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===[CHAPTER 49: A MILD CASE OF SEVERE BRAIN DAMAGE]===

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The resulting fireball was enough to blow out the remaining glass in the windows ahead of them. Heat burned hairs on Eli’s neck, and the blast of air pressure was enough to knock him to his hands. He fell, hands scraping themselves against the shattered glass on the floor. Temetet was knocked on top of him, and the two fell over each other onto the floor.

The blast incinerated the room behind them, destroying more chunks of the ceiling, vaporizing the furniture inside, and punching a hole of nothingness into a space where there once used to be a wall. The world around him was spinning, and he could feel a burn on his exposed skin. An aching burn that refused to subside.

Despite the befuddled state of his mind, he knew that he could not stay here. The sentry would follow, and every second that he spent motionless was a chance for the soldiers upstairs to draw closer.

‘Get up’ He whispered to himself, forcing himself to roll over onto his chest and stand. It pained him to do so, but he had to. He saw Temetet, grabbed hold of him by his clothes, and forced him to his feet. It was clear that Temetet was just as dazed as Eli had been – had they been a second too slow they would’ve been incinerated by the sentry’s main gun.

Just as Eli was about to carry Temetet, they both caught a glimpse of the red eyes staring at them, the black shadows of the room were dashed by the angry red, illuminating the two stragglers. Luckily, Eli and Temetet were far enough away that the sentry would have an awkward time trying to fire its machine guns in order to confirm its kill, giving the pair an extra few seconds to make their escape. But the sentry would follow...

They ran – more limped – into the building. Running through open doors, away from the windows where the sentry couldn’t get them. The marching of boots upstairs grew louder and closer in proximity, but they kept running. There was no way to tell if they were going in the right direction or not, but it hardly mattered.

Eli could’ve sworn he heard gunfire. In fact, if he listened over the sound of his scattered breathing and pounding heart, he could hear the familiar sounds of shooting from downstairs. The assault had already begun, there was nowhere to run, no way to hide. The only option left would be to fight.

He turned back briefly to make sure Temetet was still following, which he was. Though Temetet was clearly struggling. Fresh blood stained his tattooed face, turning parts of his curly silver hair into a mess of bloody strands that stuck to his head. He looked rough and judging by the familiar taste of blood in his mouth, Eli figured that he didn’t look so great either. Not like it mattered now as they both scattered, running to safety.

Eli searched for a stairwell that would reunite them with Misfit and the rebels downstairs. Continuing to run despite his wounds, screaming at him to stop, and his lungs burning for air.

A set of double doors appeared right in front of the duo as they turned a corner. Eli was about to go through them – reaching a hand out just in front of him to push the doors open – when he stopped.

For the first time since the sentry started hunting them, he ceased running. Causing Temetet to collide into him. But even then, Eli didn’t dare take another step forward. His hand was frozen just out of reach of the door handle.

He felt something horrible on the other side. It was as if the door itself was sending a signal to his brain that there was danger ahead. But what? Was he being irrational? Probably.

No, there was something wrong. The marching of boots upstairs had gone quiet. He didn’t know where the central stairwell was. The location of the pursuing soldiers was a mystery to him. They could be anywhere.

And if the door led to the stairwell…

Eli could almost feel Temetet’s confusion, but he refused to say anything. He must’ve known that something was scaring Eli.

He took a step away from the double doors. Cautiously eyeing them as if they’d spring to life at any moment. One step. Two steps. Three steps back. Nothing happened.

Four steps.

Something snapped. He heard the sound of a gun go off, a hole was punched through the wooden doors and the red glow of ekron pulse energy cracked through the dark hall like a lightning bolt.

More rounds were fired from the ambushers waiting on the other side, punching dozens of holes into the door as they fired blindly at Eli and Temetet. The two fled, but in the confusion of having to move backwards so quickly, Eli tripped over something and fell on his back. Rounds of energy were fired at him, scraping just over his head. He kicked away from the door, scrambling – unsure if he should rise to his feet or not.

