Story:Operation Guardian Angel

This mission is concurrent with Operation Raising Hell

Karnasaur
Etah was not amused.

He had his ceremonial robes on, en route to Karnas, and had to spend the trip with the most stuck-up alien he had ever met. He doubted all the good things Etah said about his species, his empire, him self. He disregarded them as bragging rants. He would see. Karnas truly was the msot beautiful planet... and Sauris was the most beautiful city Etah had ever seen. Provided you could breath a 78% nitrogen atmosphere, which was an invigorating yet safe breath of fresh air for Karnasaurs... but a little stuffy for the other, oxygen breathing races.

"Pyro, what gas does your species breath?"

"Oxygen. Why?"

"Karnasaurs are nitrogen breathing creatures. Karnas has a 20% oygen atmosphere, the rest is nitrogen. You may feel slightly suffocated and tired while on Karnas. The Hunres are affected the same way. You'll get used to it."

"All right, but let me get this straight: I'm going to be underground, killing insane extremists with bombs, and your gonna sit around and whistle a tune?"

Etah scoweled out of instinct.

"I will be singing an ancient song, a song sung by my ancestors, likely before your civilization left the ground. The whispers of kings long dead and every Karnasaur who ever lived past Cain's Coup are breathed in every word of that song. The very soul of my people, of Karnas herself is held in that 'little tune'".

"Cain's Coup?"

Etah's scowel turned to a grimace.

"An ancient legend; I won't bore you with the details, but... Baba Yetu's younger brother, Cain Yetu, was jealous of his brother's power. He staged a massive coup, killed the Son of Karnas, and claimed the throne. It was horrid; the greatest bloodline on Karnas snuffed out. Of course, the greatest coup in Sauran history was met with the greatest uprising in Sauran history the next day. The people rised up, killed Cain, mourned the true king, and decided to honor his legacy by setting up the meritocracy: Whoever proved themselves worthy of the throne, recieved it. No Karnasaur has ever been called 'king' ever again."

"But how do you decide who;s worthy?"

"Karnasaurs are naturall a proud race; but we acknowledge our superiors. No matter what. Cain failed to do that, and was killed the next day. If any Karnasaur, of any age, shows leadership, they are propelled higher and higher. Each tier, they elected by a council; first by popular vote, then by a council of peers. Up and up and up. If you reach the throne, the Emperor himself must step down to appoint you. But enough of Sauran government, I must be boring you."

"You said Cain didn't realize his superiors. How'd he beat his brother then?"

"He didn't. He snuck up from behind his brother and stabbed him in the heart, metaphorically and literally. He wouldn't have won a fair fight. That's why he failed to defeat the uprising. Ah, here we are: magna patria populi mei, The Great Home of my People; Karnas."

Pyro and Etah both looked outside thier transport. They were looking at a lush green world with vast seas, and were descending past the clouds, and when they cleared, Sauris, the Throne of Karnas, Capital of the Karnasaur Meritocratic Federation, was displaying all its beauty to them. Towering, glistening skyscrapers, golden in hue with the setting yellow sun, floods of black Karnasaurs in the streets, the Halls of Regality, palace to the Emperor when on Karnas, towering high above the streets, it's magnificent minarets rising above it's catherdral-like base, with it's great, mighty dome in the center. At the very top of the dome, looking out over all the lands of Yetu, was the Throne Room, Etah knew.

They left this splendorous sight as they descended further to a landing platform; huge swathes of Karnasaurs, sreaming in excitement and anticipation, were crowded behind force fences, with a walkway cleared in the street for Etah's undoubtedly monumentous ride to the Shrine of Yetu, where the Old Guardians, a asect of priests dedicated to protecting the remaining shards of Yetu's reign. would meet with him, pray with him, bless him, make sure he knew the song by heart as all Karnasaurs must, and make sure he fasted and was prepared for the ceremony that night. It was an overall 5 hour process from the exiting of the shuttle to Etah's entrance onto the stage to sing to the millions of Karnasaurs in the Shrine, and the billions waiting outside, and the trillions watching on the television. Every Karnasaur was going to watch him sing except those engaged in combat or can otherwise not watch him at all. Pyro had plently of time to ID and eliminate the extremists. Neutralizing the bombs they likely set in advance, however, would be the nail-biter, let alone any exremists intl may've missed. Pyro looked at the crowd.

