Basic Creation Will into existence any type of matter that is familiar Willpower cost: 20 plus density Requires: Nothing

Zack sat back and looked through the tutorial section for Basic Creation, but his attention was on the video that was displaying the battle between the first wave and Xarkris' forces.

'Why does creating things cost so much less than unmaking things? Do things just want to exist or something? Even if it has yet to be created? Or maybe something is helping with the process?'

The first wave approached the metal planet as one of the fifty mile wide entrances opened. Laser beams greeted the invaders, who responded by dropping a pitch black cloud in between them. The beams struck it, then started to break up and dissipate the further they penetrated.

John Becker muttered "Countermeasures for light based weaponry, what I would have given for that way back in the day."

A swarm of house sized Tkiktch dropped down into the shaft, glowing green emission trails jetting out of their bodies behind them. The dark areas on the video screen became illuminated and revealed the interior. Steel walls lined with murder holes for the muzzles of laser rifles lined the interior of the entryway. Beams of light rained down upon the Tkiktch behemoths, but their chitinous black carapaces held long enough for them to spew out a yellow gel before them, which quickly hardened into a brown wall. Then they continued to add to the newly made wall until it covered the entire fifty mile wide entryway.

Another type of Tkiktch flew in behind the behemoths. These ones each carried a large purple membrane sac on their back. They walked up to the newly made wall and put the orifices at the end of the sacs on it. The screen displayed the inside of them and Zack saw larvae entering the wall. The infant Tkiktch's circular mouth was lined with teeth and their saliva reacted with the hard as concrete wall, turning it into a soft mush. The larvae's bodies grew exponentially, tripling in size in under a minute.They ate their way through to the other side of the wall and burst out all at once in a volley. Green emission trails followed the larvae as they flew at mach two. Curving erratically mid-flight to dodge the incoming laser fire and diving between the breaks in cover, where they then latched onto the androids. The viens in the larvae glowed white for a moment just before blowing themselve up.

Now the forms of the androids revealed themselves. Most were simply gun turrets mounted on hundreds of wire-like legs that had somehow attached themselves to the walls and ceiling of the entryway. But there were many other types, like one that was simply a metallic mist and another that looked like a floating flat disc with sharp edges.

All this time the beetle-like behemoths sat back in safety and reformed their thick carapaces using willpower energy, the holes in the black chitinous plating refilled themselves. They charged through the crumbling wall after the intensity of laser fire died down. Their thirty ton bodies crashed into the steel barricade that the androids had been using for cover. Twisted metal flew all over the area as the android lines continued to be ravaged by the suicide bombing larvae.

The coordinator message popped up in front of Zack's face "Second wave deploy."

The mecha beneath him whirred to life as Becker spoke through the Akma network "It's our turn now boys." the emissionless cavity thrusters on the other mechas glowed as they initiated their start up sequences.

But before the mechas could get out of the hanger, Likipers flew out. Their tiny wings pushing against unseen and ever present forces to propel themselves.

Entry into the atmosphere of the metal planet was smooth. A device wrapped each of them up into a bubble that oscillated the air, transforming it into a spider web like substance while pushing it away from them, allowing them to pass through without resistance.

Then they flew into the entryway and over the battlefield. Corpses of Tkiktch behemoths laid with their legs curled, boulders from the wall erected were strewn about everywhere and blown apart androids littered the floor of the massive interior of the metal planet.

Zack jumped off and started flying low to the ground. Immediately he positioning himself ahead of the mechas while looking on at the flares of laser fire could be seen in the distance. When he was close enough he used Attraction to disrupt the movements of the androids as they aimed.

The mechas opened fire, putting Tungsten rounds into the androids at a great distance. Each initiating short hops into the air for better lines of sight. Becker put his mecha into a steady hover, and the plasma drill cannon on it's other side began to spin. Zack heard the distinct whirring and dashed away from the line of fire, knowing that even an indirect hit would incinerate him. A stream of superheated plasma crossed the distance and rotated, giving it fringes like that of a screw. Zack knew the spinning effect had been added to increase the weapon's power of penetration.

The androids erected willpower Barriers but they only managed to hold for a fraction of a second. The plasma fire instantly turning ten of them into piles of glowing orange molten metal. Nothing remained of some of them but the smell of vaporized silicon.

A brightly shining orange sphere appeared ahead and all the plasma drill cannons ceased firing inexplicably. Each pressing the commands to drop their mechas to the ground for safety.

Beckers voice came over the comms system "Stupid shitbuggerbastardpissfucktard!" Then the plasma drill cannon started firing again and tore into the androids.

In a surprised tone of voice Becker said "Oh. New skill obtained. Apparently it overrode the physics changing countermeasures our adversarys deployed."