The choice was made for him when someone kicked the doors open. Filling the doorframe was the uniformed body of an Avonian soldier. It was massive, wearing a helmet that covered it’s head entirely – face and all. The only discernable “eyes” were clusters of bright orange-red lights that Eli guessed were cameras for the user inside to see outside.

Though similar to the Shock Trooper, this thing was a lot different. Its uniform was a dark grey, black armbands on the shoulders contained writing in the Avonian script. Instead of wearing armored plating all over its body, it only had what appeared to be an armored vest. This soldier wore a thick dark grey trench coat that hung down to the knees, almost meeting black leather boots. The gun that this soldier carried was far larger, akin to a light machine gun rather than a shotgun. While clearly not being a Shock Trooper, Eli got the message that whatever it was – it certainly wasn’t ULA or even the River Republic’s basic militia. This was clearly an Imperial.

Not that it mattered much, no matter what, Eli was in the midst of the danger zone. The soldier spotted Eli on his back, said something garbled, and lifted its weapon with considerable effort. Hands on Eli’s back pulled him back up to his feet, Temetet’s hands, and he forced to run once more.

They snapped to the left, barreling down a parallel hallway, just as the soldier opened fire. The entire hallway was filled with an orange barrage of light, thousands of rounds launched down the hallway every second. They destroyed everything, punching holes into the wall, destroying furniture and cover, illuminating the dark room like millions of tiny flashlights.

It took everything in Eli’s mind and body not to slip, risking being caught by that thing and its machine gun – capable of laying down thousands of rounds per second. The only advantage they had over it was that the weapon was slowing it down, and it took far too long for it to fire. But they had to keep moving. If they were slowed down, or hit even once, it would be devastating.

Eli was the one following Temetet, running through the dark hallway which curved as it continued along. There were wooden doors and other hallways intersected their own from the left. To the right, windows to outside world and the stormy weather.

The blue glow of Temetet’s translation spell returned, “What the hell is that thing?” Eli asked him, feeling his voice crack under the pressure.

“Alpha Suppressor! They’re Avonian Synths!”

“Like the Shock Trooper?”

“No, Shock Troopers are conscripted prisoners and slaves. Alpha forces are volunteer elites! They're NSE!”

“Can we fight them?”

“If you know how, then you’re free to tell me! I’m all ears!”

“Damn it!”

As they ran, there were objects on either side of the hallway. Lampstands, shelves, potted plants, Eli tried his best to knock them all over behind him as they ran. Anything to slow down their pursuers. But as they continued running, they heard the familiar robotic growl of a sentry hot in pursuit. The walls shook as the spider-like monstrosity crawled along them and its red eyes filled the hall with its light.

“Left! Go left!” Eli shouted to Temetet as they approached an intersecting hall. The sentry opened fire with its smaller gun, shattering glass windows, punching holes in the wall, and forcing the duo to duck for cover.

Temetet nearly fell trying to avoid having his head taken off by a round that came far too close for comfort. Eli wasn’t much better off.

They took a sharp turn left down the new hall, rushing further inside of the building away from the sentry – much to its anger. But the soldiers were still in hot pursuit, and if the sentry could communicate with them, then they’d know in which direction.

Signs on the wall served as their only sense of direction in the narrow corridors. Apparently, Temetet spotted them too, “The armory is up ahead! We can get there and hold them off!”

Eli nodded in approval, following Temetet’s lead as he took them towards what was sure to be a better location to defend. Of course the armory would be up here, it’d make more sense to keep the armory upstairs away from the lower floors. But that could very well be the exact target of the Avonian forces. If their target was to secure the armory then it would only make sense that they’d try to infiltrate the building from the roof rather than pushing through the lower floors.

On the far end of the long corridor was a solid steel door with a computer terminal on the wall. The fear that it was a lock, and a complex one at that, came to Eli’s mind. From his satchel, Temetet produced his multitool and held it up to the computer. When it switched on it produced a high-pitched whine before he jammed it into a slot on the computer.

