Fiction:The Mineral Conflict

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The Drodo Empire found a sort of power crystal, called "Drodoian Gold". This crystal is very valuable as it can power an entire world for thousands of years-or a superweapon...

Using this newly found mineral, the Drodo's ally, the United Federation of Species, created a wormhole that connected the Kraw Galaxy to the Milky Way, the Eranian Collective, curious, send ships through the wormhole. The Oppressive Mag'Heli Dominion does the same. Little do these four factions know is that this is the prelude to a great war for the Drodoian Gold. This is the story.

Mag'heli Prelude
The Mag'heli raiding vessel "Proxy" flew through space on the fifteenth patrol of the Eranian/Mag'heli border it had been forced to make this past week. It's crew were tired, it's brutes were bored. As the brutes passed by each citizen, each section of the ship, the crewmembers snapped from nearly napping to full attention, terrified the brute would notice the slightest flaw, create the slightest excuse to entertain itself by punishing them. While they knew it technically had no sentience, and that it would not be them deciding to gather entertainment through their pain, they remained terrified nontheless.

An old, scarred brute who had earned the nickname "Old Scarclaw" lumbered towards a sleeping crewmember who was supposed to be watching the sensors, and grabbed him roughly by the neck. The crewmember awoke with a jolt and almost yelled out from the shock of being woken from his peaceful dreams to such a ugly sight. He began to panic, and looked to his fellow crewmates for support, they denied him such support, shying away and tried to look like they were buisy working. Seeing no other choice, he croaked out in a weak voice "Yes, master?". The brute paused momentarily, as if struggling to comprehend the question just asked him, before finally yelling out "Why were you sleeping?!". The sound echoed throught the ship. Panicing, the crewmember could not think of a reasonable excuse and instead attempted to satisfy the brute by pinning the blame on somebody else. "I wasn't me who was sleeping, it was Kur'kloc!". Kur'kloc looked up at the crewmember, horrified at being singled out in such a manner. Fortunately for him the brute, rather than putting the crewmember down, crushed his skull in its hands and dropping his shattered carcass onto the floor. It muttered "Liar" before slowly plodding off, dragging the corpse behind him.

Eranian Prelude
A dozen computer screens were all that lit the room. A sole Eranian crouched there, her already pale face rendered ghastly by the white light that shone upon it. Her face was bored and contemplative, as she watched swathes of data fly over the screens of the computers surrounding her, too fast for most people to read. For hours on end, she would sit like this, haunched beside the computers, breaking the eerie silence only to issue orders to her subordinates or recieve them from her supiriors. In honesty, she would have it no other way. She pressed down a switch on a panel before her, keeping her finger upon it as she said "Find me a channel to Mikios. I need him to investigate something" in her clear yet monotonous voice. The response came swiftly and sharply, a male answering "As you wish, ma'am". She removed her finger from the switch and returned to watching the screens.

Mikios was confused but intregued. He knew Kerrata, and had worked under her several times before. She was not the kind of person to specifically ask for the aid of somebody who was not at the time a member of the millitary. Well, she was, but she would not specifically ask for the aid of somebody of his personality. He was led to a room by his escourt, a large man, for an Eranian (Which was still fairly thin and spindly), and he had discovered thorugh what little conversation he could strike up during the journey that he was relatively simple minded. It mattered little, he entered the room designated and discovered it empty, save a for simple, metallic table and a positively archaic laptop computer of the kind that had been out of use for over five centuries. Smart, he thought, nobody would bother to hack the databand frequencies those things used to communicate... He spoke aloud to an empty room "So, what do you want me for then?"

USF Prelude
And for several months working on this project and almost finished. At the checkpoint a young Uzcar, much higher than usual in their kind, carefully watching a screen, where hundreds of data in and out at an astounding rate. Front Uzcar a small object about ten cubic centimeters began to flicker, with increasing speed. The Uzcar left his intense concentration and pressed with a finger the object, it was opened, revealing a hologram of the Supreme Brinal Aranelia Senator. -Chief of Research Saudioch, good to talk to you- said the hologram -I hope that the project is in good condition. The Uzcar bowed. -You can count on it, Senator, I am eternally grateful to you for letting me do this- he said. -I suppose you are putting the finishing touches, right? -Of course, I think the wormhole will be ready for tomorrow -Excellent, General Vankalian going to inspect this evening, peace and prosperity- and Aranelia cut the transmittance.

Sadioch was very proud, Vankalian, generally of a thousand battles, would go there specifically for his project, sent by the only Great Senator, the dream of every scientist Uzcar. Send a message to all the engineers working at the station, ordering up the pace, soon be over. Soon a network of wormholes connect all Federation colonies and ships could move freely, the limits of time and space disappear soon, be overcome by the intelligence of a Uzcar, all allowed by the strange cristal which the Senate ordered him to study, the Drodonian Gold. But soon a dark thought Sadioch invaded the mind. If something went wrong? If the federation had another crisis like the Elipsion Complex? No, calculations were accurate, but just in case put on display all his calculations, would review them one by one.

Meanwhile, Vankalian on his ship approached the station, he had nothing bad happen asegurarce was something important. Just for routine, a squad of Steel Soldiers accompanied him, was boring twenty hours travel unaccompanied, but did not need Vankalian could care for himself. But his wife, Aranelia, required to follow the rules, so he was forced to travel in a very slow Conqueror, with all the elegance possible.

Drodo Prelude
Cesterity was bored, but did not let his crew see it,

For a few weeks now his ship, the Impaler 2, patrolled the space around the wormhole, along with a few other Drodo vessels. He heard of some news that the wormhole was almost finished - something that the Captain was very excited about.

"I can finally get back to..." he thought;

"to what? There's been nothing but petty pirate raids ever since the Two Unions' War five years ago, so I suppose this butt-numbingly boring job is better than none at the moment."

Almost as if on queue, one of his crewmembers pulled him out of his thoughts;

"Sir,"

"Yes?"

"Its ready."

Contact
The world shook. Brutes were pushed to the ground and took time to get up, while regular Mag'heli had the prescence of mind to grab onto something. Several still were thrown around the ship, and one even managed to impale herself upon a spike protruduing from a Brute's back, to the Brute's great amusement. Once things settled, Brutes began barking orders, demanding to know what was occuring. People scurried from place to place, desperate to find out what. Yelling of status reports filled the room, so much that few were distinguishable from the rest. The reports mainly went along the lines of "Damage is superficial at best!" and "Engines are disabled! Wait, no, they just stalled.". Eventually Kur'kloc thought to check the scanners his deceased friend was no longer watching, and sp he discovered what had occured. "Scanners show we've been surrounded by a giant ring structure. They must have attacked us, causing the shaking!" he stated, quietly so as to avoid drawing attention to himself. Somebody must have hurd him, as a booming voice, which all recognised as that of Old Scarclaw called out. "Fire on the ring!"

