The smoke covered the entire sky. Animals were racing through the forest, Rake and his troops hastily prepared to leave their makeshift camp. The shine of flames drew closer with every minute.

Rake would have never expected for the imperials to burn down the forest to slow them down. All around him the soldiers helped their wounded comrades to get to their feet, Rachel was still unconscious.

The impact had caused her brain start swelling and Sarah had to relieve the pressure in her head. The nanites she had administered were helping for the swelling to go back but they would take at least another day before she could be woken up.

“Can she be moved?” Rake asked, kneeling down next to the medic.

“I don’t see another option, worst case she will stay unconscious for another day. The nanites should be able to repair any additional damage during the travel.” She got up and walked over to Mint.

The woman was already sitting up, grimacing as she slowly got to her feet. The armor plating had protected her for the most part, the reinforced rib cage had absorbed the remaining energies from the shots she had taken to the chest.

According to her, it didn’t really hurt but Sarah had been worried about her. Rake picked up his commander followed the others that were leaving the camp. They would need to move further up the mountain where a small pass lead across the mountain range.

The scouts found it when they looked for the Imperial forces now it would make for a good place to escape the fire.

Rake lead a squad of soldiers to search for any hostiles. The pass was narrow only two soldiers could walk side by side, their row would be long and easy to attack on their way through.

Carefully he checked the small rift they would need to pass through, no noise could be heard from the other side. Weapon raised he passed between the sharp rock walls. It took him a couple of minutes before he reached the other side.

The path widened into a cavern, dug by water, at some point people must have been here for there were the remains of fires and some discarded items. Whoever had been here had left in a hurry.

Rake crossed the little camp and peeked out of the other side of the cavern, it lead into another even larger hollowed out space. Behind him, soldiers poured into the cavern. Quietly he continued his search through the stone formations. More and more equipment left, among them terminals and even beds.

Rake concluded the whole site must have been a base of operations or at least thought to become one. Power lines were cut, he found a small arsenal of weapons and explosives deeper in the rock.

If they had managed to man this place, taking it from the imperials would have been borderline impossible without extreme losses. The narrow tunnels made excellent choke points and the wide caverns could hold hundreds of soldiers.

Suddenly Rake heard a voice, an echo from somewhere ahead of him. He froze, weapon on the ready, finger curled around the trigger. A woman’s voice sounded from up ahead.

Saying something Rake could not understand.

He sent a signal to the soldiers behind him, “possible hostile contacts, request backup.” Slowly, he snuck closer to the voice, careful not to make any sound. After getting closer to the voice he could make out parts of sentences.

“Too all soldiers…. Retreat within… on the way…” something was wrong with the voice, it seemed hollow. Rake saw a flicker of light at the end of the next turn, a bluish light sending shadows against the wall.

Behind him more Ercinee soldiers snuck closer, Rake nodded to them and entered the room.

The walls were empty, cables all over the floor, the blue light originated from the holographic form of a woman who kept on repeating an evacuation message.

“Too all soldiers outside city perimeters, retreat into the confines of the inner city. Reinforcements are on the way. Keeping the inner sanctum secure takes the highest priority.

Too all soldiers outside…”

Rake relaxed, four soldiers continued the search as he had a look at the terminal in the middle of the room. If the thing was connected to the inner network they might get access to the colonies records.

He found a switch and connected his armor to it.

The exoskeletons were not made for something like this, but the inner network allowed for a unit’s processors to pool their resources for a simple attack on networks. As long as the encryption was not too hard they were occasionally successful.

Data began showing on Rake’s hud, numbers mostly then the information suddenly stopped.

He shook his head and tapped against his visor, was the thing broken?

Then a message appeared in front of him.

‘Is this the enemy?’

Rake tried to sever the connection but someone was overriding the security protocol in his suit.

‘I take that as a yes.’

‘Listen here dogs of the Allfather, my name is Dorian and I have full command of this planet’s forces. You might think your numbers will be our downfall but I can promise you they won’t.

At the end of this road, there will be only one thing for you, Death and our gods will tear you apart.’

The message stayed for a few seconds before it disappeared and with the hologram.

Instead of the woman pictures began playing, records of an Ercinee armor.

“Enemy contact! Our Fleet has left the atmosphere! Protect the evacuation ships!”

A woman yelled, as the rifle of the camera's owner was raised against the sky.

Dark spots fell through the clouds as AA fire illuminated the sky.

The small projectiles slowed down with a flash of light before hitting the floor.

With horror Rake saw that the spots were humans, dark lines on their faces as they opened fire on the Ercinee soldiers.

“Godslayers! Take cover!” a scream sounded as two more figures landed, bullets tore into their limbs or ricocheting off thick armor plates. Two Ercinee went down as the three Godslayers advanced.

Thermite bolts were launched, one was caught mid-air the other struck its goal. Screaming the Godslayer went down, the thermite eating through the man’s head.

“Evacuation beginning! Stand clear of the platform!” The camera was turned to the ship behind the Ercinee troops, the large thrusters spitting fire.

Before the ship could take off it was struck by two missiles, the recording went black. After a few seconds, the picture reappeared. Burning pieces of debris everywhere, the wearer of the armor was breathing heavily, one leg was gone and with a painful scream, the woman activated the armor's emergency protocol.

The stump below her stopped bleeding as the armor tensed and cut off any blood flow to it.

In front of her, the lonely silhouette of a human could be seen among the flames.

The soldier raised her gun, barrel pointed straight at the silhouette.

A woman emerged from the flames, breastplate sizzling, head bald and her face heavily burned. The heat did not seem to bother her, neither did the fact that all of her skin had been nearly burnt off her face.

The soldiers breathing quickened, a soft whimper escaping her lips as she adjusted her rifle and pulled the trigger. A thermite bolt was launched at the enemy, the woman reacted faster than Rake had thought possible, her arm shot upwards, the bolt shot through it and exploded. Thermite sprayed at the soldier.

The Ercinee switched fire mode and emptied the entire clip into the enemy, blue fire erupting from the rifle.

The woman screamed as the recoil slowly pushed her back. With a beeping sound, the rifle declared it was out of ammunition.

The Godslayer was still standing, armor now cracked in half but still moving. An axe clutched in her hand, her single eye fixated on the Ercinee soldier.

Rake could feel the desperation of his comrade, whoever it was. She must have felt so helpless.

"It's a shame you lot are traitors to our kind really, I rarely see this sort of spirit in our troops."

The voice of the Godslayer trailed to the soldier.

Rake nearly shed a tear for his fallen comrade, he recognized the burning buildings in the background.

This had was Tiber.

"Tell me your name and I will tell you who killed your group." The woman with the axe said as she came ever closer.

"I'm Ce and I will await you in the next world after this!” The voice of the Ercinee soldier sounded, Rake could hear the defiance, the stern voice.

The Godslayer's eyes widened and for a second it seemed like she would stop.

"My name is Anna and there is no next world, only pain, and suffering in this one. You have failed your god and your empire will burn like Tiber does!"

The axe slammed into the soldier and Ce's breathing stopped. The video feed cut off.

Rake was silent, these were the soldiers he would be fighting, the Godslayers.

He noticed that he was no longer alone in the cavern, soldiers had gathered around the projection.

“I knew her.” Rake turned to see Rachel standing behind him, she was leaning heavily on Sarah.

“She was a good soldier, until the end.” Her voice sounded empty, a tear rolling down her cheek. When she noticed Rake looking at her she quickly dried her eyes.

“This is why we fight! So our worlds will not burn like Tiber did like so many other planets burned.”