Just a few quick notes, folks. This is a story told from 3 different perspectives: The Nosgothic Humans, The Nosgothic Vampires, and a group of Human Colonial Marines.  A line of ****'s means your changing perspective.  A shorter line of ------ means time has past, but, you haven't changed perspective.  Also, author's notes for part 1 will be released with part 2, so, if your confused with anything, it'll be explained in a few weeks.

        The sound of armor and weapons clinking together was interupted by a new sound. A sound he'd never heard before. Was it a bird? No. Some sort of animal? No, this was completely foreign sound. Jacob didn't have long to ponder its scource, however. For suddenly, a flash of light hit one of the Dumahim leading the column. He almost exploded, burning, seemingly from the inside out. Jacob was sure it was a hallucination. But, it happened again.

        The bolts came at them from a hill, and everytime they hit a vampire, it practically exploded. He squinted his eyes, can could barely make out something on the hill...it looked like....Humans. Humans with more of their blasted sorcery.

        "GET THEM!" Jacob yelled. The legions hesitated. They were unwilling to charge at this unknown weapon. But, slowly began to run at the hill. As a group of vampires got closer to the hill, the ground suddenly exploded from underneth them. Burning pieces of vampire flew into the sky, and landed all over the feild. The same happened to another group. And another. These wrethched humans had devolped some new form of sorcery. The wind changed directions, and that's when Jacob smelled it.

        That scent....that delcisious, wonderful scent....the scent of...of...of..of  fresh humans. He hadn't smelled that in.... damn, he'd forgotten how long. The blood of a human uncontaminated by Nosgoth's decay was something the fledglings had never experienced. Only the elder vampires had. Yes, there was good human blood, blood made sweeter by the induction of sheer terror, or the soothing, cool blood of the sleeping. But none of it compared to the blood a pure human. 

        He could tell some other elder vampires could smell it too, as despite the losses encoured, the entire column changed direction and headed for the hill. He would have that blood for himself.

        "THEY'RE COMING!" Martinez yelled as he ran for the cave.
        "How many?" Carver yelled back.
        "The whole f*cking lot! We really p*ssed them off!" Robertson yelled as he passed the rest of the squad and made for the cave.
        "FIRING LINE!" Carver yelled to the rest of the Marines. "Shoot what ever comes over that hill. FIRE AT WILL!"

        Morgan got the first vampire over the hill, right between the eyes. Of course, in a few seconds, it didn't really matter. It was a charred corpse with not way to tell where you'd hit it.

        Finally, the sounds stopped. Jacob climbed the hill. They had disappeared into a cave. The legions hesitated.

        "Get them!" Jacob yelled "The citadel isn't going anywhere! And I want them ALIVE!"

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        The defenders of the citadel could hear, through the silience, the vampire war cry echo through the valley. The battle had begun.

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        The marines ran along the main shaft of the cave. The few in the rear took some pot shots behind them to scare off anything that was trailing them.

        "BROWN!" Carver yelled.

        "Yes sir?" Came the reply

        "I want you to get the Heavy gun from Martinez, go to the river, and set it up. I also want you to find a nice, stable spot for the motion tracker, and patch us into its output. I want to know where the enemy is, so we can cut them down."

        "Yes sir." Brown said as he slowed down to fall into pace with Martinez, and grabbed the heavy gun, and set off down a side tunnel for the river.

        "The rest of you." Carver said "I want you to spread out through these side tunnels, and lie in ambush for these things. Take as many as you can, but, if things get too dicy, head for the river.Brown's setting up the tracker so we'll have an idea of where most of them are."

        As the Marines split up, Carver remembered something.
        "And watch your charge! All of our extra packs were in the dropship, so if you run out of voltage, you'll have to recharge using your panels."

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        Dumahim tribe leader Lucifer followed his trackers, angered and unnerved. His proud warriors, forced to hunt these humans through the tunnels like children after an errant puppy. A zephonim scuttled overhead. He was filled by an intense desire to squash it like an insect. The zephonim seemed more than happy to hunt the humans in this enviroment so much like their own home.
        He was unnerved by what he had seen earlier. The exploding earth and the burning vampires. And here they were, hunting. Hunting these deadly things in close quarters. He was also unnerved at how easy it was to track the humans. They made no effort to covered their tracks. His trackers could be heard chuckling. A fledging could follow the trails.

        As his party followed a trail off the main cave, he noticed these carverns looked oddly familiar. There had been a human town nearby. Perhaps this is where his previous life was lived. It was of no consiquence. As they rounded a corner, of the his escort began sniffing the air. A small slide of rocks echoed through the passage. He turned to see the rear guard look at something protruding from the wall, and then the guard burst into flames. A human slid out, and began to take his party down, one by one as they charged or fled in a vain attempt to save their lives.

        Lucifer huddled down, and his life flashed before his eyes. His real life. He had lived near these caves. He had had a puppy,which he had chased into these caves. He realized he missed that life. He wanted to go back. Go back...to his wife. He remembered Jacob himself slaying her before his eyes. He remembered everything. Dumah ripping his soul back from the wheel. Away from his wife's soul. He remembered Jacob, standing at Dumah's side, laughing. He wanted his old life back. But he also wanted Jacob dead.

        Lucifer heard something. The Human stood over him, look at him down the strange weapon. The human said something, then raised the weapon. As the flames engulfed him, Lucifer wondered what had become of his puppy.

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        McGuiness surveyed the remains of the vampires. As he began to make his way to the river, he heard a noise behind him. He turned, but saw nothing. As he continued, he heard the noise again, and turned. Still nothing. At the next turn in the tunnel, McGuiness hid around the corner. He walked in place, making his footsteps quieter each time, to give the appearence he was walking away. He then peaked around the corner, and quickly withdrew. There were about 15 giant, pasty white spider creatures coming up the tunnel, crawling on the ceiling.

        He then readied his weapon and spun out from behind the turn, firing wildly. He didn't get one. These spiders were even quicker than the ones he had seen before. He took off running. The spider creatures following him.

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         Arzel lead his fledglings after the human. He could sense the human was running, and with their supirior speed, would be upon him in no time. It would be a simple matter to then wrap the human in silk, and deliver him to Jacob. This would be sure to win him favor with their new leader.

         As he rounded a corner, he reflexively jumped back, as the rock in front of him sent off sparks. More the human's magic from their staves. He peaked around again. The human was in a widening of the tunnel. He was crouched, staff pointed at the ceiling, waiting for him, or one of his fledglings, to venture out. Arzel smiled as much as his form would allow. This would be too easy. He dropped to the floor, and ran weaving side to side at the human who was firing wildly. Arel was on him in no time, and, as the human readied a kill shot, he knocked the staff accross the the floor. At the sound of it skittering across the floor, his fledglings entered the cavern. The human retreated from him, babbling on in some odd dialect, which he assumed was the human pleading for his life. 

         Arzel allowed this to continue for a moment, before he grabbed the human, and began to prepare him for delivery to Jacob.

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         McGuiness shot wildly as the creature zig-zagged wildly across the room at him. It stopped before him, reering up. He raised he weapon to shoot, but, in a movement he didn't even see, the creature knocked his weapon across the widening.

         McGuiness began to back away from the creature, smiling and with raised hands.
        "Hey! Whoa! No hard feelings, heh, heh. I tried to kill you, you tried to kill me, we both failed, we're even now right?" McGuiness noticed the other creatures entering the tunnel section.
        "Oh. Heh,heh I see you brought your friends. I'll tell you what, I'll go get a nice board game we can all play and we'll settle this with nice, intellectual discus-"
         McGuiness was cut off as the creature grabbed him and began to cover him with a thread. As the creature finished binding his arms, it dropped him and started to work on his legs. But, just as the creature grabbed his legs, McGuiness felt a short, intense heat. He then heard yells, and saw the red flashes of laser rifle fire. He heard some of the creatures scream in pain, others simply burned too fast.
         McGuiness rolled over and saw Morgan and Yankovic walking towards him.
        "You took your damn time."

        "Well, we wanted to nail the things following the one that got you." Morgan said as she cut the the silk stands that held McGuiness's arms to his sides."That, and we had to wait for it to drop you, so I could get a clear shot."

        "Plus, we wanted to see you sweat for a bit."Yankovic added, helping McGuiness to his feet and handing him his laser rifle.

        "It would have worked better if your transponders weren't on. I knew you were there the whole time." McGuiness said, taking his rifle, and quickly inspecting it for damage. "Why do you think I chose this place to make a stand? I'd do better in a narrow tunnel, where the buggers couldn't manuever."

        There was a scuttling sound from the tunnel behind them.

        "What's that?" Morgan asked.

        "These guy's friends. I sugguest we make for the river." McGuiness said, running down the tunnel.

        "Hey, wait up!" Yankovic said as he and Morgan took off after him.

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        Jacob stood outside. The news from the caverns wasn't good. His forces had taken a heavy toll on their way to the humans, and were taking worse losses inside. A single human would sometimes decimate an entire tribe before retreating further into the tunnels. Jacob wished he had the Rahabim with him. Their force projectiles would atleast even the range with these humans.

        Jacob looked at the sky. The sun was setting. It would be several hours before the Rahabim would join his ranks.
Jacob looked at the cave opening. He noticed some blood script carved above it. He read the inscription several times, and then laughed. The humans had wandered right into the place where Salvatore's Rahabim would make their remergence onto land.

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         McGuiness, Yankovic, and Morgan ran down the sloping tunnel into the river.

        "Everyone's here, Captian." Roberston reported as they waded into the river waist deep.
        "What now, Captian?" Morgan asked.
        "We take cover on those rocks" Carver said as he gestered to some Stalagmites rising from the river. "And see that those creatures have a really bad day."