Work Damnit Forces equipment to work as intended when the phsyics of the area disallow it. Willpower cost: 120 Requires: Slightly frustrated and enrage state of mind

Zack was livid "I was way too close to that!"

Becker replied bruskly "Well, didn't your mother ever teach you not to get in front of someone when they're shooting?"

In a mocking tone Zack said "Well, knock it off before you hit one of ours, we got people in the melee."

Becker scoffed "Gyaa, damn thing's heat level's peaked anyways."

Seeing that the battle was mostly over, Zack moved closer in preparation to make his move. Making his way between the various debris and Tkiktch corpses. An explosion off to the side showered him in the bug's green blood. The Akma network told him that there was a tight formation of androids just ahead fending off what looked like a handful of Samurai wearing the mechanized armor of modern day infantry.

In his Poiraud form, he activated Attraction and locked onto the largest and closest android. A twenty foot tall walking gun turret that was sending laser blasts towards the mechas while simultaneously dueling the Samurai using the bladed ends of it's metallic legs.

The acceleration was swift and abrupt as he used his fully powered magnetic abilities to close the gap between him and his target as quickly as possible. The skin around his eyes even flapped a little. Then he raised both his feet and impacted the side of the android's gun platform.

With a sinister smile, Zack sent out a message across his network to all his Eidolans to summon themselves around him. Green spiritual ether burst around him and the Eidolans formed themselves out of it. Hroyd's claws glanced off of the android's steel chasis, much to his annoyance. Zack instructed the Poirauds to stick themselves to the top of the android and maximize their Attraction levels in order to destroy it's computer, not that the green Eidolans understand knowledge of computers.

'What about beneath?' Zack forced his way through the wires while the Samurai below danced around and deflected the android's numerous blades with a low powered lightsword through the use of quick circular motions. Zack reached the area where the wire-like legs met the underside of the gun platform, where he saw numerous pieces of unprotected computer hardware. Just as he was about to destroy them the wire-like legs contracted, squeezing him in an attempt to crush him. He fought with magnetic Repulsion against the pressure but then it suddenly subsided and the android went limp as one the Poirauds bombarded the sweet spot of the android's motherboard with her magnetic abilities.

After checking with Akma to see if he was being targeted by anything hostile, he climbed out of the mess.

Becker said over the communication system from 300 feet away "That was reckless to the point of stupidity. You know that the worst thing on a battlefield is a hero."

"When an enemy is distracted and facing away, the most effective action is to strike. Don't school me on tactics Becker. I know as much as you do."

"Pfft. Really. If that thing had hijacker countermeasures, then you'da've been fucked."

Zack knew the old soldier was right but he wouldn't concede "Haven't you noticed the 'That will do' approach to their unit's design? I made the gamble that it wouldn't have anything like hijacker countermeasures, and it didn't."

The clean up of the enemy forces commenced and not a casualty was taken once the actual battle was over. Although a flying disc nearly decapitated Zack before he caught it, magnetized it's computer and launched the razor sharp frisbee at one of the last androids to fall.

After all was done the advance forces made it to the back of the cavern, but it didn't seem to lead anywhere. For all intents and purposes this whole fifty foot wide and well defended entryway simply seemed to be a dead end. The decision was made to leave and funnell all 49,437 remaining members of the invasion force into the minor entrances.

Then all of a sudden, a loud thunk echoed through the metal floor, reverberating into everyone's feet. The incline dropped suddenly beneath Zack, the right side descending much faster than the left. Like the whole interior of the entryway was being rotated on an enourmous axis, yet it wasn't moving as a single piece.

Zack attracted himself to the leftmost wall bracing himself for the ride. Then he looked up to see that a lot of debris, dead androids, and everything else that had been to the left of him was sliding straight at him! He and a few of the Tkiktch flew out of the way. Zack looked off to both sides to see that other sections of the entryway were also shifting, but in the opposite direction. Blurs moved and the low-tierman in peril were simply carried out of danger. Almost no one got crushed or fell to their death.

The floor had turned itself into a wall and all the invaders that were in the entryway found themselves in a completely new area, cut off from one another and left to fend for themselves in twenty seperate groups.

A Mid-tierman Tkiktch called out "Is everyone okay? What just happened?" she sounded just a little unnerved.

Another person yelled "The floor shifted. There was no seam in it, no hint that it could do that. For this planet to have such massive moving parts. What the hell are we dealing with?"

The far wall fell, revealing more androids who immediatelly started shooting lasers at them. There was plenty of cover, but no room to maneuver. They were cornered.

Zack thought as he flew upwards 'Are we going to be ambushed like this throughout the entire mission?'