“Sir!” The voice of a young man screamed. “I’ve got about a dozen inbound hostile Galaxies and about fifteen escort Mosquitoes! Estimate... 360 meters, and closing fast!” The man’s voice sounds frantic and scared. “They’ve spotted us! TAKE COVER!” *Gunfire and roaring engines* “Raker! NOOO! Man down! Repeat, man down! Does anyone copy!?! We are engaging enemy units at 9-36-250, I repeat, 9-36-250, requesting additional forces immediately! I repeat, I am requesting addition- AHHHGG!” *Sounds of bullets ripping through armor, followed by an extremely high pitched screeching noise, and then silence...

“And that’s where it ends.”

Commander Corwin leans back in his chair and slowly strokes his chin, thinking. “And there haven’t been any reports on any other attacks like this?” “No...” The man who had played the recording of a William Jenkins’ last moments, now races his fingers over his keyboard, scanning through the reports. “No, nothing more than the usual small stuff.”

“And you’ve searched the area of the incident?” Corwin asks.

“Yes Sir, all we found was bodies and empty shell casings.

“I see... well then I suppose there isn’t really anything we can do now but wait... Notify me as soon as anything else on this comes up.”

“Will do sir”

“Commander Corwin sir?” A voiced calls over the VidCom.

“Yeah?!” Corwin jumps up, instantly awake from sleeping.

“I’m sorry sir, but you told me to notify you as soon as anything else on those ships came up? ... And umm... well sir... I think you might want to come up here.” It was the man who had played the message for him the day before, he sounds troubled and confused.

“Alright, I’ll be right there.”

“Yes sir, out.” The VidCom beeps and turns off.

Corwin swings his feet over the side of the couch where he was sleeping, and blinks heavily and scratches the back of his head. He stands up and turns to his purple light armor laid on a chair to his left, picks up the chest plate and stares into the bold Vanu symbol painted on the left side, and he tries to remember the days before the war, the time when he was back on earth with his family. But those times are over now. He slides the armor plate over his head and secures it, along with the rest of his armor. He takes a step towards the door but then stops, seeing his helmet on the table. He walks over, and taking up the helmet in his right hand, he looks at the tiered and battle scared reflection in the visor.

Still gazing into the visor, Corwin steps into the corridor, looks up, and makes his way to the control room to find out what the news is.



The Cave

With a whooshing sound the automated door slides open, unleashing a wave of noise. People giving commands, computers beeping, reports coming in over the radio and even a broken air vent giving off a rather loud humming. It seemed as though the room was exploding with noise. Corwin quickly spots a man walking towards him, and recognizes him as the man who had called him. Kolvir, according to his nameplate, Corwin tries to remember it.

“Good morning sir, please follow me.” Kolvir leads him to a much quieter room off to the side of the main room. The new room has two chairs, a large monitor on the wall, and a small control board on a desk.

“So what is it then?” Corwin asks, taking a seat in front of the large screen.

“Well... It looks like we’ve found those ships...” Kolvir turns to the control board and his fingers fly over the keys. A moment later, the screen lights up and an overhead view of the planet appears. The picture then zooms to show a snowy mountain and a snow covered valley with a sparse forest. Then it zooms again to show the Terran ships sitting there. There is no sign of movement, but one of the galaxies seems to be damaged and two of the mosquitoes are on fire.

Corwin leans forward and studies the screen for a moment, then asks, “What’s going on down there?”

“Well nothing now sir, a patrol spotted the ships and opened fire at them, but they soon realized that something was wrong because there was no return fire. They went to investigate, and they found the ships entirely deserted and many tracks leading up the mountain. They have reported that there is at least five enemy MAX’s based on the tracks, and a lot more medium or light troops, they couldn’t make out how many. They followed the tracks and found that they lead into a cave of some kind...”

Kolvir’s fingers flicked over some more keys and the camera pans up the mountainside and zooms in again to show a group of three light armor, two medium and one MAX, all in position aiming into the entrance of the cave. “And that is where they are now, as you can see here.”

“I see...” Corwin takes a deep breath and turns his head to the side a little bit, examining the screen, “Have they entered the cave yet?”

“Only a few feet, then they came back out and are waiting outside for orders.”

“Alright... is there anything else?”

“No, not at this time sir.”

“Good, then assemble two squads and two galaxies, and tell your squad on the mountain to sit tight.” Corwin rises and picks up his helmet. “Make sure to include two MAX’s in with those squads, one with a Quasar and one with a Comet. Oh, and don’t forget to tell them to bring their flashlights.”

“Yes sir, are you planning on going with them?”

“Yes.”

“Sir, I don’t thinks that’s-“

“Just do as you’re told.”

“Yes sir.”



Into the Darkness

The roar of the galaxy’s engines and clanking of loosely stored objects are the only noises that Corwin can hear. The whole trip so far has been like this. He is in the back with his soldiers. Most of them are staring blankly into space, probably wondering what is going to happen down in those caves, maybe it will be a secret Terran base, or a weapons factory, but if it is something that important then why would they carelessly leave their ship out in the open like that? The others are checking their weapons, counting bullets, and checking power and food supplies, anything to keep them busy.

“We’re approaching the landing zone sir,” the galaxy pilot calls back over his shoulder.

Corwin stands up and grabs the railing attached to the ceiling to prevent him from falling, and carefully makes his way to the cockpit.

The view is beautiful, snow-covered trees dotted the steep mountainside overlooking the trees and abandoned Terran ships in the valley. Corwin loves the snow, as a child, he had often built forts and pretended he was in the Terran Republic Army throwing snow-grenades at the other kids back on Earth.

“We’re here sir, should I put her down?”

Corwin snaps back to the present, “Yeah, take us down.”

“Roger.”

“Galaxy 2 this is Air Force One, we are proceeding to land.”

“Roger Air Force One, we’re right behind you.”

The galaxy starts to slow and descend.

The Galaxy touches down nicely and the ramp slowly lowers. Corwin jumps over the side of the ramp down into the snow, half blinded by the glare. He quickly finds the button on his helmet, and the visor becomes tinted. He turns towards the second galaxy to see a basilisk quad cycle come rolling down the ramp. He laughs to himself remembering his first time reconstructed was after a high-speed gunfight on one of those being chased by a harasser, his tire was shot out and he flew off headfirst into a tree.

Corwin assembles the two squads and takes a quick head-count, both MAX’s are here, and seven others, including the stealth suit and the kid on the bike. He tells the galaxy pilots to wait for an hour then go to the closest friendly base and wait there for the extraction call. They start moving up the mountainside but soon it becomes too steep and the basilisk starts to slide, the man riding it gets off, and with the help of another soldier, they start pushing. The MAX’s use their jump jets to keep up with the others, and not get stuck in the now knee-high snow. They can now see the other squad at the cave’s entrance. When they get closer they see that there was a fight of some kind, the snow is stained pinkish-red around the entrance and in spots around a man with a wounded arm.

“What happened?” Corwin asks the wounded man.

“A Terran came running out of the cave and we told him to drop his gun but instead he shot me in the arm, started to run back into the cave but stopped, turned around, and then our MAX Kara ‘accidentally’ shot him.

“Stealth,” Corwin called the woman in the stealth suit to him.

“Yes sir?” she replies.

“What is your name?”

“Luna sir.”

“Luna, go check inside a bit.”

“Yes sir, on my way.” She turns and starts walking towards the cave. She puts her helmet on, pulls out her knife, and disappears.



The Slaughterhouse

Luna slowly and silently enters the cave. Before her is a long icy passage. She creeps along being careful not to make any noise. The passage begins to curve left, and she soon comes to a dead end. She examines the wall in front of her, looking for a hidden control panel or something. She finds nothing. She turns around and starts to walk back the way she came, but slower this time, searching the walls, floor and ceiling for any signs of a hidden control panel or doorway.

