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Part 7: The Final Push

Chapter 34: Paving the Way Dragon Realms, Uncharted System May 6, 2204 1135 Hours New Dragon Temple, Warfang

Clouds passed overhead as calm winds slapped into the side of the dragon temple, adding to the calm of the city as the day was beginning to break all around. Storm clouds were hovering nearby once again, rain coming down on the city in small amounts as sunlight still came through to the city below, illuminating it somewhat.

Spyro sat inside his room, the calm air filtering in through the window that sat across from him, a slightly blue tint added to the room from the outside weather. He closed his eyes calmly before he heard someone at the door, he turning to face them. Cynder stood at his door, smiling a bit as she entered.

"So how'd things go with Terrador?" She asked.

"They went good, he agreed to the plan as well as the Human and Lakador Commanders. They even want the start the assault later today but we need to head into the city to clear the defenses."

"Alright then... it beats sitting around doing nothing." She said.

"Yeah, though I'd like to just do that for a moment." Spyro said with a chuckle. Things had been so crazy in the last few days, he just wanted a second to unwind his nerves. Cynder understood. She knew how it was like to have so much on your mind and that some people needed a second to think.

She walked over to his bed and crawled onto it, snuggling next to him. He smiled at her and drooped his wing over her. They sat in silence for a bit, Spyro closing his eyes and craning his head upwards to feel the cool breeze filtering in through the window. Cynder leaned her head against his shoulder, feeling it as well as she felt his calm breaths enter his body. Soon they would be in battle again, but for now, they would relax.

They sat like that for a while until Cynder opened her eyes again.

"So do you think we can really push this back?" She asked.

"Push this back? You mean the battle?"

"Yeah. We've got so much going against us, I just wonder if we can beat them back and take the fight to Malefor." She explained.

Spyro thought for a second before talking.

"I know what you mean, but I do think we can. We did it before right? We can do it again and we will win." He said, looking at the window with determination. Cynder looked too and smiled, knowing that they could and would win, just as before. They both looked out of the window, seeing the tree that sat next to it, swaying a bit in the wind as a bird sat on it, chirping. They could see mountains out of that window as well as the dark clouds that sat above, rain coming down on the surrounding landscapes as the cool humid air filtered into the room. This would be very unusual for summer, but with the keys unlocking and throwing the area into chaos, it was now to be expected.

"This might be our last chance, so we have to make it count." Spyro said suddenly, snapping Cynder from her peaceful thoughts.

"Yeah... we have to take Warfang back or we might lose everything..." She said with a bit of a frown. Spyro nuzzled her to reassure her, she smiling at him as he did this. They were going to win. He was sure of it.

1300 Hours Dojo

Spyro stood in the dojo, stretching his muscles as Cynder walked up as well. Behind her, the others came too. They were getting ready for their attack into the city and they all were well rested, eaten well and were prepared for a long day. Today they would take back the city and push back the dark armies into the surrounding flatlands and hopefully take the fight to Malefor soon as well.

Dyke had agreed to lend some of his soldiers in for support, one squad of Marines were going to fight with them. Karson, Allison and Wagner wouldn't be with them. Instead, they would be moving to take down drones in another part of the city. With these two groups moving simultaneously, they could take down the drone guards in no time and the tank column could advance into the heart of the city.

Dyke even got their warship, the Typhus to load up and prepare for close air support, it hovering near the city but just in the distance as the clouds masked its position. They were readying for an all out assault, and Spyro took in a deep breath to prepare.

"Ready Spyro?" Cynder asked.

"I'm all ready, how about you guys?" He asked.

"I'm all set." Aaron said.

"All ready here." Zephyr said as well.

"All ready to go sir!" Roxy said with a bit of a giggle.

"All right, let's go." Spyro said. With that, they leapt off of the balcony and sailed off towards the city below. A Nighthawk took off nearby, carrying the squad for support as well as Karson, Allison and Wagner. Tom rode on Krypto's back as Roxy had transformed into her dragon form to fly with the others, sailing towards the streets below. The street in question was a long road that connected the friendly held city center to several other sections and areas, including the main gate. One courtyard branched out in several different roads and if held, could be the tipping point that would drive all of the Dark Master's forces out of the city.

