Chapter 63 - Mara

Mita sighed in relief as she stripped off most of the Share-Holder's otherworldly items off her. It was quite the challenge for even a lithe-handed rogue such as herself to peel them off of Samantha as she slept. Although the Yaohu Oil kept her red-headed hellion lulled into a deep slumber, it was difficult to separate her from the Otherworld items that she passed over to her fellow Crows onto a table. She couldn't get rid of the Share-Holder's skin-tight Silken bodysuit in particular. Her best Crows concluding that it was probably some kind of embedded under-armor of sorts that the Demons had bestowed to her as a sign of her allegiance to their designs. She would just pass them off to what is left of the Empire's Arcanists to see what they can do about it upon her delivery to Ghana's Wall.

She and about five of her remaining Crows had made camp of about 5 or so miles north off of Egni. Of the thirty Crows who assaulted the Demonic Butchering Camp, only eleven remained alive. Of the eight, five proffered to escort the refugees they forge ahead with rescued to safety and report back to Marshall Huguet of their findings. The other five stayed with Mita and continue their clandestine actions around Kalmte and continue scouting and performing any subversive actions against the invaders in the meanwhile.

At the present at their Camp, Mita's Crows were in a mix of calm and a consoling elation that they have survived so far. Sharing, drinks, stories, and their rations with each other whilst expecting their roguish tools. One of them, a more industrious minded of Crow, was put to work by the Crow Master to tinker with the Chosen One's strange paraphernalia. He had accounted several of the items already on his logbook with rudimentary descriptions and drawings of what he observed.

"Some kind of Leather Cuirass? Pockets everywhere… like ours feistiri." The Tinkering Crow showed Mita the amber-colored vest.

"And that Blue Banner… with the rings? They look like they form… a flower. Strange." one of the Crows eyed curiously on the Vests flag patch. "Does the Demonology Books match this Hex?"

"I don't think it does." Mita nodded. "All is this too strange for me… You have to be careful with those. Who knows what could happen to you?"

The Tinkering Crow dropped down the amber vest away and laid his hands onto the next piece of alien contraband: Samantha's peculiar 'Black Stave'. Unlike the typical magical staff seen by many of Battlemages and scholastic Wizards, it had an artiste-like design of sleek metal furbished into delicate separate parts. There was a handguard, much like a crossbow at one side of the Stave whilst their were several curious holes that were noticeable upon an erudite examination of the device.

"So, they hold them like this or…" the Tinkering Crow's fingers glided across the alien weapon, holding it upright as his eyes peered over its hollow focus…

BANG!

A thunderous crack sent the seclusion of the Crow Camp into disarray. The Crow somehow causing the Stave to discharge its magicks onto him.

Mita and the rest of the Crows looked on in horror as the Tinkering Crow stood still, eyes once alive with curiousity become limp as he turned slowly to them to reveal that his throat began leaking blood. The accursed magicks of the Stave had smited him!

He looked on in horror to his fellow Rogues as he collapsed onto the floor, eyes fading into tears. The grasp of Tivna's hand slowly enrapturing into her deathly embrace. The Stave he held followed down to the floor, causing the stave to again discharge its invisible missiles one more time as it collapsed to the campground, its speedy missile, slinging away a chunk of wood from a nearby tree with its piercing gaze.

"No!" one of the Crows rushed towards his bleeding comrade, frantically trying to grasp his pockets in a panic to find something or anything to seal the bloodl.u.s.t, finding a lonely and crumpled up hankerchief on one of his least used pockets on his leather cuirass. But as he placed the cloth onto his wound, it was too late, the Tinkerer's hands grew limp and his eyes twisted back. Tivna has taken him away to her garden.

"This… this Magicks is cursed! The Clerics were right! We should toss this away before it claims another one of us!" The now bloody-handed Crow's eyes seeped red with grief gnarled, flinging an accusatory finger towards the Black Stave that had taken his fellow's life.

Mita swallowed her throat, she knew the risks of handling the items of the Demonic Invaders but there is nobody except her that she knows of that is brave enough to try and study their adversary. The rest fled, broken into terror by the might of their arms. But not her, she must know thy enemies so she knows what thy herself and her Crows could do to fight back.

With her head lowered to respect her fallen junior, she walked around the Tinkering Crow's corpse and cautiously picked up the Share-Holder's Black Stave. Remembering that her late aide's death was caused when he peeked through its 'Hollow Focus' she took care her face was not meeting its gaze.

"As we had observed among the Otherworlders, the way they use their staffs are like Crossbows." Mita held the Stave stead as one of a Tyr Rianni Arbalist.

When she looked over, her eyes peeked through with great enhancement that it unbalanced her for a moment until she realizes that she was looking through what looks like some kind of monoscope attached to atop of the Stave. Although it may be shorter in length than her own spyglass, the magnification of one's vision was a great improvement for a remarkably terse gadget. She noticed that the monoscope she looked towards was perceptively aiming the said stave towards a nearby tree in their camp.

"So, if this is like an Arbalist then I should pull the trigger mechanism… that is…" Mita muttered.

Using her knowledge of firing Crossbows, she held her breath, steadied her aim and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

Another crack discharged from the Black Stave. Fortunately, it only struck a single tree.

Mita sparked with a coy smile. Her hypothesis being correct, the Stave sharing the same mechanism of a Crossbow. The Crow Master had also observed that the Crossbow didn't require one to manually pull up the rope cables, if there were any inside this Stave to fire the Stave for successive shots.

She squeezed the trigger again.

BANG!

The stave struck wherever the monoscope's gazed upon with Elven-like accuracy.

"Could you keep on…  I wonder?" Mita questioned the Stave. Whenever she squeezed the trigger, it fired one shot… if she pulled the trigger mechanism again, would more come out?

BANG!

She squeezed a second time, resting her arms steady from the recoil of the Stave's discharge.

BANG!

Again, she squeezed the trigger.

BANG!

