The world, when seen from above, is different, painted in abstract through a jumble of confusing patches and colors: swatches of fabric on a patchwork quilt. So it wasn't until their fall took them within a few hundred feet of the ground that Adam finally managed to make out what he was seeing.

The ground on the Necritorium was a sort of rusty orange just a little lighter than natural martian soil. The sky above would have been mostly dark if it were not lit by the golden light of anima souls funneling down towards the ground, beyond that, shapes lit up the dim atmosphere, flashes of colors and shapes just beyond the scattered light in the sky.

Looming tendrils, and flashes in animal shapes.

The war for the universe was going on above them, obscured only just by a the thin curtain of atmosphere.

But beyond all of that, beyond the incomprehensible enormity of a war between gods.

There was a war being staged right at his feet.

Two armies.

One massive, black, neatly ordered into lines and battalions as armored vehicles rolled across the ground.

And the other

A ragtag jumble of assorted dropships aliens and vehicles, less than a tenth of the size of the staged army just beyond the horizon.

Jets streaked the sky overhead, at least one helicopter whirred n the distance.

From his vantage point

Things looked impossible, and his heart sank.

Their fall took them within a few hundred feet of the ground, unobtrusive and unnoticed by either army. Sometime during their extended fall, Krill had regained his wits and become accustomed to the stomach dropping sensation. Never had Adam ever thought Krill would participate in something as dangerous as skydiving, but here he was, pulled into dangerous things of his own free will even if he didn't want to admit it.

"Fire thrusters." he ordered, watching Krill closely to make sure he managed.

Awkwardly, Krill flipped over so his feet were pointed downward. It Wasn't pretty or graceful, but he managed firing the thrusters of his jetpack until he slowed, seeming to shoot upwards from Adam's perspective. Now he knew that Krill was alright, adam fired his own jetpack, coming to a stop less than a hundred feet above the ground, a fact that did not phase him in the grand scheme of things.

What was a little danger in comparison to the end of the world.

With some difficulty, Krill dropped down to meet him, following Adam's lead as he steered them away from their original drop point and towards the staging area where the others had made it through.

Now that he was no longer falling, and his life and the lif of Krill was no longer in immediate danger, his thoughts turned elsewhere.

To sunny.

The Omen had been obliterated in a matter of moments, her shield crushed and her crew destroyed like it was no more than a minor inconvenience. Apollyon had swatted them away like a fly. Simon was gone, and so were countless others. Who's to say that anyone had managed to survive the ongoing war between the maker and the Architect. Who's to say what had happened to Kelly, Koslov or McCaster.

It may have been the Drev way to accept death in honerable battle, but Adam knew.

If sunny had died....

He didn't know if he'd be able to handle it.

She was stronger than him in that respect.

So, while he flew, he prayed and hoped it wasn't counter productive. Honestly he wasn't sure who he was praying to. It seemed that the architect was busy at the moment, and unlikely to hear whatever prayer he might offer if he was the kind of god that answered prayers in the first palace.

Perhaps it was the universe to which he was offering his soul.

"There they are!' Krill said, drawing Adam's eyes downward, passed the red cross on the back of krill's armor and towards the waiting ragtag army.

To his surprise it wasn't as small as he had first imagined. Multiple drop ships had managed to make it through along with several troop transport vehicles and about as many artillery units. They had multiple sky worthy fighters which he could now see lurking in the cloud cover above them. A large chunk of the intended team had managed to make it through, or so it seemed, and that was enough to spark the dying flame of hope that still smoldered in his chest.

His eyes scanned the crowd looking for the dropship that,

There!

There it was.

It was a little worse for ware, smoking on one wing and sort of canted to one side where one of its landing struts had been blown off, but it was there!

His eyes continued to scan.

Scan until.

THERE!

A flash of pearl white armor accented in blue.

"Sunny!"

The landing he made was steep and fast as he dove from the air retracting his wings just in time to plunge into the crowd and land hard on the compacted dirt beneath him causing the ground to rattle with the weight.

Krill was not so graceful forcing several soldiers to leap to the side as he came plowing into the ground like a rather slow meteorite.

Looking up from where she had been talking with King James, Sunny turned and brightened just as he had. They both stepped forward wrapping each other in armored arms and hugging tight. At that moment Adam wished he had as many arms as she had so he could hug her twice as much, but he had to settle for the most crushing hug he could manage.

"You're alive.... For.... a minute I thought."