They flew down, approaching the area held by the enemy as they sailed just over rooftops and buildings. They came in low enough now to where Aaron and Zephyr landed on a nearby rooftop and looked out across the street. They saw their first target. A large bulky drone, covered in a crystal-like body. He lumbered around inside a blown out building, but watched the road. Several grublins walked about but Apes were now in their ranks. It seemed that the Apes were almost in Command roles now as they trotted down the streets. Before, the forces in the city had been almost in an incoherent fashion, not doing regular patrols or 'occupation' tactics. The drones were the only ones who showed actual signs of that while the others walked around aimlessly. The Apes seemed to be changing all that...

"I see our first guy. Building on the right, upper story." He said, Spyro hovering next to him and nodding.

"Alright guys, let's get him." He said.

Spyro, Cynder and Zephyr leapt in first, landing on the building across from them where the drone was. The drone immediately sprung into action, lifting its large arm and aiming at them as a dark bolt charged within it. Spyro dashed under him, kicking the creature in the gut and sending it backwards, the bolt flying upwards and through the roof, taking a bit more with it. Aaron fired a beam of dark energy that broke more of the roof and hit the drone, cracking its crystal skin. Krypto hovered above before opening his maw and unleashing a torrent of fire down below onto the Apes and grublins, keeping them off of the group.

Roxy and Tom helped him, clearing the streets of hostiles fast as they charged the Apes, pushing them into walls or Tom crushing them under his powerful feet.

Back in the house, the drone kicked Spyro away as he got up, Cynder firing a blast of fear at the drone. It didn't respond.

"Huh?" Cynder asked before she leapt up to avoid a bolt of dark energy that blew the floor under her away.

Zephyr grunted and unleashed a powerful blast of wind that sent the drone back more, it being blasted down into an alleyway. It landed with a thump before getting up and firing at the wall. The wall was destroyed and part of the building began to come down.

"Let's get out of here!" Zephyr said as he took flight with Spyro and Cynder. They flew to cut off the Drone below, Spyro opening his muzzle and sending an arc of lightning at the drone, the current flowing through the drone and causing steam to rise up before it fell to the ground, part of its crystalline body shattered.

"Are these things completely made of crystal?" Zephyr asked as he landed next to it and observed a piece that had chipped off, the creature having died in that powerful attack.

"No clue, seems that way." Spyro said while walking over and inspecting it. They had fought these things before but he never quite understood what these things were. He guessed they were just more servants of the Dark Master he had never seen before.

"You got him?" Roxy asked while running over.

"Oh yeah, he's down." Cynder said with a smile.

"Great! Let's move on to the next one!" Roxy said while moving back onto the street, leaping over a dead Ape as the others quickly followed. The dark clouds above began to dump their rain onto them, small blankets of sprinkles touching their skin and scales as they dashed down the road.

"I see another just up ahead!" Roxy said as she lead the group.

"Hold on, I think he spotted us!" Aaron said.

The drone in the distance stood in a tall brick building that looked to be another large home. He had taken cover in an area on the third floor where the wall had been blown out. He raised his arm and a bolt of energy arced their way. It hit the street nearby, detonating in a cloud of purple and black mist as bits of street were chunked into the air.

The group took cover behind some rubble, Aaron and Zephyr dashing across the street into an alleyway as Krypto soared ahead of the group and lit up the building where the drone was hiding. This drone, however, grabbed Krypto's leg and pulled him down as the drone leapt onto the street. Krypto yelled as he landed on the ground hard, the drone kicking him in his gut and sending him away.

"Krypto!" Spyro yelled as they ran to help, Spyro taking flight and firing several concentrated fire projectiles which soared towards the drone and impacted it, enshrouding it in fire and smoke. The drone shrugged it off and aimed at them, firing a bolt that blew up a building behind Spyro.

"Watch it!" Cynder yelled. She flew over and with Zephyr's help, enshrouded the drone in a large tornado that lifted the heavy creature into the air. They both held it in mid-air before hurling it into a nearby building, the wall collapsing as the heavy creature hit it.

"You alright big guy?" Aaron asked as he ran over to help Krypto up.

"Yeah, thanks..." He said as he got up and rubbed his head.

They moved to where he had hit the building, seeing it slowly crawl out of the debris.