About half way back, she spots a small hole near the ground to her right, it is just big enough for her to crawl through. She straps her knife back onto her leg and gets down into a prone position. She starts to crawl into the small tunnel and turns on the light enhancement mode on her visor because she cannot see, but even with it on it is still too dark to see anything and so she crawls blindly on.

After some time, she comes to the end of the tunnel. She feels around her, finds that she has room to stand, and is in an opening about the size of four lockers put together. She stands and removes her helmet and sees a glowing red button on the wall in front of her. She reaches out to touch it, but grabs her flashlight instead, she’s seen too many bad movies to just push a red button.

She clicks her flashlight on, and the bright light hurts her eyes. Her well-trained eyes adjust quickly and she sees that there is some kind of code or symbols around the button. She cannot understand what it says, but curiosity gets the better of her and she pushes the button anyway.

Instantly she hears a series of loud clicks that sounds like they came from far off, followed by a deep rumbling and scraping. She quickly puts her helmet on, turns off her flashlight and activates her stealth armor. She then sees the crawlspace that she came through slowly widen to about 10 feet wide and 15 feet high. Then she realizes that she can see. Her visor isn’t on and she can’t make out any light source, but the room is definitely brighter. Suddenly the wall behind her opens to reveal a hallway with flickering lights that turns off to the left and slopes downward, deeper into the ground.

“Sir? This is Luna.” She speaks into her radio.

“Yes we read you. What was that noise? And what is your current situation?” Corwin’s voice cracks back at her.

“Uhhh... Sir I think you might want to come see for yourself.”

“Alright, we’re on our way. Are there any enemies in there?”

“No,” Luna steps into the newly opened hallway, her jaw drops and her eyes get wide, “None live anyway.”

“... What?? We’re on our way!”

Luna looks around her, she is standing in a shallow pool of blood, and there are more than twenty dead Terran soldiers lying by her feet. But the stranger thing is that they are all lying on their chests or sides with their heads facing the exit, as if they were all trying to get out...



The Jungle

Corwin and the rest of the soldiers storm into the cave with their weapons, ready to start blazing at the first sign of any enemy. They reach Luna and the hall of dead Terrans, and they find Luna still staring in disbelief. The soldiers fan out and start to check the bodies for any singes of life. They find none.

“Luna, are you going to be alright?” Corwin puts his hand on her shoulder and looks into her troubled face. Yes Sir, I think I’ll be alright.” She replaces her helmet and rejoins the rest of the troops with her pistol.

“Okay, lets move out!” Corwin commands, and the soldiers scramble to gather themselves and loot some of the Terran equipment.

“Sir?” One of the soldiers approaches him.

“Yes?”

“What should I do with the basilisk?’

“Oh... Right...” Corwin turns around and looks back down the tunnel that they had come in through. “You go stay with it, and take someone else with you, we might need you to make a run for help. And also, as far as we know, this is the only way in or out of this place.”

The soldier nods and motions toward another to follow him back up the tunnel with him.

“Okay, now let’s go,” Corwin calls to the troops.

They move down the hallway and soon come to a large door.

“Get that open,” Corwin points to a control panel. One soldier moves over to it, puts down his lasher and takes out his hack tool. Moments later the door starts to groan and slowly slide open.

Corwin raises his beamer and steps through the gap in the doorway as it is still opening. He looks about him and can barely believe his eyes, he finds himself in a dense jungle... the air is humid and he can hear strange animal screaming and howling. He would have believed it was all real, but instead of a sky there was a very high metallic ceiling, doted with large artificial lights.

“You, sniper.” Corwin calls to a man with a lasher and a bolt-driver on his back.

“Yes sir?”

“You got a name?”

“Yes sir, they call me ToyDoll.”

“ToyDoll?... Whatever, go find a tall tree or something high and tell me what’s in here.”

“Yes sir, on my way.” ToyDoll runs off into the trees and disappears from sight.

“Lieutenant,” Corwin calls to another man, this one is dressed in medium armor and is armed with a punisher.

“Yes sir! Death Spyder here sir!”

“Death Spyder!?! Where do you kids come get these names?”

“...”

“Never mind... take your squad and go that way.” Corwin motions to his right. “And I’ll take the rest this way.” He motions left. “See what you can find out and report anything immediately.”

“Yes sir! That way, will do sir!” He turns to his squad. “You heard the man! Time to move boys and girls!” The squad raises their weapons and moves off into the jungle. The three MAX’s, two light armor, and four reinforced armors remain.

“Okay, now it’s our turn, let’s go check this place out. See if we can find what killed those Terrans. And maybe give them a congratulations and a pat on the back when we do eh?” Corwin smiles and laughs a bit, and calls his remaining troops to follow him into the trees.



The Strangers

ToyDoll moves stealthily through the trees. He can’t find a tree that is much bigger than the rest, but he decides to see what he can see from the top of one of them anyway. He picks a tree to his right, not for any particular reason, it is just the closest. He straps his gun on his back and jumps. He catches the lowest branch and swings himself up onto it, stands up on it, jumps, and catches the next branch. Now the branches are close enough that he can reach them without jumping, and he climbs up them until he reaches the top of the tree. At the top the branches are fairly thin and he is afraid that they might brake at any second, so he acts as quickly as he can. He straitens himself and stretches as high as he can.

He scans over the treetops and sees that the room is very large; he guesses it takes up most of the inside of the mountain. In the distance, he can see the tip of what he thinks is some kind of building, and at the very far end on the wall there is an extended platform. He takes his bolt driver and puts the scope up to his right eye, and zooms in on the platform. He can see that there is a low railing around all sides of it, and he thinks it looks like a viewing platform.

As he is watching the platform, he sees a Terran soldier walk backwards to the edge of the platform. The soldier is firing an assault riffle, but ToyDoll can’t see what he’s firing at. The Terran reaches the edge, and looks behind him, then quickly looks back at what he’s shooting at. He keeps firing for a few more seconds, then he moves forwards out of ToyDoll’s view. He then runs up to the railing, and without stopping, uses his hand to lift himself up, as he is rising he lifts his feet up and then uses his legs to jump off the railing. He quickly falls into the jungle and out of ToyDoll’s view.

Another man appears on the platform, followed by another. They are wearing strange colored uniforms that are black and green. They look over the platform and empty a few rounds into the jungle below them, then they walk back out of sight. ToyDoll then aims his scope at the tip of what he thinks looks like a building in the center of the room. All he can see is a concrete pillar with an antenna attached to it.

He calls into the radio “Commander Corwin? Sir? This is ToyDoll, I have some very strange things to report.”

“This is Corwin, I read you, what have you got?”

“There is some sort of a building in the center of the room, I can’t make out much, I can only see the very tip. The room itself is very large, I’d say it takes up most of the mountain. There is also a large extended platform high on the wall at the opposite end of the room. I saw a Terran soldier fighting with at least two men in green and black uniforms. The Terran jumped over the edge and is now somewhere in the jungle.”

“... Okay, thank you. Green and black?”

“Yes sir, green and black.”

“Ok, come rejoin us, I’ll update our position on your suit’s map” A short pause, “Alright there you are, get back here ASAP.”

*Beep* “New coordinates received” ToyDoll’s helmet informs him.

“Okay sir, I got it, I’m on my way now.”

ToyDoll quickly drops from branch to branch until he is back on the ground, then he takes his lasher rifle off his back and moves off to rejoin Corwin and his squad.



First Contact

Death Spyder and his squad move silently through the trees. Suddenly, Death Spyder shoots up his hand, signaling the squad to stop. Instantly everyone crouches and scans the area with their weapons at the ready. Everything is still and silent for a few seemingly long moments. Then they hear what sounds like gunfire in the distance.

Corwin leans to his right so he can see around the tree that he’s using for cover, and fires off a few blasts from his beamer. He leans back just as the piece of tree near where his head was explodes into a shower of splinters. They had run into a small squad of the strangely colored soldiers, and they had turned out not to be a very friendly bunch of people. Corwin hears the sound of a MAX’s jumpjets engaging and looks towards the sound. He sees a MAX from his squad lift off the ground going towards the enemy position. The MAX opens fire with his quasar, raining a blue shower of death down onto his enemies. Corwin watches the enemies’ armor melt and sizzle with each impact of the glowing energy shots. He sees four soldier stand up screaming and trying to get away, only to be gunned down my the airborne MAX. The screams stop and Corwin hears a loud thump as the MAX hits the ground.