Eli knew that the multitool worked to unlock a few doors back in Raritan, but out here? In Helena? Temetet must’ve sensed his uncertainty because he snapped around to say, “I’ve gotten through Avonian computer systems with this thing. While you were gone with Sparrow I tinkered with the Rebel’s stuff and it turns out, they’re the exact same!”

There was a chime from the computer, a green light, and then like clockwork the solid steel door slid straight open. Smooth as butter. Looking satisfied with his work, Temetet carefully put the multitool back into his satchel, “I told you this thing would come in handy.”

“No kidding,” Eli said, admittedly impressed.

Temetet was the first one inside of the armory, and Eli followed soon after. The armory was exactly what Eli had expected. Guns, ammunition, and more guns. Lockers and shelves kept them all stored and sorted, yet he could find none of the rocket launchers or even rockets for them. Any chance they had of trying to fight the sentry or dragons went out the window, knowing now that the rebels had long taken them to fight.

The faint glow of another computer monitor on the inside illuminated the room with a dim blue hue. The rebels might’ve cut power to the lights, but they were wise to keep emergency power running to the locks. With a few more pushes of buttons from the other side, the doors slid shut sealing off the two from the outside world and their pursuers.

Temetet was also right about the fact that there were multiple routes to the Armory. Another massive iron door led to more hallway on the other side of the room past a few lockers. The armory must’ve been somewhere near the middle of the building, if not, dead smack in the center, since the halls on that side of the door looked identical to the ones Temetet and Eli had emerged from.

When the door shut behind them, they wasted no time. Eli poured over everything available. There wasn’t a lot. Most of the guns had already been taken by the rebels, leaving behind dozens of empty slots in the storage units. Even the amount of ammunition left behind had a decent chunk taken out of it. But there was enough, certainly more than what Eli had just a moment ago.

He immediately grabbed a familiar looking gun from off the wall. One part, Long barreled, with a sliding pump on the front end of it, and two barrels stacked on top of each other. The other part, sleek black alloy, a port to feed ekron ammunition, and a variety of gas lines and cannisters attached all around the frame that were completely alien to anything back on Earth. It was an odd hybrid between an old double barreled shotgun back home, and one of the alien-like Avonian pulsers.

Hanging just underneath the pulse shotgun was a cartridge full of circular shells, glowing a dim, ekron, red. By picking it up and holding it near the port of the gun, the cartridge - by some force magnetic or magical - attached to the feeding port and the gun was “switched on”. The sides of the gun glowed an almost sinister ekron red, and a low electronic whine escaped from the cold black machine. Sliding back on the pump loaded the gun, cycling an ekron shell into the contraption.

The gun looked powerful, but whether it’d be enough to take on the Alpha Suppressor or not was a different story. It was certainly better than the rifle and the five or so bullets in it that he had previously.

Just when Eli was about to assume a position at the mouth of the door to defend the armory, Temetet dragged his attention away, “Hey, Eli! Good news!”

“What?” Eli asked him. When he turned around, he saw Temetet looking inside of a crate full of steel objects that he couldn’t quite discern. Though Temetet was clearly happy.

“I found a bunch of explosives! I think we can use these!” He said, cautiously taking one of the explosives out. It was a small circular tube about the size of his hand. Big enough to cause serious damage if used correctly.

But how? Eli wondered, “Maybe we could make a trap?”

“That’ll take too long I think.”

“What about your drone?” He asked.

“My drone?” Temetet asked him, raising an eyebrow. He took a look into his satchel, pulling the small metallic box out from inside of it. He turned to the bomb and then to the drone, and back to the bomb.

Eli could practically see the sparks fly from his brain, “Oh! Oh! Oh! Good idea! Really good idea! I could strap a bomb to this thing, wire it to detonate and then,” He held his hands up for dramatic effect, “Boom! Turn those Imperial guys into uh… uh, something violent and really cool sounding.”

Just when it seemed they had a plan for a trap, Eli could hear the rush of Avonian boots about to overtake them. There must’ve been an entire squad of soldiers flanking the Alpha Suppressor, because Eli could hear several pairs of heavy boots smacking against the hard floors.

