Reaching the Shadow Carja base wasn't too hard - having an orbital satellite network made locating their camp trivial. We soon found ourselves atop a bluff, staring down on the Eclipse. Glinthawks occasionally flitted about, whilst a corruptor worked to turn over a group of scrappers to the Eclipse's cause. In the center of the camp, Shadow Carja warriors were sorting through supplies, placing blaze, chillwater, sparkers, metal vessels, echo shells, and metalburn into different containers. Watchers patrolled the area, looking for any possible infiltrators that wanted to raid the camp. Not that they were any help against me - I'd already hacked into them remotely and programmed them to stop taking orders from the Corrupted. A few tranquilizer shots later and Shadow Carja were fast asleep. As it only took me a few moments to subvert the glinthawks and scrappers, only the corruptor remained.

That proved to be the biggest challenge - somehow, I couldn't hack into it. I blamed whatever machines were working with the Eclipse.

Oh well, time to get things done the hard way.

In hindsight, that was a bad idea.

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I used Transferrence to summon up Zephyr, then fluttered through the air until I was right above the corruptor. Then, I brought my blade down, and started falling.

The impact shattered the group around us, and managed to essentially crush the corruptor - I could hear its systems give way.

Somehow, though, that didn't stop the machine from grabbing me with its tail and throwing me away. A moment later, it stood up, its body now faintly glowing purple. Bit by bit, the damaged parts forced themselves back into working order, leaving me to face a somewhat pissed off spider robot.

Without warning, the machine leaped at me, only barely missing as I rolled to the side. I retaliated by swinging at one of its legs, causing it to slip and bring its head into striking range. Further attempts to hit it, though, were deflected via the bot's tail, until it could force itself back up. From there, it attempted to fire at me, though I deftly avoided all of its attacks. The machine eventually caught onto this, and fired an explosive blast at me, sending me reeling. Seizing it's chance, it readied to swing its tail at me, only for something to strike the limb, causing the tail to retreat. A moment later, the sound of a gunshot echoed through the air - Viv had decided to camp on the bluff and try out some heavier forms of ranged firepower, specifically a vulkar wraith I'd procured during my time in the Origin System. A trio of additional shots followed, forcing the machine to take a few steps back, allowing me to recover and return to fighting the monster. I decided to ease things for myself, and summoned up an Ignis to exploit the corruptor's weakness to fire. Moments later, the machine was ablaze, much to its discomfort.

Now utterly incensed, the machine let out a mighty howl, which was accompanied by a signal of some sort. A distress signal, as I soon found out. Moments later, I received a notification that a group of corrupted glinthawks were headed toward Viv - one's that I could not hack into. Ugh, what did this machine possess to nullify my hacking powers. Seriously, WHAT?!

With Viv now occupied fighting the robo-birds (and unable to use powers that would easily solve the issue, per Celm's request), I found myself facing the corruptor alone. Dismissing my warframe, I void dashed into the robot, then summoned up a Giant Jaw Blade, swept its legs, and slammed down upon its head. Battered but not yet dead, the Scarab responded by grabbing me with its tail and hurling me to the side, leaving me to impact hard against a nearby wall, shattering it in the process. Groaning, I forced myself back up and threw a Spira dagger at the machine's grenade launcher, blowing the component off. Thank you, concealed explosives.

Now stewing in rage (somehow), the corruptor grabbed and threw a boulder at me, which I effortlessly shattered. I followed that up with a swing from my blade, only for the spider robot to simply grab it and throw the sword aside. Then, it grabbed a nearby Eclipse Blade and chucked that at me. I parried the blow, and then shattered the boulder that followed, after which I leaped toward the machine, which was aiming its spike launcher...oh fuck that's baAADDARHG!

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Synais practically fell over when the screen in front of him lit up. Hastily recovering, Synais focused his attention on the screen - something had happened that had caused the commander's vital signs to jump. Also, he was emitting way more energy than normal.

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The pain had gone down to manageable levels by the time I collapsed. The machine moved in to finish me, only for Vivian to suddenly teleport in and start tearing into it. Blades cut sheets of armor off the machine, with a well placed sheev blow even igniting the machine's core. Despite this, it fought on, and eventually, managed to catch Vivian with its tail.

Then it started beating her into the ground. The tail slammed her back and forth, leaving the ground covered in impact marks...and blood. Lots of blood.

..Back..Off...

Slowly, I forced myself upwards and began hobbling over to the machine. My body was literally smoking from the corruption spike, but I didn't care. It was only when I had crawled right up to the machine that it finally noticed me. What followed was a punch so powerful it shattered the machine's remaining armor. From there, I started tearing into it. Piece by piece, I tore it apart, ripping circuitry and metal out with reckless abandon. By the time I finally sunk my parazon into the machine's brain and tore the processor out, it seemed to be whimpering in pain.

At last satisfied, I made my way over to Viv, who'd managed to force herself up. Now was the time to treat her wounds.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!