Another trouble with wormhole
Vankalian got off his ship in the hangar space station, should see Sadioch and ensure that the wormhole was ready for use. He walked the corridors of the station accompanied by his faithful companions Steel Soldiers, all was quiet, the only noise came from the cabin where it should be Sadioch. He climbed the magnetic elevator, noting the distance the huge gravitational monster: the wormhole, a chill down his spine as he recalled seeing a spaceship ripped through the wormhole, remembered seeing as a king was espagetizado Macraborg and recalled seeing his brother fall and die on the inside of that hole in space time. Not this time everything would be fine, Sadioc is competent.

In his cabin, Sadioch, was smiling proudly with itself. -Sadioch, sorry to bother you, but I come to supervise the construction of the wormhole- sayed Vankalian when he entered in the cabin. -General, is a pleasure talk with you, you arrived on time to see the activation of the wormhole. -It is ready?- wondered Vankalian -Yes, it is -Can I ask how you managed to do something that many thought impossible? -Of course, we owe it all to this object.- say Sadioch and show to the captain a lead container -It is lead? -Not exactly, is the material which it's into the lead container, a piece of Drodonian Gold. -What is so different from common gold? -This material is a crystal whose electrons revolve in orbits of very high energy so it is very easy to excite, from an excited state to a lower energy electrons released much radiation and the higher the orbit, the less energy is needed to excite the atoms, making it easier to release radiation. -So if we apply some light photons, increase it energy so that release gamma rays. -Exactly -How many energy? -Look this equation- and Sadioch show to the general this equation:
 * Ec = W.mc3

Where Ec is the energy released by the glass, mc is the mass of glass and W is the energy applied to it in watts. -Then, with a ton of this material and ten kilowatts of power a city could feed a thousand years ... -Exactly Suddenly, the whole station shook and a beam of light hit hard on the ring where the checkpoint was a monstrous ship emerged from the wormhole, between the sounds of chaos and destruction will hear the clear voice of General Vankalian: -Not again... another trouble with wormhole

Signal
Cesterity ran double shifts on the bridge for a week or so now, as his first officer was on leave. He was ready to fall asleep in his chair when a crewman said;

"Sir, we are picking up a message from the UFS wormhole station-its a distress signal."

Cesterity stood up in his seat, and said cautiously,

"Patch it through."

It was mostly static, but Cesterity could make out some details. They where under attack, which explained a lot more than one would expect, it was from an unspecified enemy, either completly unknown or that detail was drowned out by static, and they where getting hit hard. The signal ended as soon as it started, and Cesterity immediatly started giving orders,

"Helmsman,"

"Yes captain?"

"Set a course for the wormhole-now."

Combat
Plasma fire filled the air as the gun on the Mag'heli raider stutteringly fired wildly on the ring with which it had been confronted. It's firing patterns were wild, and fortunately failed to hit any critical systems. Drodo and USF ships converged on the newcomers location, at first startles by it's appearance, then in an attempt to prevent damage to the ring. Their projectiles rent the hull of their target, spilling many of the Proxy's internal systems into space. A terrified Mag'heli, desperate to survive the flurry of weapons fire upon his ship, activated the engines to full power, throwing the ship forward. As Mag'heli vessel entered the atmosphere of a planet it didn't know existed, around which the ring was orbiting, many of it's engineers who clung still alive to the shattered and torn outer hull of the ship were incinerated and the gun, crudely attached by those engineers, creaked and tore away from the ship, much to the dismay of those brutes who would maintain firing throught atmospheric entry in the hope of hitting something by pure chance.

Discovery
It seemed like overkill, in hindsight. To send such a fleet after one scoutship... No, on second thoughts, it was perfect. If it was the Eranians indeed who had attacked, it would be the perfect excuse to attack them with diplomatic impunity, and just what the government had wanted for years now. Controller M'kras was sat at the head of the bridge of the raider "Mourn". Each Mag'heli vessel had a captain to act as a mouthpeice. He was, in fact, controlled by the Brutes, who were in turn controlled by the aptly named "Controllers", who were assigned by the government and usually remained hidden amongst the masses of crewmen. Who would then suspect the captain, who was supposed to be himself controlled, to be the controler? It mattered little, regardless. He turned his focus back to the matter at hand, the search for the missing scoutship.

All readings appeared normal, save for a minor amount of radiation in what should be a vacuum. The last known location of the proxy lent no trace, the engine trace stopped abruptly. M'kras cringed as he felt a disturbance in the connection patterns between the fleets ships. Like something had been suddenly severed from the connection. He closed his eyes and focused, a dreadnought had dissapeared? His concentration was broken by the voice of a new slave who had yet to be shown proper respect. "There was just a major increase in radiation from coordinates 3,5,2 from here...". M'kras swiftly "Brutes, punish the recruit for not calling me sir, then pilot a raider to that area to see what happens". The nearest brute to the recruit simply picked her up by the head in it's massive groping hand and carried her off screaming, while another Mag'heli issued orders to another raider as he was instructed.

As a second Mag'heli vessel simply dissapeared in a bright flash of light, and a spatial distortion, the Mag'heli energy sensors went off the scale. Excited murmurings went through the crewmembers of each ship in the fleet, each one quietly hoping this odd phenomenon could be somehow weaponised, and the pseudo-officers hushed in anticipation of whether or not the raider would somehow return. When finally it did, in yet another flash, they were amazed indeed. "It's a gate... I think, maybe some kind of teleporter" was the message they recieved from the ship that returned. After a moments contemplation, M'kras realised the implications. A gate meant something on the other side. That meant land, which meant new opportunities to expand the Dominion, as the Government and high controllers had been unable to do for decades. If he could secure some territory there, he would doubtless be promoted to command of a major colony at least. Rather than thousands of people to torture, he would have millions. After a moments contemplation of the possibilities, he ordered all ships to enter the gate.

Several parsecs away, inside a Eranian Ravager class combat ship, Mikios Jertar watched as the sensors fed him the exact data he had been told he would. Minor gamma radiation increases, free electrons where there should be none, and dissapearing Mag'heli vessels. He had found the wormhole gate, exactly as predicted. His second in capacity asked for instructions to give his fleet. Mikios hastily replied "Wait ten seconds for the Mag'heli to start a fight, then ten minutes, given it'll take us twenty minutes to arrive at the gate, any hostile resistance on the other side should be weakened or eliminated by the time we arrive. We'll gather Kerrata's 'Scientific data' then, after making sure the other side is safe."

Scape
Vankalian ran through the halls followed Sadioch and his men were under attack. -Steels, take each one sector to evacuate workers, Drodo help them. Afnai, I leave you in charge- ordered Vankalian -And you, sir?-say Afnai -I must to do something, Sadioch you came with me Vankalian and Sadioch ran alongside the hangar and climbed into his personnal hunter. Once there, called the Senate. -Senator, I have the packet, I'm going to the refuge with Sadioch in the sector Gamma.

Sadioch and Vankalian jumped into hyperspace route to a desert planet hundreds of parsecs away, coming out of hyperspace speed was such that Vankalian could not avoid crashing into a ring of asteroids plummeting on a desert of the planet. With the ship in pieces, the two survivors crossed on foot the huge desert, the scorching heat and lack of water caused Sadioch fainted a few miles of walking. Vankalian, on the other hand, was a well prepared physically Giomb, so had no trouble to withstand fatigue and lack of water, so we had to carry the Uzcar on his shoulders. In a couple of hours, Sadioch woke up. -What happend?- say a weak Sadioch -You fainted- answer Vankalian, who was sitted in a chair -Me? -Yes, your specie cannot survive a lot of time without water -Well... thanks -Don't worry, is my job In thats moment Sadioch answer itself what happend if he don't be too important for the Federation, Vankalian would have saved him?, was silence.

