A small group of four helicopters flew above a street as the lead helicopter-an AH-64D Apache longbow clad in grey and black colors with a shark mouth design near the front of the cockpit as the pilot-a man named "Felix" a known gambler and trouble-maker-yet very much chaotic good individual and infamous Apache pilot along with his co-pilot and gunner "Hannah", who kept him in line usually, together they flew the ironically named powerful Apache gunship codenamed "Blackjack".

The flew at the front of the group of four helicopters along with them was Russian Mercenaries "Dimitri" and "Reznov" who both had serious tones to their "work", and flew a Mi-M-24 "Hind" gunship named "Vulcan" which was a red and yellow spotted Gunship with additional armor plating around the engines.

Acting as their main anti-air unit in the convoy was a KA-52 "Black-Shark" codenamed "Whitemouth" for it's white armor with it's shark decal on the front like Blackjack piloted by husband and wife duo Alexie and Liev-who seemed to take some form of pleasure from raining rockets on unsuspecting enemy troops.

And finally for extra support was "Viper" a normally silent and "cut-and dry" pilot who only spoke when needed to ho excelled in engaging many enemies at once and flew a modified AH-1Z "Viper" Helicopter.

The four were merely on a small scouting mission-hence the small size of their group, after they had arrived alongside Siege-squadron, numerous other helicopter units and various other ground units after they had received Jackals distress signal, by the time they had arrived Siege-squadron had taken care of the vast majority of retreating units.

They had arrived via the "Mirror's edge" battlegroup, an advanced and large group of ships from various universes centered around three highly-advanced "Titan-carriers", which where sleek aircraft carriers roughly a kilometer long and had the ability to cloak, each one could carry over 100 aircraft and even carry long range heavy bombers such as a B-52H thanks to it's immensely powerful catapult systems.

The rest of the battlegroup was mostly comprised of destroyers and some cruisers of various types, mostly of "fictional" types not originally from this version of earth such as the "Coyote" class destroyer and the "Saber" class light cruiser-which paid homage to this world's Cleveland class light cruiser-except far more advanced, it even carried some support ships-extra escort carriers and assault ships-and even had Battleships and submarines located around the fleet-it was the rebel groups main combat fleet.

It spent most of its time out on the open ocean out of range for RAT's main forces to attack it, as Jackal stated that they couldn't afford to lose the battlegroup by any means.

The group was fast-as all ships could go at least 30 knots an hour, and they were lucky they had only been a few miles outside launch range for fighters and attackers and could respond quickly once they received the signal.

"Black-Jack to scout unit 1, I'm nearly at bingo-fuel. What's your fuel state?" asked Felix to the rest of the three helicopters with him and they formed the "scout unit 1" group.

"We need to tank soon, advise we clean up here and take care of any rats we find" replied Reznov from his pilot seat of Vulcan.

"Same as yours-getting radar has been fairly clear, no sign of hostels on radar" replied Alexie from Whitemouth.

"Getting low, advise we RTB soon" replied Viper.

"Copy, I don't see anyway..belay that stand by.." said Hannah.

"What is it?" asked Dimitri.

"I got a small encampment between us and the bay, should we have some fun?" asked Hannah.

"Do we have enough fuel?" asked Viper.

"We should have enough if we don't stick around, we've been out here for hours and haven't seen much activity-which is strange for RAT don't you think-plus it'd be a shame if we just left all those targets out there when their in our way so innocently" replied Hannah

"We need to be careful, we don't know their level of defenses" warned Dimitri.

"Scans indicate it's just a recon base-should be easy pickins" replied Hannah.

"Should" being the keyword," said Dimitri, slightly annoyed now.

"Can-it you two-form up to attack and prepare to make a strafing one-we only have enough fuel for one pass so let's make the most use of it" said Felix.

And with that the four helicopters formed up into a wider line meant for covering a wider area of attack as they turned to engage the target location that was rapidly closing to within their weapon ranges.

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Lux turned a corner as the group made their way through an abandoned building overlooking a road as they heard the sounds of helicopter engines make themselves known and began to rapidly close on them.

"What's that?" asked Az

"Rebel aircraft, theirs are a lot more crude in some ways, but also equal to our own and just as deadly" replied Yanna.

