Copyright (c) Mark Zeidan

Prologue – Memories

Tempest continued to walk through the field, barefoot the icy cold snow beneath his paws seemed to be of no consequence to him, nor for that matter the wind and its icy chill that continued to blow through his fur chilling the bare skin below...

The darkness of night surrounded him, save for the light of the moon which made the falling snow sparkle a little. He felt numb, both physically and mentally now as he looked up above at the snow falling gently down all around him, gazing at if transfixed by each speck of snow, noting the detail and intricacy of each one.

The memories he had of earlier years where he had played in the snow with his friends on many a snow day as a youthful pup seemed so far away now, torn apart by those fateful events a few years back, his mind plagued as to what ifs and whys which he knew he would never find an answer to...

He no longer felt the cold, his thoughts blocked out everything else around him now, his heart somehow telling him that soon he would have the opportunity to right the wrong which had been inflicted on those he most loved and held dear to his heart...

He must have stood there for most of the night, simply watching the heavens above him, seemingly lost in the beauty of the view before him.

“Why?” He mumbled to himself, gazing longingly at the moon above him, fists clenching a little as he waited for a response seemingly from nowhere…

It seemed so simple a question, and yet somehow the answer evaded him time and time again. It felt as if even the wind was silent, refusing to sate his need for someone or something to heed his call.

His gaze remained fixed on the moon as the snow continued to fall around him, a tear forming in one eye as again he cried out to the stars above “WHY….?”

He stood there silently for a moment, listening out for even the faintest of replies in the distance, knowing no answer would come but deep inside hoping that one would be given.

Time seemed to stand still as he stood there, eventually snapping out of it he wiped away the solitary tear and headed back through the forest to his car, looking up one last time to the skies above him before getting in and slowly driving away back to the city below.

“It never gets any easier, but I won’t give up” he told himself, clenching the steering wheel hard as he continued on his way.

********************

Chapter One – Just another day?

The morning seemed to arrive quicker than he expected, the morning sun shining through the window and gently waking him up as it crept across the room gradually. With a sigh he turned over and leant on one elbow, trying hard to open his eyes but struggling with the bright rays of light pouring into the room.

Tempest lay there in bed, looking out of the window at the view down below on the streets, watching with curiosity the busy commuters already fighting their way to another day at the office. From the window he could see most of the city, which in itself was impressive seeing as most locals only got to see the walls of the other buildings around them.

In that respect he counted himself lucky that he had gotten the room before anyone else, the view at least gave him some feeling of space and freedom despite the claustrophobic feeling the majority of the city seemed to give out…

He sighed as his alarm then leapt up in the air and repeated its monotonous beeping over and over in its efforts to awaken him, reminding him that there was no time for idleness. With a deep sigh he turned off the alarm and pulled himself out of bed, heading towards the bathroom to try and awaken his senses.

Looking at himself in the mirror he sighed as he saw the redness of his eyes, clearly giving away the fatigue which he had built up from the night before.

“I really should get more sleep…” he muttered to himself below slumping into the shower, hoping the that would at least revive him a little from his lethargic state, turning on the nearby radio to see if anything of interest was happening for once.

He slowly began to freshen up, the flow of water soothing his tired fur as he gradually woke from his slumber, finishing off and getting out before he again fell into a dreamlike state; showers seemed to have a nasty tendency of eating up time if he wasn’t careful… Drying himself off he began trying to straighten his fur seemingly in vain at first, slowly managing to untangle it and smoothen it out as the natural shine slowly kicked in from his efforts.

Most of the time he took pride in his appearance, for a 24 year old wolf he was fairly tall, just under six feet with pure black fur from head to toe, save for a white patch on his neck and chest which fluffed out wildly and a small zig-zagged white patch on his right arm.

The rays of sunlight reflected off his glossy fur, using the opportunity to check himself over before getting dressed. He was fairly well-toned body from the training regime they now subjected him to when on duty, but compared to the other guys in the team he seemed fairly small; years of practice and routine had obviously made their mark on them; he wondered what he would look like had he been there for more than a few years.

Tempest continued to tidy himself up, working hard to ensure that his spiky hairstyle was at its best, each spike raised aloft high in the air, making him look a little taller than normal. “It’s a good job they don’t impose military style haircuts” he muttered under his breath as he headed back to his room and kitted himself up in the standard issue commando gear; a light flak jacket with all the technology packed within the pockets, standard issue commando pants and a pair of tough yet amazingly comfortable boots considering his broad footpaws.

He glanced at his watch and realised he was running a little late; it was time to head down to HQ for their next briefing, something he never looked forward to; he never liked being kept in suspense for so long and they loved to abuse that fact on many an occasion, much to his frustration.

“I wonder what they’ve got for us this time to keep us on our toes” he asked himself sarcastically as he headed out, breaking through the morning traffic, eventually reaching the HQ in the central zone of the city.

*****

The base was a hive of activity as always, full of officers and clerks who seemed to be more than happy to run around all day processing paperwork and making sure that their uniform was looking in top shape instead of worrying about anything important.

Tempest sighed and headed down one of the many long corridors, absently watching everyone busily working away at things he’d never understand nor want to for that matter, making his way to a nearby drinks machine, hoping to find something to give him a quick pick-me-up for the long day ahead.

“Hey Tempest! You made it!”

Tempest’s ears perked up at the sound of his team mate Striker, a young but spirited red fox who he had known ever since he joined the defence forces; for someone of his size and age his skill and agility was unmatched by many at the academy, his small frame hiding his abilities well, which often seemed to give him an edge over his enemies as more often than not they’d write him off before he’d even thrown a single punch.

His skill ultimately earned him a place on the team, a decision which initially was criticised heavily before his efforts silenced the critics with ease, mission after mission being completed with a cool professional class many of his piers had yet to ascend to. It seemed like every mission that fox had been at his side covering his back and keeping an eye out for him; on top of that he was also great fun to be with and certainly helped nullify the monotony of training and the like.

The fox smiled a little as he continued to make his way up the corridor towards him “Glad you could make it, thought I was going solo today”

Tempest smiled back and continued to make himself a small cup of tea; he’d never liked the dulled taste the machine seemed to give everything but right now all he was thinking of was getting that quick caffeine boost to get him through the imminent briefing.

“Well I can’t let you have all the fun, at this rate you’ll be running the show in a few months” Tempest calmly retorted, grinning a little as he played up the fox’s recent achievements.

“He he, well I guess you never know, anyway what do you think they have planned for us today?” Striker stuttered out, a little thrown by the compliment; his modesty was admirable considering the expectations everyone had of him.

Sipping slowly at the hot cup in his paw, Tempest started to walk further down the corridor with Striker by his side. “You know it’s hard to tell, they seem pretty nervous these days, our guys in intel must have something they don’t want everyone to know about just yet…”

“Perhaps if you two got on with it and got to the briefing you’d find out…”

They both stopped and turned around to see who had decided to join in their conversation, a small smile appearing on his face once more as he saw it was Eclipse, another member of the team and another close friend.

She was a young blue fox, a few years younger than Tempest and simply put beautiful in every way as far as he was concerned. They’d known each other since he was just a young pup and for what seemed like an eternity he’d always tried to be her protector, acting like a big brother for her ever since she lost her family all those years ago…

They were close, but so far Tempest’s insecurity with relationships had held him back from taking things any further with her; none the less he knew that at some point he’d work up the nerve to do something about it…

For now though he realised he’d been admiring a little too much, again seemingly hypnotised by those deep blue eyes, jolting himself back to reality as his previously cool persona went out the window, the remainder of his tea spilling onto the floor below him as he tried to refocus.

“You OK Tempest?” Eclipse giggled as she watched his panicked actions.

“Er, yeah, I’m fine… just slipped that’s all…” Tempest cursed under his breath as he finished off cleaning up the mess and straightening himself out, taking a deep breath as he puffed out his chest and tried to regain his cool and relaxed appearance once more.

“Well in that case let’s get to the briefing, something serious is up and you know they don’t like anyone to be late, especially for briefings…” Striker hastily commented as he started to make his way again, heading for the briefing room nearby.

“Yeah, let’s go Eclipse, best see what they have in store for us this time” Tempest hastily pursued the red fox, trying to give himself some more time to regain his composure before the briefing began.

Eclipse smiled to herself and followed them in, her tail swaying lightly as she watched the two of them keep going, eventually reaching one of the doors and disappearing from view.

“Those two will never change…”

********************

Chapter Two – It begins

“Is everyone here? Well then let’s get started.”

Tempest sat down next to Striker as the Commander started his usual pacing in front of them, the elder stout husky eyeing them over as he mentally checked off everyone who was present, a couple of times grumbling to himself as he noted the absence of one or two people.

Everyone seemed relaxed as always, chatting away happily to each other as they caught up on the latest gossip, that was of course until the Commander suddenly threw his fist down on the table beside him, causing it to buckle a little under the force, a few of the younger pups snapping to attention as everyone went silent, sensing now was not a good time to follow up on such trivial matters…

“We all awake now? Good. I know it’s earlier than usual for a mission briefing but something’s come up and we don’t have time for any laziness!”

Tempest watched the Commander with intrigue - for someone so old (at least to him anyway) he seemed extremely pumped up about something, the frantic waving of his tail an easy give away and not something he would usually do…

Tempest’s ears perked up a little as he waited to find out what was wrong, his own tail swaying a little as he sensed a little fear in the way the Commander was acting…

“Perhaps you can tell those of us who are awake what’s up then Blitz” Tempest calmly stated, hoping he could ease the tension a little.

The Commander growled a little and nodded, before heading to the screen behind him and turning it on. Tempest smiled a little at the reaction; anyone else would have received an earful by now for calling him anything else but Commander, but for some reason he continued to get a little slack, probably because they’d known each other for so long…

The commander began his brief, tail still swaying nervously as he looked up at the screen, “Our Intel in the A.E.D. (Allied Earth Defences) has reported a large vessel landing in the Sahara zone, just before midnight local time”

The officers present sat up a little in their seats as the screen projected a large object on the map, a few shifting nervously as they tried to work out what the details of the ship from the satellite photos displayed before them.

“We don’t know who or what it is, but it could be a serious threat and I need a scout team to head down there ASAP and find out what it is” the Commander barked, obviously just as unsure as everyone from the level of information he was providing compared to the usual mission briefs they received.

“You’re going to need more than a scout team for what you’ll find when you get there…”

A voice from the back of the room suddenly spoke up as everyone turned around to see a large dragon walk towards the Commander, his stride confident as he stood next to him and stood with a confident pose and smile, seemingly enjoying the attention he now had from the rest of the room.

“Well if you know something we don’t I’d rather you told us than keep the suspense up Inferno” exclaimed the Commander in reaction, obviously eager to know what the smug dragon knew.

Tempest smiled a little as he watched the two of them up front; Inferno was easily a good couple of feet taller than Commander Blitz and considerably more well built too, the dark red of his scales against the blackness of his chest showing off his powerful form very effectively. This of course was much to the Dragon’s satisfaction, especially at the gym where he was starting to build up a decent fan base of young female officers, eager to try and find out more about the mysterious lizard.

“It’s simple Commander, he’s arrived.” Inferno simply replied.

“Who has arrived? You’re making no sense now…” the Commander blurted out, his frustration now showing visibly.

“Armageddon.”

The whole room stared at Inferno curiously, many unaware of what on earth he was going on about, but a few looking nervously at them once more, especially Tempest and Striker who could clearly see the look of horror on the Commander’s face…

Tempest stayed silent; in all his years with the Commander he had never seen him so afraid of something, especially as in his former years the veteran husky had been on missions so extreme that many had never even dared to even think about them, let alone take them on; something was very, very wrong…

Inferno turned around and pointed to the screen, coolly providing more details to those who were still clueless as to the situation at hand.

“The image on screen is one of his scout ships; within 24 hours his troops will move out, take control of the region and use it as a landing zone for the rest of their fleet. Once they have done that they will move out and initiate a full assault on each country, moving continent by continent, taking over ever inch of the earth until they have wiped out all threats and have full control of the planet’s resources.”

The room fell into a stunned silence; surely he was joking now, there was no way that there could be such a potent threat appearing so suddenly without any warning whatsoever.

“How on earth do you know all this Inferno?” a voice spoke up weakly.

Inferno looked away for a moment before facing them all once again, a more sullen appearance on his face than before, “It’s exactly what they did when they destroyed my home-world a few years back, I’m the last survivor…”

Striker stood up and slammed his fist into the wall next to him, obviously worked up from the situation at hand, “But that’s crazy! Why on earth would they do that?”

