Edit: Zomg front page! (Thanks everybody. ^0^)

Okay everybody, I’m terribly sorry –I’ve been quite nearly dead for the last three weeks or so, but here’s chapter 11, if I haven’t lost all my readers by now. *rolls eyes* Additionally, thanks for the comments/likes/support/demands-for-next-chapter everybody. Screenshots included of me jacking around all day today, instead of writing this like I was supposed to. They’re funny and self explanitory, check ’em out. (I’m submitting this at 10:34 lol.. but I DID get it done today.)

—
Appearing in a flash of light, a warrior appeared in a crack of startled air molecules. Riella crumpled gracelessly to a halt in muddied slush. Picking herself up, she saw her friends doing likewise, brushing away dirt and snow and shaking wearied limbs.
“Everybody make it out okay?” Leul asked, looking over the shambled company, “Where’s Shard?” Twisting her head to one side, and working out a nasty crick, Riella offered;
“That nut? He vouched to stay behind, said he had more to do there.” Removing his bandanna to shake out some of the snow encrusted there, Cross had no qualms;
“If he wants to get himself toasted by Bains and DarkStriders and Zakum knows what else, that’s not our problem. Where are we anyway?” he finished, looking around.
“El Nath.” Kytin informed him, folding his arms and shivering, “Damn near the coldest town on Broa.”
“Agreed,” Riella said as well, running steel gloved hands briskly over the goosebumps forming rapidly on her arms, “Let’s find some shelter, shall we?”

—
His running little slowed by passage through the shadows, a lone bandit leaped over the Bain patrolling the DarkStriders’ cargo bay, and cackled madly, picking up speed, he dashed out into the hall, and slid around the corner to hit the wall opposite the storage door he’d just exited.
“Oof!” Shard exclaimed, rebounding off the wall and becoming visible again.
“You!” a voice both familiar and particularly enraged exclaimed. Standing up, Shard raised his head to address its owner.
“Ah, if it isn’t Achoss, my favorite assassin friend, and the fair lady Imlye as well.” he said, laughing as he popped the bazlud up out of its sheath, to spin end over end above his head, before he snatched it back from the air at shoulder level in his other hand. The two in question broke apart hastily to stand at ready. “I take it our last bout dissatisfied you? Well if you’re looking for a rema-” Shard glanced to his left, back into the cargo bay, to see the Bain charging another firebomb, “…hold that thought.” he concluded, and threw himself backward as the junction in front of him was incinerated, leaving the transition from cargo bay to hall no more than a gaping, smoldering hole. Imlye and Achoss were startled back as well, just barely out of range as they were, the cleric fumbled to put out a small flame that’d caught on the hem of her moonlight, as the assassin turned to glare at the monstrous dog inside.

“Cut that out you mangy mutt! We’ve got it under control out here!” Surprisingly enough, the Bain yelped unhappily and slunked off to a corner of the storage room. “Now where were we? Shard!” he exclaimed, looking over the hall again frantically. “Where’d he go? Imlye?” The bandit was indeed nowhere to be found, the hall seemingly empty again across from them, and at her name, the cleric just then looked up, as her robes were extinguished with a satisfying hiss.
“What? I was kind of busy here? Hey!” she hardly had time to respond, appearing out of thin air beside her, Shard reappeared to strike Achoss across the back of his head with the bazlud’s hilt. She stepped back cautiously as her companion crumpled to the ground and his attacker turned to face her. Backed up against the wall, she was left briefly to consider the madman’s intentions, before he whirled away from her to run laughing manically down the hall.

—
“Lift, analyze for me will ya? Who is that and what is she riding?” Blast said, leaning from his saddle to nudge the bright orange bot floating beside him. The L-563 whirred, one eye flashing as it honed in on its target.
“Your adversary is identified as Maeve, ranked double diamond sledge, and with a 63% win on that mobile. She is mounted on a standard rev2 NakMachine of Miramo design. Overall, your opponent is an experienced close range fighter, and I would do my best to keep my distance if I were you.”
“Kay, thanks Lift. Kal, bearings for first shot?” Perking up at the sound of its name, the mobile responded eagerly.
“I’m on it Blast! We’ve got a lot of head room in these caves, high ceilings and all, but that means a lot of drafts blowing down through here. My scanners are reading a 25mph downwind heading towards our opponent, northeast, so I would recommend a three fourths power shot in the neighborhood of sixty somethin’ degrees.”
“Gotcha Kal, will do.” Blast said, punching a few keys to set the mech rumbling forward into a comfortable backwards tilt to achieve the necessary angle.
“I’m waiting!…” their opponent shouted impatiently, from across the gouge in their terrain.
“Yeah yeah hang on!” Blast shouted back, punching a button to remove the safeties and load a type-1 shot. He held the trigger for a moment, and launching a shot high into the air, was satisfied to see the subsequently separating missiles crash down upon the pilot opposite him.

