Chapter 2       The lounge was busy as usual. Troopers from every squad spent time before and after a mission there. It was a large, cafeteria-like room with a bar, a number of tables, and a few games which included darts and billiards. For practicality, the bar served only non-alcoholic drinks. Sargent Dirk and Thrax had settled at a table not from the exit. "I thought the Lieutenant was going to join us." mumbled Dirk. "He will be here, Sargent. He probably went to check on Shanita first." replied Thrax. Dirk looked about the room and eventually settled on a vacant pool table. He elbowed Thrax, "Wanna play a game?" Thrax looked at the table, back at Dirk, and took another sip of his drink. "Not really, I never had much use for such games." "Suit yourself." said Dirk. He got to his feet and headed over to the billiard table. A couple of men stepped in front of him and got to the table first. "Hey, I was going to play." remarked Dirk. The two men turned around. The larger man was bald with brown eyes. His uniform marked him as a jumptrooper. The smaller man had brown hair and blue eyes. Like his friend, he also appeared to be a jumptrooper. The larger one immediately got defensive. "Get your own table then." he muttered. The smaller one shook his head and looked at Dirk, "Forget what he said. Let's play for it." "Why? We were here first." retorted the larger trooper. "If you're so sure of yourself at this game then you have nothing to worry about, right?" offered the smaller trooper. "Whatever." replied the larger. The smaller one stuck his hand out, "I'm Jared Mathison and this is David Poedowski." Dirk shook his hand, "I'm Anthony Dirk." "Anthony?" said Jared. Dirk headed him off with the answer to the unasked question. "Yeah, I know its an Italian name and I know I'm black. But my parents thought it was a good name, okay?" "Get that a lot, huh?" replied Jared. "You at least Italian?" "Nope. English." said Dirk. "Talk about your mongrels." said Jared. "Excuse me, but are we going to play or what?" interrupted Poedowski. "Hold on you big ape," Jared looked at Dirk, "Where's your second guy?" Dirk pointed with his thumb over his shoulder, "The Neo back at that table." "Thrax?" said Jared. "You know him?" asked Dirk. "We go back a ways." replied Jared. "Didn't know he was a pool player though." "He isn't really." said Dirk. "Perfect, get him over here and we can get this over with as painlessly as possible." said Poedowski with a big smile. * * *       "So how are you?" asked Kaz. Shanita was on a gurney in the medical center. Hallas was standing off near the nurse's station. "I'm fine." she said coldly. Kaz looked at the lanky physician on the other side of the gurney. Dr. Martin took the cue, "She has a bad case of the flu. Her alien physiology has never been exposed to a terran virus like this before. That's why this case is particularly hard hitting, frankly I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner." "What do you know?" mumbled Shanita. "I'm a doctor, the title alone should tell you something." he replied. "It tells me your bedside manner needs work." said Shanita. Dr. Martin ignored her and penciled a few things on her chart then hung it on the end of her gurney. "I have better things to do than listen to you." He looked at Kaz, "Seven days bed rest with meds, and not a day less. Make sure she stays there too." "No problem, Doc." Dr. Martin left to continue his rounds. "You could try to be a little nicer to him you know." stated Kaz. "Maybe. But every time I see him, I'm reminded of when I was his pet alien." muttered Shanita. "Okay, maybe he didn't treat you so well then. But that was because you weren't trying to communicate." Kaz shifted his stance. "And its not like he hasn't helped us both out since. Remember that assassin? We would never have found him in time if not for his help. Then there's your arm and shoulder. What condition would those be in, if not for him?" "Is there a point coming?" demanded Shanita. Kaz threw his arms in the air, "Just behave yourself, okay?" Shanita reluctantly agreed and Kaz left. * * *       Poedowski looked as if he was ready to kill someone. He had watched Thrax lumber over to the table. He watched Dirk show him how to hold the cue stick, explain how to hit the cue ball, and the premise of the game. He then watched Thrax break. He sank three balls. Not too unusual, or so Poedowski thought. His suspicions increased when Thrax selected solids and then began to systematically clear the table. "We're being hustled." he mumbled. Jared looked from Thrax to Dirk, "Did you know he