I don't Gears of War or Mass Effect.
Bold-My Own Words
Bold & Italic-Locations, Time & Calendar
Normal-Narrative
"Normal"-Person Speaking
'Normal'-Thoughts
"Italic"-Foreign Language
'Italic'-Radio Chatter
/Italic\-AI/Computer typing
Theme Song for Chapter: 'Flesh & Metal' From the Doom (2016) Soundtrack
14th of Bloom, 2275 (415 AE)
1127 Hours
Sigma Argolis System
HK416
Sigma Argolis Observation Outpost
Act 1
Part 3
"The Kodox"
Service Tunnel in between Docking Bay and Communications Building
"What are you trying to prove, Julius?"
"He's a troublemaker."
"Look at this loser, all by himself!"
"He'll never amount to anything."
"I love you, bubba."
"JULIUS!"
Fenix's eyes shot open, letting out a short gasp, before groaning softly as he slowly stirred back into consciousness. The world around him was spinning, and his vision was blurry. The back of his head was aching, meaning he must of hit it on something. As he rose up, he notice his helmet's visor had a slight crack on the side, nothing that would compromise his suit if he needed to do a spacewalk, but something to keep an eye on at least. His memory slowly came back to him about the recent events that lead up to this point. Their platoon arriving at the outpost, his squad discovering the remains of the crew, the aliens attacking, Sgt Rogers tinkering with one of the alien bodies.
Rogers! His eyes widened, remembering what had happened.
"Julius!" Fenix rose to his feet and looked to his left towards the voice's source, but all he could see was dust and dirt that had been kicked up by the explosion. Through the 'fog', however, he could see Rojas running over to him with Petkov. "You okay?!"
Fenix waved him off "Where's the others?" He asked. The trio looked around the room, searching for the other half of their squad. Tracing back their steps to wear the alien corpses had been, all they found was but bits and pieces as the only evidence that they had ever been there.
Not too far away, they found what was left of Sergeant Calvin Rogers.
The explosion had warped and torn through his armor, severing him at the waist and leaving only part of his torso crumpled up against the wall. Needless to say, there wasn't much left to identify him. Fenix sighed, shaking his head in frustration, before walking over and searching the remains for the man's Cog-Tags. After finding them, he stowed them away in his pouch and walked back over to Rojas and Petkov.
"Dammit. What now?" Rojas asked.
"We find the other two and regroup with the rest of the company. We gotta let them know this place is still infested with hostiles." Fenix replied, looking around the tunnel for Garcia and Jones. "Garcia? Jones? Sound off!"
Looking over towards the crashed vehicle, Fenix could see the faint glow of a light near the end. Running over to it, he found Jones, lying on his back motionless. His visor was cracked and a small trinket of blood could be seen trickling down the side of his helmet. To Fenix's relief, however, Jones' vitals were still active.
"Shit, how is he?" Rojas asked as they ran up behind him.
"He's out but alive. Must of slammed his head on the truck when the device exploded." Fenix answered, grabbing Jones by the shoulder and lifting him up. Petkov ran over to grab his other shoulder, securing the man's Saber to his back, as they hoisted him up and moved to carry him, before Petkov waved them off. "I've got him. Find Garcia, I'll wait by the door."
Nodding, Fenix let go of Jones and allowed Petkov to carry him towards the doors. Motioning to Rojas, the two Rangers proceeded back to where their squad had been to look for the final member of their squad. Not taking any chances, they kept their rifles trained to wherever their heads scanned, looking for anymore of their newfound hostile opponents.
"She couldn't have been flung too far from us. She was the furthest from Rogers."
"Maybe same thing happened to her as Jones." Fenix replied, as they scanned their surroundings, "Hit her head and got knocke-" His sentence was cut short when he noticed something on his motion tracker. He immediately held his fist up, signalling Rojas to stop. It had been for a faint second, but he knew he had seen movement at the edge of his tracker, which was maxed out at 75 meters.
They had company.
"Julius..." Rojas whispered. The two Rangers continued scanning ahead of them, their vision still rather limited due to the dust still lingering in the air. Fenix didn't look at his friend, "We're not alone."
As soon as he had said that, the motion tracker came alive as well over a dozen dots could been seen coming towards them on the tracker. Both Rangers immediately sprinted to the nearest cover and prepared for a fight. They activated their visors' low light/visibility to give a better view in the dust. In the distance, they could see several more of the aliens moving towards their position, the intentions clear on all of their faces.
