The sound of pounding, hurried footsteps could be heard across the entire station. Members of the Jeweled fangs were arming themselves, setting up automated defences and preparing the defensive perimeter that was being planned at the center of the station by the captains. The station was divided into 3 distinct zones, the outer, middle and inner, with the former having the most sectors as they stretched across the surface of the station. The outer zone was primarily comprised of docks, patrol routes, empty rooms, storage areas and living accommodation for newer members, as a result, it had been completely abandoned by the Fangs and Hunters. The middle zone was made up of engineering bays, additional storage and living quarters, armouries, security check points and utility areas, most of this area's resources were mid way through being relocated into the inner zone and choke points were being established for the Fangs & Hunters to hold. From the middle zone, there were a total of 3 entry points to the inner zone, all of which were defended heavily in the hopes that they would hold long enough for the other forces to wear each-other out. Wex and the other captains were in the process of both planning and setting up a vast array of traps and kill rooms across the station in the abandoned rooms in the middle and outer zones when the rest of the Hunters pirates arrived, along with the leaders, Ray and Kelly.

“Had we known you were just about to be assaulted, we may have been more reluctant to, and I quote 'Come aboard and get to know us more'.” Ray frowned, marching way into the operations room in the very center of the station. Within this room, Wex, Diego, Seeth, Wex's crew and the other captains were huddled around a table in the middle. The group parted so Ray and Kelly could fit in and see the plans.

“Yeah. I can't help but feel we've been a bit deceived. I thought we were just gonna fuck Diego some more and have a tour of the station, not fight for our lives.” Kelly blurted out, watching the room grind to a halt as those words sunk in on everyone. The lizard himself shrinking somewhat as he felt Seeth's hand grip his shoulder very tightly.

“So thats how you secured the deal...” Another captain pondered. Before the room could become too tense however, the other captains cheered and slapped Diego on the back, apparently rather liking his approach. Seeth however, was not too pleased, she glared at the shark girls and leaned down to whisper into Diego's ear.

“Just when were you planning on telling me about that huh?”

Kelly grinned widely. “Who would that be then Diego? The big ass alien who's looking rather miffed!” Ray elbowed Kelly in the side but she continued. “She's not your girl-friend is she? Or wife?”

“I'm Seeth. I'm his lover and girl-friend.” Seeth continued to glare at the sharks.

“Oh... well thats kinda awkward. He didn't mention you when we were fucking him... so yeah...”

Ray elbowed Kelly again and glared at her, whispering to her “Can you not? This is hardly the situation to be stirring up shit... we need to work with these people...”

Diego's face went bright red and he slammed his hands on the table quickly. “SO! How about that situation with the various different people coming to kill us? Can we not focus on my sex life for once? I know how important it is to you all but for the love of all thats holy there’s a battleship coming towards us.”

“Good call.” Wex jumped in to help his brother. “We've been hit by an inside job. Our long range scanners were disabled by someone which is why we had no warning of this attack. Ray, Kelly, honestly, we had absolutely no idea this was coming.”

Ray moved forward and took a look at the defensive plans, the table was covered in engineering plans for the whole station, with various scribbles marked across them and notes.

“Well. We guessed. We don't think you've double crossed us, theres no way you could have taken out the Silver Fish, which is what they're claiming, so someone is fucking with you, to put it simply. What about the other ships? Any luck in contacting them?”

“Up until now, no, but we're receiving a hail from a DA based number. Shall we answer it?”

“Absolutely. The more info we get, the better.”

The group turned around and faced the huge wall mounted screen, which flickered on and connected to the number. A golden dragoness appeared on the screen, dressed in a green top, only her appear half was visible to the group. Her long golden hair and emerald eyes were familiar to only one person here, it was Karen.

“Is-is it on? Can they see me? OHHH, I can see them! Ewww... OH-OH-OH, there he is! My little Diego! How i've missed you so much! Why are you hanging around with those smelly pirates and not at home with me? Your future wife!”