-Where are we?- Sadioch broke the silence -In a secret base of the Federation Sadioch observed the place, it appeared uninhabited for centuries. -Well, you don't take care it -The Shadow Regimient established that almost a year, was never used, but has the technology to make us survive for a few days to reset the ship and the report of the Federation or Drodo where we are. -Why?-sayed a thoughtful Vankalian -Why what? -Why you are so important for Aranelia -Well...-The Uzcar look the stolid face of his interlocutor- I have in my possesion a code, a secret code which the Senate want to active the wormhole -The wormhole is actived -Not quite, the wormhole is unstable in less than a week it will close

Vankalian woke up of his chair and drew Bertranian, his blaster fusil, pointed to Sadioch and say: -Don't move...- the flash flooded the room

Aggression
Cesterity was soon within the vicinity of the wormhole, it was worse than he thought, the attacker has apparently already taken control of the wormhole. Ships surrounded the wormhole and the nearby planet, it didn't take sensor readings for the Captain to know that they where not UFS ships, he gave the command;

"Hail them."

The ship's captain had yet to respond, but he knew that they, whoever "they" where, could hear him;

"This is Fleet Captain Cesterity of the Drodo Empire, what in good god do you think you're doing?"

After a moments pause, M'kras called a Brute to him. He had to feign that each thing he said was the instructions from a higher power, and had the brute act as a mouthpiece for that illusiory power. He activated the comms channel and repeated the words as they were muttered to him by the Brute.

"This is Slave Taskkeeper M'kras, and i see no reason to inform you of my nation. I am following the orders i have been set, which is to expand our territories. By any means neccessary. Your gateway doubtless leads to an area of space in which we are unknown. Provided we retain anonymity, we are able to do whatever we wish."

He paused a moment, conversed with the brute, then continued

"I reccomend you leave this place, "Fleet captain Cesterity of the Drodo Empire", for it is lost to you and you shall not reclaim it. This land is ours now.".

Cesterity glared for a moment, and said;

"Its yours when I say its yours, we aren't giving this place up so easily. Now I believe you and your little playmates better turn around and set a course home, you hear? This piece of the galaxy is ours."

A crewman turned to face Cesterity;

"Sir, do we open fire?"

"No, but shields up, I have a feeling their response will be by fire rather than by words."

M'kras paused a moment, and a Brute, remarkebly quietly for one of their kind, instructed the slave crew to begin targeting the Drodo ships, and to fire at will as M'kras kept their attention on talking.

"I am sure we can come to some form of agreement" he said over the coms, "You may decide what you wish in exchange for this meagre fragment of the galaxy at your leisure. Although i would first ask what about it is so valuable that you would take up arms to retain control of it?"

Cesterity was suprised by the sudden inhostility in the alien's voice, he had some sense that it might be a trap of some kind, but went along with it nonetheless;

"Why this 'meagre fragment of space' is so important is classified, you're going to have to find that out by prying the information from my cold, dead, hands."

"Sir, they have weapons locked on to us!" A nervous ensign exclaimed.

"Steady, steady... don't overreact to the situation," Cesterity said calmly.

"there weapons probably aren't that strong." He added,

"...Or they could blow us apart!" The ensign said again

"Maybe, but we'll just have to wait and see..." Cesterity said slowly, running thin on patience.

The ensign gulped, "Yes, sir."

M'kras sighed. So much for that idea. He thought a moment, realising combat so near the gate, which must be this ring, could close their only route back to Mag'heli territory. He paused a moment, ordered a single automated dreadnought to break off and return to Mag'heli territory, and relay it's data logs along with a message to the controller of the nearest planet it could find. He gave orders to meneuver ships to close the gap that dreadnought left, and more importantly to bring his ship to the back where it was less likely to be fired upon, all these ordered were relayed through the brutes of course, then made the brutes re-iterate the order to fire. He was surprised it had taken so long for his subordinates to do so, usually they are eager to kill something when given the chance.

"Classified... That means important, that means worth taking... Well, i'll find out soon enough" were the last words to go through the comms channel before it went dead.

Cesterity swore under his breath when the comm turned off, he finally gave the order;

"Open fire!"

Confusion
The Eranian ship maintained a safe distance from the wormholes location, watching for any signs of activity. Mikios had long since grown bored and was discreetly playing a pre-Eranian Exodus video game on a nearby panel. The silence was total, as there was little communication needed unless something were to change. Said silence was short lived, however, as the wormhole opened, disgorging a large, crude, bulky Mag'heli dreadnought which immediately sped off as fast as it could, which was relatively slowly, towards Dominion territory. Mikios spoke mostly to himself, his eyes never lifting from his game. "Hrm, that's either a messenger or the only survivor of a battle combat. I can never tell if anything made by Mag'heli is damaged... Either way, it means there's something of interest on the other side. Either a battleground or something worth sending a message regarding." He then looked to his second in capacity. "Get us through the gate. Full speed, all weapons primed. Be ready to fire at a moments notice. We aren't an armada like they were, just a science vessel and a really, really heavily armed escort. Best be ready for a fight, we'll lose if we aren't.". The second in capacity raised an eyebrow, as Mikios's speech patterns were slightly less percise than an Eranian and many of their kind have trouble comprehending people whom make grammatical errors. He worked out what he had been ordered, however, and moved to make it so.

The world flashed brightly as the wormhole light seeped even through the hull of the Eranian ships, and radiated throught the rooms. The light was brief, if almost blinding in contrast to the relative darkness that was there before, and the crew quickly regained their bearings, only to lose them again as the ship was rocked by an explosion just off the prow of their hull, and metallic debris crashing against it. "What was that?" requested approximately a quarter of the crew simultaniously. A single Eranian, a veteran of two Mag'heli battles and expert psychologist and technologist was the only person to respond to the question. "We appear to be in the midst of a combat zone, the combat is between Mag'heli vessels and numerious unidentified ones. I believe there to be a minimum of three unidentified organisations present, We are also surrounded by a large ring-like structure which none of the involved organisations seem willing to damage".

Assumption
Cesterity has since accustomed to the shaking of the vessel, it simply a matter of balance, but what you feel emotonally never changes, and is always hard to get used to. Over the explosions and shaking, he heard one of his subordonates say something;

"More ships coming through the wormhole, sir!"

"Damn it!" He exclaimed,

"Open fire on them too!"

"But sir, they don't share the same signat-"

"Do it!" Cesterity insisted, afterwards, he saw the ship-to-ship railguns turn around, and light up as they rapidly fired metre-long projectiles at the alien ships.