Silence fills the air, it hurts his ears as he strains to hear any noise that might be a surviving enemy. The squad sits in silence for a while. All of them think that they must have killed everyone, but all of them are also too smart and experienced to start celebrating just yet. The silence stays, and Corwin signals three of his squad members with his hand motions. He tells them to go quietly and check for survivors. They slowly start crawling forward, with Corwin in the lead. They slowly and silently inch their way along, they are all very tense and ready to annihilate anything that twitches. After what seems like hours to them, they finally reach the fallen tree that a few of the enemies had been using for cover. They crouch low, being careful not to let the tops of their heads peak over the edge. Corwin moves to the side of the fallen tree and slowly and very carefully peeks his weapon first, then just enough of his head around the corner to let his right eye see what is around the corner. He sees the green-and-black-gloved hand and helmet of a dead soldier. He leans out some more, but that is all there is of the soldier, no arm, no body. Corwin leans back behind the dead tree and closes his eyes for a second, disgusted. He opens his eyes and tries to forget it and concentrate. He starts to creep slowly around the tree again, arms first, head, shoulders, chest, and finally is in the open on the other side. He sees no live enemies, but seven dead. He scans the surrounding trees and sees nothing.

Corwin stands up. Instantly a shot flies past his head.

“AHHH!!!” Corwin yells and falls backwards onto the ground.

“Commander!” one of his soldiers runs to him. “I didn’t know it was you! I am so sorry, I didn’t think you had gone all the way around. Are you hurt?”

“That was you!?!” Corwin yells at the young soldier. “No I’m not hurt you lucky fool! Check your fire!”

“I’m sorry sir, it’ll never happen again.”

“It better not!”

By this time the whole squad was gathered around them, quietly laughing to themselves.

“Okay well I guess it’s safe now, everyone gather around in this little area, and anyone wounded... Where’s our medic? We do have a medic right?”

“Sir, I’m also trained as a medic.” It was ToyDoll.

“Alright anyone injured talk to ToyDoll.”

Everyone moves around, settling in, finding good cover spots in case they need to quickly defend themselves, taking out rations, congratulating the man in the MAX that had ended the fight, and starting to brag about their own kills.

“Commander!”

“What is it?”

“Get over here! This one’s still alive!”



Unknown Contact

“Commander Corwin, come in, his is Death Spyder, over.”

“This is Corwin over.”

“What’s going on I heard gunfire, over.”

“We ran into some hostiles, situation normal now. We captured one, our medic is working on him now, we haven’t been able to get anything out of him yet.”

“Roger that. Should we continue scouting over here? Over.”

“Uhhh... That’s a negative lieutenant, rendezvous at the coordinated I’m sending to you now, over.”

“Roger, we are proceeding to rendezvous at coordinates, over and out.”

Death Spyder and his squad make their way to the coordinates Corwin gave them. They moved along without any signs of enemies.

“Who’s there?”

The Squad instantly stops searches for the source of the voice. Death Spider looks around him and sees no one.

“Who’s there!?!” The voice is more insistent.

He decides to take a chance.

“Lieutenant Death Spyder and my squad of Vanu soldiers. Show yourself stranger.”

No answer...

“Don’t make me come and find you!”

Still there is no answer.

The awkward silence remains for a few moments.

“Alright, I’m coming out! Don’t shoot!”

The soldiers scan the trees around them, eagerly waiting for the unknown man to show himself with their rifles ready in case it is a trap.

To their surprise the see a Terran soldier slowly step out from behind a tree with his arms raised. He has a cycler on his back and a repeater strapped on his leg.

“Alright, stop right there.” He turns his head but keeps his eyes and weapon on the Terran, “Moron, take his weapons.”

“The names Morion, More-EE-on!! Get it right.”

“Close enough, just do it.”

Morion walks slowly up the Terran.

“Hand over your weapons.”

The Terran looks nervously into the trees around him then replies, “Okay, here you are.” He takes off his repeater first and flips it in his hand to offer it to the Vanu. Then his cycler, he reaches behind him and pulls it off into his hands. He hesitates. Death Spyder grips his punisher tighter and his finger is itching to pull the trigger, but the Terran surrenders the weapon. Death Spyder breathes a sigh of relief and lowers his gun.

“Alright Terran, we’ll wait to talk until we meet up with our commander. We’re on our way to him now.”

The Terran nods and gazes into the trees again.

“Keep an eye on him,” Death Spyder whispers to Morion.

“Yes sir.” He raises his pulsar and straps the Terran weapons onto his back and leg.

“Everyone ready? Good lets go.” Death Spyder leads his squad off again towards the coordinates.



It’s Alive!



They reach the other soldiers, and see that they have set up camp. “Soldier, where’s the commander?” The soldier points him to one of the tents. “Thank you.” “Yes sir.” Death Spyder tells two of his soldiers to accompany him with the Terran to Corwin’s tent, and tells the rest to go and rest. They arrive at the tent and Death Spyder calls inside, “Commander Corwin sir?” “Yes, come in.” They enter the tent. Corwin is surprised to see the Terran. “I see you brought a friend?” “Yes sir, we found him in the woods, he came voluntarily.” “I see, what’s your name Terran?” “Destroyeron.” “What are you doing here?” “My squad and twelve other squads were sent in to find out what was going on down here. The Terran Republic found this ‘cave’ about two weeks ago, they sent three different squads in to investigate, all the disappeared.” Corwin stares at the Terran, thinking. “Where is the rest of your squads?” Corwin asks, already knowing what the answer will be. “They’re... dead... I think I’m the last... We ran into hostiles, they were wearing strange colors. We sent a small team of three men to talk to them, but they were shot down before they even opened their mouths.” He stops and stares at the ground. “So, you never found out who they are?” “No, I don’t know. All I know is that they are very well trained and they are very violent.” “They killed everyone you sent?” “I think so, but we found a hallway about four floors down from here, there were a lot of locked doors, and at the end there was a huge door that looked like one of those old fashioned bank vaults. You know what I mean? With the huge bolts that go into the door.” “Yeah I remember reading about those in a history class, such simple thing... I don’t see how they kept people out.” “Yes, but the people back then weren’t as smart and didn’t have the technology we do now. Anyway, this door was locked from the outside, so my guess is that it is holding something in, maybe prisoners, I don’t know. As we were exploring the hall, someone tripped an alarm and the auto defense turrets came up and mowed down eight of my soldiers, the squad leader and I were the only ones to make it out.” “Sir?” A Vanu soldier is standing in the doorway to the tent. “Yes, what do you want?” “Sir the medic told me to report that he has finished.” “The medic? What medic? Oh, right! Okay I’ll be there in a minute.” “Yes sir, I’ll tell him.” Corwin turns back to Destroyeron, “If you’ll excuse me, I have some other business to attend to. You look like you could use some rest. Lieutenant!” “Yes sir?” Death Spyder replies. “Find this man a tent, and make sure he’s fed, and give him his weapons before we move out tomorrow.” “Yes sir!” “We will speak more tomarrow, get some rest,” Corwin says to Destroyeron. “I will, thank you.” Death Syder turn to Destroyeron and tells him to follow him. He tells the two soldiers that accompanied him that they can leave. Then he shows Destroyeron to a spare tent and helps him settle in. Corwin finds ToyDoll and a few other soldiers trying to hold down the flailing enemy. “What’s going on?” “Sir! We revived the enemy soldier as you requested, but he is now resisting!” A soldier yelled to him over the sounds of the struggle. “Well I can see that, is there anything else?” “No sir!” “Alright. Kara!” Corwin calls over his radio to a MAX. “This is Kara, what do you need sir?” “Get over here.” “Yes sir, on my way, do you need me to get my MAX?” “Yes, that would be nice, thank you. Hurry up.” After a while, Kara comes running up in her MAX armor. “I’m here sir!” “Alright, what I need you do is just go stand on this guys arms.” “What was that sir?” “Go stand on his arms.” “...” “Just do it, we can heal him later if we need to.” “Yes sir.” Kara reluctantly moves over to the struggling crowd. “AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” The enemy soldier screams out in pain as his arms crush under the weight of the MAX. “Shut up!” Corwin yells at the soldier. “Tell us who you are and I’ll give you some pain killers, don’t and I’ll give you some more pain, your choice.” The enemy glares back at him with clenched teeth. Corwin looks up at Kara. She shifts her weight, crushing more of the man’s arms. The enemy screams again. After many repeats of this, Corwin knocks him out and orders some soldiers to dig a ten-foot-deep hole and dump him in, and stand guard outside. Corwin then goes around and checks the remaining ammunition and food supplies, he finds that they still have about three-fourths of everything left. He then takes one final look around and goes into his tent for some much needed sleep.



