The first day spent out with the others to hunt Scourge went well enough. The immediate area of the chosen camp was empty of Scourge and we were able to set our shelters up easily. The others were unhappy about having a latrine instead of a bathroom, but at least we had some privacy from a specialized shelter that opened into an outhouse, rather than having nothing between us and the elements, still my least favorite part of that time spent after I'd woken up. Once the shelters were set, I divided everyone into their psuedo-squads and sent them out to scout for any potential Scourge sign. Many of those squads reported back with a positve sightings of that, and one even came back with footage that they had faced a group of four Hellhounds they managed to kill. Great.

The next day, I woke up as the blue sun was rising over the horizon and was unsurprised to see that I was the only one awake except for three of the five watchmen that had been set. Those two regretted falling asleep quickly after I made them spend the morning doing pushups and other exercises as punishment for slacking off. Once everyone else was awake and had eaten something, I divided them up into different squads and sent them all to new areas to hunt Scourge. I was left with someone I hadn't spoken too very often. A man by the name of Julio Santigo. Julio was understandably nervous about having to spend the day with his commander, but he performed admirably and was easy to get along with. By the end of the day, I knew he'd do well as a Paladin and I could rest easy with having him hold the lives of at least two other Nephilim in his hands. He wasn't so sure, but I was certain that he'd do well enough.

From there, I spent the rest of the excursion testing and teaching the other potentials with some of them failing to reassure me about making them Paladins. Those I explained the problems I noticed in them to and ordered them to either train harder or give up on being a Paladin. I couldn't have people that weren't capable leading my Nephilim into combat. That was how people died.

Carrie was a vicious little thing on the trip. Even though she was outweighed by most of the men and women there, she still fought and killed multiple Scourge on her own and was even able to claim the only Kong kill on the entire excursion. She was very happy to have everyone else look to her in awe about that. I also heard more about her life on Earth and what she hoped to have done when she finished high school and eventually college. I felt bad that none of that would happen now that she had been taken and agreed to become a Nephilim. All I could do was reaffirm my promise to her that her sister would be sent to live with people better than her father; even if I didn't have anything more than ideas about who I'd put the girl with.

Nearly a month after I'd brought my potential Paladins out here, I was more sure of who had succeeded and who had failed. I was preparing to send the pickup signal that would see a shuttle sent down to us, there weren't very many Scourge left, they'd all be gone by the end of the day, when Cai informed me that a distress signal had just gone out.

"Who sent it?" I demanded as I stepped out of the tent that acted as the command post. "Which direction is it?"

"It seems to be Cadets Long, Jenson, and Fredericks," he told me as others who had returned already looked toward me in concern. "They are approximately twenty kilometers to the northeast."

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"On it," I told him before running as fast as I could to the northeast. I had cadets in danger.

"Rickshaw, it appears to be a Guardian left over from the Queen's defeat," Cai told me as I ran.

"Which class?" I demanded.

"Rampager," Cai's answer did not make me slow down. Kong type Scourge had a plate of armor on their chest that would allow them to shrug off most hits from normal weapons and attacks, that meant that taking off the head was the easiest way to kill them. Something that was typically hidden on Kongs were the stinger needles hidden in a special sheathe in their wrists. If something wasn't going down easy, then one hit from that would let them change the entire outcome of the fight; their four arms only made it more difficult to avoid them. Guardian Kongs were even worse. Rampagers, as I'd named them, had more armor on their bodies and their stingers were gone in exchange for a series of claws, with the lower set dripping from the paralytic venom they produced. Each Rampager was nearly three times the size of a typical Kong, so anyone seeing them would wonder why I hadn't switched their names around. The reason for that was that each Rampager would go totally berserk when they were wounded. That was what made them the most hated kind of Guardian for a squad of Wardens to run into. I could only hope that my three Nephilim were able to stay alive long enough for me to get there, I was responsible for their lives after they'd joined the Nephilim Army, I was the only person who could tell them when it was okay to die and give up. No one else and definitely not a Scourge.

I finally entered the area that the distess call had come from and I began to see the signs of the Rampager that had gone through, and the signs of my Nephilim fighting it. Any grass in the area was thouroughly trampled and there were massive rocks and clods of dirt flung everywhere that the Rampager had used to cause trouble from a distance. More troubling was the blood that I noticed spotting the ground. One of my Nephilim was hurt, and they were still fighting the Rampager. Stupid.

I set off following their signs of combat and eventually I began to hear the Rampager's roars and the thuds that its projectiles made as they were thrown. Before long I was looking at a scene that made me breathe in relief and prepare myself for combat at the same time. My Cadets were still alive. The Rampager was unhurt except for a few spots on its armor where it had caught their weapons and only recieved scratches that didn't hurt it.

"What's the plan, Commander?" Carrie's voice sounded from my side. Where had she come from.

"Where did you come from?" I echoed my thoughts.

"The camp. We all did," she told me nodding back to the group of twelve Nephilim that had followed after me. "I told the others to prepare for first aid and secure the camp. Anyone still out in the field is supposed to fall back to the camp. What's the plan for this?"

"The plan is that I will kill the Rampager," I told her, "and you and the others will get the other Cadets back to camp. Understood?"

"That plan is total bullshit," she argued. "What if you get killed? Who's going to lead us then? Gul-fen? Not happening. Me? Hell no. I'm going with you."

"You're going to get those other Cadets out of there and that's final," I told her. "If something does happen then I've left orders for everyone to follow until someone becomes the new Commander. Now get ready to grab those Cadets."

As soon as I finished speaking I charged the Rampager and prepared for combat with what had to be the most dangerous Guardian I'd faced to date. I was ready.

"I am detecting the lifesign of another Guardian," Cai told me as I jumped into the air and used my thrusters to gain altitude before driving my sword into the Rampager's shoulder. I missed its head that I'd been aiming for. Shit.

"It appears to be a Reaper."

Oh double shit.