*( mood song: "Nothing More - Go To War" )
As Erik watched the gates.
*BOOOOOOOM!!!!*
They were obliterated into pieces along with the nearby wall, and the shockwave arrived moments later.
On the deck of the Aquilon, the enslaved iron sect lizardmen prostrated themselves in the direction of the bridge, their faces filled with a mix of horror and awe, as they had witnessed what they thought was a divine power.
Master Krei: "Great machine god..." The vox speaker at his chest trembled in awe as he spoke.
Erik whistled: "...good shot, Liam, right on target!"
Liam: * Thank you, sadly I ran out of tungsten for more shots, I can provide cover fire with steel rounds, but they will be much slower and have more parabolic trajectories so I can't make more precise impacts *
Rose: "No need, they are practically done for now, look"
Erik watched as the creatures crawling across the surface now rushed at the city in the millions.
Erik: "I guess they felt safe behind those walls. What a pity, but reconciliation wasn't an option; this planet ain't theirs"
Rose: "Indeed, I have no need for them; we have the octopeople, crab people, and my bots, and I'm sure this... biomass dump will make others emerge soon enough; no need to harbor the descendants of my mortal enemies at all"
Erik sighed: "Seems like I better get ready to depart, we will need to cull some monsters, the lizardmen are easier to deal with after all-"
A loud siren was then heard from the city, followed by a war cry of millions of voices.
Erik: "Or maybe they will be fine after all... can you get a drone close to see?"
Rose: "Sure thing~."
A hole opened on the deck, launching a cylindrical object high in the air. The drone vertically deployed with wings and propellers and quickly flew forward.
Erik: "Oh, when did you add those there?"
Rose: "I adapted some of the models from Earth to use in a dense atmosphere, it's easy to fly after all, so it barely uses any power to generate lift, it should be able to hover quite easily for twelve hours or so~" she waved her hand and a screen came up from the deck "Let's see shall we?"
Soon, the drone flew closer to the city and displayed the situation in the city.
Barricades had been built on the streets, and scrap metal lined most of the city, but you could still glimpse the original architecture in the fragments of walls and floors where the white ceramic-metal composite foundations remained untouched by time.
The drone descended lower.
Every avenue had become a fortress.
Multi-layered barricades of white ceramic blocks and armored vehicles forced the creatures into narrow killing corridors where thousands of automated turrets poured continuous railgun fire.
Behind them stood ranks of armored lizardmen wearing ancient exoskeletons whose once-polished white armor had yellowed with age. Servo motors whined beneath ceremonial engravings while reactor backpacks glowed a dull blue.
Each warrior carried oversized electromagnetic rifles almost as tall as themselves, firing tungsten flechettes that ripped entire lanes through the charging monsters.
Between every squad marched towering servitors.
Once living soldiers, now reduced to little more than armored torsos fused into walking weapon platforms, their lower bodies replaced by tracked chassis carrying rotary railguns, missile pods, and plasma mortars.
They showed no emotion.
They simply acquired targets...
...and fired.
Hundreds of shield generators projected overlapping hexagonal barriers over the streets while combat drones floated overhead, replacing destroyed turrets almost as quickly as they fell.
The city itself fought beside its defenders.
Erik: "What was the city made out of?"
Rose: "Nothing complicated. A crystalline matrix of sapphire/alumina white ceramic infused with a nanostructured titanium-iridium alloy."
Erik whistled, impressed. "A cermet composite material, I see."
Now the streets were filled with roaring lizardmen and cyborgs, as well as machines, as they pushed the tides of monsters back. All kinds of weaponry were used, from railguns to shields and spears, as they desperately held the barricades while lizardmen behind them fled higher and higher up the hive city. Even some humanoid monsters could be seen as handlers behind them poked them and pushing them into battle.
Erik: "Well, it looks like they can hold for a while, and the presence of Molly is driving critters away from us. Do we infiltrate or just wait till it's over?"
Rose thought for a moment: "I prefer to wait, give them the chance to successfully resist and have hope, to then end them and take that hope away."