        As the marines waded to the rocks, Rameriez slipped into neck-deep water

        "Shit!" Rameriez gasped as he made his way up the slope he had slipped down
        "I should have warned you" Brown said, already on the rocks with the heavy gun "The formation seems to be near the mouth of the river. It might get a little deeper."
        "F*ck, Brown! Nearly scared me half to death. Thought one of those things had got me."
        "Relax, Rameriez." Morgan said as she setup on the rocks. "Those things can't go in the water, remember? As long as we stay wet, they can't touch us."

        "We've got movement!"Brown shouted.
        "Where and how many?" Carver asked
        "I can't tell its.... distorted...can't tell exactly"
        "How far?"
        "100 meters"

        "Heat 'em up, people."
         "90 meters"
         "The tunnel we came through is the only above ground enterence, cover it, and lets drop some critters"
         "75 meters....50 meters....30 meters...25 meters....22 meters....17 meters....14 meters...10 meters."
         "Here they come!"
         "I don't hear anything!"
         "9 meters"
         "We should be able to see them by now!"
         "8 meters"
         "If their not in tunnel, where are they?"
         "7 meters"
         "Johnson, adjust it to compensate for water!"
         "Sir, we were told by the populace that the creatures couldn't go in water!"
         "That's an order!"
         "Compensating...Sh*t!We've got 400 contacts, 3 meters and closing...they are in the water! And directly behind us!"
         "Heads up people! McGuiness, Brown, Morgan, cover the tunnel in case our friends show up. Everyone else, turn around, but  hold your fire until we can be sure whats coming our way is a threat. If they are, toast 'em." 
 

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         Salvatore swam ahead of his legion. He knew Jacob had probably already begun the assult, and he and his legion were missing out on some good slaughter time. His scouts were slowly gaining ground on him, but Salvatore was dermined to make landfall first. Suddenlt, 3 of his scouts rocketed pasted him. As the water shallowed, The scouts broke surface. Suddenly, they combusted, burning even under the water.

         Salvatore's head broke the surface, but quickly resubmerged. There were humans there, with staves that shot out energy bolts.  He ducked down, and tried to tell he legion to halt, but it was already to late, the noise of their swiming, now mixed with the screams of the burning, over powered even his loudest of bellows. He could do nothing but watch his legion, most of them his children, rush to their doom.
 

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         "OH YEA! FEEL THAT HOT LOVING!" Robertson yelled as he mowed down another group of creatures as they broke the surface.
         "Damn, you would have figured with all the bones and charred flesh floating around one of them would be bound to figure out their surfacing right into a massacre." Yankovic said as he shot one swimming for the tunnel.
         "Captian!" Brown yelled as he watched the tunnel "The other vampires are coming our way. Judging by their seismographic signatures, they're the spiders."
         "Brown, other than that tunnel, and this underwater passage, are there any other ways in, or more importantly, out, of here?"  Carver asked.
         "None that I can see, Captian."
         "Thank you Brown. Give Morgan and McGuiness there range to the creatures, and then keep them busy."
         "Sir, yessir!"

         Morgan was watching the bend in the tunnel that led to the marine's current position. She had attached her scope to her weapon, as had zoomed in real tight. Suddenly, her scope became filled with an eye of one of the spider creatures. She pulled her weapon slighty to the outter edge of the eye, and fired.
         The creature could be heard wailing. He shot had grazed the creature, and, while being enough to complete ignite the creature, it would take longer. The cries of agony from the creature would be enough to hold the rest at bay for a little longer, she hoped.
 

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         Lotatan watched as his fledging howled in pain and fell back. Its right eye had a hole through it, and flames were begining to spread from the right side of his head. Several other fledglings rushed to help.

         "Leave him!" Lotatan told them, and waved them back.

         The fledging was rolling in the dirt of the cave, trying vainly to extinguish the flames the had now spread to most of his head, and his right shoulder. In between screams of agony, he begged for his death, something Lotatan would have been happy to grant, but he couldn't risk himself, or even one of his fledglines, catching on fire and suffering the same fate.

         The flames had now spread to the fledglings left arm, as it had tried to swat out the flames. Lotatan could do nothing but watch his child slowly, painfully die, and the horridied looks of the rest of the Zephonim.
 

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         Morgan could still hear the spider creature screech in pain. It had been screeching and chirping for almost 3 minutes. She wished it stumble back into her sights, so she could finish it off. The creature screamed for several more minutes till the screams cut off suddenly. Perhaps one its own number had mercifully killed it.
         This thought was quickly dismissed as the flaming creature stumbled into the portion of the tunnel leading to the water. Its lower jaw had fallen off, making it unable to scream, though its body language sugguested it was experiencing pure hell. Morgan could see it up close through her scope. The creatures head was almost entirely burned, with gapping sockets where eyes should have been. The entire creature's throat was  also burned out, rendering it unable to make a sound. The entire creature was on fire. It 
 looked like a burning skeleton of a spider creature. Morgan centered her crosshair on the creatures forhead, and pulled the trigger. The creature fell to the ground, motionless, and was completly burned almost instantly.

         Morgan couldn't help but feel sorry for the creature. Its fellows had abandoned it in its moment of need. Proof to her these things were truely animal, and, if they were intelligent, they were heartless bastards.  Morgan primed the grenade in her rifle's grenade launcher, and fired a bank shot up the bend in the tunnel. But, there was not explosion.

         "Dammit! Dud!" Morgan said. "McGuiness, give me another!"
         "No corpral" Carver said, still pumping shots into the seemingly never ending tide of water creatures surfacing. "We need to save those for targets we can see."
         "Yes, sir." Morgan said. 
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         Lotatan turned away and put out his hands to shield himself from the blast of the human relic. But nothing came. Lotatan looked at where the relic had fallen to the ground. It simply lay there, partially stuck into the dirt. Some of the fledglings which had dove for cover were cautiously peeking out from the crevices in which they had scambled.

         "Come on, come on!" Lotatan called to his cowering fledglings. "Its harmless. The relic seems to be defective!"

         Lotatan grabbed the relic from the tunnel floor, and walked away from the bend that lead to the humans as the fledglings gathered around, wanting to catch a glimse of the powerful human weapon. Lotatan turned it over in his claws. Its was metal, shiny, and was a little shorter then his foot. He noticed some red markings toward the bottom. Those must be the runes that give the object its power. Some of the runes seemed to be worn off. The object's power was gone.

         "Take this to Jacob" Lotatan said as he gave the rune to one of his fledglings. "Tell him its one of the human exploding relics. Also tell him the runes that give it its power are gone, and he need not fear it."
         The fledging took it and scrambled up the wall. The fledgling stepped on a lose rock, and fellt o the ground.
         "CAREFUL!" Lotatan roared at the fledgling. "Do not destroy our new leader's prize before he has seem it!"
         The fledgling heard a sound coming from the relic. He held it up to his ear, and her a fast, rythmic sound. Was it alive?

         "Lord Lotatan..." Was all he managed to get out for the relic exploded, wiping out all of the remaining Zephonim frontline warriors.
 

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         Flames shot down the tunnel towards the marines.

         "SIR!" Morgan shouted "I think we might be able to make it out!"
         "Alright. Walker, seal the tunel with our LAMW's!"
         "Yes sir!" Walk said as he unhooked his 2 Light Antimatter warhead rockets, and set then for time delay detonation. He fired them to the water. "Sir, LAMW's fired, SIR! I sugguest to the captian we leave ASAP!"
         "Thank you, Walker, due noticed. Alright Angels, let's get going!" Carver said as he started to swim for the shore, with the rest of the marines following. 

         As the marines ran up the tunnel, Carver stopped Walker.
         "Walker, how long did you set the delay on the LAMW's for?"
         Walker's response was lost in an explosion from the room they had just come from.
 

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         Salvatore looked at the odd object that had inbedded itself in the rock beside him.

         "Odd." He thought, holding it "I didn't think the humans were capabable of such craftmanship. I will have to interrogate those humans, and find the smith who made this. Someone who could make objects such as this would be surely make excelent adornments for my chambers. I must also  fine him before Lord  Jacob gets to him."

         Salvatore noticed his warriors were now making landfall, and surface himself, halting his legion, so he could tell them what had happened. In their haste and excitement, they had failed to notice all the charred vampire remain.
         "Brethern!" Salvator began, but was cut off by the explosion of 2 LAMW's.
         The explosion vaporized Salvatore, and the rest of the Rahabim near by. The  rest of the Rahabim swam forward to see what was happening. The  force of the explosion was to much for the  weak river walls, and the ground closed in on the entirity of the Rahabim, sealing them forever.
 

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         "Brown! How far are they?" Carver whispered
         "35 meters, sir. They're still unaware of our presence." Brown whispered back.
         "Are they the spiders?"
         "No sir. The seismic imprint is different. These walk on 2 legs."
         "Are they like the one we disected?"
         "I don't think so, sir. They seem lighter."
         "What are they doing?"
         "Well, sir, I don't think they know they're standing in front of a weakspot in the rock. I think they're goofing off."
         "This shouldn't be to hard. Morgan!"
         "Yes, sir?"
         "There are about 10 creatures up ahead, standing between us and our escape passage."
         "I'm on it, sir."

         Morgan crept up the tunnel. She could hear the creatures talking to each other. This wasn't the screaching/chirping of the spiders.   This was almost normal, only a little slurred are garbled. She chucked a piece of rock from the walls down the tunnel. Sure enough, one of the creatures came out to investigate. She centered it in her sights. It looked like something from Zombie Night II. 
         It seemed to be talking quietly. She slowly tightened her finger, and fired a shot, catching it square in the heart.

         It wasn't long before the rest came out to investigate the scream of their commrade. Morgan made short work of them. She ventured out to see if that was it. As she approached the remains, she heard a sound, and turned to see a small zombie-creature. 
         She frooze, as did it. They stared at each other for a few minutes. Then Morgan slowly reached for her rifle. Then she quickly brought her rifle to firing position. The creature was faster, and started off down the tunel. Just as she almost had it, it did the impossible, and dove into the ground.

         "SH*T!" Morgan yelled. "Captian, get everyone up here in a hurry, we're going to have company soon."
 

