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Return at home. Old friends. New battles.

Chapter 28: Glacial - The Resistance

The Night Spirit reached the clearing in the thick forest in a short moment of great tension. Everyone maintained a façade of calm, but even Alexis was worried about the perspective of a barrage of portable SAMs roaring out the wood and sailing up towards the cargo plane as it slowed down in midair towards its hovering phase. That, or either an old-fashioned wall of fire obtained with tens of guns firing madly against them, which wasn't any better...

Nonetheless, Killer and Alexis quickly walked to the extreme back of the plane, standing side to side and facing the slowly opening loading ramp as every Predator in the hold stood and walked calmly behind them.

A moment, and two tidy columns formed, with twenty soldiers standing at the ready behind each sovereign as the gunners of the Night Spirit opened also the lateral doors, aiming the Gatling guns nervously from side to side, ready to answer to any order or threat that might arise from the darkness outside... Outside, the tremendous thrust of the engines was vectored downwards as the plane stabilized on its horizontal axes and started to vertically descend, accompanied by its loud, whistling hiss, every meter and every second a spasm of tension, always waiting for weapons outside to fire against the now vulnerable cargo...

But nothing happened, and the Night Spirit stopped in midair without even going down to touch the ground with its undercarriage, just hovering a few feet above the surface, ready to a quick climb.

"Good luck!" Ken whispered as he reached the side of Killer, everyone sprinting out of the plane from the ramp and the doors on the sides, and the huge liger nodded and playfully punched the sniper's shoulder.

It took merely seconds for the plane to empty itself and Killer stomped on the ground, Alexis elegantly landing at his side from the low jump as the Predators around them sprinted in all directions, running for a few meters to create a circular perimeter of defense around the area. The Gunners all but dropped to their bellies, their machine guns ready on the bipods and quickly aimed towards targets already chosen, the position of which was known... The snipers, Ken in first place, sprinted to their chosen positions and dropped down on their abdomen as well, before vanishing entirely from sight as they covered themselves carefully with the Death Cloaks and took aim to their rival counterparts well hidden on the tall trees all around.

Killer gave a rapid but attentive look all around. He was nervous, useless deny... they were exactly in the bull's eye of a target set up by the enemy itself to suit his needs and be as easy to hit and destroy as possible... Yet, it made him only feel even more eager to see the fight begin. He could feel his bloody hunger down into every fiber of his powerful muscles, feel it in his breath as he looked over the clearing from side to side... And he met the sharkish grin of Alexis as she turned at him with a suggestive, enticing glance up at his face. It told him she was feeling exactly in the same way... and he was sure that, even if he wasn't aware of it, his muzzle had the same grin as they walked around the dark form of the Night Spirit. Every moment could be the last... a rain of fire and grenades, bullets and bombs and rockets could fall over them from every direction in any instant... But yet, he was confident they would have made their work. After all, Alexis was at his side, relaxed and looking... darkly cheerful. With her powers, she would have known that the attack was coming, well before the enemy started to pull on their triggers.

His glance went analyzing the surrounding area... and red icons crowded his tactical vision in every direction he looked at. The enemies were everywhere, keeping them all in the aiming sight for their well hidden positions in the wood... But the Dominator drones, still loitering silently over the area, kept mercilessly looking down with their thermal-sensible electronic eyes, transmitting back the position of every single soldier on the tactical visors, directly in front of the eyes of the Predators.

Killer looked up towards the tip of a nearby fir... And he could see a fine red line outline the profile of a sniper laying on his belly over a branch, aiming his rifle down at him. It was quite a sensation... and, absurdly, it gave Killer a stroke of pride and satisfaction at the fact that the technology he had first dreamed was now such tangible reality, and was so effective: without the outline on the visor, the sniper would have simply been invisible.

He had flattened himself on the branch, between the thick vegetation, and covered himself perfectly with a camouflage-net constellated by small branches and foliage that all but made him part of the forest's background... But Killer could see him perfectly, even tell the position of his arm, thanks to the red outline that also marked the guy as enemy. Besides, a small red cross was also overlapped on the sniper in waiting... That was the CEC, Cooperative Engagement Control. It was a software function originally thought for the destroyers of the navy, to allow ships reunited in fleets to collaborate and use their missiles to achieve the best results: it was meant to deconflict especially the anti-air defenses, to make sure that a single enemy plane wasn't took as target by tens of missiles fired by several warships, while maybe a solitary other intruded was overlooked and had easy path to attack.

It had later been adapted also for the needs of the air force and of the army... And even if most had said it was impossible to produce serviceable software for use by the infantry, Siegfried had managed to do it. The small cross meant that some of the Predators around had already that particular enemy under aim... Siegfried had used the laser aimer/Range finder mounted into the weapons used by the Predators to determine when a target was being aimed, and had inserted a string of data about it on the Net between the other info exchanged. The CEC had so become a reality... not that it was used continuously, obviously: often, after all, it is needed to keep an enemy under fire from several directions and several different weapons anyhow. Besides, in the chaos and tension and ruckus of the battle, soldiers, even the super-trained Predators, had much to do and care about than keeping under control the fact that an enemy was already being targeted by a comrade... But the utility of the CEC was anyhow impressive. Snipers loved it, and in situations like this one, when you had to be sure that every enemy was under control, it was vital.

Killer and Alexis had almost reached the nose of the Night Spirit when it rapidly started to climb vertically up into the sky. The two cargos had hovered roughly a meter above the ground for barely the time needed for the Predators to jump out and constitute the perimeter of defense on the LZ... and now they were rapidly taking off again, accompanied by their unmistakable hiss and by clouds of dancing dust, small rocks and leafs caused by the terrible thrust of the jet engines...

And without the aircraft, Alexis suddenly had clear view on Murray.

The colonel had obviously eaten very little in the latest times... But he still conserved the shadow of his athletic, toned shape, despite the hunger and the age that started to get at him. His clear brown eyes were the same bright, smart ones Alexis reminded so clearly... And the white tiger was clad in a dirty and ripped uniform, marked by the battles and the life of a guerrilla, but still, as she expected of him, he had kept it as perfect as he could, repairing it at the best of his chances and taking care of its look, in the rigid and disciplined observance of the rules and tradition of honor of the army that he had always embodied. He looked older and tired... Both physically and mentally. He wasn't sleeping from days, probably, and he looked marked by the worries and the pains of the command. Alexis could feel his feelings, see them literally in his mind... And she could tell that he had seen a lot of people and old friends die and suffer in the last years... And besides, in the latest three days, he had been dealing with added worries. Worries for the ones that had been captured with him and where now standing around in the clearing... And worries for her, for the one that he had always called and revered as Princess... And now was marked in his mind as Queen, and appeared in all his thoughts, along the tearing, burning worry that he may have not managed to be clear enough... That he might have lured her into the trap.

The blond tigress met Murray's eyes as she walked calmly towards him... And the colonel looked back at her with a mix of confused and overlapped feelings gleaming in his eyes. There was a flash of terror as he feared for a moment that she might have missed his hidden warning... there was relief at the awareness she knew everything was going on... And then surprise at the fact that she had come all the same... And in the same time, pride and affection at the fact that she had not abandoned her people and her land, at the fact that she looked both stronger and even more beautiful than when she had left... There was amazement as he took in the sight of Killer, of the enormous male walking at her side so close that their bodies brushed every so often... And there was immediately joy at seeing that she had finally found the love of her life.

Alexis smiled a bit towards him, even if she tried to maintain a neutral expression, careful to not awaken suspects in the two bulky tigers standing at the sides of Murray. They definitely weren't friends... even if they were wearing ragged and torn clothes and looked ruffled to pass as guerrillas themselves, they had no chance to delude her powers. They were standing a step behind Murray, hands ready on their assault rifle, handguns at their belts... And they were likely officers in charge for the ambush.

The sapphire, cold eyes of the femme fatale flashed rapidly and curiously over the clearing, giving a face to the friendly auras she had identified when she still was on the plane... And definitely, she recognized several boys of the army... Boys she had hosted in her bed at night, too, and made slaves to her... Boys she could trust entirely, that had fought for her and for the freedom of Glacial ever since Riaku had invaded the kingdom.

It touched her to the deepest pits of her heart... And it also hurt her, made her feel guilty. They had stayed and fought, even after she had been defeated... and still they all looked up at her with the deepest of venerations and respects. Something she believed she don't deserved... But that I can still get to deserve.

Her heart gave her a true shock only when her eyes crossed the soft gaze of a female guerrilla looking at her with the deepest affection and confidence gleaming in her eyes.

Laura...

The girl that had always been her best friend, the one she had considered her fourth sister, the female that had been her right arm even in the rugby team back in their youth... Now was standing to her left, between a group of four guerrilla-camouflaged enemies, her smile giving to Alexis such a wave of emotions and joy to completely erase the four fake smiles around from the background.

Laura was in far better shape than Murray... which made Alexis fairly sure that the old, courageous and honorable colonel had been giving over his meals to his comrades, accepting hunger just to see the others smile. The tigress had suffered herself, of course... but she still was as strong-looking as Alexis reminded.

In fact, she was even more muscular, now... and even if lack of rest and hunger had asked from her a ticket, she still showed a muscular abdomen that almost rivaled Alexis's one, and she had strong, toned arms as well. The white tigress had black stripes along her fur coming from the sides towards her pure ivory abdominals, short black hair currently ruffled and dirty and beautiful, bright emerald eyes. She also had a tattoo of flames swirling around her right arm that started at her neck and probably covered also part of her breast, and several earrings. She was wearing plain green, thick mechanic's pants covered with pockets of every shape, thick leather boots with heavy soles of plain steel, and had a torn and ragged black leather jacket covering her torso.

She was expertly holding an assault rifle at the ready in her hands, but Alexis needed no fantasy to know that hers, just like all the weapons of the true guerrillas, was completely dry of any bullet and useless. Nonetheless, the two girls exchanged a grin, and Laura all but winked with a defiant tilt of her head to the side, all but ignoring the enemies that stood around her at the ready... And Alexis answered, barely managing to restrain a snicker as Laura all but liked her lips as her attention shifted to Killer.

The huge male liger had also noticed the defiant female. A full twelve feet, if he valued correctly her height... and he usually was very close when he estimated sizes. It was a height impressive for most: there were even males that only dreamed to be so imposing... And he had to admit his eyes had definitely been lured by the beauty of the girl and by the short, tight jacket that left good part of her muscular belly exposed, showing a silver ring at her navel and the perfect built of her toned body and underlined the noticeable sizes and firmness of her breasts.

He grinned when she licked her lips at him in so obvious way, and they traded a quick wink as well... But then he felt all the lightness in the air dissolve as Alexis straightened suddenly, moving with such speed that everything around her looked like the set of a Western movie of cowboys on slow motion.

