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Chapter 27 The Assault on Neo Robia

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The day has finally arrived. The attack on Neo Robia, Croc's capital city is about to begin. After the successful test of the dimensional warp gate, the gate was transported to an open area outside of Rioas. Then a fortified structure was built around the gate, thick metal doors and reinforced concrete roofing with fortified pill boxes built into the structure facing towards the gate itself.

Thick power cables buried under ground leading from several power stations connect to the gate. Inside the fortified structure Crisis stands near one of the computer terminals as her science team works tirelessly to have everything ready. Standing before the gate is Francis and a team of six other machines that from the moment of their roboticization they were put under Francis' command. Crisis knows these machines well as many of them are also in charge of her bases outside of the country.

The room echoes with the sound of clattering typing and movement of heavy machinery, robotic and heavy boot footsteps echo throughout the building. Crisis's heavy robotic tail sways side to side as the heavy metal doors that are just as tall as the gate and even wider start to move open. Crisis grins as she looks over at Francis, “Five minutes, you ready?"

“Of course I'm ready, are you?" asks Francis as he slings a backpack full of equipment onto his back.

“I was built ready."

“Just don't expect your plan to go as smoothly as you'd like."

“I already know that," replies Crisis.

“If it wasn't for your intimate knowledge of the city, of its defenses, and some sheer luck that you managed to create a half way descent plan, we'd be doing something far different."

“For someone who actually liked my plan, you seem rather pessimistic about it."

“More of a realist, and don't think just because I supported your plan that a better one could have been formed given more time. This plan is incredibly risky."

“I know that," says Crisis.

“Attention two minutes till Operation Cobra begins," announces an organic announcer.

“Alright you all know the drill, get ready," commands Francis as he and his crew do one more check over their weapons before they approach the gate. The arching structure humming as the gate activates and the liquid silver film forms over the gate. Francis looks over his team one last time as he motions for them to move forward. Francis' squad moves forward and disappears into the silvery abyss.

“Are you sure you have to go too Crisis?" asks Joshua.

“For the last time yes, this is something I have to do," she remarks.

“I'm just concerned, that's all," sighs Joshua.

“We all are, most of us can't go with you due to our jobs at the gate," remarks Arissa.

“Even Sasha won't be accompanying me, not directly at least, since she's part of the second wave," adds Joshua.

“She's spent weeks behind enemy lines, in the very city we are about to invade, I think she'll be okay with an entire army backing her up," interjects Andreas, “It's a shame I won't be able to come with."

“It is. You've worked hard with me over the past few years."

“But my job isn't on the front line, its back here," he replies.

“True, though I've sort of manage both, speaking of front lines though I wonder how Francis as his men are doing..."

To Francis he appeared on the other side of the gate in a blink of an eye. Francis group arrived in Neo Robia just as planned, and before them was a robotic fox guard standing watch. The guard holds his weapon across his chest as he scans the busy port before him.

Francis doesn't waste a moment as he pulls out a small silver disk shaped device about the size of his palm from his pocket. Francis slams the device into the back of the guard's head. The guard twitches and attempts to remove the foreign object as metal tendrils latch and drill into the back of the machine's head and before the fox's hands even reach the device it does its job as the guard's eyes turn from a deep glowing red to a soft blue. Francis walks up to him with a grin and says, “Keep up the good work, and make sure no one uses this gate till I say otherwise."

“Yes Sir!" replies the fox as he salutes Francis before him and his group quickly move off. The other transportation gates are busy humming with activity as troops and visitors from other realms are busy going to and fro from Croc's crowning jewel of his empire. The gates were just part of the major transportation hub for the rest of the city. The gates are located in the airport with flights taking off and landing faster than people coming and going from the gates themselves. Trains, major highways all lead to this airport.

The control room for the gates and to keep in check the rest of the organized chaos is located several hundred meters away from Francis' position in a large building complex with a massive spire on the top shaped Croc's diamond symbol.

Without skipping a beat Francis' team moves into a large group of moving people, some organic, some robotic and moves casually towards their target. With Croc's constant state of war, no one notices a few extra robotic soldiers moving about.

They reach the main building where a set of organic guards stand watch. Occasionally a small patrol comes by to check up on the guards every five or so minutes, one minute after the last check up, Francis makes his move by walking up to the two guards and said, “Evening."

“Hold it who are you?" asks the female skunk guard.

“Croc heard there was a possible attack on this facility and he wanted to bolster the defenses."

“Attack? What attack? We haven't heard of anything of the sort."

“Its recent information, I'm not surprised that information can be a bit slow to get around sometimes."

“Hold on let me check this out," states the Skunk as she is about to talk into her intercom as two of Francis' men sprint and grab the two guards pinning them down against the wall as Francis moves to cover their mouths.

“I think you'll find what I say to be very valid, you just want to stand and obey me like good soldiers don't you?" says Francis as his two friends quickly initiate their hypnotic gaze. The two guards' struggle slowly becomes weaker and weaker as Francis continues to speak.

“You want to be good soldiers and obey. Let my team through and no one else. Traitors can be anywhere, can't trust anyone but us." The two guards stop their struggle all together as they are put back down, Francis removing his hands from their muzzles.

“Of course Sir Francis. Go right ahead with your team," answers the Skunk.

“And keep this issue a secret; we don't want to cause a panic, that's what the enemy would want."

“Of course not sir," she replies.

“Good," says Francis with a grin as he motions for his team to move in. Patrols move throughout the building as Francis and his team make their way towards the main control room. They move quickly avoiding any security camera systems possible. Twice the group had to stop to hack into a security coded locked door. Eventually they reach a stairwell that leads directly up to the main control room that controls the gates.