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         Micheal ran down the tunnel where the Zephonim had gone. While he didn't like the Zephonim, there were closest aid, and he didn't want to be near the humans alone. As he walked down the tunnel the Zephonim were to be waiting out the humans in, he saw a massacre. Covering the floor and walls of the tunnel were the remains of almost 100 Zephonim. There were limbs and bones sticking out from a thick layer of ash. In shock, Michel sank onto a rock. He felt something rest on shoulder.
         He turned and screamed.
 

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         "Damn it Brown, I thought you said this was a weak spot." Carver said, after Walker had been at the wall for 15 minutes with the rock laser.
         "It is. In fact, we should be busting through right about..."
         "DAYLIGHT!" Walker called back. "Should I blow it?"
         "No, we don't want to attract any more attention than we have to. With anyluck, the one Morgan saw is scared outta its witts, and hiding."

         Walker enlarged the hole so the marines could  slip through. Walker guided all the marines up and out, and finally went up himself.

         "It seems like a rather steep slide, sir." Brown said, looking down.
         "Thank you, Brown. I COULDN'T SEE THAT MYSELF!" Captain carver yelled "I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU COULD GET US OUTTA HERE!"
         "I can. We'll just have to slide down."
         "Damn it brown, its a 60-70 degree drop!"
         "67.45%"
         "Shut up Brown. F*ck, of all the people they had to give the tracker to, IT HAD TO YOU, DIDN'T. Walker, get up here. I'm putting you in charge of the tracker." Carver said as he looked back at walker, who was still in the hole. "Damn it Walker get up here! that's an order." Walker remained, still with his shoulders just out of the hole.
         "Walker, you stuck?" Morgan said, walking back to him. "I told you you need to lose some weight,  Lard Ass. C'mon, I'll help you out." Morgan began to pull on Walker. "Damn it, you're really wedged in there."
         "Not...wedged. One of...buggers has.. my ankle." Walker said, straining to himself from being pulled back into the hole.
         "F*CK!" Morgan yelled. "ONE OF THEM HAS WALKER!"
         "Don't bother...too late...he's got me good. Do me...a favor."
         "What?"
         "Unhook...my pack..get out...gray box...side pocket."

         Morgan took Walker's equipment pack off of him, and found the gray box. She handed it to Walker, and he opened it. Morgan looked at the contents.

         "Damn it Walker! You aren't going to do it. We're going to get you outta here."
         "No...others...coming. Ask Brown."
         "He's right. The one you missed is bringing friends, and lots of them."
         "I'll...take some...with me." Walker said arming the home-made grenade had taken from the box.
         "F*ck you, Walker." Morgan said, starting to tear up.
         "Dogtags." Walker grunted out.
         "Damn you Walker. WHY'D YOU HAVE DIE HERE?" Morgan said as she removed Walker's dog-tags.
         "C'mon people! We gotta move. Walker, you're family'll be getting so many medals for this...." Carver said.
         "F*ck...off." Walker strained. Everyone looked astonished "Always...wanted...to tell...a CO...that."

         As the marines turned to leave, Martinez turned back.

         "I'll never forget you, man!" He said on the verge of tears, and then slid down the slope with the rest of the group.

         Walker unholstered his pistol.
         "Time to dance." he thought as he released his grip.
 

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         Lotatan was firmly latched onto the human's leg. They would pay for what they had done to his warriors. Suddenly, the human slid out. Latatan expected it to be covering, begging for its life. Instead, Lotatan got an eye full of fist.
         "And a good day to you!" the human yelled as he got to his feet, Lotatan backing way, holding his eye.

         Micheal watched as the human pointed what looked like a smaller staff at Lotatan, and proceed to move his finger, each time accompanied by thunder.
         Lotatan jerked each time there was thunder, and collapsed. But, was back up in a few seconds.

         "What the flock are you, you ugly bastion?" The human ask as Lotatan rose back to his feet.
         "Superior, Human." Lotatan hissed back.
         "So you can talk. And you think your superior."
         "Yes, we can speak your tongue, Human. And we know we are superior."
         "If you're superior, lets see you take a bath."
         "Ha. You taunt me, Human, but I can defeat you in unarmed combat.
         "Alright then, Ugly. Lets wrestle."

         Lotatan charged at the human, and, in a move which was just a blur to even his vampire eyes, Micheal watched as the human picked up the large Zephonim, and slammed him to the floor. The human then kicked him in the jaw, and jumped back as the Zephonim rolled over.

         "Impressive." Lotatan spat out several of his chipped teeth.
         "Maybe cause you've never fought someone your own size, you ugly sack of horse sheet."
         "And such corrage. Perhaps after Lord Jacob is through with you, I might make you a general in my new legion. You'll more than replace the 100 warriors I lost in that last skermish."
         "You mean infect me? Go to hell, insect. I'd rather die than end up looking like your nasty ass."
         "Infected? You humans still believe that we are caused by a disease of the body, do you? And as for your preference, you shall do both."
         "What?" the human asked, lowering his defenses slightly. Lotatan chose that time to attack. But still found his back slammed into the wall. The human then punched Lotatan at the juncture of his legs, but didn't jump back fast enoguh, and Lotatan sent him flying.
         "You were caught off guard, Human."
         "Well, most guys I know would be out after a punch like that to the nuts."
         "I assume you're referring to my gentials. In the unlife, we have no need for such things. You might as well have punched me in the arm."
         "You gotta be kidding me.Now I KNOW I don't want to be one of you."
         "It is a small sacrifice for imortality." Lotatan said as he charged. This time as Walker flipped him, Lotatan managed to get his arms around him.
         "Aww shucks. I never knew you cared." Walker said as he tried to free himself from the iron-hold of Lotatan's arms.
         "I shall now wrap you for transport to Lord Jacob. He will be most pleased." Lotatan finished wrapping Walker, and began to drag him out to the main cavern enterence.
         "You are going to pay for this."
         "Pay? HA! You won't live long enough to make me pay." Lotatan laughed. He could hear the sounds of the Melchiahim reinforcements coming down the hall. "Even if you were to escape now, you wouldn't get far with the Melchiahim coming this way.
         "A lot of them?" Walker asked.
         "A sizable portion of their forces from what's left after your magical staves. Do bad you don't have one on you. I would have loved to see Lord Jacob puzzle over it."

         The Melciahim filled the tunel, wanting to get a glimpse of the human captive.

         "You know, ugly, I don't think Lord Jack is going to be seeing me." Walker said. Lotatan stopped and turned.
         "And why is that, Human? You don't seem to be in much of a position to stop me." Lotatan taunted.
         "I disagree. I think I'm going to be killing every vampire here." Walker said.
         "And how do you plan to do that, foolish Human?" Lotatan asked.
         "With this." Walker said as he pulled his armed grenade from his pocket.
         "Oh." Lotatan said as Walker pushed the button ontop of the grenade.
 

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         Fire shot out of the hole behind the marines.

         "That would be Walker saying his final goodbyes." Martinez said.
         "Captian, what's our next move?" Yankovic asked.
         "We're going to head to the Tundra. Check out the damage, and see if we can get off planet."
         To their left, a hig pitched squeal broke the silence.
         "Brown?" Carver said, knowing the unspoken question on all the marine's minds.
         "Spider creature, sir. We've been spotted."
         "Shit. Morgan..." Carver started. Morgan was already in the firing postion. From a pile of rocks, a tell-tale scream and cloud of smoke appears.
         "What now?" Robertson asked
         "Run for that clump of trees." Carver said.  The marines ran and set up defensive positions. "How's everyone's charge?" 

         Carver recieved 8 replies of "Low"

         The Vampires appeared coming over the hill the caverns were carved out of.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         A high-pitched sqeal broke the silence after the explosion from within the caverns.

         "Cyfis, what was that?" Jacob asked the new Zephonim leader. Cyfis, a master mind at managing rescources and swaying opinions, was a weak military leader, and left the command of his legion in the hands of Lotatan.
         "One of my scouts, My Lord." Cyfis resplies
         "Has he spotted the humans?" Jacob asked. Almost in answer, a scream of pain was heard.
         "Cyfis, gather the melchiahim here and get those humans!" Jacob said to Cyfis.
         "As you wish, My Lord, but, shouldn't we wait for Lotatan? He is better skilled at these matters." Cyfis said.
         "By that time the humans will have escaped, Cyfis. GET THEM NOW!" Jacob yelled. Cyfis bowed and gathered the Melchiahim, and headed over the hill to face the humans.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         Carver and his remaining marines were in a clump of trees, gazing down their weapons at the cautiously approaching vampires.  Appearently, how ever the vampires tracked them in the caverns didn't work as well out in the open.

         The marines had set up their Laser Rifle recharge panels in the sun behind them. It would take several hours to fully recharge their battery clips, but, Caver was hoping to get atleast a couple of more shots by having their rifles charge up.

         One of the zombie like vampires began to sniff the air. Morgan, acting on an unspoken order from Carver, shot it. The rest of the vampires dove for the grass.

         Morgan saw one that was starting to rise up to look around, and picked it off. However, that shot gave her away, and the vampires rose form the grass and charged them.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         Cyfis saw the flash of light. That's where the humans were, that clump of trees. Cyfis ordered the Melchiahim to charge forwards.  As he ran forward with his fellow vampires, he began to understand why Lotatan enjoyed this so much. The thrill, the feeling of incivibility. 

         All around him, bolts of light flew, cutting down Melchiahim where they stood. As they got closer, the ground began to explode.  When one of the objects that flew from the human's staves landed near a group of melchiahim, they attempted to go underground, but were still destroyed in the objects explosion.

         Cyphis yelled for his melchiahim to go underground, an advance on the humans as far as they could. While a tactically intelegant manuever, Cyphis forgot that with all the Melchiahim phasing through the ground, he was the sole target of a very accurate sniper.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         "What just happened?" Carver asked as the last visible vampire burst into flames.
         "I don't know, Sir." Morgan answered
         "Brown?" Carve asked. Brown turned on the motion sensor.
         "I'm still tracking them, Sir. I think they've gone under ground."

