Talis sent a shade off while firing her glaive cannon at an instigator, a purifier stalker newly designed and constructed under the command of Nova. The instigator blinked and dodged the shot. Appearing in a different location, the instigator fired at Talis.

Talis disappeared and replaced the shade she sent out just seconds ago.

Around her Daelaam forces clashed with purifier troops. Talis managed to hold on long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Yet help didn’t mean victory, because when the reinforcements arrived there were already dozens of sentinels in the field, along with several instigators and adepts as support.

At this point at least a dozen units on both sides have fell, but the purifiers kept on warping in and the Daelaam reinforcements were nowhere in sight. Talis eyed the warp prism. She must destroy it. It was the only way to achieve somewhat of a victory. If this kept on going, eventually the firstborn would be overwhelmed. Experience couldn’t help you when you were outnumbered ten to one.

Sending out another shade, Talis suddenly tilted her head and dodged the slash of another sentinel. Adepts usually used their glaive cannons, but their melee skills were not to be underestimated either. Grabbing onto the arms of the metal zealot from the side, Talis tossed the robot to a nearby zealot with incredible strength.

Already been warned through the khala, the zealot had his blades ready. He held his weapons out in a fashion so that when the sentinel fell it fell right on the blades. Instant hole through the chest. The zealot tossed the sentinel’s body aside.

Talis nodded at the zealot in gratitude before disappearing.

Having slain another enemy in the name of Amon, the zealot felt himself overwhelmed by a blaze of glory. What was better to show the glory than a war cry?

“Glorious combat...” The war cry had barely left the zealot’s psionically created lips when the zealot collapsed and faded away. The last thing the zealot saw was the cold, metal face of a sentinel and the mending hole in his chest.

Two sentinels were guarding the warp prism. They weren’t exactly surprised when an adept appeared right next to them.

Purifiers didn’t know surprise, at least not the standard typed ones. They weren’t programmed for it. All they knew was how to identify their enemies and how to strike.

As soon as Talis faded in, she was met with four yellow plasma blades.

Taking a step back, she got out of the way of the four strikes. The two sentinels advanced, but Talis keenly saw an opportunity. The first sentinel was a second faster than the second. Using that opening, Talis fired a shot at the first sentinel. The sentinel’s shield broke, but his body remained intact. Still, using that chance Talis moved past the yellow blades and grabbed onto the first sentinel’s arms. That was when the second sentinel approached, and Talis turned the first sentinel’s blades and forced them into the charging sentinel, breaking through both the plasma shield and the metal body.

Dropping the second sentinel and letting go of the first sentinel’s blade, Talis turned her glaive cannon. put it to the first sentinel’s head, and fired point range. This time the sentinel didn’t survive.

Putting two more projectiles to the two disabled sentinels to make sure they would stay down, Talis turned to the now vulnerable warp prism.

But before she could fire, a round fired out of empty space and exploded beside the elite adept. The resulting explosion of blue wave hit Talis.

Groaning, Talis collapsed. The once easily managed psionic energy disappeared out from her body. She knew what it was. An EMP. No, a modified EMP. A normal electromagnetic pulse couldn’t disable someone as strong as she was. She tried to stand up, to resist, but someone hit her from behind and knocked her out.

A figure wearing a mask solidified behind her. Ignoring the chaos of battle, the Warden ghost grabbed onto the disabled adept and dragged her toward his transport. A Daelaam zealot noticed him and charged, but all the Warden ghost didw as turned and fire, and an EMP shot forced him out of energy state. The second, an actual round, ended the zealot’s life.

An elite zealot, down in two seconds. Warden ghosts demonstrated the efficiency of Warden AI units.

In orbit, Nova noticed the action of the Warden ghost.

“What’s with that adept?” The commander asked curiously. There wasn’t much commanding left to do. Purifier executors were totally capable of sending purifiers units onto Aiur and ordering them to attack. This gave Nova time to talk with her lover.

“I noticed something.” Jean reasoned. She tapped a key, and a footage appeared on the computer screen before her. It was from the sight of a purifier sentinel.

The sentinel was one of those that was fighting with Talis. Jean and Nova watched as Talis dealt with several sentinels and one instigators without being hit herself. Everytime she was in danger she would vanish and reappear where her shade was.

“Our adepts are armed with psionic projection as well, but the purifier version creates a projection that can attack enemies automatically. Why? Because none of the standard AIs were capable of independently thinking and making decisions based on the situation. This makes them less efficient.” Jean said as the footage went dark. The sentinel filming was destroyed.

“You want to recruit her.” Nova understood. “How are you planning to ensure her loyalty?”

There was a reason why Jean utilized the standard purifiers and terminated all the specialized AI personalities of famous warriors that were more capable in battle. The AI personalities were stronger, but they had their own thoughts and beliefs. Jean couldn’t control them, whereas she could rule over the standard AIs with a simple hack.

“Well, “Jean formed a ball of psionic energy in her palms. “Thanks to the great patron Amon, I have received some new skills. For one thing, I have gotten better at messing with other’s minds.”

“Are you sure it will work?”

“I am 90% sure.” Jean shrugged. “But that’s not enough, so I will be doing some experiments on that adept to convert her to a purifier.”

“You do that.” Nova agreed. “Meanwhile I’ll continue the attack on Aiur.”