Erik shrugged: "Oh, well, it's your revenge, let's go with that then. I will get everyone ready just in case" walking away.
Rose remained alone on the deck observing the feed from the drone as a faint smile formed on her face.
Rose: "Finally it's over... I will get my body and mind back... no more headaches, no more pain, no more memories lost to time... finally."
Something changed then as a tremor rocked the city. Rose's face frowned as she shot the railguns on board, intercepting a huge artillery round midair.
Long-range giant artillery cannons started firing from the top of the city to the sides, annihilating the monsters as well as the few remaining lizardmen on the city edges as the rest retreated, giving a chance to breathe to the defensive forces.
At the top of the entire hive city, though, stood a massive cannon right now aimed in the direction of Rose.
Rose smiled slightly: "That's better, at least wiggle a bit before I crush you~" she waved her hand as the railguns aimed high up "let's see you deal with this~."
* ZBOOM ZBOOM ZBOOM *
All the main railgun cannons fired at once, blowing up the defensive fences in dozens of areas, letting the monsters advance deeper into the city.
Rose: "I will put that artillery to good use, no need to destroy perfectly fine battlecruiser cannons, let's hope the monsters don't chew the cables jaja~."
Inside the highest level of the hive city, cyborg lizardmen scrambled around frantically with reports as a huge cyborg lizardman listened.
"H-Holy Emperor, the enemy ship has returned fire, destroying our defensive lines. They also intercepted our projectile. Do we fire again?"
The huge lizardman tapped the armrest of his throne as he thought, and then sighed.
Holy emperor: "No point wasting ammo and provoking them further, do we know who they are?"
"No idea for now, sir, we theorize they might be sea aberrations that have consumed our people and evolved..." the lizardman announced while bowing.
The Holy Emperor frowned: "Aberrations wouldn't have technology like that... it has never been like this... any demands or possible motives for the attack?"
"None for now as-" another lizardman then interrupted him.
"IT CONNECTED! RITES OF DISPLAY!" A few priests spread incense smoke over a holographic projector and flipped switches on the sides.
After a moment, an image of Rose appeared on it with a huge smile.
Holy Emperor: "What is your reason for attacking our holy city, aberration? We have done you no harm, so leave our city in peace and we-"
Rose: * jaja... jajajaja... JAJAJAJA so funny... pests making requests... just surrender or die~ *
The Holy Emperor contemplated: "Why don't you take the monsters back as a sign of goodwill?"
Rose: * My goodwill is not helping the monsters, I just responded when you fired first *
The Holy Emperor gritted his teeth: "Millions of innocent will die, don't you-"
Rose: * If you cared about your people so much, you shouldn't have left them outside, no? *
Holy Emperor: "Their sacrifice shall be remembered. It's better to secure internal strength before facing external forces, so their blood is on your hands, the blood of millions of innocents that died and will die if-"
Rose: * They died already, billions, by the hands of your ancestors, all my precious friends and subordinates, I see no reason to spare the descendants of their murderers *
The Holy emperor turned silent: "Billions of-... no... the ancestors' tale...you... You are the great enemy from the tales..."
Whispers could be heard in the background as the lizardmen present were horrified by the revelation.
Holy emperor: "We have been preparing to face you for centuries and more... to think my generation would be the one... we are prepared nonetheless, if you keep attacking, we will be forced to die together, " pointing to a statue by the side "The great founder left that statue; if we pray to it, the entire area will disappear, so retreat and-"
Rose: * A hydrogen bomb? I see, but... too bad your security is so lousy~ *
At that moment, the statue flashed as it ejected its fuel rods and core and then fried itself as sparks flashed and then smoke came out of the statue with the smell of burnt electronics.
Rose: * That was a good chat, "Holy emperor" jajaja~ *
The call then cut as all the artillery suddenly turned off, with even the lights in the room turning off, leaving them all in the dark as they opened the security curtains on the windows to let light in.
Holy Emperor: "...Deploy the holy knights." Standing up, "I shall prepare too, get ready my relic armor suit and mech," his eyes full of anger, "We won't die without a fight!"