         Zombie vampires began popping up from the ground. The marines picked them off, but some managed to resuberge. As the vampire began to resurface very close, Carver heard a sound he'd been dreading. Computerized voices letting his marines know their weapons were out of power.

         Carver gave the order to detach their weapons from the recharge panels and fix bayonets.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         As the Melchiahim surfaced, and made the final few yards towards the humans on foot, they weren't greeted with the normal flashes of light. Instead, they saw the humans standing with their staves held like spears, with a sharp steel blade on the end.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         The marines yelled and charged at the Melchiahim. Despite being out numbered, as Carver hoped, the enemy was momentarily confused, enough for them to stick the closest creatures. The creatures, despite their apparent strength, went limp on the bayonets almost immediately. However, as the soldiers withdrew them, the creatures sprung back to life.

         "Captian, this isn't working." Martinez said, as he stuck his vampire for the 3rd time. The vampires were begining to recover from the surprise.
         "Leave your weapons in them." Carver yelled, "and use their weapons!"
         Martinez could barely weild the 30 pound sword he picked up, but managed to lop off the head of an approaching vampire.

         "Hey guys, it works if you cut off their heads!" Martinez said as he cut of the head of the vampire that his weapon was in, and retrieved his rifle. The 12 inch slightly serated titianium alloy blade easily separeted a vampire's head from his body. Martinez began furiously killinging vampires, but, got separated from the rest of his squad, and a slash to his back put an end to his rampage.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         The melchiahim stood over the fallen human, when, suddenly, a spear flew through him, from behind. Some of the melchiah wheel to face this new threat. It was Lord Jacob, coming to join the fray.

         "INFIDELS! I said to bring them to me ALIVE. If another one of them dies, I will kill the lot of you!" Lord Jacob screamed, infuriated.
         Jacob watched the battle from a distance. The humans displayed remarkable ability. Even with their supieror numbers, the vampires were haveing a hard time defeating the humans. The melchiahim  retreated back a few meters, to regroup. The humans also fell back, retaking their postitions in a clump of trees.
         Despite the fact his forces were taking an incredable beating, he had to admit this was the most entertainment he had had in  decades, maybe centuries. Their fighting techniques were vastly supieror to his, but, the humans seemed out of practice.  Jacob reasoned with magical staves with that kind of range, the humans probably had no use for close quarters combat.

         The Melchiahim were hesatent to attack. Jacob couldn't wait much longer. As he was about to order the Melchiahim on, there was a roar like thunder, and, from behind the humans, some sort of giant bird  flew in.

         It was like nothing Jacob had ever seen. It was big, and while it had wings, they didn't flap. Jacob, for the first time, felt pure terror. The bird shot some eggs at the Melchiahim, and they exploded. Jacob hit the ground, and cowered.
 

******************************************************************************************
         A rocket streaked over the marines,and exploded right in the midst of the vampires. The marines turned to see the Tundra fly over them.

         "Whoo. You boys look like you could use some assistance." Lt. Green said over the radio as the Tundra hovered a ways infront of the marines, the computer operated landing cover guns slicing though the retreating vampires.
         "Damn it! We thought you guys were dead or infected!" Caver said as the Tundra touched down and the marines hurried up the landing ramp.
         "Not quite, Captain." Johnson said. "What killed our transmission was the local star just had a solar flare, and our orbital relay satellite was knocked out. We've spent all this time trying to find you guys." 
         "How did it go, Carver?" Col. Majors asked as the tundra lifted off.
         "Not so good, Sir. We got alot of the infected populace, but, we lost Carver and Martinez."
         "Damn. They were good men. Where to, Captian?"
         "Lets go to the human city. We'll evacuate the uninfected populace to the Huntress, and sterilize the planet from orbit."
         "Understood." Col. Majors said, as he swung the dropship in a direction for the human city.

 ------------------------------------------------------

         As the Tundra landed in the courtyard, the Marines walked down the ramp.

         "Honey, we're home!" Roberts yelled.
         The marines were greeted with silence. 
         "Brown?" Carver asked.
         "Nothing's moving, sir?"
         "Hurley, talk to me"
         "I have some faint IR readings from the other side of the wall."
         "Morgan, I want you to get top of the wall, and set up a sniping position. Yank, Ramirez, I want you to watch her back. The rest of you, come with me.

         As the marines walked through the archway, they were greeted by a horrid sight. The outercourt yard was the site of a bloody battle. The walls and ground looked as though someone had walked through with buckets of blood, sloshing the red substance on every availible surface. It was still rather wet, and the crows were just begining to arrive.

         "Colonel, are you seeing this?" Carver said into his radio
         "I see it." Col. Majors said. 
         Yankovic pointed to 2 humans who had obviously died fighting each other. "It looks like there was some in fighting."
         "I don't think so." Brown said. "look at that one. He's wearing red. Alot of these guys seem to be wearing red. No one was wearing anything like this before. I think another group of humans attacked."

         As they walked to the out side of the human city, the marines saw where the humans had fought the infected populace. There were hastily built bridges spanning the moat, and ladders leading on the walls. The main gate had been smashed in. Charred and headless corpses litter the ground. The bottom of the moat was littered with infested corpses.
         The bodies lying around appeared of the type they had first encountered. It looks like the Doc would get all the sample material he could want. THE DOC! Carver had forgotten about him.

         "Shit. has anyone seen the Doc?"
         "I'm safe, Captian." A staticy reply came.
         "Thank God your safe." Carver said. "Where are you?"
         "In some vaults under the city, Captain. I was put down here to keep me safe. They have some very interesting scrolls here.  I would like to take some with us for further study."
         "Johnson, I want you to go help the Doc get the scrolls. Doc, make sure you get everything you want, cause we're going to nuke the planet once we get off. We don't want this spreading to other worlds."
         "Understood captain."  Dr. Kensington replied back.
 

****************************************************************************************
          Jacob had finished draining the corpse of the fallen human. While vampires didn't like to drink the blood of the dead, Jacob couldn't be choosy. It was 5 quarts of the best blood he had ever tasted. Even better than the blood he remembered drinking as a fledgling. This was blood completely untained by Nosgoths decay.

         Jacob wondered if pehaps these humans had come from the past. Perhaps when Kain went into the past, people from the past came to the present. He did know much knowledge was lost long before Kain's time. Perhaps those staves were of the same ilk as the soul reaver. 
         Jacob threw the husk on the ground. He looked at the face. While the human didn't look like the warrior type, he had managed to fell several Melchiahim. And he would need new warriors to replace those lost today. He sighed and ordered on of his warriors to take the body to the sancuary. He hoped the human would remember his training after resurection. It would most definately give them an edge in the inevitable war with the Turelium.

         Jacob heard a sound, and wheeled. He saw his legion returning. They were at less then 40% of their orginal number, but, their Joyus shouts told him victory had been achieved. The Citadel was no more.
 

*****************************************************************************************
         Col. Majors heard footsteps on the dropships loading ramp. 

         "That didn't take long." Col. Majors said, never looking back from his status displays. "You get everything? I'd like to get off this rock."

         Lt. Green looked over at Col. Majors.
         "Boy, the Doc's not ba babbling about his find. Something must be up." 
         As he said this, A long arm came bursting through Lt. Greens chest, holding his heart in its 3-clawed grasp.
         "Aw f*ck...." Green coughed out as he saw his heart, and then went limp. Majors turned see a spider creature, its face half gone, with pieces of its torso and one arm missing.
         "SHIT." He yelled as he went for his side arm. The creature lodged its fangs in the front Majors neck, and closed the reminants of its lower jaw. With a quick jerk, the creature sent Majors head rolling out of the dropship.
 

********************************************************************************************
         Lotatan figured it was his lucky day. He had survived two of the humans artifacts. Most of him, anyway. He had seen his leader, Cyfis, lead vampires into battle. And now he was going to kill the humans. He didn't care what Lord Jacob had said.
         His leader, and his specially trained troops, were dead. The humans would pay, and pay at his hands.

         Lotatan exited th humans vechicle. He would find the rest, and exterminate them like the vermin they are. Lotatan lowered his head to sniff the ground. A small scorch mark appeared a few yards to his left. Looked to his right, just in time to see a human on a tower raise her staff. 

         "Even lucky days must end." Lotatan said as he saw the flash.
 

*******************************************************************************************
         "Shit." Morgan said as she lined up her shot. She wasn't going to miss again."Got it!" Morgan said as she watched the ceature burn, and scanned for other vampires. The lucky bastard had lowered  his head just as she had fired. That made it one of the few targets that she had to take more than one shot at.
         "You're getting rusty, Morgan." Yankovic said, patting her back.
         "Goto Hell." She said, punching him playfully in the arm.
         "Cut it out you two. Yank, go check out how Majors and Green are. Morgan, cover him."
         "Wanna see how accurate I am, Yank?" Morgan said with an evil smile
         "I'll pass." Yankovic said as he tied off a legth of rope, and repelled down. He causiously approached the dropship. He walked past the pile of ashes that was once one of the spider vampires. He walked past Majors' head. He went up the ramp, through the ready lock, to the cockpit. He saw Green with a hole in his chest. "Captain, I'm in the cockpit." Yankovic reported.

         "Yank, how's the flight crew?" Carver asked.
         "Both dead, Captian."
         "Damn." Carver said "Johnson, Doc, get up here NOW. We gotta situation"
 

*************************************************************************************************
         Jacob looked at the assembly of the reminants of the legions. It didn't look good. His Dumahim stood in thier ranks, according to their divisions and ranks. There were giant holes in the ranks. His Dumahim scarcely numbered 400. Only a few of his captians were there.
         Many of his finest warriors were missing. Jacob knew he would have to start looking through his slaves for suitable replacements. 
         While he would beable to restore his losses in a matter of years, it would take decades for them to evolve. And he doubted some of his losses could be replaced.