"Looks like you've got quite the fan club."

"When you live for as long as I have, you generally get used to everyone knowing you on an almost personal level."

The shuttle door opened, and the full blast of the crowd hit them, To Pyro, it was annoying.

To Etah, it was home.

GHD
Pyro hopped out of the craft, and on to the ground. He began to pat himself down, checking for all of his gear, and dropped a sack onto the ground next to him. He tightened up all of his armor, and then hit a button on an armband of the suit. The whole thing started to glow blue, and then slowly the light became duller and duller as a strange substance seemingly built up on the armor.

"What's with your suite Pyro?" Etah asked curiously as he prepared for his ceremony.

"Infantry scaled neutron armor," Pyro said without stopping, taking out different pieces of equipment and clipping it onto his belt, "Nothing's gonna kill me unless it's got the word proton in front of it." Finally he pulled out his weapons, a large black metal sword, and clipped the hilt onto his belt; two small laser blasters; and an LR-3200, along with 8 fully loaded clips attached to a bandoleer. The rifle had a shoulder strap attached to it, and he whipped it around to his backside, and tightened up. The last thing he pulled out was a small ear-piece attached to a small transparent screen that flipped in front of his right eye.

"Locked and loaded," He said as he threw the bag and everything left in it back into the shuttle, "Is there going to be any help once I'm out there, or am I on my own for this?"

Karnasaur
"Unfortunately, I can't get anything I want from the Emperor. I requested Karnasaur Assassins to be sent to back you up, but Emperor Clar decided that he couldn't risk Assassins being seen in the Shrine's underlevels. 'It could cause massive public unrest about the Shrine's security'" Etah responded.

"Well if a bunch of terrorists can turn it into a sinkhole, pretty sure that you need some unrest about that."

"That was my argument. He already made up his mind though. You will, however, have the Old Guards." Etah gestured to the priests to his left, wearing ceremonial white robes, with red runes etched across them, hoods up.

"Great. What're they going to do, throw holy water and recite incantations?"

"We are unaware of how the priests in your empire go about thier mandate, but we use lethal methods on those who would threaten to destroy the Shrine." One of the priests hissed, almost whispered out. Etah always hated how they speak like that; he had seen some of the most insanity-spawning sights this galaxy has to offer, but no matter how many times he's worked with an Old Guard, thier voice always sends chills up his spines and makes his blood run cold for a few seconds. He looked at Pyro.

"So you know, these extremists are often very protectionalistic. If they must detonate the bombs in thier clothes to kill you, they will. Expect more than a few "gifts" rolling by your feet. But the number one rule is-"

"Don't let them set off the bombs, I know."

"No. That's priority one. Rule number one is to never get caught off guard. I've fought with these kinds of people before..." Etah began to sink into memories... well, more like be flooded by them. They rushed all at once, flashing by his eyes; the scar tissue on the Karnasaur's back, the laughing Karnasaur on the balcony, the daggar with long, flowing lines etched on its surface sticking out of his friend's back, the Karnasaur falling into the vat of necronis... suddenly, he snapped back to reality.

"I need to go. The rehearsal begins soon."

"You rehearse this?"

"To aquaint myself with the acoustics, as the reasoning goes, but the traditional reason is that I can call to Yetu, and give him my personal thanks and regards."

"You Karnasaurs really like your tradition."

"Indeed... Pyro, may ask you something?"

"Depends on what it is."