Curiously, she noticed that every time she fired the Stave, a brass-colored shell erupted from the back of the rifle, lightly tapping her feet.

She knelt down and grabbed the brass shells. They were shaped like darts about as small length short of her middle finger. Mita turned over the Stave and discovered that there was a hollow chamber beneath the rifle that gave her a glimpse of the Arcane Secrets the stave possessed inside of it, of which there was nothing Arcane in its nature. The craftsmanship inside the hollow shell chamber was intricate, precise and linear like her own Dwarfen Hand-Bolt Thrower. Her sharp eyes further examined that the dart-shell or at least one similar shaped to the one she held is now resting itself upon a circular chamber with a hammer set aback as if waiting for some hidden mechanism, a trigger to release its potential energy onto the dart-shell to discharge it off of the Stave.

"This is how these Otherworlder's weapons must work like?" the Crow Master curled her lips. Mind storming with ingenious thoughts of this Otherworlder Weapon.

"Master!" a voice cried. "Are you okay? Did that Accursed Devilry spoke whispers to you?" a concerned Crow pleaded to her.

"No… I… I don't 'hear' anything…" Mita answered. "I… I don't think this is a Magic Stave… is Magical at all."

"How so?" the Crow asked.

"I saw what is inside it… there's nothing but moving parts within it. I believe these are merely… VERY well-made Repeating Crossbows these Otherworlders are wielding. L-like my Hand-Bolt Thrower." Mita explained to her adjuvants.

"Are you saying this isn't Magic the Demons are using?" the Crow asked her.

"In all my years as your Master. I have seen it all when it comes to Magicks." Mita sighed. "This is not one of any. Daosne, Elven nor of the Colleges." She hovered the Black Stave to her Crows. "The Demons powers rely on forged Steel, of breakable, finite and temporal Steel."

"If it is made, then we can break it! There is hope!" A Crow leaped, her mourning of their lost friend no longer being a tale of tragedy, but a twisted canon of martyrdom.

"Oh… my head… was so…" Samantha groggily arose from her slumber. The loud cracking of mage (or Boltfire now that Mita deduced) had pulled her away from the effects of the Yaohu Herb.

"The prisoner. She has awoken." A Crow affirmed to her fellows. "Did you not put enough of that Sleeping Oil onto her?"

"Absurd. The Smuggler assured me that the Share-Holder would be sleeping like a babe for three entire days under its effects while we carried her off." The Crow Master protested.

Little did she know that Samantha had a Nanite Enhancement embedded into her bloodstream. They were intended to compensate for the instabilities in her body ever since she became the Share-Holder. The Nanites gave her enhanced strength and resistance, especially against drugs and toxins. The augmentation also doubled as a regulatory body that helps enhance Captain Rose's constitution. Although the Nanites in all of it being the bleeding edge of the Federation's technology, there was a first time for every encounter with anything of foreign-descent, the Yaohu Herb being a particular test for to the Nanites' proficiency in tackling immunity responses. Alas, there was always a first time for everything as those cybernetics learn from their newfound enemy onto their microscopic databases.

"Pri-ser… What!?" the Captain's voice raised her voice as if she had just awoken from a drowning dream.

There were few fragments she attempted to recollect herself unto on those waking moments beforehand but it was like seeing through a rain-dropped window. Of how just before she left for Dimera, there was an attack on the Quarantine Camp. Stryder Group paused what they were doing and assisted with its Defense and then suddenly, darkness.

But as her body restarted, it came to her horror that she saw her hands bound by heavy Ghyranite Handcuffs and the hateful gazes of ten eyes, of five cowled rapscallions surrounding her. She struggled to free herself, but her wrists only felt the cold embrace of the Ghyranite metal bruising her clanging with the metal bits of her restraints. She found those same restraints being leashed securely onto a tree binding her only a few steps away from its tether preventing her from running.

Her eyes fluttered red with tears, breathing heavily as she realizes this was no longer a dream. Samantha was effectively their Prisoner of War. She turned her gaze to her captors, recognizing one of them amongst the hooded rogues.

"Damn, it's you again Crow Master?" Captain Rose cursed, her mind racing to remember her captor's name. The Memory of the Arhaf Square Incident was still etched into her. "Let me go right now!" she shook her bindings.

Mita may not be wearing her roguish Leather Armor right now, instead wearing clothed u.n.d.e.r.g.a.r.m.e.n.t that shielded her front torso while exposing her many seedy tattoos around her the rest of her body.

Samantha composed herself but the Captain's heavy exhales betrayed her fear.

"Fear not, Share Holder." Mita declared in a calm voice. Emerging from her colleagues to step closer to her. "Once we reach Ghana's Wall we shall finally have you return to the side of my Masters. As you should be."

" 'Rescue' me?! By putting me in these chains? Was that Attack you doing?" Samantha sneered. Using the infected villagers to divert the UFE Forces in Egni away to capture her was a devious scheme only capable by either her friend Agent De Sardet or the Crow Master. "Don't make me laugh. You will get nothing from me, no matter what you do or try on me, it will not work."

Samantha attempted to stand up, to turn face her captors on equal levels…

The crack of a rifle firing point blank, her FBR-20 Rifle, in the hands of Mita. A searing bullet landing meteorically a few inches onto her feet causing the Captain to jump sideways in reflex and enchaining her back into docility.

The Crows around the camp chuckled. It was amusing to see the Invader's weapons being used against them. To dance like a sideshow skink in a travelling circus.

"This 'Black Stave' of yours? Quite a weapon is it not? A mighty fine weapon." Mita smiled coyly.

"Don't even try." Samantha's eyes locked onto the Crow daringly. "You wouldn't dare."

Captain Rose knew that thanks to her Status, the Natives wouldn't dare harm her. But it doesn't stop them from attempting to tighten the leash around her neck.

Mita fired again, purposely aiming near Samantha's feet. Once again, the captain's reflexes caused her to strafe sideways. The rifle continues to discharge until eventually, the once-proud Share-Holder was reduced to drunken-like dancing for her captors' growing amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Look at her go!"  one Crow cheered at her. "You Demons are powerless without your weapons! Ho-Ha!"