His adversary growled, her and her Nak shaking off the blow, and hammered at her consol furiously.
“Try this one on for size!” She shouted, snatching up the mobile’s trigger. The giant spider-like bot turned to fire a glowing blue shot from its sizable back end, the orb arcing high over the ditch between them to come down beside Blast and the Kal, fizzling harmlessly.
“What is THAT supposed to do might I ask?” Blast shouted, suppressing a chuckle.
“Get back!” the Lift warned, whirring irately, “A teleport orb!” Blast had little time to rumble out of the way, before the shot disappeared in a flash, replaced instead by Maeve and her mobile.
“Nak is a close range bot, remember?” She said, laughing heartily. Blast growled, and tried to put some distance between them before firing off another missile, but the shot by no means had enough time to target properly, and the missiles went everywhere once it had split.
“We can’t get a shot in at this range, BM!” the Kalis protested.
“Ya. I noticed, you got any better ideas?”

—
The XDarkStriders’ leader stepped back from a flashing monitor, security images of their latest intruder, this one somewhat more of a threat than the penguin that’d attacked last week. Punching a few keys, he toggled the view to another camera, this one mounted on a security drone patrolling the corridor outside. A metallic voice echoed from the speakers behind him as he peered more closely at the screen.
“Cargo Bay doors breached.” it said passively, “Sector A breached. Sector C breached. Intruder detected in Sector 2B, closing security doors.” As it confirmed, the intruder in question slid around the corner into view on his robot’s monitor, followed by a cascade of burning ruins and twisted metal, the other robots having met a particularly nasty fate.
“Sssshard. The traitor isss back for round two is he?” The bandit sprung off the wall as he collided, then leapt across the hallway to bounce off the opposite wall as he rounded the corner. As the debris behind him crashed to a halt against the wall, the robot he watched raised it’s autocannon to attack. The thief bared teeth, raising his dagger and leaping off the second wall, and in a flash of metal, the monitor fizzled out. “Fine. I’ll handle you myssself.” He hissed, turning from the monitor to face the heavy blast doors that separated the control room from the adjoining hallway, he raised a heavy skull-topped staff in a jingle of ornate metal. Holding his kage in one hand, he reached back to tap a few buttons with the other, preparing an easy escape route –he had other plans to attend to soon enough.

Shard cackled madly as the last robot went down.
“I would think you had more security than this! I was just getting my groove on out here!” the man chuckled, knocking on the heavy metal doors their leader most certainly hid behind. “What’s wrong big man, all your forces out causing mischief? Because I’m sorry to say your doggles and robots did you no good.” There was no answer, and the doors remained stubbornly both solid and closed. “Fine, be like that!” He said, stepping up to the security panel beside the door, another number pad with a card access slot beside it. He tried tapping in a few combinations, but of course got the ever generic access-denied-because-we-changed-the-codes-on-you message. Laughing, the bandit gave up that attempt, and then proceeded to jam a ninety meso coin into the card slot. For good measure, he slipped a few five-hundred meso bills under and around cracks in the door, and then spilled some small change across the floor from his wallet pouch. Cackling manically, he stepped over smoldering debris and twisted metal to take cover behind the corner, in an incrementally more destroyed hallway he’d passed through just moments before. Running through a couple of basic hand signs, Shard completed his incantation with the words; “Meso explosion.”, and a smirk

The big cheese, per se, stepped back to shield his eyes with one arm, as the heavy set security doors were blasted inward off their hinges with a deafening roar, and as the smoke cleared, his green garbed roguish tormenter stepped over the rubble of the half demolished wall and decimated door.
“Y’miss me?” he said, spreading his arms in a pseudo friendly gesture. The man across from him growled angrily, then demanded;
“How did you even learn Messsso Explosion!?” The bandit laughed, rolling the gleaming dagger over the back of one gloved hand,
“A little trick a friend in El Nath taught me, Arec happens to be a close friend of mine.”
-Omg Flashback-
“FINE I’ll teach you! Just stop following me you LUNATIC!” the thief said, pulling his hood down again to cover glowing eyes, and hoped nobody saw him talking to the man.
-Zomg End Flashback-