"I noticed that you and Admiral Cinder seem rather close. She referred to you for advice. Curiositas mea obest... do the GHD have rules against fraternization?"

"Yes. We're not close that way, Etah. And why do you keep talking like that?"

"What do y- Oh, yes. It's Sauran. I tend to start speaking it more when on Karnas. That phrase I said is translated to 'My curiousity is my bane'. Now, if you will answer me again-"

"No. You have a rehearsal, I have this freaking massive place to sweep by myself- twice. Ask me later." Pyro cut in. He hen proceeded to walk out into the Shrine's underlevels, with the Old Guards following him. Some stayed behind to atted to Etah's needs.

"Colonel, we do need you on the Shrine grounds for the rehearsal." One of the Old Guards said.

Etah smirked at the alien walking way from him, and thought in Sauran for the first time in a while.

Commemorat meae se paulo minor nimis.

He reminds me of my younger self a bit too much.

"Of course, Brother." Etah said as he turned around and walked off towards the Singer's Elevator.

GHD
Pyro jumped down into the underlevels off of a sort of balcony type area. He looked around, his eyepiece giving him a few different types of imaging as he made sure no-one was there. The old guards seemed to prefer the stairs, and walked down towards him before splitting up. As he began to run forwards, he saw a man walk across a hall, seemingly unaware of the dragon's pressense. "You, halt!" Pyro called out as he held his rifle aimed at the man.

The man stopped, dropped what he was carrying and ran back where he came from. Pyro wasted no time, and let a few charges fire form his weapon, decorating the underground walls with small craters as the target dodged the gunfire.

The dragon charged, and ran around the corner with great speed. Once the target was in clear site, he took aim and fired a single shot, hitting the man in the leg and dropping him to the ground. Pyro ran up to him, grabbing him by the collar and throwing him against a wall. "Alright you," he said to the captured target, "You're going to tell me where the rest of your little terrorist party is, and where you set up explosives."

"What explosives?" the man said back, rhetorically.

Pyro's mouth began to smoke up, the crackling noise of a fire brewing inside of him. "Oh..." the man said fearfully, "Those explosives... gladly..." The man pulled out a map from his pocket and handed it to Pyro. "Don't kill me... please?"

"That is not up to me," Pyro said as he took the map and ran off, looking for his first target.

Karnasaur
Etah perked up. The Old Guard around him did, too. They all smelled it:

Necronis.

It went by several names, but they all started the same. It was chemical that only affected Karnasaurs because of thier unique nitrogen-based physiology. It broke down Sauran cells into basic forms, making the poor victim seems to melt away. Gory, hideous, painful death it is. Fortunately, it only existed in liquid form and Karnasaurs could smell it a mile away. Someone was trying to assassinate Etah, but had done so poorly. Disregarding it, Etah tested the microphone before being sent into the massive coloseum-like Shrine grounds. He began to hear the music of the song... the beating of the drums... the tinkling of the bells... and he began to sing.

"Baba Yetu, yetu, lieu, mbinguili yetu yetu amenia, Baba Yetu, yetu-" He stopped suddenly. He felt a small vibration in the ground. A small explosion. The extremists were starting to roll gifts out... he was concerned, but he knew it meant that either Pyro or the Old Guards had engaged the enemy. Then his cybernetics focused on a target at the top of the Shrine walls. He zoomed in and saw a sniper. Only this wasn't a Hunre... it looked cybernetic. Upon focusing the zoom further, curiosity turned to shock which in turn turned to horror.

It wasn't a Hunre sniper.

It was a Kklxin scout watching him.

He knew he had to think fast; Kklxin on Karnas; it's never happened before. Then something smashed into him like a starship at FTL:

What if the Kklxin were helping the Hunre? It made sense... The Hunre to distract the team while he was left out in the open... the Shrine would be destroyed, the Karnasaurs would be devastated and go waste time and resources hunting down the Hunre. Etah would be incapacitated, easily captured... Of course, this was all speculation. He continued to sing, watching the Kklxin.

