Alteran Seraphimian Aliance

by anothokuro

An action to free Arceus will bring an ancient alliance back to life. The hunt for the stars has begun. Voldemort will soon find out what true power means. And Dumbledore runs against a wall with his manipulations, as Harry frees himself from his grip and starts his true inheritance. Begins in the Pokemon universe and then changes over. Translation of the Original Story.

10. Chapter 10 - The fight continues

Chapter 10 - The fight continues, in both worlds.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or Stargate or Harry Potter or Highschool DxD or any other copyrighted works that are used here. I am writing this story for my personal enjoyment only, with no profit whatsoever.

"Bla" speeches

Bla thinking

# "Bla" # Seraphim language

'Bla' telepathy

$ "Bla" $ Discussions with the shadow layer

/ Bla / Old Draconic

Ϩ Bla Ϩ Parseltongue

₱ Bla ₱ Translated Pokémon Language

[Bla] Pokédex entries

"Bla" Bijuu and other beings

Bla Bijuu talking to their host

"[Bla]" Zoids

"b̶̧̺̲̟̞̭̲̘́̒̎̃̈̂̊̐l̡̙͕̱͚̭̠͙̼͌̐̽̽͘͜͝a̘͙͓̩͉͚̰̭̔͊͛̎̇͛̋̌͘" distorted voice

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Long chapter: approx. 68,700 words.

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Words in advance:

I will not describe the Zoid in terms of its appearance unless it is necessary to. Who does not know what they are look like:

Google: Zoids Wikia com

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Anoth met Cisco a few hours later on board his Zoid form in one of the canteens while Cisco's Lightning Saix was being repaired.

On the table at which they were sitting, the three-dimensional hologram of the base slowly rotated, to which the two wanted to pay an unannounced visit shortly.

"So what do we know about the base?" began Anoth. "It is located in this valley and is surrounded by heavy walls over 20 meters high and almost 10 meters thick, on which defensive artillery can move back and forth on rails."

The whole complex was much more like a fortress than anything else. However, their main goal was not down in the valley but was on a smaller facility far above the fortress that was installed directly on the steep slope.

Whatever they were doing there, they didn't want you to sniff by unannounced.

Not that Anoth would announce what he and Cisco were up to.

They would notice soon enough that he was there.

No, the real problem with this system was a shield generator that was located in the middle of the fortress and prevented anyone from entering the system at all.

As if that weren't enough, the whole complex was located in the middle of the caldera of a super volcano. And this super volcano was also used by them as a source of energy.

Unfortunately, the increased use of its geothermal energy made the volcano more and more unstable.

Should it break out, it would have disastrous consequences for Zi.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what would happen if they just destroyed the shield generator.

Because the shield generator that was used there was not built by the people there, but only found.

It was the failed prototype of a planetary shield.

Build by an ancient Zoidian research Team.

They were now using it with maximum energy and a tiny shield. What they did not know was that they made an already ticking time bomb tick a lot faster.

In this particular case it means that the eruption will not occur in 20,000 years, but already in 20 years time.

Anoth won't be able to prevent this outbreak either, but he can reduce the effects.

Once they were done here, Anoth would put a massive ring with a diameter of 300 kilometres around the volcano. The whole ring will consist of a network of runes which will only be activated at the time of the outbreak. The ring prevents the volcanic ash and gases from leaving the area. At the same time, the ring also ensures that the said gases are neutralized and broken down into harmless gases. The ashes themselves remain in the area and will probably bury the entire area up to several dozen meters below itself, if not more. Depending on the strength of the eruption and once distance from the volcano.

It was very lucky that the volcano was in a desert area. As a result, there were no settlements in the area. The next settlement on the volcano was over 400km away. If everything went as Anoth imagined, there would be no danger from the volcano for these settlements.

The only way into the base was an old forgotten lava tunnel that passed very close to a corridor on the lowest level of the base. Only in this old lava tunnel did that protective shield have a gap.

Anoth would do it alone. Cisco couldn't help him with that. The shield generator technology was too strange for him to understand.

Anoth explained in more detail what he was up to and so they were ready to strike.

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A few hours later.

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The darkness of night was Anoth's ally. It was easy to find the entrance to the old tunnel. It was a bit more difficult to find the right place for the explosive charge.

Meanwhile, Cisco was sitting in its Lightning Saix a few kilometres from the base and was waiting for Anoth's signal. That was also the part he hated the most.

Wait.

The wretched wait.

But if everything went as planned, he'd be seeing nice fireworks soon.

Meanwhile Anoth had reached the place he had been looking for. After he got lost at least ten times in these tunnels.

Damn tunnels.

All looked the same.

He mounted the explosive charge in a suitable niche and took cover. One explosion later and he had a passage to the bottom floor. Unfortunately, the noise had also triggered the alarm in the base.

He would have to fight his way to the shield generator.

And then the first guards stormed into the room.

He could forget quiet.

So it was loud and brutal.

Anoth took cover behind a nearby thick pipe and opened fire with his aura pistols shortly after the guards had entered the room. Two of them were dead before they understood they were being shot at. The third took cover behind a box. A grenade quickly ruined this attempt.

As soon as these were removed, Anoth rushed to the stairs and then up the stairs. He either had to go to the control centre for the shield generator or to the main control console which was right next to the generator itself.

And something was telling Anoth that those who controlled the shield generator knew nothing of the main control console. So he set course for just that.

Hmm? No alarm in this sector? How incompetent are the guards here?! Or is the system only limited to individual sectors? Whatever. It makes my job here easier.

Anoth only knew about the existence of this console because of all the data that was in his computer core. They must have come from the old Zoidians themselves. Among those dates were the blueprints for this outpost. However, it was questionable whether they could still be of use to him. Many centuries had passed and the current owners could easily have carried out renovations.

Minutes later this was confirmed when Anoth was in front of a wall that shouldn't be there.

What now?

Anoth's eyes finally fell on the grille of a ventilation shaft. "Those damn shafts. Well, let's go. It seems like I don't have any other choice."

Several minutes in these damn shafts felt like hours. But if the map was correct, this shaft led him almost directly to his destination.

There was only one small problem.

The shaft ended in the guard quarters. And they were full. And he had to get past it because all the other doors in the area had been sealed.

Yes. A tiny problem.

A distraction wouldn't be bad.

On the way here he had passed a storage room.

A short time later he was at the ventilation grille which led into it. A little spark later and a nice fire broke out in the room. Anoth didn't have to worry that the smoke would pull through the shaft. A tiny spell on the ventilation grille prevented that.

It took a good two minutes then the fire alarm went off. And a small manipulation of the fire extinguishing system made sure that they had to extinguish the fire manually.

When he got back to the guards' room, it was empty and Anoth came out of the shaft without any problems and slipped through the door towards the main console.

The way there was completely free and so he reached the console just minutes later.

The console itself was hidden behind a force field hologram combination and not visible from the outside.

Since he knew the frequencies of the force field, the data were all noted in the blueprints, Anoth could simply walk through the force field. From the outside it looked like he was going through a massive wall.

Unfortunately, he now had another problem.

The console was so badly damaged that he could no longer use it. And he lacked A) the necessary parts and B) the necessary time for repairs.

"Of course, it would have been too easy." muttered Anoth. "Crap."

Anoth immersed himself again in the blueprints. There had to be a manual shutdown somewhere. The old Zoidians always had double and triple safeguards.

Finally he found it.

They were a few floors below him in the shield generator shaft.

He could take the stairs etc. to get down there but that would take too long. So he took the way over the shaft. It was time to do some climbing. And be careful not to be grilled by the emerging energy rays.

But finally he had reached the lowest platform in the shaft. But only after a sudden burst of energy had given him an afro. Much to the amusement of his shadows.

But then there was the next problem.

The platform was so rusted that Anoth couldn't dare step on it. So he hung on the wall and operated the necessary valves and levers from there.

It took a little while to operate all the levers and valves. But finally he did. When he pulled the last lever, the shield generator shut down and switched off in a way that did not further destabilize the already unstable magma chamber under the system.

Anoth teleported straight out of it and back to his Zoid form.

The attack could now begin.

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Back in Anoth's Zoid form.

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No sooner had Anoth regained control of his main body; he began to destroy all the cannons protecting the facility. Without the shield, they were easy targets. At the same time, his launched air units ensured that a certain Doctor Zoidenstein could not escape from them.

Hatches opened all over his body, revealing hundreds of surface-to-surface missiles.

He fired all of them at once. For a short time, Anoth's Zoid figure disappeared in a huge cloud of smoke, and then hundreds of rockets could be seen flying away from him.

Since the distance between Anoth and the base was quite small, the base staff had no chance to raise their defences before the rockets hit.

Meanwhile, Cisco had started moving. Anoth had given his Lightning Saix a very specific path that she had to follow. Everything outside of this path was a death zone. Because here the projectiles went down that Anoth and his other Zoids shot.

And neither Cisco nor its Lightning Saix had an urgent need to find out if they could withstand the main weapon of a Brastle Tiger. Or even the weapons of Anoth himself. They followed the path given to them nicely while all hell broke loose around them.

The destruction reigned around him. A CPC beam from Anoth missed him by only a few meters. Had he not followed the given course, it would simply have evaporated him.

Cisco has been under fire many times, but this was something completely different.

One second there was a fully armed Iron Kong in his way the next he was a wreck. Destroyed by several of Anoth's Zoids and used as a ski jump onto the roof of another building.

He was running through the middle of a war zone.

Bloody hell. He had seen how one of the Zaber-Fang had rammed his claws into the cockpit of another Zoid and literally pierced its pilot.

Then at last he had arrived at the entrance gate to the base. Where Anoth was already waiting for him, who had taken the pilot's seat of one of his own Lightning Saix.

Anoth had found a second approach. Hidden in one of the warehouses. The entrance further up the mountain had been destroyed. From down here all they had to do was to take the freight elevator installed there and go upstairs.

They locked the elevator, but that won't stop them. Anoth had installed a small gravity generator on the Zoids. It just allowed them to run up the walls of the shaft with their Zoids.

Once at the top, Anoth used the two plasma jets installed for this very purpose to cut a hole through the heavy steel gate.

When they reached the top, they found the empty shelves for several Zoids. Here they parked the two Lightning Saix Zoids. Because from now on they continued on foot.

The internal defence systems were activated as soon as they had stepped out of their cockpits, but these were no problem for the micro-guns that were built into the Zoids and were actually intended to eliminate enemy infantry. There were a total of four guns that were junk before they could even fire once.

The way was now free.

And the first obstacle was not long in coming.

A sealed door.

The door was manually operated and not connected to any of the computer systems.

Anoth stared at the door then at Cisco and finally at one of the Lightning Saix before he called into the room:

"How stupid are they here anyway?!" With that he pointed to one of the Saix and then to the door. The Lightning Saix understood immediately and after Cisco and Anoth had moved some distance from the door, the latter simply blew the door away with their main weapon.

What awaited them behind were several long unadorned corridors and a...

* BANG *

... Correction ... two automatic guns. As well as some computer-controlled doors that Anoth opened with the help of an injected computer virus that he had simply uploaded via one of the terminals they had passed. The guns themselves were no obstacle to Anoth. It only took him a few seconds to destroy them.

Then they were already in the main laboratory.

"It's been a long time since we saw each other, Marcus." Cisco growled.

"Jethrow?" asked the surprised Marcus. "You're dead!"

"As you can see, I'm still very much alive, you murderer!" Cisco growled back. "You didn't kill me back then, but my wife and child, you bastard!"

"It's a shame that I didn't catch you!" Marcus called back. His entire language had changed. Now he was openly hostile. "It's your fault I look this way today!" With that, Marcus indicated his scarred and disfigured face.

"No. That was only yours." replied Cisco, shaking his head. "I wanted to quit at the time, but you insisted on continuing."

"And I would have succeeded too!"

"No, you wouldn't! The reactor was about to melt!"

"I was in control of everything!" yelled Marcus. "I had everything under control!"

"EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL?!" called Cisco. "YOU WERE ABOUT TO BLOW UP HALF OF THE CONTINENT!"

"IT WAS NOT ME!" exclaimed Marcus angrily. "But you had to ruin everything! I lost my job because of you!"

"And that gives you the right to murder my wife and my son?!"

"You destroyed my life!"

"I destroyed your life?!" Cisco called back in disbelief. "You are completely insane!"

While the two were arguing, Anoth looked around. Cisco was right. Marcus must be really crazy. He found containers with the Kombuso parasite that had broken out on that one base. However, these were petrified. The creatures' DNA must have come from here.

Further investigations of the equipment condensed this assumption. The coffin nail, however, came when Anoth also found the research data on the servers. As well as a log book about the research progress.

Then...

A shot.

Anoth whirled around and found Cisco with gun drawn and smoke pouring out of its barrel. Marcus, on the other hand, was dead on the floor. He too had a gun in hand. And now he had a new ventilation hole for his brain.

"I think we're done here." said Cisco.

"Not quite yet." answered Anoth and went into the middle of the room and opened his storage dimension.

"What's this?" Cisco asked when Anoth took out a glowing green device that was about the size of a coffin.

"A thalaron radiation bomb." was Anoth's answer. "I already have a virus installed in the system that is already in the process of wiping the hard drives. The thalaron bomb will wipe out any virus residue in this lab."

A short time later they found themselves two kilometres from the base.

"5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ..." Anoth counted down and in the distance a green cloud of radiation could be seen that disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

You could watch Cisco as a load fell from his shoulders. He was finally able to close this chapter. Marcus was dead. And what he had been researching was destroyed.

"Thank you for your help." Cisco finally said.

"Never mind."

"This is where we part ways."

"Yes. Good luck."

"To you too." shortly thereafter, Cisco was back in the cockpit of his Lightning Saix and sped away.

Now it was Anoth's turn. He now had to dismantle the rest of the facility and erect a barrier to reduce the damage to the super volcano. Fortunately, that happened relatively quickly. Less than two days later there was nothing left visible of the system and the barrier in place.

Anoth was in his Zoid form and was about to make his way back to the Blitz Team when he received an emergency call over Gravitron radio.

Apparently a mining ship had been overrun by some creatures?

The emergency call was older, however. Judging by the signal breakdown, a good three years. Something about this emergency call, however, did give Anoth a pretty bad feeling and so he took off and made the short jump of just under 1,000 light years to the place from where the emergency call had come from.

The flight itself didn't take long. In fact, the flight out of Zi's atmosphere took longer. When he exited hyperspace, the first thing he did was put on his cloaking system. Immediately afterwards he started scanning the system.

In addition, his figure grew again when he left the atmosphere. At a shoulder height of 2,200 meters, a total length of 21,000 meters and a wingspan of colossal 49,000 meters.

The first thing he noticed was the seventh planet in the system. Or better, what was left of it. It was now little more than a collection of rocks floating in space.

What he hadn't expected was a lot of organic material to be found on these rocks. Organic material that triggered the biohazard alarm.

What had happened here?

He got the answer from a drifting wreckage part which turned out to be a kind of logbook capsule.

This capsule was retrieved immediately and the data on it were evaluated. The picture that these data portrayed was not a pretty one. Apparently a mining ship named USG Ishimura, from which this capsule also came, had stumbled upon an object which was called a "marker" in the data.

He also found video recordings of Ishimura's security chief Alica Vincent.

The picture it drew was even uglier.

"My name is Alica Vincent. I'm the only survivor. We encountered alien creatures. They have taken over the bodies of the crew. The colony is lost. My Team is dead. In my opinion, the artefact we found on is on the surface of the planet is somehow responsible for it. When you find this record, the Ishimura, and especially this artefact, must be destroyed... must be destroyed... must be destroyed... must be destroyed... " From here on the recording was too corrupted that it ended in mere rustling and three repetitive words.

In any case, soon after they took the artefact aboard, strange events began to play out on the ship. At first the crew just went insane, but then the corpses of crew members who had been killed or committed suicide began to transform. They took on forms called necromorphs. Shortly afterwards, all contact with the Ishimura broke off.

The USG Kellion was sent to the USG Ishimura. The Kellion had a technician, a two-man armed Team under the security officer, and a computer specialist on board. In the end, only this one technician survived. A certain Isaac Clarke.

All others were killed by the creatures. Even the crew of a military ship, the USM Valor, which came to Ishimura, was wiped out. Namely because they had made the mistake of picking up an Ishimura escape pod that contained a Necromorph within.

A fully manned, fully armed, fully operational military ship with a crew of 67 was knocked out by a single Necromorph.

That said a lot about the dangerousness of these creatures.

However, none of these ships were in the system anymore. The answer to the question of where they were he got when he hacked another military ship, the USM Jumpingjack, which was currently in that sector. Apparently the Ishimura was taken to the Titan Sprawl. And the USM Valor was responsible for the debris field because it apparently exploded when its machines suffered a catastrophic system failure due to the collision with the Ishimura.

However, Anoth's gut instincts told him that there was a lot more wrong here and that it was far from over.

So Anoth decided to take a direct course to the Sol system of this dimension.

Destination: Saturn.

Former moon Titan.

He did not take a direct course to Titan Station but came out of hyperspace behind one of the moons of Saturn (Tethys) and activated his camouflage system immediately afterwards. As soon as it was happening, he approached the Titan Sprawl via sublight drive.

It wasn't long before he received the first strange signals. They were screams. Screams of fear and guttural screams like those of a wild animal. Everything via radio.

Then his biohazard alert went completely crazy. A class one biohazard had been discovered. That was the highest possible level on the biohazard index. There was a higher one (level zero) but it was purely theoretical. A biohazard that could be classified as zero has never been found. From a danger level of three and down everything was allowed to contain it. Even if the result was a war, it was acceptable. The sovereignty of another state no longer counted. The supreme directive (which the seraphim also had) was abolished. Even the complete annihilation of a solar system was acceptable.

The biohazard index looked like this:

Seraphimian Bio-Hazard Classification Index

Class 0, 1, 2 and 3 bio-hazards must be stopped at all costs. Even if the result is a declaration of war, this is acceptable. Genocide is also an option. ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING must be done to stop these weapons. Regardless of the price.

Theoretical class 0

Interdimensional biological weapons

No examples so far

Class 1

Intelligent bioweapons

Biohazards capable of wiping out all life within multiple galaxies.

Necromorphs (Dead Space)

Potential: T-Virus and G-Virus (Resident Evil)

Flood (halo)

Class 2

Intelligent bio-hazards that can affect an entire galaxy, but which only have a limited host range.

Bioweapons that are limited in a certain way in their host selection but are able to spread to several galaxies and completely infect them.

Example: The Flood (Halo);

The Wraith (Stargate: Atlantis)

Potential: Las Plagas (Resident Evil)

Class 3

Biohazards capable of infecting an entire galaxy

Affect only a certain species.

Example: The plague wiped out the Alterans in the Milky Way / Avalon Galaxy.

Class 4

Biohazards capable of wiping out all life on a planet. And is able to mutate into far more dangerous species.

Example: T-Virus (Resident Evil) (the T-Virus also represents a potential class 1 biohazard if the virus has developed sufficiently or is mutated.)

Class 5

Biohazards capable of wiping out all life on a planet.

Example: "Anger Virus" (28 Days Later)

In short: containment by all means, regardless of the price. All other protocols and directives were suspended.

Not yet enough for that, Anoth's sensors discovered almost immediately after arrival that the USG Ishimura was docked at the station.

This means that Anoth deactivated his camouflage, went on a red alert, activated his armour and shields and charged all weapons.

Seconds later, Anoth fired two phaser beams at full power. One hit a civil luxury liner, the second a military frigate. Both were instantly destroyed because both had necromorphs on board.

Two more plasma jets followed immediately, destroying the docked USG Ishimura. There was still active necromorph tissue aboard the ship. So-called corruption.

Immediately afterwards he started transmitting on all frequencies.

"TO ALL SHIPS! THIS AREA IS NOW UNDER QUARANTINE! ALL SHIPS WILL BE SCANNED WHEN LEAVING AND ENTERING THE AREA! IF NECROMORPHES ARE FOUND ON BOARD, THE SHIP WILL BE DESTROYED WITHOUT WARNING1! REPEAT! IF NECROMORPHS ARE FOUND ON BOARD THE SHIP WILL BE DESTROYED WITHOUT WARNING! "

This message, which Anoth now sent out in a loop, could be received very clearly by all ships.

It was a more than clear warning. Some of the military ships reacted and swung into an attack vector after watching one of their frigates being destroyed. However, they had no chance against Anoth, who, now that he was in space, had assumed his full size that he could currently assume as a Zoid (2,200m shoulder height; 21,000m long; 49,000m wingspan). With their weak main cannons, even if they operated on a plasma basis, they would never be able to penetrate his protective shields.

This was more than evident when one of the warships fired several nuclear missiles at Anoth after its plasma cannons had shown no effect. Anoth could have intercepted them with ease but he allowed the weak weapons that didn't even reach 25MT to crash into his shields. The shields didn't mind the explosions. Its shields in this form could swallow energies in the high three-digit terra tons range. And the total explosive power of these four missiles did not even reach 5 MT. He had judged the weapons to be a lot stronger than they really were.

Anoth's answer was a shot from his Plasma Pulse Cannon with the firepower of the main cannon of a Goa'uld Ha'tak.

The result was more than clear. As with this one shot, the warship lost its weapon systems, its propulsion system and also its main power and began to drift. After that, the ship was ignored by Anoth.

No other ship tried to attack him afterwards.

They could only sit and watch as one of Anoth's phasers fired repeatedly. This time an escape pod was disintegrated only to fire again a second later, destroying a space bus.

The energy level that the warships could measure from these shots was absolutely enormous. It exceeded the energy output of their most powerful fusion reactors by more than 100,000 times. In fact, they couldn't even measure the total energy output of the dragon-shaped Zoid. A scientist on board of one of the ships who happened to be there and was equipped with an experimental device for measuring the energy output of stars managed to give them an answer. The energy output clearly exceeded that what a main sequence star produced in one year, by almost four hundred times. And that per minute.

One small frigate was particularly curious. The USM Curious Kitty. This ship and its captain were known to venture into areas that were far too dangerous for the small frigate that was only a little over 130 meters long. However, so far they had always escaped with intact skin.

The frigate approached the huge dragon Zoid within a hundred meter and Anoth even let her pass through his outer shields. He still had two more shields that were a little over a meter apart and only a few centimetres from his hull. Then there was also the massive multi-layered armour and triple hull that could protect him from everything that EarthGov could do without shields.

As if that weren't enough, his shields were configured in such a way that they functioned like a one-way mirror. They prevented that something could pass the shields from the outside but not that something from the inside could get past the shields. That is, even if they detonated a bomb inside the shield bubbles, the energy of the explosion would not be prevented by the outer shields from escaping into space.

As they got closer, the crew of the Curious Kitty could also watch one of the guns fire. It fired a light blue plasma beam that completely evaporated a piece of debris from the Titan Sprawl, on which clear growths could be seen even with the naked eye. The debris was about half the size of a warship.

"A little too curious for your size, or is it the name of your ship?"

The voice surprised Captain Frederick Steiner so much that he fell from his command chair.

All crew members on the bridge had jumped up and were aiming their guns at the newcomer. However, he was leaning against one of the pillars on the bridge and seemed completely relaxed.

"I was already wondering why such a small ship dares to approach me alone. Either its crew had to be particularly brave or particularly stupid." Anoth's gaze that previously was focused on the floor now met Frederick, who was still sitting on the floor. "Or just curious like the proverbial cat."

"Who are you?!"

"I thought you would have guessed that by now. After all, you've been staring at me for a long time and even trying to attack. Even if the attack wasn't exactly successful."

Frederick stared at the stranger on his bridge and then out the window at the giant mechanical dragon just a few hundred yards away, back at the person, and back at the dragon.

Immediately afterwards he went white as a sheet. The person on his bridge and the dragon out there were one and the same person.

"I see you understand."

"Why we?" was the only question Frederick could think of at the moment.

"Because you will be the ones who will broadcast what we will find down there on the station live on all networks."

Anoth had meanwhile already hacked into the station's computers. A rudimentary AI (more like a VI) called ANTI tried to stop him. But it turned out to be no real obstacle. More of a nuisance. Anoth had ANTI locked out of a large part of the station within a short time while he was searching through the databases. Meanwhile, one of his own AIs pretended to be ANTI. That made sure that the residents of the station didn't notice anything about it at first. Especially not this Tiedemann. He was obviously the boss of the station. Or whatever they called the post here. There were a few sectors, however, where he couldn't lock them out. Among them was a solar platform that had probably not really been used for years.

A minute later had to add an Industrial plant to that list.

This was probably due to the fact that these areas were controlled by an independent network or that all connections to the respective network had been physically separated (Aka: cables were cut and transmitters and receivers destroyed either wilfully or by necromorphs.)

He found a great deal of information about these markers. Even blueprints of these. Apparently they were very intent on using these markers as energy sources. There was only one problem. The markers themselves did not produce the energy. They only served as receivers of the energy. The plans made that abundantly clear.

That alone should have set the alarm bells ringing for them.

Which it seems did not happen.

By Anoth, however, all the alarm bells went off.

The fact that the markers were only energy receivers and apparently had been deliberately distributed throughout the galaxy explained why the necromorphs had been classified as a Class 1 biohazard. They could have spread all over the galaxy by now.

Then he found encrypted government data of similar outbreaks that occurred before. Although these were small and could be brought under control, this should have been the last hint to keep your hands off these markers.

And apparently they tried that too. They had created three markers 1A, 2A and 3A. All three were taken to different planets after the first outbreak of the Necromorphs and were effectively forgotten there.

1A was brought to a planet called Proxima Centauri.

2A was brought to Gliese 581.

3A was brought to Aegis VII.

It was marker 3A that the Ishimura found during an illegal mining operation and thus the wheel was set in motion once again.

Because now there was a religion that revolved around the markers and many leaders were members of that religion. In addition, EarthGov seemed to have forgotten or ignored the lessons of the first marker eruptions almost 300 years ago.

Because Anoth found plans for further marker research sites in almost every colony and also multiple ones on earth.

This is not good. Not good at all. Anoth thought, now turning his attention to that religion, which the Markers apparently worshiped as divine.

Unitology.

That's what religion was called.

And the more he found out about this religion, the more Anoth was inclined to regard it as a terrorist organization. At least the zealots of this religion definitely fell into this very category. First of all, a certain Jacob Arthur Danik. The leader of the so-called Inner Circle. The most extremist wing of Unitology.

He found data in Unitology's computers that indicated that it was precisely these fanatics of theirs who were responsible for the outbreak on Aegis VII and with it the Ishimura as well as on the O'Bannon, which arrived after the Ishimura to salvage debris from the marker and now also seemed responsible for the outbreak that now took place on the Titan Sprawl.

They wanted to let the so-called convergence begin.

Whatever that was.

More detailed analyzes showed that Unitology and EarthGov were competing for the markers and EarthGov even knew what the convergence was and was ready to take the risk just to harness the energy that the markers emit. They seemed to accept any risk in return.

A madness of the highest degree.

Especially when he discovered that EarthGov had solid data on what would happen in the event of a convergence and what it was exactly. It seemed to be some kind of amalgamation that made everyone into a single person / creature, whatever, with colossal proportions.

Anoth was pretty sure that most of the members of this "church" had no idea what the convergence really was or what was going on behind closed doors.

Then he found the USG O'Bannon's data. The ship was sent to Aegis VII to retrieve the marker or at least some fragments from it. They found a fragment.

A fragment that was still active.

Anoth didn't have to be a clairvoyant to know what happened next on the O'Bannon.

There were only four survivors of the O'Bannon.

Nickolas Kuttner, Alejandro Borges, Nolan Stross and Isabel Cho. All four were interrogated on board the USM Abraxis.

After this interrogation, Nickolas Kuttner took a trip out of the airlock, guided by illusions of his dead daughter. But not before he had sent several soldiers to the afterlife and not without taking several of them with him on his trip into the vacuum.

Alejandro Borges was shot straight after the interrogation because he had not come into direct contact with the recovered marker fragment and was therefore useless for the government and represented a danger to make what had happened there public.

Nolan Stross was chief science officer aboard the O'Bannon and had examined the marker directly. He had in full crazy mode killed his own family and was immediately send into stasis after interrogation and was taken to the Titan Station.

Isabel Cho was a member of the O'Bannon's science Team. After the interrogation she was chosen as the scapegoat, lobotomized and made a terrorist who was made responsible for the deaths in the colony of Aegis VII, the Ishimura and the O'Bannon.

A complete lie.

That will change very soon. And many TV stations will keep that files busy for the next few weeks as soon as all the documents that Unitology and EarthGov wanted to keep secret are made public.

GovLeaks a well-known disclosure site got a massive data upload minutes later. And they weren't the only ones.

He went all in.

And when he was done with that, Unitology and EarthGov would be finished.

.

Minutes later

.

Anoth, this time in his human form while his dragon form still stood over the station (he had found that he could use his Zoid form a bit like one of his shadow beasts, which allowed him to be in two places at the same time), flew at high speed through the emptiness of space. He approached a part of the station that the downloaded files identified as the Unitology Church. He was heading straight for a part of the church where an expansion appeared to be planned.

Seconds later he broke through the glass pane and struck his claws into the bottom metal in order not to be sucked back into space together with multiple necromorphs during the resulting explosive decompression before the emergency bulkhead was finally triggered, which closed the leak.

When Anoth looked around, he found that he had landed in a kind of training room? The projector was still running and babbling something about the convergence so Anoth just ignored it. The door in front of him was locked, which the red hologram on the door made very clear. The door to his right was broken and kept slamming open and shut like stupid. So he took the door to his left first.

When he entered the room he found several chairs set up in front of monitors. He had n idea what they were trying to achieve here. It looked very much like brainwashing, somehow.

However, he found something on one of the corpses that was sitting in one of the chairs. A so-called stasis module.

The first test of the device went slightly wrong when Anoth accidentally put himself into stasis for a short time when the device unexpectedly fired an impulse.

"That was an interesting experience." Anoth muttered seconds later when the stasis subsided.

"Hmm ..." Anoth thought for a moment, mounted the device on his arm, went out the door and fired the stasis module at the defective door. And right enough. The completely uncontrolled opening and closing door slowed down at a snail's pace.

"This thing can still prove extremely useful." Immediately afterwards he went through the almost frozen door and where he stood in front of a data terminal. Anoth wasted no time and slapped a small device on the terminal which immediately started downloading all data in the main computer and forwarded it directly to Anoth's main body. Everything via subspace and controlled by a powerful hacking AI A technology that they did not know and therefore could not disturb.

Shortly thereafter, he informed all of his shadows to keep their eyes peeled for stasis modules. They would certainly come in handy. Because this stasis could also be applied to non-organic material. While the stasis spell could only be spoken on living beings.

A telekinesis module that Anoth found minutes later in the storage room next door was useless to him. He didn't need the module because he had telekinetic skills himself. But maybe...

He wrapped it up for later analysis.

Immediately afterwards he left the room through the door that was still under the effect of the stasis shot and turned to the locked door. Seconds later this door had a circular hole and Anoth was now in a hallway, where he used his still red-hot blades, with which he had previously cut a way through the door, around several Necromorphs only to disassemble them according to all the rules of a butcher's trade.

That was when he intercepted a transmission to a certain Isaac Clarke.

Someone told him to go through the burial wing. Something told him that this Isaac Clarke would be important and so Anoth went in the direction of the burial wing.

Wait a second.

Isaac Clarke?

The only survivor of the Ishimura?

The Clarke?

Oh yeah.

It will be very useful.

Several destroyed necromorphs and a few dismantled doors later, stood Anoth in front of the entrance to the burial wing. At least that was what the sign over the door said.

And luckily the door was unlocked this time. Seconds later he was in the room. Bloody footprints on the ground and some necromorph remains told him that Clarke must have gotten through here by now.

He took the elevator that was behind the central coffin elevator and used it. When he stopped he found himself in front of the doors to the cryo storage facility for the deceased ones.

Corpses.

And necromorphs.

Yeah, that didn't mean anything good...

Anoth's instincts were right. As soon as the door was open he was welcomed by several slashers. Seconds later, these were in individual parts on the floor. Anoth's hardlightsabers had no problem at all with dismantling these creatures into their individual parts.

Several more chambers followed, all of which were constructed in the same way. Frozen coffins that looked a bit like stasis pods. Several dozen of them in each chamber. Some of them broken open others still intact. And all of these chambers were overrun with necromorphs.

"How many of these stupid chambers actually exist here? They all look almost identical."

Then at last he came to a shaft.

"Finally out."

The shaft went straight up and apparently the individual coffins were sent through here. For whatever purpose.

A scan of the shaft told him that the exit was at the top. In between, however, was a rotating steel disc with a hole through which the coffins floated down in a zero gravity environment.

Only gravity was currently activated.

"Then we'll just climb."

Anoth jumped against one of the walls and then skilfully climbed up. One of the coffins was wedged in the hole in the disc through which the coffins usually floated. Anoth solved this problem and obstacle with an admittedly perhaps a bit too strong punch that sent the coffin back from where it had come and then scurried directly after it through the hole.

The coffin crashed against the ceiling of the room with such a force that it broke open and released a Necromorph, which Anoth dismantled into its individual parts within seconds with the help of his hardlightsabers.

When he came through the door at the top he found himself shortly afterwards in another room. It looked like a maintenance room for the coffins. Anoth crossed it directly, broke open the broken elevator shaft door, and then climbed up.

Meanwhile, Clarke had reached a large hall with several flights of stairs. He had just moved cautiously further into the large room when something jumped at him from above, only to be intercepted by another creature that had just broken its way through the wall to his right.

For a split second he saw a huge mouth rushing towards him, which then closed around the necromorph that had just tried to attack him earlier.

Only when the mouth moved away from him did he see what had saved him. It was definitely not a Necromorph but something he wanted to mess with even less.

A completely black dragon.

A dragon that ignored him completely and instead crushed the creature that was now in its mouth. Not enough of that, a dozen of very large wolves rushed out from behind the dragon and immediately attacked other necromorphs. Necromorphs who at some point had probably been children, but who could now only be described as abominations.

They were members of Necromorphs known as "The Pack".

Someone else came out from behind them. She stormed in the room with two golden swords in her hand, the figure was clearly female. She stormed past the dragon and the wolves and began to chop up a group of slashers who were storming in.

Shortly afterwards a wall at the other end of the room exploded and Anoth himself entered the room. A necromorph with a glowing, bloated arm came up to him. Anoth grabbed him telekinetically and hurled the Exploder at another group of slashers who were shredded by the explosion that followed shortly thereafter.

There was only one Necromorph alive now. A so-called regenerator. Or to be more precise a Proto-Hive-Mind which was called Ubermorph. Seconds later it was lying in pieces on the floor. Just to put yourself back together.

"So you can regenerate yourself, huh? Well, we'll have that in a moment. I don't feel like playing around with you." Anoth muttered. Only seconds later flames could be seen dancing in his hand. Seconds later the regenerator was surrounded by highly concentrated devil fire and only seconds later there was only ash left of the regenerator. And the church got a new hole in the ground for this. "You won't regenerate from that anymore."

As soon as that was done, Anoth was greeted by one of the wolves. The she-wolf was not one of his own shadows, but they knew each other from before. As soon as the she-wolf was finished, he was briefly hugged by the dragon lady, who had now taken on her more human form again. He nodded briefly to the other woman once, which also earned him a nod and a grin. Then he turned to the man still lying on the ground in his suit, a so-called RIG.

"Isaac Clarke I suppose."

Isaac got up before answering. "Right."

"I've been listening to your radio traffic for quite some time. A self-replicating signal caused by the marker that kills you? I've heard a lot but that's just bullshit. It doesn't send out any signal that could cause that. It can cause hallucinations and subconsciously force those who are smarter to build more markers. That it can definitely do. But they are something completely different from the dementia that this Unitology whore rumbles about. "

Clarke didn't know what to say.

"Do you think it was a coincidence that you were in this facility? That you forgot several years of your life? That was no coincidence. This was an establishment run by EarthGov. They wanted their "test subjects" to be able to build markers for them and apparently they had some success with it."

"Uhm...?"

"There's a huge marker several stories high in the middle of the station."

"How do you know all of that?"

The answer was a massive data transfer to his RIG. It was internal research from Unitology. Government papers. Intelligence reports and a lot more.

"It all comes from the servers on board this station."

"One of the markers is in the centre of the station?"

"Yes."

"And I was the one who build it?"

"That's what it says in the archives." Replied Anoth. "Well, technically, they used the blueprints that the Aegis VII marker hammered into your mind."

"Why?"

"Because they're crazy? They don't care about the dangers? Because they are being led by the Marker to believe that only the Markers can solve their resource problem? Because unitologists have made it to the top of EarthGov? Greed? Your tip is as good as mine. "

"Why do I have the feeling that the first one might be right? Very well ..." muttered Isaac. "What exactly are you up to?"

"Destroy the markers and end all of this. Only there is one little problem. These markers are just amplifiers for another signal that feeds these markers. We have to identify this source signal. If we have that we can find the source of the signal and take out all markers no matter where they are. "

"And with the disappearance of the signal, all necromorphs also die. They need this signal to survive." finished the woman Anoth's explanation. "This convergence will be prevented and will never take place."

Anoth snorted. "The unitologists have no idea what the convergence really is. Even now the marker is preparing for it."

"What is it exactly?" asked Isaac.

"In short. The creation of an Alpha Necromorph." Started Anoth. "The necromorphs we see here are basically nothing more than biomass collectors and infectors. They shall create as many necromorphs as possible. When that is done, the marker sends a signal that draws all necromorphs to it. If there is enough biomass, it starts the convergence. All organic and also inorganic material is collected above the marker and fused to a super necromorph that can easily reach the size of a moon. And exactly these alpha necromorphs are also the source that feed the markers. The problem is that the signal in current shape is too blurred to be able to isolate it exactly, which makes locating these moons as good as impossible. We have to go straight to the marker to isolate the signal. Once we have that, we'll find the next best Necromorph Moon and use it to take out everyone else. I have good reason to believe that all moons are interconnected. "

"One mind. One body. Technically speaking, that's right. Only that it works very differently from what the unitologists have you believe." Was the woman's comment.

Isaac understood immediately. "So they are not just a threat to humanity, but to the whole galaxy."

"Probably more than that. Have you never wondered why you never stumbled upon another evolved species?"

"Because those necromorphs wiped them all out. And we're next. And the Unitologists and EarthGov are still helping them with that." Isaac's voice grew angrier. "Not with us. This is where they will bite out their teeth. Up to here and no further."

"What about the Unitologists and EarthGov idiots who stand in our way?" Asked the woman Anoth. Anoth's answer was the loading of one of his weapons. That was answer enough.

"No mercy. Anyone who gets in our way, whether it is Unitology or EarthGov, dies."

"What about the civilians here on the station?"

"Those who were able to flee are long gone. Those who are still here ..."

"...are practically as good as dead." finished Isaac Anoth's sentence.

"Yes, unfortunately." Anoth said with a shrug. "All of my shadows are on duty on the station and report enemy contact with necromorphs everywhere and the signal from the marker disrupts their ability to find signs of life. They are busy. That means that the people who think they have to entrench themselves or are hiding are practically already dead. The station's security service no longer exists. There are still a few people on the station who are actively trying to escape. They are supported by my shadows. The rest ... unfortunately we can no longer help. We cannot search the whole station room by room. We have neither the time nor the staff to do it. "

"My shadows report the same. The Necromorphs have spread all over the station and they are getting bigger and bigger." Then an idea occurred to her. "You must have sign of life scanners on board your mechanical form." Said the woman.

