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(The following story, I wrote back in 2006. Spud found it recently and liked it, so I decided 'what the heck' and
figured I'd post it here in chapters, see what people thought of it.)

***

You always hear people going on about how they'd love to travel the galaxy, live the kind of life you see in movies and the like. You know, a ship of your
own, going from world to world, seeing things the mundanes would never imagine? Most people never get the chance, or when they get the opportunity, they
chicken out, giving excuses. For them, the closest they'll get is a commercial flight to a nearby planet.

I don't know if that makes Ben and I lucky, or slightly crazy. We got the chance, and we took it. A ship of our own, the Duskwalker, a bit of cash, and off
we went. We got in a fair bit of trouble at first too. My God did we make mistakes. But we were lucky enough to get out alive, and smart enough to learn. (My
mother would say 'but not smart enough to get out of the business', but she accepts it.)

We've been at this for about a year and a half, living the eternal buddy-movie throughout the stars... It's a good life. Right now, it's a cargo
run to Ragol. Just exotic foods, a few crates of medical goods and what have you. Still, it's always interesting on Ragol, and I doubt this time will be
any different.

***

Duskwalker

By Chris Wood

***

Ben Cook looked over his shoulder as the door of the ships control room opened and Chris entered, idly scratching at his neck. "I was having the most
wonderful dream," he said, suppressing a yawn.

"Yeah, I'm sure you were," he replied with a slight chuckle, "but I found something I think we should check out." He tabbed a button,
and the control rooms speakers crackled to life. It sounded like random noise, crackling and spluttering, but after a few moments, Chris could make out another
noise. A steady pulse, beeping every five seconds.

"What is that?" he asked. "A signal beacon?"

"I think so," Ben replied. "It's not on any maps for this region, so it might be attached to a ship." He turned off the speakers.
"Might be a distress beacon."

The other man looked uncertain. "Distress beacons are usually a little more... I don't know... urgent?"

"Well, is there anything else around here that would be making that kind of noise?" Ben asked. Chris paused, thought about it, then shrugged.

"Makes sense. If not, we might as well check it out anyways. Lay in a course." He picked at a piece of lint on his shirt, then spun and opened the
door again. "I'm gonna have a shower."

"We'll be there in twenty minutes," Ben called out after him, before chuckling and entering new commands into the navigation systems.

***

As luck would have it, Chris came back into the control room just as the Duskwalker dropped out of Slipspace, a few dozen kilometers from the beacon.
"Cutting it a little close, aren't we?" he asked.

"I never hit anything, do I?" Ben asked with a grin, hands moving over the flight controls as he moved the freighter closer to the beacon.
"Whatever's making the signal, it's not very big," he commented.

His friend took a seat at one of the other stations. "Few hundred meters wide," he responded, looking over the scans. "Damn small, especially
for something that's, what, twelve light-years from the nearest system?"

"Just about," Ben said. "Bringing us to match its path and speed." The ships maneuvering thrusters flared, the ship slowing somewhat,
before toggling the lights in the forward section of the ship, directing the beams over their target. As they got a first look at it, both of them sucked in a
breath.

It was a fragment of ship, drifting all alone in the darkness. The searchlights revealed corridors and maintenance shafts that had been blown clear open,
having long ago exposed whatever was inside to hard vacuum.

"Well, this adds support to my distress signal theory," Ben noted bleakly.

"Yeah," Chris agreed. "Thing is, I'm not seeing any other debris. Hell, there's nothing else out there. This has to have been drifting
out here for a long time if it's all on its own."

"Alone or not, something in there's sending out that signal." He glanced over at Chris. "Flip you for it?"

"Nah," he replied, standing up. "I'll go over there. You keep an eye on things from this side."

"Just be careful," Ben called out after him. "If this is some sort of trap..."

"I know, I know."

***

In a locker room just before Duskwalkers primary airlock, Chris opened a locker and took out a light undersuit. Dull grey in color, he pulled it on, then
reached for the armored boots, followed by a slightly bulky breastplate and pair of gloves. As he checked the seals and reached for the helmet, he paused and
went over to another locker, this one sealed with a coded lock. Entering a code into the keypad, he opened it and took out a small pistol and its holster,
hooking it onto his belt.

"Think you'll need it?" Bens voice crackled over the PA.

"Doubt it, but better safe then sorry," he noted, picking up his helmet and putting it on. There was a slight hiss as it locked into place along his
undersuits neck collar. Details flickered across the inside of his helmet visor. He checked them, then nudged his chin against the comm button in his helmet.
"Heading out."

"Okay. I've managed to locate the beacon," his friend continued as he entered the airlock. "It's fifty-three meters in from the side
facing us, which kinda looks like an outer hull. Still haven't been able to figure out exactly what it is though."

"Any markings on the hull?" he asked as the air drained out of the airlock. After a moment, the lights on the wall console flashed, and the outer
doors opened, revealing the void outside.

"Not that I can see," Ben replied as Chris grabbed a handrail just inside the airlock and stepped out, swinging around so he was kneeling on the
hull. Taking a moment to reorient himself, he activated his boot magnets and stood up. As he looked around, he chuckled softly. "What?" came the
comment over his headset.

"Sorry," he said. "It's just..." he looked over the seemingly endless field of stars. "I've never gone EVA outside a star
system before. It's different. So... silent, so alone."

"I'll have to try it sometime," Ben chuckled. "Sounds interesting."

"Oh, it is. Sure, I can see our mystery debris, but it almost feels like I'm completely alone here." He looked directly up, studying his target,
then knelt down. "I'm kicking off," he said, shutting off his boot magnets and kicking off the hull gently.

For over two minutes, he drifted though the darkness, using the air jets in his breastplate to alter his path ever so slightly. As he reached about thirty
meters above the hull, he flipped over one hundred and eighty degrees, landing on the hull, dropping to his knees before he activated his boots again.
"Made it," he whispered.

"Yeah, I can see you," Ben replied, not whispering. "There's an opening in the hull about twenty meters to your right. Chris looked in that
direction, the lights in his helmet highlighting the hole in question.

"I see it," he said, standing up and walking across the hull slowly, before coming to a halt at the hole. "Looks like it was blown open. Weapons
fire maybe." Carefully avoiding anything that looked sharp, he lowered himself into the ship and ended up standing on what had once been a wall.
"Huh."

"What?" Ben asked.

"Carpet. Would've looked pretty nice once."

"You don't see carpet on many ships," Ben noted. "What color?"

"Some sort of blue." He walked along the wall for a stretch until he came across a door. "Am I even going in the right direction?"

"You're going towards it," came the reply. "Just depends on what rooms are in the way. But it's definitely further in."

"Then deeper I go," Chris muttered, deactivating his boots and drifting. Carefully, he made his way through the next few rooms, all of which were
done up in a manner that might have been rather pleasant once. "I think this was a passenger ship. Done up pretty damn fancy. Well, middle class
fancy," he corrected himself, seeing a portrait of dogs playing poker. "There been anything about passenger liners being attacked around here?"

"This close to Ragol?" Ben asked, skeptical. "I sure as hell haven't heard anything. You're the one with the fascination with missing
ships."

"Famous missing ships," Chris corrected. "Like the Pillar of Avalon. The ones with more of a mystery then 'some jerks with some guns on the
hull figured an easy kill's got some mone-'" As he passed into another hallway, his voice cut of into a panicked yelp, grabbing the door frame and
pulling himself back.

"Chris?!"

"I'm okay," he managed, still getting his breath back. Slightly sickened, he looked at what had startled him. "Found a body," he added.
"Man, maybe twenty five." He moved on, making sure to never touch the corpse, although his eyes lingered on it. Hands stretched out into claws, mouth
wide open in a frantic scream... Decompression was hardly a pleasant way to go. "Moving on," he said, tearing his gaze away and continuing down the
hallway.

"You're close to the signal," Ben reported, "it might be in a room to your left. Wait, you passed it."

"Yeah, there's a door here," Chris replied. "Nearly missed it. Damn dark in here, even with my lights." He studied the sealed door for
a minute, then, not expecting it to work, pressed the open button on the keypad next to it. After a moment he scowled and pulled out his knife, jamming the
blade into the door seal and forcing enough of a space to get a handhold.

It seemed that whatever hydraulics the door had were either frozen over or just plain destroyed, as it slid open easily. Stepping inside, Chris looked around,
then nodded in understanding at the rather bare metal room, dramatically different from everything he'd seen so far. "Escape pods," he said.
"I can see a lunch tube in here."

"Should've gone in that way," Ben said wryly.

"Might've been sealed off by an explosion," he replied. "There's one pod still on the launch rails. It might be the source of the
beacon." He noted another body floating near the ceiling, but ignored it and focused on the escape pod. It was a long, featureless bulletshaped oddity,
moisture having frozen on it after whatever had destroyed the ship. After a moment, Chris found a hidden panel at the rear that opened to reveal a control
panel. He tapped a few buttons, then nodded. "Ben, I was right. This pod's transmitting a distress beacon..." his voice trailed off for a moment.
"Because it's got someone in it," he finished.

"Christ," Ben said. "You sure about that?"

"This thing's pretty damn insistent about it," he muttered. "From what I can tell, he's in suspended animation, his body right at the
borderline. Must have got in the tube, gone under, and never even knew his pod didn't make it out."

"And then he drifted," came the response.

"Yeah... God only knows how long he's been he-"

"Wait."

"What?" Chris asked.

"I heard something, some kind of interference. Hang on." Chris was left in silence for a moment, before Ben's voice returned, urgent. "Some
kind of data burst, almost on the same frequency we're using. It's coming from inside the wreck. Chris-"

"I get it," Chris replied, taking his pistol out of its holster and tabbing off the safety. "There's something else here."

***

"Ben, where are they?" Chris asked, moving towards the door. "Hell, what are they?"

On the Duskwalker, Ben studied the console in front of him. "I'm not sure, okay? It was some sort of brief data burst, so possibly a droid or
something, maybe more then one. I'm looking for a power source, see if I can find them."

"Great," his friend replied, stopping just before the door and risking a look out. "Hate to pressure you, but stumbling around in here with
something that may be aggressive-"

"I know," Ben snapped, then scowled. "Got it. Three clear power sources that weren't there before. You must have woken them up."

"Crap... where're they going?" he asked, a second before an orange-red beam lashed past his helmet. Swearing, he pulled himself back into the
escape room, leaning against the wall. "Never mind, found 'em." As the beam stopped, he leaned out and fired three shots down the hallway, the
gunshots echoing through his suit, shattering the eternal silence. For a moment.

As he leaned back in, Chris noted to himself that one of the more annoying aspects of space was the fact that, in situations like this, there was no way to
know if you'd hit anything worthwhile... well, until they fired back. As the energy beam lashed the door frame, it became clear he hadn't.

"You found one of them," Ben said, annoyingly calm. "The other two power sources are still moving. They're not heading towards you."
There was a moment of silence, Chris idly studying the energy beam, before Ben spoke again. "Dammit, they're heading towards the ship."

"Can they do any damage?" Chris asked.

"How the hell do I know? If they shoot in a window we're gonna have problems. You deal with your dance partner, I'll take his friends."

"Deal with him?" Chris protested. "Damn things hosing down my cover with some kind of beam weapon. I can't get off a shot."

"Then improvise," came the response, before the channel went dead.

"Improvise," Chris muttered, looking around. "What the hell am I supposed to improvise with? Some bits of metal, an occupied escape pod..."
his voice trailed off as he looked up. "Aw fuck. I'm going to Hell for this, I'm sure."

Keeping a careful eye on the door, he pushed off the floor and drifted up, reaching out to stop himself just below the roof, placing himself at eye level with
the corpse he'd noticed earlier. "Sorry about this pal," he whispered, placing his other hand against the mans chest and pushing him down towards
the door, before following him. As his soles pressed against the floor, he grabbed the body and pushed.

The mans corpse drifted out into the hall. Instantly, the beams target changed, locking onto it and searing the frozen, cracked flesh. Chris didn't pass up
the opportunity, leaning out and running his helmet light over the hallway, tracking the beam to its source.

There it was, a small drone, with a spherical body and small maneuvering fins. He didn't study it any further, emptying his clip into it. While he
couldn't hear the bullets hit, he could see the results, as the small drone was ripped apart, the beam cutting out almost instantly.

Chris ejected the spent clip and loaded a spare, then stepped out into the hallway, moving towards the shattered drone. He got no reaction from it, but put
another bullet through the beam emitter, just to be safe. "God damn piece of scrap metal," he muttered, turning back to the doorway, only to pause as
he looked over the body. The heat from the energy beam had thawed out parts of the body it hadn't destroyed, and half-thawed chunks of flesh and blood were
drifting, almost orbiting the body.

Pressing a hand to his helmet on reflex, Chris gagged as he nearly threw up, before turning away. "Ben," he managed. "I've taken care of one
of them. What about the other two?"

***

Ben checked his glove seals, then pulled his helmet out of his locker before turning and going over to the weapons locker. Entering the keycode, he took out a
rifle and several clips of ammunition. Stashing most of them in a pouch on his belt, he loaded the rifle and worked the bolt, then hooked the rifle to a small
strap on his breastplate. Sealing his helmet, he picked up a coil of thick, metallic looking rope and walked towards the airlock.

"They're out there," he replied. "Not in the wreck anymore, I know that much. At a guess, they're sweeping the Dusk."

"What the hell are they? Security Droids or something?"

"Got to be," Ben said as the airlock began cycling. "Whatever happened to that ship put them in a standby mode, probably to defend
survivors." He clipped one end of the cable onto his belt.

"It's a freaking splinter of a ship," Chris protested. "What the hell is left?"

"An escape pod with someone in stasis," Ben noted.

Chris was silent for a moment. "Okay, I'm gonna give you that one."

"Good man," he said, hopping out of the airlock and kneeling on the hull. Moving forward about ten meters, he latched the other end of the cable onto
a hook, then stood up. "Alright you bastards... where are you?" he muttered, raising his rifle and running it over the 'horizon' created by
his ship.

He saw them soon enough, two flickers of silver dancing over the Duskwalker, looking for whatever they were programmed to find. Closing one eye, he watched
through the rifles scope (Not as easy as one would think when wearing a helmet), studied the two drones for a moment, then pulled the trigger. A triple-burst
shot through the space, ripping at one of the drones and tearing one of its maneuvering fins clean off.

In response, the other drone fired, a beam slashing across the ships hull. Ben stepped to the side, firing off another burst, more to keep the drones guessing
then anything else. Focusing on the wounded drone, he fired a third burst, missing.

Both drones closed in, firing on him. He threw himself to the side, cable spinning out behind him. He darted over the hull for a moment, then grabbed the
nearest handhold and jerked to a halt, getting back on his feet and firing his rifle again. The damaged drone was clipped again, spinning down in what looked
like some sort of evasion maneuver, right until it slammed into the hull, shattering.

"One down," he muttered, ducking under another beam, then leaping to the side. A part of his mind complained that Chris had it easy. At least
he'd had some cover. Raising his rifle, he fired off a round and then had to evade again, the remaining drone determined to take him out.

"Ben, I'm on my way!" came the call from Chris.

"By the time you get here-" He cut off mid sentence, leaping to avoid another burst. He shot up at an angle, unable to grab at the ship. Out of the
corner of his eye, he could see the drone spinning to face him. Then, his cable went tight, and momentum pulled him back down towards the ship, and right into
the open airlock. He came back into the ships artificial gravity and slammed into the floor, gasping. Pulling himself to his knees, he raised his rifle,
waited... and opened fire on fully automatic the moment he saw the drone come into view. Not expecting such a barrage, the drone nearly disintegrated, leaving
Ben alone in the silence.

"Correction," he managed, getting his breath back. "It's done." He ejected the mostly empty clip and loaded a fresh one, then sighed.
"You want me to come over there?"

"Well, we do need to figure out how to get this pod out of here," Chris replied.

"Okay. Give me a few minutes."

***

Chris looked down the launch tube, his headlight giving him a good view of the junk blocking it off. There were openings he could see through, but the majority
of the tube was virtually sealed off, some unknown force having crushed it in from above. "This could be a problem."

"Bad?" came the response from Ben, who was currently drifting between the Duskwalker and the wreck.

"Bad. The escape tube is half crushed, the rest full of crap. I don't know if we'll be able to get it open."

"Hang on," he said. "I might be able to find the tube from the outside." As he landed, Ben kicked off at an angle, drifting along the hull.
He pulled himself over the edge and floated along the side, looking over the passageways and corridors that had been ripped open. After a moment, he saw a beam
of light, made by his friends headlamp, stretching out of a small hole in the ship. Following it to its source, he looked over the outside of the launch tube.
"Even worse out here," he admitted with a scowl. "How much space would that pod take up?"

Chris did a quick check. "Seventy, seventy-five percent of the tube. Even if we get this crap out, the roof cave in is going to make it impossible."
He backed up and looked around. "Hey, check about ten meters to your right. Is there a hallway there?"

Glancing over, Ben saw what Chris was looking at, then shifted over. "Yeah, it's here." As he looked down it, he saw the slightly bulky figure
that was his friend emerge from a door. "Hallway looks wide enough."

"Cut the door out, push the pod out?" Chris suggested.

"It'll take a while," he replied. "Looks like it was made of Trinium."

"I'll take the first air cycle," Chris said.

***

Stephen Mann

Well, that's mighty suspicious. Drones shooting first without asking questions?

I, for one, would like to see more. Post, post!

Steve

Sorry, it's been a dreadful morning at the office.
Two hours later, Chris leaned back, swore loudly, and blinked to get the sweat out of his eyes. Slowly but surely, the wall section was disappearing, being cut
off section by section.

Shutting off the plasma torch, his eyes darted to the counter in the top right corner of his helmet, displaying his remaining air time. Right now, it was
giving him a twenty minute warning. "Ben, this is Chris. I'm coming back."

"You got it. I'm suiting up now myself."

Resting the torch on the floor, Chris went to the end of the hallway, did the mental maths, then stepped out and drifted back to his ship. As he landed lightly
on its hull, the airlock opened and Ben climbed out. "Have fun," he chuckled.

"Right..." Ben drawled, looking up into the void before kicking off. Chris climbed into the airlock and closed it, waiting for the system to cycle
and air to fill the chamber. As the lights went green and the inner door opened, he unsealed his helmet and pulled it off, running a hand through his sweat
soaked hair. Stepping into the locker room, he pulled off the extra armor, then unzipped the undersuit and took a quick sniff. Wincing, he pulled off the
undersuit and tossed it in the storage bin, then headed for the bathroom,

***

"Ben?" Chris said as he wandered into the kitchen twenty or so minutes later, holding a radio.

"Yeah?"

"When we get to Ragol, we need to replace our water completely. And I mean, flush the whole damn plumbing."

"Reached that 'recycled one too many times' stage huh?" Ben chuckled.

"Oh yeah," he replied, looking through the fridge. "And I wouldn't laugh. When you're done there, you're going to want a decent
shower."

The amused chuckle cut off. "Bugger," he managed a moment later. Chris smirked, placed the radio to the side, and pulled out the last of the chicken.

***

Sliding the trolley out from under the crate, Chris stepped back and steered it around, hooking it against the wall, before stepping out of the secondary cargo
bay and dropping down the bulkhead behind him. Doing a quick lap of the main cargo bay, he made sure all the doors were sealed and there was nothing left that
would be damaged by hard vacuum. Once he was satisfied, he picked up his helmet and put it on. "Ben, I'm preparing to open the hold," he said,
entering a command that began to suck the air out of the hold.

