Story:Operation Dragonslayer

Operation Dragonslayer was a GSSOC mission involving the investigation towards the recent strange activities of the Genodraco Legion.

Introduction
"So what you are saying is that some genetic super soldiers are causing havoc for no apparent reason?" Tholker ranted.

Ahrganot replied, "This is odd indeed. Who knows what they could do? Better yet, why are they doing that?"

Grandmaster Ckeros Aldorus replied, "That's why you are on this mission. We made a non-aggression pact with these Genodraco, and they have loyally upheld it for the past 4,000 years. Capturing one of each member of the Alpha class is crucial in determining why they are acting strangely."

Etah said, "I'm sure we can handle this. I'd like to see how well I hold up to one of these Genodraco. Just how strong are they?"

The Grandmaster replied, "Don't underestimate them at all costs. Countless Dhragolon warriors gave their lives to suppress these creatures all those centuries ago. The shuttle to the bait colony Eska will leave in fifteen minutes so be sure you are ready."

Part 1: A Taste of the Genodraco
Several hours later, the shuttle set down on the rough ground of the bait colony. Tholker waltzed off first, his mind on distant things. After the previous mission, he had discovered he was quite adept at using blunt instruments to cause unprecedented amounts of pain. He had a heavy metal club strapped to his back, which was aptly named Hitstick von Headcrasher by one of The Bunker's security guards, and cradled his assault rifle as he walked around.

"Alright, let's move to the ambush base." Etah said as he walked off the shuttle shortly before it raised its ramp.

"Alright."

"Cool."

The trio checked Tholker's UPS (Universal Positioning System) and started off towards the ambush location. Already, they could see Genodraco in the atmosphere. They quickly advanced towards their base on the outskirts of town only to find a Genodraco advance scout loitering around the general location. However, it had not noticed the three yet.

Tholker signaled for the two to wait and the short soldier stealthily advanced on the back of the Dragonof. When he was close enough, he lept onto the back of the much taller creature. He immediately cut off its wings with his switchblade and then drew his club. Before the Dragonof could respond, it was being choked. Unfortunately for Zhevhyit, he had underestimated the strength of the Genodraco. It managed to throw him over its shoulder. However, Tholker rolled and stopped in a crouched position, ready to strike. Etah decided to help and shot close to the Dragonof. It turned for a quick second, and was promptly killed by a quick, hard hit with the metal club. Tholker grinned and picked up some teeth that had fallen out of the creature's mouth.

"I am definitely making a necklace outta the teeth of my foes." He said casually as Etah and Ahrganot walked towards him.

Etah couldn't help but laugh. In ancient Sauran culture, in the Pre-Yetu era before Yetu led the Elican tribes to civilization, warriors were encouraged to make necklaces out of their victims body parts; teeth, claws, wingtips, etc. It was believed this bound the soul of the victim to the wearer of the necklace, giving the wearer a blessing of sorts; if the soul was intelligent, it was believed that the warrior will become more intelligent as long as he wear the necklace. The elites often began to implement this into their armor; they would have spikes jutting out of their armor which have a sense of lethality.

When his team asked why he was laughing so hard, he explained the whole thing, but tried to keep it short. He ended with, "Maybe it'll make you taller, Tholker" which was promptly responded to by a jeering pain in his shin.

"Ah, now then, enough of this nonsense. Let’s get into position. These Genodraco will regret their recent aggression." Etah said.

They gathered in the ambush base, waiting for more Genodraco to arrive. Sure enough, a large group landed near their hideaway, with a larger, well equipped Genodraco at their head.

"Alpha Mech," Ahgranot stated.

"Hm. I have an idea. Tholker, get von Headsmasher ready. Ahrganot, lay down distracting fire." Etah said.

"Are you mad? You're going to charge them?" Ahgranot questioned, baffled at Etah's brashness.

"Of course not. I'm going to rush them." Etah responded.

The next thing that happened was debated by all three squadmates to this day. Ahgranot says Etah jumped out of cover, made a dash for the nearest Genodraco, easily snapped its head, and repeated the process with Tholker smashing Genodraco heads in until all that was left was the Alpha, with Tholker promptly knocking it out.

Etah says Tholker jumped out, smashed a few skulls, and then he jumped out and snapped several necks, until Ahgranot made a tranquilizing shot at the Alpha.

