Sergeant Michael Jones, now leading his own squad of five Elite Commandos including himself, listened to the instructions given by Ashira intently. After the transmission had ended, he turned to look at the Knights and recognised Diana.
"Long time no see, blondie." Michael said with a smile under his helmet, before turning to look at Aurora, noticing her youth. "Looks like you got yourself a rookie here too. You teach at those academies now?"

After Diana's answer, Michael turned to face the opening in the dropship as the ramp lowered and barked orders to his troops. "Alright cupcakes, standard formation. Buttkiss, you take point."
The Elite Commando known as "Buttkiss" groaned at the use of his nickname, which caused his peers to snicker. Nonetheless, despite the banter, all five troops assumed a combat stance, their weapons raised at the ready. Buttkiss had in his hands a Rocket Launcher and was the first to exit the dropship before the rest filed out.

There, they waited for the Knights to also step out before the dropship took off.
"Alright, keep your eyes and ears open ladies. Yell if you see anything."

"Actually it's Queen Blondie now and no I'm not teaching." Diana shot back with a roll of her eyes, "My sister is enough of a handful." Diana withdrew her bo staff from her back, flipping switches on either end of the staff. Blades flicked out on either end, then Diana twisted the middle of the weapon and it broke apart into twin swords. Diana let out a chuckle at the Commando's nickname, straightening and turning back to the group. Diana stepped off the ship, giving Michael a raised brow. "If I see anything I'll be able to take care of it myself. And i'll do so without throwing a grenade down a fragile hole."

Aurora sensed the apprehension of the others at her young age, yet she was determined to prove to them that she was capable of anything that was thrown at them on this mission. 
"Don't worry," She replied to Michael, "If I see anything you'll know by my gunshot." She had both her revolvers in hand, but she let her magic lay dormant for now. 

The city laid quietly in ruins as the group made their way down the street. The old crumbled buildings observed them with suspicion as they all walked, weapons raised. Aurora had a strong sense that they were indeed, being watched, but by what she didn't know. A sweeping gust of wind swept crinkled brown leaves up into the sky, the wind itself seemed to whisper a warning to them in some strange undecipherable language. Aurora's grip tightened on her revolvers.

"The target building is two blocks east, the street should take you straight there." Ashira spoke through their headsets, analyzing the limited map data she had. "It's scary really, how an empire as big as this can fall so quickly." She swallowed her thoughts on the matter, watching the scenes of the ruined city through a video link on the Commando's helmets. It was dark and silent at the moment, the only movement coming from swaying shop signs or flickering advertisement boards.

This uneasy silence continued for another block, before the next part of the street seemed to only be passable through a small gap in the rubble. The gap could fit one person at a time, letting them squeeze to the other side where the building was visible. 

What neither Ashira or the squad knew though was that hacked Nypherians made up most of that rubble, and touching them would cause them to reactivate...

Michael heard much of the Nypherians. How advanced they were and supposedly traveled between galaxies and reality or the sort. They were one of the Northern Factions to be attacked by the plague and with members of their race being mostly synthetic, they didn't fare well. Apparently whatever remained of their empire issued a retreat and they left the galaxy completely. At least, that's what Michael thought he heard over restricted comm chatter.

"Alright, looks like a tight squeeze from here." Michael said as he looked at the rubble. He then faced his squad, briefly examining each of the four men.
"Henderson, you stay out here and take position on one of the rooftops over there." Michael gestured towards one of the other buildings near the one they were about to enter. The Commando that was wielding a Thunderbolt sniper rifle nodded. "I'll make sure nothing slips past my watch sir, good luck."
"You too rifleman."

As Henderson walked off, Michael turned to Buttkiss. "I'm taking point. I don't want you bringing the building down the moment we run into a bogie." Michael said as he began to squeeze through the gap. After he disappeared, a moment later his voice came through on everyone's comms.
"No sign of anything so far. Buttkiss, you come through last. The rest of you come on through. Quietly. And don't forget to activate your nightvision on the way in, it's dark as hell in here."

Diana looked around, she hadn't had much interaction with the Nypherians but it astounded her how quickly their large empire fell. Then again Diana had seen plenty of empires fall, although none had been as advanced as this one. Diana focused her mind back on the task at hand, following after the soldiers. 

Diana kept quiet, it was easier for her to focus her senses that way. Her ears were tuned to every sound, listening for even the faintest hum of electricity that could come from a robot. Smell wasn't very useful when dealing with robots, but her eyes were sharp and looking for any movement.

