22:03, January 21st, 2135

The pair of enormous troop transports hovered precariously over a large, flat roof as dozens of armour-clad figures streamed out of the cargo ramp on the back. A quartet of other transports hovered above a nearby parking lot, disgorging their own cargo: anti-gravity tanks, mechanical walkers, and heavy artillery pieces. Even as they hit the ground they began firing into the crowd of Voidborn creatures, blasting them away to keep them at bay.

As if the chaos on the ground wasn’t intense enough, the sky above them flashed with the fire of hundreds of interceptors, bombers, and other craft vying for aerial superiority. The boom of anti-air fire rang from stationary Voidborn cannons nearby, their energy and projectile blasts knocking down human, Kel, and Vrul fighters alike. The air around them was choked with thick grey smoke, masking the broken forms of the enormous archologies in the distance.

Kayden watched the situation unfold from the relative safety of a nearby derelict office building, breathing slowly as he took careful aim through his sniper rifle. At some point the side of the building had been sheared cleanly off, providing an excellent place from which to watch over their transports as they unloaded. He exhaled and gently pulled the trigger just as his Kel-wife did the same, their bullets blowing through the brains of several human-Voidborn zombies who were racing towards a squad of marines. Seeing that they were safe Kayden keyed his radio again and began speaking.

“Corporal Davis, you’re clear to move up.”

“Thank you sir.” The young man’s voice responded. “We’re moving into the adjacent building now.”

Landing ended up being a relatively simple affair – their stealthy shuttle avoided detection and touched down on top of a nearby office building, allowing them to get out and quickly find the artifact’s exact location. Their only real obstacle at the time were the burned-out husks of buildings around them and the roaming packs of Voidborn zombies who shambled through the streets below them – both of whom were easily avoided.

Landing the transports on the other hand proved to be much more complicated. It took all of Ali’s remote-piloting skills and Ashley’s combined force of fighters and bombers to destroy most of the anti-air cannons that dotted the city and interceptors which dotted the skies. While the aerial battle raged overhead, Kayden and his women quickly realized that the artifact was tucked between a series of closely-packed skyscrapers – ones that would prevent the transports from being able to land on top of the artifact like they planned. Instead they quickly devised a new plan – deploying everything they could on top of a nearby mall before making the final charge on foot.

“You two keeping busy?” Dawn asked over the radio as Kayden watched the marines duck into what looked like a hardware store.

“A little too busy for my liking.” Elara replied.

“We need to move soon.” Kayden added. “We’re going to get hemmed in by these numbers if we wait too long.”

“Agreed.” Selina responded, the sound of gunfire ringing through the radio. “As much fun as I’m having, we’re going to run out of ammo before they run out of troops.”

“The last of our forces are unloaded.” Ali interjected. “We are ready now.”

“Good.” Kayden said, slinging the sniper rifle across his back as he stood. “Bravo team, hold this position and get those guns online. Alpha, I’ll meet you on the ground.”

As he said it, Elara stowed her sniper rifle and moved next to him. She was quickly joined on his other side by Mirana, who had been watching the door behind them for any Voidborn that decided trying to take out the two snipers was a good idea. With a nod to both women Kayden hooked one arm underneath their waists and leapt out of the building, falling three floors before landing on the street below. The landing caused the pavement to crack beneath the weight of his armour, drawing the attention of the nearby friendly forces.

“Show-off.” Dawn said teasingly as she stepped away from one of the barricades which were quickly being erected, her spot being replaced by a Kel trooper.

“It was the fastest way down.” Kayden replied as he placed the women on either side of him down.

“Come on!” Anna said over the radio, excitement clear in her voice. “Otherwise I’m not leaving any for the rest of you!”

With a chuckle Kayden glanced at the beacon in his helmet’s heads-up display before jogging down the road towards a second barricade. His women quickly fell into step around him, and they were soon joined by other armour-clad figures as they streamed out of the main floor of the building whose roof they’d used as a landing pad. As they ran they fired off rounds into any Voidborn who’d managed to slip past their defenses.

“Marines! Get those buildings secured!” Kayden cried, pointing to his right as he marked it virtually on everyone else’s heads-up display. “Kel squads 3 through 6, go back them up. Use the Vrul robots to take their places at the barricades.”

“On it!” Lieutenant Dare’s voice replied.

When they finally reached the barricade Kayden located Selina instantly. She stood in the center of a line of soldiers, her black catlike tail swishing back and forth as she rapidly pulled the trigger of her pistol a dozen times in quick succession. He couldn’t help but grin as he saw an equal number of Voidborn-human zombies fall, each of them with holes in their foreheads.