The rooms various jaws dropped again and all eyes focused on the lizard again. Although Kelly's expression was far closer to sheer joy than anything after a couple of seconds.

“Now, I know how surprised you must be to see my face again, but its ok! I've got some DA soldiers coming to sort out that little pirate problem you're having and come bring you home to me! They must be holding you captive or something... my poor poor Diego... you mongrels best be good to him! If you've laid a finger on him! You'll pay!”

“Ohhhh i've done more than lay a finger on him! Mhmmhmm!” Kelly giggled.

“What?! You've been hurting my special little lizard?!”

“Hurting? Lord no, i've been making him-” Ray's hand came over Kelly's face and muffled her.

“Uhm, Diego, would you like to explain yourself? Everyone in the room is very confused right now.” Ray politely asked.

“Ok. Basically. When I escaped the Rewritten sex dungeon with Seeth, we picked up another escapee controller called Plasia who betrayed us to the DA, we got captured, Seeth was taken into a lab to be analysed and I was sold into slavery, Karen bought me, Karen for some reason fell in love me, the city where she lived was attacked by the Rewritten allowing me and Seeth to escape, I ended up here. Now Karen seems to want me back again.” Diego rushed through it all as quickly as possible, it didn't seem fair that all this was being dragged up, the lizards face had been bright red for several minutes now.

“Don't talk about me like that Diego, i'm right here! You love me back right?”

An awkward silence followed.

“Right Diego?!”

Again, another awkward silence hung around for a few seconds.

“Ohhhh geez. I thought this couldn't get any more awkward! First he's cheating, now some crazy psycho slaver bitch wants him back so badly she's sending a fucking army! This is brilliant!”

“Am I NOT some crazy psycho slaver bitch! I'm a very well respected Draconic Alliance political representative! And thats my slave/future husband! And you will release him from your custody this instant! Or you will receive the full force of the DA's might!”

“AND SHE WANTS TO FUCKIN' MARRY HIM! HOLY FUCK THIS IS BRILLIANT!” Kelly keeled over on the spot from laughter, snorting loudly as Karen became more and more disgruntled.

“Karen, listen...” Diego stepped up to the screen, desperately trying to take control of the situation. “They're not holding me here... i'm not a prisoner! I'm with my brother, i'm helping him out... we've been through this! I don't want to be a slave. You know this.”

“And you're not listening to me Diego! I don't want you to be my slave, I want you to my husband! It's been decided, when you get back, you're marrying me which will make you a full citizen, plus all the added benefits of being married to me... its going to be amazing. Oh, I also hired a bounty hunter to make sure you come back just in case you try to do a runner again, she's on your trail. Although I have no idea where she is or what she's doing, she just disappeared!”

Diego thought for a few seconds. “Karen, if I come peacefully, will you call off the attack? Theres no need to attack my brothers station, we can sort this out... just call off the frigates and the battleship...”

“Call off the attack? Diego, the only reason I was able to muster that amount of soldiers was because the DA are very eager to remove the pirate triad in this system! Even if you came peacefully, the soldiers on route have additional objectives!” Karen shrugged. “And I don't know what you're talking about when you referred to the battleship, we didn't send one of those. You're an escapee slave/husband, not a planetary threat.” She scoffed, finding some comical value in the lizards words.

“Great! Fuck off then!” Wex waved and cut the communication. “This is fantastic. Your mental rich ex slaver girl-friend wife deal is coming to get you and figured she'd just clean up the local 'scum' at the same time. OH, another comm coming in. I can't wait to hear how this is about my brother too! What did you do Diego, fuck the royal family too?” Wex's sarcasm didn't really help the situation.

A green and black face appeared on the screen, the controller known as Leech appeared, who was once again unknown to everyone apart from the lizard and Seeth. Her sharp, toxic eyes were looking at the group with a mix of bewilderment and sympathy.