As they got ready to fight, they noticed movement amongst some of the cover to their front. Through the dust, the person revealed to be Garcia, who shakily rose to her feet using a pair of boxes as support. Her visor had been completely shattered, revealing her bloodied face underneath. She appeared to be dazed, meaning she may have a concussion. None of that mattered right now, though. She needed to get out of there.
"Cover me!" Fenix ordered as he vault over their cover towards Garcia. Rojas opened fire, bursts of 8.5mm rounds going downrange at the advancing aliens, who bellowed in anger at the and returned fire at the offender.
Fenix sprinted towards Garcia. She turned to look at him approaching her, the dazed look on her face confirmed to Fenix that she must of suffered a concussion of sorts. He could hear the bullets whizzing by his head and around him, urging him to sprint faster as he heard one of the aliens screech in pain. He called out to her, trying to desperately get her snap out of it as he had almost reached her mere feet separating them.
Before a colossus of an alien burst from the hole in the ground, landing behind her.
It was massive to say the least, from the same species by the look of it, but standing at least a foot and a half taller, covered in thick, sleek maroon colored armor, and had what looked like a massive shield, with a green stripe running down the center, that ran the length of its forearm in a dagger like shape. Fenix was momentarily distracted by the monster before them. Towering over the two Gears, the monster bellowed as it ignited a long orange blade on its right arm and lunged at Garcia. Fenix yelled out as Garcia turned just in time to see the blade pierce straight through her, and right through the crate behind her.
"No!" Fenix roared out, firing his Saber at the massive being, who responded by merely raising its shield in front, the bullets bouncing harmlessly off it. Its fellow aliens flanked around it, concentrating fire and forcing Fenix back into cover as he chucked a grenade at a trio of the creatures, earning a couple anguished screams and a geyser of body parts as the grenade went off.
The massive creature slowly lifted the impaled human on its sword closer to its face, the helmet deconfiguring and sliding back to allow the creature to look at her directly. Cold, amber-colored eyes stared into the dying ranger's own teal eyes, the creature emitting a rumble as it studied the being before it. Garcia spasmed softly a few times, blood coughing as her collapsed and punctured lungs painfully gasping for air, before her head slump down, the life having finally left her body. Snorting, the creature simply deactivated its sword, causing the now lifeless body to fall to the ground in a heap.
Turning it's attention back towards the two still living, and fighting, humans, it snarled as its helmet reassembled around its head, before stepping forward and bellowing out a warcry.
Fenix and Rojas, both still firing their weapons at the horde of alien beings that were charging them, shifted their fire on the larger threat, causing the colossus to raise its shield, growling in anger. Glaring and growling at its two opponents, the monster's body tensed up and started to glow blue suddenly, confusing the two rangers.
"The fuck's it doing?!"
"Nothing good. MOVE!" Fenix roared as the two backed off from the cover and attempted to disengage. The colossus wasn't having it, though. Its entire body now covered in a bluish glow, the alien roared as it threw its right hand forward, sending out a large ball of blue energy that slammed into the two Gears and sent them flying. Fenix and Rojas were both sent scrambling to the ground as the aliens charged, bellowing their war cries as they opened fire on the two Gears.
Fenix groaned, noticing that his armor was slightly warped on the left side and shoulder guard, but quickly sat up and fired a burst at one the aliens charging them, the rounds slamming into its barrier before the creature and two more near it exploded into a fine orange mist, causing the rest of the aliens to temporarily halt their advance. Behind them, Fenix could see both Petkov and a now conscious Jones trying to cover them. "Don't just sit there, assholes! Run!" Petkov commanded as his opened fire with his machine gun, the Spitfire thundering away as it chewed into both cover and the armor/barriers of the aliens.
Helping Rojas up, the two quickly bolted for their fellow gears and the large garage door at the end of the tunnel that they were at, ducking and weaving as bullets flew all around them.
"Jones, shut that door now!" Fenix ordered.
"Not until you're through!"
"That door won't close fast enough if they're right on our heels! Start shutting it, NOW!"
Cursing, Jones fired another grenade, then began tampering with the controls to shut the door. Fenix and Rojas both picked up the pace, now sprinting for the door as it started to close. Behind them, they could hear the colossal alien bellowing in anger as it charged forward after the two Gears, followed by its smaller companions. It seemed like for every meter the Gears covered as they ran, the aliens could cover it in half the time.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" Rojas cursed as they quickly slide under garage door as rounds bounced off and shattered his barrier, turning around to fire on the incoming aliens as the door slowly continued to close.