Her hands whizzed down to her thighs and drawn out both Desert Storms in the timespan of half a blink as she snarled and sprinted forwards, rising her weapons and firing both as the enemies around looked both stupefied, terrorized and retarded in the same time, her speed leaving them all feeling powerless.

Before any of them could react, the two soldiers at the sides of Murray were flying backwards leaving streamers of blood and gore into the air, the massive magnum bullets of the Desert Storm shattering their bodies and throwing them away like puppets as Alexis stretched her arms out to either side and fired again, several times in rapid succession, all eight barrels of the two huge guns flashing as her eyes burned with murderous fury.

Her bullets shattered neatly the heads of several more enemies. She doesn't even needed to aim, her psychic force driving each bullet to the target with the absurd and mortal accuracy of her aimed shots. Enemies all around the clearing went down with splatters of blood, and immediately there were the reactions of the Glacial's warriors, who turned to get the rifles of their once-jailers and fight as shouts and loud, rhythmic growls of gunfire suddenly rose to deafening levels as the Predators opened fire as well, pushing the enemy even more into panic and confusion.

It took barely a second, and the snipers of Kesteven fired over the targets already chosen, marked and aimed: enemy shooters fell down dead and shattered from the trees as the Predator gunners unleashed terrible bursts of bullets into the forest, the Assaulters using their hybrid rifle-grenade launcher to send a barrage of mixed Flash-Bangs and fragmentation grenades all around the clearing, over the positions of the machine guns of the enemy, awakening Hell itself as a hurricane of fire, steel, flashes and rumble of thunders shook the forest.

Alexis sprinted towards Murray, firing again and again with her handguns on every target she spotted, taking down enemy after enemy before stop in her charge and throw both weapons to the old colonel.

The two had the time to trade a grin and a nod as he easily grasped the weapons and turned on his heel to blast down an enemy soldier running for one of the machine gun's positions that the Assaulters had watered with grenades.

Laura wasn't idle, either. As soon as Alexis's mortal attack had sent down the soldier standing at her side, she had revolved on the sport and slashed her empty rifle like a club on the three stupefied enemies behind her back, grinning as she sent them all down in a spray of gore, the heavy rifle cracking their skulls open like eggs with the strength of her blow. She immediately let her useless, empty weapon go and ducked under a burst of automatic fire, rolling away to the side on her arm as her hand seized one of the rifles of the dead jailers.

She immediately pushed down her palm and straightened to a kneel, her hands both grasping the weapon and leveling it in front of her eyes as she growled, her thumb working the safety easily and her index squeezing burst after burst from the trigger as she aimed the weapon from enemy to enemy, rapidly sending three more down.

Killer turned with a snarl and blasted dead a enemy that had been leaping out from a bush reading a strike with a large sword to Laura's back, the Cobra firing a single bullet that nailed the unfortunate to a tree in a splatter of blood, before he charged straight towards the trees as well, every Predator charging up from his own position to leave the exposed and bare-of-any-cover clearing and charge into the woods to exploit the shelter offered by the trees...

He caught sight of Laura's grateful thumb up as she slammed another clip of ammo into her rifle and in the same time slashed a vicious turning kick backwards to smash into the face of a charging tiger while he fired a grenade into a group of shadows outlined by red lines, sending several enemies down as shreds of flesh... He spotted in his tunnel vision even Ken, who all but leapt up from under his invisibility-cloak, cackling as he grasped the neck of a terrified nearby enemy with his robotic arm, easily cracking his spine to pieces... And then he, as everyone else, looked for a moment to the sky above as a barrage of missiles roared in the night leaving streaks of flames and white smoke as they whizzed past at a speed well superior to sound's one...

The Whirlwind attack helicopters in the rear line had fired their Brimstone missiles against the enemy artillery standing a few miles away, just as had been planned... And a second later they heard the explosions and saw the flames rising tens of meters into the sky in an apocalypse of fire and smoke as batteries of guns and rockets were pulverized by the thermobaric warheads of the small but devastating Brimstones raining down from the sky.

A point for us...

Killer leapt easily high into the air to overcome a tall and intricate brush as he charged into the protection offered by the forest... And he growled as he slashed Wyvern hard in front of himself, neatly cutting three enemy soldiers at the height of their waist as they were too slow to turn and aim at him their massive rifles. When he landed on his feet and sprinted forwards, his gaze wandered for a moment on the corpses on the floor, and he almost stopped in midstride in surprise as he saw a badge he knew all too well on the shoulder of one of his still warm victims.

The symbol was bloodstained, but still easy to recognize... And the two letters on it gave Killer both a reaction of horror and one of hope. RA... Again. Even here... We really have to get info about these crazy guys... But I don't see Riaku's soldiers anywhere. Please, tell me he's not aware of this...

Shouts and screams and loud, echoing rumbling of automatic fire filled the air from every direction as he turned around a tree and smashed the fist holding Wyvern on the head of a RA rifleman, his knuckles easily shattering helmet and skull alike as the unfortunate died without a whimper, falling in a puddle of blood and gore as Killer turned on the spot to slash his huge sword against two more enemies before they could reach him with their much smaller blades.

Meanwhile, the ruckus increased exponentially as hundreds more of enemy soldiers were commanded to charge in, following closely the tanks and the IFVs that were now being started up, growls of engines and squeaks of tracks adding to the terrible cacophony.

He looked around himself to find Alexis in the now confused battle, idly smashing the flat of Wyvern on the head of another enemy who leapt at him from the side as he looked away, then he finally got sight of a RA soldier being smashed into a huge tree facefirst, again and again, by invisible hands, and he grinned slightly, knowing that Alexis was somewhere there... And then he finally caught sight of her.

It was a blur, because she was moving with the rapidity of a lightning, but his eyes caught in the sharkish grin of fury and battle lust on her beautiful features, saw the bloody blade of Blue Vixen ready to strike... And then he saw soldiers. Tens of frightened, trembling soldiers firing madly with their assault rifles towards the blond female as she charged in their ranks and slashed Blue Vixen with deadly elegance all around her, reaping them like crop.

Bullets hissed in the air angrily, chasing her, but Alexis was apparently headless of the bursts of automatic fire, the femme fatale moving with enchanting elegance, almost dancing in the air heated up by burning rounds, somehow always moving out of the trajectories. Her sixth sense become more and more sensible and perfect each passing day... And Killer found himself staring at the blond tigress all but turning on her heel to step between two angry bursts as she slashed hard outwards her sword, neatly decapitating the soldier nearer as she grinned cruelly. It was the time of a blink, anyhow, and she was turned to the other side, bent forwards to avoid bullets hissing merely a inch away above her head as she sank Blue Vixen in the chest of another enemy, and then she kicked herself up in the air with elegance and ease, supporting herself on the handle of her blade as she kicked both feet in the face of a stunned rifleman.

Killer fatigued following the speed of her movements. He almost missed her scissoring her legs open in the air, then closed again to avoid bullets whizzing by... He barely caught sight of her standing in a perfect handstand for a fraction of second over the handle of the sword sunk in the corpse of the enemy on the ground... And then she was gone.

He was almost as surprised as the unfortunate RA combatants when she flipped perfectly high into the air and landed between the lines of enemies, merely an inch away from a stunned soldier.

She leaned against the back of this one, the soldier stiffening up and turning back with a frown of terror... And Alexis grinned with terrible, dark amusement in his eyes, her hand easily snagging the rifle he tried to aim back at her, swinging it away as he fired, taking down a couple of comrades nearby as she teasingly voiced a "Surprise...". He had no time to react in any way, anyhow, as she snarled and pushed him roughly away, her psychic force flowing to her hand and slamming into the unfortunate with the violence of a running truck, all but throwing him away into the air and smashing his back into a tree as she slashed Blue Vixen in a vicious arc around herself, passing the sword from a hand to the other behind her back and sending down the enemies around her with a frightening spray of blood and gore.

She slashed upwards in front of her this time as another soldier charged at her, the spikes of the blue blade hooking deep into armour and flesh and ripping everything out as the unfortunate was neatly lifted off the ground and thrown into three more riflemen like a rag doll, the femme fatale leaping safely away to slam her feet backwards into a trunk and flip into the air gracefully, once more propelling herself to land in the middle of the thickest enemy group, Blue Vixen slashing elegantly in arcs that covered every direction. Such was her speed, that the sword was little more than a blur of sapphire and a whizzing flash of light when she fired the submachine gun in the handle.

He was distracted, anyhow, as a barrage of explosions shook the ground around them as batteries of mortars in the forest around started firing a furious and vindictive rain of steel and fire over the small clearing. The rounds literally ploughed the area, throwing up into the air burning slivers, rocks, earth and dirt as even a few huge trees were cracked like pencils by the largest fragments.

The Predators, anyhow, had already left the open and exposed clearing to find some cover into the forest badly enlightened by the flames dancing here and there. The battle was confused and furious, with the enemy in confusion as its ambush had been not only avoided, but reversed... but now their firepower was coming into play, and the noise of tracks and engines and feet told of tens of tanks, vehicles and hundreds and hundreds of soldiers moving to close a noose around the Predators and rebels in the clearing.

Killer had soon shouldered the Cobra in favour of the huge blade of Wyvern as he ran into the woods, the thick map of trees making ranged engagements complex, while charging enemies continuously leapt up from the brushes as the troops that had been waiting in second line were thrown forwards against the Predators.

The liger overtook a friend gunner, hidden behind a thick tree that was firing holding out the weapon and aiming thanks to the image projected on his visor, the two exchanging a nod as the king sprinted towards Laura, who was crouching and firing with the stolen assault rifle, killing several enemies on their charge.

If Glacial's girls are all that dangerous as Alexis and Laura, I might be in serious danger...

An enemy clad in a black, tight uniform turned around a tree at his side, rising a long curved sword to strike, but was meet by a hard slash outwards of Wyvern, which smashed the unfortunate into a nearby trunk, neatly cutting him in two as the tree gave an agonizing shudder as the thick blade cut easily halfway into it. He raised his eyes, and Alexis was there, all but charging into a new wave of enemies with a grin that spoke of bloodthirsty anger and dark amusement at once, her eyes alive with burning fire and her aura coming in sight as her powers focused even more... And as flames of sapphire light danced lightly around her form, the soldiers in front of her were neatly slammed backwards by some sort of gigantic, invisible force.

Killer reached up Wyvern to parry a burst of automatic fire, bullets smashing noisily against the thick blade but bouncing off uselessly as he charged forwards, aiming for Alexis and all but running into the rifleman, snarling as he smashed his spiked elbow into the much smaller enemy as he passed by. The unfortunate fell in a crumpled, bloody heap to the ground, skidding several feet away as the male liger pushed the hand holding Wyvern high above his head, in front of himself, thick blade aimed downwards to the ground as he slashed it quickly from side to side in a pendulum, stopping the bullets aimed at him from every direction, before slash the crimson and bloody weapon in a fast and violent arc from left to right in front of himself, cutting down several soldiers.

