When that portal opens and the might of the Talons' army shows up, it’s not a token force. It is dozens of ebony armored soldiers holding autobows and other heavy munitions, and in the back ranks, in a large hanger bay filled with hostiles. There are even dragons gearing up in plate armor as if they hadn’t expected this plan to work and had been biding their time.

She knows with the amount of armaments they have and the malicious grin on their faces, they hadn’t banked on resistance. They had been counting on easy pickings and the deaths of every personnel in Asqualia. Those grins melt away as hers widens and plasma arcs across her body. Julia has one single plan:

Make them bleed for every inch. There’s no time for any other plan, Plans A, B, and C have already failed today, and she’s tired of being on the back foot. Her priority is to make sure everyone can retreat out of this room alive, and she funnels as much plasma energy into her claws and chest as she can muster. Her teeth crackle with energy and itch, and she hopes she doesn’t burn herself out with this first blast.

“Wrong goddamn door, Talon scum!”

Her arms feel like they're on fire as she unleashes her opening salvo, aimed at the murder mooks looking for easy kills. The first blast tears apart tiling, surges forward along the ground in a burning blue-white blast, and arcs outward and hits several of the soldiers–there’s a distinct smell of burnt fabric, ozone, and what she presumes is seared human flesh that she really could do less with. But the damage isn’t total–some arcane barriers absorb the worst of it, others break from the immense force.

But they're not prepared for the overwhelming force of Angela's telekinetic blast carving a trench through the remaining closely packed soldiers and Drenar does the same with a focused blast that sends the most heavily armored soldiers flying. A few smash into the far wall, or even crash and crush their more lightly armored allies behind them. Drenar lobs two fire orbs just as the rest of the defenders launch their salvo. Drenar quickly shifts to his dragon form in the chaos while the Talons scramble, pressed against cover and protecting Joey from errant projectiles. The muffled blasts flare barriers and a few more soldiers are set on fire, quickly being chased by supporting personnel who are trying to extinguish the flames with frost blasts.

“Take this, you murderous bastards!” Joey roars as she peeks out of cover with a canister of a glowing red substance, and her hand glows bright blue as mana spiderwebs along her veins. The canister turns bright and she throws it quickly, just as another line of Talons soldiers show up–heavily armored ones, this time.

These shielded soldiers wield heavy armor and immense, foot-to-toe metal shields with a small viewport and clamp down, like a Roman phalanx from centuries ago. The blasts barely stagger them, but the lighter personnel next to them are thrown wayward and they don't get up from the blast. Drenar already has his arcane barrier up to full strength and throws a full-power kinetic blast, sending shields tumbling–the return fire pings off his shields, and his armor scales darken as he tries to keep the bolts and bullets bouncing off, grimacing at the impact. Julia steps up to Drenar and charges him with as much energy as she can muster, using him as a shield and peeking out to throw out a plasma grapple that she uses to side-swipe several of the soldiers into each other. The velocity their bodies hit each other is…brutal. She can hear anguished snaps as limbs creak and crack from the force.

"Would someone shoot the goddamn dragons raining on my parade?!" someone screams from the other side of the portal. "Start making corpses, you stupid bastards!"

The room erupts into gunfire as the soldiers reinforce behind more of those shielded soldiers and mages put up reinforcing barriers, advancing in a formation. Drenar dodges most of the gunfire and blinks–right into their midst? He is brutal and merciless and smashes them with a whirl of his tail into their vulnerable backline and shreds through the lighter-armored mages with his claws. Any attempts at restraint in the face of defending others have fallen, and he leaves them severely wounded, rounds spalling off his scales and more than a few rounds errantly hitting their allies. Their fire discipline is lacking, and she's happy to give him a recharge so they keep panic firing at the toughest target in the room and wasting ammunition--or shooting each other!

Angela surges in and attempts to put up a reinforced magical barrier that deflects and spalls incoming projectiles–the Talons start focusing on it, and she nods to Drenar and Julia who are busy cleaning up stragglers and destroying weapons.