*THUUUUUUUUU*
A loud horn deafened everyone present, though, as they all rushed to the windows.
Far across the ocean, the horizon parted as loud horns sounded in an incredibly loud cacophony.
One after another, massive silhouettes emerged from the mist.
A total of twenty-five massive battleships, each several kilometers long.
Their cathedral-like superstructures rose hundreds of meters above the waves, lined with colossal railgun batteries, missile silos, and towering statues of ancient heroes forged into their armor.
The defenders atop the hive city erupted into cheers.
"The Iron Sect!"
"The Iron Fleet has answered!"
"Our brothers have come!"
Even Erik raised an eyebrow: "...Now those are battleships."
Rose's smile widened ever so slightly: "So... they kept a fleet after all."
She watched them for a few silent seconds.
Rose: "...Good."
They had gathered every surviving warship in one place.
Without another word, dozens of hatches opened beneath her own vessel, as heavy torpedoes splashed into the sea, loud and carrying no warheads.
Moments later, thousands of much smaller objects followed, drone pods.
Unlike the torpedoes, they made an effort to hide, spreading through the water like schools of fish dispersing horizontally and vertically before disappearing beneath the waves as they quickly went deeper and deeper.
-- On the lizardman fleet --
One of the lizardman commanders stood in the bridge of the main battleship, a cyborg with barely any flesh parts left, observing the burning city in the distance, when alarms flared on the bridge.
Lizardman commander: "Enemy contacts?"
Sonar operator: "Dozens of large torpedoes approaching!"
Lizardman commander: "Intercept them! Everyone else, brace!"
Launchers erupted on the battleships, launching hundreds of depth charges into the paths of the torpedoes with gigantic explosions.
The heavy torpedoes soon vanished beneath clouds of explosions long before reaching the fleet, having spent most of their depth charges.
The bridge quickly relaxed.
Sonar operator: "They're using conventional torpedoes?" he mocked.
Sonar operator: "All torpedoes destroyed."
The bridge erupted in relieved laughter.
The commander snickered: "*hah* They'll never reach us if that's all they had." he grabbed a communicator and talked into it. "Plotting room, how long till we are in range for a bombardment?."
An answer quickly arrived: *Almost in range to start artillery salvos in ten minutes, we should be able to reach them, adjusting trajectories for maximum range"
The commander nodded: "I have a bad feeling, fire the moment we are in range, we don't know why they stopped attacking"
Plotting room: *Understood* lizardmen calculated trajectories before relaying orders to others on the deck guns as gigantic cannons adjusted their angles all to the same target.
Beneath the clouds of bubbles left by the depth charges, thousands of much smaller contacts drifted unnoticed.
None of the sonar operators even registered them, as each was scarcely larger than a fish and they ascended from right below the battleships.
They clung silently beneath the armored hulls.
Tiny drills extended, just enough to penetrate the hull, reaching maintenance ports... coolant intakes... sensor housings... sonar systems.
Then they dissolved, leaving just a plug of metal covering the holes they used.
Billions of nanobots entered the ships through systems designed to move water throughout the vessel, too, slowly infiltrating and replacing all systems on the battleships.
-- Back at the Aquilon --
Inside the bridge, everyone waited expectantly. But nothing seemed to be happening, as the enemy fleet continued advancing toward them.
Erik: "Did it fail?" They would soon be in range, if they wanted to avoid the cannons, they had to move right now.
Rose smiled: "No, it worked perfectly~" as countless holograms appeared simultaneously in her sight.
Every ship, every cable, every processor and redundant system, every reactor, all under her control.
Rose smiled: "There you are."
Her fingers danced through the holograms.
Rose: "I've missed doing this."
-- Iron Sect Armada --
One radar screen flickered, and then turned off
Coolant valves opened by themselves.
An engineer frowned.
"...Did anyone touch that?"
Alarms then started sounding aboard the lead battleship as well as all others, small glitches here and there till finally everything seemed to be failing, as engineers and maintenance crews rushed everywhere.