could play like that?" Dirk shrugged his shoulders, "He told me he didn't like the game." Thrax lined up another shot and tapped the cue ball. It rolled to scrape a solid ball and then continued on until it contacted another solid. Both balls were put away leaving the eight ball on the other side of the table near a corner pocket. "I did say that I did not like this game, but you never bothered to ask why." Thrax carefully surveyed the table in preparation for his final shot. "You mind sharing?" asked Jared. "Not at all." replied Thrax. He positioned himself behind the cue and thrust the stick under the white ball. It popped up and over the mass of balls in the center of the table, bounced once, and rolled right into the eight ball knocking it home. "I always found the game to be far too simple, no challenge at all really. So I don't bother with it. By the way, you lose." Thrax hung his cue stick on the wall and walked away. Dirk couldn't believe it. None of them had even got the chance to play. "I wonder if he's any good at poker" he mused. "We could find out." suggested Jared. "Let's do it." added Poedowski. * * *       Kaz arrived in the lounge and looked for Thrax and Dirk. He stopped over at the bar for drink and stumbled onto Jared Mathison. "Hey buddy, haven't seen you in few days. How have you been?" Jared shook his hand and gestured to table to their far right, "100 credits poorer thanks to your squad." Kaz saw Thrax sitting at a table with Poedowski and Dirk playing cards. Both Dirk and Poedowski had a small pile of credits in front of them. Thrax on the other hand, had an ever increasing mountain. "Oh, Thrax is a real card shark, you should watch out for him." Jared gave Kaz a hard stare, "You could have mentioned that 100 credits ago." Kaz took a sip of his drink, "Take my advice, and get out of the game while you still have your shirt." "Already done." Jared shot his thumb towards the table. "They're still determined to win some of their money back." "I'll let them lose another 100 credits then tell Thrax I need his help in the hanger." Jared gulped down his drink, "Well that's nice of you." Kaz smiled, "Hey, you should be glad you didn't play him at pool." * * *       The war is not over. Not yet. The humans need to pay for their actions against us. The high council may have decided that we should forget our bloody past but I cannot. Many good Eltorians were killed in the fighting with these terrans. To forget the fighting means to forget their sacrifice, and that road leads to dishonor. Seraph carefully made the last, crucial connection. The computer board hummed to life. Seraph inserted it into a cylindrical housing, roughly a meter tall, and closed it. He and his comrades had smuggled the components to earth over the last year and a half. He gazed at the device with awe. The pyramid base smoothly melded with the cylindrical body. The end of the cylinder was cone shaped with one side dented inward. In this divot was a small control panel comprised of a digital display, a keypad, and a hexagonal locking mechanism. Seraph removed the hexagonal key which always hung around his neck. He placed it in the lock and turned it to the left. The control panel activated and requested detonation instructions. Seraph patted the weapon like a favorite pet, "Not yet, my friend, but soon." He turned the key back to the right and removed it. As he placed the key around his neck again, he noted the exofleet symbol on the bomb's side. The irony of it had not escaped him. Fitting that a terran weapon be used to kill terrans. * * *       "So where exactly are we going?" asked Ellen. Alec looked up from his data pad. "To be honest, I wasn't sure what to do with you." "No kidding?" said Ellen sarcastically. "Anyway, I decided the best thing to do was to have our science guys analyze the tapes we made of your memories and propose a hypothesis for what happened. They did, and we're going to see the expert in the field." Alec went back to his data pad, scrolled down a paragraph and continued to read. Ellen kicked his chair, "What? That's it? You don't have anything else to tell me?" Alec eyed her, "Sit down and listen if you want to know more." Ellen went over the chair next to Alec and sat down. "Better. Alright, the best guess the department could make was that you somehow came from another dimension." Ellen raised an eyebrow, "You're joking?" "H.I.A. does not joke." replied Alec. He punched a few buttons on his data pad and handed it to Ellen. She looked down at the small screen on the pad, it displayed part of a paper about the possibility