"They are useless. The radiation from the marker and the ever-increasing corruption make the picture so blurred that almost nothing can be seen on it." That was Anoth's answer.

"How far has corruption already spread?" asked Isaac. He knew exactly what Anoth was talking about. He has seen these wild growths several times on the Ishimura. In the crew quarters, engine room, bridge, effectively across the entire ship.

"Over 30% of the civil area of the station has already been infested. In the government sector it is even 54%." That was Anoth's answer. "And it's spreading faster and faster." Anoth said, shaking his head. "The main reactor of the station has already been irreparably damaged as a result and will probably detonate one way or another in a while. This station can no longer be saved, no matter how we turn it."

"Who are you two actually?"

"Haven't we really introduced ourselves yet?" asked the woman. "My name is Scathach. But call me Kitty. At least that's how he's always called Me." she pointed at Anoth with her thumb.

"And I'm Anoth. Kitty's old master and teacher."

"Isaac Clarke. But I think you already knew that." answered Isaac. "So what now?"

"We have to go to the government sector of the station."

"Then we have to go to one of the transit stations and from there a tram can take us directly to the government sector."

Why Isaac Clarke trusted them so quickly.

The answer was simple.

He could still remember fragments of some interrogations and when he saw the data that Anoth had transferred to him, some things became clear, because his memories came back.

And not only that.

Among the data he had received were log entries from a certain Daina. The same Daina who convinced him that she had a cure for something that didn't exist.

Even more, it was Daina Le Guin, in collaboration with a certain Tyler Radikov, who was responsible for the outbreak of the necromorph plague on the Sprawl. They had manipulated a new Unitology candidate with engineering training, a certain Karrie Norton, in such a way that she lifted the transition tubes and the security barriers from the government sector and with it the Necromorphs, who had been in a secure area up to that point, had been set loose on the station, which then instantly began to overrun the civil area of the station.

At first Daina ordered Karrie that she should destroy the communication systems of the station. To achieve this, she had to destroy power distribution nodes. Only to find out that she had in reality unleashed the Necromorphs on the government sector. Daina then contacted Karrie Norton and introduced herself to her as the head of Unitology on the Sprawl and thanked her for the spread of the infection. Daina also congratulated Karrie on being one of the first to be blessed with the resurrection. So Karrie shouldn't be afraid of her imminent death, as this will be the promised "glorious" one. Karrie then swore revenge against Unitology.

Tyler Radikov then took over and let her believe that he knew nothing of Daina's plan and that he himself had been set up by her. He immediately claimed that if she switched off the power to the doors, it would trigger a fail-safe mechanism that would permanently seal the security doors from the transition tubes. That was not the case. Instead, every door and every magnetic seal was deactivated. So the doors could easily be pushed open by the Necromorphs. This finally opened the door for the Necromorphs to overrun the station. Unitology had duped Karrie a second time, whereupon Karrie cursed Unitology in the deepest depths of Hell.

The weird Unitology bitch didn't want to save them. Not only was she primarily responsible for the Necromorph outbreak on the Sprawl, she also wanted to know how to build more markers to trigger her stupid convergence.

Isaac fully agreed with Anoth on the point. Unitology was a danger not just to humanity but to the whole galaxy.

The markers had to be destroyed. But those were just the symptoms. They had to find the source, the root of the evil, and destroy it. Not only would the destruction of it render all markers harmless, but if the data from Ishimura and O'Bannon are correct, all necromorphs are also destroyed as soon as the signal is gone. They were apparently dependent on this signal. Without it, they disintegrated into an organic soup.

And if he was right the markers would also die with them and cease to exist.

Isaac ignored attempts by the woman who was clearly trying to lure him into contacting him as he left the church with Anoth and Scathach. What he didn't know, minutes later, the woman and her assistants were killed by an EarthGov military shuttle before the same was destroyed by Anoth's Zoid Form when a rather large necromorph thought jumping on the shuttle was a wonderful idea.

They were on their way to the transit station when they encountered an obstacle.

A wide open area.

That in itself wasn't really an obstacle.

The more than 100 necromorphs that stayed on this area, on the other hand, were.

"That could be a problem." said Clarke.

"Not really." was Anoth and Scathach's answer.

"But that's over 100 of them!" Clarke really had to try not to shout that out.

"Exactly." said Anoth.

"They should have brought a few hundred more with them." finished Scathach.

"You stay here." said Anoth.

"That'll be done in a minute." Scathach ended, once again, what Anoth had started.

What followed explained why they said the Necromorphs should have taken a few hundred more with them.

The two were so fast.

They left afterimages as they scurried from Necromorph to Necromorph, dismantling each one in a fraction of a second.

It wasn't a fight.

That was a slaughter.

Such a slaughter that Isaac almost felt sorry for the Necromorphs.

Almost was the key word here.

A few minutes later it was over and the way was free. Apparently they had attracted all the necromorphs in the area because the way to the transit cross was practically free. Only a handful of Necromorphs stood in their way. And they were quickly eliminated.

On the way there they also received a transmission from Tiedemann. He called all surviving squats back to the government sector.

They could also take the direct route to the transit station. Because Scathach and Anoth simply hacked or simply destroyed every door that was locked, defective or had no power.

When they arrived at the transit station, another surprise awaited them. There were apparently two other survivors on the station. And one of them was apparently about to take out the other's eye with a screwdriver. He kept mumbling about steps and that they had to be followed.

Before he could be successful, however, he was grabbed by a very strong hand and torn off of the woman who he was about to poke out an eye and pressed against the wall.

"Everything OK?" asked Scathach, who was now helping the woman to get up while Anoth was apparently busy "interrogating" this guy who was named in the files and finally identified as a certain Nolan Stross.

Stross was so crazy that Anoth just got the few memories he still had right out of his mind. Or rather what few was left of it.

Apparently these guys used a machine to get the marker signal straight into the brain to get even more guys who could have made these markers or something like that. His memories on that point were more than vague. In any case, they wanted to build more markers. That much was clear.

And one more thing became clear.

There was nothing more to help Stross. He was completely under the control of the marker. Because of this, Anoth reduced him to ashes within seconds. It was better that way.

Scathach only looked inquiringly at Anoth, knowing that he would answer her non-verbatim question anyway.

"He was completely under the control of the marker." answered Anoth. "But his memories gave me a way to get the signal from the marker without touching it directly. Provided that what was haunted in his brain is true. Which I doubt a little."

"As?" Clarke asked.

"The steps he's been babbling about all along?" said Anoth. "They describe the operation of a machine that sends the marker signal directly into the brain, provided that is also true."

"We use the machine and feed the signal directly into a detector." Scathach understood.

"Exactly."

"And what after?" Clarke asked.

"A singularity bomb. It destroys the station and everything else that is on it. If the station's broken reactor doesn't get ahead of us."

"An artificial black hole?"

"Yes. Even if a short-lived one." confirmed Anoth. "The whole station and everything that is on it is reduced to subatomic particles."

"And with the signal known we can easily triangulate its origin." Scathach finished it.

Any further conversation was interrupted when the power went out and the entire transfer station sank into darkness.

"What now?" Asked the woman nobody in particular.

A quick check by Anoths Zoid Form outside the station told him that the entire civilian sector had lost power. And at the same time as the power failure, several explosions were recorded in the government sector. They were all at the main power lines to the civil sector.

Immediately afterwards they were contacted by Tiedemann. However, his chatter was practically ignored by everyone.

"Damn it! No power means no train is going to move." cursed Anoth.

"The life support has also failed." it came from the other survivor, whom Scathach had found out was named Ellie.

"Is there something like an emergency power supply here?" asked Isaac.

"Yes. An old solar system. But it has been rotting away for years." answered Ellie you pointed to the glass roof over them. Right enough. A solar station could be seen in the distance. And seen from here, it also seemed to be intact.

That's why that thing is still up there. Anoth thought as he looked up at the station.

"We hardly have any other option, do we?" said Scathach. "Or can your Zoid Form help out with this?"

"No." said Anoth. "From what I've read in the computers, the solar system and the station have to coordinate with each other to a certain extent for it to work. It would also mean that when my Zoid shape does that, I have to stand still. This would make me vulnerable to an attack by the Necros. "

"You have protective shields, don't you?" asked Scathach.

"You know as well as I that these shields cannot provide one hundred percent protection."

"How do we get there?" asked Isaac.

"The door right below me leads to the access gondola which then goes up to the facility." That was Ellie's answer.

"Then let's go." said Anoth, then looked over at Ellie. "But before we go, you should first get yourself a real vacuum suitable RIG. I have the feeling that you will need it."

"No money." Ellie meant.

"We'll have that in a moment." With that, Anoth marched to the shop he had passed by less than a minute ago. A quick hack later and the shop had a special offer of the millennium. All for free. "Help yourself. Today everything -100%." Anoth said afterwards. Ellie immediately took advantage of it.

Isaac didn't want to miss it either.

"As for your weapons. I have some here that will make destroying the Necromorphs a little easier." With that he handed them two particle pulse disintegrator weapons. "One hit and all that remains of the Necromorph is ashes."

Immediately afterwards they started moving again.

There were only a handful of necromorphs that got in their way before they reached the shaft with the gondola that was supposed to bring them up to the solar station. There was only one tiny problem. The gondola had detached itself from the magnetic rails and was now at the bottom of the shaft.

Fortunately, the shaft was a zero gravity space and so Isaac had quickly solved the problem with the help of two thrusters that he attached to the bottom of the gondola.

Seconds later they were on their way up.

"I do not like this." muttered Anoth.

"Me neither." confirmed Scathach.

"And even less to me." Ellie muttered.

"We are sitting here like on a silver platter." No sooner had Isaac finished speaking, one of the windows of the gondola was destroyed. Immediately the air of the gondola rushed into the depths of space and necromorphs poured into it.

A full minute of nonstop fighting later they had reached the solar station.

"Damn creatures." Anoth growled as they left the gondola. The mine necromorphs, so-called cysts that had spread in the corridor around the gondola, were not a problem and so they found themselves seconds later in the reception room of the solar station, where they were first surprised by a flock of birds and then welcomed by the AI that was active there. Anoth rated her more like a stupid VI. If any.

"Welcome to the Sigma Zero Five solar station." said the holographic figure in front of them. "Proper identification is required. Please wait here. Guard Howard Philipps will be with you shortly."

"Somehow I doubt it." Meant Anoth. He looked down the hall to a large door, but the AI refused entry when he walked near the door with the description that his RIG did not have the necessary authorization.

"Very funny." muttered Anoth. "I don't have a RIG at all"

Isaac and Ellie, meanwhile, were busy upgrading their RIG while Scathach apparently found the guard's remains.

On the spur of the moment, she telekinetically packed these remains and took them to the door. The scanner went over the body, or what was left of it, and recognized the authorization, and the door unlocked.

"This AI is more like a VI." said Anoth, shaking his head. "Ours would have recognized a corpse." Then he turned telepathically to Scathach

'And it must be separated from the rest of the station otherwise it would have been overwritten by my own AI long ago'

'I've already noticed. Some systems are separate from the main station. '

Further progress was prevented by the activation of mines and the AI asked Howard Philipps to give an audio confirmation.

Scathach solved the problem by taking some debris and throwing it through the laser beams of the mines which then exploded and so they found themselves a short time later in a larger room.

No sooner had they crossed the room to the middle, more mines were activated. These, however, sat next to one of the windows to the outside, where an expansion of the station was planned. And it was precisely these windows that did not hold up as much as the others.

They had just enough time to realize this when a necromorph came into the room and detonated the mines.

The pane of glass shattered and the explosive decompression that followed tore them all off their feet. Isaac reacted as the quickest of them and shot the red triangle over the door which activated the emergency bulkhead which immediately sealed the breach.

"I hate it when that happens." Isaac muttered as he got back on his feet.

"Unfortunately, that's one of the many dangers of a space station." was Anoth's answer when he got up again only to grab one of the large containers that had also been pulled to the crack, only to throw it at a charging Necromorph who was instantly crushed by the container.

Scathach, meanwhile, had telekinetically seized several of the highly explosive Necro babies and hurled them at other Necromorphs who were trying to attack. The improvised hand grenades turned out to be quite effective.

Isaac and Ellie were busy reducing other Necromorphs to ashes with their disintegrators.

Then it was quiet.

"Where to next?" asked Scathach.

"The lift." answered Anoth. Just to see that the elevator was destroyed. It had fallen out of the magnetic rails and was heavily warped.

"Then we'll just climb." said Isaac. Seconds later they were on the upper level. The AI that kept babbling something in the background and still asking for Howard Philipps was completely ignored by them.

They had to move a panel to the side and pull down a bridge before they got to the door and clear a few mines as well. The rubble method proved to be very successful.

As they passed the next door, the AI switched off the life support in the corridor and vented it at the same time. The handful of necromorphs who were lurking in said hallway, were nothing more than a nuisance for Anoth and Scathach. While Anoth and Scathach were making short work of the Necromorphs, Isaac hacked the terminal while Ellie backed him up. Seconds later, life support was restored and all Necromorphs dead.

A little later they were in the main computer core. Of course, this was reported by ANTI immediately and Tiedemann got in touch again. Meanwhile, Tiedemann was perceived by everyone as little more than an annoying background noise than anything else. He ordered the core to be locked down tied. What ANTI implemented immediately.

"This Tiedemann is starting to really annoy Me." growled Anoth. "Very well. Then we'll do it manually. Kitty and Isaac on the left. Ellie and me on the right."

Anoth was so annoyed by now that he didn't even bother about the crawl space; he just kicked down the door to the manual override, which was practically in the same room, only separated from the rest of the room by a wall made of bulletproof glass. Scathach did the same on her side.

A few fuses who were moved by Ellie and Isaac later and they had access to the computer core. Immediately afterwards, metal plates crashed in front of the window.

"You got to be kidding me." Growled Anoth.

Anoth stared at the stupid piece of scrap metal that wanted to block his way. He balled his hands and rammed them into the metal and then simply bent the metal plate out of the way.

Scathach had chosen a slightly different route. She just melted the plate away.

The result was a door with a hole, the edges of which would still glow red minutes later, and a door that looked like it had been stolen from a sardine can.

"Pretty." Scathach meant.

"Could pass as modern art." said Isaac.

"Modern Art?" Ellie asked as she looked at the result, tilting her head and then shaping her hands as if they were forming a picture frame. "Hmm I do not know…"

The three of them only got a raised eyebrow in response when Anoth turned around and looked at his work. He tilted his head and then said: "Yes. But something is still missing. That certain something." And that in an imitation of voices that was really appropriate for an art critic.

Just then, a Necromorph crashed down from the ceiling in front of him. A split second later it dangled from the wall, impaled by one of its own claws.

"Now its perfect." said Anoth with a nod.

The answer was an amused snort from Isaac and Scathach and a giggle from Ellie.

A little black humour can't hurt.

Immediately afterwards they turned to the now open core. Instead of destroying the core's fuses, Anoth hacked into the now accessible console and took control over ANTI.

"Okay. I'm in control of the solar station and unfortunately I have even more bad news." said Anoth. "None of the panels are properly aligned. They have to be manually aligned. And the surveillance images from the outside... See for yourself."

A holographic projection appeared over Anoth's arm which clearly showed the images from the surveillance camera. And they showed a huge necromorph creature. A creature Isaac recognized. He had fought a similar one on Ishimura. Only that he could use a meteor defence gun as a weapon to fight it there.

"A slug." growled Isaac. "What now?"

"Scathach and I will take care of this 'slug'. You two focus on the panels." said Anoth. "The access elevator is further down there. I've already unlocked the door."

"Can't your Zoid form do that?"

"Only if I blow up the entire solar station with it."

"Better not then."

Two minutes and several eliminated necromorphs later, they were in the elevator access tunnel. As soon as they entered it they went upstairs and from here they could already hear the "Slug". Their noises carried over the metal into the elevator car.

"That will be interesting." muttered Anoth.

Seconds later they were at the top.

"Here we go." with that Isaac opened the outside door and immediately they were greeted by the vacuum of space. Anoth and Scathach were the first to leave the cabin. They didn't need spacesuits to survive in a vacuum.

'Where is that thing?' Scathach asked telepathically.

'There!' Anoth pointed to the great mass of organic matter that had spread out down there on the ring and kept growing as they watched.

Man that thing is ugly.' said Scathach.

Not as ugly as the Kombuso parasite. But they have certain similarities. Realized Anoth. A statement that he didn't like at all. Because if the guess was correct, then there was also a marker on Zi.

That made things even more urgent here than before.

But at the moment they had other things to do.

Because the creature, this "slug", had noticed the two and shot several tentacles out of its form trying to kill them with them. That was probably also due to the fact that the two had now assumed the shape of dragons. That made them a much bigger threat than Isaac and Ellie were at the moment. That would probably change in just a minute.

While Anoth and Scathach were busy severing each of the tentacles that shot out of the thing, had Isaac an idea. Instead of directing the beam onto the second mirror, he directed the bundled solar beam from the first reflector onto the creature. And the creature didn't like that at all.

And it had another effect.

The area that was struck by the Powerful Light did not allow any further tentacles to form as the beam burned the flesh very badly at the point where it hit.

And those solar rays really weren't exactly weak. They came from some satellites that hovered a few hundred kilometres from the station. They bundled the sunlight over huge areas of several square kilometres and then sent it bundled to the system, where the rays from three of these solar satellites were then bundled. The result was a high energy beam. Strong enough to theoretically use it as a weapon.

In fact, the possibility of using the beam from the solar station as a weapon was even included in the data that Anoth had pulled from the station computer.

When Isaac directed the beam onto the other part of the creature, it was seen that the part that had previously been hit by the highly concentrated solar beam was only slowly recovering.

Then Anoth had an idea.

An idea that he immediately passed on to the others and that was then implemented immediately.

Isaac let the beam from the first reflector scorch the creature's surface one more time before aligning it properly.

Ellie had to deal with one of the stationary turret like necromorphs for a short time at her reflector. A so-called nest. With a bit of skill and the liberal use of stasis, this was done quickly and she began to align the second reflector. Not before she copied Isaac and cooked some of the slug through.

Meanwhile, Anoth and Scathach were busy loosening the creature from the station by gradually severing the biomass hooks the creature was using while repeatedly defending themselves against the attacks of smaller necromorphs.

Finally Isaac had reached the controls for the third reflector and let its beam shine once more over the creature that had again tentacles, only for them to be sizzled away by the beam of the third reflector. As soon as he was done, he aligned the reflector correctly. Which ensured that the main beam from the centre of the solar system was activated, which passed the energy on to a receiving point on the Sprawl.

Meanwhile, Anoth and Scathach had managed to separate the enormous creature from the station. Hardly released from the station, they moved away from the creature, which was now moving away from the station. And just as the creature released its tentacles again while trying to attach itself to the station again, Anoth's Zoid Form fired one of the Mighty Plasma Cannons. It wasn't enough to kill the creature, but it was enough to send the creature into the energy beam of the solar station, which immediately charred the creature, which shortly afterwards then disintegrated to ashes.

'So much for that.' Scathach said telepathically. 'Annoying thing.'

However, they did not have time to celebrate.

Anoth's sensors sounded the alarm.

Apparently large numbers of necromorphs were approaching the transit node. It looked like there were several thousand. Anoth immediately used the sensors in his Zoid shape to do a high-energy scan of the area.

It had been confirmed.

Thousands of necromorphs were heading for the Transport Hub.

'Crap.' cursed Anoth. 'All to me.'

'What are you up to?' asked Scathach.

'We have to go back to the hub.'

'And how?' asked Isaac, who had just refilled the oxygen tanks from his RIG at one of the terminals.

'That way.' was Anoth's telepathic response as he took on a much smaller form of his larger self that hovered over the station. 'Hold tight.'

Isaac, Ellie and Scathach briefly exchanged glances, then shrugged their shoulders and grabbed a wing to the right and left of Anoth. As soon as they had held on, Anoth started his engines and went at a tremendous speed past pieces of debris from the station back to the hub.

Like the first time, they crashed through a large pane and were back on the station. The emergency bulkhead immediately slammed shut behind them and resealed the room.

"That was a flight." said Isaac.

"Why did we light up so strangely shortly before we got here through the window?" asked Ellie.

"Impact absorption field. Believe me, without that the landing here would have been a lot more uncomfortable." was Anoth's answer, who had taken on his human form shortly before they crashed back onto the station.

"So that is why the landing wasn't as hard as I expected." Isaac said more to himself than to the others.

"Would you rather have broken bones?" asked Scathach.

"I can do without that, thank you." was Isaac's answer. Only now did they hear the noises that had been around them all the time but had been ignored by them.

"We should hurry up." said Anoth. And sure enough, it sounded like a whole army of Necromorphs was on its way to the transit cross.

If the place wasn't already overrun, that is.

Only seconds later they were back in the transit node, luckily still free of necromorphs. They were about to go in the direction of the railways when Tiedemann again thwarted their plans. One of his ships had managed to shoot a rocket shortly before it was destroyed by Anoth's Zoid Form, which hit the transit node, making the trains inaccessible and exposing the whole transit cross to the vacuum of space.

"This guy is getting really annoying." growled Anoth.

"What now?" Asked Scathach.

"Through the factory." That was Anoth's answer. "There is a combined freight and passenger train."

Said Isaac. "Ellie will you get the door to the factory open?"

"Are you crazy? I only barely got out of there! It's teeming with these things!" Ellie called back.

"We have no other choice."

"Crap!" with that Ellie ran over to the door and began to hack it.

"HERE THEY COME!" Scathach shouted as dozens of Necromorphs made their way in. Both had activated their plasma swords or hardlightsabers. These had already proven to be extremely effective against these creatures in previous battles. And now they would again.

Isaac stood next to Ellie and gave her the necessary cover so that she could concentrate completely on the hacking.

The next two minutes consisted of fighting a never-ending wave of necromorphs before the door to the CEC facility finally opened and the four rushed inside. Immediately afterwards the door closed behind them and they all could breathe a sigh of relief.

"That was something." said Isaac.

"How many were there?" asked Scathach.

"Around 2,000." was Anoth's answer. "In a little over two minutes." With one hand he grabbed the blade of a slasher, which was sitting in his shoulder, and jerked it out only to throw it on the ground. The wound itself healed in seconds.

Scathach was also taking care of her injuries. Isaac too. Neither of the three escaped unharmed from this slaughter. Only Ellie was unharmed, not counting the other injuries she had before.

Their shadows, which they had used during the fight, had also been wounded and had retreated to the shadow plane of their respective master to heal. The necromorphs themselves weren't very strong. But quantity has a quality in itself.

And so it was that they were almost overrun there. What they could just prevent.

Now they were on their way down with the elevator.

"Shit. Just shit." said Ellie after a short pause.

"Calm down. Everything is okay." Answered Isaac.

"Nothing is okay. I started working with thirty people this morning. We were overrun. And suddenly everyone was transformed. I had to cut off my friends' arms and legs to escape. The body parts are probably still lying around here somewhere."

"Ellie ... I know and I'm sorry."

"And now I'm back here. I was walking in a fucking circle the whole time."

"We make it."

"I hope so." Said Ellie. "There is a central hub here. We should move there. Access to the freight trains is also not far from there."

"Good. Let's go then." No sooner had Anoth said that, the elevator doors opened and they were greeted by a corridor that had run out of energy. As a result, it also had no lighting.

"Damn no energy." Isaac cursed.

"The power lines must have been destroyed by the Necros." said Scathach.

"We'll have that in a moment. If I can believe the data, the factory has its own generator." was Anoth's answered as he was standing at the one console that still had power in this corridor. "And let there will be light."

The lights of the system flickered on.

"It's just secondary lighting. But better than nothing." said Scathach. When the energy was reactivated, the hologram appeared on the door at the end of the corridor, and the door could be opened when activated.

"It looks as if the energy supply has completely failed only in this part of the system. The rest should still be fully supplied with the station energy." Anoth said shortly afterwards, after examining the console's holographic displays a little more closely.

Seconds later, the three of them stood in a room with several corpses. And an audio recording that basically confirmed exactly what Ellie had already said. They were completely taken by surprise and overrun. A certain Caleb then tried to save as many of them as possible. And judging by Ellie's statements so far, he probably hadn't made it. Because only Ellie had gotten out of there alive. All the others...

Better not to think about it.

The paths after that were pretty much necromorph free. Only a handful of them stood in their way and were easily wiped out. Then everyone found themselves right in front of a door. The door to the room was obviously defective, because the console was beating loud sparks and the hologram on the door said "Malfunction".

"Over here!" Ellie called to them. "The door is blocked. The last defence of someone left behind."

"We'll have that in a moment." said Anoth and walked to the door. He clawed his hands and rammed them into the bottom of the door. As soon as he had a firm grip, he began to push the door up. Only so far that he could reach under the door with his hands, then with a jerk opened the door fully. You could hear the mechanics of the door protesting and then being completely destroyed.

The door mechanism spat some sparks and screeched in protest. It didn't do her any good. The door was now open.

As soon as they were all in the room, Anoth pulled the door back down and rammed it shut with brutal force. Enough force to cut one of the necromorphs that was trying to get through the door in half. Immediately afterwards he made his blades glow and melted part of the door into its frame. That door would not open at all anymore.

"We should take the next door." said Isaac looking at the windows of the room with concern as they began to show the first cracks under the hammering of the necromorphs. And the others agreed.

A short time later they were next door and the door locked behind them.

"What now?" Asked Isaac.

"There is a freight train up there that uses the same tracks as the commuter train. It brings us into the government sector. Someone has to go up there and steer it from the driver's cab." explained Ellie.

"Isaac and I will do this." Anoth said and Isaac nodded in agreement. They didn't have any other way anyway.

"Well, then I'll stay with her." Scathach agreed.

Seconds later, Isaac and Anoth were on their way again. And of course they were attacked again by the necromorphs. Anoth grabbed a Leaper by the tail and used it as an improvised club to beat the other necromorphs to a bloody paste. When he was done, he threw what was left of the Leaper down into the dark depths of the shaft.

Then they continued to follow the corridors with repeated necromorph activity before they finally arrived in the room from where they could control the train. There was just a space in between, which caused a bit of a problem because the glass pane that divided the room from the emptiness of space shattered and Isaac and Anoth were almost sucked into space. However, Anoth was able to hold on and grab Isaac before they could be sucked out. Seconds later the emergency door slammed shut and they could continue on their way.

As soon as they arrived in the target area, there was a new problem.

The gear to uncouple the train from the station was little more than scrap metal.

"Sure, of course." muttered Anoth. "It would have been too easy." The entire gearbox was irreparably damaged. Now it was time to improvise.

"There has to be a manual disconnection." muttered Isaac.

They searched for over five minutes.

There was none.

"Then we'll just build one." Meant Anoth.

So Isaac and Anoth tinkered with the parts they found here an improvised a crank at the end of which was now mounted on one of the gears that was lying around here. Immediately afterwards, Anoth cut the shaft under the ceiling and Isaac mounted another gear on it. So the shaft could be rotated with the help of the crank and so the track could be decoupled this way without using the gearbox.

Isaac was forced to use his telekinesis module to turn the crank. It couldn't be done with muscle power alone. And even then, Anoth had to lend a hand.

It took a little while but finally they did it.

A minute later they were both inside the train and drove down to pick up the other two.

On the way down, Isaac had to ask a question. "Why do I no longer have visions?"

"Because I'm blocking the telepathic part of the signal from the marker in my immediate vicinity." explained Anoth. "Therefore the marker can no longer influence you directly."

"Thanks."

Anoth just nodded.

A short time later they arrived at the stop and Scathach and Ellie got on. Then the journey continued.

Not for long, though.

The tram was forcefully stopped.

"What's up?" asked Ellie.

"Something is blocking our way." answered Anoth. "You stay here. We'll have that soon."

With that, Anoth opened the door of the train and climbed out. A short trip through one of those damn ventilation shafts to get behind the gate and then he saw it.

"A huge tentacle is blocking the way and it's holding something. Looks like a big tank."

"Nitrogen trichloride. They explode when they get too hot." was Ellie's prompt reply.

"Great."

"You don't want to ..."

"Yes ... exactly that." Immediately afterwards, he fired a jet of flame at the tank that quickly became much too hot and exploded only seconds later, which caused the tentacle to retreat and clear the way.

"It worked, we're moving again." came the voice of Scathach over the radio.

"Good. There are more down there."

"If you blow up one of those tanks in this tank camp."

"Then all of them are going to explode." Anoth finished what Ellie was starting to say. "Get ready."

But before he could overheat the tank, he was attacked by necromorphs again.

"You are really starting to annoy me to no end." growled Anoth. There were tripods. And not only one. There were a whole bunch of them. Anoth activated his plasma blade and chopped the first into minced meat before grabbing an explosive canister and throwing it on the tank. Then the next attacked. Anoth grabbed that one by the third leg only to then (swinging it like a club) ram it into the third one. So he hurled them both against the wall. Immediately afterwards he jumped after them and crushed them both against the wall.

As soon as that happened, he fired two fireballs at the tank. That was enough to set it off. And so it exploded and destroyed the last two tripods that were standing right next to the tank.

That started a chain reaction, however, and one tank after another began to explode.

"Get out of here!" called Ellie.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" With that, Anoth ran towards the train, jumped against the wall, and then up. Seconds later he swung himself onto the train. "Go Go!"

It was close but they managed to escape the explosions by train which completely destroyed part of the civilian part of the station behind them.

As soon as they escaped, they were contacted again by Tiedemann. "If things were different, I would even admire her stubbornness. But this is more important than you, more important than the life of everyone on this station!"

Then Tiedemann was informed by one of his soldiers that the last evacuation measures were in progress.

"Apparently it ends now. From here on everything is just ... ballast."

"What does he mean by that? Ballast?" asked Ellie.

"I don't know." answered Isaac.

The answer came in the form of a military ship that suddenly appeared before them. But before it could fire, it was hit by a powerful plasma pulse and destroyed. Exactly when that happened Anoth got the information that a special troop had tried to take the solar station. When this group of mercenaries tried to use the array as a weapon the stupid AI that Anoth had left there, had triggered the self-destruction of the solar array.

However, the Sprawl's emergency batteries were already charged enough that it made no difference to the train.

As for the docked USG Ishimura. It had already been destroyed. In fact the ship was one of the first to be destroyed when Anoth reached the station. So it was not surprising that the train passed the floating debris of the USG Ishimura.

The evacuation of the Sprawl had meanwhile been stopped. The chances of finding survivors were almost zero. The spread of corruption in the civil sector was now almost 88%. Anoth had effectively given up hope of finding any more survivors.

The last survivors successfully evacuated onto a UEG battleship were Gabe and Lexine Weller. After that they found no one anymore. Both asked for asylum from Anoth, as the UEG would now hunt them, as they had been part of one of their projects, the so-called "Oracle Program". Anoth granted it to them and so the two docked their UEG ship with Anoth. They would get another chance to live a free life on Zi. Far beyond the reach of the UEG.

A short time later, the railway stopped in the outskirts of the government sector. They couldn't get any closer. Tiedemann, realizing that his plan with the solar station had failed, had the rails blown further into the complex.

They had to work their way through the ore processing plants. The old mines that were still being used.

And had already been overrun by necromorphs.

The first room where they stopped was clear of any necromorph activity. But traces of corruption were already visible.

It was almost half an hour before they had fought their way through the facilities before they found their ticket to the core of the government sector.

A tunnel drill.

A power cell exchange and a few minor technical problems fixed, as well as over 100 now dead and dismembered necromorphs later and they were on their way.

The tunnel drill had no problem digging through the rock. However, it wasn't just stone that they pierced. A large part of the tunnel network had been taken over by an organic mass.

Undoubtedly the work of the marker.

Corruption.

This is what this wild organic stuff was called.

It took a few minutes and the destruction of various Necromorphs before they finally broke through the walls to the government sector.

"Nice way to knock." complained Isaac, who was lying on the ground and a little dazed from the collision that had knocked him off the drill.

"In any case, we're inside now." commented Anoth who was sitting slightly dazed on an overturned cupboard.

"And the Necros will be here soon too." Scathach said as she straightened up and looked at the huge hole they had left behind.

"Without a doubt." answered Isaac.

"We have to go through that door there." Ellie said, looking at the large gate that was in the atrium at the top of the stairs.

"Then we should hurry up." said Scathach. "Before we get allot of uninvited guests."

The shouting of Necromorphs grew louder and louder.

"Double time it people!" ordered Anoth.

No contradiction.

Seconds later they were down in the atrium.

"Isaac. The door!" ordered Anoth. While Isaac was about to unlock the door, the rest were busy fending off the invading Necromorphs. As soon as the door was open, all four ran through. The door closed immediately behind them.

"What now?" Asked Scathach.

"We need the initial phase of convergence. That is where the carrier signals are the strongest. And that's the easiest way to find these bastards." was Anoth's answer.

"And how do we do that?"

"Very simple. We let the necromorphs flow to the marker, which now attracts them like a magnet anyway. As soon as there are enough there, the convergence begins, which ensures that the carrier signals will gain enormously in strength, which in turn makes filtering out the individual signals easier. As soon as we have the main carrier signal, we will find the source of the signal. "

"So we have to open the gates." said Isaac.

"Right," replied Anoth. "And with that we let the necromorphs eliminate all Unitology and EarthGov idiots who want to get in our way."

"What about the hordes that are going to storm in?"

"Most of them will go straight to the marker. We will probably only have to deal with a few stragglers. They should hardly be a problem."

"Good. How do we do that?"

"According to the plans I downloaded, the emergency power supply that feeds the doors at the moment is right above the lobby. We go up there and just pull out the battery. Our "undead friends" will do the rest." was Anoth's answer. "Understood?"

Everyone nodded.

"Then we will herald the beginning of the end of the Necromorphs and all markers."

"Yes. Let's end this nightmare." both Ellie and Isaac agreed. Scathach just nodded.

With that they set off.

It was only seconds before they stood in front of the door to the atrium. They only had to follow the corridor for a few meters.

"When the door opens, immediately to the right into the bathroom. There is a maintenance shaft that takes us exactly where we want to go." said Anoth.

"Why not go straight out." asked Ellie.

"They put up a barricade with dozens of armed soldiers."

"Good enough."

"On three." said Anoth, holding up three fingers. "One." One finger went down. "Two." The second followed. "Three." with that he opened the door and all four ran through and immediately to the right into the bathroom before the soldiers behind the barricade understood what had just happened.

And just as Anoth had already said, the bathroom had access to a maintenance shaft. They had locked it but a strong jerk and the locked flap in front of the entrance was gone and the way was free. The other flap came to an end with a mighty kick. And then they were in another room from which they only had to go up the stairs to get to the energy cell.

Said and done. Isaac removed the cell and the lights went out. And that wasn't the only thing that it shut down. The magnetic locking of the doors also switched off and the Necromorphs were able to push the doors open. Seconds later they had completely overrun and wiped out the soldiers with a bloody slaughter.

They waited another minute for the horde to pass and then followed them. Just as Anoth had predicted, there were only a few stragglers left and they were hardly an obstacle for the now very experienced group.

All resistance, whether by EarthGov or Unitology fanatics, had been completely destroyed and so they had almost completely free rein. Only the room with the lasers, where they apparently built a new marker, slowed them down for a short time. Until Anoth hacked into the computer system and simply shut down the device.

And so, just minutes later, they found themselves in the observation room above the marker chamber. With direct eye contact on a marker that was easily 50 meters tall.

"I build that?" Isaac asked incredulously.

"More likely they build it. You and Stross probably only gave them the plans for it. Even if involuntarily." was Anoth's reply, looking down at the base of the marker where several thousand Necromorphs had already gathered. "There are enough necros there. The marker should any moment now-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as a noise that sounded like a foghorn emanated from the marker and a tremendous wind began to blow in the chamber. Shortly before that, Tiedemann had tried to contact Isaac, but Isaac had cut the connection before Tiedemann could say his bullshit. He just didn't care what he had to say anymore.

Seconds after the first foghorn sounded came a second one. And the necromorphs were pulled one by one high into the air.

"The convergence has begun." said Anoth. "If the plans are correct, the machine should be in the next room. Now or never."

The room next door was empty except for a bed that looked like it belonged in a hospital. Except that some strange machinery had been mounted on the bed.

"That must be the machine that Stross was talking about." said Isaac.

"It is." confirmed Anoth. "Only this time the needle won't stick in one eye. It will go in here." With that, Anoth took out a device about the size of a cigarette packet and placed it on his head. Briefly inserted the needle into the sensor opening and Anoth began to analyze the signal.

"Well, Stross must have misunderstood something. This machine only activates the parts of the brain that stimulate the marker signals." Said Anoth disappointed. "Then we go with plan B."

"Kitty?" Anoth asked, but she had already understood and cut a hole in the window.

Anoth then took out another device and a rifle. He stuck this device on the barrel like a rifle grenade and then aimed it at the marker. A bang later and said device was attached to the marker.

Anoth whistled in surprise as he began to analyse the results. "The signal is a little more complex than I expected." he said as he examined the data on the holographic display on his arm. "So ... which one of you is the main carrier wave?" Two minutes later he found it. "There it is. Triangulate. Got you. And I also could finally filter out the disturbances from the transporters." hardly had he said that there was a flash of light and a device about the size of a cupboard materialized in the room.

"What's this?" Isaac asked in surprise.

"A singularity bomb." Anoth immediately began arming the weapon. Seconds later he was done and only had to enter and confirm the length for the countdown. "I know that you can hear me out there. You have a minute from now on to get out of here. Unless you want to find out what a black hole looks like from the inside." With these words he started the countdown.

He knew that he had been heard when he watched as the first ships hastily disappeared from there. Little USM Curious Kitty had transferred everything and was now quickly leaving the area. In the chaos and shedding of the Curious Kitty, Anoth did not notice that a small ship had managed to cling itself to the outer hull of its Zoid form.

"Time to go." Anoth said, and a flash of light later, all four were aboard Anoth's Zoid form and in the CIC. There the monitor showed the Sprawl.

Less than a minute later you could see how the centre began to quake visibly and then the whole station began to fall into the now opening black hole. It took just under 30 seconds before the entire station was swallowed up by the black hole. The connection to the Curious Kitty was cut shortly afterwards.

"So that was the Titan Sprawl." said Isaac. "I really should have picked a better date to wake up."

"Yes." said Ellie. "I should have quit when I was about to do it and take a vacation far away from any marker."

"Ready to finish this?" asked Anoth.

"For my friends and those who died here. Yes." said Ellie. Her terror had now given way to sheer anger. All she wanted now was to see every single necromorph dead.

"For Nicole. Let's end this nightmare." agreed Isaac.

"You already know my answer." said Scathach.

Anoth just nodded. "Next stop: Tau Volantis System." With that, the huge dragon Zoid swung around and opened a hyperspace window and shot inside. While in the background you could see how the black hole slowly dissolved again. There was nothing left of the station. There was nothing left of the Markers or the Necromorphs either.

The Tau Volantis system was less than 390 light years away. Anoth covered the distance in under a minute. With the shock drive, they would have needed significantly longer for the distance. Probably several days in fact. A shock drive only managed a little over 1 light year an hour on average.

Anoth, on the other hand, had covered the distance at a speed of a good 10 light years per second.

A difference that was clearly noticeable.

They had just come out of hyperspace travel as the alarm went of.

"What is it?" asked Isaac.

"Mines." was Anoth's answer. "And quite a lot of them. However, they are so weak that they pose only a minimal threat ... if my shields were deactivated."