"Reactor shielding fault, water shielding has been emptied!"
"Impossible, restart the pumps!"
"Redundant shielding failing too!"
"Switch to backup!"
"...Backup ain't responding, the controls are burnt!"
Crew members sprinted through engineering, trying to find replacement parts or bridge gaps, while those of the crew with no mechanical knowledge just prayed to the machines in dismay.
Everything appeared normal on monitors, the coolant still flowed, the reactor temperature remained stable, nothing looked wrong on the glitched displays, but the alarms sounded, and the signs of radiation poisoning were becoming more evident, as some had started to cough up blood and have blisters on their skin, soon, others collapsed, bleeding from every orifice.
An engineer ran off the core room, sealing it shut, and tore off his helmet as burns spread across his skin, it had adhered to the padding of the helmet and tore off as he did.
Engineer: "...Radiation... run, vacate this entire sector!" collapsing to the floor after walking a couple of meters.
"...We're taking radiation...poisoning--" blood dripping everywhere as their skin blistered and fell, while those who could jumped off the ship.
Soon, sprinklers activated across the battleships as reactor cooling water had been redirected and the water shielding removed.
The surviving cyborg officers attempted to regain control of the systems as their more organic subordinates and servitors fell apart.
Lizardman commander: "Try a manual override!" pushing a red lever on the deck.
Nothing.
Lizardman commander: "Emergency steering!" plugging a system meant to drive battleships back to base in emergencies.
But to no avail, as Rose had control of that too.
And then, one by one...
Artificial muscles locked, servo motors froze, weapon systems powered down. Entire armored bodies became statues, perfectly conscious, perfectly aware, but unable to move even an eyelid.
The lizardman commander trembled all over as his remaining organic muscles strained, and he finally fell to his knees in prayer: "Great... machine god... we offer... ETERNAL LOYALTY, GIVE US YOUR ORDERS!"
Moments later, firing coordinates appeared in his mind, and he could move again.
The commander looked at the city in the distance as his internal cogitators confirmed the coordinates and slowly nodded: "IT SHALL BE DONE!"
Then the alarms stopped, and all systems seemed to instantly recover, making the commander tremble all over as he grabbed the communicator.
Lizardman commander: "Plotting room, anyone alive?"
Plotting room: *...yes commander, we weren't hit by the fallout, we were trapped as the doors suddenly locked, but they are open now, just what-*
Lizardman commander: "Praise the mercy of the machine god, new coordinates input, copy now" telling a new string of coordinates.
Plotting room: *...this seems to be... the city, commander*
Lizardman commander: "It's the will of the machine god, and we can only obey"
Plotting room: *...we shall follow the machine god's will, may their souls rest in its embrace*
The lizardman commander nodded: "May they rest in peace"
-- Back at the Aquilon --
Erik watched the tactical display in stunned silence.
Erik: "...You didn't destroy the fleet."
Rose tilted her head.
Rose: "No, why should I?" she chuckled. "I simply removed everyone capable of operating it against us~."
Erik shrugged: "...You just stole an entire fleet."
Rose: "Not only that, look"
Erik strained his vision and noticed the massive turrets on the fleet were shifting their target to the city.
Erik: "What? how-"
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!*
Thunderous explosions made the ocean surface tremble as huge naval artillery cannons rained explosive shells down onto the holy city, the reinforcements meant to save them were now dragging them further toward their doom. The sound was deafening as massive shells blew up entire parts of the hive city, annihilating monsters and lizardmen alike. Any traces of defenders that had survived until that moment were now annihilated.
Erik shook his head: "That was... extremely efficient, I guess. It's gonna take a very long time to rebuild the city"
Rose: "Better than searching every nook and cranny for monsters and crap... It's better to rebuild it anyway"
After a while, the artillery rounds cleared the city, and Rose ordered them to stop.
Rose: "Well then, shall we go claim the city~"
Erik smiled: "I'm ready"
Boats descended to the waters with bots and octopeople assault teams, and on top of Molly were Rose, Erik, Inky, Antalya and Timberly.