''Damn it, Pyro. Get your objective done, because this op just got alot more interesting''

GHD Empire
As Pyro ran through the underground halls, looking at the maps he had just been given, he stopped, and turned to look around, having come to where a bomb should have been located. "It should be here," he said aloud as he looked through the maps over and over. He suddenly stopped and turned around as he heard footsteps and clicks behind him. He turned araound to see a line of Kklxin soldiers with their weapons trained on him.

"I don't know who or what you all are," he said to them, "But you've got about 10 seconds to surrender yourselves, or I'll kill each and every one of you."

A few of the soldiers there chuckled as they prepared to fire. Pyro jumped back, wings unfolding as he flew backwards, breathing out a blast of flames before him and covering himself in smoke. He quickly landed further away and pulled his side arm quickly aiming and firing 9 shots and bringing 9 of the blindly firing soldiers to the ground.

"This is not good," he said to himself as he stayed low to the ground, "They knew we were coming, and where from." He clicked a few buttons on his wrist, and then ran back towards where he came from.

As he ran, he came across one of the elders who had come down with him. "Sir," he said in a very militaristic, objective driven tone, "Get your men out of here, I'm going to dust the tunnels."

"Dust?" the elder said in his odd voice, "I don't know what you mean by that, but very well." After speaking the elder went off to communicate and warn his brethren.

Pyro got to the tunnel exits where his U-150 was waiting for him. He tapped a few more buttons on his wrist band, and a missile popped out of the fighter's missile compartment. He took the missile and began to unpack a few of his things, loading them into the missile.

He returned the missile to his fighter and turned around to see the elders leaving the tunnel. "Just in time," he said, "This ought to smoke the little bastards out."

"I must now what it is you intend to do, our spontaneous ally," the first elder said to him. Right as he finished talking, Pyro hit a button and the missile fired into the tunnel.

"Don't look at the tunnel," Pyro said casually, "That stuff will sting your eyes like no tommorow. What it is, is simply a sand filled explosive." As he said that, a huge explosion sounded and dust and sand shot out of the tunnel exit. "It won't hurt anyone too badly unless their right next to the explosion, but the point is that the sand will create massive electromagnetic interference, and... temporarily stop anyone from detonating anything rigged down there. The game has changed, they were ready for us, which means that they probably have a backup plan ready above ground."

The elders stared at the hazey tunnel entrance, "You're insane," one of them said.

"Good, it takes a little insanity to be a good warrior," Pyro said as he hit a few more buttons and his fighter flew up and began to scan the city for signs of trouble.

While that was going on, a lone terrorist came running out of the tunnel with his hands to his face, caughing and screaming in agony, "Gaaah! My eyes!"

Pyro got up and pulled his pistol again, shooting him in the leg as he walked up to him. The man cried out at the pain and fell to the ground. At that, Pyro withdrew his weapon and pulled out a smaller water pouch, taking the victim by his head and forcing his eyes to stay opened while he washed them out with the water.

"I know that hurts," Pyro said to him as he held him still, putting the water away, "I think that we can find medics somewhere that can help you, but you're going to stay here and tell us where your men are; and no lies this time."

The man looked up at him through barely funcitoning eyes and swallowed, "Snipers... Kklxin snipers... ready to take out their target."

"Where are they?" Pyro asked mercilessly.

"The.. the shrine walls...." he said in pain.

"Where is that?" Pyro turned to ask the elders as he let the captive out oof his grip.

The elder he was looking at turned and pointed towards the structure, "Good luck getting there in time," he said, "You'll need it."

"Luck..." Pyro scoffed, "That's what this is for," he said as he hit a few more buttons on his arm band. Very quickly, his fighter flew by and was hovering in front of the sniper. "The sand haze should last for another 20 minutes or so," he finished off, "After that, the little terrorist party will be able to set off their explosions, so as soon as this guy is done with his little song, there should be an army ready to move down into the tunnels."