Francis lifts his hand and makes several hand gestures as the group slowly makes their way to the room. Their metallic feet make only the lightest clank and creek as the metal stairway shifts under their weight. The sounds of the team's movements seem to be lost under the voices of the crew working in the room above. The team stops at the edge of the bottom emergency entrance to the room. The team glance at each other, their weapons in their metallic claws as Francis stops the group as he then pears over the top. The door slowly opens as he moves his head up to see a gun barrel pointed at his head.

“You think couldn't see you sneaking about like rats?" asks the anthropomorphic shark security guard, his red and green uniform, nicely cleaned pressed, with Croc's insignia easily visible on his shoulder pads.

“Hey I resent that remark!" exclaims an anthropomorphic female rat gate control personnel.

“Sorry Zoe," apologies the guard.

“If you think that's going to stop me after all these years, you have another thing coming," remarks Francis as he makes his move, quickly followed by the sound of gunfire as all hell breaks loose.

“How long is it going to take? It's already an hour past the estimated time it should have taken," wonders Crisis as she paces in her spot.

“Remain calm; being uneasy like that is bad for morale. They like to see cool collected heads in command," advices Phillip.

“You know... you're right," replies Crisis as she stops and looks towards the gate. “We just have to be patient. Delays are to be expected. The most difficult part of this whole operation is not being able to communicate with those on the other side of the gate."

“That and moving through an entire damn army through one door."

“That too," replies Crisis as one of Francis' men comes through the gate. A green and black metal raptor, his previously smooth cleaned metal skin has scratches and dents. His right hand twitches uncontrollably, “What happened?" asks Crisis.

“We secured the facility but Croc knows something is up, we need reinforcements to secure the area and fast," he exclaims.

“Proceed with phase two then," commands Crisis as an alarm sounds. Anyone between the gate and the main doors quickly rush to the side. A low hum of helicopters turns into a loud droning noise as they approach. Joshua moves to covers his ears as the choppers make their way through the building and into the gate. A massive fleet of attack helicopters along with troop transports. The wave of choppers lasts a few minutes, each disappearing through the silver gate. Crisis watches with glowing blue eyes as a torrent of wind blows through the building. Joshua keeps his head down low till the very last of the helicopters are through.

“Francis also requested the device for the next stage of the operation," adds the beat up raptor.

“Already? But we aren't anywhere near the tower yet," remarks Crisis.

“He wants it now while it's still easy to get it to him."

“Easy to get to him? Isn't he cut off and needs reinforcements?"

“Yes and by the time I get to him the area will be secure, what's the problem?"

“Nothing," replies Crisis with a sigh as she turns to Joshua, “Joshua can you get the device?"

“Uh sure thing Crisis," replies Joshua as he gets up, adjusting his white and blue work uniform as he heads over to a heavy duty green camouflaged military backpack.

“Careful, it's heavy," Crisis adds as Joshua grabs the backpack's strap and takes two steps before being jerked back, the backpack sliding across the floor only a few millimeters. Joshua grabs the strap with both claws and tugs as he barely manages to move it at all before releasing it.

“I can see that," grunts Joshua as he goes to get a nearby two-wheeler handcart. He then proceeds to drag the backpack over the handcart with hard yet slow moving tugs. Once on the cart he wheels it over to the blue metal with a heavy pant.

“Finally," groans the robotic soldier as he quickly and effortlessly with one hand swings the backpack over his back and heads back through the gate.

“If it was that easy for you, why couldn't het get it?" asks Joshua.

“I thought you could handle it," replies Crisis as Joshua gives a deep breathed sigh.

Meanwhile back on Croc's side of the gate, things are a lot more intense....

The helicopters burst through the gate; each one quickly breaks off towards their designated targets. A group of attack helicopters head straight to the connected airfield. They release a torrent of missiles and chain gun fire onto any and every aircraft on the field, civilian and military alike. Missiles, rockets and machine gun bullets fly through the air slamming into any and every vehicle on the tarmac. Civilians flee from the area as soldiers throw whatever gunfire the can throw at the choppers. Huge balls of fire burst into the air as planes explode and nearby fuel tanks catch fire and erupt as the airport became an instant warzone.

Another group of attack helicopters along with a troop transport ship quickly make their way over to the surrounded control tower. There Croc's security forces surrounded the building and were at the barricaded control room door. Francis and the other soldiers exchange fire with Croc's forces.

“Getting low on ammo!" exclaims a black metal raptor as he shoots off a few rounds through the window at the soldiers at ground level.

“We all are," remarks Francis as the thumping of helicopter blades are heard over the gunfire, “But that won't matter for much longer," he comments as a hail of bullets blankets the ground around the complex. Soldiers duck and let out a deathly scream as bullets tear through anything and anyone in their path. A transport chopper hovers over the building as troops repel down onto the building. The raptor soldiers spreading out and start to overwhelm the building's defenders.

Meanwhile five other sets of helicopters break off, four of these choppers carry a massive cylindrical bomb on the underside of their carriage. The helicopters rush to the four corners of Croc's city.

Alarms blaze as Croc's forces quickly rush to their battle stations. Robotic and organic soldiers rush to quad laser anti-aircraft emplacements that guard several smooth metallic green and red half egg shaped dome structures. The laser fire heats up the air around the guns making it rumble like thunder as they fire at the approaching aircraft. The innumerable defenses around Croc's tower take any possible pot shots at the aircraft as they attempt to weave their way through the city's buildings. Windows shatter as laser hit all around the choppers as the fire slams into the building, sprinkling the ground below with shards of glass and concrete.

“Less than one minute till target," reports one of the pilots as they get closer, one of the choppers gets hit by the laser fire, the left engine catches on fire, smoke billows from the other chopper as it spins and crashes into a nearby building into a giant ball of fire. Shards of glass and twisted steel fly out everywhere as the burning husk of the chopper tumbles to the ground below. The remaining helicopters cut close to the ground picking up speed before pulling up hard, releasing their bombs from the underside of their carriage as they are flung towards their target.

