Dane jumped into a run, and as the destroyers slowly made their way from the burning wreckage, he got a better look.

The destroyers were roughly nine feet tall. They had heavy armor designed specifically to survive heavy firefights. Each Deathhead carried a contingency for all four possibilities: close combat, ranged combat, destroying heavy armored combat units, and taking down aerial units. In one of their hands was a nano disrupter baton that could cut through a heavy armored target by agitating the particles significantly to cause multiple small explosions in a small pocket. On their shoulders were three compound swarm missile launchers, with each missile carrying twenty smaller independent targeting rockets, and on their wrists was a tri-Syntek trio of heavy caliber rifles, each the equivalent of a technic assault rifle.

The com channel that D.N.I.I.S. had hacked into sparked to life. "Target Dane O'Breine acquired. Changing targeting priority."

There was a moment of stillness as the four-faced off against each other.

"Sir, it occurs to me that you have not used the full functions of the K.R.I.S. suit as of yet."

A smile began to grow on Dane's lips as he leered at his new opponents. "Now would be the time.”

All three Deathheads took up stabling positions and launched their payload of missiles in his direction. Each missile was as big as a man's forearm, and as soon as it left the pod, the missile sprang to life, shooting off twenty white trailing smoke trails of minute missiles that were only as big as a person's finger, but ten of which could incapacitate a small aircraft.

Dane looked up and watched as one-hundred-and-eighty destructive missiles arced toward him.

Quickly, Dane slammed his hand into the ground and sent a gout of kinetic energy shooting into it, causing a long flat and thick portion of the Ferracrete to rise and at an angle. He grabbed it by the sides and then aimed it toward the incoming missile swarm. He injected the Ferracrete with the remaining portion of his kinetic energy he had stored up and then gathered it together at one point, letting the Ferracrete fall back toward him. He crouched down and caused the already agitated particles to explode outward.

Hundreds of small pebbles shot out from his position in a scatter formation and into the approaching missile swarm. The more simplistic impact sensors detected the incoming pebbles and triggered their explosive payload, causing all one-hundred-and-eighty rockets to explode outward in a long line across in the same number of micro-explosions that were about as big as a man's torso.

Dane did not waste any time, and neither did the destructors. He ran forward and dodged to the left and right as the Deathheads opened fire with their wrist-mounted tri-Syntek rifles. The ground was literally exploding! He felt the ricochets hitting his body armor in multiple places, even though he was dodging around most of the fire using D.N.I.I.S.' advanced interception targeting protocols.

His power reserve was building quickly, and each time he was hit, his body was fully turned about. He had to stumble continuously forward.

"Sir, we are at 45% of the 65% cutoff. I would suggest expending some of your unused energy, lest we become nonexistent."

Dane was swiftly drawing close to the Deathheads, so he jumped forward and threw himself into a roll. As he was about to roll to his feet, He sent a powerful explosion of kinetic energy into his legs and sent himself careening into the Deathhead on the right. Dane bounced off the Deathhead’s heavy carbide plating, but not before grabbing hold of it with his leading hand. "Ow!" he cried, and then he pulled himself back in quickly.

The Deathheads set on auto-target turned their wrists with Dane's forward movement and their weaponry began colliding with the Deathhead he had mounted. Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for his current mount, the Deathhead weaponry was designed to destroy infantry and heavy infantry like the Deathhead. At close range, the projectiles would likely eviscerate even Dane's hardened carapace like skin, but he hid behind the Deathhead and watched as blue hellfire rocketed into his unwitting shield.

The other Deathheads did not take long to shut off their weaponry, but it was too late.

The bullets caused bullet holes the size of fists to appear in the sidings of the ablative armored plating. A green gel oozed out from them. The Deathhead remained standing, supported only by its pneumatic system. But it stopped moving.

The Deathheads lowered their arms and began stomping toward Dane with ground shattering footsteps.

Dane slammed his fist down on the top of the Deathhead and caused it to start to fall. He climbed over the top and used the falling Deathhead's head as a bounding board.

