Chapter 31: Cleaning House.
The war truly intensified when the Scalathor and Draconis realised not only had they lost their fleet but also their supply depots as well, the loss of their strategic advantage seemed o push them into an almost suicidal ferocity.
They attempted to retake the captured facilities from Clan Mason and the Raptorians only to be beaten back by the savage defence the allies put up against their raids, using their own technology and resources against them, utilising their own artillery to take out targets being spotted for them by their fleet on orbit.
Not only that but the quick learning Raptorians had learned how to not only drive but best use their tanks and armoured vehicles, with Surface Stalker prides becoming tank crews and mounting an armoured defence against the Scalathor's own armoured attacks, even Jack had to admit there was something surprisingly cute about a little Raptorian wearing a large ill-fitting helmet poking her head up out of an armoured hatch shouting orders and directions to her pride below as they manoeuvred the armoured behemoths into position to form firing lines around the base.
The Scalathor and Draconis were further beaten back as raids by both Clan Mason and the Raptorians took yet more bases and precious supplies from them, this went on for days until finally, only three bases remained in enemy hands on the surface of Raptoria.
A large convoy of freed males was being sent out from the recent base as so many raids happened at once they had been moved together in one place till they deemed it safe to move them across the surface to the safety of the Raptorian underground, it was under heavy guard by both the Raptorians and Clan Mason as despite their seriously dwindling numbers there had been numerous attempts by the Scalathor and Draconis to retake the freed males as they were escorted to freedom.
Jack honestly thought it was a truly odd thing, they were being hammered into the ground by the combined forces and were losing ground day by day yet they still sent raiding parties to attempt to take back freed males, it was like they were running on pure pride and that the freeing of these slaves was a bigger insult to them than their military losses.
Even their Nightmare Assassins had got in on the act, if Paya hadn't warned him in a dream about an impending calamity they would have lost one convoy for sure as four of them attacked it out of the shadows of the jungle, but they hadn't been prepared for the company of Seekers hidden within it waiting to defend the innocent within.
None of the Nightmare Assassins had perished in that fight, simply choosing to melt into the shadows and return to their base with their tails between their legs, but that meant that the final bases on the planet had a rather high concentration of them, this final fight was going to be a big one.
"The convoy is away Grand Matriarch and Patriarch, two hundred male Scalathor, ten Hunter teams, plus twenty Surface Stalker prides" Smoke reported saluting them both as he approached with his pride in tow, those girls took protecting you male to the next level, whenever he went out they formed a defensive ring around him as he walked, though it was obvious he had grown used to it, though whether they were protecting him from attack or from the amorous intentions of other Surface Stalker prides was up for debate, those girls really did seem to have a thing for aliens.
Jack and Tik returned the salute, "Good anything of worry reported along their route? Tik asked and Smoke shook his head.
"No Grand Matriarch, they are heading to the nearest underground entrance at the golden caves, they are to be handed over to the city of Lapis," he said and Tik nodded.
"They are good people in Lapis city, those poor Scalathor boys will be well cared for and loved there, there will be prides qued up around the city simply for the chance to adopt one or to take one in and care for him, our people will show those Scalathor boys how real females act, they will want for nothing and will be given the happiest lives they could ever dream of, after all, they have suffered it is the very least they deserve," Vippy's pride said together.
Tik nodded approvingly, "That is good to hear, the same is true of those that have been transported to our homeworld, they will be given a place within the Clan and the chance to see how a real-life should be led, to make their own decisions, the freedom to choose their own paths and to be whatever they want to be, plus if they choose that chance to choose their own loves and passions, they will be cherished," Tik said with such passion in her voice that Jack patted her shoulder, it always truly moved him to see how deeply his wife cared for the plight of the weak and innocent.
Now it was Vippy and her pride's turn to nod approvingly, "Oh and we have received our permission Grand Matriarch and Patriarch, once the war is over and the vile scum evicted from our beloved soil the command prides have granted us permission to travel to your world in order to establish a Raptorian embassy there as we know a great many prides wish to return to your world after the war as they have taken alien pride males and wish to relocate if the offer is still open of course?" they said and Tik smiled brightly.
