Astral was taking a nap inside of Zeta, he woke up to gunfire as he opened his eyes and saw the ensuing battlescape of Zeta absolutely destroying the mechs around them. Popping out of the hatch he looked around as Zeta was picking off stragglers at this point. Astral landed next to the six remaining members on the planet. "What happened so far?" Astral stretched his arms out as they were in shock.
"We have gotten completely destroyed by a very unsuspecting force!" Indy punched his shoulder hard. "WE LOST MORE!" Indy fell to his knees as there was worse happening in the looming shadows.
Astral crouched down next to him. "We both know the cost of war,, I am sorry I couldn't save them." Astral's voice was soft as a cloud as Indy turned away, the other five were in awe.
"This is my last mission, take me off the clock and I will spend time with my family." Indy was hit hard by the loss of Utah as Astral nodded in understanding. The rest were confused as to what happened to him and this situation.
"Astral we had reports that their weapons were twentieth century, not up to date with some of yours." Hawaii glared at him with her eyes covered by her helmet as Minn noticed something next to Zeta and hopped over the barrier to help him.
"I didn't file the reports, I was resting from the playtime with the twins." Astral looked up at the Red Merle. "We need to more fine tune the sensors then, we have no other choice." The vipers passed overhead as they went back to the Red Merle.
With a flash of light Astral summoned his Beacon and slammed it on the ground, a blinding wave of white light shot upwards and fired down onto men filled with void. "We have company, now let's finish this fight!" Astral hopped over the barrier as he pulled out his magnum and started opening fire while keeping Beacon's spell up that was helping greatly.
Minn hid behind Zeta's leg for cover, peeking out and taking down one or two void men at a time. "Zeta operation thesis." Zeta grabbed Minn and set her inside of the cockpit for safekeeping. Astral took the charge as his pistol was doing so much to kill these creatures. "WHOEVER IS CONTROLLING THEM SHOW YOURSELF!!!" Slamming Beacon on the ground it shined a white light into the trees as the fallen started hopping away, Beacon's light tracked it as it moved.
"The rest of you handle these soldiers on the ground, I got the creature." Astral pointed Beacon at it with his left hand as a pure beam of white light launched at it, it scrambled around and tired it's hardest to dodge and avoid it. It launched a whip of void that went right through Zeta and gashed open Minn's shoulder.
She screeched in pain as Astral chased it down and pounced on it. Stabbing Murasama into its chest to pin it to the ground for answers. "I am asking this only once. Does the seventeen know what they are doing and is Overlord a part of the seventeen?" The void squirmed as it shook no. Astral took out his pistol and shot twice into the core of the creature as it turned to smoke, the enchantment he put on Staller's forces still persisted.
"Minn are you okay?" Nevada shouted as he kept most of his focus on the forces in front of her in order to keep it clean and get them out of there.
"Yeah, it's a light graze!" Minn slapped a bandage on it. "Hurts like a bitch!" Zeta released a gas into the air next to the wound to help ease the pain. "Thanks buddy." She patted the sides of it as it whirred in happiness.
"All forces, fire artillery into the red smoke! Zeta you can take this right?" Zeta gave a thumbs up as Indy chucked a canister of red smoke. Hawaii, Nevada, and Mississippi copied their commander for one last ride. The red smoke surrounded the mech as all sorts of rounds started appearing.
"Danger close, don't hit the big boy in the middle, the boss may get mad at us." the sky behind the five turned dark from the fighters filling the sky and firing a strafe run into the smoke as all that existed were explosions in the smoke. Zeta hopped backward as he was getting to close to losing his shields as all the remaining forces Staller had just died.
"We did it!" Minn threw her hands up and hit the roof of the cockpit.
"All forces, executive order from Astral, we leave this planet in twenty minutes. Grab the wounded and killed and we are leaving." Astral communicated as he flew back to the bridge in an instant. Jaimie was surprised to see him.
"What are the casualty numbers looking like down there?" Jaimie paused for a moment as Astral started reprogramming their planetary scanners. "They have to be low due to their limited technology."
"Oregon died trying to help Carolina, she may be paralyzed for the rest of her life, oddly enough, she is also pregnant." Astral kept typing while looking over and seeing Airsoft, Proto and Omaha limping around. "Omaha, I'm sorry, but Utah also died…"
She stumbled a bit as James dove off the couch and caught her. Angel was in more shock than she was, they were supposed to be the best outside of the people in the room, what happened. "What caught them off guard?"
"The technology was better in the elite units, a little lesser than our tech, I have Adam working on something or I would have him work on upgrades. And their best stuff is what killed more than half the clones that were down there." Astral listed off as they all were in shock. "A fallen was present but did nothing but run from me, giving the remaining forces for Staller the void enchantment."
The rest fell silent as they watched the three ships fly upward. "What is the plan Astral?" Jaimie asked gently, he knows this will wear more on him than them. If he had better tech or sensors they wouldn't have felt so overprepared for a set up.
"Well, I think we sit back and rebuild, I need to redevelop some things to resist alot more, and make sure everyone has a nuclear powered shield that can resist bullets." Astral looked up at the sensors. "I have so much more work to do, issue a full week of mourning, also." Astral looked over to her. "Indy retired. He is living the rest of his life naturally with his family."
"But he never was on the time clock to begin with." Jaimie looked confused. "You asked them to join and Adam tricked them like they were on it, even if they weren't"
"Partially, I never put Indy on there due to his family knowing this could be a large possibility." Astral rebuttal.
The ships boarded the Red Merle and started separating the wounded and the dead. The six members of the Dogpound oversaw their failure. All preparing to say goodbye to Indy. "Wait, so you left him off due to his family, what about us? Or because we don't have family, did you add us instantly?" Airsoft asked as Achilles scoffed.
"Its foggy, but yes. Everyone is dismissed from the bridge, I have too much to do and too little attention span to do it." Astral waved them all away as everyone walked away annoyed or irritated outside of the twins. Who really didn't know how bad things were getting.