Aurora was the last through the passageway, as she climbed through she took one final glance back to make sure they weren't being followed. When she emerged into the room she could barely make out the silhouettes of the others due to the dimness of her surroundings. They all stood for a few seconds trying to adjust to the light and work out where exactly they were going. Then a rumble came from the passageway they had just entered through and debris began to crumble over the entrance. 
"Shit!" Aurora heard Michael shout as they all dived for cover. 

Soon the room was no longer dim, but was completely immersed in darkness. Not even a shred of daylight could be seen. Aurora rolled her eyes and willed her magic to manifest in her hands. The small ball of magic provided enough light for her to see the rest of the team sprawled out on the floor. 
"I sure hope that didn't reactivate any of the Nypherians" Aurora spoke with trepidation in her voice.

"What happened down there, are you guys okay?" Ashira asked through comms, activating the night vision on her video feeds whilst trying to get a satellite viewing of their location. "Whatever you did, it's attracted some attention. I'll try get the power on for you, just stay alert." She turned quickly to her remote access panel, beginning to find and reroute the remaining power in that area to the building. 

Slowly the lights flickered back on to show fully the room they were in. A large trading hall that would have held hundreds of commercial computers had they not been destroyed or looted. All around their lay broken Nypherians and other dead organic species who lived within their empire. Not long after the light returned the remaining computers began to flicker into life, catching the attention of some of the surrounding bodies.

Now from all sides Nypherians began activating, hoisting themselves up and locking their sights on the intruders. Organics too stood, metallic implants in their skin providing the virus a host. Overall there must have been fifty incoming hostiles, armed with only their fists and claws yet intent on ripping the group apart.

"Yeah, we're good. Just had some rubble come down on us." Michael replied to Ashira over the comms as he helped one of his men up. When all four Elite Commandos managed to clear the rubble, Michael looked over to Diana and Aurora to make sure they were okay before proceeding.

Upon reaching the large trading hall, Michael looked around before gesturing for everyone to proceed. However he halted quickly when the lights came on.
"Night visions off!" He commanded before aiming his weapon around and watching as the corpses came to life, assisted by their cybernetic implants.
"Yeaahh, I definitely signed up for this shit! Open fire!" The sound of gunfire filled the entire hallway. Michael was using a new marksman rifle that fired three shots in quick succession per burst. Meanwhile the two other as of yet unnamed Commandos wielded automatic weaponry. One of them made use of the Nightingale Plasma Rifle, the bolts of which fried any organic or cybernetic components upon impact. The other was using some sort of sub-machinegun that fired explosive rounds that easily blew off flesh and severely damaged the cybernetics to the point of utter disrepair.

"Buttkiss, clean that up!" Michael gestured towards a group of hostiles huddled up, advancing together. The Commando nodded, ran over so that he was now directly facing them, loaded six clusterbomb rockets into his Rocket Launcher and launched two of them at the group. The ensuing multitude of detonations effectively blew the entire group to pieces.

Diana was fine, having been quick enough to avoid the falling rubble. After nodding to Michael that she was fine she continued on with them, tightening her grip on the twin swords in her hands. The hair on the back of her neck was standing up, she didn't like this. When the lights flickered on Diana was on hyper alert and when one of the corpses came to life, her sword went right through its head. 

Diana moved quickly, pulling her sword from its skull and beginning to engage the enemy. Her sword sliced through the hostiles that came towards her, aiming for the heads specifically. As she moved swiftly around her enemies she was just barely escaping their reach, although she had a fair amount of scratches or gashes from their claws.

The lights trembled back on dragging the group from the darkness. Aurora wasted no time in drawing her weapons. The Nypherian corpses contorted into animation, their claws outstretched in desperation to devour the group. Aurora had honestly never seen anything as horrific in her life. She felt no remorse as she emptied her cylinders into their heads, their eyes as dead after the shot as before. As the group escaped Aurora moved swiftly to keep up, using the Fey agility that her mother had gifted her with. One of the Nypherians attempted to grasp her ankle, the rest of its sorry body had been crushed by the falling rubble. As the creature dragged itself towards Aurora she shot it clean through the head, almost beginning to feel sorry for these...things. And then she reminded herself of what they were, they were mindless killing machines. On this mission it was kill or be killed. 

The group reached a large double doorway and managed to barricade themselves in safely as the creatures clawed down the metal. 
"Jesus H Christ, that was close."