"Of course it is, we would welcome you with open arms, we have already made arrangements with your command prides to establish a Clan Mason embassy here on Raptoria for those who wish to remain after the war to not only experience your way of life but to also remain a part of Clan Mason, we are also doing the same with the Serpentinus," Tik said and Vippy and her pride looked ecstatic.
"Thank you Grand Matriarch, if our beloved Smoke is anything to go by we see a very long and happy future together for our peoples, you have all proven to us with a shadow of a doubt what true friends and allies are, you are our blood sisters and brothers," they said all drawing up to salute both Tik and Jack who returned it proudly.
"As you have proven to us that not only good things can come in small packages, but mighty things too," Tik said happily.
A couple of hours later Tik and Jack were planning the final push and assault on the three final strongholds when Smoke returned but this time in a much greater rush and with a grim look on his face, Vippy and her pride all wore the same mask of outrage, instantly Tik and Jack were on alert, something was very wrong.
"Grand Matriarch and Patriarch the convoy is under attack! They are requesting aid!" Smoke exclaimed as he saluted.
Tik looked at Jack and he nodded grimly, Tik pressed her communicator, "Hunter one assemble in the courtyard, the convoy is under attack, I require four Hunter teams, a Battle Angel team and a Seeker team right pauking now!" she said her voice filled with rage and grim determination.
"Go hunt some scum my hearts star," Jack said pressing his forehead to hers before kissing her.
"I'll bring you back the tail of a male abuser as a pauking trophy my love" Tik snarled and Jack nodded and with that Tik turned and headed for the door.
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As Tik strode into the courtyard the teams were already lined up and awaiting her arrival, the Hunter teams in neat ranks behind Hunter one, the Battle Angels geared up and ready to save lives and her beloved Ack's Seekers ready to follow her to the gates of hell if need be, "Our convoy is under attack and calls to us for aid, we will not let them down, mount up, we're going in!" Tik roared and the assembled team returned her roar before heading for the shuttle parked in the centre of the courtyard.
They opted to fly as despite the dangers of the skies around here speed was needed, plus having two Seeker Tamers in the team meant that they would be pretty much immune from the flying predators that patrolled the skies of Raptoria.
As Tik leaned out of the open side hatch looking down at the jungle below she instantly noticed the battle being waged below them, bright flashes of plasma and projectile weapons were lighting up the deep shadows hidden below the jungle canopy.
"Ready to deploy on your order grand Matriarch!" V'Lek said from her right, she glanced at the beloved husband of her adopted cub and nodded.
"Let's go!" she said and with that, the teams began to jump from the sides of the shuttle.
Clan Mason battle armour is fitted with a variety of things to make them as manoeuvrable and versatile in any and all environments, this included a jet or jump-jet style plasma thrusters that allowed them to jump from just about any height and hit the ground safely, these came into great effect in deployments like this as it meant their deployment craft didn't have to get too low and draw fire to put them on the ground, Tik and her team poured out of the doors and simply fell information until they hit the correct height for the thrusters to deploy and their fall was slowed to allow them to hit the ground running.
The freed males were clustered together, utterly surrounded by Surface Stalkers who had them locked down in a defensive perimeter, immediately one of the Battle Angels broke ranks and ran on all fours to the group deploying one of their defensive bubble shields around the group as they arrived.
The other teams fanned out with their weapons up seeking targets, "Report!" Tik said as she saw the leader of the Hunter teams firing into the trees above them.
"Grand Matriarch! We have been hit from all sides, multiple casualties on both our side and the Raptorians, we estimate the enemy strength to be at least a hundred, we believe we ran into a division that may have been moving to set up along the rivers to prevent us from using them as an easy method of transport" the large female Yautja called Issa replied.