Ambushed



Corwin awakes to the sound of machinegun fire and explosions. He quickly jumps up, grabs his pistol and helmet and runs outside. He looks around him and sees that they are under attack by the strange soldiers again. His troops are split up and using whatever they can for cover. Corwin sees an enemy stand up and start firing from the trees. He lifts his beamer and fires a few quick blasts. The enemy falls dead. He sees Death Spyder run out of a tent and fire a rocket from his punisher into the trees. The rocket explodes and sends two soldiers flying out of the trees, one still alive, but he lands on his head and his neck snaps from the impact. Corwin runs over to Death Spyder. “Where’d they come from?” “I dunno sir, they just came out of nowhere,” Death Spyder replies while firing bursts off into the trees. Corwin moves away from Death Spyder and gets behind a low bush and starts firing at the incoming soldiers. It seems like they’re doing well, Corwin doesn’t see any friendly casualties yet. Corwin then hears a squealing noise, like un-oiled wheels. A tank! “Incoming armor!!!” Corwin yells just as he sees a green-and-black-painted prowler come crashing through the trees. The prowler fires its main cannon and hits a tent. The tent explodes, knocking a few nearby vanu soldiers off their feet. Then he sees a lancer shot come out of the trees. The shot hits the tank on the side, knocking it over. He hears more crashing, this time behind him. He turns and is very surprised to see a mag-rider cutting through the trees. The mag-rider slows and starts firing on soldiers and tents. He then sees Destroyeron run towards the tank. He jumps on top of it and start firing at the hatch. The hinges fly off, he drops his cycler and pulls out a grenade as he rips at the hatch. The hatch budges a few inches, just enough for him to drop his grenade in. He stomps on the hatch once, closing it again, then leaps off the tank and rolls on the ground. There is a loud thud noise from the inside of the tank, and the hatch flies off. The mag-rider stays silent and still for a moment, then falls to the ground. The enemies have stopped firing now, and are running off into the jungle. Corwin picks himself up and looks around. He sees that Destroyeron is picking up his cycler, he’s fine. Death Spyder is yelling and firing into the trees, he’s still hungry for blood, but it looks like he’s ok. He sees a MAX on the ground and rushes over. It was the man who had finished the fight the day before with his jumpjets. He’s dead, a sad loss, he was a good soldier. He sees a soldier come out of the trees with a lancer, and he walks over to him. “Are you the one who took out that prowler?” “Yes sir, that was me.” “That was a nice shot, what’s your name?” “Starrider sir.” “Okay, Starrider, keep up the good work.” “I’ll try my best sir.” Corwin sees the hole where the prisoner was. He walks over to it and finds that the soldier’s still there, or pieces of him, it looks like a stray grenade landed in the hole. He hears Death Spyder finally stop firing, but he’s still yelling, now at Destroyeron who took his gun from him. Then he sees the prowler, an enemy is crawling out of it. He raises his beamer and walks towards it. “Hold on there! Let me see your hands!” The enemy doesn’t respond and instead starts to try to pull himself out faster. Corwin starts running. The enemy is out, and he reaches back in. He comes out with a pistol. Corwin sees it, and before the enemy can raise his arm, he fires two shots into his chest. The enemy’s armor melts and the he falls limply backwards. Cowrin runs up and sticks his head and gun into the tank. He sees that all of the others are dead, and pulls himself back out. He calls everyone to regroup, and takes a headcount. ‘Okay, so there’s still two MAX’s, one quasar and one comet. And Luna, the stealth, and ten others, no twelve, ToyDoll is healing a soldier on the ground, and thirteen, the Terran, plus me makes... (two plus one is three, plus twelve is fifteen, plus two more...) seventeen left.’ Corwin thinks to himself. ‘That’s not too bad.’ “Okay people, get cleaned up, and pack up anything that’s still good. We’ll move out in one hour!” The soldiers move off in different directions to look for anything that wasn’t destroyed in the attack. Corwin goes to find some food.



A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far Far Away...



Corwin finds a package of “Instant Stew and Dinner!” and opens it and smiles, remembering a time long ago on Earth. He had been assigned to a small infantry division, and it was his first month, fresh out of training. Their first mission was to secure a small town that had been taken over by an organized crime group known as the Order in Chaos. They had a fierce name and a strong goal, the overthrow of the Terran Republic, but they didn’t have more than a few thousand followers. He was sent in with the rest of his division as an assault soldier in light agile armor. He was just a low ranking private back then, and his C.O. was a man named Streich. He was riding in a Terran deliverer APC. He was in the back. Their deliverer had been dropped off ten miles from the town by a galaxy dropship, and now they were traveling along the road towards the town. They were the third vehicle in a line of seven. A prowler was leading them, followed by a harasser, then their APC and the other three, and another prowler at the rear. The were four and a half miles away and Corwin was turning his rifle in his hands. He was amazed by the thing, he turned it over and checked the ammo and the barrel, then heald it in front of him. He had just received his cycler certification the day before, and he had never seen real combat with it. He heard a large explosion, and the APC instantly came to a halt. Streich called up to the driver, “What the heck was that?!?” “The Harasser just exploded sir, possibly land mines.” Corwin leaned forward so he could partially see out the front window, but all he could see was the glow of the flames lighting up the night. A crackle came over the radio, “This is mission commander Zephen. We have mines on the road ahead. All squads continue on foot. Zephen out.” “You heard the man, get out!” Streich commanded. The doors swung open and everyone poured out of the deliverer. Corwin hit the ground and looked around him, he saw the burning harasser, and a medic working on the surviving gunner. In the distance, he can see the lights from the town. The walk was long and boring. Once they were close enough, the snipers started picking off anything they could see. Streich led the squad to the road leading into the town from the east (they had originally approached from the south). They crouched down in some bushes just outside and reported. “Squad bravo in position,” Streich whispered into the radio. “Roger, hold position.” They watched the town and waited for the signal to attack. Soon the signal came over the radio, “Let there be light.” They started moving towards the town. They heard gunfire and an explosion from the northern side of the town. They came to the fist houses and the squad split up, five went across the street, and five stayed on the first side. Corwin stayed on the first with Streich. They reached the first house, and Corwin was assigned to the back so he looked in the side window. He saw nothing and moved to the back. There was nothing in the backyard, and he saw that there was a back door. He moved to it. He typed in his clearance override code into the doors lock system, and the door slid open to show a small hallway. He moved in and found no one. He turned left and when into a bedroom, a bullet whizzed past him and went through the wall on his left. It was a new recruit, newer than he was, only let out of basic training two days before. The man was standing there shocked and in horror, knowing that he could have killed Corwin. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to I swear! You scared me!” Corwin’s heart was beating very fast and he had to resist the urge to go over and sock the man in the face. Luckily, his senses came back to him, and he told the man that he was alright and it was okay. They left the first house and saw that the others had also found an empty house. They came to the second house, this one was two stories high. Corwin climbed through the bushes on the side and fell out into a swimming pool. He managed to climb out, but it was tough because he couldn’t swim well in his armor. He was dripping wet, but he saw the back door and he saw there was a light on in the upstairs window. He moved to the door, and found that the control system was broken, and it had wires hanging out of it. “This is Corwin, the back door is busted and there’s a light on in the window upstairs. I’m going to try to get in through the window back here.” “Roger.” Corwin moved to the window on the left and looked inside. There was a holo-entertainment system and a couch. Looked like the recreational room. He tried the window and it was locked. He pulled his repeater from his leg and aimed at the lock. He turned his head and fired. When he looked back, the lock was shot off and the glass was shattered. He lifted the window up and climbed inside. The room was dark so he switched on his light enhancement modification on his goggles. He looked around and saw there was only one doorway. He moved to it. It lead to a hallway, in one direction there were stairs and the front door, and in the other direction was a closed door. He chose the closed door first. He touched the handle and turned the knob. Behind him he heard a crashing noise as the others broke down the front door. He looked over his shoulder and saw them come in with their rifles raised. They saw him at the door and two ran over and pointed their guns at the door. Corwin crouched down to give them a clear shot if they needed it. He then pushed his weight against the door and let himself fall to the ground and roll into the room. He heard the other to Terrans open fire above him and return fire from somewhere in the room. Corwin took a shot in his right shoulder and a few shots grazed his helmet, and left shoulder. He looks up to see a man in green and black armor firing back at his friends. (Green and black!) He took his repeater off his leg and raised it to assist them, but he was shot again and then blacks out. He awoke in a hospital bed some three or four days later, a nurse came in about ten minutes to check on him. She was happy to see him awake and asks if he wan’t some food or drink. “That would be nice,” he replied smiling. “Alright, I’ll go see if the cook can fix you up something special. Most people weren’t sure you were going to make it!” She leaves the room. Corwin looked around the room, it was a normal hospital room, everything colored white, and there were lots of weird contraptions and tools neatly arranged on the counter. The nurse returned shortly with a steaming hot bowl of stew, and a glass and a cold soda. Corwin was extremely thankful, both because he was starving, and because he hadn’t eaten that good in months. After thanking her many times she said she had to go check on some others. Later Corwin learned that the town was captured, but the Order of Chaos leader was never found. “Sir! It’s time to move out!” It’s Death Spyder bringing him back into the present world. “Order in Chaos.” “What?” “Order in Chaos, a crime group from earth about twenty years ago, I fought them when I was still with the Terrans. They wore green and black colored armor just like these guys, it could be them.” “Never heard of them, but it could be. I’ve never seen green and black armor before.” “Okay, well anyway I’m ready, let’s go.” They all group up and start to move out in the direction of the center building.