The initial salvo refracted off the Eranian millitary shielding, but the almost crystalline shielding almost buckled under the strain of withstanding it. The sole science ship within the Eranian fleet fared much worse, it's shields could not withstand the Drodo weaponary and the projectiles shredded it's hull, leaving huge scathing wounds in the ship which left the crew exposed to the void of space, killing them all, a similar fate befell multiple pilots of "Ghost" ships, leaving only two remaining.

The Eranians were startled at the sudden attack, and failed to respond. Mikios was himself confused, but resolved to use what little knowledge he had at his disposal to it's fullest potential. He peered over the shoulders of those observing the various sensory arrays which his ship carried, and placed his finger upon a specific point on a projection of the ring upon one of the pilot's screens, leaving his finger hovering an inch above the sensitive touchscreen. "We are to dock here, by force if neccessary. Keep weapons primed, it's right next to what is according to this projection a critical system. Hopefully they'll know if they don't let us dock we'll fire, taking out the ring, which according to Mr Etar", at this point he guestured to the Eranian whom had spoked previously "they don't want to happen. I want all our other ships docking anywhere else they can, or providing cover for those that are docking. Also, don't use any shieldsteel antimatter rockets, they're liable to hit one of our ships."

Cesterity was on the edge of his seat, something he'd soon regret as he was thrown to the floor with a resounding thud,

"Ow!"

He soon got up, and wiped some blood from his face.

"Report!"

"That last hit has a big one, sir! Our shields are down and they breached deck five!" An officer at ops soon reported.

"Sir! More reports coming in! Those new ships are boarding the ring!"

Cesterity's eyes widened, he ordered;

"Fire boarding pods at the effected levels, I want marines on that station! After your done, pull this ship back."

"Yes sir!" the officer reported, he was not at all surprised when the captain also said he was going, he was a good warrior.

Defence
Cesterity got suited up, and grabbed his X8-36 assault rifle. He soon met up with the other soldiers in the drop pods. The small pod shifted as it left the ship, and set a course for the ring. Thirty seconds passed, and the sharpened spike at the front of the pod penetrated the hull. The spike opened, allowing the troops to go through. Cesterity looked around, it was a fairly large room, with some heavy crates that could be used as cover, there was turbolift at the end of the room, allowing access to the "upper" levels. Cesterity began barking orders;

"I need those crates facing that door, once your done, set up machine guns on them!"

It took all of five minutes, strategically-placed machine guns had every angle covered on the only entrance, and Cesterity had his assault rifle clenched in his grip, not knowing what could come through that door. He concentrated.

Soon, the unknown enemy was slowly cutting through the door with a blowtorch-like device, there was some audible rustling and guns cocking, but besides that, nothing. Cesterity was pumped with adreneline, he knew this was it, the moment. He slowly turned the safety off. Seconds later, a group of battle armor clad, humanoid soldiers came out of the gap. Cesterity did not waste time, he squeesed the trigger at the same time as three machine guns whaled on the attackers, many fell prey to the relentless automatic fire, but many where still left, taking cover. One popped out of cover and executed a perfect shot to the shoulder against Cesterity. He felt a stinging sensation as he fell to the ground.

"AAAH!" Cesterity screamed as he crawled back into cover, he quickly pulled out a pistol.

"You alright sir!?" A marine exclaimed as he fired another burst at the aliens.

"I'm alright." The Captain responded through breaths.

The gunfire stopped abruptly,

"We've... won. Oh my god we've won!" A rookie marine said with amazement. The marines rejoiced before the comms soldier reported;

"Not so fast, I'm getting reports of other decks being under attack, too. On most of them, we're losing."

Cesterity struggled to his feet;

"We should support elsewhere, we've won here..."

For the first time, Cesterity looked down at his wound, it was a bad burn, he quietly said to himself;

"...and besides, they have a few debts to pay."

Footsteps echoed throught the steel halls of the ring, teams of soldiers running to their positions, desperately trying to survive or protect, or simply to deny their foes survival. Captain Mikios Jertar signalled his team to stop as he heard another patrol nearing his location. He had lost three men and women to ambushes, and it would be pointless to lose another, and it would be a very bad idea to alert them to his location this close to his destination. He waited, tense with anticipation as the footsteps approached then slowly, tantalizingly died away. Once he was certain they were out of earshot, he continued on, determined to reach the ring's control center.

The halls seemed endless, each one exactly like the next, with no progress being made. Mikios was bored of the repetitiveness, and needed something to happen. As the soldier at the front of his group, a man in an "Vespid" battlesuit as it was all he could find in time, was riddled with bullets after turning a corner before his eyes, he knew he had found that change he wanted. He stopped cold, Whatever was around that corner was deadly, how to destroy it without knowing what it was? Voices rang through the hallway, just around the corner, but without his universal translator he did not know what was said, but he could certainly place their location. He removed a grenade from his belt... He only had one chance, as he only had one grenade. Othewise, he'd be unable to pass this corridor without being cut down by bullets. He stuck his hand around the cornet, and blindly threw the grenade down the hallway. Bullets whirled, but none hit his hand. He heard a scream, and an explosion, then silence. That was enough to satisfy him, although in honesty it would probably alert half the facility to the fact they were so close to the control center... He thought, anyway. As he turned the corner, he braced himself for death, and finding it was not yet coming for him, he looked down the hallway. A five man squad, all dead. One held a still-smoking gatling gun of some kind. Mikios paused, dropped his weapon, and picked up the gatling gun, which he assumed to be the one which killed his teammate.

Meeting
The two guards never knew what had hit them, their chin, necks and extended asophagi being melted an instant in under a second. They collapsed to the ground, unable to scream without voiceboxes. Mikios and his squad, now numbering six soldiers, only two of whom had managed to don their battlesuits before disembarking from their ship. He quickly took a atomic cutter from his belt, and began cutting through the door to the control room. Two of his squadmates, the two with battlesuits (Both Ursine pattern) stood ready to burst through the door once it was open and slay those inside, while the remaining three stood watch for passing patrols. Once the door was open, the battlesuit soldiers simply stepped through the door and systematically shot down any Drodo they saw. "Okay, Perstal, get a data transfer unit onto those computers. We need to find out the science of these wormholes, that's out mission. Anything else is secondary"

Cesterity was crouched behind cover when the entire room was lit up by blaster fire. They won that fight. He looked around, the door out of the room was too far away, he would be cut down. So, he looked behind him;

"I'll have to hide," He thought to himself, he soon found a access panel large enough for him to fit inside.

He looked behind his shoulder, a soldier was just rounding the corner when he quickly jumped out of his vision.

"Huh?" The soldier questioned as he stood still for a moment, before returning to patrols.

Cesterity was cramped inside of the small alcove. But through a small slit in the panel, he could see that what he assumed was their leader was coming close to his location. He silently slid the panel off, pulled out his pistol, and put the cold barrel up to his head. He said;

"Stop."

Mikios stopped in his tracks as he felt the cold, hard metal of a gun barrel pressed against the back of his skull. He sighed heavily, and put both hands up.

"How many damn guards does one room need?" he muttered under his breath, before saying

"Alright, you got me. I'm leader of this whole science vessel escort. You probably have a lot of questions to ask. You won't shoot" He said aloud, without turning.

