Sergeant Sakai's voice was calm and soothing as she coordinated the staging and interaction of the thirty-two different elements comprising the Knight Errant raid on the Brotherhood warehouse. Kyle understood her words, but little of what she was saying as she related custom map coordinates and abbreviated sequencing information. She, one other coordinator, two technicians, and Roger Soaring Owl were the only Knight Errant troopers present in the command cabin. The rest were staged for combat.

"All units at start point," Sakai said loudly. At the rear of the cabin. Soaring Owl quickly finished off a private telecom call that Kyle believed was to Damien Knight himself. After disconnecting, he walked over to Sakai and placed his hand on her shoulder, "We're green," he said.

She nodded and her hands flashed over the console, a dozen indicators turning green. "Stage green go," she said. "Good luck."

Things suddenly began to happen on every monitor in the cabin. Kyle could barely follow it all, but seeing that Soaring Owl seemed to know exactly where to look next, Kyle let his attention follow the older man's. Any doubt that Soaring Owl was simply a data-mover out for a rush among the troops was laid to rest during these final preparations. As Ravenheart was rattling off last-minute changes and amendments to the battle plan, Soaring Owl's questions and concerns were coming just as rapid-fire.

"Rocket's away," Sakai said.

Soaring Owl turned to the monitors showing the exterior of the Brotherhood warehouse, and as a score of black-clad troopers rushed forward, even faster streaks of light hit the various doors and windows, blowing them open.

Immediately, a second wave of rockets soared through the open windows and exploded inside the structure, spreading huge, billowing clouds of foul-smelling gas specifically designed to overpower the insect spirit's dominant sense-smell.

Three armored hover drones zipped past the troopers and in through the ruptured cargo door. Kyle searched the monitors for a view from them, and found it just as a trio of half-men, half-something-else figures were cut to pieces in a barrage of high-velocity gunfire. The troopers swarmed in after the drones, and flashes of magical power began to dominate the viewscreens.

Now Kyle could see real insect spirits appearing, and not just roaches. A giant wasp flashed in against the troopers but banged against a barely visible wall of force that suddenly appeared in front of it. Gunfire had no problem passing through the barrier, however, and the wasp vanished back to astral space…

The lead troopers moved forward into the main area of the warehouse, which was open and virtually empty. The huge room contained almost nothing but scattered piles of small boxes. Then other insect spirits quickly began to appear, engaging the lead troopers.

Now came the elemental spirits, intercepting the huge ants and flies as they fell upon the raiders. The troopers began to their way to where the building plan showed large stairways and elevator shafts leading to the lower storage depths. It was there Knight Errant expected to find the hive itself, and its queen. To speed that penetration, three teams of demolitions experts began placing excavation charges on the concrete floor while other troopers defended them from the insect onslaught "there are a lot of different kinds of bugs there…" Kyle said.

“I have to admit we weren't expecting that," Soaring Owl said. "The different insect hives apparently don't get along, but the Brotherhood leaders were somehow able to keep them from going after each other for many years. When the Brotherhood collapsed, we figured inter-hive warfare was inevitable."

"And that is cause for concern?" said Kyle.

Soaring Owl nodded. "Yes it is."

The battle in the warehouse raged on, but Kyle felt numb as he watched, drained of emotion. There were too many insect spirits, of all kinds, too many troopers, too much magic, and too much gunfire. The scene was beyond the realm of comprehension. And, displayed as it was on banks of trideo monitors, it began to lose any sense of reality.

"Chemsniffers are registering alerts," Sakai said suddenly. "PVMH and C-6 off the scale."

"Where?" Soaring Owl asked turning toward her. "Is it our stuff?"

"Main floor. But it's not ours."

"Drek!" he said, turning back to the main monitors showing the views from the drones. To Kyle's amazement, Knight Errant casualties were minimal so far, even though the wave after wave of maddened insects seemed endless. Soaring Owl's face paled and he reached out to touch the monitor image where one pile of small boxes had been scattered to reveal bundles of smaller packages, and wire…

"Oh my god," he said just before the bundles exploded.

Plastic explosives all around the main room detonated, sending Shockwaves and a wall of nails and other small bits of metal shooting through the assembled troopers. The bugs, creatures of magic, were untouched by the random, undirected explosions, but the troopers were another matter.

Caught in intersecting blasts, many were simply torn to shreds. The rest were either knocked from their feet or stunned, while the insects wasted no time descending upon them in force.

"God fragging damn!" Soaring Owl screamed. "Second and third teams in! Booby trap alerts!"

"Second Team alert advance. Third Team alert advance. Explosive trap warning in effect," Sakai said calmly. "Repeat, Second and Third Team advance. Explosive traps are present."

Other troopers entered the fray, some engaging the furious ants and flies and wasps directly, while others attempted to pull the injured from the main area of battle. Then more explosions suddenly tore open the ceiling, rocket hits blasting holes big enough for more combat drones to enter. Kyle saw one firing repeated bursts of green-white laser beams that cut deadly swaths through the swarming, flying, crawling, shrieking wave of deadly insect spirits.

"Demolition charge one firing," Sakai said.

And another explosion rocked the building, but this one was shaped downward and shattered a huge section of floor. The drones moved quickly to descend as teams of troopers struggled to assemble at the edges of the hole, prepared to drop into the smoky darkness below.

Then, without warning, the gates of hell opened.

A horde of insect spirits, scores, maybe hundreds, exploded out of the hole. Ants, roaches, beetles, wasps, flies, nearly every creeping or flying kind Kyle had ever seen came forth from the hole. Many resembled the actual insect, but far more were half-creatures catapulted into the main room by the force of the others' flight and leap from the hole.

And the swarm didn't stop.

Kyle turned his head and looked at one of the monitors showing the outside of the warehouse and the black stream of insect spirits pouring out from the ruptured roof.

"Mother of god…" said Soaring Owl.

Once outside, the bug spirits scattered in all directions, some flying, some darting and skittering down off the roof or through the broken, smoking windows.

Inside, the troopers were overwhelmed. Maybe a hundred flesh forms attacked them, with more crawling up out of the hole or now coming up the stairways. The creatures couldn't hold against the Knight Errant firepower, but there were too many, moving too quickly. The aerial drones seemed to be the most successful at decimating the force of attacking flesh forms.

Soaring Owl was shaken. The sheer number of ungodly creatures pouring from the hive was tremendous, far more than the picket line of spirits could ever hope to restrain. He turned to Sakai.

"Signal we have a break out situation," he said, his voice cracking. "And note for the record that I am preparing Damocles."