Gunman Chronicles - A story my friend wrote that I wanted to share

[TheOnlyGhost]

This was written back in 2007 from a friend of mine, I thought it would be cool to share:



Video version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=115QqhuArYQ

Note ...

The story has a lot more to it then the video.
Prologue: Banzare Prime: Science Facility disaster

A giant blue and green sphere appeared, it was the usual warp points that the gunmen use to travel long distances in a blink of an eye, almost like a wormhole. It was called "entering Kataspace" which meant, where your destination was unknown until you enter the warp hole. Once you go in, all you see is blue and green as they circle around you until all of a sudden you appear in a place completely different. That was the goal of this mission ; to warp to Banzare Prime Science Facility to observe what has been going down on the planet because they received a strange signal. It was rumored that it was a simple mission to go investigate a communications breakdown, but they always say things like that to make us feel better. The signal seemed more than a simple "communications breakdown," but none of us knew what the fuck was going on ; instead we all just remained quiet the majority of the trip, observing all of the scenery. Five drop ships, and the generals' ship appeared from the warp hole. The drop ships were a simple gray, that could hold a maximum of 400 gunmen at one time. They were quite large, powered by a nuclear power plant located in the rear of the drop ship which powered the four massive space engines to give it thrust and maneuverability. The general had a simple space fighter, about the size of a pea compared to a drop ship. The space fighter was equipped with the most devastating Gunmen weapon possible, known as the lightning ball. It is also equipped with large heat seeking rockets which were able to penetrate through a majority of the thickest armor. The generals' ship is the only one that carried weapons, since the drop ships have no weapons. They make up for this with the thickest, strongest metals possible and make it very light and fast and maneuverable to dodge enemy attacks keeping the gunmen safe inside.

Banzare Prime was a dull, rocky planet. Nothing but a ugly rocky surface, yet it did have some vegetation here and there. Otherwise it was just plain ol' boring rock. Why are we even here? It looks like a meaningless planet to visit, but hey ... it is worthwhile to fill our curiosity about it. As we entered the atmosphere, all we could see were blueish dust clouds ; yet when we penetrated through that, we could see a massive and beautiful canyon that stretched for miles and miles, it was impossible to see where it ended for it was so big ; yet there was no time to explore ... our mission was simple. Get in, check it out, and then leave. What a waist too, for we began to fly over a beautiful blue colored ocean that led to a large peninsula full of giant mountains and some slight vegetation in scarce areas. The planet wasn't full of enough vegetation and water to live very long on though, so it isn't full of people very often. It was more of a planet that was a short vacation for about two weeks before you had to leave, because you would run out of food that you had packed. Strangely enough though, the planet hasn't been visited in over a century lately. What exactly happened down here?

The drop ships landed on the rocky surface of the planet finally, as the massive bulky doors opened letting all the Gunmen out. They didn't fuck around, for they all ran quickly and jumped out not waisting any time. It took about an hour or so for everyone to get out and ready as we all started to get in lines waiting for the general to give us his orders ... "Alright Gunmen," the general started, "...welcome to Banzare Prime, we will start with the Science Facility, and find out why we lost contact. Vegna, take your first platoon and cover the surrounding area."

Quick and to the point.

"Sir, yes sir!"

God I hate being bossed around all the time, but hey ... it comes with the job.

We started walking down a rocky hill, until someone had to open their annoying little mouth shortly after the generals speech ... "General ; this is the first platoon, I can see the facility down below." ... I could see the general observe what we were doing through his binoculars to see how things were going, making sure everything was going well. Another gunman reported to the general ... "The signal is reported in, we are in sight of the base..," "...Good, I can't see a damn thing from here..." replied the general. He is kind of an edgy guy, and didn't like to be confused by his surroundings.

We finally reached the facility, it's entrance and structure was made from an unusual rocky surface. It was very obvious that the planet indeed, hasn't been visited for over a century. The rocks were cracked, old, as if it was about to fall apart. As we finally reached the massive steel doors, they were covered in green vines as they almost started consuming the facility. I noticed a green clearance button near the left side of the door that grants access to the facility, so I decided to try it out. "Is anyone home?" No answer, the doors simply opened revealing a greenish glow from whatever was inside. I decided to send in about 200 gunmen inside to investigate before we all entered, but the doors slammed shut. Not to worry though, the gunmen that went inside shut it on purpose in case anything bad escaped. "They are in, everything is quiet here sir..." mentioned a gunman as they entered the facility.

The other gunmen that were outside, and on top of the facility couldn't find anything. I noticed an interesting plant not to far away from the facility. It might have been the reason that the vegetation was spreading, yet for some reason this plant seemed different. In fact, it was a whole new species never discovered yet. The plant was the size of a couple of skyscrapers on Earth! "Damn! What kind of plant is that? They are everywhere down here..." mentioned another gunman. The plant was mainly white, except the top of it almost seemed to have veins like a leaf would have on a tree that supplied it water or other nutrients. There was a large hole that led inside the plants insides, probably to absorb rain into it's stomach to give it better growth, for trees on Earth do a similar thing. I decided to call it "The ALPHA species" and gave it a code name of "Xenome..." which meant it was an unknown alien species that habited this planet.

Shortly after, I noticed a lone gunman on top of the facility and I asked him ... "Do you see anything?" ... "No, his radio is dead ... try signaling him.".. mentioned another gunmen. I couldn't think of anything but to wave my hand like a student trying to get a teachers' attention. He saw my hand signal and replied ..."No, nothing up here, anything down there?"

"Nothing down here..." I replied, making sure he could hear me well enough, and clear enough to understand me. I decided to scope the area, so I walked away from the facility to look at more of the ALPHA species that grew everywhere ... it was obvious it was the dominate vegetation on this planet. Other than that, a couple of rare grass patches and dead bushes. Another gunman decided to join me and said something obvious ... "We are looking for any survivors."

No shit ... idiot.

I didn't waist my time to reply to that, so I just walked away from the stupid prick. I could see him in the distance as he found something on the ground. I couldn't see that well, so I decided to head back and I could barely hear what he was saying ... yet I could still hear him well enough to get the gist. "Huh? Looks like a pair of glasses."

Glasses? It must be part of the science team, they always wear glasses when they do scientific experiments. It hints that there might be survivors after all.

That didn't last long though, for the ALPHA species started to move. All of a sudden a giant head full of razor sharp teeth appeared out of the plant as I observed in shock a giant shadow fall over the helpless gunman. The stupid guy didn't really notice it until it was to late. The ALPHA species swallowed him whole with ease. "Fuck! Those plants are alive and dangerous ... let's get the hell out of here!"

All of us started running, yet the ground began to shake. "What the fuck?" The ALPHA species, to our surprise started coming out of the ground as they began consuming more gunmen. Each plant easily ate 100 - 200 gunmen in one gulp.

This isn't good!

The general saw this straight away and headed right to his ship immediately to save our asses. I could barely hear him, but he managed to say ... "What the hell is going on? Hold on boys, I'm coming!" He ran to his fighter as fast as his feet could possibly carry him as he quickly got in his ship and armed his heat - seeking missiles. He didn't waist anytime as he began to take off.

About time!

The plants continued consuming more gunmen, they were dropping like flies! I had to evade about ten of them barely getting away from the monsters. All my friends died right in front of my eyes! "God fucking damn it! Hurry up general!" The plants couldn't reach a couple of gunmen for they were to far away, it seemed that hope started to save our asses, but it didn't last very long. The fuckers had sticky tongues like a chameleon! One of them twirled it's tongue around more gunmen, eating them like a bag of chips ... all in one setting without stopping! The general finally appeared out of the clouds as he launched two heat - seeking rockets into one of the plants ; into it's under torso. The plant screeched, but it seemed not to even give it a scratch. The plant must be protected by some kind of heavy skin.

I could see another gunman in the distance as he drew his duel laser pistols as he fired towards the plants tongue. To my surprise, the powerful penetrating laser cells bounced off ... almost as if that stupid tongue was a mirror that could easily bend light off of it. The plant ate the poor guy in a blink of an eye, it was another friend of mine! "Retreat! Now! To the drop ships!"

Everyone started to run to the drop ships, totally agreeing with my order ... yet more of the plants started to appear from out of the ground. There were at least twenty, thirty ... no forty of these vicious plants blocking our way. It would be worse to go around them, for there was more of them in that direction and it would take more time, we had no choice but to push straight threw and just keep running without looking back. I could hear the plants behind me, consuming the gunmen 50 plus at a time, almost at the speed of light! Our numbers were sky rocketing down through the floor! I barely was able to dodge the giant plants, one was even able to chow down on my varigun that was attached to my backpack, but it was better than my head at least.

All of a sudden there was a plant in front of me! It was impossible to go forward, for it would consume me easily. I skidded to a stop as I immediately about faced running from the fucker. He pounded the ground, trying to inch his way towards me. He managed to stick out his tongue trying to lure me into his jaws. It JUST got out of reach as the general shot another dose of missiles at the plant, making my path clear as the plant was briefly stunned. This helped the other surviving gunmen behind me as well ... yet sadly, they didn't live very long ... we were eventually down to only 200 gunmen left!

What the hell! We are going to die down here! No wonder no one is here, they were all eaten!

The general went towards another plant as he switched weapons quickly to the lightning ball, the most powerful weapon possible that we carried! The ball went straight into the middle of the plant's middle torso, but it simple screeched and shrugged it off! The things won't die! "How do we kill those things?!" ... "I don't know Vegna, but we don't have a prayer ; we have no choice but to keep running towards the d...", he wasn't able to finish his sentence as the poor bastard that literally was standing next to me, got eaten for dinner! "Fuck!!" We finally were close to the drop ships but only six of us were left. SIX! Six out of 2000, including the general!

We were so close to the drop ships, literally only feet away until I heard something behind me. I turned around quickly as I was running backwards to the drop ships as I observed the generals ship get attacked and consumed by the plant! It was to late! There was nothing we could do! We had no choice but to hop in the drop ships and leave. I took one of the drop ships and jumped my ass into the captains' chair as the other gunmen got in. We left the other drop ships, so we could get the fuck out of there! I couldn't stop crying as I boosted the engines to the max, exiting the planets' atmosphere in the blink of an eye. "All my friends, the general ... everyone ... dead ... just ... dead." The other four gunmen didn't know what to say or what to think. All they did was cry, and shiver like crazy from being dramatized by the terrifying experience. "What do we do now Vegna?" ... "We return to the base, there is nothing left here to do."

We went back through the portal we entered from as we finally reached the base ... our home away from home.

.................

"No! Where...where are you going? Who made the order? Come back here! I'm alive! I'm still alive!..." said the general, but it was to late. Everyone was gone, and abandoned the planet, as the plant dragged him back into his hole, back into his home under the ground...

...

[TheOnlyGhost]

Video version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QISZ26VFWeE

Note ... the video does NOT include everything in the story, and many things are missing. Reading the story is a lot better than the videos, plus ... it is missing dialect from the main character. These videos just give you a better idea of stuff.
Chapter One: Back at home away from home

...

"Good morning Major Vegna!..."

I kind of lost track of everything that happened afterwards for a little bit. Everyone heard of the disaster, but all I did was look at the ground and say nothing. I couldn't get the terrible visions that I saw. I was in the space elevator now ... heading towards the main bulk of the space station ... or should I say asteroid? Who knows anymore, I have no idea what's going on. It's been five years from that disaster and it seemed to go quickly and I still can't get anything out of my head about it, but who would expect to? That kind of stuff sticks in your mind for the rest of your life, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. The stupid computer announcement kept talking to me, but all I did was listen ... I didn't bother saying anything, I just dealt with it...

"...The following news highlights have been coming for your special interests..."

My special interests? Is that supposed to make me feel better? Stupid machine.

A gunman in an observation window was across from me as he saluted me. I simply shrugged and saluted him back as I kept riding the stupid elevator to the briefing room section of the asteroid. For some odd reason, they want every single gunman to attend. Some kind of important meeting I guess, I have no idea why...

"..That courtesy specialists have for you..."

What the hell?

"...For further information on any..."

I kind of blocked out of what the stupid machine was going to say next as I observed a fighter craft lifting off to probably scout the area for any trouble. It was the same fighter that the general used five years ago, big surprise and how ironic.

"...on any topic you can call us at any moment you want. Be sure to supply your resume ID for further discount..."

Discount on what? Depression?

"...Reports from the front lines are grim. The department of colonizations confirmed there are twelve additional frontier planets that have been infested by the Xenome species, and there are more than one that you discovered Major Vegna. So far, we discovered four more species but we are sure that there are more than that..."

Great...more good news.

"...inspired by the arrival of massive amounts of gunman troops, and panic continues to spread amongst the colonists as that have pilot civilian evacuations that have begun to mount the deal with colonial mandate..."

Huh? What is it talking about?

"...While critics warn the outbreak of hostilities of so many fronts forced them to reach their breaking points. Gunman leaders deny these speculations. Still... despite the sustained fight over several weeks, even the gunman leaders can not deny that casualties are high..."

Well imagine that, how wonderful!

"...After the first time in its' history the different species is failing with the possibility of colonized worlds being infected to a belligerent, predatory alien race. Scientists report the recent arrivals of gunman aero specimens to the intelligence facility, while complete mapping of salvaged tissue remains difficult, there are rumors that there are deposits of a massive alien race, correlated between neural symbols, rescued by several different worlds. Experts discount such claims as vehicle projectory, when it is difficult to know from what is fact and what is fantasy..."

I have no idea what most of this "gibberish" means. This thing is way to technical with words, it's quite annoying.