Erik carried a huge sword, Rose carried her plasma mace, Inky carried a heavy machine gun, Antalya carried an autocannon, and Timberly had her spear and tower shield.
Shana, Megan, and Sarah had stayed behind on the boat. As for the old base, only ten percent of the population had stayed behind as most of the crabmen and octopeople were now on board.
Timberly: "Shana would have liked this"
Erik: "Well, we can't leave the boat empty, though she will be able to snipe anyone getting too close... " eyeing the city "and I bet we could move everyone to this city once we take it over, the boat will be full soon otherwise, the old base is almost empty though, we spent so much time making the old base but... It's like comparing a village to a city... it was cozy and compact, but with a city of this size... octopeople population could truly boom once we clear it out..."
Timberly: "Hmm... if you say so..." She blushed slightly as her skin colors shifted. "As long as I go with you, I don't mind where we go"
Erik chuckled: "Quite the charmer you are, but we are going into battle now"
Rose: "Indeed, so concentrate on the task at hand, please"
Timberly nodded, her face getting serious: "Alright, you can count on me"
Antalya chuckled: "youth, sigh..." her face getting serious "let's go then"
They parked the Aquilon close to the broken doors, closing the gap, as Molly and her children killed anything that got too close.
They all landed on the city, and as they advanced through the rubble, they could see pieces of flesh from different creatures, and metal pieces thrown around everywhere.
As they walked though, barely an hour had passed and the octopeople and Antalya were lagging behind, as walking on land with their tentacles was hard with full equipment on, so Erik turned and gave the order, seeing them all weak and gasping for air.
Erik: "Antalya, better first secure the landing zone and clear the area, the climb will be too hard without legs"
Antalya gritted her teeth and nodded: "Understood, you all heard it, secure the area!"
Timberly flexed her extremely toned calves at her: "don't worry, we got this~" she really liked having legs, she was slower underwater, but could lift way more weight now at the gym, as she had become a regular at the huge gym of the Aquilon.
Antalya sighed: "Just be safe up there kids, I will organize a proper landing zone and start clearing the rubble" her tentacles twitched, dried and tired as she started descending back down to the landing zone, muttering to herself "another reason to get human genes... I guess octopeople will need legs if we want to live here... maybe I could ask the other human Sarah... or those lizardmen also have legs no?..." she blushed as her thoughts wandered "human genes sound more... compatible though... smoothies was it?"
Erik, Inky, Timberly, Rose, and her bots continued up the enormous hive city, going over and through piles of rubble.
As they got closer to the top, more intact structures and corpses could be found, even some creatures still chewing on said corpses. They all tried to run away when Rose's group approached, but all got sniped without a miss, though, as Rose's bots were linked with her mind.
Rose: "Scavenger creatures are the hardest to clean up afterwards, sigh. It will take decades"
Erik shrugged: "It's fine, we will have all the time we want once this is over, let's finish this"
Finally, after hours going up, they reached a defense line still intact, wounded lizardmen stood collapsed behind a barricade barely holding their weapons straight, while automated systems were left out of ammo and broken on the sides. Huge piles of corpses from monsters, servitors, and lizardmen were in front of the barricade and impaled on it.
Behind it all stood a huge lizardman at least two heads taller than the others, wearing power armor and with a halberd in his right hand.
The knight planted his halberd when he saw them.
Varek: "I am Sir Varek, captain of the Holy Guard and last of the holy knights." his tone then changed, filling with anger. "I have guarded this city for one hundred and eighty-three years. Step forward and accept my duel."
Erik rested his sword on his shoulder.
Erik: "Erik, no fancy title."
The knight nodded.
Varek: "Then let us grant each other an honorable death."
They charged.
Erik had brought a huge sword to imitate Rose, just a massive hunk of steel he didn't care much about, meant only to smash through enemies and rubble. His incredible musculature and power armor let him wield the enormous weapon as though it weighed no more than a feather, bringing it crashing down at the lizardman knight.