He emerged near Alexis as she efficiently deal with a couple of bulky riflemen herself... and she grinned up at him as he come close, the female elegantly turning on the spot and leveling Blue Vixen in front of herself as they come back to back, lightly leaning each against the other as they grinned viciously towards the enemies that surrounded them but now looked more and more unsure of themselves, staying at distance and likely waiting for the tanks and the reinforcements as the noise of tracks and engines grew louder and nearer.

"We deal with them on fifty-fifty bases...?" Killer asked teasingly, his icy sapphire eyes looking from side to side on the line of scared enemies... Amazingly, they had even ceased firing, staring at them in a mix of awe and terror.

"No way, awesome." Alexis grinned back, tilting her head a bit. "It's a competition. Get as many you can, and keep the count. I'll have more."

"Show-off." He softly observed, grinning wider as they suddenly charged forwards in opposite directions... and tens of rifles immediately started again firing at them madly, trying to stop their assault.

Killer raised Wyvern to deviate the bullets out of the way, but his eyes gleamed with dark fire when a dome of crackling sapphire energy surrounded Alexis and him, her aura once more visible even to his eyes, blue flames dancing around her form as the bullets simply and absurdly stopped in midair, most falling to the ground even if many all but turned back to hit the riflemen that had been firing.

Alexis is getting way too dangerous... He thought with a vicious grin as he slashed Wyvern violently downwards and to the side, the blade cutting in two several soldiers as blood sprayed up on his massive body, the long broadsword biting deep into the ground before her he reached his left hand behind his back and passed the handle from a hand to the other, slashing upwards and in the other direction this time, slicing the men that had been trying to leap at his exposed side and all but slaughtering an unfortunate that was caught by the cruel spikes of Wyvern's crimson blade.

Alexis was even more terrible in her assault, her aura dancing in flames even down along the blade of Blue Vixen, making the sapphire blade gleam in a wonderful and yet terrible way as the weapon cut across even the most resistant armors like it was made of plasma and not of steel. The blond femme fatale was releasing all the rage of who has been stolen of the family, of the homeland, and who saw her old home profaned for years... And now her fury was a terrible and yet magnificent display of power, deadly elegance and speed.

Killer turned towards Alexis, looking at her from over his shoulder to see how she was doing... but he had no time to really be amazed by the incredible flying kick she had just done, because tanks, vehicles and soldiers started to come in sight from the deep of the forest behind them... And a huge Tiran battle tank smashed into an old, massive tree, breaking the thick trunk like a bread stick as it charged into the clearing and fired on the move.

Killer had jumped away to the side just in time, snarling a bit as he instinctively closed his eyes for a second, feeling the immense force of the shell whizzing by at a speed that was several times greater than sound's one, dangerously near. The enormous projectile slammed into the ground several meters further into the clearing, exploding in the middle of a group of RA soldiers and throwing high into the air piece of corpses, earth and dirt as Killer landed in a roll and slammed his free hand down to quickly stand up on his feet, rising Wyvern and glancing to the tank that had fired.

Alexis was already taking care of it, anyway, and that made him grin for a fleeting moment. The way they could always cover each other, fill into each other's work, was amazing. And seeing her fight made you think again on the concept of impossible.

Alexis had all but leaped against a charging enemy, slamming the steely soles of her combat boots in his chest and crushing him down as she propelled up in a high, elegant jump into the air. Time seemed to freeze as she flipped in midair, aiming Blue Vixen outwards, straight towards the tank... and she saw in her mind a precise image of what was going on inside the enormous, moving vehicle, seeing the moving aura of the young private that was in that moment pushing a big HE shell into the cannon... And Alexis fired.

Things started to apparently happen at double the normal speed now, as Alexis landed elegantly on her feet and started again fighting, while the huge tank exploded in a scary ball of dirty fire and black smoke as the single .50 round sailed into the long barrel of the gun and hit squarely the fuze of the shell just inserted. In the same moment, another charging tank exploded as a Predator in the clearing coldly dropped to a kneel and fired his portable multipurpose rocket from his shoulder.

Several more Predators mirrored the move as more and more tanks come into sight, now firing madly with their heavy machine guns to try and repeal the assaults of Killer, Alexis and the rebels. Laura, efficiently covered by the colonel Murray, had been the first to climb up the side of a Tiran to force open one of the top hatches of the turret, quickly working as bursts of automatic fire from the other vehicles around chased her, slamming furiously into the thick armour of their comrade as she dropped a grenade inside and sprinted away, while the crew inside was slaughtered by the explosion.

Killer charged forwards, pushing and slashing his way across thick ranks of enemies before slice in half the long bore of a Tiran's cannon that had been turning to frame him. The tank crews were going crazy under the rain of rockets fired by the well trained and well hidden Predators, and Alexis and the huge liger were smashing the colossal vehicles one after the other, becoming the principal target of the gunners inside them.

The machine guns mounted on the tanks fired furiously, long bursts chasing after both tigers and cutting large holes in the now confused and terrified ranks of the RA, the crews of the tanks apparently not minding the slaughter of their own allied by means of blue on blue fire...

On the other hand, their panic was somehow understandable. They had been lined up at the ready to ambush their enemy. They were convinced to have all the advantages: position, surprise, number and firepower... But now, they were the ones ambushed. Their artillery of support had been mostly wiped out by a barrage of missiles coming from apparently nowhere. And now they were charging in blind, in the greatest chaos, under a rain of deadly and mortally accurate shoulder-launched top-attack rockets.

The Predators had now the advantage, thanks to the Dominator drones that were constantly loitering over the area of the fight, scanning the forest below with their thermal imagery sensors and mapping the position of every single enemy, transmitting the data on the tactical visors, so that each Predator had every info needed right in front of his eyes.

Besides, the Dominator was not just an eye, but a fist in the sky, too. The small drones had been handed from the crews of the Night Spirits to the Section Leaders of the Predators on the battleground... and now, each Drone was using with great profit its three top-attack submunitions warheads.

A Section Leader, hidden in a small depression of the ground behind a bush, quickly took a look at his wrist-mounted computer console, seeing on the small screen that one of the Dominators was in automatic loitering mode, and he tapped his finger on this, selecting the drone from the touch screen. The image on the console immediately changed into what the Dominator was seeing from its thermal-reading "eye"... and the officer quickly worked his finger on the trackball of the console, guiding the small unmanned aircraft towards a group of three Tiran tanks charging from the side of the clearing.

It was easy and fast. The drone flied obediently on its attack route, and when it passed above the three huge armoured vehicles, the Section Leader pushed the attack button.

The drone knew exactly what to do, and each time fired a small and apparently harmless skeet of steel downwards. The skeet was a SB100 guided submunition, anyway, that immediately locked the target autonomously with its own Infra-Red seeker and fired.

The skeet was essentially an Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP), also known as an explosively formed projectile, a self-forging warhead, or a self-forging fragment: a special type of shaped charge designed to penetrate armour effectively at stand-off distances. The SB100 has a powerful charge of PE4 inert plastic explosive placed behind a thick and shallow dish of steel used as liner for the generation of the piercing effect. The force of the blast when the PE4 is detonated moulds the liner into a sort of huge bullet of melted, superheated metal that flies at seven times the speed of the sound and has an enormous power of penetration. Besides, the submunition is wrapped in a composite, pre-fragmented body to generate a rain of slivers deadly against the infantry and has a small ring of zirconium capable to generate a white hot flame of more than 4000 Celsius degree.

The multi-effect submunitions did exactly that as they exploded a few meters above the vulnerable, less-armoured top side of the huge tanks: the self-shaped projectiles all but pierced the tanks from side to side, disabling several systems, killing the crews inside and making one of the vehicles explode as a fuel tank was hit... and in the same time, a rain of deadly, small and sharp slivers on the infantry that was escorting the huge tracked vehicles. And to complete the slaughter, white-hot chemical flames fell like a burning, incandescent rain on the area below, causing a concert of deafening shrieks of agony and all but increasing the chaos.

Several more tanks and IFVs loaded with RA soldiers exploded in an apocalypse of fire, smoke and wrecks as the cold, sharply trained Predators started aiming their rifles to the charging vehicles. Obviously, the assault rifles could nothing against the thick armours... but the Predators were never alone, and they called the help of their "big brothers" of the air.

The laser-aimer built into the rifles started acquiring and locking targets, sending the data about them, their position and type back into the Joint Warriors Network, straight to the consoles of the crews into the Whirlwind assault choppers waiting a couple of miles behind, safe from the enemy fire.

The Gunners, one inside each tandem cockpit of the two stealth helicopters, had easy game in touching the touch screen in front of them to confirm the acquisition of the targets... and the doors of the weapon bay of the chopper opened at that command, the deadly Brimstone missiles being rolled out by electric rails and locked in firing position.

The weapons of the Whirlwind were transported into a sealed bay, so to keep the profile of the chopper clean, to allow it to reach its amazing speed and especially to stay invisible to the radars... And when they were needed, the missiles were moved out under the stubby wings and fired, like in that moment. The missile did the rest... The Brimstone, launched by triple or eight-cell launch rails, had a Tandem Shaped Charge (TSC) warhead that employs a smaller initial charge, designed to initiate and overcome reactive and advanced armor, followed by a larger, more destructive charge, designed to penetrate and defeat the base armor. The explosive charge has a thermobaric effect and is wrapped in a pre-fragmented layer of Tungsten to obtain full multimission capability against a wide range of possible targets. It could be aimed with the radar or a laser beam... and in both cases, it left no chances to escape.

And then it come. The Night Spirit gunship flew in low, roaring just above the tip of the tall trees, its engines shouting a message of death as it neatly turned to offer its left side to the forest, to the charging enemies as its thermal sensible eye started to discriminate and lock targets. Doors in the fuselage opened rapidly, and the weapons of the Cyclone were exposed.

Two huge, seven-barrel Gatling guns stretched out from their hatches, already slowly revolving, while near the tail a massive, multiple Metal Storm grenade launcher made its own entrance on the scene. A second, and Hell itself broke loose on earth.

The Gatling guns started firing, rapidly picking up their infernal rate of fire, each throwing a rain of 4000 rounds for minute, the Drawing projectiles so leaving long streaks of yellow light in the night, making the thick barrage of rounds look like laser beams as a low, gloomy growl filled their ears.

Grenades and 40 mm piercing rounds smashed down into the forest with incredible violence. Thousands of explosions plowed the ground, rising clouds of dirt and dust as the huge trees were smashed to pieces and slivers, large and often sharp chunks of solid wood whizzing chaotically in every direction as everything was pounded to dust by such violent attack. The battle almost stopped for a fleeting second as everyone looked over to the hell of flames, explosions and flying, deadly debris that had suddenly been unleashed, many repressing shivers down their backs at the terrible sight.

