couldn't care less about his inhumanity but also made himself more inhuman by thinking as such. He stopped thinking about it and thought about his appearance, the thing he came to check in the first place. Phoenix was relatively tale, a pale face and stark blue eyes with red about the edges, remnants of past incidents involving Phoenix's eyes alongside some bags under his eyes like he hasn't slept in weeks, he had a somewhat blackened chin with remnants of a beard he had in the past, which was shaven enough to see it was once there, but also to ignore it and see his chin. He had soft but tough looking skin with scars going up and around his cheek, and somewhat long and greasy hair a few strands of which went into his face. Relatively small lips and a moderately sized nose, generally average in both of those departments. As stood in the mirror looking at himself for the first time in months he felt a cold touch against the back of his neck. Only to see Anna's smiling face appear right next to him, giving Phoenix a moment to look at her as well. Despite being a year older then him, Anna stood a little bit shorter then him, a smaller head and little pink lips, with brown eyes. Her hair was a golden blonde with a little black spot (Which was more of a line) on each strand of hair. She was wearing her black hood and equally black shirt which was almost perfect size, her shoulders had her hood held onto them, keeping it from falling off. Her shirt itself was almost indescribable, at the collar it had a red small scarf coming down to where it was possible to see below the hood. It was split into two sections in the middle by a large segment missing, replaced by crossed elastics which were borderline invisible. She also carried around a book for reasons unknown to Phoenix, and thus aren't worth mentioning. For some reason Anna provided both something for Phoenix to protect, and something to comfort him. The relationship was hard to explain to anyone not in a similar relationship. Anna was self sufficient and independent, but having Phoenix as a shoulder to cry on and someone to care about her regardless of anything. And caring for Phoenix was something in return, though what defined "Caring" is up for debate, though it seemed to pertain to the given of being there for him when something horrible (Which happens often) happens to him, or just being there like Phoenix is for her.
"You alright?" Anna asked, looking at Phoenix through the mirror "Yeah I'm fine." Phoenix said, looking at himself. Both of them smiled, and Phoenix kissed Anna on her forehead and walked out, and further out of the medical room, deciding to take a second to explore to ship, but to have that dashed by Sinvet appearing out of no where. "It's good to see you after all these years." Sinvet said, looking at Phoenix "What do you need and how can I help you? You didn't pull me out of that hellhole to say hello." Phoenix said "Well I did but now I'll ask for a favor." Sinvet said, laughing a little. "I don't want to ask this because you did it in the past, that would be cheesy. I want you to do this because you are the only people with the resources to do this. We're stretched thin and in a full fledged retreat from this war, the UPF is the only faction with the resources and manpower to face the rebellion in a full fledged armed conflict." Sinvet said grimly. "Get your people ready and meet us in the briefing room." Sinvet said, walking away. "Burden, Briggs, get Adrian and Griffin and meet me at the briefing room ASAP" Phoenix said, walking over to Briggs and Burden who were having a conversation "Why?" Burden asked "Because I said so, now move." Phoenix said, before walking over to his medical room. He opened to door and found Anna sitting down and reading her book "Hey, we have to move. C'mon." Phoenix said, sticking his head through the doorway to see Anna. 5 Minutes later, Adrian, Griffin, Burden and Briggs were at the briefing room door, while Anna and Phoenix walked over to meet them. "Alright Phoenix, what's this all about?" Adrian asked, arms crossed "You'll see" Phoenix said, opening the door and walking into the room, and sitting in front of the monitor while Anna sat next to him, and everyone else took random seats in front of the large monitor. "Welcome back Commander. I'm sure you realize the horrible situation we've been forced into: A massive rebel fleet is inbound to where Admiral Tulley and his fleet is holding their positions, meanwhile a Federation Outpost has launched a Kestrel class vessel to relay classified orders to him, we do not know of their status at this time. Commander, accept these orders: You and your fleet will move to the Messiah Sector, where the rebels are producing multiple new variants of the Reaper Class Flagships. Destroy these flagships before they are completed. The Sentinel will arrive in 5 days to pick you up and allow you to plan out this operation." The commander said, the monitor flickering with instructions and illustrations. "Of course sir, we will carry out these orders." Phoenix said reluctantly, not knowing what he was agreeing to exactly, before walking out of the room.

"Phoenix, what the hell?" Briggs asked angrily "What's the problem?" Phoenix asked, turning around to see an angry Briggs "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?! YOU'RE SIGNING ON WITH THE FEDERATION! AS IF WE DIDN'T HAVE OUR OWN PROBLEMS ALREADY!" Briggs yelled "Relax Briggs, we'll be fine, it can't hurt. Whatever doesn't help the rebels helps us doesn't it?" Phoenix said, cracking a smile before Briggs walked off, angry that he hadn't convinced Phoenix to leave the Federation to die. Phoenix then wandered off to his new non-medical room, where he could actually sleep without being inside a medical ward, a change of pace. Phoenix took a moment to look at his gear, if it could be called that. His brown, baggy and worn down tan shirt made of exotic material that didn't provide much in the way of protection, black fatigues with knee pads which were barely an upgrade, old boots, and a tattered black hood and cape. Under the baggy threadbare shirt was a set of armor and a small puffy coat which provided some protection. Burden, Adrian, Griffin and Briggs all wore similar outfits, except in far better condition then Phoenix's equipment. Phoenix decided to stop thinking about it and sleep for a while, he plopped himself onto the couch and passed out. When he woke up he was on an actual bed instead of the couch, Anna sitting on the side of the bed close to him, "Hey, something wrong?" Phoenix asked "No... no it's nothing." Anna said, getting off the bed "Any particular reason you needed to pull me off the couch?" Phoenix asked, rolling over and sitting on the edge of the bed "Figured you'd be a bit more comfortable." Anna said, cracking a smile. "You don't need to think of me, I'm fine." Phoenix said, holding her hand "How long was I out?" he asked, standing up "3 hours." Anna said softly, looking at Phoenix with a smile on her face. "Well, I'm off." Phoenix yawned, stretching and walking out the door and into the hallway to further explore the ship. He looked about and saw an abnormal amount of hustle, Engis wandering about repairing wall panels and such, Rockmen doing nothing but on standby to repair fires, Zoltans hanging around Data Slates or terminals, acting as power for them, and Mantises skittering about causing Phoenix's back to shiver with fear like a cat seeing another cat. Phoenix shrinked as he felt the touch of a glove on his shoulder, only to gasp in relief as Briggs walked beside him "Still can't stand to see an Engi aboard any ship I'm on..." he said "I know, still get a headache every time I see one" Phoenix said, feeling a throbbing headache as he looked back and forth at the Engi "You think the Zoltan got the news yet? Of what we did... before?" Briggs asked, pointing at a Zoltan calmly working on a Data Slate "Nah, I doubt they hold it against us anyhow." Phoenix replied calmly, walking off. Phoenix walked down the hallway then cut a left, walking down a sparsely populated hallway before hearing a familiar, feminine voice "Hey, have we met before?" it said, causing Phoenix to stop and look behind him, only to see the familiar face of Sarah, from months ago on the raid on the Federation lab on Vinoscis, she smiled for some odd reason "Uh... well. Did not expect to see you here..." Phoenix said, reluctantly "Hey, it was fine, no hard feelings, you had a job to do after all" she said, smiling. There was a brief silence before Phoenix walked off, damning himself in his thoughts for saying anything at all, though she seemed okay enough with him being on the ship. He then cut another left down a borderline empty hallway, no one was doing anything except wandering about the ship, before he heard a simple voice of the intercom "Attention all crew members, we have entered FTL Jump-space, we will be jumping to the next beacon in 2 hours.". Taking that to thought, he walked back the way he came to his new room, he opened the door just enough to slide through and then closed it, Anna was sitting on her bed reading her book when Phoenix walked in "You're back early" Anna said looking up "Figured I'd sleep through the jump this time" Phoenix replied, sitting down. "Well you're not alone" Anna said, smiling (Meanwhile Burden was vomiting in the hallway). Anna then set her book down on a nearby table and rolled over onto her side, her head being held up by a pillow, smiling, Phoenix smiling back. He closed his eyes and passed out, Anna sleeping next to him holding his arm.


Phoenix woke up hours later, Anna still clinging to his arm. He got up carefully and quietly, before opening the door and moving into the hallway. He looked around as it was rather deserted, though he could see Burden and Briggs talking on a corner "Oh hey Phoenix!" Burden said, finishing his previous sentence "Hey guys" Phoenix said, still tired "You were out for a little bit, we're resting after jumping to the sector. We decided to stay up" Briggs said, smiling a bit. "So uh... anything in particular you wanna do?" Phoenix asked, rubbing his eyes "Nah, nothing really." Briggs said "Go talk to your Federation friend, ask a few questions." Briggs continued, gently pointing toward the armory where Sinvet was sitting. Phoenix decided it was a good idea, he walked over to the armory door and leaned against the wall, looking at Sinvet as he cleaned his pistol with a white cloth "OH! Hello there commander!" Sinvet said looking up with a smile "I have a question" Phoenix said, moving his scarf away from his mouth "Why?" he asked, before Sinvet responded joyfully "Because, you were the best person I knew. We may not have the best relationship with the Phoenix Federation, but you have strength even in the rebel's grip. We are faltering, failing under the rebel's endless assault of brutality and savagery. I don't like going to others for help, but with a man capable of great and horrible things so close to me, I feel as though our final gambit needs some assurance, there's no telling our Messenger will make it to the Admiral's fleet. But I know you can do what needs to be done, because you were born for this.". Phoenix gulped at that statement, he realized that this was a last resort, regardless of how cheesy it seems in retrospect. He was the only one with resources to handle this, and that was bad coming from the endless might of the Federation before this period, when he "Served" alongside them. "I see... Be safe." Phoenix said grimly, walking out of the room. He decided after hearing that statement he wouldn't tell anyone in any explicit detail. Sinvet was prideful as it was, doing this proved that the Federation required sacrifices to be made just to survive on a daily basis, beset by abandonment and rebellion, in these dark times. "How'd it go?" Burden asked, causing a second of silence before getting a response from Phoenix "We're the right ones for the job.". He walked out of the hallway, hearing a slight rustle as the door behind him opened and Anna walked out. Leaving Phoenix bored, he had no idea what to do and ended up sitting around as the hustle and bustle of the ship kicked up once again, and decided to once again explore the ship. He looked around the silver-chrome floors and general grey aesthetic of the ship, at least in it's interior. There was a strange upgrade to the standard equipment around the galaxy that Phoenix was familiar with, the medical bay was upgraded in multiple respects, mostly in the inclusion of a recovery section, the cockpit was upgraded with multiple terminals, and sensors had similar upgrades. The entire ship was a step up from the standard Federation cruisers or frigates, which held only rudimentary medical systems (Advanced though they were) and sensors. Phoenix was rather surprised at the new class of Federation cruisers being active, sacrificing advancement for sheer numbers in terms of systems. After taking the thirty minute exploration trip, he walked back to his room, only to be surprised nearing the airlock nearby his room by Sarah, who was standing with a notepad and other Federation technicians. "Phoenix, I have a question for you." She said, causing some alarm from Phoenix as she learned his "Would you be willing to put on this suit and go into space, for an experiment?" she asked as two technicians showed him a grey, blue, orange and black metal suit, the helmet's frontal section taken up mostly by a grey visor. "Uh... sure I guess." Phoenix stuttered, confused as to what she could possibly want. Anna, Burden, Briggs, Griffin and Sarah and the technicians stood around Phoenix as he fixed his helmet to make it lock into place with the rest of the suit, taking a second to look at the suit itself. It was simple, formed in the shape of the human body with functional joints, painted with orange stripes going on the tops of the arms and onto the spine and the back of the legs. Surrounded by pitch black paint and grey areas isolated by the black paint. Despite that the suit was mostly grey, and appeared as a pure blood Federation suit to anyone who knew what they looked like. "You sure you wanna do this?" Briggs asked as Phoenix moved his arms and legs within the suit as practice "Yeah, I'll be fine." Phoenix said, moving his fingers each one at at a time, before walking over to the airlock and opening the door. "Alright then Commander Phoenix, I'm going to walk you through this, just listen to me and follow these instructions carefully." Sarah said, using a communications system to radio the suit's helmet. Phoenix then floated into space as the door opened, he activated the EVA pack and floated back onto the top of the ship, activating the magnetic boots and gripping onto the top of the ship. "Alright then, just walk to the cockpit." Sarah said, followed by Phoenix walking toward the front of the ship "Okay remain calm, we're going to be testing a mine."she continued followed by explosions outside near Phoenix, drawing nothing but mild reactions from him, but aboard the ship some outrage. He continued on as mines detonated around him, doing little but cover his eyes from the stark flames from each detonation, meanwhile Sarah wrote down notes while watching Phoenix from the cameras. He soon got to the edge of the ship "Now I want you to release the magnetic boots and float over the bridge, then come back." Sarah instructed softly, followed by Phoenix following the instructions calmly, then he returned to the top of the ship, and trudged back over the airlock he came from, before turning back and looking at the distant space, a small asteroid belt just left of the scorching sun, and then a small, bright yellow planet, drawing Phoenix's attention. "Sarah, where are we?" He asked, looking at the planet with a calming familiarity "The Rook System within the Raven Sector. The planet is Prospect Legis, also known as the Prospect Deserts." she said calmly, getting a calmer response "This place... this cold and scorching void of dangers to man... feels so much like home...". Then something strange happened, Phoenix felt himself float off toward the planet, with seemingly no control of himself as he simply let himself float away toward the planet, having visions of the past and future, what will be, and what was, constantly. Soon Sarah came over the radio "Uh... Phoenix? What's going on? Phoenix talk to me. Phoenix?!", before long Phoenix was feeling a warmness as his suit burned in atmosphere, further feeling and seeing the visions as he enters the atmosphere, before a robotic A.I. voice stated something that answered the prayers of those aboard the ship "Danger detected, auto returning to home vessel.". The autopilot carried him through the atmosphere and back to the ship, placing him on the airlock which opened and allowed him entrance, to a sea of confused, concerned and joyful faces. "P-Phoenix... what happened? Why did you just... float away?" Anna asked "I dunno... I just had a... blackout. I just floated off, like something wanted me on that planet..." Phoenix replied, putting a hand on his forehead to ease a throb. Sarah however, was confused and somehow astounded and happy Phoenix survived. He wanted to know how he did it, what made him tick, there was something special about him, but she couldn't name what. "Phoenix, I need to know how you did that, right. Now." She said, grabbing Phoenix's shirt in one hand and holding her notepad in the other "There are some things I need to know, right now." she said, pulling him into a small room with a table and two chairs. She looked at him, holding a pencil and notepad, she began asking questions:

"What happened? Why did you just, float off?" She asked, holding her pencil in anticipation

"I had a blackout, nothing else. I dunno what happened." Phoenix replied, calmly.

"Did your suit lock up? Was it a technical problem?"

"No. My suit functioned perfectly to my knowledge."

"What saved you from dying on that planet?"

"The autopilot, I had no hand in the event."

"What... drew you to that planet?"

"Nothing in particular, just a sense of... familiarity. Like I was going home after being gone all that time."

"Did you, at any point in the exercise feel like you were in danger? Even during the decent into Prospect?"

"No, all the time there was a profound sense of assurance, like I was assured to survive this incident, but also a sense of impending doom. Like I was facing a great evil but did not fear it."

"Do you know why the accident happened?"

"No, I haven't a clue."

