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'Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.'
Vincent carefully looked at the readouts on his heads up display in his helmet, doing one final run through before they made it to the drop zone. Everything seemed to be in order, so he pulled back full face visor of his helmet and looked around at his fellow soldiers, they all seemed to be doing last minute touchups on their equipment as well, understandable, after all, this was war, one that none of them could afford to lose. Now, if this were any other war, against any other enemy, you could expect to see plenty of soldiers with their heads bowed, holy book or symbol in hand, offering up prayers to whatever deity they were raised to believe in, but that was the last thing that any of these soldiers would do, after all they all knew which of the Gods was the true God... and he was their enemy.

Almost seven years had passed since "The Rupture" and the apocalypse of the judeo-christain faith had officially begun, Demons crawled their way out of Hell and Angels rained down from Heaven, turning the Earth into a battlefield and Humans getting caught in the crossfire. Contrary to popular belief Angels couldn't care less about the lives of Humans, their only purpose was to kill Demons, and if a few humans just happened to stand between a demon and an Angel's blade, well, let's just say only one of the creatures in that scenario is walking away with their life, and it certainly isn't going to be a Human. At first they just hid, let the Angels and Demons fight it out, believing that the Angels victory would be inevitable and they would usher in "Paradise", but as the years passed and more and more Humans continued to die, with no end in sight, they finally decided to fight back, and thus the Heretic Soldiers were born. Using weapons and technology powered by the recently discovered Seele Particles, humanity had managed to join the war, and they intended to win.

At the moment, they were on route to the city formally known as Seattle, now one of the outpost for the Demonic Army, their mission, clear out the enemy and retake the city, and Vincent himself was a rather vital part of the operation. He was one of the Monolith Technicians, it was his job to set up generators known as "Monoliths" around the parameter of the city, once all of them were up, they would generate a forcefield that would last long enough for them to make a permanent foothold in the city, and eventually repopulate it. He but his visor back on and looked at the internal clock, it was almost time for them to drop.

A war he did not agree to be a part of. A machine he did not want. A life he would rather be without, yet still he was here. Why? The tiny mechanical creature was resting in his lap, quite light considering. An invention of his father's, the carbuncle, and a powerful one at that. While most excelled in offence in some manner the carbuncle was different, excelling in defence. Cellular regenerative acceleration, shields, force fields, diversions, and illusions were its specialty, and yet out of all the mechs he could control it was the strongest. A high powered energy beam could be focused from the gem in its head, the gem being rotated in its slot to either disperse or concentrate the beam. Taxing to Vice himself as it drained his seele, it was a small price to pay to take out an angel or demon, or to bring a large group of them to their knees.

The past was always fresh in his mind. His father's death, his mother's crying, the small mechanical creature returning home using the last of his father's seele. This world was cruel and he had no passion for war, wish it never happened, but then so do most people. Far below he could feel it draining. Even from up here in The plane he could feel his seele slowly sapped away. It was at a rate he could recover easily, and so his stores neither diminished nor increased. Far below the Cerberal unit followed on the ground. To large to be carried aboard a plane. Most couldn't even control such a thing from so high up, but to Vice it was child's play. In his battle armour was a display screen within the helmet that allowed him to see through the connected mech's visual sensors. As the unit travelled below Vice used it to slaughter and kill any demons or angels he could find. Aside from the carbuncle unit the Cerberal unit was the strongest mass produced. This mission was crucial, so they allowed him to pull his personal unit out. While most were basic chomp and flail, Vice had made some modifications to any units he used. The left torched high temperature flames, the right breathed Liquid nitrogen, and the centre head discharged off electricity. The tail was replaced with a snake unit and given visual sensors with seele poisons. The poison was infused with seele and would pull seele from the effect from the skin before being inhaled back into the Cerberal unit for use.

All the while Vice's helmet remained dark to the others, every now and again he would twitch as the pain sensors were set off. Another thing he did that most puppeteers did not, The pain sensors. He felt everything the mechs did. "Confirmation. Targets are increasing in numbers. Cerberal unit is now breaking away from route to secure landing drop point alpha." His voice steeled, cool, emotionless. He had been around machines far to long over humans, almost forgetting he was a human sometimes. "Estimated clearing Time is T minus fifty five thousand seconds. Begin preparing for the drop commander?" His body seeming ready to jump from its seat. The carbuncle sprung to life with a mewl, shifting to become a gauntlet that overlapped his battle armour.

