Hello again for the first time in forever! It's been forever, I know, but finally, finally, I am able to be back. Computer issues plagued me, so I had to deal with them which I did. But this came at the great cost of the deletion of every single one of my notes, my possible timelines, and the drafts I had made for the rest of the future scenes. These all had to be replaced; all my research re-conducted before I could continue, and I'll admit I got a bit discouraged by the setback after setback. But, problems are (hopefully) at an end, and I can finally give this story an end as well! Here's the next chapter you guys!

Chapter 25: The Guardian Siege

"AARRGGGHH!" Naruto was throwing things around his office in a towering rage, worse than anything anyone had ever seen before. Swatting things off the desk, kicking the chair over, throwing things at the walls.

Outside, a few of the others winced with every thud that struck the walls and door. Sasuke, Hinata, and Sakura were waiting outside in the hallway. Sasuke was leaning against the wall, arms folded when he saw Executor Selendis approaching. They nodded to one another as she walked up.

"Still going?" she asked them.

The three of them just nodded wordlessly. Selendis shook her head.

"I do not wish to be heartless, especially now, but we do have a serious problem here. It won't be very long before the Zerg arrive; we have to be ready at the very least."

They all looked at each other. "Guys, I think you should let me handle this," Sasuke was being surprisingly diplomatic, "You guys go and figure things out; I'll bring him along as soon as possible."

Hinata and Sakura nodded and left with the Executor. Sasuke watched them leave, calmly waiting for the noise inside the office to subside. It would be a full two minutes longer before this would occur. Sasuke was slightly surprised when he realized it was actually silent in the immediate area. He took a deep breath and opened the door into the office.

The room was a complete mess. It looked like a tornado had just ripped the place apart; files and drawers overturned, papers everywhere, a lamp fallen near the only standing pieces of furniture. Naruto was sitting on the only standing chair, elbows on the table, forehead resting on his hands. Sasuke knocked on the door to get his friend's attention. Naruto slowly looked up at the sound.

"So, what's the terrible news that you bring now Sasuke? Let me guess – it's going to rain later today too isn't it?"

"Oh, so clever," Sasuke retorted sarcastically, "What happened here?"

"There was an insect. I destroyed it. Collateral damage was unavoidable."

Sasuke gave his friend an irritated look, "I hate to sound insensitive despite my long history of doing so, but now is hardly a good time for this."

"I know. I know. Let me guess, the Executor wants us all for a meeting now."

"Yeah, that's actually exactly what it is."

"What's the use?" Naruto leaned back in his chair, "Those giant floating worms and that ever more giant bloated squid are almost certainly on their way here already. What use is tactics when there's no way on this earth that our current firepower can bring them down?"

Sasuke paused for a while before shrugging, "I honestly have no idea. Survival? There's got to be some way to kill them, we just have to figure it out. Come on, are we not obligated to at least try?"

Naruto slowly got up, "I suppose we are. When this over though, promise me we'll at least do something about this. We can't let everything that's happened, and all the people we've lost be forgotten."

"I promise brother. We'll make it grand like they deserve."

Naruto nodded his appreciation.

The base was oddly quiet as they walked to the fields. Sai was there to meet them when they arrived.

"Great timing. My raven's nearly finished recharging," Sai greeted them, "I can fly you two up if you want; I'll borrow a transport really quick."

"That would be good, thanks."

Up in the war room, a heated discussion was already underway. Selendis, Mohandar, and Thanatos were all standing around the holomap, talking with the shinobi leaders.

"We cannot continue to delay, the Swarm's Guardians are almost certainly already on their way here. The longer we sit here the closer they get!" Thanatos was saying.

"And what exactly do you propose we do, young Praetor?" Mohandar folded his arms.

"I…. do not know. But there must be something we can do!"

"Well, sitting here arguing isn't going to help us. Let's think of a way to repel these things. Suggestions?" Shikamaru entered the conversation.