         The Melchiahim had faired much worse. They only numbered a little over one hundred. However, since they would be able to use decaying bodies to spawn more, Jacob estimated the Melchiahim would be at their old number in a matter of weeks. Much to Jacob's annoyance, T'Ror had survived.

         The Zephonim had faired nearly as bad as the Melchiahim, but, nearly all of their surviviors were fully formed vampires.  However, both of their leaders were gone. Lotatan most likely dying in the blast that killed the Rahabim.

         There were no Rahabim left. Those humans with their blasted staves had wiped them from the earth. All that remained of the Rahabim were a few severly burned bodies. Jacob sighed. He had really wanted them for the upcoming battle with the Turelim. 
         Now he would face the acursed ones without force projectiles or water support.

         Even as Jacob surveyed his incredible losses, he knew they would have been greater had he not thought of sending the worshippers in as a first wave. A small part of him regretted sending loyal servants into certain death.

         "It'll take DECADES for their numbers to recover suffiently." Jacob thought. But, Jacob realized that a reduced blood supply wouldn't pose much of a problem with reduced demand.

         Jacob dismissed the legions. They headed off to their respective terriories. T'Ror and Yter, the new Zephonim leader, would meet with him in the sancuary, to discuss the division of the Rabahim's territories and slaves.

         Jacob led his legion home.
 

******************************************************************************************
         Job looked worriedly outside of the fortress. His master's worse fears had come true, the Turelim were attacking. The slaves were running about, arming themselves with anything long and sharp. Even the humans from the galley were released, seeing as they would die anyway, they prefered to die fighting, and take a few vampires with them.

         Job saw Dumah's personal servant, Caleb, standing in a corner, talking into thin air. Job grunted angerly. Caleb was ALWAYS talking in that invisible person, McKee. Dumah had once been alarmed at Caleb's habit, afraid he might be talking to a Wraith or some other spirit. But, one could be sensed, and Caleb was simply dismissed as insane. Dumah had found this amusing, and Caleb displayed both great fighting ability, and was very obidiant, and was made his chief servant.

         Job shook Caleb from his discussion. 
         "CALEB! I know your master is dead, but you must hold yourself together! Lord Jacob will be returning at any moment with the legions! We need only delay these infidels till then!"
         "FOOL!" Caleb shot back. "We have no chance against the Turelim. I doubt even the legions could force them back. Our only hope is if they were to turn back willingly. McKee might be able to convince-" Caleb was cut off as a force projectile ripped his head from his body.
         "THEY ATTACK! STAND YOUR GROUND!" Job yelled as he examined Caleb's corpse. The severing had not been clean, and most of Caleb's neck was splattered on the opposite wall. One of Caleb's teeth had come loose.
         He picked it up, and noticed a thin, black strand still connecting it to his lower jaw. Job's comtemplation was interupted by a loud banging. The Turelim were attempting to gain entry.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         "Well, Captian." Brown said climbing out of the cockpit "The controls are intact, the circuitry's fine, there's just a hole in the co-pilot chair."
         "That's good. So, we can take off, right?" Yankovic asked
         "We have the capacity to leave orbit, yes." Brown replied "But, we don't know how to fly this thing."
         "Well, how hard could it be?" Morgan asked
         "Well, flying around isn't hard. But, leaving this planet's gravational pull isn't that easy."
         "How so? We point this thing in the general direction of 'up', and punch it." Yankovic said
         "We don't have enough fuel to get off the planet." Brown said.
         "What? We have a practically full tank!" McGuiness
         "The drop ship uses strips anti-gravity metal to enter and leave a planet's gravational pull. It takes over a year of training to learn to use them properly.  No one here has that kind of training, except Major's and Green, and their a tad busy being dead right now to operate them."
         "Well, couldn't the Huntress give us some basic instuctions?" Morgan suguested
         "Yeah! Or like operate us by remote?" Yankovic asked
         "You forgot that solar flare knock out our communication satellite." Johnson said.
         "Well, couldn't they send us pilots?" Ramirez asked.
         "And how do you sugguest we do that? We don't know where the Huntress is. And even if we did, we'd have to figure out the frequency. That satellite was designed to link us to Huntress so people on the planet wouldn't know where she is." Johnson said.
         "Well, they'll send a rescue team, right?" Dr. Kensington said.
         "Normally they would, Doc, but, this is a mission on a planet that's been declared a lvl 12 biohazard. If we don't report back, and we miss our rendevous, they'll just blow the planet." Carver said.
         "This great. We have an intact dropship, but no one to fly it." Yankovic ranted
         "Calm down, Yank." McGuiness said.
         "I won't calm down. In about 2 days, this planet's gonna be toast, and us with it. Unless someone can fly this thing off the surface.  Anyone know how to fly?" Yankovic raved "Anyone? Don't be shy, just raise your hand. Not every one at once now. That's what I thought. we're all gonna DIE!"
         "Excuse me, uh, I had my hand up."

         Everyone turned to look at Johnson.
 

*******************************************************************************************
         Jacob led his forces to his fortress. His legion was in perfect shape, but their armor and weapons were not. On some, thier armor only hung on them buy a couple leather thongs. Others had swords and axes shattered or broken in two. Jacob saw one Dumahim's armor fall off, and get trampled by his comrades.

         "The blacksmiths will have their work cut out for them." Jacob mused. "I might just have them make new sets of armor." Jacob's thoughts turned to Job. Job had been in command of the fortress for nearly 2 days. Jacob couldn't wait to see the chaos that was inevitably running rampant through his fortress. Leadership wasn't one of Job's stronger qualities.

         Jacob saw precisly how chaotic things were. His fortress was almost in ruins. Turrets were missing, and there were giant holes in the walls. Smoke idly drifted from the structure.

         "Turel..." Jacob cursed. The wretched leutient had attacked his lands while he was away. His legion immediately weilded whatever weapons were handy. The Turelim would have posed a major threat even with his legion at full strength. But, with his drastically reduced number, he doubted  his legion even had a chance.
         "Perhaps I should summon the rest of the legions...united we might stand a chance of victory. Or atleast fall back to the sancuary and regroup..." Jacob shook his head violently "NEVER! The Dumahim have never fallen back! If the Turelim are arround, they shall meet their end!"
         Jacob let loose a battle a cry that was picked up by his legion, and led his troops forward. They picked their way through the rocks around the fortress, expecting at anyminute to face a barage of force projectiles. Small fires were slowly burning all around. 
         A surprising number of burned corpses were lying around. His human servants had not gone without a fight.

         The large metal gates to his fortress were closed, but showed signs of recently being battered open. Jacob motioned at the gates, and 4 of his warriors pushed open his gate. His forces charged in,  weapons drawn, and yelling their battle cry.

         However, instead of Turelim, the Dumahim found the human slaves, sitting on fallen pillars and other debris, lying on the floors, nursing thier wounds. In a far corner was a pile of bodies stacked like fire wood. Dumah walked into his throne room. The walls were lined with headless Turelim, impaled on hooks, their heads resting in their hands or at their feet. There were jars lining the approach to the throne. The jars were filled with ash.

         Job was kneeling near the throne, polishing it, his arm in a sling. Job turned to see Jacob approach. He dropped his cloth and ran to Jacob, and kneled before him .

         "Job, what happened here?" Jacob asked
         "Master, shortly after you left, the Turelim attacked.  They were almost too much at first. But, suddenly the sky glowed strange shades of red and green. The Turelim began to burn as though exposed to the sun, and we siezed our moment. By the time they recovered, there were too few of them to offer much resistance. All the Turelim that attacked are now no longer undead." Job explained.
         "Excelant, Job." Jaccob praised. "You have done very well. My fortress is intact, and most of the Turelim are dead. I must now rebuild my legion." Jacob ripped out Jobs throat. "You will be the first of my new legion."
         "Thank you." Jacob mouthed as his eyes roled back in his head and he collapsed.
 

***************************************************************************************
         "You know how to fly this thing?" Carver asked.
         "Sort of." Johnson replied.
         "There is no sort of. Either you know or you don't!" Morgan said.
         "Well, I'm a systems annalyst. I know about the dropships eletronical systems. I can get the anti-grav drive working, but, I don't know how much power to feed into it. I'll need time to look at the circuits." Johnson replied.
         "How long?" Carver asked.
         "Well, it takes 2 weeks to go over a dropships eletronics. But, that's with a crew of techs, and I'm not going over the whole ship..."
         "HOW LONG?" Caver asked again, impatiant.
         "5 days. Unless I get lucky."
         "We don't HAVE 5 days." 
         "I know that, sir. But, the antigrav drive is a sensitive piece of equipment. Too much power, and I'll overload the drive, and the ship will blow up. Too little, and some of the containment systems won't work, and drive will fail perminately." Johnson explained.
         "Ok. Johnson, you get on the anti-grav drive."Carver turned to Morgan,"Morgan, can you fly the ship?"
         "Yes sir, but why?"
         "I want to get out of here. There might be more of the infested populace hiding around."
         "Where to?"
         "I want you to home in on Martinez's transponder. If we figure out how to get off this planet, I'm not leaving him behind."
 

*******************************************************************************************
         Job emerged with Jacob's other new "recruits" from the catacombs beneth the fortress. He looked around, seeing for the first time with  his new vampiric eyes. Everything looked the same, only different. Everything was outlined, making it easier to identify things. There was a slight blue-black outlining the edges of the walls. The human slaves repairing the walls were outlined in a dark red. Their tools were outlined in a lighter blue. The outlines were barely noticably, and almost infinately thin. Still, it was an 
 amazing experience for all, as the other fleglings stood with Job, blinking and marveling.

         Jacob came out to greet his new fledgings. He liked to size up his new soldiers when they first were birthed. He looked them up and down, noting the weaker looking ones. He would watch them carefully. If they didn't make the cut, well....his braizers always needed more fuel.