Spyro fired his electric attack once more, but the drone leapt to the side to avoid it.

"The hell does it take to down this thing?!" Zephyr said as the drone lifted its arm, a bolt of darkness at them.

"Look out!" Aaron said as the drone fired the shot, the group leaping to the side as the bolt impacted the ground, tossing up a cloud of dirt and debris as the purple energy exploded outwards.

"Hit him, now!" Spyro said.

"Don't bother, I got this guy..." Krypto said as he leaped over, pinning the drone down in the debris before he struck with his claws, tearing into the chest of the drone and ripping it apart. The dark crystalline body of the drone scattered all across the street as the others ran over.

"Nice work Krypto!" Aaron said with a small chuckle.

"Another one down." Cynder said, looking out over the city as smoke continued to rise over Warfang. The Nighthawk that had been dispatched to help them hovered nearby, firing its guns at another drone as bolts soared upwards before the combined gunfire shattered it.

The aircraft flew over nearby, hovering just above as soldiers fast roped down, occupying a small courtyard just ahead of them.

"Come on, let's go greet them!" Spyro said, running over to them. The others followed, the small squad of five holding within the courtyard.

"Glad to see you guys, let's take these last few drones in this area."

"Right, we've been tasked to support you." The Marine said in a gruff voice. They shouldered their M74D assault rifles as they moved out, Spyro and the others moving down the street with the Marines following.

"Hey, I think there might be one up ahead!" Roxy said as she sat on top of Tom who sniffed the air.

"Oh yeah, there's definitely one out there." He said in confirmation.

"Let's take him then." Spyro said as they saw a building opposite of them, a drone occupying the top floor that was blown out, giving him a perfect view of the street and courtyard leading up to him.

"This'll be easy..." Krypto said with a smug grin.

"Hold up, we got contacts moving in." One of the Marines said, pointing to a side street where there were a few grublins rushing them.

"Take them out, we're going for the drone!" Spyro said.

"Right, covering fire!" The Marine said. The soldiers slapped their backs against a small wall bordering the street as they fired their rifles down the alleyway, downing the grublins easily.

"Uh oh, more guys on the way!" Aaron said, pointing to a group of Apes and Orcs rushing from both streets leading to the intersection they were at.

"We'll take them!" Roxy said as Tom nodded, Krypto taking the other group as they split up. The Marines moved along the side, hitting the groups of grublins as they were joined by Apes, the Apes pushing towards them and knocking a Marine on his back, moving his sword to impale the soldier before a fellow Marine fired two shots into the Ape's head, killing it.

"Come on! Get up!" The soldier said, picking up the Marine.

They continued to fire their weapons as Krypto smashed head first into the cluster of Orcs, tossing them aside as he unleashed a wave of fire onto them, scorching them before he slashed his tail, knocking them into the wall and street.

"Too easy..." He said.

Roxy leapt off of Tom and collided into an Ape, stabbing it through the chest with her sword before kicking him away as Tom ramming more Apes as they rushed the two. Spyro and Cynder flew up along with Zephyr and Aaron as they went up to engage the drone, who was already hard at work aiming at their friends down below.

"He's targeting the Marines!" Cynder said, realizing this as the drone fired a bolt.

"Oh no you don't!" Spyro said, growling as he fired ice shards at the drone, they piercing into the drone but not doing much damage as the creature's crystalline skin repelled the shards for the most part.

The bolt hit the ground next to a soldier, tossing him to the side as Aaron fired darkness in retaliation, hitting the drone and sending him through the back of the wall behind the drone. The drone fell several stories and into the first floor of the building which overlooked a courtyard in the back of the building. They flew down, Cynder hovering above the building with Zephyr who unleashed a torrent of wind down below, shaking up the building as some of it collapsed onto the creature.

"He isn't finished yet..." Spyro said, knowing better then to think that finished him off.

"Aaron, help me, let's finish this guy." Spyro said. Aaron nodded as they flew down, Spyro already firing spheres of fire into the rubble. Aaron aided with his own bolts of darkness, more smoke and debris rising from the collapsed section of the building.

Finally the drone picked himself up from the debris, firing a bolt up at them which they avoided, Spyro and Aaron flying down to the courtyard, firing at the drone who clambered out of the structure, its crystal skin still repelling the attacks.