Everything in the area devastated by such rain of steel was being systematically destroyed. Six huge tanks Tiran exploded in tower of dirty, smoky flames that rose sixty feet into the air as eight infantry transports IFVs that were following close were crushed and annihilated by the slashing hurricane of huge bullets, which pierced easily across the thick armour and made a slaughter of the powerless soldiers marching alongside the vehicles.

Killer could feel the ground under his feet shake, and the growl of the colossal Gatling gun was like the sound of an enormous and very angry swarm of wasps being amplified by loudspeakers. Gloomy, oppressive sound that inspired true fear and obstacle even the thoughts, even if the headphones of the Joint Warriors system automatically muffled the sound to a background noise... And he felt almost sorry for the enemies that were being so mercilessly slaughtered in such a deafening chorus of shrieks of horror and panic as the Cyclone slowed down and elegantly turned in a slow, precise circle over the forest, so that it could keep a wide area under constant, destructive fire.

"That's one successful idea you had." Alexis said with dark amusement as she emerged near Killer's side, grinning to him for a fleeting moment from over her shoulder as she neatly cut in two a terrified RA soldier with Blue Vixen and grasped another by the neck with her free hand, easily lifting the unfortunate up above her head as he chocked and desperately tried to seize her wrist and force her to leave him... And Killer couldn't help but grin and nod, his own viciousness never really tamed surfacing as dark amusement when four more enemies, that had been trying to leap at Alexis to free their comrade, were smashed violently backwards with a howl of agony by one of her psychic blows, blue lightnings fizzling in the air around her as her sapphire aura burned with greater intensity.

"I thought you had more confidence in my ideas." Killer said, faking a hurt voice that made Alexis snort laughter as she eyed him appreciatively as he knocked flat three assaulters with a hard turning kick. There was no time to answer, anyway, since two Tiran emerged from the thick forest on their side, smashing easily into the huge trees, one of which fell heavily between the two ligers, forcing them both to elegantly leap away in opposite directions, a second before two cannonades exploded in their last position.

Alexis landed on her feet with a grin, and elegantly spun on her heel to face the two newcomers... but she only stared instead, licking slowly her lip as she looked after Killer, who was reminding her what he could do, even without superpowers.

It was basically a clash of titans: one giant made of flesh and massive muscles, and two enormous, everything-crushing, heavily armoured tanks, as Killer landed from his own jump right between the two Tiran, straightening quickly and shouldering Wyvern in a fast and well-known move as he stretched his powerfully muscled arms out to either side, hand grasping the front of the two colossal battle machines.

Killer snarled and pushed down his weight on his booted feet as he was thrust mercilessly backwards by the two tanks, engines roaring in the night as he gritted his teeth and forced back with his own physical might. His muscles bulged explosively as his feet sunk deep into the soft earth while his throat rasped a growl that quickly rose into a roar as he pushed backwards... and amazingly, the two tanks started to lose the confrontation as he now stood motionless.

He grinned viciously, licking his lip with dark amusement as he snarled in the effort... and he started thrusting upwards with his hands, fingers seizing the hulls of steel with such might to bend the armor of the tanks as both vehicles were lifted clearly off the ground and higher into the air, huge muscles bulging like tires as the giant liger unleashed his monstrous strength and straightened.

The battle effectively stopped this time, hundreds of heads turning to the giant and even the enemies absurdly staring, missing the short, fleeting chance to shoot the legend as he hurled the tanks backwards behind his back. Not that shooting would have helped that much, anyway, with Alexis standing at the ready nearby...

The whole forest resounded with the impact of the two vehicles on the ground as they landed side to side, absurdly overturned on their turrets and now powerless like toys as their tracks continued to move in the air... And things started again moving fast as everyone awakened almost like they had been dreaming, because the two Whirlwind choppers, with perfect timing, arrived roaring over the clearing in that precise moment of shock and fear for the enemy.

They had come so close because they had finished their stock of Brimstone missiles, but they still were equipped with a triple-barrel 30 mm Gatling gun that could be hidden inside its stealth turret under the muzzle of the helicopter... or that could be oriented and fired following the sightline of the gunner on board the aircraft like in that moment.

The two black, stealth choppers danced elegantly over the clearing as the gunners, sat in the first place of the tandem cockpits, looked to the world below across their visor-screen, automatically aiming the gun towards whatever they looked, so that they could fire and it inexorably their targets simply pressing a small button on the joystick that sat on the right side of their console.

The gun revolved rapidly every time, growling as the barrels flashed for a second or two in short, deadly bursts of piercing-explosive rounds designed to destroy armoured vehicles, and the enemies on the ground finally started to feel all the consequences of their failed plan of ambush, retreating on panic as they were slaughtered by heavy fire coming from every direction.

Killer looked slightly to the side as a shadow entered his tunnel vision, but it was only Laura, who winked to him and grinned viciously as she laid her back against a tree, stretching her rifle out from the cover of the thick trunk to fire a long burst that neatly took down three enemies that had been covering the retreat of their comrades. Further away to the side, the liger spotted Murray firing with the Desert Storms of Alexis, his finger easily playing on the simple command lever to decide how many and which barrels should fire, ensuring to employ the right quantity and type of ammo for each of the targets he was taking down with so admirable accuracy as he stood proudly up in the fight and turned slightly to give Killer an appreciative nod.

"I loved that number you did!" Laura cheerfully exclaimed, grinning viciously as she pushed a new clip into her weapon and idly worked back the aiming lever, every movement speaking of a long experience. "We seriously needed someone of your..." She paused, eyeing him appreciatively from head to toe as he slashed Wyvern outwards to nail an RA marked rifleman against a tree. "...caliber." She concluded with a wide grin, her tongue lapping her lips as she fired two coldly and perfectly aimed shots.

Killer grinned, and almost opened his mouth to answer, but noise of rotors filled the air, and he looked upwards to see several choppers coming in from apparently nowhere.

The RA has stealth choppers too...

The first glimpse he took of the helicopters, seemed to erase for a moment his idea of a stealth. They resembled a lot the shape and the sizes of the S24 Harpy, that terrible monsters as they were, had a radar cross section similar to the one of a huge block of flats. But he soon recognized that those choppers were a new model, probably derived by the S24, yes, but stealth and even more armed.

Each chopper had an internal bay capable to hold a few soldiers and closed by means of sliding doors at the sides and a loading ramp door at the back. Doors that now were being opened to reveal riflemen in position and a gunner with a nasty-looking minigun. The two men crew sat in a tandem cockpit, and a huge load of missiles, rockets and guns were hanging in stealth pods from two stubby but solid wings. Under the muzzle of each chopper slowly rotated a turret armed with a Grenade Machine Gun coupled with a powerful multibarrel Gatling gun. Three engines were grouped on top of the fuselage, under the rotor, that was surmounted by a radome and a turning turret for a thermal imagery sensor. A huge step forwards from the old Harpy, which already was a monster when it come to raw firepower.

The alarm come obviously too late as the attack helicopters with the two black letters painted in yellow field made their appearance in the battle from the shadows of the mountains around. Missiles were already flying in the sky when the crews of the Cyclone and of the Whirlwind spotted the newcomers, and the battle, even if lived by men, was already being fought by the machines.

The Automatic Self Defense Electronic Suite of the Cyclone immediately activated itself as the missiles locked the large aircraft, and several cartridges of Chaff and Flare were fired from the tail and the extremities of the wings of the Night Spirit.

A large cloud of Chaff, basically fine streamers of metal cut in various lengths so to cover all the possible radar frequencies, started dancing in the air behind the plane to seduce radar seekers, while the Flares, a sort of fireworks devices, detonated in the night, creating powerful sources of light and heat to trick Infra Red and thermal sensors.

In the same time, cold water was vaporized out of the Cyclone to cool down its thermal signature, and a small turret with a laser gun revolved from its position on top of the tail of the plane, firing its beam of coherent light right into the seeker of the closer missile.

It all happened in perhaps a second: the laser effectively blinded the first missile, which carried on a straight path, ignoring the Cyclone. Two more missiles were tricked by the Chaff and Flares, and swayed out of the way... A fourth detonated against a luring flare a bit too near to the aircraft, the explosion shaking the plane and sending slivers piercing into the fuselage... And three more missiles were tricked by the self defenses of the two Whirlwind.

Nonetheless, nothing could trick the bullets.

A burst of Gatling gun hit the fuselage of the Cyclone, near the middle of the plane, drawing a straight line of large holes from top to bottom, threatening to tear the whole plane in half...

Killer spotted that in a corner of his vision as a bulky orange tiger in black RA uniform leapt up from the bushes, a dagger in each hand ready to hit, but he turned with a merciless growl, slashing the thick crimson blade of Wyvern in a forwards arc that neatly cut the unfortunate in two pieces, slamming them down in the dirt at several feet of distance. In the same instant, Alexis had elegantly kicked herself up into the air, and she all but stepped with a booted foot into the flat of the enormous, bloodstained sword of the male. Her own force was added to his huge one as he slashed Wyvern once more, all but acting as a catapult for the femme fatale as he killed another and snarled, looking upwards to the battle in the sky even as several more enemies charged him and he had to send them all down into the dust with fast, expert moves of his sword.

Alexis elegantly climbed up into the air, rising high above the tall trees and readying Blue Vixen at her side as an enemy chopper come in her way. Her eyes met the shocked ones of the enemy gunner curled up behind his powerful minigun at the side-door of the aircraft... And she grinned viciously as her sapphire irises flashed with mischievous playfulness while he tried to turn his massive weapon in her direction.

The unfortunate shrieked of horrible agony as his whole nervous system burned like it was wood on fire, his body ceasing to respond to his mind, his thoughts blackening out as he was slammed backwards into the chopper like a rag doll... and then blood exploded out of his nose, mouth and ears, his brain exploding, before most of his body was melted away... But it didn't matter anymore.

Blue Vixen cut across the tail of the chopper like it was a toy, the grinning female emerging on the other side as the colossal machine was neatly broken in two... and the fuselage, hanging from the huge turning rotor now without the balance of the tail one, started revolving on itself like a crazy spinning top as it fell to the ground, where it exploded in a ball of dirty flames.

Alexis spun on herself, turning to face the other helicopters with a half-grin, half-snarl as she stretched her arm out and opened her free palm outwards... And the blue flames of her aura twisted down along her arm like a huge snake, vanishing into her fingers... Before reappear in the form of a crackling sphere of sapphire energy floating in front of her hand. She grinned a bit wider, half-surprised of that. She had been hypothesizing that use of her energy, and she had been training herself... But she still wasn't very sure of what she should expect.

The blond femme fatale threw the hot ball of energy against another of the enemy choppers as it turned its Gatling gun towards her, and the sapphire sphere whizzed against it like a missile, slamming into the armoured fuselage and smashing inside the machine, melting like cheese steel, aluminium, cables and computers on its road, before explode in the depths of the metallic monster, which fell to the ground in burning pieces. She snarled as her senses kicked in, screaming an alarm, and she immediately did a perfect somersault forwards, diving down from her gravity-defeating jump a moment before an assault chopper roared over her trying unceremoniously to smash into her and firing with its Gatling gun.