Varek blocked with the shaft of his halberd, but it instantly dented, nearly slipping from his hands. He tried to counterattack, but Erik didn't defend. Instead, he shoved the flat of his blade with his left hand, sending it hurtling toward the knight's neck.
Varek quickly pulled back and blocked with his right shoulder plate. The power armor crumpled inward, his right arm immediately going limp as the dent crushed the flesh beneath it and hurled him backward.
The ground shattered beneath him as the knight slowly stood and charged again, now wielding the halberd with only his left hand.
They kept clashing, sword against energized halberd. The halberd dented the sword, but its sheer mass was unstoppable.
Eventually, the knight thrust at Erik's chest. Instead of dodging, Erik stepped into the attack and kicked the knight square in the chest. At the same time, he drove his sword into the knight's side, then wrenched it upward with both hands, ripping the knight's remaining left arm clean off at the shoulder.
The halberd's blade lodged in Erik's right breast, but he simply tore it free. It had barely pierced the power armor, and the wound closed almost immediately.
The knight fell to one knee.
Varek: "I lost... please be satisfied with this old man's life and forgive the others"
Erik: "You fought well, I will consider it."
The knight laughed.
Varek: "So did you, Erik... with no fancy title... I will remember... your name..."
Erik nodded.
Erik: "I'll remember yours too."
Then the knight's eyes slowly closed as he bled out and fell to the side.
Erik: [So... do you need some workers? We can always kill them in the future, right? ]
Rose: [ They are really injured and need treatment, also... why did you duel that old man? ]
Erik: [ jaja... sorry I got in the mood, it was fun ]
Rose: [ Fine, we can keep these ones as cannon fodder, I guess. I will install them a mind weave and spine severing device just in case, though, that way I will be able to read all their thoughts and terminate them at any time ]
Erik stepped forward past the dead knight and took Varek's halberd, raising it into the air.
Erik: "As requested by Knight Varek, your lives will be spared. Put down your weapons and lie down to the side to be treated"
The defenders seemed to lose the tension that had kept them standing, as most of them instantly collapsed in relief, while the few who could stand threw down their weapons with no more will to fight and carried others to the side.
Rose's bots quickly pulled the barricade apart and then started patching up the lizardmen, getting them ready for transport to the Aquilon.
Two of the healthier lizardmen came to them, though.
The first one knelt in front of Erik while supporting the other.
Lizardman: "I'm Derak, and this one here is Grati. We were the squires of Knight Varek. Would you allow us the honor of serving you, my lord?"
Erik was confused: "Hmm... is that so... doesn't it bother you that we let the beasts in and then convinced the Iron Sect to change sides? I even personally killed your master"
Derak: "I... to the victor the spoils, my lord..."
Erik: "Is that so..."
Grati's right leg was injured, but she stood straight and looked firmly at Erik's eyes: "...we want to live, my lord, we just ask for a way to live"
Erik looked at Rose.
Rose rolled her eyes: "Fine, but you are responsible for them from now on, they are your pets"
Erik nodded: "Fine, you can live then, show your loyalty and guide us to your leaders"
Derak: "My lord, she's injured so-" but Grati heavily elbowed him, making him collapse.
Grati: "It will be our honor to guide you, my lord" limping forward as she led the way.
Erik helped Derak up: "Go on, lead the way"
Derak: "Yes... on it, my lord"
Erik then got a communication from Sarah.
Sarah: *Why can you keep lizardmen, but the ones that helped me got killed?*
Erik tapped on his helmet, activating his communicator: "Well, I know somebody"
Sarah: *That ain't fair!*
Rose: "Sigh... you both aren't taking my millions of years' revenge plans seriously enough. I deeply appreciate Erik so he can keep some cockroaches, but that's it, and stop asking me to spare more of them!"
They soon reached a new defensive line, as old, female, and young lizardmen held their guns forward in fear.
Grati and Derak went to talk to them, and they soon put down their weapons and surrendered, tearing down the barricade themselves and standing to the side.
Erik looked at Rose.
