|| Apocalypse IC ||

Kau'Xen took out his Zone-Pad, aimed at at an appropriate area not too close to the Colony entrance, not too far either. It was just where the attack had started, as Karthla Hordes began to gather and charge. He was waiting for the perfect kill moment, because he knew had to make it count. the Orbital support had been very limited as of late.

Things were getting much more intense, he knew this was the last Colony left intact.

Kau'Xen, thoug,h wasn't one to get lost in his own thoughts. He preffered to focus on the moment. and the moment was here.

Five dropships, all gathered together, had just landed in the horde. Karthla Infantry pored out the sides of them.

With his Zone-Pad aimed directly at the ground unde rthe dropships, he marked three positions, to form a triangle. The zone was locked, and the signal sent to one of the cruisers above. down came the explosives, rushed with air, ready to explode on any impact. and so they did.

The Dropships, along with their passngers inside and on the ground, vanished in a cloud of Blue Fire. blood splashed everywhere, and the bodies of Karthla exploded. and the battlefield was marked. This was truly war for survival.

Xartex and the Jorro'kil woman where in a housing stalk. The Jorro'kil was facing a wall of purple flesh and green ooze. Four awful purple chains secured her arms and feet. Her range of movement was extremely restricted. She was already sweating and crying. Each inbividual feather had been ripped from her body, showing the bare skin. She was already coated in blood the green gunge that dripped from the ceiling of the spherical room. Sweat dripped from her beak to the floor and mixed with the green sludge that fed the karthla eggs below her. The woman was hovering over the floor, due to the length and tightness of the chains. A large portion of the sphere was full of eggs that where constantly hatching. The children where blood thirsty and horrifying. Xartex was on a podium above the mass of tiny karthla.

As the Jorro'kil stared at the mass of baby monsters. Her fear of them and her fear of Xartex where almost equal, with Xartex in the lead. Death from him was a much slower experience. More of the eggs hatched and the babies started to jump up towards the Jorro'kil. Any higher and they would teach her feet. But she remained relatively unharmed. Xartex whipped the mechanism controlling the chain. She slipped a tiny bit but then raised again. She screamed and started crying. Then Xartex whipped her. The woman screamed in agony. Two deep cuts crossed over the first two. More blood dripped into the heaving mass of karthla children. Tears fell to the babies.

"Where are the survivors!" Xartex roared in jorro'kil
"I don't know!" She screamed
"Lier!" Xartex screeched and whipped her again. More screams. More blood. More tears.
"Please stop." she sobbed and begged "I did nothing wrong." she screamed
"Tell me where the survivors are!" there was a pause, the woman just kept crying and shaking "Or I will kill your baby."
"Nooooo!!" she roared in misery, anger and fear. "Not my baby!"
"Then tell me where they are!" Xartex roared.
"I don't know!" she screamed and cried and begged. Xartex whipped a patch of the housing stalk and a karthla dropped from a hatch in the ceiling. It landed on Xartex's podium.
"Get the womans baby." Xartex growled and the karthla jumped to a wall and climbed back out of the hatch. "You should have told me. His death is your fault." Xartex growled at the woman.

Darlox was now in the outter rim of the hives. He approached a large area where many mutants were held. He motioned for the guards to release them. He would then lead the herd of nearly 1000 to the remaining city and destroy the survivors...

Meanwhile...

Dorlus was sitting in his housing stalk. Many other Karthla Fathers where there with him along with Hive Commanders, Gralvars, and Varbreshs who had captured a few hopeless Jorro'kil soldiers and had them centered in the middle of the room. Suddenly two horders carried in four mutants. They threw them into the middle of the room. The Commander clicked his fingers and the Jorro'kil mutants attacked. They pounced onto the soldiers as the soldiers screamed. The soldiers were stripped of their weapons and had no defense.

The first soldier was a commander. He was pinned down by two of the mutants. One of them, the more bulky and strong one clawed open his chest, purple blood spilled everywhere. He began to rip out strings of flesh and organs. Each time the Jorro'kil clawed, out came a bloody mess. Then the mutant screeched and stuck its beak deep into the fleshy corpse of the bleedy Jorro'kil commander. The commander screamed and screamed. The mutant kept going. The mutant ripped the bones of the commander right out and began chewing. Then the other Jorro'kil mutant ripped his arm clean off, blood splattered everywhere.

The Karthla began to laugh and drink strange liquids from flesh made cups. This liquid can be compared to something like alchohol.

