With the sky dark with so persistent clouds, one would wonder if the Sun even actually existed. It rained more often than not in this dark city, leaving everything in perpetually wet from street to sign, fur to scale. The only plus side is that you couldn’t smell the rotting of the corpses that littered the streets. One of the many downsides is that no matter where you stepped, it was almost always upon something soggy that would raise bile in the throats of the weak stomached. Every building showed signs of ruin with a crumbled facade here; a collapsed section there. It wasn’t hard to believe a war had ravaged this place. What was unimaginable is that this had only days ago. So recent was it that the four that walked among the ruined streets and corpses were the first of the so called ‘search and rescue’ squads to arrive from the north. The first… and possibly the last. “Good gods,” spoke a feminine voice, “Those Imperial bastards.” The speaker wore a suit of dark blue steel and a water resistant material like latex but bulletproof. Even without the voice giving her gender away, one could tell from the form fitting armor that hugged her curves in practical ways while still offering mobility and comfort. “The gods tread not here, Aries,” came a distinctly male voice from another armor clad figure to her right. Upon the right pauldron of his armor were the distinct markings of lieutenant, showing him to be the leader of the squad of four since no other bore markings of greater position. His armor was the same dark blue steel and water resistant material, but his helmet was different, bearing the visage of a dragon’s head while Aries possessed one that was of a ram. “Keep your eyes open,” he ordered, “There could still be enemies about.” “I pray there be, Drake,” came a gruff voice from another of the team, this armored male bearing a helm with the visage of a bull. He was visibly larger than the rest of the team, more than three times the female Aries. “I know not what to do with the anger that burns in my chest at the sight of my dead kinsmen otherwise.” “Don’t jinx us, Zeus,” spoke up the only one that seemed totally unaffected by the wet carnage and soaked destruction around them. This soldier had a helmet with the visage of a wolf upon it and was the thinnest of the three males. “I’d rather not meet blades with the killers of these poor fucks.” “Show some respect for the dead, Lobo! You’ll be one of them someday,” Aries snapped without looking in his direction, her hands clenched in fists. “Enough chatter. We have a job to do,” cut in their leader Drake who immediately continued, “Find any still alive. If they can walk, send them north. If they cannot, end their misery.” Immediately the other three replied with a yes sir before they all split off into different directions, searching slow and steady through every street while avoiding the buildings that looked unstable. They had a mission but they wouldn’t throw their lives away to search a building that would collapse upon their heads. An hour into the search, Aries found herself searching through one particularly sturdy building when she heard the whimpering of what could only be a small child. Sure enough, when she went deeper, she found a youngling near the back of the room, sitting upon a wooden desk to keep off the wet floor. The little fox girl looked no older than ten and was wrapped in a dirty, torn blanket that looked dry. She was shaking as she stared at Aries. Stepping forward, the soldier closed the distance between the two, reaching out, only for the girl to raise one hand out of the blanket, revealing the detonator to the bomb strapped to her body. “NO!” Aries cried out but a single tear rolled down the girl’s cheek as she pushed the button, the explosion intense and deafening. Lobo was the first to arrive at the sight of the explosion, the once stable looking building now only a blown out shell of itself. “Aries! Aries! God damn it! Don’t you be dead you dumb bitch! I haven’t slept with you yet!” he cracked even as his previously unfazed appearance was ruined by his frantic searching. He nearly jumped out of his armor when a hand clad in that tough, skin tight material burst out from the rubble. “You epic ho! Thank the gods!” he said as he went over and helped extract her from the rubble. Her armor was blown nearly completely off, leaving only the form fitting material that covered her from head to toe remained totally intact while her helmet was heavily damaged. She looked up at him after she stood, silent for a second before she reached up and pulled off her helmet, short blond hair falling free when she did and revealing a beautiful Ovine face. “Damn com is busted,” she muttered before looking in the direction of where the girl had been, nothing but rubble remaining. “Little bitch nearly got me,” she hissed before spitting upon the rubble. “Guess this answers the question of the day. You can survive an explosion while wearing a nano-suit,” Lobo cracked to make light of the situation, earning