“Crabs!” A human voice shouted.

“Backwash area clear!” Ali responded smoothly over the radio. “Fire in the hole!”

Several troopers further down the barricade dropped to their knees, revealing where Ali was standing. She pulled the trigger of the enormous rocket launcher balanced precariously on her shoulder, causing an exaggerated bang to ring out. It was followed almost immediately by the fwoosh of an explosion as the street beyond the barricade was bathed in fire, killing half a dozen crabs in one shot.

“Where’s Anna?” Kayden asked as the smoke began to clear.

As if to answer his question, the ground around them shook with the footsteps of something large. Kayden turned to see Anna in a 3-meter tall mechanized walker that was bristling with weapons. Across its back were almost a dozen missile launchers, and underneath either of its 3-fingered mechanical hands were a set of miniguns. On either shoulder sat what looked like a pair of twin-linked energy cannons, and slung across the torso was a bandolier packed with grenades, explosives, and more ammunition. Its sturdy mechanical legs swung smoothly as it ran towards them, and Kayden heard Anna cackling over the radio as she neared.

“Time to test the new toy!” She shouted with glee as she leapt clear over the barricade.

Kayden almost felt bad for the next wave of Voidborn as they cleared the smoke and charged towards the barricade. Anna’s mech unloaded with her energy and projectile weapons, cutting them down like a hot knife through butter. The soldiers on the front line cheered her on as she boldly strode forward into the Voidborn ranks, planting a mechanical claw or foot through any of them that were unlucky enough to get close.

“When did she get that thing?” Selina asked as Kayden hopped over the barricade after her.

“We built it together on Sanctuary.” Mirana revealed as she moved in behind them. “Her goblin crewmates were quite eager to work with my Vrul colleagues. I believe she calls it a ‘titan’, though I am unsure what that word means in this context.”

“Move up!” Kayden ordered as the rest of his women climbed over the barricade, followed by a hand-picked squad of soldiers from Sanctuary. “She’s carving a path for us. Let’s give her some cover!”

Like the well-drilled soldiers they were, his 4 fire teams of 8 soldiers each fanned out across the street. Every team had 4 humans, 2 Vrul, and 2 Kel, and had been practicing relentlessly on Sanctuary under the guidance of Jack Parker – Dawn’s father. While the man himself was too old and feeble to make the trip to Earth, Kayden saw that his training of the squads had clearly borne fruit: they each alternated between moving up and firing into the oncoming horde, covering each other as they did. More than that though, they seemed to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, with the bulky humans forming more of a vanguard while the keen-sighted Kel hung back and used their sniper rifles to devastating effect. The Vrul ranged between the two groups, using their golden-armoured suits to bear the weight of the heavy weapons, extra ammo, and other materials they’d need for the fight while taking potshots of their own with arm-mounted railguns – ones whose design they’d stolen from the dead Vrul executors. Their shiny armaments meant that they ended up bearing the brunt of the enemy fire, but he knew from experience that their shields and armour were beyond tough, meaning they could easily absorb it and keep moving.

If they weren’t in the middle of a battle, Kayden might have been beaming with pride at the show of unity. As it was though, he was intently focused on using his sidearm to keep the mass of oncoming zombies at bay. They were occasionally supplemented by the more ‘traditional’ Voidborn forces – crabs, snakes, and quadrupeds – but the combined forces around them used their heavy weapons to quickly take them down before they could do any damage. It wasn’t long before they left the relative safety of the barrier behind, enemies surrounding them on all sides as they moved through the destroyed city.

The situation quickly changed when Kayden peered around the final corner to glimpse their destination for the first time. Ahead of him was an entrenched Voidborn force that had clearly been preparing for their arrival while they wasted time chewing through the thousands of cannon-fodder zombies all around them. Hundreds of crab creatures stood behind the blown-out walls of what used to be a sports stadium, all of their cannons pointed towards the street where they’d emerge. Through the broken windows of the buildings on either side Kayden glimpsed snakes ready to bathe the street in their acid spray, and behind ranks of thousands of quadrupeds Kayden saw dozens of the flying-cockroach-throwing-monstrosities they’d encountered on Vulcan – each of which looked poised to launch dozens of cockroaches in the air.

In the middle of it all stood the Queen, her hip cocked to one side. Based on the smirk on her face Kayden had no doubt that she saw him, but she made no move to attack yet. To him, it seemed like she was content to wait for their comparatively diminutive force to wade into their waiting ambush.