"...With charting demonic traces. We have more outrageous claims of a wild blood thirsty alien species made out of entirely of shadow, which have been recently caused much upset to colonial groups. Last we heard from Doctor Proclorian that about a billion scientists and fighters are in the zone of foolish disclosures of a conference that state his beliefs that the Xenomes have been genetically modified and deliberately placed on inhabited planets by an unknown faction..."

Proclorians' voice began to speak over a loud speaker within the elevator...

"...I demand an investigation on the neutral party on all related to the infestation including a complete review of their unlawfully based on the colonizations and administrators that could have restrained this threat when it was neg liable, just to sacrifice revenues and in danger their profits...."

The loudspeaker switched off, as it went back to the machine...

"DNC officials decline the response of Dr. Proclorian except to one that invoked the classification of all such documents as top secret under the predatory species act. Lawyers from both sides continue to prepare for the undoubtedly protracted battle. Today, in technology, all gunman troops are being honored a new line of the federal first five years of frontier inventors. Soldiers have volunteered to use prototype models to use for planetary situations. Thank god for the better technology for Xenome warfare. The workers try to supply gunman troops with the latest weapon models, and plan to continue to ship them to gunman troops on a regular basis. Major Vegna, you will start training with these weapons today..."

Good?

"...Next week marks the five year anniversary of the terrible Banzare Prime incident, where the first Xenome species have been discovered by you ... major Vegna..."

Thanks ... I guess.

"...These Xenomes took the lives of 2000 gunman, and their beloved, selfless general. His brave actions are on view on the gunman tour, that spread the true official word of the Xenome plague. Memorials will be prepared among the western side of the space station. A good friend of the frontier plan on blowing up the super nova "Valkyrie" in the generals' honor..."

Just than, one of the other majors of a gunman group came on the loudspeaker speaking about this "honor"...

"He said he always wanted to go out with a bang. We think a super nova is only fitting..."

That's slightly funny cheering me up a little bit, but not much. Back to the damn machine though.

"...You were with the general on Bazare Prime weren't you major Vegna? If you wish to book a pass to the Valkyrie system to watch the generals' honor ceremony, you have ten days of vacation at your disposal. Shall I make the tentative reservations? Major Vegna...major Vegna...major Vegna?"

I decided not to reply to that stupid machine, instead I immediately exited the elevator as fast as humanly possible, I flicked it off on my way out just for giggles. As I exited, I saw another one of my good friends observing some of the computer systems. There were a whole bunch of M.U.L.E. cases located everywhere on the floor, but they were all empty. They were all probably being used in basic gunman training. "The equipment on this station is wearing out major Vegna, must be all the asteroid grit." ... "You bet, I agree with that. Sorry buddy, I just don't feel like talking very much today, I hope you understand."..."Yeah, that's fine major Vegna, a lot of gunman are waiting for you to head for the briefing room. It's over there to your left down the main left corridor of this area."

Thanks.

I just grunted and gave a little smile as I walked towards the briefing room to be greeted by about 500 gunmen all staring me in the face.

Great...what did I do now?

One of the commanding officers began to talk to the small platoon, pointing all of their attention to me ... "Attention! Men! I have the honor and pleasure of introducing you to this man. One of the very few survivors of Banzare Prime. He knew the general personally. The general saved him and the rest of his troops by his glorious sacrifice. But the general knew ... no gunman leaves another gunman behind. It was his duty!"

One of the other gunman gloating over me decided to ask the C.O. something ... "What is our mission sir?" ... "We received a suspicious signal beacon on an uncharted jungle planet nearby. You men have been assigned to investigate and take action! There is a chance that we will find the whole source of the Xenome infestation there, and the ones that are rumored to be behind this. You will be leaving as soon as the small drop ships have been prepared. I hope you are ready to kick some Xenome ass! Just like the general would have ... dismissed!" ... "Sir, yes sir!"

I took a brief breather as I smiled at the C.O. and the other gunman and thanked them all, as well as giving my respect ... "Sir, yes sir!" The C.O. told me to practice on the firing range while we all await for the drop ships to arrive. "I might as well sir, I have nothing better to do. I also heard I get to try out the new weapons, so I will be on my way right now to the shooting range. I will be able to blaze through it with ease, and once I'm done, the drop ships would be here by then. Goodbye, and thank you sir!"

The right corridor led to the weapons range, it was time to head that way now. A force field blocked my way, and I didn't have any access to the area. The gunman sitting on the bench guarding this particular corridor smiled and gave me clearance without any hesitation, for he damn well knew who I was. On my way to the firing range, I found one of the lieutenants looking out the sealed air locked window ; one of the observation areas of thousands on the space station. He was looking at the bulkiest part of the asteroid that this space station was attached to. He seemed to find something of interest by the way he was looking out of the window, as he held his hand and his weight on the air locked window.

"What do you see of interest out there soldier?"

"Well, I...."

A fighter craft came out of nowhere, it was the same one I had seen before in the elevator. It was going to dock with the space stations, but it had an engine failure. The thing was spiraling out of control as it hit the side of the asteroid cracking the glass and breaking it. Thank god the immediate force fields activated to prevent us from being sucked into space.

"...Well, it looked like another damaged aircraft. It was good that we looked out for that don't you think? We should get out of here and keep moving, I have stuff to do and I know you do as well. Follow me."

I didn't see any reason not to follow the guy, so I decided to go with it. The accident broke a metal bar above us as it blocked our way, it was no problem though for we both ducked under it as we continued on through. Another one shortly up ahead was lodged into the ground, we were forced to jump over it. It looked like that ship caused more damage then we both expected, so we decided to pick up the pace a little bit in case something happened.

A ladder was up ahead, and we had to climb it ; but before we reached it, parts of metal and glass came crashing down almost cutting us. "Uh oh...I will stay down here and fix this, you go ahead and climb the ladder major Vegna, I will meet you up there when I'm done and seal this corridor off temporarily until the damage is fixed down here." With out hesitation, I went up the ladder as I waited for about ten minutes before he joined me. There was a large gap in front of both of us, probably where the small collapse occurred. It took a big jump for us to get over it, but we both managed quite quickly. We got to a forcefield that joined with the next corridor, he didn't have any clearance but I did!

"Sir, I don't have clearance to open this force field but you do!" ... "I know, thanks, I will open it now." ... "We got to get out of here..." There was a small opening below us, but cracked glass was in the way. Luckily, there was a knife sitting on a table nearby. I quickly took it as I smashed the glass. Unfortunately the fall was pretty high as I slightly injured myself.

That was pretty stupid.

"Looks like you're hurt, there is a medical station nearby to patch you up. I will find an easier way down sir."

Thanks a lot.

I decided to use the medical station, which was the most technically advanced medical device the gunmen had. It looked like a candy machine almost, and all you had to do was put the palm of your hand on the switch and let it heal your wounds. It can heal the smallest pitiful wound, and the worst wounds imaginable, even a blown off arm or leg! Eventually we both met at the same place, and went down another winding corridor into a big room. The lieutenant was simply sitting by a large bulky table away from the force field. I had a good feeling why based on the crash as I entered the room, for I was right too. I saw Jones, one of the rookies get sucked out by a malfunctioning forcefield. They managed to turn it on before I got sucked out, but it was to late for Jones, the poor bastard. "I hate god damn ship failures, they fuck up everything in that certain corridor. Whoever built this station on an asteroid is one stupid guy." We were forced to enter a small ventilation shaft to get out, so we had to crawl through and break part of it to continue on. We finally made it to the firing range, and out of the mess. Everything was fine here at least so thank god for that.

"I'm going to stay here major Vegna and fix up this mess, go ahead and practice at the firing range to pass the time."

The firing range was a piece of cake for most of the weapons, since I have used them before ; but there are new ones now that not many have used yet, one of which is the Mecha gun. First was the laser pistol firing range, the easiest out of all of them. I was about to skip right past it, but they showed a holographic image of one of the new Xenome species they had found. It was a tiny ugly little thing. It only had two legs, and it didn't have any eyes. According to the stats written on a piece of paper, it hunted based on it's superior hearing. It hopped around like a kangaroo, and when it hunted, it likes to flip in the air and jump on it's prey as it tears apart it's flesh with it's sharp teeth. The tiny thing was about two feet tall, maybe three ; yet they were still surprisingly very vicious, and ugly too. They made some kind of hissing or growling like noise to communicate with other Xenome species, so each Xenome seems to act as a team with one another.

How interesting.

After I read that, I skipped right next to the next area which was the varigun. I used that so many times, I didn't even bother doing that. I wanted the fun and new ones to grab my hands on, so I decided to skip right ahead to the beefy mecha gun. "This is going to be a real good time!" When I entered the mecha gun arena, there was a cylinder in front of me that could be moved up and down by a touch of a button that revealed a holographic image of that new jumping Xenome species I read about earlier ; it was the target practice.

"Welcome to the Mecha gun firing range, please read all safety precautions..."

Safety, not even worth it, I'm a trained soldier for Christs' sake!

"...You will be using one Mecha gun unit to attack your holographic target..."

The machine was quite annoying, explaining everything to me so I just dealt with it. I heard a small noise behind me as I watched a little door open on the floor as a small platform began to rise with the Mecha gun and ammo sitting right in front of my grasp. Without any hesitation, I took the gun and loaded it. I observed it was a heavy son of a bitch, but I could manage fairly well. I noticed two notches at the tip of the gun, it looked like something could be attached to it, but I couldn't think of anything that would. All of a sudden, the cylinder hiding the holographic image opened and revealed that ugly pouncy thing.

"You need 300 damage points to score, notice you will have to overheat your weapon to obtain these points. Warning ... overheating results in waisted ammunition, you may fire when ready."

I flicked off the machine pointing my new gun at it making it look like I was threatening the stupid thing. "Don't make me give you some 'damage points' you stupid machine!" I sighed as I held my gun up to the holographic image and set the Mecha gun to fast mode in order to score the 300 points within the time limit. Each shot that gets through to the target gives me 10 points each, so I have to hit it 30 times. With fast mode on, the tip of the gun begins to rotate which doubles the normal firing speed, but obviously overheats twice as fast. I let loose countless bullets as the gun overheated very quickly. When the gun overheats, it starts turning a reddish color as it's electrical circuitry goes haywire making it fire at full speed uncontrollably, you can not stop it until it cools down to get the built in electrical systems' heat down so the gun is controllable again. I barely got the 300 damage points, but I got to move on.

"Please return your Mecha gun to the weapon box before you move on." There was a force field in my way with no clearance button, so I couldn't take the mecha gun with me. I put it in the box as the force field opened. The next area, and final area was the explosives range. It was also to practice with a tank that is used for ground war on planets. The tanks are transported via the drop ships, and need quite a lot of fuel to make it run, but those things are impervious to a lot of weapons ; it is one bad ass piece of machinery.

...

"Welcome to the vehicle training course. I know what you're thinking, what good is it to have a tank in space? It's meant for ground areas sir, as we transport them via the small drop ships or the large ones. The instructor is waiting inside for you major Vegna."

"Thanks..." I entered the area, and there it was! It was a gunman tank! The tank is powered by a variety of things which include duel heavy machine guns mounted on the front, a heat seeking missile system to use against airborne targets, and the primary shell launcher like on any other tank that launches a large 500 caliber or higher shell. The armor is thick, and can withstand any gunman weapon except of a slight few which includes the M.U.L.E. and the lightning gun, and even with those ... these things can last on the battle field for a long time. The instructor wanted me to drive the tank over to the explosives range area and to also test out the machine gun for the other two weapons' systems were deactivated ... "We are in an asteroid after all Vegna, so the other weapons have been disabled."

Yeah, I know. Don't make me point these guns at you.

I drove it to the range as instructed walking towards the explosives' range as an announcement from the machine said .. "Welcome to the explosives range, extreme caution is advised. You will be issued grenades at this point..." A grenade appeared in front of me, and as I picked it up, it was in some sort of cone, perhaps to hold the grenade inside to prevent it from accidentally being triggered.

"...Remove the nose cone and carefully extract the grenade core, throw the core at the holographic image."

Sounds easy enough, but before I through it .. it was another holographic image of a Xenome species, and another new one at that. This one was about eight feet tall, and had tiny arms and long legs. It didn't have any teeth or anything that I could see, just a small tiny mouth. I don't see how this thing was a threat, for there was no information on it for it was just a simple sighting. It almost looked like a flower, for it's head was shaped like the head of a dandelion as tubes of some sort stuck out in all directions of the Xenome. The tubes seemed to be used for something, but again ... no information was known about this particular species. It must have been recently discovered compared to that tiny, vicious, ugly thing.

I threw the grenade at the image with ease as the grenade exploded, and got rid of the holographic image. A door on the floor opened revealing a M.U.L.E. to practice with. Basically the M.U.L.E. was mainly used as a missile launcher, but it could be used as a grenade launcher as well. The instructor unleashed out target droids, which were active defenseless robotic targets to be used in this training course. "I suggest to use the homing option on your M.U.L.E. for it is easy to see that the homing option is the best choice against aerial enemies. Don't set the M.U.L.E. on cluster mode accidentally though, keep it on explosive, for cluster is meant for ground targets."