“We can’t bottle them up forever!” She nods to the dragons who have entered the room of the hanger on the far side, and are bounding up to the melee. “Claire, Joey, fall back, barricade the door when we get through! Where the hell is Nick and Levine?!”

“We’re pinned down on the other side, too much fire!” Levine bellows out over the radio. “We’ll fall back to the armory, by the west wing! Give ground, and don’t die defending it!”

Almost as if on cue, Angela staggers when her telekinetic barrier shatters, and a few rounds find their way through–there are shouts and screams behind Julia, but she can’t look back to see who’s hit. A Valencian red is bounding up and beaming a ray of intense fire into the room, shattering her barrier and burning her armor scales. She dodges most of it, but staggers back. They can’t hold this position forever!

Drenar blasts the offender with a deadly cloud of frost in the moment he’s winded and slams him back onto the other side of the teleportal. His polarized scales are turning lighter, he’s running out of juice, fast! A quick lasso with her plasma grapple gives him a much-needed boost, but now she’s starting to feel fatigued. Clearing out these killers while taking gunfire that is now bouncing off her armor scales is no easy task!

“Fall back!” Drenar is already in motion, claws bloodied, and he thrusts down with all his might, damaging the teleportal controls in a small booth off to the right. There are sparks and sputters where Kyle and Lavernius had been trying to hotwire something, but the damage doesn’t do anything to break the portal connection. “Kyle, Lavernius, fall back now! We’ll cover you!”

Kyle and the others scramble backward while Angela grits her teeth and puts up a barrier wall–her telekinetics are off the chart, as bolts, bullets, and an impact grenade bounce off, and she winces from the assault. “I can’t hold this for long, Julia, thin their numbers!”

“Done!” She launches one last scintillating spark that she holds together for a split second and it explodes into an arcing mass that shocks the troops. That one is more of a stunner than a damager based on last night’s practice, but they’re trying to buy space. Her claws scrabble on the hardened polished floor, and she lashes out with her tail against heavy soldiers in armor plating trying to advance with shields drawn and smaller caliber weapons firing. She knocks them off their feet, but the dragons in the back lines are the bigger problem, and they're heavily armored, too. Joey’s using her leg as cover and puts her hand by the hopper device she’s belted on. Several small canisters flit into her hand, and mana dances across her veins as the canisters activate.

“Keep falling back!” Joey shouts out and doesn't hesitate and flings several canisters from her strange hopper device. The canisters erupt in a spray of sea-green foam that coats and expands rapidly in volume before it hardens to an almost crystalline texture. The immobilized soldiers can't even move, but others are trying to return fire through the gaps. Julia throws herself in front of Joey when a fire orb detonates too close, and shes' taking a barrage of bolts and automatic gunfire. Her arcane barrier holds. "Julia you can't hold them back, your barriers' almost toast!"

"Keep thinning their numbers!" Julia snaps before using a plasma lasso to strike down any strangers still up and firing. They're overwhelmed by the sheer force and sent flying, and judging by their motions, seriously injured under their armor. Joey holds onto her as Julia picks her up and dashes into the hall, flinging more canisters over her shoulder. The screams suggest they made their mark as brilliant bright light emerges behind them, along with a deafening boom. "The hell was that?"

"Alchemical flashbangs! They’ll be out of commission for about a few hours!" Drenar is right ahead of them, and Angela is defending the fleeing mages. Her barrier is barely holding together and she's already panting under the exertion. "Julia, can you give her a boost?"

"Angela, recharge!" Julia calls out as she channels plasma into her scales. She shudders under the current, but her arcane barrier brightens and solidifies again, and is no longer in tatters at the edges. "Keep our backs covered!" She is winded now, and feels a familiar tingle–she’s going to push herself to mana burn, she needs downtime!

"I don't understand, how was that platform still active?" Angela shouts back over her shoulder.

"Curtis outplayed us. That son of a bitch got the last laugh from the grave," Kyle glowers. Julia finally looks back and sees the soldiers holding at the doorway, and staggers.