With that, Sarah scribbled down notes, looking up at Phoenix, and down at her notes, more then once until she finally stopped. She then grabbed Phoenix hand and looked him in the eye, right in his face, looking at him. Phoenix took note of her blue eyes but not much else, then her pupils dilated, she shivered, gasping with some sense of concern. She looked like she just saw a ghost. She then swapped pages and scribbled down an endless amount of notes"Y-You okay...?" Phoenix asked, standing up "I don't need anything else Phoenix, j-just go." Sarah stuttered writing down notes extremely fast, before Phoenix left the room entirely. As Phoenix walked down the hallway he thought to himself what could have happened, what could have provoked that strange, fearful, ominous and foreboding reaction. He walked back to his friends, who looked at him "That didn't take long." Griffin started "What happened?" Briggs asked "She just... asked questions. Nothing in particular." Phoenix replied cautiously, looking about the room getting nothing but thoughtful "Hmm..."s in response. Eventually they all left the area and went about their chores and tasks, Phoenix simply sleeping, drinking, resting and exploring. However he was eventually found by Sarah, feeling a cold touch on his shoulder before hearing a whisper of "Combat Simulations, now.". She dragged him to a empty room near the cargo bay, hooking him up to a virtual reality set. "So uh... why are we doing this?" Phoenix asked looking around "Because we're curious, this is important. Simply shoot the virtual soldiers, like you normally would. You know..." Sarah said over the earpiece she gave Phoenix before the exercise started. With that, Phoenix scanned the room, holding his "Rifle" ready. He heard a stomp and turned to his right where he saw a soldier standing, before crouching and shooting him, dodging multiple lasers as they flew over his head. He then turned around with instant reactions and killed another, then stood and turned and killed another, and another, and another. The exercise ended. Phoenix walked out of the room and into the security room where Sarah was watching, while she scribbled down notes as he walked in "S-Sorry for the interruption, y-you can go back to what you where d-doing." she stuttered, pointing to the door. Phoenix then walked out of the room and yawned, he decided to go to his room and sleep. Around 5 minutes later, he was sleeping.

Phoenix awoke while Anna was doing whatever she decided to in the "Morning", Phoenix walked out of the room, smiling at Anna at the door, then stared around the hallway. But mostly, if anyone, the Engi who was reinforcing a hull panel against breaches, which drew similar gazes from Briggs and Burden, Adrian was only weary. "You trust that Engi?" Burden asked Phoenix, pointing at the Engi. "Nope. But it seems okay, we'll see though... we'll see." Phoenix replied, arms crossed, before walking off. Most of the day passed without incident, everyone wandered around doing their tasks or whatever they enjoyed to do in their meantime. Phoenix simply took the time to explore and rest, though he was bored and wanted for something of interest to occur, while Sarah took feverish notes everywhere Phoenix went, keeping a distance even though Phoenix made notice of her. As Phoenix wandered around boringly he found himself in the sensor room, where the alert screeched as a captured Federation scout frigate entered the beacon, Pirate markings visible on it's hull. "Get the teleporter ready, I'm off." he said, seeing the pirate before running to the teleporter, readying his pistol within it, and bracing for the teleport. In a flash he found himself within the pirate's bridge, beside the captain, he took out his pistol and shot the captain in the head, his blood spattering from his open wound into the wall, as he collapsed on the ground. He walked out of the cabin and shot two more rounds into a soldier who was fiddling with a wall panel, before leaving that room and shooting two more humans, and putting two bullets into a mantis as it charged him. He wandered about the ship, finding nothing but a horrid cargo of dead slaves, Zoltan, Human and Engi alike, though Phoenix was relived to find no headache among the Engi corpses as he looked about them. He once again wandered into the bridge before activating his earpiece and speaking calm words "Ship secured, all hostiles eliminated.". Phoenix was teleported back and rested within the teleport as Sarah took quick scribbles of notes as she looked down at her pad and up a Phoenix, as he yawned and stretched minutes after the confrontation. With that, Phoenix went back to his room and laid down on the couch while Anna read her book and ate, followed by Phoenix passing out.

Phoenix awoke to alarms and red lights, a distressed, horrified and scared voice over the intercom "Battle stations! Rebel cruisers detected within jump space, prepare for combat!". As Phoenix ran into the hallway he took notice of the many bustling Federation crew members, as they ran in distress for contact with a rebel ship. Knowing the brutality they faced if they lost. Phoenix quickly jogged around the cruiser, and while jogging about he found Sarah near a small panel as laser fire shot around them, she was fiddling with it barely, while a engineer tried to repair it as well, both shaking. "S-Sarah... you okay?" Phoenix asked, crouching near her "W-We're fine... we just need a minute... oh god. We're all going to die..." She said shivering "Relax for one second, breathe. Just think about you, your task, think of the past. Relax, don't worry." Phoenix said, putting a hand on her shoulder, as she sweated and shivered with a look in her eye, the look from days ago, when she looked him in the eye after his "Incident". Phoenix stood up and left, running to the sensor room looking at the monitor as a large Rebel Cruiser entered the system, carrying weaponry of untold might. As it came within range lasers flew throughout space and impacting the hull, shaking the ship and damaging the systems within. "Alright then, get the teleporter ready. ASAP." Phoenix said, staring in distress at the monitors before taking a rifle from the floor nearby, and running to the teleporter. He ran through the fire and flames, until he reached the teleporter, opening it and waiting to be teleported to the rebel ship. As he waited for the teleporter to activate, Briggs and Burden ran in, opening the door and entering alongside Phoenix as the ship shook vigorously. "What the hell are you doing here?!" Phoenix asked as the ship shook once again "Because you'll need the help, this rebel's got gear, and you need help." Burden said, getting little more then a sigh from Phoenix in response. Before long Phoenix felt his stomach go as he teleported into the rebel cruiser, within the orange and chrome interior, Phoenix and company walked into the bridge, in a brief bout of gunfire the bridge was cleared, blood covering the terminals as bullet holes lined the walls, multiple rebels lying dead against the walls with weapons at their feet. The fire drew yells of "HOSTILE ABOARD THE SHIP!" throughout the vessel as the gunfight finally ended, forcing Phoenix and company to turn around and hold weapons ready as the soldiers stormed their position. As multiple guards ran through the door gunfire from Burden, Briggs and Phoenix killed the first two, while another two took potshots from the doorway, terrified of those within the door. Phoenix took this as an opportunity to throw a grenade into the small room, and the resulting explosion from the toss killed the guards within the room, and triggered multiple breaches. They ran through the room and shot multiple rebels in silence, before planting a charge within the weapon room, enough to make the missile loaders collapse. "Boarding crew to Federation vessel, bring us home the deed is done." Phoenix said softly as fire and hull breaches broke through the ship "Copy, ETA 3 seconds" an officer replied, moments before Phoenix detonated the charges and destroyed the rebel cruiser, causing mass amounts of enjoyment among the crew.

Phoenix sat down, the incident had been over as quickly as it began, though in reality it took hours. The ship was in ruins, happiness of the victory soon turned to realization of the gravity of the situation. Phoenix rested as the Engi around the ship went about repairing and Zoltan monitored power, Phoenix was simply happy the ship survived the encounter. With that, Phoenix went about his business, helping the Engi repair the ship (Avoiding comment of the Uprising months ago), assisting Zoltans and technicians in their activities, taking most of the day up, before he decided to talk to his friends, and inquire about the situation. Starting with the captain of the vessel. He walked up to the bridge, where Sinvet was sitting near a man in a "Captainly" uniform, who occasionally barked orders or requested information. He walked up to the captain, cautiously, before he turned around and spoke joyfully despite the recent event "Ah, you must be former Commander Phoenix, now leader of the splinter faction, the United Phoenix Federation. Anything you need?". Phoenix was a tad stunned at such statement "How bad is it? Be honest." Phoenix replied, grimly "Horrible. In short, we are in the shit. Long answer, everything is destroyed one way or another. Luckily you only need to be here for a grant total of 32 hours, at least. " the captain replied "I'd like to tell you, I'm captain Coris. Captain of this vessel, the Deadly Shadow.". Phoenix nodded, and walked off back to talk to someone else. He wandered back to his room, where Anna sat outside, looking at the destroyed hull around her. Phoenix sat down beside her, as crew members festered and ran to repair the vessel. "You okay?" He asked, looking at her "Yeah... you?" she replied "Of course, could be worse." Phoenix said, looking down. While they had this awkward conversation Sarah scribbled notes on her pad, holding her side slightly when she had a chance, Anna soon took notice "Who's that?" she asked looking over at Sarah "She's Sarah, dunno why she's scribbling things about me." Phoenix replied, staring at her. "How much longer do we have to be here?" Anna asked, looking up a Phoenix "32 hours, at least." he replied, standing up. With that, Phoenix walked toward Sarah, who promptly placed her notepad in her pack and hobbled away, holding her side painfully. Phoenix eventually found Burden assisting an engineer (Not the alien kind) repair a wall panel, Phoenix got close as he finished assisting the engineer. "Oh, hey Phoenix." Burden said, putting his glove back on "I have a question..." he continued "Ask away." Phoenix said "What's... with you? I mean, there's something about you... I dunno what the you're not... normal. As bad as that sounds." Burden asked, "I wish I had a better answer for you, but I honestly haven't a clue." Phoenix replied, nodding before walking off. With that, Phoenix walked back to his room, where he met Briggs, who had a strange request "There's a rumor going around that it's psychically impossible to to get you drunk. Well, let's see." he said, handing him a bottle of whiskey and shot glass before opening the door to his room for him. 50 shot glasses (And the entire bottle) later, Phoenix was little more then tired, groggy and sleepy, whether it was from the whole half hour spent drinking or the drinks themselves couldn't be told, but Phoenix passed out on top of the table, and Briggs simply set him on the couch, and left.

Phoenix woke up to the trademark muffled banging on his door, Anna sleeping beside him, he got up slowly and walked to the door, met by a happy Briggs. "Four more hours, then the Sentinel should arrive, and we can leave." He said gleefully "You seem awfully happy about this, what's so bad about this place that I'm missing?" Phoenix replied, rubbing his eyes. "I dunno, it'll just be great to be back home. Something about having Engi aboard the ship..." Briggs said "Yeah I know, I had a nightmare during my nap." Phoenix said stretching and walking into the hallway, seeing Sarah as she walked toward him. "I know you're leaving soon, but I need you to do something, something important." she said "Hmm?" Phoenix thought. She ended up leading Phoenix to a window, where he could look down on the emptiness of space and the planet Prospect Legios. "How do you feel?" She asked, getting no response while scribbling notes. She soon got a terrifying but somewhat... hollow response from Phoenix "I've always thought of the constant cycle of importance and irrelevance we experience in the universe, and how quickly we seek to protect it. Any threat to our power is a threat to ourselves, and no matter how reasonable or sensible the belief we are forced against it. We fear our own irrelevance. Despite the fact the stars are a large playing field where each star is caught in the constant life and death cycle a million times as the players make decisions, and while we bother ourselves with fickle and petty problems. It makes you wonder, how important are a few billion human lives in the large scale existence of the universe and why people spend their lives protecting them? Why do our morals dictate we care about such things, like the governments declaring what the public should and shouldn't believe, based on all of our fears and revelations." he said, his eyes darting while Sarah took note. "Is that all, Phoenix?" She asked, finishing her note "Y-Yeah..." he said walking off. Before long, those 4 hours has passed, and soon the Sentinel would arrive. Phoenix could wait, but Briggs was ecstatic. "Gods I hope they come soon, hate it here." he whispered repeatedly as time passed, Phoenix merely rested near the airlock, arms crossed in a somewhat deep slumber, which drew the attention of Burden and Anna away from their otherwise unremarkable tasks. Anna being the first to crouch next to him and look at him "I know you're there." Phoenix said softly while Anna looked at him "I'm good with that sort of thing, got it from my mother." he continued. Within five minutes of the Sentinel's arrival, Sinvet, Coris and Sarah stood looking at the group. Sinvet started off the goodbyes "Good luck out there. You'll need it." he said, Coris stood next "Be safe, do not fall for the Rebel trickery." he said, as the Sentinel docked and the rest of the team left. Sarah grabbed Phoenix's arm and handed him a booklet "Write down how you feel after every mission. Then have it sent to me. There's something special about you, don't forget about that." she said, softly but grimly, before Phoenix nodded and walked off.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Chapter 3: Cleanse and Burn

Phoenix entered the Sentinel, the familiarity was instantaneous. The soldiers, the interior, the thumping of the large spider still in the vents. But there was no time for R&R, he wandered to the bridge and requested a meeting of all his fleet admirals, meeting them in the Atrium. "Gentlemen, we are under stress. The rebellion WILL crush the Federation military within a week, and we will be next unless we take action. Our object is here within the Messiah Sector, multiple planets creating Nexus Class Flagships. For this operation, we will not be using the standard fleet formation and will instead be customized for this operation. The P.F.V. Purgatory will launch an orbital planetary flame bombardment, same with the Purge and Crusader, to the other two planets. Meanwhile the rest of the fleets will be in the center of the sector, the flagships Leviathan, Invictus and Sentinel will be surrounded by a large fleet security detail. Drop pods will attack the planets within the sector, and clear them out. High casualties are to be expected." he said to his large audience of Admirals "United we Stand divided we fall!" they all repeated, out of the room and into their ships. Hours later, the robotic voice of the Sentinel's A.I. Spyglass chattered over the intercom "Entering Messiah Sector. ETA: 5 minutes". Within those five minutes Phoenix returned to the bridge, staring into the sector as other ships surround the 3 flagships. "All ground units, prepare for planetfall. ETA... 2 minutes. Standby." Spyglass said, prompting running to drop pods while Phoenix stared down onto the planet "Commencing orbital Barrage... ETA: 10 seconds" Spyglass chattered before the planet was engulfed in flame "CLEANSE and BURN" he said, before Phoenix and company entered a drop pod, which promptly launched alongside others. With a loud thud, the pod impacted the ground, the door popped open and and everyone ran out into a hustle and bustle of a battle near victory. Buildings and grass like flora set alight by the orbital bombardment, as the large construction of a rebel flagship twisted and turned as the supports were broken, except a select few. The wings of the flagship were missing, along with bits of the hull and weapons missing. The construction was similar to that of a missile launcher, the large flagship within the middle of the two stilts, from which reparation arms repaired what damage they could, coupled with some repair drones mobilized about, attempting to build more bits of the flagship as it failed to launch. Phoenix took immediate notice of the 2 support stilts holding the flagship up, the ship was barely damaged from the bombardment, there was no easy way to destroy it without letting it fall onto the ground.

