“You’ve got balls, I'll give you that.” Richie said after I finished explaining my plan.

“It’s going to take all five of us, and the Tempest for it to work.” I insisted.

“It seems very dangerous, but, I must confess; I can’t think of anything that would be more likely to succeed.” Yusuf said. “Valntina, how do you feel about this? You’re going to be taking on the most direct risk.”

The woman stood stock still, lost in thought. After a moment she looked up to all of us, “I can do it,” she said. "When do we start?"

I looked up at the Tempest. "Taimia, did you get all that?"

"I did," she said.

"Alright, let's do it. Everyone to position." I said, armoring up with everything my suit had. Valentina extended her wings and flew to the top of the ship and then the Tempest took off flying away from the Skree and gaining altitude. Yusuf and Richie each raised one foot and then the other as stilts extended from their boots. Madison and I watched in astonishment as the two men grew in size until they were nine feet tall and wrapped in massive suits of armor.

Once they were at maximum Richie had a set of thick wheels spin out and he leaned forward. In this position he was almost like an ATV. "Get on."

"Jonny, you be careful. No crazy stuff." Madison said while giving me a brief hug. She then climbed on Richie's back and held on tight as the two raced away. I watched them go.

"When we engage them, stay away from the big one. Without heavy armor he could snap you like a twig. I need you to keep the Skreelings distracted while I take on the Overseer." Yusuf said. "And remember, keep your shield up."

I nodded. "Alright, let's do this." We climbed back to the top of the bluff and belly crawled to the edge. "Valentina, whenever you're ready."

We didn't have to wait long. The Overseer noticed her before we did. His posture changed and his tail came up as he twisted on top of the structure. The eye stalks on its back were twitching as it watched her fly lazily overhead. "Now" Yusuf said over the coms and she dove just as a beam of fiery energy pierced the air where she had just been. She kept her altitude high as she weaved randomly, while circling to the east. She managed to dodge nearly a dozen shots and was doing an amazing job distracting the Overseer but somehow it wasn't enough.

It whirled around and jumped back just as the Tempest fired its Mag-Rails. The shot impacted the rooftop and blew a crater into the ground below it. Taimia fired again but the Overseer did too. The red beam cut an arc through the nose of the ship just before the second Mag-Rail exploded through the creature's tail, obliterating it and the roof below. It screamed in horrible pain and its rear legs slipped into the hole. It scrambled back up onto the roof and I could see that Taimia had been successful, most of the tail was missing. The Tempest managed to pull up and flew overhead as it searched for a place to land. I could tell from the way she moved that the ship had been badly damaged.

Yusuf stood and jumped from the bute. Thrusters softening his landing below. His armor magnified his bellow as he charged straight for the Overseer. It returned his challenge with a roar of its own and rushed to meet him. I slid down the side of the bute extending my shield and cannon when I hit the bottom and charged for the Skreelings that were headed for Yusuf. I pumped several Ion Lances into each of the little creatures and I was successful in getting their attention.

Five creatures the size of a large dog ran across the ground towards me. Their six limbs made them impossibly fast, but I still had the range. I fired a blast of charged plasma that caught two by surprise and reduced them to a chard husk. The others scattered and I switched over to the Fajani pulse rifle. The one to my far right rolled sideways away from my attack but I stayed with him, peppering him with particle energy.

Something slammed into my shield hard enough that I had to take a step back to maintain my balance. I had the shield covering my chest and raised it higher as three more hits knocked me back several steps. I lowered the shield just enough to see the remaining two Skreelings were nearly on top of me. Glancing at the shield I saw four spikes the size of my thumb embedded halfway into my shield. I retracted my cannon and flipped out my cutting blade.

As the first approached I swung as hard as I could. This blade that earlier, cut an armored man nearly in two, only dug a few inches into the creature's thick skin before coming to a stop. It stopped moving and screamed in pain. I ripped the blade out but before I could swing again the second Skreeling tackled me to the ground. It threw itself on me but I managed to get both feet up, kicking hard, I used my boosters and sent it flying away.

Before I could get up something grabbed my head between two powerful arms and yanked. The armor held firm but without it I would've just had my head literally ripped off. I was a little disoriented, striking blindly at it with my blade and I got lucky, severing one of its eyestalks. It screeched and let go. I scrambled quickly to my feet and thrust my blade into the hollow at the base of its neck, ripping it out downward. Most of its upper chest came with my blade and it fell over dead.

Something slammed into me from behind and I went down onto all fours. It was on my back, four sets of claws scratching here and there experimentally, searching for a weakness, while it clung to my waist with its middle two arms. I leapt as high as I could into the air, using my boosters to get more height, and came down on my back. I felt more than heard something break inside the Skreeling.

Fully armored I weighed over five hundred pounds and all of it just came down on the middle of its center abdomen. It was now trying to push me off and from the sound of air wheezing I realized that it was having difficulty breathing on its back. Then I remembered, their air holes were on their backs. I flipped over and found that only the center two limbs were moving, the front and back were paralyzed. Using my blade I severed the working limbs and put my foot down on its chest and leaned my weight against it until it stopped thrashing and went still.

A brilliant column of energy arced out of the sky and cut a Skreeling in half that was about to pounce on me. I hadn't even seen it. "Thanks for the save Valentina."

"Watch your back with the little ones. Help Yusuf, Richie needs me." She said and dove from sight.

I turned in time to see the veteran get his face smashed in by a punch. His armor was incredible and did its job admirably but the Overseer was massive and impossibly strong. It went up to two legs before bringing its front arms down to crush Yusuf but he managed to roll away from the blow and raised a shielded forearm in time to catch a spike the length of my arm.