Rose: "I swear I... LAST ONES OKAY?! and I'M KILLING THEIR LEADER FOR SURE UNDERSTOOD?!"
Erik nodded: "Understood"
And then finally, they arrived at the last line of defense. Thousands of servitors and heavily armed lizardmen stood there on tall metal walls.
Erik couldn't help but chuckle: "So they left those vulnerable as a buffer zone to the last line of defense" he whistled. "Quite ruthless, indeed"
Timberly nodded: "They don't even know what they really need to protect, quite twisted, can't wait to see that leader of theirs"
Derak tried to approach, but a bullet hit his leg, making him collapse, as a lizardman shouted from inside the barricade, "WE DON'T WELCOME TRAITORS!"
Rose's bots dragged him back as she looked at Erik with a questioning look.
Rose: "Anything to say here?"
Erik put up his hands and shook his head: "Nothing to say here"
Rose smiled widely: "Good, now..." she turned back to the defensive line, "time to die!"
From backpacks carried by her bots, swarms of small spherical drones burst into the air and swarmed the defensive line like flies. The gunfire from the lizardmen, servitors, and defensive emplacements had little effect, as, the swarm split and reformed like a school of fish, slipping effortlessly between the incoming rounds. Each drone attached itself to a weapon or defense system, then dissolved into nanobots that infiltrated the machinery. Soon, all the automated turrets and servitors turned around and attacked their lizardmen operators instead, turning their weapons at the defenders.
The defensive line collapsed in moments, and the servitors opened the door for Rose as she calmly walked inside. Behind the walls stood a palace constructed with pieces from ancient spaceships.
Rose arrived at the huge metal doors of the palace and just touched a control panel to the side briefly as her nanobots infiltrated the circuits easily and opened the doors for her. The doors opened slowly while the servitors flooded into the palace first, triggering a wave of bullets, a last defense effort from the defenders. The servitors felt no pain, though, and quickly slaughtered the remaining defenders.
As they entered the throne room, corpses of servitors and lizardmen lay scattered everywhere. Some still clutched simple pistols or knives, clearly servants and counselors with no fighting experience. In the center of the room stood a silver throne, upon which sat a huge lizardman, with white scales and a red right eye. The left side of his head was robotic, including his left eye.. He was wearing silver polished power armor, and behind him stood a ten-meter-tall relic mech kneeling with the cockpit open.
Rakchar: "I'm Rakchar, holy emperor and pope of the lizardman empire, so who are you, invaders? Are you truly the great enemy?"
Rose: "Invaders..., great enemy... I'm just Rose, and you guys are pests on my surface~"
Rakchar stood up, grabbing the huge plasma greatsword at his side.
Rakchar: "I see, then I invoke a trial by combat, if I win-"
Rose: "Why should I accept anything?"
Rakchar: "Do you have no honor? Or are you just afraid?"
Rose narrowed her eyes: "Go on then, say your final words"
Rakchar: "If I win, you will let my people live"
Rose: "Funny, as most are already dead, but go on, yes, what if you lose ~?."
Rakchar: "Then that shall be the end of the lizardman empire" he paused "Regardless, of my death, they are still be a valuable workforce worth keeping"
Rose: "I see, I see~ Hmm, what to do, I'm not lacking workforce at all..., but I guess it would be great to make them dispose of your corpse and all others in this city, it will take a while though, there are just soooo many... and then the beast corpses too, lots of work" she chuckled "so, shall we start already with your execution or do you need to prepare more?"
Rakchar remained silent as he got inside his mech, a cable from the mech connected to a port on his spine, and it raised his greatsword with ease, a plasma sheen coating the edges.
Rose answered by raising her mace. Even clad in power armor, the weapon looked enormous, as though she were casually swinging a steel barrel. Arcs of plasma jumped between the blades of the mace as it illuminated the room.
Rose: "I will take that as a yes~"
She lunged forward, the metal floor warping beneath her feet.
Her mace slammed into the side of the mech's right knee, caving it inward, as the mech tilted sideways but still chopped at her anyway.