“Damn it! They’re already here! You work on the drone, I’ll try and hold them off as best as I can!” Eli shouted to Temetet.

They split off, with Temetet retreating further into the room for safety, while Eli took a shaky position near the door. His back against the wall, his hands clutched the Pulse Shotgun tight. So tight, he swore his fingers would punch straight through the solid alloy. But this gun, realistically, was the only means he had to defend himself. He could risk it using his own assault rifle, but who knew how many bullets were left in the magazine, and if they brought out a shield then it would’ve been worthless.

Besides, using Avonian weapons to fight the Avonians was a type of ironic justice that Eli just couldn’t pass up. Let them come! They’ll have to fight against the very weapons that they’ve made!

He could hear their boots marching, growing louder, getting close. Drowning out the storm, drowning out his thoughts, drowning out everything around him. Just him, the steady thud of his heartbeat, the gun, and the coming wave of enemies.

When they seemed about ready to turn the corner down the hall, he braced himself. Finger sent over the trigger. Ready to shoot at a moment’s notice.

But nothing came. The boots stopped rushing. He couldn’t hear much. In fact, they went silent! They stopped! But why? Were they reconsidering? Were they lost? Did they not know that Eli and Temetet had taken refuge in the room just around the corner?

Or had they been spooked by something?

If they knew that the armory was just around the corner, then they must’ve known that the pair had prepared at least some form of defense. There of course wasn’t enough time for anything special, but even Eli taking up a position with this gun would count as a threat to them. They wouldn’t just rush out into the hallway, exposed, like idiots. Of course not. They were smarter than that.

Just then, he could hear something like metal clashing against metal. And from around the corner, at the far end of the dark hallway, he could see something rush out into view. Small, dark, with a few glowing red lights. Eli couldn’t quite make out what it was, until he spotted the familiar sight of four metal blades spinning in the darkness. Another reconnaissance drone, just like Temetet’s!

It clumsily flew into the hallway, turned the corner, and crashed into the opposing wall before regaining itself and hovering towards Eli. A massive white spotlight just above the camera switched on, illuminating everything in front of it, and blinding Eli whose eyes had only just adjusted to the darkness. He fought the urge to shield his eyes, pulling the trigger to bring the drone down.

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The gun kicked hard. It had enough force to push Eli back quite a lot, like being kicked in the chest by a mule. It nearly shoved him to the ground. And it was loud, painfully so. But the shotgun wasn’t just all bark. It had a bite that was equally nasty.

From the barrel, a frenzy of red energy flooded the hall and made a beeline straight for the drone. Caught in the middle, the drone was ripped to pieces, with chunks of steel and glass being torn off while it was mid-air. The chaos made the drone catch fire and then explode as it crashed into a wall. Eli was about to smugly congratulate himself when another drone flooded the room. And another. And two more.

He pumped the gun, knowing what the Avonians were up to, yet having no choice but to play along. He fired the gun, time after time. Destroying one drone, and then the next. Damaging yet another until it caught on fire and backed off. Yet the last drone closed the distance. It charged straight at him, metal blades aimed directly at his head!

He ducked down just before the drone buried itself into his forehead, yet he couldn’t miss the scrapes of metal blades slicing bits of his cheek and ear until the blades were halted – thankfully – but his helmet. The pain was immense, striking him immediately. It took every nerve in his body to not instinctively swing at the drone, potentially losing a finger or a hand to its sharp metal blades. Instead, he lifted the pulse gun, and point blank decimated the drone. The blast was so powerful that it immediately disintegrated into metal bits, torn apart by the blast upon contact.

Despite the drone being dealt with, Eli was still left floored from pain. Sharp, stinging heat burned across his face, and even raising a hand to gingerly touch the wounds were enough to inflame the pain and make it burn ten times hotter. When he pulled his shaking hands away, the fingertips were drenched in red blood.