"Better than that wench from that Tavern back'in Millhelm!" another smiled, grinning his eyes towards Samantha's Hecate skin-tight Bodysuit that left little to the imagination for him.

"You will pay for this!" Samantha breathes seethed, her green eyes beginning to leak. It was a nightmare she couldn't wake up from. To be reduced to this.

Mita indulged in this light-hearted moment, holding Samantha's FBR-20 up high like a hero of myth.

"Oh, it is I… the Great… Mita the Crow Master who captured the mighty beast and taken its horn as a trophy!" She rested her laurels, only to forget that the 'Black Stave' being in actuality a repeating crossbow.

BANG! 

BANG! 

BANG!

Click! 

Click!

The soft chink of the FBR-20, a far cry to its thunderous roar was heard from the camp. The Crow's festive chatter reduced to silence as the Black Stave suddenly failed to discharge its thunderous roar. Disappointment fell upon Mita as Samantha cackled sardonically.

"You're out of Bullets now. It's useless. Crow 'M-M-a-aster'." Captain Rose poked fun at the turnabout in this caricature.

The Crow Master rummages through Samantha's paraphernalia to search for more magazines to reload the Black Stave. She knew her hypothesis on the alien weapon having the same magazine mechanism as her Hand-Bolt Thrower.

"Don't bother, that is the last mag in the Rifle, I used it all to make killing a lot of your dumb-ass thugs back at Egni." The captain continued to berate her and the other Crows much to their irritation in an attempt to keep up her aplomb spite for her predicament. "All thanks to your 'brilliant' plan of yours… Crow 'M-M-a-aster'.~"

Mita didn't hesitate to defend her and her Crows' Honor. It was a daring plan yes, a plan that will result in casualties but to have her captive mock those who have sacrificed their lives in order to secure her capture was a mirror the Crow Master shattered. She threw several punches towards Samantha, three on her head, and one to her gut.

"What a sharp mouth you have their child." Mita gently curled her fingers onto Samantha's chin. "It looks like it needs to be taught a lesson on respecting your Elders."

The Crow Master pulled out one of her knives from its scabbard. Prying the Captain's mouth open, Mita impaled inside her mouth. The right side of her gums drew blood and sharp pain causing Samantha to yowl. Crows aren't afraid to facilitate strong-armed techniques to get in their way, knowing several of such to maximize the extraction of compliance and any sort of information out of whoever came their way. But it takes a special individual, if perhaps with a hint of sadistic delirium such as the Crow Master herself to have the Talent of even making the bravest of souls crack under her palms.

Mita knew she could not significantly harm Samantha as per her contract, but there was some wiggle-room within all the law jargon that she and her Crows get away with. The Marshall can tolerate a few visible 'battle scarring' such as the one on Samantha's mouth as long as it doesn't cut too deep enough. She could explain to her paymasters that it was a result of a 'rough' capture and not worry about compromising her fee.

"Are you still Axe-Headed now Share-Holder?" Mita smirked.

Captain Rose spat away the saliva-mixed blood on her mouth towards Mita. Fighting back her tears, the Share-Holder headbutts her causing to recoil back with a bleeding nose.

"f.u.c.k. you."  Samantha faintly cussed.

Her bravado now shattered by this unusually feisty captive. Mita c.o.c.ked her knees and delivered a despicable strike to Samantha's abdomen. That quavering blow and the ones before it threatened to crack her resolve but she couldn't give up. Her mind was still willing but her flesh now lay squirming beneath the Crow Master's feet. It was one thing to endure the intense physical training she endured in West Point, it was another to experience firsthand.

"My! My! Take your Magicks and Weapons away, then a few punches in, and already you're a sniveling mess. Perhaps this will be easier than I thought." The Crow Master crossed her arms, haughtily laughing alongside her fellows.  "You know, the way you look me in the eyes, I quite like you better than that brat Faithleann. If I had done what I did to you to him? Oh, he would be crying for his mama all the way back to whatever hovel he came from." Even the most craven of Gutter-Men from the Kobold's Hollow would last longer than the Share-Holder. The other Crows roaring into laughter.

"Well, I find him as a brat too." Samantha venomously spat back. "Maybe we could actually be friends… After all huh?" the Captain's sarcasm reeking from her teeth.

"Your quite a cheer do you know Share-Holder?" Mita humored her. "Better than that Brat could ever be."

"I do wonder, there's anything worth much with this stuff?" one of the Rogue deciding to pilfer Samantha's Combat Rig, managing to grab a green-colored sphere with a metal topper shaped like a thin handle. It was her Fragmentation Grenade.

Samantha could only breathe in fearful gasps, in a futile attempt to steady her cool as her Captors fondled with the object. If that Grenade explodes whilst the ignorant Native is still near her, she would be vaporized into smithereens.

"What is this? Some kind of Poultice? A one of those… eh… Dwarfen things? A Flask?" the Crow asked.

"I think I have seen something like that once with the Otherworlders? They are like Uzeagon Shells. You put the powder in it and a fuse then when you want something gone you light it." Another Crow answered.

"No way, it smells too nice to be a Dwarfen Bomb." The Crow sniffed Samantha's grenade. "It must be some kind of Flask!" he declared.

The Crows fingers began to inch closely

"Oh… are you saving this for yourself? Ha! Selfish." The Crow teased Samantha's Grenade, still thinking it was a harmless doo-dad.

"I wonder if this is some great stuff you drink! I grow tired of water." The Crow smugly grinned as his fingers figured out the mechanism to 'unlock the Flask'. It didn't take too long until his hands curled over to the grenade's pin to realize it is loose enough to pull out from.

The soft click of the grenade pin being removed by the crow causes Samantha's heart to sink. She was right point-blank range within the Grenade's Kill-Radius. And the fuse is one-second short of five-seconds.