himself a punch that he didn’t feel. “Make one more joke and I’ll crack your skull,” she warned him fiercely. “As long as it’s betwixt your thighs, I don’t think I’d mind,” he cracked, smiling beneath his helmet. “Think with your bigger head, Lobo,” came the warning from their leader as Drake and Zeus arrived. “Now is not mating season,” he added before clearly taking in Aries’s appearance, the tight nano-suit hiding not the slightest hint of the feminine body beneath, the shape of her nipples and her sex clearly visible. The proud woman did nothing to hide her figure, for she knew the gaze caressing her body was not one of lust. “Looks like our nano-suits were worth the investment. I’ll report this to the general. Maybe now we’ll stop losing soldiers on the field to stunts like that.” The three of them nodded at their leader’s words then parted ways again, Zeus staying with Aries now that she was without her communicator. The rest of the day was totally uneventful, revealing that there had really been no true survivors- at least not in the sections of the city they had managed to search. They joined up near the center of the city in a building that looked to have held up better than the others. In a room without windows, they sat around a glowstick that cast an eerie green glow upon everything but offered no heat. They’d taken off their helmets- or everyone but Aries, who had not one, did- revealing features that lived up to their code names. Lobo was a brown furred Timber Wolf; Zeus a bronze colored bull. Their leader, Drake, was clearly a dragon, his black scales reflecting the green glow while his diamond colored eyes glittered a prism of reflected colors. “I don’t think we’re going to find any survivors,” Zeus spoke up after pulling crossing his arms across his metal encased chest. In the many hours from the start of their search until now, it was clear he’d come to accept that, though there still burned pure anger in his charcoal eyes. He raised a hand and rubbed his palm against the stub of his right horn. Six months previous it had been shattered down to a fifth of its length in a battle. He’d been warned it would never grow back properly, but he’d refused to start filing his horn down. Any hot blooded bull would rather castrate himself with a pair of pliers than deface his pride. “Aye, but still we must search. If only to give a thousand percent positive report that not a single soul survived. Best not to give a half assed report and someone show up in the capital to find their country had left them for dead,” Drake spoke with a voice that held a slight hiss, something his helmet normally hid. The others solemnly nodded, knowing only grim days of searching lay ahead of them. When the glow of the stick started to fade, they all settled in to sleep with Lobo taking first watch. In the silence, the canine soldier gazed out into the hall of the building inside which they resided, counting the seconds while he chewed on a ration bar. All he could think about as he gazed out was getting back home and seeing his sister and daughter again. They were all that kept him going these days, their smiling faces the light in his darkness. How many years had it been since he’d confessed his love to his sister? At this moment, he couldn’t remember despite how important the event had been to him. No one knew of his love life, and any who met his daughter had no clue he was her father, the two looked so very different. Not even his daughter knew, and it killed him every time she called him ‘Uncle Clyve’. What he wouldn’t give to hear her call him papa just once. With that thought, his watch ended and he woke Aries to take the next shift, giving her his sidearm since her weapons had been destroyed along with the plates of her armor. She didn’t thank him when she took the short weapon that was a mix of revolver and knife- a gunblade, the techies had called it. He hadn’t expected thanks though. The woman was totally cold towards him at times and maybe room temp on good days, he’d no clue why and his male ego still got pricked every now and then despite the two years they’d been on the same squad and his love for his sister. Aries- real name Sasha- took her seat by the door, gazing out into the hall with blue eyes that were only slightly distracted by the dream she had. Once again she’d had that nightmare-ish memory plague her sleep, of a time three years ago when she’d been just a normal woman. She’d had a lover she had held dear and had been expecting a child, but an Imperial attack on her home town to the east of the capital had put an end to that. She’d miscarried two weeks after burying her lover and according to the doctors she’d seen, she was incapable of having another child. Ever since then, she’d steeled her heart and honed her body, earning her position on this squad through blood and sweat. Though she seemed cold towards Lobo, she wasn’t, but every time she considered finally letting the wolf into her chambers, she would feel a stab in her heart and low in her belly. She