[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/DYdkL5x.png[/img] [sub]A collab by [@The Spectre] and [@Sigma][/sub][/center] [u][b]Cleim, Priuca, Ⱥthistan ℱederation[/b][/u] The highway had been quiet for most of the walk until they saw more people heading towards the direction of the airport, now known as a safe haven from this hell hole. People of all ages, gender, and species were all heading for the same place. Bhaman and her group were a bit behind the crowd as they decided to take a short break before walking. Zenha sat in the driver seat of one of the many cars left behind and looked at the ground. Teodros kept his guard up as he looked around the area for any signs of those creatures. Bhaman used this moment to take a look around the burning city, but saw their massive fortifications. Remaining skyscrapers were collapsing as the group and the crowd stopped what they were doing and looked towards the heart of the city. Any survivors ran out of the area before being trapped by the fortifications, but the aliens would often chase them around the city until they are either caught or dead. The survivors looked in horror as some the remaining survivors of the city were heading towards the freeway and the creatures among with their dropships followed them. One dropship along with recon drones opened fire at Bhaman's group. Bhaman ducked out of the way of the gunfire as Teodros shouted at Zenha to move out of the way. She got out of the seat before the car exploded, but she was shot in the leg by the dropship. Bhaman raced towards her to check if the plasma bolt wound was bad as Teodros rushed towards the ladies. It went through her leg as Zenha felt it burning. She was in a lot of pain as she held tight to the camera and held back her screams. Bhaman grabbed her pistol and tried to fire at the dropship as Teodros picked up Zenha from the ground. The camera was on top of her chest. They started to run as they saw more survivors hiding inside cars or under them as the dropship opened fire at the group running. Some of the cars blew up and some survivors were shot because of the plasma strikes from the dropship going all over the place. Behind Bhaman were more survivors as they managed to get here from the nearest exit ramp. Then she felt the highway shook for a second as she heard a blast sound coming from one of the tanks. Part of the highway behind them started to collapse as survivors caught in the middle fell to their deaths and the survivors were now blocked from heading towards the airport as many of them started to run in the other direction. Bhaman looked back as she saw the whole thing folding in front of her as they kept running. The Collective Dropship begun to lower itself towards the ground, the side doors, sliding open as a dozen infantry drones fell from the aircraft, landing on their feet and making their slow advance, all the while discharging their plasma rifles, unleashing a hail of plasma upon the fleeing civilians. The group saw the infantry drones landing onto the highway as they started their massacre on the civilians. They decided to run towards the drones and hope that they don't get killed while running pass them. They passed as many of them were to focus on the defenseless civilians. Bhaman saw one of the Crushers grabbed a man and started to beat him as it laughed. But there was hope as they soon saw the sign to the nearest ramp that would bring them to the airport. They kept on running for several minutes as the drones started to fire at them. Until they saw the turnpike toll gates that you had to pay to get inside the airport. It was updated with the help from the military as they set up this gate overnight. The soldiers didn't expect to see this many survivors and the creatures at the same time. They asked Priuca Command for their opinion on the situation as things were getting worse. They ordered the soldiers to close off the gate while reinforcements arrived to stop anything from passing the gate. Command was in panic mode as they finally discovered the base within the airport. With the approval from Command, the gates started to shut as it made this terrible alarm sound as more people were screaming to stop the gates from closing as many of them ran towards the gates in the hope of haven. The group saw the action unfolding as they realized that they could make it. So, they kept running as survivor after survivors fell to the ground. Behind the gate, reinforcements arrived in the form of troops and armored vehicles. They all waited for the worst possible thing to happen: the creatures break open the gate and rush in. Heliocopters were ready to go up in the air and shoot down any dropships. Anti-air guns were set up to fire on any dropships that showed up to cause trouble. A squadron of dozen drone dropships were on the horizon, speeding towards the airport, all the while were strafing the