(Above the naval battle, just as the Annabelle fired her last shot)

A young man looks out the window of his transport and looks down at the naval below.

He just watched a ship just rip itself apart.

"You see that?" He asked his brother. A gruff looking man he glances down at the ships below.

"Eh, hell of a weapon, those Erian's have got themselves." His brother replied, he was hardened from fighting on the Gaelic-Vataciney border. 

"Yeah, but..." The younger of the two looks up and notices that his transport is moving farther away from the rest. "Do you know where we are going?"

The gruff man shrugs, and looks out at the transports. "Hmm, not sure."

The door at the back of the Transport starts opening with several red lights blink on. Everyone stands up and as trained they started checking the persons in front of them, with the younger checking the gruff man's parachute while another man checks his own parachute.

The intercom cackles to life, and the sound of the Jump-Master's voice, "Okay ladies, our orders are to aerial insert into the forests around Athtrim and we are going into the forests that, I know you all know this. You have all seen the footage about the maid, and we are going to jump into her neck of the woods and capture or kill her along with anyone with her."

Some gulps fill the compartment, they had all seen what she did.

"Don't get scared now ladies, I know so lovely gals that would love to date a Paratrooper, and some fine 'Grape' Juice. If you get my meaning." Chuckles fill the compartment of the transport. "So far we know is that it's just her, but assume that she has a master and as for him or her, we don't know. Or if they have more soldiers or more trained maids. You all have your orders." He voice stops and a Hmm is heard.

"Do your final checks." The Jump-Master orders and the intercom goes dead.

The younger man feels the man behind him smack his shoulder, his chute was good. He finished his check of the gruffer man and smack his shoulder.

The man looks out the window again, and his eyes glue onto one of the other transports.

The transports was a converted cargo airplane since budget gets always hits the air force first then the Paras get it.

The one the man was looking at was on fire, with these transports being heavily overloaded with men, equipment or in the case of the one that is on fire, armored support, he could see the crews rushing to push the light tanks and heavier IFVs out the back.

Most of which will land within the town and no be supported... he gulped knowing that the crews of those vehicles are going to have a bad day, but what it the transport? He wonders.

The lights of his turn green and everyone starts moving forward.

"GO! GO! GO!" Shouts a Junior Jump-Master.

He leaps out of the plane following his brother.

These two are Dulong the younger and Marlon the gruffer. Both are brothers and both apart of the Frankish Para Brigade.

They chutes opened as designed as they left the plane.

-WHAM BOOM!-

The pair looked up and found their transport was struck be something, both knew what was clear it was that it was going down.

The tail was shorn cleanly off and was falling fast and dozen more people jumped from the relatively stable aircraft.

They had orders and both landed with the Younger having to cut himself out of his chute as it got stuck in a tree.

The forest was surprisingly dark, even though it was mid day is was as if it was a dusk.

They had landed with a dozen more men with the rest being scattered to the wind since the jumped for the transport after tail loss.

"Who's has the highest ranks?" Dulong shouts panicked, at the men that have come around his chute since it is a nice marker.

The men look at each other, and then turn to Marlon, a Corporal, "You have to be shitting me? Where are the other NCOs?" He asked.

Then men just look up.

Marlon slaps his face, "Fuck, well until farther notice or an actual NCO shows up, I am the Acting Sergeant. Got it?"

"Oui." The men surrounding Marlon said.

"Now for the next issue, where the fuck is the target?" He asked the men.

"Did command tell us anything?" Marlon asked the men seeing if any had heard anything, but was met with only guesses from what the men overheard from Officers.

"Your telling me... Command wanted us, to search the woods while our brothers-in-arms fight and die over the Athtrim?" He asked those around him... the reason why he wasn't asking Command themselves was they didn't have any long range among them.

"Whelp," He tosses his hands into the air, his Famas-carbine hung lazily from his sling, "Can we reach anyone with our short-range?" He asked the only technical ranker with him.

The man was fiddling with his radio equipment switching from frequency to frequency, all of it being static, then.

"This -static- master of -static- fire from unk -static- roces, all paras -static- have engaged -static- they have Maid -static- ARGHH! COME AND GET ME! -Bang bang- Fucken Wo -static-................" Sounds of gunfire could still be heard, but what stands out was a creepy child like laugh and with a final back the signal stops transmitting.

"Sir the signal is dead." The techy said.

"How dense is this woods? We if they were shooting wouldn't we hear it? Even faintly?" One of the Paras asked, as he sweeps the area around him.

"Maybe not, where were they?" Marlon ordered the techy.

The techy did something no one really understood, and soon was pointing a bit to the north-west.

"That way, I'm getting another signal, but it isn't transmitting, just starting to transmit then stops. Sir it's mores, if you give me a sec I could translate it?"