The Deathheads continued their stomping approach and Dane landed between the two of them. Despite their size, the Deathheads were able to swing their EMP sticks incredibly fast.

Dane dodged an overhand strike from one by leaning to the right and the EMP stick slammed into the ground, sending chunks of rock flying into the air. The other initiated a horizontal one, intent on catching him unawares, but immediately leaned back, displaying his flexibility as it flew over his head. He ran in close and the closest Deathhead tried to slam him with the butt of its EMP stick, but ducked low and used the momentum from his upward thrust as he recovered to send a punch into the side of the reinforced armor. He pushed 5% of his 45% into the side of the armor, leaving a large dent in the side of the armor, though the Deathhead appeared unfazed. Dane followed that strike up with another as he weaved back the other way, letting the wide armored fist blow past his head without colliding. Then he used the same amount of force into the other side, once again leaving a perfectly round dent in the side of the Deathhead. The Deathhead tried another overhand strike and dodged around it. Ducking down, he pooled 10% of the remaining 35% into the tip of his right fist and then rose, pushing another five percent into the soles of his feet. He launched off, throwing himself into a powerful uppercut that connected with the chin of the Deathhead.

The Deathhead was finally knocked back a step to reveal that he’d put a dent put in the ominous skull visage the size of a basketball.

The dents in the armor began reshaping and popping back into place.

Dane bit his lip. "Oh, that's bad."

"Sir, it appears to be a newer advancement. Air pressurized inner hull causes any direct impact to the armor to self-repair to almost the same shape as before, reshaping and retaining almost the original durability. Your current method of attack does not appear effective."

"I noticed."

The Deathhead behind Dane tried to recover from its swing but couldn't bring its EMP stick up in time to smash it into Dane, so he led with a massive backhand, sending the K.R.I.S. user flying past the Deathhead in front of him.

Dane hit the ground, skidded to a halt, twirled his leg to the right to initiate a spin.

He caught his foot in the groove of one of the long ruts caused by the crashed hover plane and pushed off, changing his direction immediately. Dane threw a powerful amount of energy into his right leg and jumped off, rocketing him back at the lead Deathhead. He collided with the metal warrior and the Deathhead caught him by the neck and brought his head closer so that they were almost eye-to-eye.

Dane spat into the Deathhead's faceplate, brought his head back, and threw it forward between the Deathheads eyes. In the same motion, he pushed the 5% towards the center point of his forehead, and when they collided, the sapphire-blue glass eyes were compacted in and the glass eyes shattered. The destructor let go and stumbled backward. It unleashed a blind sidelong swipe at Dane as he fell back.

Dane landed on the ground, wound his right arm to his left side, and then chopped it upward, diving in closer to the Deathhead's swing, causing his arm to collide with the lower end of the haft and breaking the EMP part of the stick off. The iridium vibrating core was still active, and caught it between his hands by throwing a grouping of concussive force between his palms and suspending the baton head without letting it touch his skin. Then, throwing his hands into a full spin, he pushed the vibrating core back toward the death head, causing it to rocket into the Deathhead's chest.

While Dane's attacks had done very little to dent the armor, the vibrating core was different. It was designed to eat through armor; and when it hit the hardened crystalline carbide plating, it simply melted through the carapace and hit the man inside. Almost immediately, he heard screams echoing from within the armor that was silence moments later as the soldier's lungs were compacted.

The soldier let the other end of the baton go as he was falling, and Dane grabbed it out of midair. Turning, he saw the approaching other Deathhead and he wasted no time. Swiftly he popped the sharp end of the baton up into the air, and as it spun downward, he threw his other palm out, slamming it into the flat end of the handle, causing the sharp end to rocket toward the Deathhead.

Dane smirked. "There is one vulnerable place on these tough bricks."

The sharp end slammed through the small sapphire eye hole that the Deathhead used to interpret data and through the pilot's own. He stood there and watched a small trickle of blood fall off the haft of the broken EMP stick.

Dane brushed himself off and took a deep breath. "Dennis, where is my brother?" he said and there was a sudden shift in his attitude as he remembered the past.  

- End of Episode 9  -

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