Scarlet watched another bunch of rowdy teenagers walk past her. The hum of chatter and relayed messages in her left ear continued - she had been ordered to keep her comm. line open right through the ceremony, to make sure if anything was amiss she would be the first to know, and notify top brass. Scarlet could tune out what she didn't need anyway - being a CAST had that kind of advantage. She sighed inwardly - being told you were one of the best gunners in the Guardians and then assigned a mission as communications manager wasn't her idea of a perfect day. Still, she lived wholeheartedly by the code that no matter the job, do the best you can. A message beeped on her comm. screen - a small white envelope which told her she had mail. She opened it.

Louise: 'Bored... is anything exciting happening where you are?'

Scarlet chuckled and replied; 'Not really - if I weren't a CAST I think I'd have fallen asleep! Not that it's a bad thing, I don't wanna have to use my guns tonight.'

She could hear Leo barking some instructions to his new wayward trainee, Tonnio, over the link, and turned to watch a small family pass through to the Linear Line station. They were going to miss the ceremony, she thought. Her messages beeped again and she read the latest:

Louise: 'True, true. Just think after we knock off we could be sipping a cocktail at Club Commune. It makes the night go faster!'

"Damn kids are getting cheekier," she heard Leo complain over the link.

"What now?" Scarlet asked, holding in a chuckle.

"Nothing - just saved a couple of kids from a scuffle over here and some thanks I got!"

"Well you didn't join to be thanked all the time," she replied pointedly.

"Good job too - it's thankless enough!" someone else's voice piped up. Obviously other people were listening in on the link.

Scarlet grinned to herself and replied to Louise's latest mail; 'You're buying!'

And almost immediately: Louise: 'Only a few - I'd hate to find out exactly how many drinks it takes to get a CAST inebriated! :)'

Scarlet didn't respond - because the job had begun. The fourth floor of Clyez City Guardians Colony was now empty - most of the citizens had flocked into the Dallgun Viewing Plaza, and those that hadn't were probably watching via broadcast from their homes or in bars. She glanced up at the screen usually used for advertisements - today this too was showing the viewing plaza, although she couldn't hear what the reporter, Hal, was saying. She could tell by the images on screen that they were already starting.

She paced the floor outside the Space dock restlessly, and reflected - almost in annoyance - that this was a trait she had only picked up since moving to the Colony, and the Guardians. During all her years serving in the AMF she had been able to wait motionless for hours on end when needed - often on surveillance or recon. Silently she wondered if in becoming more like humanoids she had become less effective as a guardian. Quickly she shook the idea from her head. Sure, there were down sides, but she had discovered so much about herself in the last twelve years, things she would never have discovered if she'd stayed with the AMF. In comparison to her life on Parum, this was almost like some kind of daily carnival.

She liked humanoids - she liked their humour, and she was now used to applying her own unique humour to her daily life. Humour was one of the many subtle ways she had grown - she knew now the differences between a friendship and simple comradeship in all its varying degrees. Loss, grief and guilt were among some of the other things she had learned about - even love - and the sense of regret that sometimes came with them. Given the choice, she would do almost everything the same way again. Almost everything...

She scowled when her train of thoughts arrived at that point, and busied herself by speaking into the stream of voice messages on the link. "Everyone quiet down now - I only want to hear if something's wrong, thank you."

The static rose as several Guardians logged off their communicators temporarily. She went back to watching the screen, as Dallgun came into view on a platform raised over a cheering crowd. She paced some more. This time she went across to the other side, to the three gates giving access to the rest of the Gurhal System - Parum, Moatoob, and Neudaiz. A large, bulky CAST male stood by the Moatoob gate. His facial expression was hidden under the black face mask, but she could tell by the way he was standing he was just as annoyed at being posted out here. As they passed one another, she nodded cordially.

"How's the job, Rayo?"

"Dull," he replied flatly, in his baritone voice.

Rayokarna was an old friend of Scarlet's. He had been her first friend when she came to Clyez and the guardians. Neither of them made an attempt to stop and chatter now though - both were focussed on the job at hand, in the true spirit of CASTs. Boring as it was, they would be greatly needed should something go wrong.

Scarlet paced the entire fourth floor. She almost wished she didn't require silence on the voice link - the idle chatter of her comrades would have been welcome right now. Through the large glass dome that towered over the Clyez Central table, still visible from the space port, she could see the 'firework' display that the ships outside were making with their photon weapons. She checked the time and sighed - this was going to be a long haul.

Scarlet returned to her original location by the Linear Line station entrance and waited. Leo came back in over the link.

"I think those three punks who were starting trouble earlier are long gone," he observed.

"I didn't see anyone come out of the station - they must have gone to the residential blocks," Scarlet replied. "As long as they're out of the way though, I could care less."

"Roger that," Leo replied.

Time ticked on. After a speech by Dallgun, and some other dignitary she didn't recognise, the Divine Maiden came in. She walked onto the platform and the crowd's cheer rose tenfold. It had been the first thing Scarlet had heard of the whole ceremony, only because she could hear it from the plaza itself - no sound came from the actual viewing screen. She watched with vague interest. The Maiden said something, and then began a divination on the platform. As she rose her arms and closed her eyes, Scarlet's sensitive inner balance was jolted slightly.

