Chapter 26: Trojan Horse.
It took an hour or so of intense planning to hash out the details of the plan to the finest detail, but as all commanders knew even the best-laid plans went to rat shit upon contact with the enemy.
The Raptorians wanted to run it during daylight hours due to increased fauna activity at night but Jack had argued against it due to the higher enemy activity during the day time, they had settled on the evening with one proviso in the plan, rather than destroy the FOB they were going to take it as this would give them a safe haven to operate out of and a solid foothold in the region, not to mention give the Raptorians their first stable above ground staging area.
Taking it would be a lot more difficult than destroying the place as it gave the enemy more chance to attack them in retaliation, they would have to ensure that the comms were cut almost instantly to prevent either the in orbit cruisers from shelling them into oblivion but also for them calling in reinforcements from any other FOB's, but at the same time they didn't want the place going completely dark or the enemy might suspect foul play, this was going to have to be a precision operation, to say the least.
They had a few hours to get ready for the op and in true military fashion every simply milled about mentally preparing themselves while also checking their equipment, Jack watched as the ever-curious little Raptorians fanned out among his people to get to know their new comrades in arms better.
Vippy and her pride had pulled Smoke to one side and were seemingly having some quiet time with their new husband, they'd sat him down and were helping him check his equipment fussing over him as he showed them his comms tools, Jack chuckled to himself as he watched as they were one step away from licking their thumbs and wiping dirt smudges off his cheeks.
The other Raptorians seemed to be zeroing in on things or people that fascinated them the most, as he watched their little medical teams were fussing along with the far larger Battle Angels over wounded hunters, as he watched one of them had hold of a rather confused looking Yautja male called Remza's hand and was stroking and patting it reassuringly while her sisters were examining him very closely, all while a rather anxious Battle Angel bounced from foot to foot next to them as if worried they were going to hurt him further, though no goddess would be able to help them if they did, Battle Angels may seem cute and cuddly in their pink and white candy cane-like armour, piss one off and you see why they have the word Battle in their title, angry Xeno's were not something to mess with.
A loud beep noise like a shuttle alarm made Jack nearly jump out of his skin and he snapped around to see a rather confused and startled looking A'Remek holding a Raptorian up by her tail, she appeared to have been lounging it across his lap while a group of them were sat around him clean their weapons, now whether he'd simply lifted it to move it away or because he was curious and wanted a closer look was anyone's guess, but the effect was the same, they all spun and dog-piled him like they'd just been waiting for a chance to do so.
Though apparently while the little Raptorians had incredible strength for their size, they simply weren't a match for a Yautja in powered battle armour, he simply stood up utterly covered in little Raptorians tugging at parts of him all yelling something about how they would show such a bold male who was boss.
A'Remek looked at Jack with a kinda lost look and confused look on his face and Jack simply shrugged with a 'Whatcha gonna do?' look on his face as the huge Yautja male simply walked towards Smoke and his pride, probably for some advice on how to remove over amorous female Raptorians from your armour.
The next Raptorian Yautja interaction he came across was a lot less dramatic but equally intriguing, he spotted a pride in conversation with Yalek who was big even by Yautja standards, rather than let her crouch down to their level the pride had decided to show off their incredible balance and versatility to talk to her face to face, they were currently all stood atop each other's shoulders so one could reach her level using their tails to augment their balance, they were like a living ladder made of Raptorians.
The topic of conversation made Jack smile softly because it warmed his heart to see that even while the faces changed and so did the planets, the hearts stayed the same, it seemed you could go anywhere in the universe and you'll find girls talking about boys and boys talking about girls and here they were light years away from home and he was presented with a living ladder of little reptile girls all chatting with a huge Yautja huntress about males while all casting glances at the verity of them about the cave-like they were picking out their favourites.
When they noticed him looking at them both the Raptorians and Yalek blushed brightly making him suspect that he had been a part of this conversation at some point, which he wouldn't deny gave his ego a little boost, though in all honesty, he didn't truly care how many females looked at him, because for him there would only ever be one and only one worthy of him.