"We need to rip this guy apart, crystal by crystal..." Aaron said with a growl. Spyro grunted before unleashing another attack of electricity, hitting the drone who stood in the wreckage of the structure, the energy sparking off of it as the energy transferred through the crystal. The drone continued to stand there, shaking as the energy flowed through it, shattering its body bit by bit until it collapsed into the debris in a smoking heap.

"Eat that!" Aaron said with a smile.

"Yeah... wait... look out!" Spyro said, realizing the arm of the drone was still active, firing one last bolt of energy at them that streaked between them as they both flapped their wings to fly up. They flew up to join Cynder and Zephyr who flew above the scene.

"Nice work guys!" Cynder said with a smile. Aaron and Spyro smiled in return.

"Looks like that was all the drones in this area." Spyro said, looking around over the city as the other squads cleared other parts of the city. Cynder nodded.

"Now what?" Aaron asked. Spyro thought for a minute as the others regrouped below in the courtyard behind the structure. They flew downward, landing on the ground as the Marines carried one of their wounded comrades on their arms.

"Well that's all the drones here." Spyro said, informing the others.

"Not much action then, huh?" One of the soldiers said before Aaron chuckled in agreement.

"Dyke says that they're still preparing for the main assault." One of the Marines said to Spyro as he checked his radio, listening in to the channels.

"Not sure what to do now." Spyro said, looking around.

"Could try to distract the enemy to get them away from the main assault force." Cynder suggested.

"Maybe, that sounds good." Spyro said with a smile. The more heat they got off of the main force was good, it gave them a better chance of taking more ground quickly.

"How'd we do that?" Aaron asked.

"Well, we could send out a small hit and run group to get the attention of the Apes and Orcs, getting them to follow you." Spyro explained.

"Then lead them back here where we ambush them." Cynder said, finishing for him.

"That sounds fun!" Roxy said with a smile as she placed her sword on her shoulder.

"We could help with that." One of the soldiers said.

"Good, we could use your long range weapons." Spyro said.

"Who'll be on the recon group?" Roxy asked.

"Well, you and Tom can move fast, along with Krypto and maybe Zephyr." Spyro said.

"I'm good for that." Zephyr said.

"Alright." Krypto said.

"Alright, then let's go!" Roxy said. They all moved to the front of the building.

"Just get them to come back by here, and send someone to tell us, we'll be here and out of sight." Spyro said, Roxy nodded before they slipped out of sight.

"Nice little plan you guys got there, I'm impressed." One of the Marines said, Spyro smiled. "Thanks!" He said to them.

"Classic ambush..." Another soldier said.

"So now, we wait..." Spyro said as they sat down in the rubble and debris.

1533 Hours Dragon City of Warfang

Spyro sat on a piece of shattered board and mortar that remained from the building they had engaged the drone in. The others sat around casually as they got to take a small breather from the previous engagement as Cynder and Aaron sat nearby, two other Marines being nearby as well. Three of the Marines had moved to the street nearby where the ambush was to take place, taking up position.

The two soldiers still with them inspected their weapons as they sat atop fallen debris.

"I'll never understand how those work." Aaron said, looking at the sleek M74D. The Marine smirked a bit as he cleaned the barrel.

"Probably similar to a bow and arrow or something." Spyro said, a bit perplexed by the design of the weapon himself, even if he had seen it used several times over and over again over the course of the past few months.

"I'm just glad we can relax here for the time being..." Cynder said as she yawned. Spyro smiled at this as Aaron stood on top of some broken wood, looking out over the courtyard. Spyro looked at the soldiers. He had never really looked at the Marines themselves. He was astounded by what they were capable of, though he figured their weaponry used some sort of magic, especially that floating ship of theirs and their "Nighthawks".

He looked over the soldier before him. The Marine wore a sort of armor and design that Spyro wasn't too familiar with. He had grown familiar with it, of course, over the past few months he had fought with them, but he hadn't seen the designs anywhere else. The uniform underneath the armor itself was a mix of gray, white and black, having a miniature boxy pattern that ran along their uniform, which was covered by black and green armor that sat over thicker pieces of clothing which looked like a vest covering their body underneath the actual armor. It seemed like the vest or thickened clothing areas covered more of their body then the armor did. This seemed odd to Spyro as he would have thought the armor would be the dominant piece of the whole uniform itself. Spyro signed in confusion but he figured the technology involved some sort of buffer magic of some sorts.