Tholker insists that Ahgranot did nothing, Etah jumped out, was shot at repeatedly, until Tholker jumped out and smashed a few skulls, which ended in Etah punching out the Alpha.

Whatever happened, the Alpha Mech was subdued and secured.

"That's one down. Five to go," Tholker said. The Alpha Mech was taken to a ship in the upper atmosphere via tractor beam.

The three of them looked over the mountain dotted horizon just below the two, red menacing moons Torva and Atrox. Tons of buildings suddenly collapsed which left their jaws dropping in awe. Tholker exclaimed, "What just happened to that city?"

Ahrganot spoke through his radio to a ship in the upper atmosphere. "Ahrganot to Batra. Do you read me? Over."

"I read you Ahrganot. Over."

"I need a status report of the cities on this planet. One of them has just been destroyed."

"The Genodraco have destroyed 25% of all structures on this planet. You guys had better hurry or else our efforts will be wasted."

"Copy that. Over and out." Ahrganot replied.

Ahrganot said, "Wow, I had never realized how quickly these Genodraco can move. We better split up if we are ever going to have a chance against these guys. And we better move fast."

Tholker said, "Are you kidding? It took the three of us to just capture the weakest one of these guys."

Etah said, "Look, we were chosen for this mission for a reason. It's because we are the only ones who actually have a chance. But if we are going to split up, how we might we go about this?"

Ahrganot said, "Here's what I think we should do. I'll go after the Alpha Dragonof and the Alpha Zands since they are much taller than most of the other ones. Tholker, you go after the Alpha Splinter and the Alpha Diablo. It seems that you are good at handling opponents with a body structure such as theirs. Etah, that leaves you with the big guy: the General Drakko."

Etah replied, "The General Drakko, huh? Fair enough."

"Oh and what a coincidence," Tholker said looking at his map. "There's three of us and there's three nearby cities that haven't been destroyed: Cities 726, 119 and 417. We can start our searches in those cities."

"Alright then. Let's hurry before this whole planet gets turned to rubble," Ahrganot said. The three of them headed off in separate directions. Ahrganot went to City 726, Tholker to City 119, and Etah to City 417.

Tholker
Tholker quickly looked around for a way to get to his target location, and locked his eyes on a nearby fuel truck that sat unmoving and driverless, only placed for the purpose of convincing the Genodraco rogues that this was an actual city. Zhevhyit rushed towards it and lept inside after smashing the window with Hitstick von Headcrasher. Finding the key in the ignition, Tholker turned it and then noticed with disdain that he was going to have trouble driving if he couldn't reach the pedal with his foot while being able to see out the window. He looked around frantically and grabbed a small, heavy box and placed it on the gas pedal. The truck jolted forward and then went off at surprisingly great speed. Tholker looked to his UPS and then turned the truck so that it sped towards a large group of Alpha Zands. If these were his targets, he might have gone for a less lethal approach than the one he was planning. However, he was far shorter than these Genodraco, and he thought that it would be better if he caused a big distraction for him to sneak up on his actual targets. He neared his objective, and made a loud exclamation out of the window of the vehicle before kicking out the door and leaping out into a small plot of grass.

"The underworld has accepted your request for permanent residence!"

The truck plowed through dozens of Genodraco and then stopped and exploded as it hit an exposed sphere. The blast sent the body parts of many enemies towards Tholker. He smiled as the limbs piled around him. However, he had matters of great importance in mind. The short soldier dashed towards cover, and near a group of Diablos. Fortunately, they had not seen him. He produced a few knives from his belt and threw them in a flurry of sharp metal at the backs of all but one. They fell in pain, but were put out of their misery as Tholker promptly moved in and smashed their heads in with his club. To Zhevhyit, this was a more than merciful act. He noticed his target running for cover from the knives he thought were still coming.

"Hey tall, fat, and ugly! Get back here!"