His Seekers seemed to be attracting quite a lot of attention from the curious little reptiles, they seemed utterly fascinated by them and their abilities, as he watched, Seeker Dimondscale was giving a demonstration of Dream Warrior speed moving in and out of a pride before they could react, while Yiss a junior Tamer from his own team was utterly amazing them by calling animals to them which both utterly startled and amazed the Raptorians, but then given they lived on a planet where just about everything wanted to eat them given a chance, watching someone walk up to a large predator without fear and simply pet it like a dog was utterly mind-blowing to them.
He hoped soon that with the discovery of their own Dream Warriors that this would vastly improve their situation, whereas before going to the surface of this planet had been the realm of their bravest special forces, with Tamers able to protect them from the hostile fauna it may in time become the realm of all of them.
Though he had to admit he could help but be entertained by the instincts these little females had, they seemed to have an incredibly powerful drive to protect their males and not just their own males either but all males, he had to stop himself from giggling at the sight of one of the bolder prides attempting to protect Slithis Heartcrest who was a rather sizeable male Praetorian Battle Angel from Zara and Cortez's hive.
The utterly huge male looked utterly confused by the little females surrounding him and trying to lead him to safety within the cave, oh boy were they in for a surprise when they found out that Xeno's only became Pretorians in Clan Mason when they found their life mate and not only that but Slithis's lifemate was also here on the planet in one of the other teams and Jack doubted he'd be happy if he found the little alien girls trying to muscle in on his man.
As he watched Slithis lifted one of them up with his tail and lifted her to his face tilting his large crested head to get a better look at her, he lifted a scanner and scanned her before placing her back down on the ground and doing the same to the next one in the pride, they seemed confused by his actions as the diligent Battle Angel checked each of them for injury as well as analysed their make up, undoubtedly he'd be reporting his findings to the Clan and the hive upon his return.
But soon enough the hour approached and Jack felt the tension in the room growing, "Alright people lets pack this part up and get ready to move, you all know your places" he said and everyone began to break down their mobile command packing the entire cave away in record time as they got ready to move.
Assaulting an enemy stronghold was always going to be both incredibly risky and indeed a nightmare scenario, as not only were you going up against a vastly better dug in opponent but attacking them on their turf, even if the Scalathor and Draconis were on another planet the base structure was of their own design and they knew it inside and out, they knew the cover, where the arms were plus they had the personnel advantage.
The two teams of Jack and Liam had essentially merged into one here for the purpose of the assault, with Jack assuming overall command of both, not as a slight on Liam, he just needed all the Soul Knights with him as the Tamers had a very different job here and since Liam was coming with him it only made sense for him to defer to his commanding officer.
The group moved as one through the undergrowth with the Raptorians fanned out among them, everyone was on high alert, Jack spotted thermal signatures on the trail ahead of them and held up a fist making the entire formation freeze, he pointed to Liam and then to himself and motioned they were going to move up but for the others to remain still, there were nods all around and the two battle-hardened Seekers cloaked and moved silently forwards untill they were sat at the edge of a well-used game trail.
There ahead of them were a team of six Scalathor moving in a loose zig-zag formation along the trail scanning the trees with their weapons as they moved, "I fucking hate this place, it's so fucking closed in, you can't see a fucking thing amongst these trees, for all we know they could inches away just watching us and we'd never fucking know it" one of the Scalathor in the middle moaned.
"I wish the intel team would just hurry the fuck up and find the entrance to those underground fucking cities of thiers" another whined.
"Don't know about you but I'm looking forwards to grabbing me a few of their boys, I heard they may be small but there's a lot of muscle packed into those little frames if you know what I mean?" another said making them all laugh.
Liam looked at Jack and he nodded motioning with his hand to move around them, he did so moving around to the Rear as Jack moved into the trail ahead of them, his cloak hid him from view to well that not a single one of them even noticed him right up until the front one walked right into his extended wrist blades which he helped on their way through the torso with a sickening wet crunch.