A couple of rounds snapped over Tik's head and one hit her shields causing them to ripple and Tik snapped to her left, her thermal vision saw nothing so she began to cycle through the visual spectrum's until the electrostatic sensor picked up a distortion in the trees, hefting her large heavily modified rifle she fired it in rail gun mode.
The huge tungsten slug impacted in the centre of the distortion and blew the hidden Scalathor apart, 'They are using some kind of camouflage to fool thermal sensors, tell-all Hunters to switch to electrostatic, that should reveal the pauking cowards!" Tik roared and Issa nodded as she adapted her vision and began her own switch.
As soon as they realised that their enemy had a way to spot them the hidden Scalathor began to switch the focus of their fire to the bubble shield protecting the males, no sooner had Tik seen the look of pure terror on their innocent faces as they clung together in a large knot than she bellowed a roar, "Hunter one defend those innocents! everyone else on me! We will route these pauking cowards out!" she bellowed.
Her personal team ran to the outer edge of the bubble shield and took up positions all around it shooting in firing arcs trying to pull enough fire so that the shield had the chance to recharge its capacitors and not breach, this meant though that her brave warriors were taking a lot of fire, they dug in using both cover and their own riot shields to boost their protection as they continued to protect the Scalathor males and their Raptorian guardians.
Tik led the charge into the jungle with the Seekers and Hunters right behind her, they began to fan out in order to flush their quarry from their hiding spots, they used their own cloaking tech in order to seemingly vanish before reappearing right next to the hidden Scalathor and unleashing hell into their OP's with both plasma grenades and castors.
The Seekers were the best at flushing them out not having to rely on their visual sensors to detect the hidden Scalathor, they were simply able to detect their auras giving them away easily, flushing them out of trees and from little fox holes dug under bushes, plus the Tamers unleashed a rather nasty surprise into the AO in the form of some rather nasty stinging and biting insect swarms that they summoned from some pauking where that buzzed around furiously looking for Scalathor to harass.
Eventually, the combined weight of the Clan Mason and Raptorian resistance flushed out the Scalathor and as they tried to flee into the jungle to regroup they were unceremoniously Hunted down and exterminated by warriors from both of the allied nations, till all that was left were Scalathor bodies littering the ground and the mud was tinged red with blood.
But the allies did not come off unscathed by the intense battle as Tik discovered when she returned to the centre point where the shield protecting the male Scalathor still stood, the Battle Angels were hard at work tending to both wounded Hunters and Raptorians alike, it was then that Tik saw something that caused her heart to freeze like a block of ice in her chest.
On the ground surrounded by both male Scalathor and Raptorians alike was V'Lek, a Single Battle Angel was knelt at his side having removed his armour to treat what looked like grievous wounds from some very heavy calibre weapon, well it would have to be to get through both their shields and their armour, as she watched in pure horror the female Xeno gently took the side of her hand and closed his eyes, he was dead, the husband of her beloved adopted cub was dead.
The male Scalathor wept at his side each of them reaching out to touch him, to place a hand on his body, each taking a print of his bright green blood that ran in rivets from the plethora of wounds on his torso and marking themselves with it, the Raptorians were no better, this was very likely the first time they had seen a male die in combat and a great many of them were beside themselves with grief, despite not knowing him personally, it was the simple fact that a precious male life had ended tragically at the hands of violence that tore the grief from their hearts and forced them to live it.
Tik walked up and sank to her knees at his side, "What happened?" she asked quietly looking up to Battle Angel before her but it was the male Scalathor that answered her.
"He is a hero! H-H-He died for us! T-T-The glowing bubble thing was breaking, t-t-t-they were shooting it on this side a lot, h-h-h-he threw himself between the bullets and the bubble so it wouldn't break, the bullets they hit him, there were just so many, but he wouldn't stop, he just stood there shooting and yelling at them, calling them all cowards and shooting them, then they stopped and so did he, but when he turned around, h-h-h-he was full of holes and he fell down, w-w-w-why would he do this? For us?" the young-looking Scalathor male said sobbing hard, his voice cracking.