I noticed a couple of buttons on the launcher, and tested which ones did which and I got a hang of it pretty easily and pretty quickly which was a good thing. The M.U.L.E. had two large shafts that held the grenades, two grenades were already built into the M.U.L.E. so it could hold a maximum of eight grenades all together. After every time the M.U.L.E. launches a grenade/missile, the shaft expands to the right or left depending which one fired first, and then retreats back into the launcher as the next grenade is set in the shaft to fire the next grenade. Basically, it was how the M.U.L.E. reloaded each time it fired a missile. It did the same thing, except simultaneously when I used the spiral enhancement to do double the damage. Eventually I got tired of practicing, so I had to return the M.U.L.E. before heading back up the elevator to await the arrival of the small drop ships. When I got up the elevator to the top floor, the launch doors were to my right guarded by a lone gunman as he awaited for all of us to put on our armor first before lifting off. I went to the room across from the launch doors and put the armor on that was left on the table for me with my name stickied on it letting me know I took the right one ... "Looks like a good fit, good luck on your mission sir!" ... I didn't notice another gunman getting his armor near me, but at least he gave me a comment. "Thanks, I appreciate that ; hope to be back soon so I can relax more, for I need it."

When I got to the launch doors, they opened with ease granting me access to the drop ship landing bay. An orange force field was to my left, as it was used for the drop ships to enter and exit the space station. Nothing else could go through, no weapons, no space fighters, nothing but drop ships. It was incredible technology, I even had the opportunity of watching one of the small drop ships blast off towards the jungle planet. The smaller drop ships had two engines instead of the four on the larger versions. They were simply meant for reconnaissance missions mainly. Another one lay in wait to be boarded, it looked like that was my ticket to the jungle planet. As I entered the drop ship, a few gunmen greeted me ... "Welcome aboard major Vegna."

...

[TheOnlyGhost]

Chapter Two: The Jungle Planet

I could hear the drop ships land, as it kind of got a little shaky. I feel asleep during the ride, so I didn't know what really to expect. As my eyes adjusted I could see the gunmen start to jump out and gather around in one area to tell us what we should do next. "Sir! I will be patrolling the squad, you join the others over there..." said one of the gunmen as he pointed towards the group. "Thank you private, I will attend to them right now." I decided to go over there and listen to the briefing given off by one of the commanding officers...

"Our standing orders are to search the area for the origin of the suspicious signal."

What?

"Pardon me for asking sir, but what is so suspicious about it?" ... "Vegna, it contains an obsolete ranking gunman code ... Ok, let's get started. We will secure the landing zone as Vegna and a few others go ahead to meet with the other troops not to far ahead of us."

I took this opportunity to look at my surroundings, to see what this particular planet had to offer. Basically it was vegetation, vegetation, oh ... and more vegetation. A couple of structured walls and caves were around the area that seemed to have ancient symbols painted on them. I wasn't able to interpret them, but they looked pretty cool and they were very well carved into the rock. I went through one of the small openings as my jaw started to drop to the ground! This planet had dinosaurs! The dinosaurs were about eight feet tall and about twelve feet long. All of them were plant eaters and didn't think anything of us. I even petted one as it simply looked at me, and then started munching on the grass again seeming not to care about my presence. "Sir! They found something! Over there!" ... "Thank you captain I will take a look."

As I walked towards the other troops, an entire column of rock blocked most of the way, I had to squeeze my self around it, but I managed easily enough. Just then all of us heard something, and it wasn't pleasant. It sounded big ... very big! We couldn't get a fix of where it might be, so we decided to keep our eyes wide open as we could hear it's loud footsteps once in awhile. By the sound itself that we heard, we estimated that the dinosaur making them was about thirty to sixty feet tall, or around that margin. So it was a definite must to watch our surroundings. "What was that? It sounded big," mentioned one of the gunman up ahead. He was standing by a small entry way about a few feet away from me that led to where the other troops were. Perhaps the signal that we heard about was around there, so I decided to go investigate, not bothering to reply to the other gunmans' comment on the dinosaur.

I noticed a strange device ahead of me when I turned the corner, but a gunman ahead of me saw it first and started running towards it. I was going to try to stop him, but it was to late, he didn't waist anytime to look at the suspicious device.

Is that what I think it is? No, it can't be. Could it?

"Hey! Somethings happened it ... it just activated. What's going on?"

The machine started beeping, slow at first and then faster and faster... "It's a trap, get the hell out of here!"

Damn it, I knew it. It was a fucking bomb! But why a bomb? Who laid it there and why? It doesn't make any sense.

I booked my ass out of there, and so did the other gunman but he didn't make it on time, as the bomb blew up caving him inside to starve to death. There was nothing I could do, he was stuck in there and there was no way out for we didn't bring any explosives with. All I brought was the knife that I accidentally stole from the firing range, everyone else had laser pistols and a few picked higher ranked gunman carried variguns. Sadly, we didn't have anything else than that, so we had to just leave him there.

I ran as fast as I could back outside as I observed the worst thing imaginable, and it wasn't that big dinosaur either ; it was worse. Fighter planes that no one has ever seen before appeared over the skies, it wasn't any of our own designs, so it wasn't gunman property. It had to be some other faction or race. I was hoping they came to aid us, but they launched some bombs onto the ground knocking some columns over. A few dropped on some gunman, and one dropped on one of the poor innocent dinosaurs. Blood was splattered all over the ground and the rock that crushed the poor gunman down. I managed to salvage his laser pistol and about fifty rounds or so. I now had two weapons, a knife and a laser pistol but that's it. Up ahead one of the gunman was injured badly ... "I don't know where they came from sir, it was an ambush! Sir, the enemy is holding the position with a tank and several gun turrets. We have no chance of winning against a tank, so you have to find a way to flank the bunker and deactivate those turrets in there, otherwise our drop ships won't be able to take off." Shortly after he said that, he died from all the blood loss, there was nothing I could do but leave him there in his own blood pool as I headed back to the drop ships were the other gunman were and/or retreated back to.

The drop ships were in view, and most of the gunman were already there waiting for me. I smiled as I started to run towards them, but I didn't get very far though. In front of my eyes I saw a giant tank shell lodge itself into one of the drop ships which shattered it to pieces easily, killing all of the gunman near it in the process. It was a shame that the small drop ships had a lot less armor than the large ones, but there was nothing I could do about it now.

"Son of a ..."

There were fallen rock fragments nearby, big enough to run for cover. I took a big chance and ran for it as I hid behind one of the rock structures that fell to the ground after the tank shell explosion. I could hear the gun turrets across from us firing their machine guns making a whirring noise. There were three gun turrets, and each turret had two machine guns attached to it. It was very risky to try to flank the bunker, but I had no choice. Luckily, someone offered to have me follow them as he wanted to help flank the bunker with me...

"Follow me!" ... I didn't respond to that, 'nor did I waist my time, so I quickly followed the guy to where he thought it would be best to get inside the bunker and infiltrate it ... "Stay close sir!" ... "Let's flank the bastards!" ... "Follow me to the bunker! Let's run for it!" ... "This way!" ... "I'll cover you, infiltrate the bunker!"

The tank shot at another drop ship that was right in front of us! It exploded and dropped on it's side, and luckily it didn't kill us. Both of us ran around the drop ship, ducking under cover of the flying machine gun bullets behind crates left by the drop ships, and a couple of large rocks. We weaved back and forth, left and right, until I was able to reach the side of the bunker where the machine guns couldn't get me. I saw a ladder that led right into the bunker, so I didn't hesitate to take the opportunity to infiltrate it using the ladder. I went inside, and I easily destroyed each gun. After I did though, I could hear the tank come down from the hill it stood on and killed the rest of the gunmen that were hiding behind the crates and the rocks ... "Aw sir, they are all dead ... yet one of them is still in the bunker."

I heard a slight whirring noise of the tank gun reading itself to fire again as it shot two giant shells at the bunker, luckily the floor below me shattered from the first blast as I feel into some water below just as the second shot blew right threw the bunker with ease, as it collapsed. "The gunman is dead, returning to the base."

Ha! You wish!

There were a couple of small piranhas in the water, so I quickly killed them with my knife if they came close, otherwise I just used my laser pistol with the "pulse" setting on, so I wouldn't waste any ammo. It seemed like a small stream, so I decided to follow it to see where it led to. I heard the bastards voice, it was pretty far away so I couldn't pinpoint there location ... "Big dinosaur is heading for us. Fire! Fire!" I could hear the giant dinosaur in the distance as well, roaring like crazy as I heard an explosion. I could tell it was there tank, so the dinosaur must have destroyed it after it got injured by the tank shells. I heard another roaring noise close to me, it was very small, but it was still very close. I quickly turned to my right as I saw a six foot raptor! It's claws were about six inches long, as it's tail was almost bigger than the dinosaur itself! It also had sharp claws on it's feet as it jumped towards me. I quickly jumped to my left as I used a "charge" shot on the dinosaur, killing it instantly. It blew through ten rounds, but I was desperate to kill the thing quickly before I was it's tasty supper.

"Retreat! Retreat! Dinosaur is approaching!" I could hear the unknown attackers running for their lives away from the dinosaur. Serves them right, I wonder where they came from and who they are. I've never, or anyone else for that matter, have seen them before. It seemed to be some kind of gang, or mercenary recruits. If that's so, then who is leading them? With that still running through my mind, my focus was to try to figure out to get out of these jungle ruins. I found a path to my left that winded back and forth, it looked like a way out so I decided to take it. Oddly enough, I found some equipment laying here and there, perhaps from the intruders that were trying to kill all of us. I saw a radio, and as I approached it ... it turned on ... "Our radar has picked up the last remaining dropships, preparing the S.A.M. turret." ... "Yes sir!"

"Son of a bitch! Those bastards are trying to take down our drop ships so we can't leave. They are trying to kill us all so we can not report back to the base to inform them of these new intruders. Looks like we are in for a lot of trouble and I'm not liking it!

Who are these guys?

I continued through the winding path as I found another radio ... "Drop ship is to low and going below are radar, going based off of it's sound using the auto seeking function on the S.A.M. turret." There was a ladder heading back up to the surface, the enemy must have put it there to get up to the surface, since there wasn't anywhere else to go, I just climbed the ladder to see what was up on the surface. There was a small structure in front of me, almost like a pyramid but with not top to it. I heard a loud noise as the S.A.M. turret came out from it as I ducked on the ground remaining out of it's sensors. One of the gunman drop ships passed by trying to escape, as the S.A.M. turret launched it's missiles and blew it out of the sky! I waited until they shut down the turret as I continued my way up, making sure I wasn't spotted by anything.

Eventually, I found a broken opening that must have been blown apart by the enemy to continue through the ruins. I decided to take it, almost as if I was following their slimy trail, yet still making sure I was out of sight. As I entered, I noticed that the bastards filled the place with booby traps, as I noticed a small opening on a few of the walls that when you walked to close to it, it would shoot a deadly poison into you almost killing you instantly. Unfortunately, a gunman came in through here before me as I saw him slightly up ahead with four arrows embedded into the poor bastard. Being cautious of the traps, I simply just carried on as I watched my surroundings more carefully this time. There was hope, for I found a varigun on the ground that the dead gunman must have dropped! I holstered my laser pistol briefly as I picked up the bad ass weapon. I set it on the rifle mode with a 4 shell shot, which is the one I liked the best, and I figure it would suit this situation perfectly with all these tight spaces in between the mines. Another lucky aspect, was that right in front of me was a large open area that had the downed drop ship with some surviving, yet injured, gunman as the others were obviously dead. I saw a raptor near the wreckage, so I carefully and silently put the varigun on my backpack and drew out my laser pistol, changing the setting back to "pulse" as I fired three rounds at it's head shooting it clear off.

I quickly approached the wreckage to see if I could help the surviving gunman out, but they were way to wounded to go anywhere, they unfortunately had to be left behind for there would be no possible way I could drag them all to safety PRAYING there would be another method of getting off this planet, not to mention sending them to a hospital in time. Instead, my only choice was to try to get some information from them ... "Uh ... what ... what happened? Who is attacking us? What did we do Vegna?" ... "I don't know soldier, but I'm going to find help immediately." ... "Sir?" The soldier didn't say anything other than that as he dropped to the floor dead from extreme blood loss. "Rest in peace my friends, rest in peace." Holding back a few tears, it was time to move on and not waste anymore time here. I decided to take the ammo from the deceased gunman to give myself more supplies. I got full ammo on each weapon, so that should last me awhile.

A little bit later into the winding path, I noticed a greenish cage with a large hole on one of it's sides. There was a mutilated dead body right next to it, it's flesh torn off and eaten. It wasn't a gunman, it was one of those bastards that are attacking us. Served him right, I was about to turn around and keep moving forward until the bastards' radio went off ... "Base to Bakker, there seems to be a little mix up. One of the storage cases were accidentally marked wrong. It was supposed to be a supply crate, but it was a Xenome holding cage. It's a vicious one, so watch your fingers .. over." I laughed at that, for the mutilated body must have been this "Bakker" guy. Apparently the "tiny mix up" gave him his brutal satisfying death. That cheered me up a little, as I continued on through the ruins. It didn't last long though, for I just thought of something.

Why do they have captured Xenomes?

The path was blocked in front of me, yet a tiny opening to my left was accessible. I had to squeeze like crazy to get in, but I managed! I saw a lone gunman a head of me, free of harm and in full healthy condition. I ran to him in excitement, but I came to a quick dead stop as I could see the giant dinosaurs' tail passing by. It must be really close, so I approached the gunman quietly. "What is going on soldier?" ... "I don't know sir, but be quiet! That dinosaur is hunting us, and killed a lot of our men, and it knows there are more! If you go outside the ruins you're a dead man! I'm going to stay here, until that dinosaur is gone, you go ahead without me major Vegna." ... "Very well soldier, but be careful." I headed back to the blocked off area, trying to follow the dinosaur carefully because I figured since it was looking for the rest of the surviving gunman, it would lead me to a possible escape from this terrible place. The blocked off path broke from the nearby dinosaurs footsteps, giving me access to another area. It was perfect, so I decided to take it immediately!"

...

[TheOnlyGhost]

...