highway, slaughtering both civilians and even their own kin on the ground. The dropships then focused their guns towards the airport. Just as they entered attack range, they were met with a hail of gunfire from both the air and ground as Priucan helicopters and AA guns caught the aircraft off guard. One by one, each of the dropships fell from the skies, crashing towards the highway, or the dirt. One however, had crashed right through the gate, demolishing the military checkpoint. "Oh my lord! The gate's destroy! I repeat, the gate's gone! Active the planes!" the soldier said to Command before he aimed his gun towards the ruined gate. The survivors managed to enter the base anyway, as the group found themselves in the base before soldiers began to fire on the crowd as more of the creatures appeared. Screams of terror and pain began as the group made their way inside one of the buildings and started to hide with other survivors. More of the creatures were appearing as the reinforcements started to fire at them. More dropships appeared and the tanks were making their way towards the airport. The high ranking members of the military and civilian VIPs were getting ready to leave the area in several planes. This was their plan if the airport were to come under attack. A large horde of Collective machines and monsters were on the advance, charging like wild beasts as they neared their objective, the smaller creatures running ahead of the main force as they hopped over the burning rubble, pouncing atop any resisting soldiers, and were mauling them to death. The Collective armored vehicles pushed through the rubble, allowing more of their own to surge into the airport like an angry swarm. Bhaman heard the screams and the gunfire as the soldiers were getting destroyed by the creatures. Then, she heard something else in the room as she realized that they were in some place where no-one should be. The command center of the entire frontline in Cleim. The military men and women were clearing the room out as soldiers helped them pack classified information about the war. One of the soldiers spotted the group nearby the gateway as he marched towards them. "You aren't suppose to be here, civilians." he pointed out that as he looked tired. "We can't go out there again." Bhaman proclaimed as she pointed outside, "Those things are here and they will kill us if we set foot out of this building." "I don't care at all." the soldier pointed his gun towards them, "Leave before I force you to." The group looked terrified at the sight of the gun. Zenha sobbed quietly as she held tight to Teodros' shirt. As the soldier was about to use his gun, a voice rang out of the room. "Stop!" The soldier got chills as he lowered his gun and turned towards the figure. "Let them in, soldier. There's nothing left of this room besides empty papers. That's an order." He saluted at the figure as he left the group and went back to help in the efforts. The figure looked at the group and said to them, "What brings you here? Hope? Haven?" Bhaman answered his question as she walked towards the figure, "I need haven of these things. I know information about what they do to the bodies." The figure was amazed as the woman wasn't intimidated at all as she walked up each and every step. She almost got close to the figure until she was stopped by several soldiers. They tried to arrest her for trespassing into a private military base during an active war. "I have been inside the vessel." she boldly stated as soldiers were putting the handcuffs on her. The figure paused for a moment, turned around, and walked towards her. Soon enough, it revealed his face because of the lighting. The humanoid, reptillian Acelop looked at the woman and shook his head. "Impossible. No-one has ever escaped the vessel since it landed two nights ago." the Acelop declined her claim. Then, he saw the pistol. It wasn't like any weapon that he ever saw. He grabbed the pistol off of her holster with his three-fingered hand. The pistol was different from any kind of pistol he saw. It was bright white and he could clearly see the purple plasma inside the pistol thanks to the glass. He felt the glass and then look at the woman. "You really were inside the vessel." he said as he set the pistol down next to him. He then heard an explosion as looked towards the door, where two other survivors were at. The figure grabbed the pistol and said towards the soldiers, "Release her." The soldiers undid the handcuffs and went back to work like nothing happened. The Acelop gave her the pistol back to the woman and gently explained the situation, "I believe you were inside the ship, because we never saw any pistol like this. Other pistols we picked up were in gray, not white. And the plasma is showing as well. You're now the most important person in this room." Bhaman grabbed the pistol back and put it back in her holster as she pointed