“Leviathan, are your defenses ready?”
“Yes Master X.”
“Good. You know my new price of failure…”
“Yes sir… I shall not fail.” With that the blue reploid turned and left the darkened throne room.
Ciel was crushed, she knew the plan was risky but she couldn't believe Elpizo would leave the base like he had. On the eve of battle! But now wasn't the time to let emotion get in the way, Ciel held back tears and called every active member of the resistance had been called to the control room.
“Its finally time for our attack,” she began, “We believe the Arcadian troops are weaker then ever thanks to the failed attacks of last week. Now is the perfect time to strike at the heart, here in their main base at Outer Heaven.” Ciel said as she pointed at the tactical display. A small base could be seen, just outside of Neo Arcadia. According to the map there were many such bases surrounding X's utopia which must first be penetrated before entering Neo Arcadia itself.
“Now, The Outer defenses are controlled by Leviathan,” Ciel continued, “She's called the Ice Heart for a reason, don't pick a fight with her. Instead, leave her to Zero and carry on into the main base and destroy the reactor core. That should cripple their defenses and leave the Inner Heaven open for attack.”
With that, the members of the resistance followed Zero into the trans-server room and they were transported one by one to the Outer Heaven.
Outer Heaven was a ring of military babes which provided security for Neo Arcadia, by attacking the main compound the resistance hoped to trigger a chain reaction crippling their defenses. The Arcadians had dug in, using boxes, flower beds, rooftops, and anywhere else they could find to rain fire down on the resistance forces, Zero in particular. Zero, who seemed to be everywhere at once causing more havoc than anyone.
As the forces pressed further in, line after line of pantheons marched out of the main enterence, blocking it off. Fortunately the resistance fighters were spared from the battle when Zero jumped down from a rooftop and fired his guns at the already weakened structure, causing the door to fall in on itself and crush the pantheons.
“Good thing I know another way in,” Zero muttered as he unleashed a charged slash on the side of the building, creating a hole big enough for the troops to enter. The resistance soldiers quickly filed through, Zero at the rear deflecting sniper fire with his shield boomerang.
“We're in,” Zero said, both to the troops and to Ciel who was monitoring the mission back at Resistance Base. “Now we just need to find the reactor.” The resistance forces burst through a door into a large room filled with tables, a mess hall of sorts. They were expected.
“Playtime is over now boys.” It was Leviathan, flanked by 5 platoons of troops. “Except for you Zero,” she giggled, “We're going to have fun.” She turned to the troops behind her, “You guys can have his friends.”
There was no way around the fight, the resistance forces battled their way to the far end of the room and at Zero's urging, left to take out the reactor. After a few minor battles the group made it to the reactor within the base. They stepped out onto a circular catwalk suspended over a pit, the room was built like a missile silo, the reactor controls at the center. But Leviathan had left one of her subordinates to stand guard.
“You'll have to kill me if you want to destroy the core,” she said simply. Not waiting for a response, she launched off a pair of serpentine ice dragons to start the fight.
Shots were fired but the dragons showed no signs of stopping. Stronger members with melee weapons, as well as those with fire powers seemed to have success. The dragons dealt with, one resistance member began to grapple with Flasia, who managed to partially freeze him and throw him off. Another took the opportunity to fire a charged blast at the Arcadian, but the energy was completely negated by the jumpsuit she wore.
Realizing perhaps that her armor didn't protect her enough from physical damage, she covered herself in a protective layer of ice. She wasn't done yet. Raising her frost wand she conjured up as much energy as she could in a short time and released it at her feet. As the light subsided, Frostbite Flasia could be seen standing on an icey chariot pulled by two ice dragons. Her wand was still in her hand but it was now encased inside a large spear.
“Yah!” she cried, giving her dragons the signal to go. The chariot of ice skated directly into the group of resistance members, the dragons snapping their fangs and the mistress of ice herself attempting to skewer anyone she could reach with her spear.
One of the resistance forces dove out of the way as she passed, but managed to grasp the back of the chariot. Flasia kicked at him futilely until he released, but the floor of her chariot had been damaged. At the same time, another resistance member had thrown himself in front of her ride, bringing it to a crashing halt, though of course injuring himself in the process.
“No matter,” Flasia thought as she waved her wand once more, dissolving the chariot and covering the circular platforms in a thin layer of ice, “I still have one last trick up my sleeve, this should slip them up…”
The resistance soldiers had begun to grow tired, and sliding around the icy platform was not helping things. Flasia's charms began to take effect. One resistance member who'd actually made it over to her froze his arm in mid attempt to strike her. Her enemies were losing the will to fight her. Flasia turned to the female resistance members who seemed least affected by her aura and fired rounds of razer sharp ice daggers. The resistance members tried to keep their distance and circled around the core to stay out of her line of fire. Then in desperation, one of them fired a blast of energy into the core. Flasia cried out in panic, and one of the male resistance members lying close to her regained his sanity long enough to knock the Arcadian over the side of the catwalk.
There was little time to celebrate however, as the blast fired into the core seemed to have done the trick. Warning sirens were sounded and the resistance forces were quick to teleport to safety.
Leviathan's eyes went wide as she heard the warning and saw the flashing red lights. “Damn you! Damn you all!”
She activated her own transporter and beamed away as Zero activated the transport function on his comm. Her grunts were left to fry as the countdown reached one. A massive mushroom cloud reached out and touched the sky as the reactor exploded. Everything in a 2 kilometer radius was vaporized instantly.
Back at Resistence Base, Ciel was overjoyed with the success of the team. She'd give them an hour or so to rest up and buy items and upgrades before sending them into Neo Arcadia. It would be important for them to press the attack and not give the enemy time to recover from the crushing loss of their outer defenses.