I followed it, and I saw what looked to be a ramp. A very old ramp that people used to access the caves probably. I could finally see the exit, my means of escape in front of me! Just when I was about to taste the beautiful fresh air, solid bars came down behind me, and in front of me trapping me inside! There was no way I could escape, all I could see was a tiny hole that I could see out of, but that didn't do me any good. Yet hope wasn't lost, for I saw two people heading over towards me!

Excellent! But wait... it ... it can't be! What the hell?

"Hello major Vegna! I feel certain you remember me. Think back five years ago, you might recall a little scene unfolded at Banzare Prime? Scene of a crime I should say. You weren't even very popular then! You had no authority to order the retreat! Not when your general was still alive!.."

I knew it! It was the general! But ... but how?

"...If you read your science report more carefully, you would know that species can't digest a space craft! But you left me to rot in the guts of the ALPHA species! After exiting my craft quickly, I headed towards it's heart and crushed it with my bare hands ... literally, barely escaping death! I struggled tooth and nail to try to free myself! As you can imagine, an experience like that changes a man. I felt that from within that terrible species, was my insights of the powerful weapon it could become! When I breed the ALPHA species, I can devastate anything in my way! In fact, me and my science team, along with my friends here are breeding new xenome species as we speak! You are very important to me major Vegna, otherwise I wouldn't have gone in the trouble of luring you here otherwise. Science, after all, needs it's ginnea pigs! But try not to feel that your death has no meaning, in fact I will try to learn a great deal from your suffering, and I will put all of this to good work! , including the slaughter of the rest of your gunmen! Those treacherous, self - centered brutes! Now, I am being generous myself, for I left you some basic supplies and I am betting your will to survive is strong enough to provide me with some valuable data. But, in all honesty, the better service you can do us all is die in the most interesting fashion! Yes my friend, now it is your turn to find out what it is like to be eaten alive!"

All I did was listen, for if I said anything he probably wouldn't be able to hear me. It was a shame I couldn't just kill him there, because of these damn bars in the way! When the general was out of sight, the bars magically lifted up! The general must have been controlling them, that bastard! That traitor! That scumbag! He will pay for this! I doubt he could hear me, since he was long gone, but I shouted at the top of my lungs ... "You are going to die you mother fucker!"

There was nothing I could do to get that bastard, so I had no choice but to follow the cave to try to catch up to him somehow and smoke the son of a bitch! I didn't get very far, for I heard a very loud roar! I saw an opening, and as I approached it, all I could see was a giant mouth full of teeth with grinning evil eyes! It was the large dinosaur, it was waiting for me to get out of the caves so it could eat me for it's delicious snack. The only way out was up ahead to the other caves, but a giant rock was in the way! It was no ordinary rock though, it seemed like it could be moved somehow ... but how? I looked around to see if I could find anything, and I noticed there were two small rocks with hand symbols on them. One was to my far right that was literally right next to the dinosaurs' long neck, while the other one was to my far left which left me in the wide open for the dinosaur to chew my head off!

Great ... now what?

I didn't dare even look at the dinosaur as I ran my ass off to push those switches barely dodging those terrifying teeth! To my surprise the door opened! I didn't take any hesitation to take my escape route as I left the behemoth behind me, probably feeling sad it didn't catch me. I came up to a passage where there was a dead end, and I noticed a small opening that had a cracked wall at the bottom of it. I needed to shoot it with my varigun to blow it to get threw, but before I did ... I could hear some voices on the other side so I decided to duck and see what I could hear and see. It was two mercenaries that were able to catch one of those terrifying raptors ...

"Did you hear what happened to Bakker? I heard that he got chewed up by one of these things, or a Xenome for that matter I'm not sure." ... "He should have packed more fire power!" as both of them laughed. Now was my chance! Instead of blowing the wall open, I took my laser pistol making sure it was on the pulse setting as I fired one round towards the net that held the raptor letting it lose to take care of the mercs. The mercs had duel laser pistols each, and easily disposed of the raptor, yet it gave me a great chance to blow the wall and take them by surprise as I sliced both of their vulnerable necks open with my sharp knife. "Bastards!" I noticed that there was a metal crate to my right, it was locked and I couldn't open it. It did, however, have a mechagun on top of it surrounded by plentiful ammo.

This must be the "generosity" of the wonderful general.

I put it on the back of my backpack, and it was getting pretty heavy ... I couldn't hold any more weapons unless I had to sacrifice one. I decided to keep all three for now, and trade off later if I find a better weapon or something like it. Since I wouldn't be fighting to much here, at least in my opinion, I set the mechagun to the fast setting making sure that I wouldn't waste to much ammo. I just wanted to kill the mercs as fast as possible, and of course, watching my heat indicator so it doesn't overheat and malfunction which would waste a ton of ammunition!

I continued to follow the caves, picking off a couple of mercs stealth style with my knife until I reached another merc radio as I listened to it's announcement ... "Base reports that enough specimens have been captured, yet we need to eliminate the gunmen threat if we can find more."

Specimens? I wonder if they are going to take some of the creatures on this planet, and use it for their crazy experiments the general was talking about. I better find out what the bastard is up to.

Eventually I found a large area that had a crack in the floor with about an inch or two of water. It obviously seemed like a trap, but I had no choice but to go in there. I was right, for a couple of mercs above me said "Ha! We've got him trapped! Let's feed him to the crocs!" A couple of crocodiles started coming towards me, I used my varigun on the closest one killing the sucker ... "Aw..he got one." I quickly pointed it at the other just when the croc opened it's jaws making my gun a lethal dentist appointment. "I'm changing my bet." Another croc nearby appeared, it was a tiny one so I didn't want to use a varigun on the small fry. Instead I jumped on it's small head, crushing it's skull right in. "Aw...he got another one. Oh what the hell, let's just blow him up!"

I didn't like the sound of that, so I rushed my ass to the very edge of the wall by the hole I came in as I watched six grenades fall into my "prison" set on cluster mode to blow me to tiny bits. I was plenty far away for the grenade fragments to not even touch me. I waited for a few minutes until the mercs were gone as I observed that the cracked floor was broken thanks to their explosives. They gave me a way out, I should thank them for trying to kill me after all. It led to a waterway so I decided to dive deep and swim. I couldn't use any weapons under water besides my knife, so I had to hurry making sure that the least amount of water would fuck up the guns as much as possible.

I eventually got up to fresh air, giving me access back to the surface. It seemed abonded of mercs so far, so I made haste to where a nearby landing pad was that had to be used by the general and his scum. Hopefully it still existed, so I could kill the bastard. I got to another radio, and it was an announcement from the general ... "Attention all of my men, I will NOT leave this planet until Major Vegna is dead. I want confirmation of his death before I leave. I will refuse to leave until he is dead no matter HOW LONG IT TAKES!"

He sure is persistent.

I could see the generals craft in the distance, it had a giant green crate that must hold supplies. It was the perfect place to hide, AND to follow the general with them thinking I am dead. I will be able to follow their trail and kill them when we land. It was perfect! There were a few mercs around the area, so I took them out as fast as possible before they could warn the general that I was still alive. I managed to get in the crate, as I noticed that the "specimens" that the mercs were talking about were baby raptors locked away in cages. What were they planning on doing to them? I noticed a small button to my left that allowed me to listen to what was said in the cockpit, I turned it on and waited for about an hour before I heard a merc said ... "The gunman Vegna is dead, it's safe to lift off general!"

Good, just as I had planned the fools!

I made sure I remained quiet as I listened to what they were saying in the cockpit. I could recognize four voices. One was the generals', two were probably mercs, but the forth one was a shocker. It was a scientist, perhaps the scientists that the general gathered are helping him with his lethal experiments that he wants to use to dominate everything in his way! The guy has gone completely insane! ...

"Preparing for lift off, all personal clear out..." "...Now breaking orbit sir..." "...I'm disappointed in these reptile specimens..." "...It's time to check on our more dangerous Xenome species. Set course for the Barren Moon..."

The barren moon? I've heard of that place before.

"Steady as she goes sir..." "...I believe the raptors in the cargo hold will have useful geno types. However, the latest Xenome species have been nearly perfected..." "...The reports from the science team is a critical step. If the Xenomes were able to destroy the mechanized facility, they would have proven themselves to be the finest bio weapons ever!.." "...There is always room for improvement, for instance, controlling them is still a problem..." "...Sir! Course calculated, prepare to enter KataSpace!..." "...I got a bad feeling about this!..." "...It's the perfect place to test the Xenome abilities, this facility was abondened decades ago when the moons' orbit became unstable..." "...The place is a death trap. The only thing holding it together is Kataspace anchors, the facility mainframe A.I. hasn't been defragged in ages! This makes this place technically insane!..." "...We will know soon, contact the science team!"

I could hear a recognizable growling in the distance and a disturbing "slurping/eating" sound. I could tell it was one of those little jumpy Xenomes that I saw in the firing range. Yet, I also heard a series of odd beeps. It almost sounded robotic or something, and it didn't sound good! ... "...Somethings wrong. I don't see the science team..." "...Sir! Aerial attack drone incoming!"

So THAT was the beeping noise, a robotic A.I. controlled aerial attack unit. Those things are deadly.

"We can't maneuver like this! I'm dropping the cargo to drop altitude! The science team is on their own!"

...

I heard a loud bang and clash as the crate I was in crashed onto the moons' surface. "Fuck! Now I am trapped here! What the hell are those beeping sounds, and how will I get off this moon to follow them?"

...

[TheOnlyGhost]

Chapter Three: The Barren Moon and the MainFrame

I could hear a loud, almost crunching noise. It sounded like metal! I came to, as my eyes adjusted to see what was going on. The "crunching" and beeping noise came from A.I. controlled robots!

"What the hell?"

I also noticed that they were fighting the raptors that were now loose from their cages. The robots were about the size of me, and very wide. It had two claw like robotic hands that had sharp pointy ends that look like it could cut through flesh with ease. The robot had a giant eye that was almost seperate from the torso that, to my surprise, fired a blue colored laser that cut threw even the crates' heavy plated metal like butter! The robots didn't seem to have any other kind of attacks besides those two. The robots were winning, but I waited until the fight was over letting the robots take damage so they were easier to take out. I took out my varigun and waited a little bit until the brief "war" was over, and as the robot JUST had spotted me, I blew the fuckers' head off as I saw A.I. goo flow out of it's torso. It made almost like a moaning sound as the circuitry of the robot still was active, yet slowly died as the A.I. ooze that powered the robot continued to leak out as the robot lay there on the ground steaming from it's own electrical like blood that powered it. I noticed a couple on the roof of the "abandoned" facility making sure I took them out quickly with my varigun trying to stay out of range of their blue lasers. They were pretty easy to pick off at a large distance, for their lasers seemed to have a short range as they couldn't reach me even if they tried.

As I entered the facility, I noticed a ladder heading up somewhere. I could hear a grinding or a whirring noise up above so I took caution. As I got to the top of the ladder, I noticed another robot but it was a different kind. This particular robot was about half of the height of me with wide legs holding it up. It had one central eye that spread out towards the rest of it's bulk/body. It also had two arms that had five rotating saw blades on each hand. In between the saw blades seemed to be a small launcher. I have seen those kinds of launchers before on other robotic specimens. They fired tiny bolts of electrical energy at a very fast speed. I observed a body of a scientist on the floor, as the robot was using it's saw blades cutting it into pieces with that annoying whirring sound that a saw always makes, it was pretty disgusting! I also noticed a crate behind the robot, as yet ANOTHER scientist was above it probably avoiding the robot. He saw me pretty quickly and was pretty quick to tell me something ... "Help! The drones! They have turned against us!" The robot hear the idiot seeing me in the process as it made some annoying robotic, or should I say drone, noises as it ran at me with it's saw blades still on. I gave a quick shot to the head as it knocked it over on it's back. It had a large hole in it's torso, but it was still active as it was trying to get back up on it's feet. I gave another blow to the head with my laser pistol this time, so I wouldn't waste the precious varigun ammo finishing the fucker off. "There you go, you are safe now!" The scientist just laughed at me and opened the green crate in front of me revealing the small 2 foot jumpy Xenome species! "Thank you! You've helped me to save my Xenome!" The scientist quickly ran away somewhere as I took care of the Xenome. I started to follow the scientist, but I stopped a mere few steps before I could here his painful scream that signified he got killed. "Serves you right!"

I continued to follow where the scientist went, and I noticed him laying on the ground covered in blood with a giant hole in his torso. I noticed a drone nearby that had that laser weapon, it must have been the one that killed the scientist! I took him out pretty easily, since he was still focused on the dead corpse of the bastard. I laughed to myself seeing his corpse on the ground, and I began to continue ahead until I heard a robotic voice coming from what seemed to be everywhere!

"Unauthorized landing at secondary platform."

That must have been the generals ship, but it took off awhile ago, unless someone else landed somewhere. I decided to follow that unusual robotic voice to see if it led somewhere. I noticed a couple of cameras following me everywhere that seemed to have a large red dot in the center. It didn't look like any normal camera I have seen, and they were located EVERYWHERE! I continued on and noticed a large door in my way, but it could only be opened by something on the other side. I noticed another camera up above me, as it turned on and displayed a holographic image of what seemed to be a giant red eye surrounded in electrical energy as it began to talk! "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the mainframe, and you are dead!" With that, the camera shut off as the door opened revealing two saw drones! They were close together, so I was able to take them both out in one shot with a four shell rifle round in the center of both of them. I made sure they were inactive before I continued.

Looks like the mainframe is still here after all. No wonder the science team is nowhere to be found. The mainframe must have killed them by controlling the drones!