She left it no time to turn the turret in her direction and have a second try: as she fell backwards towards the ground she snarled and raised her hand one more time, grinning as energy flooded in her palm and whizzed up in a lightning of sapphire light which nearly pulverized the massive chopper.

She landed in a squat over a big branch of a colossal tree, and immediately rose her eyes to the other helicopters, which were now roaring in circles to turn towards her like furious hornets. She stayed coldly in place, however, grinning as she saw in her mind the events that would have followed in the next seconds, well before they happened.

The first stealth Harpy was pointing on her, and she could see the gunner inside the cockpit grin in victory as he manoeuvred his joystick to aim the weapons of the aircraft against her... But his grin changed in a mask of agony and terror, before vanish definitively in a ball of fire as an ASRAAM air to air missile launched from one of the Whirlwinds took it off.

Alexis grinned mercilessly as the shockwave invested her, the wind making her long blond hair dance as the fire roared near, making her feel warm for a moment... And another chopper exploded as another ASRAAM hit its target. Each Whirlwind carried four of those small, deadly duel missiles with their terribly accurate image-generation thermal seeker into two stealthy launchers mounted on the tip of the wings... and now the newcomers were experimenting it.

The formation of RA attack helicopters broke as each tried to escape and fight back, but Killer could still get one on his count as he charged a huge tree, jumping against the thick trunk and running vertically up it before kick himself up high into the sky, whizzing up, out from the forest and slashing hard Wyvern in an upwards arc that neatly sawed in two the target flying above his head.

Alexis met his eyes for a fleeting second, and they had just the time to grin and exchange a wink before both elegantly descended to the ground, landing on their feet with an incredible lightness, especially considering their sizes. Their eyes crossed path once more, for a fraction of second, as both raised their glances back to the sky, where the furious battle was still going on as the two Whirlwinds valiantly fought to protect the Cyclone, which was in evident difficulty and was trying to leave the fight while tenaciously followed and searched by enemy fire.

And immediately, as Killer stared upwards to this, the voice of the pilot of the gunship come to his headphones broken by wheezes and background noise. "We have heavy damage on board... We might not reach the base, majesty. We are forced to ask permission to leave."

"Bring your men back to base, commander. We're not going to stay to this party for long anyway. Whirlwind force, follow the Cyclone and give cover. Good luck." Killer said, his voice coming out colder than usual as he sidestepped while a burst coming from the gun of a chopper neatly shattered the tree he had been using as cover, thick slivers of wood bouncing innocently off his powerful body. On the other side of the line, even in the case they had noticed his tone despite much more urgent questions to deal with, sure no one had took an offence anyway.

"You don't like this feast...? Company isn't the best, but the games are funny, after all." Alexis grinned viciously from his side, tilting her head a bit as her eyes burned with cruel amusement as she idly stepped over the enemy she had just slammed down in the dust. It was more than the thrill of the battle that he shared... more of the sheer pleasure of being alive and fighting. Flames of revenge, of retribution, were ardent inside her... and every slash of Blue Vixen, every burst of her enormous power, was bringing her the satisfaction of retaliate her abused homeland.

Killer could understand. Even share her feelings, even if the true scale of her dark satisfaction went obviously far beyond his understanding... But he was also aware that they were risking too much. The newcomer choppers had definitely changed the balance of the fight in favour of the RA, and now the scared enemies were getting back, more and more reinforces coming from the second line to crush the Predators and the rebels in the clearing. Killer was sure that he and Alexis could have fought back against that army for long time still... but they had come to save Murray and the others. And now it had no sense change a shining victory in a massacre. Even if he and Alexis could eventually crush the entire RA army, no one else would have reached the dawn only a few hours away. He could already see the Predators forced to get to positions that offered some cover to try and use the Javelin missile launchers to take down choppers and tanks, the rebels fighting valiantly to protect the Assaulters as they got down to kneels to fire the deadly missiles.

"You know well that I like the game... But it's better to leave the roulette till' we're winning." Killer answered calmly, his voice carrying little of the exhilaration that his own grin betrayed. And Alexis nodded with professionalism. Her eyes, after all, saw the same situation his own did... And her mind could see it even better. Fear. Bloodred fear, was what dominated her second vision, the feelings of the persons around her echoing like screams into her head, reminding her of the first days when she had been dealing with her powers. An endless agony... And even now that she could control her perception and reduce all the feelings and auras to a simple background of information, feel the emotions of her old friends being wounded, feel their growing fear, was terrible.

"A good rule I never really learned to follow..." She observed with a slight grin.

"You're the only one that can guide everyone out of this trap avoiding any further contact with the enemy. I'll stay back and slow them down... Bring them out, Alexis."

Killer understood that something was wrong from the mere fact that Alexis turned and looked away as he spoke. That wasn't something that the femme fatale would do in normal circumstances... So, he was unsurprised when she shouted to get cover and jumped to the side. He had almost anticipated her, throwing himself to the opposite direction...

And a second later, an immense force made even the trees shake as something big and heavy whizzed in the air with absurd speed. Both Killer and Alexis felt the object, felt the force of his passage against their bodies, the air ruffling his mane and her hair... And then the huge shell smashed into the ground and exploded as the two ligers got to a roll and skidded to a stop in a kneel, snarling towards the newcomers.

They were three Unmanned Combat Walkers... they were about 30 feet tall, and each was painted of a slightly dirty white. And all three of the same, new model, something that made Killer fear that the enemy had finally got the monstrous machines in mass production, even if maybe still in an initial phase. They had human forms, and were shaped by the thick, curving plates of neo-titanium of their impenetrable armours. The shoulder junctions were well protected by enormous shoulder-pads that also had flat aerials, most likely for an active system of Electromagnetic self-defence. In each shoulder were fitted four missile tubes, and pointing outwards to each side was a battery of smoke canisters for a rapid concealing measure. From the back of the machines, on the two sides of their head, two poles of steel emerged, and Killer was all too aware that they were plasma sabres, which was a very bad news... but perhaps, the worst one was the enormous Rail Gun rifle they held in their right hand thanks to an upwards pointing handle. The weapon was feed by a belt of huge rounds that come out from a large armoured box on their backs... And that meant a lot of ammo.

"30 mm guns. Hyper-speed model, on the cheeks." Alexis added, pointing up to the face of the nearest machine in line with a tilt of her head, grinning as if she had been gifted a long wanted toy. Killer couldn't help but grin himself at the obvious battle lust in her eyes as his grip on Wyvern tightened... and both the ligers sprinted forwards, kicking off the ground and rising small cloud of dusts as they charged, running side to side, even if spread a good few meters each from the other, Wyvern out to the right, Blue Vixen at the ready for the strike on the left.

From behind their backs, the Predators and the rebels opened fire with everything was available: Javelin missiles and grenades and bullets were poured furiously towards the three enormous machines, but as Killer and Alexis had feared, the UCWs were surrounded by a strong barrier of electromagnetic pulses, that flickered in sight with glowing lightnings and sparkles whenever the rounds smashed into the invisible shield. The missiles themselves, even the so feared SPEAR, inexorably exploded uselessly when they entered the field of electricity and invisible but terrible vibrations.

The EMP shield is even stronger than on the Ninja... They have already developed a smaller and yet stronger source of energy. Most likely a miniaturized fusion reactor of second generation... Killer thought as his eyes sharply analyzed the first UCW in line, which was turning its torso on the solid base of its "waist" to frame him in the aiming sight.

It revolved rapidly, so much that it took even Killer by surprise as the liger found himself faced by the large and cruel squarish mouth of the massive rail gun... and at the bottom of the barrel, he saw the blue flash of the electric current being feed to the rails.

They are faster, too... He quickly jumped forwards with a snarl, ducking under the line of aim and catching himself on a hand to roll safely back to his feet as the enormous shell leaved the colossal rifle, the sheer shockwave of the shot investing him like the slap of a giant as he growled and glared back up to the nasty machine.

The UCW turned its head to follow his movements with its inexpressive camera-eyes, the massive squarish thermal sensor on the top of its head glowing with soft green light... And both guns on its cheeks fired furiously down to the liger, bullets tearing into the huge trees and ploughing deep into the ground, following Killer as he charged on a large path, trying to exploit the cover of the forest to turn around the machine and attack it from the back...

But Wyvern soon understood it was useless as he ducked his head in the moment when a massive, armour piercing bullet shattered in two parts the tree he had been running behind, slivers of wood and metal bouncing off his powerful body and off his bullet-proof visor as he half-closed his eyes with a snarl. The UCW could fully revolve its torso, just like the turret of a tank... And it was easily following each of his movements, firing a constant rain of bullets towards him. Try to turn around it was useless.

Killer growled as he hear the distinct noise and whoosh of a missile being launched, and he turned in time to see one leave vertically one of the tubes on the UCW's shoulder. The liger jumped forwards, kicking away the ground with all of his might and slamming his feet against a thick tree with enough strength to break the trunk in two as he spun on himself and leapt for the robot. The missile, meanwhile, had climbed a few meters in the air and then dived, seeking Killer to hit... but the weapon, following the huge male, found on its path the falling tree instead, and exploded against it in a ball of flames, metal wrecks and wood shrapnels.

Killer grinned at that, even if he entered the shield of EMP protection and felt like he was smashing across a wall... Much worse, anyway, was the feeling of his organs vibrating painfully, his very bones, his stomach, everything feeling shook violently by the vibrations of the field of force. He winced and shut his eyes tight for a moment at the stranger, horrible feeling, but then he snapped his icy irises open as the UCW backstepped and turned rapidly to face him, large guns firing once more as the machine raised its arm to aim the rail gun as well.

The liger grinned at that, kicking his foot out on the edge of the rising, massive gun and sending it rocketing downwards as it fired, the shell smashing harmlessly into the ground and even the robot bending forwards with the strength of his blow, the 30 mm guns missing as well... And Killer kicked immediately his foot back up, hitting the UCW under the "chin" with a snarl.

The machine stumbled backwards as its head was slammed backwards, tilting up to look at the sky... and Killer's other booted foot whizzed in a turning kick from the side that neatly disjoined the massive and sensors-full head from the body.

Cut the head, and the body... But that time, it wasn't working. Even without its main imagery sensors, the UCW was still moving, and Killer's eyes bulged in surprise when the massive robot slashed up his free hand trying to punch the liger in midair.

Microcameras for 360° coverage, located in the armour... Killer noticed as his eyes caught several small objectives set into the junctions of the thick titanium plates. He paid this discover when the gigantic metallic hand slammed against his powerful body, clashing against his own hands and the thick crimson blade of Wyvern rose in defence, and he grunted as he was slammed downwards towards the ground, perhaps forty feet below.