"Do it, everyone what the fuck are you doing? Get a perimeter up!" Marlon orders. With that haphazard perimeter getting fixed.

Soon the 16 odd privates and senior privates shuffled covering the area around themselves.

"Sir, done." The techy called and started reading from his note book, "Alert. Alert. Engaged. Maid. Warning. Has. Help. Section. Full. Complement. Wolf. Large. Wolf."

"Is that all?" Marlon asked.

"No it just kept repeating, but it's slowing right now..."

-HOWL-

"ARGH!" Several men grunted as they covered their ears. 

"What the fuck?" Dulong asked to no one.

"Steady." Marlon called.

"That was a wolfs howl? When the fuck was there wolfs in Erian?" A random comments from a Para.

Soon the sound of pounding feet? No paws start heading towards them.

"North." Whispered another para.

The sound seems to stop upon the whisper. "Detected." A very deep and gruff voice whispered. The language was Anglish a language the Paras knew. Though the dialect is unknown to the Paras.

They Paras have a few thoughts about the enemy, those were the sounds of running paws? Large Wolf... Many thoughts move back to the words of the techy...

Several lumps down the throats of privates around Marlon and the few lance Corporals.

-Humming-

The sound of what seems to be a child's humming fills the tense atmosphere... the Paras were on edge, though they are still an elite unit... but they did have a point. And with a bunch as grunts with no leading Officers nor higher level NCOs, they really couldn't hold their morale or Discipline.

"Steady." Marlon calls again, to him this felt way to close to the hymns the Vataciney soldiers hummed before charging...

-THEW- "ARGH!"  

Everyone turned on the scream to see one of the Lance Corporals pinned to a tree he was standing next to... but now, both of his hands were grasping into the nearly one and half meter long... Icicle?

The Para slowing stopped struggling and seems to freeze solid...

Everyone's eyes grew wide as they watch on with both sick fascination or just because they can't look away.

-THEW- "FUCK!"

The cry of other Lance-Corporal filled the air, and they turned to find him with an icicle in his thigh...

"Fuck..." The man cries... "Its... so cold..." The Para rubs his shoulders, though it is nearly 27°C (80.6°F) and is hot... "Guys..." The man muttered his breath becoming visible, "Tell my... wife and... kids I... lo..ve 'em..." Just like the man stuck to the tree seems to become as still as frozen statue.

"I missed." A female voice speaks following the man's 'death?', "Unfortunate no one is anything higher then Corppy... -Sigh- But at least I could test new spells." A manic almost mad laugh fills the forest around the Paras...

They were two down, and both down were LCpls, leaving Marlon and another LCpl the techy...

"Brother..." Dulong's shaky voice entered Marlon's ears... "Are we fucked?"

His question made the air more tense than was expected and even the voice wanted to know as the humming that had been going the whole time stopped...

Marlon didn't know what to say, since saying yes or no would break this unit... he needed to dodge the question...

"Well?" Asked the female voice, "I don't have all day... I'm heading to Athtrim, you guys are just the third wheel in this threesome." 

"E-eh?" Several Paras make surprised sounds.

Marlon raised his rifle to a firing stance... "My answer doesn't matter. We are Paratroopers of the Frankish Para Brigade. Viva La Gaelic Junta!" He pulls the trigger at the area where he believed were the voice was coming from.

His rounds tore the branches from tree and the sound of rapid movement coming from where he was shooting told him that he was on the mark.

-WOOOSSH- ""ARRGH""

A female figure landed in amongst the Paras with a roll, and just before she disappeared by sending a gout of flames at the two men in front of her and running through it.

She had been wearing a long-sleeve shirts with a knee length shorts, a pair of black stockings, oddly she didn't have any footwear on and her hair was freely flowing. It was an odd gold silver-ish color.

"My turn." Another voice said, it was a child's.

A small figure dashed through the formation with several men falling with Daggers sticking out of their necks.

"Four, you?" Asked the older voice.

"Six." Replied the child voice, "That means six left."

"Dips the Corporal and the brother. Cripple the rest for the others to level." The older voice orders... Marlon and Dulong gulp...

"Yes Commander." The child voice lost it's obvious child like tone was gone. It was still that of a child... but something seemed too mature.

The remaining Paras were effectively shitting themselves, with Marlon not so, but he would be lying if he wasn't afraid.

-Clatter, crunch crunch-

They turn on the new sound, it was a grunt whos face said it all. He had tossed his weapon and legged it, "COWARD!" Marlon shouted at the man.

"Fire at will, any movement." Marlon ordered and fired at any movement that he could see.

The Paras fired as well, and it seemed to be working.

But things went south...

Marlon and Dulong ended up back to back... both were breathing heavily... around them was three others men groaning on the ground with a pair of women standing over them...

No they were demons those Vataciney bastards would never shut up about...

Their was the older woman, her smile was something that promised fun... but that fun was an unknown to even Marlon.