"Don't you think any of this is a little excessive," the elder said to him.

"There's no such thing as excessive force when it comes to our people," Pyro said, "If I had it my way, I'd have just used a fuel air explosion to scorch out the whole tunnels. The only reason I didn't open with the dusting was because I wanted to make sure I was getting all good information from everyone here."

Karnasaur
Etah had just finighed his rehearsal when an Old Guard approached him.

"Colonel, I believe that your companion would like to communicate with you." The Old Guard said as he handed Etah a holo-comm.

Once Pyro's image fizzed into focus, he began talking.

"Etah. Things just got alot more interesting."

"I know. The Kklxin are here. I doubt that this is a coincidence. I think that our dear old friend Renr has concocted another plan to get me into his grasp."

"Renr?"

Etah felt the sting at his heart again.

"Yes... an old comrade of mine. He was captured by the Grox shortly before thier termination, and was... implanted. Heavily, by my guess. He now works to secure the members of the GSSOC Team for some reason, with a particular interest in me. And I am not bragging. Ask Tholker or Ahrganot when we see them again. He orchestrated the Genodraco attacks by controlling the General Drakko, and now he is orchestrating the Kklxin attacks."

"So, you're saying that he's a cybernetic Karnasaur who somehow has come to control the two most dangerous, non-politically affiliated forces in this galaxy, and is currently going to great lengths, includingthe destruction of his people's most sacred grounds... This happen often around this universe?"

"Eh, every century or so some mastermind hatches some brilliant plan to take over the Galaxy only to be foiled by some fatal flaw in his plan. Only this time, there is no fatal flaw; only weak links in the strategy. Have you dealt with the extremists?"

"Generally. I detonated a sand-filled explosive. It-"

"I'm familiar with the design. I did a bit of engineering in my free time. Disorients everyone in the tunnels, intereferes with electromagentics... et cetera. I take it you'll be leaving the explosives the the Old Guard, then?"

"Pretty much. I already told them to-"

Suddenly, a shout was heard on Pyro's side. Pyro looked and the last thing the transmitter sent was a holographic image of Pyro getting hit by an explosion from the right. The image fizzed out.

"Pyro!" Etah shouted. He looked at the Old Guard.

"How much longer until the ceremony begins?"

"One standard hour and 30 standard minutes."

"Plenty of time. Get me down there, I need to check on him!"

"As you command, Colonel."

The elevator took him down. He asked the nearest Old Guard where Pyro was. He pointed him towards the place where Pyro put his fighter. Etah immediatly dropped to all fours and sprinted. The haze was heavy, his lungs were burning, and his eyes stung, but he refused to leave a team mate to die. When he reached the chamber, a battle was going on between the Old Guard and Kklxin forces. Pyro was behind the Old Guard line, on the floor; while the explosion didn't manage to pierce his neutron armor, it was heavily weakened, and piece of his right shin plating had cracked and implanted it's metal edge into Pyro's leg. In addition, the right side of his face was charred and a few small pieces of shrapnel manaed to dig into his scales, along with his whole right side being bruiesed up under his armor.

"Etah? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I never leave a comrade to die. Never."

He then began to administer first aid to the GHD, hoping that his lack of knowledge on GHD physiology wouldn't be a heavy issue. Etah reached for a first aid kit that had fallen out of Pyro's gear and dug through it trying to make estimated guesses as to what would be useful. Pyro turned 'round and used his good arm to dig through the kit, pulled out a few things, shoving them in Etah's arms, "This will stop the bleeding and act as a painkiller, this shot will help the shock damage, this metal brace is for my leg, its broken," he said, naming them off so that Etah could make better use of them.

"You got it," Etah responded as hen started working.