Meanwhile...

The Jorro'kil were in for a big surprise when a horde of mutants was on their way...

Xartex grabbed the baby Jorro'kil and held it to the air. The woman had been turned so she would watch. She screamed asthe baby was held over the heaving mass of baby karthla. She sobbed and cried and begged for him to stop.
"Where are the survivors?" Xartex asked calmly.
"I don't know. I swear." she cried. Xartex dropped the baby caught it. She screamed. "Please, not my baby." she wailed again
"Where are the survivors." Xartex asked, loosening his grip. "Or your baby dies." the woman cried and started to talk.
"There's a small camp of survivors in the mountains. They're really exposed." she gave up.
"Thank you." Xartex sighed and dropped the baby into the mass of karthla. The woman screeched and cried and roared. She leapt towards Xartex but the chains stopped her. Xartex was done with her and cut the chains with his whips. The woman fell with her baby to the pit.

Xartex walked into Dorlus's housing stalk. They where killing a Jorro'kil and drinking. Some of the karthla guards moved away slightly as Xartex strode in.
"There is a camp of survivors in the mountains. Some sport for you. If you want me, I'll be torturing my prisoners." Xartex stated before he walked out.

Meanwhile...

Kau'Xen's airstrike was a success. Of course it was, he was a JFO. It was, is and always would be an honor to be able to cause such massive damage. Kau'Xen knew though that it was only a Minor pain to the Karthla, their number ever increasing.

Their was a brief respite from the action, as the Colony's gate was safe for just a little while. Infantry moved about, but only a small number of the quite large amount the Colony had stored. Collecting ammunition and making sure the bodies were dead.

When, from the foggy mist, came a horde of Jorro'kil Mutants, some of them armed with Jorro'kil BA Rifles. They were headed straight for the Infantry.

The Two Ultra Gunners took positions on either sid eof the Gate, and readied themselves for the onslaught, as did the Infantry on the battlefield....

The horde approached. It was lead by Darlox and Largus. They were approaching the city. They spotted the Jorro'kil defenses and open fired. With a screech the mob broke out into a huge attack.

Kau'Xen saw it all. The huge mob had actually gotten past the Outer Gate, and were working on destroying the Inner Gate. He immediately took out his Zone-Pad, or ZP, angled it towards the battlefield where most of the Karthla were coming from, and marked three triangles in the ZP screen to shape a larger triangle.

Seconds later, up from above, came the screaming projectiles, charged with air, ready to bring forth their explosive contents on any impact, and so they did. The slapsh damage from the multiple charges ripped through the mob, and Kau'Xen's personalized helmet speaker announced "Killionaire" He smiled under his helmet.

But, all of a sudden, his ZP was shattered. Hit by a slimey, organic projectile. He pulled out his BA rifle, which had previously been magnetically attached to his back, and at first saw nothing. Then a short glimpse of a creature sprinting to a nearby bush. He fired at the bush, and blood seemed to explode from all sides of it. A corpse soon followed the blood, which fell out from behind the bush. He went over and examined it.

"Stealth form.....hmm...." Said Kau'Xen to himself. "Better get moving..." With that, he put away his BA rifle, and jumped on his AgileCat rider, and set off.

Thora, as advised by several Karthla, had gone deeper into her housing stalk for protection. Of course, she wasn't that worried. She could take on any idiot that decided it was easy to kill her. She was tough, and nobody, and she meant nobody would tell her otherwise. She was not scared of anything. Of course, then that made her think about Neoma. Neoma would have a fit if she found out that mothers were being slaughtered along with their kids. Well, Neoma didn't have to fret too much. That Varboresk was incredibly dangerous when it came to people threatening her kids. That was when one of the eggs in the sac hatched. She glared at the child who came out, begging for food. She had a Jorro'kil carcass in the corner of the room, she pulled a bone out of it and tossed it at him, hitting him in the head. He winced, and looked at her, as though to question what she was doing. "What are you staring at!?" She snarled at him. "Eat it or you get nothing!" She hissed. The child hastily began to eat. Meanwhile, Thora crawled into her slime pool, until she was submerged up to her neck. She gulped down the slime, and eventually took a bit of the Jorro'kil carcass herself, dragging it into the pool to feed. She wasn't as physically aggressive as most mothers, but she was still pretty good at trashing self-esteem.