After about a minute, the lights on the control panel shifted to a bright red, matched by those near all the doors around the bay. Pressing another button, he
stepped back slightly as the main doors began to open, the stars becoming visible at the top of the ramp. The wreck soon came into view, Ben shining his light
out of the hallway to show Chris where to go.

Turning off the artificial gravity, he picked up the end of a length of cable wrapped around a winch, then stepped out into the void.

On board the wreck, Ben watched as Chris approached. Idly, he glanced behind him, where the escape pod now drifted. After a bit of swearing, he'd managed
to get it out into the hallway, where it now waited for Chris and the cable.

"Miss me?" Chris asked, grabbing at the wall to regain his balance.

"Not really," Ben said. "Pass me the cable." Hooking it onto the pod, he nodded to Chris, who hit a button on a remote, starting the winch
and pulling the pod towards the ship, along with Chris and Ben, who grabbed on and hitched a ride.

"You know, you were right," the younger man commented. Chris looked over at him. "The view. It's incredible." Holding onto the pod with
one hand, he twisted to look out over the starscape. "We've been out in the stars for over a year... how'd we never see this?"

"How often do we stop outside a star system, and go EVA at the same time?" Chris asked. "It's just one of those things." As they were
towed into the bay, he added. "I'll grab the door and controls. You get this thing settled."

"Sure," Ben replied, planting his feet on the floor as Chris pushed off, floating over to the control panel. Stopping the winch and activating the
door, he looked over his shoulder to make sure that Ben had steadied the pod on the floor before turning the gravity back on.

"And now..." he said, watching the console for about twenty seconds, before the lights turned green. "We're good," he finished, taking
off his helmet. Ben nearly ripped his helmet off, having spent nearly an hour and a half sweating in that thing with a plasma torch. "Let's open this
thing already."

Ben nodded, opening the control panel and entering a command. A second later, a nearly invisible seam along the side hissed, venting a small cloud of steam,
before swinging up on a hinge. Both men stepped closer to have a look, before Chris whistled.

Inside the pod was a young woman, about seventeen or eighteen, with shoulder length purple hair, with a small flash of red at the front. She was dressed in
rather casual clothes, including a rather oversized brown leather jacket.

"That's a damn shame," Ben declared, "when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white girl like that." He promptly ducked a slap
aimed at the back of his head.

"So," Chris said. "It's not a cryosleep chamber. That's something at least."

"Yeah. Less chance of her waking up screaming or puking," Ben agreed. He tapped a small metal band running along both sides of the pod near the girls
head. "Good money that's an alpha-wave inducer. Puts her out like a light, lets the pod slow down her body functions to the point of death."

Nodding, Chris started going through the girls pockets, finding a wallet in the jacket. Flipping it open, he scowled. "Well, this isn't hers, unless
she's a man in his early forties with one heck of a mustache." As Ben chuckled, his eyes narrowed. "Ah, we may have an issue here."

"Hmm?"

"This guys drivers license expired over forty years ago." He looked up at Ben, worried. "She's been in this pod a long time."

"Christ, this could get messy after all," the other man muttered. "Come on, let's get her out of this and into one of the passenger
rooms," he said, grabbing the girls arms. Chris nodded, grabbing her legs.

***

The waking world returned rather calmly, which struck her as odd, given the chaos that seemed to be the last thing she remembered. There had been fire, people
running and screaming, some sort of tiny capsule...

And now she was in a bed, a somewhat small bed, in a slightly cramped room seemingly made entirely of metal. A ship or something?

As she sat up slightly, looking around the room, there was movement to her left. A slightly bulky man a few years older then her, sitting in a chair.
"Hey, how're you feeling?" he asked.

"Fine, I guess," she said, looking around. "Where am I?"

"You're on my ship, the Duskwalker," he replied. "We found your escape pod."

She blinked, a look of unease coming to her face. "I... I remember that. There was something going on, I don't know what it was, but there were alarms
blaring, the ship was shaking..." she looked over. "Did you find anyone else?" she asked.

The man shook his head. "Just you. Was there someone else on the ship with you?"

"My father," she managed, her voice catching. "Is he...?"

"Was his name Franklin Lockley?" he asked.

"Y-yes...?"

"You were wearing his jacket. We found his wallet in there." He looked uneasy for a moment. "There's something else. What year is it?"

She looked at him. "Twenty-Seven Eighty-Two, Earth Cal." She looked at his expression. "It's not, is it?"

He sighed. "Twenty-Eight twenty six," he said quietly. She looked at him, horrified. "I'm sorry," he managed.

Looking down, she said quietly. "I'd like to be alone for a few minutes, if that's alright?" Glancing back up, she chuckled at the hesitant
expression. "It's alright, I'm not going to do anything stupid. I just... need to think."

He nodded and moved to the door. "I'll just be outside."

"Okay."

***

Chris closed the door, then leaned forward, resting his head against the frame. "Fuck."

"Bad?" Ben asked.

"She's forty-four years out of time," he said. "And if her father was right there to give his jacket, then he's probably dead. God only
knows what else is going to happen to her."

"So what now?"

"What else can we do?" Chris asked. "Lay in a course for Ragol again. We've got a schedule to keep, and there's nothing left here."
Ben nodded slightly and went back towards the bridge.

***

About five minutes later, the door opened again and the young woman stepped out. It was obvious from her eyes she'd been crying somewhat. "Sorry about
that," she said.

Chris shrugged. "It's more then understandable," he replied. "Everything that's happened to you, I doubt I'd be on my feet so
fast." That got a slight smile from her, much to his relief. "Anyway, I didn't get your name earlier."

"Fiona. Fiona Lockley," she said. "I don't think you gave me yours either."

He smiled, bowing. "Captain Christopher Wood, of the Independent Starship Duskwalker, at your service." Straightening up, he chuckled. "Mind
you, the 'Captain' is pretty much an honorary title. It's a small ship, and there's only one other crew member. I get the big chair because the
licensing board only accepts one name, and he didn't want the flashy title." That got a rather amused laugh from her as he turned. "Anyway, I
might as well give you a tour of your home for the next few days." Chris grinned. "Starting with the kitchen just down here," he finished,
noting the suddenly eager look on her face as she followed him down the corridor to a somewhat smallish kitchen, although it was clearly enough for their
needs.

"Food isn't much of a problem," he said, going over to the fridge and grabbing a can of coke out of the door rack. "We always have as much
fresh food as we can get, and to be honest, those Hungry Humanoid foodpacks aren't that bad."

"Well, if you've got fresh food, there shouldn't be too much of a problem," Fiona commented with a smile. "I like to cook."

"Which pretty much guarantees you're welcome on this ship. Ben and I aren't great cooks. I'll toss stuff in the pan and all, but-" he
shrugged and downed a mouthful of his drink. "Anyway, you're welcome to help yourself, just don't go overboard."

"Sounds fair," she replied. "So, where are we going?"

"We should be at Ragol in about three days... oh, right," he muttered at the blank look on her face. "It was only colonized about ten years ago.
Odd story behind it too. Take a seat, I'll start on that." She nodded, grabbing a drink first. "You ever hear of the planet Coral?"

"Yeah. Used to be a big world until about thirty," she grimaced, "seventy years ago."

"That's the one. Dropped into a civil war, never really pulled themselves out of it," Chris replied. "About twenty years ago, they began to
notice that they were having some other problems. Namely, their planets ecosphere was about to collapse from all the damage they'd done to it. So, they
thought about it, and figured the best thing to do was get the hell off the planet before it took them with it."

"Sounds messy," Fiona noted.

"Oh yeah. I've seen the images from the time, and it wasn't good. Planet was heading into a nuclear winter with a vengeance. Anyway, they sent out
a lot of probes to uncharted systems, and eventually they got lucky. Lush, green world, no intelligent life, not too far from the rest of galactic
civilization, but just somewhere no one had looked before, and well enough in range for large scale colony ships from Coral."

She whistled. "Good for them. Still, they've kind of shown that they can make a real mess of a good deal already."

"Yeah, well, most of the people that were on the colony ships don't exactly have much patience with the military any more. Still... Things went a
little pear-shaped. See, the first colony ship, Pioneer One, landed on Ragol about about fourteen years ago, with Pioneer Two due to arrive twelve months
later. Only, when it arrived in orbit, something happened. Some kind of explosion took out the Pioneer One, killed virtually everyone on the surface, then
mutated most of the local wildlife. Everything there is bigger, meaner, and usually capable of carving holes in starship armor."

Fiona blinked, then raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"

Chris shrugged. "Not a clue, to be honest. Officially, it was believed to be some sort of failure in the colonies power core. Given they used the Photon
tech of theirs, everything that followed kind of makes sense... that stuff can get damn weird, and I use it from time to time."

"So, what'd they do?" At that question, the man laughed.

"They got stubborn. They'd barely escaped a dying world, traveled across a good portion of the galaxy, and they weren't going to let a bunch of
mutated monsters stop them from claiming that world as their own. They upgraded their weapons and armor even more, which, having seen some of their stuff, is a
scary concept. Right now, Pioneer Two is still in orbit, while the military and the Hunters Guild work to clear regions on the planet. Primary goal is to make
enough room for crops, then work on getting the people settled in." He shrugged, finishing off his can. "Anyway, that's Ragol in a nutshell. A
city in orbit over a world where the animals are just plain scary. But they're good people, and you can always get business there."

Standing up and going over to the waste disposal unit mounted in the wall, he continued. "Once we get there, we should be able to get you some help
through either your embassy, or something else. Maybe even get you a flight back to your homeworld, or something to help you... I dunno, settle down?" He
dumped the can into the opening, then turned back. "If that doesn't work out, I should be able to find work heading out in a direction that might help
you out."

The young woman paused as she raised her can to her lips. "You'd do that?"

"Sure," he replied with a shrug. "One of the best parts of my life is the freedom to head off in whatever direction I want. And if it means I
can do someone else a favor, why not?"

Fiona smiled. "I appreciate that," she said quietly.

"Well then," Chris said, "how about we continue with the tour?"

***

Over the next two days, Fiona came to adjust somewhat to life on the Duskwalker. Despite her almost 'time-lost' condition, she seemed to cope rather
well, even if Chris suspected part of that was still residual shock. She proved more then willing to help out, before either Chris or Ben even considered
asking, saying she might as well pay her way.

"You think she's coping?" Ben asked, his feet propped up on the console.

"Hard to say," Chris admitted. "I know that if I was in her mess, I wouldn't be coping at all. She's stronger then she looks." Ben
shrugged. "And I don't think those smiles are an act. I mean, look at her eyes. Sure, there's pain there, but she's pushing past it."

"Maybe," his friend said, then glanced at the console as it beeped at him. "Finally," he muttered, sitting up and working at the keyboard.

"Finally?" the other man said.

"Remember that security drone you had to deal with on the wreck?"

"I remember boiled corpse."

"Thank you for that wonderful thought to lull me to sleep tonight," Ben said. "Anyways, I grabbed it before we left, just to see what these
things were doing. But you blew a fair few big holes in it, kind of scrambled it. I hooked it up to a console and let the computer try and figure it out. Guess
it took a while."

"And you never even mentioned it?" Chris asked.

"Slipped my mind," Ben defended himself with a shrug. "Anyways, let's see what we've got here..." As he looked over the rather
garbled code that scrolled down his screen, there was a knock on the control room door. "Oh, hey," he said in greeting to Fiona.

"Just thought you might want to know, dinner should be ready in about twenty minutes," she said. Having arrived on the ship with only the clothes on
her back, she'd had to make do with a pair of coveralls, one-size-fits-all thanks to the rather complex seeming system of straps and folds it possessed.
Technology serving mankind, Chris thought wryly.

"My lord," Ben noted, "a man could get used to this. Say, is it safe for you to leave your cooking for a few minutes?"

"Sure," she replied. "What'd you need?"

"Well, I told you about those drones we found on what was left of your ride. What kind of name is Sea of Stars anyway?" Chris wondered.

"Marketing committee," Ben said, taking up the conversation. "We managed to recover one of them. Figured we might find something in its hard
drives, but it's a mess." He frowned. "From the look of this, it looks like these things weren't that smart. They got their instructions from
the ships security center, rather then rely on their own AI. Makes sense. Last thing you want is some drone with a gun flying around without oversight."

Fiona chuckled, slightly bitterly, at that comment, then looked over the drones hard drive as Ben closed the script window. "Is that a log?"

"Where?" She tapped on a file name, and Ben nodded, opening it. "Looks like a basic text file really. Orders and responses are logged
here." He scowled. "And it looks like most of it's scrambled."

"Check the bottom of the file," Chris suggested. As Ben scrolled down, he nodded. "Look at this part. Boarders detected, section One-Something.
Blah blah blah, I think that says 'identity passes?'"

"Oh!" the girl responded, snapping her fingers. "Something we got when we first came on board. A little badge we were told to wear all the time.
It was some sort of access card, I figured."

Chris considered that and nodded. "I've heard of ships doing that, but it's kind of risky. I mean, if they were using that to say 'oh,
you're a passenger, not going to shoot you', it's just begging for something to go wrong."

"Helps to explain why they came after us," Ben considered. "Last thing they knew was that they'd been boarded, and as far as their simple
programming was concerned, it didn't matter if their code was scrambled, or a power drain had knocked them offline for decades. All that mattered is that
there was someone on board that wasn't supposed to be."

Sighing, Chris leaned back in his seat, his mood dulled. At the same time, in a rather subdued voice, Fiona said "I need to get back to the kitchen."
As she left quietly, Ben and Chris gave each other significant looks.

***

Fiona worked on the meal silently, her mind elsewhere, considering things she had not wanted to think about since she'd awakened to an unfamiliar world.
Behind her was the sound of someone locking the door. "Look, I know you're meaning well," she said, "but this isn't something I can
really talk about."

"You can hardly keep it all bottled up," Ben said gently. "I've seen people try and do that before. It usually makes things worse."

"So what then?" she demanded, turning to glare at him, although her heart wasn't in it. "I should burden you two with my problems even more?
Heck, I don't even know how to talk about it."

"However you feel like you should," Ben said. "What you're worrying about, what has you afraid - if you're afraid, that is. Thoughts,
observations, anything." He shrugged slightly. "Sometimes, it doesn't matter what you talk about, just as long as you talk."

Fiona looked slightly calmed. "Maybe. Just not yet." Ben nodded, a slight smile on his face, as he turned away. The young girl looked at him for a
moment. "Wait." The man stopped and looked back over his shoulder. "Maybe now is the time." She sighed, putting the lid back on one of the
pots. "I didn't really want to think about it too much. It was just, too much to really process, you know? Must have finally gotten enough of it
through my mind to make some sense of it."

"Forty years... That's longer then I've been alive... or I remember being alive, at any rate," she grumbled. "I have to wonder if
there's any of my old life left."

"Four decades is a long time," Ben admitted, "but it's not forever. Especially given that the average human lifespan is a hundred and thirty
years. You mentioned at your mother and sister weren't on board the Sea of Stars, that they were still back home?"

Fiona nodded. "Yeah... Dad managed to get an extra ticket for his business trip, invited me along." She chuckled ruefully. "Hindsight sucks. But
given how much time has passed... will they even still be on New Wales by now? Especially given..." She sighed. "I know I didn't want you to tell
me too much just yet, but I checked the ships astrolog. The Solarian League declared it a 'protectorate' twelve years ago."

"I take it that means the same thing now as it does then?" Ben asked quietly.

A scowl passed over her face. "Their army or those blasted Mega-corporations decided that they'd gotten sick of waiting for the planet to join on
their own and took it by force. Near military dictatorship, harsh censorship, the companies taking advantage of their power..." The scowl vanished,
replaced by one of misery. "I heard stories, but I never thought..." she looked up. "If they were in the middle of that-"

"-We don't know one way or the other yet," Ben said. "They may have left before it happened, or they're making do on the planet
still."

"Or they could be dead."

"Or they could be dead," Ben admitted. "One way or another, we'll find out. Once we're done on Ragol, that's where we're
going." He smiled. "Chris agrees with me on that one. Neither of us are fond of doing business in the League, but if we didn't go, I get the
feeling it'd gnaw at us forever."

She looked at him, surprised. "But, there's no way I could afford-" He waved off her protest.

"Don't worry about that. We'll find a job or two that'll take us in that direction. It's the least we can do." He laughed at the
expression on her face. "Hey, what're new and unexpected friends for?"

Fiona shook her head, amazed. "You guys are something else, you know that?" she said, her voice catching slightly. "I mean, say what you like,
you could bring on a lot of trouble for yourselves, for someone you barely know."

"I know enough," Ben said with a smile. "And I always enjoy it when things get interesting... or afterwards, anyways. So now you know.
Regardless of anything that has happened, or may have changed in your life, you've two rather oddball friends there to help out."

"Dammit," came a voice from the doorway as it opened, revealing an amused Chris. "You come back to see how she's doing, and you turn it into
a motivational speech?"

"Oh, like you weren't listening in and nearly cheering," Ben responded. The other man shrugged.

"Well, yeah." He nodded at Fiona. "Pretty much everything he said goes for me too. I think I mentioned that the whole point of this ship is to
do what we want with our lives. Might as well take advantage of that." Laughing at the look on her face, he pointed. "Pot's bubbling over."
She blinked, then yelped and ran over to the stove.

***

Thirty hours later, all three people had gathered in the Duskwalkers control room, looking out at the blue-green mists of Slipspace that swirled around the
ship. "Coming up on the re-entry point," Ben said, eyes on the console. "Three, two, one..."

The mists of Slipspace seemed to blow away from the ship, stars blinking into view. As blue-green was replaced the black of real-space, the ship was rocked by
turbulence, nearly knocking Chris and Fiona off their feet. "What was that?" the man said.

"Not a clue," Ben admitted. "Something went screwy for a second, but I'm not getting any error alarms." He looked over his shoulder.
"Inertials?"

"Slow us down to point-one-five," Chris ordered. "Slowly. Fiona, you're with me," he added, heading out the door and sprinting towards
the engine room.

***

"Found it," came the response on the control rooms intercom. "Slip-point motivator's glitching up."

"Not the inertial dampeners?" Ben asked.

"What is with you and that thing?" came the amused comment from the engine room.

"Even if it acts up slightly, we've got a damn good chance of getting smeared over the walls," Ben retorted. "Call me paranoid, but with
something like that, I'd rather not take my chances."

"Right. Anyways, I've cut the power to the motivator for now. We're not going to be using it for nearly a week, so there's plenty of time to
look it over in port. Kick in the speed again and head for Pioneer Two."

"Roger that," Ben said, igniting the main thrusters again.

***

"Okay guys," Ben's voice came over the com. "Time for you two to get up here. View's starting to look pretty impressive." Chris put
his book down and went forward, Fiona close behind.

Chris stepped out of Fionas way the second he entered the control room, giving her a clear view out the forward windows, and flat-out stopping her in her
tracks for a long moment.

Ragol itself was clearly visible, a beautiful blue-green world, its sun just visible over its horizon (Chris suspected Ben had made sure to come in from this
specific angle), adding to the planets beauty even more. The lack of massive clouds in the atmosphere didn't hurt.