“Seeth, Diego, I couldn't stop them. Ink's after you both. I tried to buy you time but she was relentless. She convinced the other controllers that this is the best course of action and they overwhelmed me. So i'm part of the assault force now. I don't know how she found you, I'm guessing someone's been feeding her information on the sly. I don't know what the fuck you're all gonna do, but we're nearly there. I just wanted to let you know, this was out of my hands, I tried. I gotta go, they don't know i'm talking to you. I hope you've got a plan.”

The communication cut off before anyone could reply and the room was once again left silent.

“You know Diego, I was being sarcastic when I said this would be about you... you gotta keep your dick in your pants...”

“I DO TRY.”

“So... I know thats got something to do with Diego... but you're gonna have to explain that one to us! What the fuck is an Ink?” Kelly wondered, looking at the lizard with that same grin spreading across her face as before.

The lizard ruffled his hair as the room was staring at him again, with he exception of Seeth who was now thinking to herself. Finally, the lizard spoke up, grinning and shrugging.

“At least the Silver Fish have nothing to do with me! Thats something.”

“I... don't think thats correct Diego...” Seeth chimed in. “That golden... bitch... mentioned something about a bounty hunter? The Silver Fish said they were attacked by a bounty hunter who took them out. Too much of a coincidence. Maybe she got the wrong target or maybe she's got a plan, I don't know.”

“So... the Silver Fish attacking us is also somehow my fault?! Oh great! Thanks Seeth! All this is my fucking fault! Kelly's right! This is just fucking dandy isn't it?” The lizard stopped himself talking much more and just mumbled to himself how unfair the universe was. Being somewhat clued in to what was going on, the rest of the captains continued to form their plans, although by this point, the assault of oncoming ships were just minutes away from docking. The rest of the crew were now armed, armoured and were getting into defensive positions. The trap runners were now bee-lining back the inner zone after setting up their devious kill rooms and various traps for the invaders to get mulched by. Mines, turret zones, air venting sealed rooms and pit traps were the order of the day and the various different teams were desperately sprinting back to the relative safety of the inner zone. It was guessed that the outer zone and most of the middle zone were about to become alive with fighting and would be a death-trap for any trapped members of the Fangs or Hunters.

The group in the middle of all this decided that enough plans had been made, and escorted themselves to the final armoury to arm themselves. Every available hand was to armed, the idea was to survive this assault by allowing the other forces to wear each-other down in the outer zone, have the majority of the pressing attackers disposed of by traps in the middle zone and the survivors would be gunned down at the defensive choke-points. Considering how little time they'd had, the plan was fairly solid, escape however, was not an option, and should this plan fail, the cost would be their lives.

A vast array of looted shotguns, rifles, grenades, sniper rifles, sub-machine guns, light machine guns, pistols, swords, knives, batons, axes and armour was laid out for the group to use, of varying types. Plasma weapons, laser, ballistic, heated blade, mono-molecular edge... it was a well equipped armoury. The group outfitted themselves with that they saw fit, each taking weapons to their liking, nothing was off limits. The only person who struggled, was Diego. Not being comfortable with guns, he was struggling to find a melee weapon that fitted his style. In the back of the armoury however sat a large and brutish looking sword, its blade only sharp on one side, the other flat and armoured, making it look somewhat like a giant cleaver.

“Thinking about taking that old beast huh? Good luck to you, weighs a shit load. We looted it from a BDA outpost a few years ago, no one's touched it since.” A captain laughed, patting Diego on the back. The lizard heaved the blade up, its hand guard was practically a metal bulkhead, nothing about this blade was elegant or swift, it was at least 5ft long and was bolted together in the middle, but somehow, out of all the weapons, this was the only one that felt even remotely correct to wield. After weapons were chosen (And somewhat argued over), the team armoured themselves up in heavily plated full suit armour, which included a helmet for all of them along with basic life support, so that in the event that the station becomes destabilized, they'd still have oxygen. Diego settled for just the helm however and the leggings. Despite the protests from Seeth to “Get some fucking armour on you cheating little prick!” he refused. The Zion knight way was bear chested. It was bad enough that he didn't have his own armour, and the helm was itchy, but the chest armour was just too far.