"Well, first, what do we know about these things?" Tenten asked, "My team and I could probably come up with a weapon of some kind, but without knowledge of what we're fighting, we can't make anything that'll be truly effective."

"The huge one is known as a leviathan. It's a primary transport for entire broods for the Swarm. Though, I don't remember them being that large before," Selendis told them, "The worm-like ones that accompany the leviathan are called Swarm Guardians – a long-range assault creature evolved from the original guardians back during the Great and Brood Wars. That said, I think this is the first time we've seen more than one; the Swarm never created more than a small handful, and those are almost all dead now."

"Our primary focus should be on countering those Swarm Guardians," Shikamaru told them, "The leviathan is too large to stay in atmosphere for long periods of time by the looks of it, so it'll almost certainly stay in low orbit most of the time. The Swarm Guardians however are definitely purposed for combat down here and up in orbit, so the Brood Mother is going to be using her heaviest weapons as much as she can."

"Okay, what do we know about these things?"

"We have observers on them now. These guardians appear to be quite more powerful, not to mention significantly larger than their predecessors. Scans show that these things are suited for both atmospheric and space combat. Approximately 900 meters long, they have an acid spore attack that far out-range anything we currently have in our arsenal. As a back-up, they have large serrated spines they can launch from their sides, but these have nowhere near the range of the acid spores. We can't confirm as of yet, but it appears that some of them may have scourge nests embedded into their carapaces."

"Jeez," Sakura breathed, "Those things will be a nightmare to bring down!"

"Indeed, they are quite the formidable foe. However, they are not the only threat if you'll recall."

"The leviathan. I remember it being larger than the typical leviathan we encounter," Selendis nodded.

"Yes, we've finished analyzing it as well, and it is undoubtedly the most powerful minion of the Swarm besides the Queen of Blades herself. The beast is nearly double the size of its usual counterparts, and most of that extra mass is heavy overlapping plate armor that covers its outer carapace."

"Well that's just great. We don't have a thing capable of getting through armor that thick, let alone actually hurt the beast. How are we supposed to kill that thing?"

"Do we know anything about its combat capabilities?"

"Yes. As with all leviathans, it has a number of large tentacles it uses for brawling with capital ships as well as a larger number of smaller ones for smaller ships. It has multiple launch points for massive bile swarms; if these swarms connect, they can do untold amounts of damage to any ship it hits. It also appears to have an entire hive within it, allowing it to drop thousands of lesser Zerg to the surface at any given moment."

"The only weakness is its inability to effectively counter fighters due to its large size," Shikamaru pointed out, "But with the Guardians and huge numbers of mutalisks and corruptors flying all around it, none of our fighters would ever get close enough to even attack, let alone deal significant damage."

"Luckily for us, its size also makes it unsuited for atmospheric combat," Ino continued, "It must stay in low orbit for most of the time, only able to descend for short periods of time before gravity starts to get the best of it."

"Until it comes time to kill the leviathan, it is not the primary concern," Selendis told them, "Seeing as the Swarm Guardians are the more immediate threat, we must come up with a way to repel them, and quickly."

"Well, I could modify our missiles and extend their range somehow, but it'll be difficult, and I doubt they'll be able to match the Guardian's range," Tenten suggested, "If we got the new reavers close enough, our current missiles and rockets would be able to at least hurt one of the things, but it still might not be enough to kill it."

"Okay, it's a start," Selendis nodded, "I have the schematics for our race's artillery craft, the Tempest. With the right modifications, we can reconfigure some of the Gantrithor's internal factories to make miniaturized versions of the Tempest. They will be nowhere near as powerful as their full sized counterparts, but they'll have the range necessary to keep up with the Guardians."

"Excellent! We should start on that immediately!" Shikamaru nodded excitedly.

"Unfortunately, my ship's hangars are designed to hold interceptors and small fighter craft like ravens and phoenixes; they're not meant to hold anything much larger than that. This ship would only be able to house at most four at any given time; nowhere near enough to do anything but drive off a single Guardian at a time."

