Garrett returned to his apartment to reload weapons. Since he now knew that Montague was a scientist who worked with weapons, he thought over the concept of having Montague make him some things like his old weapons. He also thought about having new weapons made superior to his old ones from Earth. Garrett envisioned a high caliber rifle with a better velocity than the Berret sniper, and with incendiary shells. He also pictured an assault rifle like the trusty old M-14, which he was privileged to be able to use back in a few battles instead of an M-4 or M-16. He also thought of a rocket launcher with high explosive rockets to use for extreme applications. There were still several more hours of daylight on the surface, so Garrett returned to the guild to see if there were any more open missions that he could do.
"We have one special mission that we're having trouble getting people for."
"Why is that?"
"The customer wants four people to form a rescue party. All we know is that it is for a rescue party."
"Well, how much will I get when the group finishes?"
"You'll get ten thousand meseta if you complete the mission."
"Damn, I'm in. How many more people do you need?"
"You will be the last person if you accept it."
Garrett was about to take the electronic panel to register for the mission, but he felt a tap on his back and turned around to see Charlie, one of the hunters who had been in the party to rescue him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Why not?"
"You know who is offering that quest?"
Garrett glanced at the paper and replied.
"Someone by the name of Jardem."
"Do you know who that is?"
"No, would you mind enlightening me?"
"Rumor has it that he is closely affiliated with the military."
"Hell, I was in the military before I left Earth. Thank you for your concern, but I am going to take this mission."
Garrett signed up for the quest, and then decided to hang around in the reception area for everyone to arrive. Within half an hour, the group in the hunter course returned, so Garrett was talking with Jackie about what she had been doing on the surface. She said that she was becoming better with the various types of blades, and that she was not using her assault rifle nearly as much as she had been the previous day. However, she was tired and was going back to the apartment, so she did not stay long to talk.
Garrett did not have to wait much longer before a couple hunters arrived. One of them Garrett recognized as Bernie. He did not know the other one. Soon another hunter arrived, and then a force came. The receptionist called for the four hunters to come to see Jardem.
"I'm Jardem. I have called you all here because I want to send a mission to break into Pioneer One. I want you to see if there are any survivors inside the dome. I presume you are Garrett?"
"Yes, I'm Garrett. US Army, retired."
"So you are from the military?"
"Yes I am."
"Good, if your military is anything like ours then you should be able to help."
"Where exactly are we supposed to look for survivors?"
"You have to find a teleporter to a sectionalized area of the forest. This area, however, is on the side of the dome instead of being a distance from it."
"I think I was there before."
"Yes, but there has been a problem."
"What is that?"
"The teleporter has been knocked out of commission as I've heard. It hasn't been useable in the past couple days."
"Okay. Then I guess we should be going."
"I am going to have to come with you in case I need to repair the teleporter."
"Okay."
Garrett headed to the teleporter with Bernie, Jardem, and the other hunter and force. They went down to the surface, and Garrett turned to get a bearing on the dome in the distance. However, everyone else headed off forward without him, so Garrett took out his Kalashnikov and headed after them. The other four had already cleared the first room, and Garrett caught up to them in the second one. He was surprised to see a fireball leap from the force's fingertips and into a booma, felling it. Bernie was working on a large insect flying above the group. Jardem and the other hunter were cutting into another booma with their swords. Garrett noticed a wolf jump from its concealments among the foliage, flying toward the back of the force. He aimed his Kalashnikov and fired a burst into the wolf. The power of the hits knocked it off to the side, missing the force. Garrett then finished off the wolf with a head shot. Another one had jumped out and was circling Bernie, so Garrett directed a shot into its head. Nothing else appeared in the room.
"That was intense," said Jardem, "I hope there isn't anything else like that."
The next area was a hallway, so Garrett followed behind the others with the force.
"How did you do that?"
"How did I do what?"
"Fire that fireball."
"You mean the foie?"
"I guess so."
"I learned how to do that before when I became a force. I was taught how to focus my energy."
"That is interesting. What is your name?"
"I'm Desora, FOnewearl if you didn't know."
"I'm Garrett, US Army."
"So you work with the military too? US Army? I never heard of that military."
"It was the military on Earth. Most powerful Democratic one at that. They had things that were amazingly powerful. They couldn't destroy the world, but the Air Force with its ballistic nuclear missiles probably could."
"Missiles?"
"Yes, missiles. These missiles had power that you wouldn't be able to realize."
"How powerful were they?"
"Well, the missiles were several stories high, and they had several separate warheads that could each destroy this dome several times over."
"So you killed everyone on Ragol?"
"No, I did not. Is there something I missed?"
"When Pioneer Two entered orbit and set up communications with Pioneer One, and then there was a massive explosion around the dome."
"No one on Earth knows about this planet as far as I know."
"Oh. Okay."
Garrett continued with the group through several other rooms. There was eventually a teleporter, but it was damaged and casting off sparks. Jardem walked up close to it and inspected it.