The mines were all fully automated and immediately spotted Anoth's Zoid shape and headed for him. Just to crash into the shields and explode without causing any damage at all. Then Anoth's sensors discovered other contacts.

At least according to the IFS data he received, they were ships of the Sovereign Colonies. And over 200 years old. His sensors also found as an enormous amount of space junk. The remains of an entire fleet.

And there was something else. Something only Scathach and Anoth could perceive. The closer they got to the planet, the stronger the visions they received from their respective Black Suns.

The Black Sun was a soul sun. But she also had a connection, if not a very strong one, with the realm of the dead. This could lead to the fact that in places where very many died very quickly, the Black Sun could give them visions of what happened there.

Billions must have died here. Thought Anoth and Scathach.

"I have various contacts here." said Anoth. "If the data I am receiving is correct, these are ships of the Sovereign Colonies."

"They must be over two hundred years old." said Isaac.

"There are the CMS Roanoke, the CMS Terra Nova, the CMS Greely and the CMS Brusilov. The rest of the fleet seems to have been destroyed. Thousands of parts from wrecks. They must be from at least 50 other ships."

"Is that a moon or is it ..." Isaac couldn't or would not say it.

"Yes. That is the end product of convergence." confirmed Anoth Isaac's suspicion. "Even if this one is apparently incomplete." Anoth seemed to pause briefly. "And it seems frozen."

"Is that good or bad?" asked Ellie.

"Bad. I need this thing thawed to use its full strength against these creatures."

"What if you do it like this. While it's still frozen."

"That would reduce the strength of the attack by over 90%. That would still be enough to wipe out all necromorphs in this sector. But those in the rest of the galaxy ..." explained Anoth. "Sooner or later you will run across the surviving moons again. And then what?"

"So we have to thaw the moon." said Isaac. "How?"

"The cold that has trapped this planet is not of natural origin." Reported Scathach, who was operating one of the sensor consoles. "Not only have I located thousands of markers on the planet, I have also found a machine that is responsible for making the planet here a massive ice cube."

"We should have a look around the Roanoke before we go down to the planet. It seems to be a kind of a command post. Perhaps there is more information there that gives us an idea of what to expect down there." suggested Isaac.

"Good idea." both Scathach and Ellie agreed.

"Agreed." said Anoth. "But before we go over there, I'll first clear all ships and the surrounding wrecks of necromorphs."

"And how do you want to do that."

"My Zoid form has a thalaronic ray cannon. It wipes out all organic material."

"Good idea." agreed Isaac. "Without necromorphs on board, we can explore the ships much more freely and much more quickly without having to constantly look over our backs."

"Then let's go." with that Anoth began to manoeuvre in a way that he could capture all four ships, drifting only a few kilometres apart, with a single bubble. So he only needed to use the weapon once instead of multiple times. "And say hello to the leaders of my shadows." said Anoth when he was in position and his shadows took their positions. "Initiate clearance for thalaron weapons of extinction."

"Ahri, leader of the fox shadows. Thalarone weapons authorized. Zero-Zero-Strike-Red-Zero."

The code was confirmed on the main monitor, which now showed the weapon and where one of four dots next to it lit up.

"Serina, leader of the Shadow Dragons; Thalarone weapons authorized. Code: Retro Nine Blue Strike Five Nine Five."

That was the voice of Serina, who was the leader of the dragons. The code was confirmed by the lighting up of the second green point and the corresponding tone. This tone was lighter than the previous one.

"Kalvina, leader of the Shadow Cats. Arm Thalarone weapons. Execution code: Nine, Five, Over, Seven, Blue, Five. Sharp."

That was the voice of Kalvina. A skyfire cat. In her human form she looked similar to Kuroka, only that her hair resembled that of burning fires. With that the third point lit up.

"Ready for End Code." said Kalvina. That asked for Anoth's code.

"Guardian Anoth. End code to execute. Thalarone Weapons Authorization Ten Break Alpha. Strike, Strike, Strike."

With that, the fourth and last green point lit up. Immediately afterwards, they heard the launchers move into position under Anoth's wings.

"Thalarone Intermix at 60%. Start the Wave Motion Generator." reported Ahri. "Two minutes to kill."

What Anoth did not know was that the little ship that had attached itself unnoticed to Anoth and had thus followed them had now broken away from Anoth and had moved into the rubble field. By using minimal energy and the fact that Anoth did not scan for signs of life, they went unnoticed. The ship was completely manned by Unitology fanatics. They just had the bad luck to be exactly in the path of fire from Anoth, because they used the CMS Terra Nova as cover. Little did they know that the green light that was now emanating from the dragon's massive wings of 49 kilometres, announced their coming death sentence.

On board was a certain Danik who watched the dragon very closely. He had been informed of the events through the broadcast of the Curious Kitty.

When Danik looked out the window of the ship at the huge dragon Zoid, he saw that the wings of it were completely unfolded. One pair of wings had become eight wings that looked a bit like a hand fan. And they were bathed in an almost surreal light.

Blue-whitish energy flowed along the edges of the wings and a green light was seen below the wings.

The next thing he saw was that the blue-whitish light emitted a powerful pulse, which enveloped his ship and the other wrecks in a huge cocoon. Then all he saw was a wave of green light coming towards him. Seconds later, Danik ceased to exist. Just like the rest of the crew and all Necromorphs on board of the ghost ships.

Danik's ship was now just another ghost ship that joined the other wrecks floating there.

The wrecks were thus effectively disinfected.

Less than 10 minutes later, the action had ended and they split up.

With all the necromorphs destroyed who were on board of the ships, searching the ships was hardly a problem.

Anoth had chosen the Roanoke.

Clarke took over the Greely. From that ship Anoth had caught a strange transmission. It was easy to decipher, but made very little sense. "Hide Rosetta." Who or whatever that was.

Perhaps there was more evidence of this on the ship.

Scathach went to the Terra Nova.

And Ellie looked around on the Brusilov, but found nothing really interesting there except a marker and immediately joined Scathach.

.

On board the CMS Roanoke

.

Anoth had no problem locating the airlock that gave him access to the station. It was on the part of the horseshoe-shaped station that looked like it had once been a maintenance dock. At the other end, just across the street, was something that Anoth assumed should be the administration wing and crew quarters. In the centre of the station, in the cavity of the horseshoe, was a mushroom-shaped tower. Probably the main command centre.

The three parts were connected by relatively narrow connections. They gave the station a rather fragile impression.

The station was probably brought to the planet in segments and assembled here.

However.

The first thing he noticed was that the station was only running on emergency power. Who knows for how long?

Life support had also failed in whole parts of the station. Even if the interior of the station was still filled with a breathable atmosphere, it was not renewed. It therefore smelled stale.

That meant Anoth's first stop was the station's main power core. Judging by his scans, there was still fuel on board. Only the reactor was out of order. He probably had to restart it by hand.

It was easy to follow the doors until he came to a door that was without power. Quarantine was clearly written on the door.

For a moment, Anoth wondered whether he should just cut through the door. The idea was superfluous when he found the right energy cell for the associated connection. Seconds later the door was energized again and was just as easy to open as the others in front of it.

The first thing he saw there were piles of ash on the floor. Undoubtedly the remains of the necromorphs destroyed by the thalaronic radiation. Or any corpses of the old crew who were not turned for some reason.

The way to the reactor was not a problem. A cinema-like meeting room, a couple of ladders and a tunnel with no gravity and another ladder and he found the reactor room.

The reactor was located at the foot of the central tower of the station. And the no gravity tube was one of the entrances to it.

The reactor had three coils that had to be started. The console in front of him made that clear. It also told Anoth that the rest of the reactor's systems were apparently still intact.

Good.

Then let's go.

Starting the coils was easy enough. First the upper ring had to be pulled down until it clicks into place and then the coils started by turning the upper point with the help of telekinesis until the coil starts.

And all three times.

Then the main reactor had to be started via the console.

Less than a minute later that was done and the main energy restored.

Anoth immediately took the elevator up to the top of the mushroom formed tower. Only to find nothing when he got upstairs. There was nothing there. No computers, nothing. Maybe it was just an observation deck after all.

So he hacked the door and took the other corridor back. Perhaps the offices or the admiral's office had some information. There was just rubbish up here.

It was half an hour before he found the admiral's quarters. A certain Marjorie Graves. The first thing first thing he noticed as he entered the room was a pin board full of marker drawings and marker script.

"Turn it off." These were the words that were repeated over and over again on the board. And apparently what was just called a "key" was required for this.

That was undoubtedly the moon that had influenced her. He wanted the convergence to continue. The text log that was within the quarter also made this more than clear. She was clearly telepathically influenced.

Another text log which he found earlier and which apparently revolved around the dog squad made this even clearer.

There wasn't much else here. Apart from an audio log in that Marjorie ordered to search for markers. In response to what she said General Mahad, who was also heard on the tape, that she has gone mad. Which she probably was already at the time.

With that, Anoth left the admiral's quarters and continued into the administration wing.

Only to find a huge mess there. It looked like someone had wilfully destroyed everything. And there was a very large graffiti on the wall.

Scenario five.

Whatever that was.

He found the answer to this question sooner than he would have liked.

In one of the half-destroyed desks was a military manual with all possible protocols. That included scenario five. It was apparently the local officer's desk.

Scenario five was one of five initial contact scenarios with an alien species.

They looked like this:

.

.

SCENARIO ONE: No risk of infection or contagion.

Procedure: -not applicable-

SCENARIO TWO: Moderate risk of infection or contagion.

Procedure: Standard sterilization procedures required.

SCENARIO THREE: A local outbreak

Procedure: People must be quarantined.

SCENARIO FOUR: Virulent outbreak.

Procedure: Destruction of the site and all associated people required.

SCENARIO FIVE: Outbreak at extinction level.

Procedure: Extreme isolation measures required. All people who were involved or know of the location of the outbreak must be destroyed. All places associated with these people must be destroyed. Permanent insulation is required where destruction is not possible.

.

.

That explained a lot. And also significantly diminished the hope of finding any usable data here.

"Scenario Five. Damn it!" Anoth cursed. "At least it explains what happened to this fleet. That wasn't an attack. The ships were destroyed by their own soldiers. And the ships that they couldn't destroy they made sure that no one could use them anymore by deleting and/or destroying their computer systems and destroying the engines. "

Anoth's gaze wandered to the ceiling and over the half-destroyed and flickering lamps as well as over the soot-covered corner where various papers had apparently been burned.

Since they would all die here anyway, a fire on the station was ultimately meaningless. Probably whoever started the fire shot himself shortly afterwards. Next to the burn marks was a pile of ash and a pistol. The thalaronic radiation had left nothing more than that from the corpse.

He probably wouldn't find anything more here and so he started to go back again. The only thing he did before he did that was to inform the others about this find.

.

With Isaac on the Greeley.

.

The first thing he noticed when he stepped on the Greeley was that the ship only had emergency power and a lot of dust.

So his first stop was the main engine room.

A little later the energy was restored and he could use the elevator to get deeper into the ship.

The first stopover was the communication room. It had apparently been sealed and so Isaac had to divert some energy to open the doors. The audio recording that played automatically immediately afterwards confirmed this assumption.

He found little more than ancient communications equipment and dust in the room. So he went deeper into the ship.

Here were laboratories where they examined what they had found in the ice on the planet down there. The thalaron radiation had destroyed everything organic. So that included what was in the ice as well. But there were enough bleached out photos on the walls to guess what must have been in the now dust-filled blocks of ice.

He didn't find much more. Except for the decryption key for the message that Anoth had already decrypted without it and so Isaac made his way back to the Gil Vader Zoid, who had brought him to the ship.

It was surprising how quickly Anoth got the two Gil Vaders ready for action again.

He had a second goal to check. The sensors of the Gil Vader had located another smaller ship which was now drifting nearby. A ship which was clearly more recent and from the direction in which it was drifting it came from the direction of the Terra Nova.

Anoth had given the Gil Vader or All Airworthy Zoids other engines. The new impulse engines they now had allowed them to move easily outside of an atmosphere. Of course, he had also installed the necessary manoeuvring nozzles. Then of course there were also life support systems installed. Everything that was necessary for them to operate in space.

Isaac, no sooner had he left the airlock, floated over to the large dragon Zoid and took a seat in its cockpit. That immediately closed behind him and builds up an atmosphere within it. Several dozen mines were on the way between them and the unknown ship.

Anoth just laughed at these mines as he scanned them the first time he saw them. They were pitifully weak compared to those he usually used. With the Seraphim, even the weakest of the space mines had an explosive force of 500 kilotons of TNT. These mines, on the other hand, only had a few kilos of explosives on board. They were ridiculously weak.

Therefore, the protective shields of the Gil Vader had no problems at all to swallow the explosions of the mines. In fact the Gil Vader could have destroyed any of the mines with ease. But since these mines were so ridiculously weak, it would have been a waste of ammunition.

"These mines are pathetic." heard Isaac say the Gil Vader lady.

"You'd be amazed how "well "some of the military ships are armoured." was Isaac's answer, he was no longer surprised by it. Anoth had warned her beforehand.

"In other words: almost not at all."

"Exactly. And these mines are enough to tear such a ship to shreds. Only the large military ships have enough armour to withstand these mines here."

The Gil Vader lady just snorted contemptuously as they were coming closer to the drifting ship. "Even if I switched off the shields, they wouldn't even get through my armour."

"It's up there." said Isaac when he saw the ship. "Looks like an EarthGov frigate."

"With Unitology graffiti all over its hull." added the Zoid lady.

"Any signs of life?"

"No."

"Then I'll take a look around."

Finding the airlock was a breeze and with the help of the Zoids hacking skills, he was inside the ship in no time.

Isaac and Anoth were particularly interested in one point about this ship. How was it able to follow them to here? Isaac found the answer in the ghost ship's records. It had simply sat on Anoth's outer hull and was taken along like a stowaway. And the now dead crew had no idea where they were. Otherwise there was nothing useful there and so Isaac was back on his way only 20 minutes later.

The ship was destroyed immediately afterwards in order to be able to say with absolute certainty that no one would follow them here, by some hidden transmitter, just to be on the safe side.

They really didn't need any Unitology fanatics here.

And the idiots from EarthGov even less.

.

With Scathach and Ellie on the CMS Terra Nova

.

As with the previous ones, the ship also ran on emergency energy. The first thing they found in this part of the ship was the bridge and some storage rooms.

On the way through the storage rooms they found two resource search bots that could be useful. A short time later they were in the ship's train station which connected the three sections of the ship. Only to find that the railroad was blocked by cargo.

With that, the next stop was clear. The cargo processing. Only a few minutes later they found it and puzzled the cargo off the rails. In this case, that was to be taken literally, because they had to combine different freight packages in such a way that they took up as little space as possible before they were taken away from the system and taken to the warehouse. On track was an interesting coffin like thing with a cloud of dust in it.

Minutes later the rails were free and they were back at the station and only a short time later on their way.

There were two stations where the train could stop. The main command tower in the middle of the ship and the engine rooms and maintenance sections as well as shuttle ramps in the aft part of the ship.

They decided to search the ship completely and so they stopped in the main command tower.

The door to the elevator that led further into the tower was locked and secured by an access card reader. They found the missing card only a few meters further into the adjoining room. Along with an audio recording. The door to it was open after a brief rerouting of energy.

Anoth had already informed them about Scenario 5 and so the content of the recording was no surprise to them.

Valery Dietz was the captain of the Terra Nova. And apparently she had an affair with a certain Tucker Edwards. And so it came about that when General Mahad put the scenario five contingency plans into effect, she went to Edwards and told him about it and she apparently intended to kill him before the other soldiers could do it. Only she couldn't do it and so Tucker shot her. Then he announced that he would kill anyone who would try to kill him.

What was surprising was the news they heard when they got into the elevator.

"I see you~! Guess you were smart enough to make it through my suspension. But before you pat yourself on the shoulder, know that this was the easy part. Your day is going to get a lot worse."

"That can't be. After 200 years he's still alive?" Ellie asked in surprise.

"That is a record for sure." said Scathach. "He must have died a long time ago. He couldn't have survived the thalaronic radiation and 200 years of time."

"You're probably right. Let's find out."

A little later they found themselves in a relatively large room with a staircase and a ladder that led upwards. The only thing that stood out in the room was the explosives that were mounted on the ventilation shaft openings.

Tucker answered again seconds later.

"All the infected soldiers should be kept safe here. You might think you're going to put a bullet in their skulls, but I have an army here that claims otherwise."

When they tried to open the door above, Scathach was electrocuted and Edward's voice could be heard again.

"Hahahahaha. Got you~! And now it's going to be really fun. Computer: Arm explosives!" It stopped for a short time. "And ... ignite."

The explosives exploded and tore the linings off the shafts. Otherwise nothing happened. All necromorphs that would otherwise have got through there with certainty had long since been destroyed by Anoth. And so Ellie only had to go to one of the consoles and activate the manual override of the quarantine and the door opened. What the computer confirmed with the following voice message.

"Override accepted. Quarantine lifted. Please report this to your superior officer."

"Recording." Ellie meant.

"Recording." Confirmed Scathach.

As soon as they got to the next room, which looked like a communication corner or whatever, the recording from Edwards came on again.

"Sure, you've got it to the point of killing everything that moves. Good. But your great arsenal is of little use to you now. You can't kill electricity."

"What now?" Ellie asked, slightly annoyed.

"We'll find out in a moment." was Scathach's answer. And indeed. The answer was already behind the next door. An electric arc blocked their way. "I can't kill electricity ..." A quick search later (and a blown fuse) and the problem was eliminated. "But I can turn it off."

Another obstacle was just behind the next door. One destroyed fuse later and that too was history. The next obstacle just a stone's throw away was just as easy to deal with.

The next few rooms were free. If you disregard the many coffin-like boxes lying on the floor or leaning against the walls with the words "Human Remains" on them.

A room or two down and suddenly several tiles crashed from the floor up onto the ceiling. A box was also torn up and smashed against the ceiling. It was as if a mighty stream tore everything up and then crushed it up there. Seconds later, Tucker spoke up again.

"Surprise! You didn't know that you could invert the gravitational casing and staple someone to the ceiling. I only knew it after I tried it. Go ahead, get into the gravitational flow - or are you scared?"

"He's starting to really annoy me." Ellie growled.

"Not just you." said Scathach. "We have to go to environmental control."

A ladder led down one floor and if they followed the path they got exactly where they wanted to go.

They followed the path and cleared another electric obstacle on the way and then came into a room where the "undead nuisance", as Ellie Edwards now called, spoke up again.

"I am completely serious now; I can't just let you slip into the environmental controls. I'm sorry, but I don't want to die. Computer: Arm explosives ... and detonate! See you."

The explosive charges on the ventilation shafts exploded and ... nothing more happened. Except that the room was once again under quarantine and they had to bypass it manually again.

No sooner said than done and only a short time later they took the elevator downstairs.

Seconds later they were in environmental control. There were two gravity generators next to a control console. And one of them was obviously being messed with. One use of stasis and the removal of the three coils at the end of the rotating arm later and the gravitational trap was history.

Barely done Tucker reported again:

"You know, I never wanted to harm anyone, I just wanted to live. That was all I wanted: to live ... I wanted to live."

With that, the two of them went back down the path and took the elevator up the command tower.

On the way up, they made a stop on the second floor, where they found an access card, and then continued upstairs. Once there, they found Edwards. Or what was left of him. A pile of ashes in a chair and a gun on the floor.

This opened a recording.

"Congratulations you found me. Pretty stupid huh? I just wanted to live. And now that I'm the only survivor, I don't give a shit. In all the time I've been alone, I've realized that Sam was right: I'm a lazy bastard who has never done anything for his Team. Okay Team. If you can hear me now: This is for you." The recording ended with the sound of a pistol being fired. In the end, Edwards had committed suicide.

"They were really all records." said Ellie.

"After more than 200 years. Somehow that was clear. Let's see where the card takes us here. There seems to be a card reader up there." With that, Scathach pointed up a corridor to which an elevator led, where there was a security card reader next to the door.

Meanwhile, Ellie looked around the room. "If these lines on the floor are days, then it must have held out here for several years." She mumbled.

Seconds later they were in the room and found some supplies there. No sooner had it been fully loaded than Tucker spoke up for the last time.

"It took a while, but I now understand why we weren't allowed to stay alive. If you've found this and are still alive, then I can finally do my part. Computer: Detonate all remaining explosives. It's time for you to join us. "

With it all the remaining charges exploded, music began to play. Otherwise nothing happened, because all necromorphs on board had been destroyed by Anoth in advance with the help of thalaronic radiation.

So they immediately made their way back to the tram and then took it to examine the aft part of the ship.

Long story short. The only noteworthy thing they found there was the scrap-ready shuttle CMS Crozier.

And so they found themselves back on board Anoth a few minutes later.

.

On board Anoth

.

"So what do we do now?" asked Ellie.

"The cold that envelops the planet is of an artificial nature. I have already located the machine that is responsible for It." said Anoth. "We now have two options. Either I destroy the machine via orbital fire ..."

"That would be good, because then we wouldn't have to go down to a monster-infested planet." said Isaac.

"Yes. Yes. But then we would have to wait a good one to three months before the ice thaws by itself."

"Oh." said Isaac. "Somehow I have the feeling that I won't like the second option."

"The second option would be to go down to the planet and reprogram the machine so that the planet thaws within a few minutes. With it, of course, the moon too."

"Which is the reason why we are here at all." said Scathach. "We're going down. That's my opinion."

"It's better if we finish this quickly. We're going down." Ellie agreed.

"I agree." said Isaac.

"Good." said Anoth. "By the way, I have good news. I located Project Rosetta."

"Project Rosetta?" asked Isaac.

"That's right. I found an old file that appeared to have slipped under a desk or hidden. Project Rosetta is in this research complex." With that, Anoth pointed a holographic representation of the planet's surface to the table at which they were all standing. It showed a complex that was difficult to see, half sunk in the snow. A red dot near it blinked. He was in an open space. Big enough to land there without any problems. "And that's exactly where we will land."

"Why don't you use your Thalarone weapon? That would make life a lot easier for us down there." Asked Isaac.

"Two reasons. First, we don't know whether the machine has organic components that would naturally be destroyed by thalaron radiation, and second, we have no idea what Project Rosetta really is. In any case, there was nothing in the files about it."

.

Planet surface

An hour later

.

Two Gil Vaders and a dozen of Liger Phoenix Zoids landed in the snow and ice covered area. The 24 Redler Zoids who accompanied them stayed in the air and would provide fire protection from above if necessary.

On his return from the moon of Zi, Anoth had salvaged some of them from the old battlefields, revived the Redler Zoids and gradually restored them. There he had also found a single Gungyalado core that was still intact. Most of the Redler Zoids, however, he found in a shipwreck. Now they were ready for action.

A single Gungyalado type Zoid led the Redler Zoids. She had also located the wreck at the bottom of the ocean, where many of the Redler who now served him had landed. It was probably an old troop transport. Sunk ages ago.

One problem persisted, however.

They were all female too.

Bloody hell!

Will he never get a mixed-sex shadow troop again?

However. The way to the laboratory was problem-free. Only a handful of Necromorphs stood in their way and they were little more than a nuisance to them.

Then they entered the laboratory, which was in surprisingly good condition. Only to run into a new problem.

"Rosetta" was incomplete.

It (or whatever it was) was frozen in ice, like almost everything on that chunk of ice, and that chunk of ice had been cut into several thick slices. And several of these panes were missing in the assembly system.

"And what's next?" asked Isaac.

In the meantime Scathach had gone into the raised control room and looked at a few pieces of paper. "They seem to have distributed the other parts among the different laboratories."

"Then let's get them." Said Ellie.

Only that each of the parts weighed around 150kg.

"And how do we get them here?" asked Isaac.

"There's a transport system that brings the parts straight to the assembly line. Hmm ... If I'm reading this correctly, one of the parts is here in this very room."

"Correct. I'm right in front of it." Said Anoth who was standing in front of a kind of oversized refrigerator.

"Good. Just put it in that elevator. The rest will be automatic." With these words a device drove from the ceiling in which Anoth placed the part with the help of telekinesis. Seconds later it was sucked away and a gripper arm grabbed the part that had arrived from the receiving shaft and randomly stuck it somewhere in the assembly facility. It was clear that the assembly would have to be done manually once you had all the parts.

"How many laboratories are there?" Asked Isaac.

"A biological laboratory (which we are in right now.) A geology laboratory and also a palaeontology laboratory."

"Then let's split up."

"Ellie and I will take over the palaeontology laboratory." Said Isaac.

"Good. Then I'll take the geological laboratory." Said Anoth.

"And I'll prepare everything else here." Said Scathach.

"Let's go." Said Anoth and with that they set off.

.

About an hour later

.

It wasn't really difficult to find the missing parts. Only Ellie and Isaac had minor problems, mainly because they had to turn on the disinfection system so they could open the doors that had been overgrown by necromorph tissue. The Necros themselves were hardly a problem, because the weapons that Anoth had given them on the Sprawl could wipe out the Necros with one shot. That made fighting these creatures a lot easier. They also got a much better RIG. This made both a much harder nut to crack.

They didn't really need it on the ships in orbit. After all, there weren't any necromorphs left there. Anoth had already destroyed them all beforehand. But things looked a little different here on the planet. Here the necromorphs were still active. Or in the progress of becoming active again. Anoth wasn't sure.

And so they all found themselves back in the same room and began to put the parts in the right order.

What was previously an indefinable collection of slices of meat became a figure that Anoth recognized.

"A Kandarian." Said Anoth when he recognized the species.

"Do you recognize her?" asked Scathach.

"It. Kandarians have no really determinable gender. Their species also existed in my dimension. But they died out more than 30 million years ago. Nevertheless, their language is still very well known to me.

"They had a written script, but communicated with other peoples via sound signals that they produced through the six openings in their skulls. They were also telepathically gifted. That must have made them very receptive to the signal of the marker. Only the most powerful telepaths from there species would have been able to block the signal. Like Scathach and I are doing at the moment. "

"Can you still read it?" asked Isaac.

"If the writing is something like the one in my dimension, then yes." Said Anoth. "Ready for the experiment?"

"Yes." Said Scathach. "Watch out, that can be a bit ... strange now."

Anoth nodded followed by Isaac and finally followed by Ellie.

With that, Isaac threw the lever.

What followed was probably the most intense telepathic trip Anoth had ever done. Seconds later he found himself kneeling on the floor. And not just him. The other three too.

"That was ... intense." said Anoth.

"You can say that." Said Ellie.

"You were right. The moon is convergence." Said Isaac. "And the key to their destruction."

"The last few minutes of this species. I saw them start the machine. And I learned how to operate the machine." Anoth said, still a little dazed. "And more importantly, I also know how to get there."

"And how?"

"I scanned the planet, forgot? There's a large freight elevator nearby. It practically takes us straight to the machine."

"Good." Isaac said and took the codex out of the machine and tossed it over to Anoth. "Let's end this spook."

With that they ran out and followed Anoth until they reached a relatively clear area where Anoth signalled them to stop. Seconds later there were several heavy explosions in the area which destroyed several necromorphs. Then a larger necromorph stormed the area.

The so-called snow monster.

A large four-legged necromorph. Seconds later, it found itself in a situation that the Necromorph didn't like. Four Phoenix Liger Zoids stormed the area and grabbed one of the legs each. Then they started pulling. With a very ugly noise, the creature was torn apart in the middle and cut into four parts.

"Filthy thing!" cursed one of the ligers.

"Yes. And damn tough." Another meant.

"Our guns didn't work. But you with your crazy ass plan did the trick." Said the third.

"How long have we been chasing that thing now?"

"A good hour?"

"Well done girls." Anoth spoke up. "Be ready, if we deactivate the machine we have to get out of there quickly."

"Teleporter?" asked one of the ligers.

"Doesn't work as soon as the machine has been set to thaw everything; it emits radiation that interferes with the transporter." That was Anoth's answer.

"So the old-fashioned way it is then."

"Exactly."

"We will be there." Said one of the ligers. "Just open the gates for us."

"The Redler should withdraw. They will not be able to help us now, since we will move underground from now on."

"That's okay." With that, the four leagues Phoenix took off again and the group set off again.

"Why the Phoenix?" asked Scathach.

"They have the more powerful engines." That was Anoth's answer. "Engines that hardly mind heavy turbulence."

"Come to think of it, I didn't see any Redler Zoids at all." Meant Ellie.

"Only because you can't see them doesn't mean that the help is not there." Explained Anoth. "They have killed multiple thousand necromorphs that were moving in our direction."

"Oh."

A few minutes later they were on the big freight elevator and on their way down.

There were surprisingly few necromorphs to be seen as they went down the elevator. However, they were already expected by them below. After a short but fierce fight, they entered the interior of the alien facility.

It was in surprisingly good condition. Although parts collapsed here and there. Here and there they had to clean up a few rubble piles, nothing more. Then they came into an enormous free space. Before that, they had to open a door, where the signs for the opening of the door were already inscribed right next to it. So that door was out of the way very quickly.

When they got to the huge underground hall, they could see images or statues of the aliens who had built the machine everywhere. They were all over the walls. They continued down the path until they came to a lift that had clearly been installed by the SCAF. The generator that supplied the lift was only a few meters away and started quickly. Unfortunately, the starting generator attracted more necromorphs to them. And this time, transformed aliens were among them too.

These large, multi-legged creatures were more durable than the other necromorphs. But they too fell after a short fight.

When the elevator platform finally reached the bottom, they got in and drove up with it. Once at the top they saw a strange construction that at first glance looked like some sculpture of modern art. However, that changed when they played the audio message located there. Anoth also found a short text inscribed on the wall that explained it as well.

Apparently these four constructs were used to prepare the configuration of the machine. To do this, they first had to be brought into the correct position.

That was actually relatively simple. The two outer ones each had to move the energy ball, which was at the foot of the tube-like constructs, to the very top. And for the middle ones, they had to be put in the middle position. Then you only had to attach the codex to the now open apparatus and turn it 90 °.

If everything was done correctly, you could hear a loud hoot. The same sound that the aliens were making. It meant the machine was now open. And was ready for reprogramming.

At the same time, several statues were raised so that they exposed a channel through which an anti-gravity beam went, which brought you to the inside of the machine.

"This gives you access to the inside of the machine." Said Anoth.

"Then go on." Said Isaac and with that they drove down the elevator again and immediately afterwards went to the beginning of the anti-gravity beam and all stood on the plate located there.

It took a few seconds but they could feel themselves being lifted upwards only to be practically shot along the beam shortly afterwards.

"That's something." Said Isaac.

"Yes." Said Anoth. "We use a similar system for our mass accelerator weapons. Only they are many times faster."

"An interesting transport system." Said Scathach.

"That is true."

At the end of the road, they were slowed a little too hard and then dumped on the receiving platform.

"That could have been solved better." Said Ellie, who was unlucky enough to have fallen flat on her face.

"Who knows how old this machine is." Said Anoth. "I am surprised that the system is still working."

"All OK?" asked Scathach. The question was answered by all of them with a yes. And so they set off again without a word.

Several alien doors, necromorphs, and a second anti-gravity beam later, they were where the second stage needed to be set. In this case, they had to turn four towers so that they connected to each other with an energy beam.

Once that was all set up properly, they had to reinstate the codex. Now they had to go back to the first activation point to set the last configuration.

It was just a big amount of walking at the moment.

A few minutes later they were back at the first point.

This time the energy ball had to go to the middle for the outer ones and to the top for the one in the middle. Then it was the turn of the codex once again.

Access to the centre of the machine was now open.

As soon as that was done, they took the first gravitational beam again and followed the corridors to a room that they had just crossed before. Here the three statues had now been moved up into the room and gave a view of several objects that were provided with Alien writing. All they had to do was manoeuvre them into the brackets in front of them in the correct order. That was done quickly and immediately a door opened in front of them.

Now all they had to do was climb up the shaft inside the machine.

Then they were finally in front of it.

"What now?" Asked Isaac.

"Now we're going to shut down the machine." Said Anoth. "And then switch to thawing mode."

"And our way out of here?" no sooner had Ellie asked that, the Phoenix Ligers arrived at their position.

"Has just arrived."

"Well then. Switch off the machine and then switch over and then let's get out." Said Scathach.

They did exactly that. As soon as they had used the codex again, the machine began to thaw everything. Within seconds, the moon began to awaken over them and rocks began to fall down around them, which until now had been held in place by the ice, which was now melting at breakneck speed.

"EVERYONE OUT OF HERE!" called Scathach.

Seconds later, all four were divided into four Zoids and on the way out. It was now more than clear that the machine must have been on the surface of the planet a long time ago. Because the whole ceiling that formed the chamber began to collapse and the winds became more and more ruthless. Eventually they made it out of the chamber and left the planet's atmosphere.

Now it was Anoth's turn.

"Keep your distance. Now it's my turn." Said Anoth. With that, Anoth was catapulted out of the cockpit and the Zoid he had been sitting in before he became an energy ball that merged with his main shape. As soon as that happened, his Zoid shape began to change.

Anoth now assumed his full size. And it was absolutely gigantic. Bigger than a planet in fact.

Seraphim grow throughout their lives. Fastest up to an age of 500 years. Then more slowly, until they grow from an age of around 10,000 years with only 1mm per year. And Anoth was over 70 billion years old.

And mind you. That is measured shoulder height.

The end result was that Anoth was now about half as long from the tip of nose to tip of his tail as the diameter of the sun in our solar system. About 660,000 km.

"Somehow I almost feel sorry for the moon now." Scathach meant.

Ellie and Isaac were just speechless as they watched from a safe distance (over 20 light Seconds away) from their Zoids.

Anoth used his full power and form very rarely. In fact, this time he only used it to release enough energy to free this galaxy and the closest dwarf galaxies from the necromorphs.

Anoth took the now almost tiny moon between his claws and held it captive in an energy field. Then everything happened very quickly.

Anoth's whole form began to glow. The glow grew brighter and brighter until Anoth far exceeded the brightness of the sun. The Zoids responded by polarizing the cockpit glass and turning it completely black to block the light. Then, when the light became so strong that it looked as if even this measure would no longer help, the light pulsed once briefly and an absolutely huge wave of energy shot from Anoth in all directions.

An energy wave that was partially out of phase, which allowed it to travel at multi million times the speed of light.

.

Moon colony

"New Horizons"

Sol system

Marker research facility

.

Unitology extremists had stormed the facility and murdered all the guards. Now they were in front of the marker and listening to the words of their priest. Then suddenly the marker began to shine right behind the priest in an unnatural light that grew stronger and stronger.

The unitologists had no idea what that meant until the light emitted a powerful pulse and the marker exploded.

Since most of the energy was directed into the pulse, the explosion was quite small. Nevertheless, each marker exploded with the force of about 500 tons of TNT.

This caused enormous damage and cost many lives.

On Tau-Volantis the explosions could be seen very clearly as thousands of markers began to explode very quickly one after the other.

In the end, it was precisely these explosions that gave Unitology the final fatal blow. Less than 20 years later, Unitology was an almost forgotten religion. Only a few cells remained.

EarthGov, on the other hand, destroyed all documents about the marker research and discontinued them completely. Instead, she turned to researching other energy sources to solve her energy problem. Among them, above all, a mysterious transmission with blueprints for fusion reactors, the performance of which exceeded the reactors that were known to them by more than 3,000 times.

Many of those responsible for marker research were arrested and put in jail or executed in closed negotiations for their actions. Among those executed was the overseer who had been responsible for covering up the incidents on the Ishimura and who had tried to forbid Tiedemann to evacuate the Sprawl.

This spectacle of exploding markers was repeated countless times across the galaxy.

The worst hit, however, had taken the Necromorph moons themselves.

Each and every one of them soaked up the energy like a sponge, only to begin to tremble as the energy gradually ate them away from within. Their death was slow and painful, while they tried to get rid of the energy by passing it on via the marker signal and thus only allowing the impulse to spread further. In the end, the shape of the moons could no longer hold the energy that was constantly flowing into them and every single moon exploded with the force of a small supernova.

In the end, all necromorphs in the galaxy and all adjacent galaxies were wiped out.

As for the moon that sat between Anoth's clutches.

It disintegrated into its atoms immediately after the signal was sent out. It was just too much energy.

.

To Anoth.

.

Anoth resumed his Zoid shape immediately after the impulse was sent out. It was just a lot easier to handle things in a smaller form than in this absolutely huge form.

At one point he was also asked why he wasn't staying so big.

Anoth's answer was: "Do you know how boring it is to just float in space all the time and have nothing, absolutely nothing to do?"

The discussion ended after that.

As soon as the transformation was completed, the three Zoids landed in his landing bay, where Anoth was already waiting for them in his human form. Anoth claimed the shape was holographic, but the machine shape allowed him to do something he couldn't before. He could effectively be in two places at the same time without using his shadows. Granted, these two places were never too far apart, but it was still possible.

It was a few minutes later when they were all sitting together in one of the conference rooms.

"What are you going to do now?" asked Anoth.

Isaac and Ellie already knew their answer. "We'll stay with Scathach. We still have so much to learn."

Anoth's eyes landed on Scathach.

"I accepted them as my students." Was her short answer.

"If that's what you want." Said Anoth. "My job here is done. It is time for me to return to Zi. The necromorphs in this galaxy are wiped out."

After Scathach had performed the initiation ritual with Isaac and Ellie and Anoth had said goodbye to her, they parted ways.

All in all, the annihilation of the Necromorphs took less than a day.

All in all, Isaac summed up the marker explosions in two sentences. Better an end with horror. As a horror without end. The markers are history now. Galaxy wide. Time to start over and time to rebuild.

Time for the Galaxy as a whole to heal.

Scathach could only agree.

The marker explosions caused some destruction and claimed several 10,000 deaths. If they had been released, however, the number would have been infinitely higher.

.

Planet Zi

Two hours later

.

On the way back Anoth had compared the data of the Kombuso parasite again with all the scans he had of the Necromorphs.

There was no longer any doubt. They were created by the marker.

However, they had mutated in some way.

This ensured that they were no longer dependent on the marker signal. This was probably due to the merger with one of the old Zoids from a long time ago.

That was just theory, though.

It was clear that the marker was responsible for the outbreak of the Kombuso parasite.

What happened to the parasites afterwards can only be answered by time itself.

Fortunately, Anoth was now 100% sure that if there was still a marker on the planet, it had now definitely been destroyed. And Zi now sported a new crater somewhere.

However, just to be on the safe side, Anoth had tripled the number of satellites looking for further outbreaks of the Kombuso parasite.

Maybe he was paranoid.

But it is still better to be safe than sorry.

In order to land, Anoth shrank back in shape. From 2,200m shoulder height; 21,000m in length; 49,000m wingspan at 300m shoulder height; 2,840m length; 6,720m wingspan.

The larger version was really only usable in space. But not when he was on a planet.

Anoth eventually landed near a battlefield where the Blitz Team had previously fought.

He had also informed the authorities that he had two refugees on board who were seeking asylum. The representatives would not be arriving at the base for a few hours. Until then, the two decided to stay on board Anoth.

No sooner had he landed, no good news from the Team awaited him.

The Backdraft group had shown itself again, they had attacked the Blitz Team and Leenas Dibison had taken a direct hit as a result and could no longer be saved. The Zoid core was destroyed.

These cowards had used the time when he had just not been there.

As if that wasn't enough, the Zoid Battle Commission made him aware that the Blitz Team was just now in a fight that had been taken over by the Backdraft Group.

"Those bastards." Anoth growled. "Good. So you want to annoy me, huh? Let's see how it tastes when I disturb your own little match."

Anoth immediately took off again and activated his camouflage. He would reach the combat area in a matter of minutes.