But that wasn't what seized the young woman's attention. Ahead of the ship, there was something else visible. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust,
but when they did, she realized she was actually looking at a city in space. Gleaming towers that would be the envy of any skyscraper on any industrialized
world, shielded behind... well, Fiona wasn't sure what it was, aside from a faint blue tinge.

"That's Pioneer Two?" she managed to say, amazed.

Next to her, Chris laughed slightly. "What were you expecting?"

"Well, you said it was a colony ship, so..." she shrugged, lost for words, as the city took up more of the forward windows. She could make out more
features now, the lights from the city itself becoming visible.

"You expected the sort of bulky, one-way ships that get disassembled on arrival," Chris said. "The kind you see in the history tapes."

Fiona nodded slightly as Ben spoke up. "The Coralians had to do things differently. They figured it was easier to build the city beforehand, and just land
it on the planet. Of course, they're about the only people in the galaxy with the technology and the resources to pull it off," he added. "That,
and they were just so damn reluctant to let go of the things they like. Pioneer Two is one of the most advanced societies in the galaxy. Even the League,
Manticore and the Machine worlds pale before them. Nowdays, some people wonder if that's going to cost them their existence." He smiled slightly.
"Personally, I think they'll pull through." He turned his attention to the radio as it crackled to life, orders coming from Pioneers ATC.

"What's keeping the air contained?" Fiona asked. "Is it some sort of glass, or something like it?"

"Energy shields," Chris replied. "Another example of Ragolian tech. More then a few militaries would love to get their hands on Ragols shield
technology. So far, they'll just have to tolerate what weapons the Principal is willing to export."

Duskwalker drifted slowly past the atmosphere shields, the faint blue tinge now clearly visible, and quite remarkable. As Ben fired the maneuvering thrusters
to slow the ship, she passed under the city's 'ground level', replacing the view with that of seamless metals. The ship came to a halt in front of
large cargo bay doors, already smoothly opening for them, the blue tinge of atmosphere shields visible between them.

"I always say I'd love those things," Ben said. "Think of how much time it'd save us with airlocks."

"Want want want," Chris joked as his friend moved them in slowly, igniting the ships atmosphere turbines as they entered, rotating them to a VTOL
angle.

"And we park... over there," he finished, moving the ship forward, bringing it around one hundred and eighty degrees, then backing it in slowly and
settling it down in the bay. "Landing gears down and locked, shutting off engines," he reported, flicking a panel of overhead switches. "Pioneer
ATC, Duskwalker is settled safely."

"Acknowledged Duskwalker. Welcome back."
Innnnnnnnteresting... *Fondly remembers playing Phantasy Star Online*
One thing I found jarring is that you used a couple of names well-known (to say the least) in the Honorverse -- Manticore and the Solarian League -- but the
technology and the date tell me plainly this isn't an Honorverse 'fic.

The situation on Ragol sounds fishy. In less than fourteen years, a perfectly nice planet turns into a Death World? I find myself thinking about what sorts of
shady things some of those Mega-corps might do to try to get their hands on the famed Coralian (Ragolian, now) technology. Bio-engineering monsters, perhaps,
whether to force the Ragolians to come up with new
über-weapons or to weaken them for a takeover....
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
It's pretty much a mixed-verse, UF Style. Manticore and the Sollies are there because I like the Honorverse. As for Ragol... well, any PSO veterens know
what happened there Smile
Quote: As for Ragol... well, any PSO veterens know what happened there
Ah. Well, I've always been too cheap to buy enough computing power for online games -- and with such poor reflexes that most of them
would be exercises in masochism anyway (How many embarrassing ways can my slow responses get my character killed in the next five minutes?!) -- so
I'd never even heard of PSO until blackaeronaut mentioned it.
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
Chris grabbed his jacket off the back of a chair as he passed through the dining area. "I'll see about getting fuel, fresh water and the like. Ben,
you want to get the cargo ready to unload?"

"I can think of worse ways to pass the time," Ben replied, tapping Fiona on the shoulder. "Could you give me a hand?" Fiona nodded, and
they followed Chris down to the cargo bay, where he opened the main doors and stepped out into the hanger bay.

"Morning there," called out the man walking towards him. "Welcome back to Ragol. Captain... Wood?" he asked, checking the datapad in his
hand. As Chris nodded, he continued. "We've got you listed as hauling goods for Ragol Global Foods and Trauma Team?"

"That's right. We should be bringing out the produce first. We should have the quarantine seals ready for examination in about ten minutes."

"Good, good." He pointed up and along the hull. "Run into a bit of trouble?" Chris followed where he was pointing, seeing a streak of
energy burn running along the side of the ship.

"Something like that. We found a stasis pod in a bit of ship wreckage." He scowled, looking over the damage. "A few security bots left over
tried to do something about us." He chuckled. "Didn't do that much. Anyways, we opened the pod. The girl's on board, so you might want to
send a wave to Immigration." He walked along the side of the ship, eyes tracking the scar above him. "Doesn't look too bad. It'll probably
scrape right off-" he paused, noticing a point where the burn seemed to flare outwards. "Hey, have you got a lift or a ladder or something?"

"I've got a hoverloader over there, you can use that," the man replied, pointing towards a storeroom along the far wall.

***

"Son of a bitch!" he spat as he pried the hull plate loose, revealing a burnt mess of wiring, crystals and assorted other machinery.

"How bad is it?" Ben called out from below, while Fiona talked to the Customs officer that had arrived to take her statement.

"Looks like one of those drones got in a lucky shot," he responded. "Managed to get a shot in through a crack in the hull plating, messed up a
part of the slip-point manifold." He unhooked a projector crystal from its slot, looking at the warped materials. "If I had to say, I'd class it
as slagged."

"As in, replace?" Ben asked.

"Bingo," he growled, looking at the crystal in his hand, then shrugging and putting it back where it belonged for the time being. "It's been
acting up for the last two jumps, which means we've probably got faults in other parts of the system."

"It would explain why that last jump was rough," Fiona said. "If they only damaged that manifold, each jump might well have made the problem a
little worse."

"Good bet," Chris said as he finished refitting the hull plate and lowering the hoverloader back to the ground. "I'll have to go through the
whole damn thing," he added, scowling. "Who knows how much it's going to cost."

"We should have the spare cash for something like this," Ben said. "I hope."

"You've got trouble?" asked a soft voice behind him, making the man jump slightly. Spinning, he saw a slender, blue-eyed woman standing there,
pointed ears emerging out of her light purple hair. "Hey Ben," she said with a smile.

"Hi Amy," he responded. Next to him, Fiona tried not to stare. Amy certainly presented an interesting sight. Apparently in her early twenties, it was
obvious from the ears that she wasn't entirely human, something she'd rarely seen on her mostly human planet. That, and she certainly dressed unlike
anything she'd ever seen, with light blue boots, a surprisingly small pair of dark blue shorts studded with some metal she didn't recognize, and a
long-sleeved blue shirt, again studded with metal, and a bulky arm bracer on her left forearm.

She looked between the pair for a moment, then noted the looks they were giving each other. Glancing over at Chris, she raised an eyebrow at his smile.
"So, Amy," he said, unhooking the safety railing and climbing out. "I take it you got that text?"

"Yeah," she said, looking over Bens shoulder at him, then over at Fiona. "You must be Fiona," she guessed, holding out a hand.
"I'm Amy Rose."

"It's a pleasure," she replied, returning the handshake.

"It occurred to us that neither Ben or I really have a clue about women's clothing," Chris chuckled. "So we put in a call to an old friend,
figured she might have a better understanding." Fiona blinked and looked at the two men.

"We could hardly leave you in coveralls for a few weeks," Ben responded. "You sure you can handle it Amy?"

The woman took on a mock-thoughtful pose. "Hmm... I think I should be able to pull it off," she grinned.

"Well then," Chris chuckled, "while you ladies take care of that problem, Ben and I have to pay a visit to middle-management and take care of
some paperwork. Amy, did you want a credstick or just bill us?"

"I'll take the later option," she said. "Unless you've got the right amount in Meseta right off?" Chris did the mental maths, then
shook his head.

"We'll have to visit the bank," he muttered. "League Credits are probably the best bet for the exchange rate."

The Ragolian shrugged. "Bill you it is." She would have continued, if Fiona hadn't yelped in surprise. As the other three, along with the dock
worker and Customs Officer all looked over at her, the cause of the yelp became clear. As she'd been watching her two shipmates and their friend talk, what
looked like a black, metallic, chibified cat had dropped down out of nowhere and simply hovered in front of her face.

"Sato!" Amy scolded, a stern look on her face. "What've I told you about doing that?" The creature turned to look at her, chirping
slightly, then floated over to her, parking itself above her right shoulder. "I'm sorry about that," she said to Fiona, "but Sato seems to
enjoy startling people like that. He really needs to stop it," she added, giving it a brief glare.

"What... what is he?" she asked, looking at it as it hovered there, idly spinning slowly.

"He's my Mag," Amy said. "Think of it as a little droid assistant that's always there. Every Hunter has one. I've had Sato here
since I first joined the Guild." She reached up and patted the Mags head. "Say hello Sato."

The younger woman watched as the Mag moved forward, stopping about a foot away from her and chirping a greeting. "Hello yourself," she replied,
patting it gently on the head (Which, she noted with slight amusement, was actually bigger then its tiny body). Sato chirped again, hovering in a little
closer.

"Once again Amy, your companion manages to make a friend so easily," Ben noted.

"Yeah... it's a talent I wish I had," she chuckled. "So... you've been taking care of yourself?"

"More or less," he responded. "A little bit of action, but nothing too intense. I've mostly just been flying Duskwalker. You on the other
hand... I get the feeling that you've been in more adventures then me."

The woman shrugged, her ears twitching slightly. "It depends on what you call an adventure really," she admitted. "Hunting wild animals
isn't always thrilling action. You should know, you've come on a few runs with us before."

"Most people would class your kind of hunting as military action," Chris noted, watching as Sato flipped upside down so Fiona could scratch his
underside.

"Well, yeah," she conceded, "but even there, things have been rather mundane lately. It's like most of the creatures are figuring out that
it's not worth the risk to go near the settlements, you know?"

"Smart animals?" Ben asked. "Sounds a little odd, doesn't it?"

"Evolution at its most brutal," Chris suggested. "Any Booma or Hildebear that goes near the settlements meets photonic death. Sooner or later,
it occurs to the survivors to look for food somewhere else." He turned back to talk to the dock worker for a moment.

"So," Ben asked. "Aside from Guild work... have you been looking after yourself?"

"I guess so," she replied. "There's always something to do in the City in the Sphere," she chuckled.

Ben grinned. "Seeing anyone?"

"No, not really," she said, frowning slightly. "Most men aren't exactly eager to go after a Hunter... a bit too strong for their tastes, if
you know what I mean. And the ones that are... not the kind of people I go for myself. What about you? I mean, I know you and Stacey didn't get
anywhere."

"Too clingy. Can't figure out why," he muttered. "She knew I was a spacer..."

"People tend to ignore the obvious?" she offered.

"That works," Ben said, leaning against the hull. Amy did the same, and they just remained there in silence for several minutes, before Chris
finished with the dock worker and came back over.

Clapping his hands together, he looked over the small group. "Okay, while Amy solves the dilemma of the cute girl with very few clothes," he said
with a slight grin (and ignoring the mock-glare from Fiona), "Ben and I need to pay a visit to Trauma Team and speak to a middleman about some money
we're now owed for our services."

The local girl grinned, putting an arm over Fiona's shoulder. "Time for a girls day out," she said, getting a grin from the other girl.

"Don't bankrupt us!" Chris called after them, getting a laugh in reply. "Good kid," he said to Ben.

"Oh yeah," his old friend replied. "She took Sato pretty well."

"Yeah, little surprise at first, but adjusted fast." He scratched his chin. "All things considered, she's handling space pretty well."

"Hmm." Ben was silent for a moment, then straightened. "Well, let's go talk money."

***

Amy led Fiona out of the hanger and down a hallway. "You mentioned you were a Hunter?" the young woman asked. Amy nodded. "Chris told me a bit
about it, but it seemed a bit... vague."

She laughed slightly. "He was probably telling you about a hundred different things at the time?" she commented. Fiona grinned and nodded.
"It's that or he goes into too much detail. Essentially, the Hunters Guild is an independent organization that serves as a mixture of military, police
force, search and rescue, and just plain animal hunters."

"Interesting mix," Fiona noted.

"Isn't it? Back on Coral, the Guild was apparently an organization that made certain that the major mercenary organizations employed by the various
governments during the Long War. Over time, it took more and more authority, until all the mercenaries worked for it." She chuckled. "To hear the old
timers tell it, it drove the actual militaries crazy. Especially since the Guild was able to make certain we had better weapons and equipment then them."

"Okay," Fiona said. "So the Guild pretty much hired out its people to the governments as needed. That makes sense. But where'd the rest of
those duties come from?" As she finished the question, the pair turned the corner, coming to what looked like a dead end. Fiona blinked, then realized
there was actually something built into the walls and floor. Gleaming circuits trailed down from a wall panel to a silver circle in the floor. "What's
this?"

"Fast and efficient public transport," Amy replied with a grin, entering a sequence onto the panel. "Hop in," she said. Fiona shrugged and
did so - only to nearly jump out of her skin as everything around her flashed green, only to be replaced by completely different surroundings... seemingly the
middle of the city.

"Wow," she managed, looking around her. Gleaming metal and glass skyscrapers towered past the walkway they were standing on, aircars flying overhead.
"Teleporter?" she asked.

"Bingo," Amy said, guiding her off the panel. "Pretty much what passes for public transport here." She pointed up at the aircars that
passed them. "With a city this size, in such a small space, it's easy to have too many vehicles. Most of us have to use the transporter grid."

"Huh... different," Fiona commented, leaning on the handrail and looking over the edge. For a moment, her mind reeled as she saw what looked like a
drop of several thousand meters at the very least. She couldn't even see the streets below... if there were any down there at all. Backing up slightly, she
looked over at Amy. "You were saying?"

"Oh, right." Amy led her along the walkway, maneuvering through the slight crowd. "The Guild managed to get a presence on both Pioneer One and
Two, but to be honest, there wasn't much purpose for us here... Until the explosion wiped out the colony just as we came into orbit."

"With everything that's happening on the planet, the Hunters became a lot more important again," Fiona guessed.

"Bingo," the Ragolian replied. "The military is... well, I hate to sound rude, but they're used to life on Coral. Utterly useless in dealing
with the situation down on the ground. The Hunters aren't. When it comes to clearing Ragol of man-eating beasties, keeping the peace in the facilities
we've managed to set up on the planet, etcetera etcetera, we lead the way."

"Certainly sounds like an interesting life," the younger girl said. "Action, adventure..."

"It has its moments," Amy admitted. "I've certainly got the skills for it." She was quiet after that, leading Fiona into what looked
like a shopping complex. "Ah, here we are," she said as they approached a large clothing store. "I'm sure we can find something a bit better
then an old pair of coveralls," she chuckled. "Mind you, Chris will probably hit me when he gets my bill."

"Um, nothing too expensive, right?" Fiona asked as she was pulled into the store.

***

"Behold," Chris said with a sweep of his hands as he and Ben left the Trauma Team office. "We have money!"

Ben rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and a good part of that's going to be going to replacement parts for the slip-point motivator."

"Details, details," Chris replied. "Look, let's get some food first, then see if we can find Fiona and Amy, before your girlfriend destroys
our profits."

"Yeah," he chuckled, then looked over at his friend. "Girlfriend? What're you talking about?"

"Oh come on," Chris said. "How much longer are you two going to run in circles around the issue? You and Amy have it bad."

"She's just a good friend," Ben protested as they walked down the streets. "Is that so hard to believe?"

"Nope," Chris replied. "But you two are a heck of a lot closer then that, even if neither of you will admit it." He started down a flight
of stairs. "Christ Ben, the two of you have been more then just friends for months now, and every time we visit Ragol, you're only worse. How much
time do you guys end up texting each other anyway?"

"Or, you're reading too much into things," Ben protested. "She's one of my closest friends, same as you. I don't see where
you're getting it from-"

"All of our friends her on Ragol are well aware of it. Dammit Ben, Fiona's figured it out, and she's seen the two of you together for maybe five
minutes!" Ben stopped and looked at him. "Yeah, think about that for a minute," Chris added with a smirk, heading for a café and leaving Ben
standing there, a slightly amazed look on his face.

***

"So how'd you meet them?" Fiona asked. Amy glanced at the changing room door. "Chris and Ben, I mean."

Nodding slightly, Amy started talking. "It was... oh, just under a year ago if I remember right. I was down in the Farm Sector on the planet - It's a
region we've managed to force the mutated wildlife out of - while they were there as well. The Principal wanted to prove that it was safe for conventional
ships to travel to properly secured areas on the planet, rather then relying on heavy military transports and the transporter grid." She rolled her eyes.
"It was a lousy way to find out Nano Dragons are attracted to the energy emissions from some kinds of ship drives."

Fiona stuck her head out of the changing room. "Nano Dragons?" she asked. "Pass me that skirt."

The Ragolian passed over the knee-length skirt, then continued. "Think giant flying lizards with plasma-breath. Real pain in the butt. Anyway, about
twenty of them got through the perimeter, along with some other creatures that followed, thinking 'food'. So, I end up in the middle of one heck of a
firefight, and the next thing I know, the backwash from Duskwalkers atmosphere engines sends the dragon flying sideways about a hundred meters, breaking both
of its wings."

"That's an original solution."

"Yeah. Ben pretty much hosed down the area when anything got too close. Blasted dragons still burned a hole right along the side of the hull. Watching
Chris tear strips out of some pencil pushers hide was fun though. Anyways, after that, we tend to hang out whenever they come to Ragol, which is usually once
every month and a half. Other then that, we tend to stay in contact."

"Wonders of the internet?" Fiona asked, studying her reflection.

"Pretty much," Amy replied. "So, any thoughts?"

The door opened and Fiona stepped out. She'd exchanged the coveralls for a slightly loose blue blouse and skirt, along with a pair of sturdy, yet
fashionable shoes. Nothing elaborate, and unlikely to get in the way on a ship where space could be a problem, but much better then her previous outfit. She
looked a lot more comfortable as well.

"I like it," Amy said. "And judging by the look on your face, I think you do too."

The younger girl chuckled, running a hand through her hair to smooth it out slightly. "It's nice to have my own clothes again. The single pair I
had... I'm not too eager to wear that again, to be honest," she admitted with a slightly sad look. "Mind you," she continued with a slight
smirk, "the underwear was pretty much at my personal limits."

"And you can end that train of thought right there," Amy laughed with a mock shudder. "I figure a few skirts, maybe some jeans?"

"Jeans are still in?"

"Depends on the world, but mostly. I remember hearing about a world where it's illegal for women to wear pants."

"Define illegal."

"Public Stoning." Fiona gave her an odd look "What can I say? Those religious fanatic types can be freaky at times."

"Okay..." she said, going back into the changing room.

***

"So... do you think I should say something?" Ben asked. Chris rolled his eyes, then finished his current mouthful of burger.

"Why in the heck are you asking me?" he responded. "Need I remind you which of us actually has experience at a love life?" Putting his
burger down, he continued. "But, as someone used to watching from the sidelines, I say go for it. You're both smart people, and even if it doesn't
work, I doubt that you're going to let it ruin things."

