"Shameful, Shameful-Shameful!" berated Sheppard as the group walked through the hallways of castle dominion.

It was only the 1000th time he'd said that.

Az rolled his eyes, not his fault he thought, he didn't know he was gonna be facing nine-foot tall humanoids that could slice through cars, all he knew about was those armored figures and supposed "demons' ', not those things.

Didn't help that one of their forward bases was critically damaged by a group of rebel helicopters and they didn't even shoot one down, as well as their convict escaping didn't help thing's either, maybe they were just bad?.

He heard that they had destroyed a convoy of the native population of this world, they took losses there as well, but that was negligible, they had managed to take all but one of them out either way.

Now they were being dragged back to their main base to meet some "trainer" who was apparently skilled enough to warrant training with people of their "caliber' and even though Az had never heard of them-that meant they were strong right?.

"Since you all seem to need extra training for next time, we have a famed-specialist coming in from our homeworld, so be grateful she took the time out of her life to help teach you how to fight." said Sheppard bluntly.

Az bit back an eye roll and a sting of anger, he was one of the first ones to throw an attack in that last fight, yet he's talking to us as if he did all the work and we stood around and did nothing.

No-one else said anything as they turned a corner and walked into a room-more specially a..bar?

"A bar?, you say we need more training yet we're brought to a bar of all places?" asked Lux, narrowing their eyes.

"It's not the place. It's who runs this place" retorted Sheppard.

"I mean I could always give extra tips if you ever feel like helping me out here" said a new voice.

A girl of about 5.7 feet in terms of height appeared from behind a corner wall walking casually towards the group, she had long straight black hair and slightly pale skin, her eyes were dark brown and she wore a mixture of a tank top, shorts and some straps across her back, she wore fingerless gloves, but none of it seemed to bother her.

"There she is now" said Sheppard which was kind of obvious.

"wait-I know you," said Yanna.

"Not long before you left for this-place we met, didn't we?" asked the girl.

Yanna nodded as the girl then spoke up.

"The names Monarch, I understand some of you may need some extra training?" she said.

"Indeed, they got their asses handed to them by the rebels earlier" replied Sheppard.

"Hey you did as we-" began Lux, but was stopped by an elbow from Merkava.

If Sheppard heard Lux he didn't let it show as Monarch nodded.

"Ah-ha..well for their credit I've heard these-rebels aren't exactly untrained, I've heard they actually pose a threat to our forces." she said.

"Like all others-they will fall eventually" said Sheppard.

No-one replied to that right away as Yanna cleared her throat.

"Apologies for the interruption, but I have a meeting to go to in an hour, if we are to train more then I suggest getting on with it" she said.

"Hmph. very well then, let us go then" said Sheppard.


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Merkava stood beside Yanna as she watched Lux, Yakuza and Az spar and take down a group of training dummies with ease, she didn't like to admit it, but the two newbies, Lux and Az-interested her, they both had different backgrounds, and they did have natural magic powers, but other then that she couldn't really put a pin on why they interested her so-much, Yanna didn't so much have an interest-just a genuine polite care, she was different that way, she always looked out for others and often adopted a motherly role towards her peers.

Maybe it was because the two actually had the courage to backtalk Sheppard-even though he was the overall commander of the group.

Merkava was like that once.

Once.

She still had her outspoken nature, but due to an..event that happened between her and Sheppard long before this war even happened-an event that even her mother allowed to happen to her-she had to submit or else she'd have been killed for treason.

So why did she feel..drawn to him sometimes?

She hated that about herself, as she watched the last guard get knocked over by Az, Monarch slowly walked up to them and gave them a small smile.

"Well done-I can tell you all can handle yourselves in a fight..now try me" she said simply.

Yakuza looked apprehensive about this-unlike Az and Lux who seemed to relish it to an extent, maybe it was because Yakuza knew just what she could do in a fight.

Az struck first, jumping slightly and preparing to swing his right hand in a right hook to monarch-who had barely moved.