“EMP released," yells the pilot as the chopper jerks upwards by the sudden decrease in weight. The bombs fly over the targets, the silver metal spherical bombs go off just as they reach the 'center' of the target. A Large visible ball of electro-magnetic energy spreads from the detonation site.

The helicopters rush as fast as they can from the explosion. All the events unfolding in mere seconds, as one chopper is caught by the blast. The systems of the helicopter lock up as all systems are knocked out. The blades slow as the unresponsive aircraft tumbles and crashes into the side of a building, lodging itself into the building with the tail blades sticking out, twenty stories above the ground.

Nearby robotic systems shut down as several of Croc's robotic soldiers in the area become limp and fall to the ground with a thud. Multiple anti-aircraft guns fall silent as the four areas were hit almost simultaneously, but that wasn't the only show going on.

The largest group of helicopters a majority of them heavy troop transport ships guarded by attack helicopters move towards the industrial part of the city. The massive power complex of smooth curved buildings was a modest but still problematic distance away from the invasion point. Between plant and the gates is a large industrial complex with several tall buildings that are just a few stories shorter than Croc's tower.

“Is this good? We have to stay with the rest of the pack, so choose quickly," exclaims an organic raptor pilot as he looks over his shoulder at Sasha who stands at the edge of an open door on one the attack helicopter. Strapped to her back is a large backpack along with an unfolded hang glider, with her trusty sniper rifle strapped to her side.

Sasha's yellow eyes scour through the battlefield as she grins and says, “It'll do," as she leaps from the helicopter, the glider springs open, jerking her body up, which makes the giant rifle bang against her body as she uses her claws and tail to adjust her flight path towards the one of the taller buildings. A large antenna built right above the emergency entrance/exit to the roof of the building blinks as she makes her way towards her target.

“That should do nicely," she thinks as she approaches the building, the sounds of gun and laser fire echo in the distance while the helicopter fleet reaches the power plant. Sasha can see small arms fire firing up at the choppers. Suddenly a gust of air pushes her glider up into the air veering her glider of course. Sasha's glider wobbles, as she tries to counter balance with her body and tail. The glider rattles as the next suitable building is too tall and more importantly too far away for her to have any hope of reaching from the very beginning, or a shorter useless snipping spot.

As she flew over her targeted roof she reached into her backpack and pulled out a grappling hook. She quickly ties the rope to her pack and wraps it around her arm before swinging the hook around the antenna, the hook swings around the antenna thrice over before latching onto itself and with jerk and a hard pull Sasha growls is turned around on a dime. The rope digs into her scales as Sasha is pulled towards the ground as the rope slides up the antenna till the top snaps off and topples to the ground. The sudden loss of support causing her glider to completely lose whatever stability it has as it crash into the ground and slides across the concrete roof top as Sasha slide across the top upside down as holes are burned right into the glider's canvas.

Sasha groans as she unhooks herself from the glider, “Rougher landing than I'd like," she comments to herself as she quickly looks over her surrounding before quickly rushing to the broken antenna, picking it up and uses it as a wedge to the door leading to the roof shut.

Sasha then moves into position, to the side of the building towards the power plant. There she can see more small arms from the enemy soldiers below aimed at the choppers. She pulls out her sniper rifle setting it up at the edge of the building, and looks through the scope. Several guard towers are in well entrenched as they pin down troops that have already landed. With a few well placed shots Croc's forces trouble those soldiers no more.

_ “I really don't like not being able to relocate..."_ thinks Sasha as she sees one of the attack helicopters get hit in the rear propeller blade, causing it to spin wildly as the pilot desperately tries to keep it under control. Sasha watches the chopper as the pilot manages to crash land it in a field part of a park a few blocks up the road that is just within Sasha's visual range, but with the smoke and trees it makes it difficult to provide optimal support.

“We have a downed eagle in G-7, providing some support," reports Sasha over the radio, as she sees a pilot appear from the direction of the wreckage, a little beat up but overall not too bad. The brown scaled female raptor looks around. Suddenly a gray domed disk appears from the side, a red crock jewel emblem on the top, the circle base is in the same dark crock red color. The disk moves quickly which makes it even harder to track and hit without the already present obstacles.

“I see some kind of new Croc weapon..." she relays to others as she watches the disk move into the clearing again, two long grey arms with red sphere shoulders show on the sides of this disk. The red metal hands and gray metal fingers reach for the raptor pilot who sees disk and begins to run away towards the wreck, the disk giving pursuit. Sasha follows the disk, an evil mechanical grin.

Sasha slowly releases her breath a she takes a shot, the bullet hitting the middle of the disk dome and flies right through, the bullet not even phasing the device. “Shit," she growls to herself as she quickly loads in the next shell, metallic strands come from under the dome reaching for the pilot, “You won't get your robotic tentacles onto her," remarks Sasha as she takes another shot at the device, this time aiming and hitting for the ring. The bullet hits its mark hitting the right not once but twice, breaking the device in two, as the gray metallic nanite mesh falls to the ground a few feet behind the pilot.

“I've just destroyed one of these new flying domed shaped things, aiming for the dome won't do any significant damage, aim for the ring at the base to destroy it," reports Sasha over the radio as she catches a glimpse of another flying disk already in the process of picking up the pilot.