couldn’t offer the wolf anything more than a romp in the sheets and that just wasn’t fair to either of them, so she kept him at sword’s length from herself. For his protection. Yes, definitely his. Suddenly she realized she’d spent the entirety of her watch thinking about the wolf and she cursed quietly to herself, running a hand through her hair before going and waking Zeus. Drake always got last shift, since their leader worked thrice as hard as the rest of them. It wasn’t by his own choice that he was always last, but rather through force of habit. Arcus- known as Zeus in the field- gave a quiet grunt as he got up and made his way over to take up position for his watch. His body didn’t like waking up but he cared not what it thought. He was tough and resilient. Functioning on little sleep was child’s play for the bronze bull. Just like running twelve miles and swimming a mile in frigid water were child’s play. As it had been for his father, and his father’s father. His family had proudly served in the Legion for over three hundred years, always on the frontlines, always fighting off the Empire with the heaviest weapons while wearing the heaviest armor. He had no lover but wasn’t inexperienced. As was tradition in his family, he couldn’t fully claim a female for his own until he’d survived ten years on the battlefront. A mere moment in time for a member of his family. Of his six brothers, he was one of two that had yet to make it those ten years. The other had died the previous summer, blown through by cannon fire trying to reclaim the very town Aries had come from. He wasn’t sour about it. In fact he held his lost brother in high regard, just as the rest of his family did no doubt. The only higher honor than dying on the battlefield was having a son that did. As he stood there thinking of his honorable family, Drake stepped up and told him quietly that his shift had ended. The bull nodded and went inside to rest. Meanwhile Drake sighed as he leaned against the wall outside in the hall, gazing down the hall with those diamond eyes of his. This was the most practical and safe place for them to rest, and thus the most dangerous. If there were still enemies in the city, they most likely knew of this location and would attack at any moment. Drake the Black Dragon, whose real name was so long, complicated and closely guarded that his code name had become what all knew him by, quietly calculated how quickly it would take his squadmates to wake should trouble arise and took little comfort despite knowing that they’d wake quicker than hornets in a nest. He wasn’t an optimist in the slightest, and that is what made him the most successful squad leader to date. He always planned for the worst and thus always achieved the best, though sometimes soldiers couldn’t keep up. His squad had consisted of ten at one time, but now only held four. The others had all transferred out after a few weeks of his assignment. Only Aries, Lobo and Zeus remained, earning high regard from himself, even though he knew one day he’d have to give a speech over their graves to their grieving families. He literally felt the sun rise but it only tensed him up more. He wouldn’t relax in the slightest until the others were awake and even then not completely. The only time he ever truly relaxed was in his own quarters, in a hot bath filled with scents from his homeland even further to the north, past the ice caps and in the blazing inferno of the Outlands- an expansive desert and lavascape at the north pole cursed by the gods to be heated by the fires of the underworld. Some called it hell on Gaia, but he called it home. Honestly, he had no clue how anyone could stand all this rain- much less the cold and snow in the capital. In the Outlands, the only form of precipitation was the ashfalls once a year when The Craig- a huge volcano- rumbled. One by one his soldiers woke and left the room to join him in the hall, ready to begin a second day of searching. As one, three of them donned their helmets, only Aries not doing so since hers lay amongst the rubble of that house along with the rest of her armor. They checked their weapons next then they turned to their leader who nodded to them. “Today we search quadrants seven through thirteen. Lobo, go with Aries and provide her with backup while you two search seven and eight. Zeus, search quadrants nine and ten. I’ll deal with eleven through thirteen. I want status reports every thirty minutes at the earliest, every hour at the latest. If you fail to check in, I’ll consider you dead. Understood?” “Yes, sir!” the three spoke at once then they left the building, splitting off from each other. ~~~~~~~~Zeus~~~~~~~~ Arcus made his way through the ruined city, searching his designated quadrants for survivors to send north to the capital. He combed every building, searched every alleyway, turned over every rock. It was starting to irk his pride as a bull that he couldn’t find anything but parts of dead bodies when he found an arm… attached to a body… that was