She barely had time to let out a gurgle as her lungs filled with blood as did her chest cavity effectively drowning her in her own blood while collapsing both of her lungs, both Liam and Jack both decloaked and before a single weapon could snap up they both threw their smart discs to one another catching the others disc as they pinballed down the line to one another like they were playing pro frisbee in the middle of the trail.
Every single Scalathor froze utterly solid as Jack and Liam strolled confidently into the middle of the group and swapped their discs back, before they turned back to the rest of the watching battle formation Jack and Liam in perfect sync lifted a hand each and snapped their fingers just loud enough for the formation to hear and as one all the Scalathor fell their freshly severed heads rolling away from their bodies.
"By the Great Tree!" Vippy's pride exclaimed from the front of the battle formation.
"I told you Seekers don't fuck about," Smoke said quietly but proudly.
The bodies were dragged off the trail to hide them and the heads were placed with their bodies before the group moved on, by the time they reached the road that led into the huge FOB the light was beginning to fail, as they'd moved in various members of the group had separated off to go to their assigned positions, Sema included in this, they were going to be providing overwatch with other snipers, they had set themselves up in the mighty trees ringing the base for when things went loud as they inevitably would at some point.
Once all Teams were in position Jack headed out into the road and just waited, fortunately, the Scalathor patrol times were pretty regular so they didn't have to wait long, pretty soon the growling rumbling noise of tracked vehicles washed over them and a small column of tanks some with fresh battle scars and even some plasma burns indicating they'd been hit by a few plasma weapons indicating Clan Mason rolled into sight.
Jack motioned to the other Soul Knights and one by one each of them silently boarded a passing tank hanging on to the outside letting their cloak do the work as the tanks rolled slowly but steadily into their compound and were parked up among the rows of others in the centre of the place.
Silently the unseen Seekers dropped down from their Trojan Horses and grouped up, it wouldn't be long before the Tamers did their part and they'd be able to move, they silently moved towards the gates staying low and moving slowly so their cloak shimmer wouldn't give them away, Liam and Anna a female human Soul Knight junior moved off to their intended targets, Jack and Serval a Yautja female Soul Knight junior moved towards the gatehouse which was located just inside the huge main gates.
They passed row upon row of tanks and heavy vehicles which had been repaired and cleaned ready for the next day's operation when suddenly Jack felt a spine chilling presence and he froze nearly making Serval bump into him, suddenly she felt it as well and the pair looked over towards the billets on the far side from where they were.
Coming out of what was blatantly the command building was a tall hooded figure dressed all in black, as they watched she stopped out in the open and sweat her hood down revealing blackened scales with traces of red and blue in them, if it hadn't been for what she was she might have been a rather fetching figure of Scalathor feminity.
But Jack knew that the tainted scales were a by-product of the blackness coursing through the soul of the Nightmare Assassin, he also knew that if they could sense her she could sense them, but knowing your enemy are present and knowing how close they are two different things, the Nightmare Assassin seemed to sniff the air and look around herself as if trying to gauge what it was she was feeling, Jack, got the feeling this one was not used to untainted Dream Warriors so she might not fully understand what it was she was sensing but it was obviously making her guarded.
After a few heart stopping moments the Nightmare Assasin seemed to shrug to herself then simply drew her hood back up and wandered off towards the billet scattering a large group of Draconis soldiers out of her way as she walked through them.
"Priority target identified," Jack said telepathically to all the other Soul Knights.
"Roger that boss we saw her too, got a strong sense over here believe there to be a team of them" Liam replied.
"Roger that when the shit and fan collide we hit them first, if they hit the Raptorians they won't have a chance" Jack replied and there was acknowledgement all around.
Jack and Serval duck walked up to the door of the guardhouse, it was a small rectangular single-storey building not much bigger than a Portakabin with a large window facing the giant gates and a single door to the rear with a key card reader on it.
Jack placed his wrist computer up against it and silently popped the casing off with a blade from his wrist blade, the two connection tubes that extended from the computer found access nodes on the board almost instantly and began running code sequences, it didn't take them long to pop the lock and a small light lit up on the circuit board to indicate a successful hack.