“Power. Armageddon craves it and will do anything to get more; no planet he has come across has evaded his wrath and destruction, no civilisation he has encountered has not been eradicated by his forces, no army which has faced him has not been slaughtered, his troops show no mercy to their enemies for fear that they will be killed just as mercilessly by him if they should ever hesitate to do his bidding.”

“Striker, take it easy, we’re not going to get anywhere if we get worked up about this.” Tempest calmly stated, standing up and moving up to the front as well to stand next to Inferno, placing a paw on his broad shoulder before moving towards the Commander.

“We need to stop them before they can get a foothold of any sort; Inferno if you have anything else you can tell us then we need to know now” Tempest looked over to the Commander, waiting for him to calculate a strategy for them to adopt now the truth was known to all.

Inferno looked back at Tempest with a wry smile, sensing the wolf’s determination to make sure that Earth was not just another victim of Armageddon’s wrath, relaxing a little as he returned to the screen to analyse the Intel footage.

“Well perhaps we could disable the scout ship, that would give us some time to rally our troops for a full out assault before they bring in the full armada… it’s never been tried before but if we can pull it off we’ll give ourselves a chance of beating them”

Tempest moved up closer to the screen, trying to work out the best way of infiltrating the vessel, squinting hard to make out the details of the ship.

“Well we’ll need a way to take down the whole ship, it seems too large to attack externally… looks like we’ll need to get inside and hope we can find their engine core and blow that up, that should set off a chain reaction to take it down in one go…” the Commander spoke up, obviously thinking out loud.

“I guess so, but we’d need a small team to get in un-noticed…” Tempest replied hesitantly, a gut feeling telling him that this would be a lot harder than they were making it out to be so far…

“Well then, it’s settled. We don’t have time to build up more Intel and I can’t see any other options anyway, at least not until we have the troops ready to go… Tempest, you and your team will move out and take that scout ship down, meanwhile we’ll prepare things here, hopefully you’ll buy us enough time for us to get deployed and ready.”

Tempest looked up and panicked a little, “What? Just the five of us?”

“I know it’s a lot to ask Tempest, but I can’t think of anyone else more capable of handling this mission…” the Commander looked up at him and smiled weakly, his paw shaking a little as he put it on Tempest’s shoulder as he realised that he may be sending him out for the last time - The difficulty of such a mission, especially with so little Intel to work was something that had rarely been done before and to date rarely had a happy ending to say the least…

Tempest sighed a little to himself before looking back at the Commander with a reassuring smile “Well then, we’d best get kitted up and ready…”

“Let’s go team, time’s against us already…” he made his way out of the room, heading towards the armoury as Inferno and Striker followed him, Eclipse hesitantly walking behind them, seemingly lost in thought as she watched them go, her tail nervously twitching as something deep inside her gave her a sense of foreboding.

“Well what are you all waiting for? Get out there and prepare the troops now!” the Commander shouted at the remaining troops, watching them jolt to life as they rushed out the room to carry out their orders.

He sighed once more as he was finally left alone in the room, staring at the screen once more as he took a sip of his tea, mentally cursing as he realised it had gone cold in all of the commotion.

“Good luck Tempest…”

********************

Chapter Three - Preparations

“This is crazy! You really think we can just walk in and take them down?”

Striker continued to barrage Tempest with rhetorical questions, one after another as he vented his fury at being thrown into such an arduous mission; this was certainly not something he’d been taken through in training or in the planned missions he’d been involved with until now…

It was as if he was a little scared; for someone who showed such courage and determination on a battle field he seemed a little off-guard now.

Tempest stopped for a moment and placed his paws on both of Striker’s shoulders, holding him steady as he looked him directly in the eyes, pausing a moment until the young fox had gotten himself together and was looking back at him fully.

“Everything will be fine Striker, relax OK? We’ve handled much more complicated situations that this before and you know that…” Tempest calmly stated, again trying to keep composed and ensure that the youngster felt more confident about their chances of pulling the mission off.

Striker sighed a little before taking a deep breath and smiling back at Tempest, “You’re right Tempest, I guess I should cut down on the coffee eh?”

Tempest chuckled and then let Striker free of his hold, patting him on the back with a firm paw as he again continued down the corridor.

“Young kits like you should stay off the coffee completely, it seems to make you a bit hyper…”

Striker stared in mock surprise at Tempest before chuckling to himself a little, comforted by the light-hearted attitude he displayed despite the grave situation at hand.

“Well I guess sometime I could try that ‘tea’ of yours too…”

Tempest turned back and smiled at Striker as he reached a large door, entering a code on the control panel as he waited for Eclipse and Inferno to regroup with them.

“As soon as we get back I’ll make you a cup of the finest blend of tea I have my friend, before you know it you’ll be hooked.”

Striker grinned a little as he looked around to see Eclipse and Inferno arrive.

“Heh, we’ll see Tempest, one step at a time OK?”

They all walked into the large room one by one; the armoury was extremely high tech compared to the rest of the base, a vast array of weaponry lined up on the walls, all ready for testing on the extensive firing range which spanned most of the room.

“Ah, you’re all here I see, it’s about time Tempest I was getting lonely…”

Tempest turned around to see Enigma, a young tigress whose vibrant fur colours and markings showed off her voluptuous form so well; the dazzling blue, orange and yellow mixing together superbly while the shine of her fur was impeccable, probably from the many hours she spent grooming herself to make sure she looked her best at all times.

For a smallish tigress of around 5’6”, she was fairly well built which only seemed to accentuate the curves of her body further, as well as those often mesmerising breasts which seemed to beckon you to her…

It was at this point Tempest realised he was admiring a little too much and snapped himself to attention, calmly nudging Striker and Inferno either side to him who also seemed to have been caught in the same position of simply admiring.

“Then again,” Tempest told himself, “it’s not often that you see a tigress wearing such a tight uniform while brandishing a large energy cannon with such finesse and grace is it?”

Eclipse watched them all and sighed as she walked over to the hand-arms section, looking for a suitable one to use.

“Honestly… you’d think they hadn’t seen a tigress before…”

Enigma purred a little as she made her way over to them, focussing her attention on Inferno who looked down at her and seemed to blush under those scales of his, suddenly folding his arms and pressing his chest out firmly to show off his powerful physique and hide the lapse in his usually cool appearance.

Grinning she continued towards them, her feline body swaying to and fro in what could only be described as a seductive fashion; many a time she’d caused an accident or two while making her way around the base, simply because there were so many young officers who couldn’t take their eyes off of her, often leading to a few collisions between fellow officers or those ever so friendly walls or poles which often seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time…

“Well I read the brief from the Commander, seems we need to get you boys tooled up, hmm?” She smiled again, her fangs showing a little as she put down the cannon and moved up to Inferno, looking up at him as he continued to stand his ground, refusing to show any emotion or reaction to her now obvious flirting.

Tempest sighed with relief as the focus of affection moved away from him, allowing him to concentrate on the task at hand as he joined Eclipse at the hand-arms section and picked up the semi-automatic plasma rifle, checking it over before holstering it on his back.

“Well we’ll just pick out what we need, we need you to prepare the body armour ASAP, we move out in less than an hour…”

Enigma looked over at Tempest and pouted at him a little, her tail swaying slowly with disappointment.

“Aw, do we have to? I was just about to tease the big bad dragon here…”

She giggled before pressing a paw onto his firm chest and running it up and down slowly, purring loudly as her claws extended and ran over each scaled muscle teasingly, watching with delight as Inferno started to buckle, his cool persona rapidly falling apart at her touch.

“Enigma…” Tempest looked over at her with a sterner look than before, trying to emphasise the urgency.

She looked back at him and sighed before running her claws rapidly up Inferno’s chest again, causing him to flinch at the sensations, before she walked away slowly.

“OK Tempest, I’m going, I’ll just have to make up for it later…”

She looked over her shoulder at Inferno and winked at him, licking her lips lightly as she swayed a little more than usual, grinning widely at Inferno as he astutely watched her every step of the way.

Striker slowly walked up and stood next to Tempest before proceeding to equip himself with two large automatic plasma rifles, more than enough firepower between them for the fox to take on anything that came his way.

“Those two really need to get a room you know…”

Tempest smiled and grinned a little, “You know it’s all Enigma so far, Inferno has a hard time opening up like that…”

Striker laughed out a little before covering his muzzle to try and silence himself, Inferno giving them a stern look before making his way to the combat arms section, tail swaying furiously behind him to show his annoyance.

Tempest smiled back at him before walking over to the combat arms section, slowly moving up to Inferno as he checked over the selection of swords and daggers before them.

Most of the troops stuck to firearms nowadays, but they had an affinity to swords and their mystique; with all the energy weapons going around it seemed odd to many for someone to want to use something as ancient as a sword to take on their foes, but Tempest’s and Inferno’s swordsmanship had often silenced the critics in that respect, even converted a few of the newer officers as well along the way to adopt them as at least a secondary weapon for close combat.

“Seems Enigma has a soft spot for you big guy…” Tempest quietly commented as he looked over the display before them.

Inferno growled a little before picking up a large thick blade, made from a powerful alloy that blackened the metal deeply to the point that it blended well with his darker scales, holding it up and swinging it furiously a few times.

“We have no time for such trivial things now Tempest, you know that…”

Tempest smiled to himself as he picked up his own sword and checked it over slowly, “I guess so…”

Tempest decided to leave Inferno to it, attaching the sword’s holster to his back next to the plasma rifle as he pulled the sword out and admired it; for something so simple as a piece of metal it was an amazing design, at least to him anyway.

The blade curved a little like those used by the samurai of many years ago in a time long forgotten by many, the handle so firm yet comfortable, laden in soft red ribbons, the blade so sharp it could cut through metal with ease, the metal shining brightly as a result of many years of care and attention which he had lavished upon it.

That sword has been with him all his life; he was too young to remember when he had actually first been given it, all he knew was that it previously had been his fathers sword, handed down to him for some reason when he was too young to hold it, yet alone wield it in combat, the engraved markings along the blade laid out as if to indicate some message which someday he hoped to be able to work out somehow…

“Tempest?”

He turned around to see Eclipse standing next to him, all kitted up and ready to go as she held his hand and pulled him a little closer. She seemed worried, those deep blue eyes grabbing his attention immediately.

“What’s up Eclipse?” Tempest leaned his head a little, curious as to what had been bugging her so much.

She paused a little before holding his paw tighter, “I’m worried about this Tempest, something seems wrong…”

Tempest smiled back at her, before giving her a soft embrace, trying to comfort her as he looked down into her eyes and smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry Eclipse, I won’t let anything happen to us OK? Things will work out alright in the end…”

Eclipse smiled back at him weakly before she nodded and let go of his paw, not wanting to question his continual optimism. She then quietly made her way to the other team members, who by now were fully equipped and ready to go.

Tempest slowly slid the sword back into its holster on his back and marched over to them, tail swaying a little as the adrenalin rush started to kick in.

“Well it’s time to go team, let’s not disappoint our unexpected guests...”

********************

Chapter 4 – Destination: Sahara Zone

The team made their way to the main hangar, a hive of activity as the troops prepared themselves for the imminent conflict that awaited them, a few of the younger officers again showing a little nervousness as they went about their business.

They continued to check the planes over thoroughly, running various diagnostics on them, while others loaded them up with fuel or ammo carefully so that they were ready to go at any moment.

Tempest made his way to a small transporter which appeared compact yet streamlined in design; obviously one of the newer stealth craft which had been made for such situations where a little indiscretion was required. It certainly wasn’t built to impress though, the black matte paintjob making it look a little worn, although he knew that appearances could often be deceiving…

“Tempest! Sir! Everything’s ready for you to depart, sir!”

He looked around to see a couple of soldiers behind him who had obviously been working on making sure their craft was ready. He smiled at them as they stood to attention and awaited his response.

“At ease guys, we’ll take it from here… thanks.”

The soldiers nodded in acknowledgement and then marched off side by side to the next plane which needed their attention, their tails even swaying in sync with each other he noted as he chuckled to himself.

“They need to relax just a little; they must be new recruits…”

Tempest opened the main door of the transporter and looked around as the rest of the team arrived with their gear, a few of the officers nearby turning their heads as they watched them load up and prepare to leave.

“You think we’ve got everything Enigma?”

She looked over at Tempest and grinned confidently, her tail swaying a little as she stood up and walked over to him.

“Ready as we’ll ever be Tempest, let’s just go and get this done OK? I’m losing out on quality time with my sweet draggy because of this…”

She turned around and giggled as she saw Inferno blush once again, which was actually hard for a dragon to do normally, although her teasing was obviously working to maximum effect now.

