The minifigures lowered their weapons and the Stromlings around them were obliterated by the Talons' gunfire. The dropships came down around them in a protective circle, and troops jumped out.
There was around ten or fifteen troops from each dropship, for a total of three-hundred and four-hundred and fifty total. Most of the began forming defensive perimeters, setting up barriers, communication beacons and weapon racks. Some, higher ranked soldiers, walked into the centre, towards the minifigures.
One, a veteran commander, by the look of him, approached them angrily. He was coming from the direction of a dropship that had a damaged wing, destroyed bubble turret, scorched hull and smoking troop bay.
"Oops," Thenso said quietly. "Did we do that?"
The commander looked quite enraged. His head looked about ready to explode. He opened his mouth, about to yell a string of insults, Meyer was sure, but he was pushed out of the way by a large shield.
He stumbled, and raised his fist to punch the person, until he saw who it was, and his expression turned to loyalty and awe.
A man, in his late twenties or early thirties, walked past the commander. He wore a pair of armored blue pants, and an armored blue shirt, which was covered by a set of bulky silver armor. In his left hand, he held a large, silver shield with a blue falcon on the front. He gripped a sword in his right hand, a glowing blue blade with a golden hilt. He had the face of an experienced fighter, leader and knight, and had short blonde hair.
Duke Exeter had come to rescue them.
Duke was followed by two other people. One was a Sentinel. He wore silver armor with blue markings on it, and four blue dots on the breastplate, indicating high rank. He held a Powerjouster over his shoulder in one hand *, and held a Rank three Knight Helmet under his other arm. He had a large scar over his left eye, and short, brown hair. He seemed young, yet his face told of many battles fought.
The other person was... a Stromling? It was. It held some sort of gun, and wore ripped, purple ninja robes.
As they approached, the Stromling morphed. His body shifted until he was a minifigure, wearing a black ninja gi, Space Marauder pants and shoulder pads, hold a Space Marauder Blaster.
"Hello there," Duke Exeter said as they stopped in front of the four minfigures.
The group didn't offer any response, still shocked that Duke Exeter had brought a convoy of thirty fully loaded dropships to rescue them when they didn't need rescuing.
Duke decided to skip to the introductions. "Well," he said, motioning towards the Sentinel, "this is Kangroo, the leader of the Sentinel reinforcements, and one of my most senior commanders."
Kangroo nodded.
"And the Space Marauder here," Duke continued, turning to the Space Marauder. "offered to come with us. He is an... interesting minifigure, half-infected. He can morph into an infected form at will..."
To prove his point, the Space Marauder transformed into a Stromling, then back into a minifigure.
"...Just like that," Duke finished. "His name is-"
"Yonder." Theso had spoken. Everyone looked at him.
"Now," Duke said, confused, "how did you know that?"
"Just after the Darkitect incident in the Tower," Thenso explained, "He was helping out clean up in the Paradox area."
Duke looked at Yonder for confirmation. Yonder nodded.
"Alright," Duke said. "Now-"
"Duke." Vanda had interrupted him. She spoke slowly and clearly. "Why did you bring all... this?"
Duke looked around at the dropships, as if noticing them for the first time. "Oh." He looked for the right words. "The explosives, of course."
"Explosives?"
"Oh, yes. We decided that Maelstrom here is, ah, too powerful. We're going to destroy the planet."
"What?! How do you destroy a planet?"
"With fifty tonnes of Phase VII Annihalator-class explosives, of course."
"Phase seven what?" Trek asked.
"Really powerful bombs," Duke said.
"Oh."
"You can't just destroy a planet!" Vanda objected.
"Why not?"
"We at least have to get a sample of the Maelstrom first," Vanda pleaded.
Duke gave in. "Fine. You have six hours. If you're not back here in that time..." He winced, "...we're leaving without you."
"We'll be here." She looked at Meyer, Thenso and Trek. "Let's go."
They turned and ran back into Mech Caverns.
They wandered through the caves until they found a plateau. It only had a small
amount of Maelstrom, but it had enough for a good sample for study.
"Now," Vanda said, "This is our only chance. We need to get in, get samples, and get out quickly, and we have approximately five and a half hours to do it."
"Question," Trek said. "How exactly do we get the samples?"
Everyone looked at him like it was completely obvious.
"Oh," Vanda said. "You're not Paradox. I forgot. Well, we use this, of course."
Meyer pulled a small device from one of his utility pockets. It resembled a pistol, and was black and red, the colors of Paradox, with a dome with a thin stick with three balls of differing sizes on the front of it. It had a small translucent bottle of the back of it, which appeared to be empty.
"O...k..." Trek said, stil confused.
They walked onto the plateau. Vanda created a pulse of energy, attracting the attention of all the Maelstrom. They turned and charged.
Trek aimed his pistol to fire, but Meyer pushed it away. "Don't smash them," he said. "Yet. We need to get some samples first."
Trek nodded, and as a Stromling Elite got close, Meyer raised the device and pulled the trigger.
A beam of white light was emitted from the barrel of Meyer's device. When it hit the Stromling Elite, a white light encased it. It looked around, confused, unable to move. Meyer released the trigger.
The beam of light glowed brighter, and suddenly the Stromling Elite was pulled towards the minifigures. As it got closer, it... shrunk? No. That's impossible, Trek was sure.
But it was. It was shrinking at a steady rate. When it reached the barrel of the device, it was tiny, small enough to hold in your hand like a small brick. It was suspended in the air. Then the beam dissapated. Trek though the Stromling Elite would fall to the ground, but it disappeared into thin air. Meyer tapped Trek on the shoulder and pointed at the translucent dome on the back.
Trek was startled to see the miniature Stromling now inside the translucent dome, glaring at Meyer and hitting the glass with it's sword, to no avail.
Then Trek looked at the Maelstrom, and saw there was a hologram of the same Stromling Elite standing in the same place before Meyer shrunk it. The hologram solidified and continued charging.
"What- how-" Trek was at a loss for words.
"How do you think we got all those miniature Maelstrom creatures in Dragonmaw Chasm?" Meyer asked, cutting down the charging Stromling.
"Hey!" Meyer said, smashing a Stromling that was about to slice Trek, "Keep your guard up!"
"Right," Trek muttered, raising his pistol and blasting down a nearby Stromling.
After around an hour, the minifigures had collected thirteen Stromling Elites, six Dark Tunnellers and three Corrupted Mechs.
"That should be enough," Vanda said. "Let's get back to the convoy."
"Right," Thenso said, unleashing a blast of Dark Thunder. "Move out."
The four made it back to the Talons, which had been transformed into a Sentinel outpost.
"Why go to all this trouble," Thenso asked, "if it all going to be destroyed?"
Vanda shurgged. "The Sentinels like taking control of already secured areas. I don't see the point."
"Neither do I," Meyer said. "Quickly, let's get on board."
They boarded a Talon with Duke Exeter, Kangroo and Yonder.
As they took off with the convoy following behind them, Duke Exeter pressed a button on a remote he was holding. At the press, there was a noise from the planet behind them.
Then it exploded.
After the noise stopped, the fire was smaller and smoke towered into space for miles, Thenso remarked, "I suppose this is it. The end of Ryol III, and the end of the Battle on Ryol."
The end
Ok guys, this is the end of Paradox 2, once again, I don't own this series or any of the OCs, only the people who submitted them and Brickmaster7946 does.