towards Zenha and Teodros. "Bring them with too." she only said to the figure. "Fine." he sighed at the request, "I am only brining them, because you're important." The two people near the gate raced towards the stairs and stool by Bhaman. The figure looked at the group and said to them, "We must leave this area and get on one of the planes." "Are we almost done?" the figure asked one of the soldiers. "We are done packing up and bringing them to the plane, sir." he said and then saluted at the figure. Meanwhile, the situation outside was getting worse as dozens more dropships were on approach, the airport now overwhelmed. following behind was something truly terrifying. The ground itself began to tremor as just over the horizon, a massive war machine was slowly stepping towards the airport. The giant machine unleashed a volley of missiles and artillery strikes, bombarding the area. The building shook and followed by the sounds of explosions. Another soldier rushed inside from the back door and said to them, "A massive object is bombing the airport! We need to go now!" The figure and the rest of the group raced towards the backdoor. Bhaman saw several planes leaving the runway and several ships firing as they were also leaving. She went down the stairs and saw the plane as soldiers were packing the last boxes of classified information. As she raced towards the plane, she saw the object and stood in place. It looked like it was from some sort of horror film. As it fired its missiles towards anything that fought back. She couldn't say and react to the machine. Both Zenha and Teodros were already on the plane as the man saw her standing there. He couldn't believe the situation as well. All of the years training for the impossible and none of his time didn't cover this. The man went towards Bhaman and screamed at her, "WE NEED TO GO." He had to drag Bhaman as she couldn't move at all. Other soldiers helped her onto the plane as she sat down at one of the seats. The plane was ready to leave as the pilots got the plane ready for take off. The figure was the last one inside as he still had his earpiece as he was trying to contact someone. "Launch them." he only said as he took his seat and covered his face with his hand. Bhaman and the others didn't know what he meant by that. It moments after their plane got off of the runway that she saw the,saw them. Two missiles as they passed by the plane. The man looked at her and explained the missiles, "They are nuclear missiles." Bhaman looked in shock and said towards the man, "But, I thought that the Federation made sure that all of them were gone." He laughed at her statement and said, "We lied to them. We knew that someday the Federation would fall apart. So, we hid two missiles at classified locations that the Federation didn't know existed. It worked. The Federation didn't ask anymore questions and left the country happy. Now, we are using them to send those fuckers back to hell. I don't care about the Federation dragging my ass to court. I just hope that they work." The missiles sped towards the airport, now infested with hundreds of the creatures and drones, the large black machines standing just outside, ominously watching. In mere seconds, all that was gone in the instant as blinding light and smoke obscured it all. A large mushroom cloud forming. And like that, they were either all dead or scarped. The large machine was barely functional, parts of it are now missing as it fell to the ground, lights flickering off. The second missile went further in, straight towards at the heart of the city, where the Templeship stood. Upon impact, the city was ablaze, the second mushroom cloud rising up high. Once the smoke had cleared, however, the result was less than positive. Although partly damaged from the strike, the Templeship still was intact and operational. However, any forces that were outside of the vessel were wiped out in the blast. The battle had been won for the natives, but at a great cost. The city was burning, yet the Templeship remained. For a moment, there was silence inside the ship as they waited for the results. Suddenly, he heard a voice and responded to it. There a moment of talking before he went silent. He spoke again, but in a demanding tone, "Send 'em all. The entire fleet, the air force. The thing must be damaged." The entire fleet and the air force headed for the vessel with one goal in mind: Destory the vessel. They started to fire at the vessel as the fleet and the air force started their final attack. In hopes that the vessel just blew up and this war ends. The sailors and the pilots knew the they could die at any moment. Deep in the templeship, Grana looked to all the holo screens as the native military made their push against her. Her form now visible as the lights grow brighter, her body having a skeletal-like form, attached to the main core of the ship itself. Her facial