Countless Buzor perish in groups of two to ten at a time. The humongous, oversized bugs fall prey to Admiral Rodriguez's advanced weaponry, perishing en-masse as his ten Titan battle-armors storm forward, blasting anything to pieces not shaped like a cat, a croc, or a human. Thousands of bullets fly every second, tearing holes open in Buzor carapaces and otherwise forcing the swarm of defenders backward.

Along with the Kraktol and the lone Terran, over two thousand able-bodied Kessu join the fight. Unlike their much bigger and tougher Kraktol counterparts, the Kessu have to utilize much more devious and cunning strategies, rather than relying on overwhelming power to kill the Buzor. Two males fighting alongside each other perform the most admirably, uniting their strengths to form the Kessu's mightiest phalanx. Ruuki and Rags both wield their Thunder Gauntlets like practiced veterans of countless wars.

Rags, once a scrawny little fellow too timid to fight, now strikes a valiant pose before leaping at a giant centipede. Equipped with a pair of Thunder Gauntlets and a combat-level Survival Suit, he uses his tiny, four-foot stature to zip beneath the legs of the other beings fighting around him. He leaps into the air with his species' trademark agility, kicks off the shoulder of a Kraktol, and pounces toward the terrifying maw of his Buzor enemy.

SLAP!

Rags smacks the centipede's face, using the strength-amplifying effects of his gauntlet to tear the ugly creature's head right off the rest of its body. The teeth-filled skull goes flying into the distance, where it crashes into another group of Kraktol and Buzor.

Rags lands nimbly on his hind-limbs and executes a backward-rolling maneuver, deftly avoiding the centipede's remaining body as it flops to the ground, lifelessly.

"Nice shot! Kyargh! Thanks for the assist!" The Kraktol warrior says, giving Rags a thumbs-up. She runs ahead, resuming battle, while Rags takes a moment to join up with Ruuki.

"Good strike, kid!" Ruuki says. "Meow! You remind me of your father when he was your age. If he were still here, I'm sure he'd be proud of you."

Rags' smile fades a little at the mention of his father, someone who died many years before in a hunting incident. "I want to become a great warrior, like my dad. I want to protect my village, just like he did."

"I'm sure you will!" Ruuki says, as the tiger-striped Kessu nudges the kid's shoulder. "Now, wipe that glum look off your face. When you return to the ship, you've gotta have some badass war stories to tell the ladies, kid! That's how you'll nab yourself a cute litter of kittens!"

Rags smiles again. "Y-yeah! That's right, uncle Ruuki! Mraaaw! I've gotta be awesome so the girls like me! Come on, let's do this!"

With his fighting spirit reinvigorated, Rags joins Ruuki to execute a series of two-pronged attacks. Both Kessu duck and dodge, skip and hop, pouncing like the hunters they are at their hapless Buzor enemies. Each claw swipe slays a bug, while their armor soaks up any stray damage that might endanger their lives.

As they fight, Rags glances toward the lower regions of the cavern, where fewer and fewer Buzor stream out compared to earlier.

"Hiss! We've got these ugly crusties on the run! To think such nasty creatures lived beneath our village all this time... I'll never be able to return home and sleep soundly until we've killed them all!"

"I was just thinking the same thing!" Ruuki says. "No way am I letting my little kitten live on a world where creepy crawlies slither around beneath her feet! I'll make sure we fix our home up so Lele can live in peace once again!"

.......................................

Admiral Rodriguez, the only Terran among all of the giant bugs, bipedal crocodiles, and feisty kitty-cats, continues blasting his way through the Buzor, soaking his body with gallons and gallons of multi-colored blood.

The Terran no longer wields a gun, instead opting to swing around an unbelievably sharp vibro-sword, one with 'kinetic coating' on its edges, making it capable of slicing through all but the thickest of steel armor. Naturally, the Buzor stand no chance against his advanced Fiftieth Era weaponry.