Silly Genodraco. It tried to run, but Tholker managed to hit it in the neck with a shock cord. The fleeing enemy collapsed and writhed in pain on the ground, electricity coursing through its body. Zhevhyit signaled for the ship in orbit to beam it up, and a radiant blue column extended a few meters above the writhing body and soon disappeared with the soldier. He continued on, only finding corpses from his stunt a few minutes prior. This really disappointed him. He ran around the skeleton town, looking for any signs of an Alpha Splinter. The majority of the force in the town seemed to be Mechs and Zands. He tried to stay stealthy, and trick the soldiers into their death, but always kept a firm grip on his handgun for when he was seen without him allowing the Genodraco to. Finally, after much searching, the short-statured supersoldier spotted a Splinter on a rooftop. Tholker grinned, and slipped into the building the Splinter was perched on. He slithered past two Mech guards and walked slowly down a corridor that led to an emergency staircase.

Holy...

Zhevhyit pressed himself quickly but quietly to a wall as a Genodraco walked by, absorbed in some papers. Probably only by Marana's blessing, the Genodraco (stupidly) did not notice him. However, an officer on his kill list would be rather flattering.

It was a quick, painless kill. The baton-like weapon smashed the officer's head in, and a quick-draw of his pistol ensured the deaths of two more Mechs guarding the room. When his quick business was done, Tholker started to run up the stairs.

Tholker began to dash up the staircase, but immediately ran back to the officer he killed seconds ago to collect the papers he was so absorbed in. The linguist skimmed over them quickly, and found that not only did the Genodraco know they were here, they were after Etah.

"Oh, wonderful. I better finish up here and help out the tall guy."

Zhevhyit sprinted up the stairs, smashing the heads of any Genodraco unfortunate enough to be in the building. Tholker reached the fire door at the very top of the staircase, and pulled out his assault rifle.

"Alright, here we go..."

The short Eteno slammed a curved explosive charge on the door, and turned his back to the door while covering his head. The charge annihilated the door and sent it flying off of the building, bringing a few Mechs with it. Tholker charged out onto the roof and fired at everything except the Splinter, which stood calmly by as his shocked comrades fell dead.

"Alright, fatty, get on the ground!"

The Splinter ripped out a laser pistol and fired at Tholker, prompting him to dive behind a useless, skeleton of a vent. The second it was shot, it fell over on Zhevhyit.

"Schohslung!"

Fortunately, Tholker collected himself and fired at the Splinter's legs. The Genodraco collapsed, and screamed in pain.

"Alright, beam up mister tall fat."

Ahrganot
Ahrganot had soon approached City 726. He climbed to the top of a four story building to try to search for the Alpha Dragonof and the Alpha Zands. Not long after, a Genodraco pod burst from the ground, releasing a whole army into the city. Then, he spotted one of the ones he was looking for.

He tried a rather reckless strategy. Ahrganot spotted four towers arranged in a square formation at each of the corners of the city. These were much taller compared to the rest of the other buildings, so he used his agility and blinding speed to travel to each of these towers and destroy their foundations which would knock them over and isolate some Genodraco.

"Let's see them get out of this one." In fact, such towers were designed for such purpose; the lower parts of the tower were weak, but the upper areas were incredibly strong and were wide enough so that the Genodraco could not fly over it. Ahrganot estimated that any trapped Genodraco would break through the barriers in ten minutes.

The Alpha Zands had jet packs though. It activated them and attempted to fly over the knocked-over towers. However, this gave Ahrganot the opportunity to attack as the Alpha Zands isolated itself. Ahrganot climbed to the top of the fallen tower, and dived, tackling the Alpha Zands, cut its wings off and destroyed its jet packs. The Zands, however, picked up a piece of rubble, a metal beam, and began to melee him. Ahrganot was much faster than the Zands, managing to avoid most of its attacks, but he couldn't quite penetrate its rough hide.

The fight was very tough. Ahrganot was much stronger than the average Dhragolon so he managed to put up quite a fight. Then through sheer luck, he managed to cut off one of the Alpha Zands' legs, rendering it immobile. The ship Batra drew closer and took the Zands aboard with the tractor beam.

"That's another one down. Now, I need to find the Alpha Dragonof."

Ahrganot was amidst the crumbling City 726 as ruined buildings and skyscrapers surrounded him. Time was running out and the Genodraco were about to retreat to their sphere. Fortunately, with his sharp eyes, he spotted an Alpha Dragonof. Charging towards it, he drove the sword into the Dragonof's chest, but just missed its heart. The Dragonof jumped over his head and attempted to parry him, but Ahrganot swiftly avoided it. The Dragonof was fast as well and Ahrganot found himself dodging its attacks rather than hitting it.