Switching to my canon I forced a charge of plasma. Letting it build to its maximum level I released the shot. A huge globe of burning hot plasma flew through the air and slammed into the side of the Overseer, knocking it over. It was back on all six feet faster than I could blink and its eyestalks were twitching in every direction as it searched for the source of the attack. Before it could focus on me Yusuf slammed into its chest with his shoulder.

The Skree reared back and to my surprise I saw a spike sticking from Yusuf's shoulder, it quickly retracted as his hands came up. Launchers on his wrists alternatingly fired blue spinning discs of light that exploded on impact. The explosions only seemed to enrage it and it charged the old man. I fired another large burst of plasma but it ducked so most of the attack missed. One eye stalk swiveled around and looked straight at me.

Hatred burned at my mind and I was frozen, unable to move. The overseer broke off its fight with Yusuf and charged straight towards me. Yusuf used a massive boost and lept onto its back. The Skree stumbled and four legs went down to a knee. Yusuf held on with one hand while the Overseer spun and bucked, with the other he was blasting disc after disc into the creature's back.

"I got it!" Madison said over the coms. "I finished the transmitter and attached our message to Aegis."

Her announcement snapped me out of whatever it had done to me but before I could respond the Overseer succeeded in dislodging Yusuf. The man flew through the air, coming down hard on the corner of the roof. It collapsed under his weight and Yusuf was slow to move after, struggling to get to his feet.

I fired a plasma shot at the creature as it charged for the old man. It slammed into what remained of the wall and went through before re-emerging a moment later. Yusuf threw himself at the mighty beast only to be knocked back by a powerful blow to the chest. He fell onto his back and in a flash the Overseer pounced on him, bringing its considerable weight down on Yusuf's chest. I saw the armor bow in and a moment later Yusuf disappeared from the coms group. He was dead.

I screamed in rage and fired another massive plasma blast at it but it charged right through the fiery ball of death like it was nothing. I rolled to my side just in time to avoid being skewered by a spike and slammed the edge of my shield into its front arm. I rolled under it next as it tried to swipe at me and pressed the shield into its softer underbelly before extending the spike in the center. It bit deep and a screech of pain and anger erupted from the Overseer.

I spun away but wasn't fast enough to dodge the next attack. One of its massive hands grabbed me around the waist, lifting me off the ground. Its grip was so tight I could feel my chest becoming constricted in its grasp. Before I could do anything I was slammed into the ground and then thrown into the side of the cliff. I lay there stunned, barely able to make out the Skree as it stalked towards me.

A column of blue-white energy slammed into the remains of its tail and it shrieked in pain. Whirling faster than I could follow, two spikes erupted from its mouth and both hit Valentina. She crashed hard, one spike through her shoulder, the other in a wing. Before she could move it was on her. It placed a foot on the small of her back and grabbed a wing in each hand and began to pull.

Her screams pulled me from my stupor and I could barely move. I had to really focus to charge another plasma blast. My mind kept wanting to wander off and my eyes wanted to close but I forced myself to stay in the moment. Both wings ripped free of the Valkyrie and she collapsed, panting heavily. I released my plasma shot just as it started reaching down to grab her and caught it off guard. My arm collapsed to the ground, I no longer had the energy to do anything and struggled just to keep my eyes open. It stumbled back a step or two and turned to me, a look of anger and hatred in its posture. It took a step toward me and stopped.

A twinkling light caught my attention off to the side, next to Yusuf's body. The lights became a vertical ring that grew in size until it was large enough for a person to walk through. The Overseer had both eyestalks focused on this ring of lights and a woman stepped out. She was unimaginably beautiful with long straight platinum silver hair that reached her knees. She wore a silver breastplate over a white gown with gold embossed filigree. She looked around the battlefield assessing the situation as the ring of lights behind her disappeared.

The Overseer screeched at her and took a step back. Then launched two spikes at her. The spikes stopped dead in the air three feet in front of her as if they had hit an invisible wall, before falling to the ground. Another screech followed this and it crouched, taking a few more steps away from the woman clearly terrified of her.

She raised one arm toward the Skree with her open palm facing out. A glow started in her hand and grew. As it grew the loose sand and gravel around her moved toward her, drawn in by the build up. Her hair fluttered violently in the breeze and the ground beneath us began to vibrate as the glow intensified. Another spike slammed into the invisible wall in front of her only to fall to the ground harmlessly. I looked on in awe as the now audible hum threatened to crack my skull open.

At the peak of the crescendo a solid beam of pure white energy erupted from her palm with devastating force and slammed into the Skree, lifting it from the ground and slamming it into the far wall of the valley. The beam was six feet wide and she held it steady, pinning the creature to the wall some twenty feet in the air. It thrashed and struggled, fighting the beam and failing. She poured unimaginable amounts of power into that beam, holding it for over ten seconds. When she finally released it, all was still. The corpse of the Skree was embedded into the wall with a perfectly circular hole, six feet in diameter, burned through its chest and into the cliff behind it.

The woman crouched over Yusuf's body, gently touching his helmet. Her lips moved but I couldn't hear anything. Then she checked on Valentina, helping the wounded Valkyrie to roll onto her back. After a few words she stood and walked over to me. She knelt next to me and I looked up at her. She was like an angel, come to guide me to heaven. When she spoke her voice was soft and gentle, somehow filled with both sorrow and steel. "Rest. Recover your strength. You are in my hands. I will protect you." She laid a hand on my head and oblivion overtook me.