“Enigma, let’s focus on the mission now OK? You can spend some quality time your “sweet draggy” later…” Tempest motioned with his fingers as if to make brackets as he quoted her terminology, grinning as this only seemed to amplify Inferno’s embarrassment, a few of the officers listening in and quietly containing their amusement so as not to annoy him any further.

She smiled and nodded to him before climbing into the carrier and taking her seat, the flirtatious attitude finally fading as she focussed on the mission at hand.

“Well, it’s about time we got going I think…”

Tempest looked around to check everything was in order before climbing into the craft as well, taking up one of the pilot seats as he checked everything over, carefully adjusting his headset so as not to mess up those spikes of his; he wasn’t being vain, he just knew the hair gel would cause problems later if he wasn’t too careful…

Eclipse giggled as she sat next to him and watched as he struggled with the headset, eventually finding a comfortable angle to wear it at before sitting back and strapping himself in, looking a little flustered from making such a fuss out of something so trivial.

Tempest looked back at her to see her calmly continuing her work, activating the engines as she continued to run through the take off procedure, her tail swaying happily behind her before she coolly looked over at Tempest and gave him a gentle smile.

“Hey Tempest, we going now or what?” Striker shouted out as he wriggled around in his seat a little.

“Easy now Striker, you’ll burn up all your energy before we get there at this rate!” Tempest calmly retorted as he took hold of the controls and guided them slowly out of the hangar. The large doors opened before them gradually, sunlight pouring into the hangar more and more as they did so.

A few of the officers covered their eyes as they watched them make their way to the runway, temporarily pausing from their work as they watched curiously.

“Everything ready Eclipse?” Tempest calmly queried her as he charged up the engines and checked the co-ordinates for their destination one more time.

“We’re all OK Tempest, clear skies all the way it seems…” she calmly replied as she sat back and checked the readings once again to verify it.

Tempest smiled and nodded as he started the thrusters, the whole craft shaking a little at the power as they rapidly accelerated up the runway, the force being generated by the engines impressive as before they knew it they were in the air and speeding to their destination.

“Well that wasn’t too bad now was it?” Tempest playfully said as he unbuckled his straps and turned on the autopilot, looking around to see Enigma snuggled up in Inferno’s lap, clinging to him tightly, her tail wrapped around him as much as possible.

“Cl… claws…. Enigmaaaaa…..” Inferno twitched a little as he said it, obviously in a little pain but trying not to show it to maintain his tough outward appearance to the rest of the team.

Enigma looked up at him and meowed as she lifted up her paws, her claws sliding back into them as she released her tight grip on him and blushed a little.

“Oh sorry sweetie, I guess I got a little scared during take off…” she purred a little and started to paw at the claw marks, Tempest and Striker looking a little nervous as they imagined what damage she would have done to them had they been her target instead...

Inferno grumbled a little and picked her up and set her down beside him, rubbing over the small claw marks left on his scales as he got up and walked over to his sword, sitting beside it as he start to wipe it down in preparation for their arrival at the scout ship.

Tempest placed a paw on her shoulder, waiting for her to turn around and look up at him. “Are you OK Enigma? You don’t usually do that…”

She smiled a little and purred happily, “I don’t usually have a big bad dragon to tease either…”

Tempest smiled widely back at her before heading over to Striker and started to prepare his weapons and gear for the mission; at the speed they were moving at it wouldn’t take more than a few hours to get there he thought to himself.

*****

Eclipse moved over to Enigma and sat beside her, both of them watching the guys suiting up and checking over their equipment time and time again, obviously wanting to keep themselves busy until they got there.

“So you’ve got the hots for our scaly friend then eh?” Eclipse curiously asked Enigma, wanting to spark a little conversation to kill the time.

She smiled a little, still watching him as she replied, “Well he seems so dark and mysterious, it’s so appealing to me somehow, I can’t explain it, it’s like there’s so much more to him than we could ever imagine…”

Eclipse smiled at her and continued, “So how’s he taking it then? Will we finally see you settle down and have those kittens you want so badly?”

Enigma purred at the thought, “Someday soon, I hope…”

She looked over at Inferno thoughtfully, Eclipse watching her do so before placing an arm around her and holding her a little closer. “I’m sure you’ll get your chance soon Enigma, but we’d best make sure we get through this first hmm?”

Enigma turned back and looked her in the eyes, smiling as she gave her a quick hug and then stood up, getting herself suited up for the mission.

“Hopefully I’ll get my chance soon too…” Eclipse muttered to herself as she watched Tempest and Striker chatting away as they finished off their preparations, getting up slowly as she started to kit herself up as well.

*****

Several hours seemed to pass and go in moments, before they knew it they had arrived and could see the scout ship far in the distance as they prepared to land nearby, its size intimidating even from their view point several miles away.

Tempest took out a pair of high power binoculars, checking over the surrounding area for threats and a possible way in. The ship itself was a strange one, various markings all over its hull, its appearance slightly spherical except for the grounding pads which held it still. He also noted various tunnels and vents which seemed to be protruding from below it to the ground below.

He zoomed in and saw several soldiers walking around the perimeter of the ship, obviously keeping an eye out for anything suspicious despite the remote desert location.

He was surprised a little to see a mix of species marching around, wolves, dragons, foxes, tigers and all sorts of species he had never even seen before...

“Armageddon’s army is full of the best troops taken from previous conquests, you won’t see his own home-grown troops on such a scout ship I would have thought…” Inferno answered before Tempest could even ask his inevitable question in the first place.

Tempest nodded and handed the binoculars to him while he sat down and thought carefully about what to do next.

“It’s getting dark, also looks like there’s going to be a storm sweeping over the region tonight, we’ll have to use it to our advantage and break in while their visibility is low…”

Striker looked at Tempest and nodded in agreement. “Looks as if we’ve a little luck on our side this time Tempest, but how are we going to do this?”

Tempest continued to think about the details, the rest of them silent as they waited, before Tempest looked up at them all once more.

“Inferno and myself will sneak in while the storm is in progress, head to their engine room and set off all the explosives; meanwhile the rest of you will spread out to the nearby cliffs and provide cover fire for our escape. If we all go in and get caught its game over, I at least want you three to be able to move in and finish the job should we fail…”

Inferno smiled a little and stood up, flexing powerfully as he psyched himself up. “Sounds good to me Tempest, let’s do it.”

Striker nodded, obviously a little disappointed not to be heading in himself but happy with the plan none the less, while the girls also nodded in agreement at the plan.

“Well it’s not as if we know what we’re going to find in there yet is it? We can always move in if things get a little too close for comfort…” Eclipse calmly stated.

Tempest nodded in response before looking back out towards their target, while the others discussed between themselves various ideas as to how they could handle their roles in the plan effectively.

He looked it over once again, thinking hard as he looked over the structure’s details, his tail wagging nervously behind him as he did so, as if the view before him was sparking some suppressed memory from his youth.

“Why do I feel like I’ve seen this before?”

********************

Chapter 5 – Infiltration

The desert was calm, the soft red sands covered in darkness as the team slowly made their way to a high sand dune near to the scout ship. Each one of them was fully equipped and wore body armour all over their bodies, their high power energy weapons locked and loaded ready to take on anything that might get in their way.

Tempest and Inferno crouched down and looked over the nearby area below them, their swords also strapped to their backs, guns holstered at their sides as they worked out their entrance to the ship before the storm clouds swept over their position.

“It seems as if they’re not expecting any visitors, looks like there’s several air vents we could pick from to sneak in easily enough…” Inferno commented as he looked over the exterior.

“A little cliché but I guess that will do fine, one near the back perhaps would be suitable I’d have thought, they must all link together eventually anyway…” Tempest replied, his tail waving in the air as the wind started to pick up, the storm slowly building as the storm clouds approached.

Tempest crawled over to the rest of the team, Striker, Eclipse and Enigma all watching him with intent as he prepared to give them their orders.

“One hour. If the ship isn’t destroyed by that time you know what to do…”

Eclipse winced a little at the coldness of Tempest’s orders, but she knew that right now there wasn’t much else he could say; if they failed things could end up being a lot harder for the rest of their troops, especially if the enemy was able to build a foothold in the region.

They all nodded in agreement before Striker and Enigma moved up to higher positions to get a good viewpoint, leaving Eclipse and Tempest together still.

“Be careful Tempest…” she smiled weakly and looked him deeply in the eyes, trying to remain calm as she said it.

Tempest smiled in return as he gazed into her eyes, watching as the moonlight simply reflected into them more and more as they filled with tears, noting her lips quivering a little as she tried to hold her emotions back.

He wrapped his paws around her, holding her close as he tried to comfort her, holding back his own emotions as much as he could as she pressed close to his chest and nuzzled a little, wishing this was all over and she could just stay in his arms forever.

"It'll be alright Eclipse, I promise..." she looked up at him as he said it, nodding weakly as she kissed him on the side of his muzzle before finally letting go of him and moving into position, wiping away her tears as she lay atop a nearby sand dune.

She looked back at him once she was in place, her face sullen as he moved back to Inferno, noting the storm clouds in the distance gathering pace as they neared their location.

“Shouldn’t be long now…” Inferno mumbled quietly as he moved slowly towards the back of the ship, Tempest following closely, keeping an eye out for any guards along the way.

They stayed low as the wind picked up suddenly once more, the storm now getting into full flow as the guards moved closer to the ship, trying to seek some shelter as the sand flew into the air and reduced the visibility dramatically, as if someone had suddenly thrown a blanket over their eyes.

Tempest heard some muffled shouts from the guards to head back inside, nudging Inferno as they stood up and look at the ship once more.

“We’d best get inside before they close all the vents Inferno…”

He nodded back as Inferno started to run towards the ship, Tempest close in pursuit. They reached the edge of it before climbing into a convenient vent nearby and slowly and surely making their way through it. The storm had caught the guards by surprise, so far the plan was working well, hopefully it was going to continue like that as far as Tempest was concerned…

*****

Striker lay atop the high sand dune, watching them all the way as he checked his guns over time and time again, his tail twitching, eager for action and obviously worked up at not being part of the action.

“I hope he’s got a damn good reason for keeping me out here, he must be expecting some fierce backlash from this or something to have me on standby…”

He grumbled away to himself as he looked over at Enigma and Eclipse, Enigma happily looking around the perimeter of the ship for any potential threats, while Eclipse seemed more focussed on watching Tempest & Inferno’s progress.

“Hmm, I wonder if Tempest’s actually made a move on her yet? I need to work on that wolf’s confidence when we get back to base…”

Meanwhile Eclipse watched them as they continued, her goggles showing their progress clearly throughout as they moved into the ship, sighing a little as their signals faded slowly but surely before her goggles’ readings. She looked over to Enigma and Striker as she tried to distract herself from the worry that was now building within her.

“Why didn’t he let us go as well?”

********************

Chapter 6 – Deceit

Inferno made his way through the vents with ease, his smooth scales allowing him to glide through them as Tempest did his best to keep pace, noting several small shutters along the way. He looked throught them and saw large open rooms behind every one, full of enemy troops or combat tanks, all of them running around obviously preparing themselves for their first ground assault.

“Looks like they’re almost ready…” Inferno nodded a little in acknowledgement and continued on, before suddenly stopping and looking back at him once again.

“I think we’ve arrived at our main target…”

Tempest looked back at him curiously; considering they hadn’t been moving through the ship too long they’d already found the engine room – it seems that their luck was extremely good today... not that he was complaining…

“The engine room? Excellent, but let’s work out where we need to hit first before we break in OK?”

Inferno nodded again at Tempest’s suggestion, before pulling out a small set of binoculars and examining the engines in detail.

“I’d say we could hit the core generators, the power that they generate would help amplify the explosives greatly, should allow us to do enough damage to take this place down…”

Tempest nodded back and pulled out a bag of charges, handing them to Inferno. “You take those and work on the other sections of the engine, just in case we’ve underestimated OK?”

Inferno grinned, “As if with this amount of explosives my idea wouldn’t work…”

“Well you never know…” Tempest smiled back as they checked for guards and then opened the vent to the room, noting that it lay directly above the room, a good 20ft up but thankfully nothing they couldn’t handle with a little focus.

“Set the explosives for ten minutes, it didn’t take us long to get here so I don’t expect it to take too long to get back out…” he stated as he jumped down and landed on the hard metal floor, rolling a few times to absorb the impact, unholstering his gun as he looked around for any signs of the enemy, a little surprised at the lack of any guards as he nodded for Inferno to jump down.

Tempest got to work on setting the charges on the engines, keeping an eye on Inferno as he proceeded to do the same, both of them finishing fairly quickly as they regrouped in the middle of the room.

“OK, now let’s get out of here before they find out…”

Suddenly the room lit up, the glare of the lights catching Tempest off guard as he felt a swift kick to his stomach, falling to his knees as he clutched himself and howled a little at the pain.