of transdimensional travel. "We're going to see the Professor that wrote this. If there is anyone who get you home, it's him." Ellen glanced over the screen and handed the data pad back to DeLeon. "Why are we in a private shuttle then?" she asked. "The Ellen Wright of this world is dead. The less exposure you have, the better." answered Alec. Ellen sat back in her chair looking a little angry, "So how long till we get to Earth?" "A couple hours." stated Alec. Ellen's eyes widened in surprise, "A couple hours!? How fast are we going?" "All official H.I.A. and exofleet craft are now equipped with warp engines, they enable faster than light travel." answered Alec. He was still trying to read from his data pad. "When were these things developed?" Ellen asked. "After the Eltorian War ended. We adapted some Eltorian technology to our ships." "The wars over then?" asked Ellen. "For some time now." stated Alec. He had given up trying to read and rested his data pad in his lap. "Did we win?" she asked. "A truce was called. We're friends now." Ellen looked disgusted with the concept, "After all they did, you can be friends with them!?" "Whatever they did, they did in your world, not this one." said Alec calmly. The comment peaked his curiosity, "What happened in your world?" "We're still at war!" yelled Ellen. "Obviously. But what started the war?" asked Alec. "They invaded." replied Ellen. "Where?" asked Alec, he was growing impatient.       "They hit Chaos first. They made it disappear then made a push to the inner solar system."       Alec shifted in his seat. This was starting to sound all to familiar. "That happened here too. Did they stop at Mars?"       "Yeah. And Exofleet sent my unit to Mars for a rescue mission. That happen too?"       "Yes it did, Wright. Was it a trap?"       "We walked right into it." replied Ellen.       "I'm going to name some names, tell me if they're familiar."       "Whatever floats your boat, DeLeon."       "J.T. Marsh?"       "Heard of him, but he died during the initial attack."       "Rita Torres?"       "She's your second in command."       "Kaz Takagi?" Alec watched her closely for any reaction, he got none.       "Never met him, you mentioned him once though, said he bought it over Mars."       "Thrax?"       "Same deal as that Takagi guy."       "Wolf Bronski?"       "Dead. It happened after that first battle though. He was leading a resistance patrol and they got jumped. Nobody made it. He was a nice guy though."       "What about Maggie Weston?"       "She died like Thrax, Takagi, and Marsh."       Alec gasped slightly. Ellen noticed, "She mean something to ya?" Alec recovered, "Yes, she does. What about Butler, Mathison, and Poedowski?"       "Wait a minute, what about this Weston girl? You sweet on her?"       Alec looked annoyed, "We're living together. Now what about Butler, Mathison, and Poedowski?"       "Interesting, that explains why you didn't like talking about her." Ellen rubbed her chin thoughtfully for a moment. Alec tapped his fingers on his armrest. Ellen returned to Alec's question, "Uh, Butler was my C.O. for that first mission. He died during the attack, along with most of my squad. Poedowski bought it too. Mathison made it though. He was with me on patrol, when I ended up here. I don't know if he made it. But he's a good soldier, I'm sure he got out of there." "Yeah I'm sure he did." echoed Alec. He got from his chair and headed to the rear of the cabin. "Where are you going?" asked Ellen. "I got a call to make. Stay here and stay out of trouble." Alec pushed a button on the wall and the door opened with a swoosh. Alec and stepped through and it closed behind him. He followed the narrow passage down a flight of stairs. This put him on the lower level of the craft. The upper level was for the passengers, a private cabin with a small refreshment station and two closet-like restrooms. The lower level was for the 3 man crew. The pilot, copilot and navigator were in the cockpit at the moment, leaving the crew lounge vacant. Alec could have made the call from the upper level, but preferred the privacy. He turned the vid-screen off. One of the crew must have left it on then went into the cockpit. Next to the vid-screen and directly behind the cockpit was a small long range communications station. Alec sat down and thumbed the 'on' button. The screen crackled to life. Alec used the knob to the left of the screen to set the frequency and the keyboard underneath to input the calling destination. Alec hit a few buttons on the keyboard and screen displayed, "Please wait, your call is being