"You two alright?" Julia calls out. Drenar nods weakly and looks more than a little beaten up, and a few minor wounds are bleeding. He grunts as he pulls a bolt out of a seam in his scales by his leg, and growls at the pain and he grimaces. Kyle looks shaky, and Lavernius looks like he’s not in much better shape. "Okay, we need a new plan, and fast."

"A giant bomb sounds like a plan," Joey growls before grabbing a couple of canisters from her hopper, putting the two together, and mixing them.

"Uh, Julia, is 'giant bomb' in our playbook?" Drenar asks nervously. He's already got his arcane barrier so powered up that it's visible now.

"It is now!" Joey rolls the paired canisters down the hall, where they come to rest by a staggered soldier, who sees the danger. He kicks it away and it bounces off the wall, and the canister detonates in a fiery roar.

The building does not appreciate this slight of broken stone and shattered windows, and alarms start going off with crystalline chimes of urgency. Metal plating starts closing up the doorway, locking the entryway, and protecting the windows with an extra layer of defense. Joey lets out a shout of triumph.

"Yes! The building's fail-safes triggered! Thank you, super boring onboarding training!" Julia can’t help but be impressed–this sassy redhead knows her stuff!

"Okay, that was both an awesome, and a terrible plan. Now what?" Kyle asks before glancing down. A wound is trickling blood from his side, and he winces. "Okay, the first step of the new plan is, to stop losing blood."

"Angela, Julia, cover us!" Joey wastes no time and darts over and gets Kyle to take off his lab coat and roll up his shirt. A grazing wound has skimmed his hip, and it's bleeding. "Clean entry and exit. Looks like the bolt just sliced into you and kept going." She pulls out a wrap of field dressings from her pack. Drenar has already switched back to his human form and presses a field compress firmly on it while she gets a Regen potion. "Kyle, try to relax."

"Joey, how long is that door going to hold?" Drenar asks while looking back. There's a series of muted thuds, along with a few sharper ones intermittently. “Sound off, is everyone here?!”

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“Donald was shot in the head. Betty and Saul didn’t make it, either,” someone says grimly. “Not your fault, that was too much firepower to hold back.” The bloodied mage in light fabric armor points grimly at the doorway, where thuds are still reverberating. “Can they get through that?”

"They'll need an alchemical torch to get through that." Kyle protests at the potion being practically forced down his throat, and he grimaces at the pain when she splashes the remainder directly on the wound. Drenar quickly puts another compress over the wound.

"Looks like King isn’t in control now–damn it, I was even willing to throw that bastard a bone," Drenar asks after a cautious minute. “Joey, did you pull any logs earlier that could help?”

"No. The books we pulled from archives, while certainly interesting, were all useless to them, except for one. It has a rune translation set, or part of one," Joey relays.

"Where's the rest?" Julia asks. She's ready for a fight, but the prudent thing is to defend others. Joey grimaces.

"Down an ancient vault below Asqualia, defended by traps, monsters, puzzles, and worse. So, you know, right on par with how this week has been going." Angela recoils at this.

"You're kidding."

"I wish I was, Angie." Julia groans, because she knows what this means, and Angela is legit pissed, as she should be.

“Oh, this is such bullshit. A freaking dungeon!?” she screams the forbidden words out loud, because dungeons aren’t supposed to be a thing. It’s only the second most terrifying thing that Julia's ever heard Angela say. The most terrifying thing, she’s reserved for when Angela screams out ‘I’m pregnant’ and will likely spell the end times of the planet. “You mages are all insane, every last one of you!”

“I resent that. I’m an alchemist,” Joey responds with emphasis.

“You used Drenar as a science experiment for an untested alchemical formula, case and point!” She makes a valid point, much to Julia’s annoyance.

“I did get better,” Drenar offers timidly.

“Not the point!” Angela snaps back.

“Okay, you know what, we have problems. Chief among them is the murder army on the other side of the bulkhead. Kyle, are they funneled in that room for now?”