One Two Three Let’s Jam!



*Click Click* Corwin scans the building with his advanced targeting implant. It looks empty. Corwin waves his hand, giving the signal to Death Spyder that they’re moving in. He nods in reply and turns to talk to the rest of his squad. Corwin turns back to his own squad and signals them to gather around him. They creep up to him. Corwin whispers, “Okay, it looks clear to me, but still be careful. I’ll go to the close wall first, then when I signal, come to me one at a time.” “Got it,” and “Yes sir,” they reply. Corwin turns around and takes one final scan of the area. Still seeing nothing, he sprints out into the open towards the wall. He reaches it, and without stopping, he turns around and hits the wall with his back. The impact makes an audible thud, and Corwin instantly regrets doing it. He looks around again, but still sees nothing, and signals the next man to come. The next soldier comes running out towards him. She reaches the wall and stands with her back to it next to Corwin. So far so good, Corwin signals the next. The medium armored soldier is slower but he still makes it, and Corwin starts to relax a bit. Next signal, next soldier on the wall. Then another, and another. Corwin signals the fifth and a light armored soldier comes running out. He makes it halfway, but then a shot rings out, and as if in slow motion, Corwin watches the man fall to the ground. He was hit directly in the chest, and blood sprays the ground around him. When he hits the ground his leg is at a strange angle and his visor cracks from the impact. Corwin crouches and searches for the source of the shot. Another shot and the woman that had been first to run out now slides slowly down the wall, leaving a trail of crimson colored blood. This time Corwin saw the general direction of the shot and he fires with his beamer hoping to get lucky. He wasn’t lucky though, and another shot grips Corwin’s heart. Not physically though, but because he knows that each shot means another of his soldiers dies. This time it was the medium armor. He was crouching and scanning the trees before the third shot, but now he is thrown to his back by the shot that pierces his visor. Corwin is frantic by now, yelling into his radio for help from his squad mates and Death Spyder. Another shot! Corwin is really getting angry now, and yells out both in rage and sorrow. He doesn’t see anyone fall, and then he realizes that the shot came from a different direction! He turns in the direction, and sees a Terran soldier reloading behind a tree! He glances back in the direction of the previous sniper and the starts moving towards the new Terran. When he gets close enough to talk to the Terran, Corwin says “Is it clear?” “I killed that sniper if that’s what you mean,” the man replies. “Thank you. I am Corwin, commander of the Vanu forces here on Esamir.” “I am Lonehunter, I was sent in here to figure out what’s going on down here, but the rest of my team was killed by these people.” “Lonehunter!!!” Destroyeron comes running up. “Destroyeron!” Lonehunter is very surprised to see him. “I though you were dead!” “I thought the same of you, what happened?” Destroyeron questions his previous squad member. “I don’t know, in that last battle I was knocked unconscious and when I woke up again everyone was gone.” Lonhunter explains. “Well it’s good to see you alive.” “You too Destroyeron.” “Alright, good to have you with us, but now let’s get back to business. Have you been in this building?” Corwin asks Lonehunter. “No I haven’t, I was trying to find an exit because my radio signals are blocked in here.” “Okay, well do you care to join us?” “I’d be happy to.” “Sir!” Starrider is running up to them, “That sniper is wasted, shot his heap clean off!” Corwin laughs, “He deserved it.” “We have three casualties sir, one wounded, accidentally shot himself in his leg, ToyDoll is taking care of him.” “Alright, I hope they got reconstructed okay, the radio signals are blocked, but I hope they can still get their reconstruction info out.” Corwin tells Starrider, “Looks clear up here now, go tell Death Spyder to assemble the best five indoor assault troops he can find and get ready to go in, we’ll stay here and make sure the wounded gets patched up and the dead are buried in case this is their last death. Make sure to include ToyDoll, he’s a good medic, you might need him, no telling what’s down there.” “Yes sir.” Starider runs off towords Death Spyder. *KSSHHHH* The radio crackles, “Sir!” *Energy weapon discharges* “We’re under attack, repeat, under attack by Conglomerate forces! Please advise, over!” *Yelling and incoming fire* It sounds like the man that had the basilisk up top. “Roger that, enemy numbers?” “About ten soldiers with medium or light armor, at least two MAX’s, and one Enforcer unloaded from a galaxy that I think is gone now.” “Great,” Corwin talks to himself. “Get out of there, just run, let them come in, maybe we can talk to them.” “Roger, sounds good to me, over and out-AHHHH!!!! I’m hit!” “Get out of there!” *Engines starting* “Get on!” Corwin hears over the radio. *More machinegun fire and a close by explosion, then the signal dies*