Once finished going through it, he shook his right arm a bit to try and pull it out of its twitching numbness before he unfastened his shin guard, and pulled it off and out of his leg whilst biting back a scream of aganoy. He took some more of the medical equipment from the kit while leaving his leg to Etah, and began slowly pulling the shrapnel out of his face. Etah dumped a powdery substance Pyro has given him across his leg wound, which began foaming up and plugging the bleeding up, he then looked up, and waited for Pyro to finish pulling out a piece of shrapnel to inject the shot into his gut. Pyro cried out briefly and then glared at him, "A little warning would be nice..." he retorted before grabbing another packet of power and smearing it over his bloody face.

After that much was done, Pyro tossed Etah his rifle and himself took out his side-arm, backing away and slowly getting up, leaning against a wall behind him to continue firing. One by one, a charge of about 10 terrorists was shot down and dropped to the floor. "What's the situation?" Etah asked one of the old guards.

"The situation here is resolved for the most part. Just get those explosives. Pyro's taken care of the snipers. I doubt that Renr planned any more surprises; he likely planned the snipers and explosives to be a two-pronged attack and a double-assurance. I'll hail GSSOC HQ to pick him up and get him back to the Bunker. There's better medical equipment there. I'll have to depart after the ceremony to tend to him further."

"No," Pyro said, "I'm fine as it is; Etah, since we needed to make plans to go meet with Admiral Cinder, we ought to head straight there after your cermony is over. I'll get a medical professional knowledgable with my species to finish me up." After he finished talking, he picked up his dropped equipment, repacking it and heading out, "I suppose the HQ would be more entertaining though..."

"Alright," Etah said, "We'll meet back there." Etah turned and left for the grounds again. When he got there, the Shrine was filled with people. The Ceremony commenced.

Outroduction
After conclusing their debriefings, the GSSOC Team was unwinding for a minute in the Bunker. They were watching the news to see how things were progressing. Pretty soon, a bulletin appeared. The Karnasaur anchor says:

"In other news, it seems that today's Ceremony at the Shrine was given a secret shock: Hunre extremists were preparing to set off explosive devices in the hopes of destroying the Shrine of Yetu on Karnas. Also, it seems that Hashaeon snipers were in place in an attempt to assassinate Colonel Etah. However, both attempts were thwarted by the efforts of the rumored "Galactic Senate Special Operations Corp", a multi-species team comprised of the Galaxy's best dedicated to galactic stability. Rumored members of the team include Colonel Etah himself, the Eteno Tholker Zheviet, Dhragolon Ahrganot Skizgo, and an unknown fourth member who was present in the catacombs under the Shrine."

"Not only that, but it appears that Kklixin attacks have resumed with an assault on an Eteno particle accelerator. The Eteno and Dhragolon members of the GSSOC Team were rumored to have played a role in the defense of the facility along with the destruction of the sphere."

"In addition, it seems that the fiasco over one of the Eteno colonies where a crippled fleet of massive warships mysteriously appeared has ended. The official statement is that the fleet was nothing but an Eteno training exercise to see how the Eteno Navy can handle a sudden invasion. Officials list the exercise as a success."

When the anchor was finished, Etah and Pyro, who was in a wheelchair and was bound to it for the next few days until his leg healed, upped and readied to leave.

"Where're you guy's headed?" Tholker asked.

"Pyro needs a medical expert in for his own race and I need to speak with Admiral Cinder on Arckas; we both need to got to Arckas."

"Huh... well, get back soon. I'm sure we'll have another mission quickly." Tholker replied.

"Relax. Renr has lost an entire army; it'll be weeks before he can fully replenish his forces. We have plenty of time to find out where he's cloning the bastards. In the mean time, I think I could use some R&R." Etah proclaimed.

"Eh. It'd be nice to go a week without getting shot at." Said Tholker.

"Or narrowly evading plummeting to my death." Adds Ahrganot.

"Come, Pyro. Have you been through a wormhole before?" Etah asked, as he walks away, pushing Pyro's wheelchair.