Siege of Kel Rectilinea

While Phoenicia's team distracted the Cubic forces at the front gates of Kel Rectilinea's fortress, Mivangeline's team infiltrated the base to unlock the boss area. The two groups distracted the Cubic soldiers away from Ampyria's team, who snuck into the rocketeer cobra factory and destroyed it before the new cobras were released into the Syanic Earth.

To unlock the boss area, they must destroy 50 sentry turrets scattered in the shifting labyrinth of Kel Rectilinea. Mivangeline's squad of police droids along with Shien, Naivern, and Chloridium jumped across the blue maze as they fought the Cubic warriors. The floor, ceiling, and walls were made of cubed panels that shifted the terrain at random moments.

Shien and Mivangeline stood together in front of a double-barreled sentry turret guarded by Cubic troops, protecting the team from the incoming fire. Naivern supported Shien and Mivangeline by jamming on her guitar to raise their stats.

Cubic Sentry Turret

Level 70

HP: [32,912/80,000]

"The warriors are hiding behind the turret," Mivangeline turned to the police droids. "This is a good time to use a voltaic rocket."

As Shien and Mivangeline defended their droid squadron, a police droid kneeled on the ground with a rocket launcher. The droid fired an electrifying rocket at the sentry turret. It exploded with an electric shockwave, paralyzing the nearby Cubic warriors.

"Yeah! Got 'em!" Naivern cheered as the police droids shot down the stunned soldiers.

"So far so good," Mivangeline cut down a Cubic soldier with her kunai. "Everything is going as planned."

Suddenly, the floor panels beneath the team dropped low. Two sentry turrets deployed on rising pillars, firing at the team from above. The group looked behind them to see the cubed tiles rise into more pillars, preventing them from retreating.

"Not good!" Chloridium fired his arm cannons. "They have an uphill advantage!"

Naivern boosted the party's stats until a sentry turret shot her shoulder. Shien protected Naivern with his staff as a police droid gave her a healing potion.

Oh, no! Mivangeline saw the sentry turrets gunning down her droid forces. I didn't expect this! Did I screw up?

"Commander!" Chloridium stood with five remaining police droids. "I know what you're thinking, but remember what I told you? Change happens! Don't just stand there!"

"B-but, what do I, um..." Mivangeline panicked as three police droids were shot down.

She felt her hands shake with sweat trickling down to her daggers. Am I this bad of a commander? I can never lead.

"Use your Paladin's Aegis trait! It should've finished its cooldown by now!" Chloridium yelled. "Come on, Commander! We have two droids left! Don't overthink. Do something!"

Mivangeline jumped in front, activating Paladin's Aegis to taunt the sentry turrets to attack her instead. "Rocket launcher!"

A remaining droid fired a voltaic rocket at the sentry turrets, paralyzing them. Flaming dice then rained explosives on the enemies.

"Looks like Ampyria's team took out the cobra factory below just in time," Chloridium sighed as Ampyria's droids arrived with Enshiron and Elysia.

"Good to see you all!" Ampyria flew to Mivangeline's group as the labyrinth floors returned to normal. "The cobra factory has been destroyed. The block boys were no match for my incomparable beauty!"

"The crafty squared men will no longer make more of those nasty reptilians!" Enshiron jumped out of the hole, exchanging high-fives with Shien and Naivern. "We even had the privilege to crush ten of those pesky square turrets!"

"Come and get some!" Elysia chased a running Cubic warrior and finished it off.

"Good job," Chloridium acknowledged before activating a hologram of a map. "We're making good progress. Only five turrets left to unlock the boss room."

"I wonder how Phoenicia's team is holding up," Elysia cracked her neck.

The gang heard a roar from the other side of the maze of blocks. A rocketeer cobra flailed about with Ritom slashing its back with his pyrotechnic blade. As Phoenicia punched the cobra's eyes off, Ruddigus fired flaming Yu-Gi-Oh cards with his minigun. Esarin blasted his rocket launcher, shooting a rocket to finish the enemy off.

"Yo! Let's go!" Ruddigus fist-bumped with the group. "Now that's what I call, the heart of the cards!"

"Hey! You left me out!" Ritom pouted when Ruddigus didn't join fists with him.

"Oh, yeah, but you're still a cheater."

"Says the big boy who fires exploding Yu-Gi-Oh cards from his minigun."

"I was shooting my trap card known as Ring of Destruction! Got a problem with that?"

"Meh! You big snake!" Esarin slapped the disintegrating cobra's head with his cane. "This is what you get for trying to eat a poor old little man like me!"

Mivangeline looked back at her team. She couldn't believe that all of her police droids except for two were wiped out.

I could've protected them. She thought. But I didn't know what to do. What if they were real players?

"Commander, we successfully defeated the 20 sentry turrets that guarded the front gates!" Phoenicia smiled at Mivangeline.

"Oh... that's, uh, that's great news," Mivangeline stuttered.

"You with 20, my team with 15, and Ampyria with ten," Chloridium calculated. "We got 45 of 50. Now we just need to destroy the last five turrets at the heart of Kel Rectilinea to access the boss room."

As the group walked through the path to the center of the fortress, Mivangeline walked ahead of the group in silence.