Jack and Serval were through the door less than a second later and the three very surprised Scalathor gate guards had no idea what hit them, though to be fair a couple of hundred pounds of pissed-off female Yautja would do that to anyone let alone a Dream Warrior version, "Gatehouse is under our control" Jack telepathically said.
"Roger that, towers one and two outer guards are silenced, just waiting on the Tamers now" Liam replied and as if on cue alarms lit up across the base.
"Here we go," Jack said and all around them, they saw running soldiers coming out of the buildings looking utterly confused before a voice on a tannoy that boomed across the yard of the FOB boomed.
"Stand down its just the bloody local fauna going nuts again, they tripped the proximity and thermal sensors, no threat repeat no threat" the voice called and Jack grinned inside his helmet.
This happed another three times over the next half an hour till on the fourth time no one reacted, it was time, having already located the gate controls Jack punched them and the gates began to slowly rumble open, no sooner than there was enough gap than Hunters, Raptorians, Tamers and Battle Angels began to spew into the base along with a large number of the local fauna under the control of the Tamers.
This time the voice on the tannoy was not so calm, "It's an attack! We're under attack! The premimiter is breached! All personnel to your stations!" she yelled but it was too late.
The Yautja in the yard were already letting loose a tremendous battle roar which was even picked up by the Raptorians giving their own version which kinda sounded comical but no less fierce, In less than ten second the entire FOB yard turned into utter chaos, with Scalathor pouring out of everywhere some still trying to pull their armour on as they were being propelled out of the doors by their commanding officers.
Snipers kept trying to get onto the ramparts and towers to fire down on the invaders only to drop where they stood as shots from both the Raptorian and Clan Mason snipers hiding in the trees took them out, but that didn't stop the heavy weapons operators from opening upon them from inside the towers spraying projectiles down into the oncoming mass as they poured into the FOB and split up to attack various targets.
Both Jack and Serval headed out and headed right for the four Nightmare Assassins that were coming out of the billet looking confused until they found themselves stood facing a group of eight heavily armed Seekers, "You! The vile enemies of the Dark Seed!" one yelled pointing a large Katana like sword at Jack that seemed to have a serration cut into the blade.
"Indeed," Jack said and with a single flick of his wrist, the two groups charged one another.
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Smoke charged through the opening gates with his pride around him all screaming at the tops of their lungs, it was like charging in through the gates of hell, bullets crackled and hissed as they shot past them on all sides, the roar of automatic weapons fire was coming from all around them creating a deafening din even through his aural protectors.
Lifting his rifle into the shoulder he fired on a single shot at the door to one of the billets and his round punched holes not only through the people coming out but the people behind them, "We have to get to the comms tower!" he yelled as a bright blue flare sparkled in front of his eyes indicating his shields had absorbed an impact from a shot.
Upon seeing this Vippy and the others whirled around and opened up on the shooters, their bullets while powerful were far less effective against the Scalathor and Draconis armour than the Clan Mason weapons due to being far more primitive, in a straight-up fight ballistic weapons will always lose to railguns or plasma, unless the shooters are unarmored and the ballistic weapon holder is both faster and more accurate, but add armour into the equation and penetration power always wins.
Another series of sparkles rippled across his vision and his HUD informed him that his shields were down to thirty percent, the shooters were targeting him because he was the easier to mark target among the little Raptorians, he quickly deployed his plasma casters and set them to auth threat detection, this meant that they were essentially weapons-free.
No sooner had the casters pooped up and spun up than they began firing, he saw the group of Scalathor running for cover behind one of the tanks at the edge of the formation, "Oh no you fucking don't no one shoots at me and MY girls!" he roared as more anger than he's ever felt in his life at seeing a round ping off Vippy's shoulder pauldrons.
He ripped his smart disc from his belt and threw it after them, the disc chased the marked targets right behind the tank in a wide arc and with a series of screams it flew back out with a spray of crimson following it, it shot back into his hand and he hooked it to his belt.
