[Klaxium Battlefield, Caeleste Castrum bridge, two minutes after landing]

"Sound Off!" Colonel Trevor Hanes said over the comm lines after taking note of the damages in his ship. 

"Caeleste Castrum two, here, minor bruises and bumps, inertial dampening effective." A male voice said.

"Caeleste Castrum, three, here, two dead; they didn't stay strapped in like they were supposed to." A female voice said.

"Caeleste Castrum four, here, no injuries, inertial dampening effective." A different female voice said. 

Colonel Laura Hanes, the wife of Trevor, spoke then. "We have zero casualties, and inertial dampening was effective." 

"Good. We are all clear. Pilots, we are relieved; command is now in the hands of the Castrum Commanders." Trevor said over the comms and then took off his headset. 

Ted spoke after opening up a shipwide comms broadcast. "Alright, ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived, and we are not pancakes, so that's good to know that the inertial dampeners work."

A crass chuckle resounded through the ship.

"We are the old dogs on this mission; almost everyone on the castrum is a veteran of some kind. And now many of us are wielding powers we never thought possible, so let's show these young pups in the other ships how it's done!" Ted said.

A roar seemed to vibrate the ship with its intensity.

"Gather in the embarkation bays, and roll out!" Ted said and then turned to Trevor. "Hey, man, did you bring that recording I asked you to?" 

"Yeah, I did," Trevor said, smiling wickedly.

"Good, sound the horns of Jericho!" Ted said and then left with Victoria. Victoria moved to go with several others to the roof of the spaceship-come-fortress. Ted grouped up with several others in one of three large hall-like rooms built into the Caeleste Castrum's landing level. 

When the recording of the horns of Jericho sounded, the room as a whole chuckled. "Form up!" He yelled, and a second later, the doors opened, and Ted called out in a commanding voice once more. "Forward March!"  

[Klaxium Battlefield, Chilxan Lines, moments after the doors opened on the Caeleste Castrum]

As the chilxan soldiers watched, the three leftmost ships issued forth an unruly mob of humans, all wearing the same uniform, but each holding one of several weapons; there was little discipline. They laughed at the untrained humans.

The next thing they heard surely had to be from a speaker, as no group could produce such volume. It was a chant that accompanied a dull thumping in time to the chant. As they watched, what had to be droids issued forth from the fourth and final ship. 

The precision of movement and expression went beyond anything the Chilxan had seen before, but the chant that their translators were translating drained the blood from their faces as they understood what was being said and that it was not droids but humans that chanted it. The Chilxan listened in horror to the chant that was called by one person and then responded to by the rest.

"One, Two, Three, Four." 
"ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!" 
"The Chilxan knocked at the door." 
"THE CHILXAN KNOCKED AT THE DOOR!"
"Open it up, and what do we see?"
"THE KNEWEST KILL FOR YOU AND ME." 
"Chilxan here, Chilxan there." 
"TOSS A BOMB, AND THEY'RE EVERYWHERE." 
"When we find one, what do we do?" 
"CRUSH' EM, GRIND' EM, MULCH' EM TOO!"
"Left…Left…Left, Right, Left… BATALLION HALT!" 

In perfect unison, the humans stopped marching. Not moving an inch. The Chilxan commanders were worried. They could already see their troops faltering, an unruly mob was one thing, but these humans had an entirely different air to them. The Chilxan were soldiers, yes, and they knew it. But all of the officers knew, deep down, that these chanting humans were each and every one killers. 

"Hold your lines for the glory of the Chilxan and the glory of our God Dem'Noq! WE WILL PREVAIL." One of the generals bellowed, and the troops responded, taking heart at their God's name. They all unleashed a bellow of challenge to the Humans.

[Human Lines] 

Ted watched as the Chilxan trembled, the information the other races had provided proved to be true, the Chilxan were probably an excellent fighting force, but they viewed it as a means to an end; it was all for the glory of their God. The humans that now surrounded Ted were all hardened warriors who had a lifetime of experience and had been career military. In comparison, the Humans were Spartans, and the Chilxans was a slave army forced to fight and brainwashed into believing their own propaganda. 

"Make the offer," Ted said into the throat mic that he wore.