Kau'Xen had been driving for about ten minutes. He was going towards the City of Jilvos, which had been almost completely destroyed by the first Karthla assualt, which was the hail of raid pods that landed quite a few places on the Planet, many of which arrived next to or in Jilvos.

This was infact, Kau'Xen's secondary objective, after defending the remaining colony as much as he could. With his ZP destroyed, their was little he could really do agains the waves that crashed against the city gates.

So, he would of course follow his secondary objective, which was to get to Jilvos, observe it and, if there were any survivors near the outside of the destroyed city, call for an Evac ship for them.

"My lord, they've cut down almost all of the mutants, we may have to stress the pods to produce more by the hour" said Dorlus.

Karvell snarled. Thick green ooze dripped from his monsterous fleshhungry teeth. "Hatch more Gorgers immediatly! Get to Jilvos and destroy all that is left! And then destroy the remains of all of that!"

"Yes my lord!" said Dorlus.

___________________________________

A massive horde of Drilosphats was tunneling under the remnants of the city. These were giant worm-like monsters bred for creating underground chasms for Karthla hives to hide inside. Suddenly nearly three of them ripped from the crust of the planet in a large metroplitical area and slugged onto the ground above ready to attack.

Xartex was scavenging Jilvos for survivors. The devastated city stank of karthla and death. It was a good place and a good smell. Xartex roared and the five karthla drones with him roared in return.

Kau'Xen reached Jilvos, or, what was left of it. He stopped and stepped off his AgileCat rider. He surveyed the area with a dark eye, scanning it via bio-detection built in to his helmet for lifeforms matching that of the Jorro'kil. None so far.

Great pillars of smoke rose from the blackened city, sections of walls and buildings infected with pod growths, purple spores floating in the air, a green/purple fog seemed to fill the place to the brim.

He walked closer to a small gate at the outside of the Colony, and peared in from the side. He saw to Karthla, one seemed to be communicating to the other. Probably guards.

Kau'Xen pulled out his Combat Knife, and slowly crept up behind the first Karthla guard, then suddenly rushed up behind it, grabbed the thing's neck and held it, then deeply stabbed the Karthla's neck. He let the corpse fall to the ground. The other guard was stunned by the surprise, so Kau'Xen took advantage of this and dived at the guard, knocking him down. He used his Combat Knife to stab the Karthla in the front of his neck, which killed him almost instantly.

Kau'Xen got up, wiped the dust off his armor, and slowly walked down a short row of destroyed housing buildings....

Father Endar stood on top of a large demolished scry scraper. Down below him the Karthla were losing. Nearly half of their kind had been whipped out. His skin turned pale from the thought of losing. He began to curl up in fear. He now watched the large worms on the other side of the city chewing at the last remaining buildings.

How could this have happened? The Karthla are far to strong, and this was only a colony, not a military base.

Endar had to swore only to do what he was about to do in drastic emergencies. This seemed like one though. He got on his knees and stuck his arms in the air. He closed his eyes and many strange cracking sounds came from his exoskeleton as black steam began to pour from the cracks in his skin. He began to screech a loud scream that nearly shook the ground. He was now sending electromagnetic waves all around and slushing it everywhere.

Suddenly the waves were slooshed into the curled up carcasses of the dead Karthla and began to repair the cells of the dead. Within a few minutes the bodies of the undead soldiers got up and began walking again. However they were zombies and were unable to use technology such as their guns. But a new weapon had been introduced to them-the weeds of the Karthla. These vines acted like tendrils and tentacles for the Karthla and would not stop effortlessly. The undead could also infect the Jorro'kil with their saliva and turn them into the mutanous Karthla-Jorro'kil mutants.

Endar looked down at his masterpiece. Now when the reinforced Jorro'kil got to the city, they would have a much harder time of reaching the breeding pods where most of the Hive Mothers laid birthing children.

The Jorro'kil had been beating back the waves of Karthla in the remainder Jilvos partially because of the T-46 MLMS Tank they had, an older but very effective model of Mortar Tank. It helped to beat back waves of incoming Karthla. This, combined with the fact that the defending troop had a large number of Black Ops, an elite Jorro'kil very well trained in Combat. Mainly they carry Plasma Rifles and Energy Swords.

The Commander of their group, an excellent strategist, and also an Elite Shock Troop, Ne'Javik Merzakii was a decorated War Hero, for his many victories in battle against the Karthla. However, Ne'Javik always remembered to give his troops credit for the work they did, because without them, he alone was nothing. A Commander needs soldiers. That's what seemed to make him stand out amongst the lower class of infantry, unlike some other Commandoes who seemed to want more glory than was due.