placed." A moment later the picture changed and a brown haired woman was seen on the other end, "Hello?" "Hey Maggs, I'm just calling to tell you I'm not going to be home on time tonight." * * *       The display came into focus, showing the image of Nara Sterling. "Hi honey." said Cy. "Hey you, where have you been?" asked Nara. Cy shrugged his shoulders, "I realize I'm calling a little later than usual, but I ran into some old friends and I had some extra work to do." "Who'd you see?" she asked. "Wolf and Eve." answered Cy. Nara brightened, "Really? How are they?" Cy quickly related the conversation they had over lunch. "Same old Wolf." commented Nara. "Yeah, he'll never change." agreed Cy. "When are you coming home?" asked Nara. "I'm going to be delayed a day. I got a message from H.I.A., they have some problem they need me to work on." "Really, how nice..." said Nara, her voice a bit icy. "Now Nara, relax. Its only one more day. Besides the message was from Alec, you know he wouldn't delay me if it wasn't important.." "I know, its just...I miss you." Cy smiled, "I miss you too. I've got to go. Remember, I love you and I'll see you soon." Nara smiled back and put her hand on the screen. Cy did the same. "I love you too, Cy. Hurry home, huh?" Her image faded and the connection was disrupted. "That's a promise, Nara." * * *       "So you're going to be late again, huh?" Maggie sounded less than optimistic. She had every right to be and Alec knew it. He hadn't come home on time in the past three weeks. In the last week alone, he had not come home at all three times. "I'm sorry Maggie, its important though." offered Alec. "It always is," said Maggie, "but I thought I was too...once." Maggie looked like she was getting upset. Alec shifted in his seat - it suddenly got uncomfortable for him. "Look Maggie, I'll call you when I'm done on Earth." "Sure, whatever." was the reply. Alec switched the comm station off and put his head in his hands. "She's pretty." Alec looked up to see Ellen Wright. "She's pretty, Weston, I mean." Alec got up, "Yeah, she is. How long have you been standing there?" "Long enough. So what's up with you and her, you both looked pretty rattled at the end of that conversation." asked Ellen. "That's none of your business." replied Alec curtly. "It is if you're going to sit and brood for the rest of the trip blondie." "Well you don't have to worry. Get back to the cabin, we should be entering earth orbit in another few minutes." * * *       Paul Steward was a hanger tech. Which to Paul meant that he made a living moving cargo around. Paul's father moved cargo and his father before him also moved cargo. Paul didn't mind moving cargo, in fact he kind of enjoyed it. He found comfort in the simplicity and often lost himself in the routine. Take a bunch of metal crates and move them. At the end of the day, you knew you did something because the cargo bay was full, or empty, as the job specified. It wasn't all that hard either. The exoloader did most of the work.       The yellow humanoid exoframes possessed no weaponry or armor plating. Each had a flashing red bulb-light on top and nothing but a simple metal roll bar would pull down over the pilot. The pilot's cyber-jack helped maneuver the exoloader with the pilot's thoughts. The long powerful arms which give the exoloader its name are partially controlled by the pilot through the movement of joysticks on each arm. The sticks are usually used for fine adjust on the arms movement with the overall arm movement adjusted through thought. Each arm ended in a large three-fingered hand. The palms of these hands were equipped with powerful electromagnets, allowing the loader to grasp metal cargo crates with ease.       Paul glanced down at his watch, his shift was scheduled to end in fifteen minutes. There was only two cargo crates left. It would take Paul about three minutes to maneuver his loader over to each, pick it up, and carry it over to the conveyer belt which led to the cargo processing center. It looked like Paul would get out just a bit early today. He could be home in five minutes. Paul had promised his son that he would catch his hover ball game. As things stood, he would make it with time to spare. Paul maneuvered his loader in front of one of the two crates and reached out with the loader's large arms. He opened the loader's hands and brought them to either side of the crate. He pressed the palms of the loader's hands against the sides. Paul felt for the switch that was on both joysticks and flipped them both. With a clang, the palms affixed themselves to the crate