Among the other Heretic Soldiers, I stood out like a sore thumb. Instead of the standard issue armor, I'm in a black leather jacket, a camo t shirt, and blue jeans. I look around at the other soldiers, and most of them seem nervous. I silently scoff, thinking to myself 'We got this. There is no way we can lose.' I tap the face of my watch, a gold Rolex, and a small black blob comes out and rests on my hand. "Hey there, Sym. I'm gonna need you to work extra hard this time, okay? we're taking back a whole city, so I'm going to need you." the blob makes a few short noises and I laugh a little. "You said it, buddy." the blob goes back into the watch, and I lean back in my seat. The war may have been bad for the world, but it was great for me. The world needed weapons that could kill angels and demons, and they turned to me, and I made billions. And I got to fight in the war. So now I have a release for all my pent up aggression, and it's on angels and demons, and they don't go down as fast as humans, so it's more fun.

Lokrai leaned back in his seat with his visor open, looking around at the other soldiers. He had checked his rifle a minute ago, and was now messing around with the hook in his arm to make sure it wasn't jammed. He didn't bother to check his sword yet, once they got on the ground it would either work or it wouldn't. It had saved him countless times, however, so he was confident it'd be fine. He closed his visor and checked the time till drop, also glancing at his armor's systems while he did so. He had always preferred taking on enemies with his sword, so all his defenses needed to work. He opened his visor again and stopped messing with his gauntlet. When the war had started, many had joined the Heretic Soldiers, wanting to beat back the armies of heaven and hell and reclaim their world. Lokrai had quickly joined, tired to having to hide behind a wall and watching at the world burned around him. If everyone else could go out and fight, why shouldn't he?

Lokrai knew that this mission was a big step for mankind. Retaking a city, one of the most famous before the rapture from what he had heard, was a big difference from his usual "hunt and kill" missions. In his head though, his main objective was still "hunt and kill". He'd let his teammates sort out the rest.

As we near the city, I tap my watch again and the blob comes out once more, only this time it covers my body, making me look like Venom, but without the spider on my chest. I run a scan of the system, making sure everything worked, the healing unit, the tech I absorbed into the suit, and the physical enhancements. Once I was sure that everything was good, I decided to break the silence that had just been piling up tension ever since we boarded. "So, anyone got plans for when we're done?"

Everyone in the plane turned to look at Leon, surprised by the rather vague question; small talk wasn't exactly common in the minutes, or even hours, before a mission, the only conversations were between captains and their crew, or between soldiers as they helped each other prepare their equipment for the coming battle. With that said, a few people answered him, many just said that they would group up and go for a drink, even though most likely they would have work to do afterwards, capturing the city was just phase 1, after that they would have to rebuild, and rebuild fast if they were going to finish before the Monoliths gave out. The shield created by the Monoliths only lasted for about a month at best, and in that time they had to fortify the city with proper defenses, create stable and usable shelters, and then move a portion of their population into said city to inhabit, if they couldn't do all that before the Monoliths gave out, they would be sitting ducks for any Angels or Demons who wanted to claim the city for their own.

Suddenly, a large holographic screen appeared on the far wall of the room, the words loading appearing in big blue letters before they faded away, revealing the face of their commanding officer, General Miles Kaine. He was older then a lot of the soldiers under him, he seemed to be in his mid to late forties, his hair beginning to grey slightly, he wore the typical military uniform of a man of his rank, and he had a serious look on his face that made everyone stand at attention.

"Attention, we are nearing drop point alpha, at the east entrance of Seattle, make any and all final preparations before we initiate the operation." Kaine ordered, thought that wasn't really necessary, but this time everyone had triple checked their equipment... though one more check couldn't hurt. "This is an incredibly important mission, it is imperative that you carry out your assignments swiftly and efficiently, Team 1 is to secure the parameter of the city and get three Monoliths operational on the east boarder, guardians, protect your technicians, anything comes anywhere near those Monoliths you either turn it around or turn it to ash, understood." A multitude of soldiers assigned to defend the Monolith Technicians while they worked yelled out their confirmations. "Team 2, you are the exterminators, make your way to the rendezvous point at the center of the city and kill every ugly son of a bitch you see, once you meet up with the other squads leave no stone unturned until that city is 100% Demon free." Another set of soldiers yelled their confirmations. "Good, we are to reach the drop point in 15 minutes time, line up now and once the doors open make your way to the ground, and make no mistake, there will be no retreat order, we either take back this city... or die trying." There was a note of solemness in Kaine's voice, it changed the entire atmosphere in the room as everyone else felt the weight of those words. Death, it was something every soldier had to come to terms with, sure it was one thing when they didn't know what happened afterwards, but now it was certain, and as enemies of Heaven they knew exactly where they'd be going if they fell on the battlefield... all the more reason to win this war and rid the universe of this twisted afterlife system.