The lights dimmed a little, Tempest looking around as he noted the balcony area above them suddenly was filled with armed guards, their guns locked onto his position... He looked up to see Inferno grinning a little at him as he pulled out his own gun and pointed it down at him, moving back a little to give himself a safe distance so as to avoid any retaliation from the wolf.

“I think you’ll be staying a lot longer Tempest…”

Tempest turned around to see a large feline shadow walking over to him, before suddenly the lights dimmed a little, allowing him to see the tiger better; his fur black all over with blue stripes littering his arms and sides, his hair style spiked widely in all directions, a bit like Tempest on a bad hair day it seemed…

As he got closer Tempest noted his red eyes glaring back at him coldly as he pulled out his sword, noting it to be similar to Inferno’s.

“Inferno… how could you…”

The large dragon grinned wickedly and kicked Tempest again, sending him reeling as he rolled over and over again, slamming into one of the walls hard, the guards above following his every movement, waiting for any sign of resistance.

The pain was intense, Tempest crying out a little as his body tried its best to handle it, a trail of blood slowly flowing from his muzzle, as he tried his best to cough it up, picking himself up slowly.

“You really think it’d be that easy Tempest? Such a worthless canine, I’m surprised they dared to put you on such a mission in the first place!”

Tempest looked around and tried to work out his options, things were looking very bad, there was no way he could beat them all, escape and destroy the ship now… unless…

Inferno pulled out his sword and walked over to Tempest, preparing to strike him down as he raised it up and cried out “Your world is ours now Tempest! You and your simple minded friends back at the base will fail and there’s nothing you can do to stop us!”

The large tiger moved towards them and pushed Inferno aside, pulling out his own sword as he gave the dragon a stern look.

“This is my ship, he is my prisoner and I will decide what happens to him now, you understand Inferno?”

Inferno scowled at him before moving away and putting away his sword once more, watching as the tiger knelt down before Tempest and lifted him up by his muzzle, his large paw squeezing it forcefully as he lifted him to his feet, all the while grinning at Tempest’s growls of pain.

“Well, Tempest, I’ll give you one chance to kill me, if you can do that then perhaps you’ll have a chance to escape…”

Tempest looked back at him as he tried to refocus, his balance unsteady as he pulled out his sword and tried his best to defend himself.

“What are you doing Chaos?” Inferno asked the large tiger curiously, the guards lowering their weapons as they watched the scene unfold before them.

“I’m playing with my prey, what does it look like you idiot?” Chaos snarled as he readied himself to strike, those eyes seemingly glowing bright as if the scent of death invigorated him.

By now Tempest had managed to regain his breath, knowing he was outmatched but hoping luck was still on his side.

“En garde Tempest, now you will be the first of your world to suffer our wrath!”

The tiger charged at Tempest, all the while laughing maniacally as he swung at him again and again, grinning wider with each dodge the smaller wolf made to his attacks.

“Is that all you’ve got? Pathetic, this planet will be easy to take over…”

Tempest struggled on, tiring quickly from the intense tempo at which the tiger fought with, trying his best to strike back but failing each time as the tiger simply parried his attacks away again and again.

Chaos looked at him and backed away a little, licking his lips as he sensed victory.

“Game over Tempest”

Tempest could only watch in horror as Chaos leaped forward suddenly, his sword piercing through Tempest’s chest, holding his pose as Tempest tried to stay standing, shuddering a little as the shock kicked in. Slowly his paw releasing his sword as it shook violently from the numbness that started to fill him, the loud clang of metal upon metal resonating through the room as the sword hit the ground.

Chaos grinned once more as he pulled the sword out of Tempest, putting away his sword as he watched Tempest slowly fall to his knees, clutching his chest wound tightly.

Tempest’s howl of pain was loud and powerful, the tiger laughing with delight as Tempest placed his paws on the ground, trying to hold himself up defiantly as he tried to speak.

“Ther… there’s one thing you should know… Chaos…” he panted out weakly.

The large tiger looked down at him, an eyebrow lifting a little as he listened.

“And what would that be my defeated foe?”

Tempest looked up at him and grinned. “You have five minutes…”

Chaos scowled at him as he realised what he meant, looking over at Inferno with a burning rage in his eyes. “I thought you disabled the charges Inferno!”

Tempest laughed at their reaction, gasping at the pain as he continued, “I decided… decided to plant charges all over the ship… as we moved through it… each charge can’t be disabled now I’ve set them… including the charges I’ve planted here… I thought that something…. like this would happen… unfortunately it seems… my instincts were correct…..”

Chaos growled loudly as he picked Inferno up and threw him against a nearby wall hard, venting his frustration at the dragon’s apparent incompetence.

“EVERYBODY MOVE OUT, ABANDON SHIP!” the tiger roared up at the guards, his frustration at their plan backfiring evident for all to see.

The guards seemed to panic a little as they hurried to the nearby exists, loud sirens starting to resonate through the ship as they tried to evacuate as quickly as possible, many dropping their weapons to make their escape easier.

As they escaped, Tempest was left for dead in the engine room, collapsed on the floor as he lay still, trying to conserve his energy, but knowing it would do him little good now... No way out, unable to move and with no way of being able to recover from such a fatal wound without urgent medical attention, which he knew was impossible now...

“Eclipse….” the image of her face flooded his mind as he tried desperately to move, failing miserably each time.

He sighed deeply as his head finally hit the ground, his muzzle landing in a pool of his blood which now trickled across the dull metal floor, falling unconscious as he lay in wait for the end, the sirens continuing to blare as the charges readied themselves to blow.

Suddenly they started to detonate as their individual timers kicked in, one explosion after another rocking the ship as each charge set off the next in a chain reaction, destroying everything in the nearby areas instantly.

It didn’t take much longer for the charges attached to the engines to explode, the engines’ power amplifying the effect exponentially as the whole ship suddenly seemed to be torn apart.

The explosions ended by sending powerful shockwaves outwards as Striker, Enigma and Eclipse watched in horror, trying to shield themselves from the huge amounts of debris which was flung their way as a result.

Eclipse stared, her hands shaking wildly, seemingly stunned as she watched the scene of pure destruction unfold before her eyes, shivering at the realisation that Tempest and Inferno were still nowhere to be seen...

“TEMPEST!!!”

********************

Chapter 7 - Aftershocks

There was an eerie silence after the explosions finally died down, the scout ship destroyed completely, a few enemy soldiers crawling away from the remains desperately trying to get to safety.

"Looks like a few escaped somehow..." Striker noted as he checked over the remains of the previously intimidating ship, quietly amazed at the effectiveness of the explosives they had taken with them.

Eclipse and Enigma were still a little dazed by the shockwaves sent out by the explosions, picking themselves up as they looked over the scene of carnage before them, brushing themselves down as they watched Striker charge down towards the enemy.

"Well he's certainly eager, there's only a few who got out so this should be easy enough to wrap up…" Enigma noted as she walked over to Eclipse slowly, casually patting down her fur as she did so.

"W… what's wrong Eclipse?" she whispered as she got closer, noting how the young fox was still clearly shaking as if in shock.

"They didn't make it…" Eclipse replied quietly, "I… I can't find them on the radar…"

Her paws started to shake more as the truth finally kicked in, dropping the radar to the ground as she burst into tears, unable to control her emotions any longer.

Enigma looked back at her, her expression solemn as she took Eclipse in her arms and held her tightly.

"I know Eclipse, I know…" Enigma whispered softly as she stroked her gently, her eyes closed as she tried to comfort Eclipse as much as possible.

*****

"OK! Everyone on the ground with your arms behind you back! DO IT NOW!"

Striker watched over the few enemy soldiers who'd escaped the blast, his rifle charged and ready for any sign of resistance as they slowly complied to his demands, their injuries too limiting for them to resist anyway.

"Now I wonder how long I'm going to have to hold them here, hopefully the Commander will send some support here soon…"

Striker waited patiently as Enigma and Eclipse finally arrived, rifles at the ready as they stood either side of him.

"Sorry sweetie, we had to go over a few things first, looks like you have it all under control anyway…" Enigma chuckled light-heartedly as she looked over the enemy troops lying down before them.

"It's OK Enigma, I take it there's no sign of Tempest or Inferno then?"

Enigma paused for a moment, the moment of light-heartedness gone as she sighed deeply and looked up at him.

"I'm afraid not, seems they were taken out by the explosion as well…"

Striker flinched a little at her answer before steadying himself once more, not wanting to show the enemy any signs of weakness.

"I see… at least they managed to take this thing down though, we even have some prisoners to get more info from too…"

Enigma sighed and sat down beside him, looking over the remains of the ship once more; watching as Eclipse quietly checked it over for any signs of life.

Her ears perked up as she heard the sound of helicopters nearby, turning around sharply as she saw several soldiers climbing over the sand dunes towards them, clearly surprised at the view of utter devastation before them.

"Looks like our ride home has finally arrived, let's get out of here and update the Commander…"

********************

Chapter 8 - Discoveries

"Dead? You're not serious, both of them!?"

The Commander tried to steady himself as he sat down once more at his desk and looked up at Striker, picking up a hot cup of coffee and gulping it down rapidly to try and steady his nerves, clearly concerned.

"With an explosion that large I'm surprised anyone escaped it, something must have gone wrong early on…" Striker continued, his face expressionless as he debriefed the Commander on the mission.

"And yet there were survivors, what's their status?" the Commander queried, his mind clearly plagued with a thousand questions once more.

"All of them are stable, a couple are already being interrogated to see if they can give us any more details on what happened…"

The Commander nodded and stood up once more, moving towards Striker and placing a paw on his shoulder.

"Very well, you should all take it easy for a while; hopefully our captives will talk without too much provocation."

Striker nodded and walked out the room, heading towards Enigma and Eclipse before relaying the Commander's instructions, the three of them slowly walking away down the corridor to their quarters.

Commander Blitz watched them for a while before he returned to his desk, filing through several papers and pulling out the report, looking it over as he took his coffee and sipped it carefully.

"You warned them didn't you Tempest? There's no way anyone could have escaped from such a blast otherwise, but why?"

He continued to read through the report, the room silent as the Commander tried to piece together what information he had been given so far, breathing heavily as he focussed on the details he had been given so far.

"Something here doesn't make sense, but what?"

He got up and took another cup of coffee from the machine before picking up the report and going over it once more, pausing as he reached a photo of Tempest among the papers.

"Tempest…"

Suddenly the Commander train of thought was broken by a loud knock at his door; taking a deep breath he looked up to see a younger officer waiting eagerly to speak with him, putting the report down for a moment as he beckoned them in.

"What is it? This had better be important boy…"

The young pup looked back at him nervously as he stood to attention, taking a deep breath as he remembered the reason for his visit.

"One of the enemy prisoners has already cracked it seems and has given us some very interesting information Commander… it all checks out on the lie detection system as well… they want you down in the interrogation room as soon as possible…" he blurted out rapidly.

"Already? Well this is interesting, tell them I'll be there in five." The Commander barked back at him, watching as the officer saluted and marched out the room promptly.

Taking another cup of coffee, he sipped at it lightly as he filed away the papers slowly, clearly deep in thought.

"I'd best get down there and see what they have to say for themselves…"

*****

"Impossible… they can't be serious…"

The elderly fox looked back at him and sighed a little, "I've already told you several times Commander, he's not lying about it; in fact he doesn't seem to be too reluctant to help us out either…"

"Regardless I still don't believe it…" the Commander continued, obviously surprised to say the least at the news they had just received.

"But sir, we've now had it confirmed some of the other prisoners as well, Inferno was on their side all along and Tempest is…"

The fox paused suddenly, looking over at Striker, Enigma and Eclipse, their expressions simply of shock as they listened to the conversation, deciding now was not a good time to remind them of some of the details.

"But then they would have known about the explosives, so why didn't they stop them from detonating?" the Commander queried, again thinking out loud.

"Tempest must have taken some extra charges, that way Inferno wouldn't have known about them…" Striker replied suddenly, remembering their time flying over there when he saw Tempest pack something into his bag just before they headed into the ship.

"Perhaps, but that still doesn't explain how a few escaped…" Commander Blitz continued, rubbing his muzzle as he continued to piece together the pieces slowly but surely.

"That's easy Commander…" Eclipse exclaimed, looking over at him, her face sullen as she continued, "Tempest wanted us to know what really happened - he knew he wouldn't make it out, so he told them about the extra charges he had planted just before they would detonate to ensure that a few of them at least would be able to get out in time…"

"Damn, it's a shame he couldn't work out a way of escaping himself as well…" Striker added, "…but then that also means Inferno may have escaped if he found an exit soon enough…"

"You may be right, but for now we need to work out what they're planning next, surely that's not the only ship that they have…" Commander Blitz continued, nervously sipping at his coffee once more.