“Shit," growls Sasha as she loads another shell into the rifle, but as she takes aim she sees the pilot taken up vacuumed up into the bottom of the dome disk as she begins to report what she's seeing. The red gem on the top of the domed robot glows as it draws the raptor up, her arms bound by the metallic blue ribbons that wrapped around her body. A ghostly outline of the pilot's head is shown through the metallic mesh, a gasping for air, a muffled scream, it was hard to tell as her feet dangled below. As the machine pulls her farther up into itself, the raptor's bust and lower body becomes outlined in the metallic mesh. The domed robot's arms dethatch from the ring base and move up and attach themselves to the shoulders of the outlined raptor. The robot lowers itself down to the ground as the skin tightens more around the pilot, slowly showing a robotic raptor forming from the head down.

Sasha continues to report the glowing crystal, glows even brighter than before, red wire outlines seem to form on the forehead before disappearing and a fully formed robotic raptor minion to Chaos Croc with his symbol and clothing is formed.

“Could you explain that again, what happened?"

“The domed robot just rolled itself over her and transformed her into a machine. Grabbed her, shoved her into the bottom of the domed top and rolled a metallic film over her to turn her machines. I think I'll call them roll ups," explains Sasha.

“It's a fucking condom bot. From the way you're describing to me it's a condom bot. Maybe you've never seen one of those but that's what it is," remarks Francis over the coms.

“Good to know you're still well," comments Sasha.

“Enough chat, take out that convert and return to covering the assault."

“Take out the convert, but..."

“The person could have valuable information that they are giving to our enemy take them out now," growls Francis.

“Yes sir," replies Sasha as turns off the radio, “I really hate that man," growls Sasha as she takes aim at the converted raptor, she slowly releases her breath as she takes the shot, the bullet rippling through the air as it hits her mark. “I'll disable her and.. what the?" says Sasha as she sees the bullet went through the robot's leg, the robot crying out in pain as blood comes out from the wound, and the machine collapses where she stands. “I have to report this that those things just trap our soldiers and not turn them into machines they can be saved," says Sasha as she turns her intercom back on.

Back at home base, things were just as hectic....

Armored personnel half track carriers speed forward towards the gate right behind the helicopter push. Two dozen of the halftracks are filled with Crisis' robotic troops followed by another half a dozen filled with organic soldiers, each of these halftracks with large artillery pieces hitched to the back of each one. Right behind them are dozens of trucks filled with soldiers, supplies, fuel and everything you could think of to keep an army running.

“Almost our time to go through, ready Ruby?" asks Crisis as she glances over to Ruby who approaches her from behind.

“I was born ready," she remarks.

“I would say built now," chuckles Crisis as she watches the last of the recent wave go through the gate.

“Too much of a pun for me, and I was born not built."

“How long till you go?" asks Joshua.

“Now that this wave has completed, we just wait till they've inform us the perimeter has been secured and ready for the next set of reinforcements, which will involve us and some heavier ground equipment," explains Crisis.

“I wish the two of you luck," replies Joshua.

“Thanks, though I won't get over confident about this, but I will say I have a good feeling about this."

“I do too," remarks Ruby with a grin, “It will be nice to give back a bit of payback for the annoyances Croc has given me over the years."

“It will be nice to put this whole conflict behind us."

“What will you do once Croc is defeated?" asks Joshua.

“I'm not sure... I'll worry about that once it happens," she replies.

“Don't bother Mistress Crisis during her vital moment," interjects Shasi as she glares at Joshua.

“Don't be too harsh on him, he's just concerned about her," says Arissa as turns her attention back to her monitoring station. Sometime later a robotic soldier comes back through the gate holding a black box.

“I bring news of the front," he states as he approaches Crisis.

“How does it go?" asks Crisis.

“There are some rough spots but overall we're advancing steadily into Croc's city, here are the recordings of the radio chatter," reports the robotic raptor solider.

“Thank you," replies Crisis as she takes the information cube.

“Careful Crisis," warns Joshua.

“I'll be fine, it's not going to be a virus," she replies as she releases the wires from her claw tips to interface with the data cube, Crisis quickly downloads the information before putting the cube down on Joshua's desk. “Pass on this information to high command; we'll be starting the next phase of the plan, Ruby we'll be going in."

“Finally!" exclaims Ruby with a grin as Crisis motions for the next wave to begin. A silver blue half track APC with a small anti infantry gun, manned by one of Crisis robotic soldiers.

“Come on in Ruby," says Crisis as the door is opened from the inside.

“With pleasure, this is going to be fun," remarks Ruby.

“Be careful Crisis... and good luck."

“I will be, don't you worry and thanks," replies Crisis as she and Ruby slip into the car with a few of other Crisis' soldiers.

“It's a pleasure to be fighting with you again Mistress Crisis," states a buff black metal raptor with silver claws and blue eyes, the blue claw symbol of Crisis on his shoulders.

“It's been a while since we've fought together, it will be good unit C-0012"

“Who's this person? I've never seen him," asks Ruby.

“He's one of my first converts, the twelfth to be exact."

“Really now? And how come I haven't seen such an early convert of yours outside of Shasi and Arissa."

“Let's just say I've been keeping him very busy," explains Crisis with a sly grin as the APC bursts through the gate and instantly Crisis gets fed the stream of communication of the battle that surrounds her. A Dromaeosa helicopter is heard flying overhead as Crisis' view is blocked by the camouflage nets set up overhead over the gates.

“What's with the canopy over the gate?" asks Ruby.

“It's to try to hide which gate we are using for our offensive," replies Crisis as the APC is guided down the line of tents along side of the other inactive gates before moving on ahead. Nearby Crisis can see another helicopter fly over to the airfield, landing at a nearby landing strip where fuel trucks are ready to fuel and re-arm the ship. On the other side of the APC are several the artillery pieces being set up and aimed towards Croc's tower, but Crisis' moment to take in everything abruptly ends when she hears the report from Sasha on how Croc is conscripting some of his newest troops with this 'condom bots'.

“Attention everyone. If anyone is captured by these new machines of Croc do not attempt to kill but disable, furthermore I don't want any action to be taken to try to save these people, we'll save them by taking Croc out and capturing the city," commands Crisis over coms.