As soldiers scurried about in the view of the fiery sky, clearing out command centers and satellite arrays. Phoenix and company ran toward the large main structure that held the flagship. They soon found themselves in a center of fire and flame, Barracks' and control centers around them, near hangers holding gunships, they looked around feverishly. The air reeked of burnt flesh and metal, as burnt corpses lie scattered about the planet, little more then blackened skeletons, lacking any identifying markings of what they were. They looked about feverishly, concerned as to the whereabouts of the rebel soldiers before they finally heard a rustling. Weapons raised they looked at the vector where the sound came from, within seconds a dog, a German Shepard came trotting out of the small alleyway between a tracking station and command center, panting and covered with ash, but otherwise untouched. "Aw, it's cute." Anna said, petting it while Phoenix went into the alley, only to find a rebel covered in burn marks and ashes, lying face up in some rubble. Phoenix gently kicked the body and heard a gasp as the body shook a little, the dog walking back over, licking his face. "That your dog?" Phoenix asked "Agh... N-no she's not mine." the rebel replied "Briggs, get over here." Phoenix yelled, looking back "Get this man back to the Sentinel, get him some medical attention. Got it?" he asked, getting a nod from Briggs as he carried the unconscious rebel back to the U.P.F lines. Anna sat petting the dog before holding the collar "Sasha, her name is Sasha." she said, looking at the small bead on the collar with the dog's name inscribed on it. "Can we bring her with us?" Anna asked, looking up at Phoenix "...Sure. Why not?" he said, smiling while Anna fastened the dog's bulletproof vest. "Well commander, what now?" Griffin asked sarcastically "We find a way to disable those launch clamps, and cause the whole thing to collapse." Phoenix said, picking up his rifle and walking toward the launch structure. They wandered in and out of the cluster of structures until they reached a new military sector, as they exited the empty area between the control area with satellites and tracking centers, to the defense area, they saw a large line of bunkers with small trenches in between them. The path to those bunkers was covered in white asphalt, to the concrete of the rest of the facility. "There's probably mines down there, we're gonna need to find a way around." Phoenix said, looking down at the asphalt "How?" Adrian asked "I dunno, but we're gonna need to find a way." Phoenix replied "Any advice?" he continued "Maybe toss a few grenades and hope for the best?" Burden said, pointing. "I don't have any better ideas" Phoenix replied, taking 3 grenades off his belt and tossing them liberally into the field, before running through the field, followed by his comrades. They ran through the minefield and laser fire, hearing explosions deafen them as lasers hit them on accident, Phoenix finally made the run to the trench, which was empty. Seconds later, Anna, Burden, Griffin and Adrian entered the trench as well, gasping. sweating and snicking in disbelief that they had made it as far as they did. With a deep breath, Phoenix tossed a grenade into the left bunker, then running into the right side bunker, clearing it out with his pistol. "It's clear, c'mon." Phoenix said after he cleared the bunker, walking out into the next trench. He looked over the back of the trench, the sight of the next sector within his grasp. Phoenix (And soon, his company) tossed his rifle over the top and climbed into the small empty zone behind the bunkers, a defensive stronghold no doubt. They ran past this area and into a cargo loading bay, where a large platoon of rebels took cover on a stairway, shooting downwards, as red bolts impacted the area where a cargo loader lay destroyed, and a small group of soldiers took cover. Phoenix and his team ran over behind the loader, Griffin and Anna taking potshots at the rebels all the way. Once he reached it, Phoenix looked at the young distressed faces of the soldiers as red lasers and blue plasma impacted around them. "Where's the rest of your squad?" Phoenix asked while his friends opened fire "DUNNO SIR! DEAD I ASSUME!" the soldier said "What's your name?" Phoenix asked, looking over the wreck to shoot some rebels in the open. "CORPORAL TONY SIR! THAT'S DAVID OVER THERE, EDWARD OVER THERE AND JACK RIGHT HERE" he said, pointing toward each soldier as he yelled.

Tense minute after tense minute passed like hours while gunfire was traded in the form of desperate and terrified potshots, random engagements, desperate return fire without the express interest of hitting anything. Even though neither side was actually afraid, they could sense the other's unrelenting sense of resolve and preparedness. And it terrified them. They knew the other could fight them, and win. The odd sense of equality and fear from it, the sense that one could end the other, and that they need to avoid it, though it was looming and ever present. And powerful despite it. The teams shot each other in short bouts with no intention of killing, exhaling and gasping before they do so. These bouts quickly ended as the rebels retreated, seemingly eons had passed in this bout, but they ran to the upper levels, to fight on their terms. Phoenix wasn't about to fall for it. "SQUAD! RALLY TO ME!" he said, moving to the center in front of the the large, square, warehouse. "Comm check." Phoenix said, crouching down as his comrades formed a circle with him a part of it, getting responses from each member.

"Edward, copy."

"Tony, copy."

"Griffin, copy."

"Burden, copy."

"Adrian, copy."

"Anna, copy."

"David, copy."

"Jack, copy."

As these words were spoken, Phoenix felt a rush, a sense of preparation and enjoyment, like he was about to ambush the enemy, a sense of awe and a rush of adrenaline. This sense of joy was interrupted when Burden walked up to him, looking at the square building in front of them "There is higher ground..." he said "This was planned." Phoenix said "They'll expect us to assault their position. If we hold our ground they'll fight against us on our terms, without knowing it. We coax them out into an ambush, they'll assault like we're holding this position, but we'll ambush them regardless. This should finish them." Phoenix continued, before holding his hand against Burden to hear something. The stark sound of trampling feet down metallic stairs, and armor sliding down ropes, followed by footsteps on the metal floor. "They're all around us, they'll force us to route by assaulting us from every direction. Anna, Jack, take cover on the left side. Adrian, Tony, do the same on the right. Avoid detection at all costs. Everyone else, prepare for engagement around our position. Got it?" Phoenix said, pointing to bits of crates and areas around the sides of the area they held. The remaining soldiers looking around and holding, whispering, aiming. Minutes passed like days, the air was heavy, and the tension was almost visible. Only Phoenix was calm. Soon, the footsteps grew louder, the footfalls more prevalent, the presence of the rebels near. They looked around in a instance of instinct, the rebel soldiers moving around to them. Anna and Jack executed a select few, as Adrian and Tony did. But these efforts were ignored by the main battle, as semi-automatic rifles boomed into the air as they shot feverishly at the soldiers, the constant bangs of gunfire and pews of rebel engagement, they held their ground without moving, even while the four away soldiers moved about in cover. The colossal magnitude of the battle was soon realized, as bolts of plasma and small beams of red lasers cut through Edward, leaving him on the ground, dead. Followed by Griffin tossing his rifle onto the ground and pulling out his sidearms, shooting at rebels while Phoenix stood behind him, shooting rebels individually as the battle progressed. Within minutes that seemed to pass like hours, the battle was over. The corpses of Edward and Jack laid on the ground, a degree of smokiness in the air as the smoke from the muzzles of the U.P.F rifles. They regrouped as they realized the battle was over, and the casualties could be far, far worse.

They pressed on, moving to the large structure of the Flagship as soldiers committed untold atrocities to allow their advance, while explosives from orbit set fire to the untold hundreds of surviving rebels, and gods know what else within those areas. Bombs and rockets flew around the construction clamps, the sole thing holding the structure up. To no avail, the combat could only be ended by Phoenix, if could possibly destroy the flagship and route the hostile forces, forcing them to abandon the facility and retreat across the scorched planet's surface. Phoenix looked up upon the structure, to the right was a construction center that organized the construction of the Flagship, and the left which held the logistics section, along the lines of electricity, clamp release, and things of the like. Phoenix motioned for his team to follow him, mumbling "Let's move" before moving left to the logistics control center. Adrian and Burden stood against the sides of the door, with a nod they opened it and cleared the first room, finding no rebel crew members scurrying about like rats.

"It's clear." Adrian yelled to his comrades behind him who promptly entered and stood around them "The control panel for the clamps is likely at the top level. We should assume that the elevators will not function, and we'll have to fight our way to the top. Or that the rebels will bomb the entire center if we make too much progress." Burden said while Phoenix thought the same thing. With a happy and supportive nod from Adrian, the team pushed on, engaging the few rebel soldiers on the first floor in professional silence, calling out little other then the positions of the aggressors, or the confirmation of their termination. Within five minutes, the first floor was clear. With a simple motion and a short conformation, they pressed on, the rebels on the next floor had a simple plan: When they pressed through, fall back and take up a defensive position. Then engage the Phoenix's squad on their terms. This plan would have worked on anyone else, however it was stopped by Phoenix lighting the entire area alight. Before pushing on. Within ten minutes, the area was clear, so they moved to the next floor. "Elevator, let's see if it works." Griffin said, seeing an elevator near the doors exiting the stairwell to the new floor. They walked over, slowly and expecting it to be a trap. However it wasn't, they entered the rather large elevator, and decided to take it to the top floor, and avoid further rebel contact, and did.

As they relaxed in the elevator, Anna laying on Phoenix's shoulder, Burden laying with his legs out, Griffin and Adrian standing next to each other, and Briggs sitting down in the center of the elevator. The elevator stopped dead, shaking everyone aboard it. Screams from rebels of "FLUSH EM OUT!" as they exited through the roof and grenades dropping down "C'MON! WE HAVE TO MOVE!" Phoenix yelled, reaching down to pull people up. They stood on top of the elevator, grenades missing them by inches as small bouts of fire came down from the rebels above. "We have to move!" Griffin yelled, shooting at a select few rebels in one of the open doors "Climb up the wires, keep your wits about you!" Phoenix yelled, followed by latching on the rope and climbing. They had gotten not five feet up the wires before they noticed Griffin holding his position below "GRIFFIN YOU GOT DUST IN YOUR EARS?! CLIMB YOU IDIOT!" Burden yelled, looking down while Griffin shot a soldier of his perch "JUST GO I'LL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" Griffin replied, reloading his weapon "Just keep moving!" Phoenix yelled, climbing further. The air was tense as time itself seemed to stop dead, they climbed, Griffin finally coming to his deluded sense and climbing with them, until they were out of the enemy's range and safely into the control room. "Open, but be ready, gods know what we'll find here." Phoenix commanded once they reached the top floor, with a stark clinch of cringing metal as Briggs used his crowbar to breach the elevator door and the rest of the team entered, the area was empty and the select few scientists there disappeared with a few suicide gunshots. They ran for the controls, deactivated them, and watched on as the flagship in construction fell in a metallic moan of suffering and failure.

The crash shook the building, set it alight and caused it to collapse onto the one opposite of it. Burying the team under countless pieces of concrete rubble. The sparks of electricity ended as power as cut from the building, the team lying among the pieces of rubble in the control room, Phoenix being the first to arise "Ugh... Burden, Briggs, you up?" he asked "Y-Yeah... yes I'm up." Burden said "I copy" Briggs said coldly "Anna, Griffin, Adrian, you up" Phoenix asked getting responses from them in order

"Yeah, yeah I'm good"

"Woo... I'm not just good I'm fucking fantastic!"

"Argh... I copy."

They looked around the rubble, finding no obvious way out, the light was minimal but prevalent, they had hoped for nothing more other then escape. "Well... we're trapped." Burden said, looking on at the rubble "We'll need to blow a way out...." Briggs said, picking up his rifle "Yeah? Well how?" Burden asked "I dunno, maybe we can use a grenade or something?" Briggs said "No, too risky. We need to dig a way out." Phoenix replied. "You're kidding right? There's no way." Burden said "Well, we need to find a way. Try where the exit was. Maybe it didn't get hit as bad." Phoenix continued, pointing to where the doorway was. Adrian went over to the remains of the doorway, and managed to dig through it into the remains of the elevator shaft, with minimal damage "Hey! We can climb through here!"

They walked through the remains, finding multiple rebels crushed under concrete and advanced stone, until they reached a crushed exit in the second tower. They walked into the second tower, falling apart quickly as the supports were crushed, they ran toward the sunlight and jumped into the exit. Adrian and Burden being the first two out, followed by Briggs and Griffin, Anna and Phoenix being the last ones out. The clouds dissipated, the ruins of the flagship mostly burned, but the remains of the battle and the soldiers still there. Though no battle itself could be seen. "Spyglass? What just happened?" Phoenix asked over the comms "Soldiers retreating, orbital bombardment in 3 minutes." the A.I. replied. "WHAT?!" Phoenix yelled getting no response "We need to move NOW" Phoenix continued to his team, before running to the remains of the dropship hanger. They began to run, walking toward the remains of an outpost, before they heard a distinct "DIE FEDERATION SCUM!!" from a historically inept rebel, as the red orbs of lasers crackled through the air and into Briggs' chest. His blood spraying all around as the select soldier was gunned down by multiple gunmen, steel bullets tearing through his muscle and bone, killing him before he impacted the ground. "MAN DOWN" Griffin yelled after the rebel collapsed, running to Briggs, seeing his pale face with small drips of blood oozing out of the side of his mouth, he coughed as he tried to speak "Agh... this... hurts...". Phoenix motioned for Adrian and Burden to pick him up, as blood oozed from his open wound in his stomach, carrying him as they ran across the ruins, questions at a minimal as they ran for cover, they reached the hanger, running left into the control center before closing the door and laying Briggs down near the window, and everyone else ducking into corners. "40 SECONDS TO FLAME BOMBARDMENT!" Burden yelled, getting responses from every soldier.

"10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2..." Phoenix counted, before the trademark whistle of the shells coming into atmosphere (Accompanied by a roar) interrupted him. Anna in his chest as he looked away from the fire and flames bursting through the window, causing Briggs to roll over as everyone else looked away, praying that the gods would deliver them from the bombardment. Seconds later, the felt the roar of flames filling every orifice of the planet end, ashes and smoke filling their nostrils as they smelled the air. Anna and Phoenix standing up they walked out of the room, and looked into the sky. Black ash filling the sky, like a black snow, as ash also accompanied the rest of the rubble, and burned corpses of the soldiers who died or didn't escape. The team looked into the sky, gasping and breathing now that they could, satisfied that they had escaped the helplessness of the scenario. They trudged on to the evac point.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Chapter 4: Returning Home

They hobbled to the evac point, walking to the ship. Hauling Briggs with tired eyes and weary feeling among them. They walked, slowly and weakly to the ship. As they smiled at the sight of the evacuation ship, the dog showed up. "Aw... Phoenix can we keep her?" Anna asked looking down at the dog as it panted and barked happily "... Why not?" Phoenix said, smiling. Within the next few hours they were within the Sentinel again, the rebel fleet retreating. The acting captain of the Sentinel and the acting admiral of the fleet cheered in celebration as the rebels jumped away, the captains of the Invictus and Leviathan in similar states of celebration. They walked out of the hanger, accompanied by the few stragglers who left on the last Evac dropship. Celebration among the crew and soldiers as the intercom yelled the news "THE REBELS ARE DISENGAGING! WE GOT EM ON THEIR HEELS!". Even Adrian and Griffin were satisfied, even Briggs was smiling as medics carried him off into the medibay. Phoenix decided to wander alongside Burden and Anna to the bridge to see the acting captain's reaction. They opened the door and saw distinct celebration in the darkened bridge, people tossing their arms in the air and cheering. "Commander Phoenix! The bridge is yours sir, where to?" the captain said, saluting as Phoenix walked in "Take us home. Mission accomplished." Phoenix said, stating it loud enough for the entire bridge to hear. Getting further celebration.The team's celebration was retained as they took the multiple jump sequence to home territory, the newly colonized UPF Homeworld below them as they merged into their fleets once again. The crews going into their bunk rooms. Phoenix looked out onto their new home, with a sense of blood-lust. A desire to take further land. While the Federation was weak. Now was not the time for alliances, now was the time for war. This thought process was interrupted by a man in a what seemed like a priest outfit, albeit with different symbols. "Uh, excuse me sire." he said "The men are asking, what are your orders?". "M-men..?" Phoenix stammered "Yes sir. Your legions. What are your orders?" the man continued "Tell them to get some rest. Have them ready for inspection tomorrow." Phoenix replied cautiously "Yes sir. As you say!" the man said happily, running back like a demon was after him. Phoenix decided to get some rest himself, soon was laying next to Anna on their own bed again. "So, what a week." Phoenix said "Yeah... glad you're back." Anna replied, smiling "Glad to be back." Phoenix continued, before sitting down in silence next to each other. Anna breaking the silence

"... I missed you..."

Phoenix kissed her, and relaxed, falling asleep while she clung to his shoulder.