"So... plenty to gain, nothing to lose?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. Look, it's either that, or you can keep darting around the issue, having it gnaw at you until you go crazy."

The younger man shot him a sour look. "I wouldn't have it gnawing at me if you hadn't brought it up in the first place." He took a bite of
his burger, swallowed, and continued. "I was perfectly happy being ignorant."

"Ignorant of what?" came a new voice, surprising both men. They turned to see what looked like two girls in their early teens standing there, both of
them familiar to the two spacers.

"Skuld, 'Riko," Chris said with a grin. "I pretty much made Ben admit that yes, he does have a thing for Amy."

"Really?" the human girl replied. "And his response?" she asked, adjusting her glasses.

"Uncertainty and a fear he'll ruin things, of course," he chuckled, earning a glare from the man in question.

"Of course," Skuld replied. "Mind you, this means that you lose the bet."

"Bet?" Ben said, looking between the pair.

It was the second girl, actually a white armored android, her face hidden behind a mask, that spoke up. "We've had a betting pool running for a while
now, as to just which one of you would realize, and speak up about it. If I remember right, Chris was betting on you... in about four months." Chris
shrugged at his friends look. "Of course, by telling you about it, he's pretty much taken himself out of the betting pool."

"And I bet on sometime in the next week and a half," Skuld noted. "Do I still win if he talks to Amy about it?"

"Not sure," Noriko admitted. "I'll have to check the rulebook about bets regarding friends love lives."

Chris hid his smile behind his hand as Ben groaned, leaning his head against the table. "So, besides annoying Ben, what brings you two to track us
down?"

"Tracking you down was luck," Skuld admitted. "Although it's good luck, given we could use your help with a job."

"Take a seat," Chris offered. "Now, how can we help you?"

"You know about the science stations down on the planet?" Noriko asked.

"Sure," Ben said. "They're all over the place, studying the planet, the wildlife, and so on. What about it?"

"About twenty hours ago, one of the stations dropped out of contact, and haven't responded since. A Guild satellite passed overhead just under two
hours ago, and it looks like there's monsters roaming inside the perimeter."

Ben blinked. "Okay, not fun at all," he said. "But what's that got to do with us?"

"The stations teleporter is down," Skuld said, "and its GTG node is offline. No one can beam down. And the military is giving their usual
attitude of 'not our problem.'"

"They claim the station was operating outside their secured zones, and as such, they're not wasting resources on them now," Noriko added, disgust
in her voice. "So, the job falls to the Hunters Guild."

"And you want Duskwalker," Chris said. "We fly you in, you secure the perimeter so we can land, and from there, we find out what happened."

"Pretty much," Skuld said. "I know there's a risk involved in taking your ship into Ragols atmosphere. But it's the only way down there,
and your cut of the fee should pay for repairs and then some."

"Plus there's the whole 'we'd be leaving people to die' angle," Ben noted.

"You two fight dirty," Chris said. "Give us a few minutes to talk it over."

***

"It'll be good money," Ben said, leaning against the guard rail and watching the gleaming city below.

"It'd want to be," Chris said. "The thought of taking Duskwalker back into Ragols atmosphere doesn't appeal to me."

"Maybe not," Ben said, "but the fact is, we need the money right now. At the very least, we need a new manifold. Worst case -"

"The entire slip-point system will need repairs or replacing," Chris growled. Finishing off his drink, he tossed the plastic cup at a nearby bin.
"That'll cost thousands, which we don't have on hand. And even if we do, we'd still need to pay for fuel, fresh air, food..."

Ben rested his chin on his hand. "More money."

"More money. But if we get the ship banged up," Chris added, raising a finger, "God only knows how we'll afford it. So, taking it down to
the planet is hardly a brilliant idea."

"They wouldn't offer us the job if they thought the risk was too great," Ben noted. Chris gave him a look. "Okay, Skuld would. But Noriko
would've made more noise if she thought it was a major risk to the ship."

"True." The older man was silent for a moment. "What the heck. We need the money, and those two would never let us hear the end of it if we
don't."

"Agreed, assuming we get a decent cut of the fee. But there is one other issue." Chris raised an eyebrow. "Fiona."

"Gah," he managed. "That could be a problem. It's not really a great plan to take her planetside. No way in hell would she be willing to
stay on board."

"There's plenty to see up here," Ben said. "There should be someone we know that's willing to show her around."

***

"I'm coming with you," Fiona said, half an hour later in Duskwalkers dining room.

"Woah, wait a second," Chris responded. "Ragol's hardly a tourist site. Literally everything on the planet likes to eat humans. And you
still want to go?"

"Of course," she replied. "It's an alien world unlike anything else I'll ever see. I promise I'll stay on the ship unless you let me
come out."

"I really think it's a bad idea," Ben said.

"Please?" she asked. "I'll stay on the Duskwalker and help out around here, but I really want to see this."

"You'll have your chance to go offworld on planets that are a lot safer," Chris stressed.

"Yeah, and most of them have been occupied by humans for so long, there's nothing alien about them," Fiona protested. "Can you really expect
me to pass up a chance like this?"

"Well, you do have a point there," Chris admitted.

***

"So," Skuld said, standing on Duskwalkers entry ramp, watching as Fiona helped Ben wheel a crate onto the ship. "The kid's coming with
us?"

"Yeah, she's coming with us," Chris replied. "And even when you don't include the stasis time, she's still older then you."

"Bah, I'm just small for my age," she shot back, glancing across the hanger to see Amy and Noriko approaching, a tall, bulky black and red robot
walking behind them. "And the gang's all here."

"Just the four of you?" Chris asked.

"Add you and Ben to the mix, and we've got a decent sized team." Chris nodded in agreement as the trio approached, and Skuld pulled the
blue-haired woman into a brief hug. "Hey. You find it?"

"Of course," Amy chuckled. "We've all got spares."

"Optimal," Chris said, shaking the Casts hand. "Glad you could make it."

"And miss all the fun?" he replied, his face the solid slab of metal Chris remembered - but the voice easily conveyed the machines amusement and
anticipation.

Shrugging, Chris turned and walked into his ship. "Well, I don't know if I'd call it fun... crazy trigger-happy Hunters," he said, laughing
slightly.

"Hey, it gets the heart pumping," Optimal noted.

"You're a machine! You don't have a heart!"

"Oh yeah..."

***

"All sealed Ben," Chris said into the intercom as the main airlock sealed tight. "Take us out."

"You got it," came the reply, as the soft hum of Duskwalkers engines began to make itself felt though the ship.

"If any of you forgot anything, you've got five seconds to speak up," Chris said, looking around the small group of people gathered in the cargo
bay.

"I think we're all good," Skuld said. The others all chimed in their agreements as they checked their weapons.

"Great. Fiona, could you duck up and make sure Ben doesn't need a hand? I've got to get my own equipment to setup." Fiona nodded and headed
for the stairs, while Chris went over to one of the walls and tampered with one of the panels.

Skuld blinked as a meter wide section of steel wall paneling came off, revealing a metal locker with a keycode lock. "That's where you keep your
guns?" she asked.

"Only the really big ones," he chuckled, placing the panel to the side and entering a long code on the keypad. "You know, explosives, that old
hyperblaster I keep meaning to sell... fun stuff that I don't want just lying around the ship." He opened the door to reveal a rather decent
collection of firearms, along with some lightweight body armor. "It's pretty useful," he added as he took the armored vest off its hanger.

"Okay, that's kind of nifty," she commented, "although the thought that you're paranoid enough to install a hidden weapons locker in the
cargo bay is a little creepy."

"We didn't install it," Chris replied. "One of the amusing things about buying a ship second hand is that you find all sorts of amusing
surprises along the road. Found this by sheer luck a few months back."

"Anything in it at the time?" Amy asked.

"Nothing that didn't get spaced then and there," he replied, pulling a jacket and equipment vest over the armor, before loading it full of clips
and grenades. "What's the weather like at this place anyway?"

"Kinda cold, nothing too extreme," Noriko said from where she was sitting on a crate, checking her own weapons. A long bulky pistol that looked a lot
like a miniature shotgun, and two small blade hilts. Picking one of them up, she tapped the activation switch, and a curved, gleaming red energy blade emerged
from the side, moving outward before curving back in and down, ending with a point just below the bottom of her hand.

"I see you're still using torture equipment," Chris joked.

"What? I'll have you know that Rippers cut clean and quickly," she responded, deactivating the blade and hooking it on her belt.

"Oh come on, someone as small and innocent looking as you should not be using weapons that'd make an Elite green with envy."

"I wouldn't mind one of those swords," Noriko commented.

"Why am I not surprised?" Skuld asked, right before the ship shook noticeably, nearly knocking her off her feet and Noriko off the crate. "The
heck?" she said as the vibrations continued, a dull roar becoming audible through the hull.

Glancing in the direction of the control room, Chris went over to the control panel near the main airlock, punching the intercom button. "Ben, how're
we doing? Seems a little too rough for normal."

"Yeah, we hit the atmosphere a bit too fast," Ben admitted. "It's just a little extra turbulence, but I'm killing off the velocity
quickly enough." There was a rough jolt. "Well, more or less. We can expect some regular turbulence after re-entry as well. Looks like there's a
storm front to the west of the facility."

"Is it going to hit?" Optimal asked.

"It's moving south, won't be a problem while we're there. Just got to fly through it first, that's all." The ship shook again, hard
enough to finally knock Noriko off her perch with a squawk. "Look, I've got to fly for a few minutes. I'll get back to you."

"So are we gonna crash?" Optimal asked..

"Watch your mouth," Chris warned, a wry grin on his face. "Duskwalker isn't going to crash. She likes us too much. Well, she likes me, Ben
and the girls. You I'm not so sure about. If you keep insulting her, she'll find a way so just you crash."

"You're a real smartass, you know that?" Optimal chuckled.

"So I've been told," Chris said with a shrug. "I've always said it makes me interesting." He went back over to the weapons locker,
humming a tune under his breath.

***

Duskwalker slowed as it descended, the VTOL engines coming about as it moved in a slow hover around the research facility. Fiona leaned forward, looking out at
the half-dozen buildings in a wide clearing. One of the buildings, closest to the perimeter fence, was almost completely consumed by flames, a number of
figures visible around it. There were other signs of movement, but they seemed too big, too bulky...

Taking a pair of binoculars off the top of the consoles, Fiona looked out at them. Instantly, it was clear none of them were human, or any race she recognized,
for that matter. Most of the creatures were about six feet tall, with oversized upper bodies that seemed to combine their heads and upper torso, their fur
alternating between the colors of brown, yellow and a sort of pink. The other creatures were even more bizarre, a giant ape-like monster, with arms as long as
its body and a demonic face.

"Great," Ben muttered, looking out the window. "Guys, I can see all three types of Booma, and some Hildebears inside the perimeter. One building
is burning, but the perimeter fence appears intact. The force fields might have gone down." Fiona looked at him, wondering how he'd seen that from
this distance.

"What's the shuttle pad like?" Chris asked.

Ben brought the ship around, and scowled. "Hildebear sitting right in the center of it. Looks like a Booma ended up a snack."

"I'll take care of it," Skulds voice responded, "Just give me a clean line of fire." Ben gave the speaker an odd look, then shrugged
and punched in an automatic hover height. Duskwalkers shaking dropped noticeably as minor air vents on the ships underbelly vented additional thrust.

In the cargo bay, Chris looked over at Skuld. "What exactly are you planning?" he asked. The tiny ranger grinned at him, the overhead lights
reflecting off her glasses as she went over to one of the crates Optimal had brought aboard. Punching in a long security code on the keypad, she opened it to
reveal a massive cannon, curved blue metal plates running its length to a massive muzzle. "What in the name of all that is holy?" he muttered,
kneeling down for a closer look.

"It's called a Guilty Light," Amy replied from behind him. "And if she's going to do what I think she's going to do, I'm getting
some ear protectors."

Rolling her eyes, Skuld reached down and lifted the cannon effortlessly, resting it on her shoulder. "You're being overdramatic. It's not that
loud."

"I turn my ears off when you use that," Noriko said. "And we're indoors this time." Skuld pretended to ignore her, walking towards the
main doors. As she walked, she pulled a small cable out of the side of the Guilty Light, plugging it into a small port on her glasses temples. Instantly, a
small HUD built into the lenses came to life, coordinating with the weapon and providing her with all the information she needed.

"Still say you should just get the hardware for that," Optimal muttered as he went to get the door controls.

"Heck with that. Flesh stays flesh, metal stays metal. None of this mixing it nonsense," Skuld grinned, watching as the door opened. The wind tugged
at her clothing and hair for a moment until the air pressure stabilized, and the near demonic form of the Hildebear came into view. Her glasses targeted,
identified the species, possible age, threat level, and of course the recommended course of action (Shoot it). Adjusting the cannon slightly, her HUDs
crosshairs passed over the beast, and Skuld paused, watching as it bit into the Booma corpse, tearing the flesh off the bone.

It hadn't notice them yet, too caught up in its meal, but the moment it did, it would turn to what was seemingly the primary goal of all the wildlife on
Ragol - Kill the people. That thought in her mind, she squeezed the trigger, and the Guilty Light roared, a flaming sphere of blue-white energy leaping from
the muzzle, racing across the space between them, and tearing through the Hildebears shoulder. Roaring in pain and rage, it dropped its meal and looked up at
Duskwalker.

"Low and to the left," Noriko noted. "Given the way we're swaying, better then I'd hoped."

"Which of us is the sniper again?" Skuld asked, firing another two shots, both hitting the Hildebear dead on. Bellowing in rage, it took two steps
forward, then fell back as one last shot vaporized the side of its head. Skulds glasses marked the kill, and she stepped back, lowering the Guilty Light and
unplugging it. Tapping the comm button on the door panel, she reported "LZ is clear Ben, take us down."

"Roger that." As Skuld returned the Light to its case, Chris raised his own rifle, a slightly odd looking grey and purple affair, looking through the
scope at the creatures in the distance.

"Well, they know there's someone with firepower here," he noted. "Who thinks they're going to run?"

"Right," Amy snorted, readying her own weapon, a gleaming polearm that seemed to have gleaming pink crystals emerging from the spheres on each end.
"When have they ever done that?"

Duskwalkers landing struts extended from the sides of the ship as it descended. Chris stepped down the ramp and waited as the ship settled before stepping all
the way off, rifle raised. The various Hunters followed him down, spreading out. "Okay, that big building is the main control complex. We'll find the
control room in there," Skuld said. "Noriko and I will take that and get the perimeter fields up. You guys check for survivors and take care of the
wildlife."

"Got it," Chris said, lining up on a Boomas through his scope. A green bolt of energy flickered out of his barrel and towards the animal, tearing
across its shoulder in an instant. As it roared in pain, he fired twice more, this time blasting into its chest and head, dropping it. Another three of the
beasts ambled forward, while another stopped to feed on the corpse. Chris fired on one of the three, then glanced over his shoulder. "Have fun you
two."

"You bet," Noriko laughed, igniting her daggers and sprinting across the landing pad, throwing herself at the nearest Booma. Caught off guard by her
charge, it offered little defense as she sliced through its brown fur and flesh. Chris took a moment to watch, marveling at was almost a dance as she spun
around the beast, carving it apart before continuing on, Skuld sprinting to catch up.

Optimal watched them leave, before reaching into a pouch on his belt, taking out a handful of small, glowing spheres. He jogged around Duskwalker, dropping the
spheres one at a time, where they rose to hover five feet above the ground. "Traps are set," he said as he finished.

"Great," Chris replied. "Ben, you coming or what?"

"Gimme a sec, would you? I've just got to get this vest on." He sprinted down the ramp ten seconds later, finishing with the last straps on his
armored vest. "Let's do it," he said, flicking off the safety on his rifle. Chris nodded and jogged towards one of the other buildings.

***

"Keep going straight," Fiona said into the comm, her attention on a monitor showing the facilities maps, twin dots indicating Skuld and Noriko.
"Third door on your right leads to a cafeteria, and it looks like you can use it as a shortcut."

"Got it," Skuld said as she charged down the hallway. She could see some minor damage, scratches and small gashes in the metal walls and floor, but
no blood or bodies. Something had happened here, but not as bad as she had feared. She came to a halt next to the door in question, rifle at the ready, while
Noriko reached for the door controls.

She nodded, then moved as the door slid open, raising her Justy. Again, there was only minor signs that something had happened here, but nothing glaringly
obvious... until a noise from the kitchen area drew her attention. Motioning to Noriko, she moved forward slowly, waiting for movement. "Who's
there?" she called out as she got close.

For her troubles, she got a grunt, followed by a threatening bark as a Booma got up from under a bench, its muzzle coated in assorted food items. Skuld
didn't hesitate, blasting it with three photon bolts, blowing it apart and dropping it. The Cast moved past her, leaping over the counter and into the
kitchen, checking the corpse before moving through the rest of it. "Clear."

The human nodded, lowering her rifle. "Well, we know for sure they're inside now." She tapped her headset again. "Guys, we've got Boomas
inside the buildings."

***

"Great," Ben muttered as they swept through another room. "As if we didn't have enough to worry about in here."

"Thanks for the heads up," Chris noted as they moved on. "Looks like this area was all personal accommodations," he added.

"The whole building?" Ben wondered. "Seems a bit much."

"Well, there might be some other stuff," he replied as they checked another room. "Rec rooms, laundry, stuff like that." Ben shrugged as
they kept walking, before pausing and holding up a hand. Chris froze, glancing at him, before hearing the movement that had gotten his friends attention.

Slowly, he moved towards the wall closet that the noise seemed to be coming from. Grabbing the door handle, he nodded at Ben, who had his rifle raised and
ready. With that, he pulled the door open, Ben shining his weapons spotlight on whatever was inside.

There was a frightened squawk, the massive yellow penguin-looking creature burrowing deeper into the pile of assorted junk it had gathered. Chris gave it a
disgusted look. "Just a Rappy hoarding stuff, same as usual."

"Maybe not," Ben said, kneeling down and grabbing something off the pile. There was an agitated squawk as the Rappy grabbed at it with its beak.
"Off!" he growled, hitting it in the stomach with the butt of his rifle, then slamming the door in its face as it fell back. Chris tabbed the door
lock and walked over to him, ignoring the birds tantrum.

"What'd you find?" Ben held up a green card with a crystal fused into it. Chris whistled. "Personal security pass. Nice."

"Save us entering overrides and hacking through any doors we weren't told how to open," the other man replied, heading down the hall again. Chris
grinned and followed.

***

"Down the hallway," Fiona reported. "You'll know it when you see it!"

"No kidding," Noriko replied, skidding to a halt in front of a reinforced steel door. "Welcoming."

"Yeah. They didn't want people messing around in here," Skuld agreed, punching in a ten digit code on the keypad, before frowning at the flashing
red light. "Come on," she muttered as she entered it again, getting the same result. "Override isn't working," she grumbled.

The Cast stepped past her, studying the keypad for a moment. "I should be able to pry it open and hotwire it," she said quietly. "Give me a
minute-" her voice cut off in a surprised yelp as Skuld grabbed her 'hair' and pulled her back. A protest never reached her lips as white-hot
flash of heat darted past her face.