"Fucking hell, can't this thing go any slower?!" Petkov growled as he gunned down another one of the aliens. "Just hold them off for a little longer!" Fenix ordered as he fired a burst at an advancing group of aliens, killing one and forcing the other three to take cover as their barriers flared. But for every one they killed, it seemed another three would take its place, with the massive shield-bearing alien at the center of it, seeming to be coordinating all of the smaller ones.
Fenix cursed as he loaded another magazine, this was taking too long. At this rate, they'd get overrun before the garage door closed and sealed. Grabbing a grenade, he came up with a desperate plan. "Everybody chuck a grenade! Target the ones clustered together!"
Complying, all four of the Rangers chucked a grenade at a different group of the aliens that were a little too close together. Seconds later, four successive explosions rocked the service tunnel, kicking up dirt and alien gore all around. Jones followed up the grenade by firing another one from the grenade launcher, right at the massive alien. To their surprise, the giant raised his shield up and ricocheted the explosive off of his shield, causing it to explode harmlessly to the side.
Angered, the massive creature roared and began to glow blue again.
"What the hell?" Petkov asked as he fired at it with his Spitfire, the machine gun's rounds either bouncing off the shield or failing to break its barrier.
"Oh, shit! Get down!" Rojas roared as the massive alien ran forward and slammed its glowing right arm into the ground, sending a massive shockwave of blue energy out towards the four Ranger, sending them sprawling to the floor and flying back further into the garage. Behind them, they heard a massive metallic crash as they quickly got back up to their feet. Looking back towards the garage door, they noticed, by some sheer miracle, it had shut.
The creature's attack must of destroyed the door's mechanisms, causing it to slam shut. On the other side of the door, they could hear the aliens bellowing in anger and frustration at the escape of their foe.
"Holy shit. That was close." Petkov breathed out.
BOOM!
The garage door bent slightly as they heard the massive shield-bearer roaring on the other side.
"That door's not gonna hold 'em off for long." Rojas commented, keeping his Saber trained on the door. "Let's get going. We need to keep moving towards the communications array." Fenix ordered. Petkov grunted in annoyance as he glanced at Fenix, but said nothing. Despite the fact he didn't really care for Fenix or any orders he tried to give, the chain of command meant that, since Rogers was dead, Fenix was now in command. So he was going to have to deal with it for now.
BOOM!
The door was struck again, bulging out even further as the colossal alien roared again. "Go, go!" Rojas motioned as they all ran towards a door to their left. As they ran, they could still hear the sounds of the massive alien trying to break into the garage.
7 minutes later...
5 levels beneath the Communications Building's Comms Center
"Okay, everybody do an ammo check." Fenix spoke. Though they could see how much ammo they each had left on their HUDs, knowing how much your squadmates had was typically useful too. Jones and Petkov nodded but said nothing, nor did they bother to ask about whether or not Garcia had made it. It was fairly obvious as to what had happened.
"About a quarter light." Jones responded.
"About half spent." Petkov remarked.
"Same." Rojas commented.
"Same here." Fenix spoke, cursing inwardly as to how much he had panicked when that massive creature entered the fight. If he hadn't, Garcia might still be alive. He shook his, knowing that there was no way he could have reached Garcia in time. That creature had been just too close to stop it.
"Okay, from now on, short controlled burst and pick your targets carefully until we can get a resupply. Don't be surprised if you end having to do CQB." Fenix ordered, motioning the group forward with a gesture of the hand, to which the group moved out and continued down the hallway towards the Communications Room.
"So, now that we've had our daily encounter of assholes trying to kill us, anybody want to tell me what the fuck those things were?" Petkov griped.
"I'd say the owners of those ships we saw." Jones retorted, albeit sarcastically. He got a middle finger as a response.
"What I want to know is what the fuck that big-ass one's deal was. The one with the shield and that kept glowing blue? What the hell was that, magic?" Rojas questioned. "Don't know. Looked like it might of been some kinda commander or spec-ops or something. At least we have an idea about what we're dealing with." Fenix remarked as they entered the main area for the Communications Building's sub-level 2.
Before them was a large, expansive room with two levels that led into several smaller rooms, mostly maintenance sheds and generators to power the comm relays. Several of the lights in the room were either blown or flickering. Some half dozen bodies could be seen sprawled out in the area, though Fenix suspected there were likely more. Not that he wanted to know.