As the ships closed in, Seeth and Diego remained in the armoury, taking a seat next to each-other, deciding that it would be better to try and resolve what happened BEFORE the fighting.

“So... you went off and fucked a couple of sharks. Care to explain Diego?” Diego was unable to see Seeth's expression through her helm, but she didn't sound happy.

“They got me drunk... like, really really drunk... and one thing led to another... i'm just so used to having sex all the time, I didn't even think about it! By the time I was in any fit state of make decisions, it was already over... look, I don't want to make excuses... I fucked up and thats that.”

“Then don't. It's bad enough that i've gotta share you with the Trio, nevermind you going off and fucking other people... I just... all I want is for us to be a 'normal' couple... as normal as we can be anyway... I don't want to go off saving people and doing all this stupid shit... I just want me and you together... thats it...”

“I'm sorry Seeth...”

“Look, I can forgive you... on one condition... When we're done here, we leave. Just me and you. No Karen, No Cherry, Plum or Bubblegum, No Plasia... just me and you. Like it was supposed to be from the very beginning... “

Diego nodded. “I think that would be a good idea...” He went to hug her, but she pushed him away.

“I just need some time to cool down... maybe shooting some people in the face will help... I just hope we make it through this... i'm still pissed as fuck at you. You cheated on me with a couple of pirate bastards...”

“Uh, right here you know space bitch!” Kelly shouted out, holding a middle finger up at Seeth. “And also, i've got a fat dick and I fucked him up his ass! I hope that makes it worse for you!” She laughed.

“No worries, i've got a fatter dick and he takes it all the time from me, so yeah, step your game up. Bitch.” Seeth called back, holding her own finger up at the shark, she turned back to Diego and sighed. “Just give me a little time... we'll be fine... if we get through this... i've got a bad feeling though.” Seeth leaned down and whispered to Diego, making sure none of the others could hear. “Also... notice anyone missing from here? I'll leave you think about it...”

There was an initial quietness as the first squads from both the DA's side and the Silver Fish's entered the station. The Fangs hadn't trapped up the docking bays in an attempt to lure the invaders into a false sense of security. Wex watched the screens closely, the motion sensors picked up the intruders signature and was following them as they made their way around their entrance, each side securing their way in. Jace's squad was on deck first, followed shortly by Yohans. Amongst Jace's squad was Theo and Vell, both of whom were involved in the incident Diego had escaped from back where Karen used to live. The whole team was armoured and moving into position, taking defensive positions in the dock whilst the captains figured out where to go.

Jace tapped a few commands into his gauntlet and a small dragonfly recon drone launched from the ship just behind him, landing gracefully on his shoulder. The machine was roughly the size of a childs fist, covered in blue optics and lights, with a pair of fluttering Ion glass wings that allowed it to fly with grace and poise. The drone stood on the males shoulder for a few seconds, before buzzing upwards and floating back towards the ship, rather than re-entering the ship however, a massive swarm of identical drones rushed out of the ships doors, that single drone rejoining its clones and charging towards every single exit from the room, splitting their numbers perfectly to explorer every inch of the space-station, the cloud of fluttering, buzzing blue drones transmitting their information from their cameras and sensors back to the control deck of the boarding frigate which then distributed it back to the soldiers for them to use.

A defensive perimeter was already set up within the dock, which was a massive open room, full of crates and random items brought in by the Jeweled Fangs for them to use. The squads sent by the DA were of large size, and were to be split into smaller groups to cover multiple sides, but the overall size of force was fairly small, consisting of no more than 50 men and women. Scyler was due to be arriving on the station in a few hours as well to assist in collecting data as he suspected the Rewritten would be turning up.