[Vile Terran! Cease your hostility at once, or you will find no safe harbor anywhere in the Milky Way!] One Mitteras elite yells, threatening the Admiral. [You fool! Do you not see the stupidity of going against my species?! No matter how many of us you kill, millions more will take our place! Against our swarm, you are merely- aargh!]

José's eyes glimmer, revealing his deep-seated annoyance. Before the giant termite can finish its monologue, he plunges his blade into its thorax and swipes outward, spraying green blood to the Buzor's right. The so-called elite warrior's last words amount to little more than incoherent, pain-filled screams. Moments later, its telepathic voice disappears from José's mind, making him smile.

"So god-damned noisy..." José grunts. He turns away from the termite's corpse as it flops to the ground, then moves further into the Buzor hordes.

"Umi," José says, "how many enemies can you detect now?"

"The Buzor's swarms have decreased by fifty-five percent compared to one hour ago," Umi replies. The synthmind's voice transmits to José's mind telepathically, thanks to a neural link embedded in his brain. "Additionally, I cannot detect any Orcs, Trolls, or other demonic-type monster-entities in the surrounding caverns. I believe they have either retreated, or all perished. My calculations indicate that the first option has a seventy-three percent likelihood."

Admiral Rodriguez pauses for half a breath. He flicks his eyes from left to right, quickly gathering intel about the battles being fought by his many subordinates and their outgunned Buzor enemies.

"I thought for sure the Buzor would have turned much deadlier weapons on us by now. Those guns they revealed were certainly dangerous, but still inferior to my weaponry. Why didn't they pull out their weapons earlier, though? Why did they wait so long? Something isn't adding up."

His questions, entirely rhetorical, go unanswered by Umi. José resumes his slaughter of the Buzor around him, but his killing speed slows dramatically as he puts his brain on autopilot, no longer fearful of his enemy's combat prowess. Instead, he focuses his thoughts on the Buzor's strange behavior, Yama's disappearance from the underground realm, and their oddly out-of-the-ordinary technological capabilities.

"Soren, this is Admiral Rodriguez speaking," José says, as he opens up a mental commlink to his Second Officer. "Didn't you tell me that the Buzor have no advanced weaponry at their disposal?"

A few seconds pass before Soren responds, likely due to her concentration on the battle outside of her Titan battle-armor.

"...Yes, that is right, Admiral. The Buzor suddenly pulling advanced weaponry out of their thoraxes is, to put it bluntly, completely unexpected. I've not directly fought them before, but the Rodaks, Avaru, and Mallali have confronted the Buzor on many occasions. Their total lack of technological warfare has always been their greatest weakness. That, plus their wildly inferior space-faring capabilities... though rumors have it that in recent millennia, they've obtained space-faring carapaces that can travel between stars."

José nods absent-mindedly. His body, accustomed to ten millennia of intense combat, moves purely on instinct, cutting down the Buzor with the ease of a fully-grown man stomping cockroaches beneath his boots.

"I see. Maybe the weapons themselves are the key to all of this. Once we clear out these defenders, take a look at some of these images. I'll send you detailed scans of the Buzor's weaponry; they might give you some hints. We'll ask Lord Drall if he knows anything, too."

"Yes, Admiral. I'll get on that as quickly as I can." Soren replies.

José cuts the line, then returns to full-speed killing.

I'll know soon enough just what the hell is going on down here. Another few miles and we'll reach the heart of the Buzor's burrows.

...

Three hours pass.

Time flies as several waves of Buzor join up with their frontline soldiers. However, with fewer and fewer of the giant bugs revealing themselves, many Kraktol and Kessu manage to take longer breaks, swapping out periodically with their tired comrades on the frontlines.

Eventually, only a few straggler Buzor remain. José ceases his unending slaughter, allowing his subordinates to clean up the dregs.

"Excellent work," José says, his voice strained. "It's been ages since I fought so many enemies, but we made it. Everyone... report the dead. Let's quickly tag any bodies we can find and mark them with teleportation transponders. Umi will beam them back to the ship where we can grieve later."

José transmits his message to all the surviving fighters, sparing only a glance at Umi's report of the fallen.