still breathing. He blinked several times before moving the rubble off the woman, revealing her to be a youthful bunny with dyed pink and blue hair and fur black as midnight. She was naked, no trace of clothing upon her lithe, sexy body, but he felt no stirring in his loins as he looked upon her. Turns out blood was a huge turn off to the battle hungry bull. Bloody she was, her body covered in a myriad of cuts. How she was even still alive was a miracle, for some of the cuts were festering and oozing a yellowish puss. She looked up at him with glassy eyes and mouthed something but he knew not what she spoke. He simply knelt beside her, took out his knife and ended her misery with a quick, merciful stab. She gave only a slight jerk then went still. When he stood, he sheathed the blade, not bothering to wipe the blood off. There was no time to give her a proper burial, nor was this the place to do so. He simply whispered a silent prayer to the gods then left her body to search for survivors who might be better off. He didn’t bother to call in a report on it. ~~~~~~~~Lobo and Aries~~~~~~~~ The wolf and sheep made their way through their quadrants of the city, keeping ever watchful eyes, one for survivors, the other for enemies. Every now and then though, Lobo found his eyes straying to the form of his squadmate, taking in the combination of muscle and curves of her body. The nano-suit did little to hide her body from his gaze, and though he knew not, she could tell he was looking at her. She didn’t mind it, though she wished he wouldn’t. Now wasn’t the time or the place, but after she’d calmed down from her near death experience from the previous day, she found herself more open to him than ever before. Soon after their forth check in, the two of them stopped for a break, chewing on ration bars in the shelter of a building missing a portion of one wall. It had been the guard barracks for the Legionnaires stationed in this city, thus was made of stone and steel, withstanding the battle better than the majority of the buildings around it. It had been clearly ransacked though, all the weapons inside either stolen or destroyed. “Why haven’t you taken a mate, Aries?” Lobo suddenly spoke up, making the woman nearly choke on her ration. “I mean. We’ve been in the same squad for two years now but I’ve never seen you with that spring in your step or a satisfied look on your face- or whatever you get after a good fucking,” he said, frowning in her direction, his amber eyes watching her. She wrinkled her nose a little and shook her head. “I really don’t think now is the time for this, Lobo,” she scolded him, mostly for his crudeness rather than his question. “I think now is the perfect time for this,” he told her, leaning against the wall across from her. “We’re alone and sheltered from the rain. Definitely the perfect time.” She frowned a little, then remembered the explosion from the previous day, remembered the cold terror she’d felt when she’d saw that look on that girl’s face and the detonator in her hand. She nodded to herself as her frown smoothed away and she replied honestly, “I want to, but since my town was attacked a few years ago, I am unable to have children. I don’t see any point in subjugating any male to such a hindrance. Men want babies after all, so a ruined woman is not worth their time.” She shrugged with indifference then turned her gaze to Lobo, totally surprised by the look on his face. It was fierce, like he wished he could go back in time and slaughter the ones that had ravaged her town, and it was possessive, like he would claim her despite her failing. From the burning in his eyes, she knew he would claim her, and her body reacted in kind. For the first time in years, she felt real lust though she tried not to reveal such in her actions. “Being unable to have children does not make you ruined, Sasha,” he told her and she shivered just so faintly at the way her name rolled off his tongue. “You’re more woman than any female could hope to be,” he told her, the surety in his words caressing her heart. ~~~~~~~~Drake~~~~~~~~ Drake searched methodically and quickly, every building, every street, all at a jog. He had the stamina of the dragonkin in him and could do this for days if need be, but he paced himself to what his squadmates could keep up with. He didn’t want to finish too far ahead of them and be too far away to request backup if he needed it. Pretty soon, maybe two hours into his search, he entered what was a public bath house, though the roof was caved in near the south side and the majority of the building flooded from shattered waterlines. He grimaced as he walked through the water, only to hear quiet talking. He froze then drew his sidearm, a gunblade like Lobo’s. Clicking off the safety, he slowly made his way closer to the talking, eventually being able to distinguish one male voice and one female. It didn’t take long after he could start making out what they were saying that he put away his side arm. “We need to leave the city, Sherry! It’s