The UCW meanwhile pushed his hand backwards over his shoulder to grab one of the two huge tubes that the liger knew being the handles of the plasma blades... And Killer snarled as he slashed Wyvern in ready answer towards the chest of the robotic monstrosity.

The UCW answered with fury, raising the massive Rail Gun in defence and firing the last missiles it had in a salvo... And Killer snarled as Wyvern dug deep into the barrel of the huge Rail Gun, slicing it in half even if it was of such solid alloy. As the crimson blade made its bit, Killer balanced on the handle of the sword and pushed himself up, spinning twice in the air above the severed neck of the machine and all but gliding towards the second UCW as the missiles launched by the first turned in the air to follow.

The second UCW had been chasing mercilessly after the powerless rebels and Predators in the clearing, validly supported by the remained attack choppers, which had complete freedom after the withdrawal of the Whirlwinds and of the Cyclone... But now the massive robot turned and sidestepped as Killer fell rapidly towards it.

The liger grinned and spun in the air to face this, seven missiles following him mercilessly with the guide of their thermal seekers... And then, as the liger and the missiles both entered the field of force that protected the second UCW, the weapons all exploded in midair.

Killer winced as the multiple shockwaves hit him like gigantic punches, slamming him down to the ground as slivers of steel dug painful gashes in his muscular body... And he caught his fall at the last moment, landing in a crouch right between the two angry UCWs as they both turned towards him.

Killer rotated his wrist, snarling as he put his strength into throwing Wyvern like a colossal knife, launching the crimson weapon with all of his might and catching the headless robot in the middle of the chest, the eleven feet long blade sinking to the hilt into the metal and piercing through the UCW, which gave a few dying shakes and fell on its knees before slump to the ground miserably.

The liger had no time to celebrate as the second UCW tried to unceremoniously stomp over him, and Killer rolled quickly away on his side, pushing himself back to his feet a safe distance away, only to find the colossal mouth of the rail gun in front of himself, glowing blue.

He reached his hands down for his belt, and the first thing he found was his black painted Desert Storm, and he drawn out this with a rapidity that even Alexis would have admired, firing a single time with all four the barrels.

He was near enough to make vain the otherwise insuperable shield, and the rounds smashed into the long, squarish bore of the Rail Gun, disabling the weapon, but unfortunately there was no providential explosion like in the movies. Fuck...!

At least, the massive weapon was evidently reduced to an useless weight, because the UCW simply dropped it and reached his hands up for the plasma blades as it fired all of its missiles, all eight of them fired out vertically from their launching tubes as Killer jumped to his feet and leapt up into the air, drawing out his old twin swords and preparing his launch.

It all happened in a second. From the other side of the machine, Alexis, that was fighting against her own robotic enemy, jumped elegantly up into the air, and Killer grinned as he saw ten little spheres of sapphire energy, brilliant as stars, glowing on the tip of each of her fingers as she stretched her arms outwards and backwards.

The small spheres departed from her fingers like they had their own life, and they chased after the missiles just launched, intercepting one after the other, and making them explode just as they leaved the UCW. So close to it still, that the explosions rocked the machine like it was a leaf, piercing its armour with a rain of slivers... that anyway just stuck into the thick titanium.

The two remained spheres, anyway, smashed into the back of the robot with absurd power, melting the thick armour and sinking deep into the UCW, making it shudder unnaturally... And Killer, from the front, threw both swords into the chest of the monster with a roar, muscles bulging powerfully as he put all of his strength into launching the two twin 5 feet swords. He was rewarded, anyway, when the UCW, hit to death, probably in its energy source, neatly turned off and slumped down, crushing the trees under its weight and mass.

Alexis, meanwhile, had shifted her attention back to her own UCW. She had been bugged during the fight by a couple of attack choppers, but now that she was taking confidence always increasing with her energy, she had dealt with both effectively... And the giant robot had been progressively sliced by Blue Vixen, so much that now it lacked both arms and was reduced to lay melancholically on a knee since one leg had been smashed by a hard kick of the dangerous tigress... And now Alexis dived down from the incredible leapt he had took, Blue Vixen ready to slash balanced over her shoulder as both hands held the handle.

When she roared and slashed her blow, the sapphire blade bit deep into the shoulder of the UCW, sinking downwards hungrily and cutting the torso of the robot almost entirely in two, almost all the way down to the waist of the machine. And the female, well aware of the order she had received before the arrival of the three robots, had already started to give her orders into the microphone of her visor. "Predators, gather up the rebels and prepare to leave at my order. Get the wounded ones, if possible."

Killer hear her orders in his headphones as he charged into the lines of the enemy to do his own planned part: fight the RA back, gain time, and attract on himself the enemy attention to help Alexis driving everyone out of the trap. And he smiled, always pleased, and in part also surprised, of the faithfulness and devotion of the femme fatale.

Alexis quickly ran to the groups of Predators and rebels that had already been formed up behind the available covers, and she closed her eyes for a moment to maximize her concentration, discriminating all the energies she could feel in the world surrounding her. It took all but a second to her to get a perfect map, accurate to the last tree, showing her everything and everyone was around her... And when she snapped her wonderful eyes open, Murray, Ken and Laura were running towards her. Murray and Laura looked both stunned by the power Alexis had shown in the fight, but they also had concerned looks. Alexis knew well that they were worried because they had misinterpreted her concentration with pain or something else...

"Later!" She snapped immediately, giving a slight nod to confirm that everything was ok. "Where's your base...?" She asked quickly to Murray and Laura, who both opened their mouths to answer, but were silenced as Alexis read directly their thought.

"Aran Heights... the caves, of course." She nodded and grinned a bit, and the other two looked surprised, but probably decided it was a simple intuition, or delayed any question they might have, because they only nodded.

"Follow me, everyone. Fire and manoeuvre to reach the path... and then, complete silence." She firmly commanded, reaching the head of the first groups that moved: they were made mainly of exhausted rebels, men with wounds not too serious, other soldiers carrying injured and riflemen of the Predators to give protection. The Gunners and the Snipers of each section stayed in position instead, keeping the enemy at distance and under pressure with their accurate, devastating fire as the Assaulters used the Javelin missile launchers to get rid of the goddamn choppers. A few of the Assaulters, however, took on another task, as they rose their modified rifle/grenade launchers to the shoulder, aiming upwards and firing quick barrages of Concealing Grenades from the spinning, revolver-like canister of their weapon.

The C grenades flied on their parabolas before explode at the contact with the ground, throwing up thick curtains of cold, inert gas that had been studied appositely to hide from the eye and even from the thermal sensors, since it briskly lowered the temperature all around. The fog resulting was thick enough that even the laser aimers couldn't pierce through... and it was a perfect cover for a retreat like that.

The first groups moved rapidly across the clearing, running as fast as possible in the short stretch of terrain without covers, so short and still feeling endless as all the world seemed to be shooting at them...

Then the roles were changed, as the first groups took cover into the forest and fired with everything was available to cover the retreat of their comrades...

And finally, Alexis, Murray and Laura, covered by a few huge trees, gave cover to all the others as they started walking in the depths of the forest, guided by the rebels on the paths of the woods.

Alexis looked in the distance, to the other side of the clearing, to see Killer fighting now alone, repealing the waves of enemies with that strength and ability that had made of him the legend he was... And then, something changed as the enemies broke their lines and something arrived at absurd speed to face Killer... Not running, but flying...

"An... angel...?" Alexis frowned. She knew that, whatever it was, it was an enemy... she could feel it clearly... But it had angelic wings, and was surrounded by an enormous energy.

Murray turned to look in the distance, and he hissed as he snarled. "That's Aaron."

Laura at this turned as well, a grimace of horror on her face as she looked to the angel as he flapped his mighty, huge wings.

And Alexis started to feel the emotions of the two, turning to Murray in surprise at the fear that the femme fatale could perceive from both. Fear, horror, hate...

"Aaron is one of the Immortals, the four commanders of the force of occupation of the RA in Glacial. He's responsible of this sector..." Laura muttered, and then turned to Alexis with a grimace of fury. "We tried in any way to kill him, but he's untouchable... he killed far too many of ours. Call back Killer, we have to leave. Fast."

"Immortal, huh...?" Alexis grinned with vicious amusement. "I give him five minutes. Some more if Killer is in playful mood."

Murray made a face. "Majesty, please, we need to help him... You don't know Aaron..."

But Alexis grinned and gently pushed both the colonel and Laura up the path into the forest as she quickly jogged to reach the head of the tactical column they had formed. Her task, after all, was to use her powers to guide everyone to safety avoiding stepping in the path of the enemy one more time...

"You don't know Killer well enough, on the other hand." Alexis said with a confident wink.

The newcomer flapped his huge wings once more, fluidly reaching a stop in midair and hovering a few feet over the ground, wings spread to either side as he looked down at Killer.

He looked back up over the unknown with attention, examining every aspect as he stood at the ready with his huge gladius tightly held in both hands. The white angelic wings weren't real, of course... every feather was made of metal, most likely titanium, perfectly shaped and deadly sharp. Some sort of energy source was in the large backpack the wings were connected to... again, perhaps it was a cold fusion reactor, because it was also creating an extremely powerful EMP field around the warrior. A shield even more sophisticate than the UCW's one, and one that acted also as weapon, apparently, since hundreds of large and mortally sharp Shurikens floated in the air around the "angel", revolving continuously on themselves. The warrior himself was muscular, but moreover toned and athletic... nothing comparable to the bulk of muscles that Killer had, also considering that the angel was not taller than ten or so feet. His whole body was covered by a form-fitting Kevlar vest that was completely wrapped by small "scales", probably of Dynema or of another bullet-proof composite, which had been painted with gold, one by one. Additional protection was offered by a golden plate of armour that covered his chest and others than covered the shoulders and the knees and the crotch, while the feet were wrapped into spiked boots.

The most interesting factors, anyway, were the fact that the "angel" was wearing a Senses Augmentation System, with the fully enclosed helmet with cameras that Killer had faced in the ambush on the highway for Kendrew... And it was a factor to not underestimated, since it gave complete and superior situational awareness on 360° and even supplied the fighter with a terribly accurate forecast of the rival's next moves. The other interesting detail was the weapon in the right hand of the winged commander of the RA: it was a long and huge sword, sharp on both sides, and with two weapons fitted inside: jutting out from the tip of the blade, one above the other, stood an assault rifle and the much larger mouth of a heavy calibre shotgun. The diameter of the bore made Killer sure that it was modified to fire fragmentation and airburst grenades as well as massive and severely nasty shells of big pellets.

"The feared Wyvern, right...?" The angel asked with idle and somehow sloppy voice, something that made Killer's lip, crested in a grin, move more towards a grimace of disgust. The other moved his head a bit, making the liger think he was looking along his body, but it was impossible to tell, since the face and the eyes of the angel were hidden by the golden SAS helmet.

Wait. Vera did not mentioned X-ray between the other goods of that helmet, right...? Because this guy sounds seriously, seriously gay.