Twenty percent of the Kraktol and Kessu are unaccounted for, expected dead. A few of them might still be alive, albeit with broken Survival Suits, but we won't know until we check the rosters. Damn. Twenty god-damned percent... and Yama didn't show his face even once.

The Admiral's face, usually sporting a stoic expression, twitches with rage.

Yama. You must think yourself quite clever, escaping my wrath. Too bad for you, I'll exterminate all the life on this planet as long as it means wiping you from existence. I'll ignite a supernova on this world's star, if that's what it takes. You will not live out your remaining days in peace... not after all the atrocities you've unleashed.

The Admiral forces a neutral expression, then returns to his soldiers. He orders several squads to different positions and spends the next hour clearing out the bodies of any fallen he can find. Sadly, though, more than three dozen dead Kraktol and Kessu go missing, likely eaten or ripped apart beyond recognition by the Buzor.

José glares at the rows of dead bodies, more than four hundred in total. White sheets cover them, hiding their identities.

"How tragic. I hoped it wouldn't come to this... yet here we are. Umi, begin the recovery transmissions. Everyone else, follow me. Let's march on the Buzor and teach them the meaning of fear."

Minutes later, the fallen bodies begin disappearing, teleported to the Bloodbearer under Umi's control.

As he walks, José pauses mid-stride to glance at Megla and Soren, both of whom walk over to him in unison.

"Kyargh! Admiral, I thought the Bloodbearer couldn't teleport people from underground? What about the Trifrancium deposits?" Megla asks.

"She can't transport living bodies," José explains. "Not except in the case of an emergency. Too much interference; the DNA buffers might royally screw up and resequence your genomes into... you don't want to know. Let's just say full-body cancer would be a pleasant death by comparison. However, dead bodies aren't under such constraints. They're already dead, so... any such DNA resequencing won't kill them any harder."

Megla's yellow scales turn a pallid grey. "I... I see."

Soren speaks up next. "Admiral, I took a look at the Buzor's weapons. As expected, their designs appear remarkably similar to the weapons used by many Mallali security forces. Furthermore..."

Admiral Rodriguez listens intently for a few minutes as Soren reaches a conclusion basically identical to what Lord Drall, Kilgore, and Gorlax reached many hours earlier.

"I see. These weapons could be stolen, but you suspect the Mallali deliberately supplied the Buzor, instead? If that's the case, then how did the Buzor modify the weapons? Did the Mallali assist them?"

"That's not out of the question..." Soren mutters. "However... Admiral, I think we should consider another possibility. I think that the Kessu might be involved."

"The Kessu?" José repeats. "In what way? Are you implying the Kessu have been building weapons for the Buzor?"

"I don't know for certain," Soren says, glancing between her sister and the Admiral. "But I have a hunch. The fact the Kessu were once the galaxy's foremost scientists, and then they showed up on this world, wiped their memories for seemingly no reason... perhaps they aren't as innocent as we first thought."

José falls silent. He eyes his Second Officer, then nods.

"I see. We weren't able to account for a few Kessu on the surface, notably Lele's aunt Lorrie. Lele seems abnormally smart compared to the other Kessu, and she claims her aunt taught her about technology. If we put those facts together, along with Lorrie's missing personage, then the most likely scenario is..."

"Not all the Kessu wiped their memories," Soren concludes. "Yes. I believe the Kessu have chosen to work with the Buzor for some hitherto-unknown reason. Perhaps when my people bombarded the surface, it set off a series of unexpected events that otherwise disrupted their plans."

Megla's tone turns icy. "Kyargh. Maybe the Kessu never abandoned their former ways. They might have simply swapped allegiances, opting to work alongside the Buzor to achieve galactic conquest."

"We don't know that for sure," José says, gently raising his palm. "Do not jump to conclusions. Even if it's true that there are Kessu who never lost their memories, we should still assume those with wiped memories are innocent and have no knowledge of the past."

"Understood, Admiral," Soren replies, nodding sternly. "I'll go along with whatever you decide."

"Same," Megla confirms. "So, shall we head out now?"