"Better than nothing," Mohandar told them, "And either way, the Hierarch has already been informed of our plight. If we can hold out long enough, he has promised additional reinforcements and weapons that are capable of evening the scales. Until they arrive, the combined power of my ships, the Gantrithor, the miniature tempests, and whatever weapons you can come up with, should be sufficient to keep the Zerg at bay."

Before anyone could respond, an alarm sounded; the observers had detected something.

"Executor, observers showing a large attack force inbound to this base!"

"Enemy force composition?"

"Twelve Guardians with ground and air escort."

"Twelve?" Mohandar looked incredulously, "Eleven void rays, the Burning Shadow, and the Gantrithor against 12 Guardians? What do you think?"

"Not even the Gantrithor can reach the range of the Guardians. Our ships can easily overpower a single Guardian one on one, and your void rays could hold their own as well, but the Guardian's range is just too long. If we try a head-on battle we'd lose at least one ship before we could close the distance, and then we'd still be contending with the guardians' escort."

"Even if you did close the distance, there's still another 12 Guardians and the leviathan left out there to deal with. Losing even a single ship just isn't an option for us if we want to have even a chance at winning this," Shikamaru put in.

"Okay, Tenten, you said you had something we could use. If you can set it up, we just might have a chance here."

"Are you kidding me? The gun is massive, it would take hours to construct and calibrate properly."

"If only we could just use Amaterasu. Why didn't it work last time?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say the leviathan ascended back into the vacuum of space. No kind of flame could ever survive there, not even your black fire."

"Damn. So that'll be useless against these large things for sure then. So then what do we do? If we can't set up a cohesive defense of this base here before the enemy arrives, what do we do?"

"We have only one choice," Shikamaru shook his head, "We have to abandon Antioch. Staying here and making a stand will only end in our annihilation."

"Our ships are still vastly superior; if we stay on the defensive, draw them in and keep them from supporting each other, we can hold them off long enough for our people to get out. We'll have to be swift though; with the other half of the guardians and the leviathan following up, we cannot allow the evacuation to be delayed for any reason."

"It's settled then. We fall back to Konoha, set up defenses here to slow the enemy down as long as possible, buy ourselves enough time to build up a cohesive defense."

"What about our villages?" Gaara asked suddenly, "With this base gone, what is stopping the Zerg from attacking our villages while we're busy defending yours? We've got most of our shinobi here - if the Zerg attack our homes will be nearly defenseless."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Ino assured them, "The Zerg are mainly after the Protoss. Until we're all dead, they won't make anywhere else a priority."

"If that's supposed to make us feel better, it's really trying very hard not to work," Mei responded dryly.

The others just shrugged; wasn't much else that could be said really.

Naruto walked out of the HQ later in the day, not sure exactly what to feel or think. Not really paying attention, he nearly ran into Tenten, who at that current moment was rapping out orders to her teams.

"Come on, I want the cobras in the air asap! Hammerheads need to be long gone already, why are they still here!?"

"What's going on?" Naruto asked her, "Are the cobras going to be joining the defense?"

"Are you kidding? Of course not! Their main weapon is still not finished yet, and only half of them are even armed at all. I need to get all of my works out of here before the fighting starts, or we risk losing some of the few advantages we have. We can't afford that."

"So, nothing new to join in the fight this time around?"

"Nothing yet. I'm working on it, but under these conditions, it's a bit more difficult."

"What about the defense of Konoha? Have those been tightened at all?"

"They have. I've got a large prototype weapon mounted on top of the Hokage Building, but if we lose that then the best we have are the defenses we already have in place. Against an enemy such as this, I hate to say it but Konoha is just too large to defend effectively."

"It'll have to do for now."

"Yes it will."

Back aboard the Gantrithor Mohandar and Selendis were having a private discussion.