His breathing was erratic, and he knew he had to calm himself down. He couldn’t lose his mind to a distraction tactic. He tried his best to ignore the pain, yet he was constantly reminded of it by the warmth of blood practically pouring down the side of his face. He couldn’t tell if the blood loss would be deadly, there was no time to dress the wound. He’d just have to hope he didn’t pass out in the middle of the beating that the Avonians were about to unleash.

And unleash they did. Just as Eli scrambled to his feet, two Avonian soldiers made a dash for the hall. Not the Suppressor thankfully, but normal Avonian infantry. They opened fire immediately, red Ekron energy rounds phasing straight past him as he narrowly took cover against the wall.

A moment later and they had to stop to reload, Eli’s opportunity. He sprung into motion, raising the shotgun up and blasting a hole into the chest of one soldier. His body was sent back flying from the force of the impact. The other soldier was covering for him, as he immediately returned fire, but a quick pump and pull of the trigger nailed him in the shoulder. The other soldier dropped his gun, falling to the ground when Eli shot him a second time.

Just when the first two soldiers were taken care of, more came from around the corner. Three of them. Two of them were normal soldiers like the others, but one was different. Dressed in a similar fashion to the Alpha Suppressor from before. In fact, Eli remembered the soldier from before.

His mind took him back to Helena, right when he and Otaes were held at gunpoint by a squad of Avonians. The one speaking to them, the squad leader, it was that soldier who was right here before them. It must’ve been another Avonian synth, an “Alpha Unit” as Temetet described the Suppressor.

The synth squad leader, rallied the other soldiers in the squad around it with a wave of the fingers. The three-man team formed on the flanks of the Alpha Lieutenant while Eli was busy reloading his shotgun. The squad leader fired round after round, not hitting Eli while he was in cover but obviously trying to keep him suppressed and to remain in cover.

When Eli did get the opportunity to shoot back, provided only when the squad leader itself had to reload, he pounced on it. Peeking out from over the wall to open fire with his gun. He managed to nail the soldier on the left. Right when he was going to turn his attention onto the other two, the squad leader deployed a shield. Ekron energy formed together, and a red barrier protruded from a small device on its wrist. It was smaller than the shield that the Shock Trooper used only covering the Squad Leader’s torso and head entirely, yet it was enough to provide cover both to it and the soldier next to it. He tried to shoot at the shield, hoping that he'd be able to inflict enough damage to break the protective barrier, but the rounds were useless, being absorbed by the shield and vaporized upon contact with its vibrant red barrier.

Eli focused, taking aim for the head of the Lieutenant. But right then, at such a critical moment, the Alpha Suppressor once again turned around the corner. Its red eyes glowing from the mask, flanked by at least three or four other soldiers.

He was completely outnumbered.

Eli tried to take a few more potshots, but they did little to slow the Imperials down. He knew what was going to happen next. The Alpha Suppressor charged up its machine gun, and Eli ducked for cover.

A millisecond after Eli hit the ground, a frenzy of bullets filled the doorway. They punched holes through the walls, tore apart the storage units, and destroyed anything even close to resembling cover. Broken debris flew into the air, swarming Eli’s head and face, threatening to blind him should he keep his eyes open.

Right at the peak of the machine gun’s assault, Eli faintly heard a voice somewhere in the corner of his mind, “It’s ready! The drone is ready!”

“Throw it! Now!” Eli shouted back to Temetet. He saw Temetet’s young face, petrified but determined as he crawled his way towards the door to launch the drone, narrowly avoiding being turned into a memory by the flood of bullets pouring into the room.

Like a dove being released into the air, Temetet opened his hands, raised his arms, and threw the modified drone up into the air. The little drone was carrying the explosive underneath it, and it nearly looked like the weight of the bomb was too much for it to carry. Yet, it flew.

The metal blades flew up and over the bullets, over Eli’s head and out the front door. Eli shielded his face, bracing for what was to come.

