Stage 2-6: Fallen Babylon
The ominous boss battle music starts up again as the group crash-lands in an open field that appears to be the heart of Babylon's netherworld. The first ones out on patrol are three cat kids, which are carefully guarding a hut.
"That couldn't possibly be the boss of this place, could it?" asks Morrigan.
"No," says Zetta. "It's too soon. I know Babylon's a bit smarter than to play his strongest hand early. The real boss must be somewhere past this field. I want you all to go out and investigate immediately."
Steve, Morrigan and Astral sneak up on the cat kid guards and take them out with one blow each. This doesn't draw out anyone from the hut, so they begin attacking it directly to force whatever was outside to come inside. (Here, you'll notice that the enemy doesn't play by the same rules that the player does. Destroying an enemy-controlled facility forces all of its units to evacuate, whereas if an enemy destroys one of your facilities, all friendly units inside are killed.) The destroyed hut reveals a Death Saber, who immediately takes its frustration out on Morrigan (it's okay, she'll be fine after this boss battle) before succumbing to the might of the main strike team. A fifth cat kid, possibly a stray, comes in from the west, but is easily defeated because it isn't armed.
Over in the distance, a trio of soldiers - two male, one female - readies their muskets.
"Did you hear that, boss?" says one of the males. "It sounded like a cat dying."
"You're a medic, aren't you?" says the female. "You could have gone out and saved them."
"But those weren't my orders! You told me to watch for any intruders and not move from this spot. Besides, those cats don't even belong to us."
"Duh, Malfus," the second male soldier says to him. "You'd think that the dead kittens would be your first sign that trouble was on its way. The enemy could be here any minute!"
The leader holds her musket into the air and fires off a warning shot. "All right, Saga Squad 1, listen up! We're the last line of defense for this Netherworld. Anyone you see, you shoot on sight. Understood?"
Both soldiers give Saga a salute. "Yes, sir!"
Malfus pulls out his binoculars and looks into the distance, where he sees Steve's party approaching, now backed by more than the original three soldiers from his lookout party.
"I see them, boss! They're coming!"
Saga waves them on, and points toward the neutral field. They run with all their strength so that they can meet face-to-face with Steve and his crew. Graz leaps out in front and beats Malfus down with his nunchaku, and hisses mockingly at the other two soldiers.
"Gah...they trained this one pretty well," Malfus says before collapsing. "It's all up to you...Dover..."
Dover points his gun at the cat that knocked down his partner, but notices that it isn't standing in front of him anymore. Frustrated, he fires a shot off that hits Astral, but doesn't kill him. Saga follows up with a shot of her own against Woody, assuming he's the strongest of the group. While they're preoccupied, Io, Graz and Meredith teach them the error of their tactics by executing a joint assault. With the superior numbers, Steve's squad comes out victorious yet again.
"Dammit!" says Dover. "Babylon should have sent more soldiers. We could have dealt with the lot of you easily."
"Forget about it," says Saga. "They beat us. Let's just get out of here while we still have our heads."
Zetta only briefly celebrates his victory, because now he's worried that Alexander will come back and send an assassin after him again.
Two down, six to go!