"How long until they get back...?" Cynder asked as she sat up, hearing the wind whip over the ruins of the collapsed city.

"I wonder if they ran into trouble..." Aaron said as he looked towards the street, able to see it through the building.

"I'm sure they're fine..." Spyro said. He trusted them. Well, he knew they'd get it done. Running into trouble though, he wasn't sure if that was beyond possibility. The Dark Master's forces within the city were growing stronger and the Apes were making a resurgence.

"Well guess we can pass the time with a little conversation." Aaron said as he rolled over onto his back, looking at the dark sky.

"Like what...?" Cynder said, turning to him, lifting an eyebrow in the process.

"Um... I don't know..." He said.

"What about you guys?" Cynder asked, looking at the Marine sitting on the wooden plants nearby. They looked up at her.

"Us? What about us?" The one closest said.

"Well, we know about Karson, Allison and Lieutenant Wagner, what about you guys? Are you from Earth too?" She added.

The Marine was silent for a bit before setting his rifle down.

"I'm not from Earth, I'm from New Cermain." He said with a smirk.

"Huh? Is that one of the... colonies they talked about?" Aaron said.

"Yeah, Humans populate several worlds and I was born from one of them."

"I think it'd be amazing to see other worlds... all I've seen is this one." Cynder said, looking at the ground as her mind wandered at the thought of different worlds.

"Just how different is New... Cermain did you say?" Spyro asked.

"Well, it's not too extraordinarily different from Earth. It does have a lot of very unique features but from where I was born it was a flatland so there wasn't much to see."

"Were you born in a village or where were you born?" Cynder asked.

"Village? No I was born in the city of Oakland. We have several cities just like Warfang back home. Though I'd consider them more urbanized."

"Urbanized?" Cynder asked once more.

"Yeah, most of the infrastructure is devoted to car highways, public transportation, city districts and sectors with huge highrises."

"Cars...? What're those? Don't people just walk everywhere?"

"Cars are just like our jeeps and tanks, though for civilian use so they don't have all the weapons and armor. They drive them around on the highways."

"What kind of public transportation is there?" Spyro asked as well, curious.

"Well, there's the city train system, the bus system and other small methods of getting around."

"Busses? Are they like cars?"

"Yes actually, they are basically larger cars meant for carrying lots of people. Trains are similar but rely on a rail system to get around rather then being able to go anywhere." The first Marine said.

"Is the city that big then?" Spyro asked.

"Oh yeah, it's huge though not as huge as cities back on Earth."

"Sounds like it... if it is your homeworld." Cynder said. Aaron laughed.

"You never told us your name." He said.

"Name's Linburg." He said as he took off his helmet, letting the cool breeze go through his hair.

"Mine's Powers." The other Marine said as he sat closer, now interested in the conversations.

"So on Earth, how'd you get all the tribes and villages to work together? What kind of kingdom is set up there?" Aaron asked.

"Tribes?" Linburg asked.

"Back on Earth, it was made up of several nations up until a few hundred years ago." Powers explained.

"Don't forget there still are nations." Linburg corrected.

"Oh, well it gets confusing sometimes." Powers said.

"Huh?" Spyro asked.

"Basically, the UER, the central government, holds power over all the nations on Earth and colonies. It took a war to forge this alliance but before that all the nations were completely independent and were always fighting one another." Powers said.

"Oh, I see... I think." Aaron said. Cynder laughed.

"It is a little confusing at first. There's so many technicalities built into the system you have to take an entire college course to understand it."

"College? Is that like school?" Spyro asked.

"Yeah, it's a higher education type of school that helps you prepare for life later on."

"Is that through the military?"

"No, it's privately done."

"I'd have thought it'd be done through the military, I see that a lot in my travels- academies merged with the warrior group to help the person into adulthood." Aaron explained.

"No, it's separate."

"You mean so you don't have to be in the warrior group or military back home?" "No, it's all voluntary."

"But wouldn't you need to learn to fight at some point?"

"Not necessarily. Society is secure enough to where you can aspire to scholarly research, arts or other types of lifestyles other then pure military."