I get up and walk to the doors, and I decide to give myself a bit of starting equipment before we drop. I pound my chest, and my suit takes on a more armored look, and on my legs and back the suit starts to bulge out slightly, but the recedes and suddenly there's a sawn off shotgun on each thigh, two energy swords on my back, and a belt of throwing knives around my waist. "I've got a good feeling about this mission. We're all gonna be just fine."

Team 1. It was his job to keep the monoliths safe. Once the first was down he was to keep the Cerberal unit guarding it. Once the second one was down he would remain with the carbuncle unit and defend it till the third unity was down. Once all three units were down he knew the Angels and Demons would try and destroy the pesky machines. The third one would be the hardest. They would notice the activity eventually and would try to destroy them soon enough. It was his job to protect two of them on his own till the third was up and then the units would be split up to defend till the vermin were all wasted.

He checked his armour one last time. It was slim other then the carbuncle gauntlet. Sleek and black, there were non-lethal gaps in the armour for mobility, while the rest was made of titanium infused with his own seele over days. It had been difficult to make, but thanks to his efforts he had a light weight protection against the vermin. With the check done he continued His rampage with the Cerberal unit as he made every effort to keep the drop site clear.

"Drop site clear." He declared as the last demon was torn between the units fangs. "I have visual confirmation of drop zone. I repeat, drop site clear." His visor from outside would seem black, but past the screen view of the Cerberal unit he could see all their faces. Yeah. No one was smiling.

Lokrai stops what he's doing and grins at the General as he hears the order to get ready. "About time" he says to himself as he practically jumps out of his seat, slinging his rifle on his back and clipping his sword to his side. He moves over to the doors, noticing that one of the people is hitting his chest. His eyes widen at the man's armor suddenly seems to morph and weapons appear on various parts of the armor. "The more you see..." Lokrai mumbles and closes his visor, smiling in anticipation. 'Do or die, and kill everything in sight, this is going to be fun'he thinks to himself.

A piece of my suit moves out of the way to give me access to my pants pocket, and I pull out a cigar, and the piece goes back. I tap my neck and the suit retracts from my head, and I put the cigar in my mouth. "Hey, does anyone have a match? I forgot to grab one before we left. And don't even try to hand me a lighter. You don't light a cigar with a lighter, you use a wood match, it preserves the flavor." I take the cigar from my mouth, and I twirl it between my fingers, hoping someone has a match. I'll settle for a lighter if I have to.

Vincent just rolled his eyes at the request, in fact Leon was generally ignored, either they didn't find the need to respond or didn't have a match to give, either way the cigar remained unlit. Honestly, Vincent didn't like Leon, he never seemed to take the war very seriously, and if anyone actually profited from it it was him, he was one of the few people in the world capable of creating weapons that could utilize the Seele Particles and made billions. That in itself wasn't bad, it's only natural to want to be payed for what you do, but what really made him angry is that he was holding out on them, he kept all of the "good toys" for himself, like that symbiotic cyber suit, how could he have something so advanced that could aid in the war and not share it!

Suddenly, a timer appeared on his visor, signaling it was a mere 15 seconds till it was time to drop. Everyone was given the same signal and they all lined up next to door of the plane, going over in their heads one last time what their assignments were. Vincent's was simple, clear the area, set up the Monolith, and activate, then move to the next one, it was an important job, and it required a lot of delicate work that needed to be done quickly, he couldn't afford to lose focus. Eventually, the clock began flashing as it hit the five second mark, the doors of the plane opening and letting in the violent wind from the outside. Vincent stared at the clock 3... 2... 1... GO! The soldiers immediately began leaping out of the plane in sets of twos the moment one Heretic's feet left the plane another was there to take its place, and eventually it came to Vincent.

