Nothing but darkness engulfed Lightning as she attempted to open her eyes. "God," she groaned out. She opened her eyes and saw jagged pieces of metal sticking out from a ceiling filled with small gaping holes and a dim orange glow in what once was the Fantasia. Lightning propped herself and rubbed her temple. She looked around the ship and saw small fires flickering in the downed transport.
"Lightning! Lightning!"
Lightning heard someone outside calling her name. "Hunter, is that you?" she shouted. She got up and went over to the transport's doors and banged on them with her fists.
"Lightning, you there?" Hunter's voice was fainted through the metal door.
"I'm here," Lightning shouted.
"Are you alright?"
Lightning checked herself, making sure there were no injuries. "Not a scratch."
"Good. How about everyone else?"
"Let me go check." Lightning walked around the transport. Her eyes widened when they saw dripping blood from impaled body of Wong. Several coughs to her left drew her attention away from the body. She rushed over to the direction of the cough and found Cloud lying on top of Tifa. She kneeled down next to them and patted Cloud on the back. "Just take some breaths," said Lightning. Cloud got off of Tifa and laid next to her. "I'm going to see where everyone else is. Stay here." Cloud nodded until a cough took over him.
Lightning walked away and headed toward the cockpit, when she saw Sayan struggling to get up, her left arm limp. "Hey, you all right?" asked Lightning, pointing at Sayan's left arm.
Sayan shook her head. "I think it's broken," Sayan painfully said.
"Can you walk?"
"Yeah, my legs are fine. It's just my arm that's killing me."
Lightning nodded. "Cloud and Tifa are over there." Lightning gestured to their general direction. "I'm going to check out the cockpit." Lightning walked past Sayan and carefully made her way to the cockpit. She stepped past several sparking wires into the unrecognizable cockpit.
"They didn't stand a chance," Lightning whispered under her breath when she saw mangled cockpit. Blood was sprayed all over the busted machinery. A trooper's head was lying on the floor, the body still on its chair, blood dripping down the armor from the stump of the neck. Another crew member had been thrown out of the cockpit. Another trooper was pinned to the wall, a sharp slick piece of metal sticking out of the trooper's forehead. Ramirez's head hung limp at an awkward angle, his neck snapped from the impact.
Lightning walked out of the cockpit, preparing herself to not vomit. "Hold it together Claire," she told herself. She wiped her mouth and went over to the remaining survivors. "The rest of the crew is dead, along with Wong," Lightning informed the survivors.
"Lightning!" Hunter shouted through the doors again. "Lightning, you still there?"
Lightning quickly went back to the doors. "Yeah. Rogues are down another man and the flight crew are all dead."
"Damn. I'm gonna get you out of there!"
Lightning tried to pry the doors open. They wouldn't budge. "Doors seem jammed."
"All right. I'm gonna have to blast through this. Stand clear away from it!"
"Gotcha!" Lightning went back over to the Rogues. "Hunter is going to blow a hole open for us," she told them. "Ready!" Lightning shouted to Hunter. She turned away from the door and covered her head.
Boom!
Dust settled down after the blast, revealing a fairly large hole. Hunter came rushing in through the hole and turned his head, trying to find the Rogues. Lightning raised a hand and shouted, "Over here!" Hunter turned to his left and rushed over to the Rogues.
"We've got to get out of here," Hunter said. He helped Cloud and Tifa get up and scanned Sayan's arm. "Arm's not broken, luckily," he told her. "Just dislocated. Come on. I'll fix it after we get outside." He help her out of the Fantasia. Lightning followed behind. Hunter sat Sayan next to the ship and gently held her arm. "Brace yourself," he told her. Sayan nodded. Hunter popped the joint back into its socket, eliciting a painful cry from Sayan.
"God damn it!" she cried out. Hunter took out several bandages from his belt and made a make-shift arm sling. He wrapped the sling around her left arm and neck.
"Just stay still for a while," Hunter commanded Sayan. He stood up, took off his helmet, and turned to face Lightning. He took a deep breath. "Light, you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah. You can stop asking me."