As Crisis' APC moved forward she saw several of the artillery guns set up and pointed towards Croc's tower as organic soldiers busily loading the guns. Moments later they fire, the guns recoiling back as the shells fly towards Croc tower with a whistling howl and a billow of smoke.

“ __Why are they attacking the tower?" Crisis thinks as she sticks her head out of the side of the vehicle to get a better view of the tower. Crisis zooms into the incoming barrage. Protective laser batteries shoot down over half of the shells, causing them to explode in the area in a spectacle of fireworks. The remaining shells approach the tower as they explode just short of the tower. A glowing soft red force field appears for a few brief moments before disappearing, inflicting no damage on the tower what so ever.

“Hey, why are you firing Croc's tower?" asks Crisis over the intercom system.

“We've been ordered to," they respond.

“By whom?"

“By Francis."

“Francis why are you having the artillery fire at Croc's tower? We need to capture that building."

“Don't worry, I was having them aim at the tower's defenses. A few shells won't knock that thing down, not that it's doing any good."

“I've noticed, we took the power plant, why does the tower still have power?" inquires Crisis

“They probably have a generator for the tower just in case something like this happens. Not that this changes any of our plans."

“Indeed, did you get the package?"

“I have, and we're moving with Group B towards the tower, you better get there with group A or we'll go in without you."

“Don't worry, we'll be waiting for you, just get those guns to support our other offensive. I'd like to have this place surrounded as soon as possible," remarks Crisis.

“Understood, it is your show," remarks Francis as Crisis gives a robotic sigh.

“Attack group A is bogged down, they'll need our support. Let's head there and give them some help," commands Crisis as they move towards the front lines. The streets are deserted asides from Crisis' troops, which steadily increase in numbers along with support vehicles and tanks as they approach the front lines. The nearby buildings are full of holes and scorched from the gun and laser fire. The once clean streets are a mess of broken glass, rubble and flames.

More of Crisis troops and a few light vehicles join Crisis' push to reinforce the front lines at the heart of the city. The APC stopping a block and a half back from the heat of the fighting the sounds and flashes of gun fire from the upper buildings down below and vice versa as Crisis' troops are pinned down by Croc's forces that have taken up defensive positions up above. The base of the buildings held by more of Croc's troops preventing an assault into the building to flesh out the troublesome soldiers in the floors above.

“Load HE rounds and let's see how Croc's troops like my welcoming gift," chuckles Crisis.

“Yes Mistress Crisis," replies the gunner as the automatic loading system loads the shell into the gun which is already aimed towards the base of the first building, during the time Crisis' soldiers pull back away from the buildings. Moments later the infantry gun booms as it fires at the base of the first building explodes as glass and shrapnel, fire sparking at the base of the building as wood and cloth catch fire. The cries of Croc's troops caught in the fire were barely heard before the gun reloads and aims higher, firing once again at the troops above with equally devastating results, and soon the process is repeated to the other side quickly silence the soldiers causing Crisis and her forces trouble. Some of Crisis' robotic soldiers stay behind, rushing into the banged up buildings while the remaining forces move forward. “Mistress Crisis, I'd like to inform you we're down to two HE rounds and four AP," reports the gunner.

“That's all?"

“This is a command vehicle and we don't have much room for many rounds... though we weren't given many rounds to begin with. Less than a third of what we can carry."

“Even with so much time to plan and supply we still have supply issues..." comments Crisis with a sigh.

“Your command vehicle isn't meant to be so close to the front lines and used as an attack vehicle Crisis. Most of the ammunition has been reserved for actual combat vehicles," remarks Francis.

“Listening onto my complaints now?"

“Making sure you don't get yourself blown up before you can have your fight."

“You concern touches me," replies Crisis with a heavy hint of sarcasm. Suddenly Crisis' forward most troops yell on the radio, the advance suddenly stops as Crisis troops pull back.

“What's going on?" asks Ruby as she looks out of the window.

“My troops have nanite detectors and when they catch a high concentration of Croc's nanites we bring up the anti-nanite team," explains Crisis as four organic raptor soldiers move towards the front. Three of them are holding what looks like to be harpoon guns with spools of wire attached to the back end. The fourth raptor is holding a strange device with a small dish on the front, and on his back he's lugging a rather heavy looking device.

The raptor looks at the device in his hands and quickly motions where to have the other three to shoot off their weapons. In quick motions they fire, the spool of wire following the shots as two shot off into far side buildings over a block away and the third fired straight down the center of the road. The harpoons stick into the buildings with a thud.

Crisis' robotic troops during this time stay several yards back as they keep a look out to provide any cover fire the organic troops may need. The four organic soldiers take some cover behind an abandoned truck. They fourth soldier pulls the device off his back a large battery device and while he gets it ready the other three cut the wires from the spools and tie them to the device.

The other three soldiers peel back as the fourth stays behind working on the device which begins to glow and give off a soft hum, after a few minutes a red button lights up which the soldier quickly presses, the wires light up in a brilliant blue glow that disappears as fast as it came.

“What was that?" asks Ruby.

“Controlled EMP shockwave. The wires are specially designed to give out a powerful but short range EMP the moment electricity is put through the wires, but it needs a big jolt, and the wires are single use. Once Croc's nanites have been zapped we bring forward my own to deal with the rest," replies Crisis as a few of Crisis' robotic soldiers come up with metal canisters which they soon open, releasing countless microscopic nanites into the air to deal with what remains as the army moves forward once again.

“I didn't know you had anything like that."

“You didn't expect me to tell you all my secrets now, did you?"

“Of course not," replies Ruby.

“What is troubling so is that we haven't been getting as much resistance as I was believing we'd encounter. Sure it hasn't been easy, but for his capital, I'd expected something more."

