A small Azarian Warlord created a small crack in a mountain and squeezed its massive mile-long body into it to hide from the incoming Terran dropships and their pods. Its tentacles quivered in such fear, that the mile of earth it had embedded itself into shifted constantly.

"W-w-w-why are the demons spawn h-here!? T-this was supposed to be a l-livestock world! If its s-spawn have arrived, the great demon is near! It w-will find me and slaughter me as easily as it does a lesser! Great god Mael... Please heed this lowly failures prayer! Rescue your lost! Save us from the demon!"

It fervently yelled its prayer towards the sky as it watched black dots begin raining down from the heavens. As soon as the pods broke orbit, the Warlord buried itself deeper and watched. It saw one pod land relatively nearby, in an area that he had commanded the lessers to clear the livestock from recently. Now it was no more than rubble and ruin.

'What could the demon spawn be doing there? I already moved the main force from that area... Could it be?! They found me! No no nooo! I must persevere until the great one comes! I... I will make the lessers who were left behind watch them... They will watch until their brothers return... I must protect myself.'

It commanded the eleven immature Azarians in the area to hide and observe the movements of the three demons that had revealed themselves. The Warlord tapped into the lesser's senses and watched everything unfold personally.

'One demon has broken from the flock and headed into the rubble... An advance scout? Is it hunting for me? Setting an ambush? No... The other two have begun to fortify their position? Why? What are they planning?'

The Warlord quickly sent an order through his connection to all of the lessers within a hundred-mile radius. "Attack them now! They are preparing some great demonic weapon! Do not allow them to threaten my life!"

The lessers immediately ceased whatever attacks they were currently making as these new orders were passed down. They could feel their Warlord's fear and trepidation ripple through them as they received the orders causing them to shiver uncontrollably as they started flying off in the direction of the lone Terran drop pod.

At the destroyed Kineian neighborhood

Mai finished setting the nanites to their tasks and quickly leaped to the top of the pod, landing beside Mattias as quietly as a cat. "Wow... You weren't kidding! They really are shivering! That's the first time I've seen one of the mindless immature ones show anything like fear! Wait, aren't there supposed to be eleven? Why do I only see ten?"

As she made her comment, something changed with the Azarians. They suddenly began to shiver harder, shaking themselves free of the rubble they had hidden beneath before they flew straight at the duo. Mattias was lightning quick on the trigger as he immediately opened fire on one of the incoming Azarians.

The modified bullets took no time to reach the intended target as they left tiny puncture marks across its sickly-yellow face. In just a few seconds the Azarian under the SAW's fire dropped back down from the sky.

"One down! Firing at that shitstain's brain did some fucking work!" Mattias yelled as he swiveled to his next target.

Mai quickly upped the priority on the turrets before picking up her Imperial service rifle and taking up a position behind Mattias. "Should be just enough time," she said as she leveled her sights on the nearest Azarian.

The Azarian was only a few blocks away so she didn't adjust and just aimed straight for center mass. She breathed out and squeezed the trigger. An explosion rang out as the massive shell slammed out of the rifle and screamed toward the Azarian at mach six.

The shell penetrated into the center of the Azarians body before detonating a small anti-matter charge. The Azarian swelled up with the explosive force before popping like a gory barbecue balloon, showering its smoking innards everywhere. Mai quickly snapped between two more targets, creating the goriest fireworks Kineia had ever seen.

Meanwhile, Mattias was grinning like a madman as he held the trigger on his modified SAW. A continuous stream of red poured from the barrel like a laser beam as he swept it across three tight-knit Azarians. The hail of bullets cut through Azarian flesh like butter, lopping off any tentacles in their path to the juicy center of the now incredibly porous beings.

Mai watched out of the corner of her eye as a small nanite swarm swept up the casings that the SAW ejected as soon as they touched the ground. Another swarm had begun sweeping up the nearby rubble to replenish the spent ammunition.

The Azarians had gained enough ground that they could almost reach out their twenty-foot-long tentacles and reach the duo when Mai snapped off her last two rounds, detonating two of the remaining three. Mattias had just finished off the last of his group before turning to check Mai's situation.

His gaze was met with a hail of barbed tentacles heading toward himself and Mai as one Azarian had made it to the duo as her rifle ran dry. His mind seemed to run on overdrive as adrenaline flooded it, causing him to perceive time a bit slower. His gaze dropped down to Mai as he brought his SAW up to assist her.

She was standing there with her hands on her hips, completely relaxed. He couldn't see her face, but he could practically feel the malicious grin she normally sported when one of her plans came together. The grotesque barbed tentacles were a mere foot away from her when all hell broke loose.

Five turrets had loosed their five-thousand rpm payload of 12mm bullets all at once. The bullets created solid beams of light that lifted the Azarian away from the duo before turning it into minced meat. Blood and gore had rained on everything around the pod, including Mattias and Mai.

Mai turned to Mattias who was just coming down from the adrenaline high and flashed him a feral grin that was made all the more chilling by the fact that her face was covered in the murky green and yellow insides of the Azarian.

Mattias sighed as he stared at her, "You know, I could've done without the shower. Or you know, at least give me a bit of a warning next time so that I don't feel like I need to carry a Basillius damned umbrella with me into battle."

She raised an eyebrow at him and smirked playfully, "No no... That's a great idea. We should make you an umbrella. I'm thinking we go all pink with pretty ponies and butterflies. It'll really compliment you when you start whining like a little girl about a little blood." She pulled out her canteen and took a swig with a smug expression on her face.

He scoffed at her, "Ah right, forgot, you're miss Billy Badass. Oh right, you still keeping good care of your chibi Basillius body pillow?"

She spit her water, coughing up some that went down the wrong pipe before giving him an evil glare. "Damn you and your snooping..."

Mattias shrugged and smiled at her before changing the subject, "So, what happened to the eleventh? The other ten charged us, so did that one straggler just leave?"

Mai coughed up the last bit of water and glared at him once more before answering his question. "I'll check the map now." Her eyes unfocused for a second as she made a mental link with the pods bio-scanner.

"Shit! It's headed straight for Zeke!" She yelled out as she tapped into her squad comms. "Zeke you have a squid on your six! It's traveling underground and it'll be right beneath you and the survivors soon!"