"Holy shit! I want one of those!" Vippy yelled above the din and Smoke responded by pointing at the doors to the base of the comms tower.
"There! Let's go!" he yelled and his pride set off with him at its centre.
To their right, a bright blue bubble shield spun into life and Smoke saw three wounded Hunters being dragged in by Battle Angels who wasted no time in getting to work on them along with their Raptorian counterparts, a team of Scalathor charged the shield in order to try and penetrate it so they could finish off the wounded only to find out first hand what happens when you break the code of war in front of a Battle Angel.
Out of nowhere, there was an almighty shriek that cut the air like a hot knife followed by a huge crash and the entire team simply vanished underneath the roof on an upturned troop truck, everyone in the vicinity turned to see Slithis going ape shit nearby, the utterly huge male Praetorian had seen the Scalathor heading for both his sisters and their helpless patients and had responded with such fury he'd thrown a truck at them, "That's why you never get between a Battle Angel and their patient!" Smoke yelled as they ran.
"Uma blow it!" Vippy yelled as they closed in on the door, shrapnel from the multiple strikes that were smashing into the floor all around them as they ran impacted on their armour causing Smoke's shield to not only shimmer constantly but not recharge, the little Raptorian suddenly accelerated ahead of the pride and stuck something to the door next to the lock.
"Fire in the hole!" she yelled and with a sharp crack, the door blew inwards instantly followed by the entire pride.
No sooner had they set foot inside than fire rained down on them, Smoke deployed his wrist-mounted riot shield creating a wall of blue energy, both Vippy and Skeeva climbed him and fired over his shield from atop his shoulders as he moved forwards, the riot shield was taking an obscene amount of fire from the defenders in the room beyond the door, they were in a narrow corridor that leads to what was blatantly a comms room, it was a large circular room filled with stations and most of which had been abandoned no by the blatantly unarmed Scalathor signals teams.
But the guards assigned to protect them were not going down easy, "Heavy machine gun!" Vippy yelled but it was too late, the large belt-fed weapon carried by two Scalathor opened up on them and almost instantly collapsed Smoke's riot shield and a second later his battle shields.
Clan Mason powered Hunter armour is incredibly strong stuff, but not even it can protect against heavy sustained fire from heavy calibre small arms for long, just as Smoke's plasma casters locked on and fired blowing the machinegun team into gooey chunks the stream of bullets they let loose managed to pierce Smoke's armour in two places sending two white-hot flashes of pain through him and a whole symphony of alarms in his head.
Suddenly his arms and legs felt like they were made of lead, Smoke dropped to his knees sending both Vippy and Skeeva rolling, "He's hit! Our male is hit!" Uma screamed with genuine terror in her voice.
Vippy screeched like a wild animal and she unleashed hell on the remaining defenders, "Skeeva on me!" she screamed and the pair rushed forwards grabbed the heavy machinegun from where the team had dropped it and despite her size hoisted it and fired.
She was very nearly knocked off her feet back the recoil, but Skeeva slammed into her back and propped her up like a second row in a scrum, as they were spraying the defenders with white-hot death the rest of Smoke's pride were around him trying to stop the bleeding from the two holes in Smoke's armour as red blood bubbled out of the holes, "Hang on Smoke don't you fucking dare die on us!" Lima wailed as she tried to use a nano injector gun through the small hole in Smoke's upper shoulder pauldrons, her hands were shaking so badly she was having difficulty getting the emergency injector gun into the hole, Smoke glanced down and realised he'd copped one in his right shoulder and one in his left thigh.
His suit was also deploying emergency measures pumping both painkillers, clotting agents and blood oxygenators into his body to keep him alive, "G-G-Get me to the master console!" he exclaimed through gritted teeth.
"We have to get you to a medic!" his pride wailed trying to lift him to drag him towards the door back the way they'd come.
"No! We have to do this! If we don't all this will be for nothing!" he yelled slamming his wrist blades into the floor to prevent him from being dragged out.
"Room's clear! Smoke! Oh Great Tree Smoke speak to me!" Vippy yelled appearing in front of him and dropping to her knees, she was shaking in both fear and adrenaline.