The Speakers on the Caeleste Castrum hummed to life once more. They issued an offer in native Chilxan, courtesy of Shiv'Ru.

"To my brothers and sisters. This is Shiv'Ru, formerly a high priestess of Dem'Noq, now a priestess of Cthulhu. Head my words. If you lay down your arms and surrender now, you will be protected and may live free from the yoke that is Dem'Noq's rule. If you do not, you will perish here."

Shiv'Ru read this three times from her position atop the fourth Caeleste Castrum with Victoria. Weathering the chants of traitors that rose from the Chilxan ranks. She did see, however, a group of five Chilxan break free from the army and toss their weapons down. She pointed them out as she read. Victoria chanted quietly and cast her hands towards the Chilxan, running towards the human lines. 

Laser fire was shot at them and stopped several meters away from them. They were quickly taken into one of the Caeleste Castrum by the humans. Then Shiv'Ru, who had hoped there would be more, nodded to Victoria as she turned off the microphone and turned to join Victoria in chanting. 

Ted listened and hoped that Shiv'Ru understood why there weren't more. He listened to the voices, coordinated by Victoria via secure comms, rise from the rooves of the Caeleste Castrum and knew he had about fifteen seconds. 

"Let's fuck with them a bit, shall we?" Ted thought to himself and took a deep breath to call out to all who could hear, calling up one of cinema's greatest, in his opinion, lines.

[Chilxan Lines]

After the traitors had abandoned the lines and been taken into the strange ships, the Chilxan listened and watched, wondering what would happen next. Suddenly they heard a sound that terrified them. 

A lone voice called out at tremendous volume. "Spartans! What is your Profession?!"
The response from the humans rattled the very carapace of every Chilxan. "HA-OOH, HA-OOH, HA-OOH." 

Then the humans did something that no one had expected and sent shivers of fear and dread down the limbs of every soldier in the Chilxan Army. The humans vanished. 

[Observation platform of the Gods]

At this point, several other gods had joined Cthulhu and Dem'Noq, all supporters of Dem'Noq. And in his seat of darkness, Cthulhu was trying not to laugh. 

"What could possibly be so funny to you?" One of the Gods supporting Dem'Noq asked?

Cthulhu thought for a moment and realized there was no way to explain the movie that the line had come from or the sheer level of military precision that it displayed and spoke of regarding Humanity's past. So instead, he just shrugged. "I am simply enjoying myself." 

"I don't understand why," Dem'Noq said, smiling ruefully at Cthulhu. "All your precious humans have fled the field; you have no chance now." 

Cthulhu knew this was all part of the plan, so he simply nodded. "Seems so; I wonder what will happen next." 

As the Gods watched, Cthulhu could not help but smile as he watched shock and fear spread across their faces. Below them, the Chilxan forces were falling to the ground like wheat before a scythe. It took approximately ten minutes for a vast swath of the Chilxan forces, roughly sixty percent, to be killed with coldly calculated efficiency. 

"Let the games begin," Cthulhu said, smiling as he watched the invisibility fall away from the humans.

[Human Lines] 

The Chilxan were fucked. They were beyond fucked; they were so far up shit creek that a paddle, a steam engine, and a rocket would not have gotten them back onto the open water. Before his eyes, Ted watched the Chilxan and their allies melt like a sandcastle before a wave. He had expected no less after interacting with them in orbit around Mars. 

Ted had taken a back role, letting the veterans follow their own devices and choosing to direct the lesser trained elements of the force, primarily comprised of the Disciples; many of them were gamers who wanted the powers of their favorite game characters. Cthulhu had found this insanely amusing and had almost granted every reasonable and doable request without drastic alterations to the person requesting them. 

"I will never understand gamers." He said to himself as he watched a young man leap into the air holding a lantern. When he hit the ground, ghostly tentacles erupted, slapping down on Chilxan around him. Ted shook his head, watching similar things happen all over the field. It was a wholesale slaughter and would be over soon.

[Observation platform of the Gods]

Cthulhu knew it would be over soon. He wanted to return to Earth and enjoy more of what Humanity had created while he slept. 

"What are these powers?" Dem'Noq demanded. 

"They asked for what they wanted, and for the most part, I granted them, though I did say no to some things," Cthulhu responded. 