Tik's heart clenched hard and she felt tears burning her eyes behind her mask, "Because he believed in Clan Mason, he believed in who we are and what we stand for, we protect the innocent, no matter the cost" Tik said softly but still proudly.
She then turned to two of the Seekers stood nearby, "Guide his soul to the Eternal Huntress, make sure he finds his way, he earned his rest this day, he deserves the paradise that comes" she said and they both nodded, they moved up to him and both began a Soul Tear to pull him free and to guide him on into the embrace of the Eternal Huntress, Tik paused.
"See to it that any fallen Raptorians are given the same, make sure they reach the Golden Garden of Great Tree," she said softly and both Seekers nodded.
Tik turned to the remainder of Hunter one, "Hunters form an honour guard, we will carry our fallen brother home together, as we fought in life we shall carry him in death, together" she said and all of them snapped to attention.
After the convoy was back under way, the shuttle landed to pick up the squad, Tik and Hunter one carried the stretcher with V'Lek's body upon it on their shoulders and held it there during the entire flight back to the HQ, not once did it slip or sag, their brother was held firm and fast by his brothers and sisters in arms, once the shuttle was on the ground they stepped down the tail ramp carrying him and no sooner had Ack seen what was happening he formed the Hunters, Seekers, Saviours and Battle Angels into ranks, V'Lek had been beloved by all because of his gentle and loving nature and his ferocity in defending both the Clan and all its members, now the Clan stood for him, to honour him.
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A special shuttle containing a vacuum coffin was dispatched from the Dreamer to pick up the body and Tik and Hunter one rode with it to deliver their fallen brother to ship before riding back down, as Tik found Jack in their quarters she threw herself into his arms and he held her tightly, "How do we tell our cub that she will never see her beloved husband in this life again? How do we tell our beloved grand cubs that they will never see their patriarch again until their time comes to go to the Eternal Hunt?" she said tears falling from her eyes onto Jack's shoulder.
He gripped her tightly and stroked her predlocks, "We will tell them the truth my beloved one, we will tell them that their beloved one died standing tall and proud to shield the innocent from harm, he died as he lived, with honour and nobility, they and we will honour him, but that will not be its end my love you have my word on that, every drop of heartache, every second of pain that these animals have caused will be paid for, I will personally see to it and when I am done every Scalathor will know the pain they have caused in its entity, no longer will they hide from it, no more will they ignore it, because I will force them to see it and feel it, every single second" Jack snarled and Tik looked up at him.
"Good' she said flatly.
The loss of any Clan member was a devastating blow, but to Jack and Tik the loss of their beloved son in law, the father of some of their grand cubs was a truly personal loss and it made them think deeply about family.
Jack as a Dream Warrior knew that V'Lek was with Paya in the Eternal Hunt, he had been a good and honourable warrior, husband, father and man, his rest and place in paradise was assured, the Eternal Huntress would never turn away one of her beloved children who had lived their life the way he had, he would be resting well simply waiting for his beloved ones to join him in the endless forest, but that didn't change the fact that a beautiful life had been ended early, Jack was going to make them pay for this in blood.
It also fell on him and Tik her to stand up for the principles of the Clan, it was their way that if one of them fell in combat the Clan would seek out vengeance for their death, especially in the circumstances of protecting the innocent like that, as the Clan leaders it was up to him and Tik to show what it meant to be Clan Mason, to show that if you wore the badge the whole Clan had your back and that if you fell in service to the Clan then the Clan would avenge you.
This of course didn't go just for V'Lek but for every loss they had suffered, losses for the Clan had been incredibly light considering the sheer amount of fighting they had done, their superior tech and tactics really paid off, but there had been losses never the less and for every coffin that returned to their home to be buried in their soil Jack and Tik would ensure that their enemies lowered a hundred of their own for each, they would make sure that the whole pauking universe understood if you kill a member of Clan Mason then Clan Mason would kill a hundred of yours, they would make it so no one in their right mind would pick a fight with them, or their friends.
