"Commander James," Carrie saluted me as she came to attention with her face hidden behind the armored faceless helmet she wore; likely wearing a small smirk from what she'd done to my helmet's faceplate.

Seeing the Principality come to attention brought all nine thousand Nephilim that had gathered to attention as well at the sight of me and Wing Alexander who was the only one out of armor.

"We will be preforming an orbital drop," I informed the armored Nephilim that were all looking toward me. I didn't bother raising my voice, Cai would make sure they all heard what I was saying. "Your Wings have been given their areas that you will be dropping too. Any arguing and I'll see to your punishment myself. You have your orders and now I'm going to give you some more, trust your training. This is what we've all been training for. It's time that you all show me what you've got for this. Get me?"

I was nearly blown away by the full-throated bellows of nine thousand people as they chanted "sir, yes sir," at max volume.

"Great. Drops begin in two minutes so make your last minute checks and then double check one another," I said as I turned and made my way to the line for the orbital drop zone to wait for the doors to open.

"Commander, will you check my gear?" Carrie asked. Good, I could ask her what the hell she was thinking with my faceplate.

"Want to explain why you did this?" I asked as I tugged on her shield and axe to make certain they were secure, before following it with checks throughout the rest of her kit.

"It seemed like something that you weren't going to agree to and I took a vote with the Wings," she said. "They agreed that you needed something to mark you out from the rest of us."

"Did you have to choose this?" I asked before turning and having her check my gear. "It's kind of cliche, don't you think?"

"That's what makes it so perfect," she insisted as she tugged at my sword and the many lines of throwing hatchets of both varieties that lined my back.

"She's right, Commander," Nico Alexander, the Wing staying behind, said. "If it was anyone else then I'd say it was cheesy or a bad choice but for you it's pretty much perfect."

They were all out to get me now, weren't they. Why did I need something other than a completely different color scheme for my armor to mark me out from everyone else.

"I also wanted something to make sure that everyone knew that you were the first," Carrie said quietly as she patted my shoulder to tell me that my gear was secured. "Something to make sure everyone who saw you would know that you were the first one to charge forward, no matter what; the first one to face the Scourge and beat them, the first one to see potential beyond what we did and to push us all beyond what we were and make us into soldiers that could protect our families and friends. The first one to build a wall against the Scourge rather than just paving more of the road for us to run away on."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"No one else will ever have that on their helmets," she said. "Only you, Rickshaw James the first Demigod that led Nephilim from simple humans to something that makes Scourge scream in fear."

If she and the others felt so strongly about this then I guess I could relent one more time. I just needed to make sure that none of them pushed their luck even further.

"Commander," Nico said, "it's almost time. Good luck, sir. Come back alive."

"I will," I told him as I stepped forward and fell through the now open bay door and began my descent to Earth.

"Cai, what are we saying to them all so that we don't have any issues when we get down to the ground?" I asked my Cyber.

"Principality Applewood and the Wings chose to let you decide that message," he said. Wish someone had told me before I was flying through space and starting to enter Earth's atmosphere.

"Shit," I swore. "Send this up to Phoenix, tell them to broadcast on all frequencies. Attention Earth. Hold out, the Scourge will be beaten. The Nephilim are coming."

"Done," Cai confimed as my armor's shields flared to life and atmosphere burn began to flare around me.

It was nearly another few moments of falling before the burn ended and from there I began to follow Cai's directions as I made my way closer to the heaviest Scourge infestation that was gathered on Earth at the moment. If the Queen was anywhere, I figured that she'd be there. If we could take her out before she hid from us then we'd have an easier time wiping the Scourge out. If we got a Princess instead, then I could live with that, it still meant one less Queen in the grand scheme of it all.

The closer I came to the ground, the higher my nerves and heartrate rose until I was hearing my blood in my ears and I was wishing I could go back to being the same boring Rickshaw I'd been before all this had happened. I knew I couldn't but I still had to wish it. At least Carrie would have my back for this and I'd be able to fight the Scourge secure in knowing that I'd be doing this with nine thousand others behind me, all of them believing in the words I'd told them; that they could make a difference and they would be saving more lives than I could count. It was coming close to the time that they'd have to prove that I was right to themselves.

To slow myself in time to hit the ground and not disentegrate like some sort of sick missile, I left Cai to activate my thusters and I felt when he did. My legs, feet, shoulders, and waist all jerked backward before the rest of me did and within a moment I was slow enough to notice that I was landing infront of a group of soldiers wearing the full kit that the American military used. I guess Cai was going for the flashy kind of entrance. Those soldiers were also firing every round of ammunition they had into a Kong that was still trying to approach them and was having trouble stepping forward from the sheer amount of bullets that flew at it. Behind the soldiers, I could see people that were clearly civilians hunkered behind sandbag lines and trying not to drop the hunting rifles and shotguns they were carrying.

To help them all out and clear my landing zone, I pulled one of the explosive hatchets from my back and threw it down at the Kong. It was more difficult than you'd think. If none of them had noticed my approach already, they all did when my hatchet exploded and left the Kong without its upper torso.

I wasn't sure how I looked as I approached the ground, but I knew it must have been an impression since I saw at least two of the soldiers and five of the civilians cross themselves the way some Christians did. I landed and heard Carrie hit the ground soon after me as Cai began to direct my attention to the Scourge that were approaching quickly.

I drew my sword and stepped forward, time to clean up my home planet.