         Most of the new recruits were slaves that had been killed in battle. A few were some of the pantry humans. They were being measured for thier weapons and sets of armor. All around black smiths were at work at make-shift forges, repairing weapons and armor.

         Jacob almost wondered about the point of  reapairing the armor. With the Turelim gone, and the citadel crushed, there was no threat to his vampiric paradise. Except those human mages. Armor didn't help against them, anyway. 
         "However" Jabob thought, looking at a breast plate that had obviously stopped its owner from impalement,"Better to be safe than no longer undead"
 

*****************************************************************************************
         Thomas looked back. A small group of humans had escaped unnoticed during the confusion. Mostly women and children, a few Hunters had been sent with the group for protection. Thomas was one of them. He would have perfered to have stayed behind and died with his unit, but, Labras had insisted that, since the angels had chosen him to talk to, he must be chosen of God, and offered the group the best protection. Thomas was unsure. He thought of several hunters who were better fighters than he that had died with the citadel.

         Thomas's thoughts were interupted as a bush russled, and Turelim burst forward. The women and children shrieked in fear. Of all the vampires to run into, it had to be a Turelim. Thomas doubted the refugees from the human citadel would survive much longer. 
         Thomas raised his crossbow, but it was knocked away by the vampire, and he was pinned against a tree. Several other Turelim emeged from the foliage. The other hunters drew their weapons, and encircled the women and children.
         "If I wanted you dead, human" The vampire hissed "We would have killed you long ago."
         "What do you want, Creature?" Thomas asked. Thomas noticed the creature's face and upper torso was badly burned. It couldn't have been fire damage, as vampires healed from that almost instantly. Vampires did take a while to recover from sunlight burns, but, where would on have gotten such bad burns?
         "I want to make...." The Turelim hestiated, and finsihed the thought as though it was a spoiled piece of meat. "a deal"
 

*****************************************************************************************
         "Now that is one strange building" Morgan said as a dome with a few courtyards came into view
         "Is there a plave to set the drop ship down near Martinez?" Carver asked.
         "Yes there is." Morgan said "Martinez's body is in that dome. There's a rather big hole in the top of the dome. It should be no problem to set down through it."
         "Do it." Carver said.

         The Tundra flew above the dome, and set down in the center of the floor under the dome. The area was almost too small for the ship, but, there was enough to drop the landing ramp.

         "Morgan, i want a scan of the out side. I don't want anyone to join Martinez."
         "On it, Captian." Morgan deployed the external sensors. Everything was clean. "All clear, sir. Its just us and the crows."
         "Ok, lets suit up. Morgan, you stay with Doc and the ship. Everyone else, with me."
         "Excuse me, Captain." Dr. Kensington said "But, seeing as this civilazation will be nothing but atoms in a few hours, God willing, I'd like to learn more about it while I can."
         "Ok. Doc, you can look around. But, be careful. Brown, I want..."
         "No need, Captian. We're all alone out here, there's no threats. I'll be better off exploring solo."
         "Ok Doc. If you insist. Let's move out people!"
 

*****************************************************************************************
         Jacob and his legion at last moved towards the Catherdral. Having since gather the reminants of the Melciahim, Jacob was moving to get the Zephonim. Jacob fingured it would be best to unite the legions in one place, rather then ave them scattered through out Nosgoth. A few warriors were dispatched to watch over the  slaves, and to prepare them to move out. Once the Zephonim were gathered, they would head towards the sancuary to decide on a location for a new capital.
 

*****************************************************************************************
 *****************************************************************************************
         "BAH! What deal could you make with us?" Thomas spat.
         "We know you are all that remains of the human citadel. We also know that without your moats and walls, you are very, very vulunable.  You probably won't survive long enough to build a new city. So, I offer the sancuary of our fortress." The Turelim said
         "Sancuary so we can be confined in your pantries and killed one by one? No thanks, I'd rather finish it here."
         "Sancuary will be offered with no obligation. All that we..."Once agan the Turelim grimaced "...ask is that you sacrifice a small portion of your blood to us."
         "What is your gain in this?"
         "A while ago, a plague swept through our slaves. Only a few were spared. We managed these very carefully. However, when we attacked Dumah's fortress, the sky changed odd colors, and our brethern began to burn as though exposed to the sun. We retreated, but many were badly injured, and need blood. We were forced to use up all our remaining stores. With the citadel gone, we have no scource of blood."
         "So we become your next generation of cattle?"
         "No, we are willing to..." that grimace again "accept your leadership in exchange for your blood."
          "What garuntee do we have that you won't turn on us?"
         "We need your blood. If we kill you, we cut off our only remaining scource of blood, and thus kill our selves."
         Thomas thoguht it over. While a dangerous deal to accept, He realized there was no alternative if he wished for these people to survive.
         "We accept." Thomas said at length. The vampire slowly realized him, and the hunters relaxed.
         "To consecrate this new partnership, we offer a gift." The vampire said motioning. Two more vampires stepped out from the forest carrying a bruised, slightly burned, but still alive Labras.
 

********************************************************************************************
         "Captain!" Johnson yelled.
         "Do you have it working yet?" Carver asked, stepping inside the landing the dropship. The rest of the marines were either sleeping or walking the perimeter.
         "Almost sir. But, i have good and bad news. Our Survey Sat was on the very edge of the light side of the surface, and  is reporting in with reduced operational capacity."
         "How reduce?"
         "Survey Sat is on-line, solar panels are good, and the scanners still are working, but barely. The bad news is its detected more of those creatures. Almost as many as before, heading this way."
         "Morgan" Carver said into the radio "I want you in the cockpit ASAP. We've got company."
         "Sir, that's the other part of the bad news.  The tundra uses the anti-grav drive to fly in the atmosphere, just not as much. We're grounded. And i had to disconnect nearly every vital system to get at the drive. We only have life support and lighting operational."
         "Angels, everyone get back to the dropship." Caver said into this radio. "Morgan, find a nice secluded spot. We're going to need your services."
         "Doc, get back here. Doc? DOC?"
         "No use sir." Johnson said. "The communications monitor isn't getting a readout from his ComUplink. Its either breen switched off or destroyed."
 

******************************************************************************************
         2 Zephonim walked along either side of a human.

         "Lord Jacob." the Zephonim said, bowing. "We found this human near the sancuary. We wishes to speak with you."
         "Very well. Well, insect, what do you wish to say before I flay your skin from your worthless body?"
         "I wish to join you" This was greeted by a chorus of laughter from the vampires.
         "Our legions are back upto strength. What could you POSSIBLY offer us?"
         "This." The human said, withdrawing an object from his shoe, enjoying the look of surprise on Dumahim's face.
 

******************************************************************************************
         The group of Turelim and humans walked up a mountain towards Turel's fortress, a place so well hidden not even the hunters new of its location.

         "This area doesn't lend itself to growing food very well, but you should manage."
         "But how will you?" Thomas asked "Vampires need to feed atleast once a fortnight. Even if you drain us, we will not sustain you for long."
         "That is only when we are at full alertness. We can go into a deep, dreamless sleep. In that state, we can last for centuries without blood. All but one of our number shall enter into this sleep once you are accustomed to your new home. When your numbers have grown large enough to sustain more of our numbers, he will awaken more of us. And even our remaining brother shall spend most of his time resting to conserve blood."
         "What is to stop us from killing you while you are in your sleep."
         "You may be human, but you are not with out honor. and if you kill us, and Jacob and his legions find you, there will be no one to protect you."
 

*****************************************************************************************
         The vampires entered the sancuary, seemingly unaware of the waiting danger. But, as the first vampire crossed a line drawn faintly in the dirt, all hell broke loose.

         Claymore mk V mines, hidden in the walls of the tunnels leading to the center of the sancuary, errupted, blasting vampires into little pieces. Mines buried in the path leading to the sancuary were armed, and were grieviously wounding vampires still low on blood from their previous attack on the citadel.

         And Morgan, perched on the edge of the opening in the sancuary's roof, picked off groups of targets.
 A scuttling sound behind her made her turn her head, and she saw a spider crearure running at her from the opposite side of the opening. She quickly dispatched it with a few shots. She walked over to the carcass, and heard a rock clank from a pile of debris. She raised her weapon. and circled silently till she saw a foot. Then rolled and aimed at creature hidden behind the debris.

         "DAMN IT DOC!" Morgan said, lowering her weapon. "I almost killed you. SAY SOMETHING NEXT TIME."
         "I'm sorry. I thought you were one of those creatures." Doc replied, standing up slowly.
         "Its alright. Lets get you back to back the ship. Carver will be glad to know you're alright. Hey, what happened to your ComUplink?"
         "I got rid of it. I don't need it anymore."
         "What do you..." Morgan started, turning around to face Doc. But he was already on her, with his fangs in her neck.
 

*******************************************************************************************
         "So you are one of the human mages." Jacob said, turning the small staff the human had taken from his shoe.
         "We're not mages. We're Marines." Doc said.
         "Marine? What is this 'marine'?" Jacob asked. "Is this what mages in your land are called?"
         "We don't use magic. We use lasers." Doc corrected.
         "Lay-zar?" Jacob asked
         "Never mind." Doc said, realizing it was hopeless to explain the technology behind the weapon to a backwards society in a few minutes. 
         "How is that you do not smell like the others?" Jacob asked.
         "Well, I know your reaction to our smell. And i figured it would be best to not put your self control to the test." Doc said.
         "A wise choice." Jacob said, turning the staff over in his hand. "What is this staff?"
         "Its called a pistol. I can get you more of them. And bigger ones, like they used on you near the cave."
         "And the runes that make the earth errupt? I want those too." Jacob demand.
         "Those are grenades. I can get you many of those also."
         "Excellent. In exchange for this, I might let you live as a vampire's equal." Jacoib said
         "But I'd rather BE a vampire." Doc said, as Jacob looked at him increduously. Never in his life had he hear a human WISH to be a vampire.
         "But why?" Jacob asked
         "Lets just say word of your powers has spread. And I have come a vary long way to gain these powers." Doc said
         "I have heard rumors of a land in the sea, far away from Nosgoth."Jacob said" Are you....?"
         "No. I am from father. I will tell you later. I might even show you." Doc said.
         "Fair enough. You shall become one of us."