Jack was sat stroking TIk's predlocks as she rested her head on his shoulder as they both looked up at the moons high in the sky above, there was a knock at the door to their room, "Enter" Jack called.
The door opened to reveal Liam and Smoke, both looked solemn, they had both known V'Lek well, infact V'Lek had helped Smoke with his training and had got him through some of the tougher courses of the Hunter training, the pair had been good friends and it was the same for Liam, the loss had hit the pair hard.
"Sorry for the interruption Grand Patriarch and Matriarch but we have just received some intel reports from the Raptorians that we thought you'd like to see" Liam said gesturing to Smoke who for once was without his pride.
Jack nodded while Tik remained silent, "The Raptorians have been talking to the freed Scalathor males, it appears that quite a few of them had some rather interesting things to say regarding not only the fina bases we're about to face but on Scalathor itself, looks like a couple of the high ranking officers rather like pillow talk, or rather pillow gloating by the way this reads, but I think you will both find this rather interesting all the same" Smoke said holding out a datapad to Jack who reached out and took it his other hand never leaving his wife's head.
"Thank you both, how are you faring?" Jack said looking up at them.
Liam gritted his teeth and set his jaw, "Looking forwards to making them pay for taking our friend from us Grand Patriarch if I have my way I'll be giving each of my pack a necklace made from Scalathor scales or at the very least dog tags when we return home" Liam said and Smoke nodded.
"My pride are itching for blood as well, they have lost friends in the Surface Stalkers and they send their condolences to you both, they told me to tell you that they hope V'Lek walks forever in the Golden Garden while he waits for his loved ones to join him in forever joy but that in his name and in the names of all the others they will happily send a great many Scalathor and Draconis to meet their fucking Dark Seed in-person" Smoke said and Jack nodded grimly.
"Thank them for me Smoke, you have a good pride there," he said and Smoke nodded.
"Also tell them that before this fight is over every Surface Stalker that fell in defence of their beloved home will be avenged, Clan Mason swears this to them and that any pride male left without a pride to call his own any longer will be offered a place among us so that if he finds his pain too great to bear looking at his empty home filled with painful memories he has lost, we will give him a chance to come to our home and make it his own so that he may hopefully still find some peace in his life, we will give him a purpose to live again," Tik said never lifting her head from Jack's shoulder.
Smoke nodded, "I'll tell them, thank you Grand Matriarch" Smoke said saluting, both of them turned and left.
Jack held up the pad and both he and Tik began to read, the intel contained some very useful facts but more than that, it also contained a golden egg, it had a way through the Scalathor defence grid in it, Jack's face broke into a dark grin, "This is it my love, this right here is what we've been looking for, this is how we purge the Dark Seed from the Scalathor homeworld for good" he said and Tik glanced at him, she knew that fire well, her beloved one had a plan.
The orbital strikes were doing their job, they prevented the Scalathor and Draconis from advancing out of their three remaining bases, any columns that dared to leave pretty much instantly got wiped off the face of the planet as soon as they were a safe distance from the FOB by the guns of the fleet in orbit, as Jack and Tik now riding on the turret of one of the captured and refitted Scalathor tanks approached the base that was their point of attack they saw deep craters and burnt wreckage everywhere.
The remaining Scalathor and Draconis were caught like rats in a trap within the walls of their bases, Jack and Tik were going after the largest of the three which was obviously the HQ, it was both the biggest and the most heavily defended of the three, it was also armed to the teeth.
Ryan was leading the assault on one of the others and Liam the last, each had a large team of Seekers, Hunters, Battle Angels and Saviours with them, not to mention a whole cubic fuck ton of Surface Stalkers, the Raptorians were going all out for this one so they had tasked pretty much their entire force to this one assault to ensure its success, even the command prides were among their number armed and ready to make the Scalathor and Draconis pay forever setting scaled foot on Raptoria, let alone murdering its beloved daughters.