"I understand what your position was back then, and I do believe you made the right choices in regards to this alliance, but I still feel that we may be going too far giving these terrans such advanced technology," Mohandar had his arms folded.

"In turn, I understand your position, and to be honest, I do share some of these same concerns. We have no choice if we are to survive, let alone win this, but what happens after?"

"Exactly. What happens when there's no one left to fight, but they have weapons that could destroy any opposition from any faction that rose against them? I am not fond of the idea that we may be setting the stage for another Terran Dominion."

"Since when did you start to care for Terran politics?"

"I don't. But I'd rather not have two of the same things repeating themselves."

"Nor would I. We'll keep watch, and if things begin to deteriorate, we'll just have to -."

Selendis was cut off before she could finish her thought as a huge glob of something fell from the sky and slammed into a photon cannon on the perimeter. More of these things fell upon the outlying cannons and defenses, reducing them swiftly to rubble. In the distance, a dozen of the swarm guardians could be seen steadily inching closer and closer.

"Damn it! Those things are faster than I anticipated!" Mohandar swore, "I'm returning to the Burning Shadow. Prepare everyone for battle!"

Selendis nodded, giving the order for battle stations.

From the ground, Naruto and the others saw the guardians looming closer. Giving orders to everyone, Naruto ran towards the front, finding himself alongside Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Gaara. Rushing to the wall, they found it crumbled and burning. Those still standing were retreating, only to be killed as wave after wave of huge needle spines raked the area, tearing through everything and churning up the ground. Gaara's sand managed to shield the remaining troops, but the force the spines were being fired at was still great enough to pierce halfway through the shield.

"We need to fall back. Now," Gaara told them.

They didn't need telling twice, as they all hastily backed up, trying to stay clear of the guardians' range. They all moved back deeper into the base, until they found the rest of their forces gathering. Thanatos and his zealots were all waiting for them by the time they got there.

"The Guardians are starting to send down drop pods," Thanatos told them, "We need to get our transports loaded and in the air right away."

"Our transports will never make it out of the area; the guardians will gun them all down before they could even get into the air," Sai's voice came over a radio, "We need to get rid of those things or keep them occupied if we want any of our transport ravens to make it out intact."

"Hahaha. How?" Sasuke fake laughed sarcastically, "We have nothing powerful enough to even scratch those things, let alone hurt them and drive them away!"

"Actually, we do have one weapon we can use," Selendis's voice echoed in their heads, "The beacon that sits atop our nexus can be supercharged with energy, turning it into a long range weapon. The Gantrithor can supercharge it, but the nexus' computer is damaged. The targeting system is offline; you'll need to bring it back online, and possibly control it manually."

"Alright, that's the plan then," Shikamaru told them, "We fight our way to the nexus, and bring the computers back online. If we can't do that, someone will have to use it manually while we evacuate. We fall back to our main bases at Konoha, regroup, then figure out a way to stop this, agreed?"

"Agreed."

"My void rays and I will keep the guardians occupied as best we can while you move." Mohandar's voice joined Selendis', "But you would do well to be swift - the guardians have escorts that far outmatch our own."

"Understood."

Just before they left, Naruto had to ask one last thing, "Wait, Shikamaru, where is Hinata?"

"She's on the Gantrithor with me. Don't worry, she's safe."

"Good. Keep it that way for me, okay?"

"Will do."

Naruto and the others began to move through the buildings, attempting to stay out of sight of the huge flying worms above them. Mutalisks and corruptors flew overhead, either pursuing or being pursued by ravens or phoenixes. A shot from a void ray's lighter weapons hit a corruptor from above, making it slam into the ground nearby. Through the dust clouds the dead zerg's body had created, Naruto saw the red glow of what was definitely lava. Going through the smoke, they found Mei and her forces surrounded by the charred corpses of dozens of zerg.

"There you are! I was starting to get worried I'd have to come and save you!" she greeted them.

