Marcus stretched and got up into a sitting position. The morning sun illuminated the small room and made Azaa's naked back glow. Since yesterday Marcus had talked a lot with Azaa, about his past, his mother and many other things. Azaa had told him about her own past, and he had learned about the one and only time she had shown herself to another man. She told him about the shame and the emotional scars that she had received that day, which caused her to shun men and hate her own body. If that guy had not died a long time ago Marcus would beat him to red paste right now, and he told her so.

Expressing his own feelings was difficult, but Azaa encouraged him to do so. The sex after they had talked was the best they ever had. It had been a symphony of joy, more intimate and emotional than ever before. They had connected not only physical but on a deeper level. He smiled and let his finger glide over Azaa's spine, enjoying her warm skin and the soft reaction of her body. But there was no more time for playing around, today would be a busy day and he also wanted to talk with Xeen. Marcus looked at the mute light and it was green.

Good morning Marcus.

A silent scream escaped from Marcus' open mouth. XEEN! OH god! Since when? Marcus tried to remember when he had unmuted Xeen. He could not remember! What did you… All of yesterday and last night of course. Marcus mind collapsed, he drowned in embarrassment, died a horrible death of shame. WHY DID YOU NOT SAY SOMETHING?!

BECAUSE YOU WERE BUSY! Yesterday was a rather emotional day for you. If I had told you, I had witnessed your intimate scene in the afternoon, would things have turned out the same way? You sharing your feelings, Azaa learning about your trauma and your emotional vulnerability? I think not. I kept silent to allow you to grow and to deepen your bond with your friends and Azaa. You are welcome!

Marcus had to breathe hard and tried to calm himself. They had done nothing wrong. Are you angry?

No, I'm actually glad I was able to witness your emotional growth. The other stuff, I did not give much attention to. Not that I can do much about your emotions leaking over to me. You were very happy.

I was. Heck, you can read my thoughts, you know how much I love and worship her. Marcus gathered his thoughts and decided, he needed to tell her.

Do that.

Marcus woke up Azaa and told her the 'news', which went down much easier than he had expected. "You share your mind with Xeen. It is impossible he is not aware of our union, the emotional and physical aspect of it. If this 'mute mode' was not a thing, do you think I would not want to be intimate with you?" She made a good point and in the end it seemed the one with the biggest worries was Marcus himself. When Janette heard the story later, she laughed so hard she nearly suffocated.

To distract himself from the slip up Marcus concentrated on the upcoming raid. "Everybody listen up. We are going to be one of the three teams that will assault the DeathDealer bases. This is not going to be easy and our Queen, in her endless wisdom, has decided we need some help. Because of that we have two special guests who will join us for the attack." Leon Kruger looked at Marcus and Janette who stood in the corner of the preparation room. The squad of Cerberus turned and stared at them. "By now you all should know them. The wife of our beloved Queen and Marcus Freimann, the Titan." The way the squad leader said it made it clear what he thought about the whole idea. The only person happy to see Janette and him was Elena, who was also part of the squad.

"If anybody has a problem with us, we can go a round in the combat arena. But then you will miss the raid, being in a hospital bed and all." Janette said and glared back at everybody. A tall black man with an impressive broad back looked like he wanted a piece of Janette and Marcus cracked his knuckles. The man backed off, he had seen the duel videos.

Leon took the lead again. "There will be simultaneous attacks on three bases. Our target is a small skyscraper in Birmingham, here in England if some of you knuckleheads don't know that." Chuckles went through the team, most likely an in-joke, Marcus thought. "We will go in from the roof, descending from a chopper. The primary target is the local server, we must stop them under all circumstances from destroying their data. Understood?" Nods and serious faces all around. The Cerberus crowd was rough, but when it came to the job they were professionals. Leon provided some more information and basic tactics. Ten minutes later they were released and had to prepare for the attack.

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"Don't be like this. The doctor and Azaa have both said you need more rest. Your body is good but your brain needs time to work through the backlash caused by the attack." Janette said to Cherry while she put on her gear. Marcus watched them while he put on a standard heavy armor from Cerberus. Cherry was not happy, but Azaa's look said it was the right decision. "That is some fancy gear you have there Janette." Marcus remarked. She wore an advanced light armor with a gray camo pattern, had no less than four pistols on her and a high tech looking rifle in her hand. "Cherry forced me to upgrade once you were gone. Without you to keep me safe, she demanded I use top line equipment, or she would not allow me to go on missions." Janette said with an annoyed face. "Is that a machine gun?" Marcus asked and now Janette grinned. "That my friend is a prototype semi automatic rail gun with two ammo types and a range beyond the horizon." She wiggled her eyebrows and Marcus could not start to imagine what carnage Janette could unleash with such a weapon.

