When the battle came to be, Dino's mind began clearing, soothed by the explosions and gunfire. The clouds and storms of his mind slowly disappearing, allowing the Irish man to do clearly the one thing he's best at: warfare. Suddenly cannon shells came down raining from the sky, hitting some of the convoy cars, but luckily missing their car. Dino snagged the radio transmitter from the car's dashboard and began transmitting.

"To all artillery units! Fire in and around the enemy convoy! Make so their escape routes are cut!" he stated in the radio. Without waiting for a reply he put the radio back, concluding his transmission. Moments later, he saw his order take place: the trajectory of the artillery rounds changed slightly, impacting more around the rebel convoy instead of directly on it.

In a flash the truck leading the convoy erupted in a ball of flames, forcing the driver of their car to violently hit the breaks. Dino hopped out of the vehicle, joined by Kyle and a couple of sergeants coming from a couple trucks back. The Irish man took his cross out of the trunk of the car and placed it violently into the ground.

"Alright, gentlemen! Lady Anna will be in charge of the CC. You don't have to worry about any supernatural attacks. Lady Anna will take care of you." he said, halting his speech for a moment and glancing over to Anna, giving her a wink.
"Set the Command Center further down, and use the armored cars as cover. Our goal is to suppress the enemy forces and capture 5 individuals: the two rebel commanders and the three members of my party. Anybody else is a liability. Disobedience will be met with severe consequences." As Dino continued, a couple more ranking officials joined the group.
"Me, Kyle and Matthew will set a frontline perimeter alongside a couple of squads. Celestial will help the artillery brigade and contribute on the defense. Anna will be commanding the CC, maneuvering defensive actions and referring changes in the geography of the battlefield. I trust everybody to follow the orders given by myself and Lady Anna. Dismissed." he simply concluded, squaring up and saluting. The officers all saluted back, and began scrambling to move towards their designated positions.

Dino stood there for a moment, before advancing in front of the flaming carcass of the car blocking the convoy. Meanwhile the frontline team began dismounting from their respective vehicles and preparing for the advance.

Anna rallied her troopers around her as Dino started giving orders. "Keep your wits about you," she said to the group and especially Kyle before leading the command team off to where they were to set up.

Celestial nodded at Dino and went with the artillery. Once everyone was in position, he heard the order from Dino over the radio.He tried his best to keep calm and ignore the sounds of warfare, but unlike Dino, war wasn't something he was familiar with. It took him a moment to calm down and clear his head. He set up force fields over the weapons that should keep them intact for a while. The force fields were indestructable, however. the more they were hit, the weaker they became until eventually they would shatter. But he figured he'd try and make himself useful.

Dino's eyes scoured the battlefield of futile information. It took him only a moment to get a feel of the battle. And just like that, in a moment his mind was clear and calm, ready for the assault and defense. Out of the blue Matthew showed up next to him, questioning the Irish man about the meaning of a 'frontline perimeter'. Dino stared blankly at him for a moment, blinking in confusion. But when it clicked with him that not everybody in his party knew large scale warfare, he smiled.

"Well..."

He took a step to the side, placing his cross into the ground and swiftly opening it. In the blink of an eye his entire arsenal was revealed to the battlefield, cleverly tucked right next to the derelict vehicle. His hands maneuvered through the various compartments, grabbing firearms and magazines. Moments later, Dino was strapped with an UMP and an AK74u, clumsily dangling from around his shoulders. His left hand held two UZIs beautifully decorated with an impressive amount of mods. His right hand held a red flare.

The Irish man stepped in front of Matthew and popped the flare open with his teeth before chucking it as far away as he could in front of the two. The glowing stick hit the dust, exploding in a red flame about 50 meters away from the two.

"You see that flare right there? Imagine a line that spans across from left to right. That's a frontline perimeter. Our job is to stop anybody that crosses that line, by any means necessary. So if anybody crosses that line, Matt...give them hell!" The man concluded with a thumbs up and a smile on his face.

Matthew took a moment to process Dino's definition, and then nodded. "Got it!"

He raised his arms, conjuring up a host of water velociraptors. Some raptors arranged themselves at the invisible line, while others retreated among those behind it. With that done, the cyborg released some water beneath his feet as well, which transformed into five large water serpents. The serpents flowed beneath the earth and positioned themselves a little ahead of the perimeter, ready to burst out if necessary.

The sound of explosions and gunfire kept the scene lively despite the number of dead bodies hitting the ground. The mask was pleased, it was a fight it would enjoy and Nocturn could feel its carnal impulse ride through his thoughts. The virus too began to churn his desires into a blind blood lust. With a click of his jaw, he turned to Lilith and Timothy.

"I'm heading out," he muttered, his spinal gears spinning with excitement. "I've got to feed. Now I'm no captain but if we don't push hard enough, we won't make it. If the others are indeed our enemies then we know we'll be in for a fight."