Tomorrow was a busy day.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Chapter 5: Inspection

Phoenix yawned and awoke. The careful whirs of auto-doors as people awoke around the bunk sector of the Sentinel. Phoenix carefully (Albeit, groggily) got off the bed and into the rest of the room, and further into the hallway as soldiers walked to get into uniform if they weren't already or stored them in their rooms. Phoenix, on the other hand, simply tightened his standard attire so it would look a tad more respectable. Though the haste with which it was done and the bedhead still gave way to the obviousness he just woken. Rubbing his eyes and yawning and stretching he walked to the bridge, the upper one above command and operations deck. And found his supplementary lesser captains taking careful maintenance of the ship and it's surrounding vessels. The Colossus in particular was getting some notice for an unknown reason as Phoenix could only barely see out the windows in the command tower. He sat on his chair and relaxed for a second. Looking out onto his fleet in the white and silver tiling of the room. "Ugh... what's on the to-do list for today Watson?" Phoenix asked groggily to his nearby adviser "Well for starters you need to meet with that quote 'Weird priest guy's' thing, military I guess. He's on the planet, a ship is awaiting you to take you to the designated LZ." Watson said. "Alright... fine. I'll be back in a few minutes." Phoenix moaned, walking off. He walked groggily and boringly to the ship, the details are far to boring and few to be mentioned here, let it be known he made his way to the ship and landed at the LZ where the weird priest man from before was, standing near 5 armored men in large bulky suits.

"So, what do these guys do? What are those guns and how do they work? And who are you?" Phoenix asked upon standing in front of the men and priest-like man. "Greetings sire, this is your loyal Purgatory Legion. Warriors baring the most armored of suits and the most deadly of weaponry. Bred to cleanse and burn in your name." the man said "I am Corvis, loyal servant of you and our general: Verixus Zitus, great priest of your name." he continued, before the men stood straight in their bulky red and white suits "In your name sire. All shall be cleansed. None shall survive." the men said, before Phoenix took the time to look at them. They stood in large suits, bulky with shoulder pads of large steel that no man could carry, then large armor plates padded around the arms and legs, the torso was large enough to make the smallest man to be bulky, square in nature with many great plates built to deflect the bullets of the enemy. The helmets were round with small eye slits, and most of the armor was painted white with red accents, one was carrying many ornaments of a macabre nature. Dried skulls and bones with small gems adorning them, among a golden phoenix that was set alight almost all the time, giving it a burning effect with a ruby within it, among smaller bits of trophies and golden eagles, at the apex of the breastplate was a large phoenix, facing forward built into the plate as an ornament covering the otherwise practical armor, it's beak and head pressed forward out of the suit, along with the tips of the wings, all of which were set alight and remained alight until Corvis decided to disable them. "Alright, I have a few more questions: One, what's up with the ornamentation and calling me 'sire'? Two, what's up with their weaponry?" Phoenix asked, nodding. "Oh yes sire, these warriors bare worship to you and you alone. Those ornaments are symbols of dedication to our great people, and you sire. The Purgatory Legion makes war in none other then your name, like the phoenix from ashes, they cleanse and burn all who defy you. Heretics and heathens may know no retribution, they shall be cleansed with yor holy fire." Corvis stated, bowing his head slightly before the ornamented soldier spoke up "My lord, these weapons are our kinetic rifles. They fire steel bars faster then the speed of sound and are capable of breaking metal from ships and flesh from bone. They are our greatest weapon." he said, bowing "I am Sergeant Adris, commander of this squad. May all know our fury." he continued, getting on his knees "Rise soldier." Corvis replied, motioning for him to stand before his ruler. With that, one soldier walked and picked up the weapon, it was so heavy even he with his bionic enhancements could not pick it up with ease, he picked it up by the hold, it was like a turret mounted and ripped off it's emplacement. The weapon itself was a large block, magazine below it was large, and the barrel was large as well. There was no stock to the weapon, it was built to be handled the way it was, a trigger was mounted near a small grip, and the trigger was large as well. The entire weapon was as large as a man, with the inspection of the weapon over, Corvis ordered his soldiers to fire at the rebel drone that was scouting above them. Upon firing they managed to fire 3 bolts each within 30 seconds, the bolts were plasma enhanced, and sped fast through the drone, tearing steel from hull en mass, before it fell to them, hitting one soldier in the chest (With little effect). "Holy hell, how much does this shit weigh?" Phoenix asked in surprise "The gun is a ton, the armor 4-5 tons depending on how many bionic enhancements had been applied to the subject before hand. They can lift at least twice that number, even with mounted weaponry." Corvis replied softly, his hands behind his back and a smirk on his face. With that finally said, the Sergeant picked out a sword and held it in his glove, and in his off hand he held a smaller variant of the Kinetic Bolt Rifle. Two other soldiers took up KBRs, and another soldier took out a sword and flamethrower, while the final soldier held a auto-cannon, shooting smaller bolts much faster, while in his his off hand he mounted large daggers. The squad stood completely armed, ready for their commander's orders "Lord Commander Phoenix, we are Terminus Squad. We are at your command. All shall know our fury, and all shall know your name." the Sergeant said bowing his head "Go and make yourselves useful to the citizens of our planet. There is no need for you to go to war right now. The so called 'Heretics' can be 'Cleansed' at a later time." Phoenix stated softly, to the dismay of the soldiers though they refused to show it.

"This all seems very much like a cult, Corvis. What is this about exactly?" Phoenix asked a sense of distress in his voice "Oh nothing sire! If you want I can lead you to our newly placed monastery within the third city of this planet, which is only a short walk away" Corvis said wearily, hunching backward. "You know what? Sure." Phoenix said with a slight degree of happiness and satisfaction in his voice (Which wasn't much), before Corvis lead him off to the nearby city of Raven Legios, which was the newest edition to the newly colonized UPF Homeworld. Something Phoenix was proud of. Corvis lead him about the city, the construction of multiple new buildings done by automated drones, all reminding Phoenix of the horrible situation they had been placed in, not even enough people to be considered anything but a large pirate organization. And yet they had 3 cities and religions within them, only a few of which were held by the larger factions across the universe. The UPF was never to be talked about, something they were happy with. Nebular storms created them, and silence among people would save them. Phoenix thought this as Corvis lead him into a large chapel, where people prayed in front of a large Golden Phoenix, the amounts of people praying was large for such a small faction, the priest stood preaching his words. The words were less of a religion like others, the thousands of other ones in existence, they were speaking of Phoenix as if he was a great warrior sent to deliver them, to forge them into independence and purge all of the so called heretics. Though Phoenix ignored the words themselves, one part stuck out to him. "...AND SO THE GREATER ETHEREAL BEINGS OF THE DIVINES ABOVE SENT DOWN A GREAT WARRIOR THAT WOULD EMERGE FROM ASHES TO CLEANSE AND PURGE AGAINST THE HORRID HEATHENS AND HERETICS OF HIS GREAT LANDS! WE ARE HIS PROPHETS! OUR LOYALTY IS HIS SHIELD, AND OUR CRUSADE IS HIS SWORD! LOYALTY AND PURITY IS ALL WE HAVE AND HE IS NOT ONLY OUR BEST DEFENSE, HE IS OUR ONLY DEFENSE! OUR CRUSADE BEGINS AND LET ALL FIND OUR FURY AND LET ALL BE CLEANSED!" the priest yelled to the praying mass of people, who sat in silence clutching a cross with a phoenix across the front, as they whispered prayers and took little notice of Phoenix himself, who took curiosity in the matter. Phoenix stood in awe and curiosity, the worship of either him, his existence, or the faction itself was something he had never seen before. He had no idea what they meant, or if he should care, he wondered what he did to deserve this. No one had any clue if he actually "Died" or not. His soldierly actions coupled with his desire and resolve to save the race and his position within the society as ruler may have sealed this as fate. Though he certainly did not want to be worshiped as a god or something of the like. The many "Crusades" he had been on before were victories barely won, and that was with the assistance of Spyglass, one of the best tactical AIs in the known universe. Even counting the Engi as AI. Phoenix, however, scoffed it off. Such worship made people happy, and did little harm to anyone who Phoenix was probably going to bring harm to anyway, or otherwise would die by fire, not that it mattered regardless. Phoenix simply shrugged, and walked out of the large church, with mixed feelings of the events that took place within, or what they meant.

Of course, there was still one question itching his psyche:

How was he supposed to get back onto the ship?

[DarkPhoenix141]

Chapter 6: The Fall of Purity

Phoenix wandered about the city, it was small but bustling, people got food from supply merchants or the large market on the sandy ground. He walked calmly about the city, a select few ships visible in the air, the Colossus in particular. He wondered what he did to deserve being worshiped like a god, he hated such special treatment. Being the focus of the universe was something he hated, being the Federation's last hope was only a small step above that, being worshiped as a god? Hated. This thought ended with a simple reminder: The battle of Requiem Pass. When they first stumbled upon this planet when searching for a new home, Phoenix was forced to lead the war against the rebels and native inhabitants. The most notable of these battles was Requiem Pass, a large sector of desert blockaded by crags and mountains, a strategic nightmare. Phoenix lead the doomed assault, the plan was perfect. He would assault using a large but mobile force, dodge the patrols and move fast through the two large (Which stood next to each other) rocks which rebels had based themselves on, and into the desert behind it. This plan failed before they could reach the rebel HQ, forcing Phoenix to battle his way out by using the sword all his generals used (Ancient blades, an honor to be in the vicinity of), until he could be evacuated. Killing over 300 rebels before both blades broke, and he was evacuated. The event was worthy of a status, or title. He decided events like that (Oddly frequent) would lead to any tribal beings to worship him, and in such grim times for his people as this he couldn't blame them for looking to him. His friends did this as it was. With that, he wandered about. Looking about the sights of the city, the general hustle and bustle of the city was only slightly greater then the bustle of your average city, people walking about to obtain their everyday items, the "Lower sector" of the city was heavily populated by people walking about the large market to purchase items, while the general downtown of the city was less populated as more people crammed into larger markets. There were no caste systems or any state of economy, people within the upper echelons of the city lived without difference to those in the lower areas, the larger buildings functioned little. Transportation was unused as the city was so cramped, urban as it was. Phoenix stopped, he decided he didn't want to walk around any further, he was bored with it. The bustle of the lower city's market place was no longer worth looking at. He wandered to the transportation center of the city, a small shipyard mostly meant to bring ships into orbit, rather then construct new ones. It was a relatively unknown fact (Partially because of the Phoenix Federation's ambiguity, anonymity, and obscurity, and partially because it hadn't been released in the interest of their survival) that the UPF had disbanded all fleets in favor of one large fleet, mostly composing of the final ships as no more were under construction, the lack of manpower was simply to pressing of an issue to have them constructed. Under this pressure, the UPF changed their battle doctrine in it's entirety, and demoted all previous High Commanders or generals to captain rank as advisers for Phoenix when he commanded them. The battle doctrine change was massive, involving a complete change of tactics from drawn out battles of attrition and taking and holding, to quick blitzes of well planned and organized attacks with minimal casualties in mind. Such attacks would involve the entire UPF fleet and military, risks would be minimal, compared to before when they would actively take risks to achieve their goals or other things. But such days had ended, and Phoenix contemplated with lust at the reminder of such days, when casualties were not an issue. For a second he contemplated the existence of the Purgatory Legion, and whether they were worthy of how they planned to go about warfare. On one hand, the Purgatory Legion had and extreme ability to survive injuries. and their lumbering movements but extreme offensive capabilities complimented the current ability of the Phoenix Federation to battle, acting as effective distractions or tough front line troops. On the other hand, the Dark Marines did such roles perfectly, albeit without large numbers or survivability. Phoenix decided to avoid the internal debate further and walk to the bridge as crew members and soldiers alike wandered about, crew members running and soldiers talking. Phoenix walked up a floor to the bridge and sat around the crew members manned the panels around the bridge, doing whatever was required of them. Phoenix's eyes wandered and darted about the cockpit, shifting from people walking about, to the stars and ships outside. The Praetorian and Colossus outside around the Sentinel itself, despite the Invictus and Leviathan (Actual flagships) being about somewhere else in the large mass of ships, where the Sentinel spearheaded. Such thoughts were, however, interrupted by the flashing and warning of imminent jumps, and the figure coming in was large enough to avoid scanners, yet it was jumping extremely fast. The entire crew got cold and panicked, the thought of a large ship entering the system large enough to flag warnings untold and the predicted size being half of the planet below them was enough to make even a courageous Dark Marine shiver and pace in fear. Phoenix looked on as the white and yellow flash burned his eyes as the large ship jumped into the system. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the ship, seeing nothing but a large black and silver mass. He scanned it and looked at the large ship. The sight was amazing. A large (Massive of untold size, 100 times greater then the Rebel Flagship, or it's companions created at shipyards) hulk of ships lost in slipspace, bundled together to form a large square figure, some ships identifiable on the exterior of the hull, others seemingly merged into the hulk itself. Some lanius ships, some Rebel ships, some Federation ships, some Engi ships some pirate ships, some Mantis ships, some Slug ships, some Rock ships, some Zoltan even. The entire mass was a large pile of ships lost or merged in slipspace. Though there was one thing Phoenix wondered: Why weren't there life forms? All functions onboard every ship seemed functional, and all reactors were being routed to a central core computer system, and AIs aboard seemed to have been merged into a central intelligence, though it seemed to be disabled.

Phoenix ran a few scans and realized that the hulk was a rare case. No life scans aboard the ship itself, yet there seemed to be reactors still active within every ship, those on board were likely driven to madness by the darkness. As doors had been destroyed and lights disabled, sensors as well. A theory emerged into Phoenix's mind: The ships were all fused in slipspace, which promptly jumped and collected more ships, leading to a large merge which likely took years to form. Despite that, Phoenix wanted to know what was inside. "Watson, get scanning and recon drones within, of every variety, I want that ship scanned ASAP." Phoenix said calmly, leaning into his chair with a sense of resolve and desire and preparation clear in his eyes and posture. 3 hours later, of rudimentary scans and thoughtful theories as many people talked about in whispers what the large metal hulk was, or what it was doing. Soon however, scans returned with multiple results. The hulk had something moving within it, as motion sensors triggered and flashed within, something moving fast. Scans revealed blood and large figures within, even though most of the camera drones were lost before they could return, something was hunting them. The hulk itself was spread into 50 decks, covering millions of ships and billions of rooms, and untold quadrillion of air vents and expanses. Each ship was only barely intact, independence from the rest of the metallic hulk was gone, the rooms and the occasional odd roofing error were the only thing separating each ship from the next. And despite the seemingly random nature of the event that formed such a hulk, it seemed it's life created it in perfection. Hot suns scorched the loose metals and ships into the rest of the hulk, asteroids fixed dents and there was a seemingly artistic creation behind it. Air-ducts were scattered and merged with others, as with rooms and such. The entirety of the life span of the hulk scorched it's exterior to black, and forged the entire ship into an intricate maze filled with some form of Minotaur within, that wasn't showing up on life scans.

Phoenix stood curious, no ship of his had been lost in slipspace, such an event such as this was rare. And needed to be remembered for future generations of all kinds. He laid in his chair, before finally thinking what to name the hulk "Hmm... let's codename it... The Fall of Purity. How's that sound?" Phoenix asked Watson. who stood beside him "Sounds good sir. What are your orders?". "I'm going in first to see what it's like within the hulk. After that, send in a squad of Purgatory Legion soldiers in if I specifically request it. All must wear a shoulder camera, which must be recording at all times to remind us of this historic event. Also, convert all footage from the drones and store it. Get a suit ready, along with some degree of weaponry. ASAP" Phoenix replied, standing up from his chair. Phoenix then walked over to the airlock where the small boarding pod was being prepared to launch him into the hulk, while he quickly put on his black space suit in the event the air within the hulk was disabled or irradiated. As he fiddled with the metallic gloves a man ran toward him, holding 3 papers dubiously in his hand. "S-SIR!" he puffed, bending over to catch his breath "W-we... we just found out that... we just found out that this thing's orbit is going to cause it to crash into the fleet, you need to destroy that damned thing before it crushes us!" he huffed. Phoenix thought of such an event, the slipspace jump likely allowed it to keep its momentum. jumping so close to the fleet and the new homeworld meant that within a few days the hulk would impact the planet, and the fleet in orbit. That was just encouragement for him to board, no longer just curiosity, or for a legacy. For the survival of the planet below him. With that, Phoenix nodded, put on his respirator and attached the rest of his helmet to it, and got inside the boarding pod, thinking carefully about the hulk itself. These thoughts left his mind slowly as the pod moved slowly and shook him a bit. With that, he pulled his hood over the helmet and moved his scarf out of the respirator. He took a deep breath, and held it until he felt metal impacting the hulk, Phoenix exhaled and pressed a key to release himself from the pod, the portion of the pod used to allow boarders to enter the ship detached itself, and Phoenix began floating into space. Phoenix looked about his helmet, eyes darting as fast as his thoughts as he began floating across the side of the hulk. he looked at his bracer on his left hand, looking about the buttons for RCS control, with a button press with his opposite hand he began floating around of his own control. Taking short breaths of anxiety as he floated over the a door of a ship on the exterior of the hulk, gasping in surprise as it closed behind him.