"And you need to cut down on the coffee Commander…" Striker quickly retorted, hoping to break the tension a little.

The Commander growled at him a little as he got up and headed out the room, before suddenly stopping and turning around to face them once more, remembering what he wanted to say.

"All of you take it easy for a while, Intel is still looking for signs of the enemy in other regions, until we know what we're up against you should all take some time off, you could be back in action sooner than you think…"

They all nodded in reply and watched as he left, before looking back at each other once again, sitting quietly and clearly deep in thought.

"Enigma, are you OK? You haven't said a word the whole time…" Eclipse asked, placing a paw on her shoulder to try and comfort her a little.

"He… he lied to me… all this time he's been deceiving every one of us, and now… now… I… I…" she stuttered badly as she pressed her face into Eclipse's chest, crying out as if in pain as she held on tightly, lost in her thoughts and emotions.

Eclipse looked down at her and ran her claws through Enigma's long hair softly, nuzzling her gently to comfort her as she looked over at Striker, watching as he moved in closer and held them both tightly.

"It'll be OK, we'll get through this, I promise…" Striker whispered as they sat together, knowing that one way or another, this was far from over…

*****

"Commander, perhaps you should get some rest, we'll update you if anything urgent comes up, there's no need for you to wear yourself out over this…"

Commander Blitz looked over at the young feline sergeant, smiling a little as he walked over to a nearby window and looked up at the dark star filled sky above them, checking his watch before nodding back at the sergeant in agreement.

"Very well, I guess it won't do me any good hanging around waiting will it?"

"No Commander, I hope you get a good rest…" the sergeant replied before saluting and returning to his post.

"After what's happened today, I doubt I'm going to get any sleep at all…" the Commander grumbled as he headed back to his quarters.

"I wonder how they're all handling this…"

********************

Chapter 9 - Reflections

A cool wind swept through the room as Eclipse opened the window in her quarters, leaning on the window ledge as she looked up to the skies above, the light coming from the moon illuminating everything around her.

She sighed to herself as she simply stood there in thought, unable to sleep from the thoughts that swam through her head, a few tears forming and running down her muzzle as she ran through the day's events over and over again in her mind.

A loud knock on the door broke her train of thought as she slowly wrapped herself in her dressing gown, heading over to the door, wondering who could be passing by to see her so late in the evening.

She opened it and smiled a little when she saw Striker standing before her, himself smiling weakly back at her.

"Can we talk Eclipse?" he whispered quietly, nervously awaiting her response.

She smiled a little more as she nodded to him, watching as he walked into the room and stood next to the open window, his paws firmly on the window ledge as he looked up and simply stared.

"A full moon, it's so bright tonight…" Striker whispered as he looked back at her walking over to stand beside him.

"It's beautiful…" she whispered back as she nuzzled against him and looked up at him, looking him deeply in the eyes as she stroked his chest lightly.

Striker murred a little at her gentle affection before turning to face her fully, a paw stroking over her muzzle lightly.

"I… I'm sorry I wasn't more supportive earlier Eclipse, I…"

She pressed a finger to his muzzle, stopping him abruptly mid-sentence as she wrapped her arms around him and stroked him gently.

"It's OK Striker… I understand…" Eclipse looked up at him and smiled reassuringly, nuzzling his chest as they held each other close, both of them seemingly not wanting to let go.

Striker held her closer, his unease slowly melting away as he held her in his arms, stroking her back gently and murring lightly as they stood there for what seemed like an eternity gazing up at the stars above.

Slowly Striker loosened their embrace, looking down at her once more, gazing longingly into her eyes as he stroked her muzzle gently with his paw.

"Eclipse… I… I…"

She smiled and pressed a finger to his muzzle, silencing him once again as she pressed closer to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, nuzzling him gently.

"I know…" she whispered to him as she slowly pressed her muzzle to his, pressing him closer still as they kissed softly, his paws running over her back tenderly as their kiss deepened more and more as it continued for what felt like an eternity.

Slowly Striker pulled away from the kiss and looked down at her lovingly, stroking her muzzle once more as she nuzzled against his paw, her tail swaying happily in the evening breeze.

"Eclipse… I… I love you."

She smiled at him again and stroked his chest gently, purring a little at the affection she was receiving from the young fox.

"I love you too Striker, I'm glad you finally found the nerve to tell me how you feel…"

Striker smiled weakly as he ran his paws through her hair gently, admiring her beautiful form as the light of the full moon reflected deep into her eyes.

"Today made me realise a few things about myself, up until now I've had everything I could have dreamed of, except for one thing which I feared I would never find until I met you… love…"

She blushed a little as he said it, stroking his muzzle gently as she pulled him closer, wanting to kiss him softly once more…

Just before she could the moment was ruined as the emergency alarm system kicked in, Eclipse sighing deeply as she rushed over to the communication screen to find out what was going on.

She turned around and faced Striker once more, her appearance now slightly anxious as she started to dress.

"Emergency meeting in 5 minutes, seems as if they've found something big…"

Striker nodded and quietly sighed a little as well, "Looks like we'll have to wait a while to continue this…" he told himself, "this better be important…"

*****

"Everyone, it looks as if the enemy is preparing itself for the full invasion…" the Commander calmly stated, pointing to a large map on the screen behind him.

"It seems that the enemy has been preparing itself on the dark side of the moon, outside of our sensor range and as a result until now undetectable in any way whatsoever…"

The Commander continued as the room remained silent, many watching him intently, eager to know the gravity of the situation.

"They have now started to move out towards the earth; it appears that their fleet consists of thousands of smaller combat ships and one larger vessel behind them, which clearly must be their command ship and therefore our focal point for any offensive moves we wish to make"

A few of the officers looked at each other curiously, possibly hoping this was all a bad dream or a wind up by the Commander, but knowing that both were far from the truth.

"But how long do we have Commander?" one of the officers piped up, obviously a little nervous.

"According to the information we've managed to piece together so far, three days at most..."

A hushed silence filled the room as he said it, many not sure what to say as they tried to work out what they would need to do next.

"We have no time to think of a plan, other than to assemble every ship we've got and prepare to defend ourselves against them; hopefully we can at least punch a hole in their forces and take out their command ship, but until now we've still no idea as to the weaponry or technology they possess, or even how many more ships are hiding out of our sensor range…"

The Commander looked at them all and sighed a little, "For now everyone is to rest fully, we have a long day of preparations ahead of us tomorrow…"

The officers slowly moved out and headed back to their quarters, obviously unsettled at the news, deep in thought as they tried to fathom the situation.

"This couldn't get any worse…" the Commander grumbled to himself as he took another swig of coffee, trying to calm his nerves once more as he contemplated what to do next…

********************

Chapter 10 - Revival

"Seems as if he's already conscious, impressive…"

A faint regular beeping sound slowly filtered into his mind, its rhythmic beat vibrating through him, his body stirring a little from the sensations now reawakening within him…

The chilled air which surrounded him caused him to shake involuntarily, his motions restricted somehow as he tried to move his arms around himself to protect his body from the extreme cold.

"Just take it easy, you'll be out of there soon enough…"

He paused at the words, relaxing himself a little as he slowly opened his eyes, desperately trying to see where he was, the bright neon lights around him making it all the more difficult to do so.

Slowly he tried to say something, but paused once more as he realised his muzzle was covered with an oxygen mask, taking a few deep breaths as his muddled mind finally worked out what was happening.

He was in some sort of medical bay obviously being given some special type of treatment for his wounds, but unsure of who they were or where he was, the masked doctors giving him no indication as to their true nature.

"Inform the Captain, looks as if our efforts weren't in vain after all…"

He looked around the room a little more, struggling as his head was also tied down a little, his eyes straining as he looked over the bleak and empty room again and again.

Time seemed insignificant now, with no sign of night or day he had no idea how long he had been stuck in there, simply waiting patiently for whatever fate now had in store for him.

Finally his eyes focussed fully as he saw before him a large imposing figure enter the room, seemingly feline in appearance and yet somehow different in a way he couldn't make out in his present state…

"Welcome back, Tempest. Seems you've got some fight in you after all…"

The young wolf could do nothing as suddenly his body felt heavy once more, his eyes struggling to stay open as he fell once more into a deep sleep, the hybrid before him grinning before turning around and heading out the room once more.

"Where… am I?"

********************

Chapter 11 - Origins

Tempest awoke once more to find himself in another room, breathing heavily as he looked around him at his new surroundings, noting them to be much more comfortable than his previous location.

Pawing his chest all over he frantically tried to find the location of the wound made by Chaos, surprised as he failed to find any trace of it whatsoever…

"But… how? Am… am I dead?"

The large hybrid he had seen earlier suddenly appeared out of the corner of his eye, walking over to him slowly, a large smirk across his face as he watched the young wolf's reactions to his current situation.

"You're not dead Tempest, nor has it been that long since you were beaten by Chaos… in fact that was less than two days ago…"

Tempest looked back at him, sitting up a little in the bed as he tried to work it all out in his head, trying to think of what to ask next…

"How?" he replied, deciding to let his host fill in as many gaps as possible in his understanding of the situation.

The large hybrid chuckled at the question, walking over to the solitary window and holding his arms behind his back as he looked over at Tempest once more.

"I'd best explain a little for you then, hmm?"

Tempest sat up and examined him a little more now he was able to focus clearly.

He was clearly a mix of canine and feline, his build highly athletic, clearly over seven foot and consequently an imposing figure to say the least.

The markings which covered his body were like those of a tiger, yet the greyness of his fur with contrasting white fur on his chest and muzzle blended well together, lightly spiked long black hair running down to his shoulders.

"Well we've been watching you for a while now Tempest, seems you've some impressive tricks up your sleeves from what we've seen so far…"

Tempest sighed as he said it, clutching his chest as if the wound was still there…

"You flatter me, as far as I could see I was as helpless as a newborn puppy out there…"

The hybrid turned around to face Tempest, giving him a clear view of his face. His eyes seemed a little cold yet focussed, now noticing the large scar running over his left eye, indicative of a battle wound inflicted many years ago.

"Perhaps, but your body seems to be telling us otherwise…"

Tempest looked back at him, his ears perking up curiously as the hybrid sat down next to him.

"Despite your 'weakness', you still managed to dodge his final attack enough for it to avoid all of your critical body functions, you then somehow are able to put yourself in a meditative state to conserve your energy before finally being able to heal up fully within a matter of days, granted with the help of one of our deep freeze chambers…"

The wolf simply looked back in disbelief, "But… I never tried to do any of those things… and how did I get here anyway?"

The large hybrid chuckled lightly at him before continuing, "Like I said, we've been watching you, we decided to bail you out of there once you'd cleared the room with that bomb warning of yours…"

Tempest slowly stood up and stretched, trying to take all of it in as quickly as possible.

"Then I must thank you… er…"

"The names Captain Dazen D. Cobalt, but you can call me Das to keep things simple…" he replied quickly, looking at him curiously.

Tempest nodded and bowed to him respectfully, "Then thank you Das, I owe you my life…"

Das smirked a little and nodded before moving once more to the window.

"The way things are going out there, we might need you to return the favour fairly soon…"

Tempest looked around and saw his uniform on a nearby table, walking over and slowly suiting up as Das continued.

"The enemy was clearly knocked by your efforts, it seems that they've sped up their plans as a result and are readying themselves for an all out assault… right now we're still working out what their full force truly is…"

Tempest looked over and finished dressing, flexing a little more as he tried to awaken his senses as much as possible, "So you're part of the AED as well?"

"No, we're a small mercenary force based in the Antarctic zone, not that we have an issue with the AED, but we just like to have a little independence in what we do, that's all…" Das quickly replied.

"I see, no wonder it's so cold… but why did you save me then?" Tempest curiously asked.

"That's an easy one, there's a power inside you which if unlocked could be the difference between us defeating Armageddon's forces or being wiped out of existence completely…"

Tempest looked back at him once more, a little taken aback by his comments.

"That's insane! You really think that I can make such a difference?" he quickly exclaimed, starting to question the hybrid's sanity.

"Of course I do, your father explained it all to us a long time ago."

"My father? What are you talking about Das? I've never known him…" Tempest blurted out, still in denial at the revelations.

"I'd take a seat Tempest, this might take a while…" Das calmly replied, pointing to a chair nearby.

"You see that mark on your shoulder? That 'Z' like patch of white fur? That was no coincidence… you picked that up when you were just a young pup…"

Tempest listened carefully, his body language clearly showing his confusion as Das continued.