         "Before you turn me, I know that the conversion causes a bit of...memory loss. There are some important things you must do in order to insure the staves continue working. First, you must not damage the giant metal ship, NO MATTER WHAT. Secondly, you must insure no harm comes to the man with the glass over his eyes" Doc said, immatating Johnson's glasses with his fingers.
         "Understood. What is your name, Human?" Jacob asked.
         "Just call me Doctor."
         "Well, Doctor" Jacob said. He then  ripped out Doc's throat, and Doc fell to the ground "Welcome to the Jacobim." 
 

*******************************************************************************************
         "Welcome." The Turelim said. "We've tried to make the place more hospitable, but, we weren't sure what makes humans comfortable..."
         "As you were too busy slaughtering them to care." Thomas shot back.
         "Do not proclaim yourself as innocent Human. You hunt and pen wild boars and cows constantly for the slaughter. You also take life to perserve yours. If the animals were able to talk, they would most likely proclaim you as unholy, and attempt to exterminate you."
         "But they cannot talk. They don't have feelings as humans do."
         "And vampires don't? you forget that we were once like you, but have since moved on."
         "But you are still parasites, depentant on humans for survival."
         "Are you not dependant on the animals for yours?"
         "Perhaps. But, we do not use them to reproduce. We do not raise thier dead to populate our numbers and set them to feed their own kind." Thomas replied glaring.

         Labras stepped in at this point.

         "Thomas, mind thy tongue. Whether we like it or not, we are dependant on these unholy abominations." Turning to  the Turelim "No disrespect intended"
         "None taken" The turelim replied
         "For our protection" Labras replied. "And they no longer wish to kill us. I believe it may be possible for both our peoples to coexsist."
         "This is nothing short of herasy!" Thomas said, outraged "The vampires are evil! And God has told us to fight all that is evil..."
         "But the Lord God never said Vampires were evil. T'was the bishops and the circle that told us that. Mayhap the Lord God made  Vampires like people, neither good nor evil, but they choose of their own will?  And the years of fear and suffering we've faced are punishment for the many purges of eons ago, when evil vampires were slaughtered with the good?"

         Thomas said nothing, but turned to see how the people were doing.

         "Thank you, Human." The Turelim said. "I must go. I hope that I may see you again when my sleep is done. You offer very interesting ideas I would like to discus."
 

*********************************************************************************************
         "Captain, we did very well. SurveySat is reporting a large amount of dead creatures out there." Johnson said.
         "Where are the rest?" Carver asked
         "No sign of them. They've probably retreated to regroup."

 -------------------------------

         Roberts and Hurley were relaxing against the Tundra. The rest of the marines were out patroling the edge of the building they were in.
         "I'm telling you, the Lancers are going to win it all this year. They're from Epilson 5. Do you know what the gravity on that planet is? When they play anywhere else, they're just too fast and too strong." Roberts said, taking a draw on his cigarette.
         "I don't care what the gravity is. The Hounds have really come together as a team. And no ammount of physical strength is going to make up for the Hound's teamwork." Hurley said.
         "I don't follow sports too much, but, I'm inclined to agree with Roberts."
         "DOC!" Hurley said "Carvers going to f*cking colapse from relief when he sees you're alive. What happened? Are you alright?"
         "I'm perfectly fine" Doctor Kensington said "How are you two?" He asked as he ripped off their heads.

 -------------------------------------------

         Johnson was 1/2 inside the eletrical computer housing.

         "Hello Johnson. I'm back." Doctor Kensington said, walking up the loading ramp.
         "That's good." Johnson said indiferently
         "That's it? That's all the greeting I get?"
         "You're back. I'm not going to start some long conversation about that. Would you mind handing me a spanner?"
         "Sure." Doctor Kensington fished a spanner out of a tool box. He turned just in time to see Johnson shove two power cables on him.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         Jacob cursed. He had lost too many of his forces today. Some of his most capible officers were no longer undead. The rush on the sancuary had been costly.  For the thrid time today, the legions assembled themselves for inspection.
         There were gaps in the ranks. Not as many as from the assult on the citadel, but, sizable gaps none the less. Most of his losses were fledglings. Jacob thanked Kain for that.

         Jacob hoped that the defecting human had done as he promised, and rallied his troops for the next assult on the citadel.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         As the Turelim prepared to sleep,  Thomas related the story of the angels to the Turelim.

         "They came from the fire in the sky!" Thomas proclaimed
        "We have investiaged the landing places of other such fires. There was nothing but rocks." the Turelim replied.
         "This was different! The angels came from the burning house! If you go to the caves, they might still be there!"
         "We have no time for your myths and superstitions"
         "It is no superstition! They had staves that burned a vampire from many cubits away. they ignited as though touched by fire!"
         "Sure they did." The Turlim said as he lay to sleep. "What you saw were mages."
         "They were not mages! They uttered no word to active the staves!"
         "Well, your angels couldn't protect your city. I sugguest you forget about your myths and worry out survival."
 

*********************************************************************************************
         "He's coming to."
         "Ughhhhh" Doctor Kensinfton goaned.
         "Damn it Doc. Why did you do it?" Carver asked
         "Ugggg   do what?"
         "Betray us. Get infected." Johnson said
         "I'm not infected you f*ckwad. Now release me."
         "Don't you want something to drink first, Doc?" Carver asked "Maybe some WATER?" As Carver said the last part, he splashed Doctor Kensington with water from a canteen, with began to eat away at it.

         "AAAAAAAAAAGH! What did you do that for?" Doctor Kensington screamed.
         "Why did you kill Morgan, Roberts and Hurley?" Carver demanded
         "Because they were annoying."
         "Think you're cute, huh f*ck off? Suck on this" Carver said as he sliced Kensington with his knife. The wound healed within several seconds.
         "Wow. I've never gotten to witness the healing abilities up close. Truely amazing." Kensinton said, watching his flesh close. He then looked up and met Carver's eyes."You don't know how this feels, Captain. I feel....invicible. Its an unbelievable high. It feels incredable."
         "Well, tell me how this feels." Carver said as he impaled Kensington on his 12 inch combat blade.

 -------------------------------------------------------------

         "Look at these scrolls the Doc had."  Johnson said to Carver.

         Caver looked them over. It was a bunch of  tiny slashes and circles. 
 "Jiberish."

         "Captian, look at the top."
         At the top of the scroll was written "5-234-A". A digit, then 3, then a letter. It looked like...like...like a  transmission code. 
         Carver quickly pulled out his Com-uplink. He set it for code 5-234-A. After a quick whir, the eyepiece turned the slashes and circles into letters.
         "Binary." He breathed.
         "Binary." Johnson repeated. "I dismissed it at first, I mean, we have piles of useless binary printout lying around at any Colonial station. Then, I wondered what these people would be doing with binary, with nothing even close to a computer for parsecs."

         The scrolls explained everything. The project. The idea was to create a super-soldier, one who would live from fighting. To give the Colonial Magistrates full power, to make the large divisions of Colonial marines obsolete, requiring a much smaller force. 
         Proof ships had been here before. How Col. Janos Aldrin, hero of the battle Tungstra Flats, had infected himself, to see if the marine's most disiplined soldier could maintain his will while infected. He could not. And now, that failed expariment behind them in the past, the Colonial government was going to try again, convinced they could succeed.

         "That bastard. We were all just pawns. Just he's fucking pawns. Expendable." Carver muttered. "Well, we're going to make that f*cker pay."

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

         Kensington snapped back to life with the removal of the blade.

         "Hmm. i must be in hell, cause they wouldn't let someone as ugly as you into heaven, Carver." He said
         "Shut the f*ck up, you f*cking gease spot!" Carver said, grabbing the Doc's throat. "When I'm through with you, Hell's going to seem like a god-damn VACATION."
         "If making me look at that ugly growth you call a "Face" is your idea of torture, mission accomplished."
         "SHOVE IT!" Carver said, punching Kensington's kidney. "What i want to know is how you're still in control. According to the scrolls, Aldrin went completely beserk minutes after exposure."
         "So, you caught on to the scrolls, huh? Do you REALLY think it was just MY idea to bring back these things? This goes father then you imagine. The Magistrates don't trust the marines, Captain. They want a smaller fighting force. Easier to keep loyal. They gave me some cybernetic implants to keep me from losing control, which appear to working quite well."
         "So, we were just expendable?"
         "Expendable Captian? No, expendable is up from your position. I was to make sure you all die. Hide the ship in the sensory blind spot this planet creates. It would appear we all died, then i'd just wait for my retrival ship."
         "But the tracking satellites would have reported your position..."
         "Captian, we knew that solar flare was coming. That's what we've been waiting for. The colonial marines are about to become obsolete to...well, me."
         "Too back you won't be reporting back." Rameriez said, leveling his gun at Kensington's head. A spear point suddenly burst through his chest.
         "SHIT! Where the f*ck did that come from?" Yankovic said as the rest of the marines hit the dirt.
         "Its about damn time, Jacob!" Kensington yelled.
         "We are here, aren't we, Doktor?" A grabled voice called back.
         "Damn it Johnson!" Carver said "I thoguht you said all the creatures retreated!"
         "They did, Captain. And i've been watching the area. If they had returned, i would have seen them. Some of them must have remained behind."
         "Allright, everyone in the ship!" Carver ordered.

         The marines began to fire at the door ways leading into the room. A couple of vampires emeged in a doorway, and fired their crossbows before they were cut down. The bolts struck Brown and Robertson right in the chest.