He knew he had to keep whomever was behind him distracted while Perstal can attach the data compiler and then escape. If the information is returned to the Collective, he'll have fufilled his usefulness. He quickly ordered his four squadmates to stand down and not fire upon their presumed foe.

"Look, we aren't trying to kill anybody, hell, we'd try for peaceful negotiations if we got a chance. We just want the data we came for, then we're willing to leave"

Cesterity looked up at his foe with contempt. He had a lot of questions that needed answering;

"So I'm guessing your one of M'kras' subordinates, hmm?" He tightened his grip on his pistol, a soldier was going to step forward, when Cesterity said;

"One step, and your leader's head will be a fine, red mist!"

He slowly stepped back.

Shattering
M'kras paced aggravatedly as he issued orders. These aliens and their ships showed no signs of relenting, and their weapons fire were taking their toll on the Mag'heli fleet. Already two of his six dreadnoughts had fallen, and his raiders had fallen into chaos after the Eranian Collective's arrival. One ship had even gone so far as to mutiny, which was fairly common place in as chaotic a battle as the one taking place. That ship was now little more than debris, and it's treacherous crew mere ashes floating through the celestial void. When the Collective arrived, he had nigh collapsed from fear, as he knew that the foolish Eranians could identify them, and he knew full well the consequences of identification in this matter. He had to stop them, and he knew how. Each and every Eranian present was on the ring. Destroy that, and they are no longer a threat. He issued the order, and immediately all four remaining dreadnoughts opened fire on critical areas of the ring, hoping to shatter it.

Mikios was thrown to the ground as the floor beneath him violently shuddered. He scrambled for his weapon, and, having grabbed it, aimed it at the man who had a moment ago placed the barrel of a gun to his head, and stood slowly. The room shuddered and shook a second time, and he asked his subordinates for a explanation as to the cause. A short, stocky Eranian in a "Ursine" battle suit answered. "It appears that the entire ring structure is thus effected. The most likely scenario is that kinetic weapons have been directed at the structure. These weapons would almost certainly be easily capable of shattering the ring, which would undoubtedly lead to our own death. I reccomend we evacuate the structure immediately". Mikios agreed, and lowered his weapon. Mikios instructed the soldier in the Ursine battlesuit to send a evacuation signal to all other Eranians on the ring, then proceeded to leave.

Just before exiting the room, he stopped. He did not know the inner structure of the ring, and could easily wander the labyrinthine halls for hours prior to locating his ship. It was doubtful he had over ten minutes in which to make his escape. He turned to the man who was a moment ago his foe. "Look, i don't have a map of this facility, and i know you do. I don't have time to guess the way out, either, and you don't have time to fight my men. I propose we work together until we are off this ring. You show us the way back to our ships, or i'll order every Eranian here to do anything they can to stop your troops escaping. That's hundreds of deaths you could've stopped.". He knew, innately, he would not give such an order. It didn't benefit him, and frankly he just wasn't malicious enough. He hoped his opponant believed his bluff, because otherwise he would likely die.

Cesterity looked contemplatently into his opponant's eyes, while casually holding his pistol in his grip. He then said;

"I suppose we'll have to work together, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend', as the old saying goes."

He raised his arm, and pulled back his trenchcoat's sleeve to reveal a wrist-pad, he pressed the touch-screen a few times to reveal a map,

"I advise that we move to Deck 5, its closest and one of your ships are there, now move!"

The group started to run across the halls when Cesterity felt a stinging sensation, the stim-pack he took earlier was starting to wear off. That wound was going to slow him down again.

"Take a right!" He said, afterwards he felt a considerably worse sting, he sucked it up, and kept moving.

They got to where the ship was when the Captain couldn't take it anymore;

"OWW!"

He clenched his shoulder, and fell to one knee, a few of the aliens stayed back and looked,

"Go," Cesterity said, they stayed, ready to bring him with them if there leader desired,

"I said, GO!!!"

He shot up into the air, and before he lost consieousness, he heard there commander say;

"Leave him."

He fell to the floor with a thud..

Mikios had made the plan near instantaniously. This captain appeared to hate the Collective because they entered his species territory, and that hatred might lead him to wage a more open war with the Collective. If he died, then whomever his species sent to this area of space as a replacement might be more friendly towards the collective, as he did not desire a war. Frankly though, if the new leader wasn't it didn't concern him anyway. The mission was complete, and it was time to return to Teros. The ring shook again, and the walls creaked loudly. It was very much time to return to Teros.

Cesterity woke up a minute later, he moaned as he got up, his arm was killing him. Just as he got up, the nearby shuttlecraft exploded;

"Holy crap!"

He dropped to the floor, and quickly got up and ran to the debris, he found something worth of interest;

"No way!"

It was a stim-pack, he immediatly grabbed it, and drove it into his burnt shoulder, it started working immediatly. That was a good thing, too, as the entire station shook violently, he stayed on his feet, and ran for another hangar, before being confronted by a massive hulk of steel and flesh, he stood there for a few seconds;

"Oh what in fresh-"

The attacker didn't give him time to respond, he slammed him a good fifteen feet back across the hall, Cesterity barily felt anything thanks to the stim-pack, he got up and wiped some blood from his mouth. He continued to fire several shots at his target, the distinctive K-CRACK! of the handgun echoed across the corridor, but to no avail. He slowly walked toward him, Cesterity sprinted the other way, and got to a door to a hangar, he quickly put his gun in his holster, and quickly put in a code on the touch-screen panel it said in a calm, computer voice;

"Access Denied."

"No... NO!" Cesterity cried as his impending doom came closer.

"Come on..."

"Access Denied."

"Damn it!" He exclaimed, he simply took several steps back, and sprinted at the door, he jumped, and tackled the door.

It broke open, the Attacker was getting impatient, it simply sprinted at the terrified Captain, he ran for the shuttle, randomly firing backwards, the machine shot it out of his hand, and shot Cesterity in the side of the tail.

"Ouch!" He kept on running, seconds felt like hours as he finally got into the shuttle, and so did the attacker. He slowly turned around;

"Oh...No."

The attacker grabbed Cesterity by the neck and drove him against the wall of the shuttle, which had long since left the dying station.

The brute tightened the grip around Cesterity's throat. The Captain watched as the the monstrosity's face went from a sick, twisted smile, to a surprised, furious complexion to a blank, pale face. Cesterity had shoved a wrist-blade into his gut. A sea of blood and gore poured from his lower torso. He twisted his wrist, and pulled his hand free. It was thick with blood. The brute released its grip, and fell to the floor. Cesterity, breathing heavily after his ordeal, landed the craft in the Impaler 2's hangar, two Drodoian Marines came through the now open door. One asked;

"Are you alright sir?"

"Yeah... I'm alright." He once again drifted out of consiousness as his arm started to hurt chronnicly.