"Alright, so what all do we know about our guests?" Jones asked.
"Well. We know the fuckers have barriers, better than ours, but weaker armor minus the big one. Their firearms fire faster than ours, but don't seem to hit as hard." Fenix listed off.
"Hey, yeah he's right. I could have sworn I got hit at least a good couple dozen times. Broke my barrier, but seemed like they just bounced off my armor." Rojas remarked, before mentally noting something. " Though, I think a couple of those rounds did penetrate parts of my armor that isn't as thick."
"Those swords on the other hand, can cut through our armor like it's paper or some shit." Fenix continued.
"Is that what happened to Garcia?" Jones asked. "...Yeah." Fenix replied after several seconds of silence.
"Next time we see that big fucker, if we do, we need to try to take it out." Rojas growled, still seething at that creature for killing one of their squadmates.
"Tch, yeah good luck with that." Petkov remarked. "Anything else, besides that they're bigger and faster than us."
"Well, I think that the big one's the only one who can pull those little magic tricks, otherwise I think they all would have been doing it. That and they seem to have a thing for digging." Fenix finished. Rojas sighed, "Makes me wonder if we're, like, dealing with the Locust's galactic cousins or some shit."
Petkov laughed, "Yeah, all they need are a bunch of Wretches and a fucking Corpser or two and you wouldn't be able to tell 'em apart." Fenix grunted in annoyance, "Alright, enough. We're 5 levels beneath the main floor, where the Comm Room is. We need to get up there and re-establish communications with our Fleet and the rest of the Regiment. Otherwise, this fight's gonna be a hell of a lot tougher. Alright, spread out and look for the stairs."
They spread out across the room, looking for the stairs that would take them up. After a few moments, Jones found them and informed the others, who then all proceeded up the stairs, weapons trained up in case someone was waiting for them.
Making their way up to Main Level 3, what greeted them wasn't too pretty. Human and alien bodies lied about the room, several having died rather gruesomely. It appeared that a large number of Security Personnel had tried to barricade themselves down here and hold out. Judging from the numerous man sized holes in the wall, Fenix knowing all too well that the aliens had done that, it hadn't gone as planned. Needless to say, this hadn't been as much of a one-sided slaughter as the last one they saw. The support pillar in the center of the room was riddled with bullet and explosive damage.
"Damn... At least they took a few of the bastards with them." Rojas whispered as they walked pass the battlefield. While true it hadn't been a one-sided slaughter, it hadn't exactly been a fair fight either. For every dead alien, there must have been at least 3 dead humans lying about.
"You think the elevators might be working?" Jones asked as they walked past the levels set.
"Probably, but I wouldn't recommend using them." Petkov replied.
"Why?"
"It'd be the first place I'd set an ambush for anybody thinking of using them. Really good kill boxes if you know what I mean." Fenix replied.
"... Point taken."
"Stairs, over here." Rojas called out, pointing to the opposite side of the room to a stairwell, where a fallen security guard laid slumped over on the wall.
The Squad moved towards the stairway, when Jones suddenly spoke up, "Oh crap, tell me that's not what I think it is."
They all stopped and turned to where he was looking, a room at the wall adjacent to the one with the stairwell. The doorway frame was warped and bent, the doors themselves laying sprawled about in several pieces. In and around the doorway a dozen aliens laid sprawled out, some riddled with bullets or ripped open by a chainsaw. One was even decapitated. Looking inside the room, they saw what Jones was talking about. Inside the room, they found the body of an Onyx Guard, signature solid black GRIFFON-Armor and all, slumped over on the wall with an arm missing. The Guard's armor had several slash marks on it and the helmet was dented on the right.
"Damn, bastard went down fighting." Petkov muttered as he gave the body a nod in respect. Fenix glanced at the warped door frame, "I think our new friend was here." he sneered. Looking back at the alien corpses, he spoke, "So they're not unbeatable. They gave them a bloodier nose than we thought."
"Think any of the other Guards are still alive?" Rojas asked.
"I'd say the chances are better, after seeing this. If one Onyx Guard was able to take down a dozen of them, then there's a good chance that at least a couple of the others are alive. But we won't find out by staying here." Jones replied.
Fenix walked up to the corpse and knelt down to check and see if the Cog-Tags were there and, seeing that they were, grabbed them and placed them with the other Cog-Tags he had collected. "Right, no sense in staying here. Let's get topside and get Comms back up and working." He said as he stood up and looked back at the group.