The fight eventually took them to the top of a skyscraper, the only one still standing in the whole city. Ahrganot was getting exhausted and became rather reckless. He took a few slashes to his face leaving a scar across his left eye. Fortunately, the bleeding was not terrible, but the gash was still deep. Then, he took several more beatings, crippling his right arm.

Being almost mortally wounded, Ahrganot harnessed his remaining power using an ancient technique passed down by his ancestors: the Malinian Ice Rage. His scales suddenly locked up and the air around him began to cool. Ahrganot lunged forward with his sword one last time, driving it in the Dragnof's shoulder, but this time, the Genodraco's blood was frozen solid. The unconscious, frozen creature was taken aboard the Batra with a tractor beam.

As Ahrganot collapsed, he spotted an enormous ship obscured in the distance by the deathly smoke. It had menacing, outer architecture: it was Oculus. The building he lay upon became unstable and was about to fall over. Ahrganot uttered a prayer as the skyscraper leaned over and became free from its foundation.

As Ahrganot fell with the collapsing skyscraper, he saw visions of happiness and satisfaction. He could see Kray almost welcoming him. However, the image suddenly turned to darkness. As he awoke lying on the ground (his wings breaking his fall) he saw a dark cloaked figure.

"Ah good. You are still alive."

Ahrganot's eyes barely opened. He managed to stand up and say, "Who...who are you?"

The figure was about as tall as him. "Where is Etah?"

"I am not obligated to tell you that if I knew."

The figure quickly went up to him holding a dagger up to his throat. "Tell me, or else I'll paint my dagger red with your blood."

Ahrganot was still weak and could not fight back. "Last time I checked, he's probably aboard that giant ship in the sky."

"Bah! Those wretched Harbingers again. Such a thorn on our side. But I can't let you live as you already know too much."

Ahrganot, sensing danger, managed to re-energize himself by absorbing heat from the sun and quickly dodged the figures stab. As the brief fight continued, Ahrganot knocked the figure in the face, unveiling its hood revealing it to be a Dhragolon. Ahrganot was awed. This Dhragolon somehow reminded him of his brother, but was not quite like him.

"A…Dark Warrior? But how?  I thought your kind was destroyed in the Second Era!"

"Hmmm…you could be of use later on. We shall meet again." When Ahrganot turned his head, the figure was gone having seemingly vanished into thin air. With his strength back, he managed to beam himself aboard the Oculus via the Batra and see what was taking Etah so long.

Ahrganot would not have enough energy and strength to help Etah in the fight so when he got there, he would wait in the darkness.

Etah
Etah was enjoying himself. He knew where the General Drakko would be, safely far behind Genodraco lines. He had managed to follow a squad of Genodraco and brought a straggler into the shadows. Pulling it away, he proceeded to pummel and claw at it. He only needed to know the absolute location of the General in order to capture him.

The Genodraco, a Diablo, was borderline meat before he broke.

"Please! Enough!" The Genodraco begged.

"Tell me where the General Draco is, and I'll consider letting you live."

"I... I don't know where he is-"

Etah raised his claw.

"Wait! B-But I know where he'll be! A Harbingers ship, entering orbit soon. He'll be beamed on board to speak to... to someone, I don't know who, but someone important! If you want him, you'll have to board that ship!"

"How will I know when it enters orbit?"

"Oh, you'll know. I've seen it, it’s huge! Larger than this planet's largest city!"

Etah thought over the Genodraco's account of the ship, and something sprang to mind. He immediately grabbed the Genodraco by the head and snapped its neck.

Etah then looked to the sky, knowing the ship would arrive soon. Sure enough, it exited FTL over the planet, a black behemoth faded by distance and sky. The enormous ship Oculus entered the atmosphere. Its command center on the underside was a great red eye staring at the planet's surface.

A beam of light extending down to the surface announced the General Draco's ascension, and Etah thought quick so as to not lose his quarry to FTL. He used his wrist computer to signal for a wormhole to open at co-ordinates that would allow Etah to enter the Oculus quickly, allowing him, hopefully, to see the being the General was conversing with.

As the wormhole opened, Etah activated his stealth, sending arcs of energy across his body shortly before a few patches of him were gone, and those patches grew until he was nothing but wavy air. He stepped through the portal into the ship's Oculus, fully stealthed, undetected.