Deeper and Deeper



Death Spyder selects his team. He selects Destroyeron because of his fast firing cycler, and because he says that he has been inside before. He selects Kara because of her quasar and MAX armor. He includes ToyDoll as Corwin suggests, because he’s a good medic; He includes Luna because of her stealth armor. He includes Pballexpert because of his fast reflexes. He picks starrider for his hacking. And last he picks Morion. The selected troops rally at the building entrance. They gaze into the hallway and don’t see much, just an ordinary hallway. Death Spyder comes over to them. “Ready to move?” “Yes sir!” They all reply. “Good, let’s go then!” Death Spyder clicks the safety off of his punisher and takes the lead through the door. The others follow close behind, and find themselves in the short hallway. At the end, there is another door. The door slides open as they approach. ‘Strange, there aren’t any locks?’ Death Spyder thinks to himself. He tightens his grip on his weapon because he is starting to get nervous. They are now in a control center of some sort. Lots of computers terminals, radar screens, strange monitors in a language that he can’t read, and there, a hologrid map! That’s just what they came for. Death Spyder walks over to the terminal, and puts in a memory chip from his suit and downloads the information. There isn’t much, it’s just a map of the current level, showing the jungle, the entrance and the building they’re in now. He notices that there is a very large room to his left, according to the map, and he decides that that is were they should check next. “Commander sir?” Death Spyder calls over the radio. “Yes, did you find anything?” Corwin’s voice returns. “Yes we found a map of the current level, sending it to you now...” “Roger, I got it.” *New Map Updates Received!* Corwin suit chimes. “We will now move on, I will report the next time anything happens. Over and out.” Death Spyder moves with his team to the doorway leading to the large room on his map. This one is locked. He isn’t sure if that is a good or bad thing, but he orders his hacker starrider, to hack into the door terminal. A few moments later the door slides open, revealing another hallway. They enter the hallway, and when they reach the end they find another locked door. The door is quickly hacked, and they are awestruck as the door slide open to reveal a huge hanger. The squad flows through the doorway and looks around. There is on galaxy and a mosquito in the center, lots of parts and equipment, and what looks like the bay doors on the ceiling. Starrider makes his way to the controls and the rest move down into the center of the hanger. They find the vehicles unlocked and hop in and claim then for the Vanu. The colors change from black and green to the purple of the Vanu. Pballexpert climbs into the pilot seat and starts it up. “Cool, I love these things.” He says. ToyDoll, Morion and Death Spyder climb into the three gunner positions and heat up their weapons. Luna, Destroyeron, and Kara enter the back. Starrider says over the radio, “Got it!” The button on Pballexpert’s pilot HUD flashed LAUNCH. “Alright! Lets get this baby fired up!” Pballexpert seems very excited. “Wait for me guys!” starrider runs down into the hanger and jumps into the mosquito. “Let’s go!” Death Spyder calls. “Woot!” Pball hits the launch button and the ground lowers. They’re on an elevator or something! “Ummmmm... isn’t up that way?” Pball is confused. “That’s strange.” ToyDoll says. He’s sitting right behind Pball. The elevator stops and rotates 180 degrees. A rather small doorway for the galaxy opens and reveals a tunnel. “Whatever, lets go. You first star!” Death Spyder orders. “Roger, I’m going in.” starrider replies. The mosquito zips into the passage and starrider expertly maneuvers the mosquito around the twists and turns. The galaxy enters, slower though because it’s too big to zip around in suck tight quarters. The tunnel gets larger after a little while. “I got hostiles on the radar!” ToyDoll shouts. “Roger! Gunners, prepare to engage.” Death Spyder instructs. “Weapons hot!” Morion replies. An explosion rocks the galaxy a little. “There they are!” Pball calls. Instantly ToyDoll and the other two gunners hit the triggers. There are reavers and mosquitoes all around them! “I got one!” Morion calls. “Me too!” “Concentrate on the reavers! Their missiles do more to our hull!” Death Spyder yells. “I got one on my tail! I can’t shake him! Help!” starrider yells through the radio from his mosquito. “Roger that.” Death Spyder lets loose on the enemy following starrider, and the mosquito is quickly demolished. “Whew, thanks, that was too close for comfort.” “Heh, any time.” Death Spyder laughs. After a few more minutes of dodging and aerial fighting, the last reaver falls like a meteor to the base of the tunnel. “Glad that’s over,” Destroyeron says. “I hate not being able to do anything.” They continue on, the mosquito is damaged though, and starrider lands it on top of the galaxy. A while later, they come to another door. This one is larger, but it’s locked and won’t open. starrider get out of his mosquito and uses his kinetic dampeners to jump down onto the ground, then the starts to hack the door. A moment later, the door slides open, revealing a city! “What the heck is this?” Death Spyder is totally at a loss. “Looks like a city sir.” ToyDoll replies. “No, really? Check it out.” Pball expert lands the Galaxy and they all get out and step through the doorway. The streets seem empty. Maybe deserted? No then why would there be guards? There’s no wind, since this is also underground, so there’s an eerie still look o it. This ‘room’ with the city, doesn’t have a metal ceiling, it’s rock. They slowly start to walk down the street. *Clink click clink* A grenade! Everyone dives out of the way and the grenade explodes, sending ToyDoll, who was caught in the blast radius, flying up onto a low rooftop. Kara in her MAX, activates her jumpjets to fly up and land on the roof to cover ToyDoll in case he is injured. She lands on the roof and looks around for the unseen attacker. Luna cloaks herself and draws her AMP pistol that she found in the base when they first entered. She slowly moves off careful to keep herself as cloaked as possible. The others scramble off the street into the nearest building, some smashing through windows or shooting down doors to get in.



Office Space



ToyDoll takes out his medical device and starts trying to heal his broken leg. He yells in pain as the bone snaps back into place. He looks around and sees Kara standing on the edge of the roof with her quasar ready to fire. He doesn’t see anything else, just a lot of buildings. Across the street from him, he sees a shop with a broken window, where Pballexpert is peeking out. In the center of the street, there is a small crater where the explosion was. “ToyDoll, what’s your status?” Death Spyder yells from below. “My leg is broke, I’m trying to heal it now. Give me a minute.” “Alright. Then the rest of you, set up a defensive position and watch for any sign of whoever threw that thing. Luna, you go take a look around in some of these buildings.” “Yes sir, on my way.” Luna activates her stealth armor and draws her knife. Then enters a three-story building with a flat roof, and a lot of windows. The entrance is a long hallway and is brightly lit. There is a secretary desk at the end and two large glass doors leading in different directions. There are plants in pots lining the walls. Luna walks slowly and cautiously down the hallway. She reaches the end, and moves around to the back of the desk. There is a computer, but it is locked, she’s going to need a hacker to get in. She decides to leave that for later and moves to the glass door to her right. She looks past is and sees that it leads to another hall with lots of doors. She moves to the other side, and the other door, and sees that beyond this one there are three elevators and another door at the far side. She picks the first door and opens it. She moves to the first door and listens against it. No sound. She places her hand on the door and slowly turns the knob. When it is turned all the way she opens it enough so that the bolt won’t get caught when she releases it. Then she slowly and silently turns the knob back and lets the door creep open by itself. The room inside is not very large, just an office. It’s empty, there’s a computer and a phone and lots of other electronic equipment scattered around the room. She moves on to the next door and it is about the same, but this room is more organized and cleaner. The next room is another office, so are all of the rest. This must be an office building of some kind, though she can’t find any logo or company names anywhere. After looking in all of the rooms, she moves across the original hallway to the other glass doors, and opens these. Inside there are three elevators and a wooden door at the end. She decides to check the door first. She opens it silently and inside she sees that it is a stairwell. She decides this will be better than taking the elevator, because it will be less noticeable if anyone is still there. She moves down the stairs and on the third turn she comes to a solid wall. ‘That’s strange,’ she thinks, and she turns around and goes up instead. She quickly clears out the remaining two floors, all offices and one large one at the top. Nothing that looks even slightly important. ON her way down, she decides to take the elevator because she has already cleared he building. She pushed the button and soon the door dings and she steps through. Inside she pushes the bottom button and then the elevator starts moving. “Luna! We’re under attack, we need you up here! We’ve got hostile tanks and infantry in the streets. We’re going to get squashed!” It is Death Spyder on the radio. “I’m on my way, this building is empty. I don’t know what I can do to help, but I’ll be right out,” she replies. An explosion rocks the building, and Luna is thrown to the floor of the elevator. The elevator is rocking back and forth dangerously, and then the lights go out. After a few unsteady moments, the elevator freefalls down the shaft. Soon though, it hits the bottom. It wasn’t a very high shaft. She uses her knife to cut through the top of the elevator, and climbs out. She jumps to one of the beams on the side of the shaft just as the elevator starts dropping again. Luna is confused because she thoughts she was already on the bottom, and the building is only three stories high, but the elevator is falling much farther down. It finally hits the real bottom and smashes. Luna jumps into the air and uses her kinetic dampeners to slow her fall. When she reaches the bottom there is a door with a code lock. She uses her knife to cut into the door and then pry it open. After a while of struggling with it, she manages to budge it enough to slip in. She looks up and sees a very large door with a huge X bolt, locking it to all four corners. “Uhh.. guys this is really strange, you better get in here.” Luna calls into her radio. “Where are you! We’re taking heavy fire out here!” “Just get in here!” “... fine, sounds better than staying out here. Everyone, into that building! GO GO GO! Let’s move it people!” She hears another explosion, and then turns her attention back to the large door.



