Deus turned away from Atra as his sights fell on the violent campsite of the enemy stronghold. Even from a distance, he could see many armored soldiers as they rushed about, preparing for a direct assault.

Atop the massive tower constructed to oversee the camp, several cannons launched deadly projectiles toward the Nijaden. If even a single one of these explosive projectiles had hit a crew member aboard the deck there wouldn't have been anything left from the carnage, and so it was most likely the best outcome that the Nijaden came armed with an extremely powerful and durable defensive hull to absorb the incoming fire.

"Get out of the way!" Elias could be seen shouting out toward one of the clansmen as he shoved past, "Deus, come over here with the rest of us, we're pushing ahead the moment we arrive!"

Deus moved closer so he could speak without being overshadowed by the noise. He asked, "How exactly do you plan for us to make our arrival? We're going to land, right?"

Elias let out a chuckle as he caught Deus' doubtful glare.

"I highly doubt we can afford to land in this hellscape, Deus. No, we're going to be doing something better," Elias roughly tugged up toward a lever that sat connected to the deck. As he pulled it up a mechanism released and a small compartment opened. "Everyone who is in the vanguard, get in, now!"

As he ordered, all of the members selected for the vanguard ducked down into the small compartment room below the deck, from the clansmen who served Elias, to Deus, followed by Thaddeus, respectively.

Elias entered last. As he finally lowered himself below deck, he pulled down on another lever that sat inside the compartment. The second lever tightened the spring-loaded system that had originally released to open the room, and instead reversed the system, sealing the door behind them.

Everyone from the vanguard now stood—rather closely together—in a dark and airtight compartment. The inside of the room was silent as their group listened for the shouts of the crew above deck.

The vanguard members had to rely on the crew members above deck to get them to the enemy in one piece, so the next part of the operation seemed to weigh on everyone, as a pressure built between everyone. An overwhelming stress as all they could do was wait and listen, knowing the next part wasn't up to them.

Elias pushed himself through the vanguard group toward the dozen or so clansmen who he had assigned to join him, Atra included.

"Alright everyone, I'm sure you're curious what I'm planning…" Elias said, interrupting the silence, "This ship was designed by our clan as a mobile breaching device. Not only is it armed, but it's also entirely functional for our objective."

He showed a smug grin as he continued his explanation, "You see, the Nijaden was hand-selected by yours truly as a means to breach our enemy encampment. We could've landed and prepared a ground charge, of course… but that would be foolish. Instead, we're going to strike hard and quick, leaving those idiot soldiers with no time to call for help."

"Hold on," Deus spoke up, "I'm quite tired of these surprises you've been throwing at me all day, Elias. No more tricks."

"Hm," Elias replied with a sudden grunt, "You may feel that way, but from where I'm standing… you don't really have much of a choice, now do you? Don't be mistaken, my—as you call them—little tricks were simply to prevent information from leaking and being used against us. If you're wondering if I get enjoyment out of watching you all squirm… well…" His thoughts seemed to wander as his voice trailed off, almost as if he had amused himself.

"Ahem," Thaddeus interrupted this time, "This isn't the time for your jokes, now is it? I assume this compartment is designed to drop us on the enemy, right? Shouldn't we be prepared for the rough landing instead of having a debate?"

Everyone within the darkened room nodded to themselves, leaving both Elias and Deus nowhere else to go in their argument.

Right as everything had begun to go quiet, the ship rocked once more, only this time more violently than before. It knocked many of the vanguards onto their backs as the dim lights flickered and flashed as if a current of electricity overwhelmed them.

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"What the hell!" Elias coughed out as he pulled himself away from the wall which he had found himself collapsed against.

Heavy knocking started at the sealed door to their compartment, the sound of shouts and screams echoed from outside. The ship rocked again, only this time it continued after the first few strikes.

What came next was a terrifyingly loud rupture in the air as it was followed by a heavy-weighed crash. Deus could feel their compartment plummet as it began to tilt, throwing everyone onto their sides and to the ground.

The sound was the most sinister, as it contained a hint of calm along with a thunderous destructive presence. The last thing Deus remembered before his sight became blurred was the look of alert panic on everyone's face, Elias especially.