“Enough of this nonsssense!” the magician said, swinging his staff high overhead, “I have other matters to attend to, and no time to play with you!” A bright light flashed, and Shard tumbled backwards with a cry, struck hard by the magic arrow. As he slid to rest at the foot of his recently summoned pile of rubble, the man turned to punch a few buttons hurriedly on the computer behind him, then disappear in a shower of blue sparks. Overhead, the empty voice spoke again;
“Full base lockdown commence. T-minus two minutes and counting.” Shard scrambled to his feet and half ran, half slid up to the consol.
“Damn, he teleported right through the wall! And now I’m out of time too. Better get what I came for and make myself scarce.” The bandit stepped to the side, jabbed his bazlud into the lock on a nearby security drawer, mounted in the huge computer’s casing, and tore the device off entirely. Yanking open the drawer, he snatched up a handful of papers, and throwing them out of the way, subsequently scooped up a gaggle of computer chips. Behind him, a deep growling was heard, and Shard turned to face another Bain coming over the rubble through which he’d entered.
“Oi, time to go!” he decided, and stuffing the chips into his pockets, slipped behind the generous cover of shadows as the monster lunged at him –careening into the main computer. He wrenched his dagger out of the mangled lock on the floor, and paused, turning back to stab the consol a few times for good measure. Resheathing the weapon as the controls fizzled and buzzed angrily behind him, he ran out of the room and around the corner, satisfied to hear the resulting explosion behind him, and the roaring of a very angry hellhound.

He dashed regretfully past the recently come to Achoss, whom was talking in a hurried whisper with Imlye, and then past a sleeping Bain in the cargo bay, tripping ever so gracefully over the fire scarred cargo doors, and then tugging a return scroll from his pocket as he slid through the slush down the hill outside.

—
Groaning, Achoss shook the blur from his vision and looked up at the frightened cleric standing over him. Realizing at once what had happened; he jumped to standing in an instant, and demanded of her where the madman had gone. Before she could answer, a familiar metallic voice was heard above;
“Full base lockdown commence. T-minus two minutes and counting.”
“Oh forget that!” The assassin said, the nearby wall denting in swift collision with his fist. “Last time the Leader fled, he left us locked down here for a week!” Bushing hair from her eyes and smoothing down her moonlight, the magician composed herself.
“Well we certainly can’t stay here. The priests will have fled by now, and we need to get your brother help sooner rather than later. And I somehow doubt Erik would appreciate being locked down either.” She said, stepping nearer him cautiously. Turning to simmer at her darkly, but then agreed.
“Yes, we’ll have to get them out, we haven’t got much time. Let’s move!”

The sin reached the infirmary first, crashing into the room with all the care of several bulls in a china shop, dashing up to the first bed, he jostled Erik awake immediately.
“What where eh ahh!” the wizard said, one arm flailing in front of his face, reaching for a staff that was not there.
“Erik, things have gone wrong. We need to go now!” Achoss explained, picking up the crystal staff beside the bed and thrusting it into his hands. “Get your stuff and run for the door, we only two minutes or so.”
“T-minus one minute and counting.”
“****. Move NOW!” he demanded, rolling the magician out of bed. He jumped over the vacated cot to reach his brother, as Imlye entered the room. The wizard coughed and she flowed over to him.
“You’re still limping, I’ll help you.” she said, flurrying about the room to gather up his things, rolled them in his used sheet, and thrust the bundle into his arms.
“I still don’t know what’s going on here.” the man said sleepily as she hustled him out the door.

Wrapping Cerusk in the bloodied sheet, Achoss slung the body across his shoulders and followed the other two. Down one hall, around a corner, another corridor,
“T-minus thirty seconds and counting.”
stepping over rubble, then a lounging bain, there, the cargo bay! A heavy blast door began closing from above, ahead of him, he saw Eric and Imlye scramble uneasily over the ruined primary door. He flicked on haste with an idle though and darted across the room with all speed he could muster, considering there was a full grown man in body armor on his back. The door, still closing, closing… thin now, just enough room for a jump, but too late! Sliding past the boxes just before the door, Achoss slipped behind the shadows, and thus becoming insubstantial, stumbled entirely through the door as it clicked shut completely.

Panting heavily, he met Imlye and Erik at the bottom of the steep hill outside the base. Squinting in the bright sunlight, they each pulled a weathered return scroll from amongst their possessions, agreed to meet up upon reaching the town.
“To El Nath!” they said together, and were gone.