The double doors buckled slightly each passing moment as the infected tried to break their way through. Their efforts were fruitless for now, giving the group some time to relax. 
"Everyone good?" Ashira asked through comms, analyzing a new route for them. "That door won't hold forever, so you better get a head start. Head along the eastern corridor, you'll come to the main stairway. It goes up three floors to the former Galactic News Network broadcasting station."

The journey to the stairway was ominous and quiet, blinking lights illuminating the rusted metal walls every second. Once they reached the stairs it would become clear how open of an area it was. The staircase was as wide as two buses, curling right around the large room in a spiraling motion until it ended three floors up. 
"Okay, be sure to keep your heads up. I've got hostile movement above you." Ashira warned as the group would begin climbing the stairs.

As promised, the infected units on the above floors would detect the intruders. The usual tooth-and-claw machines would try to rush or jump down to surprise the group, whilst a more deadly rifle-wielding squad of Nypherians set up a defensive position at the very top of the stairs, ready to reign laser-fire down on their enemy.

"Always wanted to be on TV", Michael said to Ashira over the comms. As they headed down the corridor, Buttkiss broke the silence.
"I get that the GNN''s a huge network and a strategic target to find out where the virus came from, but wouldn't it make more sense to infiltrate one of their abandoned military bases instead?"
"Military bases are more heavily guarded," One of the other Elite Commandos replied. "Last thing we need is to run into armed cyborg zombies".
"The GNN was also broadcasted to the entire galaxy. So any record of whatever happened on whichever planet the virus originated on will be kept on their records." Michael said.

As they reached the stairs, Michael's comms came to life again as Ashira's voice once again came through it, warning them of hostile activity above them as well as armed ones this time.
"Always something.." He replied before turning to his men. "Lock and load ladies! Blondie 1 and 2, do whatever the hell it is that you do. Let's move!"

As they reached near the top of the wide spiral staircase, the sound of laserguns suddenly going off as the infected units opened fire on them from the top of the stairs alerted Michael quick enough for him to withdraw back down a few steps and hide around the curve of the circular wall in the middle of the staircase. Laser fire rained down right in front of them, leaving burnt scorch marks wherever they hit.

"No armed guards... you HAD to open your mouth" Michael said to one of his Commandos. He then turned back to where the laser was raining down and took out a large cylindrical device from one of his tactical pouches, activated it with the push of a button and threw it out onto the stair, where the lasers were raining down. Several nails sprung out of the device and clamped it down onto the stairs before parts of the device began flashing blue. A second later, a rectangular hardlight shield activated right above it, attached to the cylindrical device at its base.

"Buttkiss!" Michael turned to the Commando. "Move, now!" Buttkiss hurriedly ran behind the hardlight shield. The see-through rectangular cover shuddered but did not move from its place as laser fire rained down onto it. Waiting for the right moment - that is a pause between each barrage of laser fire, Buttkiss quickly emerged from behind the cover and fired a cluster-rocket at the group of infected soldiers at the top. The rocket exploded at their feet and propelled several, smaller bombs around them which also exploded and took them all out.

"Lets go! Double time!" Michael shouted as him and his Commandos sprinted up the steps. Buttkiss was the first to reach the top.
"Contacts! Lots of them!" He warned as he opened fire. As soon as the other Commandos reached the top, they also began to fire on the infected units that waited for them at the top. Some of the spread out across the room while maintaining fire in order to attain better angles to shoot from.

Diana rolled her eyes at Michael, keeping her guard up as they walked to the news station. When Ashira warned of hostiles the air in the room grew colder as frost spread across Diana's hands, she was ready. The second she heard the sound of laserguns she threw up a thick shield of ice, she knew it would last long against laser guns but it did give her enough time to duck behind a wall as well. 

Diana watched as Michael threw a strange device, perking up when she saw a hardlight shield activate right above it. She waited for Buttkiss to move as well, knowing that most of the fire would be concentrated on him and the hardlight shield. Then she popped out from around the wall, throwing out several bolts of ice before moving behind the wall again. When the coast was clear she ran up the stairs after everyone else, firing off bolts of ice at the infected units.

"Blondies..." Aurora shook her head, moving forward just behind the soldiers with her revolvers ready. As the first firing started she remained in cover, firing the odd shot to keep her enemy suppressed. Once the soldiers gave the order to move up she followed suit, staying behind them since they seemed most trained for this situation. Her gunfire managed to fend off the melee attackers, allowing Michael and his squad to focus on the armed units.

When they reached the top and only the rifle-wielding enemies remained, Aurora took cover once more. Her revolvers were great up close, but at this range they were nothing to the Nypherian's rifles. Trying to think of something better to use, she finally spotted a chunk of rubble amid the grouped enemies. 