"Company!" Skuld yelled, firing her Justy down the hallway at a pair of bulky robots, the machines firing back with the lasers in their oversized
forearms. "Gillchics!" she snapped into her comm before dropping to her knees, tapping a button on her left arm bracer. A blue-white energy shield
formed, covering the pair as they backed up. Noriko pulled her Varista from the holster on her back, the oversized pistol roaring as she returned fire. One of
the droids fell, only to have another pair take its place.

The girls darted into a side corridor, Skuld shutting down her barrier. "Defense droids?" she guessed.

"Good bet. You'd think people would know by now mindless drones don't work..." Noriko muttered.

"Yeah, but you guys charge too much," she grinned. "Why'd they start shooting at us now?"

The Cast considered that, then groaned. "The override for the computer room! The security's classed us as hostiles."

Skuld considered that, then tabbed her headset. "Everyone, the security systems just classed us as legitimate targets. Watch yourselves!"

***

Amy ripped her polearm out of a fallen Boomas face and looked around. Several gun turrets, which she'd assumed had been taken offline or simply depleted of
ammunition, were starting to move again... aiming in her direction. "Frack!" she yelled, leaping behind cover as they fired. Photon blasts chewed up
the wall as she sprinted along the side of the building, pulling her handgun from its holster and blasting the one that still had a clear line of sight to her.
One of the shots hit its power feed, and the shots faded out, the gunner program not recognizing this, and still trying to fire.

"Turrets are deciding we look like nice targets," she said. "Optimal?"

"I'm here," he muttered. "Found a nice crater to take a seat in."

"They're not shooting Duskwalker, are they?" Ben worried.

"Not yet," Fiona replied. "But why don't they shoot the wildlife?"

"She's got a point," Amy said. "It's like they haven't even noticed all the Boomas around here-" an angry roar cut off her line
of thought, and she threw herself back, the massive form of a Hildebear crashing into where she'd been standing, its shoulder cracking the wall as it hit.

Amy said nothing as it took a swing at her, her barrier cracking into existence just as it hit. The sheer force of the blow was absorbed by the energy shield,
only driving her back about seven feet. Switching the barrier off again, she raised her pistol and fired, not hurting the beast severely, but keeping it off
balance. Holstering the pistol, she leapt forward again, the crystal shards in the ends of her staff gleaming with an inner energy.

The Hildebear roared in pain as she tore a path of gashes along its left arm. She ducked under a clumsy grab, spinning the staff around and cutting at its
stomach. As it reared back, she straightened up, tearing up the beasts chest, continuing the staffs spin and having the other end tear open its throat. As it
choked on its blood and fell, Amy backed up, looking around several of the creatures watching her. Several Boomas actually seemed to get the message, hobbling
away towards the fence. She smirked, then jogged to the building corner, peering around and looking for Optimal.

***

"Come on," the bulky Cast muttered. "Don't you people have better things to shoot at?" The only response he got was photon bolts
ripping at the dirt above him. Adjusting his position in the crater, he crawled forward, risking a brief glance up. Three turrets, all seemingly locked onto
him, one of them even ignoring the Rappy that seemed to have taken an interest in some shiny cables attached to it.

Reaching into a belt pouch, he took out another trap, opening the back panel and adjusting the settings before throwing it out of the crater. There was a brief
pause, an explosion, and then there were two turrets firing. Remembering which turret had the curious Rappy, he stood up slightly and fired on the other one,
only damaging it slightly and taking a bolt to the shoulder for his trouble. Ducking down, he checked his armor and nodded after seeing it hadn't gotten
through the armor. "Say, anyone care to distract these things for me?"

Before he got an answer, one of the guns stopped firing at the same moment a pained screech made itself known. Glancing up, he saw a slightly burnt Rappy
running away from the busted turret, a chunk of metal in its beak. Chuckling, he opened fire on the remaining turret, Amy hitting it from another direction. It
held for a moment, before one of their shots punched through the armor and detonating its photon core.

Amy emerged from behind her cover as Optimal climbed out of the trench, sweeping the area with her pistol. "Any more turrets?" she wondered.

"Yeah, but around corners and that," the Cast said, swiveling his arm just to check the shoulder. Raising his rifle, he harassed a few more Boomas
that were lurking around. "I'd rather not deal with all of them."

"Yeah..." she tapped her headset. "Skuld, 'Riko, how're you two doing?"

***

Noriko raised her barrier, intercepting a shot, as Skuld dropped to the floor, firing a shot under the Casts defense. She hit the Gillchic dead center,
knocking it to the floor where it overloaded and exploded. "Heading for the control room now," the Cast said over the comm. "Just need to
hotwire the door..."

"Better idea," Skuld said, getting to her feet. As Noriko turned to look at her, she pulled off her backpack and took out a blue sphere slightly
bigger then her fist. The Casts optics widened and she darted clear as the human tabbed the grenades switch, surrounding it in a glowing blue 'flame'.
She tossed it in an underhand throw at the door, where it promptly stuck and started pulsing. Skuld backed away, covering her ears and turning her eyes away.

The plasma grenade exploded, filling the corridor with blue fire. As it cleared, Noriko gave Skuld a glare. "A little more warning next time?" she
growled.

She smiled, adjusting her glasses. "I got the door, didn't I?" she asked, smiling wider when the Cast simply shook her head and muttered under
her breath, climbing through the hole in the door.

"Okay guys, we're in. Keep your heads down for a few and we'll deal with the turrets."
DHBirr: PSO was actually available for Game Cube - I bet that with a bit of looking you can still find a copy. Two things you might like about it: 1) Online
play is not needed - there's two offline storyline you can play through, and then you can take the characters you've been leveling up offline into the
online game.

2)The gameplay is not all that fast-paced. Really, it is pretty much all about situational awareness. Even when you fight bosses all you need to remember their
attack patterns and you're good. Twitch-level reactions are not required to play this game.

Matrix Dragon: This. Is. Awesome. And I am just loving all the references to Halo. Optimal: reference to Transformers? Is that a Covenant Carbine Chris has? And is
that THE Skuld? As in Goddess of Technology?
Optimal was one of OMs Casts back in the day. That is indeed a Covenant Carbine. Skuld was the name of one of my Hume Rangers. Not THE Skuld Smile
Phantasy Star Online was released for Dreamcast, GameCube, XBox, and PC. The sequel, Phantasy Star Universe, is available for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360...but PSU doesn't have anything to do with Ragol, so if you find that story interesting, eh, well. =P
If you acquire a console copy - yes, PSO can be played offline in single-player mode. The thing is, it ain't really a GREAT single-player experience. I think it's reasonably entertaining even so, but do realise it's not fantastic as a stand-alone game.
Secondly, about the gameplay: Blackaeronaut is correct, tactics and situational awareness - or at the very least pattern recognition - matter more than quick reactions.
But if I remember right, you need to move around a fair bit. Evade attacks and rush in for the kill...that sorta stuff. It's not twitch as such...yet it ain't pure strategy either. I found it a lot more frantic than, say, World of Warcraft or even City of Heroes. Not as bad as Guild Wars...but as far as MMOs go, it's a lot closer to a console hack-and-slash than most. Which makes perfect sense, because it was released as a console game.
As for the story - I like this, sir. It's got an old-school UF feel to it, in a good way. Brings back a lot of PSO memories as well, but it's solid even without that.
-- Acyl
***

Over the next half hour, the team continued a sweep of the facility, chasing off or killing all the hostile wildlife they encountered. However, one worrying
fact was becoming clear.

"No bodies," Fiona mused, resting her feet on the control panel. "I thought there was supposed to be over seventy people working here."

"Seventy four," Chris replied over the comm. "And they're not just hiding. We've seen blood and traces of battle. You'd think that
at least one of them would have been killed and left behind."

"Yeah, well, I've checked about every security camera in the place, and I'm not seeing a trace of anyone," Noriko muttered.

"What about some sort of fire suppression system?" Fiona asked. "That burning building doesn't look like it's going to calm down any
time soon."

"Oh, right. Good point." Fiona gave the comm panel a look.

"You mean you didn't check?"

"It slipped my mind, okay?" the Cast protested. "Anyway, it looks like I found some sort of firedrones. Launching them now." Outside, Amy
looked up at the sight of a dozen bulky disc-shaped objects emerged from the roof of the main building, moving towards the destroyed building and beginning to
hose it down with chemicals.

At another seat in the control room, Skuld finished looking over a map. "I found the transporter room," she reported. "Chris, Ben, you're
not too far from it. Take the second corridor on the left, six doors down."

"Roger that," Chris replied, moving a little faster. They'd actually passed the room earlier, but the hallways lacked almost anything that they
could use to tell them apart, not even signs on the doors.

Ben tabbed the door control and stepped inside, sweeping his rifle across it. "Well," he said, looking around the somewhat large room, based around
the bulky transporter in the center, "I'm not seeing much in the way of damage."

His friend nodded in agreement, moving over to the transporters control panel. "Well, all the lights are green, no error messages or anything else jumping
out at me." He glanced back over at Ben. "No visible reason for it not connecting to the global grid."

"So, hook it back up," he suggested. Chris shrugged and tapped a few buttons, then frowned as the control panel responded with an error noise.

"Come on..." he grumbled, tapping a few more buttons. "At least tell me why you don't want to behave." A moment later he tabbed his
radio. "Hey 'Riko, I've got a question for you about Ragolian transporters."

"Shoot."

"Error three two nine?"

"Um... I've had that one before. Another connection already active, disconnect and try again. But the only place that thing can connect to is the
global net."

"Maybe they put in the wrong data and hit something else," Skuld offered. "Mind you, I can't imagine what... outside Pioneer, the global
grid is pretty much the only one in operation."

Chris tabbed the menu buttons, scrolling through. "Let's see, here we go, network connections." He looked at it for a minute, then turned to Ben
and shrugged. "It's a big list of numbers and I don't have a clue what it means."

He chuckled slightly, then moved over to take a look. "Noriko, you got anything there that'll translate this number to a location?"

"Just a second... okay, go." Ben rattled off a twenty-seven digit number and waited. About a minute later, Norikos voice came back. "That
can't be right...."

"'Riko?" Optimal's voice asked.

"According to this, the transporter is connected to a receiving station five kilometers north, and... seven hundred meters down?"

"It goes underground?" Chris asked.

"Way underground," Ben added. "What in the hell is going on here?"

***

"So they teleported down to some underground cavern?" Fiona asked. Everyone had gathered in Duskwalkers cargo bay, with the exception of Noriko, who
had remained in the facilities control room.

"That, or into rock," Chris noted. "But given that there was a designated recieving platform down there, I'd guess the later. The military
and the Hunters couldn't beam down from Pioneer because the transporter can only be connected to one network at a time, and they'd set up the one here
and the one underground as a two-transporter network."

"So when the monsters attacked, they went to beam out and ended up underground." She glanced over at Amy. "Would that be deliberate?"

"It'd take time to disconnect from that mini-network and reconnect to the global grid," the Hunter replied. "When you've got about
seventy people screaming and trying to get to safety, they probably figured any port in a storm."

The younger girl shrugged. "Okay, that makes sense. But then, why didn't we know about it? I'd have thought the people sponsoring this place
would've mentioned it to the Hunters Guild."

"Because underground exploration and travel is heavily restricted," Optimal said as he removed his blasters main focusing coil. "You've seen
the beasts up here. Well, the one's underground tend to be worse. The deeper you go, the worse it gets." He studied the coil, then looked over at
Fiona. "As deep as they are, it'd be safer to sit in the middle of a forest, no armor or weapons, setting off air horns and fireworks. And that's
if it were trained Hunters going underground."

The girl binked, then shivered. "Well, that's a fun thought. So whatever they found down there, they couldn't legally do anything about?"

"Pretty much," Noriko said from a speaker. "They couldn't even get another transporter to handle movement between there and here. A full
transporter would raise a lot of question. So guess how many spare parts are missing from storage?"

Skuld gave the speaker a look. "Don't tell me they jury-rigged a transporter from spare parts."

"Well, I've got to say something," she replied bluntly. The human woman groaned, taking off her glasses.

"Of all the stupid, brain-dead, just plain insane ideas..."

"They must have had certain times scheduled," Amy guessed. "They'd only connect with the transporter in the cave at pre-planned intervals,
reduce the chance of someone trying to beam down from Pioneer and getting bounced back."

"And if anyone did notice the first few times, they'd claim it was maintenance or something," Ben added. "Too many times and people would
look, but downtime's expected with technology."

"So..." Chris said, leaning against the wall. "Why are they still down there?"

"Made from spare parts," Skuld muttered. "Seventy people in maybe ten minutes? Something on the other side must've broken."

"But the platform up here is still connected to it," Fiona said. "So it's not completely broken. Just enough to keep them from beaming
out."

"We brought transporter parts," Optimal said. "Just in case it was a transporter problem. We teleport down, fix that one, bring them back
up."

"Slight problem," Skuld said. "You remember Icarus?"

"A ranger, right? I think I met him last year."

"Ten months back, he ended up underground to rescue some people that were running from Wolves. He was charged. It was all legal technicalities, and the
case was dismissed in court, but still... I don't feel like having to appear before a Judge anytime soon."

Amy sighed, blowing her hair up out of her face. "I'll get on the comm, call the Guild leaders and see if we can get approval. You guys figure out who
gets to do some cave hopping."

"And get some extra guns prepped," Optimal noted, moving over to a large crate and popping the seals. "Not to mention medical gear. Given why
they went down there, and the fact they're underground, there's gonna be wounded. And dead."

"Three man team?" Chris said.

"Works for me," Amy said as she headed for the stairs.

"Six of you... think I saw a die somewhere around here," Fiona noted, heading for the stairs as well. Chris and Ben went over to the hidden weapons
locker, while Skuld joined Optimal at the crates.

***

"I'm not sulking," Optimal muttered. Across the transporter room, Noriko, Amy and Ben ignored him while checking their gear.

"Please," Skuld said. "If you had a mouth, you'd be pouting."

"And like you don't want to go down there?" he responded as she checked the transporter controls. "You're as trigger happy as I am,
maybe more." He grumbled under his breath. "I so wanted to try out my new chaingun..."

"Aw, poor baby," she grinned. "Sure, I'd love to go down, but I've got over ways to fill the time. You have a one-command mind
sometimes, you know that?" Optimal didn't answer as she finished with the controls. "Okay guys, we're all set here. You?"

"Ready," Ben said, adjusting the backpack one more time. "It's a good chance radio signals won't get through, and the connection on the
other end already seems damaged, so we might not make contact right away. We'll handle that before we start searching."

"Okay." The three took up positions on the platform, their weapons ready. "Hear from you soon," she said, powering it up. A green light
engulfed the trio, fading away and taking them with it.

"Guys, can you hear me?" Skuld asked, only to get nothing but silence back. "Dammit, we expected it, but it still sucks..."

***

Ben brought his rifle up, running the flashlight attached across the poorly lit cavern. "I'm seeing a lot of broken lights," he noted.
"Smashed in the panic?"

"Most likely - oh hey," Amy said. "Got a body." She knelt down next to the corpse. "Looks like he bled out." She ran her light
back towards the transporter. "Plenty of blood on his shirt, not much of a trail."

Ben knelt down next to her, nodding at a pile of bandages a few feet away. "He must have tried to hold it all in, then gave out from the stress of
teleporting." A rush of air caught his attention, bringing his rifle up towards an opening. "Just wind."

"This far down?" Noriko wondered as she studied the transporter. Jury-rigged didn't do it justice. There wasn't even a full platform (The
large sheet of solid conductive metal being near indestructible and hardly needing a spare part), wiring ran across and around it, most notably around a
section of burnt cables and ruined focusing crystals. "Ah, here we go..."

Ben unbuckled his backpack and lowered it to the floor. "Well, let's get started."

***

"Hey Fiona," Skuld said with a grin, leaning into the kitchen. "Got a few spare minutes?"

"Sure," Fiona replied as she finished cleaning. "What's up?"

"How'd you like to get some time on the surface?" she grinned, drawing a surprised look from the older girl.

"But it's too-"

"Dangerous, yeah. We did clear out the area," she pointed out, already heading back out the hallway to the cargo bay stairs. Fiona followed, a
curious expression on her face. "Plus, Amy brought a few extra toys for you," she added as she hopped down the steps two at a time before jogging
over to a sealed crate.

"Extra toys?" Fiona asked as Skuld popped the crate to reveal a handful of rifles, pistols and a slightly bulky looking bodysuit.

"This is a Frame," the Hunter said, holding up the suit. "A wonderful device that is a bizarre mixture of energy shielding, nanotech and some
other stuff I don't have the first clue how to explain. Now, it may not look like much, but when worn, it can alter its appearance and shape to suit the
will of the wearer. All of us, except Chris and Ben, are wearing them."

"Huh," she said, looking over Skulds somewhat odd looking military-style outfit. As near as she could tell, it looked like cloth. "So why
aren't they wearing them?"

"Because it's hard for off-worlders to buy them, and they're too stubborn to borrow them. Still, these rank among some of the galaxies best
personal protection gear." She held it out. "Try it on," she offered with a grin.

Smiling back, Fiona took the suit and stepped behind some crates. "Do I need to take off my other clothes, or...?"

"Well, I'd keep the underwear on," Skuld laughed. Fiona blushed slightly as she unbuttoned her blouse, ducking out of sight. Skuld kept watch for
a few minutes before the other girl stepped back out, holding the baggy suit in place. "Okay then, I know it doesn't look like much now, but we can
work with it. Fix an image in your head of what you'd like the suit to look like. Nothing too fancy, I'd suggest, and try not to let your mind
wander... that can lead to embarrassing results sometimes."

"...Uh-huh..." she replied as Skuld turned her attention to a small datapad mounted on Fionas left forearm.

"Okay... it's got a design set, modifying it to work, and it's ready." She tapped a button and stepped back. Fiona yelped as the suit began
to move and shift around her, conforming to her curves a lot better, shifting in color, density and composition. After nearly thirty seconds, it calmed down to
reveal a somewhat tight blue bodysuit under a leather jacket lined with pockets.

Fiona stretched slightly, studying how it felt with a surprised look on her face. "I'm impressed," she said after a moment. "Given what it
felt like beforehand, I didn't expect it to be this comfortable."

"Most people don't," Skuld answered, before taking a pistol from the crate. "This is a PS-9A Photon pulse pistol," she said in a no
nonsense voice. "Every hunter is assigned one as one of their first weapons when they join the Guild. Compared to most of the equipment you've seen us
use, this is a relatively weak weapon, but it is still a weapon capable of killing a person. While you have this, remember the most important rule. Never point
it at someone unless you plan on using it."

Fiona shivered slightly at that. "Never aim it at friends, and always handle it like it's loaded," Skuld continued. "If you can't accept
those rules, then you won't step foot off this ship." The other girl looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. "Good girl," she
chuckled, handing her the pistol. "Now, let's show you how to use that thing properly."

***

"Testing, testing... you guys hearing this?" Ben asked into the transporters communication panel.

"Loud and clear," Optimals voice responded. "I was starting to worry about you guys."

"Yeah, this thing's just a piece of crap," he said, looking down at the machine in disgust. "We had to replace more of it then we thought,
and then some extra just because we didn't trust what was left."

Optimal chuckled. "Well, that's fun. So, anything special we need to know about?"

