Akûn looked down on London, it was large. Before he had torn it down centuries earlier. Now it was just ruins. He saw some of his old crashed ships. Weak, those who had been aboard deserved death if they had died so easily. He had killed many guardians that day, after there were some of the most magnificent duels he had ever seen. He had even fought in five of them himself. Now he was back, on the verge of the final defeat of humanity, or so he hoped. The thought of failure was fleeting, but it made him careful all the same. All must be executed perfectly. His ship would have no trouble with the City, this he was sure of. He was only worried about whether his warriors were strong enough. That would be the deciding factor. For now, he settled with getting inside their heads. He would tear as many of them apart through their minds as he could. He would not be defeated by weaklings such as guardians. Breaking them was his goal now, humanity had his undivided attention. He beckoned forward one of his knights.   "Tell Therás to prepare for me to come to the nest. I will be personally inspecting her preparations. And tell Entaur those guardians have arrived, he must make his move soon."   As he turned to look outside his ship through one of it's magic viewports he saw their ship descending towards London. He was safely inside the clouds, they would not notice him until it was too late.   Akûn shouted in a very elated voice, "open fire! And do not stop until Entaur is in the radius." --------------------------------------------------------------- Zach had been sitting in his seat when the first volley hit. It tore open a hole in the side of their ship and sent them spiraling towards the ground. He felt the impact, and then they were all dead. When their ghosts had revived them they were still inside the ship. It had landed on top of an old and, surprisingly, still standing skyscraper.   "Welcome to London."   Kryn rubbed her head, "thanks."   Kirk was out of the ship before anyone else. He had his silenced sidearm and his knife out. "We need to get out of this skyscraper."   Kryn grinned, "we could jump," she offered.   Silas shook his head, "not this time. That's a Hive capitol ship, likely Akûn's flagship. I don't want to risk our ghosts getting killed by the Hive."   Kirk nodded in agreement, "we'll take the stairs then. Weapons ready everyone, this one's gonna be rough."   Suddenly the building shook and a purple flash blinded them.   "What's that," Zach yelled so that he could be heard over the other explosions.    Kirk looked at the ship, "they're bombarding us. We need to go fast, this building will collapse if it takes too many more shots."   All of them dashed for the stairs. More explosions and flares of purple light rocked the building. On one floor the side of the building got destroyed, Kryn and Silas needed a revive from that one. After flights and flights of stairs they reached the ground floor.   "We need to find shelter, somewhere around here there has to be a bunker from the battle." Immediately after saying this Silas was vaporized by another explosion. A couple of seconds later he was back. "Run. It's not nice getting hit by those. There's got to be some sort of underground transportation we can use as shelter."   "There," Kryn pointed at a stairwell on the street. It was across a wide open square.   Zach threw his arms up in the air, "fine, for once I would like to have it the easy way!"   Kirk put his hand on Zach's shoulder. "Where's the fun in that." He looked at the street through one of the intact windows. He could see purple fire raining down from the sky.   "That'll be difficult to cross. If one of those hits your ghost you're done."   Zach watched as a building collapsed under the barrage. "It's our best bet. We have to cross it and get down those stairs."   Kryn sighed, "then let's get going."   They waited for anything close to an opening then ran for it. The barrage continued, some hit close enough for them to hear the shrapnel hit their armor. Kryn made it to the stairs first. Then Kirk, Zach, and Lynn. Just as Silas was about to reach the stairs one of the purple explosives blew him across the square. As he struggled to his feet the barrage stopped.   Lynn looked at Kryn, "why would they stop?"   Kirk took the liberty of responding, "they probably figured we're dead, or they're sending hun-". His head suddenly turned to his left. He heard footsteps approaching, large, heavy footsteps.   "Silas, get over here now!" Silas started sprinting toward them as Kirk yelled. He dove for the stairs and was thrown back where he came from. This time not from an explosion, but from a massive sword. The knight that had led the assault on the City went bounding after Silas. Before any of them could react he slashed his sword across Silas chest. After he had finished his swing the sword let off a faint green glow.   Kirk bolted out of the stairwell straight toward the knight. Zach watched as Kirk brought his knife, charged with void energy, into striking position. The knight raised his sword in preparation. --------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, The Tower. Darek pointed his gun at the self proclaimed Dredgens face. "You're a Dredgen?"   "Probably not of the sort you would expect but, yes, I am."   "Do you work with Dredgen Truth or Dredgen Mala?"   "No."   "How do I know you're not lying."   "Because Dredgen Mala's a psychopath and Dredgen Truth's a narcissist."   "And I'm supposed to take your word for it."   "I offered my help. You can take it or leave it."   Darek studied him for a moment longer. He was an exo with a (unspecified color). His eyes were red and he wore a jade hand cannon on his hip. He decided to play it out and see where it led.   "I'll accept," Darek said cautiously.   The Dredgen stretched out his hand and shook Darek's. "I'm called Dredgen Inquisition if you want to use that title. Otherwise it's just Larsnic Mcreed."   "I'm Darek, otherwise it's just Darek."   "We don't have time for sarcasm."   "Why?"   "Because Mala has already been at work." --------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Minutes Later, The City Central.   Darek, Larsnic, and Kana stood in the middle of a large room. It once would have been a nice sitting room, comfortable. Now it was painted red with blood. Various spots had sentences carved into the walls. The bodies themselves were also… disfigured. Darek took a closer look at one of the sentences. It said, "when the hand strikes midnight then come the beasts."   Others like that were carved in other places. Darek looked at the bodies and resisted the urge to puke.   "I never comprehended the meaning of psychopath until now."   "I know, she certainly is a… unique individual."   Darek snorted, "that's an understatement. The Vanguard needs to see this. Now I can see why Dredgen Mala's file was in the Red Vault."   Kana sounded frustrated as she looked at the room, "there's no evidence here. No clues, no more knowledge. I don't even think she knows where her next move is."   "That's a safe assumption", Larsnic said while studying some of the writing. "She's probably not even sane enough to find the local grocery store."   "So we have to figure out where she's gonna go next, what she's gonna do next, and who's gonna be involved."   Larsnic smiled at Kana, "exactly. We never know who's gonna play an ace." ----------------------------------------------------------------- I have a question now. Who's your favorite character from A Game of War, and who's your least favorite? Also, who seems to be an underdeveloped character.