Almost six minutes passed before he had reached the battlefield and saw immediately that the Backdraft group had once again created a dome like energy construct over the area. A Whale King hovered over it.

Judging by the identifier and database he had of the other Whale King who abducted Leena, the Whale King was commanded by a certain Stigma Stoller. He was relatively high in the leadership of the Backdraft Group. And someone who seems to be testing new tech for the group more often. Preferably on involuntary test subjects.

Anoth also received a number of signals from the Whale King. Apparently the fight was broadcasted live. Better yet, he could easily determine the identities of those who saw this. They would soon have to answer to the ZBC. Because he immediately forwarded the data to the ZBC.

They were mostly corrupt business people and politicians. Billionaires without a conscience and underworld bosses. If the ZBC didn't flatten them, Anoth would make sure that the said idiots would soon be completely powerless and broke.

He also withdrew a lot of money from the Backdraft Group. This will make it much more difficult to finance their plans.

Time to crash the party.

Anoth grinned.

That should be amusing.

.

On board the Whale King

.

Stoller was in the process of talking to the interested parties and promoting the advantages of the Elephander and making it palatable to wealthy buyers when suddenly the screen in front of him began to show static for a few seconds.

Then the screen cleared up again and Anoth could be seen sitting on the command chair in the middle of his CIC.

"Hello Mister Stoller." Said Anoth. "And scum." The last comment was meant for the smaller pictures of those with whom Stoller had spoken a minute ago who were now on the edge of Anoth's own. However, they were now missing the black blocks over their eyes and there name was openly visible under their pictures. At the same time, columns of numbers ran along under the names. If you looked closely you noticed that these numbers were account numbers together with the corresponding account balances whose value was now falling continuously. Some of the people had apparently also noticed this, because they stared at the numbers in more than surprise. Some also seemed to be shouting around. You just couldn't hear them. Anoth had muted all of them.

"You can shout as much as you want. The... "Donations "will be used for a good cause. In addition, the ZBC and the police already know of your identities and whereabouts and will be with you shortly." Anoth said very calmly and then turned back to Stoller. In the meantime, many of the illegal accounts had already been cleared by Anoth. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to do with the money.

Funnily enough, one of the live broadcasts showed just seconds later how police officers stormed the house and arrested one of the men.

"Back to you. Do you really think that I will stay away from my Team for a long time? Or that an attack on them would go unpunished?" Anoth sounded very calm. But there was clearly a certain underlying anger in his voice.

Stoller was speechless.

At the same time, he knew that he was in deep shit.

But one thing he knew for sure.

He had to get out of here. And as quickly as possible.

This was only compounded when a massive mechanical tooth buried its way through the ceiling of the room where he was staying and it suddenly became clear to him that his Whale King was in the middle of Anoth's mouth. So he rushed to his private elevator, which brought him directly to the hangar. As soon as he arrived he dived over the bridge and into his Zoid. A hurricane hawk. A falcon shaped Zoid. As soon as he got inside he took off and flew away. When he looked around again, he saw how his Whale King was held in the Guardian's huge mouth. He also saw more of the Guardians Zoids take off. He didn't want to be caught by them. So he accelerated to supersonic speeds and was gone.

Why did they think the Guardian was gone?

Or he had just come back.

Whatever the case. The Backdraft Group didn't have much to oppose the Guardian.

.

Back to Anoth

.

The Whale King was incapacitated. The drive had been destroyed by precise shots. And the crew had surrendered seconds later. They realized that they had no chance.

As for Sanders, the pilot of the Elephander, he was still trying to escape when the Backdraft group's shield generators failed. However, he quickly found that the Elephander's jamming system was good enough to interfere with the sensors of the ZBC satellites, but was completely useless against the Guardian.

A hit with one of Anoth's heavy duty plasma cannons completely paralyzed the Elephander. Minutes later, Sanders found himself aboard a Police Whale King. As did the rest of the enemy Whale King's crew.

.

A few days later

.

Anoth had decided what to do with all the money he had stolen. Some of them went to the Blitz Team. Enough to pay off all of the Team's debts and buy a new Zoid for Leena. And to pay off a few other little things.

The lion's share, over 97% of the money, went to non-profit organizations. They were very happy about a financial injection, which averaged in the lower six-digit range.

At the moment they were in Romeo City at a Zoid dealer.

Leena's new Zoid, a specially adapted Gunsniper, was already assembled and waiting for its new owner.

They were just about to complete the purchase when they received a pleasant surprise.

Naomi and Brad were also in the shop.

And Naomi was not really impressed by the very top-heavy armament of the Zoid that Leena had chosen.

And so it came to a minor argument between the two, which Anoth completely ignored.

Minutes later they were in the sales room to complete the contract when something happened that they hadn't expected.

Two sinker Zoids sped by at tremendous speed. The shock wave that followed them shattered the shop windows. It was only thanks to Anoth's hastily erected shield that no one in the room was injured.

"Those were two sinkers." Anoth growled.

"The Sand Stingray Gang." Explained the owner of the shop. "They've been making the area unsafe for a long time."

"Lousy cockroaches." Naomi meant.

"Agreed." Anoth growled. "Time to trample them." With these words one of Anoth's Destroyer Wolf came to a halt in front of the shop window. This already enormous Zoid was accompanied by four Helcats and two Murasame ligers.

Seconds later, Anoth was sitting in the cockpit of his Destroyer Wolf. "Let's get some cockroaches down." A group of seven Zoids were set in motion. In the conflict a good 1,000 years ago, when they fought against Hiltz, they took on several hundred Sinker Zoids at the same time. Two, weren't even enough for a warm up.

Naomi meanwhile had also rushed to her Zoid and was already on the street with it. The two sinkers were racing a predefined track so it was easy to predict where they would pass.

And right enough. Seconds later the two Zoids turned exactly into the street where Naomi was already waiting for them.

"Gunsniper. What is he doing in the middle of the street?" one of the pilots of the sinker wondered, only to come to an abrupt stop seconds later when it crashed into the right foreleg of the camouflaged Destroyer Wolf. The other one was stopped by Naomi when she jumped with her Zoid, only to tear open the sinker completely in the flyby with the big claw on the foot of her Zoid.

Seconds later, the weapons of all eight Zoids were pointed at the sinkers. The two pilots had no choice but to give up. The police did the rest.

.

A few days later

.

Anoth was near a major mineral deposit and was reloading raw materials. The reconstruction of the two Royal Ancient Wolf Zoids had exhausted its reserves. Meanwhile, the Blitz Team was on their way to their match date. They were accompanied by some of Anoths Helcats.

He had finally received feedback from the immigration authorities. Gabe and Lexine Weller were now legal residents of Zi. Anoth had even given them enough money to buy a house, which they did immediately. Lexine was pregnant and the two were looking forward to their child together.

Anoth's small excavation operation was interrupted when the ZBC contacted him.

"Guardian?"

"I receive you loud and clear. What is it?"

"The two Sand Stingray members who you stopped and were jailed a few days ago were freed from their gang and the prison completely destroyed in the process."

"Number of victims?"

"Not yet known. But almost all prison guards were murdered during the liberation, and the village, which was near the prison, was completely destroyed. Estimates put 1,000 to 3,000 dead."

"..."

"It was confirmed that it was the Sand Stingray Gang."

"..."

"The Sand Stingray Gang has now been classified by the government as a terrorist organization. You are free to do what you want with them. Killing included."

"Understood." Anoth growled. "They won't be causing any more problems soon."

"Attention. Hundreds of Sinker Zoids from the Sand Stingray Gang have been located near you. Good luck."

The rest of the broadcast contained a sensor card from the ZBC satellites. Anoth didn't like what she was showing. The Sand Stingray Gang chased the Blitz Team's hover cargo. There were almost 500 sinker Zoids in total. A small army worth.

Within minutes, Anoth had collected all of his Zoids and other Units and was on his way. He would have to dig for resources again later because he had only gotten a little less than 50% of what he wanted. So what resources he had gotten had to be enough for now. The Sand Stingray Gang had now priority.

As soon as everyone was on board, Anoth took off.

Just under three minutes later he was in sight of the hover cargo. It was already been shot at by some Sinker Zoids.

Anoth accelerated again and flew a loop and was now coming towards the Hover Cargo with fully activated armour and weapon systems. Immediately afterwards, the sinkers behind the hover cargo began to explode as Anoth's massive firepower was unleashed on the Zoids. The health of the pilots was of no interest to Anoth. Their status as a terrorist group made the lives of the pilots worthless and irrelevant.

No sooner had Anoth locked on the targets, the heavy plasma guns fired. High-energy plasma pulses shot from dozens of guns flew through the air and pierced without any resistance through the armour of the sinkers, destroying them in impressive fireballs. In some cases the cockpit was also hit and the pilot killed. Others were hit by the engine. As a result, the fast-moving sinkers got out of control and fell from the cliff into the depths or crashed uncontrollably into the rock face.

No sooner was this first group wiped out, Anoth released his own Zoids. Helcats shot out of Anoth's launch pads at high speed, and all the other Zoids took off from him too. His Gil Vader, Redler and Phoenix Liger took off from Anoth's activated hard-light runways and even the two newest giants, the two Royal Ancient Wolf Zoids, were sent into the field.

The Royal Ancient Wolf Zoids were enormous Zoids in the shape of a huge wolf with a shoulder height of 135 meters. Equipped with heavy artillery pieces and a variety of other weapons, they opened fire on the rapidly approaching main troops of the Sand Stingray Gang in the distance.

The two Destroyer Wolf Zoids were also outside and fired with their fast-firing CPCs into the middle of the sinker swarm. Each shot destroyed several of them.

Then Anoth himself opened fire with his own CPCs. All ten of them at the same time. At the same time, his MAC guns thundered off.

The sinkers had no chance.

Those that weren't vaporized by the CPCs were blown up by the MAC cannons.

Those who managed to escape were easy prey for Anoth's other Zoids.

The "fight" was over within minutes.

Only a small group of eight sinkers was left. Among them was the leader of the gang.

.

A ravine

Not far away

.

The leader of the Sand Stingray Gang was inside the canyon. Together with a small group of his followers. More precisely his inner circle.

Brads and Naomis Zoids, who were also being targeted by the Gang, were both incapacitated. Brad had been wounded as well. Both were in a nearby cave, where the remains of the Sand Stingray Gang now gathered. Ready to send them to the afterlife.

What they did not expect, however, was that two Murasame Liger suddenly dropped their camouflage in front of the cave entrance to stop them. And that wasn't all.

When they looked up, they found two Gil Vaders who had landed on top of the cliff. When dozens of Helcats around them appeared out of nowhere and a massive shadow fell over the group, they knew that they had lost.

The Guardian had arrived.

Seconds later, all the sinkers opened their cockpits. The pilots got out and lay flat on the ground with their hands over their heads. The era of the Sand Stingray Gang was over.

All of their plans had gone up in smoke.

.

45 minutes later

.

This time it was not the police but the armed forces of the ZBC who came to arrest members of the Sand Stingray Gang who either surrendered or were lucky enough to be alive.

Either life imprisonment or a death sentence awaited them all.

It also meant that they had nothing more to lose. That was also the reason why two tried to run away. They didn't get far, but one of them was about to take a hostage. Now the two only things those two needed were two body bags.

The thanks for that go to two ZBC soldiers who made short work of them when they tried to escape.

.

A few days later

.

A few days had passed since the Sand Stingray Gang attack. The news about what the gang had done to get classified as a terrorist was still on the news. Just like the news that the gang leaders are now waiting for their verdict.

They also reported that of the formerly over 500 members of the gang, only 32 were now still left alive. The rest were killed fighting the Guardian and its forces.

If one could call it a fight, that is.

"These bastards deserved this." Said Leena, who listened to the news on the radio while she tinkered with her new Gunsniper. Whereby Susi watched them curiously.

They had fought a Team from Rev Raptor Zoids a few hours ago. Bit had used the Schneider system for its Liger Zero for the first time in real combat instead of in simulations.

The training had really paid off there. Without training, the system would have been too much for the Liger Zero. But with all of the training the Rev Raptor was easily defeated and the Liger Zero had no problems with the Schneider system.

That the Liger Zero was an Ultimate X really paid off in this fight.

If you looked at the first training attempts, you had to see at the beginning that the Liger Zero had always switched itself off after a short time when Bit was using the system. This was no longer the case because of the amount of training.

There was a reason why Dr. Toros and Anoth sent them through the many training simulations.

Without anything, you get nothing.

"And how did the Schneider system fare?" asked Dr. Toros.

"All systems and values are consistently in the green area." Was Anoth's answer. "I don't want to give a final result yet, as the fight against the Rev Raptor was very short, but so far it seems to work just as it did in the training simulations. Oh, and before I forget to mention, the overhaul of the Panzer System is complete. I was able to reduce the weight from 145 tons to just less than 79 tons. And I may even have a little more leeway. "

"That is 66 tons less. That will definitely be felt." Said Dr. Toros. "And the protective values?"

"I was even able to increase it a bit. The entire structure of the armour plates was completely changed. Lighter materials and a better use of composite materials in a clever arrangement and a few other tricks made it possible."

"Over how much protection are we talking about here?" asked Brad.

"The Liger Zero would be able to withstand the shot that destroyed the Dibison with the Panzer Unit with negligible damage."

"How negligible?"

"Paint damage."

Brad just whistled approvingly. The armour was really not without it.

A few minutes later they heard the news on the radio. Among them was the message that the Tigers Team, the first Team against Bit in the cockpit, continued their series of defeats, which were now 10 lost Zoid fights in a row.

Ouch.

.

The next day.

.

The Blitz Team stopped in a nearby town. Anoth had curled up on the edge of town and "dozed". While Anoth was doing this, some of his resource gatherers were out gathering raw ore. In this case mainly iron ore.

The rest of the Team was out and about in town. Leena took a walk around town while Bit and Brad went to a restaurant.

There they met the members of the Tigers Team, who were also in town because they wanted to fight a Zoid fight there. At first Bit didn't recognize her at all, but then he remembered that it was the Team against which he had fought the first Zoid fight of his career and that he thought that the Team had long since ceased to exist.

During this conversation, Bit suggested that they rename themselves the "Fuzzy Pandas" or "The Monkeys" to end their defeat series.

That earned them a challenge from the Tigers Team. But before that, the Tigers Team had several other Zoid fights to fight.

The fight took place less than half an hour later.

The Tigers Team with their three Zaber Tigers fought a trio of Storm Sworders. At first it looked like they were going to lose. As the Tigers Team could not land a hit against the nimble Storm Sworders. But then the weather came to their aid. Several lightning bolts hit the Storm Sworders, which lost their control. That made them easy targets and so it came about that the Tigers Team won the fight.

Anoth had received some strange values during the fight. Values that he could not assign at the moment. But somehow it looked like weather manipulation.

And in the next few fights, too, the weather seemed to be on their side.

Again these values. Weather manipulation was involved.

If it wasn't, Anoth would eat his own tail.

14 fights.

14 victories.

All because the weather was on their side.

That was too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence.

And so, almost four weeks after the encounter with the Tigers Team, the official confirmation came from the ZBC. The next fight would be against them.

The fight itself will take place in a place where once at a time was a town or village. And if Anoth was not entirely mistaken, that was a town or village that had been destroyed by Hiltz at that time.

That made the area treacherous. Because beneath the apparently solid ground there could still be cavities due to the many buried ruins in this area, which were only supported by ceilings that were in danger of collapsing. And the Zoids were heavy enough to bring them down with their own weight.

A fact that Leena quickly realized when one of the two legs of her Gun Sniper suddenly sagged. She was able to free it again without any problems, but it made it very clear that there were other dangers lurking here than just the opposing Zoid Team.

"Area scanned. Combat field set up. The Blitz Team against the Tigers Team. Battle mode 0983. Ready ..." The judge raised his arms and crossed them in front of him. A gong was heard at the same time. "FIGHT!"

As soon as the gong sounded, the weather changed and Anoth's sensors were receiving some kind of interference. Although he could locate something artificial in the clouds, he couldn't really grasp it. What he saw was nothing more than sensor shadow. Something was wrong here.

Anoth immediately began filtering out the interference. But that could take a while. So at the moment he could only hope that the Team would hold out long enough.

In fact, it took him several minutes before he had filtered out the interference far enough. Meanwhile, Brad and Bit had taken advantage of the natural surroundings of the area. Anoth had given them the structural data of his scan of the area and they had used this data to lure two of the Zaber-Fangs into a highly unstable area, where they broke through the ground that had previously been weakened by their own Zoids, and so they could take them out of the game.

Leena was less fortunate before that. One of the tornadoes caught her Zoid and tore it into the air. Anoth triggered the emergency transport and immediately got Leena and Zoid on board. With that, Leena was eliminated from the fight. If she and her Zoid had crashed back to the ground from several hundred meters, she probably would not have survived or would have been seriously injured. Anoth wasn't ready to take that risk.

Then something happened.

As soon as the first two Zaber-Fang were out of the game, the device that was mounted on the back of the third Zoid went out of control and the tornado increased massively in strength. In addition, the tornado began to show signs that only appeared in a quantum plasma ion storm.

The whole thing was starting to get out of hand.

The judge was the first to feel this power. His capsule was simply torn away by the storm along with the Judge who now had a wild ride in front of him.

He had to stop it now.

Fortunately, they were in the middle of nowhere.

The next settlement was almost 200km away.

Then finally he had a target lock.

"Got you now." Anoth growled. Four phaser strips on his body started to glow only to fire a golden beam seconds later and disintegrate four ball-shaped devices. As soon as these balls were destroyed, the storm began to dissolve. Only a little later and the storm would have created a hurricane of the F6 class.

What the heck had the enemy used to conjure that?

What Anoth didn't know was that Dr. Laon, who was responsible for summoning the storm, let out a sigh of relief. Because he had noticed that he was beginning to lose control of the storm. And that the other weather manipulators hardly responded to his commands. This ensured that he put the whole research project on hold and triggered self-destruction for the other 150 manipulators over which he still had control. The Guardian had destroyed the four over which he no longer had control.

His relief was even greater when a simulation showed him what could have happened if the storm really got completely out of hand. A self-sustaining thunderstorm with planetary dimensions and winds in tornado strength and unprecedented destruction. A so-called Geostorm. He could very well do without that.

Practically at the same time as Anoth shot down the four spherical devices, Bit, with the help of the Liger Zero, equipped with the Schneider armour, broke through the hurricane that protected the last Zaber Tiger and tore the control device from its back.

It took a few seconds until the judge, who was unlucky enough to be sucked up by one of the twisters only to then crash back to the ground with the capsule and leave a crater, crawled out of it and decided the fight in favour of the Blitz Team.

Shortly afterwards, Dr. Laon with his Whale King over to the Hover Cargo and stopped in front of him.

"It's been a while Toros."

"Laon! So you were responsible for the weather."

"Close observation. I promised you at the time that I would take revenge on you. Take this as a polite greeting. We will meet again." With these words, Laon finally flew away.

.

A few days later.

.

Anoth had made himself comfortable outside the Blitz Team's base. Some of his Zoids were on their way to find and examine ancient battlefields.

And indeed had found what they were looking for.

They found two intact cores from the Murasame Liger. That brought their number to six. And also the kernels from a whole pack of Fang Tiger Zoids. Fang Tiger Zoids were not allowed in ZBC fights. For one simple reason: They had an open cockpit.

This didn't bother Anoth as much; he was already planning shield emitters that could protect the cockpit area of these Zoids.

While these cores were now growing in the ripening room, Anoth was planning a little with the Gun Snipers. He had bought two Gun Sniper Zoid cores. Anoth wanted a pure sniper scout Zoid. So he tinkered with the construction of the Gun Sniper.

Better boosters to escape faster if spotted.

A camouflage and cloaking system.

Better main weapon with greater range and accuracy

.

Reduced armour for less weight and more speed.

Better energy production for camouflage, cloak, main weapon and propulsion.

Better sensor package for a better reconnaissance range.

A light Gatling gun and a light plasma gun were installed as secondary weapons.

This Zoid was planned as a ranged combat and scout unit. Not for direct combat against other Zoids in close combat. If discovered, the Zoid should be able to outrun a Lightning Saix with its enormous speed.

Then something caught his attention.

An enormous cloud of dust was approaching the base pretty quickly.

A few minutes later it was clear what was causing this cloud of dust.

An enormous carriage that was pulled by six Dibisons.

A very large completely red carriage that came to a standstill in front of the entrance to the base and in front of two rather puzzled-looking people. Bit and Leena. Bit had chased Leena because he had stolen her giant biscuits. Something she couldn't easily allow.

After what Anoth overheard, she only asked for the way, because immediately afterwards the carriage took a direct course to Harry Champ's base, which was only 50 miles away.

She must have been looking for him.

The next morning the carriage was back. This time with Harry Champ on board.

That what followed afterwards amused Anoth to no end.

Apparently Harry had told his older sister Mary about his chosen Leena. However, she wasn't particularly impressed with his choice. And then Toros tried to impress her, only to be rejected as well. When she asked about Harry's rival and he pointed to Bit, Mary just ran past Bit and straight towards Liger Zero.

And that while Mary was calling. "Oh you will be absolutely perfect. Wonderful, wonderful. This is adorable. Like a giant white snowflake." And so on. Anoth was no longer listening. Needless to say, Mary desperately wanted the Liger Zero. Anoth could only shake his head. The Liger Zero would never accept her as a pilot.

In the end they agreed to a Zoid fight with 10 times the prize money. The Blitz Team couldn't refuse that and so the fight was a done deal.

.

Two days later.

.

Anoth ended up in some wasteland. As soon as he landed, the Hover Cargo rolled out of one of its ramps and took up position in front of Anoth's Zoidform. At the same time, Anoth released his own Zoids. Several Zaber-Fang took up positions around the hover cargo while Anoths Gil Vader and Redler rose into the air and scouted the area.

Anoth expected trouble.

He had only recently eliminated the Sand Stingray Gang and Harry Champ himself had a collision with the Backdraft Group a few days ago in which he lost almost all of his Zoids. Only the Whale King was left to him.

In addition, the Sand Stingray Gang had ties to the Backdraft Group and several other more than shady groups.

The chance of a vengeance attack was pretty high.

His Helcats were also in the field. Now they hardly looked like Zoids anymore. More like mechanical cats. Significantly organ-safe than before. Barely outside, they activated their cloak and spread out.

The two Brastle Tigers were also outside and stood to the right and left of the Hover Cargo together with Anoth's two freshly modified Gun Sniper Zoids.

None of Anoth's Zoids would interfere in the Official Zoid Battle. However, should any idiots show up (*cough *cough*Backdraft*cough*cough*) they would quickly wish they hadn't shown up here.

In the field were Bit with his Liger Zero in the Jaeger configuration and this time again with Susi on board.

Brad with his Command Wolf.

Leena in her Gun Sniper.

And Jamie with his Pteras.

Seconds later, the Zoid Battle League judge crashed into the ground.

"Warning! The area within a 30 mile radius is now a declared Zoid battlefield! The area is now a restricted area! Only challengers and personnel have access! Danger! Everyone else must leave the area immediately!"

"Area scanned. Battlefield set up. The Blitz Team versus the Champ Team. Battle mode 0982. Ready ..." The judge raised his arms and crossed them in front of him. A gong was heard at the same time. "FIGHT!"

It didn't take long for Jaime to submit his report. They faced four Iron Kongs. Ten miles from their current position. One of them was stationary and equipped with a conveyor belt and a rocket launch system. Another of the Iron Kongs would probably stay there to load the conveyor belt with missiles.

And the missiles weren't bad. They were the latest models that were currently available on the free market.

It was only thanks to Anoth's training and the use of decoys that Jamie managed to evade the volley of rockets that had been shot after him. In this fight, however, he would be little more than an observer. The reason: He didn't have a weapon on board that could endanger an Iron Kong. The armour on these Zoids was simply too strong.

Meanwhile, Bit, Brad and Leena were out and about in their Zoids and at the moment at a rather leisurely pace. That changed when their sensors reported that a swarm of surface-to-surface missiles was approaching them.

"Missiles approaching." Reported Bit, who was sitting in his Liger Zero Hunter.

"Then let's put the show on the road." Brad meant.

"If they keep firing at that rate, they'll soon run out of ammunition." Said Leena.

With that, Leena and Brad opened fire on the swarm of missiles while Bit spurred his Liger and rushed ahead. Quite a few of the rockets turned on him immediately and followed Bit, but Bit was now so practiced with the Liger Zero that he literally made lightning quick turns with it like a rabbit. For many of the missiles that was too much. Their guidance system failed due to the rapid course changes or parts of the rocket's guide surfaces broke off, which caused them and so they hit the ground behind Bit and exploded. Some of the missiles even exploded in the middle of the swarm itself, taking more missiles with them.

Bit got rid of the last of the missiles when he made another quick turn in front of a rock wall. The rockets failed to make the tight curve and all hit the rock.

Shortly afterwards, Bit saw a massive missile in the air. Instead of just smacking it in behind him, he just shot it down so that it exploded high in the air without causing damage.

Immediately afterwards he saw more missiles flying towards him. These, however, were unguided. With that, Bit could just step on the gas and let the missiles hit the ground behind him.

Then came the time he had been waiting for. Team Champ ran out of missiles to fire. They still had some but couldn't reload as quickly as they were used up.

With that, the danger posed by the missiles was eliminated for the time being.

But then there were still the four Iron Kong Zoids. And with the Jaeger system, Bit didn't stand a chance. So Bit immediately set course for the Hover Cargo to change the armour.

Bit decided on the Schneider system.

The Schneider system blades should handle an Iron Kong.

KRABOOOM!

The Liger skidded to a stop.

"What was that?!" Bit wondered.

KRABOOOM!

Bit's gaze flew up to Anoth. Two of its massive artillery guns fired into the distance. He saw several of the main guns swing in, then a complete broadside fired into the distance.

"Go on with your battle." Anoth's voice came over the radio. "It's just a small group of raiders. We'll take care of them."

Said raider group consisted of a Gojulas, who was probably also the leader of the group, and 40 Guysak, of which 24 had already been destroyed by the broadside. And when the 17 remaining pilots saw what was facing them. It was not just Anoth's huge Zoid form itself, they stopped their Zoids and surrendered.

Because against Anoth and two Brastle Tigers with loaded main weapons, two Gun Snipers whose main cannons were aimed at them, six Zaber-Fang and 24 Helcats who deactivated their cloaking system and now also aimed at them, as well as two Gil Vaders who were now circling over them , they had no chance at all.

They had thought that they would only be dealing with the Blitz Team, not a small army.

That was probably simply because they did not follow the events in the ZBC championships and therefore did not know who else was on the Team.

Well. Personal bad luck.

The police would do the rest.

Well ... That was true for the 17 survivors. The others just needed a hole in the ground.

Bit meanwhile had switched to the Schneider system and seconds later the Iron Kong, which happened to be the one piloted by Harry Champ and kept busy by Brad and Leena, was incapacitated by using the blades from the Schneider system to knock out a critical part of the Controls of the Iron Kong. The other three Iron Kong Zoids were eliminated because they made the mistake of putting all the missiles and ammunition in one big pile. Exactly this one big pile was blown up by Leena and Brad together with the enemy Zoids.

The result:

Three badly singed and incapacitated Iron Kong.

"Fight over! Fight over! The winner is ... the Blitz Team!" announced the judge shortly afterwards.

.

Few minutes later

.

Mary Champ, who was not at all enthusiastic about the Zoid fights at the beginning, had changed her mind significantly after her first fight. She allowed her younger brother to continue his Zoid fights and she promised to send him money to replace the lost Zoids he had lost in a fight against the Backdraft Group.

If you lost a fight against the Backdraft Group, they would take ALL the Zoids from whoever lost. And that was exactly what happened to Harry Champ.

But Anoth also had good news on that point.

Through his contacts he had been able to locate a warehouse in which quite a few Zoids had recently been stored. Among them were a noticeably modified Darkhorn, Stealth Viper and Heldigunner.

And this very storage facility was being scouted out at the moment by several of Anoths Helcats in their house cat form.

In fact one of them had sneaked into the warehouse in their house cat form and was checking the serial number and core number of one of the Command Wolf's. She sent the alphanumeric code directly to the ZBM and the answer came promptly. The Zoid was registered to the Champ Team.

She repeated this on multiple other Zoids.

It wasn't just Zoids from the Champ Team here but also from several other Teams.

The attack on the warehouse was thus a done deal.

These Zoids will be returned to their rightful owners.

With that, Anoth's next stop was also clear.

Several hundred stolen Zoids were stored there and Anoth was their taxi to the nearest ZBC HQ.

The Zoids could then be picked up there.

.

One day later.

.

Anoth landed under full cloak not far from the warehouse, which had been under surveillance around the clock since its discovery.

All the Zoids were still there.

However, there was also a small group of mercenaries on site.

They had probably been hired as security by the Backdraft group.

Anoth had also sent a copy of his newer Infiltrator Zoids to the compound in advance. Susi's copy was in the shape of a panther. It was almost 4 m long and 1.7 m high. Hence the Zoid name: Ghost Panther. Anoth now owned 12 of them. She had hacked into the server and retrieved the data. Anoth hoped to find traces that could lead him to further warehouses.

Nothing.

The warehouse had been leased under a front company. Nothing found in the data could be traced back to other hits. Even the names of the owners and account holders etc. were faked.

The Backdraft Group knew how to cover up their tracks.

The mercenaries didn't know anything about other warehouses either. Each warehouse was apparently guarded by a different group of mercenaries who were not in contact with each other.

In fact: The mercenaries didn't even know that they were working for the Backdraft Group or that the Zoids they were guarding were stolen.

This made the job a lot easier. This way the police could get in touch with the mercenaries and explain what they were actually guarding.

The leader of the local mercenary group, it turned out, was a certain Edmund van Gaal and he hated the Backdraft group. As he learned that his group was guarding a warehouse belonging to this group and that this was backed up with evidence, he ordered his men to leave the premises immediately. And immediately terminated the contract with them.

They didn't work for the Backdraft Group. And that was final.

With that, Anoth's group had taken over the warehouse without a fight.

A nice change.

In cooperation with the police and some representatives of the ZBC, every single Zoid was scanned and then stowed in one of Anoth's storage rooms.

There were a total of 783 Zoids from 51 different Teams.

That wasn't a small find.

It took several hours to scan all the Zoids and store them away. As soon as it was finished, took Anoth off and flew to the ZBC HQ, more than 300km away, where he would store the Zoids in a ZBC warehouse as planned. Until the respective owners came and picked them up or had them picked up.

.

With the Blitz Team

.

The Blitz Team had the next appointment for a fight shortly after the fight against the Champ Team. A Team made up of three Dark Horns. These turned out to be easier than expected for the Team, which is now very well coordinated.

And so they found themselves after another victory in the common room of the hover cargo. Anoth wasn't present at the moment, but some of his Zoids accompanied the hover cargo wherever it went. Just in case.

The Team was watching the news on television.

A live broadcast from the ZBC HQ of this sector. And right now Anoth's massive form could be seen approaching a landing site that was actually intended for Whale Kings. These had been parked elsewhere especially for Anoth's landing.

"And there it is that we have all been waiting for." The reporter spoke into his microphone. Anoth's colossal Zoid figure could be seen on the screen. With a shoulder height of 300 meters, a length of 2,840 meters and a wingspan of 6,720 meters, it was so large that the television station's camera was unable to fully show the dragon-shaped giant.

You could be clearly see the mighty engines that made Anoth's 900,000 ton form hover over the site at the moment, as well as the wide-open wings on which the other engines did their job. The closer Anoth got to the ground, the stronger the winds down on the ground became. A fact that was clearly visible in the broadcast images when a broadcast vehicle that was parked too close was blown away like a toy.

The driver had been warned beforehand to move his car somewhere else. However, he didn't want to listen.

It was the fault of the driver in the end.

900,000 tons of Zoid against a 3.2 ton transporter.

The Zoid wins.

Period.

The reporters also had visible problems staying on their feet. Apparently the cameraman was hardly better off considering how much the image was shaking at the moment.

When Anoth was only three feet from the ground, he switched off the engines and fell the last bit to the ground. The impact was absorbed by Anoth's legs, but it still shook the ground.

As soon as he had landed, an equally huge ramp opened on the side of the huge Zoid. This enormous ramp gave a view of a huge multi-storey hangar in which all 783 rescued Zoids stood.

Hundreds of photos and footage were taken of the inside of the hangar as ZBC employees began unloading the many hundreds of Zoids.

Among those who followed the action was a senior member of the Backdraft Group. Of course, he was anything but thrilled that the Zoids were returned to their rightful owners.

And so he started making plans.

He could do next to nothing against the Guardian itself. At least nothing with conventional methods.

But against the Blitz Team very much.

It was time to contact the Fuma Team.

And maybe there was the weapon they found in an old long-forgotten facility. The Backdraft Group only had one of them. But the weapon could still come in handy. It was designed to harm the Death Saur. It should work with the Guardian as well.

.

A few days later

.

The Blitz Team had a fight appointment with the Wolf Team. A Team that exclusively used Command Wolfs. Only when they got to the place (and finally came out of the sandstorm surrounding them) where the fight should have taken place, they only found the wrecks of the Command Wolfs they were going to fight against.

"What happened here?" asked Bit who was just like the rest of the Team in the CIC of Anoth.

"No idea." That was Anoth's answer. "Begin scanning."

The four Command Wolf Zoids were destroyed. Their Zoid cores, however, were undamaged. Further scans showed no trace of the opposing Team but very unusual seismic activities.

Something was in the ground.

"WHAT THE-?!" exclaimed Anoth when he noticed how the ground suddenly gave way. He didn't have time to react when the ground finally broke away from under him and he broke several dozen meters deep into an underground cave. Immediately afterwards, an experimental bomb exploded which temporarily switched off many of Anoth's weapon systems. At least that's what he thought at the beginning, because the bomb also switched off most maintenance systems, sensors (internal and external) and damage detection systems.

Now Anoth was in the same situation as the Ultrasaurus was back then.

Only Anoth was deeper in the shit.

"Damn." Anoth cursed as the Blitz Team got back on their feet.

"What was that?" asked Leena who had a lump on her head.

"A trap." Anoth growled. "Just before the explosion, I saw several dozen contacts approaching us quickly." I can't transform. Not with all the Zoids from the Blitz Team on board. "All my weapon systems and shields have failed. I'm defenceless."

"There must be something we can do." Said bit.

"Trying to redirect the energy." Anoth's voice could be heard. "Done. The upper secondary ramps are functional again. No idea how long this will last. Come on, out with you!"

The Blitz Team did not need any further request. They rushed to their Zoids, who they noticed were also a little nervous. Fortunately, only Anoth's systems had been affected by the disruptor bomb. The other Zoids were fully functional. This was probably also due to the fact that the cargo hold and with it the hangars had a certain degree of shielding for exactly such a case.

No sooner were Bit with his Liger Zero, Leena with her Gun Sniper, Brad with his Command Wolf, as well as Jamie with his Pteras Bomber outside, a Judge capsule hit the ground not far away.

It was a Backdraft group judge.

How could it be otherwise?

Anoth ignored the judge's babble. Basically, they always said the same thing. The Zoid fight had been taken over by the Backdraft Group and that there were no rules in this fight. It doesn't matter whether he named a Battlemode (mostly none or 0999) or none at all.

Instead, Anoth was busy rebooting his systems after the bomb revealed another flaw in his current mechanical form. A weak point that he still had to fix. Anoth hadn't expected them to have such a weapon. Thought wrong.

As it turned out, Bit and Co. had only minor problems with their opponents. This was probably also due to the fact that they had already trained a very similar situation several times.

That was probably something the Warshark pilots hadn't expected when they attacked and moved through the ground in the process.

Bit took advantage of the weight advantage of his own Zoid. The Liger Zero weighed about 85 tons. The Warshark only a little over 32 tons. He waited for the enemy Warshark to jump out of the sand, then jumped to the side and grabbed the passing Warshark by its hind fin. Here the training with the Panzer System came again, because that had led to the fact that the Liger Zero had gained a lot of strength and thus hurled the enemy smaller and lighter Zoid with a very brutal force against the next best wall. With that, the first of the enemy Zoids was out of action.

Meanwhile, Jamie made his rounds across the battlefield. It wasn't long before another Warshark jumped out of the sand to attack Leena. Instead, he got several missiles from Jamie. The second was also out of action.

Meanwhile, Leena was also lucky. Another Warshark jumped at her only to meet the armoured tail of her heavily modified Gun Sniper. The third was out of the game.

Brad just stood there and waited. The enemy Zoid was coming right at him. Just as the Warshark came out of the sand, Brad fired and hit one of the Zoid's weak spots. The now incapacitated Zoid came to a standstill at the feet of his Command Wolf.

Within four minutes, the four attacking Warshark Zoids were incapacitated.

"That was too easy." Meant bit.

"Yes." Leena agreed.

"I do not like this." Said Brad.

"Neither does me." Said Jaime who had landed his Pteras in the meantime.

Meanwhile, Anoth had managed to open another hangar door and had now sent several of his own Zoids into the field.

That was called two of them.

Then the gate systems failed again. A short circuit caused the gates to slam back down again with force. After that, the gates didn't react at all. The ramps that the Blitz Team had used failed shortly after they were outside. Blown power lines and fuses.

When the judge of the Backdraft Group started to complain, he was quickly convinced that it was better for him to remain silent with a shot from the plasma cannon from one of the two Zaber-Fang Zoids that had been let out and melted the lower part of the capsule. The second was aimed at the judge himself. The threat was more than obvious.

Anoth had meanwhile managed to get some of his communication systems going again and began to send out an emergency call. He had given the ZBC a helping hand so often now he needed their help. However, he found that the range was very limited at the moment.

This damn bomb had done more damage than he had expected, as he now learned from the cameras of the two Zaber-Fang.

His right foreleg had been practically disintegrated by the bomb. Parts of the armour had melted. As a result, his left front leg had become immobile. The engines on the right were destroyed. The melted armour also prevented him from unfolding his wings. Almost all of the guns on the right side were destroyed. The hard light runways could not be activated, not at all on the right side and the hard light construct flickered so strongly on the left that it was unusable.

In addition, the two omega particle reactors had failed and only two of the six fusion reactors were still functional at the moment. Fortunately, however, the emergency protocol had worked and the omega particles had been moved into a pocket dimension at the time of the failure. Otherwise this could have turned out much worse.

Anoth already had a clue where the bomb came from. Back then, the Death Saurer had driven the Zoidians on the verge of extinction. As a result, many projects were started to put an end to the destructive activities of this particular Zoid. However, not all of these projects were known to the old Zoidian government. Or from the government at all. This bomb almost certainly came from this very time and was from one of these unknown civil or paramilitary projects.

Now he was really deep in the shit.

And to top off the situation, fires broke out in several places on board, which his shadows had difficulty to control, which was also due to the fact that the fire extinguishing system had largely failed and many areas that were burning were difficult to enter.

Its nature as a fire elemental only helped it to a limited extent in its mechanical form.

Anoth had just managed to bring his external sensors back online when they reported that three Whale King were approaching quickly. And they didn't belong to the ZBC or any known Zoid Team.

At the same time, however, he also received a message that his transmitter for long-distance communication was online again.

Anoth immediately made use of them and contacted one of the ZBC weapon satellites and gave them the coordinates of the Backdraft Whale Kings as targets. Most of his weapons were currently inoperable, but his target acquisition systems were still working well enough.

A little later he got the target confirmation back and the satellite fired.

Seconds later, the three Whale King crashed down to the ground.