"Well, we've found one body, badge identifies him as one Rupert Tammen. Noriko mentioned he was a biologist in the personnel files we got. The
transporter itself is in a relatively small cavern, one tunnel leading out. We haven't explored very far along it, but no sign of any other bodies.
We're going to head out now."

"Okay then, I'll let the others know... you sure you don't need any help?" he asked, trying not to sound too eager. Ben laughed.

"Sorry man, but we're all doing fine down here." He smirked at the grumbling that came over the comm. "So far man, you haven't missed
much."

"Yeah, well that won't last," he promised. "Good luck to you. You know where to find me."

"You got it," he said, closing the channel.

***

The pulses smacked against the tree, about a foot above a simple spray painted target. Fiona growled, lowering the pistol. "I keep doing that," she
muttered. "I'm sighting it just like you showed me-"

"Aiming is only half the issue," Skuld said. "Observe." She removed the power cell from her pistol and aimed it at the tree, before pulling
the trigger. "That's how I fire. Here's how you do it." This time, when she pulled the trigger, her wrist jerked slightly as muscles in her
forearm and wrist tensed. The end result was the pistol aiming slightly higher then originally expected. "There's the main problem. You're tensing
the muscles when you pull the trigger. That's not entirely a bad thing - do it right and it helps with recoil, but right now..."

"It's pulling the gun up," she realized. "So if I stop doing that..." Skuld nodded and watched as Fiona raised her pistol again in the
two-handed stance the Hunter had taught her. When she pulled the trigger this time, the pistol jerked up ever so slightly, the photon pulse striking in the top
half of the target. "Well, it's better," she said, lowering the weapon. "It could be better but..."

"But," Skuld said, "you're getting the hang of it and that's what matters." The girl nodded in agreement.

***

"Okay, I'm gonna say it," Noriko said after they'd passed through about six small caverns, finding nothing but a light system set up by the
research facility. "Shouldn't there be people down here? Or baring that, big hungry monsters, thus explaining the lack of people."

"Maybe they're not hungry anymore," Ben quipped, moving towards the next tunnel. "Seventy or so people is a nice, filling meal."

"Oh ick," Amy responded. "That's just want I needed to hear."

"Sorry," he said, taking point. "Just slipped out." He moved down the tunnel, the torch on his rifle sweeping across the floor and walls.
"Guess this place is starting to get to me. A little too used to being in the exact opposite of this place."

"Nothing as far as the eye can see?" Amy smiled. "The solid gleam of the stars, gems in the void? Sounds like the view from Pioneer, back when
we were coming to Ragol."

"Before my time," Noriko said. "I came online two years after the destruction of Pioneer One. Franky, I don't see the appeal."

"You don't see the appeal of space?" she asked. "The sea of stars? Worlds and cultures beyond imagination?"

Noriko shrugged. "Plenty to explore and see here. The rest of the universe can look after itself."

Ben glanced over his shoulder. "And what about the rest of the universe that comes to you?

"Oh, you guys are an important part of Ragols culture," she grinned. "Thus, all is good."

"Oh, well, that's all good then," he said, before pausing. "What in the world?" The two girls looked at him as he raised his torch to
highlight a odd marking running down the wall in a relatively straight line. About as wide as his thumb, it was a strange dull red color. "What is
that?" he asked, reaching out to touch it, before jerking his finger away like it was burnt. "It's flesh!" he exclaimed, a slightly sickened
look on his face.

Behind him, Noriko and Amy looked at each other in horror.

***
A desperate escape through questionable means...

The young lady starts to learn of firearms...

Horror-movie type nastiness found in the caves of doom?

Plot thickens! (^_^)
stories I've heard in the guild." As they advanced, slower now, she explained. "When the Principal sent the first teams of Hunters to Ragol after
Pioneer One, they found unknown structures beneath the surface. The first were obviously mines that the colony built, but the deeper they got, the more...
alien it became."

"Alien?" Ben said as they stepped into another cavern. "Yeah, this qualifies as alien," he muttered, looking over the lines of flesh as
they spread out over the walls and floor. Bone and blood vessels were becoming visible as well.

"At first, it seemed to be an alien vessel of some sort, possibly a ship," Amy continued. "But the deeper they went, the more wrong it became.
Metal was replaced by bone, wires by blood... The place became twisted, tainted. Sander, one of the team that explored it, once mentioned a 'brain
chamber' but wouldn't say anything else... as for what was beyond that, no one's been able to get a word out of the team ever since that day."

"And we're still walking forward why?" Ben asked.

"Because there are people down here," Noriko said. "Look at how it's infesting the rock. Could you imagine if this taint claimed a
person?" She shivered, her optics showing the unease her masked face tried to hide. "We have to get them out of here," she said as she stepped
around a pulsing muscle.

"One thing I don't understand," Amy said. "The ship was twisted and tainted by... something inside it. That I get, even if it really creeps
me out. But we're halfway across the planet. How did it get all the way here? Is it like some kind of demented infection?"

"How does something like this spread?" Noriko wondered as they moved into another tunnel, trying not to look at the bone and blood tunnel supports.
"Or is it under the surface of the entire planet?"

"That's a reassuring thought," Amy muttered. "Thanks so very much."

"I'm not seeing anything that looks like technology," Ben said. "Just... the taint." He swallowed back the bile in his throat, then
paused. "Do you hear that?"

Amy stopped walking, her ears twitching slightly. "Retching. Someone's throwing up."

"Can't blame them," Noriko said, breaking into a slight jog. The other two followed her, coming out into a circular cavern, with two other ways
out. Near one of the exits, a main was leaned over, throwing up whatever was left in his stomach.

"Hey there," Ben said in a friendly tone. The man looked up, obviously surprised by the arrival of three figures in armor and packing a small
arsenal.

"Hunters Guild," Amy said, tapping the emblem on her neck collar. "We were sent to find you people."

"Colm Lang," he said weakly. "Welcome to your personal nightmare."

"You look about as happy at this place as I feel," Ben noted.

"Yeah... I'd heard rumors there was something a little odd, but -" his voice cut off as he stumbled back, staring at the floor in horror. As they
all watched, the vomit was absorbed into the muscles it had struck, the organic parts swelling and expanding.

"I think I'm gonna be sick now," Ben managed.

"Don't feed this thing," Amy said quietly, squeezing his arm gently. He nodded, breathing in and out for a moment, before turning to Colm.

"Needless to say, the sooner we find you people and get you out, the happier I'll be."

The man nodded, but looked forlorn. "You mean you didn't check the transporter?"

"We fixed it," Noriko said. "Staying here is not on our list of things to do."

"Well, I'm more then happy to leave, most of us are," he replied eagerly. "But Director Osbourne and his team won't want to go."

"They'd stay down here?" Ben managed.

The man shrugged. "From what he's told us, they were the ones that found this, this place, and they've apparently been working on it for over six
months. He was saying he'd found something big, and I don't think he's gonna leave."

"Then where is he?" Noriko asked. "I'll drag him out if I have to."

"I'll show you."

***

Colm led them through the next few tunnels, as the flesh sections expanded rapidly. Strange webbing emerged from the ceiling, the floor shifted under their
step, and all four of them began to hear, and feel, an unsettling pulsing sensation running through the area. "What the heck is doing that?" Noriko
wondered.

"I wish I knew," Colm said. "I think it's coming from the walls themselves... it's what got to me the most, hence my being back closer
to the transporter. Director Osbourne wanted everyone to stick close together, just in case. In case of what, he wasn't saying."

"Well, that's nice... what the hell's the deal with this place?" Ben asked.

"Not a damn clue," Colm said. "There was the occasional oddity, things that didn't make sense. Last month Simon Hancock came in with second
degree burns on his arm. He said a shield-cell blew out when he was testing it, but there weren't any tests scheduled that day."

"He did it down here?" Amy said.

"Apparently."

"How many people knew about this before they ended up down here?" Ben wondered.

"I asked a few people... maybe a third of us," Colm said. "The rest of us found out when the perimeter fence went down and the beasts swarmed
in."

"Start from the beginning," Amy asked. "All we know is that the place got swarmed by animals and everyone used the transporter and ended up down
here instead of on Pioneer."

"That's a pretty accurate summary," he admitted. "Things got really odd yesterday. A whole herd of Booma parked themselves near the
perimeter, a few of them trying to get through and getting fried. A few Hildebears showed up, some Rappys... then they just sat there. For about three
hours."

"Those things actually stood still that long?" Amy asked, surprised.

Colm nodded "Yeah, it was really creeping us out too. A few of them moved and howled a bit, but for the most part, it was like they were waiting for
something. Then all of a sudden half the beasts threw themselves at the perimeter fence. That thing wasn't designed to fry that many at once and went down.
That's when we all panicked and ran for the transporters." He laughed slightly. "Of course, we didn't know the damn thing was set up to beam
us all down here. If I had, I'd probably have taken my chances with the Booma."

Ben was about to comment when he thought he heard something. Spinning, he brought his rifle up and swept the room, seeing nothing. "Ben?" Amy asked
quietly.

"Could've sworn I heard something move," he muttered, lowering it again.

"Everyone down here seems to have that happen," Colm said. "I hate to even think about why." Ben nodded slowly, turning and following him
again. "Anyway, we're just about there." He led them down one more tunnel, which exited into a much larger cavern then any of the others. Here,
the area was almost entirely flesh, although most of the floor had been covered by thick canvas. The three newcomers noted the number of tunnels that led off,
as well as the large number of people gathered, but more importantly, the massive bone plate on the distant wall, the blood vessels running through it shaped
almost like some kind of text.

"What the hell..." Noriko murmured as they walked forward, a number of the people around seeing them and backing away slightly. Ben and Amy nodded
and smiled at them slightly, keeping their weapons pointed at the ground.

After a moment, a somewhat obese man came towards them, a scowl on his face. "Doctor Lang, just who are these people?" he demanded, tugging at the
sleeves of his somewhat dirty business suit.

"Amy Rose and Noriko Dorden of the Hunters Guild," Amy said with a slight bow. "This is Ben Cook of the independent starship Duskwalker. You
must be Director Osbourne."

"Yes, of course," he said, still tugging at his sleeves.

"When contact was lost with your facility, we were ordered to locate you and make certain you were alright, along with providing transport back to Pioneer
Two," Ben said. The other man gave him a surprised look.

"You obviously have dealt with those pests above," he said, his somewhat high pitched voice trying to sound authoritative and failing.

"For the time being," Amy said. "But with the damage they caused, we'll have to evacuate the facility until the military or a full Hunter
strike team can provide cover for the repair teams."

"That's simply not possible," he said. "We can't allow this research to be delayed. There's simply too much here to waste any more
time."

"Yeah, about that," Noriko piped up. "We've checked with the Guild and the Principal Office. You guys didn't have authorization to be
down here, which leaves me wondering... what's so important that you guys felt you could risk one of the toughest laws on Ragol?"

Osbourne looked down at what, to him, looked like a young girl. "Perhaps it's not clear to you," he said in a condescending tone, "but what
we've found down here may be a breakthrough in technology that surpasses even the photonic discoveries made last century!" He waved a hand across the
walls. "All of this growth is artificial, directed by a set of 'programming codes'. This could totally revolutionize technology as we know
it!"

As he continued to speak on what he believed he had found, Amy shot Ben a look. He merely shrugged back.

***

Back on the surface, Skuld was sitting on a crate, checking over her rifle, while Fiona played a small game of catch with the Ragolian womans mag, another Sato
like Amys. As she reattached the twin focusing rods that took the place of the barrel on more conventional weapons, she looked up to see the tiny robot fumble
a catch, the ball bouncing off its oversized head. She snickered, then looked past it, towards the fence, and her mood faded. "Fiona,"she said in a
no nonsense voice, dropping off the crate and arming her Justy.

Fiona turned, following her gaze, before backing up slightly as she saw over a dozen yellow-furred Booma emerge from the bushes, barking and moving as close to
the energy fence as they dared. She took her pistol from its holster, tapping off the safety. "Over there too," she said suddenly, pointing at a
second group of Booma that had emerged further down.

"Okay, this is odd," Skuld mused, reaching up to tap her radio. "Chris, Optimal, we've got something going on up here."

"How so?" came Optimals bored response, the Cast still sitting in the transporter room in case Amy and the others called.

"More then twenty Boomas poking at the perimeter fence," she said.

"Not just Boomas," Fiona noted, nodding at a pack of massive canine beasts that had joined the Boomas.

"Okay, add some Wolves," Skuld added as Sato drifted up to rest above her shoulder, chirping softly. She looked over the fence, already battered from
the disaster that had hit the facility the previous day. "Guys, if they hit the fence I don't think it will hold."

"If it goes, can we take them?" Chris asked from the control room.

"You think you can get those turrets back up and not shooting us?" she replied.

"Turning them on is easy. The other part... The more I look at this, the more I think these turrets were deliberately altered to target humans."
Skuld looked over at Fiona, who merely shrugged.

"Chris, why would someone do that?" she demanded.

***

"How the hell would I know?" Chris said, looking across the monitors in front of him. "Look, the fact is, I can't turn these things back on
safely."

"Then we might have a problem," Skuld responded honestly. "We can kill these off with a bit of effort, but I get the feeling that these
won't be the only ones." As she spoke, Chris tied into the security cameras, looking along the Perimeter, finding even more animals surrounding the
base.

"They're not. I'm seeing at least another forty Booma, twenty wolves, I'm not even going to bother counting the Rappys wandering in..."
he sighed. "I'd say we're in trouble."

"That fence goes, it's only a matter of time before we go down by sheer weight of numbers," Optimal said. Chris shook his head, then spoke again.

"Skuld, I know you hired us, but as Duskwalkers captain, I'm recommending we pull out of here."

"Agreed," she replied. "But what about 'Riko and the others? It's not like we can leave leave them or the staff members trapped
underground."

"I'll teleport down and get them back up here," Chris said, already out of his chair and sprinting towards the door.

"Hey, I'm already in the transporter room, I could just-"

"No, we'll need you up here," Skuld said. "We're going to need some bigger guns up here, especially if we're gonna have to wait for
those people. Get back to the ship and grab one of those monsters you insisted on bringing."

Optimals grumbling about not getting to go underground vanished as Chris sprinted towards the transporter room, the red-black Cast barreling past him down the
corridor.

***

"Director Osbourne, not to sound dismissive, but we are seven hundred meters underground," Ben pointed out. "Given that it's unlikely anyone
else could have come down here..."

"But someone else has been down here," he said, looking down his nose at the off-worlder. "In addition to the organic elements that fills these
chambers, we've found a number of artifacts that seem to come from a society that uses some similar technological elements to common galactic
science." He gestured at a long bench that was filled with what looked a lot like armor and weapons.

Ben walked over and looked at one of the incredibly ornate pistols. "Impressive," he noted. "And hardly reassuring. You're telling me that
this is some sort of alien growth, and either its creators or another race came down here to try and destroy it. Either because they'd lost control of it,
or it was seen as a major threat."

"How could you know that?" the director responded. "Besides, that hardly matters, it's in the past. What matters is the value this biotech
has to society now. Properly harnessed, it could give us the ability to claim this world and truly remake it in our image."

"Director," Amy said, slight annoyance on her face. "This growth matches unnervingly close to what was found under the ruins of Pioneer One.
Even then, we're looking at something that is able to tunnel through rock and metal ore at incredible depths."

"Absorb," Noriko disagreed. Everyone looked at her. "Didn't you notice it back in the earlier tunnels? The organics ran through the center
of the rock formations without any disruptions or rubble on the floor."

"Yes, we'd noticed that. Another remarkable ability. We believe it actually breaks down the rock and soil into its base elements, which it them
absorbs into its larger mass. We've done some tests, and we believe that it can actually do the same with almost any inorganic material. We were able to
'feed' it samples of refined Trinium alloys, and if anything, it actually enjoys processed materials more. Most likely due to the removal of
impurities-"

"Okay, that's it," Amy said. "The last thing I need to hear is about how this stuff can eat through anything. Here's how it is Director
Osbourne," she continued in a cold voice, stepping forward. "We were sent here by Principal Tyrell, making me the voice of legal authority on this
matter. I'm issuing an evacuation order for this facility. You're to take all your people, including those wounded in the attack yesterday," she
said with a glance at several men and woman with makeshift bandages, "get them back up to the surface and board the ship currently on the landing pad, and
leave with us. This discovery of yours will be assessed by the military and the Hunters Guild. Should it be considered safe, you might be allowed to return.
Assuming of course you're not charged with unauthorized exploration of the Ragolian underground."

Osbourne backed up, obviously not used to being told what to do, or being interrupted. "We can't just leave this!" he protested. "We've
nearly managed to tap into this technology. It's taken us over a year to-"

"I don't care." He blinked at her cold response, then sneered.

"Of course you don't. You hunters don't care about technology unless it helps you, and this could take your place in saving Ragol-" he shut
up as Ben came over, glaring at him.

"The lady said to move," he began, only to be cut off by another pulse through the flesh, this one louder then the rest, followed by a dull rumble
they all felt. "What was that?"

"I, I don't know," Osbourne said. "That's never happened before."

"That a good thing or a bad?" Noriko wondered. A high pitched scream cut through the air, coming from one of the side tunnels. "Bad," all
three hunters said in unison.

Ben flicked off the safety on his rifle. "You stay, I'll go," he said, jogging towards the tunnel. "Get them moving!"

"Okay," Amy said, glaring at the director.

Ben skidded to a halt as he exited the tunnel, into another cavern filled with people, equipment, and something else. "Oh boy," he managed. Across
the cavern, a strangely distorted creature stood over a pair of bodies. Standing nearly seven feet tall, the beast was the same distorted color as the alien
growth, with a distorted humanoid shape, its legs, arms and upper torso freakishly over sized. Its left hand was some sort of claw, while the other had a
massive blade growing out from its wrist, its victims blood running along it.

"Everybody down!" Ben yelled, raising his rifle. As the people nearby took cover, the creature turned to face him, somehow seeing him despite the
fact it had no head. Before it could do anything else, he opened fire, emptying half his clip into it... only to have the space around it twist and shift, the
bullets seemingly passing through unnoticed to shred the wall behind him. The spacer lowered his rifle, a look of shock on his face. "How in the
hell...?"

***

Raising its sword-arm, the creature approached Ben, ignoring the frightened civilians trying to find something to hide behind. The spacer tossed his rifle
aside and pulled a combat knife from his belt as he darted forward, aiming to keep its attention. Darting back to avoid a slash, he stabbed at it, noting it
seemed to worry about that particular attack, before ducking under another swing and and then leaping over a workbench, rolling as he hit the flesh floor.

His opponent kicked the bench over and moved on him again. Ben faked with the knife in his right hand before nailing it with a punch from his left. It
stumbled, its sword-arm waving, and Ben didn't quite dodge fast enough, hissing as it sliced his own arm slightly. Ever so slightly distracted, the man
took a vicious backhand to the face from the beasts claw hand, knocking him to the floor.

***

Chris appeared in a flash of green light, looking around the underground transporter chamber. Ignoring the corpse off to one side, he stepped off the platform
and tapped his radio. "Amy, Ben, 'Riko, you guys reading me?" he asked.

"Chris!" Amys voice responded. "We've got trouble!"

"Down here too?" he asked, jogging down the tunnel. "Things are going wrong upstairs, we're pulling out. Did you find the survivors?"

"We're trying to pull them out now, but there's something else down here. Ben went to check and..."

