Tiny. I mused as my sensors scanned the group of civilians closest to my position. The scan highlighted the captain of the Horizon Needle, as well as his First Officer and several other officers of various ranks. I relayed the information back to Command and focused back onto my target; a bipedal, building-sized, winged monster wielding an axe whose burning heat I could feel even this far away and a whip whose length seemed to change at will. It roared a challenge and I replied with a barrage from my Stormfire Autocannons and Plasma Cannons. The former cracked the armor-like skin of the monster but didn't break it, but the latter seared deep into its flesh, exposing bone for a moment before it all impossibly regenerated back in a minute.

  No shielding, full armor. Requesting Tachyon Lance weapon suite. I noted, already moving away from the inevitable charge that was coming. True to my prediction, the beast leaped up into the air with mighty beats from its wings before crashing down at where I was, the axe strike cleaving the earth in twain for miles and miles around. I fired another barrage with my weapons, which the beast blocked using its axe.

  COWARD! DO NOT RUN FROM YOUR DEATH! FEEL THE WRATH OF KHORNE! To my surprise, the beast talked in words I could understand. In response, I fired salvos upon salvos of Whirlwind Missiles, blanketing the sky before it all came crashing down right on target. Or at least that was the plan. My foe had already moved again, its speed and agility defying its size and weight. It used buildings as cover, swatted aside salvos of missiles with its axe, and preempted ten more others with a masterful crack of its whip. It's danger level rose exponentially, and I was forced to a full retreat lest its melee prowess overwhelmed me.

  BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! Its war cry overloaded all my audio sensors, dazing me for a microsecond. It was all the opening my foe needed to close the distance, and I watched with morbid fascination as a simulation projected the trajectory of its overhead axe strike intersecting with the silhouette of my chest. I poured as much power as I could into my thrusters and dodged that fate, with the axe' edge instead clashing against my Dark Matter Deflectors.

  My energy reserves dropped by half, but I ignored them, focusing instead on blasting my foe' head with a point-blank serving of plasma and a side dish of shells. It ate them all and was eager for more, at which point I contemplated retreating and waiting for reinforcement to come. Before it could go any further, squadrons of strike crafts appeared out of the blue and delivered synchronized bursts of laser fire, blinding my foe long enough to widen the gap between us. My surprise was alleviated as my sensors detected allies in the proximity. A floating stalk ringed with hangars for Advanced Strikecrafts hovered besides a crawling tank, lined with Phase Disruptors with a tail tipped with Focused Arc Emitters. Their names came up on my display, but I didn't have to. I know them well.

  "Kalabas. Molliae. Glad to see you here." I kept my eye on the enemy, who roared and swatted at the strikecrafts surrounding it with little succcess. "Have you dispatched your targets already? I must be getting old."

  "Not so, Oberyn." Molliae replied, "My quarry fled by way of a portal, while Kalabas'-"

  "-had run like a little bitch. Left a heap of a mess, and I hadn't brought a shovel with me too. Command sent us to help since you're the closest one." Right at that moment, my sensors warned me of an incoming whip strike. I pulled back to see the tip pierce through several skyscrapers, skewering them before pulling back and wrecking the towers.

  MORE FODDER FOR THE SLAUGHTER. DIE FOR THE GLORY OF KHORNE! The beast jumped with the aid of its wings and soared at us like a comet of vengeance, enshrouded with flames of hate and fury. The foe's impact caused a firestorm to erupt around it, engulfing all in searing flames hot enough to sting even through all my armor. Kalabas bore the heat easily with his thick plating, while Molliae didn't even feel a thing. Our outer sensors, however, told a different story. Molten metal alloys dripped from their housings, and the few that survived barely functioned, handicapping us until the Liquid Metal fixed the damage.

  "Shit, cover me Oby. I'm running blind right now." Kalabas retreated while firing off streams of piercing energy at the target, while Molliae moved further back to avoid any unwelcome surprises. I obliged and laid down another barrage, making sure to keep my foe at a distance where it could do no harm. It roared and screamed, either out of pain or frustration, I couldn't tell. At the very least, I had bought enough time for Kalabas to rejoin the fight, and for my delivery to arrive at last.

  The weapon suite emerged out of the ground; an innocuous-looking filled with Liquid Metal and other resources. I stepped on it and felt my body change accordingly, new designs overriding the old. Within minutes, I felt the Tachyon Lance come online and grinned at its power.

  "Kalabas. Molliae. I have a Lance." I announced through the short-range comms. They understood immediately, with Molliae directing her strike crafts to sever tendons and cut membranes from the beast' wings, while Kalabas tore at the legs, dealing crippling damage while making sure to stay out of the way of the Lance' sights. The numbers danced in my mind and a solution was forming, finalizing with a simple countdown.

  YOUR WEAPONS MEAN NOTHING, WEAKLING!

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Ten, nine, eight,-

  I AM INVINCIBLE!

  -six, five, four,-

  I AM INEVITABLE!

  -three, two,-

  I AM-

  One.

  Whatever the beast was about to say was swallowed by the Tachyon Lance' ignition, vaporizing its torso and continuing on, disappearing off into the distance. Kalabas and Maolliae finished things up with a massed attack of their own, tearing off more and more pieces of our foe until not a single speck of it was left. Feeling suddenly drained, I slumped down and went down on one knee, detaching the smoking Tachyon Lance off my person.