"Ha, very funny. Are you guys okay?" Gaara asked them.

"All things considered, yes. Though, we could be doing quite a lot better."

"Agreed."

"So, what's our plan?" Mei looked at them all, "We do have a plan… right?"

"We are in full retreat. We're leaving, regrouping back at the main bases at Konoha."

"So in other words we don't really have a plan, do we?"

"We're working on it. For now, let's just focus on getting everyone out of here."

They nodded and started retreating. Loud explosions caused them to look up; up above them a void ray was engaged in a heavy brawl with one of the guardians. Needle spines and particle disruptor shots passed each other constantly as both zerg and ship fired their weapons upon each other. The guardian twisted a little, and huge flying manta ray-like creatures emerged from the giant zerg's carapace.

"Brood lords!" a cry identified this new strain of zerg.

The void ray's prismatic beam sprang forth, blasting these new zerg into oblivion before turning on the guardian that had spawned them. The beam burned and cut through the guardian, but the guardian was able to twist out of the way of the beam's path. Corruptors began to fly out of the guardian and started attacking the protoss vessel, forcing it to divert the beam to destroying these new zerg before they could do any substantial damage.

"Come on, let's go while the guardians are distracted," Gaara urged everyone onwards.

Drop pods suddenly began to fall from the sky, raining even more zerg down upon them as they headed towards the airfields. They all watched in slight panic as drop pods landed well ahead of them, straight on top of their destination.

"The ravens are under attack!" Sai's voice came over the radio again, "We need those zerg dead before all our birds are wrecked!"

Sai's assault raven and a few others flew low over the base, raking the incoming zerg with gunfire, but it wasn't enough to stop the aliens' advance. As the ravens began to ascend back up, a corruptor broadsided one of them, and it burst into flames. In one last effort to deal damage, the pilot directed his dying craft right into the throng of zerg heading for the transports.

"Hurry!" the army rushed to the scene as fast as they could. Upon their arrival, they could see Tenten, Ino, and a few others leading the other allied forces against the enemy, but it was clearly a battle the shinobi could not hope to win. Even as they approached hydralisk spines tore through two of them. Gaara crushed one of the hydralisks with sand before it could fire another volley .

"Oh man, that timing was a little close!" Naruto whistled, greeting his friends.

"Tell us about it when we're clear. Do you have any sort of way out of here?"

"Yes. We're leaving in the ravens. Most of our people are already loaded up and ready to go, but they can't take off so long as the guardians are hovering over us. We're going to get them off our backs so we can leave without any fear of being shot down. To do that, we need to get to the nexus and activate the targeting systems inside so it can fire on the guardians."

"All right. Let's get this done!"

Above them the huge supercarrier turned and settled near their destination.

"Gantrithor is on station. Fire up that system quick people!"

There was no need to be told twice as the group was already underway . They all ducked as stray needle spines from the battle above them slammed into the ground nearby. Looking up, the guardian and void ray had put some distance between themselves, and were firing back and forth. Unexpectedly, the guardian turned and directly faced its opponent. Caught off guard, the ship was unable to move out of the guardian's range, and the huge acid spore fired slammed directly into the center of the hull. There was an explosion inside the void ray, and it quickly turned away from the guardian in retreat. The zerg began to pursue, but was quickly stopped by the huge void ray flagship. The Burning Shadow had blinked towards the void ray upon seeing the trouble they were in, and the prismatic beam began to cut into the pursuing guardian's side. With a loud screech the zerg turned and backed out, but not before firing one last volley of projectiles down towards the base.

"Incoming!" a warning was shouted as huge drop pods landed in front of the army on the ground. Huge swarms of zerglings and hydralisks emerged from the fractured ground, and through the burning buildings.

"These things just don't know when to quit, do they?" Mei looked at them, half exasperated, half angry.

"No. They don't," Thanatos told her flatly.

"Killjoy."