He had done this plenty of times before, but it was always nerve wracking, but he took a deep breath and leaped out of the plane, his vision obstructed by the grey clouds. He feel for a few seconds, he would never get used to feeling, and eventually the made it below the clouds and his eyes gazed on the ruins that were once Seattle; it looked completely abandoned, and may as well have, after all Demons didn't really care much for sanitary maintenance, hell, he didn't even know if they slept, let alone needed shelter. The rest of the area was a wasteland, the barren desert and red sky made it seem like they were on Mars rather then Earth, getting bombarded by meteors would do that to a planet. Once Vincent got tired of falling, he willed a device to activate on his back, two panels sliding back on either side letting two glowing blue insect like wings to extend out from it, a soft humming could be heard from them as they slowed his fall. With just a thought and slight adjustment of his body, he effortlessly flew to the rest of his comrades and got into formation as they descended into the city.

The reason I didn't mass produce my suit is because the mental strain of the suit was far more than that of the standard Heretic armor, and it would drive any normal man mad. But I'm able to use it because I'm already mad. The psychological trauma induced on me from my parent's deaths in front of me when I was ten, and the fact that I was kidnapped hours later and held for six months has driven me insane. I'm just good at hiding it. When no one offered me a match I put the cigar back in my pocket, and I tapped my neck again, and the suit covers my head once again. And when I came to be my turn to jump, I jump head first out of the plane. I turn maroundaround, pointing my feet and the ground, and I don't bother to activate my wings, I just curl up into a ball,and my suit becomes a ball and bits the creating a small crater, and I just stand up, and dust myself off.

Lokrai waits his turn then jumps out of the plane, letting himself fall for a long time and activating his wings at the last second to slow his fall just enough so he didn't slam into the ground. He knew there was a formation and everything, but he didn't like the idea of being a target in the middle of the air, even if he wouldn't exactly be moving slow. He pulls out his rifle and scans the area while he waits for everyone else to catch up.

The countdown began and he made the last second preparations before coming in last of the line. There was no partner to him, the odd number leaving him to jump alone. As one after the other everyone made the jump he played it all through his head. In honesty he was scared. His hands wouldn't stop shaking since the countdown started. What could be expected, he was only seventeen.

The man waved and Vice jumped out, out stretching his arms and legs to create what little drag he could. Counting out, 1 1000, 2 1000, 3 1000 , 4 1000, 5! On five he hit the chest of his armour and a membrane outstretched from his arms to his armpits to his feet. The glider suit caught the air and lifted him momentarily before he began the slow accent down. Every now and again he let his arms close and dropped a few hundred feet to ensure he wouldn't overshoot, eventually coming to circle over top the landing point where the Cerberal unit was fending off angels and Demons, and where the rest of the monolith team was set to land.

"Commence operation." He called through his head set. From here on out he was the tactical for his unit. "Stick to the Cerberal unit till the first one is dropped then we'll proceed to the next point as detailed before hand. The Cerberal unit will be left to guard point A as we proceed to point B to place the second. I will remain at point B with as few guards as possible, depending to the circumstances, as the rest of you follow Vincent to point C for the final pin. Any last questions ladies?"

Though seventeen his ability to control two units at once earned his rankings quickly, putting him at lieutenant ranking, though there was one or two above his rank on this mission it was his job to give the details and adjust accordingly since he had the most eyes.

"MOVE OUT!"

I thanked my wallet that I was put on the search and destroy team when I joined. And because of my skill and genius, I skyrocketed straight to General, and a bit of money and a few favors didn't hurt. I grabbed the sawn offs from my legs, and I search around for any demons or angels, my trigger finger starting to get itchy, wanting to shoot.

Lokrai put away his rifle and drew his sword. Now that they were on the ground and within range of a demon or angel attack if one came, the rifle would be useless in close range. As much as he wanted to just ditch the monolith unit, he knew they needed every soldier they could for the first push. He'd likely just stay back and fight off the first group of enemies they found even if the rest left. He'd just meet the Cerberal at the first momolith to help it guard. At the order to move, he branched off to the side a little away from the main group. If anyone said something he'd just say that he was watching for enemies and would give them an early warning is something came.