He was not the only one of this character, heck no, but stood out all the same.


Merzakii had recently ordered the elimination of several of the neabry pods and their inhabitants, which was successfully completed by the Black Ops. This in turn seemed to ward off some of the Karthla, as pods and "mothers" were actually seen retreating from the heat of the battle, but only those with very shallow pods.

Meanwhile.....


Kau'Xen was moving further in to the Colony, he had found no more Karthla, but plenty of smaller pods that had latched on to buildings and walls and the ground.

Then he came across a bent lamp post. It hadn't been bent during the invasion, no. This was recent. It had been bent after being hit and melted at the point of impact, by a plasmetic weapon. Karthla didn't use Plasmetic weapons, as far as he knew, so it must have been Jorro'kil. Then, further up ahead, Kau'Xen heard the sounds of a conflict. It was a Black Ops soldier, battling a horde of Karthla with an energy sword. He eviscerated each one elegently, but was soon overcome by another, larger horde. a Captain accompanying the horde blasted the soldier's armor, broke though, and fired an infection round. The Jorro'kil started to mutate, its skin turned purple from its once bright blue. spikes and armor burst out of the skin, and a second head grew in from over its neck.

Now an abomination, the once honorable soldier had become a horror. This was the terror of the Karthla.

Xartex was whipping a Jorro'kil when the karthla returned to life. The bird man screeched when he saw the horde of zombies. Xartex smiled, snapped the birds neck and strode down the street, subconsciously advancing on Kau'xen. Undead karthla avoided Xartex. Fear of him remained, even after death. A Jorro'kil black op came at Xartex, an energy sword in hand. Three tendrils grabbed the Jorro'kil by the neck and lifted it off the ground. Xartex came closer and sank his claws into it's armour. He could feel the individual organs inside the bird. Then he pulled. Various organs came out of the corpse and splattered onto the floor. Xartex roared in delight and kicked the corpse as he let it drop, sending it down the street and into a mass of karthla.

Kau'Xen had enough of the gore and horror which he had just witnessed, and took a grenade from his belt. It was an Incendiary Grenade, which would burst into a fire upon impact. Excellent for "killing" undead Karthla. If their flesh was burnt badly enough they could no longer fight.

The Grenade was about five inches long, and oval shaped. It's shell was grey and purple.

Kau'Xen held back his arm, adjusted his aim, and threw.

It seemed an eternity for the grenade to reach its destination, but when it did, Karthla burned.

Neoma was increasingly aware of a few Jorro'kil who were managing to get close to the housing stalks where the female Karthla lived. Although it was very few, maybe two or three, it scared her a bit. She was far from mindless, and she instinctively wanted to do something to stop the invaders from killing her children. What she wasn't expecting, though, was for Thora to come in. "Neoma! You in here!?" She said, not caring to keep her voice quiet. Being the largest variant of Karthla monster, she hardly managed to get through the door, although she had no trouble standing afterwards. She had her slime sac slung over her shoulders.

Neoma jumped, "Thora! What are you doing in here?!" She exclaimed. "Well, since I heard somebody's been running around our camp, I figured you'd want some company." Thora replied. Neoma sighed, "Thora, are you sure you want to stay in here? You know how big your particular variant gets! How will there ever be any room for me and my kids?" She asked. Thora simply waved one of her claws, dismissing the problem, "Ah, we have several levels in this housing stalk, don't we? We can just each live on a different floor! Besides, if that Jorro'kil gets in here, I'll pluck him raw!"

For some reason, Neoma found this disturbing and nice. Mainly, because she didn't match Thora's personality, or agree with her way of raising kids, and vice-versa. However, despite these differences, they were close friends, and they almost always went on invasions together. In addition, they covered each other's weaknesses pretty well. Thora didn't think things though, but she was tough, while Neoma did the thinking, and plotting. This would be helpful, later.

And so, Thora took the second base floor (The one beneath surface-level), and Neoma took the third. If anyone attacked, they would have to deal with an angry mom and her kids.

A portion of the undead were destroyed by the fires of the grenade. However many escaped and fled down the streets of the city.

Endar still stood at the top of the building waving his arms around in formations directing the undead Karthla. As time went by clicks and purs came from his gaping maw.