"What was that...?" she said to herself, looking away from the screen and around her.

... and there it was again. It was almost as if something had hit the colony! And again! She chanced over at the glass dome once again - instead of fireworks the sight of one of the ships hitting the side of the colony and exploding into an orange inferno met her eyes.

"What the...?" she said in bewilderment. A glance back to the screen told her the Dallgun Viewing Plaza was in chaos. "RAYO!"

"I saw," he said, running over.

"What's going on? What's happened to the ships outside? Someone?" she called down the comm. link.

"Something's attacking the ships outside!" a voice replied.

"I can see that!" Scarlet replied, exasperated. "What is it though?"

"I don't know," came the response.

Scarlet changed the signal. "It's Scarlet here. It seems there's some kind of unidentified assailant attacking from outside the colony - what are your orders?"

Over the crackled line came the voice of Dallgun himself. "We need to evacuate all citizens from the plaza and to the residential area immediately! All guardians in the area see to this as soon as possible - that means you too Scarlet, pass the order on and forget about the communications for now!"

"Affirmative," she said shortly, signing off. Then to the open link; "This is Scarlet Starlet. Direct orders from the President himself for ALL guardians. Citizens are to be safely evacuated away from the area, and to the residential area - a.s.a.p.!"

Rayokarna didn't wait for her to repeat the order to him. He had already gone by time she had finished relaying the message. Sighing, she ran into the Linear Line station. It wasn't long before she hit the first wave of people coming past her. They were panicked and trampling into each other, until she, a couple of other guardians, and Rayokarna began yelling out orders to the unruly crowd. She could hear him from across the other side of the crowd yelling at some boys to let an old lady through first and grinned.

"All right, okay - calm down!" she could hear herself saying. "You there! Watch that little girl..." Scarlet swooped in and picked up a crying human child who appeared to have been separated from her parents. "Whose child is this?" she called across the crowd. Out of the stream of people a woman pushed through and the little girl immediately put her arms out for her. Scarlet passed her over to the mother and waved them on.

Over the open link came Louise's voice. "I think we might be in trouble... there's some kind of creatures here!"

"What do you mean by that? Are you saying something's gotten into the colony?" Scarlet replied, beginning to push her way through the flowing crowd.

"I think so," Louise said.

"They're here too," came another voice.

"And here," said another.

"Okay... please stand by," she said, changing her comm. line. "What a night!" Scarlet said to herself as she contacted Dallgun once again.

"Yes?" came the irritated greeting.

"I thought you should know - there are life forms inside the colony. Looks like whatever attacked us has gotten inside." Scarlet pushed on past the last of the crowd. They were now parting to let her pass, having guessed she was a guardian.

"What!"

"Yeah. They're in three or four different locations. Your orders?" She was now in the deserted passageway.

"Well - if you must fight them then do - but our first priority are the people still trapped in there - get them out, now."

"Yes Sir," she confirmed. After relaying the order she asked: "Need a hand, Louise?"

"No we got it covered here," came the reply.

"All right... I'm heading..."

"Leo here," she was interrupted. "There's a female civilian trapped under some debris from the attack. She's quite some distance away, so I'm going in now to help her - can I have some backup follow me?"

"I'm on it," Scarlet responded. "I'll follow your comm. signal, so don't switch it off. I'm going to have to sign off on my own communicator until I find you."

"Understood," he said.

She signed off the link, then using the communicator to bring up a map of the Linear Line service tunnels, followed the signal. It was moving, but she was moving faster - she would be caught up to him in no time. The colony shook - but this time visibly shook, and Scarlet whipped around in time to see the wall of the tunnel buckle. She drew twin pistols from her nano transformer. Whatever it was, it was breaking through the wall of the colony! Backing away, she watched as the dent in the wall began to tear. There, poking through, were some tentacles. They came from some hardened sort of seed pod, which was so tightly wedged in the metal that not much of the air inside the tunnel was escaping out, luckily for Scarlet. Through sheer force, the creature wormed its way in from out of the seed pod. It was long and snake-like, with a strange sort of bubble for a head. There was something inside the head-bubble, but Scarlet couldn't wait to study it closely. She bolted for the door as the security system automatically sealed the breached area. Scarlet was fast, but unfortunately so was the creature. It shot through the closing barrier faster than Scarlet could, rushing past her in a mass of tentacles.

As Scarlet leaned against the now closed door, a tentacle lashed out at her head, and she ducked. It narrowly missed her. She dove to the left of it, and crawled past it towards a pile of crates, taking cover there. She peered over the boxes tentatively. It was looking for her. The strange head was swaying this way and that in a bizarre motion, and the tentacles were swishing slowly in the air, searching for any movement. As silently as she could, she replaced her pistols with a blackbull. Then she aimed and shot at it. Three, four, five times. It made for her direction, jerking back slightly each time it was shot.