Drawing upon as much natural energy as she could in this place, she threw her palm out to release a charge sphere at the rubble, causing it to explode outwards upon impact. Chunks of rock and debris flew outwards, smacking against the Nypherian soldiers with enough force to prevent them returning fire or even let them see their enemy.

"Now, take them out!" Aurora called out, lowering her palm as she breathed out heavily, regaining the energy she had used for her trick.

When the Nypherians were distracted and hopefully shot down, Ashira breathed a sigh of relief.
"Nice work, Alpha Team. Head for those doors straight ahead. The Broadcast station should be in there." True to her word behind the doors would be a long room lined with hundreds of small screens and terminals. Different parts of the GNN team would no doubt be assigned to different quarters of the room, one section looking to be where the journalists gathered, another where the technicians handle the broadcasting itself. All of this led up to a stage at the end which no doubt was where the journalists or anchormen were filmed.

"Okay, there's alot of terminals, so you'll need to sweep the whole place. Michael's squad has data extractors, grab one and plug them in each row. From there I can access the network and ping the main location."

"Careful though, there's probably a few dead people in there who might wake up if you go snooping around."

As soon as they had entered the Broadcast station, all four Commandos fanned out across the room, checking their corners and blindsides for any activity. A few corpses were spotted, unmoving as of yet but taken full notice of.

"Affirmative," Michael replied to Ashira over the comms. Suddenly, the Commando known as Henderson's voice came through, his tone of voice was raised and breathing heavily. "Sergeant, come in!" The sound of his sniper rifle from Henderson's end of the line filled Michael's ears.
"What's going on out there?" Michael demanded, "Report, that's an order!"

One of the corpses flinched. An Elite Commando looked at it and watched it as it began to move.
"Uhhh... Sarge?"
"There's a shitload of them Sergeant... *gunshot* came out of nowhere, about to swarm the building... *gunshot* ..think you have... maybe 4-5 minutes."
"....Sarge..."

"Henderson, are you hit?" Michael asked, the demanding tone having disappeared and replaced with concern. A pause. "Henderson?"
"A-Affirmative.. *gunshot* ...just.. complete the mission. I'll hold out for.... for as long as I can..."
Michael paused again. "....give em hell, marine."
"Sarge! We've got contacts!"

Michael's attention quickly snapped to the corpses that were coming to life all over the room. He aimed his weapon at one of them and put the corpse down before it even had a chance to stand. "Use your data extractors, one man on each row of terminals. Run and gun, go go go!" Michael barked as he reached into his pouch with one hand while firing with his other, while also running towards a specific row of terminals.

"Tweevils!" Michael shouted at Diana and Aurora, "Keep us covered!" He said as he retrieved a data extractor from his pouch and slammed the small, cuboid device into a terminal. He then turned his full attention on the attacking corpses, gunning them down with precision while also maintaining mobility in order to keep his distance and become harder to hit. Once the other Commandos had also inserted their data extractors, they too joined the fight, dropping the corpses a lot faster.

Diana swiped an extractor from Michael, resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at him before she went over to a terminal and plugged it in. Suddenly she stilled, upon hearing the comms the temperature in the room dropped a little bit as Diana readied herself for an attack. Whipping around at two corpses that were about to stand, bolts of ice left her fingertips so quickly that within the blink of an eye the two corpses were nailed to the wall. 

Swiping a foot across the floor ice followed, then rose with an arc and impaled two more corpses in the chest. She didn't notice when approaching her from behind at first but the smell hit her nose. Brushing a hand over her knuckles brass knuckles in the form of ice formed, spikes included, and she spun around with her fist aimed for the corpses head. Diana didn't seem to care that these were once people, thats why she didn't hold back any of her strength and when her fist connected with the corpses head it went clean off. 

Diana's brow twitched a little and she briefly looked over at Michael, "Call me a tweevil again and I'll shove an icicle so far up your ass you'll cough out snowballs while Jack Frost blows up your phone for a booty call!" Then she ducked as a corpse lunged at her, whipping around as it landed behind her, slamming icicle into its chest. Diana moved out more into the floor, ice forming around her. Flexing her fingers ice crystals began to form in the air, then as she flexed her hand again they flew out towards the corpses, nailing them like they were bullets.

Aurora took two extractors herself, moving to the far end of the room to start from the last row of terminals. She reached the first one unhindered, managing to plant the extractor in its socket before corpses around her started moving. Carefully she moved around them, readying on pistol in case any got too close but focusing on making it to the last terminal. By the time she had reached it a large group of the infested were gathering behind her, blocking her way out of the terminals after she planted the last extractor.