He heard the General, and followed the sound to the Comm Room door, where the General was entering the room.

Quickly, and with the grace and agility of a Karnasaur Assassin, he slipped through the door before it slid shut.

Etah was seeing the impossible.

The General Drakko was walking toward the center of the Oculus, the precise center of the ship itself. He stopped a few feet short of a holoprojector and kneeled.

"The General shouldn't kneel to anyone," Thought Etah.

The projector sprung to life as a cloaked figure came into view. Etah couldn't tell what species, just that it was humanoid. The General spoke first.

"My master," The General said in a strangely formal, even intimidated voice. "The cities crumble before us. But I am losing communication with some of my Alphas."

When the cloaked figure spoke, Etah couldn't believe his ears.

In a raspy, hoarse voice, the figure said, "It does not matter. They are expendable. The only thing we need is the GSSOC Team. Not even the Eteno or Dhragolon. It is only Etah that interests me."

But Etah wasn't in disbelief at the figure's sole interest in him, he understood that, or even his understanding GSSOC was even here. He knew this figure. His voice. His contacts.

Renr Gron.

Thousands of standard years ago, Etah served with a Karnasaur ELICAN V.2, a product of the V.2 ELICAN Program, a failed attempt at making more, cheaper ELICANS. They were definitely supersoldiers, but they were incomparable to Etah's ELICANS. During a Hi-Risk mission in the Core to extract intel from a Harbingers mainframe, Renr was captured shortly after uploading the intel to Etah's wrist computer, which he used to save several lives. He was officially declared KIA. Renr was the finest Karnasaur Etah knew at the time, he would never betray the Galaxy, which leads to one conclusion:

Before they were exterminated, the Harbingers... implanted him.

The General Drakko responds. "Yes my lord, but they are elusive. I have heard reports of the Eteno and Dhragolon, but the Karnasaur is but a shadow in the darkness."

"I do not care. Find him, or at least his friends. We have destroyed several cities to coax them out, and now that they are finally here, I will not let them slip through our grasp. Do you understand, General?"

"Y-yes, my lord." They General manages to babble out.

"Good. You know the price of failure." The figure, Renr, faded out. Transmission ended.

Etah, always one for theatrics if it doesn’t affect efficiency, sat down in a nearby chair.

The General sent a message on his radio, "All units, re-double your efforts, find the Karnasaur, or at least his little friends."

Etah decided this was a good time to decloak.

Sitting on a chair, one leg over the other, the whole scene look like the General was invading the elusive mastermind's lair.

"General Drakko. Nice to finally meet your acquaintance. A shame your little Sauran friend couldn’t join us in person, he would've been so much more helpful."

The General looked comically shocked.

"Karnasaur! How dare you invade this place! The master will surely rain praise on me when I bring him your corpse!" The General exclaimed as he whipped out his pistol.

Etah help up a finger and waved it back and forth.

"Ah, ah, ah. I'm wanted alive, remember. So are you. It seems we are at an impasse. What say we just throw our weapons aside and see who nature... or rather, nature and a few scientists designed more superiorly." Etah taunted.

Throwing his pistol aside, the Drakko dashed at Etah, roaring, just missing a blow. Etah moved aside and, with the grace of an angel, tripped the General over and turned to face him. A the General rose to his feet, Etah sped at him, only to be surprised at the General's speed and dexterity; in his position, it would be impossible to be able to land a backhand slap as powerful as it was. Crashing into a wall, Etah recovered quickly, but not quickly enough. The General was right there, landing several blows into Etah’s gut, followed by a painful uppercut to Etah's skull, right in a Sauran's weak spot: under the chin was a bundle of muscles and nerves that control a Karnasaurs general face movement. Disoriented by being unable to breathe or refocus his eyes, the General threw him aside, hard, into the ground. Something happened then that hadn't happened for several thousand years: Etah's skull broke. He felt the bone shatter against the ground. Etah prayed it wasn't lethal, not yet any way. He had to stop the General's slaughter. Gathering his strength, he stood, weakly, and stared the General down. Then, another rare occurrence happened: Etah entered a blood haze, a rare frenzy experienced only by Karnasaurs. A small gland located in the Sauran brain produces a sort of hyper adrenaline, activating a killing frenzy not seen since Karnasaurs gained a frontal lobe. Only 10% of Karnasaurs still had a so-called "kill gland", and only 1% of them had an active one. 0.1% of them ever experienced a blood haze. It was an exciting thing, the kind of heart-stopping, mind-numbing, toe-curdling vigor experienced nowhere else. The world turned red, and all that existed was the General Drakko. Etah forgot he had a body, he could feel the blood flowing to his eyes, turning them red and the world he was in. He let loose a bestial roar unheard of in modern Sauran society, not even the Brotherhood of Beastials (a Sauran cult dedicated to balancing animalistic and modern thought) could match it. He sped at the General with the speed of sound, instantly smashing him against the wall. He ripped him from the dent he made, jumped up, General's neck in hand, and threw the General upward, smashing him into the ceiling, Etah jumped and caught the General before he dropped too far, grabbed a dangling pipe, turned, and slinged the general into the red glass below. Tempered as it was, it cracked all across. Dropping down, landing on both feet with the grace of an angel once more, Etah felt his rage ending, the world losing its red haze, his eyes loosing their blood. He walked over to the still breathing General, who moaned.