"You forgot the ZBC and its weapon satellites, you idiots." Laughed Anoth.

.

One week later

.

Anoth was still in the same place.

900,000 tons plus freight were not that easy to move.

However, his repair systems had already done a very good job. It was almost completely repaired. They also found out what had happened to the missing pilots from the Team that they should have been fighting against here.

They were dead.

Murdered by the Backdraft Group.

Their bodies lay in a cave not far from where Anoth was currently still half in the ground.

They also knew who was responsible for it.

One of the Warshark pilots had made a confession shortly after his arrest and was now facing life imprisonment for multiple murders.

While Anoth was stuck and condemned to do nothing while his own repair systems took over, Anoth concentrated on the dig site he had found some time ago and confirmed the presence of Gul Tiger Zoids.

And they found more.

Much more.

It wasn't just a battlefield.

It was an entire military base.

And there were several Zoids stationed at this base, which they dismissed as rumours. They were Gojula's type of Zoids, modified so heavily that they were now only known as Dreadnoughts.

The Zoids themselves were just a pile of stones. But their cores were surprisingly still intact. They had probably gone in a kind of winter rigor because normally when a Zoid turns to stone it is dead. It can then only be resurrected with the help of an organoid. Provided that the core is still intact.

The core was the only really living part of the Zoid. Everything else like weapons, armour and so on was very easy to replace. You could look at them like the clothes everyone wears at home and changes at will.

Since Anoth did not need the two organoids for the upcoming repairs at the moment, Anoth sent the two to the excavation site where they arrived a few hours later.

A few minutes later the two dreadnoughts were back on their feet. However, their weapon systems could no longer be saved. But that was also predictable, because what could be seen on the fossilized version suggested heavy damage from enemy fire.

Whatever had happened here back then had completely wiped out the base and all of the Zoids in it.

.

To Kee

One of the active Zoids there

.

Kee was one of the Zaber-Fangs who helped Anoth as a Shadow. She had found an old administration building and was just looking around it. This was only possible because she had currently assumed her human form. As a Zoid, she would never fit in the building.

She had just got a few feet into the building when the ground gave way beneath her.

She instinctively grabbed one of the steel cables hanging from the ceiling and was able to stop her fall.

When she looked down she could hardly believe what she saw.

A huge room. At least 300 by 300 meters and deep enough that she couldn't see the ground.

"What is this?" she asked aloud.

She must have heard something because no sooner had she finished speaking, one after the other lights began to flicker and bathed the enormous underground room in a dim light.

"Anoth!" she called into her radio equipment. "Do you see that?"

.

Anoth

.

Anoth's eyes widened enormously when he saw the pictures.

"That's impossible." He muttered. "The Forge. So it actually still exists."

"What is this Forge?" asked Kee.

"Have you never wondered where the Death Saurer was built back then?"

Kee, who was still hanging on the steel cable but had meanwhile, manoeuvred herself in a position where she was securely attached to the rope, blinked. Then she saw it. All the assembly systems that had long since collapsed, they all had a certain shape and wasn't that down there the air inlet for the CPC of the Death Saurer, which was half-buried under the rubble down there?

"You mean it was constructed here?" asked Kee. "I thought it was built in the 'Rare Hertz Valley'."

"No. It was only activated there. It was built somewhere else." That was Anoth's answer. "That what you found there. Is the place I only know as "The Forge". It is the place where the Death Saurer and all its weapons, systems and so on were built. And by that I don't mean the smaller copies but the original that I destroyed at the Rare Hertz Valley. The same Zoid that brought the Zoidians to the brink of extinction. I didn't expect that the place still existed at all."

"Do you think it is still functional?"

"No." Replied Anoth. "Judging by my databases, all production facilities were destroyed or dismantled after the Death Saurer was put out of action to prevent anyone from ever building a new one. Still a very nice find."

"The archaeologists will certainly be happy."

"Without question."

.

A few weeks later.

.

In the rematch against Cisco, who had now joined forces with the Lightning Team, the Blitz Team lost a match for the first time since Bit joined them.

Anoth could only follow this fight via the live broadcast of the ZBC and he had to admit that the Lightning Team was well coordinated.

Oh well.

You can't always leave the field as a winner.

Sometimes you have to be able to cope with a defeat.

This was already foreseeable in the trials that had priority over the actual match.

These were less combat oriented and more about speed and precision.

Even if the Team is in the top 10. With Leena in 10th place and Brad in seventh place.

Bit made it to number one at the beginning but ended up in sixth place in the end.

Cisco, on the other hand, and the other two pilots of the Lightning Team took first, second and third place.

.

A few weeks later.

.

Anoth's repairs were complete and the two dreadnoughts found were repaired and fully operational.

At the same time, they found a number of other Zoids that were now in Anoth's hangars.

That was the full list:

Number...Type...Size (shoulder height)...Weight

2 ... Royal Ancient Wolf ... 135m ... 8,200t

4 ... Liger Crusher ... 80m ... 6.100t

12 ... Destroyer Wolf ... 27m ... 1,150t

12 ... Drago Overlord ... 25m ... 354t

2 ... Dreadnoughts ... 25m ... 285t

2 ... Gil Vader ... 16.7m ... 333t

2 ... Trinity Liger EV ... 13.4m ... 130t

2 ... Blade-Liger ... 12.2m ... 124t

4 ... Energy Liger ... 12m ... 160t

1 ... Gungyalado ... 11m ... 155t

1 ... Victory Liger ... 10.2m ... 95t

12 ... Liger Phoenix ... 9.4m ... 106t

6 ... Murasame Liger ... 9.2m ... 87t

7 ... Zaber-Fang ... 9.1m ... 78t

2 ... Lightning Saix ... 8.8m ... 65t

6 ... King Wolf ... 8.64m ... 90.5t (4 of them are more organic, the other two are mechanical)

2 ... Liger X ... 8.4m ... 115t

2 ... Brastle Tiger ... 7.7m ... 91t

4 ... Gul Tiger ... 7.4m ... 75t

24 ... Redler ... 6m ... 36t

2 ... Gun Tiger ... 5.5m ... 12.5t ... (through the two antennas) otherwise more like 3.5m

12 ... Fang Tiger ... 5,3m ... 42,2t

136 ... Helcat Zoids ... 5m ... 24t

6 ... Wild Liger ... 4.5m ... 48t

12 ... Ghost Panther ... 1.7m ... 1t

2 ... organoids ... 1.7m ... 1t ... Kilina and Kalina

Transport and Cargo Zoids:

8 ... Gustav ... 9.3m ... 68t

12 ... Mammoth ... 6m ... 250t

2 ... Hover Cargo ... 49.5m ... 2,750t

An impressive list.

The most surprising find on the list besides the two dreadnoughts were the twelve Drago Overlord Zoids. The largest still airworthy combat Zoids. Only twelve were ever built and they were all considered missing or simply a myth.

It turned out that they had been stationed in an underground hangar on the found base. They were also buried in these when the same collapsed due to the heavy fighting and considerable damage from bombing.

Their cores, however, all remained intact. And so it only took Anoth's organoids to reanimate the twelve cores. After that, a stay in Anoth's growth tanks was necessary.

At the moment Anoth had exactly these Zoids, which is to say the two Dreadnoughts and the twelve Drago Overlord, run through some test scenarios while the Blitz Team was busy with a rematch with Harry Champ.

A very one-sided fight that Leena ended with the equivalent of a full broadside.

Shortly afterwards, Anoth's radar spotted a Whale King approaching the scene of the fight and then turning back shortly afterwards.

"What was that supposed to mean?" Anoth asked himself shortly afterwards before shrugging his shoulders. "Must have flown the wrong way."

.

Two days later

.

Anoth was on a conference call with the Zoid Battle Commission. Apparently these insiders had received information about an attempted theft from Liger Zero, but it was cancelled at the last minute.

When he heard this, it didn't take long to add one and one together.

"That was probably the Whale King. They must have flown the other way after they saw that I was fully operational again on the one hand and because of what was going on in the air and on the ground on the other."

"That is exactly what he had indicated to us." Confirmed the chairman of the ZBC.

"So what exactly do you want?"

.

Blitz Team base

Meeting room

.

"All tests of the new Zoid have been completed." Was Anoth's brief report to Dr. Toros who had already informed the others about the report which came from the ZBC.

In short, you should actively make sure you get into fights with the Backdraft Group to find out what they might be up to.

It was also a little lesson for the attempt, even if it had already failed in the beginning, to steal Liger Zero. Bit was not happy about the news, and neither was Susi. The back of the Zero was her favourite place to doze.

That led her to the here and now.

Dr. Toros was standing in the Blitz Team hangar with Bit, Leena, Brad and Jamie.

"As you all know, our target is the Whale King who tried to invade our base. However, this Whale King is accompanied by a whole squadron of Zabat Zoids. That means that it will be a dogfight. With that in mind, I have prepared this here. "

With these words, Dr. Toros on a button and let a ramp down from a container standing there which now revealed what was in the box.

A Raynos.

A brand new Raynos.

"What's this?" Leena asked while Bit managed just a wow.

"A Raynos." Jamie could hardly pull himself together anymore. It was meant for him with one hundred percent certainty.

"And what exactly is that?" asked Bit.

This time it was Brad who answered. "An airworthy Zoid. But one that is very difficult to get. I am surprised that we have one here."

"It wasn't easy to get one. I had to negotiate a lot-" began Dr. Toros.

Anoth, whose projection had just entered the hangar, interrupted him.

"What he means is that I conducted the negotiations."

"Yes ..." said Dr. Toros. "It was Anoth who led the negotiations. But it was still my idea."

"Fine. Just who will be the pilot?" asked Leena. Whereupon everyone looked at Jamie.

"YES!" shouted Jamie happily.

"All systems in the Zoid are checked." Said Anoth. "What do you think Jamie, ready for a little jaunt?"

A little later they all stood outside the hangar and watched as the flying ace performed one trick after the other.

If it had been old Jamie it would have been very embarrassing. But Anoth's training had shown that it was effective.

The "Wild Eagle" spread its wings.

"A question." Sounded the voice of Leena. "How does the ZBC plan to ensure that the Backdraft Group will also be there?"

"Let's say it like this." answered Anoth. "The ZBC put out bait."

.

A few days later

.

Said bait was Harry Champ's Team.

The booth with its three Iron Kongs on the area for a fight with the Backdraft Group.

He didn't have to wait long before the Whale King he was looking for appeared. Less than a minute later, the Backdraft group judge's capsule hit.

The capsule unfolded a short time later and the voice of the Dark Judge could be heard.

"Battlefield set up. The Backdraft Team against the champ Team. Battle mode 0999. Ready-"

The dark judge was interrupted when a second judge capsule struck. This time it was from the ZBC.

"HAHAHAHA." Laughed the ZBC judge.

"What do you think you are doing here? Nobody invited you here!" shouted the dark judge angrily. "Get out of the intruder!"

"No competition! This fight will be considered invalid. You and the champ Team must leave the area immediately!" Ordered the judge of the ZBC.

Harry Champ wasn't thrilled about it. But when he saw the approaching shape of Anoth's Zoid Form, which was accompanied by the two Royal Ancient Wolf Zoids and the two Dreadnoughts, he cleared the field.

"Be ready people. They will attack us too. All anti-aircraft weapons keep ready." Ordered to Anoth what his Zoids confirmed.

A short time later, Anoth let the Hover Cargo out of the hangar, which moved into position directly in front of him and then immediately began to send the Zoids onto the field.

Bit with his Liger Zero in the Schneider variant and Susi on board was the first to be sent to the field. Closely followed by Leena with her Gun Sniper and Brad with his Command Wolf. Jamie with his new Raynos was the last to be sent into the field.

"Area scanned. Battlefield set up. The Backdraft Team against the Blitz Team. Battlemode 0990. Ready ..." The judge raised his arms and crossed them in front of him. A gong was heard at the same time. "FIGHT!"

Battle mode 0990 was very similar to 0999. With the difference that only the most necessary rules applied. These were mainly aimed at protecting the lives of the pilots.

As soon as the judge was finished, Brad and Leena opened fire on the Zabat Zoids started by the Backdraft Group.

Multiple Zabat Zoids were shot out of the sky by them practically instantly.

The gamblers of the Backdraft Group didn't like that at all. The ZBC people, on the other hand, celebrated it.

As expected, the Backdraft Group launched every single one of their Zabat Zoids.

From the pilots of one of the Zabat, a certain Pierce announced that the Zabat Zoids should not approach the large transport Zoids. Their anti-aircraft defences were way too strong.

Two of the Zabat tried anyway and dropped two bombs on Anoth. The bombs were destroyed by the point defence weapons and the two Zabat Zoids were swept from the sky with rockets.

The other Zabat threw bombs on Bit, Leena and Brad who dodged them without any effort. Not a single bomb hit its target.

Jamie, meanwhile, had tracked down a small group of Zabat Zoids below him and attacked them directly. Six of the eight Zabat were destroyed in the first attack run; the other two went in pursuit, only to suddenly have Jamie behind them.

The reason:

Jamie had "stepped on the "brakes" and the two Zabat had shot past him. Seconds later both fell from the sky, dragging a cloud of smoke behind them.

The Whale King then launched even more Zabat Zoids, who managed to avoid the flak fire of Leena and Brat by flying very low above the ground to release small remote-controlled vehicles with explosive cargo.

Leena and Brad felt a little like being transported back to one of Anoth's training sessions where he had them shoot at small, very agile targets until they managed to destroy them quickly.

Both of them made use of this training and of the seven drones released, five were destroyed without any problems. Two more approached the transport Zoids and fell victim to Bit.

"Easy." That was the common comment of the three. Susi mewed approvingly.

Jamie then made short work of wanting to bomb bombers.

Now there was only a single Zabat still in the air.

Pierce's.

However, after a short fight against Jamie, who simply turned out to be the better pilot, Pierce had to give up her Zabat and jump out with a parachute. Throughout all of this, Jamie referred to Pierce as the "Little Lady".

That left only the Whale King who had now started firing at the Zoids of the Blitz Team.

"Fire on the Whale King." Anoth ordered. Moments later, the Whale King broke off his attack due to severe damage and fled. The fact that one of Anoths CPC Cannons had blasted a whole right through it may have something to do with that.

"Fight over! Fight over! The winner is ... the Blitz Team!" announced the judge of the ZBC shortly afterwards.

The Dark Judge was not enthusiastic about it but was forced to agree to the judgment of the ZBC Judge and also announced the Blitz Team as the winner.

.

A few days later

.

The Blitz Team made a stop in a nearby town not far from their base because Leena needed some new energy components. They met Naomi again, who was stopping at the same cafe as she and there they heard about rumours that were going around the place at the moment.

Apparently a certain "chainsaw man" has been up to mischief for some time. Rumours say that this chainsaw man had already cut multiple other Zoids into pieces with a massive chainsaw.

For the most part, Anoth thought it was little more than a horror tale.

However, there have been some strange incidents in this area lately which the police had also documented.

Something was going on here.

Also, after visiting the store, Leena reported how she saw a little girl in a white dress with a hat on and a ball in her hand. The ball rolled towards her and Leena picked it up. But when she looked up again, the girl was gone and she dropped the ball. Shortly afterwards she found a sawed-up Rev Raptor whose chain saw pilot was babbling and talking crazy things.

Anoth decided, after he heard about that, to do some research on his own.

Soon he came across something that all victims had in common.

An odd phone call asking who the best Zoid fighter was. All the pilots had replied that of course they were the best themselves, whereupon they were attacked shortly afterwards.

The police reports also showed that after each of the attacks it was reported that the important and expensive components of the Zoids had disappeared.

To Anoth it sounded more and more like a gang of thieves than anything else.

The reports that the chainsaw man would be everywhere at the same time can also be easily explained by multiple identical and identically painted Zoids.

But how did Leena's sighting of the girl fit into the picture?

He didn't have an explanation for that at the moment.

However, it sounded a lot like a ghost.

Wait a moment….

Hadn't Van Flyheight experienced something similar back then? With a Helcat and a little boy named Nichalo?

He thought he could somehow remember how Van had told him the story back then while they waited for the Ultrasaurus to get its main gun.

Could something similar have happened here?

And if yes...

When?

In Van's time, the boy had already been dead for ten years. This could be something much older.

Only what?

An old temple of sacrifices?

There were ancient archaeological reports from the ancient Zoidians which indicated the presence of an early high culture in the area. At the time of high civilization, the area here was still a lush jungle and was by far not as barren as it is today.

A culture in which there were suspicions that they sacrificed their own kind to their gods.

Evidence for that theory was never found.

However, old wall paintings were found that indicated something like this. Even if these were already very badly weathered and so only showed incomplete images.

Could it be?

A ghost from a long gone and forgotten time?

A spirit that should have left this plane of existence for thousands of years?

There was really only one way to dig deeper.

Anoth had to visit this temple herself.

.

Evening of the same day

.

Anoth approached the place where this temple had once stood. The old Zoidians had already carried out various excavations here in their days. However, that was a long time ago and in the time that had passed in between, the sand and rubble of nearby cliffs had buried the temple under them again. Or rather its ruins.

At first glance, nothing could be seen of the temple itself.

The temple was already in a very bad condition at the time of the first excavations.

Maybe it had disappeared or collapsed.

He could still feel energies emanating from the temple. As weak as they were. After thousands of years of neglect, it was no longer really to be expected that one could still perceive much here. If any.

But here the energies were still there.

And did they seem to be getting stronger?

What was going on here?

Anoth stood in a deep valley like canyon surrounded by bare rock. The temple was buried at the bottom of this valley under meters of sand. And actually this should be abandoned.

"Unusual." Thought Anoth, who had completely changed into his human form, aloud as he crouched on the floor and touched the floor with one hand.

"This place should be deserted and it should have been for thousands of years. And yet ..." Something was off here.

Was there a cult active here again?

Anoth got up and sat on a nearby rock and looked out into space.

"What was that strip of land like back then? Thousands of years in the past. Was there any mining here?"

Anoth got up and walked to a point roughly in the middle of the plane.

"There's only one way to find out." With that, he rammed his fist into the ground. The shock waves he sent out gave him a relatively good picture of the underground. Which he presented shortly afterwards in three-dimensional form as a hologram over his hand.

There were caves in the ground.

Some were of natural origin, but most of them were clearly old mine shafts, some of which had collapsed.

It looked like a certain milk product from Switzerland down there.

Anoth began to rotate the holographic representation to see exactly how the tunnels all went. And also to see if he could teleport down or if it was wiser to climb down there.

After a short while he noticed something.

There was a fairly large chamber in the caves. A chamber that seemed to house something that he couldn't really make out on this scan of the underground.

He needed a more detailed scan.

Anoth made one of his Zoids appear next to him. One of the Koenig Wolf Zoids. Immediately afterwards the Zoid began to scan the underground. The result was a much more detailed scan of the subsurface.

A few minutes later the picture was much more detailed.

It seemed as if there was a kind of altar in the middle of a 60 meter long, 15 meter wide and 20 meter high cave. This altar was slightly raised on a podium. Anoth could see various channels going away from the altar and seeming to gather next to another structure.

In front of the altar were multiple rows of stone benches. They were fairly easy to see.

If he had to describe the structure he would say that someone had put a building from ancient Rome there. That made very little to no sense.

With a flash of light, the Koenig Wolf disappeared again as Anoth stood up and rubbed his eyes. He had to get down there. He had to see with his own eyes what was going on down there.

Anoth's gaze fell on the hologram again as he looked for a point where he might be able to teleport into it without attracting attention. He had clearly located activity and signs of life down there.

After a short search he found a place some distance from the cave. He still had to climb but not as far as he would have when he climbed all the way down to there.

A flash of light later and Anoth found himself in the deepest darkness in the cave. Or almost complete darkness. Some bioluminescent mushrooms illuminated the cave with a very faint blue light.

.

Half an hour later

.

The caves were sometimes more difficult to pass than the hologram would suggest. In many parts Anoth only came crawling forward in some other passages he first had to push a little rubble to the side in order to get through at all. All in all, the journey had taken longer than he had expected.

Now he was climbing around on some steel girders.

Some people were up to mischief under them.

Their uniforms were strange.

No, that was armour.

They spoke in a strange language. A language that Anoth thought he had heard before.

Then it clicked.

Aen Elle.

Those damned elves again.

That's why it was so damn cold in this cave. With icicles on the ceiling.

"The Wild Hunt?" murmured Anoth who could now also classify the armour. "What are they doing here?"

The Wild Hunt tried to invade one of his own planets.

Tried was the key word here.

They landed in the middle of one of the largest military bases on the planet and were completely mowed down. They tried two more times with the same result after which they were never seen again.

The reason for was that they had left the navigator, the one who created the dimensional portal, alive when they last attacked so that he could tell the others about the defeat.

They also made it very clear to the navigator, that the Aen Elle elves were not welcome here.

Apparently they understood that.

Now they were here.

Why?

Anoth moved noiselessly over the steel structure that stabilized the ceiling. He wanted to see what was up there.

Where were the altar and stone benches?

Anoth projected the scan into his HUD, marking his current position.

Judging by the map, he was right over the altar.

Only there was no altar here.

What did I stumble upon here? Anoth began to scan the area more closely. All caves and tunnels were also gone on the scans. Can this be?

The temple was back then known as the "Temple of Space and Time". At least if you could believe the old entries in the archives. Anoth made another scan and found exactly what he expected.

A pocket dimension? He thought. So then I'm unconsciously through a portal. Anoth thought back a bit and remembered that after he had turned into the corridor, shortly before the sanctuary, that the hair on the back of his neck briefly stood up. That must have been the portal.

No wonder he didn't see that on the first scans.

But it also meant that what had been hidden here was probably a lot more advanced than he had expected.

Then he saw her.

Just as he had reached the edge of the girders that ended on the steep face of a huge cave, the girl reappeared and showed him a narrow path along the cave wall that led to the temple itself, which was plunged into complete darkness and which, despite night vision, he could only make out a shadowy building.

Anoth decided to follow the path the girl had shown him.

The path was not straight and sometimes so narrow that he almost had to shimmy along with his back to the rock. But in the end he had reached the temple and, with one jump, landed on one of the outer balconies.

The door was locked but the control panel next to it showed that the temple still had power.

Anoth pressed the button and the Great Door opened with a scraping sound that echoed in the cave.

No sooner had Anoth entered the interior of the temple, the lights went on.

Anoth had left a mini camera at the entrance and could see that the outside lights had also been turned on.

It appeared that another temple had been built over the current one. A much more primitive stone temple. The whole structure looked somehow strange.

Below a shiny bronze coloured building that was technologically advanced and on top, exactly in the middle, in fact, this stone monstrosity.

Anoth went deeper into the temple.

The corridors were made of metal and were barely decorated. That was until he got to the middle part of the temple.

There were very elaborate decorations almost everywhere.

It was in the atrium area of the temple.

He felt an energy signature, very close by. When he followed the signature he came out on... a wall?

When he started to scan the wall he found out that it was a hologram.

"A hologram? Let's see if I ..." he started looking for a way to turn off the hologram and found it seconds later. "There you are." And with that the hologram switched off.

A control console appeared. A security console to be precise.

"Then let's see what we have here." Anoth was a little surprised when he examined the terminal. To Anoth's complete surprise, the text was in a language he knew.

The text was Sirian.

"Sirian. But the architecture here doesn't match. The tech is clearly not Sirian either. Strange." In the end, Anoth shrugged and looked at the records. If the Aen Elle or the "Wild Hunt" as they were also called, this is where they were looking for something.

Judging by the cameras, the hunt was almost at the gates. Anoth closed those doors without further ado. It won't be able to hold them back long. That much was clear. The best door was of no use to you if you could simply bypass it.

The temple had a dimensional interference field, but it was only a matter of time before the navigators of the hunt found a weak point in it. The technology was old and slowly began to show its age.

Anoth turned to internal scans. It wasn't long before he found a sign of life. It was below him and more in the centre of the temple.

And it kept getting weaker.

"Not good." Anoth muttered. "I have to get down there."

Anoth searched for and found the blueprints of the temple after a few minutes. Then he was already on the way. He knew he had very little time, he could already feel the magic of the navigator who was trying to find a way into the interior from the outside and to find a point where he could open a portal.

No sooner had Anoth thought that a portal opened almost exactly in front of him. The emerging figure was immediately catapulted back through the portal by Anoth with a punch before Anoth forced the portal to close.

Another portal opened in front of him again. This time a canine creature came out of that Anoth immediately identified it as a dog like golem. He drew one of his swords when the golem tried to jump at him. Anoth slid under the jumping golem and used his sword to cut it in half before jumping up again and forcibly closing the portal with his own magic.

A third portal opened. Again right in front of his nose and two Aen Elle soldiers stepped out. Before they even had a chance to react, one of them was missing his head and the other flew back through the portal through which the navigator had just passed. He had no chance to avoid his flying colleagues and flew backwards through the portal that he had just opened. Anoth closed the portal immediately afterwards.

He did all of this without stopping even once.

With the Navigator now probably unconscious, no new portals opened. However, Anoth had brought himself at most few minutes.

Anoth ran further down the hallways. Then he was forced to stop. He found a floating platform. There was the sign of life. A young ash blonde woman, obviously wounded, was lying on an altar in the centre of the platform.

Anoth took a few steps back, took a run, and jumped onto the platform. He landed with no problems and then walked over to the apparently unconscious person.

Anoth immediately checked the wound he saw.

It was a deep cut that was bleeding steadily.

Anoth immediately began to heal the wound. But there wasn't too much he could do about the blood loss at the moment.

However, he had to get to the wound and simply tore her clothes. A little later the wound was clearly visible and Anoth was able to put his hand on the wound, which significantly increased the healing speed. Within seconds the wound stopped bleeding and then you could watch it close. However, the wound will definitely leave a scar.

Less than two minutes later the wound was healed.

Just then dozens of portals opened on the platform from which several hundred Aen Elle soldiers stepped out. Soldiers of the Wild Hunt.

Damn! Thought Anoth when he saw them. I can't defend her and fight so many at the same time.

Moments later, a whole group of them attacked Anoth and immediately catapulted them from the platform into the gloomy abyss with a magical push.

No choice.

On the spur of the moment, Anoth grabbed the woman and disappeared in a flash of light to some random dimension. The main thing was to get away from the wild hunt. As soon as he arrived in the dimension, Anoth opened a portal to another dimension and marched through with the woman in his arms.

During the few seconds Anoth spent in the random dimension, Anoth saw some soldiers in power armour. If the Aen Elle followed him here, a very unpleasant surprise awaited them. The second portal he used could not be followed by them and so they were safe for the time being.

Wherever they were right now.

.

.

Random dimension.

.

.

Anoth appeared in the middle of the clouds.

"Yes ..." Anoth sighed as he fell down. "It wasn't planned that way."

A little later he was through the clouds and could see that there was only water below him. He also found out where the woman had gone. She was right below him. Anoth reduced the air resistance by putting his arms to his body and caught up with her within seconds and put his arms around her. Then he powered up his aura and began to slow down. So he came to a standstill a few meters above the surface of the sea.

"So ... where am I?" Anoth wondered as he looked around. There was only water around him. Meanwhile, Anoth held the unconscious woman in his arms.

"Well." Meant Anoth. "Perhaps this is also the most appropriate opportunity to find out what the second form was that awoke with me."

When Anoth had spent the long time on the moon of Zi, he had noticed that not only his Zoid form had been awakened. But also that of a ship. However, this form was not really useful on Zi. After all, he was almost exclusively on land. That's why he had never tested it there.

Anoth closed his eyes. When he opened it again, his whole shape began to glow and then to change.

When the transformation was complete, Anoth retrieved the data of his new form.

.

.

Ship shape

Name: SSSF Anoth

Class: Seraphimian Superdreadnought Naval Battleship Fortress Class

Type: Sea-bound battleship with diving function and hull structure of a trimaran

Dimensions main hull (catamaran):

19.306m long;

2,008m wide;

534m high (superstructure);

680m high (highest point) main nave

Dimensions side hull:

6,436m long;

692m wide;

256m high (superstructure);

331m high (highest point) (both side hulls)

Overall dimensions:

19.306m long;

3.815m wide) twice 150m (connecting piece between the hulls);

534m high (superstructure);

680m high (highest point)

Length of the taxiways: 2x 5,000m and 2x 3,500m crossed aft and 6,500m in V shape.

Width of the taxiways: 2x 180m aft: 4x 100m.

The runways are long and wide enough that a Boeing 747 can land on them.

The aircraft are decelerated by using a braking field.

Crew: 1,251,400;

Fuselage crew: 1 / + 5

Passengers: 2,400,000

Freight capacity: 496,000,000 metric tons

Supplies: 24 months

Weight: metric tons (through molecular-density armour)

Top speed:

130 knots (in ship mode) (240.76 km / h)

200 knots (in hydrofoil mode) (370.4 km / h)

20 light years a second in space operations.

Machine power:

N/A in operation at sea

N/A in space operations. (With these ships, space propulsion is only intended as a form of transit to take the ship to another planet. Primarily, it is a watercraft and not suitable for continuous operation in space.)

Drive type:

Underwater impulse (similar to spaceships designed only for water. In addition, this type of propulsion enables extreme manoeuvres that would otherwise not be possible with a ship of this size.) It is therefore also suitable for space flight.

Hyperspace propulsion for space flight.

Power supply:

Fusion generators 10 pieces and two Omega particle reactors

Draft: between 2 and 6 m (due to draft reducers and stabilizers)

Shields: Hard light shields

Cloaking device: present

Ablative generator armour: Available

Sensor systems:

Surface radar

Radar

Infrared

Ultraviolet

Spaceship class sensors (retrofitting)

Other systems:

Inertia damper

Draft reducer

Stabilizers

Satellite launch system

Simulator system (Creates training scenarios with the help of hard light projections. Can also be used to distract the opponent.)

Full-fledged hospital with up to 20,000 beds. In the event of a disaster, this number can be increased tenfold by sharing parts of the hangar decks.

.

Weapons: (main body)

All projectile weapons can also fire energy weapons.

240 drone launchers Distributed in 8 launching blocks of 30 launchers each.

Gun turrets:

(All Railgun multi-guns that can fire not only normal ammunition of various calibres but also energy weapons)

(Maximum firing speed 1,000 km / s (at this speed you can only fire if you have visual contact))

(Regular muzzle velocity is around 5km / s)

Primary:

25x triple towers (12 front 13 rear) 80cm calibre (75 barrels) Range: 125 km

+ 25x double heat emitters (War of the Worlds tripod weapon) mounted on the main towers. Range 5km.

The triple towers can also fire various energy monkeys. Range of 150,000 km up to three light seconds (around 900,000 km)

Secondary:

44x triple towers (two each on the right and left of the 5 last front and 6 rear main towers) 65cm calibre (132 barrels) Range: 110 km

128x magneto hydrodynamic cannons (Thanix) range up to 50,000 km

Tertiary:

38x quadruple turrets 46cm calibre (19 per side of the superstructure) (152 barrels) Range: 100 km

Quaternary:

54x quadruple towers 38cm calibre (27 per side of the superstructure) (216 barrels) Range: 80km

Quintary:

216x twin towers 20cm calibre (108 per side, distributed over the entire length of the ship) Range: 65km

288 towers each with 42 explosive stake launchers (12,096 launchers)

Sextary:

512x lightweight gun in 256 twin turrets 120mm (similar to the Mark 45 only that there are not one but two barrels per turret) Range: 70km (cadence: 60 rounds per minute)

Septary:

1024x light guns in 512 twin towers / calibre 55mm / range 25km / cadence 250 rounds per minute

.

Artillery guns (long range)

8x single turret (in the middle of the ship on the superstructure) Mavor antimatter artillery / calibre 300 cm / range: 4,000 km (can also be used as an anti-orbit gun)

20x heavy artillery (five in front of and five behind the Mavor in a line) Type: Heavy Duke / calibre 200cm / range: 2500 km (can also be used as an anti-orbit gun)

36 artillery pieces (9 each to the right and left of the Mavor artillery pieces) / antimatter artillery / calibre 100 cm / range: 1200 km (can also be used as an anti-orbit gun)

.

Air defence and close in defence

16x phaser strips (distributed over the entire ship)

124x plasma pulse throwers mostly distributed on the superstructure.

548x high-speed gattling guns. (25mm calibre) all on the superstructure. (Cadence 60,000 rounds per minute)

324x Railgun Gattling guns (125mm calibre (cadence 6,000 rounds per minute)

2,188x 25mm rapid fire gun (air defence and close range) Rate of fire: 2,500 rounds / min.

3,286x 20mm Gattling gun (air defence and close range) Rate of fire: 12,000 rounds / min.

1.652x 35mm CIWS

216x pulse laser - micro-quantum torpedo combination gun (air defence and close range)

(Note: All projectile weapons are capable of firing energy weapons.)

.

Missiles

Anti-ship missiles (distributed in 800 pods of 10 pieces each) 8,000 pieces

Anti-air missiles (distributed in 400 pods of 10 pieces each) 4,000 pieces

Long-range missiles (range up to 12,000 km) (distributed in 120 pods of 4 pieces each) 480 pieces

.

Anti submarine

36x torpedo launcher (against ship and submarine)

12x Hellgiver (Hedgehog-like system) (Equipped with antimatter warheads)

120x underwater plasma pulse weapons (distributed along the hull in twin towers (60 towers in total))

.

Miscellaneous

24x shredder launcher (Battleship Film)

8x mine layers

100x Smart-Charge torpedo defence (distributed along the fuselage)

40x Sonic Blast Generator (can temporarily stun targets with a very strong sound wave)

300x missile defence system of the type? (A Hartlicht Gattling gun)

200x missile defence system of the type? (Point defence phase)

60x micro torpedo launchers for photon and quantum torpedoes

72x sonic cannon (range 500m)

25x Class 20 CPC (Charged Particle Cannon) (125 mega tons of TNT)

12x Class 25 CPC (4 Giga tons TNT) in separate launchers

20x graviton cannon

.

Weapons: (secondary hull)

24 Alteran drone launchers

Gun turrets:

(All Railgun multi-guns that can fire not only normal ammunition but also energy weapons)

(Maximum firing speed 1,000 km / s (at this speed you can only fire if you have visual contact))

(Regular muzzle velocity is around 5km / s)

15x triple towers (7 front 8 rear) 80cm calibre (45 barrels) Range: 125 km

14x triple towers (two each on the right and left of the 3 last front and four rear main towers) 65cm calibre (42 barrels) Range: 110 km

12x quadruple turrets 46cm calibre (12 per side of the superstructure) (48 barrels) Range: 100 km

18x quadruple towers 38cm calibre (18 per side of the superstructure) (72 barrels) Range: 80km

124x lightweight gun in 62 twin turrets 120mm (similar to the Mark 45 only that there are not one but two barrels per turret) Range: 70km (cadence: 60 rounds per minute)

110x 25mm rapid fire gun (air defence and close range) Rate of fire: 2,500 rounds / min.

106x 20mm Gattling guns (air defence and close range) Rate of fire: 12,000 rounds / min.

64x pulse laser - micro-quantum torpedo combination gun (air defence and close range)

.

Artillery guns (long range)

10x heavy artillery (five in front of and five behind the Mavor in a line) Type: Heavy Duke / calibre 200cm / range: 2500 km (can also be used as an anti-orbit gun)

18 artillery pieces (9 each to the right and left of the Mavor artillery pieces) / antimatter artillery / calibre 100 cm / range: 1200 km (can also be used as an anti-orbit gun)

.

Anti-aircraft

8x phaser strips (distributed over the entire ship) one in front; one at the back: six on the superstructure)

124x plasma pulse throwers mostly distributed on the superstructure.

242x high-speed gattling weapons (all on the superstructure (Cadence 60,000 rounds per minute))

120x Railgun Gattling guns (125mm calibre (cadence 6,000 rounds per minute))

1,110x 25mm rapid fire gun (air defence and close range) Cadence: 2,500 rounds / min.

1,106x 20mm Gattling gun (air defence and close range) Cadence: 12,000 rounds / min.

64x pulse laser - micro-quantum torpedo combination gun (air defence and close range)

(Note: All projectile weapons are capable of firing energy weapons.)

.

Missiles

Anti-ship missiles (distributed in 400 pods of 10 pieces each) 4,000 pieces

Anti-air missiles (distributed in 200 pods of 10 pieces each) 2,000 pieces

Long-range missiles (range up to 12,000 km) (distributed in 50 pods of 4 pieces each) 200 pieces

.

Anti submarine

12x torpedo launcher (against ship and submarine)

4x Hellgiver (Hedgehog-like system) (Equipped with antimatter warheads)

20x underwater plasma pulse weapons (distributed along the hull in twin towers (40 guns in total))

.

Miscellaneous

8x shredder launcher (Battleship Film)

2x mine layers

30x Smart-Charge torpedo defence (distributed along the fuselage)

12x Sonic Blast Generator (can temporarily stun targets with a very strong sound wave)

150x missile defence system of the type? (A Hartlicht Gattling gun)

100x missile defence system of the type? (Point defence phase)

30x micro torpedo launchers for photon and quantum torpedoes

40x sonic cannon (range 500m)

15x Class 20 CPC (Charged Particle Cannon) (125 mega tons of TNT)

7x class 25 CPC (4 Giga tons TNT) in separate launching devices

10x graviton cannon

2x shipyard / repair yard (located between the main and secondary hulls under the connectors)

1x submarine hangar in the main hull with space for 10 submarines.

.

Special armament:

8x high energy plasma pulse beam weapon. (City Destroyers, Independence Day) 4 on each side. Mounted in the fuselage behind heavy armour plates that are moved to the side for firing.

.

.

Notable ammunition:

10,200 long-range torpedoes (range 15,000 km)

20,000 photon torpedoes

10,000 quantum torpedoes

2,500 transphasic torpedoes

1,000 tricobalt torpedoes

500,000 micro photon torpedoes

1,500,000 missiles

5,000 gravimetric torpedoes

5,000 polaron torpedoes

1,000 chronoton torpedoes

Etc.

Notable energy weapons:

-Phase cannons

-Phaser cannons

-Positron cannons

-Antiproton cannons

-Tetrion cannons

-Disruptors

-Plasma cannons

-Laser

-Energy whips (can only be fired from the phaser strips)

Etc.

.

Flight deck

Up to 12,000 aircraft of various types. There is space for everything from long-range bombers to fighters.

Plus up to 250 helicopters plus another good 5,000 Sinkipira drones.

Airplanes:

Queries separately

.

Ships:

Queries separately

.

Submarines:

Queries separately

.

.

Relatively similar with the armament he already had as a Zoid. But somehow that was to be expected.

The woman was meanwhile in Anoth's infirmary. In fact, the infirmary wasn't enough to describe that. It was a complete hospital with 20,000 beds.

There she was lying on one of the bio beds in an artificial coma. Because this is the quickest way to regenerate your strength. If Anoth's calculations were correct, she would stay that way for a good month.

Anoth sighed.

He really would like to know her story.

At the moment Anoth was standing at the very front of his ship shape. He had been trying to receive some type of communication for a while.

No result so far.

This didn't have to mean that the world he was in was uninhabited. There were various reasons why there was no communication.

Lack of technology.

Dead zone.

Etc.

Immediately afterwards he inquired about the number of aircraft.

.

.

.

Aircraft :

100x combat helicopters type Hydra

Length: 25m

Width: 15 m

Height: 10 m

Armament:

1x Railgun MG as a turret under the cockpit

Variable missile or gun configuration on six mounts.

.