“His armies are out fighting his enemies, he really doesn't need to keep a strong military presence at home, and with the gates, he can easily call them in, though since we control the city's gates, reinforcements are going to take longer to arrive."

“I guess I should be grateful for any luck we've had thus far, look the tower is just a few blocks away now, we're almost there," comments Crisis with a hint of excitement in her voice, but no sooner was that said an explosion goes off in front of the APC, the driver slams on the breaks and attempts to turn away from the explosion, the vehicle slides forward into the creator that was formed, sliding in and rolling onto its side, everyone becoming jumbled up inside of the vehicle.

“Its times like this, I am glad I'm now a machine," remarks Ruby as she moves around a bit finding Crisis foot in her face, “I'd also appreciate it if you could get your foot out of my face Crisis."

“Trying, we have to move before whatever formed this pothole comes back," replies Crisis as she climbs to the top side of the vehicle and attempts to open the door only to find it jammed, “I guess I have to do this the hard way," states Crisis as she activates her electro-blades the metal turning red hot as she cuts through the door before kicking it some yards away. Crisis stands at the edge of the opening she made helping Ruby and another one of her soldiers out.

The sound of echo through the buildings as the aircraft that caused the trouble makes another attack run, “We better move."

“No need to tell me," remarks Ruby as she jumps from the APC to the street.

“Our door was jammed in the front, we're coming," says Unit # C-0012 as Crisis grabs his hand and helps him out as well as the driver.

“I think that's everyone," comments Crisis.

“Come on Crisis we're lucky they haven't made another run on us yet," yells Ruby as she motions Crisis to follow her into a nearby building for cover.

“I'm coming!" responds Crisis as she is about to jump from the APC to the road she catches the gunner pinned against the creator wall and the gun. His vocal chords damaged from the impact making it impossible for him to speak but his reach towards Crisis is what grabbed her attention. Crisis slides down the APC and reactivates her electro-blades, she's about to cut through the gun when the soldier shakes his head and waves off his arms stopping Crisis.

“What's wrong?" asks Crisis as the soldier motions with his hands that if she cuts through the gun the shell inside would cause it to explode. “Ah good point."

“Crisis get your tail out of there, they are moving in for another run!" yells Ruby.

“I need a moment," exclaims Crisis as she looks around at how her minion was trapped. Her electro-blades activate again as she dug the blades to the asphalt, in quick succession. Crisis grinds the stone away, bit by bit as the sounds of Croc's screeching aircraft grows louder.

“Crisis you don't have a moment!"

Crisis continues though till the damaged robotic soldier falls through. Crisis grabs his hand and pulls him onto her back as she leaps out of the creator. Sizzling laser fire hits the APC soon followed by an explosion and a ball of fire. The heat felt on Crisis' back before the force of the explosion flings Crisis as the other soldier forward through a window into the building Ruby and the others were taking cover in. Crisis' body rolls a few more feet as she slides into and breaks a nearby wooden table.

“You Okay Crisis?" asks Ruby rushes over to her.

“I'm fine, my systems only indicate minor damage, check him over there, his vocal circuits are damaged, but not sure of anything else," replies Crisis as she stands up brushing up glass, dust and pieces of broken wood off of her metallic body.

“He seems to have taken some moderate damage," reports C-0012 as he looks over the damaged soldier. The soldier slowly stands up, the sounds of his movements loud with the whiz of gears, and a bit jerky.

“We need to press forward, but you don't have to, do you think you can make it back to base?" asks Crisis.

The soldier nods in response.

“I can make sure he gets back in one piece, with no APC to drive or weapon, I can at least provide some use," offers the driver.

“That'll work. For the rest of us," replies Crisis as she steps out of the building and looks at the burning pothole as well as the few other vehicle wrecks caused by Croc's air assault. Crisis turns her head and looks at Croc's tower which is just within her grasp, “It seems we'll be walking the rest of the way."

The sleek craft whiz quickly through the air weaving in and out of the buildings, hitting any vehicle they see, making them explode in large balls of fire before they make their way towards the trans-dimensional gates. There several AA Gatling chain guns fire at the approaching craft, soon followed by the crackling of laser fire from captured quad laser AA guns. Croc's ships make one run against Crisis' forces; a bomb run hits several of the trans-dimensional gates, destroying them outright.

A nearby attack helicopter refueling on the helipad is strafed, destroying the chopper along with the nearby fuel truck, causing a massive ball of fire in the following explosion. Before they manage to make another strafing run the mass of anti-aircraft guns blow the planes out of the sky in a blazing glory, pieces of scrap metal fly in every direction as the planes crash into buildings and open ground.

Sasha peers through her scope and takes aim at a nearby machine gun nest, placed inside a building overlooking the park with the crashed helicopter. Their gun fire suppressing one of the advances of Crisis' troops, as the burning wreck of one of the support assault vehicles is a burning wreck nearby, leaving the soldiers with little else to go on save for their small arms fire.

Sasha fires a round at the mechanical machine gunner, the round hitting the gunner in the head. The bullet breaks up into countless pieces spreading around in the machine's head, destroying the machine's sensitive internal circuitry, causing the machine to tumble forward with a thud.

“Another one down," remarks Sasha with a grin as she catches a small reflection in the corner of her eye, “Shit," she exclaims to herself as she grabs her gun and drops down behind the ledge, the electrical shock sound of a bullet heard followed by three more in quick succession.

“Damn it to hell," growls Sasha as she presses herself against the wall and her gun against her body as she can see four bullet holes in the roof, as well as three in the wall that Sasha was behind on the other side of the roof top. The bullets made clear cut holes through the concrete, as if they moved through the wall as if they weren't even there.