"You sure are the giant they all talk about... But you know... Bare of your muscles, you don't look like much... No supernatural powers, no... special technology like my suit... How can you be so dangerous...?" The winged warrior mused, bringing his free hand to his chin.

"Perhaps because I'm NOT bare of my strength." Killer answered flatly, rolling his eyes upwards a bit. "And anyway, you are here to find it out, right...? You should be telling me who you are instead... Because I don't know you." He grinned, balancing his gladius on the shoulder and tilting his head upwards defiantly.

"Name's Aaron... But everyone refers to me as White Wings. Commander of the Glacial Occupations Army, Western sector. One of the four Immortals."

Killer grinned a bit wider. "You wish you were. I suggest you a change of nickname."

Aaron stiffened up at that, turning to stare squarely at Killer, and this time there was no doubt, even if the helmet stayed in place. The winged warrior raised his sword and closed tightly his free hand in a punch, and his voice, when he spoke once more, was cold and angry. "We'll see about that." He growled and then he slightly tilted his head to the side and shouted an order to the soldiers all around. "No one has to interfere!"

He added nothing else, nor made a single move, but Killer's eyes turned of pure ice as he rose his glance out of instinct and quickly leapt backwards as a massive and fast spinning shuriken dived on him from above, sinking deeply into the ground as he moved away with a snarl, eyes looking up to see the entire, enormous swarm of deadly blades move as if they had a proper life, charging at him from every direction.

Killer slashed upwards the large gladius, moving in an upwards arch from a side to the other as a first wave of Shurikens threatened to hit him at the chest, then he was forced to quickly backstep once more, growling as he started to move his sword in a series of arcs and whizzing slashes, trying to cover every side as more and more spinning blades invaded his field of view, from every direction.

He snarled as he felt deadly sharp blades dig gashes in his powerful arms, blood rolling down his bulging muscles as he growled in pain, as the more blades he knocked off and away the more Shurikens came to attack him, following each of his movements... and then he growled and kicked off the ground with both feet, leaping up high into the air as tens of Shurikens missed him in their precipitous charge and smashed into a thick trunk that had been behind his back, sinking fully into the wood and neatly shattering the tree.

Killer looked downwards with a slight grin, but then his eyes bulged as many more absurdly turned upwards and climbed in the sky like missiles, following him obstinately. And another huge swarm surrounded him from every side as he landed on a thick branch.

He immediately left himself falling backwards down from it, and several more blades sunk into the massive wood, stuck and inoffensive as he grasped the branch with his free hand and hang from there long enough to violently slash his gladius outwards, knocking off the sky another wave of sadistic, bloodthirsty blades...

Before his eyes went wide as wings flapped nearby, and he instinctively jerked his body to the side. Just in time to avoid being sliced by the terribly sharp feathers of steel, which effortlessly cut with clinical accuracy the thick wood.

Immediately, Aaron spun to hit once more, slashing his sword downwards and neatly cutting the branch off the tree. Killer started to fall towards the ground, but he still managed to kick his boot upwards and caught White Wings squarely in the stomach, making him grunt and stumble backwards with a few angry flaps of his enormous wings.

Killer, meanwhile, landed on the ground on his back, and immediately kicked himself up on his hands, doing a perfect handspring and spinning once into the air to land on the ruins of the first UCW as angry Shurikens sunk in the earth along all the distance he had covered, chasing after him with fury.

The liger quickly reached the handle of Wyvern, sunk to the hilt into the shattered robot, and pulled hard on it as he leapt to the side to avoid ten more Shurikens, which slammed into the wreck of the massive combat machine and ricocheted away to fall, finally inoffensive, on the grass as the crimson blade of the gigantic, legendary sword came free once more, and gleamed while slashed upwards with a roar to meet another swarm of blades.

Killer looked over the thick blade of Wyvern just to see Aaron dive like an eagle towards him, and he rose both of his swords in a cross in front of himself as White Wings slashed his own weapon in a downwards arc over him.

The attack was parried, but when Killer tried to immediately sidestep and exploit his superior strength to throw the rival in the dust, Aaron was ready and the liger was meet by a violent kick at his side, which made him grunt in pain.

"I can see your moves... before you do them, Wyvern." The other remarked teasingly, flapping his wings once and easily breaking the contact as he rocketed high into the air, flashing a hard turning kick and forcing Killer to dodge.

Aaron immediately tried to stomp down hard with his booted feet on Killer's head as he ducked, but the liger was faster this time, and acted as he was about to roll at a safe distance. White Wings confided too much in its SAS, and immediately shifted his blow to the side... But Wyvern, instead of rolling away, straightened and grasped his rival's leg, grinning as he slashed his huge crimson blade upwards.

Aaron snarled and spun with a mighty beat of his wings, kicking his feet out to try and break free, but Killer resisted, and Wyvern cut deeply across a metallic wing, almost slicing it in half as White Wings furiously growled and slashed his sword downwards.

Killer's eyes bulged at that, and he quickly spun around the leg he was still pulling, the rival's sword missing... But Aaron flapped his wings again, raggedly, snarling as he kicked out his leg with all of his strength.

The huge liger was knocked backwards on his back, and Killer immediately went into a backwards roll as Aaron fired its shotgun, Wyvern pushing on his hands and doing a full handspring to get back on his feet as the huge shell exploded on the ground where he had been laying, leaving a large crater as slivers whizzed in the air.

As Killer stood up, he rose Wyvern up in front of himself, and that prudence saved him as a shotgun Fragmentation Grenade hit the thick blade and exploded. He snarled and immediately threw himself in a roll to the side, but once more Aaron forecasted the move and fired a burst from the assault rifle in his long sword as he charged towards the legend with a flap of his wings.

Killer snarled in pain and rage as several bullets smashed into him, but the damages were limited as most of them didn't go past tearing small superficial wounds in his thick, powerfully muscled arm before ricochet away... And that left White Wings astonished as he come close enough to slash a deadly blow with his sword.

"Who the hell are you...?" Aaron asked furiously as he hovered over Killer and slashed his sword down with all of his strength. But he had lost the right moment, and Wyvern rose to meet the rival blade.

The two swords clashed, and Aaron's one slid down on the crimson blade of Wyvern, leaving Killer untouched as he pushed up himself to a crouch... But White Wings threw him a punch with his free hand, hitting him squarely in the chest and then gripping the long fur of his mane, transmitting him a terrible electric discharge. Killer couldn't avoid a groan of agony escaping his lips, but he pulled away with all of his strength and rolled to safety. Aaron, anyway, was faster thanks to his wings, and followed him cruelly, pushing out his electrified glove towards the liger and pushing his sword in a vicious sink.

Killer once more deviated outwards the rival's sword with his own, but even if he quickly ducked, the SAS helmet allowed Aaron to brush his back with his hand, and Wyvern felt the tremendous voltage run down his spine, paralysing him for an instant as he narrowed his eyes and snarled at the grinning Aaron. White Wings clutched his hand on his muscular back, extending the discharge as the voltage seemed to grow... "All the legends have an end... to be a hero, you must die." Aaron said teasingly, and the liger could imagine the grin under

But Killer snarled and kicked one leg hard upwards as he flexed and glared to the "angel".

Aaron's grunted in surprise and agony as Wyvern's booted feet slammed into his abdomen and threw him up high into the air, sending him crashing heavily into the ground several feet away, White Wings rolling in the dust before skid to a stop.

He rolled over as quickly as possible, but Killer's strength had been terrible... and in a word, he felt all broken.

Killer quickly charged towards White Wings, preparing Wyvern to strike and grinning as he heard the rival cough harshly and saw dark red blood drip out from the helmet that covered his face... But as he saw the huge liger charge, Aaron quickly flapped his wings and climbed in the sky as fast as he could, pointing his blade down and firing shell after shell from the huge, modified shotgun inside.

Alexis walked into the intricate forest without any care for the path. She was like a machine on autopilot, and her senses did everything: her energy-vision had allowed them all to silently sneak between the positions of the enemy and exit from the tight trap that the enemy had prepared... And now, in the most complete darkness, she elegantly and rapidly walked at the head of the column, automatically avoiding rocks and roots and harshness of the tight path without look, out of instinct.

All of her attention was fixed on the visor in front of her eyes. She had maximized at full screen mode the images coming from the camera mounted on Killer's own visor, and it was like she was seeing with the eyes of the male as he avoided shell after shell, jumping up at every minimum chance to cross swords with Aaron... But the SAS had been sharply improved, and White Wings was able to respond every time, since most of the forecasts of the computer system were true and accurate.

Killer reached his hand back up, grasping his huge, customized assault rifle Cobra from where it had rested all that time on the magnet system on the back of his armour, the same system that held Wyvern when the sword was not used... And the liger started firing the enormous 20 mm armour piercing rounds against the "angel", but it was useless. The EMP shield that surrounded Aaron had no problems at stopping the bullets or the grenades... And the most that Killer could do was intercept in midair the large grenade-shells of White Wing's shotgun.

Aaron was indeed a terrible rival to fight... And it was easy to understand why he was so feared by the rebels, even by Murray and Laura. Killer was doing well, but it was impossible deny that even he was in disadvantage...

Alexis looked after the battle on her visor, as now her lover was again fighting with Wyvern in a hand and his gladius in the other... And she studied Aaron, piercing in his mind to see all of his actions, to foresee his moves... Waiting only to give to Killer the right hint, at the right moment.

Killer and Aaron continued to fight, their swords clashing again and again as Killer parried blow after blow thanks to his ability and experience... And White Wings intercepted the counterattacks thanks to the precise forecasts of the SAS.

Aaron leapt forwards, the glove on his free hand sparkling threateningly as current crackled around it noisily, and Killer found himself with the wrecks of the second UCW pressing against his back.

He leapt up at the last second, spinning twice into the air and landing on top of the wreck as the discharge of electricity was lost on the titanium armour of the robot, but Aaron flapped his wings once and whizzed up into the air to attack once more with a dazing speed.

The liger backstepped and parried a first hard slash, then found at his sides his twin swords, still buried deep into the machine.

"He's going to leap at you from the front in 3 seconds. Chest uncovered. Kick him!" Alexis's voice come to his hears, and he immediately saw Aaron flap his wings to do exactly what she had foreseen... And Killer rose a foot, balancing on his left leg as he kicked upwards as hard as he could.

White Wing was caught completely by surprise, and the tremendous kick sent him flying across the clearing with a shout of indignation and agony, until he slammed with his back into a tree, arching as he had been electrocuted as his spine bent almost to breaking point, sending burning pain in all of his body.

And Killer, sunk both Wyvern and the gladius for a moment into the wreck under his feet, grasped the twin, long swords and threw both with a roar against his rival.

Aaron shrieked when the two blades hit, each sinking to the hilt across his wings and into the thick trunk behind, nailing him to the tree as his mechanic wings ceased to work...