"Al-alright... air is clean. Air is present, room is good... Whew. Looks like I don't need this then" Phoenix whispered to himself, shortly before taking his helmet off and placing his respirator in the pocket of his suit, then walking forward into the small hallway. As he walked slowly into the small cramped hallways like all ships in this day and age are, he took out his flashlight and held it in front of him with his pistol in his opposite hand. He trudged about the small hallway, the cold air and breeze as air was generated into the entire ship, and darkness enveloped him from behind. He worried less about the dangers potentially lurking behind him, and more about how he planned to deal with them. Anxiety turned to a mix of resolve, preparation and adrenaline with each passing moment, he tried his best not to show it. Even though each second his fear grew, and adrenaline pumped through his veins. Droplets of sweat dripping down his neck and forehead with each passing second as he wandered about the small hallways. Instinct guiding him, resolve driving him, skill protecting him. Phoenix continued to trudge about the small hallway, occasionally entering a large room only slightly bigger then the hallways he was used to, yet after trudging for what seemed like hours he somehow knew had not made it far into the structure. Despite the fact no sensor in the known universe could detect him within the darkness and metal of the hulk. He traveled for unknown miles before stopping within a small room. He walked to the back of the nearest wall, and hunched over, placing the flashlight on the ground to light the entire room. "Right, gotta move faster. Don't have a lot of time" Phoenix whispered to himself before picking up his flashlight and readying his weapon, before charging into the rest of the hulk. He ran for a few minutes before stopping at a door. Not because he couldn't gain access to the door, because of the candles and small lights scattered about the floor. Phoenix opened the door cautiously, aiming his weapon with one hand and supporting it with his flashlight hand. Moving left and following the candles and small light-sticks. Taking another left at the end of that hallway. The lights ended. He kept going down the smaller hallway, before sounds stopped him. He reacted quickly and knocked the small figure coming out of the small crawlspace, knocking it down onto a plate at one of the intersection of four hallways before shining his light on the figure.

The figure was a woman, she took immediate notice of Phoenix's weapon and held her hands up to both show she was no longer a threat, and to dodge the blue light in her eyes from his flashlight. "What's your name?" Phoenix asked quickly "Katie. Katie Anderson, you?" the woman replied "Commander Phoenix, why are you here?" Phoenix replied, nodding slightly

"Ship got caught in slipspace and I ended up here. You?" she said.

"Came in here to destroy this thing. Who are you?" Phoenix replied.

"I am, or was, an engineer aboard a Federation ship, weapons in particular, you?"

"Nothing I want to talk about."

"Where are you going exactly?"

"Dunno, but I'm planning to overload the reactors on each of these vessels and then escape... you wanna come?"

"S-Sure... I guess."

With that said, Phoenix helped her up, nodding and handing her pistol back to her. "Try to keep up" he said before walking forward into the dark hallway he nearly tossed her down. "What are you doing here?" he asked "Living. I had two friends but they're... gone. I set up a little camp in this sector of the hulk. A slice of home until this thing got boarded by salvagers. You here to scavenge what you can from this?" she replied, sticking close to Phoenix's flashlight "No, came here outta curiosity, now my entire fleet is in danger. Try to keep up." Phoenix said softly, looking over his shoulder to talk to Katie. They walked about the small hallway, Phoenix holding his rifle forward while looking about the hallways to the left and right of them if they came to an junction of hallways. They walked for what seemed like hours until Phoenix finally spoke up in a whisper "So... Who were your friends?" he asked looking looking over his shoulder slightly "Martin and Ethan... can we not talk about this? Please?" she replied, sighing "Alright, I get it. Let's just find a way to destroy this damned vessel." Phoenix muttered, before stopping in his place. "W-What's wrong?" Katie stuttered "Something's moving... hold this" Phoenix said, handing her the flashlight. She shined it in-front of them, revealing a large hunched creature picking at a corpse. A square head with a green glass on the front, an a slightly fat and plated body, with bony arms and 3 metallic claws on each hand, along with bony legs with 2 sharp toes. The figure looked oddly familiar to Phoenix, along with the hissing sound it made as he aimed his rifle at it. The thoughts shifted back to months ago, he now knew what the creature was, and what to do. With a flash that lit the entire hallway and the ones at the sides of it, the create collapsed with a hole in it's glass, further hissing and screeching was heard to the left and right of them, killing any sense of satisfaction he had from killing the creature. Millions of thoughts raced through his mind as the Engi stomped down the hallways around him. He now knew where these creatures came from, something that long since troubled him. Trapped in slipspace for millions of years as ships were formed and added to the hulk, these Engi and people were driven to madness, humans lost all sense of humanity and became animals. Phoenix stopped thinking and started Shooting, firing multiple short bursts down each hallway multiple times until the stomping stopped. Katie shined the light down each hallway, only to see multiple corpses of maddened Engi down each, shell casings at Phoenix's feet. She looked down at the light reflection and saw the shell casings, curious "What are you shooting exactly?" she asked "Bullets" Phoenix simply replied, continuing down the hallway. "Bullets? Really? Like laser rounds or something?" Katie continued "Nope. Just normal bullets. Steel is doom." Phoenix said calmly, taking a magazine out of his rifle and swapping it with a full one, while Katie stood confused at the prospect of firing sharpened steel at things in comparison to plasma or lasers. They remained silent until they found themselves at a vent. "I used to hide in these vents, maybe we can use them to get around." Katie said, pointing at the small opening in the wall. "Let's go then." Phoenix replied sliding into the vent. Only to find himself in a large room between the walls. "How were you planning to destroy this thing anyway?" Katie said, sitting on her knees and looking at Phoenix curiously "I dunno. I was planning just to blow it into oblivion, but that isn't an option. I guess now I need to overload the reactors and hope for the best. These all need to be controlled at a single junction... somewhere." Phoenix replied, falling back onto the wall. "I might know where." Katie said, smiling "The center of the hulk. All of the AIs aboard the ships were disabled in slipspace, but the first ship to be absorbed wasn't. A Federation ship with a high class AI is in the center of the hulk. From there you can probably cut a few wires and disable the safeties for the reactors, which will destroy every ship aboard this hulk." Katie said "Good luck with that though. Ethan tried and he didn't even make it to the next level..." she continued, looking down.

Phoenix smiled, his mind had come to a simple conclusion:
Challenge accepted.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Chapter 7: A Line to Hold

Phoenix sighed, he looked up at the roof of the small crawl space they resided in. Thinking if how he could possibly reach the control center of this infernal vessel. Or if he could accomplish anything there. He also wondered how much time had passed since he entered the hulk. It seemed like it had been years since he opened the door to the hulk and walked in, eager to forge a legacy and satiate curiosity. He also wondered what he was fighting, the creatures within the vessel were not Engi, no Engi he had ever heard of had mauled a human for no reason, nor had they shot the person in the side of his head before mauling him further. It was clear something was mutating them, or other people on the ship. Such events in slipspace were not uncommon, though statistically unlikely. He shifted his wandering mind, he needed to focus on destroying the vessel. All would be lost if the hulk destroyed his homeworld, or his fleet, or both. No amount of ordnance would destroy this hulk before it did considerable damage to either the fleet (Even if they moved) or the planet itself. With a huff, he quickly pulled himself into a vent before Katie cried out: "Where are you going?". Phoenix turned over and looked down the vent "Where do you think?" he replied before continuing to crawl. "Are you crazy? You're not gonna reach that control room! M-Martin tried and he..." she cried, before cutting off and placing her head in her hands with tears in welling up in her eyes. "Relax, I'll be fine" Phoenix said softly "What about me?" Katie yelled into the vent "We'll sort that out." Phoenix replied, turning over and shining his light in her face for a second before soldiering on into the exit of the vent, and landing face first onto the iron grating of a merchant vessel. While Phoenix pulled himself up, rubbing his cheek and cursing the gods for damning him to this hulk with a time limit to match, Katie pulled herself through the vent as well, before running into the same problem her predecessor, albeit with a greater degree of injuries as she ran through the vent feverishly and ended up nearly launching herself into the wall and attracting a greater band of attention. With the familiar thump of a plate getting impacted by a human skull, Phoenix looked down from his ramblings. Katie missed the wall by inches and had there be a so-called "Structural" spike there she would be dead, to the beginning of mixed feelings from Phoenix, who huffed and pulled her off the floor. She smiled shyly but kept silent while they remained in such close vicinity of Engi (Or maybe she was just shy like that). Though the estranged creatures were certainly not the normally calm and serious Engi, he ignored this however as he soldiered on in the somewhat lit corridor.

They walked for what seemed like seconds before they reached a stairwell to the second floor of the vessel, he walked up the white and grey steps for anxious minutes until he reached the second floor of the ship, before realizing that his best method of escape to the next floor would be to find a weak-point in the hull and breach it. Moving to the next ship and proceeding that way until he reached the center of the hulk. He continued to wonder when this special occasion turned so very wrong, and if it could be salvaged in any way. He walked about the merchant ship, blood spatters and general messages of despair (Some written in blood and others using a superb pen or pencil, that Phoenix secretly wanted for himself) around the floor and walls, before making a judgement on the thickness of the bondage between the two ships at one point, from which be began tearing away at with a tool. As fire etched away at the fragile hull until there was little there, Katie watched on, the sparks reflecting in her eyes, curiously. Before long a large hole was created in-between ships. Phoenix exhaled and jumped into the ship above him, before pulling Katie up through the hole. She dusted herself off while Phoenix pulled out a device from his pocket. "What's that then?" Katie asked, smiling, "It's nothing special. It bounces a signal off an AI core signal, something's within this ship keeping these reactors from overloading, this thing will find them. Give a few minutes and we'll get a ping." Phoenix replied, looking up from his device as it scanned the large hulk, taking a few minutes before it came back with nothing. That was discouraging, but they soldiered on none the less, until they scan could reach the center of the metallic hulk and retrieve a signal, all was worthless. Though that intrusion was not going to go unnoticed. Any intelligent AI would receive the signal sent out by the tracker, any trace it back about the vessel, using the smaller AIs about the ship to speed up the travel of the trace. Phoenix anticipated this, and shut off the device before motioning for Katie to follow him while he jogged to the end of the hallway before turning right and into another straight hallway, one of trillions in the hulk. They continued to wander until they were sufficiently away from the spot they pinged first, Phoenix stopped and crouched down, activating the device again. Waiting a few minutes before he got a return ping. "THERE we go! Let's find that, core and get outta here!" Phoenix said excitedly, while Katie smiled realizing their ordeal was almost over.

They ran, for hours which seemed like minutes, the sameness of the hulk was strangely maddening, to where time seemed to warp until something caught Phoenix's eye. He stopped to look on at the wall, he dusted a little bit of the letters off before reading them: "GNS..." something or other, he couldn't read the rest at it had been blocked out by the words "BLOOD WILL BE SPILLED IN THE NAME OF THOSE WHO TOILED" near the corpse of a man who had been butchered in multiple ways, Phoenix couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the sight. With that they now had a location and a sensor to tell them if they're getting closer or not. So they continued jogging down, the pinging getting stronger every few minutes. The walk was monotonous but they soldiered on until the beep began to die down. "We're moving father away..." Phoenix said, stopping when he heard the return ping. He looked behind him, and ran down a hallway to his right, continuing to run until a door stopped him, he shut off the device. "This should be the place." Phoenix said, reloading his weapon before he and Katie stood at the door. With a nod they both ran into the room, finding it empty except for a small box, which obviously contained an AI. They looked about the room before running to a control panel, a short second was spent hacking it before Phoenix decided "Dammit IT class" and shot the panel multiple times, happy that his 2 years spent learning computer programming wasn't to waste. Explosions echoed about the ship, rattling them from the heart of the hulk. They walked out of the left side door and ran down the hallway, stopping as large banging muffled slightly, and the impacting of steel bars. They ran into a large room, the first in hours, with 4 large soldiers that Phoenix recognized instantly: Purgatory Legion. One soldier adorned in extravagant armor removed his helmet and walked over to Phoenix while other soldiers engaged the many figures emerging from the darkness: Engi. As the 2 grunt soldiers of the squad engaged from the entrances of the hallways around them, the auto-cannon soldier began to engage those entering the room and the flamer cleared entire hallways. The sergeant stood to Phoenix, shooting his small pistol looking at the hallway he guarded until the final Engi fell dead. "My lord? It is me, Sergeant Adris. We were sent to locate you aboard this infernal vessel, it collapses around as we speak! Make way to our Assault Craft, as soon as you can! Leave us here sire, we were born for this." He stated calmly, despite the action occurring around him. Phoenix ran down the hallway Adris guarded at first.

While they ran like hell itself was behind them, Adris and company prepared themselves, a soldier looking over his shoulder "We live... and die... as brothers." he stated "Yes brother, glory awaits us. Let none survive." another stated. The next wave howled from the darkness, and charged from the hallways, the sounds of plasma enhanced bolts shooting down into the hallways as a Legionaries backed into the room further. Shooting vigorously. Legionaries heard the sharp sound of grating tearing as an Engi came from the vent behind them, killing one Legionary before it was killed by the auto-cannon soldier. They continued to fight until one reached the flamer baring soldier, only to be killed by his blade while the entire hallway was enveloped in cleansing flame. Another grunt bashed an Engi that got too close, finishing him off with a blast to the head, before he could react however another pounced him, killing him as he moaned a final prayer, only to have his corpse and the Engi charred by fire, a second predator came from the side of the flamer unit, only to be skewered on his blade and bashed onto the ground like scum. He promptly flamed the room from where the Engi came from, clearing it of a horde. The auto-cannon cleared out multiple Engis as they swarmed him, however one got a successful slash on his helmet, knocking him onto the floor before he fired multiple shots into the Engi's head, before standing up and bashing another beast and engaging him multiple times. The sergeant backed up and stood back to back with the cannon baring units. "It was an honor, sir." the cannon baring soldier said "Of course Aergus" Adris said, nodding as he charged a horde of Engi and the cannon soldier shot as Engi emerged from all around him, finishing him off as they mobbed him and brutalized him. Adris looked behind him, his squad was broken and his master fled him, he was alone and surrounded. He prepared himself for glory. He backhanded a predator before shooting him with his pistol, continuing to shoot down the hallway until he was pounced from behind, an Engi stood above him and cleaved the left side of his face, only to be shot in the face while Adris stabbed another beast that charged him, backing up and a beast grasped at him from the side, clawing at his armor before he was knocked onto the ground and run threw with a blade. An Engi took that opportunity to make headway on him, stabbing him with his claws and slashing at his chest and throat, only to be shot along with another Engi that emerged from Adris' left flank. Another Engi pounced him from the right before another also grasped him from the left, shot the one on the left in the head before pushing the one on the right off him and shooting him aswell. As more hordes besieged him he began stabbing and slashing, tearing the Engi apart while his armor was doused in oil based blood and nano-feeding material. Engis swarmed him however and tore his armor to shreds, leaving marks of slashed parts of his suit , tearing him up from within as well. He picked up his helmet and backed himself to corner. Putting the helmet on and saying a prayer ending with "Purge the Engi filth!" as he readied himself. He shot down the hallway constantly, briefly reloading until he stabbed another Engi, proceeding to engage the Engi once more. He continued his purge, for what seemed like hours as the hulk collapsed around him, hordes of Engi remained as bits and corpses, mere husks as they were slashed and torn to bits by his blade and weapon. The explosions drew closer and larger. More Engi swarming him, he continued to kill and murder, the sides of his helmet lined with metallic scars as some Engi swarmed him. Dozens attempting to attack him at once, but failing at the small size of the hallway, he killed them all until the Engi attacks died down. He smiled, thinking he weathered the storm. Until the part of the hulk he resided on collapsed and he fell into orbit, his suit leaking blood as he floated in the vacuum of space, his last sight being the Assault Craft heading for the Sentinel as parts of the hulk collapsed onto the planet, his life support systems keeping him alive as he hit the planet, the suit sealing up as he passed out, life support keeping him alive, if only barely.