"Yes," José answers. "Mobilize the troops, but leave two Titans behind to guard our path of retreat. I don't want the Buzor caving in the mountain behind us."

Having satisfied his curiosity, the Admiral and his forces quickly work together, creating a massive platoon of soldiers, with the Kraktol standing in a big square-formation on the borders, while the Kessu huddle together on the inside, shielded by the scaled bodies around them.

"Move out," José orders. "Continue killing any Buzor if they appear."

"Yes, Admiral!" Comes the reply from a chorus of cats and crocs.

...

Another hour passes. The Admiral and his troops make rapid progress as they stride forward, hampered for barely a minute at a time as Buzor pop out of various side tunnels and holds in the ceiling. However, compared to the fierce firefights from earlier, these momentary obstacles require little effort for José's allied forces to mop up.

After delving another three miles underground, the Admiral's army finally reaches the eighteen-mile depth. The formerly warm temperatures rise noticeably, making the Terran start to sweat.

"Ramma, guide me..." José mutters. "Feels like we're diving into the depths of-"

"Admiral," Soren interrupts. She points at the ceiling, where a shiny glimmer catches everyone's eye. "Look. What is that?"

José follows her finger. He zooms in with his ocular implants, than frowns.

"Odd. That looks like steel plating used to reinforce an underground tunnel. Actually, over there, too. I see another one. And another one. Hm?"

Thick, three-by-three slabs of steel start popping up more frequently as the Admiral's army walks. Soon, the floors, too, start clanging underfoot, making the Admiral glance downward, where he spots even more plating.

"Oho. Now this is interesting," José muses. "No longer do we walk among crudely dug tunnels. We're about to enter some sort of... underground facility."

Megla nods. "This tunnel... it does not give me the impression that any Buzor made it."

José and Soren share a meaningful glance, but merely nod at each other without voicing their thoughts.

It doesn't take long before the once-rocky and dirt-covered walls give way to shining exosteel, the sort of high-quality metal only a starship or advanced research facility might offer. As the Admiral leads the way, his ocular implants flicker around, noting several doors attached to the tunnel walls, many of them recently welded shut.

"It seems the Buzor have retreated..." José mutters. "And they made it as hard as possible for us to snoop around. They must be hiding something precious down here."

Several Kraktol walk over to the sealed doors and try to force them open, but the hyper-efficient welds ensure they will need similar tools to unseal those entrances.

"Leave them," José orders. "Stay in formation. We could still be ambushed at some point. I want everyone ready in case of any nasty surprises."

The Terran's movements become slower, more deliberate. He cautiously flicks his eyes around while clutching his gun to his chest. The distant hum of machinery catches his attention well before any of the Kraktol, but not much sooner than the Kessu, with their sharp hearing.

"Mraww..." Ruuki meows. "Admiral, I hear funny noises up ahead."

"It doesn't sound like war-machines," José replies. "Just keep your wits about you and look for hostiles."

Within minutes, the army arrives inside a giant antechamber, one with several catwalks up above, holes in the ground for Buzor to enter and exit, and five different diverging pathways, all of them leading deeper into the underground depths. Notably, no longer does the planet's oppressive heat feel so stifling, as air-conditioning pumps transfer artificially cooled air into the facility.

José looks around the room. He spots some sort of hovering vehicle sitting on the ground up ahead, its engines torn up and its fuel canisters retracted. Now little more than a broken mess, it appears mostly unusable, at least not without plenty of servicing and rebuilding.

"Split up. Keep in groups of fifty," José says, motioning in several directions. "Mix it up a bit. Kraktol and Kessu, work together. Cover each other's backs."

Megla frowns. "Split up? Admiral, isn't that dangerous?"

José shakes his head. "No. I don't think it is. I haven't detected movement for an hour. Now, I think I finally know why the Buzor kept attacking us with such fury. They were trying to slow us down so they could rip apart this facility and deny us their research."

"What good would that do?" Lord Drall asks, stomping up from the backline. "The Buzor can't escape offworld. Even if they tried, your Bloodbearer would detect and shoot them down! It's a pointless endeavor!"

