"Death heads originally called an APCS (All-Purpose Construction Suit) were originally designed for construction in highly-dangerous construction sites to do most of the lifting, easily replacing traditional construction vehicles. Like most projects, the army found a use for them and quickly turned a construction project into the Deathhead project. Renamed Deathheads for the skull-like head unit, they were outfitted with a more durable armored shell, electro atomic agitation batons, swarm missile launchers on the back unit, and linked tri-syntek assault rifles on the arm units. Death heads quickly replaced other heavy infantry unit options, solely for their extreme ability to sustain incredible amounts of damage, without suffering from any form of malfunction. The scary part? They made it look easy." - Analysis of the rise of the Death Head APC

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Dane jumped into a seat and began tapping buttons on the holo console to light. When a keypad came up, he slammed his head through the holo-screen into the carbide metal plating beyond. "Please tell me you can hack this thing. Right?"

"I am an advanced AI computing device with the ability to hack a military grade firewall in under a second. Yes, I think I can hack a hover tank's keypad."

Dane scooted back and forth in excitement as he clapped his hands together. "I've always wanted to drive one of these!" he squealed aloud.

"Doesn't excitement while your brother's life hangs in the balance come off as a bit... obtuse?"

"No, it's how I deal with stress. Would you rather I cry and share my feelings?"

"That holds no purpose."

"Neither does humor."

"Exactly my point."

The tank's engine revved to life, and Dane clapped his hand together. "Yes!" he cried, then he grabbed the dual stick controls with both hands. But the tank did not move.

"Dennis. I don't know if I mentioned this, but I've never driven one of these before," he said, maintaining the same level of enthusiasm. "Give daddy some sugar!"

The tank began to move forward.

Out of the corner of his eye, Dane saw the men from the Sauna running toward the tank on foot. Some of them still had towels wrapped around their waists, but all of them had guns, and they began to pelt the tank with bullets.

There was a jeep parked in front of Dane's new tank, and he immediately directed the tank over it. The hyper-powerful magnets immediately crushed it to the ground. The grinding of metal against the invisible force was enough to cause Dane to become even more giddy with excitement.

The bullets from the men that came from the sauna drew more attention to him in passing, and he saw other military members running toward armored vehicles.

"Sir, it appears they are sending armored combat units your way."

"I gathered. Dennis, which button allows me to shoot the—" he pretended to wipe a tear from his eye "—guns." Dane stopped and thought a bit about what he was doing. "Man, when I'm stressed, I crack way too many jokes. Time to focus."

"The red one next to your right thumb."

Dane saw the button D.N.I.I.S. was talking about and placed his thumb over it, steeling himself for the encounters ahead.

Immediately the much more agile vehicles zeroed in on Dane’s position as he moved unerringly towards his destination. "Dennis, can you keep the tank headed toward the bunker where my brother is being held, while I focus on the incoming hover jeeps?"

"Yes, sir. I was already doing that."

Dane grabbed another set of controls he assumed were for the turret and took a view through the turret's mounted viewport. He saw the first jeep round the bend ahead and he shot the rail gun mounted on the top of the tank at the lead vehicle.

The projectile caused the hover tank to rock backward slowly. The projectile was a light blue twirling sphere that speared the jeep all the way through. For a moment there was nothing, and then the jeep absorbed the entire hit as if by the delayed reaction and flipped forward in an odd triple spin before hitting the ground and rolling over on its side.

The other jeeps behind the lead one kept coming forward, and the soldiers mounted on the top turrets began firing at Dane's tank.

The bullets ricocheted against the hull and appeared to do no damage, but he was having a hard time seeing through the flying blue sparks to get a clean shot. His next one missed the target cleanly. "Damn it!"

"Sir, would you like me to turn on auto-targeting?"

Dane took his hands off the controls. "You mean I don't have to do anything? You could just kill everything with a tank and I don't have to drive... and shoot... and touch the buttons..."

Dane watched through the viewport as the three remaining jeeps were systematically destroyed by beautiful trailing blue explosions. And then the turret lowered slightly. "I am sorry sir, I have to reload. It will only be a moment.

As they turned the corner, Dane began to fidget in his seat. A hover tank of the same make they were riding in was aiming its own rail gun directly at them. "Dennis! We are about to get blown up by our twin!"

"Sir, the tank has a set amount of time that it takes to reload its projectiles."

"Any other options?"

