Soul: Tales of the Black Lotus

Interlude: Countdown to Extinction

Human survivors of Natura Forest found themselves attempting to escape it. No longer was it surrounded by mists and fog as the waters of the Ironbound Dam had washed it away with more than half of the forest turning into a large swamp-like wasteland. The trees once found floating above the ground toppled over from the skies and created natural dams off their own that helped to prevent the water in some way. It also served as a means for the humans to rise out from the waters and climb the trees while helping other survivors they could find. The elves that survived the flood found themselves both on land and trees floating in the now enlarged riverbeds of the Natura Forest. There were so many injured on both sides. The human survivors had only one hope and it was the 9th Legion of Abalus Harbor. In the distance, they could see the corpse of the mighty former sea god still stand with humans manning its defenses. There were aerodynes leaving back and forth from the harbor that tried to recover and rescue as many humans as they could. There were several aerodynes in the skies loaded with gunners that were prepared to face any elven incursion that might transpire below. The watchers of the Tower of Abalus gazed upon the forests and its commanders planned their next move while beneath their base of operations laid the Military Headquarters of the Cyberpunks present there.

"The High General is here, stand attention!", several human cyberpunks stood attention and saluted their High General, who didn't even salute back before he said. "At ease.", and they resumed to their patrol around HQ while he visited the Central Command Chamber.

He entered only to walk down a large set of steps into a round circular room with screens all around that revealed the outside world to all commanders present in the room. He could hear people talking over microphones to the pilots of the aerodyne to give them direction. He could hear the legionnaires being instructed on what to do and how to do it. They reported sighting of elves for the gunners to take care off should they possibly be deemed a threat for being too close or just simply because they are in some sort of advantage. The High General looked onto the screens of the many monitors to see aerodynes dropping off the wounded and children first before anyone else in the forest. They were short staffed and lost most of their aerodynes when the Doom Falcon crashed. Lu'ulf Chen felt desperation and on his shoulders rested the very fate of humanity as he knew it. There were no signs of Hester Nikola Zank, no signs of the Empress, no signs of the Council... He didn't even know if they're lost but believed that they could be.

"Kazari have breached the Doom Falcon's haul, High General, and water's leaking in.", one of the watchers of HQ revealed to his commander and he gazed to one of the monitors that showed the Doom Falcon lying down on the river's delta bed, ruined and split in half.

"Let the gods be with the Empress and those on board. When we are able to deploy subs, do so without delay.", he replied and all they could do is watch as the kazarian raiders ruthlessly boarded the sunken starship. "We already did, sir, two rescue subs.", the watcher responded.

The High General gazed upon the other monitor to see military units landing to both west and east off the forest as they began to establish a perimeter in order to rescue the survivors. Beneath the ground of the Natura Forest, much like Abalus, lied other secrets. The lair of the Nymphs and Dryads drowned along with the hovels of the elves that floated lifelessly under the water. They never knew what hit them when the waters struck. The honey and tree sap they gathered scattered throughout the room while those that remained intact contained their young that did not manage to hatch during the flood. The kazaris would take advantage of this too, of course, and one specific half-breed of them was the rezal, half-breeds of elven and kazarian blood. They shattered many characteristics with the satyr with the exception of them being regular sized like a gorgon and their Glasgow like smiling jaw could extended wider with razor-sharp teeth that are far more deadlier than that of any elf kin. The rezal were the most feared out of the elven species when it came to the waters because of an elf's natural gift to communicate with animals.