I emerged from the brief chaos into a large open area that had torn tents, and a saw drone. Unaware of me, I took the saw drone out with ease as I landed near the tents to investigate. Eventually, I found a radio just lying on the floor and still operational. I turned it on, and there was a message from that bastard the general.

"This is your general. First, I would like to congratulate the science team on their success with the Xenomes. You have succeed all of our hopes. However, I am afraid your triumph has complicated us a bit. Our readings show that the Xenomes are spreading quickly enough to pose an immediate threat to the facility. I have been forced to seen all of my troops to the base for repairs. Any remaining science team staff that will make it in time for evacuation will be taken with us, otherwise you will have to find your own way off the Barren Moon. Again, good luck and keep up your sense of accomplishment."

...

The mainframe heard every word ...

"So, the invaders have retreated to the planet Icknas. I will deal with Icknas after I take care of this Xenome infestation."

Things are not looking so great. How wonderful!

I was able to spot a door in the distance, so I decided to take it and see where it would lead me next.

There was one of the science team staff on the other side trying to fix a giant reactor above him.

"Help me, I have got to fix this!"

...

"No way! That thing is unstable! It will kill us both, hurry ... come over here!"

...

"Don't just stand there, the reactor could explode at any moment!"

...

"You can't fix it, get over here before you get yourself killed!"

"No, I ne..."

The reactor blew, it was to late for the science guy.

I wish he would have simply listened to me. I warned him. Oh well, his fault.

"Drones, destroy the human invaders!"

A hidden door that looked like solid rock opened to the right as it revealed two saw drones. Luckily I had my Mecha Gun ready and set on fast mode to wax the drones before they were able to even touch me. That mainframe is obviously hostile, and it needs to be dealt with somehow!

Behind the hidden door was a large cylindrical area that housed five green lasers all connecting to one central device. I noticed that there was a ramp ahead that led further up to the surface, yet the lasers would cut me to bits. I took out my gun and shot a bullet or two at the central device as it shattered making the lasers hit each other and become unstable as they all shut down giving me access further up.

Up the ramp was a hidden entry way further into the Barren Moons' tunnels that were created by the mainframes' drones. Inside was another scientist, trapped in a room with his hands in between his legs scared out of his mind. Scared of what though?

"We are all dead! The mainframe has turned against us! The Xenomes are damaging the Kataspace anchors! The Xenomes are out of control!"

Before I could say anything, my question was answered as Xenomes came from the right behind another corridor and killed the scientist easily as four of them ganged up on the poor scientist. I took them out quickly as I sighed and continued down the corridor to my right where the Xenomes came from.

There was a new breed of Xenome that I, nor any other gunman, has seen before. It had six legs and a large tail that shot a tiny type of Xenome that latched unto your body, almost like a leech. The little thing attached to the dead scientist and started eating his heart! While the creature was distracted by the scientist, I took it out quickly before it launched another one of those nasty heart eating creatures from it's tail.

"What a strange and interesting species of Xenome."

I finally reached the top of the ramp as it lead back outside briefly until I got to another corridor. Nowhere else to go, so I continued to follow it's path. I found another science guy behind a door, but it was one of the hostile ones. He was facing away from me, so I could easily stealth his ass and slice his throat open .. but he thought I was someone else, back still turned to me, as he said...

"Oh good, you're back. I patched together another lightning gun for you. Just in time too, for our barricade won't hold them back for much longer."

The scientist turned around...

"Wait! Who are you? A gunman? I won't give you this weapon! Stay back!"

"Fuck you!"

I sliced his throat open, as I picked the powerful lightning gun. I'm surprised some of the science team has their hands on our most powerful weapon. Not a good sign, yet I have one of my own now, with a full load of lightning cells to boot too.

What luck!

I heard a strange noise up ahead, and I could identify the sound immediately. It was a powerful aerial drone that attacked us before. There was no way I could kill the thing, even with the lightning gun, because it had powerful advanced alien shielding around it. I quickly ran to the other side, and continued down the corridor. Thank god I was inside, otherwise the aerial drone could easily kill me with it's highly advanced weapons.

I was able to locate grenades lying on the floor, with a couple of rotten skeletons in gunman uniforms. They were so badly decomposed, they were almost dust and fell apart easily with a slight touch of a finger.

"Grenades? Cool! These will come in very handy, I'm sure!"

I entered a large room, full of drones ... more than I could count! Luckily, there was a small stone wall that I crawled my way under so they couldn't spot me. I noticed a dead scientist on the floor by something very interesting. It was a powerful infused lightning gun that the drones use for drilling large holes to make corridors. It was the perfect weapon to use against all of the drones in one swift blow!

I stood up as quickly as I could, as I unleashed a large ball of lightning infused energy, killing them all instantly with the large splash damage it gave off.

"How impressive!"

I found a plasma core that powered something up ahead, I decided to destroy it to get the mainframes attention, and boy was it successful!

"Drones ... increase efficiency! One of three plasma cores deactivated!"

Guess it's time to find the other two.

The plasma cores must have powered the laser that I found up ahead. It was blocking the exit, so now I had no choice but to destroy the other two. I spotted several leaping Xenomes behind the laser, and as they spotted me ... I let them run towards me as they got chopped up in little bitty pieces from the laser.

"Heh. Dumb Xenomes. I love it!"

I continued further up, as I noticed another plasma core, and instantly destroyed it.

"Warning!" Hostile intruder heading towards the last remaining plasma core!"

The last core was up ahead on the top floor, as I destroyed the final one really pissing the mainframe off, while giving me access to the exit at the same time.

"Plasma core destroyed. Plasma laser deactivated."

I headed back to the laser, as it now was powered down finally giving me access to an exit. There was a dead end with several transporters. It was the only way out.

"Charge teleporters."

Several drones were teleported to the room, yet it took awhile to teleport. I took them out easily before they had a chance to even move. I noticed a switch near one of the teleporters, as I decided to activate it and teleport to where the drones came from. I heard a voice a little further ahead, it was one of the scientists below me under thick glass. I noticed one of the cameras that the mainframe controls chatting with the scientist...

"...It wasn't my decision to come here. It was the general that chose to put Xenomes on the Barren Moon..."

"...Quiet! At first I trusted you, but it was you that brought the Xenomes here..."

"...And why not? This moon is a lifeless junkyard that is controlled by an inferior mainframe that serves no useful function!..."

"...No useful function? For fifty years I have been constructing Kataspace anchors to keep this moon in it's orbit!..."

"...My Xenomes are superior to your drones ... they will kill you!..."

"...And my drones will kill you!"

A couple of drones killed the scientist with haste as the mainframe noticed me and ordered her drones to take care of me...

"Intruder detected!"

I took them out, and continued on trying to get off this moon somehow as quickly as humanly possible!

I saw a painted on sign on one of the walls that said "Meteor defense Shield Reactor -->"

"Sounds interesting, I'll follow it."

...

"Unstable asteroid field detected!"

How ironic. I should deactivate that shield, it would help me to take some of this place down so I can escape. I have no other choice.

[TheOnlyGhost]

...

A bulky door was in my way, yet I managed to open it eventually. It led to a ladder leading down somewhere. As I started to climb down it, the ladder fell and revealed two things, one good and one bad. The good thing was an elevator that led to the very top of the facility where the defense system would probably be. The bad thing was a giant robot about 10 feet tall that was equipped with impenetrable shielding, guided rockets, machine guns, and pulse lasers! Every time it walked or ran, it made me slightly lose balance from it's heavy bulky mass. All I could do was run away from it, reaching the elevator just at the last possible second as I saw a guided rocket fly by my face.

At the top of the elevator, I could hear loud explosions that hurt the ears a little bit. I noticed that the asteroids were coming down like rain from a severe thunderstorm! There was a sealed door that led to the defense reactor, yet drones were in the way. I took them down quickly, as I used one of the saws that the saw drone had to open the sealed door.

It was a short corridor that circled around to the defense mechanism that shut the meteor shield on and off.

...

"Drones! The hostile intruder must not make it to the defense mechanism central area!"

...

"Do not interfere with my drones! They must keep this tower operational!.."

"Bite me bitch!"

I continued to the central area, searching for the switch to turn off the shield...

"If you deactivate this tower, you will perish with the rest of us!.."

"Blah blah blah."

I took my right hand, flicked off the camera and activated the switch turning off the shield...

"Fool!"

Asteroids began penetrating the tower, making it fall apart and creating large holes in the facility. The floor beneath me caved in from an asteroid strike nearby, as I fell and became unconscious as I could hear the tower collapsing.

Where would I fall to?

***3 hours later***

I came back into consciousness slowly, as I noticed a large bump on my head, and that I was on a small rock that was over molten lava. I looked in the distance, and I noticed that the only thing left of the tower I was just in ... was a simple column that held it up as smoke was coming out of it. The asteroid activity died down, yet they were still coming down pretty hard. I had to remain careful. I descended down the rock, and I noticed a wounded scientist in the distance.

...

"We didn't bring these many Xenomes down here ... where are they all ... where are they all ... where are they all *cough* coming from?" The scientist died from an extreme loss of blood. Something wrong was definitely going on.

"Where indeed."

There was a small cave nearby, with some scattered ammo that must have fallen from the tower earlier. It was handy to stock up on some ammo and any health kits I could find. I could sense trouble, so I decided to reset my varigun to a four shell rifle attachment layout preparing for the worst.

The cave split several ways, I decided to take it to the right first...

Screams were in the distance. To my left, several of the tiny jumper breed of Xenomes came towards me. They came out of nowhere! No one was to be seen either...

Where are they coming from? They can't just appear out of thin air.

I had some cover behind the solidified rock walls of the cave, as I picked one off at a time clearing them out quickly before they even realized I was there. As I went further up the cave slope, more jumpers were coming. It was a huge swarm, a very confusing deli ma at my feet. There was a large lava pit nearby, so I led them to the pit. Once they tried to jump on me, I sidestepped out of the way and watched the stupid alien species fall in the pit and sizzle to a crisp in the molten rock.

"Vicious, yet stupid."

A large roar was slightly in the distance further inside the cave. I got my weapon ready and held it more effectively in order to shoot it fast and more accurately on what I needed to. I checked the settings, and they remained where I wanted them too. Laser gun in my side holster was ready in case I needed it to. I glanced down and noticed it was at full ammo and set at rapid fire.

That should do just fine.

The lightning gun was in my other holster with the cells about half way full. I wasn't going to use it much anyway, that gun was for emergencies only because of it's powerful attributes.

...

There it was! A giant alien species was attached to the cave ceiling. It was an ugly looking thing, as eight tentacles embedded themselves into the ceiling of the cave. It had a giant mouth full of teeth as it drooled green slime on the cave floors. There was a large sack near the rear of the species that looked suspicious. I raised my gun and was about to fire, until I noticed something horrifying that stopped me in my tracks.

The species' sack looking thing started to shake and move as I noticed something moving around in there. The species gave a loud roar, like before, as jumper Xenomes fell from the sack. Ten were released at one time from the sack. They were about half the size of the regular jumpers, which made something hit me...

Those ... those are babies? That ... that thing is giving birth to the Xenomes! No wonder they are spreading like crazy when they didn't bring very many!

I could tell the species had odd markings, and holes on the sides of it's body where needles could be inserted which gave me something else terrifying to think about...

That thing is scientifically made ... a genetic mutation created by the scientists. But why would they create a breeder species capable of producing more Xenomes?

I was outnumber quickly with the babies, AND the breeder. I had no choice but to throw down my varigun temporarily as I pulled out my lightning gun and unleashed a ball, consuming the rest of it's cells. The ball traveled towards all of the Xenomes as it tore them to shreds all at the same time as body parts were flying around as Xenome blood splattered on my clothing.

What a shame too. These were washed not to long ago. I ran out of ammo with my lightning gun in the process, god damn it! I will hold onto it until I get more ammo. I have to find out who exactly bred these breeder species of Xenomes and why.

I got to the end of the cave, finally, as I was surrounded my molten rock. I definitely had to watch my footing here, otherwise I would be toast ... literally. I noticed a large metal pipe that connected from the rock, to the other side of the large cavern of molten lave. It seemed to be my only chance of getting to the other side. Luckily, an asteroid struck the pipe not to long ago, as it left a large hole big enough for me to enter it. It was a little bit dark, yet it was still easy enough to see efficiently.

"I wonder where this leads?"

It led to another section of the mainframes' facility. The drones were fending off the Xenomes. It wasn't to hard to take 'em all down with one charge setting shot on the laser pistol. I noticed a ladder to my right leading up somewhere, so I decided to take it. A forcefield lay in my way though ...

"I can not believe you survived! How unfortunate ... No matter ... you won't survive long in this meteor storm."

It was the mainframe...

"Stupid mainframe. Once I find you, I'll make you into a toaster!"

I turned around and followed the corridor. Several drones were inside fending off more Xenomes. A breeder must be around somewhere, for there would not be so many otherwise. I let them duke it out on their own before I picked off the survivors making sure I didn't miss any. I saw a "forcefield" control button up ahead.

Yes! Finally!

Unfortunately there was another forcefield to my right too where two saw drones sat and waited for me. The button must be for that one, not the other one unfortunately. Knowing that the forcefield protected me from anything, I decided to have a little fun with the machines. I set my guns down as I took out two grenades and set them on 'Explosive - When Tripped' setting.

"This is going to be good."

I embedded one of them towards the bottom of the wall, while I put the other at the mid section of the wall. Laughing and chuckling a little bit, I picked up my weapons and pushed the button ... "Come and get me drones!"

The drones didn't have a very high IQ, I knew that, so when they decided to run towards me, they tripped the explosive wire and blew up in tiny bits.

"Haha ... suckers."