"Powers granted to subordinates are supposed to be uniform." One of the supporting Gods said with a distasteful tone.

"Why? According to what rules?" Cthulhu said, amused at this simple idea. 

"According to the council," Dem'Noq said. 

"I am not bound by the council's rules, Dem'Noq, you know that," Cthulhu said. 

A strange look came over Dem'Noq, then he laughed an insane laugh. "No, you are not. But then, I guess I don't have to honor our agreement." 

Dem'Noq vanished then, and Cthulhu knew that the game was about to change. 

[Human Lines]

Ted was happy; this war that everyone was stressing about had become a rather simple affair. He thought he would be home soon, able to focus on doting on Victoria and their coming child. 

In front of him, Dem'Noq appeared. His voice was thunderous as he spoke. "Foolish Humans, you have risen above your ilk and will be punished at my hand. Tremble before my power, and kneel before a God!" 

Dem'Noq extended his hand, and light shot forth, one bolt for each human on the field. They cried out, expecting pain and confusion as the Gods were supposed to stay out of this battle. But the light never hit. A veil of black fire encased each and every human. It was pleasantly warm to them, but to the bolts of light, it was anathema. 

Cthulhu stopped out of one of his dark portals, then, in his true form, multiple stories tall and a writhing mass of tentacles. The voice he spoke with was one no one had ever heard before. It echoed through the fabric of space, causing ripples to emanate outward from where he stood on the planet's surface.

"Dem'Noq, God, and oppressor of the Chilxan, you have violated our agreement, not with the council, but with each other," Cthulhu said, apologizing internally to the humans nearest him, who he could see were in pain from the sheer pressure of his true voice. 

"You are a false god, even you admit that by calling yourself Humanities Second God," Dem'Noq said as he was joined by seven other Gods, all outfitted with weapons and one handing Dem'Noq a nasty-looking scythe. "You are alone and will be punished as your humans are, here and now." 

Ted spoke into his comms then, hoping everyone's ears were still working well enough to hear him. "Veterans form up on Cthulhu. Disciples, if you have some kind of healing ability, you're in the backline; those of you with combat abilities mix in with the veterans, any of you with shielding abilities, front line. Victoria, if you have any tricks you and the other priestesses can use to shield us, now might be the time." 

Ted was greeted with confirmations, and the humans flowed smoothly into place on either side of their God. Cthulhu smiled down at them. "I am never alone Dem'Noq; so long as a single human exists, it will be more than enough for me." 

Around the eight Gods, the Chilxan forces, at least what remained of them, had also formed up. A ninth God appeared, holding two beings. He handed one to Dem'Noq, and the other he held. "That is true, but how will you fair without your high priestess and this traitor." Dem'Noq held Shiv'Ru up by her arms. 

Ted saw that the other God was still holding Victoria. "I relinquish command," Ted said, his voice icy. A stuttering response was heard but not recognized as Ted watched Dem'Noq reach up and rip out Shiv'Ru's throat. 

The humans all knew Shiv'Ru; they liked her; she was kind, helpful, and generally, a good person to talk to. Dem'Noq did not realize it, but he had just signed his death certificate. Silence reigned on the battlefield. 

Cthulhu looked at Dem'Noq, and then at Ted, who seemed to be at war with himself, his every muscle tensing, a look that even Cthulhu had to admit was frightening, plastered on his face as his eyes never left Victoria. Cthulhu felt an emotion that he had thought he had forgotten. Rage. True and unbridled rage.

Cthulhu looked up, locking eyes with Dem'Noq, and spoke in a language that defied understanding. “Ph'nglui Iflang’uil.”

All around Dem'Noq and the God that held Victoria, the other gods, and every surviving member of the Chixan forces, exploded violently. Only Dem'Noq and the God holding Victoria remained. 

Cthulhu spoke in English again, his voice seeming to pass over the enraged humans like a light breeze. "Behold the rage of true power. And know that it is not what you should fear." 

Cthulhu turned to the humans and smiled his sickening smile; it seemed to be reflected back at him by every face he could see. "Show them now. Show them why Humanity survived in a world meant to kill them. Show them how you became the deadliest beings ever to walk the galaxy. Show them why you fear no God!" 

Cthulhu turned to watch as the humans flooded forth, an aura of death radiating from every single one.