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“Hold up!” Kayden shouted over the radio as he ducked back behind the building.

“We can’t stay long!” Dawn replied over the roar of her assault rifle. “These zombies are hemming us in from behind!”

“We can’t move ahead either!” Selina countered, peeking around the corner just as Kayden did. “The queen’s over there, and she’s got a lot of friends. It looks like a bad time.”

Kayden grinned in response before keying his radio. “Lieutenant Dare! Tell me that artillery is set up!”

“Ready to fire! Just paint the target!”

“Load the special rounds and fire as soon as you get a signal!” Kayden replied before darting around the corner.

In that moment, tens of thousands of eyes locked onto him – along with almost as many guns. His grin grew when he holstered his sidearm and pointed his fist at the queen before extending his index finger towards her and pulling his thumb back in a crude mimicry of a gun. She replied by furrowing her brow in confusion, holding up one hand to stop her minions from firing. For a moment, everything stood still and nobody moved.

[“Distance calculated. Target marked.”] Ali informed him.

Boom. Kayden mentally replied as he jerked his hand backwards as if shooting his imaginary gun.

Far overhead, a cylindrical round exploded. The blast itself barely even damaged the buildings around them, with the small bit of shrapnel bouncing off the metal superstructures harmlessly. The queen looked up in confusion, then back at Kayden and shrugged in a surprisingly human motion.

“What was that supposed to accomplish?” She shouted at him as a white powder descended from the sky like snow.

Even as she said the words though, the Voidborn creatures around her started to shift uncomfortably. A second later they were groaning lowly in pain, then outright screaming. The skin melted off their faces as they collapsed into puddles of goo and metallic parts, and even the queen herself was brought to her knees in pain.

Never one for half-measures, Kayden keyed his radio again. “Keep firing!”

Another pair of explosions followed, absolutely coating the street – and a good portion of the city around them - in the white powder. Several Voidborn threw themselves off of buildings in their death throes, their bodies liquifying before they hit the ground. Kayden strode confidently forward into the carnage, making a beeline for the queen as he spoke into his radio.

“Keep firing! Everyone move up!” He shouted.

Not waiting for them to respond, Kayden began to jog towards the queen as he summoned his nanobot swarm. His jog became a full on sprint when she got up and summoned her own swarm, using them to plug the holes in her rapidly disintegrating body. Showing an alarming amount of remaining strength she leapt away through the mass of her disintegrating soldiers, retreating into the sports stadium beyond.

[“Kayden, we have a problem.”] Ali announced as Kayden ran after her.

I know! She’s retreating, and it looks like she’s falling back to the artifact!

[“It’s not that. It appears the anti-Voidborn virus does not work on the human-Voidborn zombies.”]

Kayden stopped dead in his tracks before whirling around. Behind him, his rapidly retreating squad was still holding back the mass of formerly-human bodies, but only just. A pit formed in his stomach when he saw the zombies walk over the white-powdered street unscathed, shuffling through pools of their liquified comrades in their mindless attempt to claw and scratch them to death.

Seeing no other options, the black-clad humans turned as one before darting into the crowd. Their genetic enhancements were almost on par with Kayden’s own, allowing them to tear through the zombies with terrifying strength and speed. Heads were torn clean from necks and oversized pistols were fired at point-blank range, blowing bodies cleanly apart. Several humans even pulled melee weapons from their backs before using them to hack, slash, and crush the zombies in return, beating them at their own game.

If you’d told me when we found that lab on Sanctuary that the transhumans created there would someday be fighting tooth and nail to reclaim Earth, I’d have called you crazy. Kayden thought to himself.

With the zombies’ charge disrupted for a moment, the rest of the group quickly reformed their lines around Anna and her mech. They carefully began to fire into the crowd, killing as many zombies as they could while limiting the risk of friendly fire as much as possible. The renewed barrage gave enough of a reprieve to the transhumans so that they could fall back, but when they tried 2 of their number were drowned under the weight of Voidborn bodies. Kayden instinctively began to move towards them but stopped when Elara shouted.

“Don’t! Focus on the queen! We’ll hold the line!”

“Kick her ass!” Selina added as she killed three more in the time it would take most people to pull the trigger once.

“And get that artifact! We need it!” Dawn finished.