Up ahead was a large room with a giant radar. It showed an aerial drone circling above. Thankfully, a door was above and the switch nearby was to open it so it didn't expose my position. I saw a scientist cowering in the corner afraid of the drone ... I didn't blame him.

"It knows I am here ... It's looking for me. Wait! Arn't you a gunman! I hope you die along with the rest of them!"

I had an evil idea...

I shot him in the foot as he fell to the ground trying to crawl towards me. I ran towards the switch and turned it on as I observe the overhead doors starting to open revealing the aerial drone.

"What? Nooooooo!"

The aerial drone saw the scientist immediately, as it launched a giant ball of lightning energy at him, killing him instantly.

Thanks man, you let me give it a distraction. Now I can destroy it while it's focused on your sorry ass corpse.

I hurried up the ladder, searching for a way to take the drone down for none of my weapons would work on it. I would have to find something insanely powerful. Luckily, I was over a highly powerful nuclear power plant that was unstable because of the meteor storm. I saw a giant colander of nuclear energy pulsating in it. I aimed my laser gun and fired at it, as it exploded in a large blast making the aerial drone spin out of control and slam into the ceiling above me. In turn, it also blew a hole through the wall giving me access into the deeper parts of the facility.

"What luck!"

Inside, it led to a large open area where I could get a large impressive view of the moon. Giant crates full of drone parts were scattered along the ground, as I noticed something large in the sky. It gradually got bigger and bigger as I noticed what it was. It was a meteor! This particular meteor was large, very large. It was the size of about twenty to eighty houses attached on top of each other. I quickly fell to the ground flat as I got as close to it as I could. I felt the ground shake, and the facility start to shatter a little bit, as a large dust cloud went over me and sprinkled me with meteor bits. The blast was so strong, it blew me backwards about twenty feet, as if I were trying to walk inside of a hurricane.

"Holy fuck! I got to find away to get off of this shit hole, and fast! Shutting off that shield wasn't smart I admit, but I had no choice."

The facility lay in shambles, yet it was still standing ... I had no choice but to continue on through to see what I could find next.

A giant reactor was in my way, and giant bolts of electricity was blocking access. I had to find a way to shut it off before I could go any further. I noticed a ladder nearby with some jumpers at the bottom. I was quick to take care of them before I descended to see what was down below. I noticed a small entrance to an interesting area with a metal grate over my head that read "Warning: Low Gravity Area" I heard some kind of switches being pushed or messed with, so I opened the grate to find a scientist...

"This is the last kataspace anchor, I scrambled the tumblers. You will never be able to destroy it now!"

Oh yes I will!

I was quick to shoot him in the head as I noticed two ladders, once on each side of the area. They both led to a series of switches which blocked a cutting laser of some kind.

The laser was messing up the reactor to spew out all that electricity to block my access further. If I could find a way to get the laser to the other side of the room, it would solve the problem.

I fiddled with the switches, and it didn't take very long to find the proper configuration of switches to activate the cutting laser and deactivate the strong currents of electricity. I went back and re - ascended the ladder to see that the plan indeed worked as I continued ahead.

A giant piece of glass was all that was left in my way on the floor to break. I broke it, only to find I was trapped, and the mainframe was dead in my face.

Oh crap.

[TheOnlyGhost]

Video version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGtlowAhySI

Again ... many, MANY parts missing and no dialog. Reading the story is better.
Chapter Four: A forced Alliance

...

"Recent events have forced me to conclude that this facility is doomed. The Xenome infestation is spreading, and most of my drones have been destroyed. Nearly all of the kataspace anchors have been damaged by Xenomes. I predict that this moon will fall from orbit, so I had my drones clear a path to our escape. Otherwise, we will all be destroyed. I have a plan that could save both of us. I propose a truce. My aerial defense drone will meet us at the surface. I will order my drones to drop hostilities, and you will be able to take my mainframe core with you to the surface. There is a chance that the aerial drone will be able to escape into kataspace..."

"An alliance it is then."

Holy cow was THAT close!

A door opened behind me, the mainframe must have let me have clearance now. As the door opened, a saw drone was right in my face. I was about to shoot it out of instinct, but all it did was stare at me and do nothing.

"Looks like I can trust the mainframe, at least, as of now."

A metal crate was in my way, and a small slightly dark green room was below. As I cut the crate, the mainframe said something before I descended into the empty room.

"Be warned. I have lost contact with two of my drones in this area. I sensors detect ... unusual movement."

Movement? Where?

With varigun ready, I landed on the floor as I cautiously looked around. Nothing was here, nothing but empty room.

What are you talking about?

All of a sudden I heard a large screech. All of a sudden a massive Xenome jumped at me. I quickly shot the thing and ran to the corner of the room.

"Those things must be those shadow beings that the gunman were talking about. They actually exist?"

I heard another screech. I looked around, yet again, I heard nothing. These creatures were somehow able to turn invisible until they are close to you to attack. The fucker was suddenly right in front of my face in a blink of an eye as it was able to scratch me in the face. I took out my knife and sliced it's neck quickly.

"Are these genetically mutated by the science team too?"

I continued on and noticed a security door. It wasn't fully closed though because rocks were in the way...

"Before you go any further .. this security door must be sealed!"

That was the plan ... duh!

It wasn't to hard to get those rocks out of the way, as the security door finally closed. It was time to move on, and see what else I could find around the area.

"I am now granting you access to my inner chamber. Wait here briefly until my drone deactivates the lasers for you so you can enter unharmed."

A sealed door was ahead...

"This is the final security door. It is my last defense against the Xenome organisms. Sensors indicate that the surrounding area is free of threat. Wait there, until the door completes opening."

The door opened quite quickly as I could see three saw drones guarding the entrance. As I entered, invisible shadow beasts appeared. They were attacking the drones! I was about to help yet ...

"Ambush! Move quickly gunman, don't hesitate! You will find me in the chamber above you."

The chamber held a giant cylindrical mechanism was spinning with the mainframes core in the center. A giant rotation blade was directly overhead as it was emitting a powerful electrical beam, so when anyone tries to even touch it, they would be sizzled like a piece of bacon in a blink of an eye.

"In order to preserve my critical personality, I have connected my whole entire neural structure into this mainframe core module. Remember our agreement gunman! You must transport this core module to the surface, and meet with the aerial drone."

The mainframe deactivated the electrical protection field, allowing me access to it's core. I picked it up quick, and saw an interesting hole in the wall that seemed that the core could fit inside, almost like a key.

"Since I have deactivated myself from the computer, I can no longer access entry into the facility. Use the receptacle ahead of you and insert my core module."

...

"In it goes."

...

"Excellent! Now, find your way to the surface."

As I entered more of the facility, I noticed something interesting written on the wall...

"Emergency Escape Pods --->"

All I had to do was follow the arrows, pretty simple.

Eventually, I found a vent in front of me with a grating on it. I blew it open, and crawled my way in. I started to hear loud crashes, for I was near the surface now as I could hear multiple meteors hitting the moons surface creating chaos and small craters.

As I dropped down, three saw drones and one laser drone was there waiting for me. Giant doors were to our right...

"We have finally reached the surface! The aerial drone is waiting for us gunman, hurry!"

Hordes of Xenomes were behind the door! Jumpers, the plant looking ones, and a breeder. I let the drones deal with them as the aerial drone was directly in front of me with it's door opened waiting for me to jump inside.

I didn't take any hesitation to jump in as the aerial drone started to take off as it got hit by a tiny meteor on it's way into space...

"Gunman. A kataspace anchor has been opened. The asteroid fields' intensity is increasing, and our probability of fully navigating the..."

The aerial drone had a large jolt as it spiraled out of control. A giant asteriod managed to hit it in it's side engine.

"Engines off line, navigation off line. Attempting course correction."

Even in it's weakened state, the aerial drone was still able to at least enter kataspace as planned. A giant planet lay in the midsts once we got out of the kataspace anchor...

"Gunman. Prepared for impact. If our shield holds, we have a chance of surviving this! Prepared for impact ... prepared for impact ... prepared for impact!''

A loud thud and crash was heard, as the aerial drone was shattered into pieces and most of my weapons had been destroyed. All I had left was my laser pistol and varigun. Both with very little ammo. I checked my belt, and I still had my trusty knife. The mainframes core module was also still intact.

"How unfortunate."

...

Chapter Five: More things go wrong, and a new planet is in the midst

...

"All of my systems appear to be intact. However, the aerial drone has been utterly destroyed. We must keep moving, before they find us in our current weakened state."

The planet was massive, it was mainly rocky canyon and colored red with no noticeable vegetation except cacti and once in a great while, trees could be found. The only threats, so far, were tiny scorpions that could easily be squished into goo. I started to hear an eagle or two in the distance, it sounded very soothing.

This place kind of reminds me of Earth.

Just then, I was barely able to hear some familiar voices. It was the generals henchmen!

What are they doing here?

"Base said that a meteor landed around here somewhere, but it sure didn't sound like a meteor to me."

I walked a little bit further, making sure I stayed as quiet as possible as I saw a tent up ahead. Two of the goons were inside putsing around. I took them out easily with a couple of laser gun shots to the head. Much to my satisfaction, a whole bunch of ammo cases were lying around full of ammo and grenades! Also, something else of extreme interest lay waiting for my grasp. It was a M.U.L.E.! A M.U.L.E. of all things!

"Fuck yes!"

I put the varigun on my back, and the laser pistol in it's holster as I attached the grenades to my belt as I lifted up the beast. It was a brand new one too.

"Where did they get this?"

I set the M.U.L.E. to homing, when targeted, on impact, and explosive which was my favorite setting. It will be essential for sure!

I set the M.U.L.E. and varigun down changing their places so that the M.U.L.E. was on my back ready and loaded with grenades for missiles, as I was using my varigun as the primary weapon to be used.

"What luck!"

Hawk calls could still be heard in the distance, it was the most soothing thing I have heard in days with what has been going on lately. I found an interesting crate that held an attachment, it was for the laser pistol that the goons must have left for someone to take. It was the sniper attachment! It was laid in a case, so I could put it in my backpack anytime I wanted so I didn't have to carry the bulky rifle 24/7. I had a feeling that I should use it, so I modified my laser pistol to fit the attachment.

Sweet!

I could hear a couple of footsteps in the distance not to far away, I ducked and crawled on the ground as I held my sniper rifle ready. I zoomed in and saw them both, two more goons to deal with. I took them both out from a distance with the rifle, as I shot both of their heads clean off not knowing I was there. It was quite an interesting site.

"Both targets eliminated. Excellent!"

A small cave was in the distance, it didn't take long to reach the end as a giant fall lay in front of me. I was on a very high cliff, and as I looked down...I couldn't even see the ground! Not to fond of heights, I tries to keep my eyes off the terrible thought of falling off that thing to my gruesome death. I could hear a pretty loud whoosh of the strong winds, it was kind of scary.

"Ambush. Airborne hostile approaching."

Roger that!

I dropped my laser pistol, and got the M.U.L.E. from my back verifying it's configurations. I could hear helicopter blades in the distance as a goon flying one got close. The helicopter had duel Mecha Guns at fast speed attached to it, quite deadly. I pointed the M.U.L.E. at the helicopter and waited for the red square to appear and a little beep verifying me that the M.U.L.E.'s missile(s) were locked on to the target. I launched two missiles at the helicopter, as I observed it shatter into tiny bits of ammo. It also instantly killed the goon flying it.

Watching my footing, I continued down the edge of the cliff making sure I had enough distance away from it encase I would accidentally slip to my death. I spotted a peculiar site as a ladder was right in front of me ready to be climbed down to a lower portion of the cliff.

"How interesting."

As I climbed down, I noticed a small opening in the ground that was dug up ; probably by the goons. I took my time getting down gradually, as I got to the bottom of part of the cliff. I followed it, and it led to a much larger area full of nothing but rock with a tree or two in the distance and a couple of cacti to boot. Howling of the wind still bothered my ears, but it was slightly getting quieter which meant I was getting closer to the ground. I noticed an impressively big cave, but it looked empty so I didn't bother to investigate until I heard a familiar voice. It was the generals!

"Take cover! We are starting our bombing run."

Thank god he didn't see me. Unfortunately I couldn't kill him since he was in a giant ship that was insanely armored that not even a M.U.L.E. missile could make a dent. What a shame too, I really want to kill the bastard. Thank god that cave was there though, as I rushed inside waiting until their bombing run was complete. I headed back out, and noticed that the bombing run cleared a path for me to go on further ahead.


In a short distance, was a small tent with a couple of goons. One of them had a Mecha Gun, and was armored with Gunman armor.

Where did they get that equipment? Not a good sign. How am I going to penetrate highly advanced armor that I, myself, wear? ... Ah, what the hell.

I picked up my M.U.L.E. and manually launched a missile at the bastards as I watched them explode into many body parts. They were guarding something very interesting that was attached to the Mecha Gun. I remembered in the gun firing range that the Mecha Guns had some sort of slot attached to the end of it that made it seem like something attached to it, and I was right! They looked like tiny bolts, with a sticky cool liquid lubricated in each one. I attached it to the slots, and to my surprise they were a perfect fit! They must have been a coolant kind of device, which means I can shoot my Mecha Gun longer at the fast setting without overheating!

Sweet as hell!

I continued forward, and heard some more helicopter blades along with three goons. I equipped the M.U.L.E. again waiting for a precise moment so I didn't have to waste as much ammo.

Wait for it. Wait for it. Now!

I launched two missiles at the helicopter. It spun out of control and landed on the goons as it exploded. That was the plan, and lucky for me, it was amusingly successful. As I went further ahead, I was slightly enclosed in a cave as I noticed something strange above me. It was a green crate attached to what seemed to be a crane of some sorts. All of a sudden, the crate dropped to the ground revealing a raptor!