Adam nodded, "I know, me too."

"We saw you get overwhelmed." She began "As soon as apollyon attacked it looked like he was gunning for you.... I...." She shook her head once, "I thought I had lost you."

Adam shook his head, "Not me, harder to kill than a cockroach." And then he looked up to acknowledge the others, king games General Kimball, lanus Kanan Dzara and, to his great relief, Ramirez. "What's the situation here?"

Sunny shook her head, but it was General Kimball that spoke, "Not good, I can tell you that much. Energy readings are off the charts We've estimated about an hour, maybe two hours before their little plan is operational." His face was a mask of grim irony.

"Under two hours." Adham affirmed approaching them from the thicket of bodies, glowing gold and white in his pearlescent armor.

Adam nodded to his counterpart as he approached, "Good to see you made it through, but enough with the pleasantries, we need to act fast. Our sources have managed to gather some last minute battlefield intelligence that may be able to help us." he motioned towards the funnel of golden light which, to Adam, seemed to be burning brighter than it had been before?

More souls to harvest all of a sudden?

The thought made him shiver.

"We know the general layout of the nercritorium. Souls are funneled in from above." he motioned towards the bright funnel of glowing golden light, "From there they enter the main building at the front where they are sorted into anima categories, powers, thrones Deus or otherwise, each type of Anima is easier or more difficult to break depending on the strength. From there they are funneled downward into the holding chambers where they are processed and prepared for the next stage. They are exposed to simulated Revelation light so that the unconscious anima wakes from its slumber. Mostly after you die the Anima transports itself back to revelation while the consciousness is shut down in order to assure a more relaxing passage. Once awoken by simulated Revelation light they are made to be lucid, their minds and emotions broken. This may take more or less time depending on factors. Once broken, they are funneled downward towards the core of the planet, where the anima is slowly stripped apart and broken into individual pieces. These pieces are again sorted and processed until they are refined into usable energy at the core of the planet where they are stored."

Adam didn't like this, didn't like the sound of this in any way shape or form.

He tried to imagine all of the souls trapped in a simulated hell to which they were more than well aware.

And he shivered.

If being torn apart wasn't bad enough, now the void was planning to unmake them forever, to feed them to Apollyon who would consume the universe and all of her laws.

Adham shared his grim look.

"From there the anima energy will be released through that aperture where it will pass through its final stopping point just inside orbit.

The Maker shared a holoprint with Adam that included blueprints of another strange looking space station, comprised of a single large rings and a small uncovered control platform.

"The energy will be concentrated like a laser and routed through here for maximum effectiveness. The energy will be captured here, charged and then focused."

Adam shook his head, "IS there any way we can release the trapped anima before they even leave the terminal."

Adham shook his head, "No they can only escape either forward or backwards. Really we have three options. Our number one and best option is to destroy the mechanism that allows the energy to escape thus stalling for more time and allowing us to defeat the enemy. We could reverse the polarity on the necroorium itself allowing the anima to escape through the funnel and disperse through space, some would die in that case but it would stall the war for the time being. The third option.... Well it really is only last resort."

"Go on."

"If the gates do open, and we are too late, we have a few minutes while the orbital station charges to take control of the station, and redirect the anima energy somewhere else."

Adam paused and nodded, "How would we get from the ground into orbit in time?"

Adham shook his head, "We aren't sure, but our men report seeing general Kazna inside the necritorium and then once again outside on that ring station."

"Doesnt she have the ability to warp on command?"

"Not without massive reserves of energy.' Adham shook his head, we would be able to detect energy discharges like that. My assumption is that she has a gate open somewhere inside the facility that leads to the station for ease of access."

Adam nodded and turned to look at the others, 'Are you all ready for this? He swept his eyes over Sunny, Lanus, kanan, Dzara and Ramirez, now joined by others Etium, Celex Lindsay Jane and a myriad of their other fighters,

Adam motioned to those he knew closely, "You all, on me, we make up the strike team that gets into the Necritoriu." He held up a hand to silence Adham's protests, "We don' have the artillery they do, we are going to need Makers to clear the way by getting rid of the heavy armor. Hopefully, they won't care so much about a couple of constructs when dealing with Makers. We want to hit this from all angles, give us as much a chance to get through as anyone. You strike on the opposite side, try to draw the bulk of their people, got it."

This time Adham didn't argue, just nodded.

"Alright," Adam said, "Let's do this."