"We don't have time for this. We're going to overrun in a matter of minutes!" Sasuke growled.

"Agreed," Gaara nodded, "Naruto, we'll keep them busy while you get to the nexus. We'll meet you at the airfields when you're done!"

Without even waiting for a response, Gaara sent out sand to attack the oncoming zerg, leading the charge. Naruto cut right, heading around a building past the skirmish taking place. Before he could get too far though, a zergling burst through the wall, impaled by a psionic blade. Thanatos shoved the dead zerg off before talking.

"I'm going with you. It's protoss technology, so I'm going to ensure the job is done properly."

"No objections here."

Well above them, Selendis observed the battle's progression.

"Status report."

"Shields are holding steady. Interceptor squadrons have taken a few casualties, but we've replaced them already. Our position here is safe for the moment."

"What of the others?"

"Prelate Mohandar's ship is taking a moderate amount of fire, but his shields are still holding. However, the same cannot be said for the rest of his fleet. Seven of his void rays have lost all shields and have taken damage. Three of those have reported hull breaches or other significant damage. Fighter squadrons have taken a few losses as well; they won't be able to hold the skies for much longer if the zerg keep bringing in fresh fliers."

"Let's attempt to even the odds. Are any guardians within range?"

"Negative, but one is approaching; it'll pass by us pursuing one of our void rays."

"Excellent. Set an intercept course, but stay within psionic range of the nexus. Prepare plasma barrage."

"Yes Executor."

The void ray sped past the Gantrithor, fire pouring from a breach in the lower hull. The guardian sped after it, surprisingly oblivious to all but its prey.

"Fire!"

Huge bolts of plasma shot in front of the guardian, and the creature's forward momentum was its undoing. The first shot landed straight in the side of the zerg's head, knocking it to the side, and each consecutive round slamming into the guardian's side as it sped past. Screeching, the guardian veered off, bleeding profusely.

"All fighters, finish it off! Do not let it escape!"

Squadrons of ravens and phoenixes broke off from the chaos of the skies, and headed straight after the wounded zerg. Phoenixes flew sideways, firing into the zerg's wounded side, compounding the damage the wounds inflicted, while the assault ravens and even oracles flew overhead, pummeling it with missiles and pulsar beams. With its side so badly damaged, the guardian had no way to launch its needle spines, and thus the phoenixes feared no retaliation from it, shooting it over and over. A squadron of phoenix bombers flew above it, dropping high payload bombs onto the zerg's broken carapace. With the damage the ravens and oracles had inflicted, the bombs embedded themselves into their target and detonated with ease. The guardian thrashed and screeched, but its time was at an end. The 900 foot long beast fell towards the right side, and crashed into the ground; dead.

Everyone, both on the ground and in the air cheered at the zerg's demise. The jubilation was to be short lived however, as a huge, unmistakable form moved into range of the outlying observers. The leviathan was on its way.

"Naruto, Thanatos, the rest of the zerg forces are inbound, imminent. Where is that targeting system?"

"Targeting system is online now Executor; waiting on activation from you."

"Excellent. Activating photon overcharge now. Get to your transports, and do it quickly."

"Already on our way."

"Good. All transports, you are clear for departure. Take off now."

Dozens of transport ravens and warp prisms ascended into the sky beside the supercarrier and the void rays. Guardians tried to follow, but the photon overcharge did its job well. Enraged, the guardians focused all their firepower on the nexus, obliterating the golden pyramid structure within seconds. But they were still too late; their quarry was already long gone. Naruto watched from his raven as the zerg proceeded to raze and level their base in short order, wondering if his home, his entire world, would ever be the same as he once knew it again.

Author's Note: Thanks guys for reading! Please let me know via review or PM what you liked, what you didn't like, and other helpful feedback! I want to make sure the rest of the story is not only as epic as I can possibly make it, but also as accurate and detailed as I can make it. Any help/feedback/insight that you guys could give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!