"It's ok, non-life-threatening, got my shoulder and leg but I can still work, get me to the console!" he yelled.
"But..." Vippy began looking towards the door.
"The console!" Smoke roared making them all jump a mile.
It worked, the pride lifted him and carried him to the master console which was obvious enough as it was in the centre of the circular room, "Thanks, I'm sorry I shouted at you girls but this needs to happen" Smoke said as they placed him in the chair in front of the three monitored stations.
He could feel the fear in them even as they stood around him, their instincts were bound to be going utterly crazy right at this moment in time, Smoke's right arm was pretty much useless now so he detached his kit with his left and planted it on the desk, he opened it and began trying to clip wires and jack into the various ports on the computer but he needed Vippy's help, so while she worked he directed her until there was a literal multicoloured spider's web of wires and probes running from their master server into Smoke's console.
Now began the decryption process but with a heads up from their previous experience with the Scalathor language and the data retrieved from the ship it hardly took Smoke any time at all to breach the network.
"I'm in!" he yelled triumphantly as things began to pop up on his screen, using his good arm he scrolled rapidly through the commands and that's when he found the jamming signal frequency and codes, a large grin spread across his face.
"I'm keying in all Clan Mason and Raptorian code frequencies to be included in the white list here, so as far they know nothing is wrong and we will use their own fucking jamming system against them because now not only will it hide our frequencies but in three...two...one" Smoke said and no sooner had he hit one than his comms system lit up and his helmet filled with voices, as did Vippy's and the others.
"Jamming breached, we have comms," Smoke said grinning at the girls.
Suddenly Smoke's system lit up and they began broadcasting his life signs to the Clan, the response was instantaneous, "We have a wounded Hunter! Bronze Eight remain where you are! Battle Angels are on the way!" Slithis's voice came through his comms and a moment later the huge Praetorian literally smashed his way into the comms tower hitting the outer doorway like a living battering ram, right behind him a small team of Raptorian's followed in in his wake.
"This is Seeker Gold one to all call signs comms are restored, I repeat comms are restored good work Bronze eight!" Jack Mason's voice cut through the scrum like a hot knife and Smoke felt a stab of pride in his heart, he'd done his duty and made his Grand Patriarch proud.
Suddenly he found himself on the floor on his back and Slithis was removing his armour around the wounded areas, the little Raptorians were buzzing around in a frenzy at seeing yet another male wounded, his own pride looked like they were dancing on the spot with worry as they bounced around, their instincts were going crazy at seeing other females touching their pride male but also at their pride male being wounded.
"Through and through's clean hits, that's good, ok let's seal these up and then hit him with those nanites of yours, that should restore the damaged muscle in no time," Slithis said as he used a laser sealer to seal all the ruptured blood vessels in both wounds before the Raptorians injected specially calibrated nanites into the wounds.
Once they were done Smoke's armour was replaced on him to protect him, the damaged sections were going to need to be repaired or most likely replaced but fortunately, nothing major was damaged, once he was able to sit back up under his own power his girls literally threw themselves on him hugging him from all directions at once.
The pain flashed but was muted because of the painkillers coursing through his veins, "Oof I'm alright girls it's ok" he said sounding muffled as they all clung to him.
"I can't bear this fear of having our male out in the open, it's tearing me apart" Lima exclaimed into his left shoulder sounding like she was actually crying inside her helmet, Smoke raised his left arm and stroked her head gently.
"Hey now it's alright, I'm fine, plus I got you guys and the Clan watching over me so I'll be alright, now come on girls get your game faces on we got a battle to win," he said softly.
It worked somewhat and his pride detached from him all standing up and nodding, they rapidly checked their weapons, other Hunters and Raptorian Surface Stalker prides were coming into the tower now to head up and clear the remaining floors above them, the fighting was still pretty intense but from the sound of the radio chatter, it was rapidly shifting into Clan Mason's favour.