Down the Shaft



“AHHHH! I’m hit!” Morion yells as a repeater bullet rips through his shoulder as he runs down the hall. “Which way?!?” Death Spyder yells franticly as he reaches the end of the entrance hall. “Luna which way do we go!?!?” This time he calls into the radio. “Right, third elevator shaft from the door, shoot it open and jump down with your dampeners,” Luna replies. “Third shaft! Blow it and jump down, use your dampeners! Morion! Get up and get moving!” Death Spyder yells as he sees Morion on the ground. “I’m doing my best sir,” Morion calls back, annoyed and frustrated because he can’t pull himself up. “starrider, grab him and let’s go!” Just then, another bullet pierced Morion’s leg, and then another through his chest. Morion’s eyes widen and he falls limp on the ground. “Hurry up starrider!” Death Spyder calls. He runs over to help drag Morion down, and he is hit in the head, but the shot only skims his helmet. Pballexpert throws a grenade down the hallway and it explodes bringing down the ceiling in a large dust cloud, blocking the view from the enemies at the far end. They reach the shaft, and someone had already shot down the door. There were only four of them left, including Morion, but they aren’t quite sure if he really is still there. Death Spyder tells starrider to jump down, he does. Kara, Morion and Death Spyder are now the only ones left. Death Spyder tells Kara to cover them while he takes Morion down. She readies her quasar and stands ready for the enemies. Death Spyder picks up Morion as best he can, and puts him over his shoulder. Then he hold on to him tightly with his riht arm and jumps into the shaft. He can’t use his left arm to help hold Morion because he need to balance himself, but somehow he manages to make it to the bottom. Shortly after he land, Kara hits the ground with a large thud. ToyDoll is now working on Morion in the farthest corner of the large steal hallway. The rest have their weapons aimed at the shaft, or are inspecting the large door at the end of the hallway. “It’s like the one I saw before,” Destroyeron says. “Watch for the automatic defenses if there are any. Last time they killed almost everyone.”



The Vault



“I got him!” says ToyDoll excitedly. “I got him back! He’s alive!” “Good, get fixed up, they’re bound to come looking for us pretty soon.” Death Spyder says. After a while, ToyDoll gets Morion back to normal and he pulls out his AMP pistol because he droped his main weapon when he was hit. “Get that door open starrider,” Death Spyder commands. “we can’t get out the way we came, we might as well go that way.” “Yes sir, I’m on it,” starrider replies. He moves over to the door and gets to work on the control pad. After a long while of silence and wondering what is going to happen next, starrider finally exclaims, “Ha! Stubborn little thing took forever! I got it guys!” And sure enough the speaker to the side of the panel makes a chiming sound and says “Access granted! Welcome to storage vault A dash 34 dash 3,” and the door’s locks slide open. “Storage vault?” Death Spyder looks at Destroyeron in question. “Weapon storage maybe?” Destroyeron guesses in reply. The door rises revealing a narrow catwalk. ToyDoll is the first to peek inside, and he sees that the walkway is very long and he can’t see the end. He looks over the edge and sees that there are many more levels of catwalks all in a strait parallel line going strait down and disappearing from sight in a misty-like fog, more than fifteen levels below. The next thing he notices is that it is very cold. It’s like a huge freezer. Then he looks up. He sees thousands of little containers that almost look like drop pods, but smaller, and had no empire symbol or colors on them. They are all attached to metal arms, that are attached to some sort of track along the wall. ToyDoll is awestruck by the huge quantity. He has never seen anything like it. He is followed by the others, they all are silent looking around, trying to figure out what it is. Pbballexpert is the last in. he steps onto the metal catwalk. “WAAA!” He screams as he slips and falls over. Everyone laughs at him, and he pulls himself up, embarrassed. He reaches up to pull himself up, but he accidentally his some keys on a control panel attached to the railing. “LOWERING BIOPODS” appears on the screen above it. Everyone is silent again, waiting to see what happens. For a few seconds there is still silence, but then they hear a metal squeaking from below, and the racks of pods start moving down towards them. They raise their weapons, and spread out on the catwalk. The first row reaches them and passes them. They see that there is a glass window on each, and inside there is a blue fog. The next row passes, and Morion thinks he sees something inside. The third row passes and he can make out a humanoid form inside. He looks up and watches the next row pass him, another humanoid. On the fifth row, the window is missing and there is nothing inside, but there are tubes and many mechanical parts on the sides of the interior. On the sixth row, he sees another something inside, but he still can’t make out much. After many, many more rows pass them, the racks begin to slow down. They look up and see the top row coming down. When it reaches their level, it stops. Morion looks curiously into one of them, but he still can’t make out much because of the fog inside. “Guys!!!” Pball yells. Everyone looks at him. “This doesn’t look good!” he points at the screen. “REAWAKENING BIOPODS” the screen reads. They hear a whooshing sound, and the blue fog inside of the pods begins to disappear. “What should we do?” Pballexpert asks Death Spyder desperately. “Run, everyone run. I don’t want to know what those things are, but my guess is that they won’t be friendly.” he responds. “I’m good with that,” ToyDoll says, and he starts off running. Everyone agrees and they all follow behind him. Kara activates her jumpjets and flies over all of them. She has to land, and when she does, she shakes the catwalk. Soon, the glass on the pods starts to slide open. ToyDoll looks inside, and inside, he can see black and purple skinned creatures that are almost humanoid, with two legs, two arms, a head. But their heads end in a point at the back, their fingers are longer and have sharp nails at the ends, and their skin looks hard and smooth. Then, the thing they are fearing happens. One of them opens its eyes. They see that they all are starting to wake up, and are lifting their heads and watching them pass. Now they’re really running.