"Can I see?" Azaa asked and Janette gave her the heavy weapon with an interested look. Azaa moved the weapon around, inspected it in a way that looked so professional as if high tech weapons were Azaa's daily trade. Azaa, activated the weapon, her finger played over various buttons and once she was satisfied she returned the weapon. "And?" Cherry asked, now very curious. "A good basic design, but I expect it has problems with heat development, target acquisition is also rough, and a lot of the potential power is lost through inefficient materials and design choices," Azaa laid down the smack and the humans swallowed hard. "I will make a note for the developers," Cherry said with a painful smile. Before they left Azaa gave Marcus a long kiss and did not care Xeen was watching again. "I will see if I can be useful here, until you come back".

A large, black dual rotor helicopter waited for them near the HQ and in minutes they were airborne. Everybody had the same gray pattern armor of Cerberus and looked focused. The team was very melee heavy, with the exception of Elena, but she was mainly mid range too. Adding Janette in here had been a good idea, Marcus thought.

Are you nervous? It is your first real combat mission since you have returned.

To be really honest, no. Compared to our journey this feels much safer.

True, no support back then, or knowledge of what would wait for us on the other side of a portal. It was quite the adventure.

It was a desperate fight for survival from my point of view. Give it time, eventually you will look back at it with fond memories.

When will that be?

In a century or two.

"Okay, time is nearly up. Get ready." Leon looked at a countdown and the helicopter approached an old skyscraper in the distance. According to the info, the building was officially abandoned, but the DeathDealer group had built a base in it. They attached themselves to some nearby internet cables and performed their sick trade right in the heart of England. "Shit. Team two had to engage. Get ready, this might be a rough welcome," Leon said. When they approached the skyscraper three minutes later heavy machine gun fire opened up on the helicopter. The pilot pulled the machine higher to increase the distance and Marcus could see people running on the roof together with a stationary machine gun position. That was a lot of defense for such a hidden base.

They must have expected visitors.

They knew Cerberus would come for them and they did not run, that's brave or stupid.

Marcus moved to the open side door and looked down to the rooftop maybe two hundred meter below. Heavy bullets whizzed by and some hit the armored helicopter with a heavy clang. "Prepare for a quick descent and emergency exit," Leon said over the com system. Janette showed up next to Marcus raising her gun. "Marcus hold me for a second," Janette's voice came over com, and Marcus stabilized her. Janette lifted the heavy gun to her shoulder and shot without hesitation. The machine gun barrage stopped instantly. "The rest is in cover," Janette said and Leon nodded. "Thanks, that makes it much easier."

"Permission to go first?" Marcus asked, and Leon approved. "You are by far the most tanky in the team. Please go ahead." With a smile Marcus jumped out of the helicopter, leaving an utterly shocked Leon behind "WHAT!" He shouted. Janette looked after the falling Marcus, "Look, he is drawing their fire." Only Elena laughed.

Marcus fell and controlled his fall with slight adjustments through Impulse Hammer. He was smiling all the way down.

You have missed this, be honest.

Hell yeah.

Marcus landed in the middle of the roof after a fall of two hundred meter and Carapace absorbed most of the impact damage, the rest caused Marcus only minor inconvenience. The backlash from Carapace created a thunderous shock wave that shattered the ground and caused half of the roof to collapse to the lower level. Marcus quickly found his footing in the midst of dust and rubble. He started searching for resistance and Burst jumped over fallen pillars and rubble piles. Marcus had disposed of three survivors of the collapse before the helicopter was low enough that the rest of the team jumped down to help. Between Elena and Janette no enemy was left standing when the rest of the melee combatants arrived.

"Don't be tardy! Keep moving. Marcus, can you make us a hole to the next level?" Leon said, showing no sign of being impressed. Marcus smashed a hole into the floor with two hits and the melee members rushed through it, suppressing any resistance on the floor below. "Faster, we need to find the servers. Spread out, two men teams," Leon gave orders and a second later Elena was next to Marcus. "Is it okay, if I use you as a living shield?" She asked and Marcus grinned, "Like old times?"

They moved fast, breaking any resistance in seconds. The enemy had several class holders in reserve, but they were no match for them. They steamrolled the whole operation in less than a minute. The servers were two levels further down, and Leon with Janette just managed to stop a guy tearing the device apart with a fire axe. "Thanks to our rapid entry we were able to secure the target," Leon said through the com system. "Let's hope the tech guys can break the encryption and reveal all their nasty secrets," Janette said and added, "And then I'm going to kill whoever dared to lay hands on my woman." Marcus could hear her words over the com and knew exactly what kind of a face she made right now. Those bastards were as good as dead.

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