"Won't matter-they aren't a match for us" said Sheppard.

Perhaps ironically-no-one answered him.

Four helicopter like aircraft flew overhead at a high rate of speed and Lux noticed that some of them seemed to be for different purposes-if their entirely different designs were anything to go by.

They flew past as Sheppard said.

"Alright they're gone, we need to move now" and with that the group began to move again.

"I see them Jackal, roughly six unknowns moving through an apartment block, intentions are unknown but more evidence is starting to show that they are a team of special RAT forces, some aren't even wearing uniforms, and my helmets giving off some pretty odd readings, I suggest some-if not all of them have some form of magical ability" said Whiteout from his cover as he looked through his thermal scope and focused on the six who didn't notice that they had revealed their locations to him easily once the convoy had flew overhead.

"Anything else?" asked Jackal.

"There's one in blue armor that seems to be in command of the group, the rest seem to vary in rank, no idea what their powers could be however." replied Whiteout, watching the group still.

"Keep a close eye on them, we got allied units in the area. I recommend you advise them," replied Jackal.

"All do respect sir-I can take them all from here with ease-" started Whiteout

"Negative Whiteout-they may have some information that could be useful to use-plus we don't know their powers, we may be trapping ourselves if we attack them like this" replied Jackal.

"Very well sir-be advised I'm contacting the nearest group to them now" said Whiteout after a moment.

"Got it-good luck-out" was all Jackal said.

Shifting his position he focused on the group in question-a sizable group that made Whiteout almost feel sorry for them.

"Lancer this is whiteout-whiteout contacting Lancer-do you read?" asked Whiteout.

After a few seconds a robotic voice with a male tone replied back.

"Affirmative. I read you clearly. What is it?"

"I got eyes on a small group of unknown hostiles bearing RAT tags nearby-at this rate your run into them within the next few minutes-advise you to prepare yourself for combat" replied Whiteout.

Lancer twitched and moved his large back plates in a signal to "get ready for combat" to the rest of his group.

"Now I know you prometheans are tall-but try not to bump yourself too much in there will you?" he asked half-joking.

What sounded like a metallic huff came through back with a "noted" .

What Whiteout was referring to was how Lancer and the majority of his group were a species of mechanical beings known as "Promethean knights", bipedal robotic-slightly insectoid beings that used to be human, but a turn of events led to their souls be digitized and implanted within their current robotic bodies for eternity-it didn't hurt, but they often felt detached and didn't always feel "human", Lancer served as one of the main overall commanders of the group codenamed simply as "The prometheans", and hence his name he was a classification called "Promethean knight "Lancer"" a class mostly designed for scouting and recon-but still very lethal on the front lines with its weapons that fire bolts of hardened light particles and bulletproof armor and the fact that most knights were around ten feet tall.

Along with him was a standard knight class-"Suppressor" was his name who had a rapid fire energy gun and specialized in gunning down groups of enemies.

"Binary", another Lancer who was armed with a massive energy rifle that could disintegrate enemies and never spoke much.

"Scattershot" a Knight called a "Battlewagon" and carried the thickest armor and largest size out of all the classes, known for his hardened armor, glowing spikes on its back, and powerful shotgun like blaster which could also disintegrate opponents, he also had the potential chance to "rage" during a battle which would increase his strength drastically.

"Hardlight" a class called a Promethean knight commander and was known for his glowing armor panels all over his body that let out a faint mist, and his very powerful "Incineration cannon", which could fire a cluster of orbs powerful enough to disintegrate tanks.

And finally "Scorp" a somewhat hostile and aggressive knight who had a more nimble and arguably advanced design then most other knights and had a modified cannon that wasn't as powerful as Hardlights but could be fired quicker and which left behind small pockets of energy that was still very much lethal.

Now of course they could change their hands and part of their arms into any weapon they needed-but that was what their class was known for, or their primary weapon, and they all featured a blade that could extend on their left arm, and each "class" had their own abilities.

They had a few non-knight Prometheans with them such as three "crawlers", fully artificial Prometheans which had dog-like bodies and which names were "Crawler", "Alpha" and "Snipe",

Crawler was a basic Knight crawler who almost never spoke.

Alpha was a Knight crawler "Alpha" who had numerous needle-like spikes on its back.