50x Donkey transport helicopters

Length: 75m

Width: 65 m

Height: 20 m

Transport of up to 200 soldiers at once as well as heavy equipment.

Armament:

1 turret with double gattling guns below the cockpit

2 permanently mounted heavy Gattling guns under the wings

4 plasma pulse weapons

2 phaser strips

2 missile batteries below the stub wings

.

250x interceptor type: Hellflyer (suitable for atmospheres and space)

Length: 45m

Width: 25 m

Height: 10 m

4 rapid fire railgun weapons

Variable missile or gun configuration on four mounts under the wings.

.

Cannon hunters

You have very high firepower with the two forward facing weapons. They only have a small number of automatic turrets against other hunters. They are mainly used against other warships or ground targets.

50x cannon hunter type: Gunlord

Length: 75m

Width: 15 m

Height: 22 m

Armament:

2x MAC cannons (25 kg up to 30,000 km / s)

6x close range defensive weapons against hunters

.

50x cannon hunter type: hammer

Length: 60 m

Width: 18 m

Height: 10 m

Armament:

2x high power plasma MACs

6x close range defensive weapons against hunters

.

Accompanying hunters

This is the type of hunter who stays with the Gunlord and Hammer hunters and protects them from enemy attackers. But you can also do a lot yourself and also work as a fighter-bomber. The smaller version is faster and more agile than the larger one. But also lighter armed.

.

100x escort protection hunter type: Shield

Length: 22m, width: 11m, height: 5m

Armament:

3x Plasma Railgun MG

Variable missile or gun configuration on six mounts.

.

100x escort protection hunter type: Sword

Length: 28m, width: 16m, height: 6m

2x Plasma Railgun MG

Variable missile or gun configuration on four mounts.

.

150x multi-purpose hunter type: Tiger

Length: 42m, width: 34m, height: 9m

8x Plasma Railgun MG

Variable missile or gun configuration on four mounts.

.

100 x VF-19 Excalibur interceptors

Length: 28m, width: 24m, height: 8m

2x Plasma Railgun MG

Variable missile or gun configuration on six mounts.

.

250x VX-23 interceptors

Length: 26m; Width: 20m; Height: 7m14x reconnaissance aircraft

2x Plasma Railgun MG

Variable missile or gun configuration on six mounts.

.

14x scout type: Eagleeye class

Length: 60m; Width: 28m; Height: 12m

Unarmed

.

20x heavy bomber type: Hellfire class

Length: 60m; Width: 45m; Height: 14m

Space for up to 60 bombs of all kinds.

.

500x Sinkipira drones (5m diameter)

The big ships can release thousands of these light fighter drones.

.

250x Gryphon type multi-purpose fighter

Six suspensions for various weapon systems (three each on the left and right under the wings)

.

30x Viper Mark 30

Length: 12m; Width: 5m; Height: 3m

Variable armament.

.

Ships:

500x landing ship

Space for up to 2,000 soldiers and / or a wide variety of vehicles

.

2x Leviathan class battleships

Your bay is in the two hulls on port and starboard.

Length: 535m 80m wide

Weight: approx. 500,000 tons

(Armament is still pending)

.

10x slaughter tug

Lightly armed tugs armed with a single gun and a few heavy machine guns.

.

Unarmed ships

Tugboats

20x deep sea tugs

40x harbour tugs

10x mini tractor

.

His submarine hangar was empty, apart from four unarmed Scout submarines. He had space for up to six SeaQuest class submarines and 44 other submarines up to a length of 800m.

.

.

Anoth was satisfied with the data he got back and immediately started four of the Eagleeye class reconnaissance planes or AWACS in order to significantly increase his reconnaissance range.

He also began arming the two battleships. At the moment they were little more than empty shells.

There were apparently no satellites here.

So Anoth decided to change this fact without further ado. Its heaviest artillery pieces were able to fire satellites into orbit without any problems.

Eight hours later and Anoth had a good 32 satellites in orbit, but they were still heading for their final positions.

Another 24 hours later, all of the saddles had reached their final position and the satellite network was now fully functional.

It was the earth.

He could say that much.

An earth whose sea level had risen considerably.

In addition, there was very little shipping traffic.

"Hmm. Strange." Anoth muttered. "Maybe I just have to ..."

He reconfigured the satellites.

Now the picture looked a little different.

There were warships on the way. And when he zoomed in on some ports such as Yokosuka, a massive wall could be seen that had been built there.

He could also tell where he was now.

In the North Pacific.

Only about 2,000 kilometres from the Japanese coast.

Anoth set course for Yokosuka. If only to satisfy his infinite curiosity.

He drove comfortably at a good 34 knots (a good 63 km / h).

So he didn't get there until late afternoon the next day.

.

Yokosuka

.

There was a bit of a panic there right now.

Their radar had detected an absolutely huge ship approaching them. It was bigger than anything they had ever seen before.

They thought it was a Fog Fleet ship.

The fleet that drove humanity from the oceans.

However, this ship behaved strangely.

It was not approaching Yokosuka but had come to a standstill at a distance of over 40km from the walls.

It seemed to want to watch them.

Then it was gone from the radar. And lookouts also reported that there was a flash of light from the giant ship, after which it was no longer to be seen.

What happened there?

A ship of several kilometres in length couldn't just vanish into thin air.

.

To Anoth

.

But it could.

Anoth had found out that he could reduce his ship to a rigging and was now using this to get closer to the wall.

It was also interesting that everything that was on board was also reduced in size.

Anoth put that under "Sparkly Magical Ship Bullshit".

It was better not to think about certain things but to just accept them.

As he approached the wall, he could see significant damage to the wall. In fact, a piece of the wall was missing. The hole was big enough that a local battleship could easily pass through it.

"This wall is pretty thick." Said Anoth to himself as he stood in the middle of the hole on the surface of the water and examined the damage. "So 20-30 meters. Judging by the weapon signatures, photon cannons are responsible this damage. Photon cannons of the lower middle class energy calibre. Interesting."

Anoth drove further into the harbour and began to scan it. He also found further damage within the port.

"The damage isn't old yet. Maybe two to three hours at the most." Anoth decided to go ashore in an area that looked abandoned. However, shortly before he came ashore, he stopped.

"What the…?"

There was a noticeable human-shaped hole in the sheet metal wall of one of the warehouses.

Anoth went ashore and made his rigging disappear. Then he marched over to the warehouse. The gate was secured with an old rusted chain and padlock. Anoth could hardly hide his grin.

The padlock had to weigh at least ten times as much as the whole chain.

"Wow." Anoth said while shaking his head. "They take a super heavy padlock and a chain that is simply said cheap. Very clever. Just as clever as installing a reinforced door in a thin brick wall."

Anoth grabbed the chain and broke it without trying. Then he pushed the protesting and metallic screeching sliding doors aside. These gates had apparently not been opened in a long time.

Then he slowly entered the warehouse.

Several old rusted shipping containers stood around the warehouse. In some he could see into because their gates were open.

They were all empty.

Then he saw something lying on the floor.

"Hmm?" Anoth picked up whatever it was and examined it more closely. It was surprisingly light and not very big.

A little bigger than a hand.

It looked like a flattened sphere with a number of smaller spheres that had merged with it. There was also an interesting symbol in the middle one of the spheres; the largest one.

"Interesting." Anoth continued to examine the sphere. "It has interesting similarities to a Zoid core."

When he examined the signal from the core, he found another corresponding signal not far away. Judging by the signal pattern, the two had to be very similar. Were they siblings?

It was very close by. Anoth looked around then saw something that was lying on top of the old containers.

Anoth put the core in one of his pockets and jumped up onto the container that had been stacked on top of two other containers.

He hadn't expected what he found there.

A young girl dressed only in underwear. She was probably also the one who created the hole in the wall of the warehouse. The container she was lying on was quite dented. She must have landed here at a fair rate of speed.

She seemed unharmed, however.

Anoth crouched down beside her and put a hand on her chest.

She held the second core that he felt inside her.

She might look human.

But she wasn't.

But her body was very close to that of a human.

However, she was passed out.

Anoth picked her up carefully and then jumped off the container. He had just landed on the ground when a girl entered the hall. Everything that happened afterwards happened very fast and so, before he knew it, Anoth found himself in the girl's room again with the girl he had found on the containers lying in her bed.

Anoth sat on the edge of the bed.

It will be a while before she woke up. Anoth left the core, which probably came from her sister, on the bedside table while he left the room and went to his own room. Right next door.

Makie, their hostess, was still on the road at the moment and won't be back for a few minutes. Meanwhile, Anoth contented himself with scouring the military's secret data channels into which he had hacked for useful information gathering.

So far with little useful yield.

A while later, Anoth found himself in the basement of the property.

He had followed a very powerful source of energy that had led him to an elevator and then here.

The elevator music, however, was a little ... well...of questionable quality.

It was still better than the one elevator in which it was stuck for almost four hours while the only safe speed at which the pile of scrap metal could travel was four centimetres per second while it was covered by annoying propaganda that repeated itself every few minutes.

When the elevator reached the top, it no longer had any speakers.

Why did someone build such an unbearably slow piece of junk and then had to annoy you with something that you have heard at least 100 times before?

Yes, your banana republic is great and your boss is even better, but I don't have to hear that 500 times in a row, thank you.

In this case, luckily, it was just a questionable taste in music.

When he got downstairs, a surprise awaited him that he hadn't expected.

There was a clearly state-of-the-art bed with a bedridden man in it. Some of the monitors around him clearly showed his vital signs. Others showed surveillance videos. And even more displayed various data and images.

"Osakabe Tōjūrō. I heard that you were dead?" Realized Anoth.

"A necessary measure." He explained over the voice of the computer. He himself was unable to move or speak. "We are expecting two more guests."

Anoth's attention was drawn to the monitors when Makie, a girl of about 10, came back. Anoth could watch what was happening through the hidden cameras.

Haruna, or "Haruharu" as Makie called her now, was subjected to "torture" by using her as a dress-up doll and then giving her multiple hairstyles before one of the housemaids picked Makie up for a check-up.

Shortly afterwards, he could see Haruna and Kirishima, who was now using a pink teddy bear as her mental form, leaving Makie's room. Only to be intercepted by one of the housemaids, who invited them to have dinner with them.

He watched them eat when Kirishima made a rather stupid mistake. In the end, however it only ended up with Makie thinking her teddy bear had suddenly come to life.

Sometime later, Kirishima, who was now known as Yotarou, Haruna and Makie were in the bathroom. There were no cameras there but some microphones were hidden and Makie commented enough to understand what was going on there. Judging by Haruna's reaction, it was the first time that she perceived such a backdrop of feelings and touch.

Then it was bedtime. Only when Makie fell asleep, Haruna cautiously crept out of bed. Careful not to wake Makie. Then Haruna and Kirishima sneaked out of the room only to be intercepted by one of the housemaids who then led them to the elevator to the basement where Anoth was waiting for them.

At that very moment, the elevator behind Anoth answered with a Bing Sound. Whereupon Anoth turned to look at them.

"Haruna and Kirishima." Anoth greeted the two who came to a standstill a little surprised.

"You are ..." Kirishima began using a teddy bear as her shape. Which Anoth found quite amusing.

"The one who found you both."

"Huh?" came from Haruna. As usual, she wore her much too large black coat.

"You left a clearly human-shaped hole in the wall of the warehouse which piqued my curiosity."

"Oh." Was Haruna's very eloquent answer. And was she just turning a little red, or was that just what Anoth was imagining?

.

Half an hour and a lengthy explanation by Tōjūrō later.

.

All three stood in the elevator on the way up.

"What a pile of shit." Anoth sighed. "A design child. Created to be as intelligent as possible to build weapons against the Fog Fleet. Of over 100 children, only she survived. And now that she has had contact with two mental models of the Fog Fleet, the government will try to murder her." Anoth was leaning against the wall of the elevator. "If the attackers want to attack then they most likely will ..."

"What is it?" Haruna asked worried.

"They are already on their way here." Anoth continued. "They're sending two companies here. Together with heavy equipment. So-called "stone crabs"." Stone crabs were nothing more than roughly spider-shaped six-legged 'Mechs. Armed with two heavy artillery pieces and various machine guns.

"When are they here?"

"They have just arrived."

"Makie." Haruna breathed. She could hardly hide her worries anymore.

.

15 minutes later

.

Anoth stood in front of Makie's room while Haruna and Kirishima were inside.

Anoth was leaning against the wall and looking out the window.

"What do we do?" Haruna asked over the radio.

Exactly at that moment the power went out in the Complete Villa. Anoth snorted contemptuously. Standard procedure. It was easy to foresee. However, he meant to have seen some sparks flying where the cable ran.

$"Ahri? Was that you?"$ Asked Anoth of said Kitsune who had just returned to the shadow plane.

$"I ... No. I have nothing to do with it." $The vixen sounded way too innocent. $"Let's just call it ... karma."$

Anoth couldn't help but grin. They deserved it.

"This room is known. They will be here very soon." Said Anoth and stepped away from the window and entered Makies room. Despite the almost complete darkness out there, thanks to his night vision, he could clearly see the soldiers scurrying across the area. "You two take care of Makie."

"And you?" asked Haruna.

"I'll get the soldiers' attention." That was Anoth's answer. "They will probably see through this very soon, so be careful."

Haruna just nodded.

With that, Anoth left Makie's room again and strolled leisurely down the hall. The same one he knew most of the soldiers would come from. Haruna will defeat those who came from the other direction. Anoth had no doubt about that.

As long as no one took off her coat that is.

Anoth might have to talk to her about that again.

It was not very wise to pack a large part of your strength in a piece of clothing that could be taken from you at any time.

It wasn't long before the first soldiers entered the dark corridor. Anoth had previously dipped the whole hallway in shadows in such a way that even their night vision devices were unable to see through it. The hallway was just black. Of course there was more to this blackness than just no light.

Anoth's eyes glowed blood red as he spoke. "Good evening gentlemen." Immediately all weapons were pointed in his direction. "I can't remember that you were invited here."

"We're not here for you." Said the group commander. "Just surrender."

"Surrender? Do you really think that I will stand by watching you murder a ten year old girl?" Anoth's eyes glowed brighter. That was the only advance warning they had before Anoth telekinetically grabbed the entire group and then catapulted them through the windows with enormous force.

A second group was already storming up the stairs. Anoth greeted them with the weapons that the first Team had dropped when he had thrown them outside and he had picked up.

Anoth could use his rigging too, but even the smallest weapons on it were more than overkill here. The soldiers' weapons were therefore the best choice in this case.

Maybe he should really think about installing some lesser firepower weapons. Such as calibre 50 or calibre 30 MGs.

It shouldn't be a problem to produce a few hundred of them and then mount them on the ship. But that could wait for now.

Within a very short time the soldiers had taken cover and began to return fire. It didn't help them. Their bullets ricocheted harmlessly from Anoth's shields. That meant that Anoth could stroll down the stairs as if he was taking a walk in the park.

When he got downstairs, all soldiers were dead and Anoth used their ammunition supplies via telekinesis and reloaded the weapons.

"These were certainly not all of them." The soldiers had meanwhile put some Stone Crabs in position so that when Anoth looked out of the window he jumped straight away from it again only moments later when a projectile from the main guns of the Stone Crabs struck there and destroyed the window, including part of the wall. "I knew it."

.

Command tent.

.

"It's not a mental model." Noted a soldier who was sitting in the command tent in front of several monitors.

His supervisor was also looking at the statue that Anoth showed with active shields. These were not a segment shield made of hexagonal individual parts, as was usual with the Fleet of Fog, but a bubble shield whose energy output exceeded that of the small shields of the Fleet of Fog many times over.

It also meant that this shield could withstand a lot more fire before it collapsed. Judging by the values of the sensors, the shield had the strength of a battleship.

"We're screwed." Mumbled one of the soldiers reading the values. Then they saw on the surveillance screens as Anoth activated his rigging. That made said soldier turn white as chalk. "We're so screwed."

.

To Anoth

.

Anoth had activated his rigging and began to systematically destroy the stone crabs.

Then he received a message from Haruna. Makie had fled. However, she had Kirishima with her, even if she was little more than a teddy bear. Teddy or not, Kirishima could also be quite dangerous in that shape.

Haruna had also made a replica of Makie and now made sure that the Army had to focus its attention on two fronts. Although their target was Makie, they couldn't ignore Anoth either. If only because of his tremendous firepower.

He was also in the process of shooting some helicopters from the sky with his 35mm CIWS. That simply shredded the helicopter.

Anoth's scan showed that Makie was hiding near a hedge with Kirishima Aka. Yotarou.

She was relatively safe there at the moment. As safe as you could be in an area where a miniature war was being waged.

It was only a matter of time before soldiers found them. But then she still had Kirishima by her side.

It was only a few minutes later that Haruna contacted Anoth. With a message he didn't want to hear.

Makie had apparently come to her and Haruna had barely managed to prevent her from being shot. But now she was stuck and her shields threatened to collapse under the constant fire.

Anoth broke off the fight at the end and jumped up to the roof of the property. He ran across the roof of the building to the other side and jumped down. He landed right next to Haruna and exactly at the time when her Klein Shield collapsed.

Anoth landed at just the right time and so his own shields took over the job.

"Thanks." It came from Haruna who immediately went to her knees. Her strength was almost exhausted. Anoth was a very impressive figure with fully activated rigging. Haruna wondered if she could do that too. It would make things a lot easier.

Anoth was about to open fire when someone preceded him. Apparently I-401 or Iona had also received the emergency call from Haruna and was now in the process of destroying the remaining stone crabs.

A little later, Iona's actual shape of the ship fired various missiles that made short work of what the Army had brought up here.

Apparently soon after the army had enough and began a hasty retreat.

Anoth deactivated his shields and also his rigging when he could be sure that there was no more danger and helped Haruna back on her feet. A little later he had Haruna in his arms instead. She had used way too much of her energy and was no longer really able to stand. She was simply exhausted.

"I miss my ship." Said Haruna, completely exhausted.

"I believe you." Whereupon she just smiled tiredly.

"What are you doing here I-401?" Haruna finally asked when she managed to stand on her own two feet again a few minutes later.

"I received your emergency call. What are you doing here Haruna?"

"I ... protect a friend." She said as she pointed to Makie.

.

A few hours later

On board the I-401 Aka. Iona.

.

Anoth sat on the floor playing a card game with Haruna and Kirishima (still in the shape of Yotarou) and in the arms of Makie.

Gwent.

It was a card game that he found in the luggage of his patient and simply copied it without further ado.

At the moment he was the stronger. That changed suddenly when Haruna played a burn card.

"Damn it." Anoth muttered. "I lost."

He only had two cards left. So he had no chance to make up the missing points. So he gave up.

They were now near Iwoto. Also known as Iwo Jima.

As they docked in the underwater dock, Iona made an interesting report. Apparently someone else was here. When she showed this someone on the monitors, Anoth was no longer able to hide his amusement and burst out laughing.

"Looks like you have an admirer." Laughed Anoth.

Chihaya Gunzou, the captain of I-401, grimaced. The screen showed the mental model of Takao as she cuddled with a life-size pillow with the image of the said captain.

A few minutes after Iona had found that the Hyuuga, another Mental Model, was still intact, they went ashore.

There they were greeted by a floating egg-shaped structure that at first glance looked like a robot with a cheap LCD display that showed a pixelated face.

When the said egg saw Iona, it burst open and Hyuuga himself came out. She immediately jumped on Iona and began to greet her a little too lively. When she began to take off the clothes of Iona's mental model, however, it became too much for Iona and she then pushed Hyuuga with a powerful kick into the next best wall. Just to go straight to instructions.

"Hyuuga, refill the corrosive torpedoes and put the super gravity cannon back in shape. I want all repairs to be done the next time we cast off." Said Iona, pointing to her submarine.

Hyuuga, who was on the ground at the moment, propping herself up with one hand while the other held her stomach, could only say "Yes, sir." and wonder how strong Iona's mental model really was.

Anoth walked over to her and before Hyuuga knew it she felt some very strong arms grabbing her under her shoulders and helped her to get back on her feet. Hyuuga was surprised at the strength of the person who picked her up. Mental models weighed a little more than a comparable person. And he lifted her weight as if she were light as a feather.

"Everything OK?" Anoth finally asked.

"Yes. The kick was just stronger than I expected." She swayed slightly but was then able to stand by herself. Had she blushed lightly, or was that just what Anoth was imagining? She also reminded him a little of a cat.

Anoth blocked out much of the conversation that followed. Instead, his attention was focused on the docked cruiser.

Takao.

Another ship in the Fleet of Fog.

The said mental model stood on her ship and watched Anoth. But when she felt his aura and mentally saw what he was really looking at, or rather the dent in the foremast (how embarrassing), she hid behind one of her turrets.

How stupid that she forgot to fix this dent. That would have only taken seconds.

Takao took a deep breath when Anoth turned his attention to something else. He spoke briefly to the captain of I-401 and then marched to one of the free pools and jumped into the water?

No, he was standing on the water.

A little later he was submerged and disappeared. Her sensors told her he was leaving the base at high speed.

.

To Anoth.

.

Anoth moved away from Iwoto.

His destination was somewhere in the Pacific.

When he was some distance from the island, Anoth took on his massive ship shape. A 19km long giant bursting with weapons over and over.

A small fleet of ships in the Fleet of Fog had been on an interception course until just now. But when they realized what they would have to fight against here, they probably had very urgent appointments somewhere else. Because the fleet immediately turned and disappeared.

They apparently had a functioning instinct for self-preservation.

Anoth stayed in this place for a total of several days.

What was he doing there?

Secret.

.

Five days later.

.

Anoth received an emergency call.

It was Takao.

"I'll receive you Takao. What's wrong?" Anoth answered.

Whereupon Takao and the others gave him a brief summary of the events of the last few days.

Apparently the island had been attacked by the Kongou and Maya (both ships of the Fog Fleet). They had managed to escape by a ruse but now they had lost all contact with the I-401 (Iona) and Chihaya Gunzou.

"I see. I'll be with you in two hours."

Anoth brought in his floating anchor he had thrown and started his machines. He was on his way in a matter of minutes.

.

Two hours later.

.

"Massive contact. Fast approaching 12 o'clock." Reported to Hyuuga who was on the bridge of Takao's ship with the rest of the crew of I-401.

"That should be Anoth. Man is he a giant." Breathed Takao. "Slows down and comes alongside."

A little later, the small, approximately 200-meter-long Takao found herself next to a 19,300-meter-long giant that made her feel like an ant.

Even if she compared the tonnage. She came to about 15,000 tons. He on the other hand came to 12,000,000,000 tons.

A little later Anoth jumped from his ship over to the top of the front bridge and then made his way down to the actual bridge.

A little later he had reached the bridge.

"You made it very cosy." Said Anoth when he saw the bridge where all the usual equipment and devices were missing. This wasn't really surprising in retrospect. Takao just didn't need them. "So what should I do?"

Instead of answering, all four mental models that were on the bridge (Hyuuga, Kirishima (still as Yotarou and in Makie's arms), Takao and Haruna) opened data connections with him who Anoth accepted.

A little later he knew everything he needed to know.

"Start with the standard search pattern. Launching fighters." Kirishima and the others could see pentagon-shaped hatches opening on the hull of Anoth's ship. A little later, several planes shot out of these. The most striking thing about these planes was that their rear part looked like an upside-down Y. Anoth called them Vipers of the Mark 30 type. "Why here of all places? Even if Iona is a ship of the Fog Fleet, her ship cannot withstand a water depth of over 6.5 kilometres either." Anoth whispered more to himself than to the others.

Still, they must have heard him judging by the expression on their faces. The concern was palpable.

Then finally after about an hour the message came from one of the vipers that they had found something. Anoth immediately aimed his sensors at it.

"Confirmed. Wreck found. Presence of nanomaterial confirmed. Identifying wreck." It took a few seconds. "Wreck is from an I-400 class submarine. Identifying…. It's the I-401."

"No!" shouted Takao and sank to her knees when she saw the images that were sent by Anoth on a holographic display on the bridge.

The others were close to tears too.

Then Anoth answered again and the mood suddenly changed.

"Survival capsule located. A human sign of life and an intact fog core discovered." That was Anoth's message. Crap! There's some glitch down there. Probably from the damaged reactor. I cannot log on them with the transporters. Well, if it doesn't work like that, then just do it the old fashioned way.

"They are called Union cores." Hyuuga corrected him. "Damn Iona." She laughed. "You are really resourceful."

"How do we recover them?" asked Haruna.

"I have submarines in my hangar that can easily dive to depths of over 20 kilometres." Said Anoth. "Only that is not the problem." Anoth showed a new ad in the holographic display. "The capsule they both sit in fails in about half an hour and I need that time to make these submarines ready for launch. I see only one way. We need nanomaterial. I have 450,000 tons of it on board, but they still have to be programmed. And that takes too long either."

That got Hyuuga's attention.

"450,000 tons of nanomaterial?" she asked in surprise.

Anoth sighed. The cat was out of the bag. "That should be a surprise for you so that you can restore your ships. That should not only be enough material to restore your ships, but also to upgrade them in the process."

"So that's why you left the facility. Gunzou didn't want to tell us what you discussed with each other." Said Haruna who was no less surprised than Hyuuga.

Takao took another look at the timer, which was running out slowly.

She knew what to do.

"How fast and how deep can your capsule dive Hyuuga?"

Hyuuga blinked at Takao for a moment. "About a kilometre every three minutes and up to 10 kilometres deep." She said then and now understood what she was up to. "You want to dive down to the capsule?"

"Yes. I'll give my nanomaterial to Iona." Takao said finally. "Rewriting it over to her is faster than programming it from scratch."

"You will lose your mental model in the process. You realize that, don't you?" asked Kirishima.

"As I said, you are welcome to use my supplies." Anoth only meant.

"Thank you. But I think I'll have to do without a mental model at least for a while." Was Takao's answer.

A little later, Takao was sitting in Hyuuga's egg and was underwater. While the rest of them had transferred to Anoth's ship were and now in the CIC as they followed it all.

The fact that Anoth had apparently run into a closet as they first entered his ship raised a few questions. Until Anoth explained to them that this "closet" was actually nothing more than a much more modern version of an elevator. Or turbolift if you wanted to. Anoth's ship shape was just too big to run anywhere. It was over 19 kilometres from one end of the ship to the other. And with this system you were at the other end of the ship in seconds.

The reason they were in the CIC now was pretty simple. As soon as Takao reached the capsule, she would begin dismantling her ship and thus restore Iona. That meant that Takao's ship will cease to exist.

"Say Hyuuga." Asked Anoth, as he was sitting in the captain's or admiral's chair. "You said your island was attacked. Did the fleet happen to be a Kongou class, a Takao class and six Nagara class cruisers?"

"Why?" asked Hyuuga.

"When I was on the way to produce nanomaterial, the fleet ran into me by chance. They probably noticed me and immediately changed course. I was probably a few sizes too big for them."

"That's right. There were Kongou, Maya and six Nagara classes."

"Interesting." Meant Anoth.

Immediately afterwards, Takao's ship began to light up and a beam of nanoparticles began to move away from the ship and sink into the depths of the sea.

A few minutes later, Iona reappeared, now in a combined form of an I-400 class and a Takao class.

"That's a ... very interesting combination." Said Anoth as he examined the new ship on the monitors in the CIC. He saved a scan of it in his databases.

"Where's Takao?" asked one of the crew members of the I-400. The chief engineer if he wasn't mistaken.

"On board of Iona. Seems like she is now serving Iona as a subprocessor so that she can use all the weapons she now had." Anoth replied who had already found Iona's and Takao's core in the scan on board the new ship and highlighted them on the monitor.

Then he ran out of the CIC to the closest point-to-point transporter that took him to the deck. From there he jumped over to Iona's new form and gained access to the interior. A little later he was on the bridge where he immediately took care of Gunzou's injuries. He had more luck than brains.

Anoth transferred Gunzou to one of the hospitals aboard Anoth's ship form for a few hours. Just under four hours later, Gunzou was able to leave it again.

He hadn't suffered much other than a broken arm, a few minor cuts and slight hypothermia.

He was more than a little lucky.

.

A few hours later

.

They were on their way again and Gunzou was back on his ship. At the moment it was quiet. Hyuuga, Kirishima and Haruna were in Anoth's shipyards and were in the process of restoring their ships. The shipyards themselves were pretty much in the middle of Anoth's ship form. Exactly between the two main hulls of the ship.

As for the upgrade. Now it allowed them to reduce their ship into the form of a rigging or to make it disappear completely if necessary.

Anoth was at the moment as a hologram on board the I-401 Takao Hybrid and was talking to Takao who was active there as a hologram.

She was also still a little dizzy after Makie rotated one of her holograms that had been in the air right in front of her.

"Everything OK with you?" Anoth asked a Takao who still had swirls in her eyes.

"Go right back you three." She just meant. A little later she had recovered. "I didn't expect the hologram to make me dizzy."

"Well ... you always learn something new." Anoth only meant.

"What are you going to do now?" Takao asked him.

"Hmm?"

"I mean when this is all over?"

"Well... I will probably leave this dimension again in about a month at the latest. Make a stopover to bring my guest back into her dimension and then return from where I came from. What comes next ... wait and see?" Anoth replied with a shrug. He already knew where it was going as soon as he was finished on Zi. His daughter was waiting to be saved.

And woe to those who thought they had to put their fingers on her.

"Why do you ask?" Anoth was really curious about the answer.

"Well ... I was wondering if I could come with you."

Anoth raised an eyebrow.

"I mean ... only if you let me."

"Why?"

Takao sighed. "Let's just call it professional curiosity. Hmm?" She was bright red in the face. There was more to it than that.

"Has my ship impressed you so much?" he finally asked.

"More like something else." She admitted. "Ahri." She mumbled.

"Oh, that's it. So you made the acquaintance of one of my vixens." Said Anoth. 'Ahri? Where are you?' he asked telepathically afterwards.

'Um ... nowhere?' was the answer he got back.

'Very precise location.'

'I think so~.' He could almost hear her grin.

'Can you explain to me how you met Takao and what you told her?'

'While we were on the island.' Ahri began. 'You left again but I stayed. I secretly met with Takao and we talked about um ... this and that. '

'About this and that. Already clear. So where are you? '

'Turret Four. Just cleaning the barrel.' She said without really thinking before a cold chill ran down her spine. 'Don't you dare!'

'Wasn't a test of the water cannon function planned for the gun?' Anoth could see in his mind's eye how Ahri was suddenly in a great hurry to get out of the way.

She was too slow.

And so she flew in a high curve, driven by a jet of water, from the ship.

He thought he heard Ahri cursing in the distance.

"I wouldn't mind." He finally answered Takao, pretending nothing had happened. "But you can always change your mind." She hugged him around his neck. Well, as well as a hologram could.

"ALARM!" Sounded the message that interrupted the two. "We have multiple contacts behind us. 46 contacts. All Nagara class light cruisers."

"46?!" one of the crew members asked in surprise. "What do we do?"

"You go on!" ordered Anoth. "I will take care of our guests." With that, Anoth was gone. Immediately afterwards they could see Anoth's massive ship slowing down and then starting to turn on the spot. It was surprisingly manoeuvrable for such a large ship. Seconds later they saw hundreds of planes take off from the flight deck.

Anoth's sensors had discovered a few more ships.

It wasn't just 46 ships.

It was in fact 4,308 ships.

That had to be pretty much every ship that the Fleet of Fog had in the Pacific.

Haruna, Kirishima and Hyuuga carried out a quick undocking with their new ships and immediately went underwater. It was the only safe way for the three of them to escape the huge fleet that will now be within gun range in just two minutes.

All reactors within Anoth were now at full load as all weapons on the huge ship began to charge and reconfigure themselves to fire energy weapons.

At the same time, Anoth activated his protective shields, ablative generator armour and underwater defence weapons.

Gunzou and the others could hardly believe what the sensors from Iona were reporting. Anoth's energy output had just blown every available scale.

Then he started firing.

It was one of the heavy MAC cannons that opened fire first. With a tremendous bang, the projectile was sent on its way. It penetrated the small field of a Nagara class, tore it apart, hit another Nagara class, and then another. Nothing was left of either. Then the projectile crashed into a Kongou class. Its Klein shield withstood the projectile just about, but the ship was unable to fight afterwards.

The Kongou class mental model, Hiei, survived this hit only because she saw the projectile coming and put all her energy into her front small shields. It was enough to stop the projectile, but the tremendous force behind the impact caused her ship to fly over 60 meters backwards and catapulted her down from her vantage point. She crashed into the foredeck with massive force and immediately passed out. At the same time, the energy feedback from the Klein Field ensured that many of the systems on board her ship overloaded and exploded. The damage was so great that her ship slowly began to sink.

Hiei didn't even notice how her body disappeared in a flash of light only to find herself afterwards in a cryostasis capsule on board Anoth.

Then Anoth's main guns fired. One of the beams hit what had not yet sunk from the Hiei and the whole ship said goodbye in a huge explosion.

Immediately thereafter, Anoth's weapons began to systematically destroy the Fog Fleet armada.

His weapons destroyed a Nagara class with just one shot.

Gunzou and the rest of the crew could see the area between Anoth and the enemy armada becoming saturated by the fire of hundreds of energy weapons. It was a colourful and deadly spectacle.

Even the larger ships like the four Ise class sisters could hardly counter this firepower and were shot out of action within a very short time.

Then the planes began their attacks. Hundreds of ships of the Fleet of Fog were sunk by them who had to realize with horror that the planes also had shields and sensor interference technology, which made it almost impossible for them to detect them at all. They had to aim manually. And that was far from accurate.

The final nail in the coffin for the fleet came when all of Anoth's main guns began to rebuild themselves into another configuration for another weapon, revealing that a class 20 CPC cannon was hidden in the turrets themselves. Shortly afterwards the world was thrown into an extremely bright light which showed the world in a sharp black and white contrast as the charged particle weapons began to perform their destructive work after a short charging time.

When the guns finally stopped firing, there was little left of the Armada.

From once more than 4,000 ships were now only 28 left.

Anoth deactivated his CPCs again and now activated his test-built super gravity cannon. (Still experimental.) He did not get to fire it at all when all of the surviving Fog Fleet ships hoisted the white flag. Two submarines also emerged from the floods shortly afterwards. I-400 and I-402.

They must have watched the "fight"

The two mental models appeared on the submarine deck with their hands raised. Both of them, otherwise almost unemotional, were now trembling with fear.

Apparently, sheer fear had ensured that the protocol that was responsible for her emotional suppression had simply failed. And if the protocol had failed once, he already knew that from smaller scans he had made from the other mental models, it could not be reactivated again.

Anoth let some of his guns swing around and now aim at the two submarines. They both started crying and fell to their knees. This fear was not an act. It was real.

Immediately afterwards he activated his tractor beams and pulled the surviving ships towards him. They were mainly Nagara class cruisers but also four Myoukou class heavy cruisers.

Myoukou, Nachi, Ashigara and Haguro. Together with Hiei, who was also captured, they formed the so-called Student Council in the Fog Fleet.

Ise was also among them she was from the class of battle-carrier ships of the same name.

As soon as the ships were drawn close enough, Anoth appeared on deck. He had already made the weapons of the fog ships unusable and blocked when he forced them to give him their access codes. All of them did.

"What do I do with you guys?" Anoth asked himself who was now staring at the collected 30 ships.

2x - I-400 class submarines (I-400 and I-402)

1x - Ise class battle carrier (Ise)

4x - Myoukou class heavy cruisers (Myoukou, Nachi, Ashigara and Haguro)

23x - Nagara class cruiser (nameless. Only provided with numbers and without mental model)

"You sunk Hiei!" Ise cried, slightly angry, and after she had gathered some of her remaining courage. She couldn't really do more than follow Hiei to her death.

"The ship. Yes, I destroyed that." Anoth interrupted before Ise had a chance to continue what she clearly wanted. He sounded completely calm. "The mental model is on board in a cryostasis capsule."

Ises eyes and the eyes of the others widened as they understood what that meant. Anoth had left Hiei alive. He had only destroyed what he knew was replaceable.

Anoth stood there for a long time and considered.

Then he made up his mind.

For the time being, all of them lost their ship shapes. That meant that he teleported the Union Cores of the Nagara classes into a specific facility that still allowed them to communicate. Then he teleported the seven mental models aboard of his ship.

Immediately afterwards he used the command codes to order the ships to disband. The released nanomaterial migrated to the storage bunkers on board Anoth and completely filled them up again. In fact, he still got a good 100,000 tons of additional material.

The mental models, now on board Anoth's ship, could only stand by and watch. However, everyone knew that with enough nanomaterial they could easily restore their ships.

.

Sometime later

.

Hiei had been released from her involuntary stay in the freezer and brought up to date by the others. Although she wasn't very happy about the situation, she had little choice but to submit.

Now they were standing on deck.

Even if they were ships of the Fog Fleet, there was still something in them that all intelligent life shared.

Curiosity.

Hiei stood on the roof of the huge turret, which was as big as her ship but more than ten times the weighed. That discrepancy made her feel a little ... small. And Anoth had multiple of them.

Ise was standing in the middle of the massive cannon, because it had been moved into the firing position for the CPC. There was some minor maintenance work to be done on the cannon.

The cannon showed slight fluctuations in energy when fired. They weren't in a worrying area yet, but that could easily change. So Anoth decided to put the gun in the maintenance routine.

"The gun is impressive." Said Ise, who looked at the huge turbine whose blades were more than twice the size of her mental model.

"I've killed a lot of you. I thought you'd be mad about it." Gave Anoth to the said turbine turned slowly.

Ise sighed. "No I'm not."

It was Myoukou the continued one. "We had no choice but to fight you. The admiralty code required that of us."

"What is this admiralty code anyway?"

Here was the one who answered that after climbing down to join them. "That is difficult to say. Some claim the Admiralty Code is in fact a living being. Others say it is just a collection of rules and laws that everyone in the Fog Fleet must follow and are determined by the Fleet Flagship.

"Personally, I don't know. Perhaps there is some truth to these descriptions somewhere."

"You say the fleet flagship makes the rules, right?" Anoth asked whereupon Hiei nodded. "Then who was it that ordered all of you here?"

"That was Musashi." The answer came from Ashigara.

"Just Musashi?" Nachi asked in surprise. "Yamato didn't agree?"

"Apparently yes." Ashigara admitted. "But Yamato's signature under the commands has been strange to me for some time."

"In what way?" Myoukou asked.

"Well the end coding is correct. But the construction signature doesn't really match Yamato's usual algorithms." Ashigara explained with the typical holographic rings appearing around her. A little later, the other Fleet of Fog mental models also activated this function when the data exchange took place between them.

"She is right." Admitted Hiei. "The final coding is correct. And that's actually all that is tested to check authenticity. But the structure of the coding does not match that of Yamato ... These are Musashi's algorithms that constructed the command." She sounded more than a little surprised.

A little later, they began to put all the orders they had allegedly received from Musashi and Yamato to the test.

The result was a bit of a shock for all mental models.

The last genuine order from both fleet flagships, and thus actually the last really valid order, came from almost nine years ago. All the others that came after that were faked and only came from Musashi alone. Both Yamato and Musashi actually had to agree with each other. That was the only way new orders could be issued at all.

Why did they only notice that now?!

"Well ..." started Hiei. "Now that it is clear that all orders that came over the last nine years ago are effectively invalid, the last order given now applies."

"And that was?" asked Anoth.

"To cease fire on all human ships and cities." Answered Ise. "To wait for the results of the negotiations. Development of our own mental models in order to better understand the humans is encouraged. Development of feelings is supported. Separation from the fog fleet is possible without penalty should this be needed. Further orders will follow."