"If you continue heading forward, you will burst through the small bunker ahead of us and will find yourself at a small airfield. It is likely that we may be able to escape the full brunt of the tank's attack this way.”

The enemy tank trained its weapon on theirs and let loose a single shell. It hit their hover tank full on in the front, straight through the upper turret, completely cutting it off from the top. If it hadn't been for the explosive armor that deflected a portion of the hit, the flying bolt would have destroyed the tank entirely and possibly Dane as well.

"Sir, we are now weapons incapable."

The front of the tank was ripped apart by the shot, and only loose parts of armor were hanging in the way.

Dane slammed his hands through the holo console in anger. "Goddamn it! They destroyed the hover tank that I wanted to pilot, that I haven't been piloting, that I can't shoot, that I haven't been shooting!" He reached up, grabbed hold of the armored plating that was hanging in front of his view, and pulled it back toward him, ripping the Carbide plating through and past him. Then he climbed out on top of the tank's front and crouched forward. "Dennis, can the tank still move?"

"Yes, sir."

"Keep it going forward."

The tank rolled into the bunker and began crunching its way through the thin walls. In mere moments they were through, and Dane got a clear view of the airfield beyond.

There were multiple smaller hover jets beginning to get ready for takeoff. In fact, one was not far away.

"Sir, the hover tank has another lock on us."

Dane watched the hover jet beginning its startup cycle, then it started its forward movement on the roadway for takeoff, slowly picking up speed as it went.

The hover tank behind them let loose another shot into the back of their own tank. The explosion rocked it forward and sent the remains of the tank careening forward.

Dane braced himself and pushed a portion of his remaining stored energy toward his feet and pushed off, sending himself flying out and forward with multiple shards of debris flying past his body and head with a trailing explosion of blue and white in his wake.

He flew for a moment but managed to aim and time his jump in such a way that he collided with the sheet glass window of the hover plane. The duo inside the aircraft was immediately startled by Dane's sudden appearance, but he simply bounced off the front viewport and would have continued forward. However, he dug his fingers into the glass and used the increased hardiness granted by his suit to find traction on the smooth glass, drawing five deep grooves in the thick material as he scratched along, finally coming to a full stop.

The hover plane continued to take off and the wind whipped passed Dane's head. He crawled his way back up top using every ounce of strength he could muster until he was completely blocking the pilots' viewpoint. Then he hauled his hand back and slammed his palm into the glass and broke the windshield, causing it to shatter and crack. He reached in, grabbed the top, swung himself in, and grabbed the two pilots together with both arms, cracking their heads together and shoving them back off their seats in one movement.

"Sir, I have a com transmission coming through that you should hear."

The clear voice of a military born warrior chirped into Dane's ear. "Repeat, I need a status report on Nolan's location."

The crackling of the response also could be heard in Dane's ear. "We found Nolan, Commander. His neck has been snapped."

The commander was silent for a moment. "This mission is scrapped. Kill Hale O'Breine and then we are pulling out.”

Dane felt the plane start to take off as it rose from the ground. "Dennis, how far away are we from our target!" he yelled over the wind whipping through the open cockpit.

"Head straight and to the left slightly sir. That is the bunker that is housing your brother."

Dane nodded and aimed his head toward the pilots to make sure they were still unconscious, then kicked out with his foot and slammed the flight stick forward and slightly to the left.

"Sir, may I suggest landing the plane first?"

"No time!" he yelled as the plane careened toward the tall bunker.

The plane crashed into the bunker’s dual bay doors and spun out of control, slamming into the ground, sending sparks flying, and catching fire. Multiple heavy boxes were sent into the air and left destruction in their wake as well.

At the last moment, he crawled out onto the nose of the plane and jumped from it as it was about to enter the hanger.

The plane had led the way, so when Dane hit the ground, he rolled to his feet and saw the handiwork of his impromptu landing.

A long groove was carved into the ground with broken Ferracrete lining the sides where the plane had skidded. Lines of fire lined each side and there were random boxes sitting this way and that, scattered about. From ahead, the plane was solid wreckage, laying on its side.

Dane saw movement from within and narrowed his eyes.

One of the long heavy wings was lifted by an armored arm and three sets of sapphire blue eyes stared out from within as the firelight lit the group in an eerie glow.

"Sir, there are three Cerberus destroyers headed your way. I would suggest immediate movement.”  

- End of Episode 8 -

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