Snatching the mask off his side and slapping it on his face, the zombie felt the surge of the Outsider's power. It may be unnatural, he may play in the hands of Abra but right now, this was an advantage he needed. Besides, he was unnatural to begin with anyway. Within moments, his transformation into the Butcher was complete, his massive hook and chain felt loose on his hand. It felt that it needed some more weight... bodies. Flesh.

He could smell the souls of the dead, the pull of their luscious anima calling to him. Lowering himself to a crouch, he leaned forward slightly, like a runner expecting a gunshot to signal his start. The sound of a nearby explosion gave him the signal as he ran towards no man's land with a fervor for battle mixed with the hunger of flesh and soul. Upon reaching the battlefield, he found himself not in a field of death but in a banquet of souls. The number of dead bodies piled up and the souls began to swirl around him like water to a drain.

Nocturn breathed in as he twirled the chain, spinning the hook like a toy. Looking behind him, he waited for some cover fire, he didn't trust the soldiers and for a moment he waited for Lilith or Timothy to leave the tent and join him.

"Very well...I think its about time anyway..." Lilith answered as Nocturn was about to leave, getting ready herself. This time, she had an eye patch on her right eye, just in case she opened it on accident

Their truck has been waiting unengaged on the edge of the battlefield for quite a while now, as the necromancer simply observed the fight through few crows circling high above it, trying to get a feel for what is happening. Only warfare known to her was one of Solum's, so people using pretty much nothing but guns was something new to her. Still, the general rules seemed to be unchanged. "Keep your men alive and useful...I need those flying machines off the sky, get rid of their aerial advantage." Lilith addressed Samuel without facing him. "...We'll take care of the situation on the ground..." And on that note, she hopped off the truck, Walter appearing by her side.

As Lilith used covers and her view from above to her advantage to pick enemies without putting herself in harm's way, Walter kept recklessly dashing between enemies coming in and out of his physical form. Both of them tagged the deceased, as if they were confirming a kill on each one. Same thing was done to corpses alreadt around. In reality, the organic matter inside the armors was being burned and turned into ash within seconds after the palm of either of the mages made contact. However, the ash hasn't left a single carcass, remaining inside its metal shells. Apparently, just gathering more resource wasn't the sole purpose of such behavior, perhaps being only a part of necromancer's plan.

From what her feathery drones showed her, both groups set up on opposing sides of the battlefield, kind of just waiting for each other...Good, stalling for time once more worked on her favor. Lilith also saw Nocturn, rampaging nearby, to whom even she didn't want to get too close. Her fists tightened at the thought of how many souls have perished already, but on the other hand...She didn't want to think about it, once more focusing on the battle.

Timothy, seeing the other two leave, got up from his place, and unstrapped his guitar.
"I'm ready."

Following Nocturn, Timothy tried to focus his energy, which felt like it was high-strung and going presto meter.
Ragnorok seemed to quiver a bit, ready to spew fire once more.

As soon as he hit the front line, he released his hand and began to strum, closing his eyes and imagining a concert in his head.
Ragnorok began to spew flames against the enemies, melting armor and roasting bodies, but Timothy stopped and looked at Nocturn for a second, who seemed to be waiting for some cover.
Running up to him, he began to channel high-intensity flame projectiles at the enemy.
"Go, I'll cover you, don't worry."

Nocturn managed what toothy grin he could muster and nodded to Timothy a thanks. With that, the zombie of Lantern's Cross pressed on, throwing himself into the fray. For a moment, he pondered on whether letting loose the Outsider would be for the best at the moment but realized that if even for a second, the viral entity inside him was set on auto-pilot, he regretted it what more could this newer one do? No, he thought. He would will it under his control.

The Nocturn-Outsider hybrid unleashed itself onto the enemy, rampaging through the ranks as best as it could, dispatching opponents as fast as it could and made sure to be in the range of Timothy's sweeping flames in case he needed to retreat.

Suddenly Dino noticed that on the opposite side of the battlefield there was finally severe commotion. The helicopters dropping soldiers in pulled out, as small dust tornadoes began disrupting the landing areas. The Irish man peered his eyes towards the horizon, spotting Nocturn as he was plowing through the First Strike Troops. But something was off from him, or rather he never really bothered noticing about the zombie. He appeared more savage, almost as he was ruled by animal instincts.

As the eyes of the Irish man continued scanning the battlefield, he picked up a dust figure moving through the remaining First Strike Troops, knocking them down in an instant. Not too far away there was a woman, doing the same exact thing. Dino slowly reached for the radio inside his pocket, keeping his eyes on the three targets.

"Dino speaking. All First Strike teams must pull out. I repeat, all First Strike teams must pull out. Hawks give them some covering fire, but fire onto the two laser tagged targets. Assault Squads One through Five move up and take position on the perimeter line, barrels aimed towards the enemy convoy. Artillery focus your fire around the enemy convoy. Force them onto an island. We have the range advantage, let's use it. Celestial, give them a hand. Over." the man spoke calmly and with an authoritarian voice, imparting the orders with the utmost precision. Some voices echoed through his radio, simply replying Yessir or Roger that.