"Get him!"

I quickly launched a missile at the raptor, since I was only holding the M.U.L.E. I quickly dropped it so I wouldn't waste any essential missiles, as I quickly got my varigun out. I saw one of the goons above me on a bridge. To my surprise, he was equipped with grenades and a M.U.L.E. of his own!

Oh ... great.

I could hear a slight whoosh as it quickly got louder as the prick launched a missile at me. Luckily the thing was guided based on the red dot pointed on my head. I managed to run back in the cave a little bit and run behind a large rock just as the missile exploded, making a giant hole in the rock. I put down my varigun, and pulled out my sniper rifle attachment quickly ... shooting his head clean off. I took the sniper attachment off and stuffed it in my case. I took some varigun ammo out of the pack, and re - loaded the varigun. I made sure to retrieve my M.U.L.E. back as I loaded it with the last of my grenades. Everything was fully prepared now, as I climbed a ladder in front of me which led to the bridge that the goon was standing on that tried to blow me to little bits of flesh.

I found some wooden steps not to far ahead, that led to a far opening in the rocky walls of the planet. It was obvious these steps were built by the generals goons, so who knows what else they have hidden here. I continued up ahead, and noticed a small house like structure in the distance with a tower above it. I equipped my sniper rifle attachment for I could smell some trouble. I zoomed in towards the top of the tower as I spotted a goon equipped with gunman armor and a Mecha Gun. It wasn't to hard to blow off his head though, since that was exposed more than anything else. I made sure I took the attachment off, otherwise it would be to heavy to hold all of these weapons at once. They were already starting to hurt my back. As I approached the structure, I heard a small beeping like noise go off. I looked to my right to where the sound had originated from and noticed a goon dropping a mine on the floor as he ran off inside for cover. I was lucky enough to find it, because if I stepped on it, I would definitely be a goner for sure. I opened the door hastily, watching my steps as I followed the bastard to see where it would lead me.

There were three goons in total, one of which had a varigun ... another one of the gunman weapons. My laser pistol was on the rapid setting, so I made sure I burst fired all three to stun them and then finish them all off quickly as I entered the room and spotted something interesting to my right. It was a prison cell, and inside was a gunman! I took the key from one of the dead goons as I opened the gunmans' prison cell.

"I can't believe my eyes! I thought I would never see another gunman! You have got to find their base! I know it's out there somewhere buried ... underground ... must warn the gunman high command back at the space station. To let them know that the general is behind all of this! He is planning an attack! I've got some bad wounds Vegna, you better go without me. I would just slow you down, just go on without me. Don't worry ... I'll ... I'll be alright."

"Alright, I trust you. I will send help as soon as I can, I promise!"

As I exited the house, I noticed a ladder leading up towards a higher part of the canyon. It was layered with mines set by the goons, so I had to make sure to watch my footsteps very carefully. Another house was in the distance, a much bigger one. The general and his goons must be building these houses to put supplies in to get ready for their attack. No wonder I have been finding so many weapons of our own and tons of ammo all over the place. They are somehow stealing our weapons and armor in preparation for their attack!

Nothing was inside the house except cobwebs, they must have abandoned it after they ran out of supplies. I exited quickly, and was ambushed as three goons seemed to appear almost out of nowhere! They were beneath the ground, as they raised a tiny trap door that blended in with the canyons' rocky floor. As they opened the doors, I took care of them before they were able to fully get out not letting them even have a chance to respond with laser fire of their own.

...

"My sensors indicate a tank ahead, and that our weapons are incapable of penetrating it's armor. We must find another way to destroy it gunman!"

"I understand," I said quietly.

I inched ahead to get a good view of the tank. It launched quadruple Mecha Guns at me, but they couldn't reach me in my position since I was pinned against the rocky wall. My heart was beating as fast as a race car engine though.

How do I stop it?

I noticed a large rock above the tank that was tilting slightly. I dropped all of my weapons briefly as I pulled out my M.U.L.E. I quickly set it to guided and launched it towards the bottom portion of the rock. It explodes, and the rock fell and crushed the tank and all of the goons inside which gave me access to go further.

A tank huh? They are definitely trying to protect something important if they have all this firepower around to use.

The tank was blocking access to a large open area, and an interesting one at that. I continued to follow it. It almost looked like an abandoned mine that was there for ages. It had turns everywhere ... left ... right ... left ... right. Eventually, it came to a dead end of right and left, and there it was! A gunman tank!

[TheOnlyGhost]

Chapter Six: Kicking some ass with a tank

...

"Hey! Stay away from that tank!"

I quickly got in as I heard gunfire from about four or five goons on the other side all shooting at once at the tank. I was in no danger as I could hear their pitiful bullets simply bounce off the impressive tank armor that the gunman had. I looked at the fuel gauge of the tank, however, and it was empty. All the weapons were full to the brim and ready to use though, so I didn't take any hesitation to launch one tank shell inside and kill them all. Behind them was a ladder, perhaps it led to somewhere important. I got out of the tank and quickly climbed the ladder as I noticed a fuel tank at the top of the ladder.

Yes! Score!

I refueled the tank, and hopped back in and took it for a spin as I continued down the mind that the goons had built. It led to the open sky again in the canyon as giant guns started to fire behind me. They, like the other weapons, were still no match for the tanks armor as I easily took care of them with another tank shell. I noticed that this tank was also equipped with anti - aircraft missiles like the one at the base. It must have been stolen along with the other weapons and the armor I had found lying around pretty commonly.

A couple more of the gun turrets were down the cavern, they were set almost everywhere! They are definitely protecting something important, but where? Eventually, the pathway in between the canyon split a little bit. I could hear some loud noises to the left, so I decided to take that path. In front of me was a tank!

Great. Tank vs tank.

The enemy tank managed to shell me twice before I shelled it about four times destroying it. My tank was extremely banged up, yet it was still good to use against the goons, for the armor was still intact enough to protect me from almost anything. Behind the tank was something interesting and strange though. It was a road ... out of all things ... it was a road!

What the?

I decided to follow the road to see where it led to. As I got to the end of the canyon and was surrounded by rock, the tank ran out of gas.

"Oh well, couldn't go anywhere anyway."

The structure didn't seem like a lot, and there was something quite useful too if I needed it. It was a S.A.M. site, yet it wasn't on.

Perhaps I could use that somehow.

As I got close to the structure and was about to open the door knob, the mainframe mentioned something interesting...

"I detect massive energy flows below ground. I suspect that there is a facility there beneath the surface."

So THAT is where the general is rumored to make his nasty experiments possible.

As I entered, I could hear a familiar sound. Inside a room not to far ahead of me was a ladder leading down somewhere yet there was a forcefield in the way.

A forcefield? I knew I could recognize that sound. That must grant access to the facility below. but where do I find the mechanism to deactivate it?

I found a staircase that led to the second floor of the little hideout the goons constructed and noticed a door ahead that read "Keep out". Inside I could see a cylindrical structure that had a hologram of the general. Before I entered the room, I noticed a door to the left inside that had a lock on it, it seemed to be obviously a trap, yet I had to enter anyway. The hologram of the bastard began to talk...

"I have underestimated you Vegna. But you have underestimated ... my explosives!"

Time to go!

I blasted the lock off and rammed into the door and jumped to the ground as the room exploded in many pieces of wood.

"That bastard!"

A little bit bruised, I still managed to get back up and continue on thinking of the many ways I could kill the fucker.

...

I started to hear helicopter noises outside, and it was more than one by the sounds of it. Perhaps I could use that S.A.M. site to my advantage, yet the problem was how to turn it on. I noticed a door blown to bits by the explosion that revealed the forcefield generator. I blew the little tubes inside the mechanism which powered the forcefield as a little buzzing noise was heard that confirmed the forcefield was now off line. I backtracked to the ladder and descended to see what I could find.

Inside were two force fields blocking access to a door, and an open area where I could see the general and one of his goons. Luckily, they were facing away from me unaware I was there. Unfortunately I couldn't kill the general with the forcefield in the way, it would have to wait until later.

"You goons can't do anything right, I will have to kill Vegna myself!"

You go ahead and try that buddy!

I noticed a large radar in the room on one of the walls, and a big red button. On the radar were three helicopters ready and waiting to pop my head out so they could fill me up with nothing but hot lead.

I wonder what this button does ...

I snickered to myself quietly as I pressed it. I could here the S.A.M. site activate above me as it launched three missiles. I could hear loud crashes and bangs, and as I looked back at the radar, the helicopters weren't there anymore. I went back outside to check on things, and noticed that one of the helicopters crashed into the road and revealed a gapping hole that led to the underground facility that the mainframe was talking about.

I went inside, and found the controls to the forcefields that were below the ladder. The general was nowhere to be seen, yet a lone goon was left. It wasn't to hard just to kill one goon as I deactivated the forcefield controls which enabled me to enter the secret underground facility!

"Finally ... we have found an entrance gunman. I have seen technology like this, it seems like they have stolen it from my moon. Now I can take control of what is left of this place after I kill them all!"

Nice...

One last door was ahead, it was the entrance to the facility, yet it was locked. Luckily though, I could hear some voices inside...

"I can't believe your men were unable to kill him by now!" "...We have a little surprise waiting for him in the elevator shaft..." "...Keep the damage to a minimum."

One of them laughed, and came to the door unlocking it not seeing me, the poor bastard.

"Ah shit!"

He tried to close the door quickly, yet I was quicker and kicked him in the stomach and then shot him in the head as I ran inside and took the rest of the goons inside the entrance to the facility by surprise. I then heard a voice over the loudspeaker in the facility...

"I want men guarding Deck A."

Deck A huh? Looks like I'm going that way.

I saw an interesting site to the left of me, for it was a computer terminal for the whole facility that told me where everything was located. It read...

Surface Sector 1: Space Port
Surface Sector 2: Space Port

Deck A: Crew Quarters
Deck A: Corridors
Deck A: Xenome Refrigeration

Deck B: Xenome Processing

Deck C: Disection Laboratory
Deck C: Xenome Birthing Chamber

Deck D: Genetic Processing

Deck E: Computer Laboratory
Deck E: Tactical Operations MainFrame

Everything was highlighted green except for "Surface Vector 2: Space Port" which was highlighted red. I looked to the left side of the computer screen and looked at what green and red highlighted ones meant.

Green is operational.

Red is off line and/or in need of repair and/or maintenance.

Something is wrong with Surface Sector 2: Space Port. I wonder if I damaged it somehow entering this place.

I continued up ahead and noticed a large cage opening located on the floor that read "Do NOT Open!"

"Oh my god! That ... that is the ALPHA species that were on Banzare Prime!"

...

"Astounding! Somehow, they managed to capture one of them! The most dangerous, viscious Xenome of them all Vegna, and you found it on Banzare Prime. You called it the ALPHA species, and I have an idea! This ALPHA species could be the secret to our success gunman! For if it were to be free ... nothing could stop it from killing all of the humans that captured it!"

"Interesting idea MainFrame! A good plan, but now to find a good area to release it. It would be pointless to release it here, so we have to find a way to get lower underground. Perhaps it is further inside this underground facility."

...

[TheOnlyGhost]

Chapter Seven: The Hidden Underground Facility

To the left was an elevator, and nothing else, so I was forced to take it. I remembered what I overheard, so I readied my varigun and among other things knowing what will happen in an elevator. It could be a different one, I wasn't really sure, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

The elevator was heading down, since that was the only place it could go, and opened revealing a scientist and a blocked off entryway to the facility.....

"There he is! Cut the cables!"

The elevator started to shake, door still open, as it kept falling. There seemed to be no means of escape until I noticed a slight chance. Another elevator was ahead of me the led to a different area, my only chance was to jump on top of it to save my life. I didn't take any hesitation to try. Thankfully, I landed right on top of the nearby elevator with a slight pain in my ankles from the high height I jumped from, but it was worth it. The elevator was going up, so I had to find another one that was going down. Luckily for me, there was another elevator to my left, and it was going down like I wanted it too. I jumped off the elevator that I was on onto the other one, making sure to lesson a hard impact. For some reason the elevator stopped, but it wasn't that much of a concern as I entered the elevator pushing the button to keep going deeper underground into the facility.

"The Gunman is using the second elevator; seal all exits and hunt him down!"

It was a loud speaker somewhere in the facility of the general. The guy was obsessed about killing me, but if I were in his shoes, I didn't blame him for doing it.

Eventually, when the elevator finally stopped and the door opened, the mainframe mentioned something pretty interesting...

"If my analysis is correct, there is a mainframe receptacle area nearby. Give me access to their computer so I can help us escape from this deck."

...

"Make sure that all personal follow safety regulations ... thank you."

That is pretty funny that the loud speaker said that based on what is going on down here.

I had a T - section right in front of me, so I had to pick a direction to start with. I decided to take a right and continue on. It seemed to curve, and so did the left side. This meant that the area I was on circled around and connected making an infinite loop.

Perhaps I could use a door or elevator nearby.

There was a goon with a mecha gun not to far ahead of me. He spotted me quickly and was about to take his radio and warn the others of where I am located now. Since I had my trusty varigun ready, I launched the four rifle shells I set it to, and shot him in the torso killing him instantly. As I approached to take the spoils mainly focusing on the ammo for the mecha gun, there was an oped door he was guarding to the left. Before I entered, I could hear some running inside as two goons came to greet me. These goons were different, as they both were wearing some kind of protective suits and a mask that covered their faces for something. They also had some kind of backpack of some kind, or what looked to be one anyway. They were both holding an interesting smelly weapon that I, nor any other gunman, have seen before...