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Jack had to admit these Nightmare Assassins were a cut above the rest they'd encountered so far, highly trained and very motivated, for the most part, they got by on a combination of pure arrogance, aggression and power, but these had been trained and by the look of it trained to deal with Seekers.
His huge blade crashed against the twin smaller ones of the female Scalathor who used the momentum to spin around it and to try and land a lunging stab on his unprotected flank, but as she did Serval came at her from her own unprotected side with her war hammer raised high bringing it down with such force that it shattered the lunging blade into a thousand pieces.
Jack used the momentary distraction to put on a burst of speed to rotate himself and his huge claymore sword through his axis and swing a huge overhead cut using the long blade's massive reach to full effect, but the Nightmare Assassin saw it coming out of the corner of her eye and dove backwards.
She stood staring at Jack as he drew himself up and held out his blade like a pointer in her direction, "I'll give you this vile one you take what we are seriously, that's a first, but you must know you cannot win this, unity, light, love will always vanquish the darkness, you have but one little disgruntled wanna be deity on your side, while we have the fury of the Gods and Goddesses on ours" Jack said.
"You must be the one the call the Left Hand of the Huntress, I must say it shows, but you underestimate us Seeker, we are far more than you realise and yes I take you seriously as it is good to see that you do the same, but you are mistaken if you think the Dark Seed is a small thing, it is many things and it grows stronger day by day, the darkness that follows with it will wash over everything in its path and destroy anything and everything that stands in its way, surely a warrior of your calibre knows a lost cause when you see it? You should join us the Seed will give you power greater than you could ever imagine, just think, you could mould the Galaxy how you see fit with an army of Nightmare Assassins under your command, just imagine what you could do" the female Scalathor said in a surprisingly pleasant voice.
"You're right I do know a lost cause when I see it," Jack said and he gestured around with his blade to emphasise his point.
The female Nightmare Assassin looked around herself and as she did she watched her three comrades fall to the Seekers one after the other with the last one decapitated by Liam in a hit so powerful that not only did it cut her head off but pulled her soul clean from her body and launch it right into the waiting hands of the vengeful dead she had wronged and murdered in life before they dragged it screaming into the void, that boy's Soul Cleave was no joke.
"End this, put down your blade and let us cure you of the madness that eats at your soul, let us show you the true power of Dream Warriors, of the light that you were meant for, don't let this blackness twist you and use you, you are nothing but a puppet to it, a tool, let me show you who you can truly be," Jack said offering a hand alongside his blade to make a point, choose the hand and live, chose the blade and die.
But it seemed this Nightmare Assassin saw a third option, "My name is Geliva Furyscale and they call me the Fallen Angel, something tells me we will meet again Jack Mason the Left Hand of the Huntress, till we do beware the shadows" she said and before Jack could say a single word there was an explosion of blackness from her body that blinded them and when their vision cleared she was gone.
"Holy shit that's a new one," Liam said walking up alongside Jack and he nodded in agreement.
"Looks like we have a new class of Nightmare Assassin to deal with now, these guys are a lot more than piss and vinegar too, the Fallen Angel huh and she knew my name," Jack said scratching his chin.
"Looks like you're scaring them, boss," Liam said confidently and Jack shook his head.
"No it's more than that, we need to be on our guard Liam, there is more happening here than we realise, alright let's wrap this shit up and mop up, Seekers on me, we're finishing this fight" Jack called and the Seekers around him roared with their blades held high before charging behind their boss towards the remainder of the enemy clinging on under the weight of the pressure of the combined forces of Clan Mason and the brave Raptorian Surface Stalkers.
Half an hour later the fight was over, not a single Draconis or Scalathor had escaped the fight, any Draconis that had attempted to flee were torn from the sky by either the fire of the ground forces or by the patrolling Gryphon like birds that the Tamers had summoned for a little air support, to be fair very few Scalathor or Draconis had surrendered leaving their POW's numbering less than a handful and less than you could count on two hands.