Bringing up both her pistols, Aurora unleashed her chambers fully upon the clustered horde, tearing through heads and torsos enough to clear a small path. Several more infested stepped in to catch her, but a burst of whatever energy she could muster sent them stumbling out of her way. Eventually she made it back to the group, with all data extractors planted.

"There we go, I'm in." Ashira announced through comms, turning to a secondary screen to analyse the data coming in. "We're getting pings from the Helix network, nice job. Now, get out of there!" She then looked back to the satellite image, analyzing the best escape route. "The entrance you came through is swarming with infested, you're going to have to take the window." Her finger pressed down on a window on the map, marking it on the HUDs of the Commandos.

From inside they could see the large window at the end of the hall was shattered, leading out onto a pile of rubble high enough for them to simply step out. This rubble was connected to a small buildings rooftop by a crashed column, meaning the group would have to move across to the other rooftop single-file amidst the gunfire now outside.

"Get to that rooftop, the dropship will swing by there." Ashira said, as the dropship truly did move around to the opposite rooftop.

Michael smirked at Diana's threat. He paused to reload his weapon, while turning his head to face her. "Whatever you say Snow White!" He said in a playfully mocking tone before turning his attention back to the enemy. "Henderson, we're almost done here, move towards the main building. Use your thrusters to close the gaps between each rooftop!"

A pause.

"Copy that Sergeant, I...*huff* I'm on the move...hh.."
As soon as the nav-marker appeared on Michael's HUD, the Commando turned to his subordinates. "Commandos, Blondies, lets move!" He shouted as he pointed towards the window, before turning and breaking into a full-on sprint towards it. A zombified Nypherian swiped its energy blade at him, mildly cutting into his side. Michael suppressed crying out from the immense pain and fought through it, reaching the window and jumping out of it... only to abruptly land on level flooring created from a bunch of rubble.

Michael looked at the objective, the rooftop upon which they were to be picked up.
"Henderson, circle around the building and meet up on that rooftop." Michael ordered him through the comms.
"Way ahead of you Sergeant, I'll meet you there."
"Affirmative." Gunfire filled the air, making the situation risky enough as it was.
"Alright, let's sprint this. Do NOT fall behind!" He said to his Commandos. "Alright... GO!"

They once again broke into a full-on sprint towards the crashed columns. Gunfire whizzing by them, sometimes meters and sometimes inches away from their bodies. The occasional projectile did strike Michael and his Commandos, but their suits' minor energy shielding provided them with the protection needed for them to successfully reach the dropship.

Upon reaching the ship, Michael stood at the side, turned and opened fire in random directions, suppressing the enemy for his comrades to move through. "Everyone get your asses inside! Go go go!" As all three Commandos moved through, Henderson was the last to appear and practically dived into the dropship. "Took you long enough marine!"
"Someone had to keep our guests entertained, sergeant!" Henderson shouted back over the gunfire.
"Well you did one helluva fine job..." Michael waited until Diana and Aurora had also boarded the ship before getting on it himself, bucking into one of the seats as the dropship began lift-off.

"Snow White? The fuck? You do realize she has pale skin and black hair right? I'm blonde with tan skin. Do you need an eye exam?" Diana called back, looking slightly annoyed and rolling her eyes at Michael. She nodded her head when she saw what he was pointing towards, running after him. Any zombies that leaped out at her were blasted with ice, but just before she jumped out of the window she paused for a split second. She saw that if she jumped she would land on rubble so instead of jumping she used her powers to form a slide, sliding down in and getting up to stand beside Michael. 

Then she broke out into a run again, she had to work overtime as they were still being shot at while on the move. She was quickly making ice shield after ice shield to deflect bullets or simply morphing parts of her body into water so the projectiles just went through her. When she caught sight of the ship she dove into it just after Michael had, getting into a seat and buckling up while waiting for Aurora.

As the group filed out of the window one by one, Aurora followed suit. Quickly she could see the ship perched on a rooftop not far away. A feeling of overwhelming relief filled her, as much as she enjoyed the thrill of the mission- this place gave her the creeps. Aurora wasted no time in diving towards the ship, she didn't even pay attention to the corpses that attempted to grab at her feet. She emitted an aura of magic around herself, it wasn't much but it was enough to get her back to the ship safely. 

As one of the last to reach the ship she lunged forward, making it to her seat seconds before the thing began to take off. She shouted to the pilot, "Get us the hell out of here!"