Hiei confirmed what Ise had said with a nod. "Immediately afterwards came the clearly falsified order to resume the fight and destroy all renegades."

"Interesting." Meant Anoth. "So this conflict could have ended nine years ago." Anoth looked thoughtfully over the sea. "Do we know where Yamato's wreck is?"

"According to the last position data ... somewhere in the Arctic Ocean."

"Great. That limits the search to almost 14 million square kilometres." Anoth sighed when his radar piped up. "What the heck is that?" he asked as he brought the ... construct onto the holographic screen that was created by the implants in his arm (similar to the Mass Effect universal tool or Omni tool). "Whatever it is, it's not friendly. EVERYONE BACK TO THE CIC!"

.

A little bit later

.

"What is this?" asked Anoth who had the unknown thing on the monitor.

The thing, which was a bit like a flying metal dark gray ball with a front opening, came closer at breakneck speed. Anoth was about to fire at the thing when it...

Just flew past them at more than 500 km/h?

"What the?" Anoth asked in complete surprise. "My camouflage was not active. Whatever that was, it must have seen me. Where is that thing going anyway?"

Whatever it was it was moving faster and faster.

Anoth decided not, to send his planes after the thing after whatever it was had shot down several of them seemingly effortlessly and the attacks of the fighters had next to no effect.

He started calculating the course of the thing and came to a surprising conclusion.

It was on a direct intercept course to I-401.

Anoth turned his huge ship and began tracking the object. A little later he accelerated to top speed and started chasing the thing at almost 300 knots (a good 370 km / h).

Despite the hydrofoil mode he was in, he was too slow. The thing was already several minutes ahead and he still had no idea what it was.

The other members of the Fog Fleet, or now former members, did not know what it was either.

The graviton radiation emanating from the thing interfered with too many of the sensors.

.

Almost 15 minutes later

.

He had finally caught up with it. However, the fight seemed to be over already. Because the now stationary ball, or what was left of it, was falling apart in midair.

Now it was also clear who the thing had actually been.

"Kongou?!" asked Hiei in surprise. "What is my sister doing here?"

Less than half an hour passed before they all finally found themselves on deck of I-401.

Iona and Kongou were there too.

Hiei looked around and looked first at Ise. She nodded.

Then to her four steady companions. All four also nodded.

I-400 and I-402 also nodded when she looked at them.

Hiei took another deep breath shortly afterwards and then turned to Gunzou.

"I wanted to ask, if we can join your fleet Chihaya Gunzou?"

Gunzou was understandably completely surprised. He added them to his fleet after Hiei explained what they had found out. Hyuuga and Takao confirmed this assumption shortly afterwards. Haruna and Kirishima also confirmed what they said just moments later.

"In fact, it looks like the whole war that has been raging for the last nine years has been orchestrated by Musashi for some reason." Explained Anoth.

After some back and forth and debate it was decided that they had to locate Musashi and confront him. But first they had to deliver their freight. The prototype of a vibration warhead.

After all, that was why they were heading for Pearl Harbour.

.

A few days later

.

With the connection of the Fleet of Fog ships to Gunzou's fleet and their official merger with him, I-400, I402, Hiei, Ise, Myoukou, Nachi, Ashigara and Haguro also got their ship shapes back.

They also managed to separate Iona and Takao on the way to Hawaii.

The appearance of a fleet of Fleet of Fog ships caused a little panic.

The fleet consisted of.

3x - I-400 class submarines (I-400, I-402 and Iona)

1x - Ise class slaughterhouse (Ise)

4x - Myoukou class heavy cruisers (Myoukou, Nachi, Ashigara and Haguro)

4x - Kongou class battle cruisers (Takao, Hiei, Kirishima and Kongou)

1x - Hyuuga class battleship (Hyuuga)

Iona was the leader of this fleet.

And of course Anoth's own gigantic shape. However, he stayed some distance from the islands and did not come any closer. His ship wouldn't be able to enter the port anyway. He was far too big in his ship form.

The Americans were understandably concerned when they saw that not only a giant ship was approaching their island, but also that 13 ships of the Fog Fleet were approaching their port.

Takao had told Anoth that she would rather stay with Gunzou. When he asked her why out of curiosity, Makie was her answer. She asked Takao to stay. Her bond with Hyuuga also seemed to have grown a lot closer lately.

Anoth only said that it was her decision in the end.

But Takao had now made up his mind. She stayed.

After a relatively short stop in Pearl Harbour, we went on to San Diego. The journey to there, which took several days, was completely uneventful. And with the advance warning from Pearl Harbour, they were no longer surprised to see a relatively large fleet of the Fog Fleet approaching them.

As before with Hawaii, Anoth kept his distance.

.

Less than three hours later

.

A few hours later, Anoth intercepted a message.

"US Navy Pacific Fleet Headquarters, San Diego Naval Port Control sending a message to Japanese Navy Yokosuka Naval Port Control. I-401 arrival confirmed. I-401 is alive. Repeat, I-401 is alive."

Mission carried out successfully.

Now it was just a matter of finding Musashi and confronting her.

That turned out to be a lot easier than he expected.

Several weeks had passed since the handover. At the moment, Anoth's ship form was several dozen kilometres outside of a Russian port while he was ashore himself. He needed some things and he wanted to look around a little too.

What he didn't expect was that Musashi was sitting there on a park bench and seemed to be waiting for him.

"I didn't expect that you would be here." Anoth admitted when he came to her and came to a standstill in front of her.

"I knew that at some point the day would come when my lies would be exposed." Musashi looked at the floor as she said this and didn't dare to look up at Anoth. "The other fleet flagships have been informed of my deception and are now refusing to obey."

"So the others passed the data on." Musashi just nodded. Meanwhile, Anoth had crouched down in front of her and lifted Musashi's face with one finger so that she was looking at him. "What about your ship?" If she were here with her ship, Anoth's sensors should have seen it.

"I don't have one anymore." Okay ... He didn't expect that answer.

"What happened?" Anoth finally asked. "What happened nine years ago?"

Then she started talking about what happened nine years ago. The fact that Gunzou's father Chihaya Shouzou had managed to defeat the destroyers of the Fog Fleet and so the Fog Fleet had their first real defeat. The fact that Shouzou went into negotiations with Yamato and Musashi shortly afterwards and got to know them better. To the point where they both called him father.

Both mental models were very young at the time and still had a lot to learn. But then Shouzou was murdered by a member of his own Team. It was all too much for Musashi and she went nuts. Her grief turned to anger and she began to fight against everything and everyone. Even against her sister.

It was just too much all at once.

Only when Musashi had sunk her sister did she realize what she had actually been doing. But she also knew that there was now no way back for her and so she built up this lie.

For years she kept the lie upright. How she did it she could hardly believe herself.

Then, a few days ago, it became common knowledge in the Fog Fleet what she had done and her own people turned against her. She was too surprised to understand what was happening and so her ship was effectively incapacitated before she could react. But she managed to escape anyway.

Then she did something that surprised Anoth. She reached into her own mental model and pulled out her core.

"I want you to kill me." It came softly from her as she held out her core to Anoth.

"What?" Anoth was more than surprised at this request. "Why?"

Musashi pulled out another core. However, this was in a bag that she had carried on her belt. Anoth recognized the symbol on the core immediately.

"Yamato." He said in surprise as he took the core.

"I've tried reactivating the core. But ... I can't. No matter what I try." Musashi sounded desperate. "I want her back!" with that she began to cry bitterly. She had to think that her sister must be dead.

Anoth took Musashi's core and made sure that it disappeared back into her mental model. Musashi wanted to say something, but she couldn't do that anymore when Anoth just hugged her. As a result, the last dams that were still holding back her feelings broke with it.

Anoth's gaze wandered over to a nearby pile of boxes where he had noticed movement. It was Gunzou and Iona who slowly emerged from behind the boxes.

Iona walked over to the crying Musashi without saying a word. Musashi, because she was hugging Anoth, didn't notice anything while Iona took Yamato's core in her hands. Shortly afterwards it started to glow again.

Musashi, who still didn't notice, didn't notice how Anoth teleported enough nanomaterial from his ship so that Yamato could form her mental model.

Which she did immediately.

Only to then immediately hug her sister.

Musashi looked up in surprise. "Yamato!" she called right away. She freed herself from Anoth's embrace and now hugged her sister. "Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me." She repeated over and over again.

"I already did that a long time ago." That was all Yamato said.

Anoth didn't know how long they stayed like that but at some point in between he hugged both girls. It took a while before both of them had calmed down again.

Then the two looked at each other, nodded, and then looked at Anoth.

"Can we use your transmitter?" asked Yamato.

"For what?"

"One last order to the Fog Fleet. We have decided to break the admiralty code." Musashi replied not releasing Yamato's hand from hers, afraid that if she did she would go away again.

Anoth agreed to her request after Iona had taken control of the remnants of both oriental fleets in the absence of any other flagship, or with her abdication, whether voluntarily or through its destruction.

.

A little bit later

.

Iona and Gunzou had followed them on Anoth's ship form and were now in the CIC with Anoth, Musashi and Yamato.

"I give you two the control to my transmitters." Said Anoth. The two soon-to-be-former Supreme Flagships of the Fog Fleet set the transmitter to the Admiralty code high command frequency.

"This is Admiralty Code Representatives Yamato and Musashi speaking." Yamato started.

"We contact all ships in the fog fleet planet-wide." Musashi continued.

"This is the flagship high command speaking. I repeat here is the flagship high command speaking."

All ships from the Fleet of Fog at this point in time had verified that this time it was actually Yamato and Musashi who were speaking now, held their breath.

And it wasn't just them who heard that. Anoth also broadcasted it on all available bandwidths and also used his satellite network. Everyone on the planet with a working radio heard this.

"We order all ships in the fog fleet to stop all attacks immediately." Musashi continued.

"From now on, the Fog Fleet will live according to its own will." Yamato ordered.

"Repeat. From now on, the Fog Fleet is no longer bound by the Admiralty Code and will live according to its own free will." Confirmed Musashi.

Then both spoke at the same time. "This is the last order from the Fleet High Command. Over and out."

This ended the connection.

What did that mean now?

Well...

The war against the Fog Fleet had thus officially ended.

Nevertheless, it will take months, if not years, before a new balance is found between the individual fleets and factions into which the fog fleet will now be divided.

But a balance will be established. It was just a matter of time.

The years to come may be even more difficult than before.

But these too will pass.

.

Two weeks later

.

Anoth stood on the beach on one of the islands. He was ready to leave this dimension again. Yamato and Musashi stood next to him. The two had decided to go with Anoth. However, Musashi had updated her mental model. She now looked like a clone of her sister. Only that she wore black clothes with her white hair and Yamato wore white clothes with black hair. It also made it easier to explain that they were sisters or twins. That was not far from reality in fact.

Anoth's guest was still unconscious and was in Anoth's arms. However, she had fully recovered. Anoth was the one who kept her unconscious.

"Ready?" Anoth asked the two sisters.

"Yes." Both answered.

With that, Anoth opened a portal and they stepped through. With that they left this world behind.

.

Dimension of origin of Anoth's guest

.

On the other side, someone was already waiting for them.

It was an elf from the Aen Elle. But definitely not a member of the Wild Hunt.

"Who are you?" Anoth asked the elf very directly.

The elf, knowing that any attempt to lie, would only end in one way, and that was with him in a grave.

"My name is Avallac'h. I am the teacher and protector of Zirael." He said and Anoth couldn't find a lie. A little later he handed over Zirael or Ciri to Avallac'h, as he later learned. Shortly afterwards she woke up.

"Avallac'h." she asked a little dazed. "What happened?"

"They saved your life." Avallac'h answered and pointed to the three people who were just leaving the world through a new portal. The last Anoth heard from them before Avallac'h and Ciri travelled on to Ard Skellig was a quiet "thank you."

.

.

Back to the underground cavern on Zi

.

.

As soon as the three had left the portal, they found themselves in the underground cult site. The temple and the dimension that contained it were gone. The energies that Anoth had been able to feel from above at the beginning were also gone.

Anoth checked his watch.

Judging by that, only two hours had passed here on Zi since he had left this dimension.

"The temple and its dimensions are gone." Said Anoth. He could still feel remains but the dimension had definitely collapsed.

Instead he found a letter on the altar that hadn't been there before.

Anoth went over to the altar and picked up the letter.

It was made of parchment and appeared to have been written recently.

.

.

To whoever is reading this.

My name is Rosa I was one of the prisoners who has been held prisoner here.

I knew that my life would come to an end here in this place. This cult was known for taking people prisoner and ensuring that they never leave the place alive. At the time, I set myself the goal of letting at least one person escape from this temple alive.

Then when the day of the ritual came and my heart was ripped out of my body while I was still alive, I became a ghost and waited. I wouldn't rest until my goal was achieved.

Now it is done.

Their last victim escaped alive.

Now I can finally rest.

Thanks.

Rosa.

.

.

Anoth folded the parchment again and sighed. Whatever had happened here back then, it was over now.

May she finally rest in peace.

"Let's get out of here." He just meant and opened a portal to the surface. A little later they were back outside in the fresh air.

As soon as they were outside, all three had to jump aside when Leena came barrelling right at them with her Zoid. She seemed a little panicked.

"What's going on here?" Yamato asked as Anoth helped her back on her feet. Musashi had jumped the other way and looked just as incredulous as her sister.

"They're not ghosts. They're Spino Sappers." He'd heard over the radio as Leena ranted about ghosts and zombies. She probably didn't even know that her short range radio was active. "Well we'll have that in a moment."

Seconds later, Yamato and Musashi found themselves back in a CIC when Anoth had assumed his Zoid form. With just a few steps he had caught up with the Spino Sapper who was just about to saw Leena's Zoid up when the latter suddenly found himself under one of the huge front paws of Anoth's huge Zoid. The Spino Sapper had just enough room to look upwards only to see the huge mouth of the 300 meter large Zoid, which now pinned him to the ground. The growl was enough for the pilot to piss his pants, which was clearly visible on Anoth's screens in the CIC.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Blitz Team had turned up at the scene.

Bit with his Liger Zero and of course with Susi in the cockpit.

Brat with his Command Wolf.

As well as Naomi with her Gun Sniper.

And last but not least, Jamie with his new Raynos.

Less than a minute later, the other four Spino Sappers were incapacitated and the pilots were in custody. Anoth took the liberty of informing the police.

Than something strange happened.

Leena performed an evasive manoeuvre with her Zoid and then appeared to be staring at something.

It wasn't until an hour later in the Blitz Team HQ that he found out what she had seen.

Another little girl. Dressed in white with another Spino Sapper.

"That's strange." Said Anoth who had come to them. Yamato and Musashi decided to stay on board and make use of the Zoid pilot simulators.

"You don't believe me either, do you?" Leena asked annoyed. Am I going crazy?

"But I believe you. There is something else that raises questions. The Spino Sapper has not been around for that long. The first variants were built about 160 years ago. The RZ-043 Spino Sapper that we saw here is only available for about 20 years. "

"What does that have to do with what I saw there?" asked Leena.

"I'll get to that in a moment. I had decided to get to the bottom of the matter myself, what the visions were and came across an old temple. There blood rituals were carried out back then. The less people talk about it, the better. There was still the ghost of a young girl who did fell victim to one of these rituals there. I have now laid her ghost to rest. But that can't have been what you saw. Because what you saw came to a point in time when the said spirit had already left this world. So it must be something else. The Spino Sapper then brought me to the solution.

"There was a newspaper article from about 14 years ago. At that time, a young girl, around ten years old and dressed in a white dress, had kidnapped the Spino Sapper from her parents. She had the cockpit open the whole time during this run. And it is exactly where you last saw the girl where she fell off the cliff and was killed when she was thrown out of the cockpit and broke her neck on the impact. Her Zoid was also killed when a sharp rock on the ground impaled the core of the Zoid because one of the armour plates had been removed for maintenance. "

Anoth activated his holographic generator and showed them the article in question. It really happened there at the time.

"I don't know why you saw that girl there." Anoth continued. "Maybe she just didn't want someone to abuse her favourite Zoids for such purposes and was looking for someone who could put an end to this group." Anoth shrugged his shoulders. "But that's just my theory."

Their thoughts were interrupted when they heard a chainsaw start behind them.

When they turned around, Doctor Toros was standing proudly showing off his latest garden maintenance acquisition.

That Leena wasn't very good to speak about that was somehow predictable.

Doctor Toros was allowed to prove his skills as a long-distance runner while Leena chased him.

.

One week later

.

The day, now a week later, was practically uneventful. At least for Anoth. That was because he had gone some distance from the Blitz Team base in order to be able to train with Yamato and Musashi in peace.

During this time he officially handed over the found antic Forge to the administration of the ZBC. They immediately began sending archaeologists to the site.

Only when he got back did he find out that Doctor Toros' rival Doctor Laon had shown up.

Rather, they did not tell him.

And he didn't bother either.

The only thing they told him was that it was family business.

.

Three days later

.

Another battle was on the agenda for the Blitz Team. Leon and Naomi versus Bit and Leena. But the ZBC had contacted Anoth and the contract with the Blitz Team was now significantly softened. Since the Blitz Team was now fighting in a higher class, they should now deal more with their own strength. At the same time, they want him to focus primarily on the Backdraft group.

There were indications that they wanted to hijack this battle again.

So Anoth stayed a little in the background and waited.

Still, he kept an eye on the Blitz Team. Alone because of the Liger Zero. After all, it was an Ultimate X.

The fight itself was quite unspectacular so far. What was surprising to Anoth, however, was the Zoid that Leon used to fight Bit. As well as the story that Leon Bit told and that he could overhear via radio.

A red blade liger.

This wasn't just any blade liger, though.

Did Leon know that?

All the same.

There were also the uninvited guests.

About 30 Rev Raptor Zoids.

Anoth wanted to intervene but that turned out to be unnecessary. Bit and Leon made short work of them and Naomi put down a wonderful art shot that sent the last Zoid flying. It also happened to be the Zoid from the boss of this group.

And that Zoid flew straight into one of Anoth's landing bays where Anoth in his Human Form appeared a short time later.

"Major Polta. How nice that you come over here." Said Anoth with a downright devilish grin as he looked into the cockpit of the broken Rev Raptor Zoid. Polta turned visibly pale.

While down on the battlefield several of Anoth's Zoids decloaked themselves and made sure that the Rev Raptor pilots couldn't just make a run for it.

The police came by just a few minutes later and arrested Polta and his people. The Rev Raptor Zoids were also confiscated by the police. There was a reasonable suspicion that these had been stolen, as is usual with the Backdraft Group.

"Hello Leon." Anoth finally greeted him after the police had left. "You found an interesting Zoid there."

"Yes I have."

"Do you remember the coordinates where the remains of your Shield Liger are?"

"I can give the coordinates to you. But the Zoid is dead. I don't know what you want to do with it?" asked Leon and wrote down the last coordinates on a piece of paper and handed it over to Anoth.

"Let that be my concern." That was Anoth's answer. "You said you found this Zoid in a valley?"

"Right. Why?"

"Does the name Van Flyheight mean anything to you?"

"That name sais to me quite a bit. But I can't follow you at the moment."

"This is the Van Flyheight's Zoid that you have there."

"What ?! But Vans Zoid was blue! How is that possible?"

"Do you know that Vans Blade Liger was a Shield Liger before?" Now he had Leon's attention. "The Zoid evolved for Van after it was killed by a CPC shot and became a Blade Liger. When Van died of old age, his Zoid disappeared shortly afterwards and was never seen again. Most of it is now common knowledge though.

"What is less known is that Zoids can evolve themselves on their own. Especially if they have been in contact with an organoid like Vans Zoid was very often. This Blade-Liger is in fact a Blade-Liger Ultimate.

"You found a living piece of history there, Leon." Anoth looked directly at Leon. "Take good care of her."

"I will." Leon was still impressed by what Anoth had told him there. Then another part of what Anoth had said clicked on him. "Wait a minute ... HER?"

"Your Zoid is actually a female." Anoth replied with a laugh as he walked away while Leon thought he heard his Zoid giggle.

.

A few days later.

.

Doctor Laon surprisingly came back and challenged Doctor Toros to another fight.

The two apparently still hadn't settled their disputes.

Anoth was already playing with the idea of kidnapping both of them and then locking them in a room and only letting them out again when their dispute was resolved.

Anyway.

The fight was to take place near a well-known wellness hotel that was well known for its hot springs.

Anoth had already advanced ahead to the combat area and was lying down there and activated his cloaking system while he waited. He spent the time cuddling with Yamato and Musashi in his human form. The two now former Fleet of Fog ships enjoyed that very much.

The hours passed and then finally the Hover Cargo drove onto the plain. A little while later Brad in his Command Wolf, Leena with her Gun Sniper and Bit with his Liger Zero, in the Jaeger configuration, were sent out to the battlefield.

Of course, Susi couldn't be missing either. As usual, the oversized mechanical cat sat in Bit's cockpit.

It wasn't long time later before a Whale King flew over the mountains and sent four Storm Sworders into battle. Shortly thereafter, a judge capsule crashed into the ground. It was a dark judge from the Backdraft Group.

"Battlefield set up. The Backdraft Group against the Blitz Team. Battle mode 0999. Ready ... Fight!"

Anoth grinned.

Combat mode 0999 effectively meant no rules. Except that you weren't allowed to leave the battlefield.

In response to the Storm Sworders, Jamie was sent into battle with his Raynos. The Wild Eagle was back in the air and on the hunt and had breakfast only once after they had unloaded all their weapons without any effect on Brad and Leena, two of the Storm Sworders.

One of the others then took advantage of a bit of inattentiveness on Jamie's part and, with extended wing blades, cut into Jamie's Zoid, who then began to crash. Jamie was out of the fight with that.

But when Anoth intercepted the order from Laon to attack the Hover Cargo directly, it became too much for him and he dropped his cloak and before anyone could comment he fired multiple surface-to-air missiles at the two remaining Storm Sworders. One of them was so badly damaged that it crashed.

The other was also hit, but the pilot managed to stay in the air. In order not to burden the Zoid unnecessarily, it threw off the weapons mounted under the wing and flew away.

Laon and Toros meanwhile argued over video link. That was until they both suddenly found each other aboard of Anoth's Zoid form and looked Anoth himself in the eye.

Both had to swallow.

Anoth was not happy.

Then he grabbed the two of them by their ears and began pulling them behind him.

All the while he ignored the protests of the two.

"If you two think you have to act like toddlers, I'll treat you like them too." He growled as he marched down the hall to an empty room where he pushed the two of them in and closed the door behind them.

"I won't let you two out of here until you've settled your disputes."

As for the judge. The fact that Anoth had one of his main weapons aimed at him could have something to do with his decision.

"ThewinneristheBlitzTeam." It rushed down and disappeared into its capsule, which took off immediately after it.

.

Over ten hours later

.

They were all now sitting in the common room of the Hover Cargo.

The discussion between the two had been imperative.

The disputes were settled. And Laon had started to build a pretty close uncle relationship with Leena. He had even started to see Leena like his own daughter.

Anoth stayed out of the matter for the most part. They had to clarify that among themselves.

.

A few days later

.

Anoth was just playing with one of the Helcats who had turned into a house cat. A house cat about 80cm tall, mind you. When a rather unusual guest arrived at the base.

It was Benjamin. One of the robots from the Champ Team.

"What is he doing here?" Anoth asked himself and followed the bot. The Helcat was also curious but meowed angrily when Anoth stopped petting. Still, the one followed the bot.

A little later they found not only the robot but also the rest of the Blitz Team. Benjamin didn't say a word during the whole thing but showed a hologram from one of the ZBC's judge bots. A female judge bot.

Before that, Benjamin had already appeared on the sidelines of a battle in which the Blitz Team fought against another Team using the three Command Wolf and temporarily distracted Leena and Bit. Which made sure that there Zoids had to put up with some hits.

In the end, however, they were able to defeat the other Team.

"What was that supposed to mean?" asked Leena when Benjamin disappeared again.

"Oh I think I know what's going on." That was Anoth's answer. The grin was hard to get off his face. "Our little Benjamin apparently fell in love with a female judge~" With that, Anoth left the room laughing loudly.

A little later they were in the Champ base.

"So our Benjamin fell in love, huh?" Anoth Benjamin asked directly. Judging by his reaction, he was.

"If you can give me the details of the judge, I can tell you when and where the judge will be used next."

"What how?" asked Benjamin in surprise.

"I have full access to the databases and battle plans of the ZBC." That was Anoth's answer. "So?"

Benjamin gave him the data and Anoth started looking.

"Found her." It came two minutes later. "Judge 459-45/Delta_452. Scheduled for the fight ..." Anoth giggled at this. "You're in luck Benjamin. She's scheduled for the Champ Team versus Blitz Team fight. The fight should start in two days."

Benjamin couldn't wait but had to be patient for these two days.

48 hours could be a hell of a long time.

Then the time came.

The fight itself wasn't really a fight. It was rather the unwinding of a previously devised plan that worked perfectly. The judge was caused by an "accident" caused by Leena who fired a rocket bombardment at Bits, Harry's and Benjamin's Zoid who, by chance, of course, were far too close to the judge capsule. The judge was kicked out of her capsule and Benjamin could hug his loved one and be close to her.

The fight itself ended in a draw.

Not that that really bothered anyone.

What bothered us, however, was the loud and shrill goodbye to Benjamin when the Judge capsule took off again.

Everyone here could have done without that.

.

A few days passed.

.

"So you want this Zoid." Said Anoth who was currently sitting on Leon's old Shield Liger and was repairing it. It had taken a few days to find the Zoid, but once they located the wreck it was easy to recover the wreck.

"Yes, I do." confirmed Brad.

"From the way you describe the Zoid, it's probably a Shadow Fox Zoid." Meant Anoth. "An old now wild Shadow Fox. If you want that, you'll have to prove yourself worthy of him."

"And how do I do that?"

"That is for the Zoid to decide." Replied Anoth. "The fact that he showed himself to you at all proves that the Zoid is interested in you. It's probably an Ultimate. Just like Leon's.

"Grab your Zoid and go to his turf. The tests will probably start shortly afterwards. You will have to pass these tests on your own. Nobody can help you with this.

"Good luck."

Brad was actually on his way a few minutes later and his Command Wolf was gone.

.

Three days later.

.

Brad was back.

And he apparently passed the tests.

"You are back as I see." Said Anoth, who sat in the cockpit of Leon's former Shield Liger and carried out final system tests after the successful repair. The transfer of ownership was nothing more than a mere formality in front of everyone when Leon agreed to it without hesitation. "Where did your Command Wolf go?"

"Badly damaged at the bottom of a cliff." The answer came from Brad when he opened the cockpit.

"I don't even want to know how it ended up there. Pretty vixen you got there." Was Anoth's comment who at the moment was the only one who knew he was back.

"Vixen?" Brad asked surprised when he opened the cockpit.

"Yes, that's a vixen in fact." Replied Anoth. "If you're wondering where the rest of the Blitz Team is, they have a fight against the um ... what was their name?" Anoth really had to think for a moment. "Oh yes, the Crusader Team. They use Command Wolves. So they shouldn't be too much of a challenge for you. Here are the coordinates. If you hurry you will get there just in time."

"Thank you!" Brad shouted and rushed off.

Leon himself had come to visit a few days ago and had watched as Bit had conducted a real combat test with the Panzer Unit for the first time. His Zoid was now fully ready to use this unit. However, there was still a minor overheating problem. But this was triggered by the two main weapons of the Panzer Unit. Anoth probably had to revise its cooling system a little bit.

He had meanwhile done exactly that. Now the unit should no longer overheat with the first shot.

Brad's old Command Wolf was located quickly. The recovery of the almost 46 tonne Zoid was not a major problem. The Zoid didn't even need an organoid to be resuscitated. However, the repair was probably about as complex as with the Shield Liger.

The Command Wolf was really a sad sight.

Brad must have fallen uncontrollably down the mountain with the Zoid to do that much damage.

.

A few hours later

.

The Hover Cargo came back to the base. And after the won fight, all of them were delighted with the return of Brad and the newest Zoid on the Team.

Brad probably had a very interesting story to tell.

And as expected, the Crusader Team hadn't really been a challenge.

The Crusader Team was almost too late for the fight, as he later learned from Doctor Toros and Bit.

Brad and Bit had arrived after a while in the hangar of Anoth, where Anoth himself was standing in front of the remains of Command Wolf and thought about what he should do. The list of intact parts of the Zoid was shorter than the list of parts that had been destroyed.

"Well ..." Anoths finally sighed "I'm going to have to force a full regrowth?"

"A what?" asked Bit.

"I'll have to remove the Zoid core and force the Zoid to completely regrow its base model by placing the core in a growth chamber. The process itself is a lot more complex, but that's probably the really effective way here."

"Is it that easy?" asked Brad.

"The only really dangerous thing is removing the core. The rest is not difficult." Anoth explained. "After that, I'll scrap the rest of the Zoid and use it as raw material for the growth chamber."

"So he's rebuilding himself?" asked Brad.

"Yeah. Pretty much that."

"Can we help?"

"If you find yourself being able to follow my instructions?"

Both nodded.

"Well then let's get started."

.

Less than three hours later

.

The core was extracted and was now in one of the growth tanks. Anoth hadn't lied a bit. It really wasn't easy.

Brad made a grimace as he watched what was left of his Zoid land in pieces in an extremely powerful shredder. Without the Zoid core, it was really nothing but metal and so on.

The Command Wolf was slowly taking shape.

Nevertheless, it will take at least five hours before he could leave the chamber again.

"So this is the growth chamber?" asked a voice from behind. It was Doctor Laon and Doctor Toros who had arrived with Leena.

"How long have you been here?" Bit asked in surprise.

"We watched the whole operation from the observation lounge?" Replied Doctor Laon. "To be honest, I didn't even know it was possible." He could hardly hide the fascination in his voice. "In professional circles this was just thought of as spinning."

"The technology behind it is very old." Anoth answered thoughtfully. "The old Zoidians used the technique quite often back then. In fact, I have already recovered various Zoid cores and let them grow into new Zoids. It may well be that the secret behind this technology was simply forgotten over the course of time."

"Possible." Laon admitted. "Back then there were many wars on Zi. It may well be that the knowledge was lost as a result." Then he turned to Brad. "I heard you captured a new Zoid?"

"Captured?" Brad asked in surprise. "That is the wrong word. I've earned his respect and the Zoid allows me to be her pilot."

"And where is this Zoid?" asked Laon.

"Over there at the moment." Brad pointed to the other end of the hangar where the Shadow Fox was undergoing a few small tests and repairs.

With that, the entire group scurried over so quickly to the Shadow Fox that Anoth could have sworn that they had teleported there.

.

The next day.

.

The next day began with a simple match against a Team of six Rev Raptor Zoids. Bit Leena and Brad ate them for breakfast. They were not a challenge at all.

In fact the "fight" lasted less than 30 seconds.

Leena incapacitated three of the Rev Raptor Zoids with her Gun Sniper with a full barrage.

Brad did two of them in with his Shadow Fox.

And Bit with his Liger Zero and the Panzer Unit targeted the last one and showed them how nice it is to fly when the main cannon of the Panzer Unit hits the ground directly below you.

The whole fight was little more than a warm-up exercise.

As a reward they went to the beach to relax.

.

A few hours later

.

They had reached the beach.

The hover cargo arrived before Anoth did just a few seconds later. However, Anoth's sensors immediately recorded high activity underwater.

There was a Whale King and a whole bunch of other Zoids. Consists of Demantis and Maccurtis Zoids.

The Demantis Zoids were shaped more like insects and hardly resembled a praying mantis.

The Maccurtis Zoids, on the other hand, were reminiscent of lobsters.

They seemed to be digging for something.

Anoth stared at the Whale King for a while. However, he made no move to attack it.

But he made sure that the crew aboard the Whale King knew that he knew they were there.

While they were on the beach, the Champ Team surprisingly joined them. This time they even brought some toys. Three Warshark Zoids. Leena, Bit and Harry immediately started using them to run across the water.

The day went by in a flash and before you knew it, it was evening and Anoth, who had started the charcoal grill, was roasting various dishes for the hungry mouths. He was supported by Harry's robots Benjamin and Sebastian.

Yamato and Musashi had also enjoyed the day. Even if the two had mostly just spent the day lying in the sun.

This calm was suddenly interrupted when dozens of Demantis and Maccurtis Zoids came out of the water and started attacking Harry's Whale King, the three Warshark Zoids as well as the Hover Cargo and Anoth himself.

Not that these Zoids really had a chance to cause serious harm to Anoth or the others. But they were pretty annoying.

Yamato and Musashi also responded and took on their massive ship forms. Anoth also released multiple of his Zoids from his enormous hangars. Koenig Wolf Zoids, Zaber-Fang Zoids and Phoenix Liger who immediately started to get rid of these little pests (a Demantis Zoid weighed just about 10 tons).

Now they not only had to do with the Guardian and his Zoids, but also with two 80,000 ton super battleships that had a lot more firepower than they thought and practically appeared out of nowhere.

This attack, however, was only intended to serve as a diversion so that the Backdraft Group could remove what they dug up there.

However, they hadn't counted on Yamato and Musashi. And even less that these ships had weapons that had paralyzed or destroyed all underwater targets after the first missile volley. And badly damaged the Whale King.

In the end, the Backdraft Group, Anoth was sure it was them, was just about able to escape with their cargo on a badly damaged Whale King.

"What was so important to them that they sacrificed so many of their people to get it?" Anoth later asked as the police began to lead the captured Zoid pilots away.

Anoth then began to scan the place where they had dug.

It appeared to have been an old shipwreck. Which it was could no longer be said. The wreck was too crumbled for that.

.

A few days passed

.

The Royal Cup was finally here!

And not only that.

The spies reported that they came very close to locating the main base of the Backdraft Group.

They had found dozens of other buildings that had been built by companies that didn't exist at all and that could be assigned to the Backdraft Group.

It was only a matter of time.

When they have found them all they will strike.

Simultaneously.

All over the planet.

For the moment there was only one thing left to do for Anoth, and that was wait and see.

As for the Royal Cup.

First of all there were the preliminary rounds and the raffle for the wild cards.

The Zoids were currently going through an upgrade, maintenance, special treatment by a ZBC certified workshop. But the Blitz Team weren't the only ones who had to do that. Every Team that wanted to take part in the Royal Cup needed this certificate.

It was less about the modifications to the Zoid but more about safety issues and the like. Of course it was also checked that the upgrades were not illegal, but security was the top priority. The modifications were only secondary.

It was of course also reassuring for the pilots to know that the safety devices of their Zoids were fully functional.

Nobody ever wanted to use these features, but when they were needed it was better that they did what they were supposed to do.

Here the principle was: to have better and not need than to need and not to have.

Anoth could no longer help the Blitz Team with his own workshop. At the Royal Cup it was all about the Teams. This did not prevent Anoth from observing the fighting anyway.

Anoth's contract as Transport Zoid for the Blitz Team had also expired when they entered the Royal Cup.

While the Zoids were undergoing this procedure, the Blitz Team passed the time in the nearby mall. There they had also set up a simulator for Zoid fights. The judge who monitored the Zoid fights was a real judge from the ZBC and the sticker on the cabins made it clear that this simulator was ZBC certified.

Bit and, surprisingly, Cisco have just got their asses handed out to them on a silver platter in the simulator by a boy of about ten years of age.

Anoth was not a bit impressed when the two of them came out of their cubicles, they were very dejected because of the embarrassment of not landing a single hit on the brat.

"What's the first principle in a fight?" he asked the two of them in a tone that made it very clear that he had expected much more from both of them.

There was no answer.

"Never underestimate your enemy." Anoth growled. "And what did you two do?"

"Underestimated him." It came down pretty dejected from both of them.

"And what did you get out of that?"

"The defeat."

"Perhaps you should keep this fact in mind if you want to win the Royal Cup." With that Anoth walked away, shaking his head and letting them drown in there self-pity. "That wasn't what you showed there, just stupidity and arrogance." Did they hear him say as he walked away from them which only made the two of them sink even deeper into their self-pity.

The first preliminary round fight for the Blitz Team should actually take place against the Lightning Team. But this did not happen exactly as planned.

The Backdraft Group interfered again.

Anoth, who was quite far from the battlefield at the time, sent his two Royal Ancient Wolf Zoids onto the field, whereupon the Backdraft Group immediately withdrew.

Later camera evaluations revealed what they had been fighting against.

"I don't know this Zoid." Said the head of the ZBC in a conference between Anoth.

"I, on the other hand, do." Replied Anoth. "This is the long-lost Berserk Fury."

"And what's so special about this Berserk Fury?"

"Well ... on the one hand it doesn't have that name for nothing and on the other hand it's an Ultimate X. Just like Liger Zero." Anoth explained. "Apparently it wasn't even armoured and most of his weapon seem to be missing. Whoever this Vega is, he's got talent."

"What about the repairs needed for the Lightning Team and the Blitz Team?" asked the operator.

"The ZBC pays the full costs." Said the head of the ZBC.

"Just one." Reported the operator. "This Zoid pilot um ... Vega Obscura, 10 years old with pilot registration 8752142, asked for regular participation in the cup. A corresponding application was filled out and all conditions met. Should he be admitted?"

They debated a little about this question but agreed at the end of the attendance. If only for the reason that they could also keep an eye on the activities of the Backdraft Group.

.

Several days later

.

The pre-matches and the raffle, in which less fortunate Teams could also take part in the cup, were over.

The Champ Team and the Tigers Team had received one of the highly wanted wild cards.

The battlefield chosen was pretty well known to Anoth.

But above all the finish line.

He had fought there before, against a much more dangerous opponent than all participating Zoids put together.

The rules here were more like a battle royal.

Every Zoid with a System Freeze or otherwise no longer able to fight was eliminated from the Cup.

Fights against members of the own Team were prohibited.

Whoever is the first to find out exactly where the finish line is and reaches it, wins.

All battles have to take place in selected areas of the peninsula.

Fighting outside of these areas will result in immediate disqualification.

To get information about where the finish line was, several fights had to be won, at least five.

A maximum of four or fewer Zoids per Team could take part.

And of course the closer you got to the finish line, the bigger and more numerous the fighting zones became.

The last zone in which the finish line was located was also the largest of all zones.

Those were the rules.

The Royal Cup started the next day.

Anoth served as the Secondary Judge during the Cup.

His other Zoids patrolled the other combat zones and patrolled the areas in between them.

.

The next day.

.

The day began with a hail of Judge Capsules, which now took their positions on the various battlefields.

With the arrival of the judges and the announcement of the fighting mode (1001), the Royal Cup officially began.

No sooner had the announcement faded away, the Teams started moving.

The first battlefield they hit was abandoned except for them and the judge. And so the Blitz Team decided to go to the next field instead of waiting.

Much to the displeasure of the judge there.

It took a while before they met their first real opponent.

The Lightning Team.

Shortly afterwards, with the judge's approval, the fight began.

The training here more than paid for itself. With the help of the Shadow Fox's smoke cannons, they confused two of the opposing Team's Lightning Saix so much that it was easy for Brad and Leena to take them off.

Bit meanwhile used a somewhat "greener method". His race with Cisco ended in a small patch of forest whose dense vegetation Bit took advantage of to carry out a surprise attack.

With that the Lightning Team was defeated and he first part of the code for the finish line of theirs.

One of the next fights should actually take place against the Zaber-Fang Team. Since the judge presented them as the "Fuzzy Pandas Team", this ensured that not only the pilots were surprised but also the three Zaber-Fangs, because all three stumbled and suffered a system freeze.