In contrast, the Silver Fishes forces were numerous, over 200 pirates were already storming through the outer region of the station, looking for things to loot and people to shoot, a hunger for revenge drove their squads to move quickly. It didn't take them long to charge their way into the DA's forces either, although they were somewhat surprised to be fighting DA soldiers.

Jace and his squad were up first, with Theo and Vell right behind him, as well as a a group of other soldiers under Jace's command. Each of them clad in the DA's self contained armour, a tight fitting mesh of armour plates and modules, including ballistic shielding. The squads armaments consisted mainly of Vulcan battle rifles and Vulcan handguns for side arms, but Theo was toting around some extra kick in the way of a Vulcan Shotgun. The Silver Fish however, were less than well equipped, with more primitive firearms, some coming from earth based weapons. AK-147's and Deagle's were their weapons of choice. Perfectly suited for people with basic armour or clothing, not so well suited to modern defensive choices however.

A brief moment of silence was swiftly concluded at the forces encountered each-other in a large cafeteria, emerging from opposite sides, men from both frays charged into cover, tipping over tables and opening fire across the room. Bullets pinged off metal and smashed through glass as pirates began their aggressive assault. Vell was first in, ducked through the door way, he pulled his Vulcan rifle up and nipped behind a pillar, receiving information on the pirates positions from the dragonfly drones, he responded to the suppressive fire with a hail of his own fuzzy blue Vulcan rounds, tearing through a table and ripping through a couple of female pirates across from him, splattering their blood in thick splurts against the wall behind them.

Theo charged against the aggressors who were advancing on Vell's position with Jace covering him, laying down suppressive fire for Theo to engage them in close combat. Before long, a furious melee of pirates were attempting to bring down Theo, swinging scimitars and stabbing knifes at the Rhargnorn, who took it all in his stride, slamming his heavy fist across the jaw of one and driving his knee into the stomach of another, digging the spike through the skin and dragging it down, tearing the poor bastards innards out in one brutish movement. Vell and Jace unleashed hails of fire, ripping ranks of pirates apart as they dove for cover, the Silver Fish's arms couldn't really damage the armour of the DA's soldiers unless it hit them right in the visor, meaning they were already losing ground against them.

Within the space of a few minutes, they'd been pushed back out of that room and were fighting through the narrow corridors they just came down, trying to set up choke points to hold the DA back. Again though, Theo was the one to push forward, as he arrived at a corridor with a Plasma sprayer, a heavy weapon designed to spray devastating plasma clouds at infantry in massive bursts. Shouldering himself up against a wall, he rolled out into the corridor and blasted a torrent of bright blue gastric plasma right into the Fish's barricade, causing the people inside to scream in pain as their flesh corroded, hissing loudly as the plasma made short work of their skin and muscles, reducing living beings into piles of ash and bone in seconds, the plasma also melted and heavily damaged the metal plating of the walls as well, causing them to sag and droop from the intense heat.

Captain Yohans group made their way down a second series of corridors, getting into minor fire fights as they pushed on into Fish territory. Their progress was much faster as Jace's squad seemed to be fighting through the main bulk of the infantry.

On the other side of the station however, the Rewritten were just docking, the battleship was not only docking, but it was also firing breaching pods across the surface of the station, attempting to get slaves and nodes behind enemy lines, the shuddering thud of these pods slamming into the stations surface shook the area loudly, causing the squad members to pause for a second, waiting for the dragonfly drones to find out what was going on.

The Silverfish had set themselves up in the dock already where the Rewritten were coming, thinking that it was Fang reinforcements and hoping to cut them off with a number of pirates preparing to face the incoming force. Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw them the ships doors opened. A stampede of hungry slaves charged into the dock, thousands of them already as nodes ducked in their ranks, using them as shields to approach the pirates. They poured round after round into the horde, downing slaves easily, but found themselves being grabbed by hundreds of hands and pulled to the floor, as hungry slaves pulled their armour and clothes off to begin the process of corrupting them. First off the ship were Scion, Moltezz and Blaze, marching down the metal ramp proudly, armoured up with thick metal plating and armed with their personal weapons. Blaze's amp flail, Moltezz's dual energy whips and Scions heavy machine guns and grenade launcher strapped to her back.

