Everyone started moving to their respective tasks, but Willow, Sithrik and Tamara stayed put with me for a moment.

"So, what’s the plan, Apollo?" Tamara asked, but Willow swatted her arm.

"Shush! He is working that gorgeous brain of his. Let him cook up something." Tamara then watched as the pink haired woman looked at Apollo from behind with an almost creepy amount of interest.

’Why do I feel like I have seen this before?’ She wondered curiously for a moment before her thoughts were brought to the mission.

I pointed across the way. "I’ve noticed a gap in their patrol route, between us and the next wall. We descend the wall from here and run to the next wall and climb up the reinforced section of the wall."

"Why don’t we just rooftop hop? I’m sure the snake has enough spring to keep up?" Tamara asked, and Sithrik let out a shocked gasp.

" ’The snake?’ How dare you, I... Will wait until later to deal with you, for now I assume my darling Apollo has a reason why he has not chosen to do so?" Sithrik said calmly and turned to me, expectingly.

I nodded. "Yes, we cannot risk being seen before the kill team does their job. If we go over the rooftops, the chances of us being seen from the next wall up, and even this wall goes up significantly. We stick to the ground, slink through and ascend."

I then looked ahead and spoke.

"Onyx, scout ahead. Discard any threat you deem necessary to take out silently and meet us at the top."

Tamara looked like she was about to ask me what I was talking about, but a voice then spoke up behind her. "Of course, my universe. See you at the top." A voice suddenly spoke up

Tamara’s eyes went wide. ’Where the fuck did she come from?!?’

Onyx proceeded to pat Tamara on the shoulder and winked. "Where indeed?" She then walked up to me and kissed me on the cheek. "Oh, left or right. Go left. You’ll know."

I resisted the urge to smack Onyx on her naughty rear for that abuse of her power, but it wasn’t the place and she had already vanished from natural perception.

"Ok, let’s move."

...

Descending the wall took no time and we arrived in an alleyway between two buildings. Looking inside through one of the window grates I raised an eyebrow. It looked like Willow’s team didn’t hit all the munition stocks. This was a massive munitions depot. Reaching into the mission bag Tamara was carrying. I pulled out one of the remote explosives made for the boomstick.

"Apollo, these are for-" Tamara attempted to interject.

"-I know. But we should also weaken the Drakoshi for tomorrow. Every bullet destroyed is a Phalanx saved." I then threw the bomb like a frisbee and it landed atop of a high crate. Not likely to be spotted by the Drakoshi inside.

We then began to make our way from building to building. There were a couple more depots, so I decided to waste the ordinance there as well before we arrived at the next wall without seeing a single patrolling Drakoshi.

"Willow, on my back, I’ll carry you up. Tamara, here." I said and chucked her Zircon to use as a climbing pick"

The four of us then climbed, and slithered, up to the top of the next parapet. This time I heard Drakoshi barking and so did the others. Telling Tamara to hang in there for a moment I peaked my head over the wall.

Drakoshi were training, or it seemed like training. A group of Drakoshi were watching their allies in a scrap. From the quick glance it looked like a fight between two clans, but judging from everyone watching, it was a planned fight.

Just as I was about to signal for Tamara to start moving again, the wall began to shake. Footsteps. Big footsteps. I then heard the sound of machinery whirring. Looking in the direction it came from, my eyes widened.

’What the fuck is that?’

...

"What do you think you are all doing?" Kragg spoke with a heavy, dreadful, modulated voice down at his underlings through his mech.

His mech was an instrument of his genius. It was almost frightening what he could do when he applied himself. Forty meters tall using not only Drakoshi tech, but tech of fallen conquests. The humans weren’t good for much, but they made good weapons for their ’knights’.

His Mech was linked to his brain using neuro ports. Meaning he was his mech when inside. As such, making it feel as close to him as possible was key. Fully Grey in colour, with some orange cybernetics he couldn’t fit all the way inside, Bipedal with clawed hands and feet. Rounded shoulders were a must for extra protection. He simply felt like himself. But bigger, stronger. He thought it foolish the other clans didn’t see this the way he did.

The forty foot mech he was currently inside of was an imposing threat, to all his enemies, but for Drakoshi not of Dinnac, him using a suit of armour instead of relying on his natural resistances caused condemnation... But that just allowed him to easily weed out those with flimsy loyalty.

"WE are tempering our body, boss with some scraps! Y’see we rely on our physique to fight the pink skins, not metal and cir-"

*Splat*

The former Emoth still had some temper about him. That would not work for his company. He needed brains not brawns. There was too much of the latter to go around as is.

Scraping the excrement from the sole of the mech’s foot. Kragg turned his attention to his subordinates who were looking up at him in shock. "Get back to your posts."

The rest of the imbeciles began to scatter to wherever they were supposed to be, he shook his head and his mech followed suit. It was like clan Dinnac was the only clan that had brains and yet Emoth, the brain dead Yzylocks, were the favourite of the...

He took a breath. It was forbidden for him to think about them. He wasn’t a warlord yet after all. He had no right. He couldn’t even speak the real language of his people outloud, even though he knew it by heart after researching, he was stuck speaking this filthy mud language.

He sighed and took control of his emotions. Calming himself. One of the many advantages of the Dinnac clone gene over the other clans. He turned to his left. Walking over to the wall, he rested his mech’s arms against the wall. Some of the parapets crumbled, but the integrity was not damaged.

He watched and looked out over the river and the open plains that followed. The feeling in his gut was uneasy. He felt threatened. He never admitted it, but after testing on himself, his clone gene had undergone mutation upon losing his armour all those years ago.

He had a quirk. Very rare and often Drakoshi were killed when having one, lest not to give it to the great foe... The thought of the great foe sent his genes into combat mode, but he overcame it once again and continued his thoughts.

Thankfully his quirk was simple. He could tell when a threat was upon him. It’s how he survived. Picked the correct battles. How he lived where millions stronger than him have died. As such as he looked out over the parapet, rasping his claws into the wall, this worried him.

He was in a fortress of his own making. But he was cut off from resources and was low on ammo...

He nodded to himself, took in all calculations and made up his mind as he glanced once more at the river adjacent to the outer wall. It was so peaceful. It was a shame the Drakoshi needed all the resources they could get from wherever possible outside the home galaxy...

These alien worlds were often times, beautiful.

...

The massive metal fingers stopped rasping next to me and moved away from the wall. When I saw them drop down, I dodged to my left and promised myself the Instant I had a free moment, I was going to feast on Onyx. As the clawed hand just barely missed me and Willow...

Daring to peak my head over the damaged top of the wall, I watched as the Drakoshi mech began rushing away faster than it appeared.

’Good luck fighting that thing guys.’ I thought internally before giving Tamara and Sithrik the go ahead to continue climbing.

"Fuck, I’ve never seen a Drakoshi mech that big before..." Tamara whispered.

"Me either, but that was definitely Dinnac design. Dangerous." Willow said as she stopped piggybacking.

I nodded grimly. I had this feeling in my gut upon seeing the mech. I knew I couldn’t fight that alone, but quickly composed myself. "Come, it is not our mission objective to take that thing out. I trust our allies and their resourcefulness. Let’s go, the next walls aren’t as tall as the previous ones."