The drone worked perfectly. From the end of the hall came a massive shockwave that blew Eli’s body across the armory and into a nearby shelf. The shaking and rumbling of the blast deafened him, rocking his world until he was left dazed and confused. He tried to keep his eyes closed, but for a brief moment he could see the devastation of a fireball incinerating the Avonian soldiers and the entirety of the hallway. Fire billowed out into the armory, filling everything, everywhere.

The rumbling stopped, and he was left wrapped in a cocoon of half consciousness. He felt something warm continuing to trickle down his face, and the taste of old pennies stung his tongue. He didn’t dare move until he was sure that everything was over.

He waited, one minute, two minutes, who knows how long it was until he took the first step up. As he opened his eyes, he could feel the room spinning around him, slowly. His head kept travelling to the left, as if a side of his face was being magnetically attracted in that direction. It wasn’t until he reached a hand up to the side of his face, that he realized that his left ear could hear nothing. A complete void of information on his left flank. His right ear was hardly better, with a high pitched ringing drowning out most other noises.

He could hear his own scattered breathing and drum-like heartbeat. Looking at the hallway, the explosion was far larger than he had expected. Many walls had been completely destroyed, leaving a destroyed hole into rooms that were once sealed off. A hole had even been blown into the exterior wall, allowing gusts of the storm to wash inside of the building. Eli could feel cold mist from the storm caress his burning face, carried by the rushing wind.

The soldiers in the hallway had been blown apart. He could hardly see their vaporized remains. He exhaled, finally. Letting the tension escape from him for once. Still alive. Yet again, he was still alive.

“Eli?”

He could hardly hear his own name being called, as his left ear was completely deaf for the moment, and his right ear fairly useless on its own. He panicked when he heard it, searching around like a wild animal for the source. Looking his way, was Temetet. The elf’s silver curly hair had been completely frazzled by the explosion, he had a few minor scrapes, but overall looked fine. Yet he was looking at Eli like something was wrong.

“Eli… are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

Eli raised a hand to his face, knowing what he should expect when he pulled his hand away. Of course, blood. It completely swamped his face, leaking, stinging his eyes. He felt dizzy and light headed, like he was about to fall over.

Temetet reached out a hand to grab Eli just before his legs gave way, “Woah! Hey, I’ve got you, don’t worry.”

He lifted Eli’s arm around his shoulder. Eli hardly wanted to burden Temetet with the task of carrying him, but he knew he wasn’t exactly in a state to protest. Relenting, he allowed himself to rest his weight onto Temetet. Trying to make words in his befuddled mind, he managed to croak out, “I’m – I’ll-I’ll be fine.”

“Meh, I don’t know. You could have a mild case of severe brain damage, you know? You’re bleeding from the head. Head trauma is always the worst kind.”

“I can give you a mild case of severe brain damage if you want.”

“Uhhh, you’re functioning well enough for sarcasm, so on second thought, you should be alright.”

“Who said I was being sarcastic?”

Eli felt himself involuntarily smile, before he turned to watch the destroyed hall once more. The smile vanished.

Looking out at the destruction, at the half-eviscerated bodies of those who were once living, it left a sour feeling in his chest. It was self-defense sure but… this? Resorting to blowing them up?

‘It was us or them’, Eli whispered to himself, hoping that the mantra would help ease the burden, ‘It was either us or them.”

It didn’t really.

Temetet gave Eli’s shoulder a shake. His long elven ears were twitching in the darkness, and he was staring at the other door, “Someone’s coming,” he whispered, “Lots of people.”

“Maybe it’s the rebels?” Eli suggested.

Temetet nodded, “Yeah. I think so.”

Eli strained to listen for footsteps. Even Temetet’s voice was cloudy to him. His right ear was getting better with the constant ringing dying down enough for him to hear other things over it. And there was some sound coming in from his left ear, at least enough that his entire left side didn’t feel like a constant dark void to his senses.

“Come on, let’s go meet them. If Otaes is there, I’ll deal with her. Okay?” Temetet said to him, “Let me do all the talking.”

“You do that anyway.”

“Or alternatively, I could just let her disembowel you. That’s an option too.”