"Get those people moving, I'll meet you halfway!" he ordered, breaking into a sprint.

***

"On it," she said, taking her hand off the radio. "Okay people, we're heading back to the transporter," she called out, looking around
the several dozen people that were coming in from the side corridors. "As soon as you're on the surface, head for the ship on the landing pad."

"We can't just leave," Osbourne protested.

"Move!" she roared. "Ben, how are you doing?"

***

"Not so good," he growled as he crawled back, avoiding another swing from the blade. Kicking out, he knocked it back long enough to get to his feet,
backing away slightly. As it moved towards him again, it was hit in the side by a steady stream of photon fire. Noriko stepped out of the entrance tunnel, her
Varista roaring. After the third or forth shot however, it warped the space around itself again, the shots curving around. Ben watched for a moment, noting
that the claw-arm seemed to be the source of the warping, glowing from within with a purple light, before looking around for his knife.

The knife had fallen among the tools and equipment from the bench that had been knocked over earlier, along with several of the recovered alien weapons. Seeing
a long, silver blade in the pile, he ignored the knife and reached for the sword. Turning back to the fight, he cursed and swung the sword up to block the
monsters sword-arm as it came down at it. Even as the shock of the impact ran down his arms, he pushed forward, breaking the deadlock and swinging at the
claw-arm.

The creature moved back and blocked the blow, as Noriko ignited her twin daggers and charged at it from the side. "Left arm," Ben hissed, coming at
the beast from the other side, forcing it to split its attention. "Something in it let it do that stunt."

"Swell," the small Cast said, spinning down to attack its legs. "What is this thing?"

"You're asking me?"

***

Skidding to a halt, Chris looked up at the flesh in shock. "What in the hell?" he murmured, watching as the blood vessels pulsed, then seemed to
swell. Backing up, he barely avoided being splattered by the dark red fluid as the vessel popped and something dived at him.

Reacting on instinct, he swung his rifle up, slamming the butt into it, knocking it across the floor. It bounced and paused, hovering above the ground,
slightly stunned. It looked like some sort of manta ray, only twisted and deformed, the flesh mottled and scarred. Hissing, it darted back towards him again.
Chris raised his rifle and put two shots through it. Squealing, it dissolved into a black mist.

Chris lowered his weapon, staring at the fading mist uneasily. After a moment, the sound of screams caught his attention again. Cursing under his breath, he
broke into a run, charging down the tunnels, and nearly slamming into the people coming the other way. "Hunters Guild!" he called out as the first
few people panicked further at the sight of him. "I'm with the Guild!" Pushing on through the line, he looked for the others. "Where are my
friends?"

"Back in the main area," someone replied. "There's something back there!" He pushed on past Chris, who scowled and kept moving.

"Head back to the transporter!" he called out. "Our ship's on the landing pad! Go!"

***

Noriko spun, catching the creatures blade between her own, the force of the blow knocking her back. Pulling the left ripper back, she hooked the right one
around the blade and pulled it down. Ben took the opening, running the thing though from behind. It squawked for a moment, then slumped down, dissolving into a
black mist.

"Damn," he managed, backing away slightly.

"Yeah," Noriko agreed, looking around. "You see where the civilians went?"

"Away, I'm guessing," Ben responded, resting against a bench to catch his breath. "Can you blame them?" The Cast shrugged.
"Anyway, I say we get the feth out of..." His voice trailed off as he heard a strange hissing noise. Standing up, he looked over at the far wall, the
flesh pulsing and distorting as figures emerged from within it. Figures somewhat similar to the first beast. "Wonderful."

"You think they're bulletproof too?" 'Riko asked. Ben snatched up his rifle from the ground and opened fire. The creatures were shredded,
hanging out of the wall at odd angles.

"Nope," he replied, pulling out the empty clip and reloading. "But I only have so many bullets. Let's get out of here."

"Gladly," she said, sprinting for the exit, the human close behind.

***

The Boomas roared, throwing themselves against the fence, energy crackling along it, flash frying them. Skuld watched as, all along the perimeter, the native
wildlife threw themselves into the energy fields. They held for nearly four seconds before the generators blew out in small clouds of fire and sparks, the
fence fields fading away.

"Wow," Fiona breathed as she reached Skuld with a bag of ammo clips. The Ragolian nodded, raising her Justy and opening fire on the nearest batch of
Booma. Fiona dropped the bag and pulled out her own weapon, doing the same.

"Where's Optimal?" Skuld asked.

"Pulling out a really big gun," she replied as she dropped a Booma. "Doesn't look like all your other guns."

A chuckle made itself heard over the radio. "It's certainly not a Ragolian weapon kid. But I've found it has its benefits." Skuld looked over
her shoulder to see Optimal stomping down Duskwalkers entry ramp carrying a massive black cannon, power cables and ammo feeds running around to a massive
backpack.

"What in the name of the Ancients is that monster?" Skuld wondered.

"They call it a Heavy Bolter," Optimal replied, raising the cannon and firing. The large caliber shells tore through the animals flesh, detonating
inside and slaughtering the beasts. "Imperial weapon. They may be religious nuts, but they make some damn impressive toys."

"Good Lord," Fiona managed, watching as Optimal tore apart the animals on the other side of the ship.

"That's Optimal for you," Skuld chuckled, blasting a Hildebear. "Now, if the others will get back up here, maybe we'll see space
again." Fiona nodded, tracking a wolf that tried to flank them.

***

"Chris?!" Amy exclaimed as Chris sprinted towards her. "What're you-?"

"We're leaving. Now," he said. "Where's Ben and 'Riko?"

"Here!" Ben called out, stopping as he and Noriko emerged from a tunnel. Turning, he fired a long burst back down it, getting a series of agonized
screams back. "You said we're leaving?"

"Pretty much. All hell's breaking loose up top as well," Chris said. "We get these people out of here, the Guild can do the rest." He
glanced at the sword in Bens hand. "Where'd you get that?"

"Long story," he responded, running again. Chris shrugged and followed.

***

Colm knelt down to help a woman that had tripped over. "Keep moving," he said as he helped her up, looking back down the tunnel. The flesh in the
tunnel was pulsing and shifting, seemingly reacting to the panic and chaos within it. Shuddering, he pushed on.

Nearby, Osbourne muttered under his breath as he walked along, wringing his hands. "This is all so wrong," he protested. "We had it under
control. There was no sign of it acting like this before now... It has to be the Guild."

Colm looked at him oddly. "How'd you figure that boss?" he wondered.

"This only happened when they arrived. It must understand that they're hostile, and it's responding to that. If we can convince it-"

The younger man scowled, stepping up close. "Even if you're right, how the hell are we supposed to communicate with it?" he demanded, before a
scream from ahead of them caught his attention. Pushing past Osbourne, he ran towards the noise, stopping at the end of the tunnel. Two deformed figures stood
over the bodies of several people, blood running down the swords fused into their arms. Silently, they looked up at him, the tiny appendage on their shoulders
flopping around uselessly, before marching forward. "Hell..." he murmured, backing up.

Osbourne stumbled past him, holding up his hands in a calming gesture. "It's alright," he said in a shaky voice. "We didn't mean for the
Hunters to come down here. We're not going to let them hurt you." Colm stared at the man in shock, and more then a little disgust.

The creatures never slowed, one of them raising it's left sword arm over its head. "Don't you understand?" the facility director protested,
his eyes widening. "We want to help you!"

Colm started to reach forward to grab Osbourne and pull him back, when a blue-haired blur raced past him, the staff in her arms crackling with photon energy.
The sword collided with Amys staff as she placed herself between the monster and the human, before she brought the other end up, cracking the beasts chest and
knocking it back. Spinning the polearm, she attacked the other one.

The other Hunters emerged behind Colm, watching as Amy tore into the pair. "She's good," Chris mused.

"It's a talent," Noriko replied, before a noise from the walls caught her attention. More of the monsters were emerging. "How many of these
things are there?" she wondered, raising her Varista and firing. Ben and Chris did the same, although a few more 'hatched' fast enough to stumble
into the brawl with Amy.

The crystals in her staff glowing with power, Amy tore them apart, never slowing down as she seemed to dance around them. Above her, Sato hovered, chirping
occasionally, before his eyes glowed brightly and he began spinning around, his chirping changing pitch. "Flarewave!" she ordered, swinging her staff
around to get the room needed.

"Down," Noriko said, ducking. Chris, Ben and Colm took her advice, Ben reaching up and yanking Osbourne down by the collar, as Sato pumped all of the
photonic energy he'd gathered directly into Amys staff. The energy bleedoff giving her a visible aura, Amy brought her staff around in a wide arc, a wave
of power launching outwards, reducing the beasts to a shower of limbs and parts that dissolved into mist.

"Woah," Chris managed as he stood up. "Remind me never to get you out for my blood." Amy smirked, lowering her weapon and looking around,
then backing up, horrified. "What?" he asked, following her gaze to see the bodies of the creatures victims. As they watched, the flesh floor rose up
around the corpses, seizing it in an unbreakable hold. Almost instantly, the blood began to be drained from them, the human flesh burning from the acids the
beast used to digest the flesh.

"God help us," Noriko whispered, looking away. "What is with this place?"

"It's feeding," Colm said quietly. "That's why it's attacking us now. All the injured and the dead gave it a snack. It knows it can
eat us. That's all we are to it."

"Enough figuring it out," Ben growled. "Let's just get the heck out of-" his words cut off in a scream as pain lanced through his head.
At the same time, all the other humans experienced the same pain, leaving Noriko, the only Cast present, confused and more then a little terrified.

"Guys?!" she nearly screamed, grabbing at Ben's shoulder.

"Nnnggg..." he managed, wiping away a blood nose. "The feth was that?" he demanded.

"Telepathic shockwave," Colm replied, managing to stand up. "I think this thing just 'woke up.' We just got a dose of... whatever makes
it up."

"Telepathy?" Osbourne whimpered. "I've never heard of something with so powerful a mind. Imagine what it must have seen, what it could tell
us?"

"Yeah, well I don't plan on being around long enough for it to try and talk to us again," Ben spat, kneeling down next to Amy. "Are you
alright?"

The woman was still on her hands and knees, eyes forced shut. "It's too old, seen too much," she gasped. "It's forgotten itself to
survive, all it has left is its needs."

Ben placed a hand on her shoulder. "What does it need?" he asked softly.

"Death," she whispered, opening her eyes and looking up at him. "Ben, it lives solely to bring an end to all life. Nothing more. If it wakes up,
if it's not stopped-"

"It will be," he promised her. "We'll get the guild down here in force and destroy it-" Amys panicked yelp drew his attention. Looking
down, he saw that the flesh floor had shifted, rising up around her exposed hands and knees. "Give me a hand here!" he yelled at the others, trying
to pull her free. The woman gasped, forcing back a scream as it moved up her wrists, the smell of burning flesh making itself known.

Growling, Chris fired into the flesh right next to Amy, shredding it and loosening the grip just enough for Ben and Colm to pull the woman loose.

Ben looked over her wounds with an expression of horror on his face. Amys hands and knees looked like they'd suffered third degree burns, flesh stripped
and shredded, blood running down the skin. The woman whimpered slightly, already slipping into shock.

"Does your ship have a medbay?" Colm asked, looking over the injuries with a professionals eye. Ben nodded. "We need to get her there now."
Ben nodded, breaking into a run, holding Amy close. The others followed.

***

Optimal backed up as the Hildebear leapt at him, his heavy bolter roaring. The beasts head was blown apart, crashing into the ground at the Casts feet.
"How many of these things are there?" he growled.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Skuld snapped back, ejecting a spent power cell. Locking a new one into place, she tabbed a button near the
trigger. When she fired again, the shot charged slower and was much more powerful, felling a Booma in one shot. "What's taking them so long?" she
muttered. "We can't keep this up much longer."

As if on cue, the doors to the main building were thrown open, people running out. "Finally!" the tiny hunter said. "Fiona, get them on the
ship." The other woman nodded, sprinting towards them. Luckily, she was able to point them towards Duskwalker with little difficulty... until she saw Ben
and Amy.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, getting out of the way as Ben charged past her. "What happened?"

"I honestly don't know how to explain it," Ben admitted. "There's still a few people down there. Chris and 'Riko have got the
rear." That said, he ran up the entry ramp, heading for the rear stairs, some man she didn't recognize close behind.

"Here!" Ben said, pushing open the medbay doors and placing Amy on a bed. Colm moved to a side bench, looking it over.

"Standard layout, good," he murmured, opening a drawer and taking out an injector. "This should dull the pain," he said to her softly,
injecting it into her neck.

"That's good," she managed, her breathing calming somewhat. Colm moved his attention to her hands. Carefully he turned her left hand over,
studying the palms.

"When this is over, Osbourne and I are going to have a little talk," Ben muttered, watching her.

"Won't that be fun," Colm said. Ben nodded, looking down at Amy as she fell asleep, before sighing. "I need to prep the ship for
launch." The doctor nodded at him as he brushed a hand through her hair, then turned and left.

***

"It seems that the humans have survived their adventure in Falz," said a cloaked figure, watching from within the treeline.

"Some of them," replied his companion, her voice sounding like music, even when speaking. "Enough of them, anyway. They will carry the story
back to their kin in their precious city."

"... Honored One, I must ask," he said, bowing his head. "Why did we allow the humans to find this fragment? Surely our warriors could bind Falz
again, far better then the primitives."

She nodded. "Indeed. But that would cost the lives of many of our warriors, leaving their souls in the grip of this daemon. But the humans that are
foolish enough to try and claim this world are not totally ignorant. They have had a glimpse of Falz, and they are just smart enough to suspect what he could
be. When these people tell their kin what is here, the humans will come in force. Falz will feed on many of them and gain power, but it will be brief and
fleeting. They will force him back into slumber. And our own people will remained unharmed." She smiled coldly. "We may not even need to help them
give their lives for us."

***

"Last group!" Noriko said, working the transporter controls. Chris nodded, firing his carbine back down the tunnel one last time, before moving over
to the side of the machine. "What're you doing?"

"I don't want to risk these thing figuring out how to use this thing," he said, pulling a small explosive charge from his vest and fixing to the
transporter. "Is ten seconds after we teleport enough?"

"Plenty," she replied, entering the last commands and leaping onto the platform. "Let's go already!" Chris nodded, jumping on, and
they, along with the last three facility members, vanished in a flash of light.

Reappearing back in the facility, they leapt off the platform and sprinted down the hallways, heading for Duskwalker. "Ben, we're all on the
surface!" Chris reported into his radio. "How're we doing?"

"Getting ready to launch now. Hurry it up, the guys are running low on ammo, and there's a lot of wildlife down here." As if to back up his
statement, the windows at the end of the hall shattered and a Booma roared, pulling itself through the opening. Chris and Noriko barely even slowed as their
weapons cut it down.

A second later, a window to their left shattered and another Booma lunged through. Chris spun, bringing his weapon around, only to jerk to a halt as his chest
erupted in pain. Somewhat surprised, he looked down at the creatures claw before his vision began to fade, and the last thing he heard was Norikos enraged
scream.

***

Skuld backed ever closer to Duskwalker, her Justy starting to overheat as she kept firing nonstop. On the other side of the ship, Optimal was beginning to have
the same problem, the roar of his cannon starting to be drowned out by the ships engines powering up.

As she stopped to reload, she saw the last group emerge from the main building, two of the men carrying a badly wounded Chris between them.
"Finally!" she said. "Ben, last group's on it's way. What's your status?"

"In the air as soon as you're on," came the response. Skuld grinned, turning and running back up the ramp, Optimal and the others close behind.

Fiona hit the door controls as the last of them passed her. "Ben, punch it!" she snapped into the comm panel. In the control room, Ben grinned,
powering up the VTOL engines, lifting the ship off the ground, then rammed the main engines up to speed, racing away from the doomed base and climbing into the
sky.

***

"What happened?" Colm asked as Chris was carried into the medbay.

"Booma claw," Noriko replied as the man was placed on the second bed, Colm checking Amy one last time before moving to Chris. Taking a pair of
scissors, he cut away the mans shirt, frowning at the large wound just below his ribcage, angled upwards. He studied it for a moment, then went to the comm
panel.

"Ben, I need you to contact Pioneer and declare a medical emergency. We need a site-to-site teleport to an operating theater."

"Amy's that bad?" his shocked voice responded.

"No, it's Chris. He was wounded by a Booma on the way out. There's massive internal bleeding, possibly a punctured lung. We need to get him into
surgery now."

Ben looked down at the comm panel in the console, his expression somewhere between horror and surprise. For nearly ten seconds, he stared silently, before
pulling his attention back to the moment. "On it. Pioneer ATC, this is Independent Ship Duskwalker declaring a medical emergency..."

***
Looking good! You seem to have cut off a line at the top, tho...

And 'Imperial Weaponry' a Heavy Bolter? Heh. Smile So this may or may not be in a 40k-lite universe?
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Heavy Bolter? Imperials? Dear sweet Kami-sama, man, you are INSANE in only the best possible ways! (^o^)
...wiggly tentacle clusters on the shoulders, organic architecture, soul-eating infective abomination...

Flood.
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
Quote: Valles said:

...wiggly tentacle clusters on the shoulders, organic architecture, soul-eating infective abomination...




Flood.
Oh dear. The Ragolians are well and truly screwed, aren't they? That is, unless, Master Chief and The Arbiter show up with an ass-load of
ODSTs and Elites. Somehow I doubt that will happen as we've only seen original characters thus far.
***

"Mesata for your thoughts?" a voice said, pulling Ben back to reality. Looking away from the view of Pioneer Two's skyline he'd been staring
out of aimlessly for the last ten minutes, he smiled slightly. Amy smiled back, standing in the hallway in a hospital gown.

"Actually, I wasn't thinking at all," he admitted. "They done with you already?"

"Not really," she replied, holding up her hands, both totally encased in a plastic cast. "They put on synth-skin and the like, but they want to
keep me in overnight. They're a little worried about how much damage that... stuff did."

"Ah. Yeah, I can see why," he admitted. "They looked pretty bad."

"Skin eaten away, flesh underneath badly scared and damaged... My knees are wrapped up too," she noted, hobbling over to a seat and sitting down
carefully. "I freaked out the doctors and staff pretty bad."

"How so?" he asked, sitting down next to her. Amy looked somewhat ill as she thought about it.

"They weren't really burns. Doctor Everett said the closest thing he'd seen to them was, well, digestion." Ben blinked, looking over at her.
"That place was, it was..." she looked over at him, still horrified. "It was eating me."

Ben placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright," he said softly. "We're out of there, and there's no way we're going back in,
right?"

"I guess," she murmured, looking out the window, Ragol visible in the 'night' sky. "I've never been so scared before," she
admitted softly. "I've been a Hunter for five years, I've seen things that would make some people lock themselves in a room and never come out.
But when I saw into that things mind..." She closed her eyes, and Ben realized she was fighting back tears. "It was evil," she whispered.
"Pure evil given life. It was like it had been broken somehow, scattered. But it's waking up. Slowly but surely, it's regaining its
strength."

Slowly, not even totally realizing he was doing it, Ben slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "You saw all that?" he asked gently.

"One of the flaws of being a psyker," she replied, slightly bitter. "When something that powerful stirs in its sleep, you can see the
dreams."

"But it's still asleep," Ben said. "It won't last forever, and those idiots poking it probably made it worse, but we still have time. It
can be stopped."