  "Well, that was a right mess." Kalabas said as Molliae hovered by my side, offering to share her Liquid Metal with me. "You think the other bastards are going to be harder to kill?"

  "I think-" I gasped as the influx new Liquid Metal replaced the damaged and burnt out components of my subsystems, repairing me back to normal in no time. "-we got our work cut out for us this time."

  My second foe of the day lounged about in a water reservoir as though it was its own personal bath. A giant scrap-sword lay by its side, rusted to uselessness with chipped edges that dripped an acidic poison that pooled and spread as the waves come and go. Its skin was of the worst putrefaction, with innards spilling forth from wounds and holes all throughout the grotesque parody of life that was its body.

  Welcome, friends. I see you've tired yourself out playing with that red buffoon. Come and sit awhile with me. Enjoy the water; it gets better the longer you soak. The bloated corpse laughed, a terrible hacking and wheezing sound that made me wished I could vomit. The three of us shared a glance and nodded before unleashing our full complement without mercy.

  My missiles faltered as they neared the corpulent foe and then exploded just short of target, while the plasma hit true enough, though the seared flesh knitted itself back with alarming speed. Kalabas' weapons wreaked the most havoc, and yet again the devastated meat regenerated. Molliae's attack fared the worst as the vile stench surrounding our foe slammed into her strike crafts like an impenetrable force field before melting down the scraps into goo.

  Interesting. I have not had my itches scratched quite like this before. The being chuckled as it picked its nose and licked the finger afterward. It then heaved itself out of the water and grabbed the scrap sword along, holding the blade aloft like a butcher's cleaver. The monster hacked and coughed, spitting a rain of phlegm which turned into a small army of disgusting miniature clones. Their tiny laughs and guffaws grated even as their presence corroded the ground and spoiled the air.

  "Don't let it get too close! The fucker melts armor!" Kalabas cursed as armor plates started sloughing off his body. He fired a concentrated blast at the being' knee and it stopped moving long enough for him to skitter to safety. The three of us danced awhile like this, always on the move and far enough that our rotting foe couldn't do anything but suffer our onslaught. And yet, still it laughed and chortled, always with that sickening grin on its horrifying face. There didn't seem to be any end in sight, and I wondered what kind of power would it take to wipe out this stain on reality.

  "Kalabas. Oberyn. I have requested Neutron Launchers and Gamma Lasers to deal with this menace. Please hold the line while I refit." Molliae said through the comms. Sensing a chance at victory, I poured more power into my Plasma Cannons, and Kalabas did the same with his weapons, slowing down our plodding foe enough for it to stop. This went on for minutes that felt like hours, until at last we were forced to stop 'less our weapons melted from overuse.

  An admirable showing, but as expected, all things have to end. Nothing lasts forever. You are doomed to fail. The bloated monster growled even as the grin on its face remained; the facsimile of kindness belying the true wrath lurking underneath. It raised its blade high and slammed it into the ground, instantly turning hundreds of meters of metal alloys and composite materials into dissolving mulch. The corruption spread towards us and I quickly leaped away, just barely missing the deadly touch by scant meters.

  "Shit, it got me!" Kalabas shouted as a tendril of foul energy caught a couple of his legs and set about turning it into goo. Even after he detached those legs, it was far too late to stop the spread, as armor melted and parts rusted into uselessness. As things started to get even more dire, an energy beam cut across Kalabas, separating his head from the rest of his body. I looked up and saw Molliae drifting about, her body now turned on its side with rings of Gamma Lasers and Neutron Launchers around it.

  "Oberyn, take Kalabas with you and retreat. I will handle this." Molliae spoke in a way that left no room for arguments. I picked up Kalabas' head and gave a short nod to my friend before flying away, hoping her rampage this time would be better contained than the last one.

  The fat worm said something, but I ignored it. I ignored all except the preparation and the rage driving my actions. To see my love Kalabas wounded so broke all of my restraints and now I can only see death. I scoffed at the worm' pathetic attempts to reach me and began my bombardment in earnest. Intense radiation scoured flesh from bone and even the worm' impossible regeneration worked a bit slower than before.

  But this wasn't enough, far from it. I activated my Exodus Module, feeling my personal time lengthen in turn. This was a prototype modeled after the eponymous one in use by the Horizon Needle, and only installed in a select few Gigantes. Due to its experimental nature, the device was designed to turn off after a minute of real-time, but at my speed of engagement, that might as well be an eternity.

  I was a blur at the edge of thought, saturating my target in laser fire and neutron radiation. I tore apart its spine, its legs, its guts, its tiny arms, and most of all its smirking face. Over, and over, and over again until the Exodus Module warned me that my one real-time minute was up. I stopped my assault to brace for the transition back into real-time, wincing as all of the physical processes I endured paid their due all at once.

  The results, however, speak for themselves. Where there had been a bloated worm was now a smoothed-out crater glowing white with radiation. The Horizon Needle' life-support system had quickly isolated the harmful space from the rest of the ship, but it would be a good long while before that part would be usable in any way. A small bit of guilt crept into me, but not much more. I did what I had to do, and I would gladly do it all again if I have to.