An eruption shook the air, causing everyone to become blurred and confused.

Crash!

Several seconds past as dust broke through the compartment room, with it a horrible inflow of black-sand seemed to pour through the gaps in the metal. The crimson hue of the outside world slowly seeped inside, through numerous cracks that invaded into view. Deus found himself coughing out sand and dust as his face was covered in the filth.

"Elias…" Deus spoke out. He looked around, only to find a dizzying world as the walls of the compartment broke open.

Heavy explosives rang out from all around him as he finally brought himself back to reality. Drawing his attention toward what stood in front of him. He found a sprawling tower firing down thunderous blasts of metallic shards toward what was left of his crew. All the broken clansmen could do to stay alive was duck behind the remnants of the Nijaden's hull, but in most cases, it only prolonged their lives by a moment.

Deus quickly dashed toward a large chunk of metal, most likely a piece that came ricocheting off of the side of the Nijaden. As he did so, an overwhelming array of explosive rounds came hurtling down toward the desert ground, smashing into the broken pieces of the ship as shrapnel fragmented wildly around.

A voice reverberated from atop the tower, most likely from some sort of loudspeaker.

"Continue firing, bring me the head of the enemy leader!"

Deus ducked down beneath the pieces of broken metal as he thought worryingly to himself. 'What the hell just happened... this isn't good… I don't know exactly where I am, and I have no clue where the rest of the vanguard is… if there even is a vanguard left.'

He peeked his head out from behind the metal, allowing a brief view of the battlefield. Everything had happened so suddenly that he was finding it difficult to process everything as he looked out. What he saw was a broken battlefield. The remnants of the Nijaden remained scattered across the desert earth, burning away as charred bodies coated the field, slowly being enveloped by the black sand and vanishing from view as if devoured by the world itself.

There was but one saving grace that left him with a hint of hope. Faith that he'd survive this and make it through to another day. This hope came from seeing a short barrage of fire from atop the desert cliff which their reinforcement gunners had been placed. The location was hundreds of meters away from him, however, so the chances of a brisk rescue were unlikely.

'How had everything gone so horribly, so quickly?' Deus wondered, tucking himself behind the broken metal once more.

It hadn't taken Deus very long to realize what had happened. No, the issue wasn't what had happened, it was how it had happened. One moment they were charging forward toward the enemy location, protected by a well-forged hull and numerous barriers. The next moment they found themselves crashed, scattered across the barren desert as they were bombarded with an enemy attack.

The situation was far too drastically different from one moment to the next, Deus couldn't calm himself down to figure out his next plan.

There had to be a reason why everything went so horribly wrong so quickly. It wasn't Deus, so he could mark that off. It was unlikely Elias, as that would only harm him, providing no benefit to him that he could imagine.

The most obvious reasoning was that Thaddeus was somehow involved, the only issue was he didn't have a location on him, so he could neither confirm nor deny his suspicion.

'I hate to say it, but it doesn't matter why this happened… I've got to find a way to survive.' Deus reasoned. There had been one saving grace to all of this, and that was that his equipment had remained attached to his person after everything had happened. It was most likely because he had tied his pack onto himself nice and tight.

Deus reached down for his hand-cannon styled pistol, pulling it up to match face level. He checked around himself, making sure the area was as clear as it could be of any hostile soldiers.

As he pulled out from behind the metallic chunk, he witnessed several shots firing upward through the dust and smoke that had gathered, clearly marking the location of a fight.

'That's most likely where someone from the vanguard landed down… good, now I have a location.'

Deus, very carefully, moved out from his metallic crevice. The large tower stood to his side as it thundered out more shots.

Moving slowly, it didn't take too long for him to arrive on the outskirts of the battle. It still waged on as he aimed his pistol downward on the fight in front of him. What he saw were two clearly opposite forces firing off against one another. One side ducked behind a burning pile of metal as smoke rose into the sky, while the other side slowly had them surrounded from multiple angles.

The surrounding soldiers were more organized as they wore black and grey armor, each of them equipped with what was typically a forged rifle fashioned to Direfell's style.