and Paul hoisted it into the air. He was halfway to the conveyer belt when he stopped. Something was wrong. According to the work order he had received, this shipment contained raw building materials. Each crate weighed on average three tons. But according to the pressure sensors on his loader, he was lifting barely a ton. Paul brought the crate to the ground and released it. He gave the mental command and the roll bar opened, allowing Paul to get out. He walked over to the crate and rapped on it. It sounded hollow. It shouldn't have. He found the release for the crate's hatch. All of them were locked for security reasons. Someone wanting entry would need to enter a six digit code on the touch pad to the left of the hatch. Paul had worked around these things his whole life and though the codes were supposed to be changed every six months, it rarely happened. He had seen people open the crates a million times and through seeing it daily he had learned a few codes. He entered the one that he considered the most commonly used. There was a hiss and a creak as the crate's seal cracked. It opened outward slightly. Paul pulled a small pen light from his coveralls and peered inside. Unable to make anything out, he grabbed the door and began to swing it open. As the opening widened, Paul saw a large cylinder. It was surrounded by some sophisticated equipment which appeared to be projecting a force field around it. The crate's magnetized floor would keep that thing in place, why would it need a force field? Paul heard a click, followed by the sound of something like a coin hitting the floor. He knew in that instant he wouldn't make his son's game. * * *       The explosion rocked the landing pad. The pad was so close to the blast point that the shockwave caused Alec to stumble down shuttle's entry ramp. Alec looked at the flight crew only to see his surprise mirrored in their faces. Alec turned his head to the left and noted the plume of black smoke rising into the air. It looked like the cargo complex next to the pad had some sort of accident. Alec issued orders for his flight crew to contact the station manager and get a damage control unit over there. With the orders given, he noticed for the first time that someone was missing, "Ellen?" * * *       The landing pad was situated at the top of a tower, with the appropriate number of elevators and staircases to get one easily to ground level in the smallest amount of time possible. It was designed to accomidate a number of small personnel craft. In contrast, the cargo complex was situated at ground level so as to accomidate three or four bulk cruisers. The moment the explosion occurred, Ellen Wright was in motion. She had been in too many battles to make the stupid mistake of staying still when the explosions started. That DeLeon reacted so slowly confirmed her theory that he had not seen battle for some time. No matter. While DeLeon was busy talking to his flight crew, Ellen was already off the landing pad and on her way to ground level via elevator. She ripped open her duffel and began to put on her exoarmor. The jumpboots fit a little snugly. She quickly checked the back portion of the boots to make sure nothing was lodged in the thrusters. As she strapped them on, her head almost bumped the ceiling. Due to the thick 'soles' of the boots, which contain a sophisticated shock absorption system, Ellen was almost a foot taller. Ellen next removed the armor plating which would cover her thighs. After securely strapping them down, she made sure to connect the wiring from the jumpboots to the relays in the thigh guards. Ellen zipped up her coat and sealed the waist and wrists. She wasn't in space, but it was just good practice to always seal your suit. Next came the chest plate, which hinged at the shoulder joint. It covered Ellen's front, back, and shoulders. She opened it and pulled it over her head. She snapped it shut at the waist and wired the relays from her thigh plating to the computer in the chest plate. Ellen pulled on a set of long black gloves which stopped just short of the elbow. She sealed them to her jacket with some engine tape. Using both arms, Ellen hefted the large 'backpack' portion of her armor. The lower half of it contained a fuel tank and two large thrusters. The upper portion was box-like with the exception of the portion behind the left shoulder. It looked like a small pipe with a diameter no bigger than a softball. The backpack locked into placed on the chest plate. Ellen retrieved her armored helmet. The breather over the face looked banged up, but functioned