Entering the stairwell, they saw where the security team had tried to block it off with various items and equipment. There was even a automated turret MG deployed that had been watching it, though judging by the massive gaping hole in the barricade and the now destroyed state of the turret, it hadn't done them much good. Moving through the breech, the Gears sweep their weapons all about on the staircase as they ascended, looking for anything that wasn't human.
As they reached Main Level 2, they saw this level's support pillar had been completely severed in the middle, the middle third of it lying in various chunks around it. Several of the floors' offices, mainly use to help maintain communications with the rest of USG Space, were blown apart and/or heavily damaged. But as they proceeded into the room, they also heard something else coming from above. A continuous assortment of gunfire and explosions coming from above.
Someone was still alive and fighting.
Nobody even had to look at the others for confirmation. "MOVE!" Fenix ordered as they sprinted across the room, only to stop as one of the far walls erupted outward, a massive gaping hole now being made by what looked like some kind of machine, gripping the edges of the hole, then glowing red hot and rotating in a circular motion as it made the hole wider. Then it retracted and disappeared into the hole, and a half dozen alien troopers clammered out of the hole, bellowing as the charged out and open fire.
"Contact!" Rojas shouted as they opened fire on the aliens as both sides bolted for cover, with Bravo taking cover amongst a set of the offices on the level. As the two sides exchanged fire, another hole was created on the second level to their right, with six more aliens coming through to enter the fight.
"Sonovabitch, more on the right!" Petkov roared as he laid down suppressive fire on the new hostiles above them, his Spitfire LMG thundering away at the aliens. He was able to bring down two of the alien troopers before they ducked into cover and returned fire, forcing him back into cover. Fenix glanced out of cover to fire off a burst at one of the aliens, but noticed something.
While some of the aliens were wearing the same kind of armor scheme as they had seen in the tunnel, he noticed that some of the aliens were wearing one of two different types of armor, both different from the one he's seen.
The armors both had the same color scheme as before, but one had thicker armor and what looked like an even bigger rifle in its right arm, with an elongated triple-barrel design. Fenix could only imagine it was some kind of mini-gun of sorts.
The other one wasn't as bulky and appeared thinner, but had four boxy bulges on the back of the armor. The weapons on their right arms looked like some kind of pistol, short and stubby in appearance. Some kind of support troop, maybe. Fenix wasn't sure, nor did he have time to ponder on it.
Raising up from his cover, Fenix fired several more burst from his Saber, gunning down one of the aliens and badly mauling another before being forced back into cover, bullets tearing into it. Turning over to Jones, he shouted, "Jones! On my mark, lob a couple grenades at the fuckers above us! As soon as he does, the rest of us toss a frag at the bastards to our front!" Priming a grenade in his hand, he looked back, "Ready?"
"Ready!"
"Now!"
Jones fired off two grenades in rapid succession, killing two of the aliens above them, wounding a third one, and sending another one flying off the second level towards them. The alien crashed in a heap on top of one of the office desks next to Rojas, who ran up to the alien and proceeded to curb-stomp it in the face before it could retaliate, killing it quickly.
Following this, Fenix. Petkov, and Rojas all threw a grenade at the alien troopers on the ground level. The sleeker looking alien flung up one of the boxy bulges that had been on its back, which suddenly reconfigured into a drone of sort, equipped with the same kind of weapon its deployer had and staying afloat by what Fenix could only describe as three orange-glowing pads on its underside.
The drone suddenly emitted an orange glow and 'caught' one of the grenades, before flinging it back at the Gears.
"Oh fuck!" was all Petkov could shout as dove out of the way of the incoming grenade, which exploded mere seconds after he did so. The other two grenades hit their targets and exploded in a gory display, killing three of the aliens that had previously been there, now nothing more than bloody chunks.
"Shit that Engineer's deploying more of those drones!" Rojas shouted as he fired on the first drone, dropping it after taking a sustained burst from his Saber. Sure enough, the now-dubbed 'Engineer' Alien tossed up the remainder of its drones, all of which proceeded to fire concentrated bursts on the pinned Gears.
The mini-gun toting alien rose from cover and added its own firepower into the fray, its weapon's three barrels spinning rapidly before unleashing a torrent of lead at the Gears. Despite their helmets muffling the sounds of battle to much more tolerable levels, the buzzing sound the weapon made was still fairly loud. Rojas, pulling out his S4 'Butcher' Shotgun, worked his way through cover, trying to flank around the side of the aliens on the ground.