The Seeker Tamers were out ahead of the huge armoured columns making sure the local fauna didn't interfere with the advance, they were projecting a huge aura of fear to make the fauna flee the approaching vehicles and their power was being bolstered by their Soul Knight brethren who were lending their brothers and sisters their strength to increase the range of their power, a rather useful Soul knight trick that one, to lend a fellow Dream Warrior your strength via something they called Soul Sharing.
As a result, not even the fish or the eels wanted anything to do with vehicles as they passed by, Jack was under no illusions that the Scalathor and Draconis knew they were coming, which was utterly fine with him, this was not about hiding and sneaking into the base and hitting it from within like they would usually do, this time they were going to steam roller right the fuck over them and show them in no uncertain terms what happened when you pauked with Clan Mason and their friends, this was a show of force only the dead would remember.
"Seeker one one and Hunter one one this Red one we have eyes on, looks like the Scalathor are preparing their artillery to send you a message, over," a mechanical Xeno female voice came through Jack's comms.
Tik answered first, "Roger that Red one, keep eyes on and let us know what you see, hopefully soon we'll get you a window, when we do hit them with everything you have just make sure you don't hit the buildings, innocents on-site, I repeat innocents on-site, Hunter one one out," she said.
"Roger that Hunter one one message received and understood, out" Red one replied.
"Time to go to work my love," Jack said and Tik hoisted her war hammer letting the huge head smack into her large hand with a solid sounding thud noise.
"Indeed my love, time to make the paukers pay," she said.
"Seeker one one to Scorch pride, green light, I say again green light, over and out," Jack said.
"Roger that Seeker one one, heads down here comes the pain!" a series of Raptorian voice said through the comms.
Seconds later there were a series of dull thuds in the distance and overhead a mass of glowing projectiles screamed, only a Seekers eyes could actually see them as they were moving so fast, but Jack saw them alright, "Time for the pain rain mother paukers" he said just before their artillery began slamming into the base wall and also into its artillery.
Explosions tore through the trees as the shells impacted the fortress-like base and shook the ground with the magnitude of fire they rained down upon them, the objective was to try and both destroy any gun emplacements on the walls while also knocking out both the anti-air and the artillery hidden behind its mighty walls.
The Scalathor had arranged the last of their tank battalions all around the perimeter a great many of them in berms were essentially just ditches that the tanks drove into leaving only their turrets exposed, it made them incredibly hard to hit because they had earth protecting them on all sides but the rear, but had its downsides, like not being able to move anything but your gun, so if someone did manage to get a bead on you, you were pretty much fucked.
Jack and Tik had known about this little problem ahead of time thanks to their scouts reporting in to them, "Hunter one one to all scout teams, smoke and chaff the paukers, out" Tik said.
"Roger that Hunter one one popping smoke" the reply came instantly and instantly smoke trails rained from the surrounding trees onto the bermed tanks and their crew sending thick white smoke pluming into the air all around them, but this wasn't just any smoke, it contained billions of tiny little foil strips which sent their sensors crazy, it also contained a chemical which went highly exothermic when exposed to oxygen, this prevented them using thermal imaging, though it did the same to Clan Mason.
But thermal imaging sensors weren't the only tool in Clan Mason's toy box, they switched their visual sensors over to an electro scanning frequency which ignored both the smoke and the chemical, the chaff gave it some grief but nothing major, "Seeker one one to all tanks fan out, form a firing line and fire at will, target their turrets, out" Jack said and the tanks behind them broke ranks and began to form into a huge arrowhead shape, the heaviest concentration of their vehicles was directly in front of their main gate.
The Raptorian tank crews wasted absolutely no time opening fire, as it turned out their incredible synchronized teamwork made them utterly perfect tank crews, not to mention artillery crews, they began firing and moving making them incredibly difficult to target as they weaved from side to side both drivers and gunners working in perfect sync.
