Tzreek emerged from his nest. Many of his feathers were burned off in the explosion and he was covered from beak to claws in mineralis vita. The containers that held his private hoard of the hybrid powder must have broken when his nest exploded. He looked like a badly plucked battered piece of chicken that was about to be fried.

Tzreek began to hop towards Rofoscue from the wreckage of his nest. “ Have I not done well, master? I have gathered the remaining members of the Legion here for you! He said. They are yours to do with as you like!

Rofoscue beamed an oily smile towards his creature. “Well done Tzreek, I honestly didn’t believe you had it in you, as these are the kind of surprises that I enjoy. But alas, this is the end for you as well. We must present the corpse of the principal villain to show the Republic, when this little drama is done. You have outlived your usefulness my feathery friend, and should we ever need to regain control of the employees, we can flip back to this chapter and take a page out of the book and start all over again.

Tzreek’s beak gaped open in utter surprise.

“I totally saw that coming.” Krasus said with a wry grin.

Moloch and the other legionnaires chuckled with him at Tzreeks expense. Despite their extreme circumstances they could appreciate an opportunity to mock the wretched hybrid.

Tzreek fell to his knees. Clasping his clawed hands together and bobbing his head.

It disgusted Moloch to watch him beg.

“But, you said I was needed, you said I would be rewarded, with power and wealth!” He whined pitifully.

Rofoscuse looked down at him with disgust.

“Were you not a hybrid den leader? Did you not have some atrocious bird harem? Were you not a king amongst your people? You had a good fanciful life ruling over this herd of grotesqueries but now all good things must come to an end.”

“But Master! Spare your loyal servant!” Tzreek wailed.

“It is a waste of my breath to speak anymore. Unlike you lot, I have other matters to attend to.” Rofoscue said down to them by way of farewell.

Then he turned to his assembled constables.

“Execute them and burn the corpses. Then pile the remains of the Legionnaires together. We will return them with our most heartfelt condolences to the legion, for alas we were able to eradicate the hybrids, but did not arrive in time to save the brave brave members of the legion.”

He repeated the lie by way of helping them keep their story straight.

Moloch drew his concealed emitter and lifted it,firing two blasts right into Rofoscues’ chest, before any of the constables could react.

The shots sizzled and spit,like water droplets on a hot pan but diffused on a barrier that swirled around his body.

Rofosuce put both hands on his hips and laughed.

“Cheeky, Centurion. But I also had my constables fetch me my personal shield from storage. I anticipated legion vermin like you would attempt some form of murderous treachery.” Rofoscue crowed from the gap.

“It was a good look.” Krasus said as he inched his way backwards.

“We need to make a break for it and run towards Tzreek’s nest. It will keep their emitter fire off us. Then maybe we can try for the tunnel we came through. It would take them ages to hunt us through it. Maybe by then Legate Septimus will send someone to check on us.” Moloch said quickly through his helmet comms. The other legionnaires subtly nodded their agreement.

“Bah, as if I’ll stand here and die!” Tzreek cawed, all pretense of subservience gone. He sprang up and despite his singed plumage, he was still able to fly and launched himself into the air winging up like a black lightning bolt as he surged towards the sky. This drew the Constables attention, and their fire. They unloaded on Tzreek, and perhaps what was more unbelievable, they missed every one of their shots, at the buzzard hybrid.

Just before Tzreek could make it through the gap and glide away and out into the Drydellian cityscape a golden feline shape leapt out of the darkness. It snatched Tzreek out of the sky with his jaws, and brought him back down to the earth. Then Haru broke the feathered creature with a mighty shake of his head and jaws, renting his body several powerful slashes from his claws. He landed on top of Tzreeks limp bird body and drove it down into the sand with a satisfying crunch.

Moloch turned in the chaos and grabbed Salazaar, slinging him over his shoulder, putting his head down and running as fast as he could towards the resisteel nest.

Haru landed fearlessly where the Legionnaires had been standing and roared up at Supervisor Rofuscue.

Potter, hit a shield on the Legion standard, and projected the energy barrier for the Legionnaires to make their escape behind. Emitter shots crackled against it as they hit the barrier and discharged. Potter did his best to cover all the retreating Legionnaires with the standard’s shield standing bravely before the Constable’s firing line, trying to block every shot that was fired.

Despite his best efforts the constables managed to hit two retreating Legionnaires. Then the other constables just shot the two fallen soldiers over and over until they were just two melted piles of gristle and twisted equipment.

Moloch and the rest of the Legionnaires retreated behind Potter and took shelter behind the wreckage of the nest.

Rofoscue limply held up his hand to indicate that they should stop firing. He giggled giddily.

“As if this day couldn’t get any better, I’ve found the last missing piece of my puzzle: Haru the Golden menace! What good fortune!” He gloated happily. “Now all my loose ends will be neatly tied up!”

Haru looked up at Supervisor Rofoscue and bared his fangs.

Rofoscues face paled when he stared into Haru’s burning eyes.

“Constables fire! Rofoscue bleated, “Bring him down!”

“Idle talk from a useless fool!” Haru laughed, and he dodged the constables' shots with such agility it was hard to follow all of his movements. Despite the difficulty of moving in the sand, he sprang off into one of the shadowy corners then managed to make it all the way over to take cover behind Tzreeks nest with the rest of the Legionnaires.

“Bloody good show Haru.” Krasus said, clapping him on the hairy shoulder.

Haru smiled at him, showing him his fangs, his ears twitching slightly at every subtle sound that echoed through the chamber.

“You really stepped in it by coming back here. You could have escaped out the other way.” Moloch said.

“I swore that I would kill Tzreek and so I have. If I die here, I am fated to do so, but I will never break an oath.”

Krasus nodded in agreement.

“I think we all might be fated to die here.”

“We shall see.” Haru growled.

Rofoscues elation turned to panic as he shouted at the Constables.

“Useless idiots! How could you miss your shots? He was right in front of you! Useless!”

The constables fired on the nest until their emitters clicked up to spin the heat off the fractionator crystals. These constables weren’t skilled at soldering, but they had a huge numbers advantage over them.

They were unable to penetrate the resisteel plating.

Rofoscue called down to them.

“I never took the members of the legions to be cowards, hiding from us behind a pile of rubbish like worms. Come out and face your deaths like the heroes you claim to be!”

“We are exercising our right to a tactical retreat.” Moloch called up to Rofoscue.

Rofoscue was quiet for a moment as he regained his composure. Then he shouted down.

“It doesn't matter. Stay where you are Legionnaires. We will come down to you.”