"Strange… is there anything in… GAH!" the Crow turned the 'Flask' upside down, expecting a liquid to flow out. But instead, in a last-ditch effort to save herself from a grenade explosion, Samantha kicked the grenade off his hands.

The grenade flew about five meters away, Just barely far enough that she could theoretically survive the blast. It landed amongst three other Crows who stood by at the scene.

"This bitch!" the thirsting Crow growled.

"Maybe we ought'a teach'er a lesson ourselves too!"  one of the Crows who hung back cracked his fists.

As the three approached menacingly towards the Captain, eager to have their vengeful way with her, It did not take a single step further did the grenade finally detonated. The blast blew away everyone in the camp, with the three sadistic Crows being vaporized immediately into unrecognizable charred bits.

Samantha's ear rang like the clanging of alarm bells and her eyes saw blinking stars as she crawled away from the blast. Her desperate gamble that maybe the Grenade Blast killed all of her captors was tragically dashed when she felt a pair of hate-filled hands grasp her by the throat.

"You… killed them!" a vengeful-fisted Crow pressed his heel onto the Captain's back. "You conniving little she-devil!" he cast a straight shot onto her, bruising her already wounded lips further.

"He pulled the fuse from my Grenade. If I didn't kick that 'flask' away we would all have been dead." Samantha discharged onto the soil another bile-blooded mix of her saliva.

"Enough!" Mita stopped her underling from harming the Share-Holder any further. "The Share-Holder was right. These weapons of theirs are powerful as they are dangerous to be used. We are not suited to unknown for us to handle such dangerous artifacts so recklessly! Just look what happened to Johrah earlier. Just leave this be until we can give it to our arcane specialists to inspect. We have lost more than enough for one day. What matters is we have the Chosen One now? With her, we can turn the tide of this war." She ordered.

The punitory Crow reluctantly acceded. Lowering his hands and stepping off of Samantha's back.

"Ha… Ha…" Samantha crawled her humor to a hysterical chortle. The Natives were truly a theater to behold for the Captain witness. "You guys still cling to all of that… Chosen One bullshit?"

"What are you saying Share-Holder? You are a Chosen One too." Mita rebutted.

"I know, but that's not what I found so funny. You think just removing… me! Would 'turn the tide' of the War? You listen to me… listen to me." Sam turned herself around and faced the much-confused Crows. "The 'Otherworlders' you speak of? We go by the Federation of Earth you see. He-Ha… Have you heard of what we did to your armies? All shattered and in retreat. Little Hill? Tifrait? Marnia's Bluff and your Capital?  Their walls and gates toppled. Not even with all of my powers combined I could accomplish what they had done with our Armies. So tell me, how can one person, a 'Chosen One' like me turn this all around for the Empire, Huh?"

The Crows lay there, stunned into silence. Mita hated to see the writing spoken by Sam that she and Faithlean powers so far can never match the mighty Steel Beasts of the Demons that pulverized the Bastions of the Empireto dust.

"And those 'Traitors' you speak about all the time? Clovich? Aliathra? The Terrace-Dwarves? Thibaut? Karliah? Even the Vampires? Your 'g-glorious' Empire mistreated them, burn their villages, killed their Families, cheating their way to becoming a Grand Master, and neglecting them when they ask for help?! Yet your Emperor has the gall to act surprised they came to us when we extended our hands to them? All for what? To keep whatever, you have at the cost of those you see are beneath you? If this is what your idea of 'Civilization' then there is nothing more I want to speak of to you savages." Samantha called out the Slaegian Empire's hypocrisy.

"Lies all Lies… Wait…" Mita expectedly denied Captain Rose's accusations. But paused. "H-how did you know about the Cheating?"

"Holy Shit." Samantha muttered. "So it really was you! You killed Kemar Silverdane didn't you?" she exclaimed.

Mita unsheathed her knife and mounted atop of Samantha, the cold steel of her blade now c.a.r.e.s.sing her throat.

"Kemar was timid and lacked ambition. He was content to sit down on his desk and fiddle his quills all day than truly bring about the Empire's greatness. Unlike Owyne, his exact opposite in every way." The Crow Master eyes, now gazing closer maniacally at Samantha's.

"And now look at where it all got you now with him? Owyne's dead, his co-conspirator Mogul Dolmond is also dead. Karliah is sitting real nicely under the Federation's protection and all you have to show for it is an Empire crumbling all around you. Stop lying to yourself Crow 'M-M-a-aster' and think for a second, can you? Why would the Tyr Rian, the Terrace-Dwarves, Aliathra, the Vampires, and the Daosne? How do these of some of your worst enemies and your most 'loyal' subjects threw their lots on us? Is that your so-called 'Alliance of the Light' are no better than the Demon's of Alboen your legends oh-so spoke so much about."

"The Empire has brought Peace, Prosperity, and Order to these lands for hundreds of years before you came!" Mita argued. The Share-Holder, just like Faithleann was starting to crawl unto her skin. More described as a fire-branded zealot compared to his childish naivete.

Yes, the Slaegian Empire had to do several unwholesome acts to ensure their position and their future. 

Yes, there are some squabbles, cracks, and loosened ties. But to exchange the balance that the Slaegians brought forth will only invite chaos. The Crows may be of the darker side in the eyes of the Law yes. But they still prefer the intermediaries, the trade, the progress, the mintage, and the roadways the Slaegians had constructed in their five-centuries of rule compared to none of those at all. Her illicit organization, as black, as it seems, couldn't have been possible without the foundation the Slaegians had built.

"More like Repression, Plutocracy, and Tyranny to me. You still don't figure it out don't you Crow M-M-a-aster?" Captain Rose balkingly rolled her eyes.

"That there is no such thing as 'Enthrallment' or 'Corruption' by you, isn't there?" Mita placed the pieces together.  "You appealed to their anger, their resentment, their embittered spirits? The Dwarves with their Castes, the Elven Princess being just a pawn for her people, Clovich's Ambitions? That is why they joined you." Mita answered.