At the same time Lux swiped from below hoping to unbalance her.

It seemed like Monarch would be taken out instantly-but as Az's hand flew down she reacted in a second.

Ducking beneath his arm she causally batted it to the side and brought her right fist into his stomach all while leaning back and proceeding to flip herself and Az over, landing with her foot on his chest.

And as Lux turned around to swing again Monarch was ready even more this time, casually blocking their fist with a hand and dragging it down, before promptly slamming their face into her knee, sending them back a few feet and they landed on their back.

Taking this moment of opening, Yakuza jumped from behind Monarch and drew a training knife-a dull metal blade that could barely cut, but could still be felt, and drew it in a downward slash-she clearly knew what she was doing.

But Monarch didn't even look behind her as she rolled to the side and raised her hand-an odd way of defending herself from a knife.

But even still she caught the knife between her fingers, grasping it gently, and with a flick of her wrist she disarmed the girl with ease.

Yakuza drew a second knife and swung again, but Monarch backstepped before kicking it out of her hand with her foot, in the same fluid motion she swung her leg around in an arc, forcing Yakuza to jump into the air.

Yakuza rolled backwards to evade another attack, but instead of attacking, Monarch simply ducked down, and instead just as Yakuza landed, brought herself around Yakuza and punched her ribs, causing her to flinch and using this, Monarch promptly locked the other girl in a headlock.

Az and Lux had just started to get back up as Monarch said.

"I think that's enough for now..except"

The three glanced at her in confusion.

Monarch said nothing-except to quickly start tickling Yakuza on the side.

"H-HEY-S-S-STOP THAT!!!" she cried out.

Lux and Az blinked, who knew that this girl was THAT ticklish.

Merkava gave a small knowing smile at this, while Sheppard sighed-Yanna on the other hand merely giggled at the sight.

After a few seconds Monarch patted Yakuza on the head-the poor girl looked muffled as all hell as Yanna checked the time and glanced at Sheppard.

"Alright I'm headed out, see you all in a bit" she said and walked out.

Yanna walked out and down a narrow hallway as she took one last glance behind her at the group before walking on.


---------------------------------------------

Finally reaching the meeting room(they really needed to make the distance shorter) she walked forward as the door slid open and the council of Iron will stood before her.

The council of Iron Will was a group of individual leaders each with a long and distinguished history to their own, true Sheppard was the overall leader of the squad, but she was the diplomat, mainly due to her thoughtfulness and foresight and ability to remain at least somewhat calm in most situations.

The assembled council-mainly composed of six "lesser" council members and the actual "head" of the council.

The six "lesser" speakers were composed of three men and three women, three one each end.

The men were council speaker "Madriz", an older, middle aged man with a fierce temper.
Council left side speaker "David", a quiet thoughtful speaker.
And council diplomat who was simply named "guilt", who was rumored to have formerly been an executioner of sorts in his early years.

On the women's end there was.

Council speaker "Kuro" who was known for her wild mood sings-why she remained on the council Yanna had no idea-she was barely stable enough to hold a regular conversation half the time.
Council right side speaker "Anna", who was harsh-but fair and even gentle at times.
And council diplomat "Akhlys" a sadistic individual who felt little remorse for others' mistakes.

And finally the main "head" of the council is a huge intimidating individual named "head councilman Boridus, a man known to be decisive and traditional in his views, and had the ability to see the face of his enemies no-matter were he was.

"Yanna, glad to see you could make it" said Anna glancing over at her.

"Apologies council I had to-" began Yanna

"Don't apologize, we've barely even started" replied Anna quickly before she sat down.

After a few moments everyone took their positions and Madriz asked.

"Yanna. Can you tell us of the state of the war on the rebels so far?" he asked her.

Yanna felt a tiny bit of sweat trickle down her forehead as she looked at Madriz.

"It's a..work in progress your honor we-" she began

She was cut off by Madriz.