Additional reinforcements arrived on the upper deck of the docking area for the pirates, Blaze and Scion taking them on together. Ordering a wave of slaves to attack first, Blaze flanked from the side as the pirates gunned down the approaching creatures, turning around too late to see the massive ball of electrified metal ploughing into the group, the flail burning flesh, crushing bones and scattering the squad in a single swing, as the survivors tried to regain their footing, Scion marched up a set of steps behind them and gunned them down with her weapons, mulching the group as the bullets tore them up. Moltezz regrouped with them and they began ordering massive amounts of slaves and nodes to explore the station, as Leech began deploying her projects to help out with the assault.

The Silverfish found themselves in a rather nasty sandwich as DA forces hit them from one side and the Rewritten swarmed through them on the other, only their numbers kept them in the fight as they threw themselves at the assaulting forces.

“This is crazy, the outer zone is completely lit up by fighting. The DA have deployed dragonfly drones to scout us out, i've informed by men to shoot them down on sight but some are gonna get through, nippy little buggers...” Wex scratched his head as he looked at the holo screens.

“Whats happened to the surveillance on the battleships side?” Ray asked, noticing all the feeds were dead on that side.

“I'm... not sure... the DA haven't disabled the feeds on their side yet... how have they done that so quickly?” Wex pondered, unsure of how the Rewritten were capable of doing that so quickly.

“As long as the feeds near our choke-points are still up, we'll do ok.” Seeth added. “After all, those are the actual important ones. The others are more for our entertainment at this point.”

“She's right. Those are still functioning. What do we do for the meantime? Just sit here and wait for them to hit us?” Kelly asked, feeling somewhat annoyed at the fact she couldn't go aggressive.

“Uhuh. We're massively outnumbered. We need to wait for them to wear themselves out.” Wex nodded, flicking through his comm's display. “Holy fuck... what the fuck is wrong with those people? Why do they look so... so... zombie like?” Wex was referring to the slaves, whilst this was now common knowledge to Diego, the whole process and concept of the Rewritten was totally foreign and unknown to most people, which was most likely how they were being so successful.

“Those are what we call 'Slaves', they're people who've been corrupted who... uhm...” Diego wasn't sure how best to word it, but Seeth stepped in to help him out.

“They weren't smart enough, resistant enough or didn't have an adaptable enough body. As a result, the corruption worked quickly and grew into their brain, damaging it heavily and destroying their intelligence. Leech told me a lot about it.”

“So they essentially become slaves for the others to use as required, hence their name.” Diego finished, the room becoming rather silent as they contemplated it.

“So... what else happens to you? What if you are smart enough or whatever?” Kelly probed, curious about what her fate might be.

“Well, if your body accepts the changes well and you've got a decent brain, as well as some willpower to try and resist the changes, you'll become a Node.” Seeth pointed out on the camara feeds at a large winged dragoness who was ducked behind a group of slaves as a shotgun blasted one of them apart at the torso. “Thats a Node there. You'll grow larger, keep a portion of your intelligence, become a grow a dick if you don't have one or breasts if you don't have those and will be another of the horde.” Seeth didn't seem massively happy about explaining this, but she figured she owed it to everyone here.

“Why does resisting make you more likely to become a Node?” Kelly's curiosity refused to halt.

“Those who are consumed by the sex and want to join will simply lose everything they are, it'll become their everything. But if you try to resist and fight it, you'll preserve more of who you are. Your still fucked of course, but... less fucked.”

“And how do you get corrupted?”

“... You have sex with someone who's corrupted and they cum inside you. The corruptant is contained inside their seman, it'll try to get into your blood stream and once it does... thats when it happens.”