And Snipe was a Knight sniper crawler with curved horns and a powerful energy weapon in its mouth.

There was four more, but two of the four were back at base for the time being, the third being a flying drone called a "Watcher", and was the smallest of them all at being about the size of a child, and also fully robotic and lacked a mortal soul, but it had several useful supportive abilities and could even revive comrades if they happen to be slain in combat, it went by the obvious name of "Watcher".

"Targets to engage?" asked Suppressor.

Lancer nodded.

"Yes. Whiteout has reported that a small group or RAT operatives are moving towards our position and will reach us within the next few minutes." replied the knight.

"We shouldn't wait then," said Scattershot.

"We should ambush. They may be more powerful than our initial calculations predict" said Binary from off to the side.

"Binary is correct-move into position" replied Lancer.


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

"I'm surprised we haven't seen more of these rebels, are they hiding or are they not as big as we heard about?" asked Lux.

"Don't say that now-your jinx us" scolded Az.

"And what if I did?" replied Lux

"You don't wanna hear the answer to that" replied Az

"Quiet you two-Yanna's got something on her scanner" said Sheppard.

"What do you see?" ask Merkava.

"That's the thing, I don't see anything-yet my scanner indicates that there are several sources of movement almost right in front of us-how strange." she said, clearly confused.

"Maybe it's busted or a glitch?" asked Az.

Yanna considered it.

"It's possible. But I can't shake the feeling that we're being watched-" she said.

As she finished saying that, it seemed to shake in that it was really quiet-too quiet for their liking in fact as Lux glanced around.

"Now that you mention it..it is too quiet-" they said.

"Huh..the readings are starting to get stronger..wait-.hold on-" said Yanna.

"What is it?" asked Az

Before Yanna could answer, a red beam appeared and pointed itself straight at her forehead.

Lux said nothing as Az slowly turned his head and looked at Lux with a "I told you so.." face

Yanna traced her eyes back to its source and mentally slapped herself as she slowly reached behind her back with her open hand.

"I'd advise you to cease your movement, humans" said a robotic male voice.

A tall-very tall being walked out of the shadows and the group finally got a look at it.

It was oddly shaped with two long arms, one ending in a clawed metallic arm, while the other ended in a massive scoped rifle with a beam shooting out of it pointed directly at Yannas forehead.

But it's torso was a large shell-like structure housing angular head covered in armored plates, all throughout the being there were orange lines that glowed with energy.

A few moments later a few more beings with differently shaped shells had appeared pointing their own weapons at the group, some had smooth "shells", while some even had large crystal-like spikes that also glowed on top of its shell.

"Bold of you to assume I'm human" replied Az.

"Scans indicate-you are human, leave the area at once-or lethal force will be authorized" said the one with the large rifle.

"And who are you to tell us what to do?" replied Sheppard.

"Considering there's a rifle at your sub-commanders head-yes" replied the other being with sharper-more pointed plates on its back.


Suddenly one of the smaller beings twitched its shell.

"We detected six of them, right?" it asked

"Yes. Why?" asked the first one.

"I only detect five," it replied simply.

"Suddenly the one with the large rifle had an orange circle appear around its face as it seemed to be scanning the area as its shell twitched.

As if on cue, one which was covered in bright glowing plates that emitted a faint mist shot its head up and raised its left arm-which to their surprise morphed itself into a translucent blade roughly half as long as its arm and it swung around in a half circle.

Az didn't see anything, but a clang was heard as Yakuza suddenly found herself being knocked back as the being slammed the flat of its blade into her-which she hardly parried, it looked like that while she was able to parry-it carried more force to it then she had fought possible.

Suddenly Az felt his neurons fire.

"They must be using those plate shells of theirs to communicate almost telepathically" said Az.

"That information-would've been a bit more handy a few moments ago" hissed Yakuza as she stood up with the glowing armored being staring her down.

Az rolled his eyes as the group began to form itself into a circle.

"Higher intelligence in the one with pink hair it seems" commented Lancer.

Binary gave his equivalent to a glancing shrug as he took a step forward.

"Last warning. Leave this area or you will be fired upon" he repeated himself.

The group glanced at each other as Sheppard sighed and grasped his spear.

"Well-guess it had to be this way" he mused as lighting suddenly sparked from his spear and shot straight at Binary.