perfectly. There were only two small lenses that allowed the pilot to see. They had a tendency to slightly restrict visibility. Ellen originally didn't like this aspect of her armor but quickly got used to it. A collar of ultra thin and flexible armor plating rose from around Ellen's neck. Ellen tucked he braid inside it and slapped on her helmet. It locked into place. She then retrieved the last component from her duffel. She slung the shoulder strap around her neck and hefted the repeater rifle. She popped a fresh energy pack into the casing and pulled to release lever back, bringing the weapon on-line. After checking to see if the repeater's grenade launcher was fully loaded, she grabbed the weapon's handle and put her finger on the trigger. "Okay, let's see what's going on down here." * * *       "I told you the force fields would be a wise move." Seraph looked at the smaller Eltorian, "Yes, yes, you are brilliant, Absolum. Now secure the device." The smaller Eltorian moved forward and pulled a small transmitter from his belt. With a click, the force fields surrounding them and their bomb disengaged. With the help of a comrade, Absolum hefted the weapon and headed for the conveyer belt. There were six aliens in all. They moved as swiftly as any well trained military unit. "Quickly, onto the conveyance!" yelled Seraph.       Once out of the elevator Ellen hit her jets and shot herself into the lattice of support girders that held the roof of the cargo complex up. With the view afforded to her by that position, she could easily see what was the epicenter of the blast. Squinting her eyes, she saw what was left of the area. There was not much to see. The M.O. struck Ellen as familiar. Classic bombing raid. Looks like some poor schmuck set it off early though. Ellen thought about getting a closer look, then thought better of it. There's nothing of value to blow up here and the explosion was too small to be the real bomb. If nothing, the Eltorians Ellen had known always thought big. Such a small explosion would never do, alternate dimension or no. If that wasn't the bomb then I have to assume that someone moved it. What's the fastest way out of here? Ellen looked around the area. The ship the bomb had been moved out of was essentially destroyed. Most likely the reason the explosion seemed so big. It must have caught the fuel tanks. But the bay the bomb went off in was mostly in tact. Ellen spied the still working conveyer belt, "Gotcha!"       "Where do we go from the conveyance?" asked Absolum. "According to the maps I have studied, there is a building full of living quarters across the street. It is only 100 hundred terrans, but we may get lucky a kill a few hundred more in the surrounding area." answered Seraph. Absolum nodded in approval. After all, some deaths were preferable to none. "How long do we have for evacuation?" "10 minutes. Any longer and we risk the bomb being discovered before it goes off. Remember the escape route." reminded Seraph. Each of the six was to depart from the location in six different directions, weapons would be left with the bomb and subsequently vaporized. Each member of the team was wearing a gray coveralls. Standard dress for cargo techs and ever so useful should the need to fade into the background arise. Each team member had also been given enough credits to hail a hovercab, which could easily escape the 10 mile blast zone in under five minutes. Then, once the bomb went off, everyone would just disappear for a few weeks. Then the team would meet up with Seraph and he would see some friends about getting them off planet. Seamless. Lazer fire streaked by his head. Then again, maybe not. Seraph turned to see a jumptrooper firing on them. "Return fire!"       Ellen hit her jets again and landed smoothly on the conveyer belt. Her boots once again absorbed the impact. She hit the jets again and rocketed forward. She came to rest again and repeated the process. The resulting hopping motion she preformed was one of the reasons the exofleet referred to the infantry as the jumptroops. After a short pursuit Ellen spied her query. There were six Eltorians in gray coveralls. Each carried a black blaster rifle. They looked to be military grade, albeit a bit beat up. Probably bought them on the black market - assuming there is one here - less questions that way. They were gathered around what looked to Ellen like a fusion bomb, which was partially concealed behind another crate. They all seemed to be listening to the one closest to the bomb. He had short purple hair with streaks of white on the sides. Looks like the leader, as good a target as any. Ellen brought her repeater to bear and squeezed the trigger. They reacted quickly, setting up behind the crate to return fire. Ellen came to a stop and fired a grenade at their cover.       "He is crazy! Everyone scatter!" yelled Absolum. No, he is smart. thought Seraph. He assumed that Seraph would not arm the bomb until they got it to its destination and until then it was as harmless as a paper weight. He was right. The grenade hit the crate in front of them head on. Seraph ducked behind the bomb, trusting the casing would make a suitable shield. The rest ran out from behind the crate and into the line of fire. The grenade exploded, taking a good sized chunk of the crate with it. Seraph peaked his head out from behind his bomb. His men all appeared to be still alive. Seraph looked over his shoulder, the conveyer belt was coming to an end. "Absolum, help me with this. The rest of you, kill that terran!"       "This stinks." muttered Ellen. They had reached the other side of the belt. While two of them made off with the bomb, she was pinned down behind another crate by the other four. She took a breath in, turned around the corner of the crate and fired a few shots. None of them connected. But Ellen was able to see that the two with the bomb were gone and two others were in the process of withdrawing. Screw it! She pointed her weapon straight into the air and angled it slightly forward. Ellen reached for the secondary trigger in front of the primary and pulled it four times. Four grenades shot into the air and came back to earth all around her and her attackers. The remaining two Eltorians panicked and made break for the exit as Ellen hit her jets to get off the ground. She leveled her rifle and fired on one of them. A few of Ellen's shots hit his left leg and blew out his kneecap. The Eltorian dropped to the ground and grabbed his destroyed knee, his blue blood oozed from between his hands. With one immobilized, Ellen fired on the other and caught him in the shoulder as he leaped off the belt. He fell into the next room and out of sight. Ellen leveled out her thrust and hovered near the roof as she went into the next room. The floor sank about four feet. Ellen landed and looked for the one that got away. He was gone, but left an easy to follow blood trail. There was a thud next to Ellen. It was the other Eltorian falling off the conveyer belt. He was pulling himself over to his dropped weapon. "I will kill you!" he said. "You can't be serious." The Eltorian continued toward his weapon, "For such insolence, it will be a slow, painful death." Ellen muttered "Whatever hop-along" under her breath and put a round in his forehead. She then proceeded to follow the blood trail to her next target.       "Put the bomb down!" ordered Seraph. "But the target is still 100 meters away." replied Absolum. "It does not matter, it will be destroyed as surely from here than if the bomb was directly under it." "Good point." agreed Absolum. They put the bomb down and Seraph removed the hexagonal key from around his neck. As he placed the key into the lock, one of their missing comrades came running towards them. They were in a large warehouse-style room. A variety of cargo crates littered the floor making for plenty of cover and creating a makeshift maze of sorts. "Where is your partner?" asked Seraph. "Dead. The terran killed him." was the reply. "And the terran?" asked Seraph. "Looking for us." answered the Eltorian. His eyes widened and his body tensed as his chest exploded. His legs gave out from under him and he fell face forward to the floor, dead. Seraph and the others got behind cover, "Does anyone see the shooter?" "Negative," replied Absolum, "The fool lead him right to us."       As the aliens went for cover, Ellen moved through the room parallel to their position. She had to be more careful now, it looked like the leader armed the bomb. I have to lure them away from it. As she moved through the crates, Ellen kept her eyes open for anything useful. She rounded a corner and found exactly what she needed.       Seraph and his troops remained still, waiting for the enemy to make the first move. Suddenly they heard a loud thumping noise. Like metal slapping against metal. Seraph knew it must be a trap. But if he sent his men to investigate, it would give him time to arm the bomb and get out. As for his men, well they knew what they were getting into from the start. "Absolum, take the rest of the team and find out what that noise is. I will arm the bomb." Absolum nodded and signaled the other two remaining Eltorians. They followed him towards the source of the noise. Seraph went back to the bomb's control panel and turned the key to the left. He set the time lapse for ten minutes and turned the key all the way to the right. With the bomb armed, he removed the key, put it around his neck, and headed for the nearest exit.       