Katie and Phoenix made it to the Assault Craft, the fate of the squad both known and unknown to them, they walked into the ship, seemingly years later, both looking shocked and sleepy, bits of the hulk falling onto the planet, dealing little damage. Briggs ran up to them, a smile on his face and his hood down for once "Phoenix, Phoenix! I can't believe it, you did it! The hulk is gone!" he exclaimed "...and who's this?" Briggs continued seeing Katie "Oh! Um... this is Katie, I found her on the hulk...", Katie smiled and bowed her head slightly if the actions of the Purgatory Legion were any indication of how people were intended to act aboard this vessel. "Well then, if you're going to stay with us you're in luck, we have a few spare rooms for you! So you don't have the unfortunate pleasure of sleeping in the cargo bay..." Briggs said, motioning for her to follow him. Meanwhile, Phoenix walked over to the window, looking down at the trillions of city sized bits of the hulk falling onto the planet, Anna and Griffin looking down at the planet while Burden and Adrian stared at a computer a crewman was using. "Whoa... you think they're okay down there...?" Anna asked before Griffin could say something similar "Hopefully, a lot of that thing was vaporized, some of it should melt, it's not gonna be that bad." Phoenix whispered "Yeah... doubt it... bad things tend to happen to a lot of good people that usually results in death. But hey, who am I to judge what the universe decides to drop on who? That would be judgmental, and we ALL know that isn't me!" Griffin said sarcastically, smiling and walking off before Burden ran over to Phoenix "Dude, we got a problem, something we need to talk about. Right. Now." Burden urged "Hmm?" Phoenix huffed "Something came out of that debris, something dangerous. What happened on that hulk Phoenix?" Burden asked urgently "There were... things." Phoenix said thinking of something to make up quickly "What things?!" Burden asked angrily "Uh... there were... Engi." Phoenix said sheepishly, causing Burden's eyes to widen and his jaw to drop "What. The. Hell." Burden gasped, before the attention of Anna and Adrian was drawn to the conversation. "What's the problem? The hulk was destroyed! They should all be dead" Phoenix said humorously smiling "No, whatever does things are, they're alive and well. And a few trillion of them are on that planet... we need to figure out what those things are, and finish this..." Burden stammered, "Alright... get the troops ready. NOW!" Phoenix sputtered, startling Burden slightly before he ran to get the soldiers ready for what would come next. "Guys, get everyone and get everyone to the deployment room, we got a problem..." Phoenix stammered quickly, before Anna and Adrian ran off to grab the rest of the team.

While a rather large horde of soldiers stood in the first launch bay of the Sentinel (Raven team and Phoenix's friends included), constantly whispering and moaning at how they were forced to go out to battle mere days after they launched an attack on the rebel shipyard, Griffin was busy dragging the metallic husk of the so called "Engi" with a new found revelation about the drones that proved something that had sat in the back of everyone's mind since anything in particular happened. As Griffin calmly walked into the bay (In a somewhat comedic manor) the talking stopped as people looked at the husk. Phoenix taking major notice. "Hey guys! Look what I found!" Griffin yelled, smiling while looking over the corpse "Griffin what the hell-" someone started before Griffin hushed him "That's not the interesting part, look at this..." he said dusting off a shoulder plate, revealing the trademark insignia of the Rebellion. "THAT'S A REBEL SECURITY DRONE!" Yelled one soldier from the crowd, before a Purgatory Legion soldier walked up to the husk "We cannot allow this incursion to go unpunished!" he spout in his metallic voice filter through his helmet. "Alright, alright then SETTLE DOWN" Griffin yelled, a great degree of calmness in his voice despite the volume of his speech: "We'll settle this later, the Rebels got their own battles to fight, and we got ours. We are not going to fucking let this shit stay on our soil! We're going to kick these tin cans off our planet and then sort the rest out. Now shut up and get in your pods, ASAP!". The speech grew a slight degree of inspiration from the many soldiers, giving enough cause for them to charge on into the pods without any of their trademark humor, Phoenix now had a greater degree of confidence in his sanity knowing that these were not the friendly Engi that he had come to know and make fun of on a daily basis. He had come to the conclusion based on the ships he navigated within the hulk that a Rebel Rigger was transporting these drones to god knows where, and had gotten caught in the giant hulk somehow. Regardless, he ignored this as he stepped out of the pod, and walked over to a commanding officer in the trademark black hood and breastplates. "Derrickson, I want soldiers to set up a defensive perimeter wherever you can, do not allow these things to push on into the territory, got it?" Phoenix muttered "Got it sir!" the officer said eagerly before running to the drop pod. In a flash of fire among the ship hundreds of small steel pods containing soldiers exited the ship. trillions of them to the point where the tiny pods covered the planet, and the soldiers were forced to regroup.

Something knocked the pods of course, Derrickson had no idea what happened, all he heard was twisting metal before the explosion that launched the pod out of the ship, before long he impacted the planet. The impact was far worse then he thought, normal launches have generally gentle landings, the landing here through Derrickson and the soldiers in his pod about the small space, until they were all about the pod, and the door collapsed. They walked outside, into a large mist and fog, thousands of pods had endured similar things. Derrickson and his team walked further into the fog, walking for stressful minutes until they encountered another pod of soldiers in a similar position. Hours upon hours of regrouping later, a force of Dark Marines and Purgatory Legionaries was created, hundreds of thousands of them moved to a small and deserted town, blood on the walls and corpses lining the streets, which told a grisly story all it's own. They stood in the small town, disturbed at the sights of their opposites, however the Purgatory Legion commander spoke up. He stood in front of the soldiers, and spoke softly "We have had our differences in the past. Today however, we meet on the same field of battle. But not as enemies, as warriors against a common threat. We Legionaries are taught that we are all brothers before death. But today, he who stands with me, shall be my brother.".

A similar story could be told for the standard soldiers east of the Dark Marines, with some exception: They had regrouped far faster, thanks to radio messages and luck, and thus came under attack from drones much sooner. The forces were scattered about the fog and in the largest city on the planet Alpha Imperis things were far worse. The small forces could not mobilize among the city effectively, the open fog was suddenly very appealing compared to the large structures where drones can assault from at any time. After Derrickson and company found and fortified the city, the normal soldiers had gotten the city defended and regrouped most of their stragglers, till most of the city was covered in small squads of soldiers discussing how horrible the current situation was. Among those soldiers, was a trooper who reappears multiple times across history, David Athagear. He stood on the front line with the other soldiers, looking out into the fog and hoping that the figures moving about would leave him and the rest of the city alone.

Hours after these events had occurred, something new prepared to rattle these forces, the intelligent rebel Stalker Drones had been programmed to seek and destroy the enemy, seeing themselves surrounded in targets was certainly a good indicator that the hunt was on. The heart of the dark swarm released untold hordes of drone swarms onto the human forces surrounding it. As billions of drones barreled down on them all, the small pockets of human resistance realized something was happening, the screeching hiss from beyond the fog (That the drones used to transmit data at a higher frequency then Federation scanners) both terrified and alerted them. In a strange form of a human's natural coping mechanism. The stamping of feet was so loud that it would deafen a man standing close to the horde of steel, some say the swarm was so large it could be seen from low orbit, and that no amount of orbital strikes could destroy the horde in it's entirety. And this large mass ran (In great speed) toward both the small city where Purgatory Legionaries and Dark Marines held, and the large city where David and his strike force resided.

After those hours of indescribable boredom and a profound lack of events until the soldiers were so foolishly set up, followed an hour of indescribable battle and warfare. The exact details vary from person to person, however the ungodly amount of bullets fired is generally agreed upon. Hours of strikingly terrifying combat (No matter where you were at the time) continued until the swarm began to apply more pressure to the human forces. The small town where the elite forces had set themselves up (Veil was it's name) was under particularly heave pressure, as soldiers scurried about the roads trying to reinforce where it was required the most, large Legionaries doing particularly large amounts of damage. Meanwhile in the larger city where David held (Arc Invictus was it's name) drones breached the line and ran about the city, huge amounts of the Stalkers ran across the sides of the building, and even more hordes ran like demonic insects about the city, breaching the perimeter and many roadblocks, and forcing the troops to fall back. David stood in a small construction area as drones ran about him, his position has fallen many hours ago yet retreating was not an option for the hordes surrounded them. "DAVID C'MON WE GOTTA MOVE!!" A soldier yelled from the barricade behind David, which barely held. David sighed and huffed, before making a charge for the roadblock. Yellow orbs streaked quickly across the sky, picking off many retreating soldiers as well, David continued to flee until he finally forced himself into cover behind a concrete block, a laser blasting over where his head was not half a second ago. While his comrades opened fire, David reloaded his rifle, only to find he had no ammo nor magazines. He sighed "What the hell is going on?" David asked "Dunno! They breached the line, we're falling back!" A soldier next to David replied. David muttered a swear about the horrible state of his life as of recent, before pulling out his pistol and taking a random shot at something moving (A soldier was shot on accident that day). They jumped over the wall that held the drones off and ran for minutes (Stopping every few seconds to rest, learning the hard way that the human body was not made for running) until they reached the next check point, where soldiers stood behind fences and siege material to defend the large citywide circle of soldiers intending to hold the drones back long enough to be either reinforced or nuked (But the commanders kept that cleverly hidden from their soldiers), and hopefully enough to hold the drones back and minimize the use of ammo.

They ran for what seemed like years, when in reality it was a few minutes until they got to the barricade, jumping over a small barricade and taking cover among the hundreds of other soldiers who did similar things. Man soldiers peered out from makeshift barricades on the long street, they waited. Whispering. Terrified. The air was tense, people stood cold in between the barricades, all fell silent, even the background. The occasional shot in the distance was enough to set the soldiers off. But still, nothing happened. Barricades creaked with the cold air, as the fog rolled in. They waited, hiding behind makeshift cover pieces and concrete ruins, the road behind them was subject to scrutiny by each soldier's eyes, sweating as the seconds past. The fog grew closer. Pangs and pews in the distance and gunshots rang out across the city. People looked about the city, huffing and whispering. The fog grew even closer. They sat and wondered, checking their rifles and scanning for activity nearby, more gunshots. The fog came even closer then before. They peered into the distance, taking notice to every little movement, they aimed and called out as many things as possible, whispering about how quiet things were. A pew was heard. The fog came closer, before enveloping the entire barricade. 5 Platoons of soldiers enveloped in thick fog. Unable to see anyone despite the small barricade. And then, a hissing was heard. David looked over the small concrete barricade he used for cover, the hisses were everywhere, surrounding him. People screamed from the depths of the fog, gunshots rang out and the yellow muzzle flares were all that visible. People opened fire on the location of of the death before more screams came out among the fog, even more shortly after that, David looked about, the screams were all around him. Tracers ripped the clouds around him, and more screams rang out, far more rang out and gun fire deafened David and the screams. Then silence. David could hear nothing, and see nothing.

Meanwhile, miles away, in the small town of Arc Invictus that Derrickson occupied, similar events unfolded. The soldiers of the Legion or Marines hid behind sandbags shooting into the fog fire lit the sky in a dash of vibrant color in the otherwise dreary landscape. A familiar marine named Severus held a rifle in his hands as he gunned down small squads of drones alongside his comrades, the flashes of his ballistic weapon lighting his weary and tired face, as he gunned down the drones, shortly before the metallic clank of the impact of steel against iron plating, also followed by the thunk of a drone collapsing into a husk. Here, behind the sandbags around his comrades, he reloaded. Sighing and huffing as yellow bolts of plasma impacted a Legionnaire doing nothing. He looked over the bags, seeing a drone hunched over and firing the bolts from it's left wrist from a gauntlet, then shooting it and killing it. Such continued for hours, the kinetic and ballistic weapons cut the drones apart before they even reached their line. But soon the attacks worsened. Whole magazines would be wasted and the damage against the swarm would be minimal. Derrickson retreated from the front line and into a tent, where the commander of the Legion stood (Lionus was his name). "Commander-" Derrickson started "Don't even start Derrickson. What do you want?" Lionus asked "I'm ready to enter the fight once more.". "I am sorry friend, but we cannot hold these things back any longer. We need to retreat." Derrickson stated grimly. "WHAT?!" Derrickson yelled "WHAT KIND OF WELP WOULD RETREAT FROM A BATTLE THAT COULD STILL BE WON!". "What would you want of us? They're breaching the line as we speak. I'm getting my marines out of here. Whether you like it or not." Derrickson stated in a commanding manner, before almost walking out of the tent before Lionus stopped him. "Look, this battle is not yet lost. Even if we do die, we should go as brothers." He said "We must hold our ground to the last man standing, cleanse as many of the beasts as we can.". Derrickson turned around "I am not here for glory or duty, Lionus." he said sorrowfully "I am here to get my marines out. No matter the cost.".

The fog receded from the town for a short time, and with it the drones. The Dark Marines festered in the city's center, their commander at the front of the group. All of them looking battered, covered in ash, blood and burns. Lionus stood at the front of the Legionaries, who looked on at the retreating marines. Lionus spoke up: "He who stands with me shall be my brother". Not a single Marine moved. Lionus walked up to Derrickson, removed his helmet and spat on him. While the rest of the Legion aimed their KBRs at the marines. However, Lionus' anger was furthered as Severus aimed a pistol at his head, growling while blood dripped from his nose and temple. With a huff, the Legionaries lowered their weapons, and the Marines left. Into the fog, and to the evac point.

Time was short.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Chapter 8: Dire Wolves

Meanwhile, aboard the Sentinel things were weary, the fleet was decidedly not taking a risk by jumping into the atmosphere for the large amounts of drones threatened them. Phoenix was working with the radio, sighing with each failure to contact someone. "Sierra-3. Please respond" he said, getting nothing but static in response "Gods dammit.". He tuned the radio once more, then tried again "Sierra-3, this is command, please respond." he repeated, sighing once the static kicked in. "Alpha 2, please respond" he said before opening up multiple channels "Derrickson, Lionus, you hearing me? Respond gods-dammit!". Phoenix stopped after that, no responses, the fog was blocking the signal. He sighed and thought for a second, quickly coming to the only solution: Drop onto the planet and figure out what was going on. "Watson, get a pod ready and get my team prepped, we gotta move." Phoenix said to his nearby accomplice, who promptly ran to the launch bay. Some time later, Phoenix and his friends were at the launch bay, waiting for the pod to be prepped. The silence among the group as the alarms rung in the background as engineers prepped the pod for launch. Estranged looks passed around each person in the group until a soldier ran up to them. "COMMANDER! THE POD IS READY!" He yelled over the alarms, while Phoenix nodded and walked toward the pod. The group sat down in the pod, holding onto the brace as it launched, and before long impacted the ground in the center of the fog. They opened the door and looked about the fog, confused and terrified. "Stick together, Derrickson's last transmission is 50 meters ahead. Let's move." Phoenix stated calmly, pointing forward while his companions stood around him.