Etah stared at him and said, "I win."

A voice rang out, Ahrganot's. "Remind me to never get you angry"

Part 3: One Last Obstacle
Thump Bang Smash 

"aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Tholker plummeted from a ceiling vent, busted through the grate, and crashed into the ground with a loud thud, nearly giving his comrades heart attacks.

"Where in the name of Kray did you come from!?" Ahrganot asked, surprised.

Slowly climbing to his feet and collecting everything that went astray from the long fall, Tholker looked up and replied to the Dhragolon's query.

"That vent."

Etah and Ahrganot sighed. Etah walked back to Drakko and radioed the Batra.

"Beam up Drakko, and let's get outta here."

"We can't! We're under attack by two unidentified destroyers and our power supply is damaged!"

"Agh. How wonderful."

Etah turned off his radio and picked up Drakko, hoisting him over his shoulder.

"We'd better get going. There's got to be an escape pod or something. We'll have to hide out somewhere on the surface until we can signal one of our fleets." The Karnasaur commanded.

"Alright, let's go-"

BOOOOOM

"What was that!?!" Ahrganot yelled.

"Well, I uh... I didn't expect us not being able to be teleported off of the ship, so I set a few explosive charges in the magazine and engine bay when I was teleported aboard. Please don't go berserk, Etah."

"Then we gotta mo-"

BOOOOOM

Again, the mighty Oculus shook and shuddered. One of the circuits in the wall blew and sent shards of metal flying everywhere. One of these shards flew through Zhevhyit's arm, prompting him to clutch the entry and exit wounds on his right arm with his left hand.

"Motherra... are you seriously injured?" Etah yelled.

"Yeah, no. I'll be fine."

"You sure? Lemme check."

"No, I'm-"

Ahrganot walked up to Tholker and removed his hand. He discovered black ooze seeping from the wounds and the Eteno's hand pervaded with the liquid.

"What is that!?"

"Ahh... motor... oil. Listen, we don't have time for this! I'll explain later! There are two cruisers, a battleship, and a light carrier from my nation's navy near this system! I'll try to call them in with my Ham Radio!"

The ship began to rapidly descend as the engines had blown up. Soon, the three of them stumbled upon an escape pod. However, it was only large enough for two people.

"Well that's just great. Are you sure there's not another escape pod on this ship," Tholker said.

Etah replied, "The rest of them are taken. One of us is going to stay behind."

Ahrganot replied, "I've got wings. I'll be fine."

"You're kidding, right? We're 20,000 feet in the air and you are injured. It's suicide!" said Tholker.

"Tholker, you really shouldn't underestimate me. None of us have parachutes, and I'm the only one here that can actually survive this."

"If you say so. Do what you want."

The escape pod detached, leaving Ahrganot behind. He crawled through the tunnel which was unblocked by the escape pod and jumped from the ship. Not long, the Oculus violently exploded sending debris in all directions and blowing Ahrganot away like an insect in a hurricane. Ahrganot closed his eyes and let himself fall.

Approximately 5 minutes later, Ahrganot awoke about 500 feet above the ground. He spread his wings to break the fall, but his wings got caught in a tree. Although his great fall was broken by a little, his next fall, from the tree to the ground knocked him unconscious breaking his communicator. A shadowy figure passed by soon after noticing his hand was covered in motor oil from Tholker.