too damn dangerous and I couldn’t even find any food today. We’ll starve to death or worse, a building will collapse on us,” the man, a Terrier, told the woman, a Collie. “You should listen to the man. He’s got a good head on his shoulders,” Drake told the woman as he stepped into the room, scaring the shit out of the two of them before they recognized his armor and colors. Thus proceeded the ‘oh gods we are saved’ that went on for a few minutes before he interrupted, “Both of you, get out of the city and head north, to the capital. There you will be given a home and food, quite possibly jobs as well. Staying here can only result in death. This city is a grave for the fallen. Don’t be stubborn and join their ranks.” The woman, who had been all up in arms about staying until that point, relented and meekly nodded. Drake gave them both several of his ration bars to see them through at least the first day of their trip then went with them to the edge of the city, reporting that he’d found a few survivors and was escorting them out. Only Zeus responded, but since the last check in had been recent, Drake let it slide. ~~~~~~~~Lobo and Aries~~~~~~~~ “You… can’t mean that,” Aries replied softly to his words, her heart quivering in her chest. “I do. You are a woman of worth, Sasha. Never believe otherwise. Any male would be lucky to be with you, even if only for a night,” he told her with such surety. She gulped a little, and looked away from him, chewing on her lower lip. Though she was doing her best not to show it, she was getting aroused. From his sneaky looks the past two hours and his words now combined with that fiercely male look in his eyes, she couldn’t help it. He’d always been attractive to her, so lean and limber, holding all the grace and power of his race like a mantle. Biting her lip, she looked over at his helmet, which he’d set aside on the only desk in the room that wasn’t totally destroyed. They’d made their last check in very recently, so there was a lot of time before their next one. Finally, deciding to take that leap she’d have never considered before yesterday, she reached up and pulled down the form fitting nanosuit that covered her body. She lavished in the way his eyes first widened then darkened further with primal hunger as she revealed herself to him. It took a bit, since the suit fit like a glove, but when she revealed her breasts, his intake of breath was so worth it. Like all the females of her race, she was totally shaven save for the hair atop her head and the short fur on her little tail, all that wool just way too hot and itchy even in winter. Her pale, pale skin was so smooth and glistened from a light sheen of sweat, it was a miracle that he could even hold back enough to watch her push the suit off her arms and down her stomach. She pushed it down until it was about her hips, hiding her greatest prize from him, then she crooked a finger at him. “There isn’t much time,” she warned him and no sooner had she said it then he pulled off his gauntlets, dropping them aside. She cupped and massaged her firm C-cup breasts, teasing her long nipples between thumb and forefinger as she watched him strip off his breastplate and drop it. It clanged on the floor but neither cared as he unfastened his belt and removed all but his boots. No sooner had he started to pull down his own suit than she noticed the long, thick length of his cock down the left leg of his suit along his thigh. She shivered and felt herself grow even wetter just imagining that hard length inside her. She’d not had a lover in three years and all that repressed sexual energy roiled around inside her to the point that when he had the suit about his hips and came over to her, she orgasmed the second his mouth closed around her right nipple. She bucked a little and arched her back, burying her hand in his thick brown hair while she gave an embarrassed but pleasure soaked bleat. She couldn’t help but tremble as his mouth pulled so expertly on her nipple, making her so wet that she ached for him at levels nearly painful. “Yes,” she moaned as he shifted to her other nipple, his wide, flat tongue working against her nipple a bit before he slide the length of that muscle across her breasts, licking away her sweat. She pulled him up then and kissed him needily, feeling him moan into her mouth as her left hand found his cock through his suit and stroked him. These nano-suits were certainly something. You could survive an explosion without feeling a thing but a simple caress could be felt like nothing was there. When she gave him a squeeze and felt him shudder, her mouth suddenly watered with want for more than kisses. She sucked on his tongue a brief second then knelt before him, surprising the wolf. She tugged down his suit, his tail popping free in the back while his cock bobbed free and slapped her chin before sliding along her face to stop beside her eye. “Mmm,” she hummed, feeling the heat of it, the wetness of his sweat and the lubricant that had coated it when it had been in his