They walked towards the signal, maintaining a 360 degree field of vision in the event of ambush, the fog surrounded them, partially parting as they walked toward the signal. Only stopping on Phoenix's order "2 meters. Weapons ready, dunno what we'll find on this road." he said pointing toward the rail on the edge of the road. They climbed over it, finding the bloody corpses of Dark Marines and drone alike, one corpse met their eye, a Marine sitting among the husks of drones torn apart by his rifle, which still had ammo in it. Phoenix walked over and touched the corpse, only to find it twitch and fall over, startling them both. The corpse was Derrickson, Severus also stood up, wiping a bit of blood off his shirt and picking his rifle up. "What the hell happened here...?" Briggs asked, looking about the sea of gore. "They ambushed us... came from all directions, I dunno what happened... I just heard the hiss and gunfire. Next thing I knew I was on the ground..." Derrickson rasped. "They're using the fog as cover. We need to move." Severus whispered "We need to move, get back into the town. Quickly.". Phoenix nodded, mouthing "Alright" before following the two marines down the road and back into the small town of Arc Invictus. They crossed over the road and onto the unpaved dirt road, and further into the town. Which stood, if only barely. Embers, corpses of both sides. There was a calm silence among the squad, the corpses of Legionaries and drones alike laid across riddled the town. "Beware the alien indeed..." Briggs said "They got decimated... gods. Who's left?". Derrickson then started raving at the sight "No...nononononono... t-this isn't... oh my gods..." he whispered, pacing. As the team looked about the street, the corpses of the Legionaries being of most interest, they heard the trademark metallic moan of a damaged drone. They readied their weapons, looking about, prepared for a drone to leap out of the shadows and pounce on one of them. Then, from the end of the street, Lionus walked. His suit devastated and bloodied, he collapsed. Phoenix and Severus ran toward him, crossing over countless more corpses until they reached the injured soldier, who remained silent as he fell onto the dirt, and died. Not a word was spoken among the team, in some form or another of respect. Phoenix picked up his rifled, pulled Derrickson along, and moved out, to where they didn't know.

Meanwhile, miles away in the large city from before, David and company hid behind the many barricades near the center of town. Waiting for the fog to close in. Whispers were traded among them. Some prayed, and some prepared themselves. This was their last stand, and when all was said and done one side would stand victorious, and the other destroyed entirely. They waited, preparing to enact their plan: Lights were laid about the central square, once the fog rolled in they were light them parting the fog and allowing them to spot each other, removing the drone's advantage of stealth. They waited, nothing happened, the stillness began to set in. But then, without surprise, there was a metallic hissing. The trademark sound of Drones closing in. Shortly thereafter, a drone charged out of the fog, only to be shot by a nameless soldier. More charged out, also shot. Then more, and more shortly after that, leading to the entire road to be embroiled in shooting the drones as they emerged from the fog. David in particular gunned down 3 drones before hiding behind a road barrier to dodge plasma flying overhead. He looked out of his cover and shot two more, as tracers flew about into the fog and thunks indicated the kill of a hostile drone. The seemingly never ending stream of drones down the flanks and middle of the line (Particularly from the south and east) swarmed onto the troops, who promptly shot the enemies down. The stream charged the line, expending their ammo vigorously and mercilessly, taking few soldiers with them as they fell to turrets and gunfire. This repeated for no less then 15 minutes, as countless magazines of ammo dropped onto the concrete ground as countless more drones fell before the soldiers. This continued until ammo began to run short, as more drones charged the barricades ammo became more scarce, as even more drones fell before them. David sat behind cover, shooting whatever drones he could, praying to the gods that he would be rescued. His prayers were answered. The soldiers stood encircled as the final, endless wave began swarming the barricades. They shot down as many drones as they could, using whatever they could, soldiers from various sectors of the final barricade held alongside them, as drone after drone fell onto the ground and died. Before long however, there was a strange sound in the air, a burning smell and a sizzling sound. Then, David's view was blocked by the glare, as a laser descended from the sky and into the center of the attacking horde, which promptly exploded into white fire, vaporizing the drones by the thousands. David awoke, looking at the burned corpses, and then into the sky, the see what delivered the strike that destroyed the drone threat. Above them, in the grey skies, were five cruisers. Cruisers of unknown yet somehow familiar origin. Like they knew who delivered the strike, and why. But they didn't. They moved on to retake the city, quickly.

Phoenix, meanwhile, entered the city. Looking above at the ships, he knew of their origins, but he said little. The commander of the forces ran toward him and his friends as they entered the city. "Commander Phoenix sir!" He said "We've regrouped our troops, what are your orders?". "Get dropships and move to the central sector. We're cutting the heart out of this beast." Phoenix replied. "Cut out the heart and the beast will die." Briggs whispered.
As they spoke, something interesting happened in orbit: A few black cruisers entered orbit, at their helm was a man who needed Phoenix out of the way, if only temporarily, for his plans to function in earnest. 5 Black cruisers closed in on the planet, carrying with them a chemical capable of wiping an entire planet out. And from one of those cruisers, a Kestrel class frigate dropped out, which promptly went into atmosphere among others of it's kind.

Phoenix knew nothing of these cruisers, or their existence. So he rallied his troops without fear into dropships, and ordered them to the city central to the swarm: Monolith Nexus. He sat quietly in the ship, looking on at the cruisers that flew in atmosphere, he knew secretly of their origin, but decided to keep it from his men. He quickly decided that his soldiers would not be able to take the city by themselves, fearless as they may be. "Spyglass, get dropships ready and send soldiers down to Monolith Nexus A-S-A-P. We're going to need those reinforcements" he said "Of course commander. Standby.".

With that, a few black cruisers entered atmosphere behind the dropships. Dwarfing them. Phoenix sat silently at the sight, among his other troops, also stunned by the incident.

[NarnKar]

Line breaks. Line breaks between each different character's speech. Line breaks are yo friend.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Line breaks. Line breaks between each different character's speech. Line breaks are yo friend.

Taken to heart for the next chapter. Dialogue is easy to write and hard to connect, don't know why I've fallen out of habit of the cutting lines up. Probably because I shoehorned this out the door to make it work, just to keep my topic from dying off.

Which is here. Right now:

Chapter 9: Cut out The Heart

The soldiers exited their dropships, the mass of them standing in the open around transports and other vehicles, looking on at the city. It was indeed a mess, torn apart by the direct impact of the hulk's debris, cracks and crags deformed the terrain. Many of the buildings remained standing, but were devastated by the impact and ensuing assaults. The exiting road was lined with cars and wrecks, the responding Planetary Defense Force (Or PDF) didn't help the matter, stopping traffic in a desperate attempt to kill the drones assaulting the mass of fleeing people. A colonel by the name of Daniels was leading the 5000 men assault force, the bulk of the UPF forces, into the city. With the singular goal of killing the enemy off. Phoenix lead his men with a tactical goal to strike at the heart of the enemy, and kill of the bulk of their forces, leaving only stragglers in the wilds to fight, which weren't a threat to the populace. Daniels spoke up to a nearby soldier "Private, tell the platoon leaders to separate their squads and mobilize down the roads. Vehicles will follow into the city." he said before the soldier ran to inform all who needed the information. After a few minutes of deployment, and general uneventfulness, the squads in each platoon were made independent, and sent to canvas the many roads leading into the city. Among one of these squads was a soldier by the name of David Athagear, who wandered within his squad around the maze of wrecks of vehicles on the main highway. They walked about, covering each other and staying within earshot of their comrades. The various cars and wrecks created a maze that the soldiers needed to follow. David hugged the left side of the maze, moving around a jeep and staring at an APC and tank, both covered in blood and corpses, with smoke rising from fires to boot. He continued looking around the highway, staying close to his fellow soldiers, moving slowly on the concrete. Listening for the slightest sound between footsteps, any indication of movement, anything at all. His eyes focused on the slightest details, trying to give himself the most reaction time possible in the event of an ambush. They stopped near a squad of fallen soldiers, moving between a wreck of a civilian vehicle on one side and an APC on the other, the dead and dying in a small crevice between a large crag on the right and a light transport on the left. A shadow covering them, a result of the vehicle remains left on top of the crag. The team surrounded the corpses in curiosity, wondering what killed them in the manner they left, no evidence of injuries from stabs or plasma. Bullet wounds and various ranged damage however were prevalent. "The hell happened here...?" David wondered out loud, while his fellow squad mates moved around to the light vehicle to inspect it. Finding bullet holes of various types lined about it, and a corpse inside. "Seems like..." One soldier started before turning around, only to find 6 or 7 armed and armored soldiers in black, weapons trained on David and his squad. Balaclavas blocking their faces. David and squad ran to cover, trying to maintain a sense of security on the enemy who stood on the crag looking down. "What are you doing here?" The Sergeant said "None of your business grunt. What are YOU doing here?" an enemy soldier responded.

"We're looking for survivors, nothing special. We don't want any trouble."

"Our problems aren't with you asshole. We got bigger fish to fry."

"Then let us through!"

"No way, then our plan goes out the window. I can't let that happen, I gotta job to do. You have five seconds to surrender, or we will shoot you."

The squad hunkered in cover, trying to decide on a plan. With a single nod, the squad silently agreed to engage the enemy, they checked their rifles and muttered prayers. "Cleanse them all." One of them whispered. With a collective huff, the battle began. Who fired the first shot is unknown, all is known that it was fired. The unknowns on the short ridge fired down onto the squad of soldiers, their bullets ripped through the concrete of the ground and metal of the modern vehicles. The shots were returned as continued fire tore through the bus behind the unknown troopers. Their fire soon hit home, and tore through the armor and flesh of one soldier as he ran into the bus for cover. The two squads fired at each other, some times at once, the casualties were ignored as the battle went on. Even as corpses were racked up onto the ground and blood seemed commonplace. David exited his cover briefly and shot a short burst into a soldier, repeating the process against another before dodging a long burst of plasma fire. A small object launched against the sky, and landed into the bus, setting it alight in mass fire. The soldiers celebrated briefly, before another shot rang out. They ducked to cover as another squad of unknowns unloaded in a suppressing burst. In a yell among the fire, one soldier in the remaining in the squad yelled for reinforcements over his radio. As fire impacted against the cars they used as cover and soldiers closed in on their left flank, further down the hallway.

Their call was answered, by the least likely people. Phoenix and his team heard the call first among the deafening gunfire. They trekked on in silence through the wrecks and husks of vehicles. Distant gunfire echoing in the air, among smoke and screaming. Meanwhile David and company battled for cover, they were under assault from their left flank and their front (Where the first unknown squad originated). Gunfire bounced off the metal of the cars, some landing far off on the grass on the sides of the roadway, forcing the squad to remain low behind the wrecks. Constant bursts of gunfire deafened the soldiers, landing not centimeters from their earplugs. "SHIT! WE NEED TO MOVE!" One soldier yelled, getting only gunfire in response. "FUCK I'M PINNED! WE CAN'T MOVE!" Another yelled as gunfire landed near his cover and helmet, dust flying into his face. Then, a soldier pulled on a David's shoulder,he sighed before speaking, quietly but loud enough to be heard over the fire: "I'm gonna try and clear them out, try and give me some cover.". With a nod, he ran out of cover, shooting bursts into various soldiers. He stood in the open, firing at the unknowns in brief sporadic bursts. This gave his team enough time to return fire, shooting mass amounts of bullets at the enemy. This made the battle more chaotic, as bullets filled the air. David shot down two more unknowns before another squad began charging from the left. The heroic soldier (Marcus was his name) fired from the open at the new squad, killing some of them before taking cover as the original squad from the front began firing again. This went on for many more minutes as Phoenix walked toward them. Bullets missed the soldiers (Of all sides), and impacted against the concrete and metal of the road and cars. David and his squad managed to kill 3 of the 5 squads of unknowns at the cost of two soldiers from his own. But they remained pinned down taking shots, the chaotic battle continued for fifteen or so minutes until Phoenix and his company showed themselves. Firing from the flanks and killing most of the remaining two squads, forcing them to retreat to cover with their larger platoons. The knowledge the battle might end gave all the troopers a new found morale, smiles and eagerness came across their faces. "Good to see you sir!" One soldier said, before ducking to cover upon hearing gunfire. "Thank us later, for now just get to cover!" Briggs yelled over the gunfire, as bullets landed over the hoods of cars and the concrete ground. With a singular nod from their commander, Briggs and Adrian pushed forward. Shooting bursts while walking (Heads down) to the APC up the road and near the city, killing 4 soldiers before reaching the cover. While Adrian shot out into the unknown beyond the armored transport, Briggs motioned for the rest of his squad to move. His right side glowing from the muzzle fire, drowning out the pings of metal casings hitting the concrete. Thin white smoke left the barrel of Adrian's rifle as he fired bursts into the chaotic wreck beyond their position. With a sigh and a shout: "Let's do this!" from their commander, they charged from cover. Lighting themselves with their shots. Thin yellow tracers blasted overhead, landing around them. The sounds of breaking concrete, impacts of steel against the advanced components of civilian land vehicles. The battle ended there. The corpses of the unknowns were strewn about the maze of wrecks. Phoenix exhaled, a bead of sweat running down his cheek. He crouched down, the battle was only beginning. "Holy shit." Briggs stated in shock, looking on at the corpses.
"Shit just got interesting" Burden said, loading his rifle and moving up to check the bodies, before yelling back:
"Holy shit guys! These guys are from Leon's group! From back at the refugee camp!". His friends ran over to him, as he checked the variety of tags and papers from one of the corpses of the "Unknowns", finding a variety of marks that indicated where their loyalties lied. The Eagle Spear of the Rebels, and the Raven Talon of Leon's group. Under the Talon were 3 lines of words. One in English, the other two in differing languages. In the first line was written "The Black Ravens". In the second line was written: "Enim gloria his quos suavi", Latin. Phoenix said it out loud to his group, the words meant "For The Glory of Those We Cherish". Under those was the same saying, in the language of the UPF. Developed over many years, during the Dark Times. Few knew the language existed, fewer knew how to spell it, fewer would want their soldiers wearing a badge with the language on it. Phoenix looked up. He knew what this meant, it was a message. And the message was clear. It wasn't as evil as one would suspect of a space terrorist, planning mass genocide to earn the favor of other space terrorists, but it had impact nonetheless. The squad remained silent, and carried on into the city with the rest of the strike force.