"Ah. What a coincidence. Just what we need" said the figure who then took a sample. The figure hesitated, "Wait, is this man alive? He has no pulse. I imagine he will not survive long on this planet. Besides, he isn't needed for the plan. I was only told to recover DNA from the one who bears motor oil." Soon after, the figure disappeared.

Ahrganot slowly awoke with a terrible headache. His telepathic abilities were not working. Then, he looked up to the sky and could see the Batra and a few other cruisers take off leaving him behind on the planet Eska. He concluded that Tholker and Etah assumed him to be dead. Stuck on a torn apart, backwater world with not civilization and little resources, he spent the whole day looking for shelter and possible ways to heal his head injury.

Three weeks later, Ahrganot managed to contact a nearby Senate ship which later picked him up. Surprisingly, Tholker and Etah were aboard.

Etah dealt a punch which knocked him back at least twelve feet, "Don't you ever do that again! That was uncalled for and reckless."

"Hey, now. I don't want you guys tearing up this ship more than what the Genodraco did to Eska," Tholker said.

Ahrganot said, "He's right. So what sort of information did you gain from the Genodraco?"

Tholker replied, "This is bad. Very bad actually. We were too late. The Kklxin appear to have reverse engineered Genodraco technology to clone themselves and build massive armies. The Eteno colony Elariun has been utterly ravaged from them. Now there's rumor of odd patterns of Kklxin attacks in the middle of Eteno territory."

Ahrganot said, "Oh Kray. This does not sound well at all."

Etah said, "It gets even worse. The Kklxin seem to have been using Harbinger technology to their advantage."

Ahrganot said, "Really? How so?"

Etah walked over to a nearby chair and asked for his family heirloom to be beamed over. next thing he knew, there it was: A gunpowder weapon dated to the Yetun era. He began cleaning it out. He found this distanced hi from bad memories when he had to surface them.

"As you know, the Harbingers are no longer an empire. However, a colleague... an associate rather, of mine, was captured before they collapsed. They seem to have implanted him and transformed him into a warped, twisted, reversed version of himself. The General Drakko was reporting directly to him. The General revealed, after several hours on the electric chair, that this..." Etah paused, looking for a word to use to describe the shell that remained of his squadmate.

"This... thrall, this... monstrosity, this... aberration, has taken a particular and sole interest in me. The General, however, honestly does not know why. He was but a Knight in the game to run a few pawns while the King prepares his final strategy. The Kklixin, I believe are under his direct control, but at the same time, there are usually two Knights in a game. We have extinguished the threat of the General Drakko and his rook, the Oculus, but now, we aim for the other side of the-"

"Etah, could you please end the whole chess game analogy. I don't play it and you lost me when the General became a knight." Tholker rang out.

Etah, unfortunately, had finished cleaning the gun until the point he would just pollute the barrel with more cleaner. He sighed, and something about it troubled his teammates. Suddenly a Karnasaur entered the room.

"Colonel Etah, sir. I have a message for you and your team. Kklixin attacks have momentarily stopped. Completely. For the past few hours actually." "Good. It seems our King has decided to pull his remaining troops back into safety. But why- Wait. Of course. He has just learned of the Drakko's failure. Takes time for news to spread, even faster than the speed of light, especially for someone on a secluded world. I get the feeling the enemy King thought to have the General's forces support him with the Oculus-"

"But why? Kklixin clones are infinite-" Ahrganot said. "But not depletable. Cloning takes time, Ahrganot. Time the King needs. And without his other Knight, he can’t continue his assault. We've unknowingly caused a ceasefire by removing half his standing forces. We deplete the other half-"

"And the King is left open. We move in for the kill and-" Ahrganot continued

"Checkmate. The next step is to find the central cloning facility. Most likely the very same vessel the Kklxin traveled on to get to the Milky Way. Most likely, we won't be tasked with that, and that job will be left to the KWD and Eteno Military.  Once this facility is found and neutralized, we leave him with no standing army, and no means to achieve whatever dark goals he has in mind. But for now, it seems that another mission awaits us. I've taken then liberty of uploading the briefing to your extra-net accounts. Let’s see what we've got." Etah concluded.