"I am sorry, but I cannot fix this. The problem here is fixable, but there is also a problem on the other teleporter that this one links to by the looks of things here. However, there is one other thing we can do. It will be risky, but we can go over the barrier and walk to the dome. There, since the other sectioned area is right up against the side of the dome, we can walk around the dome and find it."
"I've been outside the borders of this area three other times, so I'm fine by that."
"Who else is with me?"
"If we go out there then there will be a limitless amount of hostiles though!"
"Fine, how about if I triple your meseta income from this?"
"Okay, I'll go," replied Bernie.
"Fine by me. I've been needing some new things anyways," replied John, the other HUmar in the group.
"What about you, Desora?"
"Fine, if everyone else is going it can't be too dangerous. These missiles Garrett was talking about should keep us safe."
"Missiles?"
Garrett sighed about the missiles, since Desora had misinterpreted him as having said that he possessed them. Garrett counted the rounds left in his Kalashnikov's clip and then volunteered to go over the wall first. He jumped up on top of the wall and instructed Bernie and Desora to join him on top of the wall to provide cover fire.
"Okay now. John, Jardem, go over. We will go in a wedge, you to as the points, Desora as the tip, and Bernie and me filling it in."
"Hey! Who here is paying you all?"
"I beg to ask if you have a better idea."
John and Jardem went over the wall, and several beasts began approaching. Garrett told Desora to go over, and Bernie went over, and Garrett assembled the wedge. Everyone began moving forward. Garrett was firing head shots into the beasts with his Kalashnikov, felling them all in one or two hits. He let Bernie and Desora work on the enemies that Jardem and John were engaging on the flanks. Everyone continued moving forward at a slow pace. He could not see the dome yet through the dense trees. However, he did spot a stream, which had banks relatively clear of vegetation.
"Everyone break formation and go down to the stream! Only attack something if it's in front of you!"
Garrett headed down into the stream, with everyone else behind him. He stopped, steadying himself on a fallen tree as everyone else ran past it, and picked off several boomas and other enemies out ahead of them along the stream with head and neck shots. Several boomas began heading down along the bank of the stream around Garrett, and he ducked under the tree and ran forward to catch up with the others. Everyone continued forward in such a fashion. Garrett would fire and displace, and everyone else would engage enemies that came down to the bank of the stream from the ground above it from up close, with their combined strength overwhelming enemies in ones or twos.
Eventually everyone reached a clearing. Here Garrett got up from the bank of the stream and could see the dome rising above the trees ahead of him. The stream was heading roughly toward the dome, so he decided to follow the stream for a lack of reference points in the heavily wooded areas. He shouted at everyone to keep going up the stream, and then rejoined them in his firing and displacing maneuvers. Garrett decided that he would have to have Montague make him a light machine gun, since swapping clips in his Kalashnikov every thirty rounds was a major pain. However, the gun was getting the job done, since it did penetration as opposed to burning damage to the beasts.
The group continued forward, pushing through hundreds of hostile beasts, when they finally reached a tall earthen wall. Everyone jumped over, and then more enemies began going over the wall after them.
"Oh no, that's right. I forgot that you have to go through the teleporter to make the grid system activate," Jardem stated. "Garrett, you go with Bernie and Desora forward and try to get to the door up ahead. I don't think the beasts can get up the wall to the platform there as easily! I am going to try and find the teleporter with John and activate the grid system."
"Well hurry up and do that! Everyone, get out of this room and I'll catch up to you!"
Garrett began unloading automatic fire into the veritable wall of beasts that was climbing over the wall of the area. His gun clicked empty, and he displaced to change clips.
"The door won't open!"
"Then climb over the wall!"
Garrett continued firing into the group of enemies.
I could use a photon gun. Then I won't have to reload. But they overheat.
Garrett climbed up the next wall and shouted at Bernie, who was in the other room fighting off a much smaller number of enemies.
"What happens when the photon weapons overheat?"
"They go critical. I haven't seen it happen but I've heard of it!"
"Thanks."
Garrett saw dozens of enemies in the area had come from. They were all heading for him. Garrett took out his handgun, turned it on, and began firing. Three shots, and he should have stopped, but he kept firing. Seven shots and he could see the chemical reaction glowing more intense. Nine shots and he could see the air disturbance in front of the muzzle. Twelve shots and he could see cinders rising in front of the muzzle. Fifteen shots and the shuttering mechanism on the muzzle burst into flames and jammed. A concentrated beam of laser began emitting from the muzzle, scorching through the booma that Garrett had been firing on previously. Garrett threw the gun into the area and heard the reaction tube crack. Garrett rolled backward into the room with Bernie and Desora as a huge flash of light and pressure wave emanated from the room, followed by bodies of dead animals and a column of soil and smoke.
"Damn. Quick, find more guns that I can do that with!"
The three checked the room and found two more handguns, which Garrett took. He put away the Kalashnikov to dual wield the guns. The grid system suddenly began to hum to life, and Garrett felt that it was now relatively safe.