War for the Relic.

The horde of warriors on the hills jump over their cover and rush down the hills, firing their weapons in the air and from the hip at the retreating forces. They let out powerful roars and once they reach the level ground they lower their heads and start to break into a sprint, reaching speeds of roughly 30 mph. Within a moment they're halfway up the dune the soldiers left. As one of the Aranek pops over the dune he lets out a roar and braces his feet into the dune, firing his machinegun at the group. He doesn't get far, as he's shot and tumbles over the dune. The horde runs down the hill, one of the stocky Meso-Aranek dumping his chek-chek bolt action and wrenching the loymar machinegun in the dead warrior's hand, then returning to run with the group.

From the village the guerilla commander points to the retreating forces,"Salak chi bar, nuu vak!"

From the village, Khesun sharp-shooters with bipod mounted Chek-Chek rifles take pot shots at the retreating force, having the only weapon efficient at that range.

The VTOL pulls around the back, the driver pops out and calls to his gunner over the blasting Aranek music coming from it. He runs to an ammo cache, and starts slinging Loymar ammo over his body, moving back to the VTOL to help reload.

The chasing horde is outright killed, some of them obliterated. The guerilla leader roars in anger, staring at the battle from his observational post in a two storied adobe house. He turns to a Khesun, barking an order,"Vasa-may ja lootar! Barashti, barashti!" The Khesun scurries outside, and relays the order to two warriors standing in the open, staring at the destruction. They turn their heads to the Khesun, look to each other, then and run into a building. They turn over furniture, searching for something as they call to each other,"Chi lo tiu lootarje?!" A sudden pause, as the interrogating Meso turns his head over to his Arunjai partner. The Arunjai holds a sand-colored rocket launcher,"Kek-la Sek-Sevan." The Meso cracks a smile and rushes over, picking up two rockets, they head outside, rushing through the road and going into an adobe house.

They rush up the stairs and burst through the hatch on the roof. The Arunjai takes a knee and sets the rocket launcher across his leg, he presses his talon onto a button, and pulls down on a crank on the side of it. Raising the rocket launcher to his shoulder, the Meso slots in a yellow-striped rocket, and then points to the specks of the jets in the distance. The Arunjai brings the primitive ironsight to bare at the group of jets, and the rocket warhead starts to click and churn. At the tip of it, a little glass covered pointer device rotates around and points itself at the jets.

The Khesun driver flinches his head as the jets soar over, and he yells to his companion, who hurriedly loads the ammo into the machineguns. The driver hops up onto the floating vehicle and turns away from the dunes, trying to get a good firing position on the jets with the make shift AA gun.

All the while the rest of the town only pauses as the jet makes its fly by, but starts to fire again at the retreating troops as the engines fade out.

The VTOL sputters and speeds forward, going the same direction as the jets. The AA gunner aims up at the jets and begins to spray at them, trying his best to account for the bullet drop with the recoil. While on a roof in the village, the Arunjai carrying the rocket aims at the jets. The warhead makes a sound like a power drill, and the Arunjai pulls on the lever. The rocket is shot from the launcher, getting some hangtime in the air before its thrusters engage and it speeds off to the rightmost jet. The Arunjai gunner is shot promptly afterwards, and his Meso loader grabs him, pulling him into the hatch, and quickly taking the launcher and single rocket with him into the house.

The thick mud walls are chipped away by the bullets, and the Aranek warriors who choose to stay in the windows and fire back are suppressed or shot and killed. A spray of machinegun fire hits the guerilla commander's room, and he hits the deck, crawling along in a slithering manner, he makes his way into the lower level of the adobe room.

The adobe buildings collapse and crumble, few standing afterward. The VTOL turns and picks up a few Aranek, and speeds off over a dune. In the collapsed ruins of the commander's observation post, the Commander wheezes and pants under a large stone. He brings his hands to the ground to try and pull himself up, straining for a moment. He gives up, his head slamming against the sand, growling and panting. A few warriors with their weapons slung go to him, but he roars in protest, pointing to one standing building. They and the survivors skirt off into the building, and after much commotion their sounds slowly fade out.

The commander stares up at the sky, a forceful wheeze coming from his throat as he struggles to breathe.

The Arunjai commander hears them coming, he could hear them coming from on the other side of town. As they step forward, he turns his head up, his eyelids drooping down halfway over his eyes. He's in a shock, and it's clear by his reactions. He looks the Captain in the eye, then to the pistol.

The town is dead quiet, and besides the Commander and the bodies on the dunes, there seem to be no traces of any dead.

The aging Arunjai warrior kneels at his place in the house. Many other older Aranek dressed in respectable clothing surrounded him. He pushes a respirator up to his face and wheezes. "You see what lengths they do to get rid of us.. I am an example of these lengths." He coughs, and fits the snout-shaped mask over his face, taking a deep breathe in. "So we must go to great lengths to get rid of them." A Meso swallows the meat he was chewing on and respectfully addresses the Arunjai,"What do you suggest we do, Akhan?" The elder took another breathe from his respirator.

"We need a vehicle that can ascend to outer space. Only they possess this ability. We knock them from their power in the sky, we take them on the ground. All we need is one vehicle.. to transport the emergency weapon." The Aranek sitting around all nodded deeply.