"When you were barely a year old, your parents were inexplicably murdered one bitterly cold winter's night in your own home; somehow you managed to escape the house and were found the next morning curled up shivering in the snow… what confused everyone was how at such a young age you were able to survive those conditions for so long…

Shortly after Commander Blitz, who as you know knew your father well, took you in and raised you as his own son, along with Eclipse, who also was also orphaned around that point of time in similar circumstances.

Over time the two of you became very close, you ending up as such as her brother and ultimately her protector; your desire to keep those you love so great that seemingly you would do anything for them…

Your desire was so strong, that it meant that you would even sacrifice your own life would it be enough to keep them safe from harm… a point highlighted by your decision to only take Inferno into the scout ship, a mission where you knew that the odds of success were limited to say the least…"

Tempest clutched the chair a little as Das recounted the story, trying to hold his emotions back as the images flashed through his mind…

"I know all of this Das, please, don't remind me…"

Das looked back at him, his face remaining cold and emotionless as he continued his story.

"Do you remember your first time in the training zone at the AED headquarters? You were still very young at the time, they get you running on the basic training simulations as soon as they can so that you can adapt to them much quicker…"

Tempest tried hard to recall the scene, but found himself now drawing a blank, cursing as he tried more and more to remember it as Das continued on.

"Anyway, the point is that at that time, Eclipse was also with you training… and for some reason the pressure of being in such a situation for the first time and your instinctual need to defend Eclipse caused you to do something that no one could ever have imagined possible, that is had it not been seen by so many at the time…"

Tempest looked back at him and stared, the image he was so desperately searching for finally flashing before him clearly, his body paralysed as the memories suddenly flowed through his mind once more.

"You transformed momentarily, your body somehow reaching a whole new state as you lost control and simply tore through the simulation machines, displaying speed and strength that the greatest of warriors would kill to have suddenly flowing through you…"

Tempest started to shake a little as his mind ran through the scene all too clearly for his liking, the memories no longer suppressed as Das simply carried on, not stopping once to gauge his reactions.

"The moment Eclipse called out your name you stopped yourself somehow and reverted back to your normal self, albeit now marked on your chest and arm with white furring, as if the life had drained from those areas… it took you three days to recover, although your fur has never changed back for some reason…"

Das paused and looked up at him, a small grin forming as he watched Tempest curiously.

"And now Tempest… it's time for you to do that again… to become, as your father phrased it… 'Tempest Omega'…"

********************

Chapter 12 - The calm before the storm…

"Tempest… Omega?"

Tempest whispered the words to himself quietly, looking back at Das in disbelief, curious as to what he had in store for him.

"Well, your father told Commander Blitz that there was something within you that could be unlocked, for some reason he deemed 'Omega' to be a suiting name for your new form…" Das mockingly said as he stood up, stretching a little himself as he started to walk towards the door.

"You mean Blitz knew about this as well?" Tempest exclaimed, following Das as he left the room, intent to find out as much as possible.

"Well of course, he just didn't believe it until you first did it unknowingly in front of his very eyes; since then he's not known what to do about it… until now that is…" Das retorted back, calmly heading down the seemingly endless corridor, Tempest hot in pursuit.

Suddenly he stopped and opened a large door, a bitter wind hitting them as Das slowly walked inside.

Tempest followed and looked around to see a vast spacious room that looked ultimately felt like a giant freezer, huge icicles and snow dunes littering the landscape, noting high above them several windows angled down towards them, obviously an observation deck of some sort.

Tempest jumped a little in surprise as he looked around and instinctively caught his sword, surprised to see his own blade once more in his paws.

"Looks like you've been waiting a while for this…" Tempest shouted, hoping Das would hear him over the chilling wind which howled through the room relentlessly.

Das grinned once more as he picked up a similar shaped sword, albeit a little longer and made from a blackened dull metal, obviously a compound metal designed to do some serious damage.

"We've got 48 hours to awaken your Omega side Tempest… that'll give us just enough time to get back to the AED and help them out with their defence plan before the enemy strikes… don't think for a moment that I'll go easy on you though…"

Tempest nodded in reply as he unsheathed his own blade, steadying himself in the snow as he tried to work out what the hybrid had in store for him.

"So, what's the plan? You going to teach me some new techniques or something?" Tempest queried back at him.

"It's quite simple really, either you transform and defeat me, or I'll kill you… if you can't become 'Omega' then as far as we're concerned you're useless to us…" Das replied coldly, not even looking up at Tempest this time...

"Well then, if that's how it is we'd best get started… give me everything you've got Das!" Tempest shouted as he charged towards the large hybrid, his blade ready to strike at any moment.

"Hmm… this could be fun…" Das thought to himself as he charged towards his opponent, grinning widely as he waited for Tempest to strike…

*****

"Are you sure? Incredible… yes… thank you…"

Commander Blitz saluted the officer as he walked out of his office, slowly taking another sip of his coffee as he contemplated the news.

"Impossible… I'd best tell Eclipse and the others right away…" he mumbled to himself.

"Tell us what exactly?"

Commander Blitz looked up to see Eclipse now standing in the doorway, obviously curious to know what the Commander was babbling on about now.

He paused for a moment, before putting down his coffee and slowly walking over to her.

"Tempest… he's… alive…" he slowly stated, watching her as she stared back at him, seemingly in shock.

"Tempest…" she stood there for what seemed like an eternity in silence, clearly unsure of what to say.

Commander Blitz sighed and slowly wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him and watching as suddenly she broke into tears, nuzzling hard into his chest as the sense of relief became too much for her to contain.

"Just like her mother…" Commander Blitz thought to himself as he tried to comfort her, stroking her gently as he looked out a nearby window at the officers outside preparing themselves for the upcoming battle, wondering what was in store for them next…

*****

"It seems as if our plan is working my lord"

"Our plan? This is MY plan you ignorant fool, don't you dare imply otherwise again…" the large draconian figure exclaimed, looking down at the feline bowing before him.

The room was expansive, yet its appearance cold from the black metal plating which covered it from top to bottom, nothing within it save for a large chair and computer panel in the centre…

Several large windows were placed around the circumference of the room; allowing a clear view from all sides of the depths of space which surrounded them, save for the view of the Earth from the stern of the ship.

"Of course my lord, my apologies for the slip of the tongue…" he replied, cursing a little as he watched the dragon intently.

"Chaos, how long does Inferno need for his ground troops to be ready?" the dragon queried coldly, patiently awaiting an answer.

"Based on current progress, around 36 hours Lord Armageddon…" Chaos replied quickly, not wanting to keep him waiting for fear of what he might do to him if his mood suddenly turned to one of impatience.

"Excellent… with their forces focussed now on our space fleet, they'll never know what hit them… this world will fall easily to our might!" Armageddon boasted to himself, looking back at Chaos with an evil smirk on his face.

For a 9ft tall dragon he was powerfully built, black scales covering him from head to toe, save for various red spikes which ran from his head all the way down his back to the tip of his tail.

The only distinguishable marks were those of several scars covering his chest and arms, with one larger deeper cut right down the middle of his chest, obviously a deeper wound inflicted many years ago from the way it contorted a little.

"Such simple minded fools will never be able to outwit you my lord…" Chaos added, hoping to appease the dragon's ego as much as possible.

"Indeed… you're dismissed Chaos…"

The large feline nodded and slowly got up, making his way out of the room, leaving Inferno alone to contemplate his plans.

"This is far too easy… are they really so weak?"

********************

Chapter 13 - Defiance

“Come on Tempest, is that all you’ve got!?” Das roared as he kicked Tempest hard on the shoulder, watching as he landed heavily nearby, the deep crisp snow which covered the ground softening the impact a little but taking none of the pain away.

Tempest gasped and picked himself up slowly, looking over at Das, his breathing heavy as he tried to refocus himself once more.

“Damn… he’s tough; we’ve been fighting all day and I haven’t been able to register a hit yet…” Tempest thought to himself as Das watched him curiously, grinning still as he savoured the feeling of being in complete control of the battle so far.

“What’s the matter Tempest? Out of breath already? I was just warming up…”

Das chuckled as he stretched a little, all the while watching the young wolf to gauge his reactions.

Tempest growled a little as he readied himself once more, moving into a more offensive stance as he raised his sword, the heavy snow blurring his view a little as he focussed on his opponent once more.

“Don’t think that I’m finished just yet Das…” Tempest replied as he leapt into the air towards Das, preparing to strike him with an aerial sword attack, hoping to surprise him with the change of tactics.

“Meh, at this rate I’m going to have to put you out of your misery sooner than planned…” Das retorted as he countered easily, using his sword to block the attack before backflipping away from Tempest once more, kicking him hard in the face as he did so.

Tempest yelped a little from the pain as once more he landed heavily in the snow, the impact causing him to drop his sword nearby, panting hard once more as he looked up and saw Das above him.

“You’re weak Tempest… I’m amazed Blitz had the patience to raise such a useless pup like you… you’re definitely not soldier material, let alone capable of anything else…”

Das continued to mock him as he prepared to stamp down on Tempest’s face with one of his large footpaws, the grin on his face a constant as he waited to see how Tempest would react to his words.

“Come on Tempest… you can do better than this…”

Tempest growled louder this time as he watched Das move his footpaw down towards him, dodging to the side before picking up his sword and striking quickly at Das while his guard was down temporarily, watching as Das dodged at the last moment and leapt away from him to regain his composure once more.

“I’ll show you what I can do Das, I promise…” Tempest replied, his grip on his sword tightening as he charged towards Das, his eyes burning with anger as he unleashed a torrent of attacks onto him.

The large hybrid’s grin widened as he watched Tempest’s fury increasing, now having to make some effort to block his attacks as the wolf continued to battle away at Das’ defences, a little surprised when he felt the edge of Tempest’s sword strike the plated armour on his shoulder.

“My turn.” Tempest coolly replied as he noticed Das’ moment of surprise, using the opportunity to jump up into the air and double kick Das in the chest, sending him flying, all the while Tempest watching carefully for any signs of a counterattack.

Das growled a little as he looked back at Tempest, noting the deep gouge in the shoulder plating and slowly picking himself up, his tail’s motions furious as he tried to remain cool.

“That was just lucky Tempest… perhaps I should stop going easy on you…”

Tempest looked back at him as he readied himself for whatever Das had planned next, the cold chill no longer felt as his mind and body focussed purely on his opponent’s next move.

“Perhaps you should just tell me how this is going to help me become Omega first…” Tempest replied, still unsure as to how things should progress.

Das looked back at him, pausing before laughing wildly at his statement.

“I already told you Tempest, either you transform and defeat me, or I’ll kill you… you’re no match for me right now, so the sooner you realise that the more chance you have of getting through this…”

Tempest swallowed heavily at the thought, knowing that Das was to a greater or lesser extent right; if he couldn’t find a way to get stronger somehow this was going to be impossible to get through…

“But first, I think it’s time to stop playing around with such amateur weaponry…”

Das smirked as he walked over to a large chest, throwing down his sword before opening the chest up to reveal a much larger blade, several feet long and over a foot thick, several jagged edges near the base obviously designed to do extra damage to any opponent unlucky enough the be hit by it.

“Mmm… much better…” Das purred loudly as he swung the blade around a few times, slicing it through a nearby glacier and watching with delight as it split cleanly in two, all the while Tempest watching in shock.

“Woah…” Tempest muttered to himself as Das turned around to face him once more, carefully leaning the large blade on his shoulder as he chuckled at Tempest’s reaction.

“Something the matter Tempest? Looks like you’re a little concerned…”

Tempest looked back at him without reply, both of them silent for a moment before he suddenly leapt into the air, landing nearby to Das before quickly leaping away again…

Das watched the wolf curiously before realising what Tempest was up to, his tail swaying wildly as Tempest picked up his other sword, obviously looking to even the odds a little.

“Nice idea… but I doubt it’s going to give you much of an advantage really… although it will make killing you more fun…” Das purred loudly as he looked over at Tempest, who simply stared back at him coldly, waiting for Das to strike once more.

Das roared powerfully as he charged at Tempest, swinging wildly as Tempest dodged his attacks with ease, backflipping away from him as Das paused for a moment to catch a breath in between strikes.

“What’s going on? He seems to be evading my attacks more easily now…” Das pondered as he watched Tempest counter attack, frantically blocking his flurry of attacks, clearly impressed from his efforts which seemed to be more focussed than before.

Tempest backed off once again and smiled back at Das, both swords at the ready as he gasped for breath.

“What’s the matter Das? Finding things a little harder?” Tempest calmly queried, watching as the large hybrid took the opportunity to take a break as well.