“So... what you're saying is... those things are going to fuck and rape everyone?”

“Yes.”

The room went deafly silent again. A mixture of feelings spreading across the group.

“So... what about Diego? Have you had your balls changed or something? Why isn't he corrupted?”

“Diego is something we call a Mark. Some people are immune to the corruption, either due to genetics, species or sheer luck. Marks cannot ever be corrupted. Which means I can have sex with him all I want and he'll be fine.”

“Apart from walking like a cowboy for a few hours anyway.” Kelly laughed. “I didn't know he took so much dick! What a fucking champ!”

Diego frowned. Taking abnormal amounts of huge sloppy alien dicks didn't seem like an achievement. Before he had a chance to retort though, a swarm of small fly drones zipped into the room, spreading out and landing on everything, some of them assaulting the computers in the room, attempting to gain access to them by inserting small connectors into the consoles.

“Fuck! Dragonfly's! Knock the fuckers off before they nick all our info!” Wex yelled, the group leaping into action, picking drones out of the air with pistols and batting them off computers. The room became a frantic melee of buzzing drones as they were slowly dispatched of, they were all well aware of the fact that the drones had seen all they needed to see though, just the fact they'd gotten in meant that they'd transmitted that information back to the DA already. It took a few minutes, but they managed to eventually purge the room of drones and regrouped back in the center.

“Well. They know we're here now. Question is... what will they do?” Ray wondered. She hadn't really had many run in's with the DA. Most pirates don't survive fights with the DA and as a result, her and Kelly had steered clear, although now, that simply wasn't an option. The group didn't stay silent with their thoughts for long though, the sound of gunfire rung through the room loudly as one of the choke-points encountered a group of slaves who'd managed to wander through the traps unharmed simply by being lucky.

A number of the Fang's guards stood from their make-shift cover and fired a barrage of rounds into the approaching squad, shredding the group easily. Limb bodies collapsing to the floor as the bullets burst through their skin with ease. The group celebrated as the victory seemed easy, several pirates cheering loudly.

Kelly grinned as she saw the action directly. “Hah! What a piss take! This is gonna be easy if they all go down that easy.” Her words caused Diego and Seeth to both frown quite heavily.

“Those slaves weren't supported by a Node or a controller. And that was what...? 10 slaves? Don't get your hopes up Kelly. That was nothing.” Seeth growled, still feeling some bitterness towards the girl. This simply wasn't a victory, it was a warning. A teaser of what was about to come. Wex stared at the comms screen in disbelief was the approaching wall of bodies charged through the mines and traps set up, the explosives barely putting a dent in their numbers.

The pirates celebrations can to an abrupt end as they heard the sound of the traps detonating, auto turrets blasting away at targets, empty shell casings bouncing off the floor. The screaming and wailing of the mashed up slaves as their bodies became ruined messes. All the squads could do was watch the end of corridor in anxiety and fear as the sound got closer and closer. What was worrying Wex more however, was how many cameras were failing. Electronics across the sectors the Rewritten were in simply seemed to be fucking up.

In the rooms that the cameras were still functioning, all the lights were disabled by something. Only the barely visible slightly bio-luminescent eyes of the horde could be made out, which was not a remotely inspiring view... as judging from the sheer amount of them piling through every single room that was still visible, they'd run out of ammo before the Rewritten would run out of bodies.

The thunderous stampeding of slaves charging forward arrived into the SilverFish's dock, more bodies hurling themselves through the doors than bullets coming back the other way. Squads of well armed Nodes had been fighting through the upper decks and were winning the fight easily. Pirates left, right and center were getting mauled, sliced, shot and the survivors raped by the Rewrittens unstoppable hoard.

The invaders simply did not have the fire power required to stop this many people. Despite that, the main dock was heavily defended, an array of auto turrets along with numerous entrenched men and women put up a wall of bullets, which pinged off walls, cut through flesh and slammed into armour, this wall of bullets however, was just enough to hold off the slaves piling through the 3 main doors on the primary deck of the dock.