They walked up to the entrance with the rest of the strike force. A variety of APCs, tanks, soldiers, light assault vehicles and more. The city was torn apart, torn into crags and ruins. Terrain was raised in some places and lowered in others. The prime example being the giant trench that ran through the city, and into it's greatest marketplace. The Pit. They pressed on into the city, curious. Various detachments also entered the city. In an attempt to cleanse all the Drones within it. On the larger scale of things, one of the detachments in the East was under attack. Derrickson, Titus and Severus were among the soldiers, firing desperately at the horde assaulting them. Severus and Derrickson walked forward, weapons raised and firing at any drones unfortunate to cross their path, while Titus stabbed and slashed with his sword at the drones as they came. Rocket Launchers fired dumb rockets into the giant skyscrapers that the drones emerged from, in a large boom sound that deafened anything else, and lit the area up in a stark yellow flash. Both from the explosion and firing of the launcher itself. Machine guns mounted onto the APCs or Fast Attack Vehicles (FAVs) roared and tore the drones apart. Killing most of them quickly. Various hordes remained and continued attacking the convoy. The guns roared on them as well, killing most of them. Titus finished off several drones, the attack then ended. Hundreds of drones laid dead on the ground, husks, the MGs smoked, and soldiers huffed. A number of men had fallen, and the attack was not yet over. Another swarm came from above, the nearby skyscraper to their left harbored a swarm as well. They dropped down onto the soldiers, breaking their bones and surprising their comrades. The guns fired into the sky, killing few and failing to daunt others. A singular shout was echoed multiple times: "Force is broken! We need reinforcements!". Luckily for them, the man operating the radio had left it on, attempting to request reinforcements from nearby PDF positions before he was slaughtered as the force was broken. The shouts were loud enough to reach the receiver on the radio, and transmit the message over the gunfire and death. It seemed as though all the horrors of hell itself, the Underworld made manifest, had opened into the battle that was going on. Things would drive any man insane. The hardened UPF soldiers weren't an exception. The chaos and fury of battle sent many of the soldiers running, their comrades fallen in bloody fury of close combat. Titus fled alongside his friends, even he could not hold off the drones forever.The drones chased after their prey, who fired back blindly. They charged through the bullets as they suffered losses. Soldier after soldier fell prey to the drones, suffering a horrible end as the swarm overtook them. Some of them managed to flee, finding a defensible position and shooting back at the wave of savage drones. Drones fell short of their position. Hidden behind small pieces of rubble on the edges of the street, they returned fire at the massive horde. They staved off the horde for ten or so minutes before ammunition became to run low, Severus shook his head at Titus, as he stabbed a drone in the head, before shooting two more. They prayed for deliverance from the threat as they fell back onto pistols and other secondary weapons. As the drones made progress through their line, getting progressively closer, the men attempted to fall back. However, their prayers were answered. From a street on the left, the roar of engines grew louder and louder. Five or so light FAVs drove through the bulk of the swarm, before unleashing their fury from their rifles. They fired for two whole minutes until the drones were cleared entirely. A Planetary Defense Force patrol had come to their aid, hearing their signal. The soldiers sighed and thanked the gods, before the PDF commander opened the door to his FAV and shouted out: "Want a ride?".

As this battle went on. The PDF's local forces mobilized into the city and entered the battle. On the orders of Colonel Daniels the forces separated. Roving about the city on orders to locate the greatest concentration of drones. A variety of patrols lurked in the hollow city, finding remnants of city life. For all the UPF's problems before, and after, the Engi Uprising they had housing worth a damn. Didn't do much good against the drones, nor Leon's crew lurking about. It was a strange existence, but an existence worth existing for. The variety of corpses and mauled bodies laid about showed the drones did not think similarly, and felt that they were doing humanitarian aid in the most Federation-like method possible. Meanwhile, David walked with his unit. 4 Squads of five men each, one of which was Daniels' command team. They roved about the various back alleys behind the slum buildings in the lower section of the city, one squad covering each other while the other squads moved. They repeated until they reached the open street, weary of any drones potentially on the rooftops. In the open and derelict street, they looked about "Where now?" one soldier asked. "No idea, let's move for the radio tower. Across the Pit." Daniels replied. "Over that giant gorge? Are you insane?" David asked, getting only a smug smile from Daniels before being signaled to follow him. They moved on, across the streets. The long road's end was blocked by fog, so the team missed the group of snipers in one of the tall office buildings that maintained the UPF economy. Five shots rang out, one landed short causing the soldiers to scatter into cover. Various other shots ran out, hitting the soldier's cover but not the soldiers. With short bursts of fire, the snipers receded into the building and dodged any fire they took while fighting. With that, the soldiers pressed onward.
They walked through the streets for many, slowly passing minutes before one of them cried out "We can cut through the park let's go!". They ran right and through an alleyway, over into a park. The building in the center had been demolished, leaving rubble all over. Dirt took over most of the grass. The team decided to cut through the park, moving through the rubble and into the next block of smaller houses. That would bring them closer to the Pit, and thus closer to their target.

They cut across the park, huffing as they ran across to avoid taking fire in the event snipers or ambushers lurked. They continued running, only to stop for a quarter of a second. A flash from a building, followed by a bang, and a squad member fell down onto the grass. Dying from the wound. Everyone shouted: "GET TO COVER! GET DOWN!" as they ran toward the ruins of the building they paid little attention to a second ago. Another sniper shot rang out, hitting the concrete and forcing David to get duck under cover and pray silently. People quieted down, speaking in whispers and sweating despite the cold. Urgency and preparedness, the only words that could describe the platoon at this time. While one soldier bled out on the cold dirt and grass, his comrades looked on in sorrow but coldness. Nothing they could do, unless they wanted to become victims themselves. Another shot rang out, the dying soldier stopped breathing, and all fell quiet. Then, engines roared. No more shots, not yet. 5 Transport vehicles came from the road, and onto the dirt, and started firing down on the squad. The transports were huge, smaller then your average tank but larger then your average car. An APC, bearing double plasma mini-guns, able to fire hundreds of bullets down range in mere seconds. They organized in front of the ruins, and fired all their might down onto the squadron. Forcing them into cover, and preventing them from firing. This fire provided the cover for multiple squads of mercenaries to mobilize in front of the ruins, and begin firing. The sheer amount of fire shocked even the veterans of the group, the might of the enemy was too much for them. David took some shots, in the hope that luck would favor him and the bullets would make their mark. Luck did not favor him, and the bullets missed. Daniels took up the radio, while David fired bursts in the hope that the mercs would get scared and hide. Daniels shouted into the radio over the gunfire "THIS IS COLONEL DANIELS LOCKED DOWN IN THE CENTRAL PARK! REQUESTING IMMEDIATE REINFORCEMENTS!". He put down the radio, picked up his pistol and stood behind cover, trying to recover control of the situation.

Phoenix, a bit away, heard the transmission. He was among his friends and a larger force, in the park just south of the park Daniels was holed up in. "Roger that Colonel, we're mobilizing on your southern flank, watch your fire." Phoenix replied calmly into his earpiece before setting off with his armor company. They jogged on, moving through the road and into the smaller of the two parks. A shot rang out, hitting an unfortunate soldier out of nowhere. A group of transports and mercenaries was attempting to flank the stubborn squad so they could press on, only to run into Phoenix and his group of soldiers. The skirmish began with that frenzy, shots firing out extremely fast from both sides, casualties mounted, but soon the battle ended with a decisive UPF victory. The mercs fleeing while the soldiers fired down onto them. "Daniels we just saved your sorry ass, watch your northern flank, the stragglers are heading your way." Briggs said over the radio, following his company into the open section of wall that allowed them entrance to the massive park. They ran in, their small company of soldiers behind them, gunfire landing around them, cutting many of them down. Several vehicles detonated from missile fire, and few soldiers reached the ruins, many died on the way. Phoenix was not one of those many, he slammed his back against the remains and gasped for air. His friends followed, looking at each other with a look that said more than words. A look that spoke concern, and weariness, all at once. Phoenix nodded and shimmied over toward the edge of the ruins, and fired a few bursts toward the enemy. Whatever damage he did was either a non-issue or simply didn't happen at all, as the firepower of the mercenaries remained the same. Griffin shimmied forward, holding a large automatic rifle and a smile on his face. "Need a hand friend?" Griffin said over the fire that echoed around them, Phoenix nodded and moved out of the way. Griffin readied his rifle, and fired in a long burst toward the enemy forces before hiding behind the cover to reload. "Where'd that come from?" Asked Burden "I bring it with me, you should ask more." Griffin replied, smiling as he bashed his weapon. "Fuck, we're not getting anywhere fast. I'm phoning it in." Phoenix said angrily as he clicked his earpiece on. "This is Commander Phoenix, requesting immediate strike north of my position. Danger close." he said over the gunfire as he ducked behind cover. "This is the Shadow of Retribution, moving to answer your call. Danger close" Said a calm voice over the radio, slightly blocked by static. They waited, holding out as concrete as chiseled away from gunfire, hoping that they'd survive until the Shadow arrived. Soon, little more then 15 minutes after the radio message, the Retribution arrived. A massive black and grey cruiser, stretching wide with 2 double lasers on the wings and a large laser in the center. "Raining hell!" The captain yelled down over the radio, before he fired down onto the enemy forces. 4 laser shots dispersed the soldiers, then the laser cut them apart. Gunfire ricocheted off the cruiser's hull, but not for long as the survivors retreated from the deadly mass. Phoenix walked out and waved up at the cruiser, as the captain's voice echoed over the radio Phoenix held: "No problem! See you back home sir!". The team regrouped on Phoenix, who motioned for them to follow him, and walked onward. They walked through an alleyway, following the survivors, however a roar of gunfire stopped them. A few vehicles gunned down the survivors, Phoenix and friends looked on, shocked.
"Need a ride?" Asked the commander. Phoenix shrugged and entered the small jeep. Strangely... archaic for the period. The driver yelled back to Phoenix: "Where you want to go?" he said. "Wherever we're regrouping. Move out." Phoenix stated calmly before closing his eyes and passing out.

He was awakened by the sound of bending metal, Drones. Gunfire from the mounted machine guns deafened Phoenix as he began to wake up slowly but sure. Then, in a flash, Phoenix struggled out of his seat and grabbed his rifle, firing a long burst out the window (And into 3 drones. Much to their dismay) and then he left through the door. He fired a single shot into the drone on top of the vehicle before he fired several more bursts into the smaller swarm charging toward him, he then took a second to look throughout the place and realize his surroundings. They were in a narrow road, buildings on each side leaving no room for infantry patrols. Didn't stop the endless tides of drones from descending on them, and plague them all. The guns opened fire, shredding the drones apart with steel rounds. Casings dropped onto the concrete road, millions of them. "Gods, they're everywhere. We need to finish this and fast." Phoenix thought to himself as he ran to the front of the convoy, attempting to reach the rest of his team. Then, out of nowhere with a shriek, a drone leaped down from the roof and in front of Phoenix. It pounced on him, scratching and clawing, roaring a metallic roar to scare it's prey. Phoenix managed to kick it off him (But not without injury), he then quickly crawled for his pistol, and fired several quick shots into the drone's head. Casings dropping onto the ground. Phoenix exhaled, taking several deep breaths after his encounter with the drone. He stopped thinking about it however and ran for his rifle, picking it up and booking it for the front of the convoy. Up there, his friends opened fire on a small group of drones that leaped down on them. The situation there was pristine. "Took ya long enough!" Briggs yelled back to his commander, smiling while he kicked the husk of a destroyed bot. "Damn right... everything okay up here?" Phoenix huffed, panting after running a 30 or so feet (And being pounced by a drone).
"Yeah, we're all good. What's the plan boss?" Burden asked
"We move up, ditch the vehicles, try and find a vantage point." Phoenix said
"Got a contingency plan then?"
"Not really, no. We'll play the rest by ear. Get gear up, let's go!".
And with that, they left.
They walked up a road while the convoy mopped up the surviving drones. Scouting ahead for the rest of the force, in a hope that they would catch any ambushes before they occurred. They pressed onward, cutting through several roads before the buildings ended and a large park began. The rest of the convoy's soldiers met with them, looking up at the mangled school that sat atop a cracked and broken hill. Not fifty feet from the Pit, which was a large crevice that kept a larger section of the city far, far away. They looked on, somewhat mortified, somewhat satisfied, and all on edge ready for battle. Phoenix turned slightly to his small force of men, and spoke: "Ready yourselves. We move.".

And then a shot rang out.

One soldier fell, while the rest moved forward. And out of nowhere, soldiers clad in black came over the hill. Firing down on the battalion of a thousand or so men. The ensuing battle was chaotic. Rockets fired up the hill at vehicles, rifles fired down at the soldiers. Gunships fired bursts of rockets, and entrenched gunners hailed laser bolts onto the UPF soldiers. Phoenix ran up the hill and hid behind a small mound as fire landed around him. Briggs and Anna followed, the rest of his squad hiding behind rocks. Phoenix breathed calmly, listening to his communication network. Hoping for something of interest. Adrian's voice cleared any doubts he had: "Commander we're pinned down on the eastern side! Get some people over here ASAP!".
"Hey if you want to get of your ass and give me some goddamn cover-fire I'd be glad to help ya!" Griffin yelled into Adrian's ear, talking to Phoenix.
"Shut up and shoot back!" Burden yelled, as Phoenix ran over the side of the hill, looking at his pinned down teammates. He looked to his right, the corpse of a soldier holding a rocket launcher came into view. He picked it up, held it and crouched. "Target locked! Watch yourselves!" he yelled as he fired the rocket, which impacted the hull of a large vehicle and caused it to explode into a ball of flame. "Thanks for the help sarge!" Burden said over the radio
"Took ya long enough" Griffin continued in stark contrast.
"Shut it, the both of you. Get your shit get up that hill." Phoenix scolded, watching as the other 3 members of his squad ran up the hill to the next piece of cover, he moved quickly to join them. They hid behind a large face of rocks, watching as soldiers collapsed dead to laser fire, prompting Griffin to speak out. "It's those fucking gunners from the school! We need to get those bastards down right now!" He said, "You're right. We need to move up, and fast. Anyone got a launcher?" Phoenix said calmly, ignoring the soldiers that died around him.
"I got an idea." Said Briggs, standing up from his crouching stance.
"Lay it on me then" Phoenix stated, looking at him.
"We move up on the east side, flank the motherfuckers. Give em a scare and force them to retreat into the school. That way we can take them out-"
"On their terms... but I haven't gotten anything else. Let's move.".

They loaded their rifles. And moved to the right, flanking from the east. They moved up the side of the hill, hiding from the soldiers. They crouched, prepared themselves, and fired.
Griffin fired rockets at the vehicles (Laughing hysterically), stunning the soldiers. The rest of the team fired, landing multiple shots and killing dozens in the chaos. With that distraction, the soldiers retreated into the school, hoping to fight on their own terms. Phoenix smiled, surprised that it work, "Damn Briggs! You managed to do it!" he said, patting Briggs on the arm as he followed him. They ran to the entrance of the school while soldiers looked on at their wounded comrades. Figuring they should deal with their own problems before following Phoenix into the school. Phoenix said nothing to them, knowing his troops could easily handle themselves. But he needed to deal with these soldiers before they could entrench themselves further in the buildings. He kicked the door open, and walked in alongside his team. A shot from a soldier in one of the hallways hit alongside the ceramic walls of the school. Phoenix and team crouched and fired, killing the soldier. His bloody corpse fell onto the ground, riddled with steel bullets. Footsteps could be heard, coming down the stairwell in front of them. Two soldiers ran down the stairwell. "Look for the hostile!" Said one "Look for the target, watch your shots!" said the other, before several bursts of gunfire finished the soldiers off, their bloody bodies falling onto the stairs and rolling down to the bottom. Phoenix and company ran up as well, Burden pulled out his plasma shotgun and Anna pulled out her pistol. They ran out, quickly shooting several guards and running for the upper floors, killing five soldiers on the stares as they made their way to the next floor. They ran out of the door, Burden moving to the right and shooting one soldier against the wall while Anna shot two more soldiers dead with clean headshots. She took cover behind a fallen soda dispenser as a soldier fired thousands of shots from his heavy laser.
Phoenix came out of nowhere, running out from the side hallway holding the rifle and keeping him from firing it. "You won't kill me!" said the mercenary, pushing Phoenix out the window and down the Pit. The mercenary falling with him.
Phoenix looked downwards as he fell, he was staring death in the face, he could see the ground fast approaching.
He never did well with heights.