The reunion



Corwin dives away as an NC Vanguard smashes the tree he was hiding behind into splinters. The NC have entered the forest, and are now attacking Corwin and the others. He looks around, but can’t see any of the others, but he can hear the sound of gunfire and explosions. He gets up and looks around with his beamer raised. All of a sudden, he is grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground. He struggles, but whoever it is he can’t see. They must be cloaked. After a long struggle, he is finally pinned to the ground. He hears a man’s voice call from above him for help. He sees a man come out of the trees with a gauss gun and light armor. He points the weapon at Corwin’s head. “Let him up,” he says, and a man appears above him. First only a shimmer, then solid, he uncloaked. Corwin stands up and looks at the man with the rifle pointed at him. “Come with me,” the man says. Corwin nods and follows hi through the trees into the clearing where they had camped before. Now it is crawling with NC’s. He is taken to a large blue tent. There are two guards at the door, and when he enters, he sees a very important looking man, with a lot of medals decorating his armor. “Are you in command of these Vanu?” The man asks. “Yes I am.” Corwin replies. “Why is there a Terran with you?” “Because we found him.” “Is this complex Vanu?” “No, we were sent in to find out what it is. The soldiers we have encountered have been wearing strange colors.” “Strange colors?” “Green and black armor.” “Green and black?” “Yes, we believe that they are an old earth crime organization called the Order in Chaos.” “I remember them, from when I was in the Terran army.” “You were in the Terran army also?” Corwin is surprised. “Yes, I was in command of a small infantry devision.” “I was in a small infantry devision under sergeant Streich.” “Really? I’m Streich.” Now corwin is really surprised. He hasn’t seen Streich since their last assignment when they were both Terrans, before the collapse of the wormhole. “You look different,” is all he manages to say. “I’ve been through a lot since I was a Terran. What’s your name?” “Corwin... Do you remember me?” “Corwin! Corwin? Is it really you? I haven’t seen you in ages! You’re a commander in the Vanu now?” “Yeah, you taught me well.” “Hehe, it’s good to see you Corwin” “Good to see you also. What are you doing down here?” “We saw lots of activity on the radar and had reports of Terrans and Vanu in the area, so we came to check it out. What’s the situation here? What is this place?” “No, but the Terrans were here, and as you may have seen when you came in, the Order aren’t friendly people. We don’t know what this place is, I sent half of my team down another level and we haven’t heard much since.” “Pattywick, take Corwin and release his friends. Then round up all of our forces and set up camp.” “Yes sir!” “Do you need anything? You have your own camp set up by that building correct?” Streich asks. “Yes, we have camp set up. We could use some ammo, don’t suppose you have any energy cells though, but anything you could spare would be great. Thank you.” “I’ll see what I can do. I’ll call on you later when we’re more set up. Pattywick?” “Yes sir. Corwin please follow me.” Corwin nods and walks towards the soldier. As he walks out of the tent, he hears a voice over his radio, but it is unclear. “... they’re everywhere! thousa... pods droped dow... dead, and I... Kara... Vanu or experiments of...” Then the signal dies. Corwin turns around and runs back into the tent to tell Streich.



The Desperation



They can see the end of the catwalk now, but it’s still far off. The creatures are now attacking them. Bullets have no affect on them, and just bounce off their thick armor-like skin. Energy weapons melt through it and are at least somewhat effective. Most of them are injured, but Kara is the only one that has been killed. It was a horrible sight, the creature’s hand had glowed with an eerie purple energy, and when it raised it to Kara’s armor, it melted strait threw and a bolt of energy streamed out the other side. Luna is cloaked, but they still seem to be able to see her. Her left arm is now useless from one of the creatures that hit her and broke through the bone just below her shoulder. Their ammo is running low, since Kara was carrying most of their supplies. They now only have a few energy cartages each. ToyDoll looks at what he has available, trying to figure out how he’s going to get out of this mess. He’s in reinforced armor, he has a bolt-driver, a lasher, hacking tool, a medical applicator, 10 bolts, 134 energy cells, and three frag grenades. Nothing useful, except maybe the grenades. He takes one of them and throws it down the ramp over the enemies heads, in the direction they came from. It explodes about fifteen feet back, and the enemies fly over the sides and through the hole created by the blast. The blast destroyed ten feet of the catwalk. “That’ll hold them for a bit,” ToyDoll says. But he spoke too soon, and he watches in horror and amazement as the creatures easily jump the gap and keep coming. Destroyeron load his last clip into his cycler. He fires it all, and when it is emptied he yells and throws it as hard as he can at the closest enemy. The creature, shocked, falls backward over the railing. He takes out his repeater, sees that he has two shots left, and fires them into the head of the first unlucky enemy he sees. The first shot has no affect, but the second hits its eye, and it screams in a shrill, high-pitched voice. He then runs up to it, kicks it to the ground and starts beating it with his repeater. He is quickly thrown off by another and is tossed to the side, over the railing. He hits the side wall and then falls. He tries to activate his kinetic dampeners, but they aren’t working. He manages to shift his weight in the air to miss most of the beams as he falls, and before long he can see the bottom. At first he is scared because he knows he’s going to die, but then he notices that the ground is shimmering and moving. He tries his dampeners again, and this time they work, it doesn’t slow him enough, but at least the impact doesn’t kill him. When he hits, he realizes that it is some kind of liquid. After determining that it isn’t acidic, nor toxic, he swims as best he can over to on of the pipes coming out of the wall. He pulls himself up on it and collapses, still shaky from the fear of the fall. “Guys?” He almost whispers into his radio. “Destroyeron? You’re alive? Where are you?” “The bottom’s some kinda liquid, it’s cold, but it’s nice and quiet down here.” He replies. “Liquid?” “Yeah, use your dampeners though, I think I messed up my leg.” “... alright, sounds better than staying up here, we’re on our way.” “Everyone over the edge, use your dampeners when you see the bottom, don’t worry, Destroyeron says it’s liquid down there.” Death Spyder jumps over, and the others, after a brief hesitation, follow him the side.



Journey to the Center of the Earth



The door slides open and Corwin finds himself staring down a long tunnel. He had just run through the hanger and is now at the bottom of the large elevator along with Streich, his squad of Vanu, a lot of Conglomerates, and Lonehunter, the Terran. There has been quite a bit of uneasiness between the new Conglomerate forces and Corwin's squad. A lot of arguments and a fight have forced them to keep distance between them, Corwin's squad is in the lead, followed by the NC. They walk down the tunnel, it's dark so they spread out incase they are ambushed. After a long while of trudging along, they see signs of a battle. There are destroyed pieces of mosquito hulls and reaver parts. One New Conglomerate soldier picks up an unexploded missile and throws jokingly it at a friend in his squad. The missile explodes, throwing seven Conglomerate soldiers, including the thrower, to their deaths. Streich is furious, and starts yelling at the survivors. Corwin runs over, and after a short argument with Streich, he breaks it up and they burry what's left of the dead and move on. They soon come to a galaxy with a mosquito on top of it. There is also a large door. They move to the door and find that it has already been hacked into, they open it, and it leads to the city. Corwin looks over his shoulder for Streich. He sees an NC climbing onto the galaxy to get to the mosquito. The NC makes it and uses his engineering kit to fix it up and make it flyable again. He spots Streich and motions for him to come over. “Streich,” Says Corwin. “Yes, Corwin, what is this?” “Not sure, looks to me like it’s a city.” “A city? Where are the people? I looks deserted.” “I don’t know that either, let’s split up and look around some.” “Good idea Corwin, my soldiers seem uneasy around Terrans and Vanu.” “Okay, just let me try to get a hold of the others that were down here.” “Alright, tell me if you get them, I’ll go call for some backup incase we need it.” “Oh, the radio waves are blocked in here, you can’t reach anything outside.” “...” Streich looks like he’s wondering if he can trust Corwin. “Okay, I guess this will do then, see if you can reach the others.” Streich walks away, and Corwin sees him try talking into his suit radio several times, with apparently no response. “Spyder, this is Corwin, please respond.” No answer. “Death Spyder, this is Corwin, please respond.” Still nothing. “Anyone? Is anyone getting this? Where are you guys?” Corwin desperately tries several more times, but the only voice that comes back is the voice of silence that seems to be screaming out at him. ‘Where could they be?’ Corwin worries to himself. He checks his beamer, and then goes to ready his squad to enter the city. Shortly after, Streich comes up to him and informs him that the Conglomerate forces are ready to move, and he has already sent in two infiltrators. Corwin tells him that he couldn’t reach Death Spyder and the others, but he’s sure they must be somewhere close. Streich agrees, and they decide to move in. Corwin takes his squad to the left, and the Conglomerates move in on the left. The mosquito flies in over the buildings and out of sight. Corwin tells Lonehunter to go climb one of the taller buildings with his sniper rifle and get a good position for covering fire, and report what he sees. He assigns Neo, a Vanu sniper, to go with him as his spotter. They look around and pick a reasonably tall building not too far away, and set off towards it. Corwin moves his squad down two blocks, and then tells them to set up a defensive position and wait for Lonehunter’s report. They set up at an intersection behind some wrecked cars and an overturned supply truck. It looks like there was a fight there. There are also a lot of burn marks on the buildings in this area, and a destroyed tank about a block down the road to their left. It looks like a mag-rider, but there’s something else about it, something strange.