expression was one of rage. "How could such animals best me!?!?!" she screamed. "I won't let you succeed! You'll all die before I do!" As the fleets of navy ships and aircraft continued their attack, the templeship retaliated with all it had at its disposal. AA laser turrets and missiles flaring up the sky. Ships and planes either sinking or crashing to the ground, all the while, the templeship itself was breaking apart from the constant strikes and pressure, weakened by the nuclear missile strike. From within, the ships shook violently, the walls and ceilings falling apart as they pressed on with the attack, no matter what stood in their way. "No...." she whispered. Grana, knew, this was her end. Despair had fallen upon her knowing this. "One last thing..." she said as he searches the recent recordings from her drones. She found her, the one that got away, and she knows where. Grana's eyes begun to glow a shade of gold as her mind was temporarily being transferred, and would seek to, for a while, take control of the aircraft Bhaman was aboard on. The man got up from his chair as he saw the footage, from one of the remaining ships, of the vessel falling apart. He went to the command center of the plane to get a debrief of the situation. Bhaman saw the man leaving his seat as she also did the same thing. She went near the command center as the footage of the attack was sent to every new channel in the world. The people were going to see history in the making. Everyone in the center looked thankful that the war was finally over. Then, something happened to the televisions as they began to flick as the body of someone appeared out of nowhere. "WHERE'S THE BITCH AT?" the thing shouted towards the people in the center. Confused and scared emotions appeared to everyone as they didn't know what the person mean. Getting more upset, it shouted louder at the group of people. "THE LITTLE BITCH THAT ESCAPED MY TEMPLE AND MANAGED TO RUIN MY PLANS! ALL BECAUSE OF HER." "I am here!" Bhaman proclaimed as she entered the room and faced the machine. "There you are..." she said, now more calm, her skeletal frame now revealed. "You think you won this?" she said, letting out a maniacal laugh. "This is only the beginning. There are more of us out there, and once they know of my death, they WILL come, and WILL wipe your pathetic civilization from the face of the galaxy!" "What if they don't know that you did this? What if they are facing something that they can't deal with? What if... they are gone?" she explained to the machine, "You will never know if they will come here or not. If they knew you were here, you'd think that your reinforcements would of been able to keep your 'temple' for getting destroyed?" "SILENCE!" Grana screamed. "They will come! I know! The Queen cherishes us all...we are family.." her tone started to shift, becoming more desperate. "I will NOT be forgotten! I WON'T!!!!" "Rememeber our last time that we met? I asked you tons of questions and you answer them. Could you please answer more of my questions before you..." she tried to say the last word, but she didn't want to upset it more. "...Fine, doesn't matter in the slightest. Ask away." "You said that the 'Imperium' once ruled the entire galaxy', what happened to them?" she asked the thing. "Why did it fall? The Emperor's death is why. On that day of the accident, the Imperium fell into civil war, human greed and ambition is what led to the downfall. Humanity tore itself to pieces." "How many other species are out there? Are they more powerful than us? Do they have their own governments?" she asked once more. Grana grew annoyed, being pestered like this on her "deathbed" so to speak, but it would be useless to stop now. "The galaxy is littered with millions of worlds of your stature, your technological level, however, there are those few civilizations that have grown to great heights, that far exceed yours, that lay dominion over millions of worlds, and trillions of beings living under their banner, you are but a spec in this vast sea of stars." "Wow." she said as she couldn't believe that there were more life forms out there. She was also afraid that they would get dominated by them. She spoke to the machine again, "Do you think that we will become one of those few?" "Perhaps, and perhaps one day, my kind will find you and repeat what I have done...but you know what we can do, be prepared, less your entire species become our slaves." She avoided the last words and asked it another question, "What's your name? What were you to whatever your empire is called." "We are the glorious Agonis Collective, my human creators once called me...'Grana' " "Grana, if we offer you a chance to live again, will you accept it? Or will you try to complete your goal, no matter what we offer?" she asked Grana. "You're wasting your time, to forsake my mission is blasphemy. I would only restart my plans, no