“Heh, it seems you’re getting used to my combat style the more we battle somehow…” Das replied, hoping for some more insight as to Tempest’s gradual improvement.

Tempest grinned weakly, panting a little as he tried to keep his focus, knowing that any lapse in concentration could be his downfall against such an opponent.

“Let’s just say I have a knack for it shall we?” Tempest continued before charging towards Das, readying himself to deliver another flurry of attacks.

“Indeed… although don’t get your hopes up… there is plenty I’ve yet to show you Tempest…”

Das chuckled lightly as he dodged Tempest’s first attack, spinning behind him before rapidly wrapping his tail around his neck, the young wolf gasping loudly as the powerful tail muscles squeezed harder.

“You didn’t think that just by working out a few of my moves you could win did you Tempest?” Das taunted as he tightened his grip, watching as Tempest tried desperately to break loose, dropping his swords in the process as he pulled at the tail around his neck desperately.

“Ack… D… Das…” Tempest tried to speak, but found himself unable to as he was slowly lifted into the air, amazed at the strength which the large hybrid’s tail possessed.

“Game over Tempest… this ends now…”

********************

Chapter 14 – Revelations

“Striker! Where are you? Striker!”

Enigma ran down the hallway, looking around frantically as she tried to locate him, various onlookers watching her curiously as she swept past them.

“Enigma! I’m here, what’s up?” Striker replied from one of the nearby rooms.

Enigma spotted him and skidded to a halt, taking a moment to calm down a little before she spoke.

“Tempest is alive!” she panted heavily, watching as Striker smiled weakly, obviously distracted by something else.

“We already know Enigma, but right now we’ve no time to think about that…”

Enigma looked back at him curiously, walking further into the room as she saw him looking over a large map screen, several other officers present as well for some reason.

“It seems those ships in space aren’t our only concern right now…” Striker continued, beckoning her over to show her what they were looking at.

Enigma paused as she looked down at the map, gasping a little in shock from what she saw.

“But… when did they manage to rebuild it?” she replied, a little taken aback from the sight of what looked like a large scout ship on the map, very similar to the one they had blown up previously.

Striker sighed a little and looked back at her once more.

“It seems our old friend Inferno hacked the scanner systems so that they would skip that area, we only just found out there was a second ship hiding in that region when the engineers completed their weekly checkups…”

Enigma looked at the other officers, trying to gauge the seriousness of the problem but having no luck; their expressions cold and without emotion as they continued to examine the map screen before them.

“But, how long has it been there?”

He looked back at her and sighed again, “A while I’d say, it looks like they’ll be ready to strike in less than 12 hours… the Commander and Eclipse left a while back to head over to the Antarctic zone in the hope of drafting up some more support from our allies over there, as well as picking up Tempest… in the meantime it’s up to us to prepare our counterattack…”

Enigma stared back at him, the realisation of what he was saying slowly kicking in. “You mean…”

“Yes Enigma, it seems Inferno is back…”

********************

Chapter 15 – Omega ascension

“You’re useless Tempest… you’ll never be able to save them… I should just put you out of your misery and end it now…”

Das continued to mock him as he held the wolf in the air, his tail’s grip relentless as he watched Tempest continue to struggle in his tail hold.

“Why do you struggle Tempest? You’ve never been able to protect the ones you love, your parents, your friends, even Eclipse… all of them will be killed and there’s nothing you can do about it is there? Perhaps you should beg me to do it for you…”

Tempest remained silent, refusing to believe what Das said as he tried to remain composed, waiting for a chance to break free and strike…

“Give it up Tempest…”

Tempest growled a little, refusing to reply as suddenly the large doors on one side of the room opened, a solitary figure walking into the room much to the surprise of both them.

“Tempest! What’s happening?”

Das grinned once more as he lifted Tempest a little higher, throwing him across the room with his tail and watching with delight as he collapsed on the ground, clearly weakened from the hybrid’s tail grip.

“Ah… Eclipse… glad to see you could make it…” Das chuckled evilly as he slowly walked over to her, purring as she looked up at him, clearly worried about Tempest as he remained motionless on the ground.

“What did you do to him? I thought you were our ally!” she shouted at him, trying to hide her fear as he loomed over her smaller form.

“Well, I was hoping I’d have woken up his Omega factor by now, but it seems he’s weaker than I thought…” Das continued, placing a large paw on her shoulder before slowly squeezing it, holding her tight to make sure she didn’t try to escape.

Eclipse gasped a little from the pain, tears starting to form in her eyes as she found herself slowly pushed down onto her knees, unable to stop Das as he continued.

“I guess I’ll just have to show him how helpless he really is…” Das coldly stated as he pushed Eclipse onto her back, leaving her there as he raised his arm and pulled out his sword, swinging it a few times before pointing it down at her.

Das slowly pushed his large footpaw down on her, watching as she screamed out in pain from the pressure on her chest, noting Tempest slowly trying to pick himself up once more.

“Hmm… seems it has to come down to this, I hope this is going to work, Blitz will never forgive me if it doesn’t…” Das thought to himself as he waited a little longer for Tempest to regroup his senses.

“Tempest! Can you hear me? If you’re not strong enough to save her then I’ll kill her too…”

Eclipse stared up at him in horror, realising what he was up to but not believing that he was willing to go this far to achieve it…

Tempest finally was able to stand up straight, looking down as he silently picked up his sword, leaving the other one he had taken from Das on the ground beside him.

“Heh, so you’re still conscious, no matter, by now you must be too weak to even consider stopping me… Tell you what, let me put you out of your misery and kill you both, starting with Eclipse…”

Tempest growled as he listened, squeezing hard the handle of his sword to the extent that his hand started to bleed, small drops of blood slowly dripping onto the crisp white snow below.

“Enough talk, you lose Tempest, say goodbye to Eclipse…” Das suddenly roared loudly, swinging his sword up in the air before bringing it back down again to strike Eclipse, lifting his foot off of her as he did so.

“TEMPEST!”

Time seemed to stand still, Das stunned as he suddenly found himself stopped in his tracks, unable to push his sword down any further as if something was blocking him.

“What the…!?” Das gasped as he looked down and saw Tempest blocking his attack, surprised at how Tempest was able to block him with such ease.

Tempest remained silent, breathing hard as he slowly looked up at Das, his eyes now a burning yellow colour which glowed brightly as if something inside of him had just been awoken.

“Tempest…?” Eclipse whimpered a little as she saw him above her, just as surprised as Das at the situation.

“No… more… Das… Now it’s my turn…” Tempest growled as he kicked Das hard, sending him flying as he leapt into the air after him, furiously attacking him again and again clearly blinded by his anger.

Eclipse watched in horror as Tempest continued to attack Das, every strike dealing damage to they hybrid’s powerful armour, the smaller wolf clearly burning himself out as his eyes glowed brighter.

“He’s losing control… it’s just like the training simulation all over again…” Eclipse thought as she watched, slowly getting up before running over to them, hoping she could stop him before it was too late.

“What’s the matter Das? You don’t seem to be as confident as before!” Tempest shouted, grinning maniacally as the power rush seemed to be driving him crazy, laughing insanely as he continued to relentlessly attack Das.

“He’s crazy, what have I done?” Das thought to himself as suddenly Tempest swung his sword with suck ferocity that the hybrid could no longer hold onto it, staring back at Tempest as he realised that he was now at his mercy, Tempest preparing to deliver the killer blow.

“Hmm… how did you put it? Oh yes…I remember…” Tempest grinned the same way as Das had done previously for effect as he slowly moved away from him and prepared himself to strike.

“Game over Das… this ends now…”

Tempest raised his arms, holding his sword above his head and pausing for a moment before suddenly gasping with surprise as Eclipse grabbed him from behind, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight.

“TEMPEST! THAT’S ENOUGH! STOP IT PLEASE!!!”

He looked over his shoulder to see her looking up at him, tear filled eyes pleading with him to stop, Eclipse clearly scared by his actions but determined to stop him before he went too far.

“E... Eclipse…”

Tempest’s eyes suddenly snapped back into focus, still a bright yellow colour as he dropped his sword and collapsed to his knees, both Das and Eclipse standing back as he screamed in pain.

“What’s happening Das?” she shouted to him, both of them watching as his body glowed brightly, the intensity of the light causing them to shield their eyes for a moment.

Das remained silent, both of them watching as the light slowly faded, both stunned at what they now saw before them.

As the light faded they could see Tempest’s form, only now two large angelic wings stretched out either side of him, his height and build seemingly also increased a little…

His fur was now predominantly white, black fur covering his lower arms and legs with tiger markings all over his upper arms and sides, his chest fur now inverted as well somehow…

The glow faded a little more, allowing them to see that his spiky hairstyle was the same as it was before, although the spikes now alternated in colour between black and white in a alternating fashion.

They stared at him a little longer before Eclipse moved a little closer out of curiosity, still a little scared but slightly comforted by his appearance somehow.

She paused as slowly he opened his eyes and looked back at her, a certain calmness now in his eyes, the anger and hatred from earlier on seemingly no longer there.

“It’s OK Eclipse… it’s me…” he calmly replied, giving her a gentle smile as he did so to reassure her.

“Tempest!” she ran over to him and held him tight, her relief indescribable as he wrapped his arms around her, the harsh coldness of the snow seemingly fading away as he wrapped his wings around her.

“Well… looks like he did it… for a moment there that was looking bad…” Das thought to himself as he stood up, taking off the damage parts of his armour before he started walking over to them slowly.

Tempest looked up at him, knowing that Das was done fighting, his goal finally achieved.

“Thanks Das…” Tempest dryly said, smiling a little more as he said it.

“Meh. No worries.” Das replied, his infamous grin returning as he said it.

Eclipse gasped as she felt Tempest slump against her, watching as he slowly fell unconscious, falling to the ground once more as she tried her best to soften his fall.

“Tempest! What’s wrong?” she exclaimed, holding him against her gently.

“Looks like he’s burned out… he just needs some rest that’s all…” Das replied coolly as he looked up to the observation room above them, motioning for a medic team to come down before looking back at Eclipse and Tempest once more.

“Tempest ‘Omega’… let’s hope your father wasn’t kidding about your potential…”

********************

Chapter 16 – Strategies

“Well then, we’d best get down to business, hmm?”

Commander Blitz sat down at the end of the large table, looking up as several officers as well as Das and Eclipse sat down around the table, watching as he unravelled a large map on the table before him.

“It seems that we have two main fronts to tackle now, first the invading space fleet and the second the ground base we discovered in the Eurasia zone…”

They examined the map set before them carefully, everyone listening carefully as the Commander continued his brief.

“Striker and Enigma are already preparing our ground forces to head over to the Eurasia zone and take down the base before they can reinforce their defences… As it’s a similar ship to the one Tempest took down previously we should be able to use the plans Inferno gave us earlier to get in and blow the whole place up in the same way… otherwise the ground troops will have to take them down by force… either way we can’t let them push us back, it’ll be much harder to try and attack later, especially with the space front keeping our aerial resources busy…”

Das growled a little, looking over at the Commander as he paused, surprised at the large hybrid’s reaction.

“How on earth can you base a full plan of attack on the concept that you can just repeat the same tactics as last time? Surely the engine core room would be filled with troops anticipating such a possibility… who do you think would take on such an impossible mission?”

The Commander smiled wryly as he looked back at Das.

“Well now, I thought something like this would be child’s play for someone like you… what’s the matter, could it be that you’re afraid Das?”

Das roared powerfully as he stood up and grabbed the Commander, lifting him up in the air with one paw.

“How dare you insult me Blitz… no one would take that mission no matter how strong they were… you know that…”

The rest of the room watched them argue helplessly, stunned as the Commander simply remained emotionless in the larger hybrid’s hold, before he sighed and looked up at Das once more.

“No one except Enigma that is…”

Das paused for a moment, a little surprised as he lowered Blitz down again, waiting for the Commander to continue.

“Anyway, while Striker leads the ground troops outside, she’d break in and blow up the engine cores while they’re distracted by the external threat… as for holding her own once she gets inside… well let’s just say she has more than a few tricks up her sleeve…”

Das’ ears perked up as he continued, cursing to himself a little as he listened to Blitz’s explanation.

“Even if she fails, at least Striker and the ground forces should be able to put up a good enough fight to gradually wear them down and take down the base, but of course the more options we have the better the chances we have of succeeding…”

Blitz sat down again, looking up at Das slowly, his eyes almost pleading with him silently as if wanting to say so much more.

Das looked at him and thought for a moment before sitting down once more himself, his claws digging lightly into the table as he thought it over repeatedly.

“Hmpf… fine… I guess I’ll do it, she wouldn’t stand a chance without me anyway…” Das grumbled, refusing to look back at the Commander as he said it.