“That won’t hold them forever. They can cut through that, and then we need to deal with them before they can bulldoze through the place.”

"So, we have a time limit to get the journals, burn them, and somehow find an exit plan for the staff. Man, these nameless stormtroopers are going to put my ‘no kill’ policy to the test tonight, aren’t they?” Drenar utters with vitriol.

“Drenar, the pacifist run is definitely not a viable strategy,” Julia growls while glaring at him. He’s otherwise unintimidated by the three-meter-tall golden dragon towering over him.

“I did some pretty severe damage to some of those soldiers, Julia. I’ll still hold restraint where I can.” He stands up and helps Kyle to his feet, who is otherwise a little unsteady, and Joey helps put an arm around him.

"What happened to your sword?" He glances at his back–the strap has been shot off, and his armor vest has taken a few hits, which he rubs gingerly.

“Lost it. Great. That was my lucky charm,” he growls. “Joey, you said you located another set of texts written by Volkir and Crosomer, deeper in the vaults? Why was that one located there?”

“I have no idea! It must have been flagged as too dangerous to keep in circulation, but someone thought it might be valuable someday, so they didn’t incinerate it as they should have!”

“And…where’s the accessway?” Drenar asks. Joey looks at him, pale.

“Tell me you’re not this crazy.”

“He’s that crazy,” Julia shrugs. He also nods after a second, looking grim in the face of lopsided odds.

“I am this crazy. They’re stacking up bodies now, and my priority is to make sure everyone gets through this alive, Joey. So I will do what I have to, no matter what’s down there.” She nods firmly and slaps a bandage on his arm, and he hisses in discomfort. “Ow, are you always this savage with the people you’re trying to heal?”

“This is my home, too, Drenar. I will fight to defend it to the death. Which means you’re getting the rough treatment to be combat effective,” she says in a decidedly firm tone. Sheesh. Is this girl Angela’s long-lost cousin or something? Julia can’t help but be proud of her.

"Guys? The nameless mook army is still locked in that room. They brought alchemical torches.” A bright yellow-white light is now visible at the seam of the door. Kyle's face hardens to grim lines, and he sets a timer on his watch. "They'll cut through that bulkhead in less than ten minutes, tops. The clock’s ticking folks, we’re on the opposite side of the building from the armory, we need a plan, and fast.”

"Keep them locked in. Set traps. Find another way out for the staff. Get those journals, and torch them. And then phone a friend. Nick, Levine, sound off!” he states into his armband.

“Are you all alright?! The bulkheads are sealed off everywhere,” Levine barks out over the radio. “We’re with a few volunteers and Zameren, but the bulkhead is holding! We’ll gear up what we can and gather the staff!”

“Is James with you?” It’s only just now that Julia realizes he’s missing, in a split second her heart skips a beat or two. Rival or not, James is like family.

“I’m here with them, sorry, busy trying to not have a panic attack. I shot some people with fire, that was fun, I’m sure I want to add more to my mental trauma before the end of the night,” he says sourly. Drenar breathes a sigh of relief.

“Stay with Nick and Levine, whatever you do. Gather all the staff you can in a secure area like one of the shielded labs that I saw a mention of, they should provide extra protection. The Talons are carefree with their firepower and they will kill everyone, Levine. Tell Nick it’s time to put his monster hunting to good use, I saw at least four dragons trying to get through the portal, and the bulkheads will only hold so long.”

“Will do. Get whatever weapons and armor you can from Kyle and Joey’s lab, and keep the staff out of the line of fire!” Nick sounds like he’s firing intermittently–maybe he found a vantage point? “Stay alive guys, they’re pulling out all the stops.”

“So are we.” Drenar grabs his dagger off his thigh holster after getting off the radio, and Julia hears a crystalline chime that's almost deafening, and she flinches. He glances at her curiously. "What?"

"Why's your dagger getting louder?"