M'kras tapped his foot, impatient. It had been fully fifteen minutes of constant firing upon the ring, by now it should have collapsed. His raiders, who were supplying covering fire to the Dreadnoughts as they systematically demolished the ring, were slowly repeatedly hammered by the enemy ships. He wondered exactly how many ships these aliens had at their disposal. Frankly, the majority of raider's captains were so caught up in the heat of battle that giving orders was by now pointless. The neural implant with which he controlled the brutes and dreadnoughts sent a message, indicating the dreadnought's target had been destroyed. He ordered a nearby Mag'heli to make the main display show the ring, and he saw it. The ring had shattered into five pieces, which then broke into thirteen, and then more. But one sight there infuriated him. Eranian ships pulling away. He cursed loudly, and ordered all fire to be directed at the Eranian ships.

On the ground of a nearby planet, several Mag'heli sat, recovering from injuries they had sustained when the Proxy crashed upon the planet. The planet was deserted as far as they could see, leaving them to fend for themselves. B'nee had discovered that the brutes had been disabled, all disconnected from their controller, who had presumably died in the crash, crushed by several tons of mettalic hull or burnt to a crisp during atmospheric entry. The remaining Mag'heli were ecstatic about their newfound freedom, but at a loss as to what to do with it given their situation. After a chain of command had been established via a series of arguements in which several of Kur'kloc's opponents found themselves without skulls, or bodies for that matter, scouts were sent out to survey the area and to search for food. There was little else to do except wait for them to return, scavenge the wreckage, and torment the unconcious bodies of the disconnected brutes.

Intruder
Sadioch opened his eyes, was alive, definitely alive, sweating from every pore of his body, his muscles were taut, his pupils dilated. He looked Vankalian was as impassive as ever but was a bit agitated, pointing his rifle on his shoulder, he had not attacked him. Slowly he turned his head, everything seemed to move in slow motion, he lay unconscious next to a humanoid creature, very muscular and horrible. -What it's that?-asked Sadioch -I don't know, but we will find it- answer Vankalian as he lifted the unconscious intruder soil.

So within minutes, the creature was bound by shackles magnetic, a metal table that was suspended before the general and scientific. Vankalian looked at the face of the creature, this reeked of anger and violence, his muscles were very tense, sharp teeth were yellow and his breath smelled like hell. Sadioch, meanwhile, sat at the desk of the secret base and began to search the computer and drawers something only he knew. Suddenly the creature awoke, his pupils contracted and started screaming and cursing the members of the USF.

-We'll have to reassure our friend- say Sadioch as he covered his ears. -Yes, have we some soothing? -No, every already spoiled, but I find some Apatic Serum -Ok, how much time I have once you apply it? -I could not tell you, his biological structure is different than I've ever seen, I can't predict which effects will the gas -Ok, I run the risk Sadioch injected the beast with a purple substance and after a few seconds your muscles relaxed and his pupils dilated, the creature seemed to be totally different. -Well, ugly- started to say Vankalian- you owe us some explanations, who are you and where you come from? -My name is B'naan, I am a crewmember of the ship Proxy, of the glorious Mag'heli Domain and I come from the galaxy Kraw- sayed the creature with a rough voice. -Sadioch...-sayed Vankalian -Yes, it's true, I have information about this galaxy- informed Sadioch -Right, how you arrived here? -A powerfull gravitational field absorved us and launched us against a ring-shaped structure, intuitively we attacked it -So you was who attacked our command post -We have to expand our territories, the Eranian Collective hasn't let us do it since many years- whispered B'naan, as his muscles began to tighten -General...- sayed Sadioch -Wait... you are better warriors, why do you don't fight with them? -Because... their technology, we can destroy them if we have a better power source With each word, B'naan regained its normal state, but that did not bother Sadioch and Vankalian, because they remembered that planet on which they were, in most Drodonian gold reserve in the known universe. -Are there more survivents? -Yes, the Domain will come here to pick us at any time -Only one question more, Do you know what is the Drodonian Gold? -What?- sayed B'naan between grunts -General!- sayed Sadioch but it was late, the creature jump to attack Vankalian, immediatly Sadioch pulled a button and the magnetics shackles joined back to the metal table, Vankalian taked his rifle and shot to the creature -Sadioch, send a message to the Federation, we will have company...

Aftermath
Cesterity opened his eyes, and quickly lifted himself up, breathing heavily. He was in a loose medical robe. The Captain had a few questions;

"Lieutenant, where am I?"

"Your in med-bay sir."

He heard some mechanical whirring, there wasn't anything in the room that would make that noise. He asked;

"Where's that whirring coming from, Lieutenant?"

He simply pointed to his left arm, Cesterity slowly turned his head, not knowing what to expect, his gaze finally set upon a hefty, bionic arm. A giant, glowing smile slowly spread across his face. He then turned to a Uzcar doctor;

"Wait a second, why?"

"I could of repaired that blaster wound, any doctor could, but those 'stim-packs' of yours sealed the deal, they're toxic. So, I had to amputate the arm." She said simply while cleaning her instruments.

"Hmph, okay." He quickly put on his uniform and returned to the bridge, they had since pulled back from the wormhole, it was a lost cause. But he swore he would retake it. In the meantime, the Impaler 2 was regrouping with the rest of the fleet. He contacted the Drodo Empire and the UFS a few hours ago, they where at war. They where setting up a defensive barrier in the neighbouring system. The enemy couldn't go around the system, as there was a ion nebula on one side, and a black hole field on the other side, it was a bottleneck. The loss of another Drodoian Gold-rich planet was not an option.

Grounded
The crew of the proxy were utterly bored. Several fights had erupted between them in order to stave off the boredom, which invariably ended in the excruciating and bloody death of one or more crewmembers. The scouts had yet to return and until they did there were few other methods of entertainment available. A the sound of footsteps was suddenly heard from beyond a small hill, over which seven Mag'heli ran, firing their guns behind them. Pursuing these Mag'heli were a group of blue, horned and armored humanoids who carried relatively fancy looking weapons. One of the fleeing Mag'heli dragged a bloodied pink humanoid with small antlers along by the arm, the other one of which had been removed. The crew of the Proxy had grabbed their own weapons within seconds, and fired upon the blue humanoids. As the blue humanoids were cut down, some began to flee, and while most were cut down some very few escaped.

Kur'kloc viciously grabbed the pink humanoid by the antlers, so viciously it accidentally snapped it off. He threw the humanoid to the ground and pressed the barrel of his gun to the creature's skull. He could see that the humanoid was on the verge of death, so asked one question.

"Who are you".

The creature responded in a soft tone, "I will not reveal my identity to one such as you... Your kind do not deserve the Drodoian gold, and you will never have it".

Kur'kloc was insulted. He had been in power of the ship for a very short time, but he was already mad with it. In his fury at the creatures defiance, he tore through it's ribcage in an attempt to rip out it's heart, and found a lung which he tossed aside in disgust. The trauma had killed the creature. and he found no joy in tearing out the heart of a creature he had already killed, and so dropped it's limp corpse and left it to his men. He stopped to contemplate what the pink-skinned being had said. He does not deserve the Drodoian gold... If that creature thought that his crew wanted the gold, that meant it was worth taking. He had decided, he would rally his soldiers and take this gold from the hands of this new species, and maybe form his own Dominion once he was done. One where he wouldn't be oppressed and commanded and pushed around. Everybody else... Maybe they would be oppressed, but not him!