“Very well, we’ll brief you on the details before you leave… for now let’s move onto the space front…”

The other officers sighed with relief as the tension finally eased away, watching as the Commander resumed his various motions over the map before them.

“Regardless of how things progress in the Eurasia zone, we’ll have to focus our main assault on their incoming space fleet, as if we lose that battle our aerial possibilities will be nullified and ultimately we’ll be sitting ducks…”

One of the officers walked over and turned on a large screen behind the Commander, various dots indicating smaller and larger vessels appearing on it, clearly displaying the invading forces’ fleet.

“As we can see, they have many smaller ships at the front, followed by several larger sized ones with one ‘command ship’ at the rear, which clearly would be our main target…”

Everyone looked at the map curiously, watching as the Commander pressed a button on the small remote in his hand, the screen starting to show an animated formation sequence.

“We will need to spread out our fleet evenly, with our attacks focussing on the sides of their formation to wear them down, in order to try and focus them into a tighter area… This should create space to manoeuvre behind the larger ships and take them down with a surprise rearguard attack… as we don’t know their full firepower potential we’ll have to reduce their numbers quickly if we’re to stand a chance… Myself and Eclipse will be monitoring the battle from the rear of our attack formation so that we can relay updates to the fleet depending on how things progress…”

Das looked back at him and growled again as his impatience grew slowly.

“What about the ‘command ship’? How you going to take that down then Blitz?”

The Commander again paused for a moment, his eyes closed as he replied slowly.

“That, Das, is where Tempest comes in…”

Das’ expression now showed confusion, highly perplexed by his vague statement, his claws again digging into the table as he waited for him to continue.

“The research team has designed a space suit which is significantly more flexible than our current gear and equipped with several enhancements to make it easy to move around and such… In short, we can use it to have Tempest reach the ‘command ship’ undetected where he will then be able to take out the main threat of this invasion in order to end this conflict once and for all…”

Das looked at him and chuckled mockingly at Blitz before he could finish.

“Surely you don’t mean…”

Blitz growled and looked back at Das, trying hard to contain his anger at the constant critique his plan was receiving.

“Yes Das… Armageddon…”

The room fell deadly silent, no one sure as how to react, a few moments passing before Eclipse stood up slowly to face them both.

“You really think he can do that Blitz? He only worked out how to turn into his Omega form a few hours ago… how can you be sure he’s ready?”

Blitz sighed again as he looked over at her.

“I don’t, but like I said earlier we need to maximise our options… if he can do it then this should all be over a lot sooner…”

“And if he can’t? How can you send him on such a careless and foolhardy mission when you have no idea of how strong Armageddon really is? What if he’s too much for Tempest? What happens if he runs into Inferno or Chaos? What happens if he…”

Eclipse stopped herself, realising what she was about to say, her paws clenched tightly as they started to shake a little.

“What happens if he dies? If we fail, we’ll all die anyway Eclipse, we have to do whatever we can to stop Armageddon before it’s too late… even if there’s only a small chance of success, we have to try…”

She paused and looked back at him, tears starting to form in her eyes before she got up and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her in frustration.

Blitz watched her as she left the room, the room falling silent once more as he looked around the room, the officers looking back slightly surprised at the scene just played out before them.

“Well then, you all know what you need to do, check your briefing files and get your respective teams ready, we’ll be moving out at 0700 hours sharp…”

Everyone nodded as they slowly made their way out of the room, Das waiting for a moment before he stood up as well, moving over to Blitz once more.

“Let’s hope your plan works Blitz…” Das whispered quietly before he turned around and followed the other officers out of the briefing room.

The room fell silent once more as the room emptied; the Commander still sat at the table motionless as he closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths as he tried to relax for a moment.

“I hope so too Das… I hope so too…”

********************

Chapter 17 – Fragile hope

Tempest groaned a little as he slowly opened his eyes, the softness of the sheets he lay in indicating he was in a recovery room of some sort, the bright sunlight causing him to squint a little as he tried to focus his vision.

He looked up at the ceiling above him, the monotone white easy on his eyes as slowly but surely his vision cleared up, trying to adjust his position a little to look around more easily.

The young wolf looked down at himself, surprised to see his fur predominantly white, various black markings covering his body, noting that his build was a little more defined than usual as well.

Tempest tried to lift his paws up to look at them, pausing as he realised one was being held by something, looking down slowly to see Eclipse holding it tightly to her as she lay nuzzled against the side of the bed.

“Looks like she’s been here a while…I wonder how long it’s been since I knocked out…”

He turned to face her a little more, raising his other paw to her and stroking her hair softly, watching as she stirred slowly from her slumber.

“Hey Eclipse… you ok?”

She murred lightly as she nuzzled against his paw, her eyes opening slowly as she looked up at him and smiled, clearly delighted to see him conscious once more.

“Tempest… I’m… I’m fine… how about you?”

He chuckled lightly as she tried to wake up, stretching a little as she slowly got up and opened the window, letting some fresh air into the room to try and help speed up the process.

“Considering everything that’s happened recently… pretty well I’d say…”

Tempest shuffled in the bed as he tried to sit on the edge of it to face her, whimpering a little as his wings dragged on the wall behind him, finding himself a little surprised at the sensations.

“Since when did I have wings?!”

Eclipse smiled back at him as she took two cups from the table and offered him one, sipping softly from hers as she giggled at him, looking curiously at his new form.

“They look big enough to fly with Tempest; perhaps you should try them out sometime…”

She continued sipping her tea as he continued to check himself over, pawing at his newly found appendages in mild surprise, the feathers which covered them ruffling a little from the cool breeze flowing through the room.

He looked down at himself, pausing for a moment as if in deep thought, his fists clenching several times as he looked at them intently.

“Is there something wrong Tempest?” Eclipse exclaimed as she moved closer, surprised at the sudden change in mood of the young wolf.

“Am… am I really strong enough? Can I really stop him?”

Eclipse paused for a moment, surprised by his question, wondering if he already knew why they had tried so hard to awaken his inner power.

“What do you mean Tempest?”

He looked back at her, his paws still clenched tightly as he did so.

“I feel like there’s a fire burning deep within me… so much energy which I have to use and yet it’s too deep inside to use as I am now, as if there’s something else I need to do to be able to use it… but I have no idea what it is…”

She moved closer still, placing a paw on his muzzle as she stroked it softly, watching as he paused and waited for her to reply.

“I’m sure you’ll work it out Tempest… I believe in you…”

Tempest smiled weakly at her, wrapping an arm around her back as he pulled her slowly towards him, moving his other arm around her as she pressed against his chest.

“I won’t fail you Eclipse… whatever it takes I won’t let him get away with this… I promise…”

He felt her press tightly against his chest, nuzzling into his chest fur as she cried lightly, wrapping her arms around him firmly as if never wanting to let go.

Tempest ran his paws over her back, stroking softly as he nuzzled her hair gently, trying his best to comfort her as she looked up at him.

“I don’t want to lose you Tempest… you mean too much to me…”

The young wolf pulled her back against him, resting his muzzle on her shoulder, a few tears slowly rolling down his cheeks.

“Eclipse…”

********************

Chapter 18 – Final preparations

“Well Das, looks like you’re ready to go…”

Das stood up proudly as the last of his armour was equipped; his armour was focussed on several key points; clearly focussed on hand to hand combat techniques.

He sported a thick heavy guard covering the majority of his left arm, heavy guards on both his paws and footpaws, sharp talons on the end of them clearly designed to slice an opponent in two given the chance…

The large hybrid’s tail was covered in sharp claws as well, intended to be used as a secondary weapon, such was the strength and range of his tail’s motions.

He took hold of the large sword attached to his back, swinging it around a few times before pausing as a younger soldier offered him a large handgun, clearly capable of dealing some heavy damage.

“Heh, push off kid, as if I need a toy like that…” he said mockingly as he resumed his motions, stretching powerfully as he adjusted to the armour.

The soldier nodded and ran off again; possibly fearing he would get caught in the motions of the large hybrid’s sword.

“Looks like you’re having fun there… Das was it?”

Das grumbled to himself as he was interrupted again, holstering his sword once more as he turned around, pausing momentarily as he saw Enigma standing before him.

“Well now, that’s not bad…” Das thought to himself as he looked her over curiously.

Enigma was already suited up, light armour covering several sections of her body, clearly designed to allow her easy movement at the cost of some protection.

A samurai sword similar to Tempest’s was holstered on her back along with what looked like a powerful rifle, two smaller handguns on either side of her hips giving the impression that she was more than ready for whatever was to come her way.

“Well now… looks like you’re ready for a good time as well Enigma…”

She purred mischievously as she moved a little closer, looking up at him curiously, swaying her hips and tail slightly as she did so.

“You could say that… anyway you ready to go? I think this could get pretty interesting…”

She smiled at him as he looked away suddenly, unsure of how long he had been looking her over, trying to distract her as he crossed his arms and grinned confidently down at her.

“I thought you’d never ask…”

*****

“Striker, sir, the troops are in place, we’re all set to go… Captain Das and Enigma are ready as well for their part of the plan… we’ve given them one squad to back them up until they’re inside as requested…”

Striker saluted the officer as he finished, watching him head off once more as he continued his own preparations, thick body armour covering his chest and thighs as two soldiers attached a large rifle to his left arm.

Despite its size Striker held it easily, his body used to accommodating such weaponry from the various missions he’d had to complete before this, the rifle clearly packing some heavy firepower which would surely come in handy for the task at hand.

Another soldier equipped him with a large handgun; holstering it on his right thigh for easy access should he need it for close quarter combat.

“Thanks guys, you’d best get to your posts, something tells me they’re getting ready for us as well…”

He took out the handgun and checked it over, making sure it was primed and ready should he need it sooner than expected.

“Good luck Tempest… I think we’re all going to need it now…”

*****

“Well Tempest… you’re all set… as soon as we begin the attack you know what to do…”

Tempest nodded slowly to the Commander in acknowledgement, his wings feeling a little cramped behind him as the final adjustments were made to the suit, the rockets on his back and feet being checked over while a couple of officers finished off sealing up the seams.

He held his sword in his right hand, surprised that they hadn’t packed it inside the suit as well.

“What’s up with the sword Commander? Surely it’s no use to me until I reach the ship…”

Blitz looked back at him and smiled, taking a moment to reflect before he replied confidently.

“That sword was your father’s sword Tempest… the metal it is made from is tough enough to cut through any metal that exists on Earth… you might find it of better use in your hand then hidden away if you know what I mean… who knows what you’ll run into…”

The officers moved away from Tempest as they finished, watching as he moved around and tried various motions to gauge the flexibility of the suit, swinging his sword a few times before pausing and looking down to see Commander Blitz and Eclipse looking back at him.

“Well, looks like I’m ready to go, wish me luck OK?”

Eclipse walked over to him, looking over the suit quietly before leaning up and kissing the visor softly, wrapping her arms around him one last time.

“Come back alive this time Tempest… OK?”

He looked down at her as she said it, wrapping an arm around her as he pulled her close, the two of them silent until the Commander walked up to them and slowly pulled Eclipse away from him.

“We need to go Eclipse… good luck Tempest… your father would be proud of you…”

Tempest remained silent as he watched them leave, turning around slowly as he walked towards the air lock, patiently waiting as the doors closed behind him and the air depressurised in the chamber.

The silence was slowly maddening as the air lock doors finally opened in front of him, the vastness of space opening up before him, the darkness surrounding him endlessly save for the sight of the earth to his left as he drifted out of the ship.

His rockets activated once he was clear of the ship, giving himself a moment to adjust once more before he activated his communicator.

“Tempest reporting in, I’m ready to go, over.”

He looked around as he quickly worked out the rocket controls, amazed at the ease of his movements, the suit now feeling extremely light in the vacuum of space.

“This is Commander Blitz, move into position and await my signal, over.”

Tempest acknowledged the order, slowly making his way towards the front of the ship before taking a moment to focus himself, trying to prepare himself for whatever would be thrown his way by Armageddon’s troops.

“Showtime… let’s hope I can put in a good performance…”

*****

“Lord Armageddon… they’re ready to attack, our troops are ready and awaiting your orders...”

The large draconian figure grinned as he moved over to a large control panel and turned it on, two screens activating before him, Inferno and Chaos appearing on separate screens waiting patiently for him to speak.

“Move out… you know what you need to do… this time I want no mistakes… kill them all if you have to…”

Before they could reply he turned off the screens, uninterested in what they may have to say as he sat down before a large map screen, stroking his chin lightly as it lit up and projected the current army formations outside the ship.

“Seems like they’re not giving up just yet… this should be fun…”

********************

Chapter 19 – The beginning o