—
Blast trembled with exhaustion as another pulsating shell popped out of the wall behind him to explode, wracking him and his bot, and slicing away more much needed HP. He glowed green again, healing the hardened battle mobile he sat upon, and breathed heavily.
“I can keep this up all day!” it chortled merrily to their opponent above, who looked down to respond to them with similar vigor.
“I’ll see you downed yet! In Thor’s name HOW MANY repair kits do you have down there!?” she demanded.
“Not teeeelliiingggg it teased.” Blast leaned forward in the saddle to knock on his Kalisddon’s head.
“I’m glad YOU are enjoying this, but we’re getting our behinds handed to us, and I don’t know how long I can keep this up!” Floating slightly above them in the wide shaft, Lift concurred;
“Indeed, much further than this and you’ll surely be bunged.”
“Bunged?” Blast inquired.
“Dropped into the bottomless abyss.” it said with a mechanical whir and a warble.
“Oh. THAT’S nice to know.”
“Do you have any better ideas NOW?” the Kal demanded.

“Yeah,” Blast said, punching a few buttons on his consol, “load a teleport orb.”
“One teleport orb coming right up sir!” the mobile said with mock attentiveness, and then rumbled as it built up power. The pulsing blue shot flew high overhead, past their bewildered opponent and her (hardly scratched) Nak, the wind carrying it far across the ditch they’d been contemplating crossing in the first place. Blast felt as if he was literally yanked through the wall, and the empty space between them and the orb, appearing safely really far away from Maeve and her destructive ‘asplodie Nak of diggyness.
“Argh!” She said, turning to jeer at them from across the gap. “Two can play at that game!” she said, and turning her mech to fire another shot at them, built up power and launched the shell high into the sky, glinting blue!
“Kal, that’s another teleport! Load one of ours and get us further away!!” Blast said, pointing in the direction of the opposite horizon.
“We’re only carrying three total! Two now that we used one!”
“Do you have any better ideas!?” The kalisddon grumbled and built up power, shooting their next shell at a much lower angle than the first, low over not one, not two, but three additional trenches, and they were yanked far off to their new destination, followed by the angry shouts of their opponent behind them. Another blue shot glinted in the air, casting telltale glows on the ceiling above, as it flew towards them at great speed.
“Gogo! Another orb now!” He said, and his mobile, needing no further encouragement, fired their last item in the general direction of somewhere else.

They landed another gourge away, just as Maeve reached the spot where they’d just been. She growled and punched buttons on her controls frantically.
“We’re out of orbs Blast!” Lift said, buzzing by from the spot he’d reappeared in, “We can’t run any further from her.” Across the gap, their opponent could be heard loud and clear;
“Fire the next item Nak! …WHAT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘WE’RE OUT OF ITEMS’!?” She roared. There was a brief pause as she simply sat there and sizzled, but no longer than briefly, and she soon shouted to them; “Fine! I’ll fight you from back here! Have at thee!” And turned to launch another attack.
“Alright! Now we’ve got a chance!” Blast laughed to his mobile, who chortled agreement and made himself comfortable in a small rut in the terrain.
“Yeah, let’s do this!”

—
Meanwhilst, on the faraway planet of Broa –oodles of light-years away, the rest of our heroes busied themselves getting settled in at an Inn, under the cold skies of El Nath. Riella placed her traus and tower shield carefully on a chair beside her bed, and pulling the heavy armor plating of her jangoon off over her head, subsequently flopped over exhaustedly on the soft mattress.
“If I ever meet another Bain, it’ll be too soon.” She resolved to Leul, who since entering the room had made no delay in collapsing on her own cushy box-spring accommodation.
“Yeah, I thought you were dead when that behemoth ran up behind you like that, we’re lucky we got out okay.” Riella sighed heavily and casually crushed her pillow, getting comfortable to gaze up at the ceiling distractedly. She frowned once before agreeing;
“Blast had better damn well be grateful when we do get him back.” she hissed through her teeth. She sat up again reluctantly at a tap on the door.
“Ladies, are you decent?” Cross called from outside.
“Yeah, yeah. Get in here.” Leul called impatiently. Cross entered the room casually spinning the medallion they’d gone through all that for on a finger, and drew his comm from a pocket with a free hand.
“What’d you say we call Grendel? He didn’t exactly tell me what we do next.”
“Might as well. The warty old blighter better not give us a fetch quest for it.” Riella said, moving aside for Kytin to sit down beside her, as Leul begrudgingly got out of the way for Cross’ descending behind. Leul spared an irritated grimace for the insult to her tutor, and sat back patiently to wait for the man’s next request.