Both Jack and Tik leaned in and kissed one another Tik gripped his face tightly in her mandibles, they weren't vehicle combatants, they preferred their fighting up close and personal, when they parted they locked their masks in position, "Lets pauking rock" Jack said and the pair jumped from the vehicle.
Tik went left and Jack went right, Tik had leapt onto the rear of one of the Surface Skimmers piloted by one of her Hunters and almost immediately began laying down both plasma fire and railgun rounds, she was targeting the barrels of the tanks trying to blow holes in the barrels so that they would either explode upon firing or the expelled gasses would spin the barrels off target and also cause the round to lose velocity.
Jack in the meantime didn't need a vehicle, he sprinted ahead of the column and was joined by the other Seekers who had been riding along with the other vehicles, the Seekers were going to draw fire and confuse the shit out of the defenders until the others were able to punch through, the Scalathor defenders were firing indiscriminately as their sensors were being confused by the smoke and chaff clouds, this forced the Scalathor commanders to have to pop their heads up out of their vehicles to try and eyeball the attacking vehicles, this made them a perfect target for both the Seekers and the Saviour snipers as well as the Raptorian snipers.
The tank shells the Raptorians were firing were a kind of modified Sabot round, apparently Citrus and Yoshi had set up a kind of mobile science Hive aboard the Grand Matriarch's Fury, infact each of the Hive as a kind of mini Hive aboard the colossal Dreadnaught, it had a full onboard hospital staffed by Battle Angels, as well a hydroponics bay that could produce a continual food supply for the entire crew allowing it to stay in space without restocking a hell of a lot longer than any other ship in the fleet by a mile.
Well once the science and engineering Xenos had gotten hold of the tank specifications they had immediately begun work on modifying the rounds, they had produced a kind of plasma Sabot round that worked by embedding a rod of tungsten into the outer armour of the tank while at the same time igniting a primer upon impact which sent superheated plasma gas spewing out of very small holes in the tip of the slug under incredible pressure, the result was that not only did it melt right through any armour it was embedded in but it set the very air itself on fire within the vehicle, it vaporised the vehicle crew right in their seats.
The volleys of fire from both sides were astronomical, as Jack ran he saw rounds gliding through the air as he ducked and weaved between them, above him artillery rounds were slamming into both the wall and the ramparts sending shrapnel and bits of twisted burning metal shooting in all directions, as he ran he felt the rising well of anger pulsing from inside the walls, the Nightmare Assassins were in there and they were pissed, but then so was he, this time they would not escape, they were going to pay for what they had done, there was going to be no escape for them, there was going to be a reckoning, he was going to see to it personally.
As another artillery strike slammed into the base a call came in, "Grand Matriarch's Fury to Seeker one one, we have confirmation that the air defences are down, repeat CWIS is toast over" the comms man of the Grand Matriarch's Fury said.
Roger that Grand Matriarch's Fury, Seeker one one to Red one, sky's clear doors open, hit these fuckers!" Jack yelled as he cut a tank shell in half with his sword.
"Roger that Seeker one one, heads down tails up because that's the way we're gonna fuck!" Red one yelled, suddenly out of the sky a wave of high-speed fighter bombers just dropped out of the clouds, they were spraying high-velocity rail rounds and plasma down on them along with high precision missiles, the explosions inside the walls told Jack all he needed to know.
"Artillery is toast repeat artillery is toast, one open door coming right up!" Red one called and three fighters seemed to stand right on their noses pulling a near impossible rotation before letting off everything they had into the huge behemoth of a door.
Once the smoke and debris cleared washing heat over Jack and his Seekers they saw a huge hole right in the middle of it, "Door's open Seeker one one and Hunter one one, good hunting!" Red one called.
"Roger that Red one, so you one the Grand Matriarch's Fury, the first round is on me, Seeker one one out," Jack said, now it was truly on.
"All Seekers for V'Lek and all our fallen brothers and sisters, advance!" Jack yelled.
"All Hunters get on our Seeker's asses and get in there!" Tik yelled and with an ear-splitting roar Clan Mason and their allies charged.