Samantha nodded, confirming her humanistic divination.

"So everything we had done up until now… was futile? Our attacks, our armies, and even all the Spells we threw at you? All of it… was futile? All of what we thought we know of you? All for naught?" Mita sputtered. "This changes… this changes… everything."

"What do you mean Master?" one of the Crows queried.

"I think… we are fighting a new kind of Enemy, a new kind of Demon. One much more terrifying than Alboen of the Legends ever been." Mita concluded.

"So, what are you going to do me now?" Samantha asked her.

"We are still taking you to Ghana's Wall alive… a Contract is a Contract…" the Crow Master grimly answered. "If we can never prove you of the error of your current path because of your sympathy to those traitors and abominations, then we will have to break the treachery out of you. One way, or another."

"No! I won't let you!" Samantha struggled. She thrashed and she screamed as Mita attempted to subdue her, attempting to even try to cast a spell in desperation. But the Ghyranite Bindings had made any form of spellcasting difficult to impossible to conjure.

"Best we hurry to Ghana's Wall. The Marshall is probably goin'to need every little bit he cou---" One of Mita's Crows

BANG!

"Take'em out!" cried a familiar voice amidst the trees.

It was her second-in-command Crocker and the rest of Stryder Group, emerging from the forest shrubbery surrounding the camp. "HVT Alpha and Bravo are on sight. Diaz, Bag'er!"

There was nowhere to run or hide for the Crows as Samantha's squadmates picked their targets and as swift as the twilight breeze, Stryder Group stormed the Crow Camp.

The Crow Master attempted to use one of her smoke bombs for a tactical retreat to run but her hand is shot, the bomb flinging away from her by a red blast of light. She was then blindly tackled to the ground as her eyes met with even mor crimson of that of the infamous 'Red Slayer', Vincente Diaz.  They intended to capture her alive rather than slay her like her fellow Crows.

Not giving up so easily on this sudden setback, Mita drew her Hand-Bolt Thrower only for Diaz grabbed and crushed it into splintered dust without even breaking a sweat, or even shedding a drop of blood. In one last-ditch effort to escape, Mita slipped onto her hand one of her knives and attempted to thrust the blade by Diaz's neck.

"Nice try. But too slow!" Diaz parried the attempted sneak attack. He grabbed Mita's knife arm firmly with his Cybernetic Hands. "Make a wish!" the Corpo chuckled before closing his palm, tightly.

Blood, pulp and bone fractures burst forth like a popped fruit on Mita's hand. She yelped in immense pain, dropping her now mangled knife onto the floor.

"Like it rough huh? Well, I can play that too!" Diaz curled his hand and fired a mechanically augmented fist onto Mita's head to subdue her.

One strike from his Aparo Mercurio Arms was enough to knock out Mita away from trying to shake herself free. He could swear to his own exhilaration that he might have managed to crack a few bones around her jaw from that single punch alone. Diaz augmentations may not be designed for raw strength, but any Cybernetic Arm, whether it's those designed for Strength or Speed was physically superior in all ways compared to flesh even at its weakest kinetic output setting.

The elusive Master of Crows, the Queen of all Roguish feats, was now reduced to a helpless prisoner of the UFEAF. Ironic is she become one herself like those whom she had taken before. She was no better predicament to resist than a fish brought out of water.

"Relax! De Sardet will make sure that all get healed up… so he can break it again! That Spook is not gonna be mad at me right?" Diaz snickered to Mita as he turned to Sergeant Crocker.

"No, just disappointed." Crocker shook his head. Diaz and Obediah promptly flipped the Crow Master around, making her lie on her abdomen to the floor whilst Diaz folded Mita's arms behind her so as to zip tie her. He clapped off his hands triumphantly and whistled a playful tune as he stepped away.

"It looks like we got them all. Clear!" Clay secured the scene.

Kayin and Aliathra hurried to Samantha's side. The Engineer using one of his tools to pick off the locks off of the Captain's bindings whilst the Elven Cleric soothed her wounds.

"H-how did you guys find me?" the Captain asked her second-in-command.

"We figured out something was wrong when we couldn't find you anywhere in Egni after we dealt with that attack." Kayin fiddled with the lock. "We called up Doctor Mahelona when it was all over and one of the Technicians told us that your vitals were 'lowered'. Doc over-rid your GPS Beacon and Visor on your suit so we can track you here."

"The loud noises helped," Aliathra added as she placed her soft Healing Hands-on Samantha's cheek, repairing the knife incision from the Crow Master earlier.

Captain Rose sighed in relief; the nightmare was over. She stared into the darkness and she managed to swim back up to the light.

"Looks like the Crows did a good job taking care of most of the works. Stupid shits." Obediah spat at the Crow's corpse who had earlier accidentally discharged Samantha's FBR-20.

"Cap, sorry if we couldn't march in sooner before that Crow Bitch nicked ya'. The Wigs Upstairs told me we needed to get Mita's confession of that murder on Kayin's tape for Clovich to sway public opinion of his back at Haringpoint. Your visor recorded everything. The Crow is going away for a long time." Crocker knelt down to his superior.

"I knew you would do that. I would have done the same too…" Samantha inhaled a deep breath. Her words were calm, lowered unlike her sanguine self that her squad was used to seeing her be.

"Are you still okay Samantha my friend?" Aliathra mulled.

"I-I am fine! I am glad you guys came in time or I could have been much worse." Samantha waved off.

"Say this Crow Bitch  have neat'o tattoos on her back. Takes me way back to Kesserheim yeah?" Diaz smiled as he looked over the intricate tribal-like tattoos inked over Mita's bareback.

"Halt just one moment Vincent!" Iris loomed closer to examine Mita.

Her eyes scanned the black ink slowly as her eyes expanded into merriment.

"I think I recognize these tattoos," Iris answered. "I had read them when I used to study from the Monastery. Daosne Runic Tattoos. Used to bless their warriors with power if memory serves me truly. I can still scent the faint traces of magicks within them." She explained. "It is best I dispel it for our safety," Iris suggested.