“Point made.”

With Eli leaning on Temetet for support, the two turned to face the door. Eli felt a knot grow in his chest. If Otaes found her brother without his mask, would she be understanding? And even if Eli escaped her anger, what about Temetet? Eli didn’t want to see him get punished for this at all. Temetet just saved his life. Without Temetet, Eli most likely would’ve been a memory. Surely a silly mask shouldn’t be the deciding factor in all of this, right?

In the corner of his vision, right as they were about to face the door, there was movement in the halls.

In the midst of the destroyed hallway, among the bodies of those incinerated by the blast, one of them stirred. Rising to its feet. The Alpha Lieutenant rose back to its feet.

Eli could feel the blood drain from his face as the realization set in. The fight wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

“Temetet! He’s still alive!” Eli warned.

Temetet snapped around, confused, only to stagger back in surprise. Eli broke away from Temetet’s supporting hold, reaching for his gun. But the Lieutenant was faster, getting to its gun before Eli’s fogged brain could. In a instant, it opened fire, forcing both Temetet and Eli to split away. Disoriented, and quite weak, Eli fell back on the floor landing quite painfully on his hands.

Eli rolled onto his back, his weak hands desperately trying to get his gun steady. The Lieutenant rushed towards the armory, sensing that both Eli and Temetet were down. Through his half-destroyed hearing, he could also hear the rebels reaching the armory on the other side of the armory. Someone was pounding on the solid steel door, trying furiously to get it open…

The Lieutenant barreled into the armory. The red eyes on its mask locked with Eli’s. Eli snapped his gun onto the Lieutenant, aiming right for its torso and pulling the trigger.

The gun unleashed a blast of fire onto the Lieutenant, but before Eli even knew it, the shield was already back up. The ekron fragments getting caught in the field of energy and disintegrating before his eyes. Eli pumped the gun again and kept shooting, knowing that the shield could be broken if it took too much damage. And yet, blast after blast, it remained. Eli pumped the gun a third time and pulled the trigger, but he was only met with a disappointing click from the gun.

He looked at the shotgun’s ekron port, and the box of ammunition had ceased glowing. He had run completely dry. His heart sank in fear of what was to come. The Lieutenant’s shield went down, and it raised its pulser, intending to send a round straight into Eli’s forehead.

Just before it could pull the trigger, Temetet jumped onto the Lieutenant from behind. In his hands, a small dagger, repeatedly being stuck into the armor of the Lieutenant. The gargled voice of the Lieutenant cried out in pain with each repeated stabbing, and the pain was enough to make it drop the gun. Eli knew he had to get to it the moment the pulser dropped fell on the floor. He got up to his feet, every single muscle and joint screaming at him to stop. But he couldn’t.

Though Temetet was trying his best, he was being thrown off by the Lieutenant. Temetet’s blade did damage, but not enough. It was being caught by the armor padding the Lieutenant’s body. It looked as though Temetet might be able to at least severely injure him, but that hope was dashed the moment the Lieutenant raised its arm up.

Eli saw something move. From silver device around the Lieutenants forearm, a long blade sprung open. Like the claws of a praying mantis.

The Lieutenant had the same type of cybernetic modifications that Sparrow had, except this one was a hidden blade. With one swift jerk, the Lieutenant brought the blade down.

Eli could only watch as the blade sunk into Temetet’s collarbone.

The elf screamed in pain, his blue eyes going wide in shock, as the blade dug itself deeper into his torso.

“Temetet!” Eli shouted out. He sprung up to his feet, with an energy he knew he couldn’t have had – but nothing else mattered more than getting the Lieutenant off of Temetet.

The banging on the door grew louder. He could hear the muffled voices of someone else screaming in the distance, but that was all the way at the back of his mind.

Not thinking straight, he charged directly at the Lieutenant, tackling it and sending them all barreling straight to the floor.