sheathe. “I want this,” she said, looking up at him as she clutched at his thighs. He nodded a little and his cock throbbed and she grinned as she rubbed her cheek against it, making him shiver. “Let me taste?” she asked, giving him her most innocent look and his frantic nods made her laugh free and easy. “Good… I’d have been so upset if you’d said no. Now then… don’t cum until I tell you,” she said to him in a sultry voice before raising her head and capturing the tip of his cock in her mouth, listening to his sharp gasp as she worked her tongue against the little piss slit. Taking a slow breath through her nose, she suddenly plunged down his cock, making him arch his back and clutch at her short blonde hair. Being so out of practice, she gagged when the tip of his cock bumped the back of her throat and she pulled up off his length to gasp for breath. She licked her lips though, after a second, then took his tip in again and plunged down once more, this time taking him all the way to the start of his knot, a good inch of his cock bent down the back of her throat before she gagged again and pulled off. She did this, over and over, holding him in longer every time, gradually getting over her gag reflex. She loved to deepthroat cock, and had done it to her previous lover so much that the man had literally thanked the gods for having met her. But three years had her just a little out of practice, though Lobo was certainly a trooper. He let her practice over and over again, shuddering with pleasure that bordered on agony but did not cum. Finally, when she could hold him down her throat without gagging until her lungs burned for air, she pulled off, caught her breath, then told him he could cum whenever. She then plunged down on his cock and bobbed her head at a wicked pace, deepthroating him every time all the way to the start of his thick knot. The poor man lasted maybe ten of these plunges before crying out her real name and gushing his seed into her mouth and down her throat. She held him in as deep as he could go and swallowed all he offered as best she could before pulling off and wiping her mouth and chin. She stood while he was still in a daze and turned from him, pushing down her suit to expose her ass to him. It was firm with muscle but still had a nice layer of fat to it, possessing that perfect heart shape so many men lusted after. She bent over and arched her back, thrusting her ass towards him, her pussy puffy and glistening with juices. “Fuck me- Ooooh!” she groaned. He’d taken one look at her offer and had grabbed and thrust into her before she could even finish her demand. His thick length thrusting into her aching pussy was both a relief and a torment. Relief cause it stretched her so deliciously around all that manhood and a torment cause he only thrust in a few inchs. Bracing herself against the wall, she thrust her hips back but he pulled back at the same time, making her whine in frustration. “Deeper damn it!” she demanded, eyes going wide and clawing at the wall, a bleat escaping her when he complied instantly, thrusting in his length til his hips slapped her fine ass and his knot pushed against her cunt. “Yes!” she cried and when he started fucking her, fast and with the fierceness of a male making his female as his own, she started moving back against him, keeping pace as best she could. Every thrust liquefied her mind to the point where all she could think, all she could feel, was his cock plunging into her so deep that the tip bumped her cervix in ways she’d never felt before. Her last lover, bless his soul, had not been quite as thick or long as Lobo and now she knew every single inch she’d been missing. Over and over he thrust, his hands eventually sliding up to cup her breasts and pull on her nipples in a way she loved. No sooner had she wondered if she could take any more of this, she came so hard she couldn’t even cry out. She shook with her whole body, nails breaking as they clawed at the wall, her pussy spasming around his cock like a hand milking his length. It was then that he pushed so hard into her that he thrust his knot into her. That was when she cried out, a scream of ecstasy as she bucked and climaxed again harder than before, grabbing at his arms as he braced his hands against the wall. She could feel him, every inch of him throbbing inside her as his balls gave up every drop of his seed. Felt that hot sticky cum paint her insides white and drip down the insides of her thighs. If she’d had enough brain cells to think, she would have wished she could give this damn fine man a child, but she did not. All she did was wink out like a light and sag as he pinned her against the wall with his chest and hips. ~~~~~~~~Zeus~~~~~~~~ Not long after disposing of that poor woman, Zeus made his way towards the edge of the city. He’d talked to Drake who had reported that he’d found a few survivors and was escorting them out, so he himself was on the way to provide backup just in case the shit hit the fan. He’d gotten no more than five minutes