Gritting his teeth, he realized his women were right. He reluctantly turned and raced into the stadium after the queen, doing his best to stay alert for any ambushes. The overhead lights which normally illuminated the grey concrete halls were shattered, forcing Kayden to rely on the night vision built into his helmet. Even through the greenish tint he could see blood smearing the walls across advertisements for various events alongside a smattering of bullet pockmarks.

Without an obvious trail to follow, Kayden defaulted to moving towards the artifact’s signal. He crept through the darkened hall to the center of the circular building, dropping his sniper rifle and levelling his pistol as he scanned for threats. As he neared he noticed a purplish glow emitting from the end of the hallway – one which seemed to grow in intensity with every step. He turned off his night vision and stepped across the threshold into the center of the arena, only to stop dead.

Strewn across the multiple levels of seats haphazardly were Voidborn cocoons. Many of them were leaking some sort of viscous goo, covering the ground in a light sheen. Their mechanical arms and nanobot swarms whirred and swirled as they created yet more Voidborn monstrosities. Even through his suit he could feel the moisture and heat of the air around him increase rapidly, as if he’d stepped into a sauna.

In the middle of the sand arena was a new Voidborn artifact floating just above the ground. It was shaped like a 1-meter long triangular prism with 4 obvious insets for the pyramids – 2 of which were already filled. Unsurprisingly it was made of the same onyx-black material as the artifacts they’d come across before, with the same glowing patterns and glyphs traced up and down its form. The ethereal purple light which emanated from it filled the room despite its relatively small size.

Next to the artifact was an especially large cocoon – one which split open down the side as Kayden stepped onto the sandy battlefield. Out stepped the queen, and while it looked like she’d mostly healed he couldn’t help but notice that she was moving far slower than usual. Undeterred, she smirked at him before speaking.

“Kayden Reynolds. I’ve heard that this place is one where your people used to host gladiatorial fights for sport. Is it true?” She asked.

Kayden emptied the magazine from his pistol at her as he deployed his dozen drones around him. Their combined fire drained her energy shields, leaving her with only scant armour to protect her. As he paused to reload he responded casually. “That’s right.”

“Fitting then, that this is where you’ve come to die!” She shouted.

As she said it, the millions of nanobots which were tending to their cocoons shot towards him. In response Kayden activated his adrenaline rush, desperately sprinting towards her in an effort to close the gap before the nanobots hit him. He almost managed it too, reaching within 2 meters of the woman as the swarm enveloped him, encasing him in a solid block of metal that extended from his neck to his toes.

With her trademark smirk still plastered across her face she stumbled towards him, clearly still feeling the effects of the poison. Her eyes narrowed as she drew back the sharp points on both of her wings, preparing to strike. The exertion caused her to teeter slightly, resting both hands on the block of metal to steady herself.

“You’re not even strong enough to kill me.” Kayden chuckled darkly.

“Silence!” She shouted hoarsely. “Your poison will pass through my body in a few moments. Then I will heal, and the next generation of my creations will adapt. Your little rebellion ends here!”

“Whatever you say…” Kayden replied softly. “Aelira.”

She stopped dead before leaning in closer. “What did you just call me?”

While pantomiming a deep inhale to respond, Kayden summoned as much electrical power as he could before channeling it through his body and into the block of metal surrounding him. It was wild and unfocused, draining most of his remaining power reserves. He hoped beyond hope that she’d chosen to make the block out of some sort of conductive material, knowing that this was likely his last opportunity to win the fight.

Thankfully for him, she’d chosen a very conductive metal.

In nanoseconds the electrical blast shot through the metal and into her body, shocking her into submission. Her muscles began to convulse uncontrollably, but the way she’d draped herself over the metal block meant that her convulsions just kept her on it, continuing the electrical attack far longer than normal. By the time she slipped to the ground she was completely unconscious, her limbs still twitching.

With a thought, Kayden’s drones buzzed overhead and began to use their energy beams to carefully carve him out of the metal block. It took several minutes for them to make a hole wide enough for him to crawl out of – far longer than he would have had if he’d tried to accomplish the same feat during the fight. As he stepped back onto solid ground though, he saw the queen start to stir with the first signs of consciousness.

Acutely aware of the fact that her enormous nanobot swarm was still hovering around them, Kayden summoned his own nanobots into a razor-sharp, meter-long blade – one which he used to behead the queen in one swift stroke. As her severed head bounced across the ground Kayden exhaled deeply before turning to the artifact next to him.

[“The Voidborn forces are in retreat for the moment.”] Ali said in his mind.

Good. Get everyone in here then – I think I found the artifact we’re looking for. Its time to pay a visit to her lab.