Some of the crow men held sharp ceramic blades and others held scavenged emitters. Their bodies were humanoid in orientation, but large wings had grown out of their backs and their skin was covered with wide black feathers. Their heads were entirely crow-like complete with long curved sharp beaks, and large dark eyes. Moloch whirled as a crow-man took a swing at him, with a jagged ceramic blade.

He held up his armored bracer and absorbed the blow, swinging out with his other fist and striking the crow man in the chest. This caused the creature to stagger, and it was all the time Moloch needed to draw his emitter pistol and fire. Several shots into the crow-man, was enough to get him to drop the weapon and double over as its flesh and bone dissolved. Two more crows were right behind him, one aimed an old emitter and shot Moloch point blank. His nanocomposite armor took the shot, and he could hear the reliable plate make a weezing-scrunching sound as it rearranged itself on a molecular level to absorb the energetic potential of the blast.

Moloch returned fire, and his shot caught the crow man in the feathery shoulder, causing it to reel back as the impact of the shot began melting its flesh away from the bone. A large hole in the shoulder probably would have been enough to cause the creature to flee, but Krasus charged forward with his void blade held high, and with one smooth stroke he lopped the creatures head from its shoulders.

He howled, and pivoted, dodging a blow from another crow-man, slicing through its keratinous leg and stabbing another in a whirling dance of brutal efficiency. Then he kept charging forward into the mass of feathery menaces, swinging his void blade with wild abandon.

For the son of a noble, Krasus could be a dangerous foe, when confronted with a fight. Moloch pulled his void blade handle and ignited his blade, following right behind his fellow Centurion, lashing out at any crow men that dared come into physical proximity.

Even with Nassim’s early warning, the crow-men's assault was wreaking havoc on the Centuri of Legionnaires. All around the circular mezzanine level, the legionnaires were fighting them back with a desperate fury. Spitting the creatures on the ends of the void blades or melting them with well placed emitter blasts. Dozens of the Legionnaires number fell, before they were able to reorganize themselves into small circular formations, so that they could deal with any potential angle of attack, and be confident with the knowledge that their fellow brothers had their back. The crow-men formed up for one last desperate assault and threw themselves on the legionnaires, leaping into the air with their wings and then diving down, hurtling into their ranks, trying to skewer their foes on the end of their ceramic blades.

The Legionnaires’ ranks held, and they stood shoulder to shoulder, with the members in the front using their gladius to fight off the crow-men, while their brothers in the back and finished off any that made it through with a withering hailstorm of emitter fire. The crow-men realized that they were on the losing end of this fight, and their morale broke.

They began to screech a cawing note of retreat to one another, those that were still able to fly ran to the shattered windows and dove out, gliding away into the darkness, while the wounded who had broken wings and other injuries tried their best to make it past the legionnaires and over the banister to retreat to the other hybrids below.

Moloch ventured a look down into the central den. The hybrids were well aware of what was coming and the Den master was organizing his best fighters into loose ranks. He flitted up to his metal nest and got inside. To Moloch’s surprise, the nest had a large blast proof, sliding cover made of resisteel that he pulled up, leaving himself just enough room to peek out and issue orders to his den.

“What are you standing around for? He screeched. “You know where they are, do not let any of them escape alive!” A legionnaire took a shot at him; the blast just missed his beak and impacted on the resisteel plating. Tzreek cawed his outrage, and disappeared inside the nest for a moment and reemerged with a large emitter sniper rifle. He took a moment to aim down the sight and blasted a legionnaire in the back that was fighting off the last of the crow-men. The soldier went down with a cry.

“Get them!” Tzreek ordered, and then sprang out of the nest, deciding to glide down to where Haru was still contained inside the forcefield.

The creatures of the den, at once scrittered out from the central area and fanned out into the darkness.

“You know I can’t risk letting you escape, when I’ve got you captured, I only wish I had more time to extract your secrets. It is such a shame that you will have to die with them.” Tzreek said, as he made some inputs on the forcefield's modulation panel. Pausing only to take another shot with his emitter rifle, plugging a legionnaire in the guts.

He trilled with satisfaction when he watched the legionnaire go down.

“I regret that I can’t risk powering down the forcefield and shooting you like the flea ridden alley cat you are.But you’re much too slippery for that, and I’ve seen how deadly you are in close quarters combat. So I’ve just made inputs into the force-field, instructing it to wind down, so in about twenty five seconds or so as it retracts back into the rings, it will rip your body apart.” Tzreek said, as he ducked to avoid a stray emitter blast, from a Legionnaire.

Haru roared with defiance, “Release me you coward and let us fight fairly!”

“Oh Haru, you should really know me better by now. I hate equality. I hope your death is excruciating!” He said, and then took two big hops and soared up to a craggy sniping position with cover at the top of the domed ceiling of the central den.

Haru howled and beat against the forcefield as it began to slowly shrink down.

Moloch watched as the creatures of the den retreated into the darkness of the derelict habitation hive.

“This just got a lot harder. Those bloody crow-men jibbered this whole operation up. When we are done with these hybrids, I am really looking forward to giving these Drydellians a piece of my mind.” He said to Krasus, who walked up to stand beside him panting.

“It is a setback but at least we weren’t taken completely by surprise.”

“So you’ll be leaving an offering for Nassim at the standard shrine when we get back then?”

“I admit the blue goof has his moments, but don’t you ever tell him I said so! Also you were right brother, this has been great sport.” He said with a wide grin, as he gave his voidblade a few experimental swings.

“I’m glad I took my gladius into the bladesmith and had him adjust the tuning on it this morning, and the bite is just perfect. It cut through those crow-men effortlessly!”

“Well I have a feeling that this was just the warmup. All the hybrids are missing now from the central nest, except Haru. Also Silhouette and the reptiles are missing too. We have to find that individual at all costs.”

Moloch saw that Haru was inside the collapsing forcefield and he felt like he should do something about it.

“I am going to go down there and set Haru free. I believe that he hates these hybrids as much as we do.”

“That may be, but it would be awful risky going down there to save him, as hes just as likely to turn on you, as he help us with the hybrids.” Krasus said as he deactivated his void blade and wiped some blood off his face.

“It feels like the right thing to do. I expect that he still understands the meaning of gratitude”

“At least send a couple Legionnaires to do it, don’t go down there alone.”

“They don’t have the gear I do, I can just jump down there, drop the field and use my suit lifters to get back up here.”

“I’ve said my piece. Krasus said. I am going to regroup the Legionnaires and comb every inch of this void cursed place and join us when you’ve finished.”

“I’ll be back with you in a moment brother.” Moloch said.

“I’ll be here, slaughtering hybrids.” Krasus said as he turned to face the legionnaires who were eyeing the staircase shining their lights down it.

“Right, gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed the easy part, because now our work truly begins. Make sure your emitters are cycled, because we are going to sweep every inch of this place and melt anything that moves.”

“Aye Sir!” The Legionnaires said, as they moved together and flipped on their lights and started making their way down the stairs.