"Define "in progress" Yannah" he ordered calmly.

"These..rebels are unlike anything else we've faced sir..within their ranks they have sentient robots, armored soldiers that move faster than the eye can track, mechs, and other humanoid beings that don't seem to fit within the definition of humanity, also their unusually well organized, they know what their doing here, they even have their own air and naval forces, and some have access to magic as well" replied Yanna earnestly.

"Hmph. anything else we should know" he said.

"The native armed forces of this world are starting to respond, we took out their convoy with ease, leaving only one survivor" replied Yanna.

"And what happened to this "one survivor?" asked Akhlys.


"We were about to finish him off as well, but we lost contact with our defenses shortly after that" she replied.

"I'll say Yanna..have we grown soft in this world?" asked Akhlys.

"Pardon me ma'am?" replied Yanna tilting her head.

"You know just what I mean, we have a complete advantage, millions of troops and thousands of vehicles and weapons, plus magic and dozens of fallback plans, and we can't handle this minor group of rebels simply because they have vehicles and magic like we do?" replied Akhlys coldly.

Before Yanna could reply, Guilt spoke up.

"Not to mention. You are part of an elite group that has in the past defeated entire militia groups, and are of royal blood, so tell me why is it that this time around you can't handle yourself?" he asked

"I-" began Yanna but again-she was cut off, by David.

"If I may-to be fair, this group is unlike any we've encountered before, most groups we've faced have had lesser weaponry, technology and magic then we've had, so it can be easy to get why we may of had struggles with such a group, although the point that you failed does still stand. He said calmly.

"The level of technology they possess should not matter in this situation. Your duty is to exterminate any enemy of the king, no matter the cost or even at your own life." said AkhlysKuro decided to speak up in a fit of laughter."Maybe you just lost your touch!" she said needlessly.

Yanna wanted to reply but couldn't as a deep thunderous voice rang out.

"ENOUGH."

Everyone jumped as Boridus leaned forward and Yannay felt his dark gaze rest upon her eyes.

"Yanna..both sides are correct, on one end, you and your team seem to have lost some of their usefulness to us..but it is also correct in that we've never faced an enemy like this before, I believe I have a solution to this..issue" he said calmly.

Everyone else turned and looked at him expectantly.

"I authorize the usage of the nine hells," he stated.

The group blinked in shock.

"The..nine Hells..sir you can't be serious-" protested Yanna.

"I am very serious here, did I stutter?" snapped Boridus.

The nine hells are a set of nine-separate "trump card" fallback plans that RAT had in store, going down from levels 9 to 1, level 1 being reserved for only threats that threatened existence in itself, Yanna didn't know what the top 4 hells were, and she only had ideas of the 5th-6th, but she knew what the 8th and 9th were-they weren't nearly as bad-but still she felt nervous about using them.

"All do respect headcounselmen Boridus-but is this really the best move?" asked David."I believe it is..the more I think of this group, the more that I can see.." he said, his voice trailing off.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, he looked up and said quietly."But...,how?, he's supposed to be dead.." "Who sir?, who?" asked Kuro.

"I will not speak his name just yet..but now that I can see his face-the nine hells, MUST be used, we cannot let him reclaim what he once was, or else RAT itself is finished, I am executing the gag order 001456, emergency contact of the king himself, he must know of this" replied Boridus.

Yanna felt ice flow through her veins, the king had been away for months now, and often wished not to be disturbed-hopefully Boridus didn't get himself killed for this.

"If-if that what is decreed-then it must be so, execute the nine-hells, and gag order 001456 is now in effect, effective immediately, Yannay you are dismissed, and tell the others of this development as well" said Anna.

Yanna went to speak-but found nothing coming out as she swallowed and nodded shakily before quickly turning around and running out of the room.

And she did so she heard Boridus speak about this figure once more.

"How is he..alive after all these years?...he was buried under a mountain and forced into his prison, while in..hellfire, how-just how-?"