"Wow... must be safe there then..." Cynder said

"Well, sort of. You still have normal crime." Powers said.

"And the insurrections." Linburg added while toying with his helmet.

"Oh yeah... them."

"Insurrections?" Spyro asked.

"A lot of people don't agree with a single government. In recent decades, entire worlds or groups have broken away from the UER to form their own governments. Some peaceful- some not." Powers explained.

"Even some who haven't officially splintered away from the UER pursue acts of terrorism to get their displeasure across. Religiously motivated to crazy ideology." Linburg added.

"I see... so I guess it's not all unified then." Spyro said.

"Not by a longshot, but at least it's not as bad as it used to be. Terrorism and revolutionaries have existed since human civilization first started but now they have all that unexplored territory to hide in on remote worlds." Powers stated, looking out at the cloudy sky.

"Guess everyone's got problems." Aaron said. Everyone nodded.

"What about you guys. What about this world. Was it always this way?" Powers asked.

"What do you mean?" Cynder asked.

"Was it always in a state of war? This... Malefor vying for power and destruction?"

"Sadly, for as long as we can remember- yes." Cynder said with a sigh.

"I see... so you guys have been fighting this war since you were out of the egg huh?" Linburg asked as he set his helmet down.

"Yeah... though I was on the other side when I was born. I was stolen from the dragon temple as an egg and brought up to fight for Malefor. It wasn't until Spyro broke his hold on me that I joined the fight against him." She said with a smile as she turned to Spyro who blushed a bit.

"My egg was hidden during that same raid on the temple and I drifted downriver to be born amongst the dragonflies and my brother, Sparx." Spyro said.

"So you were raised by dragonflies?" Powers asked.

"Yeah, I grew up not knowing about this war in the peaceful environment of the mushroom forest before I encountered the Dark Master's forces for the first time." Spyro said.

"I am surprised you managed to evade his forces for so long by the sounds of the way that the entire realms were eclipsed by war." Powers said.

"Well... it wasn't really a war anymore by then. Malefor had his armies sweep across the realms 200 years ago before we were born. He was banished to Convexity but his armies continued to fight across the lands gaining steam until they captured... me." Cynder said with a frown. The others continued to watch her as she told the story. Spyro watched in curiosity. In all the years he had known her, he never knew exactly what happened during the years Cynder was under the Dark Master's influence.

"After I was raised to be a monster, I helped sweep across the known realms and conquer every major city and settlement. In a few years, all the dragons had been driven back here to the Peninsula and what followed was more of an occupation then full out war. There weren't enough dragons or allies to contest the Dark Master's forces. All that was left was to find and capture all the Guardians to free the Dark Master. That's when Spyro entered the picture."

"After I met Ignitus, the fire guardian, I went to the temple where I went and rescued all the guardians before fighting Cynder and breaking Malefor's hold on her."

"It was about that time I tried to hitch a ride out of Convexity to the Realms and away from the Dark Master. Got lost in the forests and made my own way back to the temple while these guys vanished at the Mountain of Malefor." Aaron said as he stood up from the rocks, getting uncomfortable.

Linburg whistled as Powers chuckled.

"Seems like you guys have seen hell and then some." Linburg commented.

"Oh yeah... it's been one tough fight... I just wish we could end it once and for all but there's always something..." Cynder said. Spyro nodded to that.

"Well hopefully with this last assault we can do it" Powers said as he grabbed his rifle.

"Yeah..." Spyro said as a thud cut him off.

"You hear that?" Spyro asked as the others stood up.

"Yeah I did, must be the others! Let's go!" Aaron said as he raced through the rubble, the others quickly following. The Marines in their MG nest across from them had already set up, watching the road as they heard it too. They saw Krypto racing with Zephyr and Tom with Roxy on his back, riding through the streets, a large group of Apes, Orcs and Grublins chasing them. The group hid inside the wreckage of the building until the others passed, racing right by them as Linburg hushed them, telling them to hold their fire until they were in the center of the intersection.

The Apes lead their soldiers through the intersection, racing after the others as arrows sailed, met by Krypto's beam of energy as he turned and stood his ground. They reached the center and Linburg lowered his arm, signaling to open fire.