Dino slipped the radio back into his pocket and placed the two Uzis down onto the ground. He quickly searched through the inner shaft of the cross, extracting the R700 sniper rifle. He scoped in, targeting Lilith. His right hand moved away from the trigger and onto the scope, where Dino pressed a tiny button. Immediately after, the scope sight moved onto the rampaging Nocturn, where the same process followed. Dino lowered the rifle and quickly grabbed the radio out of his pocket.

"Targets Lima-India-Lima and November-Oscar-Charlie have been tagged. Give them steel, over."

As Dino referred this last message, a group of about 25 soldiers emerged from behind the derelict truck behind him. The men and women lined up a couple of meters in front of the Irish man, shadowing the invisible line that he drew along the horizon earlier. They all hit the deck in sequence, all their rifles aimed towards the enemy convoy, but not a single person fired. They all had their eye down the barrel of their respective guns.

"On my mark." he said, waiting for the artillery to do their job.

"Celestial, give them a hand."
When te warlock heard the order he nodded, then remembered that Dino couldn't see him nod, so he replied, "You got it, boss!" into the nearest radio. He surveyed the field and suddenly an idea popped into his head. If he could pull this off, their side would get a serious advantage. He opened his spell book and it instantly opened to the spell he needed. His eyes began to glow a vibrant green as the magic began to flow through his body. A green spell circle surrounded various enemy soldiers.

sit terra ruit alto sub hoste! (The earth crumbles under the enemy!)

The ground began to shake and the earth enclosed in each circle crumbled, collapsing inward.
Once the spell was finished, Celestial's eyes stopped glowing and he stumbled, sweating a little. He would need to chill with the heavy spells for a little, but hopefully he helped out.

Matthew watched the battle unfold, focused on enemy movements. Suddenly, he spotted the scary beast thing he'd been up against all the way back in the arena fight. Was that...Nocturn? The cyborg shook his head, wondering how much control Nocturn had over the mask right now. He seemed to be smashing everything that he was "supposed" to.

Matthew's fists clenched, and some of his raptors surged into the fight to assist his allies. If Nocturn threatened any of his party members, he wasn't sure what he'd do. The beast would always absorb his water...and he didn't want to have to use his ACST. The cyborg shook his head.

Stop it. he told himself. Focus. There's a war going on.

Anna had a twig in her hand as she gathered some of the command team and moved forward, making sure to keep a close, but safe, distance from Kyle. Pointing the twig fiercely in the enemy's direction, she commanded her troops "Inform the artillerymen to focus their fire on the enemy's back row, where their communications and commanders may be established. Snipers, target the three individual high-profile players among them. The masked man wreaking havoc on our forces, the guitar player, and the woman in the black trench coat. No kill shots. Instead I want you to aim for their legs."

She peered across the battlefield to Dino and Celestial, and hoped that their actions would have all eyes in that area for the time being. Turning to two non particulars in her group, she ordered, "You two, get a small squad of three to five of your best troops and flank the opposite side of the battlefield from where Dino and Celestial are. Find their commander, their true commander, and capture him if you can. If you cannot get close enough, or in doing so would jeopardize your lives and the mission, then secure the kill shot." Anna waved them off with her twig before turning her attention back towards Kyle.

Kyle was certainly already feeling the effects of adrenaline and the instinct to survive, but those feelings would soon begin to magnify to a level that the man had never felt before. His muscles would begin to feel as if they were tightening, but the effects of the lactic acid could no longer be felt. His eyesight became flawless, and wielded the keenest perception. His body could regenerate from near fatal damage in a couple minutes. The effects of such a buff could drive men mad, so Anna made sure to keep an eye on him as well as manage her distance from the man. Bullets would find it difficult to claim the man's life, but stronger, concussive blasts would easily find their mark.

Timothy was rockin' out, not giving a sh** until a bullet narrowly missed his leg.

"F**k, I gotta take cover." Rolling behind the carcass of a charred truck, he yelled to Nocturn, "They are targeting us, bro! Careful!"

"It's a game of chess and I only got a King and 2 rooks... what should I do.."

Timothy glanced over at Samuel, the commander, the only one with a plan.

"He's got his hands full... Due to the opposition's military experience, cause I'm gonna guess they have Dino, they are much more coordinated then us right now.." Timothy mused.

"Maybe if I just... rally the troops."

Timothy, taking a glance back at Nocturn, retreated back to the Rebel infantry, and began to issue orders to a small group of them.

"Look, I ain't no commander, but I somewhat think what we need to do here..."

"The advantage they have over us is superior artillery, right? But we can maneuver much more easily, we have more 'legs' than them."

"If we can somehow disable the artillery in the backline and quickly make it back, it'll be a blow they won't forget. Anyone got any ideas?"

Timothy busted a chord over the surrounding area, showering enhancing magic over the troops. The troops could feel an increase of focus and eyesight, as well as a wind under their feet.