“Could be worse," she thinks Sasha as a few moments later the door leading up to the roof starts to rattle as banging on the other side is heard. Sasha growled sighs to herself, “You just had to think that didn't you?" Sasha as she looks around, the door barely being held by the antenna as any bash of the door could break it wide open. Sasha slides herself up along the wall being careful to keep her muzzle parallel to the ground as she wiggles up, slowly moving towards the door and her glider. Sasha takes several deep breaths as she sees the glowing red robotic eyes of one of Croc's troops ready to take Sasha the moment the door gives way.

“I need air support in sector 13B, confirmed sniper," requests Sasha on coms.

“Sorry we are currently unable to accept your request, all air support is currently occupied with other operations," she hears over her radio.

“Shit..." growls Sasha as she looks back to her glider... “I'm not going to like this," sgrumbles Sasha as she turns and jumps off the side of the wall, tumbling to grab her glider, her sniper rifle swing onto her back in the same one smooth motion. The whiz of the sniper's gunshot is heard behind her as she sprints towards the building's edge. Sasha glides through the air towards the next building, gun fire heard all around her as she pulls out her pistol and proceeds to shoot out the windows across her way. The window shatters as she smashes through them. She tumbles to the floor, detaching the glider from her back as she dives behind some office equipment. More gunfire and bullets whizzing by her as the group of Croc's forces break through the door and swarmed the top of the previous building.

“As shitty as that was, that was quite fun," grins Sasha as she looks into the reflection of a nearby computer monitor. She can see the robotic soldiers scouring for her, for any movement, any sign of her. Sasha lays down low to the ground and pulls her sniper rifle from her back and takes aim towards her enemy, the desk completely blocks the view of the enemy and the enemy of her.

“Let's see..." whispers Sasha as she turns her head to glance up at the computer monitor and then back to her scope, her site looking at the nothing but the inside of a wooden desk. After a few more glances back and forth before she relaxes and takes a slow deep breath and pulls the trigger. The bullet piercing through the wood and hits one of the soldiers right in the center of his chest knocking him down.

“Damn it I thought I was going to hit his head," growls Sasha as she sees the results of her action through the reflection, but that was short lived as the others there begin to open fire on the room, causing Sasha to slowly crawl her way through the blind attack on her. Monitors and other electronic equipment break into countless pieces as pieces of equipment land all over the place.

As Sasha makes her way through the equipment she could hear the electric gunfire from the sniper, she streaks of blue electric fire as the bullets of the sniper fly through the building. Sasha's body slithers through the debris and office equipment like a snake, and as she does she picks up a few cuts and scrapes in the process.

“Whatever that sniper is using I want it," she thinks as she saw the sniper's rounds burn through the building like a hot knife through butter. Eventually she makes her way towards the hallway and from the hallway she manages to get to the stairwell. There she can see small rays of light coming from the bullets holes of her friendly sniper competition.

“Let's see what I can see..." says Sasha as she peers through the small hole, giving only a quick peek, to see the small pathway towards the tall building several blocks away, and no more than a second after she pulls away a bullet flies through the same hole she peaked through. Sasha jumps up the stair well grabbing onto the railing as she pulls herself up as several shots are fired below her and continuing a small path downwards, at least twenty shots in total fired.

“I'm not that easy you bastard," she growls as she slowly pulls herself up with a grunt. She can hear the sound of metallic thumping of robotic footsteps echoing down below. “Though they're trying," she remarks as she moves up the stair well, going up several flights before bashing a door open to another office floor. There she closes the door behind her and moves down the hallway looking at the office rooms with her pistol in hand, her rifle strapped to her back. She peers into an office room with glass windows facing towards the tall building housing the sniper.

“This shall do," she thinks as she slowly opens the door and waits a moment before sliding herself in, she gets herself down to the ground as she pulls the rifle out and holsters her pistol. She sets up the stand as she peers through the scope and begins to search for her emissary, “Where are you, you bastard," remarks Sasha as she searches and searches, till she finds her target. A robotic female brown weasel dressed in green, black and red uniform, their rifle is as long as her own if not longer. Sasha adjusts her sites as she takes aim, the weasel's attention suddenly turning towards Sasha as she notices her, Sasha pressing the trigger down as the weasel does the same, behind Sasha the sounds of robotic troops bursting through the stairwell door as Sasha takes an all or nothing shot.

Crisis has been making her way towards Croc's tower for sometime after she lost her mode of transportation. Crisis follows right behind the troops. There've been several minor skirmishes that slowed her advance but not stopped it. And now she stood no more than half a block from Croc's tower, within spitting distance and Crisis' troops stop as they stay on their coms.

“Nanites!"

“I knew Croc would have a descent amount here," comments Crisis as she, Ruby and C-0012 take cover behind metal trash cans. The organic soldiers move up as they carry what they need.

“I had a thought, how will we past the shield?" asks Crisis.

“That's easy. The shield is designed to stop fast moving objects so as long as you walk into the building you'd be fine. It's just how the system works, otherwise it use too much energy," explains Ruby.

“Good to know."

“Why didn't you ask sooner?"

“Wasn't the most needed thing to know till now," Crisis responds as the organic soldiers move behind a blown out car after they shot their harpoon shots into nearby buildings or the ground just a few feet away from Croc's tower. They work to tie the wires together to the charger and as they are letting the thing charge an rocket propelled grenade explodes at the car they're hiding behind blowing the soldiers away, causing the vehicle to catch on fire as the opening gun fire from Croc's troops in the nearby building outside of Croc's tower opens up, finishing off the two raptors that survived the opening explosion.

A massive gunfight breaks out between Crisis' troops and Croc's as Crisis quickly attempts to call for air support, but is quickly denied due to the heavy AA cover provided by Croc's tower. Slowly Crisis troops are pushed back as the nanite levels continue to increase down their way.

