AN: Sorry to keep you guys waiting. I've been having a few problems with school and family lately, so I haven't had time to type. Also, I have had an idea that I've been mulling over for this chapter as well. I will get back to Sly next chapter, I promise. Well, I'll not keep you waiting anymore. (I can't figure out why it is locked in Italics, sorry!)

Sly 5: Return of the Theivious Racconus

Ch 12

Enter the Angels of Death

Location: Mojave Dessert, 300 miles from nearest population center

Site: US Military Research Installation

Project Name: ENIGMA

3rd Person POV: To the untrained eye, the facility seemed unguarded and unimportant. A simple chain link fence surrounded the base, and a few guards patrolled it. If viewed thermally, however, camouflaged AT missile sites, tanks, and assorted armored vehicles could be seen forming a perimeter around the base. A full infantry division was hidden in spider holes in the sand.. Covered helipads located inside the base hid attack helicopters from view.

Why is all this firepower here? Simply put, it is decoy, bait, and trap, all in one, the United States plan to end this series of raids on research facilities. Rumors were spread about the purpose of the facility, ranging from advanced aircraft, to alien conspiracy. The idea was to let the enemy, whoever they are come in and be annihilated by overwhelming firepower. Surely they would use all their forces for this raid, thus making its destruction all the easier. After all, surely they were stoppable.

They were. Just not by what they had.

(Fast forward to night)

All the men were on high alert. All the previous attacks had been at night, so tensions were high. NVGs or equivalent gear were on all the men as they readied themselves for what would soon be a battle. Suddenly, a dull thud could be heard echoing across the dessert, like the footsteps of a massive beast, accompanied by the hiss of hydraulics. But another sound was present as well, the whine of massive fans. That was knew, judging by the few survivors of the raids reports. A large dust cloud was coming, like a storm about to hit a town.

The first hundred million candlepower flares launched by the Zaku's seared the retinas of every infantry men into painful uselessness, permanently blinding them as if they had looked head on into the sun. The more shielded electronics of the armored vehicles feared better, merely shorting out. Then the source of the new noise made itself known. The mech looked somewhat like large, brown , heavily armored figure with a massive armored skirt like shroud that acted as armoring for the hovercraft that allowed movement. The upper half was more normal looking, somewhat like the average man's torso, if covered in blocky armor and with hilariously undersized arms for something 45ft tall. The head looked like a solid block the same color as the rest of the machine, save for the black slit where the rail that its main "eye" camera ran along. Unlike its companions, it looked unsuited to front line combat. That is where the missile pods and 680mm cannon on its back came into play. It was the long range artillery unit Xamel. And there were twenty of them to back up the seventy Zakus leading the charge. Ten of them staid back to set up for bombardment, while the other two closed to use special ordinance: HERF missiles. The back pods, four on each mech, opened up to reveal twenty tubes, each with two missiles. They ripple fired the rounds at the stunned and screaming forces, unleashing a total of 160 missiles .They screamed over the two miles separating the forces and detonated in the air. There was no explosion, no mist of poison gas. Just a sudden whine as the High Energy Radio Frequency missiles did there job of disabling the every electronic device in the base. Helos, struggling to get in the air, stopped rising and crashed to the ground or refused to start. Tanks and IFVs stopped moving, and missiles fired in desperation ceased to function and fell to the ground, there detonators no longer working. All this, in the span of sixty seconds, without using a single round of lethal ordinance, incapacitated an entire army. It would have been the perfect time to take prisoners, if the soulless drones were able to. Instead, they set to the slaughter that they were sent to do. Xamels salvoed incendiary missiles as they loaded their main guns. Zakus began to spray the area with 90 and 120mm auto cannon fire. It was a slaughter. Men cried out in despair, in prayer, or vain hope of salvation. And salvation was about to strike.

Three figures stood on a ridge near the base, ready to act. They had arrived to late to intervene in the fight, but with plenty of time to be saviors. They all wore a full suit of powered armor, but each different. The first, a cheetah by looks, wore a slim, formfitting blue armor with various pommels for daggers and swords sticking out in various easy to reach spots. A large bore assault riffle was magnetically clipped to her back, and a pair of automatic pistols completed the suit. The next of the trio looked like a large bear, likely a grisly. His suit was large, bulky, and heavily armored. Various missile launchers and explosive devices were connected to the armor, and the fists of the suit looked like boxing gloves. The most unusual part though, was what looked the cylinder of a revolver on an open frame with a spike on each arm. The final, was obviously an avian, probably an owl, judging by the size of the eyes on his armor. His looked like the cheetah's, if camouflage green in color, but with a monocle like attachment on his helmet, and a large bore, futuristic looking rifle with a split barrel attached to his back. A pair of automatic pistols and a large knife completed his gear. Seeing the force before them, they looked very differently than one would think under there armors. The cheetah had a mischievous grin on, like a child about to play there favorite game. The bear looked similar, but with a serious look in his eyes. The owl, however, had almost no emotion on his face, save a look that made it clear he was calculating the perfect place to set up. He was the first to break the silence.

"Bolt, you deal with the ones up front. Your speed should allow you to deal with them in rapid order." His voice, like his face, showed no emotion, and very little in the way of an accent. From what there was, there was a slight southern drawl."Boris, you take the Xamels. Your Pile Bunker should deal with there armor. I'll take out the leaders. I should be able to identify there emissions, and the Harkonen will deal with them. Remember, PD clips only, and set all weapons to minimal remains mode. Leave as little trace as possible."

"Okay, Archimedes." The cheetah replied. Her voice had a childish hint to it an an accent not native to he species home. It was more Cockney than anything else. She turned to face the enemy and seemed to tun into a blue streak, a midnight black blade in hand.

"She always does get ahead of herself, doesn't she?" The large bear named Boris said. His voice made it clear that he was a native of Russia. He slid six large explosive charges into each of his Pile Bunkers and charged at the artillery mechs like the bear he was, smashing through a few Zakus that got in his way.

Meanwhile, Archimedes laid down on the ridge overlooking the battle as he unlimbered his rifle. As the scope would be impractical with the helmet, he unhooked a switch on his helmet and connected a wire to the scope on the massive rifle. The monocle on he helmet flipped down and began to display what the scope revealed on it. "Now,"he said, with his accent more pronounced,"time for the hunt."

The slaughter was now reversed. Bolt, like her namesake, was a solid streak on the battlefield, her blade cleaving through the Zaku's 6in armor plate like tissue paper. Boris, meanwhile was showing the Xamels what his Pile Bunkers could do. He brought each of his fist down on the armor with savage blows, crumpling the 9in plate like a tin can. When it stopped giving, he would trigger the Bunkers, and send the spike, coated in a high intensity energy coating and moving at incredible speed from the explosive propellent, skewered each mech like a kebab. Archimedes was the true terror of the machines fro he was unseen. Whenever he spotted a certain emissions pattern in a mech, he would fire his rifle, alternating between solid shot and energy. In five minutes of fighting, the mechs were nothing, literally and figuratively. No wreckage was on the field. As the fighter looked at the survivors, the could see the medevac units they had called during the fight speeding in to aid survivors. Not wanting to be noticed, they all engaged an optic cammo and began to walk off into the night. But not before leaving a message to be found. It stated simply:

"We are the Angels of Death, avenging the fallen. In this Verse and the next we come to find ourselves in."

Three Angels enter the fight

Are the friend or are they

foe? Where do they come

from and where do they

go? All will come to be known.

AN Well, that was a while in the making. Sorry it took so long, and sorry about the italics (I can't get rid of them!). Next time, I will return to Japan, to see what Sly and Shadow are up to. See ya soon (hopefully.)