Fenix rose out of cover and fired a burst at one of the drones, damaging it but failing to take it out before being forced back into cover by return fire.
Jones fired a burst from his Saber at the three aliens still on the second level, shattering the barriers and killing the wounded alien from before. The two remaining aliens retaliated and fired on him, shattering his barrier and grazing his right shoulder with a half dozen rounds before he succeeded in returning to cover, grunted in pain at his injured shoulder.
Growling, Fenix rose once more, firing a burst at the aliens above them while priming a grenade. As the aliens went back into cover, Fenix chucked the grenade. Almost immediately, one of the drones moved to intercepted, but was gunned down by Rojas, whose 8-Gauge Shotgun made quick work of the drone. The other drone moved to intercept as well, firing burst from its gun as it went, but like its fellow drone, it too was gunned down by Rojas.
As the grenade exploded, the two aliens on the second level jumped, orange glowing swords ignited, straight at the Gears. As they landed and charged at the Gears, Fenix revved up his chainsaw and prepared to meet them head-on.
Meanwhile...
Service Tunnel Garage between Docking Bay and Communications Building
The garage door burst open, its pieces sent flying about in the garage room. Stepping into the room, the massive Paladin Knight snorted as he walked through the door, followed by a low growl as he observed the room, his Castellani spreading out through the room, looking for any signs of the 'Hoo-muns' that had eluded them before.
Flexing his right hand, which occasionally glowed blue, he mentally cursed at allowing his foes to escape. This door wouldn't have taken so long if he hadn't been forced to halt and turn back around. Another group of hoo-muns, numbering 3 times as many as the group that had eluded him, had come down into the tunnel, no doubt investigating the sounds of battle that had taken place earlier.
What followed was what any self-respecting Knight would have described as a glorious battle, with 7 of the hoo-muns being slain by his own hands, their Cog-Tags now trophies strapped to his shield, along with 6 others. But while they had all died, he had taken serious casualties as well, with 43 of their number falling to them. Out of his own Command Cohort of 500 Velites, 250 Hastatus, and 250 Immunes alone, they has lost some 127 to the Hoo-muns over the past 11 hours of fighting, and he wasn't pleased by this. Not to mention the other 185 lost by the other Cohort that was here.
These hoo-muns were different from the ones they had fought on the stations upon their arrival. They were better trained, more disciplined, and definitely more ferocious in battle, save for maybe what the Velites were calling the 'Black-Demons'. Begrudgingly, he was beginning to grow some respect for these hoo-muns' fighting prowess, though he would never dare admit it.
"My Liege." A Velite Prior spoke, kneeling and bowing as he spoke, his left fist beside his head. The customary salute in their culture.
"Speak." Raising his head, the Velite Prior spoke, "We have confirmed that the hoo-muns that had eluded us earlier are attempting to reach the Black-Demons that have bunkered down in the communications room."
The Knight snorted. He had already figured that was where they were going. That's why he had another Vexillum go reinforce the ones already there, to ensure their communications stayed offline, or their jammer being destroyed. They could not afford to have the hoo-muns communicating with one another before their work was finished here.
"What of the other footholds the hoo-muns have established?"
"We have kept them from making any considerable gains, often times at significant cost to their forces."
He grunted in approval, "Good, we shall assemble 4 Comitatus to commence a counterattack on their two strongest positions, immediately. Force them from the station. We cannot afford to fumble about and take our time."
"It will be done, my Liege." The Prior bowed, "What of the hoo-muns in the Communications Building?"
The Knight snarled in annoyance, more so on the hoo-muns continued existence than of the Prior's rather pointless question. It was obvious what they would do, "Gather up your Castellani. We will deal with them ourselves."
And that's it for this Chapter! Sorry it took so long, and I know you guys get tired of hearing excuses, but the reasons were.
A. I was away for 2 weeks for NG training.
B. I've honestly lost a lot of motivation to write lately, and I've really been trying to find ways to get it back. No luck so far. :(
But anyway, I'm back now, and I'm going right back to work on my stories.
Also, before I forget, I've decided that I'm going to add a third universe to this wonderful little story, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is. You'll just have to find out at a later date.
Also, the next chapter will be a Codex for everything so far; Ships, weapons, etc.
As always, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review to let me know what you thought and as always, constructive criticism is always welcome.
See you next time.
-Azores