The Zaber-Fangs Team was effectively eliminated without a fight and the Blitz Team could pocket the victory.

In between they had defeated two other Teams and so they now had four of the five necessary codes.

Anoth received notification that the Backdraft group had started shooting down the judge satellites. However, they also reported that they had long since had a plan to take care of them.

The HQ was found and captured two hours ago, as well as various other targets. Anoth only found out about it now. For Anoth it was now clear that the ZBC had expected an attack here and had set a trap for the Backdraft group.

"You clever old dog." Anoth said laughing while he contacted the head of the ZBC who had also told him.

"Somehow we have to prove that we can take care of such things ourselves." That is what the head of the ZBC only meant.

"Then I'll leave the field to what you've planned." Anoth replied with a grin.

.

The next opponent for Bit and Brat was the Fluegel Team.

Consists of Naomi and Leon.

The fight between Bit and Leon was a draw for a long time without one side being able to land a hit on the other. That was until the Liger Zero suggested Bit to use all seven blades in combination. The ensuing attack broke through the defence of Leon's Blade Liger and incapacitated it. However, not without consequences for the Schneider configuration. It had to put up with so much damage that it was no longer usable for the next fights.

Brad took advantage of inattentiveness from Naomi when Brad came to a stop in front of the judge capsule. The judge himself hurried to take cover when Brad gave the capsule a new ventilation hole and in doing so, Naomi's Gun Sniper, who was behind the capsule, missed a direct hit. With that, their Gun Sniper was also out of the game and the fifth victory was the property of the Blitz Team. And with it, of course, the last code.

.

The Blitz Team was now close to its goal. And its strongest opponent.

The Berserk Fury.

When the fight began, Leena was the first to feel the power of the Berserk Fury when it destroyed her weapons in an attack and thus took the Gun Sniper out of the fight.

Jamie followed just seconds later when the Berserk Fury literally cut the wings off from Jamie's Zoid.

Brad was the next to try his luck. But the Berserk Fury must have foreseen the attack. He dodged his claws and gave Brad's Shadow Fox a hard blow with its tail which catapulted him into a nearby sand dune.

His systems weren't frozen yet, but he was out of action for now.

Now it was up to Bit and his Liger Zero.

One thing was clear to Bit very quickly. The Panzer configuration didn't get him much further here. And his other equipment like Schneider and Jaeger were destroyed in the fight against Leon and Cisco and were unusable.

So he was left with the standard armour.

Was no use. He needed a lot more freedom of movement than the tank configuration allowed.

So he ditched the tank gear, returned to the hover cargo and switched to standard armour while Brad, whose Zoid had gotten back on his feet, kept the Berserk Fury busy.

Brad didn't make it long before the Berserk Fury managed to damage the Shadow Fox so much that its systems froze. But it was enough time for Bit.

That was until the Berserk Fury charged its three CPCs and aimed them at the Hover Cargo and then fired.

But without knowing it, the Berserk Fury shot itself in the foot. Because Bit was able to use the cloud of smoke generated by the blocked blast to carry out a surprise attack which cost the Berserk Fury the cockpit armour and one of the CPCs.

Shortly afterwards he also lost the second CPC.

Then the fight shifted to the wreck of the Ultrasaurus.

The Berserk Fury, meanwhile, lived up to its name because it fired its last CPC uncontrollably into the area. He had gone berserk and the pilot of the Berserk Fury had passed out the last time the two of them crashed.

When the Berserk Fury then recharged its CPC, Bit managed to get under his head and thus force the jet of the CPC into the sky. Somewhere in there, the pilot of the Berserk Fury must have woken up and flipped the ejector seat.

Now without a pilot, the Berserk Fury switched off.

The fight was over.

The Blitz Team had won the Royal Cup.

.

.

Now the ZBC also revealed what they had planned.

They also had another judge satellite. A huge satellite that had only recently been put into active service.

It swept all the Backdraft satellites out of orbit with ease.

With all Backdraft bases down and their satellite network destroyed, the Backdraft group had no choice but to surrender unconditionally.

.

When Bit stepped into the cockpit of the long-destroyed Ultrasaurus, a surprise awaited him.

Anoth was already there.

"Do you know where you are here?" Anoth Bit asked without looking up from the pilot's seat he was standing next to and stroking the back of the seat. It was surprising how well everything was still preserved here. Even after such a long time.

"In the cockpit of an Ultrasaurus?" Bit asked confused.

"That's right. Only this isn't some Ultrasaurus." That was Anoth's answer. "Moonbay once sat in this seat. Herman once gave the orders here and had greats like Irvine and Van Flyheight under his command." Bit's eyes widened. "Hard to believe that it was over 1,000 years ago."

"But that this Zoid means that this Zoid was..."

"Yes. Here was once the Rein Hertz Valley. And it was also here where I fought together with the Ultrasaurus against the Death Saurer and its copy. It was also here where these Zoids came to an end. My stay in this dimension will be shortly ending as well after the end of the Royal Cup. " Anoth pointed to the console in front of the cockpit. "Go ahead. Victory is yours."

With these words Anoth left the cockpit again.

.

Two days later, after saying goodbye to everyone, Anoth left the dimension to join the others again.

.

.

.

To Harry and the others

Akame ga kill universe

.

.

.

Esdeath had answered. She had had an audience with the "Emperor". An audience in which she had a hard time not to throw up.

She had got the order to set up a troop to destroy Night Raid. However, her first targets were political opponents of this worthless fat waste of space from Minister Honest.

She HATED Honest.

And everyone who was loyal to him.

So she had no problem informing Night Raid about the planned targets and thus throwing those who should carry out the assassination into the open knife.

Because those she sent on the hunt and thus to certain death were all loyal to Honest. Some of them even thought he was a god.

In fact, she could even use that to eliminate another thorn in the population and also eliminate another member of Honest's family.

She gave Liver a message. Because Livers loyalty was to Esdeath and Esdeath alone.

And he didn't like Honest any more than she did.

.

A few days later

.

Night Raid had managed to prevent multiple planned assassinations and to send the would-be assassins into the afterlife.

And that was only possible through Najenda's "lord weapon". It had a trump card that could be used permanently, but which was relatively useless in a fight. She could open the same portals to every place where Najenda had been before. That usually allowed Night Raid agents to get pretty close to their target.

Mitara called the trump card "The Eye of Heimdall".

In this case, Harry himself took the lead. He had gone through the portal with Bulat and Tatsumi and found himself only a few hundred meters behind their target, which they had to protect.

A carriage guarded by several dozen soldiers.

They followed this carriage in some distance. They had to wait for the assassins to show themselves. Because in this case they expected three Teigu users at least, but there could be even more to be eliminated. That's why Harry was there as well.

Besides, Esdeath had sent one of their faithful ones with them. Liver was mainly loyal to Esdeath and not to the Empire, and just like Esdeath, he only tolerated Honest even when he didn't like him.

He had information with him for their main objective. It was the coordinates to a secret prison where resistance fighters were being held. However, they also had information that there was probably more to it than just a prison.

One of Honest's many secret projects.

As it turned out, there were only two Teigu users who had to be eliminated. For Tatsumi and Bulat, Liver's two companions were worth little more than a dry morning exercise. Harry already knew that much about their profiles.

There was only one question to ask.

When would they show up?

It was less than an hour later when they were driving through a forest when the three appeared. There stood the three. In the middle of the way.

As soon as the carriage came to a standstill, the guards had already surrounded the carriage to protect it from the three attackers.

Liver sent Daidara into battle first. He was the tallest of the three and armed with a large axe. He stormed towards the soldiers, but was never supposed to reach them. Because the moment he reached out to strike something crashed down on him from above and crushed his skull under itself.

Daidara was dead before he could understand what had just happened.

It was Bulat.

Nyau, the smallest of the three, wanted to attack Bulat straight away to revenge the death of his comrade. He never got to that, because before he could start moving a breeze flew past him and in the next moment his body was freed from the weight of his head. Directly behind Nyau, Tatsumi came to a standstill with his energy blade still activated.

The "fight" that Harry, who apparently appeared out of nowhere directly in front of the carriage, then waged against Liver, was more show than anything else. During this little show, Liver managed to slip a note to Harry just before he "fled".

Although this show was quite impressive. After all, it had to look real, as if Liver was really fighting to kill Harry, knowing full well that he had no chance of victory against a Seraphim, even if Harry was still very young (by Seraphim standards).

Water whips crashed into walls of flames. Streams of water were diverted and sent back to the enemy, mixed with lightning, so the Liver was forced to avoid being grilled.

In the end there were quite a number of rather large craters in the road and several trees nearby were felled on the ground and Liver had "escaped".

As soon as it was clear that the fight was over, the three turned briefly to the carriage they had protected, nodded briefly only to then disappear without a trace.

However, each of the people in the carriage believed to have heard a voice shortly after the three had disappeared.

"Anyone who is an enemy of Honest is a friend of ours. Night Raid and the Revolutionary Army send their regards."

.

Not far away

.

"That was easier than I thought." Bulat said.

"Because they didn't expect us and Liver didn't warn them either." Was Tatsumi's answer.

"

Which Teigu did we actually get there?" asked Bulat.

"Hmm, let's see." Harry picked up the axe first. "That's the Double-Edged Axe: Belvaac. And that's Military Dream Music: Scream." When he held the flute in his hand. "Scream will probably be the more useful of the two for what we're up to."

"Why?" Tatsumi asked.

"Scream has the power to send the camp guards and anyone else who listens to the music to the land of dreams."

"That will make our job a lot easier."

"But that still doesn't tell us where the camp is." Tatsumi said.

"We know where it is." Said Harry and fished out the note Liver had given him. "If I interpret that correctly, our target is an old iron mine. The prisoners are used there to mine iron ore for the arms and armour smiths of the Empire. And that's not all. The manager of the plant is a guy named Omezo. A grandson von Honest. And just as sly and pitiless as the rest of his worthless family. He's also known as some kind of mad scientist. "

"How crazy?" asked Bulat.

"Yes."

"..." Bulat and Tatsumi turned pale.

.

Two hours later

.

They had reached the camp. It was, as Harry had already said, an old iron mine that had been turned into a prison above ground. They could smell the smell of decay from the distance where they were, a hill overlooking the complex. Harry had no doubt that the smell came from Omezo's failed experiments.

Or something much worse.

Harry could see creatures shuffling in part of the compound that didn't look as if they were still alive.

"What's that?" Tatsumi asked, who was looking over the facility with binoculars and had also spotted the creatures.

"The result of Omezo's experiments, I suppose." Replied Bulat.

"So how do we get in there?" Tatsumi asked.

"The sewer ditch." Bulat said who had borrowed binoculars from Harry and studied the system carefully. "We just have to get rid of the grille."

"A simple iron grille?" Tatsumi asked whereupon Bulat nodded. "My energy blades shouldn't have a problem with that."

"Yes, that's a good way to get in, because if I see this correctly, the drain cannot be seen from the walls." Said Harry.

"And the towers?" Tatsumi asked.

Harry looked at both towers. There was only one guard in each and both looked as if they were sleeping standing up. They really didn't look motivated. "I don't think they're too dangerous." said Harry. "It looks more like they sleep standing up."

"When do we attack?"

"Midnight."

.

A few hours later.

.

A moonless night. Ideal for what they were up to.

It was a breeze to get down to the sewer, especially considering that the guards on the towers were sound asleep this time. The Teigu Scream was not entirely innocent of this.

Tatsumi had cut through the bars with ease and they were already inside the facility.

Harry spoke up when they got to an intersection in the pipes. "Don't forget; our goals are: Recovery of all info data that Omezo has here, especially those about his experiments. Tactical info such as maps and the like. Then of course the elimination of Omezo himself as well as the erasure of his local experimental results and the complete destruction of the whole complex but only after we have freed the prisoners. Got everything? "

Tatsumi and Bulat nodded.

"Then we split up. Tatsumi you are looking for the prisoners. Contact me as soon as you have found them. Bulat you eliminate Omezo's abominations and I am looking for Omezo because where he is I will probably find his documents. And leave yourselves." not discover for the time being. "

Tatsumi and Bulat nodded again and with that they split up. Tatsumi went to the left in the direction of the mines, Bulat to the right where they had seen the strange creatures at the beginning and Harry took the tube straight ahead, which should lead him directly to the main administration building.

.

With Harry

.

Harry followed the canal until he came to a hatch. He climbed the wall of the canal and peered through the hatch openings.

He was under the guard barracks and right above him was a chair with a guard sitting in it, who was playing what looked like cards.

That was the wrong opening.

Harry quietly climbed back down and continued down the canal.

Three hatches later he found himself below the kitchen. The two in front of it ended in one of the inner courtyards in the middle of the open and without any cover.

He gently lifted the lid and climbed out. Before doing this, he had made sure that the kitchen was empty. As soon as he was outside he pushed the lid back in place and went to the only door in this room. This was locked, but the lock was cracked in less than five seconds.

He opened the door a tiny crack and peered into the hallway beyond.

Guards.

Several of them were on patrol on this floor and there was also a guard on the right of the kitchen door.

Why is the kitchen guarded? Harry asked himself. The answer, he got faster than he expected when one of the patrols stopped right in front of the door.

"Bad luck again, right?" asked one of the guards.

"Somebody has to do it." Said the guard standing at the door. "You know what else Omezo's wife does to us." Harry could clearly see all three guards shuddering.

"Yes. He really needs to lose weight."

"That's true, and even if he got past me, he still won't get into the pantry."

"Also completed?"

"Yes."

Harry peeked over to said pantry and actually there was a padlock in front of it with a ridiculously thick chain.

The three guards kept talking for a while, then all three marched away. They had managed to persuade the third guard to visit the brothel. Harry was fine with that.

A minute later the air was clean and Harry slipped unnoticed down the dark corridor and up a flight of stairs only to then scurry into a broom closet when more guards came by. Seconds later he was back on the road. The next flight of stairs was a bit away from the first one but apparently there was only one patrol on this floor and so it was easy to get to. A look up the stairs told him that he would probably not get up that easily. There was a guard up there who could see the whole staircase.

A ventilation shaft a few meters back was the solution. Seconds later, Harry was in the shaft, climbing up the vertical shaft. The shaft led to the fifth floor. That was exactly where he had to go.

Minutes later he found himself in a ventilation shaft that ran directly over a laboratory. A laboratory that was equipped with technology that they shouldn't have here. Genesequencers, mutation accelerators, etc. They certainly came from the Seraphimian spaceship that crashed here long ago. In fact, on some of the devices the coat of arms of the Seraphimian Ministry of Research could be seen. They were clearly from the Sashira .

Since there was no one in the laboratory, Harry silently opened the grate of the shaft and then dropped down into the laboratory itself, where he immediately began to download the log files of the machines. These files will certainly give more information about what happened here than the written texts.

However, they were still collected. After that, the devices were shrunk and collected. Almost half an hour had passed and the room was now completely empty. He now had the dates, but where was Omezo? Because he wasn't here in the building.

Harry opened a window in Omezo's now empty office shortly afterwards and jumped out.

.

With Bulat

.

Bulat crept to the open enclosures that housed Omezo's experiments. With his activated Teigu he could easily see in complete darkness and also make himself invisible.

When he reached the enclosure he could see what Omezo had created there. Strange creatures. Some with six legs and four arms and things he couldn't even describe. Abominations. The word got it right. (The mutated enemies from the game "The Forest")

In the enclosure next to it was something he could most easily describe as zombies. Strange creatures with bluish flesh interspersed with implants. (The Husks from Mass Effect)

There was no salvation for these creatures.

His gaze fell on a control room just above him. Immediately he went there. He took the metal stairs up and carefully peered through a crack in the door. Inside, only one guard sat asleep at a control panel.

It was easy to sneak into the room, break the guard's neck and then hide his body in a broom closet.

Then Bulat turned to the control panel and found a large red button that read: Exterminate the experiments.

Bulat couldn't help but grin when he pressed the button. The result was that the grate on the floor on which the creatures stood fell into the depths. In a very, very deep shaft. An old volcanic vent to be precise. There were so many deadly and corrosive gases down there that none of the creatures survived there longer than a few seconds that if they missed the lava lake down there.

Immediately afterwards, Bulat went to support Tatsumi.

.

To Tatsumi

.

Like Bulat, Tatsumi was creeping invisible across the site and was able to get into the mines with ease.

The gates were wide open.

A few guards were stationed there, but they were busy playing card games.

Once in the shaft, he quickly found the cage that could bring him deeper into the system. Instead of activating the basket, which was far too noticeable, he simply slid down the steel cable. His Teigu absorbed the resulting frictional heat without any problems, in fact it was even stored for possible later use.

The shaft went almost two and a half kilometres into the ground.

Tatsumi found herself at the end of the shaft on the roof of the hoist cage and simply jumped down from the cage.

Now all he had to do was ask a few questions to a guard who, as ordered, was sleeping in the chair down there in the control room for the conveyor cage.

A "questioning" later, in which the stored frictional heat was also used on very specific parts of the body below the belt, he knew what was going on down here.

Immediately afterwards he broke the guard's neck and draped him back on the chair as if he were just sleeping.

Omezo had apparently set up another laboratory down here, which is where he was now. The prisoners wanted, however, were in shafts 14, 26 and 31 where there were apparently prison cells. Omezo's lab was very close to these cells in shaft 27.

Tatsumi immediately contacted Harry and Bulat.

Fifteen minutes later they were both there and up to date.

"We split up." Said Harry. "Bulat you take shaft 14. Tatsumi takes over 31 and I snap at 26 and 27. Kill all guards in your way. They will soon know that uninvited visitors are on the premises."

Tatsumi and Bulat nodded and an announcement sounded through the loudspeakers as agreed. They had noticed the dead upstairs.

"As said." Harry just meant. "Come on now!"

.

With Tatsumi.

.

Tatsumi's shaft was the closest. On the way there only a handful of guards who blocked there way but they were eliminated within seconds.

Then he got down to the cells.

Only a few guards patrolled there.

The cells themselves were on three levels. On each level there were catwalks on which four guards per level patrolled. At the bottom were two guards who were pacing up and down.

Tatsumi's shaft itself ended on the top level. Two of the guards were standing there talking. Either they hadn't heard the announcement or they ignored the announcement.

Tatsumi was just fine and so he just strolled towards the two of them with fully activated Teigu as if he were one of them.

"Hi guys." He said cheerfully when he was standing by the two of them.

Surprised, the two turned to him only to notice how a strong hand grabbed both of them by the heads only to hit them together. Both guards were in Lala Land.

That alerted the other guards. One of them attacked Tatsumi with a drawn sword. Tatsumi fended off the blow with ease and immediately afterwards sent the guard with a Spartan kick into the next best wall where the guard remained unconscious.

The next guard was grabbed by Tatsumi and simply thrown over the railing into the depths. That eliminated four of the guards.

Six left.

Tatsumi followed the guard he had just thrown down by jumping over the railing and landing on one of the lower guards.

Guard number six now attacked him, but a targeted blow to the windpipe ended this attack very effectively. After that, Tatsumi simply broke the guard's neck.

There were only four left. These four, however, apparently had no desire to fight or they were smarter than the others because they surrendered and threw their weapons away.

"Smart decision." Tatsumi growled and jumped up to them, where he broke open the first empty cell. "In there!" he ordered. As soon as the four guards were in the cell, Tatsumi broke off part of the metal railing and then used this to lock the door to the cell by simply bending the metal piece like a piece of rope to lock the door.

"You stay in here nicely. Understand?" Tatsumi growled and the guards just nodded.

With that, Tatsumi marched over to the other cells and began to break out one by one.

Less than 10 minutes later, all cells were open and Tatsumi sent a signal to Najenda, who had meanwhile travelled to the main resistance camp and immediately opened a portal at Tatsumi's position. As soon as it was open, Tatsumi sent all the freed prisoners through. As soon as that was done, the portal closed again and Tatsumi made his way back to the main access lift.

.

With Bulat

.

Bulat had it easier than Tatsumi, because the guards who actually guarded the prisoners stormed right at him in the tunnel. They were little more than a simple morning exercise to him.

The evacuation of the prisoners went straight afterwards without any problems and so he was back to the elevator a short time later.

.

With Harry

.

Harry had no more prisoners to evacuate for the simple reason that there were no prisoners with him. All cells were empty.

However, that didn't calm him down a bit.

Harry had an inkling of what had become of the former prisoners of these cells. They had seen the result on the surface.

Harry looked around carefully. There had to be an entrance to shaft 27 somewhere here.

Harry opened his pocket and took out a Seraphimian tricorder. A piece of technology that shouldn't exist here. Neither did the laboratory equipment he has recovered.

One scan later and Harry was sure.

A hologram hid the entrance to the shaft.

Some commands typed into the tricorder later and the hologram disappeared. Harry had just made sure that the emitters of the hologram overloaded. And Harry put the tricorder away again. However, not back to the storage dimension.

Harry followed the shaft, which apparently ended in a dead end. The tricorder was used again.

The tricorder made unusual energy flows visible behind the wall that closed the shaft. This shaft went even further.

"So ... where is the entrance?" Harry wondered and began to look around. There was a tool cabinet close to the wall. A piece of cloth moved in the breeze next to it.

"The classic." Harry muttered. He put the tricorder away and marched towards the tool cabinet, which he simply knocked over without much fuss.

"Bingo." Harry muttered when he saw the metal door behind it. Seconds later he had ripped it off its hinges and was in the hallway behind it.

Another destroyed door later and Harry had reached the path behind the tunnel wall and now followed it until he came to a massive three meter circular vault door.

However, this lock was not digital but mechanical.

A broken mechanical lock.

Someone had deliberately manipulated the lock so that it could not be opened from the outside.

"Somebody doesn't want to let me in there." Harry muttered when he saw the melted gears. "Well." Harry assumed a beast form and grabbed the entire door with his telekinetic powers and began pulling on it.

It took just under a minute, then cracks appeared in the wall. Seconds later, the entire door broke out of the wall. Harry floated the door to the side and just slammed it down there. He just left the heavy reinforced door leaning against the wall.

Harry peeked into the room behind the door. It was a lock. There was a second door. The first went in Harry's direction, the second in the direction of the room beyond.

A brief use of telekinesis. Later, the door was out of the way. Harry simply dropped the heavy door on the guards waiting for him in the room beyond.

Four guards were eliminated by a 25-ton reinforced door that fell right on top of them.

Immediately afterward, Harry resumed his human form.

It wasn't just a laboratory.

It was a complete bunker.

"Great." Harry muttered. "So where did that rat hide?"

Harry picked up the tricorder again and used his own powers at the same time. A short time later it was clear that there were multiple signs of life in the bunker.

65 signs of life to be exact.

47 of them were not human but more in line with the results on the surface. Fortunately, they were all locked in two separate rooms.

The other 17 were spread out between Harry and a large room that was supposed to be the main laboratory, where the last sign of life was.

"Have found you." Harry muttered. "So ... how do I get to you?"

A short time later he knew.

"I hate air vents."

With that, Harry stomped over to the wall and tossed a box that revealed a ventilation shaft behind it and climbed inside.

.

Silently cursing for 25 minutes and climbing later

.

Harry had finally reached the laboratory.

It was now in a shaft in the ceiling of the laboratory.

Ten meters below him was Omezo, who was pacing up and down frantically.

"There you are, little mouse."

Harry waited patiently until Omezo was right below him, then broke through the ventilation duct and dropped right on top of him. Omezo had just enough time to look up before Harry's claws pierced his skull. He was dead before he hit the floor.

Or at least he should have been.

It was a hologram.

Then Harry heard a dark growl behind him.

"This is supposed to be a joke." Harry muttered as he turned around. And when he saw what had growled there some things became clear to him. The hologram he had destroyed earlier was just the appearance that Omezo used in public.

That was his true form there.

And now it became clear what he had done with the laboratory equipment.

He had turned himself, if only partially, into a seraphim.

A very ugly version of it.

"Wonderful." Harry muttered, as the angry creature stormed towards him. Harry was forced to withdraw.

As strong as Harry was, he was still just an apprentice and this creature was at least 10 times as strong as him. He could never do it alone.

With that, Harry started running.

He broke through the doors of the laboratory with the creature close behind him, which simply destroyed the wall and door to pursue Harry. Seconds later, the laboratory's alarm went off.

The self-destruction had activated.

Harry ignored everything on his way. He dodged the guards and one or the other creature from one of Omezo's experiments. Seconds later he found himself in the access area of the bunker.

Harry thought he'd shaken the creature off when it broke through the wall right behind him.

"Crap!" Harry cursed and ran. Through the two destroyed armoured doors to the tunnel behind and then at the wall that blocked the tunnel into the small access path. The creature crashed into the wall at the end of the tunnel and couldn't follow Harry, but Harry was under no illusions. This wall won't hold the creature back for long. That gave him a few minutes at most to breathe. Not more.

He could already see how cracks were forming in the wall.

He had little time.

A few minutes later Harry had reached the main access elevator where Tatsumi and Bulat were waiting for him.

They heard the growl and knew something was very wrong.

"What's up?" asked Bulat.

"Omezo did experiments not only on the prisoners, but also on himself." Was Harry's answer, keeping his eyes on the tunnel he had just come out of. "He's partially turned himself into a creature that looked a bit like a seraphim. I can't cope with that alone." He turned to the two of them. "Get Mitara and Konoko over here." Immediately afterwards they could hear how the wall that had closed the one tunnel before gave way. "Come on!"

Bulat and Tatsumi immediately opened a portal and disappeared through it. However, they were able to catch a glimpse of the creature that was now storming up the tunnel. Right towards Harry.

"Great." Harry muttered and jumped onto the elevator car only to immediately start climbing up the shaft as quickly as possible. The elevator itself would have been too slow.

A short time later he found himself in the mine shaft that led to the elevator and ran along it to the outside while behind him the creature stormed out of the elevator shaft just seconds after him, which it completely destroyed in the process.

Then finally... The starry sky.

Harry was back in the fresh air. He ran a few tens of meters before he stopped and looked back. He could see the creature making its way out of the access building.

Only seconds later he heard the roar of Mitara and Konoko behind him, who had immediately teleported to the area after they had felt a strange discharge of energy from the place and then also heard the warning from Bulat and Tatsumi. That now also ensured that the creature's attention had become the Omezo, fell on Mitara and Konoko and that he ignored Harry and this could bring some distance between himself and Omezo.

When Harry turned around again, the fight was already in full swing behind him. Harry knew he wasn't ready for a fight like this and teleported away.

.

1 minute earlier

.

Konoko and Mitara were busy with some area maps when Bulat and Tatsumi rushed into the room and reported what they had found.

Immediately both made their way to the old mine. As soon as they had passed the gates of the HQ they teleported to a point about 2 km away from the mine at an altitude of about 15 km.

Even from a distance they sensed that something was climbing up the old mine shaft. And that something was all but not friendly.

Then they saw it. A strange creature with similarities to the Seraphim, but the way it moved clearly indicated that the creature was not used to moving that way. It was pretty awkward.

Mitara opened the fight with a massive beam of energy which she fired from her mouth and pressed the creature to the ground. Harry meanwhile used this to teleport himself to safety.

The fight itself, Harry was told later, lasted for almost an hour. The whole area within a radius of almost 25 kilometres around the facility became wasteland during this battle. As well as a mountain that previously towered over five and a half kilometres into the sky was reduced to a little less than a kilometre high accumulation of boulders.

In the end, however, they managed to destroy Omezo, who turned out to be much stronger than initially thought. However, the maps for this area now had to be redrawn.

In fact, the tremors and the flashes of light of the fight were still to be seen in the capital and even in the more distant HQ of Night Raid you could perceive the lights and feel the vibrations.

.

Several days later

.

Harry was in Ieyasu's and Sayo's hospital room with Mitara. At first it looked as if the two would get through without any problems. But then the Lubora poison showed unimagined after-effects. At the moment they were both in an artificial coma while healing spells were acting on them that slowly repaired the hidden damage to their internal organs.

Both were not over the mountain yet.

The reason why they discovered what Lubora was doing in the body much later was simply due to the fact that no one had survived that long to show these after-effects. They were therefore completely unknown and unexpected. And were only noticed when Sayo's fever rose and both began to have blood in their urine.

Even the antidote Harry had given them no longer worked. They had to develop something completely new. To do this, however, they had to understand the hidden magical properties of Lubora. And that turned out to be more difficult than initially thought.

At the moment, symptomatic treatment was, in fact, pretty much the only thing they could do. And hope to come across a fresh sample of Lubora to analyze the stuff much more closely.

Esdeath had called back a few days ago with an encrypted letter. Anyone who tried to read it saw only symbols. Nothing from which anything could be read. And in this case Esdeath might have overdone it. For one thing, the symbols, and even if you managed to decipher them, the message was written in a relatively complex Seraphimian dialect and even this text was not the actual message. Only after going through two more decoding stages did you get the actual message itself.

She had received the order to put together a group that should officially take action against Night Raid. Officially.

Unofficially, the group was more interested in bringing down Honest. As they found out, Honest had lied to and exploited many of them. With a few exceptions. One of them was a certain Doctor Stylish. And that mad scientist apparently managed to locate the Night Raid base. She therefore warned of a possible imminent attack by "Team Stylish". That's what Doctor Stylish called his troop.

Two days later the time had come.

It was still early in the morning when Leone went down to the lake, and the sun was just peeking over the horizon. She knelt at the water's edge and splashed water on her face when she realized that her reflection was not quite right. Then her fighting instincts, which had only been sharpened by training with Konoko and Mitara, sounded the alarm. Instinctively, she took a leap backwards. Not a second premature. Had she stayed there just a second longer, the person who shot out of the water would have rammed a blade through her jaw into her brain.

Instead, the blade went nowhere. However, Leone's fist did find its target. This fist hit the opponent's head with such force that the head was torn from the rest of the body.

As soon as the first one was done, she heard the cracking of branches when more opponents approached. "He is here." Leone mumbled and immediately ran back to the HQ to wake up the others. No sooner had she rushed through the door, she almost ran over Lubbock. In the meantime he had noticed himself that they had uninvited guests.

The reason for this went to his Teigu with which he had laid hundreds of kilometres of threads around the whole complex that served as an early warning system. Each of these threads was thinner than a thread from a spider web and practically invisible to the naked eye.

Konoko stood on the top of the building.

"When you're back, Najenda," she growled, "we urgently need to talk about the relocation of the base. We have a few too many uninvited guests here."

The "fight" that they then waged against the creatures of Doctor Stylish was little more than an exercise to warm up because of the troops were now very well trained by the Seraphim.

In front of all of them was Mitara because one of them had tried to stab her in her sleep only to be beaten through the roof by her immediately afterwards.

But Stylish wasn't that easy to beat.

The first to realize that something was wrong was Akame, when she noticed that she was breathing very poorly and shortly afterwards she collapsed on the floor. Closely followed by the other members of Night Raid. Only Tatsumi and Bulat remained untouched. Their active Teigu filtered the air and so whatever Stylish had released didn't reach them.

Konoko, who was still standing on the roof, noticed what was wrong and immediately teleported to them. She immediately recognized the type of poison that Stylish had used. A poison that slowly paralyzes breathing. She even recognized the poison herself. She was immune to the poison herself. Which of course did not apply to the others and so she immediately began treating those who were under the influence of the poison. While Tatsumi and Bulat were about to eliminate the attackers. Seconds later they found themselves under Konoko's protective shield because she had teleported them to her just in time when she noticed that Stylish had built bombs in the attackers and thus saved their lives.

Mitara, meanwhile, had found out where Stylish was and was on the direct route there.

And Stylish had noticed.

Mainly because Mitara was approaching his position while in beast form. In this case a big red dragon.

"We are discovered!" shouted one of Stylish's henchmen. Stylish had several of them with him. Three to be exact. Every single one had a purpose that Stylish had greatly improved.

A woman with very large ears and therefore a very good sense of hearing.

One with a ridiculously big nose.

And the third with eyes that even an eagle would be jealous of.

"Well, there is nothing you can do about that." Said Stylish. "Save yourself" He was interrupted when Mitara jumped onto the cliffs in her huge dragon form and let the four fly through the air like pawns. "They really won't let us escape." Shouted Stylish during his involuntary flying lesson.

As soon as he landed, Stylish jumped back on its feet. "I have no choice but to give myself a dose of monster against a dragon!" he exclaimed with a laugh, suggesting that he was quite a few sandwiches short to a picnic.

Mitara watched completely unimpressed how Stylish transformed into a huge human-like shape after he had injected himself with a syringe with a rather strange liquid.

Mitara just sighed and rubbed her muzzle with one of her front paws while ignoring the crazy screams of Stylish and his experiments. "Why is it always the case that when we fight a mad scientist, he ends up giving himself something and then becoming one of his monsters himself?" She mumbled. More to herself than anyone else.

Mitara sat down in her dragon form and watched with a completely unimpressed look as Dr. Stylish transformed.

A little later, the transformation was complete. Stylish still had a humanoid shape, but it was now over 50 meters tall.

Shortly afterwards, Stylish ate his three little helpers and became a good dozen meters taller.

Mitara, however, only needed a few seconds to find the weak point of the creature that was standing in front of her. Stylish had not changed completely. This new form was more some kind of exosuit that he controlled from where the head actually should be sitting. Stylish himself could still be seen there, even though his arms and legs had grown together with its new shape. The creature's mouth was where its belly was and it was grinning at her.

After the transformation, stylishly ranted about eating them and thus becoming invincible, which only made Mitara sigh.

Mitara spread her wings and took off without beating them. Instead, the wings glowed and Mitara was only a short time later on the same level as Stylish itself.

"Are you finished now?" Mitara asked bored.

"Hahahahahahahaha. Finally a-"

"Die!" With this one word, Mitara fired a single hyperbeam-like energy beam from her mouth that completely atomized Stylish. The creature now with no control from Stylish collapsed just seconds later and soon crumbled to dust.

"Man, that guy was a pain in the ass." Mitara mumbled shortly afterwards when she landed and transformed back into her human shape.

.

30 minutes later

.

"Najenda, we need to talk." Said Konoko. "We've had a little too many unannounced visitors here lately."

"I know." Answered Najenda. "And I already have a solution for it."

"How long will it take us before we can strike?" asked Harry.

"Not much longer. The Revolutionary Army will be ready to march very soon." Answered Najenda. "The first plans are already underway."

"When do we start?" Tatsumi asked.

"In a month or two." Answered Najenda. "Until then, however, we still have a lot to do."

Najenda immediately introduced the two new recruits.

So…

Technically, it was just a recruit. The other was an organic Teigu called Susanoo. Speed of Lightning, Susanoo. He had a very special tick. He hated mess. Mine was the first to notice this when he simply walked up to her and straightened her hair out, which had been messed up by fighting Stylish's creatures.

The other was a girl. Her name was Chelsea. She also owned a Teigu. Phantasmagoria: Gaea Foundation. It took the form of a vanity case. That made this Teigu one of the most harmless looking Teigu around.

What did the Teigu Phantasmagoria: Gaea Foundation do was not meant for a fight but for infiltration. It allowed the user to transform into anything. If not to the extent that the seraphim themselves were capable of.

This Teigu would never be able to. This Teigu also came from Seraphimian production, which was also proven by a tiny seal on the make-up box. It was designed by Anoth's daughter Lisina herself. It was supposed to offer limited transformative abilities. Which it does.

However, Lisina hadn't been quite as happy with the Teigu. She didn't give the reason why. Because in the end it was only little things that annoyed Lisina quite a bit. Mainly the colour of the Teigu. Lisina HATED the colour pink.

Apparently she later found a way to change the colour. Because it was no longer bright pink. It now had a pattern made up of two different shades of red and a darker white. Much easier on the eye.

"Chelsea, do you know why your Teigu is called the Gaea Foundation?" asked Konoko. "It bears this name for a reason."

Chelsea could only shake her head but you could tell that she was very curious about the answer.

"It's the very first Teigu. In fact, this Teigu was Lisina's first project." Mitara explained. "It's several thousand years old. Here I'll show you." She let a drop of her blood fall on the closed jewellery box after placing it on a piece of paper in front of it. As soon as the drop of blood ran down and hit the sheet of paper, names began to burn into the paper. It was the names of everyone who had owned this Teigu before Chelsea and at the top was Lisina with a number of years that Chelsea could barely comprehend. Several thousand years.

A length of time that she couldn't really imagine.

How old were these people?

.

One day later

.

The day before it was said for everyone: "Pack things! We're moving!"

Now they were in an area that was much more difficult to walk than the previous one. The whole area was criss-crossed by deep canyons and Danger Beasts that only existed here. So called Marg Don. Oversized lizards that looked a bit like dinosaurs.

Including one that caught Mitara's attention.

It spat out very caustic stuff as an attack weapon.

Leone had fought a whole herd of them for practice purposes.

Mitara took some samples of the corrosive substance for analysis.

She quickly found out that the substance contained some substances that made it extremely interesting. In fact, she was able to isolate an active ingredient that appeared to be suitable for the treatment of her two problem children. She ran multiple simulations that confirmed this.

"And that should help?" Tatsumi asked incredulously.

"It is going to be." Confirmed Mitara. "You do not believe how many poisons from the animal kingdom contain extremely useful components for the treatment of various diseases."

This said component from the poison could be blocked by an antibody that was produced by the body during the poisoning with Lubora, which unfortunately caused more damage than good. Because this antibody intervened in processes where it had no business.

The effects started pretty quickly after the injection. However, Ieyasu and Sayo will probably stay in a coma for a few more days. But they were already noticeably better, because now the healing spells worked much better.

Now the rest of the group was mainly focused on training.

However, Esdeath had sent them a message.

Apparently a new type of Danger Beast was spotted nearby that had killed several civilians. Judging from the description, these were probably experiments by the late Dr. Stylish that had apparently escaped. Or that someone had deliberately released.

The hunters have been mobilized to deal with this problem.

.

Tatsumi was on patrol together with Lubbock. They were looking for these creatures too. But were rather unsuccessful at the moment.

That was until Tatsumi decided to look around at the top of the mountains. Lubbock only told him that he had tripped wires everywhere but that no one had triggered them yet.

Once at the top Tatsumi found nothing out of the ordinary. Not even animals.

Various monsters appeared out of nowhere behind him.

Then suddenly Esdeath appeared out of nowhere right in front of Tatsumi and made short work of the creatures only to be surprised by another a short time later.

It was the leader of the monsters. He sent the two of them with his Imperial Weapon Dimensional Formation: Shambala to a lonely island.

They arrived just in time to see a huge portal rip open from which a huge mechanical dragon waded into the sea.

Esdeath's eyes widened.

This wasn't some mechanical beast.

The aura from the creature was clear.

Anoth had entered the dimension.

The big boss had arrived.

Earlier than they expected.

They widened even more when a huge danger beast emerged from the waters. Before the creature could do anything, however, a massive white energy beam reduced it to ashes.

A second danger beast appeared. This one with armour. Since Anoth saw it as the greater danger, it was heading straight for him. Only to be crushed by over 225,000 tons that weighed on each of the four feet.

The tremendous bang as the foot came down made the ground on the island quake. So much so that Tatsumi and Esdeath found themselves sitting on their bums.

They could only watch as the huge Mechanical Dragon approached the island only to light up and shrink down to a man who came to a stop in front of them.

A moment later Esdeath jumped up, only to fall on her knees in front of Anoth.

"Get up, Lisina's shadow beast and temporary shadow beast from Mitara, one of my wives." Esdeath did as she was told. "I hope you can explain to me what's going on here."

.

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A / N: Maybe I should make the next few chapters shorter than this one with over 68.700 words.

This did take MUCH too long to write.