Darkening Skies: End Infinite

The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.

Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.

Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.

Chapter 1

"Now, as you can see from these diagrams, the immense power of the Duplication Crystal makes it physically very fragile." Piper said as she addressed the Sky Knight Assembly a couple hours later. "It has unlimited duplication capacity, but so fragile that even a drop of a foot or so would be enough to break it. This is likely a result of the fact that the crystal is solidified energy and so has little substance right now. Given enough time, that could change, so it is imperative that we strike now. Now, the crystal will be heavily guarded, so the majority of our forces will be deployed with the intent to destroy it."

"What about the Knights not included in that force?" Harrier asked, interrupting Piper's presentation.

"The rest will be heading to Terra Atmosia to rescue Aerrow, then rushing to Cyclonia to assist the rest of you in destroying the Duplication Crystal. We know that Aerrow will be there because Master Cyclonis has taken great care to keep him out of combat and away from us and Atmosia is currently the second most secure area of the Cyclonian Empire. Since we are going to be letting news of our assault slip to Cyclonia, she will immediately send Aerrow to somewhere 'safe,' in this case Atmosia." Piper said, bracing herself for the reactionary outburst.

"You are going to let Cyclonis know we are attacking Cyclonia?!" Harrier shouted as he slammed his fist into the desk in front of him. "Have you lost your mind? That will make our assault impossible!"

"Not necessarily, particularly since we are not going to let them know our true goal. They will think we are attacking Cyclonia to rescue Aerrow, not destroy the Duplication Crystal. In addition, I have developed a new weapon for you to use: blocker crystal enhanced missiles, which should be able to knock large numbers of Talons out of the air, not to mention they will saturate the air with blocker crystal energies, dispersing any duplicates. The Ancients with provide everyone with specialized solaris crystals like the ones they use which will allow our weapons and skimmers to continue functioning in such an environment."

"Yes, we have many spares left over…" Vespos said, glaring at Harrier for a second before turning back to face Piper. "Enough to equip most everyone with our special crystals."

"Right…" Piper said, hoping to neatly sidestep the whole issue with the Ancients and Rex Guardians. "Now, Vespos will be leading the assault on Cyclonia and I expect him to be fair while everyone cooperates with him." At her comment, both Harrier and Vespos exchanged glares, stopping only when Piper cleared her throat loudly.

"Anyways…" Piper continued, "Meanwhile, the Storm Hawks and I will infiltrate Atmosia and rescue Aerrow, hopefully while a number of the garrison there have been pulled to defend Cyclonia."

"You realize this plan has very little chance of success right?" Harrier said suddenly.

"Yes, but let's face facts, we have little choice in the matter, the longer we wait, the more power of the Duplication Crystal Cyclonis will unlock and the more difficult it will be to destroy the crystal. Also, the longer we wait, the more difficult it will be to rescue Aerrow and trying to achieve these goals one at a time will only result in the other becoming that much more difficult. Please, I have reviewed the scenarios for each method of accomplishing both of these goals and this has the best chance of success, albeit by a slim margin."

"Very well then, let us hope for the best." Harrier said as Piper began to go into the details of the main attack on Cyclonia.

Master Cyclonis leaned back in her throne, contemplating the report that one of Marrshal's subordinates had handed her. By all appearances, the rebels were preparing to launch a massive all-out strike on Cyclonia, although the purpose of the attack had not yet been ascertained. She sighed heavily as she set the report to one side, wishing that Marrshal had been the one to deliver the report, he would have provided a list of possible targets and recommendations on how to counter, but these men were too cautious, too afraid of making an erroneous conclusion or recommendation. Perhaps it had been a mistake to let him go on his little excursion, even if it was intended as a punishment in addition to a training exercise.

"It's not until we lack something that we truly appreciate it." She said quietly to the now empty room. It was a lesson she had been forced to learn again and again these past few months, between the loss of the peace due to the freedom of the Sky Knights to the loss of her best friend Piper and now the temporary loss of Marrshal. Piper was the most burdensome of those losses though, the two had finally become best friends over the course of the year that Piper had lived in Cyclonia, much in the same way that Night Aerrow and Dark Ace had become friends. Even now the two of them were sparing together in one of the simulated environments built in the new wing that had been added to the reconstructed central spire of Cyclonia. Perhaps they had the right attitude in this regard, they had not really lost a friend, Piper was just away for a while and would return eventually. That was a much more optimistic approach to the problem. Even so, that still left the problem of how to retrieve Piper, not to mention those accursed Sky Knights were on the move again, something which seemed to be a constant theme these days. A final solution needed to be found for this Sky Knight problem, her Dying Light crystals were not enough thanks to those infernal Ancients. Were it not for the Ancients she would have crushed all who opposed her long ago… So it was clear that they must be eliminated, it was something Marrshal would enjoy greatly, particularly since it combined his passion for information gathering with his desire for vengeance. With that thought, she quickly grabbed a sheet of paper from a hidden compartment in her throne and wrote down some new objectives for Marrshal to follow through on. The note would eventually find its way to the spymaster regardless of where he was or what he was doing, of that she was certain.

In the meantime, she had another issue with security to deal with, namely ensuring that Aerrow was safe from any ill-conceived rescue attempts. That was likely the reason why the Sky Knights were attacking Cyclonia; they had been obsessed with rescuing him since day one. Moving him to his citadel on Atmosia would ensure they could not rescue him, although he would not be able to participate in the actual battle. An unfortunate necessity, as long as Piper was fighting for the Sky Knights there was always the chance that they would discover a way to fully undo her corruption. With any luck though, this battle would change everything back to the way it was…Aerrow.