"Science team ... arm yourselves with the experimental chemical weapons. Defend yourselves!"

Stupid general. I'm coming for you!

I looked inside the backpack, and only found scientist supplies like needles ; knives ; and anything else that was useless to me. I took the chemical gun and noticed that it had three different slots that read "A" ; "B" and "N".

There was a chalkboard nearby the read...

A stands for Acid
B stands for Base
N stands for Neutral
There is a pressure gauge letting you launch the chemical gun as far as you want
Careful with the chemicals you mix, sometimes they can make deadly results

I'll keep that in mind.

I looked at the gun, and it had 50 chemical blank cells that I could insert into one of the three slots. In each slot, there was room for five blank cells each. The combination I was most interested in was setting it to full pressure, 5 slots of acid, and 5 slots of base ; adding no neutral what - so - ever which meant it was extremely explosive and the most deadly. Unfortunately though, I only had 5 shots since I am using 10 cells each shot.

I found a ladder nearby and climbed it noticing the mainframe receptacle that the mainframe was talking about. I inserted her core to see what would happen...

"This is the mainframe that you thought you had destroyed on the Barren Moon. I have taken control of this deck, and once I reach your own mainframe, I will delete it and gain control of the entire facility. Your efforts to stop my take over will fail ..."

Nice loudspeaker speech. Yet saying the "efforts to stop my take over will fail" seems to mean that I am the thing that stops the efforts. How great, yet I have no choice.

...

The mainframe whispered so I could only hear what she said next...

"The door to the lower deck has been opened. Search for the location of the ALPHA species. I will try to search for the computer that controls this facility later..."

"...OK; got it."

I eventually found the door that the mainframe opened, and as I entered, there were a couple things written on the wall that were pretty interesting...

<--- Crew Quarters
<--- Coolant Control
<--- Spaceport

Mainframe Access --->
Engineering --->
Laboratories -->

Looks like I head to the right.

There was a flight of stairs a little bit further ahead that led downwards to the area I wanted to. It wasn't that much further down, only a set of two stairs, yet it still brought me to where I wanted to go anyway ; so it wasn't a big deal to me. As I continued threw, the mainframe whispered something more to me...

"The ALPHA species is close gunmen. Find a mainframe receptacle and I shall free it from it's cage."

Great. Lovely. The worst thing possible to deal with along with the general. This oughta' be fun!

Ahead was a grate, and behind it were about two scientist with chemical guns, along with two others that were armored and had mecha guns. They were somewhat cluttered, so I took out a grenade and set it to cluster ; throwing it in the center of the group, blowing them up all at once.

Quite a strategic move if you ask me.

The room continued to left, and made a sharp left into the next area which led to a much larger room that held the ALPHA species! It was trapped inside, protected by a giant forcefield so it couldn't escape. I found the receptacle close to the cage and entered the mainframes core which deactivated the forcefields ; freeing the ALPHA species, and waited to see what would happen...

...

[TheOnlyGhost]

Chapter Eight: Releasing the beast; and things start to go out of hand

...

"Men! What the hell is going on down there? We have lost contact with the squad on Deck A, and all of Deck B went dead! The ALPHA species has escaped? Do NOT let it escape at any cost!"

Serves you right general. I hope for the worst for you, and you should know it!

When I went back to the room, the whole thing was shaking as I noticed the cage was empty and the ALPHA species had left as it was making huge roars...

...

There was an elevator nearby towards the end of the corridor. I pushed the button, and continued deeper into the facility...

...

There was a large opening that led to a large dark rocky entryway that hasn't been fully built yet. A few railings, and a few boards were the only thing accessible to the next area of the facility. At least the other side was built properly. This area must be for testing a large amount of things that was to dangerous if there was vital equipment nearby.

Just then, I heard a loud roar as the rock blasted open a large hole revealing the ALPHA species! I ducked behind the thick railing quickly, as I just was barely able to get out of it's line of sight before it continued causing havoc and getting deeper into the facility probably hunting all that have captured it that the mainframe mentioned before...

"...Air recon units; search the surface for ALPHA species activity."

A little bit worried about an ALPHA species problem there general? Maybe a little to worried huh?

I snickered under my breath in case someone was nearby ... I found a door nearby not to far ahead that read...

Observation Deck

This should work just fine.

...

I overheard the general talking to a large amount of his goons nearby, but I couldn't reach him since it was somewhere behind the wall. I wouldn't dare taking the risk blowing threw it, because it might destroy something important on the other side.

...

"I don't care about the gunman or his insane mainframe at all! This...this...thing is lose again! Find it and blow it to pieces! I don't care if you destroy the whole deck killing it! Find and destroy the monster! It won't get me this time ... not this time ... not again! Dismissed!"

Heh. I love it!

The loudspeaker started going off with another of the generals little speeches...

"All personal! If you can not recapture the ALPHA species specimen, then you must kill it! I won't have that creature lose in my facility!"

Acting like everything is OK now huh? Hiding how scared you really are to everyone else? Maybe you should worry more about me and how much I want to kill you, then that creature, yet both would be good too.

...

<--- Xenome Breeding Tank #2

That is what the sign said ahead and it was the only way to go, so I followed it to see what else I could find further up ahead. It was rather interesting, yet really scary at the same time. Things were not looking to pleasant down in the facility. All these sick experiments, and all of these sick areas of the facility that house Xenomes that they are trying to control and have them take over everything.

...

I could hear an alarm go off, and a forcefield nearby. It was a breeder contained inside! The breeder was giving birth to a massive amount of different Xenome species and sending them down a conveyor belt leading somewhere further down into the facility.

"This is NOT good!" I said...

There was a large room nearby that had a holographic image of the general...

"You have caused a lot of trouble down here. But if you thought we have given up now, you would be mistaken! Xenomes can't frighten me. Don't forget where I have been on Banzare Prime with my bloody rebirth with the creature that tried to devour me! Yet, we now run from the ALPHA species we have just captured! Already my men are...No!"

The holographic image wasn't able to continue, for it showed the ALPHA species in the background destroying the hologram machine that powered the holographic images. I laughed so unbelievable hard, I almost passed out from lack of oxygen from watching that.

As I went further down the corridor, I could hear recognizable sounds in the distance. A couple of jumper Xenome species were somehow lose, and were now trying to kill me. I got out of the way and knifed the bastards.

I eventually got to another door that read...

Genetics Lab
No Smoking Area

Inside were a couple of shadow creatures attacking the science team. I got pretty lucky since they were showing their visible selfs like they always do when the attack their prey. It wasn't to hard to take them all down since they were distracted by the scientists that they were having for dinner.

As I entered, there were many testubes everywhere that had mutated Xenomes inside. All of them seemed to have failed, for they were mutated so bad, they looked like floating blobs of flesh. Some of them were not fully developed and had three eyes, or other fucked up shit. One of them had their skeleton on the outside, and mutated flesh full of bacteria on the inside with a head sticking out from it's center torso. Some of them only had muscle and no skin, along with half developed heads and tiny arms and legs with multiple eyes protruding from its back. Even though the Xenome species are deadly and must be stopped, it was still sick and very sad to see such brutality to an alien species ... even a bad one such as the Xenomes; I almost puked it was so ddisgusting with most of them.

"We know you are down there Vegna, and we know you won't surrender. We are going to give you a war that you have no chance of winning!"

General and your loud speaking spree ... how sad with your panicy attitude. You used to be brave, kind, and feared nothing. Now you are pathetic sick traitor, obsessed with revenge and domination over multiple planets with your sick experiments. You have lost all dignity, and even some of your humanity with all of your actions. In a way, I even feel sorry for your pitiful ass, you deserve a brutal death for your crimes. You are the worst person in the whole universe now with the person you have turned into. What happened to you general? You were the best, and now you are worse than dirt.

I could hear powerful gunfire above. They must be opening heavy fire onto the ALPHA species. I hope they don't kill it, yet anyway, for it deserves to get its' revenge now with what it had to go through. I also heard a beeping in the distance coming from a nearby computer. It had the same list of things that it did before when I first entered the facility, yet it looked really bad now as it read...

Surface Sector 1: Space Port
Surface Sector 2: Space Port

Deck A: Crew Quarters
Deck A: Corridors
Deck A: Xenome Refrigeration Unit

Deck B: Xenome Processing

Deck C: Disection Laboratory
Deck C: Xenome Birthing Chamber

Deck D: Genetic Processing

Deck E: Computer Laboratory
Deck E: Tactical Operations MainFrame


...

I also remembered what the colors meant...

Green is operational. Red is off line and/or in need of repair and/or maintenance.

...

"First platoon respond! Over. All personal ... arm yourselves and guard all decks! This facility is under red alert!"

I think your first platoon might be dead general ... by a certain someone. The rest of your personal, and along with you, are next.

Since the coast was clear for now, I laughed to myself. I haven't had this much fun since the last time I could remember ... which was probably three or more years ago.

...

As I continued down the corridor, I found something painted on the wall. It read...

Deck D

...

Getting closer.

I could hear horrifying screams in multiple places. Looks like the Xenomes are getting more and more out of hand by the second as it seemed to be killing more and more personal by the second. It was quite scary to think of all the people it's killing, because not all of them might not be bad.

I came across another door at the very end of the corridor as it read...

Engineering Zone

Nice. Could possibly use that somehow.

There were about six jumpers inside chowing down on a whole bunch of human corpses, it was sickening, yet it was easier to take them all out at the same time with a charge shot setting on the laser pistol since they were all cluttered together in one small space.

Thank god they can't see. They might have spotted me easily with how close I am to them.

...

"Attention all science team personal. The Xenomes are all over the place. The ALPHA species seems to be building a nest down there somewhere, and all of the other Xenome species. This; and that the gunman is still down there alive has forced me to order the surface elevators to be sealed. Your brave sacrifice will be avenged! I will be using my Xenome creations against all of the gunman, they must continue to pay for their crimes ... Goodbye men."

Selfish bastard!

I noticed another computer screen that read...

Deck A: Surface Elevators
Deck B: Main Power Reactor
Deck C: Reserve Power Generator
Deck D: Surface Elevators
Deck E: Computer Mainframe Core

...

I remembered again. Let me think ... Oh yeah! Green is operational. Red is off line and/or in need of repair and/or maintenance. Deck D and E seem to be my main goal now. Deck D elevators might still work according to what the computer says.

There was a sign above the computer that read...

<--- Mainframe Access

Also beneficial.

Not to far ahead was a forcefield that seemed like it had trouble staying operational. It said "Power Failure. Backup batteries enabled." near it. Above it, was a sign that said "Deck: E" which was a good thing to see.

Perhaps I could overload the batteries somehow.

There were a couple of switches nearby on some tanks that housed sick, failed mutated Xenomes again. When I threw the switches, an electrical energy field went through the tank and put a large amount of energy into the Xenome. When I did that, the batteries slowly drained the forcefield away...

"This is somewhat satisfying ... heh ... continue..." said the mainframe. A little bit on the freaky side, but it was pretty funny none - the - less.

A couple more of switch pulling, and the batteries overloaded giving me access to Deck E. More screams could be heard up ahead, more terrifying than before and brutal along with Xenome noises. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse the further I go along. It was quite sad really.

Up ahead was a large room full of familiar noise. The walls around it increased the volume and nothing was in the room, so I knew what was inside. I was right too, for it was the shadow Xenomes, about three of them. Keeping myself wedged in the corner, I slowly took them down one by one. I continued on and almost bumped my head into a sign that read "Emperor Xenomes."

So THAT is what they are called, or at least, what they named the fuckers.

...

Finally I reached the facilities mainframe! It showed a path that spaceship could take that led to the gunmans' Space Station along with the location of Earth and Mars where all of mankind lives.

That ... is ... not ... good!

I put the core in pretty quickly, as I noticed the path went in the opposite direction suddenly, which pointed the gunman to the facilities destination instead. Looks like my mainframe friend has FINALLY taken over...

"I am now giving this facilities location away to the gunman high command, warning them of your plans and to order for re - enforcements to arrive."

With that message, they will probably send a few thousand over, if not more. This was finally good news for a change!

Go back to the room you have came in from, and I have a surprise for you...

...

A forcefield was in the way up ahead with a scientist behind it that refused to let me through. A human sized drone, of all things, in a shape of a beautiful woman killed him and opened the forcefield letting me through, I noticed a computer nearby that had a familiar beep as it read...

Surface Sector 1: Space Port
Surface Sector 2: Space Port

Deck A: Crew Quarters
Deck A: Corridors
Deck A: Xenome Refrigeration Unit

Deck B: Xenome Processing

Deck C: Disection Laboratory
Deck C: Xenome Birthing Chamber

Deck D: Genetic Processing

Deck E: Computer Laboratory
Deck E: Tactical Operations MainFrame


...

Green is operational. Red is off line and/or in need of repair and/or maintenance ... got it. Only two greens left, this facility is definitely going down the shit hole now and spiraling out of control.

Further up ahead, parts of the facility were flooded with cold water and gradually, at a snails pace, was flooding more; raising the water level ... finally giving me access to the drone as she began to talk. It was a familiar voice, one to be unexpected...

"It seems that I have to save you one more time gunman. I am the mainframe. While you struggled, and failed to reach Deck A, I have made a virtual representation of myself. I decided to take matters into my own hands. You have become a trust worthy ally gunman. I will continue to work with you, and help you escape and go back to your own kind..."

She pointed towards something...

"...That elevator over there will take you back to Deck A. Eliminate all humans and Xenomes in your path. I have other tasks to attend to. Start heading towards the elevator, and we shall begin the takeover gunman. We will meet later..."

Shes pretty hot for a drone. I am shocked to finally meet her in person. It is quite an honor.

...