Aboard one of the landing ships

Mattias eyed his custom m249 SAW with a soft and loving gaze. He cleaned it almost ritualistically with a slow and steady pace, despite knowing he was dropping to some random planet covered in Azarians.

Mai elbowed him with a sly grin, "You're bringing out that old heirloom? Wasn't that your great grandfathers? There's no way something like that would be effective against the Azarians... So, what did you do to it?"

Mattias flashed her a knowing smile and hefted the m249 up. "This ole girl? Nothing much... Just tweaked it a little. Still fires the same size of bullet, but I reinforced both the gun with Basillian steel and the ammo is our normal tungsten alloy. I also changed the powder to the modern stuff, so it should have around eight times the velocity and be able to penetrate Azarian flesh. Aside from that I also spent pretty much every nanite I made in the last year to get a nanite can. So long as there's material there's a way."

Mai raised an eyebrow at him, "That's cool and all, but are you sure that it can make the cut? Our standard-issue combat rifles are well... better. You know as well as I do that a 40 mm tungsten alloy D.P.H.E. round can do more than your regular bullets."

Mattias scoffed. "You just don't understand the classics. Even Lord Basillius himself used to use one of these. I'll show you once we land the glory of the almighty SAW. Perhaps Lord Basillius will even bless me during the battle."

A deep chuckle rang out from behind the two. "Lord Basillius blessing you? Nahhh man, that wouldn't happen. Not ever. That would require Lord Basillius acknowledging the fact that he's a god. And that, my friends... Is never going to happen."

Mai let out a long sigh and shook her head, "Yeah Zeke. You're probably right. He might never realize that most of us don't worship him as some almighty god... We worship him as the pinnacle of Humanity, proof that we can do better. Proof that we are better than what we had been for all those millennia. He may never accept that. But it's okay. He doesn't have to, everyone still worships him regardless. Though there are still some crazies here and there."

Mattias made a mocking face at the two of them, "Well, he might not bless you two, but my ass is about to be shooting holy fire at the Azarians with my SAW."

Zeke just shook his head and spoke in an exaggerated tone, "You poor, delusional man... I can't believe it... Fifty years of friendship with you, and I'm just now finding out that you weren't mentally sound... How terrible." he wiped an invisible tear from his eye and gave Mattias a sad look.

Mai rested her hand on her forehead and mumbled, "I really hope I never catch your stupid." Before her two friends could interject a red light flashed in their pod. Their faces immediately dropped into a deadpan stare as they prepped their gear.

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Zeke slung his service rifle across his chest and laid back into the pod's seat, allowing it to latch him in before he commented. "Alright, you two. It's time to make Basillius proud. We have one mission and that's to wipe the fucking scourge off this planet. These civvies won't likely trust us immediately so we need to be as careful and comforting as we can around any survivors we find. Survivors will be given rescue beacons for the SAR boys. After that, we continue the hunt."

Mai simply nodded, a cold gaze centered on the blue planet below their pod. She heard a loud metallic *Kerchunk* and looked up to see Mattias loading his SAW with religious intent before taking a deep breath and yelling, "IT'S TIME FOR A MOTHER FUCKIN' CRUSADE!"

Even Mai cracked a small smile at his enthusiasm before recentering her gaze on the planet below. She could see where lush green forests and grand cities that spanned miles upon miles had once been. In their place, there was only fire and ruin. Waterways ran red, and the once green land was now a barren brown. Despite all the destruction, there wasn't a single corpse remaining, for the Azarians don't leave food behind.

Their pod was heading directly toward what looked to be a rural housing district on the outskirts of one of the main cities. With their LZ in sight, the group readied themselves and checked over the bio scans.

Mai watched as twelve pings lit up around their LZ, "We've got eleven probable Azarians around the neighborhood and one ping that's too small to be an Azarian. Routing to the possible survivor enclave now. Once we land I want Mattias to set up the fortifications with the pod before laying the bait. Zeke will go and light up the beacon for SAR. I'll need you to run interference on the squids in case they catch a whiff of the civvies."

Zeke and Mattias nodded and snapped out a crisp, "Yes ma'am!"

Seconds later the pod landed roughly, spewing fire from below. The fire burned a crater around the pod, leveling the ground before the door opened. The three all moved out with practiced precision, always having eyes on an angle that the others around them didn't.

They looked around at the rubble around them in silence for a moment, waiting for an Azarian to pop out of the rubble. A few moments later Mai held up her hand ad waved to Zeke, "You're up Zeke. Stay safe out there, no heroics."

He nodded and bolted through the route mapped out for him. Though he was a huge nine feet tall, and four hundred pounds of muscle and gear, he didn't make a sound during his sprint. Mai glanced over at Mattias, "Let's get to work on this pod. I'll get the fortifications running. You just post up on the pod and keep an eye out for the squids. There's no way they didn't see us landing. They are probably the weakest stragglers so they're being cautious."

Mattias nodded and looked up to the top of the pod. He seemed to ponder something for a second before making up his mind and shouldering his gear before stepping onto a larger piece of rubble and launching himself into the air. His leap carried him up to the edge top of the twenty-foot-tall pod where he grabbed the ledge and pulled himself up the rest of the way.

He knelt down at the top and watched. Sure enough, he immediately spotted a few Azarians that were watching his pod. He could see the fear in their bodies as their tentacles trembled faintly. "Hey Mai? These are the most pussy Azarians I've ever seen. They are literally shaking."

Mai smiled, "Good. That makes our job easier. Hopefully, that means there are a lot more survivors elsewhere as well. So long as they don't move toward us in the next thirty seconds, don't fire. I want to make sure we are prepped properly, even if they are weak."