Pirates frantically reloaded their weapons as the waves stopped for a few seconds, yanking dead bodies out the way of doors and allowing Nodes to sweep into position. The Rewritten's crystalline network living in every single of one of them meaning they had absolutely perfect timing and communication. A brief moment of silence was swiftly concluded by the hungry roar of the horde, who swiftly jammed themselves through the bay doors again, meeting the volleys of bullets head on, but this time, the Nodes on the upper deck breached the security doors that were holding them back, allowing them to bring their weapons down from above on the pirates. High powered lasers and ballistic fire rained down from above, slicing and cutting through a few of the defenders, making a few seconds gap in the constant bullet storm, allowing the slaves to get far closer than they'd like. Greased by slaves squeezed themselves through vents and gaps, fumbling through the walls the pirates had otherwise thought were safe and landing on the floor with a painful thud as the vents were half way up the 30ft dock walls.

The defenders suddenly found a small number of slaves grabbing at them from behind, trying to grab weapons and distract the defenders long enough to let the main horde into the room, but the SilverFish fought well, the officers leading the defence took aim with their weapons and dispatched of the flanking slaves with few well placed shots through the skull and quickly set up auto turrets to hold the flanks, hauling the heavy metal machines into position in just a few seconds. These motorized tri-pod mounted machines could lay down an inaccurate but powerful burst of automatic rounds, perfect for dealing with the slaves.

Yet more new threats arrived, as the pirates continued to trade shots with the Nodes above them and hold the hoard off, both Nodes and pirates dying in equal numbers as bullets found their way into internal organs, limbs and heads. The officers glanced at the main door directly ahead of them in confusion as the slaves stopped and waited, a line of armoured slaves appearing in front in a protective line.

Equipped with thickly layered ballistic protection, the slaves were barely visible as several flak-jackets had been stuck on top of one another, the poor things almost unable to walk properly as they lurched forward, weighed down by their significant protection. Bullets sunk into the armoured slaves, but failed to put them down in any reasonable time as they provided a wall for their armour-less counter parts. A piercing screech was audible above the gun-fire for a few seconds as another type of slave crawled into the room.

A young female wolf who looked around the room with empty, desperate eyes, with her arms locked together by huge metal bolts through her forearms, she leapt forward and manoeuvred between the armoured slaves. Several large metal antennas stuck out from her back, crudely crafted into her flesh, her body looked like a twisted metal experiment as she howled in pain and fell to the floor, the equipment on her surging with power. She collapsed and began shaking on the floor violently and as she did so, the power in the room died with a sudden loud clack as breaker switches triggered. Every light turned off, every auto turret suddenly ceased fire and powered down as the girl continued to spasm on the floor painfully.

The flashing of gunfire from the defenders revealing the swiftly approaching horde as the battle continued to roar with life in the dark. Each shot they fired providing a brief snap shot of the slaves getting closer and closer. Scion burst into the fray through the main doors, the slaves very quickly forming a path for her as she surged into the fray. The gunfire slowly began to die out as the Fish found themselves out of water, the horde was upon them.

Nodes descended from above, leaping into the fray as hundreds of hands tore guns away from pirates and began pinning them down, every inch of the room was filled with hungry bodies as the suppressive fire had stopped. The remaining officers at the very end of the dock, standing on the ship ramp looked on in fear as they used flashlights to survey the room in the very final seconds they had, before a tentacle whipped them across the face painfully, downing all of them in a single swipe. Scion was upon them along with a sweeping assault of Nodes.

Yet Scion's assault did not stop there. She ordered slaves to search and raid the docked ships, before taking her force to mop up the rest of the Silverfish, which were standing between her and the DA. The sexual frenzy starting behind her would half to wait. All the controllers knew why they were here, the Silverfish were not the prize, the slaves and a few Nodes could have their fun here, but there was still plenty to be done.