The child was wearing a grey military attire with a small pendent on her upper left breast on an unknown nation... in her left hand was a short sword in her off hand while she flip a dagger from hilt to blade over and over... her smile was far more creepy, since it was that of a child gave when they had gotten something they wanted.

Marlon reached for a new magazine. And just as he pulled it out completely it was sent out of his hand with a dagger sticking out of it...

"Tisc tisc tisc." The child tisced while waving an identical dagger around.

Within one moment she closed the gap behind him and her, she sent her dagger into his knee-cap and sliced out wards effectively removing the cap from his body, with only a handful of tendons keeping it from being removed.

Dulong swiped his weapon over his brothers head but it was defected by the child's sword.

Dulong was grabbed by his parachute bag and was tossed onto the ground by the old woman... she had a swirling ball of green and black just above her hand...

"Catch." She said and tossed the ball onto him.

By reflex he caught it... that was his last action.

The ball instantly started eating through his clothing, his body armour and soon his skin. "ARRGH!" He screamed trying the wipe the stuff off, but all that did was spread it out more until he had accidently covered half of his chest with the stuff and his neck.

Once his skin gave way, blood vessels were opened and it entered. Dulong's body dissolved in a rapid pace...

The soldier collapsed over, his elbow eaten away leaving his forearm was gone being the first thing to disappear.

His shoulder blade could be seen from his front as over half of his right lung and liver was eaten with his ribs sizzling, The woman knelt down and pushed him over so that Dulong was laying on his back... She smiled.

Dulong was still alive... barely, she was smiling since she could see his heart beating. "Please..." He begged in a soft voice, using his one good hand he tried to reach for his sidearm...

"Non." She replied in French and removed the pistol from his holster, "It will be over soon." She finished in Anglish and he could feel it too... some of it reached his spine...

Dulong reached his good hand out to his brother, but like a puppet stings were cut his hand fell limp, as some of it reached his spinal cord killing him...

His body still dissolved slightly before stopping leaving a... cleanest goriest scene, as their was little to no blood was left within the body.

"What was that? Mistress." A new voice asked, it was only then that Marlon noticed the ten or so other women being led by the maid.

"This?" She asked while making another ball of that green and black orb.

"Yes Mistress... that seems interesting." The maid answers with the others nodding. She then gestured at the two statues of frozen Paras. "And them too, if you may."

"The frozen pair? A mix of ice and petrification magic, I had the idea when I found that petrification mages were a thing. And that leads onto what happened to this poor sod." She gestured to Dulong's half eaten body, "I got the idea from a mix of elements. First was corrosion mages then Acidic mages... but the last one was something anyone can get." 

"That being Mistress?"

"Highly concentrated Stomach Acid. The green is from the bile, and the black is a mix of Corrosion and Acidic magics, and throw in a little battery acid."

The child steps in, "In other words she had just created the strongest Acid known to Elven, Human or anyone kind on this world. Seeing how that eat through the boy's ceramic plates? I have a hard time thinking tanks would love that." She shakes her head, "The best part is that she can control it to a degree, which is why she had stopped the boy from finishing himself."

The group and women nod, looking at the woman who was still holding the ball of death with awe, respect and... Marlon gulp. Religious devotion...

Marlon couldn't run be like hell he was going out like his brother...

He drew his sidearm, giving a silent sorry to his brother and pulled the trigger ending himself.

(POV change)

-BANG-

Jackson turned to find her other test subject had offed themselves... she sighed, she shook her head and looked back at the boy para... his eyes were looking for anything to grasp onto...

kneeling down she closed the boy's eyes, and eased herself of the emotions trying to bubble to the surface... this whole test, was a farce it was just a way for her to experiment on this poor sods... she had no issue to use the "Petr-icicles" since they were fighting and could do so... but this.

This was too far even for her... even for her new instincts telling her what she did was fine...

She was still human, but somewhere she was doubt herself...

The laws she still allow herself to be governed by... the rules and laws of war... those two men...

Regret and grief appeared in her heart... but it was gone as her instincts and body flooded her system with dopamine to cover her emotions over...

She had felt pleasure... and reveled in his death.

She looked at the sidearm she had denied the boy... maybe...

'What is happening to me?!' She asked herself...

Glancing down at the sidearm... she shakes her head and and slips it into he belt line.

-Crunch-

She glanced up at the sound. She saw Jessica who had taken a step forward... her concerned look. Jackson stood... and staggered as the blood rushed to her head...

"I'm fine." Jackson said... and actively blocked any attempt for her maid to sense her emotions, which caused Jessica to wince as her ability to sense her Mistress's needs was stopped harshly.

"I-if you say, Mistress." Jessica said, the only other person who could tell something was up outside of Tanya was Kerrigan... she could sense her Goddess's anxiety and fear?