[b]New Condia[/b]

Thundering into the ground, an Amazon attempted to brace as it leaned back from the intensity of the infantry fire, but found one of it's legs violently sheer in half from a well placed balefire round, causing it to tumble and crash into the ground, dead. As the other continued it's advance, a hinge opened on the front side of the machine and revealed empty darkness, quickly replaced by hundreds of writhing whip like appendages which reached and grabbed around blindly for, presumably, Iscandarians. The machine started to move faster, and was almost upon the phalanx.

Not daring to risk trying to slice through the shield wall, Matrons backed away from the Phalanx, and tried to fire upon the gunship that tore through their ranks, spraying black viscous fluid and chunks of shrapnel all around the group. As the Iscandarian elite jumped over their fortified wall, Matrons turned and engaged, well matched by the swordsman but cutting through them and tearing them apart. The battle seemed to turn in their tide, when suddenly, each machine stopped. They stood silent, as new instructions were relayed, while the silence continued:

[i]You may return to Me, now. More pressing matters have arisen...
Let them find the next Piece, it is of no concern to I...
We can always rip it from their dead hands at a later time...[/i]

With that, the lights flickered on their three eyed displays, and they crumbled into the ground, turning to a thick slag as they dissolved. The Amazon too dropped, draping a large tentacle over a soldier's shoulder as it fell and collapsing . And then, quiet.

----

As the alien stood dumbstruck in it's embrace, not sure of what it was doing exactly, Sage interrupted with some information. "Well, at least we have transport now. But we still have Yss to worry about. So, I say we begin recovering the Shard Guides." The glowing orb flared orange, and spun as it analyzed it's aging data streams. "Well, that's interesting... Two have already been recovered, and the Yss seem to have abandoned the first one. I'd say that's a good thing, but I remember them being somewhat tenacious. Whatever called them back, it's serious. As for the second... No data. Hmm, the Body's Warden should have made an update at some point. That leaves only one still uncovered"

The Warden looked up at him, and then back at the humans. She began to draw crude drawings in the dirt, and made sure the human could see it, leaning the human down. It was a circle, with other circles and one had a ring. She drew a line from the surface of the ring up, and looked at the female, eyes filled with hope that the humans had a way off world.