Absolum stopped and looked at the two Eltorians with him, "You two continue directly towards it, I'll head off towards the right and try to get behind it." The two Eltorians did as instructed. As soon as they were out of sight, Absolum turned around and headed for the nearest exit. Seraph must think I'm a fool. Did he really believe that I would not see through such an obvious ploy?       The two Eltorians carefully made their way to the source of the noise. When they arrived they found an exoloader repeatedly lifting and dropping a cargo crate. There was no one inside it. The Eltorians did not have too much time to consider the implications as the explosion consumed them.       Not far from the explosion, Ellen Wright was standing with her missile launcher hanging over her left shoulder. She used the handle near the end of the barrel to point the weapon straight up. The near silent noise of gears turning was heard as another missile was shifted into position under the barrel and pushed up into it. Ellen brought the barrel over her shoulder again and used the targeting system of her helmet to draw a bead on one of the exits. She depressed the trigger and the missile streaked across the cargo bay and slammed into a structural support in front of the doorway. The explosion brought down part of the roof and closed off the exit. Ellen reloaded her weapon and targeted the next one.       He is destroying all the exits! Seraph had to admit, this terran was clever. With all the exits destroyed, the only way out would be back the way they came...and through him. Very well. If Seraph was going to die, he would die fighting. He changed direction and headed to the source of the missile attacks.       With the last exit collapsed, Ellen pushed her launcher back over her shoulder. With a thought, it contracted like a monocular and disappeared behind her back. She had positioned herself near the only way out. All she had to do now was wait.       Seraph heard the sound of someone approaching. He halted. So did the other person. He carefully started to sidestep to his left. From what he heard, his opponent quickly backed up and headed to his right, which was Seraph's left. His arc was wider though and would bring him behind Seraph if completed. Seraph backed into a crate and stayed there. He listened as his opponent quietly completed his maneuver. Seraph turned to face the crate. Using his powerful legs he quickly jumped on top of the crate and flipped himself off and over to the other side. As he somersaulted off, he sprayed lazer fire down at the opponent he knew had to be there. His assailant returned fire in kind. Seraph was hit in the stomach, lost his balance when landing, and slammed into the floor. His enemy took several shots in the chest and dropped his weapon. He lay slumped against the crate, unmoving. Seraph sat up and put his left hand over his wound. With the other he supported himself. He looked about him, but couldn't see where his weapon landed. He had released it when he hit the floor. Seraph took a look at his would-be assassin. "Absolum?" He did not get a response, at least not one he expected. From a short distance away came clapping. Seraph watched in horror as the jumptrooper came around the corner to look at him. "Nice work. Personally I had my money on the other guy, but I gotta respect that gutsy over-the-top move. That took balls." He stopped clapping and that's when Seraph realized he was a woman. "A female?! We were beaten by a terran female?!" Ellen pointed her rifle at him, "Don't worry, you won't have to live with it." "No you can't! What about the bomb!?" stammered Seraph. "Oh yeah, a type II fusion bomb, right?" Ellen walked forward and quickly ripped the key from around Seraph's neck. "Hexagonal locking system, goes off if anyone tampers with it. I could disarm it in my sleep. Do you have any idea how many of these things I've seen?" Seraph studdered a bit and finally managed to say, "Arrest me! I demand that you arrest me! That's what you do, right?" Ellen palmed the key in her left hand and flicked off the safety on her rifle. "I'm a soldier. I'm trained to kill. You want to be arrested, find a cop." Seraph tried to protest but any sound he made was lost to the discharge of her rifle. On to Chapter 3