Hunter chuckled. "Very well then." He looked at the flat, desolate landscape. "Looks like the Enterprise did its job. We're right where the prison should be, and there's not a soul in sight."
"Guess that means the prison was destroyed," said Lightning. "We can set up a beacon and get off this planet."
"Uh..." The ground beneath them began rumbling. "I think I forgot to tell you," Hunter said loudly over the rumbling. "The prison wasn't on the planet surface." The ground split and a white stone circular temple began rising from the crack.
"Holy shit," swore Lightning.
The temple continued rising, towering over the Rogues. Soon, the temple reached to the clouds. The moment the temple touched the clouds, the sky turned black. Black clouds began to circle around the temple and black lightning crackled in the sky. Purple lights glowed from the temple.
"We have to head in there," said Hunter. He placed his helmet back on and attempted to contact the rebel fleet. "Rebel fleet, rebel fleet. This is Rogue Squadron. Can anyone hear me?" Silence. "Damn, that storm must be interfering with com signals. Looks like we're on our own."
Hunter turned to the last of the Rogues. "Get your gear together. Cloud, you and Tifa will take point. Lightning, you'll help out Sayan. I'll bring up the rear." Hunter slung his XR to the front and chambered a round. "Let's go." Cloud and Tifa walked past Hunter, while Lightning helped Sayan up and walked slowly behind the two lovebirds. "I've got a bad feeling about this," whisper Hunter to himself. He trudged along behind them.
No one spoke during the long walk toward the temple. Hunter kept his eyes out for anything that could pose as a threat, but the only thing threatening was the black lightning high up in the sky. The group continued on, not stopping for any breaks. They walked for thirty minutes until they reached the looming white temple. The temple entrance was wide open, inviting those who dared to enter.
"Stay frosty. A place like this is bound to have something up," warned Hunter. The group cautiously entered the temple and found themselves bathed in a soft bright white light. "Stay together," Hunter warned. They continued further into the temple.
"Big place," commented Cloud. "Big and empty."
"Yeah," agreed Lightning.
"It's too empty for my liking," said Hunter. As if on cue, five black rock statues fell from the walls of the temple, surrounding the group. Hunter reacted instinctively, pointing his assault rifle at the closest statue. "Be careful guys."
The statues began to quiver, and then shook violently. The statue in front of Hunter moved an arm and moved t about, testing it. It then turned its blank face at Hunter and its arm changed its form into a thin long stone blade. The statue ran at Hunter suddenly, blade extended out in front of it. Hunter fired a single shot, hitting the blade, shattering it.
"Hm," Hunter said with a smirk on his face. "Not so strong now, are you?" The smirk was wiped off when the stump of the arm extended out and created another blade, this one thicker than the previous one. "Okay, so you've got some neat tricks." Hunter pulled and held down the trigger on his gun, spraying the statue with half the amount of bullets in his magazine. The statue couldn't defend itself from the force of all the bullets, and it shattered from so many hits. "And stay down," said Hunter.
He turned to the rest of the Rogues and saw that they had easily disposed of the rest of the statues, which were scattered on the ground in pieces. "Well, that was easy," Hunter said with a chuckle. Right after he said that, more statues began falling from their place on the temple wall. "Aw shit," swore Hunter. He started firing on the closest statues. "Form a perimeter!" Hunter shouted above all the gunfire and slicing.
The statues were relentless. Waves and waves of them just keep on coming. Whenever one was destroyed, there were five more to take its place. "Keep it up Rogues," encouraged Hunter. Hunter kept on firing, and the pile of broken statues kept on growing. There was just no end to the statues.
Suddenly, several statues leapt up into the air and plunged down with their deadly blades toward Hunter, who was occupied with shooting those on the ground. "Look out," shouted Lightning. Hunter looked up but didn't have enough time to train his rifle on them. Lightning rammed into him, pushing him out of the way. She raised her sword above her head and clashed with the statues. "Get away from him!" She came them in full force, ducking under their slices and cutting them into pieces.
"You know Light, you didn't need to come and save me," joked Hunter. "My armor would have protected me."