(Sorry for the delay everybody, I've been busy lately)

Vincent stayed in formation as he and the rest of the soldiers flew down to the drop point, a newly cleared area where the Cerebral Unit stood tall and proud, its gaping maw dripping with demon blood. Once they all touched down, they immediately commenced the operation, half of the soldiers present made their way down the main road towards the rendezvous point while the other half stayed behind to guard Vincent as he set up the Monolith. Vincent waisted no time as he kneeled to the ground and brought out a small disk like device from a holster on his belt, he was about to place it on the ground and start setting up, but suddenly his helmet's heads up display warned him, as well as everyone else of the incoming threat. Vincent spared a brief glance behind him and passed his allies to see a squadron of demons charging towards them, bloodied and rusted weapons raised and teeth and claws brandished to rip them all to shreds. His allies all readied their own weapons and created a parameter around him, their number one priority was to get the Monolith up, and so Vincent had no time to waste.

He set the device on the ground and pressed a button on it, it glowed a bright blue before it unfolded and expanded, morphing into a moderately sized cylindrical generator, with a blue glowing top that sparked with energy and a holographic display came up on the side, ready for input. Vincent began typing away at this, running a basic systems diagnostics to see if everything was working properly, more often then he would like to admit these devices would get damaged on the way to the battlefield. All around him he was bombarded with the sounds of claws piercing flesh and plasma bladed weapons hacking through demons as they let out blood curdling shrieks, he would never get used to it, but he had to do his best to drown it out as he set up the Monolith, he finally finished the basic diagnostics and was now inputting the settings for the current location and weather conditions, man these things were finicky.

Demons? "Shit." He cursed under his breathe as he charged forward. The carbuncle gauntlet whirred and came to life as the mechanical life form jumped off from his hand. As it did, light in the shape of a hexagonal gem was emitted from its forehead focusing gem. The demons crashed into the light and were stopped without any resistance. As more collected it began pushing the shield back. Vice could feel the drain on his Seele as they did. "Unit one clear left flank, push towards centre! Unit two clear right and push the remaining to the centre as well! We'll pincer them so the carbuncle unit can wipe them in one focused shot. Commence!"

Given the command Vice watched the soldiers take to their positions, more focused on the Cerberal unit that was lashing out at any demons that came towards Vincent. Needless to say none were getting to him. The machine gave out a roar as the two side heads and the snake tail bit down into demons, the middle head firing off its element into the skies to strike down any unlucky flying demons.

"Keep pushing! Get back on my mark!" Being a puppeteer left his own body movements quite lacking as he needed to focus on the movements of two other bodies. The demons were becoming more and more crowded over the gem shaped light barrier, nearly overflowing each time as Vice had the carbuncle unit extend its range to accompany the new additions.

"Ready your retreat!" He called out as his leg shook, threatening to buckle out from under him. "Now!" It was near immediate after he called out, giving but seconds to escape before the carbuncles barrier retracted and a beam of light was fired out, slashed across the mass of demons to cut across them.

As the beam ended Vice dropped to one knee. "Ge-get the rest of the demons! Don't let any of them reach the monolith!" The Cerberal units movements seemed to get slightly sluggish, the power output seeming to diminish in quality and quantity as well. "Cerberal unit has only four minutes left for juice before I must recharge! Kill them all before then!" He shouted over the battlefield and through the comm. thank god for autotunage.

((Well, we can thank the devil later when we're fighting Angels ))

Lokrai wasted no time. When the first demons emerged, he waited until a gap in their lines appeared then jumped in, cutting down several demons before they knew he was there. He heard the order to back off, and shot his hook at a nearby building and that, combined with his wings, allowed him to just barely avoid the blast that killed a lot of the demons. Mid air he retracted his hook and bounced off the building, flying straight in and cutting down several more demons. He reluctantly backed off when there were only a few left, not wanting to get caught in the final vollys of his allies. He looked around and jumped to a higher vantage point just out of sight of where the first wave had came from. He checked his suit's status and while only the shields had taken damage, they would need a minute to recharge, though they'd be back by the next assault. "This is Lokrai. If needed I'll help guard the first monolith until the Cerberal comes back online. How long would it take to recharge?" He set a timer in his visor for four minutes, counting down until when the Cerberal was supposed to go offline.