"Okay you two, we're going to be focusing on the Harpies and Vultures to clear the way for everyone that follows," I told Carrie and Sarah as our shields began to defend from atmosphere burn. "Sarah, I want you to act as backup and to help level out anyone that's going into a bad spin. Carrie, we're going hunting. Both of you stay close, I'd hate to get myself surrounded and have no backup. We're all going to keep an open line to each other."

"Got it, Rickshaw," Carrie answered.

"Yes sir, Demigod," Sarah said a moment later.

I didn't give anymore orders because the flare of the burn faded out as the Seraph engaged and our fall turned into a glide. The first thing we saw was the mass of Vultures aiming to take out the ones that had gone before us. To speed my way further and start my part of this drop, I tucked my Seraph and arms and torpedoed myself through the air and falling Nephilim to meet the first Vultures with a spear at the ready.

The Vulture didn't see me before the spear drilled into its back and I brought my feet around to kick it off, spiralling in pain and surprise to the ground. Using the force of my kick I ascended slightly and expanded my Seraph to enter flight before engaging another Vulture. Sarah used her Seraph to dive past me and caught a Knight that was being held by two Vultures as a Harpy tried to scratch out his throat. I couldn't pay attention to how that ended for the Knight because my own Vulture was clawing at me with its taloned feet and a trio of Harpies were flapping around me trying to distract me. I shot my hand out and grabbed one of the Harpies; a quick jerk of my arms and its wings were broken and I dropped it to fall to its death while I thrust toward the Vulture with the spear.

Angrily flapping its wings, the Vulture screeched at me and jerked itself to the side to avoid the point of my spear; it wasn't fast enough not to take a glancing cut to its chest, but it avoided having its wing pierced or its life taken. I advanced toward the Vulture, spearpoint at the ready, and a Harpy dive-bombed my face trying to scratch my eyes out through my helmet. I swiped my arms at it and by luck I sent it careening into another Harpy with enough force to stun them so they fell; they'd likely be back soon enough. The Vulture took advantage of the Harpy's distraction to advance on me and nearly puncture my armor at the shoulders where it had aimed. With the Vulture aiming for my shoulders and the Harpies constantly sneak attacking me through the flock, I missed the second Vulture that dived toward me from above. The impact as it crashed itself into me was enough to send me spiraling toward the ground for a moment before another three Vultures grabbed hold of me and began to pull at my arms and leg to rip me apart as the other two dived toward me and several Harpies began to swarm at the thought of fresh meat.

"Rickshaw, all Cybers report the flock has been pierced to the critical mass," Cai said. "Horseman and Wing Applewood also report that they are in position."

"All Nephilim, Mjolnir is activating," I said over the open communication channel.

Before anyone could answer or the Vultures could finish their work with me, three arcs of electricity speared down from the hovering ship and made their way toward three people, Sarah, Carrie, and myself.

"I hope this doesn't hurt like the last one did," I muttered to myself before the torso-thick bolt of lightning crashed into me.

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From me, the bolt split and expanded to the nearest Nephilim and connected us all together in a massive net of crackling and spitting electricity; a net that caught and fried the majority of the Vultures and Harpies that had surrounded us. Screaming and seizing from the pain of having trillions of volts of power flowing through them, the Scourge flock in the air began to cook for several long seconds that seemed to stretch into eternity. Or maybe it just felt like that from the feedback loop of having five Vultures in contact with me as the lightning ran its course.

Finally, the Mjolnir's electricity grounded itself in the specialized plasma packs that several Nephilim were carrying and everything came to a stop for one hushed moment. Then the Vultures and Harpies began to fall, paralyzed or dead, it didn't matter as almost all of them began to fall to the ground to crash into the unforgiving rock and soil from thousands of feet in the air. The Cybers had as one, shut off all powered components of the armor we wore and so we fell to the ground too before the Seraphs activated and left us hovering in the suddenly empty air.

"Rickshaw," Carrie's voice came through the open line between us, "you've got a few hanger-ons there."

"I think they're fused to me," I said. "Can you help me get them off?"

"Oh no," she laughed. "After that terrible plan, you're on your own."

"I took volunteers," I defended myself.

"It still hurt!" she yelled at me before cutting the line and broadcasting to the rest of the Nephilim. "Continue to ground, if you have Scourge fused to your armor, find a buddy and clean them off."

While everyone else began to descend, a new wave of Nephilim began to drop from the Thor above us to secure a perimeter that would allow us to keep an eye out for new swarms of flyers while the shuttles brought down even more reinforcements and supplies.

"Demigod, sir," Sarah hesistantly spoke to me. "Can you help me get these off?"

I looked toward her and nearly burst into laughter; I'd been grabbed by three Vultures and then had two more crash into me before they were cooked by my armor, but Sarah had over two dozen Harpies attached to her.

"Yeah, I'll help you," I told her. "Will you help me with mine?"

She nodded and we both finished making our way to the ground where we used knives, elbow grease, and more than a little swearing to remove the fused Scourge flyers from our armor. Finished, I sent Sarah to report to Carrie and begin to direct our forces to work toward the Fortress we needed to begin to make so we had a safe fallback point for ourselves if the Scourge began to push us back or cut us off from orbital resupply. I started gathering people together and giving them orders to gather all the dead Scourge and begin to incinerate them; they were in the way and we needed the cleared space for our shuttles to land with our supplies and building materials.

"Rickshaw, I need you at my position," Carrie said. "Touka's sent Cai coordinates. Hurry."

"Principality, take over," I ordered the nearest one. "I'm needed elsewhere right now."

I didn't hear their acceptance before I took to the sky and glided on my Seraph's drives to reach the point the Carrie had called me to. It was a short flight that lasted maybe five minutes before I saw her waving at me from the ground in front of some sort of rock.

"What's the problem?" I asked her as I touched down.

"Scouts found this and called for me," she said pointing her thumb at the rock behind her. "I showed up and took a look. This is above my pay-grade so I called for you."

"You're the only Horseman that works directly with me," I told her as I moved to examine the rock, "if this is above your pay-grade, then what makes you think it's not above mine?"

"I'm not the one that makes the hard decisions," she told me. "I sent everyone else away before I called you cause if this is what I think it is, then we've got a huge problem."

"What do you think it... is?" I asked as I examined the rock and noticed that it had several scored marks on it. They almost looked like writing.

"Touch it and you tell me," Carrie said.

"If this gets me killed or infects me with a parasite I'll go for you first," I told her.

"Just touch the damn thing!" she snapped at me.

I reached out and laid my hand against the stone.