"Mivangeline," Chloridium tossed her a healing potion. "What's in your mind?"

"Um, well," Mivangeline mumbled. "I-I don't know if I can do this. W-why did you make me lead?"

"You can do it, Mivangeline. Come on, you're the Commander. You need to experience leading others yourself. You can't get better if I lead for you, right?"

"But our team was almost wiped out because of me."

"Well, you need to adapt. Remember that us droids won't regenerate when we die. We need to use our droids wisely since the players don't want to help us."

"I-I'm sorry."

"Look, I didn't mean to yell at you earlier. I'm just trying to help you. You're a great strategist, but you have trouble improvising when things change."

Mivangeline drank the healing potion.

"When a plan goes wrong, you must find a way to bring everyone back and make a new plan! But don't just stand there panicking and let everyone die. I'm tough on you because I care about you, and I want to see you succeed."

"R-right. I... I hope I don't make that mistake again."

"Remember, I'm your android guide. If it happens, I will be there to guide you."

"O-okay, thanks."

"Don't worry, Mivangeline!" Shien popped up in front of Mivangeline.

"Eep!" She flinched.

"We will help you! You need to stay positive and believe you can do it!" Shien smiled before jumping away to tackle Phoenicia.

"Um, okay?"

"Well, he technically isn't wrong," Chloridium chuckled. "Come one, let's do this!"

The group ran through the transforming hallway, fighting the last Cubic warriors, scrounger drones, gunspeeders, and flakpanzers. They jumped about the spinning floor and tilted walls, destroying popup boxes that released scrounger drones. Soon, they reached the fortress' heart with the last five sentry turrets in front of a dead end.

Mivangeline organized Shien, Ritom, Phoenicia, and Elysia with herself to protect the team with Naivern's power boost. Meanwhile, the others behind them fired at the turrets with their combined strength. The floor panels released rectangular pillars toward the group, forcing them to dodge obstacles while being shot at by the sentry turrets.

"Commander," Chloridium nudged Mivangeline off her frozen confusion. "Remember? Just make a new plan."

"Okay," Mivangeline nodded as she jumped away from a moving pillar.

The Commander took a moment to rethink a new method to take out the last turrets. While dodging the pillars, she noticed that the five turrets were lined up in a row close to each other. Just one voltaic rocket was enough to stun all five at a time. Not only that, Mivangeline's Paladin's Aegis just finished its cooldown time.

"Ampyria!" Mivangeline jumped in front of the turrets, activating her trait. "The droids need to use their wings to dodge the pillars. We need those rockets to keep damaging and stunning them! I will distract them."

"On it!" Ampyria signaled the police droids to activate their wings.

Ampyria and the droids flew about the barrage of spawning pillars while Mivangeline forced all the turrets to attack her. When they were close enough, they took out their launchers, bombarding the turrets with their electrifying rockets. The five turrets were engulfed in the smog of lightning, unable to move.

"This is our chance!" Mivangeline signaled the party.

Everyone charged at the turrets, finishing them off with their firepower. As the five turrets disappeared into blue hexagons, a large pair of rectangular doors that glowed green with square-shaped patterns emerged on the dead end. Everyone sighed with relief. They were able to beat all the 50 turrets required to gain access to the boss room.

"T-this is it," Mivangeline stared at the doors.

"Yeah! I can't wait to give that boss a taste of my cards!" Ruddigus showed the friends his deck of cards. "My minigun blasts different elements based on the cards!"

"You're so weird," Ritom rolled his eyes.

"What was that? Want me to blast Mirror Force in your face?"

"Dude, I completely forgot what that card does."

"This may be our only chance to take a breather," Phoenicia advised. "I suggest we take this opportunity to heal ourselves before the upcoming boss battle."

"Hey, Mivangeline!" Shien approached her as the party rested. "Great job out there!"

"O-oh! Thanks," Mivangeline blushed.

After a good rest, Chloridium turned to Mivangeline. "Commander, is there anything you would like to say before we fight the boss of the Cubic Regime?"

"Eh?" Mivangeline stuttered. "Me? Uh, why me?"

"Hoho, you're the Commander, Mivangeline. Why don't you give our friends here some words of encouragement?"

Mivangeline turned to the group with her cheeks bright red. She could feel the weight of everyone's eyes looking at her. Alongside the police droids stood Ampyria, Ruddigus, Esarin, Naivern, Ritom, Enshiron, Phoenicia, Elysia, and a bouncing Shien. Enshiron grinned, placing his hands on Shien's shoulders to calm him. Mivangeline felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment.

"You can do it," Chloridium gave her a thumbs up.

"Okay? Um, thank you all for your help. We worked together to... g-get this far. I know it's tough that we're trapped here. B-but, I know that together... we will stop the three factions and um... I promise we're all going home!"

Shien and the friends cheered.

"A-are all of you ready?" Mivangeline asked.

The group nodded as the commander opened the doors, walking in as the rectangular doors slammed shut and disappeared. The large infinite room made of square-shaped panels shone in red as a swagger boss intro theme vibrated into their ears.

!Warning!

!Deadly Virus Detected!