In the forward command centre everyone cheered as they saw the smoke of the voidwalker cruiser rise into the air on a gentle breeze. Pyro smiled and helped Zach up off his chair. "Centaur has control of the battle on the ground so you should probably go up to The Hope and assist them in any way you can" Overlord suggested looking up at the element ship hovering proud above them. Pyro nodded and walked over to a set of stairs leading up to the roof. A dropship had landed and was awaiting their arrival.

The dropship's rear doors opened downwards and several element marines walked out guiding them in. Zach and Pyro sat opposite one another at the back of the ship and attached their seatbelts on with a click. "I'll keep the door open for you gents, that way you can see how the battle goes" the pilot shouted back at them as the element marines stepped back on and sat down. The dropship slowly lifted off the landing pad and began flying over the tall skyscrapers of the city. This provided them with a panoramic view of the battle taking place in the streets. Zach and Pyro watched as the element forces slowly pushed back the voidwalkers towards the Jadevale plains.

"I'd hold onto your teeth back there, we're heading towards The Hope and there are a lot of voidwalker fighters" the pilot shouted back over the noise of wind rushing in. Nearby explosions rocked the dropship causing Zach to grip his seatbelt a little tighter. The ship speedily swerved dodging enemy shots and falling debris almost making him fall out of his seat. The pilot felt beads of sweat run down his face as he approached The Hope under heavy enemy fire.

"Dropship 760, this is Friday, state your intent or landing permission will be denied" a robotic feminine voice stated over the speakers. The pilot glared as Friday appeared on his desktop with her arms folded as ever. "Listen here you dumb AI, I'm under serious fire and I need to get in, Pyro and Zach Riktor are in this dropship, understood?" he shouted as voidwalker fighters surrounded the ship. A look of panic appeared on Friday's face and she nodded frantically.

The voidwalker fighters began firing volleys of shots at the dropship causing its shields to quickly deteriorate. "Friday, we need help dammit" the pilot shouted activating the laser weapon on the bottom of the ship. The laser fired red bolts of energy straight at the closest fighter blowing it out of the sky. A fighter aligned itself with the rear of the ship getting ready to fire on the interior. Pyro sat in his seat desperate to help and quickly spotted a rocket launcher on the wall a few metres away. "Marine, pass me that launcher" he ordered making a nearby element marine hand him the weapon.

He opened the top of it making sure it was loaded and aimed the launcher out taking a deep breath. Just as the voidwalker fighter was about to fire, Pyro shot the launcher making a rocket fly out of the end and straight into the fighter. It exploded in a ball of flames and its debris slowly floated down to the ground. Around them the enemy fighters started aiming at the cockpit causing the pilot to slam his foot on the throttle. Suddenly out of nowhere red laser bolts flew down around the dropship knocking the voidwalker fighters out of the sky. "This is wing commander Buzzard, you are clear to land so get the hell out of here" a voice said over the speakers allowing the pilot to let out a breath of relief.

The dropship slowly flew into the empty hangar and landed down with a bump. Zach and Pyro leapt out and stood happy to be on something solid again. An element marine ran over to them with an assault rifle in his hands. "Davis will want you guys on the bridge, I'll make sure your dropship is refuelled and ready to go" he stated pointing at a door a few metres behind him. They ran over to the door and it automatically opened leading them through.

A few minutes later they arrived at the bridge slightly out of breath. "You...have got a bloody big ship" Zach remarked sitting down on a nearby seat. Davis turned around from a console and walked over to them. "Yeah, sorry about your welcome but we're having a hard time up here, my fighters are all in combat and those fighter bombers that saved you were all I had left" he explained glaring at another voidwalker cruiser that was slowly approaching them. Pyro strolled over to the window and watched as fighter engaged in bloody aerial warfare. "Have you heard from Arcan?" he asked suddenly remembering about his lost friend. Davis shook his head as a red light started flashing on the screen next to him.

Friday appeared on the desk and pressed a button to find out what the red flashing light meant. "Uh, we have voidwalker boarding craft inbound admiral, a hell of a lot of them" she reported bringing up a holographic map of the aerial battlefield. The map showed hundreds of voidwalker craft speedily approaching The Hope from the nearby cruiser. Davis slammed his fist on the desk about an inch away from Friday in frustration. "Activate AA guns, get as many of those bastards as you can, I want you controlling as many as you can Friday" he ordered pacing up and down. She nodded and disappeared turning the trio's attention to the incoming voidwalker boarding craft.

Thousands of red laser bolts began firing from the turrets just beneath them zooming towards the voidwalkers. Several of the boarding craft exploded dropping down towards the ground. "I need the guns reloading admiral, those ships are getting too close" Friday reported over the bridge speakers. A few seconds later the first wave of boarding craft slammed into The Hope rocking the bridge. Davis turned with a sigh and looked at Pyro and Zach. "Sorry to put you to work again so quickly but those voidwalkers are gonna cause some problems, go with a squad of element marines and assist my crew in taking them out please" he said making them run out of the bridge with about a dozen element marines in tow.

"I need a weapon" Zach stated holding out his arms. An element marine threw him a spare SMG as they continued to run down the long corridor. Friday's voice came through the speakers throwing orders at them. "Voidwalkers in the armoury, response teams head to the armoury" she stated her voice fading into static. Pyro nodded and the squad turned right following signs painted on the floor. A set of double doors lay ahead of them and the marines stood at either side ready to go. Pyro held up three fingers, then two, then one, then none.

The team barged through the doors into a scene of destruction. Voidwalkers leapt out of their crafts overpowering the few unprepared marines in the armoury. "Find some cover!" Pyro shouted getting behind a weapon closet. Zach slid underneath a table firing his SMG at the feet of nearby voidwalkers making them fall over. Pyro held his assault rifle close to his chest and dived out of cover firing several shots into the chaos. As voidwalkers noticed him and shot at him he raised a shield of flames protecting himself and the nearby element marines. One of the marines ran out priming a grenade and threw it at the voidwalkers swiftly getting shot afterwards. The grenade exploded in a blue ball of flames clearing the way for the squad. Zach crawled out and sprayed shots at the distracted voidwalkers cutting the rest of them down.

The remnants of the squad stood breathless over the voidwalker corpses. "Voidwalkers in the hangar, response teams move it!" Friday ordered over the speakers once more. Pyro sighed and signalled the group out running back into the corridor. Very soon they came to the main hangar entrance and barged straight through it this time. Inside element marines were already bravely fighting but the voidwalkers had a clear advantage. Hangar security turrets on the roof sprayed laser shots down on the enemies below cutting them down effectively. Pyro dropped his rifle and drew his sword making flames run down its titanium surface.

He ran at the voidwalkers skilfully using his sword to block their shots. Zach took a semi-automatic rifle from one of the marines and began firing into the crowd of voidwalkers thinning them out one by one. Pyro ducked beneath a shot and cut a voidwalker in two kicking the top half down onto the ground. He then pushed his hand forward shooting flames at nearby enemies burning them to a crisp. The element marines backed him up and ran into the chaos firing shots at any voidwalker they saw. Suddenly an element fighter bomber flew into the hangar spraying its cannon at the voidwalkers and effectively slicing them down. It landed amidst the marines and Buzzard walked out. "That's twice I've saved your skin now" he said jokingly shaking Pyro's hand. Before he could reply a blue light flashed behind them and Arcan stepped out without saying a word.