"Why won't you die!" thought Scarlet frantically, as she continued to fire on it. She was slowing it down, but it was surely getting closer to her. Then, a screech came from the thing, and it collapsed over. "Finally!" she said to herself. As she moved out of the cover of the crates, however, it rose again.

"No way!" she said in disbelief.

This time though, instead of lashing out at her or attacking, the thing simply bolted down the tunnels and away from her. Scarlet cursed profusely and followed it as fast as she could go. Damn, it could run! Eventually she lost sight of it and swore yet again. She was mindful of the fact that Leo needed some help, but she also didn't want anyone else to run into the creature. She continued to run down the tunnel it had disappeared in. When she finally chanced to look at her map again, she noticed the blue indicator she had assigned to Leo's comm. signal was stationery. Maybe he had found the civilian and was already helping her?

Suddenly the creature reared up from behind her. Startled, Scarlet dropped her communicator and hit the floor - not a moment too soon, as a mass of writhing tentacles whipped the air where she'd been standing a moment ago.

"All right you..." she said to it. "I've had enough of this!" She reached into her nano transformer once more and withdrew a flat, metallic object - a stun trap. Sliding it along the floor to the foot of the creature, she detonated it. It screamed in a rage as the trap restricted it - it had worked, the creature was immobile. Taking the shot, Scarlet aimed her rifle once more - right to the very centre of the bubble. She fired twice. It hissed and shrivelled as it died. Scarlet got up and dusted herself off. Giving the worm-creature a contempt filled look, she searched out her communicator and saw that Leo was still in the same place - not too far from her now. Swiftly she made for the location, hoping silently there wouldn't be any more distractions like that along the way.

When she arrived on the scene she was dismayed to see Leo lying on the floor, and another creature. Was she too late?

"Leo!" she called out.

"About time!" he replied. "I can't get up - paralysed. You don't happen to have a sol atomizer, do you?"

Scarlet took one from her nano transformer and deployed it in the air around them. Then, slowly, Leo began to move . He sat up gingerly and grimaced.

"I think I might be getting too old for this," he complained.

"Oh not you too," Scarlet said. "I get this enough from Nav - don't you start!"

Leo laughed at this. "The problem is, Nav is too old!"

"The problem is..." Scarlet stopped mid-sentence, "oh, where is the civilian?"

"Oh that's right!" Leo said, remembering with a start and getting up quickly. "I sent her brother on ahead to get her, while I waited for you."

"There's more creatures lurking about around here - it could be dangerous!" Scarlet cried. "Let's get after them - quickly!"

"Right!" he agreed. "I gave him a saber and a handgun - he's almost reached her by all accounts."

They began running down the tunnels, following Leo's lead, Scarlet asked; "alone? Is he a Guardian?"

"No, he's not. Olson Waber's son though, believe it or not."

"No kidding..." Scarlet muttered, frowning. "He's got to be about fifteen or so if that's the case - still a kid. We've got to hurry and make sure he's all right."

"I think he's a little older than that, but yeah - you're right. Let's hurry."

Up ahead they saw two figures coming towards them. Instinctively, Scarlet drew her twin pistols, and Leo his axe, as they continued on. Scarlet breathed out in relief as she spotted not more creatures, but Louise and Nav.

"What's happening?" Scarlet asked as she approached.

"The tunnels up here are crawling with little creatures, and a few bigger ones. We've called for help..." Louise began. She was a blonde Newman female with an athletic build. In her hands she carried a double saber.

"Thanks to my last skirmish, I'm able to use my SUV," Scarlet said.

"Go ahead and use it. We can back you up then," Nav said immediately.

"I'll go on ahead to the other two then," Leo said, nodding.

"Good luck," Louise called after him. He ran down the tunnel, taking a fork to the left. Scarlet followed Louise and Lucaim down the right exit.

"It's worse than I thought!" Scarlet exclaimed in dismay when she saw it. The passenger platform, now completely evacuated, was overrun with small black and white creatures waddling around, and several of the snake-like creatures. Scarlet moved in, and a group of them noticed, and turned towards her. She took a breath and then held her arm up. Green photon symbols appeared around her body. She gave loud cry of effort, and from out of nowhere a shower of deadly ice photon blasts covered the enemies in the room and battered them repeatedly, like some kind of terrible, deadly monsoon.

All but two or three of them, which had been out of her range, were left standing. Scarlet couldn't help but allow a small grin of satisfaction cross her face at this point, and she, Louise and Lucaim moved in to finish the rest of the creatures off.

When the job was done and the room empty, Scarlet opened her comm. link once more.

"Are there any more creatures in the area?" she asked.

"Some, but it's a simple clean-up job - should only take about twenty," came Rayokarna's familiar voice.

"Good work, everyone," Dallgun added.

"Leo, is the kid safe?" Louise asked.

"Yeah - he's done pretty well actually - took out a few of these monsters himself, and both of them are safe now," Leo replied.

"I would expect no less from Olson Waber's son," Scarlet added. "That guy really knew his stuff."

"Olson's son!" Dallgun repeated. "Well now, that's interesting!"

"Yes it is," Nav agreed. "Something tells me we haven't heard the last of him."

"Or the last of these creatures," Scarlet added darkly.