“We need to clear those nanites or they'll beat us before we have a chance to beat Croc's forces," growls Crisis as she and the others remained down as Ruby moved up to another area and began firing back at Croc's forces.

“Yes but we don't have another nanite neutralizer," comments C-0012.

“Why don't we have another? We should have had backups," growls Crisis.

“We lost them in the air attack."

“Francis do you read me? We need support at the Devil's Gate. We need assistance against the little enemy," asks Crisis.

“We're nearby but we're currently unable to help, our own team is pinned down, and attempting to neutralize our own little problem. You're on your own for now."

“Damn it all," growls Crisis, “With that level of nanites none of my troops will last more than a few minutes before Croc's taint will stop them what they're doing..." remarks Crisis as she peaks her head to view the battle looking managing to get a snap shot at blown car where the nanite neutralizer.

“Everyone, cover me, I'm going in."

“You crazy? With those nanites and gunfire? You'll never make it in one piece," warns Ruby as she ducks down to dodge some return fire.

“I'm the only one that can do it."

“But is the thing even working? It was just blown up and if it was what about the EMP?"

“I studied a picture I took of the battlefield, its functioning, I just need to get there, and don't worry about the EMP, I can handle a little bit of that," she remarks as Ruby nods.

“Alright, just don't get yourself blown up."

“I don't plan to," replies Crisis as Ruby, C-0012 and others open up a barrage of gunfire as Crisis leaps over the garbage cans she was hiding behind, sprinting towards the burning vehicle. Sound of whizzing bullets landing nearby, a few even grazing her metallic body but bouncing off harmlessly. The flames of the burning vehicle lick at Crisis' body, as her metal plates start to heat up. Warnings about Croc's nanites hit her system, her own nanites work to counter act Croc's as she looks at the device, it's fully charged with its glowing red button but it won't hold for long. Crisis remains low as gunfire flies over head. An explosion is heard nearby as another shot from a grenade launcher falls short.

“Okay why isn't it ready to fire..." growls Crisis as she notices one of the wires broke in the explosion. She quickly scans for the missing wire. The wire's end was blown ten or so feet away from the car in the middle of the open road.

“I'll need more cover fire," requests Crisis as she peeks over the burning vehicle only to be forced to duck her head down again when bullets whiz over her head. She growls in frustration as time is running short. She takes the leap of faith and runs to the wire, grabbing it in her claws and then rushing back to her hiding spot, damages to her system coming up as a few bullets managed to hit her tail, and left shoulder, causing some damage, the biggest issue, though it's opened her systems to more of Croc's nanites.

A Warning of the attempts to alter her system's programming appear on her internal HUD as she connects the wires together, before firing off the EMP pulse. Her systems grow static as the pulse hits her systems causing more damage to her, but even more so the nearby enemy troops as the pulse knocks of them out. The tide of battle quickly turns in Crisis' favor as her troops push forward. A container holding Crisis nanites are releasing into the air as several of the nanites rush to Crisis and start making repairs to her systems done to the EMP, and work to get her own nanite systems functioning again

“You okay?" asks Ruby as she runs up to her.

“I'll be fine. Just a few scratches," she remarks as her vision has a light static to it.

“That's more than a few scratches."

“I'm not going to be stopped here, not when we're at Croc's front door," states Crisis. Fifteen minutes later Crisis' and Francis' forces meet up at the front door, fighting continues to ensue in the nearby areas but the front entrance is eerily quiet.

“I see you've seen a little action Crisis," comments Francis.

“Your concern touches me, but enough of that are your men ready?"

“They are, are yours?"

“We are," exclaims Ruby.

“Excellent, lets waste no more time."

“All we have to do is walk, any fast movements will trigger the shield," explains Crisis.

“Good to know," replies Francis as a group of over three dozen troops, including a dozen of Francis' own personal troops move to Croc's tower, and through the front door, the moment they do they notice their com links to the troops outside are cut off.

Not a moment later back at the gates, the invasion gate having survived the air attack suddenly shots down, the same going for the gate back at Crisis' gate back at home. A reinforcement truck was about to go through the gate, speeds right through and the driver has to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting the building on the other side, causing a chain reaction of break slamming a few trucks banging into each other in the process, invasion's reinforcements cold in the process.

“What just happened? Why did the gate turn off?" asks Joshua as he quickly looks through his computer screen and starts franticly looking for answers.

“I'm not sure everything was working fine, and suddenly it just turned off," responds Arissa.

“You better not have broken anything Joshua," remarks Shasi.

“I didn't do anything, just find out what could have happened!" he exclaims.

“Don't fight amongst yourselves, focus on the task on hand and find out what happened, over half of our forces are still on this side of the gate," Phillip commands

“I see no external commands that could have shut it down, but I'll keep looking," reports Arissa. The troops on the other side instantly discovering their gate turned off, leaving them trapped on this end. Those left in command while those leading the charge are cut off, quickly trying to adjust their tactics to this new and sudden change in events.

Meanwhile Croc stands in his throne room, looking over his city that is wracked with endless combat and strife. Smoke billowing up to the sky in countless places. Croc shows no worry or concern as he sees on a nearby video screen of Crisis and her forces making their way into the building.

“I see my little pet project has finally returned home. I'm impressed you managed to do so much damage with that little army of yours before the gate hit its limit. I wonder what you'll do now that its gate will be shut down for the next forty-eight hours."

“I see you have no concern about Crisis' attack and the fact she managed to get to your tower," comments Ko as she approaches him from behind.

“You act like this isn't what I wanted my dear," responds Croc as he smacks Ko on the rear.

“Of course... how silly of me. You always have a plan don't you Croc?"

“Of course I do, and soon Crisis will be just where I want her and then this little quarrel between me and her will finally be laid to rest," remarks Croc with a sly grin.