matter what has to be done. I would cull your species eventually." "One last question before you... die." she said to Grana, "Are you willing to share your history of the Agonis Collective, the Imperium, and 'Humanity'? And are you willing to allow us to use your technology to advance beyond this system?" "I'm not, but I have no choice in the matter. Upon my death, the ship will no longer be mine to command, and you savages would be free to pick apart my corpse as you see fit and have all its knowledge at your fingertips." "Well.." she said to Grana, "Thanks for the 'help', Grana. You should know something before you disappear. We aren't like the Imperium. We aren't like the Agonis Collective. We are the Athistan Federation. We can rebuild all of this destruction and death that you caused. And if your armies plan to return, I will personally tell them about you and how you tried to fight against us. We were losing men and hope each day, but we never gave up. We kept on fighting so your kind doesn't ruin us." She pointed at Grana and kept speaking, "We aren't Humanity. We have the spirit and the willpower to never give up. Then, we plan to use your 'men' and your vessel to kick their asses out of our system. And we are also unpredictable and willing to do whatever it takes to win." Grana begun to let out hysterical laughter. "You're funny." she said condescendingly. "Such determination, it's cute. But that won't last long, I guarantee it..." Meanwhile the templeship begun to tremble once more, it wouldn't be long now. All it took was once special strike to make all the walls around her collapse, her frame crushed by the rumble. The screen soon begun to flicker off as the connection was lost. The screen went back to normal as the footage of the vessel was back. It show the vessel destroyed as the whole thing collapsed. The people on the plane were cheering as the war was finally over. All over the world, people were celebrating as they watched the vessel collapsing. Despite the victory of this short war, many lives were lost. And the entire navy and the air force died due to the radioactive poisoning. The war was finally over and the world can rebuild. [u][b]The Abrik Talot Space Station, Ⱥthistan ℱederation[/b][/u] President Roshawna watched the screen as the vessel came down. He saw the whole crew cheering as the long war was finally over with. It had been forty-eights hours since the vessel crashed landed on Cleim and caused millions to die. He got up from his seat and left the room. He took the elevator down several floors as he wanted to get out of that room. The elevator stopped and Roshawna stepped out to discover King Amir Gebreselassie sitting in one of the viewing areas. He walked towards him and asked him, "Do you want company?" He nodded as he finished his cigarette and pressed it against the ashtray. Roshawna took a seat and looked towards the galaxy. "The war is over. We won." he said toward Gebreselassie. He laughed at the announcement as he said towards the president, "We might of won the war, but it isn't over." There was a moment of silence on the fact that more of those things could arrive at any moment. Then Gebreselassie asked him a question, "You are thinking about studying the vessel, are you?" "Yes" Roshawna said as he turned to Gebreselassie, who was now disgusted with the idea. He stool up from his chair and questioned his decision. "Why? Those things have killed millions upon millions and you want to study their technology?! What is wrong with you?!" he questioned the leader of the Federation, "You need to destroy their technology before it gets us killed!" Both men were standing up and they weren't backing down as well. "I can't destroy something that's useful to us! What if they come back?" he asked the Gebreselassie, but he refused to answer the question. "Who cares when they will be back? We will be ready this time!" he assured the president. "I am going to put it to a vote and then we will salvage what we can. I don't care if you leave or not, because you won't leave. You need us in fact." Roshawna boldly stated as he got closer to Gebreselassie, "We will rebuild, we will make sure that we are ready for anything, and we will become more powerful. If you plan to get in my way, I will crush you, your pathetic army, and your allies." Gebreselassie shoved Roshawna away from him and started to walk off. He balanced his self before he could fall and watched as the old king left the area. He looked at the horizon and crossed his arms. Tomorrow was the start of a new era. An era that would forever change the Federation and the world of Athistan. An era where they would meet new friends and old foes. An era that many people will call the greatest discovery in the history of Athistan. But, the high ranking government officials of past and present have come up with a word for this discovery... Agonis' Influence.