If you didn't surrender you were shown no mercy by either the Clan or their Raptorian allies, the Seekers rooted out those that tried to hide with ruthless efficiency forcing them out to face the judgement they deserved, though once the battle was done and the cheers of victory were echoing from the walls a cry went up for the Battle Angels, a Hunter group had found a group of male Scalathor hidden deep in the barracks, unarmed and defenceless these poor creatures had obviously been abused and used as 'comfort' males for the troops, a practice that sickened both Clan Mason and the Raptorians alike.
As the terrified creatures were gently led by Hunters, Seekers and Raptorian Surface Stalkers from their prison of torment into the waiting arms of the Battle Angels and the Raptorian medics Jack instantly saw the switch flip in the Raptorian girls, at the appearance of these defenceless males they utterly surrounded them and protected them, guiding them gently towards the medics to be healed.
As he watched he saw a familiar face being carried out of the jammer tower on a stretcher carried by his pride with Slithis following close behind fussing over him as they moved towards the field hospital that the Battle Angels and Raptorians had hurriedly set up to treat the wounded, thankfully there were few, the Hunter armour had done its job well but Jack knew that the Xeno's would be collecting data like crazy to transmit back to Citrus and Yoshi's hive for analysis to locate and fix any exposed weaknesses.
Jack marched over and he saw Smoke's pride bristle until they realised who approached their vulnerable male, the whole lot of them looked like they were on pins, "At ease ladies, I'm not going to snatch your boy away and make a run for it promise" Jack said jokingly in the hope of easing them a bit.
It worked and the one called Vippy wh had removed her helmet now smiled at him with a dark grin, "I'd like to see you try, Dream Warrior or not you're on our turf and trust me you couldn't run far enough for us not to find you" she said making Jack laugh and nod.
He looked down at Smoke, "You did an exceptional job in there Hunter Pathfinder Smoke, truly exceptional, the intel we will receive and the restoration of comms with our ground units, the Raptorians and our fleet will be utterly instrumental in the battles to come" Jack said making Smoke blush but smile under the weight of his praise.
"And he did it with one hand and one leg!" his pride said in that odd together speak they did making Jack's eyebrows shoot up.
"You mean to tell me he was wounded BEFORE he breached their network?" he exclaimed and they all nodded.
"Wouldn't let us evacuate him, just kept on yelling about how the Clan was counting on him and he had to do it no matter what" they said proudly further adding to Smoke's blush.
"Well then in that case further recognition is in order, Hunter Smoke I hereby field promote you to the rank of Sargent first class and for your courage and dedication to not only the principles of Clan Mason but the service of the people of Raptoria, when we return home you will receive the Valour Cross for service with distinction and courage," Jack said proudly and Smoke's mouth dropped open.
"T-T-Thank you Grand Patriarch I-I-I don't know what to say" Smoke stammered and Jack leaned down and patted him on the shoulder that wasn't wounded.
"You don't need to say anything son, your actions here today have said plenty already," he said and with that, he turned and left the amazed Hunter to the loving care of his excited and loving pride.
As he walked also noticed what seemed to be another pride in the making, Hunter A'Remek had taken a seat on the armour of one of the now captured Scalathor tanks, he instantly seemed to have been buried under a pride of Raptorians who seemed rather desperate not to just sit with him but on him as well, it took Jack a moment but he realises the one sat directly on his lap trying to feed him some of her ration bars was the one who'd made the loud beep noise when he'd lifted her tail up, he chuckled softly and shook his head as the visibly confused Yautja male accepted the treat but when he tried to take it from her had his hand pushed away by another member of the pride, they were rather insistent of feeding it to him themselves, the poor guy had absolutely no idea that as far as they were concerned he was their male now and they were taking care of him.
Jack thumbed his comms, "Seeker Gold One to the Dreamer back door is open, comms restored, light em up my love, good hunting, Seeker Gold one over and out" he said.
"Roger that Seeker Gold one time for me to show them what happens when you pauk with the friends of Clan Mason, I'll see you on the hunting grounds soon my love, Hunter One over and out" Tik eleth growled in response and Jack couldn't help but look up at the now star-filled sky, the Scalathor and Draconis had no idea what was coming.