Implications
Cesterity thought back to the day before, there was a lot to think about. And a lot of questions that needed answering;

"What did M'kras say when he said, 'I'll find out soon enough'? Did he mean..."

He looked down at his biological arm, the scars where still there the last time he was tortured, five years ago.

"No, of course not."

Many more thoughts and questions clouded his mind, but he didn't get time to think about it, when a crewman said;

"Sir! Multiple ships incoming! They match M'kras's fleet!"

Cesterity got out of his chair and walked a few steps forward, he said;

"Gentlemen, prepare for war."

M'kras was glad. The prescence of enemy ships at this galactic bottleneck proved that there was something of value beyond. His reinforcements had arrived shortly after the ring's destruction, along with controller Tu'rak. After a lengthy discussion, Tu'rak had remained behind to maintain control of the wormhole and to take control of the nearest planet, but had sent his forces, along with M'kras and his ship, further into enemy territory to expand the dominion and colonise any habitable planets seen. Even if they were already inhabited. The enemy ships had their weapons already trained on his fleet, it mattered little. He issued his intructions, relayed through the brutes. He had to be careful with how he did so, for he knew that Tu'rak had a very different vocabulary to him, and the brutes under his control would likely also have a different (If similarly crude) dictionary. But the orders were relayed. None of his crew of the crews of the nearby fleets appeared to notice, and they opened fire. He sent a contingent of raiders to land on the planet these aliens seemd to be defending. It seemed habitable enough, and if not it would be fun to watch the raider's crews die trying to inhabit it.

Orders
Mikios had gotten lucky. He had escaped with minimal injuries, and half of his crew intact. After severl minutes taking count of the remaining Eranian forces, he had discovered that he had lost half of his "Fleet", including the science ship he had been tasked with protecting, which had taken heavy damage from the initial Drodoian salvo, lost all life support which resulted in the death of the crew, then crashed on the planet below. He took stock of his situation. He had half of a millitary escort squadron, trapped in an area with no access to the Collective's main territories save for a single wormhole held by a considerably large Mag'heli fleet. The other species in the area were neutral towards him... How to survive this mission, he wondered. The ship's second in capacity turned from his discussion with a female corporal to give his report to Mikios. "Sir, we have analysed the data from the ring and discovered how they made the wormhole. The native empires used a resource called "Drodoian gold" to power the wormhole ring. This gold is available on the planet we are currently orbiting. Your orders?".

Teros, a week ago

Mikios stood before the antique computer. A large, black calligraphed "K" on a white background filled the screen. A voice could be heard from it's ancient speakers, terrible in quality but well disguised. "Mikios, i have a task i require you to perform". His response was predictable. "Yeah, i gathered. What task?". The voice proceeded to fill him in on the job, but one phrase stuck in his mind more than any of the others. The voice, Kerrata, put emphasis on that phrase, which stood out extremely given her usual voice was monotonous. That phrase was "Protect the science ship's contents at all cost, you can sacrifice the crew and vessel if neccessary, but the contents must remain intact".

The Milky way galaxy, Now

Mikios recalled those words as he was asked for intructions. He paused a moment, contemplating. Then he gave his orders. "Get retrieval teams onto the planet and retrieve the science vessel. Our mission was to protect it, we failed. We may as well salvage what we can". His second in capacity paused, again struggling to puzzle out Mikios's unusual speech patterns, and then nodded and began relaying those orders throught the "Fleet".

Sequestered in plain sight, Kerrata watched as Mikios gave the exact orders she had wished and anticipated. He had seemed hesitent, she might almost have had to push him in the right direction. That might have compromised her status. It was imperative that the mission go forward, and that required that nobody realised the true identity of the quiet woman who was assigned to monitoring the sensors.

Shadow
The Senate of the federation was in commotion, every one of the senators had been aware of the situation, an unknown race had left the Wormhole and destroyed his command post. This was an outrage, an affront to the military power of the federation, but the Senate preferred not enter a war, especially now that was not Vankalian position to help. -We can't afford it, we must declare war on those foreigners- said the Chibar senator -Without Vankalian?- quipped the Uzcar senator -We must to do something -What about Mask?- said Aranalia -Me?- said a figure out of nowhere, appeared in the center of the Senate -Sir Mask, leader of the Shadow Regiment, you shouldn't be here, after the incident before the Great Ring War- said a Kalixtus senator -I know, my lord, but I couldn't avoid hearing, do you need my help? -Yes, we need you direct an operation to retrieve the Wormhole -I would be pleased- said Mask with a smile

Mask was the leader of the Shadow Regiment, anybody knows his identity, even his specie. He always wore a cloak over the body down to his ankles, a steel mask and armor biomechanics.

Defense
The entire ship shook as Cesterity got lifted out of his chair, and almost fell to the floor;

"They are opening fire sir!"

"Yeah, I noticed!" The Captain quipped as he got back in his seat. Another crewmember reported;

"They are dropping pods and transports down to the surface, sir!"

"Get as many battalions as you can on the ground! I want reinforcements at the forts on the front lines!"

With that, he ran off the bridge, and armed up. They needed a good commander on the ground.

It didn't take long for the dropship to land, Cesterity cautiously stepped off of the transport, before a large explosion landed nearby and threw him, along with a few other Drodoian Marines, like a ragdoll.

He screamed as he ripped through the air for a few seconds, before rolling down a steep hill and crashing into a rock.

"OWW!" He cried as he hit the boulder, he quickly got up, and scrambled for his rifle, only to have it kicked away by a lightly armored alien, about 6 or 7 feet tall, looking him down. He rolled out of the way of a stomp, and quickly got up. Adrenaline rushed through his veins as he pulled out his pistol, and shot the enemy in the face.

A marine ran to the exhausted captain;

"You okay, sir?" He asked as he handed him an auto-shotgun.

"I'm alright, where's the nearest base?"

"Firebase Omega, about four kilometres away from here." The marine responded.

"That's walking distance, lets gather up the squad, and mobilize."

Cesterity saw a squadron of enemy troops coming in behind them,

"Come on, lets go, lets go!"

The two Drodo started to sprint away from the hostile squad, and to Firebase Omega.

In his battleship, M'kras almost laughed. These aliens had done exactly as he had expected them to. Focused the battle onto land. In space, it is exceedingly difficult to take captives, and a Mag'heli fleet's morale is entirely reliant on the number of captives acquired. He did not even need to order his troops to take as many captives as possible, as he knew they would do so regardless. He idly had a brute excruciatingly torment then excecute a crewmember who was talking too quietly for his liking, as he plotted his next move. He was once again outnumbered, and this time the enemy had been prepared for him. He had to be cautious or he would likely be killed. He needed to discover what ship was the enemy flagship, and destroy that. Most other alien races were heavily reliant on their command structure, or at least most ones he had encountered before. So that was his first priority

Squad leader Gr'mar was ecstatic. Not only had he been among the first squads to get into combat, but it was with a alien who matched the description of the enemy leader. He wondered how they had discovered his appearance, but it mattered little. They had killed M'nar, but he would have died anyway for running as he did. The commander, he saw, was fleeing. This Gr'mar felt was odd. He issued a single, bellowing order. "KILL THEM!"

