I apologise for the clunky combat scenes and hope the POV changes were ok! I will add this with my character sheet as well. [hider=Saviors and False Prophets] [center][hr][h3][color=olive]O P : S A V I O R[/color][/h3][hr][color=slategray][b]0030 - 5 years before current events - The outskirts of Cairo, Egypt[/b][/color][/center][hr]Cairo's metropolitan center shone like a glowing oasis in the desert night, bathing the city in light. The nightlife was alive, the native populace and tourists mingling together. Parties were on full blast, spirits were at an all time high. Festivities crawled its way around normally empty streets. Families turned in for the night, children content with tomorrow's celebrations in the city gardens. It was Eid al-Fitr and Muslims across the world came alive, happy with the end of the month-long dawn-dusk fasting of Ramadan. A holy day of celebration and prayer. A day which always attracted the wrong sort of attention every year. A dark, nondescript van sped away from the shining city, accelerating across the highway into the dunes. The walls hummed and vibrated with the loud music, bass cutting over heavy hearts pounding in eardrums. Six dark figures huddled close together in the van, two more at the front. The crack of the radio cut over the music. [i]"Xray-leader, this is Giza-actual. Be advised, hostile camp has been spotted 10 clicks away from your current position. You are the closest response team, we have sent the GPS navigation to you now. ETA six minutes to perimeter, over."[/i] A low, harsh voice cut through the quieting music. [b][color=olivedrab]"Giza-actual, this is Xray-leader, wilco. Radio silence begins now. [i]Eid el mubarak[/i], Xray-leader out."[/color][/b] A sharp click echoed in the metal confines of the vehicle. A low sigh almost escaped muffled lips and Tariq looked back at their team. These were new inductees to the 21[sup]st[/sup] Motorised Special Security Regiment on their first operation. Every team in a new batch had a shakedown operation to "bloody" them, as it was. This one seemingly drew a lucky straw and got an easy one. A hostage situation with several young girls kidnapped by an armed group of escaped convicts intending to "use" them for their festivities. Dangerous to the normal person but these were merely untrained criminals with poor shotguns and pistols. Nothing to trained killers like these. In combination with local police and Egypt's own Unit 777, they received word of suspicious activity around an apartment building in the city behind them. The 21[sup]st[/sup] was attached as a support unit with the Egyptians leading front. All they found was a drugged-up convict armed with a grenade. Shots were fired and viscera splattered on the wall. The man stood there grenade in hand with several bullet holes in his abdomen and a sizable chunk of his head missing. By the Egyptian captain's report, the man tried to prime his grenade afterwards but the fuse failed. The undead spun around in circles, laughing while grey matter and intestines spilled on to the floor. He shouted in reverence, raising one and a half arms in the air with blood pooling underneath him. He spoke of a sacrifice of virgin maidens to a "prophet-come-again." Blood rituals of some sort, worship of a false prophet which provided the men the "miracle of freedom" and "heaven on Earth." By the time Duos had entered the scene, the seemingly immortal man told them they were too late. A school on the outskirts of Cairo, he cackled, there they would find true immortality. Alien kicked the creature into the wall breaking its spine and legs. The human-turned-abomination folded in on itself, mumbling of salvation. Upon their advice, the teams split and scrambled to all known abandoned hospitals near the outskirts of Cairo and in surrounding towns. They had found them. Alien flickered his eyes over the team. Whatever skin peaked through their Kevlar bandages seemed pale, one operative visibly shaking. These were not veterans yet, a voice reminded him. He spoke up. [b][color=olivedrab]"Prepare for unknown metahuman named "False Prophet", threat level presumed high. At least two dozen armed men, unknown number of whom are abominations and twenty hostages. Shoot to kill. Trust your training and your warrior instincts. Most of all, trust your fellow soldier. For the Greater Good."[/color][/b] Silence was followed by slow nodding, colour returning slightly to their exposed skin. The shaking one steadied herself, steel hardening in her blue irises. Satisfied, Tariq prepared for the situation ahead. [i][color=olivedrab]'Still not one for speeches Al? I've gone through our head and your people have some fantastic war speeches here. You should use some of them.'[/color][/i] Alien grunted in response, turning a knob on the dashboard to let the music drown out his soldier's fear. He had always approved of the fast moving rhymes and heavy beats of this American "hip hop/rap" - crude and very human but the violence had meaning. The shared minds agreed that music got the blood pumping or calmed the nerves, important when a being was on the eve of battle. Alien's ingrained battle hymns sounded very similar to the sounds of "rap". Human only wondered whether Biggie would have appreciated that his music impressed an [i]extraterrestrial[/i] of all things.