"If tigers were meant to fly, they would have wings by their own." Killer called derisively as he charged, grinning viciously as he sheathed the gladius but prepared Wyvern to sink into the now vulnerable rival... And even if Aaron struggled furiously to try and break free, tilting his head upwards to stare in terror at the giant approaching, he could not flee.

Wyvern bit deep and easily into his armour, into his flesh, across his body and even into the trunk behind, neatly sawing in two the tree and White Wings both, as Killer grinned to the expressionless golden helmet from which came the last whimpers of rapidly escaping life.

"It's not today I become a hero, it seems. Pity... But I can wait. You, instead, have an appointment of... deadly importance." Killer coldly said as he jerked the enormous crimson blade free, staring down to the rival as he gave a last ragged breath, and then silence as blood puddled all around the severed corpse and streamed down from under the helmet.

Killer shouldered Wyvern and looked around himself with a grin as he saw the clearing empty and peaceful, as the leftover soldiers of the RA quickly retreated, away from the liger.

The last order of their feared commander was to not interfere... And I see they have all the intentions to obey. He thought with dark amusement as he recovered his twin swords... Then he frowned and looked down to his dead rival.

He bent down over the corpse, and removed the helmet, ignoring the cascade of blond, almost silvery long hair that followed untidily and covered the muzzle of the dead with long sweated locks... Instead, Killer turned the corpse over and moved the hair away from the nape of the neck.

The SAS works in conjunction to a version of the Spirit, if I recall correctly...

He easily found a small silvery plate locked on the neck, between the fur... and he found that it had what looked like a connection for computer systems. Here it is...

He grunted a bit as he viciously sunk his deadly claws in the soft flesh of the neck, ripping it apart with a cold expression of disgust until he could not see the spine clearly.

The Spirit was a small computer, shaped in a box that fit perfectly around the vertebrae... But he could not understand much more than that from simple observation. He grasped the spine with his hands, fingers sinking into the soft flesh that his claws ripped, and he snapped the vertebrae neatly out, along with the device looked around it.

He stood, looking a bit over the bloody bone, and then pushed it in his pocket and leaved with the helmet cradled under his huge arm.

Alexis smiled widely as she turned to the darkness on her side, crossing her arms with an amused tilt of her head, tapping lightly her fingers on her toned biceps.

"You know you can't take me by surprise... And besides, I see the images from your visor." She playfully underlined, and Killer emerged from the vegetation rubbing a hand in his bloodstained mane, grinning even as he murmured something about ruining innocent jokes.

They walked each towards the others, and Alexis embraced him tightly, arms wrapping his waist as she rested her head against his chest, his powerful arms hugging her at the shoulders as he rocked her gently in his hold, kissing her hair lovingly. And Murray looked after this with the loving satisfaction and pleasure of a father that sees the happiness of his daughter... While Laura grinned and leered on the scene with an interest even deeper, that went past the happiness for her friend's joy.

"So... Aaron is dead...?" Murray asked after a bit, and Killer nodded slightly from where he was resting his head on Alexis's one. The huge male easily pushed a hand in his pocket, and extracted the bloody vertebrae, launching it idly towards the ancient colonel.

Murray frowned, but caught it easily... and when he looked at it in his palm, he released a little sound realization. "This definitely is a yes..." He murmured as Laura looked over the bone, still connected to shreds of flesh, and she grinned with vicious but sincere joy before turn backwards and communicate the news to the others. Seconds, and the entire column knew that Aaron White Wings was dead... to the Predators, it meant little, but the rebels were both astonished and incredibly happy.

The novelty brought clear euphoria in the rebels... And the powers of Alexis were not needed to feel that joy in the air as the column started again marching up the mountains. But Killer, Alexis, Murray and Laura had no time to cheer... They had to fix a lot of details and a first debriefing was already on course.

"Ken, gather up a precise count of the ammo that's been used and make a list of the supplies needed." Alexis commanded in his microphone as Killer answered to Murray's questions.

"... These visors are really wonderful... But what happens if the enemy gets one...?"

Killer gave a slight nod. "Smart question. If, say, a soldier dies and the corpse is not recovered, the HQ will know it, because we all wear this..." The huge male shown the computer at his wrist. It looked almost like a bulky swatch, but it reported the health conditions of the soldier wearing it, and Murray nodded.

"... This communicates to base your position and status. So, if there's danger, your visor and systems are immediately cut off the Net and every access to the information is closed. Besides, the circuits inside the visor or the other stuff, like all the subsystems of the Osprey armour, can be literally overheated and melted with a remote control from the base, so that they become useless and no technology ends in the wrong hands."

Alexis let Killer end his explanation, then immediately posed her own question, that felt heavy as a boulder in her chest. "What's the exact situation of Glacial...? What's going on...?"

The huge male liger fell silent, and waited for the answer from the old colonel, softly wrapping his arm around Alexis's shoulders as Murray closed his eyes with a soft sigh that left little hopes.

"Glacial is a kingdom in deep crisis, majesty..."

"Riaku's fault...?" Killer asked, incapable to hesitate any further at finding an answer to the question that had stalked him from the very moment of the request of help from Alexis's homeland.

Murray, anyway, shook his head slowly. "No. Of course, being the one that invaded this kingdom and killer the legitimate sovereigns, he's not innocent either... But that's the way our civilization always worked, and we cannot blame him that much. No, Riaku isn't a bad sovereign... He respects the traditions of Glacial, ensures our freedoms and uses justice with all of the population. He's especially improved after the battle of Kesteven, besides..."

The old colonel paused, nodding a bit, and Killer was immensely relieved of what he had just heard, an almost imperceptible smile gaining his muzzle.

"The real problem, absurdly, is that Riaku hasn't a credible control over Glacial. Just after he conquered the kingdom, his "allies" of the RA entered in our lands from south to help him in the occupation of the reign, in their words... In reality, a second war had just started. A war without dead... It wasn't fired a single shot, but a race had started for the conquest of Glacial: Riaku had few troops available, and almost all of them were in the capital when the invasion started, but he was fast and smart enough to send assault troops with the faster vehicles available towards every major town of the kingdom." Murray paused and nodded, taking a bit of breath, and Laura filled in the silence.

"In the same time, the troops of the RA, like in a race, tried to reach the towns before Riaku's troops. Not a single shot, not a fight... When a town was reached, even by just a small group of soldiers, automatically it become territory of the faction, and the other front would simply ignore the location and run towards another one.

The final result is that most of the great towns of Glacial are under Riaku's control, but the great majority of the territory is occupied by the RA: the countryside, the plans, the small villages... Everything. The towns controlled by Riaku are just isolated islands in a hostile sea... And where the RA rules, the oppression is total." As Laura talked, Murray handed the massive Desert Storm handguns back to Alexis: during the fight, he had fired all the rounds available, and then he had gained an assault rifle from a dead RA rifleman, but he gently thanked the queen and amusedly stared as the blond femme fatale waved a hand dismissively and quickly inserted new clips of stacked bullets inside each barrel.

"What's worse..." Murray started again telling. "... is that the RA controls the few precious plans of the kingdom, that used to be our little barn, so to speak. But the RA always feared an offensive, coming from Kesteven or Kendrew, and had absolutely no interest in fields of wheat. Every large, flat area was a possible landing zone for parachutists and gliders, so they have systematically mined each field... Or covered them up with traps of any sort. The most common trap they use it's hammer old segments of tracks in the ground, place a large mine on top of the deadly pole so obtained and then realize an intricate forest of barbed or razor wire between all the poles to effectively make the area impracticable. Of course, the field ceases also to be cultivable.

There's no food, there's no water... The soldiers of the RA consume everything, and what's not consumed is destroyed. Riaku manages to feed the towns only by moving in a huge convoy every day, loaded with food and water. Convoys coming from Mottram and heavily escorted, since he doesn't trusts the RA anymore. The towns themselves are fortresses: to ensure that he can control and defend them, each city has been surrounded by fields of anti-tank barriers and razor wire, mines, a deep and large anti-tank moat and a large strip of fine sand, so that the guards can see immediately if in the night someone has come to study the defences or to sabotage them. The last defence is constituted by a thick wall of reinforced concrete, topped with razor wire and equipped with turrets with remote weapon stations on top, with machineguns and grenade machine guns.

Thermal cameras are mounted on top of telescopic masts and there's a patrol road inside the perimeter of the wall."

"Horrible..." Alexis murmured, closing her eyes in agony at the way her loved homeland had been reduced... At the terrible sense of guilt she had... And even at the feeling of the hope and adoration that Murray and the others put into her, and that she believed to not deserve.

"And what about Aaron, then...?" Killer asked with cold, professional voice, turning slightly towards Murray as he squeezed Alexis a bit around the shoulders.

"Aaron was our worst enemy... the commander of the RA force of occupation in the Western Sector, this one. Every one of our attempts to free the sector has failed miserably because of him, more than because of his troops. He seemed invincible... Once we tried to kill him with an Improvised Explosive Device on the road side, but his damned EMP shield made him invulnerable to that kind of attacks... And in close combat he killed many of ours. So far, the only one that survived after fighting him was Laura..." Murray explained, placing a hand gently on the female's shoulder as she nodded.

"I've got my scars to prove it..." She muttered, and Killer saw her hand touch a breast, then her back... But since she was wearing her torn jacket and shirt, the only scar he saw were on her right cheek and on her abdomen, where the shirt left her muscular belly uncovered.

"Aaron is only one, and perhaps the weaker, of four commanders, nicknamed Immortals... Kolna, also known as Silver Wings, is responsible for the Eastern Sector... Khaari Red Wings controls the south and Kumari, or Black Wings, the worst one, controls the northern sector, all around the capital." She explained, looking to Killer and Alexis with cold professionalism.

"We'll take care of all of them." Alexis ensured, and the threatening quality of her cold, matter-of-fact voice gave the chills as she narrowed her icy sapphire eyes.

They walked some more, before Ken reached the head of the column and handed to Killer the list of the supplies needed by the Predators. Another one, surely much greater, would have been compiled with the rebels once reached their base... For the moment, what interested Killer the most were the eight names that opened the list. Eight soldiers fallen during the battle. Eight more names to add to the endless list in his mind.

He also exchanged a few more words with Ken, who communicated that of all the Dominators used that night, two were still flying over their heads, available to gather intelligence data. The others had been used as bombs once their other weapons had been finished.

Later in the night, they finally reached the paradise of the rebels... And to avoid being fired over by the friends, they had stopped at safe distance and waited that Murray, Laura and Alexis, once marched disarmed towards the positions of the rebels, explained the amazing situations that saw, in the space of a night, several rebels that had been captured return alive to base, in company of the legitimate queen of the kingdom of Glacial and with the news that Aaron was dead.

Three hours before the dawn, all the rebel groups in Glacial received on the clandestine radios they had a news that was worth the light of one thousand dawns: the queen was back in Glacial.