Powers and Linburg fired their assault rifles from the cover of the building as Spyro, Cynder and Aaron rushed out onto the street, Spyro immediately tackling one Ape as Aaron blasted another with dark energy, knocking it into the ground. Cynder's body grew black as she sank into the ground and she traveled several feet until popping out, holding the neck of a grublin in her mouth as she bit down.

Spyro crushed the head of the Ape before another knocked him off with his shield. Spyro unleashed fire in a powerful jet but the shield blocked his attack. Another pair rushed him with swords, slashing at the air as Spyro leapt back.

Linburg aimed his rifle and fired three shots to assist. The first two pinged off the ground and the third hit one of the Apes in the chest, bringing him down as another leapt to the side at this. Spyro leapt and knocked him down in one thrust before firing an ice spike into his chest, killing him. The Ape with the shield back pedaled with it deployed before the Marines in their nest opened fire at him, shredding him from behind.

Cynder leapt forward as Zephyr, Roxy, Tom and Krypto joined the fray. Krypto wasted NO time at all as he plowed through several of them at once, the other Marines in their positions firing down at the attackers. The Orcs and Apes were boxed in as Aaron circled to cut them off from their only route of retreat. An Orc raised his arm to fire a bow at Aaron, only to fall to the ground lifeless as Powers put three shots into his head. Roxy leapt onto the final Ape, stabbing it through the head as she held it in a headlock with her legs. The lifeless body tumbled down as she leapt off.

"Man we cut those guys down!" She said with a chuckle. The Marines climbed down from their positions as Linburg and Powers emerged from the ruins.

"Way to go, kicked their ass!" Powers said as he dumped his empty magazine onto the ground.

The silence was short lived as two aircraft streaked overhead, the thuds that had been up until now distant were very close as they heard gunfire down the road.

"Dyke must've initiated the assault! I guess the others took out the Drones perfectly." Aaron said as he looked over.

"Come on! The main courtyard is this way! Let's see if they need help!" Spyro said. They rushed down the road as they saw the large courtyard in question. Buildings and towers had fallen in what was supposed to be a barrier to repel the humans but now was knocked aside as three Jaguars sat at the road adjacent to them, firing at a cluster of retreating Apes and sending them hurling through the air. Marines, Cheetahs, Dragons and Lakadors rushed in from the cover of the tanks, Moles flanking them along the ruins nearby. The moles moved to cut off a group of retreating Orcs as the courtyard boasted several entrances and exits, alleyways and other pathways cutting across several buildings.

One Drone Grenadier stood on the rooftop of a building, aiming his cannon down below onto the tanks. The tanks spotted him immediately as one fired a shell directly into him, blowing the drone in half as shards rained down onto the ground, the tanks rolling into the large courtyard. The fountain in the center was soon captured as a squad of Marines set up a firing position to hammer Apes who were rushing from their hiding places to attack the advancing soldiers.

"Looks like they don't need our help." Aaron said with a chuckle as the courtyard which was vital to the counter attack fell into Coalition hands. Lakador foot soldiers spread out with the Marines as they soon began to form the force that would push towards the city walls.

As the tanks rolled in they saw the Typhus sitting nearby as smoke was seeming to rise from it. The thick clouds above didn't hide the fact that the ship was sinking low over the skyline.

"Wonder what it's doing..." Aaron said as it wasn't firing its guns in support like the plan had called for. The Frigate dipped before its engines suddenly fired, the ship thrusting itself forward as the nose was pointed directly at the new dragon temple.

"What the hell?!" Linburg yelled as the Frigate sank low before the large spacecraft collided with the temple, splitting it in two as a ball of fire erupted, pieces of debris raining onto the city. The entire tower lurched as it looked like it was going to collapse, holding the Frigate inside as it came to a halt, half of the ship lodged into the tower, its engines jutting out as steam rose from the nozzles at the end. Smoke and fire rose from the crash, creating a scene of absolute hell.

"Oh my God..." Cynder said in shock and horror.

Immediately after screeches filled their ears as they looked up. Waves of Wyverns streaked across the sky followed by waves of Apes and Orcs who dashed down the road towards the Marines and Lakadors.

"Shit! Everyone get ready!" Spyro said as he rushed forward to repel them.

End of Chapter 34