"Crap, their firing on- AAH!" The other marine suffered a clean shot in the back, Cesterity ran back to check the soldier's pulse, he swore under his breath when there was nothing. There was no time to mourn or bury his body as the enemies sprinted towards him in a reckless, ecstatic charge, firing their weapons as they ran. A shot narrowly missed his head as he took cover behind a tree.

"They've probably got me surrounded if there's any brains in their skulls,"

He thought to himself. The Captain looked down to his belt, there was two frag granades;

"Oh yeah..." He said out loud. He took one off of his belt, pressed a button and threw it a good 25 metres, it made a small explosion that thrown dirt, shrapnel, and gibbed corpses flying everywhere. Their wasn't enough time to throw the other granade, when he was knocked over by a projectile. He grunted as he fell into the dirt, but relieved when it pinged off of his neosteel shoulder plate. Cesterity quickly scrambled to his feet as a few of his opponents ran closer, he whipped around and ripped one to pieces with a shot from his auto-shotgun. The other, from what he could tell their commander, blasted his hat from his head. The Captain shot at his legs, and caught a glimpse of the enemy soldier fall to his knees. Cesterity ran the opposite way, and over a knoll.

Undercover
-Sadioch we go out from here!- Vankalian shouted from the door Sadioch took from the desk a small crystal size of a grain of rice, placed in a capsule and slung belt. -What is it?- asked Vanklian -The answer to our problems, general Suddenly the ground shook and the door was blocked by a shower of rocks -Heck! They're here, we must find a safe escape route Sadioch pressed a device on his wrist and was projected a hologram of the secret base -The base is Firebase Dordo Omega closest we can get help there -Right, but how we leave? -There is a tunnel complex that would leave us one kilometer of it They toured several tunnels as rocks fell from the ceiling -Sadioch, how far to the exit!? -Fifty metres, turn right and twenty meters more, the gate is above us! Following the directions of the map, surfaced for the worse. Drodo and Mag'heli forces fighting there. Lasers and plasma bullets flying in all directions, and Vankalian Sadioch had to cross enemy territory at the moment. -Well, general, how we attack them? -We don't- said Vankalian to the astonishment of Sadioch -we pass unnoticed among Mag'heli -Alright, general, but how? Vankalian saw a box of ammunition, perfect for cover, and a Mag'heli standing before her, wearing an armor that covered his entire body. -Follow me- murmured Vankalian They approached the box squat, and a movement Vankalian took by the throat and slammed Mag'heli his knife. In seconds he took the armor and put it on, it was almost perfect. -Follow me play- said he to Sadioch while his hands bandaged and covered with dust They crossed the field Mag'heli without problems, the enemy thought he had captured a hostage. -Stop!- said a voice -Heck! we are so close- murmured Vankalian- Yes sir -What are you doing? -I was taking this future slave to the ship -Yes? It is funny because the ship is to the other side -Well... -Ha, don't worry, I do the same thing, is good have a private slave, but if someone discover you, I don't know you Vankalian sighed -It was too close- and retook the way to the Firebase Omega

Persuits
Gr'mar was furious. He had just lost half of his squad in under a minute, along with use of his legs. Only four injured slave troops and a brute remained. The brute was buisy occupying itself by flaying a Drodo marine who had been unfortunate enough to catch the Brutes eye, but Gr'mar was determined to attain retribution on the man who had shot him. After a moments thought he decided the best way to do so was to persue that man, sending the brute in charging over the knoll recklessly the other four Mag'heli circled around to surround the foe. He was hasty regarding this, as he knew that his men would turn on him were his injury to be discovered. He would run, attempt to recover, and at some point in the future attempt to bluff the brutes into thinking he had heroically killed some major commander. Yes, that sounded like a good plan... He would do so. He fled as fast as he could with his injured leg, hobbling away while carrying a unconcious drodo marine over his shoulder, for later entertainment.

Mikios was bored already. His drop pod had landed in the absolute center of a desert, with no buildings, or science vessel for that matter, anywhere in the visible vacinity. After extensively questioning his second in capacity as to the reason for this, he decided the ship must have been moved by another group, most likely those aliens, the "Drodo" as the data retrieved from the ring called them. After having his men in orbit scan the area he discovered that the nearest building they inhabited was to the west. He took up his rifle, briefly proceeded so empty his shoes of sand (Which had managed to already find its way into every gap in his uniform), and ordered his men westward. He would have that science vessel, by force if neccessary.

Controller Tu'rak had remained behind at the wormhole to command the fleet in it's defense. He had done so as he was inconvinced the wormhole was stable and that position gave him the best chance of return to the Dominion should it collapse. He had been told by Controller M'kras that the wormhole was fully secured. Why then were there a dozen Eranian vessels orbiting the same planet as he was? He would not stand for this, and he had to remove them. He ordered no less than twenty raiders to do just that.

Now one of the few remaining crewmembers, Kerrata Terstan had taken the ship she was in out of orbit of the planet the ring had once orbited and now hid upon the planet's moon. She knew the Mag'heli would detect the main "Fleet" of the collective, and knew that said fleet would be destroyed. She had to survive in order to complete her mission, all other objectives were irrelivant. None of the crew knew what had occured, all they knew was that they had detected an odd energy reading on the moon, and had gone to investigate just minutes before their comrades were wiped out by Mag'heli raiders. This was as it shood be. She did her best to make the ship's sensors as finely tunes as possible, and monitored Mikios's movements as best she could. All had gone as was planned, so far. She might not even need to intervene at all.

Finally, entertainment had arrived. Not only entertainment, potential slaves and potential subjects for torture. Not only that, but distinct signs of more to come. The crew of the proxy had happened upon a grey and pale green drop pod of incredibly sophisticated technology. It was clearly Eranian. Footsteps led off to the west. Three thoroughly dissapointed Mag'heli were forced to remain behind to scavenge from the drop-pod as the rest of the crew went to kill the Eranians who had dared to set foot upon their new world

Surrounded
Cesterity thought he was in the clear, that was before he heard footsteps, and bushes rustling;

"Oh crap."

He raised his auto-shotgun, only to be grabbed from the ruff of his furry neck by a brute;

"Hey! Let me friggin' go!"

The opponent had come up from behind, he saw a few others emerge from the bushes and aim their guns at him.

He shot one, only to feel a extreme pain in his tail;

"AAAH!"

The brute threw him down, and laughed slightly, Cesterity pulled out his pistol, and fired;

''K-CRACK! K-CRACK!''

That distracted the brute long enough for him to get away, he quickly dispatched the other two, and ran for his life.

He sat against a tree, he knew it was safe. He pulled out whatever that super-soldier shoved into his tail, it was a knife of some sort, obvieously designed to inflict pain. It was then he realized what kind of monsters he was dealing with;

"I was wrong, these people thrive on pain and suffering, on... on..."

"on torture..."

He stared at the knife with fear, sadness, and anger.

"These people have definatly captured some of my men, I won't let it happen again."

He heard a scream from far away, one of his men, he thought of going back, but that would lead to failure and one less Drodo commander, their will be another time. For now, he had to get to firebase Omega.