Binary was caught off guard and the blast knocked him back as he staggered and his energy shield gave way.

Yanna-now freed from being held at gunpoint, took out her flail like chain as it sparked to life and glowed with an internal fire.

The rest began to fan out as Lux felt their fingertips light themselves on fire and turned to face the one with the rifle.

"Alright-time to bur-ack!" Lux was cut off as a four-legged somewhat dog-like creature with many needle-like spikes on its back slammed into him from behind and Lux grappled with the dog-like creature.

"Time to what now?" taunted it

"Get off me you metallic metal mutt!" Lux said as they smashed their elbow in the side of its head-but they flinched as a clang was heard and their elbow now hurt-it was like they had just slammed themselves into metal.

Eventually Lux managed to knock off their assailant and scramble back up to their feet as the creature was joined by two more similar looking ones-save for difference in spikes and so forth and they began to prowl around the group.

Az had run behind cover alongside Merkava as they hid behind an abandoned car and Az asked.

"Any idea what these things are?" asked Az.

Merkava shook her head.

"No'afraid not, our scans have never detected these things before-but it's safe to assume that they are part of the rebel forces" she said.

"I don't think they can spot us behind-for fuck sakes-" started Az, but of course as he begun to speak a large orange see-through blade slice straight through the center of the car, as the two RAT operatives dive to the side, the being with the crystal like spikes reared up over the car-slicing it in half in the process as it leaped forward towards Az with blade arm raised.

Az used his magic-the ability to summon and manipulate crystals to his will, and formed a shield in front of him and braced as the blade smashed into the shield and penetrated straight through it-but just missed his chest as it was torn out of hands and shattered against the wall.

Az prepared another crystal as the being reared itself up and for a moment seemed to hesitate-only for it to snap forward and to Az's shock-its face opened up-revealing it to be merely a "mask" of sorts.

But what shocked Az the most was the fact that beneath the "mask" was a human skull-glowing red orange and left a red haze around it as it let out a robotic screech.

Shocked, he hesitated, but luck seemed to be on his side as Merkava appeared behind them both and was wielding her weapon-a massive double-side scythe that seemed to be made up of black glass.

Merkava raised her scythe to swing-but never got the chance to as a stream of glowing orange orbs flew at her almost faster then the human eye could track, reacting at the last second she spun her scythe around and deflected the bolts away from her, though the desired effect came into play as Merkava was forced to cease her attack on Scattershot as a being with a smaller-more smooth shell with a rapid firing gun let out it's own screech as it raised its sword arm and the tip glowed orange before it shot out an orb of its own.

Merkava had prepared to block it, but blinked in surprise as it was actually fired to the ground, but the surprise didn't last long as it exploded and created a small field around it to which Merkava felt a pulling sensation and watched as it suddenly imploded on itself and actually caused a few pieces of rubble to be turned into orange particles and disintegrated.

Merkava glanced over at the rest of the group to find that their situation wasn't exactly the best, Yakuza was still sparring with the being that had glowing armor from before, she was holding her own for the time being, but didn't seem to be doing much damage to the creature.

Lux had finally gotten back onto their feet and turned around as one creature with sharp angled spikes and a more advanced design swung its hooked blade in an arc and Lux ducked underneath it just barely.

Sheppard swung his spear as it clashed with a hooked blade of the second creature to appear and the two seemed to be locked in a war of attrition as his spear was caught in the hook of the orange blade.

It went on like this for a few more minutes until a buzzing sound was heard in their ears and a voice said.

"All units fall back-I repeat all units fall back-one of our FOB's just took heavy damage from an airstrike by rebel forces and is requesting assistance, I repeat a FOB was just attacked and damaged in an airstrike-also be advised-the convict has escaped, I repeat the convict has escaped!"

This caused a good portion of all the RAT squad members to freeze and jump back before stating. "We have our orders, fall back to the nearest FOB, cease attacking" stated Sheppard. After a bit of persuasion others such as Lux and Az glanced and ceased their attacks-and in turn so did the creatures, instead now electing to watch the group as they slowly made their way away from the group of knights as they gave one last screech and Lux closed an apartment complex door.

And Lux and Az for once shared the same thoughts.

What did they mean by "convict?"