Diaz agreed as he and Obediah let off the weight of their knees on the captive Crow Master as Mita flowed magic out of her hands. It only took a minute for her to fully disperse the Runic-Tattoos from the Crow Master, disappearing and fading away into dust flown across the autumn winds.

"Alright, let's just pass her over to some Bureau Boys back at the Field HQ and get back to Di—" Crocker rallied the squad.

But just as Stryder was about to pick up Mita towards their Land Cruiser. The prisoner began to violently spasm, then convulse violently.

"Iris!? What did you do to her?!" Samantha yelled.

"I just dispelled her Magic Tatoo!" the Witch explained.

"You two! Put her back down! Aliathra check on her quick!" the Captain ordered.

Diaz and Obediah lay the shaking Crow Master to the ground as Aliathra ran to her side.

"She is experiencing an extremely violent surge of Mana flowing into her body." The Elf was diagnosed.

"Impossible! She's not a mage is she?" Samantha raised.

"No. Not of what everyone in the Grey Order speaks about her." Iris nixed, shrugging her shoulders.

As Mita convulse, the wounds in her face and hands began to start heal rapidly. Reforming the pieces in a inhuman degree of speed. A pair of canine fangs protruded from her mouth as she gasped for breath. Her nails sharpened like swords as the Crow threw her hands out, ripping her zip tie bindings into plastic ribbons. Aliathra barely dodged Mitas newly grown claws as the Crow Master awakened. Her eyes flushed in blood arose from her resting place and swung drunkenly her hands like a feral beast displaying its ferocity.

"S-sh-e… She is a Vampire?" Kayin's eyes froze open.

"Did you just turn her into one Iris?!" Crocker screamed.

"No!" Iris shook her head. Confused about what had just happened before her eyes. "I don't know what that Rune did to her. Was it some kind of seal? We are not capable of turning humans into vampires. They have to drink the Phial Of Immortal Power or be of blood with by someone who did."

Stryder Group distanced themselves a few paces away from Mita as the Crow Master regained her clarity. She looked at her now animalistic hands and gasped. Her breathe shaped different as she licked her lips to realize her newly born fangs formed on her teeth. Her now adrenaline-fueled brain now lay besieged with a nigh-sensory overload from her mouth, ears, and nose with a sudden, previously repressed primordial hunger growled at her.

"Y-You! What have you done Witch!?" Mita shrieked. "Y-Y-You turned me into… into… like you!" she accused Iris, raising her sharpened claws towards her. Her blood-pulsed legs shambled as she twists and writhes madly.

"I did not. The Runic Tattoo., it is… impossible how can…", Iris answered until her mind paused. There was something she had seen many months ago as she looked over Mita's the snake-shaped marks on her right shoulder.

"Where did you get that mark on your shoulder?" Iris interrogated her. Unconsciously stepping forward closer to the feral Crow Master as she pointed over the Rogue's b.a.r.e shoulders.

"Change me back to human now!" Mita demanded. Eyes narrowed madly as her newly s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e eyes adapted themselves.

"Alie, tranq' her now!" Samantha ordered. "Iris step back."

"I asked… Where did you get that mark?" Iris spat back. Disregarding Samantha's words.

"I always had them. A Crow found me in the Solp Creek as a basket-babe." Mita answered pointing to her snakish birthmark. "Now change me back Witch!"

The Solp Creek was an arm of the large distributary river in Kalmte that was the Sugea. It was farther west nearing the southwestern most borders of the Imperial Duchy. The Sugea was also the place where she was exiled by her kinds and then banished East when she hesitated to do an unspeakable act. Connecting her past to the present, Iris, in a rare display of deviation from her choleric confidence began to cry.

"I cannot change you back… because you were always have been a Vampire." Iris tears contrasted with her jubilant smile.

"I am nothing! Nothing! Like you!" Mita screamed.

"I am sorry Mita… no… Mara… But that is what you are! I thought you were dead when my mother threw you in that river! Please, I can… I can help you." Iris pleaded for her to yield.

"Is this… some kind of insidious scheme to… to get me to surrender to the likes of you?" Mita lashed, her voice mixed with confusion and anger.

"What is going on here?" Kayin asked, his sweating brow creased.

"Everyone! The Crow Master is my long-lost half-sister, Mara Cadohagan!" Iris explained to Stryder Group.

"Is this for real? That bitch is your 'dead' baby sister?" Sam asked.

The rest of Stryder were equally left aghast by this sudden discovery.

"Sister or not… they are still coming with us." Samantha mustered everyone.

"I am not your sister you witch!!", Mita wailed as she lashed her claws away to push her apparent Corruptors away.  All she could think was to see her enemies burn away into ashes. In revenge for slaying the last of her Crows, in one madness-induced flail of her arms, the ground suddenly combusted A bubble of fire expanded outwards in an infernal implosion. Iris, Aliathra, and Sam reacting quickly, created a Warding Shield around them to protect the squad from Mita's flames.

"Get down! We got a mage!" Crocker lowered his hand, palm facing downwards and tipping up and down. All of the squad retreated into the Shield and braced. They came off unharmed with only a few singes to their garbs to show.

"I-I I have magicks?!" Mita stepped back looked at her smoking hands. Her eyes widened realizing what she had just done.

"Damn it all!" Obediah hugged a nearby rock. "With family like this? You scared of the Slegs?"

"Sister or not, the Crow Master is a Mage. I could sense… even taste all the locked-in power she has inside her. Gulgui, they are angry." Aliathra's ears fluttered, wiping of the dirt off her cheek.

"Mara, I know this is too much of for you to understand now, but if you come with us now, I will do everything to protect you and help you understand your powers." Iris attempted to appeal to her sister again.

"Never! I had enough of your lies Vampire!" Mara coldly continued to deny herself. Just with a mere thought, the Crow Master once again unknowingly casted An ice spike towards her. It was wild and rage-filled but such elemental manipulations were easy for the Witch to shield from with a quick cast of her Arcane Abjurations.