Xartex saw the fire but it was on the other side of Kau'xen. Xartex had inadvertadly aquired a posey. Three karthla of different forms had been following him for a while. Then a JL came at them gun blazing. Two of the karthla where killed by gun fire, the third by the birds energy sword as he slid past it on his knees. Xartex roared from his three mouths and ripped off the birdmans chest armour with a single swipe of his claws. Then he thrust his entire lower arm into his chest, tentacles pushing through the tight muscles and organs, making blood spill from the hole in the jorro'kils chest. Tendrils found both arms and the neck. All three of Xartex's tentacles then burst from the jorro'kils elbows and windpipe. Screams of agony echoed down the street. Xartex withdrew his arm and tentacles slowly but in a solid motion, letting the body drop. He then strode down the street towards Kau'xen.

Kau'Xen, still standing by the broken lamp post, seemingly transfixed on the battle ahead of him but actually just recording it with his in-helmet recorder.

Glacing over in Xartex's direction, Kau'Xen finally saw that Xartex was advancing on his position.

Kau'Xen quickly tapped a small button on his helmet, which stopped the recording, and unslung his BA Rifle. He slowly walked backwards, away from the vicious Xartex, always keeping his BA rifle targeted the slowly following monster. Kau'Xen had to find cover, and quick. Perhaps he could circle around and get to the group of survivors holding out near the Karthla Pod clusters.

Xartex laughed at the retreating Jorro'kil. He reached down and ripped a rifle from the corpse of a jorro'kil. Xartex held it in one hand unlike the birds who needed two. The gun was aimed at Kau'zen, who unfortuatly wouldn't fall to Xartex today. Two Jorro'kil infantry men leapt onto Xartex's back. A huge roar escaped Xartex as he spun and ripped a bird free and threw it at a ruined building. The other one was getting a strong hold, so Xartex aimed the rifle behind himself and shot the Jorro'kil three times in the head. A costly distraction.

With Xartex distracted by the two Infantry who so valiantly attempted to kill him, Kau'Xen sprinted down a nearby street, and vanished out of sight after he ran past a building. He kept sprinting until he reached another street, then started to walk more slowly. The light seemed to be weakening, it was evening. With his rifle ready to fire at anything Karthla, He kept walking until he reached a turning point. There were only two ways to go, backwords, or forwards down the turn. The other two ways had been blocked by falling rubble. At this turn, his pace slowed significantly, then, after Kau'Xen saw that there were no Karthla, atleast no visible Karthla, he walked faster.

Then came another turn, this one was down a narrow allyway. Kau'Xen looked around him, to make sure there were no Karthla following, and slowly proceeded down the dark ally. Kau'Xen was about a quarter of the way through when he heard crawling sounds. The problem was, he couldn't tell if they were coming from behind him, infront of him, or above him.

Then he heard a screech, just above his head.

"Above, definitely." Kau'Xen muttered. He looked up, his rifle the same, and sure enough saw several Karthla Spiders, jumping from wall to wall and hissing at him. Quick, fire round bursts from his rifle brought most of them down, but one of them managed to jump down and grab onto his helmet.

"Gaah!" Shouted Kau'Xen. He managed to take hold of the spider, and fling it across the allyway infront of him. Two five-round rifle bursts killed the thing.

Suddenly a huge Karthla fighter soared overhead. It had caught on fire and two Jorro'kil ships followed. A strange being jumped from the cockpit of the Karthla fighter and landed in front of Kau'Xen. The ship then flung into a building and exploded. The Jorro'kil ships then passed. This being that landed was a Karthla Commander. This was Commander Gorlox. Gorlox spoke.

"Ah, another being to add to my stomach" said the hideous beast.

Kau'Xen looked at the horrible creature infront of him, craving death. In the narrow allyway he could only go backwards, or engage Gorlox on Combat. Anything could happen, but if he wanted to live he had to try.

Kau'Xen aimed his BA Rifle straight at Commander, and fired on full auto. Shedder rounds sceramed towards the Karthla.

Xartex could either follow Kau'xen and help the captain, or have some more fun and gather hostages. He chose both. The jorro'kil wherent stupid enough to engage a captain on their own. That was like attacking Xartex. Suicide. Instead, they would group up and take down the captain, then Xartex could storm in and get some more toys. Not running, more speed striding, Xartex made his way after Kau'Xen, smelling him out. He reached the alley and was disappointed to see Kau'xon attacking Gorlox on his own. The rifle Xartex had stolen was now aimed at Kau'xens head. He fired. He missed. He gave himself away.