Yet the mace moved effortlessly in her hands. When it struck the side of the greatsword, it almost yanked it out of the mech's hands from the impact.
Runes engraved all over the mech glowed as a force field pushed Rose away, and the mech bolted forward. The sword descended on Rose as she dodged, and the sword ripped and melted the ground.
Rose and the mech traded blow after blow while Rose seemed to dance around the mech, dodging strikes and landing hits on its articulations.. But the mech didn't seem too affected this time.
Rakchar: "So confident, getting tired?"
Rose: "I've been waiting for a long time, don't you know patience is a virtue?" She formed a machine gun from her hand, and started firing, "But we can speed things up if you are in a hurry to die~" but no visible damage was done to the mech.
Rakchar scoffed: "Useless tricks"
Earlier, she had fired what looked like ordinary machine gun rounds.
Rakchar mocked them, as they seemed to do nothing to his mech.
Except...
They weren't bullets.
Each one was a colony of dormant nanobots.
Every impact left a microscopic crack quickly occupied by millions of machines.
While they fought..., the nanobots spread through the cables inside, reaching all systems.
Timberly whispered to Erik: "Will she need help?"
Erik shook his head as his eyes glowed: "No, it's almost over"
Timberly was confused: "What do you mean?"
Erik: "Give it a minute, and you will see"
A minute later, Rose stopped attacking.
Rakchar laughed: "Finished?"
Rose smiled: "No, but you are~"
Suddenly—
The mecha refused his commands.
Warning lights flashed as the cockpit opened and the mech bent forward.
The nanobots flowed through the mech's neural link and into his body, and began dismantling him.
Not violently, but methodically, every cybernetic augmentation began detaching itself.
His left robotic arm.
His artificial spine.
His artificial lungs.
His neural implants.
His left eye.
His feet and right hand.
Everything.
Leaving just a shriveled, ancient lizardman wheezing for air on the ground.
Over a thousand years old, unable to even crawl without its augmentations.
Rakchar looked up at Rose: "...Monster... you have... no honor..."
Rose knelt beside him: "No, I could have destroyed you slowly, with an honorable fight as you say, but then... I realized this is just a waste of time, and I don't need to waste my time with a pest like you. Pests are meant to be exterminated fast and thoroughly..."
She then stood up and placed her right armored foot on his head.
There was no further speech, no triumph, no victory scream, just... *CRUNCH* Her boot squished Rakchar's head into pulp against the metal ground.
Silence.
She stared at the headless corpse for a while, and then walked up to a window and looked outside.
The city was in ruins, millions of lizardmen and creatures dead all over it.
But her enemies' descendants were finally gone.
Erik and Timberly quietly walked beside her.
Erik: "So... do you feel better?"
Rose didn't answer immediately.
Just watched the smoke rising over the city.
Rose: "...I don't know... I guess I do. I feel tired mentally mostly, like a tension that finally vanished"
Timberly: "So what now?"
Rose: "Well, first, we go down. All this hive city was built with scrap over the original structure. So we need to go into the access stairs and go down into my core"
Erik: "Hmm, I'm sure the layout has changed quite a bit. So I have an idea for that, we can bring Derek and Grati, they should know where it is"
Rose nodded: "Hm, yes, I'm done patching them up too, so they should be able to move around now"
Meanwhile, inside the Aquilon, inside a heavily guarded room, young octopeople and crab people, including Crabina and Erik's daughters, were all watching a movie inside the soundproofed room. Anhuka sat with them as they watched the movie. She didn't know how to fight, but she could still be helpful to him this way. Even the Yaksha were there guarding the room.
Crabina: "Where are daddy and mommy?"
Anhuka: "He went to look at a new place we can live at"
Zoey: "Why? We like the ship"
Anhuka patted her golden hair: "Well, crab people we grow normally, but octopeople need a lot of space, so we would need more space soon, sweety, now pay attention to the movie, your daddy chose it for you"
Crabina, Zoey, Eirene, Ana, Elena, and Maria nodded and kept watching the movie.