"I don't know," José replies, glancing at the Kraktol leader. "Maybe they've simply fled into the planet's depths. I can vaporize all life on Tarus II's surface, but the underground will take longer. They might have some secret method for contacting the Mallali, or a backup plan to eventually escape Tarus II. Either way, none of those possibilities have a damn thing to do with Yama, so they aren't anything I care about. Like I said, spread out and start searching. We'll find useful clues more quickly that way."

"Alright," Drall says, as a greedy look enters his eyes. "I might find some useful technology down here."

"Yes, and you can keep whatever you find," José says, waving his hand flippantly. "But don't get your hopes up. I imagine the Buzor had more time than just today to prepare for an invasion. You're not likely to find anything of value."

Without another word, José and Soren split off from Megla and Drall, as well as many other teams. Eighteen divisions in total go their own way, traveling down distant tunnels to search for technology, remnants of the Buzor attack squads, and anything else of value.

After twenty minutes of searching, José arrives at yet another of the countless sealed bulkheads. This one, however, belongs to a giant pair of thirty-foot-tall double-doors, both of which stand out from the entrances to smaller sub-facilities. The Admiral pulls out his vibroblade and climbs to the top of the door, then begins slowly sliding down it, melting apart the welds with his sword's incredibly sharp edge.

As he peels the welding apart like a banana, the Admiral keeps his grip on the sword steady. He reaches the bottom and pulls away, exhaling deeply.

"Alright. I have no idea what's inside, so keep on your guard, everyone. For all we know, some hideous super-Buzor could be lying in wait, ready to pounce at us. I don't know about you, but I didn't come all this way to end up as some nasty centipede's dinner."

"Centipede?" Soren asks.

José ignores her. "On the count of three, I'm going to open this door. Everyone, lock and load."

He walks over to a nearby panel, one with a series of control codes required. By merely glancing at the panel, José instantly unlocks it via Umi's remote hacking capabilities.

"One... two..."

The moment José reaches the final digit, he presses the 'door open' button and jumps backward, lifting his sword and readying himself for a fight. The door silently rumbles open, its thirty-foot-tall frame spreading apart to reveal a well-lit interior, and something that baffles the Kraktol and Kessu alike.

Rags, the young male Kessu, blinks twice. "Huh? What the heck is that thing?"

Ruuki shrugs. "Uh... dunno. Looks like a... a pair of metal arms? They kind point up and curve at the top. That's weird."

Even Soren with all her technical knowledge, can only blankly stare at the pair of giant metal pylons in the center of the newly opened room.

"Err... Admiral? This certainly looks important, but what is- Admiral?"

In unison, Soren, the other Kraktol, and the Kessu, all look at José, only to see their beloved Admiral frozen in shock, a look of complete astonishment glued to his face.

"N... no... it can't be... they were only legends... all destroyed, I thought..."

The Admiral drops his sword, allowing it to clatter to the ground beside him. His look of shock turns to one of contemplation, as hundreds of puzzle pieces click together in his mind.

"Admiral?" Soren asks, alarmed by his complete breakdown of decorum. "What is it? What is this weird structure? Do you recognize it?!"

Slowly, José nods. A strange smile, not one of joy, but one of bewilderment, passes over his face.

"...I do. How could I not? Ramma's Chosen always sought to find and destroy these accursed artifacts at all costs. It's just... never in a million years did I expect to find one on Tarus II, a prison world. It must have been here the whole time. So, how did we overlook it? I don't understand..."

After several seconds of contemplation, the Admiral closes his eyes and laughs.

"Haha. Oh, my dear Soren. This device is an ancient Volgrim artifact... a weapon capable of terrorizing the entire galaxy. It is... a warpgate..."

The Admiral raises his eyes, meeting his Second Officer's gaze.

"Finally, I understand why we've not seen Yama or the Buzor. It is all too obvious to me, now. They've all escaped this world... and we may never be able to catch them again."

"They've left the mortal realm and traveled to Hell: The demonic realm."