from the body than there was a loud pop and shrill whine followed by a loud bang. His head snapped around instantly, looking towards the sky. He knew that sound. It was that of a flare being launched… from the direction of the woman he’d killed. Immediately he pressed his left forefinger to the pressure point on his mask, activating his com-link. “Drake, Lobo, we’ve got company.” No sooner had he reported that then a chorus of pops, whines and bangs filled the air. As he looked around, the sight of several dozen flares across the cityscape met him. Rather than feel cold with fear, his heart thundered in his chest, pumping blazing blood through his veins as he pulled the sword from its scabbard on his back. ~~~~~~~~Drake~~~~~~~~ Getting the call, Drake immediately urged the two he’d brought to the edge of the city to run then he ordered over his com-link, “Do not engage, Zeus! I repeat, do not engage! There are too many, even for you.” When Zeus didn’t reply, Drake kicked a nearby wall and took off at a run towards the nearest flare’s launch point. “Lobo, come in,” he hailed the wolf. When he got no response, he tried again, and again. He was still yelling into his com-link when the ground beside him exploded, throwing him up into the air and into the wall of the building opposite it. More surprised than stunned, he took a second to stand before taking the war axe from his hip and the shield from his back. No sooner had he done so than the Empire scout that had thrown that grenade at him appeared with bow in hand, arrow notched. No time for words, or intimidations, the scout let the arrow fly and Drake brought up his shield, the steel head of the arrow creating sparks as it deflected off the heavy steel of his shield. A quick rush and the dragon devoured the distance, shattering first the enemy’s bow before slamming the hungry blade of his axe into the weakly armored neck of the scout. “Lobo! Answer damn it!” he yelled into his communicator before feeling his body being pushed forward low at his back. He staggered a little as a deafening boom sounded, shaking the air or maybe just his brain around inside his skull. He fell to the ground and coughed blood into the inside of his helm before quickly regaining his feet, turning. The sight of a soldier holding what was essentially a long tube with smoke coming out of the end met him and he blinked at the equally surprised male. This interval lasted only a brief second before Drake was upon him, splitting his would be killer’s helmet it two as he buried his axe into the male’s skull. With the body of the freshly dead at his feet, Drake took a second to check his back, finding the steel to be worse for wear but the nano-suit beneath completely unscathed. He ground his teeth a little before pulling off his damaged torso armor, dropping it to the ground before once again radioing Lobo. ~~~~~~~~Lobo and Aries~~~~~~~~ Not five minutes after she’d passed out, a loud series of pops, whines and bangs filled the air, causing Lobo’s head to twist around. Flares! He shook Aries awake and she looked a little dazed for the three seconds it took him to warn her. With his knot buried in her though, there wasn’t much they could do, save grab the only viable weapon they could and wait while distant explosions sounded, only making the stress of the situation worse. They both released an audible sigh of relief when he’d finally shrunk enough to pull out. On shaky legs they pulled back on their nano-suits, neither of them speaking as they prepared. When finally Lobo had all his armor back on and picked up his helm, he heard Drake calling him over the line. “Sir! What’s going on?” he asked the second he had his helmet in place. “It’s about damn time you responded, you prick! We’ve got friends all over the fucking city just tripping over themselves to say hi. We’re out numbered, so we’re pulling the fuck out,” came Drake’s orders. “I’m going to rendezvous with Zeus then head towards the other side of the city where we left our Striders. Get there with Aries and wait for us.” “Yes, sir!” he responded before relaying the info to Aries, her face set in a grim expression. “Let’s move out. Kill first and ask questions later, go it?” he told her and she rolled her eyes. “Like I need you to tell me that,” she said before jogging out of the ruined barracks. He followed close behind, his eyes scanning their surroundings in earnest now, the real threat of an enemy attack keeping him from lingering on what they’d done. ~~~~~~~~Zeus~~~~~~~~ It didn’t take long for Zeus to lose himself in the midst of the battle. There weren’t enough enemy soldiers, as far as he was concerned, his blade thirsting for more. With every body he cleaved in two, he remembered all the thousands that had been killed here by the Empire just days previous. He didn’t question why they hadn’t occupied the city. He didn’t question why there were so many enemy scouts here. He simply killed anything that wasn’t himself or his comrades, not stopping even when Drake finally showed up.