"I lost you once! I will not lose you again. You and I are the last of the Cadohagan.". Iris tearfully pleaded with her sister.

"This is getting useless…" Samantha cursed. The diminishing hiding space had reduced her to faceplant to the floor once again. "Alie hit her with the Tranquilizer now." she ordered.

"Get that buck-toothed bitch!" Obediah cheered.

As Alianthra prepared her hands to cast the Sleep spell, conjuring her mana into her fingertip to touch Mara. When Elf grabbed hold of the Vampire Crow Master, Mita began to feel the effects of drowsiness besieging her body. Her d.e.s.i.r.e to escape her pursuers and not bear the shame of being captured alive became the pillar that shielded her from yielding to defeat.

"I had… enough…" Mita's mouth bled as her fangs gnashed. Arcane Energies began surged within her and her veins glow bright with brilliant blue.

"Now stop her with my cuff's quick!" Samantha threw her old pair of Ghyranite Shackles to Aliathra.

"I said… ENOUGH!" Mara declared.

The ground began to quake with an ominous blue hue surrounding Stryder.

"Her mana is becoming unstable!" The Elf's eyes widened realizing what was about to happen. "Watch out!" Aliathra swiftly retreated.

But it was too late, a huge surge of mana energy enraptured the temperamental Crow Master, and blasted the Stryder Group of their feet with impulse of Magicks.

She looked around her and by instinct as a Rogue, concluded that she has lost any advantage in the situation, even with her newfound Vampiric Powers. It was time for a tactical withdrawal from this tragic turn of events and lick her wounds. Taking advantage of Stryder's trying to get back on their feet, Mita rushed to what remains of her supplies. She grabbed her Knife, a few days' worth of supplies and weapons to escape. She even managed, with blinding reflexes, snatch Samantha's Hand-Bolt Thrower shaped Gladius Pistol and one last Smoke Bomb.

"Don't let her get away!" Diaz shouts as he stands up and trying to rush at Mara only for her to use the enchanted smoke bomb to turn herself into smoke to quickly vanish from his sight.

"We lost her. Damnit!" Crocker stomped his hand.

"Chwaer!" Iris fell down on her knees. It was like her youth once again, having her family be torn away from her.

"Iris, we will find her!" Samantha kindly knelt down to her level and gave her a warm embrace as the Vampire Witch wept.

The Witch let go of her once-proud aura, releasing her sorrow until her voice grew horse and her tears ran out of water.

"I-I Ca-nnot lose her again… she was my sister. Half, yes! But still my kin. I… thought I was alone in this cruel… cruel world." Iris confessed.

"You have us and Kayin." Samantha comforted her. "We will figure something out Iris, we will one day." Samantha released her heartfelt lock.

"Much as I don't want to interrupt Captain. But we still have a job to do." Clay reminded her.

Samantha bit herself in the lip, she forgot why was her squad out her in the first place.

"Ay! Sitrep please. Give me the full story what happened." She ordered.

"Well, Egni is secured but we took a bit of a beating. Feldchrist lost seven of his Chem-Troops from sneak attacks… and…" Crocker coughed. " 'Suicide Animals' during the raid. Optimists say that in all likelihood attack hurt the Opfor more than it will ever hurt us. Nineteen Crows and… a lot of… Farm Animals." The Sergeant explained.

Aliathra breathed heavily, trying hard to avert her ears away from 'Farm Animals'.

"Farm Animals?" Samantha asked.

"They shove explosives up their necks and loosed them on the Quarantine Tents to 'Free' the infected people we got locked up there," Crocker answered.

"At the Quarantine Tents! Are you saying they managed to escape?" Samantha recoiled from the bewildering news.

"About a third of them, I guess give or take a hundred-fifty managed to flee when reinforcements arrived. Drones say they heading northward like the trend many Refugees are fleeing away from us are seeing. Likely Ghana's Wall." The Sergeant concluded

"Those idiots are just going to spread the Plague up north." Samantha clasped her hand frustratingly.

"I say, let them all shit themselves to death. Saves us all the trouble when we finally kill them all." Obediah ragged as he wiped off the dirt from his olive jungle hat.

"Ratimir and Lilliyan?" Samantha pressed. "What of them?"

"In the Land Cruiser with us. We best ough'ta get to Dimera now. Our MRAP is an LTV, nott'a Hearse." Crocker stuck his tongue out in disgust.

Samantha sighed, there was nothing much left to do but keep moving forward. "Stryder move out!" she retook command of her squad from Crocker.

[-]

The Character of the Dimera Tyhelas today soured when Ratimir's body was abruptly placed atop of the Lodge's dining table. What was meant to be a formal arbitration for the congregation of the Vampire Families became a Funeral. The Mairrinnas Eildearan, upon seeing her son's lifeless body wailed loudly with her daughter Liliyan there to comfort her.

"Ratimir is dead, his vote will have to be voided." Ivetana callously folded her arms.

"Mother!" Iris protested. "You cannot do that! Already many of you have seen what the Federation is capable of. Did you not witnessed what happened Colobonne? It fell in one day!"

"Silence Child! The Eildearean has made it clear about the decision." She chastised her daughter. "And with the Duke and his insipid Inquisition gone we are free to rule Kalmte as we please!"

"Ivetana! You should be silent." The Duinnioth Eildearan roared his voice.

The Vampires turned to the Elder as he puffed his c.h.e.s.t forward, preparing to make an announcement.

"I, as the honored one of my family, the Duinnioth. Hereby reverse my previous vote. I shall consent to Sister Iris' proposal. Otherworlder, we shall accede to your proposals." He bowed.

"What by Telin's breathe are you doing?!" Ivetana flaked.

"Ivetana, I am tired… we are tired… all of us are tired of hiding. The secrecy, the seclusion, the fear! Every day we could never dare speak to another soul like ours on pain of our lives and our families because of our old laws forbid it. What the Otherworlders offer us is an era where we no longer have to fear persecution no longer Ivetana. Don't you see it?"