"Dunno. I feel like the bigger the danger, the more it lights…Joey?” Julia sees Joey look at her, then Drenar, leans closer, and puts a finger up in the air. "Joey, what's going on?"

"Guys. I have a very important question. How long have you heard that sound?" Drenar glances at her, then down at the dagger. He's making a connection when his expression firms up.

"Since Friday. When I Awakened. It started making this weird sound like a metallic or crystal ringing sound every now and then. I thought it was some weird acoustic thing, but it never made this sound before then. Why?"

"Who else hears it?" she insists.

"Me. Same day," Julia responds.

"It's the same sound as the mana crystals from the way in," Angela comments. Joey looks like she's trying to figure something out, eyes darting back and forth. Kyle, despite being injured, lets out a groan of frustration.

“I still seriously hear nothing Joey, what are you on about?” She promptly ignores Kyle.

"Do any of you guys hear a different chime sound, higher frequency? Point to the direction it's coming from, if you do," she insists. Slowly, Drenar and Angela point towards further down the hall, and Julia follows suit. There is another sound.

"Joey? What is going on?" Drenar asks slowly.

"Resonance. Resonance is the answer." Kyle's eyes widen.

"There's no way."

"In the absence of refuting evidence Kyle, what is our inference?" she asks.

"Joey, this is nuts. We were just there earlier, and there was nothing to write home about!" Kyle protests.

“Okay, there's a new plan. We left some of Crosomer's journals in the Archives nearby earlier while trying to figure out what he was looking for. None of it seemed relevant, but I'm taking all of them, and there is something else in there that might be far more important," she says as if inspiration hit her. "Our lab is around the corner–Julia, the bulkhead down the hall, fry the console when we go through, to lock them out. Drenar, Angela, you come with me. Julia, you get Kyle to our lab, and lock yourself in, and if you find any of the staff, get them to hunker down with you, and arm them with whatever weapons and prototypes we have in the lab!” Joey is stowing gear and looks like inspiration has struck her.

“Dare I ask what you’re planning?” Julia asks. Whatever it is, she doubts Joey doesn’t have some sort of plan forming.

“Drenar and Angela are the only people who’ve been able to hold that Valkyrian dagger and use it, right?”

“Me too, but why?” Julia has no idea why chimes keep ringing, but it must be important.

“I’ve got a crazy idea.” Drenar and Julia stare at her, and she narrows her eyes. “What, you don’t have the monopoly on crazy ideas!”

“Well, we did, until we met you,” Drenar states candidly. Joey glares at him contemptuously. “No really, glare harder. I’ve been immunized to that technique by Tsundere over here.” Joey laughs nervously and the tense moment breaks.

“You know what? That nickname totally tracks. So this’ll be interesting! Follow me!” For someone about the same height as her human form, Julia is impressed by the vixen's blur of movement, and Drenar barely keeps up with her, as does Angela. Kyle gives her a wary glance.

“Should I be worried about what she’s planning?” Julia asks Kyle before he motions to follow her, and quickly.

“You shouldn’t. Our adversaries, however, are about to find out why you do not mess with Joey.”

“I’m proud of that girl. She’s crazy, hot, and a genius, all rolled into one.” Both Kyle and Lavernius stare at her. “Okay guys, seriously? You’re more shocked by this?”

“Julia, you really are your mother’s daughter, you know that?” Lavernius sighs. She glares at him.

“Listen, bite-sized, we’re not done with you yet. We need to shut down that teleportal, and we better have a plan before we run out of bulkhead doors.”

“I…might have an idea.” He edges a one-time teleport out of his bag, and determination etches his face. “If I can disable the shroud enchantment, we can teleportal out safely. But this pad won’t sustain a hundred personnel. It’ll barely sustain ten. The people of Asqualia were not supposed to be harmed, and that murder lizard just had several of them gunned down.”

“Lavernius? I think I know how to get everyone out. And I am going to need your help.” It’s Kyle’s turn to bring the conversation to a new turn of bold determination. “Let’s get to the lab, and grab what we need.”