The blade was taken out of Temetet’s body, and he fell away from Eli and the Alpha Lieutenant. It tried to send the blade into Eli’s chest, but he caught it’s arm before the mantis-like weapon could reach him. He didn’t know what the plan was from there, only raising his fist to repeatedly punch the Lieutenant in its head – but of course his fists were being slammed against its protective mask doing little, if anything at all. The Lieutenant kicked, a boot straight into his chest, knocking the wind out of him. And when that wasn’t enough to get Eli off, it punched him square in the face.

The blow was enough to knock what remaining energy Eli had out of him, like being hit in the jaw with a dumbbell. He landed on his back, having the wits knocked from his mind. His muscles were weak and trembling. His vision blurred. Slowly, Temetet came into view. Alive, but squirming as he bled out. The screaming and yelling from outside was loud, a constant buzz in the foggy reaches of his mind. Temetet’s body had split into two, one real, one a mirage. Eli’s fudged mind, dazed, confused.

But the Lieutenant’s gun was just next to him. He saw its alloy surface, glowing a hot red from the ekron ammunition loaded into it. The Lieutenant was struggling to its feet, grunting through its robotic vocoder as it struggled. It too had been severely wounded by Temetet’s stabbing and the explosion from earlier, and now its armor was painted fresh by its own blood, punctures and tears.

There was just enough sense left inside of Eli’s brain to reach for the gun. He struggled to crawl on all fours towards it, his limbs filled with lead, every tiny movement was torturous. A herculean effort. But he managed. His shaking hands grabbed hold of the gun, and he turned around just in time to see the Lieutenant raising an arm up. The mantis blade ejected from its forearm, barely visible in the darkness. Poised to strike.

He raised the gun.

The Lieutenant brought its arm down.

Eli pulled the trigger.

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image [https://i.imgur.com/dWDi6nN.png]

==The Revolutionary Department Of Intelligence==

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==[WEAPONS OF THE COLD WAR]==

image [https://i.imgur.com/WDMMdgm.jpeg]

Name: Alpha Units

Type: Imperial Special Forces (Bioaugmented Elite)

Country of Origin: The Greater Avonian Empire

Information: The cybernetic arm of the Avonian Empire is one of its most nightmarish components. From the forceful biological augmentations performed on Shock Trooper battle thralls, to the living machines of the Avonian cyberdragons. Living flesh turned into mere machine, engineering the perfect soldiers for use in the various conflicts that dot Farewind and Planet Narva. Though to many the cybernetic augmentations seem horrifying, to many more the prospect of offering ones own body and life in service to the Emperor is a dream that only fools would waste...

Alpha Units are the Elite of the Elite, employed primarily by the National Service of the Empire for use in hazardous combat environments - not too dissimilar from their slave counterparts, The Shock Trooper. While the specific augments and implants vary from unit to unit, the core of the Alpha Units is that they are engineered not only for their warrior prowess and aggressive nature - but also for their intelligence and leadership skills. Taken from willing, loyal, recruits across the NSE and Imperial Armed Forces, Alpha Units have been selected for their abilities and skills to lead and train regular units in the varying combat situations that threaten the Phoenix's nest. Alpha Units have been distributed across the Continental-Unity Pact to nations like The River Republic, Valdacian Magedom, and North Oran, to train and equip local forces to counter and kill Belford-Aligned troops. Within the Avonian Empire's service, Alpha Units take the lead in counter-demonic operations, political repression, psychological warfare, close quarters combat, counter-terrorism operations, and any of the numerous highly dangerous combat situations that routinely threaten the integrity of the Avonian Empire.

The very best of the best, Alpha Lieutenants for example, are equipped with the ability to directly tap into the interfaces of the mind-controlling augments of nearby cybernetic-dragons, giving the Lieutenant the ability to command the normally autonomous lifeform directly from the frontline. This ability to command nearby synths extends even to sentries, giving a vital force multiplier to an Avonian fireteam. Thorough psychological conditioning has made these individuals die-hard loyalists to the Iron Phoenix, and with surgical precision, Alpha Units can easily dismantle even the most dangerous threats to the Empire. Conventional or Supernatural...

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