"Yeah... the Hunter's Guild and the military are already moving. They'll want to debrief all of us, but they're going down to kill it
anyway." She opened her eyes. "I'm not going back down there."

"In your current condition, you wouldn't be going back down anyway," he pointed out.

"I mean Ragol. I'm not going back down there. I can't." Ben looked at her, slightly surprised. "I can't face that thing again, and
if I go back to Ragol, I'll have to." She looked up at him. "Maybe it's cowardly of me, but..." she shrugged. "I don't
know..."

"I don't blame you," he said. "I mean, I don't want to go down there again, and I didn't get the full dose of it. But to have
something like that on what will be your homeworld..."

She nodded, looking up at Ragol again. "I think I need to get away from here for a while," she commented. "See the stars, put some distance
between me and that thing."

"Well hey, you're always welcome on the Duskwalker," he offered. She glanced over at him and smiled.

"Thanks, but... don't you need to ask the Captain?"

"Hey, I know what Chris would say in this situation," he said, looking in the direction of the solid doors leading to the Operating Room.
"I'd say he'd be the first to offer you a place."

She smiled slightly. "Thanks Ben." The smile faded slightly. "Have they let you know anything yet?"

The man shook his head, taking his hand off her shoulder. "No, not yet. It's been nearly four hours, and no one's come out of there to tell me a
damn thing. I..." he closed his eyes for a moment. "I just wish I knew how he was doing..."

***

"Well, that did us a lot of good," Skuld muttered. "We spend ages getting grilled on that disaster, and they don't even have the decency to
tell us what the heck it was."

Optimal shrugged, walking along with his hands behind his head. "What'd you expect? The secret handshake and a look at the top secret files?"

Fiona snorted. "Right... whatever those idiots were messing with down there, I get the feeling your Guild doesn't want to share anything of what it
knows about it."

"Yeah, and I for one am more then happy to leave it that way," Noriko said. "As it is, I think I'm going to have nightmares for the rest of
my life." She shuddered. "Still, at least they're sending people down there to kill it."

"You think they can?" Skuld asked. "Kill it, I mean. From what little I heard from you and those evacuees, it was huge. After all, you were
inside it."

"If it's alive, it can be killed," Optimal said. "Now can we please change the subject?"

Fiona chuckled as they left the Guild headquarters and stepped out onto the street. "A little uncomfortable with the topic Optimal?"

"Heck yeah," he muttered. "I mean, it's bad enough I hardly got to do any good, but now Chris and Amy are in the hospital."

"I did tell you Ben called with news on Amy, right?" Skuld asked.

"You did tell me, but I'm still twitchy."

Noriko sighed. "Optimal, you always do this. During a mission you're all gun-happy, getting your fix of action and violence."

"Then comes the downward mood," Skuld continued. "You get all worried and grumpy, worrying about things you can't change." He looked at
them both, and chuckled.

"Well, I guess that's true."

"You guess?" Skuld grinned. She ignored the look he gave her as she approached the areas transporter. "Anyway, forget about all that," she
said as she entered the destination code for the Guild hospital. "Let's just see to the others and put this whole mess behind us."

Fiona nodded in agreement as they stepped on, vanishing into thin air. After they left, a figure stepped out of the shadows, looking at the machine for a
moment. The pale-skinned man walked away, pulling a phone out of his suit pocket and dialing. "Yes sir, it's me. I retrieved the data you requested.
I'm afraid your suspicions were correct in regards to the situation on Ragol. I also have some information on the Hunters involved." He paused for a
long moment. "Yes sir, there were several non-Ragolians that accompanied them. I'm attempting to learn what I can of them now. Yes sir. Of course,
I'll keep you fully informed." Ending the call, he slipped into the crowd, quickly vanishing.

***

"Fiona Lockley?"

The young woman turned from her conversation with Skuld to see a man in a postal workers uniform. "Yes, that's me," she said, slightly confused.

The man took a long package out of his bag. "Parcel for you. Sign here please."

She took the clipboard, signing it where he marked. "I can't see why I'd be getting a package," she said as the man walked off. "I mean,
I've only been on Ragol for a day."

"And before that, you were floating around in space," Skuld agreed. "Kind of odd."

"Not as odd as this," Fiona said a moment later as she opened the package. Reaching in, she pulled out a longword in a lightly decorated scabbard.
She studied it for a moment, placing the package on a nearby stand, undoing the cord around the hilt and drawing the blade. "Wow," she said, looking
at the silvery blade as it gleamed in the hallway lights.

"I'll say," Ben said, looking through the box and pulling out a card. "These were just the first steps into a very dangerous galaxy. May
this gift serve you and your friends well." He looked up. "No signature." He checked the box again and whistled, pulling out a small wad of
cash. "Damn... this looks like about ten grand."

"That should cover the repairs to the slip-point manifold, right?" Fiona smiled, sheathing the sword and retying the cord. Ben glanced at her,
surprised. "What? It's not like I've got any real use for it at the moment. I might as well pay my rent."

He laughed as he put the money away. "I wouldn't say you needed to pay rent, but if you insist... I'll make sure you get the rest back." She
smiled and nodded as a door behind them opened and Colm Lang stepped out. "Doc," Ben said, the good mood fading suddenly. Everyone gathered close.

"He'll be alright," Colm said after a moment, smiling at the sighs of relief "The claw damaged several major organs, but we were able to
repair most of the damage. The rest should heal naturally over time."

"Thank God," Fiona said, bowing her head.

"We suppressed his higher brain functions at the start of the operation," he continued. "It's set to wake him up in twenty hours. Until
then, I'm afraid you'll have to wait to see him."

"Thank you Colm," Ben said, shaking his hand.

"Hey, it's what they pay me for. Plus, you guys saved my life. It'd be rude not to return the favor. Now, I'd stay and chat more, but I'm
afraid I really need some coffee." Everyone laughed politely at that and stepped out of his way as he made his way towards the elevator.

"More or less good news," Noriko said, a delighted tone in his voice.

"Compared to a few hours ago, you bet," Amy agreed. "Mind you, now I'm left wondering about a few other things."

Fiona held up her sword. "Like my secret admirer?"

"Yeah, like that," she said. "How much do you think he knows about what happened on the surface?"

"Heck with that, who is he?" Optimal wondered. "I don't like people doing us favors in secret. It usually comes back to haunt you later
on."

Ben nodded in agreement, checking the box one last time, not finding anything new. "Anyone else hungry?" he asked.

***

Captain Gareth Angelos turned away from the impressive view of the devastated research facility to see the armored form of his commanding officer approach.
"Major. Good view, isn't it?"

Major Jack Anderson nodded slightly, looking out over the facility. "Not too bad," he said. "Shame about all the dead wildlife ruining it.
Still, you do get a good view of this place. High enough to see everything that goes on outside, far enough away to avoid casual detection." He looked at
Gareth, an amused look on his face. "Something tells me that's why you had me come here."

"Pretty much," the other man said. "There were two people here. They did a damn good job of covering their tracks, but..." he shrugged,
tapping a finger against his forehead. "There are times being a psyker has benefits."

"If you say so," Jack chuckled. "How long were they here for?"

"Several days at least," he replied. "There's a tiny bit of movement, and I think one of them left for a little while. And here's the
worrying bit. They only left an hour ago."

Jack blinked, looking over at him. "And we didn't see them go?"

"Heck, it's luck I picked up the psychic traces of them," Gareth admitted. "I noticed the wildlife seemed a bit nervous about coming around
this bit. It's some sort of ward, I think. I've left it in place until we can get a team down to study it."

Jack scowled, looking around. "Okay then, so any ideas just who was watching this place?"

He shrugged, kicking a small rock. "Not much I can tell you, besides the fact it wasn't human. Thought patterns were well and truly alien." The
majors scowl deepened as he looked out over the facility.

"Reports from the Hunter team sent down and the people going through the computers now both agree that the defense grid was sabotaged," he said.
"We were thinking it was an inside job. But this..."

"You think it was these two? Turn the turrets on the staff, drop the fence and let the wildlife in?" Jack nodded slightly. "But why?"
Gareth wondered.

"Because at the time, the transporter was linked to the underground," his CO replied. "The staff panic and head for the transporter, end up
underground. Contact with this facility is lost, the decision is made to contract the Guild. The Hunters they send find the parasite, and their superiors call
ours."

"And Ragols two biggest armed forces move to deal with the threat," the captain continued. "While the aliens sit back and watch us work. Little
risk, maximum gain." He swore softly. "We've been played."

"I'll talk to the Hunters, get one of their psy-study teams down here," Jack said, walking back towards the base. "I want to know who these
slaggers are."

***

Darkness shifted rapidly to a peaceful light. Chris opened his eyes carefully, studying the ceiling above him. Not finding much there worth looking at, he sat
up slowly, noting that there was much less pain then he would have expected, given his last memories. He looked around the small hospital room, noting that
he'd been lucky enough to get a one-bed room. "Not the penthouse, but workable," he chuckled, cutting it off with a wince. Pulling the blanket
away, his eyes widened at the mass of bandages and med-seals running across his torso. "Damn..." he managed.

"Indeed," said the doctor coming through the door. Chris recognized him from back in the caverns. Amy had called him... Colm? "You suffered
extensive internal injuries," he continued. "Damaged organs, internal bleeding... quite a long list that I doubt you want the full details on,"
he said with a smile.

Chris smiled back. "I was never fond of knowing just how bad off I was," he admitted. "Although I would expect it to hurt a lot more."

The Doctor tapped the side of his forehead. "We attached a neuroprocessor," he said. Chris reached up, his hand brushing over a small metal disc on
his left temple. "It's running a pain editor now."

"Beats being doped up on painkillers," Chris commented, rig before a small group came in around Colm, laughing and cheering. "Heya guys,"
he grinned. "Did I miss the paperwork?"

"Are you kidding?" Ben said, shaking his hand. "We used you as an excuse to put off doing it."

"Such compassion for the injured," his best friend replied as Fiona hugged him carefully.

"Yeah, pretty much," Ben agreed with a smile.

"You scared the hell out of us," Amy said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. Chris noted the thick medical gloves she was wearing, not realizing
they'd been wrapped up a lot more until a few hours ago.

Still, it didn't stop him from commenting that, all things considered, he'd have preferred if she'd won the award for worst injury, which got a few
chuckles from the group.

Colm remained near the door, watching the scene with a slight smile on his face.

***

Ben was sitting in a chair, reading a book and half-listening to Chris as he talked on the phone. A slight smirk appeared on his face as Chris tried to explain
the situation to his mother.

"Well, I'm hardly dancing around, but I'm doing alright. Well, yeah, I do have a lot of plastics and synthetic flesh inside me," he admitted,
"but most of it will be taken out soon enough. No, there's no point in you... mum, you're a month away by starliner. By the time you get here, I
should be out of here. Well, yeah, there are faster ways to travel, but given how much they cost... mum, seriously, it does mean a lot to me that you'd be
willing to do it, but I'd rather you didn't hurt your bank accounts like that."

Chris continued to talk to his mother for another five minutes or so, before ending the call and placing the phone on the side table. "How'd she
sound?" Ben asked.

He shrugged. "About what you'd expect really. Upset, worried, panicky, relieved that I'm not dying, wanting to come and look after me but
admitting she's too far away." He thought about that for a long moment. "She didn't try and convince me to come home, even to visit."

Ben chuckled. "Well, she knows that if she started on that topic, you'd assume she was starting on the 'come home and have a safe life' thing
again. You'd get grumpy, she'd get offended, and then we get the argument the both of you try so hard to avoid." Chris nodded, accepting the
point, turning his attention back to the ceiling.

They sat there in silence for a little while longer, before Ben looked back up from his book. "Oh, and before I forget to ask... again, Amy was wondering
if she could come with us when we ship out." Chris glanced over at him, raising an eyebrow. "I'm serious. She wants to get away from Ragol for a
bit, away from whatever the heck that thing down there was. So she was wondering if she could come with us."

"Crew, or passenger?" Chris asked. "Because having a Hunter on the crew could be useful."

"Actually, I didn't ask her about that," his friend chuckled. "I should have, but I got distracted. Knowing Amy though, she might not mind
doing a bit of work."

Nodding, Chris considered it. "Well, I'm more then happy to have her on board. Hell, extra pair of hands, good friend, and a chance for you to push
forward on the 'relationship' issue." Ben gave him a half-hearted glare, getting a laugh in return. "Yes sir, things are certainly going to
be interesting."

***

"Okay, move it over, easy, easy..."

"Careful, that's my hand."

"Ah, I'll get you another one," Ben grunted as he and Fiona carefully lowered a large part of the manifold onto a small grav platform. Wiping at
her forehead, Fiona tapped the platforms control panel, sending it back down to the docking bay floor far below them. "How many more of those are
there?" she asked.

"Another five," he replied, smiling at the groan he got in return. "Hey, you offered to help out."

"Yeah, I know. If I'm going to travel with you guys, I should earn my keep." She rolled her eyes. "Mind you, I was expecting an extra pair
of hands."

"So I'm a little late," came a call from the floor. Ben leaned over the edge of the lift to see Amy walking towards them, clad in some old work
clothes. "I got a call from the Guild on the way here. Had to stop off and talk to them."

"What about?" Ben asked, lowering the lift back to the ground.

"A few final things they wanted to go over one more time," she said. "The review board makes its final statement tomorrow at one."

"What have they really got to add?" Fiona wondered, opening the gate and hopping off the lift."I mean, they're not going to tell us what
that thing was, are they?"

The Ragolian shrugged. "I doubt it," she admitted."But hey, it's the way the world works. You guys were hired to do a job, so they need to
review everything."

"And then we get paid," Ben said with some satisfaction. "That part, I'm looking forward to," he added, grinning. The girls chuckled as
he pulled his gloves off. "So, how are the hands?"

Amy laughed. "Oh, they're just fine, thank you. But I don't need to stress them with heavy lifting, do I?" she asked.

"It is pretty much what we're doing today," Fiona said with a grin.

Shaking her head, Amy merely smiled. "No, I think I'll just exploit my natural advantages." Fiona blinked, slightly confused at Amys amusement,
before Ben tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to the manifold block, now hovering a foot above its platform.

The young woman looked at it for a moment, then looked back at Amy in surprise. "You're a telekinetic?" she asked.

"Yeah... I thought you knew," Amy said, looking at Ben.

"I didn't mention it," he said. The Ragolian chuckled, looking amused. "I'd have thought one of us would've mentioned it," he
added. "That's not a problem is it?" he asked.

"Oh, no, of course not!" Fiona said. "I.. just took me by surprise, that's all." She looked over at Amy. "I thought you would have
used it in the fighting."

"Oh, I did," she smiled. "There's more to being a teek then just lifting stuff." Fiona considered that, then nodded, accepting the
point. "So. What's next?"

"We get back up there and pull out more manifold parts," Ben said, climbing back on the lift.

***

It took nearly a month for Chris to be discharged from hospital, his body having slowly been knitted back together. In that time, Duskwalker had been given
some much needed repairs to the slip-space manifold (Along with some mock-complaints from Ben about Chris slacking off), Fiona and Amy had used the chance to
actually clean out the dirt and grime, both agreeing that if they were going to live there, it might as well be good to look at, and Ben had managed to track
down a transport run that would take them in the direction of New Wales.

At the same time, they were all called to testify at Justin Osbourne's trial, the Ragol government getting it done in almost total secrecy and record time.
It seemed that they had a very dim view on people foolish enough to break the underground restrictions and wake up whatever was slumbering down there.

Much to the frustration of Chris, Fiona, Skuld and at least several other people, Amy and Ben seemed to still be lingering at the same point in their
friendship. Chris made a note to see what he could do about that once they were in deep space.

Eventually though, the time came for them to move on. After saying their final farewells to their friends, the now four strong crew (Five, if you counted Amys
Mag) closed Duskwalkers cargo bay doors and headed up to the control room.

"I still can't believe you installed air fresheners," Ben muttered as he dropped into the pilots chair, hands darting over the dozens of switches
to his right.

"What? This place smelt too... musty," Fiona mused.

"I liked that smell. It was peaceful."

"You did get something other then strawberry, right?" Chris asked. "I hate strawberries."

"Everyone's a critic," Amy chuckled at the comm station. "Ragol ATC, this is Duskwalker, requesting departure clearance..."

Five minutes later, the bulky ship was pulling away from Pioneer Two slowly, taking a wide arc around the planet to enjoy the view one last time.

"You know, that thing's still down there," Ben mused.

"Doesn't ruin the view," Amy said. "Besides, it may be powerful, but it's up against a lot of resistance." She smiled.
"We'll claim our world."

"Well, in the meantime, let's see what other worlds are out there," Chris commented. "Ben, set a course for the slip-space limit."

"You got it Captain," Ben said, adjusting the throttle. Engines glowing, Duskwalker dived into the void.

***

Duskwalker

By Chris Wood

Starring

(In Order of Appearance)

Ben Cook

Chris Wood

Fiona Lockley

Amy Rose

Skuld Ellison

Noriko

Optimal

Colm Lang

Justin Osbourne

Gareth Angelos

Jack Anderson

Along with some nameless Extras

Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Story-Either

Big Daddy

With Thanks To

Optimal Megatron

Unicorna

Sofaspud

And all my other fans (All six or seven of you Tongue)

The crew of Duskwalker will return in 'Duskwalker: Homecoming'

2006, reposted 2009
I liked this story a lot. Thank you for posting it.
*Blows the dust off this sucker, nearly chokes to death.*

Er, hey! Sorry about the horrible necro... but it's been a little too quiet on the forums as of late... and I don't have anything worthwhile to post as of yet... and I figured that I might as well ask if you're ever gonna continue writing this wonderful little gem?
*Cries* Oh, how I wish. There's a second story half written that stalled out with a bad case of writers block, but the real kicker is that I haven't managed to write anything for about six months now. Every time I open a document, my brain just stops working. It's driving me insane. There has been a possible Duskwalker story floating around my head though... I'll have to give it a try.
Well, if I may say so, I'm pleased it was necro'd? I'm pretty sure I've never read this. Might have heard references to it in passing, but never twigged that it was an actual story. (EDIT: As MD has pointed out, I was following the thread, since I posted in the thread. Apparently I plain forgot this existed. But I'm still glad it was necro'd.) It's cool. If a little odd for me to see people I interact with regularly (if virtually) given the retro-UF not-quite-SI character treatment. But cool. It's well done, MD.
-- Acyl
Ooof!  Ouch!
Is this the sort where you can't come up with anything at all, or the sort where you have ideas, but can't get them to translate into words-on-paper?
If its the former, then what I suggest is that you invite someone to collaborate.  You said you wanted it to be like the Undocumented Features universe, well that would never have gotten off the ground if ReRob, Megazone, and Gryphon never worked on it together.
If it's the latter...  Whooo.  That's a lot tougher.  Typically what I do is that I muscle through it.  Kinda go back to basics with each character, sketch out their dialogue and reactions in a rough draft, and then flesh it out later.  This is very tough because you will go through several iterations before you get something that feels right.  This is how I've been able to maintain what Dartz called the 'relentless output' I had on Being You is Suffering.
If you want to, go ahead and hit up my email - my username with no spaces at the google mail domain.  I'll be more than happy to help you brainstorm.
Interesting story. More would be loved.
 
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