         "They got Robertson!" McGuiness yelled, continuing to head for the ship.
         "Browns gone too!" Yankovic responded

         The creature began to appear in the doorways with increasing frequency, throwing spears and shooting crossbows, making it hard for the marines to work their way to the landing ramp.

         "Shit! Captain, we forgot about the Doc!" McGuiness said
         "Forget him. Get in the ship!" Carver replied.
         "Sir." Johnson said "Brown and Roberts had a lot of equipment on them. Doc knows the inner workings of this ship. If he gets his hands on a torch, he could open this ship up like a sardine can."
         "Yankovic, do you..." Carver start
         "Be glad to sir!" Yankvic said, running for Kensington, dodging several spears. "This is for Brown!" Yankovic said punching Kensington in the face. "This is for Morgan!" He said ripping open Kensingtons gut with his combat blade, and watching his insestines spill out. "And this is for being an annoying jack-ass f*ck off." He said lopping off Kensington's head. 
         "Yankovic, is the Doc dead?"
         "Yessir he's dead and then some." 

         A new wave of crossbow bolts rained down from above. Followed by spider creatures. McGuiness and Carver were forced inside.
         "Yank! Get back the ramp ASAP! The creatures are closing in on it, and we can't keep it clear much longer."
         "Captain, close the ramp. I'm pinned down. I'm going to head for cover. I'll get back when the coast is clear."
         "Understood, Yank. Good luck."
 

         Yankovic saw the vampires closing in. they had him cut off from the dropship. He picked up Brown's laser rifle with his other hand. He powered up the 2 laser rifles, and began blasting.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         Jacob lead his legion through the catacombs beneth the sancuary. He thought a direct assult would have been better, but, the human had insisted this way would prevent the other humans from noticing their approach. Jacob was slightly unnerved. He remembered how much damage the humans had done in the caves. These passages reminded him too much of the caves.
         "The human had best be right. If he is leading us into a trap, he will learn there are disadvantages to being very hard to kill." Jacob growled.

         Jacob eventually reached a place where the catacombs enterede the sancuary. His legions becan to slowly pour into the sancuary, and move towards the throne room where the human said the rest could be found.

         His vampires entered the throne room undetected. There was alot of shouting going on. the Doktor was tied up and sitting on a box. Obviously he hadn't been as successful as he claimed he would be. When a human pointed his staff at the Doktor, Jacob motioned for one of his legion to throw his spear.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         Thomas looked about the mountain fortress. Some of the vampire hunters were sparring with each other. People were working on weeding the gardens that had been used to feed the slaves. The remaining Turelim was finsihing up a final inspection of the fortress, to make sure everything was ready, and that he wouldn't need to be awakened. Labras was teaching some of the children. Minus the Turelim, it looked like a normal day in the citadel.

         "Perhaps this is the begining of a better life." Thomas thought
 

*********************************************************************************************
         "How's the situation out side?" Carver asked. He, Johnson, and McGuiness were inside the dropship, looking at the TechOp station. Johnson was getting the exteral cameras online.
         "Not good, Sir." Johnson replied, pointing the camera at a couple of big creatures going at the landing ramp with big metal clubs.
         "They can't get in here with those things....can they?" McGuiness asked
         "I don't think so. It'll take a very long time. But, if they keep pounding on us like that, I won't beable to work on the Anti-Grav drive."
         "And they will keep pounding on us." Carver said. "We'll never get the Anti-Grav drive working at this rate. I'd rather finish this now."
         "Captian, there is one small chance." Johnson said.
         "What?" Carver asked.
         "Do you see that big critter? He seems to be the one giving the orders. If we all go out there blasting, and kill that one, they might scatter. Or they might just get ticked and rush us. But its a chance to get out alive." Johnson said
         "But what if they get us and turn us inot them, like they did with Doc?"McGuiness asked "Doc remembered some stuff. What if they get you, Johnson, and get you to fix the Anti Grav drive? Then they could take a dropship full of them to the Huntress and take that over, and get to some heavily populated planet...and before you know, they'll take over the colonies!"
         "McGuiness has a point. What if you stay behind and blow the ship if the critters get us?" Carver asked.
         "Captain, they already out number us. You could use another LR. I do have another solution." 
         "What?"
         "I'm going to link our Med read outs to the computer. The scrolls mentioned that a person had to die before they could be a vampire. If all 3 of our hearts stop beating, for any reason, it'll detonate the plantary nukes, blasting this planet to little tiny pieces of rock." Johnson said.
         "Do it." Carver said, getting a laser rifle from the gun rack.
         "Could we leave a note for the Huntress in a distress beacon or something?" McGuiness asked. "Let them know what happened?  Atleast let our families know?" McGuiness grabbed a laser rifle.
         "We could, but it wouldn't survive. Even if the beacon wasn't destroyed by the blast, the EMP's generated would wipe the data clean. If we fail, no one will ever know what happened here. They'll just assume it was another operation gone wrong." Johnson said. 
         "Is it ready?" Carver asked, putting grenades into the ventral-mounted grenade launcher on his rifle.
         "Almost...done." Johnason said, finishing the last few keystokes.
         "So, if we all three die, this place blows? No chance of them getting off planet?" Carver asked.
         "No chance sir." Johnson said, grabbing a rifle. "Even if the planet didn't blow, I doubt after the time lost turning us into one of them, it'd be possible to get the Anti Grav drive working." Johnson powered up his rifle.
         "Ready?" Carver asked
         "Ready." Johnson and McGuiness replied

         Carver pushed the butten to drop the landing ramp, and the 3 marines ran down the ramp yelling with laser rifles firing.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         Jacob stood on a balcony in the sancuary, staring out at the landscape draped in darkness. The entire world was his. There was no one left to oppose his rule. It was the coming of a golden age.

         Suddenly, there was a glow on the horizon. Faint. Then another. And another. The glow was getting brighter. It became brighter then day. The eath began to quake violently. The flashes keep coming. There was one on the horizon. It was incredibly bright, and raised a huge cloud into the air. There were more, and they were rapidly approaching. As the flashes got closer, Jacob noticed they seemed be coming from within the ground, almost like explosions. The ground quaked more violently. The flashes were approacing still. Jacob could now hear them exploding. The sound was deafening. The light was blinding. On of the 
 explosions happened a mere few miles away. Jacob saw the wave coming at him, and felt his body begining ripped apart. And then felt nothing.
 

*********************************************************************************************
         Thomas was on night watch. He was scaning the faint trail to the fortress to see if any of the Vampires were approaching. 
         Suddenly, he heard a roar like thunder, He looked up to see clouds rising. They were mushroom shaped. Unlike any clouds he had seen before. There were flashes accompaning the clouds, although the flashes were obscured from veiw by these clouds.  There also was an increasing shaking of the earth.

         As the clouds got closer, the shalking of the earth became more violent. The fortess began to shake. The splitting of rock could be heard. He wondered what was happening.
         Suddenly, a flash appeared outside of the clouds. Thomas screamed in pain and grabbed his eyes. He couldn't see. The thunder was deafening now. His ears were ringing loudly. He never saw the blast that ripped the fortess and him to pieces.
 

******************************************************************************************
         Commander O'Conner paced on the bridge of the Huntress. He hadn't heard from the containment squad for too long. The solar flare had probably knocked out the communications satellite. He had recently gotten approval from the Colonial Government to send a platoon of volunteers for a possible rescue mission. He wanted to wait for a sign that the marines down there were still alive.

         "Lieutent, any activity from the surface?" He asked the sensors officer.
         "None sir." She replied. "Wait, picking up transmission....its a time-delay order...Picking up detonation!" 
         "Bring it up on the main screen."

         A translucent scren slowly came down from the ceiling of the bridge. It showed the planet with faint flashes. The nukes on the surface had been detonataed.

         "Can you confirm detonation? Are they just cleaning up a small area of infestation?" O'Conner asked.
         "Detonation confirmed. Its a full-scale detonation."
         "Can you see the Tundra?"
         "No sir. " The flashes on the screen began to move accross the planet, leaving a flatter, slightly glowing surface behind. Suddenly, the entire planet blew apart.
         "Lieuitent..."
         "Sir, the detontation command involved the detontiaon of the sub-surface nukes. they didn't want anything on that plant to survive."
         "Where's the Tundra?"
         "I don't think she made it...wait. Sir, I'm picking up a contact just clearing the shock wave. Confirmed, target is a Wasp-class dropship on a baring for us"
         "Is it the Tundra?"
         "There is alot of EMP interference...conpensating.... Confirmed, it is the dropship Tundra!"
         "Hot Damn! Carver came through. How does it look?"
         "Pretty much intact, her main thrusters seem to be working spuracdically."
         "Can you raise them?"
         "I'll try Sir. wait, the Tundra is contacting us."
         "Put them through"
         "This is Captain Carver, serial UCM283922." A voice crackled over the speaker.
         "Serial Number confirmed, sir."
         "Carver, this is Captian O'Conner of the UCS Huntress. Welcome back. How did you mission go?"
         "Not good sir. I'm the only one left."
         "Do you have any Native survivors?"
         "No sir, and no disease samples. The infected inhabitants slaughtered the remaining clean ones, then turned on my team"
         "Why did you detonate the sub-suface nukes?" O'Conner asked

         "The Pilots were killed, and they hadn't configured the Anti-Grav drive correctly.I flew the Tundra as high as I could, and used the shockwave from the sub-surface nukes to get me clear of the planets gravity."
         "Good job Carver. I just wish your team had made it back with you."
          "So do I, Sir."
         "Just flipp on your Autopliot. Well bring you in on the docking beacon. Welcome home."
         "Thank you, sir." Carver replied.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

         Carver leaned back in the pilot's chair. He had survived. The ship was toast, most of the systems were fried, and his team was dead, but, he was still alive.

         Carver looked out the cockpit at the battlecruiser growing larger. He couldn't wait to get home. To get a shower, a good meal. 

         Carver put his hands behind his head and ran his tongue over his new fangs. Kensington was right. It DID feel incredible.