"It might have, but I like to know that I can take care of a kid like you," teased Lightning.
"Very funny," said Hunter. He shot apart another statue. "Might want to worry about yourself though." He aimed and took the head off a statue that was about to strike at Lightning. "See what I mean?"
"I'm laughing," said Lightning sarcastically.
Everyone continued to fight tirelessly against the rock statues. "Damn it," thought Hunter. "We aren't going to survive if we continue fight these things." He fired a grenade round from his XR, sending chucks of rock flying from the resulting explosion. He kept on spraying the statues with bullets, until a worrying dry click signaled to Hunter that he had no more ammo. "Shit! I'm out!" shouted Hunter.
"I'm out too!" shouted out Sayan. She threw her rifle at a statue, which knocked it back, but didn't stop it. She took out her pistol and started firing slowly.
Hunter quickly drew his pistol and aimed for headshots. He took out several more statues when one came from behind and grabbed him. Hunter bent down, grabbed the statue's arm, and flung it over his shoulder into several other statues, shattering them. He ran forward and just started pummeling statues in his way.
"Hunter!' shouted out Cloud. "Hunter! There's a set of stairs over there!" Hunter turned around and gave a back kick to a statue before seeing what Cloud was talking about. He saw a floating spiral white staircase, leading out of the area that they were in. Hunter saw that it was devoid of any of the black statues.
"Cloud, get to that staircase! Everyone, follow Cloud!" ordered Hunter. Cloud kicked back a statue and sliced in straight in the middle. He ran toward the stairs, duel-wielding swords and cutting up any statue that got in his way. Tifa followed, kicking any statue that got too close with her long legs. Lightning used several spells, freezing several statues and then blowing them apart with a fireball.
Hunter saw Sayan still shooting at the statues. "Sayan, get over to that staircase! I'll cover you!" he told her. She turned and headed for the staircase while Hunter continued to brawl with the statues. He punched a statue in front of him and then twirled around and gave a side kick to another statue.
"Hunter, come on!" shouted Lightning from the bottom of the stairs. She sliced off the heads of several statues that were getting too close to the staircase. "We've got to get out of here!"
"God damn it," muttered Hunter. The statues were swarming all around him. Hunter took out a single grenade and tossed it below him. He tackled his way out of hoards of statues, and when the grenade exploded, he used the momentum to push him forward. The Rogues were urging him on, shooting more statues and clearing a path in front of him. Lightning kneeled down on the staircase and extended an arm out. Hunter jumped and reached out, grabbing hold of Lightning's hand. She swung him over onto the staircase, where he landed hard with a thump. He quickly got up and started firing at the statues with his pistol.
"Go, go, go! Let's get going!" shouted Hunter, waving his hand toward the stair's exit. The Rogues quickly ran up the stairs with Hunter following closely behind. He threw his last grenade at the swarm of statues before leaving the area, entering a dark room with tiny purple lights.
"Everyone okay?" asked Hunter.
"We're fine," said Lightning. "No one was injured, fortunately."
Clap, clap, clap.
Hunter and the Rogues turned to the direction of the clapping. "Who's there?" Hunter asked loudly. A person in a black cloak slowly walked out in front of them. The face was hidden by the hood of the cloak. "Who are you?" demanded Hunter. The cloaked figure raised a gloved hand, prompting the Rogues and Hunter to get defensive. "Who are you?" Hunter demanded again.
The cloaked figure only gave a dry laugh before waving his arm, sending everyone in front flying into the stone wall. They smacked into it, leaving a dent and sending up some dust from the wall. Everyone was coughing as they attempted to rise up. An invisible resistance prevented them from getting far.
"I am Lord Sheppard," the cloaked figured said in a familiar voice.
Hunter and Lightning looked up with shock on their face. "How are you…" asked Hunter, too surprised to finish his question.
"How am I what, son?" The cloaked figure took the hood off, revealing a chiseled face and graying hair.
"General Steele…" Hunter whispered.
Steele laughed sinisterly. "Hello Hunter. Welcome to the gates of Hell." Steele continued laughing.
Hunter glared behind his helmet at Steele.