[hr]Alien's Heckler & Koch MG5 sent tracer rounds flying down the wide, pillared corridor in silent suppressing fire. They had spent the last twenty minutes going through several defensive chokepoints, manned by both normal humans and those hidden abominations. The latter would soon expose themselves by being all too confident in their newfound immortality, laughing at the hail of bullets while their comrades hid behind walls and overturned tables. Alien zoned in on one's head flying off the body, cackling all the way. Its body crumpled but the head continued its laughing over the sound of suppressed gunfire. He made sure to fire a three round burst to silence it. His soldiers crept forward under the suppressive fire, going cover to cover in crisp fashion with the female leading from the front. Once his ammunition drum went empty, the six of them lunged over the barrier or around the corners, knives or guns flashing with precision. Strangled cries and screams rang out. "Clear." The red had covered all of them now. The abominations seemed to bleed much more than a normal human being. The female's voice sounded cold, blood staining the black over her balaclava and bandages obvious. Human only faked gagging at the smell but Alien was silently appraising at the sight as they approached. This team were being bloodied well and this female human had the guts to stamp her fear. A predatory smile made its way on to their face. [color=olivedrab][i]'Really, of all the times to finally find a human woman attractive, you choose an operation with a death cult of all things? And when she's covered in[/i] blood[i] no less? Allah save him, he is blind.'[/i][/color] Alien continued leading from the front, saving the inner banter, using his superior bulk to cover his soldiers. They hurried along silently, guns sweeping corners and rooms. Indoor fighting was slow, methodical and nerve-wracking. A gunshot from the dark could spell their end, a tripped IED could take out a whole team. With Tariq, it was a matter of waiting for their commander to spot something with their heightened hearing or vision. Chattering teeth, soft footfalls away from the group, the tension of the string rigged to a grenade. All could be heard or felt before the trap or ambush was sprung. They heard soft whispers through what sounded like a door twelve meters away around the corner. The xenos lifted his fist, halting before the corner's edge. Three fingers were raised followed by a fist shaking side to side. They scurried silently around the corner and to the door, three operatives placing themselves on one side and three on the other. Nodding to the female, Alien kicked the door, sending it flying off its hinges. He closed his eyes. He took a step forward. Blood and bone was crushed against the opposing wall in the room, a gun clattering to the floor. Screams, thirteen in that distinctly annoying young human female pitch. Shouts and clamoring footsteps. Another step. Guns are cocked, the floor vibrating with movement. Distinct [i]chink[/i] sounds are heard, two cylindrical flashbangs tumbling inside the room. The subsequent ringing would be blocked by his coverings. Another step, one foot into the room. Twelve figures placed around the room, surrounding the source of the screams. He hefted his rifle with one hand and slipped his knife into the other. He opened his eyes. The layout of the room was chaotic, upturned desks and tables strewn as makeshift barricades. The human females were pushed in the opposing corner of the room against another door, the human males all curiously shirtless and armed in a semicircle around them. A broken door lay opposite Alien, a bloody humanoid figure underneath. No sounds. Not immortal then. But adorned with strange red tattoos? He noted this all with professional disinterest. Leaping towards and over the nearest barricade, the killer known as Duos yelled at his disoriented enemies. [color=olivedrab][b]"For the Greater Good!"[/b][/color] he cried, stomping on the head of a crouching criminal, breaking its skull into its spine with a satisfying [i]pulp[/i]. He moved swiftly, pointing his MG5 one handed to his right and fired an expert three round burst into the head of nearest enemy there. He kept firing, dispatching the criminals to the right with continuous three round bursts. He extended his knife-arm behind him at the sound of shuffling feet, piercing through a soft neck and ending it with pitiful gurgles out its mouth. In his peripheral vision he watched his team follow into the room, shooting at the disoriented attackers behind him. He smiled at the efficiency, killing the last attacker on his side who was coming-to, flesh splattering on several cowering females. Alien turned to his team, nodding at them in approval, five bodies with three holes in their heads each. Expert killer-heroes for the Greater Good. He beckoned the female soldier forward and pointed at the cowering young ones. She nodded and beckoned the young ones forward, placating them with soft whispers. They were swiftly shepherded out of the room with the female and an escort. Duos stood in front of the door with eyes closed, the rest of his team to his left and leaning against the wall. Flashbangs at the ready, weapons reloaded. Time to fight their first metahuman. The door crashed like the previous. No sound. Tumbling cylinders against cement floors, a flash. No movement. They opened their eyes and saw their first demons. [/hider]