"But our Tomhas?" Ivetana argued back.

"What is the point of it all? The Empire we feared for so long is about to die? And already these Otherworlders know of us and most of our secrets already. Faster than their 'all-seeing' Inquisition could ever hunt us down. At least Clovich, as much as we still curse his family's name offers us a chance of rapprochement." The Duinnioth Eildearan rebutted.

"Is all of this chaos now Ivetana any better for all of us?" the Tuilelan Eildearan added.

"Three votes, the majority wins rights?" Samantha questioned.

The Vampires nodded to her enthusiastically.

"Well then, with the change of vote from the Duinnioth Eildearan, this Silens has made a final decision; We will join the Amelioration." the Tuilelan Eildearan declared.

"We did it Iris!" Samantha cheered, embracing Iris to celebrate. Yet the Witch was not much at the truests of after what had happened earlier, despite giving the façade of purging a few teardrops of cathartic relief.

"Yes… we did." Iris gently smiled.

"Share-Holder, Samantha… a word with you." The Mairrinnas Eildearan wiped her tears away and approached Captain Rose. "When you and your soldiers finally cut the head off the Empire once and for all, I ask for one humble request. That you find the whoreson named 'the Bane' and drag him dead or alive to me." her fangs bristled for reprisal.

"No problem, in fact, knowing my superiors, they might pay for the privilege." Samantha snickered.

"But there is one thing I must speak of, about our outing earlier. Some news that everyone must know of." Iris stepped forward, growing her spine upwards. "Mita the Crow Master, is none other than my half-sister Mara Cadohagan." She disclosed. It had taken her a considerable amount of bravery to get herself to state such shocking news.

"That wretched legacy of your treacherous father still lives? How can that be?" Ivetana's nerves pulsated.

"Mita… Mara… the Crows found her basket floating along the Sugea and adopted her. They… suppressed her Vampire Bloodline with runic tattoos and made her into one of them."

"Then finish what you had started Daughter. Be rid of this stain on our bloodline once an---"

"I will not!" Iris interrupted her mother. "She is my little sister! We are the last of the Cadohagans. She is only just a child now that her powers had awaken. Mara is right now lost and confused now that she found out she is one of us." The Witch beseeched.

"Sister Iris, we may have agreed to allow our fullest collaboration with the Otherworlders… but sparing the Crow Master, even if she is one of our own is… I am afraid we must all differ. She must die." The Tuilelan Eildearan disputed.

"The Crow Master has been a menace to us Sochairfuil. We will never rest easy until she, the rest of her Crows, the Adventurer's Guild, and the Inquisition still haunts us. Whether she is one of our Kin or not, the Crow Master is nothing more but another tool, a very bloody-handed tool of the Empire's ire against us. The Empire will only die for us when they all perish." Duinnioth Eildearan divulges his Demands. "This is no longer about our Tomhas anymore, but our right to exist."

"I will not let y---", Iris tearfully protest but Samantha butted herself in. Iris for all of her merits wasn't the ideal person to handle the delicacies of Diplomacy.

"I understand everything about the issue with Mara. Rest assure we will take care about it moving forward. Consider that no longer a problem for all of you." Samantha stated.

"Maybe you are not as dumb as you look, unlike my daughter." Ivetana pouted.

"Whether we end her life or not, it depends on my superiors and Prince Clovich, they will ultimately decide her fate," Samantha reassured the Vampires. "Still, however, all I ask is for your time. It's not going to be easy to catch someone whose whole life lives or dies by being…evasive. We will decide this when we successfully capture her. From now on, you are will enjoy your newfound freedom and better society under the Ammerlioration."

"We will accept this." The Duinnioth Eildearan nodded alongside the rest of the Vampire Elders. "Now give us a week so we can journey to Clovich and your Lords to discuss our new role under this new… 'Amelioration'."

"Then it is settled then. To the Future!" Samantha toasted.

"To the Future." Several of the Vampires toasted.

A blur of celebratory drink (of fortunately not Blood) was poured out of their Tyhela's reserves as a flurry of festivities was mixed with a conference of curious chats about Samantha and her Federation masters of which the Captain answered as best as she could. Iris was able to liven up her spirits if slightly, but the thought of her estranged mother's presence and her similarly elusive half-sister still loomed over her eyes. Even when she debut Kayin to her old Vampiric kinsman.

"Captain, you got a call. Command needs to talk to you right now." Clay politely maneuvered to Samantha.

The Captain sighed, it was likely Colonel Polonsky had heard of what happened to her. Another verbal beat down she will have to endure once again. She excused herself and followed Clay outside where some privacy could be attained. Still, there was the silver lining of what she had accomplished today.

With a moment to catch her breath, Samantha grabbed the Radio.

"Colonel Polonsky, the Vampire Situation has been secured." Samantha informed him.

"Captain, I heard everything that happened." The voice of Colonel Polonsky shivered down her ears.

There was no point of lying for Samantha as she cleared her throat.

"I take ful---"

"What you're about to say is no longer important now son… I mean daughter… I mean you get, what I mean." Polonsky awkwardly twisted his tongue. "You and your squad are being immediately re-assigned west of here. The situation with the Plague is much worse than we thought. And more." Polonsky grimly informed Captain Rose.

"What happened?" Samantha raised her interrogative.

"Primal Boil's spread has gotten several villages south of us in a panic. More of those infectees are popping up and attacking several of our Men are being cut off from each other by angry mobs of civilians. I need your team to reestablish order from chaos and ensure a group of Engineers can reach the water sources." Polonsky explained. "The 23rd's Rear Echelons will be there to assist you from there. Get those boys and girls back home."

"I… Affirmative Colonel." Samantha nodded.

"Good, you're the only good news I have been hearing all day right now. I will get some MP's to escort attend with those Vampires from this point onwards. Shield-Father out." The Colonel dismissed his broadcast.